Guild Wars 2

I enjoy playing Guild Wars 2 still but I unfortunately have a job that requires sometimes 50-60 hours a week plus having a wife and a puppy limits the time I have to be playing on the computer.

Living world introduces a large amount of content without requiring an expansion which is great. The only problem I have with it is I have very little time to complete the living world content. After the time gate passes there is no way for me to experience this content.

I would love it if instead of releasing new temporary content that once a month or every other month permanent content came out. It is nerve racking to not be able to enjoy the game the way I want to because when I do get time to play the Living World takes priority because it won’t be there for long.

Many may say well just don’t play the Living World content but with the benefits of playing being so significant (Mining node in home instance) I have to try and get it done before being able to do anything else.

Please add permanent content that also has benefits such as the mining node in the home instance periodically as well.

Thanks

We should make a form letter for people to fill out, because these posts always follow the same format.

Please check all that apply.

You are:

[ ] Married
[ ] Have Girlfriend
[ ] Employed
[ ] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[ ] Are an Adult
[ ] Have a Life
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[ ] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset

Thank you!

Chrispytoast.3698:

Many may say well just don’t play the Living World content but with the benefits of playing being so significant (Mining node in home instance) I have to try and get it done before being able to do anything else.

that extra crystal node is just about the least significant thing in the entire game.

this is just a matter of learning to ignore your completionist tendencies to focus on game play you enjoy rather than on maximizing your reward/time ratio.

Are we sure Colin has a dog?

Im kind of hoping the new arena is perminant content, as in we will be able to use it the fights after the update has passed.

Please check all that apply.

You are:

[X] Married
[ ] Have Girlfriend
[X] Employed
[X] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[X] Are an Adult
[X] Have a Life
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[X] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset
[X] Cry silently to myself

You’re a good sport, sir!

LOL – could be my favorite thread. Thanks for the reality (GW2 style) check.

This looks fun…

You are:

[ ] Married
[ ] Have Girlfriend
[x] Employed
[ ] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[ ] Are an Adult
[x] Have a Life
[x] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[x] Time Consuming
[x] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[x] Tell the Internet That You are Upset

I’d opt for the dog kicking if i hadnt a phobia of dogs

Look at all you liars. MMO players with lives. Please.

[x] Married
[x] Have Girlfriend
[x] Employed
[x] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[ ] Are an Adult
[ ] Have a Life
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[x] Temporary
[x] Full of Jumping Puzzles, but I like jumping puzzles, so… cool.

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset
[x] Fill out rhetorical questionaire

[x] Married
[x] Have Girlfriend

Heeeeeey now!

Alright this looks like fun, Should change the title of the thread though. Added on a new section at the bottom!

Please check all that apply.
You are:
[ ] Married
[x] Have Girlfriend
[x] Employed
[x] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[x] Are an Adult
[x] Have a Life-*Seems like I do
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity
You Think Living World is too:
[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[ ] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles
[x]Much fun, makes me want to play more.
You are Currently Threatening to:
[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset
[x]Develop a way to sleep less so I can play more!
You Currently Play how many Hours per Week:
[ ] 1-5
[ ] 5-10
[ ]10-15
[x]15-20
[ ] more than 20
——————————-
Thank you!

Oooo, is this like when you walk into a mall and are crowded by old women clamoring at you to take a survey?

[ ] Married
[ ] Have Girlfriend
[x] Employed
[x] Have Pets
[x] Have Children
[x] Are an Adult
[x] Believe I Have a Life, Somewhere, Just can’t remember where I put it
[x] Have no Manual Dexterity, because after a few beers, dexterity becomes challenging

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[ ] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles
[x] Should give me all the skins for free

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset
[x] Play sober

Please check all that apply.
You are:
[ ] Married
[ ] Have Girlfriend
[ ] Employed
[x] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[x] Are an Adult
[x] Have a Life, somewhere
[x] Have no Manual Dexterity
You Think Living World is too:
[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[x] Temporary
[x] Full of Jumping Puzzles
[x] Off-tracked
You are Currently Threatening to:
[x] Quit, and I did for now
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[x] Tell the Internet That You are Upset

Internet, I’m upset.

