Shouldn't fractals have a much bigger impact overall?

Not In regards to the main story but in how certain fractions in Tyria react to it. Both scientists and historians alike should be all over them for the amount of informations these "echos" contain but aside from some adventures, the MC and some unnamed asuran groups (those who created these asuran structures) none of the madjor organisations (like the priory) really seem to care, I wonder why that is.

The problem is that they don't (always) contain accurate copies of space-time. Such as the Aquatic Fractal, which seems to be a mixture of two different times and places. And even when they are accurate, the events get altered the moment the fractal team steps in. For example, the Thaumanova fractal - those two named asura don't survive it, so when we rescue them we're altering the course of events as that fractal would show. And there doesn't seem to be a method of observing the fractal without a team in (hence why we're sent in - to clear the hostiles out of the place so Dessa's team can study them).

It would be interesting to get some fractals "sponsored" by a specific group like Thaumanova was, but its suggested that Dessa doesn't make fractals so much as finds them (most of the time?).

Pretty much as König said. Even stranger, the Fractals of the Mists contain recent historical imprints from Tyria and Dessa's Lab may or may not be a copy itself. However, the real lab may still exist and spawn further imprints of events, and even events that happened within a fractal, which means the Fractals of the Mist are highly recursive.

well, that's the thing you see, they are just echos that repeats over and over again, it does not feedback into Tyria's timeline; well, until the "A Star to Guide Us"

the interesting is the echos are contained in 'bubbles', the echo is yet to bleed into reality; I do question what happened to the chuck of reality that replaced by the bubbles

Essentially what @Konig Des Todes.2086 said: these are useful tools for studying the mists, studying magic, studying etc. But historically mostly useless.On the other hand, the new rift area in the Jahai Bluffs seems to be a replica of historical events, so that would be very interesting to the priory, among others.

Its not true that they are historically useless. As a matter of fact Kiel's political campaign promised using the fractals to explore historical event of importance.

Just because they are not 100% accurate that doesn't mean they have no use.

If you go to mistlock sanctuary you will meet other fractal explorer, but its hard to say how much of it is considered canon.

It's all canon.

But as for usefulness - it's useful if you're investigating an event on a general scale, but useless if you're looking for specific details and event occurrences. For the case of Thaumanova, we were able to talk to Inquest to find out how the reactor began to fall apart, and we knew that much would be accurate (to a degree) because we arrive after the reactor meltdown began. But the survival of certain Inquest, or the portals that occurred there, wouldn't be accurate because of the players' influences.

For the Priory, who are interested in those fine details more than the general overlaying events (as those would largely be known already), it isn't very useful. The fractals would effectively just be "what ifs" to them, and nothing more. Interesting, but not factual.

Well, thanks to the fractal, everyone knows that Scarlett was there when it went critical. She confirms that the reactor was built on a ley node, which was a bad move on the part of the asura, but it laid the theoretical groundwork for the Breachmaker project.

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:For the Priory, who are interested in those fine details more than the general overlaying events (as those would largely be known already), it isn't very useful.But that's only true for more recent events, if there are only vague descriptions of a long forgotten tribe or event then pretty much anything new would be of value. Also the priory was just an example. According to the wiki the consortium claimes to be involved but we never really see anything substantial. Neither the asuran colleges nor individual research groups (aside from random adventurers) seem to care either. We have quaggan which are more interested in interdimensional space then the freaking inquest.

@Tails.9372 said:

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:For the Priory, who are interested in those fine details more than the general overlaying events (as those would largely be known already), it isn't very useful.But that's only true for more recent events, if there are only vague descriptions of a long forgotten tribe or event then pretty much anything new would be of value. Also the priory was just an example. According to the wiki the consortium claimes to be involved but we never really see anything substantial. Neither the asuran colleges nor individual research groups (aside from random adventurers) seem to care either. We have quaggan which are more interested in interdimensional space then the freaking inquest.

But at the same time, in order to get specific fractals at the very least a vague description is needed. If they're just gonna let the Mists do their stuff, there's no way to tell how accurate the fractal is. After all, there was no floating chunks in the Jade Sea. And Urban Battleground doesn't match any known Ascalonian city layout (could be Drascir, I suppose, but that fell before the Searing which is the event at the end of the Fractal, thus inconsistency if so).

The only thing the Fractals are really good for, really, is studying the Mists. And while not many are interested in such, those that are include folks like Dessa and Arkk. Who got lost to the Mists in their studies, apparently, and copies of them created replacing them.

Also, the Consortium doesn't really claim involvement, but rather they were taking advantage of an unclear situation. It was their asura gate that malfunctioned and happened to connect to Mistlock Observatory, and those on the field who were panicking (aka Blinng) just rolled with the flow after announcing the asura gate would lead to fun times (Southsun). Directing adventurers into the Fractals was the full scope of their "involvement". They ceased taking advantage of the situation (at least by all appearances) when the gate moved during Escape from LA.

It is a bit weird the Inquest have shown no interest in the Mists though, Fractals or otherwise. But this may be due to the difficult and super dangerous nature of accessing the Mists in the first place. And the Fractals' entry point is in a well fortified city's main fort so the Inquest couldn't really get access to them anyways.

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

It is a bit weird the Inquest have shown no interest in the Mists though, Fractals or otherwise. But this may be due to the difficult and super dangerous nature of accessing the Mists in the first place. And the Fractals' entry point is in a well fortified city's main fort so the Inquest couldn't really get access to them anyways.

well thats only true if they try to force their way into it.LA is a more or less free City with low security. as Long as u dont disturb the peace ur allowed to enter this goes for inquest too. i doubt that asura dont get permission to enter LA just cuz they are maybe from the inquest. that would assume that u can always tell from their Looks if asura belong to them or not. true the guys we fight in the world resemble each other pretty good but then again they are all clones of each other and wear the same clothes. my Point here is that their similar looks are more a mechanical issue. so u would not necessarily be able to Keep inquest from any other random appearing asura apart.. in fact the PC himself is able to wear an inquest exo suit wich would get him banned from LA if that were the case

so if the inquest would not try to Claim to be the only ones allowed to enter fractals or they use other violent mesures they should be able to go there

LA may seem fairly lax, but they don't take to open criminals wandering about. And that would include criminals by association. This is why we see no Sons of Svanir, dredge, bandits, Aetherblades, Taihda pirates, or Inquest walking about. The only exception are the three "Shady Workers" from the BfLA event, and the small group of pirates that run a black market literally underneath the Captain's Council - and the explanation for the former was "there's going to be a black market, no matter what, so we're letting it be one we can keep tabs on".

It might be a pirate-run city, but they do have laws, and while it began as a "free city where all who don't make trouble are welcomed", after Scarlet this drastically changed (heck, it didn't really match the Sea of Sorrows description at launch).