Guild Wars 2

PolarisNova.3867:

aspirine.6852:

No expansion will make it a dead game within half a year or less. No amount of living story can give you the effect what a new expansion does.

Can I have your crystal ball please?

Why, because as far as I can tell, instead of getting content all in one big blob (expansion), it’s evolving and coming to us in stages. Is that so difficult to envision? o.o

Well, I think the issue is that the content on offer isn’t actually comparable to what you’d get in a true MMORPG expansion. Even if you took 2 years worth of the kind of content we’ve been getting and offered it all at once, it still wouldn’t be on the same level as a WoW expansion.

For example, in WoW’s latest expansion you got:
- 16 new raid bosses at launch, with 3 difficulty levels.
- 9 new 5-man dungeons with 3 difficulty levels.
- 7 new scenarios (like a normal mode dungeon, but for 1-3 people).
- About 1400 new quests in an entirely new continent.
- About 900 new achievements.
- 2 new PvP maps, 1 new arena map.
- The usual mass of armor skins, weapon skins, mounts etc.
- Pet battle system.
- A new class.
- A new playable race.
- Increased level cap.

Then you have the content patches throughout the expansion’s life cycle on top of that.

As much as I’m impressed (and surprised) by the frequency of updates in GW2, to say it’s the equivalent of an expansion being spread out over time is just plain inaccurate.

Huge disappointment as that means we will be getting permanent content like wxp, guild missions, fotm and laurel’s once every few months(with extremely small additions, like increased wxp ranks, in these updates obviously showing they have no idea how to release something that’s complete). Which doesn’t do it for me as im tired of trying to make new friends each time i log in and only a little bit of the temporary content has given me enjoyment but it’s gone now so i can’t go back and enjoy it again.

I’m just gonna give my account to someone who actually might enjoy this game as i haven’t for a long while now. I’m just not into temporary content i think it should be used to showcase holidays and huge events like the opening of a zone or dungeon/raid(something people will remember for a long time) but besides that it makes all the work you put forward worthless as it’s just being thrown out for the next update instead of enjoyed by players for years to come.

It just feels like they do this so reviewing their content is harder and anything that gets bashed is gone before anyone can really publicize anything about it.

ozma.3498:

For example, in WoW’s latest expansion you got:
- 16 new raid bosses at launch, with 3 difficulty levels.
- 9 new 5-man dungeons with 3 difficulty levels.
- 7 new scenarios (like a normal mode dungeon, but for 1-3 people).
- About 1400 new quests in an entirely new continent.
- About 900 new achievements.
- 2 new PvP maps, 1 new arena map.
- The usual mass of armor skins, weapon skins, mounts etc.
- Pet battle system.
- A new class.
- A new playable race.
- Increased level cap.

Then you have the content patches throughout the expansion’s life cycle on top of that.

As much as I’m impressed (and surprised) by the frequency of updates in GW2, to say it’s the equivalent of an expansion being spread out over time is just plain inaccurate.

And what was taken away? Every character was de facto destroyed by that expansion which de facto didn’t expand the world but merely changed the carrot.

I’m all for expanding the world, but not the way blizzard did, by destroying my character every year. That’s not fun. I am invested in my characters and I don’t like them being removed from the game when I buy an expansion.

We have so far seen a content delivery system being tested. If it works out the way the company hopes, always an if, then they will put big content mixed in with small transient content. If after they slide the first bit of big content in with the living story arc people can’t accept this as a good strategy (ie stop putting money into the game) then they will bundle the rest of the large content as an expansion.

marnick.4305:

ozma.3498:

For example, in WoW’s latest expansion you got:
- 16 new raid bosses at launch, with 3 difficulty levels.
- 9 new 5-man dungeons with 3 difficulty levels.
- 7 new scenarios (like a normal mode dungeon, but for 1-3 people).
- About 1400 new quests in an entirely new continent.
- About 900 new achievements.
- 2 new PvP maps, 1 new arena map.
- The usual mass of armor skins, weapon skins, mounts etc.
- Pet battle system.
- A new class.
- A new playable race.
- Increased level cap.

Then you have the content patches throughout the expansion’s life cycle on top of that.

As much as I’m impressed (and surprised) by the frequency of updates in GW2, to say it’s the equivalent of an expansion being spread out over time is just plain inaccurate.

And what was taken away? Every character was de facto destroyed by that expansion which de facto didn’t expand the world but merely changed the carrot.

I’m all for expanding the world, but not the way blizzard did, by destroying my character every year. That’s not fun. I am invested in my characters and I don’t like them being removed from the game when I buy an expansion.

Except we are talking about the content blizzard added in their expansion showing that if gw2 had an expansion and added half of the stuff that blizzard does(content wise not raids, gear progression blah just in pure amount of content)Then we would have tons of permanent things to do that would add to the life of the game and bring in more people to play it whenever they see fit because it would be permanent. Because so far living story has had trouble even getting to 1/4 the amount of permanent content that mmo’s like wow, rift, ff11, w/e have gotten threw expansions and updates that add to those expansions like the recent 2.3-2.4 rift patches which was about the size of all the gw2 patches combined.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just to clarify a bit, as Mike said there are numerous teams beyond our Living World teams, and some of them are working on much longer term projects which we’ll go into details on much further down the road.

It’s entirely possible some of the types of content which you might traditionally find in expansions would be released through an expansion in the future for Gw2, and it’s possible we’d try something different when it comes to integrating those type of releases.

We have no final plans one way or another about expansions at this time, and certainly haven’t ruled them out, it’s something we’ll discuss more in the future.

Edited to add: Our primary focus right now is on making the core Gw2 experience as strong and compelling as possible, we’ll release a blog post later this month detailing more specifically our plans for Gw2 in the second half of 2013.

Right now you are making only content for gamers that are still playing not for gamers that left the game or have some break. Such gamers are waiting for more pernament new content like new zones, new skills, lvl cap, new class, new race, new dungeons, guild stuffs not the guild mission onece in the week. Such big in content expansion will bring beck the old and new gamers.

Zlociutki.9165:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just to clarify a bit, as Mike said there are numerous teams beyond our Living World teams, and some of them are working on much longer term projects which we’ll go into details on much further down the road.

It’s entirely possible some of the types of content which you might traditionally find in expansions would be released through an expansion in the future for Gw2, and it’s possible we’d try something different when it comes to integrating those type of releases.

We have no final plans one way or another about expansions at this time, and certainly haven’t ruled them out, it’s something we’ll discuss more in the future.

Edited to add: Our primary focus right now is on making the core Gw2 experience as strong and compelling as possible, we’ll release a blog post later this month detailing more specifically our plans for Gw2 in the second half of 2013.

Right now you are making only content for gamers that are still playing not for gamers that left the game or have some break. Such gamers are waiting for more pernament new content like new zones, new skills, lvl cap, new class, new race, new dungeons, guild stuffs not the guild mission onece in the week. Such big in content expansion will bring beck the old and new gamers.

