To those of you that always prioritize story over gameplay: Why?

[Firmament1]

This is just an opinion I can't wrap my head around. The big selling point of games is that they're interactive, so I'd expect that to be the biggest priority. So to those that think that story is more important than gameplay, or those that think gameplay is the least important part of a game, I'd like to hear your viewpoints.

 

[spam musubi]

Unlike the GAMEPLAY ALWAYS OVER EVERYTHING crazies I don't think anyone else is a hardliner in thinking one should always come before the other. Different games can have different emphasis on different aspects and that's ok.

 

[ThreepQuest64]

Gameplay will get repetetive at one point and then I get the feeling of been there, done that. And then I ask myself: what's the point? I love a good story though. It evokes emotions, bonding with characters. The story is what fuels my motivation beyond the gameplay and when it starts to wear off. I have no problem with playing "walking simulators". If I'm about to play "gameplay only" games they really have to be amazing at the gameplay front. And this rarely happens (at least not to the degree I'd play a let's say 30hours game purely because of its gameplay).

 

[CollegeFootballCoach]

I have gotten through a lot more "Bad games with great stories" than "Good games with bad stories." -- Spec Ops: The Line always pops in my head. That game is an okay/competent third-person shooter, but the thing that compelled me through it was its narrative hooks. I find myself pushing through more games if the story hooks me, more than the gameplay. Although, I do think the gameplay is important. If a game is broken, no story is saving it haha

 

[Bundy]

It's not one way or the other. I want both. Both are important to me.

 

[Specsranger]

Motivation and context


Personally though!

 

[iceblade]

The story can be a fun one to follow, and interactivity makes you feel like you're more a part of it than you would be if it were a movie. This is especially the case with games where your choices make differences in the story, and is one of the reasons I tend to play quite a few RPGs. Game is definitely important IMO, but I do prioritize story over gameplay.

 

[Hawkster]

Its not one or the other.

And sometimes, a game can feel repetitive or its gameplay hook doesn't feel good, but I can keep playing as long the story keeps me engaged.

Honestly, the idea that we shouldn't make story-focused games because "gameplay is king" baffles me.

 

[Caspar]

If the story is great then it is the gameplay.

 

[Ryuelli]

I think there's absolutely room for both, but a good story is always going to hook me more than good gameplay.

I rarely remember gameplay itself, but if the story is good I'll almost always remember it. On the flip side though, if gameplay is bad I'm not going to care about the game enough to finish the story.

I almost always play games on easy too, so I'm not really experiencing the game how purists tell me it should be experienced anyway. To me, games are mostly a form of relaxation. I want to feel like a god for a bit, zone out, and kill some enemies, or I want to get entrenched in a story that's more interactive than a movie is. I've always been a carrot on a stick type of player than a "play for the sake of playing". I want to play to see what happens next in the story, or to see what's behind this mountain, or to unlock this next character/costume. I definitely need motivation and something to draw me in.

 

[Alastor3]

Why ? Because im a writer, i love story. I can't understand how you can't understand someone who prioritize story over gameplay

 

[sredgrin]

You're arguing with largely a position that doesn't actually exist outside your head.

Story can be part of gameplay, they can feed off each other. Just like good gameplay can drag your through an average or bad story, a good story can dull the edges of something average. There are things games can do with storytelling that other mediums can't do, or can do but differently. Television is probably the closest analogue given it is also frequently long form storytelling in a visual format, but look at the genres of popular game stories and then TV. Fantasy and sci-fi tend to dominate gaming, while TV gets like 1 or 2 prestige entries in the genre running at a time.

 

[tommyv2]

Gameplay is eventually forgotten or improved upon.

Good stories stay with us forever.

 

[monali]

Different kind of people, that's all you need to understand.

BTW I'm not one of them but it's not hard to understand why people love stories in this medium.

 

[Firmament1]

It's not one way or the other. I want both. Both are important to me.

Click to shrink...

Not to sound like an asshole, but the question was to those that think the story is explicitly more important than gameplay.

 

[CannonFodder52]

For me it's about a lot of stuff that's not always explicitly gameplay. I wanna feel some sense of emotion from a video game. I want an experience that is memorable years later. Combat is probably my least favorite type of gameplay. It can be fun, but it's a more fleeting feeling from me. I get the most from the atmosphere, a sense of exploration, characters, world, music, art design etc.
I like when gameplay intersects with story and characters. The Last Guardian is an excellent example of this.

 

[Akainu]

So should every game just be a circular room with a wave of enemies until it reaches a abritray number or go on forever?

