Guild Wars 2

So Colin Johanson just added his “looking ahead” blog post, and while it had a lot about mechanics, it had almost nothing about story. Where is the story going?! This game needs a future, it needs a goal. What locations will be available in six months that aren’t available today? Adding a few more “playgrounds” like Southsun and Cliffs isn’t going to cut it, you guys need to pick a dragon and have us set out after it, and you need to get started now.

The story is going towards a big jumping puzzle if you haven’t noticed. Eventually the whole GW2 world will be a big jumping puzzle over flying dragons and water…

Soon enough JPs will be introduced in dungeons because apparently people should not farm dungeons more than once a day. CoF will be a big melting JP and flying angry mobs over our heads…

Like that guy said before, JP is the fun part of GW2 and lets make it more fun by having enforced JPs in every part of the game…It is all about having some fun right?

actually i think you are right and i think its something they could put in saying the living story is headed toward such and such dragon. dont have to give a timeframe but for the general population of the game at least it would feel like the living story was actually going somewhere. i think the living story needs a true direction and let us experience how we get there it could take 6 months or nine to get there. right now it feels as we are adrift without any regard to where we are going

Colin already confirmed on stream, that all living stories (begining with Flame and Frost) are conected somehow. When you read a book, you too don´t get the begining, in the middle they tell you how it ends so you know it will end, and they just continue…They want to tell the story in releases, not to release the story and then follow it in releases.
It is also confirmed that there will be no new dragon (which is kinda disappointing) making appearance this year. In the light of this game beeing about fighting dragons, that´s weird but….we will see, maybe we will not see new dragon, but they can be active (one can only hope).
However, in the light of this release (Bazaar), they are showing us they didn´t forget already established lore, which is good. I just hope they will continue with the direction it is taking (and the elections are just them digressing)

yeah i can say apples and oranges are connected but thats doesnt mean they taste the same or im your going to like them both the same. Before i buy a book i get a general idea whakittens about by a review or back cover giving a glimpse into the book. i wouldnt buy as book without knowing what is in the covers. i might expect fantasy and get non fiction instead.

To me so far the living story is a bad book that just shifts back and forth. this game been out almost a year and i feel like they still dont have a clue where its headed. which im my opinion is bad for the game looking for its niche in a soon to be bigger mmo crowd

Which is quite funny because it is all quite well-connected if you simply pay attention.
I think the main issue is that people need to get the story thrown in their face to bother with it.

i disagree a good story expands on what it did already we havent seen any update on the molten alliance its like it completely lost or dropped. ok whats going to happen in southsun now or the aetherblades. nope we are going into an election. yeah it sort of brought around from the other parts but im sitting here wondering what happens to the other things that happened and thinking hey we might never know. this plot is thin in my book. id love to see way more with the molten alliance(a story arc that takes us back to find more info about them) and how the settlers make out. give me substance not this thin sauce. i mean this a a living story make it a sort of story not something that dances around and vaguely gives something to tie into the next part of the story. they could have done so much more but it seems to be filler(not real meat) to just keep us playing like the dailies and monthlies and now achievement chests

It wouldn’t be a “Living” Story if the plot is given away months in advance….

Spoilers! /closes blue notebook No but really, the ties arent clear because we can’t see the big picture just yet. If it was obvious form the start, that wouldn’t be much of a story would it ?

There’s not just one story in the living world events. Sometime we will see Crystal Desert, sometime we will see Maguuma Wastes. They can start a story and follow it for 1-2 months, in 2-4 chapters and then they a break from that story and continue with another one and later come back to that story again.

Crystal Desert will most likely be about Glint and Mursaat.

I have to say I prefer not knowing. It makes the world seem like its actually living, and evolving, as opposed to moving down a railroad toward a goal. I’m also glad were not moving straight to the next dragon. My biggest dread was that this game would turn into just killing dragon after dragon after dragon when there is so much more in the world to deal with.

Many many good novels have separate story lines that eventually come together. If the author is good, then they fit together well in the end. The reason we have so many threads about the Living Stories seeming disjoint is not because everyone is impatient and needs to see the connections immediately. It’s because Anet has proven to be terrible storytellers and we’re not trusting them to fit all these Living Stories together into a single, well-told story.

