I dunno, if you condensed TP or Uncharted into 30 minute dramas, I think their stories would stand up pretty well. Particularly the ending of TP, which is definately emotionally gripping, imo.

I'm not saying TP has a great story or anything, but I'm just saying, don't diss it, cause it's not bad.

Odin Sphere

Persona 3

MGS1

Phoenix Wright

Final Fantasy

Bioshock

GTAIV

The World Ends With You

...and many more games, like the Resident Evil and Silent Hill combined mythos, the Halo mythology, and even laughers like Dead Rising, Paper Mario, and Stubbs the Zombie, or horror/fear like The Darkness, Max Payne, and F.E.A.R. all have suprisingly great, funny, or original storylines.

Yes, most of the games I play have at least semi-interesting storylines, however, one isn't required. Storylines are only important to games in which they play a central role.

More importantly, character development is much more important than storyline. 

I do love games that have incredible, original, innovative gameplay (usually Nintendo games) regardless of story, but with those exceptions most of my favorite games tend to have good storylines. By good however I mean entertainment storylines. It saddens me that only one game I have ever played has ever had a story I could ever consider on par with the best in the book and movie industries. That game is The World Ends With You, which is really the only game I have played which uses advanced literary tools while also following conventional plot rules (you would be surprised at how many games do not even follow the rising/falling action pattern), and most importantly a theme-driven story. It's too bad its gameplay, although exceptional even on its own, had an incredibly steep learning curve which inevitably detracted from some people's experiences. However, as it is the only storyline which has inspired hope in me for the future of storytelling in the media, it is definitely my favorite game.

I actually felt disappointed after I played The World Ends With You because I realized that all the other storylines I have played through and liked, most notably titles by Squaresoft (pre-merger), in worst cases would not even follow rules that have almost always been a standard in writing. For instance, taking the rising/falling action above as an example, the critically acclaimed and top-selling Final Fantasy VII did something strange. It quickly accelerated towards the end of Midgar, yet drastically slowed down and subsequently stayed pretty slow for the rest of the game. This makes me believe that the climax actually occurred in Midgar, and the rest of the story was like...I can't really describe it. So despite the fact that it had decent concepts for a story, it was not in fact presented in a manner that would never get it to classic status in a writing/movie environment except perhaps among a small fan community. 

This is how I feel about storylines in games. Developers should at least try to compensate for the (at best) mediocre storylines we see in games with decent, original gameplay, if they are not going to actually create a storyline that can compete with those of literary/movie classics. Of course they could also just lower the price of the game to compensate for their lack of ability to create something that ranks among the best. And game reviewers should stop encouraging such mediocre games. 

A good story is a game is one that fits the game and compliments the overall experience. It needn't be stupidly overcomplex or always have characters that are tragic heroes (MGS titles and JRPGs). If a story flows well, compliments the gameplay and doesn't have to take the player out of the game (or not for very long) to do it, it can be a good story for a game. Some of the game stories that people think are so great would also fail as movie titles so that isn't a good comparison. Halo would make a better movie series than MGS because the story is more streamlined. MGS would make for a horrible series simply because it's hokey overcomplexity and tendency for every super soldier to become a pseudo-philosopher would become mindbogglingly dull.  The same can be said for most game titles that try to also make social commentary using video game characters.

I've been playing Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords.

It's got a quest section with some story elements. But I couldn't stand it. It's like playing tetris with a tacky story. I couldn't force myself to care. Luckily it's got a skip button and I could just skip almost every dialogue.

Recently I've beaten LoZ Phantom Hourglass. I was hoping for some storyline that could motivate me to some extent but I was utterly disappointed.

I have almost zero trust in game developers' ability to deliver a good story. In this respect, anime is more or less the same to me. Once in a while, you get to see some decent anime story but it's still only one in hundreds. I believe both game and anime have unique potential to become excellent storytelling media, but so far they have failed quite a bit.

Oh yeah, if a game doesn't have a good storyline i won't touch it, it's one to have a fantastic shootout, but if it doesn't lead to anything there is really no motivation in it.

It's not just anime and video games, it's hollywood as well. Video games and anime still have superior storylines compared to the crap hollywood is churning out.

I love good storylines in games. Zelda Ocarina of Time just sucked me in like a movie, especially the part where Young Link is face to face with Ganondorf for the first time, and when he obtains the Triforce.

 Anime is millions of miles behind Hollywood.  I like anime and most of the storylines are laughable.  Some make for great entertainment, but the "point" of the stories are generally lost in the sea of fan service and characters that are very far from real.  Video game story lines can be great in their support of making the game an overall great experience, but many of games that try to push their story have the same problem that anime has that their characters are completely ridiculous and the story often does not fit the gameplay.  Some like the stories but serious stories can be sabotaged by gameplay elements that are comedic and out of place for the story.  Great video game storylines are hard to find but generally they are not found with the complicated games.  Keeping with the KISS principle is usually key.

But, while we're talking, I'll take a bagel with that coffee.  You don't mind warming that up for me also, right? 

@DTG we play video games for gameplay,story,etc. We aren't expecting them to have a better story than movies, or books. That would be expecting way too much. I don't see how not having a better story than movies means the story sucks.