A story telling device

Remember how early in the game content when we completed a mission the cut scene would pop up with comic images and a narrative by a hero or villain. We all learned interesting things like apparently Wonder Girl hates liars. Well what ever happened to those and why aren’t they used in any newer content to help explain the storyline of that dlc. It seems like it would be a cheap easy way for the developers to drive the story and explain to the players what’s going on. And those that don’t care can just skip it.

One word...

Money.

And don't forget effort

Those comic cutscenes were made by a company outside of SOE. They were very expensive, and were subsequently cut from the budget.

Surely the same art team that made the new loading screens can design the cuts scenes. I don’t even think they were animated. You just have to copy some scenes from the comics and add a voice over. You could probably do from your laptop at home.

The new loading screens aren't exactly new and again the comic cut scenes were made by an outside source. I'm sure there's a reason why they had to use an outside source instead of using their own art team.

Because it's neither cheap, nor easy. Anything with voice acting requires paying for the studio, the voice actors, the voice director, the technicians; animation that isn't generated by the game engine has to be painstakingly drawn and put together and animated and edited and synchronized with the voice acting, and so on.

I don't know what each of those animations cost to make, but I wouldn't be shocked if they cost more than $10,000 each. Possibly significantly more.

Agreed. I don't even want to IMAGINE how much it costs to use the current voice actors, let alone the past ones or even the ones for the iconic mentors. Even if only slides are used, a separate team would be needed to create and coordinate those slides along with the voice acting, which would cost money. As I see it, the dev's schedule is basically tied up until next year's Spring/April Fools Events, so they would no time to even think about bringing back those mission end monologues.

By cheap and easy I mean cheaper and easier than actually animating computer generated characters. The voice actors are already getting paid when they record for the times already in the content, you are just adding an extra paragraph to their dialogue and only four of those total. I’m not sure what the population of the game was like when it was released but there’s got to be more people on it now than then, which means cutting costs shouldn’t be their biggest concern at this point because they should be making more money than ever now.

Well I didn’t mean they need to go back to old content and add it I just mean new content from this point on.

Yes, that is what I thought you meant; bringing back those mission end monologues to current content, not past ones. Sorry if that was not clear.

Every session needs to be paid for. The company has to adhere to the union-set-standards for the contracts of every union involved, including SAG-AFTRA for voice actors. That's going to run at least $340/hour per voice actor, alone.

No, you can't just do this casually.

Uh, do you have any idea how many MILLIONS OF DOLLARS it takes to create the base work for an MMORPG? Many. So many artists, so many programmers, so many people, for several YEARS of work.

No, they don't have that kind of budget any more. You basically have it all backwards, I'm afraid. It took well over three years of development work before the base game could even get to beta. Millions and millions of dollars. They didn't then leave everyone hanging around on salary to do work ten years later.

I've never done any digging into it, but I do wonder if any right-to-work laws passed by states might affect that somehow.

Even if it did, though, you're right it's still not gonna be a cheap or casual endeavor.

I can’t believe this thread is all about saving the money of a company you dump 100s of dollars a year into. Does anyone actually work there and know or are you guys just purely speculating. Stop worrying about their money and address the idea. Is this a good simple way to deliver the story? Are you done with the concept of story and just want more dress up outfits instead?

The devs themselves stated that they were too expensive to continue making.

They said they can’t afford stories anymore? There’s plenty of games out there that have constant online play and release regular dlcs that don’t even have subscription based games. Those dlcs have no problem giving story and gameplay. The servers for Destiny constantly run open world content and they don’t even charge subscriptions. Daybreak charges you for all kinds of things plus monthlies but they can’t afford a cutscene? Get out here man that’s ridiculous. Plenty of games out there have voice actors on the payroll and plenty of overhead running servers but can continually release dlcs with full content. They just think no one cares so they don’t focus on it because apparently more people are concerned with the next pair of glowing pants versus a storyline you can follow and be immersed in.

a) If the game doesn't turn a profit, it will be shut down. So seeing that they spend their money wisely is in all of our interest.

b) I'm interested in reality. It would be great if Daybreak would give all subscribers and Premiums $1000.00 in Marketplace cash, but it isn't going to happen. It would be great if everyone who wanted a pony in real life would be given one by Daybreak, but that won't happen, either.

Getting those animations back would be great. But this is only about the ten billionth thread over the past nine or so years in which it is explained why this will never happen. They were great, but they're super-expensive, don't add to game-play, and aren't going to bring in more revenue than they'd cost. So they're not going to happen.

Discussions of "wouldn't it be nice" are fine, but should be clearly distinguished from "I would seriously like to spend time and energy campaigning for something that would be a complete waste of time to spend time and energy campaigning for." It's helpful, when making suggestions on how to improve the game, to understand what realistically might be possible and what definitely is not realistically possible.

Or not. Talk it up all you like. It's not my time and energy. Enjoy.

No. The game is full of story. You just have to pay attention to what NPCs say and do in instances, what written notes in instances say, what Investigations say via audio, and the cut-scenes at the beginning of instances and along the way and in conclusion.

There are an infinite number of ways to tell stories. If you're not paying attention to the stories of each DLC/Episode, you're simply not paying attention.

Pretending that the only way to tell stories is one specific format and style, is silly. Pretending that DCUO stopped telling stories when they stopped having a particular type of post-instance animation after level 30 is risible. We've had 35 episodes and no stories? <eyeroll>

Really? There are game makers who keep full-time voice actors on staff full time? Companies that don't hire voice actors as contractors for freelance work as needed, but actually have them on the payroll as full-time employees, with benefits?

Could you name three, please?

Half the investi

Half the investigations aren’t even about the storyline and the other half have to be found consecutively in order to make sense assuming you find them at all. NPC allude to things but unless you’ve read the comics a lot of it’s not going to make sense. I get it, Constantine is in trouble so go fight the big squid thing, game over cool story bro. Aquaman is in trouble go fight his brother. Or Aquaman is in trouble go fight his other brother. That’s what people get out of it and most people are satisfied with that I guess. Some of the stories are easy to follow like the Titans story because it was pretty straight forward. Maybe you’ve read all these comics so it’s clear to you, that’s how I feel about Metal since I’ve read it but I imagine other people are confused that haven’t read it. You shouldn’t have to search for the story, I mean it’s you characters motivation for doing the task. Its why every game pretty much has a storyline.

By voice actors on the payroll I mean every game uses voice actors and it’s not making them go under paying for them. It’s just a part of the industry. You can’t use that as an excuse for failing to tell a compelling story.

The first isn't true other than the original global investigations in the open worlds of Metropolis and Gotham City. This hasn't otherwise been true since the first DLC dropped. It just factually isn't so.

[...] You shouldn’t have to search for the story, I mean it’s you characters motivation for doing the task. Its why every game pretty much has a storyline. [...] Every Episode has a storyline. Pay attention or don't: it's up to you.

By voice actors on the payroll I mean every game uses voice actors and it’s not making them go under paying for them. It’s just a part of the industry. You can’t use that as an excuse for failing to tell a compelling story.[/quote] I'll repeat for the last time, since you're just repeating yourself now, not using a particular type of animation isn't "failing to tell a compelling story." It just isn't.

If you stuck to saying "gee, I really miss those old animations, and it sure would be great if they could come back," everyone would agree with you. But "the Episodes/DLCs have no story" is, I repeat, ridiculous. Which episode would you like explained to you?