Player Perspectives (Archived): MMOs and Storytelling
In this week's Player Perspectives column, MMORPG.com's Jaime Skelton talks about the importance of storytelling in any game. But do MMOs tell the story in a way that leads players to discover things on their own, to feel like they are truly immersed in the story? Find out what Jaime thinks in her compelling article.
Column By Jaime Skelton on July 23, 2010
Once upon a time, there was this little orphan child who grew up in the care of the village priests. When he came of age, the abbey handed him a sword, a shield, and pointed him about to the various tasks at hand: rescuing the abbey's prized vineyards from brigands, saving their flocks from starved wolves, and clearing out a rat infestation in the cellar. Before long, the little orphan child found himself killing dragons instead of rats, and soon forgot the abbey he had left behind. . .
Story-telling in a massively scaled game like an MMO is an amazingly difficult task, and for the games that continue building on their storyline well into the future, the task must be akin to being the Robert Jordan of the gaming world. Every plot must be carefully built to keep a player's interest; each side-story given or planned closure; each thread checked against the others to make sure there's no conflicting information. New endings must be constantly created. On top of all that, game writers must carefully check in with the development team to make sure that yes, it's completely in their capabilities to make a twenty-foot tall dragon that can breathe double-rainbows.
As a writer, and a reader who once devoured several books a week, I'm a sucker for story in MMOs, to a point where I can almost forgive terrible game mechanics if the story impresses me. On a personal level, there are several games I have, or still do, play solely for their story. As a result, I find the immersion of a game through its story and quest system paramount to an MMO's success. Many games are stellar at this work, but the gaming genre itself still leaves something lacking in its methods.
The main problem with story-telling in the MMORPG format is its naturally heavy focus in dialogue, with very little supporting action. The story-telling occurs through a script-like format. The script is a little less compelling, however, when you think of it this way: enacting the same script on a stage would result in several people standing around on stage, and one person moving from one to another, talking to them while the rest merely act as statues. Indeed, NPCs serve as quest-dispensing ATM machines better than they do as convincing actors in an epic story in which the player is the central figure.
While many game writers have mastered the art of script writing, and help make NPCs tell convincing stories, the very fundamental of “show don't tell” in writing is violated by the very nature in which stories are told in MMOs. How can the town be harassed by gnolls if they never appear in town and no evidence shows the contrary? Why should I believe Jed wishes to deeply profess his love to Faye if they never even cross paths, or when they do, he doesn't even blush, sigh wistfully, or try to get up the nerve to walk over and say hello? It isn't that games need to go to the other extreme, and create constant cut-scenes to pull the player into the story. It's that the story rarely takes place around the player, and much of the story-telling takes place in a special little box.
I'm referring to the quest dialogue box, and this is the secondary problem in MMO story-telling. The story of a game is heavily tied into its quests, and quests are now heavily tied into a progression reward system. The quest system encourages players to simply know: “Go to Point A, Kill 10 Enemy Bs, and return to NPC C.” The story is an auxiliary to what the player actually needs to know to progress in the game, and there is no reward, except personal satisfaction, for paying attention to the why. Over the years, quest systems have been increasingly hand-it-to-you, introducing quest indicators, map markers, and a glut of database-clogged fan sites to let the player metagame.
Compare this to the classic RPGs found on consoles and the PC. It behooved you to speak with every NPC, sometimes twice, to find out all the little hints and clues and story that would guide you on your next quest. Quests themselves were objective based, and while FAQs and strategy guides were available to nudge you along, the native mechanic of story-telling encouraged the player to listen to clues, explore their environment, and immerse themselves in the story. While quests sometimes dispensed loot, experience, coin, and gear upgrades were made in the journey, not in turning in a quest after completing its objective. The epic sword of smiting was discovered while saving the mayor's daughter, not because the mayor handed it to you afterward.
This is not a problem with the writers; it's a problem with the medium, and a strange one at that. Video games have been story-tellers for decades now. The MMO medium, however, suffers from the compelling need to keep players advancing, a need that overall trumps that of telling a story well. Game designers, if they want to reach the epic proportions of an RPG in terms of story-telling, must come up with new innovations in the way MMOs are played.
One game looking to change that is Guild Wars 2, with its dynamic event system and personal story system. The dynamic event system essentially lets the story of the game play out before a character's eyes, by creating events that respond to the interactions of players. That is to say, if a town is being invaded by an army of ugly looking half-orcs, those half-orcs will have camps, go on the march, and even take over the town if players don't push them back. That – combined with a collective reward system that rewards all players for participating in a battle without the need for groups or 'tapping' the mobs – means more immersion and more immediate action for players. It also means that a story should, hopefully, be shown and adapted around the player, rather than popped up in a quest dialogue box.
Guild Wars 2's personal story system, on the other hand, has players build their character's personality and backstory in character creation. That, combined with a character's interactions with the world around them, will result in a personal story unfolding, not only from the way NPCs interact with them, but in granting the player personal story quests and their own evolving home area that reflects their character's story progression. It's a dream for role-players and story-lovers combined, and we can only hope that the game “gets it right” in the final product.
While it might be a blow for writers of the quests to not have people pay attention to their work, it's ultimately a fault of the medium versus the writing itself. By getting players more involved in the overarching storyline, even the Point-A-to-Point-B style of play can have a rich, rewarding experience. After all, a game can be just as engrossing as any book when well told.
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The problem with having a story in an MMO is that eventually a story comes to an end, whereas MMO's are supposed to be virtual worlds where you can just 'be'. Make the story the main focus and eventually the game is going to come to an end, something that MMO developers really shouldn't want to happen as that will have people unsubscribing when they realise theres not a lot else to do.
That's probably my main problem with SW:TOR, too much focus on story. It works in a single player game, as we know they're going to end at some point, probably in epic fashion, but an MMO? And while you can continue to add updates to an MMO, you can do the same to single player games now with DLC.
The characters actions should be the story. There should be things in game to create story opportunities, such as your example of half-orcs invading a town, but how you deal with that should be the story. Options should be in place for multiple approaches, be it destroying their food stores, waking them at night so they go days without sleep, and many other ideas. These are the things that developers should be introducing to MMO's, not simple quests with pointers. In my example you would have one quest to destroy 10 food stores, then wake 10 sleeping half-orcs, etc.. The quest should simply be to stop the attack and let the players carry on.
It's all in the delivery, as the saying goes. Games like EQ2, WoW and Vanguard fail completely in regard to delivering the story.
Games like FFXI and Lotro excel at it. And now, in the next gen games coming up we have Rift, Guild Wars 2, FFXIV, and SWTOR all shifting the story aspect into high gear. I can't wait. Shame it took so long to get to this point though.
