Guilded: Stop and Smell the Lore in Guild Wars 2

If I may draw conclusions from strictly personal anecdotes -- this is the internet, after all -- most people who play MMOs don't read quest text. They don't read the books lying around in Bethesda's games. They don't read the quest entries in Borderlands 2. The most text that I'll read is the subtitles for dialog that voice actors are reading to me anyway. I'd probably go so far as to read the flavor text on a legendary item in Diablo 3, but I can't say for sure until I find one.


Guild Wars 2 is hip to my aversion to reading. On one hand, that might lead you to believe there is no lore in Guild Wars 2. You're right if you consider lore something dumped into your lap for you to ignore; you're wrong if you consider lore something behind the game, or maybe underneath it, or lurking around corners where you don't expect it and might just stroll by without noticing.

It's In There Somewhere

Some of the lore relates to characters from the first Guild Wars, who show up in the higher-level story missions. Yes, there were characters in the first game -- and I don't mean your main character, the alt you never leveled, and the Ranger named Legolass that you haven't deleted because you were surprised that name wasn't taken. The first game introduced heroes saving the world or some such thing, but I only know this because it comes up occasionally in Guild Wars 2's overarching storyline which is -- quite literally -- a bunch of guild drama. Kind of like when the Fellowship broke up, but without the licensed characters.


Other lore in Guild Wars 2 relates to the multiple-choice questions you answer when you roll your character. These answers play out in short story arcs specific to your character. My favorite thing about these is that you get achievements when you finish them. My second favorite thing is that they're not as awful as they could have been.

The Rest of the Story

But the best lore in Guild Wars 2 is what fancypants game writers might call "environmental storytelling." This just means it sits there and doesn't bother you. It doesn't get all up in your face. You can ignore it like those books in Skyrim -- but unlike those books in Skyrim, it's not a mess of text. It's stuff in the world. Environmental.


For many players, Taigan Groves is a place you pass through on the way from level 6 to level 8. It's a hunting lodge in the snowy forests of the Wayfarer Foothills, the area where new norn characters level up after leaving the city of Hoelbrak. Lumbering wild dolyaks graze among the trees. You can find blueberries here, as well as a patch of thyme down by the river that runs behind the armorsmith's pavilion. You might notice some beehives and a merchant selling honey. You'll certainly notice a bunch of kids running around throwing snowballs at each other (I love how Guild Wars 2 is buzzing with the activity of children, something sadly absent in most game worlds).

Tales from Taigen Groves

Many players will do some of Taigen Groves' level 7 tasks and then move on to the next area on their way to level 80. But if you stick around, or if you talk to the locals, you'll find and participate in a story. The hunter Gareth makes dolyak jerky, but he's also a single father. His wife is away making her legacy. Gareth insists she'll be home one day with scars, stories, and trophies. The implication is that something darker has happened and he isn't ready to acknowledge it, but the point is that he's got his hands full watching his three kids. The last stranger he enlisted to help lost his right foot. They found it on the roof a week later. Adventures in babysitting.

The kids in Taigen Groves seem innocuous enough. Most of them are just throwing snowballs. If you take up a snowball, you're fair game and you will be attacked. In fact, if you want to get through Taigen Groves, bean enough kids with snowballs and you won't have to fight a single mob. But the real troublemakers are Jafri, Henna, and Signy, who usually loiter sweetly in the main lodge. These are Gareth's kids.


The bratty Signy asks her father if she can use his sword to kill a bug. He gives her permission and she merrily giggles, twirls, and kills the bug. She then decides to sample a battle axe. If it's okay to use the sword, surely it's okay to use the battle axe, right? At which point, oops, she breaks one of her father's dolyak trophies on the wall. This leads Jafri, her brother, to look for a willing adventurer (you?) to help him hunt down a new trophy for his dad. Many players will just come across this is a group event in which several people attack a giant ram. They might not even notice the norn boy making off with the ram's head, much less presenting it to his father, who then hangs it on the wall after kindly reprimanding his son.

The Bear Facts

Signy also talks her smarter and more practical sister Henna into using the family honey jar for a bear summoning ritual. The girls hand off a giant jar of honey that Signy asked her father if she could use. If I may offer a bit of parenting advice, Gareth needs to learn to say "no" to Signy. The ritual gets out of hand and Taigen Groves is assaulted by an army of bears. A bear moot, as Henna calls it as all the children run inside and barricade the doors. Many players will come across this is a "kill x bears" event that locks down the local merchants until it's finished.


None of the above is embellishment from me. It's either in the dialog, or it unfolds in the context of dynamic events, which are where most other games just have fetch quests.

More Where That Came From

There's a lot of criticism of the voice acting in Guild Wars 2, and much of it is appropriate where voice actors read exposition on behalf of the talking heads in the cutscenes for the story missions. But there's also plenty of stellar voice acting to be found, such as the banter between Signy and Henna. If I talk to Henna, she asks if I want to play yeti hunter with her. When my asura accepts -- asura are tiny people roughly analogous to World of Warcraft's gnomes -- she tells me I'm too small to play a yeti. I'm not sure what happens if a full-sized character accepts her offer.

Taigen Grove is not an anomaly. Guild Wars 2 is full of this sort of storytelling, beginning with domestic dramas like the story of Gareth's family and gradually building into stories about warring armies and massive dragons. If you want an action RPG, or a loot chase, or just an MMO, Guild Wars 2 will certainly oblige you. But if you want stories, they're here as well, waiting for you to see them at your own pace.