Guild Wars 2

Lucky.9421:

Haha this reminds me of a GW1 inscription that had no effect and was not discovered for like 5 years(can’t remember which).

Use Skale venom.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skale_Venom_

Sickness, flesh wounds, there is no ailment that can’t be cured by my krait oi… I mean skale venom.

“Oh c’mon, like that’s going to work on me.”

I don’t like the addition of Tixx in there. While the checkpoint is welcome, the first couple of times I didn’t even noticed he was there. And three dialogue choices, the middle of which being the one you want? I have clicked the wrong option by accident several times now. Here’s what they should have done:

• Remove Tixx
• Everyone carries a present by default
• When you get to the halfway point it automatically sets the checkpoint
• If you fall you lose your extra present, but can still continue from the checkpoint

See? No npc required. Just make it automatic.

it’s easier than last years..but what i want to discuss is anet consuming too much mushrooms. what idiocy is to make it repeatable and ask of us to repeat it freakin 20 times for only ..and read…1 freakin achievement point? up to 15? in total if i repeat this puzzle 300 times? guys you should really stop smoking pot when you put things like this into game. it’s 400% bull as far as reward is considered. both achievement and prize alike.

If you reach the champions with a small group before a zerg has managed to scale it, those champions are veterans.

Even when they’re champions, the wurm and warlock can be done solo. The spider can’t due to cocoon, but it’s not required. The warlock is the only one I’ve ever seen people have problems with and that’s only because they eat multiple projectiles at once and instantly die or melee it. If you do it solo, there’s only 1 projectile and his attacks can be evaded simply by moving back and forth.

Obviously, after “genius girl” attracts a lot of attention to herself, AGAIN, because she never kittening learns, we find her tower, run in, and start tearing stuff apart. We eventually come face to face with her, again, and what does she do? She reminds us of all the annoying things she’s done lately (Scarlet, girl, if you go to trial, get a lawyer and keep your mouth shut… seriously…) leaves us alone with the only way she has to control the Krait, even though her entire military base and/or army couldn’t kill us at least 3 times before, and walks out with a “Oh I’ll get you next time Gadget!”. Why? Scarlet, what are you doing? What does anything she’s ever done have to do with her motivation or the character that’s drawn for her in that backstory? Nothing! Literally. kittening. Nothing!

And that’s why she’s a cardboard cut out of a villain. That’s why I hate it everytime she shows up! She’s a children’s cartoon! She’s a disposable Power Ranger villain. She’s inconsistent. She has no depth. All she does is just “being eeeeeeeviiiiil” for “eeeeeeviiiil!!”’s sake.

As to why I eat everyday if I’ll die anyways, because if I don’t I’ll die a lot sooner.

Why does Scarlet do any of the things she does? Nobody kittening knows.

As for:

Marble Daemon.7350:

I hope my answer is clear enough so that we should stop judging evil or villains as stupid. And ultimately, please show respect and stop treating the author of the game story as stupid. You are playing their game, their story. If they are stupid and you are so smart, why do you play their “stupid” game? And please be informed that you are not the “center of the universe” and you are surely not the most intelligent being in this world.

Actually I’m playing a whole team’s game. Based on the story, I’m actually more convinced that the writer’s are being called second to try to justify whatever the rest of the team feels like doing, and not the other way around.

And I’m playing the game because the gameplay is still good. Hell, I said it before, the tower itself is quite well done, despite its flaws. The story is trash. Which is a pity, because a good story would lend some meaning and depth to the gameplay.

Marble Daemon.7350:

You just show how successful Scarlet as an antagonist and in the way she makes you hate her. Villains are not invented to be defeated, they are there for people to wish them to go away

That’s what you’re not understanding. I don’t hate her. She’s a terrible villain in that she’s given me no motivation to see the story through. I want her gone. I don’t care about defeating her, I just don’t want her to show up again. I’ll accept a small note saying “Scarlet died of a heart attack while sleeping. Fin.” or “Scarlet decided she wanted to take up knitting instead.”… Or, kitten it, nothing at all! I don’t care where her story goes so long as she makes like the mother tree and leaves.

