Guild Wars 2

Tallybunny.4782:

I have now reached L70 on my thief and my greatest fear has come true, I’m at that moment in the Personal Story, and after so much time, still utter silence from the devs.

I wish there was a way to turn off that green star icon. It feels like a slap in the face each time my eyes wander over at it.

Because I’m just going to ignore the story from this point on, I refuse to go through it.

I feel insulted.

By the silence, and by the cavalier way in which the story was mutilated, turning something which was fine into a sub par product at best, for which this company then has the nerve to ask me to spend some more money on.

To that I say no.

I will not be spending any more money on an inferior product, for this is what Arenanet has chosen to give us at this time. Anyone with a critic mind can see it.

The only reason they still have my traffic is because I still have a friend left in game. Yes one, all others have left.

Arenanet needs to define itself, and it will do so by it’s actions, and by the way in which it communicates with their player base.

Either it is still the company that made the game that I love, or it has just become another uncaring corporate money sucking machine.

Either way, it’s not going to be my money that they suck. All I’m willing to give right now is time, and that is running out.

If you have seen the last update Chris had which I think was on the closed “Communicating with You” or the thread made by Gaile regarding the NPE, you should know that they are working on how to address this as the removing of various story chapters was not part of the plan when they intended to rearrange the last 2 chapters. I am as kittened off as you are regarding this, but despite all this, I am at least assured that they are working on it along with other bug fixes related to this feature patch.

EDIT: this may not be much but here’s a response I got from Chris yesterday:

Malkavian.4516:
Okay. I’ll wait it out. Here’s hoping you get it fixed really soon. I can’t have my 2nd Character play a broken story. :P
Hi Malkavian,
I or Leah will update as soon as we can and we intend to at the minimum to get things back in order.
chris

Tallybunny.4782:

I simply don’t understand why they would do this at all.

I think I read somewhere that the original format made the final chapters too long, but why is that a problem? Since when is more content a problem?

Maybe they were concerned that people would level exclusively on the story, and not by exploring the Orrian areas? Just tweak the experience points you get from each mission, problem solved. I truly don’t get this.

I find it hard to accept that it’s the chinese censor thing as well, but that could well be the case. I just don’t know.

Someone really should be transparent and upfront about this, is that too much to ask?

Well, the thing about transparency is that it’s a double-edged sword. Say too little and we would constantly speculate things that may or may not be true. Say too much and we’d likely react negatively as we have a tendency of nitpicking whatever words come out of their mouths. Transparency is nice and all, but sometimes being careful on when to talk is gonna be the lesser evil to lessen the chances of an even greater outrage on forums.

Either way though, my theory is that the people have greatly complained about the Personal Story in which the later chapters do not focus on you, the Commander all that much but with Trahearne with his Wyld Hunt and all. I’d guess this is meant to address that problem. I never had an issue with the Personal Story myself despite the noticeable flaws it had later on, but I’d rather have it back to the way it was.

If the general issue was that “the later chapters do not focus on you, the Commander all that much but with Trahearne with his Wyld Hunt and all”, cutting the Greatest Fear plotline that was the most personalized plot since you joined an Order, was the most counter-productive reaction to an issue that I have seen for some time.

lakdav.3694:

If the general issue was that “the later chapters do not focus on you, the Commander all that much but with Trahearne with his Wyld Hunt and all”, cutting the Greatest Fear plotline that was the most personalized plot since you joined an Order, was the most counter-productive reaction to an issue that I have seen for some time.

Like I said, I don’t think that this was cut out on purpose. If it was, then the wiki should either reflect that change along with an official statement on the preview blog for the Feature Patch indicating that certain parts will be removed. Even the patch notes clearly say that they are just changing the order of chapters here and not deleting anything. If I recall the files related to the unplayable quests are still present. It’s just that but rearranging the story, it could have resulted in continuity issues.

Malkavian.4516:

lakdav.3694:

If the general issue was that “the later chapters do not focus on you, the Commander all that much but with Trahearne with his Wyld Hunt and all”, cutting the Greatest Fear plotline that was the most personalized plot since you joined an Order, was the most counter-productive reaction to an issue that I have seen for some time.

