Guild Wars 2

I’m not the player that actually plays this game that much, and I’m sorry if this have been discussed before, but it really became obvious to me today, when I decided that I wanted to check out the Buried Achieves and on the way get the jumping puzzle- achievement.

I’m the kind of person who really gets invested in the stories when I play, and that was also the case with Guild Wars 1.

Now, why am I posting this? Well, it is because I came over a video of Elder Scrolls Online. Just to state this right now, I have no plans in playing that game. However, I found something that I really liked about it, namely books. As I saw in the video, the player could find these in-game books around (like in Morrowind and Oblivion) and get an inside about one person, place or whatever.

As I said, today I went to the Buried Achieves and found out that the only thing waiting for me there was a veteran and a chest. There was really nothing else, and I was kind of hoping that there was some object I could interact with, something like in the Vizier’s Tower. I went from that place with no idea what it was or what it had been.

I talked to a friend of mine who had played GW2 in the start, but he lost interest in the game. He said that arena-net was planning to add in-game books that a player could find and through them build up a more compelling and complex world. However, they decided not to do this. Is this true, and if so, why in the world would they decide not to do this? For me, it would have been an amazing addition for people, like me, who does not really care about the green items I get from the chest, but more about the stories and the world.

The only books I know in game are the ones in the Durmand Priory, they are all very short stories about some characters and events from the past, and also in the Ebonhawk (there is even an achievement to read them all in a day) that tells the story about the foundation of the city.

I wish there were more readable books in game, many of the books we find in DR ,that we can only see the tittle, sounds so interesting but we can only dream about it.

Who knows why they don’t add the books in game, they wrote many cool stories in the blog/news section of the site, so we know that they have information to add, they just don’t do it the “right” way.

You are correct. ANet planned on including books- to the point of writing up hundreds of them, according to a dev- but it was decided that implementing the systems to allow such large amounts of text to be viewed would tie up resources better used elsewhere. Why? That was an internal company decision, and therefore we are not party to the information. The dev (Bobby Stein, I think, though I could be wrong) did say that there is a chance that the books’ll be implemented later, but there are no plans for it at the moment, so it is unlikely to come in the next half-year or so, and may not come at all.

The only thing we can do is express interest in seeing them, without any assurances that aught will come of it.

I too recall ‘reading’ the various book titles all throughout DR and other places, and wondering at the time if there would be some Living Story involvement surrounding them. It’s really too bad that it was decided not to implement this multilayered immersion into the lore and written histories of Tyria. I would find something like this an attractive draw to becoming more involved in this game.

Imagine if the dev team for this game segment enlisted the player base, to provide more than simply titles, but writing actual stories and deeper lore. (Utilizing of course, the established facts and continuity already present.) It could be set up as a story/lore expansion contest.
It could serve to create more interest and excitement in this segment of the game and act as a spring-board for all sorts of events and ideas. Anet would benefit greatly from something like this it seems, for very little in the way of investment. Plus, investing in your customer base and engaging their participation is always good business. Everyone wins

Yea i really miss the rich lore from guild wars 1.
Thats not to say that guild wars 2 lore is bad, just that there is very little of it.
I mean you can go around and talk to all the npc’s, they can tell you some cool stuff but obviously you have to travel far and wide to find them, As well as reading through all the npc’s who dont have many interesting things to say, then you only get a couple of sentences.
Books would be amazing even if the story’s were split into multiple books, at least you could get a full story eventually.
Books could even point you in the direction of secret areas or dynamic events through clues or hints (like kneel at this alter to talk to an emissary of dwayna)
However i feel this is unlikely to come to pass, there is just to much hate from the community about other things (living story) to get the attention of any devs.
This game is beautiful, I really do love this game,
However it lacks the lore to get me as thoroughly drawn in as gw1 did.
Surely there is a way we could get books added right?

The idea is actualy quiet good. I would like to se more books inside the game. Maybe a way to collct them and have a digital wikipedija of stories like a libarie inside jour home instance.