Do people care about the story?

[Matt-C]

I figured that most people couldn't care less about the story. So last night I decided to test out my theory, I joined a number of random games on xbox live and in 9 out of 10 games the host skipped through the dialogue choosing the default option every time. Yep clearly the people that were interested in this game totally wanted to sit through endless dialogue and crappy choice wheels or whatever....

[HoonDing]

Well, I don't know about you, but I really want to kill Jeyne Kassynder. Heard that bloody name too much, it almost feels like brain-washing.

[sorophx]

Yep clearly the people that were interested in this game

I don't know how it is on Mars, sorry, but here on Earth people play demos of games they haven't heard about all the time. a shocker, I know

[Subliminal]

I figured that most people couldn't care less about the story. So last night I decided to test out my theory, I joined a number of random games on xbox live and in 9 out of 10 games the host skipped through the dialogue choosing the default option every time. Yep clearly the people that were interested in this game totally wanted to sit through endless dialogue and crappy choice wheels or whatever....

 

Yeah, nobody I know was interested in story, dialogue or dialogue "choices". Really puts a damper on the flow of an action rpg.

 

Kill 4 mobs ----> Talk----> Kill 4 mobs--> watch bridge xplode ---> talk ---> watch 2d pixel-scene----> walk----> encouter boss dude ---> talk to boss dude ---> kill boss dude---> talk, ad nauseum

[Subliminal]

Yep clearly the people that were interested in this game

I don't know how it is on Mars, sorry, but here on Earth people play demos of games they haven't heard about all the time. a shocker, I know

 

 

Thats not what he said, what he said was, the people who were/ did play skipped the dialogue...

 

Reading is hard werk

[Starwars]

Why would this be a surprise to anyone? There are a lot of people who couldn't care less about dialogues or words in their games. Most gamers' heads would explode when seeing the text for one Planescape: Torment conversation (probably even gamers who *do* like story in their games). This doesn't mean that story and lengthy dialogues should be abolished from games. Hell, I think pretty much every convo in the DS3 demo had a "quick way out" option for those who don't want to see it.

 

I don't require stories in my games personally speaking but I'll gladly welcome it for hack'n'slashers *if* it doesn't force you to sit through long dialogues and cutscenes. I also think that later parts in the game will have sections that are much more focused on the combat (the Foundry as was showcased in one preview for example was a lot more combat-heavy overall, with not much dialogue at all in it).

[Tigranes]

If the story is good, I'll enjoy it.

 

If it's crap, I'll skip it.

 

Sounds simple to me.

[Matt-C]

If the story is good, I'll enjoy it.

 

If it's crap, I'll skip it.

 

Sounds simple to me.

 

I agree, however from what I can see with the majority of games I have been joining is that everyone skips it. I thought this was suppose to be the big selling point of Obsidian? If so why is everyone just skipping all of it?

[Mr. Perfect]

Probably because you only need to read it once. The first time through you might want to take all of the branches in a tree to find out what's going on, but unlike your character, you already know all the details on the second run through.

 

If you want to skip over dialog, clicking in the dialog box while someone is talking will skip to the end of the sentence and move on to the next one in the conversation. There's probably some similar shortcut on the PS3.

[Sannom]

I thought this was suppose to be the big selling point of Obsidian? If so why is everyone just skipping all of it?

In fact, you've been blinding yourself ever since you came here. Story is something that Obsidian added to the game, but they always said that they didn't want story to get in the way of combat and gameplay, so they always added a 'quick route out' for the dialogs. People who wants to see it, see it. Others get out.

[sorophx]

Thats not what he said, what he said was, the people who were/ did play skipped the dialogue...

thanks, captain

[Tigranes]

I can't say for others, but my personal preference is to skip through dialogue as quickly as I can in any multiplayer game, co-op or not. For DS3, I'd take the time to look around, talk to people, and enjoy the story (if it's good) in SP, but mostly blaze through and get to the action in MP.

 

The demo shows that there is little in the way of long/unskippable dialogues or cutscenes, so if the full game keeps providing the opt-out, everyone's happy.

[Pidesco]

I'll be playing through the plot with my partner. We enjoy both the combat and story.

[Matt-C]

I can't say for others, but my personal preference is to skip through dialogue as quickly as I can in any multiplayer game, co-op or not. For DS3, I'd take the time to look around, talk to people, and enjoy the story (if it's good) in SP, but mostly blaze through and get to the action in MP.

 

The demo shows that there is little in the way of long/unskippable dialogues or cutscenes, so if the full game keeps providing the opt-out, everyone's happy.

 

However a decent multiplayer was sacrificed for storytelling, so not everyone is happy. So as you said your preference is to skip through this in multiplayer, why did so many of the fundamental features of a decent multiplayer need to be left out? I thought it was because of storytelling? but clearly from your post that is not the case.

[Subliminal]

I can't say for others, but my personal preference is to skip through dialogue as quickly as I can in any multiplayer game, co-op or not. For DS3, I'd take the time to look around, talk to people, and enjoy the story (if it's good) in SP, but mostly blaze through and get to the action in MP.

 

The demo shows that there is little in the way of long/unskippable dialogues or cutscenes, so if the full game keeps providing the opt-out, everyone's happy.

