Guild Wars 2

“this won’t end well”
thank you Treaherne, i really needed that morale boost! now that you made clear we are facing evil and world is dark, shut up and try not to die this time…
the ability to joke in the face of evil is one of the brilliant tactics of creatures alive and also something to make feel your enemy underestimated and barely taken care of.
it works.

though i wish we had some dragon age origins dark feeling and humor

Amadan.9451:

“this won’t end well”
thank you Treaherne, i really needed that morale boost! now that you made clear we are facing evil and world is dark, shut up and try not to die this time…
the ability to joke in the face of evil is one of the brilliant tactics of creatures alive and also something to make feel your enemy underestimated and barely taken care of.
it works.

though i wish we had some dragon age origins dark feeling and humor

I just wish the combat chatter like that line triggered a little less often, given that we probably won’t be able to get more variety out of the already-finished content :P

I believe the flaw to be the personal story more than the overall tone and style. GW2 is plenty capable of being dark and serious, but the personal story simply missed a lot of potential.

Kain Francois.4328:

I believe the flaw to be the personal story more than the overall tone and style. GW2 is plenty capable of being dark and serious, but the personal story simply missed a lot of potential.

Well, unless you were charr. Really, I found the personal storylines I played out with charr characters at BWEs and post-release to be very much less “laughable”. Cliche? Yes, but . . .

I admit that the general tone of the GW2 background is lighter and sillier than GW1. However, I’m now going to make an Asuran that joins the Order of Whispers just to combine all the silly in one place… A Sillularity if you will.

bpphantom.8243:

I admit that the general tone of the GW2 background is lighter and sillier than GW1. However, I’m now going to make an Asuran that joins the Order of Whispers just to combine all the silly in one place… A Sillularity if you will.

No, you fool! You know not what you do! It will be the death of us all!

(Sarcasm.)

(PS. Infinity Ball for maximum goofiness.)

Ugh, so tired of the “dark and brooding” atmospheres of other games.

Goth is so 90’s.

After a long day at work I will take silly and goofy any time.

Much of the perceived difference in seriousness between GW1 and GW2 is caused simply by the fact that most dialog in GW2 is voice acted, whereas in GW1 most dialogue was in text. A written joke seems always more dignified than one spoken aloud.

Tuomir.1830:

Much of the perceived difference in seriousness between GW1 and GW2 is caused simply by the fact that most dialog in GW2 is voice acted, whereas in GW1 most dialogue was in text. A written joke seems always more dignified than one spoken aloud.

Interesting thought: How many of those who dislike Trahearne would still dislike him as vehemently had he had no voice, just text? How many would have looked upon Tybalt differently in the same scenario?

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

Asuras used to be know-it-alls, they still are but they look very childish now and less dignified.

Yeah, I recently watched a video compilation of all the cutscenes from EoTN. Vekk wasn’t exactly comic relief, and his old man, Gadd… yikes.

Tachenon.5270:

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

Asuras used to be know-it-alls, they still are but they look very childish now and less dignified.

Yeah, I recently watched a video compilation of all the cutscenes from EoTN. Vekk wasn’t exactly comic relief, and his old man, Gadd… yikes.

Yes and instead we have Zojja now. And Kudu. One of which is menacing, the other is a heartless scientist. Both of whom I want to lock in a chest and throw in the ocean for slightly different reasons.

(Kudu, stop taunting then running, and let me KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL you! Gods it was fun to put him down in Crucible of Eternity . . . )

The game has personality. It’s not some boring serious person.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Obsidian.1328:

Gwen was too emo, everyone knows that. And you will always get peeps that wear pink on heavy armor. Same with the “scantily clad” element.

You’re thinking of the wrong Gwen. You really are. But that’s okay. I’m here to help.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Gwen_(Prophecies).jpg

This is Gwen. She was a little girl who waited outside the gates of the first city in Prophecies and if you talked to her she would tag along and chatter nonstop until you left the area. Part of the Searing cinematic was her looking up before “crap happened”, and the next you saw of her was a “tattered girl’s cape” washing up somewhere in Kryta. Or a “Broken flute” spawning in the ruins of Ascalon.

And people adored this little girl.

The game is too sci-fi only because it’s an oxymoron existence. Yaks still pulling wooden carts around yet there’s a giant laser attached to a floating metal zeppelin…makes no sense. Final Rest and Twilight are just cool to look at, they aren’t dark and gritty.

Nope, they’re cool to look at but then, I find Moonshine to also be cool to look at.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Moonshine

I don’t know the “assembly line” thing you mentioned, I always did the snowball pvp during Wintersday.

Your ignorance of what went on doesn’t make a difference to how goofy it was. Look up the Wintersday Finale. Heck, look up ninety percent of holiday quests. “The Knights who Say Nian”. Please tell me there is one holiday’s worth of events which is entirely not goofy.

