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Story and Events. Don't be fooled
Kusya
Member Posts: 29
The story and events in mxo have no appeal. The writer must be on crack or something to spurt out stuff like giant fly monster, pewpew laser eyes and dancing pair of LEGS.
Story poorly written and players have no influence on it. That is is you are lucky to participate, because believe it or not, Live Events are kept SECRET. So when it happens, if you don't have the chance to know the right players, you are more likely to never stumble into one.
Events generally consist on: Meeting somewhere (generally a club), Chasing someone, killing NPCs. That's it.
Story progression happens like once a month.
Fanbois will also tell you that the community is the best. Well of course, the small numbers of subscribers are divided into 2: matrix fans and juvenile pvpers. If you can impress them by polishing their ego or talking about pvp sploitz and leet tactics, they might accept you in their little circle. And if you happen to be hardcore fan, they might even invite you to sit with them on their bench, telling matrix stories while waiting for the next event.
Story poorly written and players have no influence on it. That is is you are lucky to participate, because believe it or not, Live Events are kept SECRET. So when it happens, if you don't have the chance to know the right players, you are more likely to never stumble into one.
Events generally consist on: Meeting somewhere (generally a club), Chasing someone, killing NPCs. That's it.
Story progression happens like once a month.
Fanbois will also tell you that the community is the best. Well of course, the small numbers of subscribers are divided into 2: matrix fans and juvenile pvpers. If you can impress them by polishing their ego or talking about pvp sploitz and leet tactics, they might accept you in their little circle. And if you happen to be hardcore fan, they might even invite you to sit with them on their bench, telling matrix stories while waiting for the next event.
Comments
Giant fly monsters and laser beams aren't silly except in your and some others' perception. You can take any fantasy or SF movie and bash ideas. Be it Matrix or whatever else.
Not that you hadn't the right to find them silly and voice it, but this is nothing of objective value.
The legs... weren't stupid as long as they weren't dancing. That was one of the few humorous things I wish would never have happened, but considering the tiny part it took, I can live with it. Or not. No, I really hate it...
Players don't have an influence on it, and I don't see how that makes it bad.
"That is if you are lucky to participate, because believe it or not, Live Events are kept SECRET. So when it happens, if you don't have the chance to know the right players, you are more likely to never stumble into one.
Events generally consist on: Meeting somewhere (generally a club), Chasing someone, killing NPCs. That's it.
Story progression happens like once a month."
Yea, they're hard to participate in, yet many of them have a bunch of players in them, many of which are the same.
Events often are secret, because they're not meant to have the entire player base in them, whether for game or story purposes. Then again, many are announced by system messages EVERYBODY can see in the game, so you might want to think again.
And lol at the rest. Each event either progresses the storyline, fills it out, or develops/shows a character. This is interwoven with *weekly* critical missions everybody can access.
What happens once a month, or rather once in six weeks, is chapter/cinematic release.
If you think only the chapter number and the short movies progress the storyline, and the events, indeed, don't contain anything more, like interesting dialogues or twists, or tasks that involve "persuading" or conversation - you know very little to nothing.
Your criticism, to a large part, is based on lack of knowledge, so you might want to overthink it.
No matter how much you'll bash the game and support each other with QFTs, it won't change the fact that in the area of MxO's events and storyline, you two are nothing short of ignoramuses who base opinions on lack of knowledge and observation.
Baff is someone who will adhere to his false and ludicrous opinions no matter how hard he's disproved, because he admittedly isn't open for being proven anything.
So please, continue supporting each other - it'll have more of an entertainment value than informative value, if you know what I mean.
And your point? You don't like the game, a small group of people do like the game. So why come here and complain about it?
I dont go to your hang out and pee in the slurpie machine, so why are are you coming here to complain? Go find whatever it is you enjoy and have fun. We wont complain.... really.
It's another question if this opinion is misinformed and invalid
So you come here about every 2 months and post how much you dont like the game, but at the same time you play it, and have been playing it since beta?
Troll much?
I see your point, and it's good.
