Guild Wars 2

Come on we waited 3 years for 1 expansion this is even higher than the World of Warcraft waiting times lol (its 2 years there) and the funny is that after this elder dragon there are 4 more that means at least 4 more expansions, so the players who are 40+ years old might not even make it till the last expansion if it continues so slow. Will Heart of Thorns be released this year at least?

wow doesn’t have living story…. wow just brings out raid every few months and makes you grind gear to even be able to do that raid for next few months…

i think LS is awesome concept and expansion is just an additional plus

Actually, we’ve been getting small expansions all along, just not paying for them. Season 1 of the Living Story did have a lot of content. That content hasn’t remained in the game so people can say that it’s taken 3 years to make an expansion.

The problem is, Anet didn’t know they were going to have an expansion, probably until it was decided that the Living Story Season 1 had ultimately failed.

The only people who think we’re waiting 3 years for an expansion are people who aren’t actually paying attention to what’s been going on. Or people who decided there much be expansions and started counting from day 1 when no paid expansion was actually in the works.

Anet is trying different strategies to move the game forward, without raising the level cap or adding new tiers of gear. It is new and so it takes longer.

Vayne.8563:

The only people who think we’re waiting 3 years for an expansion are people who aren’t actually paying attention to what’s been going on. Or people who decided there must be expansions and started counting from day 1 when no paid expansion was actually in the works.

This.

All players die at age 52? Dear God, I must be a zombie!

I haven’t waited 3 years for an expansion; as far as I know, the game wasn’t even released that long ago. Besides, I was perfectly happy with LSS1. S2 was below par; I do hope HoT fares better.

Vayne.8563:

The only people who think we’re waiting 3 years for an expansion are people who aren’t actually paying attention to what’s been going on. Or people who decided there much be expansions and started counting from day 1 when no paid expansion was actually in the works.

100% This, and with the LW content coming in I really haven’t missed not having a fast expansion pace

Instead of living story they would be better off adding more dynamic events. Make them more detailed and longer chains.

Doflamingo.6957:

so the players who are 40+ years old might not even make it till the last expansion if it continues so slow.

Considering I am 42 years old, kindly go kitten yourself.

uhohhotdog.3598:

Instead of living story they would be better off adding more dynamic events. Make them more detailed and longer chains.

I’m not sure that’s the way to go. I think dynamic events tend to be lost on people, because even though some people do like them (myself included) dynamic events don’t really offer progression. They cycle. They repeat over and over again.

What this game has really been missing is some form of progression. The only thing that kept some of us going is that the story was actually moving forward. It was progressing. I could see myself going somewhere.

That would be lost if you just added a bunch of dynamic events.

And historically, any time new events have been added to the world, they’ve been largely ignored, unless the living story has “encouraged” people to do them. Think of the toxic spore events, which were all added.

You’re right, in 3 years we’re getting an expansion. Don’t forget the
41 or so content releases in that time. I have yet to see an MMO hit that mark.

Stop complaining.

uhohhotdog.3598:

Instead of living story they would be better off adding more dynamic events. Make them more detailed and longer chains.

You are aware that they have added plenty of dynamic events since release, right?

The game didn’t finish launching until the China release last year, so it’s only been one year plus for the expansion.

Living World Season 1: Twenty-five (25) content releases, which included a variety of dynamic events, dungeons, new enemies, armor, weapons and even a new zone.

Featured Packs: Two (2) of them, so far… Freaking game changing. Enough said.

Living World Season 2: Nine (9) content releases, with 2 new zones, new enemies, new items, personal ‘dungeon’ story instances, and new dynamic events.

What is an expansion? New story content? New regions to explore? New items and gear to discover and use? New mechanical features?

Let’s see, the last 2-3 years… New story content, check. New regions, check. New gear, check. New features, check.

It’s not, 3 years and finally an expansion. It’s 3 years and finally they’re gonna charge us for an expansion.

Vayne.8563:

uhohhotdog.3598:

Instead of living story they would be better off adding more dynamic events. Make them more detailed and longer chains.