Read the short story here right at the beginning(Nolani Academy…) and tell me it’s not more serious and gritty:
ftp://ftp.guildwars.com/downloads/gwp-manual.pdf

Talk with some people about what happened to Malomedes. Look at the first thing that happens for a charr player character. Listen to what happened to Destiny’s Edge to make them break up. Read the backstory of Ebonhawke . . . heck, take Ebonhawke in and of itself.

On Gwen
Lulz, thanks for clarifying what you should have earlier. “Little” Gwen was charming at best, but there were lots who didn’t like her either. Besides, Pre-searing was a sort of tutorial to learn your class…it’s supposed to be light-hearted and easy.

On weapons
You just agreed with me on how they look cool, so…

On holiday events
I already specifically said that GW1 holiday events were goofy, did you skip that?

On your last paragraph
1) What, that the Asura experimented on him? Did they elaborate?
2) I don’t/won’t play Charr so I’ll have to research that.
3) Destiny’s Edge is the whiniest group of fighters I’ve met in a game. Almost every storymode dungeon they end up running off in a hissy-fit. If they were real warriors, Logan would never have left DE in the middle of a fight to save his sweetheart Jenna, Rytlock would not be so stubborn and give Sohothin back to humanity to preserve group morale, Zojja would be a grown-up and stop blaming Eir for Snaff’s death from the get-go. Caithe seems pretty level-headed though. /shrug
4) Ebonhawke’s backstory is indeed dark. It’s lovely that this “peace-talk” is a slap in the face of those who died founding/defending it, not to mention it goes against Ebonhawke’s very existence. We all need to hold hands now though, right?

This game is doomed. Too much goofyness going on, I feel a good story wasted with try-hard wit.

Obsidian.1328:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

And people adored this little girl.

Lolz, thanks for the clarification you should have made from the start. “Little” Gwen was also not adored by plenty of people. And pre-searing was like a tutorial to the game where you learn your class, it’s supposed to be easy and goofy.

And yet it was dark and foreboding too.
I’m also sure there are people who did adore her, in great amounts. Because there were a lot of people who refused to believe she had died even before Eye of the North was hinted at. It might still be possible to dig up things from fan forums of Guild Wars 1 before 2007, but you know, it’s not worth the effort.
Someone else who played around that time? I can’t be the only one.

Also, you really should have known better than to only look at one aspect of Gwen instead of the whole. But I’m guessing Prophecies was not your first campaign?

You just agreed with me.

And your point is . . . ?
If you don’t have one, stay on topic. Something can be “cool” and still be “dark” or “grim”.

Your ignorance of what went on doesn’t make a difference to how goofy it was. Look up the Wintersday Finale. Heck, look up ninety percent of holiday quests. “The Knights who Say Nian”. Please tell me there is one holiday’s worth of events which is entirely not goofy.

I also specifically mentioned the game was goofy during the holidays, did you skip that part? GW2 is goofy most the time regardless of holiday events.

I’m sorry, no.

This whole thread of personal story is neither goofy nor silly. Neither is “Dead little sister” for humans.

Talk with some people about what happened to Malomedes. Look at the first thing that happens for a charr player character. Listen to what happened to Destiny’s Edge to make them break up. Read the backstory of Ebonhawke . . . heck, take Ebonhawke in and of itself.

1) What, that the Asura experimented on him? Did they elaborate?
2) I won’t play Charr so I’ll have to research that.
3) Destiny’s Edge is the whiniest group of fighters I’ve met in a game. Almost every storymode dungeon they end up running off in a hissy-fit. If they were real warriors, Logan would never have left DE in the middle of a fight to save his sweetheart Jenna, Rytlock would not be so stubborn and give Sohothin back to humanity to preserve group morale, Zojja would be a grown-up and stop blaming Eir for Snaff’s death from the get-go. Caithe seems pretty level-headed though. /shrug
4) Ebonhawke’s backstory is indeed dark. It’s lovely that this “peace-talk” is a slap in the face of those who died founding/defending it, not to mention it goes against Ebonhawke’s very existence. We all need to hold hands now though, right?

1 – Malomedes’ first encounter with another race was the Inquest. I would trust you would understand what this would mean, but I’ll spell it out. He was experimented on, and no concern was given for his comfort or well-being.

2 – Linked above is one part of the charr personal story, from the Blood Legion. It’s from Beta but it hasn’t changed much. The entire arc is not happy goofy “let’s go have fun”, even if Dinky is around to be a little silly.

