Guild Wars 2

I find the Atlas to just be another thing to shake my head at in disgust and disbelief.

It’s nothing but some self-affirming monument to the Living Story. Like most monuments, in commemorates things that have been and are no more. It’s an interactive resume of one-off content that you can no longer experience and, most of which, never even brought any actual change to the flow of current dynamic events or landscapes with in the zones that they touched.

I see it as a catalog of temporary content that represents a gigantic waste of studio money and manpower. Anyone new or returning to the game will at first just feel disappointment over all this stuff they missed and that now has zero relevance to them or the game world. Those that dig deeper will realize that they didn’t really miss much as far as game play, but they will forever be faced with a list of carrot on stick rewards they missed out on. Completionists will take one look and know they can never have a complete character or account. How many completionists here from the start haven’t missed something do to real life and left in frustration?

The Atlas, IMO, is a monument to the failure that is Living Story. It might make an interesting interactive resume for those who worked on it in the future, unless someone digs a bit deeper and finds that the resume is padded and represents nothing of actual consequence.

A more suitable monument might have been three tickers, not unlike the U.S. Debt Clock; One for Money Wasted, One for Manhours Wasted and one for Revenue Lost, all ticking higher and higher relentlessly as the Living Story concept chugs on and on…

You are aware that people on these forum have been more or less demanding something like this for about a year, right?

They don’t add stuff that are asked for: People whine.
They add stuff that have been asked for: People whine about them adding it.

They really can’t win, aye?

lordkrall.7241:

You are aware that people on these forum have been more or less demanding something like this for about a year, right?

They don’t add stuff that are asked for: People whine.
They add stuff that have been asked for: People whine about them adding it.

They really can’t win, aye?

They might have been able to make something positive out of the Living Story to date if they had rolled it all up into an extensive, thematic, dramatic video presentation of the story to date. This is a google map with pins of concept art for events that have come and gone.

Who the heck is really going to want to dig around the map looking for nothing of actual consequence? In the vast majority of cases, you can’t go to any of these locations and find any sign of what occurred there in the game world. Concept art kicks off the creative process. It’s pointless as a stand alone and not even of value to those who might be curious to compare concept with implementation.

It’s clearly just an effort to quantify all that they’ve done with Living Story, but ironically, the monument to Living Story that is the Atlas just highlights how inconsequential and irrelevant all that “content” actually is for the game world; either as historical context or as a road map for observable impact, (because there just isn’t much of that to be found).

Kapina.9012:

You can find the “hidden” ones by clicking the images you’ve already found.

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

Coordinates for the ones you are most likely missing: [16548, 16157] and [16302, 14426]

Thanks but only one of those was one I hadn’t found yet. Still missing one.

Fiontar.4695:

They might have been able to make something positive out of the Living Story to date if they had rolled it all up into an extensive, thematic, dramatic video presentation of the story to date. This is a google map with pins of concept art for events that have come and gone.

And if they had done that, people would be complaining “Oh great, another video. Couldn’t they have done something interactive?”

Atlas.4509:

The title of this post made me sad :-(

I know the feels.

As for this latest release, I found the hidden stuff fairly easily.
Hopefully we’ll still have the release pages as well.
The map does look rather nice, but I wish they incorporated some stuff from the Personal Story in there as well.

lordkrall.7241:

You are aware that people on these forum have been more or less demanding something like this for about a year, right?

They don’t add stuff that are asked for: People whine.
They add stuff that have been asked for: People whine about them adding it.

They really can’t win, aye?

People were whining about the temporary nature of the content and that it is hard for new players to get into an ongoing story, players who took a break to care and casual players to keep track of what is going on, due to the nature of this being an mmo where not everything is shoved into your face.

One of the sugestions was an ingame timeline, which would fill up as the story progressed.

Another way would have been an info site (which they have basicly done with the redesign of the patch pages) that shows, or tells you what is going on.

This thing however does not really do anythting. It is nothing more then a teaser page, linked to snippets of the living story.
It is like looking at your location map in Facebook, which shows that at these places some things were happening.

However like these maps, there is no real context.

