I finally read the back story. I had a lot of free time on my hands today (I’m basically getting paid to do nothing but surf the web :)

I was wondering what you all think of the story. I know I might be opening up a can of worms here. I know the Serco feel they haven’t been shown in the best light in the backstory, but I don’t want to start a flame war here. I just want to know what you thought of the back story.

I liked it. It was an interesting and complelling story. If I read it before picked my main charater I would have definatly picked the UIT. (I'm Itani if you didn't know)

JB

I'm writing a Serco History to correct the stories behind the so-called injustices that the Itani accuse us of.

Shame on you, Jes, only just now reading it!

Personally, I really like the backstory. For about the first half (which is ancient history), I think it treats all the nations fairly; in fact for the first half the Serco really appear in a much better light than the Itani. It's only in the later chapters, when we get into the more recent history (and thus more personal) that the balance tips and the Itani start looking better than the Serco. And IMO that's to be expected, at the beginning it's clearly stated that this history was written by Itani. And, I like it like that, I think that if the backstory had been written from a purely neutral perspective (UIT, maybe, or even from an out-of-game perspective), I think it would be a lot less interesting.

Which doesn't mean I don't want to read the Serco side of the story. Hurry up & finish already, CP :-p.

The biggest glaring omission that bothers me, is that there's no mention of the Hive bots.

[edit]
You did, at least, read the condensed backstory, right? http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/8729#100649
[/edit

I thought the backstory was incredably well written. Lot's of neat details.The UIT do seem to be the only inoccent nation....

-Dark Tide

Jestatis, can you get me a job? Just like yours. I wanna surf the web all day and get paid to do it.

I'm sorry i never read the backstory until today or the condensed version either. Its very long. BTW i never read the condenced version either untill today. I usually don't have alot of time on my hands.

LeberMac: I'm working for a company as a temp for the next 2 weeks. They rarley give me anything to do i'm just a warm body to them. Any thought on what to do tommorrow?

I know some say that the backstory is biasd, naking the Serco look bad but I doubt is has any bearing on which nation a new player chooses. It was to long to read before you start the game.

I just wonder will we ever find earth again. Maybe an artifital worm hole at the location of the old worm hole could be opened. Or the nations might find away to open that wormhole before millions of years have passed. I really would like to see the earth solar system in the game.

JB

Actually, I've heard a bunch of newbies say that they downloaded the trial, read the backstory, and then chose Itani...

I don't think I've heard of any newbie who read the backstory and then chose Serco.

I read the back story first, then chose Serco. I guess I chose Serco because when I played EnB I belonged to the Progen race, which were the warlike people.

The only thing I don't like about it (I love it otherwise!) is that it doesn't really seem to be current day...like they don't mention staions or anything.

Yeah, near the end it seems a little anti-serco. But as Beolach said, in the beginning the Itani are quite evil. They had a leader similar to Hitler and attempted genocide. If you read closely, there is mention of a revolt that overthrows this leader, Akan, but only too late. I would like to see a serco written backstory though as well. I do think that after reading it most people tend to side with Itani. It makes the serco out to be too ignorant near the end while they are really not. They're incredibly intelligent, just in a different area of knowledge.

Hopefully when the story is impletmented into the games early missions players will start to get the full feeling of vendetta.

I was completely captured by the story, and give some mad props to incarnate, who wrote it.
I'd like to see the Serco perspective a lot, actually, since I was also a nOOb that read the story first (whole story) and then picked itani. Maybe the Serco do appear as villains—if they were given more of a bushido kind of honor system (japanese samurai honor) instead of a blind passion for genocide, maybe they'd be more appealing (they would be to me). As for now, the war is only going on because the Serco are an arrogant race too "honor"-filled to see past their own egoes and that the Itani just want peace—at least, used to; that's what the story seems to portray.

Of course, there's the whole Akan thing, which makes the Itani the Utopian people with a dark and terrible past. And, I guess, the Serco are the bloodthirsty wild beasts of the galaxy with an innocent, happy past. But if there was some concept of peace for the Serco, and making ammends when the time is right, their rating would go up.

Maybe its the Order of Akan they're after. That's kind of the ending point of the story—they kind of cool down on the Itani themselves, then start searching for the Akanese base, since they're the original root of Serconian vengeance.

Meh. Keep writing, CP ^_^

yeah if they had a bushido or kyuba no michi (way of horse and bow slightly difent honor sestem to bushido) they whould be a lot more apealing to people, and they could probably do with that there are of coures a lot less serco than any of the others and a bit of good press might help even that out a bit.

I still can't understand why Serco players would need to write their version of the back story. They might play the role of villains in this universe (although this does not seem that clear when I read the current backstory), but you know that a good story heavily relies on powerful and complex and threatening bad guys. For example, we all know that Star Wars would be very childish without Vador (in fact this was verified with Episodes I and II).

Also, if I correctly read the skeletton development wiki doc, the Devs intend to distinguish two branches in the Itani side: the Order of Akan and the Order of Eo. I don't know how this would affect the play, but I think it is a very good idea. This fundamental feature of the Itani nation looks insufficiently exploited in actual play imho. The crimes committed under Akan should be reminded to all players who still think in manichean terms. Itani does not represent the good; the back story is more complex than that.

I don't think the serco come off too bad in the back story either. The Itani started the war the serco just wanted to finish it.

The Serco basically wanted to wipe out every man woman and child in the Itani nation. Its a good stratigic move. If they had left any alive, they thought that the the Itani would heal their wounds and come back stronger later. They didn't understand that Akan was crazy and wasn't really speaking for all Itani.

and after houndrads of years had pasted, they meet the Itani again. What would you do? They thought all Itani were wiped out and now they see that they are still alive with a thriving nation with 3 systems. And that the Itani are spying on them. Of course the Serco would be on edge and upset. Thier worst fears have been realized. And the Order of Akan didn't help at all. They just reiterated the Sercos fears.

I think the serco just did what they had to survive. If its them or us, then "they" die.

JB

I vote that the Serco die first, and let us know how that goes...

I would like to see a more immersive version of the backstory, right now it reads a lot like a dry history textbook.

Haha, I actually liked the history-book style. Made it feel ancient and relic-like.