Guild Wars 2

How would this sound to new players and those who don’t have the time to continuously play the game 365 days a year?

ANet can create a “History Archive” in a city somewhere in the game. This library would contain the historical documents of all the living story content that has come and gone. When you “read” that content an instance is created that brings you back to that content as it was back in the day. This instance can be LFG’d and you could complete it the way you would have completed the original instance.

The rewards for completing could be chucked away — those exclusive skins will remain exclusive to the time they were introduced — but it would give players the option to at least experience the lore that had gone by through a much better way than watching old re-runs on YouTube. Maybe let them do the achievements, too.

For large scale content that requires a whole map — maybe a dedicated map instance could be set up for it that people go into (much like an overflow map)

This would at least make it much easier for newer players just getting into the game (we all want new players into the game, right?) to get ensconced in the lore, and lets returning players catch up and not feel disconnected.

It sounds fair enough to me and is a viable solution to some of the problems raised by “temporary” content.

Yeah, this is a complaint that is brought up every couple of weeks and it’s a valid one in my opinion.
Though AN have said they are considering and working on ways for players to experience the old content.

I’d could go with this idea – although I would still like adequate rewards for completion.

As someone who dropped the game shortly after release (took me some time to ‘get it’) I’ve missed out on so much of the LS I’d like to experience. So yep, /signed

considering all LS content→instances are coming back as fractals do we really need more ?

Just the dungeons. I’m all for the ability to replay just the elements that dealt with the living story. The only catch is that people should not be able to get any of the awards or achievements that were a part of it.

I honestly don’t even know if this is a good solution, although it comes up a lot.

I kind of feel like the story should just be left intact in the game world so that it can be experienced as part of a particular character’s narrative, like how most MMOs do it.

It would be awesome! I thought about a personal acc-bound story records book, but a place for that would be very nice, lots of Durmand Priory studying…

Einlanzer.1627:

I honestly don’t even know if this is a good solution, although it comes up a lot.

I kind of feel like the story should just be left intact in the game world so that it can be experienced as part of a particular character’s narrative, like how most MMOs do it.

Yes but Anet doesn’t want to DO what other MMOs do. That’s their problem. They feel the need to be gamechangers, but it’s not really working right now.

A “Library,” perhaps introduced as part of an upcoming Living World release, seems like a lore-friendly means to allow players to experience the “temporary” content. However, a couple of issues (at least) would have to be solved.

• Lack of rewards might very well render the implementation moot. Many players have let ANet know in no uncertain terms that they are not interested in content just for “fun.” If there are no rewards, how under-utilized would the new feature be?
• Some of the prior content is designed for herd play. These portions would either have to be redesigned to scale all the way down to one player, or left out.

IndigoSundown.5419:

A “Library,” perhaps introduced as part of an upcoming Living World release, seems like a lore-friendly means to allow players to experience the “temporary” content. However, a couple of issues (at least) would have to be solved.

• Lack of rewards might very well render the implementation moot. Many players have let ANet know in no uncertain terms that they are not interested in content just for “fun.” If there are no rewards, how under-utilized would the new feature be?
• Some of the prior content is designed for herd play. These portions would either have to be redesigned to scale all the way down to one player, or left out.

1) To feed the hunger for rewards there could be an update that consists of cataloging all the information based on many tyrians all around the world, then you could receive an Asura Librarian mini… for me that would be more than enough.
2) Tell the story from the most neutral possible point of view, just like website’s short stories, they would have to carefully place the events in order not to mess up stuff though.

Furthermore they could add special ties to this library as patches go to increase its utility, there could be Priory scholars specifically gathering information from every patch or every arc/story, therefore increasing content and encouraging reading the lore.

IndigoSundown.5419:

A “Library,” perhaps introduced as part of an upcoming Living World release, seems like a lore-friendly means to allow players to experience the “temporary” content. However, a couple of issues (at least) would have to be solved.

• Lack of rewards might very well render the implementation moot. Many players have let ANet know in no uncertain terms that they are not interested in content just for “fun.” If there are no rewards, how under-utilized would the new feature be?
• Some of the prior content is designed for herd play. These portions would either have to be redesigned to scale all the way down to one player, or left out.

Not the story elements. Those could be completed in at most a single group.

You can’t call it “Living World” and then give people a Time Machine Library(The Great Library) to give everyone the chance to go back as they please. Living World gives you 2weeks, your choice to make it or not.

If you can’t make it, then that is fine… do whatever is next. I wouldn’t find it fair or fun that the things I work for to get, anyone can just get at any time. Nope, sorry.

HellsPriest.6745:

You can’t call it “Living World” and then give people a Time Machine Library(The Great Library) to give everyone the chance to go back as they please. Living World gives you 2weeks, your choice to make it or not.

If you can’t make it, then that is fine… do whatever is next. I wouldn’t find it fair or fun that the things I work for to get, anyone can just get at any time. Nope, sorry.

You got it totally wrong. The Great Library would just hold information, records and (maybe) chances to replay cutscenes, not experience the whole thing again at any time.
Just like in real life we got newspaper and disasters recorded, so could happen in The Great Library, they could implement it in a number of awesome ways.