Guild Wars 2

I’m curious if Living Story was meant in the beginning to be the “expansion”.
Or maybe not?
They have said a long time ago that they people working on a “big project” in the background.
If we find out this saturday that we will get a expansion with loads of new content, enough to be worthy to be compared with GW1 xpacs, then I think I will begin to appreciate the LS much more.
The worst thing about LS so far for me have been the thoughts in my head “is this all we will get”?
But in the future if I know that an xpac will be released later on, I think I will be able to enjoy those small 2 weekly patches much more

So basicly my question I guess is:

Do you think that they came to the conclusion that LS wasn’t the way to go, and decided to release an xpac instead?

Or do you think that LS was always just meant to fill the gap untill they released the “big project” ?

I hope it was meant as filler, because I honestly didnt care for it, besides Megaservers and a few small updates nothings really made me want to come back/try out what’s new.

My thought now is that the living story is meant as a way to introduce the expansions. So that through the living story they can show HOW and WHY the world came to be and bring to life the full blown expansions. In other games there’s the main game going along and then suddenly there’s ninja pandas with no rhyme or reason as to why they’re there or what caused them to spring forth into the game world.

So they’re using the living world stories to show what’s going on and how the game is changing instead of suddenly boom expansion with no workup and nothing in the main game to explain why there’s a sudden explosion of game content.

To me this makes the most sense as to how they’re doing something different than every other game out there and show “how [they’re] setting up a new framework for how an MMO can grow its universe.”

This is what it all sounds like to me.

jokke.6239:

I’m curious if Living Story was meant in the beginning to be the “expansion”.
Or maybe not?

Not. It was clear in the beginning, that the LS was originally meant to cover the “everyday” changes in the game world, making it alive far more than dynamic events could, and filling the gaps between bigger, core content updates that were to follow (though not necessarily as boxed expansions). Only after a time they started to think that it may be possible to deliver all the content they wanted through LS. They didn’t succeed on that, of course, which brings us to the current situation.

The answer really depends on what they will announce on saturday. If it really is a big expansion (we’re talking 4-5 new maps, a new profession, at least one new weapon, at least one new dungeon, etc.), then I don’t think the devs realized that LS wasn’t the way to go: it takes time to release a big expansion, so they should have started during season one.

In my opinion, it’s both. LS was meant to have content, probably enough to satisfy casual PvE players, so in a way it was meant to be some kind of expansion. But I think that in the last episode of Points of Interest (didn’t watch it, someone told me), they announced that when they designed the sylvaris, they wanted them to be Mordremoth’s children. So at least season 2 would be a build-up for this possible expansion. We’ll see.

Originally their goal for the LW was to replace expansions. However they fell FAR FAR short of that goal, and I think they have realized that. We will know for certain on Saturday, but it seems they have abandoned their original idea and are now going to use the LW as a build up to an expansion. (or at least we hope, either that or they want to doom the game to an early death)

There was talk initially of it delivering an expansions worth (I think it was worth, maybe quality? can’t really recall) of content, but that didn’t really happen. But I always liked the idea of living story being filler between xpacs. The type and quantity of content produced could never really satisfy the conventional MMO crowd (I still believe that the classic raid model provides the best hidden grind for content production effort. Not that I want raid treadmills).

Let me see a raise of hands. When was the last time anybody stepped foot in to a GameStop?

Why must all this “expansion” talk always revolve around a boxed commodity. Digital content is best delivered digitally. It is very unlikely that there is anybody playing GW2 or any modern MMO for that matter, that still utilizes their slow dial-up connection as an excuse.

Back on topic: Living Story is just as it was billed. There are no conspiracy theories here to be picked apart. IMO, new content should continue to be delivered this way. I spend a lot of $$ money on the BLTP. I am not excited about having to shell out $50-$70 for an expansion. Especially after I’ve already spent 10 x that much on gems and other items. $$ which is being spent on content for people who haven’t spent a penny since their initial purchase of the game.

SpyderBite.6274:

Let me see a raise of hands. When was the last time anybody stepped foot in to a GameStop?

Why must all this “expansion” talk always revolve around a boxed commodity. Digital content is best delivered digitally. It is very unlikely that there is anybody playing GW2 or any modern MMO for that matter, that still utilizes their slow dial-up connection as an excuse.

