Guild Wars 2

I like the idea of the Living Story. Having an MMO with fresh new content to play is a really cool idea. The problem is that ANet keeps wrecking any chances it has to work.

Because ANet is trying so hard to get content out every two weeks or so, they seem to be stumbling over their own feet.

Outside of the game they have website updates, Facebook posts, forum posts, and wiki changes that give away almost every aspect of the plot.

In the game, they have codes and such that allow people to preview coming items, which also further spoil the story.

In my opinion, there isn’t much point in writing mysteries and such if every aspect of what is going to happen is just laid out for us. If I already know the outcome, or what is coming next, then what is the point in spending the time following the story in the game?

I think ANet needs to slow down and coordinate how the information gets released. They need to figure out a way to get people excited and informed, without giving the plot, and finally, thy need to stop allowing people to data mine and reveal everything that is coming.

Oh…I forgot to mention the part where they add achievements days in advance that spoil the story…despite them claiming its a bug.

´The sad thing is that while I really want to avoid spoilers, I find myself seeking them out, too, for fear of missing anything that I can’t go back to.

Ideally, I’d know when to be where and for how long, but not know what will expect me there – like a tv listing. I know when the episode is going to air and on which channel and that it is going to take 55 minutes, but I don’t know yet that the Aetherblade is going to assassinate someone.

I also wish there was a policy on the forums regarding spoilers, for example a compulsory [spoiler] tag in thread titles.

I’d like them to slow down too, but not for the reasons the OP mentioned. Rather, it feels like I’m spending so much time doing the Living Story content that I barely have time to get my characters through the normal content! :P

I preferred the slower, more relaxed pace of the early Flame & Frost months, where you could complete the Living Story content in a single weekend, and then get back to your normal gaming for the rest of the month. Special events, like Halloween, Wintersday and Dragon Bash, should be the exception, not the norm.

I agree. I love the story just as much as the content itself. Some people like to have everything laid out for them, then complain that the content is not complex enough. I found this quite hypocritical. It’s like reading all the spoilers before watching a movie, then complaining that the movie didn’t surprise you or catch your attention. And how does this affect us people that actually want to enjoy the secrets and plot twists? Well, ANet seems to be catering to those people that want everything right in front of them, for fear of losing player base. I understand that being obscure will alienate a lot of your playerbase – those who like instant gratification and cannot appreciate the term “plot development”. However you are in turn alienating the group of people who respect your work and want to experience or feel every little bit of it. I shouldn’t have to unsubscribe from the GW2 fb page, not read update notes, stay off the forums, not read new achievements, and turn off map chat just to experience what I think should be a great feeling of discovering something amazing you have created for me.

That being said, I can’t friggen wait for Sky Pirates! I kind of wish I wasn’t told exactly what is where and who I will be fighting, and what I will have to do. That first moment that I saw an Aetherblade pop out during the effigy-lighting instance should have been an amazing shock, and experience full of wonder and fear. However due to achievement spoilers, people data mining, and common conversation in LA, I was completely expecting it. I’m one of those people that loves to experience the amazing stories that people write, so please stop spoiling it, and let me immerse myself in your creativity!

Zaxares.5419:

I’d like them to slow down too, but not for the reasons the OP mentioned. Rather, it feels like I’m spending so much time doing the Living Story content that I barely have time to get my characters through the normal content! :P

I preferred the slower, more relaxed pace of the early Flame & Frost months, where you could complete the Living Story content in a single weekend, and then get back to your normal gaming for the rest of the month. Special events, like Halloween, Wintersday and Dragon Bash, should be the exception, not the norm.

I was going to mention this in another post. I like new stuff, but man, I don’t like being required to treat the game like a job. When stuff is only available for a short time it really sucks to feel pressured to play.

I know that seems like a strange thing to complain about, who would complain about new stuff to do right? I wouldn’t, if I had the option to play the game on my schedule, not ANet’s.

It’s been mentioned before in other posts, but I also wanted to add that the recent updates have had a number of bugs and exploits. These would probably reduced greatly by taking a bit more time to fully consider and test new content.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

Zaxares.5419:

I’d like them to slow down too, but not for the reasons the OP mentioned. Rather, it feels like I’m spending so much time doing the Living Story content that I barely have time to get my characters through the normal content! :P

I preferred the slower, more relaxed pace of the early Flame & Frost months, where you could complete the Living Story content in a single weekend, and then get back to your normal gaming for the rest of the month. Special events, like Halloween, Wintersday and Dragon Bash, should be the exception, not the norm.