I’m not sure that’s the way to go. I think dynamic events tend to be lost on people, because even though some people do like them (myself included) dynamic events don’t really offer progression. They cycle. They repeat over and over again.

What this game has really been missing is some form of progression. The only thing that kept some of us going is that the story was actually moving forward. It was progressing. I could see myself going somewhere.

That would be lost if you just added a bunch of dynamic events.

And historically, any time new events have been added to the world, they’ve been largely ignored, unless the living story has “encouraged” people to do them. Think of the toxic spore events, which were all added.

If they did them right they wouldn’t be ignored. The event chains need to be much longer and show some progression. And they need to not be undone completely overnight because no one was playing that map. For example when humans take over centaur camps they should actually construct human settlements rather than just have a few human npcs standing in a centaur camp. Get it to the point where you can do an event chain where you turn a centaur camp into an entire fort by doing events. That shows real progression in the world. Then the centaurs start using siege weapons to try to tear it down. Etc.

uhohhotdog.3598:

Vayne.8563:

uhohhotdog.3598:

Instead of living story they would be better off adding more dynamic events. Make them more detailed and longer chains.

I’m not sure that’s the way to go. I think dynamic events tend to be lost on people, because even though some people do like them (myself included) dynamic events don’t really offer progression. They cycle. They repeat over and over again.

What this game has really been missing is some form of progression. The only thing that kept some of us going is that the story was actually moving forward. It was progressing. I could see myself going somewhere.

That would be lost if you just added a bunch of dynamic events.

And historically, any time new events have been added to the world, they’ve been largely ignored, unless the living story has “encouraged” people to do them. Think of the toxic spore events, which were all added.

If they did them right they wouldn’t be ignored. The event chains need to be much longer and show some progression. And they need to not be undone completely overnight because no one was playing that map. For example when humans take over centaur camps they should actually construct human settlements rather than just have a few human npcs standing in a centaur camp. Get it to the point where you can do an event chain where you turn a centaur camp into an entire fort by doing events. That shows real progression in the world. Then the centaurs start using siege weapons to try to tear it down. Etc.

My point is, it’s not really progression if it repeats. They added two new zones filled to the brim with DE’s. Saying the should add DE’s is ignoring both Dry Top and Silverwastes which are chock full of them.

I think you’re using the term progression in place of persistent world. Persisting changes, don’t equal progression unless they’re permanent.

For example as you level to 80, each time you level, you gain a permanent level. You don’t go backwards. As you do your personal story, you don’t ever go backwards. You’re moving forward through the story.

But events cycle, it’s part of the nature of events. I’ve killed Tequatl and the Shatterer more times than I can count. If Anet adds another ten events like that, they’ll all become like Tequatl and the Shatterer.

Even long even chains like the Balthazar chain in Straits of Devestation (one of my favorite chains in the game), can’t be said to be progression because it’s only progression for X number of times. That’s why stuff like Zhaitan and the personal story is instanced. Because the world doesn’t progress but your story can.

I don’t believe that dynamic events, as nice as they would be (and again we have two new zones full of them) are going to offer the progression most people need to feel like they’re moving forward.

When we destroyed the Nightmare Tower, that was progression because the Nightmare tower no longer exists in the open world. The changes it made to Kessex Hills were both persistent and permanent. That’s the only real way to feel progression, at least for some of us.

GW2 isn’t WoW. They give us new content CONSTANTLY! Guess how much of that content has been something that you had to buy… None of it. What’s the issue here? If you just love the game and want to support them, there is some really cool stuff in the gem store with no pay to win-ness to it. I say keep up the good work ANET. Y’all rock.

Season 2 of living story was “expansion-level” to me. It added new maps, its fully replayable, and it gives good rewards with nice acheivements. It even had multiple cinematics done in the style of the personal story.

Season 1 was a joke. Its gone, and I can barely remember most of it. It served little purpose other than to give people something to do, rack up AP, and leave a huge hole in the storyline that will now be insanely difficult to fill. New players coming to the game have absolutely no knowledge or care about it, they see only the mistakes that ArenaNet made in the conception of the living world story.

