Guild Wars 2

Agree with you. But that wont change. Sadly.

If some new sets dont come out in the near future, and are obtained doing some content and not via farming gold for gems (gem store purchase), I’ll prolly just quit. After playing from the betas, farming gold for gems to buy new sets is not my kind of fun.

How would you suggest they fill the gap in revenue from removing the skins though?

Do level 49 Fractal.
Get less gold than farming champ train, spamming auto attack.

Leeto.1570:

Gear is content, there is alot of things to do but noone cares to do them cause there is no reward.
Add timer to 6 jumping puzzles, reward with tokens for doing it so people can buy lawless set for them… BOOM people kept busy for week +
But no instead they take lawless set and split it into pieces and sell each for 300 gems cause why sell 1 set for 800 gems if you can sell it for 1800 gems…

Yes, but where is money in that for anet? Ppl just use bandwidth.

Only thing Anet care is how much money they make, and how many people still play their game.

they don’t really care if forum are spam with how shallow the game, as long as those person dont’ quit (yet).

we vote with our wallet and online time. that’s apparently what anet cares.

laokoko.7403:

Only thing Anet care is how much money they make, and how many people still play their game.

they don’t really care if forum are spam with how shallow the game, as long as those person dont’ quit (yet).

we vote with our wallet and online time. that’s apparently what anet cares.

OMG a company cares about how much money they make! How dare they?!?

Is this really a surprise for anyone?
Companies are mainly made in order to make money. Of course making money will have a high priority.

How do you think the game would survive (and develop) if they didn’t have any money to spend on it?

lordkrall.7241:

laokoko.7403:

Only thing Anet care is how much money they make, and how many people still play their game.

they don’t really care if forum are spam with how shallow the game, as long as those person dont’ quit (yet).

we vote with our wallet and online time. that’s apparently what anet cares.

OMG a company cares about how much money they make! How dare they?!?

Is this really a surprise for anyone?
Companies are mainly made in order to make money. Of course making money will have a high priority.

How do you think the game would survive (and develop) if they didn’t have any money to spend on it?

It sucks when that is ALL they care about and not the game or its community. That is what the OP is trying to establish.

We all know they main priority is themselves. They NEED to make money in order to function and keep going. That’s all good.

Items in the gems store, as unlimited use gathering tools, boosters, stones, etc, that are really a convenience items, expanders and such. All that is okay to be sold. Even SOME skins or outfits.

But, a game that is based a lot on looks, but doesnt give you that much new skins via gameplay but via gemstore. That is a problem.

Maybe they could make a ratio – for every 2 skins they sell on the gemstore, they should make 1 skin to be earned via playing the game.

And farming is not a way game is ment to play. I know some enjoy that, but farming to get gold to get gems to get skins is not fun.

lordkrall.7241:

How would you suggest they fill the gap in revenue from removing the skins though?

They can still add armor skins in gem store, and armor skins in game so you can earn them.
I dont see the problem… It doesnt mean that they need to quit putting skins in gem store..
Just add them in game..

That is one of the reasons why you should not play guild wars 2.

If they earn 100 mil or 200 mil whats the difference ?
All that money goes to the NC SOFT and then they decide how much money will they invest in guild wars 2 and other games…
They dont even want to buy new studio so they can develop gw2 faster.
Earning more money wont change anything for guild wars 2.

Agree with OP and most people in the thread. It would be okay if they dropped some cosmetics in the gem store, but adding nothing at all (in 2 YEARS) is pretty messed up.

Also, has anyone noticed that they started spamming that you can trade Gems > Gold? Looks like their gem purchases are going down. Surprise surprise.

Sirendor.1394:

Agree with OP and most people in the thread. It would be okay if they dropped some cosmetics in the gem store, but adding nothing at all (in 2 YEARS) is pretty messed up.

Also, has anyone noticed that they started spamming that you can trade Gems > Gold? Looks like their gem purchases are going down. Surprise surprise.

Yeah that gems to gold becoming a staple to announcements comes across as pretty desperate and unnecessary.

Lux.7169:

Sirendor.1394:

Agree with OP and most people in the thread. It would be okay if they dropped some cosmetics in the gem store, but adding nothing at all (in 2 YEARS) is pretty messed up.

Also, has anyone noticed that they started spamming that you can trade Gems > Gold? Looks like their gem purchases are going down. Surprise surprise.

Yeah that gems to gold becoming a staple to announcements comes across as pretty desperate and unnecessary.

