Guild Wars 2

Yoh.8469:

Yes, the ball is entirely in their court. If they want us to play nice, then they have to show a willingness to sit down and talk to us as people. On whatever subject, and if they don’t know, ask and research.
What they need is a community manager, someone who it’s their paid job it is to sit down and talk with us, and show that they are indeed listening.

IE, exactly what Chris is doing right now. That is the behavior I expect.
But as far as I can tell, they don’t have one, at least not one who actually does their job.

Because the community is in exactly the state it’s in because no one has been doing that job for a really long time. Chris really has been the only one to step up to the plate. Which is a pretty poor sign of Arenanet, since he seems to do it largely voluntarily.

I see this argument a lot on forums and every time I’m taken aback by it. Anet’s lack of communication is not a valid excuse to become a toxic member of the forums. Their communication or lack of in no way dictates how you respond to it. That is your choice. It is your choice to be nice or not, Anet doesn’t force you to be. The community is in the state it’s in because people are choosing to make it toxic. Blaming it all on Anet is just shifting the responsibility for your own actions.

Fixing the communication problem means work on both sides. Anet needs to talk more and the community needs to be less toxic to them. You being nice shouldn’t be conditional on Anet communicating well.

The community on these forums have proven repeatedly that if a dev says what they’re working on then the community treats it as a promise. And if it’s not delivered, they get kittened about it. They’re right to have the policy they do. It’s the only way to deal with how this community treats them when they do say anything.

I think all of the options should be available for replay regardless of which character you’re doing them on. However, the first one you do is the one recorded in your journal and the one Anet should tally as your vote for what gets made “official”.

I think that provides an interesting element of ignorance and consequence to players actions. By having the first run be the one that counts you have no foreknowledge of what will happen so you can’t really play the system to what you think is your ideal outcome. You’re left with trying to play the character as you want it to be played and accepting the outcome.

If you let any or every replay count, then it opens up a lot more gaming to the system and also starts creating weights to certain votes. What I mean by that is someone with 10 chars or the ability to replay the story 100 times in 2 weeks and chooses the same option each time will be casting a lot more votes for it than someone with 1 char or who can only play 10 times in 2 weeks. It creates more weight for one vote than the other.

I realize this doesn’t take into account guides like Dulfy which will outline everything for you within a day or two and there will always be people that use it for meta info. But not all of us base our choices from those guides and at a certain point you shouldn’t really be designing around outside guides.

While there are inherent issues with doing votes I believe it’s the fairest way to take individual choices and making them the official story. Also, when Anet set up the Evon/Kiel vote it seemed like a vast majority of the players really got into it and enjoyed it. One would hope similar engagement would happen with incorporating votes into the story.

Sorry, I can’t speak for others but agency is one of the things I get passionate about.

There have been many threads, and posts here, about maps and dungeons. It was mentioned elsewhere that it takes approximately a year for a map to go from concept to release. Have you considered, or willing to reconsider, the idea of a map/dungeon generator for players to use?

It may take you a year or two to develop, but then you could let the player base take over creating what they want and post it for review. Then all the dev team has to do is review/bug check it and insert it into the game. Players get what they want, devs reduce their workload, everyone wins.

Could there be a CDI about developing one?

Sorry, misunderstood what you were saying.

sirflamesword.3896:

havellian.4073:

Respectfully disagree. The BLTC forum from what I’ve seen is just one big, self-congratulatory conversation, where people who have differing views from the majority are shot down with snarky, condescending remarks from the economist, which are then fervently echoed by his cronies. What follows then is comments such as “John for PRESIDENT” and “I love it when he does that!”. Very productive? I think not.

Please do not emulate that style tyvm.

This x1000, I’ve stopped even going to that portion of the forums because I know anything I say(either constructive criticism or agreeing with someone criticism) will be shot down and be attacked with half baked economic ideas, and finally a red post will come in and basically make it seem like anything negative said is a joke. It makes me sad whenever I see a post in because I know it will be some snarky comment that totally demeans the poster, and it makes me realize again that the economy portion of the game will never be any better than it currently is. The forums should NEVER be like that, and I have a feeling the devs actually creating the content in game don’t want it like that either.

