Guild Wars 2

I had a lot of fun with it the first time. It was definitely my focus leveling up.

I wish there was more variety for additional playthroughs, especially near the end. I had initially hoped that there wouldn’t be a “Pact”, and that the later parts of the story would revolve around taking down Zhaitan in some way that was dictated by your order. I’m also not a big fan of Trahearne, solely for one reason: His rather bland, boring voice acting.

I didn’t feel like the story was inconsistent or some such, as I’ve heard some people say, and I by no means think it was any worse than the GW1 storylines.

Despite a few disappointments, I still feel that the storyline did more than any other MMO I’ve played ever did in making my character feel like a hero, and make me care about the game world. If later content, however it’s presented, continues the personal story, I’ll definitely be all over that.

Don’t care about it at all except for their exp rewards in my toons’ early levels.
I enjoyed its predecessor’s story though; it played a more significant role in the game and had more depth, and the cut-scenes were a lot more exciting than just two folks standing opposite sides of each other talking :l

Do i care about the PS yes . because in the long run it will extend the life of the game . As for what i think of it that is a different matter entirely .Traherne was just too dead pan to really care about making a lot of the current PS painful . If there was a f\ revisit from some of the team to work out some of the kinks like voice acting it would be a lot better and memorable ala GW! one way or the other the pS needs work.

I think the personal story was a very good idea, originally.

Upto lvl 30 its good, revolves around your character, after lvl 30 you just become a grunt for other characters and its about them and not your character. So it is not a personal story after lvl 30, its a generic tale about how great Anet’s npc’s are, who spend most of there time dead.

Once the PS reaches the ‘Pick an Order, any Order’ stage I’m pretty much done with it. I’ll tag along with guildies who want to run through their characters’ stories. Otherwise, bleh.

At this point I’d rather have traditional quests than more personal (or living) story. And I’d like for at least a few of these quests to involve the krewes, warbands, and friends and family my characters interacted with in the early days of their adventures.

I don’t see that happening here.

My personal story.

My L80 Main Character stopped her personal story when she hit the final dungeon.

When my other four L80 Alts found out there was a dungeon at the end, they ALL stopped their personal story too.

Now I have one Alt do a personal story once every 2 weeks when it comes up for the daily, otherwise I no longer do them.

At this rate I will be doing my personal story until about 2018 without having to complete that final dungeon.

Moral of my story: Did 49 personal story missions Solo, last mission required to group up and do dungeon, means all 5 Characters not expected to finish 50/50, oh well…moving on.

I didn’t so much mind the story, but I looked at it more as a leveling tool than an introduction to the world and its history. I certainly don’t care enough to restrict me from changing my character race.

This game is nothing but murder barbie. When you get to 80 and find out Charr look absolutely dreadful in every single piece of gear in the game aside from cultural heavy armor. Or your female sylvari will show her spinal column in every piece of light armor it’s aggrivating.

Makeover kits should change race, appearance, and name :/

I do! It’s one of the better features of GW2

I care about the story. I made 5 characters, one of each race, partially to get different story options. I also create temporary alts entirely for the purpose of playing through the story.

Eventually I want to have played through every possible story instance.

I liked it until it became a massive zombie grindfest.

As soon as I got to the last part of my personal story on my main and was required to group up for a dungeon I lost all interest. Now I skip every part on all of my alts because I know what awaits at the end and it’s not my story. Good XP though.

I wanted to care. I wanted to get involved and immerse myself in the world and the lore, but it’s been a big disappointment so far. I am not interested at all in the living story so the only slight hope would be to see things fixed in an expansion. Unfortunately, ANet seems determined to go on with the living story…

I read books for a good story, I don’t find them in video games.

Guild Wars 1 characters have more personality than Trahearne and Guild Wars 2 characters. Cynn’s sharp tongue, Rurik being brave and strong-willed, Vizier Khilbron who seeks to fulfill the prophecies and has real motives presented in game unlike Scarlet Briar, and lots more. Guild Wars 1’s story feels more epic than Guild Wars 2’s story, in my opinion.

I find the story entertaining.

Could it be better? Sure.

Do I like Trahearne? I don’t hate him. He’s another Rurik, or Togo, or Kormir – ie, just annoying at times. At least for me. I don’t mind him usually. He makes me roll my eyes, but I don’t hate him.

Do I think it would fun kitten to see him get killed? Oh yeah. And I have high hopes, based on previous story experiences. Incase you didn’t play GW1, I’ll spoiler this: Rurik got his head lopped off, and then we even got the enjoyment of killing him _again_ later on. Togo died at the end of his game, and Kormir got sucked bodily into torment (may as well have been dead). Wooo hooo Trahearne, you’re next dude! Step right up!

