Guild Wars 2

Gryphon.2875:

AlienMenace.7516:

Reaching level 80 should feel like the beginning of the game. Not the end.

The real story should begin AFTER max level, like in GW1. That was one of the things people STILL love about that game.

I still remember a great description of GW1 levelling I overheard in chat once: “In most games when you reach the max level it means you’re finished with the main game. In GW when you reach the max level it means you’re ready to start the main game.”

In GW2 I’d say it’s more like you start the main game at level 2 when you finish the introduction and nothing ends at level 80 – it just means you’ve got all your options for content and character customisation unlocked and can do whatever you want from that point on.

I just started playing about two month ago and I don’t know how it used to be. All my guildmates keep telling me how good the story was until they changed it.
One of them recently re-played it for the first time since the changes and kept saying things like “da-kitten?! this makes no sense at all!!! for kittens sake, why did they change it at all?!”
Point is: If it was changed for giving new players a better experience, it kinda is a HUUUUGE fail bc all I hear/ read is that those changes actually suck kitty…
Actually…the whole PS 1 is a huge fail with all those glitches and this bad ending. Not to mention treehorn…
My question is: Why? just why would you punish your great game with decissions like that?

Gryphon.2875:

AlienMenace.7516:

Reaching level 80 should feel like the beginning of the game. Not the end.

The real story should begin AFTER max level, like in GW1. That was one of the things people STILL love about that game.

This. Exactly this.

Just wondered if we got any update on this. Silly me, huh?

Gryphon.2875:

AlienMenace.7516:

Reaching level 80 should feel like the beginning of the game. Not the end.

The real story should begin AFTER max level, like in GW1. That was one of the things people STILL love about that game.

I really think that if the only reason they are being silent/not telling us what’s on their collective mind it might be because they don’t know whether putting the story back in order and making multiple level 80 chapters at the end is a good idea.

So far, in this thread at least, I haven’t seen people having a problem with having more level 80 chapters at the end. Especially when the alternative is to leave the story in a confusing mess.

Please please please let us know what’s on your collective mind, and if you’re even aware of the problems we have pointed out here?

So has this been fixed yet? Got a friend into the game that just got to fort trinity (probably past that now) and I had to explain to him about the greatest fear plotline and what happened and why it was cool. Did they add it back in yet? And is it high priority yet? Its what is keeping me from going back and doing past claw island on alts.

MrPersons.1560:

So has this been fixed yet? … Did they add it back in yet? And is it high priority yet? Its what is keeping me from going back and doing past claw island on alts.

Sigh. I’m in the same boat as you. :-(

I’ve been playing since launch. I made 2 characters around then, then 1 more last year. But rather than pushing my toons through the PS, I decided to take my time and save doing the PS for whenever the PS Daily Achieve turned up.

Prior the September Feature Pack, only 1 of my 3 characters had completed the original Personal Story, while 1 at least was at the Greatest Fear part. I’d done Syska, my toon who’d gotten to Concordia has met Apatia…

… but I really, really want to experience the Tonn story branch through my last remaining toon. :-( No matter how sad it’s going to be, I keep hearing it’s a good, touching, and worthy experience to go through.

The silence from ANet on this matter is just deafening.

I’ll be honest: I feel like I’d be content to keep the screwed up NPC Orr chapters just to have the Greatest Fear content back.

(Yes, I should bite my tongue, so to speak, for posting that. At the same time, as far as quality content is concerned, ANet should NOT leave things as is, but fix both the Greatest Fear plotline and the messed-up NPE Chapters 7 and 8.)

ANet, please, please, please respond.

Mr Snotty Pants.3980:

Greatest Fear you could just put back, and fix the related plot issues. The content still exists.

Source of Orr is harder. You need to shuffle the NPCs at the start (to avoid the haven’t met Sayeh al’Rajihd yet type issues) and probably switch the boss (so the Eye reveal doesn’t come before the Eye investigations).

Doesn’t that cover most of the plot troubles?

first part for putting greatest fear back is fine. they however should not just patch the story plot holes with source of orr, they should put it back how it was to begin with. it’s a perfect note to go off to fight a freaking dragon, an epic last stand with your closest allies, epic music, giant fight, it was PERFECT. to just plug the holes……..no, that’s a horrible idea

I don’t get how this still hasn’t been fixed, or that atleast someone from Anet gives us a heads up on this matter…

I get why they removed the greatest fear part, they wanted the PS to be every 10 levels. This would have put the greatest fear part at lvl 70 together with forging the pact etc, which would’ve made that PS arch way to crowded (9 steps as opposed to the usual 5/6, though the level 80 arch has 10 steps so could have kept it anyway…). Why couldn’t they make an exception to the rule and split the 70/80 story into 70/75/80? By the time a player reaches level 70 he/she should be familiar enough with the game to not be confused by the sudden change of ‘every 10 levels’ to ‘every 5 levels’. To be fair no one with a normal IQ should ever get confused by such a change, no matter when and where it happens.

