Guild Wars 2

With the possiblity of glinding coming to core Tyria, will we finally see Orr get cleance? I mean not getting rid of all event and enemies on those maps but map some change on the landscape, so reduction to the enemies, and maybe even some setlement being created.

Personally I would love to see a future city rise there. Or maybe some more elaborated forts. Now that HoT is on for a couple of mouths, I think the future Living Story could bring some cleansing to these maps.

Maybe even make karkas migrate to there since they are not that far xD

One, it’s “cleansed.” Sorry.
Two, Orr is that way for the people who haven’t finished the personal story.

From a lore standpoint, I imagine it takes decades to clear out decades of dragon corruption. Think of how long it takes a battery company to purify the water near its factory or even how long it takes to turn a gas station into a site that’s safe for a park.

From a business stand point, cleansing Orr requires about 30-70% of the same effort as designing new maps (the only thing that remains the same would be some of the topology). So ANet has to chose between cleansing three Orrian maps or creating let’s say two new maps somewhere else.

In addition, however dull Orr might have become to veterans, it’s still ‘new’ content for new players. Which means, for anyone getting the game for the first time, the choice is: 3 cleansed maps vs 2 new maps + 3 uncleansed in Orr.

tl;dr I doubt it will happen; the “greater good” for the game is probably adding new maps rather than revisiting old ones.

(That said, yeah, personally, I’d love to see Orr reborn as part of a Living Story.)

Interesting as the idea of reclaiming Orr is from a lore standpoint, I don’t want to see it actually happen. I like the Orr maps as they are, so while I wouldn’t be opposed to anything happening down there, I’d hate to see them paved over for a new map.

I’d rather see that effort / development time directed elsewhere, either in making new content or adding interesting new features to existing maps, without steamrolling them.

No, because despite ArenaNet’s original claim of a living, breathing world they could not accomplish such without having massive continuity errors in the form of players who haven’t played through the personal storyline yet in the fact that while not explicitly shown (in that it’s not stated like it is in HoT with the Mordremoth campaign), the Zhaitan campaign is delivered in both open and instanced world.

In other words, cleansing Orr means removing the risen events and the Pact invasion events which in turn removes the story. And removing the story is a bad idea.

The only way to get it to work would be to have phasing maps where you get sent into different Orr maps post-PS completion, however these new maps would be utterly different and result in missing 6 world bosses and several other unique events that have achievements related to them.

Best chance we have of ever seeing a cleansed Orr would be if Anet added a map or two around the Arah dungeon map which is set to be further into the future to the point of being cleansed and shows different things. But the question is: if there’s no or few risen, what’s the map going to be focused on? Keep in mind that in a game like GW2, maps need to have events which in turn need enemies. What kind of enemies would we see? What would the maps’ story conflict be?

Not much really works unless they decide to add a naval invasion or having us meet Joko’s forces in SE Orr.

Perhaps it can tie in with the dragons expanding after two of them died? What if we start to see crystal corruption or something like that.

It’s an entire kingdom that’s been on the floor of the ocean for, what, a couple of hundred years and covered in Dragon corruption, it’ll take more than a couple of years to cleanse. Oh and the undead didn’t just disappear when zaitan did. Their corruption will remain for quite some time but it should be OK in GW3 I reckon.

The healing takes time. And you don’t really want to force it. To bring nature back, let it heal naturally.

For the gameplay side, I’m sure a lot of people would not be pleased if they had to choose between “beat the personal story” and “be able to do Temple Events” (especially wish some legendary collections now tied to those events).

It’s going to take time to heal the land, and it’s even going to take time to clear out the surviving (a term I use loosely) Risen…. especially with Tequatl exerting some extra muscle after his boss’s death.

In an instanced world like Guild Wars 1, this would have been easier to do. In fact, Winds of Change illustrates how, very nicely. However, in a persistent-world MMO, it’s harder. And it’s not as simple as “make two copies” – because they are persistent, those copies would have to be maintained at all times, not created and destroyed as needed.

Still. Because of the lore reason (takes time to regrow nature), we have a plausible supporting argument for the technical reasons to work with. This is NOT a case where gameplay and story are at odds.

In that sense, Lion’s Arch should still be a construction site.
And 3 world threatening events took place in a timespan of 3 years, Zhaitan,Scarlet and Mordremoth. So alot happens in a rapid pace.
Aside from that, the old Lion’s Arch is still playable in story missions, that means it is possible.

Take in consideration, there has been quite some temporary content that new players will never experience.
Ofcourse it is not likely that something like this will actually make it into the game.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

No, because despite ArenaNet’s original claim of a living, breathing world they could not accomplish such without having massive continuity errors in the form of players who haven’t played through the personal storyline yet in the fact that while not explicitly shown (in that it’s not stated like it is in HoT with the Mordremoth campaign), the Zhaitan campaign is delivered in both open and instanced world.

Um, no. They could do it; there’s all sorts of ways to keep the Personal Story going with or without Orr by using the standard trick of “this takes place in the past”. For example, that’s how the personal story deals with LA, which is nothing like it was when the game launched. It’s definitely doable, even it might be ugly or off-putting to some people who get attached to specific aspects of lore or certain types of continuity.

Similarly, the reason that the Living Story doesn’t impact every map is practical, not as much due to lore: it’s just not feasible for ANet to adjust every map on a regular basis.

In general, most people prefer new maps and new stories rather than updates to old maps (although of course, just about every veteran is happy with new stuff to do, regardless of where). Consequently, ANet is mostly going to focus on extending the game rather than revisiting old spots.