Guild Wars 2

I have seen this claim in a number of threads, and I see people claiming this in chat on the game as well, and if it frustrates me I can only imagine how it must frustrate the hell out of the writers.

People, if you’re looking for story, please take the time to actually stop and listen to what the NPCs are saying around you. Many dynamic events are lead into by conversations, event chains are linked together as conversations after one event continue to follow their story into the next, and so on. Even if you come into an event part way through, you can hang out and listen to the NPCs to see what they have to say about it afterwords – unless it’s the last event in a chain, there is usually some exposition going on.

There is story happening everywhere in this game, if you’d just slow down and listen to it.

The problem, I think, is that people have the sound turned off habitually in MMOs and listen to music or chat on vent/mumble/etc.

NPC chat is also readable if people want to take the time to read it. That would give them some story. Though to be honest, most of the early events have a shallow story. It gets much better later.

We found the cow catapult tonight. I haven’t laughed as hard as I did since watching Hangover. Actually, we did that event twice before we figured it out and that Charr had me cracking up!

they dont read anything, they just click go, they do that in every other mmo they hell no read what the mission guy tells them when they pick the mission, because the mmos mark you were you have to go, so they dont even read what they need.

for them story in mission/quest/task wtv name you want to give, is a cinematic.

but yes the whole map has story, in the houses theres books or around caves too, but when you match the whole puzzle it makes sense

Jack of Tears.9458:

I have seen this claim in a number of threads, and I see people claiming this in chat on the game as well,

I want to play on your server.

On the server that I’m on, (at the times that I’m on), nobody is social enough to chat, less even to hold a conversation that even makes any sense and that which is not just meant to insult another player.

So far in GW2 I have to say that it’s the most anti-social MMO that I’ve ever played. In a couple of the others at least there was more to the chat than just complaining about one thing or another.

Runar.1342:

I want to play on your server.

On the server that I’m on, (at the times that I’m on), nobody is social enough to chat, less even to hold a conversation that even makes any sense and that which is not just meant to insult another player.

So far in GW2 I have to say that it’s the most anti-social MMO that I’ve ever played. In a couple of the others at least there was more to the chat than just complaining about one thing or another.

So, an aside from the topic of the post, but what server are you on? I’m on the Tarnished Coast server – which is the unofficial RP server – and anytime I pay attention to open chat people are getting along great.

Fact: I’ve run into more role players here, faster and more often, than I have in any other MMO I’ve ever played – and I’ve tried rping on quite a few.

Runar.1342:

Jack of Tears.9458:

I have seen this claim in a number of threads, and I see people claiming this in chat on the game as well,

I want to play on your server.

On the server that I’m on, (at the times that I’m on), nobody is social enough to chat, less even to hold a conversation that even makes any sense and that which is not just meant to insult another player.

So far in GW2 I have to say that it’s the most anti-social MMO that I’ve ever played. In a couple of the others at least there was more to the chat than just complaining about one thing or another.

Its not the game thats anti-social its the people, If you want social try moving to one of the unofficial RP servers. Especially if you like to RP you really cant get more social that seeing players having whole conversations in character. But there is chatter all around evening during Events themselves.

If you’re interested they’re Piken square in Europe and Tarnished coast in the US

This is an easy easy topic to disprove. Dynamic Events have no story because you actually have to have them going for there for your topic statment to be correct. If they had a story that mattered Dynamic Events would be happening all the time so people don’t miss the story. But that’s not the case is it. I can count on one hand how many DE I have seen today in 6-7 hours of game play. DE are non existent from what I have seen. Each may have a story for its own little DE, but what does that have to do with the World and what does that have to even do with the name of the game. I have not seen a single DE that mentions guild wars.

I am a Norn, I am level 64 yet what ever happened to Jormag story? Every thing had something to do with Jormag up till about lvl 25 then, nothing. This game is not about Jormag, it seems to be about Zhaitan, I never even heard of Zhaitan till a solo quest in Lions arch at about lvl 35 i think. Out of no where it goes from one thing to another and makes little to no sense. Sons of Svanir to Jormag to Dreg to saving Eir Stegalkin’s group to Zhaitan. Only reason I know any of that is because of Solo quest line not because of DEs. And you want to talk abou abrupt changes and directon shifs? I still don’t see why I am not on a quest line to take down Jormag.

