Revered science fiction author Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash) discussed the relationship between game and narrative fiction world-building at GDC Online this week.
"I think a lot of the same world-building skills and world-building mentality [of book writing] are going to transfer extremely well into the game world, and it's going to be a natural blend."
Stephenson's latest work, REAMDE, is thick with gaming themes and technology. Stephenson revealed that he plays Halo on an ellipitical trainer, due to advice from his physician wife, and went into some detail to address the issues facing videogame storytelling.
"The place where we are right now, is that it's difficult and awkward to have the story really develop. You can build a world that has a back story. You can tell all sorts of stories about what happened in the history of that world, but in order for game levels to work, you have people acting out the same little story fragment, over and over again."
Source: Gamasutra