Interesting read, I wish we had more articles from writers on this site.

“We writers don’t really have “our” stories. The players are the motivating force for the storytelling--the story is theirs.”

He is the writer, but I beg to differ. It is the writers who create the story that guides us. Unless you are a role player all you will have is the lore background that has been written. Even if you are a roleplayer then it is that story which is the backdrop for your own creative efforts.

Having to take a MMO and give it flesh, story wise cannot have been easy, lets hope they did a grand job as I may be playing this one. :)

Originally posted by Scot

“We writers don’t really have “our” stories. The players are the motivating force for the storytelling--the story is theirs.”

He is the writer, but I beg to differ. It is the writers who create the story tht guides us. Unless you are a role player all you will have is the lore background that has been written. Even if you are a roleplayer then it is that story which is the backdrop for your own creative efforts.

Having to take a MMO and give it flesh, story wise cannot have been easy, lets hope they did a grand job as I may be playing this one. :)

I think what the author is trying to say is that it's the job of the writer to make the story spring from the needs of the player, not the needs of some omnipotent grognard lore-writer.  Much MMO writing tends to spring from slapping a coat of color text onto a game mechanic ("kill ten rats" becomes "Oh, the rats are eating my lovely, precious, fluffy pillows!  Save them!  They're in the storeroom upstairs.").

But the story can become more, integrated into the gradual revelation of the richness of the world's setting, and unwinding the Hero's Journey with the player-as-protagonist.  For those of us who actually value the color text and lore of a game, this is gold.  For an MMO writer to understand that perspective, to play to that immersion, is fantastic, and so far Aion has amazed me with this.

Sanya wrote an article on this site on why immersive quest authoring often doesn't work out, but I'm hoping that the time David's putting into it (and the Korean crew before him) will pencil out, given a great underlying game (in terms of mechanics), not to mention drop dead gorgeous visuals.

In my generation, Star Wars was a seminal piece of geek art that incorporated the Joseph Campbell's classic hero's journey. or monomyth structure, that seems to echo across cultures.  Games like Morrowind (Elder Scrolls series in general) incorporated something like monomyth to great advantage, as did KOTOR and a few other single player games.  It's hard to incorporate deeply into an MMO because MMOs, despite supposedly making *you* into The Hero, engage thousands of others in killing the same quota of rats.

LOTRO did a pretty good job of maintaining immersion while drawing the player into a collateral and significant role to the Fellowship in Tolkien's lore setting.  That Aion's story feels more powerful to me already after a couple weekends of closed beta in a lore setting that's new to me makes me salute them!

I want David's job...:)  Well, maybe on another MMO -- I want to play this one.

Yrs,

Shava

But what is left out in MMO’s, that you do see in the stories, is that the hero was once young. I would love to see a MMO where you spent levels 1-10 as a teenager killing those rats. Anyone remember the Fable hero being called ‘chicken chaser’ by a woman who knew him from when he was a boy?

Then once you are in your twenties you have to redesign to make a adult character who is by now doing heroic deeds!

I really hope they have done a grand job on Aion to, but only time will tell.

nice post, great read. can't wait for the game.

How about:  "Nothing else matters besides the gameplay."  Pile on anything and every little piece of fluff you can, but if the core of the game isn't engaging, believable and fun then nobody is going to be around long enough to appreciate the little things.

The art could be gorgeous but if the characters don't move in a realistic, fluid manner and allow the player to feel like he's in complete control of their movements then the artwork doesn't matter.  For example, look at WAR online--has incredible graphics but character control and response is so weak that players never feel connected to the world.

Also, breaking the world up into segments also causes players to lose interest in the world.  It doesn't feel like a living, breathing place but more like glorified chatrooms.  The social aspect of a MMO is one of, if not it's strongest feature and when you break up the players into little pools it's hard to care about the world as a whole. 

Great and interesting read. It's these little things that really stand out for me. It also shows the care and passion that is put in, and it all adds up in the end. I hope the people at NCSOFT NA continue their great work.

The thing I noticed during CB was my character was a very important part of the story.  If you just cruise through the quests without reading them you will lose out on the great story that is unfolding here.  Kudo's on a very well written storyline!

Normally I just skip through these articles for the bulk info, but somehow this one made me want to read all of it. Thank you. :)

Three things that really stood out to me after reading this and playing the beta:

1) "Drawing in the character into the world mythology" Yes- I noticed this! The "flash-forwards" to your own future really play to your ego, are fantastically ominous, and get you interested in the game universe!

2) Excuses for quests - I have to admit I really didn't pay much attention to this, but now I will. Honestly, I think after years of errand quests in MMOs, a lot of us grizzled gaming veterans skim for the thing we need to fight or collect, and quickly close the screen. But, you know, that's why. Maybe those who come after us will have more fun reading the quest dialog, and I will make more of an effort to do so.

3) The whole "nobody noticed I just came back from the dead" thing. Bravo, NCSoft! This is really cool. I remember seeing a cutscene in one other game, Lost Odyssey, where NPC's are "rezzed". I was completely stunned. NPCs, in a cutscene, being rezzed with a spell? That never happens! I wanted to jump out of my chair and applaud, seriously. This matters, and I hope the continuity is as solid as you say.

Of course, that doesn't really explain why you can rez when you're a human newb, but... meh. If I did it, I'd have the PC get knocked out, and dragged back to down by irritated farmers.