Guild Wars 2

gidorah.4960:

nethykins.7986:

I think you should look closely at the two quotes, and not just my question alone. Chris practically cuts the discussion on the cadence of release, while Bobby says it’s good to have the feedback on the cadence.
See the contradiction there?

i dont see the contradiction to me it looks like bobby is saying i am not in charge of this decision but thank you for sharing and chris is saying i am in charge of this decision the answer is no. Maybe they can clarify.

He isn’t just saying thanks, he’s encouraging us to continue discussing the cadence, while chris says that the cadence can not be changed. That’s the slight contradiction.

It’s like being told at work by one manager, “The turnaround speed of each project, from start to finish can not be changed” and the other manager only stepping in to state: “…..but continue telling me about how stressful/tiresome it is. kthxbai.”

In my later post, I chalked it up to pretty much just talking the talk and keeping all feedback noted as not to appear that this specific type isn’t being looked at.

So when are we getting the “Kessex Hills fractal” that uses the old Kessex map and gives us a chance to see the Tower of Nightmare being first planted in the lake…?

Yeah, I said it

Zoltreez.6435:

Its too late are you playing this game did you saw the champ farm ?

I am actually not playing the game very actively at the moment. That another problem exists doesn’t mean there are problems to discuss with the current requests. The champion farm situation could get resolved at some point and then we’d still have problems if the more world impacting dynamic events get implemented.

nethykins.7986:

gidorah.4960:

nethykins.7986:

I think you should look closely at the two quotes, and not just my question alone. Chris practically cuts the discussion on the cadence of release, while Bobby says it’s good to have the feedback on the cadence.
See the contradiction there?

i dont see the contradiction to me it looks like bobby is saying i am not in charge of this decision but thank you for sharing and chris is saying i am in charge of this decision the answer is no. Maybe they can clarify.

He isn’t just saying thanks, he’s encouraging us to continue discussing the cadence, while chris says that the cadence can not be changed. That’s the slight contradiction.

It’s like being told at work by one manager, “The turnaround speed of each project, from start to finish can not be changed” and the other manager only stepping in to state: “…..but continue telling me about how stressful/tiresome it is. kthxbai.”

In my later post, I chalked it up to pretty much just talking the talk and keeping all feedback noted as not to appear that this specific type isn’t being looked at.

fair point.

BobbyStein.2315:

nopoet.2960:

As a complete aside, I would love to see some experiments in dynamic events where failure doesn’t stall the event but progresses it in a different direction.

Interesting idea. Can you provide an example of how you would imagine it working?

Sure I’ll give it a shot. Broadly our missions are attack, defend, retreat. If the players fail an attack, usually the thing that the npcs are holding just stays held. What I’m suggesting is that npcs show a little more initiative. They have the same three basic options counter attack, dig in, or retreat. A counter attack may mean expanding until the entire map is taken over. In this situation it might be interesting for players to build a small command post to coordinate attacks; maybe Jerry rig a temporary way point maybe the waypoint is moble. NPCs can dig in by sending out patrols. In this case players can work on eliminating patrols and start working on attack plan b (someone mentioned this earlier). The NPCs can choose to retreat but for that to make sense you would need larger objectives and this is generally the condition for victory so let’s leave that off the table for now.

That’s the general framework I would use. Both sides actively choosing to attack, defend and retreat. How they do that depends on the who the npc are.

BobbyStein.2315:

Regarding GW1 lore in Living World and beyond, let’s just say we’re looking at all GW lore right now and picking out threads that we’d like to tie up. Ideas are welcome, as always.

Mursaats. Palawa Joko. Crystal Desert. Livia. Cantha.

CHIPS.6018:

I will counter argue: How can a child born in 1946 live though WW2?

He can’t. He is born after WW2.

Same thing with the Living Story.

A new player is born after certain events. So he can only read up on it and watch old videos (e.g. re-live though it by playing the mission, knowing full well it happened in the past) on it. He cannot experience it anymore in real time.

The world must change for this whole Living Story concept to work.

Wrong. Every new player starts at the same place mine did: fresh out of the tutorial and ready to begin the same personal story the rest of us have already played.

With your analogy, WW2 as the living story, then the Personal Story would be WW1. So a new player would be born at the same time I was, during WW1, then skip WW2 and show up in the present, where I actually lived through WW2. This is a major disconnect of Captain America proportions, and is one of the things we’re trying to solve here. Everyone starts at the same point in history, but there is no way to bring those players up to speed: They have literally skipped through time, and cant be expected to understand what is going on in the world around them. Surely you can see how frustrating that is.

And unlike with Steve Rogers, who had no choice in the matter, a new player can simply choose not to buy the game, or using your analogy, choose to never be born.

Disclaimer; no disrespect intended to any of the service men and women who participated in those 2 terrible conflicts. Those events were used here simply as focal points of history to illustrate the point of the topic. We thank you for your service.

Now that this thread has progressed I’d like to suggest a new direction:

Focus heavily on a phasing system. In fact pour as many resources as physically possible into it. I see the major thing holding back the LS is the fact that you don’t want to “ruin” the timeline for people who haven’t done the personal story yet.

The world will never be “living” if the timeline never progresses. As far as I can tell 99% of the people I meet in game have either finished their personal story or really don’t care enough to ever finish it. If it was me I’d say screw it and just push the timeline forward, but if that isn’t an option then do whatever you need to and allow the timeline to move on. I think that is really holding back the creativity and depth of the story since everything has to take place at an indeterminate time and nothing can ever progress.

For consequences (I say this with invasions in mind) perhaps the removal of resource nodes for X amount of time? If zones have more benefits in them in the style of resource nodes then a much simpler system for consequences would be attainable.

One thing that bothers me is that normal events in zones are almost always completely ignored except when leveling. It feels like so much of the content in the game is wasted because the rewards for doing events is mediocre at best.

One example to fix this would be a meta achievement to gather X of a zone unique resource in exchange for a hefty daily chest. Having events block the nodes would have players be inclined to push events to get the nodes, which could open up a lot.

BobbyStein.2315:

That’s one of the challenges of threading a story through a huge game where each update takes you to a completely different place, often touching content that was never designed to carry the load of a linear story.

Now I’ve made a kittenumption here, but doesn’t it make most sense that when planning out the Living Story a year in advance, the story dictates the content? I might have misunderstood, but if the story is to go to to Southsun or to Divinity’s Reach, shouldn’t it be because the story team said that’s the next place the story they wrote takes place? Designers can create dungeons, zerg events or rewards for any area in the game, forcing a story into content seems backwards to me.

I keep seeing the TV show example being used so I will talk about that. I currently see the Living Story as an episode each month. Dragon Bash and Sky Pirates are two parts of the same episode. Queen’s Jubilee and Clockwork Chaos are two parts of the same episode (or, if nothing else, a two parter). I personally don’t like stand alone episodic TV shows for the most part (like most procedural dramas) because they aren’t satisfying in the long run. I like shows with a season long story arc that progresses and evolves as we go on. Maybe it’s a pacing issue, but I don’t feel like the Living Story does this very well.

I have been following it since the beginning and I think it’s a mistake that the story feels disconnected now. Even if there is something that brings it all together later, for the discussions, speculation and diligent engagement to be meaningful now, things have to be advancing now. Why was Scarlet involved with the Molten Alliance? What was her goal? Why did she want someone on the Captain’s Council? Why did she disrupt the Queen’s Jubilee? We keep getting questions and no answers. I find it hard to be engaged by her actions because from my perspective they are aimless, I don’t feel like my attention is rewarded because things keep moving along without tieing anything up or progressing anything. I would prefer it if the story developed each month so that something hinted at last month became relevant this month or the events of last month lead to the events of this month or something this month made something from last month make more sense. A lot of these plot points could be interesting if a pattern or a link began to form as the story progressed. I want to see stories lead into each other but I also want revelations that explain past events.

Sometimes the story feels shallow. The Molten Alliance reduced the two factions to their superficial elements and ignored their depth. I don’t think the story did a good job of portraying the dredge or the Flame Legion (there were no characters telling either of their stories) or explaining why these two factions would form an alliance, it just felt like an artificial army that existed to give us something to fight. The world today barely recognises that it ever happened. The Toxic Alliance is slightly better – the krait seem to have more depth, although it’s annoyingly convenient Scarlet possesses something they want. The Nightmare Court don’t seem to have much reason to be involved at all.

Sometimes the story feels too convenient. Scarlet has the obelisk shards the krait want, Kasmeer is suddenly a master mesmer when a veil needs to go down, her partner has the other skill required to counter this month’s specific threat. It’s just too convenient it doesn’t seem believable (certainly not the first two) and it begins to feel like these characters are just placed in the world because you want them in the world, not because they make sense in the story. This kind of writing is part of why so many “Mary Sue” threads are popping up.

Hello all I am late to this thread late so I’ll just leave a bit of input.
The LS is problematic for me because it does not in any way that I can see tie in to the main plot line.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of Living World- the implementation so far has been very much a zerg/farm/Ap check list and while that is nice to keep people who may be bored busy with busy work as it where, it contributes nothing to the world or the long term base game.

The 2 week cadence also just contributes to the fact that if you do want to do the LS while it is up you get no time to play the actual game- which I think is a shame btw- especially when you start adding rewards like nodes in your personal instance that may be required later, instead of just cosmetics

For the world to be actually living the LS need to drive the main plot forward- use it to open up new areas, use the Orders to investigate different ways to go about that.

There are so many incredibly tantalising existing bits of lore hanging about- flesh that out.
Use the base game as support for this- not as something that sits forgotten while people zerg/farm their way to the next 500 things needed for whatever shiny of the week

DE’s are imo one of the main strengths of the world and I recall vaguely that way back one of the devs stated that they were developed in such a way that it would be relatively easy to plug in new content via DE’s.

