Guild Wars 2

I really like the idea of the living story. I think they should make the world living too and by making the players have the choice and impacting the world not just for rewards.
I think Anet is on the right track by voting for Gnashblade and Kiel. I think the fractal thing is nice but its not really appealing for all people. For the Living World I think that the NPCs and real life players should be given personalities. I also think 2 weeks is a little too short to put out more temporary content. I think the 3-4 weeks would work better so people don’t feel rushed to get new things and not miss the content. I also think there should be permanent and temporary positive and negative effects for peoples decisions in the living story.

This is what I mean:
Example 1: Gnashblade turns out to be devious and uses political influence to build a ray gun for something evil. The players now choose for the next month if they want to help him build it or help him destroy it.
Instead of just voting there could be a mini game where at the end you either build a piece of the gun or destroy a piece. You will need a ticket to play this mini game. The way you get a ticket to play is by completing a series of new events put in the game.
A consequence of the laser being built could be some of the quartz oil used to power the laser leaked into the water in lions arch permanently pink, or maybe the laser destroyed a statue/building. When new players would ask about why is this like this we would respond “because we voted for that kitten Gnashblade.” The next patch could be how to get rid of this guy, how to solve the problem or we could get a new problem, or a new scenario where we make 2 new choices. Some other side effects of the gun could be torrential rain in lions arch for X weeks. Maybe change the weather pattern of 2 zones causing jormag or another world boss to spawn in a different zone, maybe adding a new boss, npcs walking backwards for 3 weeks,

Example 2
Gnashblade could be good and want to fix lions arch electricity problem causing the mystic forge to malfunction and be in a different city everyday. We could get a mini game on how to solve this problem with 2 choices. Again to play the mini game do a bunch of new events. The next patch could be another consequence of the way we fixed it.

Example 3
A portal is opening up in the sky caused by a new race who seems evil. We choose if want to open it or let them stay in. If we let them in some scenario happens. If we close the portal maybe they go to a different planet and make another random race homeless by taking over their planet. Now they have to move to tyria. We help them out by donating and random armor to them. At the end of patch the most donated of each armor for chest, legs, gloves is now their permanent look. All the NPCs of this race will now have all mix and matched armor because thats what the players gave them.

I like the idea of a mini game to make your vote. This means you actually did something to impact the game/world. Also make the length of the events to get your mini game ticket about 30min-1 hour and include a gathering event, boss event, escort, puzzle etc. This will somewhat limit a single players influence. Or just make a set of achievements daily to get your mini game ticket. I also don’t think you should lose your mini game ticket until you complete the mini game. This could prevent people from being upset for failing and not getting to vote. The mini game could also have 3 settings, beginner, moderate and advanced so its fun and challenging for all types of players. I also think once you decide to go with your choice you shouldn’t be able to choose the other one too. e.g. voting for both kiel and Gnashblade. This could closely mirror real life.

I feel there can be so many more living things like this that would make this game not only about rewards and still be fun. I put a lot of thought into this because I love this game I would like to see this game successful.