''Commander'' appellative is breaking immersion and is so bad.

[Ultramex.1506]

I prefer old personal story titles like Savant but................eh one can dream

[Xovian.8572]

Amusingly enough, being called "Commander" is discussed in one of the stories.Your character actually brings up that you are no longer the Pact Commander or in the related military (anymore), and that your character questions why people are still referring to you by that title. I won't spoil that particular episode, but suffice to say, it was used as a story point, for why the "player character" is still called the Commander.In lore, it makes perfect sense.

TL:DR: If you actually go through the story, they TELL you why you are still referenced as the Commander.

[Yasai.3549]

• Want to play an RPG
• Doesn't want to play a role which has been crafted through Personal Story
• ??????

They also explained that they still refer to the PC as Commander because they were kinda just used to it even after the PC has stepped down as Pact Commander.And the Pact Commander status wasn't some dumb prophecy mumbo jumbo which happened just cos, play through the entire Personal Story.The PC worked their way up from grunt status and only really gained importance after fighting in the major battle in Arah dungeon story mode.

Yu will miss the whole rise to status if yu skipped core Personal Story and Dungeon story modes.

But hey, maybe some goon we meet in the future would be from one of the home towns and they will know yu for the feats yu have performed there.Humans will be Hero of ShaemoorCharr will be known to have defeated Duke BarradinAsura will be the Snaff prize winnerNorn will be The Great HunterSylvari will be known to have killed the Shadow of the Dragon

[EdwinLi.1284]

@Yasai.3549 said:

• Want to play an RPG
• Doesn't want to play a role which has been crafted through Personal Story
• ??????

They also explained that they still refer to the PC as Commander because they were kinda just used to it even after the PC has stepped down as Pact Commander.And the Pact Commander status wasn't some dumb prophecy mumbo jumbo which happened just cos, play through the entire Personal Story.The PC worked their way up from grunt status and only really gained importance after fighting in the major battle in Arah dungeon story mode.

Yu will miss the whole rise to status if yu skipped core Personal Story and Dungeon story modes.

But hey, maybe some goon we meet in the future would be from one of the home towns and they will know yu for the feats yu have performed there.Humans will be Hero of ShaemoorCharr will be known to have defeated Duke BarradinAsura will be the Snaff prize winnerNorn will be The Great HunterSylvari will be known to have killed the Shadow of the Dragon

I honestly still wonder why Anet has yet to add maybe one personal main story mission when the Commander returns to their place of origin to catch up on the characters they met during personal story. Obviously they may be avoiding this due to how people can skip Personal Story (aka Zhaitan Arc) and play the other story arcs so certain characters may not have completed the entire Zhaitan Arc so that such a Main Story mission can register all players actions. However, I feel this type of one time mission may bring back a sense for the Commander to remember where he/she came from before he/she became such a big shot Commander.

Of course with most of the Charr personal story characters dead or still MIA due to events of Icebrood Saga that is less likely to happen even more since Charr origin characters will be missing a lot of their personal story characters beyond their chosen Partner which we know he/she still alive since the Charr's Partner returns in Icebrood Saga in Umbral Grotto for Charr Origin players revealing everyone the Charr player recruited through their personal story are either dead, MIA, or became part of the Ice Legion.

[Fueki.4753]

@Yasai.3549 said:But hey, maybe some goon we meet in the future would be from one of the home towns and they will know yu for the feats yu have performed there.Lord Faren doesn't even recognize human noble players as his friend.

I doubt it would be different for any other character meeting former companions/friends.

[Yasai.3549]

@"Fueki.4753" said:

Lord Faren doesn't even recognize human noble players as his friend.

I doubt it would be different for any other character meeting former companions/friends.

I assume it's just written that way so that, as the poster above said, doesn't break narrative for those who have skipped Personal Story.

As for the VB meta, I assume that what others say are correct : Faren there is interacting to "Adventurers" or PCs playing the role of an Adventurer.As far as the timing and the story is concerned, the Commander is already on their merry way down into Tarir by the time the Pact forces are trying to regroup during VB meta.

[Fueki.4753]

@"Yasai.3549" said:I assume it's just written that way so that, as the poster above said, doesn't break narrative for those who have skipped Personal Story.The story is written in a way that assumes the player actually has experienced it.That goes for the personal Story (which includes both becoming Commander and killing Zhaitan), Season 1 (which causes the player to team up with Braham and the others) and everything past that. The story even assumes, the players have done all the non-Arah dungeon story modes.

As for the VB meta, I assume that what others say are correct : Faren there is interacting to "Adventurers" or PCs playing the role of an Adventurer.As far as the timing and the story is concerned, the Commander is already on their merry way down into Tarir by the time the Pact forces are trying to regroup during VB meta.Him not seeing the player as the story character in Open World makes sense.But even in story instances, like in Season 4 Episode 3, he sees a human noble player as a general hero and not his friend.

[frareanselm.1925]

@"Redfeather.6401" said:I wish gw2 was more like an mmorpg world. It seems to focus too much on a small cast of characters and it's all very scripted. I don't mind such stories, but I prefer to watch them on tv. I play games to engage with things and see reactions to my actions. In ESO the guards attack me on sight and most merchants insult me when I try to talk to them. It's pretty cool to play a character that way. And if it gets to be a hassle I can just pay a priest to cure me and pay a fence to remove my bounty.

"Reactions to my actions" thats what Anet promised and never acomplished. I can kill the God Bathazar, its over, but in open world still hordes of forged keep attacking me. Didnt they realized that their boss is dead? who are they obeying? This stinks.

[Yasai.3549]

@"frareanselm.1925" said:

"Reactions to my actions" thats what Anet promised and never acomplished. I can kill the God Bathazar, its over, but in open world still hordes of forged keep attacking me. Didnt they realized that their boss is dead? who are they obeying? This stinks.

That's kinda a thing for open world MMORPGs and MMOs in general.They can't just "alter" experiences for the player just because they finished a quest step because it would force Anet to run separate instances of the same map.This means if newer players enter the map, it will be entirely devoid of life because all the vets have moved on and are partying on a "completed" instance of the map.

FF14 has this "continuity" issue, so does WoW.It's just a symptom of MMOs at the end of the day.Either that or have a single player mode and a multiplayer mode, like GTAV.

[Fueki.4753]

@"Yasai.3549" said:FF14 has this "continuity" issue, so does WoW.It's just a symptom of MMOs at the end of the day.Either that or have a single player mode and a multiplayer mode, like GTAV.

WoW does have map phasing depending on story progress on some maps though.

For examples, the revamped Cataclysm versions of Westfall and Redridge Mountains change slightly depending on the story progress.

I don't think Arenanet should ever try to do that though, as the Amazon Web Servers barely can run the game as it is now.