Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Malthurius]

The writing is really weak and the dialogue excruciating in many cases. Much which borders on the laughable, IMO.

I understand twofold ; PS isn;'t a major focus and Anet are going for a Teen rated heroic story in most cases. But I wonder why they bothered at all. Why not just have stock quest text and save the production cost?

It's a sore spot in an overall decent game one is forced to slight GW2 for compared to recent offerings. Just a really bad decision to go this hammy, juvenile and poorly scripted route.

Hm... it's weird I find the writing and voice acting to be above average at best, and average at worst. I feel it only slightly under performs SWTOR and is much better than TSW's which I found knee jerk hilarious, for what I felt was trying to be serious. I guess it's based all around tastes, I simply don't feel the same way you and Drake do when it comes to the PS. I think it's competently done.

The stories don't seem stock to me either. Having played Charr to the cut off point, much of the human story, and a little bit of the Asura and Sylvari. I haven't touched the Norn, but I hear that's the most widely disliked.

[Fencers]

TSW had the best story scene I have yet seen in an MMO. Great attention paid to the style of pulp writing & VO was phenomenal. Like the entire dialogue with your Templar handler simply crackles. Very fast paced, great repartee a lot of literary jokes, play of words with different colloquialism. Yea, TSW was for the most part excellent.

Taste and all that.

[Meledelion]

Tss you people are silly, just make your own stories. I am a great norn warrior, defy me and I'll plant my foot up your bum!

[Exedore]

Did vistas always have music while you were watching them ? Because i didn't notice it in BW3. And also the sylvari ones remind me of the final fantasy music ( X i think ).

I believe so, but maybe not all of them. This is based on human zones, though.

[DrakeWurrum]

Hm... it's weird I find the writing and voice acting to be above average at best, and average at worst. I feel it only slightly under performs SWTOR and is much better than TSW's which I found knee jerk hilarious, for what I felt was trying to be serious. I guess it's based all around tastes, I simply don't feel the same way you and Drake do when it comes to the PS. I think it's competently done.

The stories don't seem stock to me either. Having played Charr to the cut off point, much of the human story, and a little bit of the Asura and Sylvari. I haven't touched the Norn, but I hear that's the most widely disliked.

Maybe my standards are just ridiculously high, but I feel like they could have done so much more, especially since their goal is supposed to be innovation. I'm primarily disappointed by the talking heads aspect of the story (Could it have been that hard to cut into a little cinematic in the actual game environment, with characters acting and reacting there?), but the story writing itself just feels bland, cliche, tasteless, predictable.

In comparing this story-telling with WoW, I could say it's superior, but only because of the more personal approach, and because there's (so far) no mary sue (except for the player character). At least when Thrall is reacting to an enemy approaching, you actually see the enemy approaching instead of having to wait for the cinematic to end. If I were to compare this story-telling with Diablo 3, or any other single player game, (Skyrim, Assassin's Creed, etc), I would say Diablo 3 pulls way ahead. Yeah, I know, this isn't a single-player game, but the personal story has been designed with a single-player focus.

[Malthurius]

Maybe my standards are just ridiculously high, but I feel like they could have done so much more, especially since their goal is supposed to be innovation. I'm primarily disappointed by the talking heads aspect of the story (Could it have been that hard to cut into a little cinematic in the actual game environment, with characters acting and reacting there?), but the story writing itself just feels bland, cliche, tasteless, predictable.

I will agree that the cut outs are a bit stale; but in all honesty, I think they're acceptable. It reminds me very much of games like Disgaea and Ar Tonelico by NIS; albeit, the characters in GW2 aren't as expressive as these super anime characters, but honestly, that's a hallmark of anime/manga to be overly expressive. I think it works.

As for the over cliche story, I didn't feel it. The story didn't have any extreme twists or ground breaking developments that were extremely interesting, sure, but I don't expect the beginning of a story to do that, I expect it to build a foundation for the middle, and eventually culminate in an end. We've only really seen the beginning. You're character is the main protagonist, but he's only as flawed as you make him out to be, I never felt my character was a shining example of justice, even in the human story line, I felt I was just helping my buddy out of a jam (Street Rat) and in the process helping the city.

It also pays to talk to people in the Personal Story instance before leaving, it gives a lot of extra character to the scenario in my opinion, I've become attached to my story and I can't see myself changing it in the future.

[Fencers]

It's not so much that the story lacks "twists" in the early parts on GW2's PS. More that it lacks character, humanity and warmth. All of which TSW and TOR did immediately out the gate in their stories.

I will never forget the VO and dialogue of the commanding officer as a Sith Inquisitor. That's what hooked me as a non-Star Wars fan in the beta.

