Slightly disappointed about the Story so far.

[Ruhen]

and the storytelling is NOT better than others.

I'm sorry but that's your opinion and not a fact. I personally love the story and lore in GW2. Sure, it takes a little bit to kick up some dust but you can't expect the game to be perfect. If you ask me, GW has always had some of the best story telling through missions instead of quest text.

I respect your opinion, it's fair but please don't try to spout baseless facts.

That said, I didn't really like the Asura line much until I played it a bit and it really became cool story telling after a while. Plus, reading the books Edge of Destiny and Ghosts of Ascalon beforehand added a really amazing feeling.

[Lucky_]

Norn story made me want to take a good swing at my character. My legend, MY LEGEND, MY LEGEND. Every time she opened her mouth, these words came out. We fucking get it. Shut up about it and try to pretend you can actually pronounce other words. Who needs weapons when your ego could step on all elder dragons and squish them under its colossal weight.

Humans wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about. Standard fare of terrible dialogue and cliches. The battle for survival of the race in decline aspect is somewhat interesting, but really hindered by terrible dialogue.

Charr was more interesting. They actually had some interesting parts as they are quite morally ambiguous at times, at least Ash Legion. Their dialogue was mostly terrible, but it actually had its moments at times.

Sylvari was my favourite, though still plagued by mostly terrible dialogue. But the story behind sylvari themselves was quite intriguing. The holy concept of "hive spawned but not hive mind race" was intriguing.

Asura... meh, cutesy take on gnomes with lame "oh no, bureaucracy ran amok" stereotype. It broke my caremeter because it went too deep into negative.


All in all, dialogue was terrible, so even good parts in the story were massively spoiled by it. Like trying to eat a meal with sauce that is nothing but year old spoilt milk. This is one aspect that is pointless to complain about as it's too late to change anything about it, but in hindsight, they really should have hired a decent writer to write a plot and dialogue. There's a lot of very average fanfiction dialogue that reads better then what the game has now.

[rhinomatic]

I had a tough time with the norn female voice during the first BWE. I'm not sure if this was intentional but my character's voice actor seemed like she was trying to sound like she had a deeper voice then she naturally did. I'm not sure if this was done with editing or if the actor did it herself. It was cringe-worthy when combined with her cheesy dialogue. I haven't played a norn since then.

It does sound like she's trying to "talk bigger", but I think that's part of the hilarity. The bad VO is one of the reasons I like female norn so much. Especially when she yells "Might makes me right!" when she gets a stack of might. It's awful but I love it, like an Airplane! movie.

[Ruhen]

Norn story made me want to take a good swing at my character. My legend, MY LEGEND, MY LEGEND. Every time she opened his mouth, these words came out. We fucking get it. Shut up about it and try to pretend you can actually pronounce other words. Who needs weapons when your ego could step on all elder dragons and squish them under its colossal weight.

Humans wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about. Standard fare of terrible dialogue and cliches. The battle for survival of the race in decline aspect is somewhat interesting, but really hindered by terrible dialogue.

Charr was more interesting. They actually had some interesting parts as they are quite morally ambiguous at times, at least Ash Legion. Their dialogue was mostly terrible, but it actually had its moments at times.

Sylvari was my favourite, though still plagued by mostly terrible dialogue. But the story behind sylvari themselves was quite intriguing. The holy concept of "hive spawned but not hive mind race" was intriguing.

Asura... meh, cutesy take on gnomes with lame "oh no, bureaucracy ran amok" stereotype. It broke my caremeter because it went too deep into negative.


All in all, dialogue was terrible, so even good parts in the story were massively spoiled by it. Like trying to eat a meal with sauce that is nothing but year old spoilt milk. This is one aspect that is pointless to complain about as it's too late to change anything about it, but in hindsight, they really should have hired a decent writer to write a plot and dialogue. There's a lot of very average fanfiction dialogue that reads better then what the game has now.

Geez, negative nancy lol.

[thelordymir]

Also, you'd rather have walls of text rather than voice acting? I honestly can't agree.

Actually I would. Can convey a deep story in both text and voice, but sadly there is a budget and most games don't have a huge budge for actual professional voice actors AND a well written story and narrative so one of the other gets skimped on. Look at FF10 compared to any other FF game, sure eventually the voices and story get more deep but it's still lacking.

They are progressing though, so I can't say 100% "no" to a voice acted story because the media needs to be pushed forward, but I still miss reading text at the same time.

[Deleted]

Hahaha. Okay, now I regret throwing in the towel so easily. I'll roll a bunch of norns when live hits. Love the look of the race, but the voice acting was much off putting. You can just turn the voice volume down in this, right..?

