On the nature of the AO setting

[onemind]

dam all the negative energy, for all i know the dev team members might go suicide now loool

some of the arguments that are presented are valid and i think are worth reading and considering... but others, are just too godam anal... i mean wt f ?!

any ways just my 2c

[______________Crowly]

Found a nice artical at Zuggsoft.com about the E3 conference. I found this part quite interresting :

"In addition to the show floor, I also attended some of the conference sessions. These were a great way to escape the hustle and bustle of the main showrooms and also one of the only places you could sit down. The most interesting session was on dealing with User-created Content and handling online User Communities. Represented on the panel were: Star Wars Galaxies, Neverwinter Nights, Ultima Online/The Sims Online, and the publisher of the 3DSMAX and GMAX toolsets.

There was a lot of agreement on the importance of building an active online user community and finding ways to allow users to add content to games. What was amusing to me was how much the MUD community is already doing all of this. While Simutronics was mentioned by name for their business model of providing royalties to the best customer-created content, it seems that the newer games are still way behind the existing MUD games in terms of user-created content. Even with all of the success of user-create DOOM and Quake levels, and the CounterStrike mod for HalfLife, few publishers are providing support for user-created content. Of course, Neverwinter Nights is designed from the ground up to enable user-created content, and I'm looking forward to it's release any day now. With the Sims Online, there was much discussion of how to police user- created content on a MMORPG where everyone can see what others can create and how to deal with "grief" players. For Star Wars Galaxies, the issues are even larger; while there is a desire to allow user-created content, they don't seem to know how to police it and deal with such content in a strictly licensed game set in the Star Wars universe. After all, you can't allow someone to stick a Simpson's Skin onto a droid, or anything like that. Licensing issues and grief players are obviously a problem that needs a lot of attention.

Of course, again, they could just look at the existing MUDs. MUDs have admins who get to decide what content is allowed and what is not. For some reason, the big MMORPGs seem afraid of setting up any sort of controlled admin system. One of these days, maybe they'll realize that they need to put some of their money into the ongoing administration of these subscription-based games. In my opinion, what players really want are more "dungeon master"-type experiences where quests are run in real time by a live game team. They need to separate the tasks of admining the game (dealing with grief players, etc), and the live content with quests, etc...then provide the funding the support both types of teams. These days, you can't just write a game and release it and expect people to play it for years and years without more active real-time involvement.

In terms of building a user community, I could just point to our zuggsoft.com site itself. We've had the Guru system and user forums for over 5 years now, with about 50% of the content in zMUD coming from user suggestions. This idea of customer-driven software still seems to make the big companies uncomfortable. They are stuck in the old software development model where you spend X years writing a game, then you release it and think you are done. Perhaps someday they'll take a closer look at the Zugg Software model where you release what you have and then constantly update and improve the software over time based upon user feedback and suggestions."



What puzzles me some is that game creators havent taken more advantage of the players knowhow (graphics design, programming etc) to create more content. Just look at the Mud commuity, that is mostly made up of player content (to my knowledge, i played muds for 5 years), so i think that mmorpgs have a lot to learn from muds. As i see it a mmorpg is just a mud with graphics.

So i think that the first game to take advantage of this, and manage to orginize/manage it properly will most likly have an edge on the competition, it seems like AO wants to do this (dynamic story impacted by players), but are unable to do what they want.

[_____________Raymote]

Interesting article Mr Godager, a sign of interesting times ahead maybe.

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.

A big part of the story line is the stuff players are making up and doing themselves. What’s the problem with that?

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..

Saying anyone CAN change the story line isn’t the same as “EVERY player will get their name in lights twice a month even if they spend their whole online time power levelling”. (This is what I feel some people think should be happening, they expect obvious chances to change the world, delivered to them on their plate)

Send your flames to my regular post box, null@null.null.

PS Did I mention that I love the AO storyline so far, especially the book.

[____________Dominata]

Raymote, the book shouldn't have anything to do with the storyline in the game. The book is not an event or something that we can experience within the boundaries of the game. The book is an attempt to make more money, simple as that.
Yes, they had videos, but where are they now? One day they just ended with nothing at all resolved. The videos too, had nothing to do with the game since they, as well, were outside the game and not in the game.

