Guild Wars 2

Basically what I am asking is, would you rather the Living Story to continue to have short stories that do not really link back to the previous ones.

Or, would you rather see the Living Story provide us with a story after story that actually link back to the previous one, providing us with a long term story.

Personally, I am by far choosing the second option, I just hate when we get a few short stories and then BAM! That’s the end of that and we go onto something else completely unrelated.

I think a bit of both would be good. One reason I love the LS is that it shows that there is more going on in the world than just a bunch of dragons burning stuff, and in my opinion, that’s awesome.
However it would be nice to see one or two updates on occasion which actually reference the main story, simply because it’s not particularly realistic to believe that these dragons would be willing to sit around doing absolutely nothing all the time.

I’d much prefer a linked story to a disconnected episodic one. It gives the writers more time to develop and flesh out the plot, and it provides a forward momentum to the gameplay.

The current Living Story chapters (chapters!) already are a bit of both – they’re all connected, unless you ignore all NPC dialogue.

Sithaco.4673:

Basically what I am asking is, would you rather the Living Story to continue to have short stories that do not really link back to the previous ones.

Or, would you rather see the Living Story provide us with a story after story that actually link back to the previous one, providing us with a long term story.

Personally, I am by far choosing the second option, I just hate when we get a few short stories and then BAM! That’s the end of that and we go onto something else completely unrelated.

I dont mind that some of them are connected. BUT I definitely want seperate stand-alone stories more often (as is, with 4 living story releases under our belt there was always a connection). That’s still ok, but if they dont introduce stand-alone stories or seperate story lines that never interact, the world will start to feel artificial’.

We’ve definitely had examples of either so far:

• *Shadow of the Mad King (standalone)
• Lost Shores (standalone)
• Wintersday (standalone)
• Flame and Frost (standalone)
• Super Adventure Box (standalone)
• The Secret of Southsun (following the events of both Flame and Frost and Lost Shores)
• Dragon Bash (following the events of Last Stand at Southsun)
• Sky Pirates of Tyria (tying in with Dragon Bash)
• Bazaar of the Four Winds (following the events of Sky Pirates of Tyria)

So why Halloween, Wintersday and the SAB remained standalone modules, all other Releases, starting with Lost Shores in November, are actually chapters of the same story.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

(..)
So why Halloween, Wintersday and the SAB remained standalone modules, all other Releases, starting with Lost Shores in November, are actually chapters of the same story.

Yet as far as the stories look good, i have to say i never knew they were linked that way, for me is just like random content that apears a beacon on the map and when i go look for it, looks like there is nothing there after all, on F&F i liked the dungeon yet kinda easy. The start of the living stories are all missing a bit of imersion wich i feel its the problem with storyline and this game, like if its a bit forced on start and ending.

I really hope they start tying storylines more tightly together but I think they would need to make past content more accessible. Adding past dungeons to Fractals I don’t think is enough.

A lot of people feel like we are in the middle of a golden age of television and I think this is partially because of DVRs. Time shifting. TV networks can create long intricate story arcs that span an entire season because they know that people will be able to watch every single episode whenever the time fits into their schedule.

I would really love long intricate narrative arcs with the Living Story as well but I am not sure that the current approach to temporary content makes that very easy. Right now it is important for people to be able to jump into the middle of the story because some people will miss “episodes”. I think that limits the types of stories that can be told.

Not trying to complain I love the content. But I think longer story arcs will be harder with how things work right now.