Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer: this post may seem pessimistic, but I swear it has a hopeful message!

That said, I have been continually let down by the writing in GW2 since launch. In GW1, while there were small jokes hidden on occasion (mostly pop culture references in skill names) and much of the writing in that was not the greatest either (I’m looking at you, Togo), it still felt serious. There were some pretty gritty things in there, such as zombie Rurik or the human sacrifices in Maguuma. In contrast, the glue that holds the writing together in GW2 is a sort of teenager-grade flippancy that even manages to color the drama. Many people liked it, but it made me sad.

So I played the game for the beautiful world and fun gameplay. I start a cutscene to see if the writing is any better, but most of the time I just end up skipping it after a few moments. I did like the new first born that was introduced, though.

With all that in mind, did you see the Heart of Thorns trailer they posted on the GW2 Facebook page? Because that looked amazing. The story finally looked compelling! It seemed much more sombre in tone and introduced real conflict with the Sylvari. In the Zhaitan story, we were promised that you would have to bring together races that otherwise held animosity for each other, but that really didn’t manifest itself at all. But in this, we get this real tension with the suspect loyalty of the Sylvari as a race.

I, for one, hope that this expansion keeps this more serious tone. The story so far has seemed a little bit kiddish to me. Not because of the core conflicts, but because of how they are handled. (Like putting up Power Ranger wallpaper on a concrete wall. The essence of it is solid, but it looks like a child’s toy.)

But this trailer gave me chills, and I hope that this (expansion?) continues to do so.

Looks like they’re adding racial tension. Hope that’s dark enough…

The racial tension in game has been in there since after the Battle for Lion’s Arch. They’re building on it now.

There’s a couple of very interesting scenes that occur in Lion’s Arch involving the Lion Guard and prejudice against Sylvari.

Adding more racial tension*

I’m just hoping for a little less sylvari angst, and maybe not revolve everything around one race? But with a name like “Heart of Thorns” that’s probably not going to happen any time soon.

Photonman.6241:

Looks like they’re adding racial tension. Hope that’s dark enough…

I don’t get the whole appeal of darkness. Maybe I’m just growing old.

Terrahero.9358:

I’m just hoping for a little less sylvari angst, and maybe not revolve everything around one race? But with a name like “Heart of Thorns” that’s probably not going to happen any time soon.

Well given the last reveal… I don’t see how you could not involve them. Mind you at this point the best we can hope for is to at least see the conflict from the perspective of the different races (how do the Charr, Norn, Asura and human react and respond).

Although I don’t particularly see any way to decrease the focus on the Sylvari at least in terms of the primary plot of Heart of Thorns. ANet has pretty much written the narrative in such a way that it makes no sense to suddenly start focusing on the other races without moving away from the central plot. Maybe we can get some Charr focus via Rytlock, but seeing as how (I guess it’s ok to spoil right?) he’s still running around the mists I’m not sure how you can have a strong Charr focused narrative from that (i.e. the Charr aren’t going to invade the mists to single-handedly save Rytlock).

I’m glad to see the story taking more serious turns, but I have never and will never expect anything better than loads of cheese. No offense to the writers. It’s just that the game is not rated Mature, as the audience is largely not mature, so the content is always going to fall short of the areas in which the most interesting exploration can occur.

CureForLiving.5360:

Photonman.6241:

Looks like they’re adding racial tension. Hope that’s dark enough…

I don’t get the whole appeal of darkness. Maybe I’m just growing old.

Thats racist.

Photonman.6241:

Looks like they’re adding racial tension. Hope that’s dark enough…

My Ascalonian Human say hello to you Charr and Charr loving ANET.

I probably have this wrong as my memory is not what it was. Didn’t we have Flame Legion/Dredge bad guys and then it was the Krait. So shouldn’t we expect a showing from the Nightmare Court and maybe the Sons of Svanir? (or were Sons the last bad guys) Did the Inquest already make a showing as well?

Though I love the game, story is not it’s strongest point, maybe I’m just used to the darker GW1 feel. With these cinematics I just hope they grab the chance and deliver a strong story but we’ll see. I loved this LS as it is so hope dies last folks

Photonman.6241:

Looks like they’re adding racial tension. Hope that’s dark enough…

They missed the oportunity of nice racial tension between humans and charr which is shame.

