So, this post is a case against the year-long story approach that is apparently going to be the future of ESO content.
During the recent Quakecon 2019 panel about ESO, 'Building Tamriel', the devs talked about the new 'year-long story' approach to creating content. They mentioned that they liked that all four quarterly releases are tied to one cohesive theme and story, and they see no reason to change it. They also basically confirmed that after 2019's 'Season of the Dragon' in which Wrathstone, Elsweyr, Scalebreaker and Dragonhold were interconnected, they are planning on taking this approach forward and creating the next 'Season of the [insert theme here]' for 2020 and beyond.
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1. Rich mentioned that they like the year-long story approach: 'We decided with Elsweyr that we wanted to tell this year-long story, so that the entire year was focused on that, so when new players came in or returning players came in they kinda knew what was going on and where they could start is they wanted to start or they could just jump in and continue on the story as they see fit.'
But I'm sorry, that doesn't make sense. Having a year-long story makes it
less likely that new and returning players will know what's going on and where they can start. Oh, you want to play Dragonhold? You won't understand what's up with Elsweyr (since Dragonhold takes place is Southern Elsweyr) if you didn't play Elsweyr, and you won't understand what's up with all the dragons if you didn't play Wrathstone or the Elsweyr Prologue.
The older system is better in this regard, because if a new or returning player wants to know what's going on and where they can start if they want to play Summerset, they go play Summerset. If they want to know what's up with Murkmire, they play Murkmire. And they don't have to do Dragonbones to understand what's going on or where they should start.
His second point there, that players can just jump in and continue the story as they see fit is also counterintuitive. If the stories are self-contained, such as the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood and Orsinium, players have a
lot more choice to just jump in and continue as they see fit. With the year-long story however, that choice is actually punishing. Players will lose out on huge chunks of story, background knowledge, character interactions if they want to join for Dragonhold without having played Elsweyr first. With the Dark Brotherhood, you didn't feel like you're getting the second half of an earlier DLC for example, and the DB DLC experience you got for your buck was equal, whether you bought earlier DLCs or not. Tying content together like this seems more beneficial for a company in terms of sales, and more of a hinderance for players in terms of freedom of coming in and 'knowing what's going on and being able to start as they see fit'.
2. Rich also described their earlier model of content design - such as Dragonbones, Summerset, Woldhunter, and Murkmire forming a year - as a 'hodgepodge of stories that didn't really connect to one another.' And Matt added that with Elsweyr they started the system in which 'All four content drops over the year tell the same story essentially''
However, I have to argue against this and point out the reverse: having the same theme, same story, same region, same NPCs for an entire year is far more boring. With the year-long story, players have nothing to look forward to for an entire year than cats and dragons, and more of the same. If somebody dislikes cats and dragons they will be turned off of the game for an entire year, whereas they could come back for Murkmire even if they didn't like High Elves for example.
And even if a person likes cats and dragons, no matter how good the content is, it does get repetitive and uninspiring if we spend almost the entire year doing the same things in the same environments. Orsinium, the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood delivered unique stories, with unique themes, locations, characters, and they're great full-fledged DLCs in their own right which were very memorable. They each had their own vibe and feel, and people have distinct memories that stand out from each of these; whereas people will find a lot less variety in Elsweyr, Scalebreaker and Dragonhold which are just slight variations on the same thing (see image).
That also relates to the issue of calling a varied content year a 'hodgepodge'. Arguably, that's the best part of Elder Scrolls.
It has so many races and cultures and places which are wonderful and worth exploring! ESO is great because it is varied and full of different stories and characters! Not because it has three Bosmer zones back to back, or because we spend an entire year with nothing except Khajiit and Dragons. Tamriel has far more interesting stories to tell! It would have been an injustice to Murkmire if the end of 2018 was dedicated to more High Elves and white marble, and we would have lost out on the flavourful and fun Wolfhunter update if we had gotten a dungeon DLC with more High Elves. So it's not just a matter of Khajiit getting several months' worth of content, it's about
all the other content that doesn't get made, all the stories that don't get told, as a result.3. Rich also mentioned an interesting angle on why year-long stories are good, that 'It's easier on the team, because the art team know what they are building, and the content team know what they're building, so it's a lot easier in terms of workflow.'
I don't doubt that year-long stories are great for the developers, in terms of reusing assets versus having to create unique styles for distinct areas and cultures. However, from a player perspective, this seems like a cop-out. No matter how much I liked Summerset for example, if I had to spend Wolfhunter and Murkmire staring at more while marble spires and elf ladies in silken dresses, it would have made for a far more tedious 2018. Yet this is what's happening in 2019, with nothing but variations on the same Khajiit vibe with the same sandy stones and the same cats and dragons.
Getting the Argonian crafting motifs and furniture after getting the Hircine-and-Silver-Dawn items after getting the elaborate Summerset ones was a lot more refreshing and motivating than getting six types of Khajiiti stairs and yet another vaguely-South-East-Asian-inspired armor.
And this isn't against Elsweyr, I liked the update itself, I just don't think that dragging out the same theme and story for a year makes for a particularly interesting content schedule.4. Matt also mentioned some other angle on why they consider the year-long story a success, he said that 'it has been hugely successful having one marketing tool like the CG videos [...] that tell the same story [...] it has been hugely successful for us'.
Which again seems like a company-perspective rather than 'is this really the best content design for the game' perspective. For example, I'm not sure
how much of that success is mis-attributed to the year-long story, when really it was due to Elsweyr alone. People have been waiting for some quality cat content for a long time, people have been asking for necromancers for an even longer time, and dragons sounded exciting to some Skyrims fans, I'm sure. But the successful numbers that ZOS is seeing right now all come from Elsweyr, not from Scalecaller or Dragonhold, so it would be wrong to conclude that the year-long story is what brought people in. The cinematics are the same, while they are clearly great ways to generate hype, ZOS haven't tried to do the same for unrelated stories as far as I know - Orsinium, the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood didn't have their own cinematics, even though those could have worked to generate hype just as well as 'dragon cinematic one' and 'dragon cinematic two'. And Elsweyr could have generated enough hype as a standalone Chapter even if it was followed by some other themes (such as Nord or Imperial content which would have generated plenty of hype on its own too, believe me
).
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So...Thoughts? Preferences? Surely there is a happy medium somewhere, between entirely unrelated content and spending a year on the same theme and story. I consider Wrathstone to be an example of how to do things right for example. It involed a frosty Dwemer dungeon, and an Ayleid ruin dungeon. These were different from each other, and different from Elsweyr itself to be an exciting and interesting DLC on its own, but it still tied into the story without being too similar. Or the way they actually pulled off the Daedric Triad storyline. Morrowind, Clockwork City, and Summerset had an interconnected story as well, that had overarching narratives and characters. Still, the specific themes and locations were unique enough so that these stood out as distinct DLCs. Why not go back to that model?
What do you think, do you prefer unrelated stories (Orsinium/Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood), slightly related stories (Morrowind/Clockwork City/Summerset), or year-long stories (Elsweyr/Scalebreaker/Dragonhold)?
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Update with Scalebreaker and Dragonhold: I'm sorry to say that I was right in my concerns and the 'year-long story' indeed seems like an excuse to get away with creating less content than earlier years. So yes the final verdict seems to be that the 'year-long story' is worse for the game since it means you use it as an excuse to cut costs for the company, by using it to generate hype instead of delivering the content that the playerbase deserves.