Guild Wars 2

Is it? I don’t want to make any verdict myself. I’m just honestly asking. Because I think that AN wanted to achieve few things with living world. And I’m wondering if they’ve succeeded.

So let me ask you this:
- Does the world feel more believable to you thanks to LW content?
- Does the world feel more natural?
- Do you feel as part of the world?
- Do you feel the world is evolving around you?
- Do you feel that making content temporary is important to achieve the principals of Living World?
- Does temporary content has some advantages over permanent content?

To answer a few at once – I like what they did with Kessex Hills – it’s given the area history and made it no longer Another Very Krytan Landscape. I love that. I love that something happened and left a mark on the world and I do very much wish for that sort of thing to continue – even if it’s not as often as other updates. It does feel more believable, natural, and as if it is “evolving”.

I do think temporary content of that nature is important and valuable to create this feeling of a world with history and changes.

Creating real history is indeed an advantage. Southsun is pretty dead, but anyone who levels through Kessex will see this mark left on the world and I think that’s cool and good and the right direction.

It has its ups and downs.

Temporary content can be fantastic, but it can also be a disaster. This year has been a mix of both.
Bazaar of the Four Winds, Queen’s Jubilee and the Tower of Nightmares were the best updates this year, while the rest have been pretty meh in my opinion.

The Tower of Nightmares was incredible, and the ending was the best so far.
In the future we will be able to take our new friends to Kessex and say:“I was there when this happened. We caused this”.

In my opinion the only temporary content should be the lead-ups to major chapters.
The best example I can give is what happened in WoW before “Cataclysm”.
There were a few story and event chapters that lead up to that expansion which made it feel like an evolving story.
Nothing major, but it did the job. Plus in some of the chapters there were unique rewards.

HiddenNick.7206:

- Does the world feel more believable to you thanks to LW content?

No. Now it’s just a mess.

HiddenNick.7206:

- Does the world feel more natural?

No. The new content doesn’t mesh well with the already established content. It could, if they put enough work into it, but their four-month development time doesn’t seem to be enough to make it appear natural.

For example: Why did the centaurs ignore the toxic alliance? The krait and nightmare court were intruding on their turf. But the AI’s for the centaurs remained the same. The centaur events around Kessex hills were exactly the same, and the centaurs even seemed to help the toxic alliance in certain places or at least treat the player as a primary enemy. Why? Don’t they notice that huge tower looming on the horizon? How about the toxic spores they’re breathing in? Wouldn’t it have been made more sense if some temporary alliance or ceasefire was made between the humans and centaurs? Or at least add some recognition that there was SOMETHING going on… But no.

HiddenNick.7206:

- Do you feel as part of the world?

I feel more excluded than ever, due to the ridiculous time constraints.

HiddenNick.7206:

- Do you feel the world is evolving around you?

Sort of, but only in a very limited fashion. The Living Story content – which is full of shallow characters and nonsensical plots – rolls on and evolves. The rest of the game world feels like it’s in stasis. The Living Story content feels completely separate from the rest of the core content.

HiddenNick.7206:

- Do you feel that making content temporary is important to achieve the principals of Living World?

Whether they are achieving the principles of the Living World is irrelevant, due to the fact that it was a flawed concept to begin with.

HiddenNick.7206:

- Does temporary content has some advantages over permanent content?

None that I can see.

- Does the world feel more believable to you thanks to LW content?
Not at first, but these last couple releases have been more permanent.

- Does the world feel more natural?
I’m not sure what you mean by natural..

- Do you feel as part of the world?
In which way?

- Do you feel the world is evolving around you?
Not at first, but these last couple releases have been more permanent.

- Do you feel that making content temporary is important to achieve the principals of Living World?
It depends on the content really. Dungeons, meta-events, etc.. should be permanent. Others not so much.

- Does temporary content has some advantages over permanent content?
Read above.

Overall, your questions are vague and too broad. I tried to answer them though.

Here’s the problem with the Living Story, summed up.

It’s running parallel with the Personal Story, Dynamic Events, NPC dialogue, and everything else that launched since release.

Everything before the Living Story became irrelevant. They all felt abandoned, until recently. Not only that, but temporary content and fluff items made everything worse.

Things like Super Adventure Box was alright for April’s Fools Day, but then it made a return out of nowhere. It was ridiculous and it does not belong in a Guild Wars universe. Then we have silly things like Quaggan backpacks, which makes GW2 feel like a Rated G cartoon.

I could go on, but there’s no point. Others before me, for over a year, have brought up excellent reasons why Living Story has been terrible for GW2.

- Does the world feel more believable to you thanks to LW content?
Nope. Not even close. I like the concept of what happened in Kessex. I do not like lore that was sacrificed on Scarlet altar to get there.

