Is there a trope for this? A gamer who ignores lore, story, etc.

A type of gamer who skips all cutscenes, does not care about story, does not care about dialogues etc. This type of character only cares about running around and blowing shit up/jumping platforms, and by the end, has no idea what most character's names and motivations are. Is there a trope to describe such gamers?

The "only in it for the gameplay, doesn't even know a story exists" type of gamer?

Think...players of Diablo2 and Star Craft. Most people completely skips the mission briefing, and in Diablo2, most people don't bother to speak with NP Cs, and immediately ends all of the dialogue and just read the mission objective. In the end, I've seen people who didn't even know Izual was an angel. Or thought Duriel was Tal Rasha. In fact, most players don't even play through D2, most would ask a max level character to help them clear all the bosses and dungeons while they sit back and wait.

To be honest I thought this was what a Scrub was until reading that page.

edited 23rd Aug '11 5:40:51 PM by Signed

Well... Waste of Time Story might be close to what you're describing, but no, there's no trope like that.

edited 23rd Aug '11 5:35:05 PM by Marioguy128

It doesn't exactly describe the kind of player, but Waste of Time Story describes the phenomenon.

It's the opposite of a scrub, possibly — proper hardcore fighting game players aren't supposed to care about silly nonsense like story mode and graphics. They're supposed to long for the day when they make a fighting game that consists entirely of hitboxes.

Some guy at Lost And Found pointed out Waste of Time Story as well...

So if a trope for this existed...it would be called Anti Scrub or Waste Of Time Story Player?

I just...want a trope(Scrub,"Stop Having Fun" Guys, etc.) to describe such types because I found I occasionally need to refer to this type when discussing games with single and multiplayer aspects in them...

edited 23rd Aug '11 5:42:01 PM by Signed

im only like that with mmos...

i have no idea why, but there is nothing that sucks my enthusiasm for an mmo, more than a wall of text before and after every quest.

this makes me feel guilty while playing Eden Eternal, since it actually appears to have a plot.

the only mmo i havent done this with is Trickster Online, probably because i started playing a while before they gave the game an overhaul and added chapters and stuff, and lag got in the way so the story was one of the motivational factors for once.

It sounds like something we don't have - as noted, Waste of Time Story isn't really this, it's when a story isn't well received or considered a poor/unnecessary addition to the game.

Make it - call it "Story? What Story?" or something.

edited 23rd Aug '11 5:54:12 PM by KnownUnknown

"Less Story- More Action"?

Munchkin? That's a player who is only focused on "Winning" a game, even if it isn't the point of the game. It's not entirely the same thing but it may help. We have a trope page for it which further sub categorises the type of munchkins there are and one of those categories might be more what you are looking for.

O.P.

Isn't that something called casual gamers?

sounds more like hardcore to me.

From my experience both of them are equally guilty.

But yeah, Waste of Time Story explains the phenomenon. And Munchkin is the closest thing to the player that does this.

Munchkin it is!

^^^ I've...seen both sides doing this.

Yeah, I know people who are either really hardcore or really casual who basically overlook the entire plot of a game. Maybe some variation on the "too long didn't read" meme?

Many MMO gamers are split into two categories:

Those who care about the story, and those who only want the ph4t l3wts.

In Everquest II, the developers have recently been programming the quest NPC's with "Forget the story, just give me work to do" buttons to press so you can skip everything and just get the quest instead of having to cycle through all the dialogue.

edited 23rd Aug '11 7:31:27 PM by DRCEQ

That really confuses me. I mean, an MMO is the last place I'd expect to find this kind of player in.

It wouldn't be a trope; it would be an audience reaction page.

Many MM Os are rich in lore and background. What's the point of creating huge, wide open zones full of monsters to kill and areas to explore if there isn't a story behind why those monsters are there and what kind of conflict they're bringing to the area?

This happens in any sort of multiplayer game, but MM Os get hit hardest.

It's more due to players getting too caught up in the PvE/PvP metagame to bother with anything else.

edited 23rd Aug '11 7:41:09 PM by Neo_Crimson

Thing is, all games should have sufficient lore for players who want it but have an option to effortlessly skip it for those who don't. Most MMO quest descriptions tend to be like this since the 'Accept/Refuse' and 'Complete' buttons are right below the text.

There should be a checkable option to automatically skip all cutscenes or text boxes though, especially for the New Game Plus in Wide-Open Sandbox games where players are likely going to play through umpteen hundred times.

It's called Default!Soldier!Shepard in Mass Effect who skips all dialogue.

The Real Man is a tabletop gaming varient, but it seems to share some of the attributes you described.

@Signed: Duh, in MMO its pretty rare that people sit around reading quest stuff, espicially when your friends have already done them and are waiting you.

I know it's been a while since the last post here, but I ran across this thread while searching for something else.

I've lately been thinking that one could differentiate between two modes of enjoyment of a game. This is somewhat different from Waste of Time Story (which has since been renamed Play the Game, Skip the Story, and is listed as a YMMV trope). (That is a reaction to a specific situation.)

For a mostly mechanical interest in the game, I've started calling this "tinkering", while a mostly narrative interest in the game I've started calling "experiencing". It's close to the Melvin/Vorthos dichotomy in Magic The Gathering's developer commentary, but this is now applied to videogames, which have limited (albeit possibly large) scope but can also present a large, complex narrative.

This mode of enjoyment doesn't have to match the game's own focus itself. One can enjoy a game with a mechanical design focus for its story, while one can enjoy a narratively-focused game's mechanics.

This is of special interest when the two conflict, or work together. For example, when does a complex battle system of a JRPG get in the way of presenting its story, or when does it serve it?

Also note that this mode is not the same for a given player. A person who enjoys one game mechanically may enjoy another game narratively — one may be a tinkerer for one game and an experiencer for another game.

Thing is, though, it's also very difficult to really compare how good they are, or how much one enjoys one over the other, since they're two very different types of enjoyment. "Tinkering" is more detached from the context of the game, naturally — and is conscious of the game being, well, a "game" — it's arguably more "rational" (or whatever is the opposite of "emotion-based"), and it may involve things like stuff done, optimizing, power builds, "sick" combos, speedrunning, etc.. On the other hand, "experiencing" is more associatd with immersion, emotion, empathy, and doing things that would be appropriate for the narrative even if they're not optimal mechanically. And complex mechanics might appeal to the "tinkering" mode, but be bothersome for the "experiencing" mode.

(I probably need better names for them...)

But yeah, to answer OP's question...under the system I've just described, I'd call that "tinkerer". But do note the caveat about generalizing — a person who is "tinkering" for one game might be "experiencing" for another.

Yes, it means you're a filthy casual.