The prologue is a waste of both the developers' time and ours.

[Nosy.2056]

33 minutes ago, Hemi.5267 said:

@Jeir.4862

3 pages of a few complaints isn't representative of the entire GW2 playerbase, so I think we're good. I loved all the lore including the slow talking bears. And no I am not white-knighting anything, as SoTO did not grab my attention... ever actually. I was glad to be done with the masteries. This one is so much better. 

To be fair, 3 pages in this thread alone. There are other threads with the same or similar complaints also worth some pages in the first 48 hours - in this regard SotO story would also be completely fine. But I agree with you - nobody knows how much of the playerbase likes/dislikes the story.

[Nosy.2056]

2 hours ago, Jeir.4862 said:

But, given there are 'so many' people who hate story...how about a new game version, just for them. Right at the beginning, they get an option to 'skip story', where they then get teleported to each instance where all dialogue is gone and they just get objectives (or maybe just teleported in front of the main combat objective), do this 5 or so times, then confetti everywhere, job done. No dialogue, no information about who or what or where a certain character is, nothing about who or what the big bad is, no lore at all, just pure mindless combat.

Or they can just...y'know, use the skip options that are already available, or tab out for a bit and come back later when it's over. This is an RPG, after all, and those typically come with heavy story content. 

Or they could implement the story in a way, everyone enjoys ...

[Palador.2170]

I think that the prologue is fine in and of itself, but it wasn't used right.

What they SHOULD have done was have it come out a couple of weeks ago, and let everybody play it, no expansion required. That way, everyone would have had the chance to go through it before the expansion hit, so they could jump right into the action.

It also would have been a sort of advertisement for the expansion, as well as updating people on what's going on behind the scenes in other parts of the game world. I get the feeling that some threads of future expansions were dropped in that meeting, so making sure they're common knowledge in the playerbase isn't a bad thing.

[Exxcalibur.6203]

The quality of the dialogue and the pace is poor. 

Anet has often amused me with the 12 year old quality of their dialogue and character development. But if this is 'art' or effective  'story telling' to some people, so be it lol . 

People also eat Maccas, so it tells you a lot about the collective IQ of the world and their cpacity for discernment.  

Whatever gives you joy folks. 

Edited August 22 by Exxcalibur.6203

[Fearedbynone.6753]

On 8/20/2024 at 1:42 PM, Randulf.7614 said:

I disagree. I found it interesting. It needed to be optional though or skippable for those not wanting story - perhaps just a waypoint or gate straight to the map

I don't think it is fair or right to say we should be getting less story when many of us wanted this though.

it feels like hours of Unskippable npc conversations. story is nice and all, but you dont let me skip the convos, i wont buy the next expack. i dont do story, i just play the game. i only do story for masteries. they padded the story for time. its boring me to tears.

[Arc.8247]

I really miss being thrown into action right at the start of the expac. Something going horrible wrong and the commander is there to fix it. I'm finding myself longing to take the reigns as the main character, to call shots and to have somethign significant to do. SoTO and JW so far were just... follow new characters and do what they tell you to do.

[misterman.1530]

On 8/20/2024 at 5:38 PM, Varis.5467 said:

Haven forbids something tries to tell a story at all lol

What story? I was so bored, I didn't even bother reading the subtitles. I just walked away and did other things while they blabbed. Did it for the achievements, 'natch. Never again though.

[Deniara Devious.3948]

On 8/20/2024 at 10:41 PM, Ashantara.8731 said:

Wow... That explains why today's youth barely reads books anymore: an utter lack of patience and appreciation for proper story development! 😱 It's also why many movies from the past 10-15 years feel so boring: no proper story-telling, pacing or character depth, just action scenes and tons special effects. This saddens me.

I happen to have a large collection of old films on Bluray and DVD and I purchase usually 50+ books per year. I can watch an old long classic like Cleopatra (1963, over 4 hour film!), but I find the GW2 dialogue dull and uninspiring. Uninteresting bland character design and bad writing is boring and obviously there should be a skip button, like most of the other games offer. How they are expecting people to replay this alts? Snooze fest #2, #3...?

[Khazral.7592]

On 8/20/2024 at 4:59 PM, darkwombat.3695 said:

I am a "boomer" (54 years old) who reads books, watches movies and games and prefers a good story with interesting introduction to characters.

The intro to Janthir was the worst hour Ive ever spent in media.

You are not a boomer.  You missed us by around 10 years. 

