Game concept relating to academic reference

The reference to spatial stories in Henry Jenkins web article Game Design as Narrative Architecture relates to the concept used in our game. The concept of spatial stories according to Henry Jenkins is that, " each episode ( or set piece) can become compelling on its own terms without contributuing significantly to the plot development"(Jenkins,2009). The character in our game has to follow the main plot, however is given the option to follow many smaller goals or missions that eventually ends in the character gaining a reward in the form of experience of something that helps him on in later missions.
The fact that it does not alter the story, it allows the player to be able to expereience new things and events that they might not expect to happen. If there was no side story, the game would be very linear and the player will become very bored after doing the same thing many times. 

Reference
Jenkins, Henry 2009, Game Design as Narrative Architecture, Amazon, viewed on 30 April 2012, <http://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:BPrPO_YOUOwJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5>