Guild Wars 2

I am playing Sylvari, and I’m getting sick whenever I see those conversation loading and those british accents and stiff dialogues. I usually press Skip to End and do the quest.
I don’t even know what the story is about and making choices is completly random for me.
Should I care? Did I fail and ruin everything?

No, you didn’t fail and ruin anything. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out for a person. Have you tried another race?

Something wrong with British accents?

Might want to reword that, it sounds a little bigoted.

It just seems weird. You half expect the Sylvari to bust out the ol’ crumpets and tea at any second.

No. ANET failed at making anyone care. You can see the quality of the personal story fade as you progress. It starts strong and gets buggier and more poorly written as you go.

I DID like/care about Tybalt Leftpaw. <3

Xriah.5743:

No. ANET failed at making anyone care. You can see the quality of the personal story fade as you progress. It starts strong and gets buggier and more poorly written as you go.

. . . please don’t use absolutes like “anyone” . . .

It just annoys me that my personal story has no impact/meaningful rewards for the experience of the game. I could play the game without doing the personal storyline and not notice the difference. It bears no impact to my character, and it has no integration into how I see the world after the events.

I supposedly healed Orr with Trehearne and killed Zhaitan, yet the entire Orr map is the same. The NPC’s behave as if I hadn’t achieved any feat. I get nothing extra from how the game world responds to me for finishing my personal storyline.

The game is made so you can do whatever you want and enjoy in the game. If you dislike doing the story, just don’t do the story, you don’t have to, man!

Tybalt is just about the only NPC in the PS that has a personality.

Personally I loathe the style that it’s presented in, the slowly fading in the speaker with the silly looking watercolor background, etc. The PS quests are quite solidly divided into 3 arcs. First, the one you had a hand in deciding during character creation, which is often not bad. Second is the Order arc. Meh. Only 3 options so after that it’s same old same old. Last, and least, is the Trehane Festival.
I skipped the story for the most part, though I’m going back and doing it now that I’m 80. I don’t know how far my alts will go with it. Probably only until the Order is done, then the rest will stop before that.

Zenith.7301:

I supposedly healed Orr with Trehearne and killed Zhaitan, yet the entire Orr map is the same. The NPC’s behave as if I hadn’t achieved any feat. I get nothing extra from how the game world responds to me for finishing my personal storyline.

When character actions changed the explorable maps in GW1,* people complained, too. This time, at least, they made it clear that it would take a long time for the cleansing of Orr to spread and that a large number of Risen were still left.

Remember, this in an MMO, not a single player game. Changes you ask for could exclude people from content. Maybe one day they will come up with alternative, “cleansed Orr” maps (just as long as I can go back to the current ones, too).

The game seems to have launched before the NPC reactions system was finished. I do not mind that. I would rather have the game released earlier and get that flavor content later.

*Examples: inability to return to PreSearing, the War in Kryta, the Afflicted being wiped from Cantha.

Not everyone will like everything in the game. If you don’t want to pay attention to the personal story, that is fine. You can always go back and read the summary on the hero window.

bpphantom.8243:

Tybalt is just about the only NPC in the PS that has a personality.

I take exception to that, Tybalt . . . as much as I enjoyed missions with him . . . didn’t really have a complex personality. He had a sense of humor, which made things fun. I could sum up Tybalt in two sentences, like any other character in the Guild Wars games. (And that doesn’t make them bad, I could sum up almost any character in fiction with two sentences given enough time to think.)

I suppose it’s not for everyone. To be honest, though, the personal story was an unexpected surprise for me. I bought the game expecting an MMORPG experience (which the game delivered) and got that plus a pretty decent single-player experience that I’m actually enjoying at the moment. I love how it ties in to your overall PvE experience. I love the voice acting. I love the occasional silliness, and the hit or miss humor.

I took the option of seeing it through and I find it quite rewarding. There is, of course, the other option which is to ignore it, and I suppose those who don’t enjoy the personal story have a world of other things to experience anyway.

GuzziHero.2467:

Something wrong with British accents?

