Guild Wars 2

I have to wonder, what is the intended age group for this game? Many of the quests in personal stories especially the orders seem to involve the simplest of plots and dialogue, and they all seem to have banter, even when there is death all around them, like it is just nothing. Much of the acting reminds me of “team rocket” from pokemon. Was this intended?

I sure hope you mean Team Rocket from the anime, and not the manga : P

Anyway, GW2 is a weird game trying to appeal to a (too ?) large crowd of people, from the casual player to the hardcore-seasoned-went-through-every-MMO-before-veteran, from teenagers (maybe kids, but I hardly see what’s interesting for them in it) to middle-aged adults. Now don’t look at me to see what’s a “middle-aged” adult XD

If you want a friendly advice: don’t look for logic in this game, there is none.

They are trying to please EVERYONE of all ages and play styles and this has caused a giant mess of a game. Try not to think about it :P

i would say the targeted age range is about 10.

a little young, but most people demonstrated that they are about that age when they play gw2

Zackie.8923:

i would say the targeted age range is about 10.

a little young, but most people demonstrated that they are about that age when they play gw2

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS

In terms of the depth of writing probably about 8-12, even though I have seen Childbooks that had more depth than Guild Wars 2.

this is why so many are asking themselves why is the whole map so fluffy, happy and ready for festivals. Its like there’s nothing serious happening EVER. This game is rated T for teen while there’s tones of games rate E for everyone that are much more serious and not as kiddy. If i had to guess, i’d say this game (by that i mean the quests/story/LS/npcs and not gameplay itself) is aimed at 8-14y olds. Even a 16y old would laugh at quests such as picking up snowballs and throw them at npcs, its mediocre.

Nuka Cola.8520:

this is why so many are asking themselves why is the whole map so fluffy, happy and ready for festivals. Its like there’s nothing serious happening EVER. This game is rated T for teen while there’s tones of games rate E for everyone that are much more serious and not as kiddy. If i had to guess, i’d say this game (by that i mean the quests/story/LS/npcs and not gameplay itself) is aimed at 8-14y olds. Even a 16y old would laugh at quests such as picking up snowballs and throw them at npcs, its mediocre.

The festivals and the snowball thing does not make it kiddy. You can have those things in any type of game. You don’t need it to have constant slaughter for it to appeal to an older audience. I do agree though that the npc dialogue and certain outrageous content (cow shooting machine) can be pretty childish. Actually, the entire Charr race is childish (even though I find it funny and interesting).

i have played hundreds upon hundreds of games and i have NEVER seen a quest as stupid as picking up snowballs and throw them at npcs. The imagination that went into this quest in particular is insulting at best. and im not even talking about the abysmal writing/voice acting because that a completely other story. you can defend it as much as you want but i have done my personal story, done enough stupid hearts to know how pathetic they ALL were.

Oh, oh, wait ? We’re talking about voice acting too ? Oh boy !

It…sucks ! There, finally said it. Terrible, shameful, whatever. I have yet to see a so-called RPG with such a lack of emotions in the voice acting, not to forget that dialogues are sickening horrible. A twelve year old could have written better things ! Please…how are you supposed to qualify yourself as an RPG when you have this, makes me laugh (sadly, but still).

See ? That’s why this game is for younger audience; there is no real work to do. No interesting stories to follow (the books are great though, from what I’ve heard). It’s like watching the life of the Kardashian Family on TV; you’re just turning your brain off for a while and press a few buttons.

Edit for spelling error, sorry

Nuka Cola.8520:

i have played hundreds upon hundreds of games and i have NEVER seen a quest as stupid as picking up snowballs and throw them at npcs. The imagination that went into this quest in particular is insulting at best. and im not even talking about the abysmal writing/voice acting because that a completely other story. you can defend it as much as you want but i have done my personal story, done enough stupid hearts to know how pathetic they ALL were.

Okay so you have some sort of deep inner feelings about snowball throwing (childhood accident maybe) but if you are in an area where there is no immediate danger or terror, like orr, then it makes sense for there not to always be tasks that require some crazy and intense killing.