Therefor, in two years we have received one mini-expansion and will be receiving a new full expansion sometime this year or early next year. That’s not too bad, but I still feel like the first year of the game ruined morale, especially since the best highlights of the first season (mainly the festivals like dragon bash, and bosses like Twisted Marionette) will not be returning which is just mega sad face.

uhohhotdog.3598:

Instead of living story they would be better off adding more dynamic events. Make them more detailed and longer chains.

They actually tried that. I believe they added hundreds of new DE’s shortly after launch, but they never announced it or mentioned it any patch notes. After that we got some holiday events and Southsun Cove, then we started getting living world updates, which became Season 1.

The main problem with GW2 content, is that it was mostly temporary. It wasn’t until Season 2 that stuff started becoming more permanent.

People in this thread try to defend that there was a lot of content, but the content was shallow and very lite. They were mostly glorified dynamic events with achievements. The only substantial content was Fractals, Southsun Cove, 3 PvP maps, Eotm, and TA Aetherpath dungeon. Season 2 was just story updates with Dry Top and Silverwastes added.

Living World needs to be classed as a ‘paid expansion’ now as you have to pay for access if you happened to have a life while any of it was released, or if you are new player to the game.

What we’ve had so far is drip fed mini content that is now gated, ascended stuff that is time gated (and grindy)- I wonder what direction we’re going next…

CornBread.3268:

GW2 isn’t WoW. They give us new content CONSTANTLY! Guess how much of that content has been something that you had to buy… None of it. What’s the issue here? If you just love the game and want to support them, there is some really cool stuff in the gem store with no pay to win-ness to it. I say keep up the good work ANET. Y’all rock.

You’re right. It’s not WoW.

In almost all WoW expansions, you get new dungeons & raids, new pvp maps & modes, new continents & zones, new classes, new races, new crafting professions, new gear, new mounts & pets, new skills & talents, new game mechanics, new quests & stories, new arenas, etc. And this is just the expansions. After that, they constantly update the game throughout the expansion’s lifetime (the exception is WoD so far).

Just read each patch notes from patch 1.0 to patch 2.4, and you’ll realize how much they added in around 3 years: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Category:World_of_Warcraft_patches

Yes and when you get $1 billion a year from subscriptions, you can hire a staff to do all of that.

People are defending the game in view of the fact that we had lots of content updates and ‘living story’ which other MMOs don’t have. This is not the full truth: I played a couple of other MMOs, they all add content from time to time which they also could sell as ‘living world/story’. They add new areas, new story parts as well as new raids and dungeons and sometimes new features. In regard of this hitting a three years mark is really a long time.

I think, Anet was just experimenting and didn’t exactly know if they want to release only LS or expansions. In the end they new the benefits of an expansion as well as the fans asking for it. Hence it took so long.

In regards of ‘it will take ages until we kill all the elder dragons’: guys, just think a bit outside of the box: they could bend and change the story how they want. Maybe one elder dragon changes his mind and will be our ally. Or we will fight two dragons at the same time. Whatever, they can implement what they want. Or kill one off and give us an even greater threat… everything is possible. The writers from Warcraft surely never knew what will happen in 2015 storywise after they created the first WoW or imagine even the first Warcraft game…

nexxe.7081:

CornBread.3268:

GW2 isn’t WoW. They give us new content CONSTANTLY! Guess how much of that content has been something that you had to buy… None of it. What’s the issue here? If you just love the game and want to support them, there is some really cool stuff in the gem store with no pay to win-ness to it. I say keep up the good work ANET. Y’all rock.

You’re right. It’s not WoW.

In almost all WoW expansions, you get new dungeons & raids, new pvp maps & modes, new continents & zones, new classes, new races, new crafting professions, new gear, new mounts & pets, new skills & talents, new game mechanics, new quests & stories, new arenas, etc. And this is just the expansions. After that, they constantly update the game throughout the expansion’s lifetime (the exception is WoD so far).