The last 5 years have just been boring when it comes to stories in the MMOs I play. To the point, I wanted to just sit down with games like FF 1-10 or Kingdom Hearts, Baldur's Gate and others of similar ilk, for some nostalgic "true" storytelling.
As usual a really well written article (long-time reader, first time poster here). The reason I registered to respond is that this is a topic I personally feel strongly about - narrative in an MMORPG.
When it comes to the importance of story in the game, it really depends on what type of MMORPG you are making/enjoy playing. In so-called "themepark" MMORPG that have become so dominant over the last few years, then yes, story (and the quality that is used to tell it) is very important. If you prefer, again so-called, "sandbox" MMORPG then story should only function in the background (do not confuse content with story btw).
The problem with storytelling in themepark MMORPG is that, like you point out, it is generally skipped over by the player to the part that says "Kill X and return". There is no inherent reward in reading the text except, agin like you mention, a personal satisfaction, and the time-investment is not worth for most. As an example, if I was to read all the quest text (properly and not just skim-read it) of every quest I took, I would probably end up doing 5 less quests (again as an example) then I would normally have time for in my evening. I would thus not have progressed as far, etc (this is a problem with the way progression functions in MMORPG, but that is another topic).
Also, like a previous poster mentioned, stories come to an end. MMORPG, by their nature, shouldn't. Couple that with the fact that EVERY player makes their way through the SAME story, and certain illogical circumstances emerge from this. How many times does the Mayors daughter get kidnapped, for example. Or Player A killed Evil Dragon Z, only for Evil Dragon Z to respawn so the next player can finish their quest.
One could argue that a branching system or a form of instancing could fix this, but in my experiance this opens up other problems (do you instance every single thing in the game?).
Thus, in my opinion, the way to deal with it is to remove the focus on "developer-made stories". Allow the player to make their own story, as a previous poster mentioned, through their actions. And let the game story functions as backstory.
To paraphrase one designer:
"Players are not interested in your [developer] story. They are interested in THEIR story."
Peace.
A good story can immerse a player/listener, evoking reactions and emotions to the particular context of the story at that given moment: Fear at some hideous monster, laughter at some erudite wordplay or joke, resentment at some trickery or betrayal etc. These are then forks in our avatar/hero's journey: Runaway or fight! Laugh or 1up! double or quits! etc etc... that all (hopefully) lead to real consequences of the players' decisions. The lowest consequences would be a simple money or material reward or item, a higher reward would be to want to see where the story leads on in further forks and splits (The road less travelled)... and maybe even higher up, would be the players' reactions/decisions changing the very world of the story itself!
So story has a lot to offer games as long as it's told really well and the gameplay itself also adds back into the story tale itself. Perhaps that's what GW2 Dynamic events and SWOR personal crew of NPC friends are both trying to achieve?
As a professional writer(screenwriter, novelist) and a single player RPG veteran, how the story is told is the litmus test for an MMO being a true RPG. While I can certainly agree the WoW missed the mark when it comes to story(and for that matter being an actual RPG, since it is more of a dungeon raid style adventure game, which are games I generally have abhorred since the early 90s), I do believe Everquest, in all versions of the game to be at least decent in the delivery of the story line. Obviously since quests are important to an MMO, you have to be somewhat flexible with a story line. I also feel many MMOs need to balance the story for single player and group play preferences. Games like Aion, Final Fantasy, and Lord of the Rings Online simply are the epitomy of what story can do in a mmorpg when done well. Outside of the RPG sector of MMOs, Star Trek Online, Champions Online, and City of Heroes effectively implemented strong story lines as well. The goal for MMO creators and film makers is essentially the same. The goal is to create small stories that feed into a larger overall story. The only difference is that MMO creators have to build an even larger overall story.
Huh? Where is the story in Aion? It is no better than Wow in that regard. Then you have the brashness to mention Star Trek Online as backed by a story line. If you play any of Cryptic's offerings, you would know that a story line is the last thing they would ever put in a MMO.
I don't know any of the current MMO's that offer any story telling at all. That is why many of us are excited at the upcoming titles.
I totally agree with Oz, many of the current games have a very loose story. Games like Aion, WoW, and pretty much any Cryptic game lack story, given at one point in time WoW did have an okay story as time progressed and they released more expansions they just butchered the story and tried to mash stuff together to further the story, sadly it didn't work. This is why I can't wait for the Old Republic, Bioware has been well known for their immersive storytelling and judging by some of the videos. Being a huge fan of well written storylines I really hope the newer titles will break this habit of poor story and give us something truely exiciting to play, read, and experience.
LOTRO does have a pretty decent story in there, but it fits the articles description to a tee. What it comes down to is this - if there is going to be story at all, it should be engaging. If there is not really a story, then so be it, but every time you try to convey story in a game, I want to be a participant in that story, not just reading a big wall of text. Even something simple as an old school dialog box that prints each character one by one can help. Have npcs pause between lines. Instead of having npcs give us 2 pages of BACKstory, get right to the meat of it:
NPC: "Oh, I'm so glad you've arrived!"
PC: <presses a continue button, maybe it has a line on it> "Why is that?"
NPC: "My daughter is missing! I don't know what to do!"
PC: "Where did you last see her?"
NPC: "Up on the ridge to the north!"
PC: "Don't worry, I'll get her back."
Done. We don't need to hear about how times have suffered ever since the big baddies moved in, and how him and his daughter are but simple farmers, how they have made their living for 10 years without so much as a peep from the goblins, and how the goblins arrived 3 weeks ago and began taking other people's daughters, and how they just took his own. It's stupid how much pointless information they stuff in a single, long page, of quest info. No wonder people don't read them.
How does this particular quest matter to ME in terms of story. What do I need to do. Why? That's it. Any other info can be doled out in other ways, little by little, not one big wall of text. Quest rewards, if they must be shown at all, can be on a handy little sidebar while the dialog is happening.
And I don't need the dialog to be voiced. It can be nice, but usually slows things down. It's not the voice, it's the amount of text they display at once. Doesn't feel like dialog - it feels like reading spam. And I'm a big fan of reading.
What is with people saying Cryptic games lack story? I find the story arcs in CoX to be pretty interesting, overall, and some of them are quite good, with in-mission scripting and cinematic events taking it to a new level. The same can be said of some of the architect missions that are available. No, the story is not one that follows you from beginning to end, unless you take into consideration the epic archetypes and the special missions they have available, but the story arcs and task forces have a fairly meaningful plot that helps to give your character a sense of purpose as you are going through the game. For me, it definitely detracts from the eventual repetitiveness that all MMOG gameplay eventually devolves into.
To my mind, MMOs should give a mixture between a storyline - something you can go and do at anytime - and provide features to give players enough freedom in the world. Freedom to be able to set your fate and give you the choice of being unique in the world you are gaming. That's my understanding of an MMO.
