Class stories writers

[Mirandel]

Guess it's time to ask, since search brings nothing.

 

Does anyone know who wrote which story? Drew Karpyshyn proudly took responsibility for Jedi Knight. And we know that Smuggler story is written by Jennifer Hepler. But what about others?

[Darth_Wicked]

Guess it's time to ask, since search brings nothing.

 

Does anyone know who wrote which story? Drew Karpyshyn proudly took responsibility for Jedi Knight. And we know that Smuggler story is written by Jennifer Hepler. But what about others?

 

Pretty sure Hall Hood wrote the JK storyline for the most part, with Karpyshyn having a minor role in comparison; Hood also was responsable for sizable chunks concerning the Smuggler storyline and the flashpoints surrounding Revan, republic side.

 

Alexander Freed was the main writer for the Imperial Agent Storyline. That's all I can think of right now.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Darth_Wicked

[Mirandel]

Great, thank you! Hope someone else also knows something.

 

About Karpyshyn's participation I learned here:

http://drewkarpyshyn.com/c/?page_id=63

 

Most of my work was done on the Jedi Knight class story, and I did a lot of work for the first two quarterly updates (the Rakghouls).

 

And Hepler's work was discussed in the thread about her. Besides, stories are so different I naturally assumed they were written by very different writers.

[Darth_Wicked]

Concerning Hall Hood...

 

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/11/28/swtor-story-secrets-revealed-by-lead-writer-hall-hood/

 

Hood has been an integral part of the SWTOR writing team since the beginning; he penned major parts of the Jedi Knight, Smuggler, and Taral V storylines. (...)

 

http://www.swtor.com/blog/meet-developers-hall-hood

 

I will always have a soft spot for the Jedi Knight and Smuggler class stories since I wrote a lot of the content in both of them, but I honestly love all of our stories.

[Projawa]

Sith Warrior - Neil Pollner

[chuixupu]

A lot of different writers worked on various stuff. There were 16 total, I think. I posted in detail about what a lot of the writers had written here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=5932432&postcount=8

 

But the main class story writers were as follows:

 

Smuggler and Jedi Knight - Hall Hood

Jedi Consular - Joanna Berry

Trooper - Charles Boyd

Imperial Agent - Alexander Freed

Bounty Hunter - Randy Begel

Sith Inquisitor - Rebecca Harwick

Sith Warrior - Neil Poliner

 

Daniel Erickson was the "Lead" lead writer, overseeing all of it. And I believe Drew Karpyshyn had a lot of input into the Knight story.

[TalonVII]

Alexander Freed, who wrote the Agent story, must of taken a lot of his cues from Ian Flemming and Tom Clancy. Cause he did an AMAZING job with the agent story.

[Jenzali]

Alexander Freed, who wrote the Agent story, must of taken a lot of his cues from Ian Flemming and Tom Clancy. Cause he did an AMAZING job with the agent story.

 

Some incredibly insightful articles about branching narrative writing by Alexander Freed if you wish to read them The first two directly address the Agent storyline:

 

http://www.alexanderfreed.com/2013/03/11/the-imperial-agent-inspiration-and-science-fiction-espionage-part-1/

http://www.alexanderfreed.com/2013/05/24/the-imperial-agent-inspiration-and-science-fiction-espionage-part-2/

http://www.alexanderfreed.com/2013/03/21/craft-sessions-developing-meaningful-player-character-arcs-in-a-branching-narrative-format/

http://www.alexanderfreed.com/2013/03/17/of-course-no-ones-paying-attention-subtlety-and-narrative-design-in-video-games/

 

I play this game primarily for the class stories - I love them all dearly. However, the gap in quality is very noticeable between the Agent storyline and all the others. The other writers do not understand as well how to work with a branching narrative and walk the fine line of balance between cost, choice, and illusion of choice. I wish the other writers took a few pointers from Alexander Freed.

Edited June 25, 2013 by Jenzali

[Darth_Wicked]

Some incredibly insightful articles about branching narrative writing by Alexander Freed if you wish to read them The first two directly address the Agent storyline:

 

http://www.alexanderfreed.com/2013/03/11/the-imperial-agent-inspiration-and-science-fiction-espionage-part-1/

http://www.alexanderfreed.com/2013/05/24/the-imperial-agent-inspiration-and-science-fiction-espionage-part-2/

http://www.alexanderfreed.com/2013/03/21/craft-sessions-developing-meaningful-player-character-arcs-in-a-branching-narrative-format/

http://www.alexanderfreed.com/2013/03/17/of-course-no-ones-paying-attention-subtlety-and-narrative-design-in-video-games/

 

I play this game primarily for the class stories - I love them all dearly. However, the gap in quality is very noticeable between the Agent storyline and all the others. The other writers do not understand as well how to work with a branching narrative and walk the fine line of balance between cost, choice, and illusion of choice. I wish the other writers took a few pointers from Alexander Freed.

