Guild Wars 2

Ursan.7846:

Vargs.6234:

The problem is that the world hasn’t changed.

But the world has changed.

LA’s Lion statue was destroyed and slowly rebuilt. Refugees had set up camps in LA. The Consortium has built a refugee camp in Southsun.

It definitely is changing. Slowly but surely.

Nobody is going to excitedly come back to this game because there’s a refugee camp in southsun, or because the LA lion statue was deleted for awhile but is back now.

Convert the temporary content into a series of missions you can repeat like gw1, problem solved. Lots of people are missing out on this stuff and it’s actually put a lot of friends off the game, it’s more like a dying story with all the stuff being removed.

Feel free to leave out the sign post and lost trinkets months.

Vargs.6234:

Nobody is going to excitedly come back to this game because there’s a refugee camp in southsun, or because the LA lion statue was deleted for awhile but is back now.

But people will come back because SAB has returned from its slumber, or when Molten Facility has been discovered and will be only available for a limited time. Or when the Living Story no doubt shifts its focus to the Consortium and its activities in South Sun.

Whether you like it or not, the world is changing. Again, slowly but surely.

Lyssa’s Eyes people! “We’re getting something awesome and new and we can’t handle it, waaaah!” Maybe you should enjoy the fact that the developers are giving you some extra content on a regular basis and take advantage of it while it lasts. How is this making the game less fun for you? In a year’s time this stuff won’t be here for you – sure – but other stuff will. I completely missed out on the Winters Day events because I was taking a break from the game for a month, tough luck on me, I knew it was there and I’d probably not get the exact same thing again, but am I whining about it? No, because I know it won’t be the last awesome thing they do, (enter F&F).

I played Everyquest 2 for two years and you know how many awesome story events they did? None. They released a couple small expansions you could pay for if you really wanted them, but you got nothing for free and nothing as cool as you’re getting here.

Not only is GW2 the best MMO I’ve ever played, but it’s the first MMO I’ve played where I felt the developers were having fun right along side us. (though not as much fun when they have to slog through all the hate on these forums everyday)

ColinJohanson.2394:

snip [Stuff]

…Enjoy the ride!

That’s all well and good Colin, but I still don’t understand why it means the content has to be permanently removed? I mean, by that logic, does that mean that Arah story mode will be removed aswell, because hey, in future content, Zhaitan will already have been defeated, right?

It just doesn’t seem to make much sense, especially in the case of a dungeon, whereas due to the instanced nature of it, the content can be retained without ruining the feel of a “living world”. Think back to Guild Wars 1 for example, Winds of Change in particular, and how completing the storyline permanently altered the explorable zones to remove the afflicted – but there was an option to take a quest that reverted them to their original state as a sort of “history lesson”. I don’t see a good reason why that very same logic and method of doing stuff can’t be done here.

I can understand perhaps to some degree when it comes to the open world zones, but the instanced zones…what’s the purpose in removing those? If it’s something to do with saving money server-side, then say so. Otherwise, leave them there for people to play at a later date if they wish as a “history lesson” or whatnot, to increase the variety and amount of content this game has to offer.

I also like the idea of putting the content back into the game via fractals. Fractals could do with the extension, and with some tweaks, the boss fight could make a nice alternate to the Jade Maw (which gets incredibly repetitive), with the rest of the level (perhaps up to and including the trap “boss” area), also being tweaked, built upon a little more, and then replacing a regular fractal.

It’d also be great to see the dungeon return later as a fully-fledged dungeon with the story mode and three explorable paths, like the others, and tokens associated with it to use on various new gear.

Just some thoughts.

That all being said, I avoided most of the living story stuff until the past two days, it i didn’t interest me, but with the dungeon out I did the two story missions for Rox and Braham and really enjoyed those, aswell as the dungeon itself of course, so very good work on that, and I’m looking forward to more new content along those lines.

I love how this is unfolding, great direction – give a big thumbs up to the team from me

ColinJohanson.2394:

Our goal is to get to a point where on a regular basis, the world around you is not only changing in the short term through our normal event system, it’s changing and evolving permanently through our living world releases as well. What you’ve seen so far is primarily some tests and warmup stuff while we in the background organize the company to support this exciting future for our game, the future for living world is filled with endless possibilities.

Enjoy the ride!

Could we get events in the living world that are long term fail-able please?

Such as maybe server A B and C were able to complete such Living World event, thus saving zone 1 but servers X Y and Z were unable to complete said event in time and now zone 1 has a lasting ‘stain’.

I think this idea would be extremely cool. It takes what you said and runs with it a little. I know that this would bring a lot of depth to guesting.

It would be cool to guest to another server and (kessex bridge for example) instead of defending the bridge against centaurs, we’re fighting off (for lack of a better idea) branded who are trying to take it over.

It wouldn’t have to be too extreme, the same events, the same landscape(ish) but with some destruction, scorched earth/branded crystals. All the events could even run exactly the same except have the mobs interchanged.

Any chance for something like this to happen? It’d be so cool if in ~1 years time some servers could be visually different from each other because of it.

Toggles.1783:

Could we get events in the living world that are long term fail-able please?

