>>53455882I like how you're phrasing your explanation by just restating your sentence. What does "subservience" mean? Less important? Less prominent? The story should only exist as a driver for the gameplay and not reverse? What counts as story and what is gameplay even? If I help out an NPC on a sidequest, is that story or is that gameplay? If I'm literally reading actions in a battle like in Pokemon, is that gameplay or is that part of the natural story of the game? If I'm playing a game like Braid or Metroid where the story is being told through interacting with the environment, is that story or gameplay?
I'm hostile because I see this repeated so many times with no thought at all given to how it's defined and when even in the most obvious cases it's clearly inapplicable to several different genres. Story and gameplay are frequently intertwined, saying that you somehow cannot tell a strong story in the presence of "playing a game" is incredibly dubious. I also don't think that pointing out the existence of ludonarrative dissonance actually helps you when that is something that potentially negatively affects game and story. Couldn't I say by the same token that story development should take precedence over the gameplay?
And I think anyone who's worked on a multifaceted artistic endeavor they enjoy would ensure all parts of their project are great to try and make it more than the sum of its parts, not to sacrifice parts of it to prop up others.
