Guild Wars 2

A Cutscene Book just like the one you got about Marjory would have been perfect to get the job done.
A Scavenger hunt would have made perfect sense as well since you could have gotten the information from Dribbins ghost or either of the scribes. Hell, even the 600 people eddie killed could have given you bits and pieces.

So far, this release is a disappointment compared to last year. And by the look of it, the next release later this month might not even connect to it and actually might not have anything to do with halloween to begin with (you might want to check out a particular lake in kessex hills for that matter), so that doesnt exactly get my hopes up either. The Last couple Living Story updates have hardly contained anything of value, story wise atleast. there have been nice features, of course, but thats not what the living story should be focused on. It majorly lacks in the “Story” department. Even worse considering that they apparently arent planning any proper updates and this might be all we are getting, which isnt exactly much since you usually are done with it in the first couple days and then are left with 2 to 4 weeks of free time. I would rather have no updates of the like if they continue to diminish in terms of quality and content.
There is so much story potential, even dating back to the loose ends Gw1 left behind, and they arent using any of it. Its a real shame.

Here is hoping things will improve in that aspect in the near future.

I don’t mind having the stories on the website, but yes they should also be a part of the lore in the game.

Make them a book to read
Make it an obscure document that Tassi or another NPC uncovers
Write the ghost of the counselor into the game, and have him tell us the story
Or make it a cinematic

Not everyone check’s the website. Not everyone reads the wiki. These tidbits of information, these back stories help to give your characters depth; helps bring them to life for your players. A lot of people are missing out of this stuff.

Just put some storyteller NPC in the game.

Then, talking to it, you choose the story you want and get a browser panel like the trading post one with the the story in the website.

As with many others I believe that if it did not happen in game, it did not happen at all.

Ameepa.6793:

Huh, I didn’t even know about the story until I noticed this thread.

That is exactly the problem.

What a great story that could have been used in the game as part of the living story! This is the type of stuff needed for the living story, an actual story. I personally would like to see an update every 3 weeks to a month than rushing out what seems like unfinished/rushed content.

In all honesty that was more telling than anything that happened in the story thus far. Granted I didn’t take the time last night to kill the prince but I can go out on a limb here and say it will fall short on telling what’s going on.

What I would have liked to experience

1) Find scrolls talking about Edrics reliquary. This leads you on a quest to find more information.

2)You trace the scrolls origin to some family who talks about relatives in the past and talks about the story of what happened on that day. How the Mad King burned the village of Pelchalice and killed over 600 people. That there was an uprising against the King to remove him from his thrown. But still no questions answered on why the Mad King would put his own son in a tomb. You still are looking for more answers and the family talks of people who escaped that day from the castle.

3)You are able to trace the family that has kept the secret all these years about a sons plot to overthrow the King. How it was the prince who did all the bad things to the village of Pelchalice. How the sons last meal was candy corn and how he was locked in the box and the records purged so he would not be known. Then the family drops a hint thinking the tomb was near the Black Citadel.

4)Here is where we start the story as it was given to us by finding the tomb and meeting the prince for the first time.

All of that would have been great in my opinion and it would have actually made since. Other than me playing a guessing game and throwing garbage at him until I picked up a piece of candy corn and tossed it at him. The first question that popped in my head was why candy corn…

If the developers actually took time they could find a way to present what they thought had to be put up on the web into the game. How many games have people played that have had great stories? Its not hard.

I stood around in the labyrinth yesterday and watched the dialogue between MK and BP in in those short snippets of dialogue i picked up the gist of their history. MK killed BP’s mother and other parental figures in his life because that’s what MK does he’s insane after all. At some point he shoved BP into a box and apparently that’s how he died living off of candy corn in a box. But BP is not some heroic figure either he’s just as bad as MK his memories are a mess as well so this suggests trauma as BP couldn’t remember that it was he who tortured someone he admired and blamed it on MK.

There was no wall of text and just by that alone a short dialogue that lasted only a few minutes i picked up a great deal of history between the two, it was just a few lines of voiced dialogue. It’s on repeat in the labyrinth so jut go in there and hang out if you haven’t caught it yet. Why they couldn’t have made that into an instance with a cut-scene of some sort though is beyond me. You can tell a story retroactively through good dialogue.

