How Does Warframe's Game-Play Relate To It's Story?

[(PSN)i_illusion]

I'll just leave here as to the reason why I'm addressing this...

I recommend watching the video I left above before jumping into the discussion.

 

So this video has me thinking, how does Warframe's Game-Play relate to the story. I mean the whole tagline for Warframe is "Ninja's Play for Free." But as we all know, this game uses very little stealth mechanics, in fact the whole idea of being Ninja's is sort of thrown out the window entirely when in a mission becauses it's uneffecient and time consuming with no actual awards for trying to play like the story's/game premise of a Space Ninja. The Tenno are more like Warriors then actual Ninja's, and this is prominent throughout the game as when we enter ships or enter boss extermination missions the Bosses already know we are there. (STEALTH GUYZ. GAWD.) During early game we truly needed team work coordination, people needed to be talking to each other otherwise someone might try and go off on their own in a 20 mintue survival and that was complete suicide. But once Tenno get near end game (or actually far before end game) coorpative play and communication is simply no longer needed. Which goes against everything the game is supposed to tell me to do. A Rhino may rush to complete the mission and is already at extraction and you are still 5 minutes away from extraction all together.

Back when Rescue 2.0 was released the event going on (forgive me for not remembering the name of it) was made so that we have to be stealthy if we wanted get bonus points for the event award, in the end playing with stealth yielded more points. So people who rushed to the rescue were quickly frowned upon, and no one simply wanted to play with them. More people on the PS4 plugged in their mics (everyone has one there are zero excuses to not talk with the team online) because we actually needed cordination and communication with our kills. People were grabbing their Ash and Loki's so they can stealth kill. People brought in Sniper Rifers, and Banshee to use her Silience. In the end that was the most fun I ever had playing Warframe game-play wise ever. And after the event, there was no longer any reason to use stealth in missions ever again.

But this isn't a discussion on why we need stealth in Warframe, but how does our current Game-Play relate to our story? And long explaination short, it doesn't.

We're not the stealthy Tenno The Lotus makes us out to be. We are loud, obnoxious, loot seeking, little honored warriors who don't know what the hell we're doing in the universe but want the next shiny weapon to use on the Grineer, Corpus, or Infested because they are "evil." The only time I get thrown back to our Ninja roots is when I'm in my Clan's Dojo, or when I use a samurai sword or throwing stars as a weapon.

Nearly 80% of our Warframe's don't incorpate the "Ninja" of Warframe in anyway.

(Other Tenno: Is Rhino a Ninja?

Me: I'm sorry guys Rhino is not a Ninja.

Other Tenno: Is Nova a Ninja?

Me: NO TENNO. Nova is not a Ninja also.

Other Tenno: Is a Rock a Ninja?

Me: A rock would be a better Ninja then all of us combined...)

 

But it's not also just the lack of stealth or stealth moves incorperated into Warframe that keeps the Game-Play from relating to It's Story. But also nearly every popular and new mission type in the Game, Survival = Everyone knows your there and is out to kill you. Defense? We know your there but we want to destroy the Tenno in the pod and try to kill you too. Excavation? We know your here for our resources, so we are going to send a endless amount of men trying to kill you. Mobile Defense? We know your here, so let me send a endless amount of men to try and kill your and or stop our computers from getting our data exposed. Interception? Your trying to control that area for some reason, and we want that area for some reason, so we are going to send an infinite amount of men to try to kill you because we like that spot and it's ours. And Archwing... How does one even Ninja in the depths of space anyway?

..... So that leaves Spy, Hijack, Possibly Sabotage, and Rescue missions as the only missions that sort of requires Ninja skills (but everyone rushes through these missions anyways so...) 
 

What I find most humorous is that we had a voice acting event hosted by IGN, the winners would have their voices put into the radio intercom on our ships in Warframe. And more then half of the phases we could choose from describes Tenno as stealthy, silient, brutal mass murders whom with hold the Lotus's sense of government of the galaxy. WHAT GAME IS THIS AND WHERE DO I PLAY IT?

