That rant I promised? Here we go.
Here's the problem: delivering extranet justice to villains who were telegraphed from their first appearance is [i]fucking boring[/i].
Yes, this is a horrifically blunt way of stating it and no, I'm not aiming the statement at anyone in particular. I've tried several different ways to say the above civilly and in more constructive terms, but each time I just start going off and have to delete the whole post.
I'm about to use an analogy using anime, but given that this is a Mass Effect roleplaying board, I suspect I can be forgiven for the nerdery.
My friends and I are watching an anime called [i]Fist of the North Star[/i], from ages past. It's about 150 episodes long, and we're a third of the way through it. Bear with me, because I'm going somewhere with this.
The first twenty-odd episodes involve us following Kenshiro, destroyer of men, as he tracks down Shin, his rival and the kidnapper of his girlfriend. This first arc is defined by a number of unimportant goons, who Shin sends after Ken in an effort to stop him. Because there are 130 more episodes to go, the outcome of all of this is certain: Ken makes it to Shin, and destroys him. And that's it. Despite all of the buildup, there's no meat to this victory.
Later arcs change up the format. Instead of a bunch of battles with low-level goons, followed by a battle with the Big Boss, the arcs focus entirely on the singular battle. There may be fights in between, but they serve the greater plot, and either emphasize the villain, or what's riding on the outcome of the battle (a village, another kung-fu master's sister, etc.). While the first arc could be defined as "Ken versus goons, plus Shin," the next arcs are all "Ken versus Villain." As a result, the villains are more engaging, the fights are more compelling, and while we are no less certain that Ken is going to win, there's a feeling of satisfaction when he does.
Okay, we're done.
You may be thinking to yourself, "but that's exactly what my "oh fuck, the extranet is here" plot is like! Just one villain!" There's one villain, yes, but they're the goon-of-the-week variety, to be inevitably dispatched as the characters work towards other goals. This might take more than one thread, but it starts and resolves so quickly that it passes in the blink of an eye.
[i]There is no investment.[/i]
The best story arcs have taken months of slow burn, with tangents used to build the situation and characters, to make us care. A great recent example is Capice/Kayana and the decision over whether or not to join the Compact. We have her [url=http://www.cerberusdailynews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1595]originally losing her parents and subsequent rescuing/adoption, her promotion into a [url=http://www.cerberusdailynews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2872]full-fledge PC[/url], the [url=http://www.cerberusdailynews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3534]establishment of a relationship[/url], and then the bombshell. And we feel it, because the effort was taken to make it all worthwhile.
So, let's get to the [color=#4040FF]TL;DR[/color], shall we?
Make sure we have a reason to care. Take the time to develop everything. And don't feel like you need to be big to be good. I just pointed out that the [i]story of a teenager break-up[/i] was one of the most engaging arcs we've recently had.