It wouldn’t have to be too extreme, the same events, the same landscape(ish) but with some destruction, scorched earth/branded crystals. All the events could even run exactly the same except have the mobs interchanged.

Any chance for something like this to happen? It’d be so cool if in ~1 years time some servers could be visually different from each other because of it.

I’m Commander Shepard and I endorse this idea.

Vargs.6234:

Ursan.7846:

Vargs.6234:

The problem is that the world hasn’t changed.

But the world has changed.

LA’s Lion statue was destroyed and slowly rebuilt. Refugees had set up camps in LA. The Consortium has built a refugee camp in Southsun.

It definitely is changing. Slowly but surely.

Nobody is going to excitedly come back to this game because there’s a refugee camp in southsun, or because the LA lion statue was deleted for awhile but is back now.

It’s pretty weird way of doing things, I was going to tell my friends all the stuff that happened since fractals and then I realized they won’t be able to experience any of it. Even the guild we had is pointless now, no missions, no merits, just a contact list of offline players.

Doesn’t it seem too long to spread this little content over 4 months? IMO every 2 weeks would be more then enough for all 4 parts. 1 month is just too long for all these non-grinding events.

Nabuko Darayon.9645:

Doesn’t it seem too long to spread this little content over 4 months? IMO every 2 weeks would be more then enough for all 4 parts. 1 month is just too long for all these non-grinding events.

Anet’s dev team and resources are not Blizzard sized. Even if they had released everything for a 2 week period, you would still be waiting for the next 3 and a half months.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Enjoy the ride!

I will actually start to enjoy it when you stop trying to invoke gambling reflex garbage because you are unregulated like a casino is with it. I’d also enjoy it more if you gave me a better way such as MORE BANK TABS so I actually store all these amazing items. How about a way to swap between skins on a single item at the LEAST so all the custom stuff you talk about will be fun instead of pain management as you constantly love something you like to try out something else.

Do not get me wrong I love the content but come on. Work with me.

They are trying to be DIFFERENT from every other MMO out there, complaining because the game doesn’t work the way every other MMO does is kind of missing the point…

ColinJohanson.2394:

We’re trying something very unique and different with Gw2, and a lot of it plays back on the original ideas and concepts we had for the game all these years we’re trying to build towards and accomplish. It’s important to us to continue to try new things, looking at ways of evolving and innovating what a live game can be. In many cases, we’re learning right along with you guys how all of this is going to work for a live game, and constantly adjusting as we see the outcomes and find ways to innovate on what a true online world experience can be.

Living World is above all, the attempt to really give the sense the world is constantly changing and evolving. That there is events and content that change the world in the short term (like our current events) and events that can occur or change for the long term, which is what we’re slowly building towards in the future with Living World content.

Living world absolutely does not mean nothing but content that comes in and leaves again a few weeks later, and though so far that’s primarily what you’ve seen, it’s not all we will do in the future. The intent is living world provides us with a story and narrative experience, sort of like your favorite TV show, to constantly update and change the world and provide unique and exciting rewards on a regular basis.

We might have events that occur and came back again with a few modifications in the future. We may have events that occur and then find new homes permanently down the road. We may have bosses from a storyline that continue on forever as guild bounty hunts when a story completes. Living world also allows us the opportunity to upgrade and make parts of our existing game better permanently, a living world narrative could allow us to rebuild and change an existing zone or dungeon, or could destroy one entirely.

Our goal is to get to a point where on a regular basis, the world around you is not only changing in the short term through our normal event system, it’s changing and evolving permanently through our living world releases as well. What you’ve seen so far is primarily some tests and warmup stuff while we in the background organize the company to support this exciting future for our game, the future for living world is filled with endless possibilities.

Enjoy the ride!

I don’t get the feeling that the world is changing, instead i get stagnation of the current world. If you really wanted persistence, of an evolving world, then you wouldn’t waste time on temporary instances/dungeons, and instead, you should develop:

newer dragon bosses
newer dynamic events
newer heart tasks
newer mobs to fight
newer crafting professions
newer skills
newer races
newer guild activities
etc.

A feeling of, character & world progression, is needed.

Flame & Frost was fun. Flame & Frost was just too long, and it spanned over several months, while Southsun Cove has stagnated and feels abandoned.

Just leave the temporary content to special events & holidays, which can be re-used over the years, but to completely develop a whole storyline, characters, dungeons, etc., only to remove it, is just a waste of resources and time, and it gives off that feeling that more important content (the list above) is being ignored.

ColinJohanson.2394:

[…] a living world narrative could allow us to rebuild and change an existing zone or dungeon, or could destroy one entirely.

I got chills when I read this, yes please do sir, bring destruction to any map you wish or heal a map like Orr leaving just a few undeads on the map and people rebuilding their lives there. #gw2livingstory

KorKor.9452:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Enjoy the ride!

I will actually start to enjoy it when you stop trying to invoke gambling reflex garbage because you are unregulated like a casino is with it. I’d also enjoy it more if you gave me a better way such as MORE BANK TABS so I actually store all these amazing items. How about a way to swap between skins on a single item at the LEAST so all the custom stuff you talk about will be fun instead of pain management as you constantly love something you like to try out something else.

