Guild Wars 2

Why not just make a single folder called “Archive” and then move all the archived forums into that?

Greetings and Salutations.

We are all well aware of the current state of discontent with the pacing and rollout of content in the game. The second anniversary of Guild Wars 2 came and went with a whisper, and many question whether we are significantly better off now than we were a year prior. Numerous posts highlight the last time any attention was paid to fractals, to dungeons, to SAB, to WvW, to guild content, and to every other aspect of the game that spark the players’ passion.

I am not here to dismiss these concerns, nor to add my own lamentations to them. Instead, I would like to offer a simple proposition. It is completely understandable why Arenanet has done what they have done. China’s release yielded enormous revenue, an excellent business decision despite its enormous consumption of developer resources. Likewise, one can easily appreciate that the company would have difficulty catering to a hundred different player desires at once. Everyone wants something different, and the only thing we players have in common is that we think Anet should drop everything and cater specifically to our niche.

Yet despite both the business decisions and resource allocation being reasonable, it is also perfectly understandable for players to be dissatisfied with how their needs are being addressed. So many Arenanet posts describe a new feature or mechanic as “a good foundation for the future”, but these platforms remain underused and underdeveloped. Even the most innovative systems become monotonous if they never receive tender love and care, for no amount of planning and well-wishing to revisit a beloved mechanic some day in the future will match actual effort.

And so I offer this judgment. The Living Story has not failed. But it needs help.

The Living Story is the answer for a growing and changing world. It is the perfect way to gradually expand the game outward, taking us beyond the borders of the current game and discovering new lands, new plots, new challenges, and new heroics. The Living Story will one day take us into the Crystal Desert to challenge the mighty Kralkatorric, delve into the depths to confront the Destroyers, hunt the mighty Jormag in the Far Shiverpeaks, walk with the Tengu and dive with the Largos, and perhaps even return to the lands of Elona, Cantha, the realms of spirits and gods, and so much more…

But it cannot sustain this game alone, not at this current pace. With so many mechanics starving for attention, the bi-monthly seasonings of the Living Story simply lack the necessary meat. The voracious hunger of the player base howls for more content to sate so many different tastes. No matter the brilliance of Arenanet’s masterful chefs, the sheer number of plates demanding so many different orders keep piling up. When the restaurant becomes overcrowded and begins spilling out into the street, a good manager knows the answer is not more brilliant chefs.

It’s minions. Lots and lots of helpful minions.

So consider, if you will, a Community Content Krewe.

Hear me out. Numerous games have flourished as a direct result of allowing fans to tinker with their mechanics on many different levels.

Skyrim is the poster child for a wide range of modding efforts. Immersive Weapons and Immersive Armors are classic examples of 3d modeling talent, alongside the hundreds of hair models, magic effects, and atmospheric upgrades across the community. The Skyrim Script Extender is a brilliant example of programming expertise, without which a hundred excellent overhauls and enhancements would be impossible. And on the voice acting front, Interesting NPCs forms the golden standard in RPGs, all done by dedicated fans bringing interesting characters to life. In fact, the entire Skywind Project to recreate Morrowind in the Skyrim engine is a perfect example of the sheer brilliance of modding communities. Just spend ten minutes examining the Nexus and you’ll see what kinds of wonders arise from the fans’ labors of love.

ARMA 2 is an excellent example of the programming improvements players can produce, with its modding community featuring numerous addons and modules. Mount and Blade hosts numerous total conversion mods which completely overhaul the units, terrain, mechanics, or setting of the conflict, providing a rich and engaging experience. Kerbal Space Program provides hundreds of hours of whimsical science, expanded by its dedicated modding community.

It’s also worth mentioning just how amazing something as specific as fan-made 3d art can be. Star Citizen recently held its Next Great Starship competition geared towards allowing hobbyists to craft a ship in game. The results were considered superior to many of the professional company’s own ships, and a few of the hobbyists have recently shown up on the company’s employee roster. Just saying, the hobbyists have skills. To paraphrase one of Cloud Imperium’s lead artists in response to the fan competition, “we need to step up our game.”

And finally, one has to mention that player-made content has already been utilized in other MMOs. Cryptic implemented The Foundry in both Neverwinter and Star Trek Online to allow player-crafted missions. While these tools are far more public than what I propose, it is worth recognizing how the MMO sphere is not devoid of community driven content.

