If you think there is a chance you will venture into a cleared Bastion of the Penitent instance to explore for story/lore bits, and heavily dislike spoilers, then don’t scroll down to look at the picture at the end of this post.
For everybody else, I am only posting this because trying to discuss possible story/lore revelations with my raid group only reminds me how putting lore/story into a raid instance is pretty much the worse way to present it.
(The entire running group conversation was about “what do I click now” “how do I get the achievement” “what, I have to read all this” “I am lost” “I don’t know what’s going on” “this is harder than the raid boss” “why does this work for you and not for me?” “what did I miss that triggered this thing?” “oh, you mean I have to actually click on the response to trigger something and not just run away after pressing F?” and generally an entirely meta discussion about objects and the scripts on them that trigger progress on an achievement step.)
Immersion fail.
The only reason I had a clue about the intended narrative was because I did some solo exploration by myself in between scheduled raid times.
As usual, I am going to have to venture back into it solo in order to appreciate the bit that was revealed after the end, although random clicking on everything under the sun somehow triggered achievement completion for me (so I am not going to be able to figure out what the intended order is) while random clicking for other people did not (evidently they missed something when there were not being as compulsive a solo explorer as I was.)
Ok, grumble over. Don’t look past the break if you dislike any kind of spoiler (cryptic though it might be.)
Does anybody else think the red symbol looks like a ley line anomaly with extra tentacles?
Why I Game 
Erm…
If that’s a spoiler I think I know who to go to when I want a secret kept. I’m getting literally zero informational value.
As for whether it looks like an anomaly in any way whatsoever…no, can’t really see that even when you point it out. At first sight I thought they were ants. If you’d like to spoil it some more (whatever “it” is) please don’t hold back on my account!
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Haha. As I was spoiled with the death of a major character I loved in GW2 recently, I was expecting something worse than some red
P.S. I thought it was an octopus, but I agree that the left one looks more like an ant.
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Ha, that made me chuckle. Yes, I am a bit of a terrible secret-keeper – that is, I hoard them like a dragon. Maybe tomorrow or in a few days, I will type up something slightly more comprehensive.
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SWTOR’s latest expansion that had a raid finished its latest storyline in it, and I didn’t mind it (much) – so I think a lot depends on the execution. The story was hard to miss as the important parts were done in cutscenes at the end. And there was a solo alternative which was cool all by itself. The only thing I don’t like that much is that there are two versions of how you defeat the final boss: with the help of story characters or with the help of your friends in a different place, but I can live with that.
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If there was a solo alternative, I would have zero gripes whatsoever. None. Nada. Zilch.
Give solo players an alternative to access the Legendary armor type that doesn’t include raids.
Give solo players an alternative to access most (if not all) of the same raid story without having to beg raiders for crumbs (“please, can I go into your cleared raid instance” is just insulting)
Hell, I would take an auto-cleared raid button with no rewards given. Let the solo players press it – your raid instance is cleared for the week, go in and explore for yourself and pretend you did it if you like or that other people cleared it, whatever, but at least there is story access.
I would stop being a grouch, continue on my merry way raiding or not raiding as I autonomously choose, and maybe even start paying real money for things in Guild Wars 2 again.
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“I would take an auto-cleared raid button with no rewards given. ”
I actually posted that yesterday as an acceptable option on a forum thread on the topic. The way they’ve chosen to handle the whole narrative issue vis a vis raids is mind-bogglingly stupid and the ultra-defensive responses (when there are any) from Devs is positively toxic. The brief waft of fresh air that followed Colin’s removal seems to have dissipated entirely and we’re back on the same treadmill of elitist, hardcore implementation followed by grudging, bad-tempered course correction. Not a sign of good management.
In some ways the best thing that could happen to the game might be another “hardcore” expansion followed by disastrous sales and a major decline in revenue. I don’t want to have to wait another five years for them to learn the lesson though so let’s hope that’s not the road they’re already heading down.
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