Guild Wars 2

codeman.3425:

I do know that a Link between Perth and Singapore is down, forcing a lot of traffic to be routed through other paths. This could be the problem as you live on the East Coast it could be general lag in the path to USA shores. No idea when the Link will be repaired. Check your ISP and ask them if they know when it will be fixed ,also inform of the lag you are getting.

Maybe this is what’s happening to me as well… I am east coast. Started getting lag spikes in high traffic areas (EotM, world bosses, full SW) a couple days ago. Thought it was my ISP cause their connection gives me problems every so often, but tonight, I tried to do Jormag and got major hangups. Could barely stay logged in and I minimized, checked my net, and everything but GW2 was working fine.

@Gaile: I don’t know what the info thingy is that we’re supposed to send in.

Justifications for this: Technical side of things… who knows? I’m no expert on how all that stuff comes together.

Game mechanics? Uhhhhhhhh…. yeaahhhhhh.

I guess it could be argued that it’s a form of feedback/signal that tells the player they are in combat. Other than that, I’m not sure I can think of anything.

It’s not like it makes any realistic sense, but then neither does fiery magic and endless resurrection. Seems it is one of those things that got passed down as a sort of “design tradition” without a lot of thought for why. MMORPGs these days aren’t quite the same as the old tabletop stuff.

I’d be fascinated to hear what justifications an experienced designer might come up with though. If they had any at all.

I feel there is some information in Colin’s post – just not much to go on:

we’re going to be removing the current trait unlocking system currently on live and replacing it with a more simplified system that supports where skills-traits-specializations are going in the future. We’ll go into more details between now and the release of HOT on how skills, traits, and specializations will work in the new Gw2 world.

This doesn’t tell me a whole lot, but it does seem to imply that the days of “go complete an absurdly specific objective to unlock your trait” will be over. That’s what I get from simplified anyway.

It’s not much and I understand if people are feeling like this is kind of a meaningless spotlight. I got something out of the post, but not enough to really talk about it, other than as a confirmation that something is going to happen finally.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Edit: Proof from IGN interview

“With combat, it’ll be more like a reveal like you might see in a game like Zelda where there’s a feeling like wow, I got this tool and now I remember when I was trying to fight this creature before I couldn’t get past this one ability; this tool clearly tells me this is the key to that lock and now I’m going to open it,” adds Mastery design lead Crystin Cox. “That feeling is one of the things we’re really going: now I have more power, not because a number went up but because I can actually do this thing.”

The problem with this system: A really skilled player can overcome the gear score, but you have no chance against a mechanic that is required to beat an encounter that is locked behind a mastery.
In this regard, the mastery system is worse of a gating than a gear score.

The unanswered question in there is whether a skilled player will be able to get by without the mastery, much like a Zelda player might choose to do a more difficult dungeon first.

I realize this thread is a little old, but I wanted to clarify a few things that people are getting confused – the discussion itself is still relevant:

Personally, it is unlikely at this point in time that I would buy the expansion. In part because I lack the extra funds and also because I’m not sure I’m loyal enough to the franchise to do so, even if I had the funds.

I don’t mean that as a dig at the game – just explaining my thought process.

It’s important to note that there is a difference between whether someone “should” buy the expansion, or developers “should” get paychecks, as determined by one’s worldview – and whether the model will be a healthy long-term decision for the game.

As I said previously, I’m sure the GW2 team has assessed the options in detail already: I’m not trying to tell them how to do their job.

However, for those of us who are not the GW2 team, let’s try to keep in mind the distinction between the drawbacks of a model and how we feel others should act.

The chosen model does have its potential drawbacks, as all models do: New areas that are only accessible by having an expansion will be populated – at least in the short-term – by players who have bought the expansion. If these areas become the new, popular stomping ground for most players who have the expansion, then those who don’t have the expansion will be left with a significantly lower pool of players to interact with.

Further, the expansion players will also have less players to hang with, if their stomping ground is an expansion area, because of the number of players who have not purchased the expansion.

i.e. a splintered playerbase

A drawback like this won’t be changed by people insisting that developers need money or that buying a game expansion is affordable. It will either happen or it won’t and no amount of “shoulds” will change that. Keep in mind that we are talking large numbers of players in percentages – thousands at least – not Billy the Expansion Purchaser vs. Suzie the Frugal.

There are thousands of Billys and thousands of Suzies and their decisions are not all going to come back to whether the expansion cost is perfectly reasonable or whether developers need to be properly supported.

The room for speculation is limitless at this point, really. That the given definition of Masteries ranges from hanging gliding in the jungle, to ripping bark of a mordrem, to building precursor collections, makes it sound like they can be virtually anything that Anet wants them to be.

caught in a landslide?

