One thing I enjoy about the PVE side of things is how many paths you have to play in your personal story as you level up and how you can choose what paths you take aside from the game deciding for you.. Yes it comes together in the end but gives a ton of replayability for those of us who enjoy leveling alts. Found this that shows how each races choices effect what path your story takes.

 

http://i.imgur.com/doaX6.png

or a pdf if you want it http://gw.zweistein.cz/gw2storyline.pdf

Nice one although a tiny bit incomplete. I'm pretty sure I got to investigate Hylek as a Norn Guardian.

I was just checking this out with my girl friend, it's so cool to go down your personal story like that and see what you could've done besides what you already did. :D

 

Nice find!  I didn't realize there were so many paths.  So, even running an alt with all the same attributes (same race, char creation choices) can result in a completely different personal story.  Very cool.

Personally I hit esc as soon as I see that screen with 2 characters facing each other with bad voice overs and horrible script. Couldn't stand it.

I just randomly picked choices as I just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

IMO personal story is the low point of GW2 - the graphics are the high point, and the idea of 2 characters standing there *talking* to eachother with a backdrop is cheap and lame in a game that is so beautiful this was the best they could do? They could have at least panned or flown over some in game scenery - that would be pretty much free as its already there.

they could have given us a billion paths - the vo work, scripts, actual implementation are all poorly done IMO

I wish stories stayed unique all the way till lvl 80 (like SWTOR) and not merge on later levels.

in a real mmorpg players make their own history and have freedom, now these recent mmos are full of crap. Scripted personal history in a mmorpg is one of the most stupids and bad designs ever along the "solofriendly", what a joke. I just press the button as ASAP.

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc
in a real mmorpg players make their own history and have freedom, now these recent mmos are full of crap. Scripted personal history in a mmorpg is one of the most stupids and bad designs ever along the "solofriendly", what a joke. I just press the button as ASAP.

So you dicern between "real mmo's" and "recent mmo's"!

you know you don't even have to do the story- its optional for a reason. 

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc
in a real mmorpg players make their own history and have freedom, now these recent mmos are full of crap. Scripted personal history in a mmorpg is one of the most stupids and bad designs ever along the "solofriendly", what a joke. I just press the button as ASAP.

Sounds like you dont realize the difference between an MMO in general vs a Sandbox MMO. Sandbox MMOs offer you more freedom to create your own "story". Story & quest driven / themeparkish MMOs have always been around, including EQ, one of the 1st major MMOs. Wouldnt exactly consider EQ "recent".

The difference with GW2 vs many themepark games is typically in a themepark game everyone gets pretty much the exact same story, especially after leaving the starting area. In GW2 though youve got a bit of variety mixed in throughout the game and you get not just a different actual story, but completely different things to do depending on your choices. Choosing one path might allow you to do things like participate in a golem vs golem tournament, while another path has you placing and using siege weaponry to fight off wave after wave of enemies.

Originally posted by jondifool

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc
in a real mmorpg players make their own history and have freedom, now these recent mmos are full of crap. Scripted personal history in a mmorpg is one of the most stupids and bad designs ever along the "solofriendly", what a joke. I just press the button as ASAP.

So you dicern between "real mmo's" and "recent mmo's"!

you know you don't even have to do the story- its optional for a reason

for a good reason, i cant understand the reason for a personal story like " u are the hero as much as the killerlol69 next to u" in a genre that its suposed to be " make ur own story". let this crap for single player games. dont take this onthe bad side cause the skills and the PVE part of the game is really good.

Originally posted by kaiser3282

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc
in a real mmorpg players make their own history and have freedom, now these recent mmos are full of crap. Scripted personal history in a mmorpg is one of the most stupids and bad designs ever along the "solofriendly", what a joke. I just press the button as ASAP.

Sounds like you dont realize the difference between an MMO in general vs a Sandbox MMO. Sandbox MMOs offer you more freedom to create your own "story". Story & quest driven / themeparkish MMOs have always been around, including EQ, one of the 1st major MMOs. Wouldnt exactly consider EQ "recent".

The difference with GW2 vs many themepark games is typically in a themepark game everyone gets pretty much the exact same story, especially after leaving the starting area. In GW2 though youve got a bit of variety mixed in throughout the game and you get not just a different actual story, but completely different things to do depending on your choices. Choosing one path might allow you to do things like participate in a golem vs golem tournament, while another path has you placing and using siege weaponry to fight off wave after wave of enemies.

u are right, must play for what it is and respect ppl that like. variety ftw.

Originally posted by jondifool

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc
in a real mmorpg players make their own history and have freedom, now these recent mmos are full of crap. Scripted personal history in a mmorpg is one of the most stupids and bad designs ever along the "solofriendly", what a joke. I just press the button as ASAP.

So you dicern between "real mmo's" and "recent mmo's"!

you know you don't even have to do the story- its optional for a reason. 

When it comes to MMOS everything is optional.  Only because it is optional won't change his opinion regarding what he thinks of scripted and controlled storylines.

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc

Originally posted by jondifool

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc
in a real mmorpg players make their own history and have freedom, now these recent mmos are full of crap. Scripted personal history in a mmorpg is one of the most stupids and bad designs ever along the "solofriendly", what a joke. I just press the button as ASAP.

