Why do stories matter to you? What do you get out of them?

[Silverfox99]

I have always found stories to be a good way to get me to think. You don't have to agree with the characters actions or their beliefs. Not agreeing doesn't make it so that it still can't open your mind to other ideas and thoughts. You don't have to be empathetic. The story doesn't have to be life changing. If you use the story to expand your thinking it can. The new expansion may or may not have any impact on your life.

Think about this...the oldest writings that we have are mostly stories. I would argue that all of them are but that point can be debated. Why are they so important? They have constantly been shaping this world for better or worse since we started talking.

 

[peruvianskys]

I don't really enjoy stuff that's written for plot or suspense or anything, because I have a hard time getting into stories. But I do love literature if it deals with themes that I care about. A lot of the stuff I read doesn't have much real action, but the stuff that those stories say about the human experience is really interesting and exciting to me.

Some people think that's pretentious, but I don't care. The best literature isn't about being taken away from reality; it's about being taken even closer to reality. A good book or story shouldn't be escapism. It should help you understand your life and your experience more clearly.

 

[ATRAYA]

So if it's nothing that obvious, what am I missing? Am I without the capacity to appreciate something or is it really just not there? Am a sociopath? I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm missing something but, without a frame of reference, I have no idea what it is, or if it is, for that matter. The thought that keeps coming back to me is that this is what it would be like for someone who doesn't feel the rhythm of music in their body. But you can't miss what you've never had, you can barely even imagine it, so...

I was writing a really long and detailed explanation that it is not stories you hate, but Escape Fiction which is the predictable crap that everybody eats up, but I misclicked and lost it all. You try to help somebody and look what happens... Grrrr...

Anyway, you'll want to look up Interpretive Fiction (in my original post, I explained the differences and gave some examples of games with Interpretive Fiction stories that you might not have noticed (and many people say "sucked" or "didn't make sense", when in reality those people just didn't know how to use introspection to take the lessons the story is trying to teach to heart and learn how they could apply them to themselves and better themselves). You've merely matured and are now able to see how every mainstream story is exactly the same and boring. IF changes all that though (it abandons the 5-point story structure completely) and seeks only to teach in an entertaining way, and is usually completely unpredictable. You don't have to accept the lessons, if you don't want to, or if you don't trust the author's "expertise", but it is supposed to be a journey of the self, rather than a journey of a character's development. You can interpret the lessons and the story as it applies to you in ANY way you wish (hence the name "Interpretive Fiction").

For some reason, IF isn't taught in school. Instead you're supposed to read all of Shakespeare's utter garbage and a few poems for all of high school - even in advanced writing courses, inexplicably. So it's not very well known, though it should be.

 

[ChaplainOrion]

No offense to you, though there probably will be some, but I feel it would be an absolutely mind numbing experience hanging out around you. This was one of the most nihilistic posts I've ever read on here, next to people posting that they wish everyone on Earth was dead. You've just missed the point of story telling by so much.

Story telling is like the second oldest profession in history, throughout our existence we have crafted stories not just to entertain, but to create heroes, and examples to look up to and guide us and future generations. Romans had Cincinnatus the citizen-soldier and Horatio at the bridge, the Jews had Moses, David and Samson, Hindus have thousands of gods and stories to choose heroes from.

Some characters are meant to fill in gaps in peoples' lives. I've read that Robin, Bucky, and other sidekicks were introduced so that their respective superheroes would become father figures to the children whose dads were deployed overseas during WW2. Some characters have been mediums for people from all walks of life to learn lessons, experience new ideas, and situations. Stories allow for people to escape to new lands as a stress reliever, or to just stimulate their minds.

