Guild Wars 2

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Thanks for the feedback everyone and please keep it coming. Personally, I find that one of the hardest parts of being a desginer on GW2 Live is coming to terms with the fact that not every update will please every player. We do our best to deliver appealing content with enough variety to keep as many people as satisfied as possible. And If there’s one thing we can do consistently, it’s improving the experience of said content each time. I think we made some great strides with the Jubilee. I think we have a lot of room to keep growing. But our team isn’t done yet. We’ve got some exciting things coming later this month. Things you’ve never seen in this game before.

But in the mean time, please keep telling us what you’re thinking. We are listening. Not only to what you’re saying but also to what you’re not. The very first living world team actually did the thing some of you have called for. Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative. Despite this, there are many events I would still like to add. Many zones and bosses I would love to revisit. As we get better at the living world, I strongly suspect we’ll have room to get around to them as well. Assuming that’s what our players really want. You are all the second half of the collaborative process, so thanks for helping!

I think its kinda impossible to judge the reaction to the 40 dynamic events added in the very first update. I for one love dynamic events, for me its the best thing and the top 1 feature of the game. I would definitely love more dynamic events to be added to the game. I am one of those players who talks to npcs and if I suspect this npc might be involved in a dynamic event chain will sit there waiting for it to spawn even for a long time. I try to see all events in a zone before I move on.

That being said I couldnt point out a single one of those 40 dynamic events because as much as I take it slow and try to do all events I always miss a few. Not the first time I would be passing from a low level zone that I went through with a fine comb and I still come across an event I never saw. Thats both the beauty of it and a curse.

The beauty of it is the world feels alive. The curse being that new dynamic events added to the world will be indistinguishable from dynamic events that are still present.

Maybe I am baised cause I would really like more dynamic events but I honestly dont think you can judge the player appreciation of them based soley by feedback because others like me have no way of telling that a new dynamic event they came across is actually new or one they missed. Also if they’re added to zone we havent been to yet there is no way of telling which are new or old.

all I can say is all dynamic events are amazing, especially the ones that chain! awesome stuff! Please do more

Yeah, it’s clear that dynamic events didn’t have that permanent impact Anet originally wanted them to do, and thus why the Living World concept was born. But to be perfectly honest, I feel that the next evolution of the living world concept is… guess what, the dynamic event system itself.

This is how current dynamic events usually work:

1. A trigger activates them;
2. Objectives revolve around “renown heart” fetch quests to scout guarding, and the area gets marked in the map;
3. Once the goals are acchieved (or not) by the community, three of the following consequences happen: a) nothing; b) trigger a new event, as part of a sequence/ chain; c) create or destroy something in the world (the “illusion” of an ever-changing world).

So, all or most of those steps can be improved.

Step number 2 can demand, as I suggested, more exploration (“find x” goals NOT marked in the map = this is key), or generate unique challenging and strategical enemy encounters worthy of a dungeon (something that the open world definitely lacks). Each of them would improve this game’s experience, which is currently driven by “go to that place marked by the map” and “kill x mindless enemies”. Another possibility is a story-driven scenario, with ambushes, betrayal, epic sieges, protection, dillema within killing choices, etc; which would create more interesting open-world scenarios too. Plenty of potential untapped here.

Step number 3b can benefit from an improved structure, and it would go along well with the more story-driven events. I suggested the narrative structure, with a beginning, a climax, etc. A non-linear story can be told, world’s lore can be expressed through dialogue, exploration and gameplay, etc. Some of this already happens in-game, but it’s a bit shy and lacks impact, maybe because lore-driven events lack that structure or maybe because gameplay encounters and the event sequence as a whole are not unique enough to convey the experience intended.

Step number 3c, as I said in my previous post, can be done by having event cycling contribute to the build up of something that would takes days or even months to acchieve, instead of instantly building or destroying something the moment it is completed. And, of course, each time they would cycle, there would be a system of sorts that would generate different encounters to keep each cycle diversified. This would incentivate entire guilds to stay in one area for a few days to build a city from the ground up, and then remain there to defend it, maybe even being rewarded with the city’s ownership and tax control thanks to their contribution in building it. And then, as more time passes (for example, a week, or a month), the system would generate invasions tht would scale in difficulty, until it was nearly impossible to defend it, activing a new set of events revolving around taking it back, and if still unsuccessful, by preventing it from being destroyed, or by building it back whatever was destroyed and preserving whatever was not. It could go as far as generating events to strenghten the structures of the city, almost like a WvW simulation versus PvE mobs. THIS would be an example of an ultimate dynamic event system, and if GW2 would ever to acchieve this someday, it would be ground-breaking. I believe EverQuest Next is trying to go after the potential this sytem might have, which was left untapped by Anet, but Anet has the years of experience and code, so if they decide to go this route anytime soon (if they haven’t already), they’ll certainly still be ahead of time.

And finally, as I also said in my last post, it’s how the events scale. Not only by adding more enemies (not always a good idea), or by adding champions (which is cool in context of the new reward system), but by spreading players. Not spreading in the “let’s zerg this event, and swamp the next one, and then the next one” kind of way, but “spread! if we don’t complete the three around the same time, bad stuff is going to happen!”. So if there were over 25 players in an event, the event could very well generate 4-ish ou 5-ish smaller sub-events that need to be completed at the same time, with the difficulty adequate enough for that many players. Imagine a champion in each of those small events. :P It would force players to play really well.

Queen’s Pavillion encounters are more interesting (Am I seeying weakness and cripple in my UI?), but if there’s one thing that this new content patch proves, is that it’s just nearly impossible for anet to make challenging content for a zerg. It just doesn’t happens. A zerg is always mindless, but more so than that, there’s problems with screen cluttering and lag. The best option is to have that zerg spread – to divide that zerg in several categories. Let’s call that “zerg control”. :P Anet needs mechanisms for “zerg control”.

HiddenNick.7206:

Fiontar.4695:

Gizmo.8623:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

The very first living world team actually did the thing some of you have called for. Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative. Despite this, there are many events I would still like to add. Many zones and bosses I would love to revisit. As we get better at the living world, I strongly suspect we’ll have room to get around to them as well. Assuming that’s what our players really want. You are all the second half of the collaborative process, so thanks for helping!

From release notes of “Shadow of Mad King”:
“Tyria Evolving
The world continues to evolve with new events, jumping puzzkitten sses, mini-dungeons, and achievements appearing across a variety of maps.”

This could be the only sentence in the next few update notes.

I was so busy with Halloween content and I haven’t even paid any attention to these additions

I didn’t notice them either, but to be fair, in late October of last year I was hospitalized and nearly died in the grips of an unidentified virus, so I think I have a reasonable excuse.

It makes me sad to see that quote, actually, because if that had been repeated with every patch since, the game would have been much the better for it. An evolving world of Tyria, with new Dynamic Events, Mini-dungeons and, yes, even jumping puzzles, is pretty much what I’m talking about and what Arenanet was talking about before they got ensnared in the pipe dream that has been Living Story.

There are a lot of people claiming that they like roaming around in the world exploring and “having fun”. Problem is… I don’t see them so often. And that’s why I consider claims like yours as a utter BS. Some random events scattered all over the world would never put any interest in most of the players. New content always needs rewards and challenge mechanics.

It’s what the entire game was based on. Dynamic Events, level scaling and a game where “the entire game is end game”.

The zones have become stale and static due to lack of updates. Almost everything added since release has been designed to suck people out of free-from, world roaming game play and reward them for linear, finely managed, old school content.

