Guild Wars 2

IcarusMelody.5312:

Nah, its been mentioned theres a hardcore and a casual side for players. Take a guess at the quest hes talking about is considered? They always have alternatives to obtaining gear so that players do not get left behind. He isnt doing it because he HAS to but because he has the option too.

Still trying to level my Conjurer past 28 without spending hours killing or running Levequests, it takes hours to advance the main story sometimes with all the backtracking and “go talk to X, deliver X, or go investigate X spots”.

It’s tedious to me, and it does fit my definition of “grinding”. I could, surely, slide over to a class I don’t have yet and work on it but once I hit 20 it starts slowing down rapidly. I mean, I could throw money at crafting classes too, and I find the crafting style pretty interesting.

. . . but to actually advance? Ergh. It was painful this last round (between Ifrit and Thousand Maws, for anyone who plays).

Shriketalon.1937:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

That’s how I see Braham, and why I think he is better for what is not stated explicitly and is more evident in his actions and reading around how he talks about things. I think the potential would be ruined if he started explaining all this stuff rather than letting you have to see it like a Magic Eye. (That is, relaxing your eyesight so your mind can make better sense of what looks like garbage.)

That doesn’t address the core problem. Braham has absolutely no agency.

And neither does the player, really. Most of what they do isn’t their own choice after a point, but one necessary step after another . . . reaction rather than choice.

But Braham hasn’t had a single moment where he is being proactive and actually striving for anything beyond the support of another character’s motivation.

Again, for most of the personal story, the player has the same thing going on – they’re under instruction for the middle part of it until they reach Zhaitan. And even then . . . well, it’s not their call what happens.

You know that cliche where a female character exists solely to support the efforts of the more interesting and more proactive males? It’s terrible characterization that crops up in a lot of media…and Braham is just the reversal.

You know, it’s cliche and people don’t like it, but it’s something which is actually . . . realistic. Some people have no other place in life than to lend a hand to those around them. To be part of a team and give the team a boost with their presence or abilities.

There’s absolutely no shame in being such a person. None. Humility is a virtue often underrated, or just scoffed at.

Again, you and I are seeing him differently. You’re seeing him as someone being wasted. I see him as someone trying to figure out what his place really is. In a sense, he is a deconstruction and examination of the norn ideal – a strong warrior who makes a legend for themselves under their own power.

Oh hey, a stealth mount thread . . . it’s that time again already?

Yes. Horses exist on Tyria. No, you can’t find them any more than you can find someone actually using an outhouse/latrine. Or pregnant people.

Personally, I’d like the three mentioned collections to be fixed to work . . .

I’d also like there to be more of them. Or at least . . . can we please make the non-Exotic treasures off world bosses ones which trigger “Collectible” too? Because I’ve gotten four “All Seeing Eyes” from Lyssa and they’re all blue

Shriketalon.1937:

For a very long time, Braham has basically been the only dude. But Braham himself isn’t in an awkward place because of lack of males, but because the story is constantly making him subservient to superior females. He’s gone from following Rox around like a puppy, protecting Taimi like a guard dog, and running back to his mother with his tail wagging when he discovered she’s actually good at her heroism job.

Really? That’s how you see it . . . huh. That’s not how it scanned at all to me.

See, he didn’t follow Rox around until after the Jubilee when it became apparent they could make a decent team. (I wasn’t present so I don’t know if he was with her for “Tequatl Rising” . . . if so it still makes sense since he could make a legend there.)

After having someone who he could value as a friend, and didn’t care about his mother at all, well . . . of course he hung around and cared about her. And Taimi was sort of pawned off on him by Logan first, something he basically said “WTF?!” to at first . . . and then took it seriously as befits a norn who thinks of Wolf and Bear – you protect your family, and you don’t get to choose your family. Taimi was “family” by virtue of being placed under his care and that made it his responsibility to do whatever he can to protect her.

Eir is a thornier issue with him, and it has to do with having a mental image of what she was like growing up which he didn’t get to properly challenge until he spent time around her. Realizing the pedestal and preconception he had already drawn up didn’t fit the person forced him to think about actually getting to know his mother beyond the legend and his dislike.

That’s how I see Braham, and why I think he is better for what is not stated explicitly and is more evident in his actions and reading around how he talks about things. I think the potential would be ruined if he started explaining all this stuff rather than letting you have to see it like a Magic Eye. (That is, relaxing your eyesight so your mind can make better sense of what looks like garbage.)

Similarly….isn’t it interesting that when Canach was reintroduced, the very first thing the authors did was leash him to Countess Anise, and later transfer that control over his metaphorical collar to Caithe?

