Guild Wars 2

I never understood the story behind season 1 to be honest. It just seemed a patchwork of Zerg fights with a few hints as to who’s the bad guy and what’s his motives then and there.

So I must say that the pilot of season 2 is a massive leap forward in that respect:p starting easy with an instance avoids the overwhelming feeling and let’s each player enjoy the story at their own pace. It is well balanced between dialogues, fights and explorations. So good stuff indeed.

I am just a but disappointed that the writing is still very much “marketing driven” and doesn’t feel very natural, but at least it gives something to the characters (even if this something could be more subtle rather than a punch line that sounds as if it was aimed to please a certain category of customers)

Anet was very bold with its design decisions and challenged the core conventions of mmos. Let’s hope the writing steps up and delivers a story as original and well constructed.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

and it kind of deludes their position as the primary antagonists of the game

Well, they’ve never been GW2’s primary antagonists much (as a group, Zhaitan individually was, ofc).

I mean sure, GW1, but that’s a different game and the lore is only indirectly connected because the GW1 story isn’t re-told in GW2.

I disagree. The only reason why Rytlock is any fun, is because he disagrees with the other boring characters from Destiny’s Edge, and is always grumpy. But that doesn’t make him a well written character. It makes him a one-note stereotype.

I like the new Living Story characters a lot better.

The older group was ruined for me by just how terribly terribly written Edge of Destiny was. The story itself could have been ok, but the writing made me log back on to the Katawa Shoujo fanfic forums to read something nicer.

Since I’ve been in other threads stating how much I think they need to fix traits and add weapons and skills, I needed to jump into this one.

The “Dry Top” is very well done. I love the look and feel of the desert that you created ANET. It is awesome. Such a cool vibe with the rock spires, layered rock walls, sandstorms.

Anyway, just wanted to thank you for that. It is fun and I am enjoying it. Now put some of that labor and love into adding skills! :P

I liked the story the first time. It was well done.

Having to do it again to get the achievements felt more like an artificial way of making the new content take longer. IMO it should all be do-able on the first run and if you don’t get the achievement on that first try then you can repeat it. That tainted the whole thing for me.

The new area is nice as well, but it feels very limited and if you want more than a couple of things you’ve gotta grind (which I’m not a fan of to say the least). Again it feels like an attempt to lengthen content.

Aberrant, I think their intention is to make sure people focus on what’s primarily important: the story. On subsequent plays, they can experience the story again as a refresher while getting the achievements. I didn’t mind it at all, and it extended the content as I felt it should have been.

So far, I’ve really enjoyed the story of season 2. Although it’s only one episode, I think the storytelling has really improved. Kudos for listening to feedback and really analyzing what went well and what didn’t in season 1.

The only negative in my view is the return of aspects in the new map. I don’t have a problem using them (unfortunately a guildie has real problems traversing some of the map requiring aspects to be used), but even though I CAN get around I really don’t enjoy leaping taller than a building and running faster than a locomotive. If I wanted that type of movement mechanic I’d be playing one of the many superhero MMOs available.

I kind of see what you mean Bilbo. I think it was clever to use the aspects in Dry Top, but I don’t want to see them all over any other further zones. Because I like the normal controls…. except they really should get rid of in-combat slow down, grrrrr!

Also, the short time duration is kind of annoying. I know, you can also stack them. But if they just lasted as long as they did in the sanctum, the jumping would be a whole lot less frustrating.

Vael Victus.2654:

Aberrant, I think their intention is to make sure people focus on what’s primarily important: the story. On subsequent plays, they can experience the story again as a refresher while getting the achievements. I didn’t mind it at all, and it extended the content as I felt it should have been.

I think that’s giving people too little credit and giving the developers too much credit.

I’m sure the average person can pay attention to the limited dialogue that’s there in the middle of the mission… the majority of it is at the start/end.

There isn’t a lot of new content. Forcing people to repeat the same thing is a way of making it seem like there is more new stuff than there is. It’s not just do the story twice… just about everything in this update seems to have that as a goal if you want something more out of it other than just watching the story for the first time. 1,850 geodes to get all the things @T4, which are acc bound scrolls/products so you can’t just buy them, you HAVE to grind. I don’t like having to repeat/grind just because it makes it appear that there is more content… and it only fools a small portion of the people anyways, most gamers have been wise to this tatic for a long time now.

