Guild Wars 2

I say success. Living Story gave an easy to understand storyline.

Some say failure. Why is that? Lack of features? Probably so, but then again Living Story was only supposed to be about story.

Failure. The story wasn’t that good. The new maps and the stuff they give is nice, though.

I think it has been a success overall. There have been some hits and misses, but it seems like ANet is learning from the misses and there has been a lot of improvement in the living story. I’m happy with it, though it isn’t perfect.

It was a great success.

I don’t think we can call it a success or a failure just yet. Season 1 style was a total failure, as people started complaining about missed content and the pressure put on the narrow timeline. Season 2 style, though, seemed to have been received positively and will probably continue. Which really is what will be the test. If there is a season 3, it’s a success; otherwise, it’s a failure.

Success. Very much so. Not crazy about each episode, but it’s kept more than a few people interested, and it will continue to do so with Season 3.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

I say success. Living Story gave an easy to understand storyline.

Well, I look at it by comparing it to Season 1 and the base campaign of the Personal Story. In the Personal Story we had shoddy one-on-one character dialog over a still-background and then in Season 2 we get cutscenes somewhat more reminiscent of Guild Wars 1. Additionally, we went from Season 1’s lack of narrative to suddenly a plot that eventually ties in together.

That cries out: improvement. And if it gets people to log in and do a couple farm runs, it’s garnering an audience which is always a plus. I would hardly call it a failure but that’s just my two cents, I find it interesting when you lay everything flat out and look over it all from left to right and back again.

I’d say Season 2 was a success. Hated Season 1.

Season 2 had an amazing storyline and the battles were actually challenging for once.

Its too bad there wont be a Season 3 , HoT is basically closing whats going on with mordremoth.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Its too bad there wont be a Season 3 , HoT is basically closing whats going on with mordremoth.

What makes you so sure?

I could easily see them holding off with defeating Mordremoth and instead having us face its armies and crawl closer and closer to its base, and then release the actual fight against it via living story updates coming down the line.

There is nothing at all that suggest there will be no Living Story updates after HoT, even if we defeat Mordy with the expansion.

open world content, fun, instanced quests with story, horrible, it literally did everything wrong i dont want a story just new content

but you are playing an MMORPG? Hey lets have a game with no story at all and just have landscapes with absolutely no dialogue from NPCs!

The method of presenting the story got better, sure. And the majority of the new content, maps, and other things to do gameplay wise, got better, save for the tedious/annoying achievements.

The story itself though, not so much. I honestly find characters from the Personal Story more memorable than the the majority of the ones brought up in the Living Story so far. And the cliffhangers and cheap twists near the end of Season 2 haven’t left a good impression either.

So, it’s kinda half and half, now that i mulled it over harder. Meh.

Well, at least we got Kasjory out of it. All hail Kasjory!

Fail. They npcs are even worse than the water weaklings from “beginning”. They bosses are ludicously overpowered and due to some twists fighting bosses takes far too long. When you almsot win, they run off and instantly heal or hit you with a knock down and ten other attacks that kill you.

Season 2 was awesome.
Only a few parts of season 1 was good, like the Phallus of Nightmares and the Queen’s Pavillion.

Definitely a success.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Its too bad there wont be a Season 3 , HoT is basically closing whats going on with mordremoth.

There is literally zero comment regarding the discontinuation of Living Story-updates. None. No one has ever mentioned it. HoT doesn’t mean the end of LS, it means the end of Mordremoth. We still have Primordus, Jormag, Kralk, and “Bubbles” – that’s not even counting Emperor Xenophobic (Cantha) and Palawa Joko (Elona). Future expansions could certainly use seasonal episodes between each to set up the narrative that the next large-update provides. Just as how Season 2 leads right into HoT.

Honestly if they continue to improve the way they had from Season 1 to Season 2, the future ahead for more content could look drastically more entertaining.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Its too bad there wont be a Season 3 , HoT is basically closing whats going on with mordremoth.