Zylonite.5913:

The story is going towards a big jumping puzzle if you have noticed. Eventually the whole GW2 world will be a big jumping puzzle over flying dragons and water…

Soon enough JPs will be introduced in dungeons because apparently people should not farm dungeons more than once a day. CoF will be a big melting JP and flying angry mobs over our heads…

Like that guy said before, JP is the fun part of GW2 and lets make it more fun by having enforced JPs in every part of the game…It is all about having some fun right?

Sign me up!

ricky markham.8173:

i disagree a good story expands on what it did already we havent seen any update on the molten alliance its like it completely lost or dropped. ok whats going to happen in southsun now or the aetherblades. nope we are going into an election. yeah it sort of brought around from the other parts but im sitting here wondering what happens to the other things that happened and thinking hey we might never know. this plot is thin in my book. id love to see way more with the molten alliance(a story arc that takes us back to find more info about them) and how the settlers make out. give me substance not this thin sauce. i mean this a a living story make it a sort of story not something that dances around and vaguely gives something to tie into the next part of the story. they could have done so much more but it seems to be filler(not real meat) to just keep us playing like the dailies and monthlies and now achievement chests

You’re just being impatient.

Each month is an Act in a Play, you simply have to wait until the end before you can know who Luke Skywalker’s father really is.

You just have to wait for that one Act/Chapter that ties everything together.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

ricky markham.8173:

i disagree a good story expands on what it did already we havent seen any update on the molten alliance its like it completely lost or dropped. ok whats going to happen in southsun now or the aetherblades. nope we are going into an election. yeah it sort of brought around from the other parts but im sitting here wondering what happens to the other things that happened and thinking hey we might never know. this plot is thin in my book. id love to see way more with the molten alliance(a story arc that takes us back to find more info about them) and how the settlers make out. give me substance not this thin sauce. i mean this a a living story make it a sort of story not something that dances around and vaguely gives something to tie into the next part of the story. they could have done so much more but it seems to be filler(not real meat) to just keep us playing like the dailies and monthlies and now achievement chests

You’re just being impatient.

Each month is an Act in a Play, you simply have to wait until the end before you can know who Luke Skywalker’s father really is.

You just have to wait for that one Act/Chapter that ties everything together.

There are acts in a play and then there are strings of half-sentences, lacking in both punctuation and context. The initial game’s ‘Personal Story’ felt much like the former. However, the ‘Living Story’ content feels very much like the latter.

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

The anticipation, it’s too much. Are we perhaps going to see a progression of the main over arcing storyline this time around? There is still the question about Mr. E and Scarlet and who they are, are they going to be involved heavily in this story arc in some way? I’ve been trying to see if they have any plans in this, best I can see is they attack zeyphyrites, but I’m not sure if this story is timegated and will progress later this week or next week before it officially ends.

Also check out my polls if you haven’t already for the living story.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Living-Story-Polls-Show-us-your-Feedback/first#post2469820

I’ve been trying hard to gather feedback in a somewhat organized manner to help you guys out in future storylines

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

If you string out the plot lines for too long, players will lose interest.

What I’ve gotten from the ‘Living Story’ so far:

Some power hungry Charr teamed up with some underground mole people (seriously? mole people?!?! O.o) in order to wreck Kryta for some reason. A walking Cabbage (Canach- who is ‘Canach’ anyway? And why should I care?) went to some random resort island (seriously?!?! a resort island?!?! what happened to fantasy?) and got some crabs angry for some reason. Pirates showed up and killed someone for some reason. Then some random merchants came on a flying boat and sold us stuff for some reason.

I have no idea what is happening in this game. I could talk for hours about the lore and story of GW1 but this new GW2 ‘story’ is just page 6 tabloid filler.

I honestly don’t see how you are planning to tie the story together in any sort of coherent and meaningful fashion. It’s so utterly fragmented as to be nonexistent.

Yeah!

And what happened to Evennia???

ANEEEEET! *shakes fist*

Elbegast.6970:

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

I have no idea what is happening in this game. I could talk for hours about the lore and story of GW1 but this new GW2 ‘story’ is just page 6 tabloid filler.

I honestly don’t see how you are planning to tie the story together in any sort of coherent and meaningful fashion. It’s so utterly fragmented as to be nonexistent.

