Anybody else have problems following along with most game's stories?

kiphalfton

kiphalfton

Member
Maybe I'm just simple, but most the time I have no clue what's going on in relation to a games plot. I just can't seem to follow along with the story.

Name any popular game, and if I played it I probably couldn't tell you what happened.

Anybody else never know wtf is going on?

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I have this issue. I never know wtf is going on in Cyberpunk. Witcher 3 is a bit easier to follow, but its still confusing at times. I can handle Super Mario though.

I wonder if this is a symptom of short play time with large gaps in between. I often only have time to game maybe 1 or 2 hours a week. So I might play 45 minutes and then not touch the game for 5-7 days. I figure if my gameplay wasn't so broken up, I might have an easier time remembering and understanding the story.
 
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Really?

I get that there's some modern games which are just badly written without cohesive and logical narrativd but most games...?
 
To many cut scenes with loads of dialogue can ruin a game to the point of wanting to skip the cut scenes.

I was playing Valhalla yesterday and my other half said do you just watch it or do you play it at some point. The cut scene seemed to go on for like 10 mins
 
Same, when I'm gaming my brain just doesn't hear the story, it's in gaming mode. I've tried to pay attention but never happens.
 
It probably says less about you, and more about how lame and forgettable most game stories are. They're usually just in service of getting you from one level to the next. Could count on one hand how many I thought were legitimately good stories.
 
Same issue here. I think 99% of the game stories are shit, so when I realize that playing a game I stop paying attention to the dialogs and stop reading those boring papers with lore that all AAA games put here and there to think they are books.

At the end of the day I prefer a simple story but well narrated (ex: Uncharted) or a story without dialogs but narrated through visual lore (ex: Darksouls, Inside...) than tons of dialogs with no interest, that sadly, majority of games do.

The last really good story I played is Judgment.
 
I jump around games so often i have no hope lol... I feel real bad about that.. but when i do get locked in, I'm right there.
 
Yes, I have the same. And I do play 1-2 games at a time, and every other evening. There are some exceptions, but for most games I have to watch a YouTube that explains the ending to know what was going on.
 
Yes, i have this issue. But maybe it's because i don't give a crap about game stories.

Though i tried to follow some stories. I said, what the hell, people tell me the story is so important in videogames so i might as well try and enjoy it in some. But all my efforts fell flat so far. Every time i give up halfway through. I just have to accept that i don't give a damn and i can't enjoy this part of gaming.

I don't skip cutscenes because i don't want to miss some important transition. But i prefer games that are not story heavy or games that don't tell their story through cut-scenes.
 
Only when it comes to games like Borderlands or GAaS service games like Destiny.

Idk how anyone can say Borderlands has a great story, because I couldn't hear shit over the sound of my mates and the explosions and gunfire.

Same goes with Destiny. Like, wtf is even the story after 40 hours?

I've no clue.
 
most of the time i don't care about the story or some aspect of it.
but the fact that in most games you have 5 minutes of story in the beginning, 2 hours of gameplay that has little to do with the story and then another couple of minutes of story.. repeat; doesn't really help

when they try to jam some dialogue/narration during gameplay you are motsly focused on the gameplay, so it's harder to follow what they are trying to tell you.

and personally i have trouble learning/remembering names, so if they are talking of "jack whatever" that i've never seen in the game (or i have seen 20 hours of playtime ago), i have no idea who they are talking about.
 
kiphalfton said:
Maybe I'm just simple, but most the time I have no clue what's going on in relation to a games plot. I just can't seem to follow along with the story.

Name any popular game, and if I played it I probably couldn't tell you what happened.

Anybody else never know wtf is going on?

VsX07cZ.gif
Click to expand...
Relax game writing Inst good generally , that's why a mediocre story on a game gets a big praise but you wouldn't never watch it if was a movie, but games has a lot of things going on so it's complicated
 
Yes, so much so that I've considered making this thread myself!

I don't know if it's the writers, or me, but almost every time I play a single player game I've lost the thread of what's going on by hour ten easily, if not in hour one.

I find it crazy when I read posts that say they play games for the stories......ehhhhhh waaaaaa?
 
For me it's not just with game stories mate... It's with everything. I really have to focus on a game, film, book, ofte even the person I'm talking to or my mind will drift off and I loose track. This actually pisses me off often. I try to combat it by actually paying attion to focus but it doesn't always work.

For games I often have wiki on my iPad aside of me and if I feel like I lost track I will re-read the story so far.
 
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No never. But very often story is the reason why i stop playing a game (I stop SMG2 since i'm not 5 anymore and hated the cloud story, despite loving Yoshi, same with most of late Zelda and Until Dawn for exemple). Some story are so bad, the telling is so freaking bad, i just refuse to be alienated and never come back.