No it wont, because the majority of people who left he game didnt do it because of the pve. Who cares if they put a new race or not ? This game can be improved in another aspects and not on adding new races and kitten like that.

Knox.3748:

No it wont, because the majority of people who left he game didnt do it because of the pve. Who cares if they put a new race or not ? This game can be improved in another aspects and not on adding new races and kitten like that.

I don’t think you understand the average MMOer nearly as well as you think you do.

ozma.3498:

Well, I think the issue is that the content on offer isn’t actually comparable to what you’d get in a true MMORPG expansion. Even if you took 2 years worth of the kind of content we’ve been getting and offered it all at once, it still wouldn’t be on the same level as a WoW expansion.

For example, in WoW’s latest expansion you got:
- 16 new raid bosses at launch, with 3 difficulty levels.
- 9 new 5-man dungeons with 3 difficulty levels.
- 7 new scenarios (like a normal mode dungeon, but for 1-3 people).
- About 1400 new quests in an entirely new continent.
- About 900 new achievements.
- 2 new PvP maps, 1 new arena map.
- The usual mass of armor skins, weapon skins, mounts etc.
- Pet battle system.
- A new class.
- A new playable race.
- Increased level cap.

Then you have the content patches throughout the expansion’s life cycle on top of that.

As much as I’m impressed (and surprised) by the frequency of updates in GW2, to say it’s the equivalent of an expansion being spread out over time is just plain inaccurate.

call me optimistic, but I think that GW2 will receive just as much in the upcoming year. Why?
1. It has been stated that a separate team is working on far bigger projects and that they don’t know should they cut that content into pieces and release for free or release with an expansion.
2. We will be getting content every 2 weeks now and they promised more and more permanent additions with the new living story.
3. They told us that we will be seeing new fractals (which I imagine will be the old Living story dungeons slightly revamped)
And I’m also going to praise this game for being the first game to actually give you items for achievement points. Can’t wait to see the system.
In anyways speculation doesn’t really do much, we’ll see what developers will present to us in further content updates.

Nick.6972:

PolarisNova.3867:

Nick.6972:

How did this come to this.
What happened to old Arena Net?
Seriously.
Greed? Money? Fame?

What are you talking about? Did you actually read the information?

GW1 was bigger game than GW2 and yet Arena Net managed to sustain it even without micro transactions.
I fail to see how GW2 will gain additional 3 000 000 players to reach the GW1 level without expansions.

LOL LOL LOL i’m sorry but how did you manage to type that with a straight face?

First off GW2 is somewhere in the neighborhood for 10-20x the size as GW1 in both land mass and content.

Secondly GW1 had <1million players. The 5-6 million figure they spouted was SALES, which included every base purchase and expansion as a separate sale. Which is fair since that’s how they made their money, but it had nothing to do with actual players.

GW2 has 3-4x more players than GW1 did over its entire lifetime.

Now for the living story discussion. The living story content is fun, but so far it has been very much fluff and not a lot of meat. It is in no way comparable to an expansion, and I would much rather they make an expansion that I have to pay for if it would advance the dragon storyline (you know the premise of the game and the reason most of us bought it) instead of making up increasingly ridiculous sub plots that don’t tie together or advance the story at all.

It’s been 10 months and the only new zone we’ve gotten is southsun and that was a flop. There are no hearts there, very few events, underwhelming rewards, overtuned mobs and it is isolated from the rest of the world. If you are going to half-kitten it then don’t bother at all. Build an expansion team and make zones right like you did the first time and tie them into the actual world.

ozma.3498:

PolarisNova.3867:

aspirine.6852:

No expansion will make it a dead game within half a year or less. No amount of living story can give you the effect what a new expansion does.

Can I have your crystal ball please?

Why, because as far as I can tell, instead of getting content all in one big blob (expansion), it’s evolving and coming to us in stages. Is that so difficult to envision? o.o

Well, I think the issue is that the content on offer isn’t actually comparable to what you’d get in a true MMORPG expansion. Even if you took 2 years worth of the kind of content we’ve been getting and offered it all at once, it still wouldn’t be on the same level as a WoW expansion.

For example, in WoW’s latest expansion you got:
- 16 new raid bosses at launch, with 3 difficulty levels.
- 9 new 5-man dungeons with 3 difficulty levels.
- 7 new scenarios (like a normal mode dungeon, but for 1-3 people).
- About 1400 new quests in an entirely new continent.
- About 900 new achievements.
- 2 new PvP maps, 1 new arena map.
- The usual mass of armor skins, weapon skins, mounts etc.
- Pet battle system.
- A new class.
- A new playable race.
- Increased level cap.

Then you have the content patches throughout the expansion’s life cycle on top of that.

As much as I’m impressed (and surprised) by the frequency of updates in GW2, to say it’s the equivalent of an expansion being spread out over time is just plain inaccurate.

You should not compare WoW to GWII. And parts of what you just listed are things you especially shouldn’t compare between them.

1.A. Increased level cap – Blizzard increases the level cap to make people grind for a long time and make them stay subscribed for longer.
1.B. ArenaNet doesn’t want us to grind, and there is no reason for us to do it since we don’t pay a subscription.

2.A. Raids and dungeons – Every time Blizzard adds a new raid or a new dungeon they make the old ones 100% useless. There may be over 100 dungeons and over 50 raids in WoW, but there will only be 1-3 of each at one time that you will actually get rewarded for completing at max level or close to max level.
2.B. In GWII you are scaled down to the level of the zone/dungeon and are properly rewarded for completing it. You will get gear appropriate to your level. Even though there only are about 32 dungeon experiences in GWII the game launched with a lot more VIABLE content than WoW has even after 9 years.
This also goes for open world areas. WoW may have more, but once you outlevel a zone that zone has zero value to you. There are a lot of starting zones for example, but once you have outleveled one of them all of the others, including the previous, are useless.
That means if you complete the entirety of Durotar all other starting zones won’t matter, which means that so much time and resources has gone into a making a zone you won’t ever go to.

3.A. Gear – Blizzard only makes new models for helms and shoulderpads, the rest of the gear use the same models that were available at launch. Heck, there is not even a model for breastplate armour, it is just paint on the chest.
This means they can make a lot of new armour sets, because they just have to make a new helm and shoulderpads and just paint the rest of the gear.
3.B. ArenaNet makes new models for every piece of armour, which means it will take longer time and more resources to make just a single set.

By the way, I am not trying to defend ArenaNet or anything like that, I too would prefer a traditional expansion.
In my opinion this is simply too risky.
It sounds great on paper, but lets see how they pull it off. If it works then it may be something other MMOs will do, but if it fails I don’t see a very bright future for this game.

They claimed that Jan-Feb would be an expansions worth of content…… I know that they back tracked on that quote, but he did say it. I would like to see a new continent. That is part of what made GW1 stay fresh. GW2 is getting stale. If it weren’t for my guild, I wouldn’t be playing.

marnick.4305:

And what was taken away? Every character was de facto destroyed by that expansion which de facto didn’t expand the world but merely changed the carrot.

