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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Why are reviewers putting so much emphasis on story rather than gameplay/replayability?

DakonBlackblade said:

The bigest reason I play videogames is because it's a whole package. Games evolved and story is a big part of them now, there are plenty of games out there that are pure gameplay (Marios and such) and they have theyre space (and generaly review well) but we moved past the days that that was enought. Gamers are also older and therefore apreciate a story way more than they did on the infancy of the industry.

Bottom line is, if it werent important ppl wouldnt be giving as much atention to it as they do, so story matter.


I disagree entirely

good story is nice, but most people watch a movie for a good story. there are basically ZERO video games out there with stories as good as half decent movie plots...

often the reason for this is that video games HAVE TO have gameplay and it creates forced plot points to enable that. play an Uncharted game and look at the absurd plot points over and over to force action. Metal Gear, Tomb Raider, zombie games... it doesn't matter, they all often end up with somewhat awkward plots simply due to the need to provide a reason for constant action

gameplay is king. no one would give a shit about something like "The Last of Us" if it weren't fun to play in terms of gameplay

I would put it this way- people are willing to play video games that have awesome gameplay but no story, however rarely are people interested in playing a video game that has a great story but terrible gameplay. that's a fact



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While I agree with the thesis, I think it has a lot to do with a shift towards mainstream gaming and a resentment towards that. Since MP has been a key revenue driver for new gaming franchises and MP is almost always all about replayability, story is often relatively overlooked. It's probably fair to say that most professional game reviewers are likely to be hardcore gamers, and most hardcore gamers tend to play story-driven games more often. It should really come as no surprise if their reviews are influenced by nostalgia.



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mountaindewslave said:
DakonBlackblade said:

The bigest reason I play videogames is because it's a whole package. Games evolved and story is a big part of them now, there are plenty of games out there that are pure gameplay (Marios and such) and they have theyre space (and generaly review well) but we moved past the days that that was enought. Gamers are also older and therefore apreciate a story way more than they did on the infancy of the industry.

Bottom line is, if it werent important ppl wouldnt be giving as much atention to it as they do, so story matter.


I disagree entirely

good story is nice, but most people watch a movie for a good story. there are basically ZERO video games out there with stories as good as half decent movie plots...

often the reason for this is that video games HAVE TO have gameplay and it creates forced plot points to enable that. play an Uncharted game and look at the absurd plot points over and over to force action. Metal Gear, Tomb Raider, zombie games... it doesn't matter, they all often end up with somewhat awkward plots simply due to the need to provide a reason for constant action

gameplay is king. no one would give a shit about something like "The Last of Us" if it weren't fun to play in terms of gameplay

I would put it this way- people are willing to play video games that have awesome gameplay but no story, however rarely are people interested in playing a video game that has a great story but terrible gameplay. that's a fact


Explain the existence and sucess of 100% story based games like Heavy Rain, Walking Dead, Life is Strange etc than. And games that are all about the experience like Journey, Everybody is Gone to the Rapture, Flower. Games are not just gameplay, even packman had a backstory, a crap one but it did. And nowadays the diversity of genres and ways to make a game work and entertain ppl are almost infinite.

And there are many games with very strong plots, I dont think its fair to compare different medias regarding theyre storytelling capacities cause they are very different, its the endless debate of the movie adaptations of great books, its never the same and ppl need to learn thats inherent of the diferences in the medias, one is not better than the other theyre just different. Games are lengthier than a movie and therefore can explore stories at a slower pace and imo its greatest strength comes from how you perceive the story, as the gamer your interaction with the story is much more personal, you are the protagonist, in many games doing X or Y directly change the way things happen. Most of the great RPGs have very strong plots, even modern MMOs have strong plots, Final Fantasy XIV has a briliant ever evolving storyline. The Last of Us gameplay is fun but there are so many games that do it better than that game does, the reason many regard it as the best game ever (me included) is because it has a super powerfull personal, engaging and emotional tale, told in a way no movie ever could, Naughty Dog explored the strengths of a video game while minimizing its flaws. And ye there are moments there need to be some forced action in there but dealling with that skilfully is part of being a good developer, many games are getting proficient at using the gameplay and the setting to tell a story nowadays wich makes things even better, The Last of Us does it masterfully and the Souls series probably does it better than anyone else, nobody tells you a story on the Souls series games and yet its there and you pay atention and start piecing it together and its just fascinating. As I said its a diferent media, it worls when devs play to its strength and when they do they get praised, like TLoU did. 

