125 replies to this topic

[DarkOrange]

Before I start, I would like to say that I have played GW2 since release, and I really like the game itself.

My problem is that, to me, the story seems so weak and bland. It doesn't engage me, or make me care about the characters and the fate of the world it's set in. Even compared to GW1, where PvE and the story were a supposed 'afterthought', I find GW2 lacking. I found the story in GW1 really enjoyable to play through and in places it really did seem like an epic struggle.
In GW2 I find alot of what happens underwhelming, especially in Orr, where the story elements seems quite rushed through.

My feeling is that alot of this is down to the level requirement for the quests, which effectively kills the flow of the story and makes each quest feel like an individual mission, rather than part of a bigger story. I also find myself missing the group elements of story progression that GW1 had, as having to do the entire story on my own gets a bit dull.

I fully understand that ANet has made the game they want it, (and they have got alot of stuff right), and I'm not asking for any changes. I just wanted to give my opinion, and ask if anyone else agrees/feels the same.

[Heart Collector]

I like this game very much, but I just can't get into GW2 lore. I tend to prefer greyer, grittier settings (e.g. Gothic), and GW2 is as high fantasy as you can get.

Also... The story itself is so many kinds of cliche and corny. Same goes for most of the characters. The only times I really enjoyed it was in the more light-hearted, humorous parts (e.g. Tybalt), where the game didn't take itself too seriously.

The game has many strong points, but story is not one of them IMO.

[astromarmot]

DarkOrange, on 05 March 2013 - 12:35 PM, said:

Before I start, I would like to say that I have played GW2 since release, and I really like the game itself.

My problem is that, to me, the story seems so weak and bland. It doesn't engage me, or make me care about the characters and the fate of the world it's set in. Even compared to GW1, where PvE and the story were a supposed 'afterthought', I find GW2 lacking. I found the story in GW1 really enjoyable to play through and in places it really did seem like an epic struggle.
In GW2 I find alot of what happens underwhelming, especially in Orr, where the story elements seems quite rushed through.

My feeling is that alot of this is down to the level requirement for the quests, which effectively kills the flow of the story and makes each quest feel like an individual mission, rather than part of a bigger story. I also find myself missing the group elements of story progression that GW1 had, as having to do the entire story on my own gets a bit dull.

I fully understand that ANet has made the game they want it, (and they have got alot of stuff right), and I'm not asking for any changes. I just wanted to give my opinion, and ask if anyone else agrees/feels the same.

The "narrative" to me felt like it was Velcro'ed on just to say they had one...

[DarkOrange]

Heart Collector, on 05 March 2013 - 01:43 PM, said:

I like this game very much, but I just can't get into GW2 lore. I tend to prefer greyer, grittier settings (e.g. Gothic), and GW2 is as high fantasy as you can get.

Also... The story itself is so many kinds of cliche and corny. Same goes for most of the characters. The only times I really enjoyed it was in the more light-hearted, humorous parts (e.g. Tybalt), where the game didn't take itself too seriously.

The game has many strong points, but story is not one of them IMO.

I see what you mean. My favourite parts of the story are the lower level race specific bits, as they feel more personal.

I feel like they tried to tack on a resemblance to the GW1 story to keep the people who like the lore interested, while making it stand-alone so people who didn't play GW1 wouldn't be left out. To me, it seems like they should have picked one of these options and stuck to it, rather than creating a poor mix of the two.

Edited by DarkOrange, 05 March 2013 - 01:57 PM.

[Ritualist]

http://www.guildwars...y-too-optional/


As I said in that thread, I think that the GW2 is built in a world with amazing lore, it's just that the folks making the game forgot to showcase it or in some cases, intentionally hid it. And as a result, only the people that intentionally seek a connection with the world are able to obtain it, whereas everyone else is just left in a pretty world with no explanation of how they got there and what they are doing. And while I am normally a massive fan of action instead of long, drawn out words - I think it's too optional for the genre.

[Adul]

It's kind of hard to criticize GW2 on the personal story front in good conscience, because I can see that they tried really hard. They were willing to devote a lot of resources, try daring new ideas, trash out old iterations in favor of new ones, etc., but I still feel it wasn't enough. Maybe they stopped trying too soon, and a few more changes could elevate the story to those epic proportions they aimed for. But as of now, it all feels kind of hit and miss.

