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.
Part of it is Woke, but part of it is just fashion as well.
There were rumblings of "elevating design" and "integration of narrative approaches and luddite mechanical approaches" all the way back into 2009 when I was studying it.
Back then it was legitmate though, earnest developers with competing philosophy on how to do things and what was possible to achieve.
The divide was whether games were a innately storytelling medium or if games were sets of systems that could be used to tell stories. The divide was cordial though. And legitimate knowledgeable designers existed on both sides
There was a lot of talk about games being recognized as art and legitimate entertainment.
At the time the big example was GTA: San Andreas as a better example of society/freedom/accountability themselves than some more famous mainstream works.
The "Games as Art" movement started out of nerds' pathological desire to not be treated like pig slop for caring about something less sexy. It was an attempt to legitimize the medium and the hobby by people who never got over all the swirlies they got in middle school. Don't get me wrong, that was more bearable than the rent seekrs we have now, but it was still pathetic.
It being hijacked later on allows more talentless hacks to hide in the gears, and just like HR departments that grows over time.
The ''Games as Art'' and ''Games need to grow-up'' fart-huffing pretentious cunts and censors did extensive damage to gaming when they got their foot in the door of games studios.