OK, so there goes the to hold back the rich people theory. So hold back the poor to make the rich feel special for a while?
Quite the opposite – the “rich” that want to buy the time-gated mats can only successfully do so if the “poor” decide to sell them. So gouge them for all you can if you decide to sell your time-gated materials.
If anything, making them sellable gives people the option say “I prefer gold over forcing my ascended weapons” and allows them to at least close a bit of the gap to the trading post oligarchs.
(Same as you can sell your mystic coins instead of bothering with the forge recipes – sellable time-gated items arent new to the game)
The Quarterly report from NcSoft, which is a publicly held company, shows that Guild Wars 2 is doing fine.
Your comments about an expansion don’t make much sense from a business perspective.
Right now, Anet is giving away content every 2 weeks. They’d sell an expansion. MMOs often come out with expansions when there’s less interest in their game to bring people back to the game and to get some more money to fund future development. The fact that Anet isn’t doing an expansion is evidence of the fact that they’re doing okay.
I suspect a good percentage of their profits are from the cash shop.
Expansions take time develop. If they wait until there is less interest in their game to start on it, it’ll be woefully late. It would be smart to start that work at the height of their popularity instead of working on it later while they are falling into obscurity.
You folks need to google what a treadmill is. Until they set precedence for repeatedly replacing the current-best tier there is no treadmill. Keyword here being repeatedly.
I can see ascended being outdone in 2016 after ascended armor finished the Ascended tier in 2014/15. And at that point someone could call it a (really slow) treadmill.
But for now, this one tread does not constitue a mill, and one tread (exotic -> ascended) is all we’ve had and will have for the forseeable future.
P.S. I’d quit if this turns treadmill – it just isnt one for now unless you want to go to extreme logic leaps to justify your conviction, or just like to complain.
Will Asc. crafting be time-gated per account?
in Super Adventure Box: Back to School
Posted by: Mastruq.2463
Melana, your argument works equally well against time gating something on only one character. They already decided on time gating this stuff, if they reconsider based on you wanting to make two mcguffins because you use two different characters, then I want to make two mcguffins because I put in twice the effort on one character. So essentially, remove time gating.
Specifically, this part of your quote:
Restricting the effort a player is permitted to do in a time period is where the problem lies.
If I’m personally willing to put in 2 hours of effort for every one hour of effort you do, why should I not then be permitted outfit 2 characters to your one as a result of that effort? Account-wide time-gating doesn’t permit that.
If I’m personally willing to put in 2 hours of effort for every one hour of effort you do, why should not then be permitted to outfit my one character with 2 ascended items to your one as a result of that effort? Account-wide time-gating doesn’t permit that, either.
Alts are a strawman in your argument that is actually aimed against time-gating in general. (though you might not have seen it way, I think the above quote should convince you).
Visibility problems themselves can be legit difficulty – darkness or rain come to mind. In the case of Liadri I consider it artificial/fake difficulty because its caused by camera movements that are often outside of your control or unpredictable.
Take the dome off and make the floor solid and the fight is more about dealing with the encounter design and less about the camera (that this affects races differently is icing on the cake).
There are enough people complaining on the forums about it that they could just agree on a server to guest on and do it. Of course it’ll be easier for you to find a small problem with my suggestion (like the divide between US and euro) and still feel justified about your complaint instead of getting it done. And tbh “getting it done” is probably not worth the effort for the achievement points, but if you cared that much you could start up a reddit campaign or whatever. Although it is too late now I guess, should have done it 2 days ago instead of complaining on the forums.
That said I hope enough people lacking it gather up today for you all to get it .At least you have the chance, think of the guys that waited with doing Vorrp until this evening, because 6 invasions to even get into the playhouse is going to be impossible at some point, let alone completing the achievements there.
I’m ok with the dragons and other such events being actual big events, if the server can handle it. As such those big events not happening that often is fine with me, there are enough other bonus chest champs around that just fall over when looked at and happening every hour.
And, even if they counted, today the “daily” is to do… SIX of the group events inside the pavillion. The ones we can’t even do ONE of, because there are three people in the pavillion at the best of times. /slowclap
Instead of playing the victim and acting like they are entitled to this achievement, they could organize to get it done.
