Guild Wars 2

You’ve talked about no expansions, constant updates. I’m fine with that. What I’m tired of is having no idea what’s coming more than a few weeks out. There’s no big picture, and if so, we can’t see the shape of it, and so we can’t have any sense of anticipation. What’s happening after the bazaar? No clue. It could be in the Shiverpeaks, it could be in Ascalon, it could be on the moon for all we know.

That’s one nice thing about expansions, as soon as one’s announced, you have a goal. It usually involves hyping up a core location or story element, “oh, we’re going to Elona,” “oh, we’re going to be taking out Jormag!” The Living world gives no opportunity for that sort of anticipation, because as soon as we know something’s coming, it’s already here.

So throw your caps over the wall. You can keep the bi-weekly updates, those are fine, but give us a long term target, tell us that in six months, or even a year, we will definitely be in [some cool location], or we will definitely be doing [some epic conflict]. Give us a long term plan, it doesn’t have to be very detailed, and you don’t need to spoil what will happen in between, but set up a cool future event, something cool enough that people would buy a $50+ expansion just to experience it, and tell us that it will be happening in the relatively near future.

It will come

When it’s ready.

You will likely want to wait for the blog post that is going to happen on the 25th I think is what Colin said.

As what the poster above me said. They are going to do a big blogpost every 6 months. Next one is coming up end of july.

While not much, this is about all we get (not including blog posts, where are those anyways? in the forum or somewhere else?),
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/

A very small teaser at the next event, and also when more info will be available. But I agree it would be nice. I remember during some vlog a dev saying that they now have 4 living story content teams (with each team working on 1 months worth of content in rotation). It would be nice to see/know what is coming 2 months from now.

butch.8136:

As what the poster above me said. They are going to do a big blogpost every 6 months. Next one is coming up end of july.

Taking bets right now that the blog post will be extremely underwhelming and uninformative. Just lip service and vague talk about the general direction they want to go. And it will all be the same vague words they’ve already been posting right here on the forums. There will probably be a section reiterating how “we want the elementalist to be the jack of all trades, we want the thief to be the mobile profession, etc.” There will be a section about how they want to continue the living story, as if it’s a revelation. They will mention briefly that they want to do other permanent content, but won’t go into detail. It will be a wall of text full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Ohoni.6057:

There’s no big picture, and if so, we can’t see the shape of it, and so we can’t have any sense of anticipation. What’s happening after the bazaar? No clue. It could be in the Shiverpeaks, it could be in Ascalon, it could be on the moon for all we know.

…but set up a cool future event, something cool enough that people would buy a $50+ expansion just to experience it, and tell us that it will be happening in the relatively near future.

This is my problem with the living story as well, and it bugging me more and more. The new content looks amazing has fun little mini games but has no substance or progression. Just random little chapters which seem like hardly a task for the guy that killed Zhaitan. I’m now reduced to fixing roadsign posts, collecting kites, sorting out island resort employment disputes, helping with trade agreements, and coming up soon… an election. (the banners and election pins have already been datamined) OMG SO UNINSPIRING!!

For an example of what I want: A quest to find some ancient tomb (find clues to its entrance, a way to enter it (maybe by charging up an artifact by going to locations around the map), fight my way through through a huge dungeon (which has a linear progression which is unlocked in stages and you can return to a part you unlocked NOT paths), take on this strange mysterious individual and his generals, who we discover later comes from X, and his real intentions are Y. I want to find out that the person that sent us there was corrupted by this mysterious character and it was a trap, then when we have dealt with X we return to confront our trapper and he escapes at the end of the fight not before revealing there is another, a more powerful individual is behind it all and next chapter we have to go to another amazing location to work out how to defeat our new foe…

I want reoccurring characters I feel connected to (Kiel is just seems one dimensional compared to the charismatic characters from the 3 factions in my living story). I want an arch enemy that keeps eluding me so when I finally take him out it feels like an accomplishment.

Xenon.4537:

butch.8136:

As what the poster above me said. They are going to do a big blogpost every 6 months. Next one is coming up end of july.

Taking bets right now that the blog post will be extremely underwhelming and uninformative. Just lip service and vague talk about the general direction they want to go. And it will all be the same vague words they’ve already been posting right here on the forums. There will probably be a section reiterating how “we want the elementalist to be the jack of all trades, we want the thief to be the mobile profession, etc.” There will be a section about how they want to continue the living story, as if it’s a revelation. They will mention briefly that they want to do other permanent content, but won’t go into detail. It will be a wall of text full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

I’m sure also mentioned will be a reference to the last video and how they’ve accomplished what they set out to do. They will most likely discuss their teams and how all come together to give us the players a vibrant, living world that no other company has achieved before.

