By discussing why we like things, we may influence others to try those things. I enjoy avoiding story-driven games because they're controling and lack replay value, and I'm recommending this as something you may like to try too.
Recommending to stay away from something is a valid recommendation in my mind :-). I may not agree, and in this case I don't, but I appreciate the spirit in which it's given.
Disco elysium, deus ex, cyberpunk 2077 have tremendous replay value to me in various ways. The story, for me, builds the flavour and the world, gets excited and invested, so that I want to replay and spend time in that game. It's not tough mutually exclusive from also enjoying games purely for their mechanics.
> I enjoy avoiding story-driven games because they... lack replay value
I don't agree at all that this is true. I've greatly enjoyed replaying story-driven games much as I would enjoy rereading a book I enjoy. Much like with a good book, there is enjoyment to be had in immersing yourself in that world again, spending time with the characters you grew to like, and noticing things about the work that you didn't spot the first time around.
I replayed Cyberpunk 2077 four times because it is fun to play, not because I cared about immersing myself in the world or spending time with the characters
Yeah, Keanu as Silverhand is fun
But by the fourth time through the game when you hit those Relic Malfunctions that are long and drawn out and trigger long and unskippable talking scenes, I was pretty ready for a game option that was "Get rid of all of this and let me play without interruptions"
I would have loved a quest system in that game that would randomly assign a building in the city to have a random enemy type inside it and an objective to handle, so I could just play
I love that game. I think it is very fun. I like trying out different builds and weapons. I would probably play it more but the idea of starting a new game is not appealing. I don't want to slog through the first few hours of the game again until after the failed heist just to get the game world to open up
Sure, I probably played Arcanum (2001) five or six times. But I spent the years from about 1999 to 2006 playing Angband and Sid Meier's Alpha C. That's the kind of difference in replay value. And the only reason I played Arcanum more than once is that the different characters offered different gameplay, e.g. "this time let's be an explosives expert," or "this time let's be a really charismatic gnome".
Arcanum was good story stacked on mostly poor gameplay. It wanted to be a steam punk fallout and the story/setting carried out through what was otherwise pretty shitty gameplay.
I tend to agree that I liked the idea of the gameplay more than the way it actually worked out. I remember things such as: a pet dog you could add to your party who would steal all the experience points for himself; a skills system where in theory you could mix magic and technology, but in practice they interfered and more than negated any benefit of being creative with it; and a graveyard where zombies would spawn endlessly so that you could grind them for XP for as long as you could bear it.
I guess the atmosphere sells me on games. That's a whole other thing. I note "/setting".
"You know this thing you like? Have you tried not liking it? Yeah, it's because I don't like it, and I just really think everyone should give disliking it a fair shot, even if they've tried it and think they like it, that just might be because they haven't really made an effort to dislike it"
ETA: Or, to make it simpler, most people are more interested in finding things they might like than in finding ways to no longer enjoy things they already like.
I guess so, but the two come as a package, don't they? "Don't watch that, watch this," where the reason for being pro-this is also the reason for being anti-that.
