Guild Wars 2

Something thats kinda bothering me with how your character acts after joining the orders. Any personality they had before seem to dissolve and a generic one put in place that is the same with the other races.

You only really start to notice when you played through the story a few times, or watch someone go through with different characters to notice.

For example, i watch a buddy with his asura as he first met his mentor for the priory, the conversion seem normal and didn’t seem off. I do the same when i did it with my Charr, and it was the same dialog, and it had the same tone and reaction as my buddy’s asura.

For realistic sake, that wouldn’t happen. When a free spirit Sylvari want to deviate from a order she was given, which take the recruit to the priory, a militaristic Charr should be like, “No, we have orders to go to do this” not “Yeah sure sounds like fun”, even if she was his superior.
The Charr before joining order was someone who wanted to do everything efficiently, didn’t matter how. These 2 personalities should be clashing together at the start. I’ve only started that so i don’t know how the story goes after that, but i’m not really impressed with it so far. Like the personality shouldn’t change that fast should it?

Another example is when you do the apatia story line, at the end of it my Norn return to hoelbrak to tell the legend of apatia. As a norn he understood what he was doing and what it meant to his people, it felt important him. My friend’s Sylvari does the same thing and it used the same dialog, and to me it just made what my norm did feel bland. I would think a norn talking about another norn would be a different then any other race in that kinda of setting.

I think the personality should stay with each race, it puts you off a bit.

100% agreement. I’ve said this several times, so I won’t go into it again, but I do believe the game strongly suffers from the generic, featureless stand-in that you’re forcibly turned into after the enjoyable cultural story arcs. It’s boring, it breaks immersion, it significantly lowers replay value. It would have been awesome if we had five distinct but related story arcs based on culture, retaining that cultural individuality, but tying in with all other cultures as well as the orders.

So much wasted potential.

I have to agree here, the different cultures were used in the first part of the storyline, why wasn’t it continued all the way through? For whatever reason, the stuff after Claw Island is the same no matter what race you have.

Disagree, at that point in the story all races had come together on one purpose, one course of action.

Torvarren.6295:

Disagree, at that point in the story all races had come together on one purpose, one course of action.

…Without style, personallity or character of any sort.

It would have been more work, but it would have been worth it to work together while maintaining the individual strengths that should give the alliance its flexibility and versatility.

I would really, really like to have maintained some sense of identity as a member of my race, and my chosen order, all the way to the finish line.

The story is all about utilizing each races strong points. We shed the idea of identity when we came together for the greater good, “A united Tyria is a stong Tyria.” I feel it is selfish to say “We helped save the world, but what’s in it for me?”

… yeah, because that’s what people are saying. Not.

The problem is that there is ZERO difference between a sylvari and an asura. Between a charr and a human. There are ZERO distinguishing features whatsoever. Everyone acts exactly the same, spews exactly the same trite lines, is treated exactly the same by everyone around them (up to and including your very own mother treating you like a complete stranger). What on Earth is the point in even having different species to begin with if you turn them all into featureless, replaceable, forgettable blobs?

What I want is simple: to play a character who feels uniquely, recognizably sylvari/charr/norn from start to finish. That is all. And that is hardly an extraordinary expectation, especially since the game delivers it at the beginning before throwing it all away for no reason. It’s storytelling 101.

Basing the main storyline on the character’s culture would have allowed for great storytelling as well as personal development, because each culture would go about recognizing the need for the others, and learning to understand, appreciate and unite them, in a different way. As it is, you are never allowed — much less required! — to learn anything. You never have to change or grow. You are never forced to confront the mistakes made by your own people and the prejudice you learned from birth. It’s all immediate perfect-shiny-happy-fun-land. Why? Because “you” don’t exist. Your character is not a character. She or he is just a blob with no culture, no history, no personality, no opinions, no friends, no family, nothing.

It’s such a huge waste of the lore’s potential.

Torvarren.6295:

Disagree, at that point in the story all races had come together on one purpose, one course of action.