- Does the world feel more natural?
No. It seems like GW2 and LS was made by two different teams… and the LS team didn’t know much about GW2, Tyria or Guild Wars lore at all.

- Do you feel as part of the world?
I left the game because of it. Still care for the franchise, but I refuse to play the mess that GW2 become because of LS. If Anet will sort things out in the future – I’ll log in again. If it won’t be soon, I’ll probably get bored and move on entirely.

- Do you feel the world is evolving around you?
As I wrote before – I like the concept of what happened in Kessex. But I think it have been done in unbearable manner. If Anet writers actually fit their so called “story” into Tyria realm, I would say yeah, sure. That kind of updating is a step in right direction. But as for now? No. Kessex is their best attempt, and we’ve got many failures before ( “adding” TA new path fiasco). Yep… I think that sums up pretty well my opinion

- Do you feel that making content temporary is important to achieve the principals of Living World?
Yes and no. Making every update a “achievement chore list” is a really wrong way to go. But “temporary” isn’t worst concept out there. Still – I would prefer that 90% of content to be permanent, and missing 10% to be all shazam that accompanies introduction of permanent content.

- Does temporary content has some advantages over permanent content?
Can’t think of any. Well… maybe after some time, stuff looks better in our memories and we can’t recall how buggy the content was.

HiddenNick.7206:

Is it? I don’t want to make any verdict myself. I’m just honestly asking. Because I think that AN wanted to achieve few things with living world. And I’m wondering if they’ve succeeded.

So let me ask you this:
- Does the world feel more believable to you thanks to LW content?

Barely. As very little has any lasting impact on the game. For all the talk about the player effecting the world, the game has not remotely lived up to the hype.

- Does the world feel more natural?

The LS villian came out of nowhere, is repeatedly combining alliances that doesn’t make any sense and we’re somehow supposed to feel that she is our personal nemesis. It isn’t working. Nothing about that feels natural.

- Do you feel as part of the world?

I’m just a paying customer with little left to explore. Its hard to feel part of something where you can’t do what you really want to do.

- Do you feel the world is evolving around you?

No I do not. The permanent changes are in dungeons and fractals which I’ve never liked (personal opinion and not a failing of the game itself).
Nothing I do makes a difference. A zerg may be able to whip out the lastest achievment point(s) but that tower was coming down even if nobody went in and did an injection.

- Do you feel that making content temporary is important to achieve the principals of Living World?

I understand that somethings just cannot be permanent but I feel that there should be more lasting effects other than the next oddball Scarlett team up.

Does temporary content has some advantages over permanent content?

None that I can see. If the LS is coming at the expense of new zones, new skills and new races, than my opinion is that it was the wrong choice. Even good temporary gets lost on any new player and thats a shame.

A: No.

The purpose of the bi-weekly patches is to draw players back to the game every two weeks. That, and the new skins added every patch which are added to RNG BL chests afterward, means that Yes, Living Story is working as intended.

As for the “Story” aspect of it —The Living Story is no different than patches in other MMO’s. ArenaNet is the GM; and they’re continuing to evolve our RP adventure. They may talk about how it’s a “living, changing world” but in reality it’s exactly the same.

Living story is a big turn off to me. Because it’s temporary, my progress in it is going to be arbitrarily deleted while I am halfway through it, completely eating my time for no purpose and annoying me no end.

Living world is a great idea on paper. In reality it’s a disaster:

it’s buggy, rushed, and pretty much devoid of real gameplay content. The story is total garbage that feels like it was written by a third grader.

And the worst part: it has taken all focus away from fixing game issues/bugs that have been in the game since launch a year and a half ago.

funny how 90% of the people here dislike LS
And im one of them :P all the potential this game has gets wrecked each 2 weeks by a new crappy story which just doesnt fit! And that along with random enemys/villains with unclear motivations.
Really hope that after this so called season 1 of the LS they either revamp it or drop it entirely.
But atm it just looks like a weak idea to keep people hooked shame for people who dont like this concept :S being waiting for a good update since the Lootkitten pavilion update but alas non to be had

And to answer these questions
- Does the world feel more believable to you thanks to LW content?
i had trouble with engineers, skypirates! i know its a fantasy game but going out of your own placed boundarys within your lore is a stupid idea if u ask me. it does not feel as a follow up on GW which had a more realistic(as far as that goes within a fantasy setting but i bet you know what i mean) setting then this.

- Does the world feel more natural?
was this ever the intention ? with kitten coming and going each 5 sec haha your joking right ?