What I don’t understand AT ALL is why they flipped the old 72/80 part with the 80 part. Now that part makes no sense whatsoever and confuses both old and new players alike. If we knew Anet’s reasoning behind this we could help find a solution to make it work, but as it stands we don’t so all we can say is ‘revert back to the old sequence’.

Now if Anet were to unflip the current 70/80 arch, split the story into 70/75/80 and readd the greatest fear arch, it would look something like this:

• Level 70: Forging the Pact – Fear 1 – Fear 2 – Fear 3 – Battle of FT – Fear ending

• Level 75: Temple – Looking glass/Close the Eye – Eye Beholds – Starving/Estate – Osuary/Shipment – Further into Orr

• Level 80: Order plan 1 – Plan 2 – Plan 3 – Corruption – Cathedral/Romke – Source

• Victory or Death

6 story steps for each chapter put back in the normal order so everything makes sense and we get to enjoy the greatest fear story again (which I personally consider to be the best chapter in the PS). That’s like the best of both worlds!

I really hope this gets adressed in one way or another, because currently the last part of the PS is in a really sad state.

ShadowBane.5836:

I don’t get how this still hasn’t been fixed, or that atleast someone from Anet gives us a heads up on this matter…

I get why they removed the greatest fear part, they wanted the PS to be every 10 levels. This would have put the greatest fear part at lvl 70 together with forging the pact etc, which would’ve made that PS arch way to crowded (9 steps as opposed to the usual 5/6, though the level 80 arch has 10 steps so could have kept it anyway…). Why couldn’t they make an exception to the rule and split the 70/80 story into 70/75/80? By the time a player reaches level 70 he/she should be familiar enough with the game to not be confused by the sudden change of ‘every 10 levels’ to ‘every 5 levels’. To be fair no one with a normal IQ should ever get confused by such a change, no matter when and where it happens.

What I don’t understand AT ALL is why they flipped the old 72/80 part with the 80 part. Now that part makes no sense whatsoever and confuses both old and new players alike. If we knew Anet’s reasoning behind this we could help find a solution to make it work, but as it stands we don’t so all we can say is ‘revert back to the old sequence’.

Now if Anet were to unflip the current 70/80 arch, split the story into 70/75/80 and readd the greatest fear arch, it would look something like this:

• Level 70: Forging the Pact – Fear 1 – Fear 2 – Fear 3 – Battle of FT – Fear ending

• Level 75: Temple – Looking glass/Close the Eye – Eye Beholds – Starving/Estate – Osuary/Shipment – Further into Orr

• Level 80: Order plan 1 – Plan 2 – Plan 3 – Corruption – Cathedral/Romke – Source

• Victory or Death

6 story steps for each chapter put back in the normal order so everything makes sense and we get to enjoy the greatest fear story again (which I personally consider to be the best chapter in the PS). That’s like the best of both worlds!

I really hope this gets adressed in one way or another, because currently the last part of the PS is in a really sad state.

I seriously hope this is not the real reason behind the change which broke the story…but if it is they could just remove the lock they have put each 10 levels for the story and that should fix the problem for them. The story didn’t need a lock to begin with.

I didn’t like the greatest fear plotline. It seemed a bit mean to force you to choose something horrible, and then make it happen. I really can’t say I’m sad about not having to make that “choice” again. The first time through I was annoyed and mystified by the whole thing. I had Tonn, and as I remember it, he ran off alone (entirely unnecessary) and then just randomly turned up dead at the end of the instance. What. And then it was cutscene on cutscene criticizing my ability to lead, like I’d had any choice at all in how it turned out, and rubbing in the consequences of my “decisions”. Okay, if I’d had to choose between two npcs, and one died, okay, that’s one thing. This was just annoying.

Lalocat.6793:

I didn’t like the greatest fear plotline. It seemed a bit mean to force you to choose something horrible, and then make it happen. I really can’t say I’m sad about not having to make that “choice” again. The first time through I was annoyed and mystified by the whole thing. I had Tonn, and as I remember it, he ran off alone (entirely unnecessary) and then just randomly turned up dead at the end of the instance. What. And then it was cutscene on cutscene criticizing my ability to lead, like I’d had any choice at all in how it turned out, and rubbing in the consequences of my “decisions”. Okay, if I’d had to choose between two npcs, and one died, okay, that’s one thing. This was just annoying.

It’s fine to not like the greatest fear storyline. In fact looking back a lot of people have admitted that it wasn’t the best written thing in the world and I even agree that Tonn’s death was pretty unnecessary and that that part of the story felt a little forced.

But I think the general feel of this thread is that the game is still worse off without the greatest fear bit, not because of all that, but because the story makes a lot less sense since clearly the greatest fear storyline still happened and gets referenced but it just comes out of nowhere and everyone expects that you know it now when players who never got the opportunity to play it will just be confused about all those story points.

