Silent protagonist

[Shaman.2034]

2 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Do you have more than one character? How do you reconcile them having the same story, often with the same dialogue?

Of course I have more than one character. My issue is not with the story. My issue is with the open world dialogue outside of story chapters. The story is an isolated activity. Open world PvE is the main repeatable content thread of this game, so it is not isolated; it is where one spends most of their playtime. I have trouble reconciling everyone in the open world being called Commander/Wayfinder. And I really hate Peitha continuing to communicate telepathically with me when I'm not doing the story.

2 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

I'm genuinely surprised this is a problem for you but not all kinds of other things in the game (and other games) like events repeating, visiting maps 'out of order' (like going to ones where the Pact hasn't been formed after doing the Battle of Fort Trinity).

That's really easy, though. Open world zones have always been snapshots in time. They are stuck in the moment in time in which they were created. I don't need to make myself imagine anything or do any work for this to make sense, it just does naturally. All RPGs are like that. It gives the player the opportunity to go back to the past, to replay those moments in time as they were. This doesn't even register as a problem to me.

Again, all I'm really asking for is to be treated like a random mercenary in the open world. ArenaNet has applied a mix of dialogue in open world in the past, but SotO has made the open world dialogue extremely story-focused to an annoying degree. It constantly feels like I have a story chapter turned on, whereas previous content doesn't feel that way.

[Lord Trejgon.2809]

14 hours ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

This is another thing. Meta events happen once (unless explicitly stated otherwise). World bosses get killed and are dead for good in the lore. Event chains happen once in the story.

Prime example for that in newest expac would be Defence of Amnytas meta event (Skywatch Archipelago is formed in a way leaving some leeway for multiple attempts of forging the key).

When it is starting it is clearly stated, that acumulating energy to power up the guardians is process that takes decades and expending all of that energy takes minutes, and it is clearly stated that there is only enough reserves to try it once. This is also further reinfirced in newest meta, where Frode reacts to Noryu's appearance with "You should have died at Amnytas". The fact that it repeats every 2h is a subject of gameplay mechanic, nothing more.

[Mukizo.1269]

I would like them to use the recourses in different sides of the game rather than having to pay 10 different voice actors for the same character. Don’t get me wrong during the covid voice acting delay patches I realized how important and immersive voice acting in this game actually is, and it’s still actually really good, however having to voice 10 different voices for the same character is just too much.

[Westenev.5289]

Discourse aside, I do genuinely miss the "Charming/Dignity/Intimidating/Neutral" options. They don't even need to be game changing either - the illusion of choice, and the ability to recall what was chosen makes for a great experience.

 

I think well written text trees could far outstrip the current in-game styles of "stand around in this restricted area while NPC's talk your ear off".

[Noidea Incognito.9607]

My 2 cents on this(opinion/perspective).

I think the Commander's representation ingame is not bad.

From the very start of your personal story till the very end of EoD, the commander is following a Heroic,righteous, good cookie origin story,  and personally... thats just the thing i was expecting to get... RP Purists can call it a generic/boring outset if they like, but to me it seems like a consistent character development of a nameless peasant becoming the legendary commander/hero. Who doesnt like a good hero story? This also seems like the best choice for a MC origin background to progress the story wich is about epic good and evil events.

I get what many are saying about the current choices to seem 1-dimensional....

But perhaps thats a logical misconception of the reality, cause your adventure starts off with, indeed ,  the words: "This is my story".

What i think that really means is: its the "Commander's Story".

If we go by that perspective/analogy, all the ingame choices make 100% sense as we are merely RP-ing the Commander in this game, who follows the fixed heroic, righteous, good cookie path. We still get the Illusion of Choices, from the Commander's perspective.

There is absolutely the Illusion of Choice ingame, just not how some people envisioned it.

Most mmo follow the same fixed path for all players, otherwise it becomes technical nightmare + the number of variables become too great for the developer to handle.

Its not a handtailored SP game with worldshattering choice togo from hero to antihero or good to evil.

About VA.

Ive yet to see an mmo wich has so many VA. Its pretty much a big core feature of GW2; they try to VA alot of stuff and the VActors are really trying their best to convey an array of emotion. If people dont hear the subtle nuances, intonations, pacing in VA dialogue, then idk, maybe they arent listening with intent to properly understand what is conveyed vocally. 

but imagen all those seperate VA lines needed for nuances in the main hero's demeanor. and that wont be for just a small section of the story, but at each branching choice. Its an unrealistic prospect with the current game wich has alot of different developer priorities.

Btw; ima Charr commander and i think the Charr VA is awesome. o7

Edited April 9 by Noidea Incognito.9607

[Kalavier.1097]

2 hours ago, Noidea Incognito.9607 said:

But perhaps thats a logical misconception of the reality, cause your adventure starts off with, indeed ,  the words: "This is my story".

What i think that really means is: its the "Commander's Story".

If we go by that perspective/analogy, all the ingame choices make 100% sense as we are merely RP-ing the Commander in this game, who follows the fixed heroic, righteous, good cookie path. We still get the Illusion of Choices, from the Commander's perspective.

 

I mean, among the RP community I've had such gems of.

"I don't understand why my character, an Asura, would be invited to this ministry meeting by Jennah!"

"Is your RP character THE commander?"

"No."

"Then why are you hating on the story of the episode as if the commander is explicitly your RP character?"

[starlinvf.1358]

On 3/5/2024 at 6:25 PM, Zapgrind.2197 said:

There's no way to get it right for everyone, indeed, but there are ways to make it appropriate for the genre. "Commander Shepard" is appropriate for a single-player game, but even in those games options for some RP are given aswell. Correct me if I'm wrong, but GW2 is not a single-player game or some hero-shooter. It's an MMORPG, where thousands of players can create characters with completely different backgrounds. Forcing them all to have a single distinct personality is just... wrong. That's why people are usually making the protagonist of an MMO silent or have them react just average for their race and/or profession. And also that's why if you want to tell the story about personal trauma, you make it around NPCs.

Anet used to know how to do that.

Mass effect fails as an example, because it proved it couldn’t work beyond a single arc. By ME3 they almost completely abandoned narrative pathing, and then back loaded the choice and ending decision to a 3 option menu.  There are simply too many permutations to track across multiple stories, each addding to the pile. 

[Fenella.2634]

On 3/8/2024 at 6:48 PM, Mukizo.1269 said:

having to pay 10 different voice actors for the same character. 

Not just 10. The game has voice actors for the English, French and German version, so there should be 30 actors for the PC. Some of them have multiple roles, but it's still quite a lot. Personally, I love that Arenanet went that extra mile and gave the PC a bit of a character and voice(s). Having a silent protagonist might work for a short narrative, but having no character development for 10+ years would feel very weird to me.