Do not get me wrong I love the content but come on. Work with me.

Your coming off as if you just want to be given things.

nexxe.7081:

I don’t get the feeling that the world is changing, instead i get stagnation of the current world. If you really wanted persistence, of an evolving world, then you wouldn’t waste time on temporary instances/dungeons, and instead, you should develop:

newer dragon bosses
newer dynamic events
newer heart tasks
newer mobs to fight
newer crafting professions
newer skills
newer races
newer guild activities
etc.

A feeling of, character & world progression, is needed.

Flame & Frost was fun. Flame & Frost was just too long, and it spanned over several months, while Southsun Cove has stagnated and feels abandoned.

Just leave the temporary content to special events & holidays, which can be re-used over the years, but to completely develop a whole storyline, characters, dungeons, etc., only to remove it, is just a waste of resources and time, and it gives off that feeling that more important content (the list above) is being ignored.

Why would you only want from that list to be the only way to changes the world it sounds like that what YOU want added in and not the community. They have added in new mob types new skins new events new dungeons new zones new boss fights new consumable items new story new main line heroes so ya the world is changing but your doing your best to turn a blind eye to it.

ColinJohanson.2394:

We’re trying something very unique and different with Gw2, and a lot of it plays back on the original ideas and concepts we had for the game all these years we’re trying to build towards and accomplish. It’s important to us to continue to try new things, looking at ways of evolving and innovating what a live game can be. In many cases, we’re learning right along with you guys how all of this is going to work for a live game, and constantly adjusting as we see the outcomes and find ways to innovate on what a true online world experience can be.

Living World is above all, the attempt to really give the sense the world is constantly changing and evolving. That there is events and content that change the world in the short term (like our current events) and events that can occur or change for the long term, which is what we’re slowly building towards in the future with Living World content.

Living world absolutely does not mean nothing but content that comes in and leaves again a few weeks later, and though so far that’s primarily what you’ve seen, it’s not all we will do in the future. The intent is living world provides us with a story and narrative experience, sort of like your favorite TV show, to constantly update and change the world and provide unique and exciting rewards on a regular basis.

We might have events that occur and came back again with a few modifications in the future. We may have events that occur and then find new homes permanently down the road. We may have bosses from a storyline that continue on forever as guild bounty hunts when a story completes. Living world also allows us the opportunity to upgrade and make parts of our existing game better permanently, a living world narrative could allow us to rebuild and change an existing zone or dungeon, or could destroy one entirely.

Our goal is to get to a point where on a regular basis, the world around you is not only changing in the short term through our normal event system, it’s changing and evolving permanently through our living world releases as well. What you’ve seen so far is primarily some tests and warmup stuff while we in the background organize the company to support this exciting future for our game, the future for living world is filled with endless possibilities.

Enjoy the ride!

Thanks so much for coming in and explaining your desire to bring us new things. And, like your desire for limiting roles and the trinity, it seems this will just take some getting used to.

I will just say that the reason I am frustrated by it is because we are the guinea pigs of your attempts at new things, and we have already paid for the game. I would be more understanding if I was on a test server or still in Beta. I do understand that all developers put content in to their games and it doesn’t always work. With Anet it seems you continue to put in content that feels not only temporary but rushed. Obviously I’ll either get used to it or I won’t.

I would like to thank you for Spectator mode in sPvP and WvW. Those things right there keep me involved in your game. I look forward to seeing what you decide is worthy to stay in your PvE world.

I would like to know if the living story is the only way y’all will push out content in the future besides new systems? Will we see updates like South Sun Coast that are not made by the living story team?

I really enjoy the idea of the living story. I am tired of MMOs that add content constantly, but all the old stuff stays the same. The world evolving and changing is exactly what a MMO needs. Breathing new life into old content is going to make the game much more enjoyable. Having tons of content means nothing because everyone wants to play with the new stuff. Old content is stale content. Keep evolving the world because that is what will make this game amazing.

Why would you only want from that list to be the only way to changes the world it sounds like that what YOU want added in and not the community. They have added in new mob types new skins new events new dungeons new zones new boss fights new consumable items new story new main line heroes so ya the world is changing but your doing your best to turn a blind eye to it.

I wrote “etc.” at the bottom of the list. Stop turning a blind eye to that.
Yes, they added more content, such as new skins, karka, fractals.. but that’s besides the point. They could be adding more, making it permanent, otherwise the world feels like it’s never progressing. As it is now, the living story took way too long with no real benefit to the state of permanence of the existing world. I read that the refugees will be going to southsun cove, so that’s a plus, but it’s still taking resources away from the current content that could be getting upgraded or added to the game.

Jski.6180:

KorKor.9452:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Enjoy the ride!

I will actually start to enjoy it when you stop trying to invoke gambling reflex garbage because you are unregulated like a casino is with it. I’d also enjoy it more if you gave me a better way such as MORE BANK TABS so I actually store all these amazing items. How about a way to swap between skins on a single item at the LEAST so all the custom stuff you talk about will be fun instead of pain management as you constantly love something you like to try out something else.

