Do you care about video game stories?

[Hitman81]

The latest Red Dead Redemption trailer got me thinking. I really don't give a shit about stories in video games. Occasionally I'll get hooked in, The Last of Us, for example. But 9 times out of 10 I skip the cutscenes. I play games to play and I can't stand sitting there watching some B movie bullshit. So why so much emphasis on the story, Rockstar? Its not like this is The Shawshank Redemption part 2. What say you?

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Depends on the genre, and the expectations developed upon the franchise.

For example, Mass Effect Andromeda. Based the prior three games, the expectations for the storyline is quite high. The final product's lacking narrative ultimately was the main factor in its failure.

Same with MGS5.

But with racing and sports games - No one cares about the story. Every storyline in these games feels tacted-on and half-assed.

 

[Gunners]

loved Heavy Rain ...

 

[jefferz]

Nope.

 

[HereticBD]

The latest Red Dead Redemption trailer got me thinking. I really don't give a shit about stories in video games. Occasionally I'll get hooked in, The Last of Us, for example. But 9 times out of 10 I skip the cutscenes. I play games to play and I can't stand sitting there watching some B movie bullshit. So why so much emphasis on the story, Rockstar? Its not like this is The Shawshank Redemption part 2. What say you?

For me, a good story, or at the very least well written cut scenes, is key in motivating the player to plow forward through the same three or gameplay variations of mission design. At least in open world games, where the inclusion of a story could actually be argued against. I don't think you'll find too many people saying a game like Uncharted, or TLOU doesn't need a story.

You ever play an open world game, with an absolute shit/non existent story? It gets old quick. "Prototype" comes to mind. MGS5 certainly suffered from that as well. Personally, I need something more than just a sandbox to play around in, no matter how good the gameplay is. I want to feel like all the repetitive shit I'm doing has more of a purpose to it.

 

[RJ43]

I do very much. Most of my all time favorite games were because of the stories.

 

[Skarr]

I get bored quick watching cutscenes and tend to skip thru most if not all, that said...like you there is the occasional one that hooks me in, Red Dead 1 was such a game

 

[redmist25]

Very much so, and I think there's room for stories to get deeper and more adult in nature. There's nothing more boring to me than running around shooting a bunch of shit.

 

[jorar]

I do care a lot, i never skip cut scenes and i never really got why people do that. I wouldnt feel like i got the full experience from the game that way

I like some games more than i like most movies, The last of us, Metal gear games (NOT Phantom Pain), witcher 2 would have been shit to me if the story hadnt reeled me in, Witcher 3, which i thought was amazing i actually cared about finding Ciri because she was Geralt's daughter and i believed it.

Or old games like Shenmue 2 i really was looking forward fighting Lan di and avenging my father and was sad when i realized you dont get to do that in that game.

Ive noticed people in here prefer silent protagonists like divinity where you choose your name and everything, but i love games like the witcher 3 where the main character has a name, dialogue and a personality, that might be the one thing i disliked about Persona 5, game was awesome but i would have really liked if he talked and had a personality of his own, i mean the name you choose is irrelevant nobody ever mentions it at all.

I always thought people who dont care about the story prefer shooters and stuff, not saying thats you TS.

 

[JAEGERX]

Yes i do, i watched the Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer and man that looks like straight up garbage, i had high expectations, single player campaigns with a great story is the most important part of the game

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Only in my RPG's do I really care about story, or if they have a really engaging story. Like in Horizon:ZD, I wasn't totally invested in the story for the first 1/3'ish of the game while you were still kind of in the dark, but once they started unveiling the meat of the story I was hooked. I hadn't been hooked on a story in a video game like that since TLoU.

I think one of the reasons I like the Soulsborne games so much is you just get thrown right into it. There is a deep story if you want to read up on all of the items in the game and put the pieces together, but for someone like me with limited time for video games these day, I can just play through the content and story can take a back seat.

 

[Zer]

I generally haven't had the attention span for the last 10 years or so because I rush through games to get them over with. It's the Steam backlog era. But occasionally a game's story will grab me by the balls and I'll try and squeeze every bit of detail out of it. Sometimes completing it multiple times, and dat backlog slips to the back of my mind. Luckily I've had quite a few of those over the last couple of years.

 

[Damage]

i tend to follow the story at the start then pay less and less attention to it as i go

 

[Madmick]

It's gotten much harder as I've gotten older.

 

[Mookie]

It's gotten much harder as I've gotten older.

It's a mixture for me.

I don't usually care, but when I do care now I care more than I ever have. It's just way harder to get me to care.

Virtual Reality does wonders for this, and you'll never look at NPC's the same way again.

 

[TrueBias]

Yes. Absolutely.

 

[Stalkingsquid]

Absolutely, games like The Last of Us, Uncharted, Mass Effect are all some of my favorites because of the good stories.

 

[God_Emperor_Of_Mankind]

Lol one of the greatest stories ever told imo was in a video game, with the greatest shocking twist in it,

Star Wars:Knights of the old republic

 

[Eazy123]

I used to care quite a bit more. For example, I thought MGS3's story was awesome back when it came out. If it came out in this day and age, however, I'd find it to be too much work to suspend my disbelief - I look at it now and see that no, it's not deep, just overly dramatic and it wants you to THINK it's deep. Kojima was a master of that - taking nonsense and making it seem like it's some profound thing. That's why it kills me when people overanalyze the Death Stranding trailers and try to make sense out of it. They're super dramatic but I'm certain the game will be shallow as a kiddie pool.

Some of these stories either treat the player like they're idiots and spoon-feed every little nugget to you, or just wind up being complete pretentious nonsense. I'd rather developers just skip the story altogether if they're going to dial it in.

 

[Patrick Jane]

Yes. But only about the substance, not about the bullshit around. Double Dragon is a good example. The intro cutscene shows everything story relevant in like 3 seconds, no boring nonsense around that i don't care about.