Guild Wars 2

Boanoah.6719:

That means no more changing world or narrative for vanilla players.

That means no more changing world or narrative for players who are unwilling (or unable) to pay for it.

I did not buy a new Ferrari. I do not get to drive a new Ferrari.

learn to manage your finances and you will then be able to purchase the expansion.

runeblade.7514:

I’m 100% okay with this.

When there were vines and Scarlet attacks everywhere, it left a lore-breaking environment when the Living Story ended.

The only real ‘lore-breaking’ stuff I encountered since playing is Lion’s Arch and the NPE messed up events at Orr, only one of which was a victim of the LW.

They did a pretty ‘okay’ job of not changing areas with a major plot relevance that completely shatters the suspension of disbelief. Having to ‘save’ a ruinous Lion’s Arch or visiting a non-ruined Claw Island were definitely very strange events. I hope they fix it back up before abandoning Vanilla GW2 to work solely on Maguuma content.

Boanoah.6719:

runeblade.7514:

I’m 100% okay with this.

When there were vines and Scarlet attacks everywhere, it left a lore-breaking environment when the Living Story ended.

The only real ‘lore-breaking’ stuff I encountered since playing is Lion’s Arch and the NPE messed up events at Orr, only one of which was a victim of the LW.

They did a pretty ‘okay’ job of not changing areas with a major plot relevance that completely shatters the suspension of disbelief. Having to ‘save’ a ruinous Lion’s Arch or visiting a non-ruined Claw Island were definitely very strange events. I hope they fix it back up before abandoning Vanilla GW2 to work solely on Maguuma content.

I doubt they’ll abandon Vanilla GW2 completely. It’s fairly obvious that the game story is going to Maguuma with Heart of Thorns, but once we are done in the jungle the other Dragons are waiting, those are not in the Maguuma and they will need their own tie-in LS before opening up their expansion zones.

They will work on Maguuma content while we are fighting Mordremoth, because that makes sense, that’s where the story is, but once that’s done we will go back to the old zones to open up the next expansion.

Ashen.2907:

Boanoah.6719:

That means no more changing world or narrative for vanilla players.

That means no more changing world or narrative for players who are unwilling (or unable) to pay for it.

I did not buy a new Ferrari. I do not get to drive a new Ferrari.

Not quite.

“I did not buy a Ferrari 2.0. I do not get to drive my Ferrari 1.0 any further down the road.”

See how that works? Or better yet:

“I did not buy a new road. I do not get to drive any further on the old roads.”

maddoctor.2738:

Boanoah.6719:

runeblade.7514:

I’m 100% okay with this.

When there were vines and Scarlet attacks everywhere, it left a lore-breaking environment when the Living Story ended.

The only real ‘lore-breaking’ stuff I encountered since playing is Lion’s Arch and the NPE messed up events at Orr, only one of which was a victim of the LW.

They did a pretty ‘okay’ job of not changing areas with a major plot relevance that completely shatters the suspension of disbelief. Having to ‘save’ a ruinous Lion’s Arch or visiting a non-ruined Claw Island were definitely very strange events. I hope they fix it back up before abandoning Vanilla GW2 to work solely on Maguuma content.

I doubt they’ll abandon Vanilla GW2 completely. It’s fairly obvious that the game story is going to Maguuma with Heart of Thorns, but once we are done in the jungle the other Dragons are waiting, those are not in the Maguuma and they will need their own tie-in LS before opening up their expansion zones.

They will work on Maguuma content while we are fighting Mordremoth, because that makes sense, that’s where the story is, but once that’s done we will go back to the old zones to open up the next expansion.

Read my opening post and Collin’s own words.

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.

“everything that comes after the expansion you will need to own the expansion to be able to access”

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

What about that says:

“Only Maguuma content will be gated to expansion owners.”?

The thread title calls Vanilla GW2 “dead”.

It will not receive major content updates or world changes.

That’s a strange definition of dead. Dead would mean closed down, no longer available, ceased, pushing up the daisies, it’d be an ex-game (nudge nudge, wink wink).

Instead it is still available, only not evolving anymore. You can still do all content that is there today. Not exactly dead, to be honest. You can still drive your Ferrari 1.0 on the roads that have been there all the time. Only the new racetrack is reserved for Ferrari 2.0.

I don’t see a problem here. Either the xpac is worth your money in your consideration or not. If not, you lose nothing that you now have.

I believe it was mentioned that they would be adding “adventures” and reworking heart quests to be “repeatable” in the vanilla world.

This is mentioned in the Angry Joe interview ( don’t have a link).

Living story will be heavily based on taking on Mordemoth and events in Maguuma. That content will only be available in HoT. Pretty open and shut, hard to really get upset about. Buy the expansion if you want the new areas and story. Like any MMO expansion.

And really it seems odd to not be down for expansions when you sign in for an MMO. They’re pretty commonplace in the genre, and it seems weird to pass up new content for a game you sink time into.

It’d be like playing WoW and refusing to buy their expansions. You can do that, but you’d be missing out on a bulk of new content, and it really calls into question why you signed up in the first place.

Halvorn.9831:

The thread title calls Vanilla GW2 “dead”.

It will not receive major content updates or world changes.

That’s a strange definition of dead. Dead would mean closed down, no longer available, ceased, pushing up the daisies, it’d be an ex-game (nudge nudge, wink wink).

Instead it is still available, only not evolving anymore. You can still do all content that is there today. Not exactly dead, to be honest. You can still drive your Ferrari 1.0 on the roads that have been there all the time. Only the new racetrack is reserved for Ferrari 2.0.

I don’t see a problem here. Either the xpac is worth your money in your consideration or not. If not, you lose nothing that you now have.

It’s dead in regards to the Living World, the ‘living’ world that changed maps, introduced events, and kept things fresh is now being moved entirely into Maguuma with any and all updates being expansion locked.

The ‘living’ aspects of Pact Tyria are now dead, no living story, no living world, no living Tyria.

yanipheonu.5798:

Living story will be heavily based on taking on Mordemoth and events in Maguuma. That content will only be available in HoT. Pretty open and shut, hard to really get upset about. Buy the expansion if you want the new areas and story. Like any MMO expansion.

