Guild Wars 2

So as of now, any new players coming into the game, have no way of knowing what happened during the Karka invasion or when the Mad King broke through the Lion’s Arch statue, except from maybe some NPCs who say something about it, or if some other players who were there recount what happened. Here is an idea that I think they will love, as will people who were there.

A library, perhaps placed in Lion’s Arch. You go in, and its nice inside. Lots of books, and some stand out. These books can be interacted with, and, similar to what Bethesda does with books in Fallout 3 and the Elder Scroll’s series, have stories all about myths, lore, children’s stories, etc. all relating to the GW2 world (obviously lmao :P)

So lets say you open up a book titled “The Karka Invasion”. You open it up, and get the option for a written summary of the event and what happened, or something else which I think people will really like: The option to pick an important day of the event, in the case of the Karka, that being each day lol, and travel to a special rendition of the events of that day, where you start like off to the side, and can walk around this designated area, and the events of that area are reenacted by scripted NPCs. So for the beginning, lets say you start off on the beach, near the lighthouse. Either text or a voice actor (Anet can be the judge of which one they wanna use lol ^-^) begins to tell you how it all started:

“It was a warm, sunny day in Lion’s Arch, like any other day. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, and then, out of the deep waters, a horrific creature sprung out and onto the mainland!” (you’re on the beach, and the Karka jumps out of the water right in front of you, and you can move around and watch as it hits the lighthouse, and then makes it’s way into the city. You can hear screams, and fighting sounds from the city. From here, where you are on the beach, you can stay around and hang out if you want, but after the scripted parts reenacting what happened, a portal, unnamed, unlisted, just a portal, appears in the direction that the Karka had soared over you, into the city. The portal is conveniently placed in the direction that the events are headed, you know? So you go into the portal….)

That is my idea of how this would work, and again, to save space and time, these designated areas are specifically important parts to the events of that day. So, like on the day of the final push to drive the Karka back, the first area can be on the beach where we fought the smaller karka, then a portal takes you to the second area, where we lured the karka out, and let the bomb squad sneak into the mountain and arm explosives. Then, the third area, which can be for when we pushed the ancient karka back in, and the explosives went off and it died in the lava.
Something like that

I think this would be a great way to retell past events to new and veteran players alike, and at the end, once you’ve finished a book, you get a little reward, like a memento from that event, so for the Karka event, maybe you get a little dynamite stick, that could be put into a slot in a new tab you’ll have in your achievements titled “Historical Mementos” or something haha. There could also be achievements you get for reading the books, maybe for reading 5 books, you get a “Book Worm” achievement, and for reading all the books, you get one called “Gotta read ’em all!” (get it :P)

How does this sound to you all?

I like this idea. I just so happens every city has an unused space called a Home Instance; might I suggest them for the libraries?

Love the idea! GW1 had something called a Bonus Mission Pack with Durmand, the man who started the Durmand Priory, who would have books that you read and got to partake in important moments in the past. Once you completed the mission/flashback you would get a token to turn in for a weapon skin of your choosing.

Darkace’s idea of putting it in your home instance is a great idea too. If they added this for past GW2 events as well as slowly adding in events from GW1 and lore before it and between the two games (destruction of Lions Arch by dragons, Searing, Foefire, etc). I’d even pay for the historical missions like we did in GW1 (keep the stuff like recreation of Karka event free though).

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/november-2012/

Orc Slayer.2780:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/november-2012/

That is true, but those dates are in present tense. New and old players looking to recount the story wont get the immersion from a website. The people of Tyria dont seem to care much about it, except in Southsun Cove, and that place is level 80 so most players wont be able to go there (to explore, etc.) yet anyway. This will provide a common place in which to store information about the past, that is easily accessible to everyone and anyone.

