Guild Wars 2

Have two pre-existing non-interacting groups interact.
A lot of folks are fairly isolated, and yet, there’s no reason for them to be. Try asking yourselves some questions such as:

• What would happen if a Renegade met with the Flame Legion?
• What would happen if the Sons of Svanir met the Inquest (on non-experimental terms)?
• What would happen if a Sentinel unit was sent to observe other dragon minions?
• What would happen if the Arcane Eye met with the Shining Blade?
• What would happen if Wade Samuelsson went to Ascalon City?
• What would happen if centaurs negotiated with the charr?
• What would happen if the Consortium met a mysterious businessman who could extend their sphere of influence?
• What would happen if a Canthan ship washed ashore randomly?
• What would happen if Joko sent a scouting party north into Mount Maelstrom via Judgment Rock?
• What happens after Toxic Alliance and Molten Alliance met in Battle for LA?
• What happens if Bangar Ruinbringer got teleported by Thaumanova’s chaos magic teleportation displacements?
• What happens if Razah suddenly shows up in the middle of Lion’s Arch during Halloween?
• What happens if Magi Malaquire suddenly pops up in the Black Citadel?

These do not need to be major plot points, but could be minor things. Two groups that under normal circumstances wouldn’t meet… ended up meeting.

Show how the main plot affects minor plots.
The ley lines got tampered with by Scarlet Briar. Surely more than just Mordremoth would react to such. Jormag, Primordus, and Kralkatorrik’s food source no doubt just got a little smaller (if not a lot smaller), after all! This could be shown in a greater aggressiveness of dragon minions, explained via mechanics with stronger abilities in the champions or greater akin to how risen got their reworks a couple times (as well as with Tequatl Rising).

Tower of Nightmares made Kessex Hills pretty much infertile. How does this affect Kryta’s food supply? Maybe the Ministry will use this attack on Krytan land to degrade the queen!

The various alliances Scarlet made could have been used to boost various events involving the groups of said alliances, making a permanent open-world show of their involvement (e.g., the Fire Shaman in Iron Marches could have been given Molten tech). Too late now, but something to keep in mind for the future – or when S1 is made permanent (wink, wink).

I know I was repetitive with a few things (Tower of Nightmares), but that just goes to show how many categories of improvement a single story plot can fall into.

As an addendum, I just want to say that your post – perhaps not intentionally or accurately – gives a pretty poor view of ArenaNet’s writers. The way you worded it makes it sound like “destruction is the only way we know how to advance a plot.”

Some examples for perfect ways to advance a plot without (beginning with) destruction or chaos:

Winds of Change.

The plot begins by you fixing up old issues (Factions campaign), rather than rushing to the scene of death and carnage. And throughout, you’re doing nothing but fixing up problems and trying to prevent persecution.

Prophecies.

Though it begins with the Searing, most of the campaign is trying to rebuild, survive, and fixing one’s own mistakes. It isn’t about stopping continual destruction after continual destruction, without stopping the source, like Season 1+2.

Nightfall.

The entire campaign is about trying to prevent uncommong destruction, without there being some triggering destruction to push the plot forward.

We don’t need a town to be destroyed to rush over and save the day. We don’t need a countryside ravished to realize “oh, now we should go fix the problems there.” The best GW1 storylines came with the notion of trying to prevent uncoming destruction or just simply trying to survive against impossible odds, while the much-hated Living Story Season 1 was all about seeing the destruction happen even if we know it would come and cleaning up after the fact. The Ascended spinal blades backpack is pure testamount to this rather poor plotlining: We faced Scarlet at our door, and that day we brought the fight to her. This shows, point blank, “we waited for her to attack us, and then we killed her as she did so.”

Imagine what Season 1 would have been like if after the Crown Pavilion, we went hunting for Scarlet to fight her on her own turf, finding her final liar to be in some fractal of the Mists that ended up being the home of the Grand High Sovereign – you’d be fighting in some alternate future Tyria where evil has long prevailed and ruled the world with an iron fist… to have suddenly disappeared one day (when he went to true-Tyria and was slain), leaving the lands in chaos, leaderless, and ripe for Scarlet’s taking. She’d have an entire pocket dimension under her control, and you’d have to fight your way through scores of minions, holding her teleporter rooms (that were akin to The Shadow Nexus in GW1) which was her means of traveling back into Tyria so that she couldn’t escape. Then, once backed into a corner, a final confrontation in the very fabric of creation.

Of course, that couldn’t lead into waking Mordremoth early, but it would have been a far more epic and befitting ending rather than waiting for an army to approach your doorstep. The only time such should happen is when you get tricked into thinking they have a different target. But no, it was placed on a bloody bulletin board for where Scarlet was going to attack. Everyone and their maniacal white fluffy cats knew Scarlet’s target was Lion’s Arch, and yet no one bothered to prepare for the assault. Hence, the common complaint of the good guys holding the idiot ball. The storylines have thus for been beginning with “the good guys are attacked by <insert threat>, and then the heroes come in to save the day.” Which results in boring, repetitive, plotlines that results in everything being destroyed – and with no effort going in to recreate what’s destroyed, by the this time next year half of the game will be running through rubble, a testament of the villains first-strike and the good guys’ idiot ball.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

As an addendum, I just want to say that your post – perhaps not intentionally or accurately – gives a pretty poor view of ArenaNet’s writers. The way you worded it makes it sound like “destruction is the only way we know how to advance a plot.”

In all fairness, Regina is the North American Community Team Lead, not one of the writers. I suspect she was asking on her own accord (rather than on behalf of a stumped writing team who can’t imagine any other way to advance a plot) with the intention of presenting our ideas to the writing team.

Now, if it had been one of the writing team, I’d probably be right there with ya!

Konig Des Todes.2086:

As an addendum, I just want to say that your post – perhaps not intentionally or accurately – gives a pretty poor view of ArenaNet’s writers. The way you worded it makes it sound like “destruction is the only way we know how to advance a plot.”

I agree with minbariguy.7504 It doesn’t look like she is part of the writing team and probably doesn’t know what the writing-team will come up with when they write the story.
She also said:

Just a question here because I am curious.

