The Use of GW1 References in the Narrative - A Constructive Critique and Suggestion

[Nocturnus.6031]

(Spoilers for Chapter 4 or so of the Story)

Hello there!

Final Fantasy XIV refugee here.  After how.... hoo boy.... Dawntrail was, I decided to poke my head back into Guild Wars 2 after many years of touch and go play...

... and my impressions of Janthir are all astonishingly good so far.  It just might be the thing that keeps me glued to the game moving forward, *especially* the narrative direction that this expansion has taken. (Thank you thank you thank you for taking your time and giving the story and characters room to breathe this time!)

I'm going to save my overall impressions for when I fully finish the expansion (i'm taking my time and loving every second of it), but I wanted to post a bit of feedback regarding a narrative bit that happens midway through the story.

After defeating the Titan's Minions and driving it across the bay, the Tyrian Alliance reconvenes to discuss options going forward.  It is here that we reach what I think is the story's first major issue:  The way that it used Guild Wars 1 references to advance the political debate and ideas between the delegation.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with using lore pieces that happened in earlier installments of the game.  Those storylines are rife for opportunities to expand *this* game's lore.

It's not the fact that they *were* used.  It's *how* they were used.

Effectively, the writers drop them into the scene like an atom bomb.

"Titans!" ..... "Scepter of Orr!" ... "Livia!"....

... and the way it's written assumes that the player has full understanding of what these things are.  I've never played Guild Wars 1.  I'm still catching up to the storylines in Guild Wars 2.  Thus far, I can follow Janthir just fine without having finished the Elder Dragon Saga at all (and having a cursory understanding of the events of SotO).

These Guild Wars 1 references, on the other hand, are heavy handed.  I wound up having to go back to the wiki and start reading up on things, pulling me out of the game to start catching up on events that happened while I was neck deep in EverQuest :P

Here's the thing:  I don't think these should be removed entirely.  Simply put... if you want to use things like this, take the time to bring someone like me up to speed.  You don't even need to make it part of the dialogue.  Drop a few books in the libraries of the Alliance Hall or something like that, or have the delegates have optional bits of dialogue where they talk about these things.  Now that I read the lore, a few sentences, maybe a small paragraph at most, would be all it would take to make me understand who these people are, what the artifact is, and who the titans are in the history of the franchise.

But just dumping them on me?  I'm sure franchise fans were stoked.  To me?  It was overwhelming.

Throw me a bone next time, and i'll be super happy.

Loving the work the team has done otherwise.  If you guys keep up this level of quality, this game has a super bright future indeed.

~ZJ