Guild Wars 2

I have always hated in MMO’s today whether to appeal to casuals or to children but they seem to enjoy telling you that your character is a hero he/she is special and has some destiny than they proceed to give you meaningless tasks.
Guild Wars 2 takes the cake on this I often find myself destroying extremely durable boxes or other tasks not befitting a hero more a task fit for servant or a jester. Generally I just zone out in MMO’s while questing because it’s always the same some lame story a very repetitive quest or a unique but silly quest. Guild Wars 2 has managed to make me hate these quests so much that I can’t simply zone out anymore.

Does anyone else just feel there is simply no story to these quests that you just do them because you have no choice in the leveling process. Does anyone else feel like these quests often degrade the feeling of being a hero? Or is it just me expecting to much from MMO’s such as meaningful stories that create characters I will see more than once and actually be interested in? To see missions that appeal to me and make me feel like my character is doing something making a difference or at the very least make it feel like my character is someone important a hero or even just a soldier!

I understand their are personal stories and dungeons but that is such an insanely small part of the game as a whole through the entire leveling process you have to engage in these pointless tasks so don’t tell me there is a story because if there is one it is incredibly small and well hidden behind nothingness.

Do you even realise what dangerous things could be lurking in these well defended, fortified boxes?

“Does anyone else just feel there is simply no story to these quests that you just do them because you have no choice in the leveling process.”

There is actually much more of a choice in the leveling process here than in most other MMOs.

Well, stellar storytelling in general has never really been a hallmark of MMOs. The only reason LOTRO has a decent story is because game developers didn’t create the world and basic plotline.

No but sometimes this game does make me feel like becoming an hero.

being a hero doesn’t mean strutting around in your shiniest gear never getting a spot of dirt on it except when facing a dragon solo in which it would give up based on the shininess of your gear.

really, being a hero(especially one of the common people) usually means connecting with the common people on every level of their lives. so what if you have to go plugging holes in a leaky pipe? you just saved a town’s water supply and their agriculture.

so what if you have to go rounding up cows to put back in their pens? that’s less time a farmer has to spend chasing runaways instead of growing crops to feed his family

lastly, didn’t you ever watch Hercules? being a hero doesn’t mean only doing the best things. it means doing your best at any given task.

/rp hat

kiba.2768:

being a hero doesn’t mean strutting around in your shiniest gear never getting a spot of dirt on it except when facing a dragon solo in which it would give up based on the shininess of your gear.

really, being a hero(especially one of the common people) usually means connecting with the common people on every level of their lives. so what if you have to go plugging holes in a leaky pipe? you just saved a town’s water supply and their agriculture.

so what if you have to go rounding up cows to put back in their pens? that’s less time a farmer has to spend chasing runaways instead of growing crops to feed his family

lastly, didn’t you ever watch Hercules? being a hero doesn’t mean only doing the best things. it means doing your best at any given task.

/rp hat

This is pretty much what I was going to say. Just because a Hero may do heroic things, but they can’t spend every waking hour doing heroic things. Sometimes they just live life like the rest of us.

As for the quests. Heart quests take a few minutes at most and there are usually about 15 in a zone and if you do events as you explore the zone, half the time you end up completing the quest at the same time.

I play mostly on WvW and I feel like a soldier, taking part in group operations etc.

Honestly, my best “I am a hero” moments are in PvE when a downed icon suddenly pops up across the minimap from me. Can I make it in time to save the day?? Success is a rush, failure is really depressing.

Personal story quests are close, sometimes.

I would answer but trahern just called me to do something, then be taking the credit for it

I feel like Trahearne’s sidekick.

I feel like a hoe and Trahearne is my pimp.

Softspoken.2410:

Honestly, my best “I am a hero” moments are in PvE when a downed icon suddenly pops up across the minimap from me. Can I make it in time to save the day?? Success is a rush, failure is really depressing.

Personal story quests are close, sometimes.

this happens to me quite a bit. i run to a downed player’s icon. if i make it, great. if not, well, i can still revive them. about halfway through the revive, they disappear and use the nearest wp instead.

i’ll never understand it…maybe my reviving took too long? haha, give a would-be hero a break!

I’ll admit, the only, single time where I felt like a hero was in the intro-scene (the back-story animated scene) and the instanced boss you fight before being let out in the “real server”

Its a good setup, but from there on, you become less of a hero and more of a lackey running errands. It’s border-lining the way GTA used to set you up as a partly awesome character, then resorting to running errands for everyone in the city.

“Wahhh – Help! We need you to reunite Destiny’s Edge!”
“Wahhh – Help! We need you to defeat Zhaitan”
“Wahhh – Help! Do this thing and then report back to me while I do nothing”
“Wahhh – Help! There’s risen all over Claw Island…Go clean that stuff up”

(That last one is actually EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING on account of the General by the main gate just shouts orders, even as things are unfolding, he’s just standing there. And he’s a Charr too – that felt completely out of character)

You’re not the hero, you’re more like the team manager who gets everyone back in line after they all give up on the project and don’t forget their dry-cleaning either!