Not really, when you consider there probably wasn’t any other people who had expressed an interest in springing him from jail. I know we kicked it around, but no NPCs were discussing him at all, so . . .

As for why Caithe, well, if Anise has suspicions about Caithe . . . Canach is sharp enough to pick up on things and ruthless enough to act before asking permission.

Now, that being said, this isn’t the case 100% of the time. There are a few good male characters who get screentime and development, many of whom are done quite well. Rytlock Brimstone is probably the Supreme Dude in the male roster, and he completely breaks the mold described above. Coincidentally…people really seem to like him.

I like his voice actor and the method he uses to voice him. It’s because I can almost imagine it being Pyre reincarnated as a warrior. The character of Rytlock Brimstone I have some issues with . . . primarily with how he is a jerk to Rox and never really apologizes for it.

For me, the premier male characters are Forgal, the main character as a charr male, and Caudecus. Forgal is less a cliche than the other two mentors and easier to swallow as a sacrifice due to what we know about his culture. The charr male (warrior) I have is incredibly sharp and fearsome through the first three chapters, basically going “either follow me or don’t be in my way” while giving those who follow him a reason to have loyalty. And Caudecus is an amazing schemer who takes pains to remove himself from plots with enough layers it won’t splash back on him if things go wrong – everyone sort of knows he’s behind things but there’s never any proof concrete enough to work with. (AND he’s good enough to not rub people’s noses in it like Lucius Malfoy, which was just asking to get nabbed.)

munkiman.3068:

Us players have become that girlfriend (or boyfriend) you stopped buying nice things for…

“Hey hon, I got you a gift. I think you’re going to like it.”

“Oh my god, what is it? I bet it’s really special, if he’s going to tell me about it. He knows I want to get a new dress. Maybe it’s that new dress I told him I really liked, he seemed really quiet and shrugged it off but what if he listened? He must have been playing it cool!”

“Hon, I know you really liked that one singer you pointed out to me the other week. So I got you her last album.”

“. . . you’re hopeless, you don’t listen, and I don’t know why I loved you.”

Vayne.8563:

But even if it’s possible, I still believe they’re working on an actual expansion. I’ll take it either way.

I don’t believe they are, if only because it doesn’t seem like it. What it seems more like is they’re looking at a redesign of PvE experience (with the new AI specialist) and possibly working on raids (CDI and the apparent hiring of people to handle that), so . . . expansion? I don’t see it in the cards.

Something big? Well, we’ll see.

Personally, whatever happens I expect the forums to be storming the doors with pitchforks and torches anyway.

IndigoSundown.5419:

emikochan.8504:

Also Astralporing, anet introduced Ascended because players got exotic much faster than expected. It was expected players would get it about as slowly as it takes to get ascended now.

Eurogamer interview with Colin Johanson on 9/27/2011

Eurogamer: How are you handling endgame loot – will we be farming bosses?

Colin Johanson: Everyone, including casual gamers, by level 80 should have the best statistical loot in the game. We want everyone on an equal power base.

Less than a year before release, Anet was signing a different tune. Ascended was a panicked reaction when they realized they were bleeding players due to lack of goals. They misread something, but it wasn’t the speed of exotic acquisition.

It was also how people were seeing the Legendary hunt, which isn’t that much different from now – drop cash for gold or get really lucky. Ascended was meant as a “bridge between exotic and legendary”, and most people (rather snarkily) took it as a means of stats.

It was more a matter of effort, and to have a long-term goal as far as gear goes which could be the gear for your character to aspire to earning. At least that’s how I see it. I poke at it now and again when I start accumulating materials too much for my bank to hold, but it’s a side project at best. (Mostly because it’s entirely unnecessary for anything I actually do in the game.)

Vayne.8563:

Possibly. But we know the Tengu were there and closed their doors. What if the Tengu were simply attacked and our response, in spite of their past refusal to side with us, is to help rescue them.

It really could be that easy. It doesn’t require a big build up. You can have a big build up, or you can simply use the shock of something unexpected. Both are valid dramatic tools.

I could see it both ways, such as after we kill Mordremoth (it’s coming soon and you know it) Primordius is the next to step up to the plate and invades the Dominion of Winds . . . forcing the Tengu out, and the Pact has to push back in to destroy the beachhead of the Destroyers coming to the surface en masse.

Afterwards, the Tengu grudgingly side with the races of Tyria during the first break of LS3 and everyone gets a new character slot free and access to Tengu as a new race. They also bring with them new training methods which produce new skills which can be learned through Skill Challenges inside the Dominion of Winds and the tengu lands.

