My Thoughts on Gw2's Personal Story 

I was and am pretty pleased with the story actually. I like pretty much every decision that was made in creating this game. they did new things, things that not everyone likes, but I sure as hell do

Love these old GW2 videos, they're nostalgia bombs and bring back fond memories

For some one who is so keyed in to GW2 as you are mr spud, its very interesting to go back and listen to your early thoughts and how they have evolved over time.

I agree on most points about personal story beside : Voice acting - I love that there are so many voices there, that "every" npc talk somethin, to player/between themselves even when I just ignore it like in real life, I know its there, i can stop and listen if i want, I feel the world is more alive, its great thing in immersing myself. b)cutscenes - some times i get to distracted by world itself, they help me focus more on whats going on dont miss anythin beside i like my Sylvari voice actress

About the Home Instance. Yeah, it was disapointing. I was hoping to get a lot more control over it. That you could buy buildings and shops or help upgrade them so they'd sell more stuff. I wanted to find a merchant in the world who lost his shop but after you help him out he sets up a new shop in your district. Not only that, but I would've loved to see a player house. One where you can light the fire, have a sit down and go through the mails your recieved from people you helped.

I was never invested in the Story of GW1 (and I played it for 5 and a half years) until I started watching your videos a couple months back. Thank you for that :) Now every time I hear some interesting dialogue that might even hint at some lore, I'm there XD I also do agree with your points about the personal story, and if Anet ever watches this and takes some of your points into consideration, then I believe personally the story will be much more fluid and enjoyable. (It still is, but more :P)

i had the same feeling with the dying characters from the orders, it felt like they rushed the missions you had to do for the orders, but in my opinion it had been better to give less xp for each story mission for the orders, but make more of them. Your ranking in the order went also crazy fast, after a few missions you are highest rank possible, it felt like i didn't deserve it.

That quest gave me goosbumps and made me tear up, at the end where the sound fades and the music starts, and the NPCs come in for the end fight of the quest, that was amazing, i really wish that would've been the end of the personal story, because for me, it was the emotional climax of it, and the best ending available.

Yay video! You basically just described my feelings for the game and story in this video. I had exactly the same experience with making choices and then realising it was all going to end up the same anyway. It is an interesting point people are making about the cutscenes and character identity though.. have to think about that

While I do agree with you on many points, especially the fact that they really did put too many choices in the game, I actually did get goosebumps when Forgal sacrificed himself at Claw Island. Granted it was only because I talked with Almorra about his past and about how he lost his family and because my own char was a Norn, so I knew from the first steps of my personal story (the heirloom storyline) how important a Norns legacy is. But still I loved the character and only chose steps with norn

Thanks for the warning in the beginning ;) im only halfway on my main story, so dont want no spoilers xD will watch later though :)

On the home instance. I am struggling to see any of the choices I made in my personal story reflected in my home instance, mind you it's so huge and sprawling (Black Citadel) I'd be hard-pushed to spot any differences. You are quite right that we are never encouraged to return to it, I guess one way of addressing this would be to offer a free waypoint there, so people could choose to travel either to their home or to Lion's Arch (already freely available via the Heart of the Mists).

I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments. GW 2 needs more moments like the battle with the Sovereign Eye of Zhaitan. Once you defeat it, you aren't interrupted by a cutscene. Trahearne just begins his ritual, and the others start falling back after their position gets overwhelmed by risen. And then the cherry on top was the orchestral version of Fear not this Night playing, while everything else besides dialogue becomes completely muted.

Everything u said was spot on. One more thing: I want to see more of those awesome animated artwork cinematics. The dialogue cutscenes made me feel like I was the camera man. They had great ideas but they were poorly executed

Sylvari have it best since they have the option of being introduced to Trahearne prior to his importance in the story. I played an Asura and he literally came out of the blue.

Strongly agreed with the feedback about the dialog cutscenes. Would be soooo much better if they were just text boxes in the normal world.

I agree, and he even tied his Norn heritage in there by asking for you to be the one to share his legend. And there is a clear development between how you and Forgal talk to one another through the personal story quest from your meeting and up to his death. Now if only Trahearne would die.....

