Guild Wars 2

Let me just preface this by saying I’ve only been playing through the human storyline, with a little dabbling in dungeons, friend’s instances and the like.

I really like this game. I absolutely love the world around me and the incredible artwork does so much to draw me into this virtual world…but the whole “Personal Story” is so dry and cliche that it takes away all the context – literally detaching me from the environment. Outside of my little series of cutscenes, unless I make another character, there’s nothing connecting me to the rest of the world – the whole wide world I’m supposed to discover and which I’ll spend weeks of my life leveling up in and exploring!

I understand we’re all heroes and each one of us wants to think we’re the most important player in the world, but that comes automatically. I’d rather it be more apparent as to why my race is at war with the centaurs. I’d rather enter Queensdale knowing that the people are suffering from vermin and famine than just running mindlessly from one heart to the next, clicking past the little snippets of text which attempt to individualize them. Then maybe the next region is suffering from deforestation or mountain invaders or whatever ArenaNet can come up with.

Summed up, I’d rather use my imagination (and of course, dyes) to distinguish my character then have to watch him painfully recite cliche monologue after cliche monologue about good triumphing over evil. It’s unbelievable, and I’ve never looked at another wandering adventurer and thought “Oh my, that Sylvari Ranger’s on a mission, she sure is heroic!” In the end we’re just a million faceless fighters and the no context Army of Heroes vs. Veteran Whatever is infinitely more fun than my slaying a bunch of Risen on a dock with a bunch of Seraph Guards following me.

Embrace your MMOness, ArenaNet!