While some of it’s true, I’d also say there will be some marketing in the mix, trying to hype up new/old fans into staying active.

Then again, a dev might read this and change the whole narrative just to prove us wrong

Time will tell!

Thobek.1730:

Ohoni.6057:

There’s no big picture, and if so, we can’t see the shape of it, and so we can’t have any sense of anticipation. What’s happening after the bazaar? No clue. It could be in the Shiverpeaks, it could be in Ascalon, it could be on the moon for all we know.

…but set up a cool future event, something cool enough that people would buy a $50+ expansion just to experience it, and tell us that it will be happening in the relatively near future.

This is my problem with the living story as well, and it bugging me more and more. The new content looks amazing has fun little mini games but has no substance or progression. Just random little chapters which seem like hardly a task for the guy that killed Zhaitan. I’m now reduced to fixing roadsign posts, collecting kites, sorting out island resort employment disputes, helping with trade agreements, and coming up soon… an election. (the banners and election pins have already been datamined) OMG SO UNINSPIRING!!

For an example of what I want: A quest to find some ancient tomb (find clues to its entrance, a way to enter it (maybe by charging up an artifact by going to locations around the map), fight my way through through a huge dungeon (which has a linear progression which is unlocked in stages and you can return to a part you unlocked NOT paths), take on this strange mysterious individual and his generals, who we discover later comes from X, and his real intentions are Y. I want to find out that the person that sent us there was corrupted by this mysterious character and it was a trap, then when we have dealt with X we return to confront our trapper and he escapes at the end of the fight not before revealing there is another, a more powerful individual is behind it all and next chapter we have to go to another amazing location to work out how to defeat our new foe…

I want reoccurring characters I feel connected to (Kiel is just seems one dimensional compared to the charismatic characters from the 3 factions in my living story). I want an arch enemy that keeps eluding me so when I finally take him out it feels like an accomplishment.

I agree man. Unfortunately casual playstyle seams to take the seat of the Living story with constant micro content. Skins with lot’s of particle effects.

Jump into WvW and take some camps, towers, or even a keep. Currently that’s more ground breaking than collecting some kites I feel accomplished, rewarded, and even get to fight fellow players. All good fun

Xenon.4537:

butch.8136:

As what the poster above me said. They are going to do a big blogpost every 6 months. Next one is coming up end of july.

Taking bets right now that the blog post will be extremely underwhelming and uninformative. Just lip service and vague talk about the general direction they want to go. And it will all be the same vague words they’ve already been posting right here on the forums. There will probably be a section reiterating how “we want the elementalist to be the jack of all trades, we want the thief to be the mobile profession, etc.” There will be a section about how they want to continue the living story, as if it’s a revelation. They will mention briefly that they want to do other permanent content, but won’t go into detail. It will be a wall of text full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Heh, I hope not, but I bet it will be this.

Thobek.1730:

This is my problem with the living story as well, and it bugging me more and more. The new content looks amazing has fun little mini games but has no substance or progression. Just random little chapters which seem like hardly a task for the guy that killed Zhaitan.

Umm, excuse me, Trahearne is the one that killed Zhaitan. Or at least he got/took the credit.

Ok, so the blog post has come and gone, and the cakitten till on this side of the wall. Throw the cap already!

I rather like not knowing all the specifics of what’s to come too far out. Makes for more enjoyable surprises.

I don’t need a roadmap, I don’t need them to spoil every plotpoint along the way, but I want a goal, I want to know that they are headed somewhere cool, rather than just meandering around with little pointless episodes. I’ve enjoyed the Living World stuff well enough so far, but I want to know that we’re going to be doing something EPIC in the near future, something bigger than rounding up some thugs or guarding supplies.

There are five+ dragons out there, they need to pick one and aim us towards it.

Ohoni.6057:

I want to know that they are headed somewhere cool, rather than just meandering around with little pointless episodes.

They’ve already said so; if you watched Colin’s livestream he did say that everything in the Living Story so far (from January, that is) will be brought together, as they were all interconnected somehow. Not to mention the “personal villain” character that’s probably behind it all. That excites me, at least.

They’ve already said so; if you watched Colin’s livestream he did say that everything in the Living Story so far (from January, that is) will be brought together, as they were all interconnected somehow. Not to mention the “personal villain” character that’s probably behind it all. That excites me, at least.

They’ve been making those same vague promises for months though, and so far it’s all been political/economic intrigue. They need to either name a dragon, or name a new target zone like Elona, Cantha, etc. Give a goal. That’s what we’re missing from not having an expansion, because you know that would be in the very first press release of any expansion.

