MrIllusion

We keep hearing things like "the story sucks" or the "story is awesome", but exactly what do you mean when you say this?

Just a simple survey about what makes a great story. If mods can help with a poll that'll be awesome. Of course all are important, but you can only pick one

• Freshness of the plot
  
• Consistency of the plot
  
• Depth of the characters
  
• Impact of player actions
  
• Implementation

Freshness of the plot
You don't want the same-old-same-old. Enough with the boy-meets-girl-I-am-your-father-the-butler-did-it-happily-ever-after crap that you have been reading forever.

Consistency of the plot
The whole story should be believable and internally consistent. Superman shooting heat rays from his eyes is fine, but Batman shouldn't be able to. No Deus-Ex-Machina-kryptonite-it-was-just-a-dream type of endings.

Depth of the characters
Characters should have some sort of development. Players need to "like" the NPCs. Maybe the NPCs have an interesting quirk, or have cool personalities, or are crucial to the plot, or just plain bad-ass.

Impact of player actions
The players should be able to affect the story. Players want branching storylines with multiple endings that are determined by how they play the game and what choices they make.

Implementation
The story is only as good as the story teller. A mediocre story can still be great if you get the right actors and writers. You want good voice actors where you can hear the difference between panic and anger. You want good dialogue where characters say things that are consistent with their personality and age.

Quote

NCSoft was making a loss before GW2 launched. Even in the quarter that GW2 launched, the sales was still lower than expected.

But the performance for this quarter is optimistic. Maybe this will pave the way for more B2P MMOs in future.

http://www.gamasutra...ord_quarter.php

http://massively.joy...healthy-growth/

Before GW2 launched there was a lot of coordination that went into selecting servers for the various communities like Oceanic, SEAsian, RP, PvP etc

After guesting was implemented it seemed like there was a lot of movement and transfers on a guild-wide level.

I'm just wondering if we have some up-to-date info about where the various communities are now.

I have an open ticket currently being looked into by customer service. In the event that the matter cannot be resolved in a manner that I find acceptable, what other avenues can I explore?

I have read about Better Business Bureau, but they are a nonprofit organization that focuses on mediation. What I'm looking for is more of a government organization or industry regulatory body within the US to file an official complaint.

Any help is appreciated.

Can the mods help make a poll?

Which would you rather purchase?
1. Retail
2. Digital

Discussion brought to you by the ongoing debate on MoP sales.

It's good that the industry is no longer quoting one single source of information.

Previously Lazard Capital was quoted as saying that the initial retail sales of 700k for MoP were disappointing, and even if digital sales were to be included, the total figure would still be lacklustre.

Quote

Now Brean Murray, Carrett and Co gives a more optimistic forecast:

Quote

After reading both sides, I think the crux of the matter is in the ratio of digital sales to retail sales, ie what percentage of sales is made through retail, and what percentage through digital?

The reason they have conflicting forecasts is because they are making different assessments of what this ratio will be.

Just to put things in perspective:

For MoP to match Cata with their retail sales, they would need to have 80% of their entire sales made through digital channels, ie for every 5 games sold, 1 person is buying the box, 4 people are buying online.

I prefer digital sales myself, and I think digital sales is catching on. But to have it constitute as much as 80% of all your sales? Do you think it's possible?