Guild Wars 2

I haven’t played any of GW1, but I have to agree with the OP at this point. The recent update was quite disappointing for me – I probably got both the single-player and 5-player fights done within roughly an hour, and on top of that, I had those karka cocoon things spawn on top of me and another party member near the instance entrance when the nearby event was going on, and we had to waypoint to get out of them. The whole thing just screamed poor quality for me, especially after reading random threads about how glitchy the fights were for some people, and how one person even got a migraine from just looking at the environment (which it WAS pretty foggy in there, and a bit difficult to discern some of the icons above the mines).

Now, I LOVED Super Adventure Box, and I thought the Molten Facility dungeon was pretty cool too… but I don’t understand why Anet has been focused on so much temporary content lately. That stuff should be reserved for things like Halloween, Christmas, and other “seasonal” type things. If GW2 was supposed to be designed with more casual-friendly options in mind, then there shouldn’t be too many events that only last for a few weeks, especially when people with work/school/other life obligations can only play at certain times or on certain days of the week, etc. Some people call it “prestige” content when they get it done and others don’t, but really, I think that just promotes elitism and a toxic community, which in turn alienates players and/or pushes them away from the game.

When I first played GW2, one of my favorite things to do was to explore all the different areas and get involved with random players in interesting events. I thought that the Flame & Frost events worked pretty well because a lot of people were still active in Wayfarer Foothills around the Maw area, especially before it got nerfed. For some reason, Southsun Cove doesn’t share that same feeling for me. Maybe it’s because the map is awkward to get around for me, maybe it’s because it’s Lv80 and the mobs are somewhat annoying, I don’t know.

If Anet wants to continue with this Living Story stuff, then they need to implement things with significantly more permanence and quality to them. I’d like to see something along the lines of, say… the Tengu finally opening up the Dominion of Winds, and letting us explore that area; have one of the elder dragons show up in a new map and have a well-made, strategical large-scale non-zergy fight against it; have a portal to the Underworld in that huge sinkhole in Divinity’s Reach or near Godslost Swamp or something. Not this “we’re trying to make karkas cool again, look at this Barbie doll miniature and these weapon skins you’ll never get because we love implementing horrible RNG’s, give us more gem money.”

I am sorry but if a game can trigger a migraine…. DONT play it. That simple.

Just wanted to point these parts out.

T K.5173:

People being relocated to that island after the event of F&F just is believable because any sane person WOULD HAVE GONE HOME!

Not every refugee went to Southsun Cove. The refugees that did go didn’t have a home to go home to in the first place…that’s why they accepted the Southsun offer. Those who did have a place, went home.

T K.5173:

Now you give us an instance that is no better than a half baked mini game with NO explanation as to why or what we are doing.

1. Check the mail you received yesterday: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Last_Stand_at_Southsun#Secret_of_Southsun

2. Talk to Kiel at the beginning of the instance: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Canach%27s_Lair_%28story%29#Dialogue

Hope that helps.

I will say that I want large, lore rich content as well… but I also want it to not only be done right, but done with some permanency. The Living Story is temporary. It helps usher in some changes to the world, and gives people something to focus on during the months that are swamped with Holidays.

Flame and Frost provided some good story, and temporarily filled some zones of the world with an increased event density. From appearances none of that content appears to have lingered.

Secrets of Southshore continues the story of Southshore, using many of the characters from that event. I wasn’t around for that event, so they’re all a bit new to me, but I can do my research on the wiki to find out who these people where. Unlike Flame and Frost I’m expecting the Secrets of Southshore to linger, improving the quality of the zone.

Arena Net is currently giving the game monthly attention, which is a VERY good thing compared to how it was for a long stretch of time in Guild Wars. So you cleared the content in one day: that’s GOOD. Some people can only play one day a week and this content might be gone before June is over. There will be more, deeper content somewhere down the road.

Also, if you’re talking about Holidays: we might be getting the Dragon Festival.

To address the immersion issue, I think they made the mistake of trying to accommodate everything. 5 races? Awesome starting zones and storylines! Didn’t you notice that you start to lose interest once the 3 orders get involved? Not to mention that the original dilemma was that the five races couldn’t work together, THAT didn’t show up in the game. Instead it’s the 3 orders bickering. More on this point later.

