Guild Wars 2

As the title suggests, What are the effects of the Living story having on the player base within Guild Wars 2?

Well I wanted to just throw this out on the table; Is it a good thing or are Arenanet causing people to lose interest in the game due to the limitation of the Living world?

Allow me to elaborate:
There are many Game players out there who want to be able to complete a game 100%, after all that is what gaming is all about, isn’t it? The challenge of beating the game!
So one has to wonder what effect that has on a person that has recently joined the game or in fact is simply looking into joining the game. Knowing that they have missed parts of the living story and they now have a tab in their achievements panel that can never be completed.

It has been said by Arenanet, in certain blogs, that they intend for some (if not all) the living story content to be gone forever, thus making it impossible for players who join the game at this stage, to complete the game 100%.

Further to this, there are players who have now gotten to a stage whereby they have very little else to do in the game as they have a lvl 80 of each race and have obtained a legendary weapon. All that remains for those players is to complete achievements, so it’s understandable that many players will be upset that they will have this “BLEMISH” on their achievements screen for the rest of their time in Tyria that basically says “You can never achieve 100% completion of this game” in essence (if you look at it harshly) “You Lose” and what happens when people lose at a game without the ability to go back and correct it… They quit, or simply lose interest. Thus making people less and less motivated to strive to gain achievements.

So in the end, end game players (I’d say around 75% of players, if not more) are simply losing motivation to play the living stories, myself included.

Lets look at it from a different angle:

With the release of the Aetherblade dungeon there are 2 achievements that are extremely difficult to get. “Dodge the AoE’s” and “Destroy the ship”. Now for players who have time to go through the dungeon over and over again, this may not be an issue. Though for those who are casual players, who work full time and have families to look after and only get a matter of a few hours a day to play the game, this creates a HUGE problem as it’s more and more clear that they will not gain these achievements in time.

Although I know that Arenanet are putting this content in to “Test the waters” and see how the player base reacts to it, and to give the players something to look forward to and to keep them entertained with new content.

My questions to you all are simple:

1. Is the Living story causing more harm than good, within the guild wars 2 community?
2. If you were/are joining the game now, does it put you off that you can never gain 100%?
3. Do you feel that Living story should be permanently re-playable for the achievements?
4. Do you give Living story a Thumbs up or a Thumbs down, and why?

No-one has any comments?

1. its got potential. its good to have more content, so i support the idea. but it has aspects and criterias that im very critical of.
2. nope, im never a 100% person, i just want specific things that i like. ill start fussing when some of those things i feel is stupidly gated tho (looking at you, RNG)
3. permanent is better for me. anyone should have a shot at content, except maybe holiday events which is mostly for fun and seasonal. have a shot as in, can try it, whether they succeed or fail is a different matter.
4. overall im on the positive side of it. more content is good, the idea has merit, but like i said some aspects of it need changing and re-examining.

Are you honestly complaining about difficulty? Infact I want more things like the aetherblade dungeon in the living story but it should also have more parts for lower levels

Hes not complaining about difficulty. I think its about difficulty in a time frame that is unbeatable depending on your real life.

I actually completely agree to the OP. I have the same “problem” called real life. I am more of the 100% person but that’s not even the reason that makes me lose interest. The thing is, I sometimes have just not the time and can not play for 2-3 weeks in a row. Or maybe just a few hours a week.
I feel forced to log in for living story to actually being able to play the content, as it will be gone soon. For ANET this might make sense from a business point of view, but for me this actually has the opposite effect. I am losing interest, as I know I will miss future content as well and that sucks.

The problem is. I feel forced to play how and when they want not when I want. And that makes the whole thing not a game anymore and feels like work. The fun gets spoiled and I feel every day less and less motivated to play on, ever.

