[2023] The more I think about it, the more Chul-Moo being there with Cinder bothers me.

Chul-Moo didn't go as the Commander's friend. They don't know each other super well. But the trip was a form of catharsis for them both.

Chul-Moo's arc started in the first episode as a leader losing faith in his abilities, carrying the burden of accidentally killing one of his crew who had succumbed to the demonic influence. Like the Commander, he had blood on his hands. He made a decision that resulted in someone dying. His presence here was to listen to the Commander processing similar guilt--of being someone with responsibility who made some calls that resulted in people dying. The Commander was not grieving Cinder. She was the enemy. The Commander was trying to grapple with the heaviness of being a leader and accepting responsibility when something goes wrong, because it's inevitable.

Also, waypoints.

My gripe wasn't what was said, I agree with everything Chul-Moo said and it makes sense for all that happened to weight heavy on the Commander, my gripe was with WHO said it, and what it implies (the reasons I listed above).

Gotcha. But Chul-Moo was one of several main characters in this episode so we decided to intersect his arc with the Commander's because of their shared burden. You have to remember that not everyone playing EoD played the base game, so there are times where we'll focus on recent events and characters instead of going all the way to the beginning.

We did, however, call back to the Commander's past traumas. In some cases it was about a friend. In other cases, regret for a mistake. Or in the case of Blish, about coming to peace with the fact that he made his own choice, and it wasn't ours to dispute. About letting go of the idea of control when you clearly aren't the one in charge of something. And in the case of Vlast, understanding that he had his reasons for doing what he did, understanding his purpose to the greater cause. So it wasn't a case of the Commander grieving for him--again, he was a dragon and they literally saw each other for like 5 seconds before...you know--but understanding that not everything is in your control and that others share their own burdens.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion.

Not sure if there are videos online or if you care to replay it, but I'd be curious to hear what was clear and what wasn't if you were paying close attention. Part of the problem we face in building story in a shared world is that there are a million other players running around on patch day, and oftentimes bits of dialogue or context are missed. Not saying that you weren't paying attention, but there were 4 character stories being juggled across these two episodes. Chul-Moo overcoming his regrets and growing as a leader, Yao making peace for their decision to leave the Brotherhood behind to learn from Joon, Rama finding purpose after quitting his job (and also pursuing a love interest), and obviously the Commander confronting more than a decade's worth of war to make peace with him/herself.

There's a lot of subtext in each scene, so I would assume that some folks--especially people playing for the first time or critiquing it as they went--to miss some of that.

We are playing MMORPG. No dev should have come down here to explain things to us. It should be crystal clear how the story goes in the game while we play the game.

You'd be surprised but with a game that has tens of millions of players, not everyone gets all the details during their playthrough. Some folks get distracted or don't pick up on the subtext, or they don't read the notes or journals they come across, or they aren't versed in serialized, multithreaded stories so they lose track of what happened and to whom. We don't do most things in cinematics so it's on players to pay attention throughout, and that can be hard. Especially when releases are several months apart.

The journal is a good place to get a reminder, but some folks don't read it so they're missing out on extra stuff. But that's by design. A player can take in as much or as little as they want and play the game how they want.

Oh man. Reading that and all the reddit comments regarding that episode.. people seem to have totally misunderstood why all these characters were there. Must suck as a story writer 😅

I think some folks are stuck on the idea that the only emotions one can have when playing a game story is "Make me cry about dead character" or "make me mad about bad guy." These releases were meant to go in a different direction but because we used some familiar callbacks I think they assumed we were just retreading old ground instead of reframing the emotional burden on the Commander.

I mean, I'm not surprised some folks didn't get it. They weren't looking for it. Hence, me needing to clear up some of the misunderstanding.

Some folks did get it, though, so that makes me happy. And for the folks who didn't, that's OK. I hope they're having fun playing the game or trying to peel back the layers of the story but they may not be used to that kind of analytical thinking.

You realise we know that you're reading this and

choosing

to ignore criticism right? Commenting on this thread

but not others

actually made you look worse.

I was off work yesterday and not combing reddit or the forums.

I can only reply to one thread at a time, and my time is limited, so...I am focusing here for the next few minutes before returning to my other duties.

I'm also not choosing to ignore anything. If I was ignoring criticism, I wouldn't be here. I'm merely clearing up some confusion on some of the more subtle bits that people may have missed.

Not sure why that makes you mad, but I hope you have a good day going forward. Be well.

Ah yes the journal. You know only a handful of people will read that but sure lets put all in the journal and waste the resource someplace else like in oh .. lets see .. a date with random npc. Priority huh.

LOL

he suddenly knew about Cinder and there didn't seem to be any indication as to how he found out, but maybe I did miss something in that regard

Oh, gotcha. Yeah, we didn't explicitly call that out but the implication is that Chul-Moo heard about the Commander's past events offscreen. I could see why someone might bump on that.

Why did it say meet with Taimi though, I think it’s a bug.

If it said to meet with Taimi, that's a bug.

You're not the only dev, we're perfectly aware of your colleagues patting themselves on the back on twitter.

How dare they! /s

If people dont get it, doesnt that mean you failed as writer to convey it?

The answer is always, "it depends." Some folks can miss details or subtext that was there. Other times a writer infers something that's too great a leap or leaves out important info. Every situation--and player interpretation--is different. And I think that's fine.