MMO-Play - Does Story Matter Anymore in MMOs?

Jeff Francis of MMO-Play wonders if story matter anymore in MMO games, and posted a new article with his opinion. Now do you all agree with him, or is he wrong?

There are quite a few features of mmorpg games that appeal to me, such as an interesting combat system, how quests are designed, and systems such as companions and player housing. However, there is one aspect of online games that really pulls at my imagination and drags me into the game's world: the story and lore behind the game. Game developers usually go to great lengths to craft a suitable backdrop on which to paint the action and ethos of the game, but the majority of players seem to ignore this facet of the game. Does story matter anymore in mmos?

More information.

If I do play any MMO at all, it is always because it offers a well presented story or world of some sorts.

The Secret World has a good story, with interesting quests that are all very well integrated into the game world.
DDO has very well presented "little stories" in its dungeons.
GW2 has a nice, but minor story but a very alive world.
SW:TOR, while very WoW-like at its core, presents is story very well.

On the other side are WoW and all its clones that have a story that is almost exclusively told casually, with quests that do not suck you into the game at all. Those, I play for a month at most, just to "have it played once", but I don't like them that much and never feel immersed in the world at all.

Then again, I rarely play with other people, so I'm definitely one of the solo people. I like that other people are around as it makes the world more alive, but I do not interact with them regularly.
Actually, games like GW2 and Defiance manage to make you play with other people on a casual basis, as basically anyone around might join a running quest and get the rewards. No need to get into a guild or organize a team, no need to even talk to anyone.

I would guess that most solo people are in for the world/story, and rarely for the mechanics. So how important a good story is depends mostly on how large the solo player base is, I'd say.

Well, ESO went to great lengths to provide a deep and layered storyline, including an absolutely massive amount of lore - and yet people don't seem to notice it much. In fact, it's like it just got in the way of all the killing.

So, maybe the other designs are going the right way? I don't think so, personally, but it really does seem that most MMO players just want to get on with the grinding.

That said, they should have done more to merge the cooperative experience with the story presentation. That's one aspect that SWtOR handled much better. That game included the full party in NPC interactions, and that meant people didn't get that feeling of "standing around" while other players experienced the story content.

But the secret to any good MMO experience is that you should be playing with friends, not strangers.

Even in SWtOR - where they did everything they could to share the story between players, people just yell at each other to "press space" so the story can be skipped - and the grinding can continue.

With friends of a similar disposition, almost any gaming experience can be enhanced tenfold - simply because it's a shared one.

Secret World also has a superb story - and an amazing atmosphere, but it kinda forgot that you have to have a game beyond the story itself.

Won't read the article as I'm not interested in MMOs really.
A story in MMOs never matters. You're not MMOing for a story. You're MMOing for everything else that is not a story.
While having a story is not a minus, to expect MMOers to read/listen/watch it just for the sakes of story itself is not rational. MMOers don't want to waste time on stories, they want to "rape" the mouse or gamepad as fast as possible.

I liked how in Everquest there wan't basically any story in-game, and yet, all over the landscape you would see curious things, like broken monuments, ruins, pillars with strange runes in the middle of a jungle, underwater ruins of cities, abandoned temples, etc. Things that when you see them playing makes you wonder what those things were, and offline you could read about the history of the world and realize that those things weren't just put there randomly, but that they made sense and were part of some ancient civilization, or remnants from a big catastrophe, or war, etc.

Originally Posted by joxer
Won't read the article as I'm not interested in MMOs really.
A story in MMOs never matters. You're not MMOing for a story. You're MMOing for everything else that is not a story.
While having a story is not a minus, to expect MMOers to read/listen/watch it just for the sakes of story itself is not rational. MMOers don't want to waste time on stories, they want to "rape" the mouse or gamepad as fast as possible.

Totally incorrect in regards to me. You keep making blanket statements and they are always wrong. A good story enhances ANY game and I do love my MMOs. LoTRO has the best MMO story yet of those I have tried.

This is bit of an odd article due to the use of the word "anymore" since that implies story matted at some point to MMOs but no longer.

Story matters to "solo" player focused MMO (the irony!) but not to group focused MMOs but the current generation of MMOS are all solo player focused so story matter "now" more than ever!

Early MMOs like EQ, EQ2, UO etc didn't have much story at all all. They did have very rich lore but hardly any story since these MMO were about group play and not solo play. If MMO focus and requires group play then story is actually a hindrance.

Originally Posted by Toff
Totally incorrect in regards to me. You keep making blanket statements and they are always wrong.

What you call blanket statements I call opinions.
And I adore when someone says all my opinions or whatever it's called in your area are wrong. If it's me who's opinions are all wrong, do me a favor and save developers of Amalur.