The pavilion is still there, instead of waiting until someone hands you the achievement by getting players together to clear a few of the bosses, why not try being the player that gets people together? Too much effort and uncertainty?
The representatives are all still there and accessible after you do the playhouse part. You talk to the LA emissary and then just kill stuff in the pavilion, that’s all there is to it.
If it wasnt a genuine question but actually a veiled whine because it is too difficult without a 100 strangers zerging alongside you, I suggest you ask your guild/friends to take some time off from their other activities to help you.
There’s no indicator she was ever targeting hoelbrak or the citadel, only seeking to displace the norn and charr in those areas.
How are you not targeting those cities if you drive their people back to the city and then build a halfdozen weapon facilities right at their doorstep? If you were content with the displacement it would be better to build a wall instead of bombs. If the players had not stopped them, do you assume they would’ve said “GG guys, we’re heading back to our old caves now”? Rox and Braham actually discussed that the explosives and war material in there is enough to blow up the capital while you clear through the MF.
Not to mention that Anet already said that first year was going to be all temporary where 2nd is more perm content.
Do you have an actual quote for that?
I havent seen any clear statements like that from the devs, just alot of “want and would like to” that is open to interpretation. Both regarding the second year as well as the first year before they created this Living Story concept in december.
Whoever is writing the living story, please put more effort into making it a believable situation (for a fantasy world).
Right now with the invasions as they are taking place and destruction being brought into all regions of Tyria, Scarlet alone is the biggest threat to this world. Zhaitan occupied a formerly underwater island and harrassed the coastal regions. Maybe he had long-term plans to wipe out the whole world, but Scarlet would be wiping out the whole world right this week if people wouldnt oppose her. If her crazy swings in our favor she could probably take her troops to reclaim the far shiverpeaks in a few days or wipe out wipe out all minions of Primordus to reclaim the homelands of the asuran race.
One for whatever reason crazy sylvari procures untold numbers of fighting troops from very different cultural groups that all unquestionably follow her, “because they like to live”. Either this plot stays as atrocious as it currently appears or we get it all explained afterwards with some deus ex machina, but in both cases the current chapter comes as across as really bad lore and story-wise and seems to be an excuse to dump large clusters of loot pinatas into the game.
So for the future either make the stories believable in size (F&F and lost shores did ok there, Scarlet would’ve been more ok if it just targeted some human areas in this attack on DR) or if you want to sow global destruction of unprecendented scale then use a threat that can believably carry it out. For example the invasions being lava rifts in the earth that spit out destroyers is a reason that fits the world you established.
But as you said, we have to wait and see if they actually deliver. This is a comparison on what they have done so far. For me personally it’s not even an argument that GW1 content updates were more substantial, even if the OP is leaving some GW2 stuff out.
I’m often quite negative on the forums but it’s mostly because I wanted this game to be as good as GW1 and in my mind it hasn’t delivered and the direction it’s taking is not as it should. I guess the term I would use for GW2 so far is “underwhelming” … or “so much wasted potential” but I can’t put that in one word.
This is so spot on it deserves to be pointed out over and over.
The devs wanting to have more permanent content is lip service. The devs MAKE the game, if they wanted to add more permanent content they would do so. I can claim I’ll stop beating this dead horse but until I actually stop doing it those claims mean nothing. Same for their claims about permanent content.
It’s been months since the complaints about temporary content started and what do we have to show on the permanent side? And even more importantly, what’s the ratio of permanent to temp content for say the last 3 months especially considering the effort that probably went into something like the Zephyr sanctum or Aetherblade retreat? I’m bad at keep track but I think the permanent additions are the changes to southsun and a selection of instances for minigames and pvp.
For the dragons a century is like a blink. We dealt with one of the three active ones, another is kept busy underground. Only Jormag would be a sensible “next target” if we puny mortals dare to be so arrogant. Better even to just deal with his incursion in the form sons of svanir for good and let industry advance to nuke level before we go deal with him (judging from our own world that’s only a few centuries away, with magi-tech probably faster – so get ready to assault Jormag with F16-lookalikes in 2014/15!!