My main problem with Living World though, is that it has no relevance to the main story, which are the elder dragons. However hinted by a dev, it seems the stories are being tied together to something bigger.

I feel like having time limits on Living World is a bad way to simulate “The World progressing and changing”.

I don’t like how “The World progressing and changing” also is temporary by not seeing really anything substantial a month after the Living World ends

Please check all that apply.

You are:

[X] Married
[ ] Have Girlfriend
[X] Employed
[X] Have Pets
[X] Have Children
[X] Are an Adult
[X] Have a Life
[X Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[X] Temporary
[X] Full of Jumping Puzzles
[X] Meaningless

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset
[X] Take a break from playing and not spend anything in the Gem Store

Thank you!

Ooh I like Living World! But I’m not about to pass up a survey to express constructive criticism

[ ] Married
[x] Have BOYFRIEND who plays more than I do. Yes I know there are no girls on the internet, blah blah
[x] Employed full time
[x] Have a cat who meows at us to play with her instead
[ ] Have Children
[x] Are an Adult
[ ] Have a Life… I probably should work on this
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[x] Temporary. Although I don’t mind releases every 2 weeks, I’d like them to stay for 4 weeks.
[x] Full of Jumping Puzzles that are NOT the hardest of the game, which is cool because I like them when they don’t make me want to smash my monitor

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset
[x] Continue playing while voicing constructive criticism in survey form

Please check all that apply.

You are:

[ ] Married
[ ] Have Girlfriend
[X] Employed
[ ] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[X] Are an Adult
[X] Have a Life
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[X] Lacking In Cohesion
[X] Boring
[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[X] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[X] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset

Thank you!

Chrispytoast.3698:

I enjoy playing Guild Wars 2 still but I unfortunately have a job that requires sometimes 50-60 hours a week plus having a wife and a puppy limits the time I have to be playing on the computer.

Living world introduces a large amount of content without requiring an expansion which is great. The only problem I have with it is I have very little time to complete the living world content. After the time gate passes there is no way for me to experience this content.

I would love it if instead of releasing new temporary content that once a month or every other month permanent content came out. It is nerve racking to not be able to enjoy the game the way I want to because when I do get time to play the Living World takes priority because it won’t be there for long.

Many may say well just don’t play the Living World content but with the benefits of playing being so significant (Mining node in home instance) I have to try and get it done before being able to do anything else.

Please add permanent content that also has benefits such as the mining node in the home instance periodically as well.

Thanks

Oh come on, I think you are overexaggerating. Took me 2-3 days to get that mining node in my home instance and those achievements are very easy to do.

PS: Besides its fine to “pass” on some events, your gaming experience wont hurt. I didnt play Halloween nor Winter celebration events and I dont mind, havent affected my gameplay at all.

Bovinity.8610:

We should make a form letter for people to fill out, because these posts always follow the same format.

---

Please check all that apply.

You are:

[x] Married
[x] Have Girlfriend

…

Waaait a minute! My wife didn’t hire you, did she?

[ ] Married
[ ] Have Girlfriend
[x] Have Boyfriend thanks for your consideration.
[x] Employed
[ ] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[x] Are an Adult
[x] Have a Life
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[ ] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset

Am I the only one who’s happy with Living World?

Oops. Sorry, ladies, left “boyfriend” out of the survey.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Am I the only one who’s happy with Living World?

Nah. Most of those who are happy with are just playing the game instead of whining on the forums. Me? I like it, but am at work.

DungeonDaughter.7391:

Look at all you liars. MMO players with lives. Please.

[x] Married
[x] Have Girlfriend

Like… both?

Please check all that apply.
You are:

[ ] Married
[x] Have Girlfriend (imaginary)
[x] Employed
[x] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[x] Are an Adult
[x] Have a Life (it’s called GW2)
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:
[x] Boring (very much)
[ ] Hard
[x] Time Consuming
[x] Temporary
[ ] Full of jumping puzzles

You are Currently Threatening to:
[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset
[x] Thump my head into the keyboard, until I have achievement # 9990988765433.

Tom Gore.4035:

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Am I the only one who’s happy with Living World?

