I want to start off this post on a positive note. I just want to say, for the record, that I am extremely impressed with the new permanent content you have added thus far (such as the new achievement system, account wallet, PVP improvements, etc). That’s all great.
BUT…
I’m here to write about the Living Story and its two-week schedule, as many others have done. It is causing problems, most notably for players who fall into these categories:
a) casual players
b) new players
c) people who work full time
d) people with children
e) people who take holidays
f) people who play other games
g) any combination of the above categories.
As evidenced by these threads (click each number to read):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 (there are more, but too many links put me over 5000 characters).
In response, you tell us that some lingering permanent content will be added and that we should be happy with that. Unfortunately this is missing the point entirely. Adding permanent content does not solve the problems that this schedule creates. The issue is not that we want all the living story content to be permanent content – some of us might – but a workable compromise is simply to give us a schedule that allows everyone to enjoy it equally. After all, the lingering “permanent” content does not allow us to go back and get item rewards and achievements we missed, right? Nor does it allow us to get the full experience of each event. Picking through the wiki or forums to find out what you missed isn’t very fun.
Flame and Frost felt right. So did Secret of Southsun. But now I feel stressed out whenever I load up Guild Wars 2 because you are essentially asking me to devote time (and lots of it) in a short time span toward events and activities that I may not necessarily feel like doing at that time.
I don’t feel like I have a choice of what I do on Guild Wars 2 anymore, because in the short time amount of time I have to play, I feel like I have to dump it into the Living Story achievements in order to secure my prize. I guess the problem is, I really want the prizes. They’re good prizes. I want to get them. But you’re setting the bar too high, in too short a time span.
To make matters worse, the living story chapters are becoming grindier and grindier (farm 20 events, play 15 rounds of an unenjoyable mini-game, kill 100 aetherblades; effectively: kill 10 rats!). This isn’t fun… It’s repetitive and unengaging. This sort of thing is what makes other MMO’s not fun, and is why I became a Guild Wars player in the first place, because up until now you guys have known better than to do this.
Now that there are daily achievements associated with the living story chapters, this presents an additional barrier for casual players to set aside a single day (or even two) to power-play the content and finish it on time.
What if you can’t afford to play the six or three days required within the 2-week span? Because life got in the way, you will never get a cool reward? How does this create a positive experience for the player?
I understand that not everyone is unhappy with this new schedule, but a lot of people are. The people who fall into the categories listed above love guild wars 2 as much as the hardcore players do. We are as much a part of your player base as they are. Please listen to us.