Sadder still is that Anet’s silence is leading some of us to believe that their “solution” to this problem might be to cut even more content until the story is a wasteland with everything removed. Okay that’s slight exaggeration but if they remove everything that referenced greatest fear, then they’d have to remove anything that referenced those references etc. and the story would get a lot shorter and a lot worse really quick.

The point is, people in this thread feel like the gaping plot crater left by removing the greatest fear storyline is the problem and that it is a much a bigger problem. Even some of the people here defending it and requesting its return admit to having not necessarily loved the storyline itself. But they recognize that it played an important, even if a tad bit forced, point in the story that is too important to cut.

And finally there are those who care about storytelling and can’t get into their main character if their main character is Mr./Mrs. Perfect and never makes any mistakes. And we’re worried that removing the greatest fear storyline is sanitizing the story to become just that. It makes it a bad story from a narrative perspective. And we thought they cared about telling a good story. We all are starting to feel like we were wrong about that now.

Wiping out my own squad in this story arc was the only remotely interesting thing in the whole PS after Claw Island. Well, this and the freaky mansion where the Mouth lives, it was kind of cool, too.

Asmodeus.5782:

Bombing my own squad in this story arc was the only remotely interesting thing in the whole PS after Claw Island. Well, this and the freaky mansion where the Mouth lives, it was kind of cool, too.

I liked the arc with Elli and stuffybritches, at least until the end when it fulfilled the Personal Story daily recommended requirement for shucks I sure didn’t see that coming.

AirimirOfGondor.9081:

And finally there are those who care about storytelling and can’t get into their main character if their main character is Mr./Mrs. Perfect and never makes any mistakes. And we’re worried that removing the greatest fear storyline is sanitizing the story to become just that. It makes it a bad story from a narrative perspective. And we thought they cared about telling a good story. We all are starting to feel like we were wrong about that now.

This. And the most ridiculous thing is they kitten the PS in the face and simultaneously hype the everloving hell out of the current living story. How does this work? Is this an ‘out with the old, in with the new’ policy gone horribly, horribly wrong and way too far? That’s what I’m starting to think.

The fact that in my opinion the LS is actually good (no idc I seriously like it a lot shutup) makes it a lot worse for me. It’s like being able to draw a perfect pink rose but completely sucking at drawing a red one. Hooooow.

SlayerGT.6805:

AirimirOfGondor.9081:

And finally there are those who care about storytelling and can’t get into their main character if their main character is Mr./Mrs. Perfect and never makes any mistakes. And we’re worried that removing the greatest fear storyline is sanitizing the story to become just that. It makes it a bad story from a narrative perspective. And we thought they cared about telling a good story. We all are starting to feel like we were wrong about that now.

This. And the most ridiculous thing is they kitten the PS in the face and simultaneously hype the everloving hell out of the current living story. How does this work? Is this an ‘out with the old, in with the new’ policy gone horribly, horribly wrong and way too far? That’s what I’m starting to think.

The fact that in my opinion the LS is actually good (no idc I seriously like it a lot shutup) makes it a lot worse for me. It’s like being able to draw a perfect pink rose but completely sucking at drawing a red one. Hooooow.

I couldn’t agree more. Why is it that ANets thinks they can get me excited about the story after they butchered it without a care?!

The problem isn’t just the removal of the Greatest Fear plotline though. The surviving plot was also rearranged so it makes no sense.

For example when you first meet Elli (during The Source of Orr) she talks about Zott’s death and how you helped her through it. Then later on you meet Zott (very much alive) and Elli doesn’t care for him at all.

That’s not the exception either, pretty much the entire story from level 70 onwards is like that.

How can they talk about adding content when they’ve screwed up existing content?

So, having read this at the beginning and everyone talking about Tonn, I guessed wrongly that it was the only thread missing, well, I was wrong. So, in the interest of correcting myself and offering a solution(of which all I have seen so far is ‘put it back’), here’s my proposal:

Everything is okay up to the level 60 Personal Story episodes, after that it breaks down. With that in mind here’s the rearranged order of PS(including a new lvl 80 set):

• lvl 70, you do the PS episodes from Forging the Pact followed by the Greatest Fear then Battle for Fort Trinity,
• lvl 75, starts at Temple of the Forgotten God through Armored Guard(for example.
• lvl 8o would be from Against the Corruption to Victory or Death.

This would also allow you to change the origin point of the last two chapters from the Airship in Fort Trinity(which is odd, for going to the Royal Tombs which are on Cursed Shore, and presumably we haven’t gone there yet without first going through Straits of Devastation and Malchor’s Leap). I would suggest Pagga’s Post for Malchor’s Leap(starting with Starving the Beast) and Caer Shadowfain, for Cursed Shore(starting with Against the Corruption) .

That’s the same sequence it was at release(almost, I flipped the final Greatest Fear story with Battle for Fort Trinity, it still works, even the Tonn one, nothing is saying they couldn’t have the small outpost where Ceera is before the Battle for Fort Trinity).

