Guild Wars 2

PLEASE START WORKING ON AN EXPANSION. If you already are, ANNOUNCE IT. The Living World is only good as long as there’s an expansion that players are waiting for. It’s been said thousands of times, but its the truth.

I heard something about someone datamining something about a “VIP membership” that would basically be an optional subscription fee. Are you serious Anet?!?!?!? This game doesn’t need a subscription fee, it needs an expansion.

The Living World/Story has dramatically improved since it’s debut. Regardless, it is overall boring and predictable. This game needs some real direction.

For the love of god…MAKE AN EXPANSION

/rage

We can only hope they are.

Thought the VIP thing was never happening btw.

There is Season 2 of LS comming, they will be able to finally adress all the feedback in there (keep in mind that the LS patch you are currently playing was worked on 4 months ago, since that´s how their teams are working)
VIP membership was confirmed as a thing they are testing for China, which will be a separate region (there is beta in China right now)
Expansion would be good, I can´t disagree, but for the love of god, stop it already…all I see is whining about no expansion. You don´t like LS, don´t play it. Because GW1 had expansion every 6 months doesn´t mean GW2 will. If you take for example WoW (that is so dear to most of the people and there is always “WoW this, WoW that” arguments), it took 2 years for Blizzard to release Burning Crusade and it was 2 years between other expansions too. We are a year in GW2 lifespan and even though LS has it´s limitations it´s getting better. I´d just wait and see for the conclusion and the new plot. If that´s not good, we can slowly start to panic.
Also, I know this is internet and kitten and it´s expected to people rage over here, but I just had enough of this already. And if you want a response from the devs – be polite, provide constructive feedback and don´t demand.?

Just calm down and enjoy the game. If you don´t enjoy it, stop playing. Easy as that.

U think Scarlet is over?

Well i have news for u…she has a sister…and it will occupy 3 story arcs! + bonus content another 3 story arcs about her puberty! Scarlet Wars 2 inc!

Lets not talk for everyone shall we?
I for one prefer the current way of releasing stuff, but I suppose that might have to do with the fact that I can play quite often and thus like to get new stuff more often than once a year.

You also have to keep in mind that an expansion would most likely deliver more or less exactly the same content as the living story, but as a package instead of smaller parts released over time. So the whole argument that it is “boring and predictable” is rather silly, since the expansion would be even more so, seeing as you wouldn’t have the suspense between releases.

^
da’hell did i just read?

lordkrall, the voice of reason. Thank you.
And could we cease to be cynical for no reason? Exaggerating won´t helps us. Devs have already said (numerous times) that Scarlet´s arc does have conclusion and it is indeed coming in the next 4 patches. And as for the “sister” – she indeed has a sister(s) and even brother(s), as all sylvari has but one mother – the Pale Tree. And Ceara (aka Scarlet) is no more than few years old (as sylvari are born adult), so there goes your bonus arc about her puberty.
I know I´m responding with seriousness to your ridiculous joke that you thought was funny, but I don´t really know how other to respond to that.
If there was an expansion, it could very well be all LS releases somehow tied to each other in one chunk and a box with Scarlet´s face slaped on it. They made mistake with Scarlet. They learned. Let´s hope they learned good. To be frank, I´m somewhat glad we had Scarlet, because they were also learning how to deliver this kind of content. I rather see them crew up Scarlet than another Dragon, or some awesome plot from GW1.
Just do what I do…wait for the next “season” of living story and when you don´t like it, then kitten about it. they really couldn´t just stop the story in the middle because someone don´t like it. There are indeed people that enjoy it (and some even enjoy Scarlet shrugs), you know? They have to work on it too, as I said, it takes them 4 months to implement feedback. They even took one or two releases off to deliver the best patches they can do. It´s not ideal to try to save the story at the end (especially if it took them a year to get to the end with no answers on the way), but at least it´s something. Wait and see. If these patches and the first ones of next season will suck, then I´d worry

I disagree with OP and i agree 100% with Lordkrall here

Yeah we do not need an expansion yet and hopefully they never do that, I’m sick of being locked out for years on updates just because it’s “an update so big that needs to be delivered separately, which can be completed in a month (at max)”.

