Guild Wars 2

I’ve wrote, and deleted, about three long posts before making this one. Three long posts that really kept repeating the words ‘atmosphere’, ‘drama’, ‘excitement’ and ‘emotion’ over and over. Because that’s what i feel is a real issue in some portions of the personal story. Missions can ultimately feel void of any atmosphere(you see? they keep creeping up) by, really two main things:

- Extremely slow pacing of some parts of the story, parts of missions that call for lots of action and an energized environment, have you effectively walking around doing nothing for too much time. It’s really not good enough :/

-Music not matching the situation. I’ll try not to put in spoilers, but in one big battle at level 70 where you’re fighting alot of undead in a fort, you effectively have no music to try and up the tempo of the whole affair. The only thing you are subjected to is some low humming noise (exciting right?) which, while fine for the dramatic part of the very beginning of the mission, it’s a very bad choice for the rest of the mission, where there is supposed to be somekittenaction.

When you get right down to it, these are the biggest issues i have with the personal story, since i love the game overall and i love the story overall, it just lacks…emotion in parts where there is supposed to be emotion, and it lacks atmosphere and drama in parts when dramatic things are happening. It’s rather hard to explain, and if you have had that same…lack of feeling as i have experienced, then you might know what i am talking about. It’s a real shame, and the only thing from keeping me from falling in love with the personal story aspect of the game.

The pacing of these big missions really does need to be looked at in the future. You need to feel immersed into what’s happening and all the details like the lack of energizing music, and the slow pacing of the entire thing, partly due to the insane difficulty at times, and also other things, like you needing to do needless busy work during missions(do i really need to flip both switches before the gates close? is that extremely vital? am i the only person available or something, in a fort full of people?), just builds up to hamper, what could be, some seriously epic moments..but at the moment, it’s not there

…

IMO of course.

I understand how you feel. I find myself left wanting more when it comes to the characters of GW2. My attachments to the characters of Destiny’s Edge come from me reading the novels, rather than learning to appreciate them in-game. I hope that in expansions we see their characteristics shine a bit more in a non-general way, or get more tidbits about their viewpoints/experiences on things relevant to the world. This is needed for the supporting and minor characters presented in the storylines as well…some of them had a lot of potential, but theres not enough medium to appreciate them more.

I also totally agree about maintenance of atmosphere. I don’t know if the music selection just needs to be increased for specific moments in the game or what…but yeah. The static cutscenes are okay for long conversations, but I feel more immersed with the machinima-style presentation of events that very seldomly takes place in the game. Seeing those scripted scenes can be very creative and with the proper music and volume, can make cinematic moments much more epic.

Sometimes I wonder if what I hope for the future of GW2’s story isn’t too dark, but I mean…sometimes the story just isn’t done justice when impending doom is bright, funny, and rainbow colored. The more comedic sides of the game (which can be very much so at times) needs to be balanced with moments and content that remind you that these could be the end-of-days for the inhabitants of Tyria.

I hope more people add to this conversation in this or other similar threads so it can be heard!