Guild Wars 2

I got a PM noting that the post is offensive towards an ANet employee I tagged. I’ll remove it, no problem, due to the respect towards the community, but I got the impresion that the user thought I’m offending and/or complaining to ANet, but I want to assure everyone who’s reading, that this post is positive towards ANet and what they do, in a sarcastic way of reporesenting a typical “hater”.

EDIT: and no, it was a post I made due to burst of imagination… not a “drunken post”

Well, congratulations to whatever morons green-lighted and enacted this change to the Personal Story. I now have no desire to play through it again.

Granted, I didn’t care to play through it again for a while after having done so several times already by this point. But I would at least consider it every once in a while and even run a few missions on some of my alts. Now, I’m not even going to do that. Until you fix this problem, either by putting the missions back (and in proper order, too), or fix the new storyline to work with the changes you made, I’m not going to bother with it anymore. At best, I might consider playing up to the order arcs and stopping right after helping a minor race, since that wasn’t screwed up by this change.

But this? Seriously, who among you thought this was a good plan?

“I know, let’s remove one of the few really good parts of the Personal Story post Claw Island and throw the Orr arc almost completely out of order! That’ll make things better for the newbies!”

I can’t believe the money I spent on Gem Cards to support this game went towards garbage changes like this, which do nothing to improve the game, but the exact opposite.

So, until you get your act together and fix this mess, or if Season 2 is really good when you decide to eventually continue it…I think I’m taking a break from supporting the game. I’m still playing, since for all the flaws, I still like this game, and I don’t really feel like trying to find another MMO at this point.

But I’m not spending money on gems unless there’s something I really really want, because these kinds of changes are just unacceptable. No one with half a brain should consider these changes to the Personal story ( along with many of the leveling changes and gating introduced in the feature pack) to be good or beneficial.

And yet you, the people behind the making of this game, somehow deemed it so.

Just why?

I’m really hoping the delay is mainly/entirely because their policy seems to be to combine updates that aren’t urgent bug fixes. (And by urgent I mean things like closing exploits and fixing crashes.)

Which means they’re waiting for either another planned update or enough other fixes to justify releasing a patch.

They know it’s an issue, have said they’d look into it and numerous players have suggested relatively simply fixes. None of them are instant or effortless but I can’t see any of them taking this long to put in place.

Of course if it’s not changed in the next couple of updates that theory falls apart, but that’s my hope for now.

I finally got my last class to level 80. I l would love to go save Zojja from the fun house but as someone who like to do all of the story over a few days (it feels more real) this isn’t going to happen until anet fixes this. I know Zojja is strong, she will survive until anet comes to their senses…. I hope.

I refuse to have my story journal look like my ele has short term memory loss and cannot keep the details straight.

I agree that the story should be reverted to how it was. Split off the final assault on Zhaitan into a new Chapter 9, if you must.

I was surprised at finishing the ‘Blast From The Past’ mission and suddenly. “Victory Or Death: Kill Zhaitan”.

No explanation, no exposition, nothing. Just “Kill Zhaitan” like it isn’t the culmination of what would be in realistic terms a several month mission just to get to the critter.

But Anet doesn’t care, or they’d have sorted the problems by now. SO many problems, going on for SO long, and NO fixes. Anet is putting no care or thought into their own game anymore.

I am at the stage where I am actually angry at myself for continuing to support GW2.

Oh, just as a note, it appears they have nerfed Victory or Death even more. I solo’d the Ooze tower and pretty much solo’d the Orrian Weapon tower, all the mobs on the ship decks during the Dragon Champion and Zhaitan phases melted like butter. I mean, it was like being in a level 10 zone with level 80 exotic gear.

Danikat.8537:

New story summary part 2:

another great summary by Danikat.8537

Suggested Solutions (In order of preference)

• 1) Put the story back into the original order. Yes this will make the last 2 chapters significantly longer than any of the others but I don’t see that as a problem.
• 2) Change all of the dialogue and text to plug the plot holes, ensuring that events and people aren’t mentioned until they actually occur and (preferably) add some mention of the fact that we’re finally going after Zhaitan to the end of Ships of the Line. This would be a lot of work for Anet though, and it would involve getting all the voice actors back.
• 3) Just pull out any dialogue referencing previous events. The story would be very empty, but at least it would be consistent.

