Guild Wars 2

ColinJohanson.2394:

What rewards would you like to see from rewards? Would they be different when you’re leveling up than when you’re level 80? What would motivate you to want to go around the world playing as many different events as possible, rather than the same 4-5 over and over again?

I have liked a lot of the ideas regarding how to answer these questions, but I couldn’t figure out a way to quote everyone and stay fairly cohesive with my reply.

One of the ideas that has been expressed that I like is that the current rewards xp/silver/karma increase. It isn’t very helpful to do an event in a low level zone and get 80c on my level 80 Mesmer. It isn’t something that makes me look for more to do. It would be nice if the rewards were scaled based on character level (if they are currently, then more noticeably). I was thinking something easy to calculate like the difference in the event level and the character’s actual level, like a level 20 event with a level 54 character could add 340 exp/ 102 c / 68 karma or level 32 event with level 80 character add 480 exp / 144c / 96 karma. It isn’t a lot, but over time and with other DEs, especially chained, it would make lower level DEs more worthy of higher level characters. It could simply be based on the current scaled level of the character to the actual level of the character.

I really love the idea of making map/zone specific rewards for completing a DE. There are a lot of ideas on how to reward them, but the one I liked best was a token. I also thought converting the current dungeon tokens to these zone/map tokens was ingenious. I, personally, would prefer to play 60 dynamic events to get 60 tokens, than one dungeon run. My thought originally was to have 1 token per unique event per day, but in reading posts, I think that it seems fair to scale based on either the length of time the event has been idle and/or the difficulty of the even.

As an aside: I realize a lot of people have issues with a variety of currencies, but maybe there is a way that a Currency Exchange could be added, so one currency can be traded for another like we do with RL money between countries. Of course, there wouldn’t necessarily be a one to one ratio when converting like10:9 or a trade fee, maybe in gold (or both). So 10 Frostgorge tokens could be traded for 9 Timberline tokens. Or maybe scale it based on zone/map difficulty, so Frostgorge tokens are worth more than Queensdale, i.e. 10 Frostgorge = 80 Queensdale tokens.

Based on some really great ideas, I was thinking that the tokens could be used at two types of vendors:
1. Specific map/zone vendors where you can buy mats available in that area, like in Cursed Shore 1 token = 1 ancient log and in Snowden Drifts 1 token = 1 soft log.
2. LA vendors that sell armor and weapons as well as armor skins and weapon skins. This could be similar to the way the WvW vendor sells armor and skins for badges of honor (which can be the token for all WvW events). Currently, dungeons offer rare armor. It would be nice to have exotic and ascended added as well as all three levels of weapons.

I like the idea of making the tokens available per unique event, so that farming specific events doesn’t happen. However, I disagree that they need to be account bound. I don’t think that people running alts should necessarily have a decreased value in running two (or 15) characters through the same map. In my opinion, it is similar to saying that JP rewards should be account bound.

In regards to champ farming, I would prefer to see a reason for these champs spawning. Maybe a chain of events could be created to lead to the end champ. I also think it would only be fair to increase the number of these champ chain events to have approximately the same number in all zones to attract people throughout the world, rather than just in a few.

I like the idea suggested that the events have more impact, specifically, that after an event ends, it doesn’t respawn five minutes later. I think making more events chained, for specific reasons, like a village getting attacked and leading to a champ, ex Maw, makes sense in that after a defeat it takes time to recover, but they are likely to try to take over the village again in two hours, so it starting up again could be reasonable.

Also, it would be nice to make events more noticeable. Others have made a lot of great suggestions as to how this could be done. I don’t know the most feasible way, but it would be nice to know when I go to a map or exploring the map, where events can be started or where they are happening. It would be convenient if they were on the main map when opening it.

BobbyStein.2315:

So you’d like the game to react to you on a more personal level, such that people, places, etc. respond differently depending on your accomplishments, decisions, and so on?

YES. I would really appreciate that.
It would deepen up the game-experience if some more of the npcs would “remember” you and your former decisions.

Sinope.5630:

First of all, reward bags from Dynamic Events should be come once a day / event / account. So it would not be worthwhile to run just 4 – 5 same Dynamic Events.

These rewards I would like to see from Dynamic Events if they are success:
- Random Precursor (very rarely, no matter what level character is, lvl 1 – 80 areas, only from Gold rewards)
- Ascended items ( very rarely, no matter what level character is, lvl 1 – 80 areas, only from Gold rewards)
- Exotic item (armor or weapon), (normal exotic weapon no precursor weapon) (rarely, no matter what level character is, lvl 1 – 80 areas, only from Gold rewards)
- Karma bottle (randomly no matter what level character is, lvl 1 – 80 areas, Gold, Silver or Bronze rewards)
- Rare item ( randomly, no matter what level character is, but under lvl 25 no higher than level 25 rare item. When character is above lvl 25 higher rare items, lvl 1 – 80 areas Gold or Silver rewards )
- Masterwork item (mostly, no matter what level character is, level 1 – 80 areas, Gold, Silver or Bronze rewards)
- Fine item (never)
- White item (never)
- T1 – T6 crafting materials ( always, depending characters level, Gold, Silver or Bronze rewards)
- Gold (always, level 1 – 15 area 15 silvers, level 15 – 25 area 25 silvers, level 25 – 35 area 35 silvers, level 35 – 45 area 45 silvers, level 45 – 55 area 55 silvers, level 55 – 65 area 65 silvers, level 65 – 75 area 75 silvers, level 70 – 80 area 85 silver, level 80 area 1 gold, Gold, Silver or Bronze rewards)
- No extra rewards from Champion events, Champion Bags are reward itself.
- Fail, no bag

This is awesome suggestion. But only thing what I would change on this suggestion is money.

I would like to suggest that Dynamic Events loot bag would contain:

- Gold (always, level 1 – 15 area 150 silvers, level 15 – 25 area 250 silvers, level 25 – 35 area 350 silvers, level 35 – 45 area 450 silvers, level 45 – 55 area 550 silvers, level 55 – 65 area 650 silvers, level 65 – 75 area 750 silvers, level 70 – 80 area 850 silver, level 80 area 1 gold, Gold, Silver or Bronze rewards)

In that way it sounds more rewarding

Good work Sinope

Knowing how internal corporate deliberations can sometimes go, I must say, ArenaNet is pretty brave. I know a lot of people that go hunting for people to back them up whenever there’s a disagreement, and I have this hilarious image in my head of things like this happening:

Chris: Well, I see where you’re coming from, but I think it’d be better if we focused on building new content rather than re-scripting old content to be more player- and context-sensitive.

Bobby: But Chris, on page 31, XxDragonSlayerxX said that he, and I quote, “think[s] that NPCs who have different text based on things you’ve done would kick some serious kitten!” He said it would kick kitten, Chris! You can’t argue with that!

So seriously, thanks for this whole thread.

BobbyStein.2315:

Fozzik.1742:

You went from a system with branches, success/failure states, localized stories and depth, and noticeable effects (even if temporary) on the surrounding areas that were somewhat controllable by the actions of players…to a system where you add 1-off semi-random events that have no story and just pop and disappear in the same fixed locations (sounds like Rift, instead of GW2).

Things happening by the direction of the developers (like plopping a big ugly tower in one of the prettiest areas of the game, having us run a dungeon, then making it disappear) is not the same as allowing things to change based on player interaction with the story/world. It just feels forced and artificial. We know each living story release is predetermined and the story just plays out. The TV analogy may be a little too apt…we’re watching stories now instead of taking part in them and to some extent directing their outcome.

I really loved the way the stories played out around you with certain DE chains, especially in some of the early maps. I loved the way a player could see different outcomes and discover new story through their actions. I like the story instances included with some living story releases…the ones that actually have the story play out through actions and dialogue and involve the player…but again, it’s no longer in any way alterable by ME. Also, those story instances are seemingly a very small part of the recent releases. Most of what we get is the other stuff…the random event spawns and loot farms we run around in a circle.

I would not mind at all if the pace of releases slowed, and we saw the original promise of GW2 better realized through expansion of the DE system and the explorable world…more maps with hearts, DEs, vistas, jumping puzzles, the whole fairy tale. More branches and story and depth to existing DEs… and a system to track DEs and their completion so we can experience it all. Give us reasons to wander and explore and take our time…to experience the story at our own pace, not some arbitrary schedule.

Continue our personal story… bring back a character or two thought dead. Let us push on to new challenges. Give us some continuity that feels personal and keeps us going.

So you’d like the game to react to you on a more personal level, such that people, places, etc. respond differently depending on your accomplishments, decisions, and so on?

