Guild Wars 2

After browsing the forums, I have seen a lot of posts/complaints about the dialog/personal story and similar issues. First let me state that I did not buy GW2 expecting a riveting story, I wanted a cool, fun game, which I got. Being an author myself and rather picky about what I read, I look at this as a game, not as a quality literary product. That being said, some things could be improved. A lot. And it all has to do with immersion.

For me, GW1 took one big step towards being an immersive world with Nightfall. Did the writing suddenly turn stellar? Was the plot more original? Not really. The main difference was the fact that suddenly you were one of a group of people working against a common goal, people that traveled with you as heroes, that saved your life and which you grew to love (or hate). I found myself drawn to actually liking some of them, and by the end Koss was my bro, instead of the annoying prat I had him pegged for at the start.

I can see that Anet is trying something similar here, with the Destiny’s Edge framework. The problem here is that here we have no interaction with most of the characters, and thus form no bonds. We are spectators to someone else’s RP campaign, and just like it is never a good idea to talk about the awesome campaign you just finished at a party, this is another case of you had to be there. It falls flat without the framework of the heroes.

So what has GW2 done well?

Dynamic events and NPC’s out in the world. They are brilliantly done, I don’t know if it is a different writing team, or whether it is just the creativity that comes from working without constraint, but here everything flows. I often find myself lingering to listen in on conversations in bars and camps, dynamic events flow nicely in and out of each other, and there are enough little gems out there that makes me smile at least once per session. The only thing I want here is more, and well, I have no doubt that more will be added as the game ages and focus can shift from bugs and balance to fine tuning and adding content. I can never go back to quest the old fashioned way, ever again. Big thumbs up here.

So why do the personal story kitten so hard then? Three reasons.

• The cutscene movies. I realize they can’t be changed now, but never, EVER do this again. The best script in the world would fall flat with this treatment, it tears you right out of immersion and into first year school play. If you can’t go the whole nine yards like in DA2 (understandable), then stick to game environments and game figures like in the world events. Seriously. That way our own brains will fill in a lot of the information missing. As it is now, it is like first generation computer effects in movies, just awkwardly bad. For me, this feel like a budget cut, that more might have been intended but time and money ran out. Skip it.

• It tries to pretend it is about you. In Nightfall, for example, you were never given any character. You were the nameless hero hanging out with these dudes, leaving you free to make up your own background. Once you have established friends and family, you need to go for it, otherwise people will just feel cheated. Add to this the lack of reply options (apart from paths), the lack of use for the personality bar, people just fading away when there is no use for them, the empty home instance… it just feels shallow. In this case, the cake is a lie.

• The dialog/VA. This varies. Some VA are great, others not, some writing is done well, other lines make me cringe. But everything could be improved by one small thing: For kitten’s sake, stop using the character’s title everywhere! I know you can’t use every person’s name. It’s not that. It’s about the first rule of how characters talk. You do NOT mention the other person by name all the time. Seriously. This is one of the basic rules of screenwriting. Sometimes a title is appropriate, but the way people use it here is a lazy, sloppy way to make sure we know people are talking to us, and not someone else. You can write dialog that does that without the constant ‘Valiant’ or ‘Hero’. Trust me. This is half of what makes it smell like a bad C-movie.

So, that being said, this is a suggestion thread and what do I suggest? First let me say that I am aware of budget constraints and money. Adding VA is nice, but also makes it harder than to just add/change text. So I do not call for massive rewrites, leave that for the next expansion and do it right from the start. I am just suggesting a few add-ons. And it has everything to do with those two neglected things; your home instance/order.

We need quests/events that has to do with who we are. Take my human/street rat background for example. I saved Quinn’s life, what is he up to now? Riot Alice? Wouldn’t it be nice to stroll into your home instance and actually be able to talk to them? Maybe sometimes trigger an event like those world NPC’s that trigger dynamic events if you talk to them? Will something happen if you get drunk in your local bar? Why not? Will Quinn go straight or end up in more trouble? Will Riot Alice start a revolutionary newspaper? There are a million ideas, and all of them would make me feel like my character were still part of the world. Will my former gangmates show up all drunk and accuse me of being a sellout? Cue fistfight mini-game. Those two Seraph’s I invited over for a drink? What’s up with them? They just stand there, begging to be used.

