LS Season 4 - Is the story a complete joke now? [Spoilers]

[Myrdreth.6829]

I really liked Canachs sarcastic quips while he tried to install the explosives. I don't like it when the game gets too serious. It makes me nervous. I just love his sarcastic humour. Some jokes in the game are lame, but I don't really care. Not everyone shares the same humour.

I just hate stories that try to be too gritty and serious. That's why I like Marvel movies more than DC movies.

[Westenev.5289]

Honestly, I think that humour is the minds defense against hopelessness and depression (hense why the explosives expert is always portrayed as a sarcastic asshole in media - every bomb they tinker with could very well be their last). If anything, I feel the story would be worse off if the humour weren't there, since you would be removing a more realistic and relatable action from characters who are only human/norn/sylvari/charr/goblin after all.

[Harper.4173]

@draxynnic.3719 said:

@Harper.4173 said:

@Maybe.7180 said:I can see why people hate Taimi. I used to love her, but this is getting a bit too much - especially that "poke the commander" thing, yes. I'm fine with Canach and others, tho. Their sence of humour is more sarcastic, ironic, and it fits the situation, I see that more like an attempt to bring down the tension in the squad.I can't agree with you, tho. I cancelled my WoW sub because I couldn't stand this - everyone dying, everything is so serious, even "fun" events are filled with death, war and suffering. I've had enough of it irl. And since HoT went out I'm actually starting to get worried. it all goes the same direction - Eir, Trahearne, Vlast, commanders death... Those figthts with Balthazar, where they always make you feel you're all alone facing this whole madness.Game should be... an adventure. It doesn't mean it should become all soft or filled to the top with silly things, nor it should be all drama and nothing else.

I've seen a similar sentiment expressed by many posters above. Especially mentioning IRL issues. Where exactly do you guys live? What's your daily life like that you can't stand these things in video games?I mean - most of you I assume live in the western world - the best place to be this day and age. What's made you so traumatized that you can't stand virtual death, suffering and strife? Is the distinction between real and imaginary too blurred?

In this economy, living in the West is no guarantee that you haven't had problems... and there's a lot of tragedy in the news even for people who aren't experiencing it firsthand.

@Shirlias.8104 said:I don't really care about the story.It's nothing special but hey, it's a mmo so whatever.

I tried to afk in a safe place during the fight with Taimi, but oxygen lvl was stable for about 5 mins.Disappointed.

Strictly speaking, the oxygen level probably dropped too fast to begin with. Being in a sealed, confined space like that probably isn't healthy, but it would probably take quite some time for someone to start experiencing hypoxia, let alone suffocate. Particularly since there's still a fair amount of oxygen in what the typical person breathes out (this is how mouth-to-mouth works, after all...)

@Sojourner.4621 said:As someone who uses humor to deflect serious situations and cover the fact that I actually have no idea what I am going to do and am actually probably panicking internally... I can actually relate to the quips...

especially

Taimi's at the end there. If I just nearly died, but somehow managed to make it out alive, expect a badly formulated and inappropriate joke at my own expense. It's how I'll keep from just breaking down on the spot and lets me move on to what needs to be done.

That said, there is definitely something to be said about

too

much Bathos in writing.

And this is pretty much what I was thinking.

People who are in traumatic circumstances - particularly traumatic circumstances that are drawn out for a long period of time - often do develop something of a "if I don't laugh at this I'm going to break down" response. You commonly see this in things like the banter of soldiers in wartime and so on. There are, in fact, theories that this is one of the evolutionary origins of humour in the first place: as a form of stress relief.

So, to me, the odd one-liner actually fits with the overall dark tone of the story even as it appears to lighten it - because it's not just lightening it for

us,

it's also lightening it for the characters themselves, who need to be able to laugh at the situation every so often or risk having an emotional breakdown. Braham, in fact, might well be a good example of what happens to someone who goes through all that and who isn't able to stop and laugh at it every so often.

The problem is banter is usually reserved for AFTER the fighting. I don't really think soldiers laugh and joke around WHILE actually fighting. Like I said above - it would have been appropriate at a future time in a casual setting - like Marjory's bar.

Also - considering how high living standards are in the west right now - I don't really see where you're coming from. I don't know what "the economy" is for you but I can tell you for a fact most people have it worse.

[Chickenooble.5014]

When the story tries to be serious we get Braham.

At this point I want the story to be about a circus, balloon animals, clowns and comedians.

[Harper.4173]

@takatsu.9416 said:In all honesty, people in high stress jobs, such as paramedics, soldiers etc, are cracking jokes all the time. I have friends of both and they tell me stories of how they're cracking quiet, sarcastic or dark humor jokes while working on a dead body etc. all the time to deal with the stress and distance themselves emotionally. Soldiers facing death and war all the time should be like that whenever there is a moment to catch a breath.. so maybe it's not the frequency. BUT I also felt most of the lines were a bit on the childish end. Understandably we have a range of players but I think most players I've encountered are 20s or at least 18 and above nowadays. The humor can be more witty, slightly darker, and grittier, without being inappropriate, to be immersive

Not while they are on duty. Trust me - I work in this branch. I have no issues with the humor itself - I have issues with how much it's misused. Humor has its place - they're simply pushing it where it doesn't belong.

[Harper.4173]

@Spurnshadow.3678 said:Yes, the writing could be better. Yes, it's a bit eye rolling at times. Yes, the characters have gotten more 2 dimensional. But it's not terrible and it could be worse. But there's a fundamental issue I'd like to bring up that is core to GW2 and why the storytelling has gotten worse, and it has nothing to do with the writers.

We, as players, are disconnected from the characters due to the mechanics of the game. This is because we are literally very far away from them. They've gotten rid of the cut scenes with 2 people talking in 1/4 profile. That had decent animation and forced us to see their expressions. They've also gotten rid of almost all cinematic, which also had close ups. The story telling now is all in game meaning we are high above them. The characters have very little animation. Even if we zoom in as far as possible, it's still too far and the characters are just animating their mouths and using emots. Either that, or they use dialogue bubbles.

What this all means, is that we don't identify with them. It's been known since the dawn of cinema the importance of the close-up. While you need characters that are identifiable, the close-up does a great amount of work to force this. This trend of not using in game cinematics as much started with LS2 and very prevalent now. This is massively hurting the story telling regardless of how good or bad it may be.

I would disagree here. I was significantly more attached to the heroes we had with us back in GW1 and they had less technical means back then than they do today. Hell - they didn't even have voice overs - just text.The difference was that those characters were well written, believable and most of all not so artificial in feeling. They felt like real people instead of just "archetypes".

Another reason we don't identify with them so well is that - most of them aren't human. I have a hard time identifying with most non-humans in the game and considering most people in the game play human characters - I think we can add this to the list of causes.

Lack of technical means doesn't absolve them of bad writing. Books have NO visual means and people can be heavily invested into and attached to the characters.

[Drecien.4508]

Dont worry, you'll have braham there to ruin the whole thing.