You both missed my point and are confusing the issue. My point was that a dev is having active interaction with the community over a significant period of time. Your point is just that you don’t like what the people are saying or how they say it. They are two separate issues completely.

You don’t need to unlock the episodes to find the tunnel. All the episode will do is show you exactly where it is…not that it’s difficult to see.

Angel McCoy.1832:

We’re as much fans of player agency as you are, I assure you. The hurdle we face is that in order to do due diligence to those three Taimi choices you offer up, we have to have repercussions for each. You can’t just stab Phlunt, then have him appear again in the next release. Ultimately...Taimi had to give up the device.

We are always discussing ways to get more player agency into the game. It’s not as easy or as simple as any of us would like, however.

The one place we can have player agency is in dialogue trees. We are doing a lot of customization with conditional content based on your race, gender, profession, and history. We can also look for opportunities to give you more choice in how you respond.

While stabbing Phlunt in that situation would have been very satisfying to me, I was speaking more metaphorically than literally.

I understand the complexities involved in pre-scripting so many variables and how they can cause unintended discrepancies. That’s why I was thinking a more simplified scale on how far it can go and limiting it to dialogue options that would color how things appear but leave it functionally the same. A red bowtie and a polkadot bowtie are different colors but they’re still awesome bowties.

I appreciate the efforts everyone has made to make the dialogue feel more personal. It really does help the feel of the story but without being able to make choices it still feels like there’s no agency. It’s not easy but I have confidence in you and everyone else. I know you’ll find a way to amaze us some more.

Bandwagoners should go stack on Blackgate. Then they get to enjoy their 235135 person queues while JQ and TC tag team them. Meanwhile the rest of us get to have fun playing the WvW tournament.

Brisban has a new POI in the SW corner, Divinity Reach has a new POI in the SE area, Kessex had a few changed with the Tower of Nightmares, Gendarran got a POI in the south were the JP is, LA reset one POI during the LS and added a second, Lornars Pass had one added near the marionette, Black Citadel got a new POI in the west I think.

Mouse over each map name in the world map to see which map it is that you’re missing one in. Don’t forget the cities.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

We just want to build a better connection. Gems really isn’t the goal.

Thanks for your feedback though.

Chris

I’m not trying to compare devs or imply one is better than the other, but I think what John is doing in the economy thread is kind of what people are asking more of. A loose Q&A with their respective area devs where they get a chance to ask questions, get answers and make jokes at each others expense. I’ve seen other devs here do it in other threads but the economy thread seems to be the longest lasting one of it’s kind. Its not a perfect thread and not every question is answered, but it is a fun thread and it’s provided some great interaction. Personally, I think economics is a pain and uninteresting, but I’m enjoying the thread and reading what he’s saying.

So maybe if some of the senior devs are so inclined they could start similar threads for their own areas?

Edit: Also, this thread where you’re giving us a back and forth discussion is also a good example.

Angel McCoy.1832:

saventis.1485:

does this mean that all the first born are very similar in terms of the way they think and act? ( because at the time they were in the dream the pool of knowledge was tiny)

Also beyond that do they all have a sort of link to each other ( in the begining we see Caith in the dream) can all first born enter the dream at will?
(maybe they have to prepare themselves first, meditate or something similar)

because if so this may go towards explaining what we see in the dream originally

The Firstborn were definitely individuals. If nothing else, they were differentiated by the cycle during which they awakened. They weren’t like clones, but did have personalities of their own. Their knowledge of the world may have been more similar to each others’ than two sylvari born today would have, however. That’s an interesting concept to discuss.

The only reason Caithe was able to enter the Dream was because the Pale Tree made it possible. It was not easy for the Pale Tree to do this. She did it on this occasion because it was so important for Caithe to speak with you before you awakened. No sylvari can enter the Dream at will, not without the magical assistance of the Pale Tree.

What parts of what you see in the Dream originally are you hoping to explain?

