Guild Wars 2

I will try to keep this as short as i can. My main reason for creating this post is beacause iam a Tyria fan since the early days of GW1 and i want the same success and love people had for it to continue for GW2. I wanted to make a post about the Living World since the Molten Alliance rolled out but i wanted to wait and see how Arena Net planned to go from there. Some of the changes ive seen have been good and some have been bad.

IMMERSION

The main problem ive seen so far with the living story is immersion. Iam not an expert regarding technical issues but with a few small changes the past LS content could have been alot more alive.
During Molten Alliance we had to put of signs for the refugees, light up campfires so they would stay warm and help them out while they were traveling. The problem with executing all that was that nothing changed. After a few hours the road signs were down again, the campfires gone and all our hard work seemed to be for nothing.
My suggestion here would be that when we are required to do an activity for and event it would be better if it would change something and the world and stay there permanent. Like the dragon effigies we had to light up in Dragon Bakitten would feel less grindy and more fun to be able to light each one of them once and they would stay lite for the whole duration of the event.
Another issue during the molten alliance was that even thought there was supposed to be a war going on it definitely didnt feel like it. I was expecting charr squards guarding points, Dredge and Fire Caste armies storming towns, soldiers shouting and buildings burning! It might be hard to execute something of this scale but if you can pull it off it definitely worth the wait and development time. Dont be afraid to think big!

LIMITED EDITION ITEMS

What i liked about GW1 was that even super rare stuff were still available somehow to obtain. Lately in GW2 iam seeing the trend of special items droping during events and then gone forever. I know you want to keep them special for the people that participated in this event but thats what achievement rewards are for right? Why not keep them in game as a super rare drop for special areas and bosses only? If someone wants to grind for along time to obtain them why not let them? Spending so much time designing items and them taking them away sounds such a waste. For example keep the Karka, Reed Drake etc. miniatures as a super rare southsun only drop. Or if the molten alliance dungeon comes back as a fractal keep that awesome looking jet back as a rare drop from that fractal only! That will keep them super limited but still available to the world of Tyria.

EVENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Currently i have done every Living Story achievement exept from a couple from the atherblade dungeon. I probably wont be able to complete them due to my limited time and the limited time the dungeon is available for. I imagine that most people feel that way too but if you are going to add super hard achievements it would be better if they are for permanent content and not for something that is available for a couple of weeks. Also the Dragon Bash achievements were the worst grind i had to do since the start of GW2. Event achievements should be fun creative and casual. Stuff that will bring a simple sense of accomplishment to people that logged in to check out whats new rather than stress them and make them feel that they have to play or they will miss them.

LORE

I know GW2 is a new game and the time for new stories and heroes to arise but dont forget the core of Tyria. That which made so many people love this world! Since the release of GW2 the core story havent moved an inch and we havent seen anything new about so many great storylines that are left unfinished. The Murasat and the Isle of Janthir, The Druids of Maguna jungle, The origins of the Silvari, The mysterious wizard tower in Kessex Hills, The Blood Stones, The Human Gods! So many storylines waiting to be moved forward and we around hunting karkas! (no offence to karkas) Every 2-3 new storylines you introduce you should revisit some of the old lore.

Please try to keep this thread clean of whining, flaming and all the other stuff that make the official forums so dreadful for the majority of the playerbase. Keep it constructive and creative. Thank you for your time reading this and sorry for any mistakes i made.

Glaurung.1076:

LIMITED EDITION ITEMS

What i liked about GW1 was that even super rare stuff were still available somehow to obtain. Lately in GW2 iam seeing the trend of special items droping during events and then gone forever. I know you want to keep them special for the people that participated in this event but thats what achievement rewards are for right? Why not keep them in game as a super rare drop for special areas and bosses only? If someone wants to grind for along time to obtain them why not let them? Spending so much time designing items and them taking them away sounds such a waste. For example keep the Karka, Reed Drake etc. miniatures as a super rare southsun only drop. Or if the molten alliance dungeon comes back as a fractal keep that awesome looking jet back as a rare drop from that fractal only! That will keep them super limited but still available to the world of Tyria.