So, I’m guessing she was well… curious about what we would come up with and maybe hint some of the writers some of the ideas she liked ^^

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Other people have given some specific suggestions, I’m just going to make a general statement.

I’m not a fan of ugly. We have a lot of ugly, corrupted, destroyed zones in the game already.. Orr, other areas. I really don’t like progressively making other areas ugly looking.

Changes and destruction don’t have to go hand and hand. Change doesn’t always have to end up making nice looking places ugly and desolate.

minbariguy.7504:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

As an addendum, I just want to say that your post – perhaps not intentionally or accurately – gives a pretty poor view of ArenaNet’s writers. The way you worded it makes it sound like “destruction is the only way we know how to advance a plot.”

In all fairness, Regina is the North American Community Team Lead, not one of the writers. I suspect she was asking on her own accord (rather than on behalf of a stumped writing team who can’t imagine any other way to advance a plot) with the intention of presenting our ideas to the writing team.

Now, if it had been one of the writing team, I’d probably be right there with ya!

NathanH.1465:

I agree with minbariguy.7504 It doesn’t look like she is part of the writing team and probably doesn’t know what the writing-team will come up with when they write the story.
She also said:

Just a question here because I am curious.

So, I’m guessing she was well… curious about what we would come up with and maybe hint some of the writers some of the ideas she liked ^^

Hence why I said “perhaps not intentionally or accurately.” The remainder of that commentary was actually going off of what the entirety of Season 1 and 2 has thus been:

1) Enemy creates disaster. 2) Players respond to disaster and destruction. 3) Enemy is pushed away from area. 4) Disaster and destruction left unfixed. 5) Rinse repeat until playerbase tires of enemy, resulting in killing said enemy off.

That is, quite literally, what Season 1 felt like. And I fear that’s what will become of Mordremoth – a gets-the-first-attack-never-beaten-but-forced-away foe that’ll remain until players go “enough already!” like what was done with Scarlet.

The Lost Shores. Flame and Frost arc. Secret of Southsun/Last Stand at Southsun. Dragon Bash/Sky Pirates of Tyria. Queen’s Jubilee/Clockwork Chaos. Tower of Nightmares arc. Escape from LA/Battle for LA. All of those had that same set up: enemy does first strike causing chaos, death, and destruction, heroes retaliate, main enemy remains at large/alive and destruction only partially fixed (if at all).

Konig Des Todes.2086:

In all honesty, peace negotiations shouldn’t be at a complete standstill for three years (they began in 1324 AE). Maybe not complete, but some notable progress should be made. Usually treaties only take months (e.g., the Treaty of Versailles was negotiated over the course of roughly six months, officially).

Versailles is a bad example because the only real negotiation was between the UK, US and France over what terms to dictate to the defeated enemy. Germany only capitulated in the end when France threatened to restart the war then and there if Germany didn’t agree on every particular, and even then, the German government at the time went to the generals and asked if there was any plausible chance whatsoever the German army could hold if that happened. (There wasn’t).

Genuine negotiations in cases where there’s no clear winner (which is the case with Ebonhawke) generally do take longer – even if there’s agreement on the broad principles, working out the nitty gritty takes time.

On the other hand, the treaty negotiations have now been going on for three times as long as they had been going on at release date. So we really should have seen SOME progress.

Right, I’m aware drax, my point was that there would be progress after 3 years. Or two, as the case may be argued. Not that it’d be solved, but that there’d be progress.

If the first year had enough progress for the charr and humans to sit and talk, charr give humans weaponry, humans give charr the Claw of the Khan-Ur, humans and charr work together against ogre, harpy, and Branded threats, and for the charr to let humans expand their settlements, then two years later should give more progress.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Destruction such as LS has wrought thus far upon Trya would be acceptable if it had a palpable impact that influences and shapes the world around it. Every action has a reaction, and any good story teller knows that if an event does not impact the story in some way, it should be cut.

Sure, you have the tower destroyed, its wreckage and poison leaving Kessex Hills a wasteland, but to what ends?
~Is the territory too intolerable, insufferable to continue living in?
If so, why haven’t the villagers pulled back, abandoning their towns and homesteads and withdrawing into safer territory?

~Can the lake be cleansed of poison; the tower’s wreckage dismantled or salvaged?
If so, there could be events requiring you to escort a detoxification team to key points in the lake where the seed of blight is its strongest, a quest in which we must carry an implosion bomb to key tower fragments, or even a simple scenery change with no player involvement what so ever, such as scaffolding erected around the debris to salvage its raw materials and remake the village anew.

~Perhaps a tighter guard and redoubled fortifications are required to deal with the Toxic Alliances continued presence?
Seraph patrols could be spotted along the main roads, or even, with the loss of fort Salma, the tower’s debris could be harnessed to build a new island fortress.

Granted, I’m not expecting this all to happen at once, the dismantling could progress over the course of five patches, and the rebuilding another five… taking the whole of five months… but still, something should be happening. A major world event such as this would not be without consequences, and yet we see… nothing; Kessex is just as we left it months ago.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

I pretty much agree with what people have generally said; that in order for the world to truly feel real and tangible, that it has to change constructively as well as destructively.

Many people have pointed at Kessex Hills… several episodes and much time has passed, and yet the place still looks like the Tower of Nightmares was destroyed yesterday. What, has no one seriously made any effort to rebuild anything? The lake is still toxic, Triskell Quay villagers are still sick, Fishmonger Gilbert is still trying to sell people his contaminated fish, etc. Forts Salma and Concordia, were destroyed in Entanglement; we’re now two episodes later. Did the Seraph just arbitrarily stop caring about Fort Salma? The Pact just wrote off Concordia as a lost cause? Rytlock, a main character during the personal story is supposedly wandering around in the Mists looking for Solothin; he’s not mentioned at all during the Summit or even any of DRpt2, despite Smodur and Rox both being there during the ritual attempt.

To make a long story short, what most people are pointing out is that the threats that hit Tyria fit the concept of the living world, but the way people react to them does not.

