Q:
{Spoiler Major free, minor spoilers}
Dear ArenaNet,
Let me start this out by giving you two different perspectives of two of your customers experience playing the personal story of Heart of Thorns. First I will give you my perspective, a player who has played GW2 from day 1 and all the living story + season 2. Then my brothers perspective, a player who played GW2 at through the killing of Zhaitan but not again till Heart of Thorns release.
For me, the personal story was good and a nice final act of a 2 year long adventure to slay the jungle dragon. I do think that there were missed opportunities and that the story should have been slightly longer putting more emphasis on finding the dragons weakness, rescuing the lost hero’s and some lasting repercussions for choices made. In other words a few more missions that would have world more alive and given a sense of a struggle instead of our nearly unhindered march on our target. It felt very odd that as a commander of the pact we could just simply walk all the way to our goal with very little resistance while the entire pact fleet was destroyed in a few moments. Given these short comings (which i take for a rushed production timeline) I still thought it was a very good final act in the hunt for the jungle dragon. I believe I feel this way as I realize that this is a final act of a story that started shortly after the fall of Zhaitan.
Now, for my brother. My brother enjoys that game and views the expansion in a favorable light. Out of the two of us, he was the most excited for the expansion even though he did not play through any of the living story. Because he came into the expansion without having played through season 2 he figured that after taking out Zhaitan and a new dragon showing up after someone destroyed Lions Arch that the Pact Fleet just tried to attack the dragon and were destroyed for their hubris. He jumped straight into the story and by the 3rd day had completed it (playing about 2-3 hours a day). To him, he was highly disappointed. Zhiatan’s story for him took him across the whole world, developed slowly and ended in an epic (if not unsatisfying) encounter with Zhiatan himself. In contrast, he felt that the Heart of Thorns story felt very brief, rushed at times and ending in an encounter that never shows you the vastness of your target. When it was revealed what was the target it was done so in a very short line from 2 party members that could be missed if you were to far away from them. He did not understand that this was the final act of a much longer story and instead thought it was the whole story. After I explained to him the story from season 1 and 2 he understood more of what was actually going on. He received and read the Season 1 emails which he liked but was upset that he could not play through season 2 without paying a lot more money for the middle act.
Now what I think should have been done for the mass of returning player base that did not play through season 2 is that it should have been included in a purchase of the Heart of Thorns expansion. Once someone came back into the game after that point they should have received a message stating that they can go straight to the jungle if desired or they could play through season 2 (read season 1) first for a better understanding of the story and what is going on. In this way returning players would have received closer to 35-40 personal story steps that required them to traverse the world, experience some of the best stories that we have received so far and thus have a much better feeling for the expansion personal story when completed.
This sadly though did not happen and many of the returning players received just the final act of a much larger story without realizing that and mistaking it for a complete story by itself. At this point I do not think it is possible to completely alleviate the misconception and the effects it has caused but I would think that if all players were required to play through season 2 prior to starting the personal story in Heart of Thorns then many would view the personal story in a much better light than they do now.
In short: Season 2 should have been included with purchase of Heart of Thorns.