Agree with OP, played 3 days, returned the account for refund. The story and "cutscenes" were a joke, you can´t pull something like that off in 2013, unless you are NCsoft. Very "asian", not enjoyable sorry.

You know SWTOR was extreme on the story side, too much VO, not enough gameplay, and GW2 is the other extreme with story and VO not even worth mentioning.

Originally posted by FromHell

Agree with OP, played 3 days, returned the account for refund. The story and "cutscenes" were a joke, you can´t pull something like that off in 2013, unless you are NCsoft. Very "asian", not enjoyable sorry.

You know SWTOR was extreme on the story side, too much VO, not enough gameplay, and GW2 is the other extreme with story and VO not even worth mentioning.

AHH - it is A.Net not NCSoft that wrote GW2 and they are located in Seattle, WA. You are clueless if you didnt know that.

Not asian at all - American.

Originally posted by FromHell

Agree with OP, played 3 days, returned the account for refund. The story and "cutscenes" were a joke, you can´t pull something like that off in 2013, unless you are NCsoft. Very "asian", not enjoyable sorry.

You know SWTOR was extreme on the story side, too much VO, not enough gameplay, and GW2 is the other extreme with story and VO not even worth mentioning.

funny how many people don't even read the OP.. why even bother posting if you can't take like 5 seconds to read a one small paragraph post... also how was it "asian" as you say in anyway shape or form?

Unfortunately, I felt the personal story was very poorly written including the ending.  I personally feel MMOs need to provide enough story to get you involved and invested in the world, but not overstep and decide your personality.  There were certain portions of the story that were well done, but as a whole the story falls flat.  The personal story was a major intrusion for most people who role-play since no matter what options you choose you become a "perfect" character.  I had a whole backstory and attempted to make choices in the beginning and throughout that were consistent, but the story still frustrated me.

Personally, I think the flaw with their method of writing is that they tried to create a compelling story and then filled it with flat uninteresting characters (Trahearne being the perfect example).  On top of that they made personal character choices for you, without regard to past decisions, race or history.  The only characters I have seen worth listening to were Tybalt and Sieran and hats off to whoever wrote those characters, too bad they got placed in a bland story.

All this being said, if they ever add a story line where you have the option of removing Trahearne I might take everything back just for that option.

Originally posted by JoeyMMO
I sorta liked most personal stories, but they could have done a better job of putting it all together. The whole "you're now in an order and whatever you did before is now irrelevant" feeling didn't go down very well. The stories, missions on their own were decent to good, they just didn't blend all that smoothly into that one big personal story.

think one of the issues is how it branches.. think they sacrificed a lot to allow lots of combination of branching stories instead of just focusing on a single core strong story to tell... it works better this way for me because makes alt playing more interesting

The story was the most undesirable aspect of the game for me.  Dungeons were second.

I didn't like the disconnected feeling of the story caused by level gaps.  It would progress you in the story, then you'll be underleveled for the next part, so you'll have to go back out in the world to level up more, then go back to the story.  It would have been better if the outside content (while leveling), was connected to the story more directly.  If it was, i didn't get that feeling.  I actually thought the dynamic events and heart tasks were more interesting with their stories. lol.

Originally posted by Xobdnas

But I stayed with it, and man was I wrong. GW2 puts these other MMOs to shame. By the end I was extremely impressed with the story and the events that unfolded. Very fun.

Unfortunately I found it all very amateurish; I though it was really inept, sorry

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by JoeyMMO
I sorta liked most personal stories, but they could have done a better job of putting it all together. The whole "you're now in an order and whatever you did before is now irrelevant" feeling didn't go down very well. The stories, missions on their own were decent to good, they just didn't blend all that smoothly into that one big personal story.

think one of the issues is how it branches.. think they sacrificed a lot to allow lots of combination of branching stories instead of just focusing on a single core strong story to tell... it works better this way for me because makes alt playing more interesting

I have ten toons and the fact that you have choices is the up side of the whole thing. However, if for example you choose to have a missing relative, then you have an encounter where you're supposed to learn something about a missing sister or something. Assassins try to kill you and then, well nothing...next subject! Big questionmark, WTF?

