Fantastic post. I do think that the original lot of Collections such as “Dungeoner” really nailed the potential that “Collections” can have. They made relatively quiet, dead areas of maps or entire maps get player traffic but also kept players on the map waiting for a particular event as an example. Newer collections, the best example of which I have now is for “Legendary Weapon Collections”. I can’t account for every Legendary weapn/precursor collection but I am doing the Juggernaut precursor collection at the moment. That collection experience is going to a specific place and hitting “F” or “/ponder”.
I don’t have to write what many people are doing and experiencing. I have to admit that that method of doing things is kitten ed boring and doesn’t entice. interest, or engage. What is supposed to be a legendary Collection (yes, lower-case “l”) that teaches the player a history, a story with the gravitas of these fabled items that many of us have worked & yearned to have for 3 years.
Now for The Colossus precursor collection, there are around 40-50 places to visit all over Tyria to ponder. I’d much rather have 10 places to go and not simply /ponder. I want story – say /sitting by a fire in a Norn Homestead at night. It’s nighttime and the patriarch/martriarch of this particular Norn homestead weaves a story, a fable of a great warrior or an acclaimed blacksmith. And /sitting there listening to that story, I learn a bit more about my precursor or the hallowed weapon that I am on this quest for.
Perhaps I hoped for too much but even a watered down version of that example is more interesting/engaging than what the precursor collection currently is. Players are hungry for this kind of content. Which ANET obviously is aware of because they created Legendary Collections. ANET has the concept of such a collection/quest but the execution is just that – the death of my curiousity and of doing anymore of this collection/quest. It has as much depth and emotional impact as buying a Legendary weapon in the TP.