I certainly wont try to argue the value of the storyline.... it is B- at the best, and F+ when they had green lasers...
But to play devils advocate, I would think it would be a chore to do the story at all. If you consider the issues with writing a story with 200+ uncontrolled actors, none of them you can actually kill. Then toss in the story fanatics with the books, comics. anime and lack of project funds.... Ugh sounds miserable. The story itself is pretty bad, but I would give them a A for effort and even trying.
You think Morpheus is invulnerable (and are uninformed of all the hints that he might not be dead actually), and Neo is dead, and thus the story sucks because it differs from your assumptions.
And although I realize the subjectivity of the question, I can't stop myself from laughing at the laser beam complaints. People seem to be so convinced that it's wrong, regardless of all the other fantastical stuff happened in the movies, and no one could really explain it.
Players are involved into live events, action and dialogue likewise, and are occasionally mentioned in "official" content, otherwise recognized or get a bit freedom in live events, but they are by no means anything close to "actors" or "characters" for the story.
And there are much less than 200 characters...
What books? I've never heard of any fictional Matrix novels. Comics? If there are any references to the Matrix comics in MxO, they are sooo marginal. Anime? So yea, four/five episodes of the Animatrix series were canonical pieces of the story. So what, so were the movies.
I mean, oh my god, writing a storyline based on a movie, with all the fan(atic)s... I honestly have no clue what you're talking about.
Lack of project funds? Yea, they've gone from 20 LET members and five mission writers to one multi-tasked dev because of this. At least a point, but this rather goes at the cost of immersion, density and pace, not necessarily the quality.
Well in all honesty, I was just trying to be fair to the people who have to write the story. I think it would be difficult to do, and was trying to cut them some slack.
What is your point?
what i said earlier was just a little bit of what i really think about the story. the truth is the story just plain sucks. it doesnt give you much to do. all it is is more people pop up for you to fight and sometimes agents pop up. and if you miss these events sucks to be you. so its pointless to me. what i really think about killin off morpheus was it was at the beginning of the game. i played when it first came out for a couple of months and remember that. it was stupid the game just came out and they kill off an important character. who does that and expects people to be happy about that? plus neo needs to come back alive. they gave so many hints in the end of the movie and in the interviews for the game he has to. he never did. a good time for neo to come back was when they killed morpheus. these people suck at makin a story. lets just screw over the resistence they said in my opinion. now i havnt played in awhile so i dont know much about it today. but unless they make some dramatic twist in the story and bring some people back and actually make a point in pvp and make the fighting system fun again i will never play again.
A singularity just poped up somewhere in Germany and is beginning to consume all things ironic.
The events shouldn't be called events, the OP is correct. The name rings a bell too.
Players are involved into live events, action and dialogue likewise, and are occasionally mentioned in "official" content, otherwise recognized or get a bit freedom in live events, but they are by no means anything close to "actors" or "characters" for the story.
And there are much less than 200 characters...
What books? I've never heard of any fictional Matrix novels. Comics? If there are any references to the Matrix comics in MxO, they are sooo marginal. Anime? So yea, four/five episodes of the Animatrix series were canonical pieces of the story. So what, so were the movies.
I mean, oh my god, writing a storyline based on a movie, with all the fan(atic)s... I honestly have no clue what you're talking about.
Lack of project funds? Yea, they've gone from 20 LET members and five mission writers to one multi-tasked dev because of this. At least a point, but this rather goes at the cost of immersion, density and pace, not necessarily the quality.
The game was marketed as having bi weekly events where players would influence the future of the matrix universe. But the game didn't sell, the events stopped, development stopped, most of the players left, and now it's a shell of a game that's more of a gimmick than a game.
yllis:
Well in all honesty, I was just trying to be fair to the people who have to write the story. I think it would be difficult to do, and was trying to cut them some slack.
What is your point?
My point was that I either disagree with or don't understand your arguments.
If you're trying to be fair to the story writers by saying "they write a story for 200 actors", I confusedly raise my eyebrow and ask myself "wtf, what 200 actors??"