I don’t care for the personal story at all. It’s boring and poorly written. In general, the “NPCs” in GW2 are uninteresting and corny.

I can’t bring myself to play it more than once and would love to be able to hide the quest marker and everything associated with it.

Vayne.8563:

I don’t see why people talk about Trahearne taking over the personal story. In no Guild Wars game were you really the main hero in the world prior to this.

To which I agree, but I didn’t care much for Trahearne due to all the hype of Destiny’s Edge and how in advertisements they were the focus and we were saddled with him instead for Personal Story.

Now as for the Personal Story, I did care about it the first time I ran through it.
It was my main character and a fine way to get XP, plus we didn’t have a Living Story yet so it was either do the story or I get bored farming.

Afterwards with my alternates I took a slower pace to it, I explored the other orders (the Main took Vigil) and started exploring the other missions I didn’t choose.
Overall my attitude to the story is it works as a long winded tutorial of sorts, but I won’t shed tears if they retool it someday.

I actually enjoyed the Story mode dungeons more at this point.

I do like the personal story. I do the personal story on my alts when I just want to relax. Yes, the personal story is not SWToR level of twists/turns/choices, but the personal story can be fun and relaxing.

Arius.7031:

Lord Rheios.4152:

I care thus far, though I’ve been slow to play it because I got buys saving the world form other threats.
I'm just to where your mentor (my vigil mentor in this case) dies.
And I cared. I consider him an awesome character.
I haven’t made an opinion on Trahearne. He seems to me like just a smart guy to bring along. A tactician who has knowledge of Orr. But I hear he fights with you, which seems strange to me. Why would you send out an inexperienced, lightly armored tactician with a fullblade to the front lines to fight with the experienced foot shock-trooper?

He’s actually a very experienced combatant, and will have access to a very powerful weapon. He’s the first born of all Sylvari. No, he’s not a firstborn, he’s THE firstborn. He’s the oldest of all Sylvari.

He is? I got the impression that he was incredibly knowledgeable on my Charr and an excellent tactician, but he seemed like he didn’t have very much intent to fight at Claw island until the attack actually hit. I mean he stepped up then, but it seemed more like a “had to fight” sort of situation. Maybe I just got the wrong impression from his intro.

And did anyone else have issues with the dragon at the end of that displaying? He kept flickering out on me after I moved too far away and I have draw distance on max.

Elric.6971:

Yes, the entire intent is to basically undo half of the sense of victory of the original storyline so by the time of a formal continuation, almost everything is back to crap so you can sweep in, fix everything, and show Tyria how not to be idiots.

So, basically, all the letdown that 250 years of history between GW1 and 2 was, once again? No, thank you. Especially since we all know how it would end – after you fixed everything, the gods would return, Kormir would take the credit for your actions, and mess up things again.

Arius.7031:

He’s actually a very experienced combatant, and will have access to a very powerful weapon. He’s the first born of all Sylvari. No, he’s not a firstborn, he’s THE firstborn. He’s the oldest of all Sylvari.

You do realize, that due to the effects of the Dream, this has actually the opposite effect? He is the only Sylvari that wasn’t born with any experience and had to gather everything himself. Without the help of parents or elders or anyone else that could teach him. And while he may be oldest of all living sylvari, at 25 years of age he is still very young.

I would’ve cared….

but it’ so bad written, predictable and boring… If only we get to choose real factions and not an illusion that lasts for around 5 missions? What about being your counter part, a Nightmare as a Sylvary, a Svanir as a Norn, Flame Legion as Charr, Inquest as Azura, Separatist as Human… Why only follow one path?

I thought the personal story was okay, when it was about MY character, after that it was all about traehearns personal story, and I didn’t care for it much after that. I also don’t like the fact that you have to group up and do a dungeon to “finish” the story.

1. I feel we should have been able to level our character 1-80 via the PS only.
2. It seemed like there were two totally different teams working on the PS since first it’s about our character, then it’s suddenly all about traehearn.
3. It’s a “personal” story and therefore should not have ended with a 5 man dungeon group.

The most unfortunate thing about it is….it’s not something they can fix.

I care a lot about the personal story.
But with the Orders I only care about the Order of Whispers and the Priory. The Vigil sounded good but it greatly dissapointed me. Or at least the mentor did, I can’t remember his name. Forgal perhaps?

But I want a race change kit. If I have to reset my story, or whatever, I will do it.

Just think about this, if they make a new race, how many people will actually play it?
How many people will want to level up a new character and deck it out just to play a new race?

