Guild Wars 2

I agree, thank you ANet all these Dialogues.

Most touching Dialogue in this patch was this little Asuran woman who lost her “Rollan”. It really made me cry. She seems to be still in shock phase of her lost. Every woman knows that who have lost their child.

Wholeheartedly agreed. The immersive nature of this patch is palpable as you go about listening and talking to citizens.

Either the writers got some help, or they gotten a lot better. Whatever it is it’s working

For the first time a game actually made me care about so many characters. It feels like even the most insignificant NPC from Lion’s Arch suddenly matters. A spectacular update. Anet did a really good job!

This is what this update was about. The NPCs who fled LA. Not the zergfest within the city. I spent a good deal of time going to all the camps, reading everything, and listening to all the dialogue. It truly is an emotional patch, and makes me want to kill Scarlet for being a real villain finally.

aspirine.6852:

Either the writers got some help, or they gotten a lot better. Whatever it is it’s working

When the Nightmare Tower was introduced, they’ve actually stated in a red post that they’ve shown to the story-guys how to make basic NPC’s and stuff. I guess that’s one of the reasons why we’re seeing more of those lately.

Agreed. I’ve stood in all the camps to hear the dialogue. Some of it is pretty cheesy, (I’m looking at you, Kasjory), but it’s interesting. They’ve covered a lot of the emotional and practical facets of war.

Agreed. The NPC’s dialogs have been some of the most enjoyable things in the updates for me.

Tom Gore.4035:

Best of all, a lot of it is with voiceovers and NONE of it is with marionette shows.

Personally, I liked the marionette shows. The engine had a surprisingly wide variety of facial expressions for the various characters and I really enjoyed the subtle details in many of them. Sadly all that tech has gone unused since the Personal Story got ditched.

BobbyStein.2315:

There were story and character moments for planned instances that, unfortunately, got cut.

Like these?:
https://soundcloud.com/arenanet/guild-wars-2-voiceover#t=0:18

:D

CHAUNCEY! CHAUNCEY!

BobbyStein.2315:

skullmount.1758:

BobbyStein.2315:

There were story and character moments for planned instances that, unfortunately, got cut.

Like these?:
https://soundcloud.com/arenanet/guild-wars-2-voiceover#t=0:18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8wCYsvDQLM

:D

CHAUNCEY! CHAUNCEY!

So that Logan gag was something we came up with during some downtime in the VO booth. I wanted us to put an Easter egg in the game where once a day he’d leave his office in DR and patrol the city just being a jerk to people as a kind of anger therapy since his job as Captain of the Seraph is so stressful. The commandeering of the lollipop was one such scenario.

There are other scenes that go with that one, but they’re outside our ESRB rating, unfortunately.

The Fancy Cat Competition stuff is one of many bits that didn’t get used. The performances from Yuri Lowenthal, Kirk Thornton, Kari Wahlgren, Sam Riegel were spot on. Maybe we’ll get to it one day….

LW patch dedicated solely to Chauncey (or fanciest X/animal contest) would be inetersting.

In an odd way, Logan walking around and taking his frustration out on people would have made me like him more.

And yes, please dear Dwayna, put that Chauncey dialogue in the game somehow.

BobbyStein.2315:

The Fancy Cat Competition stuff is one of many bits that didn’t get used. The performances from Yuri Lowenthal, Kirk Thornton, Kari Wahlgren, Sam Riegel were spot on. Maybe we’ll get to it one day….

Well, it’s a yearly cat competition, no? That’s coming up soon-ish

Agree and disagree.

Love they added more dialogue and characters.

Don’t like they’re not doing cut scenes with said characters. Presentation is more important I think.

BobbyStein.2315:

The Fancy Cat Competition stuff is one of many bits that didn’t get used. The performances from Yuri Lowenthal, Kirk Thornton, Kari Wahlgren, Sam Riegel were spot on. Maybe we’ll get to it one day….

