In-game Worlds or Characters

Who thinks in-game worlds sell games, not characters?  Kelly of Lionhead doesn’t think so.  Colborn address the issue as the opposite: 

“What world does Mario represent? We have a world composed of entirely of giant ‘shrooms and bricks, where coins and sinister mushrooms inhabit the plumbing systems. … Is this world what brought players back to Mario’s sequels? … I would suggest that Mario, at that time anyway, represented a style of game play. Jumping on things to defeat them. Hitting blocks to get power-ups. Holding B to run faster. … Note in Super Mario World, there was hardly a brick in sight, but the game play remained in the spirit of the original.”
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10814

Original opinion: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10660

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