What is wrong with GW2 story telling?

[Nuldric.1239]

1 hour ago, zeyeti.8347 said:

And as you say it conclude love story , how cute ... conclude nothing else , i think that most people would have liked a more elaborate explanation of why the mechs are turning havoc than having rama final love story (and he didnt' even conclude ... so this story part conclude nothing) aurene is going for a nap , and energy crisis was certainly caused by an oni who can enter flesh being minds and dreams but somehow it affected mechs behavior ... nice , i don't really know and i don't care , i just weeeeezzz trough this whole cluster of nonsense running around and pressing F was enough to finish it

Exactly this happens when you don't pay attention to narative...have you played EoD? Jade was infused/enchanted by Soo Won in reactor, and bacause dragon energy bacame corrupted when we killed other dragons and created "dragonvoid", then energy in jade batteries used to power mechs and other tech was corrupted too, they gone havoc. In coclusion of story there was no reactor and no dragon that could infuse more jade, ergo energy crisis for Cantha, so they searched for other means of powering their tech and in Gyala Delve they discovered new kind of powerful jade, but there was also demon affecting human minds, Oni. Jade Brotherhood affected by Oni then simply could have reprogrammed their jade mechs to fight against us, mechs weren't affected by Oni. It's that simple. 

[Randulf.7614]

I finally finished EoD story this week (I’d done up to act 5 before where I’d lost interest)

Act 1-3 were very well structured and paced. I don’t like how they handled Mai trin, but I can’t say it all didn’t work either.

Act 4 was the downfall. The two instances I really enjoyed, but we did nothing to enhance the void plot. This was the point to focus on that and where we needed another map. The purity angle could have been put elsewhere and the mansion to the start of act 5 which was one instance and the epilogues. 

Act 5 was just too short. As a result, they tried to compact the void threat globally into cutscenes. This is why the story needed more time. To dramatise the nature of the threat better rather than rush through it. The final fight was ok and made sense, but wasn’t t as impactful as I hoped. It all felt a bit too easy to overcome the threat.

The epilogue stuff was a nice way of rounding off the npc arcs. That all worked fine, wedding included. I still miss the old gw celebration and weapon choice they used to use in gw1 and core story, but in terms of storytelling, the epilogue and wedding were spot on.

What the story showed was that once again expansion stories start well and fall off in the last quarter. In effort to finish it off too quick, structure and pacing goes out the window. PoF did the same.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Randulf.7614

[Nosrorav.4703]

2 hours ago, zeyeti.8347 said:

Trough this story you gather flowers and boxes , literally , it is about gathering those , that's what you do , the whole gameplay was you running around pressing F , not even talking about the poor mechanic wich allow you to fend off the oni for 20 sec

Except... it wasn't. The flowers and boxes was literally just one brief moment in the story. You're only picking up flowers as an option of Mai Trin's memorial, and only picking up boxes when looking for that Kurzick relic. Very, very brief moments in the story.

Or are you trying (and failing) to claim that the story is about interacting with stuff and not specifically flowers or boxes?

Because then I can see what you mean. However... That's literally 90% of this game in general. You interact with something, or you kill something, all in between dialogue. That's... Actually 100% of the game. And every game in existence. Since video games are about interaction, after all, being an interactive art medium.

[Kalavier.1097]

10 hours ago, Nosrorav.4703 said:

I think you missed the point of the narrative. It isn't about "gathering flowers and boxes". It's about handling PTSD brought on by ten years of constant warfare against Elder Dragons, former gods, and centuries old lich tyrants, that resulted in constant death around you by your own active choices, or your own inability to act. And that is productive character development - especially for a character who, for half of the past 10 years, has been treated as a blank slate with no personality so players can slap whatever they desire onto it.

Nobody can survive near death experiences and constant death around them while being "a freaking bad*ss" and not end up a total shitfaced mess once the adrenaline dies down.

