Guild Wars 2

Alright, so I’ve been playing GW2 since the beginning of it’s release, and let me tell you what I felt. The game that I was waiting to play since Anet announced it. Everything I wanted in GW2 while playing GW1 was given to me, and when I played GW2, I was just absorbed into the game, because it was just that good. You could finally jump, cartography was so much more easier now, and pressing the Map button really made me feel insignificant and that there was much to do in the game and I’ll probably never have enough time in my life to finish it.

But soon after, like everyone else, I played the game and the game progressed in many different directions. I didn’t really care about the content they were coming out with, as long as they did release new content that would impact the game from time to time. You know, they did release their first HUGE event with the Halloween Event. I was like woahhhhh this is so cool and sick, and when I learned everything about the event, I was kinda like ehhhhhhh I don’t know about this. I mean I know GW2 is a new game at the time, but it was still Anet, and the INSANE events they had in GW1 was just simply amazing. The wintersday and canthan new year events in GW1 was clearly one of the best times I’ve had in my life and child hood, the amount of people, so friendly and warming helping each other out and having a great time, was just like an online party where the invitation was given to people who had bought GW1.

Anyways, I was sort of disappointed when I put my mind into it (who doesn’t get disappointed when you think about things ya know?). I was like, this is a cool event and all, but it seems like it downed a couple of levels/tiers compared to GW1. I thought the game would just race out of a player’s mind, casual/extreme, the game would release the same thing that left a good vibe in all of us in GW1. In the end I was just disappointed. It was cool doing the mad king events and all, but to a person who had played the game at that time, this was very pale in comparison. The Mini-Games to the big event, to the dungeon was just bleh. Mini games back then was just simple and easy. It was like just stand here with a ticket and watch it multiply if you stand on the right circle. Simple things like that in a complex game make it so much more amazing since you have variety.

Mini games were one thing, I knew that Mini games weren’t all going to be where you click yes and you’d have too teleport to some other place and do whatever you gotta do there, but I didn’t know 95% of the time that would be the case. As for the mad king dungeon, I felt so insignificant there, because as I was doing the dungeon multiple times with my friends, I just felt like it was a grind. A grind is ok, every game needs a grind, but for a special once a year event to have part of a grind? That’s just not putting that much effort. The grind only had one path too, like that was so boring after playing for a while that it made you feel like you don’t want to do anything event related.

The actual STORY was SO amazing and it was killed so horribly by the LW content imo. What made me enjoy the game and put more time into it was the Karka event. Now that is something that was just once in a life time experience. That was new, thrilling because of all of the players working together for hours, and it actually left a mark on the game (Southsun Cove). That was amazing, the end of the Karka King or w.e, with the LOOT and the event itself just needed another round of applause. After the event, I just felt like it was a barren waste land unless you wanted to farm nodes or karka. I felt like, wow that was cool, I wish something like that could happen again. Unfortunately, there was never a event like that again so far.

Wintersday came about and I didn’t play, I lost all motivation for the game, and didn’t feel like returning. I checked the website for it’s updates, and I was just like meh, another grind, with collecting toys and stuff like that. I didn’t know if presents were to drop from the sky like it did, but the content that was being brought into the game was kinda dull and just a washed up version of the mad king’s event from what I read. I didn’t play it at all and was on the verge of quitting the game once I beat the story.

After that I was just like Meh why not try and play again, I got a few friends that are getting back into it, give it another shot. So I came and played again, I started working towards my achievement points and everything seemed great for the time being. The entire maps had places I’ve never been too such as jumping puzzles and treasure chests here and there. I was like, woah this is so cool, why has there been no content released here and there or something about this in the story? Is this only here for a mere jumping puzzle? Regardless I enjoyed the sceneries and experience, it was fun sometimes grueling, but always spectacular to watch.

Then Frost and Flame came out. I was like, what is this Living World content? Doesnt seem to catch my attention as there was really nothing good that I wanted that it gave other than achievement points in which I stopped getting because I wanted to get gold for items, and enjoy PvP/WvW. As it ended I was being approached by guild members and friends like, “Yo check it out this is cool, man I’ve never seen anything like this before,” etc. I checked it out and I didn’t like it, so I left it.

Then next month the new content was called Frost and Flames Prelude or something. I was map clearing towards my achievement and I was like, hmmm what were these yellow stars. I clicked on some and I had no idea what was happening so I left it as it was and continued. Then I found out people got some pretty cool rewards, and the time being where the game was pretty dead with no release of new content, I gave it out a try, but I didn’t like it at all, the game was there, it was the game being the game, but I found no enjoyment as it didn’t coincide with ANYTHING GW2 had to do. To me it was just an invasion of mole people, and we didn’t really give 2 sh*ts about it, we sent some norn/lionguard/players w.e and it was settled.