Nah. Most of those who are happy with are just playing the game instead of whining on the forums. Me? I like it, but am at work.

Yep, I enjoy it as well. Tried to show it with the survey, had to add in some options though. Also same situation, when I am at home I am playing, only on forums while at work.

Sirendor.1394:

DungeonDaughter.7391:

Look at all you liars. MMO players with lives. Please.

[x] Married
[x] Have Girlfriend

Like… both?

I don’t like either one.

Tom Gore.4035:

Bovinity.8610:

We should make a form letter for people to fill out, because these posts always follow the same format.

---

Please check all that apply.

You are:

[x] Married
[x] Have Girlfriend

…

Waaait a minute! My wife didn’t hire you, did she?

No, but I hired her.

Bovinity.8610:

We should make a form letter for people to fill out, because these posts always follow the same format.

---

Please check all that apply.

You are:

[ ] Married
[ ] Have Girlfriend
[x ] Employed
[x ] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[x ] Are an Adult
[x ] Have a Life
[x ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[x ] Temporary
[x ] Full of Jumping Puzzles

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[x ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[x ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset

---

Thank you!

to tell the truth the last section ive thought of the first two a few times thinking hey maybe some other game wont be another full time job but i dont get into too many games it could four or five years before i find another.. all along ive been saying they need to slow down and take more time(and this is since release.. i thought they released too quick too) but they keep increasing and speeding up

DungeonDaughter.7391:

Tom Gore.4035:

Bovinity.8610:

We should make a form letter for people to fill out, because these posts always follow the same format.

---

Please check all that apply.

You are:

[x] Married
[x] Have Girlfriend

…

Waaait a minute! My wife didn’t hire you, did she?

No, but I hired her.

You, sir, are magnificent.

/salute

BobbyStein.2315:

But if you have any opinions on the matter feel free to let us know.

BobbyStein.2315:

…a system that would allow certain bits of Living World content to be accessed independent of the release.
…ways to leave some LW content behind to evolve Tyria and improve the game.

Asked, answered.

BobbyStein.2315:

I can empathize with having a busy life and not always being able to fit my gaming schedule in between work, home life, and social commitments. Your comments are not lost on us.

We’re exploring some ideas for the future, including a system that would allow certain bits of Living World content to be accessed independent of the release. Plans and designs have not been solidified yet, so I want to temper your expectations. But if you have any opinions on the matter feel free to let us know. We’re already looking at ways to leave some LW content behind to evolve Tyria and improve the game. This would be one element of it, should we decide to build such a feature.

Appreciate the response It’s always reassuring to know that the team is listening. Allowing players to revisit at least a small part of the living story is definitely a step in the right direction. I know that for me, when school and work force me to take a hiatus from the game, it’s extremely disheartening to find out I missed out on a large chunk of exclusive content. It also discourages me to play as I feel like I’ve already missed so much.

I will definitely keep my eye on this subforum as I develop ideas to alleviate the current situation.

Basically, i think that the most obvious solution is the right one.
And the most obvious solution is to combine almost all temporary and story driving content into one mission(GW1 style) every two weeks, then combine missions tied by story arcs into campaigns. NOONE will object this decision, and this will also give opportunity to a)keep track of past living story b)replay past living story as a mission.
Win-win.

I don’t even get why living story has to be temporary….

Can’t we have like i don’t know like a Living Story window where we can select LS events from the past so when you enter an area it’s setup with the LS content you selected in the menu and you can simply enjoy it when you got time even a year later… It’s not like the personal story timing makes much sense compared to the rest of the world….

Anyway they should really rethink about the every 2 weeks we release new cheap/temporary contents and move to every 2-3 months we give you epic new contents….

Thanks for the response, Bobby.

I think my ideal solution would be as follows:

1. Put in a Herald NPC (yes, that guy!) in your Home District, that like the replay NPCs during Flame & Frost, allows you to revisit past content. This NPC allows you to do dungeons like the Molten Facility or the Aetherblade Retreat, or any story-related content that takes place in an instance. You can bring a party into this instance by forming a party then going into your Home District as normal.

