Originally posted by Vhaln

Originally posted by thekid1

Funny how my opinion is completely the opposite. I can not stand the personal story and like running around exploring on the map.

I'm now 15 levels behind on my personal story and trying to catch up but I really HATE it.

 

Same here. I wish I could just abandon it altogether.  I hate it being up in the corner nagging me all the time.

 Yep.  My first character hit 80 and his story quest was...level 57.  Second character is 40 and story was level 8 before I started doing it.  Had the exact opposite effect doing them all back to back.

But my issue is the same as the one I had in Swtor.  I'm no RPer but it bothers me somewhat that my character has a preset voice and dialogue.  Kinda why in TSW I liked that my character never talked.  Yeah it seems weird that he just kinda stands there but it's better than him having some bizarre dialogue that makes me hate my own char.

Also, my first char was a human which the story turns into fighting wave after wave of sprinting risen.

I'll be honest, I really dislike most of the stories in GW2.  Whenever I do them, I am just thinking "when will this be over so I can get back do the fun stuff?"

Some of them I like, but that's rare.  By and large I just find them fairly dull.  And I mean, this isn't that surprising...there are so many of them that I guess the writing can't all be top quality...quantity over quality basically.

This is the same problem I had with SWTOR.  I found most of the stories very dull and cliche.  Thankfully for GW2 though, the story is not the main draw of the game...because I think that it is by far the weakest part of the game.

Originally posted by Creslin321

I'll be honest, I really dislike most of the stories in GW2.  Whenever I do them, I am just thinking "when will this be over so I can get back do the fun stuff?"

Some of them I like, but that's rare.  By and large I just find them fairly dull.  And I mean, this isn't that surprising...there are so many of them that I guess the writing can't all be top quality...quantity over quality basically.

This is the same problem I had with SWTOR.  I found most of the stories very dull and cliche.  Thankfully for GW2 though, the story is not the main draw of the game...because I think that it is by far the weakest part of the game.

Thank god Arena net didn't gloat about having a story driven mmo ;)

OP, you can level to 80 and then do your story. TBH the story is epic with huge battle, but its less interesting and original then GW1. For me its a step back. The one advantage is the replayability, but the story itself... average :/

I'm kind of disapointed.

The personal part of the story is better then the epic part after lvl 60ish... 

Story has been great thus far.

Great characters, stories, and action.

Great level of difficulty, downright hard if you don't outlevel the step you're on.

I enjoy the fact I get to explore around the open world for a couple of levels in between story steps.

I had enough linearity in SWTOR and WoW:Cata and RIFT questing going from A to B to C to D to E with no breaks or divergence.

I wish they would smooth out the level progression so you never have to leave your "main" story/zone path to catch up a few levels, but oh well - exploring other zones off "your path" is fun too (I just don't do any of the hearts.)

The post was all good until "If this game wasn't a compelte grindfest!" Stopped after that. GW2 is easy to level in and you do events in the different zones which are far superior to basic questing. You are actually doing something that matters for a short time anyway.

OP might be one of those people that haven't firgured out it isn't questing or hearts it is events! That is what matters to level and events are almost stories in the game.

Plain and simple, you're not meant to be able to level through the personal story alone.  GW2's strength is the variety of gameplay modes you can choose to play at any given time during the level up process.  Between events, hearts, map exploration, crafting, dungeons, and the various PvP modes, you should be able to find several things you enjoy doing in GW2.  The story is meant to introduce you to certain zones you should be leveling in as well as provide some additional context to the dungeons and, really, the whole world.  If the personal story is the only thing you like, then I hate to say it but I don't think GW2 is going to hold your attention for very long.  

I will say that once you get into the 50s and 60s, each of your personal story events begin to feel like full dungeons.  They can take upwards of 45 minutes to complete.  This continues through to level 80.  

