This is a suggestion post for a non-intrusive replayable living story.
A NPC called “InsertRandomNameHere (i.e. Yakkington) the Historian” should be added to one/all major cities. This NPC has taken part of one arch of the living story as an observer and will now tell new heroes and heroes who have been adventuring out of town of the events that have taken place.
The NPC will tell his story in the same timely parts as the Living Story has taken place. This means, he will give you access to the first part of the Living Story in the first two weeks, then switch to the next part of LS for the following two weeks. Users will not be able to decide which part of the LS they can play at a given time and thus, the LS will stay time gated, but repeatable. If the LS part takes place in an area that is not part of the current Tyria, they will be ported directly to an instanced map together with all other users replaying this part. If the events had taken place in a part of Tyria, a new instanced map of this area will be created just for the part of this LS for all participating players.
Events that ultimately altered Tyria and changed it to the Tyria that exists today are not changeable anymore (i.e. The vote for President). Halloween, Wintersday, Dragon Bash are not part of the LS and are already repeated yearly, therefore these events will be skipped by the historian.
Pros:
- New players and players with time constraints are now able to replay missed parts of any LS Arch
- The LS will now increase the maximum playable content of GuildWars 2
- Designed content will stay and thus increase the worth of spend work time on LS
Cons:
- Player who have been part of the LS might feel cheated, as it is something special, character defining to have taken part of specific LS parts
- Already finished LS parts still need maintenance
- Users might skip current LS content because they can redo it another time
ANET has the option to disable:
- Achievable Titles
- Achievement Points
- Achievable weapon/armor skins
(Even though I personally would like to gain achievements, titles and skins, the option to disable all or some of it could ultimately lessen the somehow justified rage of people who felt committed to do anything per LS part as it will never come back)
From a business point of view this system should add value to GuildWars 2 for most players, especially for new players and increase profits. New players are more likely to stay, old users more likely to come back and for all users the playable content is increased which should increase spend time in GW2 altogether. This should lead to more income that easily outstrips the additional design and maintenance costs. The rage of current users is a given, but should be negligible in the long run with increased common user satisfaction. The user base that skips current LS and stays offline as it will be replay able for two weeks in a year or so should stay relatively small.