Can we skip Prologue: The Tyrian Alliance? Stop shoving boring story down our throat

[Noidea Incognito.9607]

Personally i am a fan of this Archaic Story telling stuff. GW2 is A(RPG) after all.

 

But if i understood everything correctly.....  These players want a permanent "SKIP" button for such story pieces.

They don't actually have a problem with the story itself... they only wanna rush/skip through it fast.

Edited August 20 by Noidea Incognito.9607

[Whitaker.3019]

We want to be able to play the game without being held hostage for an hour to listen to drivel.  I took today off work to play the expansion, I gave up and went back to work because I have more fun doing that then this expansion has provided so far.  It would be one thing if you were doing....anything....other than standing there watching npc's talk to each other.

[Rose.2593]

Could maybe understand if people had done the story loads, but it's alot of complaining for a first time play through of a few minutes of story in the prologe. 

[StuckHat.8061]

These instances lasting so long and being so at-risk of disconnection or just plain screwing me over so I can "enjoy" their bluntly written story where people have to say the same thing seven times before we can move on. It's really starting to grate that we can't skip this.

[meerfunkuhtron.9725]

7 hours ago, darkwombat.3695 said:

I mean I am falling asleep.

This is not how you start an expansion. It needs to be exciting.

Have you learnned nothing? Less story, just let us discover stuff exploring..

I've always been a big fan of skippable dialogue. I love story and extra lore, but we can read things faster. I still appreciate the voice acting, but the whole thing turns into a slog when waiting and watching everyone talk is your only activity for several minutes.

It's why I was never really happy of how they changed things in PoF. I know HoT was already similar, but I think for then, the dialogues were made shorter so you didn't have to wait long for it to finish. And they were typically mixed with other activities, so that helped. With PoF, I distinctly remember having to walk really slow so I could listen to people talking. I also remember giving up on the story multiple times before I was finally able to finish it... years later lol

I, for one, am pretty happy so far with the story of this expansion. But I feel like all the exposition presented in the way that they are makes it hard for me to enjoy it at points. So I could only imagine how other folks feel when they're already not engaged in the story to begin with. I definitely vote for a skip button, similar to how we used to have them when we had the talking cutscenes in the core game.

[Ashen.2907]

1 hour ago, quaniesan.8497 said:

of writers

Bingo!

[StuckHat.8061]

5 minutes ago, meerfunkuhtron.9725 said:

I, for one, am pretty happy so far with the story of this expansion. But I feel like all the exposition presented in the way that they are makes it hard for me to enjoy it at points. So I could only imagine how other folks feel when they're already not engaged in the story to begin with. I definitely vote for a skip button, similar to how we used to have them when we had the talking cutscenes in the core game.

The skip option that allowed me to jump to the next dialogue would be optimal, even. For the very reason you stated that I just plain read MUCH faster than any of the VA's can speak.

[Mistwraithe.3106]

Ignoring the title (which is very subjective, clearly some people are not finding the prologue boring), this thread seems to be the most balanced version on the forums of the general complaint. I think few would argue with the ability to skip the spoken dialog somehow - it wouldn't take away from those who want to listen while clearly those who don't would also be happier.

Not sure how they would implement it though.

[Will.9785]

4 hours ago, Dean Calaway.9718 said:

TikTok has ruined a generation...

I'm a man in my 40's and I ain't got time for this either!

[Anomander.9347]

4 hours ago, Dean Calaway.9718 said:

TikTok has ruined a generation...

Lmao. I'm 51. I have experienced enough evolution in video game storytelling to dislike being forced to sit through boring exposition. Truly great storytelling is a mix of many types, not just the one on display here. You don't have to be a Zoomer to feel like you are being held hostage by the game.

[meerfunkuhtron.9725]

39 minutes ago, Mistwraithe.3106 said:

Ignoring the title (which is very subjective, clearly some people are not finding the prologue boring), this thread seems to be the most balanced version on the forums of the general complaint. I think few would argue with the ability to skip the spoken dialog somehow - it wouldn't take away from those who want to listen while clearly those who don't would also be happier.

Not sure how they would implement it though.

I don't know what game it was, but it had people talking in a similar manner, and at the bottom right is a skip button to get to the next beat of the dialogue. It could have been FF14 or Star Wars the Old Republic, but really not sure.
I don't know if something like that would work here either, based on how they have it set-up. As it feels like they've made it so the dialogue flows as 'organically' as they could.

[Ashantara.8731]

8 hours ago, darkwombat.3695 said:

I mean I am falling asleep.

This is not how you start an expansion. It needs to be exciting.

I found it quite excellent, to be honest. It was a well-written build-up to the story to come.

What do you want? Mindless action 24/7? Diplomacy can be interesting, too. I would have been disappointed had it started with yet another boring "Oh no, red alert! Danger! Danger!" premise. *yawn*

Edited August 21 by Ashantara.8731

[misterman.1530]

8 hours ago, darkwombat.3695 said:

I mean I am falling asleep.

This is not how you start an expansion. It needs to be exciting.

Have you learnned nothing? Less story, just let us discover stuff exploring..

