Guild Wars 2

The whole intro video “I’ve made allies I can count upon in my time of need…”
No I haven’t. Who are you people?

General gripe:
Be level two, already a hero.
As soon as you start your story, you already seem to have this glorious past.
You’ve invented a impressive magical object out of thin air and win the Snaff prize. You’ve already designed a Ghostbore musket that is apparently a complete game changer, to the point that the entire Flame Legion wants your plans and you dead.
The whole thing seems shoehorned in.

I think it’s mainly to back up the reason everyone else defers to you. You need some amount of prestige to be the protagonist that everyone looks to for answers, can’t just be some dude who shows up that Zojja or Rytlock asks what to do next.

I won’t even go into how much that prestige disappears under the glory of Trahearne, but… nevertheless, it’s to set up how you’re more significant than your peers and why it’s you who becomes central to the plot.

Well, your character wasn’t just born (except for sylvari). As an asura, you’ve presumably invented things before. As an Iron Legion charr, you’ve presumably built things before.

Wouldn’t it be stranger otherwise? That you’d be playing this adult warrior or engineer or what have you who has never accomplished anything in their life until you start playing them?

AstralDusk.1670:

I think it’s mainly to back up the reason everyone else defers to you. You need some amount of prestige to be the protagonist that everyone looks to for answers, can’t just be some dude who shows up that Zojja or Rytlock asks what to do next.

I won’t even go into how much that prestige disappears under the glory of Trahearne, but… nevertheless, it’s to set up how you’re more significant than your peers and why it’s you who becomes central to the plot.

I wouldnt say the prestige disappears. Your still second in command of the Pact and one of the most significant figures there as well as effectively its feild commander. The reason they let you chose which mission to go on lore wise is because they are defering to your authority on what you think is more important.

It’s different with different races, but I actually liked the way that you are a hero by level two, but there’s a nice progression in scale. After your participation in the tutorial (something you often just happen to be there for, but you acquit yourself impressively in) you are something of a local hero, earning the title you’re referred to by (Hero of Shaemoor, Slayer, etc). Still, I think if we hadn’t done anything else, the whole ‘Hero of Shaemoor’ thing would have blown over in a week or two. It just happens to be the case that something from your past comes up right afterwards, and you draw enough attention to get involved with the orders, and it spirals from there.

A lot of it is believably a matter of the PC being a very capable person who was lucky enough to be somewhere where a) their talents were put to good use, and b) some important people were there to notice it. I’ll admit the Ghostbore Musket plot seemed a little odd to me at times, but the racial enemies (Flame Legion, Inquest, Nightmare etc) are shown to interfere with everyday stuff fairly often.

Yeah, from a story telling perspective or a gameplay perspective, it makes sense.

I actually like the Sylvari intro the best, since it seems the most “natural.” No pun.

For the case of humans, I felt that was a bit of a problem. For the Norn, it was believable. I don’t know about the Charr, because I did not play them yet.

Look at it this way: You’re more of a local hero, in the beginning and then it grows.

However, the Sylvari have it really good. They’re born and they have a quest right off the bat.

BunnytheSwordsman.4173:

For the case of humans, I felt that was a bit of a problem. For the Norn, it was believable. I don’t know about the Charr, because I did not play them yet.

Look at it this way: You’re more of a local hero, in the beginning and then it grows.

However, the Sylvari have it really good. They’re born and they have a quest right off the bat.

For the Charr, it’s your duty, at least tutorial-wise. You’re a soldier. You were called to duty to assist Rytlock in putting down Duke Barradin. Again. You survived. Good job soldier, have a promotion. Now get back to duty.

And let’s not forget personal back story. My all of my characters have an involved back story that would help to account for part of the status they achieved by level two. This back story provides not only a certain social status to the characters, but also a deep responsibility to the peoples of their lands.

Domian Blackheart.7514:

And let’s not forget personal back story. My all of my characters have an involved back story that would help to account for part of the status they achieved by level two. This back story provides not only a certain social status to the characters, but also a deep responsibility to the peoples of their lands.

If we’re getting into personal backstory, most of my characters aren’t heroes in the sense that the games makes them – but that’s because I have eight characters, and even when only two of them are humans that’s still two Heroes of Shaemoor. Add in guildmates who also roleplay and it gets messy fast!

But yes, it’s often more satisfying to develop your own ideas about your character and why/how they would do things, if the game seems to leave gaps

That is an element of role-playing. To develop your character and to have him/her grow and develop his/her own personality and quirks, as well as preferences, so as to fully enjoy and experience the plot of the game.