…Welp, this was a lot bigger than I expected, but hey! You asked.

3/3

…Shame that Scarlet has nothing to do with the in-game Scarlet! Scarlet’s supposed to be this genius inventor, driven sort-of-mad by this experiment, and violently rebelling against her parents because she’s a teenager no-… sorry I mean, rebelling against the mother tree, and general determinism. Fine. Let’s go with that… What does THAT have anything to do with what she has done so far?

Nothing.

Not. A kittening. Thing.

She got the dredge and the flame legion working together and attacking the norn… because… She is racist against Norn…? kitten it, I’ll take “experimenting with their technology and reasons”. Whatever. She did that. Let’s ignore how impractical the whole thing is, and that she’s basically doing the thing she hates and is rebelling against by trying to take control of people’s lives but whatever. Well, that kind failed.

Then… She kills Theo Ashford and released the Aetherblades! Because… Why? If the idea was to cause political chaos or have someone from her side (possibly Mai?) take over for Theo why the full blown invasion? Why the ridiculous scheme? Isn’t she supposed to be a genius? Are you saying this supposedly incredibly intelligent genius could find no better way to kill someone than a full blown invasion? Nothing a little less conspicuous? And she has access to unknown technology, teleporters, and someone on the inside… She’s not a genius she’s an idiot!

Fast forward… Queen’s Jubilee… Why? She was trying to take control of the technology? Then why the kitten would she announce it to everyyyyoneeeee? If you’re trying something like that to use later WHY in god’s name would you let anyone know? Are you trying to give them time to prepare? Why? She clearly didn’t give a kitten about Queen Jenna…. As an attack on anything it was utterly pathetic… Worst case scenario they could just close the pavilion and isolate the issue. She has no stake in human affairs…. She clearly had access to the kittening clockwork things, why not just steal a few and run your tests silently? Even if someone notices the robbery all they know is that it was a robbery. They have no idea what you’re planning. Exactly like the Aetherblades fiasco, she’s showing her hand before she plays it for absolutely no reason whatsoever. And she’s supposed to be intelligent.

Fast forward again – Invasions! Why? What does that have to do with her motivations? Or with anything, actually? kittened if I know! To be fair I don’t think whomever is writing this knows either! What if she successfully took over Dredgehaunt Cliffs or something? Gonna run over to the mother tree and go “Nuhu! SEE MOM! I took over some middle of jackkitten nowhere! YOU WERE WRONG! I’M COOL AND EVILL!!”. Sure makes her look like a villain! Once again, a complete failure for her, including her getting her kitten kicked in a few thousand times, but at least she’s still trying. You know what they say, the 874615th time is the charm! Glad she seems amused. At least someone’s having fun right?

Fast forward! Twilight assault! She knows a secret about Caithe! What is it!? Caithe wouldn’t want anyone to know! What does it matter to her “stop taking control of people’s lives” motivation? kitten all, but it’s totally douchy of her! And that makes her evil! Well, fortunately she seems to think so as well, because she never revealed it either. Just attracted a lot of attention to herself, got another one of her bases destroyed, and accomplished nothing.

…Where does she keep getting resources to do this? And why do people still follow her? Are these people like, the Guild Wars equivalent of WH40k’s Death Company ?

One final fast forward and we’re in our currently plot: The tower of nightmares!

Scarlet got herself another unlikely alliance! Apparently she’s a lonely 40-year old house wife because, by god, she loves match making! Someone should just tell her about e-harmony (or whatever it’s called), she’ll go mental. This time it’s the Krait and the nightmare court… Ok. And what is she doing? She plopped down a tower in the middle of human terrain… Because… of reasons… Seriously, why? She’s manufacturing this poison thing? Then whyyyyyyyyyyyyy would she start random attacks so near to her base? Drawing unnecessary attention to herself again! Scarlet, dear, “don’t kitten where you eat”! Why would you even put a tower there!? There are so many places far less… not outside of your enemy’s doorstep, for once! But whatever! She did that! Because “evil”!