There is no path to travel. They said the game was made for eveyone to have there own story, but what story is that? I will tell you mine. I have walked around aimlessly for 64 levels trying to reach the correct level for the solo quest line. Solo quest is the only thing that has a story line, and that is lacking as well, Solo quest only started to take a real path once I joined the Vigil. But still the game makes little sense in between.

Most of the DE are all under one statment. “(X) person needs help, go help them”.

This is the first MMO I have played where you actually have to pay attention to the world around you. There is plenty of story and explanations if people just stop and listen/read instead of just zerging around to the next map marker.

My first “Wow, that was cool.” moment was in Kessex Hills when I witnessed a kidnapping by bandits. I have never felt so heroic chasing them over the hill cutting down the minions to try and stop them before they reached their hideout.

Kudos to Anet for making me happy in my MMO gaming again.

For me the biggest annoyance with the events is the missing most of the chain. Few times that I found really good ones, really fun too and got to experience them fully and know what was going on from the beginning left me thinking how many really good ones I have missed since I stumble upon them on the last step? They give very little information on the previous steps if at all when the whole thing is done.

Then there are those that don’t give any information at all what is going on. For example I did one yesterday. I found a downed npc, I rezzed her and to my delight it started a event. But how it went? All she did was move to a some location and said protect me while I study these whatever they were and after she was done, she poofed.. and that was it. And that’s not the only example, there have been so many of those with little or no story at all. Maybe it was again just a long chain where I got to see the very end of it, or not the end since I have no idea where she went back, but while I was doing it, there was no other information available even during the event.

Agree with the OP. If you pay attention, you do start to piece together a picture of what’s going on across the whole realm. But you do have to pay attention – to NPC chat, to the manner in which the DEs unfold, etc.

It’s about a billion times better than having the quest just be the text you get from the quest giver. Actually participating in the events as they unfold is magical (especially if you’re the one who starts off a chain).

As to the point above about not always getting the whole thing first go – what was that complaint some people have about there being “no endgame”?

WAI.

ironically, those are probably the people who click through the dialogue/text in traditional questgiver scenarios.

Don’t burden yourself with other folks complaining. You’ll enjoy the game so much more

gurugeorge.9857:

It’s about a billion times better than having the quest just be the text you get from the quest giver. Actually participating in the events as they unfold is magical (especially if you’re the one who starts off a chain).

Like I said, there actually has to be DE to participate in. The DE story is irrelevant, non important, what ever take your pick, because if they were important DE would be a lot easier to start / be more frequent so that we would not miss the story line.

Having to piece together a story from NPC’s you have to listen to is garbage. 95% of what NPC says is annoying and have nothing to do with anything. I turn off NPC volume in towns because they are so very very annoying. I hate the constant repeating of the same phrases over and over. Or the extremely annoying HA, HA, HA! In Divinity’s Reach that is non stop. I have never seen such an annoying thing in any game.

You should have to talk to the NPC’s to get what is important to the story line.

Valkaneer.7834:

You should have to talk to the NPC’s to get what is important to the story line.

What is a story?

It’s a series of events unfolding.

With DEs, you are participating in the events unfolding. Therefore you don’t have to have the story canned, second-hand, from an NPC: you were yourself a participant in, and a hero of, the world’s story.

That’s the whole point of DEs. If you don’t get that, you’re missing the point.

(But actually it does help, to flesh out the world story a bit, to be aware of both ambient NPC convos, and to regularly talk to random, talkable-to (quote bubble on hover) NPCs. I do agree the the frequency of ambient chat is a bit too much at the moment. Apparently Anet are aware of that and are going to tweak it.)

As to you not always catching every DE in a given zone – again, that’s part of the game’s longevity. As you either criss-cross the zones trying to perfect one toon, or play with alts, the individual DE story chains, and the whole world story, emerge, like a mosaic or a jigsaw puzzle that you piece together.

Totally different method of story delivery.

gurugeorge.9857:

Valkaneer.7834:

You should have to talk to the NPC’s to get what is important to the story line.

With DEs, you are participating in the events unfolding.

That’s the whole point of DEs. If you don’t get that, you’re missing the point.

