The pacing in chapter stories - is it too slow?

Grandchamp1989 · June 2021

Noticed with Greymoor and now Blackwood - I like the premise of the story and the big reveals are awesome.

But the build up... It's so long.. I find that I lose my interest midway and are like "Just get to the point - lets get this moving"

Maybe it's just me who're impatient.. But I really wish the build up had a better pace.. first 2-3 parts of the questline is a tad bit boring to me...

Wondering what other people think about the Chapter pacings?
I much prefer the DLC pacing.. I found Markarth had a much better pace than Greymoor.. Southern Elsweyr a better pace than Northern... And the pace for Blackwood is.. Slow I think.

I think maybe it's because it's year long Expansion/DLC that's tied together so they have to explain more - set the settings.. But as I result I find the first 2-3 quests of the chapter story.. A tad bit boring.

kichwas · June 2021

I actually felt it was too fast.

Paying a load of money for a story. So that story needs to be a good long one with a lot of depth to it.

ESO is almost right, but could actually be a little more in length. I should not be able to complete the story in under a week. I think the Greymoor one was done for me in a few days. Hoping the Blackwood one takes longer.

Wolf_Eye · June 2021

Grandchamp1989 wrote: »

Noticed with Greymoor and now Blackwood - I like the premise of the story and the big reveals are awesome.

But the build up... It's so long.. I find that I lose my interest midway and are like "Just get to the point - lets get this moving"

Maybe it's just me who're impatient.. But I really wish the build up had a better pace.. first 2-3 parts of the questline is a tad bit boring to me...

Wondering what other people think about the Chapter pacings?
I much prefer the DLC pacing.. I found Markarth had a much better pace than Greymoor.. Southern Elsweyr a better pace than Northern... And the pace for Blackwood is.. Slow I think.

I think maybe it's because it's year long Expansion/DLC that's tied together so they have to explain more - set the settings.. But as I result I find the first 2-3 quests of the chapter story.. A tad bit boring.

I would like to respectfully disagree.

I liked Greymoor, and I almost thought it went too fast at times. And there were other times where I wish they would have slowed down and took the time to flesh out a few plot points. For example (Greymoor spoilers) :

We find out the king of Western Skyrim was secretly working with the Gray Host the whole time. Ok....But why? For power? Money? Probably power, but he seemed like he was too arrogant to ever accept help. Especially not help from a vampiric outsider. And did he just up and kill his own wife? Really? They never slowed down to actually flesh this part out, so it feels hollow and illogical. And then he's just...Never mentioned again. A loose end that they never tied up and one of the reasons why I think the story went too fast.

But it depends on the quest. If you find a quest storyline boring, then it's more likely you'd think it was painfully slow.

But if you like a questline, then it seems too fast. So I would say that one's perspective greatly influences how one sees a story.

You said you liked the premise of Greymoor and Blackwood, but perhaps you didn't quite like the execution. Once you've done enough quests to recognize that the story is going in a direction you don't necessarily like, it probably became more boring and tedious, especially if you're having to gather things for story NPCs that you don't really care about.

I remember when I was going through the Ebonheart Pact zone stories feeling like they were taking FOREVER just because most of the characters I was interacting with were zone specific and just....not all that great. The Pact story characters are almost never recurring, so you never develop a relationship with them.

EDIT: I'm editing this comment a bit because I realized I was making an assumption and that's my bad here. I do think that different people might react differently depending on well they like particular NPCs or particular story elements. I wouldn't mind getting boring tedious fetch quests from Revus in Vvardenfell just because I like his personality so much and I would LOVE to have more interaction with him. I think that might have been the point I was making here....

Grandchamp1989 · June 2021

kichwas wrote: »

I actually felt it was too fast.

Paying a load of money for a story. So that story needs to be a good long one with a lot of depth to it.

ESO is almost right, but could actually be a little more in length. I should not be able to complete the story in under a week. I think the Greymoor one was done for me in a few days. Hoping the Blackwood one takes longer.

Length and dialogue can be fantastic, and under great circumstances you're right.