It started with Fractals of the Mist. It was furthered by Living Story content that rewarded players for jumping through hoops. It was compounded by Dailies and Monthlies. It was reinforced by nerfing of earning rates for open world roaming or farming.

The game was designed around the concept of a vast world brought alive via dynamic events, kept vibrant through evolution of that content and kept broadly relevant via level and reward scaling.

The original design of the game is not really in question. The success of that design was established. Diminishing open world game play participation is a logical outgrowth of the failure to advance the game world and keep Dynamic content fresh. Not to mention the fact that so much effort has been put into content and rewards that actively train players away from open world content with the promise of shinies you won’t earn via free roaming, open world game play.

The game succeeded because it wasn’t another cynical carrot on a stick grind-fest and because it had a vast, dynamic and interesting game world.

It’s a game, not a simulation, so the sense of a living, breathing game world will always rely on the successful illusion of an organic, living, evolving game world. By allowing the world to remain static and fallow, the illusion is destroyed, the manifesto rendered propaganda rather than principle and the game risks devolving into just another MMO genre clone.

By moving to appeal to the lowest common denominator, the game risks abandoning the core audience that embraced this game and made it a success. We have enough MMOs that follow the old MMO design formula. GW2 was an exceptional standout in the storied history of MMORPGs. They created a new Paradigm for MMO design, but the lack of follow through and the backsliding towards the old, stale paradigm greatly diminish it’s ongoing potential.

And, yes, for long term vets of the genre that finally saw a game that started to live up to the true potential of the MMO genre, the efforts to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory are more than a little frustrating.

IMO there’s a very large issue surrounding MMO’s and players. That issue is a very off balance set of expectations. Many long term players of MMO’s really tend to harp on content, regardless of the fact that single player games (or most games in general) are played once or twice, then are shelved. Fun, engaging content is by no means a simple task for any studio, let alone producing it on a two week cycle. I think overall, my experience with releases have been pretty good since i’ve lowered my expectations a bit in hindsight. This release cycle must be mad for the devs and they really do seem to produce a pretty sizable mess of stuff, this not to mention maintaining the core game, balancing WvW and PvP meta. Some people here that are in a bit of rage over things, might want to think about the scope of what they are accomplishing.

I absolutely love this update and all if the recent updates. The only thing this update is missing is a brand new awesome jumping puzzle. At the very least a huge massive torch run that flows across the entire city and takes 10 minutes or so to complete.

I love the boss 1v1 Gauntlet and the Glass Dome. I wish the floor of the dome was different and not quite so busy. I also wish we could get closer to the glass but I’m perfectly happy the way it is.

I wouldn’t mind some 1v1 action in the domes but I’m afraid many players would cry endlessly about forced PvP and getting dominated by more skilled players.

Keep it up ANet, you’re doing great. Please no more ascended gear! It ruins build diversity and locks players in to specific traits, weapons, and utilities. Also I saw a major decrease in FPS and an increase in culling. Please optimize!

I agree also that the “Living” story updates are pretty rubbish. I really enjoy rich content that feels like there was some heart (and time) put into it, and “Guys guess what new skins, mor partay w00t, guis we promis that this time it’s like omg you are actually there, just like the manife- well not like that but look you can farm this time!”. The cut-scenes were nice, voice acting is good, content itself? Very themepark-ish. I mean the new pavillion stuff is literally structured like a theme park. I almost feel embarrassed when I tell my friends I still play Gw2. But luckily the combat is amazing and enough to keep me invested.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Thanks for the feedback everyone and please keep it coming. Personally, I find that one of the hardest parts of being a desginer on GW2 Live is coming to terms with the fact that not every update will please every player. We do our best to deliver appealing content with enough variety to keep as many people as satisfied as possible. And If there’s one thing we can do consistently, it’s improving the experience of said content each time. I think we made some great strides with the Jubilee. I think we have a lot of room to keep growing. But our team isn’t done yet. We’ve got some exciting things coming later this month. Things you’ve never seen in this game before.

But in the mean time, please keep telling us what you’re thinking. We are listening. Not only to what you’re saying but also to what you’re not. The very first living world team actually did the thing some of you have called for. Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative. Despite this, there are many events I would still like to add. Many zones and bosses I would love to revisit. As we get better at the living world, I strongly suspect we’ll have room to get around to them as well. Assuming that’s what our players really want. You are all the second half of the collaborative process, so thanks for helping!

I think a large part of this is that the new events weren’t identified. The release notes said:

Added over 30 events across the game.

All right, so it’s mid-October and I find an event. Maybe I haven’t done it before. Is that because it’s a new event? Or is it because the game hasn’t been out for two months, and I haven’t been to this zone yet? Or maybe when I was here before, the event wasn’t active. How in the world would I know?

So I think, “Hey, should I go talk about this event on the forum like it’s something new? Hmm, no, I’ll look like a n00b because it isn’t new at all, most likely. And if I post about every cool event that I come across, I’ll never have time to play the game.”

End result: No feedback on “new” events.

I think that some ‘mystery’ would be beneficial to announcements of new events across Tyria, like:
- in patch notes: “new events at Wayfarer Foothils”
-in game:
We go to Wayfarer Foothils and start searching, we see changes in mobs – like bigger groups of minotaurs or wolves here and there – that would be clues. We see npc hidden behind tree observing big alfa minotaur – this start chain quest where we defeat it as he is corrupted, then we defend remaining minotaurs (we have to kill them as few when fighting alfa as possible or we will fail) from some monsters. Then we encounter spirit of the wild, who shows us source of corruption – we escort blessed minotaur there to cleanse it. There we fight boss who escapes.
This way this chain can always be made bigger.

I’d like to see rewards from dynamic events like:
when we rebuild destroyed bridge after we succeed there’s memorial plate placed nearby with names of players who helped. Same with defending city. There npcs should shout our names in gratitude, mayor of town give us discount on all merchandise (this would require a little revamp of vendor items).

Such small rewards shouldn’t be hard to implement and would add a feeling of being part of region which we helped.

My most favorite part of game is actually being part of the world.

Thing that kills this game little by little are rewards IMO. Yes. Ppl don’t want to do anything if they won’t receive their shinies. Where is the need for adventure, for travel, for exploring, for experiencing world? Where, I ask?
Where is the need for cooperation when all new content we have requires for all to become one mass of many graphical effects and low fps?

If you really wanna feel what I’m talking about, try to kill Giant in town of Nageling (Diessa plateau – Nageling WP) with 3, 4 random players. It’s so fun, so rewarding, exciting. With my melee engineer I started learning how to properly use Tool kit in order to survive. Some random elementalist came and we almost managed to take giant down. It really was a great experience. We was helping each other, hiding behind buildings, rocks. I needed to properly use my healings skill to keep our health high enough in order to survive any mistakes on our part and there were many

Killing legendary figures at Crown Pavilion with tens of players compared to this is so without substance. Gray. Dull. And what’s worst for me – I don’t fully utilise my character. I just stand behind zerg and pew pew boss and try to heal as many players as possible. There is no effort in it.

Btw. I wonder if ppl still would hunt champs across world if now we have them in one place and kill them without problems, everyone grind them like crazy. When Jubilee end, what of that will remain? Won’t everybody be accustomed to having big zerg with them killing champs that are 20 meters away?