Change is of course necessary but that doesn’t mean it should always be negative.

For example whats going on in orr with trahearnes purification

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

If creating things in the environment is off the table, then the very least I need is for characters beyond the map to be talking about what’s going on.

Kessex Hills has human towns. Why wasn’t anyone in Divinity’s Reach talking about it? Why did’s the Queen have anything to say on the matter? Show me how these events are shaping public opinion, otherwise, the world becomes a creepy place where it feels trapped in a single day -or worse, where people are forbidden from talking about it.

What about the orders? It’d be wonderful to get some more dialogue about the current threats, rumors, and plans.

However,more ideally, I’d like to see more active involvement of the characters from the personal story/elsewhere in the open world.

For example, you brought back Riot Alice in Dry Top, but she didn’t do anything. Characters like our Krewe or Warband taking part in things (like having someone like Dinky show up to help fight ghosts in the LS) to show that they are still around would be nice.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Hello Regina,

Even though I don’t play GW2 right now, I still care for the game and wait for the big changes the community ask for, and, of course, for the continuation of the great S02.

I would like to react on your question. Changes to landscapes are great, in my opinion. But it would be really nice to see a little progression in rebuilding the destroyed areas. Like, why are the workers who are rebuilding the bridge between the old square where mystic forge used to be and the new site where the MF is now, not finished yet? They should be done already, and start to rebuild other areas… maybe most important would be the gold vault, clearing out the coast so some ships can enter, or to make some defensive structures?

Other suggestion: you can create a sense of progression by changing some old events. NPCs have the same problems all the time, even though 2 years has already past. I know it would cost too much money and human resources to rebuild all the events, but you can throw 2 or 3 events here and there on each release. Maybe to reflect how the conflict between humans and centaurs is developing, or the conflict with any other villain NPC faction. For changes like these you don’t necessarily need to destroy some buildings or change landscape.

Quick short suggestion: when you destroy something in open world, like Fort Concordia, please, make the NPCs around it to react on it. The guards at the Concordia don’t say a word about it…. that is just weird.

And the very last suggestion relating the issue with living story destroying landscape in personal story instances:

I know that the only way you can fix this right now would be adding the old maps, which would make the client very large. So, I have 2 suggestions for you how to fix it.

Option #1: make it an option for players to download the old maps so they can relive the story the same way as we did. Maybe you can also add an option to delete old instanced maps, so they can clear their clients after they complete the story. I believe, the implementation of this solution wouldn’t be so hard.

Option #2: put more effort and resources into this issue and create some tool which would allow you to have just 1 map with multiple versions, which would differ only in a few things. For example, the open world map would have Concordia standing, and in the other version it would be destroyed. That way, it would take only a few megabytes to store such changes.

I think you should care for old personal story as you have put so much effort in making the game easier for the new players to understand it.

By far the best idea is to continually evolve the landscapes of affected zones. Those pieces of metal and wood should naturally be used by the locals to rebuild, you could even make that feed into the living world. Help a new town develop. Mysterious entity X sees this, is impressed, advances the story.

I agree with most people though; it is really hard for new people who didnt get to see LA as it was and have no connection to it. Rebuiding it in different ways is best. i.e do what you did when the lighthouse was destroyed by the karka; build the bridge to the other side. If you truly want a living story, you need to show more progress quicker.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

This is probably why almost every other MMO expands the world by adding new zones rather and leaving all the current content to stagnate (not a good model I think, but does sidestep this).
But I think it’s more a matter of people perceiving “destruction” and not “addition”, the only change is superficial in places like Kessex Hill but the superficial change shows the destruction of the environment, even thought practically speaking a lot of the old content is still there and some new ones.

wwwes.1398:

but I think the toxic events in Queensdale and other maps are absolutely a blight on the landscape and far too difficult for new players to complete without a group, they really need to be removed.

Not removed, but definitely make it solo-able and perhaps remove the time-limit I hate having coming across one of these events and not being able to complete it because the arbitrary timer hasn’t fired yet.

Rouven.7409:

Just a thought in regards to Kessex Hills, the Tower of Nightmares episode was almost a year ago now. Ask yourself, if you would live there, what would you do? Of course I don’t know how much work it would be from a development standpoint, but in my little bubble the DEs in those zones should change to reflect what is happening. Start cleaning up the place, build new. If there are new dangers you might need a new outpost/watchtower. Or the people there had it, leave a place which falls to ruins over time, unless the Quaggans move in, but maybe because of that a town further to the west grows. Over the course of a few months the picture changes.

Thinking about LA, I would not want to see the town rebuild as it was before. Often destruction is used to improve, build better, prettier etc.

Of course a lot of this then again starts to sound like “temporary” content.

Slow change over time would be a solution but yeah temporary. A better solution would be to add dynamic events that help to change the visuals of the environment (thinking about Kessex). Do enough events and we see some of the terrain being restored, new places being built etc. although this would have to be an a longer timer (so that the zone doesn’t go back and forth in the span of a hour). So if no one levels there for a while the zone goes back to ‘destroyed’. Although how this would work with the megaserver I have no idea… not to mention the massive amount of work.

psionflames.5246:

Changes to the landscape to reflect growth, creation, and victory. Even something as simple as a dynamic event updating to reflect that a problem is at least heading towards resolution.

I’d say flip a coin, you don’t want everything to be on the same tone again just on the other end of the spectrum.

Saephaan.7285:

Make new maps and put your living story on new maps.

A needlessly difficult phasing system… not sure if that’s a good solution.

Svarty.8019:

Ohoni.6057:

Just keep adding to the world, make new maps.

The opposite of this, please. There are plenty of maps. More than plenty.

My main has 100% world completing, one of my alts is on 99% (Come on Aurora Glade, go capture them towers so I can get 100%!) , have about 3 alts on 40-50%, the rest less than that. Personally I’d love new areas to level through… although not exclusively. A combination of both?

DDCarvalho.2071:

Lion’s Arch has existed in the game in at least 3 states: before the attack, during the attack and after. Those are all existing developed work.
One way to work it is to keep all of them on the game and put the player in the right copy depending on their position on the timeline, that is shown on the Personal Story tab.

