Why is a good story such an important factor in games to this community?

[More Fun To Compute]

There are some people who act like the only thing that could possibly make a game worth playing is a story. I put this down mostly to zealotry but the majority are more interested playing games. (and maybe we have also heard of those things that the old men and legends of ages past call books.)

 

[animemetalhead]

Take some of my favorite games:

Need for Speed: Underground
Call of Duty 4
Xenosaga Episode 1
Bioshock

All motivated by stories, some better than others. NFSU is possibly my all-time favorite in the series, motivated primarily by its story. I HATE FPSs, but I enjoyed CoD 4 for the story. Often, a good story can sell people on genres they normally wouldn't touch.

 

[Tyrannowalefish_Rex]

What a thread! Hilarious.


But seriously. When the game is of a genre that requires a story, and cannot rely totally on tactical combat or something like that, that story better be good. Sometimes story is just the summary term for every element contributing for a believable game world and the atmosphere.

 

[Archetypal_Maniac]

I think people have touched upon a lot of the things for a good story in a game. I believe that a well crafted story contributes to a lot more than we think, the artwork, graphics and gameplay even. I think a good story and premise inspires game makers to push their I.P forward and give it a unique character. However if the game play is good then it may not need a story. I think it all depends really, and the variety of strong story based games and light story based games, gives everyone a nice choice of what they want to get into.

 

[lodo_bear]

Some games need no story. In Left 4 Dead, for instance, you kill zombies with a katana. Any further exposition would get in the way of the fun.

Some games are all about the story. Psychonauts, for instance, has stories within stories; to drive forward the main plot of unlocking your powers and exposing a conspiracy, you must enter people's minds and discover how they went mad. You learn who they are, you learn who you are, you learn what's going on all around you, and it's very engrossing.

I don't ask that all game have a story. I ask that all games with story have a good story. If you want to give a game a story, make it a story I'll enjoy and remember fondly. If you can't give a game a good story, then forget the story, just give me the samurai sword and let me kill some zombies.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

I have always wodered the exact opposite thing, why do people like games without story? Anyway, on topic, in my case, I need a good story to keep me interested on the game, without it, it feels like an empty experience.

 

[AlphaOmega]

Because most games with a good story tend to be more than a pure fps game or are rpg's, which I prefer.

 

[mik hardcore]

A game made purely for gameplay is fine, nothing wrong with that. However, a game you can where you can lose yourself in the storyline also has its merits. Having recently finished reading the "Y: The Last Man" comics, I wish I could find a game which gave me the same sense of character development and emotional interaction as that. Any ideas anyone?

 

[Typhusoid]

Well, obviously story isn't the be-all and end-all of gaming, but the true greats, games like Half-Life 2 and Silent Hill 2, are renowned for their ability to eloquently tell a captivating story. Its not absolutely required, but it makes a good game great.

 

[Looking For Alaska]

Because a game can be so much more immersing than a movie and it pisses me off to see the opportunity squandered with 9/10 games.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Anyway take, oh, lets say Gears of War for example. When I played it for the first time I was absolutely taken aback by the architecture of the ruined cities I was playing through and just the gameworld in general, who were these people that lived here? [http://firsthour.net/screenshots/gears-of-war/gears-of-war-marcus-beautiful-architecture.jpg]

What was this world like? [http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/744/744356/gears-of-war-20061107035023862.jpg]

Adding in a decent and compelling story to go along with it should be a relatively easy task as compared to everything else that goes into making a game; put in some good characters, give them some coherent motivations, toss in a little exposition and the game would be greatly improved in my opinion. All of the players who didn't care about that crap could skip over it and people like me could actually experience the world, giving an improved sense of motivation for WHY I'm chain-saw bayonetting someone in the face. Instead we have "Hurr, locust bad kill, durr, lambent, BOOHOODEADWIFE."

It just gets to me that both kinds of players could be catered to in the same games, but instead we have Balkanized tribes sitting across internet borders from each other in mutual hatred of the others games-of-choices.

None of this is made any better by people like CliffyB, who upon seeing this post would probably tell me that none of this story bullshit matters, that the single-player campaign was mostly mean to train me for multiplayer and that only RPG loving fags care about story while I'm wasting time that could be spent pwning more n00bz.

Which is unfortunate because if Epic Games [http://www.epicgames.com/] actually hired a couple decent writers I might actually buy more of their games, and I don't think I'm the only one alone there.

Dude, 110% agreed. I've been saying for a long time that I can see a good story below the surface in Gears, I just wish Epic would deign to let us see it. And about the two tribes thing, Shamus' [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/7161-Experienced-Points-Gears-of-Mass-Effect] recent article hit the nail on the head with that, that it may be Mass Effect 2, of all games, trying to bridge that gap.

 

[God's Clown]

Story > Gameplay > other stuff. That is the chain of events that is required for a good game for me. I don't like racing and sports games, so I do not include those in that chain.

