Gameplay vs. Story

Which is more important within a game, gameplay or story?

I'm a firm believer that gameplay must come first and then everything else must follow. I think this is one of the main reasons I find it hard to play RPGs now and days. Yeah the stories are really awesome like in Mass Effect or Dragon Age. But after playing the demo for Mass Effect 2 for the PS3, I wasn't too impressed with the games third person shooting gameplay. (Yes, you can argue I just hit the tip of the ice berg with gameplay.) But let's ask ourselves this, if Gears of War used the same duck and shooting system as Mass Effect, would we still consider Gear of War a good shooter? I felt like Shepard was wearing heavy shoes and popped in and out of cover like Asimo the robot. Because of the intriguing story this wasn't a deal breaker but I'm pretty sure that I might end up quitting the game before I even finish it. If the story is the main draw of games, why don't people read books more? Wouldn't that be better than grinding for endless hours to finally get to the bad conclusion we normally get out of video games.


Has anyone played Mario Galaxy 2 recently. Yeah, I'm a Nintendo fan boy but I'm not so biased in my opinion to not confidently say that it was the best game I played in 2010. Yeah Mario games have near to zero story. To be honest it doesn't need it. It keeps players playing by having solid gameplay and a really awesome camera system. I haven't gotten all 240 stars yet. But getting the normal 120 stars never felt like a chore. They were challenging but they were definitely worth all the effort I put into getting them.

Let's take a look at Epic Mickey. Really solid story but the core mechanics, like the camera and character control are so broken that it takes away the drive for the average gamer to want to complete or even buy the game. Warren Spector made awesome games. But now I feel like he's more into his little gimmicks versus making a really solid game with an awesome gimmick. Poor Mickey. I really wanted to buy this game but bad cameras equals Wade going insane. Can't have that.

Now let's take a company like Blizzard and Naughty Dog who seem to know how to marry the two together. Uncharted 2 is still one of my favorite games to date and I can't wait for part 3. Why don't more companies put in the effort of mixing solid gameplay with epic stories?