People have been screaming in forums about gold sellers, maybe they want people to realize that you can get gems in game?

lordkrall.7241:

laokoko.7403:

Only thing Anet care is how much money they make, and how many people still play their game.

they don’t really care if forum are spam with how shallow the game, as long as those person dont’ quit (yet).

we vote with our wallet and online time. that’s apparently what anet cares.

OMG a company cares about how much money they make! How dare they?!?

Is this really a surprise for anyone?
Companies are mainly made in order to make money. Of course making money will have a high priority.

How do you think the game would survive (and develop) if they didn’t have any money to spend on it?

What I’m getting at is if the game is so boring or sucks, why are you still playing the game.

The only thing Anet saw is you are still playing the game. They dont’ care if players think their game is trash. If the game is trash why are you still playing.

Yargesh.4965:

Lux.7169:

Sirendor.1394:

Agree with OP and most people in the thread. It would be okay if they dropped some cosmetics in the gem store, but adding nothing at all (in 2 YEARS) is pretty messed up.

Also, has anyone noticed that they started spamming that you can trade Gems > Gold? Looks like their gem purchases are going down. Surprise surprise.

Yeah that gems to gold becoming a staple to announcements comes across as pretty desperate and unnecessary.

People have been screaming in forums about gold sellers, maybe they want people to realize that you can get gems in game?

Maybe. However I think increasing awareness and letting us know action is being taken against these people violating the ToS and harassing us would be far more reassuring to the community than simply copy-pasting an annoying reminder that players can buy the most sought after items with a credit card.

Maybe I’m the only one who feels that way. Yeah your probably right, this is there way of combatting gold sellers… lol

Somehow it does feel this is the endgame…

laokoko.7403:

farm gold -> trade gold for gem-> buy skin.

there’s your endgame.

LOL, yep, this is exactly what i do. I have 12 level 80’s and all i do every day for the past 2 months now is grind dungeons for gold, convert them to gems, buy skins, and the occasional wvw (wvw is boring the past couple of weeks now because we’re guaranteed 1st place this season….so why even try now)….

lordkrall.7241:

How would you suggest they fill the gap in revenue from removing the skins though?

Expansions.

Andred.1087:

Expansions.

And what revenue should they use in order to pay for their employees between those expansions?

lordkrall.7241:

Andred.1087:

Expansions.

And what revenue should they use in order to pay for their employees between those expansions?

China release. Also, that expansion money will go a long way.

Andred.1087:

China release. Also, that expansion money will go a long way.

And between the first and second expansion?

You are aware that paying 300+ employees does tend to cost a rather massive amount of money, right?

Without ongoing income there won’t be a company to make expansions.

lordkrall.7241:

Andred.1087:

China release. Also, that expansion money will go a long way.

And between the first and second expansion?

You are aware that paying 300+ employees does tend to cost a rather massive amount of money, right?

Without ongoing income there won’t be a company to make expansions.

You clearly will never be satisfied with any answer other than “you’re right.”

Regardless, cash shop is a losing game for developers. It’s great at the start, but you can’t keep depending on people to drop $10 for X and $10 for Y when they’ve already paid at least $50 to play the game. This isn’t a F2P where microtransactions are the only way to get money, but that’s how they’re apparently treating it.

I’m not saying they should stop cash shop either. But it definitely needs to stop being their primary source of income, because it will not last.

I will be satisfied when someone comes with an actual working suggestion.
Relying on expansions alone is simply not realistic for GW2.

Microtransactions is more or less the only way to get money, when sales of the game itself drops, which it always does for all products.

The fact that people have claimed that the cash shop won’t work for long since release would suggest that it clearly works much better than people keep claiming.

IF they release expansions, that will be a large ball of income, but they still need another primary source between those releases, seeing as the time it takes to develop expansions still costs money.

That a really bad point of view to look at any thing if skins are your end game then doing the events should be your view on the game such as LS dungeons spvp wvw etc.. the gem store skins are on the lines of if you want you can have these skins for real life money or in game gold. That really not end game at all its just simply buying something its like saying buying and item is an end game or even getting an item to drop is an end game (in truth its the event that drops the item or the way of getting the gold that is the real end game.)

End game is doing your daily chores all week for an allowance, which you then spend at the shop over the weekend. Rinse , repeat. Honestly, playing the TP as an economic simulator had more depth.

lordkrall.7241:

Relying on expansions alone is simply not realistic for GW2.

I don’t buy this. Where is your proof or is it just pure speculation?

