Yeah: while there certainly exist people who don't care about the narrative elements of a game, that largely becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy more than anythi

Yeah: while there certainly exist people who don't care about the narrative elements of a game, that largely becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy more than anything else, as the audience and market for your products evolves to be the subset of people who like the things you build, which is not the same thing as "people in general like the things I build", and certainly the same as "everyone likes the thing I build". (A lot of software developers--and I think particularly designers--fall into this analysis trap of ignoring selection bias.) The games that had the biggest impact on me were adventure games and role playing games that had deep stories written by people who knew how to blend intrigue and humor into an enjoyable experience of you living in the shoes of the main character. I play games without good narratives, but they have to be much better games to compensate, as a good story can make me ignore some pretty horrible mechanics. (I also play certain classes of puzzle and rhythm games where story is irrelevant, but those are a totally differently head space and don't compete for my time with other games.)