3 – You really don’t know do you? Logan found Rytlock with the sword and when he came to respect the charr warrior he let him keep it rather than demand it back. Snaff died because Eir made a miscalculation and he was the closest thing Zojja had to an actual father-figure. Eir is out to throw herself into death defending Honor of the Waves because she feels guilty about that failure. These people have suffered, and while I agree they can be a little whiny (Rytlock stop poking Logan’s pride with a stick and getting upset when he does it back!) they are mostly pretty young.

4 – And this is more proof you’re not paying attention. The peace talks are because Kryta can’t back up Ebonhawke enough to put the charr away from it, and the charr can’t take it. Both sides are wasting resources fighting and it’s a complete stalemate. With the truce the High Legions can actually focus on the Flame Legion (which is bad news for everyone, not just the charr) and keeping them in check. Last time they were free to act, well . . . Ascalon burned, Kryta became ruled by fear, and Orr was obliterated. Also there may have been some dead civilians in there somewhere.

I don’t mind humor amongst a serious storyline. GW1 had almost no humor in Prophecies but the story was great. GW2 has a mix of serious and humorous, however the only humor I find actually funny are the Asura. Tybalt is a moron and my female necro feels like she’s babysitting him. The Priory chic (forget her name) is like a kid and my guardian feels like he’s rolling his eyes and going along with her childish antics. Yes, it adds some levity to otherwise serious situations. However, the way the humor is done is less than witty unless we’re talking about the Asura. Haven’t gotten too far into any of the Asura storylines (yet) but they feel at least a little smarter than the “oh my I’ve forgotten where I’ve left my friend, lookie Risen, help my poor flowers” childishness that some of the non-serious portions have. I think I need to start rolling Norn…if nothing else I’ll get drunken ego-driven humor rather than naive & childish Sylvari and Charr. To be honest, the human and Vigil storylines are the most serious.

1. Asura are goofy and pathetic most of the time.
2. Every major event revolves around asuras.
3. Every major content is turned goofy and pathetic.
…
And the voices, Dear God, “SeeeeeeeeEEEEEEE?!?!?? Thiiiis is why we need a coheeeeesive plan!”

Detha in Fractals is one kitten NPC that I would kill if I could. Literally, cut her head off with an axe and impale it on a pike.

darkdomino.9578:

This is something that has kinda bugged me from the get-go. The tone and style of Guild Wars 1 was fairly dark, post-searing… The dialogue was fairly serious, people talked about serious things. Even though the storyline was kinda disjointed, it still had an air of legitimacy. As the series “matured”, we saw a little bit more levity and comedy in the game – such as Kilroy Stoneskin – or the quest NPC in Factions who implies, more or less, that he needs you to help him get viagra to make his wife happy.

Guild Wars 2 seems to take everything a bit far. The entire game feels like one running gag after the next. The dialogue feels like parody more than something to be taken seriously. The asura, for god’s sake, are an entire race devoted to parody – everything they say is in the context of something outlandish, goofy, or absurd. It reminds me of when you clicked units in Warcraft too many times, and they said funny out-of-character things – well the entire game of GW2 feels like one big reel of out-of-character one-liners, inside jokes, and running gags.

The character of Tybalt, for example, is one running gag after the next. One mission involves him disguising himself, (via magic of course) as a woman and … talking like a woman… and just acting like a complete and total kitten I’m sure the GW2 writers thought all this was terribly clever, but I found it to be a bit tiresome. What I’m really saying is that I would have been much more receptive to some mature writing that actually treats the audience like they’ve got an above-average IQ.

The whole game feels like that guy who thinks he’s a whole lot funnier than he really is. He’s always elbowing you, making wisecracks at everything…. eh eh eh eh eh – It’s like for the love of god TAKE SOMETHING SERIOUSLY. Not everything is a gag, A-net. Not everything has to be some goofy inside joke. Can we get some actual writers to do some serious storylines for Guild Wars? You’ve got an enormous amount of lore in the Guild Wars universe and it feels like you haven’t tapped into any of it.

We get it, A-net … you can make a joke. But can you actually tell a compelling fantasy story? I guess we’ll see.

I loved the Tybald character. Much more than the other options. Ok, the big old Norn warrior was awesome too.

ANet has some great top-notch writers but it seems this time around they didn’t want to make it ALL doom and gloom. I can’t remember a single time I chuckled while playing vanilla GW. It was always a dire situation filled with dread, death, and terrible acts against humanity (bloodstone anyone?). Still though, this made it all the better and more uplifting to become ascended and take the fight BACK to the enemy.

GW2 is a great change of tone with the familiar lore I’ve grown up with. I’ve chuckled so many times playing this game just hearing the NPCs around cities and in personal story. It also has its downer moments but it seems to try and sustain a more noble and heroic feeling.

