Guild Wars 2

Why Kessex hills? Mount Maelstrom and timberline falls has a larger Krait density. Also its not so “right under our noses”

Half the adventure is the journey in any story, having this happen in the backyard of Kryta is not the best option.

Einlanzer.1627:

It seems the majority of players are either ambivalent about it or outright dislike it. There are many good reasons why, too, the biggest ones being:

a.) continuously being thrown on time-gated achievement cycles starts feeling like a chore very quickly and both the achievements and the rewards become very trite.

b.) It’s a gimmick that very obviously revolves around the gem shop and results in very little world-building.

c.) temporary content is a waste of development time and hurts the game more and more the longer it remains the primary focus

d.) the overarching narrative is totally broken by the ‘flavor-of-the-month’ style of the LS and results in a world and gameplay experience that feels very shallow and fragmented.

I don’t care about any of those points. What I want is a gripping story that is actually interesting. Scarlet = boring.

Bri.8354:

The living story needs to focus more on expanding the game, not just changing it.

Completely agree, there is a large door by Ebonhawk which is guarded. Why don’t they open that area up, give us a new huge area to explore complete with a new threatening menace that isn’t a bratty teenage sylvari.

completely agree. Scarlet, a supposed genius and only non asuran to be allowed to train at the colleges, has never been spoken of before her arrival. Its just stupid.

I suggested this ages ago, having a journel you can click on to see the LS so far, complete with cutscenes, bios on characters, bestiary, and many more things that give a decent background to the game.

So I completely agree with the OP.

Surmav.1879:

If anet releases that much content, what if they run out ideas?

their ideas haven’t been that great to begin with. When they start creating good ideas then you should start worrying.

Frost and Flame has been the closest to actual decent content which slowly builds up to a dramatic ending and also leaves a question (mystery) when you interrogate the dredge. That was nicely done. It also allowed you to build a relationship with two new characters who remember you in future patches. The hidden clues given to you by the whisperer agent actual made me interested in what the dungeon might reveal. You learn about the relationship between Braham and Eir, and a bit about Norn culture. The fixing signposts and refugee quests went on for far too long otherwise it would of been an ok start to the patch.

Ever since then the living story has been boring…

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Her goal is the same as the goal for many heroes in the more philosophical anime. To give people free will – separate people, especially the sylvari, from this thing called “the Eternal Alchemy” which deems the place of everyone in the world, from small to large.

I hope your wrong. If that is her motive, its incredibly boring. Snore…..

seriously we need fresh new writers.

Lopez.7369:

I think it’s fantastic content. I did it in my first PUG without a problem.

same, I got a good group we discussed tactics, worked it out and completed it. We must of wiped 12 times during the dungeon but we stuck it out and no one raged.

I feel sorry if you get stuck with people not willing to try and want faceroll content.

its not easy content and you should expect people with reasonable gear to come along. A fresh 80 in rares just isn’t enough and they should at least try to gear up to help the party.

Anet can you please make the story mode completion account bound. Its getting annoying trying to remember which one of my characters have unlocked the explorable modes.

Its also annoying for others when we have formed a party and unfortunately I have forgotten which character can enter the dungeon to do the explorable paths. “hold on switching characters, ok its not this character, switching to another one… yeah this one should be it, oh no, wait, switching to another character won’t be long…”

I know its not much but its just adds to convenience and playability.

Mathias.9657:

Palawa Joko is probably the coolest villain in the GW lore, I’ve loved him since NF first hit. Fanboi scream!

His story is epic and we brought him back because we needed his help and now look at him – and ANet refuse to expand on amazing stories such as this and give us these silly crappy villains in LS lol.

well according to GW wiki, in GW2 he rules over all Elona. So you may see the return of him after all. Unfortunately I’m worried the GW2 writers will ruin what the original writers created.

Zoltreez.6435:

Hey Anet if you want to make Scarlet and Traherne Epic and cool in the eyes of the players you should make a dungeon where one of them kills the other.

I like this idea. Except if its Traherne, chances are we’d actually defeat Scarlet and he’d take the glory…. again. At least no more Scarlet.

not much scarlet love in this thread or the entire forum. I think only one person has posted something positive about her. One out of many.

