Whoa whoa whoa.

Some of the best games of all time have NO story whatsoever.  Space Invaders.  Pac-Man.  Tetris.  SimCity.  Wii Sports.

Super Metroid has minimal story, but is very cinematic.  It feels and plays like a movie at parts, but there's not much of a story there.  Some films and some books are all about mood and feelings and not actual events and twists and decisions.  Like Eraserhead or Catcher in the Rye for that matter.  Some games pull that off very well without shoving hours of story down your throat.  Could be Super Metroid, could be Out of This World, could be Shadow of the Colossus, could be No More Heroes 2 (the game is full of cutscenes but they don't tell a story at all).

My problem is when a game uses cutscenes to just tell me what's going on, instead of showing me what's going on, or letting me play what's going on.  If I wanted to hear a monologue explaining everything I'd listen to a book on tape or watch a really good classic James Bond film.

It's not a crime to like both at all, and I'm not saying it is.  But it's a crime to say that ALL games need a story.  That leads to the path that says MGS4 is the best game of all time and Wii Sports is the worst game of all time, and that's madness.

Being a person with little patience and a short attention span, I like to simply PLAY my games, not watch them. That is not to say I don't like story and atmosphere in my games. What I don't like is anything that takes the game out of my control and forces me to sit back and watch. Tutorials, heavy dialogue, cutscenes, etc.. Just let me play the damn game myself! The key feature of games is INTERACTIVITY, and having complete control. this is what differenciates them from movies and what makes them so appealing.

If you notice a pattern with most of the best selling games, they are mostly games with high levels of customization, interactivity, and/or flexibility in terms of activities people can do, and a core of pure gameplay is the focus of most of them. People like games in which the events that unfold are influnced heavilly by their actions. See Tetris, The Sims, GTA3, Modern Warfare 2, Super Mario Bros, World of Warcraft, Wii Sports, Halo, etc. People like to have complete control of their games, and the freedom to do what they want, shaping the game and the experience to their liking. Cutscenes, tutorials, dialogue, narratives, to not achieve this. This is actually I think a big reason why the PS3 is in 3rd, because it has a big focus on these types of games. One of its key selling points is even a new movie format. People just want to play games, they don't want the extra bs that comes with many of them.

all of those games you listed have uncontrollable cinematic parts. In pac-man you have level introductions, death animation. Tetris has the rocket ship, simcity has the picture and explanation showing up when certain things happen etc etc.

The difference is the level of production. You can always skip cutscenes too, so it's not like it's such a big deal. I'm not saying all games need a story. I'm saying there is always a certain level of uncontrollable gameplay which is used to illustrate what is happening with your character or some story element.

erm I like both types.

Lets try to be more accepting.

@Ghost of the rubang

Sorry but those best games you listed are imo some of the most boring games.

It doesn't matter. I like all types of games.

ps3 is in third because it launched at 600$ and came out a year after 360. On an aligned launch, ps3 is trending to outsell 360 and has been outselling since just a couple months after release, despite what you think about sony games.

I like interactive movie games. Though honestly if the story is good enough I prefer it be an actual interactive movie game.

Which isn't really around much anymore... they had some fun PC ones.


Otherwise i'm either antsy during the story wanting to get back to the gameplay, or bored through the gameplay wanting to get back to the story.

Vary rarely does a game nail it pretty equally on both where on doesn't detract from the other.

Your definition of it seems rather odd to me though.  Since not all the games listed under interactive movies I would say has exessesivly long cutscenes.

yeah,i dont like you.

I like almost all types of games except sportsgames (exception wii sports).

And some of the games you listed are my all time favorit games. Like Resident Evil 2 and FF 7 or Mass Effect.

I want good gameplay and a good story.

I voted for you are nuts because I totally disagree with you.

I used to love those RL Stein books where you picked your story