I believe this sequence resolves all issues with the missing story parts and satisfies the NPE by dissecting the PS into manageable chapters.

Thia.4891:

How can they talk about adding content when they’ve screwed up existing content?

I can’t agree more, this topic has been discussed so long, I don’t know what to say anymore, but something needs to be done, because as it is not, there are:

1. plot holes (an entire arch missing, the the rest of the story builds off of and refers back to, my greatest fear show’s the build up of the pact, and explains why and how fort trinity was attacked, then after the attack, brings closure to the event.)

2. characters that no longer exist (these characters we built attachments to, have fond memories of, they shaped and effected the events of the world around us, and their references, both storywise, as well as weapons and armor attributed to them, remain even now that they no longer exist; this doesnt make sense!)

3. adventures that can no longer be experienced (players are always demanding for more content, not less; you cant take away adventures we love and enjoy, especially when they contribute so much to plot and character developement)

4. A great loss of character developement (the greatest fear plotline showed we weren’t perfect and could fail, it pointed out our faults and made us face our weaknesses, and made us become stronger)

5. new players sacraficed (you are presenting players new to the game with a confusing story that is out of order, constantly contradicts itself, doesn’t make sense, and is missing key plot lines they will never have the chance to experience and enjoy. Out of everyone, I cry the most for them; this is not a good way to expand the player base.)

6. roll players turned away (yes, I don’t do it myself -not anymore- but there are players whose core joy in this game, is to build themselves into characters that live in this world, that have experienced it, and live it every day)

7. events thrown out of order and made confusing (we meet people after they die, know them before they are introduced, preform cleasing rituals before we even secure a path to the location needing to be cleansed. You can’t throw your socks in the dryer and then put them in the washer! there has to be a proper order to things and the story must naturally and realisticly flow from one event to the next, and it doesn’t anymore!!!)

8. realism cut away by over simplifying the story (we cleanse orr, without being disturbed by zhaitans troops? Of course the elder dragon is going to get in our way, and delay us. taking care of one issue and then the other, lacks the complexity and constant multi tasking nature of real life.)

9. New content developed at the expense of old content, trashed or completely disposed (it would be like crashing a ship into an iceburge, and then trying to build a skyscraper on it while it sinks!)

10. and the bigest problem of all, is Anet won’t even aknowledge this as a problem, and give us their stand on the matter!!!

Yes, ANet, I know you don’t have the time or people to respond to every matter, and so must chose the greater concerns… but this thread has survived the course of 2 months, constantly bouncing back, and retaining its place on the front page, it has many players crying out for help, dozens of post, and 8 pages now… I think its sufiencet to say this is no small matter, but something of large importance to a great deal of players, so please, REPLY!

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

…

1. plot holes (an entire arch missing, the the rest of the story builds off of and refers back to, my greatest fear show’s the build up of the pact, and explains why and how fort trinity was attacked, then after the attack, brings closure to the event.)

2. characters that no longer exist (these characters we built attachments to, have fond memories of, they shaped and effected the events of the world around us, and their references, both storywise, as well as weapons and armor attributed to them, remain even now that they no longer exist; this doesnt make sense!)

3. adventures that can no longer be experienced (players are always demanding for more content, not less; you cant take away adventures we love and enjoy, especially when they contribute so much to plot and character developement)

4. A great loss of character developement (the greatest fear plotline showed we weren’t perfect and could fail, it pointed out our faults and made us face our weaknesses, and made us become stronger)

5. new players sacraficed (you are presenting players new to the game with a confusing story that is out of order, constantly contradicts itself, doesn’t make sense, and is missing key plot lines they will never have the chance to experience and enjoy. Out of everyone, I cry the most for them; this is not a good way to expand the player base.)

6. roll players turned away (yes, I don’t do it myself -not anymore- but there are players whose core joy in this game, is to build themselves into characters that live in this world, that have experienced it, and live it every day)

7. events thrown out of order and made confusing (we meet people after they die, know them before they are introduced, preform cleasing rituals before we even secure a path to the location needing to be cleansed. You can’t throw your socks in the dryer and then put them in the washer! there has to be a proper order to things and the story must naturally and realisticly flow from one event to the next, and it doesn’t anymore!!!)

8. realism cut away by over simplifying the story (we cleanse orr, without being disturbed by zhaitans troops? Of course the elder dragon is going to get in our way, and delay us. taking care of one issue and then the other, lacks the complexity and constant multi tasking nature of real life.)

9. New content developed at the expense of old content, trashed or completely disposed (it would be like crashing a ship into an iceburge, and then trying to build a skyscraper on it while it sinks!)

10. and the bigest problem of all, is Anet won’t even aknowledge this as a problem, and give us their stand on the matter!!!

…

so please, REPLY!

This is a really good summary of the issues and problems presented in this thread.