Anet has previously stated that they don’t want the data size to balloon too much (i.e. multiple map copies). And although ANet might have changed their mind, around launch the message was: phasing = bad = prevents players to play together.

It seems to be that things are constantly destroyed but hardly anything is ever built or improved in Tyria. Just because you guys at Arena Net want a living changing world, does not mean you have to destroy everything.

Rebuild Lions Arch, repair the destroyed forts, settle the refugees by building new homes, the choices are literally endless. Have players interact and help accomplish the building by supplying resources and grant rewards based off how much they help.

You can do more than just build or destroy, pick zones that are not essential to the story and create changes in the mobs and events. For example have the seraph push back the centaur and introduce a new set of rotating events telling a new story for the region, you would barely have to change the landscape at all.

If you are going to heavily alter a landscape then keep it to newly introduced areas because altering the look of old regions is just going to infuriate people. I and many like me can no longer stand Kessix Hills, it a complete shame as it used to be one of the most beautiful areas in the game.

I was well kittened off when you went to Timberline Falls with the living story, luckily it was only Fort Concordia that was affected, not sure how I would have acted if my favorite region got the “Kessex Hills” treatment. If Arena Net keep up this pace in two years every region will be a hideous mess.

Reconstruction does occur in various ways throughout the game. It is substantially slower than destroying things, which lets face it, that’s the nature of destruction. It’s fast, furious and unavoidable. However no real importance is placed on the reconstructions. They are occurring around us, but because no emphasis is placed on it people don’t notice. I notice because I play spuriously. However if playing consistently, it’s like watching a flower bloom. While a beautiful sight, it’s boring and no one is going to stick around to watch, they are going to come in and see the after-effect. That’s if they aren’t distracted by something else (like the entire rest of the game) and miss it entirely.
Possiblities to fix:
Reconstruction events-Occur after construction. They, just like their destruction counter parts, would have set goals and rewards. They would run concurrently with destruction events.
Example: d is destruction, r is reconstruction
Week 1(d)- Giant dragon wipes out huge swathes of Metrica Province.
Week 2(d)- A formidable force has been gathered and has attacked the dragon. In retaliation and fear he moves out of Metrica Province and makes a home on top of Rata Sum causing citizens to flee the city in fear.
Week 2®- The dragon has left Metrica Province and efforts are underway to clean up and reinforce it in case the dragon comes flees from Rata Sum and comes back. Actual damage would remain, however debris and such would be picked up and new structures for defense against the dragon would be placed.
Week 3(d)-The players have taken a stand against the dragon. It looks like victory will be soon. As the players attack, large parts of the city are damaged/destroyed. But ultimately the players beat the dragon.
Week 3®- Players are providing reinforcements in Metrica Province. Battlements have been created, and supply areas for weapons and fighters have been established for easy access to Rata Sum. This bolsters the (d) effort, ultimately allowing for the win. During this time many new structures are finalized, and many old structures have been changed to accommodate new defenses and housing for the fighters/refugees. Small side events occur that include bringing in food and supplies from other provinces, and garnering assistance from other maps.
Week 4®- Week four solely focuses on reconstruction. During this time the goals are (1)to finish the cleaning of Metrica Province such as replanting, removing any remaining destroyed buildings/rebuilding them, possibly adding new additions, (2) to pick up debris and get Rata Sum Merchants/NPC’s and citizens back into their city, even if not necessarily in the same place, blocking off destroyed areas, and adding Air Defenses to the city to prevent any further dragon attacks.
Week 5- New living story begins. Same cycle as above, however the reconstruction of Rata Sum and Metrica Province continues on a smaller scale through this week and next week.

This means that at any given week you’ll have 2-3 choices of how you help change the world. A setup like this not only caters to various playstyles, but it makes it feel more congruous.
Upgrade Events- These events would not be on a schedule and they would be interspersed within living stories as variety. For whatever reason existing structures would require modification/upgrades.
Example: LA is in disrepair so players are making home in The Grove, Divinity’s Reach, Black Citadel, Hoelbrek, and Rata Sum. To accommodate this the 5 cities have made a pact to help construct a main market in each city where major NPC’s will be hired so that all the major NPC’s are in one area, as well as a small monument to LA in each area, and the moving of that city’s Asura Gate to the new location. Each city is given 5 days of construction assistance before moving to the next city to build their new area. This would be relatively casual, and would last for 25 days. Rewards would be appropriate to the event/city being fixed and include construction tokens. On the final 5 days of that month, A Completion celebration would be held, 1 day per city, where party events are held and you can redeem your construction tokens for uber special prizes like a back piece or maybe a special weapon or armour skin specific to the city.
Even though it changes the world, it’s not included in the story unlocks. Instead it’s treated as a celebration, with the same 5 days of the following year seeing events to allow for old or new skins to be unlocked.
Construction- This one is kind of obvious, but basically something new needs built for whatever reason. In this case I’m thinking of, Zephyr Sanctum wants a home, so they go back to where they used to park, and a new Permanent Zephyr Sanctum is born. This is very similar in nature to Upgrading.
Players always want options. Making new things gives a different sense of comraderies and unity than fighting with your allies does. Some people crave that, even if it’s from NPC’s.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

A cool idea could be changing up events, NPC’s, enemies, renown hearts and things like that, that parallel with the LW so the zone is changing…… maybe, not even take out and just add.

a massive crack in time and space forms not destroying everything in its path but more so separating or forming a river going across the land mass. random structures and floating land masses will form above this “crack” with paths starting at the edge of the crack made from floating torn apart trees and other objects normally found is the area leading to more and more unusual and various objects that would of never been there . once you are higher up you will see a huge shifting landscape where there will be lots of events and other very random things to do. the main point of this new land will be to determine what will and will not be allowed to enter our world . for example a legion of void monsters could form in a death castle upon this new land after batting them and winning you will free the enslaved race of weird little creatures, if the battle is not completed in a week or w/e then the void monsters will take over more of this new land. people could take these new creatures to cities and other places and they will have a positive effect on the landscape “new flowers mining spots and so forth” and can be set free there to forge with others like itself to build small villages or in extreme cases new cities. anything is possible with this idea and dose not have to be a rift in time could be anything but blowing up lions arc and using the same thing over and over is boring you make fractals of the mists now its time to take ideas like that to a new level and allow players to make actual changes one person should be able to make this world a better place literally no more of this illusion of choice and making changes that occur no matter what we do. the player should be apart of the living world not just experiencing it.

