Guild Wars 2

Well I guess on some level it’s been fun everyone, but this idea of the Living Story delivering the content in GW2 is an absolute joke. Not only is the Living Story simply a tool to deliver game tweaks and features that should have been included on release, but it is also some of the worst story-telling in a game I have ever seen.

Not only that, but Colin J said in his recent interview on Twitch that they’re unsure whether the Living Story or Expansions will deliver new zones.

Are you kidding me?

Almost a year after release and Anet is still unsure what their actual plan is? Let’s put that into perspective. Whether or not Anet is currently working on new zones is irrelevant because it takes time to package this content into a release and if they don’t even know what they’re doing then I wouldn’t expect any real content to be added before the end of the year.

I’m calling it how I see it here. In terms of actual, real content that expands upon the core game, Anet has released since launch:
- Fractals
- Guild Missions
- sPvP Maps

In nearly a year? And since Anet is so tight-lipped on their plans for actual, real development, here is the content we can expect to be delivered before the end of the year:
- 3 extra fractals.

…

That’s unacceptable – we should be well into the Crystal Desert or Far Shiverpeaks by now. I understand that MMOs are more of a churn and burn money-mule these days, now more than ever, but I’ve got to say, if there was ever a plan to respect the original game and breathe its life into GW2, the devs really should be ashamed of their efforts.

I think Living Story is more appropriate to get in the game small releases and over years becoming something big, then just wait years to get 30 new zones full of heart quests, vistas, etc.

Omen.1879:

That’s unacceptable – we should be well into the Crystal Desert or Far Shiverpeaks by now. I understand that MMOs are more of a churn and burn money-mule these days, now more than ever, but I’ve got to say, if there was ever a plan to respect the original game and breathe its life into GW2, the devs really should be ashamed of their efforts.

So.. how many new zones where released in WoW in the first year?
TERA? LOTRO? SWTOR?

I disagree with the OP, the living story concept is fine and the execution has steadily improved over the last 5 months.

I agree with the OP, living story concept is good but execution has been lacking, specifically the focus away from things happening in the open world and towards various mini-games.

I certainly complained about F&F because the roll-out was too slow, and stand by that. However what they actually did roll out was “living story” about the invasion in the shiverpeaks, with tangible changes in wayfarers foothills to match. It was rough around the edges which is ok with the first release of this (back then) new concept. I expected them to fine-tune their implementation and timing but follow the pattern laid out by F&F. For example, they could have done the MF in a different, more worthwhile way. 8/10

Skipping my personal rating on SAB because it’s not so much living story content, but I found it well executed and with a surprising amount of depth for several play-throughs. If I were to rate it I would place it amongst the top scores.

Southsun did ok in this regard, though I consider it much worse then F&F because the story wasnt represented as well and what they called a dungeon in that release was at best a short story instance. Also it was the start of the mini-game plague, though I didnt mind it then because occasionally mini-games are fine. 6/10

Dragon bash gets a bit of a free pass for being a recurring holiday, but it was mostly busywork that just had you run to the same “world spawn” nodes they already used in the same pattern for halloween, christmas and SAB, plus clicking (F) 200x in LA. Again with the mini-games, too. The story instances were good again though and not as lame as in Southsun. Still the busywork vs content ratio was way off. 5/10

Sky pirates introduced the continuation of the DB story line and had a nice culmination in a real dungeon, very appreciated (too bad there wasnt a paralell solo solution). It also came with a new permanent JP added to the existing world. Looks ok, we’re on the upswing again. “fake content” by placing caches in existing mini-dungeons forcing a re-run. Didnt take the lesson from MF and worsened it with difficult achievement, not so great. Still, beats the last two releases. 7/10

Bazaar of the four winds is a mixed bag. The zone is great and I find it a travesty that they didnt make it a little bit larger and permanent, even if the ship departs. The JP parts of the zone are well done and interesting. Again with the mini games and doubling up on existing content by placing kites there, no story development to speak off except the very first bit. 6/10

So there’s my take on the living story so far. I feel they are drifting away from what they did well with F&F and towards easily implemented busywork (clicking 100ish of something somewhere). We had that in F&F too but it twice in 4 months, not twice per month as is the current trend. Also the trend towards including one or more mini games irks me currently because the actual, living world additions and changes seem be less and less. Obviously these minigames dont appear out of thin air, they take work, imo work that could’ve gone into improving the actual world at large.

back during F&F I was intrigued by the idea of the ongoing living story but voiced my concern about the slow rollout and said I’ll withhold judgement for a while since the concept is new. I was honestly hoping they follow the way F&F went more closely but improve the rough edges, make necessary changes to the concept and polish it more.

Instead in my opinion polish has been lacking (better again with BotFW) and the focus is no longer on the open world but on instanced minigames and collecting rat tails (bonfires, kites, whatever). I dislike this direction and here I am voicing my concern again. I do that because I like the game and want to keep playing it, but the current direction unfortunately is diminishing my fun in GW2.

