Guild Wars 2

1) Is the expansion anything more than gathering a whole season of a Living Story and gameplay features updates together and adding in a few more maps to bump up the quantity so we can pay instead of getting free LS?

2) Isn’t it something that has been in planning and production long before the announcement and that’s why the LS Season 2 was much less quantity on the whole than Season 1? (It seems to me to be less quantity though better quality).

3) Do you expect that after having a huge break from content and LS that suddenly players that have become bored will suddenly just all give up the new game they are playing and flock back for HoT?

I understand you did give us LS story for two years which in the beginning was very frequent and sometimes good quality updates for free but much of the first year was temporary and what it left behind mostly boring. Also LS 2 did leave behind some really nice extra maps and events and content but I would have much rather had more substantial chapters like Factions and Nightfall and paid for them than what you have done with free frequent mostly temp LS season 1, less frequent season 2 then a huge quiet spell and paid for expansion that seems it may still be less substantial than those GW1 campaign chapters.

joneb.5679:

1) Is the expansion anything more than gathering a whole season of a Living Story and gameplay features updates together and adding in a few more maps to bump up the quantity so we can pay instead of getting free LS?

What about the Revenant, masteries, specializations, adventures, guild halls, a new pvp map, pvp with guild leaderboards, new borderlands, new legendaries, new weapon/armor skins and so on? When exactly is it enough to be an expansion and not a living story season? Besides, we don’t even know the price of it yet so it might be less expensive than expansions of other games. Although given the amount of stuff we have gotten for free (i.e. content and features that are not dlc or require a subscription) I’d happily pay quite a bit for the expansion.

2) Isn’t it something that has been in planning and production long before the announcement and that’s why the LS Season 2 was much less quantity on the whole than Season 1? (It seems to me to be less quantity though better quality).

From what I understood development on HoT only seriously started after the Chinese release (with the Chinese release itself requiring a lot of resources).

3) Do you expect that after having a huge break from content and LS that suddenly players that have become bored will suddenly just all give up the new game they are playing and flock back for HoT?

1) A lot of people are still playing so they do not need to come back.
2) The beauty of an mmo without a subscription is that people can and do easily come back.

I understand you did give us LS story for two years which in the beginning was very frequent and sometimes good quality updates for free but much of the first year was temporary and what it left behind mostly boring. Also LS 2 did leave behind some really nice extra maps and events and content but I would have much rather had more substantial chapters like Factions and Nightfall and paid for them than what you have done with free frequent mostly temp LS season 1, less frequent season 2 then a huge quiet spell and paid for expansion that seems it may still be less substantial than those GW1 campaign chapters.

I agree. I rather have expansions than living story (though an alternation of both is also enjoyable I think). We will have to wait and see whether this expansion delivers but so far I am optimistic.

Yes sir. I am having the better game experience i ever had in a mmo.
And no, I’m not being sarcastic. I played the whole LS s1, the LS s2, and I can really say that the expansion is far better thatn any of the livings seasons. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the Living world seasons, but the expansions seens a lot more stuff and real content. I am sure that I’ll lose hours over hours on the adventures trying to get the gold medal, and beating the forest champions of the golden city.

Everything shown and announced so far already is much more than a single season of Living Story, with plenty more of the finer details to be revealed.

It takes an enormous amount of hard work to make an expac so the break is more than justified. Even if they started during S2, they would have been limited in what they could do – I can’t begin to imagine their workload with multiple projects on the go.

Also, being a programmer i can understand the hard work they have done in the background to bring what they call “foundation for the future”. It was based on players feedback so no I dont feel they are really playing smart here and charging us for something that should be free, i really feel the other way around!

@OP, From your post, it is obvious that you have not experienced all game modes to their fullest. It is also obvious that you are speculating on the expansion since information is still quite sparse. How about you wait a month or two after the expansion is released so you can better kitten whether or not you want to purchase the game before you make inflammatory posts on the forums.

Tree.3916:

@OP, From your post, it is obvious that you have not experienced all game modes to their fullest. It is also obvious that you are speculating on the expansion since information is still quite sparse. How about you wait a month or two after the expansion is released so you can better kitten whether or not you want to purchase the game before you make inflammatory posts on the forums.

I didn’t find their tone to be inflammatory at all really. I think these are valid concerns to have given what little we know.

I don’t know that it will go down like this, but I can see where they are coming from for sure. How long will 2-3 maps keep the seasoned veteran busy for? Will I feel like this x-pac was worth my time? None of us can answer than until later, but asking the question isn’t inflammatory. It’s a good question.

I for one wish they had used the same release structure as GW1. Getting standalone games frequently with new classes and skills etc. was great. Eye of the North brought about the release of armor sets, weapon skins, new dungeons and new skills as well as racial skills. It was a blast. LS S1 & 2 paled in comparison for me.

I think the most subtle annoyance for me is going to come in the form of this x-pac being wholly set in one region: The Jungle. It will offer no variety in climate. Variety of maps is a big deal that not a lot of people think about because it’s such a subtle thing, but how much time am I really going to want to spend in one climate type?

We’ve already been over this here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/The-Biggest-Concern-about-HoT/first

The stress test was not the entire expansion, it is doubtful that it was even a quarter of the expansion. It was exactly what it said it was: a stress test of very specific and limited content.

I am having a laugh. But it’s not related to Guild Wars 2 at all. Just read a funny comic. Oh, Garfield, you rapscallion.

I DO think it’s funny that the OP can sum up his feelings and complaints for a piece of software that hasn’t even seen 10 hours of public exposure yet.

….not funny “ha ha” either….

How about you hold these “not enough” posts until we find out a bit more about what we might get (not to mention how much it may cost)? Just a thought.

You can’t imagine how little of a pile of skritt poo I give about the tidal motion of swarms of MMO players. If another game is making them happy right now or for some stretch between now and HoT’s relase… Good for them. Happy people make all games better. If they come back, then cool, I’ll see them here.

The core issue affecting my choices is “Does HoT look like it’s going to deliver fun new gameplay and possibly fun new situations in which to experience it?” To me the answer is a resounding “Yes!”

I’m interested in specializations. I’m Interested in a new profession. I’m interested in the new WvW and PvP maps. I’m interested in the new region and the new advancement systems. I am VERY INTERESTED in a task-based path to Legendaries both old and new.

They are hitting many, many of the right notes with me. I’m confident that they’ll also pick a price point I can accept and that I’ll be playing GW2 when the mood takes me for a long time to come.

joneb.5679:

1) Is the expansion anything more than gathering a whole season of a Living Story and gameplay features updates together and adding in a few more maps to bump up the quantity so we can pay instead of getting free LS?

Pretty much.

But more than the quantity, I’m concerned about the quality. If it’s all rushed content made to quickly make a few bucks, I wouldn’t be surprised if all maps are basically copy & paste like the Silverwastes, and all weapon skins available in game are like the extremely bland Makeshift Weapons, with the real stuff available only through the Gem Store.

I’m happy with it. A new profession to level (and no WvW to do). ^^ New ways to expand the play style of old professions. New maps. New ways to get precursors and new Legendaries.

The Mastery system sounds like an excellent way to have our chars learn new abilities and get stronger as they get older and do so without messing up the power balance so that the old low level maps are useless to play in. Now that ANet has figured out how they want to let us grow our chars, they can expand on this system to make any new content they want.

To me, it sounds like a lot more content that that other’s recent expansion which was (as far as I can tell from reading the forums) primarily level, garrisons (and send NPCs out to do quests instead of you doing the quests), raids and dungeons and PvP in Ashram, with a bit of jumping puzzles and rares to find. They even took away flying.