I like alot of your points Ronin, as they're all well argued. Personally, I'm a proponent of the "return to the tournament" idea, so let me give you a few reasons why I prefer it, why I don't like the non-tournament format, why others might prefer the tournament format and how it could work.

Why I like the tournament format: For me, it's a good plot structure. It's the reason why these various characters would show up in the game. I mean, with no tournament structure, what was the point of the last few games? Beat the bad guys or else they'll do bad things?

I mean, think of it this way... You had the whole Black Dragon/Red Dragon sub plot, right? What purpose did it serve? What did it have to do with the main big bad evil of the games? What was the purpose for this plotline in relation to the other plotlines? Or rather, why were Kano, Hsu Hao and Movado in the same place as Nitara or Scorpion or Sonya or anyone else in MK:DA?

The tournament structure served as a reason to bring all of these characters to one place and fight, especially in terms of matches. I mean, why else, in the course of a given mode, would Kano fight Sub Zero? Clearly they have nothing to do with one another. Yet in a tournament, you can say "okay, this is just the next fight."

Now you might say, who cares about the context of each fight, well, for me, it's more or less a way of rationalizing why all of these different characters would be in the same place and fighting one another.

As for why others might like it as well: Consider the fact that the first few games are still regarded by most MK fans (especially long time MK fans) as the best games in the series. These were the games that got everything right in terms of mood, story and characters.

It had an Enter the Dragon type of feel to it, but by MK 2 it also had a much more sinister overtone to it. The tournament was a big part of those games. Liu Kang winning the first tournament and Shang Tsung's defeat was a big part in the story beginning with MK 2.

You also have to remember, before this time, there simply wasn't anything good in terms of stories outside of the RPG genre and a vast majority of those were rather formulaic. There certainly wasn't anything that had the kind of mood and story in the fighting genre.

Fans are nostalgic for those times, when MK, at least to MK fans (myself included) had a fantastic story, even with the small amount that the players had to work with in terms of bios and endings. The games had a very mysterious vibe to them, and these characters all coming together from mysterious or flat out unknown backgrounds to compete in a tournament, well, it makes alot more sense than the reaons why these characters fight one another now.

As for why I don't like the non-tournament format: Honestly, I just don't think the story has been as strong without the tournament. Nevermind the motivations of the characters, now it's just a "there's a big bad guy that has to be killed...and alot of other stuff going on."

Adding the extra realms, to me, only made it worse. After Outworld, when the other realms were added to the story, the characters certainly didn't improve much in terms of quality. None of them added anything to the story except for more plots.

This is fine, but to be honest, the older plots were better, more interesting and involved better characters (from conception and look to their actions). When you're telling a great story, and all of a sudden you go off on a tangent, adding all of this other stuff into the story (Red Dragon vs Black Dragon for example), when you've never really resolved the past stories (Black Dragon vs Special Forces for example), well, that never really makes things better...

It just piles a bunch of stuff on what was already good to begin with. So my main argument here is that the story has suffered under the nontournament format. It also comes down to what I said before... How do you get these characters together without a tournament? Why would they be in the same place?

As for what I'd do to bring the tournament back: Well, the whole "must win 10 tournaments" thing needs to go. I agree with you on that for sure. What you could be something as simple as restarting the Shaolin Tournament, as it was before Shang Tsung took over, have it in a forbidden city type of place.

Now, instead of fighting against a force that is overtly trying to take over the tournament and/or take over the world, you begin the plot with a tournament to crown a new Champion of Mortal Kombat and protector of Earth Realm.

As I said before, get rid of all other realms. Those stories have either been ruined by bad storytelling, uninteresting characters or characters we've simply seen enough of for now.

How do you do that? Simple. Seal the portals. Now of course, you could have the whole "it seems he snuck into our realm before the portal was sealed" angle for one or a few characters, but on the whole, the game should return to what, at least on the surface, seemed to be an all Earthrealm battle like MK1 seemed to be.

Of course, the evil in this game should come from a covert evil. A puppet master pulling strings behind the scenes, manipulating things to his or her end. A character that is not what they claim to be.

Maybe this evil manipulates the tournament so that a character with blood from another realm wins, thus opening the portal and allowing that realm's evil to challange Earth in Mortal Kombat.