Like I was supposed to take a planet where Asura gates and catapults co-existed seriously.

darkdomino.9578:

This is something that has kinda bugged me from the get-go. The tone and style of Guild Wars 1 was fairly dark, post-searing… The dialogue was fairly serious, people talked about serious things. Even though the storyline was kinda disjointed, it still had an air of legitimacy.

Let’s review the plot of Prophecies (and since we’re looking back, we’re going to ignore the context provided by GW2):

• A menacing race of cat-people called “charr” attack the human settlement of Ascalon because….um, they’re evil, that’s why! And their shamans’ gods told them to do it, because….they’re evil too, I suppose.
• The humans keep fighting but eventually their prince decides that they can’t hope to win, so he takes some refugees to Kryta….clearly forgetting the very realistic notion that the charr have no reason not to follow them into Kryta.
• On the way to Kryta, the prince is killed by the leader of a faction of evil dwarves.
• The refugees reach Kryta, only to discover that they have an undead problem.
• The refugees help the current Krytan leadership of the White Mantle fight off the undead….only to discover that the White Mantle is secretly evil!
• The refugees fight against the White Mantle for a while, then flee to the desert to train with a dragon, who reveals that they are the chosen one who will save Kryta from the unseen evil force that leads the White Mantle (the ones who they mistakenly believe to be “gods”).
• The chosen fight the Mursaat and the Stone Summit with the help of a mysterious man named Vizier Khilbron, who is also revealed to be evil and working for a mysterious group of creatures called the Titans.
• The chosen defeat the Titans and Khilbron, thus saving the world from the dreadful fate that would never have occurred if they had just let the Mursaat keep killing people.
• It’s eventually revealed that the charr shamans worshiped the Titans too, even though it’s unclear how they even knew of their existence.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find that entire sequence of events hilarious. Primarily because the narrative seems to think that this is a logical sequence of clearly related events, rather than a hilariously maligned set of coincidences. Seriously, we meet no less than four completely separate evil factions, none of whom are directly working together ,and all of whom completely hate your guts for no discernible reason. All of whom are enacting their evil plans at exactly the same time. That’s pretty funny when you think about it. That’d be like if Magneto, Dr Doom, Thanos, and the Mandarin all concocted evil plans for world conquest and decided that this coming Tuesday would be the perfect day to set them into action.

I’m less concerned with story elements so much as the atmosphere. GW1 had a better one overall and GW2s overall atmosphere is something of a downgrade. That being said I admittedly do prefer very dark and grim settings such as Skyrim or Warhammer Online. Even the “evil” zones in GW2 don’t come off quite as such perhaps due to the art style.

You could always set up grimdark screen settings, reducing gamma, reducing colors, adjusting everything until you can’t see Orr from grit.

Personally I don’t mind what we have here in GW2 right now with the mixture of the two. Sometimes it goes too far on both ends. The stereotype of a character however is actually what kills both games of the franchise (GW1 and GW2) in my opinion overall.

Prophecy’s was interesting for some of its serious overtones but it lacked cohesiveness. It even took itself too seriously where some of the characters became boring and forgettable. Faction’s was a really bad running gag with a feel of English dubbed and interpretation of a semi-decent foreign flick. Nightfall finally was starting to bring the writing up too a better category. Nevertheless I think they did end up beating in the catchphrase “you never fight alone” way too many times. Also Kormir’s story was botched to a point where people believe still she did absolutely nothing to deserve her godhood. EotN unfortunately was turned had a movie trailer theme throughout the entire story. It did not fill in most of the plot holes left open by prophecies and actually created more. It just raised a bunch more question that hopefully would be answered in GW2 (but not really).

Going into GW2 it has a bit of everything from the previous games (good and bad). However the pacing was way off for the personal story. The story with Destiny Edge felt rushed. They overacted their motivations which gave them a feel of a “high school drama.” However if you scale it then nothing has really improved with GW2 writing. If it gets too serious we get people get into boring character archetypes (with brooding overtones). If we get too silly then we get things that break the fourth wall and gets really obnoxious.

Overall I really did enjoy the guild wars franchise lore for better or worse because it still is unfortunately a work in progress. I appreciate the mystique more then when we finally learn what is really going on at times. Yet Abaddon’s story arch was actually pretty excellent compared to Elder Dragon’s motivations of pure destruction (their threat is downplayed by melodramatics).

critickitten.1498:

Stuff.

I am impressed that you would even being to compare Guild Wars 1 story to Guild Wars 2. I mean it is such a obvious land slide as to which is the better…. Guild Wars 1 wins by a very, very, very wide margin.

All your points are covered in lore. I will just mention one:
Why are the Charr attacking Humans?