I’d have to agree. What’s funny is that there’s plenty of interesting GW2 lore as well. You know, dragons? The best story idea I saw recently was when someone on these forums said that Kralkatorrik should smash the Sanctum as an event finale. Now THAT would be epic. You can also reveal that Ellen Kiel is secretly an agent of the dragon (taking Sarah Kerrigan approach here) and is behind the whole conspiracy, using it as leverage to score a point in the council, grew her influence and then TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

Erm, that is, I’m sure we get something boring instead.

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

Please dont say everything ties together towards one common source, the uber-evil. That’s such a cliche.

Tyria is big enough to have entirely seperate story threads going on that are worthy of our attention as hero and marshall of the pact. I dont want to consider every story and event with “hmm how does this tie into the main villain?”.

Elbegast.6970:

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

If you string out the plot lines for too long, players will lose interest.

What I’ve gotten from the ‘Living Story’ so far:

Some power hungry Charr teamed up with some underground mole people (seriously? mole people?!?! O.o) the dredge have been around since original GW Prophecies in order to wreck Kryta they actually attacked the Shiverpeaks and Ascalon for some reason. A walking Cabbage (Canach- who is ‘Canach’ anyway? Canach was introduced in the original Karka attack on LA as head of the team that ticked the Karka off. he is also a Secondborn apparently And why should I care?) went to some random resort island (seriously?!?! a resort island?!?! what happened to fantasy?) and got some crabs angry for some reason. Pirates showed up and killed someone for some reason. Then some random merchants came on a flying boat technically, only one party of merchants comes from the flying sanctum and sold us stuff for some reason.

I have no idea what is happening in this game. I could talk for hours about the lore and story of GW1 but this new GW2 ‘story’ is just page 6 tabloid filler.

I honestly don’t see how you are planning to tie the story together in any sort of coherent and meaningful fashion. It’s so utterly fragmented as to be nonexistent.

Not to sound rude, but almost nothing of your plot summarise is actually correct. Of course that by itself might just imply that the story is too stretched for the masses to follow.

Evans.6347:

Not to sound rude, but almost nothing of your plot summarise is actually correct. Of course that by itself might just imply that the story is too stretched for the masses to follow.

And that is the main problem. We need something to tie it all into a nice pretty bow as it unfolds. Some sort of summary in game. Something perhaps next to the Personal story in the hero tab. Something that we can read or watch or play (likely read as it is easiest.). So that it brings the dis-jointed parts together so we can see the big hole.

I heard ArenaNet is aware of this problem. I sure hope a solution is coming this year.

As for the current living story I see it tieing dragon bash,Atherblades to this but I don’t see how Rox or Braham(he is still off chasing his girlfriend) comes into play.

I was hoping that the wiki at least could have this as this is how I got caught up on GW1 lore….. However the wiki is so disjointed on the matter too. I don’t even think the editors of the wiki can see most of how they tie together.

The only thing tying the Molten Alliance to the current Aetherblades would be the newly discovered Azurite which may or may not be used in the Aetherblade’s “magitech”.

Evans.6347:

The only thing tying the Molten Alliance to the current Aetherblades would be the newly discovered Azurite which may or may not be used in the Aetherblade’s “magitech”.

Actually we still don’t know who were behind the Molten Alliance and quite much points towards it being the Scarlet person Mai was talking about.

anzenketh.3759:

Evans.6347:

Not to sound rude, but almost nothing of your plot summarise is actually correct. Of course that by itself might just imply that the story is too stretched for the masses to follow.

And that is the main problem. We need something to tie it all into a nice pretty bow as it unfolds. Some sort of summary in game. Something perhaps next to the Personal story in the hero tab. Something that we can read or watch or play (likely read as it is easiest.). So that it brings the dis-jointed parts together so we can see the big hole.

I heard ArenaNet is aware of this problem. I sure hope a solution is coming this year.

As for the current living story I see it tieing dragon bash,Atherblades to this but I don’t see how Rox or Braham(he is still off chasing his girlfriend) comes into play.

I was hoping that the wiki at least could have this as this is how I got caught up on GW1 lore….. However the wiki is so disjointed on the matter too. I don’t even think the editors of the wiki can see most of how they tie together.