Why is this so hard to do? I’ll tell you why

bi weekly turnover, if they had more time they could make richer content instead trying to meat a deadline.

Why not “all the information”? :o

Gene Archer.8560:

lordkrall.7241:

Suddenly knowing something that only two people “alive” would know can however not be explained.

Sure it can.

“A new chapter has appeared within the pages of the Mad Memories, revealing to you a past that up to now has been known only to the Bloody Prince and the Mad King.”

And then they tie that together by releasing a new scavenger hunt that leads to yet another upgraded Mad Memories.

Look at that, justification for putting it in game and I thought it up in under a minute.

Bad example. The only way that the informatin in the latest short story could show up in game is if the blood prince stopped fighting you long enough to give a long and boring expository of what happened.

Extremely few people want to read the wall a text that won’t even help them play the game better. Usability tests consistently show that players simply do not want this.

In this example, Anet actually used the best method available to get this information out.

Excursion.9752:

What a great story that could have been used in the game as part of the living story! This is the type of stuff needed for the living story, an actual story. I personally would like to see an update every 3 weeks to a month than rushing out what seems like unfinished/rushed content.

In all honesty that was more telling than anything that happened in the story thus far. Granted I didn’t take the time last night to kill the prince but I can go out on a limb here and say it will fall short on telling what’s going on.

What I would have liked to experience

1) Find scrolls talking about Edrics reliquary. This leads you on a quest to find more information.

2)You trace the scrolls origin to some family who talks about relatives in the past and talks about the story of what happened on that day. How the Mad King burned the village of Pelchalice and killed over 600 people. That there was an uprising against the King to remove him from his thrown. But still no questions answered on why the Mad King would put his own son in a tomb. You still are looking for more answers and the family talks of people who escaped that day from the castle.

3)You are able to trace the family that has kept the secret all these years about a sons plot to overthrow the King. How it was the prince who did all the bad things to the village of Pelchalice. How the sons last meal was candy corn and how he was locked in the box and the records purged so he would not be known. Then the family drops a hint thinking the tomb was near the Black Citadel.

4)Here is where we start the story as it was given to us by finding the tomb and meeting the prince for the first time.

All of that would have been great in my opinion and it would have actually made since. Other than me playing a guessing game and throwing garbage at him until I picked up a piece of candy corn and tossed it at him. The first question that popped in my head was why candy corn…

For the love of Tyria, SOMEONE HIRE this person!!!
This is exactly what made the scavenger hunt so amazing last year!

MastaNeenja.1537:

If the developers actually took time they could find a way to present what they thought had to be put up on the web into the game. How many games have people played that have had great stories? Its not hard.

I stood around in the labyrinth yesterday and watched the dialogue between MK and BP in in those short snippets of dialogue i picked up the gist of their history. MK killed BP’s mother and other parental figures in his life because that’s what MK does he’s insane after all. At some point he shoved BP into a box and apparently that’s how he died living off of candy corn in a box. But BP is not some heroic figure either he’s just as bad as MK his memories are a mess as well so this suggests trauma as BP couldn’t remember that it was he who tortured someone he admired and blamed it on MK.

There was no wall of text and just by that alone a short dialogue that lasted only a few minutes i picked up a great deal of history between the two, it was just a few lines of voiced dialogue. It’s on repeat in the labyrinth so jut go in there and hang out if you haven’t caught it yet. Why they couldn’t have made that into an instance with a cut-scene of some sort though is beyond me. You can tell a story retroactively through good dialogue.

Why is this so hard to do? I’ll tell you why

bi weekly turnover, if they had more time they could make richer content instead trying to meat a deadline.

They didn’t make it into a cutscene because it wasn’t necessary. You got all the information you needed without it.

I’d also greatly prefer integrating this information into the game. Putting stories in the website provides information, but completely breaks immersion; and in the game itself, the Living Story lore seems very thin.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

No, leave it on the website. I can access the site from work, but not the game. When I’m bored out of my mind, I like having these short stories to read.

Why not both?

