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Do MMO Players Really Feel That the Story Should Revolve Around Them?
fat_taddler
Member Posts: 286
This seems to be the trend with newer games and seems like it will continue with upcoming releases like TESO.
I may be in the minority here but I prefer to be a citizen of the world where cool stuff is happening that I can take part in but I certainly don't need to have my ego stroked regularly through personal stories and phased quests that declare me to be some great hero.
Overall, I think the "I am the hero" mentality is forcing developers to implement game mechanics that actually detract from what made MMO's so much more collaborative in the past.
Comments
I don't pay attention to the story at all. It seems so silly to me that I just started a game, I'm a level 1 nobody and they're calling me a hero.
To each his own though, I can ignore the story and go about my business. Let the game makers continue doing it if they think it helps player's self esteem.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
Not all games start off with you being the hero. Playing as a sith warrior or inquisitor in Swtor both started off without lights abets, learning to fight with me lee weapons, also the Jedi started off in Jedi training complex.
As for making you the saviour of the galaxy, it is a bit lame as everyone around you is also saviour of the galaxy... But if your nothing special then how will people recruit you to do there quests? Unless you wanna go through some training and recruitment audition for each quest with a new NPc.
This is why i like TSW, all the factions go out of their way to say "your not special, Your part of a army" Even in some of the mission turn in's they say things like "others have had similar experiances doing what you have done".
Simply put in TSW you aren't the hero. they even sarcasticly joke about being "the chosen one"
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
Add me to the list of people who do not need to be made the "All Mighty Savior" of the world to enjoy a game. That crap is bad enough in a single player game. And when used in a MMO where there are thousands of "One True Saviors" running around it just becomes absurd.
Personally I'm sick of this new trend of having story driven content in MMOs at all. When I play a game I want to make my own story though action, you know like by playing the fucking game. Not by reading watching or listening to someone else's canned diatribe.
When I play a game I want to play a game not take a passive role in a script written to some other dickweed's idea of what is heroic or interesting, whether the story revolves directly around my character or not. If I wanted a good story I'd have just headed to my bookshelf, not a computer game.
If you dont do stupid things while youre young, youll have nothing to smile about when youre old.
For my MMOs, the story doesnt matter at all. I'm looking for gameplay and replayability. Some MMO's have some good lore, but it's one of the last things I look for in one.
For single player RPGs the story better be damn good though.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
People complain about that in t he GW2.... that they take a backseat at the end.
I don't care one bit. A story is a story. Did Tasslehoff complain about the other characters in the Dragonlance series taking a front seat... and he being relegated to the back seat? How about the other characters in Drizzt novels?
People need to get over the whole "world revolves around me" issue. You are but a pebble in a field of pebbles... you are not special... you are not unique.
I think LoTRO did it right also.... your tale entwined with the Fellowship... it did not overshadow it.
Complete non issue for me.If the story is good it doesn't matter if I'm the chosen one or one of many I'll enjoy it.If the story is meh thne I'll probably jsut skip through it.
I don't think story is influencing game mechancis at all.It's palyers that are anti social and lazy not the mechanics in most cases.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
On these forums there's a sense of snobbery or hipsterish attitude towards what you like in games.
I'm not going to direct this at anyone in particular...
Lets get this straight: if you want to be a hero and have it shoved in your face it by no means makes you a bad gamer or is it a crutch; it's just what you like. People need to stop acting like THEIR style of play somehow makes them better or more adult.
I'm all for either approach, but I don't like when it's forced on a player. The lore of an MMO when it starts takes a major backseat, but as the game ages the lore is a huge deal in terms of longevity.
I think if people like a more childish concept then it does make their views less adult, if that makes me a hipster then I am happy to be one.
"You Are The Hero" is largely descended from that type of fiction (a legitimate precursor of MMOs). Stylistically, I find it marginally repulsive, but ultimately? A tempest in a teapot.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
The fact that you think it's a childish concept is actually less adult. I'm sure if someone said you weren't adult because you liked online games; you'd scoff at them also..
If you are actually adding a value judgement to what someone says based on the gameplay style they like... something is misfiring between your ears.
A lot of MMO players I feel don't even really care about the story. At the same time, i think its players that want the 'world' to revolve around them, reacting to them and changing based off what they do (aka sandbox). This is something that hasn't really been done on an MMO level. The best example of this working well would be Minecraft due to the fact primarily that servers can be remade or redone on the fly, giving everyone an equal oppurtunity to develop their own world as they see fit. Games like eve show a good example of why Sandbox games don't work in terms of making the player feel in control as its those 'top dogs' who will be at top and stay ontop unless they decide to quit and slowly recline drop down in the rankings over a long period of time.
Story itself can work in an MMo and can in some ways form around the player. The thing is most players just don't care about the story as much as they do about the world in which they want to change, something that is very difficult to pull off and even more so difficult to pull off if your 'late to the game'.
I played EVE for almost 4 years, and in that entire time I can tell you there's 4 player races and each has some core creed behind them. That's as much of the storyline as I know.
However, in that time I read about the exploits of various players, heroes and viliians, tyrants and despots in many cases, and I loved the fact the stories were about the players, the player corps and the alliances. Goonswarm, BOB, Northern Coalition, TEST, I fought with and against many of them, I was in fact an active participant even though I never acheived any real personal glory or recogition. (but the opportunity was there, if only I didn't have this damn day job)
That is the real story/lore that I want in my MMORPGs, not some artificial construct made up by Developers.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
A good professional produced story gives a nice excuse for killing stuff. Much better than ... oh .. i need to level, so let's go grind mobs.
The only new trend is people coming forward and saying everything is new, and the old days things were peachy rosey perfect, todays kids blah blah.
Sorry, Asherons Call opening, YOU, the hero are portalled into the world, called by Asheron himself to save it. In, fact even in stories where you are not the CENTER, you are the HERO...even in EverQuest...thus you are still central to the story. Its the very heart of ROLE PLAYING games. You are the center of the story, or play a vital role in it...sure wouldnt want to play World of Shovels, where you play Leroy Jenkins...the farmer peon nobody cares about because he aint good fur nutin. Though, that could be an interesting role play for giggles...in a real MMO about heroes.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
I don't mind a character hero story, except when the game mechanics make it so intrusive that it's impossible or unrewarding to do anything else.
Allow me to be the hero? Fine. Force me to be the hero? I'm not happy.