Yeah, on the surface, it sounds like a repeat of MK1 and MK2, but this time, the real evil isn't the "warlord from another realm" it's that evil character that's in the good guys midst, manipulating everything.

To what end? Well, there are a thousand different directions to take that story and it's a story that could easily last for several games because it's not simply the threatening realm that takes center stage, therefore you avoid the whole "10 wins" issue. Other things happen in the third game that take that part out of the plot, maybe bringing another evil onto the scene.

So I honestly think that it can be done, and I think that it should be as well. Mainly, I think that alot of people, again, myself included, believe that the story has gotten so out of control with all of these characters and plots that are either never resolved or contradict themselves from previous games and what not, that it's simply time to reset the MK story.

Start fresh.

What was MK, at it's core, from the very beginning? It was a martial arts tournament. You strip away the alliances, the bad guys, the realms, and everything else and MK was martial arts tournament. You start there. You start over. You bring back some old favorites if there's good reason to, and you rebuild with a new story that's planned out for several games, with new characters and other old characters returning over the course of time (again, with good reasons for being there) and maybe the mess of a story that was Armageddon could be fixed, and the MK story could once more become the envy of other fighting franchises.

What do you think?

The main reason I would want to return to a tournament is because, I want MK to go back to the way it was with a lot of added stuff. I pretty much want the SF4 of Mortal Kombat for MK9.

Nothing to do right now so, here we go...

The main reason I see a purpose in writing a contest back into the the story, is because it is the source purpose for which to bring characters together that may motivate the new overarching storyline in a Mortal Kombat progression. I mean, we go three games at a time right? That's enough games to reset, and rebuild anything story wise. Now, there's other supporting reasons for this, but let's just take one thing at a time.

To eliminate the root of alot of the bad storytelling we've been getting lately, I think they should be trying to base each character in a foundation that they can draw from, and give each character a center for which to operate from ( give them a pivot foot, and 360 degree axis). Or, at least give them a beacon for which to hover around within their own stories (like the planetary system moving around the sun). At any rate, the pivot foot//sun should be a contest.

There's one object of attraction, the attraction is obvious enough to never really question it, and yet the attraction to it can be for any reason you can think of. Anything. Peoples motivations always seem simple, and easily identifiable by the object of attraction until you investigate that specific persons motivations.

So, centering these characters around the contest is a good, fruitful base to start from. It's simple to understand, yet it's complex depending on which of the characters we're talking about. It answers one crucial question right off the bat: "Why is so and so even in the game to begin with?"

Once they answer that question for all the characters, we can see them move into character specific stuff. The roster should get smaller because of this too.



Sure it would. You motivate someone enough towards a single goal, and they'll go as far as they can go to accomplish the goal. A hypothetical example:

Say I'm a new character from the Zaterrian realm, and I've been groomed up to believe that the only way to make my world a beautiful place again since Shao Kahn ruined it, is to take back that which was taken from my world. So, I want to take back beauty for my realm, and the only standing places left to attain such a thing, would be Earth or Edenia. Now I'm a threat to Earth and or Edenia. I gather up 10 of my best warriors, and go challenge Earth or Edenia.

Now we have an ensuing Mortal Kombat tournament, and I choose to challenge Earth because Raiden's missing, the champ is dead, and who knows who else is left for Earths warriors. Should be easy pickins', even if it is 10 tournaments I'd have to go through.

Problem for Earth with me though, is that I want to feel like I'm winning something more than just the Mortal Kombat victory. So if, and as I win MK contests, my people inhabit the Earth like an infection, and as a consequence they also scout out, and try to stifle any chance of a new champ for Earth emerging.

Kitana and Jade show up to help Earth but we back them off all the way into their realm. But realizing that they're more of a threat at home than on Earth, we go there in my sub-plot to seek and destroy the Edenian royalty whilst we wait for the next MK tournament opportunity on Earth. If we are successful in Edenia, but fail to kill Kitana and Jade because they ran...we follow them, and get back to the MK tournament when it is time.

Anything can happen from there now, because I, this character from the Zaterrian realm, now have two or more things going on with me, and am suddenly traversing the realms via my overall agenda that pertains specifically to a motivation that drove me to a Mortal Kombat contest.