I wonder if the writers are thinking “Hmmm, where did we go wrong? why doesn’t everyone like her, people think the Joker is a good villain”

sounds like its a bit too difficult for someone.

BobbyStein.2315:

We haven’t revealed her motive yet. I can understand the confusion and/or frustration surrounding that so we’re looking at ways to accelerate the plot and implement some features that will make it easier to track Living World content. The first phase of that system will be implemented before the end of the year.

Wow really?! There are ways to hint on a motive to keep people guessing, giving them nothing is just frustrating. Think how you did Frost & Flame, those hints from the whispers agent, or the hint that someone else was behind the alliance when you interrogated the dredge. They added mystery and interest.

Of course it doesn’t help when Scarlet isn’t a very interesting villain. Crazy teenage brats don’t make great villains in my book, its like a Disney story gone wrong. Her dialogue in the new dungeon was nauseating.

Or maybe its your plan all along, we want to kill her just to shut her up.

CHIPS.6018:

Best: Molten Weapons Facility Dungeon.
Worst: Scarlet the character.

add Kiel to the worst and I agree completely!

scarlet’s dialogue is written for 3yr olds. die die die, tic, tic… so lame.

Sioul.7269:

I’d love to see Canach joining Braham and Rox

totally this but not after Canach does a few more questionable good things.

I don’t get it, how did he interfere? For an Anet developer not to know about GvG is ridiculous, GvG has been around for ages.

Personally I think GvG is great, its people using a platform (WvW) to play the game how they want. Its pretty cool just to sit on the hill and watch these fights.

I can’t see him trolling much from those images…

Toby.2357:

Stop droning and take a stand. Dont just accept bad writing, guild wars 1 had awesome lore and slowly that awesome lore is fading in to the toilet because drones and encouraging it.

Make a stand? I haven’t seen anything positive on the forums about the Living Story for a long time. People do not like scarlet, the OP says she’s the best but the best from a bad bunch does not make her a good villain.

The stories they are crafting lack any creativity and it worries me. The little short stories found on this site are pretty good, but the overall story arcs are NOT. They lack depth, fail to spark any sort of emotion except boredom.

I never played GW1 but after reading about the blood stone prophecies I can imagine the feeling the players had when they found out that the people they were sending to the White Mantle were not being trained in magic but sacrificed for their souls. The betrayal, trickery, deceit… now there you have a good villain(s). To know you were tricked into sending innocents to their doom would of spark a feeling of revenge, how dare you use me as a pawn for your evil. You would feel guilty for doing it, angry for being tricked, revenge to redeem yourself, satisfaction when you finally plunge you sword into the architect of their schemes.

scarlet? who cares, she’s just some nutcase. I don’t feel compelled to hunt her down, I just want to see new content.

its a huge brussels sprout with sharp teeth and a grumpy attitude… look out.

Tauril.8504:

Power is not what makes a character interesting, character is.

I agree, you need more than just power, you need motives, mystery, a struggle, a weakness, faults, strengths… and so much more.

So far they haven’t given us much. She rejects the Pale Tree – why? why her and not countless others before her.

When, where and how did she amass such an army? did she recruit them in another land off the current playable area?

Who did she contact in the flame legion and dredge? did she just turn up and they all suddenly agreed to follow her plan? Is she the quick talking city person the dredge prisoner talked about?

So she rejects the pale tree, why suddenly go on an all out attack on tyria? especially why the human race?

We know she is a genius but why does her personality not reflect that, she seems crazy and immature.

I really hope Anet know how to wrap up a story.

the technology is in the game no one can deny that but what I dont want is this ‘last of the samurai’ crap or any part of history where the invaders turn up with better technology and the natives with their bows and arrows are completely outmatched.

We have characters that use swords and shields, bows, magic – if GW2 turns into constant stories of high tech invaders I’m going to get bored really quickly.

Gabby.3205:

A Massive Headache.1879:

Kiel kind of finished what he started with freeing the people from the consortium, so your action to kick her would be dumb.

And got all the credit for it, having a settler even to thank her and to say that she “solved everything so easily” when comparing her solution with Canach’s, even though Kiel would have solved nothing if it wasn’t for Canach to begin with. Then, she threw Canach in jail and we never heard of him again, while she got promoted all the way to captain.

