Feral Boy from www.matrix-expl...com writes:

The Matrix Online is a very unique experiment, in that it has been given the task of picking up the saga of the Matrix series where the movie trilogy left off. Unlike many other games, there is a continuing storyline that helps to constantly expand the Matrix universe. As the story progresses and the various organizations are pitted against one another, the loyalties of the players are tested to their limits. Each player must be skilled not just in battle but in strategy as well.

It is the presence of a continuing storyline that is one of the most attractive features of the game. And yet, ironically it is also its greatest weak spot. However, it is not the storyline itself that weakens the game but rather a lack of decent coverage of the storyline. Historically, there has not been a consistent manner in which a running tab has been kept on all the events that go on in the game. For the average new player who joins at this stage of the game where there has been two years' worth of storyline, it would be very confusing to try to figure out how everything has progressed since the game first went online.

Now to be fair, it is not as if no efforts whatsoever have been made. In fact, the exact opposite is true. When the game began, there were very lengthy summaries of each event, along with helpful pictures. However, these summaries soon disappeared, and the average player was left only with the cinematics and the postings of fellow gamers on the forums. In the absence of good reporting, some loyal players took it upon themselves to begin writing their own summaries of the game's storyline. But even this was limited, sporadic and dependant upon the players to continue the coverage.

Eventually, the developers resorted to posting screenshots on the Live Events section of the game's official forum of the various in-game visitations by major characters. And while this was a step in the right direction compared with having nothing at all, it is still woefully inadequate. The basic problem is that all the existing methods of reporting the storyline are cumbersome for the new player who wants to catch up on the entire story thus far. The Live Event coverage on the forum is very thorough, but it is mostly helpful for existing players who are already caught up with the story. New players have to wade through a sea of forum postings and screenshots, as well as try to sort out the correct chronological order of each thread in conjunction with the others. Because anyone can respond to these forum postings at any time, they are prone to getting out of order very quickly.

A major overhaul of the method for reporting the storyline is necessary in order to ensure that new players have a sure footing when joining the game. As it stands right now, the current story tracking methods are only truly helpful for recurring players who basically have been around since the game began. These players already know the back-story and only need to check in on the Live Events forum sporadically in order to keep abreast of the current goings-on. If a more ideal method is to be implemented, it must be beneficial not only for recurring players but new ones as well. The storyline should be presented in a chronological manner so that new players do not have to spend any time trying to sort it out themselves. The easier it is for players to keep track of the story, the easier it is to keep existing players on the same page while also making sure that potential new players are not intimidated and are able to join in on the current storyline with little effort.

The best way to manage all of this is to have a specific framework that can be used on an ongoing basis. If the story is reported as the game goes along, the workload is not much heavier than it already is. Once the structure is in place, all that's left to do is fill in the blanks of the continuing storyline as events occur. However, the difficult part about beginning this process is the fact that there is two years' worth of back-story that will also need to be summarized. But the work will be very much worthwhile, especially as time goes on. Over time the story is just going to get longer and more complex, and without a concrete method of reporting it for new players, soon there won't be any new players who will want to join. In other words, the sooner this new method is put into place, the better.

There are several strategies that can be employed to meet this goal. First and foremost, there needs to be a central location on the game's official website where all players can go to see the storyline at a glance-like a "story thus far" type of section. This feature should be available not just to the existing players but also to potential players who are not currently paying customers. The main focus would be on eliminating any daunting roadblocks for anyone who thinks it's too late for them to join in on the action. This will be more and more important as time goes on and the story gets longer and longer. The more inviting the game can be made to the non-player, the better the odds that they'll want to play the game.

The synopsis of the story needs to be organized and practical. There should be an overall "Big Picture" view of the entire story from day one until the current point in time. This will provide a quick review for new players and it will also help to illustrate how all the various chapters and subchapters fit together. Basically, it would be an ever-increasing summary, which would grow in size each time a subchapter is implemented. Screenshots would be ideal, as well as the occasional video. The basic idea is that this would be the place where new players would go to get a rundown of all the important events that have taken place prior to the time that they joined the game. Keep in mind that this would be like a Cliff's Notes summary and would not include a description of every instance of the Oracle showing up in-game to hand out cookies. Only major items that affect the overall storyline should be included. For more detail, links to the Live Event forum postings can be included.