2/3

Marble Daemon.7350:

cut for size

You have a lot of different arguments here, and I’m trying to cut down on “breaking posts up a lot”, so, if I forget something point it out.

First, I always hated bad antagonists. Even as a kid, Power Ranger style “villains of eviil!!” annoyed me. They’re simply lazy writing. “Why are you doing this?” “BECAUSE I’M EEEEVIIIIIL!”. Good antagonists (and notice I’m using the word “antagonist” here, not “villain”, a difference I stated in my previous post) make a story. They’re characters you get involved with as well, even if you want them to lose. They add tension and depth. Bad antagonists are the opposite. They’re so utterly unbelievable, so completely cartoony, that they rip you out of the experience, they make the whole story a sad joke.

Have you noticed that that never actually happens anywhere outside of poor writing? Ever? No one is ever “EVIL!!! Becaus of EVIIIIIIIIL!!”. Even Hitler thought he was doing the right thing, and he is often considered the most “evil” person in history. It was never “why are you killing jews?” “BECAUSE I’M EVIL!!!”. He thought he had a good reason. Of course I, and I think most sane and educated people nowadays, disagree. But he still thought he was right in what he was doing. Bad cartoon villains are evil “because of reasons”. Because the writer is too lazy or inept to give them a proper reason and to make them consistent characters, but they still need something to pitch the main character/s against, ergo evil person du jour who is being a tosser because he’s a tosser.

And allow me to predict a counter argument: Oh, but Hitler was a real person! Scarlet is a cartoon from a different race! She’s just crazy! GW2 is not real!

That’s a kittenty “cop-out” excuse. There’s a difference between being “realistic” and being “believable”. A story doesn’t have to be realistic, but it has to be believable – it has to be internally consistent. A good story can have dragons and magic, but if you get to a point where the main character stands face to face with the “incorrigible evil!” that butchered everybody they ever loved and they decide to just have a hug and the story ends “on the power of friendship!” you’re gonna roll your eyes and go “bullkitten”.

And being “crazy” isn’t an excuse either. Insanity may seem “random” to people who never bothered to give it more than a passing glance, but there is no such a thing as “random” in behavior (or, one could argue, anything at all, but that’s a different matter). An “insane” character, to put it in simple terms, can be seen a little like writing about a different species: They may not work by your laws, but they work by some laws which must also be consistent.

You want an example of a really good “insane” antagonist? The Joker, as written by Alan Moore in The Killing Joke (or whenever he’s written properly, really). The Killing Joke spoilersOh the joker does horrible things. He even does an evil little laugh! I wonder who Scarlet is based on... Anyways... Seemingly random acts of cruelty, evil laugh, having fun torturing others... Stupid cartoon villain right? Wrong. See, he's not doing all of that because "he's evil!!". He's making a point. He's a deeply disturbed individual, someone who is deeply emotionally and physically scarred, and he's just trying to prove, to the world and to himself, that he's actually not a freak. He's trying to make a point, no matter how good the person (e.g.: Gordon), all it takes is one bad day. He's trying to prove that the moral distance between himself and someone like Gordon is not that big. He's trying to exculpate himself. In his sick, twisted, mentally damaged way, he's just trying to prove he's normal, and that if it hadn't been for that one thing in his past, he could have been someone good.

See the difference? Why is Scarlet doing this? “Because it’s fun! Because she’s crazy!”. She keeps getting her kitten kicked, her plans keep failing, and she keeps trying it again with no justification. It’s fun to get your kitten kicked, lose resources and accomplish nothing but get a few random people she cares nothing for killed? And what’s with the stupidly convoluted plans? Is she kittened? Am I beating up a handicap? That’s not good… She doesn’t talk like she’s brain damaged, but she acts like it.

