Guild Wars 2

The idea for a Living World is neat. Getting to be a part of historic events is one of the dreams of the MMO player, there’s no doubt of that. Unfortunately, GW2 hasn’t succeeded in creating a Living World, or a Living Story. These stories crash, burn, and ultimately die due to the temporary nature of the system. There aren’t permanent changes, there isn’t lasting, replayable content, there’s nothing to signify that this is a living thing.

While I appreciate the effort we’ve gotten from Anet, and the ingenuity, I think it’s time to either step up the design philosophy or start creating permanent content with bells, whistles, and traps to draw in players and keep them here. In a year, I imagine, many players will have to be reminded of the earlier Living Stories. Our places in these events don’t really matter, as it seems we’re just another face in a crowd of forgettable heroes. I don’t require my name or heroics to be remembered across the land, but I have very few kittens to give for ephemeral content.

I don’t care if it’s linear, it doesn’t matter that the changes that occur are planned out to the last letter, but allowing real, important, permanent changes to wash over the land due to the epic events that keep getting shoved our way is the only way I see this idea succeeding. This, especially, would be true if the chance for failure/s, and the relevant, dramatic consequences of such a turn of events were accepted as fact and pursued via dynamic quests. To be able to see genuine change ripple over zones, over governments or the monarchy, over the very people, and their enemies, would be well worth the effort of coding such a beast.

Until such mutable, virulent, seemingly or truly uncontrolled epic events are incorporated and KEPT, then this is not a Living World. It’s an MMORPG’s attempt to be unique, with content that not everyone has the chance to do, and even fewer have the chance to care about.