Due to the Human Gods letting the Human race loose upon Tryia and not actually creating them a place to stay, the original inhabiting race (aka the Charr) where pushed from their land. The Charr roamed the majority of the land of Tryia and were happy that way. They were a “not so advanced” race that got upset due to losing 1/100000000 of their land. So for the next however many years they besieged the closest thing to them, Ascalon.

That is some original lore for you that set up the forefront of Pre-Searing Ascalon. That is not even post, or rather the main game. This is not even taking into account the Human lore of the actual Guild Wars with Devona father and how Adelbern took the throne from Duke Barradin.

Guild Wars 2 did nothing to bring the lore to life like the original did. The constant jokes/pop cultural references ruin its lore. I don’t mind jokes here and there, but when the majority of the game (80%) is nothing but a running joke, it gets very old fast. I was looking forward to the expansion of the awesome lore driven story from Guild Wars 2 and was sorely disappointed.

Guild Wars 2 story is more limp than a wet noodle when compared to Guild Wars 1.

The dark and serious tone will appeal to a mature and older audience. Guild Wars 2 is targeting teenagers with under-developed brains. They can’t go very far with a T rating.

I think Arenanet missed thier target by a few years. The average MMO gamer is 30 years and over now. There will be a lot of mature themed MMO’s released in the near future. I think Guild Wars 2 is going to have a hard time competing with thier happy fun land due to thier T rating target audience.

Calae.1738:

The dark and serious tone will appeal to a mature and older audience. Guild Wars 2 is targeting teenagers with under-developed brains. They can’t go very far with a T rating.

I think Arenanet missed thier target by a few years. The average MMO gamer is 30 years and over now. There will be a lot of mature themed MMO’s released in the near future. I think Guild Wars 2 is going to have a hard time competing with thier happy fun land due to thier T rating target audience.

Let me tell you this that they are doing a great disservice by the goofyness of the tone and style of GW2 which is actually better appropriate for pre-teen people. And then people wonder why people have a hard time acting as an adult these days.

Treating people, teens and older, with the kind of tone in GW2 will ultimately doom the game.

Flamenco.3894:

Calae.1738:

The dark and serious tone will appeal to a mature and older audience. Guild Wars 2 is targeting teenagers with under-developed brains. They can’t go very far with a T rating.

I think Arenanet missed thier target by a few years. The average MMO gamer is 30 years and over now. There will be a lot of mature themed MMO’s released in the near future. I think Guild Wars 2 is going to have a hard time competing with thier happy fun land due to thier T rating target audience.

Let me tell you this that they are doing a great disservice by the goofyness of the tone and style of GW2 which is actually better appropriate for pre-teen people. And then people wonder why people have a hard time acting as an adult these days.

Treating people, teens and older, with the kind of tone in GW2 will ultimately doom the game.

The demographics will play against them that’s for sure. Blizzard tryed to attract a younger audience and new subscribers with Cataclysm and failed pretty hard.

The MMO market is not appealing to younger generations. Adding fluffy teddy bear backpacks ruins immersion and makes me feel like I’m in a bad children’s movie.

You know, I totally agree with this. In all of my favorite stories, from lotr, to the dark tower, game of thrones, even dragon age: origins…. there’s a certain darkness and maturity present that’s somehow entirely absent here. Fortunately it’s an MMO so the story isn’t as important. Gameplay and fun factor are. Hopefully they come up with some cool Villains and baddies in the future.

Kasama.8941:

Sometimes this game just feels like it’s rated ‘Everyone 10+’, and not Teen. It’s a bit annoying.

It’s because all the console kiddies love this as their “1st MMO” and we all know that MMOs are the new cool thing!
Nothing to do with nerds at all.
Half don’t even know what the Camelot story was, let alone the Dark Age version of it. While RvR raged on, they were playing Sonic.

Vanthian.9267:

I am impressed that you would even being to compare Guild Wars 1 story to Guild Wars 2.

I am impressed at the lengths to which you would go to misread my post as something it’s not.

I didn’t say GW2’s story was better. In fact I didn’t say anything about GW2’s story, or my personal take on it, at all.

I said that it’s hilarious for someone to say that they miss the “serious” tone of GW1’s story when it was laughably absurd from an outside point of view.

critickitten.1498:

I said that it’s hilarious for someone to say that they miss the “serious” tone of GW1’s story when it was laughably absurd from an outside point of view.

It wasn’t. End of topic.

leman.7682:

It wasn’t. End of topic.

It was. And it’s not your topic to end.

leman.7682:

critickitten.1498:

I said that it’s hilarious for someone to say that they miss the “serious” tone of GW1’s story when it was laughably absurd from an outside point of view.

It wasn’t. End of topic.

