Guild Wars 2

So, I was running around Wayfarer Foothills, looking for a snow covered object. I have already found 3 of the 4. I had Dulfy open in one window and was running around the map in the other.

I have pretty limited play-time, so finding that object was my “objective” for the day. An hour of bouncing between windows, coming dangerously close to spamming chat, and still nothing.

And then it hit me: there’s nothing fun about this. Running around a map with ctrl pressed down to click on an object is not fun. There’s certainly not anything “living” about it. They’ve labeled a generic, tedious needle in a haystack search as fresh, exciting new content. And, for a while, I bought it hook, line and sinker.

GW2 has many “wow this is fun moments” when it really breaks the MMO mold. But the more I play, the more I realize you generally have to slog through X number of things that are sheer tedium to get to the “wow” moments.

Starting to wonder if that ratio is worth it . . .

Oh man I was so glad I got the first 2 items on the first day when a commander was pointing them out, I felt bad for anyone who had to search for them after that. I really have no motivation to get the next two because, just like you said, running around 2 areas holding Ctrl for an hour+ is not in any way fun.

Well, if you have a limited amount of time to play and there are tons of things to do, and that’s what you chose to do with your time, yeah, probably not the best decision.

There are tons of fun things to do in this game, and that’s not one of them. But the fun things are still there. So you pick what you enjoy doing and do that. Problem solved.

You do not need to get those things, unless you find it fun to do so. It’s an achievement. There’s no title associated with it. No in game bonus.

This is a theme park MMO. Think of a theme park. You go to Disneyworld with your family. Some people want to ride Space Mountain and some people want to sit and watch the show in the Hall of Presidents. You pick the attractions you like and skip the ones you don’t.

As long as you find fun stuff to do, what’s the difference what the ratio is? One of my friends LOVES WvW. That’s all he does. One thing. Nothing else. He cares about nothing but that. To him, the ratio of this game is a million boring things to 1 good thing. But that one good thing he enjoys enough to keep playing.

Is the ratio important or do you just need to make better choices in how you spend your in game time?

well yea.. the game isn’t bad.. but ,
they lack endgame content…. things to do,..
when i only like a small portion of the game, doin the other alternatives aren;t fun!
aslong as they don’t force it on me.. thats fine..
i don’t mind the dailies.. but i do think they’re a filler for the lack of incentive for playing the game..
its getting boring too,,..

I have no idea what you are talking about, however if what you describe is true then i fully agree that its lame and sounds alike a cheap cop out to providing real content.

I mean seriously is it just a giant needle ina haystack search?

Worth what?

If you’re referring to the 60 bucks you payed initially to get the X number of hours you’ve already enjoyed…

I’d say yes. It’s worth it.

I have to agree with you on this. I didn’t even know about the 4 items until yesterday when I saw a post here on the forums.

How I was supposed to figure this out from in game is beyond me.

Are you looking for the goblet? I think that is the first one in Wayfarer and the one I had the hardest time finding. On my server it was north of Twinspur Haven Waypoint and east of bend in the road that is halfway between the heart and the vista north of the WP.

Run east and just hold down control, it’s pretty far out there, sort of close to a hill where if you go to far you will drop down.

I hope you find it. And yes, I don’t see the fun in this either. Especially in the lack of information on what this event is and what we are supposed to do.

Vayne.8563:

This is a theme park MMO. Think of a theme park. You go to Disneyworld with your family. Some people want to ride Space Mountain and some people want to sit and watch the show in the Hall of Presidents. You pick the attractions you like and skip the ones you don’t.

Not a great analogy for this quest…I would never, ever give my money to go to Disney World/Land, so I’m not sure about this, but is the “Find the Needle in the Haystack” a popular attraction there? Like I said, never been, wouldn’t go, but I can’t see that being a big draw.

rizzo.1079:

Vayne.8563:

This is a theme park MMO. Think of a theme park. You go to Disneyworld with your family. Some people want to ride Space Mountain and some people want to sit and watch the show in the Hall of Presidents. You pick the attractions you like and skip the ones you don’t.