It is just that: “we had a living story, remember this? remember that?”
Nothing more…

In that regard… can you tell me, what this thing is there for?
What is its purpose?
Why should we be interested in it?
Why should we care, aside from a little bit of teasing we might get from there?
Why would new players be interested in it?
Why would anyone go back to this page, after they found all locations? Your progress is not account bound, which means it is tied to your browser and if you delete your history and cookies it is all gone. You are not unlocking something for your work (aside from some little teasers, which are low quality and we would get anyway).

Can anyone tell me, from a marketing and future perspective, why this thing actually exists?
Does the supposed little scavanger hunt, with directions from sites and youtuber enhance the comunity? Well they light up pretty neatly and with some little time investment you will get them easily, so that could not be the reason.

Is there something hidden i do not see?

Why does it look like a cheap tablet/phone device map?

Is this supposed to be for future content?
If so, what will happen if things happen in the same area, overwriting each other?

I am sorry, but i just can`t get behind this thing. It is neat, but come on… It`s mere existence is really bugging me…

Atlas.9704:

Atlas.4509:

The title of this post made me sad :-(

I know the feels.

As for this latest release, I found the hidden stuff fairly easily.
Hopefully we’ll still have the release pages as well.
The map does look rather nice, but I wish they incorporated some stuff from the Personal Story in there as well.

Maybe they will? It’s clearly always going to be a work in progress. Now back to hunting for that last lore spot. rassum frassum

inazuma.7021:

Atlas.9704:

Atlas.4509:

The title of this post made me sad :-(

I know the feels.

As for this latest release, I found the hidden stuff fairly easily.
Hopefully we’ll still have the release pages as well.
The map does look rather nice, but I wish they incorporated some stuff from the Personal Story in there as well.

Maybe they will? It’s clearly always going to be a work in progress. Now back to hunting for that last lore spot. rassum frassum

Only way i found it was clicking around the north end of LA while panning around.

Sorry but for new players it’s hard to orient – they dont know where and what happened and if they will find anything…well there is no date or any info ( only image, some text and voice recordings) so they basically learn nothing about story and reading 1-2 pages about story developement on any fansite is better for them. For regular players it’s waste time… I will not open it again if there won’t be any exclusive content (please don’t!) and +1 to more story in game and less on web.
You guys are making original epic cinematics so why won’t you retell us the story in 10-20min video? :o)
I don’t really see any use here I would rather see that mobile/web app for chat and guild/event tracing

So uhhh, I found all of the things? Now what? Where is the clue to the next LS?

The atlas is a good start and a good step in the right direction.

Some feedback:
How do I see all of the story from start to finish(from start, meaning the first LS patch with the refugees, etc)? Are there no individual movie clips about those events or does the “our story so far” clip cover it? If so, that is one black mark on your effort with this. Could have and should have made some movies for the previous patches if you cared about this feature.

I agree with some people that this should be in game, and should be an activity in game to explore the world and find these pieces of information and storm them in a GUI.

Overall, not bad…

lordkrall.7241:

You are aware that people on these forum have been more or less demanding something like this for about a year, right?

As a in game feature…

Ok I’m going to put my 2 cents in.

Is the Atlas cool.. sort of.
Is it functional, not really
What is it…. Heck if I know.

As a marketing tool, it’s not very effective. You’ve come up with the idea of the “Living World” so you have events that won’t be repeated. and so far this is showing pictures with really brief synapses of those events. Sure for the players that played through that content it’s a reminder. But players who are new or missed the content, there is not enough information for it to be useful. I know this has all been said and whined about above and probably below.

How I see this could be used for marketing, Have it with repeatable events, for new or perspective players as hey this happens every Halloween, or wintersday, Or the Air bazaar comes back in summer.

Have in depth, historical points where events happened between GW1 and GW2, to give the back story of the transition, of those 200-300 + years, Which can even be expanded into future releases and expansions, Ie Cantha and Elona. Cause while some of the player base is new to the world with GW2 there are a bunch of players that went through All the GW1 content, and want to know, Hey what ever happened to that mummy in the Crystal Desert, or the Kurziks and Luxons

I have been asked by coworkers “Hey is GW2 cool or another WOW, (like insert generic newer MMORPG)?” This could be used, to show the cool stuff that the game has to offer for events.

