Entry tags:
Played the new HoT story up to Auric Basin - Not Happy
Yeah, I know, first thing first: why in the world am I paying attention to the story anyway?
Well, see, it's not that I particularly want to pay attention to the story, but rather because the game keeps telling me that its story is Really Important. Like, seriously, did you not read how much Effort was put into the raid wings' dialogue trees? So...yeah, unfortunately, when you keep promoting about how your story is soooooo important to your game design, I'm gonna pay attention.
Also, since the story happened in an unskippable cutscene, I kind of had to watch it anyway. So.
Point is, let's just say that I was never a big fan of either Faolain or Eir. And yes, I do know that they were going to kill 'em. Yet, with all this warning, I was still caught off guard at how unceremoniously the two characters were killed off. I mean, really? Faoloain stabs Eir while running away and Eir stabs her back by throwing the stick into her chest? What kind of pointless death is that?
And to top it all off, the only reason Eir died is so that Braham can get his character development and become the Dragonhunter. So. Stupid. Most pointless fridging of a character ever. As for Faolain...what was even the point? She could have been an interesting narrative with respect to the Nightmare court and make the player have to confront the fact that not all Sylvari are hiveminded creatures and do in fact have free will, and not to mention that it introduces a weird little wrinkle into the Sylvari vs. free will development and can make for an interesting story, but all of that is squandered because, fuck it, let's just kill Faolain, because it's not like she was a kind of an oddball of a Sylvari and gave this really bland race some depth. Right?
Fuck that noise.
I'll be the first to admit that I have zero fondness for the Sylvari, as their original implementation was too much "let's make elves, but green this time" BS. But, there was some stuff that could have been interesting. They're confirmed to photosynthesize, they have a hive mind and no free will, yet something went weird and suddenly free will was developing in the race. Not all of them are necessarily evil, as some are just self-serving (a la Faolain and Canach). Because the Sylvari are a young race, they could serve as a medium to discuss the concept of how free will developed (or really, sapience). The hivemind could have been an allegory for natural instinct, while sapience contradicted instinctual reflexes. It could also have indulged in exploration of what it means to be born "good" or "bad" and seriously challenge some of the values that the players hold (like is killing really bad or is it okay to just wholesale slaughter things because that's what the game mechanic is saying?).
Yet, instead of trying to introduce actual complexities into the story, what we get is some stupid flavor text with people being horribly racist, and when the player choose to be fearful rather than accepting of differences, what we get instead is the narrative agreeing with the player, rather than making the player have to confront the fact that they may have made the wrong decision.
I would go into deeper discussion, but I'm functioning with very little sleep right now. In short, I find the entire HoT a very, very bad misstep for GW2, in terms of lore, mechanics, and even map design. While yeah, it's nice to find a little cove to be able to hide in when the jungle is over run, I shouldn't have more fun sitting behind a waterfall, than when I'm out there discovering new areas and new places. And finding out more about the world shouldn't make me wish to go play in a different world altogether, like Avengers Academy, where at least characters are fun or in Puzzle and Dragon, where everything looks cute and there are fun dialogues between your party of monsters with the dungeon boss, especially if you use one of their servants to defeat them.
I'm just saying when Puzzle and Dragon, a match-three phone game, has a better story and mythos than your AAA huge, sprawling MMO, you have a problem.
Well, see, it's not that I particularly want to pay attention to the story, but rather because the game keeps telling me that its story is Really Important. Like, seriously, did you not read how much Effort was put into the raid wings' dialogue trees? So...yeah, unfortunately, when you keep promoting about how your story is soooooo important to your game design, I'm gonna pay attention.
Also, since the story happened in an unskippable cutscene, I kind of had to watch it anyway. So.
Point is, let's just say that I was never a big fan of either Faolain or Eir. And yes, I do know that they were going to kill 'em. Yet, with all this warning, I was still caught off guard at how unceremoniously the two characters were killed off. I mean, really? Faoloain stabs Eir while running away and Eir stabs her back by throwing the stick into her chest? What kind of pointless death is that?
And to top it all off, the only reason Eir died is so that Braham can get his character development and become the Dragonhunter. So. Stupid. Most pointless fridging of a character ever. As for Faolain...what was even the point? She could have been an interesting narrative with respect to the Nightmare court and make the player have to confront the fact that not all Sylvari are hiveminded creatures and do in fact have free will, and not to mention that it introduces a weird little wrinkle into the Sylvari vs. free will development and can make for an interesting story, but all of that is squandered because, fuck it, let's just kill Faolain, because it's not like she was a kind of an oddball of a Sylvari and gave this really bland race some depth. Right?
Fuck that noise.
I'll be the first to admit that I have zero fondness for the Sylvari, as their original implementation was too much "let's make elves, but green this time" BS. But, there was some stuff that could have been interesting. They're confirmed to photosynthesize, they have a hive mind and no free will, yet something went weird and suddenly free will was developing in the race. Not all of them are necessarily evil, as some are just self-serving (a la Faolain and Canach). Because the Sylvari are a young race, they could serve as a medium to discuss the concept of how free will developed (or really, sapience). The hivemind could have been an allegory for natural instinct, while sapience contradicted instinctual reflexes. It could also have indulged in exploration of what it means to be born "good" or "bad" and seriously challenge some of the values that the players hold (like is killing really bad or is it okay to just wholesale slaughter things because that's what the game mechanic is saying?).
Yet, instead of trying to introduce actual complexities into the story, what we get is some stupid flavor text with people being horribly racist, and when the player choose to be fearful rather than accepting of differences, what we get instead is the narrative agreeing with the player, rather than making the player have to confront the fact that they may have made the wrong decision.
I would go into deeper discussion, but I'm functioning with very little sleep right now. In short, I find the entire HoT a very, very bad misstep for GW2, in terms of lore, mechanics, and even map design. While yeah, it's nice to find a little cove to be able to hide in when the jungle is over run, I shouldn't have more fun sitting behind a waterfall, than when I'm out there discovering new areas and new places. And finding out more about the world shouldn't make me wish to go play in a different world altogether, like Avengers Academy, where at least characters are fun or in Puzzle and Dragon, where everything looks cute and there are fun dialogues between your party of monsters with the dungeon boss, especially if you use one of their servants to defeat them.
I'm just saying when Puzzle and Dragon, a match-three phone game, has a better story and mythos than your AAA huge, sprawling MMO, you have a problem.