Would anybody here miss cutscenes or storylines if they went away forever?

[Irony's Acolyte]

I would seriously miss storylines if they were taken away. I love games with great storylines and will occasionally make up a story if it isn't there. Storys aren't always neccessary, there are plenty of great multiplayer games out there that have little in the way of storyline (L4D, TF2, CoD (on multiplayer)). They're fun 'cus its just straight up KILL, KILL, KILL. But after a while mindless killing can get boring (especially on your own). I really like games with stories in them because they give me a reason to want to keep on playing through the insanely annoying bits. I usually have a hard time playing through such games, because I don't feel as interested if I already know whats going to happen (but then of course that can go for movies and books). Cutscences are nice in certain genres (third person, RPG), but I wouldn't mind more Half Life 2 or Bioshock story telling methods. It becomes a hell of a lot more immersive when the story is happening and you don't leave the character's vision.

 

[Cody211282]

I like cut scenes, it sorta bugs me when they aren't in a game.

 

[Catalyst6]

You can't just get rid of all the storyline, after all you have to justify the fact that you're mecilessly slaughtering untold thousands of things and pretend you're not a psychopath heh.

But yeah, I would miss it drastically. However, I think that "plot driven" stories such as Final Fantasy and such should learn to get around to the plot more often. If you are going to tell a story, do it well. The primary reason why I never played the FF games is that you would spend so much time doing pointless stuff that had no bearing on the plot that you would lose all sense of perspective and relevance in the story as a whole.

In short, yes we need plots, but if your game centers around telling a story the get to the damn point.

 

[Blackhol]

I understand what your saying and i agree that stories in video games are terrible. For instance games like Prototype and Borderlands which have terrible stories or virtually none. Yet i love these games for that exact reason there just good pure game play, no need for "wowing' me with unforeseeable twists and deep characters.

But i can't take the step into saying that i wouldn't miss cut scenes or story lines. For example halo (This didn't necessarily have an amazing plot but it was epic; glassing entire cities and setting of the rings were pretty cool cut scenes) Sometimes in games you just need to see epic cut scenes to get you in the mood of the game play part.

 

[Galebaby]

I'd prefer it if every games cut scenes were interactive. As in your actions and what you say define what goes on in the cut scene, how it plays out, and etc.

Picture the mass effect chat scenes whilst being able to walk around. I've often wanted to strike people in the middle of their lines.

 

[Johnmw]

Spoiler

I will have to disagree with you there overall. I can recognise where you're coming from in terms of jarring cutscenes (Star Ocean 4 comes to mind, 40 minute long cutscenes) but I honestly will not play a game if I think it's lacking a story, hence why I've never played Left4Dead, Borderlands or WoW, because those games are lacking a story by design so as to accomodate more players.

However, I think cutscenes that are done well can serve as useful and entertaining accompaniments to the action in terms of generating interest in the characters behind the avatars, as well as the situation they find themselves in.

Granted I'm biased, leaning as I do towards JRPGs and third person games over make-believe-it's-you FPSs and Hurr Hurr Madden etc sports games. However it's important to me that the creators make a decent enough effort to get a story into a game, and trying to get a story while the action's going down is in-elegant.

I agree with you 99% except for when you claim that WoW has no storyline worth following. WoW has an incredible storyline that (sorry to capitalize this) there is no GAME-PLAY reason to follow. Seriously story is one of the most important aspects of a game to me, hence my addiction to anything Bioware make, it can turn average game-play into interesting dilemma. WoW has a great lore surrounding it, if you skip quest text and conversations that is your fault. WoW manages to appease the masses by continuing Warcraft III's story without making it a necessity for new players to follow. Wow's story is there for those who want it; not making it essential for progression is Blizzard appealing to wider markets. Would you really rather gsmas forced you into accepting their stories (even when they suck)?

EDIT:

I'd prefer it if every games cut scenes were interactive. As in your actions and what you say define what goes on in the cut scene, how it plays out, and etc.
Picture the mass effect chat scenes whilst being able to walk around. I've often wanted to strike people in the middle of their lines.

One of my favourite moments in gaming is getting to smack the knob-end reporter in the face. It was one of the few times that the game anticipated EXACTLY what I wanted to do, a true RPG moment !