They shouldn’t have made us choose between Whispers, Priory, and Vigil. In fact I think they should’ve kept Whispers focused on retaking Elona back from Palawa Joko, keeping them more out of the limelight but trying to get political figures to give them aid. I remember reading that the OoW only believed the dragons could be put to sleep. THAT never turned up in the game. The reason I bring this up is because the Vigil should’ve been what the Pact is now. The Vigil should’ve been the efforts of the 5 races coming together to defeat Zhaitan….. And utterly failing. What was the point of all this arguing between 3 orders when brute force killed the dragon? Why bring up the racial tensions between human and charr, Ebonhawke, the Inquest, etc. if you’re not going to use them at all? What’s the point of calling the dragons unstoppable forces akin to hurricanes or that the Order of Whispers believes in putting them back to slumber or that the Priory is looking for some lost knowledge when all we did was point a thousand guns in Zhaitan’s direction?

GW1 had focus (Except Prophecies but that was a set-up for EotN and Beyond, which were executed beautifully!). But Factions and Nightfall you had singular goals (stop Shiro/Abaddon). You have a group of underdogs that fights alongside you (Togo’s peeps/Sunspears/EotN heroes). Sure you got sidetracked whenever you entered a new location (i.e. Kryta/Jade Sea/Vabbi etc.) but it would always lead back to the main plot. At the end there is a worthy boss.

Diverging plot threads get poorly mishandled in this game, why not lower the level requirement for each Story mission and let us play every story mission (excluding race exclusives). This way we would’ve understood the various artifacts that come into play and would’ve cared if so and so died because we would’ve fought alongside them instead of doing another playthrough with a different character.

The reason I would relegate the OoW to the sidelines and have them work more subtly is because it would give players something to look forward to and talk about. They should have gone with the original Human storyline of 3 ethnicities (Tyrian/Canthan/Elonian) instead of the 3 social statuses. This would’ve set the groundwork for threads that would lead to Cantha and Elona in the future. Prophecies and Factions happened because of Abaddon’s machinations for Nightfall. That’s 2 whole games linked directly to the third. THAT’s how a living story is done. (Although, I don’t think Anet knew they would be making Factions and Nightfall when they first made Prophecies. Still they tied all three games together).

To close this post, I believe the Living Story needs to tie into the next continent. I mean why do we care so much about Charr and Norn refugees now when Elonians have been migrating for years? Because it’s only mentioned on the wikipedia page. Tyria needs a reason to go to Cantha and Elona and I think steps need to be made in those directions.

I have to agree with the OP that, while the living story is interesting, and relatively easy to develop and release(as opposed to an expansion), it doesn’t get my attention for more than an hour or two of “that’s neat”. Don’t get me wrong, in no way am I insulting Anet as they release wonderful content, but the Living Story doesn’t provide much to the overall lore, and the dungeon takes less than an hour. After that you could try out crab toss and explore a few new things but it just doesn’t have the wow factor that comes with expansion.

What was really fantastic, though, were the Wintersday and Mad King patches. Those were absolutely glorious and definitely had the “wow, amazing!” factor to it.

Agreed with OP. But hey, at least it’s better than SAB…

I think this really just outlines the problem for those of us who were GW1 players.
GW1 was a heavily story based game with really engaging lore, that was what so many of us loved about it.
GW2 seems far more concerned with appeasing peoples desires for mechanics and an “endgame” than delivering large amounts of story.
That isn’t to say that there isn’t good story and lore in GW2, the first half of the personal story felt GREAT, it’s just gone off into a lull…

The Guild Wars universe has lots of interesting lore. I too have played the game for years and I found myself BROWSING the Guild Wars wiki for lore while waiting for GW2. I’ll even admit to eating dinner while reading articles on the freaking wiki, that’s how nerdy my obsession became with the lore.

You’re not the only one that feels that way OP. I would rant about the personal story of GW2 and the loose ends ArenaNet has left untouched from the first game and in the personal story. I like the content they released… the Flame and Frost dungeon was nice and reminded me of Sorrow’s Furnace/Sorrow’s Embrace. I can get pass the funny April Fool’s bits too, the Super Adventure Box was funny and fun it was an April Fool’s event after all and Guild Wars had them as well.

