Thanks again for providing us this opportunity to engage in open discussion about the game we all enjoy and would see become even better.
For Living World, I tend to think it comes down to 4 major issues:
(1) Replayability and/or revisitability (yes, those are now words). As several have mentioned, the pace of the LW installments and their subsequent removal either creates a sense of “better do it now before it’s too late” or, particularly for new players, “you weren’t here, so you just missed out”. I’ve seen it mentioned in several other threads that people who have missed different chapters would love to be afforded the chance to revisit the previous chapters for the story/lore, even if they weren’t able to complete to metas/obtain the shinies/etc. So even if it wasn’t possible for the content to be replayed several months later (ala GW1 Bonus Mission Packs), if it could be included within game as tomes in a library that woul;d allow players to still keep up with the story, many folks would be greatly appreciative.
(2) Additonal Depth — While each chapter may be moving towards a point that draws together all the separate pieces into a cohesive conclusion, from many of the threads that have been created there is a significant opinion of the LW not possessing any depth. NPCs seem shallow, villians seem weak, the player seems to be more of audience member than a participant — these are all points that have been brought up and, as someone else mentioned, the writing team is more than capable of addressing. I think over all, it would be that folks would prefer to be actively involved in something complex and perhaps even a bit twisted, rather than feeling as if they were parked on the couch watching a Saturday morning cartoon.
(3) Less Achievement/More Accomplishment — many have stated each chapter feels like a race to rack up achievement points, not only to increase their AP total, but to complete the X number of Y that will be reward them with Z. If the focus shifted more towards accomplishing a particular goal rather than amassing the required number of AP, players might feel a greater degree of satisfaction in the end result. And what I mean is that the LW chapter would not be bash x number of pinatas, or collect x number of dragon teeth, but have several “missions” that involve actually accomplishing something — take the clockwork invasions, for example … the LW chapter could have begun with them actively taking over portions of maps and the “missions” would involve coordinating and then initiating the effort to repel them, taking back the maps. And, at the end of the chapter, the invasion would be pushed back and the zones would return to how they had been before … to an extent, which brings me to the last point …
(4) Lasting Impact — very little changes in the world with the chapters that have been released. True, Southsun and Cragstead were added, Teq and TA were updated, the Tower of Nightmares could be permanent, but there doesn’t seem to be any impact to what the LW chapters present for the players to do — the new areas are added for the LW, not because of what the players have accomplished in the LW chapters. And the chapters don’t appear to impact the overall world itself. For example, there was an attempt made on the queen’s life … an impact of that would be an increase in the number of lionguard actively patrolling the Upper City and the Royal Palace, perhaps being more suspicious of “unsavory” looking individuals, maybe even stopping and asking the players who they are and what they’re doing. While nothing spectacular, it does demonstrate that something that happened during one of the LW chapters had an impact on the world.
So, those were my four contributions to the discussion and I honestly thank you for taking the time to hash these issues out with us.
“If you can’t beat them, get a bigger stick.”
- Some random quote -
The Walkers and the Whispers, ANVIL ROCK