One of the unique and appealing things about Guild Wars 2 is that each character has their own personal story. In a traditional MMORPG where you're character runs around in the world killing stuff with a big sword, and someone asks you... "What's the story of your character?", you have no idea. The world you're running around in has a story but YOUR character doesn't. Guild Wars 2 is different.
While GW2 tells the tale of the rise of the Elder Dragons and the battle to unite all nations to save their world, most importantly, it is the story of YOU, the player within that world, and the heroic adventures and tales you experience in the dynamic, interactive world of Tyria.
Right from the start, during the GW2 character creation process, the player is asked a series of multiple-choice questions about their new character. Your answers to these questions make up the character's biography as they define the character's history and personality. They outline the initial storylines that the player will experience with that character and set the wheels in motion for a unique personal experience throughout the game.
Some of the questions you may be asked at the start of the character creation process in Guild Wars 2 include :
A norn character must decide if the most important virtue of a norn is cunning, instinct or strength.
Did you know your parents?
If your character is a charr, are you a member of the Ash legion, the Blood legion or the Iron legion?
Who was your Father? Was he a loyal soldier, a sorcerer shaman or was he an honorless charr?
The choices you make in each question will cause your storyline to branch, resulting in a completely distinct and unique biography that's different from everybody else's as they give the player different objectives, different methods and stories related to overcoming those objectives, as well as a different type of gameplay when you confront your enemy in that storyline. Even if two people were to answer these initial questions in the exact same way, their personal storyline will still branch as they play through the game, as they make choices when confronted with decision-making situations that are presented throughout the game plot.
Once you've created your new Guild Wars 2 character, you'll begin in your race's unique starting area. (Each of the five playable races begins with its own starting area). This is where your character's adventuring begins.
Throughout the game you will have opportunities to choose your own destiny by making choices about particular situations. Decisions you make will be key to establishing who your character is as a person and how they relate to and impact the world in a permanent way. Important characters may live or die depending on your choices in the story. Major battles are fought that turn the tide in a growing conflict. How you choose to proceed may lead to meeting someone new along the way. They'll move in to your home district, and you'll get the chance to know them even better. This is especially important as a sylvari, since you begin with no history other than your Dream. Who you meet helps establish who you are.
One such decision-making opportunity is which of the three Orders of Tyria to join - the Durmand Priory, the Vigil, or the Order of Whispers). By choosing an order, your character will experience that order's perspective in the larger world story, through many different variations in the storyline.Later in the character's gameplay, NPCs may refer back to the player's experiences, congratulating them on their victory, or offering them information based entirely on the options they chose in a past storyline, Biography, or as part of their order.
From level 1-10, there are approximately 30 different storylines which come from choices you make on your character's race, Biography and pre-game background choices. Continue that in tens through 80 levels; then add in the various different combinations based on internal story choices, choosing an order, and continued in-game Biography questions, and the possibilities number in the thousands.
By the time you reach the end of GW2 your character will have a completely unique personal story.
Leif Chappelle, a member of the content design team responsible for implementing the personal story in Guild Wars 2 puts it this way...
"To experience every potential storyline being told from level 1 to 10, you'd need to play the game 30 times (5 races x 3 initial stories x 2 internal branches in each storyline)... and that's just the first ten levels of the game. We have 80 levels of progression for your character, and every ten levels or so, you'll begin a new chapter in your story."
To record your character's story as you progress through Guild Wars 2, you're given a "Hero Journal". This journal continually updates with all the things you do and the achievements you earn as you play through the game.
It tells the story of YOUR character in the Guild Wars 2 world, and by the time you reach the end of GW2 it should be an impressive tome indeed!
While GW2 tells the tale of the rise of the Elder Dragons and the battle to unite all nations to save their world, most importantly, it is the story of YOU, the player within that world, and the heroic adventures and tales you experience in the dynamic, interactive world of Tyria.
Right from the start, during the GW2 character creation process, the player is asked a series of multiple-choice questions about their new character. Your answers to these questions make up the character's biography as they define the character's history and personality. They outline the initial storylines that the player will experience with that character and set the wheels in motion for a unique personal experience throughout the game.