Humor aside, the dragons are threats on a much grander timetable, vanquishing one per year would seem unbelievable. Imo it’s better to have some down-to-earth events and threats in between for a few years, and slowly sow seeds of information, rumors and later plot points to make the chapter of the next dragon fight more memorable. For example, the asura that helps you assault the risen vessel in the personal story and dies in the process would hit closer to home if you had known him throughout 2 years of living story, and not just 15 minutes before his death.
Please check all that apply.
You are:
[ ] Married
[ ] Have Girlfriend
[x] Employed
[ ] Have Pets
[ ] Have Children
[x] Are an Adult
[ ] Have a Life
[x] Have no Manual Dexterity
You Think Living World is too:
[ ] Hard
[x] Time Consuming
[x] Temporary
[ ] Full of Jumping Puzzles
You are Currently Threatening to:
[ ] Quit
[ ] Uninstall
[ ] Kick Colins’ Dog
[x] Tell the Internet That You are Upset
I’ve lost interest in GW2 more and more since the onset of the lightning round (updates every other week). I think it is because I felt the F&F was an interesting concept (events unfolding over time in one region of the world) and it’s major flaw was that it was too few additions per patch. Now we have fast updates, but it’s no longer a living story it’s just a new circus in town every two weeks with merely tenuous connections. I dont like it that way.
My ideal living story format would be similar to F&F:
- a longer campaign with 3-4 chapters that bring changes every 2-4 weeks (similar to now, F&F was too little/slow for the first months)
- organically meshes with the existing world. It should actually lead to significant permanent change (missed opportunity: explorable remnants of molten facilities, cragstead part of the open world with skill challenge and vista)
- a nice story arc (done well in F&F), content for solo and group play (done well in F&F except for the conclusion to the story being locked away from solo players).
Things that I didnt like over the summer:
focus on instanced mini-games throughout several releases, new open world area that is removed again after the event, excessive “click this 250 times, kill 250 world spawn pirates” tasks masquerading as content, 1-room “dungeons” (Canach story parts were tiny/bad), over-use of high tech solutions (holograms etc), probably some other things I forget, and finally I really dislike Scarlet and that she’s supposed to the link pulling it all together. That’s opinion of course but I dont seem to be alone on that last part.
Things I did like over the summer:
Southsun open world changes, Aetherblade retreat (too hard for temp content though, should’ve left a permanent version and it would share “best dungeon” with MF), revisiting Southsun and picking those story characters up again (hope we see Noll again), the outdoor design of the airship dockside cliffside (hated that it was temporary and not accessible by walking there though), detective story parts of Sky Pirates, NPCs remembering my character and deeds (though it was botched at some points, and its unfortunately per account not per character).
Calling these updates major is a bit out of touch really. The only credit to their name is the speed of the updates, that really is unprecedented. The rest of the article is out of touch with how the game actually plays out, which is not very world-changing and more like a new carnival every two weeks.
I’ve said it often a few months ago when I cared for the game’s future more then I do now, but they need to inject far more permanent changes into the living story that become an organic part of the world. Both Southsun events did that, but unfortunately they were not well-received because of the difficulty. I blame the large amount of people that claim to want challenges but in reality only want easy, undisturbed farming.
Nobody has touched upon the obvious solution here: different commander tags! Each costing gold seperately of course, Anet employees want to eat too.
You get a big red axe for combat commander, a green lockpick icon for ninjaing undefended areas in wvw, a pink bow for roleplaying and so on. I think the aetherbladefarming icon could be similar to a pirate flag, crossed swords but with $$ instead of the skull. What do you all think?
Celestial gear will lose for sure it’s useless magic find stat
for something better on the next patch
They plan to remove the magic find without any other changes to celestial gear.
It reminds me of the lost shores event last year. That’s to say it was fun (albeit laggy and uncoordinated) for an afternoon. But it’s not fun doing for two weeks. I only did it to get some achievements and it was getting stale from that, couldnt imagine putting myself behind it full time for two weeks in the name of gold farming.
This is basically the ancient karka in a fixed form. A huge pro-zerg event that yields good loot. The only difference is instead of having one shot during one afternoon, it repeats hourly for two weeks.