 

[joshuaayt]

Yes, of course- That's sort of like asking if I'd miss the punctuation from books if they took it away.
Not that they aren't already doing that- If I read another book with quotation italics, I'll break down and cry.
But, anyway, the story has always been an important part of gaming. Very few games have gameplay that stands up purely on it's own. I think space invaders was one.

 

[HT_Black]

All said and done, a game needs to have a strong point, regardless of what that may be, in order to be good. A great story can save an otherwise crappy game (Mass Effect); fun gameplay can save a pathetic story (Left 4 Dead); good dialogue and characterizations can cover for a bad story (Borderlands, Overlord); and great art design, innovation or imagination can cover for mediocre writing or gameplay (Prince of Persia 2008, Deus Ex, Brutal Legend).

It all comes down to whether or not you've got a Warren Specter or a Tim Schafer at the helm.

Or, in Layman's terms:

I don't care. It's fun either way, isn't it?

 

[HonkingAntalope]

I would, mostly because like it when a game has a good story, and with cutscenes i follow along better.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Funny weren't you praising the witchers combat system in the other thread? *jab jab jab*

"Praising" might be stretching it a bit. More like saying it's not nearly as bad (to me) as you were saying and that it's pretty similar to other things you were saying were better. I think it's ok, but I wouldn't play it if it were just that combat system without the rest of the game. Without going back to check, I think it was Mr. Chalk who was actively praising it (and while I like some of the same things about it as he was talking about, they're not enough to take it from "just ok" to "good").

That said, a great story/art design/music/etc. can make up for so-so gameplay for me, but not for bad gameplay. The game itself has to at least be ok to begin with.

I dunno there's nothing inherently wrong with daiblo and daiblo 2 they are fine games but can have a rather annoying repetitive curve if you play for long periods of time.

 

[fesc]

Great opening post!

I think gameplay is much more important than story, but both are needed in order to create an immersive or engaging game. One would of course argue that Mario and Sonic games didn't have stories, but then again, they were fresh breaths, and the founders of the platforming genre.

I would miss story, but not cutscenes nearly as much.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I dunno there's nothing inherently wrong with daiblo and daiblo 2 they are fine games but can have a rather annoying repetitive curve if you play for long periods of time.

Oddly enough, I hated both Diablo games, despite really liking some Diablo clones that are barely any different from D2 (e.g. my 120+ hours spent in Titan Quest, which is a shameless clone of Diablo 2, except for the minor difference that THIS IS SPARTA). I don't know if that's something wrong with them or me. That's fun enough with almost no story to speak of, though.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I dunno there's nothing inherently wrong with daiblo and daiblo 2 they are fine games but can have a rather annoying repetitive curve if you play for long periods of time.

Oddly enough, I hated both Diablo games, despite really liking some Diablo clones that are barely any different from D2 (e.g. my 120+ hours spent in Titan Quest, which is a shameless clone of Diablo 2, except for the minor difference that THIS IS SPARTA). I don't know if that's something wrong with them or me. That's fun enough with almost no story to speak of, though.

Have you played Sacred? I couldn't finish it but I did like the randomness of how you got abilities, but really these days I can;t stand the tidiouem of the daiblo game mechanic, point and click from over head/iso view is very annoying if it dose not have more/better combat variations than the witcher..

Revenat was good for its time.

 

[Obrien Xp]

Me, they drive the storyline and add depth to the game. I probably would have hated re4 if it weren't for the storyline.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

well without stories, im pretty sure i would not be a gamer, ironic because i hate reading most literature in the world (at least that has ever been recommended to me by the average person i know), so i'd be in a world of hurt

storylines = biggest checkmark in my book for games
characters = next checkmark
gameplay = next
etc..

there are some games that have pure gameplay that i play though, such as l4d2 with friends and whatnot

seeing as how i love movies, i generally like cutscenes, unless its used in the context of mgs4, jesus freaking christ, LET ME PLAY THE GAME FOR 5 MINUTES!

 

[Daipire]

I think Hideo Kojima would cry blood if cutscenes were abolished.

 

[Korten12]

If Storylines and Cutscenes stopped I would cry and probably stop playing Video Games way eariler then expected (want to play them till im kinda old. ), I hate it when games have no cutscenes. For me its kinda annoying as the characters will keep talking even if you are far away from them. I love cutscenes as they make the story more clearer.

Also I wouldnt have bought the rest of the MGS games if they had no story.