Do I have to play through the stories?

[Corax.7692]

I'm almost done with the main personal story for the game, and I have to say it's...not my play style to follow a breadcrumb trail, watch wooden dialogs with the characters shifting and swaying like they're slightly drunk (which seems to be an RPG thing now), click this, click that, get in an interesting fight--only to have it interrupted by a cut scene just as I'm getting into it. And then there's kicked from my instance near the end of the mission because I followed a mob outside of the zone and didn't turn back in the 3 seconds the game gives you. (Why can't they just put an invisible wall up to save you from losing the time?) Sure there are nice rewards at the end of each mission, but this game practically shoots loot at you like a firehose in every other way too. Also, the choices offered in game are rarely the choices I would actually make. I mean, I saw some of the "surprise twists" coming a mile a way and would have made decisions to prevent them.

Now when I started the expansion stories, those were much more intense in the combat, but that makes it all the worse when my adrenaline rush gets interrupted by a cut scene.

I know I'd miss out on the overarching story, which I would like to know about, but this really feels like a slog. Maybe things get better as I progress in the expansion stories?

[Ashantara.8731]

It would help if you mentioned which story content you are referring to, because the quality of execution (e.g., cutscenes) gets better with newer content.

The only downside is that you cannot skip through dialogue that takes place in the open world (and sometimes in missions, too) and that you have already listened to many times on other characters.

[Randulf.7614]

Season 3 and 4 requires you to play the story to access the maps

[OrbitalButt.5708]

Just do what I do and lapse into a fugue state whenever a character starts talking

[Corax.7692]

@Randulf.7614 said:Season 3 and 4 requires you to play the story to access the maps

@Ashantara.8731 said:It would help if you mentioned which story content you are referring to, because the quality of execution (e.g., cutscenes) gets better with newer content.

I didn't name specific storylines, but so far I am nearly done with the personal story (except I haven't done any of the dungeons yet because everybody just wants to race through and finish them instead of experiencing them), and have begun Path of Fire and Heart of Thorns. I did notice improvement in the expansions.

The only downside is that you cannot skip through dialogue that takes place in the open world (and sometimes in missions, too) and that you have already listened to many times on other characters.

Oh there are more downsides than that, but I suppose that if I know my fight will get interrupted, I won't be as upset....

[Danikat.8537]

No you don't have to follow the story if you don't want to. There are some things which are difficult to do without going through a story mission (like getting into the Living Story season 3 and 4 maps - you need to do the story or use a Teleport to Friend) but then you can just do the one bit necessary to get in and skip the rest. You'll also miss out on exclusive skins, achievements (possibly including collections) and mastery points.

And of course you'll miss the story itself, but there's summaries on the Wiki and various videos on youtube explaining it (if you go that route you may need to watch out for people who will present fan theories or their personal head canon as fact or things could get quite confusing).

But I recommend trying the expansion stories because a lot of what you don't like has been changed. In particular they got rid of the cut scenes so now all the dialogue happens 'in-game', often as you're moving between locations or even during a fight. It's better in some ways because it doesn't pull you out of the action as much but it can also be really annoying because if someone's behind you or too far in front/to one side you won't see the speech bubble and may not be able to hear them clearly. I find I have to keep stopping after each conversation to read it in the chat box, which breaks the action up even more, but I play in a noisy room with the sound off/low and I can't read quickly so it doesn't take much for me to miss dialogue.

They also stopped offering as many choices. Which of course doesn't mean your character will always do what you would do in that situation, (f you ever find a game that gives you that freedom of choice let me know - not only would I love to play it, I know a guy who could hook it's designers up with about 15 studios who would pay a fortune to be able to do that), but it might bother you less if you're not being given a choice and always have to go along with what the game is doing.

[Randulf.7614]

If you are on EU and need players to do dungeon story for cutscenes etc, i am quite happy at walking pace.

[Ashantara.8731]

@"Corax.7692" said:I didn't name specific storylines, but so far I am nearly done with the personal story [...]

I thought as much. The core campaign's execution of characters talking outside of cutscenes is extremely bad (hence your comparison of "shifting and swaying like they're slightly drunk" ;) , which makes me think of Deputy Mira in "The Battle of Claw Island" ... always cracks me up). It really gets better later on, trust me - no more funny swaying.

