Gamers who don't appreciate story, setting or art style

I read gaming magazine today and my friend spotted article titled "New Deus Ex combines renaissance and cuberpunk" and he said "Cyperpunk is bad music and this game is going to suck."  I told him that cyperpunk isn't music and he still said it will suck because he is only interrested in shooting things.
  
Then we discussed which one is better ME2 or MW2. I said ME is better because it has interresting story, universum and characters. He answered that those things aren't important.

 So i'm asking you do you think that any of these thing are important to you or do just want to shoot things.

I find the game play part of a game to be important but setting story and characters are also just as important. 

Honestly the most important part of a game for me is story, i'll play stuff that isnt heavily invested in story but those games dont leave a long term impression on me ;)

My favorite game is bioshock, not only for the shooting (which I did like) but for the setting, art style, and story.
So I guess I do care about art, setting, and story in games

Both.
I loved the Legacy of Kain series for its storyline despite the gameplay in Defiance being pretty lame.
I also like the Unreal tournament series cause I like shooting people in the face with a flak cannon.

As long as I am having fun, that is what is most important for me.
 
Whatever it is shooting civilians or listening to great dialogs.

Pretty much EVERYTHING comes together to create a good game. Games based on only one attribute would suck. Gameplay, story, setting, music, environment, characters, realism, art etc etc all come together to form a great gaming experience.

My older brother always gravitates towards mediocre/generic first person shooters (Frontlines: Fuel of War, FarCry: Instincts - Predator, etc.) instead of playing a variety of genres. Now I know that he definitely knows what he likes, but the thing is he won't even try any great games like Assassin's Creed 2 or Burnout: Paradise; he just dismisses them outright and goes back to playing his drivel. He's just ignorant and keeps letting all these quality titles slip through his fingers and it annoys me to no end.

Also, he didn't listen to a single audio log in Bioshock or Bioshock 2. Just breezed through yet another shooter with average gameplay, totally ignoring the story.

He also hates any third person shooter because, and I quote, "The character is ALWAYS in the way of everything. You can't even aim! Every third person shooter could easily be a FPS."

AND HE HATES CALL OF DUTY. HOW CAN SOMEONE WHO LIKES SHOOTING DUDES AND NOTHING ELSE NOT ENJOY CALL OF DUTY?

It just fucking blows my mind when I think about it.

I've been thinking the same thing just recently.
i went back and played Bioshock 1 again, and can safely say the game part of that game is awful. Shooting feel weak, plasmids feel lame and hacking eels stupid.
however the setting is great, sadly that's all the game has going for it. The game could of been a masterpiece but it is crippled by the game part.
This is also a feeling i get when i play a Metal Gear Solid game, those games have some aweful gameplay but the story and setting hold the game up.

You managed to misspell "cyberpunk" at every turn.  
 
Oh well, there's a lot of aspects required to form a good game, depending on the type of game the developer's are gunning for.  Fighting games either have a non-existent story, a totally stupid one, or an abysmally complex one; but people still enjoy them for different reasons.  Now, games like RPGs, where the plot is usually the driving factor, need a compelling story to be engaging.  It depends on the genre.

You need to remember, we are playing games, not reading books or watching a movie.  Gameplay is something that factors in.  And even though ME2 has a great story and characters and you get some alien fucking here and there, the game itself, is not as good as MW2.  And thats the case for a lot of games, some try to approach the story more than the game itself to a higher degree.
Look at oblivion.  For some reason we all spent so many damn hours on that game, yet none of us really found the story memorable.  So how did we end up playing it so fucking much?
Then there is final fantasy where I feel like killing someone and ripping their fucking heart out because they think those games have good characters, stories or even settings.  And the gameplay... ugh.  I grow weary of thinking of those games.
So I suppose the lesson is that games sure as hell need more than story and characters to be good and usually gameplay trumps it because of how most of us think. Not all of us. you maybe one of those few.  But we usually can forgive a crappy story if the game is fun.

