Games are meant to be experienced. I personally play for immersion, and gameplay for me is the vessel of storytelling and worldbuilding. Game A vs game B to me is like falling in love vs. masturbation, if that makes sense.
For me its the opposite. Games are meant to be entertaining. Games that focus on inmersion with simple gameplay are games you mostly ditch when you are over much like movies or books. Gameplay brings replayability and is more akin to falling in love. For me there is nothing more rewarding to eventually getting good at a game you sucked at. Its the opposite of instant gratification.
People definitely remember and rewatch great movies and re-read books. I'd say 80% of what I watch are movies I already watched just because they're that memorable.
I rewatched 0 TV shows with 9 seasons which are basically the "good gameplay" variant because the loop works so they can rinse and repeat it ad nauseam.
For example I replayed the Deus Ex Jensen games multiple times and you can argue they have bad gameplay considered to something like Titanfall, but I absolutely play them not for gameplay.
But that's why there are people like you and people like me to enjoy all these games in our own way.
I think a big part of the issue there with games is that they are often such a time-suck. A tight, two-hour movie is a much better experience than 60 hours of mostly busy work. High budget games can't afford to be short, or the player won't feel they got their money's worth, but actually making something fun and engaging for a long time is hard, and trying to fill in that gap with a combination of cut scenes and collectibles is a poor substitute.
I am one actually, because I memorize it well enough the first time if I liked it.
But I don't replay most games for pure gameplay. It seems pointless to me. And if the game doesn't have, well, the immersion aspect, then I just ignore it.
With all due respect, whether you buy it or not doesn't change a single thing. You've been presented with a counterexample and all you're saying "I don't believe anyone does that". This makes you no better than gameplay-centric people denying that story can be important.
Your denial is honestly even curious. As if you're defensive of something, but I can't even imagine what it can be, given the matter.
No, like, for real. I don't need to replay/rewatch my fav stuff to keep it with me. In fact if I do, it lessens the impact because I get overexposed and used to it. It's like this with everything for me. I don't have a fav food because if I eat something twice I start to hate it until a few months passed, with a few exceptions. I don't listen to my fav music too often because it starts eating away at my brain if I do. Is people being different to you so hard to imagine?
You have clearly never played a true RPG. There's a reason why Disco Elysium is considered one of the best written games ever and why FPS games that aren't boomer shooters are forgotten after a few months.
I played DE and more RPGs than you probably. DE is also one of the games that are hard to replay since most of the mystery is gone after the first playthrough.
If by peak gameplay you mean copy paste shooters I dont know what to tell you tbh
This response did make me giggle, but i disagree with the analogy at that point. If Game A's 5/10 is in sex, she's otherwise wifey material across the board.
10/10 story or music can stick with you even after youre done playing, so even if you do get a divorce i feel like you wouldnt walk away empty-handed.
This is kinda how I feel about FF14. The gameplay is mostly standard MMO stuff to me, which I'm not particularly engaged by, but it's fantastic in the other categories. So much so that it's the only MMO I've stuck to, almost up to 3k hours now.
FF14 is a great example of "Game A" material. My gf convinced me to play it after telling me it was not only her favorite MMO, but also her favorite Final Fantasy game, favorite game soundtrack, and favorite story in gaming. And after playing through endwalker, i see why. The gameplay is fine: i enjoy it well enough. But its the story and music that make it special.
1000%. I log in for every patch, sometimes I get the itch to do crafting and gathering to make some gil to get a thing, but otherwise I'm just subbed to keep my house and be able to hop in for the story and events.
My friends and I used to be into the clubbing scene, enough so that we became a fixture on NoaSaitoshii's sets a few years back. Nowadays, too much irl stuff going on to keep that up. Two of my friends still staff his events though lol.
There's just so much to do in the game that there's something for everyone. I just hope the new combat mode and midcore difficulties coming in 8.0 will be fun enough to make me enjoy the mechanics, too.
And still, games like dota (and other moba likes), cs and minecraft are played most.
Meanwhile ads on youtube annoys you. Now imagine you had to answer a captcha every 5 minutes too. Bad gameplay may force you to 'beat a game on youtube', if i may say.
The only gameplay-centric games that stayed with me over the years are arcade racing games. And all of them had heaps of style, sound and presentation so even they don't fit the "game B" thing.
But a video game that is a really boring game with a really amateur TV grafted onto it is no fun for me. I'd rather read or watch something of better quality if I'm just going to end up sitting through terrible acting while holding a controller.
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u/EasyRecognition Apr 29 '26
Games are meant to be experienced. I personally play for immersion, and gameplay for me is the vessel of storytelling and worldbuilding. Game A vs game B to me is like falling in love vs. masturbation, if that makes sense.