That being said I did enjoy it… the first time through.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I kind of see what you mean Bilbo. I think it was clever to use the aspects in Dry Top, but I don’t want to see them all over any other further zones. Because I like the normal controls…. except they really should get rid of in-combat slow down, grrrrr!

I like the idea of expanding the non-combat, jump-centric, content by using extra skills.
But if it becomes a big deal, I’d rather have each class have 2-4 class-specific skills.

The map looks absolutely stunning.

• Great views
• Falling rocks and sand
• Vine tentacle touching the Waypoint getting electrified
• Huge cliffs standing vast in the sandstorm

Balsa.3951:

Story telling wise anets writer made a leap .

that was amazing good story telling.

I couldnt stop. after everybody left the room of scarlet me and taimi stayed and i watched and read her hologram

5Stars for that

Im dead sleepy but i need to know the end

Would say it’s an improvement but there is still a lot of room for improvement. With luck we’ll see something from the other races in this LS rather than just Slyvari again.

Mechanically it was poorly done, again your pretty much dead if your not in berserk gear or find it a fair bit more difficult than it should be, at least that is my experience with my guardian.

Equally the grind, GW2 is becoming more and more like WoW and other MMO’s.

Cruril Darksbane.2318:

Mechanically it was poorly done, again your pretty much dead if your not in berserk gear or find it a fair bit more difficult than it should be, at least that is my experience with my guardian.

Huh? I’ve been playing it in Soldiers Gear, and while some of the fights were challenging, I did not get the impression that I needed to be in berserker gear.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Cruril Darksbane.2318:

Mechanically it was poorly done, again your pretty much dead if your not in berserk gear or find it a fair bit more difficult than it should be, at least that is my experience with my guardian.

Huh? I’ve been playing it in Soldiers Gear, and while some of the fights were challenging, I did not get the impression that I needed to be in berserker gear.

What class?

A tanky class like Guardian with almost no damage makes the fights without NPC distractions a living hell. Either that or the fact I only have one ascended piece of armor and 2 ascended trinkets.

I play a necromancer.

I will agree with the OP, exploring Scarlet’s room in Prosperity was well done. It was amusing seeing Taimi oogling over everything like a fan-girl at her first convention. I found the lore revealed in the room for more interesting than the needlessly tedious mob fights leading up to it.

It was also a nice touch to actually give players a glimpse of Scarlet before she went mad back when she was an eager young student, rather than just being told it in text as was done in Season 1. The hologram accomplished that, well done ArenaNet.

I just wish we had known all the information and characterization given to us through the room and the hologram before our final battle with her. That would have made her defeat and the need to kill so much more dramatic and even tragic.

At least ArenaNet seems to be getting the idea that keeping secrets from players does not make a story interesting, it makes the story confusing and dull. They are finally starting to explain things to us in a clear, direct manner rather than with hints and suggestions, and I hope this trend continues.

It feels like GW1 to me so I’m happy.

Cruril Darksbane.2318:

Mechanically it was poorly done, again your pretty much dead if your not in berserk gear or find it a fair bit more difficult than it should be, at least that is my experience with my guardian.

Huh? Why?
I run a mix of Magi and Celestial on one char and half-Berserker half-Celestial on the other, and I had 0 troubles. Engineer respectively Mesmer, btw. Yes I know I need new gear, in the process of fixing it.

The fights are all fairly easy. I like that they’re mechanically more complex. You can brute force them (maybe you did that), but you can also use the mechanics.

There’s a few one-on-one fights in the Living Story that I would consider mildly challenging. But most of the time you can retreat to heal yourself, without the enemy reviving his health. The final battle against the saboteur for example, spams poison and other conditions, and so do the tentacles. But you can retreat to a safe spot and heal up, you don’t need to stay on the platform till he overwhelms you.

This may just be a case of adapting a different strategy. I’ve also noticed that fighting him is a lot easier if you approach him from different platforms than the one he is on. A bit of distance makes it easier to avoid his projectiles.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

There’s a few one-on-one fights in the Living Story that I would consider mildly challenging. But most of the time you can retreat to heal yourself, without the enemy reviving his health. The final battle against the saboteur for example, spams poison and other conditions, and so do the tentacles. But you can retreat to a safe spot and heal up, you don’t need to stay on the platform till he overwhelms you.

Not only that, the abilities make it very easy to get back into the fight at will.