Not a great analogy for this quest…I would never, ever give my money to go to Disney World/Land, so I’m not sure about this, but is the “Find the Needle in the Haystack” a popular attraction there? Like I said, never been, wouldn’t go, but I can’t see that being a big draw.

It’s a good analogy if some people like it. My wife likes it. I don’t particularly but it’s her kind of thing. She likes searching for stuff. There ARE clues in game, once you read stuff and look around. It’s like those very very old fashsioned adventure games where you had to find stuff. And people BOUGHT those games. Not me, because it wasn’t my thing, but my wife loves finding stuff. It becomes a challenge to her.

And it’s not quite a needle in a haystack. You do know the zone and you know the approximate place it spawns…ie, along the refugees trail.

This isn’t content that anyone has to do. But some people like it. If you don’t like it, why do it?

I find responses like “choose the way you spend in game time better” are kinda missing my point (not to mention a tad condescending).

We have been encouraged to participate in this “exciting living event.” So far it just been very tedious.

For me, this has been eye-opening b/c it has dawned on me that the game has a lot of “bait and switch” and “hide the ball” mechanics/features that I find non-intuitive and, at times, tedious.

To answer the question “worth what?” I mean worth my time. There are times when I really enjoy GW2, but too often those times are buried in “2 hour searches for hidden objects” (or the like).

P.S.-And I very much disagree with any who says its not looking for a needle in a haystack. Even with Dulfy telling me where to look, it still took me two hours.

Well, the truth is, the reason they probably made that achievement is so you would have incentives to not only explore the area, but experience some of the new events as you come along them with the living story.

The problem is, the new events aren’t quite interesting at all. They play just like any other event you’d see in Guild Wars 2, and they simply don’t offer any sort of challenge to high-level players, other than offering the same old trash mobs to spam your skills against.

If Anet could just find some way to make these events actually feel unique, interesting and challenging to players, then perhaps these scavenger hunts would be much more worthwhile and entertaining.

Sonbride.8190:

I find responses like “choose the way you spend in game time better” are kinda missing my point (not to mention a tad condescending).

We have been encouraged to participate in this “exciting living event.” So far it just been very tedious.

For me, this has been eye-opening b/c it has dawned on me that the game has a lot of “bait and switch” and “hide the ball” mechanics/features that I find non-intuitive and, at times, tedious.

To answer the question “worth what?” I mean worth my time. There are times when I really enjoy GW2, but too often those times are buried in “2 hour searches for hidden objects” (or the like).

P.S.-And I very much disagree with any who says its not looking for a needle in a haystack. Even with Dulfy telling me where to look, it still took me two hours.

Right, and that’s my point. There are times when you really enjoy the game. Look at what you’re doing during those times and do those things. If you try something and you don’t like it, you’re not obligated to do it, no matter what Anet is trying to encourage you to do (though trying to encourage you is a bit strong considering half the people don’t even know about this).

Do you think the people who like WvW or SPvP are doing this? Or the people who run dungeons and do nothing else? I have people in my guild who aren’t interested and don’t do it. By percentage, this living story is a tiny tiny percentage of the game.

Yes, I agree it’s not enthralling to me, so I’m not doing it. My wife finds it fun and challenging and she is. That’s it.

Sorry if it sounds condescending but you’re the one who posted the question about the ratio. There is is fun stuff and you’re not doing it,. seems to me you should change what you’re doing.

The solution is simple, OP. Ignore all the Dying Story kitten and don’t do it.

Maybe not fun for you but loads of fun for me.
If you treat it as ‘’I GOT TO DO THIS OMG’’ ofc its not going to be fun. If you want to do quickly you can probably google the positions of these and not waste any time.

