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Flameseeker Chronicles: Thoughts about Guild Wars 2's living story
With Guild Wars 2's first multi-month living story arc drawing to a close, I thought this might be a good time to do a little bit of reflection on how the living story is treating Guild Wars 2 so far. Sure, what we've seen so far isn't necessarily indicative of the way things are always going to be, but it's a good starting point. (In fact, it's our only starting point. Unless, of course, you like rampant and foundless speculation as a starting point. This is, after all, the internet.) To expand the conversation a bit, I think we're including holiday updates as part of the living story. It's seasonal, but it also fits into the grander scheme of providing changing content to keep the world moving and to keep players engaged. That means that what we've seen to date includes all of Flame and Frost, Wintersday, Halloween, and the Lost Shores event. Also, I guess the Super Adventure Box? I mean, it's returning and it had a lore tie-in and stuff. Maybe? I'm not sold.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Flame and Frost
Well, my goodness! We've got a week of the Flame and Frost prelude patch behind us, and what a week it's been! The patch notes for this sucker were impressive; for a relatively minor patch, the Flame and Frost prelude brought in a lot of tweaks and updates. I'm kind of glad for that, as quality of life additions were top on my list for hopes for Guild Wars 2 in 2013. I'm very pleased with ArenaNet for shoring up the content that's already out rather than leaving it be in the rush to get out new content. So! Let's take a look at what ArenaNet brought us in the past week.
ArenaNet details Guild Wars 2's living story
Guild Wars 2's latest content patch, the Flame and Frost prelude, went live this week, bringing with it the beginning of a new "living story." What is living story? ArenaNet narrative designer Angel McCoy is glad you asked, as she's written up a new blog post all about it. The living story team is responsible for adding new content to the story of Tyria -- new heroes, strange plots, and dramatic changes. The stories the team creates are played out over time in the world, following their narrative paths and slowly but surely changing the world of Tyria. Each bit of living story will only be available for a "Certain period of time," but carries lasting impacts. Players can look to special heralds in cities or a new achievement section for clues on where to head for the most recent bits of living story as they arrive in the game.
Guild Wars 2's Flame and Frost: Prelude coming January 28
ArenaNet has announced that its latest Guild Wars 2 content update is coming your way on January 28th. It's called Flame and Frost: Prelude, and it's the prologue to a "multi-stage narrative that will bring big changes to Guild Wars 2 in the months to come." What does that mean in terms of actual features? Well, there's an improved achievement system, new laurels, and guesting. The dev team is also "adding a wide range of new gear," and various performance enhancements like WvW tweaks, side-kicking balancing, and UI improvements. There's more, too, and full details are available on the GW2 website.
