I wouldn't call Braid art or compare it to movies or novels, but it did provide an interesting, unique, and even fun experience. Heavy Rain is pretty close to being a traditional point-and-click adventure game, but it has almost no puzzles and ends up feeling more like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel or interactive movie. I say this after watching a walkthrough, which leaves me with little to no desire to play the game since there isn't much meaningful interaction, it is heavily story-based, and I've already seen the whole story. I may play it someday anyway, but I'm thinking I'll wait a few years until I forget enough of it for it to be interesting.

A 3rd person shooter MMO? I tried F2P MMORPG and hated them, and I'm not willing to spend money on a subscription for an MMORPG. A game that is full of real action and requires player skill might do it for me, especially if factions can fight over and hold territory in a much more dynamic and meaningful way, so you can attack and capture territory at any time and it actually means something in the game.

@Double_Wide It sounds like the TV show and game don't share the same plot but do share some location and characters and maybe a few major plot points.

They can release the game engines under an open-source non-commercial license. It costs a ton of time and money to develop a game, even with the game engine being free. Under such a license they'd get bug-fixing and ports free from the community while making piracy easier, but then again all games get pirated sooner or later anyway.