Ohh if only they’d do this I’d feel less angry at missing out events knowing theres still some hope to get stuff …

Here’s mine in short bullet points:
– No limited availability on content.
– No limited availability on rewards.
– No limited availability on weapon and armor skins sold in the Gem Shop.
– More organic build up of story.
– Less “click F a bunch of times” busywork.
– Less “silent protagonist” player-characters.

I forgot two:
– Don’t forget the Elder Dragons are still the main antagonists.
– When you open up new regions (Crystal Desert, etc), don’t do it one zone at a time.

darkace.8925:

- Less “click F a bunch of times” busywork.

For me this would be the biggest improvement.

I agree with everything you said in this post!

Darkace said my main complaint.

Don’t forget the Elder Dragons.

I read the books. I want to kill the Elder dragons. Fact is no GW1 player wants to stay in Tyria forever. We want to see what has become of Elona and Cantha.

My suggestion. Start advancing the main story. Do NOT wait for an expansion to let us take out another Dragon. Use the Living world to advance the story and then when you add permanent content let it be the next area where we will take on another Dragon.

Ed of Death.4819:

Darkace said my main complaint.

Don’t forget the Elder Dragons.

I read the books. I want to kill the Elder dragons. Fact is no GW1 player wants to stay in Tyria forever. We want to see what has become of Elona and Cantha.

My suggestion. Start advancing the main story. Do NOT wait for an expansion to let us take out another Dragon. Use the Living world to advance the story and then when you add permanent content let it be the next area where we will take on another Dragon.

in regards to “story”… you just said exactly what i was thinking

Thank you for this post! I agree with most of your points and would like to add some of mine:
As a gamedesigner I would like to throw this link about achievement design into the pot, which is really helpfull and granting some insights on good achievement design.

In my opinion the Living Story is a tremendous step into a vivid evolving MMORPG world and I highly appreciate how ArenaNet ‘dares’ to dive into this unknown realm.
I feel like they are getting more confident with every monthly rollout and this is a good thing. I agree that there should be a greater, permanent effect on the game world, but as far as I can tell this is something we are already heading to.
I totally go with your problem with immersion, especially regarding the molten alliance stuff. I was really hyped and looking foreward for the armies emerging from the underground and battles agains new technology and tactics, but then I felt like the whole thing got turned down a bit
I´m interested in how fast the things will evolve with the two week update cycles and I am totally looking foreward to it

Best regards
floAr

I disagree that all story should have to do with the elder dragons. Yes, the elder dragons are a threat that all Tyrians live with. But life goes on and other things happen, too. If it was all about the dragons, I’d honestly be very bored. I like a good mix of things, and I’ve had no problem at all with the living story events so far.

I will sign this though:

Glaurung.1076:

EVENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Currently i have done every Living Story achievement exept from a couple from the atherblade dungeon. I probably wont be able to complete them due to my limited time and the limited time the dungeon is available for. I imagine that most people feel that way too but if you are going to add super hard achievements it would be better if they are for permanent content and not for something that is available for a couple of weeks. Also the Dragon Bash achievements were the worst grind i had to do since the start of GW2. Event achievements should be fun creative and casual. Stuff that will bring a simple sense of accomplishment to people that logged in to check out whats new rather than stress them and make them feel that they have to play or they will miss them.

I would say more permanent additions, less flufftent, and a huge kudo for delivering new permanent content gradually instead of infrequently in gigantic patches.

What I think is the most constructive change and one I hope they continue to practice is slip-streaming new content in dribs and drabs rather than in huge patches that take hours to download.

There is nothing I hate more than a big huge patch that take hours to download.
Rush home from work, fire up your game ready for some play, and wham, go find a book to read cause this monster patch is going to take hours to download.

So I give them huge kudos for metering out new stuff gradually.