I know I would. I remember the first time going back to Korriban, in SWTOR, after finishing my character’s storyline. The Imperial Guard bowed to me when I walked through the hallway. It may seem like a small thing but the feeling I got from that was immensely rewarding.

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

BobbyStein.2315:

So you’d like the game to react to you on a more personal level, such that people, places, etc. respond differently depending on your accomplishments, decisions, and so on?

Yes, very much so! I’d love for things that I chose in character creation to matter in the game world. Things like charm/ferocity/dignity/gods(spirits) chosen/etc.

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

Yeah I can’t really see any good reason for that kind of content to be temporary rather than just being added to the PS so anyone can experience it on their own playtime.

The LW should focus on expanding the DE system, which should be mostly self-contained within zones so as not to disrupt the larger story, and adding further polish to the world.

Elbegast.6970:

I know I would. I remember the first time going back to Korriban, in SWTOR, after finishing my character’s storyline. The Imperial Guard bowed to me when I walked through the hallway. It may seem like a small thing but the feeling I got from that was immensely rewarding.

Oh yeah.

Flourishes like that are PRICELESS. Worth more than “triple gold weekends” or other loot-based rewards by far.

Money is great and all, but who doesn’t like respect?

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

I have an interesting comparison, Colin. Right now, you guys are doing broadcast TV before TiVo and DVRs. New content regularly, but if you miss it, you’re out of luck. You’re talking about TV + Hulu, more or less: shows come out normally, but if you miss them, you can catch up.

What interests me is where TV itself is heading: look at the success Netflix is having. Release the entire season in one go and let people absorb the content at their pace. The problem: that’s the “expansion” model that you’re trying to get away from.

You’re working off of a metaphor, but the metaphor may not be telling you what you think it’s telling you.

(As a side note, I like regular releases, I’m just pointing out some tension that exists in using TV as a model.)

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

I can’t speak for him, but that’s exactly what I mean when I say ‘PS expansions’. I don’t think it’s important whether it’s released in large chunks or gradually over time (in fact the latter is arguably better), what people really care about is three-fold:

a.) a sense of permanence that allows them to play on their own schedule
b.) a sense that the world is actually growing and not just changing
c.) that they play a pivotal role not just as an observer but in some ways as the actual catalyst.

The best way to achieve both worlds IMO is to focus world-scale story content into permanent content that operates mostly as extensions to the PS, with new features intended to upgrade the PS system such as being able to replay instances and story content and upgrade your home instance. Note that this would include some of the things already released and removed like much of the F&F content, etc.

Then, you could slightly modify the LW concept – keep it mostly centered on the open world, but in ways that add to existing content rather than replacing it, like enhancing the DE system, adding new DEs, crafting seasonal effects, etc. You could also continue doing the recurring events and have occasional mini- stories that occur outside of the larger canon and just serve to add depth and charm to the game.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

Then that story has to exist inside of instances rather than your open world, and while your Living Story accumulates content (good) your Living World stagnates (bad).

The problem you’re running into is your pivot point for the Living Story has been so unwelcome, many people want you to direct your attention back to the Living World.

Its a resource allocation puzzle, to be sure. Hopefully this thread inspires you to shift priorities to a more middle road, and new insights garnered here allow higher quality on both tracks.

Nike.2631:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

Then that story has to exist inside of instances rather than your open world, and while your Living Story accumulates content (good) your Living World stagnates (bad).

The problem you’re running into is your pivot point for the Living Story has been so unwelcome, many people want you to direct your attention back to the Living World.

Its a resource allocation puzzle, to be sure. Hopefully this thread inspires you to shift priorities to a more middle road, and new insights garnered here allow higher quality on both tracks.

But the Living World is not working the way they wanted it to, and I have doubts it ever will. Part of this is a due to resource limitations, and part of it is due to the way the game was designed for launch (i.e. a personal story rather than a world one) causing a conceptual clash within the game that hinders the story-telling aspects.

IMO, it’s much better to shift their focus with it to improving the systems and content behind the DEs, and let the large-scale stories be told through PS style content additions (primarily new instances and dungeons). There is still a lot they’d have the freedom to do with the LW – tons of recurring events/festivals, new DE and meta events, world polish like seasonal weather, and the occasional temporary low-canon mini-story for novelty value.

Brimwald.5894:

cesmode.4257:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Xae Isareth.1364:

I think where the failure is lies in the rewards. You don’t get nowhere near enough rewards for doing DEs compared to other things, because karma is not very useful. Also, doing something extremely short and simple like killing a champion gives the same if not more rewards than a long DE like escorting someone, so no one does the escorts.

We agree, this is something we’ve been discussing a lot lately and working on some various answers for, but I’m curious:

What rewards would you like to see from rewards? Would they be different when you’re leveling up than when you’re level 80? What would motivate you to want to go around the world playing as many different events as possible, rather than the same 4-5 over and over again?

Some of the fun challenges we are currently solving, but it’s great to hear peoples thoughts on this subject as well.

Hi,
Earlier in this thread I suggested a system called Global Dominance where as a server, we need to control the world map(all zones, all towns..as much as possible) against onslaughts of enemy NPCs. If an enemy NPC like a band of centaurs take over a town, they gain a foothold thus increasing their presence. After a short while they attack another town, and gain another foothold. We have to defeat these footholds and drive them back. Our world dominance % dictates a server-wide bonus, or something to that effect similar to WvW,

This does at least two good things:
-Allows the player to truly play in any zone they want without following the champ train
-Spreads the population out to all zones rather than just a few

Search for my post earlier in the thread. I explain it a bit more.

If you give bonuses for keeping the world free of NPC invaders, then you should get server wide nehttps://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forumgative bonuses for areas being conquered. ie -12% magic find because the enemy controls too much of your territory (obviously having less territory means less resources). This encourages people to fight, and people should have to fight, the world is in conflict after all.

I agree with this. Of course.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

Pretty much!

Just to be clear, I have no issue with the size or frequency of the content releases, if you want to release small chunks of content every two weeks like you have been doing that’s fine, if you were to decide you’d rather take a month for a bigger update, or even longer for a full expansion then that would be fine with me too.

With episodic I meant content that comes and goes and the attempts to make living story something that is happening right now – and won’t be happening next week. I’d prefer just permanent content in the standard format delivered at whatever rate you feel works for you.

a very long thread and I can’t read all of it. my two cents: I had an epiphany on LW and I get more of why/how it’s the way it is. I was thinking that it was a “story”. And was called “living story” at first. So it’s really “New Stuff” is happening in the world of Tyria; and this week it’s —-. Well for me it’s not been too bad but I have not got the time for most of the content in 2 wks. One of my probs is that if I do not get one the event on release day then there is not always chance that the entire thing will be to do-able. So I am all for a longer period of the event; four weeks to run would suit me but a new one every two is fine also. I do not have any other feedback since I realized that many of the LW releases are not going to be immediately tied together like an installment serial. I am fine if Scarlett returns in a few months, or whatever. I am not much of a fan of the story in the Scarlett arc, would rather have something more focused in the GW lore. So in a month maybe the Centaurs and the Hylek will be starting the poison-unicorn alliance and the Gendarran fields will be aflame w/refugees; and a couple of weeks later an Asura box will be found in Mount Maelstrom that opens a portal to ? haha tune in for moar LW, it’s fine as it is.

Nike.2631:

BobbyStein.2315:

So you’d like the game to react to you on a more personal level, such that people, places, etc. respond differently depending on your accomplishments, decisions, and so on?

Fozzik.1742:

No. That would be neat, of course…and add to immersion, but it’s not what I was getting at.

I want the story to on some level be under the control of the player(s). I want our decisions, actions, or inaction to cause changes in the story and the world.

Then you want to play a table-top roleplaying game, because until MMOs are powered by Story-Engines that can pass a Turing test and qualify as full blown AIs all you can do is choose the depth to which you maintain the illusions of Choice & Consequence.

They can do a better job of maintaining the illusion with tools already to hand, but the cost is very, very steep. I think threads like this have a lot to do with helping them choose which paths will deliver the greatest gains from costs they are able to pay.

Oh, I totally get that we’re talking about an illusion of change…as I mentioned later in the post I recognize that an online persistent world filled with people doing content at their own pace places very obvious limitations on what you can do in terms of changing the world permanently.

I do, however, think that allowing choice and consequence in each players story is entirely possible…as demonstrated in a basic way by what was already in the game at launch.

Dynamic events are a fantastic foundation for a system which really does a decent job of masking the necessarily static nature of a persistent online world. I think they should be expanding and adding to that system to realize more of its potential. We get branching content that players can steer in a finite way…and which tells a story in an active, participatory fashion to every adventurer who wanders by. It’s fantastic, and has so much potential.

