Guild Wars 2

The story was cliché from the start but the last part was overflowing with cliché.
First we get “higher-ups won’t listen to reason” cliché.
Then we get “bad guy succeeds” cliché.
Next is “we have to turn this around somehow” cliché.
Next is “final showdown” cliché.
Then Scarlet does the typical “close but I’m not dead yet” cliché.

Then we get the final confrontation part which without the cutscenes takes only 1 min to do but manages to break all the rules of being cliché.

First Scarlet does the “I still have an ace in the hole” cliché.
Next Marjory does the “main character presumably dead” cliché.
Next Rox and Braham do the “leave me” and “no I won’t leave you” cliché.
Next Kasmeer does the “I’ll get you for this” cliché.
Then Scarlet does the “too late” cliché.
Next Marjory does the “I’m not really dead” cliché.
So then Kasmeer does the “I’ll kiss you in the heat of the moment” cliché.
And it all ends with the “not over yet” and “making hints of a potential sequel” cliché.

In fact it’s so cliché that it even makes me talking about it cliché.

I love me some good clichés ^^

<(’ ‘<)I’m printing this post out many times so I can work on some Paper Clichés (>’ ’)>

Living story complains are outdated. That’s even worse than being cliché.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TropesAreTools

Quite honestly, everything is a cliche at this point.

I haven’t seen a truly original story in years.

Even GW1 was hardly original.

Olvendred.3027:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TropesAreTools

That sums it up. Everything is a ripoff of something, but that doesn’t make it a bad thing.

Seriously, If you think that anything to do with Zombies, Undead, Rage Viruses, etc. in the last 60 years is ‘original and unique’, you should go read one of the original sources, which technically isn’t even a zombie story (I am Legend).

For another example, look at all the Modern stories about Space Marines and galactic warfare….then go read ‘Mobile Suit Starhammercraft Effect 40K : Combat Evolved’….er, wait, I mean Starship Troopers!

All Modern interpretations of Elves and Dwarves are influenced by Tolkien’s stories in some way, which also indirectly affected almost every aspect of the Dwarves from this game. Its inescapable.

Celestina.2894:

Quite honestly, everything is a cliche at this point.

I haven’t seen a truly original story in years.

Even GW1 was hardly original.

GW1 wasn’t any better about handling its cliches and tropes. GW2 just stopped pretending to hide it, I guess.

Chrispy.5641:

Olvendred.3027:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TropesAreTools

For another example, look at all the Modern stories about Space Marines and galactic warfare….then go read ‘Mobile Suit Starhammercraft Effect 40K : Combat Evolved’….er, wait, I mean Starship Troopers!

All Modern interpretations of Elves and Dwarves are influenced by Tolkien’s stories in some way, which also indirectly affected almost every aspect of the Dwarves from this game. Its inescapable.

What…?

In what way does Heinlein’s love letter to militant facism have anything to do with japanese gundams, starcraft, warhammer 40k, or halo? I mean, yes, starship troopers DID have people fighting in space with guns, but kitten, so did Buck Rogers and kitten. If you try to draw parallels between Starship Trooper’s MIs and any of those named franchises you’re gonna come up preeeeetty blank outside of the barest of comparisons. That is, that starcraft is mostly a rip off of 40k, which is about gene-forged transhumans with a religious devotion to an immortal human, halo is about gene-forged transhumans with..a…almost…uh, religious devotion to protecting mankind…

Huh. Sort of like they’re all based off of 40k, actually. In some way. Not based off of the sad sacks of facism that were the MIs in Starship Troopers. I know, I know, everyone just loves to claim Starship Troopers was the advent of all things space and sci-fi, but really, it wasn’t. Not when you break it down.

Also if you want to compare any kind of modern fantasy representations of elves/dwarves to Tolkein’s…I’d strongly suggest paying more attention to your original source materiel. There’s pretty much no resemblance physiologically, sociologically, or practically between Tolkein’s elves and modern elves, and even with the dwarves it’s kind of a stretch. If anything, I’d trace both main lines of modern sci-fi and fantasy depiction to Warhammer, hands down.

naemyis.8731:

In what way does Heinlein’s love letter to militant facism have anything to do with japanese gundams, starcraft, warhammer 40k, or halo?