See? It's a relatively weak example but the point is, I traversed at least two realms, I'm not on some revenge binge (like Scorpion), and I'm not after anybodies mystical belt buckle (Shinnoks amulet). lol But that's enough to provide a whole, deep, very descriptive story for one character in one game centered around a Mortal Kombat contest.



Well I tell ya what, I'd start considering if I were on the writing team is how dramatic it would be to see:

1.) EarthRealm loose.

There is no champ //chosen one right now, and who knows who's left of the champ squad to defend Earth. That leaves Fujin as the only defender for sure.

It's a good time for a strong attack on Earth since MKA.

2.) EarthRealm on the offensive instead of on the defense.

Another perspective that me and I think it was Razor-- considered, is letting Raidens agenda take a dominance in one of the next games. Raidens' on this offensive defense right now so, it wouldn't strike me as unusual if I saw him sabotage, and then challenging other realms. Aheh, he's trying to get rid of "threats to Earthrealm" right now so, every participant from some of these realms that already oppose Earth, he's already trying to kill them outside of the contest.

As a measure of calculation, he could convince whoever is left of the champ squad that "we need to act now", and then he and Zombie Liu could kill off saaay the Tarkatans in their entirety. So then when Raiden challenges Outworld, No Baraka shows up now as a defendant for that realm! Haha! I mean, he knows who ALL his targets are, I'm just saying, what if he killed them first, and then tried to "secure" other realms by challenging them to Mortal Kombat after the fact? lol I think he and Z.Kang could at least get close.

3.) A new threat if they move Shao Kahn out of the way, or kick him while he's down.

Like my example earlier.



I like the idea of a good tournament turning bad for MK9 or 10 or whatever. Way I see it, Earth is going to have to calm down alot after MKA. They're also gonna need to declare a new chosen one. How do you do that?

Hold a civil contest like martial artists in real life do. From there, who should stumble their way into this contest but bad guys.

: Shang Tsung needs souls since the EtherRealm ordeal with Raiden and the sacrifice, and what better a source to start soul sucking from, than the tournament of reconstruction that needs to erect a new chosen warrior for Earth?

: Nightwolf went to hell over binding Onaga, he'd be welcomed with open arms back, but who knows since his trip to the Nether how he's actually going to behave.

: Sub-Zero will certainly be there, but I doubt he'd participate for being the next chosen one. He's got enough on his plate with Frost, Sareena, and a couple other folks. I'd predict that he'd send a pupil or two into a new contest.
Wait, isn't Sareena's better half demon? heheh...

: Scorpion could be there if they'd let him try to find a way to reclaim his honor. But I'd bet on someone pissing him off during the contest...lol!

: Raiden should probably be busy killing someone, but at the same time, he let the corpse loose to "reek havoc on those who had done harm to Earth". So if Shang Tsung's there sucking peoples souls, Z. Kang will not be far behind I suspect.

-- Point is, evil finds its way into anything good most of the time. It just depends on set up, presentation, and how they allow us to acquire or receive the information.

Far as a host and all that, they don't have to be an actual "bad guy". The boss of a good tournament could just be the head monk or something. He could be "enlightened" that way, or even a demi-god type, and that's why he gets to talk to the gods most often or whatever. So if you win//beat him, he gives you the divine rite to call yourself the chosen one somehow.

Maybe he's the guy that grants the life longevity for the champ, in addition to more potent chi powers or something. Hell, idk. You give him stuff though, that is relevant to MK's past chosen ones, and explain through exposure to him how the chosen ones are selected. That also makes him the announcer for "rounds 1, 2, Fight!" and so on too.

A model for this kind of "backseat", or reconstruction tournament, is Jet Li's Unleashed movie. Where the tournament isn't really the focus of the game, it's just what's bringing all the unique characters with their own agendas into the mix. It's an opportunity for all kinds of new stuff, but that stems from an obvious past.

They need to calm all things "cataclysmic" down though, and focus on producing a great game.


EDIT: Forgot to click post message earlier.

