Guild Wars 2

Hello Devs,

Just now, while giving a new player on Tyria some pointers, I realize that there is a certain content missing from GW2. One I am somewhat glad to see gone, but on the other hand I am also missing. It is ‘The Quest’ …

Now true, the personal story is the main ‘Quest’ in GW2, and the living world is awesome. The living story is fairly cool as well, and as I am adjusting to the new pace, may become just right (change to it has been recent, and the holyday event season somewhat messed up the pace of things, to see how the new pace will come to be experienced), still though, the living story will always take place as a pressing issue… Unlike ‘the Quest’. And it is somewhat ‘missing’ in GW2

And with Quest I obviously don’t mean a pointer to follow, or people with ! above their heads. No, with a quest I mean a certain storyline where a hero is asked to undertake some daunting task that takes them on a long and epic journey. Or in a more personal sense, the search for a lost treasure, weapon, item, knowledge, lore, etc and so on. Which ‘in a sense’ gives purpose to the story that is experienced…

Now obviously quest pointers and ! are out of the question, and certainly the issues brought up can’t be to urgent, but should most certainly be ‘pressing’ enough. And obviously there will be guides on them sooner than later. But still, I somewhat miss them … let me explain:

When I joined the Durmund Priory, I had hopes of being send out to search for ancient books, vaguely described artefacts, in hidden and buried tombs, and on dusty bookshelves in secret libraries, and run into all sorts of foes that are ‘after the same things’.

When I joined the order of whispers, I had the hopes of meetings in the dark, visits to hideous pirate bars, and keeping an ear out for ‘whispers’, both during the day and during the night.

When I joined the Vigil, I had hopes of frequently being called upon to apply brute force. To keep people ‘in check’, to be pointed somewhere for a mission and just solve it ‘Hollywood style’ (aka. lots of bullets and explosions, possibly even high speed chases).

Now true, the personal story delivered these things, one way or the other, but once ‘in the open world’, only the Vigil approach is called upon. Aka respond to urgent and pressing business and/or be pointed in the right direction. Sure, in parts of these urgent situations other skills are called upon. But in the Living Story, it will always be ‘The vigil’ approach that has the upper hand…

Hence my ‘request’ to ‘re-quest’ Tyria ;D , but doing it in a fashion that is fitting for the current gaming world. I thought about it somewhat during writing this, and I fear ‘the old style quests’ may well be the way to go. It’s the only way I currently see that does justice to a world without pointers and ! or ? above heads. But perhaps it can be done in other ways, hence ‘the suggestion to reinvent ’the quest’’. And offer players optional story lines within the world of Tyria that are somewhat hidden from the surface of present day events. That have players roam and search the land for … and bring them places and situations along the way. I used the orders in my example, because these are both easy and suited anchors for any quest.

_ps. I been away for a week and only just caught up with the LS, then obviously the holydays were upon us, but I did notice some vague pointers for continued research, I am hoping to pursue within the coming weeks. Aka. I may have already gotten what I am asking for, if not, the background search for Scarlet may well be a good example for what I mean here, even though it’s still a ‘vigil quest’ as far as ‘the angle’ goes.

But anyways, this suggestion/challenge stands, reinvent the quest please_

Sounds more like this game needs “The Expansion” more than `The Quest’

Well that depends on what one would expect of ‘The expansion’. From GW1 an expansion has always been a whole new area, with a whole new main story…

With ‘the quest’ I mean more story driven content, that doesn’t even have to be the main story. ‘A quest’ can also take place current world (be it maybe with some instances), and doesn’t have to be taking place in an expansion kind of fashion. It could be… But then I would expect a kittinton of questlines in one go. Where I mean more off ‘additions to the current content’ (and/or within an expansion, which is surely another option), with the air of ‘a quest for’ type of storylines, quite possibly solo content or small teams, perhaps even guild versions.

But I will give you another example of a difference in approach, to what I mean:

not : you convert 3 months of allowance into gems to buy the precursor of your dreams, and a bunch of materials (for as far as your allowance takes you) to then go farm the kitten out of any content that will give you the drops you will need, to dump all of it into a mystic fountain, with a hoarder fairy in it that happen to have piles of this legendary you want, and is more than happy to take more stuff out of your hands…

but : after fighting for x hours and doing y damage with the weapon (design) of your choice, this weapon starts to glow ever so slightly, and it’s text colour changes to ‘legendary pre-curser’, take this weapon to any master crafter for inspection. Now you may not know where to find one, so you travel to LA and ask for directions.

Obviously this master of crafts lives secluded, and in high hopes you Waypoint to the closest one. From there you start you travel (up the mountain, into the cave, through the secured lab, through the magic forest, or down the tomb), after a long and and hard fighting challenge you meet the master crafter. (S)he inspects the weapon and (with a cool cut scene) informs you that the weapon has seen so many blood that the souls of those that were slain with it started to cling to the weapon itself, as if, in a grasp of the dead they tried to cling on to the last physical thing they toughed before they left the physical world, desperate to stay here instead of wondering off into the mists. (s)he informs you that this weapon now has the potential to become legendary, ‘but’, to invoke such a status onto this weapon he will need: The blood of a giant, the essence of a spirit, the resin of a living tree, an un-dead bone, a charged soul crystal, and proof of your heroic status. Then he sends you off your merry way, with an empty soul crystal (noted. this crystal reaps the souls of foes you slain).

Then obviously you will go and slay things, to charge your crystal, seek out giants to gather blood, somehow gather the essence of a spirit, the resin of a living tree, and an un dead bone. Upon collecting these things (which may still take you a long time) and figuring out the proof of your heroic status comes from venturing to a ‘soul stone’ somewhere far away and costs 250skillpoints (or so). You go back to the master crafter, (s)he messes around somewhat, then tells you he forgot something, and ask you if you prefer some sort of ‘look’ to your weapon to display its legendary status, then he would have a pop-up where certain ‘visual effects’ are linked to certain items. And maybe directly (if you knew up-ahead) you hand him a stack of w/e material to get the look you want (else you will have to go back and get these items).

Having done so, he hands back your weapon, now there is just one thing to do, dip this weapon in the maguma spring, to imbue the weapon with the force of life. Obviously, you will now travel to the maguma, and start your journey through the jungle to find the Spring of life… Here you will imbue the weapon with it’s live essence qualities ‘et voila’ cheers all round, tears rolling from eyes, ‘gratz’ all over. You did it, you completed your quest, you have made legends come alive and have the proof to show for it…

‘A quest’ not ‘a chore’

post it in the CDI thread,i really like it and share your view on it,the Order and the Pack are sorely missing out in the story,let the players have Living story arcs through the season,Personal Story and then side stories related to the Orders,the Pact and even the race they chose,this could see a boom in gamers with more content to play and to “play the game how you want to play” as Anet likes to say