@reVerse I actually agree with you here, and I think you made a great argument. As has been discussed the past few days we see a story that is centered around the player character up until Claw Island, at which point it's about Treesus. I have yet to finish my story (on about level 77 or so I think and aiming to finish sometime this week), but it's not hard for me to tell that I am not the focus of the story.
Examine the story missions of GW1; there are many plot characters that come and go throughout, but you (THE PLAYER) are the catalyst of all events and you SINGLE HANDEDLY (with your party) defeat The Lich, Shiro, Abbadon (though you do get "help" from Kormir) and The Great Destroyer. I fully expect Trehearne to be there when I take on Zhaitan, and I expect to be recognized as the catalyst for his defeat, though it will feel disingenuous.
@reVerse I actually agree with you here, and I think you made a great argument. As has been discussed the past few days we see a story that is centered around the player character up until Claw Island, at which point it's about Treesus. I have yet to finish my story (on about level 77 or so I think and aiming to finish sometime this week), but it's not hard for me to tell that I am not the focus of the story.
Examine the story missions of GW1; there are many plot characters that come and go throughout, but you (THE PLAYER) are the catalyst of all events and you SINGLE HANDEDLY (with your party) defeat The Lich, Shiro, Abbadon (though you do get "help" from Kormir) and The Great Destroyer. I fully expect Trehearne to be there when I take on Zhaitan, and I expect to be recognized as the catalyst for his defeat, though it will feel disingenuous.
Yeah, this. I've heard a lot of people compare Trehearne to Kormir, but while Kormir had problems, she was NEVER as bad as he was. The story was still always about YOU. Kormir done fucked up, YOU went to rescue her, YOU got the credit for that. Yeah, sure, Kormir went off and became a god, but everyone still stood up and fucking recognized that YOU, the PC, were the only reason that was possible.
With Trehearne, barring the few missions around level 80 where he's not around (in my case, I went off to rescue a party that had been looking for a powerful artifact, which turned out to be [REDACTED]. Then we went and set it off and it was great. Treesus was nowhere to be found in that storyline and for once I felt like it was ME again) you really do feel like you're just kinda tagging along. And it's stupid as fuck, because if there had been competent writers on this, Claw Island would have been the turning point where you go "MY MASTER IS DEAD, I MUST AVENNNGEEE THEM" and then you go off and do that. Instead, your beloved master (whoever they were) is forgotten completely as instead of taking up your rightful place as an avenging force, you kinda just tag along with this broccoli dude and get ignored.
MEANWHILE IN GW1:
* PRINCE LEEROY RURIK IS DEAD; HIS DAD IS A PSYCHOPATH, YOU GOTTA LEAD THESE REFUGEES AND KILL THIS LICH GUY AWWW YEEE
* ZOMBIE ASSASSIN WHO DONE FUCKED IT ALL UP IS BACK AND MAKIN MOAR ZOMBIES; YOU GOTTA KILL HIS BUTT GO DO IT AW YEE AIN'T YOU A BADASS
* THE DEAD GOD IS BACK AND HE IS LOOKING SO HANDSOME AND ALSO... SOME SUNSPEARS? DRAG THIS CRAZY LADY ALONG AND RESCUE HER BUTT AND THEN CHUCK HER INTO THE REMAINS OF THE DEAD GOD SO YOU GET A SLIGHTLY LESS SHITTY GOD. AW YEAH YOU STILL DA MAN
* I NEVER FINISHED EYE OF THE NORTH BUT IT WAS MOSTLY LISTEN TO GWEN WHINE AND IGNORE HER AND THEN TOTALLY KICK ASS AND PUNT THE DESTROYERS BACK WHERE THEY CAME FROM CAUSE YOU A BADASS
Can we please go back to that, Anet? I was expecting that when you said THIS IS YOUR STORY. I wasn't even expecting SW: TOR levels of customization, I was just expecting to be the hero it's me.
It feels less horrible as a Sylvari as you chill with "Treesus" for awhile and you are given the mission to defeat Zhaitan at the very start of the game.
However, I did say "less horrible" and not "good" so let's be clear. Yes, the story is pretty bad in my opinion, you DON'T feel like anyone special, and it is usually badly voice acted and dull.