That one minute segment you highlight is literally just some light comedy spruced in the middle of it.

 

These are the people who can't figure out the Cinder side part wasn't "Commander is so sad about Cinder, who she never personally knew" but "Commander is torn up cause she's thinking about how all it could've been different, focused on the what if's of the situation instead of accepting she didn't have control over Smodur and what happened, happened."

2 hours ago, zeyeti.8347 said:

And as you say it conclude love story , how cute ... conclude nothing else , i think that most people would have liked a more elaborate explanation of why the mechs are turning havoc than having rama final love story (and he didnt' even conclude ... so this story part conclude nothing) aurene is going for a nap , and energy crisis was certainly caused by an oni who can enter flesh being minds and dreams but somehow it affected mechs behavior ... nice , i don't really know and i don't care

So you completely admit you paid zero attention at all to the story, and yet are trying to complain about it's quality when you cannot even be bothered to actually listen to any dialogue?

I mean, it's gutsy but wow. "I'm complaining about something I know nothing about and refuse to back down." Cause if you had bothered to pay even slight attention, literally every single thing there was answered.

48 minutes ago, Nuldric.1239 said:

Exactly this happens when you don't pay attention to narative...have you played EoD? Jade was infused/enchanted by Soo Won in reactor, and bacause dragon energy bacame corrupted when we killed other dragons and created "dragonvoid", then energy in jade batteries used to power mechs and other tech was corrupted too, they gone havoc. In coclusion of story there was no reactor and no dragon that could infuse more jade, ergo energy crisis for Cantha, so they searched for other means of powering their tech and in Gyala Delve they discovered new kind of powerful jade, but there was also demon affecting human minds, Oni. Jade Brotherhood affected by Oni then simply could have reprogrammed their jade mechs to fight against us, mechs weren't affected by Oni. It's that simple. 

I'm going to guess they played it any never spoke to any npc, never read any books or notes, and played it all on mute because they openly admitted they don't know a thing about the very story they are complaining about.

1 minute ago, Nosrorav.4703 said:

Except... it wasn't. The flowers and boxes was literally just one brief moment in the story. You're only picking up flowers as an option of Mai Trin's memorial, and only picking up boxes when looking for that Kurzick relic. Very, very brief moments in the story.

Or are you trying (and failing) to claim that the story is about interacting with stuff and not specifically flowers or boxes?

Because then I can see what you mean. However... That's literally 90% of this game in general. You interact with something, or you kill something, all in between dialogue. That's... Actually 100% of the game. And every game in existence. Since video games are about interaction, after all, being an interactive art medium.

I mean, the guy can't even tell the difference between the storyline in End of Dragons and Gyala Delve apart and openly said he doesn't care about actually learning about the things he is complaining about. He's trying to put EoD story beats into Gyala delve laughably.

[Nuldric.1239]

30 minutes ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

I'm going to guess they played it any never spoke to any npc, never read any books or notes, and played it all on mute because they openly admitted they don't know a thing about the very story they are complaining about.

Yeah and peak of story writing for them is: bash that guy on left, smash that guy on right, big explosion, boss lying in dirt and PC's only quote in whole story is "wraaaugh", because he's terrifying dragon-slaying god-stomping immortal superhero with no soul. No subplot, no politics, no secrets, because they are all boring, am I right? 

 

P. S. jk, no offense meant

Edited August 17, 2023 by Nuldric.1239

[zeyeti.8347]

1 hour ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

So you completely admit you paid zero attention at all to the story, and yet are trying to complain about it's quality when you cannot even be bothered to actually listen to any dialogue?

I paid 0 attention to the history at some point , cause it failed to get me hooked from the start , after the gathering flower and fishing part i was already off and the instance were we had to test the "anti oni engine" was completely messed up , what the hell where those skills , a skill who give 1 or two stack of torment , a skill who fear and a skill who lure , you use this one just once just to lure the oni at the start of the instance , then it's off , and you can do the level without using this function , cause the oni is stupid and attacks npcs ... then he goes honga bomga big purply pinky jellow , at least the mechanic to kill it was kind of original in open world , a bit long and boring if you do it too often .