Back on topic: Living Story is just as it was billed. There are no conspiracy theories here to be picked apart. IMO, new content should continue to be delivered this way. I spend a lot of $$ money on the BLTP. I am not excited about having to shell out $50-$70 for an expansion. Especially after I’ve already spent 10 x that much on gems and other items. $$ which is being spent on content for people who haven’t spent a penny since their initial purchase of the game.

Exactly, no reason to sell a boxed product at all. Just release a very large update at the end of every second or third LS. I wish people would just refer to HoT as a large update rather than expansion.

S1 = Planned to be an expansion worth of content.
S2 = Gapfiller and context supplier for when they began focusing on HoT.

Thanks to the lack of communication we have still no idea what LW really means for Arenanet. Is it a filler and season 2 was the final and optimal stage? Is it the concept to deliver large chunks of content and Season 2 was the last test run before HoT starts as the real " Expanded LW"? I hope the panel on Pax will give the answer.

Maybe the LW is both filler in a smaller version and an Expansion in a bigger version.

SpyderBite.6274:

Let me see a raise of hands. When was the last time anybody stepped foot in to a GameStop?

Why must all this “expansion” talk always revolve around a boxed commodity. Digital content is best delivered digitally. It is very unlikely that there is anybody playing GW2 or any modern MMO for that matter, that still utilizes their slow dial-up connection as an excuse.

Back on topic: Living Story is just as it was billed. There are no conspiracy theories here to be picked apart. IMO, new content should continue to be delivered this way. I spend a lot of $$ money on the BLTP. I am not excited about having to shell out $50-$70 for an expansion. Especially after I’ve already spent 10 x that much on gems and other items. $$ which is being spent on content for people who haven’t spent a penny since their initial purchase of the game.

so what you are saying is:

“please take my money and offer me nothing meaningful in return, I don’t want my money to be used to make actual game content”

And this seems like a good idea to you?

Neither.

Living Story is not meant as an expansion nor a gap filler. It’s actually an extension of your personal, and continued, story.

It’s also supposed to give updated content that keeps players interested. Unlike other MMOs, where the endgame doesn’t exist, is raiding for gear, or strange things like Hutt Ball, the endgame is plot progression, achievement hunting for titles, gears, and minis, and exploration of new zones as they are released.

Living Story is kind of like an episodic television show where you are the main character.

Thus the wording of ‘Seasons’ in ArenaNet’s vocabulary.

Originally it was meant to be there in stead of an expansion. This was made very clear by a developer who said ‘If we do this (LS) right, we will never get an expansion’ and based on later statements from people like Colin ‘getting it right’ basically meant that if they could deliver expansion-like content / content you would expect in an expansion, in that way.

This did cause for a lot of negative feedback from the community. The official statement on that negative feedback was that people did not have to be afraid, we would for sure see expansion-like content / content you would expect in an expansion, but they had not yet decided if they would use the LS or an expansion. (but based on the first statement before you can conclude that they had decided to use the LS for that) however the negative feedback clearly made them rethink it.

After that this was the official statement for over almost two years, what obviously makes no sense because if they deliver an expansion worth of content (as they said) using the LS they should have started doing that immediately two years ago so by now we would have seen that complete ‘expansion’. That means they made that decision (LS or Expansion pack) almost two years ago, but why they never told the community what decision they made is a big question. They should have imho.

So basically they made the decision to use the LS and sort of failed as most people don’t see what has been delivered with the LS as expansion wordy, or they made the decision to in fact go for an expansion after the community reacted very negatively on the LS approach. You will likely get the answer to that this Saturday (Finally).

If they announce something like Season 3 then they obviously made the decision to go for and stick on the LS approach and what you have seen by now is supposed to be expansion wordy.
If they announce a true expansion pack to be released within half a year they made the decision to go for expansions (with a little time-lag because they originally wanted to go for the LS approach, explaining why the expansion took so long) or if they do announce an expansion but to be released in a year or longer then they made the decision for the LS but now after we should have seen an expansion word of content with the LS also Anet concluded that it was a failed attempt and so decided to go for the expansion approach for the next phase.

And here you have the summary of 2 years of GW2 expansion discussion / information.

So wait until Sunday and you know.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Neither.

Living Story is not meant as an expansion nor a gap filler. It’s actually an extension of your personal, and continued, story.