But..
But..
He…he was so fannncccyyyyyyyy!
(breaks down in tears)

For the love of the Six Gods at least have him lead a parade in DR or something!
(sniffle cries)

i have nothing against any of the storytelling medium, but by far my favorite is the open world conversations.. i enjoy being able to read the dialogue too, above their heads or in the log, it’s all very good to me.. being able to go into the ‘talk’ panel and experience our character’s portion of a conversation, even if it’s just a simple gesture, offers more immersion than some people give it credit..
whenever it’s something peculiar and the final response is “yeah, i gotta get going..”
i’ve come to appreciate that one, and it’s conveniently voice clipped.. {it is on my main anyway, norn female} almost to the extent that i see it as a developing character trait where she typically will run off in a nonchalant manner >:p

anyway, tyria has some good immersive content and i’m glad when it is put on the frontline..    ideas are like cream, good ones rise to the top   o_o

we should hold a fancy cat competition to cheer up the survivors of lion’s arch

i feel horrible just for typing that

I love how there are more narrative and lore and story overall, and that the way it,s implemented makes us grasp some parts at a time, but the way it’s all over the place, I have the impression I’m missing on some, while it’s easy to come back to read short story, and animations makes it so it’s harder to miss…
And, if possible, I would love it if all npc’s chat was written in chat, not just over their head? (some are, but not all)

Anyway, Great job; love the mix of cinematics, instanced dialogues, and living world glimpses.

Although the NPC dialogues are informative enough for getting a general understanding of what’s happening, there is still a lot of room for improvement. For example, after retaking the Trader’s Forum in LA, the “conversation” between Braham and Rox is incoherent as a conversation can get… both of them seem to be saying arbitrary lines that are only vaguely related to what the other person has said.

Also, I don’t think all dialogues need to be voiced. The important ones yes, but adding minor dialogues without voice overs is cheaper (as development cost) and adds more ambient stroke to the game world.

Lastly, I think the current dialogue-heavy approach to story and lore-building has become a restriction. In a fantasy world there should be no shortage of texts… notes, letters, journals, etc… but in GW2, we basically only have conversations—-either between the NPC and PC, or two NPC’s.

IMO there should be a lot more texts in game that presents a different angle in presenting the story and lore. First of all, we can start by adding a text-box interface so we don’t have to read a short story awkwardly in an interface designed for conversation. I want to see emergency posters, scattered documents of Captain’s Council, letters of refugees… each and every of them can be written in a way that offers the players a different perspective that conversations cannot.

I agree with everyone here. The NPCs reacting to what’s happening is SO important, I’m happy to see this going in the right direction!

BobbyStein.2315:

aspirine.6852:

Either the writers got some help, or they gotten a lot better. Whatever it is it’s working

We’re focusing a bit more on the presentation of the writing now. In the past, we wrote and voiced a number of scenes that never got built. There were story and character moments for planned instances that, unfortunately, got cut. What was especially difficult for the writers and narrative designers was that feeling of “I wrote all this stuff that would make the story more cohesive but nobody can experience it.” We learned a lot over the past year about how we could do a better job of conveying the story, so we partnered with a number of designers and learned some basic implementation skills.

Really, the root of the issue was communication between disciplines. The changes you’re noticing are a direct result of the increased collaboration between narrative, design, art, and audio. The story moments in the past three releases came about through many meetings where we’d all talk about character moments and plot points, and how we can best portray them with our tech.

We experimented with using instanced and open world scenes, and tried to place those moments in and around gameplay such that they were in the direct line of sight but weren’t heavily gated. This is all basic game narrative stuff that is common in development, but something we’ve had to experiment with due to the unique nature of our platform. And yeah, we’re also trying to seed more ambient lore that ties back to the current episode plot because it makes the world feel more alive. The fact that people are noticing these changes makes me incredibly happy.

I am glad to see much more dialogue and there was a severe lack. I mean this not in a rude way but I felt i was reading a childs story book where there is like 1 sentence per page before. I never could get into it.