Great article and I completely agree about everything!
And I believe Arena.net can really pull it off in Guild Wars 2 (the game i'm looking forward to play the most). Let's just wait and see if they can change the story concept of mmorpgs.
I agree that the Cities of stories are very layered and well-written. I am a wanna-be writer myself, and that is what attracted me to the game and held me there. I totally agree with the plots keeping the character involved as they exist within the world. It makes role-playing so much better if there is a solid story foundation for it.
I have never had an interest in faeries or elves or whatever, so I haven't played any of the fantasy genre, so I can't speak as to their stories. The appearances of the characters in WoW kept me from ever trying it so I don't know if it has any kind of story or not. Part of the immersion factor for me is the ability to individualize a character to the point where you feel you have created something that is uniquely yours.
Good stories foster good RP, really. With a lame story, what kind of 'role' is there to play within? The one thing I'd like to see is more diversified story lines - where decisions branch off into differing consequences. And I think that too, will eventually happen.
I know writers get frustrated when people skim through the content. But truly? For ever PL'er or lewt farmer there are a few quiet souls that are enjoying the journey far more than the destination. :)
The problem with having the players 'be the story' is that the developers then completely skimp on the world design. I am primarily referring to sandboxes. It becomes sterile. The developers need to work on a RPG infrastructure that the players can partake in and the pre-written snippets of dialogue will shape around their actions, choices, affiliations and locations and use facts like their size, age, name, scars, profession etc to give colour to your NPC actions.
I am personally looking forword to Guild Wars 2 sound like a breath of fresh air and from what i understand UsualSuspect is that your character dose effect the story line in a way like you describe. i'm not good with details but their example is like this. say that there was an army of dredge marching out of their citadel you will get a warning to stop them. but say you fail that and the make it to an outpost/fort. they will take it over. if you fail to respond or take out there generals in the fort they will then reinforce the fort with troops coming in from citadel along with surpply line and make better fortifications. you can then join the army and other players to siege it from the front or cut there supply line then sneak in the back and try to take out the generals. failure to do this results in the dredge sending out raiding parties from the fort to attack people along the roads and cut of supplies to yours and surrounding villages as well as killing the villagers. As i said this is my interpretation of their text. so have a read of it and see what you think. but over all it looks to be an out standing game. oh and its free so no subscription will be needed when it comes out. also cheak out the ranger look like a pretty kick A** to me.
ps sorry for any spelling mistakes.
I prefer living worlds to scripted stories. Give me a good simulation and web of tasks where stories emerge rather than an artifical story that is disconnected from the mechanics of the game itself. There's no reason plot threads can't spawn like mobs - linking and interacting without a storyteller artificially impossing a narrative. If I were running an MMO, I'd view fiction as a stop-gap for events that cannot yet happen on their own inside the game mechanics.
For the "sandbox" type to MMO to work to its fullest potential, new modes and concepts of player interaction need to be implemented. And I don't just mean "more ways to kill baddies" here. The player must be given ultimate freedom within the world, to the point of becoming the basis for quests themselves.
Someone above mentioned the problem of that dang 'mayor's daughter' who is always getting kidnapped, or the necessity to kill a certain dragon every three seconds. The only way I see this event repetition ending anytime soon is if players are given the ability to become kidnappers, raiders, bullies and occupying forces, for the law-abiding player to bring to justice. Maybe even a dragon. I'm just speculating here. The developer would exist to maintain and improve the freedom of players to do whatever the hell they can come up with, and make sure the forces of reason are never overwhelmed by the swarms of players who will surely jump at the chance to be completely anonymous jerks.
As of this moment, these things all sound completely implausible, and this is by no means a serious suggestion. That sort of freedom would be a nightmare for developers to keep in balance, with the only solace being their lack of direct responsibility for the bulk of content. I'm not even sure it would be much fun.
The concept of a true sandbox MMORPG seems very far off to me, and I intend to be content with whatever the industry produces for a while, at least.
*salute to all the GW2 fans*
...
I hope someone from Bioware is reading this more than ncsoft. TOR is supposedly going to be the heaviest story based MMORPG yet from what I've heard. Will be interesting to see if thats what players really want, or if that's what tanks the game. I havent looked at GW2 very much, thought the PVE of GW1 was way to bland and boring. This is the first article I've read that has made me more interested in researching that game. thx
Asherons call 2 had great story to follow also through vaults(dungeons) very good mmo with good story.
Storytelling has a purpose in MMO's that is sometimes beyond even action, if done correctly. The problem is MMO player base just doesn't like reading that much. That has always been the major complaint with Lotro: the story gets in the way. I'm speaking in terms of mass appeal. But if a story doesn't work, you can tell really quickly. For example: WAR has some decent stories, but they were never flushed out and disjointed. I don't think I remember a single one of those quests. WoW has a weak if not sanguine story, but at least it's a solid one. I think players pick up on these things whether we are aware or not. In fact, prior to reading this I just couldn't put my finger on what bugged me about Aion and it was the flimsy story.
So what is the answer? To make a well-rounded, long lasting MMO with appeal that stretches beyond the next few generations, story must be constructed with depth from the beginning, if only to employ us out-of-work writers. BUT- If you want to make a really successful short term game that has wide mass appeal but will last as long as it takes the kids to grow up; put vampires in it and give them sparkles with a furrowed brow and a "go bake me a pie, woman!" personality.
Cheers
"Story-telling in a massively scaled game like an MMO is an amazingly difficult task"
No, developers just have to redefine what storytelling is.
"This is not a problem with the writers; it's a problem with the medium, and a strange one at that."
It is not a problem with the medium. Again, the problem is with many developers and maybe even people like yourself who, from looking through this article, think that storytelling should be just copy/pasted from other mediums.
Guild Wars 2 has yet to impress me, and probably won't.
"personal story system"
Wtf is that? Just sounds like a single player story system stuffed into a MMORPG.
"It's a dream for role-players and story-lovers combined"
Too bad it isn't a dream for true MMORPG fans, who want NPCs to react to the world and not the player via cheap phrasing tricks learned from WoW.
"After all, a game can be just as engrossing as any book when well told."
Again, sounds like you want gaming and MMORPGs to be something they are not. If you want to read a book, do so. If you want to watch a movie, go ahead. But don't try to force games to be something they are not (btw, yes I do hate Mass Effect and DA:O, most boring games ever).
As I see it, the main problem is not so much the existence of story. It is the story that matters to me! The reason why *I* - my character - is here at this time and doing what he is doing. For instance, the reason of a Darkelf Assasin is likely to be a different than of a Human Paladin or an Orc Bezerker. And THAT is what MMOs lack, yet. There is just a generic story which totally ignores who I am and what I have done previously. So the first thing lacking in MMO stories isn't so much whether they are scripted or told, it's that they are generic. They are always the same for all races, classes and backgrounds coming.