And really it seems odd to not be down for expansions when you sign in for an MMO. They’re pretty commonplace in the genre, and it seems weird to pass up new content for a game you sink time into.

It’d be like playing WoW and refusing to buy their expansions. You can do that, but you’d be missing out on a bulk of new content, and it really calls into question why you signed up in the first place.

I am not against expansions, nor am I against content being locked to the expansion when it pertains to the events and maps in said expansion. The problem, at least for me, is that what made GW2 unique was the Living World and Story, I can’t think of any other MMO that can claim to have as much dynamic content as GW2 had.

Whole cities and maps were irrevocably changed because of the Living World, events were introduced and removed, players had a somewhat lasting effect on the world of Tyria.

New players could hop in, experience the PS and then the current LS, they too could see the world change as they played. It wasn’t just veterans that got to experience these things, the opening of the Silverwastes and Drytop, the Rising of Tequatl, the events leading into Maguuma. All of it were things they could see unfold and interact with, that’s a fresh concept in the stale MMO genre that made GW2 stand-out.

When HoT hits that will no longer be the case, GW2 will be no more innovative or interesting than any other expansion focused MMO. Pact Tyria, the world as it is now, will effectively be abandoned to focus entirely on expansion gated content.

Even players with the expansion will likely see frozen Tyria while the Jungle changes, and when the next expansion comes the Jungle too will fall silent.

Maybe it’s just me, I don’t know, I do plan on eventually getting the expansion but this is still bothersome. If I wanted to play a standard MMO I could get WoW for the same expansion focused business model, I like GW2 because it’s not that. A player should be able to get the base game and feel like they matter, they won’t and they don’t without the expansion.

What’s the selling point for core world GW2 at that point?

“Come play our game, you can do .5 year old content and then twiddle your thumb until you buy HoT, isn’t that great? You don’t have to pay monthly for a stale and time-locked experience! How innovative! You can even watch videos about Season 1 to see the content you never got to play or take part in, how grand.”

The original game won’t be left to die with the release of the expansion.

They said it themselves, they’re not going to just leave the rest of the world to rot beyond the maguuma.

But obviously it’s going to be the new hotness and will get priority for a time, including updates and further developments.

Later on we can expect some kind of living story of sorts that brings us back to the world at large.

Something that will take us through things changing as time and the story goes on, or maybe even something else entirely.

But leaving the world to stagnate isn’t something they’ll do. That isn’t how they operate.

Now the people who are complaining about a paid expansion for the sake of it being a paid expansion are just a joke.

“OMG living story sucks, too small, release an expansion already”
“OMG I have to pay for an expansion, how could they do this, now the rest of the world is gonna dead”

Boanoah.6719:

maddoctor.2738:

Boanoah.6719:

runeblade.7514:

I’m 100% okay with this.

When there were vines and Scarlet attacks everywhere, it left a lore-breaking environment when the Living Story ended.

The only real ‘lore-breaking’ stuff I encountered since playing is Lion’s Arch and the NPE messed up events at Orr, only one of which was a victim of the LW.

They did a pretty ‘okay’ job of not changing areas with a major plot relevance that completely shatters the suspension of disbelief. Having to ‘save’ a ruinous Lion’s Arch or visiting a non-ruined Claw Island were definitely very strange events. I hope they fix it back up before abandoning Vanilla GW2 to work solely on Maguuma content.

I doubt they’ll abandon Vanilla GW2 completely. It’s fairly obvious that the game story is going to Maguuma with Heart of Thorns, but once we are done in the jungle the other Dragons are waiting, those are not in the Maguuma and they will need their own tie-in LS before opening up their expansion zones.

They will work on Maguuma content while we are fighting Mordremoth, because that makes sense, that’s where the story is, but once that’s done we will go back to the old zones to open up the next expansion.

Read my opening post and Collin’s own words.

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.

“everything that comes after the expansion you will need to own the expansion to be able to access”

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

What about that says:

“Only Maguuma content will be gated to expansion owners.”?

Well I don’t see how we can go from the Maguuma to the Crystal Desert or the Far Shiverpeaks. Will we get some kind of teleportation option or something?

maddoctor.2738:

Boanoah.6719:

maddoctor.2738:

Boanoah.6719:

runeblade.7514:

I’m 100% okay with this.

When there were vines and Scarlet attacks everywhere, it left a lore-breaking environment when the Living Story ended.

The only real ‘lore-breaking’ stuff I encountered since playing is Lion’s Arch and the NPE messed up events at Orr, only one of which was a victim of the LW.

They did a pretty ‘okay’ job of not changing areas with a major plot relevance that completely shatters the suspension of disbelief. Having to ‘save’ a ruinous Lion’s Arch or visiting a non-ruined Claw Island were definitely very strange events. I hope they fix it back up before abandoning Vanilla GW2 to work solely on Maguuma content.

I doubt they’ll abandon Vanilla GW2 completely. It’s fairly obvious that the game story is going to Maguuma with Heart of Thorns, but once we are done in the jungle the other Dragons are waiting, those are not in the Maguuma and they will need their own tie-in LS before opening up their expansion zones.

They will work on Maguuma content while we are fighting Mordremoth, because that makes sense, that’s where the story is, but once that’s done we will go back to the old zones to open up the next expansion.

Read my opening post and Collin’s own words.

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.

“everything that comes after the expansion you will need to own the expansion to be able to access”

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

What about that says:

“Only Maguuma content will be gated to expansion owners.”?

Well I don’t see how we can go from the Maguuma to the Crystal Desert or the Far Shiverpeaks. Will we get some kind of teleportation option or something?

That keeps being mentioned and I keep failing to see how it will mean that Pact Tyria will need to update for those events. Much like Maguuma the map will open outwards in those directions, much like the Silverwastes/Drytop, however instead of being free they will be expansion locked.

From there the LS will take place in these ‘preliminary’ maps to introduce HoT players to the fact that Jormag/Kralk is beginning to stir more actively.

New events will occur in those maps prior to the release of the next expansion wherein HoT/Vanilla players who do not get the next expansion will get ‘time-locked’. Pact Tyria is getting gated to the time period before HoT, HoT will get gated to the state it was in prior to whatever comes next.