It’s also supposed to give updated content that keeps players interested. Unlike other MMOs, where the endgame doesn’t exist, is raiding for gear, or strange things like Hutt Ball, the endgame is plot progression, achievement hunting for titles, gears, and minis, and exploration of new zones as they are released.

Living Story is kind of like an episodic television show where you are the main character.

Thus the wording of ‘Seasons’ in ArenaNet’s vocabulary.

Hunting for mini’s, completing fun crafts, hunting for ranger-pets, collecting mounts and other fun items. I love to do that (in mmo’s), but as far as it’s even in GW2 (of the examples basically only mini’s and fun items (toys) are). It’s mainly cash-shop or gold-grind. So not really fun. LS and PS is not very interesting if you are not a real story person. So I do hope that this HoT is an expansion and the endgame will again move towards that sort of things in stead of keeping that cash-shop or gold-grind and having the LS stuff to try and keep people bussy or as you name it ‘end-game’.

WvW was more end-game for me but that also gets old after you have done that for over a year because of the way it’s designed.

Guess we’ll all find out this Saturday.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

so what you are saying is:

“please take my money and offer me nothing meaningful in return, I don’t want my money to be used to make actual game content”

And this seems like a good idea to you?

This sounds exactly like what I muttered to myself as I was buying my second copy of Settlers of Catan.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

so what you are saying is:

“please take my money and offer me nothing meaningful in return, I don’t want my money to be used to make actual game content”

And this seems like a good idea to you?

So, 3 new maps, one new dungeon set (fractals), 40 hours of story (30 for season 1, 10 for season 2), new weapon and armour skins, 5 new traits per profession, a new wardrobe system etc. are nothing meaningful?

Living Story set up the necessary background for Heart of Thorns’ main story component.

i believe it is a gap filler.

Back in the days where we have LS season one. I discussed with my friends that i think it is a lead in to tease player to buy an expension. I think season 2 is perfect acting as an introduction of Mordermoth. It made me want to fight Mordermoth badly.

I seriously doubt it was meant to be a “gap filler”. It was/is a way to update the game as time goes on. The original concept was to change the world into an ever-evolving landscape. To some extent, it worked, as some zones actually changed. There were new NPC’s, new terrain, and new events happening. Kessex Hills & Lion’s Arch are two examples.

Things started changing though as the story was taking a more prominent role. It started becoming more coherent around the time Scarlet showed up during Queen’s Jubilee. Before that, it wasn’t really clear what was going on. Flame & Frost, Dragon Bash, Bazaar of the Four Winds, Cutthroat Politics, etc. These were very loosely connected storywise.

There are many problems with this approach though, such as, timing and release schedules. Having to meet a deadline every 2 weeks was probably too stressful for some of their employees, and too quick for the players.

The other problems are content, where some was temporary, and also the lack of other updates besides the story component. This is generally why people hate the living story, because there was too much focus on story, and not enough on content updates such as new classes, races, crafting, zones, etc., which are found in more traditional mmorpgs.

Devata.6589:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Neither.

Living Story is not meant as an expansion nor a gap filler. It’s actually an extension of your personal, and continued, story.

It’s also supposed to give updated content that keeps players interested. Unlike other MMOs, where the endgame doesn’t exist, is raiding for gear, or strange things like Hutt Ball, the endgame is plot progression, achievement hunting for titles, gears, and minis, and exploration of new zones as they are released.

Living Story is kind of like an episodic television show where you are the main character.

Thus the wording of ‘Seasons’ in ArenaNet’s vocabulary.

Hunting for mini’s, completing fun crafts, hunting for ranger-pets, collecting mounts and other fun items. I love to do that (in mmo’s), but as far as it’s even in GW2 (of the examples basically only mini’s and fun items (toys) are). It’s mainly cash-shop or gold-grind. So not really fun. LS and PS is not very interesting if you are not a real story person. So I do hope that this HoT is an expansion and the endgame will again move towards that sort of things in stead of keeping that cash-shop or gold-grind and having the LS stuff to try and keep people bussy or as you name it ‘end-game’.

WvW was more end-game for me but that also gets old after you have done that for over a year because of the way it’s designed.

Honestly, even as someone really into story I stopped caring about the LS after…..Shadow of The Dragon, iirc. The constant cliff hangers just REALLY got on my nerves. I hate when a weekly TV show goes on a mid season break enough as it is. GW2 is even worse in that respect because it’s very little story progression every 2 weeks and being painfully predictable.