Second, no one ever reacts to what I did before, and that is because usually stories have no alternative. Almost all quests have no choice. Unlike a book you read or a single player game, in a MMO you play with many others, so knowing you can chose between various way to do a quest and various endings, would make all the difference. But we have no choice and we have no one to remember our doings or react to our choices. So it doesn't really matter to read or follow the quest story. You know, in the end, no one will remember and it makes no difference.
Finally, impact. You know you can kill as many Gnolls in Antonica as you want. They will never diminish. Phasing is one step to change that in the future. Story needs impact, tangible impact. Not just some text you hear and when you go back it all the same. Sure, not all trivial quests can alter the "phase" you are in, but decisive moments in games can. The LOTRO books are a step towards it, even whille the world remains the same, you get the feeling of having an impact via the story. LOTRO was IMVPO one of the first MMOs to go in the right direction. Where you have memorable quests where the overall story is forwarded. Especially the later books were very moving and well told stories.
While I love stories and want MMOs to have story, I don't need every single NPC have an epic told and scripted tale. Someone it is enough to follow some simple task, like kill the 10 rats which infest my cellar. The point is, MMOs are still too much filled with such quests.
Another game that promises to have a dynamic storyline is Citadel of Sorcery. It's going to have a fully instanced "reflected worlds" system: every one of the player's actions will influence what happens later on; mobs will dynamically scale themselves to the players' level; and even NPC attitudes will depend on whether you've helped or hindered them in the past.
This system is even harder to implement than the GW2 version of it. COS has been very slow in the making - they've been developing it for 2 years now, and they still haven't finalised the races or even the payment model! But if the developers manage to pull it off, it's going to be a revolution in MMO gaming, combining the role-play potential of a sandbox with the clear goals of a theme park. I'm really looking forward to it.
The lack of well crafted stories has been the one thing that has me cancelling mmo's everytime a phenomenal single player game comes out. It seems to me that most games' story are there because they have to put them in and there are very few storylines in mmos that carry over from one area to another. Sure there are quests that lead you from zone to zone but they are not central to the game experience. To go through and completely skip the story and just read the quest description to see what you have to kill and how much of it you must kill is enough. WOW, SWG, UO, EQ2, Vanguard, COX, POTBS, etc never had enough creativity in their quests to make me bother. Hopefully BioWare with TOR will actually help immerse me into the world they have crafted. It remains, obviously, to be seen if they will actually succeed or not but I have faith in BioWare as they haven't really let me down yet (except the information concerning Dragon Age 2).
Quite negative, aren't you?
People can't complaint about the stupidity of things without knowing how it works and if it works. You can't talk bad and have critics about Guild Wars 2 ideas since they can't be proven os tested. The only thing you can do is congratulate them for having a lot of different and new ideas.
BTW, the Medium she refers to are the devs, and like you said, the problem is with them in copy/past the story-telling system. -.-"
And last, you can't say that games try to become something they are not, because the game world is always creating something new. That's just like when ppl, from 100y back, said the same about black people or about women and look what we have now. Trying to create things that ppl think impossible is not impossible, it's just hard and needs creativity in order to prove if it works or not.
Beeing negative about every new idea because we think is a bad idea is not going to help solve the "problems" we have without testing.
Even though Wingma is slightly negative (which is his/her perogative) he/she does make some very good points. Trying to shoe-horn another storytelling mediums rules and conventions into the MMORPG genre doesn't work.
While stories can be told in MMORPG, I belive the genre itself is NOT a storytelling medium. A poster mentioned that you need story so that you can define what "role" you play in an RPG. Since definitions seem to be liquid in this time, I've always believed that the role you play is in the WORLD not that story. For example, I am a Cleric. I am not a cleric in this story, but in this fantasy WORLD.
Another poster mentioned about the importance of THEIR charactor in the story, how does it relate to HIM and so on. This is the key if storytelling is to function in an MMORPG. If I resuced the Mayors daughter, thats it. No other player should have that "quest" available to them - ever (even new players to the server). The world moves on.
This opens up other problems. For example, will players accept this? Does it reward players who have more time on their hands to devote to the game (if player A plays 10hrs a day, and resuces all the lost daughters, what has Player B, who only plays 2 hrs a day, got left to do)?
In my opinion it is not only the developers who need to change the way they develop story, but also in the way players accept story and its form and function in this genre.
If I really want to engage with a story, I read a book. Or watch a movie. Or go see a play on stage. Or maybe even play a single-player game. I play an MMORPG not to engage in a story, but to create one.
I hated GW1, uninstalled in 2 days ( and I never do that, things sit on my HD forever, just in case). But I am really looking forward to GW2. They are planning some true innovations, and if they can deliver everything they are promising, it will be an amazing game.
the only MMO's ive played where i felt i was a part of a story was Shadowbaneand Fallen Earth. this was not so because of anything the game devs wanted, but because you could play the games largely as you wanted.
stories that suck you in can only take the form of active player generated uncontrolled content. events that really happen in response to other events that really happen. following premade lore from point A to point B is not a story. its just a time hog while you miles and miles across largely empty territory to get to the next mini vid or wall of text...the only excitment you feel will be if you get attacked by a random pk, or some upexpected monsters. i could write books about the narrative that i fought through in shadowbane because it was truly unfolding. huge political events cast regional shadows affecting everyone in the area.
true potential for change is what defines good story telling, most MMO story telling consists of poorly written simple quests that never deviate from their simple parameters, "kill the 10 burly troggs, forever and ever" etc
@ wingman i take it your a casual gammer coz the only people who just want to play at mindless grinding are causal gamers. have u actually read the developers notes on their site the npcs do react to your presance and the world around them. also they have covered what i think should have been done in that the world still moves regarless if you are there or not. as the old saying goes time waits for no man.
"Once upon a time there when the land was at peace, there was a a wizard that betrayed his best friend (both went to a magic academy). Yhe best friend turned him in and the acadamy cast the would be wizard out of the academy. The dark wizard soandso as he was later named disappered and re-emerged a century later having gathered other dark wizards employing a dark army with the attempt to take over the world. Then the great war happened.
The war was so destructive that it nearly destroyed the world (Something like a nuclear world war). Those that were able to sought refuge within the earth. Now a hundred years after the magic of the world has become intuned again, the inhabitants of the earth have begun to resurface. What they don't know is that not all of the inhabitants found solice in the Earth.
Those that did not die from the remnants of the dark and light magic that continued to battle against each other long after their casters were dead, were changed. Some good, some bad. Even those hidden in the earth were slowly changed, as one thing affects another.
Prophecy has been kind. It has seen fit not to completely destroy mankind. The heavens have granted the world a second chance. Now a thousand years later as you emerge from the safety of the underground village you once called home, your eyes are awakened to a world you never knew existed.