Like I said, I don’t think that this was cut out on purpose. If it was, then the wiki should either reflect that change along with an official statement on the preview blog for the Feature Patch indicating that certain parts will be removed. Even the patch notes clearly say that they are just changing the order of chapters here and not deleting anything. If I recall the files related to the unplayable quests are still present. It’s just that but rearranging the story, it could have resulted in continuity issues.

But how is it that a huge hunk of the story could be cut on accident?

Thia.4891:

Malkavian.4516:

lakdav.3694:

If the general issue was that “the later chapters do not focus on you, the Commander all that much but with Trahearne with his Wyld Hunt and all”, cutting the Greatest Fear plotline that was the most personalized plot since you joined an Order, was the most counter-productive reaction to an issue that I have seen for some time.

Like I said, I don’t think that this was cut out on purpose. If it was, then the wiki should either reflect that change along with an official statement on the preview blog for the Feature Patch indicating that certain parts will be removed. Even the patch notes clearly say that they are just changing the order of chapters here and not deleting anything. If I recall the files related to the unplayable quests are still present. It’s just that but rearranging the story, it could have resulted in continuity issues.

But how is it that a huge hunk of the story could be cut on accident?

My guess is that Anet didn’t reorganize the story quests individually but rather by chapters. If that’s what they did, there would likely be a snag on certain missions that are supposed to be accessible. That’s what I think at least.

Thia.4891:

Malkavian.4516:

lakdav.3694:

If the general issue was that “the later chapters do not focus on you, the Commander all that much but with Trahearne with his Wyld Hunt and all”, cutting the Greatest Fear plotline that was the most personalized plot since you joined an Order, was the most counter-productive reaction to an issue that I have seen for some time.

Like I said, I don’t think that this was cut out on purpose. If it was, then the wiki should either reflect that change along with an official statement on the preview blog for the Feature Patch indicating that certain parts will be removed. Even the patch notes clearly say that they are just changing the order of chapters here and not deleting anything. If I recall the files related to the unplayable quests are still present. It’s just that but rearranging the story, it could have resulted in continuity issues.

But how is it that a huge hunk of the story could be cut on accident?

Well . . . I do know how, and I do not agree with “not cut on purpose” – I think they did want to cut something to trim things, and there’s where we got the accident which caused the whole thing to go “poof”.

As I have said many times, the story really needed to be tightened up . . . still needs tightening. I think it would have been a better design to create a Personal Story which doesn’t just run in a linear path but offers side-branches and plots you could explore if you liked and had complete arcs to them rather than teasing glimpses of bigger things going on in Tyria.

I’ve always been a sucker for nonlinear story development, though. I seriously enjoyed novels where there was not a single perspective from which the story was told, but multiple angles. (Timothy Zahn and Tad Williams, please report to the front desk for your gold stars on this front.)

I find that hard to believe myself. There seems to be a bit of an inconsistency with the wiki from the looks of it. If this was intended, I’d think that Chris would have at least told the users here on a post. But Chris and Gaile and the rest of the team are looking into the issue since last week I think. I just hope that this isn’t something that is going to be made available in another feature patch to which I’d be very irritated about it.

I am hoping against hope that this gets fixed before Mad King Day. It would kill me to miss that event, but I’m trying my best to not log-in until the story is repaired.

Thia.4891:

I am hoping against hope that this gets fixed before Mad King Day. It would kill me to miss that event, but I’m trying my best to not log-in until the story is repaired.

As Mad King Day content will be live pretty soon, and as the team is probably scrambling to get that ready at the moment, it’s probably not looking too good that they can fix this on that timetable.

That being said, I still have faith that their dedication to fixing plot holes and inconsistencies means that they will be putting the Greatest Fear arc back in. Not doing so would leave the plot very confusing.

I think I would be willing to log in again if they at least said something like “Hey, we are going to fix this, we are going to put this back but it will take time” or something, ya know?

AlienMenace.7516:

Thia.4891:

I am hoping against hope that this gets fixed before Mad King Day. It would kill me to miss that event, but I’m trying my best to not log-in until the story is repaired.

As Mad King Day content will be live pretty soon, and as the team is probably scrambling to get that ready at the moment, it’s probably not looking too good that they can fix this on that timetable.

