Guild Wars 2

New blog. It regurgitates some of the info we already know in the beginning, and then goes on about storytelling in the middle.

It says:

“Key story instances also have binary choices that define how the story unfolds; for example, after choosing to trust Laranthir and rescue the sylvari prisoners from their Mordrem captors, players can go back and instead relieve Laranthir of command to experience entirely different gameplay and narrative-path challenges. These branching choices always pay off within the same story instance, so players see the results of their decisions right away.”

And later…

“For example, whether players trust or distrust Laranthir in that initial story instance, the Vigil’s second-in-command will patrol the open world with a crack squadron of sylvari snipers, providing overwatch to beleaguered Pact survivors and raining destruction down on Mordremoth’s hordes.”

So, just like in the personal storyline, our choices will continue to be meaningless. No matter what we choose, in the example they have given, the exact same thing will happen with the relevant NPC.

This lack of relevance on the player character was one of the worst things in the personal storyline, and it’s sad to see it will continue in the expansion. We are given the illusion of choice while having little to no impact, and the NPCs are the ones giving orders and commanding the action (Traheanne, anyone?).

I couldn’t help but notice you offered no solutions to this problem. This is an MMO, what do you even want them to do? How are your choices supposed to matter when there are a few hundred thousand other people who are also supposed to be the sole hero the story is centered around? They can’t change the world as experienced by everybody based on the decisions of one player, and if you’re looking for any permanent change in the environment based on your decisions, you will never find it in a non-sandbox online game.

Andred.1087:

I couldn’t help but notice you offered no solutions to this problem. This is an MMO, what do you even want them to do? How are your choices supposed to matter when there are a few hundred thousand other people who are also supposed to be the sole hero the story is centered around? They can’t change the world as experienced by everybody based on the decisions of one player, and if you’re looking for any permanent change in the environment based on your decisions, you will never find it in a non-sandbox online game.

Except world of warcraft. Through tech known as “phasing” they were are still are able to craft unique experiences in the stories and quests for characters based on choices the make and where they are in the main quests. The worgen starting area uses this heavily. It is not hard to have player who make choice A in a separate phase than a player who makes choice B, especially in the ALREADY INSTANCED story quests.

You know what, Test, this game obviously will never be what you want it to be. Why don’t you just leave it at that? Why this continued campaign? Your horse is long dead. It’s a quivering, gelatinous mass. Just walk away. Please.

munki.6402:

You know what, Test, this game obviously will never be what you want it to be. Why don’t you just leave it at that? Why this continued campaign? Your horse is long dead. It’s a quivering, gelatinous mass. Just walk away. Please.

But beating a dead horse is just so much fun.

Zero Day.2594:

munki.6402:

You know what, Test, this game obviously will never be what you want it to be. Why don’t you just leave it at that? Why this continued campaign? Your horse is long dead. It’s a quivering, gelatinous mass. Just walk away. Please.

But beating a dead horse is just so much fun.

Beating a dead horse is the most fun a forum goer can have…

Did they ever say that you’d have choices in the outcome for the personal story and expansion? All they’re doing is giving the player some replay-ability with the story. It’s similar to how you had choices in Nightfall but then could go back to experience those “missed” instances.

McNinja.5417:

Andred.1087:

I couldn’t help but notice you offered no solutions to this problem. This is an MMO, what do you even want them to do? How are your choices supposed to matter when there are a few hundred thousand other people who are also supposed to be the sole hero the story is centered around? They can’t change the world as experienced by everybody based on the decisions of one player, and if you’re looking for any permanent change in the environment based on your decisions, you will never find it in a non-sandbox online game.

Except world of warcraft. Through tech known as “phasing” they were are still are able to craft unique experiences in the stories and quests for characters based on choices the make and where they are in the main quests. The worgen starting area uses this heavily. It is not hard to have player who make choice A in a separate phase than a player who makes choice B, especially in the ALREADY INSTANCED story quests.

Yes, lets split up the community in the open world.
That will solve everything.

Ayrilana.1396:

Did they ever say that you’d have choices in the outcome for the personal story and expansion? All they’re doing is giving the player some replay-ability with the story. It’s similar to how you had choices in Nightfall but then could go back to experience those “missed” instances.

This right here.

There’s my “true” choice that I’ll pick my first go around, and then I’ll get curious and wonder what happens if I had picked the other option just for fun and curiosity’s sake.

My first choice will most probably always be my “true” choice, but I do wanna experience everything just because. It’s a game.

I do that with console games and other games that I play all the time.

I’ll give it a second (or third, or fourth) go just to see the other options for the sake of it. Nothing wrong with that.

I simply think they had to make a choice.

Either they could have replayability or they could have choices that mattered and thus branched out.

They choose to go for replayability, which, based on the constant complains since release about Personal Story not being replayable, was probably the right choice.

Story instances will now be dungeons with two explorable paths.