PixlBit

I'd say both, but as a kid who was growing up when Metal gear Solid was making cutscenes as opposed to high scores a reward, I have a "fuller" experience when I play a game with an actual story arc. I would say I enjoy games more when I'm working toward a narrative goal, but that doesn't mean I am willing to play a bad game for a good story necessarily. Basically, mechanics is NEEDED if I'm going to play a game, but a good narrative does push things over the edge for me.

Yeah, I still think a game needs context, as that context enriches the overall experience. Even if it's something as simple as Super Meat Boys set up or even Marios. Without context even the best gameplay can feel meaningless.

 I just prefer the intereraction to be the primary focus.

I also fall in the middle. I tend to look for stories since I like narrative and if it's strong enough, I can continue just based on that even if the core mechanics aren't special (Dear Esther for example). But at the same time, I can do any game where mechanics are much more common place as long as I really enjoy it (Escape Goat for example in my latest blog). I fall in the middle since I love games that balance mechanics with narrative (Portal and Portal 2 for instance).

All I care about is whether or not I have a hard time putting the game down. I couldn't care less how they do it.

I'm a total mechanics guy. While a good narrative can certainly draw my attention, it's rare that I'm playing a game for that reason. 

Some of my favorite games had bad game design and stories so...umm?
Deadly Premonition: Bad Game Play/Cool Story
Lightning Returns: Good Game Play/Bad Story
It depends on the game really. I for one really love dark themes, so I can do with bad story or gameplay to a certain extent. If you have at least one of the three is good enough for me I guess. Dead Island had good gameplay but no story. Metroid Prime has like no story but good gameplay. I'm not picky.

I think I am somewhat the same, in that I Silent Hill has meh gameplay but I love those games. Most JRPGS suck at gameplay, but I don't mind some of them. I guess the Narrative has to be REALLY strong to make me overlook really shitty gameplay.

It's mostly about the story for me.

I hold the traditional definition of 'game' sacred, no matter the visual form, so mechanics it is.  Theme, setting and style come next. 3 act narrative structure dead last on the list of things that comprise a video game.

As a question, do you think we should have a different name for other interactive experiences? We have visual novels, which some people view as games (because some kind of are), virtual art installations like Proteus and stuff. Should we label these something else? And should we change the name from game to something like interactive experience for when we want to talk about all of them?

I see this tendency to re-shape words to serve peoples egos or agendas, especially among gamers. I oppose this. This is not legitimate to me.  Origin and intent are important for objective evaluation of anyting, including words and their meaning.

On the other hand, colloquialism. I understand that in casual conversation, using "video game" as an umbrella term is going to happen, even by people who also think that some titles don't qualify according to the strict definition.Magazines used to say things like "electronic entertainment" back in the 80s and 90s. This kind of stuck with me and I use it myself sometimes.

 Problem is too many egos are involved, and butthurt  ensues, like you've condemned someone on a personal level if you say such-and-such is not really a game. I think way too much value is put into whether something is a 'game' or 'art.'

 Btw, I disagree about JRPGs. I think mechanics are meant to be significant in at least half of them.  All these different battle systems they have suggests this. I never agreed with the "RPGs are about story meme" that came from the Squaresoft fans.

Hmmmmm.   Hmmmmmm mm m.  Hmm mm mm mm mm mm mm m.

Alright then sigmeiyer...

I like story.  But great mechanics are cool too.  I just cant pick one over the other because it depends on the game

So the games you like the most don't tend to lean one way more than the other?

I like story driven games for sure.  but I also like mechanically driven games like 4x games and tactical rpg's.  then there's games like Mario games which are just fun mechanics.  I do tend towards story driven games when I am looking for games, but I can also enjoy games that aren't story driven. 

but what I like most of all are games where you make your own story, like in a game like Etrian Odyssey where you create your own characters and make up your own stuff about them, or choose your own adventure type games.  

A game like Bayonetta, I appreciate the mechanics, but find the story so tiresome I can't stand it.  same thing goes for Disgaea.  I know those games are good, but the story is so silly i can't stand them.  

I like games for the experience they give that's better than passive media.  sometimes those experiences are driven by mechanics, like in just fun Mario games, or by stories in like Life is Strange.  

Really? Huh, I love Bayonetta - especially the story. Well, the events that occur in the story. I have no idea whats going on, but it's insane and hilarious.

 But yeah, I understand your point.

i just can't stand the voice acting in Bayonetta.  Too over the top.  The reggae guy is the worst.  

I definitely fall on the camp of mechanics.  A story can help me overlook the issues that I have with a games mechanics.  Which is why I am the weird one who likes Bioshock 2, a lot.

I guess I would be placed in the mechanics group. The narrative is good but I don't think I really need it for my taste in games, and if all else fails I would use that game time to also catch up on podcasts.

I really could care less about story unless it's a RPG. So ludology for me.

I like the story side a lot but bad mechanics can stop me cold.

Both are important :) it's just that we tend to favour one over the other. Narrative used to be the huge selling point for me when I was in my teens though. Now I just want something fun/engaging/tense.

In the first Magna Carta game I never got to experience the story because the battle system was so bad I couldn't even finish the first encounter. the game used a ring with a tiny circle at the top of it and you had to press the buttons corresponding to the ones on the screen when they were in dead centre of the tiny circle. You need the reflexes of a 10 year old just to get a hit in.

I agree with what Casey said, I don't care how they do it, I just want to be pulled into the game, and I can be equally be pulled in by either story or mechanics (or some combination of both).

 I grew up playing graphic adventure games which were basically all about the story  (classic Sierra and Lucasarts).  Currently I am playing Telltale's Game of Thrones on PS4 and Danganronpa on the Vita, two games that rely very little on mechanics, and am loving both.

But I also grew up playing games like Jumpman on the C64, Donky Kong on the Atari, and Mega Man, Mario, and Castlevania on the NES.  What little story existed in any of those games didn't really mean a thing to me, they were just fun to play due to the mechanics.  I still love platformers, shooters, etc, even though I rarely ever care about the story, and often find the story even gets in they way.

This is fair enough :) but di you lean more to one side or the other? I know I'm the same as you, but I have a tougher time getting into a game with poor mechanics than I do with a poor story.

Ludology here

What pulls me into a game is graphics and design. I'm an artist at heart, so what seems interesting to me visually is what goes first. So now I've bought the game. What keeps me playing that game is mechanics. If the controls are bad, I'm out. I don't care about anything in it after that. Case in point. Epic Mickey. Loved the art design of that game so much, I got it day-one. The camera was epically bad and so I traded it in. Then I got it again years later just so I could look at it. I'll do the same with Ni No Kuni no doubt. 

Oh yea, story. I really like story in games and spend time following it carefully. I admire writers on games too and have a list of favorites I follow. But if the gameplay doesn't feel right to me, I'm out. Case in point. I love writer Antony Johnston but I don't like the controls in Dead Space. I will not suffer through it for the story.

So it's Design, Mechanics, then Story for me; although, if I was developing a game, I would start with the game engine, then get an artist, and then a writer. Mechanics are the most important part of a video game, despite what my artist mind desires.