Guild Wars 2

Living Story declared itself an expansions worth of content, and it has proven that is exactly what A-net had in mind.

But one has to wonder… what other new ways could one implement this episodic format into a new method of adding features “Later” down the road.

The answer:

Expansion Content unlocked via “story driven” alterations.

Ideas in mind:

So, over time, the races of Tyria who are currently active, and against the Dragons, Scarlet and the machinations of evil, are great, but their secondary allies seem reluctant to help them.

Over the course of the story, I propose the idea of eventually “unlocking” new races/professions by having living world evolutions that lead towards these eventual new transformations.

Example:

Our estranged Tengu Xenophobes, over the course of an entire season of Living World, the A-Net team could focus on eventually making this race both playable, and adding new zones to include playability for them.

In the meantime, while we are in those zones, seeing them being made for the first time, we venture into these foreign lands seeking to gain new allies, learn new professions (classes) and attain new skills (weapons, abilities, even crafting based).

The adventures would act as a story suffusion while A-net focuses on the features and races for a later “eventual” update, this means, initially, we see a race as is, e.g. Largos, or Tengu, while over time, A-net starts working entirely on content devoted to adding new features to that race.

As updates go on, we notice the Tengu get new models, female and male, giving them identity, we unlock Dominon of Winds, venture into it for the first time, before it becomes a leveling zone, and help the Tengu fight off unwanted threats.

At the climax of that story arc, we are given a chance to make an agreement with their race to join the Races of Tyria in their fight with the dragon, with this season closed, they become a playable race, and can be unlocked (Via doing the living world content associated with them, or naturally, by paying for the unlock).

The Tengu are an example, other races being Largos, Kodan, Stone Dwarves and my own personal favorite, the prospect of REDEEMED (possibly even not redeemed) Mursaat (if they still roam Janthir somehow).

I don’t think the idea of denying new playable races and customizations for players is a good idea, I believe they should concentrate on expanding the world around us, rather than revisiting old places.

Its a case of “how can I miss you if you don’t go away?” If you’re always giving us Lions Arch, or some new content in an old world setting, then really its not new, its just refreshing what was already there.

I, for one, would like to see old content get revamped “later” rather than sooner, so that a few years down the line when we finally miss the old stuff and want to see rekindling it could be done as an entire season rather than being bits and pieces now and here.

The problem being, its unwanted bits and pieces, for a world we never really wanted to see change (just yet).

Living Story is admirable, I understand the approach, but I don’t agree with the delivery, I would much rather see this “expansions worth of content” be literally just that, new features, new races, new professions, over the course of living world evolution.

I’m not asking for you to literally spend a month doing one content update then add a new race on the spot, I’m asking an entire season to be devoted over the course of a year, possibly even a year and a quarter, to adding “one” new race, or “one” new class a year, to the game.

That would allow time for testing, equally allow development for story to make a logical, direction so that eventually we “unlock” these races rather than “suddenly playable races”.

Personally, I feel this pace would work more favorably, and I hope A-net is listening.

Thank you for reading, I am curious, how do you all feel about this approach to adding new content?

I have been suggesting this for a while, and I + your post

think of it..

the largos are mainly underwater, you can introduce them while going after deep sea dragon.
maybe when we go explore what drove the asurans to the surface we find the stone dwarfs?
the tengu are under attack and we come to their aid bringing them into the alliance of races,
when we go into the shiverpeaks we find the home of the kodan and come to their rescue

this type of content would not only make the existing players happy as hell, but think of the possibilities when it comes to new players when you advertise new maps, new skills, new races, new stories..

Exactly, this is the direction the living story should go in future, granted, this closure to Scarlet is necessary, but after this, I think we need to expand beyond where we are, and start going to places we have “Not” been before.

Ideally? I think the Tengu should come later, really, the Largos seem the most viable candidate for a future playable race in my opinion, since when it comes to racial stereotypes, the Tengu veer too closely to Charr which makes them more or less bird Charr which kind of, eliminates the diversity of their cultures.