2. All achievements related to these dungeons can be completed as normal via the Herald. Rare rewards from these dungeons can still be obtained this way as normal.

3. Mini-games are added to the rotation as offered by Kiel/Evon. Achievements for these mini-games can be completed as normal even after the Living Story chapter is concluded.

4. Living Story content affecting the open world disappears at the conclusion of the Chapter (so no more Effigies or Periscopes littering the world), but to make up for this, increase the amount of time between Chapters to 1 month. Obviously, content linked to seasonal events like Wintersday will return next year and can be completed if they were missed the first time.

Its good to see that Arenanet is looking at doing a ‘previously, in the living story’ feature. Really its kind of sorely needed both for those who have missed content and those who want to revise what has happened so far.

I can see it would be a trickly balance since most of Tyria is a persistant world. Leaving a LS active in one area potentially stops that area from being used again for further LS development. I mean it would be odd a year after F&F to have a LS with the Sons of Svanir launching a major attack in the Wayfarer Foothills and have the Molten Allaince doing their refugee thing at the same time. Time line wise, theme wise and story wise it would make no sense.

Having different instances of zones wouldnt work since it would fragment the player base, potentially alot as the LS continued to expand. The story dungeons have the same potential problem with them as after a point there would be more story dungeons spread among the same number of players making it harder to find groups for them. I think the fractal solution really works for bringing them back.

Still having perhaps something like the old story books from GW1 that allowed us to relive key moments in the PS (the instanced bits) while filling in the games with some nice art and either cutscenes or a written tale would be nice. That Marjory cut scene style would be great for this (though Im not sure how resource intensive such a thing would be to do).

Goorman.7916:

Basically, i think that the most obvious solution is the right one.
And the most obvious solution is to combine almost all temporary and story driving content into one mission(GW1 style) every two weeks, then combine missions tied by story arcs into campaigns. NOONE will object this decision, and this will also give opportunity to a)keep track of past living story b)replay past living story as a mission.
Win-win.

I think you would almost certianly have at least someone object:P

Having said that, having one GW1 style mission every two weeks, while having its advantages would create limitations for the story as well. After all, GW1 was a very different game. The other thing is that the story updates would be very focused (since they would be set in only one spot in the world) and feel less tied into the actual ‘Living World’.

Do remember that the GW1 missions didnt live in isolation to the rest of the game world. If you just did the missions you would still miss alot of the lore and the story that happened out of the missions.

The trick I think is for them to have enough ‘highlights’ in each update to create a replayable sense of key moments in the story. This way even if the open world sense of the event has past, key points of the story can be relieved and, more importantly as a hindsight thing, create an overall arc of the living worlds story. In reliving these past events, it should show us not just what happened in individual moments but how they tied together as a story.

Thats just my thoughts though.

We should make a form letter for people to fill out, because these posts always follow the same format.

Please check all that apply.

You are:

[ ] Married
[ ] Have Girlfriend
[X] Employed
[X] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[X] Are an Adult
[X] Have a Life
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[X] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset

Thank you!

Please check all that apply.

You are:
[] Married
[X] Have Girlfriend
[X] Employed
[] Have Pets
[] Have Children
[X] Are an Adult
[X] Have a Life
[]Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:
[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[X] Temporary
[X] Full of Jumping Puzzles
[X] Meaningless

and as a guild wars 1 player, when are we actually going to hear about the actual lore from the guild wars 1 story. honestly, this would bring back most of your GW1 player fan base. ( seers, mursaat, palawa joko, dragon empire, the forgotten, sunspears et ol)

You are Currently Threatening to:
[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[X] Tell the Internet That You are Upset

Thank you!

Bovinity.8610:

Oops. Sorry, ladies, left “boyfriend” out of the survey.

Not everyone with a boyfriend is a girl!

Please check all that apply.

You are:

[ ] Married
[X] Have Girlfriend
[X] Employed
[X] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[X] Are an Adult
[X] Have a Life — if by ‘life’ you mean, work, play as many games as possible, read as many novels and comics as possible, watch movies with my girlfriend, play D&D with my friends. Then yeah, sure, I’ve got one of those…
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[X] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset
[X] Do nothing threatening at all

BobbyStein.2315:

I can empathize with having a busy life and not always being able to fit my gaming schedule in between work, home life, and social commitments. Your comments are not lost on us.

