Roger Ebert claims "video games cannot be art"; molests children.

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by Mike McC

A book has no variation in it's path without intentional subversion of the intent.

A videogame... I can choose to spare the goombas. I can warp to level 8. It's not a concrete path. it is very fluid, and alterations can be made to the experience. There is only a generalized sense of how to experience it. It is only a framework. It is, in essence, incomplete, because it requires a user's own personal input to complete it.

And every time it's completed it is likely different.

Gonna stand by this:

Originally Posted by Krylo

Whether I go east or west out of Megaton, decide to head straight to Vault 15, murder every undead on the ship, or use the warp pipes to get to world 8 as soon as possible, is of little difference within the context than whether I believe Gollum to be a tragic or villainous figure, whether I believe Ahab's vengeance to be justified, whether I believe that Lord of the Flies is a valid interpretation of how mankind falls to its primal instincts when devoid of culture, or even whether I interpret the killing of the pig as a hunting scene or a rape scene.

And further this:

Originally Posted by POS Industries

But as I've mentioned previously, there is not really a point during one's gameplay experience where they aren't doing something the designers intended for them to be able to do, unless there's a glitch or exploit involved, which is altogether akin to cutting apart a book and pasting it back together in a different order.

As such, it wouldn't actually be the players changing the behavior of the author's characters so much as the game developers adapting the original work to allow for changes in the characters behavior, similar to such changes being made in the adaptation of a book to a movie.

I'm not seeing how deciding not to jump on a goomba's head or warp to level 8 and getting a totally different experience is any different than me reading Lord of the Flies and calling the hunting of the pig a metaphor for rape, while other people in my highschool literature class called it hunting.

I'm also not seeing how what you decide to do within the game deviates from what the artists wished for you to do.

And it still provides a much more static presentation than say, seeing Midsummer's Night Dream as performed by two entirely different casts/directors/etc.