So if I had fun for the first evening but feel “meh” about the event repeating for two weeks, which side does that count for?
They need to move the type of content the living story delivers back to the way F&F was done. Most of the stuff we had for the last months was directed farming or instanced games, the only saving grace being the speed of the updates. F&F was better content it was just too slow. Going back to the F&F style of content that felt more part of the actual zone but with faster updates like we’re getting used to would be the best of both worlds.
Semantics bickering aside, the merchant being invisible is lame. He should have a witty one-liner for everyone that tries to do business with him but isnt the actual owner. If people complain about spending the gold in vain maybe adjust the tooltip to make that clearer.
Asuran unreliable weird-science is just that, science. The in-game explanation can be “magic” if you want to if it walks like a duck…
Zephyrites were a refreshing step towards a bit more fantastic and less technical environments, I hope we get more fantasy/magic stuff in the future and less techno-babble. Humans were supposed to be religious and magic-based but now they join the techno-races it seems.
Though (and I thought this for the Queen’s Jubilee in general), why does my Norn care about what a human Queen has to say. The best I could come up with, is to show that humans are still weak by beating their challengers/random bits of bolts.
If he doesnt care he can just ignore it and keep chugging ale in a tavern somewhere. Did he care about who gets voted into the council, or for some trader’s market and a suspiciously fragile flying homestead, or about an undead invasion somewhere far off in the south while Jormag is threatening his kin?
Too much asura sci-fi if you put it that way.
It’s been a year since the game came out, we can probably shelf the ideas behind the manifesto by now.
I don’t disagree with what you’re saying. A WvWvW sandbox within the themepark? Sign me up!
There’s a bit of a problem with comparisons with EVE though. CCP happened to be interested in making a space game, and a space game just happens to be much easier to make into a sandbox than, say, a fantasy game like this. I mean, basically, EVE is one of the most heavily instanced MMOs there is (the “boxes”) and all that vast space is totally illusory – they didn’t have to actually make much in the way of assets to realize the illusion apart from a few rocks and space stations.
Not sure why you say heavily instanced as pretty much nothing is really instanced in EVE, it´s the only single shard MMO I know of .
Even the NPC missions that do create what could loosely be called “an instance” can be broken into at any time.EVE players interact with their spaceships in what are called “boxes”, which are basically ad-hoc instances (instances that others can enter). They are created when someone comes out of warp to a mission spot (an abstraction up till that point) or whatever, and they “disappear” a while after, say, a mission is done. Again, when you scan for a plex, nothing actually exists (in the way that a zone does) until someone first warps in, it’s all just abstract information until that point.
The closest thing to zones (permanent instances) in other MMOs are the areas in the vicinity of space stations, and gates.
Also, there is no actual solar system zone, as in a comparable place where large numbers of players have to play together, as in GW2; the only thing that people are “in” all together in a solar system is the solar system’s chat system (and of course the info accessibility for players).
Really, the “single shard” thing is basically PR. All that’s actually shared between all players in the game is some of the global chat systems (e.g. the Help channel) and info accessibility, the rest is pure illusion. It would be like saying that a global chat system shared between all the servers in GW2 is some special thing that actually puts players together in a shared virtual universe. Well it kind of does, but it’s misleading. You can have tens of thousands of people in a single chat system. Big whoop.
Not to diminish what CCP do, because it’s a fantastic game of its type, and some of those big space battles are something to see – and that time warp thing they introduced recently was a clever bit of technical wizardry.
*But the WvWvW zones in GW2 are IMHO a far bigger technical achievement than anything in EVE Online, because so much more has to be kept track of. *
(Notice how something so apparently simple as customization for ships in EVE Online has taken a long, long time for CCP to even consider, and in order to prepare for it they had to revamp their system entirely, and it’s still not in the game?)
Just to recall: the only reason I’m saying all this is because I see lots of players sort of wondering why other games can’t be as good as EVE in the sense of presenting a sandbox with humungous game world, empire struggles between players, etc. etc. The reason is because CCP were lucky enough or canny enough to pick a type of game, a space game, where that type of play is relatively easy to realize, because the virtual world being depicted consists mostly of empty space that doesn’t have to be rendered in any way, so long as nobody’s “in” a given portion of it.
