Guild Wars 2

As the storyline goes now, at one time in the story, the characters are forced to join one of the Orders. Why is it so?
From what I saw now, this makes the story pretty linear and looses from the element of surprise.
I suggest to add the 4th option of choice: “I go my own path”
If players would choose this one they will get random missions for all 3 Orders not a single sure path
If its absolutely necessarily that the characters should join an Order, than this can be done at the end of the game when the 3 orders will congratulate the character and offer him as a reward the opportunity to choose an Order Armor

I think getting rid of the Orders option wouldn’t work out so well.. Im not going to spoil anything, but not having an order wouldn’t make sense to the story and the story wouldn’t really be able to progress.. ( I already completed the entire story mode with the vigil)
Your Idea does sound really cool though, but I cant see how It would work out sadly..
I guess they could, but they would have to rehire voice actors, make new quests, a new story that might fit in a little, make new characters, new cut scenes, etc…

Your own path should be zaithan eating you alive and your character being deleted with all item on him lost because you were foolish enough to think you’re good enough to face an elder dragon by yourself.

I wish it meant something to join an order. I wish I could go to my order HQ and take some small jobs and quests. Like the guilds work in TES.

Your first mistake was believing that your “personal story” was even your story to begin with. Of course with something like that it is going to be linear (it was linear from the get-go, for the record).

Out of all the features they boasted the personal story was the one I was least interested in. It makes my character out to be something different from what I had in mind when I rolled them to begin with.

If you’d rather not join an order, I’m afraid your choice at this point is to abandon your personal story. I sincerely doubt ANet will consider an option to “go your own way” in the personal storyline, given the entire point of the story.

Anyone who doesn’t join one of the orders just becomes Risen …the end! And that’s how the story goes.

When I read up on the game before the first beta, i had a completely different expectation of what the personal story was going to be. I thought it was going to be more like Skyrim. Where you had to go around and get involved in the community to access more stories. Going for an Order would be like joining the Thieves Guild or something. Completely by choice. Was a little let down that the personal story ended up being so linear with the exception of (spoiler)Trehearn asking you for the millionth time how you want to handle something, like you were the one in charge. I hate how the story takes a different course every 10 levels. For humans, I was way more interested in my friendship with Petra and her father, or Lord Faren, or what happened to my parents, and that was over faster than it started. Basically I’m kind of let down by the stories. Too short, too forced. How many characters would you have to make to see them all? I would much rather have more in depth stories, leveling, and start the orders at 80 to spread things out.

I like your add-ons to the original idea.
It would be interesting if by joining an Order you will get that “Daily board of Duties” to do for your order. It can also be a start of introducing “regular type of questing” but in a dynamic world. These “duties” can be:
-Kill a random Champion boss: the aria where it can be found will be marked on the map
-Collect different items: they can ask items from drops or gathering. The foes/resources which give them will be marked on the map
-Help 3 random NPCs in heart events: those hearts will change their icon on your map till they are done.
etc.

All these quests will not differ from what it is already in the world and will not require new events to be added. Once you join an order, in your hero panel can appear a new tab with the order icon and those daily quests can appear in there automatically or if you talk to a certain NPC.
Doing this Order quests, will reward players with order points which will be more likely to be traded for order armor and weapons
Also within the Order there can be different ranks to achieve
As it is now in the game, when you select a player, you see its name, guild, guild tag, title, profession icon. If the Order ranks are added they can add a symbol for the Order and a number for the rank

You can go your own path.

It is called not doing the personal storyline. You can travel the entire world, help other people via Dynamic event and Hearts. You can talk to npc about the problems, and about the lore. You do not have to represent an order that way.

Ronah.2869:

I like your add-ons to the original idea.
It would be interesting if by joining an Order you will get that “Daily board of Duties” to do for your order. It can also be a start of introducing “regular type of questing” but in a dynamic world. These “duties” can be:
-Kill a random Champion boss: the aria where it can be found will be marked on the map
-Collect different items: they can ask items from drops or gathering. The foes/resources which give them will be marked on the map
-Help 3 random NPCs in heart events: those hearts will change their icon on your map till they are done.
etc.

All these quests will not differ from what it is already in the world and will not require new events to be added. Once you join an order, in your hero panel can appear a new tab with the order icon and those daily quests can appear in there automatically or if you talk to a certain NPC.
Doing this Order quests, will reward players with order points which will be more likely to be traded for order armor and weapons
Also within the Order there can be different ranks to achieve
As it is now in the game, when you select a player, you see its name, guild, guild tag, title, profession icon. If the Order ranks are added they can add a symbol for the Order and a number for the rank

I would like to support this idea, though I do think special spawns (that only spawn as the quest holder gets close) or special tweaked versions to heart events to keep things mixed up just a little and reduce a feeling of repetition.