The current storyline is quite good, especially when you consider the existing limitations. In itself, I consider it a very good port of the Matrix universe into a MMO. Here are some observations about the storyline elements, past and present.
The false agents: Excellent. There are still some untied ends about this. And that's a good thing. Not every hole must be filled. And the storyline doesn't have to answer all questions.
The Assassin: one of my favorite storyline characters. He's not a cliché or someone we know well enough from the movies, that's the thing. We don't have many of them.
The rise of the Cypherites. The involvement of the players and the LET made a real kind of secret society. Now, everything that is done is known to everyone. I think that it's still possible to have some official storylines involving secrecy, even in an era of live event screenshots detailing everything that happened and of 9 character slots (3 servers X 3 main orgs, coincidence...)
Anome: I like what happenened with him. An example of antagonists I like in litterature. Megalomaniac, but deeply flawed. Yes, it went from too long. I think that since then, subchapters are more concise. The Unlimit lieutenants with more detailed storylines were interesting however. I think that the bland and generic ones could have been removed to put the more unique ones to the front. Official characters having a minor place in the storyline could occur more often. They are good opportunities to play with. Players wouldn't kill Anome, it was obvious, but they could kill his right-hands.
Morpheus sightings: I really like the fact that for once, players weren't spoiled too much in advance. Wild speculations are rampant, and in a medium such as this one, ambiguity is a very powerful tool to keep interest in people. Big fat obvious plots aren't interesting. And yes, too much spoilers are bad.
The Merv-General alliance: I don't know, but the consequences for this now are close to none. This should have been something that was exploited. This is something that should have made the Machines go against us but for now, we've haven't heard much. In opposition, the Zion-General alliance was great. Zionists knew that they were forced down a bad deal and they had to deal with their leaders' choices.
Cryptos overwriting: IMO, the best punch we had in MXO so far, even if there was hints to that. This is the kind of storyline decisions that have an impact in players' values.
I think that the big miss however is the lack of impact of the redpills in the dynamics of the Matrix. I know, story characters are more sexy, so you can't avoid bringing them to the forefront. But little, parallel stories involving the players, making them live the impact of the storyline right in the face is what should be exploited. The storyline is written in advance and mostly set in stone. I think however that the players should have a role in putting colors in that, in filling some empty spots. The storyline that we have is for me like paint by numbers. All the lines are set, the colors to fill-in are proposed, but the execution itself can bring dimension to the work.
The false agents: Excellent. There are still some untied ends about this. And that's a good thing. Not every hole must be filled. And the storyline doesn't have to answer all questions.
The Assassin: one of my favorite storyline characters. He's not a cliché or someone we know well enough from the movies, that's the thing. We don't have many of them.
The rise of the Cypherites. The involvement of the players and the LET made a real kind of secret society. Now, everything that is done is known to everyone. I think that it's still possible to have some official storylines involving secrecy, even in an era of live event screenshots detailing everything that happened and of 9 character slots (3 servers X 3 main orgs, coincidence...)
Anome: I like what happenened with him. An example of antagonists I like in litterature. Megalomaniac, but deeply flawed. Yes, it went from too long. I think that since then, subchapters are more concise. The Unlimit lieutenants with more detailed storylines were interesting however. I think that the bland and generic ones could have been removed to put the more unique ones to the front. Official characters having a minor place in the storyline could occur more often. They are good opportunities to play with. Players wouldn't kill Anome, it was obvious, but they could kill his right-hands.
Morpheus sightings: I really like the fact that for once, players weren't spoiled too much in advance. Wild speculations are rampant, and in a medium such as this one, ambiguity is a very powerful tool to keep interest in people. Big fat obvious plots aren't interesting. And yes, too much spoilers are bad.
The Merv-General alliance: I don't know, but the consequences for this now are close to none. This should have been something that was exploited. This is something that should have made the Machines go against us but for now, we've haven't heard much. In opposition, the Zion-General alliance was great. Zionists knew that they were forced down a bad deal and they had to deal with their leaders' choices.
Cryptos overwriting: IMO, the best punch we had in MXO so far, even if there was hints to that. This is the kind of storyline decisions that have an impact in players' values.
I think that the big miss however is the lack of impact of the redpills in the dynamics of the Matrix. I know, story characters are more sexy, so you can't avoid bringing them to the forefront. But little, parallel stories involving the players, making them live the impact of the storyline right in the face is what should be exploited. The storyline is written in advance and mostly set in stone. I think however that the players should have a role in putting colors in that, in filling some empty spots. The storyline that we have is for me like paint by numbers. All the lines are set, the colors to fill-in are proposed, but the execution itself can bring dimension to the work.
