Guild Wars 2

It should not be 100% about developer-made story.

We need that of course, to extend the lore of the game, but this is an MMO. Not a single player game. You cannot make a meaningful story in this game as you can in a single player game, where it really captivates the player on a personal level. Here, everyone experiences the same thing and everyone is the hero, the effect of the narrative is not as powerful.

50% of the Living world should be about the developer-made content, but the other 50% should be about players dictating the course of history – most importantly, the guilds.

The living world should be granting guilds positions of power, making them struggle against each other with combat, politics (influencing players), getting votes, conquering temporary (but not so temporary) things and so on. Voting for kiel vs gnash was on the right path – but it was too little. Voting is not enough. Bring guild wars back to Guild Wars.

MMOs have been corrupted into becoming glorified level up/get loot but online games, and they make absolutely NO use of the multiplayer features they actually have. Playing a single player game together isn’t enough, give us players dominance over the board of the game.

Make it happen anet

Make the game experience even more exclusive to big guilds? Hm, no thanks.

All guilds could participate in the challenges, the most coordinated ones would win. Ideally, not all the challenges available, but the one they dedicated their time the most.

That would inspire other guilds to compete and grow as well, it just makes things more interesting. The top guilds in gw2 should have e-celebrity status, everybody in the game needs to hear about them.

There are so many ways then the Living World could give power to the guilds, even to dramatic things. A guild that completed a tough challenge could get some famous NPC as hostage and decide their fate, including perhaps execution.

That would be interesting living world and would keep people eyes wide open in front of their computer waiting for things to unfold

Edit: also, I never said that the content would be exclusive/non exclusive to a guild. All I said is that the consequences would be exclusive to one. If you are gonna post, use arguments and explain your position instead of just saying a one liner like people will have any clue what you are really trying to say, that´s a pretty toxic thing to do pun intended

Ever since GW1 Anet has focused on the single player being a key component to the changing world around them. For them to shift completely over to guilds as a whole would be a bit too big of a step at this moment

GW1 seemed to capture a story well enough, even if it was experienced by everyone like it was a single player game.

What Living Story needs is more connections with the existing lore.
It also needs to build up each connection from one release to the other better.
The later parts of the Season 1 sort of got there, but by then the story was pretty much done.

IrishPotato.6327:

Ever since GW1 Anet has focused on the single player being a key component to the changing world around them. For them to shift completely over to guilds as a whole would be a bit too big of a step at this moment

Just like every other MMO out there, and why most people think they are a wasted potential to just make a single player game online.

We have three upcoming MMOs at least now that will focus heavily on player driven story (one in space, and two medieval), where players can conquer, build and destroy things. Anet should go with times and push forward MMOs as player driven stories in my opinion, and leave the fully single player paradigm behind.

And how would we know what these ‘big’ Guilds are doing? Letters in the mail? I’m confused about your concept. And how it would impact me. Are you saying the content would only be available for these ‘big’ Guilds? If not, what is my small Guild doing while they do whatever it is they do?

While I agree that this is a good idea, I don’t see it working. It would require at least double the work, only to be able to use half of it. As a DM for a tabletop RPG, allowing the players too much freedom means I have to come up with contingenies for every scenario. If the players don’t want to go to dungeon A that I spent 2 weeks building, but instead want to go to City B to investigate whats going on there means I have to build a narrative around City B as well as having Dungeon A available. Its enough work to build one dungeon from the ground up, but having to do it twice in the same time frame just to give me players more of a choice is just too much work. However if they still want to go to City B, I can usually tweak it so they end up going to Dungeon A anyway, so its not really a player choice, but more of an illusion of choice.

If the same were to happen in GW2, the devs would have to make 2 story arcs per “espisode”. One for outcome A and another for outcome B, and discard one depending on how the players chose. Thats ALOT of work, and more than likely would be poor quality, as it would be rushed and slapped together, unless they decided to bring in another 3 teams to work on probable content. And 50% of their work would be discarded and useless. And I just don’t see that happening any time soon.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

And how would we know what these ‘big’ Guilds are doing? Letters in the mail? I’m confused about your concept. And how it would impact me. Are you saying the content would only be available for these ‘big’ Guilds? If not, what is my small Guild doing while they do whatever it is they do?

A very silly but functional example: the new Living world chapter has a treasure hunt for some new sort of ore found in some new map. That includes wandering around and finding them on hidden places, attacking caravans/enemies that require great deal of coordination and a decent amount of people (perhaps instanced so each guild is tested individually), and so on. Maybe in the final days, there is a GvG event a few times related to gaining access to some place that can process this ore.

Everyone can participate in it, and everyone can gain rewards associated to it. But, the overall guild that does it best in the server or globally, gets to have a stand in all major cities that will sell that ore to other players for a while.