One thing that's been bugging me is that people on these forums (not you specifically Pred) seem to be mistaken Scorpion's true nature. Why would Scorpion be trying to "regain his honour"? I mean, he's a ninja, ninjas don't have honour - they will do anything and everything in order to win, which includes stabbing people in the back and killing them when they least expect it (in their sleep).

Samurai's on the other hand are the ones who have honour, and abide by a strict code - Bushido. I blame this misconception on TV and games, where they depict the ninja as being an honourable hero. But, no where in Scorpion's story does it mention anything about honour, in fact, he's probably turned against his employers / masters more than any other character in MK.

Sorry about that but it's been bugging me.

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Another thing about the tournament - No where in the games does it mention they have to win 10 straight victories. That bullcrap was only ever in the movies, which do not serve as a canon reference to the MK storyline.

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As for the tournament idea - I'm surpised I haven't seen this yet:
It was announced after MKA that the next MK game will feature a new generation of fighters. Meaning, there will be a new bad guy, there will be new heroes, and there will be a new tournament.

BUT

If this is not the case for MK9, and the story continues with the same characters, and for this example I will be ignoring the events of Armageddon.

- Shao Kahn and Lui Kang are dead, killed by the deadly alliance.
- Shinnok is trapped in the Neatherealm and since Quan Chi is gone, there's noone left to free him.
- Onaga is dead, killed by Scorpion or Shujinko (whatever you wish to believe).
- The deadly alliance became a part of Raiden after the sacrifice (the reason why Raiden is tainted with evil energy).

People were speculating that Raiden would become the new threat, but like someone suggested, maybe he could lead an attack on other realms, protecting Earthrealm by eliminating the threats.

The problem with this idea is that the good guys would be trying to return Raiden back to his former self, while the bad guys would be trying to eliminate Raiden altogether. So it would be Raiden vs everyone, and off the top of my head I can't really think of how this would fit into a tournament format.

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Personally, I would like to see an all new generation of fighters with a very small handfull of returning characters - Raiden, since he is immortal, Scorpion and Sub Zero because they are the most popular MK characters, and maybe Noob (as the new ruler of the Neatherealm and a rivalry with Scorpion).

BUT

Like I mentioned in another thread, I would like to have a "Tournament" mode, as well as a story mode (Konquest), and others. Most of the story could be free roaming while one part (maybe the end) could be based around a tournament format.

There is so many possibilities it's hard to come up with just one idea.

Okay, a lot to respond to, so let's get to it.

I will admit that good argument has been made for using a tournament as a grounding force for the storyline after the hellish clusterf*ck that was Armageddon. However, if they use a tournament as such for the next story, there are a few stipulations I'd like to see.

First, I'd like to see a lot happening outside of the tournament. What I mean is that there should be some characters involved in a story that doesn't really intersect with the tournament, similar to the Nitara subplot from DA. Sure, in the original game everyone was participating, but there were 7 of them. All I ask for is that a roster of 20+ characters has 3-4 staying in the shadows and not participating.

Second, is that I don't want to see a series of tournaments. If they are going to use a tournament to calm down the story, then do so, but build up a new threat and an "all is not well" vibe, I don't want to see one tournament followed by another in MK10. But that's just me preferring the non-tourney, "go get the bad guy" motif.

And now for more direct responses.

Baraka407: - Both you and Pred use the argument of explaining why everyone was in the same place at the same time and why they fight each other so I'll discuss that here. I'm of the mind that maybe everyone ISN'T in the same place at the same time. Perhaps we could accept a storyline where someone didn't fight a series of 7 recognizable characters before moving on to beat something 3 times their size that had some kind of awesome power and an evil plot. There can still be a point even if we don't have to go through that.

- As for the subplots, well, I just happen to like subplots. I like the little stories that can grow into the big stories. Sure they didn't handle the Red/Black Dragon thing very well, but there are plenty of others that I liked, like the Nitara example earlier. I can see that we're just of different minds on this point, so I won't dwell on it and just say I disagree.

- You mention how the story was better contained back in the early games when it was just the tournament. That may be true, but I think that evolution is a better way to go than devolution. If you want to make the story stronger in the next MK, then I'm a big fan of the Kharacter Specific Konquest. Tell each person's story in that sort of mode. We can get character motivations there, and be told specifically why they are in the fight.

