Guild Wars 2

Before any starts reading this, if you’re looking for balance discussion or related technicalities…you probably should not read this and just skip ahead. I’m kinda bored as there seems to be a login bug that hasn’t been resolved for several days (check forums posts under the heading ’bugs").

I think this fits best in the pvp forum not for its content, but because it may pique the interest of others who pvp quite a bit. If you aren’t interested in lore and such “filthy casual” nonsense, then again, please move onto the next topic. I understand the pvp forum’s need for I guess “critical” discussion.

How does PvP relate to Gw2 lore? I vaguely remember a few months ago in teamspeak when a dev told me that a pvp match was a representation/recreation of a battle fought long ago by legendary heroes. In these matches, we play the role of the heroes, and auxillary objectives were the highlights of each battle in the past. Assuming this is true, I was surprised to hear this, as none of the lore behind PvP was really clarified in the pvp tutorial. I don’t exactly remember who else was in the teamspeak (but I think it consisted of some members of abjured and other top teams in NA), but I do not think I was alone in being oblivious.

It’s a cool tidbit. Something that’s actually a pretty creative idea. Unfortunately, the execution is far off as no on really knows the lore, evidenced by the fact that no one in that teamspeak really knew of it. In addition, I do not think most pvpers know what the Heart of the Mists actually is, why it exists, and how it became to be after gw1 (battle isles).

But so what? I think this connection has a lot of potential that may further bridge or aid the gap between pve and pvp players. There’s a lot that can be done with using pvp as a plot device for the personal story in pve, or maybe some living story content. Even having NPC players as opposing members of the team and as allies could help introduce pve players into the pvp scene.

An explanation for this disconnect between lore and pvp may be that the storytelling and its execution misses the mark. Gw1 was alright in that regard, but gw2 just went off the rails imo. There are some good points in gw2, but the majority was hampered down by too many shallow characters without proper introductions, an extremely predictable storyline, a lack of lore explanation, and not many significant themes. I remember playing the personal story a year ago, and was just kinda disappointed. Maybe it’s because I’m older than I was back in gw1 days, but I hardly believe that’s the entirety of the reason.

I hope heart of thorns in the future can tackle this issue, better tie pvp in with lore, and maybe even include a revamp of the personal story. Although it may not seem like much of an issue, storytelling does drive many individuals to play a videogame, and allow better appreciation of what the storytelling tries to enhance: the core game itself.

tl;dr: gw2 pvp is a recreation of past battles. Could use as a plot device to maybe introduce new players. Storytelling in the game is kinda disappointing.

Meh, the mists is just that place where we can all go to beat the kitten out of each other and not die. Like a perpetual limbo with separate dimensional rifts (aka different maps)