Just compare that to pof story and season 4 , you start pof with an amazing vew of a big pyramid and inside you meet your new enemies and face a boss right away , then you unlock raptor and zoooommm everywhere and just look at the ending , you face a god with his titan size machinery and you have kralk roaring in the background , that is what i call epic , joko fortress when you see how deranged he is , torturing ppl he disguised to look like you , kralk destroying everything in thunderhead peaks , he carshing in the sea making a whole new map out of his body , i applaud anet at this time for their amazing job , but there has been a huge let down since dragon response missions in term of story telling.

I bought a game who is called guild "wars" . Not guild gathering , nor gathering wars . While you all say it was a tiny part of the story , what was the remembrance of all the old character , blish , vlast , mai trin etc etc , there is literally no gameplay in 75-90% of this part of the story , thats just lazy , this could be a professor layton game , but with clues for blindfolded decerebrate ppl.

End up with matter of taste i hated this part and will try to erase it from my memory (should not be difficult , seing the poor content it was) , you enjoyed it , good for you , i kind of repeat myself , but i am happy we ended this part and start a fresh new content who seems to be interactiv and thrilling , just to watch how the map seems to be laying out .

1 hour ago, Nuldric.1239 said:

immortal

Remember you die against that god ? even if you came back , in term off story telling that mean huge dread for your character , it's just my point of view , but i like my character to be bada sses , fighters with  a mind of steel .

Truly did you really enjoy that part of the story , did you really enjoy interact with runes , read the books , go to rata sum for trying to find blish echo memo , where is the fun in doing that and have batte even my nefew off 4yo can do ?

[zeyeti.8347]

3 hours ago, Randulf.7614 said:

What the story showed was that once again expansion stories start well and fall off in the last quarter. In effort to finish it off too quick, structure and pacing goes out the window. PoF did the same.

Thats pof ending and season 4 ending , want to compare that to "what lies beneath" end ? i can't even find a battle against the last boss ..... but a lot of complains ....

Just tip what lies beneath on youtube and you ll find a lot of complaining videos , now tip pof and you ll see the complete opposite.

Ty for your points all , but i ll stick to my mind , what lies beneath is a mess and i know  alot off ppl complained about. Hope story will be a bit more epic in soto , leave the emotional damage , the gender politics and the poor snowflake writing , there is nothing wrong with putting some of it in the game , but that last part was obnoxious and cringe

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by zeyeti.8347

[Randulf.7614]

44 minutes ago, zeyeti.8347 said:

Thats pof ending and season 4 ending , want to compare that to "what lies beneath" end ? i can't even find a battle against the last boss ..... but a lot of complains ....

Just tip what lies beneath on youtube and you ll find a lot of complaining videos , now tip pof and you ll see the complete opposite.

Ty for your points all , but i ll stick to my mind , what lies beneath is a mess and i know  alot off ppl complained about. Hope story will be a bit more epic in soto , leave the emotional damage , the gender politics and the poor snowflake writing , there is nothing wrong with putting some of it in the game , but that last part was obnoxious and cringe

 

I said end of dragons not what lies beneath. I’m fully aware of how poor that was as I’ve said in numerous threads.

My post what about the expac story, not the side story that came after

[EdwinLi.1284]

On 8/16/2023 at 6:46 PM, Nosrorav.4703 said:

 

"all left over side plots"

So... it concluded the Purists? And the Raisu Palace risen stuff? Empress Ihn's visit to Tyria? Cho-Mo taking his jadetech business outside of Cantha? Or even the Speakers and their willingness to return to ecoterrorism if jadetech isn't cleaned up properly?

