Why don't yearly events in ESO get a storyline or plot attached to them?

TheGreatBlackBear

Events in MMOs are big deal or at least they're supposed to be. But in ESO it kinda just seems like they just exist to give us lootboxes. Why not write a story spanning the duration of the event explaining why we're spamming dungeons for the undaunted event? Like we're collecting trophies to help a member of the an undaunted win a competition against another undaunted member? Or Midyear Mayhem being caused by a disease from an Argonian alchemist that makes soldiers bloodthirsty and you have to help a researcher test cure by fulfilling objectives. I dunno, I didn't go to college for creative writing but I'm sure something can be done. Anything would be better than the "It's that time of year again. Time to do what we always do for the same reasons we've always been doing it." vibe ESO events have

haelgaan

that's what their DLC and chapters are, no? adding new storylines/questlines. their temporary promo events just layer in on top of that...

VaranisArano

Whitestrake's Mayhem: Predicant Maera shows up and tells the Grand Warlord that she's got a magical new elixir guaranteed to boost their soldiers' willingness to fight and double their rewards in battle. For about two weeks, recruitment soars and blood is spilled, while the Grand Warlord's attacks are stymied by the fact that Maera is an equal-opportunity celebrant who made the same deal to the other alliances.

Finally, Maera gets tired of explaining to newcomers that "No, I can't bless you with safe passage through a war-torn country" and "No, we're literally celebrating Pelinal's massacre of the Elves at Heldon Bridge...why would you expect the enemy to not try to kill you?" and she departs to an Alessian Monastery for six months until the next Midyear.

(Okay, here's how it actually goes down: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Predicant_Maera )

Dr_Con

they do? the zenithar festival celebrated zenithar and hard work while the MYM event remembered pelinal and rewarded players for their participation in combat?

and coasting off what kiyalyn said below, festivals irl and in-game really don't mean much, they typically remember or celebrate something and are almost always optional to attend. I think what you're looking for is something like an in-game equivalent to a real world march or rally, which is an interesting concept i'll admit, but would require a completely different formula.

Kiralyn2000

Been a long time since I played a game that made a "big deal" about events. They're just a thing that happens in online/live-service games. /shrug

Soarora

Dr_Con wrote: »

they do? the zenithar festival celebrated zenithar and hard work while the MYM event remembered pelinal and rewarded players for their participation in combat?

There’s lore yes but I think this is about having a story for the here-and-now other than just celebrating the past. Though, this could be open-ended on purpose for rp reasons.

Amottica

The jester festival, the witches festival, and the new life festival all have a storyline. They are not all that deep but they are there.

Paulytnz

Other games usually do events to celebrate world holidays and they usually do it by adding "fun" minigames. Here sadly it's just introduce a new xxx and a new xxx and this is all USUALLY done by spamming a certain daily event that usually already exists in the game that we could do any other time without the extra rewards of course.

To me it's not really about the holidays, well it does not seem like it. It seems to be more about getting people to repeat content that is not done as much anymore or that they no longer do just because - reasons - and it's all hidden behind the very convenient real world holiday.

This seems true for most of them at least, yes there are some exceptions but rarely. I wish it was not so. I wish the events were more new fun minigames just to play for the sake of playing them, because you know - they are fun to do. But no it is what it is. Spam daily quests for a chance at that new xxx or the new xxx and pray to the RNG Gods while you do it.

So having said all that, if they can't even make fun new events for us to do, would they really bother to add much of a storyline to them besides what we do have now? Which is of course just a few lines of dialogue from some newly placed NPC for the duration of the event. I don't think so....

I mean even during the new expansions it seems to me they don't even add the "trailers" to the actual story. I was expecting to see the CGI movie of the ships being shipwrecked etc included with the High Isle story - I didn't see it anywhere. Was that truly ONLY made for advertising the expansion and not even added to the story of it itself? If so that to me just makes the mind boggle. Unless I have turned that feature off somewhere?

Nestor

There are stories weaved into the Events. As long as you read the related Books and Papers and don't skip the dialog of the NPCs.

Not saying they are deep meaningful stories, but there is background to be gleaned.

redlink1979

We already have that.

