Guild Wars 2

Well… Months of wait between content which is going to be eaten in a week anyway?

Thumbs down. What kept GW2 different was the stream of new content. Maybe not great content, but new, something different every two weeks.

‘Confusion’ smells like ‘too much trouble to keep on doing it’.

Yayyyy and a nice feature patch!

Yayyy

People complained about getting too much content, so Anet slowed things down. This is a great disappointment for players like me who liked new content every two weeks.

Thanks for pulling all of this information together all day Vol, it’s extremely helpful when your job blocks like every other website.

Gnat.9405:

Thanks for pulling all of this information together all day Vol, it’s extremely helpful when your job blocks like every other website.

Harsh. And i work at a school. Lol.

And yeah thanks Vol ^^

“Tyria really won’t be the same after it, and what happens at the end will also set up Season Two.”

This sentence does get me a little excited. What is going to change? o_O

Great find! Very exciting news!

Not sure it’ll be an expansion though, I can hope, but I imagine it’ll be more something like the 2.1 patch over at FFXIV recently. I just hope they communicate what’s coming in it prior to the Summer – will give the player base something to look forward to.

I think you’re reading too much into it. I read,

“ArenaNet has already. The next step, “and we’re heading down that path regardless”, is to keep a big story but colour it with smaller stories that begin and end every month, the hope being to keep less invested players interested. “That would be our next step before we say, ‘Hey, we really need to change things,’” said Johanson."

as “more of the same; no expansion anytime soon.”

Smooth Penguin.5294:

People complained about getting too much content, so Anet slowed things down.

Actually no. People complained that Anet sent in “patch” after “patch” (hardly called a patch), with filler content that didn’t really seem to lead anywhere and that brought little to no reward in exchange for grind. What people want is a bigger gap between content releases, but content that actually is good and will keep us busy, not for 1-3 days, but weeks if not months. If they released an expansion with 1-2 new classes, + several maps, new mechanics to explore, I’d be busy with that a long while.

Sooo…

Now we have even more reason not to play the game?

Log in every few months for the big feature patch, and log out for the weeks of living story.

At first I was concerned a bit that they were indeed moving away from the 2 week release cadence but then after reading it again thats not exactly what the article says.

""It’s very distracting to players," observed Johanson. “It’s almost a muddled message, where we put these releases out and we want them to be excited about the story, to follow the story, and we also want them to be excited about the features that are coming with it. And either one or the other tends to be the thing that people cling onto.” And the other thing, people ignore.

“What we’re going to do this year is we’re actually separating the two of those out.”"

Seems like what they might be doing is perhaps split releases where one fortnight we get a living world update while the following fortnight we might just get feature release. Or perhaps fingers crossed its still 1 living story update every forthnight with a break now and then which will instead have a giant feature patch (containing the extra goodies each LS used to carry with it all bundled in one)

There might still be hope but well we need clarification, it isnt very clear. My only fear is probably they will not say anything before march about their release plans going forward.

darkace.8925:

I think you’re reading too much into it. I read,

“ArenaNet has already. The next step, “and we’re heading down that path regardless”, is to keep a big story but colour it with smaller stories that begin and end every month, the hope being to keep less invested players interested. “That would be our next step before we say, ‘Hey, we really need to change things,’” said Johanson."

as “more of the same; no expansion anytime soon.”

AFAIK, at the conclusion of Season 1, they will take an extended break (let’s say 1 month off), and then they start off Season 2 with a big, big patch (Elona Cantha pls?)

After that, they will resort to monthly content updates rather than bi-weekly.

And if they need to reassess if Living Story is working or not, it would be at that point in time.

There is going to be a permanent boss. That’s probably what they mean by Tyria never being the same. They tend to hype these things up pretty hard.

If they release the Tengu without giving them a parrot face I shall call them on a big red phone and scream at them.

Comparing to Game of Thrones? Very ambitious, but let’s see how Season 2 goes before assuming such things.

The big patch idea I like, hopefully some of that Quality of Life stuff will be housing related.

darkace.8925:

I think you’re reading too much into it. I read,

“ArenaNet has already. The next step, “and we’re heading down that path regardless”, is to keep a big story but colour it with smaller stories that begin and end every month, the hope being to keep less invested players interested. “That would be our next step before we say, ‘Hey, we really need to change things,’” said Johanson."

as “more of the same; no expansion anytime soon.”

