Monday Mutterings: Some Storytelling
Wouter "Hyrrix" Ryckbosch, 2003-12-01

Since I decided to skip Final Fantasy XI, I haven't been playing a mmorpg lately. Instead I have filled my free time with a few other things, such as playing through Max Payne 2 and watching a few movies and tv. And as always... it got me wondering about mmorpgs.

One of the things that I've been watching in the was the anime series called "Neon Genesis Evangelion", an impressive TV series with an incredibly deep story. Why am I talking about this? Because it got me wondering about the importance of a storyline. For instance, I'm not a particularly big FPS fan. But for Max Payne, I gladly make an exception. Not really for the great graphics, the realistic physics or the impressive bullet time effects... but for the way the game tells you a story. If you'd seen the story on big screen, as in a movie, you'd probably consider it to be a moderate action picture; but actually playing it and seeing it evolve in such a way makes you feel like you're actually involved in the happenings of the story. Why isn't it possible to create a strong storyline in an mmorpg? A strong story could offer the motivation for a lot of things and could enhance the livelihood of an mmorpg a great deal; but then again, wouldn't it go directly against the unwritten rule that an mmorpg shouldn't have a purpose to it?

Is an mmorpg supposed to have any end-game at all, or to provide any motivation for the player to act? In a single-player rpg, it usually is the story that provides the motivation to do something and progress in the game. The leveling happens along the way, as a result of progressing in the storyline or in order to do so. In an mmorpg however, the increase of your level has become the goal itself, in most cases. Some people still believe in the "promised land" once you have reached the level cap or managed to "max out" your character; but most people have realised by now that there's rarely anything beyond that point. Which is when they start complaining about the lack of end-game. But what end-game can a game provide that has no real purpose to it? Isn't it a bit contradictory to desire an "end"-game from a persistent world, a world and game that is supposed to keep on existing? In my opinion, an mmorpg should be an ongoing experience without an end-game, with some exceptions to it, such as seen in ATITD (where the whole game has one single purpose for everyone; if that goal is met, the game ends). This implies that the game itself should be interesting and fun so that it provides enough motivation for the player to keep on participating, of itself.

But could a storyline provide any motivations to players in mmorpg's at all? I think it depends on the kind of storyline we're talking about. A story that has been written down by some professional writers long before it actually takes place could be interesting, but will likely tend to affect the playerbase only marginally. However, if good a story is written down somewhere on a website, if it doesn't manifest itself in the game at all, what good is it? And even if it is present in the game world through events, the amount of players affected and reached by this usually isn't thought to be worth the time investement of the GMs. Ideally, a story should come from inside the playerbase itself. It is the players who should play the role of the protagonists and antagonists, it is the players who should be the good kings and the evil necromancers, and it is the player guilds who should choose to wage war against each other or sign peace treaties. Why is it that we rarely see inspiring stories originate from the player bases of current day mmorpg's?

Maybe the amount of freedom is too limited for players to really carry out their desires and start role-playing? Or maybe providing simply a world to a few thousand players is not enough to see heros rise and real stories originate. But then, what is it that developers should provide the players with for this to happen?