What DE’s??? They are nonexistent, that vast majority of this game has been heart quest and killing what is standing in my way to get to the next heart quest. OK you tell me what happened to Jormag and why as a Norn am I not dealing with him, the dragon that trashed my homeland and killed hundreds of my people???? Why was the first time I really heard of Zhaitan was in a Solo quest. Even worse was not till the 3rd of 4th solo quest of dealing with Zhaitan that I found out Zhaitan was dragon, and not a country.

Unless you are there to start a DE you have no idea what it has to do with anything when it’s done, the Boss says nothing most of the time there is nothing said when its over from many DE’s. Why are centars attacking the humans and Norn? I have no idea even though I have done many centar DE’s.

I did a DE when I was in my 30’s where I found some Asura held hostage by some Oger’s which when I saved her she wanted revenge on the ogers. So I collected elemental cores for her and she used them to make a golem which went crazy and I had to kill it. What did that have to do with anything? Nothing! In the same zone I did a DE where I gathered dwarven artifacts, in the end I had to fight the fire elemental locked in it. What did that have to do with anything? Nothing! Same zone I had to fight and island of pirates so that this underwater guy could become the leader of the pirates. What did that have to do with anything, Nothing again. My point is DE’s have little to no affect on the main goal of the game.

Your really grasping at thin air man.

Jack of Tears.9458:

I have seen this claim in a number of threads, and I see people claiming this in chat on the game as well, and if it frustrates me I can only imagine how it must frustrate the hell out of the writers.

People, if you’re looking for story, please take the time to actually stop and listen to what the NPCs are saying around you. Many dynamic events are lead into by conversations, event chains are linked together as conversations after one event continue to follow their story into the next, and so on. Even if you come into an event part way through, you can hang out and listen to the NPCs to see what they have to say about it afterwords – unless it’s the last event in a chain, there is usually some exposition going on.

There is story happening everywhere in this game, if you’d just slow down and listen to it.

They dont,they rush through it and when the event ends their gone before you know it,while the follow up is just about to begin.People are rushing through this game,only to complain when they finally reached lvl 80,how boring gw2 is,and how bad the events are etc etc yada yada yadaaa.

Yesterday I was in Diessa Plateau and I had seen the event where some separationist elite NPCs attack a charr base but I finally caught where it began. There are 4 or 5 separationists running to the camp, from a reasonable distance (from one of the separatist camps I think) and the leader tells you they are on their way to make a peace treaty with the charr. When they arrive with a box of goods for the charr as a token of peace the charr destroy the box instead and that’s when the fight begins.

You really need to pay attention to get the full scope on how stuff happens and why. There is story, you just need to look for it. The world is alive, this isn’t WoW. I only found this because I decided I would follow the NPCs to see if they would do anything significant.

It’s frustrating me to see people missing the “big” story. My bf is one of the ones that likes to click click click through texts. I’ve even caught him clicking through the cut scenes in his own instance storyline. I had to tell him that -I- want to see it so please don’t click through it!

I like to think that when I’m not playing, the npc’s are living in their own little world, doing their own things. It doesn’t seem like they have free will (not like Sims), but, it’s a scripted story that they have no choice but to live out.

I realize I don’t start out as a HERO (which some people that click click don’t understand), I have to earn that title. Isn’t that what the game is about? You’re building a hero from the ground up?

Valkaneer.7834:

Your really grasping at thin air man.

Not at all, I’m just recounting my experience. For me, DEs are pretty much working as advertised, and I’m always mystified by complaints like yours. Either you’ve been extraordinarly unlucky or you’re not “clicking” somehow with the way the game does questing. I can only suggest that you pay more attention to the virtual world around you and perhaps be a bit more patient sometimes.

Check out this vid for an example of the sort of spirit that you should approach the game. Just be more curious about the world itself. Follow things up. If you’re used to NPCs just standing around and expect to get a chunk of story text from them, then you won’t get it. Think of them as living their own lives, and you’ll be rewarded. (Not always, but quite often.)

e.g. it might be the case that one of those events you mentioned stopped where you left it, but it might not be. Sometimes it is (sometimes DEs are one-shot affairs, just like single quests), sometimes they’re part of events that change the world depending on whether you fail or succeed.

Also, after a DE, definitely talk to the main NPCs concerned (e.g the “shield” guy who leads the charge, or whatever), doing so often gives you context for how that particular DE fits into the bigger story.