Oh, there’s that “origins” style text about her. Well, that is interesting. That has some depth at least… Shame that it is presented completely outside the game, as a “text dump” instead of merged with the narrative, but whatever, it’s there, I’ll give them that!

1/3

“The really good ones will leave you with mixed feelings. You want to defeat them, you know it’s the right thing to do, but at the same time you can’t help but empathize with them, you can’t help but think maybe they have a point, maybe. "

Mursaats…

Why kill her?

When Anet finally decide to finish all this nonsense, put her in a cage and allow players throw rotten eggs at her.

Jorund Thorwalds.9165:

She isn’t so very intresting any more

Scarlet was never interesting… She had the looming promise that she would become interesting at some point in the future… That has come and gone and it was a load of hot air.

Honestly I don’t care about killing her. I just want her to be gone so we can move on to a better story line… “Proxy, don’t you mean ‘hopefully’ better storyline?”. Scarlet set the bar so low I’d be genuinely surprised if they manage to put out something worse…

There are basically three kinds of antagonists.

The really good ones will leave you with mixed feelings. You want to defeat them, you know it’s the right thing to do, but at the same time you can’t help but empathize with them, you can’t help but think maybe they have a point, maybe. In the very best cases you’re even left wondering if they were a villain at all. See, for example, Watchmen SpoilerOzymandias.

The ok ones are generally simple, linear, and just characters you simply dislike and want to defeat. They usually have an egoist and self-absorbed goal that disregards the consequences for others. e.g.: “I want to become more powerful even if that means killing innocent people or destroying their lives”. They’re generally not fantastic, but they serve their purpose in that, at the very least, they’re logical and believable, and you want to kick their kitten so you want to see the story through to the end. If they’re charismatic enough, they might even be enjoyable to watch, potentially memorable.

Then you have the Saturday Morning Cartoon villains. Their actions are usually completely unjustifiable, even by psychopathy standards. They’re not “crazy” or “insane”, they’re stupid. They’re usually intended to be “insane”, but are written by people who don’t know the difference between “insane” and “stupid”, so they become the latter. They have no character or goal other than “be evil”. They’ll go out of their way to kick a puppy just to show you they’re “EVIIIIIIL!!!”. They’ll make plans to “destroy the world!”, even if that wouldn’t benefit them in any way. They have no logic behind their actions, no motivation, no reason to be. They’ll capture the only person that can foil their plans, then spend 10 minutes explaining their “EVIL PLAN!!” before locking them in some contrived death trap that’ll take 25 minutes to kill them, maybe, instead of just shooting them in the face and getting it over with. They’ll repeat the same plan that didn’t work 153 times before once more, because “THIS TIME!!!”. They’re utterly cartoony and unbelievable as characters. They’re uni-dimensional, basic, and completely uninteresting in any way. This is Scarlet.

I don’t hate Scarlet. She’s not even good enough to hate. I hate that she keeps being put in the story in detriment of a more competent/well written antagonist. I don’t care about defeating her. I just want her gone.

Whats funny is going into season 1. Almost no one outside of BG thought they were going to win. It was all JQ and SoR. BG 3rd…maybe. There was a clear 2v1 after the first weekend verse JQ. On top of being hailed as the best server pre season they got the easiest schedule.

Somewhere in weeks 2 and 3 SoR simply stopped showing up. They gave up. If TC is still fighting strong regardless of the outcome I say good on them.

Next week might be interesting. Wondering if BG shows to the fight at all to be honest.

Seigfried.5938:

Highlie.7641:

Have all you mouth breathers forgotten about the greatest player….