In the first couple of months I played gw2 you guys at ANET put out more content updates, then a couple other MMOs did in there first year, This is what keeps people in the game, and with the atlas showing those along with in depth history it can be used to bring new people to the game.

So that’s my 2 cents, everyone continue one and don’t mind the crazy dude with the flamethrower.

I agree Jaken.6801’s sentiment… although it’s a larger problem for LS content being temporary than the new website.

Also on a technical note. Please make the site mobile-friendly, as it currently is not functional in Dolphin Browswer on Android.

brittitude.1983:

Thanks for the replies. I stopped at about three from the end when I learned that the end of the PS was a dungeon; so, no, I haven’t made it there.

Claw island is much earlier than that.

CC Danicia.1394:

Atlas.4509:

The title of this post made me sad :-(

I fixed it. It is imperative that feedback threads are respectful and offer up constructive criticism for the Development Teams. We like to point people to feedback threads, with both positive & negative criticisms.

Got to love ANet, instead of adressing the issue at hand, they give us off topic one liners such as, ‘we feel the title is rude, so we changed it.’ Never mind the fact thats its rude to: be off topic, not adress our legitiment concerns, and make promises that they don’t intend to keep. Simple statements like, ‘we appologize for going back on our word, but we lack suficiant resourses for that kind of content’, or ‘we still intend to hour our statement, this is merely a stepping stone in the right direction,’ or ’you’re mistaken, this has nothing to do with the promised in-game content, which, we are still working on’ would have surficed. No, thank you for devaluing our arguements and concerns.

I find the concept of the Atlas interesting. As a place where we can find artwork, trailers etc., it’s useful and even fun.

However, I think it’s still rather messy when it comes to catching up players on what’s happened with the Living Story. The tags on the map have no chronological order and don’t really explain to the player what happened in a wider context.

The Atlas might work better if it was structured as follows:

1. Put a menu on the right/left hand side of the map, with each of the different Living Story chapters as a separate tab.

2. Clicking on a specific tab will display icons on the main map relevant to that Living Story chapter, along with a link to a narrative explanation for the events in the chapter.

3. Each icon is numbered so players can click on each one in sequence.

This should allow players to see what happened when and where.

I’ll take this opportunity to state that I still want a “Historian” NPC that lets players replay past LS instances though.

wow i think most people missed the point of the Atlas. it isnt supposed to be some mythical fix to the living story that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and allow you to actually have fun and enjoy the playing the game. if that is what you are looking for than the Atlas is not for you.

the Atlas is for people like me who complete 90% of the content in the first week after a release and are excited for the next release. because i’m invested in the story i like to speculate on what happens next. seems like its also meant to be a record of some of the larger plot points that occurred previously and that part needs to be improved… well all the parts need to be improved.

THE ATLAS IS A GLORIFIED PREVIEW PAGE. if you are not there to learn anything you can about the up coming patch then you don’t belong there. if you are there to learn about back story then i would suggest using the wiki, and WoodenPotatoes’ youtube channel. right now all there is for back story on the atlas is neat concept art with short descriptions, disjointed sound bites, and the same old videos we already get elsewhere. the atlas definitely needs better content but since it just came out im giving it time.

sure the atlas looks better than the old preview page and it adds another place for anet to outline their story but is it better than the old preview page? not better enough imo. but im certainly not “disgusted” by it.

If that’s the case, then I’d have preferred that ANet stuck to the old preview pages. (That little picture with no other attached information was a great way of getting people to speculate on what was coming next month.) I found them much more informative and hype-inducing than the Atlas, which has old information mixed in liberally with new ones.

I think this is meant to be more of a promotional tool for possible incoming players than it is for players already in the game…

“We’re currently working on a system that will better direct players through Living World content. Eventually, it will also provide story context for LW and other content types. The first phase of the system should be ready before the end of the year.

I am hopeful that some of the new systems that we have in development (the LW tracking system, journal tracking, etc.) will make it easier for folks to make sense of the long-term story." -BobbyStein

Is the Atlas what Bobby was talking about back in September?

Lets hope not.

You know what the sad part is?

The Wiki alone is 100x better than this.