Boom. There you go, new race, new skills, and the break can be used for players to adjust to the new offerings before going back to the story.

Paradox.1380:

So far story wise there has been HOURS of content added just with the story instances. Couple that with the replay ability and yeah it could be Expansion worthy. Just because its trickled in doesn’t negate it. When the season is over you can put it all together and play it all at once… most people consume Expansions in a couple of weeks… it doesn’t take that long.

Well unless we’re talking Reaper of Souls, which could be consumed in a single night except for the endless types of content added in it.

But, naturally, I recall MMO expansions from the eras previously being consumed to “endgame” within a week, and within a month walkthroughs and strategies being posted. (Ah Safehouse, how I loved you for that.)

Xenon.4537:

Anet seems to think we are incapable of digesting more than one thing at a time. It’s beginning to feel like they are treating us like small children. This is the consequence of having people throw temper tantrums on the forums every time Anet tries to add anything meaningful to the game.

No, I think it’s a consequence of it but not in that we’re being treated like small children. What I expect is closer to it is if they only work on one thing at a time, it’s less to change at any given time and a greater focus can be made when the forums (inevitably) explode with indignation.

Filaha.1678:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

FF14 is clearly designed with the subscription model in mind, and so a lot of grind slips into everything.

Just as GW2 also has a lot of grind in the game. Well, grind or paying real money. At least FF14 doesn’t have anything that requires 250 of a very rare material to craft, which gives you practically nothing except another skin.

Except that’s rather what GW2 was designed for, just like GW1 was designed with it in mind. The appearance game was all there was to really work on after hitting the end of the campaigns/game story.

Which is a side point, that at least when you grind for something in FF14, you can feel like it was worth it because you’re stronger. I personally made the decision to never get a Legendary because why grind for something that gets me nothing better than Ascended equipment? For the skin? That other people can just drop some real money into gems and convert to gold to buy it off the TP?

And I personally made the decision because I’m not nearly lucky enough with drops to get started, and would rather spend time doing other things than fretting over Precursors.

Also you pretty much nailed the same point again – they’re mostly just cosmetics which mean nothing in and of themselves. Which is how it was designed.

That being said, the only thing I’ve ever felt was “grindy” at all in FF14 was getting the Atmas for my weapon. And even then, I got them all in a day.

I’m sorry, I’m at 27 CNJ and it’s not moved more than 10% of the bar when I do quests or hunt down things my level. I am told to do dungeons but I don’t have access to the next one due to it being locked behind a stupid amount of “mail courier” type quests for the Main Scenario which waste my time.

It is a grind doing that, at least for me. I’d rather be leveling, but it’s such a problem to do that at any speed . . .

I actually would disagree with this. Due to poor party mechanics, it’s really hard for me to play my high levels with low level friends because they need to hit something before it will count for them for hearts or whatever. When I can one-shot practically everything they’re hunting for hearts, even with level scaling, I have to actually just stand there and wait for them to tap something before hitting it or else they don’t get credit. That just makes things boring for me because I have to frequently not do anything.

But I can still hop in with them and fool around doing DEs, meta events, or just beating the crap out of asura for their lunch money. Hearts are an interesting design, in the sense of they should work one way but encourage a more personal focus until they clear up – you can’t help someone clear a Heart aside from the “kill X” requirements.

slamfunction.7462:

But again, if they wanted the money, they’d make good decisions and create content people would want to log in an play, which will feed the gem store. But thats a topic for a different thread thats been been beaten worse than the dead horse, so meh.

It’s also not valid because simply making a good game doesn’t necessarily translate to “profit!” anymore.

IcarusMelody.5312:

@Tobias
The only thing you were spot on though was your issue with p2p. Those other things you mentioned? Not really an issue. The only thing GW2 had on FFXIV for a short while was transmutations and seasonal events. Transmutations were added in the first quarter of the year because people wanted it. Seasonal events GW2 is still king between the two games.

Ah, they are an issue for me. Much like for other people the states of WvW and PvP in GW2 are issues for them.
In GW2 I have other sets of issues which keep me from having fun all the time.

Level syncing is there and you could help a new friend through via dungeons and story encounters. One thing SE is doing though is that the endgame requires strict coordination but that doesnt exclude casuals from enjoying it.

I dunno about that . . .

No, seriously, I don’t know. I haven’t gotten there yet but the guild/FC I’m in has said it’ll take some work to get capable of doing these things. I only know how clunky it seems to work when at events/FATEs.