You pointed out how you're already part of the environment that storytellers present, but you're incredibly far off. You're part of your environment, and stories are not just painted towards your environment. If we were to go back about a 150 years ago and you were some Northern urban dweller, and this new book called "Uncle Tom's Cabin" comes out and you hear all these things about it. So you buy it and are then immediately taken to a world full of violence, abuse, and neglect. You've just been introduced to the true face of slavery. Before this Southerners had been painting slavery as some romantic scenario in which they were helping the savage blacks become civilized. You wouldn't truly know as you would have never really bothered to go down south and watch the slaves, or cared to listen to insane abolitionists spouting nonsense and burning the Constitution (That actually happened). Flash forward a couple decades and a book called "The Jungle" comes out and tells you all about the food industry and how for all you knew those sausages you were eating were actually fingers, and how the food companies don't give a damn. Flash forward even more and it allows a madman to discuss and captivate a country into creating a nightmare on Earth in his thrilling autobiography "Mein Kampf."

You said how most fictional stories are just headlines off the internet, but the internet isn't going to tell you every thing you need to know, many times a story ends up becoming a headline that you read off Google. Like many people have said stories are there to offer you new perspectives, and this is becoming increasingly important in this rapidly and ever changing world. Sometimes we need to sit down and have someone give us a perspective of where we are possibly going if we continue down the path we are going.

This is story telling, it's what humanity has done, will do, and everything we might do. Story telling is at its heart humanity throwing itself in the open for all of us to really look at and face down. All of our monsters, atrocities, dreams, hopes, inspirations, and ideals all in one medium for us to experience.

 

[TheDoctor455]

I agree with IllumInaTIma.

You may not enjoy stories and there's not much more to say about that.

I enjoy a lot of books that I've read both in and outside of school because they were hard to read (i.e. many pages, small print, big words, references and meanings like nobodies' business, etc.), very appealing, and there was something that I could relate, more or less, to the character(s) and/or setting and themes of the book.

Also, I tend to learn a great deal of things from these works; whether it's a handful of big words that I wouldn't know about or learning about the source material that created these works of fiction, I enjoy learning about new things and if I'm intrigued by them, it hardly feels like learning at all.

Ah. Someone else who likes a challenge?

Then for you, I'd definitely recommend House of Leaves.

OT:

I agree. Some people just don't get stories. That's their problem, not anyone else's... least of all the writers.

Normally, I might suggest it was the writers, but when just about everyone else thinks say... Bioshock: Infinite, Planescape: Torment, Spec Ops: The Line, The Walking Dead, the works of Shakespeare, and just about any great story you care to name agrees that these are great stories (I'm not putting any of them on any kind of footing here, just giving examples), then the problem isn't with the stories you're exposing yourself to if you're not enjoying them. The problem is that you just don't like stories. And that's fine, so long as you admit it.

I don't like Rap, dub-step, pop music, or pretty much any music to have come out in the past 30 years. Aside from the occasional soundtrack or Weird Al or Tim Minchin album, but that's my issue. Not really the fault of several genres of music. Those genres just don't appeal to me. Its that simple.

As for the OP being a sociopath, there's always some distance between you and the characters on-screen/on-page/whatever... that's normal. You'd only be a sociopath if you didn't care about people you know in real life.

 

[Something Amyss]

Stories are certainly not important for me in games.
In other mediums like film and literature they tend to be the entire point, and are in a very broad way of speaking, better.

That said I know a lot pf people enjoy games for their story so I wouldn't want the focus to change or for them to go away completely.

I have to agree. It's weird. I like stories. I like games. I'm not all the concerned about stories in games. I don't dislike them, but I don't really engage with them much, either. And now I sort of wonder why.

Crap. Escapist threads are making me think. ABANDON SHIP!

 

[Chemical Alia]

ITT: a person with antisocial disorder struggles to understand emotions.

You either get it and enjoy it for the inherent qualities of storytelling, or you don't.

Right? Yeah, I remember when I was 15 and thought for like two days that I was super edgy and smart by telling people I only read nonfiction because there's nothing to learn from fiction. At least I could blame it on being 15 and at least I wasn't posting about it on the internet v:

It's like sports, or the trombone. Either it entertains you or it doesn't, but it shouldn't be that hard to see why others might like these things.

