Guild Wars 2

“GW2 tells story by allowing the player to befriend and adventure with key characters, by presenting him with moral dilemmas that will impact the lives of the people around him, and by having him live through world-changing events and all the key moments of the storyline.”

Took this straight out of the manifesto.
- I looked at this part and what an awesome part of the manifesto it is.

Problem is that the Personal Story did not live up to what ANet strived for. Read it and try to remember your personal story.
- One thing I see wrong with it is the befriending and adventuring with key characters.

Personally, when I play single player games, one of the most important parts of the storylines are the people I meet during my journey. Some stay behind, others are inspired by the protagonist and join up to find greater purpose themselves, others are your long life buddies that go with you.
- Memorable characters make for memorable events.

The most fun that I’ve had in the game overall were the starting zones or level 1-20.
- Why? Because, say, as a Human, I had my friend, whom I actually made some journeys and got some experiences with. My character also got new skills to use in combat. There was actually a sense of character progression there.
- I was disappointed, when my buddy was no longer a part of anything. I would’ve thought he’d come with me and grow alongside my own character, but alas no.

- Does this mean that ANet should back out of making a Personal Story, because there were so many people disappointed with it?
No, of course not. I had way higher expectations to the Personal Story, but that doesn’t really matter at this point.
- ANet made a huge deal out of WvW, Dynamic Events, the combat system and the Personal Story. These, you might say, are the “key features” of GW2, something that they wanted to do differently. When you do things differently you might notice that it wasn’t a perfect first attempt, but that doesn’t make you stop, no, you try to improve and perfect your creation.

- The best way for ANet to improve their game design is probably to look at the manifesto, their original and innovative goal, and try to reach it and/or make it better.

I should say, feel free to comment on the post.
- Have you felt the same way, or were you pleasantly surprised at the Personal Story?
- Do you have any ideas for improving it?
- Are there things you’d like to point out?
- What did they do well and not so well in your opinion?

It’s all fair game.

I kind of wish there was just more of it. I thought the story was a little short.
That might be a little much though making the same amount of content for a single player game in a MMO while still keeping the MMO side full.
I agree that the earlier levels were definitely a lot of fun with your companions and characters. It also felt like my choices mattered more from character creation. It was like your character was the same character once you started your “Vigil,Priory,Whispers” events no matter what your choices were (Though I still liked the quests from them). Then during the last part with the invasion of Orr you’re basically just taken for the ride.

I mean overall I did like it. I thought the Missions from GW1 were a little more filled out in both content and story but this wasn’t completely far out there.

If anything it would have been a really good feature for different NPC to treat you differently depending on your choices in the open world. I think that would’ve been an awesome feature. Like even with the voting we just had if the proponents of one side treated you nicely while the opposition would treat you nasty. We’ll see what happens

What they could have done was take a page from GW1 and have a “Pre Ascalon” tutorial zone. Replace “Pre Ascalon” with your personal story.
Take the early two Parts of stories (Levels 1 -20), scale them down in level requirement, then have the player run through them.

After that the Personal Story ends. The Order, Pact, and Orr mission parts could have been still instanced missions like they are now. The difference is instead of relying on the personal story markers you could have used the actual Order HQ to access those missions until you finally reach Fort Trinity. At Trinity the Orr missions are available to run through.

After that there’s the dungeon at Arah. This way the later stories could be seen as mini-dungeons. This way there’s not too much contamination with some characters in the Personal Story if the Living story kills them off in the “future”.

I should say, feel free to comment on the post.
- Have you felt the same way, or were you pleasantly surprised at the Personal Story?

I felt the same way. The story was rather dull, the personages dropped out as if they were part of a cheap soap where they refused to pay an actor anymore and mysteriously let them die, also very very stereotype. This is not at all the level of story I would have expected after playing Guild Wars 1.

- Do you have any ideas for improving it?
Personally I think they should just start from scraps and make it something really memorable this time. I also think they should tie forging your legendary weapon to the personal story, allowing you customization of the weapon, based on the choices you make during the story. More alternatives, more choices, more realism.

- Are there things you’d like to point out?
That the story at this point is something nobody even cares to complete.

- What did they do well and not so well in your opinion?
Read above

The problem with the personal story was that it was rushed and the real personal (level 1-20) part of your story quickly gave way to the Order, Pact, Orr parts of the story that were all the same for everybody (although they did have the different paths).

Combined with 2D cutscene backgrounds that were breaking of the immersion with the rest of the mission and the little emotion in the character’s delivery of the dialogue that in itself was not always fitting of the emotion or gravity of an event created a not very memorable story or immersive atmosphere surrounding the story.

I think GW1 had some things right that GW2 may have gone a little backwards on.

1. Pacing. GW1 paced your story progress with tons of quests between main story missions and as a result you were able to develop your character and create a bond with the story.

2. Cutscenes. The cutscenes in GW1 fluidly matched the missions as you were actually running around on the map, talking to character and maybe performing some sort of duty within the cutscene. Comapre that to obtrusive cutscenes that feel like they are pausing the game as you get a 2D background with 2 people talking. When its over the game unpauses. Not very engaging.

3. Dialogue. The dialogue and voice acting need more emotional depth to them. There’s never any real shouting, sadness, etc. The voice remains largely the same through any event in the story and the characters say generalistic things rather than what one would say when feeling a certain emotion such as anger, sadness, happiness, etc.

4. Atmosphere. When I do personal story it seems like I go to a marked spot on the map and exit the main map to go play a mission and then go right back to the regular game world and as a result its devoid of whatever atmosphere the mission should have set for the world as a whole. I think maybe if you had normal quests that involved certain events etc. in the main persistant game world inbetween main personal story missions, that would have helped immensely. Orr started to get the right idea in that regard, but the rest of the world, not so much.

I still enjoyed the story. But it wasn’t immersive, engaging, or setting the right mood for the game to me, but I think ANET has gotten a little better with this on Living Story.