I decided to place this thread here because it involves both personal and living story.
Anyway lets begin.
In my honest opinion the writing and storytelling of GW2 is inherently flawed. In Anet’s pursuit of creating a game based on universal player collaboration, I feel like they forego important plot devices. The writers have created a cliche story that entirely lacks moral dilemmas and places the character on the backseat. Say what you will of games like TOR, its story had choice; not these mediocre arbitrary uninvolved decisions that are forced upon the player.
Playing the entire personal story I felt like my character had no personal progression, sure he became second in command for the pact; but there is no evidence of personality or dynamic growth. When I played TOR I could accurately describe my characters personality,aims, and goals. In gw2 he’s just a norn errand boy who ends up leading as second in command for a group( whose inception was rushed) that lacks any fleshed out materiel. GW2 simply refuses to embrace the mature plot points that make rps like the witcher and DAO enjoyable.
All that amazing opportunities to discuss political and moral state of the world are entirely forgotten. Don’t misunderstand me the setting is good, but it lacks focus. The conflict between the ministry and the queen, the charr legions, etc… These things are entirely forgotten. One I heard about the living story I was hoping perhaps that Anet would branch out of its writing shell. it didn’t.
Instead we receive more characters forced down our throat, I don’t want to be forced to like characters. Destiny’s edge characters are entirely one sided and fit into perfect boring archetypes. Braham and rox had no redeeming qualities. Scarlet is a poor antagonist that lacks any relatable qualities, the consortium simply can’t be sympathized with(AT ALL). Yes some things are being done fore the story by introducing characters like majory and kasmeer( Primarily their potential les relationship} but they’re simply still not fleshed out enough.
Now to living story and personal story integration. It doesn’t exist…. Second in command of the pact you should have a more formal role in the story. Their should be plot points where we use pact resources to help fight scarlet. the orders are completely ignored. Recent patches have begun to integrate a bit but still its no where near enough. A few lines of dialogue simply isn’t enough. I spent hours forcing my way through the personal story I’d like to see the fruits of my effort. I’m sick of the pc taking a backseat to poor characters with cliche storylines. Your character should have aims,desires, and goals that can be translated from the ps to the living world. Again second in command of the most powerful organization in the game shouldn’t feel like an errand boy, we’re important political characters that should be able to intervene and shift political events. A captain of the seraph doesn’t ask the second in command of the pact to do something. Its like saying that the director of the secret service could order the vice chairman of a UN( that has actual military power) to do something.
My advice to the story writers, move away from the cliche global peace and love story to a story that focuses on inter and intraracial conflcict. Address the immense power the player holds. Allow our character to decide its opinions on characters. Add more lore regarding the racial enemies( Why are there so much bandits, who leads the flame legion, what is the nightmare court doing, what are the inquests aims) Also makes these enemies more relatable.
Last of all kill off characters….
