I personally believe that “Living World” Should be directly connected to Personal Story, because it seems a bit strange that a world that is “Alive” and characters that had a major impact in the reality of the story and in the changes the world has seen, are now absent, parked in a fort, and removed from the “Spotlight”. if they are to be replaced, that should be presented to us accordingly so we don’t feel that the story line has been “Broken” or even worse “Neglected”.
Consistency is pretty much about continuance. Also i believe that the Living World, as a means for players to keep on performing constant battles to defend the world, and to make people interested in doing so, there should be “awards” that are worthy of Heroes who give their best to defend their realm. It is obvious that evolution is the purpose of Role Playing game. as it is in real life. People expect to grow stronger. Wiser. Richer. Mature. Evolved. But performing Living world tasks, are somehow pointless. Boring. Tedious. and with very little rewards worth the time and the dedication. Heroes don’t wanna waste their time pointlessly.
1: A grid for allocating “Points” Using the same way you inserted the new “Luck” system would be amazing. But for all stats. by performing living story missions, and invasions you would be granted “essences” to allocate in the grid, allowing us to make our Heroes coming back over and over to grow. +5 Power, +5 vitality, +5 condition damage, etc essences would be given at the end of each living story and event. Heroes could chose the stat they want to add to their accounts, choosing what path in battle performance suits them better.
2: In case you haven’t noticed, half the content is “Dead” due to the fact that people want to pursue “Materialism” over content. This is how people’s nature are, and therefore, content should be made appealing in order to remain able to perform it’s purpose. Example: "The invasions start at a specific area, and there is a world announcement. NOBODY even bothers to go do it, because they have engaged in “TRAINS” farming random normal champions around the world because “the rewards are better”. This makes the whole purpose of the invasions seem like an “EPIC FAIL” of titanic proportions. Perhaps if you’d realize what players expect from the game, it would be easier to deliver better content.
We want consistency, Epic battles, Lore, team play, BUT most of all what players want is to have the feeling they are accomplishing something. It is very frustrating to give up 5 hours of your day, or more sometimes, and at the end of it all you gained from it was a bunch of non significant “Stuff” and a “dejá vu” memory of the past days.
3: Dungeons and Fractals have become VERY boring, because you started giving more credit and attention to the Living Story, and as a result. you now have successfully allowed for dungeons and fractals to become obsolete, and at the same time Living Story doesn’t compensate for that. So “CHAMPION TRAINS” are all there is to do nowadays of my 5 hours a day. Telling us to farm achievements as a means for fun, is insulting. Because achievements should be done integrated in a story based and seducing environment, and that just ain’t around lately. I have 2 legendary weapons done. all ascendant gear made and upgraded accordingly. all story line done. WVW and PVP done to exhaustion, achievements wise i have done the most relevant. so what am i taking from the game at the moment? Deja vus ’a’plenty and hardly no fun.
4: I know that you are trying to make the game fair in terms of progress and rewards so that people who cannot play as much as the others don’t feel they are left behind and too far to catch up. But if you indeed think about those who play 24/7 and are faithful to the game, constant, frequent loggers, dedicated and committed to the game, THESE are having a boring time most of the time, these are boosting noobs in dungeons, or parking in LA emoting their lungs out in the desperate need of attention. The game will never be fair to both sides if you continue to make content based on pointless tasks that produce no real WORTHY REWARDS.
And please giving people “skins” as means to satisfy them is plain mockery.
Sometimes i wonder if your development team actually plays the game. One thing is to idealize it, another thing is to experience it.
Anyhow, i love the game, and i’ve been sticking around waiting for it to become “Ideal”, although it is still far behind on my expectations but going on a good way i like to believe.
Keep up the good work and thank you for giving us the means to contribute with our opinions.