Well, first, that’s not a love letter to militant facism any more than “Time Enough For Love” was a treatise on how incest was completely acceptable. Or “The Scourging of the Shire” is about The Battle of London.

(It’s not.)

Secondly, the advent of science fiction began with much harder science-fiction under Asimov, Clarke, and many others. Gods know I don’t think anyone seriously forgets that who goes into actually reading things. It’s not really easy to pin down what it’s about other than “speculating on the future and where science will develop humanity towards”. Some take optimistic ideas, some take realistic ones, some do pessimistic interpretations . . . sometimes humanity is alone, sometimes they’re not . . . there’s so many flavors of science fiction it’s impossible to take something other than “science is center to the plot” as the basis of a science fiction tale.

Fantasy fiction doesn’t have an advent or a starting point because myth has been going on since long before there was writing. We do owe a lot of interpretations of things to Tolkein (and then through Dungeons and Dragons’ lens . . .) but there’s been a plentiful amount of fantasy fiction which has not relied on Tolkein. Start with Harry Potter, move right on to Discworld, and if you keep going you might find the realms of Xanth, Athas, Ivalice, Osten Ard, Westeros/Essos, Tamriel . . . none of which definitively follow the same “blueprint”.

(And oh lords above and below, Xanth follows no known blueprint at all.)

If anything, I’d trace both main lines of modern sci-fi and fantasy depiction to Warhammer, hands down.

Keep trying to link it all back to Warhammer, you’ll have a hard time convincing me of it when there’s piles of stuff which is completely unrelated in the last ten years. You want to know what really they can be traced to?

Which movies hit the box office recently and need to be copied for success, or which remake can we wring a little more money out of than the other.

It’s of sort amazing to see someone actually dispute that modern elves and dwarves are directly drawn from Tolkein by way of Dungeons and Dragons. D&D clearly copped off of LotR, changed a few things, and provided the blueprint for every elves/dwarves fantasy franchise since.

According to wikipedia, Warhammer first came out in ‘83, nearly 10 years after D&D. It’s quite obvious where it all came from.

panzer.6034:

It’s of sort amazing to see someone actually dispute that modern elves and dwarves are directly drawn from Tolkein by way of Dungeons and Dragons. D&D clearly copped off of LotR, changed a few things, and provided the blueprint for every elves/dwarves fantasy franchise since.

Really, most of the stuff about elves and dwarfs which fall into stereotype weren’t Tolkein’s work at all. And luckily, D&D has had the good sense to try to reinvent its races to get more away from that and towards something all its own.

But D&D copied a lot of things off Tolkein and filed off the serial numbers in the younger days, and as it hit 2nd edition and the huge glut of different fantasy takes on elves or dwarfs? That’s what people remember more.

The part that gets me a little sad is noticing some places where the common tropes were being played with by TSR’s writing staff and people forget about it. I seriously think Ravenloft and Athas were their attempts to go “you think you know our races? nope”.

Unless tolkien was older that the official records state – the original elves and dwarves were from norwegian myths and legends. Which is where tolkien sourced them from.

Treebeard The Swift.9620:

Unless tolkien was older that the official records state – the original elves and dwarves were from norwegian myths and legends. Which is where tolkien sourced them from.

Right, but they were reimagined by Tolkein and then cribbed by D&D. From what i remember, the norse dwarves were pretty different (not even necessarily being short) and the elves were far more magical, living on a whole other plane of existence.

For example, the wiki says: “In the Prose Edda, the dwarfs are equated with the svartálfar and dökkálfar (”dark elves"); in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the dwarves (Tolkien’s spelling) and the Elves of Darkness or Moriquendi are distinct." Tolkien changed stuff up a bit.

Furthermore, it also states: " Games including Warhammer, Magic: The Gathering, the Warcraft franchise, and The Elder Scrolls feature dwarfs, again largely patterned after Tolkien’s. The dwarfs in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld universe are also derived from Tolkien’s."

We can clearly see which concept predates which.

naemyis.8731:

What…?