Do not get me wrong I love the content but come on. Work with me.

Your coming off as if you just want to be given things.

nexxe.7081:

I don’t get the feeling that the world is changing, instead i get stagnation of the current world. If you really wanted persistence, of an evolving world, then you wouldn’t waste time on temporary instances/dungeons, and instead, you should develop:

newer dragon bosses
newer dynamic events
newer heart tasks
newer mobs to fight
newer crafting professions
newer skills
newer races
newer guild activities
etc.

A feeling of, character & world progression, is needed.

Flame & Frost was fun. Flame & Frost was just too long, and it spanned over several months, while Southsun Cove has stagnated and feels abandoned.

Just leave the temporary content to special events & holidays, which can be re-used over the years, but to completely develop a whole storyline, characters, dungeons, etc., only to remove it, is just a waste of resources and time, and it gives off that feeling that more important content (the list above) is being ignored.

Why would you only want from that list to be the only way to changes the world it sounds like that what YOU want added in and not the community. They have added in new mob types new skins new events new dungeons new zones new boss fights new consumable items new story new main line heroes so ya the world is changing but your doing your best to turn a blind eye to it.

Except that all those new mob types new skins new events new dungeons new zones new boss fights new consumable items are disappearing from the game in 10 days.

nethykins.7986:

Part of me would have preferred this workload be converted to the 7 remaining dungeon overhauls they need to do.

Have no idea if the normal team did this dungeon or not.
If they did: They still have that “we want to build on what’s already in game” comment they need to uphold, which this deviates from slightly.
If they didn’t: Move those beautiful dungeon designers into revamping the older dungeons.

I must say i’m with you, i completely agree.

All this work and content gone in two weeks so we can go back to the same old content that very seldom gets a look in, how long do they expect players to do Fotm or the other token dungeons with zero changes and when i say changes i do not mean terrible ones like they did to AC..that whole dungeon is unplayable now and not fun at all..

Hard content does not equal fun..Temporary content is only fun temporarily..

Hi Colin, thanks for the clarification. I really appreciate the living story content, I do, but I have the feeling that the core system – dynamic events – are being hurt by this. What I mean: current zones have still the events the game started with, instead of growing in quantity & quality it’s just mostly the same density of events we had when the game was released. 8(?) months ago.

You said your goal is/was(?) to make the current world as strong as possible, but looking at certain zones there isn’t that much of variety there. Very few events have fail-conditions where different follow-up events come up. Dragon-encounters… I don’t even want to talk about those since you stated lately to improve those…

There are so many different work areas, I wonder if the team is too small to handle all of those areas at once. Will we ever see a substantial increase in the number of events in the open world? Or was this vision scrapped because of other things like the living story?

(I’m a bit crabby because I told a lot of people about the 3x more events a year later when it was mentioned in an interview and now…)

Sinned.8419:

I really enjoy the idea of the living story. I am tired of MMOs that add content constantly, but all the old stuff stays the same. The world evolving and changing is exactly what a MMO needs.

Evolving and change is good, but the world needs to grow as well. It doesn’t.

Breathing new life into old content is going to make the game much more enjoyable.

Except they are not doing that. They introduce new content and then remove it.

The problem I have with temporary content is that I have to play it on Anet’s schedule, not mine. I don’t like feeling pressured to either do content within someone else’s time frame or not at all. That being the case, I pretty much ignore all temporary stuff. I just won’t play it. I don’t want to risk getting part of the way through it and not completing it before it goes away.

That said, it does appear that temporary content is popular with a large portion of the playerbase. I suppose I am in the minority.

Still, hearing that the living story might not be ALL temporary stuff is encouraging. Carry on, then. Show us what you’ve got. :-)

Toggles.1783:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Our goal is to get to a point where on a regular basis, the world around you is not only changing in the short term through our normal event system, it’s changing and evolving permanently through our living world releases as well. What you’ve seen so far is primarily some tests and warmup stuff while we in the background organize the company to support this exciting future for our game, the future for living world is filled with endless possibilities.

Enjoy the ride!

Could we get events in the living world that are long term fail-able please?

Such as maybe server A B and C were able to complete such Living World event, thus saving zone 1 but servers X Y and Z were unable to complete said event in time and now zone 1 has a lasting ‘stain’.

I think this idea would be extremely cool. It takes what you said and runs with it a little. I know that this would bring a lot of depth to guesting.

It would be cool to guest to another server and (kessex bridge for example) instead of defending the bridge against centaurs, we’re fighting off (for lack of a better idea) branded who are trying to take it over.

It wouldn’t have to be too extreme, the same events, the same landscape(ish) but with some destruction, scorched earth/branded crystals. All the events could even run exactly the same except have the mobs interchanged.

Any chance for something like this to happen? It’d be so cool if in ~1 years time some servers could be visually different from each other because of it.