Andred.1087:

lordkrall.7241:

Andred.1087:

China release. Also, that expansion money will go a long way.

And between the first and second expansion?

You are aware that paying 300+ employees does tend to cost a rather massive amount of money, right?

Without ongoing income there won’t be a company to make expansions.

You clearly will never be satisfied with any answer other than “you’re right.”

Regardless, cash shop is a losing game for developers. It’s great at the start, but you can’t keep depending on people to drop $10 for X and $10 for Y when they’ve already paid at least $50 to play the game. This isn’t a F2P where microtransactions are the only way to get money, but that’s how they’re apparently treating it.

I’m not saying they should stop cash shop either. But it definitely needs to stop being their primary source of income, because it will not last.

So about six years ago, I was in Seattle at an indie games conference. At that time, the major news was about the micro transaction model coming over from Asia and how games could profit from it, as Asia had been doing it for about four to six years successfully prior.

When PAX started and during PAX Dev, it became and still is a frequent topic of conversation between developers as to the pros and cons of the business model. On the independent scene, it’s often the only way that indie devs can compete without fully incorporating and finding venture capitalists to continue to fund development. And the more successful indies become at it, the more larger start ups and established AAA groups look at it as a business model.

Basically the industry as a whole has been shifting away to this model for almost eight years now, and the old box only business practices are fading heavily. I doubt this is going to be a short-term phenomenon, as the evolution of the business practice is being dictated by the producer and not the consumer at this point. It’s a seller’s market.

Granted, I’m speaking only from my personal experience as an indie and my correspondence with fellow professionals in a casual environment.

NewTrain.7549:

lordkrall.7241:

Relying on expansions alone is simply not realistic for GW2.

I don’t buy this. Where is your proof or is it just pure speculation?

Anet is doing good with their cash shop, you can see from their financial report.

I’m not sure where the game is heading. I hope it’s some big update, but they might just go ahead with releasing GW2 in Brazil or some other place before even thinking about big update.

If there’s some big decline in population, they might care. Else I’m not sure if their be doing some major change. That’s just my speculation.

I always speculated before there won’t be an expansion before china release. Because if they want to sell expansion, it make sense to release the game to every region first. My guess is, their try to finish releasing the game in every region before they think of expnasion(if they are even thinking of that).

lordkrall.7241:

I will be satisfied when someone comes with an actual working suggestion.
Relying on expansions alone is simply not realistic for GW2.

Microtransactions is more or less the only way to get money, when sales of the game itself drops, which it always does for all products.

The fact that people have claimed that the cash shop won’t work for long since release would suggest that it clearly works much better than people keep claiming.

IF they release expansions, that will be a large ball of income, but they still need another primary source between those releases, seeing as the time it takes to develop expansions still costs money.

Seriously you don’t come across as stupid but how can you not comprehend that people aren’t dissatisfied with the idea of microtransactions themselves. The issue is with how they’re implemented and tied into practically EVERYTHING end game related. I’m all for them making money on armor skins, minis, dyes, clothing, boosters and mining tools blah blah blah. I’ll use this extremely tiny bit as an example of where its incorrectly implemented, hopefully this will paint a clearer picture for you

Tier 6 Materials

- Ways to obtain T6 materials.

• low drop rates from mobs
• farm gold to buy them
• use that terrible MF recipe to turn t5 into t6
• spend your money buying gems then converting to gold!

- What uses T6 materials?

• legendary weapons
• end game gear/items etc.

Take a look at the first list, the last thing mentioned should not be there. The reason it shouldnt be there because its the easiest/best way. Instead number one should be “low drop rate, with ability to farm certian mobs”. So now that we have that clear, lets delve a bit deeper into the actual core issue here. The overall rewards for this game from anything is extremely terrible compared to many other games. I have never played a game that was so stingy with rewarding people for their time spent. The lack of fresh content means you’re right, they need to generate money from something so it gets passed onto us in many ways that it shouldnt ie. t6 mats. This really goes to the core of the game, there are many things that should be changed, this game has had so much potential and its not living up to it at all.

A few solutions:

• An expansion, giving content that is new/refreshing
• New dungeons with actual challenging boss mechanics
• More gem store skins, weapon skins, funny things
• OMG HOUSING AND HOUSING THINGS
• More account luxury items in the gem store
• New living stories with more than one path to follow
• Increase the rewards for time spent

Before your retort I just want to say I could honestly go on with this for hours, hopefully this gives you at least a little bit of a better insight at ways/things that could overall improve this game for the better.

lordkrall.7241:

I will be satisfied when someone comes with an actual working suggestion.
Relying on expansions alone is simply not realistic for GW2.

