Guild Wars 2

As some of my fellow players are already engaged in shredding the “Tower of Nightmares” before it’s even released, I would like to make an observation.

When Star Trek: The Next Generation (pft, I’m playing an MMO; nerdy comes with the territory) first came out, Gene Roddenberry made a strident effort to establish new lore. No Klingons and all of the stuff from the Original Series. I feel that is what is happening in GW2.

But guess what? All that old lore made its way into the new show and was expanded upon. People hated The Next Gen when it first came out, but ultimately it became many people’s favorite.

I agree that I want a meatier, more cohesive story. I love the plot arcs, character development, and intrigue in shows like Battlestar Galactica and Game of Thrones. If some of those qualities could make their way in game, I would ecstatic!

But The Next Gen didn’t turn around in one year. The devs are aware we want more. Our choice—as customers and players—is to see this through, or not. We do not, however, get to dictate timetables or plot points.

In short, criticism: good. Cynicism: unproductive and so very boring.

what are you saying? we have to wait a year before anything interesting happens in the story? That’s just bad writing.

When it’s a question of investing hundreds/thousands of hours into a product; if the company doesn’t pay heed to the players soon enough in their demands and requests, the players won’t hang around to see it through. Anet doesn’t have the luxury of saying; oh, just wait a few years and see.

MMOs come out all the time, when GW2 gets dull (for the player base), it’s over; and the window of opportunity to meet requests for including GW1 lore and embellish it further and tie it in with GW2 is now. I agree, we don’t get to or need to dictate timetables or actual plot points, but dev’s simply being aware and not delivering on those expectations within reasonable time means heads will turn elsewhere.

When Wildstar/TESO land spring 2014, and EQNext/Landmark drops… how many players will still be in GW2? (I will, because I’m currently in the “see it through” bracket, but I want to see elder dragons, Mursaat, Cantha/Elona, Crystal Desert, etc. – a year-long LS as the current one that I don’t feel tell a coherent story is wearing on my patience because I NEED GW2 to deliver on story/lore).

I’m sure that ANet heard all the claims about story and lore but finding a good writer is not like buying an upgrade for your computer. Maybe they had something else in mind when they started the LS and now after getting all the feedback they will change course, one step at a time. I never got too involved with GW2’s story because I found the characters to be maybe a bit superhero-like for my taste.

They did claim that they usually work in cycles. If I’m not mistaken they usually work in a couple of months to prepare. So it takes time to adapt from feedback the community has provided.

Additionally they are also learning and evolving together with us. I understand the point of what it seems a incoherent story line and lack of depth. On the other hand I so also feel that through time they are getting better and better with the LS concept.

Since I am a lore junkie I just wished there was more lore and some loose ends being tied or further developed.

We will see what the future will hold in the future :]

Although the only MMO I’m waiting on is Titan and I think next year looks horrendous in terms of new MMOs (2012 saw hugely innovative MMOs like this one and TSW, and MMOs which are completely on new grounds like Firefall, 2013’s big names are WoW-in-space and a Skyrim which looks more and more boring as they reveal more of it)….

I think the LS is just terrible as well. A good story needs to captivate its reader, not ask the reader to bear with it until it shoves through. A story is entertainment, not an investment of time to see if I get anything good in return.

Dondarrion.2748:

When it’s a question of investing hundreds/thousands of hours into a product; if the company doesn’t pay heed to the players soon enough in their demands and requests, the players won’t hang around to see it through. Anet doesn’t have the luxury of saying; oh, just wait a few years and see.

MMOs come out all the time, when GW2 gets dull (for the player base), it’s over; and the window of opportunity to meet requests for including GW1 lore and embellish it further and tie it in with GW2 is now. I agree, we don’t get to or need to dictate timetables or actual plot points, but dev’s simply being aware and not delivering on those expectations within reasonable time means heads will turn elsewhere.

When Wildstar/TESO land spring 2014, and EQNext/Landmark drops… how many players will still be in GW2? (I will, because I’m currently in the “see it through” bracket, but I want to see elder dragons, Mursaat, Cantha/Elona, Crystal Desert, etc. – a year-long LS as the current one that I don’t feel tell a coherent story is wearing on my patience because I NEED GW2 to deliver on story/lore).

All this and a bag of chips. Well said, Dondarrion!

Im excited for EQN and wildstar, but a bit skeptical about TESO. I will still play gw2 when they come out. The great thing about games like GW2 you can drop it for a few weeks and come back to it, and the content is usually not to difficult to keep up with.

As for the story, I think anet is only now starting to hit a good stride and will do some great things in the next year. These last few months seemed to be a phase of figuring out what works. Perhaps that will be ongoing, but the quality and quantity of new content has only increased.

Hopefully the new arcs will be the epic struggle against elder dragon(s).

Think less TNG, more Voyager….