There is no need for them to advance Pact Tyria using this method, nor will they have to update Maguuma either.

If each expansion takes on the LW/LS in it’s entirety it makes it easier for them to develop and more cost effective to boot. We’ve already seen time-locked content in the game right now, Orr, it’s permanently locked to ‘pre-cleansing’ so that new players can still fight hordes of Risen. That will never change because there is no need for them to change it and leaving it as is will be best for new players going through the PS. Now apply that to all of Pact Tyria, there is no need for it to change if the idea is to advance through the expansions/game time-wise. Pact Tyria ‘makes sense’ as it is right now, excluding the changes to Lion’s Arch that were promised, like Orr it will be ‘dead’.

Players with the expansion can walk right across old Tyria to get to those new zones/maps just as we can walk from Silverwastes allllll the way back to the past in Orr without needing Orr to change.

maddoctor.2738:

Well I don’t see how we can go from the Maguuma to the Crystal Desert or the Far Shiverpeaks. Will we get some kind of teleportation option or something?

If only there was a series of points along the way to facilitate such travel. Alas, there is not and we cannot go there unless we go through the jungle. No, no, do not try to tell me to turn around and walk the other way, for that is madness! No, first we must travel through the jungle.

(No, it didn’t make any gods-be-daft sense in Prophecies when they did it either.)

Oh, all this talk of new systems to build off from, a foundation of things which change how progression works and they wouldn’t dare insert it into the vanilla game. No, there’s no way for them to ensure it could be done without actually having the whole Heart of Thorns. There’s no way they could patch it into the vanilla game over what already exists, don’t be silly . . .

(Even though we know they did similar things in GW1’s era.)

Surely, they shall only allow people to actually play the game who bought the Expansion, and us poor feeble paupers who don’t buy it shall be forever made to sit at the kiddie table and gawk at all the cool stuff and never buy it because it is only available on release and certainly won’t be available if you save up whatever the cost is out of paychecks or allowance.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

maddoctor.2738:

Well I don’t see how we can go from the Maguuma to the Crystal Desert or the Far Shiverpeaks. Will we get some kind of teleportation option or something?

If only there was a series of points along the way to facilitate such travel. Alas, there is not and we cannot go there unless we go through the jungle. No, no, do not try to tell me to turn around and walk the other way, for that is madness! No, first we must travel through the jungle.

Well, when it’s time to fight the other Elder Dragons they should first do something major to the existing world, not just open up some new zones. The HoT storyline didn’t start with Dry Top.

Surely, they shall only allow people to actually play the game who bought the Expansion, and us poor feeble paupers who don’t buy it shall be forever made to sit at the kiddie table and gawk at all the cool stuff and never buy it because it is only available on release and certainly won’t be available if you save up whatever the cost is out of paychecks or allowance.

Maybe HoT will be like the Wings, one day sale only :P

Boanoah.6719:

That keeps being mentioned and I keep failing to see how it will mean that Pact Tyria will need to update for those events. Much like Maguuma the map will open outwards in those directions, much like the Silverwastes/Drytop, however instead of being free they will be expansion locked.

From there the LS will take place in these ‘preliminary’ maps to introduce HoT players to the fact that Jormag/Kralk is beginning to stir more actively.

New events will occur in those maps prior to the release of the next expansion wherein HoT/Vanilla players who do not get the next expansion will get ‘time-locked’. Pact Tyria is getting gated to the time period before HoT, HoT will get gated to the state it was in prior to whatever comes next.

There is no need for them to advance Pact Tyria using this method, nor will they have to update Maguuma either.

If each expansion takes on the LW/LS in it’s entirety it makes it easier for them to develop and more cost effective to boot. We’ve already seen time-locked content in the game right now, Orr, it’s permanently locked to ‘pre-cleansing’ so that new players can still fight hordes of Risen. That will never change because there is no need for them to change it and leaving it as is will be best for new players going through the PS. Now apply that to all of Pact Tyria, there is no need for it to change if the idea is to advance through the expansions/game time-wise. Pact Tyria ‘makes sense’ as it is right now, excluding the changes to Lion’s Arch that were promised, like Orr it will be ‘dead’.

Players with the expansion can walk right across old Tyria to get to those new zones/maps just as we can walk from Silverwastes allllll the way back to the past in Orr without needing Orr to change.

The Heart of Thorns storyline didn’t start with Silverwastes/Drytop there was a big LS1 before that to set the scene.

Funny how you already know how they will do Jormag and Kralkatorrik, got a crystal ball or something?

maddoctor.2738:

Boanoah.6719:

That keeps being mentioned and I keep failing to see how it will mean that Pact Tyria will need to update for those events. Much like Maguuma the map will open outwards in those directions, much like the Silverwastes/Drytop, however instead of being free they will be expansion locked.

From there the LS will take place in these ‘preliminary’ maps to introduce HoT players to the fact that Jormag/Kralk is beginning to stir more actively.

New events will occur in those maps prior to the release of the next expansion wherein HoT/Vanilla players who do not get the next expansion will get ‘time-locked’. Pact Tyria is getting gated to the time period before HoT, HoT will get gated to the state it was in prior to whatever comes next.

There is no need for them to advance Pact Tyria using this method, nor will they have to update Maguuma either.

If each expansion takes on the LW/LS in it’s entirety it makes it easier for them to develop and more cost effective to boot. We’ve already seen time-locked content in the game right now, Orr, it’s permanently locked to ‘pre-cleansing’ so that new players can still fight hordes of Risen. That will never change because there is no need for them to change it and leaving it as is will be best for new players going through the PS. Now apply that to all of Pact Tyria, there is no need for it to change if the idea is to advance through the expansions/game time-wise. Pact Tyria ‘makes sense’ as it is right now, excluding the changes to Lion’s Arch that were promised, like Orr it will be ‘dead’.

Players with the expansion can walk right across old Tyria to get to those new zones/maps just as we can walk from Silverwastes allllll the way back to the past in Orr without needing Orr to change.

The Heart of Thorns storyline didn’t start with Silverwastes/Drytop there was a big LS1 before that to set the scene.