I was going to mention this in another post. I like new stuff, but man, I don’t like being required to treat the game like a job. When stuff is only available for a short time it really sucks to feel pressured to play.

Feels like watching Lost. I pulled the plug on living story. I simply can’t bother with the temp content anymore.

To make matters worse, the story is actually scattered among short stories, twitter accounts, facebook pictures and what not. I don’t bother with anti-social media so that stuff is mostly lost on me.

Marnick,

That is a criticism I have as well. Perhaps if ANet spent more time developing the story in game, and less time strewing it about all over the internets, it might actually work. No player should be required to follow twitter, or log into Facebook to figure out what’s going on.

I for one am enjoying the pace, it gives me something new and interesting to do, even if they don’t always get it right, they are certainly learning and it should improve over time so give them a break.

As for the in game codes you can’t really blame ANet when someone goes data mining.

Theres at least one other thread with the same complaint, they should probably be merged.

As I wrote over there, I agree that they could take a slightly slower pace in order to improve polish and QA.

One new chapter every 6 weeks maybe, with the finale if there is one happening in week 5 so there is a week of wind-down and we also avoid the usual “omg its over I wanted to do it” complaints that litter the forum when each chapter closes.

That way Anet can take the slower start to polish the main content of that chapter up, and the last week to hammer the exploits out of the upcoming chapter.

Alternatively, if they are married to the idea of monthly updates (its a good idea) have some of them be more fluff that doesnt equire as much effort to balance and QA (and also gives the OCD achievement hunters time to catch their breath). Maybe load more balancing or WvW/sPvP into those patches then.

Certainly, I’d agree that having content available longer, even at the cost of having less content, would definitely be worthwhile. I’m likely going to be away for a week in a few months for a wedding, and I’d rather not find that that’s going to be the only time in which it’s possible to complete some content that I’d really like to complete.

What I would probably recommend is making everything last for at least a fortnight, or even a month. Have overlapping content if need be to make that work, but don’t make it that if you happen to be busy at a given time, you miss out entirely.

draxynnic.3719:

What I would probably recommend is making everything last for at least a fortnight, or even a month. Have overlapping content if need be to make that work, but don’t make it that if you happen to be busy at a given time, you miss out entirely.

I think that is what we have right now… at least a fortnight for most content.

Also, the updates are in the middle of the week, so if you’re away one week from weekend to weekend, which applies to most business trips and planned vacations, you have a chance to see the content on either end of your absense. Good!

Flame and Frost felt way too slow in February/March, but I agree the last 2 months it’s all been pretty fast for someone who can’t play every single day.

Actually, I haven’t checked the dates, but I suspect I’m actually going to be away midweek to midweek. The wedding is, I think, on a weekend, while travel times were chosen for cheaper tickets (it’s expensive enough as it is, since my brother is in the UK and I’m in Aus…)

:(

In that case, I’m sorry.

draxynnic.3719:

Actually, I haven’t checked the dates, but I suspect I’m actually going to be away midweek to midweek. The wedding is, I think, on a weekend, while travel times were chosen for cheaper tickets (it’s expensive enough as it is, since my brother is in the UK and I’m in Aus…)

So what are you suggesting? The game should wait for your real life events to be over before carrying on?

Anyway, its available for at least 2 weeks each time, so you should have plenty of time.

so theres not enough content and now theres too much? go figure, playerbases confuse me sometimes.

I for one hope the living story continues at this pace i like and enjoy it, i don’t feel compelled to particularly finish everything, they give you a nice choice if you want things etc.

not only is this content they are adding its exactly what they are after a living, breathing story and to me thats a good thing the world is never stale for me, i like the thought that every month a zone might get a new thing in it permanently there’s a new threat etc, the fact i’ll miss stuff on holidays and whenever i cant log in? i don’t care! i will read up if i think i missed an important story component, so far they are actually connecting these stories really well if you ask me, the refugee’s, southsun and the Molten Alliance i HIGHLY doubt we’ve seen the last of this.

compare this to most other MMORPG content updates, they have big chunks and nothing for months and months and that’s not because the dev’s just think it will take X time to finish and the player-base these days tends to finish things pretty fast no matter the ’’requirement’’ its just there model, this ‘’living world’’ is Anets model and i for one prefer it.