Also, all the stuff on the website about the new gear, new pvp map, etc., do you really need to, or want to, read about that while trying to read about the past history of the game?
The website is perfect for while the event is going on, as it was updated in real time and its text is in present tense to coincide with as it all was happening, but i wouldnt use it to learn about past events, and it doesnt really offer a way to see what happened and where. The library will offer all of this, plus the immersion as you are learning about it in the world, and not online, and alot of people, in fact a suprising amount, including myself, prefer this immersion.

Oh to be in a Guild Wars 2 rendition of Lion’s Arch, helping Citizens escape before the Tidal Wave crashes in, or to be in Ascalon City fighting off hordes of charr before the Foefire hits. I honestly believe that these would be an amazing addition to the game, and even perhaps could be used to finish the Guild Wars Beyond content that ArenaNet has left hanging.

thanks for the positive feedback so far!

I would love this! I played those events, but I wasn’t really paying attention to the lore that much.

A library in each major city (lore about each race, etc.) and event lore in Lion’s Arch.

I really, really hope they add this!

i was thinking one really big one somewhere in lions arch, but thats actually not a bad idea either!

I like it so long as it is a home instance or NOT in lions arch, mostly because it has the longest loading time for me as its always so populated. In fact it would be better if it was in a home instance because then there could be stuff about things you have done in your personal story that they can’t really reflect in the pve world.

Already commented but I agree with those saying it should be added to the home instance. Gives us more purpose to go there and spreads us out to our capital cities we never visit.

Also wanted to add that this is a great idea even for those who attended the events. Lag was horrible for a large population of the players. Even though we were there, it was like watching a slide show and didn’t make anybody feel like the heroes we’re supposed to feel like.

I think this is a great idea. I’ve been playing Skyrim lately to get my crafting fix, and I’ve been surprised at how much time I’m willing to take to read the various books that are scattered around the world. I like the idea of a library, although I would put it in the Priory HQ and not Lion’s Arch. I think pirates are more interested in selling historical artifacts than in preserving history

Now that im thinking about it, putting the libraries in the home instances, or maybe even just each races main city, is a much better idea than having it in lions arch. the only thing that would worry me though is the possibility of repeated looks, colors, designs, etc, of libraries and the books in multiple places, though, knowing Anet’s addiction to perfect detail (the best addiction around!), im sure that wont end up being any sort of issue, like, at all lmao.
If there are going to be multiple libraries, I think each one should have the same content, but unique designs and what not.
Also, @ jblade, i remember hearing alot of ppl complaining in southsun cove after the final karka battle that it sucked and stuff because they couldnt even tell what was happening from all the crashing and stuff. i hadnt actually thought about that when i first made this thread but thats an excellent point

A FUTURE ADDITION:

The libraries will naturally have to be decently sized in order to fit the current content and incoming content (if and when the libraries are made and released, lol). As more and more content fills up the space, it could become more of a “Where’s Waldo?” type search for the story you want to find, so perhaps a librarian who can take you to the general spot where your desirbed book is located would be cool, sort of like how the direction golems of rata sum escort you to the desired part of the city.

I saw another suggestion like this not long ago, the person suggested that not only could you learn about previous events but go back and replay missions or instances from the personal story or special events, in a library format like you said. I’ll give this +1 especially if it make the home instance somewhere I want to go again.

If the original missions were just given links (via the books in the library) to be played again, many of the missions have loot, random spawning loot, etc, that you can get. Unless some Asura makes some crazy technology, it would actually be impossible to be able to gain loot from the books, haha. So now that I’m thinking about it, the only way to put the personal story missions in the libraries would be to make a copy of all the missions that are selected for the library, and have this entire second set of the same missions, just without the loot. Im fearing that this would increase the game file size, and the stress on the client and the server to much higher levels than desired, so in the way of the personal stories, it’s a bit of a mystery for now lol.
And it’s not having the second set of personal stories that provides cause for concern, it’s them, with the past events of the game, and any other lore that would be deemed by Anet worthy of putting in the libraries, that makes me worry slightly. But again, we’ll see.