If we truly had been able to influence the story line, Radiman would be dead today since he was killed by players during a meeting in Omni-HQ. Lucky for him it was a clone and not the man himself that got killed, unlucky for us it just proved that we can't influence the storyline in any significant way. There used to be big events, at least on RK1 but it seems that they have totally stopped now, probably because they always seemed to consist mostly of waiting for something to happen and when something finally did happen, it was the zone crashing... :\

Of course people can, and do make up their own parts of the storyline but that is not the issue here, the issue is what FC is doing to keep up their end of it.

[Seraphim]

I have a hard time picturing Anarchy Online as any particular or similar sci-fi universe, while it is a sci-fi universe in itself.

Most other sci-fi tales that I am aware of, sci-fi novels like '1984' allows you to turn the page while in Anarchy Online, you pay a monthly fee to wait to turn the page. Since the animated series stopped I have patiently been waiting for turning that page.

[zax-ax-atak]

OK

Gaute, brother...

Lets talk about the AO setting and the SF novels you mention, because I understand the problem you've got yourselves into (and I'm not the only one, a lot of players understand). It's an interesting problem too - and it would be great if you can come up with a solution.

Because you're talking about science Fiction and you're talking about PLOT. Right? (You call it 'story').

I should say for a start that I'm 50 years old, I've worked for hi-tech multinats and for games companies. So I see this problem from your side as well as from the player's point of view. I don't normally mention this, ya know, me being so old... 'cause it makes people afraid and they don't want to team with me. But there's room for everyone in this game, OK (well, there's room for ME anyway, hehe). Just think of me as an ancient AI from the Culture and everything will be OK. I've done this stuff, but it doesn't make my opinion better than anyone else's...

So - you mention some well-known SF novels and films. And we all like those kinds of stories, that's why we're here now, one way or another.

But - Well - for instance Quake Arena has a SF setting, too, with boring hairstyles, strange futuristic guns, and crazy armour, right? So the SF setting is well known in the gaming world, I'd say about 35% of games ever published since the start of computing have an SF setting. In a year or so there will be a lot of online MMORPGs with SF settings, as everyone knows.

One of them will get it right, or Funcom will get it right first... your problem (or theirs) is you have to get it right and also make a profit. The two things go together. That's an interesting problem.
- because there is ONE big difference between the books/films you mention and AO, as it is at the moment. The difference is PLOT.

Each of those books/films has crazy armour and guns (lets include that stuff in the BACKGROUND, that's all part of the environment, OK?) and also those books and films have PLOT. So what is a PLOT, really?

Well - a PLOT is when something happens to the world or to the characters or the cities... something CHANGES, and afterwards it can never go back to being what it was, the PLOT has 'advanced', right. If there's a war, then someone wins and someone looses, if people fall in love they get it on or they don't (aint that the truth). Ya know, there's a battle or a crash or a virus or an alien attack, and the characters have ONE chance to react. That's what makes these stories exciting, that's why we like to read the books or watch the films. The characters can't EVER go back to re-run the same fight over again tomorrow till they "win".

And that's the big difference between say Quake (any current game, in fact) and a novel or a TV series with a PLOT. And I don't mean, like - in level 18 Lara has to swing on a rope - that's scenario, that's levelling again, not PLOT.

So now we know what a PLOT is.

Now, Gaute - you told us there was going to be a PLOT in this AO game. And a PLOT is where things change and everybody has to make decisions - and some of them turn out to be wrong decisions. A lot of people were attracted by this idea; there was a lot of desire for role-playing of that kind, and there STILL is, its just a question of who is going to come up with PLOT role-playing first, and get all the fame and fortune.

So, many of us were pulled in by the PLOT. That's really interesting, because that's not like any 'normal' game is it? - where everybody has to be able to win, and do all the levels, and get to the end. Because in a game of levels, when you get to the end - well... you stop playing. But in a PLOT, sometimes (wow) BAD stuff happens to the hero, his home gets nuked, and he doesn't win, or the hero's boyfriend gets kidnapped and she has to go save him, or the planet suddenly breaks in half, or you go blind and there's nothing you can do about it, or friends turn out to be nasty aliens. Sometimes you're just plain on the wrong side or in the wrong place.

You're on the ship but you're not Ripley. Oops…
... and that's exciting too.

No one ever says, "I bought the 'Dune' trilogy and now I want my money back because the hero in Dune looses his girlfriend, gets blinded, and dies in the desert."