Instead provide feedback about the Living Story (they have been improving with every patch and you can’t deny that) and hopefully it will become better before everyone gets bored (included me).

I’m not a fanboi of this game, I like it but I hate when people start demanding things without providing anything worthy.

I can bet we will get more info about “next” thing after Wild Star comes out.
Anet cant ruin WS with all new info, cause NC own GW and WS.

lordkrall.7241:

“boring and predictable” is rather silly, since the expansion would be even more so, seeing as you wouldn’t have the suspense between releases.

And still, even one expansion/campaign from Guild Wars 1, is ten times better than all LS updates combined. In my opinion at least.

Colin recently touched on this topic in an interview with Massively.

Johanson said that the living world is new territory; ArenaNet has been steadily learning what works —as well as what doesn’t -- and smoothing out the implementation. He reiterated that the living world and expansion-style content are not mutually exclusive, and that although players may perceive the studio as concentrating on living world content in lieu of expansion content, there are teams working behind the scenes on other projects.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/01/14/exclusive-preview-of-guild-wars-2s-origin-of-madness-release/

He doesn’t explicitly say they are making an expansion but it’s implied they are working on what would normally be considered expansion content.

@ lordkrall an expansion is a totally different beast to Living World.

Well i’ve tried LW for a year and I gotta say it’s not that great. I’m ready to try an expansion now.

A year’s worth of LW content wouldn’t scratch the surface of the amount of stuff you’d get from an expansion. A player may plow through the expansion faster because they get all the content at once instead of being released in bi weekly increments but that’s their choice to do so. Two week gating to extend content life is not the answer.

Im with you man. Good God can you say out of control fan fiction? Let’s kill Scarlet and get on with our game here. I hope as much time was spent behind the scenes of this waste of time as was, on new maps, maybe another dragon (I’ve only killed one), and maybe even some more story line.

I don’t like Scarlet in her entirety, but everything she’s brought with her has been excellent: Queen’s Jubilee, Twilight Assault, the Molten Alliance, Aetherblade Retreat. The Tower of Nightmare was the best of them, I feel, although it was victim to zerg mentality. I really liked the Tower.
As a jumping puzzle fanatic, though, I’m desperately awaiting the Labyrinthine Cliffs’ reopening, I loved the atmosphere there.

An expansion, though, that seems like a lot to ask for in just a year of a rather large MMO world that’s exploring and improving new or specific concepts. In terms of Guild Wars, an expansion would be the amount of content we received on release, possibly more, and I’ll repeat that that is a lot of content.

Later, tater.

just to drop it out here: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-14-you-thought-that-was-it-for-guild-wars-2
the part that might interest you : “ArenaNet is full tilt with the Chinese launch of Guild Wars 2, the Season One finale, the feature-build update and the two big background projects.”

Jeff.4680:

PLEASE START WORKING ON AN EXPANSION. If you already are, ANNOUNCE IT. The Living World is only good as long as there’s an expansion that players are waiting for. It’s been said thousands of times, but its the truth.

I heard something about someone datamining something about a “VIP membership” that would basically be an optional subscription fee. Are you serious Anet?!?!?!? This game doesn’t need a subscription fee, it needs an expansion.

The Living World/Story has dramatically improved since it’s debut. Regardless, it is overall boring and predictable. This game needs some real direction.

For the love of god…MAKE AN EXPANSION

/rage

Expansion is a marketing term. What you want is a LARGE content update with a lot of things added at one time which can include things like new zones. That can be a typical “expansion” or it just simply be a large content update to gw2 in the summer for example. Please stop using the term “expansion” and instead focus on what type of gameplay you want added. Expansions and dlcs mean nothing they are just content updates wrapped into marketing terms for different journalistic/media outlets like mmorpg.

you people are so oblivious its kind of mind buggling, you really think the entire Anet crew is working on living story, they have 350 employees and counting, open your eyes kitten .

