Glimpse Inside - Storytelling

January 13, 2003

With the upcoming advancement of the Earth & Beyond storyline, we thought this might be a good time to explain some of the challenges and issues inherent in providing a dynamic plot and story. Chris Klug, lead content designer for E&B, explained some of the issues his team faces while developing the ongoing storyline.

The first step was putting the framework for the storyline in place for the retail version of the game, and in subsequent updates. The starting point for the story, along with several sub-plots, is now in place and ready for its first step in a lengthy planned progression.

The main limitation when implementing the story is the technical requirement that all content across each game server must be the same. In other words, all content, including story progression, must be the same on each game server, regardless of how that server's community may have approached and reacted to the plot.

While this does, in effect, mean that players' actions cannot directly change the storyline, there are ways to adjust, Chris said. For example, several subplots were seeded into the game, and those can be expanded if players show interest in them.

"The story cannot be changed by direct player actions," Chris said. "But indirectly, they can have an effect by telling us what they like on the forums and giving us feedback about particular elements of the story. There's no way we can let players change big events in the fiction, but we can react to what the players want. So, players are affecting the game in that we are seeing what they enjoy, and we hope to give them more of that."

For example, he said, the Psi plotline on Aganju is one of those subplots that may become more highly developed than originally intended, simply because so many players have shown interest in it and become involved in their own activities regarding that particular subplot.

Chris said the most important factor in how a player sees the progressing storyline will be that player's standing, or faction, with the various fictional groups in the game.

"As players choose their factional alignments, and raise or lower their factional scores, opportunities will be given to them to do missions, talk to people, etc. Those in turn will affect how players see the story."

As Chris explained, players will most often come in contact with the storyline through the various factional leaders in the game. The more times a player does missions for certain factions, the more he will be exposed to that faction's view of the galaxy and its events. Even those players who are less interested in the game fiction will be exposed to it as they pursue missions from factional leaders.

"The two closest types of stories that I think relate to what we're doing are the murder mystery and the soap opera," Chris said. "Much like a good murder mystery, we are trying to lay out all the clues in front of you, to see if you can piece them together. We would like you to talk to every class leader in the game, because if you do, you'll appreciate the fiction more."

He also pointed out that the designers have tried to create class leaders who aren't one-dimensional. In other words, NPC's may have both good and bad sides to them; they aren't just black-and-white, stereotypical good and bad guys. The class leaders are designed to play on your emotions, and it will be up to you to decide which class or faction to follow.

Chris also said that the designers intentionally made the class leaders complex, so that players might question their own involvement with that group. For example, you may decide to follow a particular leader, but what if that leader later does something with which you disagree? Do you stick with that leader or strike out in a new direction? This uncertainty is also part of the soap opera analogy.

"It's like a soap opera in that with every story step, we'll be trying to create unanswered questions in players' minds. What are you going to do if your faction leader goes bad? Of course, we hope they keep tuning in to see how those questions are answered in the next step."