Dear Anet,
The living story you have provided us so far has its ups and downs, but I feel as though I can speak for the majority of people here when I say that the last two updates, especially the latest one is the best so far and has intrigued many players including me:) I see people discussing the current flow of story both in and outside the game, and it feels like you finally “nailed it”.
I talked before about how you present your story, and while it’s definitely getting better, it can get even better. For starters, we are visual creatures, and as such it is very important that all the crucial story elements and its characters are presented in a memorable, visual fashion.
It would be really, really good if we could get proper cut scenes in the future LS updates. Maybe even GW1- style cutscenes. Although they weren’t perfect…I feel as though they told a story better then GW2. Cutscenes in GW2 are really lacking, and when we do get one, it often felt like they were done real fast, with weird camera angles etc.
Cinematic cut scenes is something this game would much benefit from. Or keep the concept art ones, maybe that is even better.
Or, if it’s too much trouble, can we have at least regular cutscenes? I’m tired of seeing everything like a spectator while the NPC-s are talking there. I want to see Rox, Kasmeer, Bro-ham and Majory talk in this fashion:
Look! The character on the right is wearing her armor. How cool would that be? Is something like this being worked on?
Cheers
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(edited by CharrGirl.7896)
It’s me again! I have come to bring back my CHARR!
Been playing around with animation glitches for my character when doing certain things and found a model freezing glitch. Check it
Ugh this moe moe kawaii uguuu charr face trend that started with Rox really ticks me off… if it were any other race i’d get it but this doesn’t fit charr ._.
By the way, still taking bets on who’s dying this time when we do take down Scarlet. Rox, Kasmeer, Hobo-Tron, or Taimi.
I guess you’ll have to wait and see what happens.
Why? Why do you guys find it necessary to kill off characters? Given Most of the NPCs mentioned been around for a while, but (and it’s a big BUT) you just gave us any kind of connection to the characters in question. We just finally see their deeper side and we’re slowly connecting with their personalities. And you just kill them off right after you gave us something deeper?
If that’s the case, why should we bother connecting with characters to begin with? Why care for characters when you just gonna kill them off at any time in some kind of pointless sacrifice… And yes I am referring to the mentors from personal story. That was the only and (at least I was hoping till now) last time I personally cared for any character in this game. After I got to that scene in that mission I turned off the game hoping I did something wrong, maybe I picked a wrong line. I replayed that mission 4 times just to find out that there was no way around the fact in matter. Personal Story died for me then. And even though I finished PS 7 times now, everything past that moment is just more of a chore.
Now with Living Story we finally (after months of them being life-less NPCS) meet characters that have some depth into them that we can connect on. Some stories that we had no idea about until now are finally surfacing. And we already thinking which ones Anet will kill off?? What’s the point then? Why make characters that are deep, interesting and we finally learn to trust after what happened to our mentor (whichever one it might be) just to get hurt again?
Living Story is finally getting interesting. We’re practically starting it at this point when it comes to story part of it. Don’t make me regret it once again…
I feel the same way completely but he simply cannot just spoil it. Since a lot of people are making their bets and assumptions, even if nobody is going to get killed (which is my guess, and certainly hoping for) he can’t just tell at this point
Kasmeer on Kasmeer
…mini giving biggie a shoulder to lean on
This is both hilarious and disturbing xD
Why would the only pay off be if one of them died? I noticed this pattern with a lot of stories, when certain characters become a pairing then one of them dies, because the writers obviously don’t know how to evolve them beyond that point, so death is their tool of development… I personally think it’s cheap and it sends a cliche, lame message.
There are many potential payoffs for this development. One is, as stated above, an eventual death for one (or both) of the Kasjory team, another is them becoming a couple (or good friends) for years to come, giving us a nice team for future Living stories. Yet another could be Kasmeer actually being evil and deliberately manipulating Jory’s emotions with the sad story to make her lower her guard for whatever nefarious reason before a later betrayal.
Also, I believe that any “cliche” can be used in a story as long as it’s used well; tropes aren’t inherently bad (as TVTropes and literary critics keep telling us xD) since so many stories have been told by now so one will inevitably run into “cliches” sooner or later no matter what one does. Using a well established trope doesn’t make a story “cheap”, IMHO. I’ve read many stories where the death of a pairing has had impact on the storyline in a good way, and not because “the writers obviously don’t know how to evolve them beyond that point, so death is their tool of development”. It can definitely be done well by a good author. Granted, bad writing can indeed make it come out in a bad way, but if it’s handled well not only character-wise but story-wise, it can give weight to the story in a good way just as further developing a friendship or romance further would do. It’s all in the pen of the storyteller, IMHO.
Same with characters that were “supposed” evil yet it oh so turns out they’re not, they do something for greater good, then die, without any redemption or character development past that point. I could mention at least 10 characters I know that are like this but….it would be kinda unfair to spoil since we’re talking about quite popular stories here.
Again, if it’s done well, it shouldn’t matter; using tropes is inevitable, so delivery is what matters. If writers make the characters interesting and complex and write a good story around them, the antagonist, for instance, can be more sympathetic or villainous and come off as a well fleshed out character, whether s/he’s a well intentioned extremist or has been your ally who reveals his/her true colours and betrays you in a shocking twist.
I’ve read/seen/played just as many stories with sympathetic antagonists being redeemed before their death as I’ve read stories where they reject redemption or even live on with the guilt of what they’ve done. There have been bad stories but also gems in the bunch, so it all depends on how well the author manages to convey the idea to the audience.
The present Living Story has had its ups and downs, but for the most part I’ve found myself enjoying it. There are lots of interesting story possibilities out there and many plots one can follow, and I believe Anet will deliver us some nice stories as they iron out the kinks and learns what works and doesn’t work story-wise.
Rytlock dies in the final chapter of Scarlets story,his warband is revealed and Destinys Edge is broken handing the reigns to Destinys Edge 2.Also Rox doesn’t have to stop adventuring with Braham.Game of Thrones fitting end. /discuss
This isn’t something the writing team can do at this point of time because it would conflict with Personal Story. Until they figure out how to separate PS from Living Story (and this can be done with a bit of tweaking, IMHO), they won’t be killing off any PS characters as that would only make people still leveling up their characters confused. And I certainly hope any of Destiny’s Edge bite the bullet yet as there’s still so much character development that they could go through…unless Anet has a good enough reason to make any of such deaths impactful in a good way instead of just in a “shocking swerve” way.
I pretty much agree with everything you say, I just think that death of a character to further the plot or to serve as a character development for somebody else has been overused and it’s bad if it can be seen a mile away, no matter what the delivery. Let them all stay with us I say, Dwaynna knows that we lack good characters in this game :P Finally we have them delivered, and it finally feels like I’m following a good ongoing story here. I totally can’t wait to see all the new LS releases with the new team… dunno, guess I’m a lore junkie and I’d be pretty bummed if anyone new died at this point. sigh
(edited by CharrGirl.7896)
I’m sensing a recurring, somewhat creepy theme here.
Oh there is plenty of that on the internet already.
I mean just look at this minion photo-bomb!
http://24.media.tumblr.com/d6cb976a2afe7cf0a58188c9de00a95a/tumblr_mztuqdpJ4R1qa3e2do1_1280.jpg
Props to Anet for making Scarlet sound more adult and menacing then childish
I really really like her new voice, especially when reading the journals. Now I want to hear
more of it haha.
+1
(edited by Moderator)