Games need better story and writing?

In general i think yes...good story can enhance game, make it better, more complete, stronger connection to the game itself and make the game more memorable to the gamer.

It can't make bad game to be good!

Maybe watch a movie or read a book.

A lot of games have great stories nowadays. But they do need to try harder.

@nirogol: I agree with you. Not everyone or every game needs to be or have MP in it. Brother in Arms was a very well written game with alot of actual true stories being told. They could do the same style of game the the engines of COD, Battlefield and make a truly immersing single player game covering real life battles that have happened over the past decade. Its not that i dont like the MP games, just feel like the single player side doesnt get paid enough attention nor extra DLC like the MP side does. If you can add maps and other weapons to MP you should be able to create or add more depth to the campaign side as well.

@nirogol: I don't know about that. I've played plenty of games that I didn't care for to find out how the story progresses. Not so much in modern times, but back in the SNES days I played many RPGs for story over gameplay. In my opinion the Dragon Warrior franchise is a good example of this. The gameplay is archaic, but the dialog and story are usually at least funny.

LA Noire is another example in some cases - I often skipped the car chase scenes and used the taxi to get around. I did enjoy the exploration and detective game play though.

Indeed. The need for better stories has lead to more game watching than playing and I am not fine with that.

My biggest gripe with most games is the terrible dialogue in them. There's so much cheese that my lactose intolerant body will have explosive diarrhoea. Story driven games could def use some better scripts.

It will never happen. Being a game hurt the story telling. Being interactive hurt the story telling.

A game with good gameplay and poor story is always forgiven, a game with a great story and bad gameplay isn't even played.

This. Completely agree with this.

@1963cougar: As long as MP sells games, it's gonna keep being added in.

Better writing is a plus, for sure, but I think games need to do a better job at combining story with gameplay. Bioshock does this really well, albeit it is lacking in its writing and plot. Same with Portal.

Games like Hotel Dusk, Undertale, and NIER all have exceptional writing, especially when it comes to characterization, but they lack in fluid gameplay and story connection that bioshock and portal shine with.

Yeah, I think better storytelling in video games actually means less cutscenes and dialogue and more environmental visual cues. Limbo, Ico and Super Metroid are examples of great video game storytelling. Show, as opposed to tell. If a game must tell a story, use the System Shock/Metroid Prime 1 method of having old files or computer readouts that the player must actively search for. This at least allows you to spell out what is happening without taking control away from the player.

The story is what I love most about games.

Most games tend to have good stories. The problem is, the sequels tend to start recycling the same material. The problem is, i'm using the word "recycling" very loosely. In reality, it feels more of a copy paste. A good example of this is Assassin's Creed.

Video games would never have come to be if story was ever necessary. It isn't, and it's only ever optional. It can never carry bad gameplay.

I generally enjoy the stories in most games but I guess I wouldn't be opposed to them getting 'better' however that can be fairly subjective though.

While true, you can't deny that some games are totally carried by a strong core story and the narrative. It's one of the reason why I still remember FFX. The entire start of the game, "Listen to my story, it maybe our last chance"

Yes - it was great but you still need the gameplay mechanics and exploration etc. before the story.

THere is a different between a game and a interactive story. No matter how good the story if the game play suck then the game is never that good. Look at FFX the story is not good but it a good game because it has good game play.

Games are bound to the game play and that limit what stories can be told. If the stories is more interactive then that even worse.

To put it in other words the nature of games hinder story telling.

I think it can work but it has to be one hell of a story.
I'm on the gameplay train as much as the next guy, in fact in the overall scheme of things I think its one of the least important aspects (for the vast majority of games), but there are clearly some games I played through all the way just because the story was either very well written, told in an unconventional way or had a great narrative hook