As they add more and more content for endgame; they indirectly make the older endgame content more accessible to casual players. However they still have to learn fight mechanics.They are also given alternative means to getting better gear via 24 man raids etc. So they can still play dress up even if they are unable to tackle the hardest content in the game.

Yeah, you mistook my point. It’s the note that those armors get statistically better from what I’ve seen, so there’s gear progression. Versus GW2 where you can safely ignore Ascended armor (and are better off doing so).

Bugabuga.9721:

Well, if “new” way had single-level-worth of story, that probably would be better anyway. Story itself gives you a good portion of XP needed for the next level. It doesn’t have to be 10-level chunks. Heck, if something was OP before why not, I don’t know, lower the difficulty? That should be way easier.

Because the difficulty on Doc Howler was not “real” difficulty. It was difficult because people approached it trying to faceroll it and failed. He was a “wake up call boss”, of which there are a few parts in the story (mine was the Destroyer queen during the Skritt racial mission finale).

It was difficult for people because they got used to one way of fighting and were thrown a curve ball. And since the general consensus of the thread wound up being “level out further and get skills to help” . . .

Leo G.4501:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

FF12 was perhaps the one I enjoyed the most of the recent crop of games. However, FF4 is still the best in my mind, probably due to immense reservoirs of nostalgia.

12!?@

You-…!

…somebody drag this man away. He needs help. And make sure to put a FFX or FFX-2 disc in his mouth before he’s put away

Okay, I played FFX and my impressions of that game? Good story, fun battle system, chocobos still can go right to the Farplane . . . overall a decent game. The sequel likewise decent, but only after you can claw past the first two chapters and the oppressive “Spira’s Angels” vibe.

I stand by what I said. FF12 is solid, not the least because of three characters which exist: Gabranth, Balthier, and Reddas. The translation’s twist hearkens back to how FFT and Vagrant Story got localized and I love the character it has too. Ivalice is my decided favorite world out of the Final Fantasy multiverse . . . it’s just one time when it seems a lot of effort was put into making the world work rather than just be setpieces to move from as the plot unfolds. (My negative gripe on FF4, honestly.)

Now, completely on topic?

The big difference in FF14 and GW2 is design and the theory being used to design the framework of the game. FF14 is clearly designed with the subscription model in mind, and so a lot of grind slips into everything. It’s designed with gear meaning a lot to your character and a decided division of Trinity going on. This isn’t a terrible thing, since it works . . . and since you can work up any job you wish to put time into.

GW2 on the other hand, has a few sacred vows it makes. First of all, no matter how high you get, you are never too high to go pal around with friends lower level than you. It likes to include people rather than say “oh no, you can’t partake, you’re too awesome”. Secondly, gear is incredibly pointless after you get your hands on Exotics – that’s all you really need to have for the 99% of the game which is out there. Now all you have is to chase down looks. There’s no getting stuck with an ugly robe or breastplate because the stats are too awesome. (I recall “cleric Grapemail” from EverQuest…) And, bottom line . . . it’s just built around the “buy once” idea, which means they’re mostly okay with you walking away from it for a time. There’s no fee on keeping your account active, it will still be there when you want to play. No need to pay up to jump back in.

shadow.6174:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

. . . if you were around when it was talked about how unfair Doc Howler was during the mission you have to fight him? You’d know why they decided to make it that way. And that’s just the example I tested out myself and found it’s easier to either build in anticipation or level beyond the recommended level. I am sure there are others.

Maybe I wasn’t around that time and also since I don’t recognize that name… can you tell more about that and how does it have to do with the subject here? Are you talking about why they decided to make story steps in chunks? Just trying to understand your point.

My point is since it’s now locked by level, it now is more likely you are what is now overleveled for what used to be a tough fight.

Doc Howler was a bandit opponent you fight in the Human/Streetrat personal story, chapter one. He could drop some serious damage-over-time on you with poison and if you weren’t aware of it or had snagged something to help you cleanse? It was going to hurt. The general consensus was to overlevel, grab some good skills to handle it, and then come back and whup his butt all over the orphanage.

Or hospital, if you let the orphans burn. (You monster.)

That’s one instance, and I know I personally kept up with a thread saying it was do-able. (It’s the reason I had another human character at the time, a thief, because “thieves can’t do it!” was the point of the thread.) I also know there was similar over other points in the game, but I didn’t memorize them.

My point is, it was far easier to just lock down the story to a certain level requirement above what was known to be needed. Sort of how you could almost completely assume what skills people had access to in GW1 their first time through . . . certain ones just weren’t available until certain times.