Thanks again for doing these summaries. It’s always much better for intelligent conversation to be fueled by actual information, and I just want to say that even though the state of the Personal Story is so sad these days that I and many others can’t bring ourselves to play it even though we would like to, I at least have a lot of faith in and a real sense of camaraderie with the community, especially those who have posted their stories, feelings, thoughts and ideas in this thread.

I sincerely hope that Danikat.8537’s Suggested Solution #1 is the one they ultimately go with. I just want to echo what others have said in this thread: that it would be fine to have several Level 80+ chapters and that it would even showcase that this game is about the wonderful art direction and story more than it is about “Hit level 80 then stop because you’re done.” Endgame really is everywhere in the game, and systems like downscaling so you can play with your newbie friends exist to highlight and showcase that cooperative nature of this game. Many of us enjoyed Personal Story as a part of that game, and are very upset about the way things are after this last Feature Patch.

I just want to thank everyone again for being a part of this thread. Even though I’m really confused as to why all of this happened to the Personal Story, it stings a little less to know that I am not alone and that I’m not the only one who thinks it’s confusing now.

New story summary part 2:

Temple of the Forgotten God
The entrances to these instances haven’t been moved, so you actually have to go to the location where the story starts. Which seems odd, because no explanation is given for why you can’t keep using the air ships.

Apparently none of the dialogue has been changed. The chapter starts with Trahearne talking about Tonn’s death and how Ceera reacted, including how she blames me, even though I’ve never met either of them. He then introduces me to Sayeh, who I was speaking to during The Source of Orr.

Through the Looking Glass
Fighting a regular Eye of Zhaitan seems somewhat anti-climatic after defeating the Sovereign Eye, and it seems strange that Trahearne wanted to go to all this effort to get one to study when we already know what they are.

What the Eye Beholds
Now that we’ve seemingly stopped using them (for transport anyway) Trahearne decides to introduce the airships and explain how and why they were created.

Surprisingly the characters reaction to another Eye doesn’t seem like a plot hole. Because the focus is mainly on the fact that it may have allowed Zhaitan to see and react to the experiment it’s easy to miss the fact that they’re also surprised by the existence of more than 1 Eye.

Although this is ruined by the story journal, which is entirely focused on our need to learn what the eyes are and what they do for Zhaitan – something we’ve already been told.

Estate of Decay
And now Snarl Backdraft and Galina Edgecrusher are treating me like a stranger and at each other’s throats, they were getting on so well back during The Source of Orr.

This is also the first point where IMO it becomes impossible to miss that the story is out of order – last time I saw them they talked about defeating the Mouth of Zhaitan and now, later on, we’re doing exactly that.

Ossuary of Unquiet Dead & Further into Orr
Nothing notable here, except for a lot of talk about the need to establish forward bases so we can move further into Orr. I’m not sure what happened to our air support but apparently being dropped in wherever we need to be is no longer an option.

Stealing Light
Now things are getting really strange. Elli is back, and Zott, who she said was dead, is here too. How does that work?

Conscript the Dead Ships & Ships of the Line
And now Zott dies. Pretty much confirming, even for people who have never played it before that the story is out of order. The Source of Orr is obviously supposed to happen after these missions.

And just in case anyone was still in doubt at the end of the mission Trahearne starts talking about having a ritual that might be able to clense Orr, if we can find the right spot and get Caladbolg there.

And as a final touch Trahearne specifically tells you to meet him at the Azebe Qabar royal crypt (the location for Against the Corruption) but then you move on to Victory or Death in Arah.

Victory or Death
I didn’t bother doing this because I assume it’s also unchanged, but it doesn’t really matter too much because it’s still at the end so any references to past events will be appropriate at this point.

Overall Impressions
Even if someone had never played the story before the only way I could see them missing the fact that it’s been changed is if they didn’t read/listen to any of the dialogue.