The personal story is a great example of how each player can be provided with a “custom” story, semi-directed by their choices, which fits into the overall story arc of the world. I again think this could (and should) be expanded upon and continued.

I think if they insist on doing some sort of “living story” content on a regular release schedule, it should involve the two above systems much more…and the additions to the personal story and dynamic events should be what stays in the game permanently after each release and can be experienced at the players’ own pace.

Right now, the tie-ins are taking WAY to long to materialize. They say that these living story releases are going to connect to the original story of the world at some point…but it needs to be a more regular connection. We need to get snippets of the ongoing story arc of both our character and the world in just about every release to keep a feeling of continuity and connection. They need to tie these living story releases directly into the already existing DEs in the area in question…and have it leave permanent effects on those DEs (new branches, new characters, whatever).

As I mentioned in a post a few pages back, I think the key to getting people more involved with DEs over time is to make it a completion activity much like exploration, achievement points, and collections. Provide a UI element that lists all DEs and tracks completion, provides location info and highlights new events (this is key). Allow players to go experience them at their own pace and fill in the story of each area (in a journal of sorts?)…earning rewards based on the number of unique events they’ve completed and for completing all the events on a map.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

I think a good existing model we can look at is RuneScape’s. They do weekly releases but those releases are more like bits of an expansion rather than the temporary stuff we get. This way the players are entertained and, along with the use of teasers, the world is constantly being added to and feels alive, whilst no one misses out on content.

It’s nothing innovative but it does the job quite well. Or at least i can assume it is since they’ve been up for 12 years and still have a healthy sub number.

I’m a bit late to the game because I’m a casual forumite but basically my issue with the game is mostly living world related. You can see my thoughts in this thread (I probably shouldn’t copy paste everything I said there here?).

Anyhow it’s mostly that the living world:

1. Lacks anchor zone where we keep returning
2. Lacks time phased content within the two weeks release period
3. Doesn’t leave anything persistent behind
4. Gives way too many chances to miss actual rewards (including achievements)
5. Doesn’t progress the story of elder dragons

One of the key quotes would be: “It doesn’t matter how wonderful internal roadmap you have when for players they all feel separate instances that seem to have no connection whatsoever”

Please read the thread for better explanation. I dedicated two posts to explaining my point of view with some examples (especially the second post).

Somehow managed to add these to WvW thread… bleh.

Also. One of my problems is that ANet tends to swing from one end to another when it comes to living story. All signs point to this. For example.

People complain about time gated content —> Remove time gated content

When the real issue is not time gated content. The issue is that you were missing rewards, there was no clear info what we could expect on a specific day, and you gated the content into specific days and hours instead of letting each time gated piece to run a few days. Missing a precursor or unique item reward because you couldn’t make it? Too bad! Of course there are complaints.

People request for tougher content —> Make something that requires a full map

I honestly like new Tequatl. However I’d like it even more if there were people doing it. My impression is that when people request for tougher content they basically mean something comparable to Temple of Grenth. More than failure itself people want an illusion of failure.

Fire elemental and Temple of Grenth are some of the best examples because they are both doable with small teams and large groups. For Grenth there’s a chance for failure and you get downed a lot. The difference is that it can be done with a few people AND the failure is because of your actions. Not because of a timer. Fire elemental is pretty fail proof but you have significant personal illusion of failure because you get downed a lot. Both also require mobile gameplay. Stay in one spot and you die.

Dragon fights earn(ed) complaints because people can autoattack them to death. For example the shatty fight is boring. The fact is that open world is the best for Grenth level content.

ColinJohanson.2394:

What would motivate you to want to go around the world playing as many different events as possible, rather than the same 4-5 over and over again?

• * coherence with the world*: Guard Bartold “discovers” the hidden weapons everyday since one year. Is it dumb or what? that’s boring after a while.
  Make Guard Bartold bring food to the troops on the first lines (this is perfectly understandable and have to be done every day). It’s the little things that change the whole perspective.

• make impossible to foresee the outcome: total randomization of events and their chain would be awesome and would keep me doing them over and over again.
  “Guard Bartold is bringing food to the troops….

- the soldiers eat it and get intoxicated because it was expired, so you have to find a cure
- a new champion randomly spawns instead of the normal one, uses different skills and requires a different approach to be defeated
- Ebon Vanguard going to encounter the Queen accidentally pass by and lend an hand against the common foes
- and so on…

it can be applied to any event:

- Scholar Brogun gets kidnapped
- grawls are tired of being interrupted and start experimenting new rituals
- Claw of Jormag decide to land there during the Maw…. (good luck with that xD )

basically, my concept is related to the Dungeon Master Guide of D&D and it’s “randomized table for adventures”, roll a couple of d20 and mix the events amongst them: the result is thousands of new adventures using the proper mechanic….

Having fixed events defeats the purpose of a Living World

Then there are some glaring examples of “don’t get it”

Halloween and material requirements for rewards.

This is so contrary to player mentality that it baffles me. These are supposed to be casual events enjoyable for everyone. Are you surprised people are angry instead of buying the items from trading post?

You should have add items with 1k candy cost, 5k candy cost and 10k candy cost and it would have still drained excess candy corn from the market. For example selling exos with 1k candy. 5k for a pail would be reasonable. This would have resulted farmers farming for the candy corn which isn’t any different from now while casuals would have gotten some and bought the rest. Now I wager a lot of people didn’t bother.

New content and living world

Your problem is that you currently twofold. There hasn’t a LW content update that has truly left anything permanent without it significantly splitting from what players expect to be the living story. Even Twilight Arbor path isn’t truly new content. It’s just a new path.

Then you also pointed out you added a lot new mini content that no one played. More like you added a bunch of random stuff that in no way connected to the living world and to lower level zones when people have already outleveled those which essentially made it invisible to most. Again these were in no way connected to the living story.

Scarlet

You chose to anchor the story to a completely new random villainess who miraculously manages to pull together enemy groups. Instead of this you should have anchored the story to a zone OR an elder dragon. Elder Dragons are what this game is about. Not Scarlet.

Scarlet would be okay as a side villain and I like her antics but she can never be the key for pulling all living stories together. There are too many. It’s too split. Too haphazard. That’s just not what (I think) people want. Again she would be terrific villain as a “detour” villain. Not as someone who hogs the spotlight.

Einlanzer.1627:

Nike.2631:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

Then that story has to exist inside of instances rather than your open world, and while your Living Story accumulates content (good) your Living World stagnates (bad).

The problem you’re running into is your pivot point for the Living Story has been so unwelcome, many people want you to direct your attention back to the Living World.

Its a resource allocation puzzle, to be sure. Hopefully this thread inspires you to shift priorities to a more middle road, and new insights garnered here allow higher quality on both tracks.

But the Living World is not working the way they wanted it to, and I have doubts it ever will. Part of this is a due to resource limitations, and part of it is due to the way the game was designed for launch (i.e. a personal story rather than a world one) causing a conceptual clash within the game that hinders the story-telling aspects.

IMO, it’s much better to shift their focus with it to improving the systems and content behind the DEs, and let the large-scale stories be told through PS style content additions (primarily new instances and dungeons). There is still a lot they’d have the freedom to do with the LW – tons of recurring events/festivals, new DE and meta events, world polish like seasonal weather, and the occasional temporary low-canon mini-story for novelty value.

Personal story is far too expensive unless they remove the player character’s voice actors and make us silent protagonists (which I am fine with). They would also can’t have alternate story arcs for each character (as much as I love it) because it is an MMO, so their costs in so many other areas are so high.

PS clashes with the dynamic event system. I see the living world (large scale dynamic events with consequences) mixed with living story (dragon centric story moments like instances and dungeons) as the way to go. The world changes based on these regional DEs and then the story is created to work alongside it. Hence players driving the story.

FOR EXAMPLE: Jormag invades the Shiverpeaks, players respond, once beaten back (a long struggle with capture points, siege, and rebuilding broken keeps across multiple maps), the story instance is opened where the players can move the story forward, learning more about the dragons and fighting a dragon champ. This is followed by new zones opening up and the ability to fight Jormag (and fail) which opens a new story point where the players need to find a way to kill the dragon using the tooth in Hoelbrook. This whole thing would be server based, so each server needs to progress the story and the war themselves.

Finally I’m going to copy paste a portion from 2 months old thread. This is using Tequatl as an example when I heard about the overhaul (but didn’t have details yet).