- I do like you're idea of holding a tournament to find a new champion, but I really can't see anything bigger than a side story coming out of it. I mean, how many of the Earthrealm fighters, as of right now, seem like Champion material? And I have to ask the question, do you expect that sort of story to flow into another tournament somehow? If so, I'd like to hear your thoughts on how you'd pull that off.

- Now, I've seen you talk about getting rid of the realms before, but I'm going to stick with what I said earlier. This story isn't about Earth anymore. And from the perspective of a writer, I don't like the idea of just getting rid of something once it's been introduced. The way I see it, the can of worms has already been opened, now let's see what we can do with the worms.

- Another thing about sealing Earth off and all that is to look at the characters you're left with. Here are the people that base themselves in Earthrealm: Cage, Kano, Kang, Sonya, Sub-Zero, Jax, Kung Lao, Cyrax, Kabal, Nightwolf, Sektor, Stryker, Jarek, Kai, Frost, Hsu Hao, Kenshi, Mavado, Mokap, Kira, Kobra, Kobra and Shujinko. I leave Scorpion out since I consider him of the Netherrealm by now, but I suppose he'd also be in there. Also, Raiden and Fujin could probably come and go as they please, but still, what does that roster of twenty-something look like to you? And that's without eliminating anyone that should be dead or just not coming back for the next game.

Not to mention all the characters with potential being left out (I know you covered this but I'm ranting). Noob doesn't care about Earth, why would he be here? What's to be done with the budding storyline of Sareena (admittedly, she might be in Arctika during the "sealing")? What about Ermac? I've liked the potential stories for Drahmin in the Netherrealm and I enjoyed Havik and the Order vs. Chaos bit (re: subplots). With the minimal and... lacking cast left from sealing off Earth, there's a lot of room left to be filled with new characters, which I don't want to see too much of. 5-6 is good.

- You go through a "fresh" storyline involving someone manipulating things behind the scenes and playing puppet master, but again I have to ask if you expect him to do so through multiple tournaments? You want to start fresh with just a few classics returning, where I've just stated where I'd like the new character cap to be. There's a lot that I disagree with in your vision, but in the end, when asked "what do I think" all I have to say is that I'd take it in a different direction.

Predator151: - You say that with enough motivation, people would be willing to traverse as many realms as necessary for a tournament. I guess I'm just of the mind that traveling from one realm to another takes a great deal more effort. When you make a big deal out of a guy like Quan Chi being a free roaming sorceror and being able to go between the realms at will (or something like that) it implies that it's pretty difficult for everyone else. And the storyline that you presented, weak as you admitted it to be, doesn't offer any explanation as to why we'd see a wasteland or living forest arena when all the action of a tournament is supposed to take place on earth.

- Your versions of the MK tournament in the future are interesting. It would be nice to see a story where Earth loses, similar to how Deadly Alliance turned out. The invadin' Raiden storyline has a lot of good points. Hell, I actually enjoy the idea of somebody looking to conquer Outworld for a change. But again, the problem with the traditional MK tournaments is that none of it matters unless it's the tenth tournament. Something needs to be done about that, but on the other hand, I don't want the story to always be about somebody trying to conquer a realm.

- Again, holding a tournament to choose the next champion is something that I could see happening. It would be nice to see some of the magic of it all going on, like the process of becoming immortal and all that. I think that it's worth doing. But, again, I can't see it taking up the whole story of a game. There has to be a lot more to it.

- Suprisingly little to say with your stuff, Pred. I just keep saying "I like your ideas, I just have trouble reconciling it."

Scorpion1813: - Actually, there are elements of Scorpion's story that hint at him having a better sense of honor than you project. While alive, everything he did was for the sake of his family. After finding out about the younger Sub-Zero, he felt bad about killing the older one, and in a showing of atonement, vowed not to hurt him. This is not a man without a sense of honor. As for actual ninjas, they also had some for of this. True, they were stealth assassins that would stab people in the back or kill them in their sleep, but they were still part of the Japanese feudal system; loyal, honorbound servants of a shogun and capable of being ordered to commit seppukku, honorable suicide.

