Implementation (TSD and Sands Spoilers)

[LysanderasD]

The onus of explaining the game should fall to the game, not to external resources, official or otherwise.

DE’s design intent, in general, seems (somewhat counterintuitively) to be organized around current players rather than prospective players, which puts the onus of explaining past content on resources external to the game which, I would argue, is not good design.

I originally considered drafting up a post to this effect upon the release of Sands of Inaros, but never got to it; and now in retrospect I am glad I waited, because the current state of our orbiter provides, I feel, a better example of what I mean than did that quest.

This is not a thread about the quality of DE’s writing, nor is it a thread about whether you think DE is going in the “right direction.” 

This is a thread about DE’s implementation of their writing which is wholly a different beast; and furthermore this is a thread about the availability of information relevant to new Tenno, and the theoretical experience of a Tenno unguided by the community.

“But Lysander,” you say. “The tutorial’s a bit shoddy—we already know that.”

There is a dearth of important information relevant to new players available in the game, both in terms of actual mechanical gameplay and quests.

Consider also Alad V’s quantum superposition as a character (he exists in three separate observable states at any one time, and is only in a single state when interacting with a given Tenno). The first Alad V players are intended to encounter is the one on Jupiter who holds the pieces of Valkyr; the second Alad V is the Mutalist; and the final is the one we interact with during the Second Dream. Alad V’s character has a clear chronology, but Patient Zero is not a prerequisite to The Second Dream, and Tubemen of Regor is referenced exactly nowhere in the game as it stands right now*, which gives new players no context for the chronology of Alad V’s character, and (should he appear in later quests) gives them no context for how, why, and when he may have recovered.

*”DE is planning on adding past events in as quests, maybe?” Maybe. The future is not the point; a player today would have no idea about Tubemen of Regor unless he looked outside the context of the game.

Alad V’s character arc has a distinct and intended order that is not enforced by game design.

Information on warframe passives (Inaros’ unique downstate and ability to restore health via finishers) and the interactions of powers (with themselves, i.e. Frost’s Snow Globe; with other parts of the frame’s kit, i.e., Saryn’s entire gimmick; and between the powers of other warframes or warframes themselves, i.e., the ability for Tenno to leave the Rift via rolling). While I do agree that there should be some degree of experimentation to discover how warframes synergize, certain information about frames should be available without resorting to external sources.

The writing of quests, outside of Alad V, has so far escaped this, because quests are largely self-contained and do not rely on each other (with the exception of Natah -> The Second Dream, which is justifiable as it seems to be the beginning of the “campaign,” so to speak). It could be argued that the Codex contains foreshadowing for The Second Dream that will completely go over the heads of those who do not bother to look, but that is not the point of this thread.

The current state of our orbiter (that is, the infestation growing on the lower rear starboard door) suggests (and it, I think, the general consensus of the community) that it is involved in the upcoming inevitable quest for us to obtain tame kavats. This is all fine, well, and good—I am looking forward to kavats as much as anyone else. The issue I have with it is that this hypothetical quest involves our orbiter.

“The Second Dream did that already,” you say.

“Exactly my point,” I say.

If the kavat sidequest involves our orbiter, I encourage DE to approach it from another angle, or to make the hypothetical sidequest require completion of The Second Dream. This may seem a bit extreme, but I would argue that part of the shock value of TSD is that it involves our orbiter a place we heretofore considered sacrosanct and outside the context of normal gameplay. The fact that we are in our orbiter and simultaneously completing a dramatic quest is part of what sells the tension and confusion of the ending of TSD.

Yet if there is a sidequest that involves kavats that can be completed before TSD (or any sidequest which involves the orbiter), much of that shock value and dramatic tension is lost, unless that quest is done after TSD.

If you read anything, let me reiterate: The onus of explaining the game should fall to the game, not to external resources, official or otherwise. Information players need to make sense of the narrative and to streamline gameplay should not be locked outside the game itself.

Edited March 18, 2016 by LysanderasD
Trimming and clarifying.