I think part of the reason I'm not satisfied with the story is because whenever you are doing it, you are removed from the world and put into a smaller, heavily restricted copy of it. This makes almost all of the story elements take place in a tiny, narrow corridor, where you are alone, nothing happens without your input, and which blatantly says "this is not part of the actual game, this is a virtual space created for you".

That's only one reason of many, but perhaps it's the biggest one.

[astromarmot]

One thing I'd like is if they gave me some semi-natural reason to actually go back to my altered home-instance(s)...extra bank space, a free WP, some special food or gear vendor, some reason to visit a place where the things I do/did can actually be witnessed to have changed the world as significantly as the story was supposed to lead me to believe...

[Pyrea]

I was thinking about this aspect of the game a few days ago and feel the story aspect in GW2 is not up to standard. The GW1 story is way better and kept you engaged. You cared for the characters in GW1 and their trials and tribulations. Always watched the movie sequences in GW1 every time I went through them, there is just something about them that is special and magical. With GW2 story movies I hit end almost right away, characters are weak and bland. :/

[Resolve]

Adul, on 05 March 2013 - 02:02 PM, said:

It's kind of hard to criticize GW2 on the personal story front in good conscience, because I can see that they tried really hard. They were willing to devote a lot of resources, try daring new ideas, trash out old iterations in favor of new ones, etc., but I still feel it wasn't enough. Maybe they stopped trying too soon, and a few more changes could elevate the story to those epic proportions they aimed for. But as of now, it all feels kind of hit and miss.

Really? Because it sort of seems like they didn't try at all.

Edited by Resolve, 05 March 2013 - 02:17 PM.

[astromarmot]

Resolve, on 05 March 2013 - 02:17 PM, said:

Really? Because it sort of seems like they didn't try at all.

The voice acting to me, for the most part kept giving me the impression of one of those satires skits of a 1-900 operator washing dishes, or doing her nails while oohing and ahing into the phone on their shoulder...

[Adul]

Resolve, on 05 March 2013 - 02:17 PM, said:

Really? Because it sort of seems like they didn't try at all.

I don't think that's the case. When you create something as cool and difficult as the branching story system in GW2 where your choices of race, background, etc. give you access to different plot paths leading up to the same conclusion, you don't just stop caring about it. It is possible that their story budget emptied out too soon, or they didn't have enough time to finish up everything, but I don't think the clearly visible problems with the personal story are a result of apathy on the developers' part.

[I'm Squirrel]

It could have been MUCH better.

We already had the characters: Zojja, Caithe, Eir, Rytlock, Logan.

Arenanet is stupid for only including them in dungeons. They should've been with us until the end, like Master Togo, Prince Rurik, Koss, Dunkoro and company, Vekk, Gwen, and Odgen..

Instead they give us some extremely horrible developed characters like... gods.. i can't even remember there names, that's how horrible the the storyline was made.

There's the annoying plant guy....who wielded what seemed like an insigifnicant sword the whole story, Caledbolg. And.. there was.. the 10/10 master of whispers leader... and the charr who sacrificed himself in the battle of that one keep..and the cool Norn guy with the awesome voice actor...

Seriously, if I can't remember any names, through TWO storyline playthroughs, ArenaNet has definitely done a horrible job.

I can remember all the names of the GW1 characters, races, locations, and significant items and I haven't even played GW1 in two years. dead serious.

Edited by I'm Squirrel, 05 March 2013 - 02:48 PM.

[Serris]

i loved the story before level 30 (well, of some races ).
after that the only choice that matters is what order you pick, which becomes irrelevant in about 20-30 levels. it's moderately interesting.

after that, the story is boring.

[Virdiana Sovari]

You don't remember Trehearne? (or however should I write it...)
Good for you!
Ouch, just made you remember him.

[Jentari]

I am kinda with Squirrel on this.  Besides Trehernne I cant remember any other of the people in the story lines.  With all the talk of Destinys Edge they needed to be a bigger part in the end.  Besides, this wasn't our story, it was Trehernnes story, we where the side-kick.

[Vexx]

Ahh... Trahearne; the abortion that survived. There's a plethora of characters that could have continued the story more effectively than that badly voiced, miserable glory-hog. In my opinion the racial part of the story line was too short. I think it should have been 40 levels of your racial story, then 40 levels of your order story, without the 30 levels of that Fort Trinity crap. Every time I roll a new toon I love the story for the most part, until level 50 when I can't bring myself to continue any more. I'd say about 75% it is just the fact that Trahearnes voice just kills it for me.