- The 10-tournament stipulation is not just bullshit from the movies and there's a specific reason we know this. If there wasn't, Shao Kahn would have invaded Earth back when Shang Tsung first won the tournament, or when Goro killed the Great Kung Lao. So unless you have some other explanation for why Shao Kahn halted his invasion plans in the time between the time Goro was named champion and when Liu Kang came along, then we're going to go on assuming that it requires 10- consecutive victories in Mortal Kombat to conquer a realm.

- I've mentioned my thoughts on going to a new generation of fighters elsewhere, but I'll repeat the basics here. I think it's a cop out for not addressing the immediate ramifications of the storyline. I think it's pointless since most of the characters aren't from Earth and don't age anyway. The villains wouldn't necessarily be any different, since every single one we've seen thus far measures their lives in the thousands of years. Starting fresh by moving way forward doesn't help as much as you think.

- As for throwing out Armageddon, I'm gonna go with a few things I said earlier. I don't believe we should just throw things away. As tempting as it is with Armageddon, we've opened up the can and I want to see what happens with it. Also, I think it's a cop-out by saying, "Yeah we screwed up so bad that we're not even gonna try to fix it." If you let them get away with it once, you give them the authority to throw away any game they come up with in the future.

- I agree that there should be the standard arcade "tournament" mode, and then have the Konquest mode where we see the actual story as it happens.

And there we have it. As drawn out a response as I'm willing to give. Need a break after that one.

I'll do you one better:
It says it right in Mortal Kombat Trilogy.

"For nine generations, the Mortal Kombat tournament was ruled by the Outworld's finest Warrior, Prince Goro. It was agreed that if the Outworld could claim victory in 10 consecutive tournaments, it would then rule the Earth. With the Earth on the brink of destruction, a new generation of Warriors gathered and claimed victory."

i would love the story to go back to the tournament because it gives the mk team more time to deal with characters, moves, arenas, and attires.

i'd like to see the tournament take place in the nettherealm just to bring back the evil feel of mk2 and mk4. maybe the winner of the tournament could be the new ruler of the nettherealm.

or the tournament could be held out in outworld to still bring back that grim feel.

also the tournament could bring back the ladders but be tweaked up and improved apon.

Ninja's were not loyal, they worked for the highest payer whether that be a Shogun, or some rich merchant. They would turn on their employers in a heartbeat if the reward was good enough, and they would rather stand and fight instead of committing seppukku. Ninjas are basically the mercinaries of Japan (both ancient and modern). Like I said earlier, Scorpion is probably the most betraying character in MK, he's turned on all his masters and even turned on the one he vowed to protect (albiet through trickery, but it still betrayed his vow nonetheless).

Saying that, every man should want to protect and serve his family, and Scorpion vowing to protect Sub Zero does show he has some honour. But no where does it mention he was protecting Sub Zero to "regain honour". He was just showing compassion and acting on honour he already had in him.

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As for the ten tournament thing... I only referenced the first 2 games. Wasn't expecting to find it in a later one, but I only seem to remember seeing it in the movie, oh well.

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As for scrapping the Armageddon story - while I would also like to see how they can fix it and what the following storyline would be, I also think it's too much of a mess and I personally wouldn't know where to start when attempting to fix it. But the biggest problem I have with Armageddon's story is the fact they brought back all those dead characters (Shao Kahn, Onaga, Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, Goro, Lui Kang, Frost, Hotaru) and THEN built a story around it, coming up with some pretty fucking stupid reasons how these characters have returned.

Dead character should stay dead, especially the shit ones (Hotaru and Lui Kang), and those bosses we have seen way too much of (Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi). I don't mind Quan Chi too much, but I just wish Scorpion would hurry up and kill him already.

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And when are we going to see Scorpion and Noob interact, I don't think they have even seen each other yet!! I want to see Scorpion fighting his original nemesis rather than been given some stupid reason to attack young Sub Zero again and again.

Sorry for the rant but Armageddon's story really pisses me off, which is why I choose to ignore it.

Then wouldn't that be a character specific game or mode though? Like Shaolin Monks, or MK: Mythologies for example.



- Hey, I wish it was more difficult too. By way in fact, of a better description of someone like Quan Chi (all the characters need this btw). If they defined Quan Chi or Shang Tsung better, it would give way to to an understanding of what it takes to be able to pull off some of the....shit, they do.

