Swing and miss... which story arcs are most in need of revamp or outright removal?
By
Arilou,
Posted on: 2011-09-19 24:40 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Can't I expect the Devs to have both good story and good game play in their design, like the game produced by the late Earl Warren?
"Mastermind Pets operate...differently, and aren't as easily fixed. Especially the Bruiser. I want to take him out behind the woodshed and pull an "old yeller" on him at times." - Castle
Huh. People are really down on Roy Cooling. I'm normally pretty critical but I enjoyed Roy, primarily because his arc addressed part of the reality of living in a town where there are "haves" and "have-nots" and people begin to ask why those inequities exist.
The Tsoo Coup is absolutely horrible. The plot is completely asinine -- the Tsoo are going to take over the "other gangs" (meaning the other lvl 20ish gangs) and leverage this awesome power into... being elected mayor. Because I guess mayor of Paragon City is like the pope or something rather than some tattooed guy in a conical hat arguing with the city council about the firefighters' pension fund and pothole repair. Which I guess explains why no group in Paragon City over level 20 gives a poop about these dorks trying to usurp the local city government.
Nemesis Lancer: Hey! Did you hear Tub Ci took over the Warriors and this somehow made him mayor?
Malta Engineer: Well, I hope he can do something about these parking meters!
I'm not even sure how taking over the Warriors, Outcast and Family gets one elected mayor unless those gangs have a lot more registered voters making up their numbers than I gave them credit for. And I'm not making this up:
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But setting aside that stupidness, the arc itself is boring. Street hunts, FedEx missions and then a string of "Bust Leader & his Crew" missions where you wouldn't even guess there's anything special about them except there's a couple guys doing the fighting animation. No special text, no NPC dialogue beyond the stock "You suck!", "No YOU suck!" from the fighters... just beat up the boss and move on to the next one. The last mission inexplicably has hostages in it after your contact told you that the buildings are "empty right now, which makes them perfect meeting places for the Warriors." When you rescue the hostages, they just say "Wow, those guys are crazy!" are run off. Haha, don't you know it, Mr. Guy Who Wasn't Supposed To Be Here Anyway! Say what you want about Roy Cooling, at least the arc has some interesting mechanics. Tsoo Coup is vanilla even by launch standards. Oh, and when you finally finish, you're told that a hit's been put on you by Tub Ci but everyone is too afraid to take it. So that was rewarding closure.| See if you can get some more heroes to help you with this one. I am afraid that if the Tsoo are successful, Tub Ci will be mayor of Paragon City tomorrow. |
It's not just a bad arc, it's a painfully bad arc that goes out of its way to insult your intelligence and mock you for wasting your time on it.
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Yes. It. Is. This is an mmor.p.g. you can't have a great rpg without a great story.|
Originally Posted by mr_squid
story. Is. Not. Everything. Stop acting like it is
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Edit: Why the hell did the forums convert my all caps to lowercase?
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I never really took that line to be a literal sort of thing. More like if the Tsoo got all the other gangs under their boot, they'd be free to do whatever they'd be free to treat the law in the city however they liked. Think a situation like Batman: Year One, where the gangs run the city. The "mayor" in that sense.
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Originally Posted by Jophiel
I'm not even sure how taking over the Warriors, Outcast and Family gets one elected mayor unless those gangs have a lot more registered voters making up their numbers than I gave them credit for. And I'm not making this up:
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True. A good role playing game needs a good story. Except that; and I'm fully aware of how crazy this is going to sound:|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Yes. It. Is. This is an mmor.p.g. you can't have a great rpg without a great story.
Edit: Why the hell did the forums convert my all caps to lowercase? |
City of Heroes is not an RPG. It never was. And neither is any other MMO on the market.
Why? Because role playing games use the ability of acting in character as the primary means of interacting with the game and advancing the story. A role playing game requires the player to act in character at all times, in order to keep the world immersive and unified. City of Heroes is not like this, and neither is any other MMO. Acting in character is not required at all, in fact, almost nobody acts in character while playing. Why? Because there's no point to it. Unlike in a tabletop role playing game where the GM can dynamically react to each PC's actions, a digital game by it's very nature must have a limited set of responses. You can run right up to your contacts and pretend to pick their nose, and absolutely nothing will happen, until you agree to say exactly what you are supposed to say and do exactly what you are supposed to do.
