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

[PeterMerkin69]

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

 

[IllumInaTIma]

You just don't enjoy the stories, man, that's all to it. I don't enjoy really loud music or fast speeds, but that's me problem. I know that some people feel satisfaction and thrill when they drive at high speed, all I can feel just intense terror.

When it comes to stories in media, they are... well, everything to me. I may enjoy visuals, or sound, or gameplay, but in the end of the day, it is stories and, more importantly, characters that really stick in my mind. They may not be real, but they don't have to be. Lord of The Rings isn't real, but I loved it's story and I will never forget Sam's bravery or great friendship that was born between Gimli and Legolas. The Last Samurai isn't historically real and, honestly, it's plot isn't really that original, it's just another take on Pocahontas if you ask me. But I will forever remember the story of few men who put honor and duty above their lives. Persona may not be real, and even a little silly sometimes, but I will never forget it's amazing cast of bright and cheerful characters who in their sheer stubbornness managed to fend off godly beings.

Someone will take something else from all the examples above, and that's ok, that's what they love.

 

[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.

 

[piinyouri]

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.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Quoting from James C. Christensen's wondrous book Voyage of the Basset:
"They are a window on the world, just as science is. The wisdom of stories and legends is that they give us another way to understand ourselves, and the place we inhabit."

 

[Shinsei-J]

Quoting from James C. Christensen's wondrous book Voyage of the Basset:
"They are a window on the world, just as science is. The wisdom of stories and legends is that they give us another way to understand ourselves, and the place we inhabit."

That is so perfect...
That one quote summed up all my feelings towards story's in games and in general in a way even I couldn't.

 

[Thaluikhain]

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 don't know about godawful, just very unreliable. OTOH, lots of people do "learn" from stories. You have to tell juries that CSI isn't real, and the lack of a conventionally attractive person with a magic machine doesn't equate to innocence. Women feel pressured into getting labiaplasties because they feel abnormal compared to porn stars, and lots of people "learn" sex form porn. People in lots of countries quote US law as if it's their own (I remember one story about an Iraqi man in Iraqi fighting against the US backed government demanded to be Miranda-ised), phoning 911 instead of their own nation's number.

On the one hand, I don't trust anyone to tell the media what they can or can't have in their stories (in broad terms). OTOH, people die because people responding to accidents have seen too much crap TV. Propaganda is useful, after all, and if you can intentionally sway public opinion against a group, you can do this unintentionally or accidentally.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

Fictional stories are exactly what they're supposed to be, a break from reality. You should look at fiction with a bit of suspension of disbelief. Even if something is not entirely accurate in the work, the aim of the story is to entertain, to show us the author's vision of "what if".
If everything in fiction was 100% based of reality, first of all it wouldn't be fiction, second 90% of the film, book or game would be absolutely nothing, just normal people going about their lives.
That's what I think anyway.

 

[BarkBarker]

A story doesn't make me rethink my life, no STORY can break my entire vantage on my life, it simply can't be done. I do however find when a large amount of investment is placed inside a story, it becomes a part of your life just as much as anything, because THAT is solely what makes a man cry or scream or smile in a story: how much the person invests themselves into the story. A story gone wrong is one that doesn't seem to make sense, like a odd reaction to a situation, these things break a story and remind ourselves that these are simply words said by people behind a mic, I invest myself in very few games nowadays because the writing seems to be crap or the game itself seems to be crap, and one of the two being crap brings me out of the experience. My favourite game is Klonoa 2 on the PS2, a story that encompasses the desire to push away the pain instead of face it head on, about proving to those around you that you ARE what you think you are and so on and so forth. Such a story I found to be engrossing, if simply because the world it was placed inside felt like a real breathing world rather than graphics, to create a land with sense seems to be quite hard for a lot of people to do, which makes me upset at the state of some writers abilities when it comes to games. You show discontent at the predictable writing formula that some people use such as the 40's romance stories, the ignorance of the writer not addressing some of the more important things, but these things ARE what can make and break a world, and from what you describe, you simply haven't found yourself in a story that you can actually be a part of instead a man on the sidelines.

 

[Angie7F]

I simply dont enjoy sports because I dont see the point in them.
Some things are just irrelevant to some people and for you it is reading.

 

[Glongpre]

Quoting from James C. Christensen's wondrous book Voyage of the Basset:
"They are a window on the world, just as science is. The wisdom of stories and legends is that they give us another way to understand ourselves, and the place we inhabit."

This and also this:


?A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.?


― George R.R. Martin, A Dance With Dragons

I actually thought this was a real person's quote...

 

[Muspelheim]

Well, everyone have something that doesn't matter to them at all while it does to many others. You can't like everything, after all.

As for the "harmful" effects of stories, well... Everything can be considered detrimental to something else. Like sports. If I were an absolute prat, I could just look at a large sporting event, like the Olympics or the world football championships and go "Wow... Imagine how many people's lives we could've saved with all this money! ", which also include pretty much anything else. Sports, litterature, theatre, space exploration, scientific advancement, religious ceremonies, hobbies, furnishing, holidays... Everything could be said to be a pointless waste of dosh.

Doesn't mean that anyone of them is... The question is rather; who are we to judge?

 

[Froggy Slayer]

Stories are the human soul committed to word. I don't know why I love them so much; perhaps this is why.

 

[MysticSlayer]

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?