Cormac.3871:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

so what you are saying is:

“please take my money and offer me nothing meaningful in return, I don’t want my money to be used to make actual game content”

And this seems like a good idea to you?

So, 3 new maps, one new dungeon set (fractals), 40 hours of story (30 for season 1, 10 for season 2), new weapon and armour skins, 5 new traits per profession, a new wardrobe system etc. are nothing meaningful?

And then you realize GW1 got all that and more (minus the wardrobe and traits, but that wasn’t really needed due to how armor and builds in GW1 worked) in less time then GW2…..we are nearing 3 years, the amount of content GW2 has received since launch is really insignificant compared to it’s predecessor and other MMOs.

jokke.6239:

I’m curious if Living Story was meant in the beginning to be the “expansion”.
Or maybe not?
They have said a long time ago that they people working on a “big project” in the background.
If we find out this saturday that we will get a expansion with loads of new content, enough to be worthy to be compared with GW1 xpacs, then I think I will begin to appreciate the LS much more.
The worst thing about LS so far for me have been the thoughts in my head “is this all we will get”?
But in the future if I know that an xpac will be released later on, I think I will be able to enjoy those small 2 weekly patches much more

So basicly my question I guess is:

Do you think that they came to the conclusion that LS wasn’t the way to go, and decided to release an xpac instead?

Or do you think that LS was always just meant to fill the gap untill they released the “big project” ?

Do you not realize that the Living Story has be absolutely, 100% free of charge. Just log in and “bam! free content!”. There’s no subscription or anything, just 2 years of holiday events, new expanded story, new weapons, and more. That’s more than you’ll get out of a single player game, which will charge out the wazoo for DLC.

And honestly I’m seeing GW2 getting more QUALITY updates than some other games that are either subscription based or have ridiculous P2W cash shops.

An expansion would be an okay thing, but don’t just completely dismiss the Living Story. It’s an excellent experiment of game design that I’d like to see repeated in other games (although I like the original “???” discovery of steps and puzzle clues to find steps of progress instead of just map markers).

I think there’s a logical fallacy in the OP. The question only gives 2 choices, when more than two choices exist. What if it was meant to be more than filler, but wasn’t mean to be an expansion.

I think the Living Story was the expansion on dynamic events. Anet has always said from day one they want to make a living breathing world. Making a living breathing world is more than just filler. Calling it just filler is probably a bit insulting to the people who worked on it. It’s not tic tac toe while you wait for your game to load.

By the same token, it was never meant to be all the expansion we got either, testified to by the fact that we have gotten some things that really don’t relate to the LS, even if the LS introduced them.

Triple Threat and the Tequatl revamp and the new Fractals are examples of stuff that really isn’t living story stuff, even though it was introduced in that format.

The Living Story is meant to be another content stream in my opinion, which is neither filler, nor meant to take the role of an expansion.

I hope it was just a filler, the amount of content we got from living story is laughable compared to a real expansion. It has as much content as MGS : Ground Zero which is basically very little.

Devata.6589:

Originally it was meant to be there in stead of an expansion. This was made very clear by a developer who said ‘If we do this (LS) right, we will never get an expansion’ and based on later statements from people like Colin ‘getting it right’ basically meant that if they could deliver expansion-like content / content you would expect in an expansion, in that way.

This did cause for a lot of negative feedback from the community. The official statement on that negative feedback was that people did not have to be afraid, we would for sure see expansion-like content / content you would expect in an expansion, but they had not yet decided if they would use the LS or an expansion. (but based on the first statement before you can conclude that they had decided to use the LS for that) however the negative feedback clearly made them rethink it.

After that this was the official statement for over almost two years, what obviously makes no sense because if they deliver an expansion worth of content (as they said) using the LS they should have started doing immediately two years ago so by now we would have seen that complete ‘expansion’. That means they made that decision (LS or Expansion pack) almost two years ago, but why they never told the community what decision they made is a big question. They should have imho.

So basically they made the decision to use the LS and sort of failed as most people don’t see what has been delivered with the LS as expansion wordy, or they made the decision to in fact go for an expansion after the community reacted very negatively on the LS approach. You will likely get the answer to that this Saturday (Finally).