Funny thing, the expansion never mentioned anything about defeating, or even encountering Mordremoth LOL.

I think we wouldn’t be defeating Mordremoth any time soon.

Also, there’re still four more Dragons to go even if Mordremoth is killed.

Firstly what was the goal of Living Story? We can’t judge if it was a success or failure unless we know why it existed.

To release expansion type content? Well we can argue about what ‘type’ means but I’d say this was a failure.
To keep players engaged with the game? Well you’re mileage may vary, but I think it did for the most part succeed in providing players with regular updates to continue playing (and thus hopefully continue buying gems). Definitely after 2 years I think Anet finally started to get a knack of how to do this.
If the Living Story exists to bridge the time period between expansions? Well I don’t think it was ever intended for this purpose but I’d say if we measured it according to this it was a great success.

It began as a failure, but has been steadily improving.

They need to work on creating more cohesiveness by finding a way to repackage and reimplement season 1 (I say they need to make use of phasing) and by making some improvements to the original PS like removing the weird, stifling dialogue sequences and emphasizing some of the NPCs more.

Living Story Season 2 is a success in my opinion. The story was good, encounters were nice and the open world maps are really great (You will find me a lot of time in these maps).

They learned from Season 1 and they improved. Combine LS releases with expansions and wow, you just got me back! In fact, I came back 2 weeks ago and am almost done with my Luminescent armor. Afterwards, I’ll go for Mawdrey. I like that I finally have something to farm for, and not only farm gold to buy it on TP. I have to work for it, and I love it!

They are starting to get some distance from the “everything can go on the TP” at game release and I like it. At least we can now have some prestige.

Success or failure as measured against what?

Brilliant writing: Fail
Permanent content: Success
Replayability: Fail
Season 1: Success
Scarlet: Fail
Investment in NPCs before they die: Fail
Personal Story: Fail
Art and music: Success
Fostering Sylvari hate/distrust: Success
Pushing the Lame-conics on us at every turn: Success
Making the PC feel like a “Boss”: Success

Overall a success – it got people logging in and playing. That’s the big judge.

As a living world though, I’m not sure it’s a complete success. Lets put aside the storytelling which peaked and dipped a lot and look at the Living World itself. Has the World evolved since launch? Yes, but not enough to differentiate itself enough from many other games. Many zones are still stuck in time. In game time is moving differently depending on where you are – a dragon rises, forts get destroyed, vines grow and strangle areas. Kessex and LA bear the scars of Scarlets attack. However, the Charr Peace Treaty remains locked talking the same dialogue and doing nothing since launch. The Centaurs are obvlious to an all out assault by the Toxic Alliance in their own territory. The Orders seem unengaged in Worldly affairs at the HQs.

Small things, but relevant for a “Living World”.

lordkrall.7241:

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Its too bad there wont be a Season 3 , HoT is basically closing whats going on with mordremoth.

What makes you so sure?

I could easily see them holding off with defeating Mordremoth and instead having us face its armies and crawl closer and closer to its base, and then release the actual fight against it via living story updates coming down the line.

There is nothing at all that suggest there will be no Living Story updates after HoT, even if we defeat Mordy with the expansion.

or easier – after expac season 3 leading to the next dragon ^^

I like both season 1 and season 2.

Season 1 was a good memories to me, especially fall of lion arch and the epic battle to Scarlet. The disappointment is the replayability. Missed is permanent lost to veteran or a plot gap to new players.

Season 2 was a success to me, pay for missed content is great, gather players to login during the 2 weeks window. I love the soloable story instance, and i hope the up coming expansion follow the same path, open world contents and event + person story instance. I love the dark atmosphere since the start of season 2, more mature than the childish story (Zhaitan I am looking at you). The enemies are more well designed and less zerg friendly.

Afterall, i will say LS is getting mature and more successful gradually. Great Job Anet.

i only play it when my pal pays me gold to help him with achievements.