I like interactive maps. So I like this atlas. I look forward to having meatier content on it. Or at least sound files that aren’t just crashing sounds. lol But still.

Suggestion/Feedback:
If there was a way to filter living story points on the map, that’d be nice. Like have ones you’ve already found/ones from already completed releases flash on the map when you select their living story chapter from the menu. Especially when you are fully zoomed out. I assume the point of this thing being a map is to show the scope of the Living Story in a visual way. As more releases come and the map fills up with interaction points, this would help demonstrate that scope.

I still want an in-game npc/delivery system of some kind, but this has potential to be a neat toy to play with besides that.

Random request: Please put the map of the Bazaar of the Four Winds area on the Atlas. Its my favorite LS release to date.

Completely agree it NEEDS to be an in-game feature….what about another tab in the hero panel where you can unlock screenshots videos and audio files and the likes as you do scavenger hunts around tyria to relive the past Living Story stuff.

Could tie in some nice achievements and title. It’d be PERFECT. ANET, you push way too much emphasis on websites as the source for your story, see all previous story blogs about characters ( like the story where we learnt about Ceara etc ) and now this Atlas again on a website. Please reconsider the idea of putting these content in-game.

Arnath.2319:

“We’re currently working on a system that will better direct players through Living World content. Eventually, it will also provide story context for LW and other content types. The first phase of the system should be ready before the end of the year.

I am hopeful that some of the new systems that we have in development (the LW tracking system, journal tracking, etc.) will make it easier for folks to make sense of the long-term story." -BobbyStein

Is the Atlas what Bobby was talking about back in September?

Lets hope not.

I second this. I really hope this is not what he was talking about. It should be an in-game device that has a lot more information than links to screen shots and loading screens..

Haters gonna hate.

No but seriously, what do I do after I collect all of the things? O_o I’m confused. I thought there’d be some kind of clue about the future of the living story but all I see is a video and wallpapers of next week’s patch.

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

Got to love ANet, instead of adressing the issue at hand, they give us off topic one liners such as, ‘we feel the title is rude, so we changed it.’ Never mind the fact thats its rude to: be off topic, not adress our legitiment concerns, and make promises that they don’t intend to keep. Simple statements like, ‘we appologize for going back on our word, but we lack suficiant resourses for that kind of content’, or ‘we still intend to hour our statement, this is merely a stepping stone in the right direction,’ or ’you’re mistaken, this has nothing to do with the promised in-game content, which, we are still working on’ would have surficed. No, thank you for devaluing our arguements and concerns.

You illustrate everything that is wrong with these forums.

An Anet poster on the community team puts a note that they have changed the thread title and why, and you decide to use that to attack the company.

If you hate it, leave. I’ll even pay you.

Arnath.2319:

“We’re currently working on a system that will better direct players through Living World content. Eventually, it will also provide story context for LW and other content types. The first phase of the system should be ready before the end of the year.

I am hopeful that some of the new systems that we have in development (the LW tracking system, journal tracking, etc.) will make it easier for folks to make sense of the long-term story." -BobbyStein

Is the Atlas what Bobby was talking about back in September?

Lets hope not.

If you hadn’t noticed, there have been significant improvements in the UI that helps track what’s happening in the current LW release. Additionally, there has recently been a lot of story content delivered in-game that has been recapping the story so far.

So I don’t think it’s fair to say that the Atlas is ANet’s only response to complaints about the delivery of the LW.

Having said that, I think the Atlas still needs some work. I love the content, but it needs to be structured in a way that tells the story of the LW. The library has content organised by chapter, but there’s no narrative within or between chapters, only recent chapters are there, and the limited navigation functionality means it will become increasingly difficult to navigate between chapters as more are added.

i try to be a bit more constructive, though i hope someone (come on devs, give us a reason why this thing exists. like kny.3789 said, it is just a glorified preview page) will step up and explains their goal with it…

Pros.
- It looks nice
- It has the “scavenger hunt” insentive, with the inclusion of comunity “directions”
- it is a nice visualisation on how “globaly” the LS has been so far
- Some nice quotes
- a way to tease future content