You are vastly underselling CCP’s accomplisments here for the sake of simplicity. I wont go into all of it but the statement about WvW being a bigger technical achievement just needs a reply: Combat in EVE is not just a range check and boom damage. In a fleet fight of say 500 players they are calculating the chances for hits for every gun based on both ships flight behaviour and the flight path of every missile. That by far outclasses the entire WvW map tech. EVE has alot of boring or weak spots but their engineering and mechanical depths is on another level compared to the rest of the genre.
I’m not sure I would call it burned out but I find myself playing less lately. Many players focus on the LS exclusively it seems and it usually comes with grindable perks that support that. Other parts of the server feel emptier then usual. I do it a bit but I dont want to spend two weeks in the pavilon for example. At least on my server everyone flocks to it, people go there to level etc. It’s better then Sonic the hedgehog minigamesI guess.
I went to Orr today and nobody did any events, the only people there formed a big zerg to run from champ to champ for boxes. Just one example, sure, and I did gauntlet fights instead.
I agree with most of what the OP wrote (for partially different reasons) and ultimately feel the LS has diminished my enjoyment of the game in the recent months.
I agree with that opinion. I don’t mind a mini game from time to time or tied in with holiday events. But really the current trend has to stop, it’s getting worse and worse.
Like the OP said the F&F arc is looking better and better every two weeks. My main complaint about it was that is was too slow, and that the MF was temporary despite being the best dungeon to date. Both of these concerns are actually adressed now, BUT you have also moved away from any other concepts presented during F&F. A story that takes place in the world in the and affects the world. Yea there are results like this election but it seems the majority of the work goes into the mini-games. They have to much focus and feel very misplaced.
For example, southsun survival would’ve been a great introduction of the island back in november, with a background in players being crash survivors and discovering the island before the consortium moves in. Instead, the concept for the minigame is just the rich corporation running entertainment for the masses.
I dont like it that way, I think you can do better.
I like the idea, but if they do this I would like at least HALF the new skins to be available through play. Since living story started the majority of the the game’s new skins have been gems/gold only or RNG (which is supposed to lead to gems too).
I want to play to gain some special stuff at least once in a while, and I dont mean jumping through 20 mini-game hoops with a 2 weeks countdown.
The stories are connected. You’ll find out more later this year.
Please dont say everything ties together towards one common source, the uber-evil. That’s such a cliche.
Tyria is big enough to have entirely seperate story threads going on that are worthy of our attention as hero and marshall of the pact. I dont want to consider every story and event with “hmm how does this tie into the main villain?”.
While I am in favor of Evon because I dont like asura high tech, I think many people on the forums underestimate the sway of the masses of players that casually do some of this stuff, have no idea of the consequences or what those mean, and just vote Kiel because they already talked to her and because she is a human character.
Also, to get many achievements you need to vote for both. So alot of players will diminish their vote’s weight by also casting some votes for the opposition.
Maybe a Great Collapse fractal could shed more light?
I think this could be a fun idea. Presuming it wasn’t a mere poor foundational collapse.
Just a final quick note, I’m certainly not denying that at one point a Canthan district was planned and partially implemented. But the actual lore of the district that the game shipped doesn’t support it very well right now.
I don’t see why the district couldn’t be an arts and Canthan district, given there’s lines for both. And besides, who wouldn’t consider foreign art to be the best of what art has to provide?
But if it wasn’t a Canthan district, that still leaves the massive question: Where is the Canthan areas that Valenze mentioned. And I doubt a Preceptor of the Order of Whispers would be wrong in such a thing.
Since there obviously isnt a canthan district within the city walls, I would reckon if they want to go ahead and introduce one it would a makeshift slum area outside the city to the north/eastern side. The few well-to-do immigrants possibly living in the city (in GW2 racial diversity was killed in favor of caucasian looks so you dont recognize them as canthan in game – but that’s another thread).
I’m no fan of the drop rate, RNG screwing players in favor of $$$ as usual. And assuming Anet isnt aware of it is giving them alot of credit because these issues arent exactly new.
