Guild Wars 2! You either play it, have played it, or with the fact that it’ll be $10 all weekend, may be playing it before we meet again on Monday to talk about what’s happened.

What is happening? PAX South for one. More importantly though Guild Wars 2 will be having a panel and streaming it over the internet to talk about their little teaser seen at the end of the latest instalment of the Living Story. They’ve been teasing us for a few days now with Guild Wars 2, Heart of Thorns.

Is it an expansion? An update? A new living story season? Maybe it’s just a commentary on a bad breakup. We’ll find out for certain tomorrow.

Given that we’re on the internet and there are people who will gainsay anything, complain about everything and generally suffer from terminal cases of not being impressed, I thought I would explain my own personal hurdles early.
To do that, we have to talk about the personal story in Guild Wars 2, the Living Story seasons 1 and 2 and generally give spoilers. This is your last warning ahead of those.

Spoilers

Guild Wars 2 released in August of 2012 and contained within it both traditional MMO trappings and fun takes on other systems. Primarily for me it contained interesting races. Much has been written about the racial makeup of the Charr and the Asura. In an age where female fantasy armor means a double scoop of breasts, the Charr and Asura didn’t fall into that trope. They were fleshed out and realised races with interesting backgrounds. The Sylvari were also new, a plant species that had its own take on morality, love, and life.

By the way this isn’t to imply that we’re against double scoops now and then. I’m just setting the scene.

Anyway, the story in Guild Wars 2 is inextricably bound up with the Sylvari. For the first time Guild Wars players could play any of the five races instead of being exclusively human, but the game itself appeared to be utterly smitten with Sylvari. They pop up everywhere and had the distinction of being the only race that was never found corrupted by a dragon. It turns out in a spoilery moment that the Sylvari are meant to be Dragon Minions. So it was less that there were no undead Sylvari or Branded Sylvari etc but rather it was they already had a boss. Or so we were told at the end of the Point of No Return.

Treesus

Stepping back in time a little, we’ll expand on my comment. Throughout the personal story that takes you from 1-80, Sylvari pop up. They become important, in fact they become integral, very early on. Trahearne, affectionately called Treesus by some, is the star of that personal story.

You can argue that it is hard to give a sense of player agency in a plot line in an MMO where at the end of the day we all get to claim we saved the world and are the heroes of the story. This is a story telling conceit that we all implicitly agree to. You were the hero when you did it, I was the hero when I did. In the personal story, Trahearne is the hero. You’re the second in command who helps make it possible….by being around more or less.

Living Story Season 1 suffered from the same issue. One Sylvari was responsible for everything. Scarlet Briar.

Sylvari Harley Quinn

Scarlet Briar, voiced by Tara Strong, is to blame for every part of Living Story Season One and where we are with Season Two. Scarlet, through the plot armor of being Sylvari, has fused factions to make new ones. Threatened entire zones. She destroyed, more or less, Lions Arch as well as thundering around the world doing things that apparently only she could. Because she was awesome. Or something.

Bad enough that Scarlet came onto the scene and had the world revolve around her, Season Two has been consumed with Mordremoth and its plant minions.

What’s the problem? Only that the fight against the dragon has been derailed for us to chase Caithe. Yes it led to a big cliff hanger. Yes there is a question about the fate of some of the characters of Destinys Edge and the Pact as a fighting force.

My problem is what comes after.

Heart of Thorns

ArenaNet are of course entitled to write the story they want. We as consumers are entitled to play or not as our tastes demand. I don’t have to play Guild Wars 2. There isn’t a cranky Asura holding a death ray on me to make sure I log in and collect my daily reward in between doing events and romping around Tyria.

My problem is the obsession with Sylvari. Obviously the cliffhanger reveal of the Sylvari being Dragon Minions needs resolution. Yes some people have been claiming that they worked it out long ago and yes some people are already enjoying a little meta game and roleplaying where they work out how to protect the Sylvari or root out (no pun intended) the plant like scourge.

No matter what though, I get more Sylvari. More characters who are having a story. My main is a Charr. Some of my favourite characters are Asura. I enjoy my Norn. I have humans.

We’ve faced down Zhaitan but are ignoring Kralkatorrik, Jormag, Primordious and Bubbles. People have long since clamoured for an expansion for Guild Wars 2, a chance to move into Elona or Cantha. Fans want more out of Guild Wars 2 and that’s great!

What we have been teased though isn’t an adventure into the Crystal Desert to face Branded. It isn’t a journey to the Far Shiverpeaks to take on Icebrood and have someone finally break Jormags tooth. It isn’t a reclamation of the Asura cities beneath the surface and a fight against the Destroyers that boil forth from the tunnels. It isn’t even a peek at what has happened to the Dwarves who went down there to fight for us. Sure these things may eventually come or they may not.

Instead there is the obsession with the Sylvari. With this Heart of Thorns coming before all the other dragons. We’re not reclaiming the deep seas or the rest of Tyria, we’re getting caught up in yet another Sylvari led and Sylvari centric story. I have no control over my own characters adventure. Once more I will be the bit part player to a different story altogether.

That won’t be the worst thing.

The absolute worst thing that could come tomorrow? It not being a full up expansion.

I guess we’ll wait and see.