Story is easilly one of the most important parts of a game. I'm the type of person that sees 30+ minute cutscenes as a plus in a game, I'm the type of person that likes the conversations in the Bioware games more than the combat.

I think expectations are different when it comes to different games. If somebody is into Modern Warfare 2, it's probably because they just wants the generic spray'n pray multiplayer feeling and nothing more. It's the reason why I played Dead To Rights II. The game isn't good, but I don't play it for the story. I play it for the relentless, crazy action. The same can be said for any Metal Slug game I play(ed), Godhand, etc.
 
On the flip side however, games with rich fiction, settings and styles, I can appreciate for those reasons. Doom 3, System Shock 2, Mass Effect / 2, Max Payne, Dead Space - these are all games that I come for the fiction, setting and the unique (or at least well-done) sense of art style. This isn't to say I don't pay attention to the mechanics, but everything combined, makes a fuller and more well rounded experience. The only issue I can say with some of these, is they eventually use their luster with the fiction and setting. This I feel, is because they feel more cinematic and story-driven, and I don't feel the repeat play is always there, except for exceptions such as Mass Effect 2 (that has choices you can make than effect certain actions in the game).
 
I think every gamer needs both types of games in their collection. Having too much of any one game that make their tastes and views on games incredibly lopsided.

Depends. A game with good shooting elements but a bad sense of style, bad story and bad setting might be good and a game that has a terrific sense of style but mediocre gameplay might be considered terrible. I don't know man, things are so relative sometimes.

" Story is easilly one of the most important parts of a game. I'm the type of person that sees 30+ minute cutscenes as a plus in a game, I'm the type of person that likes the conversations in the Bioware games more than the combat. "

If a game doesn't focus on story... I generally ain't interested.

If it's an RPG or Adventure game then I value story over gameplay. Anything else, gameplay.

Yeah, depends on the game, and on personal preference. If you're looking at a primarily single-player experience then story's almost always quite important. Overall I'd take Mass Effect 2 over Modern Warfare 2 any day. MW2's a great game, but I find I'm personally getting quite tired of the war FPS genre. I'd rather play Left 4 Dead if I'm going to play a shooter, or Street Fighter IV if I want to play really competitively. And both of those don't even really have a story (the L4D series definitely doesn't and no one cares about SFIV's).

Well, gameplay is what defines the medium, and I believe that it certainly takes priority over story, but a good story can also help compensate for "meh" gameplay, as evidenced by Metal Gear Solid (and Mass Effect 1 while we are at it)

I'd like a balance of both, but most stories in games make me laugh so I don't really give a shit about them these days unless I want a good laugh.
 I'll stick with online shooters and RTS.

I like story at setting a lot, but I still put game play over it.  A gaame with a good story, but isn't fun to play is still a bad game in my opinion.  But a game with a stupid story and is tons of fun to play is still good.  Just Cause 2 for example.

Seeing as all I played Yakuza 3 for was the awesome overly-melodramatic soap opera mafia story, then yeah... story's pretty important. The gameplay has to be passable though. 
 
Likewise a game with a passable story is fine if the gameplay is awesome. 

Deus Ex 3s setting and art style looks horrible especially in context with the two other games in the series. Part of why Deus Ex is so good is the fact its setting and art style are very familiar just made a whole lot darker and more depressing. It created a convincing and atmospheric future at every turn without having to resort to insane shit and since this new game is set before the first the crazy renaissance, cyberpunk style makes no sense at all and has actually turned me off the game.
 
Also gameplay is probably more important but a good setting, art style and story are also an integral part of the experience.

