Guild Wars 2

It was confirmed by Colin in an interview that all Living Story segments, events, and updates will be gated behind the expansion. Nothing like the attack on Lion’s Arch, the Toxic Alliance, or the Silverwastes/Drytop will be coming out for vanilla players to interact with.

If you enjoy PvE but can’t get the expansion for a while you may as well quit or start playing WvW or PvP since neither of those are apparently being gated.

How do you guys feel about this? Is it justified that from this point on everything will be happening in Maguuma? It’s pretty much guaranteed to isolate the community between HoT and not so how will that affect PvE in general? If there’s a new hub in the jungles it’s likely that a majority of players will simply leave ‘Pact Tyria’ in the dust like ANet is doing.

I hope you enjoy doing the exact same content you’ve been doing already, because without HoT you get nothing from this point onwards.

Discuss.

EDIT

A lot of you seem to assume I am saying Maguuma should be free, I am not, I am in no way saying vanilla players should be able to go to Maguuma without the expansion. I am not saying any Living Story that happens in Maguuma should be open to vanilla players.

The ‘issue’ here is that Maguuma will be the sole focus and hub of all Living World/Living Story updates from expansion onwards.

These are the exact words of the question and answer:

Q: If there’s players that are playing and don’t buy the expansion will they still be able to do things in the Living World?

A: They will not, no, if you… basically everything that comes after the expansion you will need to own the expansion to be able to access, basically. Pretty much all updates from that point will be expansion specific and the core world will be what it is today.

See that last part?

“the core world will be what it is today.”

That means that Pact Tyria/Vanilla Tyria will not be changing once the expansion hits, all updates to the world and the story will be happening in Maguuma. If they are switching to an expansion focused model this will mean that each successive zone will take the Living World and Story while leaving the previous zones ‘time locked’.

No rebuilding of Lion’s Arch that players can interact with, no story based events, no changes to existing events for a story reason such as Tequatl rising, no dungeons.

The only updates existing vanilla PvE will get are class changes/tweaks and Fractals/Seasonal changes if those are 100% literal words.

Remember the destruction of Lion’s Arch? Flame and Frost? The Toxic Alliance? Any and all of LS season 1/2? Nothing like those will be happening in Pact Tyria once the expansion hits, at least if Collin meant what he said.

That is the ‘death’ of the Living World of Tyria as we know it currently.

As well the notion that new expansions and dragons need changes to happen to Tyria? Not really, say Jormag is next, they’ll open up maps further north where the expansion happens, no need to change Pact Tyria for that. Don’t even need to leave Maguuma to have that direction be introduced, just need Trahearne to say Jormag is rising and to hop on a airship for the north.

That’s it, that’s all they’d need to do to leave Pact Tyria just the way it is, further nothing in Maguuma can have a drastic effect on the vanilla map without gating that map from non-expansion players.

The Living World that made GW2 unique is no longer happening, it is the “Living Expansion”.

I’m not condoning this decision by any means, but I think it’s safe to say that people who don’t plan on getting the expansion probably don’t plan on continuing to play the game for much longer.

Also, old Tyria will hardly be dead. Lots of people are still going to make alts and have to level them. And Anet has said quite clearly (probably Colin at least once) that they don’t want to make old content obsolete with the expansion, so I think they’re going to try to keep it going.

Isn’t this how all expansions work though? I’m not sure how else it could work, especially if they want to maximise the number of ppl buying the expac

Pretty standard practice. In WoW the new maps, levels, crafting etc are only available once you buy the expansion.

also i don’t expect them to shelve the daily system so that will get vets out of the jungle for a while also lol

Isn’t this how every single game in existence works when it comes to expansions?

I don’t really understand your point, are you saying that you think the expansion should be free for everyone? That we should buy the expansion and get the same content as everyone who doesn’t upgrade? That upon HoT coming out, the upgrade should be mandatory and the original GW2 would be locked out to those that don’t upgrade?

Expansions have to add gated content or else there is no point them.

Can you play the new dungeons and raids in WoW if you don’t have Warlord of Draenor?