From day 1 they’ve been saying we got teams working on big stuff in the background. so yeah of course its more of the same, that has never changed. I think the biggest problem here is people are expecting to see the big flashy things like new zones way too quickly. Just look at WoW as an example. Average time per expansion release is between 1.5 years – 2 years and WoW has most of the team working on the expansion without having to split the team so that with the expansion they also release content every 2 weeks.

Simply speaking like some of us have been saying and like this interview finally confirmed the big projects they have been talking about since day one are still in progress and they likely include the stuff people expect from an expansion like new areas / races etc…

Hmmmm…..

The separation of living story and features might be interesting. Might see some more depth to the LS over time with less trying to be crammed into the same space as well. Possible… on the fence I suppose. We’ll see how that change pans out…

Still no news or talking about Cantha even with 1800 posts on the official thread and majority of people asking it back.
Sad.

We don’t know what their “two big background” projects are either. One could easily be Cantha. Or Elona.

Gnat.9405:

There is going to be a permanent boss. That’s probably what they mean by Tyria never being the same. They tend to hype these things up pretty hard.

lol yes tyria will never being the same we just found out that the jungle wurm have a twin brother on a beach i think this thing with living story is just a waste of everything if u ask me what i learned so far from living story hell nothing connects with anything and tyria will still stay the same if you return after 1 year everything is still and look the same .

Gnat.9405:

There is going to be a permanent boss. That’s probably what they mean by Tyria never being the same. They tend to hype these things up pretty hard.

Or perhaps its just that the big change is something they’re leaving for last? I mean think of cliff hangers… would it make sense to reveal the cliff hanger 4 episodes before the end of the season and then have 3 regular episodes that close the season off?

Hype and fluff piece without actually saying anything. Worst thing, people are getting excited by it…

That’s fair. Maybe they’ll break LA. I hope it’s something more than changing a map that no one ever goes to anyway.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

We don’t know what their “two big background” projects are either. One could easily be Cantha. And Elona.

FTFY

More marketing talk. I wouldn’t look too far into it, not a single concrete thing was said, just the same old stuff.

Hype train just keeps on a rolling.

Atlas.9704:

Comparing to Game of Thrones? Very ambitious, but let’s see how Season 2 goes before assuming such things.

The big patch idea I like, hopefully some of that Quality of Life stuff will be housing related.

I’m sure if Scarlet ended up like the folks @ The Red Wedding, people in GW2 would take that over an expansion ;p

I don’t think it’s an expansion… merely a Warcraft-sized content patch. Bigger but less frequent, which makes more sense.

Atlas.9704:

Comparing to Game of Thrones? Very ambitious, but let’s see how Season 2 goes before assuming such things.

Yeah, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at that. That’s the kind of hype that bites developers in the rear…overhype something, pretend it’s something it’s now…and people will not be happy when you fail to deliver.

Atlas.9704:

The big patch idea I like, hopefully some of that Quality of Life stuff will be housing related.

If it comes with a new furniture-making craft, sign me up! I would also welcome fishing.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

People complained about getting too much content, so Anet slowed things down. This is a great disappointment for players like me who liked new content every two weeks.

I think like he said, that content was confusing because it was too fast – and ultimately lacking of depth and meaning because the next content patch was always just around the corner to take the focus off of the current one.

Twice a month… even once a month is simply too often.

So instead of sprinkling balance changes and such in every release, they’re now going to start saving them up and throwing them all out at once in larger releases every 4-6 months or something?

I guess they’ve kind of been moving towards that in the past few updates anyway, so its not really much of a “change” so much as just cementing a trend already in progress, but I still can’t say I’m happy about it. I quite enjoy getting little buffs and changes every patch, it means the mechanics get spiced up regularly as well as just more story and such.

It also doesn’t really seem like a great idea with Anet’s stance of “We like to make mechanics changes and balance changes gradually and not make huge sweeping changes for risk of majorly messing something up”. Gradual changes are fine if you’re getting changes every month, but if you have to wait half a year between balance patches then you don’t really have the luxury of doing gradual changes and seeing how they pan out. Maybe they’re changing their mind on that too, I don’t know.

Vol.7601:

Atlas.9704:

Comparing to Game of Thrones? Very ambitious, but let’s see how Season 2 goes before assuming such things.

The big patch idea I like, hopefully some of that Quality of Life stuff will be housing related.

