Guild Wars 2

Okay so GW2’s living story, a story that started off with the terrible and immediate threat of the Elder Dragons, we forced our way into Orr to (extremely Overwhelmingly) take out Zhaitain and his undead minions, leaving 5 other Elder Dragons to slay before they devour the worlds magic supply, however even though there is this dire threat that needs to be handled we are now side tracked bu Giant Crabs and beaches, The Molten Alliance, 2D Adventure lands, More Beaches.. Festivals and Air Pirates… all the while there ARE STILL 5 EXTREMELY FRAKKING POWERFUL ELDER DRAGONS CONSUMING ALL THE WORLDS MAGIC!!! But heeeeeey what evs it’s not like they havn’t destroyed a good portion of the world toppled other Human kingdoms… forced out or made races near extinct.. nope not at all.. So Sky Pirates, and festivales are way more important than the actual Elder Dragons…

Okay so enough sarcasm there for you? Good, then let’s talk about the living story and why/how it could be cool but is currently being used uselessly.

First off it’s introducing stories that simply distract and take away from the main game story, nothing that happens actually impacts the world.. like at all seriously none of it actually effects anything in the long run.

Living Story could be cool if Anet got back on track and started telling the dang game story they promised us, that they are side stepping like whoa. You want to make the living story have actual impact? Have stuff get destroyed and stay destroyed for a year or so while it’s rebuilt, have it drastically change the climate or landscape of the world. Make it have permanent changes, not just temporary ones. let the events have an actual impact on the game world instead of throwing essentially a holiday down our throats to generate sales of lock boxes with no real lasting effects that matter!

The living story should be used to herald in more disasters the Elder Dragons are causing perhaps making other races flee their homes seeking refuge joining the fight as wait for it gasp New Playable races!!! Bringing the weapons of their home lands with them and teaching it to the other races unlocking gasp New weapon sets per class!!! holy crap!

But no.. instead you’d rather give us side fluff story that has no real impact on the ever lasting game world or even moves the game story forward.. enough stupid side quests. Just enough. Get back to the story, give us new races and weapons, if you’re not going to give us proper expansions at least give us the content of ones.. and for the love of Pete.. STOP side stepping the main story!

Currently all the current living story model has done is made me relook at how I am spending my MMO gaming time, and decide maybe until Anet gets back on track GW2 isn’t worth my time or my money on Gem store purchases… Get back on track Anet and I’ll gladly come back and spend 20+ dollars a week in your cash shop. As is I’m done until you do something worthwhile.

Welcome to the club!

While I agree it would be nice to fight more elder dragons, other things happen in the world. The elder dragons are still local in a sense. If you read Destiny’s Edge you’d get this.

Zhaitan was the dragon bothering the Tarnished Coast and Kryta. Other dragons invaded different areas. The Krytans aren’t straight up affected by Jormag at all. He’s up in the Northern Shiverpeakes.

They’ve just had a major war against the dragons, one would think there would be time to celebrate and or deal with other matters. It’s not like other things aren’t problems too.

Take the alliance between the Flame Legion and the Dredge. That’s a problem. And a more immediate problem than the elder dragons, who are dangerous, but not quite as active.

That’s the in game explanation. But the dragon scenarios will take time to create and other projects are being worked on.

I know everyone wants everything NOW, but that’s not the reality of programming or game creation.

Guild Wars 2, like just about every MMO in recent memory, released far too early (the exception was Rift which was relatively small at launch). The game needs to be worked on BEFORE another dragon is worked on.

The Living Story is filler content to keep people playing. Nothing more. There’s no monthly fee. If you don’t like what you see, take a break until the next dragon comes out.

But don’t blame the living story because programming stuff takes time, or because the game needs to be strengthened before it moves on.

Even from a story telling point of view it’s important for everything not to be epic.

Personally, I’m glad that the living story isn’t focusing on the dragons right now. Setting aside RP reasons I’m glad for this (as not everyone’s an RPer), there’s another reason to be thankful for it…

ANet has shown that they need to get their heads together and find something better to do with the next part of the overall game storyline than what they did for the first dragon. Handing the starring role over to Trahearne, making the final mission a team dungeon instead of the solo mission all the others were up to that point, and having the final battle be a duck shoot?

Let them work on the Living Story, and try things out in a less important part of the world. Let them find out what works, what doesn’t, and what we think of it all. THEN they can hopefully bring that experience into play for the next part of the main storyline when they finally feel ready to do it.

