Story telling by Anet

[medivh.4725]

Before stumbling on GW2, my fav RPG has been FFVII (Final Fantasy), followed by Elder Scrolls. Interestingly thinking back when I was on the FF wagon, all I could think of was the story. Even when I am not playing. There are many things going for GW2. Sadly story telling isn't one of those and I wish it got better.

 

FF's approach is whenever character enters new map or an important area it first was given a visual, a video cutscene, some interaction with NPCs and then game put back control to player. What this does is allows the player a perspective on the new surrounding, whom they are with or can interact, what is the objective coming to this area, what does the area look like, and what are the likely enemies it will face. This way the story is more absorbed by the player as it involves many playable elements, it is more immersive and everything ties back to main story or to a quest. Story telling has always been part of their strength in the FF franchise in how they are able to relate players to stories. Alot of work goes into screen panning, background and ambient music. In the case of Elder Scrolls, lively NPCs may come forward to interact with your character setting up the storyline for a optional quest to begin. So simply by being attentive to the intro video, one recieve hints of what to do, where to head to, whom or what to look for.

 

While Anet does have camera pans sadly it is mostly achieved with vistas and that means it's in parts and pieces not like FF approach integrating scene into story, revealing plots and key characters along the way. So we also know that vistas are scattered, players skip vista views to save time or worse never visited it to begin with. This could be due to them seeing no connection to a quest. Thinking it is mainly to appreciate the surrounding. If you could look at GW2 dungeons for their story telling mostly you see 2 characters standing static end to end on a still background trading words and occasional body gestures. And that is their story telling. And people wonder why dungeons are so dead. 

One thing I know when players is able to relate more to a story, they tend to be more attached to the franchise, and this itself is a motivation to want to play, to be involved. As oppose to say logging for daily rewards. Anet can get players to be more involve with the story and make story telling an immersive experience. Time to bring out these storyboards

Edited July 10, 2021 by medivh.4725

[LucosTheDutch.4819]

Fully agree. I play GW2 for many reasons, but the story isn't one of them. Though I will say, the storytelling in the raids is actually quite good. The tone is more serious, the story is more mysterious, and there is no annoying Taimi constantly babbling in your ear to drive you crazy with her "witty" remarks.

Honestly, if the rest of GW2's story was more like the raid stories, I'd be a lot more interested in GW2's world and story.

[Yggranya.5201]

If i knew how and bothered to link a picture, i'd link an appropriate one here. Instead i'll just tell you to google "SMBC wit". It sums up dialogue from LW3 forward nicely.

[Danikat.8537]

What's the difference between the system you described and the scouts in GW2? From an 'outsider' perspective, having not played Final Fantasy, it seems like the only difference is they're optional. I realise that means a lot of players will ignore them after the first one or two, but I assume that means they're not interested and would probably skip the cut scene if it wasn't optional.

 

I agree that the story telling in GW2 can be erratic and a lot of it is easy to miss if you don't make the effort to look for it (which requires either looking at everything all the time or already knowing what's there to find) but in this specific example it seems like they've already got what you're asking for.

Edited July 10, 2021 by Danikat.8537

[medivh.4725]

Their intro is literally like a full HD, short scene cut of a mini movie. Hence I am not sure how the scouts can compare....

[Follyfoot.2803]

The story's are very weak and suspect. but that isn't the real the problem.  No one can deny that nearly every episode contains 99% fighting mobs and bosses, something you do everyday within normal open world game play.  Story's should be story's, not a more boring version of what you are already doing. 

 

Story tellers Anet are NOT.  How would these storys translate to a novel?  99% of the book would contain "bang, bash, clang, scream, swish, thump, awarrrrrr, neyaaaarrr, wollop" and so forth.

 

I do the LW story's purely to open mounts and new maps.  I have zero interest or patience to follow the poorly written story.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Follyfoot.2803

[mindcircus.1506]

The FF Community and the way it's Stans push this game on every other MMO's website with posts like these really is the number one reason not to touch that game.
Seriously tired of cloaked commercials like these.

[medivh.4725]

1 hour ago, mindcircus.1506 said:

The FF Community and the way it's Stans push this game on every other MMO's website with posts like these really is the number one reason not to touch that game.
Seriously tired of cloaked commercials like these.

