Guild Wars 2

Before I start this post I want to say I’ve been an avid defender of Arenanet against all the nay-sayers. I’ve played the game since GW1’s Beta and was extremely excited for GW2. The game is great! A lot of content updates a staff that listens, interacts, and loves the game and it’s community. They put so much work into this playable work of art and it really shows in all the details of the game.

With that said, I’m disappointed in just one aspect of the game. The “living story” is something that on paper seemed like a great idea… but now that I’ve seen it in practice is extremely disappointing. The idea as far as I can tell is to have the game move in a forward motion through story telling events, dungeons, and dialog/cinematic. This sounds like a great idea! a changing living world! The problem is that a lot of this hard worked content is removed one month later. This leaves that work unseen by many, and leaves the players with the same content we had before the new stuff got added. In GW1 we had holidays, which were great, there was some temporary stuff you could do and it went away simply to come back next year. In here… well I suppose the best example is the Molten Weapons Facility. That was a super fun dungeon that I would have LOVED to see an explorable version of. I don’t see a reason for taking it out of the game. It’s very clear a LOT of work and thought went into it, why remove it? Same with the Super Adventure Box (which I know will return but I’m hoping it stays.) I don’t see a reason to remove it, change the rewards sure but not remove it.

I truly hope a staff member will read this, or further hope that this is already being discussed.

I agree on the molten foundry, but the Super Adventure Box is meant to be a seasonal event, just like xmas, halloween, etc…, but for for April fools. So it will be back next April

Korrigan.4837:

I agree on the molten foundry, but the Super Adventure Box is meant to be a seasonal even (like xmas, halloween, etc…) for April fools. So it will be back next April

Actually it is quite likely (more or less confirmed even) that it will be back way before next April.

The Molten Foundry is going to be back as well as an addition to fractals. I am sure than some of this content will make it back to permanence somehow. The Southsun living story was partly permanent. The Karka Queen event line is now permanent. So some of it will go and some will stay.

jheryn.8390:

The Molten Foundry is going to be back as well as an addition to fractals. I am sure than some of this content will make it back to permanence somehow. The Southsun living story was partly permanent. The Karka Queen event line is now permanent. So some of it will go and some will stay.

That is not actually confirmed yet though.
They are talking about possibly adding it to Fractals, but nothing confirmed.

lordkrall.7241:

That is not actually confirmed yet though.
They are talking about possibly adding it to Fractals, but nothing confirmed.

You could be right lordkrall, but I saw a post (I don’t remember where, or even if it was on this site) that gave a link to a dev or Anet person saying they intended to add it to fractals. If I find it, I will post in this forum.

Guys, I recently made a video detailing the problems with the way temporary content isn’t working as well as a detailed soltuion for it in the “How to Fix the Guild Wars 2 Living Story” thread.
I’m not here to hyjack this post so I won’t leave a link but it offers a middle ground between moving the story along while still giving players access to previous parts of the living story.
One of the worst things about the Living Story is it DISCOURAGES new players from coming to your game and ones that left from coming back because why would they if they’re not able to experiance most of the content added to the game since relase/they left? Isn’t this the sort of thing Anet was trying to avoid by not using subscription fees?

hi guys,i am a marine in my country so i was away from home on manuevers for 2 months and when i returned i had missed the last chapter of flame and frost,i had the volunteer title but coundlt finish the sotry and havent even met rox and braham..the super adventure box i dont care,but losing a piece of what seems like relevant future sotory possibilities or content that can be reference is a drag really,i dont want rewards,just being able to do that contente

More like – new content – and unavailable. Like the skins. What’s even the point?

zerospin.8604:

More like – new content – and unavailable. Like the skins. What’s even the point?

So you gamble money on the gem store or the TP. Since it’s limited time content it creats a sense of urgancy and keeps the market stimulated. A real cheap tactic to keep players playing with the shallowest of content.

I just wish some of the content would stay. I wanted to post this on the dungeon thread, because I really think this game needs something new… and something big. The phrase “Guild Warsed Out” is being tossed around on my vent with increasing frequency. It’s not that they’re not putting out content, it’s that they’re taking away the content they put out!

Kaaboose.3897:

zerospin.8604:

More like – new content – and unavailable. Like the skins. What’s even the point?

So you gamble money on the gem store or the TP. Since it’s limited time content it creats a sense of urgancy and keeps the market stimulated. A real cheap tactic to keep players playing with the shallowest of content.

This. The temporary content makes the gem store items look extremely attractive with their “limited time only” design. It may be unfair to say that the main reason these events leave nothing permanent behind is solely for ANet to score from limited time items, but with more and more RNG in the gemstore it’s getting pretty obvious that there is a lot of motivation there.

I definately feel that each story needs to leave something behind. If they introduce all of this stuff but then have nothing to show for it, why bother? Having the Dungeon remain would definately have been cool, though I really feel the main reason they took it back out was because of the resources that could be farmed inside it.

I assume they left the new area in Wayfarer Foothills, but who cares if you can’t access it and there’s no reason to go there. My hope is that something new will come later that makes them more important to the game proper.

What they did with Southsun was a good direction, though. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell it didn’t work because people don’t seem to be doing it. At least not on my server. Now would be a really good time to do it too, since every kill has a chance for boxes and you get rediculous waves in Southsun at Steampipe Stead.

So yeah. If they could leave something behind for people who missed the event to still play and enjoy that would definately be great.

They could make all the stories even tie in together if they left some of the content live, if altered. No one cares about the Molten facility now and it was a big deal in the game – made NPCs relocate, etc.

An example of integrating the content into the game while tying it together could be these Aetherblade pirates retreating to the molten facility and they could have the dungeon open not as the molten facility but as the Aetherblade Hideout. This is just an off the top example, but this direction would be really interesting and keep people waiting for the next installment of the living story. It would add adventure and interest as far as people wanting to take part in the progression.

This stuff is easy to do, all of the parts are in the game already. I really hope the opportunities in the gem store aren’t what’s holding ANet back from interesting content.

Gnat.9405:

Kaaboose.3897:

zerospin.8604:

More like – new content – and unavailable. Like the skins. What’s even the point?

So you gamble money on the gem store or the TP. Since it’s limited time content it creats a sense of urgancy and keeps the market stimulated. A real cheap tactic to keep players playing with the shallowest of content.

This. The temporary content makes the gem store items look extremely attractive with their “limited time only” design. It may be unfair to say that the main reason these events leave nothing permanent behind is solely for ANet to score from limited time items, but with more and more RNG in the gemstore it’s getting pretty obvious that there is a lot of motivation there.

Then make the weapon skins temporary. Take away Fused Weapon Ticket drops. But leave the dungeon.

It was something new, and it was obvious they put a lot of work into it. Why would they spend all that time and money crafting that dungeon only to remove it a month later? I’ve never heard of a developer managing a game’s content that way, and it’s really strange.

There’s a such thing as seasonal content, like Dragon Bash, but it becomes suspect when everything becomes temporary.

I’m pretty upset I’m missing out on the entire Dragon Bash event because my laptop with GW2 needs a hard drive replacement ever since it broke right before the first release of Dragon Bash. I can’t believe they are already removing the content next week, and I still haven’t gotten my laptop back… Can’t install anything on this old laptop for an unknown reason, otherwise I’d be playing right now. I really think they could extend it a little longer.