Guild Wars 2

Today I saw this comment on a thread about the Living World.
“Living World I thought would be adding content, changing the world, changing the landscape, cities, new monsters, etc. etc.”

I have to say, I like the idea of a Living World and a Living Story. Personally, I think it’s a great way to progress into new zones and introduce new villains and dangers, but I also think that the way that ANet goes about it right now, it reeks of cheap, poor and rushed content.
- Don’t get me wrong, though: I’m all for new features and updates to the mechanics and gameplay of GW2 every two weeks, but the story aspect of it just suffers from it not being executed properly.

Now, to give some feedback to the devs, I’ll tell you some of the things that I have enjoyed.
- First off: The artwork cinematics. Much like those we get, when we make our character, when we join an order and when we end the Personal Story.
Though I’m no fan of Scarlet, I enjoyed the first part of Clockwork Chaos (I found it a bit rushed. Using two weeks studying up on Scarlet by backtracking where she’d been would’ve been a better way to prepare us for the proper introduction when she went “on stage”) I enjoyed the cutscenes, I’d like to see more of those.

The Lost Shores: Though short, so very much happened. It felt like something special to me. We got attacked and there was a sense of impact as this horde of players defended Lion’s Arch and moved into uncharted territory to face these foes, which required teamwork and a bit of skill. Reading the opponent was crucial here.
- Though the last fight was hard and took a couple of hours the rewards were well worth it (got two precursors. Top that!)

The Razing: I loved the instanced story parts of it, which I went through with a couple of friends. Not quite enough of us for a dungeon, but the fact that both story missions could be solo’ed or played with any number of friends available made it more accessible and fun. Rox and Braham were actually properly introduced, though the reason my character were there to see their audience with Rytlock eludes me (were we on our way to see Rytlock? Were we just checking out the architecture?)
- Retribution on the other hand? I would’ve loved to try the dungeon, but unfortunately didn’t have the man-power or time available to do it. A pity, because I heard good things about it.

Bazaar of the Four Winds: I’m not quite sure what made this so very interesting to me. Maybe the fact that some GW1 lore being tied into it, maybe that it was a new zone or some such. Whatever it was, I found it a nice change of pace in things.

Honorable mentions: Halloween and Wintersday events. We don’t celebrate Halloween in Denmark, so usually I’m not really participating much in these, when I’ve played MMO’s (even the wintersday in other MMO’s have only had me glancing in its direction for a moment, finding it amusing then I would’ve left) in GW2, I’ve had the most fun with these holiday events than in any other MMO I’ve played (hey, fair’s fair. And ANet deserves that credit).
- Dragon Bash? Wasn’t around to participate much in it, so I’ll leave the judging of it to you guys.

These were some of the “Very excited about” and positive things about GW2 and their Living Story/World.
- I’ll continue with some of my “not amused” mentions in the section below.

Feel free to share some feedback about the Living World content, but keep it constructive. If the devs’ can’t take something with them from your comment, don’t even bother (and that goes for other players as well. I’d much prefer, if each of you will describe your opinion on what works and what doesn’t than starting flame wars – thank you).

OK, it’s never awesome to hear about what you’ve done “wrong” but let me put it this way: It’s not bad, per se. It can get better. The devs can get better. And that is why it’s our sad duty as players to report any un-awesomeness we detect within the perimeters of “our” game.
- Also, I cannot speak for the entire community, these observations and opinions are mine in their entirety. So let’s get to it, shall we?

- First off, as it is right now, the Living World seems like little more than Achievement Grinding. I enjoyed Tequatl, have yet to try the new dungeon, but it’s a step in the right direction. Their only problem seems to be the rewards, as I can understand.

- Two: The Aetherblades! Now, sky pirates? All for the concept of it, but they weren’t a threat on my journey through Tyria. They had secret hideouts? Why? How come the Inquest wanted to support them? There’s a lot that the game hasn’t really presented to me there. It might be on web pages and such, but the game ought to introduce them somehow.

- Three: Poor introduction.
I’ve said before that spending a Living Story update having us backtrace Scarlet would’ve been awesome for getting to know the character.
Having us investigate her, meeting people she knew in the different cities, ending it with the Pale Tree telling us more about how Scarlet is an actual threat, realize that the Queen is in danger, hurrying back only to find that we are too late (but that the Queen were one step ahead, apparently… although we seem to be steps behind her… care to share, Queen Jennah?).
- Poor introductions are the Living Story’s weakest point, in my opinion (mind you, I said the Living Story, as for the content, I hope it gets better with each update. I’d like them to get back to PvE and PvP content. New Dynamic Events and PvP modes, mayhap?) However, to remedy this, I feel that the artwork cutscenes was better when Scarlet tagged along. I think that is the way to go with telling stories in GW2, I think it suits the game.

That’s some of what I can think of that, while not much, is crucial to telling a story and progressing a game that ANet needs to improve.
- I’ll add more, if it crosses my mind.

Possible solutions
- Nothing like some suggestions to help the devs further down their own personal story.