Not only that, but role playing might actually make the game more needlessly difficult when interacting with other players; because let's face it, unlike in a tabletop game where a GM can go easy on players if they do a good job role playing, a game like City of Heroes will keep an even level of difficulty the entire time. Staying in character and having in character experiences isn't the game's main hook, winning is. If a group of players took it upon themselves to never ever act beyond their character's own knowledge, or use explicit knowledge of the game's mechanics to their advantage the game would become nearly impossible.
To put it bluntly, the reason City of Heroes is not an RPG is because there is no incentive to role playing. There are plenty of incentives for acting out of character though, and can you really blame the player's for doing so when they know that no matter what actions they take or what things they say the game's world is always going to remain static? You could never read any of the flavor text in the entire game and still get all the way to level 50. If you can do that, then it's not a role playing game.
This is an ongoing debate in the game design community, in that a lot of people (myself included), don't think that there has EVER BEEN A ROLE PLAYING VIDEO GAME. There are games that let you build characters, yes, and games that let you decide your character's characterization, but because there are only a limited amount of responses to any one of your actions, the game can never evolve past what was already programmed into it, and the character's actions can never have any effects beyond what effects the game's creators programmed in.
Perhaps the entire genre needs a name change. Maybe "Role Playing Game" should be reserved for games in which creating and acting in character is essential, whereas video games that try to emulate it should be called something else. I would say the central focus of City of Heroes, and in fact any so called "RPG" is character BUILDING, not character PERFORMING. Actually, that might make a good new name; CBG, for "Character Building Game". Perhaps we should call City of Heroes an MMOCBG? I'd be content with that.
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I've been asking for that for months.|
Originally Posted by Oldeb
Can't I expect the Devs to have both good story and good game play in their design
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Originally Posted by Mr_Squid
To put it bluntly, the reason City of Heroes is not an RPG is because there is no incentive to role playing. There are plenty of incentives for acting out of character though, and can you really blame the player's for doing so when they know that no matter what actions they take or what things they say the game's world is always going to remain static? You could never read any of the flavor text in the entire game and still get all the way to level 50. If you can do that, then it's not a role playing game.
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Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
I think it would be entirely useful to go back and turn some of the extended missions on hero side into mini-arcs like on the villains side. It's no longer a problem if a contact has more than one arc like it apparently was when CoH originally launched.
Meteorologist "mission" from Maxwell Christopher: Hunt -> Defeat all -> Return to Contact -> Delivery -> Defeat All -> Defeat All
That's an entire arc, longer than some of the villain arcs, and should offer rewards like a real arc, and not auto-grant you the next chain in the arc when you leave the previous mission. In the same situation from Maxwell Christopher is the Nemesis Rex "mission", which is really 5 missions, as well as the doomsday device and rail track "missions" which are 3 missions each.
Angus McQueen, Indigo and Crimson also have multi-part missions that deserve to be their own arcs. Heck, every one of Crimson's missions is at least a three-parter when you count the deliveries to Indigo.
...I forgot what experience means.
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Now granted, some people play D&D just for the combat really, and then it stops being an RPG and starts being a character building game. That's perfectly fine though; if the DM is fine with just running a good ol' fashioned dungeon crawl, then go for it.|
Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
By that logic D&D isn't an RPG either, since you can just go around smashing orcs and taking their stuff and acting completely out of character.
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However, every D&D game I've been in (and run) has always kept the story as the primary focus, and the resolution of the narrative is the primary focus of play, as opposed to the killing of monsters. I've seen many a DM get fed up by a player who keeps trying to stab the king, or just run around naked the whole time, and threaten them with the infamous falling rocks of death.
But even better is when I've seen a DM take such things in stride, and actually work the player's nonsensical, random actions into the game. The story keeps moving forward no matter what the player does. Yeah, the story might end anticlimactically with the player being hauled off and beheaded for urinating in the throne room while yelling "I'MA FIRIN MAH LAZER PEW PEW!" but it never grinds to a halt and waits for the player to make the correct choice before moving forward. A story will be told, no matter what.
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Not to mention his career as a stripper.
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Originally Posted by Oldeb
Can't I expect the Devs to have both good story and good game play in their design, like the game produced by the late Earl Warren?
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_________
@Inquisitor
Roy Cooling I actually liked for the gameplay elements. I like exiting somewhere other than where I started, and I liked Castillo. I don't like "Yeah, Malta! Man, those guys, huh?", by any means, but I don't think it's unsaveable.
