I was playing Guild Wars 2. And I've been playing MMO Alphas and Betas for well over a decade to know that at this point, what you see is what you get one month from now in retail. So please don't fire the "its beta" shot.
Actually the "its a beta" shot still makes plenty of sense, as you're complaining about the story, and the story in its entirety is yet to be playable. All you've gotten to see is the prologue for the most part. As for voice acting, eh...that's to taste. I prefer there never be voice acting in games short of gutteral cries during combat, I don't think any game has ever really gotten it right.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
I was playing Guild Wars 2. And I've been playing MMO Alphas and Betas for well over a decade to know that at this point, what you see is what you get one month from now in retail. So please don't fire the "its beta" shot.
Actually the "its a beta" shot still makes plenty of sense, as you're complaining about the story, and the story in its entirety is yet to be playable. All you've gotten to see is the prologue for the most part. As for voice acting, eh...that's to taste. I prefer there never be voice acting in games short of gutteral cries during combat, I don't think any game has ever really gotten it right.
thank you and whats more the beta thing still goes as i had moments in my story line where thackery had no voice at all just text or he is talking but not on screen and guild wars was always very very good about the story so i have no doubt the story is going to be awesome
You make an interesting point.. If arena net was charging the standard 15 a month, would so much be interested, or heck would some continue playing after the first month?
There can be a reason for the poor voice over, they probably went the cheap route in order not to be over budget/expensive..
The good thing though you don't have to do it to..
Up until this point both myself and my spouse are thoroughly disappointed with Guild Wars 2. While the combat combo mechanics are interesting, the story lines, story telling, and voice-overs are some of the worst we have seen or heard in an MMO; ever!
Story is a major turn off in this title and we're not sure we will be able to stumble through the game with it in its current form.
All the characters you encounter, through the multiple classes and races we've played, have been completely uninteresting, bland, and just plain boring -- And the voice-overs equally! We have not come across a single interesting NPC yet. And as far as personal stories are concerned, the cut scenes (with large in progress stickers on each of them) included, are just uninspiring and often just too convoluted to follow -- Its far easier to just give up and hit "skip" than listen to another terrible voice acting scene.
With recent previously released MMOs which are heavy on story and excellent voice acting, along with great cut scenes, I wonder if this will damn GW2.
I believe the only single saving grace for this game is that it does not require a monthly subscription. I truly believe this is the only reason the game will do well. Sure the environments are nice, the adhoc quest system is cool, and the convoluted combos you can come up with in combat are interesting. But the story being told is just down-right awful and the voice acting along with it.
Hmmm. Well, I can agree the personal story is probably GW2''s weakest link (something has to be I guess) and the voice-overs in the strips aren't amazing but NPCs around the world are some of the most interesting and alive I've ever seen in an MMO. I followed some around just to see what they would say and do.
That said I don't think the story is aweful as you say and being just one limited part of a huge game I don't mind it at all and it offers a change of pace instead of being the odd entire focus of the game as some other recent releases (and btw I don't find the quality of those other cutscenes or voiceovers anything to write home about either).
Up until this point both myself and my spouse are thoroughly disappointed with Guild Wars 2. While the combat combo mechanics are interesting, the story lines, story telling, and voice-overs are some of the worst we have seen or heard in an MMO; ever!
Story is a major turn off in this title and we're not sure we will be able to stumble through the game with it in its current form.
All the characters you encounter, through the multiple classes and races we've played, have been completely uninteresting, bland, and just plain boring -- And the voice-overs equally! We have not come across a single interesting NPC yet. And as far as personal stories are concerned, the cut scenes (with large in progress stickers on each of them) included, are just uninspiring and often just too convoluted to follow -- Its far easier to just give up and hit "skip" than listen to another terrible voice acting scene.
With recent previously released MMOs which are heavy on story and excellent voice acting, along with great cut scenes, I wonder if this will damn GW2.
I believe the only single saving grace for this game is that it does not require a monthly subscription. I truly believe this is the only reason the game will do well. Sure the environments are nice, the adhoc quest system is cool, and the convoluted combos you can come up with in combat are interesting. But the story being told is just down-right awful and the voice acting along with it.
It is fairly apparent you don't know what you are talking about. "Most MMO's" don't have voice overs for the questing. "Most MMO's" don't have cut scenes that are any good.