The content might not be the best, but it was different. GW2, specifically the living story, has been very “samey” lately – many of the achievements sharing the same basic goal (just different skins and locations). It’s nice to be handed a breath-of-fresh-air-faceroll-farmfest (although I am mostly over it now; it was a blast though). I finished the achievements and nothing is forcing me to keep playing in that area – I can do content elsewhere in the world; play some sPvP or WvW.

Furthermore, besides CoF P1, there isn’t really anywhere to get really reliable amounts of gold in GW2. When this portion of the living story ends the arena will likely very likely fall into the role it was [very likely] designed for: a place to go and let your brain AFK while you make some easy and reliable gold – that is, if ANet keep it around (or if they are allowed to keep it around, rather).

Within the constraints imposed on ANet I think they have done a great job with this content – keep it up.

RoyHarmon.5398:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Thanks for the feedback everyone and please keep it coming. Personally, I find that one of the hardest parts of being a desginer on GW2 Live is coming to terms with the fact that not every update will please every player. We do our best to deliver appealing content with enough variety to keep as many people as satisfied as possible. And If there’s one thing we can do consistently, it’s improving the experience of said content each time. I think we made some great strides with the Jubilee. I think we have a lot of room to keep growing. But our team isn’t done yet. We’ve got some exciting things coming later this month. Things you’ve never seen in this game before.

But in the mean time, please keep telling us what you’re thinking. We are listening. Not only to what you’re saying but also to what you’re not. The very first living world team actually did the thing some of you have called for. Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative. Despite this, there are many events I would still like to add. Many zones and bosses I would love to revisit. As we get better at the living world, I strongly suspect we’ll have room to get around to them as well. Assuming that’s what our players really want. You are all the second half of the collaborative process, so thanks for helping!

I think a large part of this is that the new events weren’t identified. The release notes said:

Added over 30 events across the game.

All right, so it’s mid-October and I find an event. Maybe I haven’t done it before. Is that because it’s a new event? Or is it because the game hasn’t been out for two months, and I haven’t been to this zone yet? Or maybe when I was here before, the event wasn’t active. How in the world would I know?

So I think, “Hey, should I go talk about this event on the forum like it’s something new? Hmm, no, I’ll look like a n00b because it isn’t new at all, most likely. And if I post about every cool event that I come across, I’ll never have time to play the game.”

End result: No feedback on “new” events.

Yeah. It makes it seem like some are more concerned about being noticed for making a big splash than producing solid, necessary content that builds and expands on the game’s foundations, even if each individual brick doesn’t garner praise and wide spread notice.

What’s odd is that when Colin first laid out the original strategy of ongoing Dynamic Event content creation, he fully acknowledged and embraced the idea that such content may not attract much fanfare, but would make an important contribution to providing a living, breathing, evolving game world.

It comes down to having a successful long term strategy, vs. instant gratification at the cost of long term success.

Gizmo.8623:

Killing legendary figures at Crown Pavilion with tens of players compared to this is so without substance. Gray. Dull. And what’s worst for me – I don’t fully utilise my character. I just stand behind zerg and pew pew boss and try to heal as many players as possible. There is no effort in it.

I spam 2 (for cluster bombs on my thief’s shortbow) and f to gather the loot.

I occasionally dodge and move out of the fire/artillery/other red circle but that’s about it. It’s financially very rewarding and kinda fun in a weird way, what with all the mayhem and flashy effects and so on but it’s pretty mindless fun.

I wonder what a month of a farming event like this will do to the game.

I don’t like this update either, such a weak attempt that i am not going to bother with the Living Story. If i could get a refund for all the gems i purchased i would happily say good riddance. Meh.

Elbegast.6970:

I find that I am much less vocal about the areas of the game that I enjoy. Coming to the forums to post compliments seems a frivolous waste of time for all involved. If I am enjoying the game, I am playing it rather than posting here. As a result, when I post my concerns, I am marked as a ‘forum troll’ or a ‘hater’.

Hmm thats a bad idea in my opinion and not because of how people will regard you but mostly because you should care more about not having what you hate, you should strive to have more of what you like.

If you enjoy Dynamic Events for example but hate jumping puzzles.

lets say your negative feed back on JP leads to an update having no JP and instead they add new mini games ? is that out come better then praising DE while voicing your concerns on JP which leads to an update that contains DE instead of JPs?

How about an update that has DE and JP… wouldnt that be a lot better then an event that has mini games which make no difference to you and JP which you hate?

Dont think praising what you like is frivolous at all, it gives context to everyone as well as helps move the game in a direction that you dont like as opposed to simply trying to avoid a direction that you dislike.

Gizmo.8623:

Btw. I wonder if ppl still would hunt champs across world if now we have them in one place and kill them without problems, everyone grind them like crazy. When Jubilee end, what of that will remain? Won’t everybody be accustomed to having big zerg with them killing champs that are 20 meters away?

I agree with most of what you said. I snipped most of the quote, but left the last paragraph to comment on. I see that as a big concern as well. Not only does the Pavilion Legendary Mob zerg bash-fest represent a really sad form of MMO content, but it is almost certain to leave many players who take advantage of it finding it hard to go back to playing sustainable content at a normal pace for normal rewards.

I find it ironic that as they continue to take active steps to limit choices in game play that provides reasonable gold and high tier mat earning rates, they then insert temporary content that would be considered akin to"cheat" or “trainer” content in RPG that supports community produced content.

Regarding this update, it has its ups and downs for me. Overall I like it.

The pavilion mini zones are fun taken in small 30 min does. Going around nuking with the zerg is profitable but doesnt involve any skill. Personally I feel it would have been a lot better if somehow this whole are was instanced to not more then 15 – 20 people.

The Queen’s gauntlet on the other hand is perfect. plenty of fun encounters some of which can be quite challenging. I loved having to learn what my opponent does and which skills I could use to counter them. This content takes 20 / 10 from me

The beacon lighting things are a fun destruction. The torch you get for completing them all is also very useful for those dark jp so great stuff there

The balloons are a good reason to wonder around in different zones with a little goal. Perhaps no content worth going for specifically but a good spice up to the experiencing the open world unless something else distracts you first

All in all its great stuff. The open arena is not my thing but then again some of the previous updates like the sky pirates and the bazaar I loved every single thing about them. The labyrinthine cliffs were amazing, the scavenger hunt for sky crystals was great. The mini games were top notch… So I Am definitely not going to complain just because 1/3 of the update is not something exciting for me.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative.

I haven’t got the slightest clue what “40 or so permanent events were added”, and I doubt I’m the only one standing around scratching his head, wondering what Willis is talking about.

I feel like this update (in regards to the pavilion zerg) was to prepare the economy for the next tier of armor/weapons/legendaries.

Also, when this Jubilee is removed, there is a high possibility that Orr will look like the Pavilion, which would not be a bad thing. This update is a huge game changer in the long run. I’m a little disappointed with the dungeon rewards but I’ve given up on dungeons.

I’m glad the events are starting to branch out of Lion’s Arch. Southsun was weird, I don’t consider that much when recalling the living world events.

What I would like to see most are events that take place in the world, rather than cities, and take you across multiple maps for a grand finale somewhere new, perhaps, when the time to release a new zone comes. I really hope a large scale event takes place when it’s time to go to Ring of Fire Islands, because to not do that map epic would be a total missed opportunity.

I think the Dynamic events should be more dynamic. I think the world bosses, primarily the dragons, should not have a scripted landing place. I know this is difficult in terms of terrain and environment, but having multiple places where Claw of Jormag or Shatterer can land and be engaged would be very interesting.