Yes, I nominate this guy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaWcAek5_JE

thats so 2012

This guy have my vote 100%:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX6-gZw2tog

- Heavy armors are generally better designed
- Swords, Greatswords, Shields, Hammers… are generally better designed than magical weapons
- Greatswords look bad*ss and people like looking bad*ss
- People just like hitting things with swords
- People like being able to take hits

my only problem with Cliff is that he 1 shots people, and the number of commanders which help him pad his stats
but no where as bad as that guy Runningoveraflatsurfacefalldamage

SoS. Cuz no matter the circumstances, they’ll attack whatever they want, whenever they want, and won’t care. They will bash their heads against a keep/tower/camp for hours, even if they never get it, it doesn’t seem to matter to them. They are the most persistent players I have ever seen.

Skills can be learned, persistence is a trait a person has or doesn’t have. Although their play level is lower, they have the potential to be very deadly.

If they can somehow address the fact that 90% of matchups are over by the weekend, yes.

We all know servers imploding and people shuffling servers to try to get rewards translates to gem sales though. So…

Blackgate
Gold
No
No

Week 1 was great, the rest of the match-ups were horrible. They need to re-make gold league, either merge some servers or kick them out, the non-t1 servers don’t have the coverage to compete, making it boring for everyone involved.

•Server: SOR
•League: Gold
•Enjoyed Season 1: Not in Particular
•Should we have season 2?: Yes, but with major changes needed

Things I liked:

• The influx of new players that had been to scared or a mirad of other reasons, into wvw. No mater how you look at it we need more people activley interested in WvW.
• The sense that there was a solid goal to aim toward (reward for effort) and served as a rally point for servers to get their community more involved
• The week 1 match against BG/JQ. I have never seen a more competitive match in my entire year worth of playing. Props to you guys for making it fun.

What I didn’t enjoy:

• Achievments that promoted individule play -> jumping puzzles, supply wasting, yak/sentry camping. This does nothing except breed discord in a community. It’s bad enough that people are being yelled at in map chat for being Achievment hunters, but when guilds and commanders start singling out and grouping pugs and other players under the same lable things start to go down hill. One good example of this was in week 2 I think, when we were trying to hold garrison and we had solo players robbing the place of supply just to get the achievment. Map chat devolved into something very unplesent and it’s not something I ever want to see again. Same goes for the building of siege and ninjaing siege out from people with masteries just to get the stupid meta done.

Solution: If you want to keep having achievments they should promote helping the server by doing things like defending a keep/tower or taking an objective that will only give you credit if you are running with a minimum of 5 people. Supply use should never ever be tied to achievments.

• The lopsided victories aginast a non T1/TC server ->; JQ blew out almost everyone not SOR/BG. BG blew out the 2 easy matches they had. SOR kinda blew out the easy match. There is no way that can make the other 3 servers grouped in gold feel good. If anything that does more harm than good to communities and promotes the “Why should I go out and play if I’m only going ot get face rolled” mentality. I’d imagine this is even worse for the low ranked siver and bronze servers that have yet to win a match. It also promotes transfering to higher/winning servers in order to get good fights.

Possible Solution: Lock server transfers once the season starts -> You started on that server then you stay on that server for the whole 7 weeks. There is no reason we should see people jumping ship left right and center because a sever has all ov a sudden had a bad week, or got double teamed, or now has a less desirable ranking. If that isn’t possible then make it so there is a 2 week wait period before you can play wvw on your new server or you get no rewards/achievments period, unless you make it to the end of the 7 week period on your original server.

Think of it this way: If you enter a regular sporting tournament you have a set team. You don’t get to decide halfway throught the tourny that you don’t want to be on the team anymore becasue it’s loosing. You are generally stuck with that team till the end of the tourny.

* The schedule -> SOR/BG faced each other constantly and face rolled everyone not them (not counting JQ). SOR/BG/JQ will happen only 2 times. I’m sure I’m not the only one to think the gold matches were super lopsided.

* The non-queue queue -> For the love of all things holy get a queue system that actually works as a queue system. Should be first come first served and we should be able to see what number we are in the queue.

