Player and Team Interaction with the Story - The summary

Hi everyone!

If you have read Gaute's article here and have any comments, then please reply here. I'd love to hear them.

The idea of voting sounds really interesting, I guess it would be a good way for you to know what the players thinks. What I'm a bit afraid of is that votes that relates to the RP aspect of the game requires the players to be rather involved in the story. Those who play the game and don't have an intrest in following the story-line would have a hard time to know what they vote for is really about.

These players could affect the result of votes in 'not-so-smart' directions. When I say 'not-so-smart' I don't mean that some players are stupid or anything, just that if you aren't informed well enough about what the question is all about the populistic choises may end up as a winner all the time.

If you want to have the Clans more democratic the vote should be; one man - one vote. Omni-Tek could have; one guild - one vote. But I fear for the results based on what I'm saying above.

Another idea on voting could be that both sides get both options. To every question there should be two polls. One that is; one player, one vote. Another that is; one guild - one vote. Then you could have some way of weighing those against each other.


Off-topic, but important. Please check the Adv forum, there are some major concerns about pistols at higher levels and some other stuff Thanks.

What about neutrals? Are we gonna be completely out of the story or what? As it stands Clans and Omni have a way to vote on story-related issues, but what about the third population of the world?

Cosmik, even though I think that voting is important...at this point it does make me wonder though as to how much the famed 'Storyline' will actually make an impact on the world the player lives in.

Again, all the suggestions that are made about voting, etc. seem (again) very cosmetic..nice, etc. The videos are good work..but lets get real... how does that impact the world I play in?

Ok..now we have an amnesty and I can get out to zones in which before I might have been killed by the guards. This increases my range in which I can do missions...that's about it.

But, and I believe that I speak for many of my fellow players, I baught this game because I hoped I could get involved in events that would shape my game experience..that would make me WANT to react/fight for something.

So..there is Portman...I've never seen him..probably 99% of all players could care less what he does..and how he raided the Op. Generates cute stories and screenshots..ok - but it doesn't impact my gameworld ..or anyone elses. Again, I'm left with the feeling: "Duh, I hope Im around for the next event" - But all in all, these events are individual experiences that in NO WAY impact anything else but some hypothetical story told on the web site. That's nice and important..especially when I'm bored and sitting at work..but other than that...what do I care if I miss a story or not.

When I bought the game, I had hoped there was something that would make me fight for the loss experienced..or fight for some overall gain. I mean, really in the real world ...as in cyberspace..the general rule of REAL ESTATE applies.

An example are the nano mines. Well, where are they? Why can't I bomb/attack/conquer them. Why can't I cut off supply routes ..so that nano technology gets real expensive on the other side? Maybe causing some secret negotiations between the parties that control supply and demand? Don't you think that at that point it would actually be meaningful to belong to a guild?

I'm not going to get into how to make this happen within the game..since the suggestions that come to my mind are virtually endless.

My question to you...and FUNCOM is: Do you EVER plan to instate this? Can you? Or is the storyline going to be some cute cosmetic blip on your website? If that's all you are going to deliver... I request you send us all hits of acid...that we can take along with the game...to get that "immersive" and "persistant" feeling you always talk about.

Because, AS YOU WELL KNOW, at higher levels...levelling or making money really is irrelevant..other than for sporting. Many players, as you well know have cancelled..or just simply stopped playing as much...out of sheer lack to do anything.

Well, that's my 2c worth on this..and I really hope you have the pull/guts to answer to this straightforward.

it may be off topic, but RK2 hasn't seen much of a storyline and events have been non-existent.

As well the Euro player base is getting ready to throw a major fit because the promise of events running at different times to compensate americans and europeans are not happening.


My question is, will you be lowering your monthly fee's for euro players because they aren't receiving the same content that RK1 americans are?

My next question is, will you be lowering your monthly fee's for all RK2 players because they aren't receiving the same amount of content that RK1 americans are?

And if not,

Do you then really expect us to pay so that everyone on RK1 can get their content? why are we paying for them?

I understand to someone on RK1 this seems moot and is not your concern, however, we're not on RK1. we have time and money invested into RK2, and Europeans can't stay up until 2-3-4 in the morning on a worknight just because funcom is too cheap to put on events during their primetime hours. They/We pay the same amount as those of you on RK1 who are able to enjoy the events. we pay for the same service as you do and we should have it.

Either merge the servers or give us the content. it should not matter if 10 players show up or 10,000. we're paying for the service and we should not have to deal with funcoms shortcomings in this matter. it's not our problem if funcoms budget doesn't allow for what was promised. what IS our problem is that some of us aren't getting the content that we're paying for along with everyone else. and that is a major problem.