CuRtoKy.8576:

Jeff.4680:

PLEASE START WORKING ON AN EXPANSION. If you already are, ANNOUNCE IT. The Living World is only good as long as there’s an expansion that players are waiting for. It’s been said thousands of times, but its the truth.

I heard something about someone datamining something about a “VIP membership” that would basically be an optional subscription fee. Are you serious Anet?!?!?!? This game doesn’t need a subscription fee, it needs an expansion.

The Living World/Story has dramatically improved since it’s debut. Regardless, it is overall boring and predictable. This game needs some real direction.

For the love of god…MAKE AN EXPANSION

/rage

Expansion is a marketing term. What you want is a LARGE content update with a lot of things added at one time which can include things like new zones. That can be a typical “expansion” or it just simply be a large content update to gw2 in the summer for example. Please stop using the term “expansion” and instead focus on what type of gameplay you want added. Expansions and dlcs mean nothing they are just content updates wrapped into marketing terms for different journalistic/media outlets like mmorpg.

Game is a marketing term, too. What he wants is software that causes him pleasure to interact while simulating a world.

Expansion means a large content update, as you said, where the world of the game and its system are permanently and substantially expanded. That’s where it get its name from. That’s what it is. That’s what the game needs.

While the exact amount of content, like zones, skills, etc. is not clearly defined, it’s certainly more than one zone and one skill per class. One only needs to look at other games to see just how large an expansion can and should be.

Jeff.4680:

PLEASE START WORKING ON AN EXPANSION. If you already are, ANNOUNCE IT. The Living World is only good as long as there’s an expansion that players are waiting for. It’s been said thousands of times, but its the truth.

I heard something about someone datamining something about a “VIP membership” that would basically be an optional subscription fee. Are you serious Anet?!?!?!? This game doesn’t need a subscription fee, it needs an expansion.

The Living World/Story has dramatically improved since it’s debut. Regardless, it is overall boring and predictable. This game needs some real direction.

For the love of god…MAKE AN EXPANSION

/rage

CONFIRMED EXPANSION
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-14-you-thought-that-was-it-for-guild-wars-2

Actually, it sounds like there is an expansion planned. “We have a couple of really big Guild Wars projects cooking in the background,” Johanson told me.

Later, he added: "Some of our players believe that because we are doing this Living World seasons, and these features or these big feature-builds, that it means that the features you would traditionally get in an expansion, or the content you would traditionally get in an expansion, is not something that will get added to Guild Wars 2. And that is not true at all.

“Not only are we doing those things, new features and content you would traditionally get from a boxed expansion are also things that will be added to Guild Wars 2.

“The thing that we haven’t decided yet,” he went on, "is what form that type of content will take. Is it right for Guild Wars 2 for that kind of boxed expansion? Is it right for that to be something we add, live, through storylines in the game? Is that something we want to sell through our in-game store? There are a lot of different options available to us.

“… but we absolutely are going to do sweeping new features that you would traditionally only get in expansions – large regions, content and progression additions to your characters in the form of growth and professions and races. Those are all things that you will see in the lifespan of Guild Wars 2.”

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

Jeff.4680:

PLEASE START WORKING ON AN EXPANSION. If you already are, ANNOUNCE IT. The Living World is only good as long as there’s an expansion that players are waiting for. It’s been said thousands of times, but its the truth.

I heard something about someone datamining something about a “VIP membership” that would basically be an optional subscription fee. Are you serious Anet?!?!?!? This game doesn’t need a subscription fee, it needs an expansion.

The Living World/Story has dramatically improved since it’s debut. Regardless, it is overall boring and predictable. This game needs some real direction.