The common goal is indeed to kill the dragons. But there are surely more than 20 different things you can help out with, depending on your choices earlier. For example if you are a Norn who defeated your childhood foe, maybe you would get a mission in the front line offensive. However if you are a Norn who got drunk and did something dumb, maybe you would get a suicidal spec-ops mission.

Your race, your upbringing, choices you made b4, your personality, your order, etc. All of these should have a part in what missions you take, who will come to help you out and who would fight against you (other than risens).

Out of those 20 missions, your personally would allow you access to maybe 2 at a time. So you get 2 choices in round 1, 2 choices in round 2, etc all the way to round 5. At the end you would have competed 5 out of the 20.

And that’s what personal story should be.

Chadramar.8156:

… yeah, because that’s what people are saying. Not.

The problem is that there is ZERO difference between a sylvari and an asura. Between a charr and a human. There are ZERO distinguishing features whatsoever. Everyone acts exactly the same, spews exactly the same trite lines, is treated exactly the same by everyone around them (up to and including your very own mother treating you like a complete stranger). What on Earth is the point in even having different species to begin with if you turn them all into featureless, replaceable, forgettable blobs?

What I want is simple: to play a character who feels uniquely, recognizably sylvari/charr/norn from start to finish. That is all. And that is hardly an extraordinary expectation, especially since the game delivers it at the beginning before throwing it all away for no reason. It’s storytelling 101.

Basing the main storyline on the character’s culture would have allowed for great storytelling as well as personal development, because each culture would go about recognizing the need for the others, and learning to understand, appreciate and unite them, in a different way. As it is, you are never allowed — much less required! — to learn anything. You never have to change or grow. You are never forced to confront the mistakes made by your own people and the prejudice you learned from birth. It’s all immediate perfect-shiny-happy-fun-land. Why? Because “you” don’t exist. Your character is not a character. She or he is just a blob with no culture, no history, no personality, no opinions, no friends, no family, nothing.

It’s such a huge waste of the lore’s potential.

No kidding. I played a Charr with a Barbaric personality. I was hoping that I would trash talk every human I see in my personal story. He should be saying “I will gut you, human.” and “Wait till the dragons are dead. Then me and you will have a little chat, meat!” and “If it wasn’t because of my duty, you would already be my dinner.” and “Oh poor little humans hiding behind their walls and talking big.” etc

But nope he say the same thing as my Norn later on. Totally lifeless. T_T

I mean I understand that all races are supposed to work together to kill dragons. But wait a minute! My race is not me. In fact nothing represents me except for my choices and personality. Charr as a whole might want peace with humans. My Charr might not want peace at all, at least initially.

I am all for my Charr turning his views around during Claw Island, where perhaps a human sacrificed himself to save my Charr’s life. That’s where personal story and personality comes in, the make the game more interesting. The game shouldn’t just force this personality on you. Your personality should develop over time.

Take my Barbaric Charr once again. He picked Apatia and had to tell the Norns about her death. He said “Apatia was great blah blah blah.” I was like are you kidding me? My Barbaric Charr would never say that! That’s the story for a character with a noble personality.

Instead here is what would be a good personal story for a Barbaric Charr. My Charr would trash talk Apatia. He would say “Here is proof that the weak won’t survive. Apatia died because she was too weak to defend herself!” That would of course lead to a lot of Norns being angry and and attacks the player. The player would defeat them all. Finally Eir Stegalkin herself would come to bash my character in the head. She say “Have you finally calmed down, Charr?” At this point my Barbaric Charr would break down and say “It was my fault that she died! I was the one that’s weak.” Eir would say “We all made sacrifices, and Apatia did it willingly for all of us. Swallow your pride, keep her in your heart, and put that anger against the dragons!” My Charr would say"You are right! My pride was clouding my judgement. I would use all my pain and anger against the cause of all of this. Thank you Eir!"

Same storyline, but MUCH MORE personal.