 

[Nickolai77]

I do find it rather odd that someone can read any book, watch any film or play any video game and claim to have never felt empathy with the characters- makes me wonder if the OP's got some mental issues.

I think telling stories and artistic expression are parts of human nature, something we've been doing since the earliest days of humanity. Having a notion of "fiction" and being able to relate to fictional people and situations as if they were real is uniquely human, no other animals seems able to do this. This cognitive capacity is why most humans enjoy stories. Artists can use the power of their imaginations to create stories which have an emotional impact on their audience whilst also possibly conveying the artists own views and opinions about the world at large. That's what the best of stories do- they take you on a roller coaster of emotions whilst subtly conveying to you the artists own philosophical perspectives so you have something to reflect upon after the story.

 

[Dangit2019]

I'm curious what the rest of you have to say about these questions because I've been thinking about 'em a lot lately and I honestly don't think I can answer them. A book has never changed my life in any meaningful way. A video game has never made me empathize with its characters. A comic book has never empowered me. I wasn't moved by those scenes in Spec Ops or Heavy Rain or The Walking Dead. The only modicum of enjoyment I take from storytelling is in sating my curiosity in finding out how authors resolve their plots, but since so much fiction is so similar, especially mainstream content, I can almost always figure out where something's going to go within the first fifteen to twenty minutes. I imagine feel much like anyone else does when they watch one of those terrible romance movies from the '40s; you know the man and woman will meet, fall in love, get pissed at one another, reconcile, and live happily ever after with fifty good Christian kids who all smoke Winstons. Culture is no less predictable to me today. And even when it is, the pleasure isn't all that intense.

Okay, this is just personal tastes. Some people don't enjoy certain things, and you just aren't the type that "gets into" a story other than a curiosity for puzzles.

The vast majority of stories, even among the best ones, are unreliable for the dissemination of information. You can't trust facts or most ideas shared in fictional works because important details and reality itself are frequently overlooked in service of the story itself. This ranges from topics as diverse as historic accounts, to the mechanics of lockpicking, to the emotional states of survivors, to, well, everything. The best that fictional stories can offer in this regard is the essence of an experience, the likes of which could easily be derived through a few moments of thought or glancing at the headlines in a web search. In other words, stories are godawful teachers.

The ideas and facts aren't overlooked, they're weaved into the story. You just have to look for them, finding the conclusions implied to their open ended questions. The context of the story is not separate from the idea presented, and if it is, then it's just a shitty story.

Storytelling is also a dubious source of morality. On what grounds do entertainers deign to teach us their non-expert life lessons? Why on Earth should we listen to them? How can you take them seriously when the limitations of entertainment media prevent them from fully discussing anything in depth?

See, where you see limitations, I see advantages. You can tell somebody a million facts about the Holocaust, but for the most part they don't get truly affected until it's presented to them in a story, something they can follow, something they can relate to, something they can make conclusions with themselves about. Authors aren't supposed to sway you to their morality, they're supposed to make you assess your own.

Some people say that storytellers simply archive their environment, perhaps tinting it with their own perspective. But I'm already a part of that environment, interacting with it directly is a much better means of exploring it. And I just don't care about, and probably can't trust, their perspectives anyway.

Are you really at a better means? Are you really going to explore issues from all around the world on your own? Unless you can teleport and/or have omnipotence, I don't believe so. Also, not caring about the perspectives of others because you can't trust them is pretty cynical and selfish, no offense.

So if it's nothing that obvious, what am I missing? Am I without the capacity to appreciate something or is it really just not there? Am a sociopath? I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm missing something but, without a frame of reference, I have no idea what it is, or if it is, for that matter. The thought that keeps coming back to me is that this is what it would be like for someone who doesn't feel the rhythm of music in their body. But you can't miss what you've never had, you can barely even imagine it, so...

...just what does a story mean to you?