[Corax.7692]

@Danikat.8537 said:No you don't have to follow the story if you don't want to. There are some things which are difficult to do without going through a story mission (like getting into the Living Story season 3 and 4 maps - you need to do the story or use a Teleport to Friend) but then you can just do the one bit necessary to get in and skip the rest. You'll also miss out on exclusive skins, achievements (possibly including collections) and mastery points....

Thanks for the detailed response. I'll keep at it for a while and see how it goes.

The choices part, I understand the technical and practical limitations. It's more a matter of writing.

(spoiler alert)

When Apatia & I separated to get the orb of Prevent Undead, and she got captured, I was like, we gotta rescue her NOW! And all I got was, no, we gotta hurry this orb to Trahearne because reasons. Getting the orb took literally less than 10 minutes, and you say I can't take 10 more minutes to rescue my friend?

This was not my only facepalm in terms of the plot, but you get the idea. It got to the point where every new NPC I met in the story, I thought, well there's another inevitable casualty about to happen. Oh, the pathos.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Good news is, the story gets better after the initial story.

[Kal Spiro.9745]

The one-on-one conversations that are the central aspect of story during the Personal Story cut off abruptly as of Season 2. There is no Season 1 so it doesn't matter. From Season 2 on conversations happen in real time while you're playing. As mentioned, though, while you can skip conversations in the Personal Story because of how they're presented, there isn't any meaningful way to skip conversations in the Seasons and expansions.

[Kal Spiro.9745]

@Corax.7692 said:

@"Danikat.8537" said:No you don't have to follow the story if you don't want to. There are some things which are difficult to do without going through a story mission (like getting into the Living Story season 3 and 4 maps - you need to do the story or use a Teleport to Friend) but then you can just do the one bit necessary to get in and skip the rest. You'll also miss out on exclusive skins, achievements (possibly including collections) and mastery points....

Thanks for the detailed response. I'll keep at it for a while and see how it goes.

The choices part, I understand the technical and practical limitations. It's more a matter of writing.

(spoiler alert)

When Apatia & I separated to get the orb of Prevent Undead, and she got captured, I was like, we gotta rescue her NOW! And all I got was, no, we gotta hurry this orb to Trahearne because reasons. Getting the orb took literally less than 10 minutes, and you say I can't take 10 more minutes to rescue my friend?

This was not my only facepalm in terms of the plot, but you get the idea. It got to the point where every new NPC I met in the story, I thought, well there's another inevitable casualty about to happen. Oh, the pathos.

To be fair, the purpose of that story was to fulfill the fear you told the pale tree back when she shoved you into the dream with Trahearne. Pretty much all of those have, "why is this a thing," moments due to technical limitations more than story, I think.

[Corax.7692]

@Kal Spiro.9745 said:

@Corax.7692 said:

@"Danikat.8537" said:No you don't have to follow the story if you don't want to. There are some things which are difficult to do without going through a story mission (like getting into the Living Story season 3 and 4 maps - you need to do the story or use a Teleport to Friend) but then you can just do the one bit necessary to get in and skip the rest. You'll also miss out on exclusive skins, achievements (possibly including collections) and mastery points....

Thanks for the detailed response. I'll keep at it for a while and see how it goes.

The choices part, I understand the technical and practical limitations. It's more a matter of writing.

(spoiler alert)

When Apatia & I separated to get the orb of Prevent Undead, and she got captured, I was like, we gotta rescue her NOW! And all I got was, no, we gotta hurry this orb to Trahearne because reasons. Getting the orb took literally less than 10 minutes, and you say I can't take 10 more minutes to rescue my friend?

This was not my only facepalm in terms of the plot, but you get the idea. It got to the point where every new NPC I met in the story, I thought, well there's another inevitable casualty about to happen. Oh, the pathos.

To be fair, the purpose of that story was to fulfill the fear you told the pale tree back when she shoved you into the dream with Trahearne. Pretty much all of those have, "why is this a thing," moments due to technical limitations more than story, I think.

Ah! See, I had forgotten all about that. Maybe there was a reminder of the pale tree thing that I missed....

