[DustyPorViva]

I honestly don't see storylines fitting into MMO games very well, unless planned in a way that fits what's going on in an MMO. You have to remember that the player is entering a world with lots of other players doing the same thing, and the player will eventually want to take on their own role in their own way. Forcing a player down a linear story path that every other player is apparently being forced down makes no sense from the players perspective. So every player is now an orphan who's parents were slain by a tyrannical king and their quest is to take down the king? Every player? What if they don't want to be an orphan? And more importantly, every player in the world is an orphan that succumbed to the same misfortunate events?

I feel in an MMO environment it's much better to focus the story on the history of the world, and on the current world itself, instead of the player. Focus on what happened before the player came along, and what's going on with say, a specific town, or the NPCs in a town. Let the player decide what to do with their own experience and focus on the world that all of the players are inhabiting together.