I’m all for expanding the world, but not the way blizzard did, by destroying my character every year. That’s not fun. I am invested in my characters and I don’t like them being removed from the game when I buy an expansion.

That’s a completely separate discussion. I’m merely pointing out what an “expansion’s worth of content” actually is. The GW2 equivalent would be the exact same content, except no raised level cap, and gear that was simply skins rather than increased stats.

I have a feeling that the monthly content release makes it hard for people to judge how much content is being pushed out. Its not even been a whole year yet and we already got the following stuff since release:

- 139 New Achievements
- 62 New Dynamic Events
- 9 New Jumping Puzzles
- 3 new mini dungeons (Forsaken Halls, Vexa’s Lab,Canach’s Lair)
- 2 new story-line instances (Braham and Rox)
- The Diving Goggles Activity
- Costume Brawl
- 3 farming Activity (Halloween (haunted Doors), Wintersday and Dragon Bash)
- 5 PvP Mini Game (Lunatic Inquisition,Reaper’s Rumble, Snowball mayhem, Crab toss, Dragon Ball)
- 4 mini games (Bell choir, super adventure box,Toypocalypse,Moa Racing )
- 510 new recipes (Halloween, Lost Shores, Wintersday)
- 15 new minis
- 98 new skins
- 20 new tonics
- 2 new world event (Skritt Thief and Modus Sceleris)
- 4 event specific dungeon (Ascent to Madness, Tixx’s Infinirarium, Molten Core, Aetherblade Retreat)
- Fractal of the mists (9 new mini dungeons)
- 2 new PvP map (Temple of the Silent Storm, Spirit Watch)
- New Gear Tier
- 2 new maps (Mad King Labyrinth, Southsun Cove)
- 9 new game features (crafting materials accessible through bank,PvP paid Tournaments, guesting, guild missions, trading post preview, selectable daily achievement, Custom arena, spectaor mode, WvW progression)
- 4 new currency ( Pristine Fractal Relics,Laurels, guild merits, guild commendations)
- 3 scavenger hunt (the mad king, Karka scavenger hunt, Marriner Plaque )
- 42 new guild missions
- 1 new meta event (Legendary Karka Queen)

I am sure I forgot to count stuff here but even so there might not have been many new maps or new classes but If all of this was released all at once wouldn’t it be an expansion worth of stuff? Personally I love they’re not lumping stuff up for an expansion. Its nice getting large amounts of content. Someone mentioned a specific expansion of another game (am not a player of that game) but as far as I can tell that expansion took 2 years to develop and in between there were only a few raids released) I personally feel a game keeps me a lot more engaged by providing new stuff every couple of weeks for me to do then a massive amount of content in 2 years time with some repeatable content every few months while we wait. As we can see above we got a ton of stuff. Now I understand the content is not engaging for everyone that’s a bummer no doubt but even so at least its just a couple of weeks / a month before you get new stuff that might be interesting to you, if a whole expansion isn’t your kind of content the time you’d need to wait is measured in years and what do you do in the interm?

I would also urge patience, we’re still in the first year, a lot of time was devoted to bug fixing and improvement which we got a mountain of with ever release and isnt even counted above. As the core gets more robust more resources can be devoted to new content. We already know the 4 living story teams are just a subset working on the game and there is more long term stuff planed. There was already mentioned in an ingame chat with a developer about a possible gw2 style implementation of raiding being already in the works.. I would bet thats definitely one such long term project !

I got nothing against Expansions but if they keep this up I think they’re quite right in that there might not be the need for one. The 4 teams working on the living story can have 2 months leadtime working on content if each team release a piece every 2 weeks. And the long term team can work on expensive features like new zones, classes, features such as housing or whatever which isnt doable in 2 week timeframes and release those once they’re done in 3 or 6 months. I can see this working beautifully personally!

Naus the Gobbo.5172:

1.A. Increased level cap – Blizzard increases the level cap to make people grind for a long time and make them stay subscribed for longer.
1.B. ArenaNet doesn’t want us to grind, and there is no reason for us to do it since we don’t pay a subscription.

This is only true if you’re going by ArenaNet’s PR material. If you look at what they actually implement into the game, it’s a different story entirely – GW2 has quite a lot of pure grinds. Sure, a lot of it is “optional” but so is everything in every MMO. You could play WoW and never raid and just stick to running the 5-man content with gear you got from 5-mans if you choose to. That’s essentially exactly what GW2’s PvE endgame is anyway.

2.A. Raids and dungeons – Every time Blizzard adds a new raid or a new dungeon they make the old ones 100% useless. There may be over 100 dungeons and over 50 raids in WoW, but there will only be 1-3 of each at one time that you will actually get rewarded for completing at max level or close to max level.

There’s 9 max level dungeons in WoW and one current raid. But that aside, I was merely pointing out how much content an expansion’s worth of content is, since some people incorrectly think that we’re getting the equivalent amount of content.

WoW has a lot of problems. I’m not playing it because of many of those problems. But that’s not really the debate here. The debate I’m having is that GW2’s content is largely superficial and doesn’t really offer anything to absorb yourself in the way other MMOs do at endgame.

And regardless of the fact that WoW’s old content becomes obsolete, at the very least WoW players are getting new high level content – we’re not. Is it really such a good thing if in a year, or two years, or five years we are still running CoF and Twilight Arbor, and smirking about WoW players whose new dungeons and raids from two years ago are now obsolete, even though they’ve had a bunch of new high end PvE to sink their teeth into?

2.B. In GWII you are scaled down to the level of the zone/dungeon and are properly rewarded for completing it. You will get gear appropriate to your level. Even though there only are about 32 dungeon experiences in GWII the game launched with a lot more VIABLE content than WoW has even after 9 years.

Yeah, GW2 has more dungeon content than WoW currently has at max level, but the difference is that we will likely be stuck with the same “high end” content for the foreseeable future whereas WoW gets a bunch of new content every 5-6 months.

This also goes for open world areas. WoW may have more, but once you outlevel a zone that zone has zero value to you. There are a lot of starting zones for example, but once you have outleveled one of them all of the others, including the previous, are useless.

That means if you complete the entirety of Durotar all other starting zones won’t matter, which means that so much time and resources has gone into a making a zone you won’t ever go to.

To be fair, GW2’s low level zones are a cakewalk once you hit high level and get good gear. Mobs die without any effort at all. You’d have to go naked for anything less than a Champion mob to pose a slight threat. Also, there’s no reason to go back to them besides meta events and completing dailies.

3.A. Gear – Blizzard only makes new models for helms and shoulderpads, the rest of the gear use the same models that were available at launch. Heck, there is not even a model for breastplate armour, it is just paint on the chest.
This means they can make a lot of new armour sets, because they just have to make a new helm and shoulderpads and just paint the rest of the gear.
3.B. ArenaNet makes new models for every piece of armour, which means it will take longer time and more resources to make just a single set.