The best stories are in the Dungeon Story Modes so far in my opinion. They're even better Voice Acted too. But I've been spoiled by SWTOR story so maybe this is my fault somehow.
I think the personal story may have suffered from the iterative process. Writing and rewriting and re-rewriting and then drowning your self-doubts in alcohol and rewriting some more is often an essential process, but I can see how it can get messy when multiple people are involved.
what a happy day it is
0
reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
I think the personal story may have suffered from the iterative process. Writing and rewriting and re-rewriting and then drowning your self-doubts in alcohol and rewriting some more is often an essential process, but I can see how it can get messy when multiple people are involved.
Especially when the people involved are programmers and designers, and specifically not the writing team.
@reVerse I actually agree with you here, and I think you made a great argument. As has been discussed the past few days we see a story that is centered around the player character up until Claw Island, at which point it's about Treesus. I have yet to finish my story (on about level 77 or so I think and aiming to finish sometime this week), but it's not hard for me to tell that I am not the focus of the story.
Examine the story missions of GW1; there are many plot characters that come and go throughout, but you (THE PLAYER) are the catalyst of all events and you SINGLE HANDEDLY (with your party) defeat The Lich, Shiro, Abbadon (though you do get "help" from Kormir) and The Great Destroyer. I fully expect Trehearne to be there when I take on Zhaitan, and I expect to be recognized as the catalyst for his defeat, though it will feel disingenuous.
Actually Trehearne is very adamant about NOT being present for the Zhaitan fight, that fight has other problems but Treesus is not one of them.
Anyone know if Anet has ever commented on changing how condition builds damage inanimate objects? I love playing my condition necro, but when have to kill any objects that aren't susceptible to conditions I really start to think about playing something else.
Anyone know if Anet has ever commented on changing how condition builds damage inanimate objects? I love playing my condition necro, but when have to kill any objects that aren't susceptible to conditions I really start to think about playing something else.
They once mentioned looking at Condition damage as a whole. We have heard nothing since, so it may still be in some designers head somewhere being worked out or dropped entirely, noone knows.
I think Guardian's REALLY need to have their scepter shoot lasers like an elementalist's lightning 1 ability and not these crappy orbs. It doesn't have to be strong it's really annoying to see them just miss everything that moves T_T.
Besides what we already knew (the story was written by the gameplay designers), I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the personal story probably also suffered from the perennial game development problem where your options are shipping the game and not eating. That sort of thing rearranges one's priorities right quick.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
Besides what we already knew (the story was written by the gameplay designers), I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the personal story probably also suffered from the perennial game development problem where your options are shipping the game and not eating. That sort of thing rearranges one's priorities right quick.
Yeah that really slammed it home for me. A lot of the ambient dialogue is freaking great, especially if you hang around for the longer event chains. Some of them are hilarious. Some of them are heartbreaking! And of course, the ambient stuff is done by actual writers. It also makes me wonder if they let the Actual Writers at the early Charr story lines, since as several people have mentioned, the Charr stuff is the most tightly plotted and sensical (I've played one line of each race's, and I regret not taking the LOL DRUNK PARTAY Norn one as the others stink.)
As an Actual And In Fact Professional Writer, this pisses me the hell off that game designers can see writers as so nonessential that they just let the gameplay designers write the damn dialogue and story. There's this attitude I've seen in the gaming industry as a whole that any jackass can pick up a pen and write a compelling story.
Besides what we already knew (the story was written by the gameplay designers), I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the personal story probably also suffered from the perennial game development problem where your options are shipping the game and not eating. That sort of thing rearranges one's priorities right quick.
Yeah that really slammed it home for me. A lot of the ambient dialogue is freaking great, especially if you hang around for the longer event chains. Some of them are hilarious. Some of them are heartbreaking! And of course, the ambient stuff is done by actual writers. It also makes me wonder if they let the Actual Writers at the early Charr story lines, since as several people have mentioned, the Charr stuff is the most tightly plotted and sensical (I've played one line of each race's, and I regret not taking the LOL DRUNK PARTAY Norn one as the others stink.)
As an Actual And In Fact Professional Writer, this pisses me the hell off that game designers can see writers as so nonessential that they just let the gameplay designers write the damn dialogue and story. There's this attitude I've seen in the gaming industry as a whole that any jackass can pick up a pen and write a compelling story.