The start of Season 1 was good. Then it went downhill and was even worse than Michael Bays Film Pearl Harbor.

I loved season 2, the only thing I would about season one is that it should be available permanently, like season 2. I hope they continue it after Mordy because is free story, the game with the never ending story, which I love. I just wish their was more missions per episode.

As a proof of concept for content delivery: Success.

The actual content.. Not so much.
The writing was lackluster, and so were the characters.

Perhaps the biggest sin in the content releases were how little respect the designers seemed to have for our time. I can understand short, barely-there chapters when pushing out content bi-weekly. That’s not my issue. Rather, the replay value is horrible, since we are forced to endure brain-crippling story and lengthy conversation waits before we can re-try achievements, some of which are excessively easy to fail.

Season 1 – Failure, due to poor implementation and very poor Scarlett background/introduction, etc

Season 2 – Success. They learnt from their mistakes. They need to add a skip button to cutscenes and dialogue, though…

Season 2 was definitely a success. My only complaint is that I had to pay for what I missed. It’s a monetary punishment for having school or work, and I only paid because I love the GW story and lore. My friends though who are new to the game decided to opt out of all S2 content besides Silverwastes because they didn’t get it or didn’t want to start from the end and have to pay $10 on top of the $40 for the game. They bought the game right before the sale.

S1 I can’t say, because I missed it.

I’d also love to know how I became “boss” of Destiny’s Little Edge, where these characters came from, and generally how we got where we are. Please don’t make me pay more money on top of the expansion just to figure out how I got where I am.

I’d like the expansion to come with both seasons free.

Success almost to the full. Almost since I’d really like to see an option to skip all dialogs, cutscenes or not (so annoying when doing achieves).

Failure. After playing 4 chapters of season 2, I just felt alienated and insulted at how the presentation of the continuity straight up assumed you had the chance to play every piece of removed content. I have much more fun ignoring Living Story and just playing the base game’s content.

Bob F It.5701:

Failure. After playing 4 chapters of season 2, I just felt alienated and insulted at how the presentation of the continuity straight up assumed you had the chance to play every piece of removed content. I have much more fun ignoring Living Story and just playing the base game’s content.

if you didnt play it, you could always read about it, lots of blogs… and there’s always youtube.

they can’t just magically add season1, but last I heard they were working on it.

LS1 wasn’t “removed” it was never meant to permanent in the first place.
_____________

I think apart from of the encounters that I sorely disliked, ls2 was a success, being able to play at your own time, is excellent. I do miss the living aspect of the world, but I can understand that isnt feasible.

Taygus.4571:

Bob F It.5701:

Failure. After playing 4 chapters of season 2, I just felt alienated and insulted at how the presentation of the continuity straight up assumed you had the chance to play every piece of removed content. I have much more fun ignoring Living Story and just playing the base game’s content.

if you didnt play it, you could always read about it, lots of blogs… and there’s always youtube.

they can’t just magically add season1, but last I heard they were working on it.

LS1 wasn’t “removed” it was never meant to permanent in the first place.

Oh, sure I could read about LS1.
I could also read about LS2, and HoT, and PS. Hell, how about I just don’t play the game’s story whatsoever, because reading it is perfect substitute!

not bad, but not outstanding either. What I rather dislike about LS is how halfheartedly it is implemented. A really bold approach would be having a changing world on a large scale as the story progresses, including the elimination of the personal Zhaitan story as that, in terms of a progressing living world, is done. But I can understand how delivering enough new content to make up for would be an insanely huge drain on ressources.

I feel weird, everything pointed towards the crystal desert and possible Elona, and instead Anet comes with some part of the maguma jungle that no one was expecting.( Or even wanting)

aspirine.6852:

I feel weird, everything pointed towards the crystal desert and possible Elona, and instead Anet comes with some part of the maguma jungle that no one was expecting.( Or even wanting)

There is very little that pointed toward the Crystal Desert actually.
People see what they want to see, but basically the only thing that pointed towards CD was Glint, who is no longer there.