Edit: as for skins i don’t care about the limited time only thing anyway, the reason for that is every update has had new skins and i’ve fancied a bit of all of them so i haven’t really missed anything as the next update might have something even better!

Nah, this is really awesome. I don’t care about skins or looks at all, just having new stuff to do every couple of weeks to keep the game fresh is really fun and I like it a lot.

Take the Fireworks as an example. Bugs aside it was only going on friday-monday wasnt it? It wouldnt have hurt to have it happen fri-monday of the week after. During that time the update was new and people were chasing after the achievements, so the slow pace is easily overlooked and forgiven (as long as its not as slow as early F&F). Then when most have the principal achievements done you can introduce the story events that unfold during the chapter, lighting ceremony and the follow-ups in this case. Give people two weeks for that again and a week of closure and we have 6 weeks per event.

I do like the idea of events overlapping, assuming they arent based on direct consequences. It also means they arent forced to tie them together with a weak story link, its just concurrent, unrelated events unfolding in the living world of Tyria.

The timeline could look like this (lets start Sept 1st):

Sept update: Serious story line using recurring characters running for 6 weeks in 4 acts until mid october (introduction for 2 weeks, build-up and finale 2-3 weeks, 1-2 week conclusion)

October update starts the second week of the month (overlapping): Smaller living story event with a stand-alone story, maybe early intros to later recurring cast or guest roles, self-contained. In the case of October it could be Mad King related, another example would be something taking place in a city that isnt LA for once, runs for about 4 weeks with just a 2-week intro and 3-week finale, ends during second week of Nov.

November update starts Nov 1st and again overlaps with the previous one Picks up the recurring story at another locale, runs similar to the September update;

December: Wintersday, 5 weeks

January: 6 week arc thats stand-alone,runs until mid-Feb.

Feb: Recurring story again… etc etc

Over time they could weave on seperate stories that have to do with different npcs that do not or only rarely interact. Run that for a year and you do indeed have a “living story”.

Of course, that might be what they are doing. We’ll know in 6-10 months… =)

Jam.4521:

draxynnic.3719:

Actually, I haven’t checked the dates, but I suspect I’m actually going to be away midweek to midweek. The wedding is, I think, on a weekend, while travel times were chosen for cheaper tickets (it’s expensive enough as it is, since my brother is in the UK and I’m in Aus…)

So what are you suggesting? The game should wait for your real life events to be over before carrying on?

Anyway, its available for at least 2 weeks each time, so you should have plenty of time.

Yes, I’ll send them my schedule and they can work around that.

The problem isn’t so much that the updates are happening quickly, its that the time given, and the time required mean that if I want to experience the game, and get the achievements, I have to dedicate a consistent amount of time to it.

For example, take the lighting of the effigies, killing 300 holos, hitting piñatas , winning Dragon Ball, eating candy, watching fireworks, investigating a murder, launching fireworks, etc.

These are only available for a few days/ weeks, and many of them are time consumeing. You then factor in the other tasks such as dailies, monthlies, dungeons, personal story, role playing, farming, etc, and you quickly find that you’re required to log in almost every day in order to complete things.

Now, I know someone is going to say, “it’s optional”, but I won’t even respond to that in this thread. Of course it’s optional, that’s not the point.

If ANet followed pixelpumpkin’s thread idea (suggestions forum), this wouldn’t be an issue. For the casual player, and those with limited time, these endless Living Story achievements and stories are a lot.

ok im up for more time to do the stuf
i think overlapping stuff wouldnt hurt
i prefer they keep all released info in one spot not over a million sources. im connected to them all it seems and it takes so much time to browse them all so i dont mis something.. so yes i agree with pretty much everything

rizzo.1079:

Nah, this is really awesome. I don’t care about skins or looks at all, just having new stuff to do every couple of weeks to keep the game fresh is really fun and I like it a lot.

Thing is, it’s not about skins and looks. It’s about content that makes sense, and works well. Just having, “stuff to do” isn’t good enough if that stuff is buggy, or lacks depth/coherency.