Might want to reword that, it sounds a little bigoted.

I’m British, and the Sylvari accents are indeed fairly annoying, largely because … well, not that many British people actually speak like that, and the ones that do are usually posh and a bit stupid. Most of the conversations sound like a Monty Python sketch.

Bobby – any chance of knuckling down and getting some major new story content in the game, perhaps with different endings and major events accessible through choices? G2 has all the lore for a great tale but it seems like the writing team were both really stretched in terms of how much ground they had to cover, and also forced to tick a whole bunch of genre boxes to appear to a broad player base. Time to take the gloves off and do something deeper, darker and more complex?

BobbyStein.2315:

The personal stories vary by playable race. If you’re not enjoying the one you’re currently playing you may want to roll a new character. Try asura or charr. You may find their tone more to your liking.

I don’t know if this will help, but the personal story has three main “chapters” or “arcs” to it. The first is specific to your race, the second is specific to your order, and the last is common to all.

Your character, and it’s voice remain the same, of course, so if that’s a concern then you’re pretty much stuck with rerolling to another race.

Also note that the Durmond Priory’s mentor is a Sylvari, and you’ll have the near-constant presence of one Sylvari in the final arc, along with the occasional minor characters here and there. If you truly dislike having any Sylvari voice-acting at all, you’re not going to be happy with the personal story.

synch.2980:

Your character, and it’s voice remain the same, of course, so if that’s a concern then you’re pretty much stuck with rerolling to another race.

The one-voice-per-race thing is a bit silly. With all the voice acting that was recorded for this game, they have a peer speaking in precisely the same accent as a middle class or poor person? [human obviously] Really?

Realise it’s a tiny issue in a huge game but it does bug me slightly :P

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

synch.2980:

Your character, and it’s voice remain the same, of course, so if that’s a concern then you’re pretty much stuck with rerolling to another race.

The one-voice-per-race thing is a bit silly. With all the voice acting that was recorded for this game, they have a peer speaking in precisely the same accent as a middle class or poor person? [human obviously] Really?

Realise it’s a tiny issue in a huge game but it does bug me slightly :P

Yeah, I’d like it to have had three samples to choose from. One younger and brasher, one older and more reserved, one elderly and seasoned.

Keep watching as the Living Story develops. Let us know what you think about the writing, character development, and VO.

Is the Living Story missable? For example, can I do it one or two months after it started, and even go as far as “replay” it alongside a new buddy in one year or two; or is it like a one time only event chain stretched through several weeks?

BobbyStein.2315:

Focksbot.6798:

Bobby – any chance of knuckling down and getting some major new story content in the game, perhaps with different endings and major events accessible through choices? G2 has all the lore for a great tale but it seems like the writing team were both really stretched in terms of how much ground they had to cover, and also forced to tick a whole bunch of genre boxes to appear to a broad player base. Time to take the gloves off and do something deeper, darker and more complex?

A few things:

• The Writing Team was not in charge of story during GW2 development leading up to ship.
• Now that the game has shipped and we’ve reorganized our staff, the Writing Team is in charge of the story going forward.
• I can’t guarantee that we’ll have the time or resources to fix, change, or build upon the existing personal story as it shipped. That stated, we’ve been reading fan and critic feedback. We have some good ideas on what we could improve, if given the proper time and resources.
• Keep watching as the Living Story develops. Let us know what you think about the writing, character development, and VO.

Thanks for your constructive feedback!

Wait a minute. The writing team wasn’t in charge of the story during development? That could actually explain quite a bit. Is this a new concept to have people other than the writing team develop the story? Or is this the norm within the gaming world? It just seems bizarre to me to have someone other than the writing team developing the story. Sort of like having the janitor doing the coding.

What they mean is what is currently called the writing team did not exist until after launch.

I seem to recall hearing that the various people now on it were assigned to various parts of the game, writing story – but as part of “Dungeon” team, or the “world” team, etc.

bpphantom.8243:

Tybalt is just about the only NPC in the PS that has a personality.

I wish we got more of Tonn and Ceera.

