Guild Wars 2

Hello folks! What i’m about to write here is my opinion on two subjects: 1) Why many people loose interest in the LS updates/lore after a few days?And 2) A change that might get better results to keep people hooked in the game LS, and it’s Pros and Cons. Again, this is my opinion, it’s based on some information I’ve gathered over my script-writing and storytelling classes, but it’s still my opinion. My goal here is to provide Useful feedback to Arena Net for their future LS updates, story-wise!

So first topic: – Why do alot of people loose/have lost interest in the LS updates as far as the story is concerned?

- My answer would be that, first, the latest contents have either very few lore behind them or they LS updates with some lore behind them felt like they were put aside (like the Zephirites and Glint relation that never got explored or mentioned in-game) and people now just want activities so they can get Achievement points and the meta reward from those achievements. Secondly, this is caused by the fact that the LS updates are being created in a Procedural fashion.
What is Procedural you ask? It’s like a “case-of-the-week” story format that can be seen in TV shows like C.S.I. The Mentalist, House, etc; it doesn’t require you to follow every single episode. Wikipedia can give you a more in-depth knowledge about this subject at:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_drama?__hstc=162494947.567fb12f0f06ed499d03bdda3dbb1a3d.1382488354558.1383418260577.1383670467241.11&__hssc=162494947.5.1383670467241&__hsfp=1001135919]

On to the second topic: – What could be done to make the LS more appealing story-wise?

- Well, i’d suggest changing the LS formats to a more Serialized fashion. A Serial drama has a plot that, like the name says, continues to evolve from episode to episode through characters and events. Examples of this are: Game of Thrones, LOST, Battlestar Gallactica, etc.
This could get people to get “hooked” on the actual lore. However changes like, investing more heavily in the characters and events by giving them depth so they would be the driving force for the LS events and making the LS characters react more significantly to the player presence, would have to be made.

Now for the Cons this change could bring.
- Missing a LS update would be like missing one episode of a tv show (like the ones i mentioned on the previous paragraph)
- People who can’t spare the time to invest in the story would be feel left out of the loop. (Which is why i think Arena Net choose this Episodic format for the LS, however they have to realized that a majority of their player base isn’t happy with it.)

I very much believe that Arena Net choose to release the LS updates in this Procedural fashion to try and please the the most casual of casual players. Which is fine, but one thing that both A.Net and those players have to realize is: MMO is a time-consuming genre in the game industry for the players and the developers. If you dont have time to “get invested in the story and keep up with it every two weeks” then ask Arena Net to put an NPC on the Home Instance that let’s you replay key-points of the past LS and not worry so much about the it’s initial concept of living world; it will still feel alive A.Net.
Now, everyone, including A.Net, have to realize that developers have to create appropriate content for their player base and GW2 has different player bases with different needs.
So, my suggestion is: change the LS format to a more Serialized and character-invested format. It won’t go against the Pillars of GW2, i don’t think so, no. It will help make the game more enjoyable for everyone.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I feel this needs to be said. Also if you know of any way to make sure this gets to the Devs eyes, please feel free to do so or tell me how to.

Cheers!

Thanks! Will post it there as well then

Cheers!

When the storytelling and characters are as poorly written as it has been, it doesn’t really matter whether the LS is more procedural or serialized. They really need to sit back and flesh out stories/characters for themselves before introducing them to us.

what do you understand as “flesh out”?

Edit: Nevermind. Wasn’t familiar with this term. Saw what it meant.

Cheers!

Lord Kuru.3685:

When the storytelling and characters are as poorly written as it has been, it doesn’t really matter whether the LS is more procedural or serialized. They really need to sit back and flesh out stories/characters for themselves before introducing them to us.

Yes, anet was never good at bringing the lore of their world across, or at writing characters exceptionally well and they need to get better at it, but I think that one of the reasons the characters are so 2dimensional is the procedural nature of the Living Story.
By mapping out their story arcs beforehand they’d be able to actual have characters progress.

We have been receiving patches every 2 weeks for a while now, keeping people busy until the next patch, either with the living world achievements that comes with every patch or the mindless zergs on champions in the middle of the trash mobs…

It is nice that ArenaNet is trying to keep content coming but, is it good content? Is it worthy to do it? Is it fun?

I mean, I rather wait for longer to receive something more interesting to do later on.

The story seems to be going anywhere for a while, and in my opinion, it’s no different from other entertainment things such as TV shows, movies etc. If you don’t come up with something interesting soon, people won’t want to keep going with it.

Before, while waiting for for the story to continue I’d keep myself busy with the achievement points.. I was an avid person for the AP’s for every patch, like on the the Sky Pirates update, it was great, and quite challenging, worth to be called an achievement. I’d gather friends to keep trying the hardest achievements, but lately, anyone and anything goes, most are grinding AP’s, just follow the zerg.

Since Scarlet’s patches came, it seems like that most AP’s are for grinding.. kill 100 of this and that, kill something with a certain buff, now kill the same ones on different maps, attend to invasions which were a grind feast for champions. Queen’s Jubilee patch was like the beginning of the boring AP’s with the kill things in the pavillion with the specific buff.. I know it doesn’t take long to do them but really, it’s not fun to follow zergs killing things, using brain muscle not brain power.

Not to mention this makes new players think that everything on the game is just jump in the middle of things and press buttons, because thing’s die in a heartbeat with zergs. I had a couple friends that started on the game recently and they are already with a few lvl 80 characters (due to leveling up tagging things on zergs for AP’s) but they have no idea how to use their class to help the party or themselves when it comes to dungeon for example. Because then it’s not 100 people it’s just 5.

Where are the challenging AP’s on every patch to keep people busy? Before I’d take a week to complete them, and lately I get them done if not on the same day, on the next… I believe I’m not the only person who is disappointed with these sort of AP’s on patches..

Not to mention this bug crashing people while they try to do dungeons (that are still fun for those who dont enjoy living world). I know this started now and that ArenaNet is working to solve it but, this really made me think that maybe 2 weeks isn’t enough to bring quality content and even more, to test it.

Here I am writting all this while I could be doing fun things in the game, but I already finished yesterday’s patch AP’s and I can’t join dungoens with my friends from other servers, or anyone at all..

I stopped doing living-world-stuff completely a while ago. It’s only repetitive achievement-farming. I also don’t like that I’m kinda forced to play to get meta-achievements because of the rather short time-spam in that you can do those achievements. I want to log in and play what I want and still be able to achieve everything other players can achieve without any time-restriction. As it is now I log in and have to do living world instantly or I’ll miss the event and all of its “content”. I constantly have to look for guides and seek players help to make progress, which started to get annyoing over the months …
I’d rather see some less frequent permanent changes like new instances instead of those 2-week events that offer nothing but achievement-farming.