Microtransactions is more or less the only way to get money, when sales of the game itself drops, which it always does for all products.

The fact that people have claimed that the cash shop won’t work for long since release would suggest that it clearly works much better than people keep claiming.

IF they release expansions, that will be a large ball of income, but they still need another primary source between those releases, seeing as the time it takes to develop expansions still costs money.

your theory might be correct, if it wasnt proven wrong by almost every game made in the last 30 years, which built a product, and then sold it.

Now im not saying cash shop isnt an option, or not their chosen way to monetize, however to claim that one cant make money from selling a finished product is really unlikely since that is how most products are created.

I mean essentially the complaint is, the gem shop philosophy in its current incarnation, is effecting the games evolution in ways that dont appeal to the consumer.

I highly suggest you folks that think they don’t have more than enough resources/profit to go around and back to the community in timely substantial content updates google GW2 earnings for NCsoft in the last 19months, you may look at this in a whole new light.

Get More Gold!
Remember that you can exchange gems and gold at our currency exchange on the second tab of the Black Lion Trading Company! Currently, you can get 1 gold for about 15 gems and 50 gold for about 675 gems!

Don’t think that they don’t have cash.

phys.7689:

your theory might be correct, if it wasnt proven wrong by almost every game made in the last 30 years, which built a product, and then sold it.

Now im not saying cash shop isnt an option, or not their chosen way to monetize, however to claim that one cant make money from selling a finished product is really unlikely since that is how most products are created.

I mean essentially the complaint is, the gem shop philosophy in its current incarnation, is effecting the games evolution in ways that dont appeal to the consumer.

And how many of those games were MMOs that got very frequent updates?

You can’t really compare lets say an single player RPG game that is released and then more or less done, with an MMO that constantly changes. The RPG studio can more or less shut down after their game is released because they no longer need to do any major work on it, whilst an MMO still need to maintain a rather large developer group in order to keep the game going.

I have never claimed they can’t make money.
I have claimed that they most likely can’t make ENOUGH money. That is a rather major difference.

globe.7238:

Tier 6 Materials

- Ways to obtain T6 materials.

• low drop rates from mobs
• farm gold to buy them
• use that terrible MF recipe to turn t5 into t6
• spend your money buying gems then converting to gold!

You can also buy them with laurels, and that’s by far the easiest way to get them.

op Gem store isnt end game.

It’s one thing to put a lot of armor skins on the gemstore to make money. That helps generate revenue. It’s quite another to put QUALITY armor skins on the gemstore.

The recent Lawless armor put on there is garbage. Awful looking, low res, no imagination. Did they hire fresh out of school designers to save money? Seriously, all the Lawless stuff is horrid, and I’d be surprised if anyone bought it.

It’s as if they aren’t even trying anymore, and put the whole game on auto pilot.

Fade.7658:

It’s one thing to put a lot of armor skins on the gemstore to make money. That helps generate revenue. It’s quite another to put QUALITY armor skins on the gemstore.

The recent Lawless armor put on there is garbage. Awful looking, low res, no imagination. Did they hire fresh out of school designers to save money? Seriously, all the Lawless stuff is horrid, and I’d be surprised if anyone bought it.

It’s as if they aren’t even trying anymore, and put the whole game on auto pilot.

If they put “good looking” stuff in the TP all the time, i bet some people would also make a drama out of it like with the watchwork pickaxe, since they suddenly feel what they bought recently is now garbage and ANet has cheated them.

May sound strange, but when i see how some people on the forums behave, i really believe in something like that

Im Mudbone.1437:

lordkrall.7241:

laokoko.7403:

Only thing Anet care is how much money they make, and how many people still play their game.

they don’t really care if forum are spam with how shallow the game, as long as those person dont’ quit (yet).

we vote with our wallet and online time. that’s apparently what anet cares.

OMG a company cares about how much money they make! How dare they?!?

Is this really a surprise for anyone?
Companies are mainly made in order to make money. Of course making money will have a high priority.

How do you think the game would survive (and develop) if they didn’t have any money to spend on it?

It sucks when that is ALL they care about and not the game or its community. That is what the OP is trying to establish.

All they care about is money?
That’s why they allow you to EASILY trade in in-game gold (that’s worthless to them despite popular believe) for gems so you can get your stuff like it was from any other in-game vendor.
Also, the substantial amount of content you get FOR FREE with living story updates, would they be an eager money company, they’d either just pack it in a payed expansion or charge admission with gems, and by the way, the gems then couldn’t be bought with gold, only real money.