As long as the gameplay isn't frustrating, story is the most important. For ex. the story of Mirrors Edge is great imo, but the gameplay is extremely frustrating leaving me not wanting to play the game anymore.
On the other hand, i really like the gameplay in the Dynasty warrior games, but theres no story whatsoever.
So it all just dependson what mood im in, some longtime storydriven action or just mindless fun

The last videogame that had a good story (imo) was Metal Gear Solid 3 

" My favorite game is bioshock, not only for the shooting (which I did like) but for the setting, art style, and story. So I guess I do care about art, setting, and story in games "

" @JB16 said:

" Story is easilly one of the most important parts of a game. I'm the type of person that sees 30+ minute cutscenes as a plus in a game, I'm the type of person that likes the conversations in the Bioware games more than the combat. "

Agreed.  I assume you're also one of the people who don't mind long set-ups to RPGs and such?  Like, I have no problem with the 30 minutes of pressing the "X" button in the beginning of Persona 3 or Persona 4, because that's establishing the world you're in.  You're just a normal teenager until something radical happens, so why would you want them to rush things and make it so that in 5 minutes of playing you're already fighting something?  I blame impatience. "

so why is MW2 being played way more than ME2?

" Well, gameplay is what defines the medium, and I believe that it certainly takes priority over story, but a good story can also help compensate for "meh" gameplay, as evidenced by Metal Gear Solid (and Mass Effect 1 while we are at it) "

" I'd like a balance of both, but most stories in games make me laugh so I don't really give a shit about them these days unless I want a good laugh. I'll stick with online shooters and RTS. "

Sort of like others have said a game can focus on one or the other and still be good for me assuming one of the aspects (story or gameplay) is compelling. Someone used No More Heroes as an example and I think that fits perfect, I wouldn't call the gameplay bad but I certainly can't say I was having fun outside of the boss battles and yet I played all the way to the end because that game was crazy madness with hilarious characters and cutscenes. And then you have something like Super Mario Galaxy that has pretty much no story or cutscenes yet was insanely fun to play and take on the challenges. 
  
And then you have those rare games that mix both gameplay and plot together to make an absolutely amazing experience and some of my more memorable and favorite games.

those are the things that make videogames an art. But I always enjoy beating the shit out of something or someone (in videogames). I enjoyed Ironman, but the story is a bit distant to other type of movies, such as dramas. That doesn't mean that Ironman isn't awesome, they're just different types of delivering a product. Some of them can be seen as an art, others just as a form of entertainment.

"Furthermore, they are only great "for being a game story."  No game comes close to the likes of Alexander Pope, Samuel Beckett, or Ingmar Bergman."

art style and setting are some of the most important factors to me

Old games had little to no story- and we loved them.
If the story kicks ass, then we can overlook a limping gameplay.
But if the story sucks- but the gameplay is awesome- well, we play multiplayer games, and there's no story there..
I value the story more than gameplay nowadays though.

The "arteest" in me wants to say that story is the most important to me but I've played games with no story whatsoever but had awesome gameplay and was perfectly fine with that. Granted, a good story can elevate a game from good to great but I can't really bring to mind a game that had lackluster gameplay but an amazing story that kept me going. I could name a few with the opposite traits though.

Everything needs to come together for a good game. I loved BioShock, but I found the gameplay to be a little boring.  Then again, I don't like RPG's so...

If i can predict everything thats going to happen, a game gets boring...

I look to different games for different things. I really enjoyed Borderlands even though there was essentially no plot, but I also enjoy Metal Gear Solid, which is essentially nothing but plot.

mindless shooting or fighting doesn't quite do it for me, i need some sort of context and sense in the game to enjoy it, be it a zombie apocalypse or some sci-fi epic. UNLESS the gameplay is so ridiculously fun; i must've just played jedi outcast maps, just spawning hordes of reborn to chop to pieces for months on end.

Yes, it's definitely important. Do I need to say more?

" Pretty much EVERYTHING comes together to create a good game. Games based on only one attribute would suck. Gameplay, story, setting, music, environment, characters, realism, art etc etc all come together to form a great gaming experience. "

" mindless shooting or fighting doesn't quite do it for me, i need some sort of context and sense in the game to enjoy it, be it a zombie apocalypse or some sci-fi epic. UNLESS the gameplay is so ridiculously fun; i must've just played jedi outcast maps, just spawning hordes of reborn to chop to pieces for months on end. "