Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone. Im not usually the guy that attempts to start larger threads but this is a thought that I’ve been thinking about for some time, and I’d like to get it out of my system. Whether or not it is ideal is up to you.

Currently as it stands, LW offers PvE related content on a 2 week schedule. With this comes new achievements, weapon skins, and mini’s. There are vast opinions on whether or not the living story is successful. I personally find it questionable that a rich game like GW2 who has a vision of catering to all players, primairly focuses on maintaining our needs trough 1 type of content. There are many ways to tell a story and entertain, the discussion isnt if it is hardcore or casual.

Imagine that there was a total revamp of the LW vision. The 4 smaller teams that are currently working on LW were split up and rearranged with other devs with expertise in other types of content.
- For instance it could be 1 team that worked on the “main story”, similiar to cuttroath politics, and other previous main events that ties the stories together as Tyria grows. A story needs its main plot afterall. They could potentially release their stories on a montly basis.
- The second smaller team could be doing mini games, such as SAB. These “side stories” could be some sort of filler inbetween the time it takes for the main story team. The mini games could even be tied to the main story. Perhaps this team and the first could work together in altering the personal story, in order to advance in Orr.

- The third team could be focusing on WvW. Structural changes or invasions to the world maps, such as mass ogre or quaggan outbreak from their existing camps based on something that happened from previous PvE LW. They could potentially have the power to destroy gates and take over camps.
- The fourth team works for SPvP. There could be public tournaments held managed by the devs. Or it could be a festival where other temporary gamemodes are introduced, be it king of the hill, deathmatch or GvG. A celebration or preperation of dire times/mechanics to come in PvE LW. This area could use some more brainstorming.

Inbetween the content cycles, each dev team could also add hints or clues related to the main story, either on whats to come or previous story and its impact. There could even be rewards or plots that affects cross content, i.e. a PvE boss or puzzle gave a spelltome that can only be used in certain areas in WvW.
The devs could even regurarly switch around in teams just to keep things fresh for their sake.

The idea behind this thread is that Anet can also create temporary content, known as Living World, by using already existing locations in the permanent world. LW could be content, such as WvW, that you do anyway, but with a twist over a period of time. LW shouldn’t necessarily always be stuff that you do in order to gain large chunks of achievements, weapon skins or mini’s. It’s about capturing that experience, and it can be easier captured and improved in existing content that players find enjoyable and where they spend most of their time in. Next comes finding that balance of how to include the hardcore and the casual, though I see this as a secondary objective.

With these features one could potentially be closer to a sense of a true living world by attempting to make all aspects of GW2 alive, by making them dynamic. This could further bring down barriers preventing X playergroup from playing a specific content or be neglected, for example WvW or SPvP, while also improving the PvE experience. It is impossible for Anet to fulfill all interests based on playergroups, but hopefully I’ve managed to scratch the fact that there is more potential in LW and GW2 as a whole. All the answers cannot be found here, but it’s an optional basic formula.