The story is more dynamic and changing than SWTOR (SWTOR was a horrible game, IMO). I don't think the story is the selling point of GW2, but it is definitely not worse than "Most MMO's".
I could honestly care less about the story, and more about the gameplay (what you are doing 95% of the time when playing). Also, the "in progress" stuff is because the game is in beta. This will not be there for release. At least, I hope not
To each their own, but it sounds like you are being overly critical with zero fact to back up your arguments.
1. I totally understand William Murphy, when I heard of those "elf-plants" I roled my eyes and thought, that this would be one of the weaker parts of the game. However, the character creation looks very intriguing. The artwork of this race is amazing and I now plan to play 1 or 2 Sylvari.
2. The personal story is just one feature of the game for players who like to play alone from time to time and want to have an experience similar to a single-player game. One can completely leave out this part of the game and just do more DEs or PvP. Yet this is a wonderful opportunity for the devs to include stuff that normaly is impossible in MMOs.
Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.
I don't usually like the pretty fantasy races but it looks like you can push this enough to get them almost orc or goblin like (or elf like) which is perfect for me! Quality creation allows for that much difference, well done Anet, well done.
Until now, i've been unreserved about watching GW2 videos before experiencing the content in game; but these I refuse to watch. Can't wait to play the Sylvari. Must...resist...
I agree with what Soldarith wrote. After playing games like SWTOR and LOTRO, the story here and the execution of the voices and cut scenes is terrible and geared toward kids. However, I created a thread which got some helpful responses that the story isn't mandatory and you can avoid it and still do well gear wise. I wish they would take it out, just like I wish they would have taken out the Space Mini game in TOR just to shut everyone up. I am very much looking forward to this game because despite the personal story grudge, the world is beautiful, its much more geared toward explorations, love the music, and the questing system and PVE/PVP combo is much more toward my liking when compared to the more traditional quest based systems. Very excited :-)
Originally posted by MattVid It is fairly apparent you don't know what you are talking about. "Most MMO's" don't have voice overs for the questing. "Most MMO's" don't have cut scenes that are any good.
The story is more dynamic and changing than SWTOR (SWTOR was a horrible game, IMO). I don't think the story is the selling point of GW2, but it is definitely not worse than "Most MMO's".
I could honestly care less about the story, and more about the gameplay (what you are doing 95% of the time when playing). Also, the "in progress" stuff is because the game is in beta. This will not be there for release. At least, I hope not
To each their own, but it sounds like you are being overly critical with zero fact to back up your arguments.
Never once in my post did I claim "most MMOs". Its fairly apparent that you did not read my post, but instead skimmed it. I am not so new to the genre that I believe MMOs have been doing voice-over questing for decades now...Just because our opinions disagree doesn't mean you need to take my words out-of-context or create your own in attacks against me.
I don't believe that Guild Wars 2 does everything wrong. I just think that the story itself, for Engineer, Elementalist, and Necromancer are so uninteresting and the NPCs and voice-acting is so uninspiring that it makes SWTOR and TSW's voice-acting and cut-scenes look like they came out of a blockbuster summer movie. Do those two MMOs have their faults? Absolutely, but story and voice acting is not one of them.
Its not the "in progress" stuff that worries me. Yes, where voice-overs are missing, they will be placed in; I get this. What will not be fixed is the story arch, the NPCs involved, and voice actors and their lines already spoken and placed into the game. All of that is done and will not change come release. And, for us at least, all of that is absolutely the worst we have seen in an MMO to date.
One comment made a lot of sense here: They probably didn't spend a great deal on the voice acting and spent the money elsewhere. That certainly makes sense and I can applaud them for making that choice.
However, the fact remains for us that the story lines are absolute trash for the classes and races we played. And while the game will still hold sway with the player crowds who want an online game without paying a monthly fee, those gamers who just want pure PVP-centered experiences, and those who want an open world to explore, the game's core (i.e. its story) is shallow, uninspiring, and given little thought in effectiveness and meaning -- Once again: IMO.
So far the one aspect I've been eagerly waiting to see in Sylvari character creation has been skipped over by every single person that's reviewed the updated Sylvari character creation without fail: available skin tones.
