Guild Wars 2

to touch on the Gw1 story lines vs the Gw2 story lines.. and while the writting probably didnt improve or go down hill..

heres the biggest difference between Gw1 campaigns and Gw2 PS

Gw1 built its story from a small start to a big finish, there was very little extra fluff and you could expect call backs to earlier characters. It was all one very neat and ordly story from start to finish and fully self encompassing.

That NPC you saved in that first mission showed back up later on and remembered who you were and what you did and then helped you or whatever..

That NPC that died had a story behind him you learned about while doing your own thing… etc.. etc..

Gw2 PS involves a lot of player choices and gives us a bit more branching narrative that can ultimately only lead to one ending.

where it fails completely for me is where it ends up telling us 3 to 4 completely different stories and there is no accounting for past choices and they come off as disjointed.

For example. Human Noble – you deal with the queen and clearly know who she is. you then join an order and are told who the queen is and your character acts like this is entirely new news to them.

The most glaring oddity is that of the charr story. where in you find yourself with only one warband member left alive other than you and you struggle to create a new one. shortly there after this is rendered meaningless as you are shuffled off to join an order and must abandon your war band entirely like its not a big deal.

later on even the order you joined becomes pointless as you join the pact and any and all previous ties to any reoccurring characters are treated as “oh, we’ve never met before” even if you played along side or aided them earlier in your story.

The end result is that your choices and actions may have lead you to slay a dragon and save the world for a time but no one around you really seems to remember or care exactly who you are. you’re just a shadow that was there that went unnoticed.

it’s much less heroic when compared to the Gw1 campaign.

Scarlet was in fact what GW2’s story needed to progress, given that the sheer amount of unknown would take pages on pages of theorcraft and narrative to expand upon, whereas she was given the knowledge we lacked and according to many, needed to enjoy the story.

And she would’ve worked perfectly to provide lore and knowledge and motives and secrets of her Dragon master, as player forces and pact would bleed them out her and her allies.

Alas, she was killed off ironically too soon to be able to take on that role, leaving us with nothing too clear to look forward to but have events unfold beyond our reach – and entirely scrambled enemy factions.

Swish.2463:

The most glaring oddity is that of the charr story. where in you find yourself with only one warband member left alive other than you and you struggle to create a new one. shortly there after this is rendered meaningless as you are shuffled off to join an order and must abandon your war band entirely like its not a big deal.

later on even the order you joined becomes pointless as you join the pact and any and all previous ties to any reoccurring characters are treated as “oh, we’ve never met before” even if you played along side or aided them earlier in your story.

The end result is that your choices and actions may have lead you to slay a dragon and save the world for a time but no one around you really seems to remember or care exactly who you are. you’re just a shadow that was there that went unnoticed.

it’s much less heroic when compared to the Gw1 campaign.

Shhhhh Marjory is your rock. She’s your rock. The person you confide in. The stability that lets you get through the day and all the struggles of life in Tyria. Marjory has earned that position in your life. She’s the one who was there for you in your journey, the one who supported you and kept you together – she was there for you. Marjory is your rock. /s

I think it was problematic that the personal story was very disjointed but I don’t think that’s the fault of branching paths. I think ArenaNet poorly implemented branching paths. What’s worse than being introduced to Laranthir as if he’s new immediately after doing a mission with him is the fact that the PCs of Tryia established really interesting and diverse histories only to abandon them in the Living Story. We came from all different background, we met all kinds of heroes and explored many different stories. But now Marjory is our rock. Screw your warband, screw your best friend, screw your krewe, your order, the Pact – Marjory is your rock. Those other people may as well not exist.

Elesh.6192:

Scarlet was in fact what GW2’s story needed to progress, given that the sheer amount of unknown would take pages on pages of theorcraft and narrative to expand upon, whereas she was given the knowledge we lacked and according to many, needed to enjoy the story.

And she would’ve worked perfectly to provide lore and knowledge and motives and secrets of her Dragon master, as player forces and pact would bleed them out her and her allies.

