Guild Wars 2

I figured it would be far more beneficial to have an intellectual discussion over the writing merits of how Guild Wars could improve it’s story elements instead of hashing out little responses in other threads – which usually leads to people rambling on about irrelevant and meaningless interpretations.

So to preface, please do keep an open mind. My points are in no way meant to suggest that the story of GW2 needs to be more violent etc. Usually when the base of this topic arises, it always goes in the direction of “well adults like children’s stories too” or “death doesn’t make a good story”. As much as those could be valid arguments, they are completely devoid of the actual problem.

The Value of Adult Concepts
In my opinion, adult stories by definition are meant to push people in directions that go beyond simple notions. We see these concepts take place, even in Disney movies, when a character we’ve become emotionally attached to dies (citing one of my favorites; The Lion King). It’s a powerful moment and thrusts our emotions into that deep realm where the heart of mature stories comes from.

However! The issue is not whether a story has an adult concept or not. The value comes from how you treat those concepts. This is precisely where mainstream PG-13-esque stories fail. There are some exceptions, of course, yet the overall majority are unable to grasp it.

The Treatment of Adult Concepts
In order to understand the difference between a minute concept and a meaningful one, you first have the realize that adult elements should be taken seriously. In other words, the impact should be at least equal to if not greater than the overall theme of the story.

Right off the bat you can see how a Disney story doesn’t quite fit. Sure it has adult concepts, yet they’re not given the amount of value required for a meaningful adult repertoire. Instead, these concepts are treated as gimmicks; a minor toy for emotional disparity only later retorting back to that happy, all smiles feel-good state. This isn’t a bad thing, mind you. Yet it simply degrades the power of the adult concepts.

A prime example is the latest of J.J. Abrams Star Trek series. Spoilers exempt, the end of that film had an incredible step towards a substantial adult element, yet it was destroyed moments later when we realize that all is good. As a result, the audience was treated like they’re bi-polar and the film ended. Ouch.

Impact That Matters
Building a sincere & mature story component means honing in on the emotions that cater to those aspects and keeping them throughout the entirety of the story, even when the events themselves have ended. You’ve implemented a great deal of adult concepts, yet none of it has been able to hold ground long enough to be relevant to most players interests. Dragons, wars, pillaging and death. All of it being shut down by dailies and shop items. Even the LS has people diverting their attention to if you care about the game or are simply dragging it like a dead horse.

Breaking free of that mold means showing the power of those concepts. In order to do this, you have to give all of those aspects a purposeful encounter that later develops and evolves into further complex conditions. These conditions become the driving force of character interaction and atmosphere.

An example of how to achieve this goal while still keeping to your T-rating; let’s take the events of Marjory and her sister, Belinda. I’m not going to draw out any lavish details, but a general concept should still make the point.

Let’s say that Belinda’s death was so traumatic, that Marjory begins to change. Her personality starts to shift towards anger and hate. She begins to push her friends aside and even starts to discourage her relationship with Kasmeer. Revenge becomes overwhelming, to the point of self-mutilation. Perhaps Marjory ends up making a brash decision during battle that results with her losing an arm.

Now being less effective in the fight, Marjory is beginning to lose traction. She starts to feel worthless and pushes herself further away from friends and family. This, of course, affects the characters around her. Kasmeer has tried everything to uplift Jory’s spirits, yet to no avail, she begins to feel deep guilt. Kasmeer’s heart takes a plunge and attempts to commit suicide, yet is saved by Braham. It’s then that the head-strong brute fumbles, helping Kasmeer yet sacrificing his own life. . .

This can go on forever, yet that’s the kind of value required. It’s a matter of keeping everything within the fabric of those powerful moments. One effective element should become a force that drives to further elements, rooting your story into something compelling and memorable.

Kuldebar.1897:

The OP has a point as the game stands right now, but I’d venture to guess that personal housing will be made in some fashion within the home instance someday.

The OP has no point, actually.

Removing it would cause a massive amount of work for no added benefit.

Whether it met its intended purpose or not is irrelevant.

So because you find it useless no one should have it.
’Kay.

Since they’ve started selling items that go into your home instance, it’s too late to drop it.