I think Dynamic event chains that are in close proximity to one another should have an opportunity to merge into an even larger event, such as, for instance, the cave troll in Queensdale being subdued by the bandits that attack the ranch, and the bandits use the troll somehow to attack Claypool. I’m sure there are better minds than mine that can think of some awesome scenarios.

I won’t speak on the living story yet because I don’t think it would be fair to call it incoherent just yet. They still have a lot of building to do before we see any major ties, I’m sure.

Fiontar.4695:

Gizmo.8623:

Btw. I wonder if ppl still would hunt champs across world if now we have them in one place and kill them without problems, everyone grind them like crazy. When Jubilee end, what of that will remain? Won’t everybody be accustomed to having big zerg with them killing champs that are 20 meters away?

I agree with most of what you said. I snipped most of the quote, but left the last paragraph to comment on. I see that as a big concern as well. Not only does the Pavilion Legendary Mob zerg bash-fest represent a really sad form of MMO content, but it is almost certain to leave many players who take advantage of it finding it hard to go back to playing sustainable content at a normal pace for normal rewards.

I find it ironic that as they continue to take active steps to limit choices in game play that provides reasonable gold and high tier mat earning rates, they then insert temporary content that would be considered akin to"cheat" or “trainer” content in RPG that supports community produced content.

Well in a way lets not forget this is a celebration of the 1 year anniversary of gw2.
I think its fine if we get some boosted drops temporarily for the occasion.

Besides the queen’s gauntlet is probably a good gold sink to make up for the extra income.

Fiontar.4695:

It’s what the entire game was based on. Dynamic Events, level scaling and a game where “the entire game is end game”.

After two weeks playing the game most people don’t care much about the whole world. And the entire game never was end game. Your quote was just PR saying: “we don’t have end game”.

The zones have become stale and static due to lack of updates. Almost everything added since release has been designed to suck people out of free-from, world roaming game play and reward them for linear, finely managed, old school content.

The zones have become stale and static due to lack of people having reasons to play them (CoF never become abandoned because of the new content).

It started with Fractals of the Mist. It was furthered by Living Story content that rewarded players for jumping through hoops. It was compounded by Dailies and Monthlies. It was reinforced by nerfing of earning rates for open world roaming or farming.

FotM is just a dungeon. It has its own rewards. And I don’t mean AC rings because that become available to everyone through laurel merchant shortly after FotM was introduced.

The game was designed around the concept of a vast world brought alive via dynamic events, kept vibrant through evolution of that content and kept broadly relevant via level and reward scaling.

Problem is that through flat rewards whole world became irrelevant… Only the best way to earn gold matters. That’s the issue.

The original design of the game is not really in question. The success of that design was established. Diminishing open world game play participation is a logical outgrowth of the failure to advance the game world and keep Dynamic content fresh. Not to mention the fact that so much effort has been put into content and rewards that actively train players away from open world content with the promise of shinies you won’t earn via free roaming, open world game play.

Again… New content is not the reason why people stopped playing open world. It’s the lack of reasons to do so. Rewards are flat so the whole game gives the same rewards. So there is no reason to try variety of content. At launch there was progression and people had to travel through world to level up and gear up. Now… The only thing that counts is the fastest way to earn gold. And this is why people don’t roam in the world. Not the lack of content or the LW.

The game succeeded because it wasn’t another cynical carrot on a stick grind-fest and because it had a vast, dynamic and interesting game world.

It still has the same: “vast, dynamic and interesting game world”. Problem is… There is no carrot.

It’s a game, not a simulation, so the sense of a living, breathing game world will always rely on the successful illusion of an organic, living, evolving game world. By allowing the world to remain static and fallow, the illusion is destroyed, the manifesto rendered propaganda rather than principle and the game risks devolving into just another MMO genre clone.

Manifesto was something that everyone understood in their own way… Let’s not go back there anymore. And the game is a lot different then other MMO’s – you simply can’t deny that (and please don’t give me that over exaggerated BS talk about the AC gear).

By moving to appeal to the lowest common denominator, the game risks abandoning the core audience that embraced this game and made it a success. We have enough MMOs that follow the old MMO design formula. GW2 was an exceptional standout in the storied history of MMORPGs. They created a new Paradigm for MMO design, but the lack of follow through and the backsliding towards the old, stale paradigm greatly diminish it’s ongoing potential.

Hearing that I can’t imagine what could they do to make you happy… With such expectations they were doomed from the start.

And, yes, for long term vets of the genre that finally saw a game that started to live up to the true potential of the MMO genre, the efforts to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory are more than a little frustrating.

Agree.

I wouldn’t call this the GW2 anniversary celebration. Still 20 days off, and I’m thinking they’ll do something pretty impressive. They’re very proud of their game.

People really need to give this Manifesto a rest. The Manifesto is the shtick that every Development team has always proclaimed before the game actually became what it is.

Some of the stuff they said they were able to bring to the live game, but some of the stuff never was. Give it a rest, it’s not a real thing and never was. It was designed to get your interest and attention, and it succeeded akittens only purpose.

I like the update (especially the account wallet) , except for a few things.
1) Its more temporary content, sure the explanation that the queen can’t afford to keep the thing going permanently makes sense, but there could have been some other reason why she could keep it permanent, heck even if its not the main floor of the pavilion, the gauntlet should have been able to be permanent.
2) Turns out we were justified in most of our criticisms of the gauntlet before it was release. Wait time is really annoying, no waypoint near it (forcing us to always run back, if we’re in an overflow with noone up there). I think we shouldn’t have to have an item to access it, cause it makes it really hard trying to complete it (we can’t just focus on it).
3)Why the kitten did you make the tickets souldbound, when they were originally account bound. If people were making new characters to get the tickets, just make it so they only get one mail per account and thats it. Now a whole bunch of us in the community have useless tickets. It seems like you guys should have known before hand that something like this new character exploit would happen (how many times has this happened now? 3? 4?)

Also, why are the watchwork knights really tall outside the pavilion, but inside they’re human sized?

This update is bugged as hell. The bugs drain all the fun from it. I could have had my mini watch knight already, but no the daily achievement was bugged and didn’t count yesterday. Now I want to play the gauntlet, I pay for my entry but wait 23 minutes, watching countless people that cleary came after me go in, but I can’t. A whole ticket and much time, simply wasted.
Well let’s go look for the champions, I just need stone shield. Oh there he is, but he buggs out and disappears (without the fight event triggering) and get’s replaced by whirling blade (who I of course already did). FIX THOSE FREAKING BUGS ALREADY!

If I was to name things that were added after release that I’d want to celebrate:
- Fractals

That’s about it. No other things remained that added anything to gameplay. And please, no comments like – minigames, one jp here or there. Year have passed and we jump from temporary something to temporary something else.

Now if I were to start with new character what this content would provide me:
- I’d be oneshooted
- Levels would be gained like crazy (I wanna level up when I’m in the world, not zerg arena)
- Many mats of every type, lots of loot would fill my 4-space backpacks in 5 seconds (now with wallet I have tons of gold for my fresh toon, it’s killing joy of starting new character)
- can’t complete baloon achievement because they are scattered across whole Tyria

When I roam with my new toon I just think that there’s zerg who is getting gold and materials like crazy and I just do low lvl events alone and try to level up to do another personal story quest.

I wonder where Anet is going with rewards – what can they give us after this – maybe precursors will drop from uber legendary monsters in WvW maps which will spawn every 10 minutes.