Wow, I never liked Kiel to begin with but after reading that I hate her even more. I voted for gnashblade, he was an interesting character but alas now just stands in the BLTP in LA. At least I can visit him now and again unlike Canach.

Why don’t they put the prison in the game, it would be interesting to visit and see all the law breakers in one place. Almost like a trophy room for your character.

is that him swimming away or does he sit there permanently? I really hope its the former.

TTS has 900 members (2 guilds (TTS1, TTS2)- one wasn’t enough) and takes out Teq on two overflows each hour most the afternoon. So I’m sure that number will skyrocket up soon.

Gabby.3205:

^Again, Canach was not thinking straight. He was running for his life for months, starving, barely sleeping, being hunt by mercenaries and completely alone. The radical change on his looks translates this, according to a dev’s post. He was desperate and in a pretty bad shape. Wanting him to develop a master plan would be asking too much. The guy could barely survive, give him a break.
If anything, the fact that he made such a mess just makes him an even better character.
Ugh, I really want him back.

I want him back too. Perhaps his actions were out of desperation. To date he is one of the most interesting characters. A villian? anti-hero? who knows, they should bring in new writers to develop him further. I believe he is cunning enough to escape his cell and I hope he does as well.

I would like him to become more of an anti-hero whose methods are questionable but not completely ruthless as to turn people away from him. A bit like a vigilante. If there was a quest to break him out of jail I’d do it.

Aden Celeste.3650:

Hmmm, Anet needs more talented writers it seems…

this times a million!

Just because she’s the best only highlights how bad all the others were. So many villains and Scarlet is the best?! They had a good thing with Canach, he solo’d a molten facility, killed off assasssins, then to rescue the workers he sets a bunch of rampaging karka’s on to them… such a incompetent plan for someone previously so cunning.

I don’t mind a mix of this high tech stuff but I don’t want it to dominate the story. I would like a balance of crazy people using tech (which we have currently) or a mad necromancers using death and plagues or a powerful elementalist threatening to split the kingdom or drown it in floods, or the ettin, jotun and giants unite and colossal battles ensure.

a mix of threats.

Ewww Scarlet, she’s such a crappy villain. I hope we finish her off quickly or they pull a rabbit out of a hat and she develops into someone interesting. Considering the writing so far I’m not counting on it.

Also I can’t stand the way she was introduced into the game. She was trained by the best, the only non asuran to be allowed to into the colleges and she was never spoken of until her sudden appearance. Someone this special and known should of been mentioned somewhere in the game before her arrival.

lordhelmos.7623:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

digiowl.9620:

Scarlet seems to seek a third way between the Pale Tree and the Nightmare Court, as such she could be looking for a way to weaken or destroy the Court. Heck, it may be that Caithe ends up trying to rescue the Court from Scarlet. A hero’s life is never a easy one.

This.

Scarlet hates the idea of joining pre-existing groups. She only joins groups she makes. So I cannot see her taking over the NC.

Sadly, this bit about her was shown in an interview not in game…

This leads to even more confusion as that interview was accessed by what, .000001% of the playerbase?

another thing I can’t stand about the living story, Character development and pieces to the story are scattered all over the internet. Some interview, a short story from the official site, an obscure thread a developer posts some info about the character.

roque.5162:

just watch this WoodenPotatos video and it will all make sense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiMFEqz3GQ4

stop kittening if you don’t even have an idea of what you’re talking about.

Most of WP videos are speculation, attempts to link the otherwise scattered story together (He admits this himself many times). It is his take on how the stories could be told which I think are fantastic. The writers unfortunately don’t seem to be able to do the same.

Have No Faith In Me.1840:

- Have nothing in common with each other.

When they said all the LS to date would come to a head last patch I was interested to find out how it was all linked. But all we got was Scarlet, one of the most boring villains in any game I’ve played. She comes across as some bratty teenage girl throwing a tantrum. She talks like she is insane but is she really? I don’t think her personality suits her acting. Supposedly a genius but her dialogue is terribly child-like.

