I've seen little from mmos to convince me that an mmo can tell a good story on its own. Any mmo vets who can share they're thoughts about this?
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It definitely varies. I am one of those guys who loves implied story, which is what we have with Destiny. A lot of the background is tied up in the grimoire and if you just run through the main storyline it leaves much to be desired. The Secret World does this sort of thing really well with a meaty main plot, interesting characters and a grimoire-style lore system that expands on the story you play through, and gives background information in the form of short stories, and slightly crazy rants. On the other end of the spectrum Final Fantasy XI (the first FF mmo) has a plot that can be summed up as "You are an adventurer, go kill things." at least way back when I was playing it. No story there but what you make on your own through gameplay. Now if its character development you are looking for in your story: Pretty sure no MMO has done that, at least not of your own character. I can't imagine that'd be easy to pull off, after all you can make your own goals to a certain point, and when your motivations don't coincide with what your character says their motivations are it can make for that weird dissonance where your character is all "This is serious business, millions of lives depend on me!" and you are just flipping cars for kicks minutes later. MAYBE Star Wars: The Old Republic pulled it off, but I stopped playing at one point and I couldn't get back into it to find out.