[DarkOrange]

they seem to introduce things, then a few missions later, completely forget they exist, (caladbolg, the destiny's edge feuds, most of what happens in the racial stories etc), and are never mentioned again or developed further.

the racial stories are nicely done IMO (the human and sylari ones tell really good stories, and the norn and asura ones are very entertaining with some nice funny moments). I would have really like to see those parts extended, and some of the fort trinity/orr stuff cut (that lvl 72 underwater temple mission can go die ).

Edited by DarkOrange, 05 March 2013 - 03:09 PM.

[NuclearDonut]

The racial story parts are great. Killing the leader of my Warband in the arena and taking his position was freaking awesome. So was going through a "Dude, Where's My Car?" style scavenger hunt to find an Iron Legion chugger. Even some of the order missions are cool, like holding off Icebrood so the Quaggans can evacuate their village. But then after that there's nothing. I get stuck with Trahearne (who I don't hate nor understand the hate directed towards him, he's just really boring) and a bunch of one-dimensional NPCs that only exist so they can make a heroic sacrifice at the end of the mission and I'm supposed to care about them dying. I just wish that there were some characters who were constantly with me. The members of Destiny's Edge disappear from my story after level 30, and the Order mentors go away after level 50. I would prefer a less personal and more consistent story for future expansions, even if that means we get Trahearne for the entire story, I don't care. Maybe then he can actually have some real character development.

[Trahearne]

I like the personal story.

[Lunacy Polish]

Basically it is like this.  Meet Dave.  Dave is an expert bartender who can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about any *tail imaginable or any beer wine or spirit.   But he hasn't worked in six years and lives in his mom's driveway in a 1974 Ford van.

You are moving a couch one day when Dave says oh hey let me help you with that all I do is live in a van and I know a lot about booze but I don't actually do anything.  And he says it with a really nasal lisp.

Then suddenly the heavens open up and a beam of light shines down on Dave and gives him the power to shoot lightning bolts out of his ass.  He uses this amazing new power exactly once to save a kitten from being baked into a pie.  The three largest governments on earth are so taken with Dave they dissolve their laws and pledge allegiance to him.

And Dave decides he likes you so now every soldier in the world is told you are Dave's personal slave.  Dave makes you clip his toenails and pick up his dry cleaning but h also makes you solve world hunger, cure AIDS, end racism and regulate the temperature of the planet.

With each assignment completed everyone talks more about how great Dave is and he becomes king of earth.

Edited by Lunacy Polish, 05 March 2013 - 03:35 PM.

[astromarmot]

Lunacy Polish, on 05 March 2013 - 03:32 PM, said:

Basically it is like this.  Meet Dave.  Dave is an expert bartender who can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about any *tail imaginable or any beer wine or spirit.   But he hasn't worked in six years and lives in his mom's driveway in a 1974 Ford van.

You are moving a couch one day when Dave says oh hey let me help you with that all I do is live in a van and I know a lot about booze but I don't actually do anything.  And he says it with a really nasal lisp.

Then suddenly the heavens open up and a beam of light shines down on Dave and gives him the power to shoot lightning bolts out of his ass.  He uses this amazing new power exactly once to save a kitten from being baked into a pie.  The three largest governments on earth are so taken with Dave they dissolve their laws and pledge allegiance to him.

And Dave decides he likes you so now every soldier in the world is told you are Dave's personal slave.  Dave makes you clip his toenails and pick up his dry cleaning but h also makes you solve world hunger, cure AIDS, end racism and regulate the temperature of the planet.

With each assignment completed everyone talks more about how great Dave is and he becomes king of earth.

But that rug really tied the room together...did it not?

[whodini]

Have 4 Lev 80 char. Still haven't finished the Storyline. Wishing it had the same elements as final fantasy. I don't care what happens next. Love the game though

[Vexx]

NuclearDonut, on 05 March 2013 - 03:15 PM, said:

I would prefer a less personal and more consistent story for future expansions, even if that means we get Trahearne for the entire story, I don't care. Maybe then he can actually have some real character development.

Please, no. That would be a tragedy.

