Guild Wars 2

With the introduction of living world contents, Tyria needs a good news source instead of useless heralds around the town.

I think the living world content has its potential. I have no issue for them being temporary nor feel burden to complete all of achievements on time. Actually I believe, it fits the concept of “living world” – after all, we cannot participate in everything happening in this living world, right?

However, as a casual gamer who logs in irregularly, what bothers me is that no one and nothing in the game gives me much information about what is going on and what has been went on in the game.

It has been almost 2 months since I logged in last time, and as soon as I logged in, I found so much things have happened. The heralds talking about the Crown Pavilion, closing ceremony etc, but not much helpful since I had NO idea where/what place or this ceremony was about. While being confused, I just ran out into the Plains of Ashfield, then suddenly found weird zombie robots and bad guys named Aetherblades, whom I never encountered before. Also, on the left side of my screen I saw something about invasion of Scarlet’s minions under the global event named “clockwork chaos”. Who in the world is Scarlet? Why is she attacking? Are those new creatures her minions or what? With no information or whatsoever, these quests seemed rather unmotivating and even perplexing. I went back to herald, but he still repeated useless sentences, confusing me even more. Where the heck is the Crown Pavilion???? So finally, I gave up, did Alt-Tab, googled the Crown Pavilion and clockwork chaos on the web-browser to find the wiki page.

At the very moment when I had to get out of the game and had to start up the web-browser to read up the guides on wiki, it totally killed immersivity of the game, and this so called “living world” content appeared completely dead and uninviting, which was a big turn off.

With the introduction of living world content, I think it is a time for Tyria to have its authentic newspaper. It doesn’t have to be lengthy and updated everyday. However, at least with each update of the living world content, a newspaper containing a short article that well summarizes the previous living world content and an introduction to the upcoming one will be tremendously helpful for users to follow up and find the content more interesting.

Although it is not an MMO, I believe the Black Horse Courier in the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion serves as a great example. Allow users readily access the newspaper through heralds, and the archive of old papers at the book carts or newspaper stands. Also, if possible, sparing some space on the paper available for purchase with gem or golds by users/guilds to make server wide announcements may give another opportunity for Anet to encourage gem purchases and help Tyria appear a bit more lively.

BTW, I am not a good writer and sorry for my poor grammar.
Although I don’t know if my suggestion is feasible or even will be read by relevant folks at Anet, I really want to express my wish that this new concept of living world content will thrive to deliver unique experience that is not often found in many other MMOs.

This idea has great potential.

If they are able to deliver the content via a browser (while retaining the look of a printed page), it would be a perfect platform to deliver a lot of the lore behind.the story.

It might take a while to build such a system (and the dedicated content team) but the basic tech is already in the game as shown by the TP.

Yes, this is exactly the sort of thing we need to bring the game together. Without the traditional quest log there is no way to know what is going on, often outside sources are needed to gather information about what is happening IN GAME. A “newspaper” would fit really well.

You know what? This idea is actually pretty good.

I still think it would be better to get the information in-game in a more natural, cinematic fashion rather than a text-heavy infodump, but…OP’s idea is a lot better than what they’re doing now.

They could make on in the site, and then embed the web page it in a panel using the internal Awesomium browser just like the Trading Post.

Then you could either visit the site, or go to a herald and ask for news, and you get the Newspaper panel, and you could even go to a vendor (automatic dispensers in Rata Sum, of course) and buy an item that shows the news panel and updates automatically, much like Deux Ex interactive newspapers do. That you can discard and buy again easily thanks to its low price (a mere 1 silver or so).

They could even introduce a reporter character who’s writing all those articles, to bring back the spirit of the Scribe .

EVERYONE loved the Scribe. Anyone who has a soul, that is.

It could be a Sylvari whose wyld hunt is to travel the world and gather news, and you would meet her here and there randomly along the living story and sometimes even in your home instance making an article about your deeds, that gets automatically constructed and you can read from a link in your profile.

I love this idea. It would make book carts USEFUL too! I like the thought of archived articles as well. It would give a sense of time and progression.

I think it would be a great collectible thing.

Imagine under your Story section in your Hero Panel there is an option for Tyria Gazette. You select it and it brings up a list of all the archived versions of the paper you’ve purchased. Current versions would be given free at the Herald and Archived versions would be sold for coin or karma at the Book Carts/Vendors. Then just like you can read back on your personal story, you could read back on the events of Tyria.

There are collectors in game who would purchase them all just to say they had them! And personally I think it would be fun, to be able to read back on the history of Tyria whenever I wanted.

Very good idea. Playing GW2 requires way too much googling, that’s silly.

On an unrelated side note, I’m still not sure why the game is actually called “Guild Wars”. Where are the wars between guilds here?!?

Good idea, OP.
I’ve heard many people coming back to the game and shouting in LA to try and find out what has been going on. While brief mapchat summaries can be very amusing at times, general response was I-don’t-care, will-ignore-content.

I’d be much nicer to find all these things in-game, same as it’s be much nicer to actually get important character backgrounds in-game, not as a blog post story that only a few people will read (like “What Scarlet saw”).

Agreed. A newspaper is a really cool concept. I’ve seen other games do something similar, but it was all out of game for the most part. An in-game newpaper would be a good excuse for a UI element that lets us get some/all of the short story stuff on the main site in game, too.

All of the above
very cool,
there’s a worthy project for you Mr/Ms Stein,
convince the rest of the team!

