We were playing GW2 together yesterday and an event popped to escort a spirit back to its body.
Now we’d done this particular event, or the end of it anyway only a day or so before so we started out helping it but then decided to leave and go do the next vista and point of interest the opposite direction. That was when the spirit called for help, in a quavering ethereal voice (note text chat boxed in red).
Boy did we feel like absolute cads for abandoning it to go do something else. One shared look of guilt later and we were bounding, as only asura can, down the hill to come to the embattled spirits rescue. Thankfully we weren’t that far and we saved it from the evil hylek hordes attacking it.
It’s a rare example of a well characterised NPC actually making us change our minds, in effect making us feel *that* immersed in the game as to forget about meta goals or progression. I hope I find more of these in GW2, a promising start though!
Do NPCs ever make you change your mind in-game?
Yeah, in TOR I’ve quite frequently made a choice other than what I originally intended after a companion piped up with an objection.
I suspect I did too, subconsciously at least, make choices based on what would keep the ‘big lizard’ happy
Reblogged this on Gigable – Tech Blog.
A great moment. GW2 definitely has immersion with some of their NPCs (esp in Story Mode) and the scenic landscapes adding to the buzz of the atmosphere. The hidden areas we’ve stumbled upon are generating the same feeling for me too. Fingers crossed there will be enough content to keep up going and that repeat ability won’t be too big of an issue. Though that said – Vistas (for example) are so beautifully and emotionally done, that revisiting them on alts will be a pleasure. I’m not sure I could say the same about most Hearts though (though many exceptions to that from the more imaginative ones… So maybe all is well…)
I think GW2 more than any other games has taught me to stick to one character more – playing lots of alts in parallel isn’t as appealing. A bit of time inbetween playing through the zones will be important I think to keep the game fresh.