Guild Wars 2

I guess the monotony of Orr has a reason to create certain emotions… sadly it might fall flat and all you get is bored.

I had the same story arcs with my Norn, and I had no issue with Eir as my mentor… but maybe that is because I didn’t played Eye of the North in the original Guild Wars and so never met Jora.

For me Eir has a huge legend already and that she becomes a mentor to my character means that I become part of that legend and that my own legend grows because of that. So, even if all she does is just talking to my character, it is good for my legend, so I didn’t mind to thank her for that.

Strobe.2180:

I am STILL stuck on silent warfare. This is infuriating and a total waste of gold with all the damaged armour I’m getting out of this.

I asked two friends to get that done… felt not very personal when I have to ask friends to get that done.

I took Guardian of the Spirits and Revenge as my first two story arcs. Guardian of the Spirits was okay, nothing too fancy. I liked Revenge (I expected not much, because the other two choices also sounded not very interesting to me), but maybe it should have been named Championship, since it was more about winning a championship than about taking revenge.

tolunart.2095:

“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
Mark Twain and every MMO ever.

But eventually Mark Twain died one day… and so did quite a few MMOs too.

On the WoW thing: WoW had far less competion back then. Even F2P games are dying these days, look at City of Heroes which will close in a few months.

Maybeit is better that Trahearne isn’t some kind of captain planet… I mean, many players would like to join the dragons if he were.

I would prefer if the question of the fate of the mentor doesn’t stay open. It is a common trope that the mentor dies in a story, so I am okay with that. ArenaNet has done that part perfect… regardless how sad it is.

With that said, I also would like to see some kind of funaral. But Trahearne could (and maybe even should) speak with the player character about the mentor earlier (maybe directly after we lose the mentor). If for example he says that we should go recover the body of the mentor and how important that is to him, he would become more sympathic than he currently appears to many players.

Of course I want the personal story about my character! I don’t mind it if my character doesn’t be the greatest hero in the game, but if a game tells me that the story is personal then I want that to be true.

So, the problem is that it should never been called personal story. That Trahearne becomes the great hero is okay if the game would give me reasons to like him. He comes so out of the left field at a point where you lose a NPC you care about and then your story starts to feel like his story. That was so poorly done that I can understand why people are so upset with Trahearne, because it feels like he is the one responsible for that letdown.

Also, the first 40 levels or so of the personal story feel like I am supposed to become the next great hero. One of the members of DE is a mentor to my character, I help the orders to find together and help a tribal race, then suddenly with the claw island story arc I get reduced to be a minion for a character I don’t care about.

Maybe ArenaNet should have separated the personal story, which should until feel personal and a parallel world story in which we meet Trahearne eraly and help him to become the hero from the begining.

Here a closer look why I think the Marvel Heroic Roleplay (MHR) seems like a good idea for a GW2 pen & paper game:

Let us first look at the character sheets. Affiliations is basically just telling for what groupsize your character is best (I would change that category for most other MMOs to role, so that people can select there if they are DPS, Healer, or Tank).

Distinctions can include the (currently in GW2 useless) personality choices, or stuff like the guardian spirit choce for the Norn or the blessed by a deity choice for humans; of course what a player can do with the distinctions in the tabletop go far beyond what the video game could do.

Power Sets would become weapon sets, and each player could build his weapon sets to resemble what it is in GW2. Most trait choces would become SFX.

Not much to say about Specialties, only that Animal should be on the list.

Milestones are the character choices that lead into personal stories, while the events the watcher (game master) does are mostly what event chains are in GW2.

ShadowGryphon.6257:

Does anyone remember the Dream Park system? that would work perfectly for this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Park

Haven’t played that game, but I would still be interested in know why you think that it would be perfect, just can’t tell from what I read in the wikipedia article. Sure, the game sounds interesting, but I just don’t see how it make it so perfet for GW2…

On GURPS: I just don’t like that system, sure it is a universal system, but by trying to make everything possible it feels like it does nothing perfect.

On Star Wars RPG: I played that game (the D6 version) for years, and I didn’t liked the first two D20 versions, but I think the Saga Edition was the best Star Wars RPG, because force users were there for the first time not more powerful than everybody else… what I try to say, such a system would mean that classes like the mesmer could end up much more powerful than classes like the warrior or enginieer.

On D&D Next: yes, that will take years.

I also prefer to have a new system, but I don’t think it should try to be too close to the game mechanics of the video game. 80 Levels for a pen & paper game is just not a good idea in my opinion. That weapons do different things for different classes is the part I would consider that the game should be able to do, and like I said the Marvel Heroic Rolepay is the only game that seems to make that possible of all the games I know… but maybe I just have forgotten a few games that could also do that (played far too many tabletop RPGs).