As a veteran player the thing that bothers me most is actually how anti-climatic the end felt. The big celebration, the moment when everyone felt like we really could defeat the dragons, came early on when we made our first big step. When we finally get to Arah it’s not celebrated at all, it’s just another mission. Combined with the anti-climatic fight against Zhaitan this ends the story with a sense of “Oh, ok we’re done” rather than any real sense of victory or hope.

Suggested Solutions (In order of preference)

• 1) Put the story back into the original order. Yes this will make the last 2 chapters significantly longer than any of the others but I don’t see that as a problem.
• 2) Change all of the dialogue and text to plug the plot holes, ensuring that events and people aren’t mentioned until they actually occur and (preferably) add some mention of the fact that we’re finally going after Zhaitan to the end of Ships of the Line. This would be a lot of work for Anet though, and it would involve getting all the voice actors back.
• 3) Just pull out any dialogue referencing previous events. The story would be very empty, but at least it would be consistent.

I really don’t believe the changes to the story were intended to make it less confusing. If so it was a big mistake because there are a lot more plot holes now.

The most glaring I’ve found so far is that during The Source of Orr Elli talks about Zott’s death, then later on he appears in story quests alongside her and neither of them make any comment on his sudden reappearance.

Alternatively there’s my husbands suggestion: The got Quentin Tarantino in to re-do the story.

Kythan Myr.4719:

Cassandra Nea.2507:

My confusion is now complete. I have reached level 80 and thereby advanced to the “Temple of the Forgotten God”. Before I can go there though, I must meet with Trahearne at Fort Trinity. The Marshal greets me with a speech about the inconsolable Ceera and her husband Tonn, who gave his life for the Pact. I am told I cannot take this tragedy on my own shoulders – their sacrifice was needed (I am paraphrasing here).
I go “Huh? Who the heck is Tonn or Ceera?”. I have never met these people before, and now it seems I never will….
Moving on – Trahearne beckons me to a distant corner of the fort and bursts out: “It is now safe to show yourself”. Out pop Sayeh al’Rajihd, who I am politely introduced to. She says she is honoured to meet me (or something similar) and that she has heard a lot about me. I am confused, since I met her at the end of chapter 7 (I was confused then too since she said it was good to see me again, while I hadn’t met her at that point).
Sayeh and I go to the Temple of the Forgotten God, where we meet a Mouth and Eye of Zhaitan. I am astonished again at the idea of Zaitan having eyes and mouths, even though I killed one of those eyes in chapter 7.

I haven’t gone any further – at this point the plot holes are so glaring that I just don’t know how anyone can overlook them.

I have to ask. Are you one of the “new players” that they made these changes for in the first place? If so, I believe they did this to make the game less confusing, or so I think. If you are saying it’s confusing now, then I still have to ask Anet what justification did they use to make these changes?

I am a veteran player all the way back from early access, and I had 4 other level 80ies already. The specific character that I used for this latest run through the personal story is a guardian that I created after the september patch with the NPE. Even if I was a brand new player I don’t believe there is any way things would be less confusing with the way the personal story is put together now, with events taking place out of order, various npc’s being thrown in with no explanation and so on (as in the Tonn and Ceera example I mentioned above, and with Sayeh al’Rajihd greeting me in chapter 7 with “we meet again”, only for me to be introduced to her in chapter 8). If I were new, and hadn’t gone into this knowing that there are now some huge inconsistencies in the story, I would be completely befuddled by what was going on.

Cassandra Nea.2507:

My confusion is now complete. I have reached level 80 and thereby advanced to the “Temple of the Forgotten God”. Before I can go there though, I must meet with Trahearne at Fort Trinity. The Marshal greets me with a speech about the inconsolable Ceera and her husband Tonn, who gave his life for the Pact. I am told I cannot take this tragedy on my own shoulders – their sacrifice was needed (I am paraphrasing here).
I go “Huh? Who the heck is Tonn or Ceera?”. I have never met these people before, and now it seems I never will….
Moving on – Trahearne beckons me to a distant corner of the fort and bursts out: “It is now safe to show yourself”. Out pop Sayeh al’Rajihd, who I am politely introduced to. She says she is honoured to meet me (or something similar) and that she has heard a lot about me. I am confused, since I met her at the end of chapter 7 (I was confused then too since she said it was good to see me again, while I hadn’t met her at that point).
Sayeh and I go to the Temple of the Forgotten God, where we meet a Mouth and Eye of Zhaitan. I am astonished again at the idea of Zaitan having eyes and mouths, even though I killed one of those eyes in chapter 7.