The Elder Scrolls franchise did it right. Even though different races coexisted in same Empire, there was a lot of open or latent racism for several reasons ranging from slavery, ancient unresolved wars, conflicting religions etc. to simple and blunt racial supremacy felt by many… (most notably High Elves).

This added so much to the athmosphere of the world and it is shame we don’t have more of this in GW. And by this I mean not just racism but also political and religious tension or at least rivalry. I know we have the White Mantle, Inquest or Flame legion but in GW it is done in strictly bipolar fashion when we (players and everyone we are in contact with) are the good guys and they are the bad guys and there is no grey area in between.

It’s not racism if it’s towards the sylvari.

Salad is meant to be eaten, not reasoned with.

If ANet does add serious racism towards a specific group of players, I’ll probably quit.

It works in TES because that’s a single-player game. There are already people bragging about trolling Sylvari in-game, it’s going to get much, much worse if ANet puts canon support behind racism. There would have to be much better control of in-game trolling and unwelcome RP. I don’t think ANet has the CS team to really manage that.

Hopefully the story points out that what happened is Sylvari lost their uniqueness and are now like every other race, instead of going ‘Bad Sylvari OH NOES’. Every race has their dragon followers or evil faction. There’s no reason to single out Sylvari.

Naus the Gobbo.5172:

It’s not racism if it’s towards the sylvari.

Salad is meant to be eaten, not reasoned with.

You forgot your /sarcasm tag.

Gilosean.3805:

If ANet does add serious racism towards a specific group of players, I’ll probably quit.

It works in TES because that’s a single-player game. There are already people bragging about trolling Sylvari in-game, it’s going to get much, much worse if ANet puts canon support behind racism. There would have to be much better control of in-game trolling and unwelcome RP. I don’t think ANet has the CS team to really manage that.

Hopefully the story points out that what happened is Sylvari lost their uniqueness and are now like every other race, instead of going ‘Bad Sylvari OH NOES’. Every race has their dragon followers or evil faction. There’s no reason to single out Sylvari.

Naus the Gobbo.5172:

It’s not racism if it’s towards the sylvari.

Salad is meant to be eaten, not reasoned with.

You forgot your /sarcasm tag.

Lolwut? Me thinks thou spendeth too much time on Tarnished Coast (or the EU RP server if there is one.)

Pretty sure there’s a also a big difference between being cultists and literally being designed as soldiers for a dragon. A dragon, by the way, that seems to have little trouble reasserting dominance over it’s creations when they come in close proximity or open their minds sufficiently.

It’s now cannon that Sylvari are dragon minions. If someone RP’s that they don’t trust you because you are, in fact, a dragon minion, that’s just how it is.

Gilosean.3805:

h, much worse if ANet puts canon support behind racism. There would have to be much better control of in-game trolling and unwelcome RP. I don’t think ANet has the CS team to really manage that.

Nah it is not and will not be that bad as you are portraying it. I have seen some great RP in ESO between Nord players, Dunmer and Argonian players… these races hate each other to the bone but for some strange reason they were thrown into same aliance by game developers. But general non-RP comunity ignore race choice of other players and they just play normaly. However NPCs throw some racist slur in your face here and there

Also in SWTOR on the Empire side, siths are openly racist towards anyone of non pure Sith or Human race amongst their ranks. And once again general population ignores this fact and roleplayers have room for some interesting roleplay. And ofc… if you roll an alien race as sith, NPCs will let you know about your bad choice Also if you roll pure sith race as Jedi… there wile be some form of prejudice towards your character wherever you go. Very immersive if you ask me

And ofc lets talk about WoW and the Forsaken Sylvari created by evil Lich King Elder Dragon, freed from his influence by Sylvanas Windrunner Pale Tree but nonetheless fighting with others against the Scourge Sylvari minions of the elder dragon no problemo ;-)

Some ppl (almost nonexistant minority) are on the anti Sylvari train only because it is something new after 2,5 years of nothing mixed with Power Rangers rip off season 1. And still it is so rare to encounter anything in game…. it took me a few hours of gameplay to see one “RP-ish” comment in /m in Silverwastes…

Don’t panic.