Noclip Documentary -- Warframe (Gaming)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 10:18 (2447 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by Korny, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 11:08

So what is different about how they approach and execute the story? What can Bungie learn from them?

I’m not going to nitpick because I don’t doubt the way they handle the story is probably good. It’s just literally everything else about that game that is disgusting.

They have a "no empty calories" approach to story. They implement in-game lore (often building and referencing events that you can read about in the in-game grimoire), they flesh out existing characters, and have them interact with one another, many of the characters (such as faction leaders, allies, even Warframe's version of Xur) have had their own questlines that not only give them depth, but that explain their relationships to specific Warframes, and other characters in the game. When they introduce new characters, they aren't one-and-done. A lot of these characters have a permanent presence in the game, and occasionally have unique missions and uses for resources.

And each story questline has the give answers/raise questions approach, where you are given definite answers to some things, unreliable answers to other things, and questions are raised about something else.

For example, one of the many revelations in the Second Dream (not the "big" one) has to do with the Warframes themselves.

During the quest, you are loosely allied with a major enemy (who captures, dissects, and repurposes Warframes). He comments that despite being someone who has deep knowledge about Warframe anatomy, he doesn't quite know what we are, that what he's found "doesn't make sense". The major villain that we are fighting against, the Sentient Hunhow, calls us "Infested puppets" (the Infested are an enemy technovirus-based faction akin to the Flood or Hive) It's revealed that the Warframes are basically golems, non-sentient cyborgs, even though one of the grimoire posts tells a story about an "untamed" Warframe that was not only sentient, it was eating the scientists that it took down.
Anyway, near the end of the quest, your Warframe's control fails, and it goes lifeless. One of the game's major enemies, the rogue Warframe Stalker (this is a star-studded quest) takes this opportunity to drive the sword containing Hunhow through the Warframe, getting no reply, because obviously the Warframes are just lifeless shells, right?
A few moments later, while the Stalker is distracted and all hope seems lost, the Warframe starts moving on its own, it snaps the sword in half (defeating a confused and panicking Hunhow), and rips it out of its body before once more going limp.

In this quest, the question of "what is a Warframe" gets answered, but a few more questions are raised: What is the Warframe's relationship to the Infested faction? Are they sentient or not? Who made the Warframes? Why are they being controlled by the Operators? What are the Operators? Why does the Stalker hate them? Is the Stalker also a golem (he wonders this during the quest)? How much of this did Ordis (our ship's AI) know?

Some of those questions have since been answered by other quests, and some remain. And like I said, that's just one of the revelations.

Bungie can learn to employ this approach to the storytelling, where instead of a "bring us Tokens" interaction with Future War Cult, we actually do a quest that helps us understand them, and specifically Lakshmi-2 better. A quest that has a real, tangible impact on the world and story, and that provides us with a unique set of goals to the other factions. What if Lakshmi sends us to the House of Devils-owned London to get something vital from her old office? Then this macGuffin can lead into Gods of Mars, while the rest of the quest relays her relationship to Ana Bray, or sheds light on why she has a high amount of respect for Warlocks (maybe they helped her survive the burning of London). The quest might even give us some insight into Fallen culture and history. And the quest can end with unique armor pieces for Warlocks, or a unique exotic for the other two classes, all rounded out with a new London-based Crucible map (taking place where we finished the quest, with every round having a chance to drop a piece of the exclusive Warlock armor set), and the macGuffin appearing in the tower for us forever (maybe it was a Frame where she stored her data?).

Something tangible like that, and something similar for the other two Factions...