Like, Shang Tsung "can do this set of things with necromancy", but can't to "that". And on the other hand, Quan Chi "can do everything Shang Tsung can do", plus "this set of things" that is also necromancy. But, Quan Chi can't do "this", that Shao Kahn can do, and Shao Kahn can't do "this set of things", that Onaga can do...But even then, no necromancer on the roster can do nearly as many of these same types of things, or to the scale to which Shinnok is able to do them.

And then once we can look at a heiarchy like that, well, then we start looking at what the humans // regular mortals may be capable of. Not only does that give that chain of necromancers some weight, and a measure of capability, it helps bring into focus the limitations we wanna set for a contest.

So, if we go with Earthrealm, and lets just use Baraka07's idea about closing the portals. If they close the portals to Earth to have this contest, but we know Shinnok can create portals but is busy not caring about this contest; and at the same time, we also know that for instance, Quan Chi has a nact for sniffing out the keys to existing portals closed or not, a level of difficulty, and specialty is established for he and other characters on the roster.

There isn't anything there of this sort, so I presume that anyone motivated enough, can go where ever they feel they need to in the MK universe.

-- I didn't mean to imply that all the action would only happen on Earth. Rather, what I meant was that because of what is happening on Earth, there is no limitation to where significant battles can happen. Y'know, "because" there's a Mortal Kombat contest happening, it triggers all these other events that have the potential to span and reach out to any where, all over the MKu.

I'm in favor of both a more exclusive environmental setting that keeps things pretty much in one place. And I'm also in favor of a more expansive one that let's us see that the rest of the universe still exist (I'll go either way as long as it's really good). I'm just saying that alot of the "where" would depend on which character we're talking about, their motives, and what their involvement is to the overarching storyline.



Hm...You might just be completely right on this one. Only thing I could see happening is in the spirit of bringing something new to the table with MK9, they decide to make the Elder Gods change the rules. They're presumed to be the inventors and enforcers of those rules after all. (matter of fact, I wrote a story where Raiden came up with that stuff for Earth but, here nor there I guess)

Or the developers could finally define a "generation" in MK. That hasn't really been done yet, and right now it's really just an implied thing. A generation could happen quicker or slower depending on exactly how much time passes between generations. Therefor contest could happen faster or slower.
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Some ideas but, that's why I think the whole concept of the MK contest needs to get smaller, and simpler before it gets big and cataclysmic again. They should be starting over, but with the basis for reconstructing a new ultimate doom out of consideration for events and characters from the past. If they go for a smaller contest first, some of these structural issues can be put to rest.

: The New Champ - Maybe a false champ at first, so that one of the new characters on the roster has a chance to grow into the role in a following game or something.
: The God - straighten out Fujin, and explain Raiden & Fujins differences now.
: New Characters - We should be getting complex personalities with simple objectives by now. No repeat characters unless it's a lineage or "similar teachings" thing.
: Old Characters - that are still around for whatever reason. Who's dead, who retired, or simply went away from Mortal Kombat for whatever reasons.
: Explain how the contest works - let us play through this.
: Use KAK - for ^^this "you are a contestant inside the mortal kombat contest." You just wanna win the contest, but you get caught up in the drama and all that. Character builder...ect.

Put these types of things in order with the next game so we can care about what's going on again. (/lil rant)
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I agree with you that I don't really care for the "evil conqueror" scenario happening over and over. But there's gonna have to be a definite negative and positive. I've thought about "Curse of the Golden Flower" for a future Mortal Kombat storyline (3 game storyline). Needs more action, and more sharp instances of violence, blood, and gore, but that story looks like a "new" MK game pretty much.

I'd also like to see character specific story's toy with some of our modern day movie character concepts. For instance, the role Jet Li plays as "Danny" from Jet Li's Unleashed could be Kitana in theory. The body of their stories pretty much match up. They could be playing with this sort of concept to help build, and give weight to some of these characters.