Me on the other hand ran through these zones and enjoyed them all over again with a friend while looking for the goblets, doing events, and just taking it all in as we went.
LOADS of fun

Just dont do it. Here is a small list of thing I havent/dont do:

Lost Shore
Winter Event
This new event that you said isnt fun
Fractals
wvwvw
spvp/tpvp
Guild missions
Played for 2 hours last and didnt even think about the daily
Jormag and his giant foot

have fun

Things I do not/have not done, and will probably never do.

Lost Shore
Winter JP
PVP
Most Dungeons
Fractals
Save and Grind for a Legendary
Finish My Personal Story
Guild Missions
Keg Brawl
Many/Most Jumping Puzzles

I just do not do these things. I still play and have fun everyday. I may gripe about loot (and my own poor luck with rNg) but I just ignore the drops and do stuff I enjoy doing. Mostly exploring, and doing events I have never done.

I have not had any issue finding the items in the personal story yet.

I don’t understand how anyone could miss the new content. I understand you may not find it fun, but how can you possibly miss it? There are giant glowing yellow stars on top of NPC’s that constantly spam in every city to talk to them and learn about the new content. Not only that but they sent you a personal mail that details what when and where the new content is.

To be honest, I received those mails but didn’t read them once. If I cared about fluff I’d be on TC. It was enough for me to go on dulfy, see that the reward was kitten/non existent and decide the content wasn’t worth my time.

The story bits the refugees give you for returning their items are actually pretty interesting. But then, you probably shouldn’t be spending your limited time doing content called ‘Living STORY’ if you’re not gonna read any of it.

I finished whole stage 2 with dulfy.ney help in less than an hour today. Do not get OP point at all.

Vayne.8563:

It’s a good analogy if some people like it. My wife likes it. I don’t particularly but it’s her kind of thing. She likes searching for stuff. There ARE clues in game, once you read stuff and look around. It’s like those very very old fashsioned adventure games where you had to find stuff. And people BOUGHT those games. Not me, because it wasn’t my thing, but my wife loves finding stuff. It becomes a challenge to her.

And it’s not quite a needle in a haystack. You do know the zone and you know the approximate place it spawns…ie, along the refugees trail.

Actually, no. The potential spawn locations for these items (which are randomly chosen for each server) are within the spawn locations for the Dredge/Flame Legion invasion events. They’re not along the refugee trail, many of these are far from it. And there are no clues beyond being told which zone they’re in.

Had their actually been clues, then it might have actually been cool. As it stands, it literally is just holding down CTRL while running around from one invasion event spawn to the next (because that’s about the only way you’re going to see it).

Bartas.4908:

I finished whole stage 2 with dulfy.ney help in less than an hour today. Do not get OP point at all.

I think your method of finishing it may actually be the point.

The living story is just an excellent marketing term for “we add some NPCs and DEs” as opposed to we add to the personal story more content and cutscenes. The latter is expensive & takes artistic effort.

Well, maybe my expectations on the story were a bit to high but I have to admit that I’m also kinda disappointed. What I miss the most about the living story is the story part for a big deal.

The lost and found mission is pretty much that: someone lost an object you go search for it dig in the mud and after some time you find it. There is not much fleshed out about that search it’s just … well run around and find it. Ofc you can do other events that are usually taking place in that zone but nothing of that is actually related to the story.

I would love it way more if this search was an actual search for an object where you have to find traces, talk to NPCs that can tell you something like “oh I remember this guy was coming along some days back and I remember him having that goblet. It was his whole pride.” and then you go farther and ask the next person who says “Oh yeah I can remember this guy something must have happened during his journey he had alot of wounds, but a goblet, no I can’t remember.” Then you know that between those two points something must have happened and start to look in that area and find some hints in the snow that lead you to one of those caves where you have to fight a veteran who maybe drops this. Stuff like that you know?

Atm this story is kinda “ok” for me, but unfortunately it is far, far away from beeing awesome. At least for me.

