4 ms·

> But imagine spending $30 on a story-driven video game and just skipping the story. I cannot imagine buying a "story driven videogame" honestly. I love readin

> But imagine spending $30 on a story-driven video game and just skipping the story. I cannot imagine buying a "story driven videogame" honestly. I love reading and I love stories, but to me the appeal of videogames is to play. Videogame stories mostly just get in the way of the actual appealing fun part for me

yareally 2y ago
Not a fan of the first 3 Mass Effect games? They would feel pretty shallow without the storyline that made you care about the characters
- bluefirebrand 2y ago
  Mass Effect is actually one of the game series that convinced me that video game stories aren't really worth it. Taken as a series, Mass Effect is a pretty bad story with wildly inconsistent writing quality. Taken as individual games they are all pretty good for different reasons, but they don't really form a coherent whole trilogy. I didn't bother playing Andromeda Mass Effect 1 had the worst gameplay, honestly. The shooting mechanics weren't good, the RPG mechanics felt tacked on. It did have the best story and most developed lore and characters though, but they aren't good enough for me to ever want to replay it 2 had the best gameplay imo, but ths story took a nosedive. Some of the characters are alright, but overall it's a really bad story here 3 was probably the middle ground between them. The story picked up a bunch of the hanging plot threads from 1 that 2 wound up ignoring. It also changed the gameplay a bit from 2 in ways that weren't good imo I used to think this sort of thing was the pinnacle of video games. Now I prefer playing stuff like Monster Hunter or Dark Souls, where the story is not the focus, but the gameplay is very fun and dynamic
  - nothercastle 2y ago
    Witcher is the best AAA implementation of a great story driving an otherwise decent game. I actually think that cyberpunk was weak mostly because they focused on Star power and the story was meh.
    - bluefirebrand 2y ago
      Witcher 1 might have the best story ever written but I'll never know because the gameplay is tedious Witcher 2 was a serviceable game with a serviceable story Witcher 3 was a vast sprawling story with gameplay that got old fast and it made the story a slog to get through. I had to force myself to finish it I played Cyberpunk four times in a row just because it is so damn fun to actually play and try out different builds and approaches to completing the missions
      - nothercastle 2y ago
        W1 had a tighter story. W2 expanded the world and w3 world is so huge it’s easy to lose the main story line. What I loved is that every individual sub story was well written and really made the world come to life. Cyberpunks world is a mismash of different sci fi themes and not consistent, the gameplay is good but the story is a bit cringe.
        bluefirebrand 2y ago
        I cannot imagine weighting story and writing higher than gameplay when judging the quality of a videogame Every videogame journalist who writes about games from a "ludonarrative" perspective just comes across as someone who failed to get into writing about movies I have one criteria: is the game fun to play I can put up with a lot of cringe in a story if the game is fun After all, cutscenes and dialog are almost always skippable. Gameplay isn't I'll take Dark Souls minimalist storytelling or Cyberpunk's cringe storytelling but fun gameplay over any kind of game with mid gameplay and amazing writing Edit: I guess what I'm really saying is that for me, a good story and characters is icing, but games must be fun first. A bad game with good writing is still a bad game. A good game with bad writing is still a good game I do not understand why people place so much emphasis on non-gameplay elements when judging a game. Watch a show or read a book instead if story is your main concern
        nothercastle 1y ago
        A good story is relatively cheap and can make up for other issues in the game. If starfield had decent writing it could have been a b/c tier game dispite lackluster gameplay. The players imagination would have helped fill in the gaps
NikolaNovak 2y ago
And why not - but surely you get that others may have a different perspective and preference right? :)
- card_zero 2y ago
  By discussing why we like things, we may influence others to try those things. I enjoy avoiding story-driven games because they're controling and lack replay value, and I'm recommending this as something you may like to try too. Or does recommending a negative not really work?
  - BobaFloutist 2y ago
    Yeah it doesn't really work.
    - card_zero 2y ago
      Why is that though?
      - BobaFloutist 2y ago
        "You know this thing you like? Have you tried not liking it? Yeah, it's because I don't like it, and I just really think everyone should give disliking it a fair shot, even if they've tried it and think they like it, that just might be because they haven't really made an effort to dislike it" ETA: Or, to make it simpler, most people are more interested in finding things they might like than in finding ways to no longer enjoy things they already like.
        card_zero 2y ago
        I guess so, but the two come as a package, don't they? "Don't watch that, watch this," where the reason for being pro-this is also the reason for being anti-that.
  - bigstrat2003 2y ago
bigstrat2003 2y ago
> I love reading and I love stories, but to me the appeal of videogames is to play. I enjoy both. I wouldn't want a video game which has no interesting gameplay, but neither am I very drawn to games which are pure game and don't bother to have an interesting story. They are at least better than the former, and can even be good (Doom for example), but IMO can't reach the heights of games which are fun to play and have an interesting story.