There are going to be Masteries for the base game, as well as a separate set of Masteries for the expansion maps and such. So, I strongly doubt the base game will be empty/only have players who don’t have the expansion.

Regardless, as others said above, this is how expansions work. You can only play the content if you’ve paid for it.

This is the purpose of expansions. If the majority of content is available/modifications of the Old World then it would be called an “update.”

And consider what WoW did with Cataclysm. They created an expansion that re-worked their entire old world and then forced you to pay for it. There was no playing the game at all, not just being left out of the expansion areas. Many games become Expand-or-Leave. Giving players the option in this case is being very generous to the existing player base.

As Andred points out, the likely scenario is if you don’t want to buy the expansion, you’re not nlikely to stick around anyway. Sorry to fanboy all over your obviously biased and inflamatory OP.

Wasn’t the point of GW2 having an LS to make it ‘fresh’ and different? Tyria was a living breathing world that would change every now and then, without the LS that means no changes. Any and all changes in the world will now take place in the Jungles, it’s okay to have jungle limited events and story segments, what was said is that “LS will be gated to the expansion from here onwards.”

This isn’t WoW, WoW didn’t have a living world, it had a segmented narrative that you needed to buy expansions in order to follow, but even then the ‘vanilla’ world still changed. Cataclysm being the biggest example of that, even if you didn’t buy Cata you could still play in that newly changed world you just couldn’t do the new dungeons/raids/areas.

I personally hope they don’t leave the rest of Tyria to die, but from what was said it certainly seems like it be.

People have no justification to complain about the future living story needing the expansion as a requirement to play, because this is an MMO that is not charging a subscription fee. If you are at all interested in continuing to play the game, then Arenanet asking for more money from you for this expansion is not unreasonable at all. Most likely the people who are not willing to pay for the expansion were not paying customers beyond the box in the first place, so making sure they keep on getting new content more than 2 years later since release is worth next to nil for Arenanet.

I should also clarify, I’m not complaining that the maps/events/dungeons in Maguuma are being gated, I’m complaining that the rest of Tyria is now stuck in a permanent and unchanging limbo without development.

Maguuma content should be gated to HoT, moving the LS in it’s entirety to Maguuma is the issue.

i’d be really surprised if some of the content for the new story wasn’t in the old world even if its only meet with a council at LA / Fort trinity etc

It’ll be gated because it will likely take place there. No expansion, no access to maguuma. That makes perfect sense.

The Living Story was an experiment, one with very mixed results. It may be that they have decided to go a more traditional result. I hope they still develop the rest of Tyria in small ways – new events, overhauled boss battles. Obviously the masteries will help as well. It’s a huge core map – abandoning it completely will go against the Living World concept completely, but they will only have resources to concentrate most content where the players will be. And that will be Maguuma and beyond.

There is no reason to believe the core map wont be a part of story updates as it has sporadically in season 2. But, right now…it wouldn’t make sense to go into maguuma..come back…go back in..etc etc.

Maguuma is where the war front is against that dragon. It is not unreasonable for the war to stay in that area and not effecting all the other areas.

You keep repeating that “problem” but all i hear…and i guess others too is how you complain that the Expansion isn’t free. Ofc it won’t be free…if you like the game you will buy it, you have quite a lot of time to save money…save 50 cents every day from now on and you will have enough for the expansion. If money is the problem.

I’m happy to support the game by buying the expansion, I really appreciate the no subscription.

Cherokeewill.7504:

This is the purpose of expansions. If the majority of content is available/modifications of the Old World then it would be called an “update.”

And consider what WoW did with Cataclysm. They created an expansion that re-worked their entire old world and then forced you to pay for it. There was no playing the game at all, not just being left out of the expansion areas. Many games become Expand-or-Leave. Giving players the option in this case is being very generous to the existing player base.

As Andred points out, the likely scenario is if you don’t want to buy the expansion, you’re not nlikely to stick around anyway. Sorry to fanboy all over your obviously biased and inflamatory OP.

