Guild Wars 2

I am aware that the recent GuildMag interview was held by people who have actually no clue what they were talking about and subsequently we can take their words with a grain of salt.

However it opens up a big question: Should the LS take precedence over the game?

One of the things Guild Wars 2 took over from Guild Wars 1 were constant holidays and the fact that certain things happens at certain parts of the year.
They were community rituals which basicly said: “screw story, let`s have fun.”

Guild Wars 2 started like that as well. Expanding and reinventing old festivities to the new game and building on the same notion.

However with the LS we have already seen changes to that formular:
Instead of the “Dragon Bash” this year, to repirse it`s role as the chinese dragon festival, we got the “festival of the four winds” returning, with no mention of the old festival.

It is like they thought we have forgotten (btw. am not aware of any interview telling us what happened to the festival)

While the original festival was met with mixed reaction (calling it a cheap rip off for example) it was still established as something that would come back.

The reason was the defeat over an dragon and even though LA was destroyed and everyone heard the roar, ED involvement was only a rumor.
A little festival to lift spirits and some consitency would have fit the whole thing.

However it is gone in favor of the story/developement?

Now we have the news of the SAB possibly not returning.

The SAB was actually a joke which in its second version was actually integrated deeper into Rata Sum.
It is something that is not just an april fools joke, but part of the story of Tyria.

It is fun and something different from the LS and apearently not needed in the direction they want to take the game.

This is concerning. There is no reason to abolish everything else and focus only on the LS expierience. In my opinion this is foolish and puts actually too much focus on one thing, which is not good enough on its own.

The LS needs breathers. Season 1 needed the festivals in some way, since Scarlet wasn`t enough to carry it. Season 2 will need downtimes, so there can be changes don and people can take some steps back and see this as it is: It is only a game
Please handle it that way.

given the state of lions arch i dont think it makes sense in universe for them to be throwing dragon bash.

also where exactly did you hear super adventure box would not be returning because that doesnt line up with everything they have said and set up. I would also be surprised if the halloween and christmas events did not make a return

Goatjugsoup.8637:

given the state of lions arch i dont think it makes sense in universe for them to be throwing dragon bash.

also where exactly did you hear super adventure box would not be returning because that doesnt line up with everything they have said and set up. I would also be surprised if the halloween and christmas events did not make a return

They could have relocated and/or used it instead of the Festival of the Four Winds.
FotFW in that regard felt like they wanted to push something for the LS and reuse assets (hence the Queens Pavillion returning) to satisfy the people easily and quickly.

Reworking LA for a Dragon Bash again (after it`s destruction) would have been too much for them (understandable, but still bad for consitency. Something they managed great before)

The SAB issue was brought up in this interview: http://www.guildmag.com/guild-wars-2-interview-part-1-general-game-living-world/

However the devs there were for Endgame and WvW and might not be the best people to talk about these topics.
Nevertheless, the question remains.

Should the LS take precedence over a consistence game (more so, since Episodes are not temporary anymore)

Goatjugsoup.8637:

also where exactly did you hear super adventure box would not be returning because that doesnt line up with everything they have said and set up. I would also be surprised if the halloween and christmas events did not make a return

http://www.guildmag.com/guild-wars-2-interview-part-1-general-game-living-world/

Goatjugsoup.8637:

given the state of lions arch i dont think it makes sense in universe for them to be throwing dragon bash.

Except, you know, as a fund raiser and a way to lift people’s spirits and bring a bit of order to the damaged city.

Reading that interview is painful, even when you’re a fanboy like myself who has been with Guild Wars 1 since it’s first public beta event.

For example, saying you’re not implementing first person view because it would make people worse at combat? Really? Sure, that’s probably true, but so what? You have the functionality and a lot of people want it, mainly for roleplaying purposes and enjoying surroundings, not for combat. If people want to use it in combat and be worse because of it why not let them instead of deciding for them?

Concerning SAB I had a similar thought as you did, Jaken. It’s a festival, it’s suppose to be a fun time off. Who cares if it doesn’t fit the living story? Granted, I’m not a fan of SAB but I sympathize with those who do, primarily because I did enjoy Dragon Bash’s Dragon Ball.

I guess it would depend on who you ask. For myself, the storyline of a game is the game. I devout my time to it because I want to see it progress. Everything else: spvp, wvw, jp, some dungeons, crafting, and the like are bells and whistles and there to add flavor. If the story doesn’t progress, neither do I.

Other people would obviously have different opinions. PvPers would like to see a lot more maps and scenarios, dungeoneers would like to see more “end game” stuff, and crafters would probably like to see more craftable armors/weapons/precursors to fill their collections.

While I’m not sure about precedence, I would like to see a majority of their resources going to the storyline. Though, that’s only my opinion, since I see the storyline have a key role in progressing the game. Maybe 65% of resources towards the LS, 20% towards Pvp, 10% for Dungeons, and the final 5% for Crafting.

