Guild Wars 2

I bought GW2 and didn’t feel like spending more $ for the Living World storyline so I might as well just skip every cut scene and story involved in this expansion since I’ll be totally lost right?

I did the storyline from 1-80, then after that is the Living World 1 storyline that costs more RL $. Then after that is when the Heart of Thorns storyline takes place?

I’m totally lost so far after starting the expansion in Silverwastes with characters I don’t even know. I just think it’s bullkitten that I paid money for an expansion and I know nothing about the lore since I was supposed to pay more RL $ for previous storylines.

Soooo I take it I should just skip all the lore involved in Heart of Thorns? Looks like it

The story in the gem store is season 2. You can’t access season 1 at the moment as it was all persistent content. But yes, season 2 did lead into HoT.

You can always go to youtube and watch a story summary. I think there is also a “previously on GW2” somewhere out there

For the love of god. Ok so I have to go on youtube to watch Living Story 1, then pay for Living Story 2, then I’ll be caught up?

I heard the living story stuff was originally free? Why the hell did they start charging for it later? God kitten it. Really frustrating

Showbiz.9725:

For the love of god. Ok so I have to go on youtube to watch Living Story 1, then pay for Living Story 2, then I’ll be caught up?

I heard the living story stuff was originally free? Why the hell did they start charging for it later? God kitten it. Really frustrating

Living World was never really ever free. It was awarded to you for logging in upon each episode’s release. If you didn’t log in, you didn’t get it. Hence, you pay the gems. So even some veteran players will not have it unlocked.

I don;t get your complaint, it’s basically " I don’t know the back story because I didn’t play the living world story so now I should just skip the entire storyline" Do some research and look it up, You’ll be missing out in my opinion if you just skip through every single thing.

Showbiz.9725:

For the love of god. Ok so I have to go on youtube to watch Living Story 1, then pay for Living Story 2, then I’ll be caught up?

I heard the living story stuff was originally free? Why the hell did they start charging for it later? God kitten it. Really frustrating

You don’t have to play any of it to get caught up, Just watch a short summary on youtube and then jump in. It was only ever “free” in the two week time window. A lot of us missed out on a lot of content based on the time we joined. I missed a large portion of season one because I didn’t join right off the bat but I managed to make it for all of season two. If you still want to experience the content you can exchange gold for gems (I know a lot of people don’t like doing that) so that’s always an option, but no one is twisting your arm to do this.

The one to Rule.2593:

I don;t get your complaint, it’s basically " I don’t know the back story because I didn’t play the living world story so now I should just skip the entire storyline" Do some research and look it up, You’ll be missing out in my opinion if you just skip through every single thing.

I mean, why do I have to pay for this now as a newer player when everyone else got it for free? I just don’t understand that.

Showbiz.9725:

The one to Rule.2593:

I don;t get your complaint, it’s basically " I don’t know the back story because I didn’t play the living world story so now I should just skip the entire storyline" Do some research and look it up, You’ll be missing out in my opinion if you just skip through every single thing.

I mean, why do I have to pay for this now as a newer player when everyone else got it for free? I just don’t understand that.

It was meant as a reward for those that started from that point and kept playing the game. The idea was to have an MMO with a story that evolved and continued as time went on, placing weight on the “everything is temporary” concept of the Living Story. It is a world that changes and grows with us in a given period of time. Complaints about missing that content permanently came up and this was their response to it; episodes are free if you log in during that two week period, or you pay for the pack using in game gold converted to gems or gems bought from the store. It’s a good system that still gives weight to the player decision to start playing the game earlier (I am, however, against player loyalty reward systems)and doesn’t overtly punish players who just got the game and don’t have access. Don’t you feel as though you should be rewarded for the time you spend in game? In this case it is via a choice to spend the time (or money) to earn the right to play a story that others had to have purchased the game at a certain point for. This system is far more forgiving than that of other traditional MMOs where content becomes obsolete. The fact that season 1 is still not available is a bit of a let down but I know that it is difficult due to the delivery method of the first season’s story content.

Yes I can understand awarding people that have played the game for a while but I think it is very bad to penalize newer players when doing so.

Especially when the feature they are penalizing new players with is lore content that directly affects the storyline of the new expansion. Buying an expansion and not knowing what is going on with the story, then finding out you need to pay more $ to learn about the story is just bad design.

Hopefully there is something on youtube that can get people up to speed but the fact that you’re forced to use a third party is pretty ridiculous.

Showbiz.9725:

Yes I can understand awarding people that have played the game for a while but I think it is very bad to penalize newer players when doing so.

Those who got to unlock the living story for free had to originally pay more for the game; especially now that new players get it for free.

Next expansion will make it a little more clear. If you buy HoT, you gain the ability to unlock the future of the living story for free. If however you skip HoT, you will get HoT for free next expansion, but the story that you missed will roughly cost the same price as HoT. In the end, everyone will pay roughly the same.

You are given the option to buy season 2 during checkout. Keep in mind that they could have forced you to buy it like any other MMO instead of giving away the core game for free.

Showbiz.9725:

the fact that you’re forced to use a third party is pretty ridiculous.

If you’re going to skip content, you’ll have to do that for any kind of story (games, books, movies, etc). As for season 1, it’s recapped within the game as a part of the story (Scarlet’s War).

Actually, the fact that you are able to use a third party to circumvent this and “get up to speed” is pretty neat, especially since they don’t cost money. Once again, you don’t actually need to spend real money to get these, you can do a gems to gold conversion. You aren’t penalized for anything, given that this doesn’t stop you from completing any game content, but nor are you rewarded for joining the game after the rest of the playerbase. Here is a story so far for you for LS 1 https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/recap-the-living-world-of-guild-wars-2/

And an additional place to find summaries
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World#Summaries