Machiavel.6042:

Oh, oh, wait ? We’re talking about voice acting too ? Oh boy !

It…sucks ! There, finally said it. Terrible, shameful, whatever. I have yet to see a so-called RPG with such a lack of emotions in the voice acting, not to forget that dialogues are sickening horrible. A twelve year old could have written better things ! Please…how are you supposed to qualify yourself as an RPG when you have this, makes me laugh (sadly, but still).

See ? That’s why this game is for younger audience; there is no real work to do. No interesting stories to follow (the books are great though, from what I’ve heard). It’s like watching the life of the Kardashian Family on TV; you’re just turning your brain off for a while and press a few buttons.

Edit for spelling error, sorry

thanks god im not the only one who felt almost insulted with their pathetic voice acting. Indie rpg titles worth $5-10 have a much superior voice acting than this and im not even kidding, its that bad. At first, i thought i’d get used to poor voice acting but when there’s games with top notch voice acting such as in GTA5 or The Last of us (that aren’t even rpg’s…), its just impossible to get used to gw2’s voice acting mediocrity.

Gizmo.9178:

They are trying to please EVERYONE of all ages and play styles and this has caused a giant mess of a game. Try not to think about it :P

GW2 suffers from the “Resident Evil 6” effect.

The Books are really good, that is true, because they introduce characters that actually have personality, they make you like them without giving them a real face or voice.
Even with Visuals and Voice Acting, Anet’s writers are just not able to give any character personality, and it seems getting killled is so natural that people don’t even give a kitten if some of their friends die right in front of them.

I love this game but agree the voice acting and dialogue are beyond terrible. But that kind of goes with the atrocious cut scenes…… o_o

I want to add that just as one should not think that the people who express themselves on the forums are indicitave of the whole player population, one should not extrapolate the chat of a few players on the map to represent them. I think most mature players just don’t chat or respond to silly or abusive remarks. Personally i am middle aged (44) and educated with a good job. I find this game to be a total release that i can play as carefree or as “intense” as i want.

ozmaniandevil.6805:

I love this game but agree the voice acting and dialogue are beyond terrible. But that kind of goes with the atrocious cut scenes…… o_o

I think they just gave some bums off the street some booze money and said read this script, thats how bad the voice acting is.

deathklock.4961:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

I love this game but agree the voice acting and dialogue are beyond terrible. But that kind of goes with the atrocious cut scenes…… o_o

I think they just gave some bums off the street some booze money and said read this script, thats how bad the voice acting is.

i always thought they gave McDonald worker $5 to read the script or something. I can already feel in my body that both of these messages will be deleted lmao but that’s how i really feel about gw2 voice acting/cutsceens/dialogue

Copestetic.5174:

Gizmo.9178:

They are trying to please EVERYONE of all ages and play styles and this has caused a giant mess of a game. Try not to think about it :P

GW2 suffers from the “Resident Evil 6” effect.

haha yup

unseenone.1463:

I have to wonder, what is the intended age group for this game? Many of the quests in personal stories especially the orders seem to involve the simplest of plots and dialogue, and they all seem to have banter, even when there is death all around them, like it is just nothing. Much of the acting reminds me of “team rocket” from pokemon. Was this intended?

Shortly after launch last year there were a lot of complaints in the forums about the inane and childish dialogue in the personal stories. The least offensive to player intelligence seemed to be the Asura dialog, with the Norn being the worst (bad enough to get a high schooler a grade of F in a creative writing class). One of the game designers joined the forum to admit that the dialog for the various races was created by different teams, and then was scary clueless enough to say that he didn’t see any problem with any of it. Hope that gives you some level of calibration.

Cactus.2710:

unseenone.1463:

I have to wonder, what is the intended age group for this game? Many of the quests in personal stories especially the orders seem to involve the simplest of plots and dialogue, and they all seem to have banter, even when there is death all around them, like it is just nothing. Much of the acting reminds me of “team rocket” from pokemon. Was this intended?

