Guild Wars 2

Thorn.7963:

Vol.5241:

Thorn.7963:

This just killed a bunch of my excitement for the future of this game.

We’re never going to visit Elona or Cantha now. Any future Dragons will likely be killed off cheaply if we even get to fight them at all.

I’m tired of fighting unrelated side stories that feel like filler. What happened to the other dragons?!

^ didn’t read article

Yes I did. The living story has been extremely underwhelming.

Well then you didn’t really digest on what the article said. We can still very well get Elona or Cantha or any other unexplored area.

I actually think that GW2 players are very, very spoiled.

Sure, there are problems in this game that need to be addressed, as all games have. But we still have it pretty good.

I agree, Thorn. I’ve did the living story (Molten Alliance), but the rest I really didn’t care for. I did the Southsun one halfway and got bored and stopped. Didn’t bother with dragon bash and sky pirates, and I happen to be a mega-lore fan. These just don’t spark my interest >=)

Thorn.7963:

Vol.5241:

Thorn.7963:

This just killed a bunch of my excitement for the future of this game.

We’re never going to visit Elona or Cantha now. Any future Dragons will likely be killed off cheaply if we even get to fight them at all.

I’m tired of fighting unrelated side stories that feel like filler. What happened to the other dragons?!

^ didn’t read article

Yes I did. The living story has been extremely underwhelming.

The article does state that the 4 living story teams are but a fraction of the dev force. It also states that they have larger teams working on larger content (could easily be Cantha, Elona, other dragons).

A new News article also states that the living story for the past 6 months has basically been a ‘testing’ phase. That we can expect to see much more to it in the future.

TheDaiBish.9735:

Thorn.7963:

This just killed a bunch of my excitement for the future of this game.

We’re never going to visit Elona or Cantha now. Any future Dragons will likely be killed off cheaply if we even get to fight them at all.

I’m tired of fighting unrelated side stories that feel like filler. What happened to the other dragons?!

1. Why not? Southsun was introduced. If they got people working on things outside of the Living Story, there isn’t anything to say they can’t or won’t be working on these places.

2. I’d argue it’s better to try things out and gain feedback on unrelated filler than major world plot points such as the Dragons. I mean, look how well received the Zhaitan fight was.

South Sun was extremely underwhelming. And it doesn’t even hold a candle to how much we could get if we got an Elona or Cantha expansion.

And no, Cantha and Elona expansion won’t HAPPEN! >=( At least not yet. Think about it, Tyria has not even been fully revealed yet! Until after they give us the Northern charr land, the crystal desert, the western dense magumma land, and the RING OF FIRE (i forgot the name, haven’t played gw1 in awhile), then we’ll get an expansion.

I have always believed that these living stories were going to open up these gates for us. Anyone been at Ebonhawk lately? South of it is a gate that leads to Crystal Desert. The guards there said we aren’t allow to pass through it yet due to it being dangerous or something.

Creeper.9360:

Thorn.7963:

Vol.5241:

Thorn.7963:

This just killed a bunch of my excitement for the future of this game.

We’re never going to visit Elona or Cantha now. Any future Dragons will likely be killed off cheaply if we even get to fight them at all.

I’m tired of fighting unrelated side stories that feel like filler. What happened to the other dragons?!

^ didn’t read article

Yes I did. The living story has been extremely underwhelming.

Well then you didn’t really digest on what the article said. We can still very well get Elona or Cantha or any other unexplored area.

Visit Elona or actually go to the whole place like in GW1?

When they say “larger content” do they mean an expansion worth like in GW1? I’d much rather pay 40-50 bucks for new skills, new story, new places to explore, etc, than little little drips and drabs of disconnected story events introducing more and more lame characters , with lousy gaudy cosmetic rewards that don’t fit into the aesthetic of GW at all, and all the good looking skins are gem store exclusives

This actually sounds really cool. I love the idea of having constant smaller updates to keep me logging into the game (Dragon Bash, Sky Pirates, etc.), while a different team works on larger content that is released less regularly, but on a much bigger scale (Fractals, Guild Missions, etc.).