But this new Southsun Cove feels too random. Why am I in this island? Why is my character dedicating her time to even caring about the settlers that decided to sign their freedoms away to the Consortium? Do I even know any of the settlers personally?

Back in GW1 my character traveled out of Ascalon after spending 2 years in post-searing Ascalon because Prince Rurik was exiled by his father, King Adelbern, for accepting help from a Krytan. My character was in Rurik’s side and so we ventured to the Shiverpeak mountains where he died trying to guide Ascalonian refugees through the Frost Gate. Back in GW1 I traveled to the Crystal Desert to become ascended and to even SEE the freaking Mursaat. My GW1 Elonian character even had a friend, Koss, so ofcourse I was anxious to save him when he was captured by Kournans… he is the only hero that actually gets taken out of your party during that one mission until you save him.

When did my GW2 character care about the elder dragons? She just brings it up out of random to an order executive like, “Oh yeah I’ve always cared about the elder dragons and they should be dead, let me jump into your wagon and do chores for you until my partner dies 20 minutes later at Claw Island!” …Going to stop rambling now.

TL;DR – Why am I in this island and why should I care about the God Mode Sylvari that can only get hurt from mine traps?

I agree with the OP. This storyline is incredibly boring. Where are the powerful strange creatures that threaten us. Not some crazed wildlife high on plants threatening to destroy some worker contracts. OMG snore.

Wooden potatoes (youtube gw2 channel) has a great video on the wizards tower. He talks about what could possibly be up there, and who. I went and visited that town and saw all the elementals walking around. When he said they were possibly the people of that town used in horrible experiments of dark magic, I felt now this is a good story. lured as apprentices and then tricked into becoming test subjects by a crazed powerful necromancer.

I could imagine a dungeon where you went through the tower, boss fights being warped creations, finally making your way up the stairs to the tower of the tower where you fight his greatest creation and then him.

But nooooo, we get business contracts in a holiday resort.

Thobek.1730:

Wooden potatoes (youtube gw2 channel) has a great video on the wizards tower. He talks about what could possibly be up there, and who. I went and visited that town and saw all the elementals walking around. When he said they were possibly the people of that town used in horrible experiments of dark magic, I felt now this is a good story. lured as apprentices and then tricked into becoming test subjects by a crazed powerful necromancer.

I could imagine a dungeon where you went through the tower, boss fights being warped creations, finally making your way up the stairs to the tower of the tower where you fight his greatest creation and then him.

But nooooo, we get business contracts in a holiday resort.

Yea I think I remember that from flying castle with the necromantic abominations from somwhere else … I just cant quite put it together…

And to give a serious reply, yea this story’s background might not appeal to everyone but maybe the next one will. The core of the concept is good.

I’m more worried about them not having the manpower/time/money to keep going because while South*sun* (Southshore was overrun by the undead iirc) has some neat ideas, it’s lacking in polish (some texture issues and npc dialogue, some frame rate issues). Little things really but they add up to given the impression that they simply could have used another week or two to really finish this chapter.

Given how Living Stories aren’t full-on expansions, I’m very impressed with how a small development team can push this content. They are progressively getting better (from the magnificent return of The Mad King to the devastatingly disappointing Lost Shores) at releasing this small content. Southsun is now so rife with activity and players that I find myself going there to participate in events even after I’ve completed my dailies!

So while its not a heavy lore expansion, its good for keeping things alive until said expansion.

deepwinter.9015:

Given how Living Stories aren’t full-on expansions, I’m very impressed with how a small development team can push this content. They are progressively getting better (from the magnificent return of The Mad King to the devastatingly disappointing Lost Shores) at releasing this small content. Southsun is now so rife with activity and players that I find myself going there to participate in events even after I’ve completed my dailies!

So while its not a heavy lore expansion, its good for keeping things alive until said expansion.

Have you played GW Beyond? Those updates were made by much smaller teams with way less ressources and they were better.

They were basically the same thing as the living story, several updates over the coruse of a view months, each bringing new story content and rewards. But the story was better, way better in fact (except Winds of Change part 1, but part 2 and 3 made up for that).