Shortly after launch last year there were a lot of complaints in the forums about the inane and childish dialogue in the personal stories. The least offensive to player intelligence seemed to be the Asura dialog, with the Norn being the worst (bad enough to get a high schooler a grade of F in a creative writing class). One of the game designers joined the forum to admit that the dialog for the various races was created by different teams, and then was scary clueless enough to say that he didn’t see any problem with any of it. Hope that gives you some level of calibration.

wow! and that “wow” goes to them admitting something

I’m a middle-aged man and i enjoy the game just fine. Snowballs, festivals and all. Life is serious enough, i want something to distract me from that sometimes. It’s a game, how serious do we want it to be? Should Anet introduce autopsies as the next minigame?

Would anybody mind pointing me to a MMO with that has stellar voice acting, let alone on the level of the Last of Us(which is not a MMO)? Skyrim, a large and open world single player RPG, had bits of good dialogue and voice acting but the bad bits tended to really stick out. I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee. I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee. I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee. I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.

Now, I will agree that sometimes the dialogue, the writing itself not the voice acting, can sometimes feel uninteresting or lighter in tone. But, I feel that if someone takes a step back and looks at the overall story of this game as a whole, they would find to still be fairly grim while managing to keep itself in the Teen rating. Personally, I would like to see the living story and immediate content remind us that even though we managed to take down one dragon, we are still a long ways off from being safe.

As for the books, I haven’t read the latest one yet. But two of the three authors (two people worked on Ghosts of Ascalon), Jeff Grubb and J. Robert King, wrote some of my favorite books from the Magic: the Gathering series as well as Scott McGough (would be neat if he had a Guild Wars book in the works himself). I’d put them, as well as the MtG books, in the young adult category but are still worth the read no matter the age.

unseenone.1463:

…and they all seem to have banter, even when there is death all around them…

I take it as a sign that the vast majority of Tyria’s population suffers from such massive PTSD that their grip on sanity at any given moment is tenuous.

I see nothing wrong with snowball fights. I have never been in a snowball fight in real life so it is fun to do it in a game. Actually I love the diversity in the heart quests. They are not all about killing creatures or monsters and I enjoy the change of pace when they are a little quirky.

I don’t think preferring dark to light, or serious to silly says anything about age at all.

@Critical that’s true, mmo standards are low when it comes to anything but gameplay. I did not play SWTOR but i heard voice acting was top notch so that 1 mmo with good voice acting. There’s waaay too many solo rpgs with stellar voice acting to name but i’ll give you a couple. all Dragon Age series, all Mass Effect series, DeusEx:HR, both the witcher titles and many many more. Not only having great voice acting but also interesting dialogue that doesn’t force you to skip cutsceens because they’re completely unwatchable and facepalm worthy.

I feel sorry for anyone who thinks they’re too old or mature for snowball fights. Virtual or otherwise.

Nuka Cola.8520:

this is why so many are asking themselves why is the whole map so fluffy, happy and ready for festivals. Its like there’s nothing serious happening EVER. This game is rated T for teen while there’s tones of games rate E for everyone that are much more serious and not as kiddy. If i had to guess, i’d say this game (by that i mean the quests/story/LS/npcs and not gameplay itself) is aimed at 8-14y olds. Even a 16y old would laugh at quests such as picking up snowballs and throw them at npcs, its mediocre.

It’s a common misconception but age ratings on games have absolutely nothing to do with how serious or grown-up the content is, and almost nothing to do with the intended audience. Just like movie ratings they’re entirely based on how much of the content is considered too violent, scary or sexual for children.

It actually seems to be that games (and movies) at the upper end of the scale are aimed at a relatively small bracket close to that age – for example gory action games with an 18 rating are typically targeted at 18-25 year old males. And then at the other end of the scale you get games rated 3+ which are actually made for 3 year olds and others which are made for adults (like Brain Training on the DS) and would be boring and/or incomprehensible to kids.

It was a nightmare when I worked in a video game shop. On the one hand trying to get parents to understand that just because little Jimmy is in the top set for English and maths does not mean he can handle an 18 rated survival horror game, and on the other hand trying to convince them that yes their adult niece probably did mean she wants this 3+ DS game because a lot of point and click mystery ‘novel’ games are for adults.