I’m fine with destroying things as long as you do it right, Lions Arch is the same lions arch it was, it doesn’t look like an army came in and a massive drill disrupted a dragon’s habits. It looks like there was a earthquake or something haha, when I think of destroying things/places/areas I always think to my favorite concept art I’ve seen in gw2 which is the loading screen for Mount Maelstrom (if only the map actually looked like that) where there’s an insanely large hole in the world with the lava spewing up ect… It just seems alooot more dramatic and game-changing than toppling some buildings (although I do like the post-apocalyptic parts of Lions arch nobody goes to).

I’m fine with all changes Living Story makes, but we need reminders of what happened and how places looked like before. Some memorials, survivor stories, paintings or in game writings would be great.

I personally missed second half of LS1, and i’d love to read about events and impacts of LS1 in game. It’s way more natural than searching on the web.

Destroy everything!!!!!!!! Make Tyria Burn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven’t read all the post in this topic, but I think that one way to fix it is to make the destroyed zones instanced. For example for new players or alts Kessex Hills and Lion’s Arch could be normal until they completed the part in the Living Story Season 1 which destroyes those zones. I know season 1 can’t be replayed yet, but I read that Anet might do it in the future. I really don’t like seeing Lion’s Arch and Kessex Hills the way it is now. Whenever I’m playing an alt it just feels as if I lost a whole lot, even though I have played it on my main character.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

-how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape?

I would like to see stories that continue what was already sprouted from the dungeons.

Caudecus’s Manor was sacked by renegades against the peace treaty.
Uzolan’s toys are still out there, in the hands of mad men and women.
With the fall of Scarlet and the Aetherblades run amok, local bandits and separatists are getting ideas.
Ebonhawke is under siege now, Commander Samuelsson is their target.
Even though Samelsson doesn’t kneel to Queen Jennah, he still respects her as an ally.
This infuriates some dangerous foes with powerful technology.

You are sent to investigate in the manner with Canach, who serves the Shining Blade.

Another idea:

Honor’s Claw deals with the death of the previous Voice of Koda.
Eir Stegalkin once said, “Never let your mistakes defeat you.”
Now a new Voice is possibly found.
Braham, along with his mother, help the Koda allies find this new Voice before Jormagg’s forces consume it.
Honor’s Claw will also help guide this Voice, instead of retiring for a new Claw to step forward.
Truly such things are controversial, but times are changing and the Koda must find balance in this new world.

There are plenty of smaller stories that can be expanded after what initially happened.
We still know little of the lesser races and how they’re living after all of Season 1 and 2.
Some might be close to acquiring great power and threaten the balance so far.

That’s how a story lives and grows, or at least how I’d interpret it.

Maybe by choice ? Our characters don’t even chose what their friends are. They just stand here, seeing the story you push without having the littlest grasp on it.

More weather. I absolutely love the sand events in Drytop. I love the snow and rain in EOTM.

Weather that releases unusual events or items is pretty cool in my opinion. I would say that some of the things that have occured (as with kessex hills acid rain makes sense here) would engage some changes that could potentially be alot of fun. Just my two cents.

I would also like to see maybe not so much big landscape changes but maybe some unsteady ground.. that drops you into hidden treasure troves or something of that nature. Like quicksand but with more reward. (maybe you find a roaming group of the dredge fight em and take thier goodies… River currents that drag you under to hidden grottos ect. I know these are pretty advanced ideas but perhaps it suggests some changes that could be made.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Perphaps if that scenary change can be only seen for characters that has gone for the associated story part.

That way you actually are living it:

“I sought it entire, now that Mordremonth atacked, the fort is in ruins even in world map”; not like:

“Wait, i have been seen this vines in all waypoints, but Mordremonth wasnt even awake…”

Pd: This one would not be the first game to implement this, so that players have better inmersion.

Gibson.4036:

I’m still not sure what to make of their decision to blow up the best received update of the first year of the games life.

Blog post, “People loved Zephyr Sanctum!”

LS2 “Let’s create a new zone littered with the smoking ruins of Zephyr Sanctum!”

I get it. If people loved it, what better emotional impact when it’s destroyed? But looked at from another angle it can have the flavor of thumbing their nose at the player base.

Not saying that was in all the intent. But it can easily feel that way.

I got kittened when they blew up the Sanctum. If it was anything anyone knew i liked most in the game its was the Sanctum. i could live up ther if it was real. I think Michael Bay is working for Anet. Too much stuff getting nuked (if you catch my drift)

I disagree with the thread topic; go ahead and burn everything down in lava until all that is left is super hard endgame content!

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

I agree with many others. Changes to the landscape are fine, but why are you so obsessed with destruction? It subtracts content from the game and tarnishes the great work Arenanet did prior to the game’s launch.

Why can’t we get new structures, forts, settlements; along with new Dynamic Events, that portray the ways Tyria is mobilizing against the escalating threats?

Destruction is very cheap and is getting very old. That you seem to believe that destroying the most loved aspects of the game world is what we want or what the game needs shows the massive disconnect between the studio and the fans.

The impression has become that living story is the narrative expression of the post launch philosophy of “lets see how quickly we can destroy the game’s once promising potential”. I hope that impression is incorrect and unfair, but you all keep adding new evidence that makes it impossible to dismiss.

The changes to the game world have done nothing to further the narrative found with in the dynamic events existing with in each zone. Instead we have had “Power Ranger” quality story lines coupled with the needless destruction of existing game content, seemingly just to prove that somehow Living Story actually means something and has an actual impact on the game world.

BladeNinja.4671:

Gibson.4036:

I’m still not sure what to make of their decision to blow up the best received update of the first year of the games life.

