Free Allegiance Forums

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).

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.*

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.

Dont know if it has been mentioned but I think the ship icons should be removed and replaced with actual images of the ships. Everything else seems fine.

As long as I have any say over it, the intro video is staying =P If TE decides to use this page (and I really, REALLY hope he does...) and decides he doesn't want it up there, that's his decision, but I'm 100% for it. We gotta show that there's more to the game than mindless shooting, even if it is "shallow" or "weak." When I first started playing, it was central to my initial interest to the game. If it interested me, why wouldn't it interest others?

You guys have to realize that our current approach is obviously not working. We're down to around ~500 actives. Don't you agree that we maybe need to try something different with our initial presentation of the game?

AEM wrote:QUOTE (AEM @ Dec 15 2009, 09:39 AM) Dont know if it has been mentioned but I think the ship icons should be removed and replaced with actual images of the ships. Everything else seems fine.

Yeah I already said a few times that this was one my to-do list before I ask TE if he wants to host it, among a few other little tweaks.

page will not load anymore....

It still loads for me.

My 2c...

Backstory to videogames is no more interesting than backstories to a porno.
As was said earlier in this thread, it's just an excuse for the two to bash eachother.
The real entertainment comes from the actual bashing.

Wow that was deep. LOL pun.

--TE

Bacon wrote:QUOTE (Bacon @ Dec 15 2009, 05:43 PM) Yeah I already said a few times that this was one my to-do list before I ask TE if he wants to host it, among a few other little tweaks.

Good. That and we are good.


Personally, I could take or leave the weapons and tech pages. I'm not sure they add much for a fresh player.

The ships look neat, the faction bit is neat. I'd rather see more ships/eye candy then the tech stuff personally, or a page about alephs, cos they look pretty neat, or bases.

Bases would be nice, but I think both weapons and tech pages seem both attractive to newbies, and also useful.

im not a fan of the faction history. It really isnt relevant to the game, never was.

i think maybe it would be better to list each factions strengths and weaknesses.

as for the ships, weapons, bases etc... maybe an ingame pic of each one with a mouseover description?