Vincent Ross's arc I quite liked, particularly for the dialogue options. The ending, in particular, leaves you as either having used him to steal the power of the coral or feeling some sort of kinship with him. I liked that. The "kill the hero taskforce" mish could use some work, because as-is a lot of them just sort of stand around, not doing much, which is a wee bit of a pain. It also reinformed my desire to have a Coralax Trial that completely avoids mentioning the words "Well", "Furies", and "Of", not necessarily in that order. Use other possesives!
Finally, a lot of hero stuff is okay. It's just bland. The contacts need makeovers, a personality quirk or two, and all the pointless "kill all" missions removed and they'd be alright to run as an alternative to papers or tips.
I think there are two categories, and some arcs fall into both.
-Arcs that need mission design work.
-Arcs that need story design work.
Blueside, off the top of my head the worst offenders:
Terra Conspiracy:
Could use some story touch up, but major overhaul to the missions to make them more varied and interesting. The arc climaxes in a battle with a powerful monster in the middle of downtown. This should be massively cool, but it's just me trading blows in one spot with a green DE reskin. What would be cooler? Take the "leaping" tech that Marauder uses on Lambda, have Terra actually rampage around town and you have to STOP her from smashing stuff.
To Save a Soul:
A cool idea, having your contact grow corrupted over the course of the arc. The mindscape missions NEED custom maps. In the end, you're just thrown at an overpowered psychic EB in a warehouse. Lame.
Upon the Psychic Plane:
The hunt mission has to go, the story and mission maps need to be updated for the "new" Praetoria and again, custom maps are sorely needed.
Pretty much all the Issue 0 and Issue 1 content, really.
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While overall I like the Revenant Hero Project arc, I absolutely DESPISE being used as Mark Freeman's personal delivery person.
Suggestions:
Super Packs Done Right
Influence Sink: IO Level Mod/Recrafting
Random Merit Rolls: Scale cost by Toon Level
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Some people play CoH this way too. That's why we have mobs everywhere waiting to be killed and why killing them gives you XP.|
Originally Posted by Mr_Squid
Now granted, some people play D&D just for the combat really, and then it stops being an RPG and starts being a character building game. That's perfectly fine though; if the DM is fine with just running a good ol' fashioned dungeon crawl, then go for it.
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| However, every D&D game I've been in (and run) has always kept the story as the primary focus, and the resolution of the narrative is the primary focus of play, as opposed to the killing of monsters. |
Incidentally, I have never played a tabletop RPG where we never got into a fight. Even though combat wasn't the focus, it did happen. Video games are more limited though, in that you can't reward a player for "good roleplaying." You must progress through killing things. But that doesn't mean that killing the things shouldn't serve a narrative.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
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(1) Who on earth would use "mayor" for that rather than "king" or "emperor" or "lord" or anything else?|
Originally Posted by Lazarillo
I never really took that line to be a literal sort of thing. More like if the Tsoo got all the other gangs under their boot, they'd be free to do whatever they'd be free to treat the law in the city however they liked. Think a situation like Batman: Year One, where the gangs run the city. The "mayor" in that sense.
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(2) The Tsoo are pretty low on the Paragon City totem pole, even back when the game capped at 40. This isn't Nemesis we're talking about. This leaves us with the question of why Founders Falls, for example, will be under the Tsoo boot (sandal?) just because they push the Warriors around.
(3) They already treat the law however they'd like.
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Because story is useful for giving context to the player's actions. And unless the game relies on a very simple set of mechanics, a story is helpful to show the player what needs to be done. Games are almost always build around mechanics, and stories are added in later to justify the existence of those mechanics. |
Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
Some people play CoH this way too. That's why we have mobs everywhere waiting to be killed and why killing them gives you XP.
Yes, and if the CoH story wasn't important than why bother having arcs? Why not just string together a bunch of paper missions? They'll get you to 50 just as well as running arcs will. Incidentally, I have never played a tabletop RPG where we never got into a fight. Even though combat wasn't the focus, it did happen. Video games are more limited though, in that you can't reward a player for "good roleplaying." You must progress through killing things. But that doesn't mean that killing the things shouldn't serve a narrative. |
To use a recent (unnamed) game as an example: Why give the players a gun with a chainsaw attached? The answer the game gives the players is: Because you need that chainsaw gun to kill the dino-men living underground. But the actual answer is "because it's cool". Story is merely used to provide context, the game is not built around it.
Now in City of Heroes, a player can use the narrative to provide justification for why they're running through warehouses beating up robots made of junk. But one of the reasons that City of Heroes works so well, is that that justification is unnecessary. A player can justify their actions based on the simple fact that taking those actions is fun.
