With all the goodies GW2 promises us, let's hope story is just as good.  While SWTOR focuses its MMO on story can we compare how GW2 matches up? 

GW2 will have cutscenes. When Guild Wars first came out I was enthralled by how my toon interacted in a cutscene. If I had a buff going, it was there in the cutscene. Back then (to me) I thought it was innovation. The downside was that sometimes my teammates had little interest in the storyline and clicked through it. If I spent time watching the events unfold i would be harassed (Aw Come On, Dude!). The real meat was the pvp anyway I was told.

The videos and demos seem to bring story out a little bit more. Guild Wars sets you on a path based on some choices you made at character creation. SWTOR does not. I did hear that GW2 devs say that you can do over missions (dungeons?) with a different choice, but not much else. Correct me if I am mistaken.

SWTOR does seem to trump GW2 in story in one major aspect - player interaction. Just how much a player can change the story has yet to be known, but to see the choices for players inthe party in a cutscene is interesting. 

I didn't buy the Guild War expansions, so my fellow gamers may enlighten me. How good was the GW storyline in the expansions? Were they merely diversions? Were they worth following? Did you feel you contributed to the story or were you an active witness to the storyline?  

Will GW2 deliver us a good plot or not?

Edit: Companions vs.  GW2 best friends - wonder how they will stack up?

There are multiple concepts at work here and it's important not to muddle them up -- and IMO these concepts are horribly muddled up in the gaming-sphere. What are these concepts?

• Quality of story
• Presentation of story
• Immersion in story 

They ought to be pretty self-explanatory. Now for your post-

Originally posted by fansede

With all the goodies GW2 promises us, let's hope story is just as good.  

This is often subjective, and coloured by our perceptions of the game in question. For instance, WoW, Aion, AoC, RIFT, EvE all have a good premise to start out with. I'm sure even F2P games like Allods have a decent story. Chances are that the story - in a vacuum - will be a good one in GW2.  I am inclined to say the same about TOR.   

*snip* 

The videos and demos seem to bring story out a little bit more. Guild Wars sets you on a path based on some choices you made at character creation. SWTOR does not.

It actually does - it is called the class you pick. Essentially, each of the SW classes will have a different class storyline to follow - which is exactly what the GW2 Personal Story is (if I haven't misunderstood everything). If anything, the GW2 approach is more nuanced and ultimately more immersion-beneficial. With the SWTOR approach, it is much easier to metagame, flipflopping on character choices from one quest to the next. The GW2 method sets several small details in stone and the beauty of it is that these won't make or break anything. They're a cool touch to you're character. 

I did hear that GW2 devs say that you can do over missions (dungeons?) with a different choice, but not much else. Correct me if I am mistaken.

Honestly, I am not sure so I can't comment. 

SWTOR does seem to trump GW2 in story in one major aspect - player interaction. Just how much a player can change the story has yet to be known, but to see the choices for players inthe party in a cutscene is interesting. 

If you are familiar with BioWare games (especially with the direction they have been taking their latest games in), then you'll realise that this is false. In a game like SWTOR, there is only the illusion of choice. What is really happening is that you're mostly hand-held by the devs through a series of events to fixed outcomes.

I honestly don't see them going open-ended with SWTOR given that it is an MMO. I expect that choices will have the biggest, varying impacts in the single player aspect of the game. But I doubt the larger game will be a Second World type deal where you can influence cities, etc.  

Will GW2 deliver us a good plot or not?

 Plot wise, it will probably be good. As for presentation of it - who knows? I certainly like the approach they have taken so far but I am sure people will dislike it and want cutscenes. I do feel that GW2's method is much more immersion-friendly however. GW2 has little elements that reminds me of open-ended RPGs of old whereas SWTOR reminds me of the ME series which was really like a shooter with RPG elements. It's a matter of style and preference I guess. 

Edit: Companions vs.  GW2 best friends - wonder how they will stack up?

