Where is the Lore Going?

I've been trying to put into words for awhile my problem with ARR's lore. 1.0 had some great intrigue, mystery, and history that was probably the best thing I enjoyed from 1.0. Mystery of Ascians, Who's an Ascian and who's not? What was that star storm we see in the beginning? Why is the moon turning red? Why did Atomos show up? What is Nael Van Darnus really up to? ect; It all climaxed fabulously with the End of an Era video.

In 1.0, and FFXI I you're given hints early on, whispers of a people, Ascians, Dalamud. Everything was given out in little tidbits that got progressively more detailed as we investigated, and it really captured my interest!

In ARR; We pop in, There's like a huge tower (which almost nobody is talking about) Huge crystals all over, Giant crystals with waterfalls in West Dark shroud, Huge pieces of Dalamud there, ECT ECT ECT.

All kinds of amazing geological features!... and all most NPCs are wondering about is if we can get them 5 pieces of dodo meat....??

I don't feel like there's any intrigue. We're either completely given the info (Oh HI Hydaelyn how did I end up in front of you?)
Or really told nothing new; Allagan's were an advanced race in the past. The end.

How about some researchers checking Allagan writings? stone work? What type of writing do they use? What were there religious practices? What were the names of their leaders?
Did they have Kings, queens, Prince, princesses? Or Was their political system Democratic? Presidents, senate? How did they get powerful? Where did they live?
So far I'm seeing a trend where they never answer the questions, but instead just give us new questions, and half done (or forgotten answers)

Can we truly not answer any other questions but "advanced people" now shut-up and kill monsters in their tower/ADS.

The quests around the tower were starting to get interesting, talked a bit a bout Gigas, and then fell flat.

In FFXI, you learn early on about the "Gates to Paradise" a dual god system of the ancients, so many missions were just learning more about the people, and then when all the sudden you learn these places are real, and actually go there! It's like WOW! It's a pretty magical feeling.

ARR; Ok big crystal who talks to you; check, Crystal Tower; check, Look at all the pretty things, Oh you wanted to know why they're there too?

1.0: Goes from General to specific

ARR: Goes from Specific Place and then look around and you get some general lore.

In short, I don't really feel like ARR has a good "Hook"
It just really has felt like a lot of missed opportunities so far. Hoping for a change of direction starting in 2.1..

We are at Level 50 ( which is not the final Cap ).. the Story is long not done, let aside Expansions will come with new Stories/Connecting with existing ones, also the Patch will continue with the Story. And after all it is still SE we talk about, which are notorious for their Storylines. I am looking forward to some serious surprised, which are not obvious right now.

Also Sidequests also have a good amount of lore and if people do not care to do them, they miss out on several "hints". If you have played FFXI, you also know the Storylines, but most of the actual Lore did not came with the Launch, it was added over years to add more depth and more sidelines.

Isn't the Saint Coinach's group in Mor Dhona investigating the Allagan Civilisation? Also, as I understand it, the calamity cause major geographical upheaval, hence the changed landscape, and the Crystal Tower (previously buried) was uncovered as a result of the Calamity.

As for your dodo meat question, peeps still gotta eat man! :p

You're also failing to remember that 1.0's original storyline (the Echo-based part involving the Path of the Twelve) was virtually put on a bus after Yoshi took over, and the storyline was then re-purposed into the the lead-into ARR. I think a lot of your problem is the fact ARR's storyline is more written for the benefit of those who have had no experience with the game, hence a lot of what is shown is stuff we already know about.

And FFXI's storyline also started out with the player doing random fetch quests for their respective nations too. I don't know where you've got this idea that the player is immediately given matters of world import upon immediately setting foot in Vana'diel. Also, ARR has been out for barely four months, with it's frame story from 1.0 barely developed under two years - FFXI however has over a decade's worth of storyline development behind it. It's an unfair comparison.

To be honest, I'm not too sure what it is you're arguing about here.

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Originally Posted by FMElan

First, it's called world building. It's something that every fiction writer *should* be doing, because it makes the world more complete and real.