I haven’t gone any further – at this point the plot holes are so glaring that I just don’t know how anyone can overlook them.

I have to ask. Are you one of the “new players” that they made these changes for in the first place? If so, I believe they did this to make the game less confusing, or so I think. If you are saying it’s confusing now, then I still have to ask Anet what justification did they use to make these changes?

My confusion is now complete. I have reached level 80 and thereby advanced to the “Temple of the Forgotten God”. Before I can go there though, I must meet with Trahearne at Fort Trinity. The Marshal greets me with a speech about the inconsolable Ceera and her husband Tonn, who gave his life for the Pact. I am told I cannot take this tragedy on my own shoulders – their sacrifice was needed (I am paraphrasing here).
I go “Huh? Who the heck is Tonn or Ceera?”. I have never met these people before, and now it seems I never will….
Moving on – Trahearne beckons me to a distant corner of the fort and bursts out: “It is now safe to show yourself”. Out pop Sayeh al’Rajihd, who I am politely introduced to. She says she is honoured to meet me (or something similar) and that she has heard a lot about me. I am confused, since I met her at the end of chapter 7 (I was confused then too since she said it was good to see me again, while I hadn’t met her at that point).
Sayeh and I go to the Temple of the Forgotten God, where we meet a Mouth and Eye of Zhaitan. I am astonished again at the idea of Zaitan having eyes and mouths, even though I killed one of those eyes in chapter 7.

I haven’t gone any further – at this point the plot holes are so glaring that I just don’t know how anyone can overlook them.

OK, so I just finished the personal story for my alt with this new patch. I had gotten 4 other characters to Zhaitan pre patch so I was familiar with the correct order. I know this thread is mostly about Apatia, but has since revolved more over the entirety of the changes to the PS.

I for one do not understand why they moved the Source of Orr before the invasion. I guess I can kinda get it that they wanted a “cleansed Orr” before we invade by choosing a Pact invasion plan.

I suppose that this way they can be lazy about it and those new players arriving in Orr can see it after the cleanse and not fully realize that what they are seeing is what Orr always looked like before cleanse. That’s what most of were used to before patch. I just dunno, because really no other reason I can think of makes sense.

I know they’ve said they will plug these plot holes, but when? Do we really want to keep fixing what’s there and not move on to other things. If they are still unhappy with the personal story after two years, then let it go instead of investing resources and time in something that is already established.

I dunno, it seems to me that if for some reason they tried to change story chapter placements to make things easier for new players, these plot holes now make things worse. Any self-respecting new player following the story has to be WTF by the end because of all these vague references that were somewhat clearer before. If they do get around fixing it, I can’t imagine it will be this year. So that seems to me like an effort wasted that those new players in this time frame are left with such confusion. Very, very, very poorly done IMO.

It would be very interesting to poll these new players and find out from them at the end of their personal story how confusing things were for them. If the story does cause them a lot of confusion then maybe Anet will take greater care next time before they try to fix something that’s not really broken.

I have advised everyone I know to wait to play the story until anet makes it make sense again. I am waiting to play it on the character I made for the NPE. I brought a few people to the game recently, but I do not want their first experience of the “new” PS to be their last because it didn’t make sense.

I have waited a month to put my opinion on this subject here. I have waited mostly because of the flawed hope that it would have been resolved by now, and partly because of how angry I was when I found out about the change.

I have been playing the Guild Wars franchise since Guild Wars Nightfall came out and fell in love with the lore and story of this world. I remember waiting in anticipation for any scrap of news of when Guild Wars 2 would come out. I remember hoping I would be included in closed beta, enchanted during open beta. Scrapping together enough money to get a Collector’s Edition of the game before launch.