Oh we can. You’re talking about a group of people who pay a lot more attention to the little details than most.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_Summary

If you want a more detailed storyline of the events with references, I also wrote up one here on the forums: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Living-World-The-Story-So-Far/first

(There hasn’t been a decision that I know of yet on whether we want to have the summary page with the level of detail it has or if we should go higher detail on the same level that I wrote, so that’s why they’re separate right now)

They’re connected, even if only “event A creates situation that leads into event B”

Yeah I have to agree with the premise of this thread. I’m all for large overarching stories that all tie together. But that simply isn’t what we have. What we have right now is disjointed half sentences that make you work really really hard and rely heavily on out of game info if you want to have any idea of what is actually going on.

I had no idea that these stories were related at all until I was like, wtk (what the kitten) is going on with this story, and spent 3 hours in the lore section on the forum. That is simply not good stroy telling.

Also having 6 months of story and still not knowing the overall plot or where it is going is waaayyyy too slow. It would be ok if we knew where we were heading. I.E. a powerful dragon minion is manipulating the people of tyria in order to weaken and distract us from our goal of killing it. Heck it took 3 months just to get the name of a person who may or may not be important and may or may not be out nemesis.

When I pick up a book, the first thing I do is read the back cover to get an idea of what the story is about. Then even if it gets confusing and disjointed I know how it all will eventually tie together so I can focus on the details and try to tie things together in my mind.

Elbegast.6970:

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

If you string out the plot lines for too long, players will lose interest.

What I’ve gotten from the ‘Living Story’ so far:

Some power hungry Charr teamed up with some underground mole people (seriously? mole people?!?! O.o) in order to wreck Kryta for some reason. A walking Cabbage (Canach- who is ‘Canach’ anyway? And why should I care?) went to some random resort island (seriously?!?! a resort island?!?! what happened to fantasy?) and got some crabs angry for some reason. Pirates showed up and killed someone for some reason. Then some random merchants came on a flying boat and sold us stuff for some reason.

I have no idea what is happening in this game. I could talk for hours about the lore and story of GW1 but this new GW2 ‘story’ is just page 6 tabloid filler.

I honestly don’t see how you are planning to tie the story together in any sort of coherent and meaningful fashion. It’s so utterly fragmented as to be nonexistent.

People who clearly haven’t paid any attention to the story shouldn’t complain about it.

EnemyCrusher.7324:

Elbegast.6970:

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

If you string out the plot lines for too long, players will lose interest.

What I’ve gotten from the ‘Living Story’ so far:

Some power hungry Charr teamed up with some underground mole people (seriously? mole people?!?! O.o) in order to wreck Kryta for some reason. A walking Cabbage (Canach- who is ‘Canach’ anyway? And why should I care?) went to some random resort island (seriously?!?! a resort island?!?! what happened to fantasy?) and got some crabs angry for some reason. Pirates showed up and killed someone for some reason. Then some random merchants came on a flying boat and sold us stuff for some reason.

I have no idea what is happening in this game. I could talk for hours about the lore and story of GW1 but this new GW2 ‘story’ is just page 6 tabloid filler.

I honestly don’t see how you are planning to tie the story together in any sort of coherent and meaningful fashion. It’s so utterly fragmented as to be nonexistent.

People who clearly haven’t paid any attention to the story shouldn’t complain about it.

It’s not that I haven’t paid attention to the story. It’s just that the story is not conveyed very well in-game. I don’t go to ANet blogs or 3rd party websites to read up on the Living Story. I don’t buy or read books based on the game. The story…the ENTIRE story should be told exclusively in-game and in a way that is easy for those unfamiliar to GW lore to comprehend.

Go to the second link in my post above. I put links to the wiki where each bit of information came from as I could, where it shows the dialogue and info. The vast majority of it is told in-game through character interactions, NPC dialogue, object text, missions, events, and mail, with only a few bits of background info coming from the blogs.

I haven’t seen an issue with the story not being in-game. The main issue I’ve seen is that ArenaNet isn’t constantly blasting the story at players faces through quest text and long, non-interactive cutscenes, so it requires players to speak and interact with living story content in-game to get it all (what I call “open world lore”). I don’t believe players have been taught enough to do this, so players are missing a lot of info.

Elbegast.6970:

Some power hungry Charr teamed up with some underground mole people (seriously? mole people?!?! O.o) in order to wreck Kryta for some reason. A walking Cabbage (Canach- who is ‘Canach’ anyway? And why should I care?) went to some random resort island (seriously?!?! a resort island?!?! what happened to fantasy?) and got some crabs angry for some reason. Pirates showed up and killed someone for some reason. Then some random merchants came on a flying boat and sold us stuff for some reason.