For me personally, I eventually found myself outleveling my personal story drastically.  I would, usually to my surprise, get 10 levels ahead of it, then go back and do it all.  This pace felt good to me.  Doing just 1 at a time can make it feel somewhat disconnected from itself, but then again I already think the story feels highly disconnected from the rest of the world in many ways.  I have several criticisms for the personal story, but I'll wait until I get through my review to voice them.  On the whole, I enjoyed the dynamic events and heart quests a lot more than the personal story anyway.  I would even go as far as to say they do a better job at telling the story of Tyria than the personal story does.  

Originally posted by thekid1

Funny how my opinion is completely the opposite. I can not stand the personal story and like running around exploring on the map.

I'm now 15 levels behind on my personal story and trying to catch up but I really HATE it.

And I'm somewhere in the middle:  The story doesn't blow me away, but I like it. 

I don't "grind" the rest of the content to get to the next story quest.  I enjoy pretty much the whole experience, and often end up doing the next story quest 1 or 2 levels higher that required.  FYI:  no advantage to doing that; you get dropped down to the recommended level.

The only time I've felt like things feel a bit grindy is when I've been in zones where a number of the hearts have similar activities as progress credit.  2 or 3 that are almost strictly fetch based, for example. 

Originally posted by MannyMana

Between Crafting, jumping puzzles, pvp and exploration I find plenty to do in between my story arc.

I see no problems with the game. The problem a lot of people have is they play a game too much and burn out too quickly on it. This game is great for casual players but I could see becoming boring for hardcore gamers. If you learn to relax and stop staring at your exp bar and just immerse yourself in the game world while doing everything this game has to offer you will have a blast., I guarantee it.

This ^^^.

I pay almost no attention to my level.  I just really allow myself to be immersed in the game world.  I too do crafting and amazingly the xp for crafting is really good when you're "inventing" items.  I also love exploring and love the vistas, so I've enjoyed just randomly discovering areas and waypoints and points of interest and the vistas.  I've only completed 2 cities and none of the outdoor areas, but I've had a blast doing it.  I'm really enjoying this game.  I'm sorry some people aren't, but that doesn't really concern me.

edit:

I'm only level 32, but I'm in no hurry.

If you get the daily acheivements for kills/mob types/events/gathering that's enough XP for about 1/2 a level.

So you can literally get 1/2 a level per day doing the exact same thing in the exact same zone if you wanted to.

Originally posted by xpiher
I enjoy the order of whispers story so far. Yea, its a little chiche, but it makes me laugh from time to time and it fits my interest. I like how your choices in the story determine where you go and how your character progresses in the over all game. Replayability is high as well, so chances are I'll have a couple characters, at least one of each race. Saving up my exp boosters for em ;)

I've been kinda curious as to how the story "tree" maps out; it's not 100% obvious to me as of yet.

1-10th level seems to be based on your race.

10-20 seems to be based on how you answered a question about your past:  "passed up the opp to join the circus", "lost a fight to a rival", etc.

20-30 is this race again?

30+  seems based on your faction, Order of Whispers, for example.

Of course, you still have choices which alter those quests significantly, but am I right in that once you hit 30 and choose a faction, you'll be playing 1 of 3 options regardless of your race, class, or questions at CC?  Or are there 1 of 3 options for each race or some other factor?  I only have 1 character over lvl 30 so I'm not sure. 

I said it before but I guess I will again...

Where is this freaking grindfest folks are talking about? I feel like I get xp for every darn thing I do in the game. I think if I have my character go to an outhouse to take a piss I'll get xp for that too. You get xp for hearts, DE's, crafting, viewpoints, finding points of interest, gathering, sneezing, avoid cracks on the road that would break your mothers back, skipping rocks over the lake....okay I am exaggerating but you get xp from so many directions that it is hardly anything that could feel like a 'grindfest'. I remember FFXI in the beginning when it took hours to get a level and that was only if you didn't lose xp after a bad pull or something.

As for the story I like it but it's nothing over whelmingly good in my opinion. It's alright so nothing for me to push myself to get every time. Only reason I do is because of the rewards you usually get. Otherwise it could wait while I finish doing one of the many things I can do during that time. 