Note! Please understand that a lot of players are reward driven and those who are not are usually driven to spots where other people migrate as well. If there’s no reason to go to a zone it is abandoned. LW story brings these areas alive for its duration but if you wish people to spend time there after that you need to hang the carrot infront of us!

What I would like to see

Basically: focus on persistent changes to zones and make it worth to go there other than for farming champions. Make things exclusive. If something can be gotten easier from somewhere else that’s where players go. Below is an example of what I mean:

Thematic area: Maguuma Jungle
Thematic meta event: Rise of Tequatl the sunless
Thematic merchants: asura, sylvari
Buildup zones: Caledon Forest, Metria Province, Brisban Wildlands, Sparkfly Fen, Mount Maelstrom
Event monitor: Tool that shows how near completion the meta event is

Doing events in maguuma area reward player karma, gold, and deadly bloom(s) or knowledge crystal(s). Each area has a merchant which sells asura or sylvari themed gear, minipets, thematic items, crafting components in exchange for deadly blooms and knowledge crystals. These merchants must be unlocked for example through a reputation system. They sell weapon skin and other unique stuff that can’t be gotten anywhere else!

Once the build up events are done Tequatl assaults one of these zones with multiple hotspots for activity. Completing the event in any of these locations earns the final reward.

Goal: Players want to go to Maguuma areas for deadly blooms and knowledge crystals as an alternative to dungeons. They also want to earn the exclusive skins and other rewards that can be bought only with blooms/crystals.

Natural completion of these events spawns a world boss (Tequatl) instead of everyone swarming him based on a timer. Allowing him to appear in multiple zones makes it more interesting. Especially if each zone has unique defeat mechanic. Adding multiple spots that need to be simultaneously handled splits the players and reduces lag. Edit: Most importantly it allows better scaling for events. You can increase the number of these spots as player numbers increase without making T impossible to defeat.

Finally you can tie living world achievements and temporary content to zone overhauls allowing you to tell stories and introduce new enemies while still leaving behind interesting persistent content as events. Edit: However as mentioned previously these zone overhauls events should be detours from the anchor zone itself.

Edit Note! Simply adding a few dungeons or a world event does not make zone alive. It makes only those spots alive. You need to give a reason to do dynamic events. Thus the bloom/crystal thing. The reward numbers should be low but as the event chains forward you get more and more of them rewarding people who work on the chains instead of farming the initial events.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

This would be great, but I think it brings up an important point regarding how we experiance a static story within a changing world.

All of the story instances will have to be experianced as historic episodes, like a sort of flashback or retelling up until the current release. I think this works fine, as the LW story instances can be designed with this in mind moving foward. But as for the Personal Story it gets potentially more complicated. Will the PS also become a series of flashbacks, with my character walking into a green Orr to “remember” when he fought Zhaitan? Will there be a pre and post PS split in the world through some sort of phasing? Or will the areas affecting personal story be strategically avoided by the changing world?

The latter seems practical, but it is limiting from a storytelling perspective.

Many years ago I was involved in a game that had what I would term a truly living world. If a bridge needed to be built to get from point A to point B, the community would have to band together, gather the resources and use their skills to build that bridge. After that point in time that bridge became a permanent fixture in the world. Although the game had its own flaws the “living” aspect of it was awesome. We built communities from the ground up, we built bridges and mines, all of which had functionality after the fact.

What you are calling “living” in this game is not the same. There is nothing that will permanently change and once the event is over what remains behind becomes mere “clutter” and nothing that truly adds either functionality or usefulness to the game. We get recipes that require certain “drops” from the “living world” and once the event is over they become once again, clutter, this time in your vault and if you require those items you have to go hunt down that remaining “clutter” to get them.

For example, the Scarlet thing. Now we get a pop up on our screen telling us where an attack is taking place but if the story were truly “alive” we would have defeated Scarlet and moved on. However with the current design you have to leave “bits and pieces” around to satisfy the requirements for the recipes. So to satisfy the requirements for a recipe you have to go out and “grind” for the components.

In that previous game once that bridge was built, it was complete. You did not have to go back and rebuild it, new people to the game would miss that part of the content but there was always something else to be done that would build the world.

The problem with the current design of the “living world” is that you have far too much in the game, be it armor recipes or weapons or what have you that depends on the content from one installment of the living world. Looking forward, after a year or so of these types of releases, you are going to end up with a whole lot of disconnected pieces and yet nothing in the world will actually change.

If the world was truly alive then Orr for example, would have seen a drastic change after the defeat of Zhatain. It did not because it is not truly alive.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

I am also answering a question from many pages ago that was asking about comparing Guild Wars 2 to a television show…

The game can be like a T.V Show, very easily, but, honestly, I’d rather have less Naruto, and more Samurai Jack

Naruto is an Anime from Japan that has released a new episode every week uninterrupted, for the better part of 10 years. Some episodes and story arcs are amazing, and represent the very highest quality in what should exist in Animation and story telling in general. Others are terrible, should have never been made, and look like obvious filler content for the better stuff.
Other shows to compare this to would be Spongebob, Ben 10, and pretty much every soap opra ever shown on network television.

Samurai Jack when it was still being made, put out way less episodes every year than Naruto and other cartoons ever did. Each season ran for 13 episodes, that aired once a week uninterrupted for about 4 months. Then it was 8 months before we saw a new episode. You would think that because Samurai jack put out 1/4th the content of those other shows, it wasn’t as good? You would be wrong! Because the story writers and animators have had much longer to work on it, almost every episode that aired represented the pinnacle of what can be achieved in Cartoon animations and story telling.
Other shows to compare to this would be Legend of Korra, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, the Sporanos, and most other shows that you see on primetime television, in the timeslots that get the most viewers.

Guild Wars 2, currently, is More like ‘Naruto’ or ‘One life to Live’… You have been pushing out content regularly since last year, and while some of it is amazing, and represents the very best that you can hope to see in Video Games and Story telling today, other releases leave much to be desired. Some releases have much more content than others, and some have much higher quality content than others.

I would have to say that the Southsun releases are the low points. last year’s Halloween, Wintersday, and Bazaar of the Four Winds/Cutthroat Politics are the high points. Everything else fell in the middle.

What you should be aiming for, is to make every release, everything possible that you make for the game, to be Top quality. That also means giving yourself enough time to test the new releases until there are no bugs, so you don’t run into the issues that we had during the Queen’s Jubilee release.

If Releasing the very highest quality content 100% of the time means transitioning away from a bi-weekly release, and moving to a monthly, or even bi-monthly/seasonal release (Yearly festivals excepted), Then please do it! Even if I see no new content at all from July-December except for the yearly festivals, because all the new releases and story telling is getting showed to us from January-June, I would take it!!! Because I know that you put the same amount of effort in those 6 months as you normally would for a whole year of living world releases, and that would make all the content you release much better all around.

I don’t want everything at once like in an Expansion, but I also don’t want it trickled to me so slowly that I lose interest. You should also realize that Quanti(t)y Does not equal Quality! Your current release schedule is releasing new content at the pace you desire, but not at the Quality we, as gamers want, or deserve.

Atlas.9704:

BobbyStein.2315:

So you’d like the game to react to you on a more personal level, such that people, places, etc. respond differently depending on your accomplishments, decisions, and so on?

Yes, very much so! I’d love for things that I chose in character creation to matter in the game world. Things like charm/ferocity/dignity/gods(spirits) chosen/etc.

Yeah, not sure why there’s even a question here. Having the world and the characters within it actually react to our characters (and, where possible, with goings on in the world as well) should be obvious. In fact, I would say that would be one of the absolute requirements to calling something a Living World/Story.

Theftwind.8976:

Many years ago I was involved in a game that had what I would term a truly living world. If a bridge needed to be built to get from point A to point B, the community would have to band together, gather the resources and use their skills to build that bridge. After that point in time that bridge became a permanent fixture in the world. Although the game had its own flaws the “living” aspect of it was awesome. We built communities from the ground up, we built bridges and mines, all of which had functionality after the fact.

What you are calling “living” in this game is not the same. There is nothing that will permanently change and once the event is over what remains behind becomes mere “clutter” and nothing that truly adds either functionality or usefulness to the game. We get recipes that require certain “drops” from the “living world” and once the event is over they become once again, clutter, this time in your vault and if you require those items you have to go hunt down that remaining “clutter” to get them.

For example, the Scarlet thing. Now we get a pop up on our screen telling us where an attack is taking place but if the story were truly “alive” we would have defeated Scarlet and moved on. However with the current design you have to leave “bits and pieces” around to satisfy the requirements for the recipes. So to satisfy the requirements for a recipe you have to go out and “grind” for the components.

