One thing you may have noticed in EVE Online is the preponderance of chronicles and events and goings-on with the Amarr empire to the detriment of the other 3 major empires that players can be active parts of.
There is a good reason for this, and it has to do with the basic premises of the empires.
The Gallente are boring. Democracy is yucky and messy (reference the current US Presidential Election) but on grand operatic narratives it is tame and uninteresting. All the drama happens in backroom dealings and quiet assassinations (political or otherwise) and not from large scale combat and events that grab players and writers imaginations.
The Caldari have a similar problem, replacing political shenanigans with corporate shenanigans. They did have some interesting events with the rise of Tibus Heth and his fascist Caldari Providence Protectorate, a possible revolution of social structures in the State where the uber-capitalist society is replaced through fire and blood with a new communistic-socialist state much like the Russian revolution of the early 20th century... but then the curators of the lore walked back from that cliff, got rid of Heth, and returned to the boring cyber-punk corporate overlords status quo. Its a cool setting for individual storylines, but not grand scale epic arcs.
On the other hand, the basis of the Minmater Republic comes out of the box with tons of potential.
- A Tribal social structure which opens up opportunities for tensions between competing interests.
- A history of being enslaved and resistance and still having a significant portion of their population enslaved.
- Tensions with the Ammatar collaborators that worked with the enslavers against their own people, but secretly were working to prevent the elimination of the thought-to-be-lost Starkmanir tribe.
- The Thukker tribe who refuse to work with the other tribes and wander space in giant caravans.
So many elements that could come into play in interesting storylines, except for the fact that CCP seems unwilling to commit to developing them.
Why?
Because the Amarr storylines are just a little bit better. First off you have the whole religious empire that makes for easy hooks into motivations of the characters because its so relatable in our real world, coupled with the dark side of slavery existing in a sci-fi setting which is rare and visceral. Couple that with the Amarr being the largest and arguably the most powerful of the empires and you have a rich well with which to draw ideas from.
And on top of that firm base you mix in the Imperial politics around emperors and empresses, the tapestry of succession trials, the possibility of civil wars between the royal families (Hello Khanid), the insertion of the Other in Jamal Sarum's head and the involvement of the Drifters... Face it, the Amarr had a good starting position and then each stepping stone in the lore gave momentum to the next one.
The end result is a lore dominated by the Amarr empire.
The good news is that with the coronation of Empress Catiz there is a solid pause-point to change direction of the lore and revive the other empires with new storylines. Let's hope the curators of the lore at CCP take this opportunity.
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"So many elements that could come into play in interesting storylines, except for the fact that CCP seems unwilling to commit to developing them.
ReplyDeleteWhy?"
Because it's hard.
It's hard to sell the conflict and interplay of a Tribal Society. It's hard to create drama over inter-clan conflicts in the Tribe itself. It's hard to portray the breadth of a society of Tribes, each with their own collective myths and shared stories.
I tried writing a Pod&Planet entry for the Minmatar. I really did. I outlined the characters, the themes, the 'soul' of the piece, but then I came to the realisation that the stuff I didn't know, and the stuff I needed to know, and the stuff I wanted to know dwarfed the little I actually knew.
I put it down, because it was too limited and too dishonest to publish something that I knew wouldn't be as good as I wanted it to be.
I agree that it's the same for CCP. It's easy to sell the Amarr; 'Space Catholicism and Slavery'. Most everyone who reads about them will be familiar with the Christian tradition, and have some grasp of the concept of slavery, even if they don't comprehend it in their real lives.
How many developers have lived in a tribe? How many have even been part of a caste system, or lived in the kind of society the Minmatar are supposed to live in?
Few, if any, I think.
"The good news is that with the coronation of Empress Catiz there is a solid pause-point to change direction of the lore and revive the other empires with new storylines. Let's hope the curators of the lore at CCP take this opportunity."
I wish.
I think the fate of the Lore is that it will become ever more subservient to CCP's demands upon it. I think it will certainly acquire less and less development time as CCP focuses on 'Deliverables'.
Why waste expensive CCP dev-time when you can get a computer RNG to create an event for you? Eve's 'living universe', living only on silicon chips, with no life put into it.
I think the picture's grim, and not in a good way.
Viva the minarchist revolution! http://chao3.net/news/our-minarchist-revolution-war-on-taxes
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