Vayne.8563:

While I agree it would be nice to fight more elder dragons, other things happen in the world. The elder dragons are still local in a sense. If you read Destiny’s Edge you’d get this.

Zhaitan was the dragon bothering the Tarnished Coast and Kryta. Other dragons invaded different areas. The Krytans aren’t straight up affected by Jormag at all. He’s up in the Northern Shiverpeakes.

They’ve just had a major war against the dragons, one would think there would be time to celebrate and or deal with other matters. It’s not like other things aren’t problems too.

Take the alliance between the Flame Legion and the Dredge. That’s a problem. And a more immediate problem than the elder dragons, who are dangerous, but not quite as active.

That’s the in game explanation. But the dragon scenarios will take time to create and other projects are being worked on.

I know everyone wants everything NOW, but that’s not the reality of programming or game creation.

Guild Wars 2, like just about every MMO in recent memory, released far too early (the exception was Rift which was relatively small at launch). The game needs to be worked on BEFORE another dragon is worked on.

The Living Story is filler content to keep people playing. Nothing more. There’s no monthly fee. If you don’t like what you see, take a break until the next dragon comes out.

But don’t blame the living story because programming stuff takes time, or because the game needs to be strengthened before it moves on.

Even from a story telling point of view it’s important for everything not to be epic.

Vayne……good post!

Vayne.8563:

While I agree it would be nice to fight more elder dragons, other things happen in the world. The elder dragons are still local in a sense. If you read Destiny’s Edge you’d get this.

Zhaitan was the dragon bothering the Tarnished Coast and Kryta. Other dragons invaded different areas. The Krytans aren’t straight up affected by Jormag at all. He’s up in the Northern Shiverpeakes.

They’ve just had a major war against the dragons, one would think there would be time to celebrate and or deal with other matters. It’s not like other things aren’t problems too.

Take the alliance between the Flame Legion and the Dredge. That’s a problem. And a more immediate problem than the elder dragons, who are dangerous, but not quite as active.

That’s the in game explanation. But the dragon scenarios will take time to create and other projects are being worked on.

I know everyone wants everything NOW, but that’s not the reality of programming or game creation.

Guild Wars 2, like just about every MMO in recent memory, released far too early (the exception was Rift which was relatively small at launch). The game needs to be worked on BEFORE another dragon is worked on.

The Living Story is filler content to keep people playing. Nothing more. There’s no monthly fee. If you don’t like what you see, take a break until the next dragon comes out.

But don’t blame the living story because programming stuff takes time, or because the game needs to be strengthened before it moves on.

Even from a story telling point of view it’s important for everything not to be epic.

Couple of things:

1.) The people who are asking “What about the Elder Dragons?” are not, for the most part, suggesting that we need to have epic battles with them on a regular basis. What we’re saying is that the story does not appear to have any forward motion in that direction at all.

I don’t expect us to go off and attack Jormag right now.

It would be nice to do a Pact mission now and then, though – and that doesn’t need to be any more difficult to program and implement than any random side story.

People seem to forget that the Zhaitan story wasn’t just the Arah dungeon. There were lots of other small steps leading up to the confrontation. What we’re currently lacking, in my opinion, is not the epic battle but instead those small steps.

2.) What you’re saying about the dragons being less of a direct threat than the other issues we’ve been dealing with only really makes sense from a human perspective. This isn’t a human-centric world anymore. What is most threatening to Kryta doesn’t make sense as the primary focus of everyone all over the world.

I mean, think for a moment about the difference in scale between the incursions of the Sons of Svanir and the Icebrood as compared to the Molten Alliance. Jormag made refugees of the entire Norn nation, not just the inhabitants of a few farmsteads, and Jormag’s minions are (in lore) a major threat all over the Shiverpeaks. You say you’ve read Edge of Destiny. Remember how it starts?

Also, bear in mind the effect the dragons are having on the world’s magic. If we wait to address that till it reaches a crisis, addressing it will no longer be possible, so moving preemptively is really the only option.

As I said, I’m not suggesting we need to go kill a dragon in the next two-week patch. What I’m saying is that there needs to be some sense that 1.) the Pact is still active and scheming against the dragons, and 2.) the existence of the dragons still affects people.