For now, I think fleshing out the mysterious Largos, and possibly giving us the first glimpses into the deep sea dragon, as well as giving us a chance to refine Underwater Combat and make it more viable, would be a good first start in the right direction.

although I believe they have done most of the work for the tengu already (apparently they were supposed to originally be a playable race, but time restrictions shelved them). so I would get why they would be first

but yes.. people want NEW, not old recycled….thing is you can do old recycled if you put some new stuff in here and there

@CaptainVanguard “Over the course of the story, I propose the idea of eventually “unlocking” new races/professions by having living world evolutions that lead towards these eventual new transformations.”

I think you and Anet are on the same page,
http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/16/guild-wars-2-developer-livestream-chat-discusses-the-fine-art-of/

and I really hope your right about the Tengu, once Scarlet unlocks whatever shes drilling in LA how long can the Tengu stay idle? Even w/those op archers.

It would be a nice perk to have chapter one end with the release of the Tengu race, especially since Anet mentioned a break between the end of chpt1 and this upcoming large content/balance update to follow.

Here’s the thing:

Sacking Lions Arch actually wasn’t a bad move, I actually for one liked the idea of them doing something RISKY to the old world such as changing it radically, this is a step in the right direction in SOME respects.

But in others, it also creates an element of forcing change in places no one asked for it. The elimination of GW2’s most central hub for player rallying creates a rather problematic situation for guilds, coordination and a lot of other micro issues but ultimately will change nothing once a new hub is found for everyone to converge to.

What “Does” work in situations like these, is a willingness not to destroy landscapes, BUT to end the lives of important people we have come to know and love over the course of the story personal and living.

Example:

What if at the DR crisis Jennah had died? Some would be outraged, others, shocked, others pleasantly surprised at how dark and twisted the world is.

This actually wouldn’t be as surprising as it sounds to some, GW1 for example was filled with loss and tragedy, most of all, loosing those you cared about. it created an atmosphere that made the setting iconic-ally dark throughout its three main games and their expansion.

GW2’s slowly weaving into this atmosphere as it should, Guild Wars was always a darker setting than say WoW in contrast, but it needs small light too.

This is where GW2 needs to balance, Tragedy AND Hope exist in the balance, where one place is lost, another must be found, for example, someone mentioned the idea of restoring Orr.

That would be fine, slowly removing the presence of undead entirely and making safe zones in Orr would totally compensate for LA’s fall.

But likewise, id love to see pain too, I want to see people I know over the course of an entire season only to have my HEART TORN APART when something horrible happens to them, be it death, or the UNEXPECTED betrayal of someone close.

These things are good for impact, they hurt you personally, you come to CARE for characters fates and over time you don’t WANT them to suffer which is why when they DO it has such a powerful impact on your emotions.

If your going to do this format of continuing episodic Game of Thrones style volumes to GW’s future, you need to give A LOT more into the voice acting, chars need to act harder, deeper, put more emotion into the part since we cant really see the fate that’s talking, nor the emotion in it, we have to depend on visuals to fill in those blanks.

Examples can be given, from Sieren and Tybalt to Kasmeers tragedy and Marjorys unwillingness to talk about her father.

Subject Change, Bad Guys:

Future antagonists have to have clearer goals from day one.

Scarlet is a char I love and hate for many reasons, I loved her short story, but hated the way she was portrayed, I loved Tara Strong’s wonderful VA and it suits her psychotic persona, but it takes away a lot of her potential to just throw her in randomly and say “Oh I did that at every turn MUHAHAHAHA”

Antagonism needs to be done with the right balance of presence and command. There’s a reason the iconic dark knight in a fantasy game is such a powerful char, he rarely speaks, but he smites down a kingdom with his fist, shatters the hopes and dreams of empires, murders the king before your eyes, and you can do NOTHING but WATCH as he overpowers you, casts you down and leaves you for DEAD having ruined your hopes.