You seem to be acting under the assumption that me saying City of Heroes is not an RPG is a slight against it. It's not. In fact, it's better off for not requiring the player to role play, because it's nature as a digital game and not a tabletop one would require it's creators to put far more effort into creating role playing systems then they would on well designed and meaningful content. That's why I consider story to be secondary in this game, and in fact in any game. The main reason to play any game is for the interaction between the player and the game's mechanics and systems, not between the player and it's story, and if the creators of games operate under the assumption that story is more important than mechanics, the mechanics will end up suffering for it and the game will be less enjoyable over all.
I've only seen a few videogames ever come close to true roleplaying, and frankly, they're rather boring. Take a look at Facade for instance. This game's hook is that it has an incredibly complex conversation algorithm which allows the characters to react to just about anything the player types in a realistic fashion. I would call this a true video role playing game, because it requires the player to act in character to win. But is it fun? Not really. All the effort clearly went into making the character's actions as realistic as possible, not on creating anything that looked good, sounded good, or was in any way remotely fun.
Let me sum up my thoughts here. A true Role Playing Game requires the player to PLAY A ROLE. They must embrace the mentality and characteristics of a fictional character and act out that character in order to win. The story in such a game is essential because without it, the player cannot base their actions upon anything.
City of Heroes is not a Role Playing Game because it does not require the player to act in character to win, or even to follow the story to win.
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Your definition is not necessarily shared by those posting in response nor some of us mostly lurking and reading through this thread.|
Originally Posted by Mr_Squid
Let me sum up my thoughts here. A true Role Playing Game requires the player to PLAY A ROLE. They must embrace the mentality and characteristics of a fictional character and act out that character in order to win. The story in such a game is essential because without it, the player cannot base their actions upon anything.
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For me, the bit in orange is a particular sticking point. Not all games are played to win. A game can be a system of rules that provides a structure within which one or more players can couch play. Play need not always have an end game.
The structure and means provided by an MMO such as CoH for many can serve this purpose quite well. Thus by usage transforming into an MMORPG. And then, by most of your definition, suddenly story becomes of great import to those players. So though your perspective is interesting, it is not the one true way to approach CoH or any other MMO. When it comes to any sort of interactive design, you need to be ready for your audience to do the unexpected with what you present. You need to be flexible. And you need to remain open to a redefinition of your work by the public.
Or haven't they gotten to that yet in your curriculum?
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Hrm. Valid point. I'm not exactly sure that sort of redefinition has happened with CoH yet except with a very small percentage of the playerbase, but I will agree that viewing the story as an integral part is a perfectly valid way to play the game.|
Originally Posted by SilverAgeFan
Your definition is not necessarily shared by those posting in response nor some of us mostly lurking and reading through this thread.
For me, the bit in orange is a particular sticking point. Not all games are played to win. A game can be a system of rules that provides a structure within which one or more players can couch play. Play need not always have an end game. The structure and means provided by an MMO such as CoH for many can serve this purpose quite well. Thus by usage transforming into an MMORPG. And then, by most of your definition, suddenly story becomes of great import to those players. So though your perspective is interesting, it is not the one true way to approach CoH or any other MMO. When it comes to any sort of interactive design, you need to be ready for your audience to do the unexpected with what you present. You need to be flexible. And you need to remain open to a redefinition of your work by the public. Or haven't they gotten to that yet in your curriculum? |
Okay, shutting up now, I jacked this thread to hell and back.
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According to CNBC, the following were the top ten selling video games on 2010:| (I'm a game design major, we're kind of trained to treat a story as something completely unessential.) |
- 1. New Super Mario Brothers Wii
- 2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
- 3. Battlefield: Bad Company II
- 4. Final Fantasy XIII
- 5. Wii Fit Plus
- 6. God of War III
- 7. Pokemon Soulsilver Version
- 8. Wii Sports Resort
- 9. Mass Effect 2
- 10. Pokemon Heartgold Version
There are precisely two titles on that list that do not rely on some kind of story or at least narrative.
According to Gamestop.com, their current best sellers for PCs are two version of Star Wars: The Old Republic, two versions of Skyrim and Battlefield 3.
There are zero top-selling MMOs that do not rely on story.