 

So Tenno, how do you think Warframe's Game-Play relate to the story?

Should Warframe require more ninja in their game-play?

If you never received story, or any sort of information regarding what this game is about what would you think the story is about?

Should Digital Extremes simply change their Tagline to "Warriors Play for Free"?

And is there anything else you want to address to the discussion?

[sekushiiandee]

theres a story?

[TheErebus.]

What story do we even have right now? 
Nothing.
Or at least, nothing that we can effectively call a story. 

We have Lore, and that is completely different from the main story of a game.
 

 

Oh and by the way, we're not Ninjas. We stopped being Ninjas the second we started using Galatine.

[ra9una]

If you want to be stealthy you can. It's not really a popular thing though because there are no appropriate rewards.

[SHOCKED]

The "Ninjas Play Free" marketing isn't describing in-game characters, but the players.

[CrazyCatLad]

Story:

 

Old war

Nap-time

New war

Corpus and Grineer bosses going crazy

 

 

'bout it.

[ra9una]

Story:

 

Old war

Nap-time

New war

Corpus and Grineer bosses going crazy

 

 

'bout it.

I can do even shorter:

 

Things.

Kill the things.

[Xiusa]

Stealth is an option, not a requirement.

 

The game is about the Tenno, a warrior race that intends to bring balance to the Origin System (and likely the universe in theory.)

 

The Tenno that don the Warframes were the elite agents of the Orokin Empire to combat the Sentients with their void-born powers. The Warframes are used to focus that power from the original Warframe-wearing Tenno, the Primes. These Tenno used whatever means necessary to combat the Sentients, be it stealthily or not. This is LORE.

 

There is not much in-game story, apart from quests, as you are to assume the position of the story-telling for most of the gameplay you go through. Operations tend to give more story and lore.

[-DM-Nexriot]

space magic and magic shields that make our magic fail , aaaaand more magic

[Yorinar]

I can do even shorter:

 

Things.

Kill Farm the things.

 

ftfy

[Overlord_Hades]

The whole ninja things was just a slogan because of the way the characters were suppoed to be played and the over all feel of the game when it started. Way back when there was a lot more espionage and get in and get out missions. So you felt like a sneaky shadow creeping into the enmy base and killing their doods, or rescueing yours, or sabotageing their ship. Now its all about space magic, fighting hordes of enemies and looking cool. Which is what the community wanted. The only thing close to a ninja in this game is ash.

/thread

[Blackout751]

Story:

 

Old war

Nap-time

New war

Corpus and Grineer bosses going crazy

 

 

'bout it.

 

In a nutshell, this is pretty much correct.

[vaugahn]

The "Ninjas Play Free" marketing isn't describing in-game characters, but the players.

 

THANK YOU.

 

Are tenno playing the game? No. That tagline uses a more colloquial "ninja". Basically, "if you have ninja skills, you can play free". 

 

The "space ninja" designation used by devs gives an overall aesthetic impression, for both gameplay and art design. It doesn't mean this game is MGS. Basically, we're not so much ninjas in the historical sense as we are ninjas in the pop culture sense, with a dash of sci-fi thrown in for good measure. Don't expect a whole lot of tactical espionage action, this game has never been about that. Even in closed beta, the gameplay was always aggressive, with the emphasis placed on direct combat.

[Sitchrea]

We may have Lore, but the story is definetly bare-bones atm. If DE were to make a story out of the bits of Lore they have in the game atm, it could be an incredible experience.

 

But yeah, I agree... How are Archwings "Space Ninja" in any way, shape, form, or fashion?!

 

 

What I find most humorous is that we had a voice acting event hosted by IGN, the winners would have their voices put into the radio intercom on our ships in Warframe. And more then half of the phases we could choose from describes Tenno as stealthy, silient, brutal mass murders whom with hold the Lotus's sense of government of the galaxy. WHAT GAME IS THIS AND WHERE DO I PLAY IT?

