Video Game Story Telling: Frontier's biggest strength.

[Martian Successor]

The only way I have ever even known that ED has a 'story' to follow is by reading the forums and watching youtube videos. I've never been lucky enough to experience this so called storytelling myself in the actual game so I would have to respectfully disagree with the OP.

There is nothing interactive about the storytelling in ED when one cannot even find where to interact with it without using out of game tools. Instead one is left to watch as 0.1% of the community randomly stymbles upon a 'chapter', records it and posts it on youtube. And then there is the fact that there is no in-game way for new players to be able get a recap of the 'story' they apparently missed. I wouldn't really call any of that a strong point.

Frontier's biggest strengths remain audio and graphics in my opinion as well as the awesome flight model. Gameplay depth is mediocre at best, terrible at worst, and the interactive storytelling happens only for a very select few thus to the majority of the playerbase it is essentially non-existant and impossible to follow without out of game tools.

 

[babelfisch]

There is a lot they could do better, but IMO it's not the stuff some people are complaining about in this thread.

So what's better? Having sub optimal story telling or CoD in space? I choose the former.

 

[verminstar]

Without reading every single comment on 5 pages, is there a single one who agrees with the OP? I almost feel sorry fer FD as that is a clear message that they are simply failing in the story department and failing hard. Even the usual white knights arent defending them on this point ^

 

[babelfisch]

Without reading every single comment on 5 pages, is there a single one who agrees with the OP? I almost feel sorry fer FD as that is a clear message that they are simply failing in the story department and failing hard. Even the usual white knights arent defending them on this point ^

It really depends. The first encounter for example was brilliant and made it into the BBC. People also need to stop expecting they could save the universe / everything that happens should happen to them first. That's just stupid.
FDEV needs to do a better job ay guiding players to POIs and write some recaps of recent events. It's shocking that some people believe there is no story.

 

[Martian Successor]

It's shocking that some people believe there is no story.

It's not shocking at all. Think about it this way: if you restricted yourself to just playing the game without using any 3rd party tools or out of game information or knowledge - no forums, no youtube, etc - would you honestly even know that this game had a story to follow?

 

[verminstar]

It really depends. The first encounter for example was brilliant and made it into the BBC. People also need to stop expecting they could save the universe / everything that happens should happen to them first. That's just stupid.
FDEV needs to do a better job ay guiding players to POIs and write some recaps of recent events. It's shocking that some people believe there is no story.

Hardly shocking when one has to physically leave the game to catch up on the story, and considering that only 5% of the typical playerbase even visit a forum...guessing on the figure of 5% but thats pretty normal in games...thats a lotta players who wont even be aware a story even exists.

The clip that made it onto the BBC was about a puzzle requiring Nasa level codebreakers to solve...as in maybe only half a dozen people on the planet with the grey matter required.

Unless ye go looking fer the story either here or that other cesspool of salt on reddit, it would be very easy to assume that no story even exists. Thats how good frontier are at telling stories.

The entire canon is spread out over several mega threads with more reading than yer average encyclopedia...perhaps a quick recap wouldnt go amiss? Otherwise, one should wear reading glasses and prepare fer a long read of mostly rubbish and repeat posts.

But Im not shocked that some players are completely unaware a story even exists...not even remotely surprised if Im honest because if I wasnt on this forum, Id probably be completely unaware too. I dont use 3rd party sites or any out of game resources not on this forum because any game that requires such a thing aint worth playing...this aint the 1980s no more, things have moved on a tad ^

 

[Jex =TE=]

Hate to point out but elite is one the only games where the entire story can be followed on youtube, and if in game, one can choose to, and never even accidentally see a thargoid if they arent in a specific area.

Storytelling is possibly one of their biggest weaknesses ^

This would be correct as I watch it on youtube and it looks fascinating and really interesting but I don't have 12 hours a day to waste trying to be involved in it and finding nothing.

The story in a YT vid is great because it edits out the hours of massive borebom in between, so it makes it all look great. But I also know what's involved in finding the stuff and I won't waste my time with that.

The other massive issues are there are story breaking bugs - bugs that literally break the story until fixed. There's also delays in the story - you hit a wall and that's it, wait till the next part is injected which is months away. As everyone else has said, access which is the worst part - how do you gain access to the story in the game without having to look outside the game.

Most story's get written and then published, not handed out in parts.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

Love the story and the idea of the story and the story-telling and the mystery and the intro videos FD make.
But
I'm just not interested in spending months waiting for the story to come about in drips and drabs. It feels like I bought an eBook on Amazon, only got Chapter 1 and then every couple of months the eBook is automatically updated with the next chapter; it's just not enough to keep me interested unfortunately; so right now, I don't play and I check the forums once a week for any new developments both in the story and with the game itself ( alien guns and ship modifications will probably bring me back for a bit )

 

[Deareim]

I'm just gonna assume this is a joke thread.