There was no hidden meaning behind my reply or something.
freiheit:
The game was marketed as having bi weekly events where players would influence the future of the matrix universe. But the game didn't sell, the events stopped, development stopped, most of the players left, and now it's a shell of a game that's more of a gimmick than a game.
Yea, you're just repeating/extending what I said above. I know all of this already, thanks.
And those are events. You can call them differently if it makes you sleep better, though
My personal feeling when I watched that cinematic was "whoa", because it was like a bomb.
When a character stays alive no matter what, some people find this stupid or boring, too.
Main characters staying alive is not a criterion for a good story, neither is the opposite.
Plus, at this point it's safe to say that Morpheus or his death still have a role to play in the Matrix, and to assume that Morpheus is alive.
As for Neo - I don't know when you left, but I'm pretty sure that Neo fragments plot at the beginning wasn't about Neo being alive, it was about fragments he left in the Matrix foreseeing the current threat.
Morpheus was aiming to get his *body* back.
I must have missed all the hints that he's alive - only the one in the mysterious Morpheus transmission after his death, which is definite enough.
Anyway, I don't think it was really clear in "Revolutions" that he was dead, or deleted - there was some doubt there. So playing with this idea isn't as absurd.
And why the hell do you think Neo should have come back when Morpheus was killed? I mean, I just find it funny when people suggest something about a storyline and then say it sucks because it turns out to be different. The story sucks because Neo didn't come back at Morpheus' death? Yea...
I'm afraid the story doesn't have to fear criticism if it has such arguments. Just sorry.
Person.
And if it was difficult to do, they wouldn't have left it to the beta tester.
The point of playing role play games, the point of playing interactive video games instead of watching films or reading books, is that YOU are the protagonist. It's YOUR story. YOU are the hero. The plot centres on YOU.
A server admin chatting somewhere in a room with some of his friends doesn't cut it.
The story sucks because it doesn't directly and integrally involve every single player. It fundamantally fails to drive the gaming experience for the players. It's just meaningless Matrix babble. Background spam.
Your story, you're the protagonist... man, you're talking about single player games, don't you get it? If you have an MMO which is supposed to tell one whole story... you can't be the protagonist, because you're one of many players.
Either the game involves all players in some minor way (and they need luck or work to get more involved, or something), because it has resources, or it doesn't have resources and involves some and not 24/7.
Before SOE took over, it was much closer to the first one... now, well, not.
And Baff... you forgot what I told you several times? Critical missions? They're identical for all players, which means, each player IS the protagonist.
Or do you think the actual STORY has to be centered around you in an MMO? No. There is no universal rule how an MMO should be, this is nothing but a very narrow preference. You can aswell have an MMO with admin controled main characters, and you players interacting with them. There is NOTHING worse about this concept, even if it doesn't apply to yourself.
"Chatting somewhere in a room with his friends", "meaningless babble, background spam" - yup, because it doesn't involve you as a protagonist, it's meaningless babble. I mean, this totally makes sense... not.
Another proof how little you understand when someone tries to explain something to you - but I'm used to it by now.
"The story sucks", and "I can't experience it entirely" are too different things, because the story is going on with you or without you. It can be the way that only the writers know everything, and involve players in different parts, so it's difficult to get a coherent picture. The story still wouldn't suck because of this.
But this isn't even really the case in MxO, because what happens in events is public knowledge, to high detail degree. So, if you can experience or read the entire storyline either in the game or on the forums (which only show what happened *in the game*, just not for everybody), it's already stupid to say "it sucks" because you weren't there - you can follow it detailedly.
PS: It's two persons actually, not counting the special player interest group. When the Unlimit arc began, it were three - at the time of the Complete Corruptors, it were like 25.
I've played the Critical missions. They are the "high point" of the games storyline.
Either the game's story involves all the players directly, "In some way" doesn't cut it, or it is poorly written.
This isn't a single player game, this isn't a comic book, it's a multiplayer game. That's the medium.
There is a universal rule for all video games. In fact there is a universal rule for all games. Each player must be an active participant. If you aren't actively involved in the Story line, then it is not part of your game. That it might have been part of someone elses game, doesn't realy matters.
