Gamerant lists MMORPG's with best stories, FFXIV #6, WoW #1, uhh

[KayRadley]

I don't see PSO2 on this list. I mean, yeah, the isekai crap in Episodes 4 and 5 was a load of horsepucky, but still!

[Vyrerus]

List is crap. I can't speak for WoW, but I know it's not a contender for #1. I've never had an ex-WoW player regale me with the game's story. Just raiding moments, mostly.

I think FFXI should be on the list, in the top 3. It had great story, but the way the gameplay worked when it was current, especially if the expansion had just dropped was dreadful. You'd be waiting months at a time to move on with the story, cause it didn't all drop at once. Pacing was dreadful too.

That said, the content of its stories is memorable. Some of the best Final Fantasy storytelling to date. RoZ was weakest, but CoP, WoTG, and SoA were all great. TOAU was also phenomenal, but it went on for a little too long, and tried to fit in a little too much imo.

"My flesh remembers the wounds of ten thousand blades. Come, cut me again..."

[Nixxe]

I've never had an ex-WoW player regale me with the game's story. Just raiding moments, mostly.

To be fair, I think most people's opinions on the subject are complete and utter crap, as evidenced by things like failing to distinguish between story and storytelling. FFXIV's storytelling is actually kind of lame. It's just a movie interspersed between mostly meaningless periods of gameplay. WoW used to have vastly superior storytelling, where sure there was quest text, but a lot of it was left for the player to discover and infer as they explored the world in the form of mobs, spontaneous events, random items, and the environment in general. It treated the player like an even remotely intelligent and active participant in receiving the story, rather than a passive consumer who needed everything spelled out and spoonfed to them while they shut their brains off. That's perfect since we're playing a game, not watching a movie.

[Vyrerus]

WoW used to have vastly superior storytelling, where sure there was quest text, but a lot of it was left for the player to discover and infer as they explored the world in the form of mobs, spontaneous events, random items, and the environment in general. It treated the player like an even remotely intelligent and active participant in receiving the story, rather than a passive consumer who needed everything spelled out and spoonfed to them while they shut their brains off. That's perfect since we're playing a game, not watching a movie.

So you say WoW made use of environmental storytelling? Where you basically make half of it up, like in Dark Souls? I mean, that's great for the imagination, but it doesn't make a concrete narrative. XIV has that too, to an extent, but unless you're invested in it, there's no reason to care about it too much as it's all for side stuff. The weakness to that type of storytelling is that perception makes and breaks it. There's plenty of people who never and will never notice what's being told by an environment.

Personally, I don't care how a game delivers its story. If it's all in cutscene, then hey, as long as the cutscenes are good at conveying the emotions and what not, I'm fine. If the game is dropping clues via the environment and item descriptions, that's also fine, because I like to read and explore.

[Nixxe]

So you say WoW made use of environmental storytelling? Where you basically make half of it up, like in Dark Souls? I mean, that's great for the imagination, but it doesn't make a concrete narrative. XIV has that too, to an extent, but unless you're invested in it, there's no reason to care about it too much as it's all for side stuff. The weakness to that type of storytelling is that perception makes and breaks it. There's plenty of people who never and will never notice what's being told by an environment.

Personally, I don't care how a game delivers its story. If it's all in cutscene, then hey, as long as the cutscenes are good at conveying the emotions and what not, I'm fine. If the game is dropping clues via the environment and item descriptions, that's also fine, because I like to read and explore.

I'm well aware most people would rather just passively have the story spoonfed to them. I've listened to people tell me exactly that for years. I just think it's a tragedy.

[linayar]

I'm well aware most people would rather just passively have the story spoonfed to them.

That's how stories are communicated. It's called storytelling, meaning you are being told a story, either visually or audibly. If you have to discover or, worse, infer the story yourself, then it's no longer storytelling.

So to refer to your statement about the difference between story and storytelling, a game may have a story, but if it's not telling it to you, then it doesn't have storytelling.

[Nixxe]

That's how stories are communicated. It's called storytelling, meaning you are being told a story, either visually or audibly. If you have to discover or, worse, infer the story yourself, then it's no longer storytelling.

This is flatly incorrect.

[linayar]

This is flatly incorrect.

How so, if you care to tell?

[Nixxe]

How so, if you care to tell?

Because the game world is still a deliberate arrangement and presentation of information to convey a certain set of knowledge, events, and perspective to the player. If you can't figure that out for yourself, then you've failed to grasp something very fundamental about some combination of stories, storytelling, and games. The fact that the game doesn't spell out every single thing for the player in fact puts it in excellent company with our culture's most cherished works of literature and cinema. That you may fail to be told some stories if you choose not to engage with certain content is little different than how you will not be told a short story in an anthology you've purchased unless you choose to read it. Certainly, this sort of storytelling is a little more deconstructed than what we're accustomed to from other mediums, but it's plainly storytelling nonetheless if you have any genuine grasp of what storytelling is.

[linayar]

Because the game world is still a deliberate arrangement and presentation of information to convey a certain set of knowledge, events, and perspective to the player. If you can't figure that out for yourself, then you've failed to grasp something very fundamental about some combination of stories, storytelling, and games. The fact that the game doesn't spell out every single thing for the player in fact puts it in excellent company with our culture's most cherished works of literature and cinema. That you may fail to be told some stories if you choose not to engage with certain content is little different than how you will not be told a short story in an anthology you've purchased unless you choose to read it. Certainly, this sort of storytelling is a little more deconstructed than what we're accustomed to from other mediums, but it's plainly storytelling nonetheless if you have any genuine grasp of what storytelling is.

Knowing a story by engaging in content doesn't contradict that you still have to receive any story either visually or audibly. The fact that you compare it to reading a short story in an anthology proves my point.