Danikat.8537:

I feel sorry for anyone who thinks they’re too old or mature for snowball fights. Virtual or otherwise.

Nuka Cola.8520:

this is why so many are asking themselves why is the whole map so fluffy, happy and ready for festivals. Its like there’s nothing serious happening EVER. This game is rated T for teen while there’s tones of games rate E for everyone that are much more serious and not as kiddy. If i had to guess, i’d say this game (by that i mean the quests/story/LS/npcs and not gameplay itself) is aimed at 8-14y olds. Even a 16y old would laugh at quests such as picking up snowballs and throw them at npcs, its mediocre.

It’s a common misconception but age ratings on games have absolutely nothing to do with how serious or grown-up the content is, and almost nothing to do with the intended audience. Just like movie ratings they’re entirely based on how much of the content is considered too violent, scary or sexual for children.

It actually seems to be that games (and movies) at the upper end of the scale are aimed at a relatively small bracket close to that age – for example gory action games with an 18 rating are typically targeted at 18-25 year old males. And then at the other end of the scale you get games rated 3+ which are actually made for 3 year olds and others which are made for adults (like Brain Training on the DS) and would be boring and/or incomprehensible to kids.

It was a nightmare when I worked in a video game shop. On the one hand trying to get parents to understand that just because little Jimmy is in the top set for English and maths does not mean he can handle an 18 rated survival horror game, and on the other hand trying to convince them that yes their adult niece probably did mean she wants this 3+ DS game because a lot of point and click mystery ‘novel’ games are for adults.

hard to disagree with that and i 100% agree. But i just don’t want to see this in a sequel to gw1 which was also rated T and wasn’t fluffy n happy 24/7 with every update. GW2 most certainly trying to appeal to the casuals way more than GW1 could ever have but its an mmo, you know your gw1 vets are playing the sequel and others who don’t enjoy ‘happy festivals batman’, so why not give us something more serious for once? Been one year, i think its time.

Danikat.8537:

I feel sorry for anyone who thinks they’re too old or mature for snowball fights. Virtual or otherwise.

Nuka Cola.8520:

this is why so many are asking themselves why is the whole map so fluffy, happy and ready for festivals. Its like there’s nothing serious happening EVER. This game is rated T for teen while there’s tones of games rate E for everyone that are much more serious and not as kiddy. If i had to guess, i’d say this game (by that i mean the quests/story/LS/npcs and not gameplay itself) is aimed at 8-14y olds. Even a 16y old would laugh at quests such as picking up snowballs and throw them at npcs, its mediocre.

It’s a common misconception but age ratings on games have absolutely nothing to do with how serious or grown-up the content is, and almost nothing to do with the intended audience. Just like movie ratings they’re entirely based on how much of the content is considered too violent, scary or sexual for children.

It actually seems to be that games (and movies) at the upper end of the scale are aimed at a relatively small bracket close to that age – for example gory action games with an 18 rating are typically targeted at 18-25 year old males. And then at the other end of the scale you get games rated 3+ which are actually made for 3 year olds and others which are made for adults (like Brain Training on the DS) and would be boring and/or incomprehensible to kids.

It was a nightmare when I worked in a video game shop. On the one hand trying to get parents to understand that just because little Jimmy is in the top set for English and maths does not mean he can handle an 18 rated survival horror game, and on the other hand trying to convince them that yes their adult niece probably did mean she wants this 3+ DS game because a lot of point and click mystery ‘novel’ games are for adults.

Personally, I feel like the all-dark doom and gloom atmosphere some games try to portrait is actually the opposite to being mature. It’s more targetting the 16 year olds then anything, and I don’t see a reason why something can’t be lighthearted or fun and still reasonably mature at the same time.

That being said, gw2s story and dialogue is downright insulting to human intellect for sure. The background for the whole setting seems reasonably well thought out for a fantasy scenario, but the storyline and the way it is presented in the actual game is so abysmally bad that I actually felt personally insulted when I read it at times; it’s like the writers thought their audience was barely literate (if at all), and not able to hold a stream of thought for longer then a goldfish. Practically all characters in the story are completely without depth, and nothing but a caricature for their exactly one dominant personality trait. And seriously, when the epitome of character development in a story is that incomprehensible kitten trahearne, that’s saying something.

