Support NeoGAF

[MayauMiao]

You can like story driven games and non ones too. I don't know why this is an issue for you to bring up.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I care but not necessarely in the same sense i like the story of book or movie. I still want the game world to feel grounded even if the game isn't story-focused.

For example, in games you aren't supposed to take seriously. I hate the "omg so ironic" approach games like Borderlands 3 or Saints Row have.
On the other hand, you have games like Elden Ring or even some boomer shooters like DUSK that clearly do put thought into their settings but don't force them upon you, i like this type of "not-serious" approach.

 

[Woggleman]

Gameplay is most important because it has to be enjoyable to play but a good story and context for why your character does what they do can elevate a game. When great story, atmosphere and gameplay come together it can be something special.

 

[Stuart360]

It depends on the game and genre obviously. Some games dont need a story, some games are built around a good story.
I mean can you imagine playing some of these story heavy games if you stripped away the story, cutscenes, and voice acting?, many of them would be as dull as dishwater.
A good story can def elevate a game, but not every game needs a story.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Depends on the game, obviously. If I'm playing Outlaw Golf or Call of Duty I don't care one bit. A Witcher game? The Last of Us? Hell yes.

 

[hinch7]

Depends really. Pick up and play games like platformers, RTS's and puzzle ones heck even most FPS/TPS games with online play. I don't really care for story and just jump on for quick fun.

But if I'm spending £50-60+ on any other new single player game which takes several hours of my time... I'd expect there'd be some sort of decent narrative to keep me hooked in playing it. Or its like how I treat a passable movie; one and done, get my moneys worth.. then move on. A good story adds value to me as I can replay the game some time later and enjoy it all over again.

 

[Holammer]

Story can be done well, like in Hades where it doles out a small portion every time you die. It's not complex story wise, not overly intellectualized (like Returnal) and relies more on character interactions and relationships, so you actually grow to know and like them. I almost shed a manly tear when Skelly, the training dummy...

Spoiler: spoiler

asks the protagonist to give him a final death.

The game got my by the balls at that point.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Rules>Mechanics>Control>Sound>Music>Graphics>Character>Story

 

[GetInTheRobot]

I think the best games are gameplay lead, and that games trying to be cinematic stagnated the industry for what it does best. Sucks that the best gameplay innovations are relegated to indies, but I do appreciate a good story when its told within the mechanics of the game souls style.

 

[20cent]

"I don't need stories in my videogames, I already have TV and cinema."

TV and cinema:

Yeah... I like games with good stories

 

[angrod14]

The only franchise that has ever managed to make me care about the story is TLOU.

 

[Bernardougf]

Everyone that likes TLOUS2

 

[Ywap]

Hands up

I rarely follow the story. For me it's all about the atmosphere and gameplay.

 

[drganon]

Depends on the game. I care about the story in something like trails of cold steel, but couldn't care less about the story in Borderlands.

 

[In Cold Blood]

Yep, couldn't give a shit for the most part. The only game that I kept up with the storyline was Pentament, which you obviously need to do.

 

[darrylgorn]

I need a decent narrative or I won't care to finish the game.

And when I say decent narrative, I probably just mean that one exists.

 

[Dream-Knife]

I enjoy good stories. The biggest problem it seems is western studios seem incapable of delivering a good story.

 

[DemonGamerTTT]

It depends on the genre, I most play games where the gameplay play I'd the most important aspect of the product so the story doesn't matter for me.

I'm talking about fighting games, rhythm action games e MMOS.

 

[March Climber]

"I don't need stories in my videogames, I already have TV and cinema."

TV and cinema:

Yeah... I like games with good stories

The real question is why are you subbing/subjecting yourself to Disney+ if you don't enjoy it? It would be like paying for a Paramount+ subscription for new Star Trek and Halo TV. Stop hate-watching popular things and watch other shows/films.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Only time I care is if I play a mass effect game and I got to pick the right choice to move the story along to what I want. Aside from that nope!

As if I really care about story playing Bethesda rpgs, Diablo, sports, shooters, racers, back in the 90s playing tekken or SF, puzzle games, board and card games etc….

 

[Astral Dog]

I do care about videogame's stories and characters, however i don't take them so seriously like some fans do, they are there to dress up the gameplay ,and provide context and some ambience the most important is that the game mechanics are fun and engaging

I wouldn't worry about understanding Elden Ring or Dark Souls though, i didn't even know they had a 'lore' for a long time i thought it was a game about slaying monsters ,skeletons and zombies when i tried to understand it ,i just thought it was bullshit

 

[Robb]

I’m not very big on story. Thankfully you can just skip cutscenes on the first run in most games so it’s rarely something that gets in the way.

