Guild Wars 2

Honestly looking back, the Scarlet story arc isn’t necessarily bad. The problems are:
A) You never seem any closer to understanding her end game.
B) It took way too long to show the players visibility into what’s going on. This story arc has been 1 whole year in the making it’s taken this long to finally start making sense, because we have inklings into Scarlet’s motivation thanks to Fractured.
C) It has only just now begun to potentially be tied into the main conflict of GW2, dragons (I won’t spoil the theories here)
D) Much of the story telling elements for the arc were temporary

These are HUGE problems for story buffs. Following and wondering about a storyline for a year without ANY idea of what the direction of the story is? Who honestly thinks putting viewers/players through that is a good idea? And then removing story telling elements?

It’s not for me. I prefer to buy an expansion so I can binge on story if I want, or go at whatever pace I want. Compare this to an experience that you get from other story providers like Netflix, and it’s night and day. It’s like a tortoise vs a hair in a way. This is the fundamental problem I have with MMOs, they want to pace you by giving you a little bit of what you want and a lot of what you don’t so that you are enticed to be logged in a lot.

I wish ANet would have made another CORPG instead of making a classic MMO style game, I realize more and more that the experience the first Guild Wars provided was much more sensative to people’s time and provided a lot more value for the time that was spent.

Scarlet had a story?..

I’m not sure “Bad boss invades Map X this week, will our heroes succeed in stopping bad boss?” counts as much of a story.

If it’s her backstory, well, why should even care? It seems to have no consequence on her Power Rangers shtick in the game. I don’t want to know more about a character I don’t care for in the first place. Give us someone to care about, then we can talk about their life story.

Speaking of unsolicited exposition, why is she even there? Scarlet being Scarlet adds absolutely nothing to the game or the story. It’s pointless. “Super army invades Map X, heroes heroically defeat super army!” Nothing’s changed. It’s boring.

Honestly I don’t think the structure is to blame. It’s restricting, yes, but they’re doing the wrong thing anyway.

The only story is “Scarlet did things because”. The LS stories hardly connect to each other. We’re missing a key part of the story, the reason.

I think Scarlett’s character is fine; she is a chaotic character that refuses to see the world in moral boundaries which makes her a natural antithesis to the Sylvari themes of dream and nightmare.

The problem with her is purely execution. Mainly, that her unveiling has been slow paced. We waited 1 year to learn what normally takes 4 months in a TV show.

IMO, the poorest part of the story development is that the heroes and/or orders never proactively searched out additional info about Scarlet.

Do the writers really want me to believe that the heroes couldn’t find one Molten Alliance defect that was willing to talk about what happened there?

Do you really believe that the Order of Secrets was not able to infiltrate the massive organization of the Aetherblade pirates to learn more about their secrets?

Did no one ever engage the Pale Tree regarding Scarlet’s past? Did no one ever attempt to interrogate the Inquest about her plans or motivations?

It is these types of plot elements that could have been used to flesh out Scarlet’s character, but were completely lacking over the course of Living Story Season 1, to date.

Finnway.2183:

I think Scarlett’s character is fine; she is a chaotic character that refuses to see the world in moral boundaries which makes her a natural antithesis to the Sylvari themes of dream and nightmare.

That’s pretty good, actually.

But it’s not Scarlet. We know nothing of her morals, allegiance, worldview, or anything else. She just shows up, acts weird and evil, summons an army of the week for no reason, and goes away. That’s it.

What you’ve done there is you’ve created, in a single sentence, a better character than what ANet writers have been trying to put together for months.

In fact, I think it would be easy to come up with a much better Scarlet than “for the evulz” Scarlet that there is. Granted you’d actually have to tell her story instead of having her just standing there going “DIE DIE DIE!”

- Scarlet is actually just a weak stand-in for a bigger force. She’s a weak Sylvari goaded into acting evil for the public and throwing a dozen mooks around to divert attention from something that’s actually important.

- Scarlet is a hallucination experienced by the player. The epic battles with random alliances never happened. That’s why she’s always talking to you and you personally.

- The conflict is actually much lower in scale. Scarlet is a third-rate psycho that got together a bunch of easily manipulated mooks from more powerful factions and got them all killed very quickly.

Etc., etc., just use a bit of imagination and tell the story however you can. It’ll be an improvement over what we got no matter what you come up with.