When entertainment gets it right you watch a 3 hour movie but it feels like it only lasted 30 minutes because it's so great.

For Chapter stories I feel like watching a 3 hour movie and it feels like a 3 hour movie.

There's so much repeated dialogue that's just said in a different way, so much filler content that leads no where, and whole lot of go from A to B and back to A.

I really respect your opinion and under ideal circumstances you're right, I just wish the chapter's would pick but a bit sooner than what they do. We already know what the main plot is from the trailer, prologue and marketing - why take hours to reveal what we know?
I'm playing with my wife and we're both struggling not to skip dialogue because it's the same things being repeated but with different words most of the time.

Wolf_Eye · June 2021

Ugh I apologize if my previous comment is all over the place. My brain isn't quite working today and I'm having a hard time thinking. I meant no offense to you OP, and I hope at the very least I came across as respecting your opinion

Grandchamp1989 · June 2021

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

Ugh I apologize if my previous comment is all over the place. My brain isn't quite working today and I'm having a hard time thinking. I meant no offense to you OP, and I hope at the very least I came across as respecting your opinion

None taken friend, I honestly think it's great that people find the pacing perfect.
I'm actually a bit jealous of that because I want to love it just as much lol.

I just need to grind past the first 2-3-4 quests to get the same enjoyment...

Wolf_Eye · June 2021

Grandchamp1989 wrote: »

Wolf_Eye wrote: »

Ugh I apologize if my previous comment is all over the place. My brain isn't quite working today and I'm having a hard time thinking. I meant no offense to you OP, and I hope at the very least I came across as respecting your opinion

None taken friend, I honestly think it's great that people find the pacing perfect.
I'm actually a bit jealous of that because I want to love it just as much lol.

I just need to grind past the first 2-3-4 quests to get the same enjoyment...

Thank you.

I took a moment to try and edit my first comment a bit.

And yeah...everyone's brain's work differently so I we're all not going to be able to get the same amount of enjoyment out of the same things. That's not a bad thing, or a good thing, but just a side effect of the fact that we're all different people. It's what makes people unique and fantastic

I hope you find that perfect story one day! I think that, as long as ZOS tries to push a variety of different stories, maybe we'll get to the point where everyone will have something enjoyable.

YstradClud · June 2021

I actually quite like the slow pace. It made me just take the edge off a bit and relax and digest everything. I don't find it boring but I can see why some would if the overall setting wasn't to their taste.

Maxx7410 · June 2021

aftar more than half an hour in the story without figthing anything i quit its boring

VaranisArano · June 2021

The pacing on the Chapters is odd because it's part 2 of a 4 part story, and it's not the finale. They have to save some of the oomph for the Q4 DLC, as well as catch up brand new players who didn't do the Prologue quest or Q1 Dungeons, so the pacing is naturally slower for something you'd expect to be a bit grander seeing as how we paid cash for it.

I note that your two examples, Markarth and Southern Elsweyr, were the Part 4 of their storyline and if you'd done all the Chapter as well, lead straight into the finale quest. That helps their pacing a lot and they feel "full" of story and plot.

Netheniel · June 2021

It does feel to drag in the narrative as well as leave gaping holes where I'm expecting to get more details rather than more fetch quests. I may feel different when I complete it, but it does feel more like a job rather than a thrilling story to unfold. It also doesn't help that the voice acting is a bit weak this chapter. It just doesn't feel up to code compared to previous chapters. The only 2 saving graces so far are Bugtail and Duke of Crows (I'm such a slave to the blackfeather court), but those are side quests.

xeNNNNN · June 2021

Personally, I feel like there is too much meaningless back and forth. A lot of the time the stories have started to feel dragged out like they're not mean't to go on for as long as they do. This indicates to me that they have assembled a plot, a plot device and the cause and effects required to keep the story cohesive but there isn't a lot there.

It also doesn't feel like there is much mystery anymore either.

Ironically I also agree with others that it felt too fast as well. So in conclusion; The story was ok but it was dragged out unnecessarily in some parts and then not enough was done for depth and other things in others. Almost like there is something missing.... like an actual event.

I found myself rather bored up until the very end honestly.