Release Winds of Change All at Once(**Spoilers)

Dear Mr. Stumme,

War in Kryta was great. While I had qualms with some of the unfinished lore(How did the Asura acquire that Seer? Was it dead when they found it? Did they kill it?) I found it very fun to play. My issue was how staggered the release of the content was. I was doing all of the new WiK stuff the very second it came out and it made it very hard to keep up with the story because it was so staggered.

I suggest that WoC be released all at once when it is finished. If that isn't possible, then I suggest that it get released in bigger chunks than WiK was released, or at least the first few parts of WiK. With the staggered release of the content, it made it hard to form groups because people were at so many different parts of the storyline. I also think there needs to be a better way to announce it all to players in-game, kinda like the announcement when you log-in and see the yellow text about the botters. I can't count how many times I saw people who had zero idea that WiK was even out months into the release of the content. Get more people involved from the outset!

I also suggest that after WoC you should do some content that ties up loose storyline threads. What happened to The Scepter of Orr after Livia got her hands on it? There are tons of other unfinished plot lines that could be addressed and I think it would be great.

Sincerely,

jazilla

you post this on john's wiki page to?

i don't have a wiki account. should i make one though and post it?

I wish they would do this as well! Post it on his Wiki!

One of my complaints about WiK was the fact that it felt similar to reading a book and putting it down for a month or two after each chapter. Who does that?! It's next to impossible to keep up or even care about the story when it's like that. It got to a point for me where I stopped reading the dialog and ended up doing the quests just for the rewards.

Theyve learnt alot from the feedback of WiK, but im pretty sure it will come in atleast a few seperate updates. But obviously not as clutterd as Wik. Wik was originally part of a viral ad so they needed to release it instages with the way people solved the clues.

Alot of WiK isn't really connected and its not right away clear as to what you should be doing, this didnt help updates were done in small bits, they took the feedback theyve said to make WoC alot more easier to follow.

As far as the lore goes, yea it would be cool to know what happened to "a ton of other plot lines."

But at what point does a company say when?....especially in the game. That's partly why they did the books. ANET's business has been centered almost completely around GW2, aka moving forward. With 250 years between games, the lore to be addressed could be endless.

Lore is just like making choices. One choice affects other choices. Each of those affects a number of other choices.....it just becomes exponential. As is stands right now, how many GW characters could you write lore about after the EoTN?

I really think people in the community really forget... GW/Anet is a business. In order for Anet to operate the way they want in order to deliver an unbelievable product, the company still has to operate under a business model.

I'm all for more lore, but if it doesn't fit into the bigger plans....I'm ok with that, which all comes back to "moving forward." Do you think that Mike O'brien is already thinking about the next step past GW2?

At some point, we as the community have to take a deep breath and simply say...."I'm ok with that. I don't need more and more and more and more."

With all that said, it surely doesn't hurt to ask. Just don't be surprised if they don't get to covering all the lore possibilities.

well here is better. So no do not make a wiki account. i wasn't sure if you double post stuff. John (and crew) check both here and there (wiki) but the A-net teams like to see stuff like this and what the fans think of fan stuff. I DO NOT speak for him or any of them but I have seen a few ideas on guru, gwonline,DEtowers...etc become real after a movement of fans to push an idea.


*side note to the WoC* hum really? all at once? i like taking small bites. Not all at once. my vote is slowly roll out. UNLESS GW2 is this year or 1qr 2012. But they can take there time. just my humble opinion.

I, too wish for more lore, there are a lot of unanswered questions, but all things happen for a reason and maybe they're not yet known for a reason.

Though I disagree completely about releasing the content all at once. If you thought it was hard to find a group when everyone was at different stages, it's going to be worse for some people if everyone floods the party search for two weeks and then it's forgotten.

Another nice thing the staggering did was give some real time between events. I can't speak for everyone, but I liked that because it gave time to appreciate what the characters are going through and how they might be affected without knowing what's going to happen. If they threw everything out there in a short period of time, the forum would be blowing up with unavoidable thread titles spoiling all of it. That really gets under my skin because Keiran was spoiled for me.

It's one of the great unwritten rules of writing fantasy. You don't explain everything.

Lore mysteries serve multiple purposes. It makes people think and get curious about little used or known areas. It provides a starting off point for additional content later on.
Destroyers in EotN came about after trying to link the aborted Tanek race to existing content and someone said "what about the Tome of Rubicon?"

I think in terms of lore we're only going to see a little bit more. After WoC I would expect a brief campaign against Palawa Joko (preview of that last Halloween?) to forestall the 2nd invasion of Vabbi.

After that it's the founding of Ebonhawke and that SHOULD end with the start of Open Beta of GW2.

That's a very rough guess-timate. I think they honestly intended to begin some staggered WoC content right after CNY but the Derv rollout and next week's big secret release (Embark and 7 heroes?), it's probably a late March start.

Yeah, over how many months did the WiK content take place? You want to wait that long for everything to be dumped on you at once?

I don't really see how you can lose track of a story like WiK since we basically had whole threads discussing the latest developments, and those would stay fairly lively until the next bit of content came out.

ANet has a better interest in putting the content out in a staggered manner, I believe. If it's just dumped at once, a veteran player who doesn't play much anymore will log on to play through it, maybe stick around a little while later, and then leave again. Staggering the content gives them something to come back for for a little bit and then something more to look forward to in the future, so it increases their chance of sticking around and breathing life into the game again.

I hear what everyone is saying about not wanting all the content at once. I did however also say, "in bigger chunks" than last time, if "all at once" wasn't an option. There were quite a few times when we got one dialog and then two weeks of nothing only to get another dialog again. It would be nice to get at least one "set piece" battle every release this time around.

Well, if it were released in bigger chunks, it might make wait times between updates longer but people will still be done with that chunk very quickly. You see where I'm going with this? We'll get those cries from people killing themselves having to put up with the wait.

Whereas, if it were done in small bits, it'll be more frequent and we still get the same stuff and there'll be less crying. Everyone wins.