• I want you know the next part of my comment is not meant to be rude but I am serious on my feelings about it and I tend to use metaphors among other things to help clarify my point. *

However, Scarlet for me anyways still remains a poor character mainly because of the personality that failed to keep the story together. When I say personality I mean she basically as stated before, a Saturday morning cartoon villian. I am serious when I say I could replace her with Gargamel from the Smurfs and see the same results with the story.

Now if you took someone like Jon Irenicus from Baldur’s Gate II I could easily see him pulling off the stuff Scarlet, probably a few minor changes to him, did without it being really corny or cheesy though I still believe it needed to be polished, I felt like it was a rough draft. The big part is also he would be taken seriously and could be scary.

Thank you.

Meriem.3504:

BobbyStein.2315:

aspirine.6852:

Either the writers got some help, or they gotten a lot better. Whatever it is it’s working

We’re focusing a bit more on the presentation of the writing now. In the past, we wrote and voiced a number of scenes that never got built. There were story and character moments for planned instances that, unfortunately, got cut. What was especially difficult for the writers and narrative designers was that feeling of “I wrote all this stuff that would make the story more cohesive but nobody can experience it.” We learned a lot over the past year about how we could do a better job of conveying the story, so we partnered with a number of designers and learned some basic implementation skills.

Really, the root of the issue was communication between disciplines. The changes you’re noticing are a direct result of the increased collaboration between narrative, design, art, and audio. The story moments in the past three releases came about through many meetings where we’d all talk about character moments and plot points, and how we can best portray them with our tech.

We experimented with using instanced and open world scenes, and tried to place those moments in and around gameplay such that they were in the direct line of sight but weren’t heavily gated. This is all basic game narrative stuff that is common in development, but something we’ve had to experiment with due to the unique nature of our platform. And yeah, we’re also trying to seed more ambient lore that ties back to the current episode plot because it makes the world feel more alive. The fact that people are noticing these changes makes me incredibly happy.

I am glad to see much more dialogue and there was a severe lack. I mean this not in a rude way but I felt i was reading a childs story book where there is like 1 sentence per page before. I never could get into it.

• I want you know the next part of my comment is not meant to be rude but I am serious on my feelings about it and I tend to use metaphors among other things to help clarify my point. *

However, Scarlet for me anyways still remains a poor character mainly because of the personality that failed to keep the story together. When I say personality I mean she basically as stated before, a Saturday morning cartoon villian. I am serious when I say I could replace her with Gargamel from the Smurfs and see the same results with the story.

Now if you took someone like Jon Irenicus from Baldur’s Gate II I could easily see him pulling off the stuff Scarlet, probably a few minor changes to him, did without it being really corny or cheesy though I still believe it needed to be polished, I felt like it was a rough draft. The big part is also he would be taken seriously and could be scary.

Thank you.

I’m being serious when I say that’s a poor character understanding of Gargamel on your part.

Syryn.7591:

Meriem.3504:

BobbyStein.2315:

aspirine.6852:

Either the writers got some help, or they gotten a lot better. Whatever it is it’s working

We’re focusing a bit more on the presentation of the writing now. In the past, we wrote and voiced a number of scenes that never got built. There were story and character moments for planned instances that, unfortunately, got cut. What was especially difficult for the writers and narrative designers was that feeling of “I wrote all this stuff that would make the story more cohesive but nobody can experience it.” We learned a lot over the past year about how we could do a better job of conveying the story, so we partnered with a number of designers and learned some basic implementation skills.

Really, the root of the issue was communication between disciplines. The changes you’re noticing are a direct result of the increased collaboration between narrative, design, art, and audio. The story moments in the past three releases came about through many meetings where we’d all talk about character moments and plot points, and how we can best portray them with our tech.

We experimented with using instanced and open world scenes, and tried to place those moments in and around gameplay such that they were in the direct line of sight but weren’t heavily gated. This is all basic game narrative stuff that is common in development, but something we’ve had to experiment with due to the unique nature of our platform. And yeah, we’re also trying to seed more ambient lore that ties back to the current episode plot because it makes the world feel more alive. The fact that people are noticing these changes makes me incredibly happy.