open ended games are then not the games for you if you want a game with a ending. GW2 is a open ended game. Your never gona finish it unless you want to devote years to it. The game is freaking huge!!! and is getting ever bigger. Did you not see GW1? 3 Continents and 3 major expansions over the course of years and that’s not even including the end game world stories. If you just want the satisfaction of beating a game. I hear console games have endings and most now you can get to in 24 hours.
Got my rant out. Now to answer the questions.
1. It’s good because the game will never go stale like so many others do. I for one would love to keep playing this game. Games that end their player bases leave and move on. I know for you casuals out there this doesn’t matter to you but matters for the rest of us.
2. I don’t try go get 100 percent on achievements anyway. Personally I never saw a point to them unless you were getting rewarded for going the extra mile and even then I wouldn’t devote myself to getting all of them. Only thing I’m missing out on is the story, and I’ve said in another post that I would love if Anet did a narrative of the stories thus far. Also if your a casual gamer, then getting 100 percent on achievements shouldn’t matter to you.
3.No.
4. Thumbs up. It keeps me coming back to the game even after reaching lvl 80 and beating Zhaitan. Instead of waiting, sitting on my thumbs getting bored of the game like I do with so many others after beating them. I know I can log in and there will be something new for me to do.

fuzzypanda.9365:

open ended games are then not the games for you if you want a game with a ending. GW2 is a open ended game. Your never gona finish it unless you want to devote years to it. The game is freaking huge!!! and is getting ever bigger. Did you not see GW1? 3 Continents and 3 major expansions over the course of years and that’s not even including the end game world stories. If you just want the satisfaction of beating a game. I hear console games have endings and most now you can get to in 24 hours.
Got my rant out. Now to answer the questions.
1. It’s good because the game will never go stale like so many others do. I for one would love to keep playing this game. Games that end their player bases leave and move on. I know for you casuals out there this doesn’t matter to you but matters for the rest of us.
2. I don’t try go get 100 percent on achievements anyway. Personally I never saw a point to them unless you were getting rewarded for going the extra mile and even then I wouldn’t devote myself to getting all of them. Only thing I’m missing out on is the story, and I’ve said in another post that I would love if Anet did a narrative of the stories thus far. Also if your a casual gamer, then getting 100 percent on achievements shouldn’t matter to you.
3.No.
4. Thumbs up. It keeps me coming back to the game even after reaching lvl 80 and beating Zhaitan. Instead of waiting, sitting on my thumbs getting bored of the game like I do with so many others after beating them. I know I can log in and there will be something new for me to do.

1. removing the content has nothing to do with keeping the game refreshing. If the content was permanent and released on the same cycle, the game would still have new and exciting things every week.

2. you may not try to get 100% but there are a lot of people who do, and temporary content screws them over big time. As an altoholic I don’t have enough characters at 80 to experience half the new content Even though i could care less about getting 100% achievements, i would still like to have the option to get some of the achievements from these events.

3. ?

4. You would still be coming back regardless if the content is permanent or not. Only difference is that people would have time to enjoy it rather than have to rush through it to experience it all.

1. Is the Living story causing more harm than good, within the guild wars 2 community?

- Difficult to say. Personally, I quit back in November and came back during Flame and Frost. Living Story is what keeps me interested in the game, as it is ever changing and thus never stale.

2. If you were/are joining the game now, does it put you off that you can never gain 100%?

- Not really. I am not a 100%er I guess though. I play the parts of the game that I find fun and leave out the parts I don’t. I have missed some things and it sucks, but it’s hardly a deal breaker. The benefits of the temporary content outweigh the negatives for me.

3. Do you feel that Living story should be permanently re-playable for the achievements?

- Not really

4. Do you give Living story a Thumbs up or a Thumbs down, and why?

- Thumbs up. Kind of said it above, but I find the living story makes the world feel more interesting, because there is a constant flux of fresh and interesting content. Instead of me just running the same dungeon over and over and over, I get to try out different things constantly.

I’m a bit of a completionist/achievement kitten, and I have to say, Living story made me lose interest in the game. What I loved at the start of the game is that I could just pick whatever I could do and do it at my own pace. With living story, I can’t do that anymore. Because it’s only temporary, it feels forced, like I have to do it or I’ll miss it all.
I missed everything except the end of the karka event, I missed the conclusion of the molten alliance, and I missed pretty much everything after that.
Actually, I actively avoided it. I dislike not being able to just do everything at my own pace, and now I don’t really have much to do anymore. So yeah, I’d say living story got me off the game. If it had been permanent content, I wouldn’t have had any problem with it.