They all show off the predictable height slider, but none so far have included a sampling of the skin tone spectrum (which is far more defining in my opinion). Some even dyed the armor, but ignored skin tones. How annoying is that?
They look great otherwise, some very cool options, and their starter area looks better than I expected. I'm just bummed we didn't get a sample of lightest, darkest and something in between for reference.
Edit: Also, you hovered over the light bulb (allows you to see the amount of phosphorescent glow, note the slider under the colors to adjust glow), but didn't click it...gah! I'm dying to see that.
I'm kind of amused by the opinions, just because alot of the anti-personal story stuff is so far off from my own. I think the personal story's sound fantastic and give reason to making alts. I'm not saying they will be done perfectly, nothing is. I guess to each their own. I hope GW2 is successful as I think ANET really does strive to do their best, they seem like a great company for their customers. The video's are pretty awesome.
Hey, I liked Sylvari before it was cool! It will be awesome to FINALLY give em a try. It's the only race that really appeals to me in GW2. The starting area is even better than I expected. The only thing I don't like are those shape-shifting quests but Anet seems to really dig them. I feel gimped when shape-shifted in those quests. I guess I understanding the appeal to others though.
On a side note, it appears rangers pets are still squishy as hell. They need some AI dodging or something.
And cut scenes are what people want in their MMO now? Mmmk...at least they're short and to the point lol.
However, the fact remains for us that the story lines are absolute trash for the classes and races we played. And while the game will still hold sway with the player crowds who want an online game without paying a monthly fee, those gamers who just want pure PVP-centered experiences, and those who want an open world to explore, the game's core (i.e. its story) is shallow, uninspiring, and given little thought in effectiveness and meaning -- Once again: IMO.
We live in an age when people believe that the core of MMORPGs should be story. I hope this fades after games like TOR are seen as less successful than promised. It is a bit strange to see someone that's played the game actually think that story is the "game's core."
I was playing Guild Wars 2. And I've been playing MMO Alphas and Betas for well over a decade to know that at this point, what you see is what you get one month from now in retail. So please don't fire the "its beta" shot.
Actually the "its a beta" shot still makes plenty of sense, as you're complaining about the story, and the story in its entirety is yet to be playable. All you've gotten to see is the prologue for the most part. As for voice acting, eh...that's to taste. I prefer there never be voice acting in games short of gutteral cries during combat, I don't think any game has ever really gotten it right.
Still, I think it's fair to say at this point what you see is what you'll get for the most part, if not entirely. Sure there's a few lines they're tweaking and cleaning up here and there according to recent interviews, but it's not realistic to expect it to be handled differently at release than what we're seeing now.
I personally haven't enjoyed a game this much in over a decade of MMOs, everything about it far surpassed my expectations and I've continually had fun every step of the way. This MMO just suits me perfectly right now. Every single aspect of it. It makes perfect sense that while I got incredibly lucky, there's no way it could have ticked all the right boxes for everyone on the planet.
However, if someone's that turned off by the voice acting (oddly enough, look at the list of voice actors and notice which other recent MMOs they were in that people claimed had better VOs...yeah...), then I'd say stay away - if you're playing for the personal story aspect primarily. What you've seen is a direct reflection of the choices they made and of how they'll be handling story, so it'd be silly to think at a certain level it'll magically be something different. No, this is the direction they took.
I personally like it, there's some absolutely fantastic characters and they've done a great job of quickly getting across the major story lines while still including various mood shifts and enjoyable situations and twists. I watch these cutscenes and feel 'Yep, that's about exactly what I want', which is a welcome change of pace to the over the top Swtor style which I found incredibly long winded; especially when combined with their generic and one dimensional cardboard characters. Swtor had some good voice actors, but they were wasted on shallow cliche scripts and predictable characters that had no character.
Yeah kinda. It reminds me of Perfect World or Jade Dynasty or some other Korean fantasy f2p games. Graphics are more detailed and crisp for sure. But the overall aesthetic resembles these games a lot imo.
