Feedback:User/Guild Wars 3 perhaps/Bonuses for Personal Story Mode
Bonuses for Personal Story Mode | |
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| User | Guild Wars 3 perhaps |
| Categories | World Player vs. Environment |
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In reading through various forums discussing GW2 beta weekend event #2, I came across lively discussions in which contributors were comparing and contrasting Renown Heart quests, Dynamic Events, and Personal Story. Some posters were criticizing the Personal Story instances as being too linear and not truly developing the player's character. One reason oft cited for this was the Personal Story instances can not be failed or that there are no true consequences. The player may get defeated by an enemy in a Personal Story instance, but they immediately revive and can try again.
It becomes a foregone conclusion, then, that the player will succeed in overcoming the enemy or obstacle set before them. This lead some to complain that such predictability and linearity in the Personal Story instances was leading to boredom, no emotional investment in the outcome, and waning interest in the development of their character.
Before continuing, I will state that I haven't played the BWEs and so I am simply reiterating the opinions of others. Furthermore, the suggestion I'm about to make was inspired by the collective discussions I read in those forums. That said, the suggestion is to add bonus objectives to the Personal Story instances. Unlike the main branch of the Personal Story which can not be failed, these bonus objectives can be failed:
- failure can come in the form of being reduced to a defeated state,
- failing to complete the bonus within a certain time limit,
- failing to defend a point or NPC from an enemy,
- failing to capture a point,
- failing to defeat a specific enemy,
- failing to overhear a conversation which would have provided useful intel,
- failing to reach a certain point before an enemy does (a race perhaps),
- failing to stop an enemy from reaching a certain point (a race perhaps),
- or failing to find an object before an enemy does or within a certain time limit.
The failure of a bonus does not penalize the player nor prevent them from completing their main Personal Story line. If a specific bonus is failed, though, it can't be continually reattempted within that character's Personal Story; the player gets one chance to complete any bonus they've chosen. However, successfully completing the bonus objectives will reward the player with any one of the following:
- Karma,
- Experience,
- Skill Points,
- an item,
- or gold.
The bonus objectives could also be used to further develop a character's personality. For example, a player may have chosen Dignity as their approach to life during character creation. Completing a bonus objective will improve their Dignity stat by some amount or otherwise modify it in whatever way will confer a positive effect for the player (since I'm not 100% clear on the effects Charm, Dignity, and Ferocity have in the game, yet).
Conversely, this system could be used to give the player mutually exclusive choices which will have real impacts on their character's development (as compared to the scripted and linear main Personal Story arc). For example, there could be multiple bonus objectives in a single Personal Story instance. One may involve performing a task which is in keeping with the player's chosen approach to life. Completing it will add to points to that approach (see the Dignity example above).
However, there will be other objectives which will complement the other approaches (Charm and Ferocity). Completing an objective that is not aligned with your original chosen approach will cause you to lose points from that approach (you'd lose Dignity points if that was your original choice at character creation) and/or begin to gain points in the other approaches (Charm or Ferocity). The reason the player may choose a path not aligned with their original approach is perhaps it offers a reward they badly want; a piece of armor or a better weapon, for example. The player is now having to make choices of which bonuses to complete by weighing the pros and cons of each; giving consideration to how closely do they want to adhere to their character's "moral code". This adds the potential for situational ethics and moral ambiguity to the character's development.
Ideally, this system would have developed in conjunction with the main Personal Story arc so cinematic cutscenes could have been added which would change based on the outcome of the bonus objectives as well as the character's evolving personality based on the decisions they made. Of course, it's too late for that now. However, this doesn't preclude the addition of bonuses to the Personal Stories, even at this late stage of development. A cinematic cutscene isn't required to launch a bonus branch; they can just be added into the existing Personal Story much like the Dynamic Events in the persistent world. A player comes across a trigger point for a bonus objective inside their Personal Story and it just starts right there. A progress tracker in the upper right corner of the screen will guide the player along (the same as is used for the Dynamic Events) without needing to go back to the studio to record voice actors for cutscenes.
In this way, some additional character development and real choice are added to the Personal Story instances rather than following a linear scripted plot. It also adds the potential for failing to complete the bonus objectives; which then makes their rewards all that much more valuable to the player who succeeds in completing them. All of this adds to the investment and connection a player has with their character.
Thank you for reading.
Guild Wars 3 perhaps 17:21, 14 June 2012 (UTC)