In that previous game once that bridge was built, it was complete. You did not have to go back and rebuild it, new people to the game would miss that part of the content but there was always something else to be done that would build the world.

The problem with the current design of the “living world” is that you have far too much in the game, be it armor recipes or weapons or what have you that depends on the content from one installment of the living world. Looking forward, after a year or so of these types of releases, you are going to end up with a whole lot of disconnected pieces and yet nothing in the world will actually change.

If the world was truly alive then Orr for example, would have seen a drastic change after the defeat of Zhatain. It did not because it is not truly alive.

So do you have a solution? When Scarlet invades and the players drive her off, maybe her resources are constrained, and when she wins she gains more troops? Then once she runs out of troops after enough success, she is defeated? What then could the draw be if the no special mats?

Also what is your solution to the item clutter issue?

Is pretty clear is not ONLY the permanent content through LS that ppl are asking for, but also the PERMANENT changes from their decisions, well hopefully the gw2 engine is supporting that (i dont know if it does) yeah this game is beautiful but i start playing it because they promised me living breathing world, something that i saw only few time so far:)

Chrispy.5641:

I am also answering a question from many pages ago that was asking about comparing Guild Wars 2 to a television show…

The game can be like a T.V Show, very easily, but, honestly, I’d rather have less Naruto, and more Samurai Jack

Naruto is an Anime from Japan that has released a new episode every week uninterrupted, for the better part of 10 years. Some episodes and story arcs are amazing, and represent the very highest quality in what should exist in Animation and story telling in general. Others are terrible, should have never been made, and look like obvious filler content for the better stuff.
Other shows to compare this to would be Spongebob, Ben 10, and pretty much every soap opra ever shown on network television.

Samurai Jack when it was still being made, put out way less episodes every year than Naruto and other cartoons ever did. Each season ran for 13 episodes, that aired once a week uninterrupted for about 4 months. Then it was 8 months before we saw a new episode. You would think that because Samurai jack put out 1/4th the content of those other shows, it wasn’t as good? You would be wrong! Because the story writers and animators have had much longer to work on it, almost every episode that aired represented the pinnacle of what can be achieved in Cartoon animations and story telling.
Other shows to compare to this would be Legend of Korra, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, the Sporanos, and most other shows that you see on primetime television, in the timeslots that get the most viewers.

Guild Wars 2, currently, is More like ‘Naruto’ or ‘One life to Live’… You have been pushing out content regularly since last year, and while some of it is amazing, and represents the very best that you can hope to see in Video Games and Story telling today, other releases leave much to be desired. Some releases have much more content than others, and some have much higher quality content than others.

I would have to say that the Southsun releases are the low points. last year’s Halloween, Wintersday, and Bazaar of the Four Winds/Cutthroat Politics are the high points. Everything else fell in the middle.

What you should be aiming for, is to make every release, everything possible that you make for the game, to be Top quality. That also means giving yourself enough time to test the new releases until there are no bugs, so you don’t run into the issues that we had during the Queen’s Jubilee release.

If Releasing the very highest quality content 100% of the time means transitioning away from a bi-weekly release, and moving to a monthly, or even bi-monthly/seasonal release (Yearly festivals excepted), Then please do it! Even if I see no new content at all from July-December except for the yearly festivals, because all the new releases and story telling is getting showed to us from January-June, I would take it!!! Because I know that you put the same amount of effort in those 6 months as you normally would for a whole year of living world releases, and that would make all the content you release much better all around.

I don’t want everything at once like in an Expansion, but I also don’t want it trickled to me so slowly that I lose interest. You should also realize that Quanti(t)y Does not equal Quality! Your current release schedule is releasing new content at the pace you desire, but not at the Quality we, as gamers want, or deserve.

That’s some secret sauce. Time is not the only, or even the major part of something (tv show, novel, game, etc) being great. Having the best writers is what makes tv shows good or bad period.

Your getting the same quantity of Guild Wars 2 content on the 2 week plan as you would get on the 12 month plan, your just getting it as it is finished instead of all at once. The quality is not suffering since they are creating it the same as they would on the 12 month schedule; working on something and then moving on to the next thing. the reason the quality isn’t there is in execution and writing. Just imagine waiting 12 months and still getting the Scarlet arc. At least this way we can have input in the process, and they can make quicker changes to improve quality.

The shorter content release schedule is better.

BobbyStein.2315:

Einlanzer.1627:

In particular, more attention needs to be given to the conundrum of the conflict that exists between the PS and LW. Reconciling those two on a conceptual level should be the top priority of this conversation, IMO. I feel like most people actually prefer the former over the latter, but regardless of which one Anet chooses to roll with, something needs to be done so that the disjoint between the two isn’t controlling the evolution of the world and the lore going forward.

This is something that we’ve been discussing extensively. We’ll share more details when we’re able.

This is immensely encouraging. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I feel like shackling the living story to events that had to have happened at a fixed point on the lore timeline will eventually cause more continuity issues than just establishing the personal story as being in the past.

This might sound kind of out there, but bringing the personal story characters and plotlines into the open world a bit might help resolve the disconnect. Then people know where to place the personal story in context. If they see, say, Malyck running around in the world, and then later choose to go back and replay their sylvari personal story because they skipped it or are on an alt, then they instantly know they’re seeing the backstory of the character. If they haven’t met him yet, it serves as an introduction.

BobbyStein.2315:

So you’d like the game to react to you on a more personal level, such that people, places, etc. respond differently depending on your accomplishments, decisions, and so on?

Very much so. Those are the kinds of improvements to the core game I’d like to see. There are a lot of systems in the game that had a great deal of potential, but were not fully realized, such as the personality system and the effect of biography choices on characters. Karma might be in that category, too. I remember talk pre-launch about how NPCs would physically respond differently to characters based on their personality, by being wary if they were ferocious or joining up with them if they had a compatible personality type. Some of the creation biography choices (such as human gods) really don’t have any effect, even in the personal story.

I would rather see smaller, more intimate stories leading up to something big than a blockbuster movie every two weeks, if that makes sense. My absolute favorite parts of the personal story are the first three arcs, where we get a huge injection of culture and lore and learn so much about the world we’re going to save. That sort of story that layers detail and depth into the world—through both mechanical changes and lore—would be amazing, with the climax of the arc being the sort of huge “big bad” update we get now.

(Edited to make what I was trying to say make some kind of cohesive sense. Oh words, you so crazy!)

Brimwald.5894:

That’s some secret sauce. Time is not the only, or even the major part of something (tv show, novel, game, etc) being great. Having the best writers is what makes tv shows good or bad period.

Your getting the same quantity of Guild Wars 2 content on the 2 week plan as you would get on the 12 month plan, your just getting it as it is finished instead of all at once. The quality is not suffering since they are creating it the same as they would on the 12 month schedule; working on something and then moving on to the next thing. the reason the quality isn’t there is in execution and writing. Just imagine waiting 12 months and still getting the Scarlet arc. At least this way we can have input in the process, and they can make quicker changes to improve quality.

The shorter content release schedule is better.

No it’s not. The shorter release schedule makes everything feel rushed and like you have no time to rest and enjoy the game in general. The content itself is rushed. Southsun is the perfect example. When it was redone Hrouda<sp> said they didn’t have time to do skins for the weapons so they used the generic crap you can buy off of any vendor anywhere in the world. He also said it was far easier to create head/shoulder/gauntles/ which is why you see a deluge of that stuff as rewards. Because the teams are cranking stuff out too fast and don’t have enough time for polish or creating full sets of armor.

Look at all the bugs on each release. Not enough time to test it all properly. A slower schedule would insure higher quality content with fewer bugs and better rewards.

The rapid release schedule has already driven half the people on my friends list from the game including some RL friends. It’s bad when you’re hemorrhaging players.

[quote=3170957;ColinJohanson.2394:

What rewards would you like to see from rewards? Would they be different when you’re leveling up than when you’re level 80? What would motivate you to want to go around the world playing as many different events as possible, rather than the same 4-5 over and over again?

Some of the fun challenges we are currently solving, but it’s great to hear peoples thoughts on this subject as well.
[/quote]

Create daily achievements to play n events around a certain theme in a certain map, e.g. “Complete 5 events in Harathi Hinterlands to help Seraph fight against Centaurs”. Reward 1 AP

This can lead players to the beautiful little stories which are told in the different maps. You can even select the daily events so that the character can complete events in maps where he/she has done the least exploring, yet.

ColinJohanson.2394:

What rewards would you like to see from rewards? Would they be different when you’re leveling up than when you’re level 80? What would motivate you to want to go around the world playing as many different events as possible, rather than the same 4-5 over and over again?

