Topic: Story or Gameplay

[darkwzrd4]

Do you think that games should have great gameplay and almost no story, or should they focus on story rather than game play?  I personally think that games should have both.

[OdenAndEvil]

erm. both? Otherwise, that would  never get the stat of a "great game"

[Abnormal Freak]

Why do poll starters always gotta put superfluous information in the options? I was almost going to vote story, but it's not because I find gameplay as not all that important.

Anyway, it all depends. I like great gameplay and I like great stories. Some of my favorite games have great stories but not so hot gameplay, which others have great gameplay and little story. Ideally, games would have both.

[whitedragon_nall]

Both. You can have the worst story in the world, but if the gameplay is great...I'll still play it. The same goes for the opposite, as well.

[Gunlord]

I like both, though if I HAVE to choose, gameplay wins out for me. In personal terms, the STORY UBER ALLES people annoy me...we have a bunch of them in the Fire Emblem fandom, and their incessant whining about people who are more about the actual gameplay rather than the story and characterization can get tiresome.

[Renonsgoods]

Gameplay.  I've yet to meet a game where a great story could overcome horrid gameplay.  If all you care about is story, stick to film.  Don't get me wrong, I love me some good story to go with my great gameplay, but I've played plenty of great games that had completely toss-away plots...and had plenty of fun in the process.

[KaZudra]

Both, but mostly gameplay, I can't stand one playthrough games like Enslaved and such.

[X]

Both. If one sucks major @$$ the other will pick up the slack.

[Bloodreign]

I grew up in an era where a game had little or no story, so gameplay for me.

[Kale]

^ I would have said the same but I've played Suikoden 2, Valkyrie Profile, Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics, King's Quest...... and so many others back in the day, that I find without a good story I feel like I'm missing something pretty bad. If I had to choose between the 2, Gameplay, but a shitty story may stop me from playing.

[shelverton.]

It depends on what type of game, but I'd say I care a lot more about the gameplay than the storyline. Maybe it's because I've yet to play a game where the story has been fantastic. Half of the time - especially when playing platform type games - I don't even care about the story. The Metroidvanias actually fall in that category for me because there's rarely anything interesting going on in them. I only follow the story because it's needed to beat the games sometimes. Ask me to recap the events in Dawn of Sorrow or Lament of Innocence and I wouldn't know, cause they're so forgettable to me.

[Bloodreign]

^ I would have said the same but I've played Suikoden 2, Valkyrie Profile, Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics, King's Quest...... and so many others back in the day, that I find without a good story I feel like I'm missing something pretty bad. If I had to choose between the 2, Gameplay, but a shitty story may stop me from playing.

But I go back waaaaay further gaming, I started in the Atari 2600 era, whatever story was made up for a game, it was in the manual. I did have an RPG phase, something within 2 years that I grew out of and went back to my shmups and platformers. These tend to be rather barebones on story as well. The RPG is made to tell a story, no story, no epic RPG feel, and a flat game in the end.

[ShinAkumaXX]

Clearly it's all about gameplay, they are called games after all. But a good story helps. Though if I were more about stories I suppose I would read more books. I'm more concerned about the games style/art/music being an awesome overall package. Basically Sci-Fi, or medieval type stuff for me. I don't want to do stuff that's real basically. Why would I play basketball when I could be slaying demons? But yeah, I don't remember games for their stories.