In what way does Heinlein’s love letter to militant facism have anything to do with japanese gundams, starcraft, warhammer 40k, or halo? I mean, yes, starship troopers DID have people fighting in space with guns, but kitten, so did Buck Rogers and kitten. If you try to draw parallels between Starship Trooper’s MIs and any of those named franchises you’re gonna come up preeeeetty blank outside of the barest of comparisons. That is, that starcraft is mostly a rip off of 40k, which is about gene-forged transhumans with a religious devotion to an immortal human, halo is about gene-forged transhumans with..a…almost…uh, religious devotion to protecting mankind…

Huh. Sort of like they’re all based off of 40k, actually. In some way. Not based off of the sad sacks of facism that were the MIs in Starship Troopers. I know, I know, everyone just loves to claim Starship Troopers was the advent of all things space and sci-fi, but really, it wasn’t. Not when you break it down.

Normally the Leader of a Facist regime (just look at North Korea) start to take on messianic qualities through their life, to the point that statues are built of them everywhere, their bodies are preserved after they die, and massive memorials are built in their honor that people are forced to go pay homage to, almost to the point of worship. Anyone born into this way of life grows up not knowing any better about the outside world, and perceives everything as normal. Because of this, any Facist regime that lasts long enough eventually evolves into a Theocracy to the point that people treat past leaders as if they were deities themselves without knowing better (again, North Korea, Also Russia and China for a time)(this post is not about politics, its just to prove a point in the nexr paragraph)

(and its not that Starship Troopers actually does any of that….) Your post is kind of funny, because basically the entire story in Warhammer 40K revolves around a hyper Facist/Religious, galaxy spanning, military state. Starcraft and Halo also drew heavy influence from Starship troopers, a story which basically calls out facist military states for what they were, before many people even realized it.

Unrelated to the above paragraphs, There’s also the Power Armor, which was featured in Starship Troopers, but was carried over to Warhammer 40k, then in starcraft, and Halo….even Fallout features Power Armor. Several Militaries are researching way to create power armor the influence was so great.

The creator of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, Yoshiyuki Tomino, stated that the Mobile Infantry in Starship Troopers was an inspiration. You can think of those Mechs as oversized exoskeletons.

Even Guild Wars 2 is indirectly influenced by this idea, since you have Golems in the game that you can pilot, just like a suit of Powered Armor / Mech.

Starship troopers wasn’t the earliest example of galactic warfare and power armor, that actually goes to several stories from the 1930’s, Starship Troopers is just the most famous early example.

(Speaking of what the earliest examples of things are……the Zombie stuff I mentioned earlier…that earliest example actually comes from the Epic of Gilgamesh. theres also stuff about the undead in Ezekiel.)

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Celestina.2894:

Quite honestly, everything is a cliche at this point.

I haven’t seen a truly original story in years.

Even GW1 was hardly original.

GW1 wasn’t any better about handling its cliches and tropes. GW2 just stopped pretending to hide it, I guess.

At least the GW1 stories were a lot better.

Its not the cliché’s that annoy me. It is how poorly they are presented to me.

Braham Eirsson: Yeah! We’re Tyrians. And we don’t like getting pushed around.

chrispy.5641:

olvendred.3027:

http://tvtropes.Org/pmwiki/pmwiki.Php/main/tropesaretools

that sums it up. Everything is a ripoff of something, but that doesn’t make it a bad thing.

Seriously, if you think that anything to do with zombies, undead, rage viruses, etc. In the last 60 years is ‘original and unique’, you should go read one of the original sources, which technically isn’t even a zombie story (I am legend).

For another example, look at all the modern stories about space marines and galactic warfare….Then go read ‘mobile suit starhammercraft effect 40k : combat evolved’….Er, wait, I mean starship troopers!

All modern interpretations of elves and dwarves are influenced by tolkien’s stories in some way, which also indirectly affected almost every aspect of the dwarves from this game. Its inescapable.

Yet, there is still quality media of all forms each year that manages to be exceptional without being cliche. Living story is made up entirely of blocks of bad cliche, with no attempt at depth, believability, emotional connectivity or quality.

If fiction was just the mechanical assembly of cliches, every book would be a best seller and every movie a blockbuster. Living story has been a really bad outline of cliched story, with no actual substance available to try to make it more than it’s base cliches.