It’s a baseless assumption, I play every day when I can and have put more money into the game via gem store than what I paid for it [that said I did get it during the sale from a friend so the 40-50$ I was able to put in should cover that.]

I just doubt I’ll be able to have that same amount of disposable income anytime soon which means, for me at least, the game is dead.

It’s also saddening to see that no one else cares that Tyria is now in a limbo like Orr, never changing or updating in a meaningful way. Without LS there is no LW, nothing like Lion’s Arch or the Toxic Alliance or Flame & Frost will be happening since those were LS events. A major selling point and strong element of the game is now gated with a powerful distinction between HoT and not emerging.

Heck, the most prominent assumption seems to be “if you don’t get HoT you’re probably a quiter anyways” which is entirely opposite to what I’m saying.

You should rename your topic in: water is wet.

I’m not sure it’s safe to assume that nothing in mainland Tyria will change with the future Living World releases.

You just won’t be able to access the story instances which explain it all.

But I fully expect Lion’s Arch to be rebuilt, Mordremoth’s influence to grow, etc.

Gating exists in every game the only time it ever becomes a problem is when it’s unreasonable. There’s another title I can hold up as an example that recently added specializations however they left repeatable content in their title and people naturally took advantage of it. They since nerfed the xp from this content and then made it extremely lengthy to get specializations. This game requires you take 3.5 years (literally I’m not lying) to get your specialization for one character.

I’m hoping Anet doesn’t do that here!

timmyf.1490:

I’m not sure it’s safe to assume that nothing in mainland Tyria will change with the future Living World releases.

You just won’t be able to access the story instances which explain it all.

But I fully expect Lion’s Arch to be rebuilt, Mordremoth’s influence to grow, etc.

Sorry, but you’re mistaken, the question and answer are as follows:

Q: If there’s players that are playing and don’t buy the expansion will they still be able to do things in the Living World?

A: They will not, no, if you… basically everything that comes after the expansion you will need to own the expansion to be able to access, basically. Pretty much all updates from that point will be expansion specific and the core world will be what it is today.

The xpack will have a PS, like the original(gw2) I’d bet it will finish with the mordemoth arc by killing him, leaving any future LS updates to be wherever the devs want to go next.

Paying for new content is what it is. I doubt it will outright die but more people will defiantly be in the new content. Even guild wars 1 is still being played after the release of 2.

If the devs are smart. Future living story will be in the main game and lead us into another area for a totally seperate 3rd expansion.

Seriously, assuming the means are there, whos playing now that will absolutely not purchase the expansion?

People that are not getting the expansion probably don’t plan on playing much longer or not really invested in the game that much. The game itself is in its 3rd year. Sorry, but unless you are a minor with no income, if you can’t afford or save 50$ the expansion you really need to evaluate if you should be playing video games.

This will not be a problem for me as I will be buying the expansion. It will certainly not be easy for me but knowing it is coming I am saving up already. And I think that anyone who really cares that much about moving forward in the LW will be doing that also.

To answer your point more directly OP – what people who don’t buy the expansion will get is basically exactly what we have now. If you’re happy enough to play with Tyria as it is right now, why would this suddenly become unacceptable? No-one has the expac yet and here we all are, playing the game, still finding plenty to do – why do you feel that something is somehow being taken away from you if you don’t get the expac?

Boanoah, I’m sure that you’ll still get your holiday events and after the expansion’s lifetime, the next living story before the expansion will probably come back to Tyria (if we’re battling a new dragon and not battling our way to Elona, in which case it would happen in the maguuma).

You’re not barred from updates. You’re barred away from the story line that has to do with the expansion and all LSs surrounding it. And that’s normal. You’re acting as if you never seen an MMO get an expansion before.

Mirta.5029:

Boanoah, I’m sure that you’ll still get your holiday events and after the expansion’s lifetime, the next living story before the expansion will probably come back to Tyria (if we’re battling a new dragon and not battling our way to Elona, in which case it would happen in the maguuma).

You’re not barred from updates. You’re barred away from the story line that has to do with the expansion and all LSs surrounding it. And that’s normal. You’re acting as if you never seen an MMO get an expansion before.