This also gets me excited about future content because I know that Elder Dragons won’t be expansion exclusive. Maybe in the future a living story team will introduce a whole new zone for someone like Jormag, then, working with the larger team, add in Anet’s twist on raids with Jormag as the final boss.

Thorn.7963:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Thorn.7963:

This just killed a bunch of my excitement for the future of this game.

We’re never going to visit Elona or Cantha now. Any future Dragons will likely be killed off cheaply if we even get to fight them at all.

I’m tired of fighting unrelated side stories that feel like filler. What happened to the other dragons?!

1. Why not? Southsun was introduced. If they got people working on things outside of the Living Story, there isn’t anything to say they can’t or won’t be working on these places.

2. I’d argue it’s better to try things out and gain feedback on unrelated filler than major world plot points such as the Dragons. I mean, look how well received the Zhaitan fight was.

South Sun was extremely underwhelming. And it doesn’t even hold a candle to how much we could get if we got an Elona or Cantha expansion.

Regardless of the quality of it, it was still introduced. As I pointed out, it’s better to try things out on unrelated filler. I must say though, I enjoyed the push onto Southsun. It was the follow up that was lacking.

And who says that it all has to be introduced at once?

Elona has been divided into 3 provinces, and no-one knows much about what’s going on in Cantha.

TheDaiBish.9735:

Thorn.7963:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Thorn.7963:

This just killed a bunch of my excitement for the future of this game.

We’re never going to visit Elona or Cantha now. Any future Dragons will likely be killed off cheaply if we even get to fight them at all.

I’m tired of fighting unrelated side stories that feel like filler. What happened to the other dragons?!

1. Why not? Southsun was introduced. If they got people working on things outside of the Living Story, there isn’t anything to say they can’t or won’t be working on these places.

2. I’d argue it’s better to try things out and gain feedback on unrelated filler than major world plot points such as the Dragons. I mean, look how well received the Zhaitan fight was.

South Sun was extremely underwhelming. And it doesn’t even hold a candle to how much we could get if we got an Elona or Cantha expansion.

Regardless of the quality of it, it was still introduced. As I pointed out, it’s better to try things out on unrelated filler. I must say though, I enjoyed the push onto Southsun. It was the follow up that was lacking.

And who says that it all has to be introduced at once?

Elona has been divided into 3 provinces, and no-one knows much about what’s going on in Cantha.

I want it all to be introduced at once. I want a whole new world to explore like in GW1.

Not just log in, do the half hour of content, and wait 4 more weeks to do it again.

Vol.5241:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

I take that as very bad news. So basically, the game is finished? The living story updates have so far been a little lacking, mostly veiled attempts to get the players to go back to older content that they have already completed. If no expansions are planned I don’t really see any future for the game as the living story is not going to carry it unless they make some major improvements to what they have been releasing so far.

Read the link dude. There is a whole bunch of other people/teams working behind the scenes that have no part with the current Living Story team right now, but that content could be pushed in as Living Story content.

And that makes a difference how? Still the same people/teams who have been doing the content up to now, so why do you believe the same people doing the same thing the same way will make it different?

Thorn.7963:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Thorn.7963:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Thorn.7963:

This just killed a bunch of my excitement for the future of this game.

We’re never going to visit Elona or Cantha now. Any future Dragons will likely be killed off cheaply if we even get to fight them at all.

I’m tired of fighting unrelated side stories that feel like filler. What happened to the other dragons?!

1. Why not? Southsun was introduced. If they got people working on things outside of the Living Story, there isn’t anything to say they can’t or won’t be working on these places.

2. I’d argue it’s better to try things out and gain feedback on unrelated filler than major world plot points such as the Dragons. I mean, look how well received the Zhaitan fight was.

