There's an archaic school of thought within gaming which suggests that story is both "unnecessary" (Shigeru Miyamoto), and also "not that important" (John Carmack). And whilst this might have been true in an age when computers were incredibly simple, and were therefore capable of only providing simple gameplay experiences (such as Pong and Tetris), it could be argued that with computers having become much more powerful since, gaming audiences now expect a lot more from games in terms of their narrative content.
Certainly, we wouldn't have famed gaming franchises like Half Life, The Last Of Us, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, and The Walking Dead if game designers had decided to co-opt the rather narrow-minded views of Shigeru Miyamoto and John Carmack. At the same time however, it could also be argued that these franchises would be deemed as being incredibly boring once gamers had gotten past their initial gameplay loop. After all, the lack of a compelling storyline is certainly one of the major reasons as to why I quickly tire of Nintendo games, as there's only so many times that one can endure seeing a grown mustachioed man jump. And in a world where modern gamers are obsessed with how long a typical game is, and wouldn't be in...