Just read each patch notes from patch 1.0 to patch 2.4, and you’ll realize how much they added in around 3 years: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Category:World_of_Warcraft_patches

And while doing all that, the game basically stays the same and the actual max level area does not grow beyond the size of half of GW2 map (because having 90% of low level maps go unused is content). There is a reason why after and before every expansion there is a huge rise and drop of players. People check the new stuff out, get bored and leave again.

Or did you miss this: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/4878-WoW-Down-to-7-1-Million-Subscribers ?

Not even going to comment on the major difference in budget.

I personal be against a expansion

I dont see any win from that. ecxept anet sees that they dont make money with the Gemshop alone.

I even think there will be a big group of people who dont buy the expansion what will make the game a kind of empty in the new zones.

For all the people pointing to the LS.

Clearly the LS was not able to deliver what many people like to see and expect from an expansion. That also explains while quarter after quarter results dropped while last quarter with the announcement of the expansion is did go up again.

So it’s very nice that for you the LS works, still the LS is no expansion and did not deliver what many people expect from an expansion / what they wanted. That makes the LS irrelevant. Sure, it is what Anet had in mind (LS as a way to release expansion-like content) but it’s not how many players experience the LS.

That also makes this statement “The only people who think we’re waiting 3 years for an expansion are people who aren’t actually paying attention to what’s been going on. Or people who decided there much be expansions and started counting from day 1 when no paid expansion was actually in the works.”
A little short sighted. You know, forgetting the group of people for who the LS simply was / is not able to deliver what they expect from an expansion.

And of course there is also another reason why you might want an expansion and so don’t see the LS as an alternative and that is that this game was supposed to be B2P. This ‘free’ living story simply means the game needs to make money with the cash-shop (like a F2P game) not with expansions (like a true B2P game like Gw1) with all negative side-effect of cash-shop games that come with that (like the boring grind that you can of course buy your way out of).

So there are many reasons for wanting a expansion and why you can’t simply act as if the LS is the substitute for that. The LS was supposed to be the substitute, that is true, but that does not mean it is / meets the requirements as substitute for many people.

@Vayne.
“The only people who think we’re waiting 3 years for an expansion are people who aren’t actually paying attention to what’s been going on. Or people who decided there much be expansions and started counting from day 1 when no paid expansion was actually in the works.” Why do you say this? You are stating this as a fact while you cannot know this. In fact, I know enough people for whom the LS simply was not able to deliver what they normally expect form an expansion. So that makes your statement factually false. So why do you state this? You could never say for a fact that the only people complaining do that because of the two reasons you state here.

No, just kidding.. but you see what I did here?

How do we know, positively, that the ‘announcement’ caused sales figures to increase? Could it possibly have been the multiple sales of the original game? Or, a combination, at best?

I think I’ve seen more posts from people who purchased a second (or more) account, than posts from new people. Does news of an expansion cause people to buy multiple accounts?

Hmm…interesting, if that is the case.

Balsa.3951:

I personal be against a expansion

I dont see any win from that. ecxept anet sees that they dont make money with the Gemshop alone.

I even think there will be a big group of people who dont buy the expansion what will make the game a kind of empty in the new zones.

It is fair to assume that almost all people actively playing will buy an expansion (maybe not at day 1), and it will for sure also get back players that stopped playing. So you would rather see an increase of players and not a decrease. This is also suggested by the fact that results did go up (since a long time) in the quarter that HoT was announced.

Many zones are already getting empty, and that with the megaservers. So it’s not like the LS approach prevents that.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

How do we know, positively, that the ‘announcement’ caused sales figures to increase? Could it possibly have been the multiple sales of the original game? Or, a combination, at best?

I think I’ve seen more posts from people who purchased a second (or more) account, than posts from new people. Does news of an expansion cause people to buy multiple accounts?

Hmm…interesting, if that is the case.

Well there was not much more else going on in that quarter and I see the sales of the games as part of the announcement. It makes sense that as soon as you come with a new expansion the last expansion (or game) does get cheaper what indeed will also mean many people who did not have it or wanted a second account will buy that.

It’s the type of stuff that comes with an expansion. So it’s not just sales of the expansions (that of course is not available) it’s also the news around it, the price-drop for older versions, the fact that people who left and new people might come (back) for a look and leave some money in whatever other way. It’s all part of an upcoming expansion.

