Oh my god. I am so late for this. I hope you can still see this reply, Matthew!
I can't describe how much I love GW2. It's a game I keep coming back too after everything else---I'd play some other game for a while and feel like 'I miss GW2, why isn't this as fun as GW2' and just come back, run around in a few maps helping other players, and it'd feel almost as new as it was back in 2013 all over again. There's so much that is fun and addictive in it, and unlike much of the vocal playerbase, I really, really love the story. To say that I legitimately enjoyed it more than Bioware's offerings since DA:O and ME1 would not be an exaggeration.
I love how many things the story are not laid out in front of you or dramatized for super clear emotional impact like most other games, but are things that you have to soak in the world for a bit and let them sit for a while before they sting. I'm one of those weirdos who gain no emotional response from characters breaking down and crying in front of you while talking about their story, but things like that grave pillaging event in the Elon Riverlands or that village in Kourna hits me in the guts. I love the little nuances about the character development, how Rytlock is really more of a clingy, emotionally starved guy more at odds with his Charr exterior than you'd realize. I love the contrast between Logan's honorable side trying to do the right thing and him being a total dweeb (sorry, Logan). I love Taimi's growth from a girl who didn't trust anyone and saw the protagonist as only a tool to....doing everything she could for everyone to the point of near death and nearly breaking down when she thought she ruined everything and they might be mad at her. Hell, I love Braham's trip to angstland and what caused that in the first place, his feelings that his priorities were put on the wayside. I loved Trahearne's quiet dignity and tragedy, and his not-so-quiet admiration of the Commander (really, Trahearne). And most of all I love the Commander, in all their various idiosyncrasies. As far as my perception is concerned, they're one of the most multifaceted main characters I know in games. And yes, I know you guys said it's all supposed to be smokes and mirrors (which made me legitimately sad), but whenever I look back at their dialogues and all their flaws and positives-----their hubris, their hilarious RAGE at being conned out of 50 coppers (coppers!), their inability to realize why town guards in PoF might be afraid to do the same things they do, their seeming failure to get how their death has affected their comrades, their TOTALLY DONE WITH THIS dialogue while helping nobles at Vabbi clean out chamber pots, their enthusiasm in collecting small animals, their sheer nonchalance at swearing a death oath, the whole THING with the hero seeing the world slip the more they try to save it, yet continues to try anyway----I see a nuanced character there that I truly love. Perhaps it's all a coincidence, a happenstance of writing by so many writers chasing deadlines and different writing goals, a trick of my own imagination---but in my mind, you guys have succeeded in creating a flawed, ruthless, unforgiving yet relentlessly kind and quietly despairing hero that I'll remember for years to come.
(Which is not to say that there aren't spots that I didn't like in the story, but suffice to say that I enjoyed most things.)
Thank you so much for all your work, and hope you continue to find great things in your future. I sort of wish you'd also tell us where you'd be going next when it happens, so that I could keep track of your future works.
(This also goes to other members of the team, obviously. But hey, you're the one who's here.)
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