As I realize, Arena Net is incredibly busy and hasn’t got a lot of time to sit and talk with the denizens of this board, and they’re working hard to provide us with an amazing game to play; which they’ve done very well thus far, I’ve just got a few things I’ll throw out there.
As time goes on, I find that the two things that are keeping me playing.. are my Legendary progress and roleplaying on TC. I’ve almost completed the Legendary I’m after, and it’s finally gotten to the point where I’m being forced to grind for the rest of it.. which, isn’t how I’d like to spend my time. Roleplaying, however, I enjoy.
But, what I’ve found.. is that, the longer time goes, the less interesting things there are to do. So few months into the game, we’ve already exhausted certain areas of the game. For me personally, playing a charr? Flame Legion, Renegades, Separatists and the likes have all been done to death.. and while there’s plenty more of the world to play with, there’s just nothing interesting to do there, or to create a story with, even outside the charr zones. And as a result, it becomes stagnant. There’s no way of going out into Tyria, without doing something incredibly boring, already overdone, or that doesn’t make sense.
Mechanically, and game content wise? Guild Wars 2 is a gem. We’ve got tons of content, and even more being released monthly. But there does come a point when having every single top-tier thing, and still having to idly grind for a sparkly weapon becomes incredibly boring and simply not fun anymore! Especially for those who really don’t want to grind.. we want an adventure. We want something engaging. Even rolling a new character isn’t fun anymore, because they’re isn’t that same feeling of mystery and wonder, going through Tyria, like there was the first time.
The Living Story doesn’t help that, hardly at all. Granted, we get a short little segment and a passing conversation about ‘Oh, the Refugees’ and maybe a bit about the Molten Alliance.. but there’s no meat there to truly sink our teeth into. After that point, we’ve exhausted the content there too. That being said, if there’s not a whole lot more.. and this underwhelming and slow roll of updates continues, it’s not going to get much better.
So, my suggestion to you guys.. is simply add more lore and more interesting roleplay content to the game. Add more content that’ll give those who actually care about the in-depth, lore based parts of the game.. and the story and world behind it, something to enjoy. New content, with areas and dungeons is a given, and that’ll please those who don’t have anything to do with RP.. but do something with the existing world, too! Even adding random events like the Karka and Halloween events were. Or, like with the Beta, a sudden, random event that happens, without notice.. but without any kind of huge build-up. Suddenly, rather than idly sitting in a town.. or grinding the same areas over and over, you’ve got a real world where unexpected stuff happens. The ghosts in Ascalon? What would happen if they had a sudden resurgence of forces, and they began to attack the Citadel. What if the players in the area, literally, had to push those forces back.. to be able to reclaim the Citadel? Or the Grove, even? Say the Risen have strayed off and started to attack the Sylvari.. and you have to help save the Grove! Granted, it’s hard to plan and code something like that.. but a living world, and a true living story.. isn’t slowly rolled out and already guessed within 10 minutes of playing it.
In addition to things a number of people have mentioned before, like the other emotes that aren’t in the game, that were in GW1. More town clothes, Guild halls, props.. It’s promising to see the little stuff starting to pop up in the Gem Store, now.. and I hope that continues! But give us a little meat with the story. Give us a little more of a true, living world.. and I think everyone would appreciate it. The reality of it is.. one-time events happen in real life too. Even those events could be repeated, if they’re edited in some way.. but, we don’t get that same sense of feeling that we do with the Living Story.. because it isn’t living. It’s just a few more events, and a few buildings added and nothing more.
TL;DR – Add some new lore-based content, make the game feel more realistic and living with one-time events and bigger, more ambitious ‘surprises’ in the game, within existing zones and apart from the story that’s going on.. as well as adding new zones and content, with the story going on elsewhere. Add roleplaying features! Emotes, props.. the little things that make the game more personal, and allow us to live in the world of Tyria a bit more comfortably.
I <3 Arena Net. You guys have made an incredible game. I just want to have a reason to keep playing it, after I’ve completed the base gameplay.