 

I would pay double for this. Seriously!

Edited December 17, 2014 by Sitchrea

[Sitchrea]

THANK YOU.

 

Are tenno playing the game? No. That tagline uses a more colloquial "ninja". Basically, "if you have ninja skills, you can play free". 

 

The "space ninja" designation used by devs gives an overall aesthetic impression, for both gameplay and art design. It doesn't mean this game is MGS. Basically, we're not so much ninjas in the historical sense as we are ninjas in the pop culture sense, with a dash of sci-fi thrown in for good measure. Don't expect a whole lot of tactical espionage action, this game has never been about that. Even in closed beta, the gameplay was always aggressive, with the emphasis placed on direct combat.

 

Okay, now my thinking has been diverted... But I still wish we would be encouraged to Stealth more, because continuity gets shaky when we can kill thousands of Grineer at once but Jackal can apparently still kill entire Cells at one time.

[vaugahn]

Okay, now my thinking has been diverted... But I still wish we would be encouraged to Stealth more, because continuity gets shaky when we can kill thousands of Grineer at once but Jackal can apparently still kill entire Cells at one time.

 

What I'd like to see from stealth is the pre-mission setup. 

 

Missions are always going to be loud and in someone's face, that's just how we do things. But think about how we enter the mission...we drop down from a vent, and the enemies are always unaware of our presence. Why not have a pre-mission phase (possibly even using archwing) where we sneak aboard the ship or into the base?

 

I think of us more like a special forces team. We appear out of nowhere, wreck some faces, and then disappear again. The actual combat may not be stealthy, but the arrival and departure are. So why not let us play through those parts?

 

Anways, that's just my 2 cents.

[(PSN)renosis]

I am starting to get tired of these we're not ninja threads. It is just a gimmicky slogan that sounds cool. It is hard to do stealth well in a multiplayer game like this. The whole game isn't really designed for that and Warframe would look and play entirely different if they tried to make it stealth. Also, being a "ninja", in the true sense of the word isn't fun. Who wants to wait around for 7 hours dressed as a servant so you can dishonorably kill someone. Didn't Ninja's do the dirty work that samurai could not do out in the open without losing their "honor".

 

More people on the PS4 plugged in their mics (everyone has one there are zero excuses to not talk with the team online) because we actually needed cordination and communication with our kills.

 

I can think of tons of excuses to not talk with the "team" online:

 

1. Half the time user has headset/mic plugged in and leaves it laying on couch or whatever. All you hear is dogs barking, children yelling, or babies crying.

 

2. Many times you end up talking with jerks who either criticize your game play, try to start arguments, or are just nasty people.

 

3. A quarter of the users don't have headsets plugged in.

 

4. Another quarter of the users have Mute all Voice on.

 

Back on topic:

 

All that said, I wouldn't mind seeing some increased rewards for stealth play and some changes to the stealth attack context damage (should be one hit kill).

Edited December 17, 2014 by (PS4)renosis

[Sitchrea]

What I'd like to see from stealth is the pre-mission setup. 

 

Missions are always going to be loud and in someone's face, that's just how we do things. But think about how we enter the mission...we drop down from a vent, and the enemies are always unaware of our presence. Why not have a pre-mission phase (possibly even using archwing) where we sneak aboard the ship or into the base?

 

I think of us more like a special forces team. We appear out of nowhere, wreck some faces, and then disappear again. The actual combat may not be stealthy, but the arrival and departure are. So why not let us play through those parts?

 

Anways, that's just my 2 cents.

 

I would love this!

 

Have one option of using Archwing to blow a hole in the wall of the ship and go in guns blazing from the get-go, or the option to infiltrate stealthily into a specific area of the ship before opening up, if you do at all.

 

Idea is amazing!

[Blakrana]

Ah, story.