 

[Sandwich Man]

What confuses me is that people seem to think that story and gameplay are exclusive to each other. Why is that? Cutscenes aren't story, they are a method, as is gameplay. A good game tells a story with the gameplay, not despite it. Take No More Heroes, for example. It tells the story of Travis, and how he is a loser. It never explicitly points this out, but he can see it in the gameplay. The way he works menial, repetitive jobs to earn minimum wage to spend on a pointless hobby, the way he clumsily drives around his blatant penis extension, and the fact that he has no other skills other than picking up trash and murdering people. Obviously it's not just the gameplay doing this, but it's there.

Even so called 'pure gameplay' games have stories, albeit extremely simple ones. Tetris tells the story of giant blocks that fall from the sky and explode when they're lined up. It's a nonsensical and simple story, but it's still a story. It's not even something designers have to do on purpose, they will subconsciously tell a story, and we will see them without realising it.

 

[Davrel]

I know for a fact that storylines aren't a key factor all in games.

Well we both agree there but now I fail to see the point behind your post.

Assuming you failed to mention "all"; RPGS and action/adventure games need a story otherwise the game-play is irrelevant. Puzzle games rarely need a story; racing games YOU are the story (read as 'don't need one') with the exception of Need for Speed Underground etc.

 

[inpachi]

A very heavy story isnt "ALWAYS" needed but a story that catches my attention and can make the experience just that much better is only a GOOD thing in my opinion.. Why would you want a game where its only about the graphics and gameplay over how much the game actually interests you and is fun? You cant have gameplay without a story! Only puzzle games can pull this off.. And i disagree on the whole Shooters/Fighters can live without having storys.. A FPS with a good story YES THEY DO EXIST only interests me more than the other ones where its just shoot and kill stuff.. RPGS on the other hand ABSOLUTELY NEED a good story otherwise there is little to no point in playing it.. Unless your one of the mindless zombies that like Grindfest games like Maplestory then go ahead do it.. This topic is very touchy because there is just so many variables to decide weather or not a story is absolutely needed.. But the fact of the matter is a story only benefits a game in most cases..

 

[Uszi]

I don't agree, OP, that the story isn't important at all. It often can be, especially when you play games that are designed to feel like interactive movies.

If you play MW2 and Halo 3 all day long, than no, story likely no impact on your experience as a gamer. Simply because the majority of players play for the awesome and competitive multiplayer experience. Could you like MW2 or Halo for the story? Sure, feel free. But statistically speaking you're likely to give a rat's ass about the story.

If you play ME2 or Heavy Rain or just about any single player campaign, story has at least some relevance, again speaking statistically and generally here. And with a game that essentially is and interactive movie like ME2, it can be very important.

What it comes down to, however, is simple internet politics.
i.e.:

1. I like games which feature X,Y and/or Z.
2. does not strongly feature X, Y and/or Z.
3. I do not like .
4. Because I do not like then they are inferior to me.
5. .

If you try and follow that logic, you will find that it doesn't make any sense. For some reason, people seem to think that their personal preference is somehow more important than another person's personal preference, or they mistakenly believe that everyone shares their preferences on some level. When we realize that arguments over how important the storyline is to game essentially boil down to the rational equivalent of "Red is the best color!" then we understand how utterly stupid the debate is.

And so on. There are all sorts of other categories which cause one person to like a game and another to hate it. Graphics? Some people really want games that will push their high end system to it's limits and immerse them. Some could care less. And that simple difference in preference is fuel for an equally retarded argument over the issue.

My final thought: there are also a large number of Yahtzee sycophants here at the Escapist, who mimic his every opinion, including the opinion that the single player experience should stand on its own or even trump the multiplayer experience. Which is utter nonsense to many of us gamers.

 

[nickster1]

Well because if you can have amazing gameplay and an awesome story then that game will be so much better then just a game with great gameplay "slowly points to the game bioshock"

 

[Chipperz]

I agree that with the games likes driving, music, fpsing, and such, you really don't need a story to get put into the action.

See, while music and racing games don't need a story they're definitely enhanced by one. Guitar Hero 3's story (and it is a story) is very funny and well told for the medium, and Need For Speed's often hilariously bad dialogue enhances the game, just by giving you more of a motivation than "you want to be the best!"

I'll just disagree with you completely on FPS's though. Halo's storyline is excellent, as is Modern Warfare's and Borderlands'*, even Serious Sam is elevated to genius with a storyline that is literally "Here are enemies. Kill them all". Half Life 2 would be a series of balance puzzles and vehicles that handle like paraplegic llamas without a storyline. I can't think of a single FPS that didn't have a storyline, and I can't think how it would work without a reason why you're there.

* because it's not Gearbox's fault that you were too thick to see the ending coming a mile off.

 

[Ekonk]

Why is it that OP seems to think a game can't have a story without being a xenosaga-esque interactive movie?

Yeah. What about Portal? Portal had a story, and a good one at that. And how many cutscenes were there?

...None.