it really was the back  burner to game play, I dont know what this facination about mmorpgs and story is about, but mmorpgs were good when gameplay was good, not story, I did not play EQ for the story, I did not play UO for the story, I played them for the gameplay, I played them for the exploration, to overcome mighty creatures that in todays mmorpgs I can gather up 4-5 of them and solo them easily with any class. In UO, UO HAD NO STORY, it really didnt, what made UO great was the player base

the gameplay, the wars, players made their own stories not the devs. This whole facination with story is ruining todays mmorpgs, less focus on story, less focus on sparkly shiny things, and more focus on gameplay.

Truth be told I agree with you.  The story of each and every mmorpg I played intrigued me and was in there, but not the complete focus likes todays games strive to go.  I hate to do this and say this old cliche, but...ah nevermind.  Story should be important, but yes, gameplay is the key to immersion and success from my point of view.

Reply to exciting, new, and original thread #344288:

A few MMOs have a story element.  If you don't like them, don't play them.  MMORPGs don't have to follow your sovereign vision of success - developers have the freedom to reach in other directions and try different things.  Isn't 'innovation' one of the key elements you people rail on about?  It doesn't happen overnight, so give the genre a few iterations worth of time and do something else.

Play the ones that don't focus on story.  There's lots of them too.

I agree, story is for single player games, virtual worlds exist for you to do with as you will imho.

Originally posted by dannydeuce

Truth be told I agree with you.  The story of each and every mmorpg I played intrigued me and was in there, but not the complete focus likes todays games strive to go.  I hate to do this and say this old cliche, but...ah nevermind.  Story should be important, but yes, gameplay is the key to immersion and success from my point of view.

It can even be said about world of warcraft, Vaniella world of warcraft never had a story, it was about you choose alliance, you choose horde, and you live in an ever evolving world. THats when WoW was at its best, then expansion after expansion WOW tried to incorporate heavy lore and story while changing the gameplay of WoW and less focus on WoWs gameplay to where we are at today.

I agree.  Lineage had a huge story as a backdrop, but the players didn't play through that story.  They played in the world of that story.  I sort of miss that sort of environment.

While the storyline isn't really that important of a part of a game, there's no advantage to having a bad storyline over a good one.

i agree with the op. i like my mmo's minimal story, more gameplay. I should shape the world, not the developers script.

I agree.... Lore, I'm all about it. But Get story's the F out of my MMORPGs. 

I think we're seeing a developing trend where story is just becoming a cheap crutch, which is a damn shame.

Originally posted by Quizzical

While the storyline isn't really that important of a part of a game, there's no advantage to having a bad storyline over a good one.

but there is a disadvantage when there is a certain focus over gameplay.

I guess I've always considered a role playing game (mmoRPG) to be best when based heavily on stories and character development, and player interaction.

I'd rather play in an interesting vibrant living world than a generic void with "good gameplay."

I don't agree. Story is hugely important for games labled as  "MMORPG". Otherwise it's just an "MMOG", so to label a game as an MMORPG and not really have much of an involved story element to the game is really misleading and to not have story in it is just lazy development. It's a long overdue feature in these games and I truly believe in order for the genre to move forward, story and player choice are going to become increasingly more important to these games, otherwise they'll continue to stagnate as they've been doing and then the genre will just die.

You're a fan of what is now "old school" MMOG gameplay, and that's fine but I don't think you'll be seeing anymore of that in the next 10+ years, if ever. Story is something I've seen players in EVERY MMO I've played wish for. Every single time it was a hot topic of the community, players wishing for a significant degree of storyline and putting the "RPG"  into the term "MMORPG".

Originally posted by Valentina

I don't agree. Story is hugely important for games labled as  "MMORPG". Otherwise it's just an "MMOG", so to label a game as an MMORPG and not really have much of an involved story element to the game is really misleading and to not have story it is just lazy development. It's a long overdue feature in these games and I truly believe in order for the genre to move forward, story and player choice are going to become increasingly more important to these games, otherwise they'll continue to stagnate as they've been doing and then the genre will just die.

 

You're a fan of what is now "old school" MMOG gameplay, and that's fine but I don't think you'll be seeing anymore of that in the next 10+ years, if ever. Story is something I've seen players in EVERY MMO I've played wish for. Every single time it was a hot topic of the community, players wishing for a significant degree of storyline and putting the "RPG"  into the term "MMORPG".

Originally posted by nomatics856

Originally posted by Quizzical

While the storyline isn't really that important of a part of a game, there's no advantage to having a bad storyline over a good one.

but there is a disadvantage when there is a certain focus over gameplay.

If it comes at the expense of gameplay, then sure.  But often, it's not an either/or proposition.  If you're going to have a given quest with given game mechanics, then there's no advantage to making the quest text semi-coherent broken English rather than witty and amusing.

Originally posted by Khaeros

Reply to exciting, new, and original thread #344288:

reply to exciting, new, and original reply #347872:

awesome story, bro. got pics to go with that?

Originally posted by kadepsyson

I guess I've always considered a role playing game (mmoRPG) to be best when based heavily on stories and character development, and player interaction.

The RP in the acronym is gibberish to the people who want FPS twitch skillzzz taktikool kombat with boring and uninspired theme, world, and lore.

When you say roleplaying, they think it means picking a class and then being that class.

I think people confuse lore with stories. Lore sets the stage and players make the stories in more sandboxy mmos. Developer created stories like in GW2, TOR, and TSW are cool. But I look at it as a nice bonus feature instead of a cornerstone.

Originally posted by Khaeros

Originally posted by kadepsyson

I guess I've always considered a role playing game (mmoRPG) to be best when based heavily on stories and character development, and player interaction.

 

The RP in the acronym is gibberish to the people who want FPS twitch skillzzz taktikool kombat with boring and uninspired theme, world, and lore.

 

When you say roleplaying, they think it means picking a class and then being that class.

Ha, now that isn't fair.  One can want FPS twitch skillzzz taktikool kombat and still want an immersive and persistant world.  I know I do...

Originally posted by headphones

reply to exciting, new, and original reply #347872:

awesome story, bro. got pics to go with that?

Also that wasn't my reply number