I was having a really great time with the story right up to the moment where I joined the order. I thought the parts that dealt with Destiny's Edge were particularly interesting for me because they explored the race and personality conflicts surrounding the fight against the dragons. That part of the game is just abandoned when you join an order and all of a sudden everyone unites and works together like old friends. That feels abrupt and really takes your character out of the story.

Zhaitan mission LOOKED amazing.......but then it was over. "That was it?!" type of deal.

Really I liked the very first part of the personal story the best. I played as a human noble with the missing parents, and I really enjoyed learning about my parents past, meeting logan, learning about the court and queen jennah. Once we start getting into the order stuff is when the characters start becoming card board cut outs and the story loses all meaning to me.

no you're not being harsh, I personally agree with the most of things you said. having played 2 characters with vigil and order of whispers as my orders. they feel almost exactly the same. and there's no closure in each of your instances, it feels like jumping from one story to another.

I have to agree with WP view as well. I love the GW2 world they have created and enjoying PvE/PvP/WvW. My favourite part of the Personal Story was when Zojia took me to meet the rest of her guild buddies, but before I see them there are 3 kids about to start a game and as they acted it out I realised that the kids were giving me the background I needed to understand what I was about to see, with that background it made the next scene so much stronger.

I think it's very nice of you to not fanboy over the game, considering how big of a fan of the franchise you seem to be. Respect++.

I loved Assassin's Creed "building up". In II, you build the villa, in Brotherhood, you build up loyalty, repair shops, and the like. I'd love to see that for my poersonal instance. Getting merchants from all over the world, getting artisan stations, a banker, etc.

Love watching these old videos lol

I hope in the future the choices we make, actual make an impact, and as you said, they move along in the story way way to fast, there is no debt in the story most of the time.

I have been dragging my feet, but I finally finished the personal story a couple of weeks ago. To start on a high note, if I were to name one good thing about the story it would have to be Sieran, if you joined the Priory that is. She was oddly enough the perfect counterpoint to my character, but that aside she was funny, clever and very like-able. Was it a bad thing that she died then? Obviously because you got invested in her it was a bad thing, but from a story-perspective it was worse because they did nothing with it. I expected that she would eventually return in some shape and form and play a pivotal role to the plot as an undead minion of Zhaitan, but alas that did not happen. Instead we got to know Traeharne, who I also liked as a character, but odd as it may sound, if he had died during the personal story missions it would have made sense in my book.

There is a Sylvari character at the end of Orr that does a suicide mission and dies blowing up a temple summoning giants. If you choose Sylvari to play as you can go to Orr during the lvl 20 mission and save her because she was sucked in by a cursed orian mirror. After that when you are level 80 in Orr and you see her again...neither you or her remember each other. So I was hurt that she didn't know me and then that she died after I did about 10 levels of work to save her way back when.

I agree with everything you said. I have been going through the starter zones and the only zone i found the story being compelling and good was the nord area but most of that came from taking to every npc I could find. I do wish there was more to suck you into the stories and keep you interested in the stories over time. I missed gw1 so getting the back story is a serious chore and hard to do in this game but it is there, at least some of it it would seem. Thanks for your vids your knowledge

I spoke to someone from Arenanet at a convention in San Antonio and the guy said that we shouldn't be looking for an expansion any time soon because the current game is needs alot of work before they move on. So they are trying to clear some of this stuff up and make improvements.

I really agree with what you have said here. I think they should definitely change the personal story as you have said, to add some variety to the choices we make. To differentiate between the orders more. What I really want, is the option to say no. My character is a human noble, and I don't want her to be some suck-up to Trahearne. I feel that giving the choice to break from the good guys, and be a "bad" character would be interesting.

Good video and summed up my feelings as well. I think a lot of these problems have to do with Anet running out of time, maybe they were a bit too ambitious. Let's hope Anet learns from their mistakes and brings out something compact and worthwhile in the next expansion.