If you have learned game design from people who claim "story is unessential" then you have learned from morons. Modern video gaming is increasingly about interactive storytelling (suck it, Roger Ebert). There is a market for sports or Tetris/Bejewelled/etc. type games but it's not setting the world on fire and more importantly, I can pretty much guarantee you that the guys currently slamming the bits together for (e.g.) Dragon Age III are pulling down bigger bucks than whoever is hoping to come out with the next Angry Birds.
MMOs in particular are nothing without story. Story is not sufficient but it is necessary. No matter how much you may detest "World Wide Red", without its story it would be even worse.
Oh, and as for the original question, the answer is "too many to list".
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
Banefire: "Hey, run a bunch of only thinly connected missions, hunts and runarounds that culminate in nothing at all!"
The Tsoo Takeover: "Ninjas have kidnapped the other gangs. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the gangs?"
Division: Line: Needs to be revamped to reflect the second invasion.
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Actually, what just came to mind that would be a neat map for this? That completely fogged out cave at the end of the Sara Moore TF... you're traversing deeper and deeper into the human psyche... have all sorts of weird random things popping up (Storm Elementals as thought patterns... Ghosts as memories...) or that one variant of the Midnighter Club arc on the Vincent Ross arc where it's all shadowed... you're rummaging through the memories of the human host...|
Originally Posted by Johnny_Butane
To Save a Soul:
A cool idea, having your contact grow corrupted over the course of the arc. The mindscape missions NEED custom maps. In the end, you're just thrown at an overpowered psychic EB in a warehouse. Lame. . |
Just a thought.
No pun intended.
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
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Err... That's precisely the kind of arc I like the most in this game, and always have |
Originally Posted by Mr_Squid
World Wide Red provides me with absolutely zero reason to want to play it, because I know that no matter how well the story is delivered, 95% of my entire play experience during the arc is running through the same damn warehouse, beating up the same damn enemies, and having the same damn contact hurl another damn wall of text at me after every damn mission.
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I like playing City of Heroes, and City of Heroes is beating up dudes in instanced missions. All the fiddly mechanics introduced to complicate and hamper this just take away from my gameplay and interrupt my state of flow.Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mr_Squid
Why? Because role playing games use the ability of acting in character as the primary means of interacting with the game and advancing the story. A role playing game requires the player to act in character at all times, in order to keep the world immersive and unified. City of Heroes is not like this, and neither is any other MMO. Acting in character is not required at all, in fact, almost nobody acts in character while playing. Why? Because there's no point to it. Unlike in a tabletop role playing game where the GM can dynamically react to each PC's actions, a digital game by it's very nature must have a limited set of responses. You can run right up to your contacts and pretend to pick their nose, and absolutely nothing will happen, until you agree to say exactly what you are supposed to say and do exactly what you are supposed to do.
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Please forgive my insolence, but your argument is simply hollow. "Roleplaying" constitutes more than speaking in ye olde Englishe and acting stupid. Roleplaying can be something as simple as giving your character a backstory and keeping said character's backstory consistent through his actions in the game. My own Mage-Killer Po, for instance, hates mages, so when given the choice, she will take missions against the Circle of Thorns and Banished Pantheon over missions against the Council and the Freakshow.
Roleplaying with other people is completely and utterly immaterial and unnecessary in this case, because what matters is the character, not the player. City of Heroes is not the right game to identify yourself with your character and try to act the part, because this doesn't contribute anything to the game, at least to people who don't enjoy BEING their characters so much as WATCHING their characters. You discount story because players don't talk funny, yet story is just as important to the experience of a game as it is to the experience of a movie or a book.
I play this game not as a means to insert my head into my screen. I play it as necessity to the purpose of watching it play out before me. I want to experience the story, not participate in the story, and I want to see the action, not be in the action. I'm perfectly happy sitting back in my swivel chair, a good two feet away from anything happening on the screen, and let the game entertain me from afar.
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Originally Posted by Mr_Squid
Let me sum up my thoughts here. A true Role Playing Game requires the player to PLAY A ROLE. They must embrace the mentality and characteristics of a fictional character and act out that character in order to win. The story in such a game is essential because without it, the player cannot base their actions upon anything.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Before Dr. Graves, there were three canonical "Idiot Ball" story arcs/series on the villain side: Willy "Dealer" Wheeler, Kelly Uqua, and Television.
Television is the most defensible of them: it's a god. A young and very powerful god. You made the mistake of looking into the trap, and now you're mind controlled. This would be a loathesomely awful arc if it weren't for the non-stop supply of spot-on pop culture jokes -- those jokes are the only reason anybody tolerates this.
