Living story is the single worst gaming experience so far in my entire life.

[Oneira.7691]

I did not like the LS at first. I found it frustrating, especially the last boss who usually required some special tactic to kill, which you had to figure out while you were being whacked to death. I hated it at first. I just wanted to get to the end, but finally I realized that the LS is there to enjoy the story and to give you the option of something a little harder than Open World that was different, that you could do solo rather than doing fractal #n for the 259th time.

I think some ppl who find the plot lousy are expecting something on the quality level of Witcher 3. Well that's not going to happen because the plot and character was the heart and soul of Witcher 3, which probably did it better than any game ever. Just enjoy the LS! I agree that some of the characters have been disappointing, like Braham. But for heaven's sake, that's kind of what a story in stages is: you don't know what's going to happen next. Maybe what they do with Braham will surprise us. Taimi has obviously taken center stage of late.

I like some of the things they've done. It took guts to kill Eir, because she was probably the most beloved character of the original Destiny's Edge. Now she's a memory, but what I'd like to see is to have the memory of dead chars inspire others. Let Eir still be there, even in death, in the actions of the other chars. That brings me to Braham. Of course you don't like him! He's an immature pita. But Maybe he's supposed to be! for a while at least, but just maybe the spirit of his mother will find its way into him and he'll do something worthy of her.

What they have done with Rytlock has been great. Logan not so much, and Caithe, well....she's an interesting one and I'll bet they have something in mind for her! And Canath is a scream :)

[Imperadordf.2687]

@battledrone.8315 said:

@Imperadordf.2687 said:

@battledrone.8315 said:

@Imperadordf.2687 said:"Oh look, something that is slightly harder than open world, let me complain about it with godly over-exaggeration."

how many would buy a casual mmo for HARDCORE STORY CONTENT? lol

You think GW2 is hardcore? lol

Living story requires you to press something else than your autoattack button.

lets recap: LS can be unlocked for free...if it was that good and easy, shouldnt there be MILLIONS of players in there ?the fact is, it is neither easy, nor good...its just FREE

1 - What does LS being free has to do with my comment?2 - I've never said it was good.3 - There is no correlation between the game population and easy game content.4 - Being good is subjective. I find LS fun and interesting. It is one of the best content that keeps me playing this game.5 - Being easy is subjective. I find LS easy and entertaining. It is so easy for me that I mostly go naked when I come back to get the achievements in story.6 - LS isn't free, it is a feature you get when you buy an expansion. Heart of Thorns for LS3 and Path of Fire for LS4.

[Ashen.2907]

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:

@Ashen.2907 said:

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:Played 40 minutes of the very first episode of LS1. Never ever even tried another LS. Its so bad, i don't understand why are they even releasing these??? It brings nothing to the table. Its short, forgettable, cringy voice acting/dialogue and the new zones bring nothing else but auto attacking zerg fest, that is unrewarding, not challenging... a waste of time as a whole. Instead of this crap, it would've been so much better if they added new difficult dungeons that cannot be completed in 5 minutes while you're facrolling on your keyboard.

Too bad this game is 130% focused on casuals instead of actual gamers...............

I am curious as to the extent of your knowledge of the new maps. Did you teleport to friend to try them out?

Which one? The very last map that was introduced with the latest LS, i haven't even been there because i know exactly what to expect, nothing. Been in all other maps. Some are meta event zerg fests, others are empty cuz they didn't even bother including any zerg fest events. It doesn't matter, tho because no matter what, no matter how big those maps are (the selling poit of the latest expansion), they're barebones.

Just curious about any of them really. If you havent done LS, and I cant fault you for that, I was curious as to how you went about get experience in the LS gated maps.

[Vayne.8563]

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:

@Ashen.2907 said:

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:Played 40 minutes of the very first episode of LS1. Never ever even tried another LS. Its so bad, i don't understand why are they even releasing these??? It brings nothing to the table. Its short, forgettable, cringy voice acting/dialogue and the new zones bring nothing else but auto attacking zerg fest, that is unrewarding, not challenging... a waste of time as a whole. Instead of this crap, it would've been so much better if they added new difficult dungeons that cannot be completed in 5 minutes while you're facrolling on your keyboard.

Too bad this game is 130% focused on casuals instead of actual gamers...............

I am curious as to the extent of your knowledge of the new maps. Did you teleport to friend to try them out?

