Guild Wars 2

Will this content update come with a pre-dungeon story/quest to chase down/investigate?

The last two content updates -SAB 2.0 and Tequatl 2.0- both lacked proper story pre-quests that other previous content updates held. I can certainly understand SAB’s excuse in the way it’s designed (that and the whole Genie post-quest made up for it in such an awesome way). Tequatl wasn’t really excusable, as it was just an in-game mail and a few bland text lines with Rox.

To list:

• - Shadows of the Mad King (Halloween 2012) started with a very well implemented investigation quest into the historic background of Mad King Thorn. Although some bugs did interfere with parts of it, those were quickly hammered out. It’s still a matter that it was a great story introduction and elements that pieced together something that other games just slap on all willy-nilly. ~Great story.

• - Lost Shores Ignoring the huge issues with lag, timing, and just the major event itself, the lead up was great. Pieces of the content introduced slowly to build up mystery, as well as new NPC’s with dialog (well before the actual patch). Then when the patch happened, there was another few investigation quests: one into how to defeat the otherwise immune ancient creatures, and the other into who “screwed up” to bring the plague upon Lion’s Arch (thanks, Consortium!). ~Great story/quests.

• - Wintersday (2012) was a bit hit and miss on the story. In-game mail was utilized mostly, as the main feature of the holiday event -Tixx’s Toyshop- was floating around from city to city. Inside the actual dungeon(s), it did a great job of introducing a micro style story to the event. Even the toys scattered around Tyria had a defining canon reason for being there (toys are parachuted out of the flying Toyshop, and these ones went off course and are crazy like the rest). ~Okay story/quests.

• - Flame & Frost had two epic micro story quests that helped introduce the characters of Rox and Braham each. Several personal dialog sections, instanced fight areas equivalent to a personal story chapter, and additional background to main characters already established within the universe. ~Great story/quests.

• - Secrets of Southsun had …no backstory quests. Just an in-game mail from Ellen Kiel telling of some issues within the island of Southsun. The rest consisted of dynamic events and the “dungeon” (if so can be called) of Canach’s Lair. The whole event lacked direction and instead pushed through the 4th Wall with it’s Achievements directing the way mostly, if only. ~Horrible story/quests

• - Dragon Bash was spectacular with it’s story quests, including the murder and following escort chase through the streets of Lion’s Arch. The introduction of Marjory Delaqua added a think layer of delicious icing that was the intricate story woven into this content update. ~Great story/quests.

• - Sky Pirates was more or less the follow up to Dragon Bash with it’s story being melded into Dragon Bash first. That’s where the story started perfectly, then it finished with the prison questioning. ~Good story/quests. Great dungeon

• - Bazaar of the Four Winds had an introductory story dialog with it. The story did follow the previous chapter’s character -Ellen Kiel-. The rest of the event was story light and mostly about the exploration of the Cliffs zone, the Zephyre Sanctum, and the overall use of the Aspects. ~Okay story.

• - Cutthroat Politics Story and drama that actually included player choice. From the first part of it, which was a diplomatic dialog to start off the election, to the discussed plans on what to do with pirate treasure; each section of the update did a great way of drawing out the candidates’ personalities. An additional reflection was the constant attempt from Gnashblade to “buy” a vote through collected loot. ~Good story. Great quests.

• - Queen’s Jubilee started with a simplistic in-game mail. However, this was a legit use as it was a personalized invitation by Queen Jenna to citizens of Tyria to the opening ceremonies of the Crown Pavilion. That itself brought a great story piece the pulled at emotional strings of some main characters (double against Logan on both his friendship with Rytlock and his ‘relationship’ with Jenna). Truly moving story that also gave hinting ties to the next update’s content through investigation on the incident that was presented. ~Great story/quests.

• -Queen’s Speech/Clockwork Chaos was a swing out of the ballpark. Not only did it start with a blazingly great story section, but it also played into a surprise that (yes, many saw coming) still was a “holy cow!” moment. The story dialog/quest lead into the content through an investigation, which finished in an instanced scaling dungeon. That dungeon -Scarlett’s Funhouse- had story elements on multiple side characters from previous content patches, as well as more story into the main villain behind much of…everything. ~Great story/quests.

• - SAB Back to School (2.0) No story at all, save for the mentioned above genie part at the end. It’s more it’s own world within a box (ha!), thus there’s not much story to be had. I’m sure the events posting this World’s introduction will follow up in World #3’s introduction, concluding in World #4. But just judging this event’s story, it was good at the end, just an in-game mail at the beginning. [~Suggestion: Moto has his holographic tech, why not utilize it when sending a “notification” to players about his product? A small box set in the middle of LA/other cities that can be clicked on and does a personal instanced projection of Moto with an invitation all car commercial style.] ~Okay story (end only). Good content.

• - Tequatl Rising has nearly no story at all. The boss revamp is a great [permanent] addition to the game, but the rest of the elements behind it seemed haphazardly put together. Why are we investigating pieced of the other dragons? Why are the dragons shedding pieces of them if they’re getting more powerful? Why is Rox wondering around a swamp? How come there’s no follow up story behind her presence once the dragon is defeated? There’s so much unanswered here that it feels like she was just thrown in there for familiarity’s sake only. And Braham’s absence isn’t answered either, being that he’s been glued to her side since Flame & Frost (when’s the wedding?). ~Horrible story/quests. Good content.

So, the point of this long flashback thread? There have been some killer awesome story sections along with quite a few of the content updates. But the latest content updates have followed footsteps of some of the more forgettable, horrible story ones.

The update that will be Twilight Attack doesn’t look like it has much going for it at all other than an expected in-game mail from Caithe stating something like “There’s been some mysterious sounds inside the depths of the Twilight Arbor area. Since you’ve helped me defeat my Faoline there, I ask for your assistance once more into investigating these disturbances.” That lacks character, depth, and any sanity. I know that animation costs money when it comes to cutscenes, but there have been different methods of introduction that have been said to be cheaper than previous iterations (Marjory Delacore’s bar scene, for example).

I hope I’m wrong, very, very wrong. But, the update is looking to be story light (outside the actual instanced dungeon and it’s ‘story’).