I have misgivings about playerbase splintering due to paid expansion, but it’s not like you guys are going to jump and change it now. I’m sure you’ve assessed the risks thoroughly.

Heck, maybe I underestimate how deep peoples’ pockets are.

Anyway, it’ll be fascinating to see how this unfolds. Happy for you that you get to talk about it Gaile.

Passive speed boosts are advisable for a fight like this. 25% from Signet if you’ve the profession for it. If not, you might be able to use Speed Runes in some way. Condition heal is also helpful for when you get slowed.

Honestly, a lot of this fight comes down to moving quickly, so you want to be able to do that as best as possible. Passive Vigor for Dodge is going to be a boon (literally and figuratively) in this regard as well, if you can get it. Extra Dodge means more room for mistakes.

Ranged is also advisable because you can run-and-gun. Ranger bow is probably one of the nicest options for it (it’s what I used) because you get bonuses for distance and you’re unlikely to be close to the enemies.

One you’ve got your Ranged auto-attack going on a target (tentacle-thingy, shadow-thingy, or dragon-guy when he becomes vulnerable) you can focus most of your attention on dodging the circles.

Other than that (as others have said):
- Run through blue circle that gets tossed into the arena to get Signal Fire.
- Signal Fire gives you a temp buff.
- Use Signal Fire to light special areas.
- Run through Shadows in second phase while you have Signal Fire buff to make them vulnerable, then tap them with your pinkie to kill them. AFAIK, only one spawns for each lighted area, so once it’s dead, it’s dead. Each one will spawn shortly after you light its relevant special area.
- If you’re getting screwed over while trying to light a special area, curse the gaming gods and try running around a bit or refreshing the buff when it gets thrown in again. Sometimes you can get trapped in a moment where the dragon’s attacks are more pointed and frequent, which makes it nigh impossible to finish your cast. It’s a subtle thing – not very noticeable unless you’ve played with randomized mechanics a lot. That’s what the running around a bit is for.

I’ll summarize:

- Ritual sequence was intriguing and made me want to know more about the ancient people.
- Ogden was curmudgeonly but still cared underneath it all.
- Memory sequence was pure cutscene and made me feel for, and understand better, the choices being made by the characters.
- Big bad boss only had two “attack him now” phases. Not sure if that was my damage or if it was designed to go that long. Either way, I appreciated the lack of tedium and the focus on a non-repeating set of stacking mechanics from start to finish.
- Final cutscene was a nice teaser of things to come.

Although there were a few moments of feeling like “here goes the kill groups of mobs game” (aka: “we’re required to put some combat at this part”) the overall take was a positive one; the episode immersed, fascinated, challenged, and then spit me back out with excitement for what comes next.

Kudos.

be among the first to hear how we’re setting up a new framework for how an MMO can grow its universe. The Living World was just the beginning.

Sounds like they want to make the game more dynamic and variegated in its design, kind of like what EQNext is trying to do.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

I guess I just never understood why people can make a huge deal about killing innocent people in video games. For example that massacre in CoD mw2 or that little girl that got blown up in mw3. That sparked an outrage and became a major controversy. And I’m like.. “seriously? You know it’s not real right?”

The weirdest thing is that killing innocents is somehow generally accepted if you don’t actually see it. Blowing up cities with millions of innocent people in an rts game and nobody bats an eye, see 1 child die and everybody looses their minds.

It’s human nature man. Faceless millions vs. single innocent and all that.

PeterFries.1057:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

You know what ANet story writers? Watch “Breaking Bad”. Do it.

Seriously.

Do it.

This is great advice for anyone, and while you’re at it, listen to the official Breaking Bad podcast from AMC (which began with season 02 because they just didn’t have enough time to do it in season 01):

http://www.amctv.com/shows/breaking-bad/insider-podcast-season-2
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-bad-insider-podcast/id311058181?mt=2

BTW, even the amazing, amazing writers on the Breaking Bad series staff didn’t know the resolution to every plot thread they introduced on the show. One example is the dangling thread of the second batch of ricin Walt cooked up for Gus in season 04. They weren't sure what they would have Walt ultimately use that "Chekhov's gun" for until the series finale.

Yeah, as I understand it, TV show writers often have to write in the short-term out of necessity, because they aren’t always sure when they’re going to get canceled, whether a pilot will get picked up, whether the right actors are found for ancillary characters, and so on.

So after looking at the dailies for today, I’m a bit bemused, to be honest. It seems they are all PvP/WvW themed.

Which I guess is the formula now? Daily themes?

I’m not really in favor of it. I liked that with the old system, you could complete 5 or so (the old requirement for completion) while – for the most part – doing whatever kind of content you felt like.