If they announce something like Season 3 then they obviously made the decision to go for and stick on the LS approach and what you have seen by now is supposed to be expansion wordy.
If they announce a true expansion pack to be released within half a year they made the decision to go for that (with a little time-lag because they originally wanted to go for the LS approach, explaining why the expansion took so long) or if they do announce an expansion but to be released in a year or longer then they made the decision for the LS but now after we should have seen an expansion word of content with the LS also Anet concluded that it was a failed attempt and so decided to go for the expansion approach for the next phase.

And here you have the summary of 2 years of GW2 expansion discussion / information.

So wait until Sunday and you know.

I think Areanet underestimated the potential of the LW concept and the assigned work and logistics. I remember Colins enthusiastic statemanet that the last F&F episode would be incredible large. During the evolution of Season 1 they saw the real potential the LW has. They decided to use the concept to launch larger chunks of content with this concept. But the first season was mainly based on temporal content. There was simply no infrastructure to deliver permanent content and monetise it. The design of the story journal should solve this problem.In addition many resources were bound to the launch in China. They also realised that a launch via LW requires a strict schedule when segments have to be finished in a certain sequence. I think at this moment they decided to pre-produce large parts of the expansion. Season 2 was created to fill the time until HoT is ready to start, to test/optimise the story journal including the storytelling and the achievements based on feedback.

I have the feeling so far we never saw an earnest try to deliver large chunks of content because these chunks were not ready. A small and even further reduced LW team is not able to deliver an expansion. But it was big enough to test and optimise things.

This saturday we will hopefully know if HoT is the real LW concept or not.

SpyderBite.6274:

Let me see a raise of hands. When was the last time anybody stepped foot in to a GameStop?

Why must all this “expansion” talk always revolve around a boxed commodity. Digital content is best delivered digitally. It is very unlikely that there is anybody playing GW2 or any modern MMO for that matter, that still utilizes their slow dial-up connection as an excuse.

Back on topic: Living Story is just as it was billed. There are no conspiracy theories here to be picked apart. IMO, new content should continue to be delivered this way. I spend a lot of $$ money on the BLTP. I am not excited about having to shell out $50-$70 for an expansion. Especially after I’ve already spent 10 x that much on gems and other items. $$ which is being spent on content for people who haven’t spent a penny since their initial purchase of the game.

With the attitude you have (preferring cash-shop junk over paid content) a B2P game is not the most logical choice for you and one of the many F2P games out there would have been better imo. On the other hand, Anet served people like you well, pretty much turning the game right after initial sale more into a cash-shop game with focusing the cash-shop instead of keeping true to a B2P game so no heavy cash-shop and a focus on content / expansions like GW1.

You say, why should you have to buy an expansion because you already spend a lot of cash on the cash-shop but the answer stays the same, because you did buy a B2P game, not a F2P game.

It’s also funny how you seem to think that you spending cash on the cash-shop is being spend on content for people who haven’t spent a penny since release.

You see, I did not spend a penny on the cash-shop since release. I am willing to spend cash on the game but only on a true expansion (pretty much the opposite of you) that is also why I did go for a B2P game and not one of the many F2P games out there. But like I said in a previous post, what I like to do is hunt for rare mini’s, do fun craft (fun as in craft them let you craft fun items), hunting down special ranger-pets or special skins and so on.

The cash-shop focus did not result so much in content as the initial income could have been used to finance an expansion and if the game would have truly gone the B2P way we could have seen an expansion once a year, meaning we would have been two expansions down the road by now with much more content then we have since now.

No what we did get instead was the LS and those thinks I like are being monetized, meaning that if you like a fun item it’s 99% of the time something you buy form the cash-shop or grind gold for (making everything about gold is just as good for their cash-shop because they sell gold). Let’s compare that for example to a game like WoW (I could do that with any non-F2P mmo but most people know WoW). WoW has a flying carpet but there you can make it with a craft what in fact makes the craft more fun and is why I like such crafts. In GW2 the flying carpet is a cash-shop item so buy it or grind gold. WoW has mini’s and 99% are available directly in the game, drops, or rewards for dungeons or rewards for quest and so on with almost none being a gold-grind. Again in GW2 most are cash-shop or gold-grind. WoW has a flying broom and there it’s a dungeon-drop, GW2 has it but it’s a cash-shop item.