Some branches are pretty broken. Following broken branches does not work better however you try to spin it.

Maybe you've gotten lucky and never encountered the feeling that there wasn't much to the choices you made because it's just a different mission that doesn't really change anything in the end. Sometimes there's a need for a follow-up that just never happens. In that respect some personal stories can be pretty crappy, depending on what you picked and find important.

Originally posted by JoeyMMO

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by JoeyMMO
I sorta liked most personal stories, but they could have done a better job of putting it all together. The whole "you're now in an order and whatever you did before is now irrelevant" feeling didn't go down very well. The stories, missions on their own were decent to good, they just didn't blend all that smoothly into that one big personal story.

think one of the issues is how it branches.. think they sacrificed a lot to allow lots of combination of branching stories instead of just focusing on a single core strong story to tell... it works better this way for me because makes alt playing more interesting

I have ten toons and the fact that you have choices is the up side of the whole thing. However, if for example you choose to have a missing relative, then you have an encounter where you're supposed to learn something about a missing sister or something. Assassins try to kill you and then, well nothing...next subject! Big questionmark, WTF?

Some branches are pretty broken. Following broken branches does not work better however you try to spin it.

Maybe you've gotten lucky and never encountered the feeling that there wasn't much to the choices you made because it's just a different mission that doesn't really change anything in the end. Sometimes there's a need for a follow-up that just never happens. In that respect some personal stories can be pretty crappy, depending on what you picked and find important.

some branches are much better/worse than others ill give you that.. never really felt let down by any overall though as I said before i don't play MMOs for the story.. the fact it even has a mostly fully voiced story with branching parts so  ican level multiple toons and not repeat content is just a huge bonus in my book.. in Rift after the initial area I couldn't tell you a single story aspect of that game.. but i never cared because again I don't play MMOs for the story but if it gives great xp and the fight sequences are fun i don't see much of a downside

Originally posted by JoeyMMO

I have ten toons and the fact that you have choices is the up side of the whole thing. However, if for example you choose to have a missing relative, then you have an encounter where you're supposed to learn something about a missing sister or something. Assassins try to kill you and then, well nothing...next subject! Big questionmark, WTF?

Some branches are pretty broken. Following broken branches does not work better however you try to spin it.

Maybe you've gotten lucky and never encountered the feeling that there wasn't much to the choices you made because it's just a different mission that doesn't really change anything in the end. Sometimes there's a need for a follow-up that just never happens. In that respect some personal stories can be pretty crappy, depending on what you picked and find important.

Ah, but you at least get different mission based on your choice.

Now compare it to SWTOR which is supposed to be king of story (RPG) where you pretty much get different one liner and few seconds of different cutscene and EVERYTHING else is the same.

I applaud you for having the endurance to suffer through GW2's story.  I got maybe halfway and was already looking for a new game to play.  Very bad acting, lifeless characters staring off into nothingness, yet somehow engaging in a conversation.  Missions that needed to be zerged via run in do damage, die, run back do damage, die, over and over, until it was complete.

Very sloppy design.

SWTOR has far more gripping storylines, was more immersive, and has better acting.

Originally posted by Karteli

 Missions that needed to be zerged via run in do damage, die, run back do damage, die, over and over, until it was complete.

 

I'm sorry, but that is a personal problem, not a game problem.

Originally posted by Karteli

I applaud you for having the endurance to suffer through GW2's story.  I got maybe halfway and was already looking for a new game to play.  Very bad acting, lifeless characters staring off into nothingness, yet somehow engaging in a conversation.  Missions that needed to be zerged via run in do damage, die, run back do damage, die, over and over, until it was complete.

 

Very sloppy design.