Funny how you already know how they will do Jormag and Kralkatorrik, got a crystal ball or something?

Not really, just an example of how they could do it without changing Pact Tyria to do so, and while there was a season 1 it wasn’t a big hit with players [from what I’ve heard.] What players did enjoy a lot was season 2 which saw Silverwastes/Drytop, it’s unlikely they’d revisit season 1 for inspiration on how to progress one expansion to the next.

Took some time to read whole thread and i see that OP and many who replied dont really understand what is living world (or maybe don’t remember what it meant to be from the beginning).

Living world is world that is changing around u while u r in the area/map/city/etc. In Queensdale centaurs took prisoners in village, seraph captain rally troops to fight them back and take centaur’s outpost to get intell of where prisoners are. Then he/she take seraphs to the main centuar camp and fight big bad guy and free villagers – seraph win and everyone r happy. But some time later new big bad guy appear and takes back main camp then outpost (if seraph didn’t manage to deffend any of this locations) and then again lead attack on the village to get prisoners. This is Living world.

Living Story is just a main story line that is there for people who like stories and is willing to folow them. Story evolve in time and some time has influence on the existing world (as Kassex hills, LA, all that toxic events in low lvl areas, etc). Living story is part of Living world and not vice versa.

So your claims about dead “old world”, OP, are at least faulty. People who bought original game get Living world + story if they pay 1600 gems to get all 8 chapters of season 2. If they want new content and story that takes place in Jungle they need to pay < insert price here when we know it > to get it. And as we know some features will be in “old world”.

Anet developers and just all employees who made at least 1 post on forum or official blog always say “everything i said (will say from now on) is subject to change” and it must be in head of all people who read dev posts at all times.

And yes, I’m to lazy to find and bring here any link to forum posts or blogs that will say what they meant about Living world. But if i really need i will

Boanoah.6719:

Ashen.2907:

Boanoah.6719:

That means no more changing world or narrative for vanilla players.

That means no more changing world or narrative for players who are unwilling (or unable) to pay for it.

I did not buy a new Ferrari. I do not get to drive a new Ferrari.

Not quite.

“I did not buy a Ferrari 2.0. I do not get to drive my Ferrari 1.0 any further down the road.”

See how that works? Or better yet:

“I did not buy a new road. I do not get to drive any further on the old roads.”

Did you pay for more road for your Ferrari? You get to drive it as much as you like.

Or better yet. Did you pay to extend the old roads ?

Try to spin it as you like, the reality is that if you do not buy the expansion you have not paid for any content beyond what the original box shipped with. If you are unwilling or unable to pay for new content you are not entitled to play new content

Alright this all sounding pretty alarmist. If the Living Atory is to progress into expansion content, it just is going to have be blocked off to non expansion players, of course. But this does not mean that everything else gets locked into stasis.

Yes, I see the “Pretty much all updates from that point will be expansion specific and the core world will be what it is today” quote, but I would not take that as word from God that nothing will ever change outside the expansion. He very well could have misspoke. I don’t even know the source of that quote.

It’s not like vanilla Tyria is going to be entirely untouched. We still have ruined Lion’s arch that’s sure to be rebuilt. We still have holidays that will touch the main land. We have masteries that will be in place for older content. And what’s to stop them from having Living Story events in main tyria? We could return to new areas of the priory, or visit a Pact fort to consolidate our remaining forces. We had vines sprout all over Tyria, why couldn’t something happen again elsewhere in the world? And non-expansion patches like feature packs and even non-expansion specific events will still happen, why wouldn’t these still affect main Tyria?

Not to mention we just don’t know what may touch the mainland or not. We barely know one map of the new area, let alone what may or may happen on vanilla Tyria. I’d wait for more info before reaching some wild conclusions.

And I mean, is it so wrong if main Tyria gets fewer changes in the meantime? There’s no sacred oath Anet took that all their existing areas must have change even after expansion, not even in their oft-quoted manifesto. New areas will be getting more attention than old ones. That’s how it goes.
.
I dunno, just seems like the only way to keep things the way they are is to just never expand the game.

Would it be better to abandon any new areas to continue the same updates to the main land for another 2+ years?

Boanoah.6719:

It’s dead in regards to the Living World, the ‘living’ world that changed maps, introduced events, and kept things fresh is now being moved entirely into Maguuma with any and all updates being expansion locked.

The ‘living’ aspects of Pact Tyria are now dead, no living story, no living world, no living Tyria.

Which is quite normal. Most games don’t have a lot of new changes to old areas when a new area has been released due to an expansion.

Sit back, relax, enjoy. I think, your worries are exaggerated. You can still do what you do now. If you do not buy the expansion, the first derivation of content change rate for you will be zero. That does not mean zero content.

And personally I don’t even believe that it will be strictly zero. I think you’re overinterpreting CJ’s words.

honestly what OP has said i personally disagree with. all living world stories from here on deal with maguuma specifically? Have you learned nothing from the first season? Personally I think each living story arc will be towards each dragon – that after mordy is killed we’ll likely be moving slowly on to the next dragon, likely Crickey – i mean, Kralky. I hope it takes a different turn than another mary-briar storyline.

Will this mean each dragon encounter will be gated behind expansions? it’s a very likely scenario. but that doesn’t mean vanilla tyria will remain exactly as it is from here to the last update. Lions arch has shown that the current world you know right now may not be the same world you know in, say, 1-2 years from now. There are other major forces in the world outside of dragons, and those are the ones that have the easiest path to influence vanilla tyria. And i’m not even mentioning the fallout from the discovery that sylvari are dragon minions (we all know everybody will know eventually anyway.)

TL;DR – quit being so melodramatic. doesn’t mean there won’t be updates to other parts of tyria.

somewhere down the line im guessing they will atleast fix lions arch again, the have “workers” there doing jobs so for a story point im guessing they will eventually be done at some point hehe, problem is it might take forever hehe, but no matter what he said i’m hoping it will be fixed.

I am not sure I understand the logic of this thread. You want them to release story episodes that occur after HoT to players that have not yet played it? How would that even work? Players of vanilla would not know what is going on because they would be missing massive plot wholes provided in HoT!