Best comment in this thread. This is actually what I was initially expecting from GW2 in regards to a dynamic world with dynamic events, but since the success or failure of all aspects of the world do not leave a lasting mark on it, there is less motivation to participate as nothing you do (or do not do) has any lasting effect on the world. Yes, failing a dynamic event can cause a bridge to crumble which forces players to have to go around the gorge, but that’s just an event timer away from being rebuilt without player participation. I’m not unhappy with what GW2 offers, I think I was just expecting a bit too much at the start. In time I would love to see what you’ve suggested be adopted into the game by Anet, It would be truly groundbreaking.

nexxe.7081:

Why would you only want from that list to be the only way to changes the world it sounds like that what YOU want added in and not the community. They have added in new mob types new skins new events new dungeons new zones new boss fights new consumable items new story new main line heroes so ya the world is changing but your doing your best to turn a blind eye to it.

I wrote “etc.” at the bottom of the list. Stop turning a blind eye to that.
Yes, they added more content, such as new skins, karka, fractals.. but that’s besides the point. They could be adding more, making it permanent, otherwise the world feels like it’s never progressing. As it is now, the living story took way too long with no real benefit to the state of permanence of the existing world. I read that the refugees will be going to southsun cove, so that’s a plus, but it’s still taking resources away from the current content that could be getting upgraded or added to the game.

They could always add in more you could always want more too. Just because its not to your IDEAL set up dose not make it any less that what it is now. It a very bad way to looking at life if its not the best then it become the worst.

@Lévis.5489
Not every thing is going away so far with the living stores we gotten permanent new zones skins never go away mob types have been added that did not go away.

kokocabana.8153:

Nabuko Darayon.9645:

Doesn’t it seem too long to spread this little content over 4 months? IMO every 2 weeks would be more then enough for all 4 parts. 1 month is just too long for all these non-grinding events.

Anet’s dev team and resources are not Blizzard sized. Even if they had released everything for a 2 week period, you would still be waiting for the next 3 and a half months.

I don’t mind waiting. Every game has some waiting points after a content is released. What bothers me that ANet will make people get used to new contents every month and none is thinking what will happen when they end this because they’re working on major content instead.
Don’t get me wrong I do like the Living part of the Living story it just takes too long for the next chapter to keep the interest up.
I’m fine with the Balance updates every month or so, but Living should be ALIVE and not dead before the next chapter comes up.
Just making some points for the future. I get it that we’re still under 1 year of release and I’ve played every single day from prerelese so I really mean well when I say this.
But they gotta hire more developers. With the gem store they have a lot of funds coming in.
I do hope later in game they’ll remove the GAMBLING (a.k.a. RNG) part in the Gem Store as people are really paying with their money and I don’t see why they wouldn’t make different skins available as single purchase rather then placing them into RNG gambling Chests/Dyes.
And I gotta say that I spent 2500 gems on Flame Dye to get the new ones and I got 0. That’s a real Las Vegas gambling where House takes it all. And if that’s the case this game should really be for 21+ year olds and not for Teens.

Agent Noun.7350:

Well I really hope they do. It’s annoying to be told, “You better do this dungeon now or you’ll never get to!”, especially when I’ve done the eight permanent dungeons so many times I never want to see them again. Having a new permanent dungeon in the game would be fantastic.

If ArenaNet wants to add temporary open-world, “dynamic event” stuff, that makes sense to me. But making entire dungeons—entire GOOD dungeons—and then throwing them away after an arbitrary period of time not only makes no sense to me, but is immensely frustrating.

THIS THIS AND THIS.

I fail to understand how adding temporary instances in the game makes it feel more living, breathing and dynamic.

Its really strange for a MMO to do this, and i wouldnt exactly call it innovative. Arenanet please; build upon your catalogue of instanced content, with the upcoming revamps of your old content it makes sense to add top quality stuff to it as a permanent thing. I love your ideas of a living story, however leave it within the open world where it belongs… the whole point of the LS concept is under-mimed when you include instanced content into that anyway.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Atlas.9704:

Colin will there ever be a part of Fractals that allow us to play a recap of old content?
Stuff like that would be a win-win for those who want Fractals and others who long to play older stuff as well.

When I said we could update or change an existing dungeon, updating fractals in the future is one of the options that’s fully possible yes. And of course since fractals lets us experience moments trapped in time….it’s entirely possible some content may make its way there as part of a living world update.

I love the idea of storing these dungeons in the fractals! brilliant solution to keeping the dungeons but also allowing the world to progress. I don’t like the idea of these dungeons being accessible in the game world. We dealt with that problem they shouldn’t still be there.

Because eventually the Molten Alliance will be defeated and their lair will go away, after which we’ll move to something else presumably. It’s obvious that ANet wants to do grander things in the future, and I for one and more than happy to give them time. Meanwhile there’s a lot of other fun stuff to do. I entirely remember the one time my guild and I fought the Ancient Karka; I barely remember what happens every time I run the Maw.

tolunart.2095:

They are trying to be DIFFERENT from every other MMO out there, complaining because the game doesn’t work the way every other MMO does is kind of missing the point…

They aren’t trying to be different they’re trying to give a theme park MMO more of a sandbox feel, which while laudable I would say why not just make a sandbox MMO.