It appears you suggest things just to suggest them. After all, you give no clue as to what removing the home instance would fix. Please tell us how everyone would benefit from removing the home instance. In the meantime, if you really want the home instance removed, then I suggest you don’t use it. That way, for you at least, it will be effectively removed and the rest of us don’t have to suffer simply because you feel the need to make a suggestion.

Just remove those parts of the Personal Story? Those parts of the map? Gaping holes would be better?

I can not support this suggestion.

Might I suggest allowing us to use our other characters as mercenaries in the same fashion we did in Guild Wars but limited to the dungeons.

It would allow people to play the dungeons at their own pace.

It would allow us to avoid the large number of people to see MMO dungeons as a job to be completed as fast as possible. I don’t know about you but I don’t have much fun being around these people.

It might encourage some people to create more characters. I’m set with three but would bump it up to five if I could use them as mercenaries.

You might be able to add dungeons to the living world again. I remember in season one the first week was high activity in the new dungeon but the second week was mostly a ghost town since those who wanted to do it had trouble finding a team.

I definitely support the idea of the Story Mode dungeon being solo-able, as long as rewards are kept low. Back when there was a Suggestion subforum I asked a similar question. Though I don’t know if attitudes have changed since a year plus has passed, it seemed to appeal to some.

Story Mode dungeons = solo-able
old quote:
“I hope this is not an infinitely discussed topic. If so I apologize in advance.
I have seen many people frustrated with trying to find others to join a story mode dungeon. The rewards are a bit dismal for it to be something others want to do for any other reason than to help out someone.
This should be reward enough but we all know that is not the case.
I wanted to suggest that by making the storymode dungeon solo-able while still providing low rewards, it will provide many players with a much needed introduction to the particular dungeon.
The player can take their time learning the mechanics of the dungeon without the pressure to finish fast or all at one time. Meaning if RL takes them away in the middle they have to start over but no one else is penalized.
I don’t know if this is even possible but thought it was worth a mention.
Explorable mode is all that anyone wants to do for its rewards. And storymode would seem the perfect place to introduce a person to a dungeon’s particular mechanics without all the pressure.
EDIT: Just to be clear I don’t want explorable mode to be solo-able; only story mode.
Feel free to point out all that is wrong with this suggestion.” /end quote

Solo-paths would actually be quite nice for people who don’t have the time or patience to look for a good group, although I would suggest to reduce the rewards so that groups stay a worthwhile alternative.

After all, what is the point of dungeons intertwining with the story if there are hardly any groups that would take you with them if you aren’t lvl 80 with at least exotic gear? Solo paths would make them more accessible for people who usually don’t do dungeon runs.

personally, i like the new targeting system. maybe they should make a new command called target nearest enemy within line of sight.

@ TheBlackLeech & Pray for Kosmos – Why would you want to target something that can’t be hit? Can you please explain why this method works so much better for you than they way it was? Maybe the rest of us are missing something.(I’m serious, not trolling)

And I would definitely like a “target nearest enemy within line of sight” option.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

and here’s a good example of why Anet can simply never win with the community.

this is something that a lot of people complained about before.. that “nearest” shouldn’t depend on which direction you’re facing, that nearest should literally be the nearest enemy, period.

they’ve now fixed it so of course people are now complaining about wanting it reverted.

I don’t really have an opinion on which it should be.. but it’s important to remember that for every complaint you have about the game, there’s plenty of people that want the very opposite.

I do not remember people ever asking for Centaur Supplies being targeted behind your back when you’re heading towards a Veteran Centaur to make a ranged interrupt opening.

What I do remember is people asking for the enemy to be targeted if you killed the guy in the front and there’s still someone really close to you to the side or back who’s attacking you, especially if you know it since your view is zoomed out.

I agree that tweaking such things for everyone’s taste is tricky, but manual options and common sense make far more sense than iterating in a radius around your character.

I wish it was so. Usually when I get ganked by mordred wolves in Silverwastes, of course it will never pick up the one biting my ankles, but the one who is still a few yards away. My experience is the auto-attack picking the farthest target, the one that I would least want to attack. Not to talk about the fact that if the target moves, often auto-attack would attack ANOTHER mob bringing it into the fray too.

Actually, I do “believe”. So please don’t speak for me. The frustration many of us feel is in how long it takes for them to release content, not that they don’t release any at all.