Also, a thing is before it would be player’s choice to wait and get upper level before progressing or take the risk and playing with low or equal level. Now, the game forces ppl to be upper lvled before playing it. What’s the purpose of having story levels then… Just for me it feels like game is dictating the way the players must play their story…

Sorry but . . . it always dictated how you did it. Usually it was phone up a bunch of friends and walk through things with remarkable ease.

Even then, Exotics weren’t really hard to get your hands on if you did crafting. It didn’t take all that much for weapons, and armor . . . well, depends on which class of armor we’re talking here. Before Ascended, it was almost a toss up whether Light or Medium had the worst of it.

After Ascended, Light pulls away with a nice lead due to how much Silk is needed.

Mordeus.1234:

For me the choice is simple. I only have a mac, so I can’t play FFXIV. So GW2 wins for me.

I’m so, so sorry about that.

Besides I’m disillusioned with the FF series as a whole, it’s a shadow of it’s former self. The last time one of those titles really hooked me was FF9. Oddly enough I find GW2 to be closer to that.

FF12 was perhaps the one I enjoyed the most of the recent crop of games. However, FF4 is still the best in my mind, probably due to immense reservoirs of nostalgia.

. . . if you were around when it was talked about how unfair Doc Howler was during the mission you have to fight him? You’d know why they decided to make it that way. And that’s just the example I tested out myself and found it’s easier to either build in anticipation or level beyond the recommended level. I am sure there are others.

Nokaru.7831:

Crafting in Final Fantasy XIV is the best crafting system of any MMO. I’m sorry you didn’t understand it enough to actually make any informed decision about it. That game took its crafting seriously. Leveling a Chef in FFXIV is as serious as leveling an Elementalist in GW2. It is its own class. Synthizing was a mini-game meant to keep it interesting and at times tense. The reason you could fail it is how hard someone was willing to push their craft to get the most out of it.

FFXIV actually did something different and interesting with their crafting. Guild Wars 2? You press a button and watch a bar move automatically. You can tip your hat to their quality-of-live improvements, but there is nothing new or interesting with how crafting works in GW2.

I also like FF14’s crafting, but I dislike a lot of their other mechanics which are born of more traditional MMO styles – notably even with the “Level Sync” system . . . it’s not automatic and you MUST enable it for an event. Events which scale worse than GW2’s to large crowds . . .

. . . which happen all the more due to the Atma drop systems, from what I understand. High level quest items dropping randomly from events finished in an area, plus some of those being low level areas? Means there was often a lot of people overqualified for events rushing around.

And then there was how it locked dungeon access, and how slow the main story would progress . . . which is what locks everything in the game behind progress of that story.

Yargesh.4965:

Yet another blah blah thread devolved to name calling. Wonder why blah blah threads devolve into name calling.

Because there’s no courtesy for other people in a lot of these sentiments which begin with “Anet is the devil” . . . not literally those words, but the sentiment? On either side there’s this charged concept of everyone being unreasonable. Everyone. It is the Internet, but there’s reason enough to be found even if you need to dig through a layer of sarcasm or snark.

It’s this . . . concept which bugs me. “I don’t need to try to do better with my posts because nyeh.” Yes, yes you really do. You really should try to be pleasant, reasonable, practice a bit of empathy.

Primarily because if you don’t, then nobody’s going to care about your message enough to actually pay attention to it. Calling people feckless, pestilent, moronic, [redacted], and [redacted] doesn’t give the argument any weight, it just makes you look like a kittykitty head.

Play increasingly less due to time constraints and personal issues, about to read the forums much considerably less after today.

Yeah I think it’s time to walk away for the season and be back to pick up Story Journal unlocks. At the least, to just depart the forums (and Reddit) altogether . . . there’s nothing satisfying here to someone who likes the game, and just wants to see more of it rather than scream at developers all day.

Rashy.4165:

The stealth archetype doesn’t really have a name that isn’t negative in some way. Frankly, most of the other classes (except Guardian) can be renamed to be negative, but no alternative for Thief would be completely positive.

Oh, I dunno, rename Guardian “Crusader” and there you go.

saalle.4623:

GW2 community gonna just complain on anything….

It’s a slow week.

zerorogue.9410:

The reason why this issue keeps cropping up is simple, they keep adding things to the .dat file that suggests their going to do it. And as always you should believe what you see far more than what anyone says.

Also Anet has now gotten itself a reputation of springing bad news on their players without any warning. (Gem/gold interface just to name one.)

The fact is we need to keep going against this issue until they no longer consider it.

Isn’t this the one thing Colin has said is . . . in fact . . . off the table?

Alchemy, hmm?

If we’re talking rifles try this one . . .

Caithe’s secret?