Then it´s just a matter of taking a concept like this to a bigger scale, influencing a lot more in the world and finding ways to make GvG contests (whether direclty PvP or not) more balanced and interesting

Atlas.9704:

GW1 seemed to capture a story well enough, even if it was experienced by everyone like it was a single player game.

What Living Story needs is more connections with the existing lore.
It also needs to build up each connection from one release to the other better.
The later parts of the Season 1 sort of got there, but by then the story was pretty much done.

Exactly.

However I will point out that GW1 was in fact NOT an MMO. It was an online RPG. While it did have some elements of an MMO, those were mainly in the city areas. But all in all it was never billed, advertised, or considered an MMO.

pdavis.8031:

Exactly.

However I will point out that GW1 was in fact NOT an MMO. It was an online RPG. While it did have some elements of an MMO, those were mainly in the city areas. But all in all it was never billed, advertised, or considered an MMO.

I guess that’s why I liked it so much.

This idea kind of sounds like EVE… it’s interesting but I don’t know if it’s the tone ArenaNet is aiming for with GW2. I wonder whether I’d like it… or whether I wouldn’t… I guess it depends on a lot of things.

I would actually agree that the living world should include its player base alot more into the story and decisions within the story.

And I also agree that the LW should tie in or expand on existing lore to pull gw1s fans back.

AND I would like to add that this game is in dire need of meaningful sandbox gameplay within its pve. Guild halls that all the guild can progress forward for a start.

But hey, you cant have it all…. get ready for another half baked set of releases.

am i in the right topic if i say
about the "living world "
would be nice to have something like wars between guilds mixed up with the vote thing, there was an event when we had to vote between a human and a charr, i forgot their names, mixed up with WvW. let me try to explain.

for an event, or from july 2 or whaterver,
1/ Everyplayer represent one side,out of 3 orders , doesnt have to be a guild decision or a guild vs guild ( to be fair with small guilds) , like WvW: 1v1v1.

2 A/each time a player did a daily completion, or monthly completion, the order they represent gain 1 point . The order who has more point have significant bonuses : bonus exp while gathering, killing, bonus karma, bonus crafting, cheaper price to get stuff from npc, free gifts from black lion…etc
2 B/each time one successfully accomplish a normal event, or a " order event " gains X point.

3/ the score will reset everyweek

4/there will be a map, where different players can fight agaisnt each other, like an open pvp. the thing that differs from the WvW, would be, the gathered, salvaged materials are neutrals, can be used to craft anything depending on ur crafting level( ex : neutral ore, neutral wood, neutral food). there will be strategic towns taht gives bonus points to the order u represent, the npc there give special price or something.

well, it s kinda like WvW, when one server occupy lands and stuff, but , this time, its not just on WvW, it s on the whole tyria map , each order will have to extend their influence , gather more people for the upcoming battle
would be nice to have a story telling why , vigil priory and whispers want to compete vs each other , at least for fun.

wants to add , the special map is open to all levels, have quests and events there.

Revler.2359:

It should not be 100% about developer-made story.

We need that of course, to extend the lore of the game, but this is an MMO. Not a single player game. You cannot make a meaningful story in this game as you can in a single player game, where it really captivates the player on a personal level. Here, everyone experiences the same thing and everyone is the hero, the effect of the narrative is not as powerful.

50% of the Living world should be about the developer-made content, but the other 50% should be about players dictating the course of history – most importantly, the guilds.

The living world should be granting guilds positions of power, making them struggle against each other with combat, politics (influencing players), getting votes, conquering temporary (but not so temporary) things and so on. Voting for kiel vs gnash was on the right path – but it was too little. Voting is not enough. Bring guild wars back to Guild Wars.

MMOs have been corrupted into becoming glorified level up/get loot but online games, and they make absolutely NO use of the multiplayer features they actually have. Playing a single player game together isn’t enough, give us players dominance over the board of the game.

Make it happen anet

No. NO! Oh H*** NO! F** NO!

It hard enough having to be in a guild to get access to content like guild rush. I don’t want any GW content to be locked behind a “Guild Only” barrier. Guilds are prone to drama and problems. Sometimes, guild culture change and people are forced to leave. Sometimes, people get g-kicked for petty things. Don’t believe me? Read the WoW Drama Mama articles at http://wow.joystiq.com/category/drama-mamas/

There’s alot of crazy stuff that happens in guilds no matter what game a person chooses to play.

I don’t care if this game is called Guild Wars. I just want to have access to the game and be able to play the game, guild or no guild. It takes alot of time to find the right guild.

BTW, I’m currently part of a large guild on the TC Server.

Sirius.4510:

This idea kind of sounds like EVE… it’s interesting but I don’t know if it’s the tone ArenaNet is aiming for with GW2. I wonder whether I’d like it… or whether I wouldn’t… I guess it depends on a lot of things.

All that happens in EVE is that big corporations camp on resources (and 99% of the profit goes to the top 1% of players running the corporation). There are “stories”, but it’s mostly drama.