tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post4446830229322748432..comments2024-03-28T04:50:52.945+00:00Comments on Inventory Full: The Simple Secret Of The PlotBhagpusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-27309860097784576412020-11-04T08:46:01.741+00:002020-11-04T08:46:01.741+00:00Yeah, I'm just talking on the level of sideque...Yeah, I'm just talking on the level of sidequests and the zone storylines. I have pretty much no idea what the metaplot might be, other than what I've heard about it out of game. I've always preferred not knowing about that level, dirctly. I like to understand it in fragments, the way a character in the world might. Of course, now that most games insist on the player character being the Great Hero, called on by Gods to be their instrument of fate, it's a lot harder to avoid.<br /><br />As for writers using a commission to do their own thing, I strongly recommend Bill Kotzwinkle's adaptation of E.T. described, accurately, in a one-star review on Amazon as " made up almost whole cloth from the author's imagination". I'd give it five stars, for the same reason.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-57240630424036407982020-11-04T08:37:36.486+00:002020-11-04T08:37:36.486+00:00That could be taken straight from the soundtrack o...That could be taken straight from the soundtrack of a 1970s Saturday morning cartoon. And what's with all the pauses between the lines? At least no-one's trying to do a Scottish accent.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-22528334127862090602020-11-03T23:02:35.361+00:002020-11-03T23:02:35.361+00:00I did notice a difference in the newer starting ar...<i>I did notice a difference in the newer starting areas, especially the Goblins', but it's a truism of MMORPGs that more work goes into the starting experience than anything else before the end game. It can be unwise to draw conclusions from what you see in those first few levels.</i><br /><br />I believe that Age of Conan would be considered Exhibit A in this regard. I remember trying AoC out when it switched to being F2P, and I found the starting zone amazing. (Naked toons notwithstanding.) "How could I have missed this? AoC is fantastic!" I thought. Well, I finally finished the starting zone and went to the first "regular" zone and.... Standard MMO fare.<br /><br />Oh.<br /><br />I felt like I'd bought a car that after a month or so turns out to be a lemon.<br /><br />As for the WoW storylines, I've always found that the Blizz writers learned how to craft a zone story to the point where it was fine tuned and well written. The overall plot? Not so much. <br /><br />And really, as far as the writers go, they have to make the best of what they're given in as much the same way as the writers for novels set in a universe have to bow to the plotlines provided them. I'm thinking of the Star Wars, Star Trek, Forgotten Realms, and even the WoW novels here. As much as the writers would like to go and do their own thing, they're stuck with a specific plot to work with. A shame, really, because some of the authors who have written novels set in a universe versus their own work (such as Greg Keyes) create much better work outside of the constraint imposed on them by the content owners.Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-59620241200618209562020-11-03T22:48:55.307+00:002020-11-03T22:48:55.307+00:00Post-MoP launch^. MoP was a huge turning point fo...Post-MoP launch^. MoP was a huge turning point for WoW story telling! I feel like hiring decent voice actors helped a lot. This is one of my favourite examples of bad voice acting in Cataclysm (the pre-MoP expansion):<br />https://youtu.be/FpiiddqrnFo?t=50Darahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14170194845866721383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-24032192831892123222020-11-03T22:37:08.442+00:002020-11-03T22:37:08.442+00:00Ah, well the catch there is that you need to do th...Ah, well the catch there is that you need to do them all on the one character.<br /><br />I think any of the zones post-MoP are decent for story. Legion is particularly fun with all its class-specific content. WoD was quite a good leveling/questing experience but it had a non-existent endgame. Also, its later story was abandoned in favour of pushing out Legion faster.Darahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14170194845866721383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-55094589333333942802020-11-03T22:03:16.645+00:002020-11-03T22:03:16.645+00:00I was enjoying the Kul Tiras story on my druid bef...I was enjoying the Kul Tiras story on my druid before I had to switch to Horde to work on the Vulpera. I'll take someone else through there soon, I hope, though I'm not sure I'll be doing all the zone storylines in a row. Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-38983895158840619012020-11-03T21:05:09.902+00:002020-11-03T21:05:09.902+00:00My favourite BfA storyline was the Alliance's ...My favourite BfA storyline was the Alliance's "The Pride of Kul Tiras", available after you complete each of the Kul Tiran zone main storylines. I enjoyed Jaina's story arc and it's rare to so deeply explore a mother/daughter relationship in an MMO.Darahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14170194845866721383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-82688127237581217012020-11-03T18:39:17.332+00:002020-11-03T18:39:17.332+00:00Speaking of flying, another thing that's reall...Speaking of flying, another thing that's really surprised me about my experience so far is how much I actively enjoy not being able to fly. I might do a post about it. That whole argument about experiencing the content fully on the ground rather than zipping over it to drop onto your objectives does in fact ring true. EQ2 does it too, these days, and I like it there, too. Which, as I'm a huge advocate for flying in MMORPGs, is all a bit ironic.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-85427612957303702782020-11-03T18:00:06.766+00:002020-11-03T18:00:06.766+00:00I was very skeptical of Pandaria back in the day, ...I was very skeptical of Pandaria back in the day, and gave it a pass for its first year. But when I finally jumped in... something of a literal given the way it starts... I found it to be quite engaging. I played it through in its second year and enjoyed it quite a bit. <br /><br />As for finishing zones, Blizz incentivizes that. To unlock flying in whatever the current expansion is you generally have a Pathfinder achievement requirement, and among the sub-tasks for that is finishing the main story quest line for each zone. You don't finish the zones, you don't get to fly.<br /><br />I know I mentioned getting the Vulpera quest line done, and I managed to unlock that race. There is a set of follow on quests at the Horde Embassy, but they are not too involved. But then I set my sights on the two main allied races in the expansion, the Kul Tirans and the Zandalari Trolls... there will be a post.Wilhelm Arcturushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07033496821708933394noreply@blogger.com