Do you pay attention to video game stories?

I would say I'm passive when it comes to understanding what is going on in the story unless the game is really interesting. I'm not one to really go into the details unless it's a game like Metal Gear Solid, and even that is nuts. Most times I'll just read about on it online. With that said, what are some of your favorites video game stories? Do you enjoy them in general or do you care more about just playing the game?

Not all the time I try to but I get distracted alot especially in a action game.

Story is very important because it allows you to understand the objective. Story is a motivator. A bad story can be a demotivator. Also, things revealed in the story may give hints on finding secrets.

Being caught up in the lore can be half the fun to me. The Red Faction games, for instance, could be approached like your typical smash and grab action game but they have a lot going on beneath the surface. Good games have a good story.

THIS, while I don't go looking for secrets or collectables unless they give upgrades. I need to enjoy the story to enjoy the game.

Depends on the genre FPS games I never do apart from halo. Action adventure games always.

I used to care so much about the story. I think it was KOTOR that really brought me to a new age of game narrative being impactful to the overall...

That was almost 15 years ago though.

Since then I've lowered my expectations considerably... Yes there are stand out narratives and characters worth paying attention too etc, but in all I'm focused on how much fun the game is to play.

Games like bloodborne that focus HEAVILY on gameplay and yet still have this insanely rich lore, ripe with mystery and discovery are the leaders of story telling through this medium, to me. Breath of the wild is another game where I hear people say, "it has no story" and yet I found myself completely immersed in what the game wanted to say. They championed gameplay first and allowed the story to serve the gameplay. Love it.

When it's served to me, I tend to not pay much attention and start to think of other things. But in games like Dark Souls, Metroid or Inside, I pay full attention and maintain interest. It's a way more effective way to keep me interested in the story when you give it to me through gameplay rather than force it down my throat with unplayable parts.

Yes, if it's interesting, well-written and well-presented.

If not, then as long as it's not distractingly bad, I don't care.

Yes. Story enhances the gaming experience for me most of the time.

Definitely. Unless it's just nonsense like Bayonetta. Then I give up. But the game would be better if the story made some semblance of sense. It's a powerful motivator

Yes, it gives me motivation to keep playing.

Unless it's a platformer.

Nah don't care that much. Unless it's games like last of us or spec ops the line.

I just take whatever is told to me in a game. Never read the codex or emails in games.

Yes I do even so that if a game world really catches me I go to other media to know more about said world.

One that I'm particularly fond is The Legend of Heroes series; all of them are set in the same world yet they are told from the perspectives of different characters from different countries.

As long as the stories are good and interesting.

I tend to get annoyed by the way that stories are usually told in video games these days with lots of cinematic cut-scenes that interrupt the gameplay or boring cinematic walking. I hate having the gameplay constantly interrupted to show me a movie. If I wanted to watch a movie, I would have just watched a real movie which is much better than any video game story told in this way. That's why I'm so critical of Sony these last two generations since they are leading the industry further into that wannabe Hollywood direction.

I like when stories are told more though the gameplay and/or left more to my imagination instead of being spoon-fed to me with lots of cinematics that interrupt the gameplay while I have to just passively watch and grow increasingly bored and frustrated since I wanted to play an actual game and flashing "Press Triangle" on the screen every once in a while during these cinematics is not what I would call good gameplay.

My favorite video game story is in Shadow of the Colossus. The reason that I like this story so much and it doesn't annoy me like most video game stories these days do is because it doesn't use a lot of cinematics to spoon-feed the story to me and interrupt the gameplay. Instead, it uses the unique strengths of the video game medium to tell it's story primarily through the gameplay that I'm actively involved in, as well as through the design of the game world around me, and through subtleties in the visuals and music that spark my imagination. I get to truly feel like I'm the character in the story as I slowly start to wonder things like "Wait a second, am I maybe the real villain of this story?" without the game explicitly telling me that. And having that be so much more meaningful since I have been an active participant in all of this through the gameplay. The screen did not flash telling me to "Press Square" to perform the actions that I performed and it was not shown to me in a scripted cut-scene. It was all me; I did it and now I'm starting to feel remorse that I did it. A story that makes me feel remorse... that's powerful.

That, in my opinion, is a great example of how you can use the unique strengths of the video game medium to tell stories in a way that you could not get from a movie while also still being very much a game with a focus on the actual gameplay. Unfortunately, most developers these days prefer to make shallow movie-games like Uncharted instead of telling stories through the gameplay like this.

This.

Something like Vanquish or Bayonetta? Nah I just want to kill. GoW, The Witcher or Halo? Yes because there is depth to the lore of these games

Yes, I do. Part of the reason I love the Yakuza series is because the story in those games is better than any game I've played.

Story is important to me when it's the focus. Has been since the PS1 days.

MMO's on the other hand have a story... but I generally don't care about it.

I'm more interested in the game mechanic's loop... but I'll watch the cut-scenes the first time through a game.

I do prefer passive story telling like in Fallout or Souls series. Where the scenery and maybe a short log read tells what occurred around you.

When they're worth paying attention to. Which isn't very often.

Yes. An interesting story can increase my enjoyment of a game.

Sure, I love a good story.

I'll pay attention, but whether I go beyond that, like read the codex or look up stuff online, depends on my investment in the story.