So, now we've got to where everyone who plays AO knows that - right at this moment - there is no PLOT. There is a Background but no Plot. People think there is never ever gonna be a plot. Hey, don't take my word for it, ASK your players.

The Background is great, too. This is a real fine planet, LOT of good stuff here. The planet 'by itself' is interesting enough, together with the people you meet, to make playing a lot of fun right from the start up to about lvl 80. You can do 80 levels just meeting people and going to new places, checking the weapons and working out your implants and seeing things you NEVER saw before… and a lot of players who are in the middle of all that, think that because they are only lvl 18, for instance, that the PLOT will start opening up when they reach a higher level. They'll start getting involved with the big time gamers and discover the real happenings. People have that idea - ask them... The quality of the environment carries them through while they are waiting to find out what the PLOT is all about, what's happening. They want to get involved in the planet and INFLUENCE history. Take sides and make moral decisions, fight desperate battles, join movements that have an effect, debate the future, try strategies and crazy plans that just-might-work, they want to MAKE history: be part of it, OK? They want to see it change and be part of the change.

Big question - WHY is there no plot?

I think a first reason (just the simplest) is you don't TRUST your players. You think that if players were able to influence the PLOT then they'd wreck the game. You wouldn't be able to control them any more and there could be a disaster.

I've seen every time there is a player initiative INSIDE the game - and there have been a LOT of them - that its either ignored or smothered.

I've seen keen serious players - who enjoy themselves a LOT, too - come up with two or three BIG initiatives, and work hard at them, and get others interested... and then after each idea, or movement, has been deliberately quashed - they stop being inventive, they stop putting time into PLOT. And who can blame them?

And some of them had some pretty GOOD ideas, too.

[they really are lot of trouble, those players, and the game would be smoother if there weren't any, wouldn't it? so make sure they don't.. y'know... DO anything. - 'scuse me]

OK so you don't trust the players (I can dig that, it's bad but its understandable - the players might be crazy people, right? - hehe. If they were sane they wouldn't play) but I think there's a more serious corporate financial reason for 'No Plot'. I'm getting to it. And this is where Funcom should/could do GOOD stuff. Make it a first and be the winner, Funcom. Put AO on the map.

Now (still on the question) look at the way you tweak the technical aspects of the game - because you have the structure to do that - and so it's not *difficult* to do, is it?... because you have a team of people who are PAID to do it. I'd say that you react quickly and seriously to the people who play for technical aspects, the keen levelers... (the people who are maybe going to stop playing when they get to 200 because they've "finished" the game?).

But that tweaking just makes the levelling game smoother and easier, and we just noticed that "smooth and easy" is more or less the opposite of a PLOT, right?

So (second, most important practical reason) - do you have a similar team of PAID staff who spend their full-time working hours on the PLOT?

Do you have a team who are there IN the game to move events through a planned sequence? To discuss player actions and work out how to fit those into the timelined PLOT? To CREATE the changing history of the planet?

Do you HAVE a planned sequence for the PLOT, with options to incorporate player reactions, plus the staff to put it into operation? Has there ever been a planned plot, or an intention to have a plot, or an intention to create plot events that incorporate player initiatives? Do you have staff dedicated to doing any of these things?

I know you have internal memos, with - "tell the players about X, but do NOT tell the players about Y". You have a corporate policy on statements (i.e. 'don't talk about it), but you ought to be able to answer this simple question.

Does AO have the capacity in dedicated staff to support a PLOT? Is a PLOT structure, timeline and IN-GAME plot support staff in place? or was it ever planned to be?

I've researched role-playing for a number of years (aint I big-headed - and STILL I could be wrong and a 17 year-old could come up with a better solution - no problem).

Tell me if I'm wrong: You want PLOT in an online game you have to have paid role-playing staff in the game. It's an aspect of the game just as serious as the software (sounds crazy to have to say that!). But no one has done it yet. Back in the old days of D&D played on paper - before people had computers - you needed a Dungeon Master. A good Dungeon Master made the game unforgettable. I guess you have to be pretty old to know about that?

Game players who compare SF with their own roll-playing game (looking for a similar thrill), tend to forget when they talk about Star Trek, Aliens, etc, that in the films and TV series, the characters are played by paid actors (professional role players, right?) - that's not really Ripley, bro, that's an actress...

