Guild Wars 2

So for you xpac players out there – when was the last time you felt like your own character and not "commander’?

I speak of your charr calling some human meat meat!
Or asura ensuring his pact bookahs that despite their inferior intellect and bookah-level senses he is there to see this through!
Or sylvari overhearing subordinates forseeing fall of Tyria as it’s most powerful military force is being ordered around by a salad!

Ah wait! Nvm, a-net already killled “Commander”!
When i start xpac i hear i gotta do what i gotta do cause drumroll Kiel said so!
So remind me here, am i a commander of Tyria’s greatest military force or Kiel’s errand boy?

On second thought, don’t answer that. It’s too depressing to know…

They write every “commander” from a Human perspective and it’s truly annoying if you don’t play Human, I agree.

I do wish there was more of a difference in gameplay depending on your race. I mostly play Asura and how I can make it through so many conversations without calling those around me idiots is beyond my comprehension. Even worse was when Anise was questioning my intelligence during a living story mission! How can I tolerate a Bookah questioning my intelligence?!

One of the things I really did enjoy about GW:EN. The racial differences really came through.

I want sarcastic Charr asking if my Sylvari warrior is a “Romaine” Legionnaire!

Or someone questioning a testy Golem Tech if they input the correct data to which they hotly replay; “Yes, I’m Asura (sure).”

I thought our characters left the Pact some time ago. Hence, we are referred to as ‘Boss’ (of our Guild), rather than ‘Commander’.

Perhaps, I am mistaken. /shrug

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I thought our characters left the Pact some time ago. Hence, we are referred to as ‘Boss’ (of our Guild), rather than ‘Commander’.

Perhaps, I am mistaken. /shrug

NPCs still call the player character Commander because by military standards the Rank the person retire with will always stick with them the rest of their life. However, it is based on which NPC since most people know the player character as the ’Commander of the Pact" it has become standard for others to call him or her Commander.

Boss is only used if the NPC view the player character as a their leader if they are part of Dragon’s Watch.

Outlander will be the name used by Elonians in PoF because they see the Player character as a person from Outside of their lands.

Ahh. I thought the question in the OP was whether we were still the Commander of the Pact.

My bad.

This is actually something that bothers me in many MMORPGS. They are so desperate to give you a generic label because they can’t really say your character name if they want the line VO (and they don’t want too many VO so no racial or class differences) that it just ends up being really impersonal. Add that to the issue with MMORPGs where you have to have all players have (mostly) the same story experience and it becomes even worse.

I don’t really see Kasmeer et al as “my guild” I have one of those. They are more friends or acquaintances and getting called “boss” or “commander” is annoying. Commander worked okish for the original story now it’s just… NPCs don’t really need to be saying “hey boss/commander what are you doing here” when they could cut the title altogether and just sound, well more like they actually know me.

To address the OPs concern about feeling more like an errand boy, I’m afraid that is literally what RPGs are if you distill them down. It’s all fetch and carry and kill ten rats – even if it’s dressed up as something more exciting.

Stop playing this game for the story and you will save yourself a lot of headaches.

I don’t know. I still remember Taimi called me Puba. lol

I feel good being the Commander tbh, even if the name just stuck and npcs can’t shake that habit, I think that’s realistic. racial thing aside, it just bothers me that we don’t sound as smart as we should be, both the VO, the lines, the interactions, I think the content feels unrealistic, sometimes unprofessional and stale. as the commander of the pact and having been through so much, we should have character development and rank reflected in the content our character delivers not like hey guys we will do this. WHAT? this happened? Wait come back! we aren’t boy scouts anymore. in the early days when we didn’t know what we were doing and were somehow thrown in the day yeah sure but this is years later in the timeline. we’ve seen the most horrific disgusting warfare situations and led entire fleets and armies

Personally I like it, love that our character’s getting recognized and given the credit he’s due (commander, dragonslayer and all that).

ZeftheWicked.3076:

So remind me here, am i a commander of Tyria’s greatest military force or Kiel’s errand boy?

On second thought, don’t answer that. It’s too depressing to know…

Well, no, you’re not a commander of Tyria’s greatest military force. At least not any more. That would be Logan.