Definitely as Frontier and story telling in the same context is utterly a non sense.

When you see the level of requirements for some puzzle, it really looks like like a hidden grind....

 

[CMDR Aengus]

Story?

Part 1: rumours of thargoids.
Part 2: barnacles and space pods.
Part 3: thargoid interdiction
Part 4: thargoid base found.

And thats taken how long to reveal?

No sorry. Fd have no idea how to tell a story.

Game looks and sounds amazing.
But thats about it.
Community driven gameplay and storytelling is limited by complete lack of ingame tools.
Fd driven gameplay and storytelling... is just lacking. Period.
Unless youre a science major and forego everything else in life for one game.

Story?

Lmao.

 

[babelfisch]

It's not shocking at all. Think about it this way: if you restricted yourself to just playing the game without using any 3rd party tools or out of game information or knowledge - no forums, no youtube, etc - would you honestly even know that this game had a story to follow?

Hardly shocking when one has to physically leave the game to catch up on the story, and considering that only 5% of the typical playerbase even visit a forum...guessing on the figure of 5% but thats pretty normal in games...thats a lotta players who wont even be aware a story even exists.

The clip that made it onto the BBC was about a puzzle requiring Nasa level codebreakers to solve...as in maybe only half a dozen people on the planet with the grey matter required.

Unless ye go looking fer the story either here or that other cesspool of salt on reddit, it would be very easy to assume that no story even exists. Thats how good frontier are at telling stories.

The entire canon is spread out over several mega threads with more reading than yer average encyclopedia...perhaps a quick recap wouldnt go amiss? Otherwise, one should wear reading glasses and prepare fer a long read of mostly rubbish and repeat posts.

But Im not shocked that some players are completely unaware a story even exists...not even remotely surprised if Im honest because if I wasnt on this forum, Id probably be completely unaware too. I dont use 3rd party sites or any out of game resources not on this forum because any game that requires such a thing aint worth playing...this aint the 1980s no more, things have moved on a tad ^

Not sure if I just suck at English, but isn't that the point I tried to make?

PS
Apart from the BBC thing, IIRC the hyperdiction made it to several news sites as well.

 

[Enderby]

Deleted.

 

[verminstar]

Not sure if I just suck at English, but isn't that the point I tried to make?

PS
Apart from the BBC thing, IIRC the hyperdiction made it to several news sites as well.

Dont worry, I suck way more...especially if the price is right ^

I honestly have no idea why anything in this game made it onto the BBC...when that actually happened, I was off playing other stuff due to the boredom at the time. I specifically remember the game I was playing which is why I remember it at all.

Ive also never been hyperdicted but I feel Ive really been there by reading all about it here and watching it on youtube. Certainly beats actually going there and having yer ship ganked while yer in the srv ^

 

[subhouse07]

The clip that made it onto the BBC was about a puzzle requiring Nasa level codebreakers to solve...as in maybe only half a dozen people on the planet with the grey matter required.

The UP puzzle? It was solved with basic algebra. I just don't think the fact that there are certain elements of the story that require working out by a bunch of people on a forum indicates that FDev are terrible story tellers. I think there is a really interesting story being told but it is way far in the background of the day to day gameplay of most people and not presented directly to you. I think you SHOULD have to go looking for the story as you are just a single person flying around in a huge galaxy and there are a lot of covert and subversive things happening in the story that most people in the game universe aren't aware of. FDev just need to add some more methods in the game to be able to seek out the story or be introduced to it. The tourist beacons were a step in the right direction (passenger missions to the children of raxxla staging post, federal convoy beacons and other pertinent story related beacons in the Pleiades and surrounding areas, even one about the UP code) and I think they just need to push that concept further, like adding in missions that deal with a bit of story content, more npc chatter, more local news posts about interesting things and not just dropping them in when there's a breadcrumb trail to follow.

Even with all of that, I think it's a little silly to expect to be able to play this game and experience the story for yourself, not having to visit YouTube, Reddit, or the forums. This game has a really big story that is over thirty years old, and a lot of story things have happened in ED already. How could they effectively catch someone up on everything that has happened and everything currently happening in the game without making it a big reading list? (which is what we already have here in the forums).

All in all I think they are doing an ok job, but they just need to keep pushing the story-discovery elements.

 

[AceFlares]

But it feels bolted on.

