Guild Wars 2

With the announcement of 4 patches left to this overall arc, I think that it would be important for the community to ask itself what they did like about the living story. Clearly some things were not as well taken as others, but it is still good to be asked.

Personally, I did enjoy Scarlet as a character. She seems a bit crazy; and had more to her then met the eyes initially. Many players did not seem to enjoy her, but I think this stems from us not getting anything in the way of her character. If the Anet team would with future releases give the characters some more to these people then simply “i’m here to cause chaos, okthnxbai” then I imagine that this would improve what many people think of the character.

Locations. When a new region is added for players to explore, it can often be seen as a positive thing. While Southsun was a good first attempt, it is simply unpopular. The map is difficult to traverse and has little to it which would actually make a player want to return. With that out of the way, I think that Cragstead would be a good example of what I refer to. Cragstead was the next additional area added to the game that sat in the living story. It was a city under attack that we; the players came to rescue.
the Crown Pavilion was an area that was widely loved by players, giving them something to come together and do in a small area. very few fans that I can recall expressed a dislike of this new area. Finally on the topic of new regions, the Bazaar of the Four Winds has to be brought up. a map filled with it’s own unique mechanic to get around this vertical map had been introduced, and the map was met with much positive feedback once more. The mobility crystals that had allowed players to traverse the map was a fun thing to use to get around the map.
A new location does not have to be an entire map, but could simply be a revamping of a dead area.

Activities. The activities are like a little activity tucked away that will allow a player to do something that does not involve killing mindless NPCs or other players. the minigames we have are fairly fun, and can give a bit of flavor to a race (keg brawl/Super Adventure Box) or region (Sanctum Sprint/Southsun Survival.) When done well, they can be loved and can leave players yearning for more.

So these have been my thoughts about the Living story, Keep it up devs. you can’t please everyone with everything, but their are the folks out there that DO enjoy what you bring us.

I enjoy having something new to be doing, especially after getting to the end game. (I just don’t like having to rush it, no sense of enjoyment with such a small timeframe to do things.)

I like having a new cast of characters being introduced. (Even if I’m not a big fan and most seem quite impersonal.)

The story has been spotty unfortunately. It peaked my interest quite a bit in Flame and Frost but it… Got a bit misplaced after that.

Overall I liked LS, as a whole, even if I think it was a bit poorly executed.

At least something happened to all those refuges…. not sure what… but something.

Achievement Points.

That about sums it up.

Talonblaze.3175:

I enjoy having something new to be doing, especially after getting to the end game. (I just don’t like having to rush it, no sense of enjoyment with such a small timeframe to do things.)

I like having a new cast of characters being introduced. (Even if I’m not a big fan and most seem quite impersonal.)

The story has been spotty unfortunately. It peaked my interest quite a bit in Flame and Frost but it… Got a bit misplaced after that.

Overall I liked LS, as a whole, even if I think it was a bit poorly executed.

They are trying something. and yea I liked the F&F patch.

i think if they would have given her certain human traits we could relate too i would have liked scarlet. sad too say i enjoyed the festivals and celebrations the most and the minigames and game improvements the wallet and such also. the brahm and rox majory kashmeer were good with their intros. i like them a lot. so our friends or heros were well done(they gave them all distinct personalities) the villian(no disernable personality that i can see) and her motives werent

I did like the idea that events continued week after week.
Some of the characters I’ve grown to like quite a bit.
Also the voting from Cutthroat Politics was fun, plus we were introduced to the Zephyrites.

So overall if this is a Season One, it is more like the Star Trek TNG Season One.
I hope they grow the beard in Season Two.

My experience with the living story:

I completed all of the earlier Living Story updates, probably up until Zephyr Sanctum. I also did the majority of the Queens Jubilee event, can’t actually remember if that was before or after…

I went MIA due to finishing my thesis at uni, but given the emphasis on being ‘casual friendly’ that anet have tossed about since the GW2 manifesto, I wasn’t concerned. I wanted to come back and pick up on the content that I was doing when I had to leave. The achiev grind wasn’t the appeal, the story was. Alas, i’ve missed the majority of updates over the past few months, where this content runs for a limited time.

I am so god kitten lost with the living story now, I’d like to pick it back up, but I have no idea how/where/what to even begin with. I want to be able to do the content that I’ve missed, not pick up on some new LS scenario that I have no contextual understanding of. Why put temporary content into the game. Put kittening lasting content that has re-playability and doesn’t kitten over people who had to take some time off for whatever reason. I’m aware many elements of the game added through these LS events are still present in the game, but that’s not the same as having the entire piece of content accessible.

Hell, the last thing I remember was voting for freakin’ Ellen or Evon. I missed Tequatl Rising, haven’t been able to complete Tequatl once since returning to the game two weeks ago. (because i’ve never seen more than 10 people in the zone) I recall the shady character from the Queen’s Jubilee, but have literally no idea who/what Scarlett is because I feel so shut out where the LS is about as linear as the great wall of china. I’m sure I could research, read up on it, etc. But why should I have to?

Going OT:

I fan boyed Arenanet so hard coming into Guild Wars 2. I was a long time Guild Wars 1 player, every expansion, 50/50 HoM… GWAMM… etc. I had the highest hopes and things have taken some drastic turn for the worst. Guild Wars 1, they had their online/cash store right. You bought a piece of fashion/a costume, you could then make infinite copies of that costume and use it on each character on your account. Guild Wars 2, spend $10 on a costume and you need to spend another $10 for that same costume on an alternate character. Fantastic.