Alas, she was killed off ironically too soon to be able to take on that role, leaving us with nothing too clear to look forward to but have events unfold beyond our reach – and entirely scrambled enemy factions.

Personally I think Scarlet was the worst thing to happen to the Guild Wars universe. She trivialised unique NPC faction identities to form her shallow alliances, she was the only relevant force on Tyria for over a year, she rewrote the history of the sylvari and she was disliked through her entire reign on the story. Her death couldn’t come sooner.

The current story is improving and I believe that’s helped greatly because Scarlet is no longer around. Instead of wading in the shallow story of the Molten Alliance (screw the revolution and a dredge cultural identity formed after many years of slavery, screw the religious fanaticism of the Flame Legion and their complex history going back to GW1 – the Molten Alliance formed simply for power and territory, those other things that made them interesting in the past don’t matter any more) we have the reconnection to GW1 lore (through Glint, Ogen and many lore threads revived in the Echoes of the Past release), we have the Pact returning to the battlefront (instead of moronically ignoring the destruction of Lion’s Arch) we have growing theories about the nature of magic in Tyria and the impact of ED deaths.

Scarlet was a low point in the franchise and I’m glad she’s gone.

Others have already debunked many points of your insane ramblings but there is still something that bugs me:

Eirdyne.9843:

- 4
Scarlet is a genius who suicides, knowingly? What? Einstein didn’t join Rommel in Hitler’s closed meetings with a bomb, he went across the ocean and made Atomic Energy; among other things. Scarlet, by all rights, is either a personification of the Library of Alexandra (destroyed by Christian zealots) whose destruction created a 2000 year lag-time for human development after that… yes, the West did something… or she’s the most misused character yet in gaming.

So you say someone can’t be smart but at the same time willing to kill someone directly? Atleast that’s what I’m getting from that. Sure Scarlet is Mary-Sue-level smart, but I just don’t know what that means related to Einstein, Hitler and Rommel. Besides the library of Alexandria was not destroyed by christians; there is a theory that the muslim invaders may have destroyed it, but most historian doubt that too.

Again, I agree with the point that Scarlet was poorly written, with mostly poorly informed abilities of engineering and “diplomacy”. Still try not to spread theories or straight up wrong things as facts, that kind of discredits your whole arguement.

Shiren.9532:

Elesh.6192:

Scarlet was in fact what GW2’s story needed to progress, given that the sheer amount of unknown would take pages on pages of theorcraft and narrative to expand upon, whereas she was given the knowledge we lacked and according to many, needed to enjoy the story.

And she would’ve worked perfectly to provide lore and knowledge and motives and secrets of her Dragon master, as player forces and pact would bleed them out her and her allies.

Alas, she was killed off ironically too soon to be able to take on that role, leaving us with nothing too clear to look forward to but have events unfold beyond our reach – and entirely scrambled enemy factions.

Personally I think Scarlet was the worst thing to happen to the Guild Wars universe. She trivialised unique NPC faction identities to form her shallow alliances, she was the only relevant force on Tyria for over a year, she rewrote the history of the sylvari and she was disliked through her entire reign on the story. Her death couldn’t come sooner.

The current story is improving and I believe that’s helped greatly because Scarlet is no longer around. Instead of wading in the shallow story of the Molten Alliance (screw the revolution and a dredge cultural identity formed after many years of slavery, screw the religious fanaticism of the Flame Legion and their complex history going back to GW1 – the Molten Alliance formed simply for power and territory, those other things that made them interesting in the past don’t matter any more) we have the reconnection to GW1 lore (through Glint, Ogen and many lore threads revived in the Echoes of the Past release), we have the Pact returning to the battlefront (instead of moronically ignoring the destruction of Lion’s Arch) we have growing theories about the nature of magic in Tyria and the impact of ED deaths.

Scarlet was a low point in the franchise and I’m glad she’s gone.

I agree with Shiren.

Scarlet was okay in the lore until her reveal. Queen’s Jubilee/Clockwork Chaos is when Season 1 began rolling downhill – plotwise and burnout wise. Arguably Cutthroat Politics because of how sad that “vote” was – up to the Bazaar of the Four Winds was good though.