 

[Dacvak]

Absolutely most of the time. That doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a great story in a game (currently loving BG3), but I’m having a hard time thinking of a single game I played mostly for the story. I’m sure there are a few, like the Lifeline games on iOS (though, those are basically just choose your own adventure novels).

But nah. Games are all about gameplay for me.

 

[Dutchy]

When someone tells me a videogame's story is amazing it makes me think they've never read a book or seen a great movie in their life, with very, very few exceptions. Almost all junk, which is fine. I need it to be coherent enough to string the gameplay together and if it does that, good enough for me. But when I hear about people being so moved by a videogame story that they cried I feel like I'm dealing with mental illness.

SOMA is literally the only game I can think of that elevated a story through interactive play. I highly recommend giving it a try if you're a book/film nerd like me and like engaging stories.

 

[Kakax11]

That's me actually

couldn't care less about the spoilers, all i want is gameplay, last time i cared was Witcher 3, i mean how many stories am i gonna bother with?? enough is enough

 

[vaibhavpisal]

I love good stories.

I don't think most video games have them.

Mostly it's some adorable character dies or you got played into helping a nefarious character. Some variation of this stuff.

As long as story doesn't get in the way I don't mind them.

 

[Drizzlehell]

In vast majority of games I don't give a single solitary fuck about the story, as it's amateur hour, high school level of drama with really piss poor writing or some pretentious drivel that tries really hard to emotionally manipulate you into caring but there's rarely any substance to it. I also hate when games dish out most of their exposition and character development through cutscenes - this is not how you're supposed to be using this medium. There's so much potential in it for interactive storytelling but most developers simply fall back on the lazy solution to make a pseudo-cinematic "experience" so that normies could easily relate to it.

I can give an occasional pass to a cutscene if there's really no other way to deliver an emotionally impactful story beat without the player jumping around like a spazz and ruining the moment, but really, those should be used very sparingly and when it really matters, while most of the other stuff such as world building should be done through gameplay.

 

[delirium trigger]

My initial thought when I read the thread title was "you and everyone else that prefers nintendo."

Games with a good story are hard to find but the great ones are unmatched. Metal Gear Solid, RDR2, Last of Us including the sequel are worth it for the cut scenes alone.

 

[Freeman76]

99% of them are total wank, but every now and then a game comes through with a belter of a story

 

[Mr Reasonable]

There are so many games that I watch the cutscenes and feel bored while they play out. I'm interested enough to know what's going on, but I don't actually want to watch a cutscene. I feel obliged somewhat to watch.

Games that give you a story delivered through emails found on computers as you play through are the worst though, imo. I again feel obliged to read them, but I hate it, it interrupts playing the game even more than cutscenes as emails etc are found during the chapter/level, not at the end of the chapter/level, so it's like a constant break in play, rather than one that's placed after a decent amount of interactivity.

The epitomy of this is Quantum Break that not only offered an actual TV show alongside it's cutscenes but also enough emails to rival the word count of War and Peace.

I never really understand how people can entirely construct what's going on in Dark Souls, but moving in that direction would be preferable to me.

I'd like developers to set an aim of telling their story with no emails, no slow walking, no cutscenes.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I’m the same. I think it’s because I grew up when games were pure gameplay, with no story. For me gameplay always mattered more than anything, and story…eh…I halfway pay attention.

There’s a few exceptions like God of War 2018, where story felt like the focal point.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Depends on the game.

 

[Hudo]

John Carmack.

 

[mrMUR_96]

L take

 

[Wildebeest]

Story and plot are the least important things in games. Game world, player fantasy, and character depth are all way more important.

 

[SaniOYOYOY]

Game with amazing gameplay but negative incoherent story is way better than the opposite.

 

[brian0057]

A man (or woman) after my own heart.

Story (or more accurately, a narrative) is near the bottom of the list of things I look for in a game.
I enjoy enviromental storytellings so much more. Walking into a room and trying to figure out what happened just by looking around.
No cutscenes, no characters dropping exposition, and no forced walking. Just your curiosity and maybe a few scattered notes.

This is why I'm enjoying my current playthrough of Fallout 4. Just ignoring the main story and doing literally anything else. The game massively improves when you're just exploring and killing raiders.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

I hope more devs make cutscenes unskippable on the first playthrough.