They didn’t make it into a cutscene because it wasn’t necessary. You got all the information you needed without it.

Obviously not. Or this thread wouldn’t exist.
BTW, there are already a couple of posts with good, solid, constructive feedback.
Keep it up guys!

Excursion.9752:

What a great story that could have been used in the game as part of the living story! This is the type of stuff needed for the living story, an actual story. I personally would like to see an update every 3 weeks to a month than rushing out what seems like unfinished/rushed content.

In all honesty that was more telling than anything that happened in the story thus far. Granted I didn’t take the time last night to kill the prince but I can go out on a limb here and say it will fall short on telling what’s going on.

What I would have liked to experience

1) Find scrolls talking about Edrics reliquary. This leads you on a quest to find more information.

2)You trace the scrolls origin to some family who talks about relatives in the past and talks about the story of what happened on that day. How the Mad King burned the village of Pelchalice and killed over 600 people. That there was an uprising against the King to remove him from his thrown. But still no questions answered on why the Mad King would put his own son in a tomb. You still are looking for more answers and the family talks of people who escaped that day from the castle.

3)You are able to trace the family that has kept the secret all these years about a sons plot to overthrow the King. How it was the prince who did all the bad things to the village of Pelchalice. How the sons last meal was candy corn and how he was locked in the box and the records purged so he would not be known. Then the family drops a hint thinking the tomb was near the Black Citadel.

4)Here is where we start the story as it was given to us by finding the tomb and meeting the prince for the first time.

All of that would have been great in my opinion and it would have actually made since. Other than me playing a guessing game and throwing garbage at him until I picked up a piece of candy corn and tossed it at him. The first question that popped in my head was why candy corn…

This type of format would also have been a great way of framing the player character as the main, driving character in the Living World narrative for a change. We’re always somebody’s assistant or helper, and always seem to be the last person in the know. How cool would it be to be the character actually making these discoveries for a change? Or to have the burden of responsibility on our shoulders after accidentally letting the prince out?

I imagine it’s hard to make, but the dragon bash cutscene was one of the best I have seen in the game. And it was pretty good for story telling too.

+1

I brought this up the the Flame and Frost prelude and received a message stating that essentially it was easier to tell the story on the website because it used less resources which really left a sour taste in my mouth considering that, im playing a game.

All story however miniscule it may seem should be in the game, whether it be heard in part in passing NPC’s, found in a text (Ebonhawk lore did this right) somewhere or straight up just appear in a cut-scene within the world.

Yes, OP is right. It doesn’t matter whether or not the story is also on the website, but putting it on the website isn’t an adequate substitution for having it in-game.

One of the primary reasons the living story feels so weak is that (probably because the content is rushed) there is little in-game lore involved to help engage you or create a sense of immersion. This itself is just one of many reasons their Living World (aka temporary content) concept just isn’t that good. It hasn’t been done before not because it was too awesome for anyone to think of, it hasn’t been done before because it’s not a very effective way to manage the game.

DarcShriek.5829:

MastaNeenja.1537:

snip

They didn’t make it into a cutscene because it wasn’t necessary. You got all the information you needed without it.

Yeah i did because i am pretty observant, i’ve yet to read what they put on the web and i have no intention to do so, but they must have felt it was important enough if they put it on the web, why not put it in the game instead? Guild Wars2 is a game not a novel, though they do have novels based on the GW2 universe that leads up the beginning of the GW2 game setting. there are plenty of cut-scenses and dialogue snippets that explain everything that happened in the novels so players aren’t lost. I think they need to keep putting that kind of work in the game. Throwing it out there on the web only seems like they are doing half of the job. Maybe that chat that MK and BP did sum up the web story and that’s great.

But apparently scarlet had a back story too unfortunately that was also on the web so I did not read it. I might actually be interested in her as a character if they gave me a reason to but i don’t see any of that because it’s not presented in the medium in which she was created for, the game not a web story.

all i’m saying is that a little well written cut-scene can go a long way, but that they probably don’t have time to make something like that because of the bi weekly schedule they are placed on. Even if they are working on this a month or so in advance because they have rotating teams things still seemed rushed. I am not even blaming the devs they have talent and tools what they don’t seem to have is time. anything worth doing is worth doing right.