Its difficult to argue for the disappearance of the molten facility along these lines whilst retaining all other dungeons as static and unchangeable. Why not have the story mode disappear but have a epxlorable mode afterward?

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Agent Noun.7350:

Well I really hope they do. It’s annoying to be told, “You better do this dungeon now or you’ll never get to!”, especially when I’ve done the eight permanent dungeons so many times I never want to see them again. Having a new permanent dungeon in the game would be fantastic.

If ArenaNet wants to add temporary open-world, “dynamic event” stuff, that makes sense to me. But making entire dungeons—entire GOOD dungeons—and then throwing them away after an arbitrary period of time not only makes no sense to me, but is immensely frustrating.

THIS THIS AND THIS.

I fail to understand how adding temporary instances in the game makes it feel more living, breathing and dynamic.

Its really strange for a MMO to do this, and i wouldnt exactly call it innovative. Arenanet please; build upon your catalogue of instanced content, with the upcoming revamps of your old content it makes sense to add top quality stuff to it as a permanent thing. I love your ideas of a living story, however leave it within the open world where it belongs… the whole point of the LS concept is under-mimed when you include instanced content into that anyway.

Me and my girlfriend have been questioning the amount of temporary content that Arenanet have been adding.

Real strange to us. At least we have an explanation now, although it doesn’t make me too happy. Sounds like the developers have set their course, it’s too bad.

I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Hmm… I wonder when the Crystal Desert will be come available? Is that going to be temporary as well?

ColinJohanson.2394:

Atlas.9704:

Colin will there ever be a part of Fractals that allow us to play a recap of old content?
Stuff like that would be a win-win for those who want Fractals and others who long to play older stuff as well.

When I said we could update or change an existing dungeon, updating fractals in the future is one of the options that’s fully possible yes. And of course since fractals lets us experience moments trapped in time….it’s entirely possible some content may make its way there as part of a living world update.

I think Fractals is going to be the PERFECT way to bring back limited-time content. The other way of course is what you guys have done with the existing dungeons: adding explorable mode. Either way, we can experience the dungeon content forever, without it feeling like it doesn’t fit into the timeline of the game world.

tolunart.2095:

They are trying to be DIFFERENT from every other MMO out there, complaining because the game doesn’t work the way every other MMO does is kind of missing the point…

Putting square wheels on an automobile would make it different from every other automobile out there, too. Still doesn’t make it a good idea.

There is no excuse for temporary (non-seasonal) content.

Ursan.7846:

Vargs.6234:

Nobody is going to excitedly come back to this game because there’s a refugee camp in southsun, or because the LA lion statue was deleted for awhile but is back now.

But people will come back because SAB has returned from its slumber, or when Molten Facility has been discovered and will be only available for a limited time. Or when the Living Story no doubt shifts its focus to the Consortium and its activities in South Sun.

Whether you like it or not, the world is changing. Again, slowly but surely.

Yea every two weeks out of 8-12. Just stop posting please, you are not coming from an objective view point.

ColinJohanson.2394:

We’re trying something very unique and different with Gw2, and a lot of it plays back on the original ideas and concepts we had for the game all these years we’re trying to build towards and accomplish. It’s important to us to continue to try new things, looking at ways of evolving and innovating what a live game can be. In many cases, we’re learning right along with you guys how all of this is going to work for a live game, and constantly adjusting as we see the outcomes and find ways to innovate on what a true online world experience can be.

Living World is above all, the attempt to really give the sense the world is constantly changing and evolving. That there is events and content that change the world in the short term (like our current events) and events that can occur or change for the long term, which is what we’re slowly building towards in the future with Living World content.

Living world absolutely does not mean nothing but content that comes in and leaves again a few weeks later, and though so far that’s primarily what you’ve seen, it’s not all we will do in the future. The intent is living world provides us with a story and narrative experience, sort of like your favorite TV show, to constantly update and change the world and provide unique and exciting rewards on a regular basis.

We might have events that occur and came back again with a few modifications in the future. We may have events that occur and then find new homes permanently down the road. We may have bosses from a storyline that continue on forever as guild bounty hunts when a story completes. Living world also allows us the opportunity to upgrade and make parts of our existing game better permanently, a living world narrative could allow us to rebuild and change an existing zone or dungeon, or could destroy one entirely.

Our goal is to get to a point where on a regular basis, the world around you is not only changing in the short term through our normal event system, it’s changing and evolving permanently through our living world releases as well. What you’ve seen so far is primarily some tests and warmup stuff while we in the background organize the company to support this exciting future for our game, the future for living world is filled with endless possibilities.

Enjoy the ride!

OK so my simple question to you (and thank you very much for getting back to the players on this, even if i was late in seeing it) would be;

Why, when the (and correct me if i havnt understood correctly) purpose of a living story is to make the game more living, breathing and dynamic, do you introduce temporary INSTANCED content???

Surely the very fact its within a entirely repeatable instance destroys the purpose of a living story. Then factor in that there will be nothing leftover or changed within the game because of it… you must see why a few of us are becoming worried about the direction you guys are taking the game? The initial instances are good obviously, because there a one time thing that progress story at an individuals pace and the content isnt focused around, however the conclusion as a repeatable dungeon (that’s arguably the best one currently in game), just doesn’t make sense in terms of trying to give the dynamic world effect… It merely fakes it, just as a DE appears than disappears again, without anything else to impact the world.