I am glad to see much more dialogue and there was a severe lack. I mean this not in a rude way but I felt i was reading a childs story book where there is like 1 sentence per page before. I never could get into it.

• I want you know the next part of my comment is not meant to be rude but I am serious on my feelings about it and I tend to use metaphors among other things to help clarify my point. *

However, Scarlet for me anyways still remains a poor character mainly because of the personality that failed to keep the story together. When I say personality I mean she basically as stated before, a Saturday morning cartoon villian. I am serious when I say I could replace her with Gargamel from the Smurfs and see the same results with the story.

Now if you took someone like Jon Irenicus from Baldur’s Gate II I could easily see him pulling off the stuff Scarlet, probably a few minor changes to him, did without it being really corny or cheesy though I still believe it needed to be polished, I felt like it was a rough draft. The big part is also he would be taken seriously and could be scary.

Thank you.

I’m being serious when I say that’s a poor character understanding of Gargamel on your part.

You are right. Gargamel is better… I hold my head in shame. * sad * ;_;

I actually like Gargamel but my point is I don’t see him doing all those things that Scarlet did. I could see Scarlet though trying to do what Gargamel does… though he still better. :s

Meriem.3504:

Syryn.7591:

Meriem.3504:

BobbyStein.2315:

aspirine.6852:

Either the writers got some help, or they gotten a lot better. Whatever it is it’s working

We’re focusing a bit more on the presentation of the writing now. In the past, we wrote and voiced a number of scenes that never got built. There were story and character moments for planned instances that, unfortunately, got cut. What was especially difficult for the writers and narrative designers was that feeling of “I wrote all this stuff that would make the story more cohesive but nobody can experience it.” We learned a lot over the past year about how we could do a better job of conveying the story, so we partnered with a number of designers and learned some basic implementation skills.

Really, the root of the issue was communication between disciplines. The changes you’re noticing are a direct result of the increased collaboration between narrative, design, art, and audio. The story moments in the past three releases came about through many meetings where we’d all talk about character moments and plot points, and how we can best portray them with our tech.

We experimented with using instanced and open world scenes, and tried to place those moments in and around gameplay such that they were in the direct line of sight but weren’t heavily gated. This is all basic game narrative stuff that is common in development, but something we’ve had to experiment with due to the unique nature of our platform. And yeah, we’re also trying to seed more ambient lore that ties back to the current episode plot because it makes the world feel more alive. The fact that people are noticing these changes makes me incredibly happy.

I am glad to see much more dialogue and there was a severe lack. I mean this not in a rude way but I felt i was reading a childs story book where there is like 1 sentence per page before. I never could get into it.

• I want you know the next part of my comment is not meant to be rude but I am serious on my feelings about it and I tend to use metaphors among other things to help clarify my point. *

However, Scarlet for me anyways still remains a poor character mainly because of the personality that failed to keep the story together. When I say personality I mean she basically as stated before, a Saturday morning cartoon villian. I am serious when I say I could replace her with Gargamel from the Smurfs and see the same results with the story.

Now if you took someone like Jon Irenicus from Baldur’s Gate II I could easily see him pulling off the stuff Scarlet, probably a few minor changes to him, did without it being really corny or cheesy though I still believe it needed to be polished, I felt like it was a rough draft. The big part is also he would be taken seriously and could be scary.

Thank you.

I’m being serious when I say that’s a poor character understanding of Gargamel on your part.

You are right. Gargamel is better… I hold my head in shame. * sad * ;_;

I actually like Gargamel but my point is I don’t see him doing all those things that Scarlet did. I could see Scarlet though trying to do what Gargamel does… though he still better. :s

Lol well that’s a completely different point from what you were previously claiming.