[Resolve]

Adul, on 05 March 2013 - 02:33 PM, said:

I don't think that's the case. When you create something as cool and difficult as the branching story system in GW2 where your choices of race, background, etc. give you access to different plot paths leading up to the same conclusion, you don't just stop caring about it. It is possible that their story budget emptied out too soon, or they didn't have enough time to finish up everything, but I don't think the clearly visible problems with the personal story are a result of apathy on the developers' part.

Except the story isn't branching, the only story choices that matter is the Order you pick and the questions you pick at the start for your first 20-30 levels, the rest are just picking a different mission, cut scenes are terrible etc.

Compare it to the story in Swtor. 8 unique stories from the first level to the max. Full cut scenes, companions, light/dark side options give you at least 2 different choices for each story.

GW2 is much better than Swtor overall but I hope Anet learned why Swtors story was so good.

[Arich]

I like the idea of the Personal Story, but not the results of it.  They tried to make the story varied for everyone, but it really just feels like multiple smaller story lines.  I preferred the GW1 story format more.

[matsif]

god I would love to murder trahearne, would be the best story quest ever.

honestly, I liked the story up until about level 30, and up to level 50 if you went whisperers.  Whisperers was great because of Tybalt, who is imo the only good charr character in the game and by far my favorite NPC overall.  Priory on the other hand annoyed the hell out of me, I couldn't stand that NPC, but the quests were ok.  Vigil was the most boring to me overall.

After level 50 though you get introduced to the worthless shrub that is Trahearne and the story craps itself.

basically my feels are that it was a good idea that was horribly implemented, just like a lot of other things in this game.

[Magi]

Trahearne, on 05 March 2013 - 03:17 PM, said:

I like the personal story.

This post wins the thread.

[NuclearDonut]

Lunacy Polish, on 05 March 2013 - 03:32 PM, said:

Basically it is like this.  Meet Dave.  Dave is an expert bartender who can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about any *tail imaginable or any beer wine or spirit.   But he hasn't worked in six years and lives in his mom's driveway in a 1974 Ford van.

You are moving a couch one day when Dave says oh hey let me help you with that all I do is live in a van and I know a lot about booze but I don't actually do anything.  And he says it with a really nasal lisp.

Then suddenly the heavens open up and a beam of light shines down on Dave and gives him the power to shoot lightning bolts out of his ass.  He uses this amazing new power exactly once to save a kitten from being baked into a pie.  The three largest governments on earth are so taken with Dave they dissolve their laws and pledge allegiance to him.

And Dave decides he likes you so now every soldier in the world is told you are Dave's personal slave.  Dave makes you clip his toenails and pick up his dry cleaning but h also makes you solve world hunger, cure AIDS, end racism and regulate the temperature of the planet.

With each assignment completed everyone talks more about how great Dave is and he becomes king of earth.

Vexx, on 05 March 2013 - 03:37 PM, said:

Please, no. That would be a tragedy.

Oh please, I don't mean to sound rude but the hate for Trahearne is so unnecessary. How else is the story supposed to be told? ANet literally HAS to have an NPC play the role of the leader, even more than they had to with Kormir in Guild Wars 1. Trahearne has to hog the spotlight so for future expansions we can say for sure "Trahearne is the leader of the Pact." What if we were the leader of the Pact? How would that fit into lore? One person's leader would be a female Charr Warrior, and another's would be a male Sylvari Elementalist. Trahearne, along with Kormir, is stuck with the crappy role of stealing the spotlight from the player character. Naturally people are going to hate these characters, but that doesn't make it right.

As for us doing Trahearne's dirty work and him taking credit, what if we didn't do his dirty work and he did it all himself? Then people would complain that our characters have no point.

I know 95% of people that play GW2 won't agree with me because Trahearne became the heroic leader instead of them, but I'm going to stand by this until someone can give me a good alternate solution to the Trahearne/Kormir paradox.

However, I agree with Trahearne being extremely bland needing more development, hence why I said I would prefer for him to be in the next expansion a whole lot more. If ANet can get Trahearne's personality on par with Forgal, Seiran, and Tybalt, I would be satisfied.

[Archon_Wing]

I enjoyed the first chapters, where you do missions, find out more about your character, explored the leadership of your nation, and grouped with your mentor. However, after that, it got sorta pointless and the plot became too convenient. It became less about you, basically.

Edited by Archon_Wing, 05 March 2013 - 09:03 PM.

[astromarmot]

Why does there need to be a singular "leader?"  Why not have the PC just be under the direction of the Triumvirate of the orders?