A lot of games can be brought down to two sides bashing each other, with the story being a mere "excuse." The story still adds something to all the bashing, though. It does add to the immersion. At least to a slight extent, it makes the battle more fun, when at least some tiny disbelief-suspending side of you can imagine you're fighting *for something.*cashto wrote:QUOTE (cashto @ Dec 15 2009, 11:39 AM) The "story" behind Allegiance is quite possibly the weakest part of the whole game. It's incredibly superficial and half-baked, and the quality of the asteroid movie, quite frankly, is an embarassment. The backstory of Allegiance contributes absolutely nil to my enjoyment of the game. There's no call to bait-and-switch people, thinking they're getting an immersive universe thingy when in reality the game is no more than two teams bashing the crap out of each other (repeatedly).
I personally do like the Allegiance story. It's not terribly well-developed, true, (though someday the community may change that
) but on the whole the universe it creates is a pretty cool one, even somewhat original.And I agree with Bacon that story can help catch new players' attention a lot more than a "context-less sport-in-space" kind of thing. Sports are boring.
(Also, even for sports, people have loyalties and stories, favourite players, other things that are not directly related to the sport itself to make them really care about it...)
I think this may just be a matter of personal preference, but I certainly don't think there's any harm in keeping the video there, and showing the roots of the game. And the fact that it contributes nothing to your enjoyment of the game might be an aspect of what Bacon said -- for experienced players, Allegiance is perfectly enjoyable as a "sport," but for newbies, story might be a good way to catch attention.
Whatever else, it certainly adds to the character of the game.
For what it's worth, I still care about the story. I'd like to see the factions kept to their in-story characteristics when they get re-balanced in CC, for example, and I like the fact that the factions' differences can be traced back to in-universe reasons.
