Guild Wars 2

I will state, first of all, that I by no means want the Living Story Content gone.
- Still, by the looks of some post on the forum, and after a lot of thought and a bit of discussions with my brother, who is currently studying for game developing, I thought it nice to kind of take up an issue that I, personally, think is too serious to just overlook.

- I’ve noticed old players wanting to come back. Many of them (and many of the currently playing playerbase) wants to see improvements to the core game design, new zones, more dungeons (or improvements to the currently existing dungeons), improvements to the game mechanics like vehicles in Orr or something, etc.

Living Story content seems like quantity over quality content. I wasn’t immersed into the Southsun content- The Razing was when I found the F&F content compelling, but with only those two missions it would grow stale over the month to do.

To get to the issue:
- Living Story shall by no means be cut away from the game, it makes GW2 unique in that sense.
- What I would like, however, is that they don’t keep throwing content our way so we can do the PvE (or PvP) content that the game also has to offer.
- My suggestion is that the Living Story team can put more effort into making a Living Story event that can play out through a couple of months, but with more content, more things to see and do, more rewards (maybe).
- There are the cg artists who have to model, animate and create new content for the Living Story. Mayhap we can get something permanent and new soon, and also get a better quality of Living Story content as well.
- Taking the time it requires to create quality content is crucial for any game and especially MMO’s, because many GW2 enthusiasts lost interest, many GW enthusiasts lost interest and doesn’t feel that this sequel lives up to its predecessor, even though it looks better.

- I hope that the dev teams will take some of this into consideration to improve efficiency.
- Let me know what you think. Feel free to criticize as long as it is constructive. Feel free to add to the list or come with your suggestion on how to best increase efficiency for future content.
- Thanks for reading and responding.

I’d honestly wish they’d scrap the stupid idea of Living Story and the pathetic content that it’s generated. The game has lost an extraordinary amount of players in less than a year, while core content aspects such as competitive, functional s/tPvP is still underdeveloped, WvW is only marginally better than on release, the economy is still in tatters (this coming from a guy who has plenty of gold, Sunrise Legendary, full gear etc) and no new zones aside from Southsun Cove, which is still woefully underdeveloped and uninteresting.

Great core aspects – tPvP, WvW, PvE – will keep people playing. Not pathetic seasonal content that is temporary and, worst of all, incredibly easy and therefore unengaging. The game lacks meaningful challenge and sense of achievement (again, coming from someone who has Sunrise legendary, which is all about persistence and not challenge/skills). It is basically going the way WoW has gone post-TBC, albeit at a higher pace; catering to casuals, thus bleeding users.

There was a recent article by one of the leading LoL designers, who commented that the last couple of years’ MMO-trend of “catering to the casuals” has all but destroyed the genre in the west. I believe this is very much the case, and that the best way of achieving succes in an MMO is by building upon some core concepts that are extremely hard and challenging to achieve. Sure, only a minority will reap the full benefits of such an approach, but much like TBC – the glory era of WoW both content and subscriber-wise – the western masses will surmount these challenges nontheless.

Right now GW2 resembles a Korean grinder mmo much more than the now long dead manifesto ever led us to believe.

The living story wouldn’t be an issue if it lead to permanent content, it doesn’t, you end up with this one time content which you can’t ever do again so you just go from one one off thing to another as a smoke and mirrors act to the game actually improving when really it’s just stayed the same.

The way this area has turned out, I don’t care to see it again. No one is even in the area anymore, with the zillion one shot Karka standing around and who never leave. I end up just exiting the zone and the game.

It doesn’t bring players back and it doesn’t retain players. It’s reminiscent of a subpar singleplayer game.

Nimraphel.7819:

I’d honestly wish they’d scrap the stupid idea of Living Story and the pathetic content that it’s generated. The game has lost an extraordinary amount of players in less than a year, while core content aspects such as competitive, functional s/tPvP is still underdeveloped, WvW is only marginally better than on release, the economy is still in tatters (this coming from a guy who has plenty of gold, Sunrise Legendary, full gear etc) and no new zones aside from Southsun Cove, which is still woefully underdeveloped and uninteresting.