To people, who like story-focused gaming in MMOs, Guild Wars 2 is not going to cut it. It just has too little of it, and what it has - though somewhat improved in comparison to the WOW formula - is not really high quality stuff. Two games, SWTOR and TSW has done story-based progression in MMOs really well; in those games you're always aware of what your character (not you!) is going through and you're mostly in anticipation of narrative progression.

A game like GW2, on the other hand, is not narrative-focused. Many people say they're even forgetting they had their personal story quest waiting for quite a while, and this is not for nothing: In their drive for distraction-based gameplay (I'd say even more so than Skyrim), Arenanet has relegated personal story to something of a niche in this game. It's just there for people who really, particularly dig personal story and actively seek it out in RPGs they play. Otherwise, an overwhelming majority of the game has to do with "you and the world", not your character and his story. 

So, yeah... If you're looking for story-motivated gameplay, GW2 will probably disappoint you in this regard. 

Originally posted by solarine

So, yeah... If you're looking for story-motivated gameplay, GW2 will probably disappoint you in this regard. 

Or, at least if you're of the mind that GW2 is newer, therefore it will be "1 better" than TSW or TOR... the only real way it's better is that your choices more often and more deeply effect gameplay(compared to TOR and TSW), and your character actually talks(compared to TSW).

Also, as far as "empty story space between levels" goes, keep in mind that TOR is 50 levels to GW2's 80 levels.  Having some chunk of your story mission occur almost every level in TOR compared to GW2's every 2 or 3 levels is not as big a difference from that perspective.

TSW is even harder to figure, without any levels.  I remember when I played that I wished I could reset the whole series and do the whole story mission from front to back just to get a more focused context.  but anyhoo... 

I dont like that only the first third of it is actually about me.
This is your actual "Personal" story. Its about you and it can vary greatly based on choices you made during character creation and choices you make during the missions.

The second third is about your Order and you have little choice in the direction this part takes.

The last third isnt even about you and you have no choice.

Hopefully when they continue the story in expansions they actually make it about you again.

Originally posted by Robsolf

I've been kinda curious as to how the story "tree" maps out; it's not 100% obvious to me as of yet.

1-10th level seems to be based on your race.

10-20 seems to be based on how you answered a question about your past:  "passed up the opp to join the circus", "lost a fight to a rival", etc.

20-30 is this race again?

30+  seems based on your faction, Order of Whispers, for example.

Of course, you still have choices which alter those quests significantly, but am I right in that once you hit 30 and choose a faction, you'll be playing 1 of 3 options regardless of your race, class, or questions at CC?  Or are there 1 of 3 options for each race or some other factor?  I only have 1 character over lvl 30 so I'm not sure. 

From what I can tell: 

<<<CONTAINS 1-50 PERSONAL STORY SPOILERS>>>

1-30 is completely race unique.  Within that, 1-20 is based entirely around the choices you made on character creation.  Even within that, you're asked to make 1 or 2 choices during the story that will change your next 1 or 2 sequences.  Regardless of your choice, your story will eventually converge again.  From 20-30, you're introduced with the 3 Orders of Tyria and will periodically be asked to choose to accompany 1 out of 2 of them for your next mission.  You seem to be faced with a choice like this 3 or 4 times before you have to officially choose your faction at 30.

30-50 is all about the factoin you joined.  From talking with people who played different races but chose the same faction, we seem to have had several of the same missions.  Your sidekick/mentor as well as some of the imporant characters you meet will vary based on your race, however.

Non spoiler version of 50-80 is that it is relatively the same for everyone, regardless of race and faction.  You just have a few choices to make here and there that will determine your next mission.

<<<50-80 SPOILER VERSION AHEAD>>>> 

50-80 is relatively the same for everyone.  From 50-60 you fight off an Orrian invasion on Lion's Arch and begin to try to unite the 3 Orders.  From 60-70 you help prove your worth and demonstrate Trahearn's leadership abilities to the 3 Orders so you're unified and motivated.  70-80 consists of your invasion of Orr.