These works prove that fans have the talent and the passion to bolster a game they love through programming, 3d modeling, voice acting, writing, map design, and in-engine enhancements. Now imagine, for a moment, what they could do for Guild Wars 2.

The Krewe would have to be application based, in order to ensure that everyone involved already possesses a skill or ability that can help. Something as wide open to the public as The Foundry wouldn’t work for any advanced projects or serious content. But a simple network of applications and invitations can reel in plenty of eager hobbyists hoping to enhance the game with their abilities.

Based merely on what other modding communities have accomplished, consider the following hypothetical krewes (now edited to remove obscene verbosity)…

All eight teams I mention above are completely possible. Every single skillset or ability have emerged in one or more modding teams across the gaming medium, and each of them relies on existing frameworks within Guild Wars 2’s engineering. Arenanet themselves have constantly said the mechanics under the hood were conceived as foundations, ideal platforms for additional content down the line. The system was designed for incremental improvements!

But bless your hearts, Arenanet, you are more interested in treading new ground and making shiny new systems than sitting down and giving the current foundations the simple, mundane, unsophisticated love and care they need to rise to greatness.

We can.

We’re not experts. While there may be diamonds in the rough with talent that rivals the developers, many of us are only amateurs and hobbyists. Yet even a slight sliver of talent polishing a small piece of content can contribute to the game, and a hundred tiny efforts can snowball into something greater. Something amazing.

I realize that what I propose is insane. There are a thousand complications related to logistics and coordination, not to mention security and quality control. A decision of this magnitude would require a great deal of consideration and discussion within Arenanet itself, since it requires no small effort to distribute tools and integrate content into the game as a whole. Caution is well warranted in the face of the mad ramblings of a deranged fan.

But Arenanet has walked the path of madness before. It was insanity to reject the subscription based service of MMOs and launch Guild Wars under the buy-to-play model. Lunacy, to forsake the Holy Trinity and focus on positioning and individual skill use. Psychosis, to upend the common wisdom of enormous skill lists and scrolling hotbars and streamline the experience into a few solid abilities. Mania of the highest order, to declare that the gear treadmill was a false god and design a game around a power plateau. And delirium rivaling only the cackling laughter of the Elder Gods themselves to commit to growing a game outward through iterative content updates, bringing the world to life without ever requiring payment from the playerbase. But this madness, this glorious spark of creative insanity is what gave Guild Wars life, defying the stagnant conventions of the genre while whimsically whispering “Let’s try it.”

As developer and community both question how to proceed in the coming years, know this. The answer does not lie in the safety of sanity, nor the long-walked halls of conventional wisdom. The only thing that will keep up with the voracious appetite of the player base is that same burning hunger channeled into creative zeal.

Because that desire, that need for more content and experiences, it all originates from love. Love for the game, for the community, for the amazing adventure brought to life by the developers’ will. We are here because we believe in the wonder that is Guild Wars. And if you, the developers, grant the talented and the tenacious among us the means to make this game better, we will work, and toil, and strive, and strain, and sweat, and ache, and bleed for you. For the game we love.
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I realize how much this post is asking, how absurdly audacious this request may be. But mull it over. Give it time. Consider what you would want to put in the game, all the wonders and adventures that could be done if you only had the time, the resources, and the sheer number of hands on keyboards to get it done. All those labors of love you wish you had time to create, but just don’t have a high enough priority to work. From Polymock to SAB, dashing capes to King of the Hill, dungeon Challenge Modes to Canthan fractals, consider all the dreams that you know simply won’t get into the game under the current pace.

And the next time you’re sitting down to a cup of coffee, or relaxing after a hard day’s work, or spending a few minutes brushing your teeth (and flossing!), consider what could be accomplished with fifty, a hundred, a thousand eager helpers just waiting to make those dreams become reality.

If you give us gear and the order to march, your army stands ready.

Nilkemia.8507:

Thanks for the list. However, my stance on the level gating remains the same. It’s a garbage idea that should’ve never been done.

+1
/15chars.

Thanks for the list. However, my stance on the level gating remains the same. It’s a garbage idea that should’ve never been done.

