| Bodhesatva said: I've noticed many reviews recently which have trumpeted the significance of storyline, and have implied -- if not outright explicated -- that story is, in essence, always a good thing. A little bit like graphics: better graphics is always a plus. Frankly, this irks me, because I almost uniformly hate story-driven gaming; I have a strong dislike for traditional RPGs, and I find stories -- even better ones, as with Bioshock -- uniformly tedious and infantile in games. More specifically, I don't think an interactive medium is built for strong storytelling.
Does anyone else feel this way? Or have something to add? Does anyone here feel that storytelling is automatically a good thing, and if so, can you explain why? |
No, story is not necessarily a good thing. While I love a good story in a game like BioShock or Blue Dragon, I couldn't care less about the story in a Mario game. It's all about the gameplay.
I expect different things from different games. From an FPS or RPG, I expect there to be a story or it will be difficult to engage me over the course of the game. In a platformer, I expect the controls and gameplay to be top-notch and story is an afterthought. In fact, I usually don't even pay attention if there is a story in the game. The same applies to RTS games; I usually don't care. I want solid controls, interesting units, and challenging battles. I don't pay attention to if I'm invading them, they're invading me, whatever. Story doesn't matter in many cases.
Or check out my new webcomic: http://selfcentent.com/