You could have bought the game on release, played it and have EVERYTHING without spending any more money on it, not 1 cent.
But I guess not having a single thing hidden behind a paywall still qualifies them as a greedy money seeker company that just wants their hands in your pockets…

Apparently I’m the odd one out here. I don’t like (and therefore haven’t bought) any of the gem store skins. Most of my favourite armor skins come from dungeons.

So for me the game is working as intended. I got to level 80 and (because I took months doing it) already had enough karma to buy a full set of exotic armor straight away from the temples. At that point I was done with gear grind (and fortunately never had to actually grind for it) and could work on getting the look I wanted.

My main character is currently wearing the HotW coat, TA leggings, Human T2 boots, Fire Gods Vambraces and I hide the shoulders and helm. I’m currently working on getting enough tokens for the Longbow of the Dragons Deep from Arah.

To me gem store skins are there if you want something quick and easy, but not nearly as appealing as the dungeon skins. Maybe if I had money to waste I’d buy them as a stop-gap between the ugly temple/WvW skins and getting dungeon ones…except I’d use the HoM ones instead.

Seriously, what’s wrong in skins in the gemstore? You don’t need them to play the game.
The problem with the gemstore exists, but it’s not the skins, but stuff that gives you stats. You can pay real money and buy stuff like infusions that gives you 5 power and 5 agony, legendary weapon, which is top tier weapon. Normally you need these bloodstones, emphyreal stars and dragonites to craft weapon with the same stats (ascended), which is not hard to get and most of us probably have full banks of them, but still you had to at least play a bit to get it. Also there should be better infusions obtainable only for playing (maybe as a drop from some new dungeons) or just include vision crystals in the current infusion recipes.

I’m for selling skins in the gemstore, but I’m against selling power in the gemstore. I want to buy the stuff I like, not the stuff I’m forced to buy to have my character maxed. While current status of GW2 doesn’t force me to buy infusions, because their benefits are low, it’s still a step in the wrong direction.

Dean Calaway.9718:

Im Mudbone.1437:

lordkrall.7241:

laokoko.7403:

Only thing Anet care is how much money they make, and how many people still play their game.

they don’t really care if forum are spam with how shallow the game, as long as those person dont’ quit (yet).

we vote with our wallet and online time. that’s apparently what anet cares.

OMG a company cares about how much money they make! How dare they?!?

Is this really a surprise for anyone?
Companies are mainly made in order to make money. Of course making money will have a high priority.

How do you think the game would survive (and develop) if they didn’t have any money to spend on it?

It sucks when that is ALL they care about and not the game or its community. That is what the OP is trying to establish.

All they care about is money?
That’s why they allow you to EASILY trade in in-game gold (that’s worthless to them despite popular believe) for gems so you can get your stuff like it was from any other in-game vendor.
Also, the substantial amount of content you get FOR FREE with living story updates, would they be an eager money company, they’d either just pack it in a payed expansion or charge admission with gems, and by the way, the gems then couldn’t be bought with gold, only real money.

You could have bought the game on release, played it and have EVERYTHING without spending any more money on it, not 1 cent.
But I guess not having a single thing hidden behind a paywall still qualifies them as a greedy money seeker company that just wants their hands in your pockets…

They wouldn’t do it if it doesn’t benefit them. Many MMO have trade system that allow you to trade in game gold for cash shop items, Anet simply made it more convenient. Having a trade system for their gem currency drive up their value and make them more attractive.

Living story updates is their way to keep players playing or get players to come back. If people don’t play the game, people wouldn’t be buying gems and they wouldn’t be earning money.

globe.7238:

people aren’t dissatisfied with the idea of microtransactions themselves.

That’s… not a universal truth. >_>

I don’t mind having skins in the gem store. Considering some of the alternatives that could be sold, I’m not going to kitten about cosmetics that I can buy by investing time to convert gold into gems.

Now, that said, I still would enjoy seeing some new skin sets added to the game as well. I’ve used adding them into the chests at the end of JPs as an example previously (6 different JPs to get the whole set, guaranteed reward from the chest, etc). Something we have to do / accomplish to earn it. I mean, sure, running the same dungeon a couple dozen times for a set of armor is ok, but I’d like to see some more options for acquisition (that isn’t RNG specific) in the game play. Of course, I’d be ok with purchasing it from a merchant like in GW1, but would need to do something interesting to find / spawn him (not to mention some fun collecting in order to buy his wares). Just.. something different with more skin options.