Of course LS will be for HoT owners only, it makes no sense to do it any other way.

As to the core game being left behind, I do not think this will be the case. I can envision big (LA style) events occuring after HoT, that non-HoT players will be able to experience. And do you know why? Because it will be another way to encourage players to buy the expansion. And that is a good thing. Players will see these big events kicking off and will want to know why they are occuring and what lead us to these events.

There was something Colin said in one of the interviews (Joe’s I think it was) that I 100% agree with. I cannot remember his wording but he pretty much said: For all the content you will get with Hot and free afterwards I think the price will be more than fair.

Even if they put a full game price tag on it I think it will still be worth it. HoT is not just an expansion, it is a framework they will use moving forward. So after HoT we will continue to get free Living World updates and Living Story episodes. And with those episodes will likely come the occasional new zone, as well as new masteries and possibly even new specializations.

I believe that vanilla GW2 will still continue to experience world changing events, they will simply make more sense story wise to those who have the expansion.

At the end of the day, if you don’t want to pay for content, go play a free to play game. GW2 is worth its price tag and then some.

Boanoah.6719:

Not quite.

“I did not buy a Ferrari 2.0. I do not get to drive my Ferrari 1.0 any further down the road.”

See how that works? Or better yet:

“I did not buy a new road. I do not get to drive any further on the old roads.”

but you do get to drive on the old roads to your hearts desire (none of the original content is being taken away), you’ll simply won’t be able to drive on the new roads that you haven’t payed for.

Mirta.5029:

Boanoah.6719:

Not quite.

“I did not buy a Ferrari 2.0. I do not get to drive my Ferrari 1.0 any further down the road.”

See how that works? Or better yet:

“I did not buy a new road. I do not get to drive any further on the old roads.”

but you do get to drive on the old roads to your hearts desire (none of the original content is being taken away), you’ll simply won’t be able to drive on the new roads that you haven’t payed for.

An MMO isn’t a car. It’s access to content. You’re paying to enter Tyria. It’s like when Walt Disneyworld opens a new park, you don’t get to pay for one park and get to the new park as well. You are paying for content.

Even in Guild Wars 1 this was true. You pay for the base game and if you want to go into the new areas, you pay to do so.

Think of a game like WoW which charges $15 per month to play and still charges you to get into the newest areas.

I feel completely “so what” about it, because this is something I’m used to from any other MMO I’ve played so far. Yes it would be more awesome if that weren’t the case but I lack something for comparison.

Boanoah.6719:

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”.

That everything in the new maps is not available for people who don’t have the expansions is completely acceptable. While it would not be smart (and I also don’t expect that to happen) to completely forget the already existing maps. I do think we will see LA being build up slowly and if the story requires it some things happening in maps we already have.

If it’s a LS event you might not be able to do that, but all the changes in the map (and new events there) should be available for you.

Honestly, I think this is one of those things that actually needs a definitive response from Anet.

If what OP says is true based on that interview its very troubling.

It would be quite simple to gate everything behind the expansion and still have the core of the World continue to change. All LS would simply start in the new map areas, where the LS takes you that could be anywhere and probably will be.

Ashen.2907:

Boanoah.6719:

That means no more changing world or narrative for vanilla players.

That means no more changing world or narrative for players who are unwilling (or unable) to pay for it.

No, that means no more changes in a core areas even for those that bought the expansion.

Ashen.2907:

Did you pay for more road for your Ferrari? You get to drive it as much as you like.

Or better yet. Did you pay to extend the old roads ?

Again, the problem is, that as currently stated by Colin, old roads will no longer be maintained at all. And that means even for those that paid for access to new ones. I do hope, that he misspoke, but what he said means exactly this.

Halvorn.9831:

Which is quite normal. Most games don’t have a lot of new changes to old areas when a new area has been released due to an expansion.

That’s because most games do not expect players to return to lower level areas once they have advanced past them, and they increase level cap in expansions. GW2 devs decided to go against both those things.

Roundabout.1752:

It would be quite simple to gate everything behind the expansion and still have the core of the World continue to change. All LS would simply start in the new map areas, where the LS takes you that could be anywhere and probably will be.

No, that would also mean (already mentioned) things like never finishing rebuilding LA. Because it’s extremely doubtful Anet would make different LA maps for expansion and expansionless players.

The Living World continues the storyline after the end of the Zhaitan fight. After HoT launches it will probably do the same for the expansion.

This doesn’t include other types of updates like Queen’s Pavillion or SAB which take place in Tyria and is outside of the Living World. Those should still happen in spite of the expansion.

Secondly the Living World concept was meant to be in lieu of a proper expansion. If HoT sells better than anticipated, there’s no guarantee they won’t drop the Living World concept completely and focus on traditional expansions.

In which case you don’t even need to worry about missing out on Living World.

OP is just wrong.

Vanilla GW2 will be fine because most of the expansion is feature pack content and because there are very few new areas, & these new areas will be ‘hard’ limiting their mass appeal.

Vanilla GW2 players getting outclassed by power creep, that’s another story, and may well happen.

nekretaal.6485:

OP is just wrong.
Vanilla GW2 players getting outclassed by power creep, that’s another story, and may well happen.

what power creep? No level increase and no new gear tiers will be provided with the expansion. On top of that the majority of masteries will only be usable in HoT territory.

Mirta.5029:

nekretaal.6485:

OP is just wrong.
Vanilla GW2 players getting outclassed by power creep, that’s another story, and may well happen.

what power creep? No level increase and no new gear tiers will be provided with the expansion. On top of that the majority of masteries will only be usable in HoT territory.

They could be referring to Specializations, which I have heard will be gated to the expansion, namely the GS Necro. If the specialization becomes a new part of the meta it will mean that current Necros, without the specialization at least, will become even less desirable in PvE.

Same could go for every class really, Necro was just one good example.

I really hope they don’t stop changing the old world. I really miss Kessex Hills, and am starting to wonder how many times I’ll have to kill toxic krait before they get the message: “we don’t want them”. I just want a beautiful zone again, full of land where RP was abundant.

I once witnessed a group of lvl 10s touring the Kessex Hills with a level 30 tour guide. He brought them to all the famous sites, explaining the historical significance. It was too funny to see. I kept hearing: “over to your left, the great (…)”, “stick to the roads people, this is a tour not a vacation”, etc.