You travel into a land that has had all hope stripped from it. There, a new “vision” is manifest. It is a land of fear, and with that weapon, darkness will strike at your heart. What do you fear?

Answer 1: I have always been afraid that already-finished content would be removed. That characters I cared about would disappear, and that I couldn’t save them.

Response 1: You are a good person. That you seek to protect these characters shows your gentle heart. Hold fast to that earnestness; it will also be your strength.

Answer 2: My greatest fear is that all of the story that shows that my character is fallible would be removed; a failure so grievous that it would cause the loss of the respect of my comrades. That it would disappoint my companions and become a source of dishonor.

Response 2: It is good to hold oneself in high regard, but better to remember that a hero who is always perfect is shallow and two-dimensional. Keep this in mind, or you will find yourself alone.

Answer 3: I worry that my duties will cause me to continue to watch something I truly care about be condemned to agony. Knowing that I’d been unable to voice my concern sooner because I did not know what was coming would be more than I could bear.

Response 3: Your heart is courageous but also kind. Hold fast to that, and remember that mistakes can be repaired, if you are strong enough to face them.

I need some time to consider my answer, Mother Tree. Give me a moment to reflect.

Thank you, Pale Tree. I will remember your wisdom.

RIP Lionguard Apatia: We knew we would lose you, but never thought it would be like this.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Apatia

Please bring back the Personal Story plot points that have been removed. They are an already-finished product (an already-invested production cost) and I felt like these were the most important moments in my character’s life. Seeing them gone from my character’s Story Journal in the Hero Panel makes me feel like a part of their history is gone. And when I read that the Feature Pack would make story “more compelling” I waited to continue story on alts who had not yet finished it. Now I feel like I should have rushed them through before the update, as now they will never get to meet the characters who I thought were most important to my story.

-A Devout GW2 Fan

I’ve got this one guys.

Playing true S2e1 i was fascinated whit the new map and the wibe of the whole place and armour – head gear. Its not elonian but desert still. I would love to see a dungeon in this style. Sand, canyons, devours. I think it would be an epic dungeon and experience and i think that the armour set could be really something different than the current gear.

Now that the Wizard Hat is a part of the wardrobe and you can wear it as armor, it would be nice if we could change the color of it. That purple color does not go with everything and the hat is very unique to the game, would be nice to match it with my armor.

Greetings and salutations.

With Season 1 of the Living Story drawing to a close, it seems appropriate to offer review and reflection of everything that has come thus far. Sadly, there is much to consider, as the brand new path trod by Anet has many missteps and mishaps along the way.

Rather than talk about individual flaws, I thought it might be best to take a stab at the overall writing style of the Living Story and the narrative flaws it continues to exhibit. Plot holes come and go, individual complaints will always remain, but the best way to help Season 2 is to consider the pitfalls of Season 1 from a writing and gaming perspective. And so, I thought I would offer up a bit of constructive criticism in silly infographic format.

For your consideration, Fifteen Lessons From Fifteen Months of Scarlet Briar.

Gold coin is 24k, gold ore and the gold ingots are much lower quality (MUCH lower)

It doesn’t have to be big changes or a rush. The world is set up for it already.

The humans are losing the war with the centaurs. After a big loss (Fort Salma is destroyed) Minister Caudecus criticiseses the Queen for supporting Ebonhawke when Kryta is in dire straights. All of Kryta’s resources should be going to protecting her own people, withdrawing support for Ebonhawke would also make talks with the charr easier (Caudecus doesn’t care about this, he just want to hit the Queen with it). Faced with losing support from the people and the council and possibly the war with the centaurs, the Queen decides to cut ties to Ebonhawke. Logan can’t accept that, those are his people, his family’s legacy, so he quits and leaves the Queen. This change in Kryta is big enough to make Logan question his dedication to it, a believable betrayal of Ebonhawke and a revival of Logan’s pre-Seraph identity.

Things get real bad in Ebonhawke. Without the Fallen Angels or supplies from Kryta, the city is divided and overthrown by Separatists. In attempts to replace the supplies from Kryta, Separatists become more aggressive in charr territory, kittening off the Black Citadel.