 

I find it a bit ironic that one of the links you provided answers quite well to that quibble...

 

http://www.alexanderfreed.com/2013/03/11/the-imperial-agent-inspiration-and-science-fiction-espionage-part-1/

 

(...) In any event, I wanted the agent for myself largely because of that lack of an obvious Star Wars predecessor archetype. It meant the class would appeal to fewer players, perhaps–but it also meant I had a freer hand in developing what the class meant. The Jedi Knight had to fight Sith and the Sith classes had to come into conflict with their masters–players were coming to the game looking for a recognizably Star Wars experience, and they’d be rightfully disappointed if at least some of their expectations weren’t met. (...)

 

One of the reasons the JK storyline is my favorite pertains exactly that: It has that wondrous classical SW feel but still, it has plenty of room to come out on his own, with some KoToR references here and there. Couldn't have asked for more.

Edited June 25, 2013 by Darth_Wicked

[Jenzali]

One of the reasons the JK storyline is my favorite pertains exactly that: It has that wondrous classical SW feel but still, it has plenty of room to come out on his own, with some KoToR references here and there. Couldn't have asked for more.

 

Definitely. I should have clarified - I was speaking only from the perspective of branching narrative quality. The JK storyline is great - it is very iconic and feels like Star Wars.

 

However as a branching narrative with meaningful choices or illusion of choice it is nothing special. It could just as easily be a movie or visual novel.

Edited June 25, 2013 by Jenzali

[Darth_Wicked]

Definitely. I should have clarified - I was speaking only from the perspective of branching narrative quality. The JK storyline is great - it is very iconic and feels like Star Wars.

 

However as a branching narrative with meaningful choices or illusion of choice it is nothing special. It could just as easily be a movie or visual novel.

 

Most definitely. Regardless, awesome links BTW. A fairly enjoyable read to say the least.

[Mirandel]

Thank you all! I will save the link on this post now for the future reference's.

 

Have to admit, now I am a huge fan of Alexander Freed too. Hope he will be the main writer in the future BW games about SW (since EA owns the rights and promised many games in the coming years). IA story is the best by all criteria, and I say it as a someone playing mostly republic.

[chuixupu]

Thank you all! I will save the link on this post now for the future reference's.

 

Have to admit, now I am a huge fan of Alexander Freed too. Hope he will be the main writer in the future BW games about SW (since EA owns the rights and promised many games in the coming years). IA story is the best by all criteria, and I say it as a someone playing mostly republic.

 

 

He won't be, he left Bioware last October to be freelance. He has been contracted to do some smaller things recently, though. I'm sure that if he ever WANTED to come back full time he'd have no trouble doing so.

[Pietrastor]

Love Agent story and it's definitely one of the very best in the game, but it has a problem many other class stories unfortunately share as well - the resolution of Act basically goes nowhere 1. Out of 4 stories I've played so far (Trooper, Consular, Agent, Inquisitor) only Inquisitor's conclusion of Act 1 went somewhere later in the story. Edited June 26, 2013 by Pietrastor

[Mirandel]

Hm, I would say in IA story every act is bound to another. Why would you say it it not?

[chuixupu]

I felt like the Agent story was more closely linked per chapter than a lot of the others. Part of what anchors it so well is that we have non-companion NPCs that are consitent from start to finish, which can't be said for some of them.

[Pietrastor]

I felt like the Agent story was more closely linked per chapter than a lot of the others. Part of what anchors it so well is that we have non-companion NPCs that are consitent from start to finish, which can't be said for some of them.

Every class story has characters that appear the entire time and give us new info etc. What I was talking about is how the plot of Act 1 and its resolution go nowhere, like with many other class stories. It's not continued in Act 2/3, has no consequence on it, on the 'greater' story arc etc. After you finish the story, you basically go "ohh, right, ending to Act 1, yeah I guess I remember there was that, but it was so long ago and didn't matter later on"

Edited June 27, 2013 by Pietrastor

[Mirandel]

Could you please give an example? Because in IA story you really bound to every situation and every NPC in every previous acts. You meet NPCs later, you have to deal with consequences of your doings in the past. Nothing is forgotten (unlike poor Consular, for example).

[Pietrastor]

Could you please give an example? Because in IA story you really bound to every situation and every NPC in every previous acts. You meet NPCs later, you have to deal with consequences of your doings in the past. Nothing is forgotten (unlike poor Consular, for example).

 

Urhm... DId you forget about Jadus lol? The conclusion of his arc in Act 1 goes nowhere later on, the choices have no consequence and it's basically the opposite to what you said (and what is true for Act 2 for example).