It is up to you now to fufill prophecy and your destiny and reinvent the world. You are the chosen and how you will live your life on New Earth from here is up to you. Will you seek the the ancient secrets of the dark that once threatened to destroy all of mankind, or will you embrace the light and help to resurrect the idead of peace that once ruled the world.
How the world becomes is now up to you...
The choice is yours."
A base storyline. Easy enough. Some scattered inhabitants here and there etc.. From here on out, the storyline is shaped by us. The storyline is written by the player's actions. New cities and towns emerge slowly over time. As players frequent certain areas, those towns start to grow. The more players visit an area, the quicker a town grows. Have instanced quests that will shape the storyline. Allow players to complete epic battles that never repeat, meaning that if boss badass spawns (a dark wizard resurrected an evil spirit into the flesh) and is killed, the players that resurrected him/her are written in the storyline/history as the ones that did it (they would have to overcome some serious obsticles to do so, or maybe good players ignorantly triggered events of magic gone wrong or found a medallion that activated the event, etc..), The of course those that quelled the mr badass are written into the storyline/history. Maybe mr badass appears again but not for quite a very long time. In the meantime there is never a shortage of players themselves vieing to take over the world or save it.
So really, just start with a vague storyline. If the deves are smart, they'll let the players make the rest up as they go. Saves from having spend 5 years making up an entire world's history that most players will probably never bother with. Also, this would cause players to interact more and rely on each other more as it was meant to be. Players can become enthralled in the storyline because they "are" the storyline.
No auction houses (until later), not insta travle to the enemies doorstep ("most" of that sort of magic is yet to be discovered), And make it a skill/level based class system for which there is no end. No endgame.
Anyway, just my thoughts.
I always thought the major issue with mmorpgs storylines is how well the intergrate you the player into them.
I find nothing more annoying than finding that every class / race is treated identically for example a Paladin being told t go off and slaughter peacful fairies for his class armour or any race visiting its home town and being treated the same as all the other races.
Inorder to grow storytelling in mmorpgs needs to take into account the characeter specifics a elf visiting the elven city should be greeted as a hero returning to the fold whilst a orc visiting should eb treated with suspicion or even out right hostility (falling short of being attacked) Of course EQ1 handled this fairly well by having city factions and allowing players to work their faction.
But, we the players also need to grow up a bit. If you do not read the quest dialog don't complain about lack of story. Its never just go and kill 10 rats there is always a reason and sometimes those reasons are pretty good.
Final note perhaps the biggest failing is the ease of menu selection in the past EQ1 had key words inside the quest dialog these keywords were then used to find more information. It encourged you the player to engage the npc in dialog inorder too find what he knew and get the quest offered. This got you involved in the story and hooked you. You did not know what the reward would be you did not have a silver line or huge question mark/ exclamantion point. You talked to every npc you made notes you hunted for clues.
I remember the early days and the quest for the Soulfire sword in EQ1. It started (at least for me) with a quest to prove myself a knight. This quest started around level 1 finaly conculded in a epic fight with a corrupt captain of the guard. Through out the quest was multiple story lines all linked togather to make a massive quest chain.
Thats what mmorpgs need storylines which hook you in and drag you through quests which you do for the story and the rewards at the end are something which more often than not reminds you of the story even more thasn their own intrensic value as a tool.
Gadareth
First, well-written & interesting article and best still, great points of view all above.
Story in MMO needs to apprehend two things at the beginning.
1. MMO major enjoyment needs to be the fighting mechanic, communication options, level of detail in the world that appears autonomous to the player. If all these are flexible enough then simple playability/ repetitive/repeatable actions can be done successfully/enjoyable with or without a good story.
2. The story has to link with this aspect of the game in a way that (continiously) grows the story.
Some of the problems to achieve this:
1. New Avatars must be limited, specific OR choices that defines the type of story more bespoke to this genesis so it is more personal and cogent to the class/race/creed etc. Too much choice is is no choice ie generic.
2. Storylines do not result in choices closing other potential stories that lead to other types of gameplay. This gives value/judgement to player choices and makes how the story grows affect how the player plays the game (as much as vica-versa!).
3. Player gameplay does not change the world - so the story cannot therefore continue to grow or mean anything other than levelling.
4. Static world with not enough events initiated deus ex to produce a sense of a world that is outside and greater than the influence of the player. 5. Player reputation from choices is the way the player has grown through the story and how any sentient creature should deal/ treat with the player as another consequence.
So story could expand the rewards of players ingame to consist of:
1. Power (this is partly done with level/gear/pvp ability 2. Social Influence that affects those under the banner of said player .3. Factor X let's call the last strand: The rarest of all abilities that the player has the ability to indirectly alter/shape or guide changes to the game-world.
Conclude: A lot of this has not been possible with game worlds to date, a lot requires a better conception of how story can be used in games and much depends on players' demand for this sort of aspect being increasingly developed for MMO's and accepting greater levels of player inequality but also greater diversity of endings to stories for newly created Avatars. Most players will be able to achieve 1. power for their avatar, only a few will achieve 2. power over other avatars and the rarest would effect power to change the very game and the story of everyone else, for good or for bad!!
This is the reason why I'm always dissapointed by MMOs. I think stories are what drives me to play games. good mechanics are almost as important but if the story is amazing I'll be in it for the long haul even if the gameplay is a little thin. It seems to me that this open ended social genre needs to somehow weave the story into the real time action in a more direct way. possibly through advances in AI technology. Or maybe if the players had better tools to role play there could be more visceral realistic story telling going on in game.
story only has alot to offer single player games, a story in an mmo is that of the player charecter, its really that simple, if you take the players ability to create their own story away from them and give them a linear main game story arc, your essentialy adding an ending to your supposedly endless mmo.
like other posters have already stated, an mmo is a world an ongoing none stop breathing living world full of real people playing charecters, you cannot hit save and shut the system down and wait till you turn it back on again to play, the mmo is always in play, events are allways unfolding, so how can you restrict players to a story line if the world the story is in keeps going while the story the player is following stops while he sleeps, the answer is this, if you do your game is not going to be as good as it can be as an mmo. for instance as some one else has already said, linear quest lines are the same for every single player, that means every single person that plays the game must do the same exact quests as the other players, so when players want to create their own story all they have as reference is the main story arcs they had to sit through when they started to play.
a story always ends. all stories end, can any one who posts on here think of a single story that doesnt have an ending ??? if you can i would like to know about it please!
its bad business to have an mmo with an ending, again like some one else has already said above, when the story ends their is nothing to do so players unsubscribe, this is as true as it can ever be, i always unsubscribe when ive reached the end of the games story content.
reason - nothing else to do other than make another charecter and sit through all the same exact quests again and grind up levels.