Yep, WoW’s engine has a lot of limitations. And frankly, I think Blizzard are getting lazier and lazier with the armor sets. But still – the amount of actual playable content in an expansion is huge compared to what we’re getting.

Despite all this, I’d rather play GW2 than WoW since it’s still new and fresh. But down the road, I can’t see myself logging in to press F next to stuff and jump through a load of hoops to get a new back skin when nothing new at the PvE end-game is being added.

Mirta.5029:

2. We will be getting content every 2 weeks now and they promised more and more permanent additions with the new living story.

Careful, now. If that doesn’t happen in a tangible and timely fashion people here will become upset yet again about that whole ‘broken promise’ thing (see also: manifesto), and there will be other people here on the forums insisting that they made no such promise – but you will be one of the ones who says they did!

I want an expansion, not these poop living story thingies.

New areas, new races, new classes etc!

Galen Grey.4709:

I have a feeling that the monthly content release makes it hard for people to judge how much content is being pushed out. Its not even been a whole year yet and we already got the following stuff since release:

- 139 New Achievements
- 62 New Dynamic Events
etc.

Thanks for posting the list Galen, although it has to be said that a lot of the content we have seen so far is extremely light-weight stuff that isn’t engaging and is largely superficial. Also, if listing things like the number of minis, recipes etc. separately the WoW list would (again) completely dwarf the list of what we’ve seen in GW2.

We’re getting the “side dish” but not the “main course” – all the new dynamic events, mini-games etc. are nice but they’re not compelling content. I’d say Fractals of the Mists has been the best addition we’ve seen so far, but that had been in development for years (you see some of it on the manifesto video) and I suspect it was intended to be in the game at launch but didn’t get finished in time.

My point in comparing GW2’s content to WoW was not to say WoW is a better game, however – it’s not (any more, at least). It was merely to correct somebody who stated we’re getting roughly the same amount of content as an expansion but spread out over lots of small updates, which is obviously not the case.

Tachenon.5270:

Mirta.5029:

2. We will be getting content every 2 weeks now and they promised more and more permanent additions with the new living story.

Careful, now. If that doesn’t happen in a tangible and timely fashion people here will become upset yet again about that whole ‘broken promise’ thing (see also: manifesto), and there will be other people here on the forums insisting that they made no such promise – but you will be one of the ones who says they did!

hmmm point taken. Time to save the link I suppose

@ozma
I think you said it best here " I’d rather play GW2 than WoW since it’s still new and fresh"

I would say emphases on new and fresh is very important. At end of the day every action you can take in any game is repetitive and boring. The new really hard raid just released? its only great while its new and fresh. Once you learn the mechanics and get a good team it too will become the equivalent of pressing F (only it will be 1 – 10 or whatever keybinds you have) Every content has an expiry date and the way its being handled by having it stay around 1 month or so helps a lot with that imho.

The other enemy of new and fresh is the difficulty level. If new content is trivial it will become repetitive much faster then if its difficult. At least I am very happy here that if the last 2 dungeons we got are any indication of future content the difficulty level is increasing a bit and this should keep content interesting for 2 weeks no problem dont you think?

This is also just the new stuff we’re talking about If today I feel like trying one of the dungeons, a particular jumping puzzle or whatever Dynamic event, I am still free to do it.

What do you mean with nothing new at PvE end-game is being added? Just last month we had the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon, the Not So Secret jp and the achievements. why is that not end-game pve content in your opinion?

Galen Grey.4709:

- 139 New Achievements
- 62 New Dynamic Events
- 9 New Jumping Puzzles
- 3 new mini dungeons (Forsaken Halls, Vexa’s Lab,Canach’s Lair)
- 2 new story-line instances (Braham and Rox)
- The Diving Goggles Activity
- Costume Brawl
- 3 farming Activity (Halloween (haunted Doors), Wintersday and Dragon Bash)
- 5 PvP Mini Game (Lunatic Inquisition,Reaper’s Rumble, Snowball mayhem, Crab toss, Dragon Ball)
- 4 mini games (Bell choir, super adventure box,Toypocalypse,Moa Racing )
- 510 new recipes (Halloween, Lost Shores, Wintersday)
- 15 new minis
- 98 new skins
- 20 new tonics
- 2 new world event (Skritt Thief and Modus Sceleris)
- 4 event specific dungeon (Ascent to Madness, Tixx’s Infinirarium, Molten Core, Aetherblade Retreat)
- Fractal of the mists (9 new mini dungeons)
- 2 new PvP map (Temple of the Silent Storm, Spirit Watch)
- New Gear Tier
- 2 new maps (Mad King Labyrinth, Southsun Cove)
- 9 new game features (crafting materials accessible through bank,PvP paid Tournaments, guesting, guild missions, trading post preview, selectable daily achievement, Custom arena, spectaor mode, WvW progression)
- 4 new currency ( Pristine Fractal Relics,Laurels, guild merits, guild commendations)
- 3 scavenger hunt (the mad king, Karka scavenger hunt, Marriner Plaque )
- 42 new guild missions
- 1 new meta event (Legendary Karka Queen)

That’s an excellent list! And all that in just 10 months.

WvW Additions:
-2 Traps were introduced
-A completely new progression system which offers improved abilities
-Breakout events
-WvW Dailies

Some minor additions:
-I count 10 new Jumping Puzzles (including Not so Secret)
-There are 14 new achievements in the Explorable category that are similar to mini-dungeons

Ordin.9047:

They claimed that Jan-Feb would be an expansions worth of content…… I know that they back tracked on that quote, but he did say it. I would like to see a new continent. That is part of what made GW1 stay fresh. GW2 is getting stale. If it weren’t for my guild, I wouldn’t be playing.

I don’t think everything they have added since release all together could qualify as an expansions worth of content. We’ve had a couple series of short story instances (Dragon Bash had maybe 15 minutes worth), tedious busy-work achievements that are nothing but running around spamming the F key at objects in the world, and a few dungeons, only one of which is permanent. I don’t see how anyone can consider an hour or so worth of story instances, a few hours of running around F-spamming (in existing maps), and a couple hours with of dungeons as “a full expansion worth of content”

If I had stopped playing in October, and just now returned to the game, my “new content” options would be Fractals (which target a specific type of gamer), a few dynamic events in Southsun, and whatever new temporary junk is live this week. Everything that was “added” between October and June doesn’t matter, because it’s all gone now. That content, those rewards, the achievement points, etc are all things I will never be able to get or experience. I’m not even going to include guild missions in this, because unless a returning player joins a large guild, they are not even an option. Even if missions were included, that’s only about an hour’s worth of content each week.

However, I am not the player described above. I am the type of player that this “living content” is aimed at. I have played since release, I’ve had the chance to experience it all as it was released, and then watch it fade away. I still don’t like it, because all of that is gone. When I make a new character (I definitely qualify as an alt-aholic) all there is to play is GW2 as it was released back in August of last year, plus the previously mentioned “junk of the week” that happens to be live. Any time I want to play, my only options are the same content that has been here for 10 months, and the current 15 minutes worth of “living story”. How is that comparable in any way to having an entirely new areas added? Does that compare at all to having Cantha or Elona added to the game?

