Player Character Tone (Mild Spoilers)

It may just be me, or it may be how I've recently experienced things (replaying the HoT story, then LS3, then into PoF all in one big push, mainly because my wife got back into the game with me and we wanted to be on the same page,) but it seems like the player character's tone in dialog has changed a lot. Going from a sort of goody-two-shoes optimist to a much more hard edged, less patient persona. I happen to like it, and it makes sense to me, but I'm curious about whether others have noticed it and what everyone's take on it is?

I noticed a bit of a change as well, and I liked it. It's not what my character would say, but it fits "The Commander" just fine.

Noted the same in an another thread. The asura male, at least, has turned into a jaded nihilist.

'course, all the ability and combat dialogue remains the same as ever, so there's a weird disconnect between how he acts in combat versus cutscenes.

Same goes for the Sylvari male. He sounds like he is disillusioned about the life and slowly becoming jaded towards it (which fits given that we/he just killed his god/father figure not so long ago.) The only thing that bothered me is the implied care he puts about certain dragon's death, even though there is zero reason for him to be actually emotionally involved with that character. The redeeming factor of that was that because of his unchanging tone throughout most of the game, he sounded more fake about it, than anything.

Only done it with sylvari females and it's very noticeable. My friend, who only recently finished their personal story on a sylvari female, said as much as they were going through it. The carefree attitude, the jokes, kind of stopped as the heavy weight of the duty got heavier. That's what it feels like for me, having done it all up to I think Act 3 of PoF. HoT, the sylvari female sounds tired. She just wants to get this done and over with, the weight of all that responsibility is too much. Friends died, friends are lost. Season 3, she went back to a lighter tone, there was some humor, like she'd gotten used to all that weight and guilt she's been carrying around. Now, PoF, as things start to build once more, the tone is back, but not as strongly. Because she's more used to this life. She's not snapping orders or sounding like she's talking down to everyone, although she did snap at Rytlock a few times. I really like it. She never lets others in on her problems, those thoughts swirling around her head. You can hear how all this battle has an affect on her, regardless, just in the tone of her voice.

My experience so far has been on a Sylvari female as well, so I was curious how other races sounded. It seems the weight of battling gods and monsters is hitting all the playable characters, though a bit differently (I don't know that I'd characterize the tone I have seen as nihilist for example, more simply impatient, a sort of "we've been battling world threatening horrors and you -still- can't get sense into your skull" exasperation with anyone standing in the way.) More willing to drop threats and lean on reputation as well (an early part of the story in Amnoon highlights this well, when talking to an NPC and making mention of being in town to hunt the god of war.)

Anyone have the Norn or Charr perspective?

I personally hate the change. I've only gotten up to PoF with a Human female so far, and I hate how she has such a bitchy attitude when trying to be "tough" and "in control". I am a woman, and I don't think a woman needs to sound catty to be strong. It's really getting on my nerves. Not likable at all.

I've noticed it on my human female main, and don't think it sounds "catty." I don't particularly like or dislike it; it just is. With all she's been through, I can understand it.

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villian".

I have a feeling that Season 4 will explore the Dark Side of the Commander alot.

I don't think my Human female sounds "catty", either. It sounds like she's just got a job to do and is not going to deal with people being obtuse or getting in her way. The only times she could be seen as being borderline "catty" is when she's playing at being someone else.

@CaptainVanguard.4925 said:"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villian".

I have a feeling that Season 4 will explore the Dark Side of the Commander alot.

That would be cool, because it will match my attitude towards the shoddy writing GW2 slowly devolves into (personal opinion), lol.

Male Norn sounds pretty damn good with his new aggressive ways.

I just wish he had adopted that attitude when I/he dealt with emo-Braham earlier.

Yea, our characters are all smartalecs and hardasses now. It comes off as a little too poser and cheesy to me, especially the female human.

I have played through with Sylvari male, and seen the story in my sister's instances(she plays Sylvari female), and I like this tone. I like the more serious feel of it, and as a naturally sarcastic person I adore all the dry sarcasm being thrown around. :)

I have noticed a very different tone in the Norn female I'm working on the story with. The words/voice aren't confident or in control - it's downright b!tchy. I'm not entirely thrilled with it as it feels very "out of character" to how this voice has been in the past. I'm not sure if it's the dialog itself - or the tone in which it is voice acted that is the problem - but I found myself going "wow, that was uncalled for" during dialog a lot. I'm hoping that it gets better, and that she's not this way the entire expansion.

I was surprised to hear my character be all bossy and sarcastic, had me going "mhhmmm guuurl, you tell 'em!"I love that it was changed and that my character has some attitude now rather than "roses and rainbows" act which in my opinion didn't fit well.

I've noticed this as well, on my Male Human.

I don't like the loss of his humor and confidence, even if I can understand it from a story perspective. Rather than confidence, I feel like it's been replaced by arrogance. The way my character has begun to act is suspiciously like how Braham described your actions in LS3 during your last meeting. We seem to have an all-too-strong sense of self-importance, acting only exasperated at what we seem to feel is petty happiness of some of the people we worked so hard to save (the PoF Epilogue). We seem almost clinically depressed. Like there's always another problem. Like nothing is going right. Like the people and factions we thought we could rely on only tend to get in the way. And we're damned snippy over it, too.