i propose questing on a whole be simplified and developer story be completely removed,
the only place i would expect a story driven mmo is in a themed mmo, but even then it would need some reigning in. story should never drive and mmo. sure story defines the peramiters of the game and the feel and sets the pace and depth for emersion. but story doesn t bring about emersion. players bring about emersion by emersing into the content of the game, the story is the theme and back drop from which the players feed of to fuel their own personal stories and identities in the game.
those players that like to grind levels and run dungeons will have very little value for either and will just grind the quests grind the levels get the best geer and pvp himself into a oblivious bordom before moving onto the next mmo title that tickles their fancy.
the vast majority of gamers want content and depth and want to be able to get involved in the games structure. stories dont allow this. a story is like a highway. a road full of cars going from A TO B.
i feel the story should be told at the start of the gamewhen you irst create your charec ter so the players are aware of the world and its main focuss then the story should stop and allow th eplayers to continue the story as they see fit. sure quests guide the players through the games but the quests should not tell the story and lead to an inevitable end. end means closure and closure means time to move to a new game because this one is now boreing and ive completed it.
lol i just completed this mmo, it just sounds so wrong!
So when you add a story to MMO, you take away the story of the player character?
I can assure you you can have both and fairly easily in fact, lol
the idea behind sandbox is to encourage a players imagination to create vibrant ingame content useing their own personality. its like online gameing with player controlled props.
wow is a game that uses npc props, al you do is follow quests guidelines and directions untill you have best items and armour then pvp untill your drawling with boredom before you quit playing.
sandbox offers the players a chance to indulge them selves by utilizeing the freedom of the game worlds mechanics.
what we mean by players being the story is, players creating their own story within the game world, this doesnt mean making their own quests and such.
all mmo's need a guide and theme to drive the player to diffrent areas to unlock diffrent aspects of the game, some mmo's take this literally like lorto and wow, these games are very quest intensive to the point you cannot progress unless you complete the quests in a specific level restricted order, sandbox essentialy removes the must and must nots and the do's and do nots and simply allows the player to progress hwo he wants to progress and dabble in what ever he/she feels like dabbling in.
take eve online for example. to start off its a very good idea to run the game tutorial from start to finish to get a basic understanding, but learning the gaes mechanics is not what the games about, eve has a bac story, but the game its self is created and run by the players. its practically 100% player driven, just because it doesnt have a story defined by the game granted by a mechanic given by an npc doesnt mean the stories are not present. in eve their is a story to be told potentially from every single player that speant more than a month in eve. these are not stories based of his charecter progression but stories based of his experiences in the game world. eve is so free realm that just flying round will inevitably lead to some excitement and exhilerateing experiences. its inevitable that some where along the lines of playign eve that a player will experience something that will grant him/her with an epic tale to tell to other players.
ive been their ive done and ive seen hundreds of other players experience the same thing, and its truely brilliant the way eve works.
i havnt seen this sort of thing in any other mmorpg, because all stories you hear from players are based of the quests and dungeons they have run, and not of simply going about their daily business and routines. i think this is what people refer to when they say player stories!!!
i for one hate being confined to the chlostrophobic confines of a linear story line which will eventually lead me to end game content and canceling my subs because their is nothing else to do.
the best example of this is guild wars, from start to the end you do missions. the last mission = end. once its all over what do you do ???? make a new charecter and run all those exact same quests again and again and read and hear the same old story???? no ofcourse you dont, you indulge in a little pvp then get bored then you change game. most mmo's retain their players for roughly 8 months to a maximum of 2 years on a whole before the player moves along, the majority of players are done with a game after the first year, it shouldnt be possible to clock an mmo and experience all it has to offer ever.
mmo's need to be consistant and ongoing, they need to feel realistic. single player games are for endings mmo's are for experiences.
@ Adamai
I disagree, that a good story can be crafted for players is mutually exclusive of an open-world game system where the design of the game leads and enhances player interactions where story naturally emerges from this interaction. EG Eve by report fits this mold. In fact in my above post you see the "rewards" that a good story can enhance 2. Player interactions.
If the World PvP system in Guild Wars works (using your example) then this also could result in a tigher player interactions for all sides that leads to in-game stories of daring-do, tactics and planning and close-shaves and glory as emergent stories from the players that is not scripted (my preferred gameplay). But this is not exclusive of a player story that has complex webs of causation crafted in with multiple destinations depending on the player's choices, gameplay and player/NPC interactions. It looks like this is exactly what GW2 and Bioware especially with SWOR are both trying to achieve. After a story ends, you say, the game is over, but what lingers in the memory, might be the start of another story?!
Very nice article, I just started back to coming to this site 2 nights ago, even though I've never posted before. But I like this article. Makes me think and motivates me to work on my story telling more when involving multiple side side stories that tie into the big picture.
-Jae
You are mistaken if you think eve online is a true sandbox. The developers have been caught before with their fingers in the cookie jar rigging things in favor of their friends and having rigged endings to their roleplaying event arcs. It's not a sandbox if the story is railroaded. And I doubt players stuck on the side written to lose no matter what would be pleased that they are wasting their time and ingame assets on being losers, just because the developers said so. That is the exact same linear story line you claim to hate.
Now see... I'm just against needing to have a storyline. When, in any world, has the future been so laid out, so predictable, so boring? I ask because a really great game doesn't need a great story... it needs a playerbase that can handle doing something for nothing.
I admit, it's kinda silly to perform a quest and have a Smiting Sword handed to you AFTER it's complete. Why didn't he hand it to you before the battle, after all, his daughter's life was on the line, right???
I would be quite happy knowing that the reason I am even existing in a virtual world is that there are antagonists that might need culling. If I am chaotic, than the view would change to suit the reason to exist.
One person wrote that Story's end...I beg to differ... I cannot think of one story that could not have an alternate "ending". If that be true, than a story could continue infinitely. Millions of gamers have already proven this by sticking with their favorite game for years. People flocked from game to game because of these three reasons: Graphics, Mechanics, End-Game
The storyline is going to be overlooked for the sake of those three reasons. I don't need a reason to save the Mayor's daughter from the mutated kobold. I just want to challenge the Kobold because it's there. You can tie that battle into whatever story you want. The challenge doesn't lie in how I affect the story because I already know that I do not affect the story. The story is already told, it's been weighed, and completed. No matter how many times you allow me to challenge that Kobold, saving the Mayor's daughter has no meaning... it's all about being able to survive in a situation with hopes that my reward is found in the belly of the beast at hand.
I don't care for NPC rewards. But, if thats the story being told, I guess I gotta take the sword from the guy after the fact that it would have been much more useful before.
