@Pyro
Sounds to me like you're losing a lot by dismissing the narrative in games like HL2 and Portal.
Even every great book can be stripped down to a ridiculous skeleton of a plot. The Odyssey is about a guy having nautical adventures to get back home. The Road is about a guy surviving with his son in a post-apocalyptic world. Pale Fire is (probably) about a mad man stalking a writer. Moby Dick is about a mutilated man wanting his revenge on a whale. How silly is that?
That's not all there is to narrative in books and the same happens in games. A lot of it is how exposition, immersion, interactivity is handled as it intertwines with the gameplay - and great games can do it wonderfully. Again, look at HL2, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Portal.
Not all games require a story. Not all games require music, or colour, or voice acting, or 3d graphics. Saying that no game needs any of these things sounds off, and very limiting.
PS: text adventures are games, exactly like textual MUDs that predated graphical MMORPGs. They are interactive experiences with goals, rules, an outcome. Why exactly shouldn't they be considered a game?