It only concluded two side stories: Rama's love life, and Cantha's energy crisis. Four if you count the continuation of Gorrik becoming an official detective and Aurene going to sleep (though the Aurene one wasn't really necessary). That was barely a quarter of the number of side plots remaining.

And that's just about Cantha, not to talk about the side plots left open by HoT, S3, PoF, S4, and IBS that remain untouched.

I was talking about the side plots that was more present in the Main storyline being the Rama love life and Cantha energy Crisis.

The other side plots was just easy to miss side stories unless players really explore Cantha so I am not surprised they skipped over it for future content. Most likely between Expansion story plots.

A lot of the HoT, S3, PoF, S4, and IBS side plots are also mostly just progressing slowly over time as well whenever Anet decides to bring them up again. Most of the time when they do pop up, the progress is mostly about off screen events the NPCs just describe to us what happened. 

Not every single plot need to be about the Commander being directly there to influence and conclude it directly after all. Like every story, it is a world with many stories but the Main Character cannot be present in all of them since the majority happens during the sametime as the Main Character's story. Thus the Main Character can only be present for a few when he/she cross paths into those stories while progress his/her own story. 

Edited August 18, 2023 by EdwinLi.1284

[Nosrorav.4703]

57 minutes ago, EdwinLi.1284 said:

I was talking about the side plots that was more present in the Main storyline being the Rama love life and Cantha energy Crisis.

The other side plots was just easy to miss side stories unless players really explore Cantha so I am not surprised they skipped over it for future content. Most likely between Expansion story plots.

The purists, Speakers, and Chul-Moo moving were all parts of the main plot, particularly Act 4.

57 minutes ago, EdwinLi.1284 said:

A lot of the HoT, S3, PoF, S4, and IBS side plots are also mostly just progressing slowly over time as well whenever Anet decides to bring them up again. Most of the time when they do pop up, the progress is mostly about off screen events the NPCs just describe to us what happened. 

Not every single plot need to be about the Commander being directly there to influence and conclude it directly after all. Like every story, it is a world with many stories but the Main Character cannot be present in all of them since the majority happens during the sametime as the Main Character's story. Thus the Main Character can only be present for a few when he/she cross paths into those stories while progress his/her own story. 

I would disagree on both points.

For the first one, if you look at the recent blog post about the story for SotO, it brings up one of the major HoT plot threads as blatantly unresolved (sylvari recovery from Mordremoth's influence), and IBS even once again brings up that the Pale Tree is having issues recovering despite so many years passing (and despite Knight of the Thorn's plot of helping to heal her again). While some side plots are just suddenly solved in the background, like the charr-human peace treaty signing, most are just in stasis until the devs get around to it. There... actually aren't many opened plot threads that have progressed or closed without the player's involvement, truth be told. The only one I can think of would be the White Mantle following "Lazarus" being defeated in the entirely off-screen civil conflict between Caudecus' WM and "Lazarus"'s WM, and the charr-human peace treaty. There might be others, but that shows how minor those plots are.

Typically peaking, any loose thread solved in the background is only done to facilitate the current plot that ArenaNet prefers to tell - hence the charr-human peace treaty, solving that off-screen facilitated making Smodur more smug and certain of obtaining the Khan-Ur position during Bound by Blood, fueling his descent before killing Cinder as he grew paranoid of losing that to Ryland.

On the second one, while they don't need to be about the Commander being directly there from a Watsonian perspective, the fact that we play the Commander means that for the game to have and explore plots means the Commander will be there. Thus the Commander does need to be there from a Doylist perspective. In effect, if the game were to include them starting then there's an expectation among players that the game will include them closing, and that the players (as the Commander) will get to directly experience these plot points.

I think this is one of the running issues players who enjoyed GW1's lore had when going into GW2, because a lot of the dangling plot threads from GW1 (even from EotN or Beyond) are just left... unattended. Forgotten, and never explored. It leaves a place of disappointment in those looking forward to exploring those threads.

