[Spoilers] Are characters intended to be idiots?

[Eliphas.4862]

@"Tyson.5160" said:Check out a woodenpotatoes gw1 video the pc is way worse in terms of character development. They are just along for the ride.That would be WAY better in my opinion, a just-along-for-the-ride hero type would be much easier to write, you just focus on the main characters of the story/world and make the player just another companion/hero/adventurer there, that way you don't worry about different option (or lack of) for different races.I mean, if you are the "CHOSEN ONE" when there are millions others like you, is not believable. take WoW for example, on early expansions (were the story used to be good) you were irrelevant in the world and just happened to be there and it all made sense with all the different races un the world. That way we enjoyed the events happening and taking part in them but not being indispensable by killing a freaking god by ourselves.I guess changing the narrative at this point would be hard but damn it I would be so happy if they just focus on the world instead of the commander.

PS: just kill that Asura already and make Rox more relevant.

[Ayakaru.6583]

I asked this on the AMA and some unintended bruteness came across.The sniper apparently didn't kill anyone, just incapacitated them.They didn't allow for revival of the downed NPCs due to gameplay reasons.So apparently we just stopped a violent Skritt, not a murderous one.

And she has not intention to kill Aurene, she wants vengeance for Balthazar's hunt of Kralkatorrik

[Dami.5046]

Idiot? Self centered in a shut up kind of way. Not an idiot. The can do attitude winds me up no end.A human looking at a dragon and not thinking , 'what the hell' or freaking out at an undead.Doesn't have to just be a human.

[FrizzFreston.5290]

Im personally also for slightly altered texts for one of the major variables of your character. Race and gender for example.

I don't see how it would be that much different work as theres a seperate voiceactors for each race and gender already. Ofcourse, there would be more writer work to do.

Also options to pick slightly different routes, that would still lead to the same endpoint, for flavor.. make the story much more interactable and personal, from a game perspective. Though it feels to me that Anet is more going for the "We wanna tell the story our way" style of game writing.

Which is fine, just not the way I prefer it in a game. I always loved those books which let you make your own story. And the way GW2 started out that was a selling point to me. So yeah, to me that feels like a step back.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

@Eliphas.4862 said:

@"Tyson.5160" said:Check out a woodenpotatoes gw1 video the pc is way worse in terms of character development. They are just along for the ride.That would be WAY better in my opinion, a just-along-for-the-ride hero type would be much easier to write, you just focus on the main characters of the story/world and make the player just another companion/hero/adventurer there, that way you don't worry about different option (or lack of) for different races.I mean, if you are the "CHOSEN ONE" when there are millions others like you, is not believable. take WoW for example, on early expansions (were the story used to be good) you were irrelevant in the world and just happened to be there and it all made sense with all the different races un the world. That way we enjoyed the events happening and taking part in them but not being indispensable by killing a freaking god by ourselves.I guess changing the narrative at this point would be hard but kitten it I would be so happy if they just focus on the world instead of the commander.

PS: just kill that Asura already and make Rox more relevant.They already tried this with Personal Story at release. They had to go back and rewrite it later and get Trahearne to voice new lines when he came back for HoT, just so that the original story didn't treat the player character as some kind of sideshow, and its still pretty bad.

It was one of the main criticisms of GW2 for several years, and you want them to return to it ?

[Kodokuna Akuma.9570]

@Eliphas.4862 said:

@"Tyson.5160" said:Check out a woodenpotatoes gw1 video the pc is way worse in terms of character development. They are just along for the ride.That would be WAY better in my opinion, a just-along-for-the-ride hero type would be much easier to write, you just focus on the main characters of the story/world and make the player just another companion/hero/adventurer there, that way you don't worry about different option (or lack of) for different races.I mean, if you are the "CHOSEN ONE" when there are millions others like you, is not believable. take WoW for example, on early expansions (were the story used to be good) you were irrelevant in the world and just happened to be there and it all made sense with all the different races un the world. That way we enjoyed the events happening and taking part in them but not being indispensable by killing a freaking god by ourselves.I guess changing the narrative at this point would be hard but kitten it I would be so happy if they just focus on the world instead of the commander.

PS: just kill that Asura already and make Rox more relevant.

They dont play the commander off as the chosen one, hell your just more the right person at the right time. Your most valuable assets are the bonds you formed and releationships you have builted with varying NPCs across tyria. Your charater right from the start started off with personal motivations (your back stories), the NPCs that you met along the way to the completion to your goal, then lead to relationships with other prominant NPCs (Destiny Edge and the three orders) you gained some renown with these varying parties for being reliable and getting the job done, these lead to you gaining more prominant possitions, aka commander. The pact manage to defeat zhaitan with help from you and varying forces that you may or may not have assisted.

Anyways one could go over it all but really your just the binding chain in essence. By no means a "chosen hero".

