Guild Wars 2

First off, I’d like to mention that this is a mostly frivolous and fairly minor complaint. It only partially impacts my enjoyment of the story since I can always choose differently on future characters. Nevertheless, it does still bug me. I’m also not completely sure it fits in here, but since it has to do with the personal story, I don’t know where else to put it. There are also a few similar threads here and there; I just don’t want to necrobump them.

Some background: I’m fairly new to Guild Wars, but I try to put forth some effort (obviously not enough, as you’ll read in a moment) to research certain choices like those applicable in selecting among the Orders. I know that the decision is final and cannot be changed. Having played through the human story line up through to the Order selection, I felt that it was fairly obvious at what point the decision was available (and thus final), particularly since I recall having the option to discuss the possible choices with Logan Thackery just before selection. However, I don’t quite feel the same about the story leading up to Order selection for the Sylvari. Maybe I needed more hand-holding. (A higher IQ wouldn’t hurt either, otherwise I would’ve been spared this mistake.)

I intended to join Whispers, but following “Trouble at the Roots” I was unsure of whether I wanted to select their solution to the Lich problem. Thanks to the human story line, I knew that the choice was coming up, but I had expected there to be some interaction with Caithe (as I seem to remember with Logan) prior to actually making the choice. Thus, I wasn’t terribly careful when I was reading through the options of the other orders. After tabbing out to read the news and forgetting to do some research on the wiki (which, to add insult to injury, clearly states that turning in “Trouble at the Roots” in The Grove follows up with the order selection—go me for missing that!), I contemplated the Vigil option, and clicked anyway somewhat by accident and somewhat by compulsion just before completely reading the choice.

“Thanks for joining!” came the dialog.

Well, that made my heart sink by a measurable amount. That was when the full gravity of what I had done began to sink in.

So, lesson learned. To others, particularly new players who might be trying other races: 1) Research the personal story at each point to ensure that it is NOT at the selection phase if you’re not familiar enough with the races to know when it’s due, 2) don’t click anything—even accidentally, and 3) don’t distract yourself by tabbing out to read the news, because you probably won’t remember what you’re doing and compulsive clicking will result in unexpected misfortune.

Thus, my complaint is that I don’t feel the Sylvari Order selection phase is as obvious as it was with the human story arc. Perhaps it’s more obvious to others who are much more familiar with the game; perhaps the human version is less obvious to some. I wasn’t nearly as cautious as I should have been, and I take full responsibility for my mistake. I just wish there were a way to abandon the choice within some period of time after it’s made, particularly in the event someone accidentally picks an order without necessarily meaning to (thinking, like I was, that it was just a mission to see how each of the 3 handled things against each other rather than the actual choice phase—I don’t think that’s how the human story line was, but at the time I had a flawed memory that the choice was made in the mission following the selection among the three). The lack of Caithe’s guidance or perhaps my not noticing her dialog options as I did with Logan’s sort of grates against the more obvious design of the human story.

I’m not sure how I feel about continuing my personal story at this point since I had my heart set on the Whispers. Maybe I’ll continue it once I’m done steaming over my own stupid misfortune, but I’d gladly count myself in with others who’ve suggested order changing via gems—even if it were only allowed immediately after making the choice to join an order. Aside from that, it doesn’t dampen the disappointed that it seems the Sylvari decision point may not be up to par with the other races, and I certainly don’t feel that the dialog options were as clear as they were under the human arc. Or maybe my memory of the human choice phase is completely wrong. Either way, it did violate the “principle of least surprise” for me in this specific circumstance. I love Guild Wars, and I feel that this particular part of the game mechanics could use some further polish. For example, a pop up dialog “this decision will be final” would be useful so that it’s effectively impossible to wonder at which point the selection process is made.

Cheers

To me, it seems obvious that the three orders represent the three classes of GW2. Priory for the scholars, Whispers for adventurers, Vigil for the warriors. I decided to buck the system by putting my thief in Priory. I couldn’t really envisage a scholar class in the Vigil though I am sure someone has done this.

This is a good point and also part of why I felt stupid for having put my necromancer in with the Vigil as illustrated above.

After sleeping on it, I don’t feel so bad about the choice, and the embarrassment of the mistake has since faded. I also thought a little about how I created that character: I selected ferocity for her personality trait, and it occurred to me that (with some stretching), one could map the 3 attributes (dignity, charm, ferocity) to each of the orders. It isn’t as obvious and clean as the profession-to-order mapping, but it seems to me that ferocity goes well with mindless slaughter.

There is a silver lining and slightly comical aside to all this. I’ve made a habit of role playing with that character by channeling the compulsive parts of my personality, and perhaps ironically, my decision last night reflected that all too well!

I do appreciate knowing that there are other players who, as you put it, intentionally “buck the system.” That does make me feel better!