* Keep the LS out of WvW -> It has no place in the aside from making another area that needs to be avoided when roaming about.

Server: JQ
League: Gold
Enjoyed Season 1: NO
Should we have season 2: No

I wouldn’t go into it but, since most of my thoughts on the matter have already been raised. There were too many concepts that divided the player base and brought out some truly bad behavior. Unlike a poster above, WvW needs to be more casual. As it appears the players level of honor and respect, for themselves and others, aren’t high enough to handle more competition. The dev’s need to consider the ramifications of their choices. This is just a video game for entertainment after all.

Thank you for some of the non-trolling responses above I just think it would have been more prudent to look at recruiting guilds after the first season was over. I mean this for all T1 servers, not just BG alone. This way they could see what needed to be changed before the next season.
The first matchup of the season was great. Close right to the end. I think that is the way it should always be like. T1 was close to being relatively balanced until now. Winning at all costs should not be the way to go. I think having close matches where anyone can win is much better because it gets more people involved in WvW, instead of blow outs where the PvX crowd will probably not go into WvW because they do not want that uphill battle per say. That is where BG has a great advantage right now since they are ticking much higher, it draws those other into battle as well. However, the match was much closer, it could draw these in from all servers making it much more fun. And that is what the game should be like.

Just my two cents worth

Akkadian.7206:

I love all these SoR forum warriors calling BG the most stacked out of the big three due to this unprecedented asskicking they’re taking. That’s why you tried so hard to keep JQ in check, making sure they were third and didn’t truly mind BG taking the one spot the first week, right? Gotta love it. Face it, your strategy backfired horribly. Based on that sound logic, I can see why it must be frustrating playing for fights when those you trust to lead you onto the battlefield lead you through such a big kittenstorm you might as well have walked through a mine field.

Your ignorance is killing you

Both BG and SoR 2v1 JQs because we know JQ has 3 easy weeks, that’s why BG and SoR pushed JQ to 3rd place. We focus JQ not because they are stack, it is because JQ has easier weeks

BG on the other hand, keep buying guilds again and again. But who cares it’s a war BG has gotta do what they gotta do to win

Xar.6185:

This is not what we are currently getting. Its more like
“Hey, awesome, you killed Gormash, the Slayer. What did you get?!”
“Hey, I got this ummm… I dont know what I got… I depostied collecables.. have to go to my bank and check”
or
“Hey, I got this <TotallyEventSpecificCollectable> that if I gather enough of I can exchange them at a vendor for something”

Unique skins are still a reward option. Like what they added to the champion bags. But adding a collectable for every single LS update. Is that what you want to continue?

By this time next year, if the pattern continues, they will have added 8 more collectables.

Oh and I forgot baubles and bauble bubbles plus I’m sure I forgot some more too.

Karma is the currency used at heart vendors. It would be a really good fit here I believe.

Karma would be interesting, if heart vendors would sell lv.80 equipment (exotic) for huge amounts of karma, so that you had a karma-sink again. The karma-skins in major cities were an awesome first step and I don’t get why this hasn’t been continued. They could also sell practical things for huge amounts of karma (like 22-slot bags, a permanent portal-stone to one totally random waypoint so that you won’t have to pay a waypoint fee for porting there anymore etc etc.)

Well we at least agree that loot isn’t very interesting in this game. The interesting loot is far too rare and buying it on the trading post is not very exciting imho. I’d make droprates higher but souldbound on find.

I also agree that the temporary nature of the collectibles isn’t very fun. Imho they could add these collectibles permanently to the loottable of specific enemies. Then decrease the droprate after the LS-chapter. This way you could get these cool LS-items even after the event (and not by buying black lion chests for a random chance of tickets). What do you think?