Bobby, seeing you watch the thread, I’ll use the opportunity to jump in and give a little feedback.

First of all to fellow posters, there is no reason to jump on the personal story at this point. The game shipped months ago, it isn’t really going to change. The PS was a huge project – 5 races, 2 genders, branching, many options and choices. They tried many innovative things; some of them worked just fine, others – not that well. There also isn’t any reason to criticize the team responsible for it. I believe they had some budget, very likely much smaller than everyone thinks, and I’m sure they made wonders with what they had. No one can question their effort and best intentions. I respect that.
What’s important is the ability to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses moving forward, to make the future narrative best it can be. The personal story with all its pros and cons belongs to the domain of the past now.

As to the feedback itself.

1. Cut-scenes aren’t really helping the narrative. They take the control from players and often slow the pace built by the combat dynamics. Their advantage is the ability to give each participating player an option to skip the narrative if they so desire. The example of a negative impact on the narrative – Battle for Claw Island – you hack your way through the Risen. A while later, just after the fight ends, you are being put into a slow-paced cut-scene with a mediocre voice acting at best. It is counter-effective.
   Suggestion: experiment with the dialogue built into the action (just like during dynamic events or in dungeons) possibly adding more dialogue during battles.
2. Little of great is better than lots of mediocre. I personally prefer a great story on which I have little impact than a good story giving me more options. I think GW2 PS needs less fragmentation, by presenting people with relatively the same story steps moving forward. It allows the team to focus and make the best experience possible.
   Suggestion: with PS being one of the pillars of GW2 I wouldn’t completely scrap it. I’d just focus on making one great uniform story implementing little choices here and there connected to player’s race and the like. For instance, during a mission I may be presented with a choice of going either left or right, in contrast with the current system where I have to decide whether my mission is to go left or to go right. Once again, one unified story with many small choices put inside.
3. The VO needs to be improved. Actors should be encouraged to be more expressive and interpret their characters. There are countless examples in current state where the VO is severely lacking. Examples: wounded soldiers not really expressing pain with their voice, idyllic-sounding Tyrians that are supposedly terrorized by Zhaitan, no shouts present in cut-scenes during battles (it’s a battle, chaos around, people are dying and the actors are just talking).
4. Home instances – I believe the team should help develop those places in the future so that they can contain tokens of all the events the players participated in and personal choices they made. Something that can be developed as new content is being released.

Overall, I think that the first step is to always focus on a unified story, because it allows you to focus on it. I’m not saying that creating a system with different mission choices was bad. I just believe that you can make a story system that doesn’t require tens of options and still make it personal and customizable. I believe the story/writing team sees the pros it has and will come up with something really great!

Cheers!

Id give 2 main feedback points related to the PS:

1. Character development of NPCs. The personal story has quite a range of characters that you interact with. However due to the nature of choosing different paths, these characters rarely get the development you would have on them if you managed to pick all the PS steps they were in.

As a result you can get to the end and still have half the NPCs who turn up at the end almost complete strangers.

Getting to know NPCs is valuable. Characters give life to an over all story. Getting to know said characters takes time. Saying that, certian characters, like Trehearne, needed much more effort selling. Frankly I think all races should have met him far earlier in the story. He’s someone that really need to both be sold to us as a strong ally and someone we like. I dont hate Trehearne but I think he was poorly presented.

2. One problem with the personal story is some things really seem to come out of left feild. I felt that there was certian things I would have really liked more explaination on regardless of the story path I took.

An example of this is the airships and the weapon used against Zhaitan. My first playthrough it seemed like out of nowhere we happened to have a giant super airship and a cannon that could take down Zhaitan. I was like ‘where did all this stuff come from?’.

There is other stuff by I see alot of other poeple comment on those issues. The stuff above though I think can be somewhat solved either by having key points where plot points are introduced or elaborated on and having characters more uniformly turn up during missions even if it means the same characters turning up on different paths.

Focksbot.6798:

GuzziHero.2467:

Something wrong with British accents?

Might want to reword that, it sounds a little bigoted.