[Klypto.1703]

On 8/15/2023 at 7:56 AM, Nosrorav.4703 said:

Do people even know what "maintenance mode" actually means?

It means no new content. We have an expansion dropping in one week for crying out loud. With two quarterly updates already on the way.

That ain't maintenance mode, My Doomsayer Fellow.

It's not an expansion it's just a living world episode that everyone has to pay for if they want it.

[Nosrorav.4703]

3 hours ago, Klypto.1703 said:

It's not an expansion it's just a living world episode that everyone has to pay for if they want it.

That's exactly what an expansion is. Good job on defining the fact expansions and living world have been the same thing the entire time.

[Thron Stal.9367]

On 7/22/2023 at 9:11 PM, RagiNagi.1802 said:

Hi,

I have recently gotten back to game. And just finished EOD. And to kinda get back in the lore, started playing trough LS.

And man I have to tell you. The story/lore while interesting is delivered in such an odd way. Im now doing that Scarlett Instance called - Connecting the Pieces. Im in the bar, and have to inspect 10 items and give my thoughts on them.. man wth.. or that piece in EOD where you have to eat Sushi or whatever, or that odd quest where you travel around in a skiff checking for explosives under bridge, or where you had to talk with everyone at the end of EOD for achievement and to get some more trivia tid-bits. The story it self is fine i guess. But the delivery completely kills it. I end up watching YT videos on side and just clicking trough the dialogue.

I feel like it was not like that for the base game, or HOT. What happened? The endless unskippable dialogue options and voice acting in game is my guess. I just cant be bothered to go trough that, lol.

I have very little hope for the expansion. Good that GW2's gameplay loop is quite engaging.

Thank you

[Thron Stal.9367]

On 7/23/2023 at 2:20 AM, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

i don't understand this mentality. usually when people buy video games, they're happy to have filler content because every extra hour of gameplay is more bang for your buck, but when it comes to mmos which already offer hundreds of hours of gameplay per expansion, any more is too much.

 

its like so many players these days have never played an rpg of any kind before, or somehow want an mmo to not be an rpg.

Filler content? hahahah  It is rubbish.  Give us true content.

[Gorem.8104]

On 8/15/2023 at 9:47 PM, Klypto.1703 said:

Like all things they come to an end this game is just reached its ending which pretty much happened with the end of season 4 living world.  The EoD thing was just the last money grab before game officially went on maintenance mode.

Fully agree to this, games already ended, it finished with LW4, its honestly the perfect ending the final zone is amazing both lore wise and story wise and everything leading up to it was perfect, a perfect ending to the game. EoD/IBS ect are just extra filler content you can afk through, I watched a movie instead of playing EoD, was more entertaining. 

[Kalavier.1097]

1 hour ago, Gorem.8104 said:

Fully agree to this, games already ended, it finished with LW4, its honestly the perfect ending the final zone is amazing both lore wise and story wise and everything leading up to it was perfect, a perfect ending to the game. EoD/IBS ect are just extra filler content you can afk through, I watched a movie instead of playing EoD, was more entertaining. 

How interesting that you know EoD is "filler content" even though you know nothing of the contents by your own admission.

[mandala.8507]

Calling EoD filler content is beyond wild.

Even from a gameplay and visuals perspective alone, the Dragon's End meta absolutely dwarfs the Dragonfall meta. Like, it's not even a competition.

Please tell me we're not trying to say Dr. Pimple Popper meta is better than Dragon's End.

And yeah, weird flex to admit how little you paid attention to story content you want to convince us is bad. I've replayed EoD story more than any other expansion or living world story in the game, so I'm pretty confident it's not filler content.

[Klypto.1703]

On 8/20/2023 at 2:41 AM, Nosrorav.4703 said:

That's exactly what an expansion is. Good job on defining the fact expansions and living world have been the same thing the entire time.

Nope not even close.

