Guild Wars 2

I’m sure this is posted somewhere but after skimming through I’ve only found bits and pieces.

To start off I’ve never played GW1 (sorry sorry sorry). What I really love about games is the lore. I like to know who I’m fighting and why. It’s honestly 50% of the reason I play MMOs. I know Guild Wars is suppose to be littered with lore and I want to learn about it!
Does anyone have any links or advice on where I can go to learn about this world and history? I know there are two books, but I think I need more than that.

The game itself is honestly one of the best resources you could ask for. There are pages upon pages of NPC dialogue sitting around everywhere, and a good few of them are keen to speak of the past.

Like HoboSiege said, the game’s typically best for lore – though do keep in mind that Guild Wars 2 heavily plays on the concept of “subjective truths” – so what NPCs in GW2 say tends to just be their view on the matter, rather than the truth. On the other hand, GW1 plays the “objective until otherwise proven subjective truth” card, where what NPCs say is truth until we’re told otherwise (which can be seen in how NPCs seem to know things that if thought long and hard about, would bring you to ask “how/why do they know this?”).

But if you’re not the kind who enjoys talking to all NPCs you can find, and you hold no intention of playing GW1 (something I suggest against, despite its dying nature – then again, I’m likely biased like many other veterans because there’s no new content thus nothing new for me to do), here’s some links that I suggest you read (note: the Guild Wars Wiki holds the stance of documenting how GW1 presents lore – lore that’s been “proven false/subjective” in GW2 is, mostly, not mentioned on GWW except in cases where GW2W doesn’t have a proper accumulative page (such as articles on Dhuum or Abaddon) and folks have bothered to update the GWW article)…

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lore – a general, fan-written summary of historical events leading up to and including GW1; it’s generally wise to go through each link as well, as they elaborate on the subjects more specifically
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline – the links here summarizes the storylines of GW1’s campaigns, expansions, and content updates
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Category:Lore – articles here and within the sub-categories are all lore-focused articles, dig through and enjoy
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Template:Lore_nav – links to general lore articles on GW2W
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Category:Lore – articles of lore focus on GW2W; one of the bigger givers of lore on the GW2W atm is the articles in this category.

If you are asking in general about the Elder Dragons and why we are fighting them, it has absolutely no foundation in Guild Wars 1. Guild Wars 1 was a lot about supernatural beings and evil people manipulating things and your characters having to fight the good fight. Guild Wars 1 is set between Dragon awakenings, and because of this the people who knew about the dragons were either dead, or didn’t feel like passing the information on (for some reason or another). I’m not saying playing GW1 or reading up on the lore won’t make the game more enjoyable. In fact 90% of the reason I love this game is finding places in the game that had existed in the previous game, reading lore on people you knew in the game and how they died, and so on. It adds another level of depth to the game for me.

@Konig: I have to agree, it’s sad that there’s no new content for GW1 to play anymore. I’m trying to get a friend that I recently got addicted to GW2 to grab GW1 and play it through with me from beginning to end in order to just see the world again with fresh eyes. I still remember the great days of the Wayfarer’s Reverie and going around to visit all those old cherished locations. Nostalgia is a great motivator at times.