If I may make an analogy for the dream…

Is it like a giant cauldron of stew? In the beginning it was a fairly simple stew and every sylvari got bowl of it. As time went on new ingredients were added, and maybe a few were purged but leave a taste behind. Newer sylvari still get a bowl, but maybe it has a little more subtlety than before. Every sylvari gets its bowl but each one has a slightly different set of ingredients and tastes just a little different.

Would that be accurate Angel?

So I’m one of those crazy people that actually likes having a story in my games and what separates games from books is the ability to interact with and change that story as it develops. In the beginning the writers didn’t seem to have anything against player agency but over this past year it has definitely felt like the they not only don’t want it but is actively removing it from the game.

I first felt this when the devs removed the personality types from the Hero UI, but that could just mean it was hidden. Then we had the battle for LA. I understand development times and budget restrictions on things but some of the mechanics in that LS release were a slap in the face to player interaction. The most prominent one being the toxicity level in the city; no matter how much the players stopped or didn’t stop the toxic canisters from being released, the toxicity increased at the same measured rate. Why bother doing something if it doesn’t matter?

This has continued into the current LS season. The first two episodes were fairly linear and it could be forgiven as setting up the rest of the season. However, the third and fourth episodes really felt like we were on train tracks. (This is the story, there will be no deviations and you WILL like it) is how it felt. There wasn’t even an option for being charming, dignified or brutish in the dialogue trees. This is a problem.

One of the main sticking points for me, and many others it appears, is the scene with Taimi, her device, and Phlunt. This is a perfect example of no interaction, no player agency, and a time when it would have improved the feel of the episode immensely. The lack of it I can only assume is because the writers don’t want it in there because….something. Here is what I’d like to suggest:

Start incorporating choices and dialogue trees into the LS. In the scene with Taimi we could have 3 options.
*1. What you already wrote.
*2. You grab Taimi by the ear and hand over the device “for the greater good”
*3. You shove your greatsword so far up Phlunts kitten that he never sits down again then Taimi agrees to share her device with the Council.
The functional result is the same. The Council gets Taimis’ device and Phlunt goes to the summit. The difference is in the flavor text in how that happens and it makes players feel like they had an impact on what happens. The cost is maybe a couple hours extra programming and writing.

Given the scheduling you’ve adopted for LS episode releases and your development times for LS episodes you can even take this a step further. You’ve already created the code to track player inputs with the Evon/Kiel vote. Modify this system to track how many people chose what option and use this to refine further episodes. Ex:
*1. This would be a neutral change.
*2. This would be a positive change for future player interactions with the Asura Council. Maybe they refer to us a bit less as clueless bookah or say we more intelligence than the average skritt. IE, something other than pure condescending arrogance.
*3. This would be a negative change for future interactions with the council. Maybe they’re overly insulting next time we meet or they make us wait to see them or perform some menial task before they’ll consider things.

If you’re willing to let the players have a measure of control over the world then you can expand this concept to a 5 point scale (-2, -1, 0, 1, +2).
*-2. The Asuran Council is openly hostile towards you and tries to make your life hell when they talk to you.
*-1. The Council is insulting and antagonistic but generally willing to look in your general direction.
*0. Normal
*1. The Council sees that you aren’t a common bookah and listens to you…sometimes.
*+2. The Council actually talks to you and respects your opinion. Too bad you weren’t Asura or you might actually be intelligent.
Future LS episodes can give you a chance to modify these relations in either direction.

This would all be flavor text and wouldn’t change the functional direction of the story in any meaningful way but it makes things feel like they are changing.

I know from past interviews that you go through several iterations and brainstorming sessions to get the dialogue right, I’m betting at least some of those discarded ideas could be used for making this kind of thing work.

Is this something the LS team has considered? Willing to consider? If not, why? Is it really just too infeasible with your time/budget? Or something else? Please consider putting some form of agency back in the game. Without agency I might as well just read a book.

From what I gather based on things they’ve said/done, the debuff can’t be removed from individual characters but they can disable it for everyone at the server level.

My god, better hope that never boils over. Rivers of coffee flooding the map….

I can’t decide if that’s a nightmare or heaven.

Kjeldoran.3849:

prodemon.1329:

I’m getting a laptop soon. And wanted to now if these specs are good?

