Why do people want games that are just stories without any gameplay, these days? Why not just watch a movie for that?

PlogLod@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 98 points –
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an interactive medium offers unique avenues for storytelling not available to something more static like a film or a novel.

think things like environmental storytelling or branching narratives.

I like visual novels because of how I can change the story with different choices. This isn't much gameplay but it is still interactive and a lot easier to do with a computer than with manually flipping between pages in a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

Now, kinetic novels, where you do not change anything significant in the story with your choices, those I agree with OP's sentiment. Some people like them and that's totally fine, but I personally don't see the appeal. Maybe it's getting exposure to stories from people who had an idea but not a high enough budget for a movie?

Damn straight, beefcat

Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd type

branching narratives

Lots of "plot only" games I see start to eschew even that and have tons of fake choices lmao, making it even movie-er.

Yea dude this is often such a false promise, im sure some games pull it off but often its like one choice that makes a drastic difference in outcome.many times it's not like a nuanced calculation of the decisions you make over an entire playthrough

What games are we even talking about? Like Gone Home or something?

The perception of choice still matters. A movie can't ask you to choose anything, not even a false choice. So if that's important, a movie simply can't do it.