Would you like the project to produce a short story series

[Paul D]

I've been thinking during construction of the game the project could also create a series of short stories to:

• help to introduce us (and future buyers) to the world;
  
• help shape our understanding of the world, its lore, the main characters and events; and
  
• keep us all interested as the project unfolds.
  

What do you think?

If you think it would be a good idea what sort of stories would you like to see?

[aluminiumtrioxid]

The developers should concentrate on the game. And that's it. Also, "gaming literature", in my experience, is poorly written at best and outright horrible at worst. So no, thank you.

[Entropious]

Do you really want another "Baldur's Gate". Do you miss Abdel Adrian so much?

 

I'm George Bush, by the way.

Edited September 21, 2012 by Entropious

[Amused]

Lot's of text in the game. A series of novellas to read in a library or other places in the game I'm all for. I don't want to buy books outside the game though.

[Luckmann]

I hate to vote #2, because I *am* a reader. But I do not like all these ridiculous tie-ins that is going on in the industry. It makes me feel like I'm missing out if I don't read them, yet I have more important or interesting things to read.

 

I want to play a good game. I don't want to immerse myself in a sub-culture or become a dedicated fanboy just to keep up with the setting.

[Darth Trethon]

I voted yes but with one big exception: I do not in any way shape or form want them to touch the player character(s)....those should be strictly for the player to create in terms choices, morality, power alliances, gender and looks.

 

Otherwise yes I'd very much enjoy books describing background on the conflicts we're thrown in, companions and NPCs very much as long as it doesn't signifficantly detract from the game budget and I think that is a big IF given that this game has a small and limited budget to begin with.

 

I rather they make the game first, wait for it to become an enormous success as it certainly deserves to be and once the massive money starts pouring in as it certainly should then they can go crazy with books, comics and so on.

[OldRPG'sAreGood]

Maybe, might be interesting to read about some famous NPC's story. Or even some nation birth story. But truth be told, I'd prefer that the game'd be made first, and see if there's a large enough crowd for the book.

[septembervirgin]

Get Salman Rushdie to write a short story for this!

[Shadow501]

I'd say yes, short stories to show us a glimpse of the world would be cool.

 

I would say to avert using funding for this to go to the fanbase and see what they write... But that would be choosing from a bin of wildcards.

 

Maybe a short story writing contest once enough information is released? Of course this would be in the future, more toward the release of the game.

[LK_]

I'd go nuts for a book / short story by R.A Salvatore, Brent Weeks or Joe Abercrombie.

[eimatshya]

I voted yes but with one big exception: I do not in any way shape or form want them to touch the player character(s)....those should be strictly for the player to create in terms choices, morality, power alliances, gender and looks.

 

Seconded; I don't want them to create a cannon version of the protagonist (like what Bioware did with Revan and the Exile).

 

As for creating tie-in stories to help introduce us to the world, I don't have any objection to this on principle, but I'd prefer if they spent their resources on the game and not on creating extraneous ancillary material.

[TimB99]

EDIT!!! Oh wait.. And here I was thinking it'd be about the game itself.. O_o silly me.. DISREGARD THIS POST if you mind reading about the game-matter instead of the digital comic-style lore exposition thingies is SWTOR (that's what you were proposing, right? OP? O_o...

 

As long as they're connected, episodic, like the AWESOME Walking Dead series (which you should check out, dear persons-who-haven't-seen/played-it-yet), I'm all okay with it.

 

It seems to me that episodes can be a great way to section a story into coherent parts, in which possibly different story foci or even gameplay mechanics can take the forefront (though I'd argue that if they are integrated into the main-game and accessible only to the persons who choose to take these paths/routes, think Deus Ex's stealth/assault/social way of getting through missions, then I'd be find with it as well). Perhaps this could be a great way to deal with time-skips in order to tell a story that's more spread out over time... But now I'm just brainstorming...

 

Anywhoo.. To summarize ... Episodic == potentially awesome, and I'd be all for that...

 

-Tim

Edited September 22, 2012 by TimB99

[Kabraxis]

I loved to read the books of the Diablo and Mass Effect series. Also read Metro 2033 (yes, I know, book came first) and am now reading The Witcher.

 

Especially Diablo: The Sin War added so much background to Diablo. I enjoyed playing Diablo 2 much more after that.

 

I'm surprised that 25% chose the "I'm a player, not a reader" option. Especially players of dialog-heavy RPGs like Planescape Torment or Baldurs Gate love to read, don't they? And I think that also Eternity will have a lot of text to read anyway.

 

I think that pre-release short stories or even a novel would be a fantastic idea to introduce players to the world (and also as an addition to the lower reward tiers). Of course nobody should be forced to read them. Everything important that happens in the novels should also be explained ingame in some (random) dialogs. Like in Diablo 3 or Mass Effect 2/3 or of course The Witcher.

 

This way people who don't want to read a whole novel do not miss anything.. and people who read it will be like "Oh, that's great reference to the novel/short story" when playing the game. I loved these moments in Mass Effect 2.

 

 

Edit: In Mass Effect 2 there even was a sidequest with a crashed space ship that you could find. It was a normal sidequest... but if you read the novel you would already know the ship as it was reported missing. That was brilliant!

Edited September 22, 2012 by Kabraxis