So…

1. Is the Living story causing more harm than good, within the guild wars 2 community?
I don’t know about the community, but I personally got turned off of gw by it.
2. If you were/are joining the game now, does it put you off that you can never gain 100%?
As a completionist, yes, I dislike not being able to catch up on achievements I missed.
3. Do you feel that Living story should be permanently re-playable for the achievements?
Yes. Absolutely. Oh god yes. I would instantly come back to the game if that happened.
4. Do you give Living story a Thumbs up or a Thumbs down, and why?
As it is, Thumbs down. Make it re-playable and it’d be a definite Thumbs up.

1. Is the Living story causing more harm than good, within the guild wars 2 community?
A: Yes, I believe it is.

2. If you were/are joining the game now, does it put you off that you can never gain 100%?
A: Yes. I joined the game a mere 4 months ago. I am a completionist who is unable to complete my achievements. It is making me crazy.

3. Do you feel that Living story should be permanently re-playable for the achievements?
A: Yes, absolutely. Temporary content is a terrible idea in a mmorpg.

4. Do you give Living story a Thumbs up or a Thumbs down, and why?
A: A huge thumbs down. Here’s why…

I once loved the idea of the living story. It’s what convinced me to pick up a copy of GW2. It has also caused me to stop playing GW2.

Once I realized that I could not complete the Flame & Frost story arc, due to the 5 man instance, I slowly fell out of love with the living story. ( I don’t group with others. I never had to group in GW1 and I’m not about to start in GW2.)

Then we got crabs…an island FULL of crabs. There is nothing compelling or ‘epic’ about killing crabs. I completed only enough Southsun content to obtain my two back pieces. I didn’t log on again until Sky Pirates.

Sky Pirates…..I hate pirates. They seem to be the go-to ‘bad guys’ when someone can’t think up an original enemy. I didn’t even bother with any of the Sky Pirates content. I logged on for 5 minutes and logged back out. I haven’t logged on to GW2 since.

Now we have ballooning merchants. I’m not even going to attempt any of the BotFW content.

I think I am done with GW2. I despise the bad storytelling, the temporary content and the lack of focus on the player’s character as the hero of the storyline. The story makes me feel like a peon/grunt/lackey who is merely watching events pass rather than shaping them through my decisions choices.

The ‘Living’ Story has killed the game for me.

While I’m not a completionist and essentially don’t give a flying hodor about filling anet’s now biweekly supermarket checklist, I can totally understand where you’re coming from.

ANY temporary content is a very pain in the hodor way of forcing you to play in a set time window. Like, don’t effin force me to play, wasn’t that what having a subfree game supposed to accomplish? Isn’t taht the game’s motto? And if your satisfaction comes from completion, then this game is a effin nightmare because it’s making you feel guilty, unsatisfied and it’s a effin game, it should be FUN.

If there was any compelling content to me, I’d be very annoyed too.

Coopziana.1802:

As the title suggests, What are the effects of the Living story having on the player base within Guild Wars 2?

Well I wanted to just throw this out on the table; Is it a good thing or are Arenanet causing people to lose interest in the game due to the limitation of the Living world?

Allow me to elaborate:
There are many Game players out there who want to be able to complete a game 100%, after all that is what gaming is all about, isn’t it? The challenge of beating the game!

…

It has been said by Arenanet, in certain blogs, that they intend for some (if not all) the living story content to be gone forever, thus making it impossible for players who join the game at this stage, to complete the game 100%.

…

1. Is the Living story causing more harm than good, within the guild wars 2 community?
2. If you were/are joining the game now, does it put you off that you can never gain 100%?
3. Do you feel that Living story should be permanently re-playable for the achievements?
4. Do you give Living story a Thumbs up or a Thumbs down, and why?

1.) I think the current implementation is causing some harm.

2.) If that was the case, I would be set back for a day or two when I learned about this fact, but it wouldnt bother me further since the stories I didnt take part in each have their own tab and arent sprinkled in the areas I might work on. (I think that is a good choice by Anet)

3.a) No, that would make the whole idea of the living story pointless.
3.b) Imo the error Anet is making is they dont have enough small ripples that the events in the living story cause all across Tyria. Each chapter sets the stage for the next but doesnt affect anything else.

4. Right now I give it a thumbs down, because of wasted potential. I like the idea, it should make the game much grander and more exciting. Their implementation so far has been mediocre, and I hope they step up their game in the next two months. After the first year anniversary is my personal “draw your conclusion” point about sticking with the game or not.

additional comments:

They sneak a slow development about Braham and Rox in the notes lately, that makes me curious. We need more of that.