South Sun was extremely underwhelming. And it doesn’t even hold a candle to how much we could get if we got an Elona or Cantha expansion.

Regardless of the quality of it, it was still introduced. As I pointed out, it’s better to try things out on unrelated filler. I must say though, I enjoyed the push onto Southsun. It was the follow up that was lacking.

And who says that it all has to be introduced at once?

Elona has been divided into 3 provinces, and no-one knows much about what’s going on in Cantha.

I want it all to be introduced at once. I want a whole new world to explore like in GW1.

Not just log in, do the half hour of content, and wait 4 more weeks to do it again.

Seriously dude you are completely missing the point.

Arenanet is going to have these little tidbits of released content. That stuff you don’t like – sure, whatever. But it keeps the content coming and creates a dynamic world.

And when Anet is ready to release that new batch of ‘expansion-worthy’ content? Like new maps associated with Cantha as well as new armor, classes, and what not? Then they can release that all at once. And they can actually provide a story as to why it’s there and available now (i.e. Risen mobs at sea are gone and making trading and travel safer to go south)

Thorn.7963:

I want it all to be introduced at once. I want a whole new world to explore like in GW1.

Not just log in, do the half hour of content, and wait 4 more weeks to do it again.

Well, you ‘wanting it all at once’, and it ‘not happening at all’ are two completely different things.

Also, who’s to say these event will be like the smaller filler stories?

At the end of the day, at this moment in time it’s all speculation.

Agreed Draven. I also know why they do this. If they do not, more people will stop playing due to not having any other purpose. But by having this, they have some sort of motivation to come back.

Though waiting for a month just for an update earlier this year was long and tormenting, I actually prefer it. If you are given pudding every 2 weeks instead of every month, it isn’t as appealing anymore. It’s just pudding… nothing special. Waiting for a month for the content, however, when the content finally arrive, there is a big BOOM and people would feel the thrill and excitement of it. Of course, it will only last for a day or two.

The main reason why i don’t like this “tiddy biddy” contents is because I really don’t see its impact on the world. The bridge that leads Gendarren to Lion ARch is still there, that big ape don’t the road is still there, those stupid karka are still roaming around hitting me like a truck load of steel. No impact, how does this convince anyone it is actually a living story?

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

Vol.5241:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

I take that as very bad news. So basically, the game is finished? The living story updates have so far been a little lacking, mostly veiled attempts to get the players to go back to older content that they have already completed. If no expansions are planned I don’t really see any future for the game as the living story is not going to carry it unless they make some major improvements to what they have been releasing so far.

Read the link dude. There is a whole bunch of other people/teams working behind the scenes that have no part with the current Living Story team right now, but that content could be pushed in as Living Story content.

And that makes a difference how? Still the same people/teams who have been doing the content up to now, so why do you believe the same people doing the same thing the same way will make it different?

The people are the same but the teams are not. If you work in a corporate/team environment you know that different teams can come up with different ideas and have different ‘synergy’

I like the idea of new content every two weeks…

TheDaiBish.9735:

Thorn.7963:

I want it all to be introduced at once. I want a whole new world to explore like in GW1.

Not just log in, do the half hour of content, and wait 4 more weeks to do it again.

Well, you ‘wanting it all at once’, and it ‘not happening at all’ are two completely different things.

Also, who’s to say these event will be like the smaller filler stories?

At the end of the day, at this moment in time it’s all speculation.

The past updates have given me little reason to have faith. I want to get on a boat to Elona and have a whole new story, new skills, and just new everything to explore. I’m starving and I don’t want to eat crumbs.

In one sense I think this is amazing. In another, I’m unconvinced because very little of what is these updates is what we get in Expansions.

Expansions are about MAJOR new features, not festivals. things like:

New Races
New Classes
Multiple new dungeons with entire sets of new gear
New zones
New Abilities
New mob types
Full stories.
New game mechanics like: Housing, Mounts,Heroes etc..