That being said, I still have faith that their dedication to fixing plot holes and inconsistencies means that they will be putting the Greatest Fear arc back in. Not doing so would leave the plot very confusing.

Assuming they stick to the current order of the story, I’d at least expect the Greatest Fear arcs to be playable once again along with adding some new scenes to effectively tie the chapters together. It would require the VAs to be back though to do new lines but if they can’t pull it off that way, then the smartest thing would be to revert the story chapters back.

Thia.4891:

I think I would be willing to log in again if they at least said something like “Hey, we are going to fix this, we are going to put this back but it will take time” or something, ya know?

On the “Communicating with you” thread, Chris did say something along those lines indicating that they are currently working on it and will get back to us for any updates.

lakdav.3694:

Wouldnt it be fine if they just put the Greatest Fear plot on lvl70 and the rest come at lvl75 starting with the Abaddon temple? Last portion of the personal story, it wouldnt be a problem if it was a bit more condensed, with a 5 levels gap instead of the glaring 10 levels…

Technically, the greatest fear plot is unlocked at 70. The thing is… They completely altered chapter 7 – the greatest fear plot – to use elements of the end of chapter 8 instead of the actual greatest fear.

There is no need to separate the Abaddon’s temple and on stuff from the end of chapter 8, chapter 8 is merely thrice as long as most other chapters. No big deal about that.

Though I don’t see much wrong off the top of my head with chapter 8 split into three chapters, same order as originally, and having the now-final four chapters (Forging the Pact to Victory or Death) separated by 5 levels – @ 65, 70, 75, and 80.

If they even cared about the chapter lengths. Which I doubt, as there is no real reason to.

Anyone know what the preferable sacrifice for Anet? That may make them put the story back together to what it used.

Malkavian.4516:

Thia.4891:

I think I would be willing to log in again if they at least said something like “Hey, we are going to fix this, we are going to put this back but it will take time” or something, ya know?

On the “Communicating with you” thread, Chris did say something along those lines indicating that they are currently working on it and will get back to us for any updates.

Could you link that post please?

I hadn’t realized how drastic these changes really were until yesterday, when I started trying to play through the last stage of the PS on my ranger. What used to be the last stage, anyhow.

I’m not sure how a brand-new player would perceive the flip-flopping of chapters 7 and 8 but for me it was jarring. “Estate of Decay” is one of my favorite instances in the game, but before getting to it I gotta help Trehearne poke Zhaitan in the eye…and then Orr is cleansed? What’s the point of kicking him in the tummy, then? Anticlimactic, to say the least.

It seems to me that “The Source of Orr” worked much better in its original place, right before you took to fight to Zhaitan. Have we had a red post or other indication yet why they felt this change was necessary?

We have speculated that it was to make the progress into Orr easier for new players, since the NPE is all the rage these days, but there has been no official word – to my knowledge of course.

Still waiting on this fix. I’m a veteran that procrastinated on my PS. Right before the changes I just finished Romke’s Final Voyage. So that character’s personal story is in limbo. I just flat out refuse to play anything past Claw Island on any character. I’m hoping they fix this mess. If they put it back the way it was and I have to replay some missions, fine. As long as everything goes back to the way it was.

I’ve just hit level 80 with a character and just found the order of events crazy. The issue with the eyes has already been stated. Sayeh’s appearances are also backwards.

From what I can tell, someone decided the design was to have a handful of missions per chapter, strictly at 10 levels per chapter, shoehorn the Orr missions into what felt like a theme, then eject everything that exceeded the 5 missions average per chapter. “Chapter 7” is now pretty underwhelming, as you just repeatedly hop on an airship taxi to all of the missions, and don’t get to see the scenery and situation of Orr.

This is really frustrating me, I have 2 characters in the high 50’s who were working through their personal story, but now I don’t want to even complete the Battle for Claw Island for fear of being locked into the new storyline.

IMO if the issue is that the story is too long to be split into 8 chapters they could just make it into 9 or 10 chapters, with 2 or more at level 80. It might actually serve as a good illustration of the fact that GW2 isn’t one of those games where you hit max level and drop whatever you were doing like a hot rock for a new game mode.