While the Flame Legion is the more sorcerer y-inclined group of Charr, there are plent of Charr with a mechanical bent in it – combining forces with the Dredge makes sense. The Dredge were formally slaves of the Dwarves, and they have “inherited” the Dwarves’ technology.

As for Southsun – the concept of a resort isn’t new to fantasy – even non-Xanth/Discworld/etc type fantasy.

yeah i could sit 8 hours a day in lore and try to figure it out the connections but hey i dont want to write this book for them i just want to read it. they dont connect enough dots out in the open so every thing is disfigured.yeah i know others have speculated and done what i dont want to do but this is a story and it should show me these connections. so i sit when i play and think why am i doing this garbage its not going anywhere to me and i dont care how many times i hear its connected it isnt to me. good books give you hints where your going. even lord of the rings you knew you were going to go to mordor rather early in the book didnt know how you were getting there but you knew where you were going

Elbegast.6970:

EnemyCrusher.7324:

Elbegast.6970:

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

If you string out the plot lines for too long, players will lose interest.

What I’ve gotten from the ‘Living Story’ so far:

Some power hungry Charr teamed up with some underground mole people (seriously? mole people?!?! O.o) in order to wreck Kryta for some reason. A walking Cabbage (Canach- who is ‘Canach’ anyway? And why should I care?) went to some random resort island (seriously?!?! a resort island?!?! what happened to fantasy?) and got some crabs angry for some reason. Pirates showed up and killed someone for some reason. Then some random merchants came on a flying boat and sold us stuff for some reason.

I have no idea what is happening in this game. I could talk for hours about the lore and story of GW1 but this new GW2 ‘story’ is just page 6 tabloid filler.

I honestly don’t see how you are planning to tie the story together in any sort of coherent and meaningful fashion. It’s so utterly fragmented as to be nonexistent.

People who clearly haven’t paid any attention to the story shouldn’t complain about it.

It’s not that I haven’t paid attention to the story. It’s just that the story is not conveyed very well in-game. I don’t go to ANet blogs or 3rd party websites to read up on the Living Story. I don’t buy or read books based on the game. The story…the ENTIRE story should be told exclusively in-game and in a way that is easy for those unfamiliar to GW lore to comprehend.

If you have been pay attention to the game, how did you figure that the Molten Alliance had anything to do with Kryta (which they never even went near), that the Molten Alliance had backers (a power behind the throne) that the Aetherblades were after a council seat and also had backers or any details on the Zephyrites at all?

Everyone of these details were in game and available from marked NPCs (Marked to show they had significant information on the plot) or during story missions. All it required to now these things was to listen to or read some dialog. Its not like it was exactly really well hidden.

Infact Secrets of Southsun was the only release that I felt really did a poor job of conveying the story. The problem it seems with the rest was that people generally didnt look closely enough and so missed plot points. My brother is a perfect example. Hes interested in the story but almost never reads any written dialog.

I think the problem is most people dont pay that much attention. The trick seems to be that Arenanet is going to have to make some plot points far more obvious for those who arent willing to look at the details.

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

It is a shame that these connections won’t matter to anyone who missed the earlier parts of the story (or who is new to the game) due to the temporary nature of Living World.

Honestly, it’s like trying to read a book with someone breathing down your neck ripping out chapters if you aren’t reading fast enough. Pretty soon you just put the book down and walk away.

superbeast.9873:

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

Bob, when are you guys going to STOP bluffing? Remember the karka event that you guys sorely overhyped as “an epic, world-changing event”? So what happened? How’s the world changed? It’s obvious you and the rest of Arena Net are full of crap when you toss us these hollow “hints”.

Hm?
I am rather sure that a giant freaking island appearing and a partly destroyed city is a change in the world.

Oh and please don’t talk for the “majority of your most loyal fans” since you have no idea what most of us think nor have we asked you to speak for us.

The story is going bonkers.

I just want to give my opinion here.

I have read from a couple sites/forums/etc. that a big issue seen from an external view was the fact that GW2 Writing team has grown exponentially from the original writers. Now I’m not saying that is all factual, but it would make sense on why there is contradicting lore here and there, and stories going all over the place.