So here's the lowdown - you heard it here first - [Zax told you] - In a few years it will be a recognised standard profession to be an online RPG actor (paid, full time, though not paid a lot I guess) as normal a job as being a TV actor or a radio presenter, a switchboard operator or a user support team member.

I don't mean ARKs here, I mean well-trained fully briefed staff who PLAY in the game full time, and get paid for it, same as the programmers get paid for writing code. I mean IN-GAME role-playing support, a structure dedicated to game plot dynamics and player involvement and feedback. Purely ROLE oriented, dig, not anything to do with help or tweaks or "why did the monster hit me so hard?"

Technical freaks make their opinions heard loudly, don't they? - some of my good friends compare criticals like bodybuilders compare pectorals - they wouldn't ever take on a monster without knowing exactly how many hits will take it out, and if it does something unexpected they don't get EXCITED - they COMPLAIN.
But, be warned - when the WHOLE game has become 100% predictable (because you do GIVE them what they want), and the game gets so smooth you can tell what's going to happen without even playing it (hehehe) then these same people are gonna say "this game is boring, its too predictable".

I don't have any problem with that - the gameplay was fine at the start, its still fine now, you just tweaked the technical stuff, ok - little differences - I just play with what I find in the game, if you change it then I play with what you changed it to - there's No Difference (you follow me?). It's not Very Important.

You react to them because they make themselves heard AND because you have a tech department in place that is capable of reacting to that kind of input. Tweaks, yeah, we can DO that.

After all the OverEquipping effort, I find - yesterday - that a Trader a couple of levels lower than me can hit 4000, and me.. I can hit 580 if I'm lucky. Is that RPG or is that life?

Except that you ARE smoothing it out too much (be warned!) - Varmint Woods outpost used to be difficult and exciting to get to, and when you went there you met fine people, individuals, loners, crazy people, philosophers, backwoods hunters.. now it's just a Whompa line. No excitement like when you saw the place through the trees and thought "wow, made it, man … MADE it". You put in a Whompa to make it easy and now its not worth going there, you don't learn anything, its like anywhere else. That was a COOL place. Ask anyone who was there.

So we all know - You know yourself, Gaute, that technical tweaks is in NO way addressing the real problem/great possibility of this game, which is the PLOT.

The first time I was shot dead by a player - I was Pissed OFF. I was shocked! And that was REALLY interesting, to discover these emotions.

The monsters in this game are pretty predictable (and there are players who throw a tantrum if they get killed in a mission, so maybe its good the monsters are predictable, hehe); the only element not predictable and REALLY interesting from the excitement and role-playing point of view is... the other players. You don't know WHAT they're gonna do. So, in any changing developing PLOT, you're going to get people who LIKE it and people who HATE it (event by event.. right?) and people who crawl all over it and do every crazy whichway thing you can imagine, and find all the crazy things to do that you can't imagine, too.

So its a lot SAFER and CHEAPER just to have NO plot. But after so much work - it would be a pity for FC to chicken out now. And I know there's been a lot of discussion AND budgeting considerations in Funcom AO about this. But you're not gonna tell us any of that.

So the real question is not 'what is the Plot?' the question is HOW are you going to implement the PLOT, Galte (I understand your problem, I do, but be transparent about this).. what financial technical and personnel resources have you dedicated to making, scripting, putting in place, guiding, overseeing, crosschecking, feedbacking, the 4-year PLOT of AO??

You've got to have at least 15 full time staff roll-playing, dedicated to roll playing, PAID for doing only that, or it won't ever get off the ground. They got to work in shifts already, they got to have a long term script to work to, AND there are two dimensions - three now. So its plenty of hard work for a full team, needs real planning and thought, and maybe FC thinks that's way too expensive? AND just too risky?

You really OUGHT to trust the players - there's a lot of talent and smartness and good ideas wandering around on Rubi-Ka. With a Roll-Play department working to a script, incorporating feedback, and running a team of ARKs this game could really take off.

I KNOW there are people in Funcom who AGREE this is the way to go. What happened, did they leave, or loose? moved to another game? or are they still fighting their corner... is there any chance whatever that a PLOT might be set up?

What resources DO you have working on that?

If Funcom don't do it, someone else will, and when it happens we're all going to move to THAT game.

Best regards,

Zax-Ax-Atak-Qua'zax-Ax-Zolotl

[Intone]

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!

[____________Strycker]

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....

[Intone]

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.

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?