You know what this is like? This is like if George Lucas decided Star Wars was too long, and entirely removed how they escaped the Death Star…which they then immediately blow up, and only THEN do they arrive at the rebel base to figure out how to blow up the Death Star. Cue ending credits. And also he stole all of your copies of the movie so you can’t even watch the old version anymore.

7 characters of mine out of 9 are currently blocked out of the story because of this.

It’s worth noting that whatever solution ANet comes up with will have to take into account the various stages of progress that each character is currently at with the Personal Story. Not exactly going to be a quick fix since they have to make sure that nothing else gets broken during the change.

MoonstalkerZ.4170:

You know what this is like? This is like if George Lucas decided Star Wars was too long, and entirely removed how they escaped the Death Star…which they then immediately blow up, and only THEN do they arrive at the rebel base to figure out how to blow up the Death Star. Cue ending credits. And also he stole all of your copies of the movie so you can’t even watch the old version anymore.

Close enough to how the resissues rolled out a few years ago. You could work for ILM.

Has there been any word about whether or not this has been addressed? About whether or not this will be fixed, or when the fix will occur?

I’ve been outta the loop lately…

Still waiting and hoping…

Wouldn’t it be funny if Anet decided that the way to fix this would be to add ten more levels?

So still no fix to this…

I’m beginning to lose faith in ArenaNet, again.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Did-they-almost-fix-the-Personal-Story/first#post4456711

this thread suggests otherwise

Someone have to play it to see if they fixed it or not.

As I posted in that thread, it is unchanged on my newest character. The order is only repaired on my older characters who had already finished the story.

She’s currently at the Arah dungeon phase.

Asmodeus.5782:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Did-they-almost-fix-the-Personal-Story/first#post4456711

this thread suggests otherwise

It looks like it was fixed, but I can’t find a way to test it out without making a brand new character to do the quests again.

I’d really like to hear an official word about whether or not this is going to be fixed. if this is how PS is going to be from now on, I might as well play it with my main, but I’ll continue to wait if it’s going to go back to the way it was.

Seabreeze.8437:

I’d really like to hear an official word about whether or not this is going to be fixed. if this is how PS is going to be from now on, I might as well play it with my main, but I’ll continue to wait if it’s going to go back to the way it was.

This. I’ve looked in various threads but I can’t seem to find much more than “we’ll look into it”. I’m just curious about the thought process behind the whole thing… and I have a few characters in PS limbo. >.>

I’ve halted all PS progress on all my characters (my mesmer doesn’t have to worry, she’s done) until this is sorted out.

I hope they have this sorted out by Mad Kings Day, I really do…

Although I’m avoiding doing the story on my existing characters until it’s fixed I decided I wanted to see the changes for myself so I’ve been levelling up a new one.

She’s level 50 now so not far off the edited parts. It will be interesting to see if it has been reverted.

Thia.4891:

I hope they have this sorted out by Mad Kings Day, I really do…

Well it looks like they are working on it for sure based on the recent feature patch. It’s not noted on the patch notes itself but from the changes that I have seen, it looks like they are at least on the verge of getting it done.

Danikat.8537:

Although I’m avoiding doing the story on my existing characters until it’s fixed I decided I wanted to see the changes for myself so I’ve been levelling up a new one.

She’s level 50 now so not far off the edited parts. It will be interesting to see if it has been reverted.

Let us know what happens. It seems like some people here think that they might be close to getting things back in order. That would be great if it’s true

I haven’t touched any story on any of my characters because I don’t want them to get a messed-up version, so I’ve kind of been putting everything on pause until it’s all sorted out.

Has anyone played through on an entirely new character to see if it’s actually partially reverted yet?

I must admit, I am waiting with baited breathe myself. The second there is confirmation that this has been resolved I’ll probably play for a week straight! I haven’t logged-in since the patch and I’m dying to go back. Plus, there are some things in the Black Lion Trader I wanna get.

