Multiplayer rewards for storyline quests (SPOILERS)

Well, unfortunately, there isn't much we can do about it. This is where we can give feedback. Our only option is to stop giving feedback, and that's certainly not what we want. The only thing they could really do is make the feedback threads backer-only, and that would just be putting a 40USD paywall in front of it (which, twer it me, would be a tax write-off).

 

Just as a quick note, we agree with what's been brought up here regarding Abigail and Charlotte and this will all be changing in R46.

(Specifically, the backflip emote will be moved to a more appropriate NPC and many of Spoon's suggestions regarding Charlotte in the Battle of Solace Bridge will be implemented)

 

Thank you for paying attention to this @Lum the Mad.
After reading more of the replies in this thread I reflect on my inability to empathize with Abigail for the simple fact that I am not a parent much less a mother. I know most guys accept the fact that their wife is going to choose the kids over them but I think people understand on a superficial level. She would sell hubby to the Obsidians if it meant that Charlotte would be spared, heck she'd cut him in half and sell him twice if she could be sure that Charlotte would always be safe. I feel badly about letting everyone pile on ya. I still want to kill all of the NPCs but I promise to look more deeply into what I am reading as I play.

 

Thanks for taking the time to acknowledge and address these concerns.

 

Not spied on as such. The Author is one of the contributors of this thread, that felt the need to paraphrase this discussion somewhere else I suppose.
here's another piece probably fueled by some discussion long ago about why Port shouldn't listen to us.

What I originally objected to was the "this is so wildly inappropriate" argument.
I could have been asked as a question: is this intentional? because I don't like it.
See feedback from @Spoon on how to relay a subjective observation in an objective manner.

If we let oversensitive political correctness govern all the game content, we will soon find ourselves without a game at all.
I don't mind being offended by some content.
I accidentally killed the kids in Artifice, and was sorry there was no way to undo that.
I found the reference to some prominent political figure in the Blood River Outskirts hilarious, but not everyone may.

What gets me is that a discussion is started because of an emote given from someone under great psychological stress (a state where you cannot really predict reactions) rather than the whole race superiority theme in aforementioned BRO, which is, in my book, a whole different level of inappropriate behavior. Not that I object to it being in-game, I find it very fitting in context.
Had the OP solely focused on the fact that the reward given in single player was (subjectively) only valuable in Multiplayer, that a whole difference discussion which I find more "appropriate" and may have opinions about.

 

I don't see anybody offended here. People only said that it was illogical and that it broke immersion.
Sure, it's hardly objective but that doesn't mean that such critic doesn't make sense. Here, we are talking about the player feelings about the quest and its rewards. That's hardly an objective thing.

About the emote as a reward, many people objected that this quest already grants the player with experience and gold as many other quests. That's why I think it's not a relevant argument, even if it's objective.

 

As a note, we already moved this emote long ago to another NPC (Toddin Tedbare in Desolis, who is considerably more appropriate when expressing childish glee) and from this release forward that will be the only way to obtain the emote. (An alternative was added because people who do not start a new character on Path of Love would otherwise have no way to obtain the emote.)

In general we do not consider emotes as rewards for quests, but bits of flavor through the world. The /backflip emote was one of the first ones added, before a design direction for obtaining in-world emotes was fully fleshed out.

 

nothing in this thread had anything about political correctness or being offended. What, exactly, are you referring to?

 

Assumption?

 

I said that I wouldn't mind being offended by game content, that's the only time that word was used I think.

As to "political correctness":
The term used was not illogical but rather (wildly) inappropriate. This indicates some projection of politically correct values and the expectation that everyone else (including NPCs) should adhere to them.
Later it was said by someone that he couldn't believe that we (maybe just me) was defending this sort of thing (I thought this related to me advocating that NPCs should be allowed to do "inappropriate" things) , later his article was linked in the thread.
But my statement was meant broader than that, and was not as a direct attack on anyone.

I acknowledge that another part of this discussion was the fact that an emote was given as a single player "reward", but I found that so uninteresting that I completely ignored that part of it (guilty).

I did promise myself that I would leave this topic alone since I was afraid it would turn sour, however since I was called out twice I thought I owed you guys a response.

 

My post was never about values. It was about human reactions and interactions. It was about the extremely unlikely scenario that a woman who is grieving her recently deceased husband would decide to turn around and teach someone how to do a backflip.

Perhaps you got a bit caught up on the word inappropriate.

 

I wonder how this got into the game in the first place. I mean did someone really think that this was good and appropriate?

 

Oh, come on ! Haven't you made any mistake yourself ? Haven't you heard about the grey zone between good or bad decisions ? You never took unsatisfying decision in your whole life ? You should drop your weapon here.

 

Sure, everybody makes mistakes. Yet, this such an obviously bad decision. It's like me wanting to juggle with chainsaws blindfolded - without ever having tried or practiced it. It simply is a bad idea from the very beginning.

 

They have already said they are changing it. I would let it go at this point.

 

Alright. Yet still it is nagging at me. How does this fit into the description of a "single-player narrative"? But, ok. I'll let it go.

 

I'm giving the dev team some leeway because this is the kind of the thing (flavor) that gets to be ironed out as we continue to test the game. "Story complete" is more about being able to mechanically complete the story(ies) and less about how it all feels.

Mechanically (the part that I'm unrelentingly critical on), that particular moment/event works relatively well. The goals are clearly laid out, the dialogue system isn't a barrier to its progression and, for the most part, the player can complete it with relative ease.

The emote issue is addressed and, while a particular reward has game-play/mechanical consequences, I don't think receiving an item (which would probably be like any other) would've been any better. Flavor, in this case, is the reward and I'm glad that it's being looked over.

If there's anything I could say about the "flavor" (aside from what @Spoon already said) is that there might need more moments where the undead is mentioned. To continuously push the player into thinking "yes... why DID the undead attack?" so that you establish and reinforce it as the mystery. That way, the player has his/her own motivations to keep moving forward... and not just because Edvard told the player to deliver a letter.

If you don't repeat it enough, the player won't think it's important aside from "that's what happened".

 

They come from two different quests going through the same NPC. They where not considered relative to each other. It's actually a quite easy mistake to make.

 

I am amazed that this much effort and time debating has been put into such a small and minor item inside of the game!

I am further amazed that the OP "Thinks" There needs to be some logical separation of rewards between single player and multiplayer?!? AS IF the questline is only able to be accomplished in the single player world.
Honestly I am most puzzled bye the fact the single player world exists inside of an MMO?!? Huge waist of Port's time and resources if you ask me..... but I digress, its in there and now I get to read how a single player mode player thinks a
quest reward is not appropriate because its an emote... very strange world indeed....

 

Lol.