Subject: Severe Narrative Failure and Unacceptable Player Experience in "Children Are Our Future"
I am submitting formal feedback regarding the mandatory Aether Current quest "Children Are Our Future" in Garlemald. Gating an essential open-world progression feature like zone flight behind this specific scenario is an absolute failure of game design and basic storytelling mechanics. On a narrative level, this quest is completely tone-deaf and fundamentally broken. Forcing a protagonist—who is consistently established as a powerful, god-slaying champion—to passively sneak around corners and track a frightened, traumatized little boy is an egregious betrayal of player character autonomy and basic human dignity/morals.
Instead of allowing the player to act like a rational human being and simply step forward to help a child in distress, the writing aggressively strips away all player agency and forces us to stalk a distressed little boy all in the name of showcasing a severely limited cheap, gimmicky tracking mechanic.
The resulting optics are deeply uncomfortable, borderline predatory, and completely shatter any sense of immersion. Forcing players into a script where they essentially roleplay as a child stalker to a little boy wondering around war torn streets is an insulting misstep that leaves a genuinely sick, lingering taste in the mouth. I felt less like a world saving hero and more like someone who should be sent to jail.
A high-stakes narrative should never be ground to a halt for this kind of low-stakes, disturbing busywork. I strongly urge the development team to completely gut the tailing requirement from this mission, rewrite it to focus strictly on a standard combat or rescue scenario from the outset, or remove it entirely from the mandatory Aether Current progression loop.
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I am submitting formal feedback regarding the mandatory Aether Current quest "Children Are Our Future" in Garlemald. Gating an essential open-world progression feature like zone flight behind this specific scenario is an absolute failure of game design and basic storytelling mechanics. On a narrative level, this quest is completely tone-deaf and fundamentally broken. Forcing a protagonist—who is consistently established as a powerful, god-slaying champion—to passively sneak around corners and track a frightened, traumatized little boy is an egregious betrayal of player character autonomy and basic human dignity/morals.
Instead of allowing the player to act like a rational human being and simply step forward to help a child in distress, the writing aggressively strips away all player agency and forces us to stalk a distressed little boy all in the name of showcasing a severely limited cheap, gimmicky tracking mechanic.
The resulting optics are deeply uncomfortable, borderline predatory, and completely shatter any sense of immersion. Forcing players into a script where they essentially roleplay as a child stalker to a little boy wondering around war torn streets is an insulting misstep that leaves a genuinely sick, lingering taste in the mouth. I felt less like a world saving hero and more like someone who should be sent to jail.
A high-stakes narrative should never be ground to a halt for this kind of low-stakes, disturbing busywork. I strongly urge the development team to completely gut the tailing requirement from this mission, rewrite it to focus strictly on a standard combat or rescue scenario from the outset, or remove it entirely from the mandatory Aether Current progression loop.
Continue reading...