I was sold by Tybalt Leftpaw. Maybe he is a special case, but the person who developed this character poured their heart and soul into him, and he is a character who really impacted me. Anet should be complimented on this character, IMHO.

i agree with the pacing (especially the orders stuff), though once trahearne is introduced, it seems to be fixed for me. i do agree that many choices just get abandoned for the sake of moving with the story (as a human commoner, there's this girl that's almost a sister to my character, but she never shows up after level 10 or so), and i would like to see a more focused story, rather than a spread out one. i don't mind the cutscenes, but i agree that in-game would be better.

I totally agree :/ . Hopefully (well, most likely), we'll see some updates and improvements. They might even fill some gaps between story quests - i wasn't even introduced to some of the people my character apparently knew. I definitely can't wait, though, to see what Guild Halls are going to look like. And I heard something about personal housing separate from the "Home Instance", but I have no idea. That'd be cool too, to have an apartment in Divinity's Reach or Lion's Arch :p

i think i understand you point about the personal story. what your saying is instead of the steady progress through the story where each new part to the story is 1 or 2 levels between them thus allowing player level progression, your saying that it would have been more beneficial to have had each story event (such as the tome you talk about) expanded on, in a same level mission/instance.and extends the story in a more in depth detail allowing for a more expansive gameplay.

I pretty much agree with everything he is saying. My main complaint was that the lore was never in depth. I always wanted to find out more about what was going on, or the history of a place/artifact. Instead, i was constantly wondering if there was a reference i was missing or if something was supposed to have additional importance or ties to other characters/events.

Yeah completely agree with you there, to me that was the end. Zhaitan, being in a dungeon and all and with 4 other friends it just didn't feel like part of the story anymore.

I'm very happy that I am a writer, because I write fan fiction and I can expand the story for myself. I can take information the game has given, and I can expand on it to make it personal. My human warrior Kyria for example. She was with Whispers. I loved Tybalt, just because he wasn't what one expects from a charr. I was devastated when he died, and I still am not okay with why he had to die. I recently wrote a fic and posted it on deviantART about what I thought her reaction was in my mind.

The last story boss, the Sovereign Eye of Zhaitan was just awesome and a show of "how to" make an awesome story mission. Plus the music. Better then Zhaitan "fight".

I think that those dialogs around in the world really add a lot to the atmosphere. It makes things like checking the bank less mechanical and puts Life in the citys. It's the details that make the atmosphere. And that's why they were doing it. It really isn't about paying attention to it.

Although I DO agree on the cutscenes of you on the left and the NPC on the right, I like the times when the NPC talks but you are in full control of your character.

9 years later... FUBAR

If Arenanet haven't already watched this video, they really should! Because all of the complaints that WP had are basically everything that needs to be fixed, and all the solutions that he suggested really sounds like the optimal ones. Nice video btw :)

This would've resulted in lower amount of plot holes. And Zhaitan fight was a joke. Not the fireworks, but the fact that there were no close and personal encounter. The finishing blow after the fireworks, or kill confirm. Not delivering yourself, but being there... close. The satisfying "FUCK YEAH!" moment.

I'm pretty sure the missing or mismatched dialogue are bugs or stuff they meant to fix before release and did not for whatever reason. I had a few story steps near the end that were bugged and so I had to repeat them, and on repeat discovered that the missing lines were actually there, or new ones were missing.

I think they did those cutscenes to save money. It takes time (and thus money) to make sure all the characters are in the right place and to set the scene.

I agree with you on most points, especially the one character who dies at claw island could have had a little more time. Overall still enjoying it wont go to orr just yet till i hear about those issues you mentioned being fixed. Definitely excited of other future possibilities!

I was waiting until I finished the campaign before I watched this to minimize spoilers, and having listened... there's actually something else I felt about the storyline. Specifically, they held up all the choices you made in the character creation. You had all these options, all these possible threads... then the choice of Order came, and everything was brought down to three similar paths. Three which narrowed down to one by the time the Pact is formed. The amount is lessened by then.