Draco.2806:

Finnway.2183:

I think Scarlett’s character is fine; she is a chaotic character that refuses to see the world in moral boundaries which makes her a natural antithesis to the Sylvari themes of dream and nightmare.

That’s pretty good, actually.

But it’s not Scarlet.

I think when her arch completes you will find that it is Scarlett.

In the short-story Scarlett says “No system, no matter how complex, can perpetuate itself indefinitely. Those that do not evolve inevitably fail.” referring to the Pale Tree reproducing Sylvari, but I also think she is referring to the Sylvari’s moral code a.k.a. Ventari’s tablet.

My prediction for 2014 is Scarlett will attack the Pale Tree directly. In the end we will save it, but I wouldn’t surprised if Ventari’s Tablet got permanently destroyed.

Finnway.2183:

I think when her arch completes you will find that it is Scarlett.

And that will be terrible, because the delivery so far has been absolutely horrid, not indicative of such a conclusion at best and inconsistent with it at worst (DIE DIE DIE!). Speaking of, you can’t know that. There’s been no indication of her beliefs or motivation whatsoever. She’s barely a character beyond being super-crazy and super-amazing.

Honestly you’re giving the writers too much credit. They haven’t handled themselves properly thus far, they have no reason to improve.

Finnway.2183:

In the short-story Scarlett says “No system, no matter how complex, can perpetuate itself indefinitely. Those that do not evolve inevitably fail.”

Wow, that’s some terrible writing right there. Reminds me of the “History never lies” line – it’s, like, did they even pay attention to what they were saying with it?..

Oh, what am I even surprised at anymore.

Draco.2806:

And that will be terrible, because the delivery so far has been absolutely horrid, not indicative of such a conclusion at best and inconsistent with it at worst (DIE DIE DIE!).

Which is why people say the problem with the Living Story isn’t Scarlett’s character, it’s the exhibition/unveiling of the story.

Wow, that’s some terrible writing right there. Reminds me of the “History never lies” line

Ever heard the saying “Never judge of book by it’s cover?” Maybe you should read the quote in context of the entire story.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/short-story-what-scarlet-saw/

If you’re not going to then I’ll kindly ask you to show your PHD in literature to justify your criticism.

Finnway.2183:

Which is why people say the problem with the Living Story isn’t Scarlett’s character, it’s the exhibition/unveiling of the story.

Well, sort of.

The thing is, the way character is created and developed is through the story, so they’re actually one and the same as far as the reader/player is concerned.

Maybe if we had Scarlet’s character sheet to read we could say her character wasn’t done justice. But we don’t. We just have her flying around doing the evulz.

If there’s something positive about Scarlet, it’s part of the underlying archetype: watching people be crazy and evil is fun. So that’s good. But it’s not going to be enough for most people, and it doesn’t even begin to form a character or a story.

Finnway.2183:

Ever heard the saying “Never judge of book by it’s cover?”

Yes. The correct way to judge a book is by its first page: if the writer didn’t bother then, he never bothered later either.

Don’t believe me? Just look at the way they’ve handled Scarlet. It was dumb and hated from beginning, and it’s still dumb and hated when… wherever we are now. Hopefully near the end.

That metaphor refers to not judging things by their outward looks, but based on the worth of their content. We’re talking about the inner content to begin with.

Finnway.2183:

Maybe you should read the quote in context of the entire story.

Well, let’s see: a terribly-written excerpt coming a terribly-written character from a terribly-written Living Story. I think I’ll pass.

In fact, I definitely will pass considering it has nothing to do with the game. Scarlet’s presentation within the game is what matters, not the fanfiction she’s in.

Part of the awfulness of that quote – besides the purple prose – is that the writer doesn’t seem to understand what they’re even talking about with all these big words (and, by extension, I don’t think you do either, sorry). Just like the “Historians, however” line you always hear from Asura: it’s not just a cryptic saying, it openly advocates skeptical (as in negative) outlook on established historical facts in reference to implied historical revisionism. Which it makes no sense to say to random strangers, and has no basis in established in-universe fact at all.

Finnway.2183:

If you’re not going to then I’ll kindly ask you to show your PHD in literature to justify your criticism.

Haha! That’s not what a PhD in literature is even for. Come on, you can figure that one out.