Story is REALLY good (sandwich trees, lol), but i’d prefer read this IN GAME. Flashback cutscene should be enough.

BobbyStein.2315:

Thanks for the constructive feedback. We’ve got a few things planned for upcoming releases that should clarify some of the story confusion by putting more of this information in the game.

I prefer having all the information be in the game instead of through the website. The stories pertain to the game, and if I didn’t frequent the forums/official website, I wouldn’t know about the stories in the first place.

Telling a story through the website is nice, but I feel that it would provide a richer narrative if the stories were actually part of the game, whether the player has to piece it together, seen in a flashback, or narrated by an outside narrator, or anything that can be done in game.

Wow….I didn’t even know they put lore stories on the website.

I just assumed all the story info was in game.

I prefer reading things like that on the website; that’s something that web browsers are properly designed for. The game is better designed for playing the game, not reading background stories that are not required to play the game. That said, I don’t have RP or other reasons for them not to be in game also. I just don’t want reading them to be a requirement to do anything or for them to be unavoidable. So, for example, a UI tab with stories would be fine.

Meriem.3504:

Cause reading a bleh looking white blogged website verse sitting in a library is much nicer. Also the glaring white back ground doesn’t help.

Simply put this is my opinion. I don’t mean to sound rude you are running in circles with your arguements. I could say that why are Asura wasting time making fun little 8 bit mushroom clouds for war vs making real weapons or how a wooden anything would never ever pierce any dragon scale ever etc etc unless it maybe magical or was enchanted with dragon slaying etc. The arguments don’t go anywhere. The game does not have a realistic enough atmosphere to make such arguments. If this was LotR then maybe we can make such ones.

And yes fictional games ALL have realism to some extent because they are based off of reality in the first place.

Without trying to be condescending, it would appear that an easy fix is available for a part of your complaint. Most, if not all, web browsers can be easily user customized to use whatever colors you want for text and background.

I agree, these stories should be in-game somehow. Also, I enjoyed that little short story very much. I like the idea of it being narrated as well as the actual characters being voiced like in Marjory’s Journal as suggested in the topic.

If its a living story, let us live it! Put the short stories in game.

BobbyStein.2315:

Thanks for the constructive feedback. We’ve got a few things planned for upcoming releases that should clarify some of the story confusion by putting more of this information in the game.

Here’s some Ideas: Cut scenes, dialogue, mail, a book you read, or even just a tab at the top of your screen that opens into an index of short stories; any of these would be great ways to implement the short stories in game.

If you go with a ‘book you read’, I would prefer it to be an actual item in our inventory, but it could also just be lying around or shelved in LA’s library. Wait, LA doesn’t have a library, what the hell kind of city is it? Build one; now! A library in our home instance would also be a great option.

BobbyStein.2315:

Thanks for the constructive feedback. We’ve got a few things planned for upcoming releases that should clarify some of the story confusion by putting more of this information in the game.

I really enjoy the website stories, and I think they do a good job with exposition that might be hard to do in game. The only thing that bothers me about them is that the stories often handle big characterization/motivation reveals that aren’t touched on in game (or at least, not in obvious ways). I think the stories might be received better if they weren’t the only clue to unlocking the finer points of what’s going on; as it is, the game seems to handle the action while the stories handle the strong character development, and that naturally results in the game elements feeling less engaging (to me at least). Evon is one example: I thought he was very interesting in the story, but in game he just came off like an arrogant jerk.

It’s not that we get no characterization in game, but the characters get relatively few lines of dialogue per release. That’s understandable because of how much of it is voiced, but it’d be cool if during living story releases, nearby ambient NPCs gained changing dialogue options to help deliver some of the context we get in the stories, so that they feel more connected. Similar to the living story heralds, but more organic—kind of like the wandering NPCs during Dragon Bash who talked about the controversy over the festival. I thought that was really well done.