Some of the fun challenges we are currently solving, but it’s great to hear peoples thoughts on this subject as well.

I would like to see more diversity, i mean doing a dungeon and from all the chests taking the same low lvl masterwork sword is just bad, and my engineer doesnt even use sword. Ive been in situations were i was in a dungeon i did the story, path 1 and path 2 (it was CoF) all one after the other and i just got useless FINE and masterwork gear my MF was 80% plus the food i used that gives me another 30% = 110%, it was the moment i stopped dungeons and i start doing only fractals… Also i think you should add more skins and the ability to acquire them easier from dungeons… Thanks for your time you spend reading this:)

BobbyStein.2315:

Fozzik.1742:

You went from a system with branches, success/failure states, localized stories and depth, and noticeable effects (even if temporary) on the surrounding areas that were somewhat controllable by the actions of players…to a system where you add 1-off semi-random events that have no story and just pop and disappear in the same fixed locations (sounds like Rift, instead of GW2).

Things happening by the direction of the developers (like plopping a big ugly tower in one of the prettiest areas of the game, having us run a dungeon, then making it disappear) is not the same as allowing things to change based on player interaction with the story/world. It just feels forced and artificial. We know each living story release is predetermined and the story just plays out. The TV analogy may be a little too apt…we’re watching stories now instead of taking part in them and to some extent directing their outcome.

I really loved the way the stories played out around you with certain DE chains, especially in some of the early maps. I loved the way a player could see different outcomes and discover new story through their actions. I like the story instances included with some living story releases…the ones that actually have the story play out through actions and dialogue and involve the player…but again, it’s no longer in any way alterable by ME. Also, those story instances are seemingly a very small part of the recent releases. Most of what we get is the other stuff…the random event spawns and loot farms we run around in a circle.

I would not mind at all if the pace of releases slowed, and we saw the original promise of GW2 better realized through expansion of the DE system and the explorable world…more maps with hearts, DEs, vistas, jumping puzzles, the whole fairy tale. More branches and story and depth to existing DEs… and a system to track DEs and their completion so we can experience it all. Give us reasons to wander and explore and take our time…to experience the story at our own pace, not some arbitrary schedule.

Continue our personal story… bring back a character or two thought dead. Let us push on to new challenges. Give us some continuity that feels personal and keeps us going.

So you’d like the game to react to you on a more personal level, such that people, places, etc. respond differently depending on your accomplishments, decisions, and so on?

Pretty much. This guy nailed it. You sold us the game based on the core concept of dynamic events and branches. This is not present in the current
Iving story

ColinJohanson.2394:

Xae Isareth.1364:

I think where the failure is lies in the rewards. You don’t get nowhere near enough rewards for doing DEs compared to other things, because karma is not very useful. Also, doing something extremely short and simple like killing a champion gives the same if not more rewards than a long DE like escorting someone, so no one does the escorts.

We agree, this is something we’ve been discussing a lot lately and working on some various answers for, but I’m curious:

What rewards would you like to see from rewards? Would they be different when you’re leveling up than when you’re level 80? What would motivate you to want to go around the world playing as many different events as possible, rather than the same 4-5 over and over again?

Some of the fun challenges we are currently solving, but it’s great to hear peoples thoughts on this subject as well.

At first I didn’t want to post my take directly in this thread. Despite the inclusion of DEs in the discussion it seemed like another topic altogether, but the thread has evolved a fair bit in this direction, and I’ll simply link my contribution to avoid duplicating it here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Design-your-own-Living-Event/first

It may be a little lengthy for a basic concept, but I think it could bring life to the world.

The bottom part in particular outlines what could be a good reward system for events.

Edit
I should say this addresses, in part, both some of the Living World concerns, as well as the dynamic events and associated reward concerns. Making all these more intertwined, especially in regards to the permanent content, should be a definite consideration.

Imaginos.3756:

Brimwald.5894:

That’s some secret sauce. Time is not the only, or even the major part of something (tv show, novel, game, etc) being great. Having the best writers is what makes tv shows good or bad period.

Your getting the same quantity of Guild Wars 2 content on the 2 week plan as you would get on the 12 month plan, your just getting it as it is finished instead of all at once. The quality is not suffering since they are creating it the same as they would on the 12 month schedule; working on something and then moving on to the next thing. the reason the quality isn’t there is in execution and writing. Just imagine waiting 12 months and still getting the Scarlet arc. At least this way we can have input in the process, and they can make quicker changes to improve quality.

The shorter content release schedule is better.

No it’s not. The shorter release schedule makes everything feel rushed and like you have no time to rest and enjoy the game in general. The content itself is rushed. Southsun is the perfect example. When it was redone Hrouda<sp> said they didn’t have time to do skins for the weapons so they used the generic crap you can buy off of any vendor anywhere in the world. He also said it was far easier to create head/shoulder/gauntles/ which is why you see a deluge of that stuff as rewards. Because the teams are cranking stuff out too fast and don’t have enough time for polish or creating full sets of armor.

Look at all the bugs on each release. Not enough time to test it all properly. A slower schedule would insure higher quality content with fewer bugs and better rewards.

The rapid release schedule has already driven half the people on my friends list from the game including some RL friends. It’s bad when you’re hemorrhaging players.

Time Is the secret sauce that makes our favorite TV shows great. Having Good writers and people working on the shows are good and all, but rushing something is still rushing something. And seriously, if the Queen’s Gauntlet had those same bugs, whether the team had 4 months or a whole year to work on it, then there is something very, very wrong.

Look at it another way….In fact, we will. Lets use food as an example… My Dad is an executive Chef in charge of a High end restaurant. One of his best menu items, are the ribs. You can’t just throw BBQ sauce on a rack of ribs, throw it in the oven for twenty minutes and call it a day. You have to take your time preparing those things. You have to put the sauce on the ribs in a way that doesn’t overpower the flavor of the meat. You have to be careful that when you smoke them, you use a certain of wood, so the flavor of the wood gets cooked into the meat. You can just use coal, or it will taste bad. And you can’t just turn the temperature up, and cook those things in 20 minutes. It takes several hours of love and attention to make those things as perfect as they can be. The amount of time you spend cooking the Ribs can mean the difference between something that tastes good, and something that tastes extraordinary.

Videogames are the same way. You can’t just spend a week on something and call it done. You have to take your time. You have to make sure the code is correct. You have to make sure that the cosmetic armors and weapons that go into the game match with the story and is the sauce that people want with their video games. The story has to make sense. But above all, that stuff takes time, and if you rush it, there will be very obvious bugs and graphical errors, plot holes, basically stuff that can make a game go from something people want to play, to something that sucks. The Amount of time you spend making a video game can mean the difference between something that is just good, and something that is extraordinary.

….and now I’m hungry for ribs….

Immensus.9732:

ColinJohanson.2394:

What rewards would you like to see from rewards? Would they be different when you’re leveling up than when you’re level 80? What would motivate you to want to go around the world playing as many different events as possible, rather than the same 4-5 over and over again?

Some of the fun challenges we are currently solving, but it’s great to hear peoples thoughts on this subject as well.

I would like to see more diversity, i mean doing a dungeon and from all the chests taking the same low lvl masterwork sword is just bad, and my engineer doesnt even use sword. Ive been in situations were i was in a dungeon i did the story, path 1 and path 2 (it was CoF) all one after the other and i just got useless FINE and masterwork gear my MF was 80% plus the food i used that gives me another 30% = 110%, it was the moment i stopped dungeons and i start doing only fractals… Also i think you should add more skins and the ability to acquire them easier from dungeons… Thanks for your time you spend reading this:)

I would also like to add something for PvP, the problem for PvP exept the bad class balance and the game modes is also that you take no rewards for PvE and WvW, other games use PvP even for leveling and it works pretty well, personally i like PvP in Gw2 a lot but i always playing about 15 mins and after that im getting bored simply because i know that is waste of time and the only thing that i will take from it that i can use for WvW and PvE is a finisher…

Thinking about it for a bit, here’s an idea I had to get a concept I mentioned earlier across. I’ll have to bring it up in several parts, mind you.

CRYSTALLIZED ICE

The wars against the Elder Dragons are increasing, with their forces pushing harder than ever. Branded from the Crystal Desert are pouring out into the Fields of Ruin, threatening Ebonhawke with deadly creatures such as Branded Hydra and Branded Wurms. Even the stalwart old ascalonians need help pushing back the forces of the Crystal Dragon. But that is not all… Icebrood of Jormag have pushed into Frostgorge Sound with surprising force, threatening the hardiest Norn and some of the last ice ships of the Kodan. Both sides need help in this war, but there isn’t enough to push back everyone. Who will you save from destruction?