[Corax.7692]

@Randulf.7614 said:If you are on EU and need players to do dungeon story for cutscenes etc, i am quite happy at walking pace.

I am on the Darkhaven server, I don't know if that's EU but probably not. I play at all hours though if that's the issue. :-)

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

@Danikat.8537 said:They also stopped offering as many choices. Which of course doesn't mean your character will always do what you would do in that situation, (f you ever find a game that gives you that freedom of choice let me know - not only would I love to play it, I know a guy who could hook it's designers up with about 15 studios who would pay a fortune to be able to do that), but it might bother you less if you're not being given a choice and always have to go along with what the game is doing.

SWTOR does less badly at that than any of the other MMORPGs I've played. It's not unlimited freedom, but you can often choose things like killing people just for the lulz or because you want to get rid of them as potential threats, or saving them (and maybe even imposing a debt of honour on them). And some choices can have knock-on effects (not normally large effects, but effects nonetheless) at surprisingly large time-wise separations.

But SWTOR doesn't have Griffy, Mr Buns, Petey and the rest(1). No other MMORPG that I've played has mounts that are like GW2's.

(1) I'm feeling singularly uninspired about nicknames for the Raptor and the Skimmer.

[Urud.4925]

@"Corax.7692" said:I am on the Darkhaven server, I don't know if that's EU but probably not. I play at all hours though if that's the issue. :-)It's NA indeed: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World The issue is that NA and EU players cannot play together on the same map.

The part about Apatia was to overcome your biggest fear, as @"Kal Spiro.9745" said . You had a different mission depending on your answer to the Pale Tree.There are several paths you can play in your personal story (at least at the beginning), not repeatable, and that's why I'm always happy to help someone with the personal story (so I can see them all, even if I have 9 characters, so I should be able to play them all at some point).Unfortunately most of the players skip all the cutscenes: "hey, you can watch the cutscene eh, I don't mind to re-watch it"; "nah, I don't care, I just want to complete the mission and I have already lost the plot"; "ok :/".

Good news that you can skip it on your alts, if you want: you can buy the tomes to teleport to the LW maps (account bound, so you can pass it to unlock the waypoints) and you can even unlock HoT maps if you are in a guild with Gilded Hollow or Lost Precipice: just exit from the guild hall and you are in Maguuma (then you can teleport to the main waypoint). If you have some teleport to a friend, you can even skip it on your main.

[Ellegon Mcleod.5931]

@Corax.7692 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:If you are on EU and need players to do dungeon story for cutscenes etc, i am quite happy at walking pace.

I am on the Darkhaven server, I don't know if that's EU but probably not. I play at all hours though if that's the issue. :-)

Just letting you know that Darkhaven is a NA server :<

[joneirikb.7506]

Regarding the story: In general you're going to have to "start" each story to get to places.

• Personal story tutorial to get to level 2, then you can ignore it.
• HOT start the first story step to get to the jungle, then you can forget it.
• POF start the first story step to get to the desert and get the raptor mount, then you can forget it.
• LS maps, needs you to start the first story step, then you can ignore it.

You can play through all the maps and explore, do events, whatever you want that way.

There are also a couple of shortcuts, like if you have access to some guild halls:

• Lost Precipe: lets you walk out to Verdant Brink, as long as you have unlocked gliding on one character, you can take alts in this way.
• The shiny one: If you have the mastery for walking through the forcefield there you can enter directly to Auric Basin
• The POF hall drops you out somewhere, not on the first map (forgot).
• If you bought the deluxe version of POF you got the endless pass to get you to Crystal Desert.

Probably more, just the ones I remembered. Anyways the story is pretty optional, play as you like.

[Dreadshow.9320]

You don't have to but it's the best part of the game. The rest is your typical MMO grind.

[Hevoskuuri.3891]

As many others have already said, the main story from 2012 is rather exhausting and frankly I completed it for the first time after 3 or so years of playing.

After that though, the story really starts heading into a much more welcome direction; personally I didn't like HoT story that much (although it's a definite improvement over the core story), but everything after that has been a blast. You don't necessarily have to play HoT story either, but it will award you with some nice gear, mastery points and XP you'll definitely want in the long run.