Midyear Mayhem has a story:
"Pelinal's Midyear Massacre is an Imperial celebration that dates back to the fall of the Ayleids. Celebrants remember Pelinal Whitestrake's slaughter of the Ayleid forces at Heldon Bridge, a key battle to capturing the Imperial City. During the celebrations, warriors are anointed with a red blood-like substance in honor and mimicry of Pelinal, whose face and hair was said to be covered in the blood of "righteously slaughtered Ayleids". This ritual is said to invigorate warriors and imbued them with righteous power or even grant visions of St. Alessia herself. The celebrations are presided over by the priests of St. Alessia. They are charged with delivering sermons and offering blessings to combatants, who are said to become renowned for their brave deeds in days thereafter."
ESO Lore: Pelinal's Midyear Massacre

The Undaunted guild has a story also:
"The Undaunted were a loose faction of adventurers contemporary with the Alliance War. Neutral in the ongoing war, the Undaunted had members all across Tamriel and worked together to raid the greatest dungeons in the land for wealth and glory. They had so-called enclaves in some major cities, but often chose to meet at inns or taverns. Members were taught magical spells as they rose in rank. They used "practical" necromancy and viewed it as simply another branch of magic, whose beneficial applications are overshadowed by its taboo nature. Few Undaunted would shy away from such magic if it meant the difference between life and death.
The Undaunted had a tendency to strip dungeons of all of their wealth, looting them for all the treasure they could get at. The Undaunted would always take the heads of those they defeated, sometimes to wear as armor and sometimes to display as mounted trophies. Their exploits also took them outside of Nirn to other realms, such the Deadlands, Coldharbour, and even the Clockwork City."
ESO Lore: The Undaunted

TheGreatBlackBear

redlink1979 wrote: »

We already have that.

Midyear Mayhem has a story:
"Pelinal's Midyear Massacre is an Imperial celebration that dates back to the fall of the Ayleids. Celebrants remember Pelinal Whitestrake's slaughter of the Ayleid forces at Heldon Bridge, a key battle to capturing the Imperial City. During the celebrations, warriors are anointed with a red blood-like substance in honor and mimicry of Pelinal, whose face and hair was said to be covered in the blood of "righteously slaughtered Ayleids". This ritual is said to invigorate warriors and imbued them with righteous power or even grant visions of St. Alessia herself. The celebrations are presided over by the priests of St. Alessia. They are charged with delivering sermons and offering blessings to combatants, who are said to become renowned for their brave deeds in days thereafter."
ESO Lore: Pelinal's Midyear Massacre

The Undaunted guild has a story also:
"The Undaunted were a loose faction of adventurers contemporary with the Alliance War. Neutral in the ongoing war, the Undaunted had members all across Tamriel and worked together to raid the greatest dungeons in the land for wealth and glory. They had so-called enclaves in some major cities, but often chose to meet at inns or taverns. Members were taught magical spells as they rose in rank. They used "practical" necromancy and viewed it as simply another branch of magic, whose beneficial applications are overshadowed by its taboo nature. Few Undaunted would shy away from such magic if it meant the difference between life and death.
The Undaunted had a tendency to strip dungeons of all of their wealth, looting them for all the treasure they could get at. The Undaunted would always take the heads of those they defeated, sometimes to wear as armor and sometimes to display as mounted trophies. Their exploits also took them outside of Nirn to other realms, such the Deadlands, Coldharbour, and even the Clockwork City."
ESO Lore: The Undaunted

That is quite literally not a story. That is lore or background information. A story has a beginning, middle and end. It has conflict and resolution. It has characters It has a theme.

Danikat

I'd like this as well. When ESO first started doing festivals I was disappointed by how minimal they are. Some of the newer ones are better but a lot of the time it amounts to doing the same daily quests we can do all year round or killing random enemies and getting some extra loot from it.

Making the story and lore behind each one a bigger part of it (rather than being relegated to an optional NPC or one book) could be a good way to make it feel more like a unique activity even if there aren't dedicated quests or other activites.