 

[Lant_War]

Sometimes games are meant to be more than shooty shooty bang bangs.

 

[LumberPanda]

People like what they like.

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

Why not both

And doesn't have to be at the same time.


Sometimes i'll play games thats pure gameplay. Sometimes i'll pick a game if i hear the story is really good.
Both get my time.

 

[Firmament1]

For me it's about a lot of stuff that's not always explicitly gameplay. I wanna feel some sense of emotion from a video game. I want an experience that is memorable years later. Combat can be fun, but it's a more fleeting feeling from me. I get the most from the atmosphere, exploration, characters, world, music, art design etc.
I like when gameplay intersects with story and characters. The Last Guardian is an excellent example of this.

Click to shrink...

I'd personally consider exploration to be part of the gameplay, since there's more to gameplay than just the combat mechanics.

 

[BAD]

I've played Mario recently. I know people say it's fun, but it has like no story and meh graphics... so why would I enjoy gameplay in a vacuum like that.

Clever gameplay is useless in an ugly emotionless vacuum.

I care more about graphics than story or gameplay. I'd buy The Order 1886 all over again. So great story and graphics is just a killer combo to me.

 

[Futaleufu]

When I want a good story I read a book or watch a movie. Gameplay over everything else.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Gameplay is eventually forgotten or improved upon.

Good stories stay with us forever.

Click to shrink...

Good gameplay is timeless though. We still play Tetris and Pac-Man.

 

[Blue Skies]

I do becuase at my core I love storytelling. Books, movies, tv shows, podcasts, and occasionally games, I want to be taken on a journey. Games sadly are as poorly written as my posts. And it's becuase the medium requires explanations for game mechanics constantly. That's why stuff like metal gear solid, spec ops the line, assassins creed and death stranding that kinda break the fourth wall are so interesting, you get something there you can't get in any other medium. The actual gameplay (I)becomes(/I) part of your journey.

naughty dog games, gameplay mostly is justbusy work until the next cutscene, although they do throw in a lot of talking while you're walking and beautiful vistas. I'd place them in the middle.

then you have grind fest games like Division 2 wherein the story is just a backdrop for the addicting button presses

 

[Deleted member 2620]

i like phoenix wright for its over-the-top writing and art and not the engaging mechanic of "this item will get me through this text box".

i think that it's very obvious to see why someone would like a movie, why someone would like a mechanically-focused game like Virtua Fighter, and why someone would enjoy something vaguely in-between (like a largely narrative-focused game).

i would suggest to the OP to find a lens oriented around a holistic view of an entire experience rather than what a particular medium's "selling points" are.

 

[Firmament1]

So should every game just be a circular room with a wave of enemies until it reaches a abritray number or go on forever?

Click to shrink...

You realize there's more to gameplay than just the combat system, right?

Why not both

And doesn't have to be at the same time.


Sometimes i'll play games thats pure gameplay. Sometimes i'll pick a game if i hear the story is really good.
Both get my time.

Click to shrink...

That's all fine and good, but I was asking tose that believe that story is more important than gameplay.

 

[Lobster Roll]

A great story can carry bad gameplay forward, but great stories in this medium are extremely rare. Conversely, great gameplay can carry bad stories as well, and that is a far more common situation. If a game is highly driven by its narrative, then the narrative either needs to be very strong or very brief. There's only so much bad gameplay I can consume in the name of a good narrative. I have better narratives at my fingertips through several different media ... but I can't "play" any of them.

 

[Lord Vatek]

I don't think story is always important over gameplay but I won't want to interact with a story if it's bad.

 

[Nazgûl]

I can't imagine my self keep playing the Witcher 3 if it wasn't by its story, especially Blood Wine and Hearts of Stone.

 

[mindsale]

I don't expect much from games in the story department; in Nioh I skipped most of the cutscenes and in its excellent sequel I skipped most except the last quarter. I got the gist. I'm not playing playing Nioh 2 to see a brooding soliloquy with a floating animal spirit, I'm playing the best action game this gen.

So yeah, gameplay is first and foremost my interest, but of course I relish the BioShocks and the Last of Us'es that manage to stick the landings on narrative.

 

[Chainsawkitten]

I like both kinds of games: story based and logic puzzlers.

 

[CannonFodder52]

I'd personally consider exploration to be part of the gameplay, since there's more to gameplay than just the combat mechanics.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, for sure. I wasn't trying to say that exploration is exclusively not gameplay. That said, I've played VNs that conveyed a sense of exploration. Anyways, those were just my list of elements that draw me towards game and they're largely not solely gameplay stuff.