How many people, with all professions at max level, will want to level up a new character rather than paying for a race change kit to change a few of the characters he/she already has spent a ton of time on?

Exosferatu.2961:

Guild Wars 1 characters have more personality than Trahearne and Guild Wars 2 characters. Cynn’s sharp tongue, Rurik being brave and strong-willed, Vizier Khilbron who seeks to fulfill the prophecies and has real motives presented in game unlike Scarlet Briar, and lots more. Guild Wars 1’s story feels more epic than Guild Wars 2’s story, in my opinion.

Rurik was a cardboard cutout…not much different from Logan, actually. Vizier Khilbron was a stereotypical evil villian down to the foreign accent. And what exactly were his motives? To rule the world. Destroy it with titans? Not exactly compelling drama if you ask me.

Actually the Prophecies story had some interesting bits, but much of it was just meh.

I care about personal story, I did it on three chars, though I skip through all Trahearne stuff after the first one.

I enjoy the story. It is not a very good story, but I still enjoy doing it. I think the game is a little better because of it than if it did not exist.

I liked the part up until lvl 20, where it was actually about you, the player. After that it went down hill.

I care very much so. It’s one of the main reasons i play games….any game. If it doesn’t have a deep lore driven story, i find it empty and shallow and quickly tire of it.

GW2 has done a pretty good job with PS imo (and I’m one of those few who don’t have a problem with Trahearne), but to me, it’s not enough. As I see it, PS is more like a set of side quests and there should have been a much larger picture type story that all players get to experience and could play together or alone.

In absence of such an epic story line, even if there was some kind of introduction to the game via a longish cinematic that ties a bit for gw1 history to gw2 and gives you an overview of the world of Tyria would have been better than what he have now, where we simply get thrown blindly into the world of Tyria. There’s even a perfect little example of Tyrian lore and history on wiki, so why not include that in the game?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tyria_%28world%29

Many wonderful intros could have been drawn form that little overview alone. Even with the current set up, a cinematic narrative that introduces you to the game and tells u a bit of history and what we’re fighting for, who our nemesis is etc, would have made a world of difference in immersing one into the game right from the start, especially for players new to Guild Wars.

I still remember my time in Beta. I got a character to lvl 20 and did the PS up to that lvl. All along, i was waiting for something big to happen, but it never did. Going form my gw1 experience, I remember thinking, surely this PS isn’t all there is! There must be more to it! And if so why aren’t they giving us a taste. Then i concluded they must be saving it as a surprise when they launch, so you can imagine my disappointment when there was no surprise.

I still can’t believe that Anet is content giving us just the PS when there’s so much more they could tell us and despite the weird direction the game has taken, I still keep hoping something more solid will come along in not too distant future.

I love the P Story! I make it a goal to beat it on every character. I love how it ends, and Trahearne is one of my favorite NPCs. Aside from Caithe

Once I found out that you’re forced to do a dungeon at the end I pretty much lost all interest. I’ve only done the racial storylines since then both for the achievement points and because they’re actually pretty well done.

Arius.7031:

He’s actually a very experienced combatant, and will have access to a very powerful weapon. He’s the first born of all Sylvari. No, he’s not a firstborn, he’s THE firstborn. He’s the oldest of all Sylvari.

What do you mean he’s the oldest of all Sylvari ? I don’t remember seeing that anywhere.

I cared until Trahearne showed up out of no where and made my story all about him. Oh and then was as useless as a wet noodle during battles. The great firstborn Sylvari who fights as well as your average PUG. Lovely… and you’re stuck with him.

You know why Victory or Death was my favorite part of the Pact storyline? No Trahearne, the story let me be the hero, and I felt like I, my character, was important again.

RedStar.4218:

Arius.7031:

He’s actually a very experienced combatant, and will have access to a very powerful weapon. He’s the first born of all Sylvari. No, he’s not a firstborn, he’s THE firstborn. He’s the oldest of all Sylvari.

What do you mean he’s the oldest of all Sylvari ? I don’t remember seeing that anywhere.

Hes a first born so he is among the oldest of the Sylvari . not necessarily THE oldest but among them

Murderin.8269:

Guild Wars stories are almost universally corny and lame. They feel like a story line in an anime for 12 year old kids.

what did you expect? Something from George R.R. Martin?

RedStar.4218:

Arius.7031:

He’s actually a very experienced combatant, and will have access to a very powerful weapon. He’s the first born of all Sylvari. No, he’s not a firstborn, he’s THE firstborn. He’s the oldest of all Sylvari.

What do you mean he’s the oldest of all Sylvari ? I don’t remember seeing that anywhere.

