Stories in games.

When you're playing a video game, what kind of story are you looking for? An in-depth, meaningful story that is well thought out and interesting, or a simplistic, easy to understand story that's there just for the sake of having one? (Not trying to make one sound better, just I don't really know how to describe the second option :P)

Personally, I love a good story, more than anything. When I'm playing a long adventure-type game, I'm really only playing to see what happens next in the story. For me, video games should be like watching a movie, or reading a book - except fun at the same time.

Though, I think it also depends on the game. A Zelda game, for example, should have a captivating story. But a Sonic game, where just the premise of having a talking hedgehog is ridiculous, should be simple and not too serious.

whatever the story is, its not that important
when a game puts its story ahead of gameplay, its a bit pretentious and ruins the game

**** that "story isn't important" mentality.

Better story makes a game so much better.

See:
Portal
Half Life series

Both had excellent gameplay AND an amazing story.

Depends on the game genre!

RPGs better give me a dang good story. :P

Platformers nowadays should have what's necessary to keep the game flowing, be it a little cut scene or so, or add in longer stuff they pull off well.

It's the genre which really puts you in how the story will be, so take it from there I suppose!

This post has been edited by Nad on Apr 4 2009, 11:00 PM

As always with these kinds of topics, depends on the game.

a good example of games that I don't even remotely care about the plot

RPG's must have a capturing story or I'll lose interest through-out the repetitive battles. Any other genre I really don't mind so much. If it has a bland story, then hopefully it'll make up for it with exciting gameplay.

I think in some cases, the simpler the story, the better.

"Peach has been kidnapped" is all the excuse I need to want to trawl through dozens of fun platforming levels in different locales to catch Bowser and rescue the damsel in distress.

Same for "Robotnik wants to destroy [insert place here]". I think if you put too much story in a game that really never needed it, it makes it too convoluted and takes focus away from what should be the fun part of the game; the gameplay itself.

Like said above, certain games don't need a story.

But games like Bioshock need amazing stories.

story is important, but never ever ever let it get in the way of gameplay

If a game has a bad storyline, I don't really play it much. So the story it's important to me.

if they can pull it off

good example of pulling it off:
portal
you could tell just enough of what was going on to kept you wanting more
and it was funny too

bad example:
most recent sonic games
dark gaia? knuckles is some arabian dude? time travel? what the fuuuu

Something that keeps my interest. That's all I really care for.

qft

It depends on the game. **** like SMB subverts the story and no one gives a ****, but in stuff like Visual Novels where the story IS the entire game it's extremely important.

It all comes down to how it's all executed and I can't really come to a single general answer.

Really depends on the games themselves.

If it's an RPG, I'm hoping the story is a bit interesting to listen to, because I don't want 1/4 of my time spent playing an RPG reading text that's boring.

What also bothers me is when a story is kind of meant to be serious, but they just throw in a bunch of random moments apparently made to be funny (Ar Tonelico & Ar Tonelico 2 are rather good examples of this, as they throw in way too many sex jokes, and random stuff that really has nothing to do with the story).

If it's any other game, a story isn't exactly necessary, and in most cases, you can get away with just a simple concept.

If it is an RPG, it needs a damn good story or I aint interested. If it is a platformer, it does not matter so much (But a story will make it more interesting).

This is a hard question to answer.

I guess it depends how demanding the mechanics of the game and the characters is. Like, for an FPS or RPG, the progression of the level isn't immediately obvious, so the story can be used to help it along.

In contrast, a platformer can be successful without a detailed story, because the levels are a little more linear and easy to follow, and the gameplay more so rests on the characters skills and your ability to use them, not what you know about the plot.

But even then, I can think of games from all three of these genres that were decent and break from what I just said. So it's really a balance of how much the player needs to know, and how much you want to convey.

Yeah, I ****ing hate that. One of the few bad points of the Disgaea series.