/grumblegrumble
... that's not exactly what I'm getting at. I'm saying that game development (and software development in general, in my admittedly limited experience) tends to follow an arc where you start out with a bunch of money, either from investors or from your previous work, and then that money slowly disappears as it turns into business expenditures. There comes a point where you don't have any more money, and the product has to be shipped at that point, because if you don't then your product dies and you get no revenue whatsoever. There is no doubt in my mind that, given the opportunity to have the writing team handle the personal story, they would have. But if they hit that ship-or-die point, and I'll wager, with the certainty of a Fox News pundit*, that they did, then they couldn't let them at it.
* That is, based on no actual evidence, just what seems to be to be common experience.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
0
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
* PRINCE LEEROY RURIK IS DEAD; HIS DAD IS A PSYCHOPATH, YOU GOTTA LEAD THESE REFUGEES AND KILL THIS LICH GUY AWWW YEEE
Wrong.
* PRINCE LEEROY RURIK IS DEAD; HIS DAD IS A PSYCHOPATH, YOU GOTTA LEAD THESE REFUGEE
oohh, a peice of candy
* THERE'S THESE SHINING SPEAR GUYS WHO ARE BEING ALL BAD
oohh, a peice of candy
* NO ACTUALLY IT'S THESE WHITE MANTLE GUYS WHO ARE BEING BA
oohh, a peice of candy
* NO ACTUALLY THEY"RE FOLLOWING THE MURSAAT WHO JUST SHOWED UP AND AR
oohh, a peice of candy
* WHO THE FUCK IS THE LICH? WHERE DID HE COME FROM? OH, I"VE BEEN HELPING HIM THE WHOLE TIME GREAT STORYTELLING MAN
oohh, a peice of candy
* TITANS? OH OK
oohh, a peice of candy
* OH, BACK TO KILLING THIS LICH!
The Prophecies storyline still holds the award for most terrible in the series. It's the most incoherent, poorly told, poorly written storyline I've ever experienced in a game. It was flatout terrible.
So I will be putting together a tPvP team that will go on. Monday nights. This is for serious, and I can be pretty intense when I take things for serious. Let me know in game if you're interested, will be on TS later too, probably not until 6:30 PST (which is when the team will likely go as well). I'll invite all members to my to my guild DONT as well.
Factions was hilarious, don't know what you guys are talking about.
Prophecies was the sort of story I'd picture a designer writing after making a series of tutorial missions and the higher-ups said they're using it for a full-fledged campaign mode instead so they need sort of coherent narrative and oh by the way the game ships tomorrow FUCK WHERE'S THE TROPE BUCKET THERE IT IS DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMP
I was kind of disappointed that Guild Wars 2's story arc didn't really end in the same manner that the campaigns in Guild Wars 1 did, but then I guess it's a better fit for an MMO. Fool, but don't you see that you've only killed one elder dragon? We still have four more to go before we can start the next campaign!
Guess I'm all right with it as long as they remember who's story this is. Trahearne's the kind of character other players warn you about when a DM starts adding their own characters to the party.
If anyone wants to do an Explorable mode path to anything I'm up for it. Loxsus.3841 or invite Loxsus Soul for Guardian good times. I'd even do a story if someone wanted outside of AC story as I've already done that one.
I don't mind not being the savior, and in fact, in a game with millions of players, I would prefer it that way. I haven't finished the personal story, but I presume they settled on the worst-of-both-worlds compromise in that you're somebody who is famous enough to be on a first-name basis with all the important characters, but you're still subordinate to someone else.
Either make most/all players just another nameless soldier in the war effort, or make everybody the hero
IMO the main problem with the personal story was that Anet seemed to have put the lion's share of their efforts into building x*y*z possible story arcs, with the intent of making each experience feel "unique" from everyone else's. I thought the first 20-30 levels were OK, but as things start to converge, it's just not so interesting.
Really, I'd rather have just 1 or 2 really strong stories with epic arcs where you don't get to choose anything. I want to feel immersed as a character who's a crucial participant, but let's not pretend that the players can "write their own stories" or "shape the world". We all love and relate to characters in great novels or movies - but how many of those are choose-your-own-adventure? You really can't craft a very compelling narrative that way. What's needed is an Artist making Decisions.