I’m British, and the Sylvari accents are indeed fairly annoying, largely because … well, not that many British people actually speak like that, and the ones that do are usually posh and a bit stupid. Most of the conversations sound like a Monty Python sketch.

Another Brit here and yes, this voice acting actually made me stop playing this race, it’s beyond aggravating, it seems to be how the Americans think all British people speak; in fact, the voicing in the game is accent-free, it’s the ‘upper class’ “plum in the mouth” intonation that historically the upper-classes were taught to use (aka. the Queen’s English), ‘ordinary’ Brits rarely if ever were/are heard speaking like this.

Just as bad to some extent are the asinine one-liners…

“Less violence, more violets”
“Excuse me, pardon me, can I have a word” (this one just drives me to rage, it repeats endlessly while I’m crafting and there’s on NPC in sight that wants to talk to me)
“Live the moment”
etc. etc.

All in all this is race has the worst voice acting and dialog I think I’ve ever suffered in a game .. the Asruana OTOH are up their with WOW’s goblins as having some of the most hilarious dialog I’ve enjoyed.

quote=1479787;CalvinHobbes.3541:]
Wait a minute. The writing team wasn’t in charge of the story during development? That could actually explain quite a bit. Is this a new concept to have people other than the writing team develop the story? Or is this the norm within the gaming world? It just seems bizarre to me to have someone other than the writing team developing the story. Sort of like having the janitor doing the coding.[/quote]

This is just speculation ofcourse, but they may have added the personal story to compete with Stars Wars the Old Republic.
It just seems so mashed in there in the last second while the writing team had their hands full with other projects.

From a Charr perspective i found the start quite enjoyable( couldn’t stand the human start, way too campy for me), the Vigil questline isn’t too bad either but it goes really downhill when it becomes the Traherne show.

See, i don’t have a problem taking a backseat to a strong protagonist, the problem is Traherne isn’t it.
He didn’t earn kitten, he just gets dropped in our laps and the game goes “this is now the main character” while he succeeds at everything.
He’s not even useful from a game play perspective, he’s just another useless peon with glitchy ai that you hardly notice is there in the first place, if he was more usefull i think people would soften up to him abit, Dinky for example is quite usefull with his buffs besides his quirky personality, and i liked having him around more beacuse i thought he was helpfull rather than amusing.
I honestly find the characters in the world/cities/events with just a few snippets of dialouge alot more colourful and interesting than him. ( Those two Leathal Weapon-esque Charr in the Iron Marches comes to mind)

Another thing that bugs me is how rarely past events/acomplishments/race/rank get acknwoleged by NPC’s, i supouse it’s beacuse of time constraints and lack of rescorses same reason every bit of PC dialogue is the same regardless of race/gender past the first 20-30 levels.
But it’s one of those little things that gives a sense of purpouse, acomplishment and progression and i really hope future stories will pay abit more attention to this.
Also, the whole heroic sacriffice thing get’s really old, especially when it has zero effect if we don’t care for the character in the first place.
I think this happend about 4-5 times in my first characters story and that’s a wee bit too much if you ask me.

I do feel bad for the people who had to come up with a bunch of stories for a pretty long game when they aren’t even writers, but i’m sorry it shows.

Petrol.9086:

He didn’t earn kitten, he just gets dropped in our laps and the game goes “this is now the main character” while he succeeds at everything.
He’s not even useful from a game play perspective, he’s just another useless peon with glitchy ai that you hardly notice is there in the first place, if he was more usefull i think people would soften up to him abit, Dinky for example is quite usefull with his buffs besides his quirky personality, and i liked having him around more beacuse i thought he was helpfull rather than amusing.

Well, the main reason he succeeds at everything is because you’re around him. Though one could argue the first Battle of Claw Island was a complete failure, though not his fault. (That lies with the commander who basically said “I dare you to come kick my tail” and Zhaitan shrugged and went “sure why not?”).