- Do you feel as part of the world?
Oh yeah i really do i mean i got to vote for somoene who then disseapears but lucky they remeber we fought against zhaiten while we are now hunting a random enemy type for a week or two. I wonder if i were a part of that world would i focus on the remaining dragons rampaging about or go duel in a arena ? or mayhaps craft another set of gear to endlessly farm the same couple mini dungeons to get a lvl up fullwd by a reset :S ( short answer is no btw )

- Do you feel the world is evolving around you?
orr is still dead after all trahearne did , guess he failed :S
lucky there is a bridge being repaired to a new zone which might be done in a few years. cant blame bandits for not working hard!
I think this can be describbed as no not evolving slightly being stirred and then back to normal or next small interferance yeah. evolving needs a mark but not just one saying look that was from a very lorewise unlogical update which made no sense!

- Do you feel that making content temporary is important to achieve the principals of Living World?
Yes it is but not how they are doing it now the only way the current system works is come get your candy its gone next week . but wait this week there is a difrent candy!! want the old one ? haaa bad luck ! woops now u missed this one.

It should be more like what they attempted with the start take a isle conquer it make it safe make it yours. but then only thing they need to add to that is to make it a longer journey. not take isle , abandon it go fight random alliance no wait go fight pirates no wait go fight random villain which controls the karka .

- Does temporary content has some advantages over permanent content?
yes for the gemshop and AN’s purse however paid exspansions would be better i i would buy those without considering but i will never and mean when i say never buy something from a ingame shop because it feels like a ripp off
Current motivation is to make the experience unique right? i just think they know the LS is mostly crap so this way they can hide away the kitten ups afterwards and just keep the things people actually liked.

So let me ask you this:
1 – Does the world feel more believable to you thanks to LW content?
2 – Does the world feel more natural?
3 – Do you feel as part of the world?
4 – Do you feel the world is evolving around you?
5 – Do you feel that making content temporary is important to achieve the principals of Living World?
6 – Does temporary content has some advantages over permanent content?

1 – Doesn’t feel more or less believeable. There’s the impression that the scenario is moving in time thanks to the event, be it feels pretty peripheral when I only finished my personal story a couple of weeks ago.
2 – No. Everything feels nailed onto the world. Every couple of months something is stirring up trouble without any coherent build up. And now we’ve been handed the excuse that some big bad has been behind it all. Very artificial.
3 – No. That could be because I’ve had blocks of time where I haven’t had spare time to play, but it certainly wasn’t helpful with Aetherblade Retreat when I was told to get lost by the only guys doing the dungeon because I was only* level 78 (thank kitten for LFG, Desolation is pants for dungeons.) When I try to catch up with the latest content, it’s referring to stuff that happened previously that I didn’t get the chance to do (and never will) and as a consequence I feel like a spectator. Which answers…
4 – I feel its parallel to me. It’s probably better now that LS events last longer than a couple of weeks, there seemed to be the imperative to stop whatever I was doing before, rush through the new content before it became a solo experience or got deleted, then get back to what I was doing before.
5 – It helps with the principle, but then it alienates those who haven’t been able to take every step. The only insertion point has been at the beginning last year, and everything wants to move forward and point to the past; that’s great because that’s how good stories work, but some of us are missing pages.
6 – I don’t reckon so. LS seems to be a very perpetual thing, perpetually jettisoning sections for the sake if feeling alive, but it feels dead to me ever since I missed Moltan Facilty.

HiddenNick.7206:

Is it? I don’t want to make any verdict myself. I’m just honestly asking. Because I think that AN wanted to achieve few things with living world. And I’m wondering if they’ve succeeded.

If the purpose of Living Story was to scare players away, it’s working.

HiddenNick.7206:

Is it? I don’t want to make any verdict myself. I’m just honestly asking. Because I think that AN wanted to achieve few things with living world. And I’m wondering if they’ve succeeded.

So let me ask you this:
- Does the world feel more believable to you thanks to LW content?
- Does the world feel more natural?
- Do you feel as part of the world?
- Do you feel the world is evolving around you?
- Do you feel that making content temporary is important to achieve the principals of Living World?
- Does temporary content has some advantages over permanent content?

1. Does the world feel more believable to you thanks to LW content? No. The story focuses around NPCs rather than the actions of the characters. The extremely dangerous threat of the Elder Dragons has been ignored for some petulant Sylvari.

2. Does the world feel more natural? No. The Living World has had no impact on the natural feeling of the world – if anything it’s become less natural because only one storyline progresses at a time. Given all of the conflict in the world, you’d think that multiple LW arcs would be occurring at the same time.

3. Do you feel the world is evolving around you? In some ways, yes. The changes to Kessex, Southsun Shore, and the zephyr expansion provided a sense of evolution. Unfortunately, we cannot go to the cliffs from the last one, so that diminishes that.

4. Do you feel that making content temporary is important to achieve the principals of Living World? I think the content being temporary being temporary is the worst mistake of the game.

5. Does temporary content has some advantages over permanent content? None at all.