A few things that could have made this arc better (and make future arcs great):
1) A single voice for the fiction, a minimal amount of characters
Right now, when we get a new piece of fiction, we have no idea who the characters are going to be or if we will ever hear of them again. It’s great to bring in the old Ultima characters for name recognition and all, and I encourage their use, but they should really be the ones whose eyes we see the action through. Random nobles or commoners can be used to give another aspect of an event, but throwaway characters have little emotional resonance – even if they die horribly. We need to be invested in our characters if we are to care about the fiction. New fictional characters should still br created, but if they don't die, lets hear from them again where appropriate (and use them in future arcs).
The voice of the fiction is also important. I laude the attempt to round robin the stories with the EMs, if that is indeed what is happening, but there needs to be one person (who knows what they are doing) with a red pen to ensure the style and quality of the output remains consistent. (Having said that, I reiterate that these pieces of fiction are significantly superior to the dreck crapped out during the Virtu Bane arc.) Nothing worse then to have "minor details" or characterizations change from story to story (we've ripped authors to shreds for this before).
2) In game events (non EM-run)
Learn the MMO definition of “grind.” Learn the MMO definition of “fun.” Create less of the first and far, far more of the second. If, while creating a static event, you wonder if the activity will bore your players – it will (rioters, fires/garbage, grave robbers, sifting. clickfests = bad).If, while creating a static event, you wonder if the mob you just created with 6 special moves (including 1-hit kills, teleporting players to it, eating pets whole, obnoxious pyrotechnics that crash clients, etc) and 60,000 hps might just be considered annoying (especially when needing to be killed over and over) tone it down. Quality over quantity in relation to time spent. (If a player who only has a few hours a week to play can't really participate enjoyably, you have a major problem.) Do not create content for max skill, max stat, max geared, vet players on a regular basis - those are peerless.
Think about creating quests similar to Helga’s brew recepie. It changes components and locations randomly through each iteration. You can keep little bits of the quest items – players like this – they do not like timered quest items. (It’d be nice to display a ‘pristine crystal lotus’ or an ‘exotic tool kit’) Create quests that require a bit of exploration and knowledge about the land in which we "live," without being heavy-handed or a bore. “Fun, fun, fun!” is what you’re striving for. (Good examples of event quests: Royal Council murders, Halloween 2009, Ricardo’s lantern/Warden-Ranger of the Abyss, Act III: p2 (Nexus puzzles))
3) Player-driven Endings
This is the hardest, but also the most important. The ball was completely dropped with New Magincia. We were assured by Draconi that the outcomes of the Rift Guardian battle would determine what would happen to individual iterations of New Magincia. Facets which won the battle were to have New Magincia be a town of Humility. Facets which lost the battle would see the isle become a hellscape lost to the daemons. Instead, we got the misbegotten lovechild of a trailer park and a mini-mall.
Players want to have the feeling that their actions matter, look at EM events as a prime example. Some EMs set conditions in which an event is “won” and thus their arc goes in one direction, if the event is “lost” it goes in another. Players like this. They affected something more then what they wore, how their house looks, or how much of an ass people think they are in general chat – they changed their world, made it different… Even if that change is only cosmetic or fleeting. It mattered. It was fun.
Large metafiction events should have the ability to change a shards somehow based on the player actions or inactions (within reason, and mitigating for intentional griefers). People would eat this up. Coding it, however, would most likely be difficult – but the payoff would be worth it. Purely static, “well duh!” endings that we see coming from a mile away does little to draw people into the fictional world.
Prime example: Virtue Bane. We knew this was leading up to New Magincia, but we also knew with 100% certainty that no matter what we did, New Magincia was just a publish away. The fact that we humiliated him with “humble pie” was just lipstick on a pig, a fairly obvious slapped on last-minute ending. Couple that with the realization that he got away after killing innocents, starting wars, etc its just rubbing salt in the wound. Yet another baddie not really dealt with, how Virtuous of us.
One possible way of achieving this goal would be to create a map file for each shard, or for the changes at the very least. No need to download every shard’s map to every subscriber – allow them to choose which they download in the new patcher (yes, a limit on which shards they could then log into might need to be set – but that they could easily overcome that by downloading the appropriate map(s)) Ra’Dian Fl’Gith was the one who brought this up one night, I’m sure he could expound upon the idea at great technical length.
In essence, strive for driven, consistent fiction, and above all else make sure what is being coded for publish is FUN!
), and that something big and good has to happen in the end.