I’m going to go with Murphy’s Oil Soap for that polished wood look. Also because things just seem to keep going wrong around her.

America.9437:

Kaleban.9834:

I ask this in all seriousness, will GW2 ever be anything more than a Las Vegas slot machine or mouse-button-cheese psychological conditioning experiment? Silverwastes is a good example of this, with the hordes of players scrambling from Bandit Chest to Bandit Chest desperately hoping for something other than Account bound, un-sellable crafting materials to drop.

I have yet to play an MMORPG that wasn’t a fancy glorified slot machine or a maze-rat-cheese simulator. If there are any out there please let me know.

There used to be Meridian 59. That was a fun one.

By the way, it came the closest to a good paradigm of how much loot/drops mattered and it still fell apart. So did Ultima Online. Go figure.

Hofulu.7325:

so, after the whole debacle about being more transparent with the players, and the post that mike o’brien made about it, and then, the refreshing increase in red posts across the forums, and player to dev interaction, and no single dev can take any time at all to simply come in here and say
“yeah it’s just extra code, not coming to na anytime soon” ?

am i asking for too much here?

. . . considering this continuously comes up, and people continuously demand for a repeat of the answer “this time being honest” . . .

Yes. I think it is asking too much, or at the least asking without respect.

I love datamining codes out for things which don’t actually exist except in the data. How about those tester amulets I’ve seen which give insane bonuses to Power or other stats? Or some other items which never materialized like Dye Seeds which I think could still be found in the data for a long time (and might still be there)?

The data package has a lot of junk still in it which hasn’t been removed. Probably because they don’t have someone dedicated to cleaning the trash out of it, or maybe they’re saving the assets (icons, or meshes) for something further down the line rather than implementing as-is.

Oh, also it’s been consistently repeated by red-names the China VIP system is not coming over here. Parse and chop up the wording as much as you want, the message has been consistent – we’re not getting it adapted to NA/EU markets.

(. . . and people wonder why they bother with PR speak . . . )

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Wanderer.3248:

I guess it’s because the voice actors can’t use the characters actual name. And commander isn’t appropriate either, since they aren’t in the Pact.

Yes, I understand why they did it. But it’s weird to call someone “boss” all the time. Real people don’t talk like that. I think it would have been more appropriate if they called us sir, or my lady.

I generally don’t use names when I’m talking to people, unless I’m at work since there’s this thing for customer service where it’s considered good to use names for people.

But to family, friends, and people I don’t know? I tend to not use names. I think when I call for my brother I actually use his name one time out of six.

Wizzlock.3492:

I don’t know – I know so many talented writers who struggle and can’t get the job, and I see Anet writers, who can spill one good story in almost 2 years. Taking language barrier aside, I am confident enough in my own skills to do better. I’ve seen many people hereon forums with lot better stories than Anet team did. So I thnk it would be better and cheaper for Anet to hire people with imagination, than to teach their own writers to do the job. Alas! Imagination is so hard to learn…

Sigh.

Imagination is not enough to provide a good story. It is useful in starting a good story, or continuing off a place to jump off. (For the record, I’ve seen fanfiction which is simply awesome which jumped from something another person wrote into new territories. The Mad Queen’s little story is one example, even though . . . no offense meant, madam, centered around her friends and character.)

Imagination is a good beginning but it takes more than that to keep working through a story. It takes planning, an understanding of structure and the known storytelling mechanics (“tropes”), and being willing to cut your own material apart if it needs it.

Writing is never easy when it’s for a person beyond yourself.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

It’s very much a marriage between game play ideas, level design, technical limitations, time constraints and budget limitations. Plus everything also has to be fact checked with the lore, and localized, and then voiced by actors.

It’s similar to running a good tabletop RPG – you can’t just translate a good written story to it since if you approach it that way there’s a higher chance of it not sparking on the players.

It’s also similar to a tabletop RPG in that the “writer” (or in the RPG, GM) can pretty much decide how to treat the lore. Including disregarding or changing something which they need changed in order to make their story/plot work.

Writing for a living story episode is not just you the writer, working on an island.
…
In short, a little more respect for the writers please.

Writing is, actually, really easy.

Writing something which both makes sense and isn’t completely an excuse to show off art assets or game mechanics? That’s harder.

Ayakaru.6583:

I keep saying this:

I bought a game. woohoo, I can play
Oh look they have an expansion (in bits) WHAT!?!? I HAVE TO PAY FOR IT, THAT IS UNHEARD OF!!

I know right, I love having access to Reaper of Souls when I bought Diablo 3 . . .

. . . wait.

Or how about “Enemy Within” when I bought X-Com!

