Personal Lore

[Jyera]

It's a cool idea for variegating the situations our characters might be able to give personal answers, but for this specific iteration of that idea, I know immediately that my character would 100% not fit into those constraints at all.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Are you an individual ? Do you have a story ? Where did you come from? What was your home like? Do you have family ? Did you leave a love behind ? What is your story ?

Why yes, my character is an individual. He does have a story. He comes from the Cieldalaes. His home was ruined by Leviathan's tidal wave, the same disaster that destroyed much of Western La Noscea. He did have a roegadyn mentor who introduced him to arcanima when he as a child, but she died during the tidal wave that devastated his home island. He didn't leave any lover behind, but he did find his love in Eorzea, and they're now married, and have set up a home in Mist.

That's Lyland's story...

...and, guess what, it's totally unique. It's mine and mine alone. No amount of pre-determined choices conjured up by the writers and the development team could have possibly come up with the range of options that would have led to Lyland's story as I described it above.

I know what you're asking for and, for what it's worth, I enjoyed the way origins and background stories were plotted in Guild Wars 2 but, no, if what you want is choices and, more importantly, the freedom to make the choices as you see fit, then pre-scripted narratives really aren't the way to go. As it were, there are enough people who aren't happy with the way our characters are forced to act, according to script, otherwise the grand narrative just wouldn't work.

So, thanks but no thanks. Count me among everyone else here who's against your idea.

[Bright-Flower]

I have RP backstories for my characters, but for the WOL honestly I think they may as well leave it vague. Let players do what they want with it, the limited options the game could give you would pale in comparison.

[Jonnycbad]

This is a JRPG. The story isn't about YOU. You're just bearing witness to the events that unfold before you, but your history is largely irrelevant. All that matters is, you were born with the echo and you received Hydaelyn's blessing and you and your band of adventurers (also with echo) are very good at killing primals and general do-gooding.

[Jaywalker]

This is a JRPG. The story isn't about YOU. You're just bearing witness to the events that unfold before you, but your history is largely irrelevant. All that matters is, you were born with the echo and you received Hydaelyn's blessing and you and your band of adventurers (also with echo) are very good at killing primals and general do-gooding.

Respectfully this seems to go against the Dark Knight questline and a lot of elements featured in certain primal fights. I'd argue that it's actually a source of major conflict in the game, depending on what path is chosen. The devs are actively inviting players to examine the idea of a chosen one and what toll being the only one who can do these things takes on a person.

[Jaywalker]

I see you guys worrying and all, but honestly I'd like to raise two points. First is if we got the ability to just [...] in any responses, that would address a lot. Should options presented not fit the background you came up with, you can opt out.

Second, if it's a single scene where you just kind of get to see the WoL share some of their background with a friendly NPC or something, you aren't going to get to pour over every nitty gritty detail. You might get to answer stuff like "do you have a home to go to" with "yes/I miss it", "yes/but I hated it there", "no/I wish i did", "no/I didn't need one", etc. Or you could answer questions about family like what SorceressVal mentioned. I do think some of the points Val proposed would be too detailed practically speaking (ex. exact hometown name) and I don't think a movie flashback would work here, but I mean if the options are presented right you could probably even answer stuff as a remarkably lifelike mammet.

The other thing is, I don't think it's needed to force backstory at the beginning. If you have a situation where you can step aside with an NPC of your choice and just talk a little, from a story/character standpoint you have the opportunity to get closer by finally (after a ridiculous number of quests and expansions) share a little about your WoL. Could be a very sweet and moving scene depending on how it's spun, doesn't have to effect the rest of gameplay.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like in these threads a lot of the reasons people have been nixing possibilities have been out of worry that something will be taken away (like resources or a totally custom backstory) or that something will be imposed that the player isn't into. I get the worry and think it's important not to mess things up like that, but I also think some of this stuff if done in a clever way would pose zero threat. Could offer other players something to feel very excited about at the same time. If you have ways to opt out, nothing's imposed, and there's basically no inconvenience to your gaming then why not allow the features for people who want it?

Btw not asking this as like "ohohoho I am so important so many hypothetical people think the same as me" or anything. I noticed that lodestone sites tend to have comparatively more people who focus on fight mechanics while some other sites have more RPers, more glamour hounds, so on and so forth. Different collections of players seem to gravitate toward different parts of the game and I've seen segments where I seriously suspect certain options would be celebrated if done appropriately. If it was RPers rejecting a thing that would appeal to people super into fight mechanics I'd ask too. Also not looking for any kind of fight here, just chatting.

[SannaR]

You see all the worry because they already took away a dungeon so they could add things like Eureka or daidem. That and there's a lot of things they seem to put in the dumbest of ways along with the devs going sorry the servers would explode or something else when asked why things like glamour dressers being outside of inns and squadron rooms or more character customization can't be done or expanded on.

Also a lot of people don't mind things as long as it's optional. You could already look at how much the "choices" we do have are done and where it doesn't even matter in the end. I mean heck I think the only reasons we have a birthday and the chose one of the 12 part because it's a left over from 1.0 and the only time one of those seems to even matter is when you do the fortune reading part of the Valentines day event.

[Jaywalker]

You see all the worry because they already took away a dungeon so they could add things like Eureka or daidem. That and there's a lot of things they seem to put in the dumbest of ways along with the devs going sorry the servers would explode or something else when asked why things like glamour dressers being outside of inns and squadron rooms or more character customization can't be done or expanded on.

Also a lot of people don't mind things as long as it's optional. You could already look at how much the "choices" we do have are done and where it doesn't even matter in the end. I mean heck I think the only reasons we have a birthday and the chose one of the 12 part because it's a left over from 1.0 and the only time one of those seems to even matter is when you do the fortune reading part of the Valentines day event.

I get you on Eureka and diadem in terms of losing a dungeon, but I also think not everything proposed in these threads would inherently carry that level of technical complexity. Let alone time commitment/risk/difficulty. We have a bunch of cutscenes with multiple dialogue options already and there are existing games that use similar mechanisms without issue. Totally understand that this being an MMO + how things were established in ARR shapes what can be done realistically going forward, but I mean written dialogue and cutscenes don't seem like it would be a spaghetti code disaster. In this case it seems like we'd just need a writer who's aware of/sensitive to fan concerns and can present options that don't constrain players. The rest would be within normal capability for what gets done in each expansion.

I do think you're right on about the birthdays though lol. It basically never comes up. We get no presents, no notifications, no cake. Why's it even there anymore? WoL is celebrated across Hydaelyn but everyone forgets their birthday. An absolute tragedy.

[SannaR]

They dislike how it shows their characters in that it doesn't match how their character behaves.

[Gula]

They dislike how it shows their characters in that it doesn't match how their character behaves.

I will skip Job cutscenes entirely for this reason.