For example, in 6th grade I had an English teacher who wanted to do an experiment with writing. At the beginning of the class she gave us our first major assignment that would last throughout the entire duration of the class (6 months or what have you).

The assignment was simple. Each person in the class would add on to a plot that was defined by the teacher the first week of the class. The story would be given to each person once every two weeks or so and there were no constraints on where the story might lead.
i.e; A dog was picked up by joe. Joe lived in a rural neighborhood near a mountain. The mountain reminded Joe of bears. The dog was named “bear”. Bear grew to be a big sized dog who grew fond of Joe. Joe got married to Sue. Bear ran away from home to the Mountain. Joe wanted to find Bear but Sue liked cats. Sue bought a cat named Sally., and so on and so on.

The story started about one thing, but after every student had added their section, the story made absolutely no sense and was hard to follow. I wish I could remember the moral of why this project was assigned, but it was interesting to see all the different ways the story went.

The story is all connected but is all over the place with no defining plot. This is what I see in GW2 within the living story currently. The story can be connected and wrapped into a defining plot in the future, but the fact still remains that the beginning of the story was lacking a definitive story line that could immerse the player into the living world.

Disagree? We started this living world with the Karka invasion and Canach. Once we drove them back and banished the queen, the consortium started taking over. We were then dragged to a different story about Rox and Braham and the Molten Alliance. Instead of following the original building story line, we got in the mix of another and then were dragged back to Southsun. Though connected by the settlers, the storyline of braham and rox remained left in the open. There was not enough time to build the characters.

ADD: I’m not trying to down the ability of the writers at ArenaNet, because that’s not what I’m saying at all. They have very talented, creative writers in the house and each one has their own unique style. But having them all come up with different ideas and having their own story put in after another, is throwing the lore all over the place. I would much rather see one plot build for a while with a closing before starting elsewhere.

To me it seems as a mastermind is behind everything but we can’t catch him. We’re able to only slow him down by killing/aresting his underlings. I like this aproach better than knowing who’s our last target’s gonna be.

I can safely forecast political corruption, self interest, and continued mystery surrounding the Thaumanova.

lordkrall.7241:

superbeast.9873:

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

Bob, when are you guys going to STOP bluffing? Remember the karka event that you guys sorely overhyped as “an epic, world-changing event”? So what happened? How’s the world changed? It’s obvious you and the rest of Arena Net are full of crap when you toss us these hollow “hints”.

Hm?
I am rather sure that a giant freaking island appearing and a partly destroyed city is a change in the world.

Oh and please don’t talk for the “majority of your most loyal fans” since you have no idea what most of us think nor have we asked you to speak for us.

This. +1. Superbeast does NOT speak for the rest of us.

Antara.3189:

I just want to give my opinion here.

I have read from a couple sites/forums/etc. that a big issue seen from an external view was the fact that GW2 Writing team has grown exponentially from the original writers. Now I’m not saying that is all factual, but it would make sense on why there is contradicting lore here and there, and stories going all over the place.

For example, in 6th grade I had an English teacher who wanted to do an experiment with writing. At the beginning of the class she gave us our first major assignment that would last throughout the entire duration of the class (6 months or what have you).

The assignment was simple. Each person in the class would add on to a plot that was defined by the teacher the first week of the class. The story would be given to each person once every two weeks or so and there were no constraints on where the story might lead.
i.e; A dog was picked up by joe. Joe lived in a rural neighborhood near a mountain. The mountain reminded Joe of bears. The dog was named “bear”. Bear grew to be a big sized dog who grew fond of Joe. Joe got married to Sue. Bear ran away from home to the Mountain. Joe wanted to find Bear but Sue liked cats. Sue bought a cat named Sally., and so on and so on.
The story is all connected but is all over the place with no defining plot. This is what I see in GW2 within the living story currently. The story can be connected and wrapped into a defining plot in the future, but the fact still remains that the beginning of the story was lacking a definitive story line that could immerse the player into the living world.

Disagree? We started this living world with the Karka invasion and Canach. Once we drove them back and banished the queen, the consortium started taking over. We were then dragged to a different story about Rox and Braham and the Molten Alliance. Instead of following the original building story line, we got in the mix of another and then were dragged back to Southsun. Though connected by the settlers, the storyline of braham and rox remained left in the open. There was not enough time to build the characters.