Ohoni.6057:

They’ve already said so; if you watched Colin’s livestream he did say that everything in the Living Story so far (from January, that is) will be brought together, as they were all interconnected somehow. Not to mention the “personal villain” character that’s probably behind it all. That excites me, at least.

They’ve been making those same vague promises for months though, and so far it’s all been political/economic intrigue. They need to either name a dragon, or name a new target zone like Elona, Cantha, etc. Give a goal. That’s what we’re missing from not having an expansion, because you know that would be in the very first press release of any expansion.

Except they won’t. Colin has stated they don’t plan to bring any dragon on the table soon because they leave dragon for expansion type content (wheter it comes as a real expansion or not is still not decided).

Well then I’m not satisfied with the Living World. I’m fine with them drizzling out Living World content, but I don’t care if it’s monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, or even daily content additions, if it never actually goes anywhere then who cares?

I’m fine with the living world, but only if it acts to progress the war against the dragons. If they require an expansion to start tackling a new dragon, then they need to switch focus back to working on the expansion immediately and ditch all this Living World stuff.

Ohoni.6057:

Well then I’m not satisfied with the Living World. I’m fine with them drizzling out Living World content, but I don’t care if it’s monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, or even daily content additions, if it never actually goes anywhere then who cares?

I’m fine with the living world, but only if it acts to progress the war against the dragons. If they require an expansion to start tackling a new dragon, then they need to switch focus back to working on the expansion immediately and ditch all this Living World stuff.

So…the Living Story isn’t going anywhere simply cause we don’t know what the general big picture is currently? Also why should everything be dragons or bust? Just because you can’t see the destination doesn’t mean the journey isn’t worth taking or that the story is pointless.

So…the Living Story isn’t going anywhere simply cause we don’t know what the general big picture is currently? Also why should everything be dragons or bust? Just because you can’t see the destination doesn’t mean the journey isn’t worth taking or that the story is pointless.

Look, there’s no point arguing about it, there’s nothing here that you can convince me of, it’s all about personal opinion. My personal opinion is that while I’m still enjoying the game well enough, I would enjoy it much more if I felt it had a direction to it. It’s like how some shows are purely episodic, one show after another, each telling an interesting story but ultimately ending up back where it started, while others have a solid arc to them, building to a point. Part of that process is foreshadowing, giving the audience a goal that they have reason to believe the series is heading.

And yes, when they presented this game as a war against the five elder dragons, the implicit promise in that is that we would be facing these dragons. If it’s years down the road and we aren’t even halfway through it then the plot would feel like a huge wasted opportunity. They don’t need to let us kill a second dragon this year, but we should at least be actively working towards it, rather than just treading water. and waiting for the opportunity to present itself.

VKP Butcher.2751:

Ohoni.6057:

Well then I’m not satisfied with the Living World. I’m fine with them drizzling out Living World content, but I don’t care if it’s monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, or even daily content additions, if it never actually goes anywhere then who cares?

I’m fine with the living world, but only if it acts to progress the war against the dragons. If they require an expansion to start tackling a new dragon, then they need to switch focus back to working on the expansion immediately and ditch all this Living World stuff.

So…the Living Story isn’t going anywhere simply cause we don’t know what the general big picture is currently? Also why should everything be dragons or bust? Just because you can’t see the destination doesn’t mean the journey isn’t worth taking or that the story is pointless.

It doesn’t have to be dragons or bust. At least not for now, and introduction of one of the other dragons would be nice. But in the meantime something better than next chapters election campaign would be a step in the right direction.

I used to play WoW and the story pre cata was so rich in lore and fantasy. War against the Lich King, Travel through a portal to another dimension to fight an outcast of the night elves who has assembled an army. Fight against the generals of a god. What do we get? an election campaign involving two boring characters for a trading company. seriously?!!?

If someone asked me about GW2 and said “what’s the story like?”

“Well this chapter we have these two characters we’re helping out to get elected to fill an empty spot on a trading company”

“No, I said GW2, the fantasy MMO, not SIM POLITICS 2.0”

I’d rather experience the story as it plays out, with hints at each next chapter than know what’s going to happen for the next four chapters. The story is much more exciting when experienced in game rather than summarized in a developer blog.

Thobek.1730:

“Well this chapter we have these two characters we’re helping out to get elected to fill an empty spot on a trading company”

They’re being elected to the Lion’s Arch Captain’s Council, to fill the seat of the recently assassinated Councillor Ashford…