But you know OP, it's OK. Just relax. Try to enjoy the game for what it is. Sony stories are quite good and easy to follow.
 
TexMex said:
It probably says less about you, and more about how lame and forgettable most game stories are. They're usually just in service of getting you from one level to the next. Could count on one hand how many I thought were legitimately good stories.
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Yeah this. 99% of videogame stories are convoluted drivel and your brain is doing you a favour by switching off.
 
JimmyRustler said:
For me it's not just with game stories mate... It's with everything. I really have to focus on a game, film, book, ofte even the person I'm talking to or my mind will drift off and I loose track. This actually pisses me off often. I try to combat it by actually paying attion to focus but it doesn't always work.

For games I often have wiki on my iPad aside of me and if I feel like I lost track I will re-read it.
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Perhaps you have add or ADHD? The symptoms sound a bit like it. I got diagnosed with it when I was 35 and so it's possible to live with it without even knowing.

Drifting off is a classic, as is being terrible with life admin perhaps? Also bring really creative but disorganised? Also maybe having lots of interests or started, but never finished, projects?
 
Hard to keep up when five minutes of story is followed by five hours of filler content until te next five minutes of story. I'm looking at Ubisoft right now, but the gist of it is common.
 
Yeah, I just dont get Dark Souls 1, 2, 3, Bloodborne. Normally i'm up there with most fantasy stuff and most people are fawning about how 'wonderful' these amazing stories are, but me?

No idea. All I know is this shits got swords, stuff wants to kill me and now i'm level 120 killing it back. Oh and big bosses sometimes hurt but they get snuffed out after a while..

I've played the original Dark Souls and completed it on around four different systems now, the story? Erm? Well I was a bag of bones at the start, there was a wolf, some big woman had massive boobs and an upside down snake told me to put a big Wok on a plinth

It was great.
 
Sometimes it's language for me, especially when I am tired. I don't have this problem with books and movies tho. Probably too much distraction from actual story telling?
 
Dr.Morris79 said:
Yeah, I just dont get Dark Souls 1, 2, 3, Bloodborne. Normally i'm up there with most fantasy stuff and most people are fawning about how 'wonderful' these amazing stories are, but me?

No idea. All I know is this shits got swords, stuff wants to kill me and now i'm level 120 killing it back. Oh and big bosses sometimes hurt but they get snuffed out after a while..

I've played the original Dark Souls and completed it on around four different systems now, the story? Erm? Well I was a bag of bones at the start, there was a wolf, some big woman had massive boobs and an upside down snake told me to put a big Wok on a plinth

It was great.
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Yeah that's because the lore is hidden behind item descriptions, item placements, NPC dialogue and your ability to imagine the rest for yourself. The plot itself is extremely straight forward in my opinion. If you want to understand what the hell is really going on in an in depth manner you better watch some youtube videos xD

However i'm a really big fan of it simply due to the fact that the game isn't constantly interrupted by cutscenes. I'm currently playing Shadow of the tomb raider and i feel like i have to put the controller down every 30 seconds...this annoys me to no end which in turn makes me check my phone or something like that. I honestly have no idea what's going on at this point.

Now little nightmares on the other hand pulled me in straight away since the surroundings and item placements tell you what's going on without having to interrupt you by playing a goddamn short film
 
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This isn't exactly the same case for me, but I like to mute myself from the story and focus on the gameplay if it's really good. For instance I've never closely followed the plot in the current Hitman trilogy and just focused on enjoying (re)playing levels.
 
It really depends on the story. 90% of video game stories are garbage (even many that are considered "great") and on top of that are being told in a terrible way.

The very few that i like though stay in my mind forever and even love to analyze them further.
 
I just auto zone out with most games unless I know the story is going to be engaging.

I'm usually just jabbing at the skip button.

And games like the Souls games that actively ask that you dig through a load of item descriptions just to piece tougher than Herman, the great lord of Apples extinguished the Old Orchard to link the mighty farms? Mate, fuck off...
 
I suppose it depends on what games you are playing. For example, the Witcher series is pretty easy to follow plot wise although when you spend ages on side quests with their own internal narratives which aren't directly related to the overall plot and I could see how you might get lost even in that. For this reason you might not want a narrative heavy game in an open world so that you can actually focus on the overall plot.
 
Twinguistics said:
Perhaps you have add or ADHD? The symptoms sound a bit like it. I got diagnosed with it when I was 35 and so it's possible to live with it without even knowing.

Drifting off is a classic, as is being terrible with life admin perhaps? Also bring really creative but disorganised? Also maybe having lots of interests or started, but never finished, projects?
Click to expand...
Just read about the symptoms... Being implusive, urge to talk, easily stressed...