A story to me means humanity. Stories are riddled with flaws, and that's where their beauty lies. They expose the author, the topic, and humanity in general. Let me show you something cool by telling you a story.

Okay, so there's this man walking down the street, and suddenly he sees a beautiful women coming toward him...

Spoiler: click for rest

Okay, so that was a dirty lie, there's no story. What I wanted to point out is that, unless you truly are a special snowflake, you just pictured a man walking down a street. A man who doesn't exist, and will never exist, but exists in your mind as an idea built upon by your own experiences in life. I find something inherently amazing about that.

No other creature on this planet does that, and you seem to brush it off because of a nihilistic attitude that sees flaws as mistakes instead of seeing them as characteristics. You think a story is inefficient because of its format, when its format is what truly makes it effective. You can learn facts out of textbooks until your eyes water, but unless you can make connections and conclusions with them, they're about as usefull as this little box here:


If all we did was learn facts and forego emotions, we'd be no better than robots and machines, getting the feeling of motion and progress without actually going anywhere or changing anything.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

I agree with IllumInaTIma.

You may not enjoy stories and there's not much more to say about that.

I enjoy a lot of books that I've read both in and outside of school because they were hard to read (i.e. many pages, small print, big words, references and meanings like nobodies' business, etc.), very appealing, and there was something that I could relate, more or less, to the character(s) and/or setting and themes of the book.

Also, I tend to learn a great deal of things from these works; whether it's a handful of big words that I wouldn't know about or learning about the source material that created these works of fiction, I enjoy learning about new things and if I'm intrigued by them, it hardly feels like learning at all.

Ah. Someone else who likes a challenge?

Then for you, I'd definitely recommend House of Leaves.

OT:

I agree. Some people just don't get stories. That's their problem, not anyone else's... least of all the writers.

Normally, I might suggest it was the writers, but when just about everyone else thinks say... Bioshock: Infinite, Planescape: Torment, Spec Ops: The Line, The Walking Dead, the works of Shakespeare, and just about any great story you care to name agrees that these are great stories (I'm not putting any of them on any kind of footing here, just giving examples), then the problem isn't with the stories you're exposing yourself to if you're not enjoying them. The problem is that you just don't like stories. And that's fine, so long as you admit it.

I don't like Rap, dub-step, pop music, or pretty much any music to have come out in the past 30 years. Aside from the occasional soundtrack or Weird Al or Tim Minchin album, but that's my issue. Not really the fault of several genres of music. Those genres just don't appeal to me. Its that simple.

As for the OP being a sociopath, there's always some distance between you and the characters on-screen/on-page/whatever... that's normal. You'd only be a sociopath if you didn't care about people you know in real life.

Thanks! I'll definitely check it out.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

To me they are an entertaining diversion. They don't matter but they amuse me. Same with video games and most other forms of entertainment.

 

[rob_simple]

I've read, and been affected by, several stories in my lifetime (the most powerful being House of Leaves,) so I'm afraid you possibly just lack imagination or you're thinking too much in the wrong direction, OP.

If you spend all your time reading a work of fiction and analysing the author's intent or the validity of what they're saying then you miss the entire point of storytelling.

I read stories to get out of my life and the real world, not to apply their rules to the story.

 

[Tiger King]

I love stories be they written, spoken or in another version.
At best they make me stop and think and help me escape into my imagination. In the least it is simple entertainment.
No story I have ever heard or read has ever made me reconsider my life or moral standing. I've felt towards characters and for people in autobiographies but I've never thought a story SHOULD have a meaning. It's just fiction, to be enjoyed or not enjoyed.

 

[happyninja42]

I'm curious what the rest of you have to say about these questions because I've been thinking about 'em a lot lately and I honestly don't think I can answer them. A book has never changed my life in any meaningful way.

I'm not sure I can say a book has "changed" my life in a meaningful way, but I've definately had strong emotional reactions to books I've read.

A video game has never made me empathize with its characters. A comic book has never empowered me.

