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How can story be important in MMO's?
Drezeks
Member Posts: 51
With the upcoming SWTOR game, everyone is all hyped about story. RPG games like Baldurs Gate. DA:O are great because the unfolding story, and the twists and turns that happen along the way.
But in an mmo, how can story be great? I mean, you know the ending of the story because you've seen or heard people who have already done it. In a single player game, a town might be pillaged by orcs, but in an mmo? There is phasing as seen in LOTRO/WoW, but thats given away by players in chat. Ultimately you know what is going to happen because you see people who have done it before, so the story is just a reason to do something, not an immersive part of the game.
Obviously knowing the ending doesn't ruin the story for some, because people read quest dialogue in games we play now, so my point isn't all inclusive.
Comments
So basically you shouldn't play any game, because someone has already cleared it before and you can't avoid spoilers?
It's just like playing a single player game. Avoid spoilers, you won't get spoiled. There are very rarely idiots that shout in the biggest cities "AERITH DIES LOL".
For my its just the fun of playing the Story with my character sure i might know the end of the story before i reach it myself (even to be honest if it happened than course of my own fault) but that doesn't matter to me since it wasn't MY story!
I believe it doesn't matter if u know the end course someone told u.Its the own experience of the story that matter and for that the story has to be good, after all if i can not enjoy the story of the world i play in how could i enjoy the world in general and therefore the game?
Lots of people read books before others, and it doesn't stop people from reading. A lot of people watch movies before others, and it doesn't stop people from going to see it. A lot of people hear a song before someone else, but it doesn't stop more people from listening to it. Entertainment is about the experience - not just about how it ends. I want to read the quest text or see the events unfold for myself when I am playing a game. I couldn't care less how many people did it before me. The only reason I will be uninterested in reading that book, watching that movie, listening to that music, or playing the game is if a lot of people tell me it sucks, and even then I might try it just to see. So I think the story is very important to be good enough for many people to want to enjoy it for themselves. Now if you're just talking about a crappy game, then yeah, I'll be just fine hearing it from someone else and never spending money on playing it myself.
I've played a lot of mmo's and never experienced in chat people talking about how certain story elements happened so i don't think it will be that big of a problem, especially seeing as with TOR people's stories will be different depending on the choices you make.
http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Azure
Read this. Basically story can be important if it's an active thing that's happening and encompassing the whole of the world, there for everyone to experience as it happens. The above is a great writeup about how one MMORPG actually did this.
It's kind of sad seeing you guys talk about story as if it's some personalized singleplayer experience rather than taking it in the context of an actual virtual world.
You do realize that people on forums tell the story of single player games too right? Plus I knew the "Im your father" phrase way before I even saw star wars, didn't stop me from enjoying it.
She does?! Noooooooooo!!
Because story is everything. I rarely play a game where I load it up and think "Why am I doing this again?"
Actually I did with Quake 2 Multiplayer. That didn't need a story, that was because it was so much awesome fun.
I understand you can find the ending to movies/books, but typically you have to look to find it. In an MMO its basically forced down your throat that no ammount of quest dialogue will change anything in the world. You know the bad guy is going to die, and you know he will be back the next day. The only real equivalent of that in a single player game is starting over (typically).
^^ Is basically how I could see story working in an MMO. SWTOR's route could be interesting, I'm eager to hear how they make the story immersive. I won't be playing it though, just going to read the spoilers
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The importance of story goes beyond it being a surprise to you. There are more story elements than shock and secrets.
I knew how the LOTR film trilogy would end, but I still went to see the films. I have a good idea of where most of the Lotro stories are going, but I still enjoy them.
It would be great if it was all a surprise the OP is right there, but you can still enjoy story, regardless of that.
In a way I do agree as I play singleplayer RPG's if I want to follow a story, MMORPG should go beyond a story as you should be able to make up your own story. But story can be intresting as Scottc explained when it effects the whole ingame world and not just your character or those in your group, cause if the story just effects your character or group you are with then we might aswell stick to singleplayer RPG's to have a greater effect in story.