So do not think you paid the content for those who did not spend a penny. You simply helped Anet to make this sort imho bad decisions that sucked a lot of fun out of the game for many people. I rather would have seen an expansion after a year, paid for that expansion and that expansion would have added a new craft that let me create the many items that have now been put into the cash-shop, and it would have new event, quest and dungeons rewarding the mini’s that we have now being seen added to the cash-shop and the same for nearly everything added to the cash-hop could have been added as nice rewards for nice content that was added with that expansion.

It would have been more content, that was more fun, and rewards you earned by playing that content instead of buying it or grinding gold for it.

Cormac.3871:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

so what you are saying is:

“please take my money and offer me nothing meaningful in return, I don’t want my money to be used to make actual game content”

And this seems like a good idea to you?

So, 3 new maps, one new dungeon set (fractals), 40 hours of story (30 for season 1, 10 for season 2), new weapon and armour skins, 5 new traits per profession, a new wardrobe system etc. are nothing meaningful?

Not compared to a true expansion (even a small one). And if I set that off against the negatives that came with this current approach, like all the fun items (like many of the added mini’s and toys, skins and so on) being turned into a gold-grind or item you simply buy, instead of it being fun rewards for content, things you hunt down in the game, adding to the game, it’s a really bad deal / compromise.

And if they would have gone for the expansion-focus we could have had two expansions by now.

Not to mention that you forget that even if there was no LS you usually get at least one bigger patch adding stuff like a dungeon and some other things in-between expansions.

For those thinking it’s just gap filler, it’ has always been and always has mend to be gap filler. That it that is not the case. They initially had more idea’s with it. If it had always been planned as gap filler the LS would have been fine the way it was the first few episodes. (some refuge’s walking on the street, and two week later a place sings where added so they knew where to go and so on). They could then also have been pushing out expansion every year.

But that was not the plan, it is not a coincident that even if HoT is an expansion it will have taken about 3 years (way over what the marked does) to release it. At some point it was mend as expansion replacer and so also a cash-shop commercial as that approach would mean they had to generate income that way.

So the conclusion it is and always has been just a gap filler in inaccurate.

I don’t get the big deal with expansions and a monitised content delivery method. I grew up with free MMORPGs that provided a ton of content for free. That’s what I’ve seen LS as. It’s not expac, nor is it filler. It’s content delivered for free

Back when i grew up, games got content that were meaningful, not just a 15 minute of cartoon story with a few linear interaction tact on as game play mechanics, nor did it provide repeatable content that are so mindless that anyone can do them while watching TV.

Fact of the matter is the living story is a problem among the other pile of DLC half made games out there.

Yes, the living story (or living world, as they wanted to call it) was meant to replace the expansion.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-03-its-unlikely-guild-wars-2-will-ever-get-an-expansion-pack

So right now we’re not really looking at expansions as an option.
…
It’s something that’s on the table but it’s not something we’re focused on, because what we want to do is – our idea here is that with Living World, we can do what expansions would have done but do it on a more regular basis.
…
If we do this right, we will probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy.

We’ll find out soon whether they did it right or not.

Celestina.2894:

Devata.6589:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Neither.

Living Story is not meant as an expansion nor a gap filler. It’s actually an extension of your personal, and continued, story.

It’s also supposed to give updated content that keeps players interested. Unlike other MMOs, where the endgame doesn’t exist, is raiding for gear, or strange things like Hutt Ball, the endgame is plot progression, achievement hunting for titles, gears, and minis, and exploration of new zones as they are released.

Living Story is kind of like an episodic television show where you are the main character.

Thus the wording of ‘Seasons’ in ArenaNet’s vocabulary.

Hunting for mini’s, completing fun crafts, hunting for ranger-pets, collecting mounts and other fun items. I love to do that (in mmo’s), but as far as it’s even in GW2 (of the examples basically only mini’s and fun items (toys) are). It’s mainly cash-shop or gold-grind. So not really fun. LS and PS is not very interesting if you are not a real story person. So I do hope that this HoT is an expansion and the endgame will again move towards that sort of things in stead of keeping that cash-shop or gold-grind and having the LS stuff to try and keep people bussy or as you name it ‘end-game’.

WvW was more end-game for me but that also gets old after you have done that for over a year because of the way it’s designed.

