story-progression
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The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV breaks the narrative rules (and still works)
Monday was the end of the line for me in Final Fantasy XIV, if you consider clearing the last story-based instance in the game the end. (I don't.) The final rush of dungeons ends with at least five different grudge matches that had been built up over the course of the game, villains who were put in their place, and all of the plot revelations you could ask for. None of which I really want to talk about in detail here, because there are a lot of people who have not yet cleared the story. What I can talk about is how the game presents its story, which is straight out of the huge book of mistakes that games are advised not to make. It sends you all over the map, back and forth for fetch quests and to convey simple messages. It gleefully mixes in forced group content along with forced solo content, meaning that you can't even rush the whole thing with a good group. The story only changes in the initial levels based on what nation you start with; beyond that it's the same every time through. And yet it works wonderfully.
Are you happy with Patch 5.3's story progression?
Frankly, as a solidly Alliance player right now, I find patch 5.3 satisfying. I get why some players don't, but frankly I don't mind spending some time exploring the Horde from an Alliance perspective, without having to faction switch or roll a new character. In fact, I hope it's something they hold onto for future content - I'd love to see a storyline where a group of Horde had to infiltrate Ironforge and work alongside some Dark Irons, or even a story that pit blood elf agents against their forsaken allies by using the worgen as catspaws. My point is, getting to directly interact with Vol'jin was pretty fun, getting to bring the war to the Horde itself while setting up the Darkspear to do the heavy lifting made sense to me, and in general I enjoyed all of the scenarios and quests I've done this patch. But just because I like something it doesn't follow that you all feel the same way. This patch's story is unfolding in interesting new ways - there's no reputation faction to unlock via daily quests, there are scenarios but no dungeons, and quests that don't repeat. It's quite possible to see much, if not all, of the storyline in one day. It's definitely a departure from what we've seen in previous Mists of Pandaria patches.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Bigger on the inside
I think that storytelling is where we see one of the most significant changes between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. It isn't that the original story sucked, necessarily; it's just that it was woefully single-dimensional and unchanging. Each Guild Wars campaign has slightly different starting quests for each profession, but you're eventually caught up by the current, and everyone goes whooshing along to the culmination. Factions spiced things up a little by allowing you to choose whether you wanted to befriend the Kurzicks or Luxons first (although there wasn't really any permanence to that choice, as you could still effectively follow both routes -- and had to, eventually, if you wanted to unlock the associated Protector and Guardian titles). Nightfall got a little more daring by making you choose between companions and ultimately story paths. Even better, you had to finish the campaign before you could undo the illusion of permanence. Guild Wars 2 is way beyond that.