. . . wait.

Anyway, isn’t the only thing people without access are locked off of . . . the story missions? Not the access to Dry Top / Silverwastes?

Oh, and new players also don’t get Living Story Season 1. In any fashion. ANet, I’d love you to rectify this somehow.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Whine about communication being bad after you’ve played a game where there wasn’t a single new post in the Dev Tracker for months. You people have no clue what bad communication is.

Or how about: “It’s broken, that doesn’t work.” “Working as intended.” “It . . . doesn’t work.” “Obviously you’re not doing something right.”

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Buy Some Apples.6390:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

IEverything is designed so that players can’t destroy others experience.

You obviously do not play in WvW.

exceptions prove the rule…
well at least we know that Anet works on a solution, there was a discussion about how this could be fixed here in the forums not long ago. It’s not an easy fix.

Well, technically it is an easy fix. It’s just there’s a hesitation to arm people with banhammers and make them police the players actively.

. . . which, mind you, is what I see as the only effective solution.

Buy Some Apples.6390:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

IEverything is designed so that players can’t destroy others experience.

You obviously do not play in WvW.

This is a valid note . . . luckily it’s a bit limited in exactly how that can be done.

Wizzlock.3492:

If this new Narrative Design Director was involved in improving LS season 2 storytelling, I need to say – good work. Hire more people like her (fire LS season 1 staff if needed, or at least consider it if not needed), and hire people like this to other departaments..

No, no no. Don’t fire them, put them to work learning why she works this way and trying to do better.

Menzies The Heretic.3415:

Take everything we loved in GW1, put it in GW2.

Please no, I want it to stay in GW1 where it belongs. If she takes it out, what’s left to draw me back to Spamadan?

Danikat.8537:

How do you define rare drops?

In GW1 it was pretty much green weapons and some golds with popular skins that were worth a lot. And most of those only came from 1 specific place – like a certain boss or the end chest of 1 dungeon.

GW2 I think has more exotics with unique skins overall and they drop from a lot more places so it’s not surprising if you see them more often.

Three words: Miniature Polar Bear.

Brow.9425:

Apparently, there are people who will start watching a tv serial in the middle, start reading a book in the middle, and start playing games in the middle. I guess you are one of them. For other people, having half of something that is supposed to be a whole (not something broken into parts) has a value that is less than nothing. You want half a Ming vase?

So, you know how many people I personally know who didn’t watch Doctor Who at all until “Blink” aired? Most of the way through Series Three of the revival? I know I personally got hooked on Lost by watching the Season 1 finale with a friend’s family (I was invited for dinner and didn’t want to be rude and leave the room), then went back and had to catch up.

Yes. There are people who start watching a show in “the middle”. Yes those people then have to pay to catch up, most times. Or hope the show goes on syndication and they can catch what they missed. In the case of Doctor Who, that’s a large chunk of money to buy the DVD set, second only to Star Trek: The Next Generation (thank the Six for Netflix!).

What was your point again?

Doomed.5201:

The ancient karka would be an option, too.

I’d rather design that as a standard 5-person encounter built like a dungeon instance, given the choice. Making it solo-able would defeat the impact of that battle . . .

. . . which for a lot of people was disconnecting, stuttering lag and FPS drops, and in general “is it dead yet? No? Zerg harder!”.

. . . man I both loved and hated Lost Shores. Loved it for the concept and hated it for the execution and technical errors. It could have been so much better . . .

Michael Walker.8150:

as mentioned in this thread

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Any-progress-on-letting-us-replay-Season-1/first#post4543829

using the living world season 1 for raid content could work as many of the events are raid-sized from the beginning.

it wasn’t too hard to pug either

Three candidates for raids of varying sizes:

5-15: Tower of Nightmares
15-30: Marionette / Escape from Lion’s Arch
30-50: Battle for Lion’s Arch

Anything else is unnecessary and not structured at all for a raid. (The Invasions were structured more for open-world fighting in multiple spots, and geared towards that.)

pdavis.8031:

Michael Walker.8150:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Is it even possible, given the changes that came about in the world?

as (instanced) raid content perhaps? as some people asked for similar content when it comes to large group coordination.

The only way it could logically work is to have instanced raid conent.

No, not really “only way” every bit of it could logically work. Most of it, as I detailed, can pretty much be worked on into a format in line with Season 2’s Story Journal. A third of it is festivals or updates which had no Living World impact beyond dialogue bits. (Notably off the top of my head, “Tequatl Rising” and “Edge of the Mists”).

It can be done. However I wouldn’t push for effort until after LS2 wraps, or maybe over the holidays in compiling the stuff. Unless there’s a team of people who can be peeled off to do the work.