One of the biggest takeaways from all of this is that it’s hard to appreciate the story that still remains not only because it doesn’t make sense anymore without this to give context, but also just because none of us know if another cherished part of the story is next on the chopping block.

If the removal was in fact intentional it’s a scary precedent.

In any event, our imaginations will probably all continue to run wild in the absence of an official statement. In this vacuum devoid of any idea what’s on their minds we won’t know if they have a plan, if they need our help to make a plan, or if they even want a plan/our help.

But I truly believe everyone in this thread wants to help. We’re a bunch that’s really passionate about your game and your story and we love it and want to help and that’s why we’re here and discussing this. Sometimes passion for something like this comes out in a lot of different ways, and I know it can be hard or scary to start a dialogue because you’re afraid your rabid fanbase might bite you (and hey, some of them might!) but at the end, we keep offering suggestions, ideas, summaries, and our hopes only out of a genuine desire to see the story be everything that it can be. And from the tone in the thread right now, I think many people here have some really excellent ideas.

Please do the hard thing and start an open and honest dialogue about how you feel about this situation. It may be rough at first, but I have to admit the crowd in here has been really level-headed by and large and has been offering some really great ideas. I think that’s a resource you shouldn’t pass over.

I wonder if we can maybe get Leah’s (the new Creative Director at ANet) attention on this topic. I think she might be the best person to get feedback and a statement on what is their stance on this.

no way in hell is this going to page two, fix this now anet, we want greatest fear arc back and the story in orr to be how it used to be!

The missing parts of the story line are still a bleeding wound in the personal story. This weekend I played a new character, and there is an almost immediate jump from Lion’s Arch (recapturing Claw Island) way south to Fort Trinity with a very short stop at the strangely deformed Fort Concordia.

It felt very, very strange. There is certainly something missing. Whatever it is, there is a huge gap. Around Claw Island, we had the idea of the pact, and only 1 or 2 story instances later it is fully alive, has a full-fledged fort, troops, organization and all. This is just not right. How has it grown? How did we and Trahearne grew into it?

While the story arc that was cut out was not the best, it was way better than the hole that there is now.

I am relatively fresh to the game, and I have been going through my first playthrough of the story and enjoying everything up to Claw Island with no worries, all sunshine and apples. Trahearne’s voice acting may be distractingly bad, but despite that, the story progressed fine (I played an Asura there, so Trahearne’s introduction was unfortunately rushed in my perspective, but apparently he gets more light in the storylines of the Sylvari players, so I did not mind it too much). But never in my gruesomest nightmares could I have expected to be so overwhelmed with furious disappointment from the second I stepped inside Fort Trinity.

Even worse, after all the confusion of the senselessly scrambled story, I learned that I missed the chance to experience the greatest fear plotline, and that just breaks me apart. The tragedies that the characters experience are the BEST PART of the game for me, up to par with Telltale’s Walking Dead’s Season 1 (not Season 2 though, that was awful). Seriously.

Furthermore, they called this update “new-player-friendly” or some asinine falsehood like that. Well, I am a new player, and I take that as an outrageous INSULT.
Please FIX this insult of an update as soon as possible, by UNDOING it. No amount of minor tweaking can heal the plot wound corrupting the Orr arc, it DEMANDS a rollback, for the new and old players alike (if this is not possible, you NEED TO let us know). I do not want to be PUNISHED so severely for being late to this party.

Cleanse the stORRy of Zhaitan’s corruption. Do it for the apples. Please.

Reusou.8475:

I am relatively fresh to the game, and I have been going through my first playthrough of the story and enjoying everything up to Claw Island with no worries, all sunshine and apples. Trahearne’s voice acting may be distractingly bad, but despite that, the story progressed fine (I played an Asura there, so Trahearne’s introduction was unfortunately rushed in my perspective, but apparently he gets more light in the storylines of the Sylvari players, so I did not mind it too much). But never in my gruesomest nightmares could I have expected to be so overwhelmed with furious disappointment from the second I stepped inside Fort Trinity.

Even worse, after all the confusion of the senselessly scrambled story, I learned that I missed the chance to experience the greatest fear plotline, and that just breaks me apart. The tragedies that the characters experience are the BEST PART of the game for me, up to par with Telltale’s Walking Dead’s Season 1 (not Season 2 though, that was awful). Seriously.

Furthermore, they called this update “new-player-friendly” or some asinine falsehood like that. Well, I am a new player, and I take that as an outrageous INSULT.
Please FIX this insult of an update as soon as possible, by UNDOING it. No amount of minor tweaking can heal the plot wound corrupting the Orr arc, it DEMANDS a rollback, for the new and old players alike (if this is not possible, you NEED TO let us know). I do not want to be PUNISHED so severely for being late to this party.

Cleanse the stORRy of Zhaitan’s corruption. Do it for the apples. Please.

It is now a very confusing story for new players. The story was not confusing before, but now it is (and it is plenty confusing for returning players and long-time players as well. It is confusing for everyone because it’s out of order and missing parts now).