So, any thoughts on how the new "guild mission" stuff will work? There's so much awesome about GW2, yet it's been hard for me to stay interested in playing. I'm really missing a sense of group challenge and progression like I had in WoW.
cant0r on
"The mutha 'ucka runs a racist 'uking grocery / The mutha 'ucka won't sell an apple to a Kiwi"
The guild missions will be open-world stuff that guilds can initiate, at least to begin with. Success can bring rewards for the guild via "Merits", so there will be at least some progression there.
No idea how challenging it will be. According to ANet it will take coordination. GW2's event system and combat mechanics together have the capability to be exceedingly challenging in a way that is just not possible in WoW (and other MMOs of that style), although they don't do it very often because they want the PvE to be accessible (I presume). Hopefully they won't feel the need to hold back with something designed specifically as a challenge to guilds.
So this evening, part of my Daily Events wound up being an open-world event based on one of my Personal Story choices.
Order of Whispers initiation plot, about getting Demmi safely into the Order. A Veteran Ministry Guard appeared and demanded vengeance for stealing the minister's daughter.
Kind of makes me wish there were more stuff tied to your personal story like that.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
Interesting. I had no idea personal stories leaked into the overworld like that. But the overworld is filled with cool little things that will pass by most players unnoticed, unless if they explicitly look for it.
Also, I'd like to do sPVP tourneys, but I definitely need to practice. Even halfway through rank 11 and with lots of hours as an engineer in WvW, I'm still misjudging kit swap cooldowns under pressure (resulting in me activating skills in the wrong kit in very inopportune times), and still dying often to backstab and 22222222 thieves.
I think Guardian's REALLY need to have their scepter shoot lasers like an elementalist's lightning 1 ability and not these crappy orbs. It doesn't have to be strong it's really annoying to see them just miss everything that moves T_T.
For group events I hot-swap to a staff. The Wall/Orb/Wave of Light makes me feel like Gandalf.
So If I wanted to have a good balanced armor set that works with the 1h Crit build or the 2h survivability build is my best option to use run AC and CoF for a balance of Berserker and Soldier exotics? Why does everyone say the Knights is the best?
Edit: after asking that out loud. Is it because the benefit of Toughness > Crit dmg %?
reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
Knight has power and precision for bigger regular damage and crits, plus toughness for survivability. Also, you probably have a toughness-into-stat trait that may or may not be terrible.
Despite the random plot twists, I kinda liked the original Guild Wars plot's sword and sorcery pulp-y feel. It matched the look and feel of the world. Even though it had some high fantasy elements, with Ascalon ruined, Kryta a sort of backwater, and the only other civilization destroyed, it mostly felt low fantasy to me.
Factions had potential, but was just too rushed (the overall game as well). Maybe had they done something with Shiro's doubts, made the old emperor somewhat ambiguously sinister. Nightfall was just awful, imo. I've heard Jeff Grubb was the main guy behind NF, and while he seems like a nice guy, his storytelling is more like a grandiose D&D module masquerading as a plot.
I haven't been able to push myself past Claw island in GW2. All the other issues aside, what drives me crazy is that 95% of the characters have the same slightly snarky, slightly cocky, slightly laid back, slightly this and slightly that personalities. The "iconics" annoy me as well...where's my punch Logan in the face option?
Anyway, speaking of plot twists, I have a question I've been meaning to ask.
*rips off mask*
I have 2 GW2 accounts, is that an issue. The second isn't really in any guild, just my personal guild to get the extra 50 storage.
Despite the random plot twists, I kinda liked the original Guild Wars plot's sword and sorcery pulp-y feel. It matched the look and feel of the world. Even though it had some high fantasy elements, with Ascalon ruined, Kryta a sort of backwater, and the only other civilization destroyed, it mostly felt low fantasy to me.
Factions had potential, but was just too rushed (the overall game as well). Maybe had they done something with Shiro's doubts, made the old emperor somewhat ambiguously sinister. Nightfall was just awful, imo. I've heard Jeff Grubb was the main guy behind NF, and while he seems like a nice guy, his storytelling is more like a grandiose D&D module masquerading as a plot.
