Guild Wars 2

There was a hint at the possibility of being able to do certain dungeons or events in the future in another post. Now keep in mind this is pure speculation but by the sounds of things and how Arenanet likes to do things like fractals and holiday events, we may have a chance to do living story dungeons, instances, and relive story content etc in the future.

So far we can assume we will have wintersday, Halloween, and SAB back on an anniversary date. From the comments I’ve seen it sounds like we may also have chances to revisit previous living story events. I say this because the concepts, story, dungeon data doesn’t really disappear just because the event does. And reviving these events in the future on an anniversary date could fill gaps while other content is being created.

Imagine for a second it is April 1 again, 2014. We get the SAB with new stages, but because that work has already been done they have time and room to add something else as well. Same for wintersday, they have all the makings for past events, and room to change the story or events around. Now with any luck in March-May or sometime between they bring back the Flame and Frost dungeon with same rewards and/or new rewards. They could put it in fractals in Hard Mode, they could just allow you to do a quest that sent you to somewhere to enter the “revisited” instance, or something along those lines. Now all this code and story is just sitting there, so they just add it back with some finesse. Now since this required no real “new” content, they could have a new arc during this time on top of that. Or perhaps something from January-March hasn’t reached its end yet and overlaps.

Imagine over the years we have revisit-able events, overlapping new content, and changes to the overall world. All done because they use “living content” that goes away (for us) but they don’t truly do away with. An example in case I lost anyone :P

2015 March-May
Relive Flame and Frost Instances and dungeons through _______
Relive 2014 living story instances and dungeons through _______
Enjoy the NEW content and rewards!

Now if we keep stacking on historical events, short dungeons/instances/stories we can do that won’t take much time away from whatever new content is out the game could have so much content to it. And this would also help those who never had a chance to experience it.

In short, I think it is possible, and profitable, for Arenanet to use current living story as static historical (on the anniversary) revisit-able content to help people who missed out. And on top of those small remakes add new live content that is limited time. It still instills a sense of “Oh we have to do this or it will end!”, but also allow those who could not the ability to do them when they come around again. The fact that GW2 is a game very different from others leads me to believe this sort of thing could work. As most games only repeat, or allow repeat of “holiday” events only. Whereas GW2 will have content year after year that will fill the game with life, and renew it with life as well. Again, this is all speculation from what I’ve read and gathered so don’t take this as a guarantee ^^ But I hope to see everyone next year in wayfarer foothills lfg for MF, and lfg for X content as well

What are your thoughts on this possible outcome?

Edited title to be more specific :P

That sounds like a great idea. It allows content to continuously increase yet not become stale because it sits in game forever and no one plays it anymore because they are bored with it.

Maybe they could work out some way for people who missed the original event to get the title.

Personally I found the MF dungeon very enjoyable and I’d love to be able to see it again (actually same goes for lots of other seasonal things like the mad king mini dungeon, the clocktower, the christmas mini dungeon and so on, but those will probably return every year). Wouldn’t really care about the achievements, but I’d like to keep the instances going.

Maybe there could a new instance that allows you to visit places from the near past (after all, the mysts are supposed to allow to visit different worlds), add some lore about how in a particular lore Roxx and Braham failed to destroy the weapons facility and you go in to make sure they succeed, and put there the temporary instanced content that is added to the game after they’re over. It could also be used to re-create some of the dungeons from the original GW as well.

Astral Projections.7320:

That sounds like a great idea. It allows content to continuously increase yet not become stale because it sits in game forever and no one plays it anymore because they are bored with it.

Maybe they could work out some way for people who missed the original event to get the title.

That’s what i was thinking. It seems they are heading this way, maybe I read into it to much. But either way if they do follow this path I think they would get much less hate. But many things lead to this being a possibility like the fact we still have achievements not finished, taking players concerns over not getting any items, etc etc. It would really be great if this whole thing was exactly what they plan, and I hope it is.