Patience is a virtue. ArenaNet is testing many people.

Biohazard.7523:

lol nobody can see ads on facebook or anywhere else because people use ad blocker…

I was going to say…“There are ads on Facebook?” Whaaaat?"

Desperation level: God-Tier

There’s a familiar saying on Piken Square that will fit this topic:

I’m 32.

(It’s an inside joke thing between many of us on that server, but I still am until 02 June!)

I do know of people in their 60s and 70s that have been playing too. Sometimes you get things like “How is it someone’s over 30 playing more often than me who is a teenager” and teenagers saying “You’re too old to play video games” just say to them “So, when you’re 29 you’ll just all of a sudden stop playing will you?” and most of them won’t!

Guild Wars 2 is a 12+ Game, not a 12-29 game.

There’s a couple of mid 30’ers in my guild, including myself. One of our older members is in his late 40’s, ooh and the troubles he gets in with his wife ha!

Hi Everyone! Just wondering how many players fall under the “older” category.
I’ve always felt that GW had a very diverse population, but would like to hear from
others who are also “seasoned”. Personally, I’m over 50 (don’t have to give exact age
if you don’t want to) and have a grandson who also plays. It’s a great retirement pastime and keeps you sharp! I’ve played since GW came out in 2005 and probably
will keep right on playing! I love the game and I, for one, have no complaints. I think Anet is doing a great job providing us with a wonderful game! Let’s hear from all you olders out there who are young at heart gamers!

Dante.8456:

I have to be honest, I am against a solo mode.
I think the whole point of dungeons is to provide content that requires group co-ordination and presents a challenge.
Solo modes would just divide the player-base.

The people who would use the solo mode currently aren’t doing dungeons at all, so I’m not seeing how it’d divide anything – unless the rewards for soloing were too high.

Schwarzseher.9873:

Let Cantha invade Tyria and unleash the world war!

Cantha will be a long time in recovering. One of my GW1 characters accidentally dropped a match in Kaineng City, which pretty much wiped out half the Factions map. (That’s what they get for building a gigantic city using the Second Little Pig as their General Contractor.)

Left map chat on.

Alienmuppet.1942:

I posted this in reply to another thread, but thought it belonged here too : -

When I first started playing the game as a Sylvari over 2 years ago, I really wanted to get to this mystical place “Lion’s Arch” that I’d heard about. I spent ages fighting my way north over a few days, levelling up, until I finally got there. Then realised all I had to do was go to the mists with a click of the mouse and run through the Asura gate. It was comical.. A real “duh” moment. I’m kinda glad I felt the adventure of trying to find it though.

LoL I did the something similar. A friend a asked me to buy the game at launch. I never played during beta or any other MMo for that matter. So I started out as a Norn and my friend said in map chat to meet her in Lions Arch. I ran all the way from Hoelbrak thru Wayfarer, Snowden, Lornar’s, and into LA. It took a couple of day’s to find my way there on an uplevel. Goodtimes

Spent 2500 gold on mystic forge at once to get Dusk or Dawn.Then i cried like 3 months.Still no regrets ! It was a good experiment for me.

Never go full mystic forge

If you plan on making a mesmer never climb on anything higher than a beer crate otherwise you`ll have a crowd of ppl waiting on a portal to open up.

But yea I climbed on the mystic forge kettle at halloween waited for enough people to randomly stand around at the bottom. Opened a portal exit on the edge, jumped down, opened the entry on the ground and watched them slip and fall into the kettle.

Was fun.. feel bad for that now (maybe)..

Tried to rob a Charr with my Asura. Threatened to headnut his kneecaps if he wouldn`t hand over the dough. Didn`t work to well.

Pre-order the game, thinking it’d be at least somewhat like the original.
Silly me.

I posted this in reply to another thread, but thought it belonged here too : -

When I first started playing the game as a Sylvari over 2 years ago, I really wanted to get to this mystical place “Lion’s Arch” that I’d heard about. I spent ages fighting my way north over a few days, levelling up, until I finally got there. Then realised all I had to do was go to the mists with a click of the mouse and run through the Asura gate. It was comical.. A real “duh” moment. I’m kinda glad I felt the adventure of trying to find it though.

“Believing Anet would be able to carry to strength of GW1 over to GW2”