While it’s nice to have short stories that are pre-game-plot (like most of the short stories – note: most, not all; the Secret of Southsun short story should have been in the game as an instance, IMHO, as well as the Queen’s Jubilee short story and the Twilight Assault one (at least the first half) – all of these were based at the beginning of the release’s story, so they should have been in the game itself), I think that before you put effort into these short stories, you must put enough story into the game itself. Maybe not all of it, but enough so that we don’t have to go digging through the short stories – or worse, interviews – in order to understand pivitol plot points.

And even then, the information gleaned from the short stories should be available in the game itself. The novels did this pretty well and so did the Braham and Rox’s historical short stories from Flame and Frost – all the most important information from those five stories are (or in Braham’s case, was) in the game somehow. Ghosts of Ascalon has Dougal telling the main plot, a Plinth on the Viewing Hill telling a brief version of Ember’s telling of the Foefire, you have Killeen’s grave that Gullik visits and another NPC nearby both of which talk about said grave, and you have Ember herself who talks about the peace negotiations. Edge of Destiny has the Sorrow’s Embrace cinematic telling the most important part of the plot – the ending. And you have the Marriner Plaques for Sea of Sorrows. Braham’s short story had the jist of it explained in his Retaking Cragstead instance, while Rox’s short story has the jist of it explained by one of the NPCs in North Nolan Hatchery even now.

Those were done well. Having out-of-game stories is good and all, but they’re terrible if you’re forced to look out of game to get important plot points. And don’t give the BS (let’s be honest, it is BS and this is in no means an intended insult to you Bobby) that the short stories is for the “extra lore” because be frank, man. Without the short story or the interview with TowerTalk, all Scarlet is would be a batkitten crazy sylvari with no goal, no motivation, no reason, and no history beyond “she is asura-, norn-, charr-, and hylek-trained and graduated all three asuran colleges” and that Caithe knew (of) her while she was in the Grove. But the short story tells us who trained her (Beigarth, Asari, Inquest/Omadd, that hylek tribe I cannot recall) and gives a main gist of her history including her goals and why she’s batkitten crazy. The interview then tells us she only did specialized courses in the colleges and she didn’t see what she thought she saw so her motivation and goals are based on lies. That is very bloody important to understanding Scarlet. Without that she’s a 5-minute wonder with a maniacal laugh that reminds people of Harley Quinn. With the short story she gets some background but no depth and becomes a Villain Sue. With the interview that Villain Sue becomes removed. But no one would know about that unless someone from the community told them or they just happened to look in the right places.

Until that gets fixed – preferably retroactively (that is not a bad thing to do Anet, though I realize you seem to be hesitant to go and fix bad old things, do keep in mind that it isn’t bad to do that and that it’s better than introducing bad new things – go ahead and improve personal story fights and missions, redub lines if you must, fix highly bugged events, improve charr armor! Don’t ignore things just because it’d be tedious to fix or because “it isn’t popular” – if it isn’t popular, make it popular before you go introducing new things based on what’s popular, and for gods sake man, don’t go removing something that’s perfectly good except one thing that makes people hate it (TA’s F/U path))… where was it? Right, until you fix how you can get plot important lore that helps you understand why events are occuring or why people should care about a figure into the game, just putting it on the website will do absolutely nothing in the long run because in the end, people will only get frustrated that they must go digging through the internet to understand the plot.

TL;DR: A person should be fully capable of completely understanding the main plot and main characters – from reasons to actions – without going out of the story itself. It’d be like having to ask J.K.Rowling why Voldemort hates Harry Potter so much because she never included the fact that Harry was “the boy that lived” in the any of the novels.

Keep the short stories on the site, but for gods sake stop forcing us to go onto the site to understand important things. You better not be doing this just to get more website hits…

MastaNeenja.1537:

DarcShriek.5829:

MastaNeenja.1537:

snip

They didn’t make it into a cutscene because it wasn’t necessary. You got all the information you needed without it.

Yeah i did because i am pretty observant, i’ve yet to read what they put on the web and i have no intention to do so, but they must have felt it was important enough if they put it on the web, why not put it in the game instead? Guild Wars2 is a game not a novel, though they do have novels based on the GW2 universe that leads up the beginning of the GW2 game setting. there are plenty of cut-scenses and dialogue snippets that explain everything that happened in the novels so players aren’t lost. I think they need to keep putting that kind of work in the game. Throwing it out there on the web only seems like they are doing half of the job. Maybe that chat that MK and BP did sum up the web story and that’s great.

