Guild Wars 2

I’ve come to notice that our characters during the living world and even the second half of our personal story that focus tends to abandon us. It seems like we are just there but aren’t needed at all, in other words we’re like a 3rd wheel that has no use. When playing the living world story it seems like the npc’s are only talking to each other and completely ignoring us like we aren’t even there then ask us on what course of action to go about.

Just give our characters more of a place and actually include them more in the storyline so I don’t feel like an outsider among the others.

Well I can list several examples where the NPCs actively refer to you being there.

1. In Episode 1, on the second story instance, at the beginning Marjory says, “lead the way, boss.” (referring to you.)

2. In Episode 1, on the second story instance, Kasmeer drops crystals and says, “Can you help take out those machines? I can’t seem to get over there, the magic is blocking me.” (Yet again, referring to you.)

3. In Episode 2, on the first story instance, Taimi, when asked by Kasmeer whether she is allowed to use one of the consoles, says, “Sorry, this one’s for the boss only.” (referring to you, AGAIN.)

4. In Season 1, on the final battle in the Breachmaker, Marjory again says, “Lead the way, boss.” like in episode 1 of season 2.

5. And that’s just when talking about open world dialogue. If you regularly click on the characters and read what they say to you in the closed dialogue window, they’ll constantly talk to you like you’re a friend and an important member of the team. They’ll openly discuss with your character about what’s going on and you can select options to tell them what you think of the situation.

6. And who can forget the Eternal Alchemy cinematic. Really.

An added aside, I recently watched a “story only” video of CoF story. You know what they did? They skipped 95% of all the dialogue you get when you double-click an NPC. They skipped 95% of it! That’s insanity! The ‘only’ parts they listened to were actual cinematics and open world dialogue. What the actual F?! That’s skipping like, 60% of the story context!

It reminds me way too much of people who click accept on a quest prompt in WoW and don’t even read what the window says. What, you expect to get a story when you don’t even READ IT?

And keep in mind, ArenaNet has said that they did away with the old fashioned two people talking against a background splash screen format from the PS. Because of that, your character only converses in click dialogue for the most part now. So, for the people who complain about the lack of your character speaking I have four words:

Read. The. Dialogue. Window.

Our characters feel like spectators, because they aren’t given a primary role with voice acting, and one of the reasons, is because they would have to get 10 voice actors again (1 male and 1 female for each race), for each episode. Unless they use the same actors for multiple races i think? Anyway, this is why we’re relegated to dialogue text most of the time.

That’s a lot of money to pay each voice actor, and even if they did have the money, it would still take a lot of work to implement all 10 voiced dialogues for each episode, every 2 weeks. Currently, it’s easier to control with 5 npcs, and the occasional npcs and villains. Adding 10 more voice actors to that will add up dramatically.

In my opinion, they should’ve never created DE 2.0. They could’ve just used DE 1.0 as our sidekicks, and gave us a choice as to who we want to use for that episode. This would’ve made a stronger bond with the player and his DE 1.0 sidekick, and also creating conflicts, all while still maintaining the “hero” status. Imagine having Rytlock or Zojja by your side doing the Living Story. They could’ve been utilized so much doing it this way, by exploring their past and getting more details about DE 1.0 and their missions.

Then again, there’s also the issue of the “sidekick” becoming the main focus also. /shrug

nexxe.7081:

In my opinion, they should’ve never created DE 2.0. They could’ve just used DE 1.0 as our sidekicks, and gave us a choice as to who we want to use for that episode. This would’ve made a stronger bond with the player and his DE 1.0 sidekick, and also creating conflicts, all while still maintaining the “hero” status. Imagine having Rytlock or Zojja by your side doing the Living Story. They could’ve been utilized so much doing it this way, by exploring their past and getting more details about DE 1.0 and their missions.

It would also make it more or less impossible to have the episodes voiced at all, due to the voice actors for DE usually being quite busy.

It would probably be both cheaper and easier to get the PC voiced again rather than getting the DE in for every single update to do voice-work.

nexxe.7081:

Our characters feel like spectators, because they aren’t given a primary role with voice acting, and one of the reasons, is because they would have to get 10 voice actors again (1 male and 1 female for each race), for each episode. Unless they use the same actors for multiple races i think? Anyway, this is why we’re relegated to dialogue text most of the time.