It’s trying to appeal to as large a crowd as possible. An astonishingly large percentage of people are in fact “simple.” Some crazy meta-lore and big fantasy words swapped in where they would expect friendly generic banter and 1-dimensional characters would confuse and infuriate them

I’m being half-serious.

Wow. The comments here kind of surprise me.

The voice acting certainly has it’s corny moments. That said….

This game has a lot of content and depth that a 12 year old wouldn’t get.

Someone mentioned childrens books. Ever read The Lorax? I loved it when I was a kid. Did I really understand it? Not so much. The full meaning of the book didn’t sink in until I was much older. This went even further when I started reading teen books (loved Animorphs.) Going back as an adult, there is SOOOO much that I didn’t see. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. I loved it. It doesn’t even mean I didn’t understand it! I did! I just didn’t see the depth that was there. Honestly, it had very little to do with me being young, and more to do with me not having life experience, which gives us that ability to read into things more.

Anyway…continuing on. Guild Wars 2 HAS that depth for me. YES a 12 year old can play it. But if you are understanding it in the same way that a 12 year old does, than either it’s a very smart/jaded 12 year old, or your choosing not to read into it more.

You go to the pale tree and you pick out your deepest fear. A meaningful deep heartfelt fear. As part of your wyld hunt (lets face it, they are all on a journey with destiny) you are going to come face to face with your fears, and your hardships. The only way for you to endure, and win in the end, is to win against those fears and survive. You can’t reach your end goal without those.

12 year old version: I had a partner to fight with. We killed lots of mobs to the top. We were kinda successful, but she got left behind. Now we tried to rescue her, but we failed, and now she died.

Deeper meaning: To be strong enough to face Zhaitan, destiny would put hardships in my path to prepare. One of these is facing my deepest darkest fears. I have no issues hacking down enemies, and coming out on top. I’ve done it again and again. THAT I’m good at. I’ve been through pain, I already lost my first partner. They showed me the true meaning of sacrifice for a greater cause. Now I have a new partner, and it’s my fault. My biggest fear come to life, they die, because of me. It’s horrible, it’s tragic, but I survive. And am stronger to beat Zhaitan because of it.

If you guys aren’t seeing the deeper meanings, then maybe you aren’t looking?

zaxziakohl.5243:

Wow. The comments here kind of surprise me.

The voice acting certainly has it’s corny moments. That said….

This game has a lot of content and depth that a 12 year old wouldn’t get.

Someone mentioned childrens books. Ever read The Lorax? I loved it when I was a kid. Did I really understand it? Not so much. The full meaning of the book didn’t sink in until I was much older. This went even further when I started reading teen books (loved Animorphs.) Going back as an adult, there is SOOOO much that I didn’t see. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. I loved it. It doesn’t even mean I didn’t understand it! I did! I just didn’t see the depth that was there. Honestly, it had very little to do with me being young, and more to do with me not having life experience, which gives us that ability to read into things more.

Anyway…continuing on. Guild Wars 2 HAS that depth for me. YES a 12 year old can play it. But if you are understanding it in the same way that a 12 year old does, than either it’s a very smart/jaded 12 year old, or your choosing not to read into it more.

You go to the pale tree and you pick out your deepest fear. A meaningful deep heartfelt fear. As part of your wyld hunt (lets face it, they are all on a journey with destiny) you are going to come face to face with your fears, and your hardships. The only way for you to endure, and win in the end, is to win against those fears and survive. You can’t reach your end goal without those.

12 year old version: I had a partner to fight with. We killed lots of mobs to the top. We were kinda successful, but she got left behind. Now we tried to rescue her, but we failed, and now she died.