But apparently scarlet had a back story too unfortunately that was also on the web so I did not read it. I might actually be interested in her as a character if they gave me a reason to but i don’t see any of that because it’s not presented in the medium in which she was created for, the game not a web story.

all i’m saying is that a little well written cut-scene can go a long way, but that they probably don’t have time to make something like that because of the bi weekly schedule they are placed on. Even if they are working on this a month or so in advance because they have rotating teams things still seemed rushed. I am not even blaming the devs they have talent and tools what they don’t seem to have is time. anything worth doing is worth doing right.

You wouldn’t believe how many people would just go TL;DR at any attempt at exposition. Players just don’t like it. Keep it short, keep it simple. That’s all 90% of your players can handle. Short stories on the internet give the developers an opportunity to dive deeper into lore than is possible in game.

BobbyStein.2315:

Thanks for the constructive feedback. We’ve got a few things planned for upcoming releases that should clarify some of the story confusion by putting more of this information in the game.

We hope your listening… You know the PLAYERS .. The people who purchase the game.
This is what WE want..Story in the GAME!
I think we are all past the “Confusion” as it is to late to bring back things from the past. Put that crap on the web site. ADD the STORY to future updates…Lets not go backwards to go forward!!!

BobbyStein.2315:

Thanks for the constructive feedback. We’ve got a few things planned for upcoming releases that should clarify some of the story confusion by putting more of this information in the game.

Woooo red in my thread! WOooooooo

DarcShriek.5829:

You wouldn’t believe how many people would just go TL;DR at any attempt at exposition. Players just don’t like it. Keep it short, keep it simple. That’s all 90% of your players can handle. Short stories on the internet give the developers an opportunity to dive deeper into lore than is possible in game.

“Nothing” or “Next to nothing” in the entire game is not the same as “short and simple.”

There’s a grand difference between the two. And let’s face it, “hidden in game” is far superior to “hidden on the internet.” Especially when ArenaNet’s site search features are bad or the information comes from interviews that ArenaNet doesn’t even make mention of.

lordkrall.7241:

Gene Archer.8560:

Sure it can.

“A new chapter has appeared within the pages of the Mad Memories, revealing to you a past that up to now has been known only to the Bloody Prince and the Mad King.”

And then they tie that together by releasing a new scavenger hunt that leads to yet another upgraded Mad Memories.

Look at that, justification for putting it in game and I thought it up in under a minute.

We did however find out the information in the Mad Memories by finding stuff and talking to “people”. It didn’t magically turn up in the book for no reason whatsoever.

It would work in reverse – new scavenger hunt that upgrades the book, during which you get relevant info. If we could speak with ghosts then, no reason we couldn’t do it again.

I can’t even find the story so now I’ll wait to wait for WP to read it to me via YouTube. Thanks ArenaNet!

IIRC Anet said implementing a simple text/book interface was difficult for their game engine to handle. And cinematics of great length would would require too much voice acting to tell the story.

And that, zencow, is not needed at all. Dialogue trees exist and can be used via NPCs and objects to give the main points – not direct from the short stories.

Though I don’t see why they cannot copy the My Story tab from the hero panel for these…

Konig Des Todes.2086:

While it’s nice to have short stories that are pre-game-plot… snippity snip

Careful there Konig. You might get a 2-week forum ban for insulting (read: criticizing) the staff member who keeps pushing these!

Jokes aside, I agree. The current manor isn’t up to scratch. It’s great that we’re getting ‘extra lore’ but it should be just that. Extra lore. Not plot points. The plot points and crucial information should be in-game. The additional cool bits of information that the lore-guys love should be on the website, though in-game is better.

As Konig said, you have the ‘My story’ panel. Use it. It’s literally a useless tab after you complete your personal story. Hell, I didn’t even notice it until AFTER I completed it. Give us the goals and such there. It really doesn’t seem too hard. You had a system in place for Guild Wars 1 and the personal story of Guild Wars 2. Why is it so hard to bring it back?