Blog post, “People loved Zephyr Sanctum!”

LS2 “Let’s create a new zone littered with the smoking ruins of Zephyr Sanctum!”

I get it. If people loved it, what better emotional impact when it’s destroyed? But looked at from another angle it can have the flavor of thumbing their nose at the player base.

Not saying that was in all the intent. But it can easily feel that way.

I got kittened when they blew up the Sanctum. If it was anything anyone knew i liked most in the game its was the Sanctum. i could live up ther if it was real. I think Michael Bay is working for Anet. Too much stuff getting nuked (if you catch my drift)

LA and Sanctum came across as just passive aggressive punishment for fickle fans who just wouldn’t get on board with the waste of time and resources that has been the majority of LS, to date. Zephyr Sanctum was, by far, the best thing LS ever produced. All the best events beyond ZS took place in LA. SO what do they do, destroy LA and ZS!

Cross those off the list and the Super Adventure Fun Box becomes the much loved offshoot of LS that they haven’t destroyed, but we find that they just don’t see a place for it in the game moving forward.

I think many of us would refuse to honestly answer a poll meant to identify what is most loved of the remaining content, for fear that it would just be used to establish the next ANet Hit List of content to destroy.

The entire thing comes off as “it’s my ball and if you don’t play my way, I’ll just take my ball and go home”.

The destruction has come across way more strongly as a developer’s temper tantrum against the “unappreciative fan base”, than as something that has provided narrative impact. Scarlet didn’t destroy LA as part of her mad plans, ANet destroyed LA because they are mad at players for not embracing Living Story over all the other ways the game could have been expanded since launch. That’s the unmistakeable impression and it has turned many fans off to the game.

I also think that some building and construction could take place in order to change Tyria without using only a clear path of destruction. Unless the intention is to play in a postapocalypse Tyria in the next years.

For example, we had the tower of nightmares in kessex hills (for those who spent some time there the 2 or 4 weeks it existed), destroying/changing some environment and then being destroyed itself.

With a “change without destroying everything” state of mind, we could have now a city/fortress in the ruins of the tower, using it’s base as the foundations of a new fortress, town, small city or whatever. It could be the starting point to a series of tunnels underground, the now destroyed roots of the towers , populated by weird creatures, but source of some unique reward (maybe a champion, a chain of events, a portal, an underground jump puzzle…). The fortress itself may be started by centaurs just after the destruction of the tower, in an effort to gain terrain while the humans were busy in L.A., the fortress may be taken and occupied by Pact forces as an event, or as a part of the Living Story. At the end, you have a unique city built upon the ruins of a big tree-like tower.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

Personally, i’d have no issues with the changes in the landscape if the players actually had something to do with it. As is, it just feels like LA got wrecked because it was scripted that it’d be wrecked.

The only player influence was a non-event vote for a council position for a town that would just end up destroyed.

I can see how difficult it’d be to run a player-decided world, since it’d prevent most of the work on future stories until you knew the current story outcome, but this, for me, is what would make the world feel alive, as opposed to inconsequential choices and pre-scripted destruction.

While the Personal Story didn’t do that, it was adressing that feeling after a fashion, with some very enjoyable linked events. I was absolutely thrilled in Orr to meet again the Charr warband from the Norn “passed out” personal story. Which i wouldn’t have had i picked another norn storyline or chosen a different strategy in Orr. That reunion with familiar faces came out of a combination of two of my own choices. It’s not much, but these little things do play a part in immersion. Compare that to the living story where no matter what you did or did not do, NPCs have to assume you did it all and you’re their best buddy…

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

i just now saw this topic and I didn’t read all of it so sorry if already somedy wrote what i’m about. And sorry for my bad english.
It’s been a while since LA was destroyed and not a single bridge was repaired. The devs stated the the ingame time is the same as real time so something should have been made already. A bridge, a house, anything. It won’t be logical that one tuesday we magically find a completely rebuild LA. That’s not living world.
Also, some of the refugees from LA maybe decided not to go back but stay in Gandarran fields or the other maps and now we have a new settlement in Lornar’s Pass, or a new house in Cornucopians Fields.
This little things are, IMO, what makes a great game and the living story truly living.

I don’t care if stuff gets blown up either directly or as collateral damage during Living World…but at least let us pitch in to fix it and rebuild!

Let us grind events to clean up Kessex, for example. Make a small group of events/achievements out of it. The same could be done for any other area that gets messed up during a Living World arc.

And don’t make them end-game either, make them within the level range of the area in question, so that people who are there as part of their own story or mapping progress can participate in passing, instead of forcing people to go out of their way to grind it endlessly.

Randall.7306:

I also think that some building and construction could take place in order to change Tyria without using only a clear path of destruction. Unless the intention is to play in a postapocalypse Tyria in the next years.

For example, we had the tower of nightmares in kessex hills (for those who spent some time there the 2 or 4 weeks it existed), destroying/changing some environment and then being destroyed itself.

With a “change without destroying everything” state of mind, we could have now a city/fortress in the ruins of the tower, using it’s base as the foundations of a new fortress, town, small city or whatever. It could be the starting point to a series of tunnels underground, the now destroyed roots of the towers , populated by weird creatures, but source of some unique reward (maybe a champion, a chain of events, a portal, an underground jump puzzle…). The fortress itself may be started by centaurs just after the destruction of the tower, in an effort to gain terrain while the humans were busy in L.A., the fortress may be taken and occupied by Pact forces as an event, or as a part of the Living Story. At the end, you have a unique city built upon the ruins of a big tree-like tower.

I wasn’t around for that event, so I forgot about it.

Yes, I think it provides a key example of why ANet’s apparent need to destroy things to show “impact” is so flawed. Not only was it temporary content, and thus a very inefficient use of development resources, but the “value” of that development effort would have been increased significantly if the tower hadn’t been destroyed and instead had been used to house new permanent content.

When they first announced Living Story and we got the first couple chapters, it seemed like they might have been on the right path, using LS and some temporary content to introduce new permanent content to the game world.

