PrsStry finale- Designteam should be ashamed
I’ll preface this by saying that I have NOT played too far into the game yet so I can’t vouch for what I say here personally. That being noted, I’m going on what I hear regularly on these forums and what still stops me up from leveling too much more. What I say here is related to the notion of the OP’s claim that the “design team should be ashamed.” I think I agree — if what I hear is accurate. So here’s what I understand:
- The personal story has a lot of elements that simply don’t really matter in some wider sense. Meaning, the impacts of choices are rarely felt and the notion of your personal class rarely comes into play in determining the course of your story. (While not everyone says this, it seems many players agree with that sentiment.)
- I hear that in the “second half” of the personal story, YOUR story really starts to become more the story of someone named Trahearne.
- I hear that the final quest for your story requires going through a dungeon, thus requiring a group. (Yes, it’s an MMO but this is also the final personal story quest.)
- I hear that the final quest may not even really “show” your character unless you are the group leader.
- I hear that the final boss battle (Zhaitan) is not really all that great because he goes down fairly easily.
If what I’m hearing is true, that seems like a staggeringly disappointing way for this game to have been crafted — but only in this limited sense (which maybe means it can be fixed?). Yet if the design team disagrees, I would certainly think they would want to engage on this topic. (And if I’m simply misunderstanding, then my post is largely useless!)
Again, if what I just said is true, it’s more the pity when you consider that Guild Wars 2 does seem to have put a lot in place to alleviate some of the more “traditional” (read: aggravating) MMO mechanics.
Have any of the dev’s, story designers or content designers responded in any substantive way to criticisms of this sort? I ask that because (1) I can’t find it if they have and (2) it seems like a huge area of friction and disappointment with the community, given all the posts I’ve seen in this area of the forum.
I’m not trying to stir a pot here or advocate for or against the game itself. I’m genuinely curious because what it’s starting to look like to me is that if there’s ever an MMO that combines the story telling of Star Wars: The Old Republic (along with the class-specific story elements) but with the updated mechanics as well as look-and-feel of Guild Wars 2, we will have a phenomenal MMO on our hands. But it’s going to require the game designers to really interact with the community in substantive ways.
To elaborate on the part about Zhaitan going down easily, it’s not really just that, it’s the precise mechanics of the fight. It’s really hard to lose.
Zhaitan sits in one place and everyone attacks with an environmental weapon that has one attack, so you just spam and maybe occasionally heal — but my team didn’t need to heal at all.
As for what the team thinks, it’s mentioned here.
Briefly, we mill around what Johanson and his team, economical usage of time aside, want for Tyria. It’s the usual suspects: more dungeons, revamps of bosses, bigger and better things. I interrupt him, mid-way. What about Zhaitan? Something on their list. Johanson describes the visuals of the fight as ‘incredibly impressive’ and ‘really awe-inspiring’ but acknowledges that the experience could have been much better. “It really got finished right before the end and basically got put out of the door in time for us to ship.”
Have any of the dev’s, story designers or content designers responded in any substantive way to criticisms of this sort? I ask that because (1) I can’t find it if they have and (2) it seems like a huge area of friction and disappointment with the community, given all the posts I’ve seen in this area of the forum.
I’m not trying to stir a pot here or advocate for or against the game itself. I’m genuinely curious because what it’s starting to look like to me is that if there’s ever an MMO that combines the story telling of Star Wars: The Old Republic (along with the class-specific story elements) but with the updated mechanics as well as look-and-feel of Guild Wars 2, we will have a phenomenal MMO on our hands. But it’s going to require the game designers to really interact with the community in substantive ways.
Really huge thanks for this answer!
I think exactly the same way.
The game has so much potential which is just thrown away and it really angers me that some key parts of the game are just misdesigned instead of giving the user this epic evolving experience which was promised very often on events.
I´m also a bit disappointed that no arenanet member joins the conversation into such a HUGE topic, which is also really important to arenanets/gw2s success (because a game – especially a mmo just can be successfull if the community is satisfied…).
I really think at minimum 90% players were really disappointed from the end of the personal story – but lets get realistic, how many people write a forum thread when they get disappointed from something. So please anet, dont let this sweep under the table!
(edited by Lynx.2734)
We all know that the personal story goes quickly downhill as soon as Claw Island is mentioned, so i wont go into that. Instead here is a bit of a disappointment of mine from bit earlier than the final dungeon.
SPOILER of course:
On my first playthrough i got to go to the Silenced Cathedral to ask a reaper of Grenth about the Source of Orr. There you use an asura device called V.O.E.D. (Very Old Energy Detector) to see flashbacks into the past.
Shortly after the 1st playthrough i started an asura, and to my great satisfaction, i see that (depending on your choice at character creation) your asura character can be part of the krewe that invents the V.O.E.D., the very krewe you meet in Orr in that personal story mission.
I just got to that mission again on that same asura character that was the Snaff Savant of the krewe making the V.O.E.D.
They didnt even recognise me. I practicly had to poke them after the 1st cutscene, reminding them that i am infact an alumni of Statics. And thats all that is mentioned. In simple text, not voiced in the least. Not even your name. Not even your title of Snaff Savant. Not a single mention of anything that happened in the early story. Only that you are in fact a Statics alumni. Like you’ve never actually been part of their krewe!
This disappointment is just sour. The fact that you were part of that krewe is clearly flagged, since there is mention of it (only the statics college background gives the V.O.E.D. story early). Yet the whole thing is like it was swept under the rug. A very clumsy mention of being a static alumni. Having no flag at all would have been more lazy, but less insulting.