[Dami.5046]

At least we haven't lost our memories like Aion.

[Eliphas.4862]

@"Hannelore.8153" said:They already tried this with Personal Story at release. They had to go back and rewrite it later and get Trahearne to voice new lines when he came back for HoT, just so that the original story didn't treat the player character as some kind of sideshow, and its still pretty bad.

It was one of the main criticisms of GW2 for several years, and you want them to return to it ?They didn't change or rewrite the PS, they just changed the order of events, in the end the Story was basically the same. Also you were never a sideshow, you are 2nd in command of the pact since day 1 basically leading the army of the entire world (since Trahearne was useless).About the "criticisms", I saw more people whining about the change than for it, so... yeah.In any case I liked the PS more in some ways, at least you had some kind of branching, not that any option you take mattered in the end, but there it was.

@"Kodokuna Akuma.9570" said:Anyways one could go over it all but really your just the binding chain in essence. By no means a "chosen hero".Yeah all went accordingly for you to be the one uniting everything, in other words the most important part, without you Destiny's Edge would still be disbanded, there would be no Pact, your order would be destroyed, no Guild, 2 dragons still alive and a god killing them.If that is not being the chosen one, idk what it is.Essentially you are not the hero of your own story, you are the hero of THE story.

Like I said, I just want they to focus on the world more than on you.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

@Eliphas.4862 said:

@"Hannelore.8153" said:They already tried this with Personal Story at release. They had to go back and rewrite it later and get Trahearne to voice new lines when he came back for HoT, just so that the original story didn't treat the player character as some kind of sideshow, and its still pretty bad.

It was one of the main criticisms of GW2 for several years, and you want them to return to it ?They didn't change or rewrite the PS, they just changed the order of events, in the end the Story was basically the same. Also you were never a sideshow, you are 2nd in command of the pact since day 1 basically leading the army of the entire world (since Trahearne was useless).

I don't know what you're talking about, but they cleaned up alot of Trahearne's dialog during the restoration and had the voice actor re-voice the lines to be less "Mary Sue" as part of his work along with voicing some other NPCs when he returned for HoT.

In the original version, he takes all the credit, but in the restored version, this has been greatly reduced.

[Gehenna.3625]

@Eliphas.4862 said:

@"Hannelore.8153" said:They already tried this with Personal Story at release. They had to go back and rewrite it later and get Trahearne to voice new lines when he came back for HoT, just so that the original story didn't treat the player character as some kind of sideshow, and its still pretty bad.

It was one of the main criticisms of GW2 for several years, and you want them to return to it ?They didn't change or rewrite the PS, they just changed the order of events, in the end the Story was basically the same. Also you were never a sideshow, you are 2nd in command of the pact since day 1 basically leading the army of the entire world (since Trahearne was useless).About the "criticisms", I saw more people whining about the change than for it, so... yeah.In any case I liked the PS more in some ways, at least you had some kind of branching, not that any option you take mattered in the end, but there it was.

@"Kodokuna Akuma.9570" said:Anyways one could go over it all but really your just the binding chain in essence. By no means a "chosen hero".Yeah all went accordingly for you to be the one uniting everything, in other words the most important part, without you Destiny's Edge would still be disbanded, there would be no Pact, your order would be destroyed, no Guild, 2 dragons still alive and a god killing them.If that is not being the chosen one, idk what it is.Essentially you are not the hero of your own story, you are the hero of THE story.

Like I said, I just want they to focus on the world more than on you.

To be honest I hated this "you're the hero" thing from the get go. Your first quest where you're a moron with one skill makes you the hero right away and then you go work for the big shots straight away. The truth is though that even though the world wouldn't have survived without you, the focus wasn't really on your character. You were vital practically but as far as the story telling it was more about the stories of other people you run into like the Queen for humans and Trahearne and every time there's some secret group you need to join they treat you like every other recruit and not like a hero.

So it's the inconsistency I really hate and the lack of story development of our own character. See in the end the we only play in the story of others and all we do as a hero is solve other people's problems. The personal story that should've been about us more was a crap story to begin with and horribly voiced.

I would agree with less of a focus on our characters cause I would've preferred we weren't the hero from the start but someone who actually grows throughout the story. I suppose it's a bit late for all that though.

[maddoctor.2738]

@Ashen.2907 said:There are visions of the future, in all of which Aurene dies, and in which there is a certain sniper, known to desire Aurene's death, present.

She wants to kill Kralk not Aurene...

[Westenev.5289]

I think the writers are trying to fit the theme of "forgiveness" into the story... maybe? There seem to be a lot of characters trying to atone, and I think our character is one of them... because reasons? I think?

In any case, I'm not entirely sure a witch hunt would have solved anything - even if this is the default behaviour of players in open world. I mean, I'd like to think stories can be a little more complex than "if it's red, it's dead" xD