My suggestion in that direction would be that you complicate the DE’s more.
for example: have multiple DE’s going off at the same time with different path to completion but make the players choose which to do- and then branch according to that.
So you have a zone constantly changing in terms of which path and it’s progress along that path. ( hope it is clear what I mean here)
That way the world is changing/ alive and player choice has an impact.
It also can be done by anyone on the map regardless if they are vets or new players.

Rewards for DE’s need to be looked at- not necessarily in terms of gold /karma but more in the line of unique recipes, craft able skins- things that actually tie in to what the player just did.

Hey Arenanet,
First of all thx for doing this. It’s wonderfull you ask the opinion of the community and even more so you are prepared to read trough all this to improve your game.So bear with me here. This is gonna be quite the post but i’m passionate about this game and i only want the best for it. So let’s kick it off.

1. Content Vs Noncontent.
Ok the first point i would like to bring to your attention, is that living world at this time has to much noncontent. I don’t mean to be rude in any way but the way your system works atm is that you release a new update every 2 weeks and while some of them are awesome and good(tequatl, new dungeon), most of the updates can be described as achievement hunts. I don’t have a problem with achievements in general, but if 20 minutes into a new update, you start looking at your achievement list, then there is a problem. Content that is being released should keep the player busy before they want to check all the achievements out. But for example with the last update, tower of nightmares, once you realise this is gonna be a map zerg fest, you can’t help it, cause you don’t want to be in there longer then needed. And that’s the problem, i have a feeling some of the content is being done just for achievements, and that’s not ok. Achievements should be optional and not the main type of content. But be honest, what other reason is there to go to kessex hills atm, it’s overcrowded, it doesn’t offer any decent rewards (in fact far less then other “zerg zones”) and it’s simply not really fun to play imo. Same with Blood and Madness, where you even gate content behind achievements… I’m an achievement hunter by heart so i do busy myself completing every single thing, but that doesn’t excuse achievements from becoming content, they shouldn’t be, and main rewards shouldn’t be attatched to them either. Making achievements this important just takes away from the general story you guys are trying to deliver. It disconnects you from the content. And making daily achievements required for completing the meta ones is just rediculous. This brings me to the next problem.

2.Time-Gating
This is one of the things that irritates me the most in GW2, the time gate. So what do i mean?For example stuff like the daily requirement for meta achievements (wich you’re making content so i’m considering it content). The laurel system (wich isn’t living world i know) and many other things in the game. Blood and madness was a perfect example of this. The blood prince instance just locked behind a wall of achievements wich you can’t complete in a day. I don’t get this fear of people completing content super fast, why should you care tbh, if they want to, let them. The only thing that time gate created, is for people who don’t have allot of time around haloween (it’s a busy time irl, also for me) to not be able to complete content cause they need to do daily’s for it. I do get the mad king only shows at haloween to do his game, wich is ok, but the meta (again if considered content, wich you do since you lock other content behind it) should be obtainable without daily’s.

3. The returning player problem, permanent vs non permanent.
Ok so in this part i speak out of my own experience, i missed so much stuff due to school, and i’m probally gonna miss much more, i simply don’t have the time in my life atm to complete everything. But i also was absent entirely from the game from the aetherblade pirate update till now. I basicly have no idea what’s going on. There is nothing to fill me in, no living story log, no movies i can watch to get me up to date to what happened, nothing. I’m just trying to figure out what happened by asking guildies and trying to read up online. But this isn’t ok. I feel there needs to be a way for players to watch if not replay what happened. Now i understand this isn’t something you can do easely, but it’s important for players who missed stuff (and with 2 week updates you will miss stuff). This hasn’t got to be related to any rewards whatsoever but we need some kind of connection to get back into the story. In the 4 months i was away, tequatl was changed, and a new dungeon path was added. At least that’s what it looks like to me. I understand that living world focusses on telling a story but there’s way to much non-permanent stuff going on atm. This is one of the reasons i am excited about the kessex hills storyline even while it’s a zergfest atm. It will change the world. Permanent changes or new content is good. Taking something away doesn’t make it exclusive or special, it makes it less viewed. I found it interesting that in the latest developper stream someone said they wanted living story to feel like a television series. May i put to your attention that tv series get the most views in reruns and dvd sales, or being ordered of things like netflix. You cannot make a game with a feeling like a tv series (wich is a Anet quote) and then say “well you missed it, to bad for you” when people missed an episode. This is not ok as a whole. I don’t know how but this is a problem with your current style of releases and it needs to be adressed.

4. To skin or not to skin.
Lastly, i would like to talk about something that’s very connected to the living story, as with each update, new skins seem to be released and i feel like you are shooting your own foot here. There needs to be a decent skin system, it’s really a hard requirement. The whole transmutation/skins doesn’t work. We need some sort of wardrobe system. Where SKIN is unrelated from STAT. You could still make this work like for example for adding a skin to this system you use transmutation stones, but then you can swap freely between them. It’s really stupid so many skins are lost cause you transmute other “newer” stuff over it, or you’d have to buy a new item for that skin, for example with backpacks, if you have an ascended backpack this is impossible and you are facing tough decisions. I don’t even care if every change requires a transmutation stone (wich would be expensive but ok) but right now you have to decide if you want to loose your previous stuff wich i don’t find to be ok. Especially with ascended armors comming up, i don’t want to loose the skin of that ascended armor since it’s not to bad of a skin, but i also bought tier 3 human armor to use it, not to be in my bank forever. Skins/stats should not be attached to one another and i’m hoping one day a system comes into place wich doens’t use them both.

5. Open world is important, zergs are not.
This is a difficult excersize, open world content is important, but it shouldn’t get zergy the way it is. At least you shouldn’t be forced to zerg. If i want to hop into an overflow with my guild i should get the option (in any map tbh) this doesn’t mean we don’t want others around, but zergs destroy what it means to play together. The system is in place (overflows work like a charm) but it’s not being used. For example last night in kessex i got into an overflow cause the main server was full, not many people in that overflow so i got about 10 guildies in there, and we had allot more fun then we would have had on the main server. Selecting an overflow should be a main feature, and i know there are a few problems with getting this in, but it’s worth it to improve gameplay and mostly improve guildplay imo. Especially in open world stuff like the last release.

6. The MMO in MMORPG
I’m keeping this short, an MMORPG should give you the option to play solo or in group for most things but should NEVER force you to play solo. This was a mistake last patch and with the wintersday stuff (where you couldn’t enter a team game as a team) and shouldn’t be repeated.

7. Risk vs Reward
Rewards are handed out like candy, if you are gonna tie certain rewards to achievements plz make them none grindy and challenging.

8. Keep on going.
Despite all this, i respect and admire what you guys are trying to do, so keep it up.

On scripting failure into the living story….

I advise you to be very careful with this. I agree that the living story needs real consequences. Characters we care about may need to die. Places we love may need to change. This is the nature of a living, and emotional, story.

However: no one – and I mean no one – wants to spend hours on an event only to discover a positive outcome was impossible. No one wants to spend hours trying to save someone and – oh, no, you can’t. They’re dead.

Scripted failure can seem heavy handed to the player. It can be downright frustrating. If no matter what you do, you’re doomed to failure, you start to wonder what’s the point?

I think it’s best if failure and consequence grow naturally as the result of decisions made. If you can’t give the players decisions to make, at least have the main characters of the living story make some tough decisions that eventually end up being wrong.

I’ll use an example from Stargate Atlantis, one of my favourite TV shows (since comparison to TV seems to be something you’re looking for). At one point the characters encounter an artificial race known as the Replicators. The Replicators want to help them fight their enemy, but they can’t. They’d need to be able to modify their base code and their creators prevented them from doing that. So the main characters help them.

At the time it seems like a good idea. But later it comes back to bite them several times. The Replicators end up being almost as bad as the people they were already fighting. But this wasn’t immediately apparent. At the end of the day, they thought they did a good thing.

And this is a reoccurring theme throughout the Stargate franchise. Sometimes the heroes save the day. Sometimes they save the day at a cost. And sometimes their best intentions get twisted into something terrible somewhere down the road.

This story needs success as much as it needs failure. We’ve been fighting hoards of minions for months now and despite our best efforts we’ve made zero progress. What’s the point of participating in the Scarlet events? They don’t do anything. None of the heroes’ efforts have amounted to anything. The bad guys just run more and more rampant. It was sort of frustrating to get to the end of a 4+ hour dungeon (new TA path) and realize we’d essentially done nothing. Of course we weren’t going to get to fight Scarlet, but we didn’t learn anything remotely important either.

Balance success and failure. We, the players, need to feel like we’ve accomplished something. We need to feel like we won the day, beat the enemy back, earned some kind of temporary respite. I don’t feel this at the moment.

And maybe some of the things we do trying to save the world, end up coming back later to bite us. We can’t always win. It’s a fact of life. But arbitrary scripted failures won’t feel any better than what we have now.

I’d like to offer more suggestions but, frankly, I don’t envy the writers this task. And I can’t, at the moment, think of any other ways to handle it. Hopefully someone else will have input.

First of all, thank you for making this thread. I wish I could say I’ve read it all, but I work long days and some days I don’t even get to log in to play. So, without reading the whole thread, here are some thoughts from me, with apologies if they’ve already been covered:

The world is a stage
This is one of the big ones that I know people have touched on in various aspects. Basically, the living story is playing out on the stage, and props are added to or taken away from the stage, but the stage itself remains the same. It seems you’ve made some good progress on this with the latest update, but your ability to do this is limited. Change too much, and you destroy the basic game and leveling paths people are intended to use.
Suggestion: New zones can be made to be changed, as they don’t contain any of the basic story or leveling paths. Yes, I know new zones are hard to make, but they can allow a flexibility that standard zones don’t have.