I skipped a few bits since I've only gotten to the abaddon temple mission in orr, but I agree with many of your points. I especially felt that Apatia's deaths was pretty insignificant and perhaps the dramatic speech in Hoelbrak afterwards was somewhat unwarranted.

On Choices. Some of the early Charr choices _felt_ like they mattered (far more so than other personal stories I've dipped my toe into) even if, in the long term, they really didn't ... Gladium Father is a perfect example of this with a choice that affects your character if not the world. As the game progresses though, it becomes obvious that choices matter less and less and really they stop being such tough decisions.

For characters dying, I think they did a pretty good job. For Tybalt, I was crushed. Tonn I could see dying a mile away. And for Zott, I was SOOO mad that he died.

great rundown of the story and player interaction

Lol, even the way you responded with such effort and angst only proves my point.

I really hope some people from arena net notice these problems. Maybe not problems but just things we as players would like to see fixed. I know me personally would love a more in depth story that doesn't rush or have pointless choices. something to get me hooked that i might want to play over and over to see what else could happen

I just thought of a perfect solution to the cutscene problem! The "cutscene" starts with standard in-game dialogue but the game takes control of your character... Walking/mounting and riding alongside the npcs... As long as you don't press movement keys, the game can control you and make sure you are in the correct spots to hear/see everying okay. But you can run off if you want to. How many cutscenes have been spoiled lately because you just happened to be looking the wrong way?

I really enjoyed the personal story as a sylvari. I gained major respect for traehearne and the cutscenes I never minded. Claw Island just kept ramping to me... then I let the tears flow

Also as Asura player i picked Transatmospheric Converter story, kudu stole my invention. He ran away, but next time i met him in sorrow's embrace. Other asura was Gorr, i've met him many times, about that arcane council want to hide him cause he was researching about dragon consume magic, later on he invents the gun, and finally he was beside investigating about eye of zaithans corpse on flying ship. There are many hidden story in the world, 2bad they are not smashing to your face XD

One of the moments I really hated was when you are speaking to trahearne about the pact just being formed, you ask him whether you should still serve your faction or him. He replies with something allows the lines of "there are elder dragons to fight blah blah your under my command" which really meant that all your wok with your order/faction was useless. Anyway, really great video! I really agree having player GW1 and GW2.

I pretty much agree with you on all of these points. The story was so roughly presented, all these completely inconsequential choices for the sake of making a choice; the deaths of npcs you're supposed to care about shown in a buggy cutscene where another npc says "oh god, eh ..."that guy" is dead, but don't worry we handle this, now move along"; all of this left a really sour taste in my mouth. And the "Risen mobs in the storymission, skales in the overworld in the same place" was really bad.

characters keeling over in the same way in the final mission before you go to the next 10 levels batch of personal story but I would wager that was more of a resources limitation than something that they actually wanted to do. As for the grander world with all the machinations in effect running in the background only to be interrupted once you actually choose to do something about them- well it's easy to see the problem for writers setting out to present that: they drive themselves nuts.

It didn't tank. And the world builders didn't necessarily do the personal story. Jeff worked on dungeons.

This is exactly how I felt for the most part....also that a lot of characters themselves felt flat and underdeveloped as well.

Looking at this, I was so happy when you mentioned the cut scenes, because in the new living world with the Zephyrites, they obviously got rid of the shitty cut scenes and are going back to good 'proper' cut scene style. :D

I agree that it's a shame that your choices don't seem to have consequences. I also would like to point out though, that at least they tried - and who knows? perhaps in an expansion they will take note of this mistake and make your choices mean a bit more. I will say I never went to the home instance until I was level 80... and only when I remembered that there was a place that exists like that. What they need to do, is give you a need to go inside your personal instance, like buying good armors

I completely agree with you, I expected more from GW2's personal story. I even liked EotN more because it had more interesting characters, engaging story, great cutscenes... I think they should have stuck to that model tbh. And yes, I actually returned once to my home instance. Accidentally, while looking for a POI in DE :)

i did the dynamic events in the area untill i was high enough for the next area, this combined with completing all the renown hearts, vistas, skillpoints, points of interest and personal story i had more than enough, the events are suppose to be your primary source of XP renown hearts were added in later to give abit of direction

Surviving 10-15 seconds as a glass cannon warrior is quite the deed. Well it's possible to stunlock an enemy but they can also use stability. Usally most stunbreakers give 5-10 seconds of stability with them. It's really dependent on the setup of the enemy player. It's all very dependent and that's why I find the sPvP refreshing in the first place.