Edge.4180:

Vayne.8563:

It’s a good analogy if some people like it. My wife likes it. I don’t particularly but it’s her kind of thing. She likes searching for stuff. There ARE clues in game, once you read stuff and look around. It’s like those very very old fashsioned adventure games where you had to find stuff. And people BOUGHT those games. Not me, because it wasn’t my thing, but my wife loves finding stuff. It becomes a challenge to her.

And it’s not quite a needle in a haystack. You do know the zone and you know the approximate place it spawns…ie, along the refugees trail.

Actually, no. The potential spawn locations for these items (which are randomly chosen for each server) are within the spawn locations for the Dredge/Flame Legion invasion events. They’re not along the refugee trail, many of these are far from it. And there are no clues beyond being told which zone they’re in.

Had their actually been clues, then it might have actually been cool. As it stands, it literally is just holding down CTRL while running around from one invasion event spawn to the next (because that’s about the only way you’re going to see it).

This.

Also I do have fun with current content, but it’s starting to be a downer when I’m either hardlocked from new content or it’s just “Run around while holding ctrl for an hour until you find this one spot and that’s the new content” type stuff.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I don’t understand how anyone could miss the new content. I understand you may not find it fun, but how can you possibly miss it? There are giant glowing yellow stars on top of NPC’s that constantly spam in every city to talk to them and learn about the new content. Not only that but they sent you a personal mail that details what when and where the new content is.

I know its there…I’ve read the emails. I’m just not interested in it right now. WvW pretty much takes up my limited game time for now. I pve’d for months before trying WvW and I’m now finding that PvE is kind of stale comparatively. I may delve into spvp also now.

In the meantime, I have all 8 professions in the works, 3 lvl 80’s…and all the crafts mastered. And have never stepped foot in a fractal or even bother with dailies. Only done a couple of dungeons. And I consider this a fun game that I’ll likely spend several years in.

I don’t think any of us can quantify what is “fun” for anyone other than themselves.

Snow White.9680:

Worth what?

If you’re referring to the 60 bucks you payed initially to get the X number of hours you’ve already enjoyed…

I’d say yes. It’s worth it.

Imo this doesn’t hold ground when talking about an MMO. If we were talking about a single player RPG, then sure… but this is an MMO a game that will get continuous updates and expansions, there should always be fun things to do other than rolling a bunch of alts. (cough, endgame, cough)

The price doesn’t really matter whether it’s b2p or p2p. GW1 achieved this endgame by adding a ton of skills so players would be busy with builds and trying content in different ways, it didn’t need raids, but GW2 just stops and there isn’t much you can do to spice the endgame up. Especially since pvp isn’t exactly favorable in this game, meta’s never change, it’s just the same thing every single day.

Bartas.4908:

I finished whole stage 2 with dulfy.ney help in less than an hour today. Do not get OP point at all.

The OP is mentioning that this event isn’t fun or epic.

Honestly I don’t find it very fun either, because of the very odd pacing, and lack of meaningful actions we have in this story.

Without dulfy’s website, I wouldn’t have bothered finding any of the items.

There are refugees fleeing for their lives, and the best we can do is find a drunk dude’s drinking cup, or someone’s belt? Not a very epic story I’m participating in.

I’m not interested in randomly running around a zone in the hopes of finding stuff like that. Thank the Gods for that website.

I would have liked the ability to use our crafting abilities to help the refugees.

Chefs could help feed, Tailors/Leatherworkers could help clothe, Weaponsmiths could help re-arm them, etc. It could have even been tied into our dailies.

Also, the pacing is way too slow.

I think ArenaNet didn’t have the manpower to properly support this event, so they tried to justify this meagerness, by calling these 2 months of stories/events “teasers”.

So not really story… so much as… getting… (let me tell you next month)… our attention.

It doesn’t make for great storytelling. They should have the proper manpower in place to support something, rather than stall by saying they are giving teasers.