And ye there are plenty of games with crap story but than again there are plenty of crap books and sucky movies as well, the real good ones are always the minority in any media.



they are very inconsistent.

Destiny was absolutely crushed for its story, but its gameplay was sublime, and it literally had infinite replay value (WoWesque).

Halo 5 also had a very lackluster story. Did not have co-op features/raids that Destiny had yet received much better scores.



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Here's my opinion. As a gamer who was born in 1996, I soon found out about all the masterpieces that I missed. So I backtracked and played current games at the same time. During that time I saw patterns in gaming and I got used to certain gameplay mechanics. Before long, I knew what to expect from Mario, Pokemon, Call of Duty, Halo, I'd swung with em' all. Story is that extra incentive for players to keep going. I found that JRPGS and WRPGS excelled in story telling. Video gaming, whether it has a script or not, is a form of storytelling. Since I'm the kind of guy that gets bored with the same old story, I tend to play games that are unique. I find that it's easier for a story to be unique rather than gameplay to be unique.

In the case of Nintendo, it just seems that Zelda is a hot bed for storytelling and I don't think they're making the best of what could be story wise. And I understand, I will take a game that plays well over a game that only has story and the gameplay sucks. But for a game to have both aspects, it makes a better game in my opinion. Like I said earlier, all games tell stories. Some just approach the story differently.



mountaindewslave said:
DakonBlackblade said:

The bigest reason I play videogames is because it's a whole package. Games evolved and story is a big part of them now, there are plenty of games out there that are pure gameplay (Marios and such) and they have theyre space (and generaly review well) but we moved past the days that that was enought. Gamers are also older and therefore apreciate a story way more than they did on the infancy of the industry.

Bottom line is, if it werent important ppl wouldnt be giving as much atention to it as they do, so story matter.


I disagree entirely

good story is nice, but most people watch a movie for a good story. there are basically ZERO video games out there with stories as good as half decent movie plots...

often the reason for this is that video games HAVE TO have gameplay and it creates forced plot points to enable that. play an Uncharted game and look at the absurd plot points over and over to force action. Metal Gear, Tomb Raider, zombie games... it doesn't matter, they all often end up with somewhat awkward plots simply due to the need to provide a reason for constant action

gameplay is king. no one would give a shit about something like "The Last of Us" if it weren't fun to play in terms of gameplay

I would put it this way- people are willing to play video games that have awesome gameplay but no story, however rarely are people interested in playing a video game that has a great story but terrible gameplay. that's a fact


Is it now? Care to point to the peer reviewed article that states such a fact?



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I bet that on launch the Nintendo Switch will have no built in in-game voice chat. He bets that it will. The winner gets six months of avatar control over the other user.

For me, the story is the most important part of any RPG. This is why I like the original Xenoblade Chronicles so much. You do not care for all the lame and boring side quests because the story is so good and you just want to see what comes next.
If a game has no or a weak story, I loose interest quickly and do not finish the game. (Happened to me with any Zelda after OOT, any Final Fantasy after FFVIII and Skyrim). I also cannot play games like Diablo or any MMO because these games offer nothing to me.



The genre and style of game determines which factors as most important. So, yes, storyline can be as important if not more important that gameplay. And a good storyline can actually enhance the gameplay by giving the player cause to play. Unfortunately, the majority is more into the mindless which places less emphasis on the story. But I have personally noticed that this has been less of the case, let's say, than the past five years.



In gaming, if you're going to do something you either do it right or don't do it at all. If you do it wrong, it will be held against you.