Windows 7 Home Premium
Intel Core i7-3610QM 2.30 Ghz
8gb RAM
720gb Hard Drive
AMD Radeon HD 7670M Graphics

Not to screw you but you will be able to play the game… with low settings and not optimal performance.
The only thing i can tell you is that i have a similar but a bit more power notebook and i can play with medium-low setting and get 30-60 fps in pve-dungeon-pvp while about 15-25 in wvw or during world bosses

here are my specs:
ram: 6 gb ddr3 1600mhz
cpu: i7 3630QM (2.4-2.3ghz)
gpu: nvidia 740m (2gb ddr3)
win 8.1 64bit

hope to be of help

I’m running a 10 year old computer with much worse specs. Graphics don’t look the best but I can play everything just fine. If I’m just roaming PvE I can turn the graphics up and don’t notice much of a hit.

As much as I dislike it, what class you play does make a difference too. For example, a warrior will generally burn through mobs alot more easily than a mesmer at low levels. And some classes don’t really hit their stride until later in the game; my engineer felt horrible until I got the bomb kit and flamethrower. Maybe your class just doesn’t fit your play style?

Also, try to look for a good guild. There’s a lot of guilds out there that will actively try and help newer players.

You can’t put a level 80 armor on a level 1 character. You are correct in assuming that they’re using transmutation charges to apply the skin to their level 1 character. And if they keep that character through to level 80 and keep the look the same they’d need to keep using transmutation charges each time they upgraded their gear.

As for how many charges? Anywhere from 60 to 180 charges depending on how many times they reequip and what they reequip. I doubt any player would choose to do this.

Komahina.1728:

Okay, this is a really noobish question, I’m sorry. I’ve been playing GW2 on and off for a long time but I admit, I’m a pretty casual player and I have irl memory problems so I forget things easily lol

Is the only way to view equipment in the game via the trading post? I’m assuming not. This guys thread is really cool: click And I want to create equipment sets similar to that for me and a friend but the sets I want aren’t in the trading post.

Again, sorry for the noob question. Thank you in advance!

(Edit) Oh and another question since I’ve been wondering. I often see people call up banker golems in the tutorial areas for races and put on their awesome looking sets. I assume they’re transmutating their starter/level 1 equipment? But wouldn’t they have to continually transmute their equipment as they level? Wouldn’t that cost like 100 charges?

If you just want to view skins, go to your crafting table and open up the crafting menu. On the left the last icon is for the wardrobe. That will let you view all the skins in the game. If you want to look at stats, search the wiki for them. You can buy most stats and/or skins on the TP.

Banker golems you can buy with gems on the TP. There’s also a version of the game (deluxe edition I believe) that comes with a banker golem. The key farmers buy low level gear, equip it, do the farm run, then store it in their bank before deleting and remaking the character. The new character then summons the golem, does it all over again. Its much less useful for non key farming characters though as it only lasts 2 weeks.

Axialbloom.8109:

Agreed. Our feedback will be (even more) meaningless for the last 2 professions at this rate.

This isn’t really a fair statement to make. Development times are much longer than most people realize. No, 2 weeks isn’t enough time to read feedback and make changes, but then 8 weeks is on the short side too. The most that would ever be changed in this time frame is a slight tweaking of numbers; the actual functional changes being made won’t change. Any feedback dictating a large change to anything they’ve announced won’t be happening until the next patch.

I think their viewpoint can be summed up with “I’ll kill all you kitteners!”

Aethelbert.1497:

In terms of writing quality there is no such thing as “point of view”.

Um…what? Writing quality is not a 100% objective assessment, it is always influenced by your point of view. If you think something is good or bad, that is your point of view and not a universal fact.

I have to admit I’m a little disturbed by the concept of paying for the bank. The bank should be free. It shouldn’t require gems, gold, token of the week or a wink and a grin to get access to.

The argument for payment is to stop PvE players from using the mists as a free port to the bank. If this were the only game mode where that were possible I could accept it, but it’s not. Players can get a free port to WvW and do banking/crafting there. Those services are free. The number of additional players that will abuse the system if PvP had a free banker is negligible. Those that want to abuse it already use WvW. This won’t magically make more people abuse it.