Season one was barely on par with the worst d&d campaigns invented by untalented ten yearolds with fantasies of being an awesome dungeon master. Almost as bad as a Syfy channel Saturday night disaster movie, while being a tenth as fun and suffering under the delusion that it possesses a degree of quality.

A micro-budget, direct to video fantasy farce that thinks it’s the video game equivalent of Game of Thrones.

IMO, the destruction of LA was a childish attempt at providing lasting impact from a story line that amounted to absolutely nothing. The ultimate indictment of the horrible mess that has been Living Story.

Fiontar, tell us how you really feel :-P

wow, Fiontar that’s a lot of hate! hahahaha Shhhhh lets stay quite, maybe living story will not come back and we can have real deep award winning content.

Fiontar.4695:

A micro-budget, direct to video fantasy farce that thinks it’s the video game equivalent of Game of Thrones.

That’d be an awesome slam if they had said anything of the sort.

Fiontar.4695:

chrispy.5641:

olvendred.3027:

http://tvtropes.Org/pmwiki/pmwiki.Php/main/tropesaretools

that sums it up. Everything is a ripoff of something, but that doesn’t make it a bad thing.

Seriously, if you think that anything to do with zombies, undead, rage viruses, etc. In the last 60 years is ‘original and unique’, you should go read one of the original sources, which technically isn’t even a zombie story (I am legend).

For another example, look at all the modern stories about space marines and galactic warfare….Then go read ‘mobile suit starhammercraft effect 40k : combat evolved’….Er, wait, I mean starship troopers!

All modern interpretations of elves and dwarves are influenced by tolkien’s stories in some way, which also indirectly affected almost every aspect of the dwarves from this game. Its inescapable.

Yet, there is still quality media of all forms each year that manages to be exceptional without being cliche. Living story is made up entirely of blocks of bad cliche, with no attempt at depth, believability, emotional connectivity or quality.

If fiction was just the mechanical assembly of cliches, every book would be a best seller and every movie a blockbuster. Living story has been a really bad outline of cliched story, with no actual substance available to try to make it more than it’s base cliches.

Season one was barely on par with the worst d&d campaigns invented by untalented ten yearolds with fantasies of being an awesome dungeon master. Almost as bad as a Syfy channel Saturday night disaster movie, while being a tenth as fun and suffering under the delusion that it possesses a degree of quality.

A micro-budget, direct to video fantasy farce that thinks it’s the video game equivalent of Game of Thrones.

IMO, the destruction of LA was a childish attempt at providing lasting impact from a story line that amounted to absolutely nothing. The ultimate indictment of the horrible mess that has been Living Story.

Since you suggested it….How many Stories came out in the last year that have a crippled child that built and pilots a suit of powered armor so she can move around and protect herself?

Also, Game of Thrones isn’t really that good. It relies almost entirely on politics and shock value than actually telling a story. Its the same reason why I think the Walking Dead is average at best. Shocking deaths as the only source of plot twists would be shocking, if they didn’t happen every other episode (or issue, or chapter).

Chrispy.5641:

Since you suggested it….How many Stories came out in the last year that have a crippled child that built and pilots a suit of powered armor so she can move around and protect herself?

I’m still remembering Castile when people bring that bit up.

Though there’s also Miles Naismith, less crippled and more . . . very short.

Also, Game of Thrones isn’t really that good. It relies almost entirely on politics and shock value than actually telling a story. Its the same reason why I think the Walking Dead is average at best. Shocking deaths as the only source of plot twists would be shocking, if they didn’t happen every other episode (or issue, or chapter).

I dunno about shock value being more what it relies on, as opposed to people being wildly outmaneuvered by others who are much better at the politics and backstabbing. That’s entertaining in its own right to the point I would love to see someone drop the “Survivor villains” into Westeros and take bets on how long they last.

As for Walking Dead, I just don’t have a frame of reference on this as I refuse to get into it. “Dude, you should totally watch it!” Considering I get similar replies when I tell people “you should at least try to finish a season of Lost” I am content to leave it be – Person of Interest has been better for me anyway. (Love Mr. Emerson’s work.)

But all said and done, we could go round and round on any particular “awesome”/“legendary” piece of fiction but there’s not one which is universally acclaimed to the point where nobody stands up and goes “I didn’t like it”. Trying to downplay how good something is with that opinion is almost dodging the point of the reference anyway.