The game mechanics of GW2 reminded me quite a bit of D&D 4th Edition… I mean with the utilities which are not that different from utility powers in D&D 4E, or the healing powers which are basically whyt the second wind in D&D4 is. Still I would not like to use those rules to play a pen & paper GW2 game.

On the World of Darkness system, I like the game mechanics of the new WoD, but it support mostly just horror, and since GW2 isn’t a horror game I think that one should look for another game.

GW2 is too high fantasy for the Song of Ice and Fire RP from Green Ronin, which is game I really like to use for fantasy or medival settings.

I could image the Marvel Heroic Roleplay could work for GW2, one could make each weapon a powerset, so changing weapons would do exactly the same what they are doing in the MMO. And certan weapons, like the ones one can find in GW2 and use for a short time could be powersets that that are build by the watcher.

But maybe there should be a whole new game system be made to play GW2 as a tabletop game?

lordkrall.7241:

Keep in mind that the game is rated T.
That means the stories must be aimed at people at that age.

I am over 30 and still find often enough stories for quite young people entertaining. I love to watch My Little Pony Friendship is Magic for example. So that anything is rated T is no excuse. Most parts of the story in GW2 are just bad and ArenaNet should feel bad for this.

Maybe I don’t mind when people talk in languages I don’t understand because I live in a large and very multi-cultural city… So, I never understood it why people get so mad about that.

I think it would be okay if the rewards for dungeons would be better, and maybe the design could be a little better, meaning without that stupid run in and get slaughtered until you get it done issue. Having a challenging personal story would also be okay, but it is far too often so hard that it is just frustrating. Lets face it, that was just not tested enough.

On the forums: About avarage for MMOs, nothing unusual here.
In game: Friendly, but there is very little reason to talk to each other to enjoy the game.

Maybe you could try Guardian.

I don’t think that it is here any worse than I have seen on other MMO boards.

JoxerNL.3752:

@OP : Because they figured they could sell dyes in their cash shop.
Making Money > Catering to Players

Can’t talk for others, but for me it didn’t worked, because I would buy colours if it would be for all characters, but since it is only for one character I will not buy because it seems to be not worth it.

EdwinLi.1284:

Without Trahearne the Pact can’t keep together but without you Trahearne wouldn’t be able to keep the Pact together because he knows he is flawed in many ways. He mentions several times, if you take your time to talk to NPCs before leaving personal story instances, that he lacks many leadership characteristics that your character already have and even stats several times that maybe you should of been the leader of the Pact but both, Trahearne, and our character, agrees that in order for the Pact to work someone who have knowledge, connects, leadership, and not a Order member should be the leader to prevent any friction between the 3 Orders in the Pact.

Our character do have 3 out of the 4 but because he or she is a member of the order he or she can’t be the leader of the Pact that most players wanted or else the Pact will fall apart easily.

Sure, it is told that only he can do it, but still it feels like an excuse just to tell the story the way they want. In my opinion that’s just bad storytelling in an interactive medium like cideo games, and they could have made it different, so that we become the leader but have to struggle with it but in the end do it right.

EdwinLi.1284:

Not to be offensive or rude Vard but what you ask is what I’ve been saying about people confusing Main story with Personal Story. Main story wise our character was never meant to be the Main Hero of GW2. Our character is a hero but not the main hero as everyone was expecting to be placed as. The true main heroes of the Main story was meant to be Destiny Edge and future Hero NPCs for the story. We’re just telling our point of view of the main story of GW2 in our Personal Story.

Yes there is a lot of bugs to be fixed first but I’m talking about the roles in the Main story.

They should havecalled it then main story and not personal story, they should not given me with the first chapters of my Norn story who much I am supposed to become a hero.

And then again, they could have told it much better that I am just the point of view character. Take for example Cathrine in the Song of Ice and Fire books (especially Clash of Kings); she is mostly there so that we get to know what Rob, Renly, Brienne and a few other charactrers are doing, but she has impect on all of those characters as well, so her chapters still feel different from other characters who are also not much doing but observing the situation they are in, like Bran.

Like I said, I am fine with another character being the hero, but it felt wrong with how they tell the story in GW2, and that is the whole issue here. The story start to give us the feeling we are the hero just to pull the rug out from under our feet and giving then no reason to care about that new hero that comes from totally out of the left field.

Rizzy.8293:

I heard it was due to a power outage and they posted it on their twitter :/

Why do they post such things not on the forums? Not everybody uses Twitter (I know nobody who does use that, but maybe it’s just not that popular in Europe).

I never understood the people who say stuff like: “You should have researched the game before buying.” I think it is almost as kitty as saying stuff like: “If you don’t like it, then go play another MMO.” Such nonsense only ruins the community (and MMOs are all about community) and just encourage developers to become lazy and not improve on their game (no game will ever be perfect).