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Xar.6185:

Currency.
Karma would be exceptionally useful to replace all of the collectable currencies. You help with the event? You gain karma. Use karma to buy the living story stuff. Need a special item for a crafting recipe? Buy it from a LS vendor appropriate to the content, Majory for example in ToN.

This gives added value to Karma, adds more karma sinks to the game and stops adding more items that are effectively currency.

“Hey, awesome, you killed Gormash, the Slayer. What did you get?!”
“Hey, I got this awesome 2hander called Spalta, which he used to kill every single Centaur in the Slavash-war. It’s said that sometimes, you’ll hear the poor souls of the massacre hunt the wielder”

This is not what we are currently getting. Its more like
“Hey, awesome, you killed Gormash, the Slayer. What did you get?!”
“Hey, I got this ummm… I dont know what I got… I depostied collecables.. have to go to my bank and check”
or
“Hey, I got this <TotallyEventSpecificCollectable> that if I gather enough of I can exchange them at a vendor for something”

Unique skins are still a reward option. Like what they added to the champion bags. But adding a collectable for every single LS update. Is that what you want to continue?

By this time next year, if the pattern continues, they will have added 8 more collectables.

Oh and I forgot baubles and bauble bubbles plus I’m sure I forgot some more too.

Karma is the currency used at heart vendors. It would be a really good fit here I believe.

Currency.

We have a wallet because all of the various currencies became unweildy.

Yet with every living story update a new ‘currency’ is added. Not currency in the traditional sense but a collectable as currency.

Watchwork sprokets, ugly wool things, kite fortunes, various snowflakes, Zhaitaffy, pristine toxic spores etc. All of these need to be collected in large quantities and used at a vendor.

Any item subtracted from your inventory in exchange for an item from a vendor is a currency. No matter whether it goes into our collectable tab or the wallet, it is still a currency. It’s currency. No matter where we store it. Items spent at a vendor are currency.

I know there is a new item to exhcange every time so that people can’t just buy everything with what they have stored up but enough already.

Karma would be exceptionally useful to replace all of the collectable currencies. You help with the event? You gain karma. Use karma to buy the living story stuff. Need a special item for a crafting recipe? Buy it from a LS vendor appropriate to the content, Majory for example in ToN.

This gives added value to Karma, adds more karma sinks to the game and stops adding more items that are effectively currency.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

I wonder: is there a plan for currencies like karma and skillpoints?

Karma desperately, desperately needs more uses in the game, and I think the recent nerf on karma gains was too harsh by far. It would be great to see it be more useful in the Living World.

On the topic of reward acquisition in the LW, I think the matter of convenience as a general design principle needs to be considered more heavily in LW implementation.

An example of recent unnecessary inconvenience: You need an obelisk transcriber in order to interact with the obelisks in the scavenger hunt.

Although I realise sometimes this type of mechanic is enforced by gameplay limitations, in this case, I really don’t understand why the transcriber item was needed. Problems it imposes:

• It’s more junk in your inventory that actually does nothing in gameplay terms
• It reduces the interchangeability of alts because said item is soulbound, meaning you need to go back and reacquire it from an NPC if you want to switch to a character who e.g. might have the required area already mapped
• It means that if you actually stumble across an obelisk in the wild instead of using guides, you might not have the right tools to do anything with it
• It slows down group efforts. Last night I was helping a friend with the obelisks. A second friend logged in, started to join in with us, then realised they had to go through the rigmarole of heading to Kessex Hills, doing the forced starting cutscene, talking to an NPC to get the arbitrary item, then coming back to meet us before they could participate.

I think it’s important to remember the core awesome principles of dynamic events over standard quest chains when you guys are implementing stuff like this. Dynamic events just happen around you – you don’t need to go and talk to an NPC to participate. Keeping everything easily accessible in this way will reduce the amount of inconvenience in the LW achievements.

I think one of the big things I like with recent Living Story patches, are the little teasers we’re seeing in game. Things as simple as Kessex’s forest being chopped down or the tent in DR for construction of the pavillion are great little goodies for what happens next, it really makes the world feel like it’s changing.