 

[Mobu]

tbh i cant think of a game with a good story that had straight up bad gameplay

 

[Weiss]

It's not necessarily that I value one over the other, but rather that they should perfectly complement each other in the best circumstances.

As an example I'm playing DOOM 2016 at the moment, and the story in that game is a perfect fit; which is to say it exists but you and Doomguy couldn't care less. You're here to kill demons, and your nerd doctor whining in your ear not to destroy his science junk while Doomguy winds up a punch is perfect storytelling for this game.

Conversely there's Kingdom Hearts, a game where I feel that a minor drawback in gameplay in the form of the Gummi Ship was a necessary sacrifice to truly sell the existence of a living universe you had to explore. While the Gummi Ship isn't entirely well received I loved it because it gave the feeling that I was charting forward on an adventure through space, and that would have been lost had the game cut it out in favour of just dropping you in the worlds through a menu.

"Story" means a lot of things, and games are a new medium still finding their footing in trying to figure out how best to implement it.

 

[Cosmic Voyager]

Because the next tidbit of dialogue, the next piece of character development, the next twist, the next drip of lore & world-building, these are the things that pull me along through the world.

More often than not, gameplay is very repetitive (even when it's good). There's only so many times I can chop an orc or blast someone in the head with my shotgun before I get bored. I need a reason to care about *why* I'm blasting these things.

when I anticipate a new release, all the things I'm hyped for are story-related. When I look forward to Spider-Man 2 and God of War, I'm excited to see which new villains will be in the game, how the protagonists will develop, which new locations I'll get to explore, etc. I don't really fantasize about how they'll tweak webslinging or axe-throwing— I just assume that whatever they do will be good enough.

The only times I care about pure gameplay are in MP games like Smite

 

[dancingphlower]

tbh i cant think of a game with a good story that had straight up bad gameplay

Click to shrink...

Red Dead Redemption 2?

 

[Justified]

turn-based jRPGs have always been in the top 3 for me since the NES days

 

[dodo]

interacting with a story is gameplay

 

[LegendX48]

You can have great gameplay but if everything else is completely off-putting then the quality of the mechanics and such are lost and the game quickly abandoned.

That aside, and as others have likely already stated, story and such gives your gameplay context.

 

[Hawkster]

When I want a good story I read a book or watch a movie. Gameplay over everything else.

Click to shrink...

And... there we go with the bad takes.

 

[Deleted member 3925]

It's not really one or the other for me, but I'm usually tolerant of weaker gameplay if the story is good.

 

[Nakenorm]

Both are definitely important, but I'd rather play a bad game with a good story than a good game with a bad story. Probably the biggest reason why I can't stand most of Platinum's games and isn't the biggest Nintendo fan. A game with good gameplay can be super fun for awhile, but a game with good story or characters can leave an impression for the rest of my life.

 

[Snake Eater]

Great gameplay with no reason to play (don't give a shit about story, world, characters...) makes it quite a dull experience IMO

 

[Nintendo]

Because I usually can't keep playing without a good story to look forward to.

One of the main reasons I can't play Doom is because the story isn't interesting even though the gameplay is really good .

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

Good gameplay is essential for me, but I also need a decently compelling story. It doesn't have to be an amazing story but I have to feel like the developers actually put some effort into it and the presentation of it for me to enjoy the game.

 

[Deleted member 23850]

Video games have more appeal to me as art, rather than a medium for play.

 

[HiLife]

Gameplay over story all day. DOOM Eternal speaks for itself. But, a tight narrative and experience sticks with me for a long time. Example would be that first playthrough of TLOU. But the issue is, I don't come back to these "story driven" games nearly as often as the "gameplay first" ones.

 

[Landy828]

I prefer you give me both.

There are groups of games that basically have the same exact gameplay, minus a few differences here and there.

For example TLOU, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Horizon: ZD, and even A Plague Tale all have similar game-play. Same stealth grass, climbing/squeezing through areas/helping people up, similar combat ideas (minus Plague), etc. HZD and TR both have "crafting"/survival like elements...as does Plague.

I often feel like I'm playing games in the same engine/build with a different coat of paint and story. Sometimes there's more exploration, sometimes there's less combat, sometimes there's a little more strategy....but it all feels very similar.

 

[Riddler]

A fantastic story can drag me through horrible gameplay all the way to credits.

Fantastic gameplay with a horrible story will almost guarantee I won't see the credits.