Why do people care so much about storylines?

[DigitalSushi]

-snip-

I disagree

Can't we all just get along?.
So you disagree to disagree?.

I can't play a game that has a bad story. Bad gameplay doesn't get boring quite as quickly as a bad storyline.

I'm kinda wierd on this one, I like a good narrative which is why I read books because you know their books and they don't have gameplay mechanics that define them (apart from lamented page's I guess to make you turn the page's quicker), but when it comes to games I'm ready to forgive bad story provided the gameplay is top notch.

Take KillZone 2 and Far Cry 2, the stories can go fuck themselves but the set pieces are pretty tight so I love to play them.

Then take BioShock, the gameplay is shit but the story kept me going.

 

[Velocity Eleven]

You shouldn't be so pretentious to define what other people want from any medium with no room for expansion.

Some people treat games as more than mindless fun and want depth from their experience, depth often from the narrative and the way it is presented.

but that is exactly what you're doing here... by labeling gameplay elements as "mindless" and a "lack of depth"

what i am saying is that the gameplay features are the enhancing features of a game, to me

by labelling this as "mindless" and a "lack of depth" you are saying that my version of fun is overall less valuable

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

hmm....well im gonna go in a bit deeper and break it down, i LIVE, LIVE for games with great stories, BUT that doesn't mean the voice acting has to be good at all, or the characters (those kind of walk hand in hand sometimes), but however, i agree, i dont notice those things because maybe i just have a lower expectations? idk, it just doesn't bug me about characters or voices set in such as the jrpg genre, or any other genre to be, i enjoy games for their actual story, and if they have great characters and voices (which all the games i play i love their voices most of the time) so i enjoy those too

honestly the game play isn't that big of a deal, my favorite game of all time is kotor, and look at that gameplay, not too much to it really, still very enjoyable tho

 

[Jaranja]

-snip-

I disagree

Can't we all just get along?.
So you disagree to disagree?.

I can't play a game that has a bad story. Bad gameplay doesn't get boring quite as quickly as a bad storyline.

I'm kinda wierd on this one, I like a good narrative which is why I read books because you know their books and they don't have gameplay mechanics that define them (apart from lamented page's I guess to make you turn the page's quicker), but when it comes to games I'm ready to forgive bad story provided the gameplay is top notch.

Take KillZone 2 and Far Cry 2, the stories can go fuck themselves but the set pieces are pretty tight so I love to play them.

Then take BioShock, the gameplay is shit but the story kept me going.

Yeah, you see, I wouldn't be able to play Killzone 2 or Far Cry because the story isn't the main part of it.

Strangely, I don't want Heavy Rain.

 

[johnyesz]

A little thought experiment here. Lets say you had to make a choice between watching one of your best friends having a freocious fist-fight in a back alley against the guy who stole your girlfriend in high school or watching a proffesional boxing/K1 match with two athlethes you have never heard of.

If you are a regular human beeing chances are you will want to watch your normal frined going at it becuase you have an emotional connection with that person. The proffesional fighters are superior on a tecnical level, but you don't care becuase you have no connection to any of them.

The same logic applies to videogames. If a videogame has good story telling and caracters you can identify and/or sympathize with you will become alot more involed in the gameplay. You have to understand that most people do not play games becuase they think its fun to watch numbers increase.

 

[oppp7]

People want immersion(which story is a large part of) to help them use video game worlds as surrogate lives because theirs are so bland.

 

[Estocavio]

I think a game has to be either all story or all gameplay, mostly at least. L4D for example is pure gameplay, and it works. GTA IV tries to be both, and succeeds to a point in that area...
Heavy Rain is pure story, the reasoning is pretty self explanatory.
So... Im not sure which i prefer.

Of course, whether or not you like said games shouldnt affect your conclusions in regard to this.
But in my opinion, gameplay is the most important aspect. A story should be added to make the gameplay make sense however (RE L4D, and they did.)

 

[Tanto-chan]

Well...

hmm...