I think they were going for a Kefka Palazzo or The Joker type villain but those two swtich between their playful personality and their completely ruthless evil personality. Scarlet just doesn’t measure up.

Where are the clues to where you can locate the dragon teeth? I see the achievements but unless you go to dulfy is it just a case of wandering around and stumbling across them on 3 huge maps? How many people use dulfy for the achievements? I feel sorry for the people who don’t know about the site.

Why do they do things like this? Surely they can think of something interesting with this achievement where its more puzzle solving, perhaps rox could lend you frostbite to sniff out the area’s where they may be.

then you can hand the material collected back to rox, she finds a weakness and then gives you a buff to attack teq (+5% damage)

they need to create stories/quests around the achievements that actually feel like you are doing something productive, not random acts.

DoctorOverlord.8620:

A showdown with Faolain would be highly entertaining. Or perhaps Faolain pretends to ally herself with Scarlet while both are plotting to double-cross the other (and the players get to see and perhaps help this )

A doublecross? I love it – unfortunately I doubt the writers would come up with an idea like that. So far their plot ideas have been sub-par.

Shar.3402:

20% lying dead hoping for an hard res (in a fight with a strict timer, yeah dream on) instead of using those frigging waypoint and coming back;

This is the part that annoys me the most. It takes longer for a person to rez you than to run back, and if you do expect to be rez’d and someone is stupid enough to do it, it nows takes another dps out of the fight for that time.

YOUR DEAD? WAYPOINT BACK… you’re downed? then expect a rez.

Gabby.3205:

People do not like him mainly because they think he “stole their story”; that Trahearne is the main character of the Personal Story, not the player.

My only problem with him is the voice acting to be honest. He doesn’t sound inspiring, and as the leader of the Pact, he should be. I forgive him, though, because he loves the PC so much and he always make sure that we know how important we are for him. I used to hate him, but now I believe that there are characters that are worse than him (I am looking at you, Kiel). I am not a huge fan of Trahearne, but I don’t mind him that much anymore.

spot on!! I dislike Kiel more than Trahearne. She’s so boring and annoying.

no no no, I came from WoW to this game and mounts totally ruined the immersion over there, they are too convenient and you spend half the time looking at the kittenty tree-tops and not enjoying the world.

I really hope they never bring mounts into the game.

Lord Kuru.3685:

In theory, the Living Story is a good idea. In execution, however, it’s been terrible: buggy, terribly simplistic storylines, with awful half-developed characters. The bulk of the play content is grinding out 15 of these, or 30 of that, etc.

I think this is the second time I’ve quoted you in separate threads…

The concept behind the living story is fantastic, and ongoing story that doesn’t wait 2 years before releasing a new expansion. Things certainly do feel more alive in GW2 than any other MMO I’ve played. BUT the story is terrible, the characters boring, the villains pathetic and underdeveloped, the way they split LS content between this website and the game is stupid.

They promised that all the stories would come to a head last patch but did they? southsun, Molten alliance – what do these stories have to do with Scarlet?

When I first heard the writers will be taking over the living story I felt this would be a step in the right direction. I couldn’t of been more wrong. This is a high fantasy setting with gods, dragons, magic… all these social driven story lines of elections, contracts, trade agreements are terribly boring. The latest invasion with some megalomaniac nut-case leaves no answers, no developments…. I give up..

what I find worse is this message isn’t even in game, you have to go to this website to read it. What should of happened is firstly it should of been in game, and a cutscene to nicely wrap up this chapter.

Personally I would’ve liked to of received a message in the mail to visit the queen at her throne room (even better another room in her palace we haven’t seen yet) There you see all the representatives from each of the races to discuss these attacks. And we discover something new to help drive the story into the next chapter, doesn’t have to be much – just a hint.

Lord Kuru.3685:

I play despite the Living Story. Honestly, the Living Story is a good idea. It’s implementation, however, leaves a lot to be desired.

completely agree. The story is terrible, and people are always scratching their heads wondering where to go and what to do. Luckily there are guides on sites like dulfy that help – I feel sorry for the people that don’t know about that site.