Great core aspects – tPvP, WvW, PvE – will keep people playing. Not pathetic seasonal content that is temporary and, worst of all, incredibly easy and therefore unengaging. The game lacks meaningful challenge and sense of achievement (again, coming from someone who has Sunrise legendary, which is all about persistence and not challenge/skills). It is basically going the way WoW has gone post-TBC, albeit at a higher pace; catering to casuals, thus bleeding users.

There was a recent article by one of the leading LoL designers, who commented that the last couple of years’ MMO-trend of “catering to the casuals” has all but destroyed the genre in the west. I believe this is very much the case, and that the best way of achieving succes in an MMO is by building upon some core concepts that are extremely hard and challenging to achieve. Sure, only a minority will reap the full benefits of such an approach, but much like TBC – the glory era of WoW both content and subscriber-wise – the western masses will surmount these challenges nontheless.

Right now GW2 resembles a Korean grinder mmo much more than the now long dead manifesto ever led us to believe.

So very true.
- I like GW2, I criticize it because I want to point out to them where they can better themselves.
- It’s hard, however, to do so with fanboys screaming “It’s perfect!” meaning that no improvements are needed (and what they really mean is that when somebody they don’t know suggests something, it is bad… but if a dev suggested it, well, it is the best suggestion that they’ve ever heard).
- Solid foundations such as the core aspects that they talked about in the Manifesto needs more attention, more improvement. Getting back into that mindset will only do ANet good. It’s what made us want to play their game in the first place.

- I had expected to get improvements and permanent new changes and at times after they had developed a new Living Story chapter, we’d get that.
- Their current plan forces players into the new zones each month to get the new achievements, new items, etc.
- I stopped doing it, but I realize that I’m stuck with the PvE content that needs but don’t get improved at all, which in the end has forced me to leave the game, and only on occasion look in to see if they’ve added anything new or improved the World Bosses mechanics or some such (supposedly the World Bosses would take over the areas around them if they were not defeated, but with the predictability of when they spawn makes them sitting ducks. I’ve never heard of anyone losing a fight to them. It also means that we are missing out on content in the game).

- Suffice to say, GW2 needs improvement.
Is it good? Yeah, it is, but without proper new content and with new and promising MMO’s on the way, GW2 might lose a lot more of their playerbase.
- Personally, I look forward to the day when GW2 has both Elona and Cantha and all the zones that we are familiar with. I hope to see a GW2 that has reached the goal that it set out to do.
- I’m talking about the Manifesto here, because they haven’t made a perfect first attempt with their new game design, but they can improve on it so that the gaming experience will be more memorable (I know that right now I don’t remember any particular village or place to any emotional extent like I would in other MMO’s, like GW1, WoW, SWToR, Tera and so on and so forth).

well devs think that the rewards they currently have are enough incentive for us to do difficult content. 2 guaranteed rare items are not rewarding enough though imho. What I think the problem is: there is too little unique reward in GW2, especially for difficult content.

Skins for dungeon-tokens were a good first step, but now that people have geared up and do each dungeon at lv.80 instead of the level of the zone dungeons aren’t difficult anymore. Downscaling is still weak and players downscaled from 80 still destroy anything.

Think of it: if those Sclerite Backbags would have been skins dropable by the Karka Queen, how much more people would still be there…

