8 hours every 2 weeks OR miss the main story

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Posted by: Zaxares.5419

Zaxares.5419

The Marionette likely wouldn’t be feasible due to the sheer number of people needed for a kill, unless they turn it into a special kind of guild mission that could be started up “as needed” and therefore could take steps to gather up enough participants beforehand.

But that said, I see no reason why all the “story instances” couldn’t be available for replay through a Historian NPC. This includes other soloable instances like when Braham recaptured Cragstead or the fight against the Toxic Hybrid.

I like the guild mission idea for the marionette battle. It would be cool if it was available as an instanced guild mission. However, people would complain about it being only available to large guilds.

That’s why I think it should be like the existing guild missions. Only guilds can start it, but once opened anybody in the map can join in. This allows smaller guilds to also do some advertising in cities (“Doing Marionette guild mission in 30 mins! Whisper for an invite!”) or just announce it in the map to get some extra bodies.

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Posted by: Pipra.7580

Pipra.7580

TL;DR People should be able to re-experience or progress through the main plot of LS

How? When so much of the content is dependent on 100+ players cooperating at a time? What would have? A solo marionette fight? Solo Lion’s Arch?

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Posted by: sorudo.9054

sorudo.9054

TL;DR People should be able to re-experience or progress through the main plot of LS

How? When so much of the content is dependent on 100+ players cooperating at a time? What would have? A solo marionette fight? Solo Lion’s Arch?

that’s the flaw of Anet, they should focus more on 5-man teams and less on zerg fests.

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Posted by: Bob F It.5701

Bob F It.5701

My only problem, and everybody seems to gloss over it anyways, with this is how in the name of hell would they even be able to bring all of those back and make them work? Ok, things like zephir sanctum, the gauntlet, SAB or some of the newer story instances that can work as solo play, sure, but the big scale events like southsun, dragon bash, queens jubilee, the tower, marionette? I really can’t see how you can make an instance for those let alone find the number of players necessary for that content or how to party them up considering the overflow system or just the games coding in general.

The solution has already been there for most of the content.
I’ve had to research most of this, so correct me if I’m wrong. However most of the story beats have been working in instances of one sort or the another.

Flame and Frost: Instances for Braham’s and Rox’s stories, client-side objects, dungeon.
Southsun: Story instances for Canach’s Lair.
Dragon Bash: Story instances.
Sky Pirates: Dungeon, story instance.
Bazaar of the Four Winds: Story instance.
Cutthroat Politics: Story instance, activities.
Queen’s Jubilee: Story instance, activity, client-side objects.
Clockwork Chaos: Story instance.
Tower of Nightmares: Story instances.
Fractured: Story instance.
Origins of Madness: Story instances.
Edge of the Mists: Story instances, client-side objects.

Right click your GW2 shortcut > “Properties”
“Shortcut” tab > “Target”
Add to the end " -bmp"

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Posted by: Yaos.4528

Yaos.4528

I say just have a cut scene explaining what’s happened so far.

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Posted by: smakolak.1546

smakolak.1546

Personally I like how LW currently works very much. It’s not like WoW or any other MMO I know, and I can see that many people in this thread don’t like GW2 being original in this aspect.

I can’t allow myself to spend as much time on playing as I would want to, I usually log in 2-3 times a week. Sometimes I can’t even log once in a week or once in a month and when I do it’s nice to see that Tyria kept rolling while I was out. It makes it look more dynamic and alive.

For me this direction seems as something new and exciting and I think that’s how real MMOs should be like – alive and vivid. It would be even greater if there were some more references in NPC dialouges, fractal dungeons, maybe some cinematics, as they would make Tyria even more coherent, but I think there’s no point in putting greater portions of these arcs back to the game. It would seem artificial for one, as they’re usually prepared for world-scale (not for instances) but what’s even more important there would be simply too much to do (if you consider the pace at which this content would be added).

For me the best solution is to concentrate on the stuff that’s currently rolling

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Posted by: Fantastic.5298

Fantastic.5298

TL;DR People should be able to re-experience or progress through the main plot of LS

How? When so much of the content is dependent on 100+ players cooperating at a time? What would have? A solo marionette fight? Solo Lion’s Arch?

Well they could focus on less zergy content… but that’s beside the fact.
As for those events such as the marionette fight and escape lion’s arch they could certainly make it such that you can rewatch the cinematics or enter the solo-instances in a chronological order to follow along. Simple and not out of reach imo

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Posted by: HyruleanHyroe.1473

HyruleanHyroe.1473

I was going to respond to a lot of posters individually, but there’s just way too many, so here’s the summarized version:

I understand and appreciate both sides of this argument. I am one of those players with very limited time in-game. I actually haven’t even finished my personal story yet, and I’ve had the game since the pre-release. However, I’m also a supporter of the living story model, for various reasons.

Firstly, I think we as gamers need to be more appreciative in general for all the free content provided to us. We all get so entitled, myself included. We demand more and more from Anet, and cry ‘money-grubbers’ any time they try to monetize an aspect of the game. The bottom line is, they are providing new content at an unprecedented rate and 100% of the story is free of charge. That is unique to this MMO.