On the other hand basically everything else pointed towards going towards Maguuma, where Mordremoth quite clearly have its based.

I would say that basically everyone that actually played the living story expected to go deeper into Maguuma as opposed to you claiming no one expecting it.

I would say … Failure.

That’s not the same as bad, though. The failure is that ANet had some stated goals and expectations for the LS that it failed to meet. They made it very clear that the LS was their answer to a standard expansion, and that if it worked they would never need to make such a thing.

They’ve made such a thing. Therefore, it failed.

However, they’ve learned a lot from it, and I think that going forward their skills will be better for having done it. I also expect them to continue with the LS. It will pick up after HoT, and bridge the gap between that and the next expansion while adding more bits to the world at large, be they areas or just more lore and events to existing areas.

So, failure, but a good one.

lordkrall.7241:

aspirine.6852:

I feel weird, everything pointed towards the crystal desert and possible Elona, and instead Anet comes with some part of the maguma jungle that no one was expecting.( Or even wanting)

There is very little that pointed toward the Crystal Desert actually.
People see what they want to see, but basically the only thing that pointed towards CD was Glint, who is no longer there.

On the other hand basically everything else pointed towards going towards Maguuma, where Mordremoth quite clearly have its based.

I would say that basically everyone that actually played the living story expected to go deeper into Maguuma as opposed to you claiming no one expecting it.

The last part pointed to CD for me. Ghostly hero, the ascension runes, the forgotten.
There were other hints before, like the Zephyrites and their stories about the CD.

It failed a lot more than it succeeded. It felt disjointed. It felt forced (I don’t like most of the biconics, but I can’t dump them). Scarlet was poorly presented and as interesting as an evaporating puddle.

Once in a while a LS release was fun – Marionette, Battle for LA & Glint’s Lair come to mind. But, they were sadly few and far between.

season 2 was a success. Season 1 was garbage.
I rather have expansions. Luckily my prayers have been answered.

lordkrall.7241:

aspirine.6852:

I feel weird, everything pointed towards the crystal desert and possible Elona, and instead Anet comes with some part of the maguma jungle that no one was expecting.( Or even wanting)

There is very little that pointed toward the Crystal Desert actually.
People see what they want to see, but basically the only thing that pointed towards CD was Glint, who is no longer there.

On the other hand basically everything else pointed towards going towards Maguuma, where Mordremoth quite clearly have its based.

I would say that basically everyone that actually played the living story expected to go deeper into Maguuma as opposed to you claiming no one expecting it.

To piggyback on this, there was a little more that suggested it might’ve been the Crystal Desert, but only because it’s the biggest barren, sandy biome most players are familiar with. At the end of Chapter 4, you can talk to Trahearne and he’ll say that Kralkatorrik was going to be the next dragon they attacked before Scarlet woke Mordy up. However, both the Pale Tree’s vision and the mention of Kralk (my nickname for him) were after we had already been playing around Dry Top for about 2 months, so it should’ve been no surprise when the Silverwastes opened up.

It was pretty clear that we were heading west into the jungle as Mordy was making himself too much of a pain. Even back in GW1, part of Maguuma was sandy plateaus with thorny plant monsters. We should’ve been ready to head into another sandy desert, which happened to have 4 bases and the crystal egg underneath the ground.

Aomine.5012:

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Its too bad there wont be a Season 3 , HoT is basically closing whats going on with mordremoth.

Funny thing, the expansion never mentioned anything about defeating, or even encountering Mordremoth LOL.

I think we wouldn’t be defeating Mordremoth any time soon.

I thought the same. And it’s not the first time we’ve seen something like this. Cataclysm and Deathwing anyone?

Rognik.2579:

I don’t think we can call it a success or a failure just yet. Season 1 style was a total failure, as people started complaining about missed content and the pressure put on the narrow timeline. Season 2 style, though, seemed to have been received positively and will probably continue. Which really is what will be the test. If there is a season 3, it’s a success; otherwise, it’s a failure.

