Comments on: Story Or Not?

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:54:41 +0000

Stories can be great in games, you live the story! You can make the story and change it!

Afrogamer has a great, detailed 2 part article on his quest to kill every single NPC in Fallout 3.

“Is it fun, though? I’ll have to get back to you on that. It’s certainly creative. I’m ignoring every scripted path the game offers – after all, whenever a quest is thrust upon me, I shoot the messenger’s arms off – and that’s not as simple as you might think. I’m burning every bridge with Fallout 3′s story designers that I come across, and it takes quite a lot of skill and forethought to make sure those bridges burn just right.”

http://www.afrogamer.com/?p=1798

By: RobertD

RobertD — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:33:00 +0000

I didn’t vote on this. Because it really depends on the kind of game it is. Fallout wouldn’t be Fallout without story. And a FIFA game wouldn’t improve if a story was included.
Then there’s games like Need for speed, which attempt a story to give the player a reason to race the next guy.
I like when a game attempts at least a little back story.
Left 4 Dead has a story; about 4 people trying to get to the next safe house.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:40:00 +0000

I won’t play a game that has crappy gameplay even for the story (hidden object games, point and click stuff where it’s obtuse), and I won’t play a game that should have a story (RPGs) if it doesn’t have one. I’m not really a fan of stuff that I would play without a story (tetris or whatever) if they add a really stupid story to it (that 99 Bricks Gary thing).

So I guess there are games that should have a story and those that shouldn’t (in my mind), and stories that should have good gameplay and those that shouldn’t (spin off games from a book or a movie aren’t often that good).

Also “want” shouldn’t have an ‘ in it (it might be a typo or something).

By: Steven Egan

Steven Egan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:37:55 +0000

I like to play both types included and the combination ones of most varieties in between. For the reason that I like story handled as good game design, I abstained from voting.

By: Juuso

Juuso — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:52:00 +0000

@Ryan: I wonder why they are called hamburgers… hmm.

@Lumooja: good point on linear stories versus non-linear ones. Of course many non-linear are also somewhat linear… but disguised.

@Russell: wow (fallout lines)

I left the “both” option away for obvious reasons. Knew it would cause some guys not to vote. I guess that means… that some people want both, and won’t enjoy games when either aspect is missing. (Am I missing a mark here?)

By: Thomas D.

Thomas D. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:40:39 +0000

I tend to separate those two categories into two different things using the same medium (kinda like gameshows and movies both are on TV, yet completely different things).
So, there are playgames (typical example: Tetris, puzzle games in general) and talegames (RPGs, adventures) along a number of in-betweens (FPS often make those). I like both, but I tend to do so completely differently – few large chunks for talegames (usually only playing through once), lots of short rounds for playgames (often starting all over).

By: Andy Peill

Andy Peill — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:25:33 +0000

I said stories, but i like both.. there wasn’t this option… I all depends on the game, and i guess what mood i’m in… I dont read books, so a game with a story line makes up for it :)

By: whiteblot

whiteblot — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:03:27 +0000

Some games require good story, some doesn’t need story at all. Obviously I can’t imagine adventure game without one – but when I’m playing a puzzler, story is the last thing I’m thinking of. I think that today games that suffer the most from not having a good story are rpgs. Authors of some role playing games are so focused on game mechanics, character developing through leveling up your hero that they forget about original, strong story behind it. Seriosly, how many times we have to save the world from the evil god/mage/creature that was put to prison/thrown to other dimension long time ago but now it is going to be released once again?

By: Sargon

Sargon — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:40:44 +0000

It depends on the game. I have no specific objection to any type of game. So I didn’t vote.

By: Russell

Russell — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:49:05 +0000

I’d also be interested to find out how many of those who like story-driven games also like dialogue-driven stories. While I’ll (reluctantly) play a story-driven game, I draw the line at those games where I have to spend half the game choosing lines of dialogue.

I’m looking at you, Fallout 3:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Fallout-3-Has-40-000-Lines-of-Dialog-89640.shtml