Syryn.7591:

Meriem.3504:

Syryn.7591:

Meriem.3504:

BobbyStein.2315:

aspirine.6852:

Either the writers got some help, or they gotten a lot better. Whatever it is it’s working

We’re focusing a bit more on the presentation of the writing now. In the past, we wrote and voiced a number of scenes that never got built. There were story and character moments for planned instances that, unfortunately, got cut. What was especially difficult for the writers and narrative designers was that feeling of “I wrote all this stuff that would make the story more cohesive but nobody can experience it.” We learned a lot over the past year about how we could do a better job of conveying the story, so we partnered with a number of designers and learned some basic implementation skills.

Really, the root of the issue was communication between disciplines. The changes you’re noticing are a direct result of the increased collaboration between narrative, design, art, and audio. The story moments in the past three releases came about through many meetings where we’d all talk about character moments and plot points, and how we can best portray them with our tech.

We experimented with using instanced and open world scenes, and tried to place those moments in and around gameplay such that they were in the direct line of sight but weren’t heavily gated. This is all basic game narrative stuff that is common in development, but something we’ve had to experiment with due to the unique nature of our platform. And yeah, we’re also trying to seed more ambient lore that ties back to the current episode plot because it makes the world feel more alive. The fact that people are noticing these changes makes me incredibly happy.

I am glad to see much more dialogue and there was a severe lack. I mean this not in a rude way but I felt i was reading a childs story book where there is like 1 sentence per page before. I never could get into it.

• I want you know the next part of my comment is not meant to be rude but I am serious on my feelings about it and I tend to use metaphors among other things to help clarify my point. *

However, Scarlet for me anyways still remains a poor character mainly because of the personality that failed to keep the story together. When I say personality I mean she basically as stated before, a Saturday morning cartoon villian. I am serious when I say I could replace her with Gargamel from the Smurfs and see the same results with the story.

Now if you took someone like Jon Irenicus from Baldur’s Gate II I could easily see him pulling off the stuff Scarlet, probably a few minor changes to him, did without it being really corny or cheesy though I still believe it needed to be polished, I felt like it was a rough draft. The big part is also he would be taken seriously and could be scary.

Thank you.

I’m being serious when I say that’s a poor character understanding of Gargamel on your part.

You are right. Gargamel is better… I hold my head in shame. * sad * ;_;

I actually like Gargamel but my point is I don’t see him doing all those things that Scarlet did. I could see Scarlet though trying to do what Gargamel does… though he still better. :s

Lol well that’s a completely different point from what you were previously claiming.

No I said I could stick Gargamel in her place and get the same results as in it does not work. But on the same token I could stick in her Gargamel’s spot and she could work, just not as good as Gargamel.

Gargamel not working for Scarlet’s role does not make him bad, he simply does not work.

gotta say i’m loving this thread about as much as i’m loving the current upswing in loreflow ive been getting. which is alot considering it feels like three times the story content im used to. and i think you are striking a good balance with the amount of cutscenes sprinkled in however i think a super kitten mega high quality one for a particularly juicy update would make the whole community do the wave

as for the writing’s “quality” its always been this good it was just less plentiful and harder to find. thats why i loved the short stories and rejoiced when a new one came out. i understand why Anet shies away from those now. criticisms, image and such. however i don’t remember people threatening to quit over the books so i say MORE BOOKS PLZ! honestly i dont care if the book is called Swimming: A Quaggans Life i will have it purchased weeks before its shipped to me and i can actually read it (my copy of Sea Of Sorrows was obtained in such a fashion)

so props kudos and mental high fives on the story improvements but dont get complacent i bore ez. maybe you should buy time by releasing another novel. Devourer Man: Tyria’s First Super Hero.

BobbyStein.2315:

The Fancy Cat Competition stuff is one of many bits that didn’t get used. The performances from Yuri Lowenthal, Kirk Thornton, Kari Wahlgren, Sam Riegel were spot on. Maybe we’ll get to it one day….

Those VO were AWESOME! I really hope it gets officially into the game.

Keep improving, keep working this type of presentation and inclusion. If you move the cycle outwards in time, maybe you’ll have time to not rush and polish these bits to be in more often.