This is insulting. Both to the players who no longer are able to play the game’s personal story in its full form, and to those who worked on the content. I have not touched personal story on any of my characters affected by this, and do not plan on doing so until it is fixed. Which is a shame because I love the personal story, even though I have played it countless times between my characters and helping friends.

Danikat.8537:

Messenger.7450:

Danikat.8537:

Although I’m avoiding doing the story on my existing characters until it’s fixed I decided I wanted to see the changes for myself so I’ve been levelling up a new one.

She’s level 50 now so not far off the edited parts. It will be interesting to see if it has been reverted.

So how’s it going?

Anyone else recently gone through the post-Sept. 30 patch PS?

Is the Greatest Fear chapter back? Truly back?

How’s the order of the episodes of the Orrian chapters?

I’ve got my Necro ignoring Gixx’s summons (Claw Island chapter) in hopes he doesn’t run into the screwed up PS. I really want him to meet Tonn. :-(

Danikat.8537’s awesome and very detailed summary

Thank you for updating us and sharing that information with us. It really does sadden me to hear that the plot is like that. I’ve been hearing more people talking about these airlifts lately and as you pointed out, it doesn’t really make sense given that the skies are just as dangerous as the ground with so many Dragon Champions still flying around.

I know they haven’t said whether Greatest Fear is one of the things on their radar to fix for plot holes, and I know they haven’t mentioned any progress on a fix even though some users have seen early evidence of a fix into live builds, but this situation has me a bit bummed out because I’m not allowing myself to play through any more Personal Story until this gets fixed, and even as a very loyal and devout GW2 fan it just gets a little harder for me to log on each day…

Messenger.7450:

Danikat.8537:

Although I’m avoiding doing the story on my existing characters until it’s fixed I decided I wanted to see the changes for myself so I’ve been levelling up a new one.

She’s level 50 now so not far off the edited parts. It will be interesting to see if it has been reverted.

So how’s it going?

Anyone else recently gone through the post-Sept. 30 patch PS?

Is the Greatest Fear chapter back? Truly back?

How’s the order of the episodes of the Orrian chapters?

I’ve got my Necro ignoring Gixx’s summons (Claw Island chapter) in hopes he doesn’t run into the screwed up PS. I really want him to meet Tonn. :-(

Progress slowed down a bit when I ran out of Tomes of Knowledge but the character is level 78.5, I’m thoroughly bored of EOTM but planning to finish levelling up tomorrow and do the level 80 storyline.

Here’s my notes from the level 70 section:

(I created the character on the 28th September. She’s a sylvari who joined the Order of Whispers, chose to help the Hylek and picked ‘letting an innocent die’ as their greatest fear.)

Story chapters are listed in the order you play through them.

Forging The Pact
Everything was normal up to this point.

According to my story journal at the end of this storyline Trahearne asked me to make sure a key element of the Pact’s campaign was ready. I don’t remember this happening.

The Battle of Fort Trinity
The fort already has the Krait Orb and Tonn’s bombs and your character seems familiar with the fort (they say ‘this place was already formidable’) on their first arrival.

At the end of the storyline the story journal says before we carry on with the main campaign I have to finish the mission I started at Trahearne’s request, but he didn’t make a request. This could possibly be referring to helping Trahearne with his Wyld Hunt, but so far that’s been presented as a core part of the main campaign against Zhaitan, not a side mission.

Against the Corruption & Cathedral of Silence
Other than seemingly being able to get a flight to anywhere in Orr, which seems unlikely with all those dragon champions in the skies (and events where Pact airships are attacked) these two were unremarkable as far as plot holes go.

The Source of Orr
By contrast this one is a complete mess.

Elli is taking about not needing time to grieve, and what Zott would want her to do, which is odd because I haven’t seen her since she was commentating at the pit-fighting contest in Trouble at the Roots.

Sayeh al’Rajihd and my character both talk about the Temple of Abaddon, which they haven’t been to yet. They also seem to know each other in spite of never meeting before.

Snarl Backdraft thanks me for helping him with Galina – because my character is a sylvari I’ve never met either of them before. My character talks to both of them about defeating the Mouth of Zhaitan – something which hasn’t happened yet.