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DYNAMIC WORLD BUT NOT IN A SENSE OF KILLING LEGENDARY MONSTERS WITH CHANCE OF DROPPING EVERYTHING IMPORTANT EVERY FEW MINUTES IN PLACES 20 METERS AWAY (while killing hordes of champs and vets along the way who also drop kittenload of things).
Now killing anything in the world will feel unnecessary (hey – you had your chance at pavilon, you were supposed to kill 100 legendary monsters and 200 champs and 500 vets a day for 4 weeks, now you can barely kill 2 champs a day – and only if events are not bugged and you find players who help but again – hey, they are tired of doing what’s been written above).

What’s more – you get scrolls which give you skill points. So now it’s better to level up any character from lvl 1 to 80 in one place – it’s faster, more lucrative and without risk that there won’t be somebody to help with vet or champ. It’s like whole Tyria is in one place that’s designed for zerg, not specific character, different builds, etc.

Please don’t tell me that this kind of update can help this game.
I believe that it’s now no problem to get max lvls in a few hours. Yesterday I gained 70 to 75 veeery fast and I wasn’t with the zerg all the time.

We got beautiful world full of things you charmed us with and now you kill it yourself.

Just my two cents. Honestly, I’m the kind of person who doesn’t complain much. I love this game and try to tell everyone I can about it. It’s gorgeous, heck of a lot of fun, and oh did I mention no sub?

There’s been something fun for me to do in every update. Southsun Survival has been my favorite. During betas, the hunger games themed end event was the best, imo, anyways.

I’m enjoying this new update. There are new things to do. New achievements and rewards. Having the gauntlet right above the Crown Pavillion is awesome. Really gives it an epic feel. It’s also great that we can stand on the sidelines and watch people fight. This leads to more of the “working togetherness” that the game encourages. Players are right there to rez each other and even give tips. It is unfortunate for those who have computers that can’t handle it. However, there are two sides to that. My PC can handle it just fine. So why deny me awesome mechanics/fights/etc? Not saying that Anet has, I’m just making a point.

It must be very hard to be in the shoes of the developers. People whine and complain about EVERYTHING. For example the new wallet. Some players were upset that Pristine Fractal Relics were not deposited into the wallet. Really? One token out of how many now goes to the wallet and you are going to complain? Anet didn’t have to put in this wallet. If you think about it, this very could had caused a loss in revenue since it freed up bank space and didn’t put much pressure on players to buy new slots.

People who are unhappy are more likely to state their opinions that people who are satisfied. I came to tell the developers that I love your game. Living story is a great concept and I’m excited to see how it all plays out. I’m enjoying all the updates and having a ton of fun exploring the new (and even old) things around the world. I talk to every NPC, by the way, and if anyone out there isn’t you really should. You can uncover some really interesting tidbits.

So, thank you Anet for this amazing game and keep up the good work.

Gnat.9405:

I wouldn’t call this the GW2 anniversary celebration. Still 20 days off, and I’m thinking they’ll do something pretty impressive. They’re very proud of their game.

It might not be the main event but probably it sets the back drop. The pattern has always been 1 major update that lasts for 4 weeks and 2 weeks later another update that lasts 2 weeks. So I am sure we’re get more themed celebratory stuff in 2 weeks time but what we have now will likely still be part of that.

@OP: This has been my favorite update to date. Please stop throwing around the “manifesto” term when you clearly have no idea what it means.

This game is about flexibility. You can play whatever you want! If you choose to skip this event, what do you really lose? Nothing.

In other words, if you don’t like it, don’t play it. Do something else and maybe a future living story will be more to your liking. In the meantime, quit whining.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

This update is bugged as hell. The bugs drain all the fun from it. I could have had my mini watch knight already, but no the daily achievement was bugged and didn’t count yesterday. Now I want to play the gauntlet, I pay for my entry but wait 23 minutes, watching countless people that cleary came after me go in, but I can’t. A whole ticket and much time, simply wasted.
Well let’s go look for the champions, I just need stone shield. Oh there he is, but he buggs out and disappears (without the fight event triggering) and get’s replaced by whirling blade (who I of course already did). FIX THOSE FREAKING BUGS ALREADY!

The only issue I am aware of with the daily yesterday was a typo. I suppose you’re talking about the beacon lighting thing. The achievement asked for anyone but only one applied, the one in the center plaza.

Doesnt help you much now I guess but that was it.

Anthony: I for one adored the new events/mini dungeons and so did my guild. We sought out Modus Sceleris as well as vexa`s lab (which has a great boss fight by the way) and the halls in dredgehaunt is still my favorite mini dungeon in the game, though not one I get to do often with the boss generally requiring 3-4 players.

I think as players it`s easier to have a strong reaction to something that`s big and fanfair-y like the living story updates than more subtle things like events scattered throughout the world. This doesn`t mean players don`t like these but rather they`re woven into a tapestry vs. the living story events have tended to be their own smaller picture in a way. That doesn`t mean one or the other is bad. I believe they`re both called for.

OtakuDFifty.2965:

atheria.2837:

QUOTE:

Instead, we got this mess.

Queen’s Pavilion is satire of everything that is wrong with really, really bad theme park MMO design, but it seems you guys are oblivious to the joke. It may be the worst part of the Jubilee, but the rest of it isn’t much better
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
THE most COGENT and APPLICABLE posting I have EVER seen for an MMO. in 20+ years.

This game is going to die a horrible death because of the MANY "*currencies* and the fact that the DEVS keep CHANGING THE RULES.

Almost everyone in the game wants a Legendary – but many are now realizing that they will NEVER have a Legendary – either their guilds are too small or they have no help (!) or they just give up because the GRIND has beaten them down into a puddle of mush – only to find a first person shooter to take a vacation from this moronic grind.

I am horrible at math.

I am horrible at keeping TRACK of the myriad of currencies and what you need them for and what you have to keep and what you can safely sell.

Making the game more about rides on balloons that are just fake waypoints that go ONE WAY and all the other items already mentioned is pushing SO many people away from the game.

There are thousands of people in the last few DAYS who have said, just on my server alone, that they are hoping this doesn’t spin out of control as it has before with the “new” currencies and the “new” rules, but they were right – it is, it has, and we’re all looking for next MMO that won’t DO this to us.

Please tell me this is all overt sarcasm.

No, by the many who understood my posting and that of the subject of this forum post, we are not being sarcastic.

Disappointed, but not sarcastic.

Fiontar.4695:

-snipped-
Read the full post here

+1’ed so hard I heard a crack…not sure if it was my finger or the mouse button breaking.

I’ve found that you and erasculio.2914 are the primary two posters that I agree entirely with (tachenon.5270 and tolunart.2095 as well) and it is very reassuring to see that there are others that feel as I do.

Thank you for your posts.

Galen Grey.4709:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

This update is bugged as hell. The bugs drain all the fun from it. I could have had my mini watch knight already, but no the daily achievement was bugged and didn’t count yesterday. Now I want to play the gauntlet, I pay for my entry but wait 23 minutes, watching countless people that cleary came after me go in, but I can’t. A whole ticket and much time, simply wasted.
Well let’s go look for the champions, I just need stone shield. Oh there he is, but he buggs out and disappears (without the fight event triggering) and get’s replaced by whirling blade (who I of course already did). FIX THOSE FREAKING BUGS ALREADY!