At the same time, however, I think the stories just need more oomph to them. We get a little story, a bunch of achievements to do, maybe a tiny bit more story after, and a lot of questions left on our plates. If there was a bit more guidance, a gradual trickle of the story via these achievements, it’d be better. (Someone recently posted unused sound clips on Reddit for some of the LSs past, please put this stuff in, or try to fit it in, we need the story, we need interaction, silence leaves too many things unaswered.)
As a bad example, the 2013 Halloween. We get the story, meet Tassi and then the Bloody Prince leaves. Then the only thing we get from then until the next ounce of story is achievements to hunt for a candy corn ele. I know his name was wiped from history, but maybe Tassi sends us on a hunt to try and learn more about the prince, only for us to learn his name was wiped from history (maybe we find some strange history books that had pages torn, or writing erased via magic, you know?).
I’m going to use the entire arc of F&F as an good example, albeit it was paced out far too long. We start learning that people are being displaced from their homes, we help the refugees find shelter. There are strange steam vents in the zones in questions. Next, we continue efforts, now there’s portals and we’re starting to see who is responsible. Third, we meet the heroes and now we find the Molten Alliance is getting more aggresive, we attempt to protect two towns from the threats. Last we have the grand finale where we find our enemy and take the fight to them.
Just as F&F had this gradual constant story with a lot of its achievements, we need to have similar for what’s been going on now. As a fix to the current Kessex LS:
Maybe just before we revealed the tower, there have been reports of sickness in nearby cities. You are sent to investigate there first, eventually pinpointing the cause to Kessex Hills. As you get out there, the scene suddenly cuts to the tower magically becoming visible, you are approached by a guard and they give you the story — Marjory and Kasmeer were out here investigating and then this mess happened, cue the story instance and helping save them. Once that is out of the way, the PC can talk to the NPCs and be given multiple leads — finding obelisk shards**, checking/culling infected wildlife, etc.
Perhaps some of these said leads add to small trickles of information, maybe you find a Toxic Alliance member in the act and manage to spy on them, giving you some inside information. Maybe you overhear some krait talking about the shards they have been given and they talk about Scarlet. Or perhaps there are additional story instances that can be unlocked — such as capturing an enemy and getting information from them. We need little bits of the story here and there with these achievements, to answer at least some of the questions.
**Also, please give some direction to where fetch achievements are. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to use an outside source because there’s dragon tooth hidden in some grass on a random mountain top. Maybe Marjory mails a note with possible areas, or the device you’re using can contact the NPC and give you hints.

Other things:
A mix of temporary and permanent content. Maybe people do miss out on a good story, but they need something they can come back to. If there’s nothing new for them to do, why would they bother coming back? Zones, jumpings puzzles, pvp maps, wvw stuff, more guild missions, dungeons, you know.
A decent mix of the current arc and just for fun arcs. I think this is sort of in-game, or starting to become a thing. Do tell the main story, but have some breaks, maybe we need to help Destiny’s Edge one time while the big bad from the main arc is pushed back and in hiding, or maybe a dragon minion is growing stronger.
Return to Elder Dragon’s at some point. Please.

BobbyStein.2315:

Chris decided to extend the deadline to allow more people to add to this particular discussion. If anyone has more to say on this topic, please post your comments.

Kinda meta-discussion, but hearing:

• What you have taken from what has been said (there are a lot of posts here, it would be nice to see a summary of what you feel are the important, good or recurring suggestions).
• What you initially plan to do about what players have said.
• If you want to be super-transparent: on-going posts about the ideas you are throwing around the office that stemmed from this thread. The player-base has repeatedly burnt you and punished you in the past when you have been transparent, I wouldn’t be surprised if you skipped this one – we don’t deserve it.
• Remind us, when you make the changes, that we asked for them by citing the suggestions in this thread.

Would be nice.