What do you mean by Season 1 and Season 2 Styles, please?

Asumir.1978:

Rognik.2579:

I don’t think we can call it a success or a failure just yet. Season 1 style was a total failure, as people started complaining about missed content and the pressure put on the narrow timeline. Season 2 style, though, seemed to have been received positively and will probably continue. Which really is what will be the test. If there is a season 3, it’s a success; otherwise, it’s a failure.

What do you mean by Season 1 and Season 2 Styles, please?

Season 1 was all open world stuff. The world literally changed, and NPCs moved about. Currently, there’s only a few indications of these changes, though. Kessex Hills had its trees clear-cut to build the tower, and I think an NPC around there talks about the Nightmare Tower and how it was brought down. In Lornar’s Pass, one of the vistas was moved so that it was on top of the marionette wreckage. However, once that particular story arc was finished (usually 2-4 weeks after its initial release), it was done, gone and could not be replayed. At best, there were maybe a couple of remnants left for people who didn’t know it was ending (eg. a tri-colour chest in Kessex for the tri-colour keys)

Season 2 changed its format entirely. Due to the reactions of Season 1, ANet guaranteed that this would be content that could be replayed at any time. (As such, the vines in Iron Marches will never be cleaned out.) While there were some instanced areas in Season 1, often for a party of 5 but occasionally stuff that could be done solo, Season 2 was predominantly instanced and revealed a new map that was slowly revealed over the next 2 months. So in Chapter 1, we go in the Tangled Woods in Brisbane Wildlands, fight Mordremoth’s vines, and emerge in Dry Top. The content is permanent, and players who weren’t around when the new content came out could purchase the chapters to play through them; in Season 1, if you weren’t there, you just missed it. People also say that the story is much better in Season 2, while season 1 either felt rushed or disjointed; this might have been due to many divisions working on separate updates in parallel, while Season 2 was written by a core group of writers and felt more cohesive as a whole.

So you can see how the two seasons had very different styles in how new content was revealed. Don’t get me wrong, Season 1 was lots of fun even if I didn’t have much time to dedicate myself to any one part, but I never really got to play most of the events (totally missed the marionette fight, for instance) and they were designed for many players to complete at once, not so much the lone player who can only be on for a couple of hours. Season 2, with its instances, is designed with a single player in mind most of the time and each instance generally takes about 30 minutes to complete (longer if it’s the last instance of the chapter – stupid long boss battles), which is much easier for most players to manage. The achievements also allow for players to replay the chapters, and earn bragging right for doing hard stuff in each one.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Aomine.5012:

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Its too bad there wont be a Season 3 , HoT is basically closing whats going on with mordremoth.

Funny thing, the expansion never mentioned anything about defeating, or even encountering Mordremoth LOL.

I think we wouldn’t be defeating Mordremoth any time soon.

I thought the same. And it’s not the first time we’ve seen something like this. Cataclysm and Deathwing anyone?

I think we will defeat Mordremoth in this one. At the current rate it will already take more than 10 years to kill all elder dragons, I doubt Anet would drag that out even further.

Well i guess its a success when thats all you look for in a story. I’d say the story is a failure because given the short amount of time, they couldn’t possibly come up with a story that is worth caring about. The characters are forgettable, in fact i don’t remember any of the major characters because they aren’t interesting or weren’t developed enough given the short timespan. The dialogue is terrible, the story makes hardly any sense, i mean if asura has the technology to almost one shot zhaitan, why are we still fighting on foot 99% of the time and not just blowing up plant dragon i can’t remember his name.

I got hyped over almost every episode of S2 – so I would call S2 a success.

Considering LS is now dead, you’d have to be pretty daft to call it a “success”.

Mental Paradox.3845:

Considering LS is now dead, you’d have to be pretty daft to call it a “success”.

It’s not dead. It’s on hold until it starts up again after the expansion. The living story is used to transfer and provide content between expansions.