The story started about one thing, but after every student had added their section, the story made absolutely no sense and was hard to follow. I wish I could remember the moral of why this project was assigned, but it was interesting to see all the different ways the story went.

ADD: I’m not trying to down the ability of the writers at ArenaNet, because that’s not what I’m saying at all. They have very talented, creative writers in the house and each one has their own unique style. But having them all come up with different ideas and having their own story put in after another, is throwing the lore all over the place. I would much rather see one plot build for a while with a closing before starting elsewhere.

you know what i think you nailed it correctly. i know they have a few members overlooking everything and i think these people need more input and the different groups less.

Agree with the above posters. You know what else these trivial updates do? They water down the story too much. Every update seems to have the same importance, so you don’t know if you should really care about the next one or not.

Dragon Bash, Halloween and Wintersday are fun. I’m perfectly fine with them as annual events to break up the year and provide something other than the usual content.

It´s nice to know the story will come together, what I have a problem figuring out is why I should care.

What we have here is “cliffhanger-itis”.
It is an ancient TV-trope to keep the addicts at bay but still lure them in.

It´s also the main reason I stopped watching Battle Star Galactica or Heroes after a while.

3 decades ago, when I was a kid this stuff worked very well, as there weren´t
SO
INCREDIBLY
MANY
OTHER
distractions vying for my attention!
But in this media format? You´re riding right into obscurity with your timetable.

Quite frankly ANet, you need to learn to tl;dr. As much as it hurts to say that.

What you´re doing right now works for books and barely on TV, but with these people here?
Not so much.

Evans.6347:

Elbegast.6970:

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

If you string out the plot lines for too long, players will lose interest.

What I’ve gotten from the ‘Living Story’ so far:

Some power hungry Charr teamed up with some underground mole people (seriously? mole people?!?! O.o) the dredge have been around since original GW Prophecies in order to wreck Kryta they actually attacked the Shiverpeaks and Ascalon for some reason. A walking Cabbage (Canach- who is ‘Canach’ anyway? Canach was introduced in the original Karka attack on LA as head of the team that ticked the Karka off. he is also a Secondborn apparently And why should I care?) went to some random resort island (seriously?!?! a resort island?!?! what happened to fantasy?) and got some crabs angry for some reason. Pirates showed up and killed someone for some reason. Then some random merchants came on a flying boat technically, only one party of merchants comes from the flying sanctum and sold us stuff for some reason.

I have no idea what is happening in this game. I could talk for hours about the lore and story of GW1 but this new GW2 ‘story’ is just page 6 tabloid filler.

I honestly don’t see how you are planning to tie the story together in any sort of coherent and meaningful fashion. It’s so utterly fragmented as to be nonexistent.

Not to sound rude, but almost nothing of your plot summarise is actually correct. Of course that by itself might just imply that the story is too stretched for the masses to follow.

His summary may or may not be correct but that’s how it feels like, boring storylines with uninteresting characters doing non interesting things.

They need to pick up the pace. Create more interesting characters with more pressing problems, where tragic or heroic things happen. Have stronger scenes…

E.g. We meet braham cragstead is taken over, he seeks help and is turned down (so far so good) but everything from then on seems to just glide along. perhaps it would of been nice to see some people slaughtered at cragstead, or perhaps when we get to the end we see a pile of bodies and Braham rushes over and one is someone he knows. Or the main bosses kills the cragstead leader in front of braham. You don’t feel anything when all you see is a bunch of norn sitting comfortably with these fire domes. It’s lame. They need something to promote some kind of emotion, where at first you may be shocked, then sad, then angry, seek revenge, then triumphant and finally satisfied.

The cutscene with majory was a good one because it had atmosphere, which this game has with its visuals but lacks with its story. The part where you talk to the dredge in his cell was great. Why? because they introduced a new character who we knew little about. After that I wanted to learn more and still do.

The Canach storyline was boring, why? Well for obvious reasons its set around a holiday resort on a hostile island. Its just silly. Canach tries to help by killing the people he’s helping – ludicrous. The end was weak, escorting employment contracts off the island – not exactly riveting.