I miss a land with few creatures for what felt like very long stretches. And that’s just Kessex Hills. I want some of our old waypoints fixed.

Anyway, I hope they don’t stop working on the current world. It’s be a shame and a change from their philosophy of a changing world.

Part 1:

The end is nigh… (or as Trahearne would say … This won’t end well)

God – am I the only one, who thinks as if the OP’s rant/complain here sounds, as if he’s talking about the end of the world incoming and like an inexperienced Online Gamer, that has never ever before in his/her life played an Online Game with Expansions???

All this personal negativity packed into a single posting, just to try to influence its readers to think about that game, as if GW2 would be totally worthless to play further, if you don’t buy the expansion, only because the OP projects his/her own personal negativity about the expansion gating game content and upcoming game story behind of it

Sentences like this one make me personally puke

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.

You OP, have absolutely no clues at all about it, what the hell the Expansion Pack will even freaking cost at all, once it will get released (as Anet hasn’t talked at all about Prices yet) and if you would have at all a clue about what you are talking, then you would know better of Anet – looking back at their Trading Post behavior back of the last years, seeing that they do always every now and then also still until today (very soon AGAIN!!) for the game (and surely also later for the future for the expansion too) some MASSIVE DISCOUNT SPECIAL SALE ACTIONS, with again – soon coming the biggest discount for the Main Game for a brief time of 75% from the original price for the first time!!

Honestly .. whoever doesn’t buy this addon, is just dumb, because therefore this Addon will simply improve too much for the game too let the Expasion Pack just pass by and ignore it.
You don’t even have to pay real money at all…
You can if you want also just play the game and do in it, what you want for all the time to come and simply collect GOLD TO CONVERT IT TO GEMS and use the converted Gems to buy the Expansion from the Gemstore, without that you had to pay one freaking single penny of your real money for the simple cost of your TIME, that it will take you longer, until you will get your hands onto the new game content, whereas when you buy it directly with real money, you will have the new content instantly.

So simple can live be.

Part 2:

Theres no need to break down here such a tirade of hate basically, why the expansion is bad and how it will turn the old content of the game into literally a dead zone trying to draw everyone else down with that negativity that you tell people to quit the game, because of the game instantly being no fun anymore for people without the expansion, only because of the center of the game’s story relevant action moving for now for a while into just one specific region of the game, where the current war against Mordremoth is the most active and where we will most likely also slay him at the end of that new continuing “Personal Story Part 2”, like what we did at the end of PS1 with Zhaitan.

(Just hopefully this time in a more appropiate and epic way, than pew pew pew for under a minute and some flahy sceners where we did nothing at all …what was basicalyl the most lamest boss fight that I’ve ever seen in my whole life to that point)

We don’t know yet, what Anet has for plans for the rest of the game, after HoT.
But one thing is absolutely sure…
The rest of this game absolutely won’t be dead, only because you don’t own instantly the latest Expansion.
ANet has enough options left to keep players for the older Maps entertained for long enough, even if you don’t own the expansion, also without Living World changing something in the older maps (for now first!!! or are you OP a fortune teller?? the harbinger of all prophecies???)

One simple example how ANet can add new content to the older maps, without that anyone has to own the Expansion for example is simply by updating the older maps with some game mechanics, that ANet introduced with Season 2 and which greatly improved the overall feeling of playing on a map, making it more fun and also profitable for a player to stay for some longer time on a map and return to it also oftenly:

• Add Region Achievements to older Maps also too
• Add Trophy Vendors with Map Unique Rewards to more of the older Maps too
• Add sme new World Bosses at any given time to some older Maps, is also something, that doesn’t require to have HoT at all …

So please, for the sake of what is all good and sane, don’t pretend as if HoT would be the birth of the biggest evil thing that could happen to the game, when there nobody can know, how GW2 will evolve further and what Anet can do also all to improve the game further with content, from that everyone will profit, even without owning the latest expansion.

Also HoT introduces content, that can be played, without that you need to own HoT all all.
All PvP/WvW related content will be also playable for Players, which don’t own the expansion.
HoT is, as the developers said it from begin on, an Expansion, that completely focues on Character/Guild Progression and is mainly designed around PvE, while addign naturally also somethign for the other modes, so that its not a 100% PvE centric expansiion,m but more something on the line of 60/20/20%

But also other PvE related Gameplay Changes will be there for players, that don’t own HoT, like the improvements to the A.I, the Combat System improvements about Stability/Defiance and so on, Trait/Skill Changes to all the old Professions, except things, that are bonded to Specializations, like Utilities, Elites, Gameplay Mechanics (F-Skills) ect.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

Honestly, I think this is one of those things that actually needs a definitive response from Anet.

If what OP says is true based on that interview its very troubling.

What’s troubling about it?

Orpheal.8263:

GOLD TO CONVERT IT TO GEMS and use the converted Gems to buy the Expansion from the Gemstore,

I’ll just quote this little bit here as an opener to my reply.

This has not been confirmed to be the case, anywhere, there has been no mention of buying the expansion from the Gem store from anyone on the development team as far as I can find.

Secondly, I will probably eventually get the expansion, my negativity is not in regards to the price of the expansion or the fact that it’s gating Maguuma content to Maguuma. The negativity is pointed wholly to the fact that the Living World and Story are both being gated to the expansion from this point forwards, the great features that made the game unique and interesting are being gated.

It would be okay if they gated what happens to the jungle to the jungle, if it involves expansion content it should be gated, that’s not a problem at all. The issue is the “from here onwards” while the “core world will be as it is today”, which means that Pact Tyria, the majority of the map, will not be changing from that point forwards.

Even if you own the expansion that decision should at the very least be somewhat alarming of disturbing, chances are if you love GW2 it’s because of the LW and the LS bringing biweekly updates. Look at all the amazing things that have happened in the game, all of season 1, season 2, the massive world changing events, all of those things will stop happening for the core world. Lion’s Arch getting fixed, the cleansing of Orr, the purging of the Mordrem, the rise of the other elder dragons, that stuff will not be happening, or if it does it will not be in a way that players can interact with it unless they have the expansion.

