Guild Wars 2

For all GW1 Player and the new player who’ve red about gw1 stories, do the living world stories have the same quality as GW1 stories ??

Nope. The stories in the first game just stuck with me so much more. They meant more to me than all these little mini stories we’re getting. To me its not leaving much impact on the world really since all the content is gone after the story swaps. I mean, in prophecies we followed an exiled prince leading a mass of refugees to what was hopefully a safer place. That had impact. We had the searing! Which changed the entire layout of ascalon after we got out of the tutorial!

Factions we watched an entire country become diseased with a mysterious plague and found its source. Along the way we witnessed different gangs inhabiting Kaineng and different people. Hell we had the luxons and the kurzicks which were warring over territory constantly and had an ever moving battle line on the map showing who was controlling what and it affected stuff in the game!

Nightfall we watched as a corrupt general attempted to take over the country with an evil god. We followed through with our leader gaining the support of the big shots to help fight back and even raised the nemesis of Turai Ossa to give us aid. We went all the way into Abbadon’s realm and killed him where we witnessed the creation of a new god!

Eye of the north, we watched as new races came into the world that we’d never seen before. Technology we hadn’t even dreamed of was introduced. We met the Norn, the Asura, we worked with our mortal enemies the charr! We absolutely hated the charr back then! We’d just as soon kill and skin them on sight to make a pretty rug out of them than work with them back in the day! We managed to make all those dysfunctional races come together to fight the destroyers.

All of these seemed to have a much heavier, lasting impact on the world as we knew it and the world was actively involved in the story with us. Those stories stuck with me pretty well. Right now I’m only even remotely interested in the current living story because of the fact that if Gnashblade wins we get a peak back into something that occurred in guild wars 1.

Nothing in GW2 is coming even remotely close to the GW story campaigns and lore.

The lore got butchered, twisted and mostly turned into nonsense fluff stuff. Tyria turned into a weirdo Science-Fantasy Zombie pseudo apocalypse (replace zombie with corrupted or possessed or whatever for different alien dragons). The complexity and depth of the personal story is suited for the comprehension level of below average IQ 12 year old…

Yes – vastly disappointed in that regard.

Caran.3217:

Nothing in GW2 is coming even remotely close to the GW story campaigns and lore.

The lore got butchered, twisted and mostly turned into nonsense fluff stuff. Tyria turned into a weirdo Science-Fantasy Zombie pseudo apocalypse (replace zombie with corrupted or possessed or whatever for different alien dragons). The complexity and depth of the personal story is suited for the comprehension level of below average IQ 12 year old…

Yes – vastly disappointed in that regard.

Prophecies was just as bad on release, and I will continue to say it. Prophecies was such a mess of cliche and standard stuff it was the blandest of the four original Guild Wars releases.

Factions was predictable and almost boring sometimes trying to get to the part you knew was coming.

Nightfall dragged in the middle, but was really well fleshed out in between the mission segments.

Eye of the North was relatively short comparatively, despite having characters I liked almost the best out of the four sets. (Pyre Fierceshot, Jora, and Kahmu can stay. Everyone else, get back in line.)

Guild Wars: Beyond had some of the best story work from that era. The Kryta Civil War, Winds of Change . . . and whatever you think, Hearts of the North had a decent attempt at focusing on two characters actually getting over themselves and settling together.

As for the Tyria of today?

I blame the charr, the sylvari, and the asura, for making it so uninteresting and dull. Why? Because in ascending order, those are who kitten me off the most the more I have to deal with them. (The charr get a pass most times, only because I remember back when they were less interesting and just barely-civilized punching bags for loot.)

Yes.
Unfortunately, GW2 story is much, much more childish…

Nick.6972:

Yes.
Unfortunately, GW2 story is much, much more childish…

Given the T rating, and how badly game writing falters outside the M rating? It’s not surprising it’s simplistic. Childish, eh, I’ve seen much worse by intelligent and mature adults.

The Hobbit comes to mind.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Prophecies was just as bad on release, and I will continue to say it. Prophecies was such a mess of cliche and standard stuff it was the blandest of the four original Guild Wars releases.

Factions was predictable and almost boring sometimes trying to get to the part you knew was coming.

Nightfall dragged in the middle, but was really well fleshed out in between the mission segments.

Eye of the North was relatively short comparatively, despite having characters I liked almost the best out of the four sets. (Pyre Fierceshot, Jora, and Kahmu can stay. Everyone else, get back in line.)

