Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone.

Long ago ANet writers wrote what they called short stories, which were basically pretty chunks of Guild Wars 2 lore told outside the game, through blogposts, and as such added some depth to soon-to-come characters (such as Marjory and Canach). These stories were well-received by some (like me), while others hated them because for them these stories were an excuse to add lore to the game which were supposed to be told in-game. The devs listened, and stopped writing those.

Later on they introduced the Story Journal, a tool to track each step of personal story and upcoming Living World-related stories, the framework is used to this day and works like this:

• Tracks Personal Story by default, containing 8 chapters
• Tracks Living World season one summary
• Tracks Living World season two
• Tracks Heart of Thorns story

Each tab contains its chapters.

Since the stories tend to focus on Elder Dragon related stuff and sometimes the central plot rushes towards the end (Heart of Thorns arc, Eir’s part to be specific), it may make the story a bit lacking because some details go missing, and sometimes a character lacks depth or backstory (like short stories).

I would like to suggest devs add a tab to the Story Journal called “Tales”, in which they could add small side stories to add weight to the narrative, and the world itself. This idea is inspired by the short stories because I loved them so much.

I’m going to list how it would work mechanically, but I know that this may be difficult and $$$-consuming to produce, so if things are too difficult and not worth it, I’d understand. Here’s how it would work:

• One (or max. two) instance(s) that would start somewhere in the world of Tyria, with a few NPCs that make up the ambience.
• The story would not be focused on us, the player, but on some other figures or characters either well-known or random in the world.
• The instance would have voice-acting to add immersion, and maybe just one cinematic or none (if this is too expensive).
• To accommodate the player in the story as not to interfere but still make a play, depending on the story and to make sense we could be transformed into another race (don’t hate me on this, the focus is the lore anyways). The class/gear/skills/etc would be retained of course.
• Each tale would reward with (one-time only):
  • 5 or 10 Achievement Points
  • A Package of Tale Reader (1 Class Specific Box such as the one sold be laurel vendor, maybe 1 cosmetic stuff such as mini or back skin, and 1g)
• Each story would cost 100 gems (for revenues).
  • I’d like to add one more thing for revenues, and hopefully this next suggestion is fair considering tales would be optional: additionally the Package of Tale Reader would contain 1 Tale’s Paper token, amassing tokens would lead to a vendor that sells weapon skins. (Warning! no one is forced to do these stories, it’s just another more forgiving way to profit, specially when you compare to Black Lion weapon skins)

And that’s it. I’ve attached an image of how I imagine it would look. If you have constructive and respectful feedback I’d appreciate.

Thanks!

GMTA. I suggested something similar on reddit about a month ago, as a way of explaining the Nightmare Court presence in HoT. Some players might be upset about having to pay for access, so I suggested including a BL key as one of the rewards.

Sariel V.7024:

GMTA. I suggested something similar on reddit about a month ago, as a way of explaining the Nightmare Court presence in HoT. Some players might be upset about having to pay for access, so I suggested including a BL key as one of the rewards.

Only problem with that is replayability. If the rewards are once per character one could get many keys. If they decide once per account, then that’s totally feasible IMO.

I can’t help but see the potential for tales. Writers could create very cool and short stories in their own pace (no commitment at all), and still guarantee profits for themselves and the company. There would be no need for a specialized team aswell, they could break seasons and add tales in between, you know, a very different flow to the story-telling.

I think it’s a good idea. The devs said they’d pretty much were only ever concentrate on the main storyline, but if they ever changed their minds and felt they could add in side stories, this would be a good way to do it.

Valento.9852:

Sariel V.7024:

GMTA. I suggested something similar on reddit about a month ago, as a way of explaining the Nightmare Court presence in HoT. Some players might be upset about having to pay for access, so I suggested including a BL key as one of the rewards.

Only problem with that is replayability. If the rewards are once per character one could get many keys. If they decide once per account, then that’s totally feasible IMO.

They’ve done it once before in LS 2. Keeping it as a Level 80-only story will keep players from casually farming it. At any rate, it’s just a suggestion

Can’t lie to you, I trust ArenaNet writers. Sometimes the focus go amiss, but they have such potential for side stories, it just feels like they have yet to unlock all their creativity, and I personally found them to be pretty good at smaller stories/tales. It’s also a way for them to sharpen their story-telling.

I would love to see something like that in game.

Any more thoughts?

I think you strongly underestimate the work that goes into making such things… I Would Love to see Your suggestion going live. But I would not like what we’d have to sacrifice on all other content for it to happen.

Here’s an alternative
While I do not disagree with the idea of adding lore wise side content, I think it’d be better to make it written lore, with an option to have it read out loud.
Like that you can play the game and listen to the less important side story. You could for instance have Majory and Canarch read their own stories out loud. I think It should be free and have its own “Tales Journal” tab, unrelated to the story journal. I think it should have the same basic look as the achievement menu. Edd: to read about / Listen to side stories related to HoT, one would click on HoT, then pick a side character. On the right side of the screen one should be able to pick which side story they’d want to read/listen to. Graphically looking like the achievements, until you click it.
This would be a lot less expensive to produce and we’d have something interesting to do while doing some of the less amusing stuff, like farming or grinding achievements.