He’s not the main character, that goes to Destiny’s Edge whose members show up in not just the personal storyline but in the dungeon storylines and are more instrumental in the final attack on Zhaitan than Trahearne is. (Trahearne doesn’t even show up, he just follows orders given to him to be sure the Pact is ready.)

He’s not perfect, since he spends a lot of time when you first meet him going “I don’t have a clue how I’m supposed to do any of this, the problem seems insurmountable”. Even once he gets Caladbolg he still doesn’t seem to have much idea on how to move forward. It’s not until you really get the Pact rolling into Orr in force and stomping out Zhaitan’s forces (YOU do, not him, by the way) he starts actually developing rituals to use Caladbolg’s essence to combat Zhaitan. And once he’s done there he says “okay, my Wyld Hunt is complete, now it’s your turn. Go get Zhaitan.”

As for the AI, I refuse to blame any single NPC for a problem which plagued most of my allies all over the game. Logan is a guardian who melees everything, even things you really really really shouldn’t (“Kudu’s Power Suit! Let me give you a hug!”). Other times escorts will turn around and run seven to ten strides in the wrong direction to rediscover their route so they can continue, dragging out escort missions. Oh, and they will either stop to fight any enemies on the way, or ignore them while the enemies latch onto you and keep you from protecting them.

BobbyStein.2315:

• The Writing Team was not in charge of story during GW2 development leading up to ship.
• Now that the game has shipped and we’ve reorganized our staff, the Writing Team is in charge of the story going forward.
• I can’t guarantee that we’ll have the time or resources to fix, change, or build upon the existing personal story as it shipped. That stated, we’ve been reading fan and critic feedback. We have some good ideas on what we could improve, if given the proper time and resources.
• Keep watching as the Living Story develops. Let us know what you think about the writing, character development, and VO.

Thanks for your constructive feedback!

Seems interesting enough. I have a question though. What do you guys think about the incredible negative feedback you got for Trahearne? Is his character something you regret or think you could have done better? Do you use the feedback you got to try improving the writing for future storylines and their characters?

Thanks for responding Bobby, it will be interesting to see how the Flame and Frost story plays out. It would be a shame to completely ditch the idea of a personal story in future and I hope you don’t completely give up on the idea for future expansions. I just think that the animation choice, some of the writing and voice acting and its disjointed nature meant that it didn’t live up to its potential.

Although I prefer GW2 in every other aspect, I actually preferred the approach of SWTOR to its personal story by making it class based. The experience felt cohesive, yet once you had alts you were not going through the same experience for a prolonged period, unless you were altoholic enough to play the same class twice. It’s not that all of them were superior – I never finished levelling Jedi Consular because it was so boring. But I levelled 3 characters to max and found their stories more entertaining and the same goes for the Sith Inquisitor story I watched my husband level through (even though that is quite campy in its own way). They all felt personal right up to the end.

I know in gaming development everything has a cost in terms of resources, including words. I simply think something was lost in the structuring. I quite enjoyed the Asura and Charr storylines. I also enjoyed all of the Order ones, especially Whispers – whoever wrote Tybalt got it right. So it’s not all bad but more could have been done with knitting these elements together and keeping the quality higher across the board.

I wish we had a way to alter voices a little, though.

Something like more or less pitch, maintaining speed. Or small audio effects.

My thieves could use a bit higher pitches, and a little less volume, sounding more like whispers, for example.

Some minor post-processing or pitch alteration can create a different-sounding voice, without doubling your voice actor costs. It doesn’t have to be much, just enough to differentiate things a bit. Get one sound engineer on staff who knows their way around voice alteration (a specialization your current sound engineers may not have?) and give them a week to set up some filters… simple and cost-effective.

To be honest, I liked the story, having finished it to the end. Maybe I’m just weird or don’t get bothered by things everyone seems to hate. I get what they were going for, I understand the themes they were trying to incorporate. For a GAME, I think they did a pretty good job at telling a cohesive story. I found myself wanting to get to the next part of the story, not to get more XP (although that little incentive is nice) but to find out what happens next. I laughed at some of the quirky things some of the characters said and was actually sad when some of the characters died. In my opinion, if this was the writers “failing” then I can’t wait for the living story content to unfold.