Working from behind the scenes (with the support of the Order of Whispers and Elonians wanting to maintain the door to the Crystal Desert) Logan and a few free Ebon Vanguard form an elite unit, giving hope to the oppressed people of the city by reviving legends of the Ebon Falcons, Kieran Thackeray’s unit that helped found the city 250 years ago. Ebon Vanguard propaganda starts appearing in Ebonhawke and Ascalonian settlements in Kryta.

Insert series of events showing Logan’s unit saving the charr from Separatists, Separatists swapping sides (characterise them with believable and representative villains, showing the depth of that conflict beyond “these are the bad guys hurr durr”), grandstanding villain at prisoner execution disrupted by the Ebon Vanguard etc. Mix in some charr rebels as well. Finish with a joint Vanguard/charr assault, retaking Ebonhawke and Logan refusing to hand it over the charr.

Follow it up with Logan beginning scouting missions into the Crystal Desert. His new allies help reforge Ebonhawke as a bastion at the edge of an Elder Dragon’s domain. When the Crystal Desert does open up, Logan is now positioned to proceed with his redemption.

Give Logan a makeover. Think less “Disney prince” and more “Sparatcus, rebel gladiator” from the Starz TV series. Ditch the Seraph armour (he’s not one any more) and give him some new gladiator/Ebonhawke themed armour. Less steel, more leather, maybe even some exposed skin (it’s hot in the Crystal Desert), he is a gladiator after all. Give him back his hammer (everyone loves free protection from NPC auto-attacks) or finally give him Magdaer (how long to norn smiths take?). Give him a hair cut and some stubble, he’s not trying to woo the Queen or play politics in the city, he’s a soldier on the front lines in daily skirmishes, no need for long locks and daily grooming. His appearance should help characterise his new life and how different it was from his cushy job in Kryta.

I’m really glad the OP pointed out how different Logan was in the game from how he was before he met the Queen in the book. I’m really interested to see what their proposal for how to turn him into a great character again looks like.

The comparisons between Scarlet and the Joker deflate as soon as you look past the laughter.

The only trait they share is the characteristic detached mania: the heightened emotional state leading to frequent cackling murder. Whereas this is all we see of Scarlet, the Joker is bi-polar, regularly flipping into depressions as low as his manias are high.

Mr. J has a limited personal skillset, refined through practice into expertise in leadership and strategic planning. While he does fiddle with simple toys, he leaves the real engineering to others. He uses his capacity for strategy like a military general, applying immense pressure on a single, small goal.

All of his resources – from personnel to money and materials – are acquired with some believable difficulty and tenacity. Everybody throws everything they have into fighting him. Yet his thugs have genuine reasons to believe that the rewards of joining and staying on his side are worth the risks.

He is a character of obsession. Most of his jokes arise from a compulsion for the ritual of the gag. Everything he does is expressly for the attention of the person whose visage consumes his mind.

Scarlet is an attention-deficient, antisocial sadist whose entire franchise of influence is handed to her on golden platters of deus ex machina.

Her skillset is simultaneously diverse and deep. She somehow attains mastery of every subject she touches, even though she gets bored right after starting them. Tinkerer, chemist, mystic, fighter, leader: Scarlet does it all herself, and supposedly better than anyone else. Then she goes on and does something else.

For Ms. Briar, resources jump out the air like sparkles ‘round a unicorn. Most of her minions have little if any reason to follow her, but by now it feels like a quarter of Tyria’s population has happily fallen in line to suffer under her pigtails. Troves of materials that would make a nation blush get tossed around the continent like confetti, and we have no idea how she got them. Or where she keeps them. Her incessant raids around the world expend much, but acquire nothing. Although her enterprises bleed assets at a horrific rate, they miraculously keep getting bigger.

The opposition is hardly stacked against her, though. She took over half of Kessex, and the only forces that responded were a handful of outsiders. Not a single fart against her from the Queen, centaurs, or bandits affected by the incursion. This is the red carpet Scarlet can expect everywhere she goes.

She has a goal, but it is expansive and seems more reactive than active. Her designs result from a destructive defense mechanism against the unpleasantness of existing in the world as it is, with the people that are in it. Her grand plan is to push everyone and everything away, to break every system and bone and rock that offends her. It’s a sort of reverse suicide of the present life by destroying all that is outside instead of inside.