We’re exploring some ideas for the future, including a system that would allow certain bits of Living World content to be accessed independent of the release. Plans and designs have not been solidified yet, so I want to temper your expectations. But if you have any opinions on the matter feel free to let us know. We’re already looking at ways to leave some LW content behind to evolve Tyria and improve the game. This would be one element of it, should we decide to build such a feature.

As far as the instanced content is concerned, you could always bring back these NPCs:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Refugee_%28Living_Story_Recap%29
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Warrior_%28NPC%29

And create other NPCs that accomplish the same thing for the other story instances for other releases. As far as the non-instanced setup, yeah…you’d either need a new system or build a new story instance to house them.

You could even design stuff like this going forward, where the initial event is Live like Lost Shores, but after it finishes you can play it anytime via story instances. Players complain a lot less about missing one-time events if they can play it later whenever they want through instances and get the same rewards. I think we really just want the game to grow instead of expand/contract like it’s been doing, and leaving permanent content behind is a good start but we definitely need the actual story content in there somehow so future players or those that decided to take a break feel like they can come back and still see everything…instead of feeling like they’ve missed so much it’s not worth it to come back.

BobbyStein.2315:

We’re exploring some ideas for the future

I suggest easing up on the achievements and rewards to focus on content. Achievements to encourage participation in LS are great, but achievements that encourage farming or grinding LS are time consuming and stressful to those of us who have busy schedules but don’t want to miss any temporary achievements.

Good LS achievements:

• Tell a story
  • Flame and Frost: Hero’s Aid
  • Dragon Bash: Case Closed
  • Bazaar of the Four Winds: Strangers From The Sky
• Lead the player to content
  • Halloween: It’s a Mad King’s World, Attend the Party, Mad King’s Clock Tower
  • Wintersday: Toypocalypse Canceled, Become the Bells, Gift Bringer
  • Secret of Southsun: Southsun Sightseer, Southsun Volunteer Fieldwork, Crab Toss Participant, Crab Toss Champion, Canach Trapper, Subdirector NULL Demolitionist, Contractually Obligated
  • Dragon Bash: Dragon Ball Devotee
  • Sky Pirates: Equipment Failure, ‘Cornered, Caught, Collared’
  • Bazaar of the Four Winds: Ascent to Zephyr Sanctum, Sanctum Sprinter, Pickup Completionist
  • Ellen Kiel: Aspect Arena Frequenter
  • Evon Gnashblade: Survival Survivor

Bad LS achievements:

• Require grinding^
  • Wintersday: Cold-Weather Friend
  • Flame and Frost: Refugee Volunteer, The Gathering Storm
  • Secret of Southsun: Crabgrabber
  • Dragon Bash: Color The Sky, Paper Dragon, So Lifelike, Burn Down The Dragons, Dragon Ball Boss
  • Sky Pirates: Ascalon/Kryta/Maguuma/Shiverpeaks Aetherblades
  • Ellen Kiel: Homeland Supporter
  • Evon Gnashblade: Homeland Supporter
• Don’t provide anything unique
  • Ellen Kiel: Dungeon Runner, Maw Mulcher, Homeland Supporter, Kiel Every Day
  • Evon Gnashblade: Dungeon Runner, Maw Mulcher, Homeland Supporter, Gnash All the Blades

^ Note that all of the grinding achievements (except Homeland Supporter) do lead players to content, which is good, but they require excessive repetition, which is bad.

Good break-down.
I wrote something similar… ish, here

I agree with the OP on this and hope that Colin’s blog post is addressing this specifically. Temporary content is simply a bad way to tell a story and evolve a living world. Gating content behind platformers is simply a bad idea in an MMO. Anet knew this at the start when they said that JP’s would be there for those who enjoyed them, but would not gate content. In this release they are gating content.