The only issue I am aware of with the daily yesterday was a typo. I suppose you’re talking about the beacon lighting thing. The achievement asked for anyone but only one applied, the one in the center plaza.

Doesnt help you much now I guess but that was it.

But I did exactly the one in the central plaza and it counted for my daily, but not for the jubilee event, preventing me from getting the mini today. Now it’s tomorrow, if not another major bug screws me over.

There are some really great ideas coming out in this thread. Just thinking of the possibility that ANet may be reading them gets me excited.

I have enjoyed Queen’s Jubilee so far, I agree on some things like the bosses in the ground floor of the pavilion having no story as being disappointing, but I kinda see their appeal too. It’s like kinda like playing Diablo II for drops, some people don’t like it, some spend hours upon hours doing it. But don’t forget that these bosses are just Watchknights in disguise representing enemies of humanity. I kinda supposed that the bosses they represent were infamous humans/creatures from decades ago. Some text back story or even an epic tale of how an Ebonhawke squad fought Shurakk would have been awesome.

The 1 vs 1 bosses are great. Their mechanics as you go up the tiers are pretty cool and make the Gauntlet feel very challenging, which I welcome. Last night I made a couple of friends right there, above the glass dome. We took turns and encouraged each other in our fights. So the wait in queue can be enjoyable if you propose yourself to do it so.

GW2 has its faults, but sometimes its cool to slow down and appreciate the world we’re experiencing. I saw GW1 evolve and get expansions and I trust that ANet know what they’re doing.

Gnat.9405:

I wouldn’t call this the GW2 anniversary celebration. Still 20 days off, and I’m thinking they’ll do something pretty impressive. They’re very proud of their game.

Personally, I’m starting to expect a email containing some kind of account buff, consume to add a permanent 5% magic find, karma and money boost.

And oh, I don’t know… let’s say a hat.

atheria.2837:

OtakuDFifty.2965:

atheria.2837:

QUOTE:

Instead, we got this mess.

Queen’s Pavilion is satire of everything that is wrong with really, really bad theme park MMO design, but it seems you guys are oblivious to the joke. It may be the worst part of the Jubilee, but the rest of it isn’t much better
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
THE most COGENT and APPLICABLE posting I have EVER seen for an MMO. in 20+ years.

This game is going to die a horrible death because of the MANY "*currencies* and the fact that the DEVS keep CHANGING THE RULES.

Almost everyone in the game wants a Legendary – but many are now realizing that they will NEVER have a Legendary – either their guilds are too small or they have no help (!) or they just give up because the GRIND has beaten them down into a puddle of mush – only to find a first person shooter to take a vacation from this moronic grind.

I am horrible at math.

I am horrible at keeping TRACK of the myriad of currencies and what you need them for and what you have to keep and what you can safely sell.

Making the game more about rides on balloons that are just fake waypoints that go ONE WAY and all the other items already mentioned is pushing SO many people away from the game.

There are thousands of people in the last few DAYS who have said, just on my server alone, that they are hoping this doesn’t spin out of control as it has before with the “new” currencies and the “new” rules, but they were right – it is, it has, and we’re all looking for next MMO that won’t DO this to us.

Please tell me this is all overt sarcasm.

No, by the many who understood my posting and that of the subject of this forum post, we are not being sarcastic.

Disappointed, but not sarcastic.

Well, unfortunately the options were sarcasm or a complete lack of understanding of development of an MMO. Nor an understanding of the point of the things you don’t like.

Seriously, currencies and rule changes? The reason for the currencies is to ensure that no one can just do one thing and automatically have access to everything they could ever want. It is to force someone to do the thing associated with the thing they want if it’s so important to them. This is not actually that big a deal if you really consider it reasonably.

Changing the rules. Honestly, this one I don’t get at all. What rules have been changed other than tweeks to powers for balance issues?

I think you’re highly overestimating the actually draw an appeal of Legendaries. I personally don’t know anyone who actually has any interest in them at all, BUT A-Net has actually be making it consistently easier to access Legendaries, not harder. With achievement rewards giving away hundreds of badges of honor at a time, gaining easy access to T6 mats through events and Laurels, and the ability to craft a precursor, Legendaries will be easier to obtain than ever before.

The simple fact, though, is that if you don’t like the game there is absolutely nothing holding you to it. Move on. ANet wants you to move on. They want you to step away from the game. They hope you’ll come back again and like what you see, but they are more than happy to see you go if you’re getting tired of it.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Thanks for the feedback everyone and please keep it coming. Personally, I find that one of the hardest parts of being a desginer on GW2 Live is coming to terms with the fact that not every update will please every player. We do our best to deliver appealing content with enough variety to keep as many people as satisfied as possible. And If there’s one thing we can do consistently, it’s improving the experience of said content each time. I think we made some great strides with the Jubilee. I think we have a lot of room to keep growing. But our team isn’t done yet. We’ve got some exciting things coming later this month. Things you’ve never seen in this game before.

But in the mean time, please keep telling us what you’re thinking. We are listening. Not only to what you’re saying but also to what you’re not. The very first living world team actually did the thing some of you have called for. Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative. Despite this, there are many events I would still like to add. Many zones and bosses I would love to revisit. As we get better at the living world, I strongly suspect we’ll have room to get around to them as well. Assuming that’s what our players really want. You are all the second half of the collaborative process, so thanks for helping!

Hi Anthony, I hope you see this!
I love this game and have been playing it since beta and launch. I’ve continued towards learning what I can about this game and plan on playing it for a long time.

Your comment intrigues me because of this reason: I have not been aware of this new content.

Now, this doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. What it means is lack of player awareness. I realize you don’t want to give away secrets and that’s fine, but you don’t even allude that you have secrets. Also, as you can see, when the internet is told there is a secret, it pretty much explodes with people wanting to discover it.

Players need to be made aware of the new content, not because they are lazy, but as you have seen even millions of players don’t always notice these things.

Keep up the good work, it’s making me spend money!

I have to agree that the new Crown Pavilion map is a little disappointing. It looks nice and all, also the premise of doing something with the Great Collapse got me excited. However the actual content in it is pretty much a concentrated farming ground, which I thought Anet didn’t support too much. Nothing interesting or imaginative is happening there, just mobs after mobs, and it seems like they tried to conceal the monotonous design with a humongous wall of fat loot. (and they partly succeeded :P)

I liked the Queen’s Gauntlet though. It’s another one of those updates that actually is fun oriented(as opposed to reward oriented), and is very expandable. If they keep adding new bosses and gambits for this, it could end up being a huge branch of content itself. Too bad it’s only going to be available once a year. Being able to watch others fight is a nice touch as well. It would have been nice if the NPCs ressed you though. Just a nitpick.

Also, the point some people made about Living Story and Dynamic Event having two conflicting ideals is really interesting, and I think Anet really needs to think about it. On one side, monthly contents built with concentrated dev resources and bringing people together are really awesome, but on the other side, a whole world built to be savored in any way you want with slowly evolving contents is also really awesome, game-defining even. Too bad I can’t think of a nice way for both to coexist and work, or a way for thinly spread out updates like dynamic events addition to have more of a visible impact on each player. But it’s not like I’m an Anet employee, so oh well. More work for you guys! :P

Fiontar.4695:

You are right. To really leverage dynamic events, they need to evolve, there needs to be some sort of progression and they should never be reduced to just timed, scripted events with no variation.