[Chichimec.9364]

On 8/20/2024 at 8:59 PM, Ashantara.8731 said:

...Also, my comparison of GW2 related quality of writing is to the kind of writing we have had in the very game so far. I am not saying that anything in GW2 has the quality of some of the great novels out there. 😉 That is not within my expectations of GW2's writing. I was merely talking about the contents and pacing of the Prologue, and "boring" was a term I did not associate with it, that's all...I just found the claim of utter boredom on the first playthrough misplaced. To me, it sounds like the real complaint was, "I want to get to my new Homestead immediately, do you hear me? So stop bothering me with actual dialogue!" 😄

Thank you for this post. Three days into the new expansion and I find that I have to revise my take on both the story and on the expansion itself. This post of yours started changing my thinking, as did a number of the posts that followed. For one thing, you are right. The GW2 story should not be compared to the classics of sci fi and fantasy. However, it is reasonable to compare the current story to previous stories in this game. By that standard, the prologue seemed far less wordy to me than most of EoD did and far more interesting than anything in SotO. The story in the latter was pretty unrelated to anything that went on before and introduced a plethora of new characters, both friends and enemies, that I had no connection to. As a number of people have pointed out in this thread, the Prologue did a very nice job of bringing us up to date on various things that we had all been deeply involved in before. From the wounding of the Pale Tree to the crimes of Bangor, there was a lot touched on in the Prologue that we haven't heard anything about in quite a while.

The second point in Ashantara's post that really struck me was the comment about folks being in such a hurry to reach their homesteads that they didn't want to be bothered with other stuff. Yup, I was very much guilty as charged. By the time I got my homestead, I was already starting to wonder why I was in such a hurry. The new expansion was intriguing enough that I needed to just relax and enjoy all it had to offer. I'm at the start of Chapter 4 right now and Janthir Wilds may be my favorite expansion yet, including its story. and the game play on its maps. I don't think I've had this much fun on a new map since Grothmar Valley in the Prologue to the Icebrood Saga.

[Nosy.2056]

1 hour ago, Chichimec.9364 said:

By the time I got my homestead, I was already starting to wonder why I was in such a hurry. The new expansion was intriguing enough that I needed to just relax and enjoy all it had to offer.

I'd argue that most ppl wouldn't complain if the story would be more engaging, explorative and therefore more enjoyable for them as for myself, too.
I'd rather have a prologue like in SotO instead of endless voiced text. I'm happy you can enjoy it but plenty don't.

And tbh, if I like to read a book, I don't sit at my desk to play a game ...

[Ornitha.5862]

I've never been a fan of "sit around for 10 minutes while characters talk at you" story instances, but imo a meeting of world leaders/important characters was overdue. There's been a lot going on in Tyria outside of our little story bubble, and although I agree it maybe could've been handled differently it was important for us to be up to date and to understand the motivations behind certain characters tagging along with us to Janthir. I think 2 meetings may have been a little overkill, but I understand why they exist and I'm not mad at them for existing. Maybe the prologue could've been pushed out before the actual expac came out to create some hype. I don't really think it's a big deal that it didn't happen that way.

I think over-criticizing the game, story, expansion, writing, etc. just sucks the fun out of a game. Criticism is necessary and important, but it shouldn't ruin your love of a game or make it unfun because you're constantly thinking about how bad this or that is. Janthir has been a big step up from SOTO in my opinion.

I do hope that the devs and writers continue to improve their skills and the way they tell stories, but I think it's a bit much to say the story is flat out bad and unengaging and some parts are a "waste of time". I wouldn't be mad at less meetings and standing around for 10 minutes, though. Anet has shown that they can write good, engaging, and iconic stories and I'd love to see them take what they know and make it into something great in the future.

[nobleboivin.4102]

What I like most about the dialogue is it addresses plot holes that players who love the lore have been wondering for a while now. such as 

Spoiler

What's going on with the Pale Tree

Spoiler

What's going on with Bangar

I accidentally hit spoiler twice XD

Edited August 23 by nobleboivin.4102

[Teknomancer.4895]

@Tachenon.5270 After getting to that story step (just started the xpac) honestly I'm having trouble deciding which is Boring Monologue and which ones are Blabbermouth Ramble.

 

PS has anyone noticed some weird audio directional issues, mostly with dialogue that doesn't properly adapt to the camera angles? It's always somewhat important to have the camera more or less aimed toward the speaker, but this xpac seems to be plagued by audio drop-outs and tinny audio output, especially when there are multiple speakers like the teddy bear council and the queen's Isgarren unboxing party.

Edited August 23 by Teknomancer.4895
PS

[Hotride.2187]

Funnily enough the meetings continue, its not just a slog in the prologue. At least I can catch up on content I have no time to watch, while the NPCs go on and on and on.

