来自Funcom公司的《神秘世界》创意总监Ragnar Tørnquist表示，无法在MMO游戏中融入相关故事情节的言辞纯属胡说。游戏邦了解到，他在游戏的官方博客中写道：“‘MMO游戏是玩家的娱乐天地，没有承载故事剧情的空间。述说故事只会妨碍到游戏的发展，玩家身上发生的故事才是游戏中的唯一故事。’很显然，此类说法完全错误。”

Tørnquist否认纯沙盘游戏的存在，他辩解称故事是虚拟游戏世界的固有特征。他解释道：“虽然MMO游戏看似并不强调叙述故事剧情，但虚拟世界中随处可见的NPC、任务、各种怪物、生机勃勃的城市和不断发生的冲突表明这里的确有故事发生。剧情让这些冷冰冰的数字世界焕发生机，故事的叙述很有效果。”

Ragnar Tørnquist

《神秘世界》以多种多样的叙事方式而闻名，在环境中嵌入谜题和线索，引导玩家跟随传统的故事情节架构和任务线体验这款宏大的增强现实游戏。Tørnquist说道：“我们游戏中的故事并非单个英雄在各种环境中成长随后拯救全世界的救世主类剧情。游戏展现的是英雄集结的队伍，玩家只是数百万人中的一员。角色在最黑暗的日子中苏醒为光明而战，三支强大的秘密社团征召其加入并派遣玩家前往全球各地完成风险重重的任务。”

游戏邦认为，贯穿MMO游戏的故事情节作用非凡。暴雪魔兽系列游戏和网游所蕴含的庞大故事让游戏更为丰富，而且也为开发者设计并深化游戏提供了灵感和素材。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Story-free MMOs are nonsense, says The Secret World creator

Funcom’s Ragnar Tørnquist has said the idea that MMOs can’t have an involved ongoing story is “complete and utter bollocks”.

“‘MMOs are playgrounds!’, it’s been argued. ‘There’s no room for storytelling. Narrative gets in the way. The only story is the story written by players!’”, The Secret World’s creative director wrote on the game’s official blog.

“This is, quite clearly, complete and utter bollocks.”

Tørnquist denied the existence of pure sandbox games, and argued that virtual game worlds inherently contain narrative.

“Even in MMOs that have, ostensibly, placed no great emphasis on ‘telling’ a story, or even acknowledging one, the very idea of a persistent virtual world filled with non-player characters and quests, different breeds of monsters, vibrant cities and ongoing conflicts means that of course there’s a story there, and an important one at that.

“These are cold, digital worlds given life through fiction and narrative, and that’s not only storytelling; it’s effective storytelling,” he explained.

The Secret World famously uses multiple storytelling techniques, embedding puzzles and clues in the environment and leading players through extensive AR games, alongside traditional arching plots and questlines.

So what is that story? We know what it’s not:

“Ours is never a story about The Chosen One, a single hero rising to the occasion and saving the world,” Tørnquist said.

“But rather about an army of ‘heroes’, where the player is just one of millions; sleeper agents awakened in these darkest of days to battle the rising tide of darkness, recruited by three powerful secret societies and sent on missions — often dubious ones — across the globe.” (Source: VG247)