Cons.
- No real future aplication in my opinion
- Does not offer more then the usual preview page. In fact it offers less information and only low res images
- it feels like it was designed for tablet use, instead for a pc. Big buttons, limited “accuracy” in scaling, etc.. The map ingame works much better.
- Too much “advertising” around the map
- Not enough sturcture to the content. Very old content is just one category, while the new content is based on release (example the battle of LA)
- Some of the points feel just random (point north of Ebonhawk for example)
- Going to Comunity sites is useless, since you will find these points without them.
- Not linked to your account. Being linked to your browser and cookies you loose every progress of your discovery if you delete them.
- Feels like straight out of an Facebook profile: “look i was there.” However it does not offer additional information, aside from the “been there, done that” thing…

In the end it could be a nice thing, if they would structure it by region and event, allowing us to see the story of the part of the map we are looking at and a then from there, follow the events to the other regions, or follow the chain of events in general.

Right now it`s goal is not really visible for me and appearently othere people as well and is nothing more then a nice gimmick, which in the near future will be forgotten again.

As i mentioned it would have been much better as an App on mobile devices, with a web browser version for all the PC owners.
You still need to deliver on that promise and i have to say, i would like to have something like this in there.

lordkrall.7241:

They don’t add stuff that are asked for: People whine.
They add stuff that have been asked for: People whine about them adding it.

Wrong. People have been asking for a LS recap tool IN GAME.
Atlas is an external feature, a brief sentence here and there about past updates scattered across the map, but it still doesn’t adequately present the story in-game, like those blog stories.

Astraea.6075:

You illustrate everything that is wrong with these forums.

An Anet poster on the community team puts a note that they have changed the thread title and why, and you decide to use that to attack the company.

If you hate it, leave. I’ll even pay you.

I take it that you haven’t visited many forums outside gw2. In any other forum there are moderators who will edit or erase your post for moving off topic, yet here it seems the moderators are the main culprit. in other forums, there are moderators who take an active role in shaping and growing the debate. But here, If ever they have anything to say, if ever they grace our threads with a word of their own, its seldom anything more than a footnote, irelevent and weak at best. They brush aside our concerns, or simply fail to address them entirely -and that, from the sheppards of this community, is what’s ailing it. The issue here is a mater of integrity, they are more than willing to write us up for what they feel a demeaning title, yet will not step in to face the acusations, will not shoulder the blame if they are in the wrong, or correct us if we are. You called my post an attack on the company, however, one must first show a proper responce, to recieve a proper reception; and of that, we are left in want.

hedix.1986:

Wrong. People have been asking for a LS recap tool IN GAME.
Atlas is an external feature, a brief sentence here and there about past updates scattered across the map, but it still doesn’t adequately present the story in-game, like those blog stories.

Not specifically.
Mainly they have asked for a feature, be it in-game or out of game.

And I would assume that this is simply a temporary version, since people have been demanding to get it right now, while waiting for an in-game version to be completed.

Would people rather have nothing at all? I can almost guarantee that if that would have been the case we would have people whining about them not adding something they have “promised”.

Jaken.6801:

i try to be a bit more constructive, though i hope someone (come on devs, give us a reason why this thing exists. like kny.3789 said, it is just a glorified preview page) will step up and explains their goal with it…

Pros.
- It looks nice
- It has the “scavenger hunt” insentive, with the inclusion of comunity “directions”
- it is a nice visualisation on how “globaly” the LS has been so far
- Some nice quotes
- a way to tease future content

Cons.
- No real future aplication in my opinion
- Does not offer more then the usual preview page. In fact it offers less information and only low res images
- it feels like it was designed for tablet use, instead for a pc. Big buttons, limited “accuracy” in scaling, etc.. The map ingame works much better.
- Too much “advertising” around the map
- Not enough sturcture to the content. Very old content is just one category, while the new content is based on release (example the battle of LA)
- Some of the points feel just random (point north of Ebonhawk for example)
- Going to Comunity sites is useless, since you will find these points without them.
- Not linked to your account. Being linked to your browser and cookies you loose every progress of your discovery if you delete them.
- Feels like straight out of an Facebook profile: “look i was there.” However it does not offer additional information, aside from the “been there, done that” thing…

In the end it could be a nice thing, if they would structure it by region and event, allowing us to see the story of the part of the map we are looking at and a then from there, follow the events to the other regions, or follow the chain of events in general.