Instead, they seem to have adopted a “leave it as you left it” approach, where the content was temporary and the only mark left on the game world to show that anything happened at all has been the destruction of previous content with nothing new to replace it.

It’s so completely illogical it’s hard to comprehend how they ever started down such a path.

Tycho.8015:

I don’t care if stuff gets blown up either directly or as collateral damage during Living World…but at least let us pitch in to fix it and rebuild!

Let us grind events to clean up Kessex, for example. Make a small group of events/achievements out of it. The same could be done for any other area that gets messed up during a Living World arc.

And don’t make them end-game either, make them within the level range of the area in question, so that people who are there as part of their own story or mapping progress can participate in passing, instead of forcing people to go out of their way to grind it endlessly.

They did this during most of Season One. There was minor destruction in LA from various events, but then it would be rebuilt or new structures built to replace them over time. Heck, there was still new construction in the South West corner of the LA map that had been progressing over a period of months, only to then be completely wiped out in the finale!

When they destroyed LA, there were two distinct possibilities in my mind. Either a.) it was a drastic and desperate attempt to try to provide some form of actual impact from a wasted Season One, or b.) it would just wipe the slate for an update by update rebuilding of the city into something better.

Well, I think it’s clear now that the answer was a.)! In fact, I like the comparison of the destruction of LA by the developers to the temper tantrum destruction of a frustrated child.

It’s so amateurish and counter-productive that it’s hard to understand how it ever was allowed to occur.

I think part of the reason we haven’t seen the city rebuilt is because of the indiscriminate manner of it’s destruction. If only a percent of the cities structures had been destroyed, reconstruction would have been more manageable and far less resource intensive. I think ANet of Now hasn’t shown any indication that they are capable of building a city on par with the LA wrought by the ANet of Then.

Thus, with the resources and the talent needed being in very short supply, it’s probably highly unlikely the city will ever be rebuilt with out major changes at the studio and it’s approach to ongoing game design.

To me, just more evidence that the destruction was a very ill considered desperation move, rather than an indication of a cohesive and constructive strategy for the ongoing development of the game.

At this point, we would be better off if the entire game world was reverted to it’s pre or mid season one state and the game were allowed to progress in an alternate reality were reckless, pointless destruction of the game world had never occurred.

What would happen if the Arcane Eye met with the Shining Blade?

Bad. In fact, I think the Shining Blade would try to assassinate them.

Play the Personal Story, and you’ll see what I mean. The Arcane Eye is NOT a good organization, and don’t seem very much above the inquest. Come on, they kitten off even the Order of Whispers. Let that put into perspective a bit.

Here’s a minor thing (that might be major to fix): flavor dialogues in the world don’t reflect what’s going on. A lot of them are voice acted, of course, and just editing all the dialogue bits for continuity would be a nightmare for most. But it was quite jarring to hear merchants in the Salma District complaining about the caravan from Lion’s Arch being late … likely due to centaurs … right after Scarlet burned the crap out of LA. 35K people died in that, probably wrecking the economy continent wide, you’d think people outside of LA might at least have commented on the tragedy.

Likewise right now the Grove is its usual happy bright place. Not a single weeping vari in sight to say “ow my head Mom just screamed inside it.” I understand that you can’t make huge changes given that not everyone will have gotten to that point in the story, unless you’re doing a major game change like LA was, but the world won’t feel real if its inhabitants ignore global-scale disasters. Or, if we’re talking construction vs. destruction, if they don’t comment on the new thing being built, or how nice it is to have enough food on the table again, something.

Kain Francois.4328:

Bad. In fact, I think the Shining Blade would try to assassinate them.

Play the Personal Story, and you’ll see what I mean. The Arcane Eye is NOT a good organization, and don’t seem very much above the inquest. Come on, they kitten off even the Order of Whispers. Let that put into perspective a bit.

The Arcane Eye is not a “bad” organization though. If you paid attention to the Personal Story like I did, you’d know that they were doing nothing more than their orders from Flaxx, who’s out for asuran supremecy.

The Arcane Eye merely did what the Arcane Council told them. And Flaxx isn’t “bad” either – just supremely bias.

Also, thank you, but I’ve played every story path of the Personal Story sans the Ogre plot.

My gut feeling on them is that they’re a bit like the Ministry Guard – they can be on either side depending on who’s giving the orders.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

I would suggest introducing an area that’s completely corrupted by a dragon, that players go in and slowly chip away at the corruption until they’re left with a pristine, new environment. There is already too much defense against the dragons, it’s time to go on the offense. Then, players can be like, “Yeah, this place used to be completely corrupted, but then we stepped in and saved it.” and give a sense of hope and accomplishment. You could also do something similar to how Fort Trinity was taken in the PS, and have a large corrupted keep which players would take in the final boss battle of that LS chapter. Just a suggestion, though.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

As others have said, I don’t mind when some things are destroyed. It’s just that it has been a little overkill in the destruction department. When we’re constantly facing an existential threat, it loses all sense of drama and severity. I’d like to see things created as well, or people working to repair things that have been destroyed in the past. New stuff discovered.

I also don’t think you need major landscape changes to convey permanent change in the world. I remember pre-launch, ANet used to talk about lots of new event chains being added to zones over time. New stories being told through event chains, some of which wouldn’t even be announced and would be discovered by players.

In many ways I feel that ANet has lost its vision for this game – post launch and pre launch seem to have very different philosophies.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

The idea of a living world is a double edged sword.

Yes the players are changing the face of the world, but the down fall is the living story is changing the face of the world. This is directly effecting things that pre-existed and are now causing things to be re-written. Personal stories are being moved, and altered to fit events of the past, even though those evens take place after the personal story.

Example of this is the scarlet story lines all my characters were referred to as Commander, as in the Pact commander, despite them not completing the PS. Now that I’m going back through and finishing it on characters, the story ignores the events of Scarlett because it hasn’t happened yet, but the landscape is marred and full of the wreckage that ensued from those events.

Another problem with the “Living world” is the changing the world in big ways. Say I describe events to friend, that friend finds them interesting, and buys a copy of the game, but after the world has changed. The things that interested them are gone forever. And now the friend is bitter because of a bait and switch.