If you bother to read this thread, you can notice Danikat.8537 who hasn't play FF attempting a comparision of what scouts of GW2 do. Nobody is making commercial. Why anyone would do commerical of an very old game, which is done so many years back. Do not try to distract or change the topic please. Simply making a point. That was their cut scene as character progress point to point. Some what high quality cut scenes. You just cannot describe in words especially not to ones who has not played it. 

This thread not about which game is better but about the gamer's end to end holistic RPG gaming story experience 

Edited July 12, 2021 by medivh.4725

[Danikat.8537]

3 hours ago, medivh.4725 said:

Their intro is literally like a full HD, short scene cut of a mini movie. Hence I am not sure how the scouts can compare....

Thank you for the explaination. As I said I've never played Final Fantasy, so I could only go by your description in the first post, which gave me the impression that what you wanted to add to GW2 was the information imparted by these videos, not the format used.

 

I'm genuinely just trying to understand what it is you actually want added to the game because as I said your first post made it sound to me like something we've already got but which you may not be aware of (or might have forgotten about) since I doubt many players bother to talk to the scouts after maybe the first one or two.

 

So, building on that: if the scouts were updated to show a cut scene of each heart, event and other activity they're highlighting (either with the current dialogue or something new) would that be enough? Or are there other changes you want to see as well? Is it ok to keep it optional, or does it need to be shown automatically the first time a character enters the area?

[medivh.4725]

36 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Thank you for the explaination. As I said I've never played Final Fantasy, so I could only go by your description in the first post, which gave me the impression that what you wanted to add to GW2 was the information imparted by these videos, not the format used.

 

I'm genuinely just trying to understand what it is you actually want added to the game because as I said your first post made it sound to me like something we've already got but which you may not be aware of (or might have forgotten about) since I doubt many players bother to talk to the scouts after maybe the first one or two.

 

So, building on that: if the scouts were updated to show a cut scene of each heart, event and other activity they're highlighting (either with the current dialogue or something new) would that be enough? Or are there other changes you want to see as well? Is it ok to keep it optional, or does it need to be shown automatically the first time a character enters the area?

Actually the main story line (when one gets from level 1 to level 80) needs that kind of love and attention. That is afterall your main story progression line. A well done cinematics that have a good flow in story telling would be useful to introduce a new location, reinforce the plot, objective of being here, so on. Why is it important? For many story doers it could be their first time playing the game, or getting into certain areas. Hence they won't be familiar to what to look out for, what they have to do. Having a consistent voice narrative to tell the story also help. For GW2 context that could very be a NPC as well.

 

I would insert a skip and replay button on any cinematics. Skip for players who know and have done it. Replay for those who forgot what they come here for. As each customised character will look different, I suggest for cinematics to be a first person viewer. That way is just the voice you need take care of. As every single gamer will come with their customised appearance anyway. 

Edited July 12, 2021 by medivh.4725

[kharmin.7683]

I wonder how many new players actually play the main story line (1-80) when it seems from many previous posts on these forums of players who insta-boost just to get to the end game content.

[Yggranya.5201]

50 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

I wonder how many new players actually play the main story line (1-80) when it seems from many previous posts on these forums of players who insta-boost just to get to the end game content.

Well, every time i try to replay the story, i play up to 30 with no problem, 50 with gritted teeth and at 60 i always stop since at claw island starts a downward spiral (although it really started at 40 after the true personal story changed to "you're just an average heroic human now"). It's not like they're missing out.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

If no one is 'missing out', why all the request for Living World Season One?

It's not the combat/events posters say is the reason its unavailability is the issue. 

[Mik.3401]

I agree, GW2 has been underperforming story-wise since the very beginning (though this was also when it was most enjoyable comparing to now imho). To me the problem is the story characters are kind of one dimensional yet there is a lot of time spent for their dialogues and interactions (painful). Meanwhile the main plot and purpose of the journey remain often quite confusing with main enemy being a dragon with none/almost none dialogues at all.

 

I can see they tried to fix it with more recent story chapters (e.g. Icebrood saga) by adding bit more fleshed out villains etc. But being that far into the story it did not make a huge lot of impact in my experience.

 

BUT that being said if you don’t play story chapters the game is actually very cool and enjoyable. I think the active combat seals the deal for most people. It’s just so enjoyable to play it.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Mik.3401

[Ayrilana.1396]

The story telling itself has been better in other games but I like the way they implemented the story in GW2.