[QueenKeriti.5176]

Just played the two parts here, and I enjoyed it. :x It could be tedious on second playthroughs, but it looks like you can skip all that optional dialogue that really pads time. :x It was nice getting some answers on things like the Pale Tree and Bangar.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

The dialogue between all these characters throughout the whole story is the best part of large cast franchises.

[Crono.4197]

Story, in a story based game?! I can't believe it!!! The horror!!!!  /s

Seriously? Are people running out of rants? What do you want, instant portal to appear in front of you and send you to the new expansions zones, no explanations, no nothing?

As for me: I enjoyed it, story is a big part of why I'm still playing this game. Glad things are being talked about properly in the game and not just "ok Commander let's go to Janthir" and boom teleport.

Again, it's a story based game, what did  you expect?

 

[Nosy.2056]

2 hours ago, Crono.4197 said:

Story, in a story based game?! I can't believe it!!! The horror!!!!  /s

Seriously? Are people running out of rants? What do you want, instant portal to appear in front of you and send you to the new expansions zones, no explanations, no nothing?

You missed the point unfortunately.

1) Some ppl want to skip, yes - it doesn't hurt anyone else to let them skip.

2) Some ppl care about the story but aren't happy that plenty of it is via extensive dialogs. Anet has done better imo in several situations (example LS3 via instanced events you actually experience yourself). They could also have strechted the story instead of frontloading it.

Edited August 24 by Nosy.2056
typo

[Axelteas.7192]

1 hour ago, Nosy.2056 said:

You missed the point unfortunately.

1) Some ppl want to skip, yes - it doesn't hurt anyone else to let them skip.

2) Some ppl care about the story but aren't happy that plenty of it is via extensive dialogs. Anet has done better imo in several situations (example LS3 via instanced events you actually experience yourself). They could also have strechted the story instead of frontloading it.

Agree, after the hype people want to jump into the spear, the warclaw and the housing, not to waste time in boring long dialogues. I've to admit that I watched youtube videos while waiting for the long talks to end. We should have a skip button.

[artrayus.8312]

I want to immediately refund my purchase. I buy the expansion, throw on a bunch of buffs, and then I'm immediately stuck listening to them talk, and it's entirely uninteresting. I'm alt-tabbed typing this on my second monitor and it just keeps going. I've said this for years, if I want to read a book, I will read a book! I'm playing a game to interact with the world not sit here listening to people talk. Such a disappointment and it immediately sucks the hype right out of me. I think I'll go back to wow. 

Considering how many people are saying this is acceptable tells me that I think it's time I just move on to other games. It's sad considering how many legendaries I have but if this is what you people want in a game, I'm out. 

[Hotride.2187]

4 hours ago, artrayus.8312 said:

Considering how many people are saying this is acceptable tells me that I think it's time I just move on to other games. It's sad considering how many legendaries I have but if this is what you people want in a game, I'm out. 

Those players don't seem to know that skip dialog/cutscene buttons exists in most games. Exactly so that whoever wants to watch the whatever can do so, while the other players don't get frustrated for being made to watch/wait.

Like, we get it, story in a story driven game, blah blah. I'm glad you want to sit through all of it, but let ME skip.

[Changer the Elder.2948]

The prologue is the best thing I've seen in the game. The long-standing pain point of GW2 is that it does not take the proper time to set its story up properly. What we got at the start of Janthir Wilds was excellent – a round up of characters we've met so far, update of what they've been up to, set up for really interesting future paths to take, and most importantly, setting up clear stakes and interest for us going forward. It makes the world feel alive, it makes it feel like what the Commander has done so far matters and has an impact.

I don't want this game to turn into Dawntrail 2.0 and just have 20 hours of cutscenes and maybe 30 minutes of gameplay, but this is far from it. This is what the game sorely needed for a while now and I'm extremely grateful it delivered. It was great to see Crecia again, to properly set up what Malice is doing instead of her just popping up in the new map and going "hi, I'm here now", to see relationships and inter-personal bickering set up the grander stage (Asuran jilted egos vs. Cantha is a fight I'm here for), to hear fallout from some of the stories we've seen develop ("Dominion is not gone, just weakened" gave me chills.)

Guild Wars gets bullied for supposedly having "horrible writing", which I always found funny because it usually came from people who wouldn't recognize good pacing if it goose-stepped right to them and kicked them in the shin, and THIS is exactly how you improve that problem – by taking your time with it, especially if it's well done. And this was.