I probably wrote too soon after seeing Wagner's name. I'll think this time...
1. There's a subtext in FFVII, but I didn't find the 'save the planet' thing much more complicated than in the Gamerra movies (he protects Earth...and one day will do so from humanity) or even the Final Fantasy film itself.
Maybe the message is diluted by what I feel is amatuerish story execution in Square's games, but the messages aren't more significant or meaningful than eco-friendly warnings on garbage bins. Until games start using their interactivity and complete engagement with the solitary user as a storytelling device, I don't really think we'll see anything deeper than Khanzumer puns.
2. Without sarcasm - which games have script writing firms employed? From what I've seen, writers are hired and do a decent job on certain games, but it's always filler dialogue that really has no influence on you blowing up stuff when the cutscene ends. Case in point: there's no relationship between the behaviour of Oddworld FMV characters and their ingame versions.
There haven't been any games with scripts that treat their dialogue any differently than a film, or a bad film. The difference is that being jerked out of a game to watch filmic dialogue disrupts the experience and removes the interactivity that makes games a unique medium. Until the storytelling sequences and the game are properly linked (think Half-Life) with unique professionalism, the script is limited by the relative brevity of game FMV time, so it's hard to imagine scriptwriters fitting in enough information to support anything beyond literal story elements.
3. You can probably spot that I'm not a big FF fan, and I haven't played the Xbox jetset game, but this goes back to what I said before - after 22 hours how deep was the message you'd received, compared to watching, say, 90 minutes of Blade Runner? Games like Black and White can hint at a moral structure, but the message from the gameworld is restricted to the fictitious environment they create.
When storylines are intrinsically linked to the gameplay and players' actions, maybe games will have enough leeway to express complicated ideas instead of shunting us to 30 minutes of pre-rendered, low budget CGI film.
Until then, I'm not really worried - as long as the damn thing is fun I'll play it. If gameplay is compromised by lengthy speech or text, it's no different to a book or film. Problem is, they're designed to be games, not films - and designers haven't blended the differing elements of these mediums yet.
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