I haven’t played Destiny (and I’m glad I haven’t, from what I’ve heard), but I, too, need a reason to do something in a game, or else, why bother? That’s why I usually can’t play games like Tetris, because the whole time I’m thinking, why? A story is usually important, but not always, as is the case with the Mario series. It should never be the main appeal of a game, though. I always come back to KH: Chain of Memories as an example of a game that had an interesting plot, but was so boring to play. For me, a good story really adds to a game, but it has to be fun, and as you pointed out, there must be a motivation for playing. Maybe I want to progress through the story. Maybe the game is simply fun, like a Mario game, and my goal is to play through to the final boss and collect every star.

Some challenge helps, too. I am selling Kirby’s Epic Yarn because it’s so easy. The whole time, I feel like I’m taking a walk, which is not a pastime I usually practice in real life, either. (Partly because I’m lazy, but also because I have more entertaining ways of spending my time.) If a game offers no challenge, I’m not motivated to bother with it, either.

So there’s me waffling. Story can be both extremely important and extremely unimportant, but it all depends on the game. (By the way, while I’ve not played Destiny, my husband has, and he stopped playing for its “story” after just a couple single-player sessions. Now it’s only about the multiplayer.)

The Last of Us ranks pretty highly for me and that’s largely on the strength of the narrative and characterisation and Papers, Please manages to tell a gripping story through gameplay via the decisions that you have to make on a daily basis.

It’s not essential; but it’s pretty important to me.