The Joker is almost all focus and cathexis, embracing his life and the world around him as tools for his obsession with playing the game against his chosen opponent. Scarlet has none of this, and that void is just another thing she has in spades.

CHIPS.6018:

The story have to be darker and more serious to capture the correct target audience. There are murders.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ceremony_and_Acrimony

CHIPS.6018:

There are slaughters.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fury_of_the_Dead

CHIPS.6018:

There are betrayal by best friends and family.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Demmi_Beetlestone

CHIPS.6018:

They are unlikely heroes.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Help_the_skritt_challenge_the_bandits

But most importantly,

CHIPS.6018:

There are kitten s.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chauncey_von_Snuffles_III

This option would be a great help when ground targeting while in a hurry. When all you have is a split second to escape or die, you do not have time to fiddle with view angle while finding a good target point. I agree it would be a much welcome improvement.

I would like a toggle (Or a modifier key that forces this) where if I try to cast a ground targeted spell too far away, instead of getting an error it would just activate at max range instead.

Primarily useful for skills like Blink, where getting an error instead of actually teleporting means the difference between surviving and dying.

If there already is a way to do this…someone please tell me how and I’ll love you forever.

So much this.

I was completely relieved when I saw the Queen’s Speech was going to be a low key arc with virtually nothing to do. I thought I could finally take a few days break from Living Story content to play parts of the game I enjoy.
Haha nope. Clockwork Chaos rolls around, and now I have to idle in LA nearly every hour hoping RNG blesses a map I need so I can run around in a zerg for 45 minutes to get 1/13th of a single achievement. Not to mention the other achievements coexisting with that one as well, and a dungeon.

Some days I think the core game was all just a dream, where you could play the game no strings attached and not miss out on a temporary story/lore or achievements.

I’d almost prefer the game breaking bugs during headstart than a few more Living Stories. I can’t keep up, I can’t play what I want without being left behind, and I start to wonder why do I care. I can’t even begin to imagine how newer players feel, they don’t have any time to explore or go for map completion unless they blow off the latest story arc.

This is like buying a book to read when you want to, only to learn that every day someone bursts into your room and rips out the first 5 pages. Now instead of reading it when you’re bored or interested, you have to read it every day or you lose.

We really apreciate all that hard work you’re putting into the Living Story, it is a compliment to say that you’re working TOO MUCH indeed, but the thing is, you’re doing it to a point where you’re burning your players, including some great ones like my guildmate that I’m starting to miss in the game. I won’t label myself as great, but I can speak from the perspective of a GWAMM, which means I got experience at completing hard achievements, and you’re putting too many tasklists in the game and it feels really wrong. Not to mention that you’re also puting hard content on short time frames (hard + temporal is a bad thing, hard is great, temporal is fine, both are super bad, imagine needing to complete Mallyx in a month).

You know what I really loved about GW1? That because it didn’t have monthly fees, I could stop playing for 2 months as I didn’t have to amortize it, and then return to it when I felt I wanted to. Of course you would have to work a bit after returning to keep up with other players, but you could do it and you could set the bar where you wanted because you wasn’t limited by constant tasklists. But now all this LS thing is giving a sense of missing the game experience if you don’t play a lot every month.

As I said, that is a good thing from a business perspective, but please, take into consideration that you might be “killing all your cows” for a big feast now, but you’re not considering to separate some of them to breed and have more cows in the future.

The system is already burning players, including many of the good ones that are the ones keeping the community going like this guildmate I told you (there are many other players that will play for a while, follow the trend, then jump to a different game, but you’re losing guys that were really dedicated to the game and loved it).

Please, strongly consider slowing down the pace, I’m not saying “no more LS”, it’s how you wanted to do things and it’s good to see our impact over the world, but I would like to return to the pace of events and achievements of Halloween and Flame and Frost. We have work to do and we want to enjoy the game because we LOVE Tyria.

Don’t eat your cows so fast, if you take care of them you will have more and bigger cows in the future

PS: About the “cows” stuff… english isn’t my first language so I’m not sure what kind of refrains you have, but I think the idea is clear :P

I’ve said before that I think a-net is working too much on LS for their own good. That the system at first might be the best way to keep people in the game as you constantly make them work toward new tasks, but that on the long term it would burn players as the pace of LS and achievements are starting to feel more like tasklists with an end date than a game. When we finish working hard in the real world, we don’t want to work more in our free time.