The point is to have something which is as speculated on, as noteworthy, or at the least not held in derision by the most people. You know, like The Phantom Menace.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Fiontar.4695:

A micro-budget, direct to video fantasy farce that thinks it’s the video game equivalent of Game of Thrones.

That’d be an awesome slam if they had said anything of the sort.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/You-dare-compare-Scarlet-to-Game-of-Thrones

I think its this article people are talking about. Especially this quote:

“It’ll be really fun in three months when the ending happens for those people to be able to stand up and say, ‘I got it right! I nailed Game of Thrones!’”

Thobek.1730:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Fiontar.4695:

A micro-budget, direct to video fantasy farce that thinks it’s the video game equivalent of Game of Thrones.

That’d be an awesome slam if they had said anything of the sort.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/You-dare-compare-Scarlet-to-Game-of-Thrones

I think its this article people are talking about. Especially this quote:

“It’ll be really fun in three months when the ending happens for those people to be able to stand up and say, ‘I got it right! I nailed Game of Thrones!’”

Well it’s relatively easy to nail Game of Thrones. Pick any decent character, and go “they die”. Wait until it happens (it will).

It was also relatively easy to nail the Living Story. “Scarlet dies at the end.”

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

….snip…..

But all said and done, we could go round and round on any particular “awesome”/“legendary” piece of fiction but there’s not one which is universally acclaimed to the point where nobody stands up and goes “I didn’t like it”. Trying to downplay how good something is with that opinion is almost dodging the point of the reference anyway.

The point is to have something which is as speculated on, as noteworthy, or at the least not held in derision by the most people. You know, like The Phantom Menace.

And what is the point of the reference?

Many an angry poster has argued that the reference was horrible, and that Game of Thrones is better than the living story in Guild Wars 2 (and is what that previous post implied), without actually offering any points for why its better. I atleast offered my reasons for why I think game of thrones is not better (mainly that shocking deaths as the only real form of plot twist does not make a good story)

And on the Star Wars thing…..If you remove Jar Jar and Ewoks, there is no difference between The Phantom Menace and Return of the Jedi, other than an evolution in how special effects are made and presented that many people refuse to acknowledge out of a sense of nostalgia that also ended up ruining Indiana Jones for them.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It was also relatively easy to nail the Living Story. “Scarlet dies at the end.”

Many people were also sure of it that someone from ’Destiney’s Edge 2.0’ was going to die, with a heroic death of some sort….didn’t happen. Most people were 100% wrong in that respect!

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Thobek.1730:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Fiontar.4695:

A micro-budget, direct to video fantasy farce that thinks it’s the video game equivalent of Game of Thrones.

That’d be an awesome slam if they had said anything of the sort.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/You-dare-compare-Scarlet-to-Game-of-Thrones

I think its this article people are talking about. Especially this quote:

“It’ll be really fun in three months when the ending happens for those people to be able to stand up and say, ‘I got it right! I nailed Game of Thrones!’”

Well it’s relatively easy to nail Game of Thrones. Pick any decent character, and go “they die”. Wait until it happens (it will).

It was also relatively easy to nail the Living Story. “Scarlet dies at the end.”

lol wot!? I have absolutely no idea why you posted that.

I was just linking the article because you said they never mentioned Game of Thrones, hence why I quoted you. I think you’re just replying for the sake of replying now.

Thobek.1730:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Thobek.1730:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Fiontar.4695:

A micro-budget, direct to video fantasy farce that thinks it’s the video game equivalent of Game of Thrones.

That’d be an awesome slam if they had said anything of the sort.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/You-dare-compare-Scarlet-to-Game-of-Thrones

I think its this article people are talking about. Especially this quote:

“It’ll be really fun in three months when the ending happens for those people to be able to stand up and say, ‘I got it right! I nailed Game of Thrones!’”

Well it’s relatively easy to nail Game of Thrones. Pick any decent character, and go “they die”. Wait until it happens (it will).

It was also relatively easy to nail the Living Story. “Scarlet dies at the end.”

lol wot!? I have absolutely no idea why you posted that.

