What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[Umbran]

(Still prefer original BG over enhanced edition, because I never meet a gay or lesbian there.. That is why I deleted BG:EE, also why I do not play BG3.. And in Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader, when I found out that one party member is lesbian, I choose option to murder her by shooting trough her head with a gun..)

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[Kaodi]

Jesus naughty word Christ. Whatever that guy was about makes me hesitant to even post about the game I am back at.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Only true if you zoom out more broadly than RPGs, which was the discussion.

RPGs are their story, just like novels.

It literally cannot be an rpg without a story.

This begs the question of what you mean by "story".

The conventional understanding is a tale with a beginning, middle and end. With videogames we might add that it needs not be linear and might have choices leading to different variants of the story (which may be of varying quality).

But there are countless RPG genre games where that doesn't apply. Where there's little or no actively told story, and sometimes quite limited setting information. This is particularly true in older RPGs but can be in modern ones too. For example, the Dark Souls games don't really have a story in the conventional sense, just a vaguely implied one. Caves of Qud has some threads you can follow but what makes it great is the setting - the story is barely there. Dungeon Master from 1987 is an amazing RPG but has basically no in-game story. I can go on.

But anyway what does story mean to you in the way you're using it here?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You can have an amazing game with basically no story or even a bad story, but you cannot have a novel without a story.

Certainly, video games can and have had great stories, but it is orthogonal to their medium as such.

I think outright orthogonal to the medium might be slightly too extreme a position for my taste in 2025 AD, because some subgenres of games absolutely rely on a strong story as part of their package of what makes them work, but certainly there always have been and still are games and even RPGs which have little in the way of story by the more traditional definitions of story. But it would also be fair to say story has played a role since the dawn era of games (cf Colossal Cave Adventure etc) and seems to be becoming increasingly important to games (as a rule).

There is also of course the dreaded Visual Novel which challenges the divide between games and novels and has been with us since what, the early 1980s?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

This begs the question of what you mean by "story".

The conventional understanding is a tale with a beginning, middle and end. With videogames we might add that it needs not be linear and might have choices leading to different variants of the story (which may be of varying quality).

But there are countless RPG genre games where that doesn't apply. Where there's little or no actively told story, and sometimes quite limited setting information. This is particularly true in older RPGs but can be in modern ones too. For example, the Dark Souls games don't really have a story in the conventional sense, just a vaguely implied one. Caves of Qud has some threads you can follow but what makes it great is the setting - the story is barely there. Dungeon Master from 1987 is an amazing RPG but has basically no in-game story. I can go on.

But anyway what does story mean to you in the way you're using it here?

At the most basic, a story is either characters doing things in a setting, or a narrative about events in a setting. Linear or non-linear doesn't change whether or not it is a story. How compelling or detailed or in-depth it is doesn't change whether or not it is a story.

I truly think that the only way to be disagreeing and quibbling with me right now is by assuming that I must surely mean something more than the literal words I am typing. I don't.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I've got a list of games I want to play/jump back into. It's just been a bit difficult to find the time to play and the motivation at the moment.

• Fallout 76 - played this a lot when it first came out and enjoyed just wandering around and doing random quests and exploring. I've been feeling the Fallout itch recently so I might boot this up again.
• Darksiders 3 - I played the first two and enjoyed them, got the third when it first came out but then never got around to starting this.
• Pokemon Scarlet/Violet and/or Legends ZA - It's been a bit since I've played a pokemon game but I didn't have a switch until very recently. Pokemon games are usually my go to comfort games.
• Dragon Age Veilguard - I started this one but life got hectic so I stopped very early into my first playthrough. Will probably restart with a new character but I did enjoy the bit I did play so I'm excited to jump back into this.
• Baldur's Gate 3 - Same with Veilguard, I started but stopped really early in. Want to start this up again, maybe with some mods to add more options.
• Skyrim - One of my comfort games alongside Pokemon, I've played this game so many times I have the whole opening scene memorized word for word, I swear. Might try some new quest mods for it.
• The Mass Effect Trilogy - It has become a tradition of mine to replay this trilogy from start to finish including all dlc once a year. I've done this at least 8 times already.

Whether I will actually play any of them here soon is up for debate, but I do own them all so we will see.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

At the most basic, a story is either characters doing things in a setting, or a narrative about events in a setting. Linear or non-linear doesn't change whether or not it is a story. How compelling or detailed or in-depth it is doesn't change whether or not it is a story.

I truly think that the only way to be disagreeing and quibbling with me right now is by assuming that I must surely mean something more than the literal words I am typing. I don't.

Sorry but this is so vague as to be without meaning and doesn't address games which don't really have "a narrative" yet are RPGs. The issue is the opposite of assuming that. It's that we're assuming you mean the conventional literal meaning, in which case what you're saying doesn't prima facie make much sense.