There are no pre-defined rules for writing MMO stories or Role play stories of any kind. However there many many examples of what works in this format and what does not. There are numerous examples of what has made a successful plot device and what has not.
Story telling for role play games is not a new concept. You couldn't possible get a bigger disaster than failing to engage your players. That is after all your target audience and art of stroytelling in a roleplay enviroment..
The story sucks. It sucks because it is poorly written. Not because of the Matrix theme. Because the writer doesn't fulfill the fundamental requirements of the medium for which he is writing.
Perhaps if he was writing for a "Matrix Blog" instead of an interactive game his results would be more acceptable.
I've played the Critical missions. They are the "high point" of the games storyline.
Another example of different people perceiving this in different ways - because I've heard some MxO players say exactly the opposite. You know, missions being static, events alive and immersive - that, of course, when they get to partake
Either the game's story involves all the players directly, "In some way" doesn't cut it, or it is poorly written.
Logically, it's two different things. A story can be richly written, but not immerse the players enough.
This isn't a single player game, this isn't a comic book, it's a multiplayer game. That's the medium.
So if you distinguish this multiplayer game medium from the single player game medium - how can you think about being a protagonist? I mean, this is the medium, or not?
How does this medium tell a storyline, anyway?
Through "static", all-accessible content?
Ot through live content? Schematically, the full potential of the medium's storytelling aspect is used in this form, as it's basically a live storyline happening right there.
I would now start going on about advantages and disadvantages of more public and more private live content, but it's a stark truth that MxO would be significantly better if all players would have a much higher chance to partake in live content, even if not always in an important role or event - I mean, that's kind of realistic or not.
It's apparent that a player wouldn't experience "everything" life and would have to ask or read up about the stuff he missed to get a better picture - but in case of MxO, it's rather event or nothing in this regard. Maybe not quite, but close.
I suppose you also wouldn't bash as much if this was the case - despite your protagonist talk.
There is a universal rule for all video games. In fact there is a universal rule for all games. Each player must be an active participant. If you aren't actively involved in the Story line, then it is not part of your game. That it might have been part of someone elses game, doesn't realy matters.
It can matter, with according interests.
There are no pre-defined rules for writing MMO stories or Role play stories of any kind. However there many many examples of what works in this format and what does not. There are numerous examples of what has made a successful plot device and what has not.
Story telling for role play games is not a new concept. You couldn't possible get a bigger disaster than failing to engage your players. That is after all your target audience and art of stroytelling in a roleplay enviroment.
This is right to a high degree, but not entirely because players still get something out of the storyline if not partaking in every event.
The story sucks. It sucks because it is poorly written. Not because of the Matrix theme. Because the writer doesn't fulfill the fundamental requirements of the medium for which he is writing.
Again, poorly written and unsufficiently immersive IS NOT THE SAME THING.
i guess your right sean. i cant believe im sayin this. havin people alive all the time does get boring. plus just killin off people might get boring to. but the story events are pretty boring though. when i played all that happen during an event is more enemies popped up. then there was this one event that tried to get everyone to a certain area but it was stupid and nothin really happened. pretty much all events are is more enemies popped up. maybe its changed i dont know. i guess if you listened to the story it might be interesting but im more interested in playing than listening to people. plus the fun events only last for a certain amount of time. if you miss it sucks to be you. like the agents popping out and fighting everyone that was fun. then i started to think what if i wasnt playing at that moment? what if i decided to do somethin else at that time? i would of missed it. thats not fair in my opinion. than the last thing is what if you want to do something else besides the event? the events usually involve everyone on the game. so if you are doin a mission and all of a sudden these agents popped up at an event your screwed.
so the summed up reasons to why i dont like this game anymore is: fighting system is screwed up by soe, story events arnt enough to keep me playin, not much to do after lvl 50, pvp is pointless.
now if im wrong and they have changed some stuff let me know. maybe ill reconsider the game.
All I was saying is that having characters alive, dying or returning from the dead at specific moments aren't exactly criterions for story quality. Just to explain my points.