I don’t really care about narrative all that much. I hardly ever watch cutscenes. The whole ‘Living Story’ rubs me the wrong way, like a marketing droid gone berzerk spewing Orwellian doublespeak.

A positive change would be to have something in the story that is an opportunity for your actions to make a lasting change in the world, which rewards you and adds your name to a list of champions etc. sort of like a memorial.

What could it be? That’s the rub, I don’t know of a single MMO that has done this successfully. How do you incorporate something that permanently changes the world, that thousands of players can do and get long lasting in game recognition?

What we have now are scripted narrative events where your participation makes not a whit of difference on the outcome.

I hate that my original endgame strategy to gather achievements was shot down brutally by this feature. So honestly, they better make the Living Story more interesting by endgame or, I might just put this down and call it quits.

generalraccoon.3857:

Glaurung.1076:

LIMITED EDITION ITEMS

What i liked about GW1 was that even super rare stuff were still available somehow to obtain. Lately in GW2 iam seeing the trend of special items droping during events and then gone forever. I know you want to keep them special for the people that participated in this event but thats what achievement rewards are for right? Why not keep them in game as a super rare drop for special areas and bosses only? If someone wants to grind for along time to obtain them why not let them? Spending so much time designing items and them taking them away sounds such a waste. For example keep the Karka, Reed Drake etc. miniatures as a super rare southsun only drop. Or if the molten alliance dungeon comes back as a fractal keep that awesome looking jet back as a rare drop from that fractal only! That will keep them super limited but still available to the world of Tyria.

Ohh if only they’d do this I’d feel less angry at missing out events knowing theres still some hope to get stuff …

I am fine with the limited edition items that you only get for that specific living story. What really kitten es me off is the fact that I took a long hiatus from GW2 and the only new armor skin I see in the game is like ONE.

It is extremely puzzling to me as to the reason for this. There really is no gear grind per se in the game…..and the game could potentially be considered a dress up game. So why the hell are there no new skins available in the game after such a long time since release?

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

I disagree that all story should have to do with the elder dragons.

I don’t think many of us want the story to be all about the Elder Dragons. I agree – doing one thing all the time would be boring.

I think the issue here is that there has been hardly any clear movement on that storyline in almost a year.

I agree that a balance would be nice, but I don’t feel that a balance has been achieved between long-term plot and short-term plot yet. I’d be perfectly happy with doing dragon stuff and other stuff, but I’m getting a bit weary of that plot seeming totally stalled while we run off doing one random thing after another.

I’m fine with some of the stories, aetherblades + flame and frost for example, despite the latters rather slow and lackluster start. But i do feel like we are being … guided to like..forget about elder dragons or sumthin. even with an event called dragonbash…

darkace.8925:

I forgot two:
– Don’t forget the Elder Dragons are still the main antagonists.
– Less “click F a bunch of times” busywork.

Yes.

darkace.8925:

Here’s mine in short bullet points:
– Less “click F a bunch of times” busywork.

This, very much so. Frankly all of this so called “content” which asks me to go and click 10+ items for some achievements points feels like a really big insult. I want to be entertained by the game, but that sure is anything but entertaining.

I also very much agree with the lack of new skins. GW2 should build more onto its strong points, and imo one of its strongest is the character customization it allows. More and varied skins, and interesting ways to get them would go an extremely long way towards making the game much more interesting.

Plus some more work on the customization system, like being able to save dye setups, and a wardrobe system for different armor sets. Right now I utterly don’t feel like really experimenting with different builds, as the hassle to carry various armor sets around, put them on, adjust the colours, plus go respec is simply too much to feel worth it. I am talking PvE there.

To come back to living story criticism – I’d rather see some well-crafted content every 4 or 6 weeks, than just a variety of quick-and-dirty “go click F of this” activities, wether that are dragon pinatas or NPCs scattered around with a big yellow star on their location. The AR dungeon has some neat mechanics, I like the laser room and how the last boss requires some team work to make it through. More of that please, and not just temporarily!