If you don't like the writing...

WE ARE NOT HAVING AN ARGUMENT!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

If I believed that anybody actually suffered more than a couple of seconds of ennui over my opinions about the game, I might try to regulate my expression of those opinions slightly more than I already do.

This sort of thread is spitting into the wind. You did make your feelings known and those feelings are noted.

You should note, though, that the loudest complainers are also willing to hand out compliments when they are deserved. Yes, even Venture, oblique as some of those compliments might be.

I personally find feedback on writing, storylines, lore et al. to be quite useful. When I’m putting together a storyarc, I try my best to tap into the kinds of stories that our playerbase is looking for. This is harder to do when I’m working on something that’s tied to the larger narrative, but even small changes in storytelling style can make a world of difference if those changes are what your audience is after.

The biggest lesson that the community has taught me personally is how to write better villain content. A lot of feedback I’ve seen on the forums has asked for villain stories that are self-driven and proactive. It’s a lot more fun to hatch your own diabolical scheme than to have one handed to you by Arachnos. It’s more difficult to write, certainly, but the payoff is usually worth it. If it weren’t for direct and critical feedback from the community, I might not have learned that lesson so quickly (if at all).

So personally, I welcome constructive criticism. Sometimes people can get... passionate about the storylines, certainly, but isn't that a good thing? Besides, I already knew I’d need to have thick skin if I wanted to succeed in this industry.

I have a feeling that .Viridian. and his fellow rednames must have a drinking game that they play whenever new content is released that's based around player reaction to that content. I'm sure that many of the rules tie into the reactions of well-known commentators and their comments along with the general reaction of the forum readership.

BTW, thanks for popping out of the woodwork Mr. .Viridian. Always encouraging to see a bit of evidence that the colorful names are aware of what's going on out here in player-land.

just a quick note to speak up for those like myself who, while acknowledging that a lot of the story/lore stuff in the game stinks on hot ice, mostly don't care provided it stays out of the way of what I log in for- plenty of flashy, mindless superheroic head busting.

=)

The writing in this game is ok. Not great, not terrible, but ok.

Here are some things I would love addressed:

i)Overabundance of FOTM Mary Sues or Wesley Crushers, as you have it, that pop up for an issue or two then go poof, never to be heard from again.
Dream Doctor is a perfect example. He was cool when he was mysterious and grandiose...then he showed up and started being intensely too obtrusive; he suddenly had the Artefacts of Jocas which are an I Win Button. That's fine, we have Invention Origins and our wits for I Win Buttons but at some point you kind of wish the old Head of Vecna gag would resurface (TLDR: There was a Hand and Eye of Vecna that were artefacts in the old D&D games...they gave untold power but were quite evil. A running gag started that the mummified head existed, and hapless gamers decapitated themselves for ulimate power that never came, as it was a fraud. ) so that we can be rid of Dream Doctor or Statesman's current iteration. Howard Phillips Lovecraft's writing may have been quite overwrought at times, but he did some nice stories with vague hints of what lies beyond the veil. Sometimes, less is a lot more.

ii)In my somewhat shortened career as an editor (TLDR Aside: My charges dreaded coming to my office because I'd just sit behind my desk with their copy in front of me and I would smile and they would get nervous. Eventually I'd point out the extra period at the end of a sentence, get the red ink over their copy and send them off. Eventually their texts got a lot better as they tightened up their writing.) I learned some things were just unforgiveable. Missing punctuation, improper gender attribution, sloppy dating (not that kind, get your head out of the gutter!) and so on. Basic stuff like then/than, its/it's, there/their will not get caught by spellcheck and should never see live servers. PLEASE have someone give mission text a quick reading before it hits live.

iii) It's ok for the story to be light at times. We don't ALWAYS need to be fighting Nebulon X the Blighted from Fomulhaut in an Incarnate Trial. Gradation of tasks and challenges has worked splendidly in the past. Rikti War Zone is a perfect example, as you have some decent to good story, side rewards in Vanguard Merits and some references to older lore. There really should be some respite from world-altering threats...zone revamps maybe?

I know it may be nitpicky (but hey, isn't that the modus operandi here?), but why do people keep using these "laws" and "postulates" and "corollaries" from a website called TV Tropes?

Is City of Heroes a TV show?

I will freely admit this comment is about 40% snark, but plot/writing tropes from the television industry aren't (in my opinion as a life-long comic nerd) necessarily applicable to a superhero MMO. Comic writing tropes (retcon every three weeks, no one dies for real ever, etc.) aren't necessarily applicable either, as writing for a living, breathing ever-evolving entity like an MMO where players' personal stories are so tied into the lore as a whole is kind of its own entity.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EarthWyrm But I do understand that there is an internet rule that any bad idea must be presented by someone at least twice a year to remind everyone who hasn't already read every previous thread on the topic precisely why the idea is bad.

To try to give a constructive response to the OP:

The posters you seem to be focusing on all have a fairly common problem with the writing in general, from which flows most of their vitriol. Viridian alluded to it in his post when he mentioned trying to accommodate requests into the larger narrative the writing staff is trying to tell.

These posters just don't like the overall story much. They don't like Praetoria at all, or what it represents, they don't like how the Incarnate lore has played out so far, and a lot of them never liked the old lore either, like Statesman's origin, how the Phalanx operates, how the Rogue Isles is written, etc.

There might be a shining example of good writing in a mission or two, or maybe an entire arc, but you'll find that because they don't really like the Lore, there is little a new story can do to please them if it's flowing from the lore that they despise. If AE were utilized more, you'd probably never see these players playing regular content.

The Writers have chosen a path, and for the most part they have to stick with it. This means these posters will probably never be happy with the writing again, even if a majority of the player base loves it. The writing won't ever resonate for them, and they'll find more wrong with it than right. That's life, and not necessarily a bad thing. There will always be players in any game that are gritting their teeth as they play, but the negatives they see don't keep them from playing. That fact speaks to how good the rest of the game is.