It was a system that did nothing other than change a few text dialogues (and the angry part let you knock the man on the Eastern Divinity Dam raft into the water). They meant to expand on it and didn’t have the means, so they snipped it out as it had become vestigial.
Yea it really is a shame that an RPG game has to focus mainly on core features rather than storytelling and roleplaying because of casuals. The entire genre has been moving further and further into the seas of casual drudgery simply because companies have to show a large profit for their work. The days of games sacrificing their business for quality is long over and the watering down of the genre has been here for almost an entire decade now.
Horrible in-game astmosphere due to the lack of simple features such as rain? Watered Down Storytelling? No attachment to your main character(s) let alone story characters? That’s profit for you!
Alas! We still have single player games for the real good stuff.
Feel the Flames of Balthazar; Bask in the ever-presence of his glory!
Gilded Grimoire[MAGI]. Casual Guild www.gw2magi.com
P.S. GW2 has become less and less of an RPG and more and more of a pure combat game, which I think is a huge shame.
It wasn’t any more RP when the personality system was in play. You made choices which had little to no impact on the story later. At best, it offered a tiny amount of color dialogue. However, the writing made it seem like naive variations of obvious Tropes: toughguy Brute, NewSpeak Honorable, & sociopath charming.
Mind you, the concept is great. I would have loved to see it implemented the way ANet originally intended. There just wasn’t time prior to launch and maintaining 1-2 updates/month for the first year or so took more of their energy than they thought; they were just never able to get around to doing it “right”.
tl;dr You didn’t miss much. The game is better off for its absence.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Aren’t most of the choices still there? The only thing missing is the little icon on the Hero Panel. I imagine one could keep track of one’s choices and determine which icon would be showing, were said icons still there.
Aren’t most of the choices still there? The only thing missing is the little icon on the Hero Panel. I imagine one could keep track of one’s choices and determine which icon would be showing, were said icons still there.
Good luck.
In some cases, the dialogue remains. In some cases, they removed some of the options; in others it’s still there. And if I recall correctly, the game still tracks personality; it just doesn’t display in the UI or have any impact on how NPCs behave towards you. (Again, not that it ever had much impact on that.)
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
That’s what I meant. Pretty much, the only thing it did, when active, was change the icon. Thus, if one wanted to experience that ‘content’, one could keep track manually, and determine which icon would show.
It was removed when they released and updated to the new Hero Panel window. I’m sure there are pictures of the old Hero Panel window in the Wiki, and elsewhere.
I don’t, personally, remember it having any effect on my play experience (other than said icon). /shrug
Playing story content usually in duo, I have seen moments where me and my spouse had different response alternatives available a couple time, so it’s still tracked and used. Used in an extremely limited amount, though!
Aren’t most of the choices still there? The only thing missing is the little icon on the Hero Panel. I imagine one could keep track of one’s choices and determine which icon would be showing, were said icons still there.
Good luck.
Not only are the choices still there, they use the choice system in new content. In episode 5, you use the choices to convince Phlunt to leave the lab. The conversation is surprisingly different each choice.
Not only are the choices still there, they use the choice system in new content. In episode 5, you use the choices to convince Phlunt to leave the lab. The conversation is surprisingly different each choice.
Exactly! But hey, what do I know? I’m just a “casual” for pointing out that I want an RPG to actually have RPG content alongside everything else.
Whilst I like the multiple choice dialogue thing, it works just as well now as it did at launch. The only thing that has changed is the personality tracker and that filled after a handful of interactions. It was clear they had grand plans for it, much like the lore books which were also scrapped. However, MMO’s are littered with unfinished ideas that never develop beyond the first itineration (I’m looking at you LOTRO) and if Anet felt they couldn’t maintain the system and build on it without sacrificing more important things, then it was a decision well made.
Doesn’t mean they can’t do other things mind you. Race specific dialogue is something they could really do more of in situations (eg last episodes reveal was prime for it).
Aren’t most of the choices still there? The only thing missing is the little icon on the Hero Panel. I imagine one could keep track of one’s choices and determine which icon would be showing, were said icons still there.
Good luck.
Not only are the choices still there, they use the choice system in new content. In episode 5, you use the choices to convince Phlunt to leave the lab. The conversation is surprisingly different each choice.
My experience has been that he respects you if you stick to the Dignity route, and very quickly sticks his nose up if you use a Charm or Ferocity option.
One thing that was supposed to be in the original system was that the more you took a particular path, the better you were at it. So it might open up more options, and there might be options that have a different chance of succeeding depending on your character (so a character with high Charm might be able to charm Phlunt, for instance). I think nowadays it’s pretty much just a marker to let you know which tone each response has, in case it’s not obvious (not as silly as you might think – there have been times I’ve seen responses in RPGs which I thought it was going one way, and then I selected it and the character took an entirely different tone to what I’d thought). If it is still being tracked and there are in-game effects, even minor ones… then they really should show where the character stands, so you know where your character stands.
To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.
If it is still being tracked and there are in-game effects, even minor ones… then they really should show where the character stands, so you know where your character stands.
+1
I like the Wiki images displaying this in detail. I would love to be able to check the status quo, regardless of whether ArenaNet thinks this is not of importance to the game.
Cutting things that don’t hurt anyone should be left in the game — unless ArenaNet regards this feature as a reminder of failing, but then there wouldn’t still be dialogue options (and I love the fact they are there).
I miss this system too. I was particularly sad when in the latest LS episode, you could only convince Phlunt to leave if you chose only Dignified options. It would have been amazing if normally Phlunt doesn’t get bullied into leaving (with Aggressive options), but he DOES accede if you’re a Barbaric type because he’s heard of your previous conduct OR you’re just that intimidating. XD
If it is still being tracked and there are in-game effects, even minor ones… then they really should show where the character stands, so you know where your character stands.
+1
It’s tracked behind the scenes only because it was the more sensible business decision to leave that code in. However, it should not be displayed in game because:
Some options were removed, so whatever balance was available in the past no longer exists.
New options have been added (notably: speaking to Phlunt during the first instance of LS3.5). If those choices affect ‘Personality’, the numbers are even more meaningless.
The term ‘Ferocity’ has been repurposed as a stat, so they’d have to figure out a new word, translate, and adapt the UI accordingly.
Keeping it out of the game means fewer things that have to be tested, reducing QA time somewhat.
tl;dr although it would be nice for some players to show ‘personality’ scores in game, it would be a distraction of dev resources to make it happen.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I understand that argumentation but don’t agree with it. Removing part of the RPG content that already existed as part of the game is never okay IMO. Having to invest a few resources in order to adapt it to the current status quo is not a reason to not do it and keep the content as it is.