What I would like to see is a continual, systematic refresh of DE content in each game zone in a way that progresses events with in that zone over time. Existing events modified to provide twists that make sense in context with the events that have been playing out in the zone, new events to progress the state of the zone, including changes to structures to reflect the waxing or waning of the influence of various NPC factions.

DEs do a good job at providing the illusion of life to a zone during the first half dozen hours you spend there, but when nothing changes at all in the weeks or months since your previous visit, the immersion and sense of an organic, living environment are completely lost.

I also see a role for instanced story content in all that. Not new story content to accompany every new influx of content for each zone, but the spotlight could be put on an individual zone every 2-4 weeks with Story Content accompanying dramatic goings on for that zone that are presented via new, narrative advancing, DEs for the zone.

Yup, exactly. Orr has needed triple the events since launch. They should not be predictable, like the commonly zerged event chains that restart by the time you finish or fail on purpose. Instead they made Southsun, which ended up needing a patch for more events. And it still feels like too sparse. The best feeling while leveling was when hearts overlapped with events. Goal overlap (not just from events) needs to be capitalized on in Orr and Southsun and any new grind spots like Pavilion.

Speaking of Pavilion, huge disappointment. Its basically 2 predictable events. 1 boss of each type and 1 clear the bridges of each type. Before the centaur nerf, at least people did stuff between events. Now most people wait in the center until a boss spawns. The livestream said “anti-zerg mechanics” and “20 people per section”. No sign of that.

Despite GW2’s idealistic design theories, the bottom line is the community still follows the path of least resistance. People get yelled at in Pavilion for killing the 2nd boss while the zerg is at another. Just because you present us with choices doesn’t mean we can choose. The only solution is so many active events that you can’t do them all. Each map, but especially “endgame zones”, should literally overload you with choices. When walking past an event we should wonder if we’ll ever see it again. Knowing it’ll respawn or still be up in 30 minutes is not dynamic. People will still gravitate towards grouping and looking for the optimal path, but at least people deviating from the zerg won’t get crucified for choosing to play differently.

And just because the majority are okay with zerging Orr and Pavilion does not make it acceptable game design. They’re repetitive, predictable, and mindless. That’s where I get confused. Arenanet loves to spout their idealism. You guys do a good job in some areas, like meta-achievements only rewarding cosmetics. And then achievement chests give Badges of Honor? How do such clashing ideas get through?

For example, Queen’s Gauntlet is fantastic. Everyone will find the challenge level they’re comfortable with, whether its Windcaller, Liadri, or 5 gambits. However, by the time the patch comes out, the designs that start with the best intentions are bogged down by frivolous bullkitten like gauntlet tickets. The gambling aspect is okay, but should be optional and just cost gold. Instead, we have to farm below or elsewhere for gold to buy sprockets to convert to tickets.

It’s the same thing with fractals. Infinite challenge and progression? Revolutionary. Instead its gated by huge grinds for 5 agony resist and waiting for more slots to be added. The most progressed should be the most talented and coordinated team, not who put the most time into upgrading their ascended gear. That’s the exact opposite of “no gear treadmill” which, like GW1, seemed like a core design philosophy of GW2. Somehow that kitten leaks through the cracks.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

Galen Grey.4709:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

This update is bugged as hell. The bugs drain all the fun from it. I could have had my mini watch knight already, but no the daily achievement was bugged and didn’t count yesterday. Now I want to play the gauntlet, I pay for my entry but wait 23 minutes, watching countless people that cleary came after me go in, but I can’t. A whole ticket and much time, simply wasted.
Well let’s go look for the champions, I just need stone shield. Oh there he is, but he buggs out and disappears (without the fight event triggering) and get’s replaced by whirling blade (who I of course already did). FIX THOSE FREAKING BUGS ALREADY!

The only issue I am aware of with the daily yesterday was a typo. I suppose you’re talking about the beacon lighting thing. The achievement asked for anyone but only one applied, the one in the center plaza.

Doesnt help you much now I guess but that was it.

But I did exactly the one in the central plaza and it counted for my daily, but not for the jubilee event, preventing me from getting the mini today. Now it’s tomorrow, if not another major bug screws me over.

The central plaza Torchbearer daily makes 15, as long as you did the daily before it. So assuming you got all the straight Living Story achievements already you couldn’t possibly get the meta until you complete todays achievement, which is to travel on a single balloon to Divinity’s Reach. So I’m not really clear what you’re complaining about here. There are 13 achievements of the total 16 needed, so that’s minimum three days worth of dailies.

Kaphei.7096:

Some text back story or even an epic tale of how an Ebonhawke squad fought Shurakk would have been awesome.

That kind of lore would make a big difference for me, even a plaque explaining who they are or they represent.

As it is they’re just elaborate pinatas. Calling the flame legion one Bonfaz Burntfur might be a bit politically incorrect these days, what with humans and charr being friends (sorta), but having these bosses as big name “historical” enemies with a bit of lore would be good.

Even more so when the “holodeck safety protocols” fail and these watchwork bosses escape into the real world later on this month. cough

BuddhaKeks.4857:

Galen Grey.4709:

BuddhaKeks.4857:

This update is bugged as hell. The bugs drain all the fun from it. I could have had my mini watch knight already, but no the daily achievement was bugged and didn’t count yesterday. Now I want to play the gauntlet, I pay for my entry but wait 23 minutes, watching countless people that cleary came after me go in, but I can’t. A whole ticket and much time, simply wasted.
Well let’s go look for the champions, I just need stone shield. Oh there he is, but he buggs out and disappears (without the fight event triggering) and get’s replaced by whirling blade (who I of course already did). FIX THOSE FREAKING BUGS ALREADY!

The only issue I am aware of with the daily yesterday was a typo. I suppose you’re talking about the beacon lighting thing. The achievement asked for anyone but only one applied, the one in the center plaza.

Doesnt help you much now I guess but that was it.

But I did exactly the one in the central plaza and it counted for my daily, but not for the jubilee event, preventing me from getting the mini today. Now it’s tomorrow, if not another major bug screws me over.

ahh okey sorry thought it might have been the daily issue. Dont know if it counted for the jubilee event, dont follow achievements too closely, I just play the stuff and let them happen.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Thanks for the feedback everyone and please keep it coming. Personally, I find that one of the hardest parts of being a desginer on GW2 Live is coming to terms with the fact that not every update will please every player. We do our best to deliver appealing content with enough variety to keep as many people as satisfied as possible. And If there’s one thing we can do consistently, it’s improving the experience of said content each time. I think we made some great strides with the Jubilee. I think we have a lot of room to keep growing. But our team isn’t done yet. We’ve got some exciting things coming later this month. Things you’ve never seen in this game before.

But in the mean time, please keep telling us what you’re thinking. We are listening. Not only to what you’re saying but also to what you’re not. The very first living world team actually did the thing some of you have called for. Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative. Despite this, there are many events I would still like to add. Many zones and bosses I would love to revisit. As we get better at the living world, I strongly suspect we’ll have room to get around to them as well. Assuming that’s what our players really want. You are all the second half of the collaborative process, so thanks for helping!

If you add new events to the open world, you really need to advertise them, because chances are players will not wander into some under-played zone and stumble onto them at random. Also keep in mind which areas of the game players already frequent and focus on either expanding those areas or creating those same draws to other regions. If interesting new events are added to a zone I’m going to be in anyways though, then that’s great.