The storyline summary can be in the format of an indented outline, as follows:

I. Chapter 1
a. Subchapter 1.1
b. Subchapter 1.2
c. Subchapter 1.3
II. Chapter 2
a. Subchapter 2.1
b. Subchapter 2.2
c. Subchapter 2.3

This format would continuously expand as time goes on and more subchapters are added. Special Anniversary Events, such as Piece of Blue Sky or the Smith Virus, would also be included in their proper chronological placement. Each line, whether it's a chapter or subchapter, would be a link that takes you to another page. If you click on a chapter link, it takes you to a page that provides a summary of the entire chapter, including all three subchapters. If you click on a subchapter link, it takes you to a page that provides a summary of only that subchapter. The subchapter summaries will be more in-depth than the chapter summaries.

The subchapter summary pages will be the meat and potatoes of the storyline summary. This is where you will find the corresponding Sentinel newspaper, cinematic and storyline summary. You will also find links to the Live Event postings on the forum in chronological order and embedded in the text summary of the subchapter at the point in the summary where that particular Live Event took place. That way, the subchapter summary can devote one sentence to a Live Event ("The Oracle shows up to hand out cookies.", with that sentence being a clickable link to the Live Event forum posting illustrating the whole thing. Players who read the summary can either continue reading the summary or click on the link to get more info from the Live Event forum posting. This will also eliminate the problem of Live Event forum postings being out of chronological order due to reply postings by players. They will always be in the correct order in the summary.

Whenever a character makes his or her first appearance in the storyline, there should be a picture of that character in the corresponding subchapter summary in which he or she first appeared. This also helps to ensure that the storyline is clear and alerts new players who to look for in-game if they happen to see one of them during a Live Event. Names are extremely helpful, but in a visual medium like an online video game, a picture is definitely worth a thousand words. Including links to the Live Event forum postings can take the place of including pictures in the summaries, but there should be an effort to include pictures in the summaries whenever possible. As an aside, it might be helpful to also include dates for Live Events in the story summaries. While it might be difficult to catalog by date the past Live Events that have already occurred, it should not be a problem to do so on an ongoing basis once this new process has been implemented.

clicky
As much to the "sea of forum postings" and chronological order. All taken care of, my friend.

Actually, chronological order was possible at the Lithium boards, but the stupid SOE forum coders forgot to include this useful function, which is just silly, especially after a year or so we have this forums.

"As an aside, it might be helpful to also include dates for Live Events in the story summaries. While it might be difficult to catalog by date the past Live Events that have already occurred..."
Since we all know the live event postings haven't included dates since the very first thread, right?


The subchapter summaries are a great idea, except Rarebit already writes them for the "Looking Glass" articles. The only problem - when you open up previous articles, the page's blank. Just noticed that. I suppose they can be restored, though.

As for the chapter summaries, the "chapters" have no meaning, they're just groups of three subchapters that are nonsensical to summarize as such.

"As an aside, it might be helpful to also include dates for Live Events in the story summaries. While it might be difficult to catalog by date the past Live Events that have already occurred..."
Since we all know the live event postings haven't included dates since the very first thread, right?

Think he was referring to older stuff - remember we only got the LE board half way through chap 4. Thats a lot of previous happenings.

The subchapter summaries are a great idea, except Rarebit already writes them for the "Looking Glass" articles.

Again, not further back than... 6.3? 

The only problem - when you open up previous articles, the page's blank. Just noticed that. I suppose they can be restored, though.

Take off the &monthX bit of the url and it'll work, thats a problem with the entire soe site news archive system.

 In the absence of good reporting, some loyal players took it upon themselves to begin writing their own summaries of the game's storyline. But even this was limited, sporadic and dependant upon the players to continue the coverage.

don't forget that one of the best ways for a new player to level up is the archive missions, which allow new players to play all our old critical missions. i think the archive missions should give out the special items like the originals did, though. like weapon codes, so we can get enhanced stakes, etc... between the cines and the crits, new players should have an idea of what's happened in the story.

imho what would be really awesome is if the mission contacts gave out mega xp and had updated missions that corresponded with the current story, not independent of it. but that's a ton of work nobody at soe is going to do.