This sounds like a good idea. I’m normally up for temporary content, but this recent dungeon one annoyed me only because I thought it was a fantastic dungeons and probably one of the best boss fights i’ve ever played in a gw dungeon. I think it would be cool to implement your idea, or maybe add a storyteller who would let you repeat the story again on the anniversary of it (or something) that lasts a bit longer. I do think the dungeon should be a permanent addition as it was so good haha, maybe with another storyteller? :P

Fractals seems like an excellent gateway to past content, given its nature. The concept could be expanded into something more than a dungeon, while the dungeon itself would be on a different menu, I suppose. To distinguish between the two, the current fractals could be called Unstable Fractals. It’s a win-win!

Genuinely impressed, and approve of this idea. Really like the idea of celebrating the ‘victory’ over the living story with being able to replay it annually. Along with that it allows the game to grow and evolve and doesn’t let the old content go to waste.

Good Job!

Lindbur.2537:

Fractals seems like an excellent gateway to past content, given its nature. The concept could be expanded into something more than a dungeon, while the dungeon itself would be on a different menu, I suppose. To distinguish between the two, the current fractals could be called Unstable Fractals. It’s a win-win!

Fractals is essentially this games Caverns of Time

However i just dont understand why the dungeon cant exist? I mean technicly the other dungeons are done also and should be gone because i finished my personal story. Why cant the living story then become part of your personal story once you completes the personal story, this would allow a way to keep future dungeons.

I hope Living Story will be replayed. Several of us in my guild didn’t get “A rallying flame”. That’s a complete waste of, what, 3 months!

Even though I’m more for the idea of letting living stories die out once they’ve served their time, I do also see the desire to replay certain moments. I did that with Braham and Rox’s missions before the F&F ended.

Sure ArenaNet gave us Fractals, possibly the one avenue where old dungeons go to live again, but I think we should also look at it from another angle that OP touched on.

For elements in the Living story that people missed, the non-dungeon instanced stories, ArenaNet should use the recap NPCs in a bigger way. They were available if you beat that instance but wanted to play again. We should not only ask for Fractals of dungeons, we should put out on the Suggestion forum a desire for a storyteller NPC which acts as the Recap. They could put one in each major city or even just the Major cities of the Races for that event.

F&F would have a Norn and Charr NPC dedicated to keeping those stories available in the form of recap: “Listen to my tale of Braham and his friends…” or “Some cub named Rox jumped at the chance to defend the Legions, here’s the mission report”.

Southsun could be one of those where at the beach some Lionguard retells the story: “Whew you missed out on a wild party….” Though since Cove doesn’t have any instances yet, I am not sure if this one would be possible.
You get the picture.
Each living story instanced mission we get could create these NPCs near the major cities or areas where the action happened and so won’t clutter the landscape with old missions, but still allow people to go back if they want.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Alternatives-to-RNG-rarity-rewards/first#post2054433

I support this 100%. Being yearly, it would still make us savor the event while it lasts, yet at the same time allowing those who missed the event earlier to enjoy it as well. This would also satisfy those who wish to earn achievements that they missed the first time around or just allow people to relive their favorite stories/events. I’d love to see something like this implemented.

Hopefully we will see soon if this is how it plays out

Fox Mulder.6907:

I hope Living Story will be replayed. Several of us in my guild didn’t get “A rallying flame”. That’s a complete waste of, what, 3 months!

How is not getting A Rallying Flame a complete waste of three months? Is it the achievement point you’re talking about or the experience itself? Because as an experience, it was clicking on a fire. You didn’t miss much.

Vayne.8563:

Fox Mulder.6907:

I hope Living Story will be replayed. Several of us in my guild didn’t get “A rallying flame”. That’s a complete waste of, what, 3 months!

How is not getting A Rallying Flame a complete waste of three months? Is it the achievement point you’re talking about or the experience itself? Because as an experience, it was clicking on a fire. You didn’t miss much.