The counter to that is WvW queues can hinder immediate transfer. The number of worlds that actually have a sizable queue for an extended period of time is small. Basing altering a fundamental feature of the game on such a small percentage of players is strange.

Also, the only people in support of paying for it are a few dozen here on the forums. I can promise that the wider PvP player base that doesn’t come to the forums regularly would be outraged at having to pay for something that is free elsewhere. And even more outraged when they find out the reasoning is because some people might abuse it.

Charging a fee in PvP to use the bank because less than 1% of the total population might abuse the free port is wrong. If you want to add a bank, then add a bank. It’s not going to break anything and it’ll make a lot of players happy. Charging for it is only going to make players angry.

HyruleanHyroe.1473:

Hogwash. My very reliable sources tell me that this is a real, undoctored rendering of the final encounter with Mordremoth.

Mordy has taken over SAB!

I only want mounts if I can make Mordremoth my kitten and ride him.

John Smith.4610:

Lodius.5392:

How about offering incentives to recruiting people?

This is a bit beyond my scope, sorry. Also it falls into my future things coming out clause, so I can’t answer twice, but I’m sorry twice as well and I hope that makes up for it.

Is this indirectly saying that Anet is working on some kind of incentivized recruitment or am I reading too much into what you said? If so, I have to admit I’m curious about what it would look like.

John Smith.4610:

What I would personally, as a player, love to have is a derivatives market.

Well, if there was any doubt about it, I think that proves you’re an economist.

lordkrall.7241:

What is facts today might very well not be facts in 10 years.

10 years ago Pluto was a planet…

This webisode from Extra Credits talks about how to approach Open World Design and some of the challenges and restrictions that go along with it. It’s just a brief overview but it may help understand some of what the Living Story team at Anet deals with.

pdavis.8031:

@OP

If you don’t think there is any lore, or that the existing lore changes on a whim, just talk to Konig in the Lore sub-forum. You can pretty find his work in almost every thread. He is considered to be one of the player “lore masters” by many. I’m actually surprised he hasn’t shown up yet in this thread…

Read the thread the OP linked to. Konig has already said his piece about it there.

I love the idea but didn’t the devs address this issue before? I seem to recall them saying they’d like to do something more with weather effects but it would be too demanding on server/local resources to be worthwhile. I may be mistaken on that though.

In MMOs server worlds were a product of technology limitations more than anything else. In the past this set up made sense but with the megaservers it just seems to muddle the conversation a bit. Both from a technical and a lore standpoint calling them worlds just seems incorrect.

Instead of calling them worlds in reference to a specific server, perhaps we should start calling them Alliances; such as the Ehmry Bay Alliance, the Crystal Desert Alliance, the Tarnished Coast Alliance, etc. WvW is a collection of guilds battling over resources for their world/alliance. Wouldn’t it make more sense to call it an Alliance instead of World?

First the devs would need to merge guild iterations across the megaserver, then reskin worlds into alliances. Then add a UI element for choosing an alliance upon guild creation. Existing guilds would be auto assigned to the alliance corresponding to their old worlds.

Thoughts?

As I see it, there are several issues underlying the problem here and none of it has to do with Scarlets age. Scarlets age is just the topic that brought this problem up, it’s not the problem itself.

First, in game lore is often presented from a first person perspective; this means that the npcs are participants in the lore, not omniscient, and error prone. Any lore we get from them is suspect but generally recognized as being in the same realm as true. However, if the npc is integral to a story any information gained must be tempered with the knowledge that it may be falsified for the story. So relying on just in game npcs for lore is problematic.

Second, games (both MMOs and Non MMOs) deal with this in one of two ways; a factual codex in the game or out of game codex or dev run wiki. Information in these sources is generally considered canon and factual because it is delivered from an omniscient third person perspective. This can be extended to player run wiki’s but because players never have 100% of the correct information it’s not always reliable.

Third, Anet has deliberately not created a codex or dev run wiki and instead guided players to outside game sources such as interviews and blog posts for in game lore. When devs do this with the intent of giving players factual lore it should be considered canon. In every game where the devs release information in this manner it is considered canon. This is fine, it is a legitimate form of providing information for players.