As far as the game ending because a story ended... I can honestly say that I believe that is a cop-out or way-out for whomever feels that way. A story is the past, tomorrow is unkown, and today is our chance to turn the story. No RPG can capture the imagination of a human mind...not even the brilliant minds that create the games we play.
I don't see how you can properly tell a story in a persistant world. The problem is, as mentioned above, how many times will dragon X respawn for player Z to kill. The only solution to this seems to be instances but then again this goes against the nature of MMOs and we don't want our MMOs instanced only to have a proper story.
And about the briefer quest texts? Why would you want to have all the important stuff put in 2 lines when you have map markers and stuff. That extra bit of information is just fluff and what some players enjoy to read. It doesn't really matter that it will slow you down. I don't see why would I care about the time I spent to get to max level the first time through. On my alts I skip the wall of text and rush my char to max level :D
I think story is important in an MMO but I don't think it needs to be a linear story. I also think story can be in a sandbox type MMO, but more in the form of a background, not something that limits the players.
The problem I see with sandboxes is if you leave everything to the players problems arise. I started MMOs in UO and from the beginning I thought that game was fantastic. At first I didn't even mind the PKing, but after about 4 days of dying/respawning/loosing all my loot to PKs I did get frustrated and almost quit the game. Then I met a group of people who were protecting newbies and running off the PKs and I decided to keep playing. I eventually got better at the game and joined thier guild and found myself later doing the same as they did for me. I felt like that was my personal story and it was fun to roleplay the protector of the innocent.
While it worked out for me I know many people who tried UO and left do to rampant PKing that the game had. That is the main problem I see when anyone talks about allowing the players to control their own stories. I don't have a problem with PvP, my problem is with the griefers and my fear is that any purely sandbox MMO is going to be plauged by them.
I think that if they made an MMO that took what UO was, and added further things like building cities, sieging cities, a player economy based soley on crafting, basically all the best ideas from UO and SWG and then found a way to deal with the griefing, then you would be onto something.
Furthermore since when developing this game you are only making the back story, you could take the money saved from hiring writers and instead pay people to do live game events, IE Hobgoblins attacking such and such town.
Anyway those are just some of my ramblings. I may just have to compile all my thought and make a serious post on what is needed for a sandbox MMO.
Vanilla WoW actually had some really great storylines. Most of them were side stories, but a few were epic in scope and immersive in terms of participating in the drama of the main storyline.
I was very sad to see so many stories ended with the expansions, and I'm kind of afraid of the retconning Blizzard will do to make the lore work in the next expansion. Bringing back dead bad guys gets old... =/
The problem I see is that everyone of them follows the old manthra of you adventurer's are good guys here is a quest you need to help with. What if I want to be a bad guy? I am not talking WoW style horde or alliance, I mean what if I want to help out the LK and destroy people who are going to raid his emerging evilness? So the problem is that it will still be linear as in there is a clear deffined good guy and bad guy and we normally fall in to the catagory of good guy.
Jaedor agree with you, Vanilla WoW had excellent stories back then which got dumbed down because people wanted an easier experience. Take for example the Onixia chain of quest that was a great story, but later on no new people wanted to do it, they just wanted to get to end game to raid with there budies. And then you had the individual quest for classes that had great potential but with expansions coming out no one cared about that back story it did not interface at all with the new content.
What I believe they should do is make it relevant at all times but make it an option for those that wish to be part of the story. Take for example the Rogue quest where you had to do something to get into a certain group. Or the lock or pally quest for the epic mount all good stories that where eventually taken out because people thought they where too hard.
So a lot of games start out ok on the story lines and are then irelevent after an expansion comes out and developers dont even try. It is the same with TV shows most of the time, in the US they do a season and if it does ok they do another and another and once it does not they cut the show leaving you with a what just happen they did not finish the story. The UK style is a bit better they pitch a show and they say I want to do 4 seasons worth of show and this is how we are going to end it, so they actually have a conclusion to the current story line. Can they do more seasons after that? Heck yeah they just expand on some of what they had to continue the story in a new direction.
Runstal good point that you bring up but most people do not roleplay so they do not really care, the whole live event would be great. The one thing that was cool that WoW did prior to the WotLK coming out was the one time event of the invasion of the undead where you could get infected. It was something new that they did, there was no temporary events other than the schedule holiday events. If they did more of this it would be great, let out Onyxia out of her cave and wonder the contry side destroying people with a bunch of dragons make it something epic. Have Onixia destroy a town that you have to help rebuild.
Ataka you bring up some very good points. It seems that they do not think they have anything meaninful to give if they do not present some kind of linear way for you to progress. This takes away from the game for some people and it ruins the experience. Some are there because they want to be and if a monster comes around they just want to kill it, if there was some maiden or what ever they saved then fine but if not who cares lol. And very well about being unable to capture the imagination of the human mind. So my earlier input would be a good one, you should be able to say no I am not going to rescue the daughter as a mater of fact I am going to go and see if I can get more money or something from the trolls or whoever stole the daughter.
If they could come up with something similar to Fable I think they would have something really good, I did not play the game but your choices meant something. Most of the time you are limited by the choices. I will say what I did in the last thread about story issues, if you tell X NPC you will help and kill those 10 rats there should be repercussions like you can get another quest from some one else, so your story about what a good guy you are gets told do others and they in turn trust you, or you decide to drop the quest and say screw this I dont want to kill 10 rats, well that should have a repercussion as well and it should be reflected in how you are treated by other NPC's. So same goes for GW2 if you are there during the dynamic event and you decide you will do nothing then you should not be rewarded for being around, hell you should have the option of helping out the attacking trolls or what ever is attacking cause you decided you dont want to be a good guy, and who is to say that the villagers are good guys to begin with? What if they decided to build the town or village or whatever over a troll burial ground or something? Yes I know I am making it more complicated but still.
just a quick two cents:
The standard story in MMO's appears at a glance like a todo list or a grocery list. Do these things; once done, go here. After that task is completed move on to a new area and repeat with slight tweaks to the appearance. The story goes down the list forever and on and on.
What I think would be beneficial to the story system is to give the players a feel like they are writing the story or the content, without the hassel and directionlessness of actually doing that. When I say that, I mean if an army is attacking a town, the mayor says go to the nearby fort and get us some help, you go complete it. Then the army mobilizes to defend the town, the guard doesn't have to tell you "hey lets go kick their ass!" the army actually goes and does it, and you want to go with them to get in on the action. The player feels like they decided to go do that and got rewarded for it, and if they say I'm gonna ditch this series, it's ok, and they did their part then left.
the story will move with the player and be open to pick and choose, it is more appealing
Story is overrated because we have always had story in mmos and in other types of games. The first 2 games that come to midn right away when you talk about story is Diablo rpgs and Guild Wars. Those games had story and cinematics that told you the story and happening of the world around you. Developers need to focus on better gameplay mechanics rather than mess with story so much. I like story but I don't see what the big deal is when we have always had it ?