That said, the one good thing I see about this is that the weapon skins will be available forever, even if it’s a ridiculous price after this event. That IS better then unavailable for anyone joining in a year that desperately wants one, and it retains the exclusiveness that they chase after.
I’d like the scraps to really be common (50% or better drop rate, or better even 100% drop rate and make it take 20 for the same result) and then the concept is bearable. The Post-event price can stay ridiculous, its really only for the future group of players that must have that one skin and would be shattered to find out it was time-limited from 2 years ago.
Both fractals can lead to good or bad follow-ups, so thats kinda irrelevant.
I’m for the Abaddon fractal because imo there is too much high tech in the game already. Magic-based or not most of the stuff about Asura is right at home in a sci-fi setting. I prefer a mix and feel Anet needs to move focus away from asura tech for a bit to maintain that balance. So Gods it is.
Seriously,who cares about keys or wps.
Are you really that poor in-game to be all exited for reduced WP costs?
And I doubt anyone here is exited for more RNG keys either.The point is, 4 week price reductions doesn’t matter, neither do silly mini-games, they’re irrelevant, the question should be : which dungeon is better? *
*And, I think we already know the answer for that : Abaddon.Knowing the Abaddon Fractal is the better of the two would not only require a time machine allowing you to travel forward in time to see the finished result
I stopped reading there (well, not really but you get the idea).
You dont need to travel to the future for that, you merely need to be from the future. I hope you agree that the creation of a time machine is less unlikely in the far future so it stands to reason that Nick is indeed a visitor from the future (and an alien) here to study the pivotal changes that lead to the downfall of the human civilization in just a few swift decades.
• The filler achievements need to stop – Kill x Number of Aetherblades in this certain area, Loot x number of kite drops, Kill x number of enemies from Holographic Nodes, etc…. Nobody likes these, they don’t add anything to the game, get rid of them.
You need these for the player types that have a grind or collector mindset and less of a competitive outlook. Anet is putting stuff for all (well, most) player types in. You sound like the competitive sort and that’s fine but asking for other gameplay aspects to not be included in future updates is shortsighted imo.
P.S. they should be tuned down a bit considering the two week schedule. 100 signs over 4 months for F&F was fine, 4x 50 aetherblades or 150ish pinatas/fireworks all the same zone in 4 weeks, not so much.
(edited by Mastruq.2463)
These cursed monthly updates that invariably always end up adding new content and then taking too much of it away afterwards make me feel like I need to hop in every month to make sure I do not miss out on something cool.
That is exactly the point.
How do you expect ArenaNet to keep people playing the game? They could try to release content in a single batch, but players always devour content faster than developers can make them, so it would only have a very temporary effect. They could do what every other MMORPG do and add massive grind to the game, but one of the main appeals behind the Guild Wars franchise has been the little grind it’s supposed to have.
What is the better option, then? To release temporary content in small updates. This keeps people interested, keeps people playing even if for a single day after a release, and keeps the game fresh.
The fact you feel like you should play the game often or miss cool stuff is exactly the goal behind the two weeks updates. IMO, it’s better than having you feel like you need to play the game often or you will be left behind in the gear treadmilll (which is what other MMOs do).
I disagree to a point here. They would have a better player retention if the ratio of temporary to permanent content was shifted towards the majority of each update being permanent.
Some parts of each bi-weekly update being temporary (among that of course the story development) with the ‘meat’ being permanent would still have the desired negative reinforcement effect, the “must log in or miss something, must log in for daily at least” that is Anet’s basic model.
But you must recognize that coming back after months and not seeing many changes and/or not being able to keep up with the majority of the releases being temporary drives people away. just look at the forums and keep in mind bi-weekly has only been going on for like 1-2 months…
So I propose a majority of permanent content with a temporary story and some temporary things tied into each bi-weekly release would be much better for their business model then the all-temp, all the time.
They might already realize that since the news are that going forward there is more permanent stuff in each release.
You can solo it. Just be careful when doing the seal part and dont dodge off the platform or hold the hammer too long.
Well if you look at it this way then Kiel as a soldier-type brute force approach person that didnt even want to be captain but was forced into the role is both unprepared and unsuitable for the council position, as well as lacking the ambition to do well in it beyond “Ellen Smash”.