[Orimidu.9604]

Guild Wars 2 is over a decade old now, and do you know what I would tell people about if I had to describe my memories of the story? I wouldn't describe my tea parties with Rama.

• I would be describing the unknown mysteries presented to us at the start. The dragons appeared. What is their origin? Why do they destroy everything in sight? Why did they wake up when they did?
• I would be describing the union of the races of Tyria to form The Pact and my role in it.
• I would be describing Trahearne and his role as my ally, guidance and friend (and vice versa).
• I would be describing the Knight of the Thorn postquest and my PC's unresolved grief over the loss of Trahearne.
• I would be describing Scarlet's sudden attack on the hub city Lion's Arch and how Dragon's Watch came to be, and then broke apart.
• I would be describing how Balthazar, fallen God of War, returned to Tyria to supplant our role in defeating the dragons. How we tricked a Lich's army into fighting on our side against him.
• I would be describing the epic fight against Kralkatorrik through an expansion and multiple living world episodes to discover at the end an even bigger mystery instead of answers.

Look. End of Dragons resolved the dragon cycle, yes, but it left me feeling unfulfilled. The constant rise to climax we got over the years just kind of poofed. I barely remember the details, maybe more of that happened during the meta events for the zones. The Soo-Won meta event was probably the best part of EoD but it felt like the rest of the expansion didn't belong with it, in a way. I remember finishing the story and wanting more details.

In Guild Wars 1, Cantha was its own story until Nightfall tied it all together in a spectacular fashion. That kind of storytelling let Cantha be its own thing, with its own culture and problems, without the bigger picture getting the spotlight. In EoD I got the feeling that Cantha was sort of being forced into the overarching story, and we were, for lack of a better metaphor, the uninvited Kool-Aid Man bursting through the Cantha wall.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Orimidu.9604

[Orimidu.9604]

On 8/20/2023 at 9:22 AM, mandala.8507 said:

I've replayed EoD story more than any other expansion or living world story in the game, so I'm pretty confident it's not filler content.

I do think it says a lot that the only story content that hasn't suck with my memory is EoD. I'm sure I've forgotten some of the details I mentioned in the above post, but that's my point--they're not as memorable.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Orimidu.9604

[Hex.2840]

Having finally played through most of the original story I can safely say that I think it's utter garbage. I'm presented with all these characters in our Pact that I think I'm supposed to care about but when they get killed off I just laugh because they die in the most idiotic ways possible.

For example I just did Against the Corruption and there's these two people Crusader Deborah and Tactician Barney or w/e. Deborah almost dies because the guy I was just fighting decided to stop fighting me and went to her, also we all just stood there and watched it happen, then Dinosaur Barney said "noooo not my Deborah" took aggro from the guy, tells Deborah to run away, and then he just dies while Deborah stands there 2 feet away and all the while I can hear my character saying "Adrenaline building!". 

This seems to happen a lot in the story, where I just stand there for no other reason than the story demands that someone has to die. 

 

Edit: Just beat the last mission and all I can say is kittenin lololololol. Really? I hop on a cannon and press 1, get off the cannon and move slightly to the right, hop back on and press 1 and boom, the elder dragon that was set to take over the world is now dead! This is just pathetic.

Edited August 21, 2023 by CSArmory.8319
Because the ending is too funny to not have an edit

[EdwinLi.1284]

On 8/21/2023 at 2:59 PM, CSArmory.8319 said:

Having finally played through most of the original story I can safely say that I think it's utter garbage. I'm presented with all these characters in our Pact that I think I'm supposed to care about but when they get killed off I just laugh because they die in the most idiotic ways possible.

For example I just did Against the Corruption and there's these two people Crusader Deborah and Tactician Barney or w/e. Deborah almost dies because the guy I was just fighting decided to stop fighting me and went to her, also we all just stood there and watched it happen, then Dinosaur Barney said "noooo not my Deborah" took aggro from the guy, tells Deborah to run away, and then he just dies while Deborah stands there 2 feet away and all the while I can hear my character saying "Adrenaline building!". 

