Is it Story or Storytelling that truly makes a "tale" great?

How many times have you seen this on a forum "[Game A] has a terrible story, it isn't original at all! Just the same redundant crap we see all the time!" Well I hate to tell you "Junior" but at the end of the day a lot of it is the same redundant crap... at least in terms of raw "Story".

In his book "The Seven Basic Plots" Christopher Booker explains that there are only seven "Raw" stories that are repeated over and over again within literature, with or without the author of said work actually recognizing what is occurring. I'm not going to go into exactly what these 7 Plots are, the list is pretty easy to find on the internet, in fact I'll even give you a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_%28narrative%29

According to this and similar theories like "The Thirty Six Dramatic Situations" as proposed by Georges Polti we can surmise that there ARE no original plots, not really. Every "raw plot" that can be written HAS been written, codified, studied, analyzed and hence can be predicted... at least that's what some people would have you believe.

At the end of the day I don't think it really matters. Expecting a story to be wildly original every time is a sure way to end up a horribly disappointed human being, especially when you realize that barring a divine act you WILL use one of the 7 Basic Plots and many of those Thirty Six Situations no matter what type of story you try to tell. The key to achieving peace with this idea is realizing that at the end of the day, this is NOT the element of Story that truly matters.

"Basic" plot is just that, basic. There are no characters in those 7 Plots, nor are there characters in those situations. They're just the raw elements necessary for the construction of a story, they aren't what make it enjoyable, meaningful or worth experiencing in anyway. Think about it like a building, at the end of the day all buildings will require, to some degree, a foundation, a superstructure, probably stairs depending on the size and height of a building etc. Any building that doesn't have these fails as a building and would not be recognized as such or used as such, and a story is similar. Yet when you look at a particularly attractive building do you pat attention to the foundation, the superstructure, the stairs? Not really I say, these are just the elements that make it a building, not the elements that make it an attractive one. In order to make these individual elements stand out, indeed to make the building itself stand out, something needs to be added to it. For a "Plot" or "Story" this is where "Storytelling" comes in, it is that "something else" added to a basic structure that makes a story memorable, enjoyable and worth experiencing.

Take my most recent favorite game, Mass Effect 2. At the end of the day what are you doing? Saving Humanity from Evil Aliens, a combination of an Against the Monster, A Quest and a little bit of a Journey and Return plotline. Not wildly original by any stretch, yet like its parent Mass Effect 2 comes across as wildly original in terms of storytelling.

You don't just Save Humanity from Evil Aliens, you take a character deeply rooted in a heavily realized fictional universe yet shaped through your personal choices and actions into either a virtual expression of yourself or a fully realized character in their own right. You find companions for this character, earn their trust and learn more about yourself in the process before triumphantly charging off with suicidal abandon to protect the universe and everything you care about because goddamn it you are a HERO and you will save mankind. This to me is the real "plot" of Mass Effect 2, not the simplistic and basic"Save Mankind from Aliens" story you might see on the surface. This belies the uniquely personalized yet cinematically sweeping style of storytelling that characterizes the game, you feel like that hero, you feel like this is your universe to save and that is what makes it different from a standard Humans vs. Aliens space opera.

Something similar could, once upon a time, be said about the classic "Lunar: The Silver Star Story Complete" for the Playstation 1. At the most basic level, Lunar is a game about a Boy rescuing his Childhood Friend from an Evil Emperor who wants to use her Innate Powers for Evil. Standard JRPG stuff right? Pretty much but the addition of warm, funny and likable characters with well done Anime Cut Scenes and the substantial amount of voice acting combined with a well paced set of revelations regarding the overall story makes Lunar something to behold despite its stereotypical trappings. Look at Bioshock, Half-Life, Portal and many other games out there. Many of them really aren't that original in terms of basic plot, but the method by which they convey their narrative, the Storytelling, makes them so much more than that.

Hence at the end of the day it isn't the story itself, it's the storytelling that makes something a truly great narrative. It's a combination of Pacing, Character, Presentation, Art, Dialogue or lack there of, Mood, Setting, Set Pieces etc. not just "plot" that makes something great and allows it to transcend the simplicity of the 7 Basic Plots.