Guild Wars 2

One thing I’d like to see in some form in some future Living Story release is a significant attack, coming out of nowhere, that strikes surprisingly close to home.
Meaning, for example:
You’re in Divinity’s Reach. As is your custom, you leave the palace gardens and begin to head south to the bank and Trading Post. When you finish picking up your TP swag, you turn around, and decide spontaneously, why not go for a walk around the city, pick up that last POI or a Slice of Rainbow Cake? So, you head down the magical elevator. Seconds after you arrive, though, an NPC’s shout appears in the chat box and rings across the city. “Help! They’re coming! There’s- Aaaargh!” Just then, a group of [for example,] dredge come running down the street, clashing their resonant blades and drills with the swords and shields of the Seraph. Heralds run through the streets, directing “all civilians, return to your homes! All able-bodied non-essential soldiers, reinforce the Shining Blade and Fallen Angels at the Great Collapse!” From there, you head to the Great Collapse, and at each of the entrances to the district, the gates are closed and a Seraph lieutenant waits for groups of brave reinforcements to delve into the ruined district, and down into the tunnels that the Dredge had been digging and shoring up for so many months.
This is a battle worth fighting. An enemy has appeared on the very doorstep of humanity, with almost no warning. Will humanity’s heroes and their allies of the other races stem the tide? Or will half of Divinity’s Reach forever bear the scars and the burden of Dredge conquest?

…Thoughts? I feel that the dynamic of having a major attack on familiar lands was something attempted by Flame and Frost, but far too slow in its appearance and not fully explored. The Secret of Southsun has no such urgency at all.

It has potential, but I think they scared themselves off the idea after the karka invasion in LA. If you weren’t around to see the karka invade LA, rest assured that people who were around didn’t see much either, except record-setting lag and some creatures/people sitting around in the record setting lag. It took me several crashes and subsequent loading screens to actually get out of LA so I could go back to playing the game elsewhere, even though chat messages would still appear up to several minutes late, and out of order.

I think so far my ‘ideal’ living story thing would’ve been sort of like F+F, but instead of a few dolts portalling to the surface and attacking towns villages a few shanties, we could have had open-world events similar to the Pact advancing in Straits of Devastation. Like… you know… have actual battles before the Ultimate Showdown. But in a few different zones, like Diessa/Wayfarer, so unlike everyone flocking to SC events or what ended up being sort of like ‘The Searing: Server Edition’ we could actually spread out a bit, not having one particular thing which is profitable while the rest goes ignored after one run. Or at the very least, make the rest have to be done to keep the farm open, like temples or the bridge to farmville CoF…

And as for SC, I just can’t get into the story at all. I mean it at least has better events – not as good as the Pact events (when those work), but you actually see the conflict instead of getting suspense → first encounters → some tiny skirmishes → FINAL BATTLE YAAAY. But I only follow the actual story via the website/forums. In-game I could blink and not even notice it had a story.

Plus for all that they tried to get us emotionally attached to these refugees, sending us to get their stuff back to them, or tell their friends/relatives they died down in the MF, it seems like now they’re being presented pretty unsympathetically. We’re basically murdering and beating a bunch of people with PTSD from seeing everyone around them murdered and beaten, for the sake of keeping the peace between them and the world’s sleaziest corporation, while the lionguard tracks down what might’ve been a villain but instead just turned out to be a drug addict giving LSD to wildlife in the confused hope it might rise up and fight the power.