Things like Guild Missions are neat, but they just aren’t that major. I’m not really sure it’s all that living either. I kinda like that stuff is temporary, but nothing PERMANENTLY CHANGES. Have Kralkatoric fly to Gandaren Fields & nuke the Centaurs. Have the Asura Create an anti-corruption machine & clean out part of the Brand so it’s natural again.

Anet says: “What about events that can permanently change the world and create stories to share for years into the future? Isn’t that truly what is required to achieve the concept of a truly living world?”
but they don’t change the world. Having the lighthouse that no one goes to move around is almost meaningless. change the WORLD. not the TOWNS. It’s a good way to fix sub-par Dynamic Events & keep old Zones Fresh.

Okay Thorn, you’re going overboard. You are expecting TOO much. YOu want a ship to take you to Elona? You think that the game developed their own map in the GW2 graphics? You think they can do this within a year after release when they are focusing on shaping up the core of the game and “Attempting” to fix the glitches and balancing the professions? Stop being a dam baby and grow the HELL up.

I want this, i want that. Go back to GW1 then. I go there sometimes myself as well, but thank goodness I am more realistic than you are with your desires. Hell! There aren’t even done giving you all of Tyria yet! You seen Crystal Desert yet? Western Magumma? Charr land up north? No? Then don’t expect the expansion for another 2+ years. Elona? 4+ because Cantha comes before Elona

Simon.3106:

Okay Thorn, you’re going overboard. You are expecting TOO much. YOu want a ship to take you to Elona? You think that the game developed their own map in the GW2 graphics? You think they can do this within a year after release when they are focusing on shaping up the core of the game and “Attempting” to fix the glitches and balancing the professions? Stop being a dam baby and grow the HELL up.

I want this, i want that. Go back to GW1 then. I go there sometimes myself as well, but thank goodness I am more realistic than you are with your desires.

I’m being a baby for wanting an expansion like in GW1…which had THREE?

I don’t mind sporadic updates, thats good. I liked things like guild missions and such.

But I’d rather have a large expansion worth of content like before. I can be patient too. But I don’t like the idea of them abandoning it for tiny drips of temporary content.

DarkSun summed it up perfectly.

Simon.3106:

I agree, Thorn. I’ve did the living story (Molten Alliance), but the rest I really didn’t care for. I did the Southsun one halfway and got bored and stopped. Didn’t bother with dragon bash and sky pirates, and I happen to be a mega-lore fan. These just don’t spark my interest >=)

Same for me. I never finished south sun, just plain boring. I could not even bring myself to do any more farming there and I was getting more rares and exotics in a day then I did since launch. I have most of dragon bash, multiple tickets, both sets of dragon wings, all just taking up space in storage. Sky pirates? most of the content has no interest to me, so I stopped even trying to do any of it. So far out of all the living story additions, the molten alliance dungeon was the only thing really enjoyable.

Vol.5241:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

Vol.5241:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

I take that as very bad news. So basically, the game is finished? The living story updates have so far been a little lacking, mostly veiled attempts to get the players to go back to older content that they have already completed. If no expansions are planned I don’t really see any future for the game as the living story is not going to carry it unless they make some major improvements to what they have been releasing so far.

Read the link dude. There is a whole bunch of other people/teams working behind the scenes that have no part with the current Living Story team right now, but that content could be pushed in as Living Story content.

And that makes a difference how? Still the same people/teams who have been doing the content up to now, so why do you believe the same people doing the same thing the same way will make it different?

The people are the same but the teams are not. If you work in a corporate/team environment you know that different teams can come up with different ideas and have different ‘synergy’

So they are breaking down the teams and reforming them with different devs? Where did it say that? I must have missed it if it was anywhere in that article.

Thorn.7963:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Thorn.7963:

I want it all to be introduced at once. I want a whole new world to explore like in GW1.

Not just log in, do the half hour of content, and wait 4 more weeks to do it again.

Well, you ‘wanting it all at once’, and it ‘not happening at all’ are two completely different things.

