[dantondwa]

Some video games have shown you can have incredible writing and narrative in the format (recent ones that stuck with me: Disco Elysium and Outer Wilds).

The vast majority of video games, though, and probably the most commercially-successful, are written really badly and show no particular regard to narration. The cliches are so bad, the writing either childish or more or less intentionally B-movie style.

I think games can still get a lot better on this front. In other areas, the medium has developed and experimented a lot. But, aside from indie games and a few noteworthy exceptions, I don't feel videogames focus a lot on telling good stories. At least, they don't do this as much as other media, such as literature or cinema or songwriting, have done in their history.

[mcmoor]

While I appreciate games that do the further mile to enhance its story, I think we should still celebrate game as they are, an activity we do to have fun. Do Mario or Tetris have good story? But did they change the world anyway? If we rank games solely because of its writing and narratives, then all games should just be like Life is Strange which is a modern iteration of visual novel but in 3D.

I was always plagued by doubt when people only talk about game worthiness solely based on their writings and ignoring (or even disparaging) its mechanics. Then I found this video which spelled my mind in a very good essay https://youtu.be/a33ITEZDQwg

[krisoft]

> If we rank games solely because of its writing and narratives, then all games

I don’t think anyone is proposing to solely rank games by their writing. Games are multi faceted. You can (try) to rank them by many aspects. How beautifull the graphics is, how engaging the game loop, how rewarding the puzzles or the progression, how well balanced it is. How realistic a simulation, how much it teaches you new skills, or shows you different perspectives.

Most people would agree that pacman, The Last Of Us, and Pokemon Go are all masterpieces in their own right but clearly they are not exceling along the same one dimension.

[dudul]

Some books and movies also have childish and terrible writing.

For some games, story telling doesn't matter. Just like for some blockbusters movies the story doesn't matter, people just want to see cool explosions.

[mxkopy]

The Static Speaks My Name and Braid also come to mind for me, but yeah I feel like most games are similar to folk literature if anything