This however really got me thinking. I can get rewards for participating? That seems pretty sick, I’d want to have another shot at getting those skins!. Before you knew it, Super Adventure Box came out. I was like, holy dizzles this looks so sick. At the time I was on and off with the game, even though I had motivation to play it, it was on and off, but to me this was HUGE, something new. It looked like minecraft + mario in GW2 terms. I was so synced in playing it out, I did ALL the achievements except for like 3 in a few days, because some of them were tedious and hard. I found out the rewards and I was like, MAN I WANT THOSE. Eventually I found out that you could get them by gold or currencies, that brings me up to another thing.

There has been so many forms of currency in the game for the events, but they are all useless after the events have passed, like candy corn is useless after MKT, bubble babbles, are useless after SAB. I was like hmmm whatever ill do this enough times for me to get that item I wanted, and eventually I got it. Then after this event ended a new one began. It was the South Sun Saga! Lol, I was like YES finally something that has a sequel to the karka king being dead nd all. Turns out it was the hugest disappointment in my life ever. Although I did it, it was incredibly dumb imo. Had nothing to do with anything, just bringing in new people and I was like, ok thats cool and all, but at least have some character development you know? Anything related to the ACTUAL story and quests, instead of bringing in new fresh meat every time you make a LW event. Then after that, they made another South Sun event, I was looking forward towards it, but in the end it was just another mini dungeon with a boss that dropped nothing significant, and people just did it for the achievement and never did it again.

At that point, my mind was just in a different set. I was like Oh man what will Anet bring out next update, I’m getting sick of these re-skinned repetitive events. Something new, something that would make me remember it for the good times. Before you knew it, Dragon Bash was upon us. I was like this is cool and all, it reminds me of Canthan New Year. I was expecting some fun event with alot of people doing it and all, but there seemed to be less people, and I kinda understood why. People had other priorities and believed that this content wasn’t amazing enough for their time. I was like, whatever I’mma check it out, seems great and all, brings back memories, whatevers ill do it. As I was doing the achievements, I was like, wow this is actually gonna take me a long time to do. As I played the content, I found it dull in a matter of minutes. It wasn’t enjoyable to me and I HIGHLY doubt I was going to finish it and was pretty close to quitting the game. Although I was going to quit, I’ve had a good irl friend of mine talking me back into it and managed to finish the achievements before the event ended. I was like sweet, after grinding my eyes out on those horrible holograms and arena event, it was finally done.

hen Sky pirates came out, and I was like, oooh this looks interesting, what are sky pirates are they a new race or what? I played the game for a while, and then touched on the LW content. I was like, OK who’s that NPC, and who’s this, what’s happening here? Took me some time for me to piece it all together, and before you knew it, I was like wow, just wow.

Is this just some new form of expansion pack? Sure seems like it, the content is god awful for an expansion pack though. Doesn’t seem too fun, but I am curious about the story line and all. I enjoy the GW2 story lines and lores, it’s just amazing, just like how I enjoy warcraft lore, it’s cool, and it really stimulates my imagination, especially since I’m a character in the world that has experienced it first hand. I thought to myself, if this was an expansion pack, this is pretty bad, but hey at least I don’t have to spend my money on one, even though it would probably be worth it. As time went on, I was just playing and getting more into the LW content. Before you know it, Bazaar came out, and then support ellen/evon, I was like cool ya know. My mind really drifted away till I was browsing the forums. After reading what other players wrote, I was like Wow, Anet really did nothing to enrich the already amazing plot of the game and was just throwing loose ends at us. Nothing in the LW content had anything to do with the actual story itself, meaning to me and probably a good many out there, the story line was just enjoyable just once, that first time you did it, the only time you’ll do it.

After that, I was like wow, I don’t mind this LW content, but I really would appreciate it if there was more focus on the game itself, like how Orr changes bit by bit, more insight on the elder dragons each living world content, not some new unknown character that I could give 2 sh*ts about. In the end, it could lead to something, but as of now, it’s just a bunch of loose ends of random isolated content that Anet is throwing out. I still enjoy the game for what it is, because there are still goals I want to reach. I really want my legendary item, so I play the game, get the gold, and eventually make one myself. The community has been by far the most understanding, mature, fun gaming community out of every game I’ve played in the last 8 years, and I love to be in it.

In the end to this very day, I just felt like, this game would be so much more insane and thrilling again if Anet would just add more to the lore. Throwing content out is good and all, but it’s been so long since we’ve had a significant event.

I was looking towards Queens Jubilee, and to me, it was just a really smack in the face. Pretty much how I see it is that there is a NEW villain, that’s a sylvari once again, and this huge arena thing, where you can farm it out. It’s cool at first till you realize that it’s something like a monster park from maple story, where there are just a bunch of different mobs that you kill. The thing is, there is an INSANE amount of bugs and repetitiveness which kills GW2. I’ve never seen GW2 as a grind game other than CoF and farming DEs/WEs. For new content, it’s cool, but so rushed and bad. The culling is not fixed at all, and for over flow maps, where there isn’t a district change anymore, means if you end up on the wrong map, YOU CAN’T FARM REGARDLESS, the mobs are just too strong for a full party, you need like a 70-100 man zerg to take down ONE champion successfully.