 

First issue that Warframe has on the Narrative department is that it's currently still in development. As it stands, we have snippets of Lore which can lead to some very...diverse conclusions. Then there's how the mechanics of the game run contrary to concepts that 'cannot possibly be canon', such as the interchange of a Tenno between Warframes, despite the narrative supporting that assertion. So that needs tamping down or at least being 'open to debate' without that damaging the story itself.

 

As people have said...Warframe doesn't really have much of a story so far, in that we can play it and experience it as it goes; we get Events with some interesting developments, the progress of Suspicious Shipments to the Project Zero and Mutalist Alad V storyline being an interesting example. Otherwise, it's an up to 4 person instanced mission with a finite objective. Like I've said before, Warframe's mechanically akin to Phantasy Star, only difference really being a lack of a main 'story' to get the ball rolling.

 

After all, beating the story of Phantasy Star Portable 2 happens around about level 60 or so. The level cap is 200. Warframe we haven't really got that kind of set up yet to allow for Narrative, especially with frames being interchangeable, your Mastery Rank not really denoting overall power per a conventional RPG level system...it's a balance issue at the end of the day. Where would a Campaign 'end'? Mastery Rank 6? 12? And so on...

 

Warframe does have potential for an interesting story, and its setting is certainly dark enough for some intriguing directions. Fixating on the 'Ninja' line however will be somewhat detrimental. Like stated, there's two kinds of Ninja; the Historically Accurate Ninja which you don't see, and the Pop Culture 'One man army' Ninja.

 

For the sake of argument, if you want a Historically Accurate Ninja, play Mark of the Ninja. Good honest stealthy fun.

 

If you want a One Ninja Army, play Ninja Gaiden, Strider, Warframe, I suppose Final Fantasy Ninja units count...yeah, you see what I'm getting at, right?

 

I think of us more like a special forces team. We appear out of nowhere, wreck some faces, and then disappear again. The actual combat may not be stealthy, but the arrival and departure are. So why not let us play through those parts?

 

This is where we sort of sit. Tenno are really just an advanced Special Forces unit with a bit of an unusual aesthetic and a culture around it.

 

And one of the most likely problems with any attempt at story is that, well, unless there is some kind of tangible risk, threat or danger, it's hollow. Ever power levelled to the point you can just cream a Story Boss in an RPG, and it fell flat? That's kind of the situation the gameplay puts us, nigh constantly. With power levels being what they are in the game, making a fair but tough fight to actually grab people by how dangerous it is, is not an easy task.

 

There are only so many tools that can be used to make Gameplay support a Narrative. Yet we have so much In-game power we're possibly running the risk of the Inverse for 'Cutscene power to the max'; namely, we'd get tossed around in the narrative...yet still be able to destroy reams upon reams of enemies without so much as a sweat. Not a situation the Devs want to end up in, I imagine.

 

Resulting in the situation where the Gameplay and Story currently run counter to each other. It may be possible for Warframe to have an interesting campaign, but that's likely going to require serious balancing to be even attempted if you want something to get attention; again, a Story of people who can never lose is a pretty boring story. Stories live or die relative to the dramatic tension they possess.

 

Granted, some people like that 'unbeatable hero' sort of thing, and they're free to do that. But all a Story is, is a way to convey conflict in some form to engage the reader's interest. Romance, Horror, Sci-fi, Fantasy...regardless of genre, there is some integral conflict to put the balls in motion in the tombola of engagement questions.

 

Take Stalker. Lore paints him as an abject Tenno hunting badass. Gameplay wise, you can squish him with a sufficiently modded weapon, and it's rather...boring if that happens. Yet that's what we'd pretty much have to expect from a Narrative enemy we eventually get to fight; a rather pretty Anti-climax which just leaves you asking 'that's it?' rather than 'that was epic!'.

 

So...I'm afraid that for now, the fact that Warframe lacks a clear cut story, relative to it's mechanics, is likely the best case scenario whilst balance is still a hot topic. RPGs work off of gating content behind what gear is available where and what enemies you can face, and that's the mechanic around their stories. Warframe needs another similar 'narrative gate' so that the Story is not utterly supplanted by a lone Tenno who shelled out a few dozen platinum on an OP weapon.

