Guild Wars 2

At the moment the living story feels like a “Random Story” with discounted plot lines that are meant to be connected somehow through the villain scarlet. Well I’m thrilled with the idea of a new story every 2 weeks. I believe the execution thus are has been very sloppy in regards to the lore of the game and how they want to tie game mechanic revamps into lore.
I believe events such as Tequalt getting stronger or revamping dungeons shouldn’t be part of the living story, as they are fixes that were needed since the launch of the game. The living story should have some way of keeping track of the chapters in game so all players can understand the current state of the story. The story should not be discounted fragments that come together into one “ah ha” moment, but rather a story smaller stories that are built on the current cliff hangers from leveling in gw2, and bigger stories of gw1. New encounters/zones/dungeons brought into the game via living story should be permanent and should be involved with the lore of that chapter. This provides a safe way of making the world feel like its growing and expanded on the well know lore and things we saw while leveling. The carnival style “brand new lore” being written every few weeks will only keep people entertained so long.
Now for the dragons….. I feel Anet should push a X pack, or some type of major release every year or 6 months (like gw1) Where we get a new chapter in the Personal Story (separate from living). This provides an advancement of the big dragons story line and would allow for implementation of regions/races/weapons… stuff you would see in a normal Xpack.
I feel like this blend of smaller stories as filler for Pve content will give endgame PvE a more enjoyable flow. The current state is choppy/grindy. Where as these smaller stories could provide new “mission” type quests and other new mechanics rather than carnival style game play.
TL;DR Separate Living Story patches & Game revamps. Introduce Large Content drops every months/year. Don’t make the living story one big story following a villain, but multiple different treads that impact a certain part of the world and bring new types of quests/missions with hard modes that result in permanent changes & new paths to current dungeons.

I agree with the filler. It is difficult to watch your favorite show go on filler episodes that have nothing really to do with the main story. Granted some filler is ok, but we have not had significant movement regarding the dragons or epic and unfinished stories from Gw1.

The Largos still remain Mysterious, no new dragons or existing dragons have made major movements, many older races like the Mursaat, Forgotten, or Dwarves have been revealed.

I can understand a few months of LS filler, or understand that it takes time to connect the dots, but it has been a year since release.

The only real substantial lore tie that we have seen has linked the Zephyrites to Glint, which is something that I thought was really cool.

Other major lore items have been in form of books like Sea of Sorrows, but nothing really in game.

We have had the Karka (which are the closest thing to a dragon movement due to the activity of bubbles).

However, this aetherblade and molten alliance stuff doesn’t really feel like it has anything to do with the meat of the story.

However, I will say that I enjoyed the initial flame and frost arc. The dredge and flame legion were touched upon and it made sense for them to join forces based on their deficiencies and the losing war they were both fighting against a common enemy.

Also both have respect for the destroyers, the Flame Legion in worship and the Dredge as weapons of destruction. However, the Destroyers were never linked to flame and frost despite the obviousness.

Instead we got Scarlet. Which is something that left me scratching my head.

While I don’t hate Scarlet, I feel like she is some sort of duct tape being used to tie so many conflicting story components, which is not healthy for the lore of the game.

She’s got her toes into the Aetherblades, the Flame Legion, the Dredge, the Pale Tree and the Sylvari, the Inquest, the Asuran Colleges, somehow built an airship army by herself (with what resources?). She attacks the human queen for some unknown reason.

She is spread way too thin and seems to have no general purpose other than using insanity and magitech as a plot filler to so many unanswered questions.

For flame and frost I thought the destroyer story should have been advanced. For the aetherblades, maybe the inquest.

These are all tales with nothing in common with Scarlet in the middle sticking out like a displaced sore thumb.

I don’t see how the LS is “random” – honestly, I think I’d prefer a random story, as they wouldn’t be connected and would mean several plots get slowly expanded, making it more like a real living world.

lordhelmos.7623:

She attacks the human queen for some unknown reason.

It was on a whim, as explained in a TowerTalk interview with Scott and Angel.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I don’t see how the LS is “random” – honestly, I think I’d prefer a random story, as they wouldn’t be connected and would mean several plots get slowly expanded, making it more like a real living world.

lordhelmos.7623:

She attacks the human queen for some unknown reason.

It was on a whim, as explained in a TowerTalk interview with Scott and Angel.

To Konig, I think the “randomness” can work as long as each of the individual living stories has some solid direction and makes good use of foreshadowing to ensure that players who participate in the story will feel like whatever is “coming” is worth staying around for.

This is the problem with Scarlet. I went on a giant 20 page tirade on another post about this due to the alot of these current Living Stories being tied to seemingly unrelated items that are tied together with little to no explanation.

I almost feel like Scarlet was a roleplaying metagame to quickly bundle so many apples and oranges that had no relation into one bag. But in a truly good story, you wouldn’t see this happen.

Granted I feel bad for searing the authors on this as I do respect the writers and believe they have some wonderful talent. I just feel like the bundling and presentation of these arcs was a bit shaky. Flame and Frost was the most solid Arc for me and had hope for it until it was Scar-letted.

However I do have faith in the writers and have seen some truly wonderful lore be created in the past. There are many good lore aspects of the game that I am sure they can do justice.