Also, who’s to say these event will be like the smaller filler stories?

At the end of the day, at this moment in time it’s all speculation.

The past updates have given me little reason to have faith. I want to get on a boat to Elona and have a whole new story, new skills, and just new everything to explore. I’m starving and I don’t want to eat crumbs.

I think you’re being a tad unreasonable with the ‘I want it now’ schtick.

Content doesn’t produce itself. They need to produce a story, since not much is known about these places since they’ve been shut off. They also need to produce:

• Character models
• Animations
• DE’s
• Cutscenes
• Dungeons
• Music(?) and Sound

If they did a bad job of it, I’m pretty sure you’d get your beard and walking stick and start with a ‘back in the day in GW1…’ speech.

Here’s the issue as I see it. I would rather they push out a QUALITY patch every 2 months and leave most of that new content in, then these half finished, bug ridden patches every 2 weeks. Quality over quantity.

TLDR; The RNG cash shop items rake in more than enough profit to sustain the b2p model.

2 weeks isn’t a problem. You do that by having multiple teams working on content, staggered so each have deadline two weeks apart. I’m sure Dragon Bask and the Sky Pirates started being worked on while we were still playing Frost and Flame.

Edit: Oops, just read the article. Well at least I’m right about the staggered teams.

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

Vol.5241:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

Vol.5241:

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

I take that as very bad news. So basically, the game is finished? The living story updates have so far been a little lacking, mostly veiled attempts to get the players to go back to older content that they have already completed. If no expansions are planned I don’t really see any future for the game as the living story is not going to carry it unless they make some major improvements to what they have been releasing so far.

Read the link dude. There is a whole bunch of other people/teams working behind the scenes that have no part with the current Living Story team right now, but that content could be pushed in as Living Story content.

And that makes a difference how? Still the same people/teams who have been doing the content up to now, so why do you believe the same people doing the same thing the same way will make it different?

The people are the same but the teams are not. If you work in a corporate/team environment you know that different teams can come up with different ideas and have different ‘synergy’

So they are breaking down the teams and reforming them with different devs? Where did it say that? I must have missed it if it was anywhere in that article.

I don’t have a source with me (it could have been a dev post here or a 3rd party site) but it mentioned that they learned from the mistakes of the Southsun event back in November and have readjusted their team so that they can start pumping out content every 2 weeks.

Well, with this new system they’ve got, each update will be 4 months of created content, rather than one. This means more for each release, more permanent content, more content in general, more skins, more more more…

I think that the thing a lot of people are looking for is not necessarily more open world stuff they are looking for more instanced chained story that ties into the main story. To expand on the personal story. Molten Alliance did this however it was temporary in my opinion it should have been permanent as it added some characters that need to return and have a permanent place in the world.

Things like Southsun Cove or sky pirates however do seem too much like filler.

I think the only way to do this right is for some temporary content to explain opening of large gates or appearances of Asura gates or the appearance of boats or airships. Who knows maybe that is why Sky pirates are here. That will take you to new zones. This is good for the filler stuff. Not new characters like was introduced in Molten alliance. That should still be introduced through the living story but tracked through the personal story. So they need to be tied to the filler content but loosely and have it’s own stand alone story.

I just want to say Vol is one of my favorite people on this forum. You are a good read at work, sir.

On topic I think this is an exciting idea for an MMO and I hope to see it implemented correctly. Whenever an expansion comes out for a game there is a story that goes along with it that we usually never see. Example, travel to a new place is suddenly restored because of X reason. So, with this we could actually be a part of that push into a new land for the first time. Think of how exciting it will be to open the gates to the Crystal Desert for the first time and pave the way for safe outposts. Eventually, leading to the fight against Kralkatorrik.

I think this will also be easier for new people to pick up the game years from now. Instead of having to purchase the base game plus the expansions they only need to get the one game. Less of a hassle and it seems like a decent marketing idea.