No, in Colin’s own words all updates will be happening in the expansion and the world as it is now will stay that way.

Boanoah.6719:

No, in Colin’s own words all updates will be happening in the expansion and the world as it is now will stay that way.

where pray tell me will they host next Wintersday if we don’t seem to be getting a new hub?
And better yet, lets say Jormag attacks as our next enemy. How do you expect him to cross the whole Tyria to get to Maguuma and attack them specifically? Remember that majority of the dragons are kind of in a circular formation around Tyria and I highly doubt that when they close this ark, they’ll bother somehow magically transporting them half the world away in order to make them previous expansion exclusive.

The whole ark, for the expansion’s lifetime will stay in the expansion though. Which can be between 1 to 3 years. So yes, your world will stay static for around 3 years, excluding holiday events, but if afterwards we’re not digging deeper that way (like I said, unless we’re going to Elona), bringing everything from half the world away there specifically would be hard to write in. Therefore it will likely come back to Tyria before digging in a different direction with a different expansion.

EDIT: that’s assuming that we’ll still get living stories even though. For all we know the game might be moving to expansion packs only model.

Umm, did you watch the Angry Joe video? Colin evades lots of things with “I can’t talk about that yet,” but does say vanilla professions are getting reworked and that guild halls and the new PvP and WvW modes will be available even if you don’t buy HoT, though you might need the expansion to make full use of them. Vanilla isn’t getting frozen.

… suddenly I want ice cream.

Let it go, let it goooo…

I came from the Final Fantasy world not Guild Wars. I was almost going to buy GW1 a million times but it never happened. When GW2 came out I was like okay I’m joining up. I’ve had enough of chocobo land to last me.

I am so clueless to what you are all babbling on about.

What I do know is this. A little green asterisk appears on my map. If I go to it I get a cutscene with my character talking in an annoyingly charming voice (well done, applaud the actor, but just not the low gravelly masculine voice I would have liked for my char). I watch him chase a stag or w/e. It’s kinda boring but makes more sense than a Final Fantasy cutscene. I think fangirl thots to get thru it and eat a sandwich or drink a coke.

I’ve been told that GW2 is a continuation of a story from GW1. Now you are on the forums telling me the story I’m currently on is going to be locked away; presumably in a cash shop for sale???? I don’t even know what happened in GW1 so why should I care?

Now if the story was about a gay romance (Dragon Age style) with my char having a staring role I might of had my panities in a bunch over loosing out on some good action scenes.

Well folks, you demanded an expansion and got one.

Shame, as the features look promising. Sad that such a big, “living” world will succumb to the same fate as most pre-expansion areas of most other games.

The expansion in regards to the base game and future features should never be neglected. Especially so for a living world.

Greyhound.2058:

Let it go, let it goooo…

Let it go, let it go
I am one with the wind and sky
Let it go, let it go
You’ll never see me cry
Here I stand
And here I’ll stay
Let the storm rage on

Read more: Idina Menzel – Let It Go Lyrics | MetroLyrics

If you think about it, those words make sense for the coming expansion =D

Mirta.5029:

Boanoah.6719:

No, in Colin’s own words all updates will be happening in the expansion and the world as it is now will stay that way.

where pray tell me will they host next Wintersday if we don’t seem to be getting a new hub?
And better yet, lets say Jormag attacks as our next enemy. How do you expect him to cross the whole Tyria to get to Maguuma and attack them specifically? Remember that majority of the dragons are kind of in a circular formation around Tyria and I highly doubt that when they close this ark, they’ll bother somehow magically transporting them half the world away in order to make them previous expansion exclusive.

The whole ark, for the expansion’s lifetime will stay in the expansion though. Which can be between 1 to 3 years. So yes, your world will stay static for around 3 years, excluding holiday events, but if afterwards we’re not digging deeper that way (like I said, unless we’re going to Elona), bringing everything from half the world away there specifically would be hard to write in. Therefore it will likely come back to Tyria before digging in a different direction with a different expansion.