The world isn’t a character
This might seem a strange one at first glance, but stay with me. Basically, if you want us to care that something is invading a zone or area, we need to CARE for said zone or area. It’s a large game world with plenty of interesting places, but how many of those places do we have reason to be attached to?
Suggestion: Switch part of the Living Story focus to making permanent and repeatable stories about the people and places of the game world, to give us more attachment to them. Maybe one per zone, through a special contact that unlocks when you’ve got map completion for that zone. (I may write up a full suggestion on this later.)

Thoughts on living world reward structure:

I think right now achievements drive the living story more than the story. I also think that’s a bad thing. For me it feels like every month I run around, do the same repetitive stuff (kill x number of these things, gather y number of that stuff, ect) just to get the reward item. And even participating in the living world events, I don’t feel like I know the story.

I think there should be two types of achievements for the living world and two types of rewards.

First type of achievements: Are gained by participating in the STORY aspect of the living world. Usually you already have two or three achievements that are like this because you get them from participating in the story instances. Another example are the achievements you received from the TA dungeon simply for completing it (without going to any extra effort).

First type of reward: Should come from completing the STORY aspect of the the living story. This should come in the form of a cosmetic item (which is typical most of the time). It should be relatively easy to acquire through no more effort than participating in the story and perhaps 4 daily achievements (I pick the number 4 because you have to complete 4 sets of dailies for the monthly achievement).

Why should this item be so easy to achieve? Because it was already stated in a previous post that these rewards are meant to be ‘badges’ proving that you participated in the event. Therefore everyone participating in the living story should earn their badge for being there.

Second tier of rewards: Should be harder to achieve. These are the tasks for the achievement hunters and the players who want more challenging content. This is where you put your time consuming achievements. Your kill x number of y thing. Your gather y number of z thing. This is where you carve 500 pumpkins and burn 100 dragon effigies. This is also where you place extra challenging stuff like beat this boss a certain way. Or beat this extra boss. Or do this really challenging jumping puzzle. The Queen’s Gauntlet was a good example of this. People who didn’t want to participate in the super challenging stuff still got their reward. People who enjoy the extra challenge had plenty of other stuff to do.

Second tier rewards: I think titles should fit into this category (since people generally agree you should have to go to effort for titles). Minis would also seem to fit well into this reward system because they’re collectibles.

I don’t think cosmetic items (such as armor and back pieces) should fall into this category because I think less people will be upset over missing things like minis and titles (your millage my vary).

Then you have your third type of rewards at the moment which are nodes in your home instance. I firmly believe these should NOT be specific living world rewards because new players or returning players who have missed the events which offer them are at a distinct disadvantage if they’re unable to receive the nodes.

I like the idea of these nodes existing. I like the idea of them being rewards. But I think they should always be available after the fact.

The only solution I have come up to for this is that they could be tied to the final story instance of living world content (as the candy corn node was). If you’re going to include a way for players to play the story after the fact, then you can tie these nodes to whatever catch-up story instance players who missed the event get access to and allow them to get the nodes that way.

OR for people who miss the current living story event you could create a category where if they complete X number of meta achievements in other living story releases they unlock the ability to access previous nodes.

TL:DNR: Reward everyone who completes the story with their badge of participation. Provide longer-term, more challenging goals for those who want them with a secondary reward. Don’t block access to home instance nodes via living story content because it puts new and returning players at a disadvantage.

Fun vs Grind
Let’s take a look back at Dragon Bash for a minute, shall we? Remember the dragon pinatas? They were fun, at first. But to get the achievement, we had to smash a lot of them. Too many, in many opinions. It went from fun to grind, simply by the amount required. Was there any real point in expecting people to break 150 of them? Setting the target at 15 would have still ensured that the person was aware of them and smashing them, and been well into the “still fun” range.

There’s also the fact that some things are funner to do than others. If, for example, the pinatas had been targetable with our weapons (like rabbits), I think people would have had more fun destroying them because they would have had options on HOW they destroyed them.
Suggestion: I think I’ve kind of covered the suggestions on this one. Less is more, options are better.

Rewards must be worked for
Guys, listen. This is a game. I know some people want stuff they have to work to earn, and more power to them. But most of us are here to play, not work. It’s one thing to set a minimum requirement that basically ensures that we’re involved in the event, but it’s another to require us to drive ourselves if we want the reward. ESPECALLY with the time limits many of these have on them. Not all of us can play every day.
Suggestion: Lower the requirements, please! If people are having fun earning them, then they can keep on doing those things even after they’ve gotten the reward, right? But if we’re not having fun doing them, having to do them a lot to get the reward is even worse.

Changes should linger
This ties back to some of the earlier stuff, so I’ll make it short. Take, for example, the Molten dungeon. Even if it was cleared out and destroyed, it should still exist in that destroyed state. There should be someone digging around in the remains, offering a way to go through the rubble to dig up part of the history and even some leftover weapons. It simply makes no sense for it to be entirely gone as if it never existed.
Suggestion: Again, pretty obvious. Things should never just vanish. Events should leave a mark, even if it’s a small one to the outside world.

There is one thing I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve been thinking on a bit more, which is the removal of all waypoints and replacing some (~5 per map) with resurrection shrines (manually activated). I would really like Arenanet to test this, as I think it would give a lot more meaning to other aspects of the game:

• More adventure, the world feels larger as you can’t actually travel and walk 5 minutes to get to where you are going.
• Dynamic Events get more meaning and will not be ignored so much. You now actually want to protect or recapture that village, as it contains the only ress shrine remotely close to your skill challenge.
• Encountering other players means more, as they are on a long journey themselves. As dying is now more punishing, you will want to help each other complete your goals.
• Meta-events get more meaning and become more what they are supposed to be, as there won’t be a zerg popping up to quickly kill the boss and claim their daily chest, leaving immediately afterwards.

Basically, the world becomes more adventurous and dangerous, turning away from the playground most maps are right now.

Inc.4753:

There is one thing I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve been thinking on a bit more, which is the removal of all waypoints and replacing some (~5 per map) with resurrection shrines (manually activated). I would really like Arenanet to test this, as I think it would give a lot more meaning to other aspects of the game:

• More adventure, the world feels larger as you can’t actually travel and walk 5 minutes to get to where you are going.
• Dynamic Events get more meaning and will not be ignored so much. You now actually want to protect or recapture that village, as it contains the only ress shrine remotely close to your skill challenge.
• Encountering other players means more, as they are on a long journey themselves. As dying is now more punishing, you will want to help each other complete your goals.
• Meta-events get more meaning and become more what they are supposed to be, as there won’t be a zerg popping up to quickly kill the boss and claim their daily chest, leaving immediately afterwards.

Basically, the world becomes more adventurous and dangerous, turning away from the playground most maps are right now.

while I can see where you are coming from please no.
Way points as they are now are a convenience you can use or not as you see fit,

Consider someone who has say an hour to play and several things they would like to do in that time frame- running cross-country as fast as possible so I can get to be where I want to be is not immersing me in the world at all.

that said I never use Way points if I just want to hang around and run events, but the point is that I have a choice.

I just wanted to say very simply that I love the Living Story. I can see how you’ve developed it and as Jeffrey Vaughn confirmed that Kessex will be forever changed already by this event, I am positive that ANet is going in the correct direction that most of these points are making. We want change. To feel like something larger is happening besides a mindless grind.

I like the new content every two weeks. I feel that, although sometimes it seems rushed, it makes the world feel as though it is moving. I think that less needs to change in that time though. Take the event we have now for example. These two weeks, there is the tower revealed and toxins pouring out of it. Next week, maybe it starts affecting more zones and other NPCs in other ways. Then after that, the next update can start to get to the bottom of it. All the while, leaving that meta achievement open to be grabbed, maybe adding more achievements over time to help with it.

At no point do I feel the need to grind. I feel that these statements are coming from people who find no point -but- to grind. I feel that when someone complains about grinding, that they are looking at the situation wrong. They see a goal or achievement to get. They do it, then they don’t have any satisfaction from playing the game surrounding it. I do my achievements without “joining the train” so to speak. And I love the story as I take in moderation with my limited time to play. There is so much more to do in this game besides the living story and if you go into the game feeling “Omg, must level to 80 now”, of course they are going to feel it is a grind… because they make it a grind.

I will note that I do wish that we had more personal interaction with the Living Story as a hero should. Choices to make that result in events unfolding. Such as we have now Scarlet and the Krait. Our personal story could just be to simply decide between the two to face, the Krait or Scarlet, and have soloable events or interactions that are a result. Like the following example:

NPC asks me which is the largest threat to be eliminated first. I choose Scarlet and go to find information or even to attempt an assassination. I have a personal story instance that I fight off Scarlet’s minions and/or Scarlet herself, give her a monologue of some sort, and she disappears. I might get a reward that is exclusively for this choice and feel achieved for my decision.

This instance brings about character development and a sense of achievement in the interactions of the world. I do agree that phasing would make things feel even more personal, however hate the fragmentation that can cause.

I do agree with most posts that say we want more unfinished business from GW1 and more dragon interaction. But I like Scarlet and love her character. I like having these ‘distractions’ from the real threats of the dragons and look forward to any stories you come up with! I do feel a sense of growth from the way this living story has been going. From the moment we met Scarlet, we thought ‘Oh look, another bad guy. Let’s kill her and move on.’ but now we are wondering and speculating ‘What is driving this Sylvari? What is making her tick? Is she just insane or is she more intelligent than what we think? What did she see in the Eternal Alchemy and why is she doing this now?’ This is -much- better than the original living stories we first had and I can tell that you, ANet, are developing and learning as you go. Kudos to you.