What Players See:
The regions mentioned will get increased numbers of the related forces, with the areas mentioned even getting specialized events to defend it from the invasions. (Events to defend Ebonhawke from the Branded, or the Kodan Iceships like Blue Ice Shining from the Icebrood). There may also be specialized vendors, who will give items like special weapon skins in exchange for war supplies.

What Players Don’t See:
Behind the scenes, something keeps track of what the players do. Perhaps which side gets more events completed, or which side gets more war supplies is donated to them. The players will not know who has more, or even that such numbers are being tracked. Why is this important?

What Happens After:
Because the side that gets less will be decimated. If the Fields of Ruin gets less support, Ebonhawke and the regions around it will be destroyed, or overrun with Branded. If Frostgorge Sound gets less support, the last Ice Ships of the Kodan will get decimated, or even destroyed by Icebrood. But that’s not all.
The side that gets more will have succeeded so well, that those within that area may even be able to push back, opening a new region to the North of Frostgorge, or pushing into the Crystal Desert, starting a steady progress towards the next of the Elder Dragons.

Through this, you give the players choice over what they can see next. Players see the results of their actions and their impact in the world. And they will feel harder the effects of what they do, with the potential loss of major areas.

And it all happens naturally. Instead of a clicked vote.

What I really want to know is how does the thought process for creating content flow.

I mean, what led you guys to create Scarlet as the main antagonist golf the game despite the game’s main plot is about the Elder Dragons, and that there’s already been a lot if concept art drawn for them?

Chessrook.8643:

Thinking about it for a bit, here’s an idea I had to get a concept I mentioned earlier across. I’ll have to bring it up in several parts, mind you.

CRYSTALLIZED ICE

The wars against the Elder Dragons are increasing, with their forces pushing harder than ever. Branded from the Crystal Desert are pouring out into the Fields of Ruin, threatening Ebonhawke with deadly creatures such as Branded Hydra and Branded Wurms. Even the stalwart old ascalonians need help pushing back the forces of the Crystal Dragon. But that is not all… Icebrood of Jormag have pushed into Frostgorge Sound with surprising force, threatening the hardiest Norn and some of the last ice ships of the Kodan. Both sides need help in this war, but there isn’t enough to push back everyone. Who will you save from destruction?

What Players See:
The regions mentioned will get increased numbers of the related forces, with the areas mentioned even getting specialized events to defend it from the invasions. (Events to defend Ebonhawke from the Branded, or the Kodan Iceships like Blue Ice Shining from the Icebrood). There may also be specialized vendors, who will give items like special weapon skins in exchange for war supplies.

What Players Don’t See:
Behind the scenes, something keeps track of what the players do. Perhaps which side gets more events completed, or which side gets more war supplies is donated to them. The players will not know who has more, or even that such numbers are being tracked. Why is this important?

What Happens After:
Because the side that gets less will be decimated. If the Fields of Ruin gets less support, Ebonhawke and the regions around it will be destroyed, or overrun with Branded. If Frostgorge Sound gets less support, the last Ice Ships of the Kodan will get decimated, or even destroyed by Icebrood. But that’s not all.
The side that gets more will have succeeded so well, that those within that area may even be able to push back, opening a new region to the North of Frostgorge, or pushing into the Crystal Desert, starting a steady progress towards the next of the Elder Dragons.

Through this, you give the players choice over what they can see next. Players see the results of their actions and their impact in the world. And they will feel harder the effects of what they do, with the potential loss of major areas.

And it all happens naturally. Instead of a clicked vote.

I think something like this has the potential to make players very upset. Because one side will always lose out, it would feel really arbitrary to help Ebonhawk, for example, and put a lot of work into saving it, and then see it destroyed anyway just because more people wanted to play in Frostgorge. I think that was one of the things that made tempers run high during the voting, because we weren’t just voting for one side to win, but also for the other to fail.

While addning new mechanics is nice, I highly despise of non removeable, periodically damaging, long lasting debuffs. While leveling my thief I often times ran into mobs with this defiled debuff (don’T know the english naem sorry). Getting hit by them only 1 time meant that i would lose ~50% of my hp over the next 10 seconds with pretty much no chance to prepare for that situation (unlike conditions which i could remove by changing some stuff around).
Overall this kind of mechanic resulted in me completly ignoring these events after some really stupid deaths, due to “OP” dots.

I liked the variety of the events, I also liked to not see any “3sec invulnerable” mob, but blocking mobs instead.

Imaginos.3756:

Brimwald.5894:

That’s some secret sauce. Time is not the only, or even the major part of something (tv show, novel, game, etc) being great. Having the best writers is what makes tv shows good or bad period.

Your getting the same quantity of Guild Wars 2 content on the 2 week plan as you would get on the 12 month plan, your just getting it as it is finished instead of all at once. The quality is not suffering since they are creating it the same as they would on the 12 month schedule; working on something and then moving on to the next thing. the reason the quality isn’t there is in execution and writing. Just imagine waiting 12 months and still getting the Scarlet arc. At least this way we can have input in the process, and they can make quicker changes to improve quality.

The shorter content release schedule is better.

No it’s not. The shorter release schedule makes everything feel rushed and like you have no time to rest and enjoy the game in general. The content itself is rushed. Southsun is the perfect example. When it was redone Hrouda<sp> said they didn’t have time to do skins for the weapons so they used the generic crap you can buy off of any vendor anywhere in the world. He also said it was far easier to create head/shoulder/gauntles/ which is why you see a deluge of that stuff as rewards. Because the teams are cranking stuff out too fast and don’t have enough time for polish or creating full sets of armor.

Look at all the bugs on each release. Not enough time to test it all properly. A slower schedule would insure higher quality content with fewer bugs and better rewards.

The rapid release schedule has already driven half the people on my friends list from the game including some RL friends. It’s bad when you’re hemorrhaging players.

I wasn’t talking about how long the living story lasts (2 weeks), I was talking about them releasing new content every 2 weeks, big difference.

As to Southsun, that was their first living story update ever, so you can’t judge the quality of new weapons/armor on it and ignore all the amazingly high quality skins they release with each new update. Southsun was nearly 1 year ago, but there have been an unprecedented amount of updates since.

I haven’t had any gamebreaking bug problems, but if the bugs are such a huge issue, then that could easily be solved with a public test server.

So you’re really telling me that if your friends did not have a content update at all in the last 12 months, they would have played more during the last 12 months? More likely, they would have quit sooner, then when the big patch hit would they love the Scarlet update? Of course not. But with this method we can help change the direction of the content if we don’t like it.

Now, if the content continues to improve in quality (and it has, as you pointed out from Southsun), and they shift away from Scarlet and toward the dragons while implementing just some of the great ideas in this thread, then this will change the MMO genre.

P.S. this a free content, unlike sub games were they charge $180 a year, the cost of the game ($60), and usually a $40 expansion.

Chrispy.5641:

Imaginos.3756:

Brimwald.5894:

That’s some secret sauce. Time is not the only, or even the major part of something (tv show, novel, game, etc) being great. Having the best writers is what makes tv shows good or bad period.

Your getting the same quantity of Guild Wars 2 content on the 2 week plan as you would get on the 12 month plan, your just getting it as it is finished instead of all at once. The quality is not suffering since they are creating it the same as they would on the 12 month schedule; working on something and then moving on to the next thing. the reason the quality isn’t there is in execution and writing. Just imagine waiting 12 months and still getting the Scarlet arc. At least this way we can have input in the process, and they can make quicker changes to improve quality.

The shorter content release schedule is better.

No it’s not. The shorter release schedule makes everything feel rushed and like you have no time to rest and enjoy the game in general. The content itself is rushed. Southsun is the perfect example. When it was redone Hrouda<sp> said they didn’t have time to do skins for the weapons so they used the generic crap you can buy off of any vendor anywhere in the world. He also said it was far easier to create head/shoulder/gauntles/ which is why you see a deluge of that stuff as rewards. Because the teams are cranking stuff out too fast and don’t have enough time for polish or creating full sets of armor.

Look at all the bugs on each release. Not enough time to test it all properly. A slower schedule would insure higher quality content with fewer bugs and better rewards.

The rapid release schedule has already driven half the people on my friends list from the game including some RL friends. It’s bad when you’re hemorrhaging players.

Time Is the secret sauce that makes our favorite TV shows great. Having Good writers and people working on the shows are good and all, but rushing something is still rushing something. And seriously, if the Queen’s Gauntlet had those same bugs, whether the team had 4 months or a whole year to work on it, then there is something very, very wrong.

