Originally posted by MightyChasm
I honestly do not think I have played a compelling story in any mmo, even those designed entirely around the story (SWTOR). But then I've got single-player games, books, TV, film for that- I don't really log into an mmo for its story.  

Exactly my thoughts.  I find every MMO to have kind of a hokey story, I play for the gameplay, the combat, and the collection.  These people usually aren't bestselling authors, you know.. and the more serious the attempt, the harder it crashes to me, ala TSW.

Originally posted by Sheista

Originally posted by Emeraq

Originally posted by Cik_Asalin

EVE Online.  Make your own story rather than following a pre-scripted one like a dog on a leash.

 The answer to any question about what is best is always subjective... But your answer is likely the most subjective one I've heard, but in a fun way.... Some people suck at story telling :). So Eve might be good for you as it pertains to creating your own fun and story, but to others that don't role play, are horrible at role play, or don't call killing things endlessly and without meaningful progression fun, then Eve and other sandbox games would fall WAY short in the story department.

I don't think you get what he means by story.  No offense.  It doesn't have to do with roleplaying in the "Acting as a character" point.  It's not that sort of story-telling.

EVE is unique in the sense that the game world itself revolves around the players and their actions and interactions.  The backstory in EVE is actually very well written and detailed by CCP.  It on its own is pretty impressive.  However, the things that happen in the game world happen on such an epic scale that they rival that of the NPC driven side of the story.  The espionage, multi-month/year wars that cost ridiculously huge sums of money and the cooperation of thousands of other players, the huge alliance wars; all player driven.  The market even plays a role in the stories.

That may not seem like a story to you, but this is a game where the content IS the game world (or universe in this case).  The players ARE the characters in the story of the entire universe.  In other games, you're just playing through a story that's already predetermined, with their own characters that you simply interact with.

This ^^^. I am amazed how often people say they don't like sandboxes because they would rather the stories were written by MMO writers rather than players. It is the difference between reading a book and writing your own book through your actions in game.

Let's see how Defiance is doing when it is released.

It is the first MMO that will deliver part of the story through a tv show. i am hoping at least the story will be good.