Who knows? Need moar infoz D:

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Originally posted by fansede
With all the goodies GW2 promises us, let's hope story is just as good.  While SWTOR focuses its MMO on story can we compare how GW2 matches up? 
GW2 will have cutscenes. When Guild Wars first came out I was enthralled by how my toon interacted in a cutscene. If I had a buff going, it was there in the cutscene. Back then (to me) I thought it was innovation. The downside was that sometimes my teammates had little interest in the storyline and clicked through it. If I spent time watching the events unfold i would be harassed (Aw Come On, Dude!). The real meat was the pvp anyway I was told.
The videos and demos seem to bring story out a little bit more. Guild Wars sets you on a path based on some choices you made at character creation. SWTOR does not. I did hear that GW2 devs say that you can do over missions (dungeons?) with a different choice, but not much else. Correct me if I am mistaken.
SWTOR does seem to trump GW2 in story in one major aspect - player interaction. Just how much a player can change the story has yet to be known, but to see the choices for players inthe party in a cutscene is interesting. 
I didn't buy the Guild War expansions, so my fellow gamers may enlighten me. How good was the GW storyline in the expansions? Were they merely diversions? Were they worth following? Did you feel you contributed to the story or were you an active witness to the storyline?  
Will GW2 deliver us a good plot or not?
 
Edit: Companions vs.  GW2 best friends - wonder how they will stack up?

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Regarding story, yes, GW story was always good in that it actually HAD an active story and not just setting/lore information. Every GW game had a finishable story, but whether this will continue on to GW2 and in what capacity remains unknown right now. Mainly because even ANet, if interviews are to be believed, doesn't exactly know where to take the upcoming content because it'll depend on player reactions and wishes.

About companions and friends... eh, it's not really the same thing. Companions are always with you and can help with crafting while friends will accompany you on certain personal story missions and will hang out in your home instance.

Originally posted by fansede

Edit: Companions vs.  GW2 best friends - wonder how they will stack up?

The only real similarity between them are that they talk to you.

TOR companions will fight with you and do your crafting.

GW2 "best friends" are just NPC's in your personal story.

If SWTOR just bases your personal story on class choice, then Guild Wars 2 has it soundly beat on variety of story mode options.

In GW2, each character answers a few biographical questions before they enter the game, each with at least three possible choices. The questions and choices are based not only on your class, but your race. The system provides thousands of combinations and all the combinations effect how your personal story will play out.

The personal story events include cut scenes, but they aren't just cut scenes. The are instanced story adventures, often with things to fight, accomplish or discover; and there will be difficult choices in each step of your personal story that effect how your personal story branches out. So, even two characters of the same race and class may end up in very different places in their stories based on their actions and choices.

GW2 also gives players a Home Instance, which is a personalized, instanced city block of their racial city. This area is pretty large and has interactive content through out. The decisions you make in your personal story will be reflected in your home instance. If an NPC character integral to your story dies, they will have a tombstone in your graveyard and NPCs will visit the grave and leave flowers. If you were forced to decide whether to save the city Orphanage or the City Hospital, those choices will be reflected in your Home Instance. The one you don't save will be a burned husk of a building and you will see consequences for the NPCs as well. Save the Hospital and there will be orphans running around the streets. Save the Orphanage and you will see people in need of medical care loitering around the alleys. NPC attitudes will also reflect your choices and actions.

You can invite other players into your Personal Story and into your Home Instance. If they join you in your Personal Story and their Story includes the same exact Story Element as yours, when the crucial choice needs to be made, they can either accept your choice as theirs as well, or elect to play through again and make their own choice. (Great for Duos that spend most of their time playing together).

The Story Instances scale to your level, so you don't have to worry about doing them as soon as they become available.

Some Dynamic Events in the world may also be reflected in your home instance as well.

If I understand SWTOR story mode correctly, you can play through each class once to experience all the story content in the game. In GW2, you could play through as the same class many, many times and have a different branching story depending on your initial biography choices and the key branching choices you make in the story.

The Official Wiki spells out the basics:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Personal_storyline

This link shows the currently known biography choices. Class based, personality and race based.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Biography#Human

i smell a troll , lets se who feeds it !

SWTOR seems to be a more linear game experience. Guild Wars 2 is a dynamic, branching game experience.

One would hope the linear story would be a better told story, but some would rather immerse themselves in a Dynamic World and a Storyline they can actually effect.

When you look at the point that was brought up about re-playability, SWTOR gives you eight linear storylines and GW2 gives you thousands of variations and a branching storyline that can play out differently for every character, even characters of the same race and class.

If the comparison is between eight storylines and eight thousand, those eight better be a thousand times better.