So to answer your question. Yes I think it’s a combination of the two, but I also see the two as linked to each other. The sales where clearly done in the light of the upcoming expansions don’t you think?

nexxe.7081:

CornBread.3268:

GW2 isn’t WoW. They give us new content CONSTANTLY! Guess how much of that content has been something that you had to buy… None of it. What’s the issue here? If you just love the game and want to support them, there is some really cool stuff in the gem store with no pay to win-ness to it. I say keep up the good work ANET. Y’all rock.

You’re right. It’s not WoW.

In almost all WoW expansions, you get new dungeons & raids, new pvp maps & modes, new continents & zones, new classes, new races, new crafting professions, new gear, new mounts & pets, new skills & talents, new game mechanics, new quests & stories, new arenas, etc. And this is just the expansions. After that, they constantly update the game throughout the expansion’s lifetime (the exception is WoD so far).

Just read each patch notes from patch 1.0 to patch 2.4, and you’ll realize how much they added in around 3 years: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Category:World_of_Warcraft_patches

And a few months after the expansion WoW lost 3 million people, all the people they’d gained, because that’s more than enough time to get through all the new content.

The wait between content releases in WoW is far far greater than the wait between content releases in Guild Wars 2. And regardless of anything, it doesn’t really matter how much WoW provides if you don’t like the game (which many don’t).

Please no more living stories, I’ve done the Personal Story once and find no incentive to do it again.

After level ~40 it gets long, boring, unengaging and have to fight some dimwit bosses with little tactic other than SOME DAMAGE now KILL ADS! From what I’ve seen in other players stories, the living story is also long and boring but hey… you need it for some skins.

2/10 would not bang.

I have developed an irrational fear of long zeppelin flights. Also, Trahearne is a little wimp.

The best way to deliver content from my POV, are puzzles. Puzzles are the most engaging activity and have immense potential. I wouldn’t mind watching a video with some story/lore after a hard puzzle.
Fractals are also nice.

But please no more “stories”. They are too long for how unexciting they are.

You didn’t answer the question, as usual. No matter; nothing more than was expected.

DrMcAwEsOmE.2839:

Doflamingo.6957:

so the players who are 40+ years old might not even make it till the last expansion if it continues so slow.

Considering I am 42 years old, kindly go kitten yourself.

Omg dude you are so old :P Bug he is right, giving expansions at this rate makes the game borring.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

All players die at age 52? Dear God, I must be a zombie!

I haven’t waited 3 years for an expansion; as far as I know, the game wasn’t even released that long ago. Besides, I was perfectly happy with LSS1. S2 was below par; I do hope HoT fares better.

Puh .. at least i have a little over 1 year left then

Ehm .. yeah .. i also was a big fan of LS1 .. and didn’t needed an expansion at that time
because there was always enough to do.
Sadly after the end of LS1 for me there was not really that much to do since personally
i had much more fun to repeat the content of LS1 while it lasts than to repeat any
of those LS2 instances.

Doflamingo.6957:

Come on we waited 3 years for 1 expansion this is even higher than the World of Warcraft waiting times lol (its 2 years there) and the funny is that after this elder dragon there are 4 more that means at least 4 more expansions, so the players who are 40+ years old might not even make it till the last expansion if it continues so slow. Will Heart of Thorns be released this year at least?

While most of the people here have been kind of harsh in their response, my initial reaction to your OP was one of pity. I can’t imagine how awful it must be to have been brainwashed into thinking that paying an additional fee for content that lasts 1 month once every 2 years on top of a monthly fee just for access to the game is superior to receiving free content updates on a semi-monthly schedule. I mean, you’re being robbed of both enjoyment and cash and being told to say you like it!

While not everyone has enjoyed all the stuff added since launch, you cannot say Anet has sat on their hands for 3 years. They have worked on, and added, quite a lot over the last few years.

Anet’s initial plan was to frequently add content to create a living world experience, and avoid the standard expansion model used by most MMO’s. They added LS.S1 and LS.S2, as well as a few feature patches and other stuff. We’ve had new skills, new stories, new maps, new features, new items and many more.