Right now it`s goal is not really visible for me and appearently othere people as well and is nothing more then a nice gimmick, which in the near future will be forgotten again.

As i mentioned it would have been much better as an App on mobile devices, with a web browser version for all the PC owners.
You still need to deliver on that promise and i have to say, i would like to have something like this in there.

I agree with the pros list. I also agree that there is a lack of structure, and some very random points (like Bazaar of the Four Winds in LA). Some of the “hidden” things weren’t actually hidden but in plain sight, but it’s hardly likely that was intentional. It’s completely new – cut the creator’s some slack for mistakes. I don’t mind the fact that the whole thing isn’t tied to accounts per se, but I don’t look forward to next time I clean my cookies out. Some way to save progress that’s independent of browser history would be nice.

As for future application, I do see a lot of potential. Like you said, it can be used for teasers, and secret coordinates can be given out for more scavenger hunting. The latter will direct traffic to various parts of the community, which will not only benefit e.g. GW2 YouTubers who get coordinates to “hand out,” but also let a lot of people discover sites and channels of interest that they maybe didn’t know or had forgotten about. Adding a tiny thing to the Atlas between patches, like a tiny snippet of dialogue that takes place during current events but isn’t in the game, is another way to keep people interested in the story and the characters. Also, they could tie it to the game by adding for example a book on a shelf somewhere in-game that tells a short background story for a living world character (like the ones previously released online), and adding a point on the Atlas which will direct you (in general, not addressing you specifically, Jaken) to said book so you can go find it and read the story. They could do all kinds of things with this Atlas. The only problem is that its usefulness hinges on people staying interested in using it.

Seems to me that the biggest problem is that people come at this thing with expectations rather than curiosity. Take it for what it is and not for a failed attempt at something completely different. Being a map and not a time line, of course it won’t be of much help for new or returning players who want to catch up with the living story chronologically, but didn’t Anet upload a story summary video on YouTube fairly recently? It doesn’t offer more information than the usual preview page, but again, it is something different from the usual preview page.

Having played since launch, I enjoyed poking around and having a few “oh yeah, I remember that!” moments, and finding hidden things was fun. Most things are a lot more enjoyable if you (again, general) look at them as they are instead of comparing them to a desired imaginary object in your head.

Maybe this could be a iOS and Android app. Awesome atlas.

I would be nice for Atlas to incorporate short stories like “What Scarlet saw”.

I’m sure its nice supplementary material but since it’s not in the game I’m not that interested in it. I agree with OP, information that is pertinent to the LW should be found within the game not by searching a website. It is unfortunate because I am sure a lot of work went into it.

If this is for new players that just started playing the game I guess it’s nice to see what they missed but where I a new player I would be disappointed that I couldn’t actually play through any of this past materiel, and therefore not interested to catch up.

As long as this stays supplemental then sure go for it, some people seem to like it and there’s nothing wrong with that. This should never become a requirement, I want to play a game, not browse a website when I have time to spend on GW2.

If I’m going to do web research for GW2 it’s going to be for guides or how I can improve my game play, not story related tidbits.

my feedback. I clicked the link. 30 seconds later I closed the page.

not interested in being flogged over and over with this dreary LS.

Hmmm… interesting. For those who wish to know where all the hidden coordinates are, here they are below:

For someone who has only been playing for about half a year, i do quite like the Atlas. I find that i have missed a lot of the Living Stories but it doesn’t seem to take a long time to catch up. Like someone mentioned above, i do wish i had some of the rare items i will most likely never be able to get e.g. Shattered Wings back item. But it’s a game and i’m not going to murder anyone over it, maybe a sandwich ~jabs that bread~

It seems the Atlas has only just been introduced in this cycle and it does seem like they are going to be updating it as the Living Story develops. I agree with a lot of good and bad points mentioned, but overall there is one thing i like about this being external and that is, that simply, when i’m not playing Guild Wars 2 i.e. working, travelling etc i can look at this on my phone, my tablet, my work computer even; non of which can play Guild Wars 2. Therefore if this was solely in-game then i would lose out. It still however would be nice for something like this to be in-game, as long as we don’t get clutter.

