Guild Wars 2

And suddenly I love the game even more.

I’m a customer sold on story and adventure. After the party at Dead End Bar, a light-bulb clicked in my head and I suddenly lost all feelings of being confused!

Some people may share the following feelings, but not know how to put them into words. So here is my attempt:

Before release, I read Destiny’s Edge. Great book, and along with the advertising it really sold the game for me. The we jump into the game, I was thrilled to realise I would be a part of their journey beyond the book.

While I did not enjoy it, I had to appreciate that the core “game story” was going to be about Trahearne (after lv 30 anyway).

Fast forward over a year, we finish the Scarlet line of events. We are now reading a new book. It is the adventure of a new “guild” so to speak. Majory and her band of fighters united by Scarlet’s mischief. And we have effectively finished that book now. Taimi hints at the “next adventure”.

OK, TL:DR Living world is like a new book being published. However, gamers who would play nightly, or for huge hours at a time, will outpace the story progression. For me, the last year was taken up by work and study, I could literally only play the first week of each patch. Thus each episode was delivered right after each other.

This is exactly how I see the living story. I noticed it after a friend asked me what the living world was. I started with the karka and the consortium, followed by the refugee’s who needed saving and so on… Then I noticed that we’re playing a ‘book’ and that I couldn’t wait to see/play the next chapter

The forums, according to Anet, are filled with people who play the game too much (my phrasing, not theirs, and I include myself in that) and that is apparently a very small percentage of the GW population.

It’s fun to see this from a different perspective. The average playing logging in once in a while getting a new story tidbit rather than a forum goer biting their sister’s face off because nothing happened for 2 weeks.

aye, i have grown fond of the heroes in the living story.
rox, braham, marjory, kasmeer and taimi.

now i’m eagerly waiting for the next chapter.

The only reasonable way to provide storytelling in an MMO is to have the story to be about NPCs with players helping them out. Putting the player in the spotlight just isn’t realistic, as then there would be 2 million “main characters” in the story.

Fluffball.8307:

The forums, according to Anet, are filled with people who play the game too much (my phrasing, not theirs, and I include myself in that) and that is apparently a very small percentage of the GW population.

It’s fun to see this from a different perspective. The average playing logging in once in a while getting a new story tidbit rather than a forum goer biting their sister’s face off because nothing happened for 2 weeks.

Thats probably quite true, I hadnt played GW2 for months and I logged back in right in the middle of the battle of LA and imagine my surprise when I was mapping Kessex Hills map recently, whooaa, suddenly there’s, well, something over the whole kitten lake, lol.

Now I’m like “kitten, I missed all of that!” but thats cool too, at least I can see there’s been stuff going on.

This is almost the same problem people have with Arah story mode and Zhaitan. They expect a boss fight, because they’re playing a game. In reality, they’ve been fighting Zhaitan since level 70. Every personal story mission is a strike against Zhaitan.

It was written as more of a story and less of a game. To people like me, that’s better, since I think boss fights, for the most part, are silly.

Nage.1520:

This is almost the same problem people have with Arah story mode and Zhaitan. They expect a boss fight, because they’re playing a game. In reality, they’ve been fighting Zhaitan since level 70. Every personal story mission is a strike against Zhaitan.

It was written as more of a story and less of a game. To people like me, that’s better, since I think boss fights, for the most part, are silly.

Well, I’m ashamed to admit it but I only recently actually finished the personal story for the first time despite having 8 lv 80 toons and the game since day one of release

I thought it was actually quite cool, that final fight against Zhaitan, not as hard as I expected, I vividly remember the wipes on final bosses in GW1, and quite a lot of fun to do and yes, its more of a story rather than a tough as nails, wipe 20 times, end boss fight.

The living story has had its ups and downs. The party at the bar was a decided up. I think I can even forgive whoever invented kasmeer’s puzzling and awkward backstory, because somehow she still managed to pull through and become likeable ( I mean, she’s still no Braham or Taimi, but…). Anyway, yea. Living story is doing okay.

Eve online has a better “living story” than this game or any theme park game ever could, because the story derives almost entirely from player actions and events.

scerevisiae.1972:

Eve online has a better “living story” than this game or any theme park game ever could, because the story derives almost entirely from player actions and events.

This is something I’ve been touting for as long as I’ve been playing MMOs (which is about 16 years now). The best stories I’ve ever experienced in MMOs were in Ultima Online, where I crafted those stories together with the other players.

But this is a solid themepark game and it won’t change.

Yeah the stories in sandbox games are better, but for a themepark gw2’s story is pretty good.

Can’t compare to things you personally have a stake in ofcourse :p

I too enjoyed sandbox stories more. But those from GW1,2 are more memorable.

scerevisiae.1972:

Eve online has a better “living story” than this game or any theme park game ever could, because the story derives almost entirely from player actions and events.

Apple, meet orange.

scerevisiae.1972:

Eve online has a better “living story” than this game or any theme park game ever could, because the story derives almost entirely from player actions and events.

I guess if you enjoy stories that are purely about people trying to find a way to gain others’ trust to make a lot of money and then find a way to steal it from them. I personally like stories that include heroism. EVE has none of that.