None of the things they added over the years have been packaged up into an expansion, so to those who maybe haven’t looked into it, or to those who are new to the game, it may appear that Anet has done nothing for 3 years, when in fact they have done a lot. Some might argue it wasn’t enjoyable, but that doesn’t change the fact that they have added a lot of stuff to the game.

Moving forward I suspect Anet will adopt a mix of both models. Continued LS content and feature packs, alongside the occasional expansion pack. And for that reason I do not think we have any reason to complain. If you do not like that content added, then that is a different topic all together, but you cannot claim Anet has not given us anything since launch.

Vayne.8563:

nexxe.7081:

CornBread.3268:

GW2 isn’t WoW. They give us new content CONSTANTLY! Guess how much of that content has been something that you had to buy… None of it. What’s the issue here? If you just love the game and want to support them, there is some really cool stuff in the gem store with no pay to win-ness to it. I say keep up the good work ANET. Y’all rock.

You’re right. It’s not WoW.

In almost all WoW expansions, you get new dungeons & raids, new pvp maps & modes, new continents & zones, new classes, new races, new crafting professions, new gear, new mounts & pets, new skills & talents, new game mechanics, new quests & stories, new arenas, etc. And this is just the expansions. After that, they constantly update the game throughout the expansion’s lifetime (the exception is WoD so far).

Just read each patch notes from patch 1.0 to patch 2.4, and you’ll realize how much they added in around 3 years: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Category:World_of_Warcraft_patches

And a few months after the expansion WoW lost 3 million people, all the people they’d gained, because that’s more than enough time to get through all the new content.

The wait between content releases in WoW is far far greater than the wait between content releases in Guild Wars 2. And regardless of anything, it doesn’t really matter how much WoW provides if you don’t like the game (which many don’t).

If you don’t count the current wait yes, but we’ve been without an update for 4 months now Surely they could’ve planned it a bit better

….yeah if we have to wait 3 years for every dragon and there are 4 left, we are talking at least 12 years.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

How do we know, positively, that the ‘announcement’ caused sales figures to increase? Could it possibly have been the multiple sales of the original game? Or, a combination, at best?

I think I’ve seen more posts from people who purchased a second (or more) account, than posts from new people. Does news of an expansion cause people to buy multiple accounts?

Hmm…interesting, if that is the case.

I doubt the expansion announcement alone caused more sales, the price reduction was far more important. People won’t buy a game because an expansion was announced to be released in some unspecified time in the future. I expect them to do another sale when the HoT release date is revealed, that might give an ever higher boost in sales.

maddoctor.2738:

Vayne.8563:

nexxe.7081:

CornBread.3268:

GW2 isn’t WoW. They give us new content CONSTANTLY! Guess how much of that content has been something that you had to buy… None of it. What’s the issue here? If you just love the game and want to support them, there is some really cool stuff in the gem store with no pay to win-ness to it. I say keep up the good work ANET. Y’all rock.

You’re right. It’s not WoW.

In almost all WoW expansions, you get new dungeons & raids, new pvp maps & modes, new continents & zones, new classes, new races, new crafting professions, new gear, new mounts & pets, new skills & talents, new game mechanics, new quests & stories, new arenas, etc. And this is just the expansions. After that, they constantly update the game throughout the expansion’s lifetime (the exception is WoD so far).

Just read each patch notes from patch 1.0 to patch 2.4, and you’ll realize how much they added in around 3 years: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Category:World_of_Warcraft_patches

And a few months after the expansion WoW lost 3 million people, all the people they’d gained, because that’s more than enough time to get through all the new content.

The wait between content releases in WoW is far far greater than the wait between content releases in Guild Wars 2. And regardless of anything, it doesn’t really matter how much WoW provides if you don’t like the game (which many don’t).

If you don’t count the current wait yes, but we’ve been without an update for 4 months now Surely they could’ve planned it a bit better

Plenty of games go more than 4 months without new content. You’re talking like 4 months without content is unheard of, when it’s really the rule. Anet spoiled us early with updates so frequent, I didn’t know how they did it. Now that they’re working on an expansion, well this is what happens in most games.