As for the Order HQ, it’s the same there. Let’s say a beloved character died. Why not have your character be approached by grieving friends and have a quest to go visit their grave? Get some closure? Are there people resenting your quick rise to influence? There’s a million cool little quests that could be done around the Orders that has nothing to do with the main plot.

In my opinion, this is where it would be easiest to add content/immersion. Have Loghan show up at your local bar all drunk and tell the story about what really happened when he betrayed everybody. Maybe you will be able to confront Caithe over the fact that she keeps stabbing Nightmare Court people that you promised you would let go.

And most important of all: Start using/thinking about flags. It’s not much extra work for the VA if you do it from the start. To have a different reply/dialog if you are charming or ferocious goes a long way. DA2 did this well. Not to mention the race flag, Trehearne should react differently to a sylvari who took his path in the background than to a Charr he has never met before. You can do it for hearts, why not for personal stories? This feels like yet another system that was implemented, but which nobody had time to do anything with. Now is the time to start.

Maybe even have these things spill over into the shared world, how cool wouldn’t it be if the person running to me and screaming for help recognized that I was a part of the Vigil? The event could still trigger for everybody else, it would just be one line more to record that would make you feel special and included. How about all the soldiers once you gain military rank? Would be nice with a ‘sir’ now and then. Imagine if they saluted you, I’d be shocked the first time that happened. Or all the Priory scholars? If I am one of them, it ought to show. Flags. I love them.

So, yeah, I’ve rambled enough (author anybody?). I guess my thing is that I have never bought an Anet game for the story, but GW2 has given me enough glimpses of what you guys can do that I want to be able to pick up the next expansion and not have my partymates yell ‘for kitten’s sake, click to the end fast’ every time a dungeon cut scene pops up.

Really nice thought put in here. Hopefully A-Net will take a note from it.

I would like to support this with a bump and a /sign.

Seriously, didn’t they say a ferocious character could punch-out NPCs mid-conversation? What happened to that? WHERE’S MAH RENEGADE INTERRUPT?

Lmfao Elric.

I totally agree with the OP. I’m fed up of looking at my character in cutscenes because he just stands there swinging his arms awkwardly without any hint of emotion.
Random person appears: “Oh no. The children are on fire.”
My character: “Oh. Well … I’d better go and let the Seraph know”

Should be like:
“ERHH MARH GERD! Teh kidz are burning!! HALP!!!”
“WHAT?! The children are on fire?! Let’s not stand around, let’s get some water on those poor kids!!”

And what happened to the personality trait? What’s that even for? I’d love to be able to charm some lass in a bar and then start a mini quest of love, only to find she’s married and her angry husband wants to murder me. Or start a brawl in a bar because I’m uber ferocious and hate everyone and end up getting chased out. I thought people were supposed to be scared of you because of your attitude. It seems like ANet forgot to put that part in.

From what I have read in other threads, the personality reactions were postponed because lack of time/manpower. Which I can totally understand. But i think that we need to keep this on the agenda so that it will be implemented in the future, and not just scuffed away because they think that players just don’t care enough.

@Malin
I thought as much, I still do hope they do implement it in time. just the real concern is if they will since we’re talking about the potential of not just changing dialogue but possibly even how some missions unfold. I mean, if I punched out Traehean every time we talked, wouldn’t that spoil a few things?

@Elric Traehean is made of wood, I am sure he can take it

Seriously though, I don’t expect changes to currently existing content, just a hope that they do the job right and think about this in the new content they will be adding.

Once the bugs are fixed, all events, challenges , DEs and dungeons work as planned, I hope they will put more thought in the story and character development. They really need to look into how great RPG single player games are and try to do that in GW2 but NOT EVER implement a single player mode in it. The way the story is done now, it never has the need of cooperating with other players. Its personal and they stick to the word which is pretty shame. They should make the difference between how we develop our character which is the personal part and what we need to do for that.
If more people need to do a story mission (because its a mandatory mission) together it will raise up the sociability of the community but in that mission if one guy kills more than others will get his ferocity up, and if another one only puts down the fires, he will get more charming points. In the end, the same mission will affect differently the personality of each character but they all had the same goal. Also, the way they kill the foes can also affect the personality. If a warrior just hits the foes with the sword he will get more dignity points, but if another warrior kills a foe by burning it with a bow attack followed by an exploding arrow he will get more ferocity points