The fact that we’re still the ‘Commander’ is addressed in Out of the Shadows by Almorra. This is clearly simply a convenient title by which all NPCs can address us regardless of race or gender. I enjoy that at least there is a little variation in PoF with the Cavaliers addressing us as ‘Outlander’.

So is the issue the story or the title? There are loads of people who like where the story is going and nobody is forcing you to like the story. If it’s about the title you can roleplay that and call yourself Mr Muzzle for all I care but I wouldn’t want to be called that. Going with the general term is the most logical one to go with.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

When i start xpac i hear i gotta do what i gotta do cause drumroll Kiel said so!
So remind me here, am i a commander of Tyria’s greatest military force or Kiel’s errand boy?

On second thought, don’t answer that. It’s too depressing to know…

I may be desperatly optimistic, but I don’t really think we’re running an errand for Kiel.

First, I think we’re missing part of the personal story. I can’t really figure out we’re finishing LWS3 and then hop into the first airship (which appears to be Kiel’s ?) to Crystal Desert without a little bit of chat and preparation. So I suppose ANet didn’t show us that part.

My feeling is more something like Kiel is hitching us a ride to the Crystal Desert : it’s lion guards aboard, and not pact soldiers. So it’d make sense that they keep on following Kiel’s orders, and not the PC’s. Moreover, the dialogues here were something like “Stay aboard while we solve what Kiel asked us to do, and we’ll finish taking you wherever you were going”, and the PC decides to go out and do the job. So technically, you’re just being helpful, and not running an errand for Kiel.

Now, I agree that even if you dismiss the whole military rank, status, commander mumbo jumbo, you’re still the guy/cat/salad who took part in the slaying of 2 elder dragons, and who roughly saved the day for the second one. The commoner might not really be positive of all that, but I feel like any military or intelligence thing (Shining Blade here ?) should be aware of that, and show a little more deference to the PC.

Being the center of the universe in the story actually only helps me break whatever ounce of immersion the plot exposition could attempt to muster. this happens to me in a certain extent in singleplayer games when the npcs are all “chosen one, defeat the evil imperator by killing those 10 rats in the basement blah blah”, but is CERTAINLY more noticeable on a MMO where you have 30 other chosen ones jumping up and down while waiting the dialog to end.

I was replaying some of the dungeons recently and i actually liked that your character most of the time is a handyman that helps progress the story, not the story itself. even more true if is not my character on the cutscene, but a party member.

Meta events when done right can be also a great way of storytelling even if you risk to make it feel like an amusement park ride when you are doing it for the 50th time to get that god kitten rng loot. in retrospective some of my favorite storytelling in gw2 have done on dragon stand meta, tequatl meta and specially on verdant brink meta. Having to cooperate for building tier 4 map, having to defend a camp with improvised "party"instead of a train since you need to cover more ground, working hard to get the biggest amount of bosses dead, and then o the canopy of the last boss watching the sunrise, is actually quite good storytelling without having an npc calling you boss all the time, or being the center of the universe (not even commanders are the center of the universe on meta)

on the other hand story instances have tended to be dreadful, and while i loved LS3 maps, and the dialog can be decent at times, whenever my character opened its mouth was pure dread…(and i played as different characters and different races) I do wonder if story instances could benefit from a Gordon freeman while they flesh the npcs and the lore.

I would LOVE if they take an witcher approach to story writing, while Geralt is certainly not a slouch on the heroics and legendary deeds department, and probably one of the more powerful and meanest mofos around, the story telling usually tends to be either very rich autoconclusive sidequests or big story arches where Geralt isnt the center of the universe but another thread in a beautiful tapestry .. in fact in witcher 3 Geralt isnt even the chosen one, Witcher 3 wild hunt endingBut is Ciri who fulfills a world saving prophecy, and you get the best ending by learning as father figure Geralt to be a suportive secondary character, which is extremely compelling as innovative fantasy epic storytelling, and fits perfectly into the Geralt as a father narrative

In Gw2 whatever character archetype and story we as players imagine of our character we certainly still end being a little as Geralt, a competent individual full of lots of experiences, since the gameplay guides you there, and that should be the main “assumed” circunstance of the player character, the other Imo should be left as a silent protagonist and as for the more instanced content, I wouldnt mind not being the only thing mattering. Is hard though, considering the negative feedback Kormir and threharne have got :/

ZeftheWicked.3076:

So for you xpac players out there – when was the last time you felt like your own character and not "commander’?