I disagree with UsualSuspect's assertion that stories must have an ending. As they say the ending is just the beginning. In books all we see is one segment of the characters' overall story. Where the book ends often times more tales will take place(or would if the world continued to 'live' after the author was 'done' writing the book/series).
However, it is true that with how 'epic' many games or even books get there eventually comes a point where you just can't up the ante anymore. I mean where do you go after you have defeated the Lord of despair the source of all evil[or some such]? Saving a farm from bandits doesn't really seem like the next progression or exciting considering at that point you are practically a god yourself.
That said you can probably guess that I would rather see a story where the players are more or less wandering mercenaries. Yeah sometimes you may be involved in the rise and fall of kingdoms, but much of your adventures would be more mundane. This story could go on indefinitely.
As for a quest only doable once as Serajin stated "If I resuced the Mayors daughter, thats it. No other player should have that "quest" available to them - ever (even new players to the server). The world moves on."
I must disagree. First of all I must admit I play to play the whole game. I don't like it when I can't access some content for whatever reason. But thinking about The 4th Coming is an MMORPG that had one quest that was done interestingly. You mention a Mayor's Daughter being kidnapped, well in T4C there was a bishop who needed healed because he was poisoned. If you were a well doer you had to heal him. But what to do if someone already healed him? Well you see the not so well doers would poison him. As for why he kept getting poisoned? Well I guess he just really loved his Apples :D. What type of Bishop can't resist temptation?! Tsk Tsk.
So in that vein someone who fights for justice may receive notice that the mayor of X village is in dire need because his daughter has been kidnapped by this bandit who wishes to force her to become his bride. The ally of justice rushes in and frees her, returning her to her father. However, The bandit may not be content with just giving up and he starts searching for someone to kidnapp her and bring him to her. Clearly this would be a job a not so well doer could take up.
Like in T4C quests and the choices you make during them could add 'points' to an alignment score. If a certain score is achieved you can access certain quests. Unlike T4C my personal preference would be a less set path(T4C had a rather clear good/evil divide) and a very wide variety of quests that access many different options. For example perhaps when kidnapping the mayor's daughter you learn that she wishes to explore the world and would reward you if you let her go at the next town. Thus, the next well doer would learn that the Daughter was kidnapped, but when you bust up the bandits camp you find out that the mercenary had ran off with her(and thus you have to track her down to the town she was left at and drag her back to her father). Or something like that. Like in some T4C quests a timer could be added. This way if you take too long the mayor/bandit would hire a more competent mercenary. Etc.
As I ramble just let me say that I find a powerful story to be a must, I can actually overlook poor game mechanics if the story is good enough(though the game must still be 'playable'). However, the converse is also true, excellent game mechanics can bring me in even if the story is very very bad. But to qualify as an excellent game it must reach a certain level in both fields in my opinion.
I agree and disagree on whether sotyline is more or less important than mechanics. I think that if both are implimented correctly, the two should go hand in hand creating deeper immersion and a more enjoyable experience. If old man farmer says he will pay me 1 gold per rat I kill on his land because they are destroying his crops, for which the local palace rely on for some of thier food... great. But if I agree and then find out that regardless of whether I kill the rats or not, the palace never actually runs out of said item (because the devs never atually made this part of the game mechanic), then really the long drawn out storyline just for some low level rats is negate and has no real value to the player exept as a grindfest for gold. Completing the quest will not impact any part of the game whatsoever and the player is not in fact helping anyone or harming if they refuse. If the outcome doesn't actually inpact the game world (or at least that area/region), then really why bother with a long drawn out explination. Save the resouces for something in the game that does count. and just have old man farmer say. "I'll pay you 1 gold for every rat you kill because I hate rats"...the end.
Voice over.. I'd rather hear it than read it anyday. When STO has Spock talking when you are exploring a new area.. I mute my voice-chat and listen. His voice is so compelling... the voice adds a layer of immersion that makes the player open to listening... or wanting to listen.
MMOs suffer the 'repeating quest' syndrome.. where the story gets repeated a dozen or more times (with small variants) so that you actually start training yourself to phase-out the story so that you can just 'get the goods' you came here to get.... having to do the quest 6 to 10 times because the MMO reward system is based on 'quest tokens'. Take SWG Heroic instances... 8x each for most x 5 x 4 = 160 iterations of the same 5 stories over and over again.
The 'repeatable quest' concept absolutely demolishes the storytelling expertience.. players cannot phase out and into content so easily once they are 'trained' to skip the dialogue.
Its worse when its multi-player and 1 or more of those players have already 'done' the quest on a previous character. They want to push forward and will often leave you standing alone if you don't "just skip it.. press OK already".
BIOWARE with TOR stories and voice immersion looks like they are going to make a serious run a getting players & their characters more involved in the story than just item questing. Full voiceover.. multiple stories based not only on character type but also previous actions.. and companion NPC 'behavior' influence as well.
US players.. you and me.. who have trained ourselves to ignore the story will need to 'unlearn what we have learned' in order to truely enjoy the increadible stories that the developers poor hundreds of hours into making.. while we breeze past it in a 4 hour 'power session'.
In MMO's its good to SLOW DOWN and smell the roses... in fact, the times I've enjoyed MMO play the most is when I've not been under any sort of pressure to 'catch up' or join the 'min/max' group for end-content PvP.
For TOR... I am going to take my time.. and really listen to the story... because thats a big reason why I play the game in the first place.
You may have a point about having a good story. I do not recant waht I've said earlier, but having come from viewing a movie, The Sorcerer's Apprentice I found myself immersed because of the story and over-looked the cheesey side-show for it.
It wasn't the main story that got my attention, it was the backstory. In MMOGs, the back story is huge, it's stuffed down your mouth and tastes rather bland at times. I spent three days in the Scarlet Monestary of WoW just to read all the books laying around. Those books were hidden gems that told a story I could appreciate.
The main story in most MMOs is similar to saying steak is steak no matter where it's served. So untrue. All these characters with some delimma is driving me insane. I mean, how many sons or daughters must avenge the death of their parent? How many times must we here that Elves sold magic for shining trinkets? How many generations have we waited for you to come along, the chosen one?
In the movie, TSA, myths and legends came together for a incredible cause. My part was to assist the protagonist to his destiny, in spite of his lack of experience, unwillingness and casual approach to what should have been the greatest honor achievable by any mage/sage.
In one game, the hardcore players were left in awe as a casual player named Tim The Enchanter had his name etched into stone within the game. A forever marking that allowed me to endeavor regardless of the other stories around me.
I want the story to take me from a vagabond to a hero, as well as making my accomplishment a living part of the story. Then, I wouldn't be here writing, now would I?