I'm not saying story is a bad thing. It's not, but it seems like a lot of devs focus so heavily on coming up with an engaging story and good visuals that they forget to actually make the game fun to play.
I think about some of the games I've played over the years, and a lot of my favorites either had fairly limited or even downright absurd plots that basically boil down to an excuse to make the gameplay loop happen.
Just a random musing.
Complete opposite here. I used to think stories were important in video games, and now all of my most played games are 99% gameplay. I think essentially all video game writing is trash and extended cinematics are the death of the medium.
I think this is more a product of an individual's stage of life. In my youth I wanted stories because I had boundless free time to pour into subpar gameplay. Now that I'm older and have less free time, the minute to minute gameplay needs to be super tight or I won't bother to slog through it regardless of how grand your story is.
That said, the best of video game writing is still very much worthwhile, but there are precious few titles that can claim to achieve such lofty heights. I can probably count the number of titles on one hand after thirty years of play.
I think games just need a comprehensive story and that's all. Think of the original MW trilogy. While the first game is actually pretty reasonable and realistic with it's plot, the second and third games go off the rails with any realism in the events, but it's fine because it's explained well enough in universe and the game is fun. Most games don't need a masterpiece of writing unless they are story based games like a visual novel or something with significantly branching story results based on choices made.
No arguments there. I like a good story in a game. I just want the game to be fun enough that I don't have to force myself to keep playing to see that story play out, because the controls/gameplay loop is a greater enemy than whatever Big Bad the devs dreamed up.
Blood Omen: The Legacy of Kain is a prime example of this. (I said the last few decades for a reason, lmao). Fascinatingly dark, twisted story.
...aaaabbsolutely dogshit controls and repetitive gameplay. Took me five tries to actually get through the game without getting bored/tired of the nonsense.
Holy shit I love blood omen. Awesome character and interesting setting.
Agreed, Legacy of Kain has a fantastic story, I just wish the game was a little more fun, lol
It's fun enough! I've finished it 4 times now. Every so often just crave that game.
Heck, look at STALKER for example. The story in of itself is... well, kind of interesting in a lore kind of way, but not especially engaging most of the time.
What is engaging however is the kind of shit you run into wherever you go. And it's not like a haunted house carnival ride, with linear jumpscares along a linear track either.
All of which makes up the basic setting and overall gameplay experience. The story in actuality only ends up serving as some kind of context for what's going on.
See also any Fromsoft game for examples of this.
Enough people do care to where they actually did start writing stories and making spin-offs, but to be honest, LoL is just a waifu skin simulator at this point, the last time I opened League was to get all of the K/DA ALL OUT skins