Further, the mere fact that you are not concerned in the slightest with them switching to a WoW model is disgusting, GW2 is a unique gem that did so many things right. Copying any other MMOs practice of making an expansion and abandoning the previous world/content is not something that ANet should be doing.

Pact Tyria, as we have it now, is a living breathing and changing world, when the expansion hits that will stop, it will be no more alive than Orr. Notice he didn’t say “until after the Jungle” or “until we deal with Mordremoth” he said “from this point onwards”. Having a discussion about this should be important to you as a player if you love GW2 and want to see Pact Tyria continue to grow and flourish as it has.

It’s okay if that comes in a year after HoT is wrapped up, it’s not okay if it never happens.

P1:

ANet also never lost a single word about it, that they will sell the Main game digitally in the Gemstore ingame too and yet it was and is still until today one of the thigns, that were in the Gemstore from the very first day on …

Don’t you think, it wouldn’t be also in the interest of anet to make the gemstore more attractive, by putting also the Expansion into the Gemstore as a digital sale, just like they did with the Main Game from the very first day on???

You are way too pessimistic Boanoah.
You interpretate too much into things, that have been said in an interview, without knowing the slightest thing about it, how exactly these words will be layed out later in real in the expansion, nor do you know what Anet is planning for the games future.

However, that the old maps will lose naturally in the future some of their “importance” is absolutely more than clear enough, because the maps of the main game in the end are nothing more, than just BEGINNER MAPS, with the sole purpose of letting players level up in them on the way to Level 80.
The Focus of the Game will be in near future more and more to add new explorable Maps (or even hopefully one day also again continents like Cantha) to the game and so more Anet will do that, so more and more importance will lose everytime the older maps, because the action in the game will play somewhere else kitten more the game’s story drives forward and permanently returnign just to some super old maps in regard of the Living World would be imo just wrong, as it would show just the despair to keep the older maps somehow alive, when Anet just isn’t able to keep Maps alive, that have nothing to do at all anymore with the Living World and were just a part of the introduction of it cough Southsun Cove cough..seriously.

Thats just the normal thing, that wil happen in EVERY GAME, regardless of what kind of design model the develoeprs will follow.
New Content will always make more or less slowly older content more and more unimportant, until the point, where it makes no sense to put more ressources, effort and time into old maps, when all of that energy would be better spent for adding new explorable maps and driving the games overarcing story further into the direction of beating the other elder dragons and coming also to the point to save tyria from other threats thare are on other places, than just the continent of Tyria, because we surely don’t want to have in all eternity a Palawa Joko in Elona or a racistic ruler in Cantha that banishes everythign out of there, that isn’t a human … that are problems in the world of Tyria, that need to be solved also and would be very interesting material for new game content… but as long as the elder dragons are a threat to the whole Tyria, we will most likely not see anythign about Cantha/Elona.

ANet has most liekly plans for the games story ect. for around 10 years (when you look at the annivisary achievements going for up to 10 Years of birthdays, if not more, when we look at the current speed of fightign off the dragons and what all lies still ahead of us to be explored/and explored again in case of other continents) and we are currently just at 2,5 years roughly in this time schedule (when you think about it, that GW1 is still running and is 10 years old by now…GW2 should easily surpass this with its much richer story that unfolds and presents itself much slower than what Anet did with GW1 and its differrent design of Standalone Game Campaigns)

ANet will surely also continue to make biweekly updates after the Expansion. So far has anet nothing told about it, that this will stop after the expansion.
Why should they do that also is more the question thats to be asked here?…. theres no reason for that.

P2:

Living Story will continue after HoT, just only that in the whole thing of the Living World, HoT can be seen practically as Season 3 and just like the previous seasons, you need to have played the previous season to understand what happens in the current season, just with the difference, that in case of practically Season 3, its handled as an expansion that you need to buy now to continue the story in PvE and honestly said, from a marketing perspective, that’s the most effective and clever method, when also not really fair – that I may admit at this point – which Anet could do, or better said, which ANet got dictated to do by their mother company NCSOFT to do that way for 100% sure, because of NCSOFT wanting to ensure this way, that they reach their planned sales goals for this fiscal year 2015 and NCSOFT has plans for a really massive rise in revenue, which make it instantly very obvious and clear at that point, that ANet lets the cat out of the bag finally and revealed the first expansion, because honestly, with just the gemstore sales alone doesn’t make a company like ANet/NCSOFT so much more revenue in such a short time.

Nothing of what you assume there at the end of your posting is set in stone like you want to make it look like by those words of “from this point onwards”

Because “from this point onwards” says nothing about it, that its an decision, thats meant forever, or explains in regard of which context on forwards and for how long the living world will make in older maps a break or in which kind of form this will happen in the end.

That you surely won’t see happening something of Scarlet Style scale happening again in the older maps should be clear, because as said, the story focus lies currently more on expanding the explorable maps, because thats what alot of players want currently much more, than to see somethign happening in an old map, that is by design just a begginner map thats relevant mostly only for a hand full of old personal story misisons, maybe has 1 single world boss or not, that spawns every like 3 hours daily and otherwise has nothing to offer at all currently, what makes it worth it to stay on these maps longer than 5 minutes for maybe doing some quick daily tasks like harvesting stuff to hit the nail on the head…

People want to explore new maps rather and if I would have to decide myself personally if I would rather want to see in a new patch a completely new explorable map, or instead something about living world playing in an old map, that isn’t interesting at all and that I’ve explored to 100% already like with a douzen of Characters while leveling them up ect

Then my choice personalyl will always fall easily on preferrign naturally to explore a complete new fresh and exiting map over some silly living world content in an old moment, that isn’t exiting and most likely will get me to play on that map just a few hours, until ive made all the achievements that are new there, until I return to my usual play behavior and do other things in the game, leaving again the old map in the dust…

That the point, where i found new maps like Silverwastes absolutely awesome, and much better, than just desperately trying to keep old maps fresh, because mas like SW brought both to the game.

New exiting explorable map + living world in the same place = excellent design + super sauce of awesomeness on top of that.

