Future of storytelling

Some people say that Story is the most important part of any RPG. GW of course have been in a mjaor disadvantage because Anet choose to not only use cut scenes but also voice acting in an online enviorment. I think it's pretty much a first for a online RPG?


Anyway, at X06, Microsofts Xbox and Windows games event, they had a special panel with Peter Molyneux(Magic carpet, syndicate, dungeon keeper, black and white), Biowares Greg Kazinski(Neverwinter Nights, Baldurs Gate, Knights of the old republic) and peter jackson(LOTR, king kong) who talked about the future of storytelling; http://events.teamxbox.com/movies/36...telling-Panel/


I was never impressed with the actual story in GWP or GWF, but I gotta say, that the Nightfall story from the preview that we saw, was great.

The lip synching(moving lips), improved voice acting, cut scenes with actual animations, better script and so on, all helped it along way.

I just wanted to know what you guys felt about the nightfall storytelling? Did you thought it was better, worse or just as good as the others? How do you see it improving from chapter 4 and beyond?

gw isn't ANY online rpg... it's corpg



corpg>mmorpg

I play GW to kill stuff, not watch a movie.

it's funny. In the panel movie, they talk about moving away from cut scenes, and into something else.

it's quite interesting. give it a watch, if you like games=

from PC Gamer Nightfall summary
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10044494
the voices in the Preview were much better than Factions

Wasn't Jeff Grubb also part of some of the Magic the Gathering cards or something like that?

Final Fantasy XI is an MMO, and it was the first one too have ingame cutscenes. Anyways, they did a really good job with the storry it was like a single player rpg.

didnt he create the warcraft, starcraft and diablo novels?

http://ww2.wizards.com/Books/Wizards...?doc=JeffGrubb

That's not entirely a good thing, but the ones listed are among the better M:tG novels.

...Which is damning with faint praise in the worst possible way.

I didn't really see enough to really know what was going on exactly. Maybe I didn't get far enough or maybe I wasn't paying attention and missed a crucial link within the story.

The Prophecies storyline was excellent in my opinion. The way you had a taste of Ascalon life before the searing really showed you how much the storyline changes. Again, in the Krytan lands leading into the Maguuma Jungle, I think I missed out on important information that explained exactly what the White Mantle were doing, so I didn't quite understand it fully. And Rurik at the end was a big suprise, and a fun one at that!

The Factions storyline was, well I wont say exacly what I thought, let's just say 'meh'. Since I don't like the Factions PVE and I never will, I don't have a clue about the storyline. All I know about the Factions storyline is that everything is fine, then suddenly a "plague" appears and Master Togo tries to find what causes it. How cheap of a storyline is that? The only thing about it that intrigued me is that it was linked with the Prophecies storyline a little.

Prophecies set a huge benchmark and sadly Factions didn't even get close. After playing a Ranger in the Nightfall event my hopes were raised. It seems that Anet have finally figured out that good PVE equals a good fanbase.

Edit - Another two things that bothered me about Factions, but aren't related to the topic: Firstly the city. It looks horrid, basic and just a straight up failure from Anet's design. I mean, why should we have a really good high-end system to play the good looking parts of the game, just to support some black wooden steps? Secondly, I hate how everything you kill has a hidden jacket of TNT! You finally kill off a certain boss to capture his Elite Skill and his explosion is so powerful IT KILLS YOU OFF, leaving you dead, with NO ELITE.

Only afflicted creatures will explode when they die.

Both storylines in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 were no good in my view. In fact I have met tons of players who feel the exact same way and always skip every single cutscene ever. During cutscenes you can't skip they say things in Local chat en masse like "Shut up old man, stop rambling and give me my helm!" (I have personally seen statements to that effect at least 5 specific times during the Emperor coming with his Dragon Helms).

First major problem was definitely lack of professional voice actors which made the stories of the first 2 chapters completely unimmersive in my view. Good to see that aspect might finally be fixed in Chapter 3.

Second major problem is that the enemies in the world never say anything or show any personality whatsoever beyond what they look like and what few skills they are able to use. They are just generic creeps to be killed and there is no sense of player connection to them. This is something that Guild Wars also gets wrong. Compare this to say Diablo II where the bosses verbally say cool stuff to you using the voice actors and there is a world of difference in terms of which story pulls you in. If Guild Wars is to have a good story that people remember, this is also a vital aspect that the devs should include.

On a similar note, many times in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 there was no voice acting at all but instead just text blurbs over the NPC's heads. Which are not only unimmersive, but it's very easy to miss much of them while you are trying to play the game. Text blurbs went out of style at around King Quest III in my view and definitely should not be happening in a mainstream game released in 2006. Every line in the game should be spoken by a real voice actor, period. This is the third major problem with the storyline in Guild Wars.

Fourthly and this is not a major problem necessarily, but I found it very annoying how in Chapter 1 it forces you to deal with the knights in a way that the game arbitrarily decides is "good" and making a choice on the players' behalf that forces him to become a traitor. If the game is going to place you into a knighthood as a major plot point, then you should always have the choice to remain faithful to that knighthood.

Well, since I hate Factions I didn't get far enough to experiance other creatures.

I Loved both GWP and GWF and Nightfall looks just as good, ive only played a few other old RPG and none of them were as good as guild wars the way the story was told was way better and i hope they dont change it!!

lol you can tell that the bio-ware guy knows what he is talking about.

any what those guies are talking about is rpg!

gw could be like that a serires but nooo they came out with factions. That is what mean when i say guild wars could be sooo much more. Now they heired jeff. the story part will get better, but the way anet is thinking, they have too much pvp on their minds and is missing the bout.

those guies on the video know what they are talking about.

I wonder with nightfall, I really want to know if the anet game devs know what they have in their hads really

I am pretty sure bio-ware already see what anet has and they ae already thinking cool ideas for their mmorpg that is comin out.


see those guies are talking about it, however anet has already made something like however anet is playing the fool with forced pvp!

Do you think it's possible that they would add moving lips(lip synching) to factions and GWP cut scenes?

Probably not. Wouldn't they have to remake them all?

I doubt it, the story setting has been shoddy up to now, but I think that it is going to be corected in Nightfall. The stories in the 1st two chapters are so horrible they may be beyound reapair even by such talent as Grubb. But when chapter four hits the scene I think the GW storyline will be world class. When Anet sets its mind to something they do a beautiful job, and it looks like the story has now gotten that their full attention. I plan on sitting back and enjoying some very good storytelling in the future GW chapters.

Oh noes,

Prejuice is overwhelming, it's another Lawnmower thread?

I read a little of the OP, don't take this too serious, but Gameplay>story, that exact reason why factions was a lot better than Prophecies.