Astraea.6075:

This idea has great potential.

If they are able to deliver the content via a browser (while retaining the look of a printed page), it would be a perfect platform to deliver a lot of the lore behind.the story.

TSW (The Secret World) has its own in-built browser because many missions require you to search for clues online. But Anet could do the same but set it up with restrictions so you only saw a dedicated Tyrian Chronicle minisite. That way they could move all the short stories over there plus other pointers to show where current events are taking place, etc.

Oh, and great idea OP!

Well it will definitely be a good way to get tell a better story. And it doesn’t necessarily have to only be about the living story, it might just be some flavour pieces. They could even use to to hint-at / build-up to new content.

Antiriad.7160:

Very good idea. Playing GW2 requires way too much googling, that’s silly.

On an unrelated side note, I’m still not sure why the game is actually called “Guild Wars”. Where are the wars between guilds here?!?

So a newspaper and a journal / encyclopaedia / bestiary / etc. Maybe something like Mass-Effect has, where they give bios, or entries about places and races etc.

Btw. Guild Wars refers to the lore. Long ago there was guilds and they warred.

Hey folks, we’ve got a newspaper.
http://orrator.com/

zaxziakohl.5243:

I love this idea. It would make book carts USEFUL too! I like the thought of archived articles as well. It would give a sense of time and progression.

I think it would be a great collectible thing.

Imagine under your Story section in your Hero Panel there is an option for Tyria Gazette. You select it and it brings up a list of all the archived versions of the paper you’ve purchased. Current versions would be given free at the Herald and Archived versions would be sold for coin or karma at the Book Carts/Vendors. Then just like you can read back on your personal story, you could read back on the events of Tyria.

There are collectors in game who would purchase them all just to say they had them! And personally I think it would be fun, to be able to read back on the history of Tyria whenever I wanted.

I love the OP’s idea and I really love your spin on it! I would definitely want to collect the papers and have a library of Tyrian history!

BobbyStein.2315:

This is a cool idea. Thanks for sharing.

We’re currently discussing ideas on how to “catch people up” with past Living World events to give them context on current events and recent history. The system that’s currently in development will hopefully go a long way in presenting a clearer picture of some of the story content in the game. That stated, having a newspaper is a neat concept.

More than neat, it is AWESOME! And a collectible paper would be the best way to go. I would love to have my own library of Tryian history!!!

Again with TSW/Skyrim/TESO as examples, they have these features available from your character sheet where you can access all your collected Lore items. Imagine getting all of ‘The Founding’ in one sitting once you have done the accomplishment to read all 20 books in Ebonhawke.
Imagine getting all the short stories posted on guildwars2.com (THAT NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE, BUT IN-GAME!) under a lore section, etc.
Lots of opportunities with a lore catalogue coupled under your Personal Story screen or as a separate feature under your character/hero screen.

Make it so, Anet!

kvazarsky.9468:

Hey folks, we’ve got a newspaper.
http://orrator.com/

I like the name! Teh articles are good too

BobbyStein.2315:

This is a cool idea. Thanks for sharing.

We’re currently discussing ideas on how to “catch people up” with past Living World events to give them context on current events and recent history. The system that’s currently in development will hopefully go a long way in presenting a clearer picture of some of the story content in the game. That stated, having a newspaper is a neat concept.

You could always use the Hero panel. On the tabs, there is one for Personal Story. Might as well use another tab for Living Story.

BobbyStein.2315:

This is a cool idea. Thanks for sharing.

We’re currently discussing ideas on how to “catch people up” with past Living World events to give them context on current events and recent history. The system that’s currently in development will hopefully go a long way in presenting a clearer picture of some of the story content in the game. That stated, having a newspaper is a neat concept.

What I would do/would have done from the get go:

Take the instances, and the mail, and slap them to being at the end of the personal story. Make the Living Story a continuation of the Personal Story, with the new content as the “it’s introduced at this point”. During the month of the release, the living story stuff is available to all per account, but afterwards it gets locked into place in the storyline position.

Not much work should be needed to be done with this as the instances exist already – maybe, if really wanted, some instances needed for The Lost Shores (could even provide a split between investigating the karka, or making an anti-karka weapons like was done, for the old customizing of the personal story).

Then use this in mind for future stories, to bring back the personal story characters with relation to the earlier choices.

This way, even new players later on can experience the living story, rather than simply getting told about it. And on top of that, less temporary content in a retroactive manner.

BobbyStein.2315:

This is a cool idea. Thanks for sharing.

We’re currently discussing ideas on how to “catch people up” with past Living World events to give them context on current events and recent history. The system that’s currently in development will hopefully go a long way in presenting a clearer picture of some of the story content in the game. That stated, having a newspaper is a neat concept.

You know what would be cool. If all the temporary content, would be made accessible with newspapers. And you could read the Lore and replay everything. You could constantly play Gauntlet, Aetherblade dungeon, halloween, christmas stuff. All of it, via an interactive book.

Like the mission books in gw1

Way way back, during or before Beta, someone associated with the guildwars2roleplayers site made a fantastic newspaper with pages that curled back and forth. I wish I remembered enough details to find it, assuming it’s still online.

How about a holographic panel machine in various locations throughout the world, built by aura technicians, showing a “clip” of the ongoing living world and two golems standing on each end of the panel which when clicked/interacted will show on the holo-screen the past events cutscenes (1st golem) and stories (2nd golem)

Asura are always funny so this will be more amusing to visit then the heralds