... Has been a great resource for learning what I missed out on.

It wasn't what I expected. To answer the question posed in the video of how I would do it differently: I would focus more on the characters and less on the plot. A truly good story only shines if we have characters we care about. I think to do that they do probably have to make the main character more of a 'sidekick' or observer in the whole thing and I'm fine with that. As long as they create truly memorable characters and show their struggle and progression as a character.

Watching this is in 2020, still holds true IMO. Adding more shorter story chapters instead of every 10 levels could have made the death of your companion and getting into the order better. I like the idea of the story being integrated in the open world, it always has been so weird and disconnected. When you finish the first story introduction with a new character you are not provided with any reason to actually explore the world, which I've always felt was weird. If there were additional story segments in the open world or at least some dialog in the story that told you to level up and help people or smth it'd give a bit of incentive to actually play the open world.

My main criticism is the writing and the cohesiveness in the different "chapters" of the story. The writing is pretty much on par with the the books. They have some great ideas, but they generally talk to us like we are all twelve years old. Which makes it really hard to take anything seriously, even though the whole world/Tyria is in danger. The cohesiveness in the story was really lost as soon as you joined a faction. The story of Destinies Edge is much more interesting and personal.

I think they should do off with this idea of a personal stories and add old fashioned quest givers. Hearts are great for a levelling and a gameplay point of view, but are almost useless when it comes to get a deep story across. I'm not talking quest givers everywhere. But I could see a future expansion have hearts for gaining levels, an overall storyline for the expansion and each zone have a quest-chain which put some more depths to the unique zones.

poor Tybalt kicked out of the iron legion because he lost his right paw in their service then you don't even recognize that he likes you because you don't look down on him because of his missing paw, i wish we had more time with him but if you pay attention you do get a lot about the character.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. These 'harsh' criticisms are necessary. It doesn't mean it's a bad game, but there definitely are things that are a shame. I hope the next expansion does take us back to take on Faolain, Caudecus, the order we join, and dig more into some of the 'cameo' appearances. Tome of Rubicon! Abaddon! Come on! That orb that protects Fort Trinity was a great part of the story. Your eloquence needs to be heard by ArenaNet. I hope they watch this video.

So, tried making a reply video but it didn't turn out the way I liked it. So here it goes: -Singleplayer / MMO. I hope to see more community driven content. Imagine a server wide event that requires players to bring supplies and help fight off enemies while laying siege to a gate. Behind this gate is a whole new area to explore. Players will have to work together to get to a certain point where they can acually break through and start exploring that zone.

I absolutely agree with you. Just, I'd love lots of choices if there werent those side effects you describe.

absolutely! people complain about the cutscenes, but i enjoy them alot

Making you laugh - Tybalt! TYBALT YOU LOVELY PERSON. On lore, I'm personally hoping dwarves show up at some point. For when Primordius moves onto the stage, dwarves should come with him. Playable or not? Maybe. I personally think the GW Dwarves -can- be made different from other dwarves in other settings (They're made of stone, for one, similar to sylvari). Tome of Rubicon could act as a Pale Tree? Who knows! It's possible!

Innovation is defined as the introduction of something new, whether idea, method, or device. GW2 has "innovated" in all 3 in accordance to the MMO method. The MMO holy trinity has been disbanded, stories are told in somewhat different ways-not totally new, but the mode of delivery has been altered. The mechanics of player interaction has totally been revamped. Everyone benefits from cooperating. Never seen that in an MMO before. Hell, now any character can come play in any place. Innovation

The point of the choices is replayability. When you run an alt through it, you can make different choices and thus do different missions. As for the example with the three missions in Orr, the Pact is not incompetent. I chose to go with the tanks, and thus presumably some other team dealt with the Cauldron. Just like some other team got the tanks through in your story.

