BioWare: MMORPGs Have "No Point"

[FieryTrainwreck]

Articles like this always make me a little incredulous.

There is no way to make an MMORPG compelling in terms of story/drama without enabling on-the-fly content creation. Otherwise you invariably run out of pre-programmed content, which is commonly referred to as "reaching the end".

It's a deeply flawed genre with no "solution" in sight. At least that's my take, which is why I no longer play these games.

 

[Ghostkai]

He obviously hasn't played WoW post-Wrath, many many "story" quests, both inside instances/raids and in the wider world. (Hell, just play any of the latest instances or the Death Knight starter area.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited about TOR, and I will be getting it. And he raises some valid points, no doubt, but I feel that after regarding some of the more popular MMO's out there alot of them have gone far more story driven.

And what happens when players reach this promised "point" at the end of the story for TOR? They'll cancel their sub's right? No. Because Bioware will keep making new content, thus adding to the never ending story.

 

[RebelRising]

Says the people who butchered the continuation of the main story from ME1 to ME2.

 

[Naqel]

I've been gathering experience in money spending in F2P games with item shops, and I say I reached the point I could drop 90$ for a subscription every half a year. I'm ready for the moment this game goes live as much as one can be.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

If anybody can craft a story that is both as wide and as for reaching as a MMO's story needs to be, that includes as many characters as a MMO has, Bioware are the guys that could pull it off.

 

[teutonicman]

I WANT KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC 3 DAMMIT!

 

[Dirty Apple]

I hope this and guild wars succedd as both are story driven.

I was thinking the same thing about GW2. I really enjoyed GW, until the Nightfall campaign. The addition of player controlled henchies basically negated the need to play with strangers. Once that mandatory interaction was removed, it became very treadmill-ish and dull. I still log on every once in awhile to scratch my bartering itch, but that's about it.

O.T - I played Galaxies when it first came out, and spent the better part of 7 months devoting every spare moment I could to playing. It was great until I realized that it had become my defacto second job. That was the end of my MMO odyssey. That being said, TOR has caught my interest more than any other title in years. So, I'm gonna go ahead and carry on with my naive hoping for the best tactic. [/fingerscrossed]

 

[Bagaloo]

I disagree. Taking WoW as an example (and lets face it, whenever MMO is mentioned WoW is the thing that springs the minds of most of us) there is plenty of story to keep players interested, especially in the expansion packs. Of course some players are going to skip all the quest information to just run off and do the task at hand, but each quest comes with a description of why it needs to be done, and often this branches out to form a story arc.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned, in the earlier vanilla parts of the game the majority of the quests are primarily an assortment of kill X, gather X quests. It's only with the expansions that Blizzard started to get more creative with the quests, and for that the game improves greatly.

Hopefully the forthcoming Cataclysm expansion will sort out the monotony of the early stuff. Still, here's hoping Bioware can get it right.

 

[Ghostkai]

I was thinking the same thing about GW2. I really enjoyed GW, until the Nightfall campaign. The addition of player controlled henchies basically negated the need to play with strangers. Once that mandatory interaction was removed, it became very treadmill-ish and dull. I still log on every once in awhile to scratch my bartering itch, but that's about it.

Speaking as an Ex-GW player myself, I agree 110%, heroes KILLED Story modes in that game. It removed the multiplayer element from the Missions almost entirely. All you needed was some properly set up team and you could pretty much AFK through missions and quests.

Lets hope they don't fuck it up again.

 

[Tharwen]

There are three developers in whom I place my absolute trust.

1. Valve
2. BioWare
3. Blizzard

No matter what they announce (within fairly strict limitations) I trust their excellent record to produce a game I will want to play. In this case, I believe they may actually manage to make an MMO with a storyline.

[sub]This makes me sound like a raving fanboy...[/sub]

 

[seditary]

BioWare genuinely wants to put the fun of a single-player RPG into the fun of an MMORPG, despite resistance from people saying it was "sacrilege" to "put interesting bits in an MMO."

What spanners were against interesting bits?

 

[zombays]

I frankly don't give a shit about story as long as the gameplay is REALLY fun and addicting, and that's why I still play WoW every once in awhile, because nothing is more fun than having a super organized, working-together group of 25 people take out a big-ass mofo the size of a colossus.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

I disagree. Taking WoW as an example (and lets face it, whenever MMO is mentioned WoW is the thing that springs the minds of most of us) there is plenty of story to keep players interested, especially in the expansion packs. Of course some players are going to skip all the quest information to just run off and do the task at hand, but each quest comes with a description of why it needs to be done, and often this branches out to form a story arc.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned, in the earlier vanilla parts of the game the majority of the quests are primarily an assortment of kill X, gather X quests. It's only with the expansions that Blizzard started to get more creative with the quests, and for that the game improves greatly.

Hopefully the forthcoming Cataclysm expansion will sort out the monotony of the early stuff. Still, here's hoping Bioware can get it right.

In defense of Bioware, I think that WoW's success is part of his point. The large focus on the story elements of the Warcraft lore in terms of questing and personal plot progression is part of the huge success of the two expansions so far. Bioware is essentially using the same tactics in crafting TOR.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

We shall see, Bioware. We shall see.

 

[craddoke]

Sadly, MMORPGs cannot be fixed - either you have a few thousand protagonists running around (all acting like they're the central figure in the same story), or you have a few thousand ancillary characters running around all helping some NPC protagonists who must redo the same quests eternally like some kind of digital Sisyphus. A story arcs to its conclusion; MMOs loop redundantly ad nauseum.

Lord British failed, Ragnar Tornquist failed, and Bioware will fail. Blizzard never tried - which I guess makes them smarter than both their competitors and their players.

 

[craddoke]

And to those defending any current or past MMOs - please try to understand there is a difference between back story and plot. Having a neat back story may be a prerequisite for infusing purpose into a game, but it's not enough on its own.