It saddens me to see that the first experience new players are having with GW2’s great story is this now.

I also hope that I can someday experience Tonn’s storyline. The character I had planned to do that plotline on is now in limbo and will not be doing any Personal Story until I know if this is the sad permanent state of things.

…and I’m making a personal note of only playing Living Story stories on characters who have completed Personal Story (I like to see all the different references to things that happened in Personal Story – my character decisions – and how they make a difference in Living Story). In other words, the lack of ability to properly play and experience Personal Story is diminishing my fun with the rest of the game as well, including Living Story. The lack of the Greatest Fear plotline is interfering with the ability to enjoy Living Story

I’m not sure if the situation is more confusing for new players or longtime players, but it’s not great for either group, and it’s very sad that new players like you have had to have such a bad experience with this. :/ Here’s to hoping there’s a light at the end of this deep, dark tunnel…

Did anet ever give a reason for the removal?

Deli.1302:

Did anet ever give a reason for the removal?

something about making the personal story less confusing to new players, but then they changed their stance to “it’s a bug” after everyone went up in arms about the story changes………..still don’t get it, if the story changes are a “bug”, why has it taken 2 MONTHS to fix it?

All I can say is that this whole thing makes it really hard for me to recommend this to new players because this is what they’re gonna be dealing with once they get to that point in the PS.

It wont be changed folks – go searching for locked threads with Dev comments in them, it seems pretty clear that this will never be looked at again – I would love to tell you where to look but im not allowed…

Yeah, a friend was asking about whether or not she should pick up the game and I was like “Uh………”

JusticarArkiel.1564:

Deli.1302:

Did anet ever give a reason for the removal?

something about making the personal story less confusing to new players, but then they changed their stance to “it’s a bug” after everyone went up in arms about the story changes………..still don’t get it, if the story changes are a “bug”, why has it taken 2 MONTHS to fix it?

Some players guessing it’s to fit with the new leveling system. You open part of the story each 10 levels which means the story need to be 8 parts only for that.

I’ve been trying to speak to Chris about it and so far it’s the same response that they are still working on it. It’s getting really old now. Seems my worst fear my be realized if they mention this fix will be on a feature patch.

JusticarArkiel.1564:

Deli.1302:

Did anet ever give a reason for the removal?

something about making the personal story less confusing to new players, but then they changed their stance to “it’s a bug” after everyone went up in arms about the story changes………..still don’t get it, if the story changes are a “bug”, why has it taken 2 MONTHS to fix it?

This isn’t the only bug that has yet to be fixed since the feature patch. If I remember, there is this one heart where you still cannot face the monsters in an Arena somewhere around the Plains of Ashford.

Two months later. Any news on this from Anet? Has anyone been able to verify if it’s back or not?

Malkavian.4516:

I’ve been trying to speak to Chris about it and so far it’s the same response that they are still working on it. It’s getting really old now. Seems my worst fear my be realized if they mention this fix will be on a feature patch.

Surprise!

The Greatest Fear is now a Living Story arc played out exclusively on the official forums. It’s this thread.

:(

We should do a gathering in LA like the pink armor day. forcing anet to pay attention to it and fix the kitten thing

R.I.P. Lionguard Apatia!!
I will be talking in Hoelbrak about your story and keep your legend alive to other Norns. You’ll be missed!

JusticarArkiel.1564:

Deli.1302:

Did anet ever give a reason for the removal?

something about making the personal story less confusing to new players, but then they changed their stance to “it’s a bug” after everyone went up in arms about the story changes………..still don’t get it, if the story changes are a “bug”, why has it taken 2 MONTHS to fix it?

I just wanted to make a slight correction to this, so we keep the (very limited) real information we have as the basis for this thread.

1. We know that, as a general matter, the September Feature Patch was designed to appeal to an audience with… more… (trying to stay diplomatic here so much)… limited… capabilities and faculties… (there. I think I managed it! )

2. We know that the “NPE” (New Player Experience) in the September Feature pack was definitely designed with these… kinds of hypothetical players… in mind (why these people would buy an entire dedicated gaming computer when they probably play only on smartphones now is beyond me, but hey, they seem to think some will buy a computer to play GW2, so… whatever).

3. We know that they opened a thread at this location https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Changes-Coming-to-the-NPE/first and that in that thread they said the following:

Gaile Gray.6029:

The devs have been reviewing your feedback on the New Player Experience. While some bug fixes have already been made, the team will be making other updates in the future to address:

• Plot holes and story inconsistencies that may have been introduced with story realignment

…

Other aspects of the NPE are being examined, and your constructive feedback is welcome and appreciated.

4. We tend to assume (sometimes) that they know that the removal of Greatest Fear has produced such “plot holes” because we personally know that to be true (obviously) but the way they talk about it it seems to be more about the reordering of the Orr chapters at the end. So we don’t actually even know if so much as a single dev actually realizes that the removal of Greatest Fear has produced several giant gaping plot holes.