I almost never did every single daily per day in the old system, but I always felt like it was easy to knock out a few. Now I’m likely only going to do any if the theme fits my current area of interest in the game.

I get that the rewards are not tied to the completion anymore, but it was nonetheless nice to get a few achievement points along the way in the old system. I’m willing to bet you – Anet – that you are going to see people walking around with even less achievement points now, over a long period of time.

If that’s what you want, then /shrug — I’m not obsessed with them anyway. But the current system is not motivating me to grab a few along the way; if I want to do X content that I don’t normally do, I will go do X content that I don’t normally do. If I don’t want to, a grand total of 10 achievement points for 10 separate objectives (apologies if the number is a little off – I’ve not memorized it all) is not going to motivate me sufficiently.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

It’s just a video game dude, it’s not real.

That would explain why my character keeps respawning when it dies, instead of going into a box in the ground.

It all makes sense now.

I don’t understand the bell choir achievement requirements. Participation in one attempt certainly doesn’t count. Probably want to make that more clear next year. Seems I’m not the only one who is finding the requirements to be confusing.

Anyway, I love music, but I’ve playing playing with -nosound for performance reasons. I might turn it on at some point to try the bell choir with sound. We’ll see. It’s not an enjoyable activity without sound; I can tell you that.

P. S. Why is Wintersday Daily 5 for completion and Halloween was 3 for completion? Pretty sure that’s how it was anyway. Don’t understand the change there. 3 for completion is plenty for a holiday daily.

tigirius.9014:

Loot has very little to do with it and I would add, that if loot were the sole issue here, we’d see fewer nerfs of farming areas than we’ve seen over the years. The problem is that they haven’t found another way to make money so they’ve locked themselves into a single method of obtaining profits and now they can’t get out of it, so they defend it.

Mm. I don’t see how allowing outside money in is the determining factor. John has implied indirectly several times – if not stated outright – that the economy actually has a lot of room for gluts of items, so I imagine a glut of currency would be much the same (with some elasticity in bouncing back to desired levels).

If the topic is legendary and ascended items, the reason I mentioned supply is because… if you look at it as cause and effect (with the main complaint being trouble with affording items), what’s the real cause here? The effect is something like: Highly desired items are further and further out of Average Joe’s reach.

Now if inflation occurs, then on the surface, we have conclusions like the OP’s: Price goes up because of inflation, therefore gap for Average Joe increases. But this can’t be the whole picture, can it?

Let’s say the average price of T6 mats goes up steadily. Now they are more pricey for Average Joe, but if Average Joe can sell them for that same price, then he has ways to obtain currency through selling looted items – ways that roughly match the increasing price of items.

In isolation, this means there shouldn’t be a gap increase. Of course, if we take into account the other ways that Average Joe can sell items to make money, then maybe there is. Maybe he sells T5 mats, so that he can buy T6 mats. But buy/sell price of T5 mats is not going up at the same rate as that of T6 mats.

So then he does have a gap because he’s selling T5 to buy T6 and he can’t match the difference same as he once was able to.

This is why I asked about supply: Say we’re talking about the example above and the average drop of T6 is already something like 5% compared to T5 50% (e.g. 1/10 difference in drop rate). Now if we had a scenario where the market has a consistent glut of T6 mats, such that buying them costs the same or less than the profit from selling T5 mats, then Average Joe can do just fine. Even more so if the glut is so great that any source of currency can put the desired items within easy reach.

And I think this is where the conversion of mats in MF tries to balance out exactly these sort of price imbalance scenarios. But say we go beyond the conversion balancing to the more complex buying/selling of all dropped items and we’re assuming (hypothetically) that the farming for various items starts going down, due to something like player activity.

We go way below “glut” levels and see the curve of pricing start to play out with realistic supply and demand; those who can afford X rare item(s) can’t compensate in cost as easily as they once could because the gap between X rare and X common is increasing. In theory, over a looooooong period of time, the percentages should be relatively even (especially taking into account systems like the mat conversion). But if we’re talking about things with a 1% chance or lower, for example, then the lack of a hefty supply becomes increasingly problematic for Average Joe.

It looks like inflation to him because the price of those desired items keeps going up (as does the price of many other items) but in reality, he’s SOL because his regrettably average rate of currency acquisition cannot match the dwindling supply of desirable items.

As in: If there are 10 stamps of one kind in the world, 10,000 collectors, and every collector really really wants that one stamp, then no amount of money is going to change the fact that only 10 different collectors can own the stamp at any given time. And because the demand is high, the value of the stamp can skyrocket, in relation to the high points of wealth that the richest stamp collectors are at – as opposed to the value being tied to the price that thousands of people are willing to pay for, individually; which is more what you see when supply is equal to or greater than demand.