Which one? The very last map that was introduced with the latest LS, i haven't even been there because i know exactly what to expect, nothing. Been in all other maps. Some are meta event zerg fests, others are empty cuz they didn't even bother including any zerg fest events. It doesn't matter, tho because no matter what, no matter how big those maps are (the selling poit of the latest expansion), they're barebones.

This isn't even remotely true. It's like you don't even play those zones.

They all start as zerg fests, which is logical because so many people want to do new content. Certainly events and zones will stay zerged, however, I visit quite a few of those zones on a fairly regular basis and they're not empty. You can't say I don't want zergs, but I don't want small groups of people. You aren't going to get the exact number of people on a map that you personally want.

There is enough people to do content on all the zones,. as long as you bother posting in map chat when an event you want to do is up. It's not that hard.

[Elva.6372]

@"SunTzu.4513" said:The new maps are getting in line with the standart open world difficulty.

I agree, I advocate for open world to be more like the difficulty in the newer maps, but I want the story modes to be less of a chore/hassle/annoyance because I am a captive audience and there's only one route to take to complete the "story" which is kinda important to the game's continuity.

[Rashagar.8349]

@"Blocki.4931" said:Oh and trust me. I died a dozen times in that fight as well, my armor completely broken and essentially just spamming downstate 5. The second time playing it I didn't die once.

I found this too, I think it's because half my brain is busy enjoying the spectacle the first time around, and the second time around I'm a bit more pragmatic as well as more experienced.

"Aw wow the boss looks cool! And look you can see the dragon in the background! I love that colour. Huh that's an interesting pattern of orange triangles I wonder why they chose OW OW OW JESUS" some amount of frantic dodging and dying later "What has that npc been prattling on about for the last 10 minu... ooohhh"

[BunjiKugashira.9754]

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:

@Cerioth.7062 said:

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:Played 40 minutes of the very first episode of LS1. Never ever even tried another LS. Its so bad, i don't understand why are they even releasing these??? It brings nothing to the table. Its short, forgettable, cringy voice acting/dialogue and the new zones bring nothing else but auto attacking zerg fest, that is unrewarding, not challenging... a waste of time as a whole. Instead of this crap, it would've been so much better if they added new difficult dungeons that cannot be completed in 5 minutes while you're facrolling on your keyboard.

Too bad this game is 130% focused on casuals instead of actual gamers...............

Wait... LS1? Firstly, thats not accessible content anymore. Secondly, LS3 and 4 have major improvements over 1 and 2.

It has nothing to do with being accessible or not. That's what i played and hated. You say that they've improved... i saw streams of your "improvement", its kitten poor at best.

This means you haven't played any living season since Halloween 2012? Because that's the only time Chapter 1 of Living Season 1 was available. You should try LS3 and LS4. A lot has changed since 2012.

[Deeyra.1476]

remake every LS mob to kill himself when you touch him? that would be great?There is a trick/life-hack i learned when i was dying all the time. You spend some time going through your class skills and traits and learn what each one does.then you start pressing a really op skill called ''dodge''. After you master that you see that red circles that appear on the ground are nothing good. And then you find out the boss is not hard at all.Seriously, the time you spend complaining on here that the content is too challenging, could be used to get good and learn the game. Lul

[Blocki.4931]

Okay. I am calling you out.

You did NOT play LS1 and then stopped it there. There is no way in hell you played the game for this long and then ignored any big content releases since then. It simply isn't possible. And as somebody who actually got to play it let me tell you that it wasn't that terrible back then either. But if you say that all the tech improvements, better story focus and insane amount of detail aren't worth your time maybe consider playing pubg or fortnite where you don't have to pay attention to anything like that

[Nuka Cola.8520]

@BunjiKugashira.9754 said:

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:

@Cerioth.7062 said:

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:Played 40 minutes of the very first episode of LS1. Never ever even tried another LS. Its so bad, i don't understand why are they even releasing these??? It brings nothing to the table. Its short, forgettable, cringy voice acting/dialogue and the new zones bring nothing else but auto attacking zerg fest, that is unrewarding, not challenging... a waste of time as a whole. Instead of this crap, it would've been so much better if they added new difficult dungeons that cannot be completed in 5 minutes while you're facrolling on your keyboard.

Too bad this game is 130% focused on casuals instead of actual gamers...............

Wait... LS1? Firstly, thats not accessible content anymore. Secondly, LS3 and 4 have major improvements over 1 and 2.

It has nothing to do with being accessible or not. That's what i played and hated. You say that they've improved... i saw streams of your "improvement", its kitten poor at best.