I think for an actual living world they need to make unconnected stories from time to time. If everything is connected through a common link it begins to feel less like experiencing a world and more like reading a novel or playing a personal storyline.

They severely need to step up their game on what becomes part of the persistant world and what dissappears. Examples:

A halfdozen or more HUGE underground complexes in wayfarers and diessa vanished without a trace. There’s a pirate hideout with several airships next to LA.

Both of those should have had a follow up that sheds more light on them, instead of being handwaved our of existance after 2 weeks.

Cragstead and the hatchery, again, should have been added to the map proper instead of being an instance. Its “ok” to have them there as an instance but its immersion-breaking, and unnecessarily so. making both locations part of the zone map and giving them a bit of contenta DE or two about rebuilding the last bits of damage, training devourers, a skill challenge in each and maybe a vista.

Coopziana.1802:

As the title suggests, What are the effects of the Living story having on the player base within Guild Wars 2?

Well I wanted to just throw this out on the table; Is it a good thing or are Arenanet causing people to lose interest in the game due to the limitation of the Living world?

Allow me to elaborate:
There are many Game players out there who want to be able to complete a game 100%, after all that is what gaming is all about, isn’t it? The challenge of beating the game!
So one has to wonder what effect that has on a person that has recently joined the game or in fact is simply looking into joining the game. Knowing that they have missed parts of the living story and they now have a tab in their achievements panel that can never be completed.

It has been said by Arenanet, in certain blogs, that they intend for some (if not all) the living story content to be gone forever, thus making it impossible for players who join the game at this stage, to complete the game 100%.

Further to this, there are players who have now gotten to a stage whereby they have very little else to do in the game as they have a lvl 80 of each race and have obtained a legendary weapon. All that remains for those players is to complete achievements, so it’s understandable that many players will be upset that they will have this “BLEMISH” on their achievements screen for the rest of their time in Tyria that basically says “You can never achieve 100% completion of this game” in essence (if you look at it harshly) “You Lose” and what happens when people lose at a game without the ability to go back and correct it… They quit, or simply lose interest. Thus making people less and less motivated to strive to gain achievements.

So in the end, end game players (I’d say around 75% of players, if not more) are simply losing motivation to play the living stories, myself included.

Lets look at it from a different angle:

With the release of the Aetherblade dungeon there are 2 achievements that are extremely difficult to get. “Dodge the AoE’s” and “Destroy the ship”. Now for players who have time to go through the dungeon over and over again, this may not be an issue. Though for those who are casual players, who work full time and have families to look after and only get a matter of a few hours a day to play the game, this creates a HUGE problem as it’s more and more clear that they will not gain these achievements in time.

Although I know that Arenanet are putting this content in to “Test the waters” and see how the player base reacts to it, and to give the players something to look forward to and to keep them entertained with new content.

My questions to you all are simple:

1. Is the Living story causing more harm than good, within the guild wars 2 community?
2. If you were/are joining the game now, does it put you off that you can never gain 100%?
3. Do you feel that Living story should be permanently re-playable for the achievements?
4. Do you give Living story a Thumbs up or a Thumbs down, and why?

1.Yes is only causing harm why well because hardcore gamers rush th econtent and then forget it caring nothing about it so in my opinion they get neutral results they would stil play game there was living content or not, so temporary is not necesary permanent would give better results for both sides
2. I would probably stop playing because i would feel left behind completily not only because all the items i will never get but because i would have lost many chapters of the story, so would be like playing the half last part of a movie.
3. Yes it should be permanelty playable in a way those who played it already were not forced to watch it again if they dont want to but the ones who want to try their luck in those achievements and rewards could do it, saying no to this is like saying u want every dungeon to be erased on time and lose the chnace to experience them, or ur character die from aging or sickness and loss everything u invested on it in my opinion that would be sad.
4. I give both , why well i give thumbs up in the feeling that new content is being added fast to keep players entertained but i give thumbs down on its stressing temporary never again playable part who breaks the enyoyement for most of us

I like the living story because it’s something different to do each month. I don’t have any desire to get to 100% completion because that’s silly. I see loads and loads of people doing the LS each month on my server so I don’t think it’s discouraging anyone from playing.