Originally Posted by joxer
What you call blanket statements I call opinions.
And I adore when someone says all my opinions or whatever it's called in your area are wrong. If it's me who's opinions are all wrong, do me a favor and save developers of Amalur.

The problem is that you rarely advertise your opinions as opinions.
They always read as if you just declared some scientific fact. A simple "IMO" would go a long way, you know.

And don't go "this is a forum, everything is an opinion", because no, that is not how it works.
If I say that "most religious people in Germany are Christian", I state a fact.
If I say "mankind would be better off without any religion", it is an opinion, but I did not declare it as such and hence people may think I just declared what I think is a scientific fact.

Mmo's for me are about three things…..can I raid, can I do group instances, and are my other online friends interested in playing. If those three happen, the story or saga makes no difference, we'll likely at least try it. If those things don't exist, then no story will make any difference, we'll avoid it. Oh, decent lewt, challenging content, and absolutely no cheating permitted are musts.

I'd go so far as to say story doesn't matter in any games.

From Snakes and Ladders to Pong to Counter-Strike and DotA story wasn't a part of the experience. It would Just stop the gameplay. If I want a good story I'll take a book or a movie over a game anyday. Especially an MMORPG!

I wonder what the first computer game to have a proper story was.

Back in the day, before CD-ROMS, when storage space was extremely scarce, disks didn't have enough space to include a serious story even in text form. RPG games like Pool of Radiance would reference the Adventurers Journal - a separate booklet included with the game. But games were still popular and popular enough to grow into the multi billion dollar industry of crap we see today!

Screw MMORPGS anyway. Lag will always stop them having good gameplay.

Story is important to me. The way I usually do it is that first I level 2 or 3 characters solo and then join a guild for the end of game contents. It means that I can experience both solo and social aspects of the game.

Originally Posted by joxer
Won't read the article as I'm not interested in MMOs really.
A story in MMOs never matters. You're not MMOing for a story. You're MMOing for everything else that is not a story.
While having a story is not a minus, to expect MMOers to read/listen/watch it just for the sakes of story itself is not rational. MMOers don't want to waste time on stories, they want to "rape" the mouse or gamepad as fast as possible.

You won't read the article. You don't play MMO's. Yet you form strong opinions about what matters, what players want or don't want in their game. I find that strange.

Different people play MMOs for different reasons, and for quite a lot of us the story is important. Which is for instance why I like to play LOTRO, the Secret World and ESO (yes, I read all the books in there).

pibbur who may not be your typical MMO player, but who is not alone in his views either.

I prefer a rich background, plenty of lore, and a variety of stories. Having played many MMOs (starting with EQ1 to current ones today) the story matters and I would want one as it helps add some context but it matters less in an MMO. Lore and lots of hooks for role playing are far more important in an MMO for me than a story. Stories in an MMO need to be very open and broad as no one can be the actual hero - at least not very well IMO. I RP'd a lot in the original EQ which was more just lore and lots of hooks. Sometimes a deep story can get in the way of that. As long as the MMO has some depth I am okay.

I don't think the story is as important as the way the lore is slowly revealed to a player.

A story implies a linear set of cause and effect, but I think that discovering the lore of a game's past civilizations is more appropriate for an MMO that relies on a mostly static world.

Personally, I have a hard time being engaged in a quest if there's no story involved.

That said, questing having taken over as the main way to progress (probably because of WoW), is not really something I agree with. I think questing should be just another way to experience the game - and I'm much more into sandbox or freeform content.

This is one area where games like SWtOR and ESO fail - despite having wonderful story content. They suffocate the player with linear content and fail to provide interesting avenues of progression as alternatives. Well, except that ESO actually does provide a reasonably good PvP experience, but I'm looking for much more involved stuff - with player created content.

Unfortunately, I can't immerse myself in a game if I have to invent my own reasons for being there. To me, expecting the players to "imagine" the reasons for playing would be like asking the players in a PnP session to act as their own Dungeon Master - which I would consider a huge mistake. As such, the game must provide a compelling world, lore - and the necessary tools for players to create their own stories and quests.

This is where almost all MMOs fail completely, new and old.

I always assumed that UO represented the first "baby step" in creating a virtual world almost 20 years ago, and the irony is that it's more or less the peak in many ways. With the exception of games like EVE and SW:Galaxies - most high profile MMOs have completely ignored the "simulation" aspect of a virtual world.

I'm still waiting for even the slightest significant evolution from a big budget MMO where player freedom and power is concerned.

ArcheAge had some great ideas - but that game totally failed to provide a compelling world or reason to actually take advantage of the sandbox features. I'm still hurting from the disappointment, frankly.

While i do appreciate the general background of any CRPG and feel it's a big part of what I seek in the genre, I have a totally different opinion about any story driving a MMO. I don't want a MMO to show me a way to go along with a predefined so called story to tell me, I want it to make me create my own stories instead !