You do raise some fine points OP, but I’d say lets hold back our decisions till tomorrow. Tomorrow they’re supposed to detailing the months ahead. On the topic of expansions, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re seeing how the game does with the LS and gem store. A big thing about games is they need money to support them. Gw1 survived on 3 expansions and barely made it before Gw2 was released. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re looking at the playerbase size, profits, and other things to see if the LS is good enough to attract players and to have them support the game or releasing an expansion is. I also believe one of the reasons they’re being careful with the new zones is they dont want a southsun. They’re asking themselves what can they offer that makes a zone worth going back to. Right now people go back to Orr only because of temples and farming locations for the most part. They tried adding a meta event in southsun but it was too hard for the rewards you got and made the zone more dead than it was before. I’m sure they are analyzing what they can do to prevent a zone that they will probably work months on go dead upon release.

Quite honestly, I’d love for them just to release more endgame content. I love the LS, but there needs to be more things for players to do b/w the two weeks. I find my self roaming around or messing around in WvW till the next LS. I’d love to see some guild wars, a AB style of PvP, raids (which are confirmed to be in the works), more mini games with actual useful rewards besides titles (next mini games seem to be offering this), and current combat changes in pvp/WvW.

lordkrall.7241:

Omen.1879:

That’s unacceptable – we should be well into the Crystal Desert or Far Shiverpeaks by now. I understand that MMOs are more of a churn and burn money-mule these days, now more than ever, but I’ve got to say, if there was ever a plan to respect the original game and breathe its life into GW2, the devs really should be ashamed of their efforts.

So.. how many new zones where released in WoW in the first year?
TERA? LOTRO? SWTOR?

I dont know about TERA, LOTRO or SWTOR (though from friends I heard SWTOR did add several instances in their first year).

Here’s a brief list for WoW though (from the wiki, its been a while):
Release in Nov’04 (new in that patch were also the raid dungons)
Maraudon dungeon in Dec’04
Diremaul dungeon and outdoor world bosses in Mar’05
Epic weapon quests for 2 classes and PVP reward system in April’05
Introduction of the first two battleground pvp zones in June’05
Blackwings Lair raid dungeon and the recurring monthly darkmoon faire in July’05
Zul’Gurub raid dungeon and the third battleground in Sep’05
Mor outdoor world bosses and revamp of the previously unused Silithus zone* into a fully fleshed out zone with spawnable events and laying the storyline for the upcoming dungeon in Oct’05

In addition to that they also had holiday events or that recurring fishing and open-world arena event in stranglethorn, and they did have a story buildup several times, depending on which patch we’re talking about.

Having played WoW for its first year (and quit in 2006 so its not like I love it over everything) and having played GW2 since release, I would say WoW has done more/better during that first year. Dissapointing because Anet was proclaiming they will deliver more and better then even subscription games.

I know you’re hellbent on defending Anet, so instead of nitpicking please accept that others also want them to do better, but they have to be told when they are going in a direction that doesnt seem to be the best so they can adjust their course.

*silithus can very nicely be compared to southsun and the rework of silithus was far more interesting then southsun 2.0

So, how many new zones does that involve?
I see no new zones, but a few new dungeons.
The same has been added to GW2 (and more)

I asked about new zones added, since that is what people seems to be caring about.
We have had quite a few instances added since release of GW2, both permanent and temporary.

Omen.1879:

snip

That’s unacceptable

snip

I tend to think the general attitude of this post is unacceptable (and overly entitled with a smattering of unmitigated gall…..). This appears to be the result of a complete loss of any kind of manners in our society and players “expecting” free stuff around every corner. Nobody is trying to stop constructive criticism, but being polite and asking nicely is likely to get you farther than being rude and demanding.

lordkrall.7241:

So, how many new zones does that involve?
I see no new zones, but a few new dungeons.
The same has been added to GW2 (and more)

I asked about new zones added, since that is what people seems to be caring about.
We have had quite a few instances added since release of GW2, both permanent and temporary.

No new zones at all. It’s why I left WoW. That’s a list of Blizzard’s tangible additions to their game, which is based on instanced content. It makes sense for WoW. Mind you I’m not saying WoW is better, I would still be playing it then.

I’m not looking for GW2 to achieve parity with a game I deemed not worth playing. I dont want GW2 to become a WoW clone. I thought GW2 was based on playing in open zones interacting with others, instead of sitting in a city and queuing up for instanced content.

If you’re saying GW2, that emphasized its open world as the content they want people to play, is intentionally changing direction towards instance gameplay as its focus, I’d want the devs to acknowledge that so I know not to bother anymore. Right now I am uncertain which direction they want to go and I feel like their original goals are slowly sliding away and being replaced by instanced/instanced/instanced. It is a very disheartening situation. I’m still hoping they return to the design goals they stated a year ago and breathe life into the open world again.

Slow roll-out aside, F&F has actual things happening in a regular zone, it affected people, changed their play experience. That’s the living world I can get behind. I just dont see BotFW or the other releases since Southsun having that effect, they are in their own small bubble that was added for the event only or take place in LA. Now, throwing down a few kites/holoboxes/SAB boxes is all the lip service given to the open world that was once their focus.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

I disagree with the OP, the living story concept is fine and the execution has steadily improved over the last 5 months.

Still a long way to go before I find it acceptable.

Not only is the delivery of the story poorly done, the story itself is boring. To call it a “living story” is pushing it a bit.

thank god for youtube people like woodenpotatoes who actually make this kind of crap slightly palatable because of his speculations.