Think about it, how many bugged/exploited events have been released since Flame & Frost? The only explanation I can think of for the high number is a lack of proper testing.

If they are pumping out content, yet don’t have the time to develop it correctly, then its frustrating and time consuming.

Jam.4521:

draxynnic.3719:

Actually, I haven’t checked the dates, but I suspect I’m actually going to be away midweek to midweek. The wedding is, I think, on a weekend, while travel times were chosen for cheaper tickets (it’s expensive enough as it is, since my brother is in the UK and I’m in Aus…)

So what are you suggesting? The game should wait for your real life events to be over before carrying on?

Anyway, its available for at least 2 weeks each time, so you should have plenty of time.

No, I’m saying that they should keep things around for long enough so that a reasonably short real life event doesn’t mean you miss something entirely.

And yeah, there has been stuff that was only around for a few days.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

rizzo.1079:

Nah, this is really awesome. I don’t care about skins or looks at all, just having new stuff to do every couple of weeks to keep the game fresh is really fun and I like it a lot.

Thing is, it’s not about skins and looks. It’s about content that makes sense, and works well. Just having, “stuff to do” isn’t good enough if that stuff is buggy, or lacks depth/coherency.

Think about it, how many bugged/exploited events have been released since Flame & Frost? The only explanation I can think of for the high number is a lack of proper testing.

If they are pumping out content, yet don’t have the time to develop it correctly, then its frustrating and time consuming.

Actually that makes it kind of fun in my opinion. So I had to wait a couple days to get the holo wings, not a big deal. Do I think lighting 50 effigies is stupid? Sure, so I’m not doing it…once again, not a big deal. Do I think the karka queen isn’t worth the effort that it takes to get her to pop? Nope, not at all, so once again, not doing it…but the overall effect is very cool and it’s what’s going to keep me playing for another month until Shadowrun(hopefully) comes out.

rizzo.1079:

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

rizzo.1079:

Nah, this is really awesome. I don’t care about skins or looks at all, just having new stuff to do every couple of weeks to keep the game fresh is really fun and I like it a lot.

Thing is, it’s not about skins and looks. It’s about content that makes sense, and works well. Just having, “stuff to do” isn’t good enough if that stuff is buggy, or lacks depth/coherency.

Think about it, how many bugged/exploited events have been released since Flame & Frost? The only explanation I can think of for the high number is a lack of proper testing.

If they are pumping out content, yet don’t have the time to develop it correctly, then its frustrating and time consuming.

Actually that makes it kind of fun in my opinion. So I had to wait a couple days to get the holo wings, not a big deal. Do I think lighting 50 effigies is stupid? Sure, so I’m not doing it…once again, not a big deal. Do I think the karka queen isn’t worth the effort that it takes to get her to pop? Nope, not at all, so once again, not doing it…but the overall effect is very cool and it’s what’s going to keep me playing for another month until Shadowrun(hopefully) comes out.

And that is a valid choice. What about those that do, though?

I enjoy having small new things do to every 1-2 weeks. Makes me feel like there’s always something new to check out.

GoldenTruth.2853:

I enjoy having small new things do to every 1-2 weeks. Makes me feel like there’s always something new to check out.

Yes, but what have you to say of the other criticism discussed in this thread?

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

GoldenTruth.2853:

I enjoy having small new things do to every 1-2 weeks. Makes me feel like there’s always something new to check out.

Yes, but what have you to say of the other criticism discussed in this thread?

Fine… I’ll make a long post if you really want me too (though I foresee this being a long back-and-forth if I write too much).

The Facebook releasing who the villain is was a problem, but most of the time the info is something you could find in game before they post it on other sites (Could tell Canach was the villain from npc dialogue, they announced dragon bash villain after they released the patch).

They aren’t going to stop data-mining simply by slowing down the amount of content they release. If you just want to be surprised don’t look at the item code (which doesn’t always work well because people might discuss it).

The achievements this time didn’t really spoil much (something happens at the effigy ceremony, we go see an npc, we solve the crime).

If you can’t play that much then you have new content updates every time you log (seems better than no change at all). On these forums there’s usually a bunch of complaints about not enough content. People have different wants and would complain either way.

Bugs (not to sure about exploits) would probably be lower if they released things at a slower pace. But, they fix them soon enough and then you can be back on your merry way with more content to play.