Anyway. that’s my unpopular opinion and I’m sticking to it.

BobbyStein.2315:

It all comes down to resources.

5 playable races x 2 genders = 10 character combinations / 10 voices

Let’s pretend that the PC has 2,000 lines of voiced dialogue in the game. With 10 voices that’s 20,000 lines of VO just for the player. Add one more PC voice per race/gender combination and you just doubled that line count to 40k. Unless you have a limitless budget, those lines have to be taken away from other content.

So while we could have added two voice options for each race/gender combination, it would have resulted in there being no ambient VO or events being silent.

A possible solution would be to modify voice pitches based on character height, build, or starting personality. This would not require any more voice recording and would give players all a more unique sound. I find it strange that large, fierce characters have the same voice as small charming characters.

BobbyStein.2315:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

What do you guys think about the incredible negative feedback you got for Trahearne?

Narrative Designer Scott McGough and I talked about this very topic some time ago. In short, Trahearne was intended to fill a very specific role that, in terms of both gameplay and story, the PC could not fill—an order-neutral character with extensive knowledge about Orr and the magic of undeath who could coordinate a global war effort and make the necessary plans, thus leaving the actual gameplay up to the player. Further, Trahearne’s character design was intentional in that he would be a reluctant hero who, through interacting with the player, evolved into someone who could step up to lead the Pact.

This didn’t resonate well with some players for a variety of reasons. We’re comparing external feedback with our own, since we have plans for Trahearne and other existing characters in future live updates and expansion content. We won’t spoil what we’re discussing, other than to say we’re looking at many different options for his current implementation and beyond.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

Do you use the feedback you got to try improving the writing for future storylines and their characters?

Of course. We want to improve our storytelling and characterization so that it complements the great gameplay that our designers work hard to create.

Did you notice if fan feedback varied by the race they played? For example, I played as a sylvari and I loved Trahearne in my story.

To me it seems that the people that did not like him were not playing as sylvari, meaning they didn’t get to see his character grow and develop as they went along their story.

So I hope Trahearne does come back! I think he was misunderstood by a lot of players. Maybe a retelling of his backstory or something could help players understand him more

Well, I’ve played everything but a sylvari. I don’t hate him, but he does have a tendency to “lament” which makes him sort of … unpleasant. I haven’t had the feeling of him stealing my show, but he wasn’t overall very inspiring either. I would have not willingly sacrificed my character for him as that would have been the case for others.

First of all I find that Trahearne is fine, though is voice does sound weird, in general he isn’t such a bad character, I feel he was just misplaced, introduced too late,

Now on to the personal story : I disagree with the OP, I played both Charr and Sylvari and thought their accents do feel weird, I care about them, I found myself caring about my warband and Vigil and taking down bosses seemed meaningful. In GW2 whenever I do anything, we will use the refuges from Fire and Frost as an example, I do feel noticed : Since I earned the volunteer title for my Charr all the refuges thank me and nod in respect, it might be a small thing, but whenever I come towards them I feel like I’ve done something great. I have changed this part of the world in a small way, and my friends feel the same way in Orr.

DEATH TO TRAHEARNE!

Sorry Trahearne lovers, it must be done.

BobbyStein.2315:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

What do you guys think about the incredible negative feedback you got for Trahearne?

Narrative Designer Scott McGough and I talked about this very topic some time ago. In short, Trahearne was intended to fill a very specific role that, in terms of both gameplay and story, the PC could not fill—an order-neutral character with extensive knowledge about Orr and the magic of undeath who could coordinate a global war effort and make the necessary plans, thus leaving the actual gameplay up to the player. Further, Trahearne’s character design was intentional in that he would be a reluctant hero who, through interacting with the player, evolved into someone who could step up to lead the Pact.

This didn’t resonate well with some players for a variety of reasons. We’re comparing external feedback with our own, since we have plans for Trahearne and other existing characters in future live updates and expansion content. We won’t spoil what we’re discussing, other than to say we’re looking at many different options for his current implementation and beyond.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

Do you use the feedback you got to try improving the writing for future storylines and their characters?