Deeper meaning: To be strong enough to face Zhaitan, destiny would put hardships in my path to prepare. One of these is facing my deepest darkest fears. I have no issues hacking down enemies, and coming out on top. I’ve done it again and again. THAT I’m good at. I’ve been through pain, I already lost my first partner. They showed me the true meaning of sacrifice for a greater cause. Now I have a new partner, and it’s my fault. My biggest fear come to life, they die, because of me. It’s horrible, it’s tragic, but I survive. And am stronger to beat Zhaitan because of it.

If you guys aren’t seeing the deeper meanings, then maybe you aren’t looking?

Just had to drop by to say that the Lorax, though a kid’s book, is one of the best books I’ve read. It really calls into questions some of the problems the world is now experiencing.

Oh, and I agree with your post, too. lol

Aion had a lot of humour in its dialogues, I was surprised about that.

And what previous posters said, it’s awesome when games/tv shows aimed at kids have double messages.. some for kids and other stuff that kids will just eat without really getting the “deeper” meaning, but that will make adults chuckle when they watch/play it together with the kids (or by themselves xD), since those are obviously messages directed specifically to them.

zaxziakohl.5243:

12 year old version: I had a partner to fight with. We killed lots of mobs to the top. We were kinda successful, but she got left behind. Now we tried to rescue her, but we failed, and now she died.

(…)

If you guys aren’t seeing the deeper meanings, then maybe you aren’t looking?

I think you aren’t giving 12 year olds enough credit with that, but maybe I’m too much an optimist. =)

Seriously though, I don’t think the stories have that much more to it. At the end of the day, we are beating a dragon with the power of friendship, the player character has to overcome their biggest fear and trahearne has his little coming of age drama.

I don’t think that should be too much for even a 12 year old to digest.

Interesting.

This reminds me of a time back in GW1. The monks staged a strike. They were chanting funny sayings like “No deal, no heel”. It was absolutely hilarious. Most people got the humor of the situation. Others took it dead serious. I got as big a laugh of the people who saw NO humor in the situation as I did out of the people joking around. You would think it was real life and there were going to be serious consequences to it. Too funny.

I personally enjoyed the snowballs and the cow-ta-pult. But then again I’ve always laughed at corny jokes.

I think you have to look at this game as being more like walking through a city (no stories folks, just people doing their usual daily stuff) and not like a novel where there is a cohesive plot.

If I want to look at people doing their daylie stuff without stories, I’d go out into the City and watch people do that. The life of an average man can be boring. That’s why we create fantasy, that’s why I write such novels. That’s why I want to play an RPG. The Problem with Guild Wars 2 is, it’s too much of an MMO and too less of an RPG.

We have a lot of awesome MMO Features, but completly lost any kind of Epic Story that really thrills you, like RPG’s should.

Yeah, I like stories too. One of the things I liked about Everquest II was all the stories I could follow along with. However, cohesive stories work better in RPG. I’ve decided that if I want a story I will read a book or play a RPG that has a good story. I don’t expect MMO’s to really have stories anymore. Although GW1 did a better job with stories in the missions and quests they had, it still had the same humor that is present here.

Well the thing with Guild Wars 2 is, that they are TRYING to make it an epic story with all the Elder Dragon and Destinys Edge Friendship reunion crap, but are failing miserbly. If they’d just stop trying, give up and focus on Gameplay, It would be fine.

Vayne.8563:

zaxziakohl.5243:

Wow. The comments here kind of surprise me.

The voice acting certainly has it’s corny moments. That said….

This game has a lot of content and depth that a 12 year old wouldn’t get.

Someone mentioned childrens books. Ever read The Lorax? I loved it when I was a kid. Did I really understand it? Not so much. The full meaning of the book didn’t sink in until I was much older. This went even further when I started reading teen books (loved Animorphs.) Going back as an adult, there is SOOOO much that I didn’t see. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. I loved it. It doesn’t even mean I didn’t understand it! I did! I just didn’t see the depth that was there. Honestly, it had very little to do with me being young, and more to do with me not having life experience, which gives us that ability to read into things more.

Anyway…continuing on. Guild Wars 2 HAS that depth for me. YES a 12 year old can play it. But if you are understanding it in the same way that a 12 year old does, than either it’s a very smart/jaded 12 year old, or your choosing not to read into it more.

