It's an issue that must be applied on a game-by-game basis. Some games work with no or next to no story, some games work with a fully involved cinematic story, and some games need something different to work, or at least to be truly excellent.

Ultimately, no, games don't need stories, but certain types benefit greatly, as long as the story is properly applied.

great discussion in this thread (i only read the first 50 posts). gotta go, but i'll read it later!

No, I don't think games need stories, though there are games that benefit from it. It depends on what kind of game it is.
What I don't like is, when story becomes more important than gameplay, and I disagree when some say Mario would need a better story. My opinion.

I remember people saying the same thing about Wing Commander. At the very least I don't think you can say this is a new phenomena.

The whole genre is blurring, that's the issue. Sure a 'pure' game doesn't have a story or need one, do Tennis or Chess have stories explaining them? Of course not, they are pure games.

So Tetris etc. are pure videogames, as are games like Mario. Also, I'd argue, online MP is a pure game - really playing MW2 online deathmatch is no different than playing Pong in principle, just more complex and with the appearance of a setting.

But of course, certain experiences and scenarios require some context, particularly say SP FPS, RPG, etc. plus your classic point and click adventure. And so story crept in.

Now, with literature, Theater, TV, radio and cinema, we already have something to compare against, so of course poor stories started to stand out after a while, particularly as graphics enhanced.

For example it's one thing to have Mario leaping around jumping on mushrooms with no real explanation, but when you put a character like Nathan Drake into a classic action adventure romp it's different.

In that scenario, with a realistic setting bad narrative and an expressive, well animated character, bad dialogue and bad voice over starts to grate, because if you've got any exposure and appreciation for story from other mediums your response is to note its bad.

So of course more and more effort is going into this, and with titles like Heavy Rain we're seeing titles that perhaps shouldn't be termed videogames at all - Heavy Rain for sure looks to me more interested in the character and narrative than any traditional gameplay.

So today, for sure, certain games do need stories - absolutely, and the better written, more original and better voiced the better. More, as the medium expands, blurs and new approaches emerge, the term videogame may become far too limiting to remain in general use.

game without story, isn't much better than shovel ware for me.

i wouldn't play it for than 5 min, even if fun to play because they is no reason to finish it

Replayability > Music >>>>>> Graphics >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Story

Who plays a game for it's story? The stories in games make horror B-movies look like Oscar nominees.

They don't need one if it's a game like tetris.

I've seen some posts from you, but this takes the biscuit.

Story in games can be fun, I find the Starcraft and Warcraft universes to be examples of how to perfectly implement stories in games.

However, games are games, and some games, like arcade games would become destroyed by stories. Sometimes I want a game with high production values that is just a game, like Super Metroid. The game was rarely interrupted by story, and rightfully so, more story would have ruined that game.