The Living World (season 3 & 4) episodes are shorter story segments, lasting about an hour or so each, and you'll usually have to complete the first story step to access the new map and its features. After that, you can choose to ignore the story altogether, but again you'll miss out on some great rewards, mastery points and XP. And the LW story is actually very good.

Path of Fire works the same way; you complete the first story step that will bring you to the expansion area, and after that you are free to explore and ignore the story if that's what you want to do. I probably don't have to mention missing out on great storytelling, gear, mastery points and xp for the third time.

Personally, I really encourage you to grit your teeth and try the story out. If you can't stand it though, the open world and all the other game features are accessible with minimal story play.

[Corax.7692]

Thanks for the info, Hevoskuuri. Muuten , siisti nimi!

[Taygus.4571]

@Randulf.7614 said:Season 3 and 4 requires you to play the story to access the maps

You can TP to friend too :p But that doesnt help if the story is required to unlock an achieve. Example is the roller beetle.

[kurfu.5623]

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:Good news is, the story gets better after the initial story.

Bad news is, after the initial story, dialog scenes are un-skippable.

[Trise.2865]

@"Danikat.8537" said:if you ever find a game that gives you that freedom of choice let me know - not only would I love to play it, I know a guy who could hook it's designers up with about 15 studios who would pay a fortune to be able to do that

It's called "Dungeons and Dragons". It has a lot of copycats, since it spawned the genre, and Hardware specs are a little heavy, since you need a table (or a table emulator). But, if you want to contact Wizards of the Coast and offer them money, I'm sure they'll accept.

Next closest thing is Divinity: Original Sin. It has a GM mode, but it's limited to four players.

[Danikat.8537]

@Trise.2865 said:

@"Danikat.8537" said:if you ever find a game that gives you that freedom of choice let me know - not only would I love to play it, I know a guy who could hook it's designers up with about 15 studios who would pay a fortune to be able to do that

It's called "Dungeons and Dragons". It has a lot of copycats, since it spawned the genre, and Hardware specs are a little heavy, since you need a table (or a table emulator). But, if you want to contact Wizards of the Coast and offer them money, I'm sure they'll accept.

Next closest thing is Divinity: Original Sin. It has a GM mode, but it's limited to four players.

I thought it was obvious from the context I was talking about video games.

Obviously there's a lot more options for how players act in other formats (but then they have limitations in other areas). As well as DnD there's Live Action Role-Play and MUDs (yes they are still going!) and something I'm not sure has a proper name, I've always called it Free Form Role-play, where everyone just writes out their actions and dialogue and there's no hard and fast rules or stats (or dice!). All of those allow pretty much total freedom of choice, the only restrictions are what the group has agreed is and is not allowed.

Video games are a lot more limited, because computer controlled characters and environments have to react to what the player does and AI isn't yet up to spontaneously generating reactions, or even understanding the input reliably (people are trying, and there's some...interesting stories out there about the end results) so the results of the players actions have to be pre-programmed and for that to work they have to be limited to one or a few choices chosen by the developers.

It is theoretically possible to give players huge numbers of choices, to cover every option they might want, but then each of those has to be written and created and that can very quickly get into a massive amount of work for the developers. (For example GW2 has 30 different versions of the 4th step in the level 10 storyline - and that's just the result of 3 choices: race, 'origin' (e.g. human noble, commoner or street rat) and 1 choice of how to act during the story.) Couple that with the fact that certain types of choices are rarely taken - for example if a game offers a clear 'good' and 'evil' choice typically something like 75% of players will pick the good one, and most of those who pick evil will do it on a second play-through where they're deliberately making different choices - and there's a lot of incentive for developers to restrict players to a few reasonable choices. (Or they offer the illusion of choice - you make a choice and if the game is well written it appears to impact future events, sometimes quite drastically, and it's only if you play through it again, remember your choices and their apparent consequences and deliberately make different choices the second time that you notice you actually get the same outcome no matter what. Apparently relatively few people ever do that and some who do actually don't mind finding the choice didn't matter.)

It's a constant work in progress and new ideas are being tried all the time but it's still going to be a long time before video games can match the kind of choices a human storyteller (like a Dungeon Master in DnD) can offer. If it ever happens at all.