Guild Wars 2 Dev Tracker

Ah yes the journal. You know only a handful of people will read that but sure lets put all in the journal and waste the resource someplace else like in oh .. lets see .. a date with random npc. Priority huh.

LOL

You realise we know that you're reading this and

choosing

to ignore criticism right? Commenting on this thread

but not others

actually made you look worse.

I was off work yesterday and not combing reddit or the forums.

I can only reply to one thread at a time, and my time is limited, so...I am focusing here for the next few minutes before returning to my other duties.

I'm also not choosing to ignore anything. If I was ignoring criticism, I wouldn't be here. I'm merely clearing up some confusion on some of the more subtle bits that people may have missed.

Not sure why that makes you mad, but I hope you have a good day going forward. Be well.

Oh man. Reading that and all the reddit comments regarding that episode.. people seem to have totally misunderstood why all these characters were there. Must suck as a story writer 😅

I think some folks are stuck on the idea that the only emotions one can have when playing a game story is "Make me cry about dead character" or "make me mad about bad guy." These releases were meant to go in a different direction but because we used some familiar callbacks I think they assumed we were just retreading old ground instead of reframing the emotional burden on the Commander.

I mean, I'm not surprised some folks didn't get it. They weren't looking for it. Hence, me needing to clear up some of the misunderstanding.

Some folks did get it, though, so that makes me happy. And for the folks who didn't, that's OK. I hope they're having fun playing the game or trying to peel back the layers of the story but they may not be used to that kind of anal...

What, like the desolate new kaineng city?

You're saying there aren't NPCs, ambient scenes, events, or interactive things in the city?

"So instead you chose the worst of both worlds?"

Not in my opinion but feel free to disagree. How would you solve it?

But coupled with all the other 4th wall stuff like the MVP, BS and a few others it felt a bit too much in one episode.

What do you mean by MVP and BS? Serious question.

We are playing MMORPG. No dev should have come down here to explain things to us. It should be crystal clear how the story goes in the game while we play the game.

You'd be surprised but with a game that has tens of millions of players, not everyone gets all the details during their playthrough. Some folks get distracted or don't pick up on the subtext, or they don't read the notes or journals they come across, or they aren't versed in serialized, multithreaded stories so they lose track of what happened and to whom. We don't do most things in cinematics so it's on players to pay attention throughout, and that can be hard. Especially when releases are several months apart.

The journal is a good place to get a reminder, but some folks don't read it so they're missing out on extra stuff. But that's by design. A player can take in as much or as little as they want and play the game how they want.

Not sure if there are videos online or if you care to replay it, but I'd be curious to hear what was clear and what wasn't if you were paying close attention. Part of the problem we face in building story in a shared world is that there are a million other players running around on patch day, and oftentimes bits of dialogue or context are missed. Not saying that you weren't paying attention, but there were 4 character stories being juggled across these two episodes. Chul-Moo overcoming his regrets and growing as a leader, Yao making peace for their decision to leave the Brotherhood behind to learn from Joon, Rama finding purpose after quitting his job (and also pursuing a love interest), and obviously the Commander confronting more than a decade's worth of war to make peace with him/herself.

There's a lot of subtext in each scene, so I would assume that some folks--especially people playing for the first time or critiquing it as they wen...

My gripe wasn't what was said, I agree with everything Chul-Moo said and it makes sense for all that happened to weight heavy on the Commander, my gripe was with WHO said it, and what it implies (the reasons I listed above).

Gotcha. But Chul-Moo was one of several main characters in this episode so we decided to intersect his arc with the Commander's because of their shared burden. You have to remember that not everyone playing EoD played the base game, so there are times where we'll focus on recent events and characters instead of going all the way to the beginning.

We did, however, call back to the Commander's past traumas. In some cases it was about a friend. In other cases, regret for a mistake. Or in the case of Blish, about coming to peace with the fact that he made his own choice, and it wasn't ours to dispute. About letting go of the idea of control when you clearly aren't the one in charge of somethin...

Most of the writing budget focuses on the interdrama a handful of characters that acts as if they live in California but with Elder dragons. Those characters are at the very least the center of the story. I wish that the world was in the center instead, I feel like its a lot easier to pull that off in an MMO, especially one where the character driven parts of the story has to be told with voice acting.

Ideally we're creating environments and populating them with characters, events, and lore discoverables that make the world feel rich. But the world is always the set or backdrop to the foreground action. Either we can make it big and world ending (e.g. Elder Dragon threat) or we can push in and make it more intimate (e.g. What Lies Within). Both have their advantages and compromises.

I've heard comments from folks on both sides: "Make more personal stories! I'm tired of saving the world!" vs. "I don't care about this character! Give me a bi...

Yea to me personally, that communication device might have been the worst addition to the narrative in the entire game. I hate it.

I get that, but you have to remember that GW2 is an MMO, where players are spending most of their time in the open, shared world. It's very difficult (and often buggy) to have a companion ride along with you from place to place, area to area. Now imagine having to juggle 50-100 players all with their invisible friends who only they can see following them around a map to do a story step. It's not really how the game was designed, so the choice is to make it an old timey quest step (plant character in place, talk to them, get quest, come back for the follow up dialogue) or solve it in other ways. Comms help us deliver plot points, character beats, and other world lore without tying them to a physical location or forcing them into an instance.

Not saying comms are perfect. Some folks don't like magitech in their f...

Even in this patch, hearing Rama remark how we go for the trope of defeating boss with a power of friendship.

This was a nod to all the players we knew who'd be commenting on "the power of friendship." ;)

Plus it's in Rama's character, so...

We're now stuck with a lead who thinks the height of story deliverance is to ensure that the commander can't go a single conversation without hearing a minimum of five sassy remarks and three jokes.

I felt that this episode compartmentalized the comedy much better than previously. Serious moments, like in the final combat mission in the mine, saved any banter for the very end. 95% of it was devoted to dealing with the threat at hand.

The epilogue, which was always meant to be a palate cleanser after all the demon hunting, was intended to be a dinner among friends and slightly awkward.

I get the criticism that you'd like less comedy in the game (or less in the golden path), though. Curious to see what folks think about the next couple things we've got planned.

I think my gripe with the story is that nothing happens unless we, the commander, make it happen.

This is the challenge. Some of the community wants the Commander to have agency. Others do not.

Chul-Moo didn't go as the Commander's friend. They don't know each other super well. But the trip was a form of catharsis for them both.

Chul-Moo's arc started in the first episode as a leader losing faith in his abilities, carrying the burden of accidentally killing one of his crew who had succumbed to the demonic influence. Like the Commander, he had blood on his hands. He made a decision that resulted in someone dying. His presence here was to listen to the Commander processing similar guilt--of being someone with responsibility who made some calls that resulted in people dying. The Commander was not grieving Cinder. She was the enemy. The Commander was trying to grapple with the heaviness of being a leader and accepting responsibility when something goes wrong, because it's inevitable.

Also, waypoints.