Of course. We want to improve our storytelling and characterization so that it complements the great gameplay that our designers work hard to create.

I don’t think the reluctant hero angle was ill-received. I think it was the delivery that fell short and made people dislike it. Trehearne’s lines fell flat, his voice work did not come off nuanced (mind, I don’t think it’s necessarily the VA’s fault — maybe the VA’s lines were edited in poorly, leading to the monotone and lack of emotional integration that I think turns off players).

Moreover, I think a variety of gameplay decisions also affected our view of him for ill. He takes Caladbolg when we do the footwork for getting it back. In one of the story branches, our brave norn partner dies while enslaved by the krait because Trehearne called us to his mission instead.

As an NPC, he suffers like the Destiny’s Edge members in that he was weak and useless. Because he was designed as a weak NPC that couldn’t even kill a mob on his own, he wasn’t conveyed as powerful enough, and players grew to resent having to respect someone that hadn’t shown why he deserved respect (hero NPC’s need to give the impression that they are powerful and wise, not puny).

Also, to be honest, a greatsword on a necromancer? Why make it a greatsword instead of a weapon for a necromancer? And, really, as a sylvari I would have loved to bear Caladbolg for myself, not let someone else keep that unique weapon skin who didn’t even use that weapon type.

him dying to cleanse orr would have been a great end!

Njordfinn.4921:

him dying to cleanse orr would have been a great end!

The characters with the most personality all died (basically for no reason) and Trahearne is prolly going to fall in a pit somewhere and become a god…

Zenith.7301:

Also, to be honest, a greatsword on a necromancer? Why make it a greatsword instead of a weapon for a necromancer? And, really, as a sylvari I would have loved to bear Caladbolg for myself, not let someone else keep that unique weapon skin who didn’t even use that weapon type.

The sword wasn’t originally made for him.

I think as many or more hate Logan Thackery. I like them both just fine.

As a sylvari I saw Trehearne all along and agree that I think that made him make more sense. I just picture him as a bookworm, introvert type that rose to the need of the moment.

I find myself totally indifferent to the story once I get to Fort Trinity. Everything up to that point has been great, and I’ve done parts of all five races’ various storylines.

The introductory stories with each race are well done and entertaining. The intro stories were done in such a way that you can see them actually happening as part of the world.

The mentors for the three orders are well done (especially Tybalt), but once you get to Fort Trinity, the story just stagnates and I find it harder to accept that the events aren’t affecting the world around my character.

Then, when you finish the final level 80 story quest…and absolutely nothing is affected…the personal story becomes meaningless and the feeling of success is diminished to nothing.

As a result, I’ve finished the personal story on my main, and with each subsequent character I intend to stop progressing the story once the character gets to Fort Trinity. That is the point in the story where the game seems to be positioned in time, and nothing that happens after that has any impact on the world whatsoever.

BobbyStein.2315:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

What do you guys think about the incredible negative feedback you got for Trahearne?

Narrative Designer Scott McGough and I talked about this very topic some time ago. In short, Trahearne was intended to fill a very specific role that, in terms of both gameplay and story, the PC could not fill—an order-neutral character with extensive knowledge about Orr and the magic of undeath who could coordinate a global war effort and make the necessary plans, thus leaving the actual gameplay up to the player. Further, Trahearne’s character design was intentional in that he would be a reluctant hero who, through interacting with the player, evolved into someone who could step up to lead the Pact.

This didn’t resonate well with some players for a variety of reasons. We’re comparing external feedback with our own, since we have plans for Trahearne and other existing characters in future live updates and expansion content. We won’t spoil what we’re discussing, other than to say we’re looking at many different options for his current implementation and beyond.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

Do you use the feedback you got to try improving the writing for future storylines and their characters?

Of course. We want to improve our storytelling and characterization so that it complements the great gameplay that our designers work hard to create.

