Importance of storylines

ArchivedUser

Dont think I have seen this posted anywhere else, if so merge/delete, ban me whatever. Anyway, question, How important to everyone is the general story line? And how important are your choices in the story?

I have always hated how most MMOs have a very linear story that puts me as the good guy/hero in whatever story I am following. Now granted most of the time I play a 'good' female healer...but sometimes I want to have an evil type character as well but there are typically not many ways to do so. In FF14 for example there is an epic story but I have no real dialogue choices, no impact on the world, etc. I think ESO tried to implement this to a point in that I could save a town or village and that town or village then responded differently to me than it did to other players but it still kinda fell short to me. SWTOR tried to implement the 'light-side' 'dark-side' mechanic in a lot of your dialogue choices which was nice but ultimately made zero difference to your story (particularly striking was the Jedi Consular story...kill every jedi you come across and still get named Barsen'thor [a jedi hero] by the council). I just feel that as a RPG I should get to choose how my character acts and what they do, not have it scripted for me.

Lastly, because Im sure that any dev that reads this will immediately think of the programming nightmare, yes I am aware of what I am putting forth. Multiple story-arcs, branching choices, etc. It would be a real headache I know, just throwing something out there that has kinda bothered me with most of the other MMORPGs Ive played.

ArchivedUser

Ashes of Creation has more emergent story gameplay with factions it seems. The actual storyline of the game seems to be that of lore and setting builder than anything. Will your choices and decisions you make affect the world? Absolutely, but just like in the real world it is GUILDS those who make a name for themselves within the guilds that make an impact on the world.

From an NPC perspective there is only so much you can do, and as it stands now I doubt it would be easily possible to implement something on the NPC side.

To answer your question: You totally can, but it may not come in the form you think. It will be how the people you play with, the towns you build and defend, and the NPC / SP story is likely more to setup why you are here, how you got here, and what happened in the past to cause this series of events.

A unifying aspect of the PvE in my opinion is because it's a unification of us, the players, versus some overwhelming or overpowering force. Hence the reason to unite across guilds, races, and factions, for the hope to beat this story-line enemy. The light and dark aspects come from ourselves, humanity's need and greed for power, wealth, and dominion.

Side note: Because basically everything in the forums is speculation other than official releases it's always best to consider the possibility they actually do have plans to do something like that, but are not far enough along to tell if it's something feasibly possible for the full release.

ArchivedUser

I'm probably in the minority here, but storyline in an MMO has never been a huge sticking point for me. When I play an MMO, I play for the fun of creating, building, and leveling my character, exploring, raiding, and playing alongside other people. If I'm in the mood for a story rich game, I'll usually play something like Mass Effect, Bio Shock, Brothers, Dishonored, etc. If an MMO actually has a decent storyline, that's just icing on the cake IMO.

ArchivedUser

Story is the job of the players in most parts. Setting/Lore that tells history of the world though is extremely important! The more detailed the world/deities/history of the world the more alive it feels and gives us more of a connection then just to pixels.

ArchivedUser

Not a huge biggie for me. Like it has been mentioned before, I like exploration, PvP(RvR/AvA), Researching/crafting and playing with others.

Though, I must say, it was nice to do some storyline quests, if I was bored or just wanted to do something else by myself.
The one I liked the most was SWTOR. I really enjoyed the cutscenes and got more attached to my character, which is not something that had happened before. Same goes for GW2. I wanted to see the cutscenes than just skipping it. In ESO I was more "Meh", and skipped it from time to time.