Time to retire S1 characters?

I feel like S1 NPC's have had a good run for their money and its time for some new characters to take the spotlight. Anet seemed to be heading this way with pof that focused more on rytlock and canach and I hope they continue that trend and let rox, braham, taimi, marjory and kasmeer become background characters. Without S1 living story its confusing enough having these 5 dropped randomly into the narrative and their development is getting stale.

Heres some ideas of NPC's id like to see have a bigger role in the story from now on:

-Swordmaster faren-A choya thats infatuated with canach-A skritt who follows the group around to steal their shinies-Snarl and Galina (2 charr from personal story) - IMO these 2 have a far more interesting relationship than jory and kas every did.-MOX-Gertrude and the luggage-Sayeh al’Rajihd (the largos that was trahearnes friend)-An asuras whos NOT a genius and is trying to compensate for it

IMO they made a mistake basing the second game off characters in a BOOK that came out between games. Unless they read said book, nobody gives a flying monkey's about those clowns. Why would they?

I for one, love this idea <3

I don't think it's time to retire them yet, but it is time to start moving them out and moving new characters in. It needs to be gradual, so that it's not just "Character A has left, and here's their replacement, Character B!"

Taimi's sickness needs to hit her again. A good scare from getting sick, and realizing that some of her research might lead to a cure or at least a treatment. So, she drifts out of the story as she works on keeping herself alive.

Brahm needs to be shot. In the ass, because there's nothing in his head.

Rox needs to find herself gathering a bunch of charr survivors, and making her own warband out of them, eventually moving on.

Kas and Jory need to get caught up in Krytian politics.

Canach needs to turn his attentions more towards the Nightmare Court, now that they have new leadership. There's a LOT of story potential there.

I'd love this!!!

Gertrude, Yesss!! She's awesome, I loved her in HoT events when she ditched her mistress =)

I've just been wondering why my character never talks to or hangs out with their Warband/Krewe/childhood friends anymore?

@Karmapolice.4193 said:I've just been wondering why my character never talks to or hangs out with their Warband/Krewe/childhood friends anymore?

I have often wondered this as well. I know all our lives take turns and go in different directions, but it doesn't mean that we just abandon our friends, family, and others important in our lives. It would be amazing to see these people pop back into the narrative.

As far as the S1 characters being phased out, I'm more for weeding out the boring ones.

Rox is boring and doesn't bring much to the table. I love that Rytlock has stepped into the char role.They have turned Braham into a petulant child. He can go too.Marjorie used to be a ad bass character and has been reduced to being a snarky Kasmeer with a cooler voice.Kasmeer is starting to grow on me.You either love or hate Taimi. I'm in the love camp.Canach needs to stay forever. He is the most interesting of our group.

But I like that crew... I kinda get the point that connecting with them might be a bit more difficult for anyone that was not around for S1.A gradual change of npc's that follow us in story, would be ok...... just keep Canach, I love Canach, he has to stay. Also I think I'd rather keep Braham than get Faren. The non genious asura idea is cool though, could be much fun :)

It would be a waste to get rid of some of these S1 characters. Especially Kasmeer and Marjory. They sort of took Rox out of the picture though for whatever reason. It would just be odd to push them aside when we did an entire expansion with 2 of them in tow.

Can't say I'd be up for any of the original suggestions. Many are too goofy or flat-out insincere to be persistent characters. And :-1: for Largos. I'm kind of hoping the boiled body we saw in Draconis Mons is her.

Granted, our current group has very little actual personality. It's mostly sass, and it's coming from all directions. Taimi has the over-bouncy nerd cred, but she's also burdened with being the deus-ex mouthpiece for the plot. But without her, there isn't a single character with any, how you say, Joie de vivre. Rytlock has gone from low, gruff, and surly to constantly complaining as if it were sass, Canach is so embittered by life that all he has is sass, Kasmeer has a respectable conflict in her faith but never showed a zest for life, and Marjory is too mellow. Braham could have been a Norn that dives in to celebrate life, but instead, he's out on an angst-quest to be mad at the world. I don't need this "Riverdale" quality storyline, but what's any (MMO)RPG without that story to help us care?

I almost miss Forgal because of it. He knew how to laugh at danger and revel in a good fight, and he would have set Destiny's Edge and Dragon Watch straight.

Faren should be the center of everything, his shenanigans in Verdant Brink are downright priceless.

Honestly I don't care. I wish the NPc gave us a better roll instead of relying on them. The only NPC worth keeping is taimi. Mr rytlock who decided to release Balthazar can go retire. And chanach who didn't have the balls to finish off his fear in hot can leave. Braham whiny cry baby can leave too lol. Kasmeer? What we need her for? I guess cause she's Mesmer..... Rox? She doesn't help with anything.