Dirame.8521:

Mr. E is obviously an Order of Whispers Agent. No other order can pull off such crazy moves.

Sure they can . . . they just don’t.

Vayne.8563:

The dumbest thing you can be doing right now might have nothing to do with the writing. I’m not so sure you understand how the writing in those scenes happens, but it’s often not the writers calling the shots. You can call it bad writing, but more likely it’s bad direction. Writers can only do what they’re allowed to do in these circumstances.

I’ve ghost written a couple of things in the past and believe me, I’m glad my name isn’t on most of it.

It’s simple enough to stop and fix – hang a lampshade. They did it once for the Consulate Docks mission. “You know this is a trap.” “Yes. We’re going in anyway.”

(Often overlooked, too, come to think of it.)

And no, I honestly have not written for things like a MMO or video game. I have “written” for tabletop nights doing D&D but as that’s 75% improv . . . don’t take much credit for what I scribbled as notes on a page. I do know I am not entirely pleased with the quality of that stuff, so in that vein I do somewhat comprehend.

. . . there is not much good writing when it comes to improv around the dinner table with your friends chucking dice for an hour trying to kill a dragon

Vayne.8563:

It’s about the audience you’re writing for. I’ve used this analogy before, but for the most part, game writers are like people who work on stage. Everything has to be exaagerated, and everything has to be repeated, because tons of people have no clue about nuance and don’t know how to read. They can’t just say something, they pretty much have to hit you over the head with it…particularly if you need to get it to understand something.

Also known as most of the critical reviews which hated “The Producers: The Stageplay: The Film” as I call it. It was performed as if it were using the same stage directions only to cameras.

Edit: I should have mentioned the reason stage needs to be exaggerated is because audience members can be far away with no close ups. They can’t see the detail so you have to enlarge it…so to speak.

Also known as the reason the Phantom mask originally was much larger and the makeup that much more notable under the mask than it should be. Fortunately, the original mask interfered with the actor’s delivery so they halved it . . . and now that mask is iconic.

A lot of people will, erroneously, think that people are writing badly. In reality they’re writing exactly what they’re trying to write, or at least something very close to what they’re trying to write.

Sorry, I need to throw a flag down on this play. There’s writing with repeated reiterations, re-references, and beating the player over the head with what happened five minutes ago due to not knowing how long the player had set the game down for . . .

And then there’s bad writing, period. Badly presented characters, plots where the writers forget to give the bulk of the information necessary to understand things (or do it in channels not everyone will notice), characters making decisions which are simply against common sense . . . and most of all, dialogue which doesn’t flow naturally.

There’s the crux of my complaints about the writing in Tyria for both eras: when it comes to the main attraction, it feels not as well-crafted as the side-quests which happen around the main attraction . . . or disconnected from it. This really started to become apparent in the middle-to-late bits of Living Story Season 1, to where it was a personal mantra “they could have done so much better if they’d set this up ahead of time”.

. . . and that’s evidenced in how they’re proceeding through Season 2. It is flowing better due to having things in place to move from (the break for the holiday event just passed and coming up notwithstanding) and having the information there to work from. It’s making a better cohesive story than Season 1, and is pulling together tighter for it.

(It still has issues with the dialogue, and there are still moments which make me want to go “this is almost the dumbest thing you could be doing right now” . . .)

Wetpaw.3487:

khani.4786:

DiogoSilva.7089:

Keneth.6490:

Tiale.2430:

Fear detected!

Annoyance, love. I like playing PvE without being bothered by other people or their requests to duel if it’s optional. Keep PvE and PvP separate, thank you very much.

There’s too many advantages to dueling, that duel requests is a tiny issue in comparison. Besides, Anet can always add a “block all requests” options. ;D Besides, it’s more immersive if there’s pvp in pve, as long as it’s not annoying, than a complete, 100% division.

I don’t see any advantage at all to dueling. None. I can’t even imagine any reason that would make having a dueling option be an “advantage” for anything.

Personally I don’t care as long as there is a “block requests” option.

Thank you for being that type of player. Just because you don’t want to take part in it, agree with it, or find reason for it you’re are willing to compromise because you know it has no affect on you, & others will enjoy it.

I’m much the same way, honestly. Dueling? Sure, and give me a check for “auto refuse requests”. We’re good.

Open world PvP? . . . no. My days of that stopped with Ultima Online.

Did you tell him it’s roughly the cost of a movie? I mean, I would rather spend money to (finally) go see Guardians of the Galaxy but still . . . it’s not like he has to shell out another $60.