Since they went with karma heart quests, they should have done more of a Fable 3 type of thing where you need to get as many people as possible on your side to defeat the dragons.

I didn’t feel very heroic when my sylvari engineer set out to hunt down that kid who got scared and ran away because some idiot firstborn dragged him into a situation he should never have been dragged into which ended up ruining the poor kid’s life. I was all like, “Hey now! This is MY character I’m playing here and I say she wouldn’t do that!” But of course Ms Pale Tree and that Trahearne are all "Yeah, let’s get him! Raaahhh!’ And then as if to rub a little salt in the wound that kitten Trahearne gets that fancy shmancy sword out of the deal. Maybe someday he’ll try to shave with it and whittle himself away. Ugh.

kiba.2768:

being a hero doesn’t mean strutting around in your shiniest gear never getting a spot of dirt on it except when facing a dragon solo in which it would give up based on the shininess of your gear.

really, being a hero(especially one of the common people) usually means connecting with the common people on every level of their lives. so what if you have to go plugging holes in a leaky pipe? you just saved a town’s water supply and their agriculture.

so what if you have to go rounding up cows to put back in their pens? that’s less time a farmer has to spend chasing runaways instead of growing crops to feed his family

lastly, didn’t you ever watch Hercules? being a hero doesn’t mean only doing the best things. it means doing your best at any given task.

/rp hat

He isn’t talking about the type of heroes you’d find in Plato’s Republic. He is talking about the hero described in Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

From Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces

In laying out the monomyth, Campbell describes a number of stages or steps along this journey. The hero starts in the ordinary world, and receives a call to enter an unusual world of strange powers and events (a call to adventure). If the hero accepts the call to enter this strange world, the hero must face tasks and trials (a road of trials), and may have to face these trials alone, or may have assistance. At its most intense, the hero must survive a severe challenge, often with help earned along the journey. If the hero survives, the hero may achieve a great gift (the goal or “boon”), which often results in the discovery of important self-knowledge. The hero must then decide whether to return with this boon (the return to the ordinary world), often facing challenges on the return journey. If the hero is successful in returning, the boon or gift may be used to improve the world (the application of the boon).

One of the interesting questions arising from Campbell’s work is, “How does the hero cope with returning to the world of the mundane?” In Return of the King we see a variety of potential answers. One such answer is that the hero is unable to remain in the mundane world and must return to the supernatural world (Frodo departs with the elves across the sea). Another option is to have the hero adopt a type of life that was not available to them before they began their journey which is exemplified when Sam walks up and asks Rosey to marry him upon returning from Mordor, something that he simply did not have the courage to do before he departed with Frodo.

Also Hercules was only a hero because he was extremely strong and was otherwise a horrible person. All of his trials were undertaken out of extreme guilt for what he had done to his family.

I used to be a hero until Trahearne shot me in the knee.

Ellisande.5218:

Also Hercules was only a hero because he was extremely strong and was otherwise a horrible person. All of his trials were undertaken out of extreme guilt for what he had done to his family.

I think he was talking about the Disney version. lol

(steps into character)

Do I feel like a hero? I don’t think so. Tobias’ ancestor was a hero. He walked up the Shiverpeak mountains to get to Kryta from Ascalon. In the snow, with dwarves beating on him all the time with their big hammers and dolyaks . . . and then he turned around and went back because he forgot his wallet. In the snow, with the dwarves and that joyous stuff, a second time.

Then he cut a bloody swath through Cantha because someone told him Mhenlo was prettier than he was. And some moron named Shinra, Shora . . . something like that was causing trouble. Something about neverending torment and immortality, I dunno, I didn’t listen that closely. End of the story, he whapped Mhenlo in the back of the head with his bow and went home.

THEN there was this crazy Istani lady who came begging for heroes, and he happened to have some free time. So Tobias Trueflight, the First of His Name, decided he needed to make Gandara his winter vacation spot. It was totally not his fault demons got involved, and because they messed up his plans he went to the Realm of Torment and came back saying “that’ll teach them”.

What do I do? I keep chasing those freaking glue-to-be Harathi away from Nebo Terrace, hear how pretty Logan’s hair is, and that there’s this place called Orr which is a mess and I’m supposed to go help them clean it? Good luck with that, I’m off to Hoelbrak for keg brawling.

Of course I’m a hero, I got a legendary weapon.

In fact, I’m a legend.