I guess I would care for npcs if they actually helped but they are garbage in gameplay. Don't help. Don't res. They just don't. It would be better to just tell their story. Then when fighting they disappear. Or give them a better nerf up in abilities.

Right now i don't care to replace I wish they just quit or whatever cause for an army crew they suck.

@Svarty.8019 said:IMO they made a mistake basing the second game off characters in a BOOK that came out between games. Unless they read said book, nobody gives a flying monkey's about those clowns. Why would they?You do realise that the "BOOK" was there to introduce you to the characters of Destiny's Edge and so give the story a bit more lore.

You didn't think that they picked up a copy of Destiny's Edge and decide to make a game around it....did you???

@zombyturtle.5980 said:I feel like S1 NPC's have had a good run for their money and its time for some new characters to take the spotlight. Anet seemed to be heading this way with pof that focused more on rytlock and canach and I hope they continue that trend and let rox, braham, taimi, marjory and kasmeer become background characters. Without S1 living story its confusing enough having these 5 dropped randomly into the narrative and their development is getting stale.

Heres some ideas of NPC's id like to see have a bigger role in the story from now on:

-Swordmaster faren-A choya thats infatuated with canach-A skritt who follows the group around to steal their shinies-Snarl and Galina (2 charr from personal story) - IMO these 2 have a far more interesting relationship than jory and kas every did.-MOX-Gertrude and the luggage-Sayeh al’Rajihd (the largos that was trahearnes friend)-An asuras whos NOT a genius and is trying to compensate for it

While some of Drama Watch do need to go, your list is more situation comedy entourage than companions. No thanks. This would be just another diminishing."What will this lovable, laughable band of madcaps do next?? Tune in next week!!" Also noted is your removal of Norn entirely.

@zombyturtle.5980 said:

-Swordmaster farenUnfortunately, Faren was also an LS1 character.

-A choya thats infatuated with canachLikewise, Canach is from LS1

-A skritt who follows the group around to steal their shiniesThat hardly seems like something that would do more than add arbitrary plot complications. Skritt are hive-mind creatures, more interesting in a mob than individually. How about a Skritt who is a genius and trying to compensate for not being part of the hive mind?

-Snarl and Galina (2 charr from personal story) - IMO these 2 have a far more interesting relationship than jory and kas every did.Eh, they have a relationship. Is it more interesting?

-MOXMOX does seem under-utilized in the home instance. Love to see him (it?) join us because the cats chased him out.

-Sayeh al’Rajihd (the largos that was trahearnes friend)Or any of the largos. Seems as if it would be handy for the team to have their own personal assassin.

-An asuras whos NOT a genius and is trying to compensate for itEh, most of the asura are interesting because they are geniuses about a lot of things, but fail spectacularly by not realizing they are not clever about everything. Taimi fails because she forgets she's still a kid, and lacks experience (and sometimes, there's no substitute for being self-mobile). Phlunt fails because he is so smart (and so thinks he's thought of everything). I'm not against adding an asura who's an idiot; I just don't think that's as interesting.

I think it would be much more interesting if these characters had any background or their own activities in between our adventures. Currently all of them have the same quest - follow the commander.

@Teofa Tsavo.9863 said:

@zombyturtle.5980 said:I feel like S1 NPC's have had a good run for their money and its time for some new characters to take the spotlight. Anet seemed to be heading this way with pof that focused more on rytlock and canach and I hope they continue that trend and let rox, braham, taimi, marjory and kasmeer become background characters. Without S1 living story its confusing enough having these 5 dropped randomly into the narrative and their development is getting stale.

Heres some ideas of NPC's id like to see have a bigger role in the story from now on:

-Swordmaster faren-A choya thats infatuated with canach-A skritt who follows the group around to steal their shinies-Snarl and Galina (2 charr from personal story) - IMO these 2 have a far more interesting relationship than jory and kas every did.-MOX-Gertrude and the luggage-Sayeh al’Rajihd (the largos that was trahearnes friend)-An asuras whos NOT a genius and is trying to compensate for it

PoF story as a whole felt like one big comedy. I didn't see anything serious in that story.