I’m sure if Scarlet ended up like the folks @ The Red Wedding, people in GW2 would take that over an expansion ;p

There would be cheers and I may be responsible for a Quaggan parade while singing “Ding dong the Witch is dead”.

Then I would eagerly await this personal nemesis promised in one of the news articles.

killcannon.2576:

More marketing talk. I wouldn’t look too far into it, not a single concrete thing was said, just the same old stuff.

Hype train just keeps on a rolling.

This. If you read carefully, he’s saying that we’ll have the same amount of content (or lack of content) as last year, just spaced out differently.

All i got out of that interview is “keep playing the game because we might maybe kinda sorta possibly be working on an expansion that we might release in an unknown format in the unforeseeable future…. so until then keep playing and dont leave us!”

Atlas.9704:

Vol.7601:

Atlas.9704:

Comparing to Game of Thrones? Very ambitious, but let’s see how Season 2 goes before assuming such things.

The big patch idea I like, hopefully some of that Quality of Life stuff will be housing related.

I’m sure if Scarlet ended up like the folks @ The Red Wedding, people in GW2 would take that over an expansion ;p

There would be cheers and I may be responsible for a Quaggan parade while singing “Ding dong the Witch is dead”.

do that if you may, but “The Dragons Will Never Forget”

Allanon.9072:

Gnat.9405:

There is going to be a permanent boss. That’s probably what they mean by Tyria never being the same. They tend to hype these things up pretty hard.

lol yes tyria will never being the same we just found out that the jungle wurm have a twin brother on a beach i think this thing with living story is just a waste of everything if u ask me what i learned so far from living story hell nothing connects with anything and tyria will still stay the same if you return after 1 year everything is still and look the same .

Really? Like one year ago Southsun cove looked like it does today? Nope because the refugees hadnt yet build 1/2 of what infrastructure there is there today. One year ago Kessex hills look like it does right now? nope nightmare alliance hadnt build the tower and corrupted the area yet. One year ago did cragstead look like it does today? ehh there was no cragstead one year ago! One year ago did the whole of tyria look the same? nope no way to come across a clockwork invasion and there were no probe thingies everywhere.

Thats the obvious stuff, you also have the hidden aetherblade retreat, the new events that were added, the mini dungeons, the new areas for the mini games, the new fractals, the new pvp maps, the wvw revamp, the new areas for the guild missions, the new fractals, the change to one of TA’s paths, the revamped Tequalt, The changes to the great chasm in divinity’s reach, the gnawl refugees in LA, the changes to Orr.

And thats just the visible changes to the world never mind all the game play and quality of life changes like the wallet, LFG tool etc..

Yeahhhh… no … someone who played 1 year ago and came back provided they payed attention the world didnt remain the same for them at all!

Vol.7601:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

We don’t know what their “two big background” projects are either. One could easily be Cantha. And Elona.

FTFY

I have no idea what that stands for…. (go me!)

Don’t forget the lighthouse in LA that got destroyed!

Vol.7601:

do that if you may, but “The Dragons Will Never Forget”

Oh that’s okay, I’ll keep hitting the 2 button and Destiny’s Edge will help me kill it.

Vol.7601:

Atlas.9704:

Comparing to Game of Thrones? Very ambitious, but let’s see how Season 2 goes before assuming such things.

The big patch idea I like, hopefully some of that Quality of Life stuff will be housing related.

I’m sure if Scarlet ended up like the folks @ The Red Wedding, people in GW2 would take that over an expansion ;p

I’m going to roll with the idea that Scarlet becomes our ally at the end of this arc. That way, she’ll ALWAYS be a part of every Living Story going forward.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Vol.7601:

Atlas.9704:

Comparing to Game of Thrones? Very ambitious, but let’s see how Season 2 goes before assuming such things.

The big patch idea I like, hopefully some of that Quality of Life stuff will be housing related.

I’m sure if Scarlet ended up like the folks @ The Red Wedding, people in GW2 would take that over an expansion ;p

I’m going to roll with the idea that Scarlet becomes our ally at the end of this arc. That way, she’ll ALWAYS be a part of every Living Story going forward.

You….. you….. !!!!!!

You sir, should be hog tied, have an apple shoved in your mouth, and be left where the giant farmer-eating drake in bloodtide can eat you. :p

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Vol.7601:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

We don’t know what their “two big background” projects are either. One could easily be Cantha. And Elona.