The problem is though, that not everyone is going to be happy with the decisions on how the living story develops. I can only hope that my post helps and that we can find an even balance that the general populace enjoys. But please remember that the Living Story and this game is very unique. And most unique attempts are met with much cynicism. But it is your uniqueness that will keep me here, learning the lore, and loving the Living Story for what it is, change in an ever developing world, something no other MMO truly has as of yet.

Good luck and thank you for listening to us. Do not be discouraged, there are much more wonderful things to come!

Morrigan.2809:

while I can see where you are coming from please no.
Way points as they are now are a convenience you can use or not as you see fit,

Consider someone who has say an hour to play and several things they would like to do in that time frame- running cross-country as fast as possible so I can get to be where I want to be is not immersing me in the world at all.

that said I never use Way points if I just want to hang around and run events, but the point is that I have a choice.

Of course it would mean the expectations of what we can do within our time have to change. If you want to go somewhere, instead of going there at once you may have to settle for an outpost along the way. The situation you described is exactly something I would like to see addressed: going anywhere you want without actually having to travel the world and invest time, diminishing the value of the world itself.

As far as being able to choose whether or not to use waypoints, I think for the Living World and the more interesting events it’s more the illusion of a choice. In the current LW release, when I see a Toxic Spore pop up on the map, I have to travel to the waypoint, because if I walk there the waypointing players will already have finished the event. Likewise with meta-event-chains. As the game was advertised, we would see an NPC asking for help, telling us of event that are currently active. If I were to walk, I wouldn’t find anything at the location as the zerg has cleared the boss and left for the next one already. Although there is a choice, the current meta doesn’t allow playing the game as (IMO) intended.

EDIT: as I said, I would like Arenanet to give it a try, perhaps even implementing it in the live game with a few of the more remote areas where there actually should be less inhabitants, for example Sparkfly Fen, Timberline Falls and everything south of those areas.

I was finishing the completion of Hoelbrak yesterday. There are so many lodges and people there that could have so much backstory and progression. I have so many questions about them. Is the only story am gonna get is from NPC idle chat and nothing else? For a huge place with so much depth, you should allow players to explore some of those stories.

Inc.4753:

Morrigan.2809:

while I can see where you are coming from please no.
Way points as they are now are a convenience you can use or not as you see fit,

Consider someone who has say an hour to play and several things they would like to do in that time frame- running cross-country as fast as possible so I can get to be where I want to be is not immersing me in the world at all.

that said I never use Way points if I just want to hang around and run events, but the point is that I have a choice.

Of course it would mean the expectations of what we can do within our time have to change. If you want to go somewhere, instead of going there at once you may have to settle for an outpost along the way. The situation you described is exactly something I would like to see addressed: going anywhere you want without actually having to travel the world and invest time, diminishing the value of the world itself.

As far as being able to choose whether or not to use waypoints, I think for the Living World and the more interesting events it’s more the illusion of a choice. In the current LW release, when I see a Toxic Spore pop up on the map, I have to travel to the waypoint, because if I walk there the waypointing players will already have finished the event. Likewise with meta-event-chains. As the game was advertised, we would see an NPC asking for help, telling us of event that are currently active. If I were to walk, I wouldn’t find anything at the location as the zerg has cleared the boss and left for the next one already. Although there is a choice, the current meta doesn’t allow playing the game as (IMO) intended.

EDIT: as I said, I would like Arenanet to give it a try, perhaps even implementing it in the live game with a few of the more remote areas where there actually should be less inhabitants, for example Sparkfly Fen, Timberline Falls and everything south of those areas.

I agree with you from the example of the living story you give and naturally the champ runs and the zerged events.

But the way I spend most of my time in game is running DE’s in remote maps that hardly ever see a soul.
I seek them out on purpose because that way I can enjoy the world and immerse myself in the story of it all.
The last couple of maps I did was literally over run when I got there and I completed all the events from one end to another- I felt like a total hero.

Way points serve a purpose to me in this case because say I have wandered very far and am just about to go into an extremely inviting looking cave- but I need repairs/I die to falling off a cliff etc etc.
I do not then want to spend however long running back and then killing everything in my way again on the way to that interesting cave- I want to explore the cave.

Way points give us a choice- you can’t make players appreciate content more by taking stuff away from them- you do it giving them more choices.

anyway this is all my opinion

BobbyStein.2315:

Regarding GW1 lore in Living World and beyond, let’s just say we’re looking at all GW lore right now and picking out threads that we’d like to tie up. Ideas are welcome, as always.

Idea: GW2 Tyria is an illusion. An hallucination. A dream, if you will, and our characters are unwittingly trapped therein. Overall it’s been a very convincing illusion. Only a few niggling little details here and there have seemed off (see the lore subform), but there’s been nothing too jarring, nothing too blatant, nothing quite so dramatically wrong that any suspicions thereby aroused can’t be laid to rest by the timely introduction of some new and frivolous activity (as represented by SAB and various other minigames/events)…

Until, that is, the arrival of Scarlet Briar. Her bizarre antics (such as the random and seemingly purposeless ‘invasions’) are, in fact, not bizarre (or random) at all. In fact, she’s trying to save us all – by making things so jarringly, blatantly, senses-shatteringly wrong that we are being forced toward wakefulness.

What’s keeping us trapped in this illusion/hallucination/dream (if you will)? No, friends and neighbors, it’s not the Matrix. It’s (spoiler) a giant hallucinogenic mushroom! And Scarlet Briar is an avatar of the Pale Tree, trying to save us from its deleterious (and delirious) effects.

Bonus TV show inspirational tie-in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Trip

Eventually, of course, our characters will be awakened just in time for the game’s first massively massive expansion, wherein our characters will, for the first time since their creation, experience the real Tyria, perfectly consistent in all ways with the Tyria their ancestors and predecessors knew some 250 years ago.

Just like pre- and post- searing, we will then have pre- and post- ‘dreaming’. And the NPC peasants will rejoice.

From a gameplay perspectives, in post-dreaming Tyria there would be no Black Lion lockboxes, no themed dye packs with a chance to obtain a themed dye, and 60 pieces of candy corn alone would be enough to get something cool and fun during Halloween.

Alternately, our characters could open the shower door, and Zhaitan could turn, and smile, and say, “Morning.”

See also: Bob Newhart.

Event technology question to Devs:

Is it possible to enable NPC A to give a player a unique inventory “ticket” item via dialogue choices, then allow player to approach NPC B (likely in an entirely different zone!) and turn in/turn over that ticket item to NPC B to launch a Dynamic Event? (I’m presuming the dynamic event has a brief internal cooldown after completion and cannot be re-initiated while it is running – so players don’t trip over each other)

Why I ask: If this can be done, you can totally reinvigorate the non-LA home cities as places to go around and talk to NPCs in search of ticket items that will then let players open up/activate new activities out in the surround countryside. But even NPCs out on the land scape would have potential functionality as same-map or cross-map event starters that respect the player’s schedule. The event never starts unless a player has put in the prep -but other players can become involved and it creates the natural interplay as they ask “how did you start this?”

In some way I suppose it already exists in game: The matrix key puzzle used to unlock the steam ogre in the Thaumatova Reactor area. Since that works by advancing a series of unique items, I guess I’m primarily asking if the starting point can be an NPC dialogue rather than a item found on the ground, and would you consider similar permanent new activities that actually reached across zones?

Fine, I’ll give it a try.

About Scarlet:

The issue isn’t just with pacing. Revealing a villain and then waiting months to add some depth is a bad idea, of course, but this isn’t even the main issue I have with her. IMO, the most cringe-worth aspect of her introduction wasn’t the “OMG it’s Scarlet!!! …Who’s that again?” aspect, but rather how it was followed by a NPC going on about “Oh right, THAT Scarlet! The world famous Sylvari who has been the only outsider to master all Asura colleges and who the player characters had never heard about!”.

The world of Tyria is huge. We have explored everything that can currently be seen there, so it doesn’t make sense that a character so important would appear out of completely nowhere. This looks like bad writing, but worse, bad planning – as if the idea had just come from a meeting last week, as opposed to a years-long plan we are told exist.

Meanwhile, other areas of the game do a much better work in foreshadowing. If we were told an evil mage has appeared in the south of Kessex Hills turning humans into slaved elementals, our reaction wouldn’t be “…Who’s that?”. No, we would realize it’s the wizard from Wizard Fief, who has been set as a future antagonist, and who’s currently a dangling plot point.

Scarlet should have been the same thing. It’s not (only) a matter of not giving us depth after the character had been revealed – we should have been given hints way before that. During the “Flame & Frost” release, for example, an ambient dialogue could have been added to Rata Sum in which some NPCs talk about the weird Sylvari going around. If ArenaNet is saving on voice acting, it could have been some text-based talk with NPCs in which they mention an outsider excelling on everything in the Asura Colleges. Something done with subtlety so it would be hidden clues, but it would make the Living World characters exist in the world before appearing out of nowhere as they do today.

On voice acting:

Bobby Stein has talked about this, but I want to use it as an example of ArenaNet’s poor planning: it was cool and all to get popular voice actors to voice our characters, but now the price we pay is the incredible cost linked to our characters saying anything at all. Considering how even cheaper voice actors would still be expensive, considering the voice actors’ union, this is something in which ArenaNet should have compromised in the beginning.

Was it really useful to localize spoken dialogue into all those multiple languages? Was it really worth using different voice actors for multiple races? The result is what we have today – the original game was incredibly cripped since characters from every race and every background had to say the exact same thing in every mission dialogue, which means every previous choice means absolutely nothing in the later parts of the storyline. For a so-called “personal” story, this is a disaster. Worse, this means all future stories are crippled, since our characters cannot say anything.

