Guild Wars 2

Now that HoT is almost one month old, I think a lot of people finished the main story. Seeing a lot of reaction towards the story, as well as my personal questions I think it would be nice if the writing team would organize some sort of AMA here or on other social media (twitch, reddit…). It could be done during a Guild Chat show but the format of the show is a bit tricky to have “live” interaction.
The goal would not be to give feedbacks about the story itself (well vs bad written) nor the story telling but really about the story and the lore itself. There are many unanswered (or badly answered) questions like Mallyck, Chrysanthea, E, the Dream and the Pale Tree, the golden cave in SW….
I know some mysteries will remain (and side stories told within the raids) but among the amount of questions that we have there must be some that can be answered. Either because we didn’t find the right place in the game, or because something that the devs thought as clear was not enough for us.

Well do you, lore lurkers, would like that to happen? And do you, story writers, could see such an event feasible in a close future?

Very much, I actually suggested it myself in another thread a week ago or so.

Ranael.6423:

Well do you, lore lurkers, would like that to happen?

I think the answer of everyone is: Yes. However, even if something like that would happen (which I think is unlikely for at least a couple months more), Anet tends to avoid giving direct answers anyway so the value will be limited.

And do you, story writers, could see such an event feasible in a close future?

Don’t count on the devs responding. I haven’t seen any dev comments on the story (neither on the forums nor on reddit) since HoT and even before HoT devs didn’t post a lot in this subforum.

Here’s an unanswered question everyone seemed to have forgotten:

What happened to the three Priory scholars from Dry Top? The ones that went westward before the Pact?

Diovid.9506:

Don’t count on the devs responding. I haven’t seen any dev comments on the story (neither on the forums nor on reddit) since HoT and even before HoT devs didn’t post a lot in this subforum.

Well I saw some posts from Bobby Stein, Matthew Medina, Leah Hoyer (among others)… and they read the forum so maybe they will think about it. I somehow guess that the company is a bit busy for the second release date on Friday (China).
Sure if they don’t answer it simply means they won’t do it … but at least one can try.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Here’s an unanswered question everyone seemed to have forgotten:

What happened to the three Priory scholars from Dry Top? The ones that went westward before the Pact?

Ah yes they were interestingly funny… maybe they simply died after eating that poor beast (Susie was her name iirc)

Yeah a AMA would be nice. Pre-HoT the lack of communication was understandable, they were busy making HoT. Now that HoT is over there’d hopefully be sometime for this.

CureForLiving.5360:

Yeah a AMA would be nice. Pre-HoT the lack of communication was understandable, they were busy making HoT. Now that HoT is over there’d hopefully be sometime for this.

That “understanding” only leads to them saying they are too busy to talk about HoT because they are busy working on LS 3 (or the next big thing). Perhaps more community managers are needed? One who interacts specifically with the writing team and knows the lore would be nice.

What is the current status of Orr and Risen?

Do we do a list now?

Still, i would like some explanations on why HoT was so narrow?

Why many plot parts, just weren`t followed up?

Why the character development was so lackluster (Rytlock: “I gotz magickz nao, but don`t tell you how, nyao”, Braham: “My mother is dead and I want to kill dragons even more”, Kasmeer and Majory: “Yeah, we got problems. Oh and the sword ghost thingy… you know… nevermind”, Rox: “I track stuff?”, Taimi: “Please take me more seriously.” (Didn`t we had that part of her before?) and Canach: “FREEDOM and FREE WILL” or something along the line. (btw. I am overexagerating of course))?

Why did the mantra of: “HoT will be the base for the future”, went into the story department, which allready had a solid base?

Overall I would suggest two AMA:
- HoT making of: How things came to be. How things that are in the “final” release, were chosen.
We allready know why it feels so focused in the story, but why does the world outside of the story not going deeper into established lore, aside from some homages (especialy the druids, though Rata Novus was an interesting, even though not that satisfying (right now) experience)

The pace is deliberate for this expansion, so some of the other things you mentioned (lack of awe, shorter dialogs) are tied to that. We wanted to set the tone to be one of utmost urgency…a race against time to get your friends back before the worst can happen. That informed a lot of our decisions, and while I too appreciate a more languidly paced story and more dialog (provided it’s interesting), I can tell you we had a lot of discussions on this back and forth on the team to find what we felt confident was the “sweet spot” between too little exposition and not enough.

- An AMA about things that were on the cuttingboard and can be talked about.

Jaken.6801:

Why did the mantra of: “HoT will be the base for the future”, went into the story department, which allready had a solid base?

They meant that purely mechanically (yet again giving me the impression that lore is in this room and the game designers are in that room, and they only meet when passing each other int the hallway).
You see by base for the future they meant they implemented scalable systems such as masteries, elite specs, guild halls, precursor crafting etc. So basically that means in all future expansion we can at least expect more mastery tracks, more elite specs and guild halls / guild upgrades, and legendaries because they have the foundation for it.

Jaken.6801:

Overall I would suggest two AMA:
- HoT making of: How things came to be. How things that are in the “final” release, were chosen.

From a purely design and management perspective I’d love to know about the process.

Jaken.6801:

- An AMA about things that were on the cuttingboard and can be talked about.

I would like this as well, but I see it giving a lot of ammunition for people wanting to complain but then again those people will complain no matter what…

Now that Moredremoth is dead, will the different races try to deal with their more down to earth problems (the Centaurs and White Mantle for the Humans, the tensions between the Charr Legions, the Inquest, etc.) ? Bonus point if we have in LS3 at some point purely political missions, I would love that.