Guild Wars: Beyond had some of the best story work from that era. The Kryta Civil War, Winds of Change . . . and whatever you think, Hearts of the North had a decent attempt at focusing on two characters actually getting over themselves and settling together.

This is actually your personal opinion, your subjective opinion. You can tell about your personal feelings about the plot, but don’t run them into the facts.

Kreslin.6832:

This is actually your personal opinion, your subjective opinion. You can tell about your personal feelings about the plot, but don’t run them into the facts.

I’d like to, but it seems a lot of people enjoy doing it when discussing things about Guild Wars 2. Though, I’ll also point out – all this discussion has been is subjective interpretations.

You could say “it’s objective” just about everything.

I believe the earth is flat – it’s still valid subjective opinion whether it’s wrong or not.

Nick.6972:

You could say “it’s objective” just about everything.

I believe the earth is flat – it’s still valid subjective opinion whether it’s wrong or not.

Hmmm, well I’ll bite. As a subjective opinion it’s quite valid. However as objective fact it’s wrong.

The trouble we’re in here talking about the stories is there is very little objective about it all without getting into a recitation of events and lines which . . . cannot be argued to be subjective at all. But how we perceive the lines and interpret what we see automatically moves into subjective territory.

If we want to look at the game as we would a work of art (and talking about the story, it seems clear we are), then it must be understood there is not many ways to talk about art objectively. Any time it’s tried, we wind up at the question “what is art” and then we have to disperse and reconvene at an underground coffee parlor somewhere nobody’s ever heard of.

I don’t think either game is more mature than the other, in terms of story. I think GW2 shares a lot with its predecessor in that it’ll get there eventually over time . . . three years, I’d say, but I hope for less. I think GW1 was an interesting game, but not (solely) for the rich and wonderful lore.

MrAtrien.3850:

Nope. The stories in the first game just stuck with me so much more. They meant more to me than all these little mini stories we’re getting. To me its not leaving much impact on the world really since all the content is gone after the story swaps. I mean, in prophecies we followed an exiled prince leading a mass of refugees to what was hopefully a safer place. That had impact. We had the searing! Which changed the entire layout of ascalon after we got out of the tutorial!

Factions we watched an entire country become diseased with a mysterious plague and found its source. Along the way we witnessed different gangs inhabiting Kaineng and different people. Hell we had the luxons and the kurzicks which were warring over territory constantly and had an ever moving battle line on the map showing who was controlling what and it affected stuff in the game!

Nightfall we watched as a corrupt general attempted to take over the country with an evil god. We followed through with our leader gaining the support of the big shots to help fight back and even raised the nemesis of Turai Ossa to give us aid. We went all the way into Abbadon’s realm and killed him where we witnessed the creation of a new god!

Eye of the north, we watched as new races came into the world that we’d never seen before. Technology we hadn’t even dreamed of was introduced. We met the Norn, the Asura, we worked with our mortal enemies the charr! We absolutely hated the charr back then! We’d just as soon kill and skin them on sight to make a pretty rug out of them than work with them back in the day! We managed to make all those dysfunctional races come together to fight the destroyers.

All of these seemed to have a much heavier, lasting impact on the world as we knew it and the world was actively involved in the story with us. Those stories stuck with me pretty well. Right now I’m only even remotely interested in the current living story because of the fact that if Gnashblade wins we get a peak back into something that occurred in guild wars 1.

I never played GW1 and even i miss those stories. Reading your post really emphasizes the difference between the two games. What you wrote sounds amazing, what we have gone through so far in GW2 is lame.

different writers perhaps? perhaps they should get them back on board. maybe one month we can do political drama’s like elections, mini games and road sign fixing, and the next month fight some ancient evil threatening the kingdom.

ANET set the bar for crafting a Living Story when they did War In Kryta.

Nothing in GW2 Living Stories has remotely come close. Not even the same league.

GW1 was a masterpiece. I loved the lore, quests and story. The ‘Living Story’ of GW2 doesn’t even come close to the greatness of the GW1 story. GW2 Living Story feels like tabloid journalism in comparison.

I’m also very disappointed in the stories so far told in GW2. Ignoring personal story for the moment, I don’t understand why ArenaNet feels the need to introduce so many new stories to the world when they already have so much to build from.

So many storylines that could be interesting were already in the core game, but they’re not being developed. I’d rather have a game world with more depth than breadth. Instead the story consists of sky pirates (seriously? whose idea was this?), mini games, and more celebrations. Sure they can be fun for a time, but in the end it just puts me off playing.

