Guild Wars 2

It might just be that I’m woefully behind in my personal story, but I’m now beating up Branded “X” and I wonder “Where the heck did these come from?”.

In GW1 story advancement was gated behind the missions. So you found out where the Afflicted were coming from, or what Varesh was up to, etc all in portioned out bits. The open world concept of GW2 means that I could be 80, all decked out in legendaries and have yet to do any of my personal story aside from the tutorial zone.
A friend of mine said that he’d never thought an open world concept could be so immersion breaking.
“Why am I beating up these guys, taking their helmets and pushing these buttons? I don’t know but the little heart on the side of my display says to. I never talked to anyone about why these are bad people, or why their helmets are so desperately needed, but the heart says kill them and take the helmets so off I go.”
I kind of see his point. I like the scouts. They are great! I just don’t NEED to talk to them unless I’m completing an area and can’t find all the hearts.

ANYWAY, back on my own topic… Is the lore all contained in the personal story?

No. A lot of the lore is sandboxed (for lack of a better term) in the game. You have to stop and read books, and talk to NPCs. You have to go off the beaten track to find out different pieces of information.

Ya the Lore of GW is scattered in the Books and In the game through NPCs. Most of the Lores can only be found by playing GW1 for now but there will be more reference to the lores of GW1 as GW2 progress.

Ah thanks. I’ve read a few of the bits in Divinity’s Reach but haven’t found any multi-page “books” as of yet. I might have to hit up the wiki to find them.

I also saw that there are a few novels. The reviews are so-so, but I expect that from video game novels. How are they overall though, and is there a chronological order to them?

The real novels are supposed to fill in the time between GW1 and GW2, but Edge of Destiny in particular shows a lot of info about what’s up with Destiny’s Edge in GW2
Ghosts of Ascalon is more about what’s going on with the Charr/Human treaty, and Ascalon in general
The third book (don’t remember the name) is supposed to be about Zhaitan’s rising from Orr

I kind of like that you have to find the lore by looking for it, just like leaning about real world history, it’s not always thrown in your face.

In Divinity’s reach, go to the Durmand Priory’s little nitch, and you’ll find many multi-page books about the dragons, the history of the Krytan royal family, the disconnect from Cantha, and a bit about the human/charr war.

BTW, the last novel, which is being written by Ree Soesebee (1 of the major lore creators of GW and GW2), is called Sea of Sorrows.

What’s immersion-breaking about not knowing what’s going on in an area you’ve never been to before unless you go and ask a local?

Ok, yes, the game UI does give you tips out of context, because many players appreciate the efficiency and don’t care about the lore. But if you want to know, talk to NPCs. They’ll fill you in on an awful lot. It’s just not presented to you in quest dialogue form, so you only read it if you want to.

All the hearts have a NPC that explains why you are doing them.

Drede.4701:

All the hearts have a NPC that explains why you are doing them.

His point about the hearts is that the UI tells you what to do and you never need to talk to the NPC’s. Ever. /shrug It’s just an immersion point with him.

EDIT: Good to hear about the novels. I might have to nab them at some point.

bpphantom.8243:

A friend of mine said that he’d never thought an open world concept could be so immersion breaking.
“Why am I beating up these guys, taking their helmets and pushing these buttons? I don’t know but the little heart on the side of my display says to. I never talked to anyone about why these are bad people, or why their helmets are so desperately needed, but the heart says kill them and take the helmets so off I go.”

In effect, your friend has intentionally immersed himself in the role of the mercenary.

“I’m not interested in your reasons, peasant, only your objectives and your gold.”

EDIT: It’s a valid point that you don’t have to talk to a dude first, but my god, that’s one of the best QoL improvements GW2 made over the genre formula, so I wouldn’t lose it for the world…

bpphantom.8243:

It might just be that I’m woefully behind in my personal story, but I’m now beating up Branded “X” and I wonder “Where the heck did these come from?”.

In GW1 story advancement was gated behind the missions. So you found out where the Afflicted were coming from, or what Varesh was up to, etc all in portioned out bits. The open world concept of GW2 means that I could be 80, all decked out in legendaries and have yet to do any of my personal story aside from the tutorial zone.
A friend of mine said that he’d never thought an open world concept could be so immersion breaking.
“Why am I beating up these guys, taking their helmets and pushing these buttons? I don’t know but the little heart on the side of my display says to. I never talked to anyone about why these are bad people, or why their helmets are so desperately needed, but the heart says kill them and take the helmets so off I go.”
I kind of see his point. I like the scouts. They are great! I just don’t NEED to talk to them unless I’m completing an area and can’t find all the hearts.

ANYWAY, back on my own topic… Is the lore all contained in the personal story?

Next time, instead of going straight for the hearts, try talking with the scouts first, they brief you enough to understand the world around you.

It is a shame that they don’t speak if you’ve already done all the hearts.

I wouldn’t mind a scout telling me "remember the old days when you did this… " and resuming the normal briefing.

One of my favorite ‘lore’ based hearts was in Frostgorge Sound where you have to read Kodan books to complete the heart. I’ve found several other journals and scraps scattered around the game and always find them to be a gem to discover. They’re not forced on you, and if you care more about game play than lore, you can skip them with ease, which is handy when you’re on your 2nd and 3rd character (I like reading the lore the first time I find the book, after that, don’t need it again.)

All in all, I think there’ s a ton of lore out there to find, but it isn’t spoon fed to you…. If you’re a Priory type… go find it! And if your a bit more Vigil than Priory… just go smash things and take their helmets ’cause someone said to.