Then again, we didn’t get more armor options in GW1 until Factions came out, and then it wasn’t a huge number of new options. We got more with Nightfall, and a few more in EotN as well. I think we ended up with roughly 30 sets of armor per profession, which is about what we started with per armor tier in GW2. Maybe we’ll start seeing some new sets as the LS progresses into new zones, or perhaps when we get a new race (should have at least a racial armor per tier right?).

ponders

Now that China has launched, let’s see how things go. That’s my stance on it.

It’s true this is the end game now. the TP/gemstore. It’s all about buying things. And don’t put a limit on how much something should cost, because it’s completely normal to see skins cost as much as precursors right? smh. It’s gonna get worse folks.

Been talking about this for over a year now, about how this title is using a modified D3 RMTAH, the reason why it’s modified is it’s not a direct obvious sale but it still requires buying of gems to get anything of worth, and no I don’t think it will change.

Dark Saviour.9410:

globe.7238:

people aren’t dissatisfied with the idea of microtransactions themselves.

That’s… not a universal truth. >_>

A (somewhat universal, empirically supported) truth is that about 7-11% of the player base of any microtransation game will actually buy to support the game. It might be different out of the non-Facebook set, but that ratio generally holds true.

As it is, GW2 is in something of a Catch-22: Players want more content, which they need more money for, but they’re in a bind to create new content because they’d need more cash for developers.

For all those who wanted GW2 to be a subscription game? Buy gems once a month. shrug Then buy stuff with those gems, if you want. Consider it a perk you get for playing the game on subscription (which some games are starting to do, like FF14).
Heck, it’s not even a 15$/mo subscription, which is the gold standard, but 10$/mo, and you get 800 gems to do whatever you want, like buy gold. Or costumes.

Think of it in the reverse: A game demands a subscription to maintain steady revenue. It’s an accepted practice. But then, as a reward for their loyal players, they mail a random outfit one month, or a huge handful of gold in the next month. Players would be ecstatic! So, maybe during one month, they decide to give the players a choice of what their reward could be. Even more jubilation! So what’s the difference, then?
The GW2 model does is let you decide when to “subscribe” and what your “reward” will be. Whenever you like. Their gem store offerings (while a little expensive from some points of view, looking at you Upgrade Extractor and Chest Key) are there to entice players to give what would normally be subscription-bound, so they can develop more content. It’s a LOT more of a courtesy than a lot of players give them credit for (but not their credit cards, apparently).

After almost 2 years, people still miss the point that lots of people here are trying to make:

It’s not about the existence of the gem store, gem items, skins etc. etc., it’s about the focus that is somewhat oddly placed on the gem store, and because of which the quality of the Living Story was so bad in Season 1. There may be different teams working on gem store items and Living Story stuff, but if not for the reason I put before, I do not know how the game that decides to abandon the classic expansion pack idea could have let the substitute ( Living Story ) be so bad, quality-wise. Tons of temporary content that were done in 3-4 hous of non-hardcore playing when each and every update was meant to be for 2 weeks. During those 2 years of the existence of GW2, the game did not receive any substantial new, fresh permanent content.

That’s the issue people have with the game and it’s not about the existence of the gem store. Please, do understand it finally!

Sad but true, one of several issues that drives me away from this game more and more. There is no significant content added to the game: one new map released and fractals with some mini dungeons. Pretty nothing after 18 months – temporary content doesn’t count as we have nothing from it now.

Corpus Christi.2057:

After almost 2 years, people still miss the point that lots of people here are trying to make:

It’s not about the existence of the gem store, gem items, skins etc. etc., it’s about the focus that is somewhat oddly placed on the gem store, and because of which the quality of the Living Story was so bad in Season 1. There may be different teams working on gem store items and Living Story stuff, but if not for the reason I put before, I do not know how the game that decides to abandon the classic expansion pack idea could have let the substitute ( Living Story ) be so bad, quality-wise. Tons of temporary content that were done in 3-4 hous of non-hardcore playing when each and every update was meant to be for 2 weeks. During those 2 years of the existence of GW2, the game did not receive any substantial new, fresh permanent content.

Ayup, +1, too right, and all that sort. The content was shallow and panic-grindy for anyone who didn’t utterly dedicate to the game, and even those who did found mostly zerg stuff. I’d be eager for a proper expansion.