Couldn’t agree more, OP. I’m going to post my opinion in this thread as well, and I’m sure it’ll overlap with some of your points, but this is all about being vocal, right?
So I played GW since Factions was released and quit several months after playing GWEN. But I’d transferred over to GW2 hype by then, editing the GW2 wiki and craving any scrap of GW2 news. So after these several years, I cannot stress how much more satisfying the expansion-based releases of GW1 were compared to the living story releases so far.
As you said, we’ve gotten pieces of different stories here and there with the living world, and the devs have made it clear that they’ll be continued/connected throughout the year, which, of course, they already have been a bit through Scarlet. Mike O’Brien mentioned how he wishes players would focus less on landmass as content-quality and more on…heck…I’ll quote it:
“I’d say is that Guild Wars 2 is a huge game and I don’t think players should judge Living World by whether there is more and more land mass being added to the world. They shouldn’t even judge expansions by whether there is more and more land mass being added to the world. Thats not our focus. Yes we’ve done it, we’ve added Southsun Cove, but I don’t think that’s the focus or distinguishing mark of what makes great new content. I think the distinguishing mark is that there are things to do in the world that are new, challenging and bring players together that require players to learn new skills.”
And as someone on GW2 Guru said, there seems to be a disconnect between players’ desires and the content-focus. I, and I believe many others as well, think that adding landmass should not be judged as some one-dimensional addition to the world. It, along with these points that Mike stated, make up great content. Heck, that pretty much defines what the GW1 expansions were: more landmass and more challenges/skills.
You can ask players to be more open-minded about this living world and appreciate these additions, but asking players to disregard something as ingrained in video game quality as landmass seems umerited because of this trend. We’ve received promises about more permanent additions in the future, and presently more disconnected/temporary updates. Now, I understand that the way the living story is being presented is intentional. We are supposed to piece things together as the story continues, but as others have pointed out, doing this via in-game methods needs more work, as the stories posted via the website are great, but perhaps this is lore that should be presented in-game using already-developed, in-house methods of story-telling.
So what I’m trying to get at is that this living story feels like pre-GW2 hype. We waited a little bit, we got more tidbits about GW2, just enough to keep us satisfied, and we waited anxiously for more information about the game. With the living story so far, we’re presented with achievements that feel more like work than I’m sure what was intended. We’re presented with shallow lore that I’m sure is in depth behind-the-scenes, but will be revealed months down the road or maybe even a year. Expansions gave us in-depth lore and permanent content that kept us satisfied for months on end.
I can appreciate the living story method of delivering content rapidly, and I understand that trade-offs go into these methodology decisions, so I’m asking ArenaNet to please analyze your current development framework because of several of the community’s ill-feelings towards the living story content so far. You guys have done great work in the past, and even if the team has changed a bit, I know you guys can pump out quality content. Y’all have been active within the communities now and in the past, and so the disconnect between that aforementioned interview and the community’s opinion actually came as quite a shock. I don’t want to sound like I’m telling you how to make your game, because this is your game, but you made this game in part for the community as well, so just keep listening to feedback and hopefully our (the GW2 communities and you, the developers) opinions of the game will be more aligned.
EDIT1: Also, I want to mention that this post talks in a general, high-level sense, without citing many specific examples. I kept it high-level because the issues have been brought up on the forum/sub-forums, and I don’t think I need to reinvent the wheel, but if you’d like me to be more specific, I can be.
EDIT2: And one last note, my favorite living story release so far has been Zephyr Sanctum. This added a beautiful, new location in addition to entertaining challenges and intriguing lore. Exploring the sanctum was a blast— having to use those movement skills & jumping around to obtain crystals was both humorous and fun. The sprint may have suffered from lag issues occasionally (mostly on my end), but boy did it invoke that competitive spirit!
