Story vs Gameplay - which is more important in a RPG

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I prefer to have both at acceptable levels.. I dont need a game to be "the best", as long as both story and gameplay works nicely and coherent, all is well for me.

wont vote as there's no option for that.

 

[CraneSoft]

Like others said it really comes down to personal taste so I'll be frank about this as well. There are just soooo many games out there that have both amazing story and gameplay, genre issues aside, if I had to pick one then I will would say better story/characters are more important. (Otherwise I wouldn't be playing RPGs if gameplay is all I wanted) If the cover/premise/cast isn't visually appealing to me at the very least, there is a good chance I won't stick around to get into the "gameplay" part.

Playing too much RPGs at once can get old because the gameplay are mostly similar with variations so interesting story is what usually keeps me going, nevertheless the gameplay aspect still needs to be acceptable (though it doesn't have to be a masterpiece) level so it doesn't frustrate me with roadblocks when I'm eager to find out what happens next.

 

[Grunwave]

Hopefully this is not too off topic:

I think there are too many games that try to shove their story into your throat. Here are some examples:

(1) Too long of intro. We are not yet committed to your world or characters, do not info dump us yet.

(2) Too many/long cut scenes.

(3) Too much time in between combat opportunities. If your game goes 30 minutes without a fight, you are probably ramming dialogue.

In my very anecdotal opinion: I love when I earn story line. This can happen in several ways, including:

(1) I beat a boss and get a cut scene after.

(2) I walk into a town and instead of text dump, I have to explore the town to get that info about your world.

(3) I discover hidden areas and they reveal backstory to your world that is not necessary to the arc.

Generally you must interlace game play with story.

I do not think I have ever played into a game that had an AAA story with EEE game play though. For your poll, I took option [2]. I think to accept CCC game play, I would require AAA story. I cant imagine playing into DDD game play.

AAA game play. I would easily suffer EEE story.

I admit my scale is oddly jumpie. Because for BBB game play, I would require BBB story.