To be the greatest story of all time, it means that more people have to say that it is over any other story so being a big seller is a MUST.

I mean ask every game player on the internet what they beleive the best game story is and I'm sure Planescape: Torment while it may be the best in your opinon would score VERY low due to it's sales and therefore would not be considered to have the best story of any game.

The industry is still in it's infancy and if MGS4 is considered near the top then obviously it's gonna be a long time because it's main story dellivery technique was through movies, which.. isn't a game..

The fact that game reviewers put GTA 4 story up there for ""Oscar worthy"" shows most wouldn't even know a good story if it walked up and slapped them in the face.

There's nothing stopping a game from having amazing story's or script but lets be honest most developers didn't get into the industry to be writers.

I stopped taking the thread seriously after these words "Peter Molyneux"

and started laughing after reading Shio's glorifying PC posts

Weird logic.

As little as I like the concept of "greatest story of all time", that surely means the greatest as in the prevalent opinion among those who actually read/experienced it and can pit it against other stories.

People who did not read it may claim that _for them_ the greatest story is a different one, but that's the wrong data to collect - popularity - because they have no informed opinion about how it would rank against something they did not read.

In other words: "Romeo and Juliet" surely isn't popular among secluded pygmy tribes, but I'm sure they would rate it very highly if someone took the time to translate it (or enact it) for them.

I think the greatest story ever told will be a film. There's just something about HUDs and text menus and hit points that make games less immersive than non-interactive audiovisual stories.

Right now the vast majority of stories in gaming are either mindless action, cliche fantasy adventure, or convoluted mystery/suspense/thriller bullshit. "Oh no, he was a super ghost robot all along, and has now been injected with the super dinosaur virus! Quick, use the super crystals!" They all sound like that, but not as good. I'd play that in a second.

I don't think games should be measured by the quality of their story. It's like measuring books by the quality of their gameplay. Trying to read a story out of most games is as fun as Tetris-stacking books in a library. (They don't disappear when you get a line).

Obviously it has to be applied to people who have access to it, pygmy tribes is a big stretch.

Who's the best president of America for example? I would have no idea so obviously I wouldn't be able to vote in that but who gets to say who that is? It'd have to be all of the well informed American people, you can't have some random guy decree that President XXX was the best..

Why not? Not all games are platformers or puzzle games. Think of the games you can play with friends sitting around a table.

- You can play cards or chess or jenga. Games of chance and strategy or hand-eye coordination skill.

The entertainment comes from the developing of your skills, from the - hopefully friendly - competition and challenge.

- You can play a pen and paper RPG

The entertainment comes from being immersed into a narration, from being able to twist plots and to devise new ideas collectively ( and for the geeky ones, from being able to wear elf ears and false vampire fangs )

Exactly like with tabletop games, video games is an almost useless categorizing: it lumps together forms of entertainment so diverse, and that only have the location/medium in common. For game genres which give pleasure in the form of their narration I can't really see why the story shouldn't be regarded as the main quality definer.

MGS4? Dumb? maybe, simplistic? not a chance. It's one of the most complex and convoluted stories in any story telling medium. Not saying that's neccesarily a good thing (unless you're an MGS fan like me :P)

Agree with you on Planescape Torment. Also thought I'd throw in Deus EX 1. Brilliant game, great story. Although some of it may well be down to the level of interactivity in the game world. But then games don't need a brilliant story to be emotionally involving or thought provoking. I do think there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to storytelling in games.

I'm not even going to get into this in any meaningful ways. I think video game stories can be powerful, more deeply affecting than in any other medium, I think they have the potential to convey experiences that change people's lives-

By Molyneux's statement here is giving me a headache. Urgh.

 +1

And watch some more movies as well if he thinks Godfather II is the ultimate example of storytelling in movies.