Do any of the developers read books?
Just out of curiosity do you mean the book Game of Thrones on it’s own, or the entire Song of Ice and Fire series? Because if it’s the second one that’s really not a great example of something you can read without interruption, since people are constantly complaining that the author spends too long writing each book and they get sick of waiting.
Anyway, back on topic I have 2 thoughts on this. Firstly I love reading too, I’m always working my way through some book or other, but unlike you I actually like to have breaks in between so I can process what I’ve read so far before carrying on.
Admittedly it’s not something I do deliberately, I’m slightly dyslexic so I read quite slowly so the only way I could read a whole novel in one go is if I did literally nothing else for a few days. But I’ve found I take in the story much better, and get more invested in it when I have time in between sections to think about what I’ve read so far, what I think is going to happen next and what my current feelings on the characters are.
But secondly I don’t see GW2 as having this distinct separation between the story and the open-world. They tie into each other and if you take the time to explore, as in talk to the NPCs, complete events and listen to the dialogue before, during and after and pay attention to your surroundings you get a lot of detail and background that then feeds into the storyline.
Seeing how other NPCs react to the Pale Reavers during their event chain in Verdant Brink for example, or speaking to the NPCs in Fort Trinity while doing the storylines set there (you can actually find out all about what happened in the instances you didn’t do this way, the Greatest Fear arc in particular).
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
Learning to get through the new environment is part of the story. The open world events are all part of the story also. The story is not limited to the personal journal only.
Maybe, like many people, they watch TV. And, although now one can wait and save up all episodes to watch at once, they get their dose of story once per week.
There are many ways to experience stories. /shrug
I like making up my own story as I play better anyway. What even determines if a story is good or not is entirely subjective whereas what determines a good MMO is most of all balanced PvP and a good economy. Problems in these areas need to be given highest priority.
I love reading. I read constantly and in many different media. When I start reading, I like to do the story from beginning to end.
Pre-HoT I would level my characters to 80 via WvW and Crafting and most recently via Tomes of Knowledge so I could do personal stories from beginning to end uninterrupted.
When I read Game of Thrones, I did not have to ever stop reading to go learn about combat, or swords, or assassins. I did not have to stop to do anything else if I did not want to. There was no gating mechanism in place and I could enjoy my story as I saw fit.
In the future, please don’t include mastery gating for the main story. If you want the pve nerds to grind forever so they have the illusion of content, then find some other way so I can do my story, then get back to my WvW.
This is not how you do proper story telling.
Just under curiosity did you read the 3 GW2 books ? That might answer some of your question right there