Play the Game, Skip the Story: Difference between revisions

<!-- %%comment%% This trope isn't inherently bad. Players who just want to get to the action are not 'bad players' any more than players who are interested in the lore. Don't criticize either in the examples. And conversely, don't gush over how amazing and epic and tearjerking your favorite plot is just to prove how horrible people are for ignoring it. -->

{{examples}}

* ''Ring: The Legend of the Nibelungen'' is basically ''[[Der Ring Des Nibelungen]]'' [[Recycled in Space|in space]]. Some reviews complained that the story was [[Mind Screw|almost impossible to get]], except maybe if you are both a gamer and a Wagner fan, but oddly for an Adventure game, it's not that hard to finish the game without getting it.

 

* ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Brawl''. The overarching plot of ''The Subspace Emissary'' was mostly ignored by players. It doesn't help that a great deal of detail is left vague due to all of the characters being [[Heroic Mime|Heroic Mimes]]. One of the last updates at [[All There in the Manual|the official website]] clarifies these and also reveals that some exposition had to be cut out of the game entirely.

** Pirated versions of this game usually cut out the ''Subspace Emissary'' cutscenes (among other things), so the game can fit on a single-layer disc. And since it's one of the most popular games for [[Wii|the most pirated seventh generation console]]...

** ''Guilty Gear'' solved the same problem by having several plotlines going at once. Everyone runs into everyone in the course of their storylines, but while some endings are canon and some aren't, there is no overriding "BIG CANON" ending, and typically elements from all endings are considered at least semi-canon.

 

* ''[[Doom]] 3'' has a story created by a novelist. Which may lead people to say, "It has a story?" The [[Big Bad]] was passed up for the title of [[Mad Scientist]] Who Makes A [[Deal with the Devil]] #69,105 for being too generic. A handful of [[Cutscene|cutscenes]] and numerous audio logs of people who complain about hearing "strange noises" create an atmosphere, but not necessarily a story. Besides, most players listen to audio logs just to get to the needed passcodes anyway, and those are usually near the end of the log.

* In ''[[Halo]]'', there's two groups of players: those who deeply care about the story, and the ones that are indifferent to it altogether. The former wants to shoot people ''and'' immerse themselves in the [[Backstory]], the mythology, and characters and all. The latter see the former as dorks for being so enthralled in the story, while the former hold them in equal disdain as low-brow fools who spam Xbox Live. Thankfully for the former group, the [[Expanded Universe]] exists for them.

* The first [[System Shock]] game had this as an option: if players wanted, they could turn off all plot elements, meaning that the original audio logs would still be there but stripped down to game-related info only.

 

* ''[[Master of Orion]] III'' has a quite detailed backstory, including a bunch of stuff that's not been seen in either of its predecessors, but [[All in The Manual|aside from the manual it doesn't matter]], ''at all''. The only references to it in the actual game is in occasional "color text" from the advisers, which has no bearing on how the game actually plays.

** Of course, the only part that conceivably even could still matter is the empire the Antarans at the height of their power were ''afraid of'', and even the remnant in the game will ruin your shit when they come out of their capital. If they showed up everyone on the map would be dead in a few turns.

* ''[[Galactic Civilizations]]'': the backstory has a few minor impacts on the events in a game, but most of the time people ''and'' the AI just run on cold hard realpolitik. There's also a campaign mode, that most people just ignore in favour of Gigantic galaxies, no items, final destination.

 

* Common in [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPGs]] in general. In ''[[EverQuest]]'' and ''EverQuest 2'' a lot of the players who enjoy the end game raiding aspect not only don't care about the story and "fluff", but even consider it an annoyance [[Prepositions Are Not to End Sentences With|up with which they should not be forced to put]].

* Every MMORPG with a team mechanic falls prey to this. "Hey guys, wait up, I want to read the history of Doomy McEvilton and why he wants the [[MacGuffin]] of Glory to...ah nuts to this, where's my XP?"

** ''[[Guild Wars]]'' also has this happen. Most people who engage in the [[PvP]] aspect of the game probably have never seen any of the cutscenes in the game. On the plus side, though, it's possible to play through the story campaign yourself, where you don't have a message saying 7/8 members of the group want to skip the scene and getting yelled at by everyone else for making them sit through it. (Often justified with runners, who've probably seen the cutscene [[Memetic Mutation|over nine thousand]] times and don't wanna hear it ''again''.)

** ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. The quest writers intentionally try to keep the quest descriptions brief because people will just ignore them anyways. Even in Cataclysm, which made all the zones have their own unique story arcs, many of which even tie into later zones or even end-game content, a lot of quests are just ignored since people level up alts with heirlooms and barnstorm through the zones. Unless they're Thousand Needles, which people stopped and enjoyed their ride through.

* ''[[Runescape]]'' varies between this and [[Excuse Plot]]. This is a more subjective example; some of the quests are rather bland, especially the ones you get for free but some of the others in the members world really have a lot of detail in the history of Runescape. Lately, the older quests have been integrated more closely to the main storyline.

* Believe it or not, ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' is actually more than killing (cute) monsters and loot drama. Granted, you need to connect the pieces to know that Rune-Midgard has a long, long history, and some parts of it are [[Nightmare Fuel]] hidden by the cute graphic (I'm looking at you, Light Halzen... or maybe I shouldn't have).

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has, in its Mission Architect, absolutely brilliant stories written by players (many of which are dev-sponsored), with custom enemies, fairly unique plots, et cetera. Most players seem to just jump for the grindfests set up for the sake of easy leveling.