I feel like “Sir Cadogan” when I point a flame thrower at a set of boxes and see

while (true){
miss
}

clearly I have “the right stuff” when it takes me 15 seconds to smash a rickety rack of centaur weapons.

plasmacutter.2709:

I feel like “Sir Cadogan” when I point a flame thrower at a set of boxes and see

while (true){
miss
}

clearly I have “the right stuff” when it takes me 15 seconds to smash a rickety rack of centaur weapons.

That’s nothing. How about me, as a MISTRESS OF ALL ELEMENTS (insert maniacal laughter here) have to haul buckets of water to wake up drunks or put out fires, instead of just dousing them with my icy blasts. Or when I need torches to remove flammable paint from ruins or light a crappy campfire to fight back the blizzard, while I can summon a firestorm in a heartbeat.

Humiliating

its partly true.. i dont really feel like a hero. first time doing all zones i read all the heart texts and tried to help in every way they said would contribute to completion. second toon i just did the fastest thing to fill the bar asap.. not really getting the idea i helped but more the idea of quickly getting higher.

it would be alot nicer that hearts would be different acording to the enviroment at that time. quick example: first heart in queensdale at the farmer. atm its pickup water en get the plants growing get ranged weapon to hit wurms once to get credit and feed the cows OR kill bandits that atk the farm in the DE’s.

What i would like: farm not taken by bandits heart stays like this, help the farmer running it.. if bandits atk hold them off.
2nd option: bandits taken the farm. destroy their crop and kill their cows to stop their food gaining. theyll call reinforcments from nearby camp to repel us. the more crop/cows we destroy the more reinf will come (they do need food).
3th option: you just recapped the farm it will not directly go back to first options. you can use between 10-100 karma to buy the farmer a cow (he doesnt have money cuz bandits destroyed his property), lumber him 10 logs to rebuild his house. buy seeds in town so his crops can grow again.

this setup is pretty hard to complete but this way you get the feeling you are part of the whole process. but its not just filling a heart its a must to do the DE’s and help some1 in need. while bandits hold the farm you cant water plants or feed cows you need to burn the and kill them. it takes more time but has alot more depth in the story..

but cuz that probably never happens we will not feel like a big hero soon unless your imagination is big enough and you try to help the world around you.

Pft, if you don’t like some of the optional PvE stuff, you don’t have to, more often than not there’s a lot of alternatives involving killing things.

Now as for the story missions, where you start off saving your friends, and then find yourself doing such things like being Trahearne’s babysitter, being his errand boy, and pulling levers!

The things that make me feel like a hero have nothing to do with the storyline. What makes me feel like a hero is coming across a downed player and dragging them back to their feet.

Curiously, GW1’s storyline felt a lot more cohesive and ‘heroic’, particularly Nightfall’s. Beyond too. You’re not the main character in the Beyond storylines, but they still feel ‘big’ and impressive.

I feel like a hero all the time. Then again, I run dungeons with people and sometimes, we nearly wipe but we finally get the downed players up and then we get through the dungeon. I also feel like a hero when I’m recapturing captured waypoints.

But everything I do doesn’t have to be heroic. Sometimes, I can just be helpful. Nothing wrong with that either.

As for being Tahearne’s sidekick, while there’s an element of both of you having related tasks, his task is to purify Orr, yours is to kill Zhaitan. You have related wyld hunts, not the same one.

To me gw2 is very anti-climatic
There are some “hell yeah” moments, where you really feel like you’ve accomplished something for tyria, followed by instant immersion breakers due to silly folow-ups / bad dialog / disconnected story telling / treherne.

And then the magic is gone.

Awesome.6120:

“Does anyone else just feel there is simply no story to these quests that you just do them because you have no choice in the leveling process.”

There is actually much more of a choice in the leveling process here than in most other MMOs.

I’d have to agree this game has it’s issues but this is definitely NOT one of them, and insulting other players isn’t going to make your point true OP.

I don’t even want to be a hero. I am happy being just a soldier in an army. That’s why I think personal stories like the one in the GW2 shouldn’t even exist in MMOs.

It doesn’t make sense that we are all heroes and we all defeated the same dragon countless times.

In GW2, you are not a hero. Trahearne is. ba dum tsss

The only game I felt an Hero in was Lineage 2, because you could actually get the Hero status by winning Olympiads (which was very hard as you were against everyone of your same class in the server for the title), which would give you Heroic aura, Hero skills/buffs and that was a very Heroic status that you can’t get in GW2 even if you owned all legendary weapons together.

Trahearne is the great hero, not you!

I’m just serving the Vigil… thats it.

Firegoth.6427:

Of course I’m a hero, I got a legendary weapon.

In fact, I’m a legend.

According to anet, you are a master of Guild Wars 2!

I feel more like an adventurer, and that’s ok. There’s tons of us out doing stuff and it feels like that. Maybe when I do heroic deeds I’ll feel like a hero.

my norns sure do

No, nothing in this game makes me feel like I’m listening to something like this:

or this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4BhG9c0evo
While playing.