Thats how new content makes the best usage of both to add something to the game, that is fun, exiting,gives you something to do in the game for longer than just a couple of hours, where you want to return often too also, even if you have already done the living story parts.

Orpheal.8263:

ANet also never lost a single word about it, that they will sell the Main game digitally in the Gemstore ingame too and yet it was and is still until today one of the thigns, that were in the Gemstore from the very first day on …

I don’t see the base game in the Gemstore, I see the digital deluxe upgrade but not the base game, further the upgrade is items so you’re essentially buying the digital items for gems.

It doesn’t make sense for them to sell the expansion in the Gemstore, they already have money from those gems so offering it up there is a dumb choice. They want fresh purchases, money flowing in, not money they already have being used to buy a product they’re, more or less, banking on.

As for the rest of your points, to put it simply, I disagree.

One of the sillier threads that I have seen on this forum in awhile.

Astralporing.1957:

]Again, the problem is, that as currently stated by Colin, old roads will no longer be maintained at all.

Colin is stating that pre-expansion GW2 will be allowed to degrade and fall apart until it can no longer be used or played ? That is what not maintaining it would mean. There is a rather large difference between not expanding upon, “the old road,” and not maintaining it.

ah, my mistake, your right, misinterpreted that thing in the Gemstore as the full game, when it was just only the Upgrade..my bad, am sorry.

However, I see no reason for why Anet shouldn’t sell one day also the full game / expansion just as digital download via the Gemstore, just with the difference, that you don’t get something to see in the game via mail as notification, but instead you get sent to your email-adress just the download link, when you make the buy.

Other companies also do lately in the past years more and more digital sales that way for example for consoles. So I see no problem about it, why a company like ANet shouldn’t be also able to sell their full game/expansion one day also completely digitally as it would be the best thign that Anet could do to maximise their profits.
ANet already digitally sold in their own online Story also the GW1 Standalone Games.

And if its not an email that you getsent from the Gemstore externally to your Email Adress, Anet could just confirm the buy internally with an Ingame Mail, that sends you some kind of Password, that allows you then to download the full game/ expansion from with the help of it from the main page Guildwars2.com

So simple. I think, if ANet truly would weant this, anything would be possible and they already showed with the GW1 games, that they are willing to sell their games also fully digitally for maximum profits, where maximum profit with retail sales isn’t possible
So it makes more sense for them to do that, than you may belief perhaps

Only because Anet would open up digital sales options doesn’t mean, that Anet wouldn’t receive any new money anymore.
Gems don’t simply exist out of nowhere, Gems get created only, when someone gives ANet real money.
So all Gems that someone receives from turning Gold to Gems are basically Gems, that somebody earlier has bought with real money before and used them up for various stuff in the Gemstore. Simply said, Gold Convertion doesn’t create new Gems, only real paid money does by using either the Credit Card or, buying Gem Cards for example.

By letting people buy the full game/expansion also digitally from ANets homesite, then people would have a way to get new things like expansions or the main game also from home, not having to run to the next retail store in town or having to buy a maybe preordered retail version from online sites like amazon or gamestop ect. and Anet would get the full profits from their sales.

last words..

You can disagree as much as you want, but if you would have followed the last years of this forum community, then you would know, that most people that are on here actively will most likely prefer new explorable maps, new fresh content over the living World, when it would be set up in an old beginner map of the original Main Game.

Do you see any players absolutely actively playing on maps today, like Kessex Hills, or Lornar Pass, which were maps with bigger environmental changes.
No, once the living world moments were over, those beginner maps turned into DESERTS very quickly.
Same thing with Dry Top, unless you go search for organized Map Instances , Dry Top has become very quickly a DESERT, because the reason for this is just the playing behaviour of communities.
Players in MMORPGs just play Games like GW2 like swarms of locusts, they are always only ast places where the best profits are makeable, or where the story of the game is currently, unless they play on an Alt and level them up again through the beginner maps to get them to Max Level (what is in GW2 basically pointless, because all what you need here is instant level up tomes that you can farm by now, without having to play with your Alts for a single second!!!)

So investing more time, resources and money into the old clearly as beginner maps designed maps is simply said a complete WASTE, when the investment would be of much better use for just everyone, when its put into new game content, that expands the game exactly there with things, that the majory of GW2 players wants.

And we have showed Anet more than enough over the past years, what we want the most and thats a living world, that expands the world that we play on, not a living world which stays forever in old maps that are meant for beginners to play on, that level their first Character to Max Level.

It makes sense for the core world to stop having LS story updates once the expansion goes live because the story shifts to Maguuma. The story in current Tyria is moving on and there’s nothing left to continue in old Tyria. What story are they going to tell that still takes place in the old zones? Taking development resources to launch 2 concurrent stories instead of focusing on the new content people paid for is not going to produce quality results. Trying to continue to support/develop a core game while also running an expansion doesn’t make sense from a financial or technical standpoint.
I suspect that world-changing events like rebuilding LA will still update for those who have not purchased the expansion. They just wont have access to a story or journal explaining why. As others have said, once HoT is “done” and they are prepping for another expansion, I suspect that there will be introductory content akin to LS2 available even to those without HoT in order to set the stage for the next Dragon.

Donari.5237:

bobjoelol.5163:

I Don’t see why people will be having trouble saving money for the expansion you can just it with ingame gold its months away just save 10g everyday till you got 4-6k+ gems saved up and you should have enough or close to it. Since the expansion is buyable with gems.

We don’t know that it’s buyable with gems, there has been no statement to that effect. If there has, please link it, I’m sure many people on tight budgets would love to know they don’t have to piggy bank some real money to get ready.

I’m pretty certain they will not be offering the expansion for purchase with gems, at least not initially. Imagine what that would do to the gold-gems exchange!

The expansion is just adding ONE zone. the living story thus far has been crappily written trash anyways. Its like you tried to read between the lines but were speaking a whole different language.

tim.1280:

I believe it was mentioned that they would be adding “adventures” and reworking heart quests to be “repeatable” in the vanilla world.

This is mentioned in the Angry Joe interview ( don’t have a link).

Also leaderboards apparently(and before anyone brings up fractals it makes more sense here than what they mentioned for fractals).