risk – reward

They’re doing what all game developers do. focusing on the short term. the last game I played that felt more like a place instead of a theme park ride was Ultima online. they started with a brilliant concept and then corrupted it to appeal more to mainstream and new players. and I get it when its time to pay the bills you need new players. the problem is mainstream players are flighty, emotionally ballistic, knuckle-dragging, zombies. they are impossible to please and keep long term. they’re used to sitting in front of a TV being spoon-fed content in a zombielike state. when you cater to that customer base they will eat your content faster than any gaming company on earth can produce it. while catering to the masses you alienate the nerds. the nerds give you immortality the knuckle-dragging masses give you a large profit bump then grow bored and leave. by catering to mainstream customer bases you are guaranteeing a life cycle which is stupid IMO. game worlds are digital content. it doesn’t die it doesn’t decay. I am not saying not to add new content or to never change, I am not saying make it horrible for new players. I am saying a place is a place. make it real change the mindset of “lets give them what they want” into “lets create a place” because when you create a place you keep the nerds and the nerds give you immortality, the nerds make friends and then you get more nerds then you get growth.
how do you make a “place” you ask. a bear is a bear, it will eat you. it doesn’t care if you’re young, old, naked, or geared to the teeth. bears don’t change because some hormonally charged teenager cried and whined about it. don’t do it ANET don’t succumb to the knuckle-dragging masses. “its a trap!!”
I haven’t been playing long but can I see how much you have avoided many of the pitfalls UO stepped into and IMO you have done a great job so far. however if you want to add content you don’t need to tell us more story’s. the world is full of gaming companies who think they’re in the digital movie biz. you don’t need to give us useless shiny things like armor skins and cute pets please get it right and focus on making it a “PLACE” focus on the meaningfull WvWvW give us blocks to play with focus on making your core game stronger and add content that makes a difference in the long term.
so far since UO you are the first game that gives me any hope that somewhere some company is going to “get it”
you broke the trinity- great ty for giving us more flexibility
you introduced a dynamic changing playing world where your actions actually have impact on the environment “even if only short term we all know the bandits will be back to poisen the well”- that’s great too I actually feel compelled to help the poor npcs out everytime I go back that way.
you eliminated the ability to grief each other yet you give us world pvp you removed kill stealing resource stealing you broke the mold of anything that hakitten the market in a long time and wow is the gaming community that you have fostered great. nicest bunch I have seen in a long time and I have been gaming since 93.
you are so on the right track. yet you still haven’t gotten to where UO was right after beta. Britannia was a place. objects had value, grinding levels was manageable and your reputation among your fellows players mattered and content? you could make everything from spoons to a golem. instead of making us a more realistic “place” and adding content that made sense to a “place” such as the ability to craft horse barding or maybe a wagon they decided to emulate WoW and make people “safe” and give magical item drops etc. they catered to the wrong crowd alienated their core players now theyre a server ghost town. that’s not all they did wrong by a long shot but that is the root cause of their demise.
my back yard doesn’t give a flying f about me it is a place I can do millions of things in by bringing objects into it and manipulating them but at the end of the day it would just as readily recycle my dead corpse into my wife’s lilies.
focus place place place ignore the whiners the nerds will stay the knuckle dragging masses will come and go regardless of your actions.

@Qazmodon: I don’t get what you mean with “place”. You’re repeating it over and over but your specific suggestions are few and vague. You say that they shouldn’t add more stories… I think quite the opposite is true: they should give dynamic events more stories/background. At the moment a lot of these seem hollow, because they end abruptly and don’t go on further most of the time. Long chains are rare. And stories are told mostly in the personal story.

“objects had value”… please elaborate. Legendaries also have a certain value, is this the value you’re talking about? How did reputation matter?

You seem to assume that everyone knows UO, but I really think that’s not the case and I have no idea what you mean. Tyria isn’t a place? O_o

I would like Dragon Ball to stay and maybe to replace Keg Brawl. I didn’t like Crab Toss but Dragon Ball is fun. It would be nice if more achievements could be added. After 20 wins there isn’t much to look forward to.

I don’t know why Moa Racing is supposed to stay. I counted myself lucky that I only had to waste 5g to get the achievement after turning in all the winnings.

Protoavis.9107:

The living story wouldn’t be an issue if it lead to permanent content, it doesn’t, you end up with this one time content which you can’t ever do again so you just go from one one off thing to another as a smoke and mirrors act to the game actually improving when really it’s just stayed the same.

I like your idea. It would be nice to see new permanent content appear as a response to the Living Story. New Dynamic Events or new repeatable quest like stuff to do (but it should function as the Task System or Hearts, if you will).
- This will make the Living Story and the permanent PvE content compliment on each other and really make the world change over time.

- Very nice. I had hoped to see something more in response to the Living Story events, more than just Lost Shores resuming with the Southsun events that came, and I actually thought about what you explained above, so a good suggestion.
Also Lost Shores were nice in retrospect, the fight was hard but the rewards well worth it. Got two precursors out of it and a lot of exotics. I’d like to see more Living Story like that and less of the latter kind that we’ve been seeing. It doesn’t interest me as much and doesn’t have as much of an impact on me.
- I’m hearing about the Aetherblades coming up, supposedly they’re some sort of sky pirates already in motion during Dragon Bash (haven’t had that much time to play lately).
- I hope they better the content, because I’m not a Living Story fan of these new chapters there have been lately (retribution with the dungeon was nice, though. Southsun? Not at all, to me at least). There has to be signs of improvement (I think the Lost Shores was better than what they’re doing right now, honestly).