This means you haven't played any living season since Halloween 2012? Because that's the only time Chapter 1 of

Living Season 1

was available. You should try LS3 and LS4. A lot has changed since 2012.

Yes. I also remember doing the destroyed LA, if that was LS, i don't remember. That's about it.

[witcher.3197]

@EpicName.4523 said:Rox is also quite bland which leaves three characters with some kind of personality - Taimi, Canach and Rytlock. Everything else is meh.

Rytlock has a personality? lol

He's just a grumpy one-liner machine who's Anet's lovechild because he is Charr and they are trying to sell him as some kind of bada$$ when he just has plot armor.

[joneirikb.7506]

@Blocki.4931 said:Okay. I am calling you out.

You did NOT play LS1 and then stopped it there. There is no way in hell you played the game for this long and then ignored any big content releases since then. It simply isn't possible. And as somebody who actually got to play it let me tell you that it wasn't that terrible back then either. But if you say that all the tech improvements, better story focus and insane amount of detail aren't worth your time maybe consider playing pubg or fortnite where you don't have to pay attention to anything like that

That's basically what I did.

I remember liking the toxic tower, never really bothered with LS1 back then, and just ran around exploring and doing my own things instead. Finished Personal story sometimes right before HOT for the first time, and never bothered with the story at all. I just don't find it engaging.

I've stumbled across parts of it now and then, if a friend asked me to help with something, or if I had to unlock a new map or something. But haven't even bothered with HOT or POF stories yet.

Slowly started doing story missions with a friend together, I think we're nearing the end of LS2 now, started november or something.

(Also played lots of WvW and just enjoyed running around open world most of the time)

[RoseofGilead.8907]

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:

@BunjiKugashira.9754 said:

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:

@Cerioth.7062 said:

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:Played 40 minutes of the very first episode of LS1. Never ever even tried another LS. Its so bad, i don't understand why are they even releasing these??? It brings nothing to the table. Its short, forgettable, cringy voice acting/dialogue and the new zones bring nothing else but auto attacking zerg fest, that is unrewarding, not challenging... a waste of time as a whole. Instead of this crap, it would've been so much better if they added new difficult dungeons that cannot be completed in 5 minutes while you're facrolling on your keyboard.

Too bad this game is 130% focused on casuals instead of actual gamers...............

Wait... LS1? Firstly, thats not accessible content anymore. Secondly, LS3 and 4 have major improvements over 1 and 2.

It has nothing to do with being accessible or not. That's what i played and hated. You say that they've improved... i saw streams of your "improvement", its kitten poor at best.

This means you haven't played any living season since Halloween 2012? Because that's the only time Chapter 1 of

Living Season 1

was available. You should try LS3 and LS4. A lot has changed since 2012.

Yes. I also remember doing the destroyed LA, if that was LS, i don't remember. That's about it.

Living Story/Living World now is very different from Living Story Season 1. I'd suggest to at least give one or two of the episodes a try before making blanket statements on what Living World is in its current state. It might still not be up to what you're wanting from the game, but at least you'd have some recent stuff to base your opinion off of instead of really, really old content.

[Nuka Cola.8520]

@RoseofGilead.8907 said:

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:

@BunjiKugashira.9754 said:

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:

@Cerioth.7062 said:

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:Played 40 minutes of the very first episode of LS1. Never ever even tried another LS. Its so bad, i don't understand why are they even releasing these??? It brings nothing to the table. Its short, forgettable, cringy voice acting/dialogue and the new zones bring nothing else but auto attacking zerg fest, that is unrewarding, not challenging... a waste of time as a whole. Instead of this crap, it would've been so much better if they added new difficult dungeons that cannot be completed in 5 minutes while you're facrolling on your keyboard.

Too bad this game is 130% focused on casuals instead of actual gamers...............

Wait... LS1? Firstly, thats not accessible content anymore. Secondly, LS3 and 4 have major improvements over 1 and 2.

It has nothing to do with being accessible or not. That's what i played and hated. You say that they've improved... i saw streams of your "improvement", its kitten poor at best.

This means you haven't played any living season since Halloween 2012? Because that's the only time Chapter 1 of

Living Season 1

was available. You should try LS3 and LS4. A lot has changed since 2012.

Yes. I also remember doing the destroyed LA, if that was LS, i don't remember. That's about it.