I speak of your charr calling some human meat meat!
Or asura ensuring his pact bookahs that despite their inferior intellect and bookah-level senses he is there to see this through!
Or sylvari overhearing subordinates forseeing fall of Tyria as it’s most powerful military force is being ordered around by a salad!

Ah wait! Nvm, a-net already killled “Commander”!
When i start xpac i hear i gotta do what i gotta do cause drumroll Kiel said so!
So remind me here, am i a commander of Tyria’s greatest military force or Kiel’s errand boy?

On second thought, don’t answer that. It’s too depressing to know…

While I agree with your citicism, I would like to point out that we no longer are commanding the Pact, Logan is.

Also, in PoF we are now referred to as “Outlander”, which — of course — doesn’t change a thing: it seemed there still is no personalized content according to your race (or profession, or personality choice).

TheOrlyFactor.8341:

Stop playing this game for the story and you will save yourself a lot of headaches.

This 100%. Coming from a time when video games consisted of three lives and one for every fifty thousand points thereafter, I read a lot of books. Really good books. Most story in games is written by people who are not writers, or by people who pretend to be, but don’t really have a good grounding in the art. Guild Wars 2 is no exception. Some games, notably the Witcher series (as mentioned), have exquisitely crafted lore and story, MMOs tend not to fall into this category for a variety of reasons, none of which really dispell the notion that writers for MMOs tend to be drawn from the B-list pool of talent.

All this is to say, that Guild War’s story and lore is just about the most cliched tripe one could ever come across. You’re almost always better off entirely skipping lines of dialog so that you don’t hurt your brain.

Incidentally, when I was playing the PoF demo and Taimi’s irritating, high pitched voice came over my “comms”, my heart sank so low that I thought I had a hernia.

Please, ANet. Just stop.

So your problem with the commander thing is, that he is not commander enough?
Funny thing is that I totally agree and at the same time totally disagree with you. I disliked that they turned you into some hero from the beginning. I mean, we all know everybody is doing this, it’s an MMO, you even do parts together. So it makes it extremely fake. Let me just be an explorer, at least that makes sense. We are all explorers.

So if you want to be the boss, well then I disagree with you. If you want more freedom I agree with you.

You see, when you are an explorer you would normally do the more traditional quest in an MMO. This however also means that you can pick what quest to do and what not to do, for the most part.

In GW2 it’s more like a single-player game inside an MMO that makes it all feel a little fake. “You, great great commander! I worship you so much[none literal quote] Can’t take that seriously especially not when I know everybody in this game is doing the same. It’s so over the top that it’s almost denigrating.

Then again, in ArenaNet’s defense. In the past many players complained they were not important enough in the story. Looks like they need some NPC to tell them how great they are for more self-esteem or something, idk? So Anet listened to them and now we are all awesome, or something. But of course with a fixed story there is no way they can realty let you be the boss, then you would have to write the story yourself.

nosleepdemon.1368:

This 100%. Coming from a time when video games consisted of three lives and one for every fifty thousand points thereafter, I read a lot of books. Really good books. Most story in games is written by people who are not writers, or by people who pretend to be, but don’t really have a good grounding in the art. Guild Wars 2 is no exception. Some games, notably the Witcher series (as mentioned), have exquisitely crafted lore and story, MMOs tend not to fall into this category for a variety of reasons, none of which really dispell the notion that writers for MMOs tend to be drawn from the B-list pool of talent.

All this is to say, that Guild War’s story and lore is just about the most cliched tripe one could ever come across. You’re almost always better off entirely skipping lines of dialog so that you don’t hurt your brain.

Incidentally, when I was playing the PoF demo and Taimi’s irritating, high pitched voice came over my “comms”, my heart sank so low that I thought I had a hernia.

Please, ANet. Just stop.

This, so much.

I don’t see a plausible reason why MMO developers can’t hire qualified writers. The fact that most don’t do doesn’t mean they can’t.

C’mon, ANet!

Vyrulisse.1246:

They write every “commander” from a Human perspective and it’s truly annoying if you don’t play Human, I agree.