Cruril Darksbane.2318:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Cruril Darksbane.2318:

Mechanically it was poorly done, again your pretty much dead if your not in berserk gear or find it a fair bit more difficult than it should be, at least that is my experience with my guardian.

Huh? I’ve been playing it in Soldiers Gear, and while some of the fights were challenging, I did not get the impression that I needed to be in berserker gear.

What class?

A tanky class like Guardian with almost no damage makes the fights without NPC distractions a living hell. Either that or the fact I only have one ascended piece of armor and 2 ascended trinkets.

I just tried it in exotic Soldier gear on my Guardian, with Scepter and Focus as my main weapons and a shout build, and I didn’t really have any trouble. It took a bit longer than when I used my Knight gear, but I never felt that it got difficult.

First time was the most challenging, since I went after him with the GS and Sword + Focus, and I had to jump the platforms to hit. I still didn’t get defeated, though. The Inquest Assassins are more annoying.

BobbyStein.2315:

Thalador.4218:

BobbyStein.2315:

The best is yet to come.

So more massacres, mayhem, and destruction in your words. Why is that since the start of this Living World (although I may risk saying that there were signs of this in the vanilla game as well) the only way you guys seem to be able to drive the story forward is through mass killings and calamities (that often draw parallels with real life modern attacks on innocents)?

Remember this picture attached to the Story Journal reveal page? I can’t decide whether it’s hilarious, ridiculous, or outrageously imbecile and depressing that it’s a spot-on summary of your entire storytelling to date…

What sort of stories would you like to see?

The greenification, restoration and re-inhabitation of Orr!

… And Cantha… Very much Cantha…

I was thinking about “what kind of story I’d like to see” but how can I explain it when the story I want to see is hampered by the fact that it stop being my character’s personal story after Claw Island. I get the answers of “not enough resources”, “too much work”, “lack of voice actors” etc. etc. but if you want an honest answer from me, “The kind of story I’d like to see should deal with the triumphs and defeats of my character and how my character interacts with the world and people around him/her.”

The whole issue of Trahearne stems from the focus moving away from your character and to him. You may get credit sometimes, but other times it was down played and/or you were ignored or you weren’t so important any more aside from our Chia Pet. That’s why people thought it wasn’t their personal story, the focus was TOO MUCH on Trahearne. Who, by the way, wasn’t such a terrible character, but his introduction into a player’s story when they never met him before is QUITE jarring.

Putting aside Trahearne and its own kettle of problems there is also the over use of D.E. 2.0 which unfortunately dominates the Living Story in such a way that the player feels left out at times. Sure I get the token text box, but it does NOT branch, so what’s the point? Especially when pet characters turn around as if they didn’t hear you texting and just repeat it and take the credit for the idea – (I’m looking at you Kasmeer!)

All I want is the one I started with in my Personal Story. The one that said “Hey you! This is your story. We’re focusing on you.”

When I look at the story, which I will agree has been improving, I think that the main component that needs improvement is not the level of grandiosity (we can all feel that this current story will build into something big), nor the level of heroic focus (being the sole object of focus for a story is not always what I need as a player), but rather the amount of perceived value.

What I mean by this, is that many people seem to be having difficulty valuing and feeling valued by the new team if biconics (is that the right term?). In these story releases, we are given some things to do but I am having a hard time understanding and accepting why it has to be me, specifically. What is it about my PC that makes me so invaluable to the team? Am I just here for their convenience? Is there something about me that they need in order to go forwards? If there is a task, what makes me the most qualified out of the people in this group, or even world, to do it? I certainly did not feel needed in this release, I felt shoehorned in, the plus 1 to someone else’s party. It’s okay to be part of a group, but the best parties are those that wouldn’t be a party at all if you weren’t there.

Along a similar vein, what am I supposed to value (as in, how does the hero group need these people?) about the biconics and is that accurately being portrayed to the audience? Am I as a viewer supposed to take value out of the relationship between Kas and Jory? I see much more value in the traits that were portrayed for them earlier in season 1, such as their determination and dependability, the relationship (while a fine addition) seems more incidental. Am I supposed to be valuing Braham’s meathead humour? I found the few attempts to portray him as a tender-hearted big brother figure to add much more value in terms of why I would want to associate with him. Taimi is a Scarlet fangirl with intellect, which is good to show. The value of her is the ability she has to push past her disability and still contribute to the team with enthusiasm that the other members lack. Similar inputs for Rox, etc.