 

In Summary: At present, Warframe's Gameplay is not really conducive to a defined story narrative, due to the difficulty in balancing the power of the Tenno against some form of threat, be it some great enemy force or simply entities like the Stalker. Unless the game really manages to figure out how much power is acceptable when and where, a Story will risk running the ground of disappointing Anti-climax because the heavily fluffed up Conflict will be solved by whatever hard hitting weapon you have to hand, or will be deemed 'unfair' because the tools provided are woefully inadequate to the task at hand.

 

Okay, now my thinking has been diverted... But I still wish we would be encouraged to Stealth more, because continuity gets shaky when we can kill thousands of Grineer at once but Jackal can apparently still kill entire Cells at one time.

 

Lotus is not necessarily referring to other Tenno. We rescue agents of the Lotus' own other than Tenno, after all, and Phorid is another 'we lost a spy cell' case. The context for Jackal then, and any other 'causing cells issue' would be the Lotus is sending in the specialist Tenno to solve the problem for her ground agents.

 

If your pawns can't take the enemy knight, send in your own knight.

[(PSN)i_illusion]

Ah, story.

 

First issue that Warframe has on the Narrative department is that it's currently still in development. As it stands, we have snippets of Lore which can lead to some very...diverse conclusions. Then there's how the mechanics of the game run contrary to concepts that 'cannot possibly be canon', such as the interchange of a Tenno between Warframes, despite the narrative supporting that assertion. So that needs tamping down or at least being 'open to debate' without that damaging the story itself.

 

As people have said...Warframe doesn't really have much of a story so far, in that we can play it and experience it as it goes; we get Events with some interesting developments, the progress of Suspicious Shipments to the Project Zero and Mutalist Alad V storyline being an interesting example. Otherwise, it's an up to 4 person instanced mission with a finite objective. Like I've said before, Warframe's mechanically akin to Phantasy Star, only difference really being a lack of a main 'story' to get the ball rolling.

 

After all, beating the story of Phantasy Star Portable 2 happens around about level 60 or so. The level cap is 200. Warframe we haven't really got that kind of set up yet to allow for Narrative, especially with frames being interchangeable, your Mastery Rank not really denoting overall power per a conventional RPG level system...it's a balance issue at the end of the day. Where would a Campaign 'end'? Mastery Rank 6? 12? And so on...

 

Warframe does have potential for an interesting story, and its setting is certainly dark enough for some intriguing directions. Fixating on the 'Ninja' line however will be somewhat detrimental. Like stated, there's two kinds of Ninja; the Historically Accurate Ninja which you don't see, and the Pop Culture 'One man army' Ninja.

 

For the sake of argument, if you want a Historically Accurate Ninja, play Mark of the Ninja. Good honest stealthy fun.

 

If you want a One Ninja Army, play Ninja Gaiden, Strider, Warframe, I suppose Final Fantasy Ninja units count...yeah, you see what I'm getting at, right?

 

 

This is where we sort of sit. Tenno are really just an advanced Special Forces unit with a bit of an unusual aesthetic and a culture around it.

 

And one of the most likely problems with any attempt at story is that, well, unless there is some kind of tangible risk, threat or danger, it's hollow. Ever power levelled to the point you can just cream a Story Boss in an RPG, and it fell flat? That's kind of the situation the gameplay puts us, nigh constantly. With power levels being what they are in the game, making a fair but tough fight to actually grab people by how dangerous it is, is not an easy task.

 

There are only so many tools that can be used to make Gameplay support a Narrative. Yet we have so much In-game power we're possibly running the risk of the Inverse for 'Cutscene power to the max'; namely, we'd get tossed around in the narrative...yet still be able to destroy reams upon reams of enemies without so much as a sweat. Not a situation the Devs want to end up in, I imagine.