Even WoW goes more than 4 months with no new content, and they have millions of people who pay 15 bucks a month.

There may be games that come out with content more often, but it’s not most of them.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

….yeah if we have to wait 3 years for every dragon and there are 4 left, we are talking at least 12 years.

There is 6 left im just doing dailies in gw2 now.
My guild changed server so i cant even play wvw anymore.

mtpelion.4562:

Doflamingo.6957:

Come on we waited 3 years for 1 expansion this is even higher than the World of Warcraft waiting times lol (its 2 years there) and the funny is that after this elder dragon there are 4 more that means at least 4 more expansions, so the players who are 40+ years old might not even make it till the last expansion if it continues so slow. Will Heart of Thorns be released this year at least?

While most of the people here have been kind of harsh in their response, my initial reaction to your OP was one of pity. I can’t imagine how awful it must be to have been brainwashed into thinking that paying an additional fee for content that lasts 1 month once every 2 years on top of a monthly fee just for access to the game is superior to receiving free content updates on a semi-monthly schedule. I mean, you’re being robbed of both enjoyment and cash and being told to say you like it!

Not to forget that you pay for all your progress of those last years getting mostly
invalidated ^^

TheBlackLeech.9360:

….yeah if we have to wait 3 years for every dragon and there are 4 left, we are talking at least 12 years.

I find this kind of statement strange. Why do you want them to get all the dragons out of the way so quickly? Are you in a rush to play a different game or something? Why does it matter how quickly or slowly they release each dragon? So long as they give us stuff to do in between them it shouldn’t really matter.

If they keep us entertained throughout, I see no problem with it taking 12 years to defeat all the dragons.

Oh please don’t even try and say living story = expansion if that’s true where is my S1
story ? fact is no one new NO ONE can understand the story it’s a mess that makes no since

Valky.2574:

Oh please don’t even try and say living story = expansion if that’s true where is my S1
story ? fact is no one new NO ONE can understand the story it’s a mess that makes no since

The living story was content for people who were here at the time. If you’re new and you have the game for a year, you’re not waiting 3 years for an expansion, are you?

Vayne.8563:

Valky.2574:

Oh please don’t even try and say living story = expansion if that’s true where is my S1
story ? fact is no one new NO ONE can understand the story it’s a mess that makes no since

The living story was content for people who were here at the time. If you’re new and you have the game for a year, you’re not waiting 3 years for an expansion, are you?

Yeah .. in the end what in other MMOs happens is that you can level faster after
every new expansion, so that you can just burn through all the old content without
even touching most of it.

I wonder how much you need to play low level content these days in EQ2 since
they had already 10 or 11 expansions so far. I stopped after the 5th .. and it was
always that leveling a new character to max took nearly the same time that you
needed before the newest level-cap.

Extreme.8350:

TheBlackLeech.9360:

….yeah if we have to wait 3 years for every dragon and there are 4 left, we are talking at least 12 years.

There is 6 left im just doing dailies in gw2 now.
My guild changed server so i cant even play wvw anymore.

Primordus
Jormag
Mordremoth
Zhaitan
Kralkatorrik
and the Deep Sea Dragon
(six)

Wealready saw Zhaitan, and we are getting mordremoth next
(minus two)

four left

Rin.1046:

If they keep us entertained throughout, I see no problem with it taking 12 years to defeat all the dragons.

The problem is that they are definitely not keeping me entertained… at all.

12 years of starving for content?

No thanks.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Rin.1046:

If they keep us entertained throughout, I see no problem with it taking 12 years to defeat all the dragons.

The problem is that they are definitely not keeping me entertained… at all.

12 years of starving for content?

No thanks.

You can’t please everyone.

Cynz.9437:

wow doesn’t have living story…. wow just brings out raid every few months and makes you grind gear to even be able to do that raid for next few months…

i think LS is awesome concept and expansion is just an additional plus

Too bad that seems to be the team’s entire focus

Rin.1046:

TheBlackLeech.9360:

Rin.1046:

If they keep us entertained throughout, I see no problem with it taking 12 years to defeat all the dragons.