The sheriff in Kingmouth speaks with such attention to detail in the script to phrasing, dialect and emotion I was googling around for a copy of the TSW teleplay. VO is no slouch either as it is delivered very well in a deliberate television writing style.

And further in the game they vary up the writing and scripting style too! As some missions are written like as a paperback Stephen King novel, others like the X-Files and others still like Locke & Key!

Superb.

It's not inappropriate when the PS in GW2 is referred to as stilted. Both dialogue and presentation fit that description almost textbook.

[Malthurius]

More that it lacks character, humanity and warmth.

I never felt this way about it; if I did, I wouldn't have spent a good 5 minutes mulling over whether to kill or spare my ex-legionnaire as a Blood Legion Charr if I did, or deciding on the spot that I wanted to save Quinn as a Street Rat. I felt sympathy for the characters, they didn't feel robotic or lacking of characterization to me. I'd bring up the TSW example again, but I'd know you'd disagree with me... taste and all that

[Deleted]

Guys honest question, just double checking if I missed anything. Did we get any confirmation on when the prepurchase offer will end? I'm assuming the 24th but I'd like to know for sure for a friend who would not be able to prepurchase until next week.

Also, I didn't get much into the TOR story, but I'll certainly agree that TSW's initial cutscene is MUCH better at establishing character than GW2 personal story.

[Fencers]

The Penny Arcade comic where the protagonist mused each new MMO had an individual piece of the triforce comes to mind here. That I could meld the writing of TSW with the presentation/choice conflict of TOR and the setting of Guild Wars 2! Arrgh!

Though I would hazard a guess in the coming years the gaming intelligentsia will regard GW2's storytelling the lesser of this generation of MMO. Its simply an altogether shoddier, dull presentation.

[Deleted]

The Penny Arcade comic where the protagonist mused each new MMO had an individual piece of the triforce comes to mind here. That I could meld the writing of TSW with the presentation/choice conflict of TOR and the setting of Guild Wars 2! Arrgh!

Though I would hazard a guess in the coming years the gaming intelligentsia will regard GW2's storytelling the lesser of this generation of MMO. Its simply an altogether shoddier, dull presentation.

GW2 might be a bit thin, but nobody will ever try the SWTOR one again, at least not fully voiced and all. It was great, but not financially viable.

[Deleted]

Okay - a thief, definitely a thief.

[Deleted]

haha have anyone noticed that when ranger swap a pet they say "I chose you!" I think it was kinda funny :3

[Eliandal]

Guys honest question, just double checking if I missed anything. Did we get any confirmation on when the prepurchase offer will end? I'm assuming the 24th but I'd like to know for sure for a friend who would not be able to prepurchase until next week.

Also, I didn't get much into the TOR story, but I'll certainly agree that TSW's initial cutscene is MUCH better at establishing character than GW2 personal story.

ArenaNet hasn't stated yet (that I've seen anyways) Might be a good question to Tweet to them?

*Rubi posted on Facebook a while ago that Pre-purchase would run "up until shortly before launch"

[Deleted]

Quick question about group play in GW2. Me and a few friends are thinking about playing together at launch but I was wondering how that would work with each of our personal storylines. Would we have to go back to our "homeland" everytime we wanted to continue our storyline?

[Gknight]

haha have anyone noticed that when ranger swap a pet they say "I chose you!" I think it was kinda funny :3

Do they have intro animations, when you summon them? Like come out of a pokeball lol?

[Deleted]

Quick question about group play in GW2. Me and a few friends are thinking about playing together at launch but I was wondering how that would work with each of our personal storylines. Would we have to go back to our "homeland" everytime we wanted to continue our storyline?

if you are different races, then yes I believe.

---------- Post added 2012-08-12 at 09:17 PM ----------

Do they have intro animations, when you summon them? Like come out of a pokeball lol?

sadly no, they just swap in ^^

[carnifex2005]

Quick question about group play in GW2. Me and a few friends are thinking about playing together at launch but I was wondering how that would work with each of our personal storylines. Would we have to go back to our "homeland" everytime we wanted to continue our storyline?

Yes you would have to.

[Fencers]

GW2 might be a bit thin, but nobody will ever try the SWTOR one again, at least not fully voiced and all. It was great, but not financially viable.

Yea. Totally agree. Was just having that conversation a few nights ago. How unsustainable SWTOR was post launch. It was like burning $ to have the "Save my pigs from Rancors!" mundane quests full voiced & acted.

Total disaster.

[BenBos]

It always surprises me that players still think you can develop a decent MMORPG with lucklaster funding and development.

Even paying a full retail price for the experiment 5 months before having operational servers is simply astonishing.

Are you guys that desperate ?