Sylvari Commander actually. The writers even told us to play Heart of Thorns as a sylvari to get the best experience. Up until we complete the reforging of Caladbolg (another sylvari tale), the whole story is sylvari centric. Only the sylvari PC is fated to slay Zaitan and Mordremoth by their wyld hunt, and only they get the full picture of the story by being so intimately tied to the most important story elements from the very start.

Only a sylvari commander is immune to the influence of Zhaitan, only they get the full Trahearne story. Only a sylvari commander is so keenly affected by Mordremoth and the events of Season 1 and 2. I’m playing through Season 2 again right now, and I’ll tell you, it’s a much more intimate story as a sylvari then it was on my initial playthrough on a norn. There are lots of subtle changes that are not there for any other race. It’s all about sylvari wyld hunts and being fated characters, and that includes the wyld hunts of Trahearne and Caithe.

Certain plot devices in Season 2 make more sense as a sylvari and even beating Mordremoth from inside its own mind makes more sense as 3 sylvari (you, Canach, Caithe) because of Mordremoth’s link to sylvari minds in particular. Even the way you’re treated as a naive child all the time as the commander makes sense as a sylvari, because you are quite literally only a few years old.

Every time Taimi pulls a new plot device out of thin air or talks about how amazing she is, well, maybe that’s how she looks to a 5 year old – which is what the sylvari commander actually is. To an Asura? The SNAFF SAVANT?! Pfft, hey the Snaff Savant is wondering what the hell they’re doing being a kid’s mook. The Snaff Savant is wondering why they’re putting out fires in the PoF demo with a fire extinguisher instead of getting their golem to do that for them. Oh right, no golem, because the role isn’t really meant for an asuran Snaff Savant.

Humans are likewise just random mooks in this game. You’re a no-name noble, commoner or street urchin, possibly with ties to the Shining Blade and the White Mantle storyline but certainly without any dragon-slaying destiny from the get-go. The human PC ties in very well with Season 3 and PoF’s Balthazar angle, which makes me think the story needs some sort of reset with respect to the player character’s identity.

Charr and norn are total side-shows, much like the asura. Those sorts of player characters would be better of as no-name Warmasters, Magisters and Lightbringers of the Pact army (if even that). What the “commander” really needed to do was step back into their order at the end of Heart of Thorns and more or less vanish from the script.

What really bugs new players is having all this stuff their characters are supposed to have done, when they haven’t done any of it. In Guild Wars 1 there were fresh starts for character identities with each release. Maybe your character was Ascalonian, but later you could start as a Canthan, or an Elonian. There was space for characters to be the individuals their players imagined them to be. Not so in Guild Wars 2 the way the story is written, and it suffers for it.

The current player character’s identity as imagined by the writers is way too straight-jacketed. It made sense to be sylvari up until the reforging of Caladbolg, but now with the human-centric White Mantle arc and Balthazar, it makes no sense to make an oath to the Shining Blade and pledge yourself to defend Kryta if you’re also a charr centurion of the Ash Legion.

Personally my main character is a norn who’s wondering why Braham (of all norn) is off doing the very things that I would rather be doing. And what’s this Dragon’s Watch guild? Again, being the sylvari of the group makes sense, but my norn does not care one iota for these people. My norn would rather be back at the Priory off on Lara Croft-type adventures for ancient scrolls and magical bows so I can finally slay Jormag and be the hero of my people… ohhh, like Braham is doing!

The most stark difference I’ve seen in Guild Wars 2 is the difference between the emergent storytelling of the open world vs. the instanced personal story. The story that manifests naturally in the open world is 10/10 in Heart of Thorns in particular. Just brilliant, from Laranthir and the Pale Reavers being right there after you liberated them all the way up to the massive battle through Dragon’s Stand. But freeing Laranthir is the only personal story step I can recommend. It sets the scene for the rest of the story to emerge beautifully like an Elder Scrolls game. Just great.

The HoT personal story was awful 3/10 level drivel and terrible single player gameplay that will NEVER match a bespoke single player game such as The Witcher or at least a dozen other games I could mention. GW2 is a great MMO but a terrible (with a few well made exeptions) single player instanced experience. It’s dated, tired and outshone.

