Will Achievements or previous Story be acknowledged

Valerien

Having played through the Clockwork City and greatly enjoyed the experience, I found one major complaint. I often find the nature of the quests and dialogue to be formulaic and incredibly dull, almost as if every quest and every dialogue is a stand alone. Where our protagonist (you) is a mindless overly helpful buffoon who wanders the land looking for random strangers to risk life and limb for with no personality or even ambition.

Like most subscribers who have been here since early access my main has completed most of the story content. I love that I get to play my way and generally take my time working through new zones awed by the breath taking world around me. So like many others my hero has defeated Molag Bal, served in 3 alliances though when I did it, was using the what if machine as if I would ever help the Smurfs or Banana's, obtained the rank of Lieutenant in the army, done whatever Craglorn was, helped an Orc King, become the saviour of the thieves guild, some executioner in the dark brotherhood and now best friend to not 1, not 2 but 3 living gods! Plus all the other adventures along the way, picking up scars, experience, Vampirism and some coins and a castle.

So what to I do with all this, nothing. I walk the streets looking for beggars to help for 336 gold. I don't even think I do it for the gold, most of the time that is not even mentioned in the dialogue that I want payment. It usually goes something like this

Beggar: You there, I need someone to risk their life on my behalf!
Me: Yes Sir, What do you want me to do?
Beggar: Go murder this bunch of people
Me: Yes Sir!

or it gets even worse.

Beggar: What the hell do you want
Me: I want to help you
Beggar: Well I don't need any help, why don't you bugger off you low life scum
Me: Oh please please please let me help you
Beggar: Oh your pathetic, out of pity I will let you go kill some people
Me: Gee thanks Mr. you wont be disappointed, can I now ask you some questions?
Beggar: if you must
Me: who are these people
Beggar: they are skooma traders, Skooma is evil cat nip
Me: whats Skooma
Beggar: Skooma is evil cat nip
Me: and what is their connection to Skooma?
Beggar: they are Skooma traders
Me: and What is Skooma?
Beggar: Bugger off

Now I know there are throw away lines in places that make an allusion to previous deeds, it was so nice when the Duke of Crows kind of recognized me, or in Morrowind Naru recounting past exploits. However they always just appear to be throw away lines and I go back to being the helpful buffoon running up to helpful people. How many lands do we need to save before we get to start making some choices that build on previous achievements. Will there ever be a point that being an executioner for the Dark Brotherhood will mean something or the bestest friend to 3 living gods pay off. Hell I even bought a cabin in the Rift for Naru and she has never visited, its got a fire and everything!

Will the story ever advance from where these left off. Will we ever speak to the King of the Orcs again or once complete is that it, as if it never happened expect for a blink and you will miss it dialogue moment? Will supplicants ever come to my my castle in the Daggerfall Overlook on bended knee offering me a princess (a Vampire has got to eat) and half a kingdom for my help. Now I get its hard to tailor quests and dialogue and the very set up makes it hard to know what people have done before.

However with the current setup it feels like an anthology as opposed to an epic story, where the only constant is the main character only they are relegated to a helpful buffoon everyman role that strips them of their identity. It would be nice if a quest took note that I spent a week in Riften hunting bloodfiends to get vamprisim. Sadly at the moment the only constant in this anthology of tales isn't some much as a constant as so nondescript it could be a different protagonist each time as long as he was a helpful buffoon with any character traits ignored.

So for TLDR Can we start seeing Story and Dialogue that acknowledges our protagonist and their previous achievements and story in a meaningful way to make it feel like the story is about them as opposed to a random collection of beggars and people that send you off to do tasks great and small with no real connection and no real advancement in the narrative.

dodgehopper_ESO

It is hard for MMO plot to not look like the way you describe but we are hopeful.

mirta000b16_ESO

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

It is hard for MMO plot to not look like the way you describe but we are hopeful.

FFXIV incorporated different lines into their main story depending on have you cleared two specific raids or not. It is most definitely doable to make characters recognize you, but it's considerably more work (if this is true display this dialogue, if this is true instead display this dialogue, etc).

Apache_Kid

Would be nice but judging by how many issues there are with this game it is clear that they are severely under-staffed. It would be a change many would not notice as they will click as fast as they can through dialogue and don't read a thing (my friends do this). Something like this would not help them sell more games, sell more subs, or sell more crowns so it would be very low on the priority list.

Valerien

I get on some levels it doesn't appear noticeable to gamplay but on the other hand they seem to spend a lot of time putting a lot of really nice features in. If you are going to have voiced quests (not done by all MMO's) and beautiful graphics and in my own opinion a really good combat system all these things add to the full package. They have these well crafted stories of plots and intrigue only to turn the protagonist into a bland everyman that if it were a novel or a tv show would have the audience dis-paring at how dull and bland they were.

I don't know too many other games MMO or single player that have lore books lying around on tables that players can read, I don't know if it adds to the immediate appeal of the game but I definitely take note of things like that as giving a more inclusive world. One where buying a castle in daggerfall for my Vampire Nightblade made sense, if the game was just a lobby and static mobs to cut down I don't think I'd have bothered nor would I spend time exploring.

Sure if you skip the dialogue it wont make a difference but then no VO or dialogue makes a difference there, and don't get me wrong I don't know what 10% of the quests in WOW were when I played through. Didn't need to read some bad reason to go kill 10 of this but when there is a good story and VO I feel it draws me in. Only sadly it is getting to the point that playing the helpful buffoon is not nearly as endearing as when I woke up on the shore and needed to make some quick gold and was helping out my home alliance.