Guild Wars 2

I’ll admit that when I played Guild Wars 1, it was enormously hard for me to get into it because of its mechanics and the feels of combat and the difficulty. I did not flourish at all. It literally took me from release up until the announcement of GW2 to catch up with the content. At first, it was the lore that intrigued me. It was the gorgeous artistry that the terrain and character designs were birthed from. I kept coming back with renewed vigour to see more of it. Then, after spending real time with it, I fell in love with the lore and the narrative. I post this is Lore because I feel that lore and art go hand in hand. Also, that I feel that the art in GW2 is less than what I have come to expect from GW1 or even the beautiful concept art book.

Of course, the are areas which have been clearly crafted with love. Major cities for example. Keeping in mind that I have not yet made it to Orr, I have found myself thinking how dull the zones have been. The natural world look beautiful but it is lacking in variety. Even the natural zones in GW1 had more memorable qualities. Like the cliffs overlooking Sorrow’s Furnace, the huge field in western Dalada Uplands or the structures in the lakes and oceans of Kryta. Not to mention the expansions.

I know it’s still early on and I haven’t experienced it all yet, but so far I’ve felt that GW2 has been lacking in the lore that made GW1 great for me. And I believed it stems from a humdrum artistic representation. Has anyone felt the same at all?

All in all, agreed. I’d even go as far and call many of GW2’s landmarks – on top of many other designs such as characters – generic.

I think it might be a matter of too many cooks stirring the pot. The amazing concept art styles just didn’t translate well into the ingame assets this time around. Much of the 2d art is vivid, fluid, partially abstract as to leave room for interpretation – it tells a story. This has to somehow be transformed into playable content, and that conversion wasn’t entirely successful. Sadly, this problem is magnified by the fact that said painterly style is the main visual focus of the game.

I agree. At a glance, the game world is beautiful and visually impressive. Yet there’s a real lack of meat. Back in the original game, rich lore was easy to find. Yet in GW2 it seems overshadowed or ignored. Take Ascalon and Orr for example – it makes sense for humanity to be doing more to preserve and reclaim both and yet instead of at least seeing some major lore for humans in both zones we just the new pet races soaking up almost everything.

What happened to the richly detailed variety we saw in the original game? Each human culture had a distinct style, little of which has translated to the second game. I’d even go as far as to say that the new races exist as stereotypes and little else – must every norn be a drunkard? Why isn’t the shape-shifting and spiritual aspect no longer as big a focus as it was in the original game? It’s frustrating for those of us who came for the sake of lore and role-play.

The topic in this thread is somewhat related: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/The-diversity-of-the-human-npcs-in-their-respective-districts/page/2#post476968

I find the game gorgeous, but yes, something has been lost.

However, if you step back, I think you’ll see that this probably couldn’t be avoided. In GW1, the artists didn’t have to flesh out five very different races, making them aesthetically and culturally distinct. This was a huge undertaking, and they even took it further with many of the NPC races (you can instantly tell dredge warrens from skritt warrens, for example).

What suffered was the rich, varied tapestry of humanity found in GW1. Instead of Krytan, Canthan, Vabbian, etc., we got, for the most part, generic human; same architecture, same fashion, same culture in all the ‘human’ zones. There are hints here and there of what used to be, but, compared to GW1, it’s bland overall.

However… the variety and diversity is still there, in the lore. And I’m confident that it’s cared about. As new content is introduced, I expect we’ll see this aspect of the setting come roaring back aesthetically.

@Hydrophidian

At this point, I would only compare GW2 with GW1 Vanilla, considering how long it’s been out. Factions and Nightfall did add varying human cultures but that was the theme of GW1 expansions. Make a story for the Africans. Make a story for the Asians. While I admit that there is definitely a lack of human diversity, I feel that there is a general lack of interesting lore and storytelling. Despite the uniqueness of Zhaitan and the elder dragons, it’s still a fantasy story about dragons.

Sure, a fantasy story about a Lich wreaking havoc isn’t much to scream about but it’s everything that’s going on in the background. Most of what was going on in GW1 was unexplained at the tie and was quite captivating for it. At time of release it was “Where did this Flameseeker Prophecy come from?” “Why is Glint so important?”.

GW2 has its share of questions but I don’t feel terribly captivated by what’s going on. Of course I want to see it because it’s continuity but, nothing has me searching every inch of a library for some kind of lore I didn’t know about. Especially since the only in-game “books” I’ve found are just references to GW1 and easter eggs.

I also don’t know the end of story quests (No spoilers please) but, maybe things will start to kick off when the dragons are dead/dying.