I was just linking the article because you said they never mentioned Game of Thrones, hence why I quoted you. I think you’re just replying for the sake of replying now.

No, that’s what you’re doing.

Also, do get it straight. I said they never compared it to Game of Thrones. Which, well, they didn’t. They said they wanted the same sort of feeling of someone figuring out where they were going with the story, as someone who figured out something on Game of Thrones.

Again, that isn’t all that hard. Take your favorite character from the show, add “- dies” and you have now successfully forecast Game of Thrones.

Anything and everything is a cliche depending on how far down you want to drill for it. Everything from how a story ends or climaxes, to even character motivations or backgrounds (i.e. troubled past, wants to see the world burn, character is actually thinking they’re doing GOOD). I don’t care if a story has cliches what sets them all apart is, as bullyrook pointed out, the presentation. GW2 is lacking in this area a lot of times.

Chrispy.5641:

And on the Star Wars thing…..If you remove Jar Jar and Ewoks, there is no difference between The Phantom Menace and Return of the Jedi, other than an evolution in how special effects are made and presented that many people refuse to acknowledge out of a sense of nostalgia that also ended up ruining Indiana Jones for them.

I’m going to have to stop you right there because if you can’t see the difference between a compelling hero’s journey plot with interesting (if cliche) characters as opposed to a LITERAL MESS at every level with braindead characters doing a lot of crap that is not very well explained or thought out with lots of shiny special effects to cover up the absolutely awful characters (paper thin. I’m pretty sure a rock emotes better than Padme in ep1) and the needlessly complicated yet still completely boring plot (TL;DR Palpatine engineers a crisis to maneuver into power as chancellor but this somehow has to do with Padme signing a paper to make an invasion legal? Pretty sure an ILLEGAL invasion would be more of a crisis. Killing the jedi and bringing attention to himself somehow helped his plan? How? I don’t understand, I get the premise but nothing in the movie makes any logical sense) then you should not be participating in this discussion because you literally do not understand what makes a story successful.

Apologies for the massively run-on sentence and hyperbole, but as a writer and an avid consumer of pop culture (yes, including Star Wars) that post had me seeing red because it offended me on so many levels.

I don’t think anyone has ever said that Star Wars is some sort of perfect space epic, but as a fun, engaging romp through a galaxy far, far away? Hell to the yes.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Fiontar.4695:

A micro-budget, direct to video fantasy farce that thinks it’s the video game equivalent of Game of Thrones.

That’d be an awesome slam if they had said anything of the sort.

The following is from the Eurogamer interview a few months back, for proper context:

Johanson told me everything that will happen, and the four patches coming early this year – 21st January, 4th February, 18th February and 4th March – will bring about an end to excite even a bystander. Tyria really won’t be the same after it, and what happens at the end will also set up Season Two.

By its conclusion, Season One will have been developing for 15 months. What ArenaNet wanted to create was a complex plot that kept people theorising and speculating in the same way a show like A Game of Thrones (and the book series A Song of Fire and Ice beyond that) does – to have “people realise what the power of having a video game that can tell a story like a television show is”.

There are enraptured super-fans fervently guessing at what’s to come, mind you, and apparently one person in every 10,000-20,000 has guessed correctly. “And we haven’t told them this!” Johanson cackled. "Most of the rest of our fans are all saying, ’You’re crazy! There’s no way that’s what it is – that’s way too cool.’

“It’ll be really fun in three months when the ending happens for those people to be able to stand up and say, ‘I got it right! I nailed Game of Thrones!’”

But what if it doesn’t work? What if this grand story doesn’t have the affect on people that ArenaNet hopes – will it be time to reassess the formula?

ArenaNet has already. The next step, “and we’re heading down that path regardless”, is to keep a big story but colour it with smaller stories that begin and end every month, the hope being to keep less invested players interested. “That would be our next step before we say, ‘Hey, we really need to change things,’” said Johanson.

“This cliche. Kill.”

Fiontar.4695:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Fiontar.4695:

A micro-budget, direct to video fantasy farce that thinks it’s the video game equivalent of Game of Thrones.

That’d be an awesome slam if they had said anything of the sort.