The problem is that they are definitely not keeping me entertained… at all.

12 years of starving for content?

No thanks.

You can’t please everyone.

But Tera online can

uhohhotdog.3598:

Instead of living story they would be better off adding more dynamic events. Make them more detailed and longer chains.

I certainly would love to see a bit more of ANet refining their older content (particularly given that they’ve come a long way since launch). However not sure if I’d necessarily sacrifice Living Story

Vayne.8563:

And historically, any time new events have been added to the world, they’ve been largely ignored, unless the living story has “encouraged” people to do them. Think of the toxic spore events, which were all added.

More dynamic events will always be welcome. But yeah you’re right in the end they tend to be largely ignored. Players don’t really have reason to stay and experience all the stories in a given map (or for that matter a means to do so effectively).

lordkrall.7241:

You are aware that they have added plenty of dynamic events since release, right?

The point exactly, they tend to be overlooked.

uhohhotdog.3598:

If they did them right they wouldn’t be ignored. The event chains need to be much longer and show some progression. And they need to not be undone completely overnight because no one was playing that map. For example when humans take over centaur camps they should actually construct human settlements rather than just have a few human npcs standing in a centaur camp. Get it to the point where you can do an event chain where you turn a centaur camp into an entire fort by doing events. That shows real progression in the world. Then the centaurs start using siege weapons to try to tear it down. Etc.

This would be wonderful. Kinda take a lot of work to do though.

Vayne.8563:

I’m not sure that’s the way to go. I think dynamic events tend to be lost on people, because even though some people do like them (myself included) dynamic events don’t really offer progression. They cycle. They repeat over and over again.

Maybe progression is the wrong word to use, but some sort of pseudo progression. Let’s say to build the fort takes a month of doing hundreds of events (not necessarily all unique but still. Collecting materials, transport, building etc.), and over that period the fort is slowly raised and expanded. This would give the perception of progress. Granted when the fort is complete I’m not sure what you do with it. Defend it I guess? If you fail it gets destroyed (bit by bit) so you’re constantly going from no fort to full fort and potentially different types of events throughout the various stages.
But like I said, this is probably too much effort to implement.

nexxe.7081:

In almost all WoW expansions, you get new dungeons & raids, new pvp maps & modes, new continents & zones, new classes, new races, new crafting professions, new gear, new mounts & pets, new skills & talents, new game mechanics, new quests & stories, new arenas, etc. And this is just the expansions. After that, they constantly update the game throughout the expansion’s lifetime (the exception is WoD so far).

Just for the sake of clarification, new races, classes and professions tend to be few and far between (you’re making it seem like every expansion has all of them).
But otherwise I’d agree that they tend to add fairly large new areas. Kinda sucks they don’t have a scaling system (last I checked) and with their quest system you don’t tend to get a lot of mileage out of the maps though.

ProtoGunner.4953:

I think, Anet was just experimenting and didn’t exactly know if they want to release only LS or expansions. In the end they new the benefits of an expansion as well as the fans asking for it. Hence it took so long.

I think this was a large part of it. That and China.

Devata.6589:

So it’s very nice that for you the LS works, still the LS is no expansion and did not deliver what many people expect from an expansion / what they wanted. That makes the LS irrelevant. Sure, it is what Anet had in mind (LS as a way to release expansion-like content) but it’s not how many players experience the LS.

So because it’s not an expansion it’s irrelevant? Irrelevant in regards to what?

Devata.6589:

(like a true B2P game like Gw1)

I was sure GW1 had an cash shop? Guess not then.

maddoctor.2738:

If you don’t count the current wait yes, but we’ve been without an update for 4 months now Surely they could’ve planned it a bit better

As much nonsense as this 3 year business is, I have to agree 4 months is kinda… just give us SAB already :_(

Vayne.8563:

Anet spoiled us early with updates so frequent, I didn’t know how they did it.

Which is exactly the problem! Expectation management :P