Q:
(edited by hennrick.4623)
The character story at LS1
A:
I understand the original post,so let me try to steer the conversation back to where it should be.
Your character is still a member of your order. However, after the attack from Zhaitan’s troops, s/he decided a bigger organization is needed. This is how the Pact is formed, and members from all three orders are sent to join it. There are still odd nods back to your original order, though. For instance, if you’re a member of the Priory, Ela Makkay will recognise you as a Magister during Hidden Arcana.
As for being Commander of the Pact, I can’t quite say why s/he isn’t just waiting or commanding troops in preparation for the next dragon assault. As far as I know, there isn’t a Pact HQ, aside from Fort Trinity, and even that is constantly under assault by Risen. So I suppose the PC wanders around, being the good person they are helping out everyone in need. Mysterious event at Dragon Bash? Go join a detective. Cragstead under attack? Help Braham free his home town. Mysterious, toxic tower formerly hidden in Kessex Hills? Well, we have to climb to the top of it!
I always though that I still was a commander of the Pact and that is why they call me a “boss”.
But concerning your question about how do they treat you, well basicaly the story is not yours, Marjory is obviously the main character and hero of the story, while the player character (you) is her follower she calls a boss just to keep him or her calm.
I always assumed Majory and Kasmeer called you boss because they were originally “hired” to help you. Logan introduced you to them and you acquired their help to solve a murder during the time of the first Dragon Bash. Those you hire sometimes call you boss.
After that, others who join the group naturally might go that same way. I mean after all Rox is just a young charr and Brahm is hardly a hero at the beginning of the story…where as you slew a dragon. Of course you’re the leader.
Why aren’t you actually making the decisions then? Because you’re not a writer and you don’t know where the story is going. You can’t just make up any old thing. How would your character know? So the information is given to the NPCs around you who bring stuff to your attention.
Why aren’t you actually making the decisions then? Because you’re not a writer and you don’t know where the story is going. You can’t just make up any old thing. How would your character know? So the information is given to the NPCs around you who bring stuff to your attention.
Well you are not a writer in many other CRPG / MMOs and still your character is presented as the one who makes the decision (and sometimes, in games with more complex dialog systems, like Fallout, KOTOR etc. you really do decisions).
I don’ t debate the need of decisions in this game – both for execution of the game itself ( that might get too much complex for a living story ) and because the narrative flows well when i am just a boss-follower so i am not doubting that.
Also, i want to explicit what i mean by decisions: i don’ t mean those that the player takes, but rather the ones that the PG itself takes, automatically. Like if it decide to go with Marjory and such or not and so on.
(edited by hennrick.4623)
Why aren’t you actually making the decisions then? Because you’re not a writer and you don’t know where the story is going. You can’t just make up any old thing. How would your character know? So the information is given to the NPCs around you who bring stuff to your attention.
Well you are not a writer in many other CRPG / MMOs and still your character is presented as the one who makes the decision (and sometimes, in games with more complex dialog systems, like Fallout, KOTOR etc. you really do decisions).
It’s completely different in single player games because the narrative is designed for people who play those games. This narrative is designed for people who play MMOs, which is a very very different crowd.
A lot of MMO players skip quest text, skip story, and pretty much skip everything. The only way to get them to do stuff is to hit them over the head with it.
They can’t write an MMO story for me. They have to write an MMO story for everyone. Which makes it bad on those of us who play for story.
It’s completely different in single player games because the narrative is designed for people who play those games. This narrative is designed for people who play MMOs, which is a very very different crowd.
A lot of MMO players skip quest text, skip story, and pretty much skip everything. The only way to get them to do stuff is to hit them over the head with it.
They can’t write an MMO story for me. They have to write an MMO story for everyone. Which makes it bad on those of us who play for story.
I think for example SWTOR has a decision driven story with your character in the middle, and TSW, AOC or LOTRO have more or less interesting story around the main character, albeit you can’t really decide the course of action, but it’s still worth reading and gives it a depth to the game. And during the character story in GW2 you are also a main character in the plot. I don’t really get your point.
The problem with good / bad story is not related to the type of the game.
Concerning LS2, many people, as the OP does, complain about being somehow left out of the main course of action, serving as a bodyguard for B-Iconics, who play the leading roles. This, in fact, is very unusual.
It’s completely different in single player games because the narrative is designed for people who play those games. This narrative is designed for people who play MMOs, which is a very very different crowd.
A lot of MMO players skip quest text, skip story, and pretty much skip everything. The only way to get them to do stuff is to hit them over the head with it.
They can’t write an MMO story for me. They have to write an MMO story for everyone. Which makes it bad on those of us who play for story.
I think for example SWTOR has a decision driven story with your character in the middle, and TSW, AOC or LOTRO have more or less interesting story around the main character, albeit you can’t really decide the course of action, but it’s still worth reading and gives it a depth to the game. And during the character story in GW2 you are also a main character in the plot. I don’t really get your point.
The problem with good / bad story is not related to the type of the game.
Concerning LS2, many people, as the OP does, complain about being somehow left out of the main course of action, serving as a bodyguard for B-Iconics, who play the leading roles. This, in fact, is very unusual.
It’s unusual, I don’t agree with it. Just like people said Trahearne took all the credit for the personal story but it’s not really true. I don’t think people are following it closely enough to make that comment.
Okay, in once sense, this is a bit more of a team thing. There’s a team of people and sometimes they’re all doing something else. Taimi is doing her research, which is what she does. But can she lead the team? Of course not. She’s kid. Part of what you’re doing is babysitting her.
Spoilers below.
Then there’s Marjory and Kasmeer. They’re not really making any choices. They’re not the one the mother tree spoke to or gave a vision to. That’s you. They don’t even know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Why are you going after the egg? That’s not Marjory’s quest. It’s not Kasmeer’s quest. It’s not Rox’s quest.
As a leader, you get information and you act on that information. If Taimi thinks that there’s a chance Fort Salma is going to get hit, it’s logical to go to Fort Salma. But she didn’t make the decision to go there. She just said that’s where she thinks there’ll be trouble.
All of it, from the beginning, is just following circumstance, really, not people. The Zephyrites crash and you go to investigate. You all go. You follow the path through things.
I remember watching Star Trek when I was a kid and Kirk was definitely captain of the Enterprise, but that doesn’t mean that sometimes ideas didn’t come from the crew. Kirk weighed the ideas and made the decisions.
In any MMO those decisions have to be made for you because you can’t do just anything. You have to go to where you’re supposed to go, but as with all the other games, that’s the nature of the beast. When I played TSW and I was sent somewhere, that was where I had to go. That was the quest. I don’t remember playing TSW and thinking to myself I’m doing what I want. I was simply following an existing thread. Which is how it is in every MMO I’ve ever played.
Personally, i think that all of this need of choice in a story is a kind of masturbation: ok you like it, but keep it for yourself.
Not all the games are meant to have uber-ramificated choice paths, and a story that is not player-decision based can be good as well as one that it is, it’ s just a different kind. It’ s not even meant for all GDRs to be that way, let alone MMOs ( even if i really liked the personal development bit, and even without heavy story consequences i would gladly have it back); GW2 has a really good story development, both global and at a personal level, you might not judge it the best and can call favourites or better examples, but i don’t deem it half bad.
This said, acan we please stop going OT?
snip
So basically you are just being a good dude, casually meeting always the same characters and at some point it simply decides to keep going with them, since they demonstrated to be worth the attention?