FTFY

I have no idea what that stands for…. (go me!)

Stands for “Fixed that for you”. He changed your “or” to “and”.

People think it’s cute to change quotes I guess.

Arnath.2319:

All i got out of that interview is “keep playing the game because we might maybe kinda sorta possibly be working on an expansion that we might release in an unknown format in the unforeseeable future…. so until then keep playing and dont leave us!”

you want to say something like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7RgN9ijwE4

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I’m going to roll with the idea that Scarlet becomes our ally at the end of this arc. That way, she’ll ALWAYS be a part of every Living Story going forward.

I…I must find a way to burn down your home instance in PvE for such a scary thought like that.
No harm will come to you, but all those nodes you may have will combust.
:P

Vol.7601:

Don’t forget the lighthouse in LA that got destroyed!

I didnt because that happened over a year ago !

didnt even mention that there was no southsun at launch or that the lion arch statue got destroyed and rebuilt… ohhh yeah but if they stopped one year ago they remember the statue destroyed so there another change statue is back

killcannon.2576:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Vol.7601:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

We don’t know what their “two big background” projects are either. One could easily be Cantha. And Elona.

FTFY

I have no idea what that stands for…. (go me!)

Stands for “Fixed that for you”. He changed your “or” to “and”.

People think it’s cute to change quotes I guess.

Ah ha… I hadn’t even noticed. XD Thanks for the clarification. I’m just too kitten old I guess…

@Vol, I used ‘or’ because I was trying not to be too presumptuous. :p

Galen Grey.4709:

Allanon.9072:

Gnat.9405:

There is going to be a permanent boss. That’s probably what they mean by Tyria never being the same. They tend to hype these things up pretty hard.

lol yes tyria will never being the same we just found out that the jungle wurm have a twin brother on a beach i think this thing with living story is just a waste of everything if u ask me what i learned so far from living story hell nothing connects with anything and tyria will still stay the same if you return after 1 year everything is still and look the same .

Really? Like one year ago Southsun cove looked like it does today? Nope because the refugees hadnt yet build 1/2 of what infrastructure there is there today. One year ago Kessex hills look like it does right now? nope nightmare alliance hadnt build the tower and corrupted the area yet. One year ago did cragstead look like it does today? ehh there was no cragstead one year ago! One year ago did the whole of tyria look the same? nope no way to come across a clockwork invasion and there were no probe thingies everywhere.

Thats the obvious stuff, you also have the hidden aetherblade retreat, the new events that were added, the mini dungeons, the new areas for the mini games, the new fractals, the new pvp maps, the wvw revamp, the new areas for the guild missions, the new fractals, the change to one of TA’s paths, the revamped Tequalt, The changes to the great chasm in divinity’s reach, the gnawl refugees in LA, the changes to Orr.

And thats just the visible changes to the world never mind all the game play and quality of life changes like the wallet, LFG tool etc..

Yeahhhh… no … someone who played 1 year ago and came back provided they payed attention the world didnt remain the same for them at all!

i think you just jump the horses to much this are just small changes to tyria ‘’ you know Tyria the huge map ’’ that a new player will never notice i didn’t even bother to read all your story we don’t talk about ui changes ,dungeons and revamps .

And everything what they say in interviews is just * is only on paper empty words many things what they said are still not in game like a housing system that ppl ask for so long and many many other things.

I think it is good that they are separating the story and feature patches from now on. Hopefully this means we get more story in our story and more features out of our feature patches. Before they both seem half baked, but I think we might get better more complete stories and more well thought out features if they separate them.

We will have to wait and see I guess. First feature patch is in March, so I will wait until then at the very least.

Atlas.9704:

I…I must find a way to burn down your home instance in PvE for such a scary thought like that.
No harm will come to you, but all those nodes you may have will combust.
:P

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

You….. you….. !!!!!!

You sir, should be hog tied, have an apple shoved in your mouth, and be left where the giant farmer-eating drake in bloodtide can eat you. :p

Why do you hate Scarlet so much? You do realize that her voice actress is a pony in real life? That alone should keep her as a main character for the life of GW2.

Excellent…I can by and large skip the oh so boring living story bits with there grindy list of tasks for you to do…play other games in the meantime and tune in every 3 months for some hopefully meaty, meaningful changes.

I quite like it really!