How do you think VR plan on implementing the progressive underlying story?
Will it be just as simple as a main questline? Will there be cutscenes? Or will there be no story, instead just a big open world with lots of perception quests? Will their be stages to any underlying story, how will characters know the difference between a side quest and a main one? How will the story unfold for end-game content like raids? What new things do you want to see from a storytelling point of view?
Im sure Joppa has alot of these answers, but we can only speculate at this stage. I hope to see a mix of classic storytelling with a hint of something modern for flair.
What do you think?
I think a lot of the story and history will be revealed via the perception system. As cool as cutscenes can be, I wouldn't hold my breath for them. I suspect they're busy enough with gameplay and such and probably wouldn't put time into video production like that (though I personally like it). The Living Codex will keep what we've uncovered about the story. As far as main vs side quests, we can only guess at this point. In the interview he did about perception, Joppa hinted that some things wouldn't have prerequisites. I'd be willing to bet that others will, though, which makes sense to me.
I honestly think the story of the game will be in the past. I don't believe they will, or should, have a story progression in the sense of you follow it along and become the champion of the world, like WoW. I think the story will be the lore of the world and how the races came to be. The rest will be more or less series of events that don't really tie into the brink of the destruction of the world. This game isn't trying to make you go on rails in a sense, but will be much more free flowing. You might find someone cool out lore wise, but it doesn't necessarily have to do with anything major. The big questline may have to do with an epic weapon or spell, but that is more class defining and not world defining.
Watemper said:I honestly think the story of the game will be in the past. I don't believe they will, or should, have a story progression in the sense of you follow it along and become the champion of the world, like WoW. I think the story will be the lore of the world and how the races came to be. The rest will be more or less series of events that don't really tie into the brink of the destruction of the world. This game isn't trying to make you go on rails in a sense, but will be much more free flowing. You might find someone cool out lore wise, but it doesn't necessarily have to do with anything major. The big questline may have to do with an epic weapon or spell, but that is more class defining and not world defining.
Honestly that sounds great. I prefer that.
Watemper said:I think the story will be the lore of the world and how the races came to be.
This is something I truly loved about EQ. There wasn't really a story, it was a world you lived in. Each race had its history, each zone had its history. You didn't have to learn it but it was there for you if you wanted to. I don't want a story, I just want the History of the world available for us if we so desire to learn about it.
Basically what Watemper said. After so many MMOs based on the character being a hero or anti-hero it can be hard to pull our minds back from this approach, but I would prefer Pantheon being more like - here is this great wide complicated world - go do whatever the heck you feel like doing.
Certainly there should be stories - many stories. Stories that let us see the lore - the history of races and Terminus - why many things are as they are. Stories that let us help some people or factions or hinder some people or factions.
There is a generic term for these stories - they are called quests. But they are things we can do or not do - they do not define us and they do not give us a roadmap through Terminus.
We forget sometimes that stories can be told in many different ways. Not everything has to happen to us, or involve us directly.
I have no doubt that Terminus will have several major, ongoing plotlines. Events from these plotlines will have been occurring prior to our arrival, and we'll learn about them as we travel the lands and have our own adventures. Stories told to us by NPCs, clues left in paintings and tattered journals, and even simply seeing the visual aftermath of events in the past.
But while we're adventuring, things may also still be happening in the background. A questline here that references something, an enemy there that seems related, a strange artifact with an oddly familiar name. The occasional zone update that changes a few spawns, the introduction of a new area, or an unexpected dynamic event that occurs to show that things are indeed happening in the world.
Beyond the major plotlines, which will sometimes run in parallel, and sometimes intersect, and sometimes branch off from each other, there will be smaller plotlines as well. Regional and racial tensions, local problems, individual mysteries and oddities. Some truly standalone, others related to each other in both obvious and not-so-obvious ways.
Here are a few examples of ways these stories can be told:
Things we find in the world - "Hey, does anyone know what's with these rune-covered monliths I keep running across?"
Visual aftermath - "Wow, what happened here? Are those the bones of a dragon?!"
Cryptic tomes - "In that last dungeon I picked up this scroll that says something about the Prophecy of the Seventh. Does anyone know what that is?"
Dynamic events - "I'm not sure what's going on but a bunch of wraiths are attacking the village! I didn't even know there WERE wraiths around here!"
Subtle references - "Aren't the Grey Watchers supposed to be the elite protectors of Faerthale? What are they doing all the way out here?"
NPC chatter - "I just noticed that back in the town two NPCs were talking about there being more orc raids happening lately."
Istuulamae has shown himself to be a top-notch loremaster and storyteller. I have no doubt that Pantheon will have a strong and rich story element. It will simply be stories that we experience around us, rather than stories we are told.
When Guild Wars 2 had the whole marketing push on "you are the hero" and every player having their own individual story is sounded cool, but quickly became somewhat ridiculous.
Especially when a game is intending to have a strong community aspect and be group-based, I don't think individual heroism is something that it would be healthy to promote.
VR are already doing it right with the "bring a friend" and "community matters" taglines.
I think the lore or story need to reflect that. The underlying story should be about the world, not the characters.
I would be fine with temporary and progressing events that characters, groups, guilds, etc can take part in - maybe hostilities break out between factions, or a magical device is needed to counteract an environmental cataclysm, etc - but from the point of view that player character are swept up in the story, not direct the story.
As has been mentioned by others; everyone being the hero who saved the world feels silly. There is always that aspect to an MMORPG and a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is needed, but having every character be the hero of the main narative of the world is just about as immersion breaking as it can get.
Nephele said:Here are a few examples of ways these stories can be told:
Things we find in the world - "Hey, does anyone know what's with these rune-covered monliths I keep running across?"
Visual aftermath - "Wow, what happened here? Are those the bones of a dragon?!"
Cryptic tomes - "In that last dungeon I picked up this scroll that says something about the Prophecy of the Seventh. Does anyone know what that is?"
Dynamic events - "I'm not sure what's going on but a bunch of wraiths are attacking the village! I didn't even know there WERE wraiths around here!"
Subtle references - "Aren't the Grey Watchers supposed to be the elite protectors of Faerthale? What are they doing all the way out here?"
NPC chatter - "I just noticed that back in the town two NPCs were talking about there being more orc raids happening lately."
Istuulamae has shown himself to be a top-notch loremaster and storyteller. I have no doubt that Pantheon will have a strong and rich story element. It will simply be stories that we experience around us, rather than stories we are told.
These examples were me asking questions in EQ for sure. Thats what made it so great. Glad VR is taking this route. I love how much it opens it up for community interaction.
Ezrael said: The story should be ours, we are the people that make up the world. I can’t stand recent story driven MMOs where every player character is ‘the hero’, it’s stupid running around the world and knowing that all the thousands of people you see are also ‘the commander that saved the world multiple times’. The only cutscenes if any should be an introduction story to the world or maybe a small introduction story for the race you choose. Everything else is your own story, discovered by the path you choose as you explore the world, your story of your personal adventures and the people you meet, the places you go and the things you do.
I agree with ya. Reading this got me excited for the RP part of things when creating and developing my own character's story. In other MMO's with the story driven "on the rails" progression it limits how you can create your own characters story. Some of us may not want to be the hero afterall..
I think the concept of a “main quest” is one of the many things that has been imported into modern MMOs to their detriment. It is the MMO trying to be everything to everyone by shoehorning a single player storyline into a multiplayer game. I feel like main quests exist only in MMOs to allow someone to say they “beat the game” or check off an achievement box.
As much of the discussion here has suggested, the story should come from the community, the details of the world, and the lore. I really like the suggestions about what that might look like in Pantheon.