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.

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.

[Destractor]

[rant]
When I started I expected to see clanners standing on their soapboxes in Tir drumming up support and badmouthing OT.

Groups of omni personel leaving the offical buildings to get lunch at the BB and complaining about lack of funding in this area, or the latest experiment gone wrong.

Omni guards marching around trade in formation controlling the city.

Where are all these notum mines? (the one in longest road it pretty good, but where are all the atrox miners?) Wouldn't it be nice to see convoys of trucks taking the notum to Clon****?

Anything to suggest that there is more going on than players hunting and missioning.

On top of this I expected random little non story events (mutants escaping/ mine explosions ) that people could help out in. It is a big crazy planet, I expected more of there.

On top of all this background I thought that each week the story would develop (has anyone see Ross or Radaman in game?)

Players are doing their best to add events and interest but it seems as if FC has seen this and desided that they don't need to add anything to progress things.

[/rant]

Well I look forward to the story promissed.

[Odeen]

Nice article, but...

Most of the expansion packs content is long overdue, most players are just hanging around waiting for the next best thing after AO after being told and "promissed" that a story will come...eventually. Bah, story they had in mind didnt work, and honestly i dont think it will be around next year even. And shadowlands, summer next year ? release i mean?

FC, come on, how many times will you guys try fishing without any bate on the hook? You guys prolly just got started on the Shadowland exp. in a desperate attempt to hook a few customers for a little while longer ;P

Enough flaming, just need to get some of the furry of not having a better alternative for AO YET out

[Odeen]

And btw...
(just read some of the posts above

I agree with the PLOT dude.

And to the guy who doesnt seem to have been around for to long yet. Yes we have tried since day one to make and impact on the socalled story or "scenario" of AO. And FC's reply is they cant change anything around player events at all, since it would mean they would have to do it every single time anyone wants to make an event. But thats just BS as they wont even change anything around their own events except maybe for once, when appartment complex was bombed 100 years ago.

Some say theres RP in AO, for some there is, but its the MUD RPing if u ask me. AO is a visual ORP, not a text based. Thus some visual happeings wouldnt hurt.

I still think AO had something planned from the start, but as every single event ended in crashing server and overcrwding areas making the load to big for us to stay ingame, it went down the drain. Thru beta and first months of "release" they tested some events that were ment for many players to join, but it didnt work cause of some proplems with to many characters at one spot.

Time is not something FC has, as we are paying for what we come here to take part in, not pay to wait, AO currently is more like a visual chat place, nothing more.

Conflict between omni and clan is there cause of the players crawe it, but really, there is no conflict at all, nothing we need to fight over. (conflict may advance once we can battle for controll of OP's) But that depends on if there is any reward at all of having these OP's.
So here is something i tought about and even told some of the GMs or whatever they are. Have some OPs in one of the PFs far away where no one eve goes, central RK perhaps. 1 OP in Belail or whatever, and around that OP is hunting grounds( w00t outside too) that give something worth using, good exp or ok random dropps whatever. Or heck, lets make it a notum mine, controlling the OP gives that faction 1 advantage of some kind, lover prices on something (i know this may be hard since it will mean changing the the static game that AO is on a normal basis

But, give us a reson to fight, a reson to conflict. It would give more meaning to PvP rather than a pointless title etc...

Well, i'm sure this sounds better in my head than written down here;P

[Bionitrous]

I think one thing that Gaute doesn't understand is that we are the people who would stay with this game for ten or twenty years if they continually told a great story that had us 'tuning in next week' to find out what was happening on Rubi'Ka.

I got no problem with paying FunCom till the day I die as long as my couple hours of 'virtual reality' comes close to entertaining me as watching a rerun of the X-Files. I roleplay lightly. I'd roleplay more heavily if FunCom gave me tangible context to react to. I don't enjoy roleplaying simply for the sake of roleplaying. That seems like work and I don't want to pay to work.

What's up with that Henry Radiman thingy that we saw with tubes coming out of his head? If I saw that walking through the streets of Tir, I would reactl completely and fully in-character. That would be no effort and it would be FUN to talk to my friends about the goings-on on Rubi'Ka.

The people FunCom is catering to now are going to be gone in 6 months on the inside and 1 year on the outside. They will get bored or lured away by another game. All the borking that Gaute has done to the fine game to appease the kiddies crying on the PvP and Game Mechanics forums will be a total waste of time. He's systematically going about destroying what was a unique 'gaming' experience that was enjoyable to mature gamers to satiate the whiner's desire for some freakish form of parity.