While I recognize the biconics are getting character development in the sense that we are gradually finding out more about them knowledge wise, I feel we are losing some of the value-added along the way. I am losing sight of what makes them an essential part of the team.

What we value in people in real life is not always the things we KNOW about them. Just look at your own group of friends. I know in my closest group there is someone I KNOW is going to into game design, but what I VALUE about him is his honesty and loyalty. I KNOW a friend who can take photos that would make a rock cry, but I VALUE that he is a shameless optimist that sees the best in everything. I KNOW a lesbian friend, but I VALUE that she enjoys humour for the joy it brings others. Similarly, I have identity with these friends because they VALUE that I am a hard-worker who sets lofty goals and have fierce determination…not because of the facts they know about me or that I am convenient to spend time with.

I guess I just want to say this: we don’t always need a spotlight, but we do always need to feel valued and needed.

For each character, just take a second to go through and check.
Braham is in the group, but why is he needed?
Kas is in the group, but why is she needed?
Jory is in the group, but why is she needed?
Taimi is in the group, but why is she needed?
Rox is in the group, but why is she needed?
The PC is in the group, but why is he/she needed?
If at any point in the story you can look at the character and not have a good answer to that question, it will always come out as flat.

This is all insanely difficult to address, but it is what I feel is at the root of most of the complaints I have seen about the story. Otherwise, things have been looking up…keep up the good work!

errr… spoilers?
So far I LOVE the story – the dialogues are great (i.e between the ‘Fat’ trio), the voice acting is generally much better (esp Taimi, Rox and Prosperity Mine’s Foreman). The whole mid-western mining town setup is, imo, awesome (somehow reminds me of City of Perfection in first ‘Tremors’ movie – another proof that anything with Bacon in it is the definite cream of the crop)

Somehow I feel the dread that the scooby doo gang may mirror the early days of Destiny’s Edge – Jorie being Eir the (overbearing) leader, Kas the perceptive Caithe, Rox & Brahm the Rytlock & Logan duo (To me Rox is Logan, the wisecracking ‘Did she just call us fat’, her reverence for Rytlock is eerily similar to Logan’s hot for Queen; while Brahm’s gruff just-mace-smash-everything-and-get-over-with-it demeanor is more of Rytlock), Taimi is maybe what Zojja was when younger and was eager to aim for the top. However, there are distinct sub-groups within the gang – the humans (Jorie & Kas) and the non-humans (the trio), the bonding between them is not so great to the extent that the death of a single member will emotionally traumatized the whole gang. Therefore, the ‘Snaff’ role, whose demise will break up the gang, will have to be the one that commands respect from every gang member, and the person left to fill in that shoes will be…. us the player? The Champion of Orr? We are going to martyr at the end of GW2’s lore? Good Glaarrrggghh.

Anyway, keep up the good work AN, I’m looking forward to next installment

BobbyStein.2315:

What sort of stories would you like to see?

Stories that involve new skills or WVW content. As one who pretty much only plays WVW I’m extremely frustrated that new LV/PVE content (that I have no interest in) comes out every 2 weeks but new WVW/skill content comes out every 6+ months if we’re lucky.

I think your priorities are way lopsided.

scerevisiae.1972:

Stories that involve new skills or WVW content. As one who pretty much only plays WVW I’m extremely frustrated that new LV/PVE content (that I have no interest in) comes out every 2 weeks but new WVW/skill content comes out every 6+ months if we’re lucky.

I think your priorities are way lopsided.

Hrm, I kinda agree, I’d like to see more LS-effects in WvW.
I mean sure, we had for example toxic stalk events. And those were the most noticeable effect a LS had on the WvW environment so far.

But even those… kinda don’t go far enough for me. It’s Living Story, it should be a game changer for WvW when it happens.

For example with the Aetherblade, they could have been used to help out the last-placed realm by randomly attacking a tower of the first ranked one, making it neutral in the process. They’d bring pretty heavy weaponry, siege from the air, paratroopers, etc.

Alas, never happened.

With the current content, those vines could make camps / towers or even at times a keep inaccessible, it being covered all over in vines which also destroyed some of the walls. There’s a new group event to hack down those vines, after which the place is neutral again and has to be recaptured.