I seem to remember a storyline between Cathedral of Silence and this one where we went looking for the artesian well, instead of just knowing where it is and getting air-lifted to that exact point.

My character and King Reza talk about the multiple eyes of Zhaitan and the fact that I’ve freed (aka defeated) them one by one. But before now I’ve only seen 1 Eye and that was in the Pale Tree’s vision during A Light in the Darkness.

After the cleansing ritual all the characters are talking about how the campaign against the dragon is all but over and they can go home, even though to me it seems like we’ve barely started.

In the follow-up instance everyone is talking as if we’ve almost won and the only thing left is the dragon itself, but to be honest that’s not that unusual. We won a major victory, so it makes sense everyone would feel like it’s just a matter of time before we win completely.

The really odd part is going to be when the level 80 chapter starts, apparently the first part is Temple of the Forgotten God, and according to everyone in The Source of Orr has already happened and a lot of the dialogue involves the Greatest Fear storyline. It’s also supposed to be where you first encounter the Eye of Zhaitan and start to learn about what they are.

All of which makes me think that will be the point at which even new players who have no idea how the story used to be will start to question what’s going on and why there are so many inconsistences.

Take a chapter from the end and shove it in the middle. Take another and drop it on the floor. Spot check for inconsistencies… Nah!

The changes are so sloppy, so unconcerned with the plot — It’s embarrassing. Maybe that’s why they don’t want to talk about it?

This is even worse than when I posted before. I should have waited to post until I did the steps that are out of order. They even streamlined those by putting the instance entrance in fort trinity air ship. Completely negating the plot element of having to fight zhaintans forces to reach the area the story steps take place in. This is more a big deal for the source of orr step since at the end of the previous step the dialog is “it won’t be easy to get there we will have to fight through zhaitans forces to get there.” Which is now a joke since we skip right past them all and enter the instance from the fort. Odd sounds of disgust and frustration that are hard to convey in text are all I can think of to voice at this point!?!

If anyone is still interested, I just finished all of chapter 7 of the personal story. I’m no expert on how this used to be since I only did it once before and am hazy on the details back then. But this is how the chapters fall now for a character created after the patch:

1) Forging the Pact.
2) The Battle of Fort Trinity.
3) Against the corruption (you are airlifted to Orr from Fort Trinity, so no requirement to explore your way there on your own).
4) Cathedral of Silence (my choice, there was another option open involving a Norn mapmaker or something. Again, you are airlifted to Orr from Fort Trinity).
5) The Source of Orr (Airlifted again. This section of the chapter concludes when you are told to regroup with Trahearne at Fort Trinity. Here you have to talk to Sayeh al’Rayihd, who greets you with “We meet again”, though you haven’t met her before, so something is clearly still off).

End of chapter 7. Hopes this helps, if there are any questions I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.

Redlash.8053:

They just don’t care anymore. Plain and simple.

Then me, along with quite a lot of players (i. e. anyone actually caring about the story and trying to ROLEPLAY in a ROLEPLAYING GAME in some form or other) won’t care to play and feed their wallets anymore. Plain and simple.

Not that I personally have been a huge income source to them so far, but I know of people with as many as 25+ characters. I doubt that they had bought that many slots because they care only about the gameplay, which, incidentally, has also just been largely turned into crap by badly executed level gating. I know Anet are at least working on that, but some damage has already been done, and that won’t go away. A massive overhaul patch resulting in an obviously untested, chaotic bugfest is not good for any game’s reputation, even if they fix it afterwards.

You can’t go the “it’s our game, we do what we want with it” route with an mmo. At least not if you expect players to stay, which, incidentally, is supposed to be the motivation behind the massive changes.

Doesn’t cut the Fear plotline, also cuts the Apatia story which showed us the VERY big plot point about the krait orb that protects Fort Trinity from the Risen?

Well, so much for that lore!

The Angry Quilt.8054:

Very, very disappointed in this change, especially coming as it did without forewarning. The first season of the living story was stated clearly and often to be temporary. The removal of the Raid on the Capricorn map was announced ahead of time as well. In this case, there’s a blog post about re-ordering the personal story at high levels, but nothing about the outright removal of whole chapters.