Right now, most of the community know nothing about the most amazing thing ever discovered in the game. An entire Thargoid base. And how will they find out about it? Probably only by going to a forum or you tube? I've covered this before - https://goo.gl/yevI5g


Science? Waiting for the next cryptic morse code message to be given to us? Or the next post to get us back onto the trail of bread crumbs?

I found out by reading your post...

 

[babelfisch]

The UP puzzle? It was solved with basic algebra. I just don't think the fact that there are certain elements of the story that require working out by a bunch of people on a forum indicates that FDev are terrible story tellers. I think there is a really interesting story being told but it is way far in the background of the day to day gameplay of most people and not presented directly to you. I think you SHOULD have to go looking for the story as you are just a single person flying around in a huge galaxy and there are a lot of covert and subversive things happening in the story that most people in the game universe aren't aware of. FDev just need to add some more methods in the game to be able to seek out the story or be introduced to it. The tourist beacons were a step in the right direction (passenger missions to the children of raxxla staging post, federal convoy beacons and other pertinent story related beacons in the Pleiades and surrounding areas, even one about the UP code) and I think they just need to push that concept further, like adding in missions that deal with a bit of story content, more npc chatter, more local news posts about interesting things and not just dropping them in when there's a breadcrumb trail to follow.

Even with all of that, I think it's a little silly to expect to be able to play this game and experience the story for yourself, not having to visit YouTube, Reddit, or the forums. This game has a really big story that is over thirty years old, and a lot of story things have happened in ED already. How could they effectively catch someone up on everything that has happened and everything currently happening in the game without making it a big reading list? (which is what we already have here in the forums).

All in all I think they are doing an ok job, but they just need to keep pushing the story-discovery elements.

That's pretty much how I see it too.

 

[Kayweg]

It really depends. The first encounter for example was brilliant and made it into the BBC. People also need to stop expecting they could save the universe / everything that happens should happen to them first. That's just stupid.
FDEV needs to do a better job ay guiding players to POIs and write some recaps of recent events. It's shocking that some people believe there is no story.

A non forum goer or game media reader could play ED for years without knowing about the background story.
It's not about lack of hand holding or even that the story isn't any good, and last of all about "saving the universe" (really, can we stop with that nonsense ?).
It's about the game barely giving you any hint, not just about what is going on, but that there's something going on at all.
At least nudging the uninitiated into the general direction where he can pick up the thread isn't an unreasonable request ?
And all of that isn't even taking into account the need for out of game tools in order to be able to follow it.
ED does some things very well and others not so well, just to keep it civil.
Getting it's players aboard with regard to the story line isn't one of it's strength'.
In general the game has always been rather obscure about various aspects, the learning curve in ED isn't steep because the game is overly difficult, it's steep because it has a knack for lacking documentation.

 

[crushdepth]

I could not disagree more. To date the storytelling in Elite has been awful. It's been years since launch and how far has it gone? We keep getting key storyline facts blurted out by devs in interviews, meanwhile Galnet is a barren wasteland populated by weeds with last week's headlines scribbled as notes in the margin.

I do hope that it will accelerate and improve now that the Thargoids have actually started putting in an appearance.

 

[babelfisch]

A non forum goer or game media reader could play ED for years without knowing about the background story.
It's not about lack of hand holding or even that the story isn't any good, and last of all about "saving the universe" (really, can we stop with that nonsense ?).
It's about the game barely giving you any hint, not just about what is going on, but that there's something going on at all.
At least nudging the uninitiated into the general direction where he can pick up the thread isn't an unreasonable request ?
And all of that isn't even taking into account the need for out of game tools in order to be able to follow it.
ED does some things very well and others not so well, just to keep it civil.
Getting it's players aboard with regard to the story line isn't one of it's strength'.
In general the game has always been rather obscure about various aspects, the learning curve in ED isn't steep because the game is overly difficult, it's steep because it has a knack for lacking documentation.

I absolutely agree.

 

[dukedastardly]

Without reading every single comment on 5 pages, is there a single one who agrees with the OP? I almost feel sorry fer FD as that is a clear message that they are simply failing in the story department and failing hard. Even the usual white knights arent defending them on this point ^

I do! But, as usual, the same old crowd have sharpened their pitchforks to whinge their little behinds off. The crowd I play with most nights, and the hundreds that comment in the various ED groups on Xbox feel the same way, they just know better than to ever come to these forums!

There is actually quite a demand for the approach FD have taken, with their story evolving in real time. It's one of the most original things I've seen in over 35 years of gaming, I feel they are still finding their feet with it a bit but admire them for trying something so ambitious.