Both mediums have brought me to tears before. Granted it's the rare game/comic to evoke this response, but if the story is good it can evoke any number of emotions from me.

I wasn't moved by those scenes in Spec Ops or Heavy Rain or The Walking Dead.

Never played those so can't comment on them really.

I imagine feel much like anyone else does when they watch one of those terrible romance movies from the '40s; you know the man and woman will meet, fall in love, get pissed at one another, reconcile, and live happily ever after with fifty good Christian kids who all smoke Winstons.

The 40's? That movie formula you just described is alive and well in today's romcoms too ^_^ . Just as crappy today as then, but no need to go back that far to find lame, predictable love stories in movies.

The vast majority of stories, even among the best ones, are unreliable for the dissemination of information. You can't trust facts or most ideas shared in fictional works because important details and reality itself are frequently overlooked in service of the story itself. This ranges from topics as diverse as historic accounts, to the mechanics of lockpicking, to the emotional states of survivors, to, well, everything. The best that fictional stories can offer in this regard is the essence of an experience, the likes of which could easily be derived through a few moments of thought or glancing at the headlines in a web search. In other words, stories are godawful teachers.

That's assuming the story is attempting to "teach" you something. Not every story told is to simply convey information, sometimes it's simply to entertain. To have a good time watching/reading/listening to a tale. I don't watch Star Wars or Star Trek, or any fantasy story, and get mad that they didn't accurately convey to me the mating and migratory habits of the Chromatic Dragonflights over the seasons. That's not why I'm watching this movie.

Storytelling is also a dubious source of morality. On what grounds do entertainers deign to teach us their non-expert life lessons? Why on Earth should we listen to them? How can you take them seriously when the limitations of entertainment media prevent them from fully discussing anything in depth?

Which is why most good storytellers don't try and "Anvildrop" a lesson on you. The better storytellers present a dilema that is common in human society, but leave the "right answer" ambiguous. If they are smart they won't make the movie pivot on that moral lesson. And seriously man, if you are using "storytelling as a source of morality" then you need to find better places to learn your morals from. The real world and ethics classes would be a good start. Don't go to Michael Bay and expect some deep philosophical treatise on the Rights of Man.

Some people say that storytellers simply archive their environment, perhaps tinting it with their own perspective. But I'm already a part of that environment, interacting with it directly is a much better means of exploring it. And I just don't care about, and probably can't trust, their perspectives anyway.

Why are you looking to these people for answers anyway? You keep describing them as sources of wise knowledge, or learned historians of the human condition. Most of them are not in it for that. They are doing a job. They like telling stories to an audience....people like to be in an audience and hear a story. They get paid to do so. Sometimes it's just that simple.

So if it's nothing that obvious, what am I missing? Am I without the capacity to appreciate something or is it really just not there? Am a sociopath? I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm missing something but, without a frame of reference, I have no idea what it is, or if it is, for that matter. The thought that keeps coming back to me is that this is what it would be like for someone who doesn't feel the rhythm of music in their body. But you can't miss what you've never had, you can barely even imagine it, so...

I don't know if you're missing anything or not, that's not the right question for a video game website forum. That's a question for a medical/psychiatric professional. I think that might be sort of the root of your problem. Simply based on the questions you asked, and how you asked them, you seem to be looking for more from your entertainers than you should. It's like going to a librarian and asking them to diagnose your funky left toe problem. You're simply talking to the wrong people. Don't look to movies/books/video games for your Big Answers To Life. They are simply entertainment. For the majority of the people who are in the entertainment industry, it's simply a job. They do what they do because A) They enjoy doing it and... B) They are able to earn a living doing it. In conjunction with that, we human beings (mostly) love to be entertained. We like to hear stories of people doing awesome things, or read books about people doing that, or play a game where we get to be a superhero for a few hours. It's called Wish Fullfillment and it's simply something humans like to do. I don't really see where the big issue is, I mean, don't you do other things in your life for reasons beyond simply "the dissemination of information" ? Don't you do other things simply for enjoyment purposes? Because you LIKE to do it? If so, then the same reason applies here.