I feel like they could have put a lot more into the story arcs. There were time in the personal story quest line where you had to go and level four or six times in order to continue to the next phase. I felt like they could have put in two or three more phases during those times that could have helped the player feel connected to the story/characters. Over all I felt that some arcs needed to be expanded on, particularly the race specific ones. I would love to go back into that part of my story.

I am easely pulled into a story and I only played 1 character, so maybe that is why I am enjoying the personal story more than others do. But I agree that some things just pull you out of the story, whenever a cutscene appears I just close my eyes, listen to the voice acting and that works for me.. Maybe for the next major update/expansion Anet can make the cutscenes an option or you can have the diologue in real time. GW2 IS the best MMO out there atm and I think they can only improve! =)

I know exactly what you mean about judging the story alongside a game besides an MMO. Now that I think about it, if I look at all the MMO's I've played, GW2 has the most compelling story, but too often I find myself thinking that I should have gotten a Mass Effect or Dragon Age experience (talking about the first Dragon Age, of course :P).

As a mesmer there is one skill that needs a 5 second charge to gain stability.

Well im a new player to the gw universe and i have yo say that the story was intresting enough for me to see every cutscene and i read every dialogue a npc had because i wana get imersed in the game and i think they did a verry good job :)

For an MMORPG with a great story, I'd say Runescape fits the bill, especially with some of the more recent quests. That's what makes it unique - quests in Runescape are actual "quests", if you like.

For all the people saying that Zhaitan was too easy, I think we have to keep in mind that maybe they wanted everyone to be able to finish it regardless of their skill level, HOWEVER I still think that it needs a lot of polish, but I was deeply moved by the fight even though it was VERY easy mechanics wise.

I noticed a lot of people today seem to want choices in their games and I'm sure this is why ArenaNet went this direction. Personally, I'm perfectly fine with a linear story. I think if a choice needed to be in the game, it should just be which order you join. If done like this, much more focus could be put on the story of your order. I'm sure ArenaNet will refine their story approach in the coming expansions. I noticed a huge improvement in storytelling with the GW1 expansions.

Even though the time with Tybalt was very short, it still made me very sad. It was the most touching moment in the game for me.

Tybalt Leftpaw, may your afterlife be fill apples that you love so much, Amen.

there are still some unnamed dragons left. For example the Deep Sea Dragon who blocks the path to Cantha (Gw1 Continent) who knows, maybe in the next addon or somethin this path will be free to pass and there are other enemies,than the drgons

Gara, a grawl from a sotry mission can be found in divinity reach in an ally way

I love how i get a wow ad right before this video

The thing that bugs me most about the personal story is that all of a sudden there's a lot of characters I have Never met acting like I'm their best friends. It causes a sort of emotional disconnect when they kill the next character whereas if you had actually known this character you might have been sad. As for the lip sync, I thought it was pretty good save for when the sound that's supposed to play doesn't trigger.

28:53 Am I the only one imagining a small grafiti in a secret chamber of the temple: "Abbadon was here" ? :D

I feel like they should have had one long story, with the only deviation being your choice of what order you want to be a part of. I can't stand that the level requirement for personal stories is ever 2-3 levels until you get to 70.

My Norn Warrior: "I don't take insults from no tree. Have at you leafy!" Charr drinking buddy: "I remember that... Stupid tree." Me and my charr drinking buddy are awesome when drunk.

I don't like that I can't play the personal story quests one after another because my level will be too low really fast. This really keeps me from getting in touch with the story and also makes no sense. NPC:"We have to defend [location] from the army of undead ASAP!" Me:"Yeah, I'm going to level a bit, the undead will definitely wait for me."

Also I agree with many others Tybalt Leftpaw was one of my favorite characters of all the story things and now i can't even look forward to more with him. Which is a real shame. The priory girl annoyed me, but i did like the leader of the order. His insults were so creative. Didn't see him any more after the pact was formed though.