It seems to me that someone over there at funcom is making you eat your words Cosmik because before the storyline came about a player asked you if RK2 and Euro's would be included in the content and events, and your response was emphatically YES. most assuredly. and it's not happening.

Me thinks Cosmik needs to go beat up some funcom people until this customer service problem is rectified. :)

and that goes for Savant too, though, i haven't seen him since patch 13.0

/ooc

I think a major flaw that needs to be addressed is that the events I have seen so far -- three of them -- are simply transitory in nature, and do not seem to really impact the actual game as a whole.

For example, good events would have some actual impact on a permanent level in a particular zone. Maybe one zone switches from Clan to Omni guards for example. Economic supply and demand in shops are impacted by some event in another zone. Insurance terminals "break" in one area, or even switch to a different side. Unusual mobs begin to roam an area as they are "released" someplace by perhaps Omni scientists for example.

There are so many ways to program "permanent" changes in the story as they occur, and allowing the players to feel like they have some influence in what happens goes a long way in maintaining and adding to your customer base.

Kyndi

/ooc (and slightly off-topic)

Kyndi,

Just playing devil's advocate here, but say we are able to change the dynamic of the game with every event... for instance the zone changing. What happens if you weren't there for the event? Normally, you'd check the news feed and see the article before heading out into a possibly PvP zone (which may have been newbie before). That's what you'd normally do.

But frankly, the web based site they have is so out of the game, that many but the most dedicated AO fans check it before going in game. I sure as heck didn't when Oct 31st rolled about and we were wacked by pumpkin headed monsters. Nor was I able to deduce where the steps of madness were myself due to the lack of information (I had to hear it from a friend).

I think we would need address the issue of push/pull of relavent world information on Rubi-Ka before we go and alter the game dynamics in any drastic way. The current web-based system is strictly pull. Add to the fact that their articles are spread out over their entire website (Omni, Clan, TAG, daily clippings, etc) you have to be searching for that specific piece of information before you hit it. I lament the lack of a CNN headline news or other up-to-the point news feed, especially any newsfeeds at all in-game.

Maybe if they had that, I wouldn't be so adament about them changing the game world. Call me sally but I'd like to know if the world changes around me.


Tappert

I am always surprized by the amout of effort the normal players are willing to put in to create events. I run a number of events in the baboons night club but as more parties went on less and less people came.

This ment I had to do more and more work to get people to come, now I did not mind. However it got to the point where my own char was spending hours getting money for contests, shouting at the top of my voice while running around Rubi-ki telling them about the party.

I ask the arks and Gms if they could help even in the small way of doing a global annoucement to tell people the party was on. The answer was no, I dont blame the arks there hands are rather tied on this matter. The point is that I am willing to do this work of putting on events at no cost. But I need some help to carry it on.

I have loads of ideas of things we could do that would be fun but do little to change the balance of power. For example on hallowen eve I could of run a fright night and handed out masks and other outfits to the guests. Heck if you give me some idea how I am sure we could create the clothes for you.

My point is I understand you dont have much time to put on events or do extra work when major bugs are still outstanding. So why not make use of the free work source the player base to help out. I wanted to be able to build a church for a firend of my so he could run it, holding services etc. It all adds to the ****e of the game and really does not cost you to much.



About the story line I am sure most players really dont feel apart of it, and why should they most of the action is not the the game. While I know its early days the events we have in game feel just tacted to the story line. We are just watching the story rather than beeing part of it. The movie clips should have Ross adressing the people, or give us a goal or mission to do. Perhaps returning an item from cyborg mission would give us a medal or something, not all rewards need to be cash or leet equipment. I am sure you could open up many of the omni and clan buildings to do something. Hand out special missions or act as a news office and how about seeing some of the major players once in a while. Have Ms Oak's van dashing across Lush fields, or Mr Ross's personal jet fly over head.

You should also change the in game enivroment, the dark skys on the first event was good, but as omni and the clans are looking to make peace we still have Omni annoucements telling us to use our guns on the clans today.

The last point is on the way the events are occuring once every two weeks is first not enough, by the time the next one pops up people have lost what they are expected to be doing. The second point is doing them on a wednesday is a bit strange as more people are on over the weekends and by then most of the surprize for them people is lost. Holding events late on a wednesday is really bad, only the USA players have any chance. You could at least repeat the events perhaps on the other server, make them a more suitable time or even do them at the weekend.

Well I could go on but I will not.

Kirrana