Be Excellent To Each Other

So I had the wrong question for my cyber cultures essay and Im looking for my ideas/help whatever for the actual question which is much more interesting although I can see it being hard to be non-biased.

Instead ofgiving you the question Ill just give the basis of it.

what are the benefits and problems of narratology (narrative based) and ludology (to play, gameplay) in assessing the relationship between games and gamers?

so of course action games pretty much need a narrative to be popular, interesting to gamers, but surely its still the gameplay that is the more important. Im going to use the GTA series as an example of a game that kind of allows both, a sand box game allows you to play and it also lets you progress the narrative if you wish.
Although this is again determined on game mechanics that force you to play the narrative from the start before allowing you to muck around, and also the game mechanics limit your sand box and also limits your play by restricting guns, locations, etc behind the narrative.
Ill also mention older games that didnt need narratives, which are still popular and critically acclaimed.
Also sport and racing games which dont have a narrative, although it could be argued that the events on the pitch are the narrative.
Id also like to mention online play, where nothing is scripted, what does that promote ludology or narrotology in that it lets you create your own narratives and storys.

Im pretty much happy with it, except the online bits. again any help or anything would be helful.

thanks.

Might want to think about point and click adventures. A lot of them (especially some of the more modern ones) have very little in terms of game at all, and are just content to tell a story, with you clicking to move things along. They might not be massively popular but they've found a fairly profitable niche.

yeah I was thinking of them earlier, I was just trying to think where they would fit in my essay.

Somewhere near the end. I'd say Appendix C.

I think Im getting that taking out, seems to be the thing thats making stupid suggestions stalling my work.

Less drinking; more essay writing.