The problem with what Bobby said is in two parts. Part 1 is that there is a scarcity of factual in game lore. However they are trying to rectify this.

Part 2 is where the issue is. Bobby has just invalidated Anets preferred method of giving lore to players. At best he just cast suspicion on the lore for a gmpc, at worst he’s just invalidated everything out of the game including books, wikis, interviews and dev posts. Where on that spectrum you fall is up to you.

Regardless of what you think about the lore, for Bobby to state such a thing is…unusual. That kind of comment can only have negative consequences in the community and everything the lore team says from this point forward will be tainted by it. He has just made it so we can trust nothing they say. Which is just so very, very sad. My only hope is that it was a joke that came across badly.

The problem with forking stories though is how to deal with their repercussions. Either you have both forks lead to the same result which makes for a lot of wtf and “this was pointless” or you have different results which means the writers are forever making multiple versions of the story. Both options only get worse with more choices.

There are trade offs to both and success depends on how they execute it. And budget/resource considerations always place a limit on what can be done. Personally, resource issues aside, I’d probably go with forks that wrap up to the same result in each chapter. I think you have more options for re-playability that way and more opportunities to explore character development.

I’m having fun.

I suppose it’s nice that Angel wanted to clarify that it was a magic lie detection ability. To me that scene felt forced and inaccurate. Kasmeer should have just stopped with saying she’s sure it’s a lie. Saying it’s in her posture and eyes just doesn’t make sense given the zephyrite was bleeding out from a mortal, and presumably painful, wound.

Also, nothing in that scene indicated a magic gift on Kasmeer’s part. If the writers wanted us to know it was a magic ability, they should have given us clues to it. As it stands, the only way to know it is to listen to what Angel said; which is very…lazy of the writers. Leaving out the line about posture would have been better, replacing it with a line about instinct or intuition would have been a clue tying into Kasmeers gift.

Given the vast improvements elsewhere in the writing, story, and character development this just stands out like a sore thumb.

The new stats have only been out 2 days. Give gw2skills some time to program it. I’m sure it’ll be up soon.

In today’s point of interest they confirmed the next chapter will be on the 15th. Presumably that means 2 week releases going forward.

For the Dashed Advantage Achieve in the Cornered Story you fight a small group of inquest, one of which was carrying a drop basket. Afterward you can pick it up and take it back with you to where you fight Aerin. Does anyone know if you can do anything with it?

Clyan.1593:

I don’t think those vines are part of mordremoth. Actually i’m somehow pretty sure the dragon is in the more greeny area highlighted in the pic.

I doubt the dragon is in that area. Other dragons are fairly far removed from areas where the players are and that spot looks close enough that it could be a part of new potential maps. I’d expect the dragon to be much further to the west.

Tiers reset when the sandstorm starts. I believe the favor just represents what tier you’re on. IE you can’t buy tier 4 rewards unless the meta is at tier 4 or above.

Zalladi.4652:

math.6843:

that’s definitely not a normal vine and its hidden so Anet doesnt want us to see it

I wouldn’t exactly call “directly underneath the first waypoint” as something being ‘hidden’.

More to the point, one of the lost coins is hidden next to the vine. I highly doubt they’d put something they didn’t want you to see in front of something they wanted you to find.

lordkrall.7241:

Dawdler.8521:

Past a… few… gigabytes?! FEW?!

That’s what I consume in like 2 hours of just browsing. What sort of backwards place do you live in, lol?

If you consume a few GIGABYTES in two hours of just browsing, something is very very wrong.

Netfix HD stream will eat that in an hour or two.

Devata.6589:

StinVec.3621:

I think you mean “Taimi”.

You can edit the title if you like by clicking the ‘Edit Topic…’ button underneath the ‘Add Reply/Subscribe’ buttons at the top.

Don’t they also sometimes name here Tiny? Or does it just sounds so similar? Anyway yes I mean Taimi and I changed it.

It’s pronounced Tie-me.

Possible. To me it looks like a generic scene. The characters don’t appear to be the biconics and spears are simple weapons to draw and identify in a painting like this.