 

[poodaddy]

I love stories, but I hate how rushed the endings can be. I played some of the Arkham games recently and some had such short endings that I almost got pissed off. I want to sit there and enjoy a satisfying and semi-long ending with the controller in my lap and just savour what I've accomplished.

Getting a "okay, bye, thnx for saving Gotham, take care!" isn't my idea of fulfillment.

I couldn't be more opposite of this. I get it though, I understand the mentality for sure, but there are so many great games to get to, and long endings, especially egregious unskippable credits sequences, leave me wanting to just close out the program and open another. Life is short, time is limited, and I got stuff to do.

 

[Trunx81]

I didn´t grow up with the NES, but rather with the C64. Story didn´t matter that much back in the days, but my favorite games where Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken. Both storydriven, so maybe it was important for me.

Fast forward to this age, I can say that I only played Horizon: Zero Dawn till the end because of it´s compelling storytelling. Really liked how it unravels slowly and how it´s world building is done. Otherwise it would have been another Ubi Soft like map-marker game.

 

[Del_X]

I really don't care unless it's really good, like RDR2 or something. It's mostly just there to bog down my enjoyment. TLOU2 being a great example of about 8 hours of really good gameplay with 13-14 hours of walking-and-talking mixed with cutscenes. I really don't care to watch an HBO drama with my video game.

 

[Doctor Hades]

I only really care about playing games that have a narrative element to them. About 99.5% of the games I play are story-driven with the rest being puzzle games. I do not care for online gaming at all because I find them boring and repetitive without a narrative to drive them. Running around the same bunch of maps over and over and over again, shooting the same enemies over and over and over again is my very definition of gaming hell personally. I can't think of anything more mundane.

 

[BaldingAshCrimson]

I care about engaging characters and gameplay...
A great story is obviously appreciated, but I could care less if it's bad, if it has those two things I mentioned.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

Story almost ruined the Zelda franchise, slowing down the 3D games successively until it almost overpowered their still-excellent dungeons and other elements. I still don't grasp how there are people online who complain about BOTW not having enough story when it finally righted the ship.

 

[BlackTron]

I would read all the dialog and watch every cutscene in the past. Nowadays I often find myself skipping as fast as possible to advance the action. In addition to just having less patience and being jaded, it's also that gaming has a problem of simply bad worthless stories taking themselves too seriously and being forced in your face. Not a fun time and cheapens gaming.

 

[L*][*N*K]

I couldn’t care less, I barely pay attention anyway

 

[SHA]

If you play games for story - you are in the wrong medium. Read a book.
99.9% of gaming stories are complete junk.

Same here, a single book could carry the weight of all the stories you went through since you were born combined, how about reading hundreds of these? , I'm serious.

 

[Optimus Lime]

I do not give a single, solitary fuck about the story in any game, at all. When people babble on about 'the lore', I have no idea what drugs they are on. I play games, and when I want 'story', I read, or watch a movie, where it's done properly, by people who know what they're doing. Games being stuffed with indulgent, shitty cutscenes because someone thinks they're Stanley Kubrick really is the the worst.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I do not give a single, solitary fuck about the story in any game, at all. When people babble on about 'the lore', I have no idea what drugs they are on. I play games, and when I want 'story', I read, or watch a movie, where it's done properly, by people who know what they're doing. Games being stuffed with indulgent, shitty cutscenes because someone thinks they're Stanley Kubrick really is the the worst.

It'd interesting to know how many gamers in the world actually read or listened to all the ES books and Fallout terminal and audiologs. Bethesda must had written 1000+ pages of this stuff.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

The best story in any kind of game (board, video) is when it is emergent rather than coded into the game.

"Emergent" means that the systems, choices, and randomizations of the game create a kind of narrative as you go. In Minecraft, for example, you can probably tell a great story after 20 hours of play ("I started on this cliffside, struggled to set up a decent shelter behind the waterfall, kept getting attacked at night by a witch from some nearby swamp, then found a passage down into the caves below and some diamond for a sword, went off into the swamp to hunt that witch... etc ") and it will be different every time.

Or in an old-school tabletop RPG, emergent story is when the dice and randomization create encounters and situations that no one planned (certainly not the DM, who shouldn't be a storyteller but just an interpreter). You see results play out and you interpret those as a story. That's how it should work.

I don't even enjoy most games calling themselves "RPG" anymore since they treat choices like a pre-arranged tree--like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. If it's just a matter of going own different pre-planned trees, it's still boring as hell to me and feels totally artificial. I'd rather have a game with great systems, options, and randomization, which is rich enough that it ends up telling a story as you play. That's far more interesting than voice actors and all the other nonsense on pre-planned paths.