Involvement. Because no matter how perfect the gameplay is, if you use your brain occaisonally, you should ask yourself WHY? Why am i doing it.
If you play since the 80‘s, you hit, flew, drove, shot, build and puzzled almost everything.
Stories consist of motivations. Otherwise there is nothing of consequence going on. But cheer up. There are many more people like you, Stanley. Push the button. Keep pushing it.
Why do people watch movies when books exist? They’re different mediums for delivering a story.
I saw this thread and assumed you were talking about actual walking simulators like Firewatch or Gone Home, ones that don’t really have any gameplay mechanics besides walking and interacting with objects. But from your comments you seem to be taking issue with games like God of War, The Last of Us and The Witcher which makes me think you’re a little misguided as to what those games really are. Those games have a story but that’s not the sole reason they’re popular. They’re all groundbreaking titles in their own right from a technical perspective, they just happen to have good stories because that makes them resonate with players even more.
It’s like how a movie with a bunch great fight scenes and no story isn’t going to resonate with audiences in the same way as a movie with great fight scenes and a story to tie it all together. It’s an important part of the immersive experience for a lot of people.
This is an honest question, not a troll: what makes The Last of Us groundbreaking from a technical perspective? I played it and loved the story, but the gameplay was utterly boring to me. I got through the game entirely because I wanted to see the conclusion of the story and when the HBO show came out I was thrilled because it meant I wouldn’t have to play a game I hated to see the story of TLoU 2.
It’s been years, but my recollection is the game was entirely on rails, mostly walking and talking with infrequent bursts of quicktime events and clunky shooting. What was groundbreaking about it?
What was groundbreaking was the character and world building. Joel and Ellie feel like real people, with interesting backstories and relatable emotions. In the PS3 era, it felt ahead of its time.
… which are not technical elements, but writing, thus the question stands.
The older I get the less I care about endless gameplay loops and carrot on a stick mechanics. A good story keeps me invested and caring about what happens on the screen. Games like God of War, Last of us, Witcher are gold standards when it comes to this. They are not movies on rails, they are engaging and interactive experiences like you can’t find anywhere else and for this I will always love these types of games more than any other medium.
Edit: OP literally mentioned these games as examples lower down in the thread.
I feel like your examples aren’t quite what OP was referring to. Those games have pretty great gameplay
According to OP, those are exactly the games they referred to. Which does beg more questions
OK OP is a weirdo, my bad
“Why do people have preferences?”
Why do people like cake, I just don’t get it. Why not just eat cookies if you want something sweet