Again, I can only hope that Colin’s blog post is talking about a future where the Bazaar of the four winds won’t happen again.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Good break-down.
I wrote something similar… ish, here

Good breakdown, EnemyCrusher.

pixelpumpkin, I read your link. It seems to me that Living Story has begun to address the issues you spelled out. But people who enjoy LS will continue to enjoy; neutral and rational players will appreciate the improvements; but some people just can’t be satisfied. (Pessimist moment: I don’t think ANet can get shut up 90% critics no matter what they do… Pessimist moment over!)

Using Bazaar and Cutthroat as example for your points:

1. Reward for doing everything once (or get to tier 1): I think achievement points are already a form of reward. I don’t think it’s good to start raining down item rewards (actual items or skins) to everyone who just try everything once. It’s okay to do it sometimes, like Halloween you only needed to follow Mad King around and listen to his jokes and you get the witch hat, or even free wizard hat during Wintersday.

2. Reward desirable items to people who want to grind: The meta rewards (permanent quartz node, Ellen and Evon mini) is a form of this, in that you have to grind (in some way) achievements to get to the “ultimate goal”. As for the new items, you can farm mobs for or buy from gem store (2 methods) to get kite fortunes and then scraps. Grinding these guarantees the Zephyrite helm, dream catcher backs, and later desert rose and zephyr rucksack. Don’t want to farm mobs or shell out gems? Running the 3 minis and play RNG drop for the latter 3. Don’t even want to do that? These items are available enough that they’re reasonably affordable on the TP. I know that Aetherized weapon/skin are still RNG ticket from boxes or RNG drop from trials, but at least you now have the option of farming something for loot instead of no choice but to buy/convert to gems. And at least they’re available on TP too, as ANet has unlocked all items from tickets from account bound.

3. Be able to get to the meta by playing how you want: Bazaar required 16 achievements to get to the meta. Some people hate JP with a passion, so if you don’t go around collecting kites at JPs, you still can get to 16 (although you have to do every other achievement, but then again one of the kites isn’t a JP). Same with Cutthroat, each requiring 6 for meta. I didn’t do any of the trials, dungeons, or fractals, and I got there by grinding the mini games I enjoy (they also dropped me both the rose and 2x rucksack, sun and 2x lightning back, only missing the wind). My boyfriend does not enjoy grinding mini games so much, so he’ll be doing the other 3 on the weekend (on top of voting, homeland support, and daily, which I also did). We each played how we liked to get to the meta. I do think the options are a little limited; and on top of that the trials/dungeon/fractal are harder so they award more achievement points, but they still count as 1 achievement towards the meta. Good place to improve is to balance the achievement count / achievement point / implement that you can use either count or point to get to meta. They can also include more achievement categories, but if they up the total AP from 250 to 500 available per release, I imagine there’s going to be outrage about that too (I still don’t understand why people whine when they choose to grind…)

Anyway, great posts, and I really enjoy Living Story!

Please check all that apply.
You are:
[ ] Married
[X] Have Girlfriend
[ ] Employed
[X] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[X] Are an Adult
[X] Have a Life
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity
You Think Living World is too:
[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[X] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles
You are Currently Threatening to:
[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[X] Tell the Internet That You are Upset

Lol make this a sticky!!!!

nekodoken.5329:

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Good break-down.
I wrote something similar… ish, here

Good breakdown, EnemyCrusher.

pixelpumpkin, I read your link. It seems to me that Living Story has begun to address the issues you spelled out. But people who enjoy LS will continue to enjoy; neutral and rational players will appreciate the improvements; but some people just can’t be satisfied. (Pessimist moment: I don’t think ANet can get shut up 90% critics no matter what they do… Pessimist moment over!)

Yes, I agree with basically all you said. I really think that ANet has been trying out new concepts and mechanisms with each and every release, and generally been moving into the right direction.

The mini-game achievements are a good example of this: where in the past you had to steal 100 crabs, or win 20 games of Dragonball, and then win only ones in Sanctum Sprint… now with Aspect Arena and Southsun Survivor, there are a few achievements that encourage you to try out game mechanism (like headshots or carrying a crystal home) but in general, you get the achievements for just playing the games.

