How important is a story to you ?

lord_spaceman

lord_spaceman

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As the title says, How important is a story to you in a game ? Let's discuss this ! I know you get the casual gamers who don't really care, but to some it matters big time.

Personally, when I play I game, I find the story critical. A game like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - the story drove the whole game for me. I couldn't wait to find out what happens next - the gameplay was just a gimmick to finding out what happens next. I found Gears of War was balanced. The story was just as important and fun as was the excellent gameplay. I felt like I was in a movie! Racing games like Need for Speed Underground 2 and Most Wanted had low-level stories that I actually enjoyed (good FMVs). Blizzard games like Diablo, WarCraft and StarCraft have REALLY good stories and come with nice thick manuals with more story and background reading. Often I don't know what I'm enjoying more, the story or the gameplay and that is what makes a good game. These are games I put time aside for and give my 100% heart and concentration to.

Then there are casual games like Geometry Wars, Zuma, Marble Blast Ultra, Icy Tower, Moorehun 2, Teris, Pac-man - stuff like that, where there isn't really a story. I play for nothing but score and those are more mindless, relaxing games - these are something I do to kill time and play in little chunks.

I've got a guy here at work who only plays racing/sports games. When I asked why he said because he can keep going round and round the track and doesn't have to worry about a story. He said he doesn't like games with a story.
 
I generally like an engaging story, but the gameplay also has to be good. As I've gotten older I've found it increasingly difficult to play most games that have no story. I will sometimes play them for a while. Zuma for instance was very addictive for about a week, then I got bored and haven't played it again. On the other hand I have some games that are fun and have a good story that I have played through four or more times, and I can see myself playing them at least a couple more times each.
 
Story not that important to me...generally when I rad or listen to the story line its only with a view to looking out for clues...For me gameplay is what its all about....

an example would be Resident Evil 4...it had a stroryline, a good one, but gameplay was excellent as well.. FOr me gamplay was more important with the story simply being used to pull together what would otherwise have been a random collection of levels.....
 
Sad to say, story doesn't mean as much to me these days as it used to. I find myself unthinkingly skipping any and all cutscenes and dialogue.
 
try playing metal gear solid series ,without a story...It will suck
The metal gear series won numerous award for best story line in japan
Hell yo could make a 4hour movie from all the cutscenes.
So story's are very important.Quake and thos online fps does not need a story line.Its like rambo.1000 body counts..who cares for story when its bang bang
 
Sorry i just never play games with storylines about half humanoids,monsters.etc
I like games that soldier of fortune..rainbow 6 stuff...you know real stuff not the
far fetched stuff like doom,hl2..
 
It's not a case of one or the other. The games I play most are great online (BF / GoW) so Zero story. But my most memorable games are about story, namely Max Payne 1 & 2.
 
doobiwan said:
It's not a case of one or the other. The games I play most are great online (BF / GoW) so Zero story. But my most memorable games are about story, namely Max Payne 1 & 2.
Click to expand...

Storyline would have to rank, and on the memorable games, I used to love all the Gabriel Knight games
 
I remember with the original PS I used to look forward to a cool video clip at the end of a game. Used to get pretty ticked off if there was an image with a few text sentences thrown in. Mortal Kombat was the exception though :)
 
Highflyer_GP said:
I remember with the original PS I used to look forward to a cool video clip at the end of a game. Used to get pretty ticked off if there was an image with a few text sentences thrown in. Mortal Kombat was the exception though :)
Click to expand...

your opinion doesn't count :p :p :p
 
IMHO it depends on what you're playing but generally i feel that the story is quite important.... what irritates me is that most games have very similar storylines -

RPG:
You are the one of whom the prophecy speaks - blah blah blah
You must find the one of whom the prophecy speaks - etc
The most trusted [warrior, advisor, wizard] turns out to be in a HUGE twist [dramatic music] the villian

aaaaaaaaaargh, why cant there just be a game where you are just a guy doing what you want to do, where if you want to join the bad guy you can, if you want to be good you can - and where it actually makes a difference to the story - i think the only game that really pushed that was Arcanum Steamworks and Magica... but the graphics and playability - aaaaargh.

been reading up about EVE and it seems to be one of those games where the players actually influence the game dramatically, instead of being locked in - so the story can evolve - naaice... now if only they could do that in a semi-fantasy styled MMORPG or even MM-Lan game
 
actually never played HL - but its not really Multiplayer... also more FPS than RPG
 
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Deus Ex was wonderful. The graphics weren't great by any measure but the story was even better than HL-1. Great stuff :D

Story is really important probably only second to playability. Graphics come last
 
No Story - no play....

What would a good RPG be without a story line....hack & slash....boring
 
The story is very important to me. Thats why I prefer crpg's compared to fps and hack and slash games.
 
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