(03-12-2019, 05:48 PM)Durandal Wrote: I have made this statement before: by acknowledging player events and waiting for these story threads to be concluded by players, you stretch update cycles out to upwards of six months or more. It isn't realistic. To do so also requires players, or at least faction leaders, to know the future. As writers we generally want people to read from the beginning to the end of the book, not skip forward a few pages - or to the end - to see what happens first.
If you want more player driven roleplay that people actually play out before it enters the game world, your best bet is always going to be to proactive by coming to the story team first, asking "hey, can we make this idea work?", and then working with us to get it done.
I get that there needs to be certain moderation and narrative within events and consequences, but this is a roleplaying game that people play because they wanna have fun, and there is no fun in being a puppet in someone else's story. People want to do stuff and achieve something, to have influence over the events involving their factions and not be given a script they need to follow.
You said that if faction leaders want influence, they need "to be to proactive by coming to the story team first". If story devs want to have such a strong grip over the storyline and changes while also satisfying this small community (if they care about that and not only their ego), they are the ones who need to contact faction leaders to see their perspective before making changes. On a side not, can you say that story devs have listened, considered and acted on player requests regarding the Freelancer story at all or enough?
Nobody said it's an easy job and there are always going to be mistakes with it, but things can change.