No, no, it was. It was an absurd “Cliche Storm”. There was so much simplistic storytelling going on in Prophecies it was rather obvious it was meant to be just window dressing for the game’s mechanics. Very nice, very pretty window dressing, but there was never any doubt that the intent was for people to run through the PvE as training to learn their class, learn the pre-determined PvP types, and then once they were confident, jump to PvP.

Players didn’t do that. So now ArenaNet has a bunch of players who are actually interested in PvE and the story. Sorrow’s Furnace was made, and there was greater effort put into the next campaign. And the next one after that, where Nightfall was more PvE than PvP. And Eye of the North was all PvE.

And all this started from the campaign with, hands down, the weakest story where everything felt like small arcs stapled together to fit. It was a rough start and it was a good foundation from which to build, but it was very basic, very cliche and to people who had more sensitivity to it . . .

. . . very absurdly “cliched fantasy fare”. Which is what I think reviews I read said about it.

The problem is that GW2 has bad storytelling. You wouldn’t notice it, but the plot is actually kind of dark, what with all the civilizations being destroyed or displaced by evil dragons. The game simply fails to deliver that and I would agree that it’s due in part to the over-use of goofy and pastiche humor. But that’s something that contributes to the real problem, the overall unrefined storytelling.

I think it would certainly help if they worked on NPC dialogue and setting details. GW2 a game after all, and the in game’s everything outside of the main on-rails plot is what helps to add to the player’s immersion. For those of you who’ve played Skyrim, think of how the experience would have been if 90% of the random NPCs were generic and had generic dialogue.

Obsidian.1328:

The game is too sci-fi only because it’s an oxymoron existence. Yaks still pulling wooden carts around yet there’s a giant laser attached to a floating metal zeppelin…makes no sense.

Magic, that’s why.

Also, the races do not seem to cooperate well. Hell, event with the common goal of defeating the dragons the orders can’t see eye to eye until zhaitan puts them knee deep in trouble on their own turf.

The humans and the charr barely have a peace treaty going, with bad blood on both sides (and still need to sort out the Ebonhawke issue). And said charr has only “recently” adopted technology because of the whole flame legion mess.

The asura, while high tech to say the least, seems to have a massive superiority complex and borderline isolationist.

And the orders have only just started cooperating because Zhaitan was becoming a direct threat rather than some issue they may need to deal with eventually.

Never mind that while there were zeppelins flying across the Atlantic, horse mounted cavalry was facing down machinegun emplacements and artillery. Even WW2 still had horses pulling carts and artillery guns. Even today you are likely to find horse and cart being used in various rural places (tho with the person holding the reins quite possibly chatting away on a cheap mobile phone).

kitten will likely happen rapidly in Tyria once the dragons are out of the way and peace can be maintained so that the war time economy can be put to other uses and knowledge exchanged.

Honestly I love the Asura NPC background dialog. It’s an entire race of evil Walter Bishops from Fringe.

I only see goofy ppl playing. Story seems fine or on par.

TwoBit.5903:

The problem is that GW2 has bad storytelling. You wouldn’t notice it, but the plot is actually kind of dark, what with all the civilizations being destroyed or displaced by evil dragons. The game simply fails to deliver that and I would agree that it’s due in part to the over-use of goofy and pastiche humor. But that’s something that contributes to the real problem, the overall unrefined storytelling.

It may also be that outside of some parts of the north eastern human areas and the east and north charr areas things are “life as usual”.

digiowl.9620:

TwoBit.5903:

The problem is that GW2 has bad storytelling. You wouldn’t notice it, but the plot is actually kind of dark, what with all the civilizations being destroyed or displaced by evil dragons. The game simply fails to deliver that and I would agree that it’s due in part to the over-use of goofy and pastiche humor. But that’s something that contributes to the real problem, the overall unrefined storytelling.

It may also be that outside of some parts of the north eastern human areas and the east and north charr areas things are “life as usual”.

To create a living world, you have to ask and address any and all questions possible. Where are the displaced people going and how is that affecting the people whose homes there migrating to? What ideals are these people bringing? How’s the food? Is there enough food for everyone? How is trade being affected?

Personally, I doubt that 70% of tyria is just “life as usual” because the questions the destruction begs can’t be localized to only the other 30%. There has to be some changes going on, and that needs to be reflected in the NPCs. At the very least they should show some sort of concern for the threat (which they barely do).

TwoBit.5903:

digiowl.9620:

TwoBit.5903:

The problem is that GW2 has bad storytelling. You wouldn’t notice it, but the plot is actually kind of dark, what with all the civilizations being destroyed or displaced by evil dragons. The game simply fails to deliver that and I would agree that it’s due in part to the over-use of goofy and pastiche humor. But that’s something that contributes to the real problem, the overall unrefined storytelling.

It may also be that outside of some parts of the north eastern human areas and the east and north charr areas things are “life as usual”.