Almost all of the story in Guild Wars 2 could be better told in the open world with client-side storytelling (tech well deployed in Heart of Thorns), with a more inclusive, open ended identity for the player to occupy. The emergent story in HoT’s open world was Elder Scrolls-level of excellence, and ArenaNet would do well to stick to what they’re genuinely strong at there going forward.

TL;DR: Well, that was a bit more than 2c worth. Maybe I’m a bit too passionate about a game that has 10/10 elements right next to 1/10 elements and the contrast is just… well it’s enough to make me write a really long post on the forums apparently.

edited a typo :o)

My first attempt at posting was over 7,000 characters apparently and there’s a 6,000 limit, so I’m posting some bullet pointed thoughts here that I couldn’t fit in the previous post.

Add some ways to ditch the player’s “commander” identity

• Create story buy-in points for new players who don’t have a history, other than a bit of basic background. Don’t just dump every new player at the start of the Zhaitan story, give them options for a fresh start.
• Create identity reset points for characters of previous campaigns, allowing them to be “quite famous” for unspecified reasons.
• Have membership of Dragon’s Watch be optional; make it so there’s a more anonymous path so that players can either be free agents of their Order or completely unaffiliated.
• More story unfolding in the open world. Mimimal use of instances (Hidden Arcana levels of greatness or forget it). Think, do you really need an instance to force the story awkwardly on or can you do it naturally in the open world?

Slice up the existing personal story

• Separate the “Racial”, “Order” and “Pact” stories into independent packages that do not rely on each other to be completed. The initial level 1 instance gives the character enough fame to join an Order and/or the Pact when they are high enough level. They can join the Pact as a famous hero without joining an Order just as Trahearne does.
• Automatic access to the first Order mission is at level 20, the Pact at level 40, by the existing mail.
• All racial story quests should be available. Players should be able to revise their character’s story, effectively retconning their initial choices. Rewards only happen once.
• All order story quests should also be available, offering progression through their chosen order. Defecting to another order should also be possible, wiping their previous identity and effectively retconning the character to another order. Rewards only happen once.
• Players would be free to neglect any package, remaining as “blank slate” as they see fit.
• Players would also be able to replay packages as much as they wanted, just like they can with Season 2 onwards. There’s scope for achievements, maybe.

TL;DR

The challenge for ArenaNet today is to allow new players with blank slate characters a way to join the story without needing to have played the last 5 years worth of content. We need more entry points and possibilities for our identity.

Also, there’s scope to chop up the old content and make it replayable like the Bonus Missions Pack from Guild Wars. That, was excellent. I’d love to take my norn and play every single norn racial mission over and over for fun, especially if it added the associated NPCs to my Home Instance.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

So for you xpac players out there – when was the last time you felt like your own character and not "commander’?

I speak of your charr calling some human meat meat!
Or asura ensuring his pact bookahs that despite their inferior intellect and bookah-level senses he is there to see this through!
Or sylvari overhearing subordinates forseeing fall of Tyria as it’s most powerful military force is being ordered around by a salad!

Ah wait! Nvm, a-net already killled “Commander”!
When i start xpac i hear i gotta do what i gotta do cause drumroll Kiel said so!
So remind me here, am i a commander of Tyria’s greatest military force or Kiel’s errand boy?

On second thought, don’t answer that. It’s too depressing to know…

first world problems

Cirian.8917:

Fortress of text

Totally agree. I wouldnt mind a new expansion that instead of going somewhere else, is set to create a blank slate and a place for various adventures in all tyria (and this is coming from someone who REALLY wants to get back to Cantha). In fact i wouldnt mind if such an expansion is actually a kickstarter or something like that, pre-funded. so it can be free for everyone and don’t “need” to sell.

cough cough Plus it would be the perfect chance to add tengu cough cough

Boysenberry.1869:

I do wish there was more of a difference in gameplay depending on your race. I mostly play Asura and how I can make it through so many conversations without calling those around me idiots is beyond my comprehension. Even worse was when Anise was questioning my intelligence during a living story mission! How can I tolerate a Bookah questioning my intelligence?!