I do love lore and am always looking for new ways to find out about Tyria, rather than just Wiki-ing everything. This Atlas was a nice new way of doing this. Of course it has been done many times before, but still, it’s a nice little thing that i believe will and should expand as this drama unfolds. Being a new player and a fan already, i have looked back at previous versions of the game, and a lot has changed over the year or so to make Guild Wars 2 much more efficient and convenient. Just hoping a lot is still to come.

Ice of Dragons.1637:

Maybe this could be a iOS and Android app. Awesome atlas.

and Windows Phone app haha

But that is a pretty good idea. Wouldn’t be too difficult to program, tempted to make it myself.

Oh as for actual feedback.

It’s a thing … I guess? For me there is currently no benefit for its existence.

wow, just wow.. gw2 community, always seems to amaze me.. with their umm, kind outlook on trivial.. oops, i mean imperative things
1) this feedback thread was started by a player, not from Anet which should have been a lot of people’s first clue
2)it’d be a waste to put something like This in game, it’s just something for bored people to click on and share artistic media on facebook
3)i don’t even think there is a three, i’m not going to make a tldr post over This

lordkrall.7241:

hedix.1986:

Wrong. People have been asking for a LS recap tool IN GAME.
Atlas is an external feature, a brief sentence here and there about past updates scattered across the map, but it still doesn’t adequately present the story in-game, like those blog stories.

Not specifically.
Mainly they have asked for a feature, be it in-game or out of game.

And I would assume that this is simply a temporary version, since people have been demanding to get it right now, while waiting for an in-game version to be completed.

Would people rather have nothing at all? I can almost guarantee that if that would have been the case we would have people whining about them not adding something they have “promised”.

No, since the begining of living story, be it short stories for current updates, or an expository piece on past events, we have been asking them to put story content where it belongs; in game. And they said they were working on a system to do just that. And as for whining about having nothing at all, I for one, have not mentioned the promised in-game system since they noted its developement, believing that they were indeed doing just that. and you know, I’m fine with this being a suplementary system to supply us while they work on the real deal. the problem, is that this thread was drafted to inquire and express disaproval as to why they gave us this system instead of the promised one, but rather than informing us that we are being to hasty in our judgement, they igore the issue all together. which, in its own right, all the more confirms that this is indeed the promised system. just a little bit of communication goes a long way.

I like the Atlas and would like to see not just the living story but more of the backstory/history of Guild Wars being added eventually to the map. That would keep me coming back to search the map and learn more about the history of the various places and peoples.

I really enjoyed reading the books in the speedy reader achievement and wanted more of the same – this is another way of providing similar info and history.

brittitude.1983:

Thanks for the replies. I stopped at about three from the end when I learned that the end of the PS was a dungeon; so, no, I haven’t made it there.

If you want map completion…

sAdam.5876:

I would be nice for Atlas to incorporate short stories like “What Scarlet saw”.

Good idea. And I expect the devs will agree.

Sariel V.7024:

sAdam.5876:

I would be nice for Atlas to incorporate short stories like “What Scarlet saw”.

Good idea. And I expect the devs will agree.

I agree, thus far, the atlas has a couple of pieces of concept art with footnotes, a promotional video or two, and random irrelvent sound clips. I feel they could have done so much more with this, its supposed to be used to brush up on our lore, or stack our arguement for debate, but none of the events are actually documented. cut sceens and short stories would greatly improve this effort.

The ‘Atlas’ site feels like a placeholder. When I visit the site, I get the same feeling as when I am sitting, virtually solitary, at an early matinee, staring at the repeating and seemingly endless cycle of grade school level movie trivia and frugal advertisements which precede the film previews.

If the LS events won’t be recycled (ie. January 2015 – Flame and Frost, February 2015 – Southsun, just a sample cycle), could we get videos of past cutscenes, not just the preview videos? If the LS events will be recycled, or become permanent in some way, then it’s OK not to as it may contain some spoilers. I personally think Kasmeer’s unveiling of the illusion on the Tower of Nightmares was cool (although I think the visual effects and the camera shots should have been better, for a grander, more awesome effect. Maybe consult a cinematographer, but not Michael Bay haha? XD ).