The following is from the Eurogamer interview a few months back, for proper context:

Johanson told me everything that will happen, and the four patches coming early this year – 21st January, 4th February, 18th February and 4th March – will bring about an end to excite even a bystander. Tyria really won’t be the same after it, and what happens at the end will also set up Season Two.

By its conclusion, Season One will have been developing for 15 months. What ArenaNet wanted to create was a complex plot that kept people theorising and speculating in the same way a show like A Game of Thrones (and the book series A Song of Fire and Ice beyond that) does – to have “people realise what the power of having a video game that can tell a story like a television show is”.

There are enraptured super-fans fervently guessing at what’s to come, mind you, and apparently one person in every 10,000-20,000 has guessed correctly. “And we haven’t told them this!” Johanson cackled. "Most of the rest of our fans are all saying, ’You’re crazy! There’s no way that’s what it is – that’s way too cool.’

“It’ll be really fun in three months when the ending happens for those people to be able to stand up and say, ‘I got it right! I nailed Game of Thrones!’”

But what if it doesn’t work? What if this grand story doesn’t have the affect on people that ArenaNet hopes – will it be time to reassess the formula?

ArenaNet has already. The next step, “and we’re heading down that path regardless”, is to keep a big story but colour it with smaller stories that begin and end every month, the hope being to keep less invested players interested. “That would be our next step before we say, ‘Hey, we really need to change things,’” said Johanson.

. . . nothing on there saying they’re as good as Game of Thrones, or an equivalent. Only that it’s what they hoped to do. It’s lacking a claim of success.

I think they know it didn’t live up to what they envisioned, and really need to do better. Much better.

cakesphere.5910:

Chrispy.5641:

And on the Star Wars thing…..If you remove Jar Jar and Ewoks, there is no difference between The Phantom Menace and Return of the Jedi, other than an evolution in how special effects are made and presented that many people refuse to acknowledge out of a sense of nostalgia that also ended up ruining Indiana Jones for them.

I’m going to have to stop you right there because if you can’t see the difference between a compelling hero’s journey plot with interesting (if cliche) characters as opposed to a LITERAL MESS at every level with braindead characters doing a lot of crap that is not very well explained or thought out with lots of shiny special effects to cover up the absolutely awful characters (paper thin. I’m pretty sure a rock emotes better than Padme in ep1) and the needlessly complicated yet still completely boring plot (TL;DR Palpatine engineers a crisis to maneuver into power as chancellor but this somehow has to do with Padme signing a paper to make an invasion legal? Pretty sure an ILLEGAL invasion would be more of a crisis. Killing the jedi and bringing attention to himself somehow helped his plan? How? I don’t understand, I get the premise but nothing in the movie makes any logical sense) then you should not be participating in this discussion because you literally do not understand what makes a story successful.

Apologies for the massively run-on sentence and hyperbole, but as a writer and an avid consumer of pop culture (yes, including Star Wars) that post had me seeing red because it offended me on so many levels.

I don’t think anyone has ever said that Star Wars is some sort of perfect space epic, but as a fun, engaging romp through a galaxy far, far away? Hell to the yes.

I’m going to have to stop you right there, because, if you’re title dropping youself ‘as a writer’ then you should be able to see the artistic/plot/character similarities between both trilogies. Both trilogies had the same flaws (mostly bad acting and making heavy use of special effects to cary the audience through the bad acting), the same 1 dimensional characters (If a rock can emote better Padame, then a rock can emote better than Leia), and the same awful animal/creature comic relief (jar jar and ewoks).

Are you sure that I should be removing myself from this conversation instead of you?

And I’ll admit that politics in any story is boring, unless there is a shocking death every chapter/episode/etc. (like Game of Thrones), in which case Tobias is right….Its Predictable, which in my opinion is even worse than boring.

Chrispy.5641:

Since you suggested it….How many Stories came out in the last year that have a crippled child that built and pilots a suit of powered armor so she can move around and protect herself?

Its called “cripple overcoming his weakness cliche”. Every year there is some film with such cliche

It amazing me how many self-proclaimed story-telling experts play this game. >_>

LordEnki.9283:

It amazing me how many self-proclaimed story-telling experts play this game. >_>

I guess, u didnt get the sarcasm. I though, that this whole thread is a parody on all experts, who were calling scarlet a cliche