I’m SO glad I wasn’t the only one who was annoyed by that… I really wish they would at the very least for instances have our charactors actual races kept in mind. It was incredibly frustrating playing through and having Taimi explaining things to me when she could have showed me diagrams and my Asura should have just been able to push through them rather then have her act like my Asura was a toddler. I was ok with her pointing out that I hadn’t done much recently when visiting Living Worlds season 2 but seriously there were so many points when I wondered why my Asura didn’t act like ANY of the Asuras in Rata Sum.

I run into the exact same problem with every other race except human. It was incredibly annoying going through my personal story and having someone explain to me what a Svanir was when I was playing a Norn and should KNOW what a Svanir is etc it’s those little pieces that sort of pull you out of the storyline.

The Player Character hasn’t been part of the Pact since July 26 of last year, and Logan has been the Pact Commander since February 8th.

That’s over a year snce we’ve been in charge of anything other than Dragons Watch, and even then we aren’t designated as that guild’s leader.

I totally agree that the choices I made for my character should influence the game more…. I always feel sad that my As Legion Charr Warrior who is also a Lightbringer now acts completly the same then my Warmaster human Mesmer. In Vanilla GW2 you had some illusion of that when playing as an Member of the Order of Whispers as you could speak with there agents and find their secret lairs…. I want more of that…..

ZeftheWicked.3076:

So for you xpac players out there – when was the last time you felt like your own character and not "commander’?

I speak of your charr calling some human meat meat!
Or asura ensuring his pact bookahs that despite their inferior intellect and bookah-level senses he is there to see this through!
Or sylvari overhearing subordinates forseeing fall of Tyria as it’s most powerful military force is being ordered around by a salad!

Ah wait! Nvm, a-net already killled “Commander”!
When i start xpac i hear i gotta do what i gotta do cause drumroll Kiel said so!
So remind me here, am i a commander of Tyria’s greatest military force or Kiel’s errand boy?

On second thought, don’t answer that. It’s too depressing to know…

They really should outsource their quest text to the players themselves. I feel arena net’s story and quest teams can’t really be bothered anymore writting decent dialog/plots.

Given the minimal levels of literacy evident in map chat and even this forum, I’m sure that would end well.

I am the Poobah. Shut up babies

@ Cirian: Thank you so much for taking the time to write those two posts! You truly hit the nail on the head with everything you wrote.

I have only been criticizing (the same ascpects you do), but never took the time to work out solutions. I hope someone from ANet will read your posts and listen.

Sarie.1630:

ZeftheWicked.3076:

So remind me here, am i a commander of Tyria’s greatest military force or Kiel’s errand boy?

On second thought, don’t answer that. It’s too depressing to know…

Well, no, you’re not a commander of Tyria’s greatest military force. At least not any more. That would be Logan.

The fact that we’re still the ‘Commander’ is addressed in Out of the Shadows by Almorra. This is clearly simply a convenient title by which all NPCs can address us regardless of race or gender. I enjoy that at least there is a little variation in PoF with the Cavaliers addressing us as ‘Outlander’.

False. Logan replaced Trahearne as Marshal. “You” never were the leader of the Pact, you are one of its Commanders.

That being said, and in regards to the OP, while it isn’t possible to have the NPCs address each player character by name, it may be possible to have a limited, selectable set of titles. These could, in theory, be related to your Character Creation (e.g. Noble Humans can be called “Baron”, Ash Legion Charr could be called “Skulker”) or to your Personal Story (callbacks to “Slayer”, “Valiant”, etc.), among other things. This would reduce the extra VO work to single words or specific lines rather than the entire script – which brings its own challenges – and should minimize work coding variations.

Trise.2865:

False. Logan replaced Trahearne as Marshal. “You” never were the leader of the Pact, you are one of its Commanders.

Yes, I confused the terminology, my bad. I meant Marshal, a position we were offered first but declined. However, as Commander, the second in command, it was us who led the Pact throughout HoT, so we had been basically its last leader before Logan, no?

Cirian.8917:

My first attempt at posting was over 7,000 characters apparently and there’s a 6,000 limit, so I’m posting some bullet pointed thoughts here that I couldn’t fit in the previous post.

Just wanted to let you know that I liked both your posts and agreed with much of them. I really don’t understand why Anet wrote the game this way. It seems like they didn’t even consider that new players would be picking up the game in the middle and not have played some or all of the first stories / expansion. Nevermind as you mentioned the extreme lack of consideration of all the different races.

