Guild Wars 2

Let discuss how you all pictured the personal story of your hero.

So far there has been conflict on this forums about how the personal story should of been about our characters becoming a Hero through…

- Fame and Glory (people should recognise our characters actions and tell stories and honor them like celebrities)

or

- Actions (what makes a true hero is not his fame and fortune but his actions alone despite never being noticed by others)

So how do you picture the Personal story?
(PS please do not discuss how Trahearne steals the fame and glory. We have enough of these discussion threads already)

So far i think Anet follows the what makes a true hero is not his fame and glory but his or her actions for the personal story so far. Makes me wonder how will Anet continue this policy once they release Act 2 since we know every Hero NPC has a Destiny to follow like how Trahearne becoming leader and the founder of the Pact and how Destiny Edge must be the ones who defeats the Elder Dragon while our hero must be the center of these things to make these destinies possible.

Most real heros are unsung and most of them are unknown to most people. There are only a few how also get the glory. But there are only few people how get the glory anyway. But is isn’t actually an argument for any side, because realism can kitten it.

I have no problem with Trahearne “taking all the credit”, which imo he does not. There are enough people in the story who say how awesome I am including Trahearne.

But people on this forum actually want the story to be more cliche and more predicable then it is anyway. I was glad that my player character didn’t became leader of the pact. I was glad that it wasn’t mentioned by everybody that I am the great hero who will slay the undead dragon. Seriously one step more in this direction and the character will sacifice himself at the end of the story and bring salvation to all races.

This I actually not what happens. The PC build up a millitary organisation, with military research and secret service. Than made a step back, that someone could lead and unify this bunch of idiots who couldn’t come up with “Maybe we should work together instead of fighting each other!”
Than he went out gathered the best of the best which is Destiny’s Edge around him and killed one of the 5 dragons. I didn’t done the last mision yet but I expect my character to walk away in slowmo which Arah is exploding behind him.

The player character is a bad mary sue as it is, I seriously couldn’t take much more.

yandere.9176:

Most real heros are unsung and most of them are unknown to most people. There are only a few how also get the glory. But there are only few people how get the glory anyway. But is isn’t actually an argument for any side, because realism can kitten it.

I have no problem with Trahearne “taking all the credit”, which imo he does not. There are enough people in the story who say how awesome I am including Trahearne.

But people on this forum actually want the story to be more cliche and more predicable then it is anyway. I was glad that my player character didn’t became leader of the pact. I was glad that it wasn’t mentioned by everybody that I am the great hero who will slay the undead dragon. Seriously one step more in this direction and the character will sacifice himself at the end of the story and bring salvation to all races.

This I actually not what happens. The PC build up a millitary organisation, with military research and secret service. Than made a step back, that someone could lead and unify this bunch of idiots who couldn’t come up with “Maybe we should work together instead of fighting each other!”
Than he went out gathered the best of the best which is Destiny’s Edge around him and killed one of the 5 dragons. I didn’t done the last mision yet but I expect my character to walk away in slowmo which Arah is exploding behind him.

The player character is a bad mary sue as it is, I seriously couldn’t take much more.

I’ve been reading this board since it’s opened, and I don’t think I’ve read anybody saying that they want to be the hero of the day and all the other crap you’re insisting.

The players want the story to be about them. As it stands, the story is about Trahearne and Destiny’s Edge, and your character just becomes a glorified gopher. There’s no sense of responsibility, reward, risk or loss attached with your character, because all he/she ever has to do is exactly what everybody else says to do, with no personal opinions or actions getting in the way of Anet’s Grande Story of Epic Awesome.

The player character could be a grunt in the army for all it mattered, as long as I got to spend some time seeing my character develop more personality than a brick, and create bonds with other characters that last for more than five minutes.

Here’s my take:

1. I don’t mind the role of the hero vice Trahearne. I just mind Trahearne.

2. The story would have been significantly more interesting if the other heroes were involved.

For example, I totally expected my character to get involved with the Destiny’s Edge folks, get them motivated. This was 100% completely absent from the game. My first character was a human, so I got to hear Logan’s emotrip from start to finish. That said, he seemed like an ok guy with a lot on his mind. Hell, I thought he was written well, and the emo phase was just that — a phase that I would get to watch … and then …

3. BAM! Trahearne enters the scene out of left field! He’s a buddy of the OOW character (Appleman, who was cool). Oh wait, no, Trahearne is now a researcher of Orr!. Oh wait, now Trahearne is the Chosen One of the Pale Tree! Super Paladin ex-researcher, Marshal of the Pact and the point-man for all that is good in the world!

Facepalm.

That said, I wouldn’t have minded Trahearne’s role, if Destiny’s Edge did not cease to exist. Really, what are they doing? Why aren’t they the other commanders / lieutenants / special agents that are helping the Pact out? Why isn’t your character acting as a liaison with them? Why don’t you go on missions with DE to help support the Pact? Why isn’t Trahearne trying to recruit them or bring in their participation in the first place?

You can tell there’s like half a dozen to a dozen filler “hello this is the Pact” missions that could have been better invested with richer content, like questing with DE. A large part of the 55-75 track for example. You know all those filler Vigil, Priory, and OOW nameless bots? Why not include the DE instead, with some fun dialogue and twists?

In other words, my main disappointment is the massive discontinuity between my expectations — working with DE, rebuilding it — and the result: one-man-show Trahearne with a whole lot of Order of [x] minions. Again, I don’t mind Trahearne’s role, but the real problem is that everyone else in the game all but disappears when he takes center stage.

The Destiny’s Edge storyline continues in the dungeons. Which I think is kinda sloppy, considering they’re introduced as a way to help kill the dragon, then shunted off in the personal story and never mentioned again.