I understand the open world stuff needs to be temporary, but I have no idea why they removed the Rox and Braham missions or the dungeons. Those were instances that made perfect sense to leave in the game. For all of the personal story’s flaws, I don’t understand why the Living Story didn’t replicate the instanced model for story delivery when it didn’t require open world mechanics. We are now in a situation where a large number of players have no idea what happened in the story so far and they have no tools to experience it themselves.

Why remove instanced content from the game? It doesn’t prevent the open world from evolving and removing it doesn’t make the world feel like it evolves.

Shiren.9532:

I understand the open world stuff needs to be temporary, but I have no idea why they removed the Rox and Braham missions or the dungeons. Those were instances that made perfect sense to leave in the game. For all of the personal story’s flaws, I don’t understand why the Living Story didn’t replicate the instanced model for story delivery when it didn’t require open world mechanics. We are now in a situation where a large number of players have no idea what happened in the story so far and they have no tools to experience it themselves.

Why remove instanced content from the game? It doesn’t prevent the open world from evolving and removing it doesn’t make the world feel like it evolves.

Id say two reasons.

Firstly, was thier desire to create a moving story. Having things left in the past as such so it is a past. Im not sure I completely agree with this one as I think the past is still worth referencing. If you think about a TV series, which is an analogy they used, you can still go back and watch past episodes.

The secondly, is contextual. This has some validity and might also tie into how their engine worked. Not all the instanced LS bits make sense together unless you understand the backdrop for the even. For example, in Dragon bash we investigate the death of the captian. In doing so we head out, talk to the individual suspects and bring them back. All those bits are lost without some framework to give context. In short there needs to be some sort of filler explaination between the instanced bits to give that context.

There is also a possibility of an issue with the game engine. My friend was doing his PS in LA during Dragon Bash and commented that all the Dragon Bash decorations were up in the instance. If thats the case events like the Dragon Bash instances would be weird during say, Halloween.

As for the Dungeons, the fractals are the best solution for a simple reason. Dungeon bloat. Just cause a dungeon is doable doesnt mean youll be able to find people to do it with unless you have some interested guildies. This would become even more of an issue as further Story dungeons were added in the future, particularly since these are story dungeons and most people will only do them once or twice. The fractals mean that they are likely to be experianced by anyone wanted to do a fractal eventually and variaty in fractals will be a good thing.

Thats my take on it anyway.

After all the time spent and new organization they have and stuff,it’s probably a strong consensus that made Anet announce the fortnight Lw…but it seems like too much of good thing somehow,if it is a good thing.Personally I haven’t been playing gw2/been online for the last few weeks due to exams and so much seems to have happened.I feel like the world whistles on it’s merry way way too fast and the living story idea that makes gw2 special will become incredibly commonplace for gw2 players and nobody will look forward to the new releases with the same enthusiasm as they did before eg-Flame and Frost.Now that saga was cool.Earlier,I’d normally be like ‘DAMMIT I missed a Lw saga maan this really sucks’…but now I’d be like ‘I missed 4 Lw sagas?ehh no biggie new kitten is released next week anyway who cares about the lw sagas nowadays except 24/7ers *shrug’. Well I guess I’ll just hope all this Lw leads to fighting a new dragon at the end at least.Here’s my sticky :/
Please check all that apply.

You are:

[ ] Married
[X] Have Girlfriend
[X] @Insanely hyperactive law college
[X] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[X] 20 years.Not sure if it counts as adult anymore
[X] Have a Life
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[ ] Time Consuming
[X] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles
[X] Should lead to somewhere meaningful,time and Anet will tell
You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset
[X] Go back to sleep*yawn*
Thank you!

Bovinity.8610:

---

Please check all that apply.

You are:

[ ] Married
[X] Have Girlfriend
[ ] Employed
[X] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[ ] Are an Adult
[X] Have a Life
[ ] Have no Manual Dexterity

You Think Living World is too:

[ ] Hard
[X] Time Consuming
[X] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles

You are Currently Threatening to:

[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[ ] Tell the Internet That You are Upset
[X] Eat Icecream

---

Thank you!

Well i didnt like the temporariness of the living world things, but theyre actually making more permanent things, and theyre also bringing back the molten facility and aetherblade retreat dungeons back, so.
And i think the living world being time consuming is a good thing