You go to the pale tree and you pick out your deepest fear. A meaningful deep heartfelt fear. As part of your wyld hunt (lets face it, they are all on a journey with destiny) you are going to come face to face with your fears, and your hardships. The only way for you to endure, and win in the end, is to win against those fears and survive. You can’t reach your end goal without those.

12 year old version: I had a partner to fight with. We killed lots of mobs to the top. We were kinda successful, but she got left behind. Now we tried to rescue her, but we failed, and now she died.

Deeper meaning: To be strong enough to face Zhaitan, destiny would put hardships in my path to prepare. One of these is facing my deepest darkest fears. I have no issues hacking down enemies, and coming out on top. I’ve done it again and again. THAT I’m good at. I’ve been through pain, I already lost my first partner. They showed me the true meaning of sacrifice for a greater cause. Now I have a new partner, and it’s my fault. My biggest fear come to life, they die, because of me. It’s horrible, it’s tragic, but I survive. And am stronger to beat Zhaitan because of it.

If you guys aren’t seeing the deeper meanings, then maybe you aren’t looking?

Just had to drop by to say that the Lorax, though a kid’s book, is one of the best books I’ve read. It really calls into questions some of the problems the world is now experiencing.

Oh, and I agree with your post, too. lol

Change The Lorax (my first experience with it was watching the recent movie with my son) to The Little Prince and I agree 100%.

zaxziakohl.5243:

You go to the pale tree and you pick out your deepest fear. A meaningful deep heartfelt fear. As part of your wyld hunt (lets face it, they are all on a journey with destiny) you are going to come face to face with your fears, and your hardships. The only way for you to endure, and win in the end, is to win against those fears and survive. You can’t reach your end goal without those.

12 year old version: I had a partner to fight with. We killed lots of mobs to the top. We were kinda successful, but she got left behind. Now we tried to rescue her, but we failed, and now she died.

Deeper meaning: To be strong enough to face Zhaitan, destiny would put hardships in my path to prepare. One of these is facing my deepest darkest fears. I have no issues hacking down enemies, and coming out on top. I’ve done it again and again. THAT I’m good at. I’ve been through pain, I already lost my first partner. They showed me the true meaning of sacrifice for a greater cause. Now I have a new partner, and it’s my fault. My biggest fear come to life, they die, because of me. It’s horrible, it’s tragic, but I survive. And am stronger to beat Zhaitan because of it.

If you guys aren’t seeing the deeper meanings, then maybe you aren’t looking?

It’s funny you should choose that as an example of good writing in this game, the ‘face your deepest fear’ storyline was one of the ones I was most disappointed in.

I chose ‘Letting an Innocent Die’ (because I couldn’t choose ‘failing to stop Zhaitan’) and it was only after I got the achievement telling me I was at the end of that chapter that I realised that’s what was supposed to have happened. Firstly the guy who died wasn’t an innocent, he was a Pact soldier and volunteered for the duty knowing the risks he was taking. Secondly my character didn’t let him die – he ran off like an idiot without telling anyone and there wasn’t a thing you, or anyone else, could do about it.

But the worst part from a writing perspective is that your character doesn’t seem at all affected by facing their “greatest fear”. They shrug it off almost immediately as ‘oh well, he did his duty, it’ll be worth it in the end’ and then they’re the ones comforting everyone else.

One of the later missions where you’re leading a Pact squad and send half of them into an enemy stronghold while you and the other half guard the gate, only to find out they all died and were immediately resurrected as Zhaitan’s minions, would have made a much better ‘Greatest Fear’ storyline. Especially since your character actually gets upset about that.

CriticalHit.9540:

Would anybody mind pointing me to a MMO with that has stellar voice acting, let alone on the level of the Last of Us(which is not a MMO)? Skyrim, a large and open world single player RPG, had bits of good dialogue and voice acting but the bad bits tended to really stick out. I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee. I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee. I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee. I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.

