Jay444111 said:
You are EXACTLY what the problem is with the modern retro gamer. The exact problem. Story has gotten more important dude. Get over it. It is for the better of the medium and with video games with great stories practically releasing each month you are not only proven wrong. But when reviewers even write higher scores on average for well written video games.
Gameplay simply doesn't matter much anymore. Heresy yes. But when you can play the same damn game in a million other games. It really doesn't. Look at the FPS or even the RPG. They are all the same! All of them! The only difference is the story! It has gotten more important due to there sheer evolution. Those who deny it shouldn't have a SINGLE say in what they want in the industry anymore when it has been nothing but a great thing.
Retro gamer? What? I play a lot of old games, yeah, but I love new ones, too. I'm just a "gamer" dude, I have no preference for anything, except "good games."
OK, so I looked at my current generation (using console terms because it's easier) FPS collection.
Yep, I can't see any real similarity between Serious Sam 3 or Crysis, one is a fast paced, gory run 'n' gun and the other is semi-open world, somewhat tactical, stealthy and altogether much slower.
Left 4 Dead and Bulletstorm play pretty differently, too. They're both fast-paced and gory but, even if you play Bulletsotrm in co-op (thus making them both teamwork-based co-op games) they're so mechanically different it seems redundant to even mention them together.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the only truly story focused game on this little list (yes, the others HAVE plots, but they aren't what sold the games). Deus Ex is, however, sold equally by it's fantastic espionage gameplay. One of the main things that frustrates me about your post is that you seem to imply that gameplay styles are interchangeable as long as the plot is good; this only goes for BAD story based games. DE:HR would not work if it did not play the way it did, it needs it's gameplay to tell it's story properly. Oh, and it's nothing like Killing Floor which is an intense survival against an onslaught of monsters with surprisingly realistic feeling weapons and hilarious banter.
But no, really, are you seriously going to tell me that DE:HR is just like CoD or Serious Sam or Left 4 Dead but with a bigger plot focus? There is a HUGE variety in FPS gameplay, possibly bigger than there has EVER been. All of these games are well reviewed, too.
Gameplay is why we play games; a story can be good but if the gameplay isn't up to scratch it may as well be a film, or a book, or a comic. Hell, if the gameplay and story are unrelated it may as well be a film or a book or a comic. What's the point in the gameplay if the story is the main draw and the gameplay has nothing to do with the story? You will literally get the same experience by watching someone else play.
Now let's look at my current generation RPG collection! To keep things fair, I'm going to separate my WRPGs and my JRPGs.
So, for my WRPGs I have The Witcher vs. Alpha Protocol. Do I even need to tell you that they're nothing alike? The only similarity is that your actions can change the plot a little and even the way THAT'S done is pretty different.
Skyrim and Dragon Age have absolutely nothing in common except for both being in a medieval fantasy setting. If you can point out any other similarities I'd love to hear them.
Oh, and no-one plays Elder Scrolls for the story, either; they play it for the role playing. Torchlight and Legend of Grimrock are good, modern RPGs without a heavy plot focus, too. All well reviewed. All fairly popular.
Now, I don't own many modern JRPGs... since the DS came out the same year as the 360 (at least in the UK), are we counting it as the same generation? Handhelds normally arrive before the home consoles of their generation, anyway, so...
Anyway, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey and Final Fantasy XIII have absolutely no similarities. They're both turn based, yes, but the battle systems are completely different, progression through the game is completely different, interaction with your party members is
completely different (in that Strange Journey lets you control them, but FFXIII makes them characters).
Nier and Xenoblade Chronicles are- look, just look up the gameplay, how on
Earth can you say they're even remotely the same game outside of their story?
And, OK, MOST RPGs are sold on the strength of their stories... but the presentation of that story, including the gameplay, is also incredibly important. This is why The Witcher sold well and got great reviews while Alpha Protocol utterly bombed. And, hey, didn't FF XIII get so much shit because of it's GAMEPLAY flaws? Yeah, some people hated the plot but most people bitched about how little the game actually let you -play-. It took control out of your hands all the time and people did not like that.
Gameplay variety is
wider now than it's ever been and video game writing is still widely criticized with good stories coming out about as often as they did back when hardly any games even HAD stories. You know why a lot of retro gamers say games used to have better stories? You and I both know that's bullshit, but it genuinely seemed like they did because so few games had stories at all; if a game had nothing interesting to say, narratively, it
said nothing. Now, if a game has nothing interesting to say, it forces a piss-poor B-movie plot on you that has nothing to do with the gameplay and could be swapped out for any other B-movie plot and not lose a single fan. The biggest selling games in the world have plots, yeah... but that's because nearly every game has a plot. Do most people buy them for their plots? Games like Mass Effect are the exception, rather than the rule.
Hardly anyone buys CoD for it's riveting storytelling; some people like it, most people just like shooting shit.
Nobody liked Battlefield 3's story mode. Still sold millions. Still well reviewed. Still well received, publicly.
Minecraft has no plot at all unless you RP... then it's you writing the story just like a lot of us did with plotless games as a kid.
Counter-Strike is still played by millions every day. No story.
Same goes for Team Fortress 2, if we're strictly talking about what's in the game.
Left 4 Dead has context, but not really any story as such.
Story is growing in importance, yes, but gameplay is, and always will be, the most important part of a game because it's about the only thing stopping them from being lo-fi CG movies. Game stories still aren't important to MANY people because games as a storytelling medium are still immature.
There are far too many games where the story and gameplay are two separate entities; they could easily be two separate products. Until story based games can make it the rule, rather than the exception, that game and story are inextricably linked then all they are is a poor man's film. This doesn't even mean the plot has to be none-linear, it just means that the gameplay needs to be an important part of the narrative, rather than a vague "stuff happened here" event that slows down the plot.
And this is coming from someone whose favourite games ARE all story-focused. But they all do what I just suggested, where most games do not. If I want a film-like story then I'll go and watch a God-damn film.
I'd also like to say that I think over-focusing on story is bad because it ignores the other potential applications of gaming as an art form; there's much more to art than narrative.