I’m not saying that GW2 at release wasn’t enough. It was amazing, and that is still true. But what it all comes down to is that GW2 is still in it’s “just released” state because none of the new content stays around for anyone but the currently active players to experience. No amount of “added up” temporary content will ever be comparable to an all-at-once, and permanent expansion. That type of expansion adds something for current players, returning past players, and future players.

So this isnt a game anymore, they’ve decided it was easier and more profitable to be a casino selling rng boxes than releasing content. Good job gamblers, its your game now. Cya.

ozma.3498:

Galen Grey.4709:

I have a feeling that the monthly content release makes it hard for people to judge how much content is being pushed out. Its not even been a whole year yet and we already got the following stuff since release:

- 139 New Achievements
- 62 New Dynamic Events
etc.

Thanks for posting the list Galen, although it has to be said that a lot of the content we have seen so far is extremely light-weight stuff that isn’t engaging and is largely superficial. Also, if listing things like the number of minis, recipes etc. separately the WoW list would (again) completely dwarf the list of what we’ve seen in GW2.

We’re getting the “side dish” but not the “main course” – all the new dynamic events, mini-games etc. are nice but they’re not compelling content. I’d say Fractals of the Mists has been the best addition we’ve seen so far, but that had been in development for years (you see some of it on the manifesto video) and I suspect it was intended to be in the game at launch but didn’t get finished in time.

My point in comparing GW2’s content to WoW was not to say WoW is a better game, however – it’s not (any more, at least). It was merely to correct somebody who stated we’re getting roughly the same amount of content as an expansion but spread out over lots of small updates, which is obviously not the case.

Compelling content is a tricky subject. Gw2 has a disadvantage there in thakittens trying to cater for a wide range of players. From casuals who like that they dont have to have a commitment in order to play the game for whom festivals and their minigames are perfect content, just log in, have some fun and thats it. To more hardcorish players who want goals and challenge such as FotM. For that reason I dont think its entirely fair to judge the content by how much its compelling. I understand that at the end of the day its what counts. If there was an MMO that had an infinite amount of content which I dont enjoy it would be worst for me then an MMO that had just 10 hours of content that I love. But like I said in my previous post because content releases happen so frequently if there is nothing for me 1 month its not a problem. With an expansion I’d still need to wait 1 – 2 years for new content anyway.

MoP had a ton of content sure no doubt. Provided none of that content was in development before the release of that previous campaign you’d still be comparing 10 months of gw2 releases with 24 months it took blizzard to complete MoP. Thats 2.4x more time MoP had. If we multiple what we got so far by 2.4x thats also A LOT of content wouldn’t you say? Not only that but we have no idea on what stuff they’re working on in the background beyond the living story. For example they mentioned they are working on their own answer to raiding which I guess is something that interests you a lot. There might be other stuff too that we dont know about. Gw2 is still young.

And thats not considering this is still gw2’s first year after release. So you have to consider content will be released slower then it would if this was the 2nd year because they’re still fixing issues, putting processes in place and gaining the experience of what issues there are in running gw2 live.

How are they going to implement huge changes like new professions and races? Cause if those will never come, I’m sure the life of gw 2 won’t be as long as it’s predecessor and I’ll be bored way earlier.

bartrentenaar.8674:

How are they going to implement huge changes like new professions and races?

By adding them to an update.

every 2 weeks, you get NEW rng boxes and some stupid achievement with a stupid reward.

To earn it, you have to kill something 250 times plus go press F to shoot some fireworks into the air for 150 times!!! Plus many more repetitive tasks! TALK ABOUT FUN!

That is not content.

For GW vets, imagine if Cantha or Elona was only explorable a section at a time with two weeks between new sections being added. I don’t know that that’s how new regions/zones are going to be added in GW2, but it’s certainly a realistic possibility. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume it is. In that context, would you rather new regions/zones be opened all at once in an expansion or one section at a time through Living Story updates?

bartrentenaar.8674:

How are they going to implement huge changes like new professions and races? Cause if those will never come, I’m sure the life of gw 2 won’t be as long as it’s predecessor and I’ll be bored way earlier.

> Living Story leads into the Dominion of Four Winds

> Tengu decide to join up in the fight to go back to their homeland.

> Land on Cantha which is currently under attack / locked down by the Ministry of Purity.

> Living Story for the next few months / half a year / [insert timeframe here] focuses on freeing Cantha, with other smaller stories back on Kryta.

> After Cantha is freed, the Tengu are eternally grateful, everyone hugs each other and cries tears of joy, and the Tengu and a profession specific to their race is unlocked for everyone (not just those who took part).

I think people have a problem with it for two reasons:

• They have in their mind what is traditionally in an expansion, and are thinking that no expansion = no new races, professions, lands ect.
• Most of the LS content so far has been temporary, and so on hearing that Anet are going to be keeping up with the LS, that most content will be temporary as well.

However, this may not be the case. It would be entirely possible for Anet to introduce new races, professions, lands, dungeons ect through the LS. Most of these have already been evidenced in the LS so far (Race = Karka, land = Southsun, Dungeons = Most LS content) and regardless of the execution of it, it was shown it can be done.

Improve on the execution of it, add meatier updates with permanent additions, and I’d actually say that adding content using these events as opposed to just ‘load the disc and it’s all available’ would actually be much, much more immersive.

Galen Grey.4709:

But like I said in my previous post because content releases happen so frequently if there is nothing for me 1 month its not a problem. With an expansion I’d still need to wait 1 – 2 years for new content anyway.

For many of us that 1 year wait is coming up in 2 months. A lot of people hit their “what do I do now?” point months ago…I’ve hit mine recently. Things were added to hold some people over. FotM for the certain type of players that enjoy that content, these temp events to keep us busy for the moment. This works to some degree, but only as a hold-off/buying time measure.

Now we’re being told that this is all we’re getting. That they’ve spent the last 10 months tossing around the idea of maybe doing an expansion sometime, but now they’ve all but thrown that idea out the window. They could have (should have, in my opinion) spent that 10 months working on a full expansion, and had a smaller set of people working on less frequent “living” content. I would prefer to have fewer temp content additions along with the promise that something bigger is coming, than being told that these temporary time-wasters are the only thing I’ll be seeing for the next year or more.

I think a huge part of why I’m disappointed in this is that I played GW1 from 5-6 months after release all the way up till GW2’s release. Even in the gaps between content, or after the final retail release was out, there were still things to keep us playing. Things like long-term achievements that sent us all around the game’s world to complete…and that doesn’t even require new content to be added.

The only remotely comparable achievements in GW2 are wvw/spvp related. And I don’t dare try to compare the wvw ranks to GW1’s titles, because wxp is anti-alt vertical progression treadmill. GW1’s long-term, character-improving titles were at least account based.

