Thank you so much, Mod Rowley, for elucidating your system!
My frustrations come from poring over lore dating back to 2013 - though, the past year has actually been excellent for the attention it's paid to older lore, and quests' efforts to seat their characters and events in the context of existing stories (Nomad's Elegy, in particular, did this beautifully).
I'm very glad to hear of the longterm plans of the Lore Council, and it makes me excited to know the team is seeding lore now for the longterm. I'm sure the payoff will be very rewarding.
As the Runescape story has become richer, its plots more interwoven, its tone more overtly focused on a dense mythology, it's inevitable that managing all the different narratives and casts becomes more difficult, and some fall through the cracks. Older quests look more consistent, but they also dealt with far less characterization and history, and their self-containment meant it was much less likely for multiple developers to write the same npcs.
But, even though older stories may have been dreamt up without long term development in mind, that doesn't mean new development can't change their significance. I adored how the Codex Ultimatus reframed Tolna's Rift without invalidating any of the experience we'd already had. Couldn't similar things be done with other pieces of 'contradictory' lore?
It's a testament to Runescape's storytelling that we're all as invested as we are. And it's because we love the story that seeing irregular voices and tone frustrates us. While I think storytelling can be innate, writing is a skill like any other. It requires practice, which many, but not all, devs have - and a great story told merely adequately suffers, no matter how great the assets backing it up. I'm confident in the team's story ambitions, but I don't think it's unfair to wish for a full-time writer in the editing process, or a dedicated curator behind each character voice - though I know it's unlikely.
10-Jan-2017 10:50:23
- Last edited on
10-Jan-2017 12:00:17
by
Rondstat