Now this doesn't mean I am against story, but it does limit the freedom that can be gotten out of a MMORPG, but then again this only goes for (atleast these day's) for a minority of gamers into MMORPG who prefere more freedom as the masses need something that holds their hand else they become bored. For some reason this generation of new gamers seem to have a hard time when a game doesn't hold their hands which results in bashing those games that don't hold their hands instantly. Unfortunaly this isn't game exclusive as this new generation of people are so used to get everything right away or better known as the "I want it all and want it now crowed".
Now I aint talking about ALL new people into games cause I have met plenty of new players who where expecting more freedom in MMORPG then we get out of singleplayer games, but overall we're still a minority reason why this genre has become pretty handholding over the years. Just look at MMORPG that don't really hold players hands as they often get bashed or are hated by the loud forum majority.
Now it may not be important to everyone, but it's also not the only feature of the game. So while many people are very excited for it, you certainly aren't required to be if it's unimportant to you.
Someday we'll all look back on the age of computers - and lol.
1. Make the story factional and global rather than individual. Games designed around end level PvP do this automatically as the player guilds create the story on the fly. PvE orientated games would have the game factions driving the collective story but with players and player-guilds able to join in by attaching themselves to one game faction or the other. As linked above Asheron's Call was the biggest example of this.
You could do a simpler automated version of the same thing where having two game factions who were at war would act like an ongoing public quest where players attached to each side would gain points from war-related quests and whichever side was ahead, their side would have guards and a camp with merchants in the frontier zone. If the other side started to get ahead the camp, guards and merchants would flip over. In a nutshell using PvE for PvP game style consequences.
This wouldn't be very interesting with just two factions but with an EQ style world with a dozen factions, some of whom were permanently at war and some of whom which could cycle between war and peace then the background of the player's story would be constantly changing so it would feel like a different story e.g a player levelling a human warrior up the first time when his side was always winning the war with the orcs might *feel* completely different if he did it a second time when the orcs were always ahead and the frontier zone was full of orc guards.
2. Replayability. Anything that improves replayability will automatically create a more individual story line. If you have multiple starting cities and races and at least some quest-lines that are class-race specific then players get closer to individual stories automatically just by their start choices. You could go further and have some quest-lines with other conditions like crafting skills or which god the character is dedicated to or none. By filtering the content players get to pick a path through the game that is different every time so that character's story is different.
I dont know where you go to have " the story forced down your throat" but i been playing mmos since eq1 and never found out anyy information that didnt want to know . Yea sometimes a mini spoiler or two fall through but the same thing happens with single player rpgs. I knew the end to ff 10 before it released and plenty of other rpg and action platformers before i ever played then. So with all games its were ya go and who you talk to. True enough with mmos open in game chat its much easier to run into asses but its usually easy enough to narrow down who you can hear from ( just to friends guilds parties and main info chat etc) . Maybe its just my play experience but i have had more single player endings spoiled than mmos. Still dont know 100% endings to SWG , EQ2 and WOW but i played about half of all final fantasy games and heard of or know the endings to all.
..By half of FF i mean half the total series i have plaied all the numbered series but the last.. know how it ends though and wasnt even trying to find the ending
Story is needed, well good story anyway, to keep you intrested in the game just like all rpgs. your playing something with 60 plus hours of gameplay you need some story to tell. Hell even the fighters and shooters that find sucess are the ones with some stories to the characters and background
Game play is mostly what keeps people playing after they start but story is what has people thinking about the game in not game play moments( offline, in town , during soloing talking to friends ) good gameplay and strong addictive story makes a good mmo
With all that being said i guess it all depends on weither you want a basic mmo or mmorpg
I challenged my reflection to a staring contest....4 days later i won
For me, an MMORPG with a great story is not as big a deal. What I do need is a setting and a general idea on the forces operating in the game world. Other than that, I would much prefer a game that shows me the general gist of how to play then plop me into the game world and give me total freedom in what I want to do.
I don't need an "Epic Quest Line" with big, blinking exclamation and question marks telling me what to do.
But I DO want gameplay freedom. Give me a decent setting and gaming freedom and I can forge my own story.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
"Blessings have brought you to us. The legends have spoken of this day. We knew it would come.
You are THE HERO of the UNIVERSE"
... just like the 100,000 others who are playing this game.
Don't get me wrong. Interlocking arc style storyline questing can be a lot of fun. Its just that the "main hero" storylines don't make sense to me in MMORPG.
SO why do you choose to drop the RPG from MMORPG?