And the OP’s topic is just 1 more example of the writing not taking into account the character’s previous actions. I played a human through the Shining Blade episode and I was definitely offended that they made my character who is such a hero stand there and have rocks thrown at him and take an oath because they can’t trust him to keep secrets. Terrible story.

Being human, I wouldn’t have minded being invited to join the Shining Blade, but I seriously object to being forced to join because I’m not trustworthy!

While Cirian has offered some great suggestions, they made it pretty clear that redoing the Personal Story just isn’t possible because they hard-coded too many parts of the engine around it and trying to have any of it be replayable would be a mess. I enjoyed playing through the personal story, and picking up on the plot points that would later return in the story, like the Balthazar statues, or Elli’s giant hologram technology. But that can only be done by making a new character, and ensuring you pick a new origin branch.

That aside, though, I do want to see more personality from the player character. I’m fine if they all make the same decision, but why not have their motives be different? Take fighting Balthazar as an example. Here’s what I would have done for each of the races:

• The charr would be excited that Balthazar has returned, so that they have a chance to slay a god for themselves.
• The humans would question if it’s possible to defeat a god, but would try anyway because it’s the right thing to do.
• The norn would welcome the challenge of seeing if they are mightier than a god.
• The asura would be fighting to get research information on Balthazar, and also confirming or disproving Taimi’s theory about the dragons.
• The sylvari would just be curious, and wants to stop the world from being destroyed before learning more about it. Perhaps even thinking of the saplings who haven’t yet had a chance to explore the world.

They are all small differences in motivation, probably only different by a word or two overall, but would still reflect the fact that the character you chose has more than a mere cosmetic difference from the other characters. I mean, in Heart of Thorns they managed to make it so that asura didn’t wonder what Rata Novus was, but were just surprised that it really existed, yet still explain to the player who didn’t know with the exact same dialogue said by Taimi as she would have to the other races. It can be done, it just needs a little more effort and consideration on the writing team’s part.

The writing sucks. Period.

We went from a sylvari-centered story to a sudden human-centered plot.

Commander, eh? Well, I cannot speak for you but me – I’m in charge and if they don’t like it they can file a complaint with the officers in charge of whatever military they are attached too. You see, there is a chain of command and I’m holding it. Perhaps the complaining parties would all like the rank of Admiral or Field Marshal instead?

Thanks for the kind words. Someone contacted me in-game today to say thanks for my post and that was really kind and surprising. Quite a few of us can see the problem and I hope ArenaNet has a go at a solution.

I guess I’ve already offered up my ideas. Issues like story bloat are inevitable in an MMO as they age so at some point ArenaNet is going to have to tackle it. I guess I am a bit surprised they didn’t see this coming as it wasn’t an issue for Guild Wars, but then maybe the game’s being driven by different people and they fell into this particular trap.

If you’re talking about extra dialogue based on race, I rather like the fact that my character isn’t defined by their race. Like I rather like being an Asura who isn’t an elitist kitten to everyone around him. He also has little to no personality just being the “savior-hero” type character. But I’ll just chalk that down to either bad writing because the story has never been Guild Wars’ strong suit (Though certain moments had me with goosebumps. Claw Island(Tybalt) and The Source of Orr come to mind) or they just had to make him generic enough to fit with everyone’s character so he(or she) was not allowed to have a personality.

It always irks me in a fantasy setting when a character is all like "I am like this because I am “insert race here” or “I am strong because I am orc” or “Clearly my vast elf intellect is superior to your dwarf pint-brain” or all dwarves drink beer and have beards… etc etc.

Guild Wars has it’s share of this but I rather like that they break away from those stereotypes a lot of the times I love that every race can be any profession where many MMOs are guilty of making what class you can be depend on race (WoW comes to mind and is especially bad with this). The many different races are almost seamless in their existing in the world. Almost but it’s close.

It’s actually kind of weird, I’ve only seen one fantasy setting where race is completely seamless in that you’re treated no differently for having fur, scales, skin or even wings (Ivalice) and I really like to see more. Because choosing your race really should be just a cosmetic choice, it shouldn’t matter. People should just be people. Defined by themselves, not by their DNA. Well, that’s my philosophy on race in games at least.