If you play a Sylvari, Trahearne gets introduced, I think in your 3rd quest, by the Pale Tree as her first child – either by her or Caithe ( late at night sorry)

He is definitely the First Sylvari- and I find the idea that his wyld hunt is the cleansing of Orr- together with the Sylvari being un-corruptible by Dragon influence fascinating from a lore perspective.

Similarly to others, I enjoyed the personal story a lot .. up until the level 50 mission where it becomes about Trahearne and the alliance. Not only did it not feel like My story after that point, but it didn’t feel like the alliance of the 3 orders was really all that hard fought or hard won. Given the way their relationship was presented prior to the alliance forming, it just came together all too easily.

I care….

4/5 of my alts are (or will) all be left at the claw island mission simply because there is no choice in it, no alternative possible outcome. … But MAINLY, because 2/3 of the main characters involved in it, get “Deus Ex Machina’d” in a very clumsy and impersonal fashion where MUCH deeper explorations of the psyche would have been possible. I’m not saying the writers are all hacks, I’m just saying they appear to have been locked into either a schedule or plot-mechanics system that didn’t allow anything palatable/replayable.

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

My personal story.

My L80 Main Character stopped her personal story when she hit the final dungeon.

When my other four L80 Alts found out there was a dungeon at the end, they ALL stopped their personal story too.

Now I have one Alt do a personal story once every 2 weeks when it comes up for the daily, otherwise I no longer do them.

At this rate I will be doing my personal story until about 2018 without having to complete that final dungeon.

Moral of my story: Did 49 personal story missions Solo, last mission required to group up and do dungeon, means all 5 Characters not expected to finish 50/50, oh well…moving on.

I agree with this for the most part.

I enjoyed my personal story up until the point I figured out that the Story Mode of the Arah Dungeon needed to be completed for me to continue.

In order to complete the story mode, I have to find 4 other people that want to do the story mode as well. Not once during the entire “Personal” Story did I need to group up with anyone else….why now? Why right at the end?

I was under the impression that the Personal Story line could be completed without the need to group up. It’s one of the things I LOVED about the PS. It was something I could do when I had a few extra minutes and I didn’t need anyone else to do it. Now, I HAVE to find a group in order to complete it. Believe me…..HAVE TO is true.

I tried going in solo, thinking the members of Destiny’s Edge and I could handle the Risen. This is SO not the case. The members of Destiny’s Edge couldn’t kill a poor defenseless puppy with a tank if you gave it to them. They’re not even good “meat shields”. Every single enemy blew right past them and headed for me. Getting one-shotted continually just isn’t fun. “Can a guy get a rez?” Nope!!! Why don’t you just stand there and watch as the enemies kill you.

There are so many parts of the content of GW2 that I will mostly finish, yet never complete. The “Personal” Story is just another one that has been added to my list recently.

yes the end of the personal story is my main problem with it- I just cannot solo it..
actually that is my only problem with it.

please make it possible to finish you Personal Story solo

Actually I would love if all story mode dungeons scaled to the amount of players- I can dream

I like the personal story but I’m kind of upset right now over it because of A Light in the Darkness bugging up and making me choose a fear I already did (see another thread of mine in suggestions about it).

I’m all about immersion and RP, so I because I choose the wrong path, I kinda ruined my character. But she is lv 63, and 400 huntsman and leather, so I can’t remake her now.

We need a story do over feature or a replay mode for no exp or rewards just to experience paths we missed. OR Anet need to make those choices more spaced out!

I cared until someone pointed out that the story would have ended the exact same way whether or not you were in it. The kitten’s find the arc, and they all die. You are completely irrelevant to the story.

Edit: Seriously? I can’t even post a quote from the Big Bang Theory without part of it being replaced by the word “kitten”? Come on!

0! I’ve done it, but mostly during bouts of progression themepark boredom. If this were a sandbox, I’d see no necessity for it, players make their own story and purpose for being. But games such as this typically induce layers of hand-holding to keep the masses entertained.

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

I like the personal story but I’m kind of upset right now over it because of A Light in the Darkness bugging up and making me choose a fear I already did (see another thread of mine in suggestions about it).

I’m all about immersion and RP, so I because I choose the wrong path, I kinda ruined my character. But she is lv 63, and 400 huntsman and leather, so I can’t remake her now.

We need a story do over feature or a replay mode for no exp or rewards just to experience paths we missed. OR Anet need to make those choices more spaced out!

Characters ruined because of user error? LOLOL, better delete it then!

Charismatic Harm.9683:

In order to complete the story mode, I have to find 4 other people that want to do the story mode as well. Not once during the entire “Personal” Story did I need to group up with anyone else….why now? Why right at the end?