To create a living world, you have to ask and address the little things. Where are the displaced people going and how is that affecting the people whose homes there migrating to? What ideals are these people bringing? How are they adapting to the food? Is there enough food for everyone? How is trade being affected?

Personally, I doubt that 70% of tyria is just “life as usual” because the questions the destruction begs can’t be localized to only the other 30%. There has to be some changes going on, and that needs to be reflected in the NPCs. At the very least they should show some sort of concern for the threat (which they barely do).

Sorry, i edited and re-edited that post to try and get at what i was thinking and i clearly failed. What i meant is what you point to, that there is no clear effect of the ongoing fighting in the NPC banter.

The only NPCs that seem to touch on the ongoing fighting with the centaurs (one big enough to turn northwestern Gendarran Fields into a wasteland) are related to the person looking for a guide to Nebo Terrace. The rest go on and on about prices and people as if there are no threats in the world at all.

Or better yet, look at Queensdale. We have centaurs showing up with siege engines, sitting on the only major route between Divinity’s Reach and the nearby villages (never mind the minister’s mansion) and yet nobody seems to blink outside of the nearby fort.

digiowl.9620:

TwoBit.5903:

digiowl.9620:

TwoBit.5903:

The problem is that GW2 has bad storytelling. You wouldn’t notice it, but the plot is actually kind of dark, what with all the civilizations being destroyed or displaced by evil dragons. The game simply fails to deliver that and I would agree that it’s due in part to the over-use of goofy and pastiche humor. But that’s something that contributes to the real problem, the overall unrefined storytelling.

It may also be that outside of some parts of the north eastern human areas and the east and north charr areas things are “life as usual”.

To create a living world, you have to ask and address the little things. Where are the displaced people going and how is that affecting the people whose homes there migrating to? What ideals are these people bringing? How are they adapting to the food? Is there enough food for everyone? How is trade being affected?

Personally, I doubt that 70% of tyria is just “life as usual” because the questions the destruction begs can’t be localized to only the other 30%. There has to be some changes going on, and that needs to be reflected in the NPCs. At the very least they should show some sort of concern for the threat (which they barely do).

Sorry, i edited and re-edited that post to try and get at what i was thinking and i clearly failed. What i meant is what you point to, that there is no clear effect of the ongoing fighting in the NPC banter.

The only NPCs that seem to touch on the ongoing fighting with the centaurs (one big enough to turn northwestern Gendarran Fields into a wasteland) are related to the person looking for a guide to Nebo Terrace. The rest go on and on about prices and people as if there are no threats in the world at all.

Or better yet, look at Queensdale. We have centaurs showing up with siege engines, sitting on the only major route between Divinity’s Reach and the nearby villages (never mind the minister’s mansion) and yet nobody seems to blink outside of the nearby fort.

Ah, alright. I get what you mean now :P

Seras.5702:

I don’t mind humor amongst a serious storyline. GW1 had almost no humor in Prophecies but the story was great. GW2 has a mix of serious and humorous, however the only humor I find actually funny are the Asura. Tybalt is a moron and my female necro feels like she’s babysitting him. The Priory chic (forget her name) is like a kid and my guardian feels like he’s rolling his eyes and going along with her childish antics. Yes, it adds some levity to otherwise serious situations. However, the way the humor is done is less than witty unless we’re talking about the Asura. Haven’t gotten too far into any of the Asura storylines (yet) but they feel at least a little smarter than the “oh my I’ve forgotten where I’ve left my friend, lookie Risen, help my poor flowers” childishness that some of the non-serious portions have. I think I need to start rolling Norn…if nothing else I’ll get drunken ego-driven humor rather than naive & childish Sylvari and Charr. To be honest, the human and Vigil storylines are the most serious.

. To be fair… most sylvari are just children, many only a few years old. There only “life” experience comeing from that of the dream.

There ment to be vary wise in the things they know but at the same time vary child like.

I think the discanect is when you look at them and the talk of “wisdom” comes up, you expect them to act like an overbaring pretanchus elf.

Hell the oldest (being the firs born) are only about 20 years old. For all we know she was only 5

I always hated this about GW2. While humor in itself is not bad, I just didn’t see what was funny about it in GW2. Didn’t laugh a single time, was only annoyed that there wasn’t more serious / mature storyline and dialogue.

darkdomino.9578:

The whole game feels like that guy who thinks he’s a whole lot funnier than he really is.

Exactly how I felt about it.

digiowl.9620:

The only NPCs that seem to touch on the ongoing fighting with the centaurs (one big enough to turn northwestern Gendarran Fields into a wasteland) are related to the person looking for a guide to Nebo Terrace. The rest go on and on about prices and people as if there are no threats in the world at all.

