Piety, as a character, is boring
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I'm starting to like the way the story is delivered, although it's obviously incomplete and I hope it's brought together in Act 4 and not just drifting along.
Act 1: Theres a story? Basically you just meet a few evil people and kill most of them. Act 2: We're starting to get hints of something sinister underlying the very existence of Wraeclast, and that the Exile is unwittingly following in it. The assorted connection to Virtue Gems (which are never themselves explained) in all the evil experiments, and your own skills, is a bit troubling. It's just a bunch of scattered clues though, and nothing linking them really. Who the hell is this Piety person that keeps showing up? Prior to OB, when act 2 was as far as I could get, my main though was "There's a story?" The clues start to add up as you get into act 3 though. Act 3: Aha! Early on we see the Undying, corrupted in some unknown way by the use of gems. The dots start to line up- the Vaal ("it was they who first used virtue gems"- Eramir), Maligaro's gem experiments, Piety's search for all these ancient gem experiments, and now Sarn is crawling with them. There's a pattern here, but where it leads is still quite a mystery. It's starting to look like the mysterious Cataclysm is directly related to the gems, and that we are on the way to a second one. Side note: Grigor is boss. Love the voice acting and the learned poet schtick, it's a really great character. I really hope he doesn't turn out to be evil... Regarding Piety, at this point she's nothing more then one more dot in the line. Her own interest and experiments are just more clues about gems and the mystery behind them. Her existence as a character or villain is pretty much nonexistent, she's just sort of there doing her thing and the Exile keeps crossing paths with her. Act 4: I really hope that the dots are leading somewhere, and it's all wrapped up and revealed here. It's subtle enough that the prior acts could only be about creating immersion, but there's still a real strong sense of direction. Especially since Grigor is sending you after Dominus, your first real impetus to be a hero instead of just helping out the local homeless folk. TL:DR- Piety is an incidental character. The way the story is crafted doesn't use a traditional villain/hero format, it's more about just gradually revealing more about the world around you. |
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Rhyse, she's more than an incidental character, she been the central focus of the first two Acts. The first one, she reveals herself as an agent of the Continent, the second, you are tasked with stopping her. The third... It just ends. Boom, cut.
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" No, I'm really not. :) If I like a game, it'll either be amazing later or awful forever. There's no in-between.
I am Path of Exile's biggest whale. Period. |
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" She is incidental (to the plot, if not the gameplay), whether by design or incompetence. Hopefully it's design, and the focus of the story is on the larger world, as I layed out my theory. It's entirely possible it's just crap writing though. |
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" You're actually right on many points. From a narrative perspective she is significant but to each other, Piety and The Exile are almost coincidental. We know The Exile is self-serving, mainly because the player is -- 'quest rewards' are pretty much the motivation to do anything in these games. If an area doesn't have a quest, many people (WoW era and onwards, I should think) find a zone completely worthless. Some of us actually explored all the tombs in The Canyon of the Magi... Point being, the only reason players kill Piety is because that's how to get further in the game. If she were a side boss with no real reward, I doubt as many people would bother, even if she were painted as Mengeles with boobs. But if you want to understand the narrative, the backstory (I use that word rather than story, because The Exile's story is so far not much of one), you have to pay attention to Piety's part in the bigger picture. Oh, and for the record, given that Dominus is the boss of act 3 expansion (judging by the Open Beta trailer), I'm willing to bet that the story arc ends with act 3. Act 4 will likely open up new angles to the greater picture of what happened to Wraeclast, etc. I stand by everything I said about Piety. Like much of Path of Exile, the minimalist approach doesn't strike me as insufficient or lazy, but as carefully constructed to allow for much more player-level interpretation. You can dig but you don't have to. You aren't being force-fed her story, for which I fucking thank all the gods, especially the ones that understand good, old show-don't-tell. No one could ever accuse Path of Exile of playing host to heavy exposition or info-dumping. :) If I like a game, it'll either be amazing later or awful forever. There's no in-between.