We have several red posts in which we’re explicitly told it’s a technical issue, not a logistical or financial issue.

lordkrall.7241:

nexxe.7081:

In my opinion, they should’ve never created DE 2.0. They could’ve just used DE 1.0 as our sidekicks, and gave us a choice as to who we want to use for that episode. This would’ve made a stronger bond with the player and his DE 1.0 sidekick, and also creating conflicts, all while still maintaining the “hero” status. Imagine having Rytlock or Zojja by your side doing the Living Story. They could’ve been utilized so much doing it this way, by exploring their past and getting more details about DE 1.0 and their missions.

It would also make it more or less impossible to have the episodes voiced at all, due to the voice actors for DE usually being quite busy.

It would probably be both cheaper and easier to get the PC voiced again rather than getting the DE in for every single update to do voice-work.

That sounds about right. It’s pretty unrealistic to think the original DE members would be easy to get again, now that i think about it. There’s still the issue of using the original player voiced actors too, which would also be difficult.

CureForLiving.5360:

nexxe.7081:

Our characters feel like spectators, because they aren’t given a primary role with voice acting, and one of the reasons, is because they would have to get 10 voice actors again (1 male and 1 female for each race), for each episode. Unless they use the same actors for multiple races i think? Anyway, this is why we’re relegated to dialogue text most of the time.

We have several red posts in which we’re explicitly told it’s a technical issue, not a logistical or financial issue.

It’s probably due to multiple reasons, but yes, technicalities would be a major one, especially for an MMO of this size. Networking, coding, editing, etc…

Sorann Peace.9056:

Read. The. Dialogue. Window.

http://www.eminentseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/aint_nobody.jpg

I guess many ppl get that feeling because our characters dialouges re not voiced. Its easy to just klick away a text and choose an option (be it a habit or not). Listening instead of Reading would probably make it FEEL like we’re more part of the story even if we are already. But, as they (the devs) have told Before, voicing our heroes takes a LOT of Resources (10 voice actors, a number of lines depending on race and gender, NPC’s replay, making suitable movements to the dialouge etc……. ).

I’d love to see it too, would be awsome, but Think of the time needed to do this.

I thought we established this 2 years ago that Treahearn is the main Hero.

Sorann Peace.9056:

It reminds me way too much of people who click accept on a quest prompt in WoW and don’t even read what the window says. What, you expect to get a story when you don’t even READ IT?

And keep in mind, ArenaNet has said that they did away with the old fashioned two people talking against a background splash screen format from the PS. Because of that, your character only converses in click dialogue for the most part now. So, for the people who complain about the lack of your character speaking I have four words:

Read. The. Dialogue. Window.

Thank you! I’m going to add something to this:.

Play. The. Episode. More. Than. Once.

Yep. That’s right. You can’t play through the episode once and say you’ve seen everything. Those achievements for each episode are Anet’s way of encouraging us players to play the episodes again.

Whenever I team up with people, I notice that there are too many players who rush through the story in-game. It’s not just speed-loving hardcore players who do this. Roleplayers tend to do this too. There is so much information in each episode. It is very easy to miss something important.

Also, when a player plays different classes and races, there is a chance of getting different info. I’m basing that off of personal experience.

It is unfortunately true that having voiced NPCs without your character being voiced leads to an impression that you are not important, that you “have no voice” in more than a literal sense. After all that phrase “has no voice” comes from someone who literally has no say. You see this in social situations all the time. The person in the room who never talks. Everyone is involved the conversation except this one person who just listens.

That is what it feels like to listen to the NPCs have a conversation. I would like to participate but I can’t. Instead I have to sit there and wait for them to finish. When THEY are done, they decide to include me with an offhand: “right boss”? Or “its for the boss” (I’m the boss but I don’t get to decide).

It would make far more sense for my character to just be a sidekick rather than “the boss”. I don’t get to make decisions or have any input. They already tell me what to do. So its silly to pretend I’m the boss.

Ow please, PLEASE list me few MMOs where players are more significant than here in GW2.

Personally I prefer to have my character speak in a voice of my choice, which isn’t really possible with the pre-voiced dialogue (unless you turn off the sound), but that might be only me.

And not making decision?
I would say we are making decisions rather often.

DivineRequiem.2710:

Ow please, PLEASE list me few MMOs where players are more significant than here in GW2.

Swtor. People can hate that game all they want, but they made player characters the focus, while their companions really were secondary to you.

nexxe.7081:

Swtor. People can hate that game all they want, but they made player characters the focus, while their companions really were secondary to you.

Well to be fair SWTOR is a single-player game with some multiplayer components and always connected to internet requirement.