I would have loved to see the story done in a cutscene in the first event with Tassi and the Bloody Prince.

Once you start throwing candy corn at the Bloody Prince: “Candy corn! I hate candy corn, almost as much as I hate my twisted, traitorous father! You don’t know him, you don’t know what he did to me!” -cue cutscene-

Something like that would be a fascinating bit of lore, and also fit well into the existing game.

I never read any of those stories put on websites. In-game however I try to watch eveything that has something to do with how story goes on.

Astralporing.1957:

It would work in reverse – new scavenger hunt that upgrades the book, during which you get relevant info. If we could speak with ghosts then, no reason we couldn’t do it again.

Which would work for some parts, but not all of them, and thus we would have lost out on story.

Chiming in: That cut scene that introduced us to Marjory Delaqua was the only time I’ve brought my family in to take a look at this game. “Check this out!” It had style and flavor. Flavah, I say! I read the short stories because they provide context, and I need context. I appreciate the context. But I agree with my fellow players; get that context in-game. I enjoy the various activities and wuv wuv, but I’m here for a story. Tell me a fable, and let me feel like “I was there.”

If two weeks is too demanding a schedule (and I know you guys work your butts off), I’d be okay with a less rigorous timetable. Hand to heart, I support the Living World concept. But let’s get the story in the game. <3, Me.

Ok this is going to sound pretty stupid, but could someone link me those stories ? I just discovered they exist but I still can’t find them on the website.
By the way I really wonder how many of the complaints on the living story being devoid of lore and, well, story, come from the fact most people expected the story to be, well, in the freaking game.

Sunptel.5031:

Ok this is going to sound pretty stupid, but could someone link me those stories ? I just discovered they exist but I still can’t find them on the website.
By the way I really wonder how many of the complaints on the living story being devoid of lore and, well, story, stems from the fact most people expected the story to be, well, in the freaking game.

Scroll through the news feed (“all news”) and look for the interesting titles. Seriously, some of the short stories are quite good. The one where Marjory Delaqua learns what was going in a basement (screaming, but no sound…) haunts me. Wish I could’ve glimpsed it through her eyes.

I also enjoyed Scarlet’s confrontation with forbidden knowledge/god/Pale Tree. Good, good stuff. And though I wasn’t quite clear on Canach’s motivations, the story wherein he confronts an ex-colleague with the decapitated heads of some other Consortium employees in a burlap sack was quite evocative. Moar, in-game.

Some stills with Ken Burns documentary-style animation would suffice, and scratch a big itch.

Oh they are in the news feed… of couuuuurse…
/sarcasm

thank you very much for the quick answer !

DarcShriek.5829:

Gene Archer.8560:

lordkrall.7241:

Suddenly knowing something that only two people “alive” would know can however not be explained.

Sure it can.

“A new chapter has appeared within the pages of the Mad Memories, revealing to you a past that up to now has been known only to the Bloody Prince and the Mad King.”

And then they tie that together by releasing a new scavenger hunt that leads to yet another upgraded Mad Memories.

Look at that, justification for putting it in game and I thought it up in under a minute.

Bad example. The only way that the informatin in the latest short story could show up in game is if the blood prince stopped fighting you long enough to give a long and boring expository of what happened.

Extremely few people want to read the wall a text that won’t even help them play the game better. Usability tests consistently show that players simply do not want this.

In this example, Anet actually used the best method available to get this information out.

Disagree. The Elder Scrolls games are quite popular and use the book/text format in-game to convey lore. Certainly not everyone reads them, but it is an appreciated option.

But how many of the players you describe would be willing to watch a rad cut scene?

lordkrall.7241:

Astralporing.1957:

It would work in reverse – new scavenger hunt that upgrades the book, during which you get relevant info. If we could speak with ghosts then, no reason we couldn’t do it again.

Which would work for some parts, but not all of them, and thus we would have lost out on story.

No. The majority of players would have gained on story, because currently they have none. Remember, only a minority ever visits the website.

What website stories are y’all talking about?

Astral Projections.7320:

What website stories are y’all talking about?

This.. Link pls!

Maybe this is the “extended experience” Arenanet spoke of in the past.