Guild Wars 2

So, I’m a fantasy writer. I’ve been playing around with grand, epic stories, creating characters and worlds for ages. Nothing’s come of it yet, but that’s not my point.

Guild Wars 2 immediately sold me on its story, in the beginning- I took my Blood Legion Charr out there and took him out into this living, breathing world, made friends, felt a part of something bigger than myself…

And then I joined one of the Orders. It was disconcerting at first, but, it was all good. Forgal was a entertainingly crothety old curmudgeon, and I still felt a part of something, I began to identify with the Vigil.

And then Traehearne happened.

I don’t like Traehearne. He’s not a bad guy, he started out okay, but really, he’s just… what WAS this? I know saying Traehearne is a badly written character on these forums is like saying the Romans were a bit militaristic- so obvious and overdone it’s really not worth mentioning. His absolute nadir, in my opinion, is when he has me running around saving Priory teams in Concordia, and he says, “Commander, to me, I need your opinion.” A cutscene then ensues in which my character says absolutely nothing and Traehearne pontificates to everyone about how great a necromancer he is and how he’s going to save us all. Uh, yeah, I can see you really needed me to weigh in on that, Traehearne. And then it hit me.

I call this post “In Defense of Traehearne” not because I like the character, but, I’m starting to see what might be the reason he became such a scene stealer. What if there’s a message tied to it? I know this may sound like a weak argument, and it probably is, but I just can’t shake the thought that I figured I’d share. I apologize right now if this has already been said; I haven’t heard it before, and I wanted to share. Unintentionally or not, A-net seems to be giving us a lesson on what it truly means to be a hero. Oh sure, Traehearne...supposedly saves the world, but we all know what’s really going down- we know who’s doing all the work, we know who...took the shot at Zhaitan. And we never get the recognition for it, we don’t feel like we’re getting the attention and thanks that we deserve.

But what if that’s the point?

What if it’s being shown to us that this is what a real hero does- he doesn’t fight because he wants the recognition, he fights because it’s the right thing to do. So, maybe it’s best Traehearne have the glory. We know who’s the real hero. It’s the old White Knight/Dark Knight gambit from… well, Dark Knight. Tyria wants a hero like Traehearne, but they need a hero like you. Honestly, if you want the recognition, it’s not like Tyria’s forgotten you- sometimes I like going back to old places I’ve been, seeing all the filled hearts and talking to the scouts- sure, it’s not a moving, cinematic cutscene that congratulates us, but the plainspoken, honest words of gratitude from the NPC’s that go out to you still make -me- feel like a hero. And maybe it’s best if Traehearne take the lead- perhaps you ARE simply too attached to other alliances, like your race or Order, to really be that unifying force Tyria needs.

So, go ahead, Traehearne. Take your lofty titles, your glory- go putter around Orr until you figure out how to be useful. It’s all good. Perhaps the personal story will continue as more content is added, and Tyria’s true heroes will be able to get their time in the sun. (Oh please, please let that be true- I LOVE the idea of the personal story, if not so much the actual paths it has taken)

In the meantime, I’ll just have to console myself with the fact that my Guardian could wipe the floor with Traehearne’s namby-pamby necromantic butt any day, if he wanted.

i agree with you on the how a-net want us to feel how a true hero is, but Traehearne is still and bish!!!

The biggest problem with Trahearne from a writing point of view, is that he is not needed for the story. Imagine removing Trahearne, and having the player take his place. Would that have been an improvement? Hell yes! And story wise it would not have changed anything. That is the biggest problem with this character, he isn’t needed.

And to make matters worse, during the ending we see Destiny’s Edge valiantly marching towards the sunset, with our own character tucked somewhere to the side. The writers seemed so in love with this terrible group of Mary Sues, that they literally shove the player’s character to the side. And THAT’s how it feels. That is the final emotion we’re left with at the end of the game. We wanted to be the heroes, but the writers favored a couple of other (badly written) characters.

And on the topic of badly written characters, I did a small poll in my guild a few weeks ago. I asked anyone if they could describe any of the characters in Destiny’s Edge, without referring to their looks, their race, or their profession. And that proved nearly impossible for anyone to do. No one could describe their personalities.

Next I asked my guild if they could describe the character of Malafide (my player character). They described her as being overly-dramatic, self centered, dark but with a good heart, witty, over confident, unstable, twisted. They described what she hated and what she liked, her hobbies, her friends and enemies.

I think you’re giving Anet too much credit there, sadly. There’s no indication of being a selfish glory-hound in the (lack of) personality that is forced on our characters, or for being “too attached”. Given how everyone is written in exactly the same way after the cultural arcs, that is actually rather jarring. Norn forget the drive to build their legend, charr and humans boggle at the difficulties facing the peace treaty between their species, and so on.