The Living Story model is a fine method for executing what was envisioned for this game. As a persistent and changing world, it makes sense that major events happen once in a lifetime. As an MMO made by a loving and dedicated company, it makes sense that the events would be available for a short period, allowing everyone a chance to get in there and experience them. That was the lesson learned from the Lost Shores event.

It’s understandable to want to be able to play missed content. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to find one or two hours to play through the story of each release, and that’s really all you need, but not everyone can. I think Anet realizes this and are willing to throw us a bone here and there, as with the two fractals and two boss fractals revisiting the Molten Alliance and the Aetherblades. Making it all permanently available, however, unravels the concept of the permanent world. I get the historian idea, but it needs to be permanent for the players as well as the characters. There’s no sense of impact if you can come back and do it any time. It’s not for everyone, true, but it’s a valid approach and they’re doing it well and gracefully.

On top of that, Anet needs to make money somehow. They can’t support a game of this scope with no revenue. Since they kindly allow us to play with no subscription fees of any kind, this revenue comes from micro-transactions, and one of the best ways to push micro-transactions is to make them available for a limited time. This also makes is possible to do special re-sales and, as they are currently doing, make past wares available as a special reward for completing in-game events. The Living Story is self-funding content. It’s not perfect, but it’s not wrong and nothing is owed to us.

I don’t want this to be a love-it-or-go-home post. I just want to try to illustrate that Anet is already doing quite a lot for us as gamers, and it seems unfair to demand that they abandon their manifesto and cut their revenue for the sake of appeasing those who don’t care for the current system when it’s met with so much success and popularity. Can’t we all just get along and appreciate what they have given us?

I have a “band”, Beatiatrician: http://youtu.be/zw_Sl-El8_I

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Posted by: Kahrgan.7401

Kahrgan.7401

It’s not the game’s fault you have no time to play. Get some time, or go play a static MMO that doesnt change anything for months.

Don’t call anyone out on their BS, that’s an infraction and a deleted post. —Anet.

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Posted by: Fantastic.5298

Fantastic.5298

This is considered A Living Story. Time should not stop for players who where not around nor new players.. We don’t have time machines to go back and relive past events in the real world. We read about it or watch d footage of it. This should be the only way for people to “relive” past events.. Snooze you lose!

Well when I want to spend time in the real world, I turn my computer off and go outside. This is a fantasy game where they clearly have technology to allow them to revisit past events if you want to get into a lore perspective. And they have applied “re live-able” content to a few of their instances already, why not apply it to some of the more important LS content (i.e. tower of nightmares last instance)

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Posted by: Fantastic.5298

Fantastic.5298

It’s not the game’s fault you have no time to play. Get some time, or go play a static MMO that doesnt change anything for months.

You’re not being constructive what so ever. If people didn’t care about the game they would not voice their concern and they probably would have already moved onto a different game

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Posted by: minbariguy.7504

minbariguy.7504

do not compare/ confuse living story with expansio packs, real expansion packs will come but make no mistake a person who plays 0 hours does not have the right to anything in game, at all….ever

u dont play, i dont care, end of discussion

Sorry, but giving a company $60 most certainly gives me the right to express my opinion on the sorry nature of Living Story. Also, could you please link to these “real expansion packs” you say are coming? Because they haven’t announced any such thing.

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Posted by: Draygo.9473

Draygo.9473

For the most part <1 hour of play is enough per patch to get through the living story plot points.

its >8 hours if you want the achievements, which for the most part don’t lock you out of plot points. (anet is learning)

The latest patch gives you all the major plot points in < 30 mins.

Delarme
Apathy Inc [Ai]

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Posted by: kgptzac.8419

kgptzac.8419

It is appalling to see the amount of people who suggest that the players who missed LS for being away from game don’t deserve to experience them in game in some form. We all play games for fun. Please ask yourself, what kind of fun do you lose if we get to see some kind of replay mission in game for past LS? What makes you go so far suggesting that we don’t deserve the fun that we rightfully paid ArenaNet for?

Let’s forget the “this isn’t how WoW does it” argument. Guild Wars 2 is touted as a B2P game, and the developers specifically said that they want to make players feel they aren’t tied down to a subscription, and can freely take breaks from the game, while coming back later will resume the fun. The current Living Story system, aka temporary cntent, is a direct contrary to this vision.

I think some people needs to get off their high horse of elitism and realize that you aren’t the special little snowflakes that you think ArenaNet is considering you are. What you think ArenaNet is doing right is actually costing further new players from joining the game, and further alienating players that have been away from the game.

Once again allow me to remind: we all paid for GW2, and we are all ANet’s customers and target audience. Think about this before you suggest that people are not allowed/aren’t deserved to have fun in a way GW2 was envisioned.

Lastly, I don’t mind ANet wraps a chapter of LS and releases a bonus mission pack/expansion, which to let players experience these past events some way. Obviously the missions/zones need to be tweaked to tailor smaller group size and possible solo play. This way ensures that 1) No content is lost to players and 2) Those who have been following Living Story can choose to not buy the mission pack to save money, since they would be experiencing a water downed version of past events.

a shard of crystal in the desert.