Well, people want more than gameplay. They want a rich, original, immersive story because it adds interest, drama, and tension to the game. Many people (above the age of 16, anyways) don't want to play the ol' classic CnP "Click to Shoot X", because its just been done more times that popular hooker on your street block.

Also, stories in games are important because they are a relatively brand new media that can tell a story that has the fun of a well-written book and a dramatic movie that you can control.

The "good" games, anyways.

exactly. well spoken. while gameplay is what makes is fun or what you do a storyline is why you even care in the first place. It seems to me that without at least a decent storyline most games would end up fundamentally the same, I know they are already i just meant more so. You wouldn't care about the characters or the quest or even saving the world because you wouldn't know them. as a JRPG fan i feel you should know this. The more interesting storylines is why I usually pick JRPG in the first place.

 

[stabnex]

You sir are now officially ostracized from the gaming community as a whole. Go back to your hick town where the only video games available are shooters and Madden.

 

[Velocity Eleven]

A little thought experiment here. Lets say you had to make a choice between watching one of your best friends having a freocious fist-fight in a back alley against the guy who stole your girlfriend in high school or watching a proffesional boxing/K1 match with two athlethes you have never heard of.

If you are a regular human beeing chances are you will want to watch your normal frined going at it becuase you have an emotional connection with that person.

in that case it would be my friends, for the reasons that you said... however I wouldn't consider that a game

You have to understand that most people do not play games becuase they think its fun to watch numbers increase.

I do, I love seeing all my numbers go up. Gives me power ^_^

You sir are now officially ostracized from the gaming community as a whole. Go back to your hick town where the only video games available are shooters and Madden.

where did you get the impression that i like shooters and Madden? I already said that I dont really like shooters and Madden I find flat out boring, along with all sports games of that kind

 

[Pete Oddly]

A good game has either excellent gameplay, or an excellent story.

A GREAT game has both.

 

[ScarlettRage]

they dont. they just say they do

 

[Velocity Eleven]

This OP is a moron.

And he just declared Avatar the greatest movie of all time.

We watch movies for STORYLINE, and EFFECTS. We don't just play games for gameplay, otherwise why would you be a whiner when games graphics aren't good?

Movies and games are completely different things... why do i have to keep saying this? its really not that hard of a concept

why is it that people just dont listen?

 

[boholikeu]

but books (fictional) are there for the sole purpose of teeling a story, they are printed and formatted in such a way that there is as little challenge as possible when trying to read it... same with movies there is no human interaction involved other than taking in the story

games are designed for the purpose of presenting challenges, obstacles and give rewards for doing so

I really shouldn't have to repeat myself

Games aren't only designed for the purpose of presenting challenges. What if I told you that gameplay could tell you a story the same way that camera angles/filters/etc can?

 

[Chris^^]

no. i can't enjoy anything if i don't care about the characters involved, i'm less likely to give a shit about characters dying if i don't give a shit about them.

a game should also run like a film for me, and if the plot is bad, it aint enjoyable.

 

[Eponet]

For the same reason that novels sell so well. Because some people find them entertaining and fun to experience.

Games are just another medium of entertainment, whether that's created by aligning falling blocks into rows or by merging with your mortality and finally dieing is irrelevant.

 

[MetalGenocide]

Subject to interpretation and personal tastes is where it's at.
Though, gameplay, means you are doing something to meet ends, and the story should tell you why.
I'm sure everyone has seen games that, have great gameplay but lack story, vise-versa, and sometimes have both sucking/terrific.

 

[Serge A. Storms]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned that there might be a difference of opinion on what makes a "great story," most JRPG stories have a lot to them but still manage to annoy the shit out of me with text walls or painful cutscenes, Half Life 2 had a great story in that you are introduced to the general atmosphere the moment you start playing and actually move the plot along while shooting alien nazis and killing zombies with table saws. I don't need to know everything right off the bat, I want to feel like I'm the main character and I'm moving the plot instead of feeling like I'm being pulled along by the nose from one obnoxious plot point to the next.

As far as gameplay goes, again, some people like killing things, some people like playing with Microsoft Access, gameplay's only worth it if it's fun and people have different ideas on what makes a game fun.