Guild Wars 2

So, I have to wonder, we have had all sorts of living world updates, and they all seem so disjointed, the stories never seeming to really come together, or connect, or finish up at all. But why is this? Now, I can understand leaving one or two storylines open, but it seems like EVERY single Living World updates just introduces a brand new arc that never gets connected or explained or finished, we have so many story arcs going on it’s not even funny.

Here’s my theory, maybe ANet is hesitant to finish existing Living World story arcs because any new players wouldn’t be able to really know what’s going on? Since there is absolutely no way of going back and replaying parts of a story (as you would easily be able to do with an expansions) new players would feel “lost”. We have all heard talk of a system that they hope to implement into the game that at least will recap what has happened Living World wise, and maybe we won’t see any conclusions to any of these story arcs until that system is implemented…..

Thoughts? Comments?

The solution would be to work from material already in the core game, or leave some context or background in after the LS has done.

I disagree with the conclusion it never gets back together.

First off all, ignore halloween and wintersday. that is seasonal content. Secondly ignore Tequatl. This wasn’t really living ‘story’ (or atleast not when given place in the future, but I dont see any way to do that where it isnt lame).

So we started in southsun cove with the introduction of the consortium. They kinda messed things up and there was a karka invasion. After that the branch got silent for some time. It is also the introduction of Ellen Kiel.

Then Flame and Frost started. This has two important long term effects. The first is the introduction of the molten alliance. The second is that the refugee are being helped by the same consortium.

The we return to southsun to see a civil war between the consortium and the refugees. Together with Ellen Kiel we settle the war and bring piece. Since then the consortium if is out of the picture (atleast for now).

Then we get Dragonbash wich means the introduction of he aetherblades. At the end we hear their leader speaking bout a higher leader called ‘Scarlet’. Also the murder of Theo Ashford means there is a seat on the council available.

The bazaar of the four winds lets us decide that Ellen Kiel takes the empty seat on the council. It is unknown if that means she is out of the future living story or that she would have appeared again if she had lost.

The Queen Jubilee and clockwork Chaos revealed the mastermind behind the Aetherblades and the Molten Alliance in the form of Scarlet Briar.

During Twilight Assault we get to hunt her down a bit more. Though we haven’t catch her (yet).

So
Consortium arch is closed. It can be opened again but there are no loose ends
Ellen Kiel Arch is closed as well. She might be returned in the future, but no loose ends here either.
Remains the Scarlet Briar arch (including aetherblades and molten alliance). Twillight Assault clearly indicates that this story is still in the progress of being told.

So there really isnt an issue. They are not hasting to the finish and to me it all makes perfectly sense. I can’t wait and see what Scarlet has to offer us in the future.

mercury ranique.2170:

I
So
Consortium arch is closed. It can be opened again but there are no loose ends
Ellen Kiel Arch is closed as well. She might be returned in the future, but no loose ends here either.
Remains the Scarlet Briar arch (including aetherblades and molten alliance). Twillight Assault clearly indicates that this story is still in the progress of being told.

So there really isnt an issue. They are not hasting to the finish and to me it all makes perfectly sense. I can’t wait and see what Scarlet has to offer us in the future.

lol, I don’t even get how you think any of that is “closed.”
We don’t have a clue what the molten alliance really is or what they want. We have no idea why they are working together, except of course: “scarlet did it.”

We don’t have a clue who or what the consortium really are, where they came from, why they care about southson, what they are/were really after. We had clues they were evil long before the refugees got involved, yet they still exist and all they lost was the slavery contracts. We can probably assume “scarlet did it.”

We don’t know and haven’t touched on where the refugees even fled from. Why haven’t we been there? Why haven’t we gone to see what the MA are really up to? Craigstead came later, their final push from the north.

Ellen Kiel is a random NPC who took credit for player actions and stole a seat on the LA counsel because someone else put her up to it. We have no idea why, or what goals either of them have. What, she got the seat so now she lives happily ever after? lol

Of course the story is still in progress. A bunch of random unfinished storylines under the umbrella “Scarlet did it” doesn’t make them suddenly closed and cohesive. There are several unfinished stories, and the whole “scarlet did it” umbrella isn’t making them better. It’s killing any hope they had of fleshing out something more real.

Acutally I could go on about a ton of lore unanswered questions but hoping Anet will slowly conclude these, I will post a few that come to mind:

Is Zhaitan dead?, if not dead what happened to him? Is he gone to a dormant state ? Who are the orr armies following now?
What made Tequatl stronger?
How did Rytlock acquire Sohothin? (Sohothin was lost at fire island in GW1, there was no sign of a charr there, – see WP’s vid for this)
What happened to the other sword that we took from AC story for Logan? The shattered sword was going to be “repaired”?
What secrets were the Zephyrites hiding?
What announcement was the queen going to actually make before getting interrupted by Scarlet?
How was the Super Adventure box working perfectly even though Moto dint recall building many components?

And there are like a several dozen more questions which are quite fascinating, perhaps we will get some answers in the coming months.

Come to think of it, now that Kiel has secured a trading deal with the zephyrites, why there isn’t any new goods available in LA. Seems like someone is not doing her job.

Not saying it is, but they should avoid becoming like “Supernatural”.

real answer – They are all made by different teams so they don’t flow well together. The teams have also individually admitted to having to cut stuff they wanted to do out due to the forced 2 week release schedule, so everything is a disjointed mess even within a single patch. We will never again have good content “when it’s done.”