The driver behind the game-design decisions in this game need to take a step back and think about the longevity of the game, not the short term future. Whether it be the powers at be in Arena-net or perhaps NCsoft, they should take a step back and really think about things.

Back on topic……. Living story = Terrible concept.
‘New’ content every 2 weeks = Fantastic.

Now where can I play it? Oh wait, I can’t. BECAUSE IT’S GONE.

Oh well, just give up on LS and give me GvG, Canthan/Elonan expansions and a new WvW scoring system.

Enough with the Living Story already. It’s a failure.

The Queen’s Gauntlet seemed to be a good direction in that we saw silver mobs with interesting mechanics for the first time. That was great because champ mobs with unshakeable/defiant effectively removes a bunch of mechanics from the game. Too bad they seemed to not follow up on it.

I apologize in advance for the wall of text.

My report card:

Halloween 2012 – VERY GOOD Oh, the memories. The return of the Mad King was glorious. The labyrinth, the activities, the surprises! It was all classic and excellent.

Lost Shores – AVERAGE Adding Southsun as a zone was good, but Lost Shores was horrible for a myriad of reasons that I’m not going to bother explaining here.

Wintersday 2012 – EXCELLENT Arenanet hit the mark with this one. Everything was fun, the rewards were achievable, the pace felt right.

Flame and Frost – GOOD The pace for this one felt right. I took a bit of an issue with the 2-week window to beat the bosses because it precluded any chance of casual players getting good loot (jetpack, etc), but otherwise this one was enjoyable. Rox and Braham were a welcome addition to the cast.

Secret of Southsun – VERY GOOD This one also hit the mark. The month-long time limit was acceptable, it had a working story, the characters were decently written, the achievements were fun to get. The extra battle with the golem at the end was annoying but everything else felt right.

Dragon Bash – GOOD Dragon Bash introduced Marjory Delaqua, who is an awesome character. And you get to go sleuthing with her, which is even more awesome. The events and activities for Dragon Bash, such as the Dragon Arena, were also a lot of fun. There was nothing spectacular about this release, but overall it was fun.

Sky Pirates – VERY POOR This chapter combined grindy (and buggy) events, uninspired achievements, lackluster rewards, an annoying boss fight, throwaway villains and a prohibitive two-week time line. It is, hands down, the worst Living Story chapter so far.

Bazaar of Four Winds – GOOD I loved the new zone for this. I wish it would come back. I still enjoy Sanctum Sprint, though it needs new maps. The addition of Quartz as a material was welcome. It’s a shame that most of it was temporary. Supposedly it will come back though, which is a good thing. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the rewards we missed as well.

Cutthroat Politics – AVERAGE Aside from the coolness of voting for the next member of the captain’s council, grindy achievements and unenjoyable group instances are my only real memories of this.

Queen’s Jubilee – AVERAGE We got new cut scenes, a new area of Divinity’s Reach, and a huge underground arena. All of this is good. Too bad it’s all temporary. Grinding in the pits was kind of fun, but got repetitive. The Queen’s Gauntlet was horrible for a lot of reasons though (anyone who is colorblind and/or fought Liadri knows what I mean). The rewards were ugly and not worth it.

Clockwork Chaos POOR – Ah yes, the introduction of Scarlet. It’s all been downhill from here. Scarlet’s playhouse was not a fun instance. Grinding clockwork minions on random maps for 45 minutes straight is also not fun. The loot was great when farming champions, but otherwise the rewards for the whole event were not worth it.

Super Adventure Box – POOR All I wanted was my stupid blue backpack from the first time around. Despite logging many hours into it, I didn’t get it. Couldn’t get enough baubles because I was busy with Flame and Frost. Then SAB went away, and as a result, I’m never getting my backpack. It makes me sad. I boycotted part 2 because of this. It’s grindy and repetitive anyway.

Tequatl Rising – VERY POOR I skipped this crap. Seriously. Why the hell would they add content that half the playerbase isn’t even going to be able to complete?

Halloween 2013 – POOR Halloween 2012 was so perfect, so why did they feel the need to mess it up? The labyrinth wasn’t fun anymore, the rewards were worse, the achievements we missed last time didn’t come back. The addition of the Bloody Prince was welcome, but he got zero development. Why did they even bother?

Tower of Nightmares – POOR Farming the offshoots and completing events out in Kessex was kind of fun, if a little repetitive. Once you were inside the tower though, it really was a nightmare. Invincible champions and physical barriers blocking your progress made this prohibitive to casual players and small groups. The story behind this chapter made little sense, and Scarlet being involved didn’t help. The loot was not worth it.

Wintersday 2013 – GOOD At least they didn’t make Wintersday worse this year. It’s about the same as last time, which is good, if a little strange. A whole year has passed and Tixx hasn’t gotten control of his toys? C’mon. I wish that the Tower of Nightmares had never happened and the devs had made an effort to bring some fresh content to Halloween and Wintersday in 2013 instead.

When I think about the things I’ve liked about the living story, it’s often overshadowed by stuff that ruined it for me. What I do know, however, is that it’s getting worse. I wonder if the development teams are getting as burnt out as the players are.

Great Report Card. I don’t agree with you about Wintersday 2013 (yet), but everything else was dead on.

PeterThomas.7243:

I apologize in advance for the wall of text.

My report card:

…snip….

When I think about the things I’ve liked about the living story, it’s often overshadowed by stuff that ruined it for me. What I do know, however, is that it’s getting worse. I wonder if the development teams are getting as burnt out as the players are.

I agree with most of your report card. I’d say SAB however is good but the temporaryness is bad and especially the removal of previous rewards is bad. So the designer of the SAB does a great job. The deciders of removal of rewards did a bad job.