Why the hell did they remove so many story steps from 70-80 and reorder them into a mess of confusion?? Why the HELL is Sayeh not introduced BEFORE YOU SEE HER EVERYWHERE AND CLEANSE ORR? I havent gotten to the lvl 80 story steps yet on this alt, but this is so painful. My boyfriend only got GW2 recently and now with the butchered story he can not figure out what the hell is going on because it’s ruined. How the hell are new players supposed to get into the story when it’s this bung and not in any kind of order? Why are they doing all this stuff with no explanation as to why? NOTHING FROM THE PALE TREE VISION EVEN HAPPENS ? I feel like gw2 is just a big waste of time.

My boyfriend was asking me who Sayeh was because SHE HASNT BEEN INTRODUCED BUT SHES CALLING YOU OVER FOR ONE ON ONE TALKS? Why. Why did they mess with the story. It was the one part of the game that sold it to fans and now they’ve gone and butchered it. And I think it’s disgusting that there haven’t been any official comments on it. Or it being fixed,
Stop fixing things that aren’t broken and just making the story a big waste of time. The one thing that makes gw2 different is now just a waste of time.

the greatest fear storylines were the best and this is just horrid. I can’t believe they cut so much good stuff and won’t say a kitten thing about it or bother fixing it.. All we can do is hope somebody fixes it and soon.

Ugh I am heartbroken and disappointed. SO MUCH RAGE

My best guess is that one or more people at Anet was given the task of diving the story into 8 chapters and for whatever reason the people chosen had the same impression as some players – that each section largely stands alone, with an overarching theme of getting to Orr and fighting the dragon but little other connectivity.

(Believe it or not some players I’ve spoken to have played through this storyline since the change and didn’t notice anything different. And I’ve seen many people on this forum and in game complain that apart from your mentor and Traherne we never get to know any of the NPCs in the personal story because they appear in one mission, or series of missions and then we never see them again.)

So when they realised it was too long for 8 equal chapters they thought it would be easy to cut out one of the ‘side quests’ (confronting your greatest fear) and rearrange some other events, and didn’t have time to check through the dialogue to see what a mess it actually was.

All of that is just a guess, but it’s the only explanation I can think of.

It’s also not totally unbelievable that it could happen. In a lot of jobs I’ve had I’ve been part of a team where, on the surface we all do the same job so we all have the same skills and any one of us can perform any task within that job. But in reality we all have our own specialities, things we’re better at or more interested in. But a manager or someone higher up the company won’t know that and won’t always pick the best person for the job. Sometimes you can just swap, sometimes that’s not an option.

Danikat.8537:

My best guess is that one or more people at Anet was given the task of diving the story into 8 chapters and for whatever reason the people chosen had the same impression as some players – that each section largely stands alone, with an overarching theme of getting to Orr and fighting the dragon but little other connectivity.

(Believe it or not some players I’ve spoken to have played through this storyline since the change and didn’t notice anything different. And I’ve seen many people on this forum and in game complain that apart from your mentor and Traherne we never get to know any of the NPCs in the personal story because they appear in one mission, or series of missions and then we never see them again.)

So when they realised it was too long for 8 equal chapters they thought it would be easy to cut out one of the ‘side quests’ (confronting your greatest fear) and rearrange some other events, and didn’t have time to check through the dialogue to see what a mess it actually was.

All of that is just a guess, but it’s the only explanation I can think of.

It’s also not totally unbelievable that it could happen. In a lot of jobs I’ve had I’ve been part of a team where, on the surface we all do the same job so we all have the same skills and any one of us can perform any task within that job. But in reality we all have our own specialities, things we’re better at or more interested in. But a manager or someone higher up the company won’t know that and won’t always pick the best person for the job. Sometimes you can just swap, sometimes that’s not an option.

Sad if true, but I suppose it’s an understandable possibility.

I’m still holding out hope that this was simply a mistake, and that they are indeed working on fixing it. I would find it very hard to believe that they could leave such gaping plot holes in the game as the new permanent state of things.

What I don’t get is why there’s no official word on whether or not this is going to change. If this is how PS is going to be from now on, say so. That way, there’s no more confusion among us thinking if it’s a legitimate mistake or an intentional change.

Seabreeze.8437:

What I don’t get is why there’s no official word on whether or not this is going to change. If this is how PS is going to be from now on, say so. That way, there’s no more confusion among us thinking if it’s a legitimate mistake or an intentional change.

