Does Story Matter in Modern Gaming?

[ouyrtuy]

The more I play modern games, the stranger I feel about their stories. I used to play games primarily for the story, but these days, something feels off. Why do so many of them come across as strange or cringy? Sure, there are exceptions like Mafia, which has a fantastic narrative, but plenty of games feel like a drag.
Sometimes you start with a good story, but then it quickly goes downhill and becomes pointless—at least, that's how I see it. To clarify, I'm not talking about JRPGs here, as story is a pretty integral aspect of those games.
What do you think? Do you skip dialogues and cutscenes, or do you love playing games because of the story and narrative elements?

 

[bubbyrude]

as much as i love video games they are typically worse in terms of writing. read a book or watch a movie if that's what you're looking for. even visual novels will do you better than most games. that said, i do tend to like retro game stories a bit more these days. i won't skip dialogue or cutscenes unless i've already seen them before. a modern game with a good story... i liked the stuff from Remedy. Alan Wake 2, Control and the like.

 

[Yousef]

Nah

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

I love story in video games, however, it can get a bit ridiculous sometimes when I've been playing a game for an hour, and have had maybe 5 minutes of actual gameplay. Tales of Rebirth can get a bit..... verbose with the cut scenes every screen change, and the fucking skits where they bury some of the titles.

 

[ouyrtuy]

I love story in video games, however, it can get a bit ridiculous sometimes when I've been playing a game for an hour, and have had maybe 5 minutes of actual gameplay. Tales of Rebirth can get a bit..... verbose with the cut scenes every screen change, and the fucking skits where they bury some of the titles.

Oh, you're playing the newly translated version? Need to get into Tales of series too one day.

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Yeah, you can check out some gameplay on my Twitch and YouTube channels. It's an amazingly fun gorgious game. Probably the best looking game in the entire series. They do the Final Fantasy thing where most of the games exist in thier own continuity,.

 

[ouyrtuy]

Yeah, you can check out some gameplay on my Twitch and YouTube channels. It's an amazingly fun gorgious game. Probably the best looking game in the entire series. They do the Final Fantasy thing where most of the games exist in thier own continuity,.

Alright! I just followed you on Twitch.

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Alright! I just followed you on Twitch.

You may have just answered my question

 

[bobobobo2]

strange or cringy

same reason why most movies and books are cringe, it became pop culture so they no longer need to be good to make a profit, can just do marketing, follow trends and focus mainly on cost cutting, just need a few good ones every now and then to keep it all going

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Hmmm a story in a game should be fairly simple, but secondary to the gameplay. Most early games were this way, where story is minimal.

If you have a RPG, the story helps lead you to the next set of events, telling you where to go next for the main storyline. The story is an excuse to explore usually.

In a Visual Novel the story is paramount and the gameplay is... trivial. I've seen some VN's where there's either no choices, or you get an occasional choice per chapter (Follow character A, follow character B) or (To do A, or not to do A).

The story shouldn't override what the player or character establishes. Tombraider 2014 does this with it's cutscenes where she makes stupid mistakes and is ineffective, while before that you're kicking ass and stealthing.

Games that want to be a movie, should just be a movie at that point. Excessively long cutscenes and removing agency is the opposite of what a video game should be.

 

[ATenderLad]

The more I play modern games, the stranger I feel about their stories. I used to play games primarily for the story, but these days, something feels off. Why do so many of them come across as strange or cringy? Sure, there are exceptions like Mafia, which has a fantastic narrative, but plenty of games feel like a drag.
Sometimes you start with a good story, but then it quickly goes downhill and becomes pointless—at least, that's how I see it. To clarify, I'm not talking about JRPGs here, as story is a pretty integral aspect of those games.
What do you think? Do you skip dialogues and cutscenes, or do you love playing games because of the story and narrative elements?

Well, just saying Modern Games includes like a million things, are we just talking about childhood nostalgia or something? That being said, of course! If they put effort into telling a story, it should try to be good, right? Or to put it another way:

If you take two games with similar systems, but one has a perfunctory story that you've seen countless times, and the other finds a way to engage you, weave in thematic weight to the actions you take in game? The latter is the better game, naturally.

I *can* skip cutscenes and dialogue that are boring, but to answer your question I would never just decide to do that without even watching them first.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I know I'm in the minority here, but I think the stories matter more now than perhaps any other time in gaming history.

Why? Because games can no longer win us over with their gameplay, graphics or design, not when they are always imitating each other on those departments. A game with a good story can set itself apart in ways that guarantee recognition.

 

[Chezlyn]

One good example is Asura's Wrath. Gameplay is hella linear and repetitive but the story is interesting enough that a sequel is/was requested.

Spoiler: Asura's Wrath Narrative Summarized

 

[buffalo]

A majority of stories in videogames have been pretty cheesy and lame to me. Video game stories can only really work in video games because a lot of them are just variations of "you are the chosen one and you must stop evil" I've personally never really cared about stories in video games and (I know people will hate this) I skip a lot of dialogue and cutscenes because I know it'll just be something generic and cringy.

The only story I'm a diehard fan of is Silent Hill 2, I love the other silent hill stories, but come on, they do not compare to Silent Hill 2. Half-Life has a great story and manages to make the "Chosen One VS Evil" storyline super unique. I think the main problem with a lot of modern games is that they try to be cinematic masterpieces when its just not possible in a video game environment. Everybody wants to be Hideo Kojima but only Hideo Kojima realizes the medium he is working with.