Hey now that fire gave me like 30 minutes or something of having 452 MF :P Which i wasted most of (stupid censoring..) away from keyboarding for dinner..

Geotherma.2395:

Vayne.8563:

Fox Mulder.6907:

I hope Living Story will be replayed. Several of us in my guild didn’t get “A rallying flame”. That’s a complete waste of, what, 3 months!

How is not getting A Rallying Flame a complete waste of three months? Is it the achievement point you’re talking about or the experience itself? Because as an experience, it was clicking on a fire. You didn’t miss much.

Hey now that fire gave me like 30 minutes or something of having 452 MF :P Which i wasted most of (stupid censoring..) away from keyboarding for dinner..

I thought you could keep going back to it.

My thought/suggestion would be the addition of a storybook similar to what was available in the original GW campaigns. This could serve as both a place to provide a running summary of the living story and a means of replaying some of the key instanced content.

Vayne.8563:

Geotherma.2395:

Vayne.8563:

Fox Mulder.6907:

I hope Living Story will be replayed. Several of us in my guild didn’t get “A rallying flame”. That’s a complete waste of, what, 3 months!

How is not getting A Rallying Flame a complete waste of three months? Is it the achievement point you’re talking about or the experience itself? Because as an experience, it was clicking on a fire. You didn’t miss much.

Hey now that fire gave me like 30 minutes or something of having 452 MF :P Which i wasted most of (stupid censoring..) away from keyboarding for dinner..

I thought you could keep going back to it.

You can, but it was from an alt. The buff in SS started after the buff was gone from FF story arc afaik.

Seeing the rebirth of old content & achievements would be great.

I agree. I joined the game a little late and had limited time to play the game (I’m more of a casual player). By the time these events started coming out everyone was level 80, and I was still leveling, and focused on that to be where everyone else was. This meant missing the events. I now have free time and hit level 80, but I got none of the achievements, pets, or titles from previous events. I would love for there to be a way where I could go back in time and participate in the events that I missed because all I heard was good things about them. I agree with the idea of having it come back out on the anniversary overlapping with new content, because that would give me and others who are casual, or want to do the events again the opportunity to.

Totally agreed that we should be able to replay past content. Obviously, stuff that appears in the Living World (outside of festival stuff like Halloween, Wintersday or the Zephyr Sanctum) should disappear when they’re not around, but I don’t see the harm in putting in a “Herald” NPC (yes, that guy!) in your Home District that says, “Hello! I’ve been chronicling the story of your adventures. Would you like to review a particular chapter?”

“Yes, I’d like to see the:

a. Story of how we defeated the Molten Alliance
b. Story of how we captured Mai Trin

etc. etc.

You and your party then get sent into an instance where you can replay the content, including getting chances at appropriate loot.

From a bigger perspective too, I’m actually getting a bit tired of the Living Story. It feels a bit like we’re being shuttled from one story to the next with no real opportunity for a break in between. It’s different from how it was during Halloween and Wintersday last year, where the festivals were massive and exciting because the open world was relatively quiet and static in between.

Now it’s like there’s tons of new content to do every month, so it’s lost its novelty, but at the same time, you HAVE to do it if you don’t want to miss out. It’s a bit like being on a constant adrenaline high; it’s exciting for a while, but if that becomes the norm, then it just becomes exhausting.

Would anyone REALLY care for replaying the boring content we’ve been getting?…
“Oh hey I can replay this story and bash 100 sign posts/pinatas/fireworks OMG WOOT!”
“I can go to areas already in the game since launch and collect kites/kill pirates EPIC!”
o_O

@KingClash: Fireworks and dragon pinata’s weren’t really Living Story content but festival content much like pumpkins, kites and snowmen. So even if they did implement retroactive Living story that would not include the entirety of Dragon Bash but only the living story segments through some contrivance.

There is a difference between story content and event content… the sky crystals f.ex. are in no way related to the Living story, so they would not be brought back by whatever it is ANet intends to do about retroactive story telling.