...just what does a story mean to you?

Honestly, what a story means to me isn't really relevant. What's important is what it is to YOU. But since you asked, for me a story is simply something done to entertain. It might try and discuss/hint at a moral lesson in it, but that is secondary to me compared to if I'm having fun with the story. To me it's a sort of two-way street. Obviously the storyteller can't convey EVERYTHING in his story. He's got a restricted timeframe/canvas to work with. So some things just have to be assumed as being true/false for the particular story, or simply disregarded as being secondary to the thrust of the story. I'm willing to disregard a lot of things about a story's premise that don't jive perfectly with reality, if the things presented don't then later contradict their own internal logic. I want a good experience out of a story. I want to be emotionally involved in the events taking place. I want to be pleasantly surprised with the different story elements and how they are used.

 

[Ishal]

snip

Enjoyment, release, escapism, different moral lessons that you can accept or reject. Characters that inspire you. Situations where you would wonder what you would do if you were placed in those circumstances.

In video games? All the above and purpose

Purpose is the key thing for me when I play a video game. Why am I playing? What am I doing and why does it matter?

Purpose is why in MMO's I have such a hard time playing them and sticking around. There is no purpose story wise. I often feel bad for when a decent story is stuck with an MMO. TES and KOTOR will suffer for it.

Do I raid to kill the end boss and complete the story arc, yes... but also to get gear. Then I do it again, and again, and again. MMO's just become exercises in dealing with guilds and entire realms (if you realm pvp) and the people politics just bleeds over into the game. At that point, its not even a game anymore its just drama and bickering. If I wanted that I'd go play hockey or any other team sport. No thanks.

Ultimately its what you consider palatable and tasteful. I like being engrossed in an interesting story, others don't and that is fine. Ultimately though, all our morals comes from two places. 1) stories of some sort 2) personal experience (or what you choose to take from situations you experience) Don't discredit stories. The Bible is a story, it teaches morals. MLP is a children's cartoon, it teaches morals. Choose which you like better and roll with it.

 

[Greg White]

Story is part of the entertainment experience. How if works depends on the game itself.

Dark Souls, for example, has a very rich backstory and setting(even if you have to hunt for most of the details)but a fairly minimalist story, mostly intended for players to make up their own narrative. It does a good job at what it set out to do, at least.

At the other end of the spectrum you have more narrative-driven games, like anything made by Bioware, where the story is there to drive the gameplay and give you context on what's going on. Branching storylines give you a reason to play again to explore other options, assuming you're so inclined.

In the end, they're just another thing to keep you attracted to the game.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Its escapism. Its enjoyment. Its depression. It can be understanding how another person livid or experienced. It can be learning a new angle on your own opinions. It can be many things. For the most part, whether fun or depressing, its entertainment. Its knowledge or understanding. Or just plain guilty pleasure and excitement at things exploding.

Way to many reasons, and im sure some people get more out of stories than others. They can be complex that need many reviews to understand all its telling. Or it can be just as an excuse for explosions, action and death. A lot of the time its good to have a reason why your doing what you are doing. It makes mindless killing have a reason or a responsibility....saving the world etc Movies and books are entertainment, but can teach you things or different ways to look at topics. Or, like autobiographies, learning about how others lived. Then you have history books, which help a lot.

You say you have never been effected in any way from stories. I find that hard to believe. Ok, life changing may be difficult to achieve. But being emotionally connected to characters and what they are going through, im sure you had this. Whether its Aerith dying in FF7 or the choices made in Spec Ops The Line. If a story can make you identify and feel for the characters emotionally then that is a well written story.

