Well, I agree and disagree.Kahunaburger said:I think this is the problem. It's not exactly good by the standards of storytelling in general, or even other games (particularly not most other Bioware games.) So all it can really compete with is other MMOs.
Then, it runs into the issue that people don't play multiplayer games to have a story told to them - they play them to experience their own stories in an interesting and enjoyable environment. Less "remember the time the character in a cutscene said the thing?" and more "remember the time we beat The Library on Legendary at 3 AM/owned everything as a Heavy-Medic combo/killed Crawmerax/got our house blown up by creepers?"
No, this is not exactly good by the standards of storytelling in general, but then maybe a dozen games TOTAL in the history of the medium are.
No, this is not exactly good by the standards of good storytelling in games, either, it's stubbornly average.
Yes, it does only really compete with other MMOs, but those are its competition, and it does blow them out of the water in this regard.
I had similar misgivings about adding heavy story content to a genre that didn't particularly seem to need it, but I've been pleasantly surprised so far. It does enhance the experience. Whether I will feel the same way after another 150 hours remains to be seen, but it does allow for more of a sense of "character", rather than your avatar merely being an extension of your will. Will it appeal to hardcore raiders and the PvP crowd? Probably not, but the bulk of MMO subscribers over the last half dozen years have been casual gamers, and I think they'll eat it up.