 

SWTOR has far more gripping storylines, was more immersive, and has better acting.

haven't had to do that since my first character... once i learned the combat the story missions for the most part were no problem at all.. might need to l2p a bit better as the story missions you do not need to spawn point rush them at all..but i guess it's nice for people to have that option to still complete the mission even if they aren't very good at the combat...

swtor stories might of been more immersive but that all goes down the drain once out of the story sequence and you actually have to walk around the zones... VO is subjective but I'd say it'shardly worse(and id say much better overall) than most other MMOs with only swtor and TSW being an exception

i don't think many of these people who complain about VO have watched many american dubbed anime.. you want some horrible VO some of those are... well yea..... of course there are exceptions as there have been some good american dubbed anime:)

Originally posted by Karteli

Missions that needed to be zerged via run in do damage, die, run back do damage, die, over and over, until it was complete.

 

Very sloppy design.

 

SWTOR has far more gripping storylines, was more immersive, and has better acting.

L2P issue. Big one it seems.

No it isnt.

Only thing SWTOR has are better cuscenes, story itself is about same quality level (bad) and from RPG stand GW2 is far ahead since it at least has SOME consequences based on choice.

Originally posted by mikahr

Originally posted by Karteli

Missions that needed to be zerged via run in do damage, die, run back do damage, die, over and over, until it was complete.

 

Very sloppy design.

 

SWTOR has far more gripping storylines, was more immersive, and has better acting.

L2P issue. Big one it seems.

No it isnt.

Only thing SWTOR has are better cuscenes, story itself is about same quality level (bad) and from RPG stand GW2 is far ahead since it at least has SOME consequences based on choice.

that was one of my biggest issues with swtor story.. yes you got options to change what people said and change part of what happens in the particular scene but overall you always went to the same place and did the same sequence of events no matter what.. at least in gw2 i have numerous choices to change where I go, who i fight, and who i talk to especially upto level 50

Originally posted by mikahr

Originally posted by Karteli

Missions that needed to be zerged via run in do damage, die, run back do damage, die, over and over, until it was complete.

 

Very sloppy design.

 

SWTOR has far more gripping storylines, was more immersive, and has better acting.

L2P issue. Big one it seems.

No it isnt.

Only thing SWTOR has are better cuscenes, story itself is about same quality level (bad) and from RPG stand GW2 is far ahead since it at least has SOME consequences based on choice.

SWTOR had much better presentation for the stories.  I'm not talking about the cutscenes either, but the pacing.  With GW2, you often had to go several levels before being able to advance to the next stage, by which time any emotional impact it might have had is lost.  With SWTOR, you had the class stories and the planet stories playing out, plus actual one-shot quests that were at least somewhat engaging due to the solid voice acting.

With GW2, the time spent in between personal story quests ammounted to filling up hearts on the map.  I don't know how many people even read the heart descriptions, but most were pretty bland, reading more like a list of objectives than contributing to anything resembling a story.  And when you do finally get to your next personal story quest, you have to sit through some of the worst voice acting in any recent game.  It's like they just phoned it in during the lunch break for whatever job they *really* do.

As for story consequences, SWTOR again takes the cake.  There are a handful of failry major choices you get to make throughout the story which often results in various people living or dying or betraying or whatever.  On paper, those choices might seem trivial, but in practice they have real impact since the character development of the game is so much better.

Anyway, not saying SWTOR is the greatest story ever told, or even a good game to play.  I just think it's rediculous to try and argue that GW2 does it better than SWTOR in everything except cutscenes...

Originally posted by asmkm22

Originally posted by mikahr

Originally posted by Karteli

Missions that needed to be zerged via run in do damage, die, run back do damage, die, over and over, until it was complete.

 

Very sloppy design.

 

SWTOR has far more gripping storylines, was more immersive, and has better acting.

L2P issue. Big one it seems.

No it isnt.

Only thing SWTOR has are better cuscenes, story itself is about same quality level (bad) and from RPG stand GW2 is far ahead since it at least has SOME consequences based on choice.

