Athri.3780

That's fair. I initially wanted to hear other people's opinions on the story, and I'm sorry I didn't make that clear enough in the op. My bad. Story:This might be because I haven't played Guild Wars 1, but I remember that when I got into the Order stuff on a human character, I got bombarded with all this stuff about Elder Dragons all of a sudden, without knowing what that was or what role those dragons played. My human character did know about those dragons though, and the game just continued on never actually explaining what that was. I thought I'd paid attention up until that point - I'd read all the heart quests, talked with the scouts, and so on, but even so I continued on with the main quest being confused and not really knowing what these big terrible enemies were. It's been some years since I played Norn and Sylvari last, but I can't remember those being any better. Basically, the way the exposition was laid out wasn't all that good and stuff just felt poorly explained. (and like... I do get that they're big evil dragons that needs to be defeated, but that tells me very little. Does that make any sense?) I generally tend to care about characters and worldbuilding the most in these kind of games, so if the plot itself gets kinda contrived at places I don't really mind. As long as it is overall consistent. One of the main reasons most of my characters have been humans though, is because the whole political intrigue thing in Kryta conceptually sounds really interesting, with Queen Jennah being at ods with the nobility, making many reforms, and so on. But, from what I understand, after the personal story is done, the main plot moves to focus on the fight with the Elder Dragons, with the PC becoming a commander of something. So does this ever go anywhere? Characters:I thought the mentor character for humans, sylvari, and norn were fine for the most part - they were tropey and fell a bit flat, but they were ok. Everyone else was kinda dull. I'm assuming they get more depth along the way. Does the Destiny's Edge members have any role to play once you get into the expansions? Dialogue and presentation:This ties into characters, but the way that everything was presented is one of the main reasons why I feel like the early story is so very dull and atleast partly why the characters felt flat to me. Everyone just... sounds the same. Regardless if a character were human, sylvari, or charr, lowborn thief or nobility, it feels like most of the important characters has basically the same vocabulary and speech patterns. All joke/comic-relief charcters also pulls the same kind of jokes, and that gets kinda grating after a while - maybe GW2's type of humor just doesn't work for me. But anyway, while the voice actors does a fairly decent job of making the characters stand out somewhat, the actual writing, in my admittedly limited experience, does not in the early base game. To be fair, this is also about immersion as much as it is presentation. Final Fantasy XIV is an example of an mmo that does dialogue and immersion very well. In FFXIV's "main cast", there is no character that speaks in the same manner, and their various speech patterns says much about their backgrounds and region of origin. You can infer much about any character in the game - including random npcs that you get fetch quests from - simply by the way speak, what idioms and slurs they use, what gods they swear by, and so on. If you pay a bit of attention you're never going to confuse an npc from one city-state with another, because the writing and the attention to detail when it comes to language is so tight. So basically, when I ask about the dialogue and presentation/storytelling I don't strictly mean whether the game show conversations through cutscenes or people just talking out in the world, but does the writing and language get to the point where the main characters stand out from each other?FFXIV is just an example of dialogue done well (imo), and I of course don't expect that level of detail. I realize this might come off as excessively nitpicky, and yeah to a point it is, but I hope this gives some clarity as to what I mean. Thanks to everyone who's answered this thread, it's been fun reading your comments ^^

By "good" I was more asking for other players' personal opinons of how well they like the story after the personal stories and the three Orders. Of course other people can't know what kind of writing I like, but people's opinions on this is for me something to go off on deciding whether to keep playing or not. Sorry, that didn't really come across well in my original post.

Don't forget that there's one living world season that's unavailable to play due to the temporary nature of the episodes as they were released - season one, Scarlet's War, starting immediately after the end of the base game's storyline. It leads directly into season two and is a vital part of understanding the story. There's a recap available in-game, but it covers the absolute bare minimum (and does a frankly terrible job at actually explaining anything). You end up being punted into season two with only the faintest understanding of what's going on around you. Fortunately, there are alternatives to the in-game "summary": watch these (one or the other, or both if you'd like) after you're doing with the vanilla storyline.A three-hour-long recap/movie is available on youtube, compiled from a massive amount of in-game footage people recorded when the season was live: WoodenPotatoes also has a summary available, clocking in at a bit over one hour long - it's far more streamlined and organized, but also leaves out a lot of the detail of the longer recap. Hope you enjoy the game! :D Wow, I'll check these out, thank you!

Your answers have helped a lot. I think I’ll buy the expansions and try out the story into Heart of Thorns atleast. Thanks everyone!

So, I've had GW2 for a couple of years and have played it on and off whenever. I mainly play games for the story, worldbuilding, etc, but with GW2 I've never managed to get beyond the level 50-60 main story quest because I've just found the writing and storytelling to be very dull. Due to this I've ended up just moving on to other games and I've never really gotten into the late gw2 base game or any of the expansions. I have not played the first Guild Wars. Despite this, I also really like... most of the rest of the game? The gameplay is fine, it's aesthetically beautiful, and even if, imo, everything isn't so very well explained, Tyria is a really interesting world. So I want to give Guild Wars another shot and I'm considering buying the expansions so I can just get a mount/glider and focus on the story - but like... is it worth it? Does the story pick up after the Order stuff? Primarily concerning the actual storytelling and the characters? Edit: What is your opinion on the story? I know this is kinda vague, so I can elaborate if anyone wants to. My english isn't the best, sorry.