Yes you can turn the voice volume down a tad. As I said a couple of times, if like me you enjoy horrible low budget films and even things like Machete... it kinda grows on you xD Or at least it did on me. I found the norn to be a bit of a funny race so yeah.

[Larynx]

Geez, negative nancy lol.

You must be new around here.

[StationaryHawk]

I've been a fan of the Human/Asura personal stories (the two I chose, anyways), but I'll agree that the others are a bit lackluster. It may just be the fact that I (and probably most of us) have only done them at the low levels. Or that could just be the way it's going to be.

I love the story and lore of GW2 regardless.

Asura... meh, cutesy take on gnomes with lame "oh no, bureaucracy ran amok" stereotype. It broke my caremeter because it went too deep into negative.

If anything, asura are a more serious take on gnomes, considering how cutesy gnomes already are.

[sacrypheyes]

unless they changed it last BWE (which i didn't bother checking), we've only seen personal stories up to lvl 20 so far.
as for the "global" game main story (some might say endgame), i guess we won't see anything related to it until release.

imo, quite a bit early to complain about story.

[Malthurius]

Actually I would. Can convey a deep story in both text and voice, but sadly there is a budget and most games don't have a huge budge for actual professional voice actors AND a well written story and narrative so one of the other gets skimped on. Look at FF10 compared to any other FF game, sure eventually the voices and story get more deep but it's still lacking.

They are progressing though, so I can't say 100% "no" to a voice acted story because the media needs to be pushed forward, but I still miss reading text at the same time.

That doesn't make any sense, I'm sorry. You realize that you have to write something in order for there to be voice acting. They could just as easily remove the voice acting and only have text and the text would not change because they had more money to spend on it.

If FF7 had voice acting, they'd be saying the same thing as they did before, but their characters would be more fleshed out because a voice can tell a lot about a person if done well.

Writing is cheap, Voice acting is much more expensive because you have to hire much more talent.Guild Wars 2 has a very good cast of voice actors, and I personally find the writing passable to good in different places. A lot of the stilted voice acting can be pinned on the voice director as well, not just the voice actors themselves.

[Adoris]

I quite enjoyed the personal story. Played Norn, Human and Sylvari ones. The Human got me interested, because of the numerous throwbacks to the original game, which is awesome! Damn you, Mantle! The Norn one was pretty much all out fun, and i am going to enjoy it even more in release, since i'll be playing norn as a main. The sylvari one took me by surprise! It shed light on the sylvari as a people, and on Caithe as a deep and absolutel brilliantly written character. Seeing how the events of Edge of Destiny affected her and what happened to her, i just squeeled with joy. Even tho it was a bit heavy-handed.

Edit: Back to the Iconcs. I adore what they did with their story, as far as i have seen(IE a bit of Personal story and Ascalon Catacombs cinematics)! I can't wait for their story to unfold!
/fanboyism over : (

[zeelic]

I like the personal story alot if for nothing else but my choices matter. Agin this beta I made three Norn with different choice at character creation and it felt different all the way to the last mission of the lvl 20 demo. The dialog can be a bit simple and not engaging, but agin my choices in the story matter and plays out greatly different depending on them. This is what I wish swtor was...can't count how many times I killed a "Master Jedi" and nothing happen or mattered good or evil.

[rezoacken]

Its still better than D3 rofl.

Even if its not great, I think its decent considering its a mmorpg, only thing that might surpass it in this domain is SWTOR. But yeah of course we are light years from the big names of storytelling like Planescape Torment or BG. FF7 is very good but a bit overrated imo, probably because its more mainstream.

[Lucky_]

Actually I would. Can convey a deep story in both text and voice, but sadly there is a budget and most games don't have a huge budge for actual professional voice actors AND a well written story and narrative so one of the other gets skimped on. Look at FF10 compared to any other FF game, sure eventually the voices and story get more deep but it's still lacking.

They are progressing though, so I can't say 100% "no" to a voice acted story because the media needs to be pushed forward, but I still miss reading text at the same time.

I was actually surprised in BWE1 after listening to norn female for about 5 levels worth of personal story that they didn't offer a "voice mute" just for story dialogue. I suspect it would feel a whole lot less terrible if she didn't actually talk out loud about MY LEGEND all the time. Just reading it would probably make it feel a whole lot less annoying.

Might be a good suggestion to pass onto devs, though considering that they actually advertised spending on voice actors a few times, they will probably not add such an option. And it's worth noting that some voice actors did the best with the crappy lines they were given, at least the charr hero sounded quite good, making even some of the cheesiest lines sound nice in the "I'm bad, mad and if you piss me off I'll rip your head off" sort of way.

In fact, it's probably the difference between voice actors that actually did their job well and those who really failed that amplifies the effect of bad dialogue. If every time your character opens his/her mouth you're reminded just how terrible your voice actor is in comparison to the one of the hero you're talking to, you're going to get pissed.

