The ambition of "good" videogame storytelling seems to be almost completely meaningless.

The issue is that most of the games in the past were not created with a story in mind, usually a background was put to justify the player actions and nothing more. Even RPGs that traditionally have a greater focus on history in general only tended to repeat the old archetype of the Hero's journey.

And this approach has not been completely sidelined by the scriptwriters, because it just works, think of how many games you like, but have plots that follow the archetype cited above, with major undeveloped characters and little to no concern for the characters personal feelings and issues. As a media focused in selling as many units as possible, the majority of titles will always tried to appeal to the broadest possible audience and therefore they will not move away from the already established conventions.

Therefore, a considerable portion of the players do not care about the game's story simply because it was not what captivates them in this media. And developers avoid leaving their comfort zone while writing precisely because they need to appeal to the masses.

/r/Games Thread