Havoc and destruction abound in the north. Severe storms are pushing the inhabitants of these northern reaches southward into the Charr and Norn capitals. Most assume the cause of natures distress is the frost dragon, Jormag. However some say that something far more insidious stirs in the insufferable north.
It's often the case, at least for myself, that a game has my undivided attention. Drawing me into a beautifully written story... and then it's over. The fantastical tale is done and you're left with grinding for better gear until the game big-wigs decide that subscribers are frothing at the mouth enough to buy whatever half-cocked idea they pull out of their creative pool.
That's not really the case here. It's not that this game has eliminated the *shudder* level cap gear grind, but they've hidden it really well. There's literally a flood of events that are constantly happening around you. Here's a quick example.
You're up in the northern portion of the world, why? because you've never been there of course! As you're walking around you discover the entrance to a dungeon, but wait, what's that noise? A huge frost dragon appears out of nowhere and begins something akin to an open world raid that scales difficulty to the number of people around, and should you manage to kill it you're rewarded with the typical "fat loot" minus the threat of losing a need/greed roll and being stuck with whatever vender trash is left. You'd think it stops there, but no, but killing it you've actually finished a daily achievement which rewards you with a type of currency you can use to buy end-game gear.
But that dragon wasn't a random mob, it was part of a regional story that required multiple events to come to pass. Without you're assistance, a town may have been destroyed, people killed, all kinds of bad news. You're actions change the world and in Flame and Frost you'll have ample opportunity to do just that.
I personnally think that developers should take input about a game's story in cases of MMO's where it would forever be expanding. Having the input of the players will engage them more into the story and want them to play more because their choices matter.
ReplyDeleteThis could be done in several ways such as having events with multiple choice outcomes and using that to tally how that even will shape the future of the game. This could be easily done on low key points or world shaping events.
Developers would also be more keen to take input from players as well to avoid the debocal that had fallen on the Mass Effect series that had several points of player input but the overall story didnt change much. The changes were more for the player on how the story presented itself but leaving the ending pretty much the same. At this point too though players need to recongize that video games are an art of themselves and that designers should have the freedom to make the game, which includes the story, how they see fit even if most of the players.
"An artist's responsibility is to be irresponsible. As soon as you start to think about social or political responsibility, you've amputated the best limbs you've got as an artist. You are plugging into a very restrictive system that is going to make your art totally useless and ineffective" -- David Cronenberg
As as a note i have not played Guild Wars 2, even though many friends have said i should get into it. But my comments come from a gamer who's been playing video games for over 25 years, dating back to the Commedore 64 and the VIC20. I think developers need a good kick in the booty and really expand from the normal. If Guild Wars 2 is trying something such as shaping the world around what players in their games do, its not such much as new but more new to Massive Multiplayer Online games on this scale if its developers go that extra mile for it.
For the fans of the game, lets hope its more then just a marketing tool