The more I think about it the better I like it. It makes me think perhaps the “old” innovative Anet is still with us.

LFk.1408:

Believe me, I don’t mind the RNG boxes at all. I’ve defended them in the past, and place the blame firmly on the shoulders of the players who can’t control their buying impulses. Many of whom are adults, by the way, so this isn’t even an age thing. Anyway, I digress…

There are very good reasons that gambling is age regulated in every advanced society…as with other choices requiring mature cognitive abilities usually beyond most adolescents in decision making (drinking, voting, credit etc and it is a long list).

The RNG-for-cash boxes are straight gambling without accountability or scrutiny or fairness to the player. It is straight exploitation either of adult peoples’ weaknesses, and don’t say you don’t have any, or some of the most vulnerable in our societies, the young.

Companies DO have responsibilites other than the almighty dollar profit motive, especially in an industry where a lot of their clients are in their formative years. Gaming companies have a responsibility to demonstrate ethics in their dealings with their community and customers….not exploitation just because they are getting away with it at the moment. I believe the cash boxes are an unconscionable exploitation of potentially vulnerable players and an abuse of ANet’s responsibilities.

anzenketh.3759:

I think that the thing a lot of people are looking for is not necessarily more open world stuff they are looking for more instanced chained story that ties into the main story. To expand on the personal story. Molten Alliance did this however it was temporary in my opinion it should have been permanent as it added some characters that need to return and have a permanent place in the world.

Things like Southsun Cove or sky pirates however do seem too much like filler.

I think the only way to do this right is for some temporary content to explain opening of large gates or appearances of Asura gates or the appearance of boats or airships. Who knows maybe that is why Sky pirates are here. That will take you to new zones. This is good for the filler stuff. Not new characters like was introduced in Molten alliance. That should still be introduced through the living story but tracked through the personal story. So they need to be tied to the filler content but loosely and have it’s own stand alone story.

sky pirates to much as a filler? you get a new dungeon. I really don’t get why people are complaining so much about these updates.

Also something nice i get from a belgian gaming website:(i’ll translate the important part, rest is 90% the same is the eurogamer interview.)

http://www.9lives.be/games/guild-wars-2/specials/interview-met-mike-zadorojny-over-guild-wars-2

Q: Their where speculations about a DLC. can you tell uss something about it?]

A:Everything wat is released, or is going to be released(like new races, professions etc is part of our strategy. From our poin of view this is much better then release a big DLC, whitch you need to buy. Al these updates remain free

As to whether there will be new zones released in Living Story content, Chris Whiteside had this to say:

’Q: Do you predict that more zones will be opened with more Living Story content?

A: Absolutely. We want to see the world grow. So the idea of new large land masses and anything you expect from an open world or MMO environment is on our list.’

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/editorials/chris-whiteside-living-story-tyria

el matadore.3852:

anzenketh.3759:

I think that the thing a lot of people are looking for is not necessarily more open world stuff they are looking for more instanced chained story that ties into the main story. To expand on the personal story. Molten Alliance did this however it was temporary in my opinion it should have been permanent as it added some characters that need to return and have a permanent place in the world.

Things like Southsun Cove or sky pirates however do seem too much like filler.

I think the only way to do this right is for some temporary content to explain opening of large gates or appearances of Asura gates or the appearance of boats or airships. Who knows maybe that is why Sky pirates are here. That will take you to new zones. This is good for the filler stuff. Not new characters like was introduced in Molten alliance. That should still be introduced through the living story but tracked through the personal story. So they need to be tied to the filler content but loosely and have it’s own stand alone story.

sky pirates to much as a filler? you get a new dungeon. I really don’t get why people are complaining so much about these updates.

Also something nice i get from a belgian gaming website:(i’ll translate the important part, rest is 90% the same is the eurogamer interview.)

http://www.9lives.be/games/guild-wars-2/specials/interview-met-mike-zadorojny-over-guild-wars-2

Q: Their where speculations about a DLC. can you tell uss something about it?]