Saint.4789:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Thanks for the feedback everyone and please keep it coming. Personally, I find that one of the hardest parts of being a desginer on GW2 Live is coming to terms with the fact that not every update will please every player. We do our best to deliver appealing content with enough variety to keep as many people as satisfied as possible. And If there’s one thing we can do consistently, it’s improving the experience of said content each time. I think we made some great strides with the Jubilee. I think we have a lot of room to keep growing. But our team isn’t done yet. We’ve got some exciting things coming later this month. Things you’ve never seen in this game before.

But in the mean time, please keep telling us what you’re thinking. We are listening. Not only to what you’re saying but also to what you’re not. The very first living world team actually did the thing some of you have called for. Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative. Despite this, there are many events I would still like to add. Many zones and bosses I would love to revisit. As we get better at the living world, I strongly suspect we’ll have room to get around to them as well. Assuming that’s what our players really want. You are all the second half of the collaborative process, so thanks for helping!

Hi Anthony, I hope you see this!
I love this game and have been playing it since beta and launch. I’ve continued towards learning what I can about this game and plan on playing it for a long time.

Your comment intrigues me because of this reason: I have not been aware of this new content.

Now, this doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. What it means is lack of player awareness. I realize you don’t want to give away secrets and that’s fine, but you don’t even allude that you have secrets. Also, as you can see, when the internet is told there is a secret, it pretty much explodes with people wanting to discover it.

Players need to be made aware of the new content, not because they are lazy, but as you have seen even millions of players don’t always notice these things.

Keep up the good work, it’s making me spend money!

I have been across every inch of Tyria, and I’ve spent a lot of time in many zones such that, while I know I haven’t seen everything, I’ve seen a lot. As such I’m also very interested in this. I never even knew there were new events, outside of Southsun, that is, but that was a whole zone. I hope you don’t mean Southsun because in that case those just get swallowed up with the zone itself and the updates associated with it.

I would really like to know what events got added to the game, to see if I’m familiar with them. I’d be happy to give feedback if I actually knew what they were.

Kal Spiro.9745:

I would really like to know what events got added to the game, to see if I’m familiar with them. I’d be happy to give feedback if I actually knew what they were.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Modus_Sceleris

These are some of them, I’ve done a couple of them, they are really good. I love the idea of having “evil guilds” around.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative.

I don’t even know what is new and what was always there. I was too busy obsessing about that clock tower! lol But rest assured, Anthony: I love to discover new content around the world ESPECIALLY DEs. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but to me, new DEs should be the bread and butter of this game s PvE, heck even WvW could use some kick-kitten DE chain under special circumstances. I love DEs so much that they are the sole reason I keep playing PvE. They are SO good that I play this game DESPITE ascended and time-gamted crap, checklist rewards, dailies, endless currencies and crappy mini-game updates JUST because of open world exploration and DEs.

The living story concept is great, no need to ditch it, but for the love of your favorite deity, just make a crapton of new DEs. I, and hopefully a ton of other people, will love you (and all devs making DEs) forever for that.

Kaphei.7096:

Kal Spiro.9745:

I would really like to know what events got added to the game, to see if I’m familiar with them. I’d be happy to give feedback if I actually knew what they were.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Modus_Sceleris

These are some of them, I’ve done a couple of them, they are really good. I love the idea of having “evil guilds” around.

Ok, that does seem neat, and I don’t spend enough time in either of those zones to actually have noticed such a thing happening.

I’m cool with this Jubilee event, because I’m making some good money and mat farming off of it. But I have a big problem with the lagging in the Pavilion. It is utterly insane =( . My FPS is less than 15. I log on very early in the morning- at that point my combat is super choppy and somewhat tolerable, but a few hours later, it is literally unplayable for me. Because of this I won’t even try the Queens Gauntlet because it’s just not going to work. I do enjoy that this event because the concept is cute, its bringing people together and giving us a new way to make some $ after they nerfed a billion farming areas that used to be fun and aren’t anymore, but the way they designed this Pavilion area makes it really limiting for some of us who aren’t playing on super computers.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Thanks for the feedback everyone and please keep it coming. Personally, I find that one of the hardest parts of being a desginer on GW2 Live is coming to terms with the fact that not every update will please every player. We do our best to deliver appealing content with enough variety to keep as many people as satisfied as possible. And If there’s one thing we can do consistently, it’s improving the experience of said content each time. I think we made some great strides with the Jubilee. I think we have a lot of room to keep growing. But our team isn’t done yet. We’ve got some exciting things coming later this month. Things you’ve never seen in this game before.

But in the mean time, please keep telling us what you’re thinking. We are listening. Not only to what you’re saying but also to what you’re not. The very first living world team actually did the thing some of you have called for. Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative. Despite this, there are many events I would still like to add. Many zones and bosses I would love to revisit. As we get better at the living world, I strongly suspect we’ll have room to get around to them as well. Assuming that’s what our players really want. You are all the second half of the collaborative process, so thanks for helping!

I really liked the mini dungeons, especially the one in Caladon with the tic tac toe puzzle.

The problem is that I didn’t even know these minidungeons existed until the Aetherblade living story asked me to go there for the achievement. At the time I actually thought they had been added with that living story update. I feel that if their existence had been better communicated, they would have been more popular.

Although I realize that you don’t want to give to much away by giving specifics in the path notes for new events, you could use bullet points. Stating that:

• 4 new events added to Queensdale
• 5 new events added to the Plains of Ashford (including one chain event)

For example would give some less populated maps life again from the average player out to discover the new events.

IMO just stating that 30 events were added to the game world being less specific doesn’t encourage exploration as much due to the fact that it is ONE BIG WORLD.

Can we say needle in a haystack?

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Thanks for the feedback everyone and please keep it coming. Personally, I find that one of the hardest parts of being a desginer on GW2 Live is coming to terms with the fact that not every update will please every player. We do our best to deliver appealing content with enough variety to keep as many people as satisfied as possible. And If there’s one thing we can do consistently, it’s improving the experience of said content each time. I think we made some great strides with the Jubilee. I think we have a lot of room to keep growing. But our team isn’t done yet. We’ve got some exciting things coming later this month. Things you’ve never seen in this game before.

But in the mean time, please keep telling us what you’re thinking. We are listening. Not only to what you’re saying but also to what you’re not. The very first living world team actually did the thing some of you have called for. Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative. Despite this, there are many events I would still like to add. Many zones and bosses I would love to revisit. As we get better at the living world, I strongly suspect we’ll have room to get around to them as well. Assuming that’s what our players really want. You are all the second half of the collaborative process, so thanks for helping!

Well, you are talking about Modus for example and I actually loved to fight them. Randomly finding the Skritt Thief was fun also. But you know, like most people who play GW2 are casual based. Most people also don’t really look for those things. The world does change slowly, with new conversations on NPC’s.

But the thing is, we want story. And while there is enough story in Guild Wars 2, no guys there is, just start reading texts instead of rushing trough every explorable dungeon for a reward for example.

I think people want the story to be more placed on a platter where you can see it. Or give hints in the main update of where people COULD find some changes. Like for example if we have Halloween and there are things changing in the Shiverpeaks that some random Norn starts talking about: Hey have you heard about…..

Something like that. I think this way people find their ways to the NEW content and don’t think it is old. I mean I am playing this game since beta and I also have actually sometimes no clue what are new updates or where longer here.

That said, I like exploring a lot more with Dynamic events. I actually don’t like the Heart Events as they most of the time are so long and dragging. So if the future will get us more Dynamic Events I will 100% salute this.

Look at GW1 and how you told story there. And maybe bring it togheter in the Living Story updates.