Living Story/Living World now is very different from Living Story Season 1. I'd suggest to at least give one or two of the episodes a try before making blanket statements on what Living World is in its current state. It might still not be up to what you're wanting from the game, but at least you'd have some recent stuff to base your opinion off of instead of really, really old content.

I watched the whole 1h of the latest LS on twitch. For me, personally, that is not what i enjoy in an mmo (pve wise). I want challenging, team based, non time gated content that has a lot of varied loot to aim for. I don't get it from any of the LS or anything else in the game, that's why its very disappointing for me.

[Cerioth.7062]

@witcher.3197 said:

@EpicName.4523 said:Rox is also quite bland which leaves three characters with some kind of personality - Taimi, Canach and Rytlock. Everything else is meh.

Rytlock has a personality? lol

He's just a grumpy one-liner machine who's Anet's lovechild because he is Charr and they are trying to sell him as some kind of bada$$ when he just has plot armor.

He has personality. Quite a lot of it in fact. Most apparent for charr players who have done the personal story.

He is more than just grumpy. First off, he can be pretty unpleasant to strangers, but gets along quite well with your charr PC. Unlike most charrs, he gets along fairly well with other races and holds no grudges against them (except his personal issue with Logan - but that had nothing to do with Logan's humanity). He is fairly rebellious - you can see he does not like to do everything like the Citadel commands him to do. He likes to keep his own matters completely secret - staying tight-lipped about his past, his warband, Sohothin (where he found it) et cetera. We dont know how he became a tribune. There's lot to Rytlock behind those one-liners.

[Zedek.8932]

This thread is terrible and reminds me of the grumpy old men from the muppet show. "Everything sucks".

I like the living story, and the necessary Orr storyline is one of the most plausibles that introduce the player into what he is. Not just like "Okaythereyougokillbigbosses". A, in my case, Snaff savant getting pulled into the orders. And not like in the old Zelda: "There is your sword, so walk around confused until you find how to enter the next screen".

Also, I love Rox. She's a cute kitty.

Excelsior.

[BestWurstinTown.8521]

@"witcher.3197" said:Rytlock has a personality? lol

He's just a grumpy one-liner machine who's Anet's lovechild because he is Charr and they are trying to sell him as some kind of bada$$ when he just has plot armor.

Watch out, critics get rigorously silenced on this "forum"

[TheOrlyFactor.8341]

@witcher.3197 said:

@EpicName.4523 said:Rox is also quite bland which leaves three characters with some kind of personality - Taimi, Canach and Rytlock. Everything else is meh.

Rytlock has a personality? lol

He's just a grumpy one-liner machine who's Anet's lovechild because he is Charr and they are trying to sell him as some kind of bada$$ when he just has plot armor.

Glad I'm not the only one who has issues with Rytlock.

[InvaGir.9158]

I have a questionis mordremoth fight still buggy? I remember this prick health bar gets stuck at some point and you have to guess what to do next in order to kill him.

[Laila Lightness.8742]

@EpicName.4523 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@EpicName.4523 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@EpicName.4523 said:I dislike the LW as well and have two problems with it:

1) Most boss fights rely on some gimmick in order to finish them off. It can be quite frustrating before you find what that gimmick is and it isn't always that apparent. To be fair, if those mechanics did not exist the bosses would be just pinjatas you have to dps down. And here is for my second point.

Could you give some examples?

Take the final boss in Bitterfrost story. Champion Ice Beast or something. There you have stand behind some mobs so he charges and kills them. This is a gimmick.

Okay, this one is indeed not well explained. Anything else?

Literally every boss at the end of an episode. They would require what most people would call a "unique mechanic" to defeat them and I call gimmick. Pointed the beast out because it was particularly annoying and badly explained as you said.

I guess you loved zhaitan fight

[mortrialus.3062]

@battledrone.8315 said:yea, it was one of the reasons i quit playing this game tooi would return in a heartbeat, if they decided to make more casual contenti play for fun and relaxation, this is neither

@Raigai.4218 said:NPC's not resurrecting while standing right next to me, boss fights that are cheap & chaotic and occasionally in a very tight space so that you cannot see anything. Occasional story missions dragging on and on.. It's been nothing but frustration for me. The last boss fight in living story season 3 in episode 4 was godawful. Really forcing myself to do this. I guess I should probably just stop and watch the story from somewhere else because actually playing it is an unbelievable chore. And to think I actually paid for a few chapters too. Stupid of me.

Are you guys serious? Like is this joke thread? You're a bit late. April Fools was almost a month ago.

