i try to be a bit more constructive, though i hope someone (come on devs, give us a reason why this thing exists. like kny.3789 said, it is just a glorified preview page) will step up and explains their goal with it…
Pros.
- It looks nice
- It has the “scavenger hunt” insentive, with the inclusion of comunity “directions”
- it is a nice visualisation on how “globaly” the LS has been so far
- Some nice quotes
- a way to tease future contentCons.
- No real future aplication in my opinion
- Does not offer more then the usual preview page. In fact it offers less information and only low res images
- it feels like it was designed for tablet use, instead for a pc. Big buttons, limited “accuracy” in scaling, etc.. The map ingame works much better.
- Too much “advertising” around the map
- Not enough sturcture to the content. Very old content is just one category, while the new content is based on release (example the battle of LA)
- Some of the points feel just random (point north of Ebonhawk for example)
- Going to Comunity sites is useless, since you will find these points without them.
- Not linked to your account. Being linked to your browser and cookies you loose every progress of your discovery if you delete them.
- Feels like straight out of an Facebook profile: “look i was there.” However it does not offer additional information, aside from the “been there, done that” thing…In the end it could be a nice thing, if they would structure it by region and event, allowing us to see the story of the part of the map we are looking at and a then from there, follow the events to the other regions, or follow the chain of events in general.
Right now it`s goal is not really visible for me and appearently othere people as well and is nothing more then a nice gimmick, which in the near future will be forgotten again.
As i mentioned it would have been much better as an App on mobile devices, with a web browser version for all the PC owners.
You still need to deliver on that promise and i have to say, i would like to have something like this in there.
I agree with the pros list. I also agree that there is a lack of structure, and some very random points (like Bazaar of the Four Winds in LA). Some of the “hidden” things weren’t actually hidden but in plain sight, but it’s hardly likely that was intentional. It’s completely new – cut the creator’s some slack for mistakes. I don’t mind the fact that the whole thing isn’t tied to accounts per se, but I don’t look forward to next time I clean my cookies out. Some way to save progress that’s independent of browser history would be nice.
As for future application, I do see a lot of potential. Like you said, it can be used for teasers, and secret coordinates can be given out for more scavenger hunting. The latter will direct traffic to various parts of the community, which will not only benefit e.g. GW2 YouTubers who get coordinates to “hand out,” but also let a lot of people discover sites and channels of interest that they maybe didn’t know or had forgotten about. Adding a tiny thing to the Atlas between patches, like a tiny snippet of dialogue that takes place during current events but isn’t in the game, is another way to keep people interested in the story and the characters. Also, they could tie it to the game by adding for example a book on a shelf somewhere in-game that tells a short background story for a living world character (like the ones previously released online), and adding a point on the Atlas which will direct you (in general, not addressing you specifically, Jaken) to said book so you can go find it and read the story. They could do all kinds of things with this Atlas. The only problem is that its usefulness hinges on people staying interested in using it.
Seems to me that the biggest problem is that people come at this thing with expectations rather than curiosity. Take it for what it is and not for a failed attempt at something completely different. Being a map and not a time line, of course it won’t be of much help for new or returning players who want to catch up with the living story chronologically, but didn’t Anet upload a story summary video on YouTube fairly recently? It doesn’t offer more information than the usual preview page, but again, it is something different from the usual preview page.
Having played since launch, I enjoyed poking around and having a few “oh yeah, I remember that!” moments, and finding hidden things was fun. Most things are a lot more enjoyable if you (again, general) look at them as they are instead of comparing them to a desired imaginary object in your head.