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The Unfinished Stories

Storylines and MMOs

by Mercurie

Of late, my mind has turned to
the importance of storylines in MMORPGs. Many, perhaps most, MMOs were
created with some sort of storyline in mind, and most expansions can be
considered storylines in and of themselves.



An excellent example of storylines in a MMO can be found in Dark Age of
Camelot. The basic storyline that runs through the game is a war which
erupted between the various realms following the death of King Arthur.
The expansions often add to this basic storyline or present new
storylines. In the expansion Trials of Atlantis, the ruins of Atlantis
are discovered, presenting repercussions in the game in the form of new
artifacts, and so on. In Catacombs, someone has taken command of a race
from an underground realm.



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style="width: 120px; height: 150px;" align="left" hspace="4" vspace="2">Of
course, Dark Age of Camelot is not the only MMO with a storyline.
EverQuest has its own back story and the expansions their own
storylines. For example, the Ruins of Kunark expansion involved the
discovery of the continent of Kunark. Like the fantasy MMOs, Anarchy
Online, which is a science fiction type game, has its own back story
and its expansions their own storylines. An example of this is the
Anarchy Online expansion Alien Invasion, whose story is exactly that.



In some respects, I cannot help but viewing expansions as the MMO
equivalent of the old D&D modules. For those of you who never
played a pen and paper RPG, a module was a ready made adventure. Since
many Dungeon Masters insisted on creating their own worlds, the modules
were often self-contained so they could easily be "plugged into" any
Dungeon Master's game. Others were often set in one of D&D's
ready-made worlds, such as Greyhawk. Of course, the major difference
between D&D modules and any given MMORPG expansion is that MMO
expansions are generally more complex.



Of course, the question is how important ongoing storylines in MMOs
(both those established at the start of the games and those added in
expansions) really are to players. Most MUDs (which along with pen and
paper RPGs can be considered the ancestors of MMOS) in which I played
did not have ongoing storylines. At most there might be a “creation
myth” for the world and a few bits of history determining why various
peoples might not like each other, but that would be it. The fact that
there wasn’t an ongoing storyline in these MUDs never bothered me. As
long as the worlds of the MUDs were fairly original and had some depth
to them, I was perfectly satisfied.



That said, I can see the need for an extensive back story in an MMO,
not to mention storylines in expansions. It seems to me that such
storylines can give the players the feeling that their characters are
involved in something bigger than themselves; that they are taking part
in a much bigger picture. In particular, the back stories can also give
a good deal of depth to MMO worlds. Consider the real world for a
moment. Any given nation will have a complex history all its own, in
which various individuals made a difference. The back stories of MMOs
reflect this.



As to the storylines found in expansions, it seems to me that they
serve two basic purposes (besides bringing in additional revenue for
the MMO manufacturers). First, they give long time players who may be
growing bored with their respective games something new. Indeed, in the
vast majority of cases, the artifacts, races, and so on found in
expansions are directly related to the storyline of the expansion.
Second, they give additional depth to the MMO world. This is
particularly true of expansions (such as the Ruins of Kunark mentioned
above) which introduce entire new continents. Often with expansions,
the MMO world is literally expanded.



Of course, I rather suspect that for many players the storylines in
MMOs are not that href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=article-illustrations&id=eila&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Eila of Vanguard lore"
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hspace="4" vspace="2"> important. They are simply content to play
the games regardless of what the bigger picture may be. For such
players, the bigger picture of the MMO world is not important so long
as it does not interfere with their gameplay.



Ultimately, I do think storylines in MMOs add a good deal to those
games. They serve to give additional depth to the game and, in the case
of expansions, they often give players something new to play. For
players who do not place a great deal of importance on the storylines,
they are generally unobtrusive to a point that they do not interfere
with gameplay. And I doubt from here on out that there will be very
many MMOs without some sort of storyline. Indeed, with the release of
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, with its complex world and depth of lore, we
might see progressively more complex storylines appearing in MMOs.