EDIT: that’s assuming that we’ll still get living stories even though. For all we know the game might be moving to expansion packs only model.

You can say that but Colin said differently and I trust his words a lot on the topic, Pact Tyria, the game as we have it now, will not be changing from HoT onwards. If we go Jormag next it’s likely they’d just expand North and the map that way will update and change, Maguuma would then be like Pact Tyria right now, unchanging.

That’s what a lot of people don’t seem to be getting, it’s not an issue of Maguuma’s story being locked to Maguuma, it’s an issue that the story of GW2 vanilla ending. Pact Tyria will not be getting updates, it will not be part of the Living World and any non-expac players will be stuck in it’s limbo as well. Living story segments may happen in gated instances within Pact Tyria but vanilla players and the vanilla world will not change or be able to take part in it.

Ever played the PS from 1 to 80 recently? You visit Lion’s Arch to save it when it’s already destroyed, you cleanse Orr to leave it infested with risen, those are results of the Living World. The story and certain map segments are ‘locked in time’ as they are and when Maguuma hits all of Pact Tyria will be the same way, locked.

That means Lion’s Arch probably won’t be fixed, Orr probably won’t be cleansed, and the maps will be stuck as they are now.

Sure, we may get seasonal events but nothing else will be coming, LS season 4 will be expansion gated, 5, 6, 7, etc will also be gated, the only part of the world to change or evolve will be Maguuma. At least until the next expansion when it will probably be time locked to the way it was when HoT ended and whatever comes next picks up again.

Statements like in the OP just don’t seem to make sense and really just need to be ignored. HoT is a B2P expansion…it requires you to buy it to play the content. There aren’t any MMOs that release B2P expansions that work any differently.

GW2 is NOT F2P…never has been, never will be. It is B2P. They will continue to work on content for all areas of the game…they even have said as much in all of the interviews so far. There are pictures of Mastery’s for the vanilla part of the game…they are adding content to the vanilla part of the game…they said that there will be adventures added to ALL parts of the game…there is PvP and WvW content being added to the vanilla part of the game…just do your research and then buy the expansion…why?

Because you like the vanilla part of the game and you want to support ANet making more content. If you don’t agree, fine…don’t buy it, but please stop QQing about how your ball is being taken away from you…it’s not…in fact your being given a bunch of free new balls on top of the opportunity to buy a new playground to play in.

Some people…

Donari.5237:

Umm, did you watch the Angry Joe video? Colin evades lots of things with “I can’t talk about that yet,” but does say vanilla professions are getting reworked and that guild halls and the new PvP and WvW modes will be available even if you don’t buy HoT, though you might need the expansion to make full use of them. Vanilla isn’t getting frozen.

… suddenly I want ice cream.

It doesn’t matter what he said to Angry Joe, what he said to Bog Otter is my concern.

Living world and living story updates from here on will be expansion locked, updates to the world will be happening in Maguuma while Pact Tyria will be, and I quote: “the way it is today.”

Reading all this, I admit I am confused. Is the OP, saying that if I don’t buy the expansion, I can’t play in the game at all? I only have 50% of Tyria map out and slowly getting up so not ready for the expansion yet my self, and I am just confused by a lot I am reading, or that some people are assuming the worst at the start.

Man, why do you try to convince us to your point? Expansions works this way. Adding new zone.
it’s normal that peaople are moving to new things and places leaving behind rest of the world.

They have already stated LA will be fixed in future content. It was a forum post a month or 2 back.
Gating the LS behind the expacs does not mean vanilla Tyria is out of action. S2 gates the story, it still changed vanilla Tyria.

Also, even in the infinitesimal chance what you say is their plan…..plans change.

TJgalon.5012:

Reading all this, I admit I am confused. Is the OP, saying that if I don’t buy the expansion, I can’t play in the game at all? I only have 50% of Tyria map out and slowly getting up so not ready for the expansion yet my self, and I am just confused by a lot I am reading, or that some people are assuming the worst at the start.

That is not what he is saying. Don’t worry, when the expansion releases, you can continue doing what you have been doing, whether you buy the expansion or not. Buy the expansion when you are ready to tackle that content.