Kelly Uqua is almost forgivable, for the same reason that the stuff related to Dollface in Dr. Graves is almost forgivable: she's an apparently AV-level Rikti Mentalist who takes you by surprise. Given that, unlike Television, we eventually get a chance to fight her and she dies like a punk, though, no player will ever forgive this arc for the fact that never, not once, not even at the end, not even after multiple people have yelled at you all the evidence why you needed to, does your character ever "pop a Break Free." Your character stays under her mental control until she is done with you and then you go away. No wonder people hate it.
But there is no plausible excuse for Willy "Dealer" Wheeler's arc. None. There is no way that any player character with enough survival instinct to have made it to level 15 could take even Willy Wheeler's first mission and not realize that his mysterious employer was from either Longbow or Wyvern. I can just barely not resent the idea that my character might be helpless enough against Rikti mind control to fall for Kelly Uqua's tricks; there is just flatly no way it's acceptable to imply that my character is dumb enough to fall for Ace McKnight's.
This could be fixed with a text edit: early on the in the arc, there needs to be italicized or orange text where your character starts to wonder if Dealer is a conspirator or a patsy, because this is obviously a setup, and then your character decides to play along in hopes of finding out and destroying whoever it is that's hiring him.
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And, on an entirely different note, yes, I agree: the Origin of Power arc is a total head-scratcher that seems to completely and totally ignore the entire first 5 years' worth of the game canon. Now that the Incarnate arcs are out, after listening to Prometheus long enough, I think I almost see what you were trying to do here - but it fails. Hard. Especially the villain one.
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I like the idea behind the several contacts' worth of Portal Corp arcs. I just think they had no business being written until or unless the studio could afford to make the various alternate timelines look different from Primal Earth.
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Oddly, I can't think of a single hero story arc that deserves to die a horrible choking death on writing or storytelling grounds; some of the best writing in the game is on that side, like the two original Sky Raiders arcs, or the later Freakshow arcs, or the Malta arcs. On the other hand, there isn't a single arc in the entire game that was written prior to issue 6 that doesn't deserve to die a horrible death for lousy game mechanics: endless commuter quests, street hunting missions for mobs 10 levels below you, pointless repetition of identical instance maps, and the canonical City of Heroes crime against gaming, constantly having to travel the length of four zones to get from one instance to the next in the middle of a story arc.
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No, wait, I take that back: the Kheldian arcs are crap. To be fair, the Arachnos Soldier arcs are even worse.
I'll be honest, when I play games I care far more about the design of them than the story they're telling (I'm a game design major, we're kind of trained to treat a story as something completely unessential.) And as such, I rarely get so invested in a game's story that it actually makes me angry with poor writing, something that is amplified tenfold with City of Heroes since all the story is told through walls of text, which aren't really all that condusive to telling a good story.
But there is one arc out there that I find so monumentally horribly designed that it has caused me to feel actual genuine anger.
World Wide Red.
Stop. Put the baseball bat down. Hear me out. Okay, yes, I will acknowledge that this arc has a well written story. That doesn't make it any more fun though. The arc is literally nothing but 15 indoor missions vs. Malta. With the occasional Knives of Artemis thrown in there. Wow. Riveting.
Okay, you know what, I'm gonna go on a bit of a rant here. Look. People. We are playing a video game here. We are not reading a novel, we are not watching a TV show, we are not watching a movie. We are playing a game. All of the narrative content in the game only moves forward because the player wants it to. And if the player has no reason to go on, then the story grinds to a halt. And you know what? World Wide Red provides me with absolutely zero reason to want to play it, because I know that no matter how well the story is delivered, 95% of my entire play experience during the arc is running through the same damn warehouse, beating up the same damn enemies, and having the same damn contact hurl another damn wall of text at me after every damn mission.
That means while 5% of this arc might be good, 95% is utter dreck. And it all caps off with a wonderful time sink of a mission that requires to hunt every nook and cranny of a boring map hunting down some of the most obnoxious enemies in the entire game.
You know what I did the first time I played World Wide Red? I got to the last mission, realized it was a defeat all, and said "No". I sat on my butt, and let the timer run out. The Malta Group could go blow up half the world for all I care, all I know is that I spent the last four hours doing the same stinking mission 14 times over, and you have the nerve to expect me to feel rewarded by doing it once more!?
STORY. IS. NOT. EVERYTHING. STOP ACTING LIKE IT IS