The lack of player agency isn’t new. We had the exact same issue with Master Togo and Mhenlo in Guild Wars: Factions, not to mention Kormir in Guild Wars: Nightfall. The situation here is only worse, due to how ArenaNet has placed itself in a technical trap instead of a purely design-based one.

And this lack of long term planning is very old, too. Taking short-term solutions with long term negative impact was exactly what destroyed the skill system in the original Guild Wars – adding so many skills to the game could have pleased players who wanted “moar and moar” on the short term, but it only led to the massive numbers of skills which ArenaNet would never be able to balance. You should know how to plan better this time.

On the quality of the content itself:

Remember that article about “Is it fun? How ArenaNet measures success”? That was obviously not true. Multiple times we have been told how ArenaNet considered an update to be successful or not based on how much played it has been.

The issue with using that metric is that it leads to false conclusions. You can think the Scarlet invasions were a success, since a lot of people were playing it – but it was just a lot of people farming the event, while creating a rift in the community as people fought among themselves over whether they would finish the event or farm.

This is one of the reasons many Living World updates were poor – they were not designed to be fun content, they were designed to be content people would grind over and over and thus play a lot. This strategy works… If all you want to play your games are farmers, grinders, exploiters and addicts. If you want normal human beings as players, well…

Yonarq.1072:

If you ask to me, what i REALLY miss is a more deep presence of the Six Gods in GW2 (and when i say presence its not necesary physical but lore involve). GW2 should be a perfect excuse to let us know more about their realms. Underworld and Fisure of Fow are just some examples. And remember, they are IMPORTANT characters from GW’s lore as a whole and not only for humans…so dont be afraid about “we dont want an human centric story”.

To be honest, I’ve had a feeling since I reached Orr that you (ArenaNet) have been overcompensating on this part. You don’t want to focus too much on any one race, and that’s good – but the result is that the focus has been squarely on the technology of the asura and charr and the relationships between the Pale Tree, the Dream (and Nightmare) and the sylvari. A little more focus on the gods and animal spirits would probably be shifting things closer to being balanced at this stage.

Anyway, as mentioned last time I posted, I’ve got some comments on the discussion of military campaigns and such. I wrote them up over a day ago now (on a non-connected computer and I’ve been busy today) so some of what I’ve said has been said already, but not all of it and I think it is worth presenting as a whole.

Just need to go and transfer it over…

Huh, I was expecting more posts before I got back. Okay, so here are my thoughts on map invasions as mass events:

I am skeptical about the idea of random invasions on existing maps with permanent (until undone) consequences, especially by dragon minions.

The reason for this skepticism is threefold:

First, there’s a realism factor. It would be a bit silly for Jormag or Kralkatorrik to suddenly appear in Brisban Wildlands and start messing stuff up. Even if we limit the dragon minions that might appear by region (Jormag to Shiverpeaks, Mordremoth to Maguuma and Kryta, Kralkatorrik to Ascalon and the Crystal Desert) they really should advance in a logical fashion – it’d be a bit silly, for instance, for Snowden and Wayfarer to be under Jormag’s control while it’s business as usual in Frostgorge.

Second, there are some things in the existing zones where, logically speaking, if they’re destroyed, corrupted or consumed by a dragon, they aren’t coming back. Particularly since a dragon holding territory for any length of time is likely to lead to dragon corruption, and removing dragon corruption without utterly destroying whatever is corrupted is hard – in most of the PS it was believed impossible, and the cases of cleansing we do know require the use of highly sacred sites in Orr.

Third, and most importantly:

Orr is probably the poster child of what such a policy will bring, and while I’m on one of the more populous servers (SoR)… an estimated nine times out of ten I drop into Straits of Devastation, it’s in the same state. There’s a bone ship in Fort Trinity’s port, the artillery crew are cowering behind the southern gate, and there are Risen chillin’ in the bivouac – in short, every part of the map that it’s possible for the risen to overrun (with the odd exception that I haven’t seen the field hospital full of Risen very often lately) has been overrun. Introducing similar mechanics to every map in the game is running a very big gamble – will the players really be dedicated enough to reopening maps that have fallen? If they aren’t, do we really think that having all the maps that newer players will be looking to level and complete personal story in converted to such a hostile state is good for the game?

That said,

Make military campaign maps Orr-style, not “Scarlet’s minions invade” style.

As has previously been noted, Scarlet’s invasions suffer from “go kill those centaurs standing in the field syndrome”. They appear out of nowhere, they don’t go anywhere, and if you ignore them, the only consequence is that you don’t get the rewards for killing them.

For all I said above, the Straits of Devastation, while it has its flaws, is an example of a military campaign that feels right. You have distinct fronts with one side pushing at the other when it gains the initiative, starting from its strongholds and pushing towards well defined objectives. Sometimes troops from one side or another might appear out of nowhere, but again, they don’t just stand around – they have objectives, and will take them if not stopped. Other good examples are the Seraph-centaur campaigns in western Kessex and northern Harathi. Unless there’s good reason for it, military campaign maps should follow a model similar to this – and if troops from one side or another do appear out of nowhere for some reason, they should have some objective that they attempt to fulfill once they appear.

If you’re feeling really ambitious and the technology can handle it, one thing I’d love to see is such campaigns crossing maps – when a given side controls one end of a transition, it starts generating troops and maybe the odd breakout-style event on the other to attempt to gain a foothold on the next map along.

More player agency in events

And now, we get into some of the flaws of Straits of Devastation.

Frustratingly, despite the players being among the most powerful forces on the map (especially in groups), it’s the NPCs driving the action. Often, the player ends up waiting for the NPCs to get their collective donkeys in gear, and when they do, it turns into an escort mission – an escort mission that, with successive patches increasing the ability of the Risen to decimate helpless NPCs that don’t know to stay out of fireball formation, are becoming increasingly likely to fail regardless of how well the players do. There have been quite a few times when I’ve seen a group of PCs reach critical mass and begin driving the Risen from an objective, only to fail because a couple of NPCs fall and their morale breaks.

It should be possible for a group of PCs, on their own bat, to decide to try to take an objective. This triggers an event where the enemy tries to keep them away from the objective. Should the PCs be successful, their success triggers events where NPCs start moving towards the objective the PCs have seized, until the PCs can leave the location in the hands of the NPCs secure that the NPCs will be able to handle most attacks on their own.

(And let’s make it where, given enough investment, the friendly NPCs CAN be expected to hold out against at least a few events on their own. While the PCs are supposed to be the heroes, let’s let the NPC organizations retain a measure of competence – and, going back to the Manifesto, let’s allow a village that’s saved by the PCs to remain saved for longer than the ten minutes or so it takes for another “defend the village” event to initiate. The target should be one where if the PCs do nothing that their allies get slowly pushed back, not one where once the majority of players have gone to bed for the night the map is overrun within the hour. The exact odds of NPC allies being able to hold their ground unassisted is something that will probably need to be calibrated, but it’d be nice to be able to enter a map during off-peak time without it being virtually guaranteed to be completely overrun, and without the knowledge that anything I do is going to be undone within minutes of my leaving the area.)

Have expiry of timers signal a new phase in the event rather than an immediate failure.

Similar to the failure caused by NPCs dying, having an event fail within an inch of success because you didn’t quite beat an arbitrary timer is quite frustrating.

Rather than having an arbitrary timer, why not instead have a reason why the timer expiring is bad… but where the timer expiry does not necessarily mean instant failure. For instance, many timed events in Orr are justified by the Risen “regrouping” or having “reinforcements arrive” on the expiry of that timer. Why not make the arrival of reinforcements something the PCs have to deal with? If the PCs are just hanging on, this makes a timer that is close to expiring a signal that it’s time to admit defeat and bug out – but if they can handle it (maybe a large group of reinforcements on their own arrived as the timer was getting close to running out) they have the choice of staying and dealing with the consequences.

Make it so that getting the reward for completing the final part of the event chain of a map does not require being at the final part of the chain.

Presently, most military campaign-style event chains end with a confrontation with a world boss – the Priest of Balthazar, the Ulgoth, the Risen High Wizard. The problem with these, however, is that in order to receive the reward you need to be “in at the death”, as it were – thus providing a disincentive for players to stand guard over other parts of the map. While this works for the simpler linear chains such as the Harathi Hinterlands chain, in the multifront Straits of Devastation chain, this means that the gains from the earlier parts of the chain are generally lost by the time the temple fight has resolved, as nearly every PC on the map neglects the hard-won outposts and descends on the temple. Funnily enough, this also tends to lead to zerging.

Instead, I’d suggest that when a world boss that is the target of such a campaign falls, every player on the map that’s participated in the chain received a reward, with chests appearing at each outpost that is held by friendly forces (but each player can only open one chest each). Or perhaps there could be an alternate reward, such as receiving an appropriate form of currency. Either way, make it so that players do not HAVE to be at the final event in order to receive the reward for it.

Why do they deserve a reward when they’re not there? Glad you asked.

Have more “support” style events.

Taking a leaf from WvW here – it is possible, at least in theory, for a single roamer or small group to have a larger effect on the battle by raiding and countering the effects of enemy raiders then simply adding to the zerg.

When they’re not required to fight in the final battle in order to receive the reward, players have the option to take part in events that might allow them to actually have a larger effect than they would if they were directly participating. This might involve keeping roads open so that a steady stream of NPC allies can join the fight, or escorting a siege team to set up near the battlefield, then protecting it once it arrives. Heck, one could even consider having dedicated PvE battlefield maps which use WvW concepts such as supply and player-built siege engines to allow the PCs to fully seize the initiative. Of course, a critical mass will still be needed on the battlefield itself, but this would require the players to split up a bit for optimum results rather than simply zerging a single location.

And last, but definitely not least:

Stop champions from spawning from scaling.