This seems to happen a lot in the story, where I just stand there for no other reason than the story demands that someone has to die. 

 

Edit: Just beat the last mission and all I can say is kittenin lololololol. Really? I hop on a cannon and press 1, get off the cannon and move slightly to the right, hop back on and press 1 and boom, the elder dragon that was set to take over the world is now dead! This is just pathetic.

the Zhaitan Arc finale is certainly the most agreed on being one of the most anticlimatic finale in a storyline since early days of GW2 before the Living World and expansion eras. It was actually far worse back during early release days. Even with the adjustments to the final fight against Zhaitan added through certain updates, it is still considered one of the most anticlimatic final boss fights. 

Edited August 23, 2023 by EdwinLi.1284

[Hex.2840]

20 hours ago, EdwinLi.1284 said:

the Zhaitan Arc finale is certainly the most agreed on being one of the most anticlimatic finale in a storyline since early days of GW2 before the Living World and expansion eras. It was actually far worse back during early release days. Even with the adjustments to the final fight against Zhaitan added through certain updates, it is still considered one of the most anticlimatic final boss fights. 

Wait they adjusted it and this was what was left? That's hilarious. At least the next fights in LW1 made up for it. Was much more fun than stand here and press 1.

[Nosrorav.4703]

38 minutes ago, CSArmory.8319 said:

Wait they adjusted it and this was what was left? That's hilarious. At least the next fights in LW1 made up for it. Was much more fun than stand here and press 1.

The "adjustments" was just making it a solo instance instead of a story dungeon (recommended 5, but you needed at least 1 other person for one mechanic), which included nerfing the enemies from Elites to Normal ranked foes. Additionally, originally there were more risen who spawned and when they did, their spawning animation would launch adjacent players about. So the original dungeon had a lot of CC that was just grating to play through.

So there were adjustments, but it wasn't to the Zhaitan fight moments themselves, except to make it all easier.

[JTGuevara.9018]

On 8/14/2023 at 3:34 PM, The Greyhawk.9107 said:

I agree, this is one of the biggest, though not the only, problems that most of modern popular storytelling suffers from. I'd say another, at least one causes issues with GW2 and things like the Western Comic industry is having multiple writers working on the stories, with a writer leaving to be replaced by an another and each having a different idea how the on going story should progress and how individual characters should be portrayed. And eventually, as has long been the case with the Big Two Comics, the writers loses track (or even stop caring) about prior events in the story and continuity starts to break down. The whole story and all the characters can be wildly inconsistent.

Makes me understand why Manga and anime is, at least in part, is so popular. I've never really gotten into either, st least yet, but I can see the appeal of something that was largely made with a single author's vision, and that (usually) has an actual beginning, middle, and end, unlike either Western Comics with decades long stories that have no intention of ever ending.

Yeah, it's basically a revolving door of creators that overwrite each others' work. The resulting work just then becomes a  mess. Also, it's not just comics. General western media really loves the idea of extended universes. Because, then you have no limits. You can just write whatever you want. To me, putting myself in the shoes of a writer, this is quite convenient. I don't have to worry about plot, setting, immersion, I could just reboot or redo all that later!!

As far as manga and anime go, no, they have the exact same problem. It is merely just contained within the linear story structure. (Look at the Dragonball series...!) A lot of times, the author just writes themselves into a corner and the story suffers. All that world-building eventually comes back to bite them, just as it does with western media. Sometimes, it's worse because it's just ONE person writing the thing. Look at Toriyama (Dragonball creator) forgetting what he wrote years later! Shonen Jump, for example, is notorious for overworking their manga writers. As for popularity, the reason anime and manga seem to be more popular is because a lot of times they get by on tropes. They're just blatant. Those cliches resonate with that fan base.