There was a time many months ago (too many now) where the pace was about right. You could dedicate some time to it, and the tasklist wasn’t so big (Halloween was the way to go, or the F&F that was divided in 3 full months instead of having all arcs in the same one, which also gave a sense of world progression instead of a rushing story).

But right now the pace is too fast, we have things to do and hard work in real life and when we play we want to relax, not to be in tension to finish our task list.

Worst part is that now with the 2 weeks content updates, they make the harder part of each story last less than the easier one (4 weeks for jubilee, 2 weeks for scarlet, 4 weeks for dragon bash, 2 weeks for aetherblade dungeon and its hard achievements, etc…).

But I’m starting this thread to share the story of a very good player on my guild. More specifically, a guy that already has 10K achievement points, so you can’t say he is a bad players, a newbie, someone that tried the game but wasn’t much into it or anything else. He is a great player and it’s great to have him in all kinds of content.

A couple of days ago, I received some mail from him with very valuable stuff for me and what looked like a goodbye text.

I asked him about that and he told me he would still connect for our guild weekend missions and things like that, but that LS had finally burned him, that he was expecting the game to go in a very different direction and that he works too much time a day and he simply didn’t want to keep doing tasklists. He was disappointed with the direction the LS is taking throwing so much content our way and expecting us to finish it like we didn’t have works and projects to do too. We’re talking about a player that didn’t mind to dedicate a lot of time to the game before all this happened, so much that he had 10K achievement points because he was having fun with the game.

And while I’m trying to convince him to stay, I can’t say I don’t share at least part of his thoughs. Even I have though about it, about just ignoring LS because it is burning me. In my case I’m a GW1 God Walking Among Mere Mortals that finished all elite areas and all hard mode quests like the HM titans or winds of change. I am a completionist and I’ve proven before that I can excell at it (GWAMM isn’t exactly an easy task), and with all that, I’m starting to feel the need to rest from this game too.

“Rest” from this game. That’s a big problem. A game should be what you do to rest from work, not more work that you need to rest from.

Continue in next post.

How about putting a an extra slot/box under the “H” character sheet just below aquatic gear. You could choose to put a consumable/buff food there and the character would auto use it as soon as the effect of the food/drink/buff etc ends.

See modified (Random internet) image below to get a better understanding

Just pants.

Please give us some pants without skirts attached.

Signed -

Everyone in game who would just like a simple pair of legs without skirts.
No really, this is a thing.

I used Photoshop to create an example like this back when Last Stand was going on.

Attached a Marjory update using the “My Story” tab.

Link to old Suggestions Post:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/My-Story-Expanded-Living-Story-Concept/first#post2137462

Rather than having guild halls, myself and some others were discussing the other day how it would be cool to have airships as the guild halls. Obviously the space for a guild hall is minimal what with the rest of the world being destroyed by dragons and giant sea turtles and … me, BUT the skies are our kingdom!

This also begs the question if, now that the Pact has created air ships, why we can’t just fly over the ocean and be like “Oh, hi Cantha!” But that’s another topic.

This idea could also work with guild battles because you could have people manning the turrets or bringing ammo to the turrets while you have boarding parties and having to destroy the other guild’s airship, basically. And perhaps being able to choose the scenery below your ship. Do you want to see grasslands? Oceans? A desert? Orr? The Brand? Etc.

And I noticed we could wander around a great deal on that super airship in the final fight of the personal story, but you couldn’t really go inside the behemoth of a ship. What if the inside was made of fine wood and had guild banners and services inside, such as armorsmiths and bank services? What if your airship had artificial hot tubs that would grant relaxation buffs to PvE players? And of course taking the RP community into consideration, what if your airship had a bar, or a dance pad, or sleeping quarters, or various other cool little options?

Just a thought.

Bottom line is they’ll keep doing the RNG-trap style sales as long we you keep buying into it.

Dont buy RNG cash shop items at all. If enough people abstain from that then after 2-3 such offers failing to generate the expected revenue they’ll start to try other ways of generating the income, hopefully through direct sales. If you buy the RNG items in the store (no matter if you bought the gems with dollars or gold), then you are the reason we cant have nice things.