Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door....Several Decades of Story Telling

In text "half-real" Juul makes the argument that rules of a game are the most important factor of a game and it's worth. Now much like Eric's opinion in his blog on Devil May Cry I tend to disagree with this idea. Rules are just the binder that makes the game a game, and gives guidelines for the social contract on the game; this is important because this is a form of honor and respect even if it is for a single player game toward yourself or toward a computer in a video game. I believe that for video games that the story is more important than the rules themselves in establishing value and importance.
Lets take for example the Mario Sagas, in this case specifically Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Now most Mario games have a similar storyline: Mario goes on an epic quest to save Peach and/or the world, and battle Boss(es) - namely Bowser. Not highly original in the video game world, but it is an important classic storyline that appeals both in game and in literature/movies/plays/etc. Most people appreciate the pure soul traveling to far off lands to be a savior of someone or something; it's understandable that a player wants to be part of an epic quest that has romanticized by history and culture. Now the storyline is fairly simplistic and the character development is pretty much flat, but it is this archetypal story that draws a player in to keep playing these games over and over again.