I haven't been able to push myself past Claw island in GW2. All the other issues aside, what drives me crazy is that 95% of the characters have the same slightly snarky, slightly cocky, slightly laid back, slightly this and slightly that personalities. The "iconics" annoy me as well...where's my punch Logan in the face option?
Anyway, speaking of plot twists, I have a question I've been meaning to ask.
*rips off mask*
I have 2 GW2 accounts, is that an issue. The second isn't really in any guild, just my personal guild to get the extra 50 storage.
You also have two posts!
As long as your not playing both at the same time, double box or botting, ANET will not care.
I really enjoyed Nightfall's plot. It wasn't amazing, but it was pretty close to console RPG quality (as opposed to the typical MMORPG quality). Prophecies was kind of a less-polished version of that type of writing, which stands to reason since it was made, what, 4 years prior? Still good though. I don't remember thinking the plot was unusually twisty; it all seemed to progress clearly enough.
Factions, though, was basically one incredibly long, awkward cutscene. Which is entertaining in its own right. But that campaign was far more impressive for its environment and overall aesthetic than its story.
EotN was certainly the best-produced, as it ought to be, but I still prefer Nightfall's plot.
GW2's story is good (with a dash of great) right up until Claw Island.
I think my loathing of Trahearne is amplified several fold over most people's, since his useless leafy ass starts barging into the story just around the time they kill off the one character who was written so well that the deeply ingrained loathing for charr which I built up throughout GW1 was largely ameliorated after just a few missions: Tybalt.
Saeris on
0
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
I agree with pretty much everything Saeris said above, including the spoiler.
I still owe him an apple cider.
That mission involving Demi and making a stand on the beach, with his barrels of apples hiding the explosives in them? Watching him put them out after the fight was over just sort of... struck me as some nice attention to detail.
Posts
Examine the story missions of GW1; there are many plot characters that come and go throughout, but you (THE PLAYER) are the catalyst of all events and you SINGLE HANDEDLY (with your party) defeat The Lich, Shiro, Abbadon (though you do get "help" from Kormir) and The Great Destroyer. I fully expect Trehearne to be there when I take on Zhaitan, and I expect to be recognized as the catalyst for his defeat, though it will feel disingenuous.
Yeah, this. I've heard a lot of people compare Trehearne to Kormir, but while Kormir had problems, she was NEVER as bad as he was. The story was still always about YOU. Kormir done fucked up, YOU went to rescue her, YOU got the credit for that. Yeah, sure, Kormir went off and became a god, but everyone still stood up and fucking recognized that YOU, the PC, were the only reason that was possible.
With Trehearne, barring the few missions around level 80 where he's not around (in my case, I went off to rescue a party that had been looking for a powerful artifact, which turned out to be [REDACTED]. Then we went and set it off and it was great. Treesus was nowhere to be found in that storyline and for once I felt like it was ME again) you really do feel like you're just kinda tagging along. And it's stupid as fuck, because if there had been competent writers on this, Claw Island would have been the turning point where you go "MY MASTER IS DEAD, I MUST AVENNNGEEE THEM" and then you go off and do that. Instead, your beloved master (whoever they were) is forgotten completely as instead of taking up your rightful place as an avenging force, you kinda just tag along with this broccoli dude and get ignored.
MEANWHILE IN GW1:
* PRINCE LEEROY RURIK IS DEAD; HIS DAD IS A PSYCHOPATH, YOU GOTTA LEAD THESE REFUGEES AND KILL THIS LICH GUY AWWW YEEE
* ZOMBIE ASSASSIN WHO DONE FUCKED IT ALL UP IS BACK AND MAKIN MOAR ZOMBIES; YOU GOTTA KILL HIS BUTT GO DO IT AW YEE AIN'T YOU A BADASS
* THE DEAD GOD IS BACK AND HE IS LOOKING SO HANDSOME AND ALSO... SOME SUNSPEARS? DRAG THIS CRAZY LADY ALONG AND RESCUE HER BUTT AND THEN CHUCK HER INTO THE REMAINS OF THE DEAD GOD SO YOU GET A SLIGHTLY LESS SHITTY GOD. AW YEAH YOU STILL DA MAN
* I NEVER FINISHED EYE OF THE NORTH BUT IT WAS MOSTLY LISTEN TO GWEN WHINE AND IGNORE HER AND THEN TOTALLY KICK ASS AND PUNT THE DESTROYERS BACK WHERE THEY CAME FROM CAUSE YOU A BADASS
Can we please go back to that, Anet? I was expecting that when you said THIS IS YOUR STORY. I wasn't even expecting SW: TOR levels of customization, I was just expecting to be the hero it's me.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
The incompetent people never get fired, they get promoted to management.
