Video games matter. We can take that as a truth. The real question is why they matter to us. What draws us to video games over other forms of art and storytelling? Games have a unique property for exploration, allowing us to discover new things. This exploration of possibilities isn’t just in the game’s story, but its systems as well. Playing a game allows us to uncover and experiment with those systems, even as we uncover and absorb the story of the game’s world. Check out this article about the exploration of possibilities in video games. IGN has the story.
You can see both sides of this coin in the gaming world. Pro gamers explore the systems behind the games in minute detail, like fighting games that are broken down to frame-by-frame plays. Meanwhile, you have people playing games over and over just to hear new lines of dialogue or to set off a different plot point.
Story and mechanics are both worth exploring, and gaming is unique in that it so easily combines the two into one experience.