I thought about this character some more, and about the story with him. And I think it could be much better even with just little changes. Sure, they would have to redo some voice-over lines to make that happen.

So basically the idea is to make your character a full mentor for him, you could even be stay lower in the hierachy than him (which would just make it more interesting that he is your superior, but still you are the mastermind who plans everything).

Most players meet him around the time you also lose your mentor from the orders, so it would be great when you now become the mentor yourself. That would make it still feel like the story is about your character. So the idea to visit the pale tree should be the one your character suggest Trahearne, who should be the the struggling figure who don’t know what to do with himself. It should feel like he does become the leader of the orders just because you courage him to do so (maybe even making it more clear that you would like to do that yourself, but since you already have chosen an order you think he could be the one who does that under your guidiance, which some could read that your are some kind of puppetmaster pulling just stings).

So, it would have been nice to see more emphasis on the player character now being the mentor after you had two mentors (the one from destinies Edge and the one from the order). So making it a full circle in which the player could feel good about the new role s/he got into. It would feel like one had grown up now, helping others… what is in someway how the hero’s journey normally ends.

And one could have for a expansion a struggle between your character and Trahearne, maybe he starts to become arrogant and you have to stop him then or whatever.

So, in my opinion the proplem is part him being boring and that the story isn’t about your character, which it should since it is called personal story. Give us a reason to care for him and it would feel much better.

I think there is personal story in this game, some of it really surprised me how much I liked it and how personal it felt. But Trahearne just felt off, and it is obvious that many people feel the same way regarding that character.

The Revenge story for my Norn was great, even though I am normally not much into revenge stories (with the exception of Hamlet), but I took it because the other options also seemed not interesting to me (one was about having drunk too much and I don’t even remember what the other option was), but finding then out it is about a tournament and I can beat him in the finale was great. To win a championship that early in the game made me feel like being a hero, and being called from the start Slayer helped a lot too. And with all that building your own legacy as a Norn I expected that the rest of the personal story would go into the same direction. Joining the orders was not great, but I can’t complain much (with the exception for the mission when I had to defend the Priory after I decided to join them as a Norn, that mission was way to hard). My new mentor was funny and I liked her pretty much from the first encounter, so it had quite an impact on me to watch her fate. Then comes Trahearne totally out of the left field, suddenly it is all about him. My story felt not being about my character, and even less about building my legacy or being a hero. Sure, it is okay that I am not a hero in a classic sense, but at least it would have been nice if the transition to be now some kind of mentor would have been there, so that it feel somewhat personal.

I really have nothing against that character, he is bland, that is okay with me. But I what to feel like my personal story is about my character, and I would like if it would feel like playing a Norn who wants to build some more of his/her legend.

But maybe my underlying problem with Trahearne is also that I didn’t liked the orders when they where introduced (I thought all three Norn reprsentives where morons), and my first thought was I would like to join neither of them but unite them all… and seeing then the story going into that direction, but I cannot be the one who unites them and leads them was disappointing… no, it was more, I felt the game cheated on me, because it let me not do what my first impulse had been, but instead gives it all to some random NPC who is suddenly there and who doesn’t feel like he had done anything to be there.

I think in a few month they will tune the story mode down, because new players would then not find groups anymore to do them, since they are not worth is anyway, but then almost everyone who was interested in them have played them and is not willing to go back to that kitty.

I also think it would be nice, but there is one title that seems troublesome to me. As a Norn I get called Slayer, but I think one can get that title through PvP, that could lead to problems.

So maybe the problem is then that because the story becomes to bland, while I we get is this boring Silvari who runs now everything… hm, feels to me like he is stealing the show, but not doing a godd job with giving me something enteraining.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against him, but I think they could have done so much better this that story, like making me feel like I am now the mentor (which I do not the way they did it), because I have no real connection to him and I didn’t feel like I have become a true hero yet to retire and play the role of a mentor yet in the story.

Didn’t even thought about it, is it an issue? Makes it feel you uncomfortable?

OP, going from point A to point B isn’t exploring. You have no clue what exploring is, and be glad that you can go in most cases in GW2 without too many detours to where you want to go (play for example SWTOR to see how it feels like to have for everything a huge detour).

I think it is legit that many think he is stealing the show. For many he comes totally out of the left field and is suddenly all important. I wouldn’t mind it if he would show up earlier and I can build a relationship to him. But as it is, people expect their personal story to be about them, becoming something like a mentor would be neat if I would have become first the hero I was looking for to become, to pass on than the torch would have been great storytelling. But the way ArenaNet did it, it is like we are just telling his hero story (and his arc works like the monomyth tells us should work, with the hero who doesn’t want to be the hero, who gets the magical weapon and all that stuff), while we on the other hand get not well enough into the role of a mentor in that kind of story, we are just there to watch.