Comments
Actually the "its a beta" shot still makes plenty of sense, as you're complaining about the story, and the story in its entirety is yet to be playable. All you've gotten to see is the prologue for the most part. As for voice acting, eh...that's to taste. I prefer there never be voice acting in games short of gutteral cries during combat, I don't think any game has ever really gotten it right.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
thank you and whats more the beta thing still goes as i had moments in my story line where thackery had no voice at all just text or he is talking but not on screen and guild wars was always very very good about the story so i have no doubt the story is going to be awesome
You make an interesting point.. If arena net was charging the standard 15 a month, would so much be interested, or heck would some continue playing after the first month?
There can be a reason for the poor voice over, they probably went the cheap route in order not to be over budget/expensive..
The good thing though you don't have to do it to..
Now I know what I want to be, this reminds me of a zabrak.
Looking at: The Repopulation
Preordering: None
Playing: Random Games
Hmmm. Well, I can agree the personal story is probably GW2''s weakest link (something has to be I guess) and the voice-overs in the strips aren't amazing but NPCs around the world are some of the most interesting and alive I've ever seen in an MMO. I followed some around just to see what they would say and do.
That said I don't think the story is aweful as you say and being just one limited part of a huge game I don't mind it at all and it offers a change of pace instead of being the odd entire focus of the game as some other recent releases (and btw I don't find the quality of those other cutscenes or voiceovers anything to write home about either).
Edit: Somehow succeeded in posting too soon...
It is fairly apparent you don't know what you are talking about. "Most MMO's" don't have voice overs for the questing. "Most MMO's" don't have cut scenes that are any good.
The story is more dynamic and changing than SWTOR (SWTOR was a horrible game, IMO). I don't think the story is the selling point of GW2, but it is definitely not worse than "Most MMO's".
I could honestly care less about the story, and more about the gameplay (what you are doing 95% of the time when playing). Also, the "in progress" stuff is because the game is in beta. This will not be there for release. At least, I hope not
To each their own, but it sounds like you are being overly critical with zero fact to back up your arguments.
1. I totally understand William Murphy, when I heard of those "elf-plants" I roled my eyes and thought, that this would be one of the weaker parts of the game. However, the character creation looks very intriguing. The artwork of this race is amazing and I now plan to play 1 or 2 Sylvari.
2. The personal story is just one feature of the game for players who like to play alone from time to time and want to have an experience similar to a single-player game. One can completely leave out this part of the game and just do more DEs or PvP. Yet this is a wonderful opportunity for the devs to include stuff that normaly is impossible in MMOs.
Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.
um you must not have seen how fast those keys went
you can make some seriously ugly Norn too
Guild Wars 2 Youtube Croatian Maniacs
My Guild Wars titles
It reminds me of Fay Village in EQ2 which was beautifull
Until now, i've been unreserved about watching GW2 videos before experiencing the content in game; but these I refuse to watch. Can't wait to play the Sylvari. Must...resist...
I agree with what Soldarith wrote. After playing games like SWTOR and LOTRO, the story here and the execution of the voices and cut scenes is terrible and geared toward kids. However, I created a thread which got some helpful responses that the story isn't mandatory and you can avoid it and still do well gear wise. I wish they would take it out, just like I wish they would have taken out the Space Mini game in TOR just to shut everyone up. I am very much looking forward to this game because despite the personal story grudge, the world is beautiful, its much more geared toward explorations, love the music, and the questing system and PVE/PVP combo is much more toward my liking when compared to the more traditional quest based systems. Very excited :-)
There Is Always Hope!
Never once in my post did I claim "most MMOs". Its fairly apparent that you did not read my post, but instead skimmed it. I am not so new to the genre that I believe MMOs have been doing voice-over questing for decades now...Just because our opinions disagree doesn't mean you need to take my words out-of-context or create your own in attacks against me.
I don't believe that Guild Wars 2 does everything wrong. I just think that the story itself, for Engineer, Elementalist, and Necromancer are so uninteresting and the NPCs and voice-acting is so uninspiring that it makes SWTOR and TSW's voice-acting and cut-scenes look like they came out of a blockbuster summer movie. Do those two MMOs have their faults? Absolutely, but story and voice acting is not one of them.
Its not the "in progress" stuff that worries me. Yes, where voice-overs are missing, they will be placed in; I get this. What will not be fixed is the story arch, the NPCs involved, and voice actors and their lines already spoken and placed into the game. All of that is done and will not change come release. And, for us at least, all of that is absolutely the worst we have seen in an MMO to date.
