TaterTot

I actually agree with basically all your points. But the Han Solo fan and pedant in me has to protest one claim.

Han acknowledging the Jedi as a fairy tale would be an improvement, but in A New Hope he just straight up says “I’ve been all over the galaxy and never heard of any shit like that”

Han doesn’t say he’s never heard of the Jedi, rather he echoes the apparetly prevalent view point of Admiral Motti from earlier in the movie, referring to the Force/Jedi as a “hokey religion”. And then goes on to talk about it like it’s a bullshit legend:

I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It’s all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.

Which, all the other massive plot holes in the prequels aside, would make sense in context. Canonically, Han was about 10 when Order 66 happened. So the fact that he has heard of the Jedi and the Force, but believes it’s all superstition and tall tales checks out.

Now, that I can get off that soap box… Yeah, the Prequels kinda felt like they were written by someone who had only heard the story of StarWars through the telephone game…

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No, the windows updater usually grabs them just fine.

But if you do a clean install using the image from microsoft, then it’s very likely it won’t have a working wifi driver until you run updates. Which you know… it needs the internet to do.

Who smells like freaking Porpoise Hork!?

And here I thought it would hold down…

Go figure.

This is a fun question! Before I start ranting my opinions, I’d love to turn it back on you, where do you fall on the topic?

As for me, I think it’s important to start by saying narrative motivations are not necessary for me to enjoy a game. I can, have, and will play games devoid of them purely for the gameplay, story, art, fantasy, challenge, etc.

That said, I’ve absolutely played games where a strong narrative motivation enhanced my experience. I think this works best, at least for me, when the character and I share a motivation.

Some examples: not going Hollow in Dark Souls, killing Benny and taking over the Strip in New Vegas, gaining strength to kick Vile’s ass in Mega Man X, saving Ellie in The Last of Us, and feeding my Tamagotchi in… Tamagotchi.

On the flip side, when I can’t empathize with a character’s motivations, or worse, when they constantly complain about doing the things I want to do, it really kills my desire to play. That’s why I’m more of a Bartz fan than, say, Squall or Lightning.

So I guess my point, or TL;DR, is this: narrative motivations work best as a driving force when they help immerse me in my character’s role by giving us a shared goal. They’re not essential, but they can absolutely elevate the experience.