If the Elder Dragons are a threat we can safely ignore for a year or so, what was the point of all the effort and sacrifice that went into taking down Zhaitan even after pushing him back from Claw Island?

The writers can’t really have it both ways on this, is the thing.

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

Vayne.8563:

While I agree it would be nice to fight more elder dragons, other things happen in the world. The elder dragons are still local in a sense. If you read Destiny’s Edge you’d get this.

Zhaitan was the dragon bothering the Tarnished Coast and Kryta. Other dragons invaded different areas. The Krytans aren’t straight up affected by Jormag at all. He’s up in the Northern Shiverpeakes.

They’ve just had a major war against the dragons, one would think there would be time to celebrate and or deal with other matters. It’s not like other things aren’t problems too.

snip

Guild Wars 2, like just about every MMO in recent memory, released far too early (the exception was Rift which was relatively small at launch). The game needs to be worked on BEFORE another dragon is worked on.

The Living Story is filler content to keep people playing. Nothing more. There’s no monthly fee. If you don’t like what you see, take a break until the next dragon comes out.

But don’t blame the living story because programming stuff takes time, or because the game needs to be strengthened before it moves on.

Even from a story telling point of view it’s important for everything not to be epic.

Couple of things:

1.) The people who are asking “What about the Elder Dragons?” are not, for the most part, suggesting that we need to have epic battles with them on a regular basis. What we’re saying is that the story does not appear to have any forward motion in that direction at all.

I don’t expect us to go off and attack Jormag right now.

It would be nice to do a Pact mission now and then, though – and that doesn’t need to be any more difficult to program and implement than any random side story.

People seem to forget that the Zhaitan story wasn’t just the Arah dungeon. There were lots of other small steps leading up to the confrontation. What we’re currently lacking, in my opinion, is not the epic battle but instead those small steps.

2.) What you’re saying about the dragons being less of a direct threat than the other issues we’ve been dealing with only really makes sense from a human perspective. This isn’t a human-centric world anymore. What is most threatening to Kryta doesn’t make sense as the primary focus of everyone all over the world.

I mean, think for a moment about the difference in scale between the incursions of the Sons of Svanir and the Icebrood as compared to the Molten Alliance. Jormag made refugees of the entire Norn nation, not just the inhabitants of a few farmsteads, and Jormag’s minions are (in lore) a major threat all over the Shiverpeaks. You say you’ve read Edge of Destiny. Remember how it starts?

Also, bear in mind the effect the dragons are having on the world’s magic. If we wait to address that till it reaches a crisis, addressing it will no longer be possible, so moving preemptively is really the only option.

As I said, I’m not suggesting we need to go kill a dragon in the next two-week patch. What I’m saying is that there needs to be some sense that 1.) the Pact is still active and scheming against the dragons, and 2.) the existence of the dragons still affects people.

If the Elder Dragons are a threat we can safely ignore for a year or so, what was the point of all the effort and sacrifice that went into taking down Zhaitan even after pushing him back from Claw Island?

The writers can’t really have it both ways on this, is the thing.

Spoilers from Edge of Destiny.

I do remember how Edge of Destiny starts. I also remember how Destiny’s Edge went and solved that problem by killing Jormag’s lieutenant. They also destroyed the one near Rata Sum.

Presumably getting another one this powerful takes time, so there’s time for a breather.

The Norn are not nearly in the same situation they were before Destiny’s Edge got stuck in and the Sylvari and Asura probably aren’t either.

Which leaves the Charr.

Last I heard, the Charr dragon vacated the premises and absconded to the Crystal Desert. Their biggest problems are Flame Legion and Ghosts STILL.

This situation right now is that though dragon minions are a problem, other problems still exist and need to be dealt with.

Presumably the pact isn’t completely idle. That doesn’t mean you’ll be doing every mission they’re doing.

My guess is there’s a lot of scouting and exploring and developing of weapons, all of which takes time.

Furthermore, we pretty much knew exactly where Zhaitan was. I’m not sure we know exactly where any of the others are at this point in time.

Keep in mind, Dragon Bash isn’t about Zhaitan’s defeat. It’s about the Destiny’s Edge taking on Kralkatorrik (although they didn’t succeed, kitten!)

Yeah, still not quite sure why there’s a festival celebrating Snaff’s death when they didn’t succeed in any sense (other than living to tell the tale).

The rest of the living story makes some semblance of sense.