For the love of god…MAKE AN EXPANSION

/rage

CONFIRMED EXPANSION
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-14-you-thought-that-was-it-for-guild-wars-2

Actually, it sounds like there is an expansion planned. “We have a couple of really big Guild Wars projects cooking in the background,” Johanson told me.

Later, he added: "Some of our players believe that because we are doing this Living World seasons, and these features or these big feature-builds, that it means that the features you would traditionally get in an expansion, or the content you would traditionally get in an expansion, is not something that will get added to Guild Wars 2. And that is not true at all.

“Not only are we doing those things, new features and content you would traditionally get from a boxed expansion are also things that will be added to Guild Wars 2.

“The thing that we haven’t decided yet,” he went on, "is what form that type of content will take. Is it right for Guild Wars 2 for that kind of boxed expansion? Is it right for that to be something we add, live, through storylines in the game? Is that something we want to sell through our in-game store? There are a lot of different options available to us.

“… but we absolutely are going to do sweeping new features that you would traditionally only get in expansions – large regions, content and progression additions to your characters in the form of growth and professions and races. Those are all things that you will see in the lifespan of Guild Wars 2.”

That isn’t confirmation. That’s speculation. It’s more of “it sounds like”. They’ve been saying we’re getting an expansion worth of content for a while now, they’ve yet to deliver or even give us specifics. They’re still unsure of what they want to deliver. Granted, this is more optimistic than interviews and blogs of the past, but I’m still skeptical.

Illi.3647:

Also, I know this is internet and kitten and it´s expected to people rage over here, but I just had enough of this already. And if you want a response from the devs – be polite, provide constructive feedback and don´t demand.?

Just calm down and enjoy the game. If you don´t enjoy it, stop playing. Easy as that.

uhm no telling people to shut up is not helpful people complain hoping the game gets better and we have people like you insulting us, telling us shut and “leave the game” were treated like trash by people like you “I just had enough of this already” that’s our line

“be polite, provide constructive feedback and don´t demand” as you said

100% agree w/ OP. Well phrased as well. The living story starts to make sense when everyone knows there’s a meatier, real expansion on the horizon to look forward to. Then the LS can function as what sets everything up for the next big thing kinda, and keep us entertained meanwhile.

I’d personally also much rather pay for expansions than see item incentives that should be in the game, as parts of end-boss-item-tables and similar, simply being added to the gem store for easy “ca’ching” sales.

That isn’t confirmation. That’s speculation. It’s more of “it sounds like”. They’ve been saying we’re getting an expansion worth of content for a while now, they’ve yet to deliver or even give us specifics. They’re still unsure of what they want to deliver. Granted, this is more optimistic than interviews and blogs of the past, but I’m still skeptical.

“…but we ABSOLUTELY are going to do sweeping features that you would traditionally only get in an expansion…” That is a direct statement; its confirmed.

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

“…but we ABSOLUTELY are going to do sweeping features that you would traditionally only get in an expansion…” That is a direct statement; its confirmed.

Exactly, it is a statement that they will release features that you would “traditionally only get in an expansion”, which would imply that we will NOT get them in an expansion, which is exactly the same thing they said last time they were interviewed about it.

There is nothing in that part that confirms an expansion.

A couple of new types of monsters in an old zone and some new achievements does not equal new content for me. Its just busy work to tide you over until more busy work comes out. I dont understand how a lot of you cant see that LS is just anet’s way of milking the players for money for minimal effort. Ill bet that there is most of an expansion already made, they are just waiting for the cash shop to dry up a bit before they announce it.

Katre.1084:

A couple of new types of monsters in an old zone and some new achievements does not equal new content for me. Its just busy work to tide you over until more busy work comes out. I dont understand how a lot of you cant see that LS is just anet’s way of milking the players for money for minimal effort. Ill bet that there is most of an expansion already made, they are just waiting for the cash shop to dry up a bit before they announce it.