5. The only red post regarding Greatest Fear has said that players who started it sufficiently up to a certain point will still be able to experience it. Throughout this thread users have done lots of hard work to figure out where that eligibility line was, exactly. (Thank you again to everyone who put in that work and brought the summaries back to us – it is appreciated!)

6. As with much of the GW2 community, we don’t really have an official word or stance, so it’s up to us to do the legwork where we can (see #5) and beyond that just pray that someone notices our plight.

tl;dr …so basically, we assume that it was something that they somehow thought was going to make new players happy (and at times it seems a rather safe assumption) but we really don’t know. We’re in the dark. And if we weren’t trying to help each other through this thread we’d be all alone in dealing with this terrible, miserable, confusing mess of a state that Personal Story is in now… :/

Mental Paradox.3845:

Two months later. Any news on this from Anet? Has anyone been able to verify if it’s back or not?

I wish I could say we have, but I’m starting to lose a little more faith each day…

Lady Elvea.2847:

Malkavian.4516:

I’ve been trying to speak to Chris about it and so far it’s the same response that they are still working on it. It’s getting really old now. Seems my worst fear my be realized if they mention this fix will be on a feature patch.

Surprise!

The Greatest Fear is now a Living Story arc played out exclusively on the official forums. It’s this thread.

:(

This is feeling more and more true as time goes on with no word…

ShroomOneUp.6913:

We should do a gathering in LA like the pink armor day. forcing anet to pay attention to it and fix the kitten thing

I’m not sure it would force them to pay attention, but I feel like a gathering ingame would give us something to do other than sit here feeling sad that it looks (to us) like they don’t care about story anymore…

Alga.6498:

R.I.P. Lionguard Apatia!!
I will be talking in Hoelbrak about your story and keep your legend alive to other Norns. You’ll be missed!

If the game truly means to banish and erase Greatest Fear from its lore and history, then we can be the bards to sing and the skaalds to proclaim her glorious name forever, making the Shiverpeaks themselves ring with the sound: Apatia!

We could do something like “Fear Day in LA” where-in each of us, will write out a short storh version of one of the three greatest fear arcs and educate players by telling -or even roll playing- that story in map chat. I don’t know, a base idea we could possibly expand off of?

Another option I suppose, is sending those stories to anet in tribute to the greatest fear plotline.

@ AlienMenace
about #3 on your list: i posted on that very thread, as have hundreds others- we’ve heard nothing from anet on that thread since early october (and that’s being generous). as for #4 on your list, the rearranging of the orr story also created gaping plot holes, such as fighting the kitten eye before you even find out they exist, and then finding out there’s more than one after you’ve fought 2 already.

@ Malkavian
actually, that heart can be done, the monsters just randomly spawn when you enter the arena, its been that way since day 1 of the FP.

@ MVP
even so, it still shouldn’t be taking 2 months to finish making the story back the way it was, just extend the length of each “episode”

and i say again anet, i want the story back the way it was, i never got to experience the “friends lost faith in me”, or whatever it was called, arc.

Really? Because they never appeared from my experience.

I have no idea what Arenanet is doing to fix this issue. I understand they got the other pieces of content on their plate, but I am really starting to grow impatient as something like this really shouldn’t take this long to remedy. I am at least assured by the fact that they are aware of the issue related to the “greatest fear” but still, for Chris to just tell me that we will be informed as soon as we have an update, that’s still too vague for an issue this serious.

I’ve had another playthrough, and while the same problems are still there, Trahearne’s voice lines have been updated. So while ANet still cares about Personal Story (of course they do, just see their “improvements”), unconfusing the end chapters appears to be another large patch away.

Bob F It.5701:

I’ve had another playthrough, and while the same problems are still there, Trahearne’s voice lines have been updated. So while ANet still cares about Personal Story (of course they do, just see their “improvements”), unconfusing the end chapters appears to be another large patch away.

If that’s the case, it is what we have feared then, they wont return the missing arc, but will preform a hard edit, to cleanse its existence from the remaining chapters. Well, even this is better than leaving the story as it is though… But why Anet? Why fix what isn’t broken? What we all love and enjoy? And what contributes so much to the infrastructure of the story.

I personally loved the story prior to the reorganization. I never experienced all the arcs and have halted personal story progression on all the characters that have yet to reach “My Greatest Fear”. Of nine characters that would be 6 of them that have halted story progression.
I don’t play this game for the lore and story but they are both very important to me. Plot holes are memorable and of the 3 characters I’ve gotten to “Victory or Death” there have been a few small holes that give a kind of ‘hiccup’ to the immersion experienced while following the story.
This reorganization of the story is more than a ‘hiccup’ to immersion. I dare say it’s like being ‘vomited’ out of the immersion.
Thank you to all of the players that have done all the footwork figuring out where the eligibility line was for continuing with the lost plot line.