SWTOR had much better presentation for the stories.  I'm not talking about the cutscenes either, but the pacing.  With GW2, you often had to go several levels before being able to advance to the next stage, by which time any emotional impact it might have had is lost.  With SWTOR, you had the class stories and the planet stories playing out, plus actual one-shot quests that were at least somewhat engaging due to the solid voice acting.

With GW2, the time spent in between personal story quests ammounted to filling up hearts on the map.  I don't know how many people even read the heart descriptions, but most were pretty bland, reading more like a list of objectives than contributing to anything resembling a story.  And when you do finally get to your next personal story quest, you have to sit through some of the worst voice acting in any recent game.  It's like they just phoned it in during the lunch break for whatever job they *really* do.

As for story consequences, SWTOR again takes the cake.  There are a handful of failry major choices you get to make throughout the story which often results in various people living or dying or betraying or whatever.  On paper, those choices might seem trivial, but in practice they have real impact since the character development of the game is so much better.

Anyway, not saying SWTOR is the greatest story ever told, or even a good game to play.  I just think it's rediculous to try and argue that GW2 does it better than SWTOR in everything except cutscenes...

the pacing in gw2 is really an issue I agree.. I would of liked more story sequences overall as there is sometimes way ot big of a gap inbetween them... although i found best way to do the story is wait till you are around level 60 or so to even start the story then you don't get that disconnect. But again i don't play MMOs for the story, usually if it even has one to begin with thats a bonus and if its got decent full VO thats another bonus, and if it gives good XP another bonus:)

i also really dissagree on the worst VO.. only games i'd say have slightly better VO when it comes to a MMO is swtor and TSW but then again in those two games story was its #1 selling point for gw2 it was not

Originally posted by asmkm22

SWTOR had much better presentation for the stories.  I'm not talking about the cutscenes either, but the pacing.  With GW2, you often had to go several levels before being able to advance to the next stage, by which time any emotional impact it might have had is lost.  With SWTOR, you had the class stories and the planet stories playing out, plus actual one-shot quests that were at least somewhat engaging due to the solid voice acting.

Oh really? Then why i always forgot what story even was due to exterme amount of filler generic MMO quests in SWTOR that you HAD to do to just level so you can actually do, you know, personal story? I see some bias here...And due to level scaling doing story missions at higher level is much more satisfying and viable in GW2 than in SWTOR that it isnt even comparable

With GW2, the time spent in between personal story quests ammounted to filling up hearts on the map.  I don't know how many people even read the heart descriptions, but most were pretty bland, reading more like a list of objectives than contributing to anything resembling a story.  And when you do finally get to your next personal story quest, you have to sit through some of the worst voice acting in any recent game.  It's like they just phoned it in during the lunch break for whatever job they *really* do.

Mmmm, just no. And how many people actually spacebarred through filler/story quests in SWTOR? Spacebarring was so sought after (along with "hide helmet option") that they even wanted it as payed option for their extended trial they misscalled F2P but due to gigantic reaction of SUBBERS they didnt do it.

As for story consequences, SWTOR again takes the cake.  There are a handful of failry major choices you get to make throughout the story which often results in various people living or dying or betraying or whatever.  On paper, those choices might seem trivial, but in practice they have real impact since the character development of the game is so much better.

There are NO consequrnces in SWTOR. Period. Some may live, some may die (in cutsecne mind you) but consequences of your choices are 0 NOTHING changes regardless if someone lives or dies. BIGGEST dissapointment in SWTOR

Anyway, not saying SWTOR is the greatest story ever told, or even a good game to play.  I just think it's rediculous to try and argue that GW2 does it better than SWTOR in everything except cutscenes...

SWTOR is tad over other MMOs in stories, stories are cliches, bland and generally bad. They cannot even be compared to single player games. Yah, SWTOR has best cutscenes. It certanly didnt help it much

Dont overexert yourself over it, SWTOR didnt deliver.