So you dicern between "real mmo's" and "recent mmo's"!

you know you don't even have to do the story- its optional for a reason

for a good reason, i cant understand the reason for a personal story like " u are the hero as much as the killerlol69 next to u" in a genre that its suposed to be " make ur own story". let this crap for single player games. dont take this onthe bad side cause the skills and the PVE part of the game is really good.

Cant you make your own story in any game. I mean its not like you realy make a story in any sandbox. I never had a Story in UO. I mostly wandered around cutting down trees, hiding from pks and guarding miners. I mean if standing there watching some guy mine for a few hours is a "story" or waiting in line for 40 minutes at the blacksmith is considered a story then i would put the book down. I was just playing a game in UO and thats like the grandfather of all sandbox mmos and i never saw any story.

I use a similar flow chart to the one linked for alts.  With 8 classes to play, minimizing repeat stories is a bonus.

The PDF looks like it's more accurate than the PNG. It's a nice find for people that could be interested in taking the other options. Thanks for that.

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc
in a real mmorpg players make their own history and have freedom, now these recent mmos are full of crap. Scripted personal history in a mmorpg is one of the most stupids and bad designs ever along the "solofriendly", what a joke. I just press the button as ASAP.

Yeah. In a "real" MMO the story goes like this...

 

"Hey, I got hre first and played 24/7 for the first week (energy drinks ftw!) Now I'm so much more powerful than you that I can gank you as often as I want and you can't do shit about it"...splat.

Originally posted by EvolvedMonky

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc

Originally posted by jondifool

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc
in a real mmorpg players make their own history and have freedom, now these recent mmos are full of crap. Scripted personal history in a mmorpg is one of the most stupids and bad designs ever along the "solofriendly", what a joke. I just press the button as ASAP.

So you dicern between "real mmo's" and "recent mmo's"!

you know you don't even have to do the story- its optional for a reason

for a good reason, i cant understand the reason for a personal story like " u are the hero as much as the killerlol69 next to u" in a genre that its suposed to be " make ur own story". let this crap for single player games. dont take this onthe bad side cause the skills and the PVE part of the game is really good.

Cant you make your own story in any game. I mean its not like you realy make a story in any sandbox. I never had a Story in UO. I mostly wandered around cutting down trees, hiding from pks and guarding miners. I mean if standing there watching some guy mine for a few hours is a "story" or waiting in line for 40 minutes at the blacksmith is considered a story then i would put the book down. I was just playing a game in UO and thats like the grandfather of all sandbox mmos and i never saw any story.

The Power of choices and endless possibilities were there and you chosen one that u didnt like? some ppl like to be herded , i respect that, but my preferences are do what i want and not being pigeon hole handed to me.

Originally posted by Iselin

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc
in a real mmorpg players make their own history and have freedom, now these recent mmos are full of crap. Scripted personal history in a mmorpg is one of the most stupids and bad designs ever along the "solofriendly", what a joke. I just press the button as ASAP.

Yeah. In a "real" MMO the story goes like this...

 

"Hey, I got hre first and played 24/7 for the first week (energy drinks ftw!) Now I'm so much more powerful than you that I can gank you as often as I want and you can't do shit about it"...splat.

you are describing darkfall, a badly designed sandbox on Pk aspect.

To have the opportunity to be great in any context you must also be free to fail. And nobody wants to fail. Thus, most prefer security over freedom as Benjamin Franklin once noted.

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc

Originally posted by EvolvedMonky

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc

Originally posted by jondifool

Originally posted by TsaboHavoc
in a real mmorpg players make their own history and have freedom, now these recent mmos are full of crap. Scripted personal history in a mmorpg is one of the most stupids and bad designs ever along the "solofriendly", what a joke. I just press the button as ASAP.

So you dicern between "real mmo's" and "recent mmo's"!

you know you don't even have to do the story- its optional for a reason

for a good reason, i cant understand the reason for a personal story like " u are the hero as much as the killerlol69 next to u" in a genre that its suposed to be " make ur own story". let this crap for single player games. dont take this onthe bad side cause the skills and the PVE part of the game is really good.

Cant you make your own story in any game. I mean its not like you realy make a story in any sandbox. I never had a Story in UO. I mostly wandered around cutting down trees, hiding from pks and guarding miners. I mean if standing there watching some guy mine for a few hours is a "story" or waiting in line for 40 minutes at the blacksmith is considered a story then i would put the book down. I was just playing a game in UO and thats like the grandfather of all sandbox mmos and i never saw any story.

The Power of choices and endless possibilities were there and you chosen one that u didnt like? some ppl like to be herded , i respect that, but my preferences are do what i want and not being pigeon hole handed to me.

 

I think it's more like people want to have interesting things to do with their precious spare time they invest in an MMO. Now, you might not like dev provided content - or maybe better said, dev provided content in the form of quests, since everything in an MMO is provided by devs in the end anyway. But it offers 1 of those interesting stuff to do, people still have the option and freedom to PvP, craft, explore, grind mobs for specific loot or xp etc, but they also have the option to do quests. Sounds like a good thing to me, to have more activity options.

Besides, not every hour and day and not every activity in a sandbox MMO was such a triumphant peak of blissful ecstacy, not all activities in a sandbox MMO were always that much fun either, some of those features were very badly executed in a number of them, also in the oldschool ones.