We know where the “eligibility line” is?

I stopped my characters right on the mission where you consult the pale tree, right BEFORE the vision. Is this too late? Will I be able to play the arc if they ever restore it?

Bob F It.5701:

I’ve had another playthrough, and while the same problems are still there, Trahearne’s voice lines have been updated. So while ANet still cares about Personal Story (of course they do, just see their “improvements”), unconfusing the end chapters appears to be another large patch away.

How exactly have Trahearne’s lines been changed? I’m kind of curious about this – I have done the newest Living Story stuff, so I was a little surprised to see that they actually hired him to do more voice overs. I know that since they originally hired some big name voice actors like Nolan North they probably won’t be adding new player skills since they’d have to rehire everyone including him just to say “For Awesome Justice!” or something, you get what I mean. Same for why we don’t have any or many new Destiny’s Edge lines and we now have the Biconics instead with their voice…uhm…acting…. Say what you will about Destiny’s Edge, but at least they are industry-respected and well-established voice actors. Who are good at voice acting.
So are you telling us that when they had Trahearne’s VA in the studio they did new lines for old content? Which lines are changed now?

Infernia.9847:

I personally loved the story prior to the reorganization. I never experienced all the arcs and have halted personal story progression on all the characters that have yet to reach “My Greatest Fear”. Of nine characters that would be 6 of them that have halted story progression.
I don’t play this game for the lore and story but they are both very important to me. Plot holes are memorable and of the 3 characters I’ve gotten to “Victory or Death” there have been a few small holes that give a kind of ‘hiccup’ to the immersion experienced while following the story.
This reorganization of the story is more than a ‘hiccup’ to immersion. I dare say it’s like being ‘vomited’ out of the immersion.
Thank you to all of the players that have done all the footwork figuring out where the eligibility line was for continuing with the lost plot line.

I also have stopped playing personal story on all of my characters. I actually have a pretty high number of characters, and I was planning on working my way through each one, getting them all leveled, geared, and through all the personal story. But I have put that on the furthest back burner.

Really curious about Trahearne’s new lines as well, are the changes documented properly somewhere? Specific missions I could /wiki for comparative analysis?

I also really like the idea of a Fear Day in LA (or wherever) including a roleplay or something. Can I be the Hero?

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Bob F It.5701:

I’ve had another playthrough, and while the same problems are still there, Trahearne’s voice lines have been updated. So while ANet still cares about Personal Story (of course they do, just see their “improvements”), unconfusing the end chapters appears to be another large patch away.

If that’s the case, it is what we have feared then, they wont return the missing arc, but will preform a hard edit, to cleanse its existence from the remaining chapters. Well, even this is better than leaving the story as it is though… But why Anet? Why fix what isn’t broken? What we all love and enjoy? And what contributes so much to the infrastructure of the story.

I got a theory. If memory serves, people vocally complained on the forums about how Trahearne stole your character’s spotlight on the last half of the Personal Story, which I honestly do not see considering that he never joined my character and Destiny’s Edge towards the attack on Zhaitan and was just perched atop his ship on the Straits. This change was meant to address this, although I think it backfired. I may be kitteny for saying this, but if this is true, then I sincerely blame the people for voicing that out and we eventually got what we got right now.

Malkavian.4516:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

Bob F It.5701:

I’ve had another playthrough, and while the same problems are still there, Trahearne’s voice lines have been updated. So while ANet still cares about Personal Story (of course they do, just see their “improvements”), unconfusing the end chapters appears to be another large patch away.

If that’s the case, it is what we have feared then, they wont return the missing arc, but will preform a hard edit, to cleanse its existence from the remaining chapters. Well, even this is better than leaving the story as it is though… But why Anet? Why fix what isn’t broken? What we all love and enjoy? And what contributes so much to the infrastructure of the story.

I got a theory. If memory serves, people vocally complained on the forums about how Trahearne stole your character’s spotlight on the last half of the Personal Story, which I honestly do not see considering that he never joined my character and Destiny’s Edge towards the attack on Zhaitan and was just perched atop his ship on the Straits. This change was meant to address this, although I think it backfired. I may be kitteny for saying this, but if this is true, then I sincerely blame the people for voicing that out and we eventually got what we got right now.

Yeah, a lot of players did complain about personal story having weak story telling, about Anets trend of makeing characters and then killing them off before we even form an emotional connection with them, about pointless NPC deaths (when no one important dies, why does the regular joe die left and right type of thing), and how Trehearn steals our personal story… so maybe they thought it was a good solution to one, or even all of the problems. But trully, they just made matters worst. If there was a problem with story, you don’t fix it by removing a chunk, and scrambling up the rest. Well, even the scrambling isn’t AS bad as long as they go back and adjust the lines, voices, and cutscnes to match the new order, but removing content all together (my greatest fear arc), is not how you fix a problem. Who know, maybe they have a master plan that will make it a 100 times better and we will love them for it… but at least they could tell us as much