Story is automatically a good thing?

[Helios]

OP: Simply put, no, a story does not automatically make for a better game, but it isn't necessarily a bad thing either. Though I agree story in games is certainly an overrated concept, your demeanor on how you "hate story-driven gaming" comes of as incredibly arrogant and elitist, not to mention selfish.

I have never understood these people claiming games cannot be art, that they cannot express deep emotions, or that they do not deserve to be their held as their own form of entertainment. Both the idiots thinking ‘art isn’t fun’ and the elitist with delusions that they know what games are capable of fall into this mold. It’s as if acknowledging video games as art would be somehow disrespectful to the established forms...

In truth, games are capable of virtually everything, and eventually I have trouble seeing what form of entertainment that will not be interactive. But, that is in a future with true Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. Today is quite different.

Yes, it is true; early games did not require any story beyond the text on the box. They were simple entertainment; a test of skill for who could make the most points and beat the game.

Today’s games are still entertainment, but there is one difference; A modern game usually lets the player do something he would never be able to do in real life – and makes it believable. This is the part of games that require a story for it to make any sense, and one I never see going away. More so than books and movies, this escape from reality - to create your own world - is the strength of video games.

Someone mentioned the game story should be kept to a minimum; that it should always remain relevant to the gameplay. This is correct. Story and gameplay should always correlate whenever possible. Designers should not be afraid to let the story explore more superficial things such as character development that are harder to express through gameplay, but these things should never be the point of the game. Not because video games are incapable of expressing them – they most certainly are capable – but because there are other forms of media whose purpose it is to express them specifically. Interactivity is the point of video games – it should never be wasted.