 

However a decent multiplayer was sacrificed for storytelling, so not everyone is happy. So as you said your preference is to skip through this in multiplayer, why did so many of the fundamental features of a decent multiplayer need to be left out? I thought it was because of storytelling? but clearly from your post that is not the case.

 

 

It looks like they put really little effort into this title. They said that we couldn't have persistent characters because it breaks immersion or something. Nobody cares about story in arpgs.. Diablo 1 wasn't a commercial success for its brilliant use of dialogue trees. IT was a hugely commercial success because it broke new ground in co-op multiplayer (bnet).

 

Not sure what they were/ are hoping for, indie games on xbla have better multiplayer than this game will have.

[Tigranes]

However a decent multiplayer was sacrificed for storytelling,

They said that we couldn't have persistent characters because it breaks immersion

 

You guys keep imagining devs sitting there and saying "we want a good story in DS3 so because of that we will kill online persistent MP", but nobody ever said this - not me, not the devs, not the journos. I'm confused as to where you are getting this from. The only limitation that a story focus might have introduced is the fact that you can't have two Lucases, etc.

 

Generally on why DS3 only features buddy-coop and not full online coop, one fact is clear - they have said that it was a deliberate design decision to gear the whole game towards a great couch coop experience, as other games cater to PVP, grinding, etc very well. After that, it's your judgment as to whether that makes a game 'crap' or not. You certainly have your mind made up about that, and I'm not about to try and sell you something else.

[Subliminal]

However a decent multiplayer was sacrificed for storytelling,

They said that we couldn't have persistent characters because it breaks immersion

 

You guys keep imagining devs sitting there and saying "we want a good story in DS3 so because of that we will kill online persistent MP", but nobody ever said this - not me, not the devs, not the journos. I'm confused as to where you are getting this from. The only limitation that a story focus might have introduced is the fact that you can't have two Lucases, etc.

 

Generally on why DS3 only features buddy-coop and not full online coop, one fact is clear - they have said that it was a deliberate design decision to gear the whole game towards a great couch coop experience, as other games cater to PVP, grinding, etc very well. After that, it's your judgment as to whether that makes a game 'crap' or not. You certainly have your mind made up about that, and I'm not about to try and sell you something else.

 

Well, I imagine they sat down and decided that the game should have SOMETHING. Its not that they said they want a good story, so throw away online co-op; but they did throw away online co-op (for some undisclosed reason).

 

So, we can infer that they wanted a strong emphasis on story from; i) amount of dialogue, ii) radial dialogue choices, iii) initial interviews where the stated they wanted to do homage to the DS lore/ story

 

What we can infer also is that they didn't want the features that they removed from the original games and others of the genre; i) freedom in character development/ appearance, ii) online multiplayer, iii) new game +, iii) post game content(haven't seen anything to completely confirm or deny this, but low level cap and no new game+ indicates that there probably isn't much post-game grinding/ optional bosses), iv) freedom of movement/ exploration

 

 

What were left speculating is why they wanted to gut the game and alienate it from the roots that made the franchise popular; great story, couch co-op, online multiplayer, new game +/ post game stuff are not contradictory features.

[Purkake]

I really like the tag-team trolling, guys, would love to see you try a plant-con man kind of a deal at some point.

[Alpha]

That is my first reason to buy RPGs ...the story.

[Subliminal]

I really like the tag-team trolling, guys, would love to see you try a plant-con man kind of a deal at some point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)

 

The definition of troll doesn't apply to whats been said in this thread so far. If anything, your comment fits the definition a lot better. Not really sure what a plant-con man deal is..? Inside joke?

 

Regardless, I think that the concerns me and others have posted are held by a large portion of the PC gaming community (Look at other forums on the subject).

[hopfrog16]

I really like the tag-team trolling, guys, would love to see you try a plant-con man kind of a deal at some point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)

 

The definition of troll doesn't apply to whats been said in this thread so far. If anything, your comment fits the definition a lot better. Not really sure what a plant-con man deal is..? Inside joke?

 

Regardless, I think that the concerns me and others have posted are held by a large portion of the PC gaming community (Look at other forums on the subject).

 

Aye... Especially the steam forums from what I've seen. =P

[Purkake]

I really like the tag-team trolling, guys, would love to see you try a plant-con man kind of a deal at some point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)

 

The definition of troll doesn't apply to whats been said in this thread so far. If anything, your comment fits the definition a lot better. Not really sure what a plant-con man deal is..? Inside joke?

 

Regardless, I think that the concerns me and others have posted are held by a large portion of the PC gaming community (Look at other forums on the subject).

I was going for more general board-wide trolling here. And no inside jokes, what I had in mind was a two person trolling where one would act as a new wide-eyed idealist new to the game and the other provided foil for him. This could be really epic if someone managed to pull it off.

 

It is good to hear that there are so many people that care about the game and the franchise. When Alpha Protocol came out there were barely any people around at all, trolls included.

[sorophx]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)

dead giveaway

[Oner]

To answer the original question: Yes.

[Morgoth]

Depends on the game.

 

If it is an RPG, and especially from Obsidian, then yes.