[Siq1ne]

If you want to dive into the personal story then don't rush it and take your time.. explore, etc. etc. It's up to YOU to figure out what's going on

[Malthurius]

There is a lot of extra text if you stick around and talk to the NPCs before and after you start/complete the story quest. There is a lot of extra context there, and it's why I like Reeva so much in the Charr story

[Valeron]

A little offtopic but as far as story context goes, the scouts provide that for the region they cover. While I'm not a fan of the scout system I do like that they provide some context to the area.

[Nouk]

I'm sorry but that's your opinion and not a fact. I personally love the story and lore in GW2. Sure, it takes a little bit to kick up some dust but you can't expect the game to be perfect. If you ask me, GW has always had some of the best story telling through missions instead of quest text.

I respect your opinion, it's fair but please don't try to spout baseless facts.

That said, I didn't really like the Asura line much until I played it a bit and it really became cool story telling after a while. Plus, reading the books Edge of Destiny and Ghosts of Ascalon beforehand added a really amazing feeling.

Storytelling can be measured on it's qualities, not on it's Content. And on that front, they didn't deliver as their Art Direction put up pretty impressive Scenarios to work with. Im working in the field, as i told before, so im not spouting "baseless facts" as opinion.
My opinion is "iam disappointed". That their Plots are Standard is no secret, or any of my own made up fantasy.

I was actually surprised in BWE1 after listening to norn female for about 5 levels worth of personal story that they didn't offer a "voice mute" just for story dialogue. I suspect it would feel a whole lot less terrible if she didn't actually talk out loud about MY LEGEND all the time. Just reading it would probably make it feel a whole lot less annoying.
<snip>

I totally know what you mean But i came to hate the Centaur on that Raid-Event at the brewing Monastery....with a passion.

[Hellspawnxxx]

Yeah, after what i read here during BWE1+2, my expectations were a little bit too high, ill give you that.

Nonetheless i couldn't feel what all the buzz was about: sure, the voiceovers are nice but the Plots itself were very Basic Material.
In the Human Storyline where some Bandits abducted a Dude named "Quinn", i wasn't going "OH NOOO THEY GOT QUINN!", i was "Well, yah, that was bound to happen. What was his name again?" , and that's just an example. Played Norn, Human, Asura, and a bit of Charr Starterarea, and i just wasn't impressed. Norn's are like the biggest stereotypical viking there CAN be in a videogame, and i couldn't but wonder why.
Art Direction got some serious bigshots on the Concept Art (i know the field since im studying it) and i love the approaches, but the writer's didnt seem to experiment with the possibilites. Charr and Sylvari seemed the most exotic to me, considering their Setting and History, but even they had to deal with the usual stuff. The personal Quest reminded me of AoC, with some small Instances and Dialogues, nothing to shout "REVOLUTION!" over.

That's not as a big deal for me, as i wasn't drawn in by GW2 for its Lore or Story. But in times where i read bashing left and right on other Franchises so-called "oblivious Lore" and so on, im rather confused i didn't read a word about GW2's.


in be4:" maybe this game isnt for you", "arenanet cant please anybody", "its still better than others." - Nope. I like the Game, the same goes for every other Developer in human History, and the storytelling is NOT better than others.

Ya that last rant you went on is your Opinion not fact. and in MY Opinion your 100% wrong. Im not sure what level you reached but I have had the privledge of playing some of the higher level content and its very involved.

Bare inmind from 1-35 or so your story really only focuses on your regions issues, which by comparison of that of the troubles the elder dragons present later in the story is small, so the storyline reflects that.. Centaurs here some bad asura there a few pirates over yonder and so on. Its a story of your noob like charector growing from smaller deeds to becoming an epic warrior ready to take on some serious challenges later.

Would it have made much sense for your charector to step right off the boat with starter gear and no previous questing or battle experience, too all of a sudden being requested to fight elder dragons and have the fate of tyria placed in your hands.

No that plot doesnt make any sense. you crawl before you walk and you walk before you run. Seems to me like your looking for a game that puts you in the drivers seat right away fighting the main protagenist. and then expecting that level of heroism all the way through 80 levels of content.

Geesh ANET is trying to craft you, your own stroyline from being this unassuming person into this hero like Lord of the Rings, But yet your looking for a game that plays like a Micheal Bay movie with no substance just explosions and flashy things.

[Nouk]

Geesh ANET is trying to craft you, your own stroyline from being this unassuming person into this hero like Lord of the Rings, But yet your looking for a game that plays like a Micheal Bay movie with no substance just explosions and flashy things.

Bullshit. But i at least expected one person to not understand a word iam saying. I didn't in any way or form suggest ANY of what you're implying, so thanks, but this discussion is not for you.