I suppose it helps with interaction between players because when a new chapter arrives map chat is full of “where do I go?” “what am I supposed to do?”…

Galtrix.7369:

Take a look around the forums. 80% of the posts about the Living Story are negative and 80% of the population wants improvement. Based on those forum posts and the negative comments I’m getting from my guild, I can safely say that the Living Story is hated by the majority of the population. My guild has nearly 500 members and there was a poll awhile ago on their website that asked how many people liked, disliked, or hated the living story. 74% hated. 17% disliked. 9% liked.

I find the Living Story to be boring as well but to quote some random guild poll of 500 people vs the millions that play the game it’s a bit silly to think the entire player base also shares your guilds views.

I do find the lock out of the pavilion is wrong. Denying people content after they have already started it isn’t good design.

We also have talked about how females are dominate in this game. Right now Kiel got voted in, Scarlet is some super genius, Majory is some super detective, The human ruler is a female.

Braham is a dunce, Faren is comic relief, Logan just drops everything for the queen, even his friends, Canach kills the people he is trying to save, Evon is selfish (supposedly), Trahearne is hated.

We need a male NPC that isn’t portrayed negativity. The ones we did have were killed off in the personal story.

I wouldn’t mind if it was more balanced but its not – females are dominating the males in tyria.

Jman.2701:

If anyone wants to know what I think should have happened in the Living World, just check out some of WoodenPotatoes YouTube videos.

quoted for truth.

WP comes up with more interesting ideas than the entire Anet writing team combined.

Xalugami.2096:

Haha nope. Clockwork Chaos rolls around, and now I HAVE to idle in LA nearly every hour hoping RNG blesses a map I need so I can run around in a zerg for 45 minutes to get 1/13th of a single achievement.

It’s a game, you don’t “HAVE” to do anything. You could log in and only do jumping puzzles if you wanted to. The real word here is you WANT to do it.

If you are playing this game doing things you don’t want to do then they real issue is you, why are you playing a game you don’t enjoy.

Charr -Rox – possible leader
Norn – Braham – all brawn no brains
Sylvari – Canach – Once he settles down a bit, his heart is in the right place though.
Human – Faren – needs to step it up a bit, but could possibly finance the entire team.
Asura – Vorpp – all brains no brawn.

I think this chapter is to also introduce us to Vorpp.

psy.5437:

Scarlet is less subtle a villain than a brick to the face named “villain”.

That’s why I hoping once the story develops they actually have something interesting to say about her.

I really didn’t like the way she was known to graduate from all asuran colleges and this is the only time we have heard about her. So her being from another reality/dimension can’t happen, also that doesn’t make sense they she uses the steam creatures who ARE from another reality.

We should have a side quest where we visit her college mentors to find out more about her.

butch.8136:

they already did a great attempt at spreading the events in the entire zone.

I agree WHEN you have multiple commanders working together. IF there is only one commander tag you see everyone just follow them around and the event fails.

But when you have multiple commanders and people are working together in map chat the event is very good. I just left a successful completion where it came down to 30secs before we completed it. Map chat was going off trying to get people not to get distracted. It was kitten good fun.

Lord Kuru.3685:

… Lord Faren, that means they are potentially willing to kill off other characters who are integral to the personal story! (I’m assuming Lord Faren is truly dead.)

This has awesome potential. I would like to see the following killed off:

• Queen Jennah
• Logan
• Kiel
• Trahearne.

Make it so Anet!

I approve of this list except Logan. at first he bugged me but then he saved Rytlock, then sacrificed himself for our safety and even came across as not such an idiot in the Majory cutscene. But the rest can go – especially Kiel.

Smurfbuster.1529:

Sources: The official wiki, Woodenpotatoes, and Shade Warband’s guild chat and mumble.

Woodenpotatoes makes up better stories when goes on one of his “rants”. The ideas he comes up with are soooo much better than what the Anet writers have worked on, and its their job.

I can’t wait to see what he thinks of scarlet and what her motives are.

peter.2738:

For now, I really dislike this zergfest. From my point of view, Its considered laggy (15fps), disorientating, boring, 45min random spell spaming event, with a bit of running around.

wow that’s a lot of people. Do these invasions appear everywhere? or just on one map every 45mins? perhaps they need to spread out the attacks since so many people are doing them.