MokahTGS.7850:

Statements like in the OP just don’t seem to make sense and really just need to be ignored. HoT is a B2P expansion…it requires you to buy it to play the content. There aren’t any MMOs that release B2P expansions that work any differently.

GW2 is NOT F2P…never has been, never will be. It is B2P. They will continue to work on content for all areas of the game…they even have said as much in all of the interviews so far. There are pictures of Mastery’s for the vanilla part of the game…they are adding content to the vanilla part of the game…they said that there will be adventures added to ALL parts of the game…there is PvP and WvW content being added to the vanilla part of the game…just do your research and then buy the expansion…why?

Because you like the vanilla part of the game and you want to support ANet making more content. If you don’t agree, fine…don’t buy it, but please stop QQing about how your ball is being taken away from you…it’s not…in fact your being given a bunch of free new balls on top of the opportunity to buy a new playground to play in.

Some people…

I swear some people don’t read before responding.

PvE is not getting any ‘new balls’, all updates to the world will be happening in Maguuma, the living world [which brought us such great hits as season 1 and season 2 of the living story as well as Silverwastes, Drytop, Tequatl Rising, Toxic Alliance, Flame & Frost, the Karka Invasion, the destructio of Lion’s Arch and any such map updates] will no longer be happening in Pact Tyria.

The world of Pact Tyria, the game as it is now, will no longer be changing with updates to the Living World, there will be no Living Story seasons for vanilla players to engage in.

“The world will be as it is today.”

Boanoah.6719:

I swear some people don’t read before responding.

PvE is not getting any ‘new balls’, all updates to the world will be happening in Maguuma, the living world [which brought us such great hits as season 1 and season 2 of the living story as well as Silverwastes, Drytop, Tequatl Rising, Toxic Alliance, Flame & Frost, the Karka Invasion, the destructio of Lion’s Arch and any such map updates] will no longer be happening in Pact Tyria.

The world of Pact Tyria, the game as it is now, will no longer be changing with updates to the Living World, there will be no Living Story seasons for vanilla players to engage in.

“The world will be as it is today.”

and that’s normal. That statement could even mean that we’re moving away from LS entirely. Which is not a bad thing either.

Randulf.7614:

They have already stated LA will be fixed in future content. It was a forum post a month or 2 back.
Gating the LS behind the expacs does not mean vanilla Tyria is out of action. S2 gates the story, it still changed vanilla Tyria.

Also, even in the infinitesimal chance what you say is their plan…..plans change.

The Living World will no longer be changing Pact Tyria in a way that vanilla players will be able to interact with it, according to Colin’s own words. We may see Lion’s Arch get fixed before HoT but if what he said is true it means it won’t be happening after HoT is launched.

I could be wrong, hey, maybe he misspoke or didn’t understand the question but it boils down to a very simple point:

“Will players without the expansion be able to participate in the living world?”

“No.”

eisberg.2379:

TJgalon.5012:

Reading all this, I admit I am confused. Is the OP, saying that if I don’t buy the expansion, I can’t play in the game at all? I only have 50% of Tyria map out and slowly getting up so not ready for the expansion yet my self, and I am just confused by a lot I am reading, or that some people are assuming the worst at the start.

That is not what he is saying. Don’t worry, when the expansion releases, you can continue doing what you have been doing, whether you buy the expansion or not. Buy the expansion when you are ready to tackle that content.

I thought so, it just the way people were making it sound, I just felt better by the clear up

Boanoah.6719:

Randulf.7614:

They have already stated LA will be fixed in future content. It was a forum post a month or 2 back.
Gating the LS behind the expacs does not mean vanilla Tyria is out of action. S2 gates the story, it still changed vanilla Tyria.

Also, even in the infinitesimal chance what you say is their plan…..plans change.

The Living World will no longer be changing Pact Tyria in a way that vanilla players will be able to interact with it, according to Colin’s own words. We may see Lion’s Arch get fixed before HoT but if what he said is true it means it won’t be happening after HoT is launched.