As I’ve said before, my own theory is that Trahearne (and Destiny’s Edge, if one counts the dungeon stories) is the real focus and protagonist because our characters CAN’T carry the story in the way it is written. Everyone is treated the same, acts the same, talks the same. There’s no personality. No continuity between story arcs. No growth or conflict. No actual character. In order to implement any of these things, there would have had to be lot more focus on the writing, and especially on the fact that an asura is not a charr is not a sylvari. Implementing continuity and personality, especially if the player was actually given any choice in terms of dialog and character development, would have required tons more written lines — and, crucially, tons more SPOKEN lines. Given five species and two genders each, that would push the cost for voice acting through the roof.

So we have a not-personal not-story because the available funds were not allocated in a way that would have allowed for actual, consistent storytelling around and characterization of our characters.

I still very much wish they would have done it differently, even at the price of having significantly less voiceacting overall, because bells and whistles don’t mean much without a solid framework to support them. The cultural story arcs are the best in the game, IMO, everything after that is just so … devoid of identity that I don’t know if I’ll manage to take any alts past Claw Island, if even that.

Chadramar.8156:

The cultural story arcs are the best in the game, IMO, everything after that is just so … devoid of identity that I don’t know if I’ll manage to take any alts past Claw Island, if even that.

Wow, thanks to everyone who posted so far- I was hoping to generate good discussion. I didn’t want to post a wall o’ text, but everything you said, Chadramar, hit the nail pretty firmly on the head, I think, especially the above quote. I ADORED the first act of the PS; I think it’s really well done. And it’s why I so badly want Anet to keep trying with the PS, past Traehearne. I knew, again, this was a weak argument- I made it fit my characters so that I could still enjoy “their” story, and, weak though it may be, it’s still valid.

You don’t need to be a selfish glory hound to still have to learn about being a true hero- my point was, we’re right to expect more for our heroics; if any decent person did any of the stuff we do throughout the PS, they are completely within their rights to expect gratitude, and I bet that any decent person WOULD be miffed that Traehearne comes in and takes it all, while doing relatively little. But there’s the difference- a decent person would speak out. A decent person has their limits. But a true hero, while still upset that they’re not getting the recognition they deserve, simply plods on and does what needs to be done.

Again, I could be completely pulling this out of my butt at this point, but this is how I justified it for my character, because it fit with the personality I built up for him. Maybe it doesn’t fit other personalities people will ascribe to their characters. But I still say that maybe there was an idea to make Traehearne a conduit to pull out the true hero in a player character; showing that heroism is not just great deeds, but how you handle your victories and the attention you get following it.

My problem with the personal story was that it progressed too quickly, advancing to new acts too quickly leaving little time inbeween to really develop a deep connection between your character and the story. The part that sold me on personal story before the game came out was being eble to choose things like being a commoner or a street rat, finding what happened to dead sister or joining the circus, etc. Those were parts of the story that made my character “unique” so to say. And it was over so quickly. And then you joined orders and had to deal with Trehearne and the story became devoid of any depth in relation to your character and in my mind became less interesting. Though I do like the mission The Source of Orr. In a way, I almost miss the missions/quests between missions from GW1 to advance the story. Seemed deeper to me and I always felt a connection and the world had the right atmosphere for what you were feeling after something major happened. I don’t feel that way with GW2’s story.

Going back to Trehearne, to me, he seems largely unecessary to the story. The player could have easily filled the position that Trehearne is in the story. He serves really no other purpose than to stand around claiming all the credit for everything you do, kinda like Kormir, although even she had a role to the Nightfall story.

Its telling that so many people I know don’t even bother finishing personal story, and to me that’s concerning.

I think in the future if ANET releases new stories that play out like personal story, it needs to go back to what made the cultural stories fun and build on that and not try to rush itself so that you can create that depth, and for the right atmosphere to create an engaging and immersive story.

If it works for you OP I’d say its a pretty good explanation for how the personal story goes toward the end. I didn’t see it that way, but anything that justifies the story is helpful, because it is a little problematic to say “It’s all about you” and then introduce Trahearne as they did.

My interpretation was that he’s a figurehead, someone who doesn’t necessarily do everything he’s given credit for but has to stay there in Orr to be seen while my character (and others of importance) are allowed to leave and fulfil other duties or basically just get to live our lives. If I was the commander I wouldn’t be able to hang out in Lion’s Arch, putter around metrica province, complete living story stuff… whatever. Trahearne as figurehead gives me freedom, and my brothers and sisters at arms support that because they know if they insisted I stay in Orr from level 60 on or whatever I’d feel utterly trapped and resentful, dragon menace or no.

Actually my explanation kind of has overlap with yours I think.