Evon seems to be more at home in such an environment, and tying him and his vast organization closer to LA would be a smart move by the other captains.
So, how many new zones does that involve?
I see no new zones, but a few new dungeons.
The same has been added to GW2 (and more)I asked about new zones added, since that is what people seems to be caring about.
We have had quite a few instances added since release of GW2, both permanent and temporary.
No new zones at all. It’s why I left WoW. That’s a list of Blizzard’s tangible additions to their game, which is based on instanced content. It makes sense for WoW. Mind you I’m not saying WoW is better, I would still be playing it then.
I’m not looking for GW2 to achieve parity with a game I deemed not worth playing. I dont want GW2 to become a WoW clone. I thought GW2 was based on playing in open zones interacting with others, instead of sitting in a city and queuing up for instanced content.
If you’re saying GW2, that emphasized its open world as the content they want people to play, is intentionally changing direction towards instance gameplay as its focus, I’d want the devs to acknowledge that so I know not to bother anymore. Right now I am uncertain which direction they want to go and I feel like their original goals are slowly sliding away and being replaced by instanced/instanced/instanced. It is a very disheartening situation. I’m still hoping they return to the design goals they stated a year ago and breathe life into the open world again.
Slow roll-out aside, F&F has actual things happening in a regular zone, it affected people, changed their play experience. That’s the living world I can get behind. I just dont see BotFW or the other releases since Southsun having that effect, they are in their own small bubble that was added for the event only or take place in LA. Now, throwing down a few kites/holoboxes/SAB boxes is all the lip service given to the open world that was once their focus.
Buying RNG chests is a choice. I might not make that choice but I will defend your right to make it. If you vote against Evon you vote against freedom.
Vote Evon for a free Tyria.
I’m just making this up, but:
The Abbadon fractal research might lead to expanding the map into the crystel desert, while the Thaumanova research might lead to followups into the western maguuma region. Simply because “vote on which fractal you get” is a bit thin.
Thank you for taking this effort. I can only urge anyone that cares about the temporary content to do it asap since nothing here is certain. A dev confirmation or the dev team taking over the format would be appreciated.
Voting for the third party candidate is like throwing away your vote though. I would like to question candidate Kiel on her stance towards the grawl population of LA though. Evon, coming from a previously misjudged race himself is much more likely to be open minded.
So Vote Evon!
I totally agree. They can do those website and blog blurbs if they want, maybe it draws players into the game. BUT also put them into the game. Put in a book on a bench somewhere that I can read in-game. Certainly not hard and it adds alot to the atmosphere.
If the story is written from a perspective that doesnt make sense in the book that just sits there (Rox’s background story for example) then put in report write-up from a foreman that you can find on Rytlock’s shelf or the like that details the events from another perspective.
Bottom line, add more detailing to the world. More little story bits, npcs conversations, npcs recognizing the player based on prior PS and LS chapters, etc.
That’s unacceptable – we should be well into the Crystal Desert or Far Shiverpeaks by now. I understand that MMOs are more of a churn and burn money-mule these days, now more than ever, but I’ve got to say, if there was ever a plan to respect the original game and breathe its life into GW2, the devs really should be ashamed of their efforts.
So.. how many new zones where released in WoW in the first year?
TERA? LOTRO? SWTOR?
I dont know about TERA, LOTRO or SWTOR (though from friends I heard SWTOR did add several instances in their first year).
Here’s a brief list for WoW though (from the wiki, its been a while):
Release in Nov’04 (new in that patch were also the raid dungons)
Maraudon dungeon in Dec’04
Diremaul dungeon and outdoor world bosses in Mar’05
Epic weapon quests for 2 classes and PVP reward system in April’05
Introduction of the first two battleground pvp zones in June’05
Blackwings Lair raid dungeon and the recurring monthly darkmoon faire in July’05
Zul’Gurub raid dungeon and the third battleground in Sep’05
Mor outdoor world bosses and revamp of the previously unused Silithus zone* into a fully fleshed out zone with spawnable events and laying the storyline for the upcoming dungeon in Oct’05
In addition to that they also had holiday events or that recurring fishing and open-world arena event in stranglethorn, and they did have a story buildup several times, depending on which patch we’re talking about.