For a boss, I think a passive aggressive one is in order no matter what.
: A deceptively nice and easily welcomed individual. Maybe like Ozymandias". Except a truly malevolent manipulator underneath a good guy facade in MK. iMo, they didn't present Quan Chi, or any manipulator on the MK roster well enough. I mean, show me a flash back of him in action, a "how he dun it", "who he undercut and how", or something. Present a manipulators brand of evil visually, better.
: Or an Anakin type, where we are able to see them be a genuinely good character first, but gradually turn extremely evil.
: A sweet old guy, really helpful...
: A really young and innocent child type, usually a girl, or young woman.
: Someone seemingly too weak to harm anyone...ect

No obvious boss though. So if there is a contest, the person at the top of the ladder would have to be someone else.

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Sorry for taking so long to respond. Was away for the weekend.

Scorpion: - yeah, the 10-tournament bit wasn't around when it all got started. When conceiving the first game it was just supposed to be about a corrupted shaolin tournament. They didn't realize that it was going to turn into anything about conquering realms at the time. And sometime after they had changed it like that, somebody realized all the crap I mentioned. So they had to come up with a reason retroactively.

- About all the characters coming back from the dead for Armageddon, the best explanation I've seen is that, since most of the resurrected characters are evil, they would have been sent to the Netherrealm, where Shinnok is in charge. Many elements from the bios we managed to get suggest that Shinnok was trying to create as big a battle as possible to weaken the fabric of reality in an attempt to escape the netherrealm. Since if the realms fell apart all existence would be nullified, either he's suicidal or (having been an elder god) is capable of surviving the process.

Pred.: - I'm not sure what you're getting at with the "character specific game or mode". I'll assume you mean a difference between the arcade and Konquest mode. Arcade mode should still follow the tournament format, but the konquest mode, where we learn the actual story for any of the characters or the game as a whole, doesn't have to.

- True, a large portion of the problem lies in the fact that there is not an adequate description of any of these people's abilities. However, I look at it like this. In Armageddon and a few other places, we see that Quan Chi is capable of creating his own portals between areas/realms. Despite this, he will still typically use a pre-made portal to get where he needs to go. In addition, with his knack for being able to open portals, which means that he is very good at this talent, and implies that there are a lot of people who aren't.

- I'd like to continue that same point, but this time I'll avoid referencing Quan Chi. Personally, I don't just wanna believe that portals are difficult to use, I like to believe they're hard as hell to find. Earthrealm is a bad example to use given the standard lack of mystical knowledge, but when the earth fighters needed to get to the Deadly Alliance, they only found a
portal because Raiden showed it to them. As for the other, more mystical realms, if you're going somewhere specific or covertly, you're probably not going to be using one of the public portals. This point may be a more personal preference.

- Having the Elder Gods change things around a bit would probably be a good idea. They'd probably have to do something after Armageddon and all that. Hell, they could probably have the next game happen during the time they have lifted the old rules, but haven't decided what the new ones are just yet. Not a good idea on its own, but it could be worked with. I don't think clarifying 'generation' is gonna help too much. I just assumed it was 50 years, and that's fine with me.

- Again, I'm fine with the process of finding the next Champ of earthrealm with a tournament next time around, but I also want to see things happening in Outworld, Edenia, or the Netherrealm. That structure actually works for me.

- For your boss types, I'd think your Ozymandian manipulator could work for the end of a trilogy (which I'll get to in a moment), the Anakin-type could work if they continue Ashrah or Li Mei down their tainted paths, and the sweet old guy would work as the shaolin master in charge of the tournament.

- As for what I would do with a trilogy, I would have the people of Earthrealm organize a tournament to find a new champion (Liu Kang's corpse preferably having been dealt with in Armageddon), but something is amiss. Not necessarily with the tournament itself, but with certain happenings in some of the other realms. Explore these before moving into the second game. Game 2; the new champ is crowned, and just in time. Something big has happened, but nobody is really sure as to whodunnit. Champ and a few others go out to investigate, and it seems to tie into the mysterious happenings of the last game. Reveal who is behind it only in a select few endings. Game 3; the hammer falls and the man behind the curtain is revealed. Whatever his plans happen to be, they need to be stopped, and maybe not even by the person who was crowned Champ. Finish off the story in whatever manner fits. And, lo and behold, only one tournament in the whole bloody thing.