Now you’re starting to type like a Redditor.

lordkrall.7241:

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

“…but we ABSOLUTELY are going to do sweeping features that you would traditionally only get in an expansion…” That is a direct statement; its confirmed.

Exactly, it is a statement that they will release features that you would “traditionally only get in an expansion”, which would imply that we will NOT get them in an expansion, which is exactly the same thing they said last time they were interviewed about it.

There is nothing in that part that confirms an expansion.

What does it matter if it is called or comes in the traditional form of an ‘expansion’ as long as we receive the content? This confirms that everything we wanted out of an expansion will be given to us. Beyond that, who cares the means.

You’re arguing semantics: buy a movie online and get it shipped to you, or drive to the store and pick up the movie; regardless you still get a movie. I fail to see the point in this argument.

lordkrall.7241:

Lets not talk for everyone shall we?
I for one prefer the current way of releasing stuff, but I suppose that might have to do with the fact that I can play quite often and thus like to get new stuff more often than once a year.

I think most of us would be cool with the LS was even close to the same aount & type of content you get in expansions..
You also have to keep in mind that an expansion would most likely deliver more or less exactly the same content as the living story, but as a package instead of smaller parts released over time. So the whole argument that it is “boring and predictable” is rather silly, since the expansion would be even more so, seeing as you wouldn’t have the suspense between releases.

I think it’s interesting when people say that the LS has released the same amount of content in 1 year as the GW1 expansion did the 1st year.. it’s so laughably untrue I don’t know how they can say it with a strait face.

How can you even compare them? The LS has added (including the temp content) a tiny fraction of what we got in, say, Factions.. comparing the 2 is no contest.

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

What does it matter if it is called or comes in the traditional form of an ‘expansion’ as long as we receive the content? This confirms that everything we wanted out of an expansion will be given to us. Beyond that, who cares the means.

You’re arguing semantics: buy a movie online and get it shipped to you, or drive to the store and pick up the movie; regardless you still get a movie. I fail to see the point in this argument.

Because we got the exact same information with the last interview, and your post implied that they had confirmed an actual expansion, which isn’t true.

DarksunG.9537:

I think it’s interesting when people say that the LS has released the same amount of content in 1 year as the GW1 expansion did the 1st year.. it’s so laughably untrue I don’t know how they can say it with a strait face.

How can you even compare them? The LS has added (including the temp content) a tiny fraction of what we got in, say, Factions.. comparing the 2 is no contest.

You are aware that Faction (or Nightfall) weren’t expansions, right? They were standalone games, that could be played as standalone games.
If we are going to compare it to GW1 we should compare it to their only actual expansion, and that was Eye of the North, which came years after Prophecies was released, and didn’t have close to the stuff Faction and Nightfall did.

Start working on it? There are more than 300 people at anet, you dont think they all work on the living story do you?

So much for having a realistic living story and an evolving world. In real life if you miss a epic battle you don’t get to revisit it.

And I love how people assume they are not working on it.

Whether it rolled out as LW or as an expansion content is content. You either like it or you don’t. If scarlet was rolled out as an expansion people wouldn’t have liked it any more then it currently is.

lordkrall.7241:

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

What does it matter if it is called or comes in the traditional form of an ‘expansion’ as long as we receive the content? This confirms that everything we wanted out of an expansion will be given to us. Beyond that, who cares the means.

You’re arguing semantics: buy a movie online and get it shipped to you, or drive to the store and pick up the movie; regardless you still get a movie. I fail to see the point in this argument.

Because we got the exact same information with the last interview, and your post implied that they had confirmed an actual expansion, which isn’t true.

DarksunG.9537:

I think it’s interesting when people say that the LS has released the same amount of content in 1 year as the GW1 expansion did the 1st year.. it’s so laughably untrue I don’t know how they can say it with a strait face.

