REBUTTAL TO: Make Story With Me
Some time back I came across this editorial, titled Make Story With Me. Its main
argument was the lack of interactivity and story in an MMORPG, more specifically
Final Fantasy XI, in favor of gaining levels and skill points. Now I feel the
need to point out some flaws in the editorial, based on my experience playing
FFXI for more than a year. I have played through a great deal of the game's
story, and I must say that there are some serious misconceptions about FFXI
that the author has assumed from watching a roommate play the game. I am too an
avid console RPG player, so I believe I have enough experience on both sides of
the argument.
Let us now address the issues one at a time.
Even while there may be little to no player-driven story, FFXI actually boasts
an incredibly breath-taking plot, along with beautifully done cutscenes, and in
this way it is different from other MMORPGs with less story. The story in FFXI
itself is beautiful, if only one takes the time to enjoy the world, get
stronger, and unlock the story that is, in my opinion, on par with the console
Final Fantasies. To say that FFXI has no story whatsoever is doing it a
horrible injustice akin to saying FFVII had no story. FFXI's hard-coded story
boasts themes of racial discrimination, betrayal, greed, maniacal adversaries
who wish to dominate Vana'diel, just as it reveals a few characters' trust in
each other, as well as your own rapport with other players. When you take
Squall, Rinoa and Zell to defeat Ultimecia, it is no different from taking
yourself and a few of your own friends to defeat Eald'narche and stop him from
taking over Vana'diel in his effort to regain the power his ancient Zilart race
had lost. Past the initial missions, much of the storyline has to be done with
other people. In other words, you are more or less forced to form your own
network of friends and adventurers in order to defeat the big story bosses
together, similar to your average main character in a console RPG picking
others up to form a cast of characters. In FFXI, you make your own cast, with
real people.
In FFXI, there are many separate storylines that tie in together to create one
massive virtual world with its own rich history. You have the three different
storylines of the three nations of Bastok, San d'Oria and Windurst, which are
unique to each other and in which you are your nation's hero. You also have the
story of the ancient races of the Zilart and the Kuluu peoples, which are
included only in the expansion The Rise of Zilart -- and this Zilart story ties
on to the storyline of your nation after a certain point. Then, you also have
the third main storyline of Promathia, which is included in the Chains of
Promathia expansion and features some common characters you will have met in
the original storyline. To add to these main storylines, the overwhelming
history and nature of Vana'diel add more to the overall plot and experience.
For example, the crags in Vana'diel may be to the unknowing player simply a
means of transportation -- but to those who have played through the Zilart
storyline, they are actually structures the Zilart built to harness power so as
to open the Gateway to the Gods. Lastly, you also have quests such as the
Selbina Clay quest which will take you all around Vana'diel to uncover Stone
Monuments, on which are documented a good portion of the history of the world.
Perhaps this is also why people who play FFXI do not bother to form their own
storylines -- much of FFXI's storyline has already been laid out, and even
seemingly trivial things are included in its history. For example, the reason
why Windurst has such big pools of water is because in the Great War, a heretic
summoner called on Fenrir to turn the tides of battle, and in doing so Fenrir's
destructive power caused such huge holes in the ground, that in modern day
Windurst there are now pools of water and bridges over them. Even the origins
of various enemies in Vana'diel are explained -- for example, in Eldieme
Necropolis, the undead Elvaan are actually the deceased soldiers of Tavnazia
who perished in the Great War, the crawlers in Crawler's Nest are pests that
feed on the plants in the adjacent Rolanberry Fields, and Tonberries are
actually the deformed people of the now inexistent Kuluu race. The story,
culture, and tradition in FFXI is fairly complete even without player input,
hence it could be why people do not actively create their own storylines in
FFXI. Whatever story related question one might ask is probably already
included in the dialogues of quests and missions if one knows where to look.
The statement that players in an online game are able to create their own story
does not hold water in FFXI. Perhaps it does in other MMORPGs, but as far as I
know, FFXI has a very solid story that no one should write off despite first
impressions, and because of this, player-driven stories have little place in
this online game.
Now we come to the issue of people not favouring a player-driven activity in
view of levelling up.
No matter how much you look at it, Final Fantasy XI is not a Final Fantasy in
the true sense of the word. It does not in many ways play like any other Final
Fantasy, and a common mistake people make is to approach it with the same
mindset they do while approaching any other Final Fantasy. What FFXI really is,
is a fairly rigorous MMORPG with the Final Fantasy taste. I stress the word
'taste', because while we have chocobos and moogles and cactuars, FFXI is in
actual fact an MMORPG, and MMORPGs attract a rather different crowd than the
usual console RPG players. It is not even a 'light' MMORPG. It has a heavy exp
grind, and is a huge timesink almost like Everquest.
With such a game as this, you are likely to attract a number-crunching crowd, a
crowd of hardcore gamers who are likely to want to get to the endgame
eventually and go on high-level raids. You are less likely (not totally
unlikely) to attract the crowd of people who desire to tell their own story,
and who are into this sort of thing. You cannot expect the people who play a
hardcore MMORPG to want to be 'in character' -- because truth be told, it
doesn't happen -- and certainly not because FFXI is named 'Final Fantasy'. A
good number of my fellow FFXI gamers have no idea why it was called Final
Fantasy, and why there is an XI at the end -- they are primarily MMORPG gamers,
not Final Fantasy fans or console gamers who are more accustomed to storylines.
They are naturally inclined to numbers and uber equipment, less to storyline.
This trend has been ongoing with the MMORPG crowd since the first online MUDs
where people sought for the most treasure, the best gear. We are simply looking
at two different groups of gamers, with different interests at heart, and to say
that either should be corrected as the original editorial assumed is to treat an
MMORPG crowd as a console player crowd.
In fact, FFXI provides ample opportunities for fun interaction. The seasonal
events that pop up throughout the year reflect current festivals in our own
world, for example Hana-Matsuri, Summerfest, and very recently the Halloween
event. These events encourage players to drop their quest for levels and go out
to have silly fun. During the Hana-Matsuri event, Japanese cherry trees in
blossom were placed in cities and ornamental tables and folding screens were
set up in public places in order for people to take screenshots with each
other. During Summerfest, people had to work together in order to get special
yukatas to wear, that had no combat-related bonuses at all and were hence
simply decorative items. Also, there was a goldfish scooping event (in Japan,
there is a traditional event where people try to scoop goldfish with a paper
scoop) and people could win prizes by taking part. Lastly, during the recent
Halloween event, people could trade sweets to NPCs in order to get special
pumpkin hats, eatable jack-o'-lanterns and other accessories, as well as
costumes of skeletons, ghosts, and beastmen. While these events are not
player-driven by any means, they do provide the opportunity for many people to
enjoy themselves.
Lastly, the majority of the player interactions in FFXI take place in linkshells
(or clans/guilds as they are known in other MMORPGs). Such is the FFXI culture
that few people tend to do things outside their linkshell, like organizing
events with the general populace. If you seek to roleplay, find a roleplaying
linkshell and there you will find others who do indeed stay 'in character'. Not
everyone wishes to roleplay to such an extent, but in these linkshells you will
find people who do.
To say that the players in FFXI are not cooperating is being nothing more than
ill-informed, which I feel that the original editorial was.
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