Guild Wars 2

The bazaar is another story I plan on skipping.
It would be nice to have the quartz node in my Home, but I am not in the mood to go jumping about.
If I run into something that has to do with the Bazaar I will do it, but I am not going to go out of my way to do so.
I am not a JPer, dungeon runner, or PvPer.
Now I also skipped Southsun Cove which did not have these elements either.

Is it the way the stories are being written? Maybe.

I have been a comic book reader since I was 8. That is 40 something years now. Writing in comic books went in cycles. Some series were good some died at the gate. Some went years with exciting content then suddenly the content bit the big one.

One thing that is not only true in comic books but in TV as well. You don’t see the same writers over and over again. especially in dramas. The writers burnout.

I really feel that Arenanet needs to expand their writing pool. Those that helped make this game were people that are use to working on storyline over a long period of time.

A good example is Ree and her now book. That is a time consuming en devour and I commend her on it, but that style of writing does not work on the scale Anet has now headed down.

When they decided to do this they should have placed a job opening for staff writers. They have 29 jobs listed as I write this and none are writers. A lot of artist but no writers.

I think they need to address this one quickly.

It sounds like you have skipped a lot of story. How do you know that the writing is not very good?

You are aware that there is a different team writing the Living Story arcs, yes? Not Ree and Jeff….

If you play an MMO expecting to play because of the story, you are going to be massively disappointed every single time.

The calling card of MMO’s is not the story. It’s gameplay.

Jemmi.6058:

It sounds like you have skipped a lot of story. How do you know that the writing is not very good?

Oh you can skim over content all know that. You can see and feel the quality

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You are aware that there is a different team writing the Living Story arcs, yes? Not Ree and Jeff….

Yes.

Vol.5241:

If you play an MMO expecting to play because of the story, you are going to be massively disappointed every single time.

The calling card of MMO’s is not the story. It’s gameplay.

That is true on average, but GW2 is not average and more story centric the the average MMO

Krosslite.1950:

Jemmi.6058:

It sounds like you have skipped a lot of story. How do you know that the writing is not very good?

Oh you can skim over content all know that. You can see and feel the quality

I see. Well I feel you are judging it unfairly, by not giving it your full attention. That said, I agree that the writing could be improved.

My main problem is less about the quality or direction of the story, but more how it is revealed. Issues are:

1. Small bits spaced out slowly. It takes awhile for me to get in to a story, so every time a new story arc comes along, I’ve already got ‘out of it’. This is obviously more of a personal thing. It’s similar to the feeling of watching a show every week, or watching it back to back on DVD. I find the stories are much more enjoyable back to back.

2. Too many hidden bits. Again, this is a personal taste sort of thing, but I prefer my story to be upfront and I experience it. I don’t really enjoy looking for the story, I want to ride along side it. This was more of an issue with the Southsun Cove story and less so with Dragon Bash, Sky Pirates and Bazaar of the Four Winds.

Jemmi.6058:

Krosslite.1950:

Jemmi.6058:

It sounds like you have skipped a lot of story. How do you know that the writing is not very good?

Oh you can skim over content all know that. You can see and feel the quality

I see. Well I feel you are judging it unfairly, by not giving it your full attention. That said, I agree that the writing could be improved.

My main problem is less about the quality or direction of the story, but more how it is revealed. Issues are:

1. Small bits spaced out slowly. It takes awhile for me to get in to a story, so every time a new story arc comes along, I’ve already got ‘out of it’. This is obviously more of a personal thing. It’s similar to the feeling of watching a show every week, or watching it back to back on DVD. I find the stories are much more enjoyable back to back.

2. Too many hidden bits. Again, this is a personal taste sort of thing, but I prefer my story to be upfront and I experience it. I don’t really enjoy looking for the story, I want to ride along side it. This was more of an issue with the Southsun Cove story and less so with Dragon Bash, Sky Pirates and Bazaar of the Four Winds.

Oh I totally understand your points and agree. that is why I feel a deadicated writing staff is important.
No one but Anet knows how they have it setup but from want I have observed over the years is when you have a series format you have a pool of writers that round table.
Now I know to a degree Anet did that in the past, but that feeling Iis lacking now

I most likely will skip this content as well. It looks like great fun if you enjoy platformers and I’m sure it will be rewarding for those who do. It looks beautiful art-wise.

Telling a story is difficult in an MMO. My experience of the MMO has never really been story based, but I do believe it’s possible. I was listening to one commentator yesterday who, essentially, was advocating for expansions as they seemed a more sure way of having some story intact as opposed to the story arcs we’ve seen so far. But, his issue was not so much that story could not be delivered in an evolving world, but that he didn’t feel assured that Anet could pull it off.

I actually would prefer that the living world evolve naturally as opposed to through the cataclysm (pun intended) that is the expansion. I believe it can be done and that it would provide a more natural progression in a game. I’m not inclined to write off Anet’s ability to do it. And, I wouldn’t lay all the blame at the writer’s door as it has more to do with how evolution has been conceived overall to-date and that would happen farther up the food chain. Some recent posts by Colin are hopeful in describing longer development cycles that will bring more life to the living world and that is hopeful.

There have been a lot of posts about story and temporary content lately. From Anet’s responses I’d say they are listening.

I agree that writing could have been better.

We’ve already seen what happens without a decent writer (in Diablo 3).

I don’t know why Anet thinks JPs are the holy grail of any new content or continuing story. As soon as I hear jumping is involved I move on to something else.

Raine.1394:

I most likely will skip this content as well. It looks like great fun if you enjoy platformers and I’m sure it will be rewarding for those who do. It looks beautiful art-wise.

Telling a story is difficult in an MMO. My experience of the MMO has never really been story based, but I do believe it’s possible. I was listening to one commentator yesterday who, essentially, was advocating for expansions as they seemed a more sure way of having some story intact as opposed to the story arcs we’ve seen so far. But, his issue was not so much that story could not be delivered in an evolving world, but that he didn’t feel assured that Anet could pull it off.

I actually would prefer that the living world evolve naturally as opposed to through the cataclysm (pun intended) that is the expansion. I believe it can be done and that it would provide a more natural progression in a game. I’m not inclined to write off Anet’s ability to do it. And, I wouldn’t lay all the blame at the writer’s door as it has more to do with how evolution has been conceived overall to-date and that would happen farther up the food chain. Some recent posts by Colin are hopeful in describing longer development cycles that will bring more life to the living world and that is hopeful.

There have been a lot of posts about story and temporary content lately. From Anet’s responses I’d say they are listening.

I agree evolution over cataclysm is a better way and in line with Anet model but if you are going to give us stories then make them where you wish to get involved with like the personal stories did to a degree