For me when playing an game Story is very important. I love the stories in many games becasue it add not only immersion into the game but also adds purpose to your game play.

For example: you are playing an shooter, and your mission is to attack this town and kill all the enemies that shoot at you. If there was no story the mission feels pointless, you aren't doing anything but mindlessly killing people. Add an story such as an evil rebel force has taken the town and is using it as an base to spread oppression on the people. Then you ride into the game with the motivation to kill these rebels and save the people from the oppression as an hero.  The mission has an over laying achievement over top of the objective and add purpose to doing things in the game. 

So Overall an good story is needed but the story it self has to be:

1. Understandable: player needs to understand 

2. Entertaining; Boring story can = boring game 

3. not to complex:; players aren't going to sit though an hour of climatics or read an backstory online, so the story should be easier to understand so they can it can be weaved into the gameplay while playing. 

4. Semi Realistic: over the top in fantasy land can really ruin an story, being it back down to earth can make the player feel that in real life that they can do (when they cant) but if they could they can. But an story doesn't have to be really realistic. 

But for some reason Developers dont learn and screw up the stories but mainly do it in the execution. Sure the designers know how the story is working because they have worked on it for months on end and created it. But the player doesn't have that depth of knowledge on the story they need to execute it so the player gets the basic knowledge on the story but at the same time if there is more to know the player can get that more but doesn't have it if they dont want and should still be able understand major set pieces. 

An game that pulls off an great story is Uncharted 2. Sure its not that original and very Indiana Jones like and even pulls alot of the same twists as Uncharted 1. But the story is well written and executed. The player right off the bat is given the over arcing goal which is to fine the Cinitimani stone. then over the coarse of the game more and more dept is added to the story with information on the baddies, the stone etc. And the story isn't too complex as its basically an treasure hunt that few people are trying to get to at the same time. Entertaining: the twists and turns builds up some great gameplay and the cut scenes are very enjoyable to the point of great movie level. 

But still despite so many games pulling off great stories (other examples are cod4, half life, heavy rain, halo(1 only)) there is the same amount doing it badly like MW2, GTA4 etc 

developers should have the story below Gameplay instead of graphics because story can greatly affect gameplay 

Because they're called video games, not video stories.

Even movie makers have difficulty telling a good story. Look at Metal Gear Solid.

1. Everyone has different preferences for story (some love the over the top stories, some want realistic while some want romance.)

2. Dev teams are mainly composed of programmers and designers then some script writers.

3. Stories for games are different from Movies or shows, it requires much more content.

4. It's not easy to develop stories for games as it is very immersive and the content would take something like the 7 books of Harry Potter to be awesome enough content. 

In all fairness, i would say that most of the people that played MW2 didn't care about story. They play it for the multi-player. And since you seem to think that fucking up a story of a game is so hard, you try it. Oh, and without copying any other story on the block.

Its not easy to tell a good story. Not every game can have the amazing depth, pacing and impact the story of Xenogears had. stories in Heavy Rain, COD4, Half Life completely pale in comparison to Xenogears. One of the main issues with game stories is the writing, several games that have a "so called" focus on story have bad writing which makes the impact of the tale they want to tell go down. Then there is the issue of pacing, how to tell a compelling and interesting story while taking into account pacing of the game.

Many games have done this well, they include Xenogears (as mentioned above), Final Fantasy VI, Xenosaga Episode I and Xenosaga Episode III. There are many more but those games had complex stories to tell and they did it very well. Uncharted 2 is an example of how important pacing is in a story, the story itself is nothing that great, but the way its paced is fantastic, you feel excited many times and it never feels too long or too early when the next plot event takes place. The Legacy Of Kain series had similar strengths, coincidently Amy Henning worked on both Legacy Of Kain & Uncharted.

I would disagree. MGS2 and MGS4 were awful in the story department, however MGS1, MGS3 and MGS Peace Walker have been pretty well done.

Haha dude badgenome is always making jokes and that post is no different

well sometimes the writers arent that talented. sometimes they bring the writers in all late in development i mean theres alot of factors.

but OT: you can't just magically have a great story. moviemakers don't always, book writers don't always. Videogame writers don't always.