 

[krakadyla]

That is because Jadus is not important. The story is not about him, it's all about Agent - in this particular case, the focus is on how Agent deals with the situation and how thing that happens in Act 2 is direct consequence of his/her actions. Jadus had served his purpose by the end of Act 1, and so his fate is as unimportant as fate of the shuttle that Watcher 2 used to get onto the Dominator, as unimportant as fate of Cabal's remaining members will be later in the game.

[chuixupu]

Every class story has characters that appear the entire time and give us new info etc.

 

Not on the same level, no. Tell me who was actually important in the Smuggler story or Bounty Hunter story between all 3 chapters. I can think of one in the Consular story but in a completely different way.

 

What I was talking about is how the plot of Act 1 and its resolution go nowhere, like with many other class stories. It's not continued in Act 2/3, has no consequence on it, on the 'greater' story arc etc. After you finish the story, you basically go "ohh, right, ending to Act 1, yeah I guess I remember there was that, but it was so long ago and didn't matter later on"

 

Once you resolve something, you don't need to keep on resolving it. Sounds like you just wanted to keep on continuing the same plot element, there is no need for that in any story. LIke what the other person said, what matters is your character development because of your decisions. The decisions you make in Act 1 will be brought up in a few places later on, especially if you act in a way that contradicts what decision you made at that point.

[Pietrastor]

That is because Jadus is not important. The story is not about him, it's all about Agent - in this particular case, the focus is on how Agent deals with the situation and how thing that happens in Act 2 is direct consequence of his/her actions. Jadus had served his purpose by the end of Act 1, and so his fate is as unimportant as fate of the shuttle that Watcher 2 used to get onto the Dominator, as unimportant as fate of Cabal's remaining members will be later in the game.

Except that none of the choices have any long-term consequences. All boil to the same 1 consequence which is the only connection to Act 2. Very different compared to Act 2 finale where choices have actual playout in Act 3. And considering how "heavy" the choices in Act 1 were, they shouldn't all disappear because "Jadus arc is over". It makes the Act 1 pointless, if it was just about the Agent, it may have been all done on 1 planet instead of stretching it to 5. Last, but not least, one of the choices - "joining" is directly related to Agent and his character, which you mention, yet that choice also doesn't really matter and has no further developement, EVEN though it's related to agent, except for some flavoured text.

 

 

Not on the same level, no. Tell me who was actually important in the Smuggler story or Bounty Hunter story between all 3 chapters. I can think of one in the Consular story but in a completely different way.

Haven't played either Smuggler or BH, but Trooper has General Garza, Inquisitor has Zash etc. In different context often, some are total spoiler territories, but there are a lot of important recurring characters throughout other class stories as well, it's not exclusive just to Agent.

 

Once you resolve something, you don't need to keep on resolving it. Sounds like you just wanted to keep on continuing the same plot element, there is no need for that in any story.

No, I wanted the plot of Act 1 and/or choices made in it to matter more, like stuff in Act 2 did in Act 3. It's inconsistent to start the story with "the adventures of Agent" formula with different stuff happening in Act 1 and Act 2 connected mostly just by the main character and his friends, just to then switch to highly plot-connected & overlapping arcs between Act 2 and 3. Like I said, not the only class story to do it, Consular is very much like that too.

 

Like what the other person said, what matters is your character development because of your decisions. The decisions you make in Act 1 will be brought up in a few places later on, especially if you act in a way that contradicts what decision you made at that point.

Flavoured alternate one-liners is not really choices&consequences. The Agent story seems to understand it perfectly in Act 2 & 3, but not in Act 1.

[midianlord]

Not on the same level, no. Tell me who was actually important in the Smuggler story or Bounty Hunter story between all 3 chapters. I can think of one in the Consular story but in a completely different way.

[...]

 

 

Smuggler: Darmas Palloran (or however you spell it), for sure.

 

BH: That's a tougher one...I would say Mandalore, though.

[AlrikFassbauer]

I found a few gaps in the stories I played (mostly the Smuggler story so far) - only minor details, but things that really felt like "forgotten".

 

And I really never met characters - or their relatives - from previous chapters, and that's a thing which really disappointed me.

[Darth_Wicked]

IMO, the only storyline that feels really tight from early on is the storyline for the Jedi Knight.

 

From early on, midway the first chapter, you start to get an idea of who may be the true main villain in your quest, only to have said idea confirmed by the end of the first act. Plus, there's a wealth of characters, spread through all major acts, that appear in different occasions, all with a relevant role for the most part.

 

Agent storyline falls a bit flat in this instance, even though the consequences endured during the second act are a direct consequence of your actions in the first one. I liked that very much.