All that effort done for the sake of customers who WILL be gone very shortly. Most of them left after 12.6. A ton left after 14.2/14.4. A whole slew are going to leave in December. The rest will get bored and leave.

Me? I want to watch my 'As the Rubi'Ka Turns' soap opera. I want to get hooked on the changing fabric of the backdrop we're given to play on. The 'game' may be becoming bland and boring based on the Nerf-happiness of the new game designers. But if **** happens on the planet, I want to be there to see it.

A changing game world is like getting a new game every month for your 12.95 USD. If Ross shuts down the Omni-Whom'Pas to Clanners, that's a new game. If the Medusas decide they hate Women instead of Men, that's a new game. If a computer virus strikes Engineer and Bureaucrat pets who are in the Grid and they freak out. That's a new game. If Ross decides that the Unicorn division sent to Rubi'Ka is evil and he decides to side with Radiman, that is a whole new political climate. I will stay for decades to watch what's happening on this interesting planet.

If giant Rollerrats attack Tir, I could give a flying ****. If Storm defeats The Council for the billionth dragon kill, it might remind me to pick up my dry cleaning. If some player hits Grandmaster PvP title or Character Level 200, I bet their parents will be proud. Yawn. New Items? Yawn. New Static Mission? OK, a reprieve from Team Missions.

If I log on tonight and find out that Metaphysicists are being hounded by Omni-Tek for experiments regarding their Notum Affinity, I will be intrigued. If I take a mission and there's an NPC 'Summoner' who does nothing more than send me to the Lab Director's office in TLR and he issues nothing more than a pre-scripted 'questioning' I would renew my subscription for 6 months.

Reasons?

- Why is Omni-Tek questioning MP's?
- What is there interest in MP's inherent affinity to Notum?

See that? No GM's required. An entire profession affected by simple game mechanics. In fact, if it was a team mission, my entire team would be affected by this twist in the plot. They'd be talking, I'd be talking, every single player in the game would be wondering what was going on.

The excitement would be back.

Instead we get Nerfs and 'balancing'. And Ragnar relegated to scripting NPC dialogue because nobody else at FunCom is talented enough to actually perform this basically clerical task.

This game is not going anywhere. I mean, it will NEVER be at the forefront of MMORPG's. The talk throughout the industry often doesn't even consider AO as a major player anymore. Even DAoC which is spoken of as a 'failure' by many has regularly 5X the online players of AO. FunCom blew it at release. They blew it even further with 12.6. 14.4 was a mistake beyond proportion in terms of keeping loyal players who learned to love misshappen freak. The churn of new players is a trickle. Lose 100, gain 100, 50 of those 100 quit at level 80. You need tens of thousands of players if you want to be in the big leagues. They had it at release and petered out.

Their only hope now is to keep a loyal base of followers who will stay with AO forever. A steady income enough to satisfy one dimension's worth of bandwidth and a core of programmers that continuously provide entertainment to the regulars. Guild housing/bank is a must if they EVER want to solidify their core. A changing world and political climate needs to be implemented to keep the game fresh. Blow away the 200 character level limit so players 20 years from now are reaching 567. Remove level and most profession restrictions on items and nanos so that character development returns to being an enjoyable experience rather than a 'leveling treadmill' called for by kids who at that time will be watching their own whiny brats graduate high school.

Do that, and I'll still set aside 49.95 USD out of my Social Security check to pay for my fix of virtual reality and 'As the Rubi'Ka Turns'.

[Nostra343]

"With Shadowlands, the two opposing sides will become clearer. There will be no more shades of grey. This has been a true goal from day one for the AO team (at least for me personally), to make a true conflict where you can play two true sides - one light and one dark."

after somewhat encouraging remarks a few months ago, when it seemed like the designers committed themselves to allowing "true-neutrals" even though they haven't anticipated them, now it seems like we are non-existent once again...

To some of us, it hasn't been either "shades of gray" nor "good vs bad" - it's been two petty, bickering, undecisive, blood-thirsty, genocidal sides duking it out and hurting everybody in the process; neutrality seemed the only "light" side. I don't know how all that can be "bam" magically changed with a patch, but it's still somewhat depressing to think that all the effort into building our neutral characters and their reputations might all be for naught... :-/

[Odeen]

Im sure the grey part was intended for Omni VS Clan, not meaning neutrals are the greys.