SPOILERS1st thing I hear is jokes about Taimi and how my character has bad luck with airships.Next is the whole talk about how people dying in the pyramid and my character say, "Can we leave the introduction for later?"Next is the Herald smashing her hammer into NPCs while they just sit there in cower and just vanish when I get close.Next I a slapstick situation with Zalambur in his casino.Balthazar as a whole was laughable.Everything coming out of Rytlock/Canach was pure jokes too. Whether it's infiltrating, or the disguise situation or even your death.Taimi with all the poking and whatever else she has to say which makes any scene with her a comedy. "Oh look there's some cool red Exhalted... Uh oh.. looks like a good thing you did not poke them!" cues laugh trackWhile dead the judge of Grenth didn't sound like someone to take serious and a random spirit you don't know seems more like the voice of reason. The Ghosteater was a joke too... both the fight and the whole design of it (before and after nerf.... after the nerf I laughed so hard as while I didn't do it, I was in the instance with my friend and dropped the thing in like 10 seconds...)The whole situation with taking Jokos army. There was not one serious moment there either.Then the final fight with my character, and even Balthazar making jokes the whole battle. Kralk just made it more laughable as the situation of "Who's side are you on anyway?!" cues laugh trackThen you end with "We did it buuuuuuut we got a bigger problem now" and everyone trying to go "Shh shh let's just skip it for now." buuuut after it's time rest. Uh oh, storm coming.END OF SPOILERS

I don't know, maybe it's just me... but while I did enjoy the PoF story, it felt like one big comedy from start to finish.Oh and one of the reasons I did like Vabbi WAS because it made me laugh from beginning to end of map completing it for the 1st time. Everything in Vabbi was made for you to laugh.The game seems to have already went the "comedy entourage" route long long ago.

Oh... and don't get me started on like more than half of the personal story either (at least for Human/Sylvari/Asura... I don't know much on Norn and outside of the intro at level 1, I know nothing on Charr's story)

@Kheldorn.5123 said:I think it would be much more interesting if these characters had any background or their own activities in between our adventures. Currently all of them have the same quest - follow the commander.

Eh, it wasn't that much more interesting when they did do their own thing: Marjory went off with fake Lazarus (and all we got is a brief, "oh, he's bad; run for your lives!" statement afterward. Rytlock went into the mists! And all he brought back was a lousy t-shirt blindfold. (To be fair, the backstory on that was a little more interesting.) And of course, Taimi's researching all sorts of stuff (which has resulted in mixed feelings from the community). And Braham... he's generated all sorts of hate by going off on his own, with his own story (whether or not one agrees that has made much sense).

Still, that raises an interesting question: what is the purpose of including these characters in the story? Is it to provide comic relief? Including voices to ask questions to progress the plot? To provide modest help during some battles? Or are they meant to be multi-dimensional characters, with their own narrative, their own motivations?

I suggested this as a negative point in my ubiased review for HoT back in the old forums. Honestly, I think they should retire their band of characters per expansion. Give us an epic living story with them, then move on. They did this with GW1. Bring in cameos to remind us why we enjoyed the characters or disliked them. I think keeping this band of adventurers around is just a bad move overall. It stinks for people who really don't like them to have them seemingly shoved down our throats. It also stinks for people who do like them b/c their stories end up being dragged on so long that you either wonder why they're around (shoved in without reason) or their stories spiral so far from who the characters were that you enjoyed they end up becoming totally new characters you can't stand (Braham, Trehearne(sp), etc).

Suggestion: Bring in a new cast every season. End the stories of the characters currently, and bring them in as fun cameos in the future!

[EDIT] Except for Canach... I don't care how shoe-horned in he is... he always fits ;)

With the exception of braham, I quite like the current group, so I'm happy with no changes. To me the choya and skritt ideas sound a bit like characters that would serve no purpose other than to make me want to instantly murder them.

What would be quite good I think is if we got to a point where we could choose which couple of characters accompanied us on story missions, so we could always have our favourites with us. But I doubt we'll get that option as it would mean designing the story in a certain way to allow for it, and require different dialogues for every combination, lots of work/costs etc.

Noooo! I love Taimi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only essential member is Canach! I am invested in Braham as well. I like the conflict introduced by his choices. Lastly... I'd like to see Taimi pop up here and there...but too much Taimi is too much. The rest...meh.....

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Kheldorn.5123 said:I think it would be much more interesting if these characters had any background or their own activities in between our adventures. Currently all of them have the same quest - follow the commander.

I think of like they had anything to do besides being lore slaves. Marjory started as a noir detective trope, could have been just like, a side character that pops into the story from time to time. Meanwhile she became one of main characters and actually her only story feat is that she's a member of dragon's watch. Braham, on the contrary, has the only character feature as not being a member of dragon's watch.

These character are so lame I actually lost most of my interest in the story of the game.

@Alga.6498 said:I'd love this!!!

Gertrude, Yesss!! She's awesome, I loved her in HoT events when she ditched her mistress =)

same, also vote for Gertrude.

@Kheldorn.5123 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Kheldorn.5123 said:I think it would be much more interesting if these characters had any background or their own activities in between our adventures. Currently all of them have the same quest - follow the commander.

Their "lore" contributions are as lame as their characters. I wrote Braham off at first contact, as he was off whining and groveling at Charr, of all things, for "help" as his steading was fighting for survival. Ask a kid in Snowden to carry a message, and go fight, coward.