Honestly, even as someone really into story I stopped caring about the LS after…..Shadow of The Dragon, iirc. The constant cliff hangers just REALLY got on my nerves. I hate when a weekly TV show goes on a mid season break enough as it is. GW2 is even worse in that respect because it’s very little story progression every 2 weeks and being painfully predictable.

Cormac.3871:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

so what you are saying is:

“please take my money and offer me nothing meaningful in return, I don’t want my money to be used to make actual game content”

And this seems like a good idea to you?

So, 3 new maps, one new dungeon set (fractals), 40 hours of story (30 for season 1, 10 for season 2), new weapon and armour skins, 5 new traits per profession, a new wardrobe system etc. are nothing meaningful?

And then you realize GW1 got all that and more (minus the wardrobe and traits, but that wasn’t really needed due to how armor and builds in GW1 worked) in less time then GW2…..we are nearing 3 years, the amount of content GW2 has received since launch is really insignificant compared to it’s predecessor and other MMOs.

And even if it would have been much (because there for sure went a lot of work in it and it where many patches) that is not even relevant. What is relevant is what people think about it and by many it is conceived / received as not a lot of content.

But I agree, the stuff you can really see as an addition to the content isn’t that much at all even if they would release a full expansion 6 months from now. By that time you would expect a third expansion for a b2P game (Like GW1) and even most P2P and F2P games would be getting close to releasing their second expansion by that time.

About the story. I still guess it’s more for ‘story people’ then people less interested in the story but obviously will still not be great for all the ‘story people’.

Siphaed.9235:

jokke.6239:

I’m curious if Living Story was meant in the beginning to be the “expansion”.
Or maybe not?
They have said a long time ago that they people working on a “big project” in the background.
If we find out this saturday that we will get a expansion with loads of new content, enough to be worthy to be compared with GW1 xpacs, then I think I will begin to appreciate the LS much more.
The worst thing about LS so far for me have been the thoughts in my head “is this all we will get”?
But in the future if I know that an xpac will be released later on, I think I will be able to enjoy those small 2 weekly patches much more

So basicly my question I guess is:

Do you think that they came to the conclusion that LS wasn’t the way to go, and decided to release an xpac instead?

Or do you think that LS was always just meant to fill the gap untill they released the “big project” ?

Do you not realize that the Living Story has be absolutely, 100% free of charge. Just log in and “bam! free content!”. There’s no subscription or anything, just 2 years of holiday events, new expanded story, new weapons, and more. That’s more than you’ll get out of a single player game, which will charge out the wazoo for DLC.

And honestly I’m seeing GW2 getting more QUALITY updates than some other games that are either subscription based or have ridiculous P2W cash shops.

An expansion would be an okay thing, but don’t just completely dismiss the Living Story. It’s an excellent experiment of game design that I’d like to see repeated in other games (although I like the original “???” discovery of steps and puzzle clues to find steps of progress instead of just map markers).

Do you not realize it was NOT free but it came with a big price?! You see, they had to earn money so they turned to the cash-shop for that as expansions where put on the longer run (or not at all) with the LS approach. That resulting in the game becoming more of what you see with many F2P game. Grind gold for or buy the items you want but no hunting down those things in the game. What for plenty of people is the (fun) end-game. So a less fun , less rewarding and very grindy game. That is a huge price to pay!

BlueZone.4236:

Yes, the living story (or living world, as they wanted to call it) was meant to replace the expansion.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-03-its-unlikely-guild-wars-2-will-ever-get-an-expansion-pack

So right now we’re not really looking at expansions as an option.
…
It’s something that’s on the table but it’s not something we’re focused on, because what we want to do is – our idea here is that with Living World, we can do what expansions would have done but do it on a more regular basis.
…
If we do this right, we will probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy.

We’ll find out soon whether they did it right or not.

They did some things right and some things not so good. It’s obvious that the living story proved to be a huge challenge for them. I just wish they didn’t test it so soon on the playerbase. It should’ve been tested for at least 6 months on a private testing group.

The living story had potential back then, but it failed to deliver content that people wanted, so now people view it as something negative. It’s actually better now since they’ve had 2 years to refine it.

It’s still a great method of updating content, but it needs to diversify the content besides story content (which season 2 started doing with new zones and armor). Feature packs were an alternative to this also, but it would’ve been better if those releases were interwoven together.