Hope that makes sense. I’m not an economist, so there may be some fudging of terminology. But the principles should be relatively on point.

In short: Sort of inflation but not really?

Wolfeng.3784:

For the fools that are complaining about playing Caithe simple because the story, well, for those I will keep saying learn to play, and not just the mechanics, games have us playing different characters all the time.

Lolwut. I don’t know what games you play, but the majority of story/RPG-oriented games I have played in memory give you one character to play, almost exclusively – if not completely exclusively.

Your attempt at acting superior to other people for having different opinions is asinine to begin with by virtue of trying to act objectively about a matter of opinion. And then on top of that, you can’t even get your facts straight. I’d bet that if you go through RPG/story games, and especially MMOs, you will find that 99% of the gameplay is done from the perspective of a single character in 99% of the games.

MMOs especially are all about making you feel special for being you, your character. Not another character… your character that you have invested time into. To act like it’s strange that MMO players would want to stay within the boundaries of something that is a staple of the entire industry is more mind-numbing than brain-freeze.

cheshirefox.7026:

much enthusiasm, i hope you do not end up like my little pony here

I love the sudden transition from nameless stickman to pony.

John Smith.4610:

Remember that changes in the overall supply of currency doesn’t mean inflation.

Here’s a snippet from an awesome game economist team:
“Changes in the money supply dwarf the changes to prices. While the money supply grew more than thirteenfold, the CPI fell by almost a quarter. It‘s clear that these series aren‘t strongly correlated. The existence of money alone doesn‘t contribute much to inflation. Money that isn‘t being spent won‘t affect prices. This brings us to the concept of the velocity of money, i.e. frequency with which a given quantity of money changes hands in transactions. It can be stated as the total value of all transactions in a period, divided by the money supply. In our case, we shall be using monthly measurements, i.e. market transactions per month divided the average money supply that month. Only transactions on the general market are included.”

edit: In case it’s not clear, this is not from me or speaking of our game.

Would it be fair to say that the problem here is more one of “supply of goods”? Or, to put it more precisely, “generation/production of goods,” i.e. farming/looting/etc.

Looks kinda cool. Too little information to analyze the details at this point. Will hold off judgment until release.

Also, please fix your overactive filter one of these days. I couldn’t even type a synonym of analyze without it turning my word into kitten. That word that’s spelled similar to access, but with all s’s.

Jaken.6801:

That`s true.
Not everyone is invested that much into the LS.
Heck, even I am not.

I just get bummed at unfinished things. Having 7/8 finsihed and the last one hold back because of reasons (yeah I know, good ones, etc…) instead of releasing the thing to be done with it at years end is just rubbing me the wrong way personaly.

Sure, there are several other concernes. I think there are people who wanted their armor complete, were hoping for a new extension for the silverwastes.
New content you know.

Wintersday won`t give many veterans the same satisfaction as it did a two years ago. Even last year was kind of a stretch.

I think if some people had to choose they would take the LS over the festival, as that would at least be something new.

It doesn`t matter how you turn it, somebody will always loose out.

Can’t argue with that. I tend to just let my interest level speak for itself. If something anticipated is too long delayed, then my interest in it will tend to dissipate naturally. And then I may be less likely to go check it out when it finally releases.

But yeah, I don’t like things being unfinished either… just in general, in life. Not a pleasant feeling for me.

Jaken.6801:

Well, how do you feel about having all these issues and you know that the last episode is about to air, which might give you the conclusion you were waiting for…
And then there is a sudden unanounced (till today) break?
A break which follows two unsatisfied cliffhanger episodes, which need this conclusion?

While the reaoning on why they do it is obvious, they paced the whole LS hoorible, resulting in the fact that they had to push the Last episode after the holiday, instead of concluding the Season beforehand.

It`like handing you 99% of a ticket, but you can only get in with 100% and you have to wait a month to get the missing 1%, which you would need two weeks before that.

I’d probably be kind of bummed if I cared that much. There’s a reason I don’t invest myself into things like TV series release dates.

But it’ll come when it comes, ya know? And by the time it does, you probably will have stopped caring some. If that hurts their turnout, then they’ll notice.

Jaken.6801:

It`s not the point of being bored. It`s because:

- Episodes one after the other end with annoying cliffhanger

- Unresolved storylines

- Episodes get shorter

- Last two Episodes felt like filler for many (as they concerned mostly sidestories)

- We just had a big break, which resulted in an annoying NPE for many.