Or even like I’m Sinbad the Sailor.

Though saving someone from getting spiked in pvp or WvW comes close, briefly.

Ellisande.5218:

Something about stories!

What you said reminded me of a book called “Magic Kingdom for sale”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Kingdom_for_Sale_%E2%80%94_SOLD!

Just incase I misunderstood the question, if there are any Heroines going, I’d take one…

..Or am I being offered chocolates?

…Or if I am a chocolate…

…

IMO games have proven themselves to be a horrible medium for storytelling. Play a bit, read some text. Play a bit, watch a movie. It’s aweful. Having excellent writing and a complete lack of graphics is still the closest we’ve come to jogging the imagination through story in games (e.g. old Infocom adventures like Trinity, A Mind Forever Voyaging and Douglas Adams’ Bureaucracy).

So I don’t care about GW2’s stories, nor that of any other game. If I want story, I’ll read a book. The day games offer procedurally branching storylines purely based on player interaction I’ll be interested.

Personally I think Stroytelling in gw1 was awesome. In gw2 there are glimpses of it and some segments are brilliant and others not so much, I’m hoping they will improve in this regard.

OP, The most I felt like a hero was when walking into a camp or a village under attack and single-handedly saving the place. But yea not really often in the game do you feel like you’re the hero, but then again I’ve never felt that much of a hero in any MMO.
I guess, unlike in a single player RPG where just 1 player is the focus of the entire game and the story line, it’s a bit hard to do that in an MMO where you have 1000’s of players. Things have to be standardised to a point, so other players get to enjoy the same or similar experience.

Soloing a group event, saving a village, killing Borlis Pass people, and slaying dragons.

Not so much a hero, more an adventurer.

It’s sad though, games these days focus too much on the “good” side of things. I would love to be the “badguy”. Was a blast in DaoC, WaR, WoW and ToR. The line between good and evil was thin in all those games and it was from a factional perspective. Still if you wanted to be that bane to whatever faction you faught you could be.

The shadowblade assassinating friars, the angry stone troll smashing into the albion army and so on. In ToR you could be an agent of the sith that was lightside or a jedi with a darkside affinity. It also had impact on conversations and story. There was however always a great evil if you like to call it that or a force that could ruion your characters life if not acted upon. Not so much in ToR sine it was reps vs imps, even in instances mostly.

This game sadly only has one faction, so the fight will always be “good vs evil”. I would love to see more options in the future, that can turn your character more into the villain direction. Maybe has less of the “pure evil” enemies everywhere and let us pick a bit more. Sure the evil must be there in the end, but I would love to see my toon just stopping it for his own benefit and no one else.

D3 is also a fluffy example of where you have to play a good guy. Why couldnt they let us be an agent of grandpa Beelzebub?

Was a blast in ToR when you did instances with other, some being light, some being dark and you had to “vote” the outcome of some incidents. Open the airlock and kill the crew, set off the nuke or stop it, let the man live or choke him. Those were fun times.

Telling a story is not easy in the context of a video game. I love the David Brevik (creator of Diablo) quote about them tacking the Diablo story on at the end. They didn’t have a story with depth, but they did manage to pull off an ambiance.

I certainly wouldn’t look to quests to tell a story, they have more of a shot at it in the personal story. Quests and DE’s are the back drop for the story. They certainly should be consistent with lore and story but it would be impossible to tell a story via that mechanism. Especially given the non-linearity of the open world. Overall, I think they have done a good job with the open world and the story elements found there. I do think they could use a bit more polish around the personal story. While I may question the judgment of some at Anet, the group seems to be a creative force and I look forward to seeing story mature over the life of the game.

Hey all,

This game has given me a different feel of a “hero”. After I’ve zoned back to Divinity’s Reach from Orr after fighting endless waves of the risen, after watching fellow soldiers crumble under the mass of undead and hearing their horrible cries of pain and horror, I look around the peaceful and vivid city thinking “Even with all this joy there are horrible things happening these people don’t know of – and I have to fight to make sure they never have to!” Of course it would be awesome if the general npc populae would recognize you for what you have accomplished, like normal townsfolk just walking by and /saluting or gasping in amazement “Ohh look everyone, the Commander is here!”. But the part of a silent, watchful hero suits me well.

TL;DR I feel like a hero of a different kind.

Ayla Mist @ Underworld

you don’t start out as a hero. you go from being a peasant to commanding and army for defending an apothecary.

In the first GW , I actually did feel like a hero . After soloing Shiro the Norn , the dragon from Prophecies , downing Abbadon , and making Khormir a goddess I felt great . Somehow in GW2 , I feel like a nobody , no guildhalls to rule over , no way to own cities , and especially no heroes to have around which makes this game a bit lonely .