 

* Any ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' game that attempts to have a story more complex than "Sonic fights Eggman" is immediately met with scorn by pretty much any professional reviewer and [[Broken Base|many fans as well.]]

** Taken to a head with ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]''. That game gives the hero at least five different [[Origin Story|origin stories]] and reasons for existing. The only thing fans remember? [[Narm|"FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM!" "Where's that DAMN fourth Chaos Emerald!?"]]

 

* [[Blizzard Entertainment]]. All their modern franchises (''[[Diablo]]'', ''[[Starcraft]]'' and ''[[Warcraft]]'') do in fact have stories, and there are the hardcore "lore-fans" who spend time debating of them, but most players ignore them completely. All three franchises also have loads of [[All There in the Manual|supplemental materials]]. It doesn't help that the ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' plot is governed by the need to ultimately have almost every major character arbitrarily turn evil so the players can fight them. Of course, as a result, they became [[Genre Savvy]] enough to know they can get away with [[Cliché Storm]] plots (And trailers) and only a few tropers on this site will actually notice.

** On ''[[Diablo]] II'', multiplayer mode ''skips'' cutscenes, which doesn't help.

* ''[[Defense of the Ancients All Stars]]'' in fact has backstories, mostly elaborated on in DotA 2. The game's more known for the [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys|people]] it attracts.

 

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' falls victim to this to a degree. ''Oblivion'', for example, contains numerous books full of expository text which most players ignore, "reading" it only to see whether or not you get a skill point from it. The [[Beige Prose|blandly written]], woodenly voice-acted NPC dialogue also tends to make people skip through all the exposition until a quest flag is triggered.

** It's not alone. ''Morrowind'' had no voice acting to speak of beyond simple greetings and taunts, yet something like ''six times'' the written text of ''Oblivion'', in the form of both NPC dialogues ''and'' books. Some of it is actually kind of interesting and well written (containing a lot of subtle hints to your quest), but most is pretty much the quality of writing you would expect from a video game [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|at that timeframe]] and consequently rather forgettable.

* ''[[Demon's Souls]]'' and ''[[Dark Souls]]'' both have a lot of lore with tragic history and tragic characters. A lot of people are simply content to just go demon and god killing given how unintrusive the story is in both games.

 

* [[Shoot'Em Up|Shmups]] can fall prey to this as well. [[Sin and Punishment|Some of them]] [[Radiant Silvergun|have detailed]], [[Ikaruga|intricate backstories]] [[EXceed|and stories]] [[Do Don Pachi|which go]] [[Mushihime-sama|mostly unnoticed]] [[Hellsinker|by their]] players, who are just there to test their skills against the [[Nintendo Hard|Nintendo Hardness]]. It certainly doesn't help that a lot of these shmups are in Japanese, [[No Export for You|without any kind of official English translation.]]

 

* ''[[Dirge of Cerberus]]'' is filled with [[Cutscene|cutscenes]], but being a Action Game, they only break down the flow. This becomes even worse later in the game as the cutscenes are even longer and filled with [[Deus Ex Machina|Deus Ex Machinas]].

* Surprisingly averted most of the time in the original ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'' series, especially its expansion pack ''Resistance''. Though the game would at first seem as a no-thrills no-nonsense military sim, the story and characters are compelling on their own and heavily intertwined with what's generally going on, which lends the whole affair a very personal and immersive feel about ''being a soldier'', instead of "playing as a soldier who just shoots everything that remotely moves". Note that the main plot of ''Cold War Crisis'' is about the eruption of a short war between two small garrisons of NATO and Warsaw pact soldiers stationed in a Ruritania nobody cares about... which could get out of hand and lead to [[World War Three]] and [[The End of the World as We Know It]] if the player didn't work to stop it. The aforementioned ''Resistance'' expansion makes you really feel like the leader of a band of freedom fighters and makes no qualms about how under-equipped and vulnerable you are compared to the enemy. There's also a [[Sadistic Choice]] you have to go through in one of the first missions. Simply put, you can't escape the game's overarching story even if you go frag-hunting on an enemy patrol. The ''[[Spiritual Successor|ARMA]]'' series, while not having such a thrilling background to the overall story, still maintains a similarly in-depth-personal-and-asskicking-at-the-same-time narrative structure.

* ''[[Bullet Witch]]'' actually has quite a complex plot, regarding a guy who summoned the demons to bring back his dead daughter and how [[Dark Action Girl|Alicia]] got her powers. Too bad the players only wanted to shoot stuff.

 

 

* In a non-game context, many classic movies are treated this way by film historians and students. Nobody teaching ''[[Birth of a Nation]]'' in a film class wastes any breath on the plot; they just focus on the film's many stylistic tropes, and if they have time make mention of the historical context and heavily racist overtones. Similarly, ''[[Metropolis]]'' is watched today for its groundbreaking special effects, futuristic architecture, and kickass robot - not its romantic plot or political message (as the screenwriter intended).

** That often ties in with [[What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?|its own trope]].

* Porn films - really, you're not watching those movies for anything but the porn.

 

* This often happens with Tabletop games, ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'', and even ''[[Magi Nation]]''. Many players don't care about the material in the sourcebooks beyond feats and rules.

** This can also extend to the actual game sessions of roleplaying games, much to the frustration of Game Masters with players who are only interested in hacking-and-slashing and not the Game Master's campaign storyline or even actual ''role-playing''.