I really don't see stories as being a way to teach a person some incredibly dogmatic way of morality so much as getting people to think about certain issues. I don't have to accept or even like the view that the author/writer takes, but if they present their views in a thoughtful way that piques my interest, I may start thinking more about the issues and reading more about it from more trustworthy sources. In the end I may or may not agree with the author/writer, and I'll generally find myself somewhere between fully agreeing and fully disagreeing with the views presented in the work. Regardless, getting people to think about reality on reality's terms is part of what separates a good story from a bad story, at least if it is actually trying to present certain moral ideas. Now what I don't like is when the author basically feels the need to tell me everything as if it is established fact and disagreeing will only mean I'm an evil that needs to be gotten rid of. In that case, it is no longer a matter of getting people to think about reality on its own terms, but to view reality through the (often very narrow) view of the author/writer.

Outside of just reality, though, there is an element of escapism in storytelling. Part of what I enjoy about it is putting myself in the writer's world momentarily. That's generally the way to get me to care about the characters, their development, their interactions, and their journey. It allows me to momentarily escape reality so that I can immerse myself in another world. Sure, this seems to run counter to the idea of a story getting you to think about reality on reality's terms, but the most powerful stories are the ones that stick with you even after you've stopped reading/watching/playing it. Of course, thinking about the story at that point should translate into you thinking about reality itself as well. Like people have said above, stories are a window to another world, but the best stories can also be brought into this world (figuratively speaking) so that you think about their ideas in relation to reality.

At least that's what I get out of stories. I'd imagine others are different, and perhaps stories just aren't your thing. Still, I'd imagine most people who enjoy them experience at least the escapism part on some level. After all, it's the only reason why we would even bother to root for characters or get sad when something bad happens to them--we've momentarily lost ourselves in the story's world.

 

[ronald1840]

- After finishing Persona 3 FES - The Answer -

I was listening to the credits (Brand New Days) and took a hard look at the kind of relationships I had with my family, especially my grandmother. I'd been lazy and indifferent about everyone but myself. I'd been so selfish with my parents and extended family, always looking for money and presents on my birthday and Xmas, but when their's came around I had a dozen excuses on how I'd 'get back to them.'

That same night I finished the game a half-hour later I had a long talk with my Dad about family and what my priorities in life should be. He didn't force anything on me, but said that the world isn't about me all the time. Everyone isn't hear to serve me anything, and no one outside my parents and a few extended family would care or do anything for me if push came to shove and things got serious. I've had a view of the world that wasn't healthy and I understand that it's from how I thought money, food, and everything else came to us like 'magic' from my family. Those people, no matter what I yelled at them never abandoned me. Never threw me out or gave up after the millions of times I've lied, hid, ignored, or let them down; they'd get angry and over it.

I don't know what I did to deserve that kind of love and I still don't. Maybe that changes when I become a father some day, but I feels so nice knowing I have a group of people who'd do anything to see me grow up into a proud and honest man.

After finishing that game and some good honest family talk I decided to join the Army. I enlisted and got the MOS of Medic (68W) and start BCT in Oklahoma this September. I'm going to med school after this and become a pediatrician. I don't have any doubts anymore and I couldn't say that with honesty before all my life. With the support of my family, my recruiter, and friends back home I finally believe in myself. I can finally speak up to people and start living without fear of the things I can't control.

I am afraid of one thing in my future when this starts, and it came up recently. I'll die one day, and I'll never know how, when, why, or where it might happen. Maybe that's selfish thinking that there's so much more in life I want to do, but it could happen anytime. Maybe during my time in the Army or my medical schooling after, or on my way home tomorrow. It's affecting my less and less every day though. I'd die for my family, my close friends, the town I live in, and for the people I'll fight next to as a soldier.

Love. That's the answer I have for life right now and it's simple. I'm going to grow strong to protect my friends and family when they need it and be humble and honest enough to give. I have a lot of work to do, but I can sleep every night knowing that the strength I want gets closer all the time, but it's not just for me.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Quoting from James C. Christensen's wondrous book Voyage of the Basset:
"They are a window on the world, just as science is. The wisdom of stories and legends is that they give us another way to understand ourselves, and the place we inhabit."

That is so perfect...
That one quote summed up all my feelings towards story's in games and in general in a way even I couldn't.

Voyage of the Basset is well worth reading...if you can find a copy, it seems to have had a very short print.
It is also filled with absolutely *gorgeous* art.

 

[floppylobster]

You probably lack empathy. And I don't think it's a bad thing. I've been slowly losing it over my life time, I think you're just ahead of me. Stories used to mean something to me, now I find them tired and boring. I actually prefer retro games for that reason because they're immediate and I'm 'doing something' (I NEVER play a game for its story).

I think stories help people when they're miserable, unhappy or questioning their life. It can be a comfort or a point of reference to compare your own situation to the perspective of others. But you seem pretty grounded and seem like you understand what you want in life so don't worry about story. It's very common in our culture but they're not essential to living. Animals and insects have lived for millions of years without stories.

What do I get out of them? Nothing but the occasional distraction.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

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.

 

[Elfgore]

They allow me to view a different world through someone else eyes. In the Black Company, I read of a soldier who just views killing people as a job, a job that he has made friends doing and even met his wife. In the Chronicles of Drizzt, I read of a Drow who hated his home society so much he went into self imposed exile for years only to emerge to the surface as a ranger, protecting the innocent. In Oath of Empires, I read of a Roman prince who risked his life, love, and friends to protect his home city from Persia, a Roman woman who fought against tradition and led a centurion of men against Persia. In the Dread Empire, I read of a man who left his homeland after a civil war only to be plunged into a poltical shithole that cost him several children, two lovers, and his best friend, a man who killed his own father for the sake of love, who tried to kill his best friend for the love of his child, only to be killed by said friend.

That is what I get from stories. A world I could never have experienced, seen through the eyes of a man/woman who just wants to survive.