- Breaks in general are bad for buisness, even more so if you advertised a shedule, which is then constantly broken (even if the reason are, well, reasonable. They should have been better planned and telegraphed to the consumer)

- We get another break, with appearently only 1 Episode left , making the wait more agravating, since they can just take another break after it, prepairing for S3 (or the mysterious and illusive expansion)

- Wintersday will be a rehash of last year, but set in DR (we do not expect many, if any, new things)

Ok? Most of that has nothing to do with taking a holiday break from LS.

I don’t understand the complaints… Anet is not made up of 24/7 robots with no lives.

If you were an Anet employee, would you want to be working over the holidays just to push out an extra bit of content? I doubt it.

I mean, those of you who would be bored during the break… why aren’t you thinking about spending time with your friends and families? There is life beyond a single video game. :/

Ausfer.1853:

I sure hope you devs have a thick skin when it comes to the forums. It seems like no matter what you guys do, there will be people complaining about it.

Anyone who gets creative works seen by a large audience has to have a thick skin. It’s pretty much a requirement for the profession.

The hardest part is separating the good advice from pure angry opinion. Mainly cause angry opinion sometimes has good advice within it.

Brow.9425:

I’d just like to point out that Ubisoft sold 70 million copies of a game that lets people play the past, so Anet can be forgiven for thinking that people might like that sort of thing.

I’m sorry, but that’s a horrible defense. Assassin’s Creed made no pretense about being a game where you play anything but the past, nor did it ever try to give the illusion that you choose how the story plays out.

Its “choice” is in how you approach a particular stealth situation and what strategies you use to complete it.

GW2, on the other hand, started out as a game that gives you some influence in how your story plays out. Over time, they have moved away from that in a lot of ways, but they can hardly throw us a bone anymore at all. The closest they come to it now is two different dialogue options once in a while, that of course have no influence on how the story plays out.

And even that is missing sometimes in vital situations, where the ability to feel the illusion of agency is highly desired.

Honestly, I feel like the living story has identity issues – major ones. It seems they can’t even consistently deliver episodes that are loved and hated in one particular way. The longer I follow it, the more I get the feeling like we are test subjects for a series of experiments. Which I would be ok with if this wasn’t their flagship content.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Caithe dies in the process of whatever mad agenda she’s set out on. It probably won’t be at the hands of the “good guys” though.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some sort of self-sacrificing angle where she does something with the egg that is meant to help the “good guys,” but has to sacrifice herself to do it – which could be a way for her to make up for her mistakes of the past.

Blackmoon.6837:

It’s threads like these that remind me oh why the GW2 storyline is so child-like.

Grow some backbone. It wasn’t your character, so you have no reason to act all trollish.

The real problem is how Caithe will hardly suffer any real consequence for her actions, or how the this attempt at such a mature event won’t have any weight beyond the initial event.

LOL, this is not “mature vs. child-like.” This is tricking/forcing the player into doing something that he/she most likely had zero interest in doing. It is a nasty gap between “story” and “gameplay” where they forgot that you have to prioritize one over the other.

If the goal is to show us a nasty scene, show us a nasty scene. If the goal is to involve us in the scene, let us feel like we have some agency (why else are we playing a video game?).

I’m sorry, but this is really basic stuff and I feel like they are tripping over their feet trying to find the right balance between story and gameplay. This whole chapter is a perfect example of trying too hard to please everyone.

They need to choose one priority – story or gameplay – and then commit to it. This obsession with forcing us into mini skirmishes every other story moment just so that they can slap the word “game” on their stories has been around from the beginning and it has finally hit a place where it just doesn’t work, period.

Interesting idea. Some semi-fun stealth puzzle moments (which would have been better if it had been about cut in half).

The cutscenes were neat enough, but the moment I felt like I was truly inhabiting Caithe, it just felt… wrong. I am not Caithe. I didn’t play this game to be Caithe.

Also, Faolain is an annoying kitten, but rather than her being my enemy, she is somehow my lover or something (cause I’m inhabiting Caithe’s perspective). She has “abusive manipulator” written all over her. I would have preferred a “stab Faolain” option.

Thanks.

I don’t understand the part about not expressing personal opinions. I am of the opinion (hah) that expressing good feedback often requires sharing your personal opinions.

Is this role to be like an automaton or a debate moderator (not to be confused with a forum moderator) who only acts as a go-between and doesn’t get personally involved or invested?

In a way, I can understand what you might be getting at; that you don’t want people who will distort player feedback by being like a biased individual with more credibility than most.

But I don’t fully understand how one provides objective feedback about markedly subjective experiences in a game.

If I had more time, I would be intrigued by this position and possibly apply, but time aside, I’m uneasy about the notion of being asked to be objective. Not because I have any problems with being objective, but because staying objective seems to imply that my feedback will not be truly authentic.