None of the Living World stories are remotely challenging. I'd actually like to see them made more challenging and punishing, like GW1 missions where if you died you'd have to do the entire mission again.

[mortrialus.3062]

@battledrone.8315 said:

@Imperadordf.2687 said:

@battledrone.8315 said:

@Imperadordf.2687 said:"Oh look, something that is slightly harder than open world, let me complain about it with godly over-exaggeration."

how many would buy a casual mmo for HARDCORE STORY CONTENT? lol

You think GW2 is hardcore? lol

Living story requires you to press something else than your autoattack button.

lets recap: LS can be unlocked for free...if it was that good and easy, shouldnt there be MILLIONS of players in there ?the fact is, it is neither easy, nor good...its just FREE

There's always a rush of players to play the new living story episodes when they come out. Player naturally stop playing the story in hight quantities as everyone finishes the story. Season 3 maps still have their players. The Season 4 maps are filled with players.

The one thing I'd like to see in new LW episodes are metaevents like Tarir and Chak. I love the way those meta's split up players and gives them different objectives to complete, and how the reward for the events comes at the end. Istan's meta is fun for what it is, but I was a bit let down by Sandswept Island's meta. It feels too similar to the champion trains of old, which were boring and mindless.

[zealex.9410]

@battledrone.8315 said:yea, it was one of the reasons i quit playing this game tooi would return in a heartbeat, if they decided to make more casual contenti play for fun and relaxation, this is neither

The bulk of the content they make is casual content tho.

[mauried.5608]

For me playing a game has to be fun , ie entertaining, and for that reason I have stopped doing the LS.Whilst I can eventually get thru the content, its simply not fun, but a continual slug fest where you are trying to slowly burn down a boss with far more health than you via a process of slow attrition and mega keyboard mashing.The general feeling I have when finishing these types of events is "Well Im glad thats over and Im sure not doing that again on any of my chars."On the other hand the game has many events which are fun and I like doing them many times.A good example is the AB meta which Ive done more that 400 times simply because its fun to do.Likewise I enjoy most, but not all of the jumping puzzles because I can do them slowly and no mega keyboard mashing is needed.

[DoctorOverlord.8620]

This thread seems mostly comprised of two sides - people voicing their dislike of GW2's Story Missions and others telling them to 'Git gud'. Personally I agree with OP and the other negative opinions of the Story Missions but rather than argue, I would like to offer suggestions that ArenaNet could implement which I believe would improve the quality of life for all GW2 players.

A basic problem is that every player has a different opinion on what they consider an acceptable level of difficulty. Single player RPGs developed the solution to this decades ago:

1. Offer the ability to choose difficulty levels for Story Missions

ArenaNet has already shown they can offer the same content with different levels of difficulty through the dungeon Story Modes and Explorer Modes. The same thing should be done for Story Missions.

Naturally, there should be better rewards for those who choose to play at the higher difficulty settings. The people saying how easy the Story Missions currently are can try them at harder levels and get rewarded for it. This would allow for additional replayability.

But for those who simply want to relax and see the kittening story and not die, there should be a less lethal setting. I always play RPGs on the easier modes in my first run to see the story, then I replay them at harder settings if I like the gameplay.

Another solution ArenaNet can offer is more radical for MMOs but I think it might be possible.

2. Manual save points in the Story Mission instances.

This means saving at ANY point in the mission (outside of combat), not just saving at the end of a chapter. This would make the Story Instances much more player friendly and also address the recurring problem of disconnections causing players to lose all of their progress (There are numerous threads regarding this issue).https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/486535https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/479342https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/471995

Being able to manually save is a standard feature in most modern, single player RPGs. Each game may vary the ability to save, but they offer this convenience for their players because it is imporant. I may be wrong, but I would think this is technically possible to implement in single player instances of an MMO. Single player games are already so connected online, it seems like it would be something that could be done.

The MMO industry has ignored this feature but ArenaNet has innovated in the past and this is would show they are willing to push the entire genre forward for the sake of their customers.

Story Mission are vital for everyone to do. You need them to truly advance your character and even access new zones. More importantly, the story and lore are what unites a game's community. The lore is a common background and the familiar foundation that all players can share. It is vital for the health of a game's community that this background is accessible for every player regardless of the level of difficulty they want to experience.

Most games rely on comics or cinematics or such to share their community-binding lore. Guild Wars 2 has decided to do it solely through the Story Missions and so these should be offered to customers with as much flexibility as possible.