It seriously made me question the writers had any idea on how to make the transition from paperback to game. They have to start thinking bigger because or these minor hidden details are getting lost. It’s like getting a book then riping all the pages out, scattering on the floor and telling people to understand it. Because when you have an open world to explore and the story is everywhere that’s what it is like.

Thobek.1730:

If you string out the plot lines for too long, players will lose interest.

What I’ve gotten from the ‘Living Story’ so far:

Some power hungry Charr …
A walking Cabbage ..
Pirates showed up …
Then some random merchants came on a flying boat

I have no idea what is happening in this game. I could talk for hours about the lore and story of GW1 but this new GW2 ‘story’ is just page 6 tabloid filler.

Evans.6347:

Not to sound rude, but almost nothing of your plot summarise is actually correct. Of course that by itself might just imply that the story is too stretched for the masses to follow.

His summary may or may not be correct but that’s how it feels like, boring storylines with uninteresting characters doing non interesting things.

And that is another major problem!
I would´ve liked to just log in to the game and read up on the story so far, just to make sure what´s going on.

And I cannot!
Instead I have to hunt through a Wiki Encyclopedia (yeah that helps with fun & immersion) or scour the site for some short stories.

Oh and don´t get me started on the constant special item spam.
At least this time they didn´t offload everything to our bank, but I´m not so sure this trend will continue.

Isn’t it obvious? We’re headed to the desert! All the zephyr stories speak of the crystal desert and Glint, the rebellious dragon.

We’ve had, what, four story parts so far?

- Frost and Flame
- Secret of Southsun / Last Stand at Southsun
- Dragon Bash / Sky Pirates of Tyria
- Bazaar of the Four Winds / Cutthroat Politics

And the last three are directly connected via the NPCs involved, the last four more directly, since there are aspects carrying through. We’re four chapters into whatever they have planned, and the fifth coming up looks like it’s a scene change of sorts.

I’ll say this much, it beats the story of Tunare’s Chosen from way back in the past games I played. But it doesn’t stand up to Guild Wars: Beyond in terms of . . . impact of feeling. I’m hoping improvements are in the way, but since there’s a huge mass of people involved? Inertia is involved.

I won’t be expecting a change very immediately.

I’ve seen the living story compared to books and movies several times. Guild Wars 1 gave me this feeling while I was playing it. The living story doesn’t give me this feeling at all.

It feels to me more like a TV show than a book or a movie.

In a TV series you can have a story arc that covers the entire length of the show. Important characters usually each have their own story arcs and sometimes these overlap with the series arc. Sometimes they don’t. Often times a series will advance the main arc in one episode and then may not come back to it for some time. A good bit of episodes are simply fluff or filler that don’t really advance the story at all and are only meant for fun.

I think this is where the disconnect between the devs and the players lay. It seems to me that the living story is meant to be seen more like a TV show with various different story arcs all happening nearly simultaneously or very close together. Not every bit of new content released for the living story is meant to advance the main arc.

In a book or a movie the story is laid out much different and we expect to go from point A to point B. I think that these differences is what’s causing so much frustration.

MasterfulGaze.4167:

I’ve seen the living story compared to books and movies several times. Guild Wars 1 gave me this feeling while I was playing it. The living story doesn’t give me this feeling at all.

It feels to me more like a TV show than a book or a movie.

I dunno, it feels a lot like the first five chapters of “A Game of Thrones” (the novel) in that it was taking a while to get somewhere after an initial teaser which got me interested. It reminds me of a lot of “doorstopper fantasy” or even Timothy Zahn, in a way. Slow build but there’s crucial parts in there nobody realizes is crucial until act three.

BobbyStein.2315:

The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.

Here’s my stance on this, how can the stories act as a hook if we don’t see how they are connected until later this year? Now I know there are minor details that are introduced and left hanging (the silver tongued person behind the Molten Alliance, almost everything to do with Kasmeer and her recurring appearances despite not being obviously involved, the disappearances in Divinity’s Reach, the identities of Mister E and Scarlet etc), but is it good story telling if you are implementing a story which has lots of seemingly trivial plot points (introduced over 6+ months) only to reveal later it was more important than it felt like to the player?

It feels like you are burying the lead with all this stuff and the real story is what’s not being told. Wouldn’t it be better if less of the side story was hidden so players could become invested in connections, giving them something to look forwards to and a purpose to their actions until then rather than constantly feeling like we are involved in unrelated events?