The introduction of champions spawned from event scaling in order to make mass farming of events harder, followed by the improved rewards from champions, has generated a regressive result – instead of discouraging zergs, it now makes zerging to provoke the spawning of champions the best way to farm. With their special rewards, champions should be things that are generated by specific events that require their presence, not something that farmers can spawn on demand by gathering in sufficient numbers.

With the introduction of the “elite” class, and the observation that the Toxic Alliance events seem to be spawning elites instead of champions (apart from events that call for the spawning of champions, of course!) it looks like this is something that you’ve already considered and started testing measures to combat. If I’ve read things correctly, bravo – from my experience, the elites do seem to fit much better for event scaling (not such a big jump in health and lethality as going from veteran to champion, and not as much incentive for people to deliberately provoke them to spawn for champion loot bags). However, I think this is a particularly important consideration for “invasion”-style maps – if it’s possible to provoke a map into creating a champion farm as happens in Scarlet invasion events, that’s what the champion farmers are going to do, to the detriment of the intent of the events and those players who want to run the events as the designers (that’s you!) intended.

cesmode.4257:

Id like to hear Chris’s, or any developer’s, thoughts on Phasing. Blizzard adopted this technology and technique years ago so it isnt a new concept and Id be surprised if you dont have the tech or expertise to pull it off.

Utilizing phasing could solve some of these issues.

For example, a player leveling could experience the wolrd, for example Kessex, as it was originally. Once he hits 80, via some quest line or something kessex turns into what it is today. To solve the issue of undead minions and the zhaitan talk in Orr, once your character has defeated zhaitan, these things change. Friendly NPCs no longer talk about if they can defeat zhaitan. They chant that they have! And the number of undead minions are reduced because you have defeated their master.

Thinking about phasing further, I cannot imagine why it isn’t utilized especially in a game like GW2 where open world content and dynamic content is the core.

Was not called “Phasing” but was used often in GW and prominent in all of the GW Beyond content. One example, when a Canthan character Cleansed Zen Daijun, it was cleansed forever. Afflicted gone, forever. But.. full of afflicted for those who had not cleansed it, and for foreign devils. Instanced Zones were changed often to suit individual quests and players.

When you started WIK, Kryta became full of White Mantle and Enforcers, Shining Blade units and Camps, etc, but only for players on that arc. When done, the added NPCs, bosses, camps, Allies…. gone. You could take quests to relive parts of it, Boss Bounties, but were specifically told you were doing a historical re-enactment. When finished, Salma was Queen of Kryta. Prior, she was not. That was permanent.

I would say Anet is fully aware of it, and for whatever reasons chose to scrap the approach, save the instanced versions of zones used in the personal story.

I would say: dont go for the temporary achievements, I only complete them for the achievement points and the rewards – rather go and make other things more rewarding regarding points and skins (no temporary skills please). you showed that for tequatl and ta p3, but the skins should also be viable after the patch to give new players the chance to get the old skins they missed as well.

You should also implement the “wardrobe feature” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAOlCkaton8) bogotter talked about – then i wouldnt have to fear that a better skin will come out in one week or so… buying transmutation splitters is obviously not ideal and crafting another ascended backpiece… no thanks ^^

cheers Tarkan

Add all content once every 4 months and not in separate bits every two weeks. people have then a big chunk of content they can do in 4 month time and ti will feel more closer to an expansion then it feels now.

And living world is not done by adding more and more events throughout the world but it is done by changing the environment completely and adding destroyable objects all over the places other then those needed for events/quests which have a life of their own and will get smashed by players random skill spamming without direct interaction aka selecting the object

When you will go to a place and see trees cut off or burned and walls broken down, then you will know that some fights have been going on there

Looking at my highs and lows for the Living Story releases:

Favorite story/activity: The Frost & Flame arc as a whole, and the early parts in particular. I know most people found the opening stages dull, but I for one relish the opportunity to display heroism by HELPING PEOPLE instead of just bonking yet another monster on the head.

Favorite moment: BY FAR the single best moment in all of the Living Story for me was during the Zephyr Sanctum. I was having a grand old time using the new skills to chase after the shards of wisdom, working out puzzles and chating with folks and getting help when I needed it from friendly portal-mezers all interspersed with occasion monster events (so we are already talking a pretty fine day in-game) when I suddenly realized…

There was more than enough shards of wisdom to finish the achievement even if I just couldn’t crack the puzzle for some of them.

The sense of lightness, the freedom to just enjoy, was breathtaking.

(Contrast to the current event: 24 shards exist to be transcribed and 24 are required for the achievement. If you’d had 30 in-world and required 24, awesome. If you’d stuck with 24 but only required 20, awesome. But right now there is no room for error, and that stinks…)

Worst features: It all comes down to 1 word: Scarlet. She’s actually not terrible when she’s on screen. I don’t mind fighting her directly. I find her dialogue faintly witty. The problem is everything attributed to her off screen is poison to my enjoyment. ‘Crazy’ people DO NOT BUILD EMPIRES. They occasionally inherit or seize control of an empire and the first thing that happens is THEY RUN THEM INTO THE GROUND. You have a fundamental mismatch between character archetype and their use in the plot. I could go on, and have elsewhere, but to sum up, if my disgust with the support writing for this character were a game effect is would be an 11k damage tick every second called “acidic bile” and its killing us all.

You cannot divest yourselves of this character fast enough.

Will we ever have a real expansion? The living story is a horrible substitute.

OK, so, here are my two cents. I didn´t read the whole thread, so maybe I will repeat something that was said. I´ve read some of the dev responses, so I´ll try to adress some things they pointed out. This will also probably be a huge wall of text, so please excuse me for it. Without further delay, here we go:

- First of all, to add to what has been said. Bi-weekly schedule is good, there is not that much content. The major tasks and instance is doable within a few hours of gameplay. Only problem is, you make it seem that people have to do the meta-achievemnt and all other achievements to complete the content (more about achievements and LS in the next point). If it´d be monthly, there would have to be more of the content anyway, so I don´t see a point in doing it. As long as you will go for quality, I´m good. You have much to work in this field, but you have also done so much to bring the quality up. All I can say for this subject is „keep up the good work and make it even better“ ?.

- Biggest problem of LS (gameplay-wise) is that it is too much achievement focused, all tasks, all things that have to be done are in the achievements and therefore, each release is basically “Story instance → Achievements grind →; Done”. In Tower of Nightmares, you at least done it so the release UI directs players better. But it is not enough. As I see it, you need to introduce something like Renown Hearts (or whatever is it called now. Tasks? you know what I mean), or some other form of traditional quests. Hearts will be probably best option, as they already exist in game.
How I picture it (I will use Tower of Nightmares as an example): After completing the instance, you have to collect the samples. It is said to you by Marjory, she can repeat it to you when you speak to her, but to track how many you brought, you have to open achievements tab. As oposed to this, Marjory could be also a Renown Heart NPC (with a Heart over her head, perhaps with a small golden star to indicate it is a LS content). If a player is close to her, there will be also standard Heart UI that tells him what to do and he also sees a progress bar. (Since the player can collect the samples in multiple zones and such, it would be only close to her). This way, player will be sure as to what to do and you would untie the core story content out of the achievements.
Now don´t get me wrong, the achievements should be there (even the spore sample collector could be there as achievement too) but you need to have the core “story” things (as collecting the samples) to be in the world, not just in achievement tab. Achievements should be just supplementary content, something you do if you want after you´ve done the main task tied to the story (thats why I think it was a mistake to do them obligatory in the Blood and Madness. Some people just don´t have time to do the meta. If they don´t, they will miss out story content here. Please, don´t do it again). Some players are not used to check achievements for what to actually do. Try to make it so achievements are not Alpha and Omega of LS releases.

- It needs to be Living Story, not just Living World. For now, there is very little of actual story. First of all, all story instances schould be repeatable as it was with F&F (or as you done it with this release). If it is possible, there could be at least two story instances, the second one with conclusion. Something along the Blood and Madmess patch (just don´t make it as "First instance – a little of lore and a fight; Second Instance – fight, both done in a moment and at one place). As I envision it. You have Tower of Nightmares story instance as it is. After it, you have to collect the spores. And after, you have to know it was for something. Now, you give Marjory spores and thats it, nothing is said, nothing happens. It don´t have to be story instance per se, but at least give her dialogue that now she could come up with and antidote or something like that.

(more to come in next post)

- Lore, lore and lore! We need lore in-game! Web site stories are good, lore interviews are great. BUT…those are ours one nad only lore sources. Minimum of it goes to game. I´ve seen it getting better with two last releases (Mad King and Bloody Prince talking in Labyrinth, existing Krait lore in after talking with NPCs). But I can´t stress this enough. We need it in actual game.
Examples: Trek of Zephyrites – you could give us parts of those memoires into the Labyrinthine cliffs as books/letters. You could put them in scattered like the crystals we were collecting, or just put them into Zephyr sanctum for us to read.
Blood and Madness – Scavanger hunt similar to what we had last year – find ghosts that would tell you history of Bloody Prince (maybe Bloody Memories as reward? )
And that brings me to

- Scavenger Hunts. Some love them, some hates them. I´m in the first bunch. But, with the last scavenger hunts, I see two problems. First – they are there just so they are there and we have something to do. If we find a krait obelisk, we interact and continue. Give us lore with them, so finding them makes sense for PC and for players alike (see? Lore. It´s important! ). There should be another incentive then achievement points. (this also goes for Tequatl rising hunt…find ten scales/teeth/crystals. Why? Because!)
Also regarding this. Please, at least give us some hints. Stop with „there are some items in the zone (or worse, in the world) you have to find“. Last year´s Halloween is the way to go – every ghost give us another clue where should we go. This years scavenger hunt is good to some extend, most of the obelisks are where krait towers are in the world, that´s good. But other obelisks? Just roam the world and be lucky, or go to dulfy and read a guide (especialy with those not even close to any „original“ krait locations). Thats not fun. I know that you want us in the world, finding stuff but I need at least a clue, however cryptic, so I may have a chance of finding it without having to read a guide or just be lucky.

