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.

Originally posted by fat_taddler

This seems to be the trend with newer games and seems like it will continue with upcoming releases like TESO.

 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 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.

My first MMO was grind, grind, grind. I just liked that it was a portable chatroom in a game being browser based versus having to use my MIRC in IRC rooms. Having come from chatrooms/cam sites as time wasters and meeting my boyfriend then from one, he played the game and introduced me to it.

Then I got into a quest based game and did all that reading, being in the story and trying to follow along. I always wished that it was like reading a "choose your own adventure" book where the story changes but that really didn't happen. In that game, it set me as the hero. I could see other heroes doing the same quests though so other people around sort of ruined the appeal months into the game.

Since then - depending on the game I might not even read the quests, depends on if they have any personality.

That has since degraded to sometimes not caring at all about the lore. I don't need explanations to why the characters are there as earlier I may have been curious. I want the gameplay to be fun and crafting to be profitable. I look at that and PVP lately more than quests.

I don't ever want to visit another dungeon again in my life, that part of the hero journey really burned me out in WOW. I had to dedicate to a progression guild schedule - some might call that a second job. In another game and guild I was a class lead and had to constantly talk about "best" setups. Another game, again, progression guild and I got one of the best items on the server but all I was thinking was... I hope we beat this so I can go check on my auctions. I really did give it maximum effort though, once on a BIO break we had during a raid I stubbed my toe and the nail came off, continued playing my healer and just wrapped the bloody toe up in some tissue.

Hero centric quest game just doesn't seem to be my flavor - tried it a few times but it wore thin.

Originally posted by nariusseldon

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.

 

I think the idea is that you make your own reasons to kill mobs without the story.

Most of my LOTRO time was spent wandering the land and simply killing mobs and trying to avoid the quests as I had my own agenda and tried to play it more like an elder scrolls game.

Though at the same time I think there is a certain type of fun to be had by a specific demographic of people who are offered a world and then what fun they have is up to them.

This is not to say I don't like story but I find the start used in morrowind where you got a popup stating "ok, there is a tavern on the left and otherwise you are on your own; good luck!" very compelling.

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by nariusseldon

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.

 

I think the idea is that you make your own reasons to kill mobs without the story.

 

That is the point. There is NO reason to kill mobs except to level and get loot. Whatever imaginery reason you cook up for yourself, does not interact with the context of the game world. You can imagine a orc killed you imaginary in-game father, and thus you are on a revenge rampage .. but no NPC will ever recognize that fact.

And for most gamers, MMOs are just games. They are not going to spend a second writing back stories. And their only interests is progression.

And it is much more boring to grind mob A because it is the most efficient, then questing all over the place because each quest gives me different mobs to kill. So at least there is variations.

Originally posted by Kyleran

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.

/Round of applause

Just ax the story driven junk and put in a alignment system that changes all factions view of my character based on my actions I choose to do. This way if i want to role play a advanced master crafter, who can make better weapons and on rare occasion make weapons not even in the recipes list, I can choose to do so. Also, if i dislike like my own NPC faction i can slowly work against them or just walk away and become neutral if I like.

Alignment in a fantasy world could also allow you to be blessed by certain deitys who are of the same alignment, it would open new classes and abilitys/feats. this is all basic dungeon and dragons stuff here and it has worked.

Cut-scenes with quest NPCs are the largest waste of development resources ever in my opinion. IF they intend to have scripted cut-scenes for class storys, then resources for that would be fine, just allow alignment in those class storys to make sense.

Not everyone wants to be a Hero.

It is hilarious and ironic to see a thread asking 'should an MMO game revolve around your character?' and see so many posts on saying 'The MMO game should revolve around what I want! And I want for the MMO game to NOT revolve around my character!'.

I am an MMO player and yes, for me, the whole MMO story should revolve around my character.

Originally posted by jpnz

It is hilarious and ironic to see a thread asking 'should an MMO game revolve around your character?' and see so many posts on saying 'The MMO game should revolve around what I want! And I want for the MMO game to NOT revolve around my character!'.

 

I am an MMO player and yes, for me, the whole MMO story should revolve around my character.

A lot of people find it pointless, seeing as how the story revolves around *EVERY* character.  You're going to save the world?  So is everyone else!  Big deal!

Originally posted by Cephus404

 

A lot of people find it pointless, seeing as how the story revolves around *EVERY* character.  You're going to save the world?  So is everyone else!  Big deal!

And this is different from any other game?

A lot of people apparently do find some point in it since WoW is still the 'sub-number-king' and EVE still can't break 500k subs.

Speaking from my perspective, yes, I want to save the world.

Are the thousands of others going to? Maybe. Why do I care?

I just care that this plot seems to revolve around my character.

Originally posted by Cephus404

Originally posted by jpnz

It is hilarious and ironic to see a thread asking 'should an MMO game revolve around your character?' and see so many posts on saying 'The MMO game should revolve around what I want! And I want for the MMO game to NOT revolve around my character!'.

 

I am an MMO player and yes, for me, the whole MMO story should revolve around my character.

A lot of people find it pointless, seeing as how the story revolves around *EVERY* character.  You're going to save the world?  So is everyone else!  Big deal!

Exactly. Why on Earth would I want to play an MMO where everyone is Superman? Pointless, indeed.

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Originally posted by fat_taddler

... 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.

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But that's what the millions like. You already said it: you (and me!) are in the minority here.

The mainstream studios make games for the mainstream, they don't make games for "MMO players", they make games for a mass market. The mainstream player plays an MMO today and something completely different tomorrow - but that doesn't matter as long as they buy the games.

I really don't care whether my avatar is the hero to save the world as long as there's a story and its a good one. I've played tons of games where I am merely playing along with some NPC as the protagonist. I could easily play a follower, and think so would anyone else. Its not about stroking anyone's ego its about the story. The story!