TheDaiBish.9735:

bartrentenaar.8674:

How are they going to implement huge changes like new professions and races? Cause if those will never come, I’m sure the life of gw 2 won’t be as long as it’s predecessor and I’ll be bored way earlier.

> Living Story leads into the Dominion of Four Winds

> Tengu decide to join up in the fight to go back to their homeland.

> Land on Cantha which is currently under attack / locked down by the Ministry of Purity.

> Living Story for the next few months / half a year / [insert timeframe here] focuses on freeing Cantha, with other smaller stories back on Kryta.

> After Cantha is freed, the Tengu are eternally grateful, everyone hugs each other and cries tears of joy, and the Tengu and a profession specific to their race is unlocked for everyone (not just those who took part).

---

I think people have a problem with it for two reasons:

• They have in their mind what is traditionally in an expansion, and are thinking that no expansion = no new races, professions, lands ect.
• Most of the LS content so far has been temporary, and so on hearing that Anet are going to be keeping up with the LS, that most content will be temporary as well.

However, this may not be the case. It would be entirely possible for Anet to introduce new races, professions, lands, dungeons ect through the LS. Most of these have already been evidenced in the LS so far (Race = Karka, land = Southsun, Dungeons = Most LS content) and regardless of the execution of it, it was shown it can be done.

Improve on the execution of it, add meatier updates with permanent additions, and I’d actually say that adding content using these events as opposed to just ‘load the disc and it’s all available’ would actually be much, much more immersive.

There’s a third problem some might have with it. So far we’ve seen a lot of filler content: eat 150 of x, kill 250 of y, click f 100 times in front of z. That’s not the kind of quality content most of us would expect from a full-fledged Guild Wars 2 expansion (one carrying a $40-$60 price tag).

But that’s much of what we’ve got so far through free Living Story content updates. And if that’s indicative of what we can expect every two weeks, then I’m sure many of us would rather wait and pay for a boxed expansion.

I don’t read manga or watch anime, but I have friends who do. And one thing they frequently complain about is the lack of quality in the filler arcs. And there’s the very real possibility that most of the Living Story content will be nothing more than filler arc.

darkace.8925:

For GW vets, imagine if Cantha or Elona was only explorable a section at a time with two weeks between new sections being added. I don’t know that that’s how new regions/zones are going to be added in GW2, but it’s certainly a realistic possibility. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume it is. In that context, would you rather new regions/zones be opened all at once in an expansion or one section at a time through Living Story updates?

This is my whole problem with this anti-expansion bias horse they’ve been riding of late.

The only way to put the missing 2/3rds of the core game back in, would be in tiny gated pieces with choppy events and too tight of a story – as in each zone just having one over-arching story and event, and then a bunch of empty land…

It won’t be a living world… it will be a living plotline.

Ok, that -IS- how GW1 was… but it will be in stark contrast to how the the tiny 1/3rd of GW2 that we have so far is, and will make the game feel very strange out there in the rest of the land… like you’re being led on a leash, rather than a ‘explore and enjoy it and go off the beaten path’ manner.

As long as whatever is opened, clearly shows the thing will be opened, and that it won’t be constrained and linear with only one thing to do, but that we will return to these places as vibrant places as alive as any of the current zones.

darkace.8925:

There’s a third problem some might have with it. So far we’ve seen a lot of filler content: eat 150 of x, kill 250 of y, click f 100 times in front of z. That’s not the kind of quality content most of us would expect from a full-fledged Guild Wars 2 expansion (one carrying a $40-$60 price tag).

But that’s much of what we’ve got so far through free Living Story content updates. And if that’s indicative of what we can expect every two weeks, then I’m sure many of us would rather wait and pay for a boxed expansion.

I don’t read manga or watch anime, but I have friends who do. And one thing they frequently complain about is the lack of quality in the filler arcs. And there’s the very real possibility that most of the Living Story content will be nothing more than filler arc.

That’s why I mentioned on improving the execution and adding meatier content.

I do agree the current LS is filler, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. The LS is something they’re trying out.

Can you imagine the forums if the current LS content was used on major plot points, such as Jormag?

Kichwas.7152:

darkace.8925:

For GW vets, imagine if Cantha or Elona was only explorable a section at a time with two weeks between new sections being added. I don’t know that that’s how new regions/zones are going to be added in GW2, but it’s certainly a realistic possibility. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume it is. In that context, would you rather new regions/zones be opened all at once in an expansion or one section at a time through Living Story updates?

This is my whole problem with this anti-expansion bias horse they’ve been riding of late.

The only way to put the missing 2/3rds of the core game back in, would be in tiny gated pieces with choppy events and too tight of a story – as in each zone just having one over-arching story and event, and then a bunch of empty land…

It won’t be a living world… it will be a living plotline.

Ok, that -IS- how GW1 was… but it will be in stark contrast to how the the tiny 1/3rd of GW2 that we have so far is, and will make the game feel very strange out there in the rest of the land… like you’re being led on a leash, rather than a ‘explore and enjoy it and go off the beaten path’ manner.

As long as whatever is opened, clearly shows the thing will be opened, and that it won’t be constrained and linear with only one thing to do, but that we will return to these places as vibrant places as alive as any of the current zones.

I think that could have worked in GW1. It would have been a bit strange at the time, but the stories were rather linear, aside from a few split and rejoin points. Some zones would have to be released in pairs (like going into the Kurzick/Luxon parts of Cantha), but I think a release system like that could have worked out fine.

With GW2, as Kichwas.7152 said, that could end up being way too linear in comparison to the GW2 world we already have. Releasing single zones would severely limit a branching storyline, trying to fit different arcs into a limited area.

Smaller more frequent updates does not mean we will not be getting decent content. Since launch we have gained things like fractals, the southsun zone, several new pvp maps and more.

I’m sure as development goes on we will get more zones and more features. I think this living story system is a great way to keep the game fresh. But as with anything new, it will not appeal to everyone straight away and it will take time for both us (the players) and Anet to settle into how this should work. Don’t forget that Anet are trying new things here, so they will not get it right all the time, but the fact that they are trying very hard to improve the genre is awesome in my book. And I think they are doing a sterling job of it. Over time they will refine the process and things will only get better.

My only concern with smaller bite sized content is that it may feel a bit lacking when dealing with huge epic stories. For one thing, when will we need/get to fight another elder dragon? Will our personal story continue on? Will these things occur in a living story update? If they can pull it off this way then great, but I do wonder if/how it can work.

Another issue with smaller regular content is that those with limited play time may start to get frustrated with this temporary content. If stories change every two weeks and someone can only log in once or twice a month, they will be missing out on tons of stuff, which is a problem that the traditional expansion model does not suffer from. Players can tackle the content at their leisure, without feeling rushed to get things done before it disappear forever.

