Recreate Unseen side events with NPCs?

[Lehm]

I remember one of the main criticisms from many people were the live events. Only the hardcore player that stood around waiting and happened to be in the right place ever got to see them. What if a more robust NPC system were created that would play these events back in the instanced cities. Instead of just hearing about them you would actually see them, and perhaps even be able to interact in some way with the 'actors'. It would help make those stories more personal I think.

[realXCV]

you would actually see them

You mean: "hear them and maybe see them"

[Lehm]

Not really sure what you mean by that, why wouldn't you see them?

[JWPlatt]

I think Lehm is saying the NPC would be global, visually and textually, across all instances of an age during a live event.

[realXCV]

Not really sure what you mean by that, why wouldn't you see them?

If it's the same kind of events as in MOUL where everyone get kicked from the city or where the DRC hides in the Kahlo pub and does nothing more than talking.

[Lehm]

No. What I'm suggesting would be to recreate the stuff that we just heard about as NPC cutscenes. For example Sharpers expedition outside the pod. The first time you go to that one pod there's an NPC sharper just checking things out. Perhaps you can even ask him some questions. Then eventually he leaves. After a set amount of time you would come back and you'd see him outside the windows. So, I'm suggesting recreating everything we only heard about as interactive cutscenes to make the story more personal for the players. And the story would be replayable. Starting the journey over would start the events all over again.

[Mac_Fife]

Well, that last description of replaying back story cutscenes seems to be at odds with the description in the original post (and the thread title) of "live events"

I don't believe anyone was put out by not being part of the back story, but missing out on the live NPC events did frustrate a number of people. On the ohter hand, I viewed it as "Well, in RL I can't be everywhere all the time so I miss most significant events". The difference is that in RL there are ways we can find out about those events: TV, newspapers, internet - There's no "authoratative" IC equivalent of those news sources that you can consult on demand. I never felt that chat logs on forums were an adequate substitute: I know several people (my wife included ) who will just never go near forums - the attitude (and I can sympathise) is "I'm playing a game - Why do I also need to keep checking a web site?".

[Lehm]

I don't believe anyone was put out by not being part of the back story...

I was. If I'm playing a game I want to be a part of whats going on, not hear about it from somewhere else. I relate it this way, imagine your favorite movie...now replace what you see with someone talking about all the great stuff you COULD be seeing.

[semplerfi]

I don't believe anyone was put out by not being part of the back story...

I was. If I'm playing a game I want to be a part of whats going on, not hear about it from somewhere else. I relate it this way, imagine your favorite movie...now replace what you see with someone talking about all the great stuff you COULD be seeing.

I was too along with a whole lot of other paying customers.

Now, add to this you paid to see the advertized movie but are held back in the lobby and all you get is some freinds telling you what the movie was about and what you missed.

An advertized product that was paid for was not recieved. If Cyan had advertized that only the first 100, even if you paid, will get to see the product, how do you think that would have sold. There is no doubt in my mind that this flaw really hurt their marketing of their product.

[Mac_Fife]

Please, let's separate "back story", which no-one saw and was only ever related in narrative, and "live events" which happened in-cavern with NPCs and generally only a lucky few saw.

On the latter, I'd agree, but am fairly sanguine about it as stated previously. For the former, well, that puts an awful lot of onus on "the publisher" to have some recorded action for virtually every event in the backstory if it occurs in a player accessible area (or area that might become accessible in the future, which opens up further dilemas over how/when you make that recording). If that's what is meant then I see your point of view, but feel it might be asking too much

Lehm's example of Sharper in Neghilan seems sort of feasible, as it would seem likely that he'd casually visit there every so often; some other events though might seem a bit anachronistic if they were re-played out several weeks/months after they originally occurred. In order to avoid "weirdness" for other players, I'd guess (without thinking it through too hard) that these re-plays would have to happen in private instances

Personally, I always felt that using the classroom imagers to select and view "newsreels" of events was a reasonable option.