First off: Updating the mechanics and gameplay every two weeks doesn’t bother me. I do think, though, that stories should be more thorough in their execution. Introducing characters and why our characters are at the scene, how we get involved and how it progresses from there (and most importantly) how we are left with a cliffhanger at the end.
- Think on how we could recieve a longer story arc over the course of a month, where each week we are given an instanced story mission, much like our personal story and as you did in the Razing. Each week or with a few days in between we are given the next part of the story and at the end of it, things might have changed in the world or if it is continued later on, we might be left with a cliffhanger of sorts (example: The players are not certain if the threat has been ultimately dealt with, or if it’ll come back).

Two: Use the cinematics like you did in Clockwork Chaos. They fit the game’s art style and generally work great in the storytelling aspect of the game.

Three: Consequence.
- New zones, changes to existing zones are all part of what is supposed to make a “living” world. In terms of my suggestion to give us a month of instanced story parts, I think that getting into new zones require a different method, not unlike the invasions that Scarlet has going on.
- Let me set an example: The Sons of Svanir takes over huge parts of the Shiverpeaks, maybe even the whole place, even Hoelbrak. Over the course of, say, a month, players are in direct war with these, taking over Hoelbrak again and pushing the Sons of Svanir back and further north until we go into the Far Shiverpeaks, setting the stage for meeting Jormag later on.
- The other areas which the Sons of Svanir occupied before? Well, it’s a Living World, isn’kitten This means new content can enter. Maybe the zones are safe for a while, a few attacks once in a while, until a new threat will enter the area and become “permanent” Dynamic Events.

Something to think about for the devs.
- Looking forward to see where you take the game.

Okay,

Let’s put it another way using a famous book and movie where I believe we all can relate.

Lord of the Rings. Gandalf goes to Bilbos birthday, knows Frodo will get the ring and embark on a journey to Mordor.

At no point on his journey does he do a turnaround to instantly warp back to The Shire to stop his crazy relative Sackville-Baggins.

My point is, our personal story, that which from the beginning attaches us to the story, leads us as we embark on a story to Orr. Where we then end up searching for others, if we didnt already pick up our own conpanions along the way.

Then we are zapped instantly to Lions Arch, then Southsun, then here and there and dverywhere, meanwhile, the attacks from the Risen continue. Why are we blinded by this?

What happened to the Stone Dwarves?
Whats happening with the other races thats at our fingers edge?

And why did the Queen have a coronation if whe was already the queen?

The problem is and will always be that Living Story isnt a story, they are Fractals. Holiday events are just that, events.

Tequatl, Voting and Dungeon tweaks arent stories. They dont emerse ME in it, its about Caithe….

There are many different players, those that are substance players, those that are monetary players, those that are visualistic players, dynamics players, masochistic players.

If done right and strategically planned, you could probably cater to everyone of us and minimize your lessons learned. I personally dont blame the artists, I blame the management.

i always think anet has a awesome job on holiday events. they can only get better. but the ls could have been better if they actually let us investigate stuff especially about scarlet uinless i read something on their blogs or seen their interviews she bland. we should have had a chapter or two investigating about her talking to people and letting them tel us about her. develop her in game instead of just releasing a blog or interview. yeah we know how yall see her if we watch the interview or read the blog but we dont feel that way about her.

the molten alliance there is so much we could have done in that direction. i could see six months of bi weekly update just on them alone. we knew nothing of them and learned so little really. we should be led through investigation of why they formed the alliance. their leaders and their way of thinking through investigation and after three months we could discover who brought them together and devised a way to either break them us or destroy them totally. your telling me they only had one dungeon. they learned those awesome morph skills and we dont know why they were able to do that. they needed to lead us through all that with the ls.

the same could be said about all the chapter. they could have taken three to four months on each chapter and made us a sleuth to bring us a real story. the biggest problem was it was rushed to us without developing it right. to me and others what we got just doesnt make sense but if they took more updates bringing us the info they might have been crystal clear. im not saying stop the bi weekly updates just make each part be 6 to 8 biweeklys and let us figured it out

from my estimate what they gave us in a year could have lasted maybe four or five years if they did it right

It could’ve been more thorough, Ricky, that part is clear. Flame & Frost ended so suddenly (I didn’t play the dungeon, but if you read the description for “The Razing” it didn’t really live up to that. If the Black Citadel or Hoelbrak got invaded and taken over briefly, then it would’ve been a more climactic “ending” to the series).

i felt through out the year we had too many loose strings and if they would have taken more time with each part and pulled tight those strings we might have had a decent living story. i look at each chapter and still can think of so many questions that didnt get answered thats why i think they could have put several chapters into each part all besides the festival stuff and given more details about the various groups and let us figure out why they did what they did.

from what ive gotten from other sources and thanks goodness for other people digging 90 percent of it up for me(those who tried to explain connections in the ls in other threads). they might have had a good overall plan but failed to really deliver it to us and i think the biggest reason was time. they wanted to get to the end fast and really didnt give us enough info in the middle to keep us interested. i think if anet understand what im talking about the ls can get to be awesomeness. i still have faith in them they just got to be more patient which is something i always felt anet always needed even way back in gw1