GuildWars2Live: Interview on Personal Story (2012-04-05)

[Centaur]

GW2 community site GuildWars2Live recently did an interview with several ArenaNet developers (such as Annie VanderMeer Mitsoda, Theo Nguyen, Leif Chappelle and lead game designer, Eric Flannum) on the topic of Personal Story:

GuildWars2Live: How important is following the personal storyline for a character's development?

Theo: It depends on the sense in which you mean “character's development.” In terms of power progression, the personal story is entirely optional. If it's not something you're interested in, you don't have to participate, as is the case with most of our content.

Leif: To expand a bit on what Theo said, every story instance scales you to the recommended level, and the content to how many friends come along. Even if you start engaging with your level 3 story at level 67, and bring along two friends that are 10 and 80, you should still have a fun time without one-shotting everything. That said, you'll get the best appreciation for the overall world setting by playing the story as it comes, since it helps to explain who exactly all these races and factions are—especially once you begin working alongside one of the Orders of Tyria.

Theo: That's just for power progression of course, if by character development you mean the sense of establishing your character's story and their relationship with the world around them, it's a key facet. The personal story is the narrative thread that guides your character through the game. It's where you determine who your character is and the role they play in the greater conflict.

Leif: I totally agree, it's absolutely key to establishing who your character is as a person and how they relate to and impact the world in a permanent way. Important characters may live or die depending on your choices in the story. Major battles are fought that turn the tide in a growing conflict. How you choose to proceed may lead to meeting someone new along the way. They'll move in to your home district, and you'll get the chance to know them even better. This is especially important as a sylvari, since you begin with no history other than your Dream. Who you meet helps establish who you are.

You can find the full interview here.

[Dillinger]

Sounds sweet. Glad it's optional, though. SWTOR's heavy handed narratives got annoying.

[JohnnyV]

Yeah, if you're not a fan of personal narrative you're screwed in SWTOR. Just another way A-Net is leaving the experience of the game up to the players, I personally can't wait to make my way through the stories for various races.

[Vayne]

Sounds sweet. Glad it's optional, though. SWTOR's heavy handed narratives got annoying.

From what I've seen, ToR had little choice, because they've had almost no innovation. They took what they did in other games and added it to WoW-clone in space. Take away the personal story and all that was left was a 7 year old game that many people are tired of.

[Archonis]

Yeah, if you're not a fan of personal narrative you're screwed in SWTOR. Just another way A-Net is leaving the experience of the game up to the players, I personally can't wait to make my way through the stories for various races.

From what I've seen, ToR had little choice, because they've had almost no innovation. They took what they did in other games and added it to WoW-clone in space. Take away the personal story and all that was left was a 7 year old game that many people are tired of.

May I introduce to you, THE SPACEBAR!

You could spacebar through all the story aspects of SWTOR.

[Vayne]

May I introduce to you, THE SPACEBAR!

You could spacebar through all the story aspects of SWTOR.

That may solve his problem...doesn't solve mine. If all I'm doing is hitting the space bar to get to WoW in space, it was pointless. The only decent part of the game for me WAS the cut scenes. But it's not worth paying $15 a month for what is essentially a single player game...to me. I'm sure other people like it just fine.

[Doomgrin]

That may solve his problem...doesn't solve mine. If all I'm doing is hitting the space bar to get to WoW in space, it was pointless. The only decent part of the game for me WAS the cut scenes. But it's not worth paying $15 a month for what is essentially a single player game...to me. I'm sure other people like it just fine.

The story was ALWAYS the central focus of the game. And as WoW has almost no decent storyline (and I am a follower since Warcraft: Orcs vs Humans) I know that WoW was simply a cash cow.

SWTOR may not be innovative in its combat mechanics, but it is more engaging as you level. My biuggest disappointment with SWTOR is that is uses the instance/raid grind endgame Blizzard crammed down our throats.

[Centaur]

The story was ALWAYS the central focus of the game.

Well, DC Universe has a story too. But you don't have to pay a monthly fee if you just want to play through the story... you can play the F2P variant of that game. Why would anyone want to pay a monthly fee for something that's basically a single player experience? (yes, the rest of the game is massive multiplayer, but the rest of the game is basically just a WoW cash-cow-style grind)

[JohnnyV]

May I introduce to you, THE SPACEBAR!

You could spacebar through all the story aspects of SWTOR.

Then you'd be spacebar'ing through more than half the game. Would you want to pay a monthly fee for that?

[Vayne]

Then you'd be spacebar'ing through more than half the game. Would you want to pay a monthly fee for that?

I was going to make a game just like that. The entire game would be hitting your space bar to skip stuff and I was going to charge $15 a month, because if you can skip the game, there's less grind so it would be a selling point. No? lol