 

[ShipofFools]

Some stories are just pure escapism, like the Sinbad the Sailor films.
Some stories are deeply philosophical, and make you think about your life and life in general, like Stalker.
Some stories challenge you on an emotional, spiritual or intellectual level, and those three things need to be challenged a lot. (Terranigma, a video game, challenged me spiritually. I did not expect that.)

And there are some stories where you learn something that you really needed to learn to move your life forward. For me, it was Huxley's Brave New World, but this is such a personal matter that it can be different for everybody.

 

[Alssadar]

Stories exist for three purposes: Entertain, experience, or educate.
Now, a majority of games, as a form of entertainment, seek to simply entertain us, as we have fun crushing the Nazi regime, building castles, surviving zombies, and destroying the Vandals after they spawned their fifth GODDAMNED HORDE and are resting right outside your cities in Western Europe. It's the fun one has with friends and by yourself while adventuring, exploring, and creating your gaming legacy by simply playing the game.
With that in mind, a large part of games are allowing people to experience new and different things. This is important as it can give you new visions of things you'd never have seen, and interact with things nonexistent. Most people haven't ruled nations, fought as a super soldier, or sneaked around as a master assassin, but games allow them to look through that viewpoint and see what it was like to be that person. You see things differently after looking through them, whether it be just in-game, or applying it to the your life. I always knew that King Richard VIII was kind of an asshole in his pursuit of a son, but, after Crusader Kings 2, I know his same desire to continue his line, although I haven't killed my wife(s) to do so.
The final point is to educate. This is not the most common theme demonstrated throughout games, but, when done correctly, can show how powerful interactivity is. Sometimes, games educate by experiencing different things, and how you react to them. It allows you to think about what you've been doing For example, I always thought I was a good guy, but playing Fallout has reminded me that, despite my ability to help people, I am still rather selfish in my actions and desires. Other games like Spec Ops let you look upon your actions in video games/ what you see in the movies, and what damage those "action heroes" can bring upon their fellow man. It brings up the question of national morality, of personal responsibility, and the guilt of your actions.
There probably are some other ideas I've missed, but I hope I've accurately summed up some key points.

 

[KOMega]

Maybe you just don't like stories, or the types of stories you've been exposed to so far.
I mean in essence it's just for entertainment value, so if it doesn't entertain you, there are other ways to.
There are a lot of things in life where I can sorta see the appeal to them, but personally don't see the point.
Oh well.

The vast majority of stories, even among the best ones, are unreliable for the dissemination of information. You can't trust facts or most ideas shared in fictional works because important details and reality itself are frequently overlooked in service of the story itself. This ranges from topics as diverse as historic accounts, to the mechanics of lockpicking, to the emotional states of survivors, to, well, everything. The best that fictional stories can offer in this regard is the essence of an experience, the likes of which could easily be derived through a few moments of thought or glancing at the headlines in a web search. In other words, stories are godawful teachers.

I'm not a big story nut or read tons of books or write fiction or pay attention to history or anything. So I don't have a huge attachment to stories either. But when I occasionally do read one or experience one in a game, it is up to me to pick and choose what to take away from it. Take things with a grain of salt and think about how it affects you or how the characters fell, given situations that happened to them, contrasted with how you would feel.

Hell, I really enjoyed the story Twelve Kingdoms for example, but I don't believe in talking man-sized animals or portals to other worlds where the gods appoint rulers through rather convoluted means imo. The storyteller/authors/writers are not wise old scholars or trained professional morality teachers. They are just people like you or me just talking to you (not telling you) about some aspects of life in story form.

Storytelling is also a dubious source of morality. On what grounds do entertainers deign to teach us their non-expert life lessons? Why on Earth should we listen to them? How can you take them seriously when the limitations of entertainment media prevent them from fully discussing anything in depth?

That being said, some stories are just ridiculous and fun to imagine.
Like, don't go stealing the Declaration of Independence to find the Allspark so you can blow up the Death Star.
It is an entertainment medium. Not everything has a message or if it does, not always a super meaningful one.
Dig around and find the gem and all, y'know?