Maybe we see the story different way. IMO stories in MMOGs and in most CRPG are same caliber as your average jr high PnP session. Sure there are stories but are the stories so amazing that it was worth to sacrifice certain game mechanics in order to tell that story. Is the story really impossible or too expensive to tell with that certain game mechanic in the game?

 

Blizzard will even retcon their own lore to fit it to game mechanics. Ken Levine had basic idea for Bioshock years but still build the game mechanics and the world before it (and made sure that majority of players like 'em).

 

I only care about the story if it's extremely good, like in Torment or extremely bad, like in Dead Space. Most of time stories are just filler, like in comics, tv series or movies. I'm not going to blame bad story of Dead Space or NWN on engine or game mechanics. Nor give credit to Infinity engine or (rather bad) D&D rules if someone manages to build good story within those limits.

^ You just don't get it, Al, do you?

 

Maybe you're the one not getting it.

 

Cheers.

Edited October 12, 200916 yr by alanschu

The point is, whether it is 'secondary' or 'primary,' the story gets a lot of attention.

 

To be candid, while I don't like a lot of the WoW story, there are certain ones that I enjoy in particular. For example, the Redpath family quest-line in the Western Plague Lands and Eastern Plagueland is a great story and I appreciate it every time I do those quests. Even a junior high PnP session has a few gems. ...And those junior high stories, for all of the coolness of combat and giving your characters uber loot, is one of the primary reasons a lot of junior high school kids play.

 

Yeah, I spend a lot of time these days skipping lines of dialogue to get to the 'fun' stuff, but that doesn't mean that I can ignore the story or even want to ignore it most of the time.

 

All's I'm saying is that a lot of developers put a lot of effort into the backstory and that most of them want folks to enjoy that story. In Bioware's case, whether you think the story is the equivalent of a junior high monte haul, it is by the story that the developer chooses to differentiate their product. They can't go the route of an MMORPG because, frankly, an MMORPG (or Bethesda game) will do that better. Now that Bio is getting into the MMORPG business, we'll have to see, but I suspect that the reason that they're taking a chance on Star Wars is that it's has a built in story to differentiate itself from the very beginning.

Closed for length.