Guild Wars 2

I personally hate the idea of Living Story. Not the story in itself, but the non-permanency of its accessibility. If I want to take a break from GW2 I should be allowed to do so, without the disheartening feeling that there’s playable content swooping through the game at an obnoxious speed that wont be there when I get back.

They should be adding permanent content to the game, not taking it away. It’s been how many years now and the world doesn’t feel any richer, it’s exactly the same as it was when I bought the game, except LA got a makeover. Why? Because I didn’t get to experience the story.

Equipment in the gem store is one thing. I can pop on, grab it and continue on my way. Being forced to dedicate time (that anet dictates) in order to experience the game is a huge let down.

I was originally interested in GW2 because of the no obligation to log on. I hated WoW because I felt obligated to play while I was paying a subscription. And now anet is essentially doing the same thing with Living World. It’s there to make sure players log in on a regular basis. And because I couldn’t keep up with Living Story I’m on my last thread of wanting to play at all.

Also, when I preordered their game I acutely recall them saying that all purchasable things in the game would be purely cosmetic, and here they are trying to get me to buy pieces of the story. But that’s another argument in itself.

Not that anyone really cares, just thought I’d state my opinion here.

ANet knows about that issue and then they fixed it in the LS season 2.
Now you can go away from the game for months, and when you come back you can buy the access to the LS and play it.

Yeah, they’re kind of fixed the issue.
I’m a student and I don’t have a lot of time to play right now so I haven’t even touched the most recent living story release, but I logged in ONCE to unlock it. I don’t see what your issue is? If they were still using the Season 1 system then sure, but as long as you log in once during the duration of a story arc you unlock it permanently and can complete it whenever you like.

Belzebu.3912:

ANet knows about that issue and then they fixed it in the LS season 2.
Now you can go away from the game for months, and when you come back you can buy the access to the LS and play it.

Not a big fan of the buying access bit really. I recently started playing against and have ignored Season 2 because the parts I have access to make little sense without context and the previous chapters are paywalled. And Arenanet has done little to convince me they can make a good story.

The big thing about the living story is that they need a reason for players to be motivated to stick with the game, and log on regularly instead of just coming back every so often. And so, they made it so that the living story was indeed free, but only if you logged in when it was “live”. To perpetuate their TV show analogy: if you didn’t tune in and record the episode on your VCR (wow, old school!), DVR or whatever, you’ll have to buy the DVD collection released once the next episode is released. I think it’s fair, charging for the episodes after the release date. I don’t necessarily like it myself, but this is a game company and they need to make money somehow without a subscription fee, so I think it’s a decent compromise.

You know what, I’m going to make you an offer that might alleviate at least a little of your annoyance. If you merely wanted to view the previous chapters of the game, I’d be willing to run through them with one of my characters with you so that you can experience the story. I don’t think you’d necessarily get the bonuses from it (I haven’t tested this yet), but it’d at least catch you up. Maybe after you watch them, you can decide if you’d want to pay for the past chapters, or if the quick replay was enough. If you’re interested, send me a PM on the forums, and we can arrange a way to meet up.

I think the problem with the paywall for missed episodes is that one episode isn’t enough to make a player feel like they want to buy it, and if they’ve missed the first episode then there’s nothing to get them hooked because playing whatever later episodes they have access to makes very little sense and they have no connection to the storyline whatsoever.

I think realistically the first episode should be free for everybody, they’d be more likely to get new players to pay for the others (though I still think it’s ridiculous, story paywall fragmentation works great for mobile games but I don’t think it should be used in MMOs)

Ishinokao.6740:

They should be adding permanent content to the game, not taking it away.

Wait what? When was this posted? I’m confused… What temporary content are you referring to?

@OP Simply log in during the time a new living story release is available and it will unlock for you. After that point you are free to return to the game whenever you like and you can do the living story arc… for FREE!