yareally 2y ago

Not a fan of the first 3 Mass Effect games? They would feel pretty shallow without the storyline that made you care about the characters

bluefirebrand 2y ago
Mass Effect is actually one of the game series that convinced me that video game stories aren't really worth it. Taken as a series, Mass Effect is a pretty bad story with wildly inconsistent writing quality. Taken as individual games they are all pretty good for different reasons, but they don't really form a coherent whole trilogy. I didn't bother playing Andromeda Mass Effect 1 had the worst gameplay, honestly. The shooting mechanics weren't good, the RPG mechanics felt tacked on. It did have the best story and most developed lore and characters though, but they aren't good enough for me to ever want to replay it 2 had the best gameplay imo, but ths story took a nosedive. Some of the characters are alright, but overall it's a really bad story here 3 was probably the middle ground between them. The story picked up a bunch of the hanging plot threads from 1 that 2 wound up ignoring. It also changed the gameplay a bit from 2 in ways that weren't good imo I used to think this sort of thing was the pinnacle of video games. Now I prefer playing stuff like Monster Hunter or Dark Souls, where the story is not the focus, but the gameplay is very fun and dynamic
- nothercastle 2y ago
  Witcher is the best AAA implementation of a great story driving an otherwise decent game. I actually think that cyberpunk was weak mostly because they focused on Star power and the story was meh.
  - bluefirebrand 2y ago
    Witcher 1 might have the best story ever written but I'll never know because the gameplay is tedious Witcher 2 was a serviceable game with a serviceable story Witcher 3 was a vast sprawling story with gameplay that got old fast and it made the story a slog to get through. I had to force myself to finish it I played Cyberpunk four times in a row just because it is so damn fun to actually play and try out different builds and approaches to completing the missions
    - nothercastle 2y ago
      W1 had a tighter story. W2 expanded the world and w3 world is so huge it’s easy to lose the main story line. What I loved is that every individual sub story was well written and really made the world come to life. Cyberpunks world is a mismash of different sci fi themes and not consistent, the gameplay is good but the story is a bit cringe.
      - bluefirebrand 2y ago
        I cannot imagine weighting story and writing higher than gameplay when judging the quality of a videogame Every videogame journalist who writes about games from a "ludonarrative" perspective just comes across as someone who failed to get into writing about movies I have one criteria: is the game fun to play I can put up with a lot of cringe in a story if the game is fun After all, cutscenes and dialog are almost always skippable. Gameplay isn't I'll take Dark Souls minimalist storytelling or Cyberpunk's cringe storytelling but fun gameplay over any kind of game with mid gameplay and amazing writing Edit: I guess what I'm really saying is that for me, a good story and characters is icing, but games must be fun first. A bad game with good writing is still a bad game. A good game with bad writing is still a good game I do not understand why people place so much emphasis on non-gameplay elements when judging a game. Watch a show or read a book instead if story is your main concern
        nothercastle 1y ago
        A good story is relatively cheap and can make up for other issues in the game. If starfield had decent writing it could have been a b/c tier game dispite lackluster gameplay. The players imagination would have helped fill in the gaps

NikolaNovak 2y ago

And why not - but surely you get that others may have a different perspective and preference right? :)

card_zero 2y ago
By discussing why we like things, we may influence others to try those things. I enjoy avoiding story-driven games because they're controling and lack replay value, and I'm recommending this as something you may like to try too. Or does recommending a negative not really work?
- BobaFloutist 2y ago
  Yeah it doesn't really work.
  - card_zero 2y ago
    Why is that though?
    - BobaFloutist 2y ago
      "You know this thing you like? Have you tried not liking it? Yeah, it's because I don't like it, and I just really think everyone should give disliking it a fair shot, even if they've tried it and think they like it, that just might be because they haven't really made an effort to dislike it" ETA: Or, to make it simpler, most people are more interested in finding things they might like than in finding ways to no longer enjoy things they already like.
      - card_zero 2y ago
        I guess so, but the two come as a package, don't they? "Don't watch that, watch this," where the reason for being pro-this is also the reason for being anti-that.
- bigstrat2003 2y ago

bigstrat2003 2y ago

> I love reading and I love stories, but to me the appeal of videogames is to play. I enjoy both. I wouldn't want a video game which has no interesting gameplay, but neither am I very drawn to games which are pure game and don't bother to have an interesting story. They are at least better than the former, and can even be good (Doom for example), but IMO can't reach the heights of games which are fun to play and have an interesting story.