You are set against them for a quest for revenge, you learn who this person is, what they did it for, why they did it, and over time, you either sympathize with their cause, or despise them so much you CRAVE the chance to see them maimed for the pain they have inflicted.

You get stronger, growing to their level, eventually you even surpass it, to the point that when you finally confront that black knight, for maiming you, you are ready to see them defeated.

This is a good antagonist, a villain that makes you know them on a personal level, throughout the story, you know who they are, they know who YOU are and this, is what leaves memories of them.

Scarlet… who is she? I know so much of her through the living story, and through the short story but there’s SO many gaps untold.

Why did she need the Twilight Arbor stuff? Why did she need the Inquest to sabotage the reactor? WHY?

Its never Explained, and this frustrates people, people WANT explanation, they LIKE to know this because it leaves a suspense.

Its an even more power evoking emotion to know how helpless you are, even when you KNOW whats about to happen.

That’s why LA’s fall was such a good evolution, because we KNEW Scarlet was going to do it, but we STILL failed to stop it.

In future, focus on making antagonists more unstoppable, but equally make players strong enough to become the immovable object.

Either way I will try to keep suggestions simple in a TL:DR format.

- Lions Arch Destruction was a good move, but focus in future on trying to evoke personal feelings towards important NPCS, not places.
- If Scarlet dies, make a fresh antagonist with stronger, darker and more bluntly malevolent intentions, or even an anti-villain whom from the start we pity, trying to figure out why they cant just side with us in the first place?
- Return characters from the personal story to the living story, and focus more on marrying the two together instead of trying to keep them separate, personal story should focus on personal aspects of the living worlds own evolution but ultimately, the two should stand side by side, thus avoiding confusions about canon.
- By all means continue with the idea of the new destinies edge group being formed, but also bring back the old one, Destinies Edge really needs some char development, which it felt rather lacking in in Gw2’s personal story.
- Dragons are important, but you can still have humanoid antagonists, just use ones already in the game before adding new ones, such as Caudecus, and Faolain who haven’t been seen for a while.
- Evolve the world to eventually allow accessibility to new races (but by the sounds of it that’s your plan anyway!, which I love the sound of!) over the course of great season sized expansion story lines.
- I might suggest refining Underwater Combat, and while doing so, using that as a focus for an entire underwater themed expansion storyline. (Suggestion, replace AOE circles with spheres underwater!)
- New Profession with heavy armor, still trying to fill an arch type? We don’t have a “black knight” class yet. Perhaps some kind of demonologist that uses heavy armor and dark pacts would be an interesting third wheel since we seemingly have a good/neutral/evil class for the other two if you were to stereotype them.
(Confused about that? Simply put: Elementalist/Mesmer/Necromancer or Ranger/Engineer/Thief (From Good to Evil) Guardian/Warrior/????)
- I miss the Consortium.
- Recommend the Largos as the first new playable race, again, refining Underwater would be a good start, even if Tengu are popular, it’d be better to start by giving that aspect of combat a facelift (plus, we could venture towards making underwater weapons useable over water which would be AWESOME by the way).
- Finally, where the hell is my guild HQ already?

I would suggest also to expand the playable map to Cantha and Elona, alongside the new races and new professions discover. If that was their plan anyway…

I like what you are suggesting. From what I have seen the content of a World of Warcraft expansion is:
-New regions,
-With new regions new dungeons/raids kind of content (which isn’t temporary for two weeks to return as fractal at a later time)
-A new storyline (I don’t know if this is a peronal story line)
- New races.
-New classes (and revamp/balance on the old ones)

This season was mostly story driven with dynamic events around it to get the “Living” in Living story.
I red in other posts that ArenaNet is working on things behind closed doors. However when their target is to add an expansion trough living story you will have to focus on all of those points.

What OP is suggesting is a great way to implement this. If you implement this kind of things there would be good reason to a have a gap between Season —and kind of breaking you every 2 weeks update promise-- since there is still a lot to do. Leveling your new class/race alt, exploring the newly added zones with alts, learning the new dungeons.