Look at it another way….In fact, we will. Lets use food as an example… My Dad is an executive Chef in charge of a High end restaurant. One of his best menu items, are the ribs. You can’t just throw BBQ sauce on a rack of ribs, throw it in the oven for twenty minutes and call it a day. You have to take your time preparing those things. You have to put the sauce on the ribs in a way that doesn’t overpower the flavor of the meat. You have to be careful that when you smoke them, you use a certain of wood, so the flavor of the wood gets cooked into the meat. You can just use coal, or it will taste bad. And you can’t just turn the temperature up, and cook those things in 20 minutes. It takes several hours of love and attention to make those things as perfect as they can be. The amount of time you spend cooking the Ribs can mean the difference between something that tastes good, and something that tastes extraordinary.

Videogames are the same way. You can’t just spend a week on something and call it done. You have to take your time. You have to make sure the code is correct. You have to make sure that the cosmetic armors and weapons that go into the game match with the story and is the sauce that people want with their video games. The story has to make sense. But above all, that stuff takes time, and if you rush it, there will be very obvious bugs and graphical errors, plot holes, basically stuff that can make a game go from something people want to play, to something that sucks. The Amount of time you spend making a video game can mean the difference between something that is just good, and something that is extraordinary.

….and now I’m hungry for ribs….

Simple solution to the bug issue is a public test server.

They don’t spend a week working on the content. Bobby Stein already confirmed in an earlier post that they create these things some 4 months beforehand (how’s that for marinating?).

I wish you would have used a different example; my mouth is watering now.

Bonefield.9813:

Chessrook.8643:

Thinking about it for a bit, here’s an idea I had to get a concept I mentioned earlier across. I’ll have to bring it up in several parts, mind you.

CRYSTALLIZED ICE

The wars against the Elder Dragons are increasing, with their forces pushing harder than ever. Branded from the Crystal Desert are pouring out into the Fields of Ruin, threatening Ebonhawke with deadly creatures such as Branded Hydra and Branded Wurms. Even the stalwart old ascalonians need help pushing back the forces of the Crystal Dragon. But that is not all… Icebrood of Jormag have pushed into Frostgorge Sound with surprising force, threatening the hardiest Norn and some of the last ice ships of the Kodan. Both sides need help in this war, but there isn’t enough to push back everyone. Who will you save from destruction?

What Players See:
The regions mentioned will get increased numbers of the related forces, with the areas mentioned even getting specialized events to defend it from the invasions. (Events to defend Ebonhawke from the Branded, or the Kodan Iceships like Blue Ice Shining from the Icebrood). There may also be specialized vendors, who will give items like special weapon skins in exchange for war supplies.

What Players Don’t See:
Behind the scenes, something keeps track of what the players do. Perhaps which side gets more events completed, or which side gets more war supplies is donated to them. The players will not know who has more, or even that such numbers are being tracked. Why is this important?

What Happens After:
Because the side that gets less will be decimated. If the Fields of Ruin gets less support, Ebonhawke and the regions around it will be destroyed, or overrun with Branded. If Frostgorge Sound gets less support, the last Ice Ships of the Kodan will get decimated, or even destroyed by Icebrood. But that’s not all.
The side that gets more will have succeeded so well, that those within that area may even be able to push back, opening a new region to the North of Frostgorge, or pushing into the Crystal Desert, starting a steady progress towards the next of the Elder Dragons.

Through this, you give the players choice over what they can see next. Players see the results of their actions and their impact in the world. And they will feel harder the effects of what they do, with the potential loss of major areas.

And it all happens naturally. Instead of a clicked vote.

I think something like this has the potential to make players very upset. Because one side will always lose out, it would feel really arbitrary to help Ebonhawk, for example, and put a lot of work into saving it, and then see it destroyed anyway just because more people wanted to play in Frostgorge. I think that was one of the things that made tempers run high during the voting, because we weren’t just voting for one side to win, but also for the other to fail.

Oh I know about that, but that’s why they wouldn’t even SAY that one side had the chance to fail. Nobody would know until after it ends, and the results are seen. It also shows much more of an impact in the world and the story than the more direct and linear way it has been going. Say what you will about the tempers and raging during the voting, I liked how we had two directions it could go, and how there was a chance for it to fail. It was even engaging in its own way, knowing there was something actually on the line for once.

Brimwald.5894:

Imaginos.3756:

Brimwald.5894:

That’s some secret sauce. Time is not the only, or even the major part of something (tv show, novel, game, etc) being great. Having the best writers is what makes tv shows good or bad period.

Your getting the same quantity of Guild Wars 2 content on the 2 week plan as you would get on the 12 month plan, your just getting it as it is finished instead of all at once. The quality is not suffering since they are creating it the same as they would on the 12 month schedule; working on something and then moving on to the next thing. the reason the quality isn’t there is in execution and writing. Just imagine waiting 12 months and still getting the Scarlet arc. At least this way we can have input in the process, and they can make quicker changes to improve quality.

The shorter content release schedule is better.

No it’s not. The shorter release schedule makes everything feel rushed and like you have no time to rest and enjoy the game in general. The content itself is rushed. Southsun is the perfect example. When it was redone Hrouda<sp> said they didn’t have time to do skins for the weapons so they used the generic crap you can buy off of any vendor anywhere in the world. He also said it was far easier to create head/shoulder/gauntles/ which is why you see a deluge of that stuff as rewards. Because the teams are cranking stuff out too fast and don’t have enough time for polish or creating full sets of armor.

Look at all the bugs on each release. Not enough time to test it all properly. A slower schedule would insure higher quality content with fewer bugs and better rewards.

The rapid release schedule has already driven half the people on my friends list from the game including some RL friends. It’s bad when you’re hemorrhaging players.

I wasn’t talking about how long the living story lasts (2 weeks), I was talking about them releasing new content every 2 weeks, big difference.

As to Southsun, that was their first living story update ever, so you can’t judge the quality of new weapons/armor on it and ignore all the amazingly high quality skins they release with each new update. Southsun was nearly 1 year ago, but there have been an unprecedented amount of updates since.

I haven’t had any gamebreaking bug problems, but if the bugs are such a huge issue, then that could easily be solved with a public test server.

So you’re really telling me that if your friends did not have a content update at all in the last 12 months, they would have played more during the last 12 months? More likely, they would have quit sooner, then when the big patch hit would they love the Scarlet update? Of course not. But with this method we can help change the direction of the content if we don’t like it.

Now, if the content continues to improve in quality (and it has, as you pointed out from Southsun), and they shift away from Scarlet and toward the dragons while implementing just some of the great ideas in this thread, then this will change the MMO genre.

P.S. this a free content, unlike sub games were they charge $180 a year, the cost of the game ($60), and usually a $40 expansion.

I was talking about the second southsun release with canache and the crazed animals. That was done by Robert Hrouda <sp> and crew. I was also referring to the rapid release not how long they stay in world.

Yep my friends would have continued playing if they didn’t feel rushed/forced to do content or “miss something” that was 1 time only, which most of the living story content has been. Also not getting a breather between the rapid releases. Plenty of people have complained about that on the forums and mentioned people leaving the game due to that.

No one said squat about prices and that is moot in this discussion.

You really jumped to some odd conclusions/assumptions there. :/

Northlander.4619:

What I would like to see

Basically: focus on persistent changes to zones and make it worth to go there other than for farming champions. Make things exclusive. If something can be gotten easier from somewhere else that’s where players go. Below is an example of what I mean:

Thematic area: Maguuma Jungle
Thematic meta event: Rise of Tequatl the sunless
Thematic merchants: asura, sylvari
Buildup zones: Caledon Forest, Metria Province, Brisban Wildlands, Sparkfly Fen, Mount Maelstrom
Event monitor: Tool that shows how near completion the meta event is

Doing events in maguuma area reward player karma, gold, and deadly bloom(s) or knowledge crystal(s). Each area has a merchant which sells asura or sylvari themed gear, minipets, thematic items, crafting components…
/snip

This is EXACTLY it. The story ends up tied to the zone, players are focused, the rewards aren’t just more gold. I can’t express my own ideas more clearly.

Brimwald.5894:

Simple solution to the bug issue is a public test server.

They don’t spend a week working on the content. Bobby Stein already confirmed in an earlier post that they create these things some 4 months beforehand (how’s that for marinating?).

No —he said it takes 4 months from conceiving a design idea to implementing that idea in a new patch. It is a process that includes: discussing our feedback, forming new design ideas based on their conclusions, creating the computer code and 3D models for those designs, editing them into the game’s code, and finally releasing them in-game.