That’s not all tho, the queens gauntlet was fun and challenging. Till I found out it was bugged beyond belief. There were times were I was just doing what I can to beat the boss, then there were times where I would be glitched in with another person, and we’ll be like WTH and we tag team 2 bosses, my boss and their boss. In the end I didn’t get an achievement and I had to re-do it over. The new content is quite hard actually, really targets the more hardcore players which is cool and all, but in the end it’s useless content that really reinforces nothing in the game. Bad rewards, bad content, just fun to do and challenge yourself.

I REALLY hope that LW isn’t any type of expansion and is just monthly content updates, because if it is….it’s the HUGEST disappoint ever. I really also hope that LW content are linked together WITH the actual story content, because having a LW content story line and THEN having a actual story line with no significance really splits the game apart. You have TIMED LW content that YOU MUST FINISH or else you won’t be able to do it again, and when you finish with that, you switch over to the story line which has 0 relevance to the LW content.

ame’s great and all, but I really believe there needs to be more loose ends tied up. Alot of players expect alot of things, and the game is only 60%, the other 40% is the content itself. The WvW community/PvP community is doing nicely, but the PvE community is suffering alot from the lack of typical PvE where you grind. It’s just luck in the end, and nobody likes to grind hours and have a lotto chance where if you open a good loot bag, you become rich, other wise you’ve just been wasting time on some cruddy loot.

I honestly look forward to more LW Content, but please, let each LW content be exclusive to itself, and only have certain events that correspond with them. Don’t sugar coat it into something different and re-skin it. It’s really bland and not fun doing the same thing with a different name. Also I look forward to watch the story line progress with Trahearne and the Pact forces. It would be great to see things mix and match and not have a battle of the ACTUAL story line vs LW content

For what it’s worth, it’s admirable you took the time to write out these thoughts. Even if few people are gonna read the whole thing, it does show you have a great passion for the game.

ThiBash.5634:

For what it’s worth, it’s admirable you took the time to write out these thoughts. Even if few people are gonna read the whole thing, it does show you have a great passion for the game.

Thanks, just had to really put out a time line to see some things out.

Yup… That’s about it… LW is mostly boring but sometimes it is good. The problem is that they never nailed it. I just hope they finally will…

I’ve personally been with the game since release and quit after winterday, I did came back to check some updates every now and then but I am feeling very much the same as you. I’m the kind of person that loves exploring every corner of the world, find hidden books or caves etc. The Living Story in it’s current form does not add any of this at all, I too felt the most excited with LS when the karka attacked. Sadly the one-time event thing did mess with alot of people’s playtimes, it sucks if you miss something like that. However, the whole server got itself together and it gave a sense of community where everyone was waiting for the event to start. Sure the servers couldn’t handle it and I lagged insane much but the feeling of the event was unlike any LS we’ve had after it. I personally had hoped that southsun would lead towards another elder dragon, specifically the one connected to water but that’s another story.

As for the LS we’ve had, if you look at it objectively, the actual ‘content’ we’ve had, and by that I mean stuff like gear, zones, dungeons, events. It’s not ‘that much’ in some of these LS parts. Cutthroat politics takes the cake here where there was 1 event (Kiel and Gnash were identical sorta so I count that as one) and 2 minigames. The rest was purely linked through achievements. That was not new, it was ‘do what you always did or already did, except use an item before you do it this time’. I feel like they got away with it ok as it was more about the vote than the content, however. Alot of the LS before this had similar issues, there was not that much actual new content. It was more about achievements sending you back to do things you have already done. I don’t mind returning to an old zone, but put some new puzzle there or a new chain of events.

I haven’t forgotten we had new puzzles, guild missions etc. That’s PRECISELY the content I want to see more of and I’m happy with it so I don’t come here to give feedback on how to improve.

I have hope that things are going to become much better, I read the interview with Colin about them wanting to get the yearly content produced first, so they can build upon it in the future. They are nearly finished with that now and thus we are going to start seeing their true meaning of content updates with LS. I really am looking forward to it, but so far they have missed the nail by a tiny bit every time, sometimes more. But that’s all we can do for now, hope that what they have in store for us will be more permanent content, this time even better than southsun.

I pretty much stopped playing GW2 ever since Sky Pirates. Living Story just disappointed me so much. I check in every update though, hoping it changes direction, but i’m not holding out much hope. One day i’ll just uninstall GW2 for good, but i really don’t want to.

nexxe.7081:

I pretty much stopped playing GW2 ever since Sky Pirates. Living Story just disappointed me so much. I check in every update though, hoping it changes direction, but i’m not holding out much hope. One day i’ll just uninstall GW2 for good, but i really don’t want to.

Sadly im on same boat as you unless they make the lving story enyoyable for all players anytime and the rewards obtainble by effort of course but stil achievable for new players who missed it