The problem is telling a story within the context of a 2 week development cycle. Anet tries to emulate a longer cycle by spreading the story among teams, and this simply compounds the problem as it leads, naturally, to a disjointed story.

Why emulate a longer cycle in an unhelpful manner? Why not just extend the development cycle to 2-3 months, give developers a chance to think through their work and tell a deeper story with more player involvement. It takes time to create and tell a good story.

raptor.1064:

real answer – They are all made by different teams so they don’t flow well together. The teams have also individually admitted to having to cut stuff they wanted to do out due to the forced 2 week release schedule, so everything is a disjointed mess even within a single patch. We will never again have good content “when it’s done.”

On point.

We need to get back to high quality annual expansions. GW1 built a strong reputation over 3 years with its stellar expansions. The reputation Anet built from those 4 games played a huge role in GW2’s success at release. The feedback on that system was overwhelmingly positive from both players and the media.

It’s over one year after GW2’s release and the general feedback on the LW from both is “meh”, while die-hard fans from 2005 are pleading with Anet to save the franchise.

The sooner they realize the better because, once they do, it will still take about a year to produce something that can do the series justice.

I’ll have to agree with mercury on the analysis of the Living Stories thus far. With one exception that it was hinted the Tequatl strengthening is tied with the Living Story main arc.

You’d be hard pressed to find a long story line that ties up every loose end. They keep them loose for a reason, so they can go back to those points or tie them to other stories in the future. GW2 is a game that has years of longevity. Why not start a story that will have one loose end, and that finally takes shape a year later or what not. It’s about payoff and it’s personal opinion if you want that to happen instantly or if you like it to be drawn out and revealed later.

I’ve loved the overall arc of the Living Story. I’m fine with a pay off that is years in the making.

they need to focus a month an a full arch vs random stories being thrown at us.
i put something in there suggestion box

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Living-Story-Monthly-Arcs/

Delvoire.8930:

You’d be hard pressed to find a long story line that ties up every loose end. They keep them loose for a reason, so they can go back to those points or tie them to other stories in the future. GW2 is a game that has years of longevity. Why not start a story that will have one loose end, and that finally takes shape a year later or what not. It’s about payoff and it’s personal opinion if you want that to happen instantly or if you like it to be drawn out and revealed later.

Consider that many stories were heavily foreshadowed in the GW1 games between 2005-2007. Livia and the sceptor, Bahltek’s investigations into other realms, Evenia’s disappearance, the Mursaat, the Seers, the isles of Janthir, the other Bloodstones, the cyphers, Palawa Joko’s conquest, the Winds of Change, Primordius’ rise and that of the other dragons. I could go on.

All of these quests/stories were so heavily foreshadowed over the course of those games that it was obvious they had a plan to design content to tie them up. But it is now 2013 and we have had nothing on them. That is 6 years. Can you see how the long time fan base is getting anxious? You say it be ok if stories get tied up in a year, and I agree with you, but that is not how things have gone. Would you be ok with them not explaining what is up with Scarlet until 2019 at the earliest because that would be similar.

Note that many(all?) of the people leading those projects, both in writing and design, have moved on from Anet, at least in a full time capacity, and there are many new people with new ideas, which is fine . However, the franchise has its own life and deserves the respect of being properly attended to by its new caretakers.

Don’t leave the fans hanging, is all I am saying.

Lucky.9421:

Delvoire.8930:

You’d be hard pressed to find a long story line that ties up every loose end. They keep them loose for a reason, so they can go back to those points or tie them to other stories in the future. GW2 is a game that has years of longevity. Why not start a story that will have one loose end, and that finally takes shape a year later or what not. It’s about payoff and it’s personal opinion if you want that to happen instantly or if you like it to be drawn out and revealed later.

Consider that many stories were heavily foreshadowed in the GW1 games between 2005-2007. Livia and the sceptor, Bahltek’s investigations into other realms, Evenia’s disappearance, the Mursaat, the Seers, the isles of Janthir, the other Bloodstones, the cyphers, Palawa Joko’s conquest, the Winds of Change, Primordius’ rise and that of the other dragons. I could go on.

All of these quests/stories were so heavily foreshadowed over the course of those games that it was obvious they had a plan to design content to tie them up. But it is now 2013 and we have had nothing on them. That is 6 years. Can you see how the long time fan base is getting anxious? You say it be ok if stories get tied up in a year, and I agree with you, but that is not how things have gone. Would you be ok with them not explaining what is up with Scarlet until 2019 at the earliest because that would be similar.

Note that many(all?) of the people leading those projects, both in writing and design, have moved on from Anet, at least in a full time capacity, and there are many new people with new ideas, which is fine . However, the franchise has its own life and deserves the respect of being properly attended to by its new caretakers.

Sorry. I was speaking to stories in general. I never played GW1 so I can’t speak to that having open story lines that never were fulfilled….

That does strike a good question on if open threads will ever get tied up though. They are generally just loopholes in case a writer wants to use past story lines or plot points.

Delvoire.8930:

Sorry. I was speaking to stories in general. I never played GW1 so I can’t speak to that having open story lines that never were fulfilled….

That does strike a good question on if open threads will ever get tied up though. They are generally just loopholes in case a writer wants to use past story lines or plot points.

I think if you had played through those quests, you would see that it was very obvious that they wanted to do something with them. At least, the old designers and writers did.