I hope this change in tone is actually subtle foreshadowing of an impending story arc of marked character development for our characters. I hope that we end up getting more depressed and frustrated at the seeming futility of it all. That we begin to spiral out of control and do some seriously questionable stuff for equally questionable motives. That we end up less and less like a hero and more and more like a force of nature who doesn't care what needs to be done to save Tyria - to whom the ends always justify the means. And then, just before we reach the point of no return, I hope we get called out on our behavior in some dramatic way that causes us to feel exceptional loss while simultaneously rekindling our passion for good that sprung us to the role of The Commander to begin with.

I really dislike the new tone of my character, but I give ArenaNet the benefit of the doubt in that the tone change is deliberate and has a purpose. I'll be intrigued to see how and if this plays out in the coming story content patches. Bonus points if Braham, of all people, is the one who snaps us out of it.

@Vandril.3490 said:I've noticed this as well, on my Male Human.

I don't like the loss of his humor and confidence, even if I can understand it from a story perspective. Rather than confidence, I feel like it's been replaced by arrogance. The way my character has begun to act is suspiciously like how Braham described your actions in LS3 during your last meeting. We seem to have an all-too-strong sense of self-importance, acting only exasperated at what we seem to feel is petty happiness of some of the people we worked so hard to save (the PoF Epilogue). We seem almost clinically depressed. Like there's always another problem. Like nothing is going right. Like the people and factions we thought we could rely on only tend to get in the way. And we're damned snippy over it, too.

I hope this change in tone is actually subtle foreshadowing of an impending story arc of marked character development for our characters. I hope that we end up getting more depressed and frustrated at the seeming futility of it all. That we begin to spiral out of control and do some seriously questionable stuff for equally questionable motives. That we end up less and less like a hero and more and more like a force of nature who doesn't care what needs to be done to save Tyria - to whom the ends always justify the means. And then, just before we reach the point of no return, I hope we get called out on our behavior in some dramatic way that causes us to feel exceptional loss while simultaneously rekindling our passion for good that sprung us to the role of The Commander to begin with.

I really dislike the new tone of my character, but I give ArenaNet the benefit of the doubt in that the tone change is deliberate and has a purpose. I'll be intrigued to see how and if this plays out in the coming story content patches. Bonus points if Braham, of all people, is the one who snaps us out of it.

The female sylvari didn't come off quite so bad, but I can see some of that, and yet, it seems a lot of it is true isn't it?

Think about it, everything the commander has done to save the world seems to only delay the inevitable while making things worse. Killing elder dragons, even gods, stops the immediate doom yes, but seems to set up Doom 2: Bigger, Badder, Doomier! As players, we know this is because the PvE game needs a proper big bad for us to contend with, so however many we kill more will be around the corner, but the character has to feel the weight of things.

Also, at the end of LS3 I sort of wanted to feed Braham to Jormag myself, but I can see the character taking his comments to heart and saying "you know what? If everyone is going to pile all this weight on my shoulders, I'm going to throw it around to get on with the business of saving the world." Which is very much how the tone of the character came off to me, anyway. We'll see if this leads to the hero becoming the villain (Guild Wars 3: Kill the Commander?)

Charr female here. Im honestly glad for the slight change of tone theyve gotten, its not overly gruff sounding..but its also not 100% smooth either and i love it alot, much more fitting to what i imagined what they should sound like, and wayyy better than they are originally did in the main story(assuming im not just hearing things)

I've noticed it on my sylvari female and i really don't like it. I miss the nature spirit she was in the Personal Story. Now she just sound rude and awful, especially with that fake accent on top of it.Why did they have to change tone? It ruined the sylvari female for me and now i cant unhear that new tone, especially not with the new in-combat quotes from the new elite specs.Remake all the voice acting that came after the Personal story please.

Asura famale are still good and human female works too. But the sylvari female are dead to me.

As of S3, haven't started PoF yet-- My charr male sounds okay. Asura male has lost his sharp wit and arrogant positivity, and he's now the dumb bruiser Taimi has to talk slowly to.What really frustrates me for all my characters, though, is that we've become the naysayer in the group. I've been the catalyst and the driver for years now. Someone came up with a plan, and we said "Alright, let's do this!"Why am I now dragging my feet and saying "Is this really a good idea?!"whenever someone else gets the plot ball rolling?

@Vladish.3940 said:The only thing that bothered me is the implied care he puts about certain dragon's death, even though there is zero reason for him to be actually emotionally involved with that character. The redeeming factor of that was that because of his unchanging tone throughout most of the game, he sounded more fake about it, than anything.

I didn't feel the same while playing my Sylvari male. To me, after the certain dragon's death, the "implied care" was more being upset by yet another setback and being yet another step behind Balthazar and his machinations. In the bigger picture of everything that's happened it makes sense.

You find out that all of the previous work you've done has actually made things worse. One of the gods is now actively working against you, regardless of the impact on Tyria. There was the glimmer of hope that maybe you just found a way to help combat the god that doesn't care, only to have that blown up in your face.

It's easy to see why the Commander is becoming worn down with setback after setback. Even previous victories were actually setbacks in the long run. The Commander continues to trudge on though. Not because they even so much want to, but because if they don't, everyone dies. That's a tremendous burden to bear.