However, I did say "less horrible" and not "good" so let's be clear. Yes, the story is pretty bad in my opinion, you DON'T feel like anyone special, and it is usually badly voice acted and dull.
The best stories are in the Dungeon Story Modes so far in my opinion. They're even better Voice Acted too. But I've been spoiled by SWTOR story so maybe this is my fault somehow.
Especially when the people involved are programmers and designers, and specifically not the writing team.
Actually Trehearne is very adamant about NOT being present for the Zhaitan fight, that fight has other problems but Treesus is not one of them.
They once mentioned looking at Condition damage as a whole. We have heard nothing since, so it may still be in some designers head somewhere being worked out or dropped entirely, noone knows.
Yeah that really slammed it home for me. A lot of the ambient dialogue is freaking great, especially if you hang around for the longer event chains. Some of them are hilarious. Some of them are heartbreaking! And of course, the ambient stuff is done by actual writers. It also makes me wonder if they let the Actual Writers at the early Charr story lines, since as several people have mentioned, the Charr stuff is the most tightly plotted and sensical (I've played one line of each race's, and I regret not taking the LOL DRUNK PARTAY Norn one as the others stink.)
As an Actual And In Fact Professional Writer, this pisses me the hell off that game designers can see writers as so nonessential that they just let the gameplay designers write the damn dialogue and story. There's this attitude I've seen in the gaming industry as a whole that any jackass can pick up a pen and write a compelling story.
/grumblegrumble
Yes. Yes you are.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
... that's not exactly what I'm getting at. I'm saying that game development (and software development in general, in my admittedly limited experience) tends to follow an arc where you start out with a bunch of money, either from investors or from your previous work, and then that money slowly disappears as it turns into business expenditures. There comes a point where you don't have any more money, and the product has to be shipped at that point, because if you don't then your product dies and you get no revenue whatsoever. There is no doubt in my mind that, given the opportunity to have the writing team handle the personal story, they would have. But if they hit that ship-or-die point, and I'll wager, with the certainty of a Fox News pundit*, that they did, then they couldn't let them at it.
* That is, based on no actual evidence, just what seems to be to be common experience.
Wrong.
* PRINCE LEEROY RURIK IS DEAD; HIS DAD IS A PSYCHOPATH, YOU GOTTA LEAD THESE REFUGEE
oohh, a peice of candy
* THERE'S THESE SHINING SPEAR GUYS WHO ARE BEING ALL BAD
oohh, a peice of candy
* NO ACTUALLY IT'S THESE WHITE MANTLE GUYS WHO ARE BEING BA
oohh, a peice of candy
* NO ACTUALLY THEY"RE FOLLOWING THE MURSAAT WHO JUST SHOWED UP AND AR
oohh, a peice of candy
* WHO THE FUCK IS THE LICH? WHERE DID HE COME FROM? OH, I"VE BEEN HELPING HIM THE WHOLE TIME GREAT STORYTELLING MAN
oohh, a peice of candy
* TITANS? OH OK
oohh, a peice of candy
* OH, BACK TO KILLING THIS LICH!
The Prophecies storyline still holds the award for most terrible in the series. It's the most incoherent, poorly told, poorly written storyline I've ever experienced in a game. It was flatout terrible.
And seriously; the more I think of it, the more convinced I am that i'll never finish this damn 'personal' story...
Prophecies was the sort of story I'd picture a designer writing after making a series of tutorial missions and the higher-ups said they're using it for a full-fledged campaign mode instead so they need sort of coherent narrative and oh by the way the game ships tomorrow FUCK WHERE'S THE TROPE BUCKET THERE IT IS DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMP
I was kind of disappointed that Guild Wars 2's story arc didn't really end in the same manner that the campaigns in Guild Wars 1 did, but then I guess it's a better fit for an MMO. Fool, but don't you see that you've only killed one elder dragon? We still have four more to go before we can start the next campaign!