Greyfeld.7104:

I’ve been reading this board since it’s opened, and I don’t think I’ve read anybody saying that they want to be the hero of the day and all the other crap you’re insisting.

I did and you just wrote it in the next sentence:

Greyfeld.7104:

The players want the story to be about them.

No I don’t and I am a player. There are some players who want see a story about them. And seriously what does this mean anyway? I can tell you the story of my life. I can tell you a story about my tabletop characters. These are stories which are about me. But why would I want to tell me a story about my life, I know this story already.

So the only thing I can imagine when people are telling me that they want the story to be about them, – which already involves them heading out unifying all orders and destiniy’s edge and kill one of the five great dragons, which are the equivalent of death incarnate – that they just want to play mary sues… And the player character is already one.

You could just say that you want your personal story be personal in the way that your decisions really matter and every path you take feels radically different. Well, than I have to inform you that this is not in the game: Not on level 1, not on level 80.

I give you an example from the asura storyline. The first chapter ends, by the way, regardless of your decisions of you begin the snaff servant. This has to be that Zojja can call your character “savant”. But let’s go to the 2nd chapter: the VAL-A golem.
There are 3 suspects of a crime in this story and it is really easy to figure out who the real criminal is after the 2nd story and you can suspect it after the 1st story. Your one – I repeat your only one! – decision in this whole chapter is made after the 2nd story. They let you decide which one of the two non-criminals you are hunting down. That is the 3rd stroy and in 4th story your character finally figures it out, you always go after the real criminal. You see this decision is really pointless and it doesn’t change anything. This is not the pact storyline, this is not level 60 this is level 16.

But do you know what. This is fine by me. I like this game anyway! Not because of its great writing, but because of its other merits, which really shine. But seriously there is no personal story other than that the player character is the protagonist. And no there is no one stealing the show, because the protagonist makes all decisions, and defeats the dragon, and saves the princess… wait wrong game.

Ok, I think I was ranting there for a time, but I seriously can’t hear it anymore that the personal story (which is an aweful name by the way) has to be about me.

It is the main story arc of the game, and guess what your princess is in another castle.

If you like the way the story sits, that’s cool. But you don’t speak for me, and you don’t speak for all the other people who obviously disagree with you. So, instead of trivializing their concerns and issues, you should just give your own opinion and leave it at that. Because telling other people how to feel isn’t doing your point any good.

Oh, don’t be hypocritical. You were the one you claimed to speak for the players. And I cite: “The players want the story to be about them.”

I never did this. I talked for the only person that I can talk for. I talked about my opinion. Perhaps I didn’t make this crystal clear, but I never wanted to talk for anybody but myself.

I see that you have a diffrent opinion. Of course, I do not speak for you. But when you state something like “the player wants this, the player wants that”. Well, I am playing this game, too. And I certainly want diffrent things than you. This isn’t trivialising your concerns and issues, that is just a diffrent opinion that you don’t like. And don’t hide behind some grey mass of people you are speaking for. You are speaking for yourself, just like me.

I never actually told you that your feelings were wrong. They are of course right, just like my feelings are right. I just have a very diffrent point of view and from my point of view, things aren’t this bad.

Ok, rant over, but you just ticked me of a little bit.

On a emotional level we have diffrent sight, so let’s try to make things a little bit rational. I want to understand why people are having such problems, because I seriously don’t.

You see, when I look at the plot. I see “the hero go out to slay the dragon”.

This is a basic fantasy plot and that is ok. My point is it is about you, you are the protagonist of this plot. So now you can tell me, I am wrong this. This isn’t the plot of the story. Which is fine, I can live with that answer.
Or you can tell me, your feeling that the story isn’t about you, not because the plot isn’t about you, but…. and here I would like to something more specific, than “Traherne happens”, because this statement has as much information as “The story isn’t about me”.

And I say it again, I am only talking for me and I seriously do not wish to offend you in any way. The point is I am not native english speaker, so chances are things that I write sounds harder than I mean them.

The only thing I did not like about the story was the end. It could not even be considered a personal story for me. I do not mind if the final story only had shown the mighty Marshal Trahearne and The Destiny’s Edge in the cut scene but the second they made the story about one the random players I was FORCED to group with in MY PERSONAL STORY, it no longer was my story but theirs. This was a major let down much like the final fight with mister cuddles. errr I mean the Mean Dragon

How Destiny’s Edge lost to this Dragon is a mystery.

yandere.9176:

Oh, don’t be hypocritical. You were the one you claimed to speak for the players. And I cite: “The players want the story to be about them.”

My intention, since you seem to be determined to misunderstand, was to encompass the players who are speaking out against the issue. I felt it was an obvious distinction that I didn’t have to spell out. Obviously I was wrong.

I didn’t read the rest of your post, because it hinges on a misunderstanding of my original statement.

Well, I felt quite misunderstood myself. So we have things in common I guess… :P

Of course I want the personal story about my character! I don’t mind it if my character doesn’t be the greatest hero in the game, but if a game tells me that the story is personal then I want that to be true.

So, the problem is that it should never been called personal story. That Trahearne becomes the great hero is okay if the game would give me reasons to like him. He comes so out of the left field at a point where you lose a NPC you care about and then your story starts to feel like his story. That was so poorly done that I can understand why people are so upset with Trahearne, because it feels like he is the one responsible for that letdown.

Also, the first 40 levels or so of the personal story feel like I am supposed to become the next great hero. One of the members of DE is a mentor to my character, I help the orders to find together and help a tribal race, then suddenly with the claw island story arc I get reduced to be a minion for a character I don’t care about.

Maybe ArenaNet should have separated the personal story, which should until feel personal and a parallel world story in which we meet Trahearne eraly and help him to become the hero from the begining.