Your views on mechanics vs story?

[Caeruleu]

I primarily play RPGs, which are story and narrative heavy games, yet I still think that the mechanics come above everything else. Music, art direction and story all should serve the gameplay for the simple reason that if your games mechanics are poorly thought out then I'm not going to be playing long enough for your story to take flight. Gameplay is the back bone of games, just how cinematography is the back bone of film, use them well and you accentuate the supporting arts, use them poorly and they clash so horribly that it becomes difficult to enjoy either the gameplay or it's supporting music, art, and story.

I see gameplay as more of a science than an art. It's a foundation in which the arts can then be built upon for the purposes of expression. Beautiful music, breath taking scenery, and a gripping story are all things you should strive for, but only on top a solid foundation.

[JackofTears]

They are both important, a game with good mechanics but a shitty story quickly gets old, while a game with great story and bad mechanics won't be able to keep you playing for long. Video games are games and therefore must provide an enjoyable play experience, the import of the story depends on the type of game. You can have a good game that is only mechanics and virtually no story - Tetris is a great example - but a story with shitty mechanics is unlikely to keep you around long enough to finish.

[Zaiven]

Really depends. If I'm picking a "pure story" game or "pure mechanics" game, then mechanics win. However I don't really care much for RPG's or Adventures with bad/boring/uninspired story telling for example. Before I started my moving process I played A LOT of HOI4, that's just a WW2 grand strategy game, no story at all. Generally I think I have a higher tolerance for bad story telling than bad mechanics and game design though.

[JHaller]

I switch what I'm looking for in a game based on my mood all the time, and I think it depends on the game genre a lot of the time.

For mechanics I think of a game like Metal Gear Rising for it having somewhat challenging but fun sword/fighting mechanics and over the top boss battles while not really caring a whole lot about the story (GOTTA SAVE THE KIDS DAMMIT!) The story is there and has some meme worthy/good moments, but ultimately that's not what I end up playing through the whole game for. Other games in genres like Strategy or FPS are probably going to prioritized gameplay over story too.

For games where I'm looking for a good story, I'd look to RPGs or the visual novel genres, where the story is usually the main hook of the game, and you hope for good mechanics as part of it. I can think of a few RPGs that have very fun battle mechanics involved that make them much more fun to play on top of getting a good story making them a unicorn of sorts in the that respect (Trails of Cold Steel, Grandia)

[Polinin]

I'd argue that mechanics are at the very least the easiest way to destroy a game, no matter how devoted it is to telling a story. Poor inventory management, clunky controls, etc can rip the player out of the game and make them more likely to quit the game in frustration than a less-than-stellar plot - though a sufficiently poor plot will get players to quit as well, especially if it forms any major part of the experience and can't be ignored.

[XENO-PUNK]

Gameplay over story 100% of the time for me. A game without good gameplay isn't worth playing no matter how good the story is. If all a game has going for it is the story I'll just watch it on youtube if I'm interested. Stories can be cool but they aren't required for me.

[Hadley]

On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being critically important and 1 being complete non-factor:

mechanics: 10
story: 1

It's not that I don't appreciate a good story. I love movies and books. It's just that when I sit down to play a video game, I sit down to play a video game. Story has always been an obstacle for me in games.

[metalspider]

gameplay is most important to me,im here to do stuff not watch passively.if there's also a good story then great but most of the time thats not the case and you're just waiting to get back in to the action.

[Aidy]

It's mechanics and playability all the way, but when a game has good story too that's when it raises a level to being memorable and special, so your WItcher 3's, GTA's, Max Payne etc.

[Cyber]

There is no universal answer, it depends on the game.

There are games that are completely story driven with almost no gameplay. There are games that completely focus on their mechanics with no story. Both can be great. What is more important depends on what on what type of game it is. Some games I play for their story, some for their mechanics, and some for a combination of both.

[Spitfyre1085]

For me, the answer is heavily dependent on the genre.

I would prefer story over mechanics if forced to choose in an RPG or Adventure game.

It would be the opposite in most other genres like FPS and racing etc.

[Jigen]

Mechanics are more important than story and always will be. I hate it when designers describe their story more than their gameplay.

[Chadaclysm]

It's all about the story for me, mechanics are good and there has to be some kind of balance there of course. But if it doesn't have a good story to go with it then I'm not really interested.

That said though, if it's a game like Mario or even DOOM to an extent. Story isn't really a big factor.. so I guess it depends on the game.

[Sorain]

For you, how important are solid mechanics in a game compared to the importance of a good story?

Depends on two things: Genre and Selling Points.

Genre should be pretty clear. Fighting games did well with barely an excuse for a story. Eventually you got games like Guilty Gear or Blazblue that brought some solid story along with it, but without solid mechanics you are sunk. Strategy games are similarly mechanics focused. Meanwhile an RPG can be amazingly dated or clunky and still deliver if the story is solid.

Selling Points. No one tries to tell me that Counter Strike has a story. Stellaris (as a 4x game) doesn't try to sell me on a specific story as much as the tools to make my own within it's genre of empire building science fiction. Meanwhile, despite not trying to sell me on it, Warhammer Vermintide actually forms a remarkably coherent story when played in chronological order. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada's single player retells the events of the Gothic War (12th black crusade) with aplomb and even lets the player mess with the outcome a bit. BFG:A sold itself to me on workable mechanics and telling a story I wanted to see retold, it succeeded on that. The final expansion to Dawn of War 2 sold itself to me entirely on it bringing a conclusion to the ongoing story from the original Dawn of War's campaign. (And did so spectacularly!)

So basically: If you are trying to sell me on story, you can slack a bit on mechanics. (So, nothing new or spectacular, as long as it's serviceable your good.) If you try to sell me on mechanics, you can have essentially no story at all and if the mechanics are solid, I'm with you. Ideally you do both of course, but if you have to make the call, look at your advertising and the genre your working in.

[Zenryu]

It heavily depends on the game for me. I couldn't care much for story in FPS games, but is the most important thing for me in rpgs. I've played rpgs with horrid mechanics before but can still say I have enjoyed them overall. I've recently been thinking that a game's theme is actually more important than both the mechanics and story though.