Having played WoW for its first year (and quit in 2006 so its not like I love it over everything) and having played GW2 since release, I would say WoW has done more/better during that first year. Dissapointing because Anet was proclaiming they will deliver more and better then even subscription games.
I know you’re hellbent on defending Anet, so instead of nitpicking please accept that others also want them to do better, but they have to be told when they are going in a direction that doesnt seem to be the best so they can adjust their course.
*silithus can very nicely be compared to southsun and the rework of silithus was far more interesting then southsun 2.0
I agree with the OP, living story concept is good but execution has been lacking, specifically the focus away from things happening in the open world and towards various mini-games.
I certainly complained about F&F because the roll-out was too slow, and stand by that. However what they actually did roll out was “living story” about the invasion in the shiverpeaks, with tangible changes in wayfarers foothills to match. It was rough around the edges which is ok with the first release of this (back then) new concept. I expected them to fine-tune their implementation and timing but follow the pattern laid out by F&F. For example, they could have done the MF in a different, more worthwhile way. 8/10
Skipping my personal rating on SAB because it’s not so much living story content, but I found it well executed and with a surprising amount of depth for several play-throughs. If I were to rate it I would place it amongst the top scores.
Southsun did ok in this regard, though I consider it much worse then F&F because the story wasnt represented as well and what they called a dungeon in that release was at best a short story instance. Also it was the start of the mini-game plague, though I didnt mind it then because occasionally mini-games are fine. 6/10
Dragon bash gets a bit of a free pass for being a recurring holiday, but it was mostly busywork that just had you run to the same “world spawn” nodes they already used in the same pattern for halloween, christmas and SAB, plus clicking (F) 200x in LA. Again with the mini-games, too. The story instances were good again though and not as lame as in Southsun. Still the busywork vs content ratio was way off. 5/10
Sky pirates introduced the continuation of the DB story line and had a nice culmination in a real dungeon, very appreciated (too bad there wasnt a paralell solo solution). It also came with a new permanent JP added to the existing world. Looks ok, we’re on the upswing again. “fake content” by placing caches in existing mini-dungeons forcing a re-run. Didnt take the lesson from MF and worsened it with difficult achievement, not so great. Still, beats the last two releases. 7/10
Bazaar of the four winds is a mixed bag. The zone is great and I find it a travesty that they didnt make it a little bit larger and permanent, even if the ship departs. The JP parts of the zone are well done and interesting. Again with the mini games and doubling up on existing content by placing kites there, no story development to speak off except the very first bit. 6/10
So there’s my take on the living story so far. I feel they are drifting away from what they did well with F&F and towards easily implemented busywork (clicking 100ish of something somewhere). We had that in F&F too but it twice in 4 months, not twice per month as is the current trend. Also the trend towards including one or more mini games irks me currently because the actual, living world additions and changes seem be less and less. Obviously these minigames dont appear out of thin air, they take work, imo work that could’ve gone into improving the actual world at large.
back during F&F I was intrigued by the idea of the ongoing living story but voiced my concern about the slow rollout and said I’ll withhold judgement for a while since the concept is new. I was honestly hoping they follow the way F&F went more closely but improve the rough edges, make necessary changes to the concept and polish it more.
Instead in my opinion polish has been lacking (better again with BotFW) and the focus is no longer on the open world but on instanced minigames and collecting rat tails (bonfires, kites, whatever). I dislike this direction and here I am voicing my concern again. I do that because I like the game and want to keep playing it, but the current direction unfortunately is diminishing my fun in GW2.
I’m waiting for the blog at the end of the month about what’s planned for the rest of the year, but so far living story isnt up to my expectations.
It started out too slow but otherwise ok (F&F), but instead of picking up steam it has since devolved into a focus on minigames and very little content that’s actually taking place in the existing world.
I wonder where all their plans for strenghtening the existing areas went? Into the dumpster I guess, because this current chapter doesnt even take place in the permanent world, its a seperate area that will vanish with the air ship.
I like the idea of a living story, I really do. But I think they are going about it the wrong way. The announcements last december certainly didnt highlight “new instanced minigames every month!”