Yes you want to move forward with the story. But at the same time you want to leave the existing, existing or at least recoverable. So new people can experience the world.

This is why other games have released expansions, so the story can move forward, yet the new people can start with the know. Move the story into new areas, there is a lot of the world unknow even from GW1. Not to mention Elona, and Cantha that are known to those that palyed GW1.

In my opinion, the writing content over existing wastes the work that was done before.

The first Mad King event was done right, you affected LA, but it was recoverable, and the event is repeatable yearly. Scarlett should have been an event chain that moved into new areas Just like DRY TOP, so destruction was not permanent, in the end she gets away and every year she comes back for some payback.

You are both expanding the world, and moving the story forward, without having to rewrite events. Plus when you expand you can have large events happening simultaneously in different areas of the world.

Yes expanding the world does present a different problem of loss of population in zones. but that can be handled by smaller events that do not radically change the world. Just Hey for the next two weeks the centaurs are up rising. or The Fire charr have summoned some supper elemental and it’s raging across ascalon. Complete the events and follow up with an event that the players help rebuild. world goes back to normal. so New players can enjoy the story and new future destruction.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

If you’re not creating or destroying, that leaves changing what exists.

-Update outdated ambient NPC convos (still a few left).
-New NPCs. New conversations regarding the current state (like in Kessex). Put a Tengu ambassador somewhere outside a capitol building.
-Open previously closed or nonexistent areas. Not even necessarily as much as a full map (though ppl will gripe if it isn’t). Those Priory Charr in the Black Citadel have been digging an awful long time without finding anything. Maybe the OoW lets slip the location of a new safehouse.
-Maybe Isgarren gets tired of the view after 3 centuries and moves the castle over Lions Arch’s lighthouse. Meanwhile, the elementals turn on Garrenhoff and raze it in short order.

Sariel V.7024:

Those Priory Charr in the Black Citadel have been digging an awful long time without finding anything.

The priory was digging for almost two years in the middle of LA and didn’t find anything. Then Scarlet came along, and blasted through and found something very important…and the priory moved their dig site to a random spot on the beach and kept digging, ignoring the whole breached ley line situation going on right next to them. I feel like their response could have been much better.

Also, what happened to the Grawl that we abandoned in LA when we moved the other Shiverpeaks refugees to Southsun Cove? They sat there for a few months and then disappeared, but we haven’t found out where they went.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Just a question here because I am curious. The idea of the Living World is that there is a storyline that you take part in, that you are involved in events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape? I see a couple of comments regarding creating things, not simply destroying. Do you all have any other ideas?

No offense here, but Living Story at least hasn’t hooked me up, yes it’s progression of the lore, but at best it’s rather short and sometimes your the caracter you play feels left out that didn’t happen with the personal story, I liked much more the way the personal story managed to add that feel that your character was the “hero” and that the whole story progression was thanks to your decisions. LS does not (a feeling which by the way is much more heavier in season two) the characters have almost no lore background (Destiny’s Edge at least had some novels and story behind them) , your character (as in toon, or the player character) feels like a mere pawn or waterboy to the characters in the story if you may, your actions are outshadowed by the characters that in fact have a passive role in the story.

And about “events that shape Tyria in permanent ways—how would you all convey the sense of progression and change without also making changes to the landscape?” . Orr says hi here, you want to add a sense of progression? Zhaitan was defeated, the source of corruption “purified” and the story has strived to Maguuma right? then why are Arah and Orr still like they were previous to the lore progressing onwards?

I’m not against LS and neither will I rant about it, I was a GW player and I decided to play GW2 to see what the lore could turn out to, so far its’ been nearly the same story since launch plus some plot with a ton of holes that I’ve yet to feel fond of – and that feels like a stagnant world not a dynamic or living one as you’re trying to make it feel – Good you blew up LA but that was almost 4 months ago or so and the rebuilding process hasn’t progressed, the Tower of Nightmares was brought down nearly half a year ago and the landscape looks the same, where’s the sense of an evolving lore and a progressing world in that?

Idea:
-Work on “rebuilding” the parts of the map that were changed in the previous chapters of the living story, don’t just leave them like that, yes I know it WILL take a lot of time but if that’s so, then make an instanced map that it’s just part of the Personal or Living Story
-Work on the “purification” of areas where Elder Dragons no longer have any power or control of i.e. work in another map of Orr after the defeat of Zhaitan, same with Maguuma and other areas. Pre-requisite for a player to unlock said maps: the given character must have progressed onwards to that part of the story
-Make Living Story more centered on the actions of the player, yes you want to tell the story of the NPCs but remember it’s a MMO-RPG

There you have it, new exciting content that will apease veteran and new players alike, that will make them eager to play from beginning to end and to, know and enjoy to it’s full potetntial the personal/living story.

The whole promise that I thought I read before GW2 came out was that your actions would make a difference in the world. Yes, you can affect event chains, but they just reset over and over again, so no real change. Zhaitan was defeated yet Orr is still a zombie zone.

I think what is really needed is something like what has been mentioned already, instanced versions of the world, or different mega-servers for different levels of story progression. Let Orr be dead until you kill Zhaitan, then let it be reborn. The players could go back if they want by resetting there story lines or chapters or whatever.

I like the Dry Top area, but I hate that they had to kill off the beautiful Zephyr Sanctum, which was probably my favorite update. How will all of the new players or returning players ever experience Zephyr Sanctum???

What we really need are instanced versions of the world. I know you don’t have the same set-up as GW1, but what we need, they have there right now.

For instance: In Cantha, a new player will face many afflicted in Kaineng. Once they start WoC, the afflicted change to Ministry of Purity. Just by going to an NPC in town and clicking, you can change the zones between the two time periods at will.

We NEED this in GW2. This way, we can have one version of Orr for new players that are killing Zhaitan, and another version of Orr that is post-cleansing. I don’t know any of the technical aspects of the game is run, but would it be possible to have another server that checks whether you are doing PS or LS and put you in the right server for that map?