To back up my belief, here is ArenaNet’s Angel McCoy mentioning how the story will speed up as they get more manpower:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/living-story-evolution/

“These first couple months of teaser content have allowed us to ramp up to make the long-term Living Story an even fuller and more satisfying experience for you all. As designers have come off other projects and joined us, we’ve increased the amount of content we’ll be delivering, starting at the end of March.”

Kingfisher.7213:

Bartas.4908:

I finished whole stage 2 with dulfy.ney help in less than an hour today. Do not get OP point at all.

The OP is mentioning that this event isn’t fun or epic.

Honestly I don’t find it very fun either, because of the very odd pacing, and lack of meaningful actions we have in this story.

Without dulfy’s website, I wouldn’t have bothered finding any of the items.

There are refugees fleeing for their lives, and the best we can do is find a drunk dude’s drinking cup, or someone’s belt? Not a very epic story I’m participating in.

I’m not interested in randomly running around a zone in the hopes of finding stuff like that. Thank the Gods for that website.

I would have liked the ability to use our crafting abilities to help the refugees.

Chefs could help feed, Tailors/Leatherworkers could help clothe, Weaponsmiths could help re-arm them, etc. It could have even been tied into our dailies.

Also, the pacing is way too slow.

I think ArenaNet didn’t have the manpower to properly support this event, so they tried to justify this meagerness, by calling these 2 months of stories/events “teasers”.

So not really story… so much as… getting… (let me tell you next month)… our attention.

It doesn’t make for great storytelling. They should have the proper manpower in place to support something, rather than stall by saying they are giving teasers.

To back up my belief, here is ArenaNet’s Angel McCoy mentioning how the story will speed up as they get more manpower:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/living-story-evolution/

“These first couple months of teaser content have allowed us to ramp up to make the long-term Living Story an even fuller and more satisfying experience for you all. As designers have come off other projects and joined us, we’ve increased the amount of content we’ll be delivering, starting at the end of March.”

It feels like Anet is drowning and struggling to just keep their head above water. Kinda like a ‘mom and pop’ store built a Wal-mart and has no idea what to do with it. With all we’ve seen come out of Anet over the past 7 months, I can’t help but think, it must be total chaos there.

Wait a second!

You got 3/4? I thought there were only 2 out there so far!?!

Two more starting yesterday or Sunday, no notification though.

no offense, but the writers need some interaction with event planning people, maybe this is the wack part but the actual events are on par with the most vanilla dynamic events in the game. The tools are there, make an interesting encounter and a fun story. The missing items should be tied to meaningful places, not randomly dispersed, i understand wanting to make it so people dont just go online and faq through the content, but you re telling a story here, that is the first and foremost concern, if some people faq through and do it fast, thats fine, as long as the overall storytelling and presentation is good for people actually looking for a story.

hopefully these last two months are basically horrible trash they threw us because they failed to meet their deadlines. Its really crappy though. Im sorry if it offends the devs, but this is the truth. even teasing is an act of story telling, and these events fail to generate the desired effect.

Vayne.8563:

Is the ratio important or do you just need to make better choices in how you spend your in game time?

The problem with your argument is that this event is time-limited. With other content he can always do it “some other time”. With this, at some point – probably fairly soon (as in months at most), it will be forever gone. Therefore it is rational and sensible to prioritise this stuff. Especially as you have no idea if there will suddenly be rewards which require you to have done it (it would not be the first time an MMO has sprung this on people). With theme parks like Disneyworld (to use your own comparison), time-limited stuff is pretty much shoved in the faces of the guests so they can’t miss it unless they try. This is quite the opposite.

Also continuing the Disneyworld analogy, Disney are not going to hype an event hugely then have it be no more interesting – in fact less interesting – than the day-to-day in Disneyworld.

So again, this fails your own Disneyworld test. Events should be exciting and ultra-accessible, not dull and hard to locate.