But film is only about aesthetics. There's different structures in terms of how it's conveyed but in the end, no matter what that structure is, you're consuming all film exactly the same way and so it's easier to compare. Gaming on the other hand is about mechanics. What you're doing from game to game can be wildly different. Battlefield Vietnam and Men of War Vietnam are both games that are aesthetically about Vietnam but they're vastly different. Battlefield is about teamwork between people while Men of War is about real time tactics. Now take two games like Left 4 Dead and Payday: The Heist, they're about cooperation and team work against AI even though one is about the zombie apocalypse and the other is about bank robbery. There's no other medium out there where we have this kind of dissonance.
I don't think story is completely meaningless but I do think making it the main attraction is misguided. It should be there to add texture to the world and give context to player but when it's incredibly linear and used as a reward for completing game play sections, it can make the player feel like they're turning a crank to make the movie happen.