A:Everything wat is released, or is going to be released(like new races, professions etc is part of our strategy. From our poin of view this is much better then release a big DLC, whitch you need to buy. Al these updates remain free

I have nothing against filler content. My comment is it does not tie into the main story at this time. It may in the future.

anzenketh.3759:

I think that the thing a lot of people are looking for is not necessarily more open world stuff they are looking for more instanced chained story that ties into the main story. To expand on the personal story. Molten Alliance did this however it was temporary in my opinion it should have been permanent as it added some characters that need to return and have a permanent place in the world.

Totally disagree. Real story stuff is nice, but I want new features, races, classes & updates to old zones & an occasional new zone. Not too crazy about cramming everyone into instances so that no-one plays together.

Well to be honest if they’ll really do this the way I’ll think they’ll do it then this is a pretty dead game.
Living story content was nice if (!) they would have been working on an expansion, but basically what he’s saying is that the whole company worked on the updates. Are you kidding me?

I don’t care about these small living world updates because
- it’s all about rng and gems
- they always introduce NEW plot holes (like the aetherblade story which makes no sense at all) , why can’t you just expand on Guild Wars lore?
- The only real content they ever created in more than 10 months were (the bad) southsun cove zone, fractals and to some part guild missions. Will we ever get any decent content like GW1 expansions? Of course not. If they keep the pace we haven’t even seen the whole map of Tyria in 5 years.
- Living story content just isn’t really good if you’re not doing expansions. It kind of feels like a minigame but not more. Every patch we get something like pumm 150 pinatas, do you really think that’s fun?

I’ve yet to see any decent content worth an expansion like whole new zones on par with release zone content or some permanent elite dungeon with STORY (fractals was the best excuse for not having a story at all…).
Give us something like DoA, FoW or UW; just limit those casual living story updates and start pushing out serious (!) content.

tl;dr
I’m very disappointed.

I LOVED expansions model from GW1. If GW2 will not feature something in similar scale I will be very dissapointed. That said, I will wait. The game is not even 1 year old atm. But if until the end of 2013 all we will get will be those small patches with temporary content then… well, yeah… bad things.

I’m not even gonna bother trying to explain the article anymore. People either don’t want to read the article or choose to ignore what it’s trying to explain.

I guess I should have changed the title to something more pompous.

Vol.5241:

I’m not even gonna bother trying to explain the article anymore. People either don’t want to read the article or choose to ignore what it’s trying to explain.

I guess I should have changed the title to something more pompous.

I give you props for trying though, your posts are always great to read =). More Vol for me is never a bad thing.

So they have stated that for FREE they will basically doing an expansion over a period of month instead of forcing us to pay $25 up front for an expansion pack will kill this game?

That is bull.

Doing it for FREE will gaunttee this game will be the new model for all future MMOs

Krosslite.1950:

So they have stated that for FREE they will basically

It’s not really free. There will be cash shop incentives sprinkled everywhere throughout the updates, which apparently makes them enough money to keep developing the game. Its a common F2P business model, which is expected from a B2P title. Also, the smaller the updates, the easier it is for NCSoft to intervene if they don’t like something.

Krosslite.1950:

So they have stated that for FREE they will basically doing an expansion over a period of month instead of forcing us to pay $25 up front for an expansion pack will kill this game?

That is bull.

Doing it for FREE will gaunttee this game will be the new model for all future MMOs

Do you really think you will get expansion like content?
Looking back I’m definitely saying no.

Krosslite.1950:

So they have stated that for FREE they will basically doing an expansion over a period of month instead of forcing us to pay $25 up front for an expansion pack will kill this game?

That is bull.