It’s stupid to change the method halfway through, especially in a way that takes something away. It’s actually not that far from a bait and switch, considering the expectation.

If people want to get hyped up, they will get hyped up… honestly, it’s probably better for the playerbase to believe that an expansion is on its way eventually than for them to think that no expansion will ever happen.

Did mystic flushing on and off for a while. Got a precursor hammer. Was elated. Sold it so I could buy some cool stuff. Spent about 2/3 of what I got from selling it and then blew the rest on more flushing.

Opened a bunch of ToT bags on halloween, when I could have sold them. Got nothing significant to show for it.

Several times I’ve gone to buy Berserker gear from the WvW merchant and accidentally bought a few pieces of Soldiers before I caught on to what I was doing. Soldiers is good anyway, so I just hung onto the pieces and bought Berserker also.

Discovered the JP in Lion’s Arch early on through pure accident. Somehow got through most of it unscathed. Then I got to the spikes part and threw caution to the wind. The wind laughed at me and I died. Even a revive orb couldn’t get me going again where I died. It eventually got me up and then I instantly died again.

Went into hot-join PvP thinking it might actually have something akin to balance.

Rolled a mesmer for my first character.

Would be amazing if NPCs in instances acted more like pets; if you could tell them to attack, tell them to stay passive, etc.

Sometimes they are a worse enemy than the mobs.

Xenon.4537:

A good story has a beginning, middle, and end. And when you get to the end, you start a NEW story. You don’t try to prolong the first story ad nauseam. That’s called being a hack. Hacks don’t know how to write new material. They use plot twists the same way Michael Bay uses special effects. I’m not saying we will never reach Mordremoth, but the journey there doesn’t need to be a convoluted pile of spaghetti noodles.

As someone who loves to use plot twists in his own writing… ouch.

But I do see your point. I think plot twists are ok myself, but they should make sense within the context of the story. If they feel forced (and I have seen force-looking ones in TV shows… cough, latest Blacklist episode…) then it defeats the whole point of it being a twist. Instead, it just becomes a potential plot hole.

IMO, a good story arc is just as strong at holding peoples’ attention as a good plot twist. Breaking Bad did just fine with basically zero plot twists because the narrative weaved naturally through each episode. A show like The Blacklist, on the other hand, has a clear beginning, middle, and end, within each episode. Its main narrative continues through each episode, but the episode-specific narrative needs to have a clear beginning and end every single time.

Whereas BB could get away with leaving major loose ends and pick them up on the next episode.

When I look at how the Living Story compares to those shows, I think it could be more like the structure of BB, but it actually falls closer to the design of The Blacklist. Which might explain the leaning on plot twists.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

You mean Neverwinter Nights, right? (Note: this is a Bioware staple to their games, and another company which did good with it was Black Isle Studios.)

Yeah, I’ve noticed it is a staple for them. I just used KotOR as an example cause it’s one of my favorites.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Adult concepts do not necessarily make a story “better” just for having them.

Two big concepts which are not relegated to “adult concepts” would make the story better for having them though:

1. Worldbuilding. There is a whole world to Tyria, and the problem is how the writing seems to always focus like a laser pointer on one particular aspect. To the exclusion of everything else. While the fight against the Mordrem is going on, no other plots or events are in motion elsewhere. Every other aspect of Tyria is “on hold” through this crisis, except when it’s needed to further the story going on around the Mordrem. This isn’t good and it doesn’t foster the idea of the world as a “living entity” which proceeds without the players’ presence.

2. Consequences. Not necessarily death, but actions and developments need to have an impact on characters and locations rather than being shrugged off or handled in a simple one-note matter. You chose Belinda’s death, so I’ll run with that. Aside from Marjory’s grief in the scene and Kasmeer wishing she could help, nobody seems to care. We should see the family at a monument or a tombstone, have a chance to see others she knew make themselves known and go “we’re going to miss her”. She was a two-bit excuse for shoving pathos onto the Kas/Jory pair, and remains that way until she starts having more to her than what happened.

I agree with Tobias and I think the word “heavy” or “dramatic” (or even “Shakespearean” :P) fits better with this discussion than “adult.”

Plenty of “adult” conflicts are relatively mild and fit just fine in a Disney movie.

But there is certainly a problem, due to MMOs needing to fit within the structure of gameplay, where story can feel like a sideshow that largely doesn’t matter. And although GW2 has tried to skirt around this problem by having a “living world,” the reality is that the changes to the world don’t happen fast enough and they don’t happen in big enough ways (cause GW2 just doesn’t have the resources to do it).