- I´ll come back to the Lore bit again. You should expand on already established lore (from GW2 and GW1), not just comming with new factions/aliances/stuff. Zephirites and their ties to Glint was a step in right direction. I know you said that you are looking at all the lore already established, I just had to say it is important (and cannot be stressed enough too)

- We need new zones. You tried it with the Southsun, but there were two mistakes – low risk/reward opportunities. You designed karka to be a chalange, but reward for this chalenge are none. Also, they are difficult mainly because of them having two health-pools. More HP is not a fun chalenge.
Second mistake, Southsun is isolated from the world. You could get there by a ship (now by a gate), not with a portal from another zone. Most people that wasn´t around the first event, or second, have no idea how to get there. If you make new zones, make them so they will be connected to existing ones please.
And why we need new zones? Of course, getting updates to the old ones, Kessex changing for example is great, I love it. But I seen every zone dozen times, I know most of the events…it´s just „I´ve seen that, no point of doing it again“ all over the place. If we get something new, the „wow“ element is back in the game. I know that it would divide community more, but we need this (as we need the old zones chagning too, don´t get me wrong. We need both, to some extend ? )

- I don´t mind story not evolving around Dragons for a change, but we need to feel they are there (and I´m so glad to hear you have plans with them!). It´s really OK to have other story arcs, but you have to acknowlege they are there and they are threat. Otherwise, they are just a bad joke.
Talking of vilains – Scarlet. I want to like her, I really do. Personally, I don´t have so much problem with how „vilain-sue“ she is (even though she does know maybe too much). The whole problem is the projection of her character into the game.
First – fact in game were very scetchy. For example, we learned (in game) that sche graduated all ASURAN colleges and she also studiet under hylek, norn, charr and like. Only in short story and interview we find out that she took only basic courses of the colleges, studiet briefly under one norn, one charr and one hylek (again, improtant lore out of game).
Second – her character. You envisioned her really good. Sylvari with love for technologies, great intelect, goes crazy. How it is portrayed in game so far? She looks like spoiled brat with childish catch phrases and childish manners. This is not an interesting portreyal of „personal nemesis“ so many were hoping for. And I´m not mentioning that we don´t know any of her motives. And that brings us to:

(even more comming in the next post)

- Pacing of the story is way too slow. The story arc is going for almost a year now and we know next to nothing as of why is this happening, other than „Scarlet did it!“. We keep hearing that all thing are connected, but we are 10 months in and we still don´t see how (again, other then „Scarlet did it.“). We need to know more, otherwise it will trully be known only as Random Story. It´s good you realize the mistakes, so just learn from them and we will be fine.

- Special mention – SAB. Many people love it (I don´t, but it´s ok). All I ask is – don´t make it canon, don´t make it part of actual lore and world. Let it be there for people enjoy but let it stay how it came to be – a joke. A fun content that is there just for fun. A game within a game that we can play, but don´t tie it into the Tyria. This way, all who like it can play it and all who don´t (or all who care about lore) are good without it. I for one don´t like it not because of jumping (Jumping puzzles being favourite part of the game). It breaks my immersion. Nuff said.

And now, regarding some other point that were discussed:
- Most of the DEs (especially the escort ones) are just impossible to fail. NPC you were escorting dies? DE don´t fail, you just have to revive NPC and continue. You can even find long dead NPC, revive him and you are good to continue. It takes away the need to actually protect the NPC, it takes away chalenge, immersion, consequences, you name it. Des should fail if you don´t try hard enough. And that goes not only for escort events, there needs to be fail condition in some of them too. And please, no time conditions. It makes it feel that it is on a timer just because you can´t come up with anything better. But you can! Take Temple of Grenth. It has a condition and it can be hard because of it, you can fail it easily. More of this!

- Now, you aked us to say our Bstt/Worst release and why.
Best one – Zephyrite Sanctum. Gorgeous zone, much things to do (zone being big Jumping puzzle – only problem was tieing all to achievements, but I discussed already ? ), tieing it to already established lore…perfect.
Worst one – Tequatl Rising. This was a though one. I´d say SAB, but even though I don´t like it, it´s a good content (but me wanting it just as a joke and not a part of the lore still stands). I say Tequatl Rising just because of the actual content in it. I love the change and you deffinetely rework other bosses as well (but maybe let the lower level ones alone, for the sake of learning curve for new players). I didn´t like it because there was this change and thats it. OK, there was a scavenger hunt, but I already told you what I think of THAT kind of scavenger hunt.

So there you go, this was mine Great Wall (of Text) with my insight and opinions. In conclusion, I just want to say that I love the game and I hope it will go in the right direction. Take care Anet and good luck with doing the game better. Have a good one!

timmyf.1490:

nethykins.7986:

Neriandal Freit.2810:

• Scarlet Briar –
A hot topic it seems on here. I LOVE HER CHARACTER and I’m not sure why others don’t.

Others have stated why they don’t like her character…some in extensive detail. It would be good to hear a reason why you think her character is good?
(Besides from just saying “I like it”)

Scarlet makes me laugh. That’s not entirely due to writing, at least some of that is Tara Strong, but I find myself giggling pretty regularly.

I like the concept that she knows things we don’t know. Hey, she knows things that she probably shouldn’t know.

I also recognize that, contrary to what people here have said, she’s not an expert in everything. She’s more of a jack-of-all-trades, learning bits and pieces from lots of places and putting that information together. (You’d have to listen to one of the interviews the writers did to pick up that info, though, it’s not immediately obvious from the game/short story.)

Mostly, I like her because she’s a different villain from the ones we’ve had in game so far.

Spoken as if I said it myself.

This is why I love Scarlett. She isn’t a standard character – shes the Joker of Tyria. Shes mad, insane and has a plan no one knows. This is why I think the players (thats those of you asking me why I love her) dislike her so much – is because they can’t identify her and figure out who she is. She is the type of character we need in this because she is the mover and the shaker, the one who stirs the pot and gets the Krait going.

Oh wait..

There’s a couple of things I want to mention.

1. If I had to tell a friend why he should come back and check out GW2 again after a year, I would be speechless because most of the content introduced are temporary.

2. Character progression. Ascended gear sorted some out in a vertical way but there is still much left to be desired. I’m playing exactly the same way as I was playing the game when I first hit 80, and roughly the same way as I was playing when I hit lvl 5 and unlocked all the weapon skills. It gets boring after a while.

What we need is a lot more skills to play around with and a system based on horizontal progression which slowly progresses the character itself, not just his/her gear.

3. Just a suggestion but can we get more Zelda-esque dungeons? So far, pretty much every dungeon in the game has been very linear. There’s a set objective and you can placed on a route through those objectives. Objectives can be very interesting, but it doesn’t give off a sense of exploration which is one of the game’s strong points.

I used Zelda as a yardstick because those games are famous for having dungeons which focused on exploration and puzzle-solving as a main point. Can we get dungeons which are like that, with combat as a side point?

Neriandal Freit.2810:

timmyf.1490:

nethykins.7986:

Neriandal Freit.2810:

• Scarlet Briar –
A hot topic it seems on here. I LOVE HER CHARACTER and I’m not sure why others don’t.

Others have stated why they don’t like her character…some in extensive detail. It would be good to hear a reason why you think her character is good?
(Besides from just saying “I like it”)

Scarlet makes me laugh. That’s not entirely due to writing, at least some of that is Tara Strong, but I find myself giggling pretty regularly.

I like the concept that she knows things we don’t know. Hey, she knows things that she probably shouldn’t know.

I also recognize that, contrary to what people here have said, she’s not an expert in everything. She’s more of a jack-of-all-trades, learning bits and pieces from lots of places and putting that information together. (You’d have to listen to one of the interviews the writers did to pick up that info, though, it’s not immediately obvious from the game/short story.)

Mostly, I like her because she’s a different villain from the ones we’ve had in game so far.

Spoken as if I said it myself.

This is why I love Scarlett. She isn’t a standard character – shes the Joker of Tyria. Shes mad, insane and has a plan no one knows. This is why I think the players (thats those of you asking me why I love her) dislike her so much – is because they can’t identify her and figure out who she is. She is the type of character we need in this because she is the mover and the shaker, the one who stirs the pot and gets the Krait going.

Oh wait..

The main problem I think is that people can’t take her seriously and thus far, he character seems very shallow.

What’s massively contributing to this is the fact that we don’t have an overarching plot which guide the story. Things are very disjointed and players are left without a clue what’s going on. As a result, the LS feels more like a middle-earth EastEnders where things ‘just happen’.

Here is a list of changes I want to see (I reference Guild Wars 1 throughout because it provides a more relevant example than random movies or novels):

-A noticeably changed world that feels as bleak as the GW universe actually is, especially now that dragons are ravaging it. This provides a contrast of our characters working together in an evil world. Like a diamond on a black cloth.
-Include more of the Tengu as we work toward them becoming a playable race. They are very interesting and my favorite race from GW1.
-Introduce interesting characters that make the world feel bigger than Logan and Queen Jenna (remember all the NPCs, heroes, henchman, and bosses with personalized names from GW1). Also improve the “feel” of the world, so it seems like there are armies and lots of interesting NPC characters in it that are doing things.
-Introduce more interesting enemies. Not necessarily new enemies, but change their looks and their combat style, and make them more skilled like the NPCs from the sPvP area.
-Change the cutscenes from side-by-side talking to characters walking around and talking (like GW1) which will create a more engaging story and more realistic characters.
-Make our characters silent protagonists. It’s fine to do in an mmo.