I get it, kind of. They’re still in a place where they have a lot of internal policies that prevent them from talking about changes until they’re created and ready to go live.

They made these policies because they used to talk about things they wanted to add but users read those things like guarantees or promises for what would definitely be added.

My personal belief is that the forum users are smart enough that if a red post has a big disclaimer on the top saying it’s just something they’d like and not something they guarantee will be in, that the reason for having a policy of silence goes away…

…and if some user ignores the disclaimer and throws a fit about the suggestion not making it live, I also believe (based on what I have seen of the forums) that a small army of other forum users will link the red post, along with the disclaimer, and point out to that person that it was, in fact, not a promise.

At this point, their policy simply fails to account for this reality, so they still cannot talk about upcoming changes.

The problem is, continuing to have this policy means that threads like this one (and an array of much less productive and constructive threads than this one, let’s say) come into being only because we don’t have insight into what’s going on in their collective head…

…it also means that those of us who might see warning signs/red flags with ideas that are far off cannot comment on them until, at worst, after they’re already done and live, or, at best, a few days before they’re live.

I hope someone reads this post and considers that firm disclaimers might really be enough. Even just a blanket statement somewhere that says “anything that looks like a promise is not unless they specifically say it is a promise.” Believe me, users will know to link that disclaimer to the ranters who ignore it, and it will ultimately be good enough because it will be an official word.

…but for now, and in response to your post, Seabreeze, I have to hold on to the hope in the silence that the removal of the My Greatest Fear Plotline is among the things they plan to fix, and that it will be returning.

My necro has reached the level 70 chapters. Why oh why does the airship have to take you? It’s bad enough that all the intermittent chapters have been taken out, but to have the airship take you to the next instalment is adding insult to injury. Whatever happened to fighting and exploring your way to the temple by Meddlers wp, or fighting and trying to find the entrance to the Temple of Silence. Nope, you just get on the airship and it takes you there, which has taken out any sense of accomplishment.

Sorry Anet, please put it back as it was. yes Trahearne was annoying, but that took it out of being just a quest to something you felt involved in. Now it feels as though you are not appreciating the players intelligence or ability to get to where they have to go.

Sona.2748:

My necro has reached the level 70 chapters. Why oh why does the airship have to take you? It’s bad enough that all the intermittent chapters have been taken out, but to have the airship take you to the next instalment is adding insult to injury. Whatever happened to fighting and exploring your way to the temple by Meddlers wp, or fighting and trying to find the entrance to the Temple of Silence. Nope, you just get on the airship and it takes you there, which has taken out any sense of accomplishment.

Sorry Anet, please put it back as it was. yes Trahearne was annoying, but that took it out of being just a quest to something you felt involved in. Now it feels as though you are not appreciating the players intelligence or ability to get to where they have to go.

It’s because they moved all these quests where we go deep into Orr to happen before we help the Pact establish a foothold and forward bases there. The airship has to drop us in because there would be no other way for us to get there.

Which is a big part of the reason re-ordering the story makes no sense.

Danikat.8537:

Although I’m avoiding doing the story on my existing characters until it’s fixed I decided I wanted to see the changes for myself so I’ve been levelling up a new one.

She’s level 50 now so not far off the edited parts. It will be interesting to see if it has been reverted.

So how’s it going?

Anyone else recently gone through the post-Sept. 30 patch PS?

Is the Greatest Fear chapter back? Truly back?

How’s the order of the episodes of the Orrian chapters?

I’ve got my Necro ignoring Gixx’s summons (Claw Island chapter) in hopes he doesn’t run into the screwed up PS. I really want him to meet Tonn. :-(

At this point there’s should at least have been an acknowledgment of the problem and the explanation of the very intentional removal of the chapter. The fact that no one is actually saying, “Hey, we actually did do this on purpose” or “Hey, this was a bug” is of itself a VERY telling response.

Do I think this was done on purpose? Yes. Because if it was a bug or a mistake, someone would have said as much one month ago. (yes, we’ve been waiting a month for an answer) The fact that NOONE is saying anything makes me wonder if they are hoping we’ll just roll over and forget which is a very sad tactic to use considering the number of people refusing to do their personal stories until this is fixed.