I am Path of Exile's biggest whale. Period. |
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" I thank you for your insightfull posts, but I respectfully disagree. The "show, don't tell" approach also includes that you can gleam motivation and intent from the actions themselves. There is nothing there with Piety. She doesn't show us who she is. We know what she is, a female human witch, apparently high ranking in the military, epxert on virtue gems. That's her position and her skillset. But what is her character? She is a sadist, ok. She's also kinda cocky. That is what her actions tell me about her. Again, General Gravicious, even though he is far more of an incidental character, is better defined than Piety. We know he is a general, but we also know how he leads. We know he has a family. He is painted in broad, stereotypical strokes, but that gives us a character of him. But not only is Piety just a a "Hehehe" type of villain (which in itself is bad enough) she is also pretty inconsistent. First she tries to keep you from following you. Then she actually kind of "invites" you to Sarn, only to then act all surprised you made it and act as if she had tried to kill you all along - which she clearly hasn't. That's too much inconsistency to keep disbelief suspended. Last edited by Cronos988#6572 on Feb 27, 2013, 7:22:51 PM
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Wow, do we NEED to know a character's backstory and motive? That kind of takes me outside of my character's perspective if I know absolutely every reason an enemy is evil. I don't want to sympathize with Piety, or understand her. I want to chase her down and kill the evil bitch. Do you think your witch gives a damn why Piety is pure evil? Do you think your marauder wants Piety to show him on the doll where Dominus touched her?
Come on, let's just enjoy the game. One day I'm sure we'll get the lore we've asked for, but in-game, it's just too much to delve into all the details about every bad guy's motivation, and it just takes you out of character. The OP said that people who are just evil for no apparent reason are unrealistic. Hitler was Piety-evil. Is he "unrealistic"? To this day, most people don't really understand why evil people are evil. Fact is, there are people that are truly just evil. Psychopaths by nature. And in a world with dark magic, monsters, and blood wetas, I bet there are more pure evil people than you'd care to account for. Last edited by teacherpeter#1699 on Feb 27, 2013, 7:43:23 PM
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" That's true, she does seem to shift gears after you pass the barrier at Prisoner's Gate. I would say that piqued her interest. I suppose I'm content with believing that what she is is who she is for now. I'm not sure we want to know that much more about her -- it might shift the focus away from The Exile and onto her as a sympathetic character. Sure, if this were a book I'd be all up in Edwin's grill about round and flat characters, but it's not a book. It's a game, and the story is sometimes told through clicking the mouse all over the place instead of paragraphs of prose. We've all seen what can happen when story overshadows gameplay. I do agree that the balance isn't quite there yet, and I know Edwin's focusing on tweaking these things, but as an old, old gamer, I find that sparse characterisation, rich-but-not-overpowering backstory and meaty gameplay is exactly where I want to be with a game like this. If I like a game, it'll either be amazing later or awful forever. There's no in-between. I am Path of Exile's biggest whale. Period. Last edited by Foreverhappychan#4626 on Feb 27, 2013, 7:52:35 PM
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I think that Piety could have made the perfect final boss for a much later act, since at the moment you have not interfered so much in her plans to force her into a final fight.
She has been depicted as a woman that leaves always a back door open for a hasty retreat, yet she allows you to kill her even when she could have just thrown down another portal to flee. Twarthing her plans inside the Lunaris temple could have been the perfect thing to make her finally think of you as a direct menace. There was such a potential for a character development, but it's been thrown away. About the Exile being a mass murderer just as Piety, we must remember that, apart from the ranger, who blames to be defined a poacher, all the other ARE murderers: The templar killed for his brotherhood and does not understand why they exiled him, horrified by his actions. He thinks to be on a holy-quest kind of trip, driven by his fanaticism. The marauder is a warrior with a feticism for death. He kills because he thinks of himself as Death's instrument and to become stronger with every death he causes. The witch killed the sons and daughters of the imperials responsible for the death of her family, so she actually murdered children (and probably reanimated them as zombies thereafter). The shadow is a mercenary and assassin and is proud to be one of the best. He knows that in Wraeclast there will be plenty of work for one such him. The duelist is a gladiator who fights and kills for sport and fame. He coldly killed a noble because he offended him and so was exiled to Wraeclast. He wants to be famous because he kills well and to return to do just that into some grand arena in Oriath. In the end, Path of Exile is merely a clash between psychopaths. Last edited by Sdrumax#6273 on Feb 27, 2013, 9:36:09 PM
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" Indeed. If I like a game, it'll either be amazing later or awful forever. There's no in-between.
I am Path of Exile's biggest whale. Period. |
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