I like both games and will be buying both. However, I expect more long term play and a more dynamic world and play experience from GW2 than from SWTOR. As soon as SWTOR is no longer worth a subscription fee, I'll be mostly done with it. With the GW2 Buy to Play business model, it doesn't matter if I play five hours a week or thirty, it will always be there when ever I feel like playing it and I don't have to worry about running out of stories to tell or game play to experience. I also know that with the Dynamic Event System, every time I visit a zone, things will be different than the last time I was there and I'll be doing a mix of things I've done before and things I haven't seen or experienced before on previous plays through.

Both should be good games, but they provide a stark contrast in design philosophy between Linear and Dynamic.

Originally posted by Farstryder

^^ Alot of gw fan bois  that are full of it. To compare Gw in story to  swtor is  hilarious and to be honest drug enduced.  If you claim that they will even hold ground much less touch the immersion you truly are bigger  sheep than you  all already sound.

Actually you are right. It is fanboyish to think GW is equal in story to SWTOR, just like it is fanboyish to think this is not the case. Neither games are out yet nor in open beta.

When it comes to story and immersion, the jury will stay out until the games are released.  But what I see right now certainly sways me more towards the GW2 side of things.  All fanboi arguments aside, I look at the cutscenes that are designed to draw a player into the story and GW2 does it for me, SWTOR doesn't.  As examples, here's a SWTOR one showing the crafting of a lightsaber (first one I found after doing a search) and here's a GW2 one introducing one of the dungeons (the only one I know off the top of my head).  Of course, style is a major factor in choosing what appeals to one player or another, but the latter is the one that makes me want to see more.

If this is how story elements are going to be presented in these games, there's one that clearly immerses me while the other just doesn't.

Originally posted by Farstryder

^^ Alot of gw fan bois  that are full of it. To compare Gw in story to  swtor is  hilarious and to be honest drug enduced.  If you claim that they will even hold ground much less touch the immersion you truly are bigger  sheep than you  all already sound.

No, because my game is better, and not yours (whichever game it is you are talking about).

I think GW2 will actualy be better than SWOTOR For story as well.

Why? Because SWOTOR story will be comprehensive but canned.  GW always had a pretty good story if you cared to look and had some novel presentation like the OP mentioned.

I expect that GW2 will have a number of very good stories and will have refined their presentation more.  In addition everything along the way will be more dynamic as you are bombarded with constant events you will be writing your own story as well and even the feel of normal known story points will be made to feel like a different experience between characters.

In SWOTOR I could simply read a wiki and know all of their "story based" class content.  In addition all their presentation stuff is old hat by now.  Its gonna be typical cutscenes and voice over.  Its hopefully high quality but beyond that completely canned.

I feel that it is more likely that ToR's story will be more involved and complex. Simply because for The Old Republic the story is the central part of the game and all gameplay is based around that, where as with GW2 it's just one of the games aspects to drive content. Now which will have the better story is hard to say. Bioware is pretty famed for their RPG's with good writing, great voice acting, etc. But at the same time each games story is a rehash of the last almost every time (lowly person becomes a great hero and saves the world').

Either way I'm glad both of them have a branching personal story. I feel that GW2's is probably going to be more personal because of all the choices you make at character creation that can pretty dramatically change your story, combined with the choices you make throughout your personal story. But frankly we really won't know how good either games personal story content will be until they are both out.

In the end I don't really care which has a better personal story. I'm going to play both of them after all (though my plan is to play ToR until GW2 hits, which in all likelyhood looks to be summer or fall next year.)

Originally posted by gestalt11

I think GW2 will actualy be better than SWOTOR For story as well.

 

Why? Because SWOTOR story will be comprehensive but canned.  GW always had a pretty good story if you cared to look and had some novel presentation like the OP mentioned.

 

I expect that GW2 will have a number of very good stories and will have refined their presentation more.  In addition everything along the way will be more dynamic as you are bombarded with constant events you will be writing your own story as well and even the feel of normal known story points will be made to feel like a different experience between characters.

 

In SWOTOR I could simply read a wiki and know all of their "story based" class content.  In addition all their presentation stuff is old hat by now.  Its gonna be typical cutscenes and voice over.  Its hopefully high quality but beyond that completely canned.

I agree.  I like the look of what they are doing in GW2 far better than Swtor.   Anet has talked about how their personal story system works, and it looks fantastic, but what I really like is that they have far more to reveal and talk about than their "story", which in my opinion looks better than Swtor's in the first place. 

This is the sort of story mechanic that works best in an mmorpg.  What Bioware has done is taken single player rpg story mechanics and thrown them into an mmo.  That might work out, but I dont think its going to be as interesting as GW2.