Unfortunately no, living story doesn’t come near to GW1 quests so far, same goes for story arc. It’s sad.

GW2 story lacks the charm of GW1.

I blame the introduction of dragons and their corruption. It feels so shoehorned in and forced, that the original GW1 lore doesn’t even make sense.

You’re telling me gods simply didn’t know Zhaitan was underneath Orr? Even Abaddon and Lyssa?

It feels more like zombie apocalypse than Guild Wars, and not that the original GW1 wasn’t about zombies, the story of GW2 just feels so forced it lacks its original charm.

Luckily the gameplay and lore is interesting, but the main story is not.

Kain Francois.4328:

I blame the introduction of dragons and their corruption. It feels so shoehorned in and forced, that the original GW1 lore doesn’t even make sense.

You’re telling me gods simply didn’t know Zhaitan was underneath Orr? Even Abaddon and Lyssa?

We don’t know what Abaddon knew or what his plans were before he went completely crazy in the Realm of Torment. And after mortals went in there and took him down, the Six sort of began to fade back from activity even more than they had already.

Also worth pointing out the original GW1 lore had its issues also, especially as Nightfall started. So there’s this sixth god nobody ever mentioned because all references were expunged . . . except there’s this cult which remembers him and passes it down from generation to generation and suddenly the two previous villains were tools of this dead god . . .

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Prophecies was just as bad on release, and I will continue to say it. Prophecies was such a mess of cliche and standard stuff it was the blandest of the four original Guild Wars releases.

Factions was predictable and almost boring sometimes trying to get to the part you knew was coming.

Nightfall dragged in the middle, but was really well fleshed out in between the mission segments.

Eye of the North was relatively short comparatively, despite having characters I liked almost the best out of the four sets. (Pyre Fierceshot, Jora, and Kahmu can stay. Everyone else, get back in line.)

Disagree with you completely.

Prophecies were excellent.
Factions was something completely different, felt new and fresh to the original, still just as excellent if not more so! it was my favourite chapter, the story with Shiro was really enticing, at least to me it was.
Nightfall was good, though the theme of this expansion wasn’t my thing.
Eye of the North was a sweet end to the original, returning to where it all started, the pacing of this felt a bit strange but still was good and enjoyed it.

The stories in GW1 has a better sense of scale to them, you’d slowly build to this final encounter and it would be always be something grand, didn’t get that feeling here…

All stories have cliches, in games, in movies and in real life too- you can’t get away from them, they worked well in GW1, at least more so than in this release.

i think the story in the living story have 2 issues
1-no fantasy epic(wars, gods, plagues,dark powers, etc…..) , it all center about social stories like (politics, elections, consortium and their capitalistic issues, canach’s Psychological issues about being second born..etc..) i know that they want it to be more mature but come on its a fantasy game, they can mix fantasy with maturity game of thrones.
2- no episodic feel except Flame and Frost release (despite all of its problems from too little contents etc….) but i think it’s the only release that have the episodic feel.
Anet said that they want to make it more like episodes but i feel no connections

dronzer.8392:

The stories in GW1 has a better sense of scale to them, you’d slowly build to this final encounter and it would be always be something grand, didn’t get that feeling here…

Probably the most valid complaint on my end too . . . each of the GW1 storylines all had a high fantasy feel to them, while GW2 tends to feel like low fantasy. Not to mean that it’s bad (it is in places . . .) but that it’s not feeling as high-stakes after about two thirds through.

gandarr.2160:

i think the story in the living story have 2 issues
1-no fantasy epic(wars, gods, plagues,dark powers, etc…..) , it all center about social stories like (politics, elections, consortium and their capitalistic issues, canach’s Psychological issues about being second born..etc..) i know that they want it to be more mature but come on its a fantasy game, they can mix fantasy with maturity game of thrones.

you nailed it. Not enough high end (epic) fantasy. I think it can still be mature but mix that in with a high end fantasy story and I’ll be happy.

Thobek.1730:

gandarr.2160:

i think the story in the living story have 2 issues
1-no fantasy epic(wars, gods, plagues,dark powers, etc…..) , it all center about social stories like (politics, elections, consortium and their capitalistic issues, canach’s Psychological issues about being second born..etc..) i know that they want it to be more mature but come on its a fantasy game, they can mix fantasy with maturity game of thrones.

you nailed it. Not enough high end (epic) fantasy. I think it can still be mature but mix that in with a high end fantasy story and I’ll be happy.

I think it’s better when it’s not high fantasy.