To be fair, Lion’s Arch and the Lionguard have a studiously neutrality arrangement with the centaurs. The centaurs leave the havens alone, and Lionguard-protected caravans . . . and the Lionguard don’t drop the hammer on them. You can hear this during a conversation in Kessex Hills after an event in the swampland haven.

Another one is at First Haven in Gendarran, where a soldier says his kid is disappointed because he’s not fighting the centaurs, and his friend says: “Well . . . yeah, we’re not supposed to be fighting them. We’re supposed to be remaining out of that.”

So, it’s out there.

Or better yet, look at Queensdale. We have centaurs showing up with siege engines, sitting on the only major route between Divinity’s Reach and the nearby villages (never mind the minister’s mansion) and yet nobody seems to blink outside of the nearby fort.

To be fair, for the Krytans that might well be “life as normal” “Oh, the centaurs again . . . Mabel fetch my rifle from the mantel, the centaurs are in the fields again.”

“Your face is funny. All squished and weird.”

I’m sure this is very goofy and not at all serious

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

digiowl.9620:

The only NPCs that seem to touch on the ongoing fighting with the centaurs (one big enough to turn northwestern Gendarran Fields into a wasteland) are related to the person looking for a guide to Nebo Terrace. The rest go on and on about prices and people as if there are no threats in the world at all.

To be fair, Lion’s Arch and the Lionguard have a studiously neutrality arrangement with the centaurs. The centaurs leave the havens alone, and Lionguard-protected caravans . . . and the Lionguard don’t drop the hammer on them. You can hear this during a conversation in Kessex Hills after an event in the swampland haven.

Another one is at First Haven in Gendarran, where a soldier says his kid is disappointed because he’s not fighting the centaurs, and his friend says: “Well . . . yeah, we’re not supposed to be fighting them. We’re supposed to be remaining out of that.”

Never noticed this even with all the hours i have spent in the area with multiple alts…

Tobias

Lol, so angry.

People thought Gwen to still be alive because a)there were no reports of her death, b)her broken flute is found in the wreckage…an obvious omen, and c)yeah…some did like her. That she lived on in EotN was hardly a surprise. Also, Proph was my first campaign, not sure what that has to do with anything though.

My point was, just say “agree” like normal people do when they…well…agree, instead of bringing up a tangent point. I couldn’t tell from your answer that you knew you agreed or not…strange.

So Malomedes was experimented on by Inquest. Ok. And? Does he talk about it? Do we know what happened? Is he psychologically messed up from it? Does he say something vague and dour in an English accent then walk away with his head down? I don’t know where you’re going with this part.

I’m sure the Charr story you linked is all rough&tough, just like how they treat everyone else on the planet. That’s their schtick. The Charr are ANet’s answer to those players looking for a “tough-guy” race to play. It’s hilarious that they call humans “meat” all the time, but it’s difficult to take any of their bravado seriously.

First of all, Logan is too much of a pansy to demand anything from Rytlock, honestly, the Charr would tear him to pieces. Secondly, as a supposed descendant of Gwen and Kieran, the right thing to do from his perspective is to return it to the Ascalonians in Nebo or Ebonhawke.
Eir: “Oh look Logan…it’s your people’s royal heirloom, a symbol of your kingdom’s former glory!”
Logan: “Nah, let Rytlock keep it…he impressed me. Oh we found Magdaer too? Meh, let’s just use it to buy peace…I mean, we should feel really bad anyway for the Foefire causing them so much trouble now, back when they nearly exterminated us with glee.” -_-

Oh so Snaff died because of a bad decision Eir made on the field of battle? You’re right…Zojja would have to be pretty young to hold that against her indefinitely. Then what did Logan’s departure cause anyway, Glint’s death? I really never cared enough for the details of DE I guess.

And finally, I’m well aware of the very long stalemate in Fields of Ruin. The peacetalks have to happen because ANet can’t have 2 playable races at war with each other, and it seemed like a good way for the writers to address that particular elephant in the room. It’s not something GW1 humans would ever do, despite any amount of time passing, but it’s done for the sake of the overarching us-vs-dragons storyline.

Like I said, we’re all holding hands now. Despite god(s) and all creation singing a different song.

Asura are a comic relief race. Every single “midget” race in any MMO is a comic relief race. Just goes with the territory of tiny people smashing things with oversized hammers.

As for the rest of GW2, as others have said, plenty of serious if you look at it as a whole. You got your cursed nations, terrible, world-ending monstrosities, families rent asunder, personal tragedy, war, people dying left and right, human sacrifice, religious intolerance, kidnappings, racism, genocidal characters… so an occasional Asura with a Yak towing an oversized laser gun intended for blowing up a Skritt moonshine distillery is actually a nice change of pace.