 

[Gorse]

To answer OP’s question: Yes, of course it matters! Video games are massively-expensive pieces of electronic consumer entertainment sold for outrageously-high prices — everything should matter! The story, the graphics, the music, the incidental writing, the voice acting… oh, and that little “gameplay” thing, too. When I play a game, I want everything to be good. I have high standards, because I wouldn’t waste my time with it if I thought it was going to be bad going in.

THAT BEING SAID: One thing I hope developers don’t take for granted is the unique ability of video games to provide fulfilling, personalized experiences without a story. It came to my attention recently that the three most popular video games today — Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite(‘s battle royale mode) — don’t have stories at all. Doesn’t that kind of make sense, though? You can enjoy these things without a pre-built narrative, because you’re making up the story in your head as you play them.

When you’re playing Minecraft, for example, you don’t need Dipshit McGee to tell you to collect 50 diamonds so that you can defeat the evil dragon plaguing the land in a 95-minute cutscene. You’re playing out the story you want to have, of an explorer or a farmer or a hunter or whatever. It doesn’t matter if there are plot holes or the narrative changes suddenly, because you’re the only one in the audience! That’s a really cool ability that very few entertainment media have.

Critics are always comparing games to movies, but a lot of great games are way more like toys — they provide a visual, tactile foundation for you to build off of with your own imagination. From that perspective, my answer is no: Games don’t need a story to be engaging.

But if they do have one, for the love of god: make it good.

 

[RageBurner]

It should, but often doesn't. Telling a good story in any medium creates a sort of unwritten contract: the writer creates the story, the reader experiences it.

Of course, there's no guarantee that either end will succeed, as everything is highly subjective, beginning with taste, and I'm using a passive medium as example (a book).

Now imagine how much harder it is to create a compelling story in a truly interactive medium - games in this case - the challenge is infinitely greater, are there are other components vying for the player's attention at any given time, save for genres that are explicitly narrative by design.

Because of this challenge, I feel a lot of the time, developers just give up, and we end up with cookie cutter stories on one end of the spectrum, or tales of pretense grandiose that try to sell us on a depth and breadth that aren't really there.

Yes, gameplay is king when it comes to games, but it never hurts to have something compelling driving the action.

 

[Yousef]

It should, but often doesn't. Telling a good story in any medium creates a sort of unwritten contract: the writer creates the story, the reader experiences it.

Of course, there's no guarantee that either end will succeed, as everything is highly subjective, beginning with taste, and I'm using a passive medium as example (a book).

Now imagine how much harder it is to create a compelling story in a truly interactive medium - games in this case - the challenge is infinitely greater, are there are other components vying for the player's attention at any given time, save for genres that are explicitly narrative by design.

Because of this challenge, I feel a lot of the time, developers just give up, and we end up with cookie cutter stories on one end of the spectrum, or tales of pretense grandiose that try to sell us on a depth and breadth that aren't really there.

Yes, gameplay is king when it comes to games, but it never hurts to have something compelling driving the action.

This is a good way of putting it. I noticed I often come back to a platformer moreso due to character attachment than anything else. Having something like that to emotionally latch onto can be extremely powerful imho!

 

[RageBurner]

This is a good way of putting it. I noticed I often come back to a platformer moreso due to character attachment than anything else. Having something like that to emotionally latch onto can be extremely powerful imho!

Yes, emotional connections are one of the reasons why mascot platformers tend to work so well, despite having no real plot to speak of.

 

[bobobobo2]

developers just give up

if they gave up they would remove it and go all mysterious environmental story telling like dark souls or something, and they would have had a better game (even many high budget AAAs, hard to imagine how some of that absolute cringe passes QA), but the product manager will never allow it, less features to market, might affect sales, just add industry standard skip button, problem solved.

 

[Ikagura]

I know I'm in the minority here, but I think the stories matter more now than perhaps any other time in gaming history.

Why? Because games can no longer win us over with their gameplay, graphics or design, not when they are always imitating each other on those departments. A game with a good story can set itself apart in ways that guarantee recognition.

Isn't it sad though? A game is about gameplay because it's what's on the tin.

I feel like that a great story is what saves what could fundamentally be a mid tier game.

 

[JustLooking123]

I think it all comes down to making it ultimately a fun experience.
Many things we do in our lives might seem repetitive and cheap when we look at the action itself. Just take a look at your keyboard and mouse... pressing these buttons millions of times! Yet, why can't we get enough of it? The action is pretty much transparent, and we just want the meaning behind it.

And look at activities like playing sports... not much meaning behind the action, but the action itself is fun! and anything out of it is pretty much just distraction!

Video games are similar. Usually, in each game, one side is ruling, and the other side should try not to be an annoying obstacle.

 

[TheGreatExplode]

I feel like a game should either have good gameplay or a good story. Of course having both is ideal, but you only need one to keep people interested. Also, people aren't really going to want to play a game if it has neither.

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Post automatically merged: Dec 30, 2024

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[Another Iori]

Shouldn't this discussion be moved into the section 'General Gaming Discussion'?

 

[Spike's iconSpike]

Shouldn't this discussion be moved into the section 'General Gaming Discussion'?

Yeah. Idk why this was on the repo. Probably moved there by mistake.