 

Resulting in the situation where the Gameplay and Story currently run counter to each other. It may be possible for Warframe to have an interesting campaign, but that's likely going to require serious balancing to be even attempted if you want something to get attention; again, a Story of people who can never lose is a pretty boring story. Stories live or die relative to the dramatic tension they possess.

 

Granted, some people like that 'unbeatable hero' sort of thing, and they're free to do that. But all a Story is, is a way to convey conflict in some form to engage the reader's interest. Romance, Horror, Sci-fi, Fantasy...regardless of genre, there is some integral conflict to put the balls in motion in the tombola of engagement questions.

 

Take Stalker. Lore paints him as an abject Tenno hunting badass. Gameplay wise, you can squish him with a sufficiently modded weapon, and it's rather...boring if that happens. Yet that's what we'd pretty much have to expect from a Narrative enemy we eventually get to fight; a rather pretty Anti-climax which just leaves you asking 'that's it?' rather than 'that was epic!'.

 

So...I'm afraid that for now, the fact that Warframe lacks a clear cut story, relative to it's mechanics, is likely the best case scenario whilst balance is still a hot topic. RPGs work off of gating content behind what gear is available where and what enemies you can face, and that's the mechanic around their stories. Warframe needs another similar 'narrative gate' so that the Story is not utterly supplanted by a lone Tenno who shelled out a few dozen platinum on an OP weapon.

 

In Summary: At present, Warframe's Gameplay is not really conducive to a defined story narrative, due to the difficulty in balancing the power of the Tenno against some form of threat, be it some great enemy force or simply entities like the Stalker. Unless the game really manages to figure out how much power is acceptable when and where, a Story will risk running the ground of disappointing Anti-climax because the heavily fluffed up Conflict will be solved by whatever hard hitting weapon you have to hand, or will be deemed 'unfair' because the tools provided are woefully inadequate to the task at hand.

 

 

Lotus is not necessarily referring to other Tenno. We rescue agents of the Lotus' own other than Tenno, after all, and Phorid is another 'we lost a spy cell' case. The context for Jackal then, and any other 'causing cells issue' would be the Lotus is sending in the specialist Tenno to solve the problem for her ground agents.

 

If your pawns can't take the enemy knight, send in your own knight.

Very well said, I'm taking time to sink in everything you said so I can respond to it. xD

But overall I agree with your summary, and it's what I've been hoping to hear from other Tenno.

[Phyrosite]

Well if youre complaining about stealth,, look no further than 2015, or 2016... Whenever DE decides to look at Stealth... Were still waiting to see just what exaclty Focus is gonna be and what they do with Parkour i believe is what theyre looking at first quarter 2015.

As for story... Lore and storyline are ongoing and theres changes being made all the time (for example Nova's lore being redacted.), its beta and I feel like the story will continue being mashed around until the game finally releases from beta.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Phyrosite

[Mr.ToastForPresident]

I highly disagree with your point. The main purpose of this game is to feel like a bad@$$ space-ninja murdering tons of enemies and bringing justice to the solar system, sort of like Power Rangers. Look at how the game is advertised, there is no stealth, there is no backstabbing slow gameplay. The trailers have a group of Tenno drop into a base, murder bunches of fools, Assassinate a person that does not look like the rest of the dudes, then pose in front of the camera until the Warframe logo pops up. This is how the game is and was advertised since the very beginning. Lotus doesn't tell you anything about how you should approach the mission, just tells you to do something. Stealth is just an option towards how you should approach things.

 

The term "ninja" just means mercenary in Japanese. There is no one way someone can be a "ninja", as seen in various shows and interpretations of this term. Ninja's can approach the situation in s variety of ways, like stealth or straight up fist fighting foes and beating them down with their parkour techniques. So all of the Warframes are ninja because of their skill sets and possible training.

 

SO the gameplay does reflect the overall plot of this game. You, the tenno, are a force to be reckoned with as you are a powerful warrior that uses the old ways to strike down your foes in a various number of ways. This is how the plot goes and this is how the gameplay is.