In Bartz' Tomb Raider topic, someone said something to the effect of "don't look for good stories in video games" and "people won't play a game with a good story if the gameplay is bad"
Bulls***. I find that the story, in those games that actually have stories, is really what I play games for. And a bad plot will make me unwilling to continue playing a game, or at least delay playing a game. For example, say what you will about the gameplay, but by the time I hit chapter 11 in FFXIII, I'd had enough of the plot. Which is a shame since I quite enjoyed wandering around Pulse. One day, I will finish FFXIII, but that day is far off. In general, the opposite is not true, I will slog though s*** gameplay if the story is good, or even if it is just entertaining, I'm looking at you Catherine.
I'm probably, if not the only one, one of few user here who actually enjoy the plots of FPS games. I will not claim they are great, but they are entertaining. I'm not sure where I was going with this... And I've lost my train of thought.
Yeah, if this seems disorderly and jumbled, that's just the way my mind works some times.
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Tomato King of the World http://img.imgcake.com/SgtSphynx/raydynaj.png
If by "people" the user meant everyone, they're definitely mistaken -- some of my favorite games have relatively lackluster gameplay. If by "people" the user meant the general gaming community... possibly so, yeah.
-- K | H | A | Q | Q | A | H | K http://img.imgcake.com/Jeffzeropngus.png
"people" should not be construed as "all people," but I do think the majority of people will choose gameplay over story. I will be the first to admit that a good story can help a game with struggling gameplay, or that a terrible story can drag good mechanics down, but in the end, they are video games. We play them and the interactivity of it is what causes us to choose games over TV or books or whatever.
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http://img.imgcake.com/nio/bokbokbokpngur.png Mr Caffeine? He was awesome. - Ayuyu
I don't try to divide "story" from "gameplay". Most of the games I play have far too much going on in them for each part not to be informing the greater whole. That's not to say that you couldn't pluck the basic gaming mechanics from one of my favourite games, or the setting, or the music, or the characters, or whatever, and still have something of value - I simply don't think I would ever want to.
-- We are living our lives Abound with so much information
If a game has bad gameplay but a good story, I will probably finish it, yeah (see: Mass Effect) If it has 'decent' gameplay but terrible story, I will probably not finish it (see: FFXII) If it has amazing gameplay but terrible story, I will probably love it (see: FFX2, Just Cause 2, etc.)
-- _foolmo_ 'Illegal activities is a slight misnomer, most of it is not related to material that is actually illegal.' - nintendogrl1