Elsonso

TheGreatBlackBear wrote: »

Why not write a story spanning the duration of the event explaining why we're spamming dungeons for the undaunted event?

I am sure they could, but the events are mostly celebrations. Players are not there because of something happening now, they are there because of something that already happened. Lore.

opalcity

I don't think it's any different to us celebrating events or holidays now.

TheGreatBlackBear wrote: »

redlink1979 wrote: »

We already have that.

Midyear Mayhem has a story:
"Pelinal's Midyear Massacre is an Imperial celebration that dates back to the fall of the Ayleids. Celebrants remember Pelinal Whitestrake's slaughter of the Ayleid forces at Heldon Bridge, a key battle to capturing the Imperial City. During the celebrations, warriors are anointed with a red blood-like substance in honor and mimicry of Pelinal, whose face and hair was said to be covered in the blood of "righteously slaughtered Ayleids". This ritual is said to invigorate warriors and imbued them with righteous power or even grant visions of St. Alessia herself. The celebrations are presided over by the priests of St. Alessia. They are charged with delivering sermons and offering blessings to combatants, who are said to become renowned for their brave deeds in days thereafter."
ESO Lore: Pelinal's Midyear Massacre

The Undaunted guild has a story also:
"The Undaunted were a loose faction of adventurers contemporary with the Alliance War. Neutral in the ongoing war, the Undaunted had members all across Tamriel and worked together to raid the greatest dungeons in the land for wealth and glory. They had so-called enclaves in some major cities, but often chose to meet at inns or taverns. Members were taught magical spells as they rose in rank. They used "practical" necromancy and viewed it as simply another branch of magic, whose beneficial applications are overshadowed by its taboo nature. Few Undaunted would shy away from such magic if it meant the difference between life and death.
The Undaunted had a tendency to strip dungeons of all of their wealth, looting them for all the treasure they could get at. The Undaunted would always take the heads of those they defeated, sometimes to wear as armor and sometimes to display as mounted trophies. Their exploits also took them outside of Nirn to other realms, such the Deadlands, Coldharbour, and even the Clockwork City."
ESO Lore: The Undaunted

That is quite literally not a story. That is lore or background information. A story has a beginning, middle and end. It has conflict and resolution. It has characters It has a theme.

Iirc the Jester's Festival had all of these things. Several little stories, in fact.

And in the Zenithar event we had random encounters that were related to other random encounters. You help this person you get something that you can use to help a different person later, you just needed to figure out how.

Other games usually do events to celebrate world holidays and they usually do it by adding "fun" minigames. Here sadly it's just introduce a new xxx and a new xxx and this is all USUALLY done by spamming a certain daily event that usually already exists in the game that we could do any other time without the extra rewards of course.

ESO has a Jesters event that coincides with April Fools, a Witches Event at Halloween, New Year and Midyear at those times, too.

Events are basically a way to break up the monotony of the regular grind, a bit of fun (when they aren't labour-intensive) and, obviously, a way to get players to engage in areas or activities they wouldn't usually do.

HerrKeinTipp_MrNoTip

You gotta stop skipping all the dialogue, OP.

redlink1979

TheGreatBlackBear wrote: »

That is quite literally not a story. That is lore or background information (...)

Isn't the lore a story?!

Kiralyn2000

redlink1979 wrote: »

TheGreatBlackBear wrote: »

That is quite literally not a story. That is lore or background information (...)

Isn't the lore a story?!

I think he's saying that he wants the events/holidays to have a plot, something active that happens while you're participating in it.

(which, honestly, I can't remember many events in other games I've played that had something like that, either. I guess the OP and I just played different games. /shrug)


edit: when I think of MMO events, I think of things like "it's Halloween, go get candy from NPCs!" "It's Christmas/Easter, go find presents/eggs under trees!" "It's Oktoberfest, go to the beer tent and do daily games!" No big narratives or stories...)

WiseSky

What would be the Lore for the Undaunted Opal Pages?

We dip the weapons in Rainbow Colors paints as rewards?

VaranisArano

WiseSky wrote: »

What would be the Lore for the Undaunted Opal Pages?

We dip the weapons in Rainbow Colors paints as rewards?