The living story so far is underwhelming. We only get a very shallow plot, most of the important details are always either presented as blogposts or interviews, rarely ingame and if so only as mail. But even worse, the other part of the important details are postboned to future chapters. An example would be Canach. Since Lost Shores we knew he did something with the plants on Southsun, but what he did, we never knew until SoS. Why delay this information? It didn’t even pay off, he just made some steroids out of the plants. What a twist! That really was worth waiting 6 months for it… said no one ever.

The consortium themself are somewhat interesting, since they are not “for teh evulz!”, they are just ruthless capitalists. But I really wonder why we deal with them so much, if we have freaking dragons, undead overlords and ancient evils to fight. Atleast Flame & Frost gave us a somewhat threatening villian, though we again don’t know why they worked together and I’m certain the pay off will not be worth the wait.

And of course a living story chapter that connects to GW1 would be nice, especially since they officially stopped developing it. We were promised atleast another 2 Beyond chapter, which we will never get now (Elona and something in Ascalon). Atleast let us know what happened. That is far more interesting than this boring consortium crap.

Sorry, but Anet would love to concentrate on things like SAB and Canach rather than do more “lore” stuff. Why? Because “lore” stuff don’t earn them money. SAB and Canach do! oops…. I mean the Consortium are actually helping Anet earn money through those RNG boxes…etc…. so, Elona? Palawa Joko? Cantha? what are those things/places? Anet probably won’t give a kittens until the first expansion is out and I am not so confident the first expansion is going to be any awesome than when GW2 first launch!

BuddhaKeks.4857:

The consortium themself are somewhat interesting, since they are not “for teh evulz!”, they are just ruthless capitalists.

The consortium are basically Team Rocket and the Southsun resort is their Pikachu.

I can’t take them seriously at all when nothing about them seems have any degree of subtlety whatsoever.

It could have worked if it were handled better. But with the Asura as flanderized in-game as they are, I guess they prefer the vintage Saturday morning cartoon approach. :-/

Gregorius.1024:

Prophecies and Factions happened because of Abaddon’s machinations for Nightfall. That’s 2 whole games retconned to make the lore more simple, like The fall of Orr was retconned to make the charr seem more important than they were directly to the third.

Rose colored glasses aside, the writing of prophecies was pretty good, Factions was completely awful and nonsense from start to finish (but a visually stunning campaign with some interesting mechanics, which was somewhat redeemed by the beyond content) and Nightfall was an extremely well conceived and told story, as was EoTN.

GW2’s overall writing stretches form really good (certain racial storylines and even certain pact mission choices) to just plain awful (Traherne…)

What’s important to note is that GW2 is a much larger game than prophecies was at release, and had just as much ADD. It’s not really fair to judge the breadth and depth of the living stroy against the aggregate total of GW1’s entire breadth of content.

Personally, I like southsun, and although the delivery of the story has been kinda ham-handed both times, the factions and characters are nice break from black-and-white definitions of good and evil that are too often prevalent in this type of game. I hope to see more of them and get better look under the hood at what makes them tick in the future when something really nasty rears its head.

Remember, not every arc of a story can be an epic third act. Flame and Frost was a good pilot, but the entire southsun arc this time around feels like filler because, honestly, it’s filler. The world can’t always be in 100% mortal peril (any more than the survivng dragons make it anyway) and there will necessarily be periods of the stroy of the world in which things that aren’t globally important but rather regionally important happen.

I think that feels better, even if the delivery of that story is sometimes a bit off the mark.

deepwinter.9015:

Given how Living Stories aren’t full-on expansions, I’m very impressed with how a small development team can push this content. They are progressively getting better (from the magnificent return of The Mad King to the devastatingly disappointing Lost Shores) at releasing this small content. Southsun is now so rife with activity and players that I find myself going there to participate in events even after I’ve completed my dailies!

So while its not a heavy lore expansion, its good for keeping things alive until said expansion.

So far its fairly ‘meh’ when you take into account the claims made about their live teams and post-release plans as announced before the game came out. They lived up the letter of the word with monthly updates but at least for me they created far more expectations then they are currently meeting.