Domino Worldbuilding and the Brilliance of Mass Effect - Twenty Sided

Shamus Young coins the term “domino worldbuilding” to refer to storytelling in which events are (sometimes surprising) consequences to each other, rather than just a bunch of things that happen to serve the needs of the plot. He provides the first Mass Effect's backstory as a particularly good example and discusses the value of this approach in games.

For much more on the Mass Effect example in particular, see his Mass Effect Retrospective.