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Story Writing Errors

MaouwMaouw
Reactions: 700
Posts: 3
Member
edited August 23 in Suggestions, Feedback, and Requests
Hi,

I'm playing through the 1 hour of unskippable dialogue from Moonbridge onwards and I'm dying - so while I wait for this story to finish its excessive number of dramatic pauses I decided to funnel my mild frustration into feedback because I want the writers to STOP DOING THIS.

There are 3 huge errors the story writing team are making that I should not have to explain to a professional:
1. Fortunate events/ex-machinas should ALWAYS ONLY BE IN FAVOUR OF BAD GUYS. The difference between "you were about to kill the enemy, but they rolled a d20 and got away" is waaaay more engaging than "your enemy was about to kill you, but you rolled a d20 and got away." The use of luck/fortune in a story inherently DETRACTS the favour of the audience - that's why you always use it on bad guys because the audience hates people who are successful because of luck. The whole arcane river storyline has been carried on the back of the FLYING FISH and THE WEIRD SILVER NAMELESS GUY WHO SHOOTS A GIANT LASER BEAM TO SAVE YOUR BUTT COZ NO REASON EX MACHINA PLOT ARMOUR. stop this. bad!
2. Victimhood does not inherently invite compassion from the audience, rather, the will to take a risk to change your circumstances is what makes the audience root for a hero. A beggar is hungry on the streets and the king lashes him for entertainment - I don't care. A beggar is being lashed because he tried to approach a King - I care. Stop victimizing characters and expecting the audience to be invested. The Empress has a giant shield and it broke and half of the cygnus army dies coz big laser from Gloom - I don't care. Empress willingly sacrifices her own ship to protect even a few of the cygnus knights from giant laser - I care. Really small changes, makes a huge difference to story engagement.
3. A videogame story should MAXIMIZE PLAYER AGENCY. Maplestory is not a visual novel/manhwa - it is an INTERACTIVE experience. For books/movies the mantra is "show don't tell". For video games it's "do don't show." If the player is jumping between 3 ships to try to keep the monsters at bay - THAT'S LITERALLY A GAMEPLAY IDEA - have 3 ships that are being overwhelmed and let the player figure out how to balance their time on the three ships. Please do not "yo, that ship is being overwhelmed. Please kill 20 mobs." like ahjfkladjghladgjkh

There are more things (like excessive unwarranted introspection) that I could complain about but these three are just poor storytelling mistakes that ruin the mapleSTORY experience.

Please forward to relevant team.
Ben.

Comments

  • FuhreakFuhreak
    Reactions: 7,670
    Posts: 1,623
    Member, Private Tester
    edited August 23
    Maouw wrote: »

    1. THE WEIRD SILVER NAMELESS GUY WHO SHOOTS A GIANT LASER BEAM TO SAVE YOUR BUTT COZ NO REASON EX MACHINA PLOT ARMOUR
    Spoilers on who that was.
    That is Orchid, who was setup in advanced and isn't a "silver nameless guy who shoots a giant laser for no reason", it was properly setup in advanced and used when the time came for it. That said, she does appear (for now) to disappear afterwards and there's not much explanation for where she went. Regardless, that is actually one of the things they got right in tenebris. You need to playthrough blackheaven if you were confused about her.

    Other than that, I agree that certain parts (Labyrinth of Suffering in its entirety) if not most of tenebris are hilariously bad.

    Korea gave them hell for Tenebris which was not well received at all.
    Maouw
  • RedRavenRedRaven
    Reactions: 1,215
    Posts: 248
    Member
    edited August 24
    point 1 and 2 is non-sense....everyone has different interest....and there no need to attract compassion in every single story......if NX dfdn't want that its fine...can still spark interest if the story is well done......its also quite fine to be the losing character....also one of the reason why Kefka from Final Fantasy VI was quite beloved....because unlike all the other villains he succeeded in his evil schemes

    in other word variety is a must ...not all story need to be the same....if your thing is to love good guy to alway win thats you, it dont speak for everyone else

    however what i dont like in story is like what happent in lets say Dragon Ball Super......that a-pull giving Roshi a 1,000,000X power boost out of nowhere...same for some other characters
    ....aka adding things in the story out of nowhere without anything that can rly back up why that happen other than the author didn't care and wanted it that way

    well..the black mage story could been better overall...but better than never creating his story which Magatia sparked years ago.....it had potential the way they wrote it in Magatia, but turn out to be like a 4/10...at the same time i think thats fine....its better than rehash stories

    stories which came out fairly unique in term of animes
    Overlord(not sure how to describe that one but it is its own style)
    Made in Abyss(delve in a huge hole "dungeon")
    Fairy Tail(giant guild)
    SAO(Sword Art online) the first anime that take place inside a mmo..not the best writing but it was the first of its kin
    possibly missing some other truly unique ones but eh....just wanted to show what make stories really interesting