One comment made a lot of sense here: They probably didn't spend a great deal on the voice acting and spent the money elsewhere. That certainly makes sense and I can applaud them for making that choice.
However, the fact remains for us that the story lines are absolute trash for the classes and races we played. And while the game will still hold sway with the player crowds who want an online game without paying a monthly fee, those gamers who just want pure PVP-centered experiences, and those who want an open world to explore, the game's core (i.e. its story) is shallow, uninspiring, and given little thought in effectiveness and meaning -- Once again: IMO.
So far the one aspect I've been eagerly waiting to see in Sylvari character creation has been skipped over by every single person that's reviewed the updated Sylvari character creation without fail: available skin tones.
They all show off the predictable height slider, but none so far have included a sampling of the skin tone spectrum (which is far more defining in my opinion). Some even dyed the armor, but ignored skin tones. How annoying is that?
They look great otherwise, some very cool options, and their starter area looks better than I expected. I'm just bummed we didn't get a sample of lightest, darkest and something in between for reference.
Edit: Also, you hovered over the light bulb (allows you to see the amount of phosphorescent glow, note the slider under the colors to adjust glow), but didn't click it...gah! I'm dying to see that.
I'm kind of amused by the opinions, just because alot of the anti-personal story stuff is so far off from my own. I think the personal story's sound fantastic and give reason to making alts. I'm not saying they will be done perfectly, nothing is. I guess to each their own. I hope GW2 is successful as I think ANET really does strive to do their best, they seem like a great company for their customers. The video's are pretty awesome.
Hey, I liked Sylvari before it was cool!
It will be awesome to FINALLY give em a try. It's the only race that really appeals to me in GW2. The starting area is even better than I expected. The only thing I don't like are those shape-shifting quests but Anet seems to really dig them. I feel gimped when shape-shifted in those quests. I guess I understanding the appeal to others though.
On a side note, it appears rangers pets are still squishy as hell. They need some AI dodging or something.
And cut scenes are what people want in their MMO now? Mmmk...at least they're short and to the point lol.
omg the sylvari boys look badass!! i thought they would be skinny and prissy, and was planning on rolling females, but this looks amazing.
Yeesh. Sylvari city looks straight out of Perfect World.
We live in an age when people believe that the core of MMORPGs should be story. I hope this fades after games like TOR are seen as less successful than promised. It is a bit strange to see someone that's played the game actually think that story is the "game's core."
Bill, you should have done the female customization too man. no matter, we'll see it in 4 days.
Not really:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTLqBWRrHmU#t=5m30s
Still, I think it's fair to say at this point what you see is what you'll get for the most part, if not entirely. Sure there's a few lines they're tweaking and cleaning up here and there according to recent interviews, but it's not realistic to expect it to be handled differently at release than what we're seeing now.
I personally haven't enjoyed a game this much in over a decade of MMOs, everything about it far surpassed my expectations and I've continually had fun every step of the way. This MMO just suits me perfectly right now. Every single aspect of it. It makes perfect sense that while I got incredibly lucky, there's no way it could have ticked all the right boxes for everyone on the planet.
However, if someone's that turned off by the voice acting (oddly enough, look at the list of voice actors and notice which other recent MMOs they were in that people claimed had better VOs...yeah...), then I'd say stay away - if you're playing for the personal story aspect primarily. What you've seen is a direct reflection of the choices they made and of how they'll be handling story, so it'd be silly to think at a certain level it'll magically be something different. No, this is the direction they took.
I personally like it, there's some absolutely fantastic characters and they've done a great job of quickly getting across the major story lines while still including various mood shifts and enjoyable situations and twists. I watch these cutscenes and feel 'Yep, that's about exactly what I want', which is a welcome change of pace to the over the top Swtor style which I found incredibly long winded; especially when combined with their generic and one dimensional cardboard characters. Swtor had some good voice actors, but they were wasted on shallow cliche scripts and predictable characters that had no character.
colddog04 you and I should be friends.
Yeah kinda. It reminds me of Perfect World or Jade Dynasty or some other Korean fantasy f2p games. Graphics are more detailed and crisp for sure. But the overall aesthetic resembles these games a lot imo.
Sylvari Resembles Zabraks quite a bit.
Looking at: The Repopulation
Preordering: None
Playing: Random Games