Great piece there thanks for writing it. I agree with you a lot. I didn't claim that Heavy Rain was interactive in the way that the player truly makes a big difference. But I did find the story very good, and the fact that you can screw up the story makes a big difference in how much I appreciate the story. I have always wanted to get into Dungeons and Dragons. I found Dear Esther to be just like someone reading an overly dramatic short story with not a lot of plot, with big gaps in between chapters. I could see some people liking it but I did find it boring. Plus it was marketed as an indie game and I think to be classified as a game you need gameplay of some sort.
It might not have come off as it, but I really did enjoy Heavy Rain, but I guess I don't see it as really different from the Clue movie, except with some gameplay stapled on. It's basically a linear film, and the endings you get change. Similarly, recently The Walking Dead** billed itself as "a game where your choices matter". In reality, regardless of which characters died, the plot progressed in almost the same way, regardless, a fact which I found out when my save broke and I had to start a chapter without any of my previous choices. And yeah, Dear Esther billing itself as a game was a misnomer, in my opinion, but I guess it did share more with games than with any other medium at present. It's sort of closest to a visual novel, actually, although not in the traditional sense, since most VNs are just some 2D art and a lot of text. If you're interested in tabletop RPGs (I don't recommend Dungeons and Dragons because it's mechanics push its focus far more on combat than it is on story, but other systems focus instead on encouraging an interesting story), I could point you in the direction of some online games played over Skype or Google Hangouts. Feel free to shoot me a message if that interests you, or perhaps if you'd just like to talk more about tabletop games or interactive storytelling in general.