@"Danikat.8537" Thank you so much for the write-up and the links! I haven’t played GW1, so those were very interesting to read. Since Norn value freedom and individualism, that a Norn couple wouldn't be as "beholden" to each other after marriage makes sense. In the Eir/Braham's case it was pretty extreme though, and considering how family-oriented the Norn (and ancient Norse for that matter) are, that kind of situation might be an exception if it was Braham's dad who made the decision. I also think so. That the couple takes turns being with children/running the home, and making a name for themselves does seem to line up with what we’re shown. What you say about Norns not finding people “unequal” to them attractive though is interesting. It’s probably not spoken of in-game, but it does make me wonder if a spouse who were unable to “catch up” to their husband/wife, would then lose their “status” as an equal, and if it would be grounds for divorce/separation. @"perilisk.1874" good point. The wiki describes Owl as representing "giving teachings of taking care of one's children", and reminding Norns that hunting isn't only about killing, but also about providing and protecting others (presumably mainly the family). Maybe the whole "equality" thing with Norn marriages also changed when Owl died. @crepuscular.9047 thanks for the link, it was really interesting to read! @"Valmir.4590" Yeah, I was thinking Braham might be a possible match for a straight Norn woman Commander too. For a hetero dude, unless he could marry someone who's not a Norn, I can't think of anyone either. And yeah, good point about flings. If having kids without being married brings shame on the family (no matter gender) then Norns might try to avoid getting romantic feelings for people who don't have as many achievements as they do. And of course, there's the question of how being born to two "unequal" and/or unmarried parents would affect the child. Maybe this changes with the expansions, but it would be nice if there were more main story Norn npcs. @Fenella.2634 oh that's really sweet. it's a pretty drastic difference from the Charr or Norn yeah. thanks, i didn't know that about the Asura.

I’ve been wondering about Human customs when it comes to mourning periods, and that got me thinking about marriage in general across the various races. I can’t recall the topic coming up throughout the story in the base game (havent done the expansions yet), and I can’t find much on it on the wiki either. I'm sorry this is so messy, if someone more knowledgeable could fill me in then that'd be appreciated. Tbh I don’t really know what to put here, so here’s just some thoughts and observations I’ve made from the game. Humans: As opposed to some of the other races, marriage seem to be a cornerstone of society in human cultures. Nobles appear to be pressured to marry other nobles, and Queen Jennah is (apparently?) pushed to marry and have an heir. But do we know anything more concrete than that? Can nobles refuse to get married if their parents have decided it, or do they have no say when it comes to marriage? Can a noble marry a commoner with few consequences? Would a commoner be more free to wed who they want, and choose when? Seeing as Kryta is kinda medieval-y, I’m guessing nobility would usually marry in their early-mid twenties (as what was the norm in most European countries), and other maybe a bit later… but idk. The only human/human couple that comes to mind in the main story is Kasmeer and Marjory, but they’re not married, are they? It doesn’t seem Tyrian cultures in general are particularly homophobic (maybe the Flame Legion or Sons of Svanir, but beyond those ??), so is there a reason they haven’t married? Norn: The Wiki says: “Norn are known to marry, but only if the couple is of equal status. During the wedding, someone must speak on behalf of the couple in order to show that they are a worthy match for each other.” “Known to marry” - for me that implies it happens, just that most Norns don’t. If Norns don't have an upper class/nobility like Humans have, then "equal status" I guess would be that their legends have to be as epic/grand, or whatever. Or maybe they’d have to own land/be about as wealthy or something. Does the whole "equal status" thing appear in-game? Kinda stupid question, but wouldn’t that mean that a Norn Commander/PC would have a hard time finding another Norn that would be considered worthy to get to marry them? I get that it would be a bad idea to refuse the PC, but if the Norn are really bent on tradition then it might cause some problems… Charr: I’ve barely played them, but my understanding is that most Charr don’t marry, but instead pick a mate in order to have kids, and once the child (cub?) is born the parents don’t have any obligations to each other. Or… something like that? With the Flame Legion being heavily misogynistic, is (forced) marriage common? Or maybe the other way around? The Flame Legion wiki site is very sparse on the “culture” section, unfortunately. Sylvari: The wiki mentions how Sylvari view romantical love and sexuality, but doesn’t mention marriage. Personally, I’d find it a bit weird if most Sylvari adopted what seems to be a chiefly Human tradition. That some people would, yeah, but I can’t imagine it would be something the Pale Tree would have “instructed” them on. Asura: No idea honestly. Sorry, I haven't played Asura.