Yes, I am aware that a dozen similar threads have been posted on the very same topic. This is not going to be constructive. I applaud those who are trying to help out by offering concrete suggestions. I may even join them if there’s any indication that their suggestions are actually being heard. This thread? Just ranting to get it off my chest, I apologize in advance.
So I took a break from WvW – Which has been taking all of my gaming time lately, and decided to immerse back into Tyria with some of my newer alts. Then I realized something – I don’t want to do any more of the personal stories beyond the racial arcs. I get bored just at the thought of it. I am getting bored at the very idea of what is supposed to be the backbone story of the game. I read of interesting / funny short conversations / random events, and I actually find that I’m motivated to go hang out in those areas. I find random snippets of conversation and short quests more fulfilling than what is supposed to be the overarching plot of the game. I actually went and google searched “Guild Wars 2 Personal Story Disappointment” to find a sort of twisted catharsis.
Issues with the personal story that have already been brought up multiple times – Which have already been sufficiently elaborated on, so I’ll try not to expound on each point with an essay:
1) Extremely minimal replayability. Past the racial stories, the different Orders and the Pact storyline only have variation in the sense of “Which one of these two missions do you want to do next, before you get back to the railroad plot:”?
2) Traeherne. See that other thread.
3) Rushed storyline. I feel like what was supposed to be a grinding war against endless hordes of the undead was over way too fast, with no thought given to making it feel epic, a “war”. Even the individual missions feel small and over too fast to be truly immersive. I find more epicness in the PvE chain mission from Fort Trinity to the Temple of Balthazar.
4) Your personality does nada except to get one or two cheesy, forgettable one – liners.
5) Earlier racial and order quests have exactly zilch impact on what happens later during the final railroad leading to Orr.
6) Underdeveloped, throwaway characters. What happened to my krewe? Why does it matter if I choose the untrustworthy necromancer or the aging thief for my warband if they’re just going to disappear after one or two quests together? I’m growing to like Tybalt, and sympathize with him being a pacifist born as a Charr – Oh wait, he’s already dead? Too bad, here’s your new pal Traeherne!
7) Playing second fiddler to the drama from Traeherne and Destiny’s Edge. What’s that about a personal story again? No, I don’t mind my character playing second in command, but have him accomplish something noteworthy in that role instead of just following your two pet Deus Ex Machinas while they play out their roles.
Yes, I am aware that there is a limit to how much divergence / player glorifying you can have in an MMO, it not being a single player RPG. But to promote your personal story so much and then deliver something of this quality? That’s not constraints, that’s being dishonest.
This blogpost describes it best:
http://halfblaked.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-legend-faltered-guild-wars-2-and.html
Conclusion? I feel cheated. Cheated by high promises of a personal story where your actions matter, where your character actually plays an important role (Everyone wants to be a hero) in deciding the fate of Tyria. Cheated by more promises of your character’s personality influencing your storyline. Cheated by giving me NPC teammates that I try to actually like and care for, but are gone like the wind after a few short, insignificant quests together.
I still find the game high quality in many other aspects, but in storytelling I’d rate the “personal” story in GW2 a straight D at best. This, for an MMO that sold its story, hard. And now, instead of doing something (Anything?) to fix/improve on the main storyline, we’re going to get some Living Story thingamajig, which at this point I have as much hope for being “Living” as the personal story is “Personal”.
/endrant
(edited by Sev.5769)