One Player's Opinion of LS and the future of Guild Wars2

[BCPrhys.7230]

As Guild Wars 2 is currently structured, I can see why new players would be lore confused. Being a player of the GW franchise since 2005, please forgive my opinions of the game flow as it stands. I do realize most people will not agree with my views.

 

The first Guild Wars always felt, to me, as though the player was moving forward through time in Tyria with all the events spread through the three games and one expansion. That was until you hit the end of each game and finalized with the announcement of Guild Wars 2. At that point all new content ceased. Okay, channelling of production resources into the newer chapters of Tyrian history was acceptable. In that announcement, what intrigued me the most, was the possibility to actually move forward through history as it was being made. No other game out there was doing that. WOW was a juggernaut for MMORPGs at the time, but it was stagnating. Why? Because there was no forward momentum, nothing new in the worlds' history. The characters were going no where. The players were simply repeating over and over again the same old content. BORING!

 

Let us switch up to the present, 2021. Guild Wars 2 has been chugging along nicely since its introduction in 2012, but now, it's floundering. Why? Same old content, people! Yes, the developers do periodically offer the players new content through the Living Story chapters, but the old content hangs around. Why? In real life, can we talk with people who are dead and have died hundreds of thousands of times over because they've were defeated that many times? This is Living Story in the game. That means the history of the game moves forward as the characters live through it. Why are we as players continuously rehashing defeat after same defeat of our multiply vanquished enemies? Zhaitan is dead; allow Orr to heal, for goodness sake! I'm sick of still having to fight undead. Mordremoth is gone as well. All of those minions should have returned long ago to the ground from whence they were formed. For once let the Maguumas Not be a headache to traverse. (I have hated the Maguuma from GW1 and 2, really) The only good I have seen is Living Story Season 1 be allowed to rest. Yes!

 

That is what Living Story means. You as the player take your character through history-making events, the events conclude, then you as the player move on to the next chapter of Living Story with your character(s). Any rewards earned from the previous event(s) are yours. Someone missed out, oh well, they missed out, and they cannot have them because they weren't there to earn them. And the flow of new content keeps the game fresh. Currently, Guild Wars 2 has old content available since 2014. How fresh is that? Why is it still there? As for the new players – in real life do we interact with people who are long gone before us? No, we have history books for that. So in the game, we have that fantastic library under the custodianship of the Priory which just takes up space. Why are we not using That to inform new players of what has gone before them? If they want to play through that earlier content, why not have new players, or older players, access a book to play through a LS season or the expansions? Anet devs, did you even contemplate that possibility? That way the world can continue changing, the players' characters can live through Living Story, and we as the players see the impact of our actions on the greater outside world.

 

**To actually See the Impact we the players make! That is a place where no game has gone before.**

 

 

 

I am done. I have said my piece which has been pressing for some time now. It is a given people will offer their opinions. That is your prerogative. Just know it will all fall on deaf ears as your opinions are yours and you're welcome to them.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

> @"BCPrhys.7230" said:

> As Guild Wars 2 is currently structured, I can see why new players would be lore confused. Being a player of the GW franchise since 2005, please forgive my opinions of the game flow as it stands. I do realize most people will not agree with my views.

>

> The first Guild Wars always felt, to me, as though the player was moving forward through time in Tyria with all the events spread through the three games and one expansion. That was until you hit the end of each game and finalized with the announcement of Guild Wars 2. At that point all new content ceased. Okay, channelling of production resources into the newer chapters of Tyrian history was acceptable. In that announcement, what intrigued me the most, was the possibility to actually move forward through history as it was being made. No other game out there was doing that. WOW was a juggernaut for MMORPGs at the time, but it was stagnating. Why? Because there was no forward momentum, nothing new in the worlds' history. The characters were going no where. The players were simply repeating over and over again the same old content. BORING!

>

> Let us switch up to the present, 2021. Guild Wars 2 has been chugging along nicely since its introduction in 2012, but now, it's floundering. Why? Same old content, people! Yes, the developers do periodically offer the players new content through the Living Story chapters, but the old content hangs around. Why? In real life, can we talk with people who are dead and have died hundreds of thousands of times over because they've were defeated that many times? This is Living Story in the game. That means the history of the game moves forward as the characters live through it. Why are we as players continuously rehashing defeat after same defeat of our multiply vanquished enemies? Zhaitan is dead; allow Orr to heal, for goodness sake! I'm sick of still having to fight undead. Mordremoth is gone as well. All of those minions should have returned long ago to the ground from whence they were formed. For once let the Maguumas Not be a headache to traverse. (I have hated the Maguuma from GW1 and 2, really) The only good I have seen is Living Story Season 1 be allowed to rest. Yes!

>

> That is what Living Story means. You as the player take your character through history-making events, the events conclude, then you as the player move on to the next chapter of Living Story with your character(s). Any rewards earned from the previous event(s) are yours. Someone missed out, oh well, they missed out, and they cannot have them because they weren't there to earn them. And the flow of new content keeps the game fresh. Currently, Guild Wars 2 has old content available since 2014. How fresh is that? Why is it still there? As for the new players – in real life do we interact with people who are long gone before us? No, we have history books for that. So in the game, we have that fantastic library under the custodianship of the Priory which just takes up space. Why are we not using That to inform new players of what has gone before them? If they want to play through that earlier content, why not have new players, or older players, access a book to play through a LS season or the expansions? Anet devs, did you even contemplate that possibility? That way the world can continue changing, the players' characters can live through Living Story, and we as the players see the impact of our actions on the greater outside world.

>

> **To actually See the Impact we the players make! That is a place where no game has gone before.**

>

>

>

> I am done. I have said my piece which has been pressing for some time now. It is a given people will offer their opinions. That is your prerogative. Just know it will all fall on deaf ears as your opinions are yours and you're welcome to them.

 

Not an opinion but, have you heard of Season 1 of Living World? It did change the game world, permanently, and in a way the devs couldn't reconcile which is why they stopped going down that path after that season.

 

I agree that these types of changes over time would be very cool to implement in a game but, at the same time very challenging to maintain over time. Something that might have to be implemented from the initial launch of the game.

 

I believe AoC will be trying an approach similar to what you are interested in, a constantly shifting landscape based upon the actions of the players, with each server shard having different results in how the world grows.

[maddoctor.2738]

Yes, each map is frozen in time, if you want to follow the living world, simply move on and play the latest maps. You can see Orr beginning to heal in Siren's Landing, which is a map set after the death of Zhaitan. Dragonfall is a map after Kralkatorik's fall (from the episodes first instance) and so on. The game does progress forward, why would ANY company delete what they've developed? They already did that mistake with Season 1 and you want them to repeat that?