I had a character sitting at the start of the Concordia mission before the patch, having recently finished up the Claw Island segment, with the intent of playing the “fear of letting an innocent die” storyline for the first time. I (foolishly, as it turned out) waited for the feature pack’s release, to see what the new, compelling rewards for personal story missions were like.

Now I find myself at the Battle of Fort Trinity after defeating Dzhudin Stormbreak, with its undead mesmer and water orb and no context for either of them. Had I known this was coming, I could have finished the Forging of the Pact before the patch and at least been able to play through one branch of Tonn’s story. But now I can’t, and I’m seeing no signs that I’ll ever have the opportunity to again. This situation is just frustrating and confusing.

It’s not merely frustrating and confusing, it is atrocious and unacceptable, and Anet are aggravating it by the minute with continually not responding to player inquiries about this. To be blunt, I can’t give two flying kittens about level gating when the stories of my characters, that I have already guided through the proper storyline, and grown attached to, are being kicked out the window by some kittened, obviously bugged changes in the name of “efficiency” or “flow” or whatever. If it turns out this was fully intentional, and we truly won’t be seeing those missions in the future, that will be the moment Anet loses all of my respect in one instant. I actually paid for that core storyline as well when I bought the game, and in my opinion the new dev team has simply no right to kitten on that and butcher established lore that has been part of the game since release.

I agree Slayer. And yeah, the worst thing seems to be that they won’t even comment on it. I am furious that they would even think about messing up the story, but it saddens me to see no dev comment on the outcry from fans.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

Mr Snotty Pants.3980:

Shouldn’t there be a warning in the patch notes: if you are doing this arc your progress will be wiped out

If you were on the storyline pre-patch, you’ll still be on it post-patch. (Thought it might not be visible until you reach L70, since it’s in Chapter 7.)

I just wanted to say thank you for coming here to post. I know it can feel like a thankless job sometimes, and I know it can be especially hard because people who come here can often be quite passionate about what they post.

I am quite passionate about the story and lore of the Guild Wars universe, and have always held the Personal Story very near and dear to myself.

I remain confused about the current state of affairs, but I did want to thank you for coming here and adding to the thread and discussion. This kind of open communication is vital to success. I just wish we as a playerbase had been given the opportunity to comment on the idea of cutting out parts of the personal story before it happened. Some useful feedback might have been gleaned from such an opportunity.

I rather ANet say, “Its a bug. We’ll fix it.”

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

Mr Snotty Pants.3980:

Shouldn’t there be a warning in the patch notes: if you are doing this arc your progress will be wiped out

If you were on the storyline pre-patch, you’ll still be on it post-patch. (Thought it might not be visible until you reach L70, since it’s in Chapter 7.)

Could we also get an offical statement concerning

a) the removal of the “fear” storyline, and

b) the Tarantino-style rearrangement of chapters 7 & 8 of the personal story?

or are you not allowed to address these points? Will they get addressed eventually? I think I’m not the only one who’d be happy to get at least a glimpse into the thought process behind these baffling changes.

Whaaaat? Why??? Why on earth would they cut this? Who could it possibly benefit?

Thank you all for sharing your experiences and for the info about the rest of Orr getting confusingly mixed up in a not-so-good way.

I think it’s worth remembering that a good novel, or really in any storytelling setting, a character faces challenges and overcomes them, and that challenge results in the character growing. Losing Apatia (in-game as part of the plot) really hit home for me and felt like something my character had to deal with to move forward. It was, I think, the biggest “character growth” moment in the storyline. I’m very confused why such an excellent part of the storytelling that made my character feel more believable has seemingly been wiped from their past entirely. If my character is now an infallible demi-god who never makes mistakes and who just punches everything down with fists of ultimate power, that’s great and all, but how am I supposed to care about that character? I really loved the “Greatest Fear” part of the story for the reasons already listed, and I find it incredibly confusing that no character gets that now…

…plus, you know, like I said in my OP, they already hired the voice actors and everything, so it’s extra confusing because they’re throwing their investment down the drain too… I guess I just don’t understand their direction anymore. Must be too far above my head because I really don’t “get it.” :/ What do you all think?