:messenger_tears_of_joy:

Nah man, I'm just a classic day dreamer. Always have been. And I generally have troubles liking something. For games this means I enjoy playing them but hardly find any I really get into. But when I ocassionally do, I'm REALLY into those.
 
NinjaBoiX said:
I just auto zone out with most games unless I know the story is going to be engaging.

I'm usually just jabbing at the skip button.

And games like the Souls games that actively ask that you dig through a load of item descriptions just to piece tougher than Herman, the great lord of Apples extinguished the Old Orchard to link the mighty farms? Mate, fuck off...
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I actually prefer that type of storytelling. If it piques my interest i can invest the time to dive further into its lore and story but if it doesn't captivate me i can easily ignore it without the game constantly shove it in my face.

I also prefer it when stories leave enough room for my imagination to interpret various aspects of the story and character motivations. This type of storytelling is really an art on itself and it's very hard to do it right. Many think they can do it but only a handful are successful and usually those are Japanese creators.
 
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Some times yeah, but its more often some abstract Indie game or something, i'm usually good with AAA games.
Of course i have the luxary of living on my own so i have plenty of time to game daily, so there are usually very few lengthy gaps between playtime.
 
I don't bother even trying.

Most video game stories are utter gibberish or emo garbage.

That said, the best mechanic for telling a story is with logs that you listen to whilst playing.
 
A lot of the time I forget what happened in games because my memories of those games are usually more based around what I'm doing, not what I'm being told is happening.

Couldn't tell you what the fuck I did in Doom Eternal. Killed some hell priests and blew a hole in mars for some reason, who gives a shit. Still #2 game of the year.
 
Just wondering how old are you OP?
I am 30 and noticed this myself the latest years. Since i have less spare time, I don't care much anymore about the game's story most of the time. Especially long games with not so interesting stories. I just want some fun gameplay
 
Trimesh said:
But in the end that's all you really need, isn't it?
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Me? Damn right. More games need heaving cleavage!

Orpheum said:
Yeah that's because the lore is hidden behind item descriptions, item placements, NPC dialogue and your ability to imagine the rest for yourself. The plot itself is extremely straight forward in my opinion. If you want to understand what the hell is really going on in an in depth manner you better watch some youtube videos xD

However i'm a really big fan of it simply due to the fact that the game isn't constantly interrupted by cutscenes. I'm currently playing Shadow of the tomb raider and i feel like i have to put the controller down every 30 seconds...this annoys me to no end which in turn makes me check my phone or something like that. I honestly have no idea what's going on at this point.

Now little nightmares on the other hand pulled me in straight away since the surroundings and item placements tell you what's going on without having to interrupt you by playing a goddamn short film
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Which is exactly why I instantly fell in love with the series. It had a quick mysterious intro and you got on with it, the next time you did see a cut scene it took you by surprise and you mostly knew it didnt end well. I know the lore and whatnot is mostly tied to various items but when it came down to it, it was the game itself that truly drew me in. It was perfect. A great game with a story if you want it but it doesnt get in the way of it ever being fun.

Good call on Little Nightmares too. I totally forgot I bought that way back when, I'll have a go tonight and see what it's about.
 
I think it's just due to poorly written, just unnecessary, unskippable or a drag of an unnecessary plot etc. The last Assassin's creed I played comes to mind as an example that's just at times filled with bloat.
 
Jethalal said:
Content overload. I can't tell you about the movie I watched yesterday but can tell you about the movie I watched when I was young.
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I think that's it. I can remember simple, short indie games way easier and for longer after just a single walkthrough than a full-fat AAA title after putting lots of hours into it and even replaying it once or twice, because despite of how engaging they might be, they easily forgettable, which is caused exactly by way too much unnecessary content, in the second half of the story you already don't remember how the game started, what it's all about, all you know is that there's that bad guy and you have to take him down, because he's bad and want's to take over the world.
 
sublimit said:
I actually prefer that type of storytelling. If it piques my interest i can invest the time to dive further into its lore and story but if it doesn't captivate me i can easily ignore it without the game constantly shove it in my face.

I also prefer it when stories leave enough room for my imagination to interpret various aspects of the story and character motivations. This type of storytelling is really an art on itself and it's very hard to do it right. Many think they can do it but only a handful are successful and usually those are Japanese creators.
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Fair enough, it is an unobtrusive way of doing things. Maybe it's the general story of the souls games that I find so off putting, this mythical lore expressed over the opening cinematic in hushed tones, "the embers of the ancient ones turn to ashes in the infinite flame" or some bullshit.

What are you on about? How do you expect people to engage with that vague, generic, fantasy bilge?
 
No. if anything I get more invested and in tune with stories in games then stories in movies and shows. Being interactive both immerses me more and holds my attention span better. Novels are still king for getting lost in stories for me though.
 
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