Next time the living story team make a dungeon (and i really hope they do), please pass it over to the permament content team when you have finished. Adjust the story telling to introduce the dungeon to the world rather than destroy it at the end and bring your story conclusion into the open world where it belongs.

Here’s the way i see it. The team that worked on the Molten Alliance dungeon could have added new end-game Dynamic Events, and then the old ones like Jormag & Shatterer could be phased out with a story, telling us they have died, etc.

These events could last several months until the next Living Story. Instead, we get a new dungeon for a couple weeks, while still keeping the old end-game dragon events.

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Next time the living story team make a dungeon (and i really hope they do), please pass it over to the permament content team when you have finished. Adjust the story telling to introduce the dungeon to the world rather than destroy it at the end and bring your story conclusion into the open world where it belongs.

I’ll take it a little further. How about next time the living story team makes a dungeon, they make it a side mission/bonus mission type deal that people can do or not do as they see fit, a dungeon that will remain in the game after the story has concluded, thereby adding to the available permanent content, but which is not itself the conclusion of the story.

ColinJohanson.2394:

We might have events that occur and came back again with a few modifications in the future. We may have events that occur and then find new homes permanently down the road. We may have bosses from a storyline that continue on forever as guild bounty hunts when a story completes. Living world also allows us the opportunity to upgrade and make parts of our existing game better permanently, a living world narrative could allow us to rebuild and change an existing zone or dungeon, or could destroy one entirely.

What I got from this is that the system could be – and is intended to be – a way for you to permanently restructure the world – at least until the next living story update changes it again. So…….. a living story update in which the undead are mostly purged from Orr and new life comes in is a possible eventuality?

Tachenon.5270:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Next time the living story team make a dungeon (and i really hope they do), please pass it over to the permament content team when you have finished. Adjust the story telling to introduce the dungeon to the world rather than destroy it at the end and bring your story conclusion into the open world where it belongs.

I’ll take it a little further. How about next time the living story team makes a dungeon, they make it a side mission/bonus mission type deal that people can do or not do as they see fit, a dungeon that will remain in the game after the story has concluded, thereby adding to the available permanent content, but which is not itself the conclusion of the story.

Well thanks, you said exactly what I said but alot better. I think iv posted so much on this subject now my words have turned into the ramblings of a mad man.
:D

Colin,

How about something to appease those of us who don’t like dungeons? The Karka invasion… ends in a dungeon. Halloween… ends in a dungeon. Wintersday… ends in a dungeon. The Super Adventure Box… is a dungeon. Flame and Frost… ends in a dungeon. Even my personal story, which I soloed most the way through… ends in a dungeon.

Dungeons are just plain HARD for many people, myself included, but I have struggled through several. The reward has NEVER covered my expense, and they are a huge time commitment. And I have a small guild of real-life friends who mostly feel the same way. (We can only rarely get 5 of us together online at the same time, all with the gumption to make a dungeon attempt). So most of my experience has been with strangers, which is no fun (for a soloer like me).

My personal dislike of dungeons aside though, can you see that pretty much all the “keep you interested” stuff is dungeons? My guild is always excited to see the new content and play it through, and then when it invariably winds up with a dungeon we don’t get to enjoy how it comes out.

(A “blast-from-the-past” suggestion you’ve probably seen many times before… what about scaling dungeons for the number of participants 1-5?)

Duke Blackrose.4981:

ColinJohanson.2394:

We might have events that occur and came back again with a few modifications in the future. We may have events that occur and then find new homes permanently down the road. We may have bosses from a storyline that continue on forever as guild bounty hunts when a story completes. Living world also allows us the opportunity to upgrade and make parts of our existing game better permanently, a living world narrative could allow us to rebuild and change an existing zone or dungeon, or could destroy one entirely.

What I got from this is that the system could be – and is intended to be – a way for you to permanently restructure the world – at least until the next living story update changes it again. So…….. a living story update in which the undead are mostly purged from Orr and new life comes in is a possible eventuality?

I would assume not, purely as it would destroy the current personal story. Now if Anet decide to revamp the personal story and approach the elder dragons differently at some point in the future… I can totally see them going down that route. Especially as newer max lvl zones are added, more people will be leaving Orr for good. Would be a brilliant way to get players back into those kind of zones.

Unfortunately though, the possibilities and potential of the living story are currently hindered by the weakest part of the game, the original PS.

I love the direction of the living story, it honestly keeps me wanting to play and it is certainly a respite from the traditional expansion route of other mmo’s.

Based of what you’ve said so far, Colin, it seems like you can use the living story to open up new areas of the world map, destroy some other areas, bring back bosses, introduce new enemies…..

so would it be fair to assume that we might see new playable races, perhaps even new classes or crafting professions as well, via the living story?

