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1eyedking The meme of "story driven"

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  • yes

    Votes: 4 12.5%
  • no

    Votes: 8 25.0%
  • kc

    Votes: 20 62.5%

  • Total voters
    32

Black

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
1,872,592
Time and time again I've seen people claim that almost all rpgs are story driven, from ancient ones, to old ones, to new ones. I can see that being the case in new ones because storyfaggotry is abound now but how does one person look at Fallout 2 and go "yup, that's story driven". You get a light kick on your ass at the beginning and that's it, you're free to do whatever, go whatever, kill almost whomever. I can see why someone would say that Bloodlines is story driven since most important characters and all hubs you go to you discover because the story pushed you there. For example I'd argue that FO1 is more story driven than 2, because of the super mutant timer. It's really annoying because those darn kids think that if it's an rpg, it has to be story driven.
What exactly does it mean for a game to be "story driven"? Are the degrees of it? At what point does a game even become "story driven"?
 

Alexios

Augur
Patron
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
444
Whenever marketing talks about "story driven" they seem to mean the game follows a plot that is essential to the whole game. Every mission you do is to further the plot, while there might be some small sidequests that don't relate. I don't think these are necessarily bad -- the KotOR games did this fairly well -- but I agree that every cancer that comes out nowadays seems to fall back on the "story driven" meme.

A game stops being story-driven when each level is more of its own world. I think Underrail is a good example of this; every level is really just its own world even if you're there for something tangentially related to the main plot. Bloodlines is a borderline case. Every level (maybe other than Santa Monica) I suppose relates to the overarching plot that Gehenna is coming, but that overarching plot isn't particularly essential. Plus, the sidequests are all really strong.
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,205
Location
Ingrija
"story-driven" is a corporate speak for "railroaded crap".

Anybody who even considers for a moment "the story" as one of the key features of RPG genre should be locked up in solitary confinement with a rope, a bar of soap, and an Apple ][ running Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
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Messages
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New Vegas
RPGs are best when they weave story and gameplay together. If a game is "story driven" it likely has deficient gameplay, which is a bad thing. It can still be a good experience, but it diminished by leaning too far one way or the other.

Also I think "stories" in games are not the same as stories in movies. When a game story isn't interactive or paced correctly, I tend to dislike it. This is especially true for RPGs, where you want to explore and interact with the world as "story" rather than watch it happen.
 

DJOGamer PT

Arcane
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
7,350
Location
Lusitânia
"story-driven" is a corporate speak for "railroaded crap".

Anybody who even considers for a moment "the story" as one of the key features of RPG genre should be locked up in solitary confinement with a rope, a bar of soap, and an Apple ][ running Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.

You're far too based for the Codex man. :salute:
 

Valky

Arcane
Manlet
Joined
Aug 22, 2016
Messages
2,418
Location
Trapped in a bioform
Story being a central component of RPGs is a psy-op created by casual niggertrash that co-opted video games as normalfag entertainment. They are trying to rewrite history just like the jews. The real hardcore rpgs were always about the mechanics and dungeoneering. As my exhibit, I present the blobber genre, neglected as it is nowadays. Casuals fucking HATE blobbers, it's one of the most antagonistic game types - nevermind RPG types - that exist in human history for people who have no true appreciation for RPGs.

edit: Go bitch to the ADL if you hate me for spitting facts that inconveniently include Israelis.
 
Last edited:

Machocruz

Arcane
Joined
Jul 7, 2011
Messages
4,316
Location
Hyperborea
JRPGs... 90% of the time... are absolutely an example of "story driven."
For sure. And you can't tell some of these people differently. They're egomaniacs, they think the only part they know and/or prefer of the whole is the whole.
 

DraQ

Arcane
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
32,828
Location
Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
Time and time again I've seen people claim that almost all rpgs are story driven, from ancient ones, to old ones, to new ones. I can see that being the case in new ones because storyfaggotry is abound now but how does one person look at Fallout 2 and go "yup, that's story driven". You get a light kick on your ass at the beginning and that's it, you're free to do whatever, go whatever, kill almost whomever. I can see why someone would say that Bloodlines is story driven since most important characters and all hubs you go to you discover because the story pushed you there. For example I'd argue that FO1 is more story driven than 2, because of the super mutant timer. It's really annoying because those darn kids think that if it's an rpg, it has to be story driven.
What exactly does it mean for a game to be "story driven"? Are the degrees of it? At what point does a game even become "story driven"?
People need an explanation for Fallouts not sucking (factual statement) and it sure as fuck is not gameplay (also a factual statement).

:obviously: DR/DT notwithstanding, barebones single character TB (no overwatch, reactive fire, AoO, etc.) with random deaths by massive crit damage spikes is not particularly good gameplay.
 

Black

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
1,872,592

Who summons me? Oh, the derpling pretending to be the mighty dragon.

Well, to anwser my good colleague Black , a solid story has been the cornerstone of several cult classics. Other pillars of the genre had lackluster story while extremely strong mechanics. Neither suffered for its specialisation :obviously:
I'm not talking about solid stories, I just wanna know how the hell do people differentiate between story driven and not games.
 

DJOGamer PT

Arcane
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
7,350
Location
Lusitânia
I just wanna know how the hell do people differentiate between story driven and not games.

You pretty much already answered your question with your OP.

But if I were to expand upon it I would say that for a game to be considered "story driven" it needs two things:
  1. the story drives the game foward - each piece of content is in service of the overarching plot and it's themes, and every new piece of content is unlocked because of the story's progression;
  2. the story is of, at least, as equal importance as the gameplay (most times it's more important) - this doesn't just mean storyfags moments take precedence to gameplay time, but rather that the gameplay was developed to support and enhance the story and not the other way around.
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,205
Location
Ingrija
I'm not talking about solid stories, I just wanna know how the hell do people differentiate between story driven and not games.

If most of content of the game is gated by impassable chokepoints which are successively unlocked upon reaching some arbitrary objectives managed outside the scope of basic game mechanics, the game is "story-driven".

If you can skip the introduction, go wander somewhere aimlessly and accidentally enter the endgame dungeon, it is not.
 

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