I actually really liked Trahearne as a character. I think one of the reasons he wasn’t well-received was how low-key he starts out; that whole “reluctant hero evolving” thing. The mentors are very dynamic and full of personality right off the bat, so when Trahearne steps in to fill that role as an NPC partner, he is going to be compared to them unfavorably. I think he would have been well-liked if he’d been a secondary character, but the tone of the story at that point almost demands someone more charismatic for him to play off of. The PC doesn’t really work well in that role, either.

BobbyStein.2315:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

What do you guys think about the incredible negative feedback you got for Trahearne?

Narrative Designer Scott McGough and I talked about this very topic some time ago. In short, Trahearne was intended to fill a very specific role that, in terms of both gameplay and story, the PC could not fill—an order-neutral character with extensive knowledge about Orr and the magic of undeath who could coordinate a global war effort and make the necessary plans, thus leaving the actual gameplay up to the player. Further, Trahearne’s character design was intentional in that he would be a reluctant hero who, through interacting with the player, evolved into someone who could step up to lead the Pact.

This didn’t resonate well with some players for a variety of reasons. We’re comparing external feedback with our own, since we have plans for Trahearne and other existing characters in future live updates and expansion content. We won’t spoil what we’re discussing, other than to say we’re looking at many different options for his current implementation and beyond.

I think the bold part was executed poorly. Lets step aside from the fact that it seems confounding that someone else becomes a hero in the very game where your main character is supposed to have the limelight, we can debate that another time.

Trahearne doesn’t really go through an arc. I’m quite sure professionals working in a role of literature will have seen this:
http://www.thewritersjourney.com/graphictwo.gif

IMO, GW2 hasn’t been written with even a fraction of the complexity and success needed to deviate from this diagram, and as such, it should really follow it as close as possible. The elements of that diagram present in Trahearne’s story are either jumbled up or missing. He never actually goes through an arc, at least not one that isn’t manufactured completely from thin air by the story writers. This leads to players becoming confused with his sudden changes in roles and personality.

He presents himself as a mentor to the player, but suddenly he is the hero? Who is his mentor? The pale tree? But what did it actually tell him apart from things that he didn’t know in the first place; I mean he was charged with a role of cleansing Orr. But if so, nothing really has changed since he started his journey and later on, nothing compelled him further.

What is his moment of ordeal and resolve? Taking up the role of being marshal? That almost seemed like he was given the role because no one else was around to do it.

Also, what is continually confounding is that the writers could’ve ran with an excellent background created in Destiny’s Edge but chose not to. Nearly all of the 5 characters have excellent; if not simple, arcs, much better than the throwaway characters created in the personal story.

BobbyStein.2315:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

What do you guys think about the incredible negative feedback you got for Trahearne?

Narrative Designer Scott McGough and I talked about this very topic some time ago. In short, Trahearne was intended to fill a very specific role that, in terms of both gameplay and story, the PC could not fill—an order-neutral character with extensive knowledge about Orr and the magic of undeath who could coordinate a global war effort and make the necessary plans, thus leaving the actual gameplay up to the player. Further, Trahearne’s character design was intentional in that he would be a reluctant hero who, through interacting with the player, evolved into someone who could step up to lead the Pact.

This didn’t resonate well with some players for a variety of reasons. We’re comparing external feedback with our own, since we have plans for Trahearne and other existing characters in future live updates and expansion content. We won’t spoil what we’re discussing, other than to say we’re looking at many different options for his current implementation and beyond.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

Do you use the feedback you got to try improving the writing for future storylines and their characters?

Of course. We want to improve our storytelling and characterization so that it complements the great gameplay that our designers work hard to create.

Sir, that’s about what I was seeing in the character as well. However, the direction which was applied to his voice actor left parts feeling a little flat and unemotional. I’ll add in that the sylvari all have some measure of that quality in their acting so I’m going on the assumption this was a deliberate directing choice. I personally didn’t mind it too much but I can understand how others would.

I’d hazard a wager that no matter who wound up in that position, if it wasn’t the player character (which couldn’t happen for very good reasons) people were going to complain.