Why the story?

[Isisnorfret]

I'd like to start off by saying I don't mean this to be offensive, and that some of the people who worked hard on this game (if they read this) might get a funny feeling in thier stomach from seeing this but..

I don't know why they even bothered to make a story with this game. If they would have refined the gaming system instead, Then the players would make up thier own story, and be completely caught up in it. For example if they had set up guild-houses and had something like guild controlled outposts that could be fought over. Newspaper terminals, with the articles completely written by players. Ways of broadcasting in-game dates/times/locations of social events. Customizability of social events (guild pay 2 mill cr to rent out reet retreat to have a dance contest, 1k cr admittance, which would go to the guild bank.) Drinks that make you walk all wobbly. Purchasable homes in exotic locations. Important leadership positions to be filled by players. I could go on and on.

A defined story works good for single player games, but a mmorpg is something very different. It is a vast network of unpredictable variables which will react and grow in ways that the creators of the game could never ever hope to predict. To expect such an.. organism.. to follow along a rigid storyline is erroneous.

Had there been open-ended rpg enhancements - reward systems for PvP, leadership positions and responsibilities, and so on, then a complex story would have grown organically - and best of all, all players would be involved in the story by default, it would be the story of thier character's lives.

Honestly I don't even watch the story episodes anymore. I came in to this game - my first mmorpg - and was enthralled by the society that people interacted in. I came into it having some idea that people would hold elections for political power. Grizzled veterans would lead large scale attacks. Major battles fought which would over the course of the game decide the final victor. But then I find out that the important leaders are NPC's, and that the major battles have been determined.

I am sorry but this just does not dignify something as dynamic as a several thousand member ecosystem. You could have saved yourselves a lot of trouble by letting the players create thier own story, a story which would actually mean something to them because they helped to mold it. The unnatural restrictions placed on Rubi-Ka to ensure that the game-world follows the path of the already written novel pretty much ensures that it will never live up to your dreams of immersing people into thier characters.

Its too late now I would think so I'm not suggesting Funcom change AO now.. but I'd recommend they take it as a lesson and apply it to any future mmorpg's they create.

[__________Wortsnogga]

The people running the game (funcom) are the ones who change the world, and the players (you, me and everybody else) can only react.

[________________Oofa]

React ??
We can change nothing, and even if we react, we are ignored !

[___________Chagidiel]

Not quite true. The trial is a proof of that...

[______________Santse]

I totally w/u on this Sandrix! You are absolutely right..it totally baffles me ..and to a certain extent I think it has to do w/the fact that the game was released way to early.

Game mechanics like you are suggesting have to be well thought out and tested - check out www.shadowbane.com for an excellent view into the development of a game as you suggest.

The way it is now, it appears that at best players (and very few of the whole population at that) are 'extras' in 'staged events' - I'm not absolutely sure if players actually can impact or shape events and how they happen...or rather are reported about on FC's official web site/ RK News Portal. I mean from a 100 player event ..the remaining 39,500 have to read about it on RK News. Funcom can state there whatever best fits them..who cares what really happened?!?

[_____________Lowburn]

There will always be better ways games COULD have been done. There will always be a next best game coming out with better features and better ways to affect storyline change.

This is the extent of ours though, so you gotta like it or lump it. =)

[___________Shorthack]

Originally posted by Lowburn
There will always be better ways games COULD have been done. There will always be a next best game coming out with better features and better ways to affect storyline change.

This is the extent of ours though, so you gotta like it or lump it. =)

I just hope we can figure it out here. I love what's going on, but unfortunately there are players that don't understand or don't like it. I assure you the other MMORPG companies are probably looking at AO, seeing if something like this works.

My only thought is that they'll look at the log of the trial and see the OOC comments of "i'm quitting AO if they punish me" and say "Well, it looks like players don't like to be involved in a story like this, they don't want to face consequences..."

The almighty dollar reigns supreme, and if too many vocal players whine that they will take their money elsewhere if they are sacrificed to the story (thereby affecting it), I don't know if other companies will go away from the hack, slash, level, hack, slash, level mentality.

(And yes, personally, I welcome the chance to be a martyr if it becomes significant in the story.)

I used to tell people that would bash EQ all the time with "the next generation of games will be better" that if there was no EQ, your "next gen" game would have just made the same mistakes EQ did. Someone has to be first to try things, or either they'll never get tried or someone else will try and make the same mistakes anyway.

I applaud the efforts here, and am personally glad that we're finding stumbling blocks now, just so the future of MMORPG's can be brighter.