Amlin.6041:

Wow…what the hell was so dire that you found it necessary to roll us back?

I don’t think it was intended, the game just don’t saved any progress. But I am just guessing.

I couldn’t lock in, all I got was error 42, so maybe the game didn’t saved the progress for those who still played during the last hour or so when I couldn’t just wait (not even the forums worked for me).

So maybe I was lucky that I couldn’t lock during that time…

I don’t hate him or anything like that, but I think he came a little out of nowhere for me. Suddenly he was all important and I didn’t got why, he didn’t cared for the orders before yet he is gets the command over all of them. It’s my personal story and suddenly it feels like I am reduced to be the sidekick. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind it if my characterb would become a mentor like Eir or Sieran had for my character, but he just doesn’t feel like a character that needs me as a mentor and is not brought that way into my story. So, my problem is that I just feel disconnected with that character… and of course it feels like my legend in not growing with him around.

I hit yesterday 80, took me 3 weeks, didn’t tried hard to get there. Thought it was quite easy to get plenty of XP in WvW, just run around in a large group taking camps and keeps in short order and one can level really fast there… but I did that not often and maybe not long enough. I am still exploring the world (I am now in level 60-70 zomes), doing sPvP (just reached Deer rank) and craft from time to time (haven’t reached 200 in any of the crafting professions yet), also still 20 levels of personal story ahead of me and I have done only 2 story mode dungeons so far. So even after I hit 80 it looks like I have still much to do.

My main (Norn Mesmer) is named Gwenya Drudenfusz. I would have taken just Gwenya, but that was already taken when I started playing. Gwenya is just a name I like to use in fantasy games, couldn’t even tell the meaning of that name. Drudenfust, which I also use often on gaming boards, on the other hand is an old German word (actually it is Drudenfuß, but that special character at the end just confuse people who don’t know German and is often enough not working on various websites), which would be in English something like a pentacle. Litarally it means witchfeet, because it was a sign people made on the doorstep to prevent witches and other evil things to enter a home (I don’t believe in such esoterics, but I find it funny to protect my real name in the internet with that word and it sounds good as a last name for characters in games as well).

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ho2ADvndQ4&feature=g-u-u

Sure, the game is awesome. But is it perfect? No, it has still room for improvement. So, while enjoying the game it won’t hurt too much if some of us tell ArenaNet what not so good and what they could add to the game.

Female Norn Mesmer Artificer/Tailor here.

Nageth.5648:

Today I learned that Germans don’t like kittens (weird picture in my head with a German angry at a kitten). Thanks Anet!

How is that? The thread doesn’t say anything like that, or missed I something.

Kitten would be Kätzchen in German, I would be fine with that, Mäuschen would also be great… almost everything is better that the strange word that seems to be used currently there (never heard anyone actually use that in real life), but even though I am German I prefer to post here in English, so I don’t care too much about that.

I also would like to see fishing in some form in the game.

Hope ArenaNet is already working on this.

Should the thief ever get perma-stealth, I hope the mesmer better get it too.

I like that idea, but it sounds like a lot of work for ArenaNet.

I would love to see mounts in GW2! Sure, no flying mounts.

Bleekr.9578:

Where do you see how many kills?

You can find that under your WvW achievements…

I have 129 kills, but also only 16 badges.

Having thought some more about the racial sympathy thing and starting cities… maybe it should be something you have to actively unlock. I mean you have to play first one of the main races, and when you complete the recial sympathy story arc you get that race for your city unlocked… and maybe, since it is not your main character but just a little extra to play, maybe you get no access at all to a personal story with the tribal race character. So, it basically is just there for the look.

I would like to play a skritt, but I think it should not possible to have Rata Sum as home city for them… maybe one should only get the options for cities that have the tribal race as the racial sympathy.

So, basically you assume just because you haven’t encountered one of the really insane hard story missions and/or play a class that has it much easier that everything is okay? Just because you are lucky, doesn’t mean that there are story missions which have issues. Nobody says that all are to hard, but some are, especially for certain classes. So, if you have played all story missions with all classes and you still think that way, then you can come back and post such thing.

Was the personal stories not tested during beta? The difficulty seems like all over the place, some are too easy, while other missions are insanely hard. Sure, it is nice to have a challenge, but it is in some missions so hard that it really discourages people to continue to play them.

For me the personal story would be the main reasons to play alts (as it was for me in SWTOR), because I would like to see more of the different stories (especially since I liked Ree Soesbee’s work back for L5R, so I would curious what she might have done here), but currently I have stopped doing all those personal story stuff in GW2 (I am so disappointed with this part of the game that it even spoils the fun I have with other parts of the game).

I have currently 4 female characters, guess the fifth will also be female, since I rarely play male characters in MMOs or RPGs, but maybe the fancy will strike me and I will try one.