Does the main story matter in open world games?

[Alphachris]

In my opinion the Story/Setting/characters are the most important things in a singleplayer game. You need a world that feels interesting, characters you care about and a Story that gives you a deeper sense of why you Play the game or want to come back again the next day.

I really like the Assassins creed games because they let you Play games in historical cities and meet historical persons. They are great open world games because they have an interesting Story, great character interactions and a linear Story.

I really liked Red Dead Redemption because it has an interesting Setting (wild West), interesting characters and a rather linear Story.

I have some Problems with GTA... It is interesting in playing around big american cities, but the main Story is weak because it is lacking an overall quest or feeling of importance. You just try to get rich and most People you meet will betray you or die anyway. You can do tons of sidestuff, but most of that like Shooting the Pidgeons or doing all Monster Stunts is just repetitive.

My biggest Problem with Open World games was Oblivion... While it looked really great it was the most boring game that I ever played. The Main Quest was really weak.... and the killer Thing was that the main quest implied that the world was on the brink of a huge catastrophe but you could take all your time in the world to do hundreds of unimportant side quest or try to start a career in the different quests and ignore the global threat... What's the Point of becoming head of the guild when the world is about to be invaded? Thats pointless.

Oblivion was a game that failed to connect the Story with the game world. And that is what I have felt with many western RPGs/Action-RPGS. An uninspired main Story ... and then Keep the Player playing for 50 hours or more just with repetitve sidequest (kill x enemies, collect y items, etc....). Or gear farming by´killing the same enemies over and over again...