Now, I will agree that sometimes the dialogue, the writing itself not the voice acting, can sometimes feel uninteresting or lighter in tone. But, I feel that if someone takes a step back and looks at the overall story of this game as a whole, they would find to still be fairly grim while managing to keep itself in the Teen rating. Personally, I would like to see the living story and immediate content remind us that even though we managed to take down one dragon, we are still a long ways off from being safe.

As for the books, I haven’t read the latest one yet. But two of the three authors (two people worked on Ghosts of Ascalon), Jeff Grubb and J. Robert King, wrote some of my favorite books from the Magic: the Gathering series as well as Scott McGough (would be neat if he had a Guild Wars book in the works himself). I’d put them, as well as the MtG books, in the young adult category but are still worth the read no matter the age.

Have you ever played The Old Republic ? The Imperial Agent storyline is seriously awesome, you can SEE the work behind it. The voice acting for him is marvelous, you get behind the character with ease.

And let’s take other RPGs. Mass Effect, ring a bell ? Mordin at the end of ME3 ? Bromance with Garrus ? We get to know them, and love them !
The Witcher ? The amazing story, with multiple ends, and a lot of interconnections.
Hey, let’s even take the MegaTen serie ! Those were cool RPGs, and normally you’re enjoying the story if you have the masochistic pleasure of playing it in hard mode X)
Not to forget Fallout, Final Fantasy, Pokemon (which can be pretty dark if you think about some details), Dark Souls, etc…

“Yeah, but they’re not MMO’s” might you say. And it would be the truth.

But ! What I want to say is: a game can and should have at least some nice (I’m not saying “masterpiece”) dialogues, and some character back-story if you want to have a decent RPG. You can’t just throw NPCs like that in it, and kill them after a few quests because you don’t want to see them after the “important” part they’re supposed to have.

Even George R.R. Martin lets us know them before killing them…

Nuka Cola.8520:

i have played hundreds upon hundreds of games and i have NEVER seen a quest as stupid as picking up snowballs and throw them at npcs. The imagination that went into this quest in particular is insulting at best. and im not even talking about the abysmal writing/voice acting because that a completely other story. you can defend it as much as you want but i have done my personal story, done enough stupid hearts to know how pathetic they ALL were.

Hey WTH man I found this to be one of the MOST fun quests of all. I really wished there were a few more like them and other such FUN content (outside of quests) to the game in general. I mean come on – kill, kill, kill and oh yeah some more kill gets boring real fast am I right?

Oh I would also like to add that most of the voice acting is not that bad. Especially if you go out of your way to explore some areas where most people do not hang around for too long. But agree some of the personal stories acting is bad as well as certain npcs. But that could be blown out of proportion here since so many npcs share the same voice of a few of the actors.

On a slightly unrelated note, I’m glad I’m not the only older person who plays this game

Vickley.6103:

On a slightly unrelated note, I’m glad I’m not the only older person who plays this game

I think you’d be surprised how many “older” people play this. Personally, one of the things I truly enjoy about it is that you don’t have to fight other players if you don’t want to. Out in PvE-land, 99% of people are super helpful, which makes the game fun. I would never try an MMO that 1) charges a sub fee and 2) doesn’t have a loot sharing system and 3) encourages players to “hurt” other players or take their stuff.

Also, I’m terrible at video games (and using controllers), but seem to do very well in GW2. Using the keyboard and mouse seem natural to me… whereas my hubby is an Xbox fan and hates the keyboard/mouse so will not play GW2.

Anyway, the game is really pretty easy to play once you get the hang of it, and as a relaxtion-type TV replacement, I love it. I’ve talked to lots of other players my age and older.

Rather than taking this OP as my cue to rant on, I will attempt to answer the question seriously. Anyone familiar with gaming genre knows that the MMO addresses, potentially, an incredibly broad player base in terms of demographics. If I were making an MMO you can be certain that I would be thinking 9-90 as a game company that targeted a narrow age spectrum would be incredibly short-sighted.

And, if you are describing targeted age range in terms of game communications, let’s consider business communications. If you’ve got a business degree and have taken Business Communications, you know that the world of business functions on an 8th grade reading comprehension level ideally as that’s the target. I would imagine a game would establish a similar target comprehension level.