Will you play a sequel without its prequel?

[Torillian]

I've always thought that any game should be able to stand on its own without playing previous iterations, otherwise the series is doomed to stagnation since it limits itself to its own fanbase. Let's see though, played MGS4 without 1 or 2, ToS 2 without 1, and that's really all I can think of that matter. There are other games where I have played later iterations in the series without playing the first, but none of those are connected by story (Persona 3 without 1 and 2, Wildarms 3 before 1) so I don't really count them.