As I am playing through the Tower of Nightmares I realized that all these things were done. I definitely noticed the greatly improved cutscenes (GW1 style) with interesting characters walking around talking about what’s happening. The zone has been destroyed and ravaged, and it looks awesome. Patrols of Tengu =). Enemies with down mechanics, champion boss fights with adds and other skills. And I never said a word, so now I can determine how my character feels. This is what a living world should look like. So please continue to do more of this.

Thank you ArenaNet development team. I love this game.

I’ll reiterate some points:

1) The LW is purely temporary and with no lasting effects after “the story moves on.” At least add some kind of impact and perhaps access to uncontested content – even if it’s just in a rotation like with temples (I am not talking about in the boring sense, where people guest over to buy obsidian shards from uncontested temples. Make people on that server feel proud of their accomplishments).

2) Everything feels rushed. The content feels rushed by the developers, and that results in weak character development, weak story development, and weak game play (mainly with bugged content). The set up of achievement points and the time limit to get meta achievements makes the players feel rushed and furthers the “grind” feel to the game.

3) There is no hook. This is directly linked to problems #1 and #2, but it’s also to do with the reward set up. If you don’t have compelling plots or adversity, at least give something better than some lame looking back pack skin. If you really want to put out back pack skins, make them cool like the holographic dragon wings. The achievement points don’t feel rewarding enough because of the grind and scavenger hunt to get them. Most people just go to Dulfy to find the fastest way to get boring content out of the way.

4) Don’t do things the Microsoft way. Don’t rush to get out the next Windows before perfecting the current platform. I understand it’s a monumental challenge to be pumping out content, but we’d rather you (Anet) take the time to develop well-thought-out content. Leave more time between new LW implementations. That way, we don’t feel rushed as players to grind out some meta achievements, and we can enjoy the game at our own pace. It’s a win-win situation for both the players and the developers. If hardcore players who blow through content complain, I can bring up issue #1 again. If it’s not overly temporary in its nature, and the existing impact and challenges are there, players will have something fun to do. However, more importantly, I’d rather you fix existing content. There are a ton of flaws and bugs in existing dungeons, fractals, and so forth. Keep the releases far enough apart that you can put equal effort into both existing content and future content.

Neriandal Freit.2810:

Shes mad, insane and has a plan no one knows.

Honestly, I kinda hate ‘insane’ being used as a character definer. It takes a very, very skilled writer to be able to pull it off without making the character feel flat as a cardboard cutout and a nasty outdated stereotype of the mentally ill, and it really hasn’t succeeded in Scarlet’s case IMO. When it’s paired with an attempt at making a comedic character, the whole thing makes me cringe. When Kasmeer dropped a note about her being a ‘psycho’ I cringed even harder.

Exploring mental health issues can make for some really interesting characters, but only if you’re going to approach ‘crazy’ with a little more research and consideration than ‘lol she so random and cray and also a super smart genius’.

The Nightmare Court are frivolously violent and have their own agenda that is largely morally incomprehensible to anyone with a conscience or an ounce of compassion, but they aren’t described as crazy or mad. They have a completely absent moral compass that is super interesting (to me) and worth a lot more exploration than it gets in the personal story, but they’re relegated to being Faction X of latest alliance XY in this release again.

EDIT: In a non-game example, take the supremely popular villain Loki from the Marvel movies. Nobody would claim he didn’t have a lot of problems, but we get to see them all unfolding in insecurities about his parentage, jealousy of his popular awesome brother, a desperate need to be wanted/loved. What he does as a result of that is violent and eccentric, and he’s frequently misunderstood as being mad/irrational/nasty for the sake of being nasty, but is actually a fairly complex character. That’s why he has such a huge fanbase.

Maybe Scarlet would be more palatable if she got similar visible development, but the old adage ‘show, don’t tell’ applies here. Everything we know about her, we have to be told., and that makes it unconvincing by its very nature.

Hi all!

First of all, thank you guys for the great work you do! Guild Wars 2 is just amazing.

I’m sure this has been said already, I just wanted to do it myself, too.

My problem about the Living World Content is that it feels like the dragons are out of focus. Also, Scarlet seems a bit over the top as well as out of place. I mean, Guild Wars Lore has so much to offer, even 250 years later. Why is there no Living Story about uncovering remnants of the White Mantle? Why are we not looking for the dwarfes? The possibilities would certainly be there. Also, it would be great to uncover new Areas of Tyria (Maguuma? Ring of fire? Crytal desert?)!

One more thing, I personally would love to get back to Cantha again. It was just my favourite part of the original Guild Wars and I think it has great potential for Guild Wars 2.

A question asked was what gw1 lore related loose ends I would like to see and how.
First of all it doesnt have to be really big. The Theo Ashford connection was awesome. Specially how Logan calls him an old friend off the family (Logan is like the Ashfords of Ascalonian origins). For those who didn’t play GW1 it wasnt an issue and they likely totally miss the connection without realising what they are missing. But for GW1 veterans it was a very nice touch.

Just saying it doesnt have to be a full story-arch.
An example could be a new minidungeon. A durmand scholar founds a small hidden basement under fort trinity and asks you to investigate. Inside you find a necromancers room with among other attributes a letter. It is hard to read but it’s saying:

’
Dear V..K,
How is your work in Rat. .um going? A floa..ng cube?? I can’t imagine p.ople living there. But then ag.in your no human but an asur.n Elemen…ist. The best I h.ve ever met.
I have found Vizier Kh…….. staff. I think it has the abillity to harnas the power of the bloo..tone. I am going back to the caves and do some test. I wou.. ask yo. to join me but you have too m..h hist..y there. I write you soon.

L..ia
’

The priory person then sent you north to the bloodstone caves. After doing some tasks/fights to decent to the lower level we find the bloodstone where we find the necromancer Livia. She is hardly recognisable and clearly turned into a lich herself. during the fight the real Livia speaks out and tells her story after the letter. How the staff still was corrupted by the Vizier and how the power of the bloodstones reactivated that power and consumed her.

when defeated she returns to a ghostlike form and tells you that the only way to stop the Vizier for good is to destroy his staff like he is destroyed himself and asks for the staff.

On top off the bloodstone she breaks the staff on her knee, and with a big flash off light she dissapears. The bloodstone glowing bright white.

This is something I would really love to see happening. The whole thing would be scaled and open world, but a bit like the forsaken halls.

Constructive feedback? Here’s my 2cents:

Quite frankly, I don’t like living world, and I think it is an overhyped, marketing design failure by ArenaNet. The reality is the quiet majority of players don’t care whether or not the world feels “living”. And even if they did, it would be a failure at that.

Temporary content means players cannot go at their pace, excluding us weekend warriors. Furthermore, we’re forced to complete dailies in order to receive the meta-achievement award, and this forces us to log in 5 days or so of dailies in Halloween, just to complete the storyline. Although there is a silent majority of players who do not like this, where are the minority of players who do like it? Does ArenaNet actually think time-gated content feels “living”? Just… From a game-design perspective, what is even the logic behind it?

Then there’s the issue with the word “living” as a whole. I feel like my actions have no impact on the world, because the storyline progresses whether or not I defeat the villain. It also creates a disconnect from the player’s immersion in the story, because we have to wait weeks for events that should be connected like chapters. There’s also the problem that players who don’t constantly follow the story will be lost, and lose out on the story experience that make it feel complete.

And did I mention how awful of a personal nemesis Scarlet is? I’ll just say it blunt and simple: There’s nothing ‘personal’ about Scarlet. In fact, she doesn’t give a crap about the player whatsoever.

There’s also the fact she’s built up to be some powerful antagonist, who somehow co-ordinated armies, but we never actually see how she mediated the Molten Alliance, Toxic Alliance, or Aetherblades….

Speaking of which, why the heck do we have Molten and Atherblade prisoners, if none of them tell us any information? You’re telling me the Ash Legion wouldn’t interrogate a dredge for information?

I could go on and on about the disconnect of logic in this Living Storyline. If I could summarize as a whole what makes it feel so awkward though, it’s the time-gate storytelling without the ability to start from the beginning.

there is one more thing that crossed my mind. In the beginning of the game, you wanted to randomly add events, minidungeons and jumping puzzles into the game (you also did, I think last year in November?). You stoped doing that because “player base didn´t appreciated it”. But, as was said many times, we couldn´t appreciate it, since (and this is what I loved) we had no idea if the events are new, or were there all the time. I really loved that feeling of finding event/minidungeon or something, that I never seen before and I was wondering if it is new or not. that was also something that had given me the feeling of living world.
Could you (if you had resources for doing this) do this once in a while? And maybe say in the patch notes just “minidungeon added into this general area” (name of zone, or maybe just region), or DEs added se we know it is there somewhere, but had to discover it? You see, with living world, there are changes only to one zone at the time. I really want to return to some zones but at the moment, I have a feeling that I´ve seen everything in that zones. Please, prove me wrong

Simply put … i like the Idea of the living story… i hate how its implemented it feels disconnected with Tyria.

A lot of the time I just don’t care what is going on cause its so jumbled up. I tell my RL friends that “the living story in Guild wars 2 is like taking 9 or more odd an/or bad comic books ripping one page from each and then making a new odd short bad comic book that has no continuity”

IMO when people read a book or watch a tv show they like to watch them in order (safe to assume) id love to see an play in content that matches Tyria’s world more I don’t need to feel as if anything I do has an impact in Tyria just want to feel as if something is being accomplished. I Don’t need new items or loot or well junk (sense just about everything looks bad or silly from Gemstore) I just want Direction new areas to explore places to see an if the time is right even more NEW world bosses not just reworked boss monsters, killed them hundred times befor making them harder isn’t going to make me like fighting them more