EttinTracker.6504:

I would like Dragon Ball to stay and maybe to replace Keg Brawl. I didn’t like Crab Toss but Dragon Ball is fun. It would be nice if more achievements could be added. After 20 wins there isn’t much to look forward to.

I don’t know why Moa Racing is supposed to stay. I counted myself lucky that I only had to waste 5g to get the achievement after turning in all the winnings.

i was thinking the same thing actually thought they choose the wrong one to stay. i wouldnt mind moa racing if it was changed a bit a little less to spend less reward for winning but i thought dragon ball was crazy fun even though i stink at it i thought it was the best mini game to date they done

Looks like Dragon Ball is really on the way out. Today’s update removed PvP credit so that no achievements can be earned after 20 wins. Dragon Ball should get some achievements similar to Keg Brawl if it were to stay.

If they want them to matter more they need to make them last longer and have a remaining impact on the world. My problem in general with the Living World events, is that the content is too high a lvl. My main is 48 and I wouldn’t last a minute in a fight on South Sun, and has been the same with all the other events. So even though I log in during Living World events, I gain nothing.

So, AN, you don’t bring in new players, you don’t keep old ones, and the few (like me) that return to do the new content can’t even do them. You are catering to the lvl capped hardcore players (that already spend more than 10 hours a week on the game), and all they want is more permanent content. You service no one. Please, fix it.

While I think coin sinks can be a good thing in a MMO and “Moa Racing” has potential to do that I just don’t see how its long lasting past the event.

Most people are only doing it for one of two reasons and that’s to either get the achievement (and cash out) or to get the achievement and the special event moa mini.

What about afterwards? What is really left as a reason once the event ends?

To get the non-event moa mini for those who have to “Bank Them All” maybe, but once that is done what is left as a reason to keep going?

By design “Moa Racing” is not going to make anyone rich (or richer) as the odds are stacked to high as a way to remove money not create it and add it into the economy.

Even then a coin sink is only as good as its design and a long term coin sink has got to offer up reasons for players to keep taking part in it so that it can continue to help keep the economy in check. I just don’t see how 2 mini’s are going to do that alone to warrant it remaining as a long term coin sink.

Now maybe if they added some other interesting reward options for players to work toward with higher ticket values to obtain it would be a worth while long term coin sink.

Don’t take me to serious as its just random ideas, but add other things like maybe a “Legendary Moa Hammer” or “Legendary Moa Greatsword” that costs an insane (but doable over the long haul) amount in tickets. It would be insane to see a player with colorful moa strapped to their back or wielded by their legs with their neck stretched out straight like a sword attacking things in the open world.

Sure “PETA” supporters may be up in arms, but it wouldn’t be the first time, and besides its a game where most of the human population is going to understand the difference between imaginary and picking up and wielding their pet poodle in real life.

Anyway, as I said as cool as it could be its just an absurd idea to get the point across of how I could see “Moa Racing” needing things a lot more long term than just one or two mini’s before it just isn’t useful anymore as even a coin sink.

Not having time to read much but the OP, I’d like to add my small bit.

I love the living story idea, but am very disappointed in the overall feel of them. They often feel just a little bit rushed to make sure we have more content all the time.

While I appreciate the sentiment, I’ve found that the basic combat mechanics are very fun, which means that even between content patches I can have fun doing things already in the game (WvW, PvP, Dynamic events, bosses, dungeons). Please take the time to release meatier content and rely on the fact that the game itself is fun to keep us in the meantime.

What I would really love to see with these living story patches is the addition of weapon and armor skins from the storyline. I’m often disappointed by a new patch bringing only a crazy hat, one style of weapon skin that barely fits the lore only obtainable by RNG, or some cute backpack cover in the gemstore.

Take the Dragon Bash/Sky Pirates thing coming up. The Aetherblades have some awesome looking gear (Rapiers?? PLEASE!!). But alas, the preview only mentions getting exotic shoulder pads, a miniature, and a monocle. Cool for sure, but I’d rather wait several more months and get Sky Pirate looks (that totally fit the lore and look awesome) available for all races, as random gear drops added in at all levels of gear.

edited for clarity