ColinJohanson.2394:

We’re trying something very unique and different with Gw2, and a lot of it plays back on the original ideas and concepts we had for the game all these years we’re trying to build towards and accomplish. It’s important to us to continue to try new things, looking at ways of evolving and innovating what a live game can be. In many cases, we’re learning right along with you guys how all of this is going to work for a live game, and constantly adjusting as we see the outcomes and find ways to innovate on what a true online world experience can be.

Living World is above all, the attempt to really give the sense the world is constantly changing and evolving. That there is events and content that change the world in the short term (like our current events) and events that can occur or change for the long term, which is what we’re slowly building towards in the future with Living World content.

Living world absolutely does not mean nothing but content that comes in and leaves again a few weeks later, and though so far that’s primarily what you’ve seen, it’s not all we will do in the future. The intent is living world provides us with a story and narrative experience, sort of like your favorite TV show, to constantly update and change the world and provide unique and exciting rewards on a regular basis.

We might have events that occur and came back again with a few modifications in the future. We may have events that occur and then find new homes permanently down the road. We may have bosses from a storyline that continue on forever as guild bounty hunts when a story completes. Living world also allows us the opportunity to upgrade and make parts of our existing game better permanently, a living world narrative could allow us to rebuild and change an existing zone or dungeon, or could destroy one entirely.

Our goal is to get to a point where on a regular basis, the world around you is not only changing in the short term through our normal event system, it’s changing and evolving permanently through our living world releases as well. What you’ve seen so far is primarily some tests and warmup stuff while we in the background organize the company to support this exciting future for our game, the future for living world is filled with endless possibilities.

Enjoy the ride!

Fluff. Words. Empty words.

Remember this post from the end of Jan?

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-living-story-in-guild-wars-2/

Hasn’t really measured up, now has it?

Or this?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/03/07/how-guild-wars-2-plans-to-survive

If other games don’t have that carrot or that thing that makes players log back in it’s really dangerous for them because they can’t get that monthly fee. We don’t have that. Instead, our motivation has to be provide players with such an amazing experience in the game that they want to keep playing it.

That’s the only motivation we’ve got.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/80938-interview-with-colin-johanson/

Check out 09:13.

Worst TV show ever, Colin. Worst TV show ever.

Aeonblade.8709:

Vayne.8563:

Many of the things though come back…like Halloween and Christmas content. That we’ll be seeing annually. What Anet is doing, at least in part, is building a library of things they can use.

It’s a very different idea for an MMO and I disagree with the poster who said they’d rather not go through six months of beta testing to see whether or not something will pan out. If everyone thought that way, the industry would be even more stagnant than it is now. Trying new things is what drives the industry forward. Without it, we’d all still be playing pong.

Only this isn’t a new thing. WoW and Rift have recurring seasonal events too, as well as chapters of the story as it unfolds. This whole “living story” thing has been around since WoW tried to do phased instances in WoTLK, it didn’t work out well then, I don’t see how this is going to end any differently.

Every time Rift unlocks a new raid or dungeon there is a 2-3 week event coinciding with the release of it. Only the raids or dungeons stay around forever after the event ends. This isn’t a new idea, and the GW2 version of it is poorly done.

Living Story content was done before WoW was released in other games. Horizons did it a year before or so, though their developers failed in good implementation of said content, the content idea was there.

Maz.8604:

Fluff. Words. Empty words.

Although very pessimistic you do have a point. Like alot of the messages we get from anet, too much emotive language and not enough fact.

Colin, I was wondering whether we could get a more in depth explanation about future content in Guild Wars 2. I understand that you cannot divulge information about the actual content, but I would very much like to know about the content in terms of quantity.

I ask is because I am a huge Guild Wars fan and I have been very disappointed with the content that has so far been delivered. The reason is because we have seen holiday event content, a very lacking Southsun Cove piece of content and an extremely basic Living Story arc which has quite obviously been introduced to be accompanied by game updates and features that many people were expecting at launch.

The only real persistent content that I believe could be considered a content release is Fractals. I am extremely concerned that we are not receiving a sufficient amount of actual expanded content. If possible, I would really like to know whether there are any plans this year to release a significant amount of expanded content. The content released in Flame and Frost was played up to the extreme, with the core game at the moment almost completely in its original state.

I guess I am really just asking for the truth, i.e. Without dancing around the already released ‘post-launch content’ that is clearly not acceptable, does Anet have any actual plans for ‘real content patches’ in the near future?

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Maz.8604:

Fluff. Words. Empty words.

Although very pessimistic you do have a point. Like alot of the messages we get from anet, too much emotive language and not enough fact.

If people would go back and read half the fluff published while they tried to polish this kitten over the last four months, it’s been a constant hype machine and little substance. How often can you wow people with hype until they become immune to it?

Maz.8604:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Maz.8604:

Fluff. Words. Empty words.

Although very pessimistic you do have a point. Like alot of the messages we get from anet, too much emotive language and not enough fact.

If people would go back and read half the fluff published while they tried to polish this kitten over the last four months, it’s been a constant hype machine and little substance. How often can you wow people with hype until they become immune to it?

And we as a community has not been using emotive languages? What would you want from him to post every thing they are working on now? What facts would make you happy to know? Or are you just trying to mud sling?