Let's just forget the story
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Originally posted by reality
People still confused over who is good and who is evil, have a look at the old site.
Heh. The old site really isfunny. The part that made me think most was Editorial
- By Anarchy Online's story director -Gaute Godager
"This is a grand adventure in the Tolkien-Star Wars-Babylon 5 sense! (And what a legacy it is!)" and "Anarchy Online will follow a 4-year storyline, with episodes and seasons (very much inspired by some well-known, long-running series on television)."
In this current situation where anarchy online is 1 year old and still without storyline, it's really sickening to see Mr. Gamedirector himself writing such noble lines about genres, settings and evolution of the ao world. Why bother?
Or perhaps the title itself reveals the truth. "On the nature of the AO setting"? AO just a setting. Story will be silently forgotten. And perhaps that's just what we need. It hurts to read those words about epic storylines and such. It hurts to wait and do mindnumbing mission day after day. It hurts to always get ones hopes up when storyline is mentioned.
Will shadowlands deliver story? I dont think so. Because if Funcom had the tool to deliver the story it surely would have already been done.
Shadowlands will just change the setting. That is, adding more areas to explore, more items to get, more levels to gain, some fancy inner-mind-trip flavour added. That's ok.
But when does Funcom have balls to say "We're sorry, the whole storyline thing was just a marketing hype and it's never going to be delivered, enjoy the setting, enjoy the scenery, kill the mobs, we're sure nobody of you still playing are here for the story anyway."
Enjoy the setting folks!
PLOT, and the absence thereof
Yes, Zax, I agree the key to a story is plot (or even PLOT!:)) and that is what is totally absent in AO. This post is perhaps a bit off topic, but what the heck, the "story" forum is just one continuing stream of "where is the story" posts, maybe it will be more meaningful to post here.
The only story events that one really notices are these little GM events, which seem mainly to be run for one or two guilds at a time, or which involve a brief spurt of GM-created mobs in different locations. These events have several problems.
1) They don't make one bit of difference to the game world for the vast majority of players. The game world just doesn't change in any lasting way. The one exception to this would be the early story events back during the animated series, e.g. the bombing of omni-ent.*
2) They are administered randomly and haphazardly and are not coordinated in any apparently sensible way.
3) There is no overarching story to which they appear to be logically connected.
4) Reporting of the events is inconsistent, spotty, and almost nonexistent; to the extent that nonparticipants are ever told anything about the events, the telling is apparently done by player guild reps who don't really know the story context themseves.
For a while a few months ago, I had some superficial contact with some vaguely related story bits that apparently had to do with an ongoing Omni operation to flush out some arms smugglers. I observed a lame attempt at an illegal arms sale**, and participated in an extremely feeble attempt to provoke an Omni-Clan conflict in Mort. In that event there were scores of Omnis, but only a few scattered clanners (which is just as well, as any concentration would undoubtedly have crashed the server.) These events were more or less coordinated on the Omni side by General Telion and I forget the name of the clan-affiiliated characters who were the arms runners. In the end, though, so far as I can tell this sequence of events was basically a total waste of time. There were a couple of news articles describing these events, but there were no short or long term changes to the game world as a result, and the time I spent trying to participate was not only not much fun, but it got me no xp, no rewards, nor was there even any danger; it was mostly waiting around listening to people shouting nonsense at each other and trying to log back after massive player concentrations crashed my client.
Anyhow these little GM events and other random incidents like that wouldn't be bad if they were secondary to real plot and story happenings that actually cause the world to change and which are actually somehow affectable by players. But that primary story is nonexistent.
*Note that the whole bombing thing along with the dust brigade plot has apparently been forgotten. Apart from a few ludicrous incidents involving "killer" GMs roaming around in 75% zones, that whole plotline has apparently been discarded. You would think there would be a static dungeon with dust brigade bosses, or special missions dealing with them, or at least some public event at which some leading guild finally puts paid to a group of green-lettered GMs, but I guess the connection between game content and story is just something Funcom is unwilling to deal with. Do the story GMs even talk to the content designers?
** It was lame because the clan buyers were more interested in posturing than going along with the GMs to develop whatever minimal story was actually being played out, so the GMs eventually just blew them off. It was also rather silly because I and several other omni players were standing there the whole time, being ignored by both the GMs and the clanners. It was a 75% zone, and the GMs obviously preferred to pretend that there were no omnis present, so I didn't bother anyone there, but really, a neutral bar is probably not the best place in the world for a secret arms deal, and if GMs want an event to be a closed secret, they shouldn't stalk across heavily populated zones invitiing people to follow them :))
Oh well, back to Broken Shores for another team mission....
How to be part of the storyline?
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Originally posted by Raymote
To those suggesting there hasn’t been a story line up till now: Where have you been.. do you mean apart from the videos, the peace treaties, the terrorist actions the (EXCELLENT) book and so on? Just because this stuff hasn’t been "in your face" every time you logged into AO doesn’t mean it hasn’t been happening.
The book, videos and all other non-ingame material is part of the setting. Sure, they shape ones perception of the rubi-ka but are they really part of the storyline? I have to disagree here. Like cheesy starwars merchandise around the movie itself. Paperback books and such. Setting.
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A big part of the story line is the stuff players are making up and doing themselves. What’s the problem with that?
There is no problem at all. Great stuff, no doubt. These are the activities that are what is supposed to be players interacting with the story. Just that these activies have zero effect on the storyline, which is Funcoms storyline (the one was promised to us, remember?). So, where is the funcom storyline now?
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As for people saying "We cant impact the story like they keep saying" I say Have You Tried? When they say that, it doesn’t mean everyone and his dog will change the story line fundamentally - that would make one crazy story line apart from being impossible..
How can one impact to AO storyline (FunCom storyline) if it does not exist at the moment? I have tried, yes. I saw 3 DB commandoes walking in tir 3 months ago. I followed them with 30+ other citizens. They were discussing something that appeared to be DB's inner conflict of opinion about how should DB be lead. Then 2 commandoes vanished and one was left behind.
Commando started to yell to the crowd following that he should be left alone. Lone commando then parted the city, running at runspeed 2500 or so, thus vanishing out of sight. Bit later someone told he'd seen that commando N of certain Tir OP. Crowd gathered around the commando... Who then starts shooting people! He messed highest level slayerdroid in one single burst and lvl 200 adventurer with the next. Few were able to flee and most were not.
GM controlled DB commandoes are (were?) invincible so you really couldnt affect their actions. And when he trashed 10+ bystanders it was clear that even participating in the story 'event' is not allowed.
I personally lost the interest in affecting the storyline at that trip to reclaim, but it also is impossible to follow the storyline as bystander. Ingame newsterminals? No. AO website news? No.
Easy-to-implement-suggestions-for-better-ingame-immersion:
1. How about every GM that generates even the smallest event would have to do 3rd person newsflash of his actions to website? Few lines cant be to much to ask.
2. Make those news available ingame! There used to be voice of freedom channel that broadcasted stuff. How about making that stuff available again?
3. Rumours from the gridfeed: Broadcasts to "Gridfeed" channel available only in GRID playfield! Detailed information perhaps? In fixer grid?
I want to be able to read about INgame story/activities/events, even the smallest ones. Then perhaps access to grid and find hint about ongoing event?
Great RP and easy to access. Even laziest of us could feel being part of something.
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PS Did I mention that I love the AO storyline so far, especially the book. :)
I love the AO setting so far. Not the storyline.