Today at GDC, Riot Games’ Narrative Lead Tom Abernathy and Microsoft Game Studios’ Design Lead Richard Rouse III gave a fascinating 25 minute-long speech entitled “Death to the Three Act-Structure.” Within that presentation, the two industry veterans talked a great deal about game narrative, touching on some of the finest examples in recent memory, from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Portal to The Last of Us and Fallout 3.

“ …players really hardly remember the plots of the games that they play.

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“ Statistically, most players don’t finish games.

But they also talked about what extensive research has shown: that plot itself doesn’t resonate with a majority of players. Characters, on the other hand, do.The data does indicate, however, that characters are different: “game characters were consistently remembered, but not necessarily for their role in the plot,” the men said, citing Microsoft’s research.Gameplay events were also remembered as they were tied to plot, according to the data. That’s because, as the pair explained, gamers are using their mind on gameplay, on the action at hand. They can’t expend the mental bandwidth to follow complex plots and stories when they’re always having to do something else. In this way, gaming is unlike film, television, and books. Players are more than mere observers.Rouse went back to the numbers. “Statistically, most players don’t finish games. We’ve all seen numbers that say something like a third, on average.” (You can read more about this portion of their presentation here .)The conclusion the two men come to is that “in games, plot is highly overrated… Players don’t remember plot. What they do remember, is they remember characters.” Naturally, they also care about their own “experience” playing the game. Thus, these two veterans of the gaming industry recommend that developers and designers focus on the things that are most important – characters, experience – and less on the intricacies of storytelling.

Colin Moriarty is IGN’s Senior Editor. You can follow him on Twitter.