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How to make decisions matter and easier to keep track at the same time.
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Posted by: Fredacp.6389
I was reflecting about the decision-making process on the stories and how they seem really flawed.
And following this topic discussion some ideas came to my mind:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/story/Choices-don-t-matter-AT-ALL-From-my-perspective
I think ANet should have a different approach towards the decision-making on the next stories.
If people have two options that negate each other over a matter, this means they can’t exist at the same time, so one of them will have to be discarded. Which means only one of them will be “canon” (for that player).
On one hand, this is nice because it opens a ton of different possibilities, and this means that each person has an almost unique canon for the world.
On the other hand, this is really complicated, because if you make it the existence of so many “parallel universes” in game possible, you’ll have to bear in mind all of them when you create more content.
Most companies can’t deal with making one story without having contradictions. Handling all these possibilities will require a titanic effort from the developer team. And the topic I cited above already discusses some of the consequences.
Personally, I think it’s better not to give players these kind of options at all, because they are destructive and create a lot of restrictions that are too complex to deal with.
But, I guess there is a simple and smart solution to that.
Instead of giving options like:
1) Lure the enemy and make a trap;
2) Face it head-front
why not:
1) Group A infiltrate the enemy base
2) Group B face the enemy head-front
No matter what the choice is, both group exists. People just decide what path they want to take (kinda like what happens with the decision of what order you wanna follow).
So, in this example what ends up happening is that both groups eventually meet and kill the enemy.
This way players could still make decisions that matter and experience unique content. At the same time ANet wouldn’t bind their staff, “creating alternate” realities and making it more difficult to create content.
Therefore, player stories would still be unique: they’d meet different NPCs, experience different events and so on. But, at the same time, the stories would all be united under a single official story, all parts of the whole.
Please, think about this.
I feel that having the Destiny’s Edge play the leading role Trahearne did would have made a lot more sense.
They represent all races of Tyria, all the diversity, but still they are together to overcome a challenge. That would show that only with all races united we can accomplish something like killing an elder dragon.
Trahearne could even still be there as a leader, because its his “destiny” but he shouldn’t get all the credit, it should be given to all races, to their alliance.
I completely agree that Trahearne’s introduction was lacking.
To me it just felt it was something like this:
AN guy 1: “Having 3 orders and all these different paths is being a pain, we need to converge the stories in some way to make things easier”
AN guy 2: “Um… how about we kill all 3 tutors from the orders and replace them with a new guy?”
AN guy 1: “Perfect!”
I don’t think the character is that bad, but he should have been developed more.
He is introduced just when our tutors are killed! IMO that’s not a coincidence.
I guess something that really would have made things better is making him appear on the early stages of the order’s quests.
For instance: our tutor says that we need information from an expert to deal with risen or something like that, then we get introduced to Trahearne and he helps us.
Then on Claw island the transition would be more understandable.
[Spoiler]
Honestly, it felt to me that the introduction of Trahearne (and the death of the tutors from all the 3 orders as a sacrifice so we can stay alive) was a way to tie the personal stories together and save some money with voice acting. [/Spoiler]
I’ve been playing the personal story with a friend (we both are human) and our stories are mostly the same, even though we made completely different choices and our personalities are different.
It would really be cool if even the dialogues changed a bit accordingly to our personality, even if the results are the same in the end.
The only decision that really affects the game from what I’ve seen so far is choosing the order you’ll follow.
About the Home District I could see that a few minor things change, like the race you decided to help appear there (hylek, quaggan or skritt). However, some major things, like your sister that was rescued are nowhere to be found.
IMO there is nothing subjective over this thread.
People’s opinion about the story may be subjective, but player’s choices not affecting the game is not subjective, it’s just a fact, and that’s the subject in discussion.
ArenaNet says:
“What we want is for the player to feel like a hero, and to feel like they’ve really changed the world around him.”
https://www.guildwars2.com/media/videos#vlb/Tv7j73VWVWs
If we make choices that are just ignored later on, we are not changing the world at all.