Second, you can't really call people losers and then say "IMHO." Your opinion isn't so humble anymore.

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As i said, at time we will get more depth on the story giving us the thrill.

No seriously, i find pretty pathetic any thread about lore on an mmo. Who gives a damn ffs, don't they have something else more important to read or do on their life than spend time understanding the lore of a damned online game?
Just play logoff and amen.
(Ye, i obiouvsly skip any text, the only thing i enjoy are real time movie animations with my char. Well voiced nothing to read on a small window, and i will pay some interest about this magic "lore" )

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Originally Posted by Teon

As i said, at time we will get more depth on the story giving us the thrill.

No seriously, i find pretty pathetic any thread about lore on an mmo. Who gives a damn ffs. Just play logoff and amen.
(Ye, i obiouvsly skip any text, the only thing i enjoy are real time movie animations with my char)

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Some people enjoy immersion, not just to grind the game as you so sounded.
I personally love to read the lore behind the game, it gets me excited enough to keep playing instead of a "Go here, kill this, fetch that" Type of thing. Without lore, a lot of MMOs would probably be dead.

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Originally Posted by SusanooEyes

Some people enjoy immersion, not just to grind the game as you so sounded.
I personally love to read the lore behind the game, it gets me excited enough to keep playing instead of a "Go here, kill this, fetch that" Type of thing. Without lore, a lot of MMOs would probably be dead.

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Undoubtly. No, i don't love grind and amen. As i wrote, i love real time animations and voiced, no boring text wasting hours reading all. Then yes, i love that immersion.

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Originally Posted by FMElan

Don't you have something more important to do than play an online game? You shouldn't judge how people choose to amuse themselves.

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I guess the point was "get a life instead of waste time attempting to figure out lore here lore there" but ye, as usual, on eng community, how can i expect to be left alone on my opinion?
Ye, i find anyone wasting life time, days, months on "lore" on an mmo someone who loves to waste his time.
Guess i'm just pragmatic at my age, when i was 12 i may have had the same interests and time to waste, having nothing else to do.. :rolleyes:
My opinion, mind me.

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Originally Posted by Teon

No seriously, i find pretty pathetic any thread about lore on an mmo. Who gives a damn ffs, don't they have something else more important to read or do on their life than spend time understanding the lore of a damned online game?

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Don't you have something more important to do than play an online game? You shouldn't judge how people choose to amuse themselves.

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Originally Posted by Teon

Undoubtly. No, i don't love grind and amen. As i wrote, i love real time animations and voiced, no boring text wasting hours reading all. Then yes, i love that immersion.
I guess the point was "get a life instead of waste time attempting to figure out lore here lore there" but ye, as usual, on eng community, how can i expect to be left alone on my opinion?
Ye, i find anyone wasting life time, days, months on "lore" on an mmo someone who loves to waste his time.
Guess i'm just pragmatic at my age, when i was 12 i may have had the same interst, having nothing else to do.. :rolleyes:
My opinion, mind me.

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Your opinion indeed, but you sure push it as if it's the absolute truth. As to your hours it takes you to read a small box of dialogue, I surely feel sorry for you if that's the case then.

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Originally Posted by SusanooEyes

Your opinion indeed, but you sure push it as if it's the absolute truth. As to your hours it takes you to read a small box of dialogue, I surely feel sorry for you if that's the case then.

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Nah, absolute truth, wasn't the purpose or my point :)

God if i hate to read boxes of text.. ;)

Yeah, reading is such a waste of time.

Sigh.... I always have trouble to undertand why some people like to go to the field of personal offense so easily on gaming comunities. And I shoudn't be posting anything, just report it and nothing more, but can't help but wonder why.

I dunno OrionInerghem, for me the lore is exactly what I'm looking for. Each quest is solidly grounded in the everyday lives of the NPCs, which makes Eorzea feel like a real place. If the majority of quests were about the new geography (which is five year old news to all the NPCs) it would feel much less real to me than quests based on normal people's real problems (graves needing dug, medical supplies short on the front lines, a bow for the guildmaster's solider buddy). Mundane as it may seem, it sells the world.