Furthermore, I think a lot of the stuff that people are thinking is childish is more just underdeveloped, again due to lack of resources to pull off something deeper. In the scene where Marjory confronts Belinda's ghost, for example. It is a cool scene, but it is also incredibly short. The exchange gives us little to understand the relationship between the sisters, or get much insight into the Delaqua family and why Belinda's ghost would become part of the sword somehow.

In other words (without any spoilers involved): I feel we are presented with too many characters and too many plot threads, without any way to actually explore those characters/plots in-depth. It’s sort of like reading Game of Thrones, but without the close POV on different characters. As if you were observing all of the events as an outsider. The salt and garnish without a lot of the meat – the thing you really wanted to chew on.

Notice how in some story-based games, they work around this by giving you various side missions that you can do to explore a character or plot further. For example, in Knights of the Old Republic, talking to the various characters of your crew as you complete parts of the game would reveal more about who they are and occasionally lead to a side mission about something from their past.

All I hear from you guys responses is “blah blah blah, it’s a game, standards, blah blah blah.” Which is exactly what I expected and I addressed that if you’d actually read the whole post. There is so much fear in what some of you say, it actually makes me a little sad. It’s like you believe that if you don’t consistently put down the players who struggle, then Anet will reduce the game to the complexity of Pong. As if a few people posting on the forums is what defines Anet’s stance on difficulty.

Well if you could just point us to the Gameplay content that isn’t Living Story related we’ll be on our way. Oh wait… Thats why it needs to be able to satisfy both types of people.

Silverwastes bro. Silverwastes. Unless you want to get me on a technicality about it technically being introduced as part of the living story, despite its replayable content not really being tied to the instances themselves.

Anyway, we don’t even disagree on your main point. I want it to be able to satisfy everybody. I’m stupidly idealistic like that.

Judge Banks.9018:

At what point did mmo players go from organizing 200 man think-tanks on corporate vent servers, to trying something once, quitting, then going onto the game’s forum and complaining that a free win wasn’t handed out.

I could understand if you’re a quadriplegic, but certainly at some point you must ask yourself if your concerns should impair the experience of others.

At the point that we’re talking about a story mission tuned for the single player to be able to complete and not hardcore raiding?

The problem is, when you funnel all these resources into making a story that is supposed to sell on its storytelling power more than its gameplay, you’re shooting yourself in the foot if its too hard to complete for some of your players.

I get that people want challenges, no doubt about it. One of my complaints is the length of fights – certainly not the challenge level.

But it’s sort of like pouring resources into making a really awesome TV series and then forcing people to play a reflex-based mini-game to be able to watch. Sure, your story is cool, but if some of your players struggle just to be able to watch it, then what was the point?

There are other ways to provide challenge without mixing it into your flagship story releases. Frankly, I find the living story intriguing enough myself, but I don’t really play it for the content. I play it to see how the story plays out.

Anyway, I know some people will say I’m being silly – that if you want a story without effort, you should go read a book or watch a movie. And maybe the people who have disabilities (or just aren’t very good) would be better off doing that, but it doesn’t change the fact that some of them are players and their opinions are just as valid as anyone else’s.

As for whether Anet will do anything about it, that’s for them to decide. They probably plan a lot of these releases months before we see them. It could be months before the feedback is even possible to take into account without revamping development tracks midway. So those who are worried about lobbying can probably take a knee. I doubt Anet is going to do anything drastic with their flagship content based on a few threads.

Coulter.2315:

Do you genuinely believe the game we have now needs to devote resources to creating different versions of the content we get or are you just playing devil’s advocate? How many levels would you like? Rewards/Achieves in each difficulty? Forced to progress Easy->Medium->Hard or not? If the easiest difficulty is still too hard for the above poster do you want an even easier version made?

Or stick as is without the spreading thin of resources and just suggest anyone having difficulties can get a group of friends to help them?

The content we get needs to stay engaging for the majority of the playerbase, we cannot allow a few people who claim its too hard for whatever reason to dilute it when they have the option of doing it as a group to lessen the difficulty.

I’m just saying, it could be done in some way. It’s possible to compromise in this world, rather than thinking there’s an “us vs. them” lobbying war to be fought.

Coulter.2315:

I’m sorry but you cannot balance something for general release based on the most handicapped person who plays your franchise or you won’t have a game anymore. If someone has a genuine handicap and cannot complete something at the set difficulty they can still get friends to help.

Please keep the difficulty to at least the current level but leave the option for groups to play it for anyone who cannot solo it.

They could program in different difficulty levels for people like him. It’s not all or nothing.