I was under the impression that the Personal Story line could be completed without the need to group up. It’s one of the things I LOVED about the PS. It was something I could do when I had a few extra minutes and I didn’t need anyone else to do it. Now, I HAVE to find a group in order to complete it. Believe me…..HAVE TO is true.

This also worked against them for those of us who do like to seek challenging Grouping content… You see it in every single comment about what a poor final encounter the fight against Zhaitan was. ….especially if you ever fight the Giganticus Lupicus afterwards. IOW: the mechanics themselves had to be dumbed down and dull to the point that almost anyone could do it.

….. the entire storyline is about what’s at stake and all the lives riding on the line here and all the lives already given for it. The narrative is building your fortitude and everyone else’s around you ….. “the journey”, an attempt to emulate Fellowship of the Rings basically to establish some glimmers of you and your race’s true potential. ….But what kills the bad guy???…. Not SKILL, not fortitude, not even sacrifice….. Nope….

Magic Turrets

I find the mission scenarios interesting enough, compared to more conventional leveling methods, that most of my 16 alts have their story completion up to the 60s or 70s by the time the character itself is 80.

I think the first round of Personal Story content was a good beginning. Yeah, there were a lot of things that could have been done better (including the entire post-Trahearne 50-80 part of the arc), but they could learn from those and go forward with something better for the storyline dealing with the next Elder Dragon.

Except they won’t. There won’t be a Personal Story Part 2. They’ve stated that they don’t want to pay the Player Character Voice Actors for any more recorded dialogue, so we can look forward to experiencing all future content as bit players only while NPCs get to be the real protagonists. They’re committed to the Living Story model of content delivery now, and the only good part of that was no more Trahearne – right until they replaced him with an even MORE obnoxious plot-hijacking Tree Elf Mary Sue.

I finished it just to get the reminder off my screen but it was there, everyday, for almost a year, so nope. It didn’t do anything for me. Just another mindless farming task to get done.

I haven’t completed mine because I feel that the rewards need to be level specific (ie no more tiny vials of karma or level 1-79 cosmetic crystals) I’d like to get some real useful rewards like perhaps the dragonite ore or the blue crystals for the celestial set something I can actually use in the future.

Ok, I’ll bite:

I enjoyed the personal stories during beta (even when they were broken), and I enjoyed them after release for the first couple of times. I have done all variants of them at least once, some more than 30 times. (I have 45 alts.) Have completed the final Zhaitan story over 3 times (no, not going to make it there with all 17, soon to be 18 level 80’s.) Yes, I’m obviously a glutton for punishment. dry cough.

I miss some of the dialogue that was removed after beta and before release. There were some really funny pieces.

I use the personal stories on almost all my alts for the exp (especially if I do them when they are above my level).

I still, after posting the same 7 months ago, want to feed Trahearne to a dragon and watch the dragon choke and the infernally blabbering twig to croak!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Disappointed-with-Zaitain/first#post1453228

I turn the sound off the minute he appears in the story because it’s better than sitting there with the refrain “shut up Trahearne, shut up!” resounding in my head over and over. And yes, btw, I think the voice actor did an outstanding job with the character as it was given to him.

For all that, I thought the personal stories added to the flavor of the game, would like to see more in an expansion (if that ever happens), and would hate to have them affected in a way that would not allow new players to the game to have the experience.

@OP: I will add this though:

EQ2 had one of the best ways of “defecting” over to the other side. A whole set of quests done that had you turn traitor, kill a former leader and end up picking up trash (like a park custodian) on the other side to “prove your worth” to your newly joined allegiance.

It would take some work, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could USE the personal stories, visiting an alchemist, unfortunate accident, revelation that you were actually a different race in hiding since birth as your parents hid you from the White Mantle or some such, to be able to have a transformation occur that allowed you to change races?

I’d pay for that. As cheesy as it sounds. At least it would ‘fit’ into the GW2 world a little better than: “hey, I woke up one day, decided to pay the gem store surgeon for a trans-race operation.” (Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain handing out name changes, or total makeovers.)

The personal story, to me, was more of a device to lead you through Tyria than in intensive hero story.

I love it right up until the pact reforms and then it’s lousy. Not from the standpoint of “I hate the pact story” but because it’s the EXACT SAME for every path you choose.

Think of it this way: Each race has choices you make when you create your character. Those choices determine which path you follow in your personal story. I have a goal of seeing every possible combination some day. Unofrtunately, once the Pact gets back together, it’s all the same… I can’t bring myself to (insert post-Pact activity) any more.