Its true that we have so few answers about the Allagan, but I think the game is providing exactly what you're looking for--hints and whispers about things to come. The quests near the Crystal Tower may seem to have fallen flat, but that's only because the meat of that particular story hasn't been added yet. It would be far less intriguing if we already knew everything there was to know about the Allagans before stepping into the Crystal Tower, right?

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Originally Posted by Elvin

Yeah, reading is such a waste of time.

Sigh.... I always have trouble to undertand why some people like to go to the field of personal offense so easily on gaming comunities. And I shoudn't be posting anything, just report it and nothing more, but can't help but wonder why.

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Me too. I was talking in general, got attacked. Shrugs, western attitude i guess :rolleyes:

How superb would be this mmo if every single thing was voiced, even a random static npc. I would have paid attention to the lore or even noticed what the op was talking about lol

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Originally Posted by Teon

As i said, at time we will get more depth on the story giving us the thrill.

No seriously, i find pretty pathetic any thread about lore on an mmo. Who gives a damn ffs, don't they have something else more important to read or do on their life than spend time understanding the lore of a damned online game?
Just play logoff and amen.
(Ye, i obiouvsly skip any text, the only thing i enjoy are real time movie animations with my char. Well voiced nothing to read on a small window, and i will pay some interest about this magic "lore" )

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Trololololo

Not were the older fans and players like to see it go. It feels like there lore little to much in the past not in the present of future writing. To conservative. Music still insane though. It needs a lot more darker with humor and wtf moments and there voice actors need do more of it for a lot game get sense of the characters. Unless they slow motion the game chats as a book. Been spoiled with good tv writing from breaking bad and books and movies and comics in last 8 years.

Worth remembering that while the tower and all the other bits scattered across the landscape are new to us the npc's have been living with them for five years now. There's only so long they can go "woah! What's that?" before they get used to it being there.
We've been promised more storyline for 2.1 and 1.5 times as much again for 2.2 a few months later. The story needs to develop, we can't just have it go bosh and land on us all at once, you know most of us would race through it if it did.

Yes that's right, I play Final Fantasy for the gameplay.

Whoaaa, The hell did i just read? :0

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Originally Posted by Teon

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I'm curious, why not try to understand the lore of a story being told? Would you say the same thing for another video game? Or another form of media? Or is just just because it is an MMORPG? Or because it's mostly text boxes?

Yes, we are playing an online game, but that doesn't denounce the fact that there is a story unfolding and many people enjoy unraveling it's mysteries. You can, of course, play the way you want, choose to ignore the story and grind away and whatnot, that's how you enjoy the game. But different people like to play different ways. I don't think you should judge someone and call it a pathetic waste of time and call them "losers" for wanting to know the story of a game we play. That is why the story is there in the first place I might add.

File2ish ~ he's being sarcastic about the text Boxes and reading, look where we are. on a forum typing in text boxes for him to read :::Trololololo:::

The lore is really the only thing that got my arcanist to 50. I needed that main scenario to keep me focused. SWTOR had great stories that would pull me along while grinding levels.

That's why I leveled so slowly in WoW. The old vanilla areas really had no coherent story. It was all "Bring me back boar liver." And you'd spend the next half hour trying to find the only 5 boars that were born with a liver. Even the Burning Crusade lacked in the story.

The fastest I ever made it to cap was for Wrath of the Lich King. They finally had a real story that people could get invested in. By the end of the expansion I couldn't wait to be unleashed on the Icecrown Citadel. Not for the 'phat lootz' but so I could kill the person responsible for all of the suffering and horrors I had seen for the last 10 levels.

That's what a good story should do. It should make you want to physically leap into the game and beat the daylights out of the villain. I was so ready to kill Livia after what she did. In fact the last part of the game had such a FF6 feel to it (my first ff game) that I was on the edge of my seat.

BTW: The Japanese rather play with the English voices with subs because they hate their VAs. Yoshi-P mentioned it in one of his letters.