Personally though, I really like the way they are doing things and I am sure that when it comes to adding larger scale content, such as fighting an elder dragon or extending the personal story, Anet will find a way to do it without the need for a large expansion. The living world system has great potential and I am looking forward to seeing what they can do with it. We just need to give them time to learn the best way to do things, so that everyone is happy, or at least satisfied (as you can’t please everyone all the time).

Edit:

With regards to the story side of the living world updates, I would really like to see more in terms of dynamic events. The Flame and Frost story was great because you had events pop up on your map to show the Dredge and Charr attacks, as well as random refugees you could help. In the later stories it did not feel as dynamic and had a more static feel to it. The holograms for example, had to be activated, rather than having to react to a situation, and felt too static to be enjoyable.

The dynamic events system (the orange circles) is a great feature and I would love to see Anet utilize this much more often, not just to make the world feel alive but also to tell a story. Dynamic events tell the story of each zone and they can be very effective at it, so why not use them to tell new stories, like they did in Flame & Frost? I think it would add much more flavour and fun to the idea of a living world.

Let’s face it, with everything said, people want to play WoW(or any other MMO that hey liked) in new skin. People don’t want new experience because they are condition by their first MMO they loved. It’s only logical, and honestly it’s quite a shame people act like this. I feel sorry for Anet devs since they are really trying to cater to everyone while trying to bring new ideas and inovation into pretty stale genre. And this is what I hate the most, people say how they hate WoW, but every feature I see that people want is exactly like in WoW.

Just want to say, ANet I really hope you can pull of this idea, it’s really great concept, but you need to show them(players) that jan,feb,march,april, may updates were just testing phase.

Faerun.3091:

Let’s face it, with everything said, people want to play WoW(or any other MMO that hey liked) in new skin. People don’t want new experience because they are condition by their first MMO they loved.

The last thing I want is WoW, but I will use a WoW analogy when it fits.

Imagine if WoW had launched without Kalimdor or any of the Eastern Kingdoms north of Ironforge.

That is where we are in GW2 right now: Missinf 2/3rds of the core landmass…

That much land, added in tiny gated pieces… how can you avoid it being linear single plotlines. How can it be an open vibrant world like the small portion we have already.

Putting them in as small gated pieces will actually make them feel like Expansions: Like throw away single plot pieces, such as Outlands or Northrend: go there for the event while its on, then ghost town it. Southsun Cove anyone?
- That is not the way to handle 2/3rds of the core landmass…

You’re talking crazy, do you really think they could have made 3 times of current number of zones in 5 years? And all of them to be full of content. And Tyria is anything but small. And there you go again comparing GW2 with WoW, would it be correct to compare Dragon Age to Mass Effect or Skyrim, they are all RPG genre. GW2 isn’t you typical MMO, if you can accept it you can enjoy this game even more. Simple as that.

Faerun.3091:

Let’s face it, with everything said, people want to play WoW(or any other MMO that hey liked) in new skin. People don’t want new experience because they are condition by their first MMO they loved. It’s only logical, and honestly it’s quite a shame people act like this. I feel sorry for Anet devs since they are really trying to cater to everyone while trying to bring new ideas and inovation into pretty stale genre. And this is what I hate the most, people say how they hate WoW, but every feature I see that people want is exactly like in WoW.

Just want to say, ANet I really hope you can pull of this idea, it’s really great concept, but you need to show them(players) that jan,feb,march,april, may updates were just testing phase.

Liking Meaty Content is not something that is conditioned by wow. I never played wow-I played gw1~Which as you know was made by Arena Net. I will just put it out there that throwing around “If your not an Arena Net fanboy, you must be a wow-fan” is sort of pathetic. It undermines your intelligence, and everyone elses.

Living story is great, but its filler. None of it has had a lasting impact, nothing has left Permanent change(bar southsun being left to be a rotting hole in the ground-No one goes there.). A lot of it has been wow catered by the way. I am not sure how you can spout how much you dislike wow content, and then defend content witch is pretty much wow incarnate. Go kill 250 Karka/Go kill 250 Rats. I mean, let’s be honest, this content has it’s place. It does not have the same effect, or enjoyment of an actual expansions. So far anet has renovated actually very little. The base game-Yes, it was very new and fresh and cool. The Living story-NO. It is not new to the genre. It’s just wow skin(the pve at least). You can watch the world all day with rabid Fanboy tinted glasses, but a dose of reality helps here and there. Anet is not perfect, and a lot of players are saddened because they made a decision which may ultimately hurt the game. Rng Boxes are souring the community, the gem store is drawing in a lot of agro-and expansions are a great way of revitalizing and refreshing the game. Keeping it fresh and adding more. The living story would be better if it actually HAD impact, had something happen. It feels disjointed, rocky, and the quality has been terrible. Bugs slip through-But Bugs as big as the Aether blade Dungeon where One boss has to die before the other should be tested. THE FIRST THING: A qa team should do is kill the boss your not supposed to kill first. Which clearly they did not test. I still have not completed the dungeon because of that bug where someone kills horrick and he never resets and so Mai just runs around in God-Mode.

Faerun.3091:

Let’s face it, with everything said, people want to play WoW(or any other MMO that hey liked) in new skin. People don’t want new experience because they are condition by their first MMO they loved.

I don’t want WoW (I actually hate that game) or any other game. What I want is the GW2 that was sold to us. Taking what was great about GW1, and making something bigger and better out of it. Not a copy of GW1, but a brand new game built on the foundation and lessons learned in GW1. And I feel like what we actually got is a game made by a developer that forgot every lesson GW1 taught them. There is an amazing game at the core of GW2. They released an amazing game, but all that has happened since that release are huge steps backwards and throwing out the knowledge that helped make GW1 a great game.

mrstealth.6701:

I think that could have worked in GW1. It would have been a bit strange at the time, but the stories were rather linear, aside from a few split and rejoin points. Some zones would have to be released in pairs (like going into the Kurzick/Luxon parts of Cantha), but I think a release system like that could have worked out fine.

I can live with linear, it’s the peace meal I’m not crazy about. I don’t want to be artificially slowed when progressing through a story. It works well enough for the episodic Living Story stuff we’ve had so far (though I think there’s been far too much filler), but for big things like Elder Dragons or expansion into Cantha/Elona, I don’t want to explore new areas one section every two to four weeks.

mrstealth.6701:

With GW2, as Kichwas.7152 said, that could end up being way too linear in comparison to the GW2 world we already have. Releasing single zones would severely limit a branching storyline, trying to fit different arcs into a limited area.

Another thing about zones being added one at a time is they’re going to be jammed full of people, and all the other zones are going to be abandoned by all but the tumbleweeds. Too many people isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but…well, imagine trying to enjoy a scenic hike with your friends and while a marathon is being run on your hiking path. But that’s a personal hangup that doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.

@ forstflare
It is if you haven’t even read my post I said WoW or any fist MMO player played, in your and mine case GW1. I’m not throwin wow, anet fanboy anywhere in my post, stop reading between the lines since I’m quite honest person.