Again, only my opinion. Another question though, if you don’t think the LS should take precedence, what do you think should?

Off topic. This kinda reminds me of a statement in an article about the upcoming WoW expansion by game director Tom Chilton.

“Warcraft is more about setting than it is about plot,” he began, explaining why anyone put off by the decision to return to Draenor shouldn’t let it bother them. "It’s always been the setting of these older Warcraft games that have been something that seems like it’s fun to explore, and it has a lot of appeal to both members of our team and the playerbase in general. Then it becomes about how we make it work. So we like to break things up: we just had an expansion that felt very light-hearted, so we wanted to go back to something that felt like heavier Warcraft-themes.

~

“Warcraft is more about setting than it is about plot,”

SCARIEST. STATEMENT. EVER.

One that should never be in the thought processes of MMO developers of any sort of story based game, because it’s one thing to want to have fun, but it shouldn’t come at the greater expense of the story.

This was my biggest concern about that recent interview and I don’t think a lot of players realised this was the situation was like this. The idea that updates need to fit into a narrow focus of the biconics is very concerning and it’s foolish to call that a ‘Living World’.

A Living World does not occur around five people.

I wondered why no mention at all was made about Dragon Bash, I assumed it was because the city was destroyed and the assets couldn’t be reused, but I wanted at least a reference to why it wasn’t happening. I personally don’t enjoy SAB and I prefer other releases to that kind of content, but it’s another casualty of telling a story about the biconics instead of treating Tyria like the whole world matters, not the parts of the world five characters turn up in.

A truly Living World would have events completely unrelated to the biconics developing as time goes on. Festivals would continue, other plots would develop, that’s what a Living World should be, not checking in every two weeks for four months of the year to see how Tyria revolved around five characters.

We saw an expansion of the plot beyond the biconics when Rytlock tried to cleanse Ascalon (even if Rox was wedged in there) and while the core idea was the most compelling thing to happen this season (actually revisiting the Foefire curse) the writing just fell flat on that one.

I really liked how the Living World in the first year had releases with their own integrity and events weren’t wedged into the story of the biconics. That Halloween can stand on its own, that Southsun didn’t need to be about Kasmeer or Braham. I strongly disagree with this ongoing trend that events in Tyria need to fit into this one story about these five characters. Exploring the Bazaar of the Four Winds before the biconics ever set foot there was an immersive MMO experience where the world felt alive, we didn’t need these NPCs to make the release about themselves.

How many stories and improvements to Tyria are we going to miss out on because it doesn’t fit within the narrow scope of what the writers want to do with the biconics? How many poorly justified motives and special snowflake powers are the biconics going to be given to shoehorn them into any release they do want to make?

I want Tyria to change where change can mean the most to the players. I want to see dungeons expand, not because Marjory wanted to something inside one, but because there was a good story to tell there and an opportunity to flesh out existing content. I want to look back a year from now and think of all the different people I met in Tyria, the conflicts and the adventures spanning the entire world, from the norn to the charr to the kodan and the largos. Whether it be fighting the Nightmare Court, the White Mantle or the Flame Legion, I’d like to see Tyria feel like it’s alive, not just when the biconics are around.

i think you guys are taking that article the wrong way, i am 100% confident that we will get the halloween and christmas events this year and that SAB will make a return, the only question on that front is not if but when. that article was really just saying they dont fit into the living world story at the moment and they don’t but as we are seeing this september the living story does have breaks and there is no reason the content that doesnt fit the living story cant fit into those breaks.

I’m okay with them finishing the season first and then going for funsies.

Maybe they want to end LS S2 with some announcement, who knows.

Goatjugsoup.8637:

i think you guys are taking that article the wrong way, i am 100% confident that we will get the halloween and christmas events this year and that SAB will make a return, the only question on that front is not if but when. that article was really just saying they dont fit into the living world story at the moment and they don’t but as we are seeing this september the living story does have breaks and there is no reason the content that doesnt fit the living story cant fit into those breaks.

I think you missed the point that it was just one of the things that brought that matter up.

Other discibed things also contributed to the fact that are turning away from regular sheduled events and more to a narrative focused world.

Which is something I would applaud them to, if it weren`t for the fact that not everyone wants the whole focus on the story but still wants to experience the game Guild Wars, which had certain traditions.

With the new focus traditions are heavily changing and even being phased out, leaving us players to wonder if content we are expecting will ever come back at all.

In my opinion excluding these traditions for whatever reason is a foolish move, because they were part of the original Guild Wars and part of the first year of Guild Wars 2.

I for once miss the Dragon Bash, even though it was mostly stupid (reintroduced the stupid hologram technology… ) and in no way a replacement for the Dragon Festival of Cantha.

It brought a lot of fun into the world.

However I know we will see halloween and christmas again… though they really need to step up their game there this year. Last year was, midly speaking, a yawn inducing rehash downgrade.