Guess I'm all right with it as long as they remember who's story this is. Trahearne's the kind of character other players warn you about when a DM starts adding their own characters to the party.
Either make most/all players just another nameless soldier in the war effort, or make everybody the hero
Really, I'd rather have just 1 or 2 really strong stories with epic arcs where you don't get to choose anything. I want to feel immersed as a character who's a crucial participant, but let's not pretend that the players can "write their own stories" or "shape the world". We all love and relate to characters in great novels or movies - but how many of those are choose-your-own-adventure? You really can't craft a very compelling narrative that way. What's needed is an Artist making Decisions.
So, any thoughts on how the new "guild mission" stuff will work? There's so much awesome about GW2, yet it's been hard for me to stay interested in playing. I'm really missing a sense of group challenge and progression like I had in WoW.
No idea how challenging it will be. According to ANet it will take coordination. GW2's event system and combat mechanics together have the capability to be exceedingly challenging in a way that is just not possible in WoW (and other MMOs of that style), although they don't do it very often because they want the PvE to be accessible (I presume). Hopefully they won't feel the need to hold back with something designed specifically as a challenge to guilds.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
Kind of makes me wish there were more stuff tied to your personal story like that.
Also, I'd like to do sPVP tourneys, but I definitely need to practice. Even halfway through rank 11 and with lots of hours as an engineer in WvW, I'm still misjudging kit swap cooldowns under pressure (resulting in me activating skills in the wrong kit in very inopportune times), and still dying often to backstab and 22222222 thieves.
Edit: looks like the datacenter is down at the moment, not too much I can do.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
For group events I hot-swap to a staff. The Wall/Orb/Wave of Light makes me feel like Gandalf.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Edit: after asking that out loud. Is it because the benefit of Toughness > Crit dmg %?
3DS FC: 5086-1134-6451
Shiny Code: 3837
Toughness decreases all incoming dmg except for condition dmg?
Also, anyone else notice that the +15% to crit with 1h trait doesn't update your character sheet?
3DS FC: 5086-1134-6451
Shiny Code: 3837
Factions had potential, but was just too rushed (the overall game as well). Maybe had they done something with Shiro's doubts, made the old emperor somewhat ambiguously sinister. Nightfall was just awful, imo. I've heard Jeff Grubb was the main guy behind NF, and while he seems like a nice guy, his storytelling is more like a grandiose D&D module masquerading as a plot.
I haven't been able to push myself past Claw island in GW2. All the other issues aside, what drives me crazy is that 95% of the characters have the same slightly snarky, slightly cocky, slightly laid back, slightly this and slightly that personalities. The "iconics" annoy me as well...where's my punch Logan in the face option?
Anyway, speaking of plot twists, I have a question I've been meaning to ask.
*rips off mask*
I have 2 GW2 accounts, is that an issue. The second isn't really in any guild, just my personal guild to get the extra 50 storage.
Seems to be working fine
You also have two posts!
As long as your not playing both at the same time, double box or botting, ANET will not care.
I really enjoyed Nightfall's plot. It wasn't amazing, but it was pretty close to console RPG quality (as opposed to the typical MMORPG quality). Prophecies was kind of a less-polished version of that type of writing, which stands to reason since it was made, what, 4 years prior? Still good though. I don't remember thinking the plot was unusually twisty; it all seemed to progress clearly enough.
Factions, though, was basically one incredibly long, awkward cutscene. Which is entertaining in its own right. But that campaign was far more impressive for its environment and overall aesthetic than its story.
EotN was certainly the best-produced, as it ought to be, but I still prefer Nightfall's plot.
GW2's story is good (with a dash of great) right up until Claw Island.
That mission involving Demi and making a stand on the beach, with his barrels of apples hiding the explosives in them? Watching him put them out after the fight was over just sort of... struck me as some nice attention to detail.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
Identity Theft
Thief Elite Skill. Shadowstep to your target and steal their identity, transforming into a perfect copy of them for twenty seconds.
They need to look like you for the duration as well. And against players, be able to take friendly fire temporarily.... BWAHAHAHAHA....
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy