Guild Wars 2

Now before I begin, I’d like to say that I believe that the ArenaNet writing team is pretty good. They’ve done their fair share of hiccups, but Guild Wars 2’s story, for the most part, is pretty awesome. There is, however, a problem I wish to discuss; Depressing Backgrounds.

Logan - Brother died in Ebonhawke during Kralkatorik’s flight south and creation of the Brand. Also one of his closest friends died because he wasn’t there when needed.

Eir - Lost her father, and had one of her closest friends die in her arms.

Sojja - Had her mentor, and father-figure, die in front of her.

Rytlock - Had his trust betrayed by someone he thought of as a brother, and seems to have an estranged relationship with his warband. Also had a close friend die in front of him.

Caithe - Her lover went to the dark-side, and has tried to manipulate her into doing so as well. Also she may have cheated on her at some point (if I understood TA Story Mode correctly). Friend died yada-yada-yada.

Now while some of these can vary in terms of how sad they are, it can be said that each member of Destiny’s Edge hasn’t had the best life on Tyria. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, as it helps build character and can be used as plot devices to further their stories later on. Still, with the introduction of the Living Story I was was hoping for a bit of a change of pace in terms of character backgrounds.

Spoilers: We didn’t.

Braham - Lost his father at a young age, and has an estranged relationship with his mother. Also his “girlfriend” might be dead.

Rox - Her entire warband, and pet, got crushed in a cave-in leaving her alone and a gladium.

Again, I’m not saying that it’s bad to give characters hardships, but there comes a time when it just starts to become repetitive. This is starting to be it. I’m honestly thinking of taking bets to see what sad story this Lionguard Inspector Kiel has to tell us. I mean, not everyone needs to have a sad past to become a hero. Not everyone needs to have someone die in order for them to realize that they need to take action against the evils of this world.

It’s just starting to get stale. Any thoughts?

Agree. When characters are just one sided, things just get boring. Imagine having 10 lol

Hmmm. Interestingly, I ended up with a different view on the Destiny’s Edge group…I saw them as their potential ‘players’, had they been PCs rather than NPCs.

Rytlock: Has no life outside the game, and not only pitched a hissy-fit because Logan dared to take a night off of raiding to spend with his gf, he blames Logan for his best friend Snaff rage-quitting the game as a result.

Logan: Pretty much the most average person of the group, not as serious about the game as the others might like.

Snaff: The oft-mentioned but never seen (well, I’m running Asura so I’ve certainly heard him mentioned a lot, though other races might not ;-) ) member of the group who rage-quit after the group wiped. Given the way the rest of the personalities in this group work, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if he was the type to yell for ‘More DoTs!’ and ‘50 DKP minus!’. :-)

Eir: The Leroy Jenkins of the so-called ‘team’, known for running off with ‘clever’ ideas..and giving her own son the brush-off.

Caithe: The nice one, who’s desperately trying to keep her group of friends together, rather than giving up and finding someone else to play with.

Zojja: The one I most identify with, and not just because she’s Asura. :-) Fed up with the entire lot of these losers, and would just as soon go do things on her own. But she likes Caithe enough to try one last time, but is pretty certain it’s a waste of time. (An Asuran player more or less gets dragged along as her GW1-style Hero, for a time. ;-) )

lol Fun Fact: One of the lead Lore devs actually made a similar comparison to DE in an interview once I think.

That’s besides the point though.

No one actually sees this pattern in every hero NPC’s story???

How about putting a spoiler alert?? Some people are complete and utter etc.

“…programmed with the most tragic backstory ever…”