I think the hint is more about the landscape we should expect.

Scrambles.2604:

i dont think that’s the reason we’re not getting duels, but it is disheartening that so many people buy and perpetuate the “duels = harassment/ego stroking/12 year old duel spammer” claims.

It’s been about a month in wildstar for me and i still haven’t gotten a single duel request. It’s a great feature but the claims on these boards about inevitable and widespread harassment, or dueling only being a tool used to bother others are outlandish. I realize i’m only one person, not the best sample size, but going into it based on what i read on these boards i expected to have been called a coward for refusing a duel request at least once by now.

The fact that in pvp people get death threats, told to die for sucking so much or that they should be ashamed for living proves you wrong. I dont want this anywhere near pve and I would leave if it were implemented.

Speak for yourself. I don’t want duels.

Belzebu.3912:

By next-gen you mean the current consoles? If so, just no.
Or you mean really next gen CPUs and devices like Oculus Rift and stuff?

A 1st person camera with Oculus Rift in Jumping Puzzles would be amazing, I would play a game that consisted of just that.

If GW2 ever becomes compatible/optimized for use on the Oculus Rift I’d do nothing but play it on Oculus Rift. The sheer awesomeness of it boggles the mind.

StarbornStriker.6493:

This isn’t really what I’m asking for, as I’m quite aware it would be unfeasible.

But I ask, what was the point of rescuing citizens during the siege against Lion’s Arch? To get a better reward? Why didn’t the devs use this in some way when they set up the next part of the living story. You know how easy it is to add an NPC that says ‘because x number of citizens got saved we have this advantage?’ It’s probably really easy. And would the players ever know whether or not we would have had that advantage otherwise? No. No we wouldn’t, no matter how much people speculated.

We could even take it one step further and say that they could have built a mechanic into the release whereby rescuing citizens gave you boons to other areas of the event rather than just better reward bags, so that there would have been a reason for people to help the citizens of Lion’s Arch other than ‘I want the best reward bag.’

The issue I have is that I feel like my presence in the story is useless. What did I really do that wouldn’t have happened the same without me? How did my actions hinder Scarlet? In the end they didn’t. That’s my complaint. And what impact did electing Kiel have? I still have really yet to see this or feel it in the game.

These are issues that can easily be fixed via the framing of the narrative. By wrapping the narrative a little bit more into the activities of each release rather than having the point be achievement points or a meta reward. Rewards are great, but I would like to see the story play a larger role in the living story. And I would like to feel that my character contributes to the events of that story, even if I’m not the big hero who does the ultimate thing in the end.

There are three issues that underlie everything you’re talking about.
The first is that development starts about 4 months before release. That makes it impossible to react to what players do or to really incorporate much of their feedback into changing the immediate story. As a programmer, I’m sure you understand what long lead times can be like in development.

The second issue is something they’ve talked about a fair bit and that is the quality of writing. They recognize a lot of the issues with the story and event designs (the plot holes, the railroading, the lack of sense behind some things, etc) and how it was presented and they want to fix it. Season one was a lot of experimentation for them and, hopefully, we’ll see the results of what they’ve learned in season two. Unfortunately, the only fix for this problem is experience.

The third issue is player agency. How to make players feel like they have an impact and are important. This ties into the quality of writing, but it also has it’s own problems. A lot of MMO’s have tried dealing with this, most of them not very well. Heck, it’s not even something non-mmo’s have a good track record with. It is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges of making a video game story.

I think season two will be an improvement over season one for a lot of the story issues. I wouldn’t expect significant changes until season three but I’m hopeful for season two. I suppose the best thing I can say is I’m looking forward to it.

Celestina.2894:

One thing I noticed was Braham using an animation I don’t recognize and I don’t recall them having any unique animations. (Unique skills yeah but not animations)

Likely of course just a simple pre-rendered cut scene, but who knows.

Mechanics wise it could be earthshaker, the hammer burst skill. Theme wise, it’s Braham going hulk smash on a golem. Whatever it was, it was fun to watch. Braham should get some bonus Hero points for that one.