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Less Storyline? No. Not how I feel.
But there is much to be said for the story being implicit in the world itself. That's part of what made Myst so effective.
In Myst we SAW what Sirrus and Achenar had been doing; their rooms told us more about who they were than anything they said.
In Riven we had many details embedded in the world that conveyed who Gehn was, his abuse of power, and the way he brutally imposed D'ni technology and ideas onto a culture that was very different from his.
In Uru, we see things that are tied to the novels, like the cleft, and the whole city, really, has a feeling of history to it. Areas like the bahro slave caves in Teledahn and the vault in Kadish Tolesa tell us a great deal about the D'ni without us even needing to hear Yeesha's commentary.
It's one of the rules of cinema and it applies to games well, too. Where possible, show, don't tell.
When images convey story, it is preferable. When actions and events convey story, that too is good.
Many of the most exciting moments in MO:UL's stories were where we saw something happen. Not just words, something actually happening, like the Bahro around Kerath's Arch.
I don't think everything should be an OMG! moment but it's great when there are some of those moments mixed in, and when there's been legitimate buildup to them and suspense and a sense of expectation leading to them to make them that much more powerful when they do appear.
It's also great when characters are doing something instead of just talking to us. A person's actions and behavior tell us more about who they really are than anything they say. How to convey actions in the medium of Uru? I don't know, but people should be doing things in the story and not just chatting with explorers.
Peculiarly, in Uru, actions have often been communicated through text dialogue like everything else. We're told Doug Sharper killed a Bahro but we never saw him do it.
That's sometimes a necessary weakness given limitations of the game - actually showing any new action or event requires effort and expense on the part of artists and programmers; text-messaging the story is cheaper and easier but less fulfilling.
What people say is far less impactful than what they do. "Do as I say, not as I do" is generally ineffective. People primarily learn from, remember, and are impacted by actions rather than words.
St. Francis of Assisi once famously said of his faith, "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words."
He knew that helping people, loving people, and continually living a life of exemplary actions, was far more effective in glorifying God than preaching at people.
Again, the classic saying, "actions speak louder than words" applies.
So, I guess what I'm basically trying to say is I'd like to have a story told through what is seen in the worlds, tangible events that take place, and the actions of the characters.
That would be more engaging, exciting, memorable. It also is a great way to tell a story that crosses language barriers.
Ideally, there would be much more going on than chatlogs, and that visceral kind of storytelling would be more common, however Cyan (as I said) finds it easier and more affordable to say stuff through chatlogs.
I confess that I do the same; while in my video "Duel 2030" there is virtually no dialogue, in "Traveler's Enigma" there are a lot of books and documents scattered around.
Granted, I show stuff - there are places to explore and puzzles that you can interact with and video cutscenes and media clips and audio - but the majority of the story is in text documents scattered through the gameworld (some of it digital text on electronic devices)
I confess also that my puzzles are, unlike Riven's, tacked on and don't feel anywhere near seamlessly integrated into the gameworld. Puzzles for the sake of puzzles - reasonably interesting ones, but still...
But even Myst and Riven, brilliant as they are, have text journals, and some of the puzzles we've seen in official Myst games have felt a bit arbitrary, leaving you wondering from a practical standpoint - why anyone, really, would ever have built the machinery/device of the puzzle in the first place.
Like the mazerunner in Myst - couldn't there have been an easier, more practical way to protect a linking book than building a huge freaking underground maze?
But of course game designers sometimes do stuff because it's fun and interesting, regardless of realism.
Anyway...
I think the Bahro thing has been a bit overdone. It's not a bad story, mind you, but it wasn't why we came to the cavern.
One of the nice things about the UCC situation is that players will tell their own stories and they will be very diverse, and that we'll have all of those stories plus any story Cyan decides to tell.
I'd like to see variety in Cyan's stories. I like the idea of mini-arcs, that is, tell stories that last one or two months, one after another, each covering a new subject in-cavern, a different aspect of the Myst mythos. Integrate visual content into the story, and the story into the worlds, and make it a story where something significant is happening from time to time. Not everything should be a momentous OMG! moment, but we should have them now and then. Let the Bahro and Yeesha be a part of the story but not dominate it to the point of crowding out all the other subjects we'd like to see covered.
Start fresh with new stories but without erasing or retconning what's already been done. Just say, it happened, but it's not all that relevant to the new story which is being told now. And just move on with fresh stories.
New stories that new players can quickly jump into without needing to know all the past stuff, but which does not require Uru veterans to be told, "Sorry, but the last few years of story never happened."
I want to see us move on to something new without actually erasing the past.
Just my thoughts on the subject.
_________________ Matthew L. Hornbostel, creator of Panoramic Worlds,
a Myst fansite, and
various other stuff.
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