Doing it for FREE will gaunttee this game will be the new model for all future MMOs

Actually. Price aside. I prefer the large content updates from being spoon-fed with content in “episodes”. So this week we will do a dungeon X, next week we do Moa races, 3rd week we feed the goats, 4th week we do a jumping puzzle, 5th week we camp some world event and so on. Maybe some people like something like that. I dont. And I am voicing my opinion. I much rather get a large new content pack once in a while and explore it at my own pace and will.

el matadore.3852:

sky pirates to much as a filler? you get a new dungeon. I really don’t get why people are complaining so much about these updates.

What about people who don’t like dungeons?

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

’Q: Do you predict that more zones will be opened with more Living Story content?

A: Absolutely. We want to see the world grow. So the idea of new large land masses and anything you expect from an open world or MMO environment is on our list.’

I’d feel a lot more confident about that if our only experience with a new zone hadn’t been Southsun Cove.

People are confused because on one hand they say that living story is their main focus, but on the other hand say that only a small proportion of their workforce are working on it, the rest working on other content’.

“we will probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy.”

“[Living World] is only a fraction of what the rest of the company is working on,”

What is this other content if not a mini expansion at least? It’s certainly not bug fixing/game balance because this is happening at a very slow rate. You think they are going to release cantha or elona has part of a living story fortnightly update? More likely they will release an elona content pack for 15 quid on the gemstore with a tenous link to whatever living story rng extravaganza is currently taking place. I’m totally fine with this btw, elona is elona after all

Vol.5241:

I actually think that GW2 players are very, very spoiled.

Sure, there are problems in this game that need to be addressed, as all games have. But we still have it pretty good.

The issue with MMORPGs is that people are too used to mediocre content.

“All quests are kill ten rats quests? That’s pretty good.”

“We have to wait in line to kill a boss? That’s pretty good.”

“The storyline is a mess that everyone skips? That’s pretty good.”

“Raids are just RNG lotteries so maybe one person in a group of 40 will get the gear we want? That’s pretty good.”

The result is what we see today in GW2. The players looking for great, fun content are not that common around here. Farmers, grinders, addicts and exploiters (who are all more or less the same thing, anyway), in other hand, dominate this community – which makes sense, since they are more concerned about grinding than about the content itself. It’s easy to then look at any piece of content, even if (actually, especially if) it’s just a mindless and easy grind, and say “it’s pretty good”. Unfortunatelly, as long as this kind of player is around, MMORPGs won’t be pressured to be anything more than the Korean grind cesspool they have ever been.

Erasculio.2914:

Vol.5241:

I actually think that GW2 players are very, very spoiled.

Sure, there are problems in this game that need to be addressed, as all games have. But we still have it pretty good.

The issue with MMORPGs is that people are too used to mediocre content.

“All quests are kill ten rats quests? That’s pretty good.”

“We have to wait in line to kill a boss? That’s pretty good.”

“The storyline is a mess that everyone skips? That’s pretty good.”

“Raids are just RNG lotteries so maybe one person in a group of 40 will get the gear we want? That’s pretty good.”

The result is what we see today in GW2. The players looking for great, fun content are not that common around here. Farmers, grinders, addicts and exploiters (who are all more or less the same thing, anyway), in other hand, dominate this community – which makes sense, since they are more concerned about grinding than about the content itself. It’s easy to then look at any piece of content, even if (actually, especially if) it’s just a mindless and easy grind, and say “it’s pretty good”. Unfortunatelly, as long as this kind of player is around, MMORPGs won’t be pressured to be anything more than the Korean grind cesspool they have ever been.

As a farmer, I’m insulted by your insinuation and challenge you to a duel.

Thats good to hear, the key to the future success of this game (IMOP) is a blend of living world – a pioneering new content delivery system that other mmos don’t have – and traditional content delivery through expansions. You can be experimental without scaring people away.

The problem Colin is these projects have felt fleeting and temporary and simply not anything to get hyped about.

I’d gladly shell out 40-50 for a whole new continent to explore, and I’m also patient for it as well. But hearing that there may be none of that worries me.

But focusing on improving the core GW2 experience is something I can get behind.

But I’d really kill for new skills and weapons.