Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
So a few upcoming mmos are planning to do a lot of story experience...
sazabi
Member UncommonPosts: 389
so ive been thinking....
if i buy singleplayer rpg or any other genre game with good story... ill definitely avoid any internet contact unless i need some technical help, because there will be spoilers everythere.
how do you avoid THAT in mmo? mmos even have achievements for sort of spoiling the main events lol.
the better the story in a mmo - the more chances that the gamers experience will be ruined thanks to it actually being a mmo.
internet and preserving a story just doesnt work that well. those who atleast somewhat liked harry potter books are familliar with people naming themselves 'DumbldoreIsDead'. in case you are fan of the books and didnt know that... well sorry, i just spoiled it for you, but thats what this thread was about anyway - internet and spoilers.
your thoughts?
Comments
You have a good point there, altho I do think storybased-games can work well in MMO's. People have done it for a long time themself, RP'ing. If (which we all hope) ANet succeed with the personal storylines in GW2 there can't be spoilers, since it personal. Your experience is yours, not someone elses.
I don't think you really can, but be sure to not pay attention to any global chats as they're likely to be full of spoilers.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I'll get back to you after I'm done crying because I just found out that Dumbledore is dead.
You heartless bastard.
Meh, so long as the story arc is just there to add progression and doesn't have some "booya" plot twists like an M Night Shyamalan film, I don't see this as much of a problem.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
how many paths and decisions there can be? at some points there WILL be something that someone else did.
content is still limited to how much designers worked on it.
also personal story is one thing, but im pretty sure there will be some kind of main story?
at some points youll have to group anyway.
ignore the global chat? maybe thats possible, but ignoring someone who rolled his 10th character and is on your group?
'nd doesn't have some "booya" plot twists like an M Night Shyamalan film,'
thats exactly my point. if story becomes good its bound to have twists. spoiling twists ruins the whole story obviously.
The fun is playing through the story, not discovering a surprise ending.
This is exactly why I loved the mission arcs in ffxi. If you went online to find guides they would just have tips and techniques for beating the different battles but the storyline you learned via the cutscenes was amazing for just about all the mission lines. My personal favorite storyline was CoP but all the others are great as well.
I don't really know of any other game that did it like this.
What are you talking about? If you don't want spoilers, you can just avoid them. I think you are overreacting. I don't think people will spam the general chat wiht spoilers just for the sake of ruining your experience. Besides do you even read general chats? The only chat I might read is guild chat and personal conversations but that's it.
Mass Effect and a gazillion other single player games also have achievements but I was never spoilt by them.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
while thats true i dont think i would have enjoyed these movies and games if i knew their ending or the key plot things right away:
Sleuth
Mullholand Drive
Mr Nobody
Eyes Wide Shut
Oldboy
2001: Space Odyssey
Stalker
etc.
or
Fahrenheit (Indigo prophecy)
Portal 1-2
Legacy of kain series
star wars: knights of the old republic
Second sight
etc.
Seriously some of these were not even surprising, but the plot things that were revealed along the way made those stories what they were.
'If you don't want spoilers, you can just avoid them. I think you are overreacting. I don't think people will spam the general chat wiht spoilers just for the sake of ruining your experience. Besides do you even read general chats? The only chat I might read is guild chat and personal conversations but that's it.'
i think you are a bit naive about internet. can you honestly say you never met any morons in online games?
the recent ones i tried, the majority of people were morons.
surely you only play with friends, but since its mmo - you cant avoid others forever. your paths will cross. youll accidently see something or whatever.
that little accident can ruin the whole story in a split second.
'Mass Effect and a gazillion other single player games also have achievements but I was never spoilt by them.'
because they were intentionally made subtle as to not spoil anything. since when random people in internet are subtle?
Pretty much the end of every good story is you as the victor...the journey to get there is the story and not the ending really. Most movies and books are a real let down at the end because you pretty much already know the ending. Unless there is that twist where the hero dies to win...and really what MMO would you want to be dead at the end?
Also at any time in a movie or book you can skip ahead and find out what happens, but the joy comes from watching it unfold before your eyes. You can not have a "story" that does not direct you and keep you moving in the "story". A sandbox game based around a story you are in would mostlikely fail because how would they make sure the story stayed in sync with you if you jumped to a place that is ahead in the story than you are. Phasing in sandbox would be crappy.
I like good quests.
What's fun, is to learn them from another player. Like, we have to go here first and get the quest, then we need to go to the bottom of this dungeon, but it's complicated to get there, don't turn down this corridor you'll get killed, make sure you have the xyz potion before you go, we'll need it for the boss mob, make sure to take out the guys in the robes first or we'll die, etc.
Then, you do the same thing with other players and show them how to do the quest.
The fact that I know what's going to happen in the story doesn't detract from that fun at all for me.
Also this guy we are escorting will be main villain in about 5 mission time for the rest of the game, because he kinda destroyed your village early in the game.
what.
anyway stories arent just about destroying everything and being a winner, most powerful being in the universe, destroying all evil or completely the opposite.
take legacy of kain for example. there wasnt a single point or even ending of any game in the series where you could easily say - ok now i understand everything. you didnt know if you were good or evil, victor or loser for most of the series.
a quest where story doesnt matter... is what exactly? brainless adventure nothing more.
I cant remember a time in 15-years where there was a mass exodus of most players, that purchased the box, 3-months out from a mainstream mmo because the story was weak or spoiled. But that's me.
It's easy to not look up spoilers and open a non-global chat tab to avoid it, if that's the concern.
YOu will not be able to avoid all the chat that goes on and im sure that you will get some information that you were not wanting. But for the most part, unless you go looking fore something in particular you can avoid most or some of the spoilers.
Endings are usually more than you are the victor or you die a heroic death. It is all about the message(s) you want to convey and how that fits into the grand picture of what's been happening. It's not a question of whether it is a happy ending or not...
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
There is almost always a mass exodus 3 months out... and perhaps an engaging, long-term story would have kept those players. Those players who leave generally do so becaue of a lack of content. Story carries content with it. It's not going to be the answer for everyone, but I think it will draw in and keep a lot of players.
Forget single player stories in MMOs. Create stories in MMOs that affect the player base as a whole. The story of any given player character will emerge of its own accord.
In a single player RPG, the character's uncle tells the character to go help his cousin in a distant city who is having problems with goblins on his farm.
In an MMO, the monarch tells the player base to go lift the siege of an allied city state. The task of getting there and lifting the siege is something that the players need to work out, and that is where the story of an individual player comes into being. Players just need a reason to do something in the game world. To date, that has been to level and gear. Simple goals produce simple gameplay. MMOs need to come up with more complex goals.
The tough part of this is having a thousand player characters deciding to get into the same activity in the same place. MMOs just can't handle that yet.
Why is this even a problem when most MMOs allow players to block certain chat channels. Heck, in LOTRO I only have "LFG, Fellowship and Kinship chat channels unblocked, with the some necessary status ones available as well. So story spoilers really won't be a problem for those that care. But seriously... how often would you really look at general chat, to see some major spoiler, in a game like Guild Wars 2 or Star Wars: TOR?