Sojar.1495:

I enjoy the mechanics of the newer bosses. Varied attacks, new effects, varied dodge and evade tactics, etc. overall, given engine limitations, I think ANET is doing quite well. Which boss(es) did you find not enjoyable (compared to previous bosses from other content)

Nothing to get that specific about. I don’t like the tedium of going through the same mechanics over and over. I don’t have much of a problem with the mechanics themselves. They are pretty ok as far as boss mechanics go.

I actually thought the mechanics in Glint's whatever place that Ogden sends you to were clever and interesting, but again, many of the fights went on way too long.

Pretty sure I was running a glass cannon build. Don’t feel like checking right now.

misterman.1530:

I love these kinds of threads…because, inevitably, someone comes on and says something like “This was too easy. I soloed it naked with only a broken bottle as my weapon.”

Totally ignoring that the OP might not have played 4 hours a day straight for 2 years. Perhaps offering some suggestions, asking questions, and helping would be more productive. Though, I guess it fills some sort of void in the lives of these “uber” players that they need to brag anonymously and tout their awesomeness…regardless of how irrelevant that game-playing awesomeness is in, you know, real life. /rant

To the OP…what boss did you hit that gave you problems? That ridiculous ’griff that ran around like a spastic, old-school arcade boss? Dodge a lot, and stay out of the orange circles. Ignore the tendrils, they disappear after a while. Use ranged where you can. I hated it, and dropped once (had to restart from a checkpoint).

If you are in the maze, you can get out of combat with the mobs by running around.

Amen to that. Some people just don’t have the gaming experience or the reflexes.

I’m not one of them, but I can still remember when I was and I didn’t get better by having people mock me for not succeeding.

“It was easy for me, therefore it should be easy for everyone else.”

-_-

Really, though, I just found them tedious, as I explained here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/s2/Living-Story-Bosses-Feedback/first (and I’ve held that opinion since dragon’s reach, which is where I started seriously following the living story stuff)

But I’m also an experienced gamer with decent reflexes and reaction time. And I used to do raids with one-shot mechanics, where you either dodge or you’re dead, and your only chance of coming back that attempt is from a limited amount of battle-rezzes from one of your teammates.

So for me, these fights are like watered down, extremely forgiving, raid bosses. I’ve done much, much worse. I feel for those who just want a breezy fight though. The fights are a breeze to me, for the most part – they just take way longer than they feel like they should.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

I believe Caithe is taking the dragon egg to the Pale Tree, either because it is somehow needed to restore the Pale Tree

This was my thought. It would fit with having “no time to explain” and her intentions not seeming bad. The scene didn’t feel like a betrayal – it felt like “I have something I need to do and I don’t have time to explain why because the situation is dire.”

The pale tree’s health would fit with that, as it seems to have been damaged since the attack and has probably been dying since.

The only part that doesn’t fit is what a dragon egg would have to do with healing a tree. That aspect of it I’m blank on. Maybe if I knew more GW2 lore. I don’t even understand how the pale trees works as an entity or what the point of it is.

*Results may vary.

The 10 minutes number was ballpark and probably a bit of an exaggeration. However, if a fight takes 3-5 minutes and feels like 10, that’s not a good sign.

I am, of course, not the only type of player playing this game. I picked up the extent of the mechanics probably 10-15 seconds into seeing them (or at least to a good enough extent to handle them). Then it was just repetition. Which is pretty boring to me and doesn’t really feel epic in any way. Might feel epic if it was a coordinated 20-man raid; that’s the kind of situation where I expect some repetition.

But for story boss? Nah. Repetition can work, but it’s not being done well imo.

Give me something to do that takes some skill, but can speed up the fight significantly if I do it right. Right now, I get the feeling I would enjoy these fights more if I spent half of them being bad at the mechanics and having to figure them out. But I’ve seen too much of raids in other games. It’s hard to catch me off guard with something so watered down.

I love you guys, but I know you can do better than tedious repetition of mechanics for 10 minutes.

I don’t suddenly feel that a fight is epic just because it takes longer for me to kill the boss. You need to find a balance somewhere between “hand boss at the end of human character tutorial” and “tequatl.” In fact, Tequatl at least has a time limit, so you know you won’t be taking ages to kill him – you either succeed or fail.

I like the forgiving aspect of the story design, but I don’t care for the tedium. It is not appealing to me. There is no one definition of epic. I get that. Just… if you’re going for epic battles, big HP bars is not the way to do it. Not in an instance designed for solo play.

Enjoy your weekend.

adozu.6398:

Considering that same npc comes out of the fight badly roughed up i would just not consider him as the most qualified to give battle advices.

Now if he came out unscatched after telling you stupid things that would be a different thing entirely…

Yeah, I guess his bad advice would explain why the Aspect Masters are so horrible at battle and would have all been dead if not for your intervention.