Perhaps you can make a successful game without a decent narrative, but I think he underestimated how much of the enjoyment comes from developing an attachment to the avatar.
You can develop an attachment in a game like Doom or Quake just by feeling amazing acquiring a new weapon and being terrified when entering a new room on low health.
The player is supposed to be the avatar. You aren't playing Gordon Freeman, you are some space marine fighting the hordes of hell or dimensions incomprehensible.
You have an emotional investment in your character because your success or failure in combat dictates if you live or die. It is surely a simple connection, but it also certainly exists. It is implicit to almost any video game.
I guess I've never gotten that vibe before—the only thing tying me to the protagonist is being human, which sometimes doesn't even hold true. The idea that I would even want to be a space marine is absurd. Why would I want to get shot at?
It makes much more sense it you view it as a target practice game instead of one with a narrative.