I could be wrong, hey, maybe he misspoke or didn’t understand the question but it boils down to a very simple point:

“Will players without the expansion be able to participate in the living world?”

“No.”

That sounds like to me, that the expansion living world section can’t be played without the expansion.

Of course not since it will largely take place in the new zones. Doesn’t mean it wont link to vanilla tyria. or affect it some way. But yes, his point is exactly as one would expect otherwise.

TJgalon.5012:

Boanoah.6719:

Randulf.7614:

They have already stated LA will be fixed in future content. It was a forum post a month or 2 back.
Gating the LS behind the expacs does not mean vanilla Tyria is out of action. S2 gates the story, it still changed vanilla Tyria.

Also, even in the infinitesimal chance what you say is their plan…..plans change.

The Living World will no longer be changing Pact Tyria in a way that vanilla players will be able to interact with it, according to Colin’s own words. We may see Lion’s Arch get fixed before HoT but if what he said is true it means it won’t be happening after HoT is launched.

I could be wrong, hey, maybe he misspoke or didn’t understand the question but it boils down to a very simple point:

“Will players without the expansion be able to participate in the living world?”

“No.”

That sounds like to me, that the expansion living world section can’t be played without the expansion.

The Living World will be expansion only when HoT hits is what sounded like to me, because that’s exactly what Colin said: “All updates from then on will be expansion gated.”

They cannot change Pact Tyria with expansion content without locking out that zone for vanilla players, since we will not be getting living story or living world updates that means no changes to vanilla Tyria. GW2 as we have it now will be what it is now for the rest of the games longevity, assuming things stay on the path Colin outlined.

If the game moves to an expansion focus it will mean Maguuma will one day be frozen like Pact Tyria and that the Living World will then move wholly to the next expansion.

Perhaps, OP, you should watch this interview and listen to what other Devs have to say, including the Lead Game Designer.

It’s a bit of a different story. /shrug

Boanoah.6719:

MokahTGS.7850:

Statements like in the OP just don’t seem to make sense and really just need to be ignored. HoT is a B2P expansion…it requires you to buy it to play the content. There aren’t any MMOs that release B2P expansions that work any differently.

GW2 is NOT F2P…never has been, never will be. It is B2P. They will continue to work on content for all areas of the game…they even have said as much in all of the interviews so far. There are pictures of Mastery’s for the vanilla part of the game…they are adding content to the vanilla part of the game…they said that there will be adventures added to ALL parts of the game…there is PvP and WvW content being added to the vanilla part of the game…just do your research and then buy the expansion…why?

Because you like the vanilla part of the game and you want to support ANet making more content. If you don’t agree, fine…don’t buy it, but please stop QQing about how your ball is being taken away from you…it’s not…in fact your being given a bunch of free new balls on top of the opportunity to buy a new playground to play in.

Some people…

I swear some people don’t read before responding.

PvE is not getting any ‘new balls’, all updates to the world will be happening in Maguuma, the living world [which brought us such great hits as season 1 and season 2 of the living story as well as Silverwastes, Drytop, Tequatl Rising, Toxic Alliance, Flame & Frost, the Karka Invasion, the destructio of Lion’s Arch and any such map updates] will no longer be happening in Pact Tyria.

The world of Pact Tyria, the game as it is now, will no longer be changing with updates to the Living World, there will be no Living Story seasons for vanilla players to engage in.

“The world will be as it is today.”

So you definition of new balls only includes Living World story…ok…then we don’t have anything to debate since I use a different definition that includes all content added to the game.

Collin stated that the LW story will be HoT dependent and that completely and totally makes sense. You might not like it, but it does not mean that the vanilla game won’t have new content added (new balls). Just not new story.

If that is what you are QQing about, then fine…just know that most people do not agree that GW2 should move forward the way you want.

That’s just the latest byproduct of the whole LS “concept”. The main thing here is that those “other games” (GW1 included) expansions unlock all the gated content for you even if you purchase them later. For late GW2 players, HoT will only unlock some static content and the right to purchase previous LS episodes. Paying to be allowed to pay for content in a way…