For me the story in a video game is as uninportant as the story is a porn movie, I just want to get to the action!
I've never followed any story in any video game and this includes Zelda, I just fast forward through any text or speach ithout even paying attention and only go back to take it in if it holds information I need to progress.

Ahh I see, you hate kingdom hearts!!!!

I do like the occasional story-driven game, however for me they are always much less value for my money. I play through it, beat it, and they don't get touched again. I've even started not buying some games, and instead watching all the cutscenes on youtube and saving myself the money (I know I'm terrible). This is why I mostly prefer games that are much different on each playthrough.

So to directly answer the question, no, story doesn't and never should automatically mean a good thing.

IN my opinion, story driven games should be able to take you into the game make you feel like ur in the game make you CRY, kingdom hearts 2 has the best story of any square enix game. Its just my opinion to the situation. The better the story the better the game. However great games like SMG dont really need a story if the'yre fun. But it would make the game much better.

-leo-j

Unlike alot of people I bought and played every Halo game because of the story. Personally it's one of the best sci fi stories in any medium for me. Obviously if the gameplay was crap I wouldnt like the game but story driven games are very pleasing when done well. Story thats are good create interest. If the matrix had a crap story but all the effects I would of hated it.

Read Sean Malstrom's Theory of Cycles and you will know why this belief exists. In fact it explains ALL of people's beliefs on what "games" should be and why they believe it to be this way.

Theory of Cycles 

http://thewiikly.zogdog.com/article.php?article=3&ed=1

John Lucas 

No I feel the opposite.

I think story is a plus... For certain types of games, you don't need a strong one to go on... Like Mario.

But for some other games, like RPGs like let's say Star Ocean or Final Fantasy, it is some sort of motivation, imo. You want to know what happens next... So you go on.

I wouldn't have spent that much time to level up if the story was BS. Yes of course I loved the gameplay, especially Star Ocean, but it is also the story that keeps me captivated until the very last moment.

Also, there's nothing more satisfying than to see the ending scene after all the things you've gone through. Like in FFX... Such an amazing and dramatic way to end the game... I loved it (even though FFX-2 ruined it to me).

That makes me want to have more story involved in some games, like Zelda... But it doesn't have to be linear... Like based on the actions or decisions you take there could be different events triggered, like in Star Ocean.

But anyways, I've talked now for too long. Oh and no bashing please, that's just how I feel about games. I know there are probably much people who don't agree. ;)

I'm also not a fan of the cinematic approach to gaming. (This is explained best in Malstrom's theory of cycles, which jonlucas has linked to above.) Growing up in the 1980s, the games back then had little to no story whatsoever. (Case in point: no one *EVER* gave games a score for "story" back then in reviews!) When games began adding more and more story-telling elements in the mid-90s, I was initially all for it. It was something fresh and new at the time. But eventually games began focusing so much on story-telling that the gameplay began to suffer. In particular, a lot of level-design became EXTREMELY linear, because the story needed to be told in a particular order. To me, gaming is all about the choices that a player makes, so when a game is nothing more than moving a character down a rigid one-track path (e.g. Heavenly Sword), that's a major disappointment.

Since it's already been brought up, Kingdom Hearts 2 is another good example of this trend. I enjoyed the original Kingdom Hearts, but hated the sequel. Every 5 minutes, the game pushes you aside and makes you sit through cut-scenes. It sounds like fun... but it's not. I buy games to play them, not watch the game play itself. And yeah, the production value and graphics were fantastic in Kingdom Hearts 2, but the gameplay was garbage: glorified button-mashing, atrocious level design, and pathetically easy difficulty level. I know that leo-j and Soriku think that Kingdom Hearts is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I see it as a good example of what happens when "story" runs amock and overwhelms gameplay.

Story elements work very well in some genres, less so in others. Used appropriately, a good story can absolutely be a huge draw and a major asset to games. The problem is when developers feel the need to shoehorn "story" into absolutely every conceivable genre possible, even where it doesn't fit... and when reviewers mark down games that emphatically do not need a story for lacking one. (I even saw criticisms for Wii Sports that it lacked a story. Now that's funny!)

Long story short, everyone has different opinions on this subject, and no one is right or wrong. I vastly prefer books to movies, so that influences a lot of my gaming tastes as well.

Children children children(and people older than me.) Story is vital, there are some games that you can be just dropped into sure but those are all mini games, Tetris, Super Mario bros(original few), Donkey Kong. They have quick text blurbs in an instruction manual or on the side of an arcade that you don't really need to read to understand what's going on.

Other games like Final Fantasy NEED a strong story, it's an absolute must. Try playing through Final Fantasy I on the NES, they just drop you by a town and basically say "good luck!" RPG's Adventures etc need a story to connect the sequences of events or else they can just make it linear and everybody would complain every game is too linear.

Storys open up emotions, connections with the characters, and can even open choices in the game itself(I'm citing Chronotrigger where making some minor choices can affect the games storyline and ending)

This whole thing is moot though because the best story driven game has already been made and remade twice since. Lunar: Silver Star Story a game that proves love stories can fit into games without making them girlie or ruining the pacing.