When we are talking about it.
if the neuts are neither omni or clan. arent omni opposed to all non omni inhabbitants on RK? The more i think about it the more it confuses me. clanners are branded rebels for leaving omni tek, but the same goes for neuts...

Would rather think of neuts as a faction within the clans, the ones that just want to get by, no fighting or anything, just live their lives. and clans are the ones trying to fight back omni tek.

Well, maybe the future generation of AO will find out what they do with it.

[_______MartinDeShade]

FC fundemental problem right now is the lack of press and hype that generates customers. They thought by having a totally different setting they would be able to generate the press and hype. Unfortunately for them the press and general public aren't buying. So now we have a completely unnecessary expansion to Anarchy Online, because frankly there is plenty area not even populated on Rubi-ka and several areas that was going to be added in beta NEVER showing up. They want to add on lots of new powerful content in the form items and nanos, but not raise the level ceiling because of the very few people that are even level 200. Totally throwing out of balance the current skill system in the process, and likely ruining the game in the end.

IT IS A DOOMED SHIP!! I will ride it for now, but I will get off of it as soon as another ship comes along(ie SWG, AC2,citizen zero)

Martin

[____________Strycker]

Well said, Bionitrous: hear him, hear him.

Somehow Funcom just doesn't comprehend any of this. I guess their designers have never played in one of the better game-based MUDs such as Marches of Antan or even Genesis (for a more Nordic reference they really should be familiar with )

I wonder if any of the Funcom designers have even passing familiarity with a well-conducted tabletop RPG campaign; if they did they'd know that continuity, plot development and the ability of players to change the world is important. Gaute can at least cite some decent works of fiction but apparently he hasn't taken the lesson of plot (pardon me, PLOT ) from conventional dramatic media such as novels.

Oh well. Time to go kill a few more vaguely humanoid, absurdly tough, and ludicrously unintelligent mobs in Broken Shores....

[______________Angdao]

Unfortunately I do not see Shadowlands as a positive thing for AO, and when its released I am cancelling my account.

The storyline is almost non-existent, and the game gets more and more unbalanced as each patch comes along.

[__________Maxtor 1-7]

I want to clarify something I said before and explain it a bit more..

In books fantasy can be used along with sci-fi because it is a very limited setting and does not evolve farther than the front cover to the back.
In this game the plot must be expanded because people want to 'live' in the game, so there should be a logical base for everything. The plot of this game needs to be much larger than that of a book and reflect something that a world of 200k people would experience.
If you still want to keep the mystical parts of the game at least present a reason why they would exist from a RP view. Star Wars light sabers (probably spelled it wrong) had a tactical advantage because they could deflect laser beams and were very strong against an armor or heavy door. How do MAs have a tactical advantage with fists over my ultra-modern nano programs?

anyone (from Funcom) reading this?

[_________Wastelander]

Well,

Rather than a discussion of the "direction of AO" article I seem to have have wandered into a "who can flame every word in the article forum". What burns me about all this is that people are going on and on about a drop off in the amount of manufactured story animations and story updates. The people claim to follow the AO posts religiously and yet they seem to have missed the posts about Funcom's downsizing. REAL people with REAL children to feed have LOST THEIR JOBS (downsizing not being so uncommon in this day of financial instability) and AO players dont expect there to be a bit of preoccupation tying Funcom's hands at the moment?! Shadowlands is looking like an opportunity for the remaining FC employees to get their business back on track and get back to what they do best, game design.
As for FC "adding" things to AO to make it a more balanced game, I dont see why so many people have a problem with this. People want AO to evolve but everytime FC adds an element to the game they get 50 posts saying "They're just trying fix what they messed up to begin with"-----GOOD! Fix problems, add dungeons, change unbalanced professions. Thank God the US Constitution doesnt have a "We are perfect from the start so no ammendments allowed" byline. Not all of the changes are going to be to our liking, it gos with the territory (i.e Magic The Gathering - lightning bolts) but at least FC is trying and not leaving us to rot because they are too headstrong to admit they werent perfect. In closing this I would like to say I'm looking forward to Shadowlands and I will reserve judgement on it until its actually released, that seems like the only logical thing to do.

Wastelands