My favorite video game stories are from Shenmue and Yakuza.

Games like dark souls and Bloodborne I find very difficult to take any notice of the story.

Oh yes, most definitely. I always pay attention to the stories in the games that I play no matter how crazy they may be. Sometimes the crazier they are, the better. Some of my favourites tend to be from RPGs like Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Mass Effect games, etc. I also really enjoy the stories in some of the fighting games that I play like Blazblue, Tekken, Soul Calibur, and Street Fighter games. I also enjoy the stories in Halo, Gears of War, and the Call of Duty games.

Sometimes. If it grabs me, sure. But, in cases like Fire Emblem Warriors, no. That story is a mess.

Not enough. I was looking at some of the plot theories floating around about Mass Effect the other day, and I realised that most in-game stories just kind of wash over me. I'm impatient when it comes to cutscenes, and if there's the option, I'll usually skip; where there isn't, I'll probably go put the kettle on. I envy people who get that much out of their stories.

Only if it's interesting.

Metal Gear Solid is an objectively badly written game, but it's weird and creative.

Soul Reaver has top tier writing and voice work, with usually deep lore for a game of it's genre.

Almost every EA game, things happen. Money is shown on screen. Occasionally you're allowed to play.

Never i smash skip through all of it.

Wanna know the story, will watch a 5 minutes youtube video.

If a game has an intended story, I try to at the very least bare with it so in the end I can say I've gotten the whole experience. That is not to say that stories in games are always captivating or anything beyond mere breadcrumb trails that string a player along. To say the very least, I believe gamer's have low standards for storytelling. We can brush aside with a generic story in an FPS as long as the gameplay is good.

There are definitely games that I found engaging stories with, but the truth to me is good game storytelling isn't always about being original, but the ones I tend to enjoy are the ones that manage to make full use of video games as a medium and incorporate story into games in ways that only games can do.

If it's a narrative driven game, I'll usually pay attention. Otherwise I'll just enjoy it for the gameplay. I play a lot of Nintendo games and the story isn't usually too deep in those.

Yes I do..... Horizon:ZD story kept me playing and hooked all the way through.

Depends on the game. There are games I enjoy the story and want to experience it. But the majority of games have pretty crap stories, if it's really bad (but the gameplay is good), I start skipping dialogue and cutscenes.

Mostly. Don't care about it in mmo or moba though.

I enjoy the story.

never...

Yes. Sometimes I am forced to because some developers have this false belief that their stories are riveting. Other developers make bad stories and these stories drive the progression of the game such as Halo 5, Quantum Break, Uncharted 4, Rise of Tomb Raider etc.

Story is very important to me. I do not need a super in depth story for every game, but there should be enough thought and attention paid to the premise, setting, and world building to make it believable and immersive for the gameplay that takes place.

I tend to get into the stories. JRPG's when I was younger, now it's all games.

I was playing Saints Row the Third, the bad guy syndicate stole my guy's girl, i'm in a helicopter, music is playing, i'm actually thinking "this $#$@er took my girl I'm gonna murder him and all his people" not even listening to what the NPC's in the helicopter are saying, I jump out, no idea if i'm supposed to yet, music's loud i'm gonna murder this guy!!! I have NO idea who my target is, i'm flying VERY fast straight down at a skyrise rooftop pool, appears to be a party or a ton of bad guys are everywhere, I am focused in on one person, no idea who it is, I hit my slow down/parachute button the moment I hit him, it should've killed me, I killed him from the impact alone, people immediately go crazy, bullets flying and by the time my guy is standing on two feet after that crazy fall impact, the mission updates saying I just killed the boss.

Yeah, I like the game stories.

All of my favourite games have good stories... enough said.

It's all about...

Gotta get those feels. hehe :)

I usually tune out.

Not on current gen.

Last gen had great stories, this gen just rides on great looks, no stories whatsoever.

What passes for stories is just ridic poo. Take Nioh for example: The game has a australian hero, even tho australia was not even colonized at that time! Now how can you base a story on such ludicrous premise? Yeah...

Depends on the game.

Most of the the time no, I just want the bare minimum who, what, where, why, when - let me get to the game.

With a really long RPG with walls of text or long dialogue trees...even if it is semi-well written, I don't have time for that shit, so as soon as I get the gist of what i need I start skipping through as fast as possible.

But for the "movie games" with more in depth stories, like Heavy Rain or even L.A. Noire (which basically just aped the plots of a bunch of classic movies), I can get into them a bit more. I haven't played one of those games this gen though.

Same. I'm generally into story-driven games. I don't mind mindless, fun games that don't feature it, but the chunk of my game time isn't spent with them.

many (but very clearly not all) of non-story driven games are light years away from being 'mindless'

I think that is something even console only players can understand me saying

Generally speaking, yeah I do although I've been playing Monster Hunter World and I've been powering through most of the dialogue.

True. I misspoke there. By mindless, what I really mean is I can jump in and play for 10-20 minutes without having to pay attention to story nuances or read or follow dialogue. Those are games I will jump into when looking for something enjoyable that I am ok w/ spending a short amount of time with (where I am stuck waiting on my wife to get ready while we are about to go out for example).

But they're certainly not mindless as they do require deliberation, strategy, and attention.