Like I said, I love the concept, I don’t like current implementation we had, I even said that in other threads… I even said that in my post with last sentence.
I’ll quit this discussion, I’m not good with them, I’m bad at explaining what I want to say, and it’s obvious neither you or Kichwas understood what I wanted to say.

darkace.8925:

mrstealth.6701:

I think that could have worked in GW1. It would have been a bit strange at the time, but the stories were rather linear, aside from a few split and rejoin points. Some zones would have to be released in pairs (like going into the Kurzick/Luxon parts of Cantha), but I think a release system like that could have worked out fine.

I can live with linear, it’s the peace meal I’m not crazy about. I don’t want to be artificially slowed when progressing through a story. It works well enough for the episodic Living Story stuff we’ve had so far (though I think there’s been far too much filler), but for big things like Elder Dragons or expansion into Cantha/Elona, I don’t want to explore new areas one section every two to four weeks.

mrstealth.6701:

With GW2, as Kichwas.7152 said, that could end up being way too linear in comparison to the GW2 world we already have. Releasing single zones would severely limit a branching storyline, trying to fit different arcs into a limited area.

Another thing about zones being added one at a time is they’re going to be jammed full of people, and all the other zones are going to be abandoned by all but the tumbleweeds. Too many people isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but…well, imagine trying to enjoy a scenic hike with your friends and while a marathon is being run on your hiking path. But that’s a personal hangup that doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.

Yeah. It’s good that the current maps are full of people.
Silly me, it’s not like all zones are half dead already.
Oh, what’s that, I can already hear replies – servers are always full.
Excuse me again.

darkace.8925:

I can live with linear, it’s the peace meal I’m not crazy about. I don’t want to be artificially slowed when progressing through a story. It works well enough for the episodic Living Story stuff we’ve had so far (though I think there’s been far too much filler), but for big things like Elder Dragons or expansion into Cantha/Elona, I don’t want to explore new areas one section every two to four weeks.

It’s certainly not what I would want, either. It just would have worked out better for GW1 than it could for GW2. I want to see Cantha/Elona released in GW2 just as they were in GW1. As an all-at-once release, with perhaps some living story lead-ups/tie-ins.

GW1 vets should remember that there was actually some “living story” in Guild Wars prior to Factions’ release. A feud played out between Kurzick and Luxon refugees just outside of LA, that ended up causing all but a single couple (a Luxon man and a Kurzick woman) to be sent back to Cantha. That couple can still be found in a village near LA.

TheDaiBish.9735:

> Land on Cantha which is currently under attack / locked down by the Ministry of Purity.

At first glance I saw ‘the Ministry of Poultry’.

Let’s put it bluntly. The living story is only holding people’s interest for NOW. People are waiting, and once they cannot wait anymore. They will move on to the next thing.

Hell Avenger.7021:

Let’s put it bluntly. The living story is only holding people’s interest for NOW. People are waiting, and once they cannot wait anymore. They will move on to the next thing.

I’m tired of waiting, and I’ve had more than enough living story. It just feels like we’re bouncing from one random, completely unrelated story to the next. None of it matters, and none of it has anything to do with the rest of the game’s world or story. Random steampunk flying pirates show up out of nowhere to crash an already somewhat silly celebration…I feel like I should be watching this from the back row of a theater while a man and his two robot friends heckle the screen.

I can’t seem to avoid repeatedly referencing GW1…but someone at Anet needs to take a look at GW1’s living content (even though it wasn’t called that at the time, it’s essentially the same thing). The War in Kryta was a story told the right way, and it had more playable content than what we’re getting now in GW2. And it was based entirely on established game story/lore that had existed since the beginning.

Faerun.3091:

Let’s face it, with everything said, people want to play WoW(or any other MMO that hey liked) in new skin. People don’t want new experience because they are condition by their first MMO they loved. It’s only logical, and honestly it’s quite a shame people act like this. I feel sorry for Anet devs since they are really trying to cater to everyone while trying to bring new ideas and inovation into pretty stale genre. And this is what I hate the most, people say how they hate WoW, but every feature I see that people want is exactly like in WoW.

Just want to say, ANet I really hope you can pull of this idea, it’s really great concept, but you need to show them(players) that jan,feb,march,april, may updates were just testing phase.

You’re right. I want a game with an open world, where racial politics are at the forefront. I want a game where my class role matters. I want a game that has a large amount of content that I can come back to. I want a game a where I can play with more than 5 friends. I want a game where factions matter.

I’m tired of this game being in a testing phase. I want it to be an MMO and I’m tired of ArenaNet’s defiance towards the standards. They can do their own thing, they can create the living story. That’s fine. But make it worthwhile. I’m not playing a game to fix sign posts.

Destai.9603:

Faerun.3091:

Let’s face it, with everything said, people want to play WoW(or any other MMO that hey liked) in new skin. People don’t want new experience because they are condition by their first MMO they loved. It’s only logical, and honestly it’s quite a shame people act like this. I feel sorry for Anet devs since they are really trying to cater to everyone while trying to bring new ideas and inovation into pretty stale genre. And this is what I hate the most, people say how they hate WoW, but every feature I see that people want is exactly like in WoW.

Just want to say, ANet I really hope you can pull of this idea, it’s really great concept, but you need to show them(players) that jan,feb,march,april, may updates were just testing phase.

You’re right. I want a game with an open world, where racial politics are at the forefront. I want a game where my class role matters. I want a game that has a large amount of content that I can come back to. I want a game a where I can play with more than 5 friends. I want a game where factions matter.

I’m tired of this game being in a testing phase. I want it to be an MMO and I’m tired of ArenaNet’s defiance towards the standards. They can do their own thing, they can create the living story. That’s fine. But make it worthwhile. I’m not playing a game to fix sign posts.

If you are so tired then maybe it is best to find a game that you like.

Yargesh.4965:

Destai.9603:

Faerun.3091:

Let’s face it, with everything said, people want to play WoW(or any other MMO that hey liked) in new skin. People don’t want new experience because they are condition by their first MMO they loved. It’s only logical, and honestly it’s quite a shame people act like this. I feel sorry for Anet devs since they are really trying to cater to everyone while trying to bring new ideas and inovation into pretty stale genre. And this is what I hate the most, people say how they hate WoW, but every feature I see that people want is exactly like in WoW.

Just want to say, ANet I really hope you can pull of this idea, it’s really great concept, but you need to show them(players) that jan,feb,march,april, may updates were just testing phase.

You’re right. I want a game with an open world, where racial politics are at the forefront. I want a game where my class role matters. I want a game that has a large amount of content that I can come back to. I want a game a where I can play with more than 5 friends. I want a game where factions matter.

I’m tired of this game being in a testing phase. I want it to be an MMO and I’m tired of ArenaNet’s defiance towards the standards. They can do their own thing, they can create the living story. That’s fine. But make it worthwhile. I’m not playing a game to fix sign posts.

If you are so tired then maybe it is best to find a game that you like.

I’ve done that. I’d just hope the game that I bought a collector’s edition of and the sequel to my favorite game would have been better this. I guess not.