Story Importance

[Fanfic_warper]

How important is story to you and what do you feel are some examples of great stories?

I personally love good stories and will either forgive all a games flaws if there's just a good story, or punish it with a sledgehammer if the story isn't that great and everything else is worst.

To me some great examples would be Knights in the Nightmare, Valkyria Chronicles, InFamous, Final Fantasy XIII, and the Assasin's Creed series.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Story importance depends on genre so what you should really say is that you like genres with good story in them. (such as rpgs or horror games...old horror games )


For me, story is the most important part, it makes other less good parts of games feel comparatively insignificant since you're immersed in the story and care so much about the events that nothing else matters.

I think the .hack// games are a great example of this.


Just don't fall in the trap and expect story from every genre. Pacman or street fighter wasn't meant to have a story like Disgaea does.

 

[KoalaKid]

For me story is really important but there are types of games like super Mario brothers for example where its just more about the fun gameplay and less about the story and that's okay too.

 

[Valagetti]

For me its right up there with gameplay, unless its some mindless shooter. Stories though, especially in gaming have to devlop, as in be different or original. Kind of sick of playing a game with a story thats already been there. Bioware is getting there, we'll see how Mass Effect 3 will do, because Dragon Age recently went down the toilet.

 

[number2301]

I've figured out over the past few years that I've transferred from being a challenge based gamer to a story based one, so yeah it's pretty damn important to me.

I simply can't get into something without an engaging storyline or a great world. Meaning stuff I loved in the past like strategy games, Football Manager and online FPSs I just don't have the time for anymore.

Great stories? Mass Effect is pretty awesome, a proper epic sci fi in the vein of Star Wars. Whereas the Fallout games make a great world with a less great story.

Also Red Dead, that had a really moving, engaging story, if a little simplistic. GTA 4 was great as well.

 

[CrashBang]

True, I can forgive a game somewhat if it has an engaging story but the best games have an atmosphere which helps support the story and really suck you in. Examples: Final Fantasy IX, Kingdom Hearts, Fallout 3, Mafia II, Final Fantasy X

 

[trooper6]

I care quite a lot about genres were story is central. And I care about well crafted stories. For example, Final Fantasy XIII? Eh. It was okay, but some parts were so cliché that I had to roll my eyes so hard and it pulled me out of the experience. So, it wasn't my preferred storytelling experience.

I really liked the writing in Still Life, Silent Hill 2, Advent Rising, the KotORs, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins and DA2. Morrowind, Digital: A Love Story, Bioshock, Dreamfall: The longest Journey, Psychonaughts....Hm...I've experienced a lot of games with writing I really enjoyed.

 

[jacobythehedgehog]

Story is very important to me. Metal Gear Solid game are a perfect example of why the story is so imporant.

 

[Richardplex]

Let's see, my 3 favourite games; Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Assassin's Creed 2, though not necessarily in that order, all have amazing stories and music, yet all have weaker-than-normal gameplay. If the game hasn't got the awesome story to lean on to make me forgive all it's flaws, then all it has left is gameplay, other factors won't matter beyond OSTs and discussions. Oh, and it has to be interactive still, otherwise it should be a visual novel, not a game. Final Fantasy XIII, I'm glaring at you right now.

what I think I meant was, if the game is heavily story based, it's the most important aspect, and a good story can make an otherwise unremarkable/bad game amazing, but if doesn't require story it's still cool, I still enjoy Spyro immensely. And good job Richard at making your TL;DR as long as what your summing up.

 

[Mr Thin]

No aspect of a game can ever take precedence over gameplay. At least for me. It's the most fundamentally important aspect of a game, and the only aspect of a game that can make or break a title by itself.

I can handle bad graphics, bad plot, bad characters, bad voice acting, bad music, bad level design, bad balancing; none of these things, by themselves, have the power to make a game not worth playing. But bad gameplay does [small\](and all of them together probably would, too)[/small].

Having said that, I find story to be the second most important part of a game, and I quite enjoy visual novels, which often have very little gameplay. For example, I just finished playing Snatcher [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snatcher] for the first time; the gameplay in that is almost entirely non-existent, but I still loved it. So I suppose that could be considered an exception to my little rule.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Currently been playing through Planescape: Torment. Excellent writing, and I can't tell if I've even begun to dig into it yet, but it's primarily what I'm there for.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Story is a very nice thing, but unless it's very good, it can't save a game with bad gameplay for me. (Planescape: Torment was one of the few exceptions, but then again the gameplay was just dull not terrible) Gameplay and mechanics come before story (That includes RPG mechanics as well) and if that's not good the game isn't worth playing to me. I can get behind a good story but if you failed at the gameplay part, you've failed at making a game.

 

[Fightgarr]

A game can function perfectly without a story. I think that telling a story is actually a problem in the industry today. People are so concerned with telling us a story that they forget we want to actually play the game. The other problem is that game stories just aren't very good. Take a game like Mass Effect which has (arguably) a "good story": You're an agent of an elite sector of the government who has to defeat an evil agent and then save the galaxy from even more evil robots. Is this really what we consider a solid story? I apologize, but saving the world isn't exactly an original (or even necessarily interesting) premise to look at. Now, a well written story it may be, but that doesn't make the story good or interesting; it makes the characters good and interesting. Final Fantasy is another good example of a "save the world from powerful evil forces" story, only the series as a whole relies heavily on "destiny" or "fate" which tends to equal "bullshit" when it comes to solid writing. I'll be honest, if you have a story with "fate" or "destiny" in it, you're a lazy writer.

I'm not saying I don't enjoy a good story, I've enjoyed plenty of game stories (yes, even "save the world from evil forces" stories), but I think that games a whole right now tend to tell stories in the laziest of ways: cutscenes or dialogue selection sequences. I'm not wholly opposed to dialogue sequences, but I think there should be more chance for failure within them; LA Noire had a good start on that. Treat dialogue as another element of gameplay, an encounter, only instead of fighting with your fists you're fighting with your wits. There should be failure in dialogue and few games think to take advantage of this.