Unskippable dialog for the win! Such fun... /s

[Rittsu.5698]

Im kinda ok with the story, what trully pissed me off was after 1 hour of story i needed to rush the map to release the spear, i Just would like to explore the expansion enjoying the exploration with the spear.

[Mad Maxxie.6075]

I agree, it's very long winded at the start which is ok for the first time but doing this on alts is gonna be painful. There had to be a quicker or more engaging way to send us out to the new map than these long monologues, go click a dialogue option on like 10 people, thing. And I'm trying to get invested in the story again but that start was so dry to me.

[Mad Maxxie.6075]

I agree, it's very long winded at the start which is ok for the first time but doing this on alts is gonna be painful. There had to be a quicker or more engaging way to send us out to the new map than these long monologues, go click a dialogue option on like 10 people, thing. And I'm trying to get invested in the story again but that start was so dry to me.

[Mad Maxxie.6075]

I agree, it's very long winded at the start which is ok for the first time but doing this on alts is gonna be painful. There had to be a quicker or more engaging way to send us out to the new map than these long monologues, go click a dialogue option on like 10 people, thing. And I'm trying to get invested in the story again but that start was so dry to me.

[RagiNagi.1802]

3 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

I found it quite excellent, to be honest. It was a well-written build-up to the story to come.

What do you want? Mindless action 24/7? Diplomacy can be interesting, too. I would have been disappointed had it started with yet another boring "Oh no, red alert! Danger! Danger!" premise. *yawn*

I don't think most of these complaints are about the story itself, moreso about the presentation. It is just super dull. The voice actors are odd. I got scared hearing my guardian speak in a completely different voice that usual. etc.

If we had popper cutscenes and optional (and potentially audio skippable) dialogues after. No-one would complain.

People like you could go and smell every flower from the diplomacy and culture garden. And people like OP can go running from PoI to PoI until burnout.

FWIW - I liked to tame the Warclaw 3 times. I thought it kinda gave the flavour of these wild beasts that don't yield.

[Ashantara.8731]

1 hour ago, RagiNagi.1802 said:

I don't think most of these complaints are about the story itself, moreso about the presentation.

I can't say anything about the story yet, I have only played through the Prologue, and that is what this thread's complaint is about, no?

If the story in JW is all dialogue and not much else, with many NPCs speaking in Peitha-like slow motion, then yes, I agree that this is plain boring. I have to see yet if that is the case.

[Skub.8240]

13 hours ago, Whitaker.3019 said:

I miss the cutscenes you could skip...or like go take a shower and move on with your day.  The story would be engaging if I didn't hate the guts of every npc Im forced to interact with.  When Isgarren popped back up I went to get a drink.

Hell, I miss showing up in cutscenes. Around EoD they just kind of started going out of their way to have our characters not appear in them anymore, making it very clear just how irrelevant our characters to the story. I think the last time we really mattered in one, was when Joko had the face-to-face chat with us, then Aurene showed up and ate the story. After that the finale of that living world is all big slow zooms and pans of Caithe and Taimi while we're just off in the corner in the big group shot. Then we just kind of never really show up in IBS, and aside from the introductory cutscenes of EoD (where we are, of course, dramatically slowed and restrained so we can't move or transform or do anything at all) we don't really show up in any of those scenes either. Not even in the background in most cases.

But yeah, when I'm playing through the story with friends and I see a big talk coming up I just use that as a chance to go get a meal, or do some cleaning, or play another game or something.

Edited August 21 by Skub.8240

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Came home from work, excited for new expansion :
Asura : "Blablablablabla"
Human : "Blablablablabla"
Isgaren : "STOP !   .   .   . Blablablabla"
....

And I'm stuck on the desk, can't even move.

[Rose Solane.1027]

I don't understand the complaints about an unskippable prologue. Most of the dialogue in the prologue is skippable. How long will the prologue take if you skip all the optional dialogue? Five minutes? Five minutes to start a new expansion, is that too much?

[Scar.1793]

14 hours ago, Batel.9206 said:

That sounds wonderful, actually. One of SoTO's main flaws was that the story was just sort of...thrown at you, without much time to actually set up plot points or characters. It sounds like this is a step in the right direction.

And before people start going "LOL you must be sarcastic"...no, I'm not. I want a reason to care about these characters and stories so I can actually give a darn when they're in danger or there's a plot twist. Give me lore! Give me dialogue! Give me worldbuilding! 😄 And also give me combat and exploration, now that I have a reason to fight and explore. Otherwise you run into SoTO all over again: cool concept, but the execution fell flat with characters coming and going in record time (Irja, anyone?) and no one really has a reason to care about the story or anyone in it.

You don't do that by dumping info in a 1h prologue... you want interesting characters you care for ?
They have to be regulars in the story, have relatable and understandable goals. It's done overtime.

There's none of that here. That's why people barely remember the characters. Meanwhile I can still remember characters from WoW, ESO or FFXIV.

[EzyQzy.8620]

Those bears talks so slow. Need a playback speed option of 4x.

[misterman.1530]

Holy crap balls. Am in Janthir, finally. And MORE TALKING. Seriously, does anyone listen/read whatever is being said? I just zone out until they finish blathering on.