You’re mistaking subjective preferences for universal truths. The reality is simple: gameplay is the backbone of gaming. Always has been, always will be. Without solid mechanics, you don’t have a game, you’ve got an interactive movie, or worse, a walking sim disguised as “art.”

Sure, normies will flock to cinematic cutscene-fests with 4K tears and QTE spam because they’ve been conditioned by modern AAA trash to think they’re playing when they’re just watching. Meanwhile, players are still mastering Devil May Cry 3, speedrunning Super Mario Bros., grinding Monster Hunter, and playing DOOM, because timeless gameplay doesn’t fade.

Yeah, sure, some games made an impact back then thanks to their story, The Last of Us for exemple. But here’s the problem: now it’s a factory line of games that all want to be The Last of Us. Same overcooked Hollywood scripts, same Marvel-tier dialogues, same “slow-walk through trauma while sad piano plays” sequences. It’s become a paint-by-numbers formula that’s bled into everything.

And anyone with two functioning neurons who actually plays games, not just consumes them like a glazed-eyed NPC—can see it. That’s not what gaming is. That’s Netflix with extra steps. People like you, consciously or not, keep parroting “gameplay equals story” until entire studios forget they’re making games and end up pumping out more soulless cutscene simulators.

No one’s coming back to these games in 10 years. But they’ll still be replaying Monster Hunter and Super Mario Bros. because those games respect the player’s hands, not just their tear ducts.

Your “delicate balance” sounds like something ripped from a marketing deck. If a game needs its story to prop it up, it’s not a game, it’s a barely interactive slideshow with dialogue.

So go watch Netflix instead, retard.