Play the Game, Skip the Story: Difference between revisions

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* Common in [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPGs]] in general. In ''[[Ever Quest]]'' and ''EverQuest 2'' a lot of the players who enjoy the end game raiding aspect not only don't care about the story and "fluff", but even consider it an annoyance [[Prepositions Are Not to End Sentences With|up with which they should not be forced to put]].

* Every MMORPG with a team mechanic falls prey to this. "Hey guys, wait up, I want to read the history of Doomy McEvilton and why he wants the [[MacGuffin]] of Glory to...ah nuts to this, where's my XP?"

** ''[[Guild Wars]]'' also has this happen. Most people who engage in the [[~~Pv P~~]] aspect of the game probably have never seen any of the cutscenes in the game. On the plus side, though, it's possible to play through the story campaign yourself, where you don't have a message saying 7/8 members of the group want to skip the scene and getting yelled at by everyone else for making them sit through it. (Often justified with runners, who've probably seen the cutscene [[Memetic Mutation|over nine thousand]] times and don't wanna hear it ''again''.)

** ''[[Guild Wars]]'' also has this happen. Most people who engage in the [[PvP]] aspect of the game probably have never seen any of the cutscenes in the game. On the plus side, though, it's possible to play through the story campaign yourself, where you don't have a message saying 7/8 members of the group want to skip the scene and getting yelled at by everyone else for making them sit through it. (Often justified with runners, who've probably seen the cutscene [[Memetic Mutation|over nine thousand]] times and don't wanna hear it ''again''.)

** The same thing can happen in ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online (Video Game)|The Lord of the Rings Online]]''. Some group quests vital to the main storyline requires you to talk to [[NPC|NPCs]] to get the quest going, but the first one who gets there can activate the NPC without the rest of the group getting a chance to read whatever plot information that NPC were willing to share. One example is in Moria, where the players are heading into a dungeon to find a powerful axe, and ends up fighting the Watcher in the Water. If one person gets there before the rest and activates the Watcher, it's not impossible that players don't realize they just saved a NPC who was taken by the Watcher and presumed dead earlier in the storyline, until they actually talk to him again. Lately the game has been steering away from this, making most of the main storyline solo-playable so that people can enjoy the story in their own pace.

** ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. The quest writers intentionally try to keep the quest descriptions brief because people will just ignore them anyways. Even in Cataclysm, which made all the zones have their own unique story arcs, many of which even tie into later zones or even end-game content, a lot of quests are just ignored since people level up alts with heirlooms and barnstorm through the zones. Unless they're Thousand Needles, which people stopped and enjoyed their ride through.

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* ''[[Maple Story]]'' has a story long and detailed enough for an [[Archive Panic]]. Problem? Almost ''all'' of the players who can actually do the quests to find out the storyline are a ton of [[Munchkin|Munchkins]]. The game's [[Backstory]] is so easily ignored that there are some players who ''don't even know it exists.''

* ''[[Air Rivals|Ace Online]]'' has a relatively long and interesting plot spanning all 3 episodes, from the colonists starting Bygeniou City (BCU) in Episode One, to the machinations of the Shrines and Phillons and the defection of Arlington City (ANI) in Episode Two (which introduced the Nation Wars mechanic), to the new frontiers and the breaking of an uneasy truce between ANI and BCU in Episode Three. Most players just pick a nation with their friends and go warring/mobhunting, ignoring walls and walls of political cloak-and-dagger text in the mission briefings.

* ''[[Eve Online]]'' has an incredibly detailed gameworld with four factions who each have their own unique history and the constant political squabbles between them. The website is regularly updated with short stories which further flesh out the game world. All this background detail has little to no impact on the actual game, and roleplayers are few and far between. For a long time there has been only one roleplayer faction holding any 0.0 space and that was due to a "gentlemen's agreement" amongst [[~~Pv P~~]]-oriented factions that they be left alone. A change to game mechanics made them too inviting a target and this tacit understanding subsequently collapsed.

* ''[[Eve Online]]'' has an incredibly detailed gameworld with four factions who each have their own unique history and the constant political squabbles between them. The website is regularly updated with short stories which further flesh out the game world. All this background detail has little to no impact on the actual game, and roleplayers are few and far between. For a long time there has been only one roleplayer faction holding any 0.0 space and that was due to a "gentlemen's agreement" amongst [[PvP]]-oriented factions that they be left alone. A change to game mechanics made them too inviting a target and this tacit understanding subsequently collapsed.

* Bioware is doing their best to avert with with their upcoming ''[[Star Wars]]'' MMORPG ''[[The Old Republic]]''. With a huge amount of story in place and nearly every line fully voiced, they want people to care about the story of the game. When in a party with other players, every player gets their chance to shine and direct the conversation.

* Believe it or not, ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' is actually more than killing (cute) monsters and loot drama. Granted, you need to connect the pieces to know that Rune-Midgard has a long, long history, and some parts of it are [[Nightmare Fuel]] hidden by the cute graphic (I'm looking at you, Light Halzen... or maybe I shouldn't have).

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