Suggestion:Enemy Territory - a concept desire for future areas.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duelle

Storyline does have to explain why this particular town is not coming after you when the rest of the empire is. This is why "enemy side" parts in a game's story are brief and temporary, and you usually never see that element again after it is no longer relevant to what you're doing in-game.

While I'm not one to turn to phasing as the first option in telling a story, the convoluted mess seen in WoW was due to shoddy writing. The phasing itself had little to do with said mess.

I don't think you can really have an enemy city that is friendly to you "just because". There's a reason you usually have either purposeful infiltration, anmesia, and general displacement as devices used to explain why these people are not killing you on the spot.

I can agree with much of your post.

Firstly Wow phasing was often over used it hub type areas. Which made it even more difficult.

Really the details of any location and why, how and how long your there depends on the story writing. Especially in a fantasy setting much of the "everyday" issues can be worked around by something magical and mystical to explain some story holes.

Example: A villager killed without reason by "enemy". The family who wants revenge. The Mystic who grans magic apon a mask to impersonate the man. The family of said man whom takes you in and helps you find the criminals etc"

Short point. without embelishing to the why of the mystic or the who of the enemy. by injecting the fantasy "magic" card you can produce a more solid story because of it.

Personally i think Phasing would be better used on the NPC level then area. Then you and your friends can be in the same area yet the NPCs for each of you can potentially be different or in different states. The issues of your friends disappearing is resolved.

I think if we put faith in the writes in tandum with the developers i belive they could indeed find a way to include persistant enemy areas that give you a form of, or gradual access. And even if that form of access is at some point removed. then they can provide a way to obtain something different