How can you even compare them? The LS has added (including the temp content) a tiny fraction of what we got in, say, Factions.. comparing the 2 is no contest.

You are aware that Faction (or Nightfall) weren’t expansions, right? They were standalone games, that could be played as standalone games.
If we are going to compare it to GW1 we should compare it to their only actual expansion, and that was Eye of the North, which came years after Prophecies was released, and didn’t have close to the stuff Faction and Nightfall did.

Even if you try to work into that angle, which I disagree with, because I’d still buy another stand alone game that could be played by itself or linked to GW2 which would expand upon the GW2 universe ergo it is an expansion. Yes that’s right I will pay good money for good content, the stuff they are doing with LW is free content for a reason.

Eye of the North the only expansion by your definition still provided way more content than LW has. On top of that all of EOTN is permanent repayable content that you can play at your own pace, because it was so robust they didn’t need to gate the content in two week increments to extend the play life. This allowed player to enjoy it at their own pace rather than an outside force dictate it for them.

edited, got my Anet products mixed up. Meant EOTN typed Nightfall by mistake.

Oh, I don’t disagree with the model, I am simply pointing out that comparing expansion with standalone games is quite silly, and that we should rather compare an expansion with an expansion, and the only expansion released for GW1 was Eye of the North.

I have never claimed Nightfall was an expansion, I rather says that it is NOT an expansion in the post you quoted.

The expansion was Eye of the North which was released 2,5 years after GW1.

lordkrall.7241:

Mia Lunarfang.5826:

What does it matter if it is called or comes in the traditional form of an ‘expansion’ as long as we receive the content? This confirms that everything we wanted out of an expansion will be given to us. Beyond that, who cares the means.

You’re arguing semantics: buy a movie online and get it shipped to you, or drive to the store and pick up the movie; regardless you still get a movie. I fail to see the point in this argument.

Because we got the exact same information with the last interview, and your post implied that they had confirmed an actual expansion, which isn’t true.

No, the previous interview stated that there would likely be no expansion, because they intended to release all further content via LS, which, given the type of content and release capabilities/style of LS, implied that there would be no expansion like content period. This article however confirms that while we may not see it released through common means, we will definitely receive everything from a traditional expansion. Basically the previous article left the question as to whether or not they would return to the dragon story-line, and this one answered it; as far as i’m concerned, that’s not ‘the exact same information’ by any means.

“your post implied that they had confirmed an actual expansion” well they certainly confirmed that they’re giving us everything we want out of an expansion; semantics.

I agree with op…sorta. The game needs excitement and intrigue to be put back into it. This is typically done by xpac but Ls can deliver the same results.

Don’t under estimate the devs. They are working on something big to combat the competition they are going to have here shortly. Expect something big soon! You can even tell that xpac like content is coming soon by the evidence: ramped up marketing, Ls story coming to an end, interviews being granted, colab threads. It’s all so they can annaounce the next big thing.

lordkrall.7241:

You are aware that Faction (or Nightfall) weren’t expansions, right? They were standalone games, that could be played as standalone games.
If we are going to compare it to GW1 we should compare it to their only actual expansion, and that was Eye of the North, which came years after Prophecies was released, and didn’t have close to the stuff Faction and Nightfall did.

The semantics are strong with this one… They are, in every functional way, expansions. It would be more accurate to say that EotN is less of an expansion than Factions & Nightfall since they didn’t do what most MMO expansions do: new class/race.

The only difference between Factions & Nightfall & a standard MMO expansion is that they have a small area where you can level up to 20 (which GW1 was famously easy to do with) & that to play that content you didn’t need the previous game.

Its a meaningless distinction since it doesn’t effect the argument. Even if I compared it to EotN, the LS falls pathetically short of the quality & quantity of content. But to not call them expansions? That’s more marketing then reality.

lordkrall.7241:

Lets not talk for everyone shall we?
I for one prefer the current way of releasing stuff, but I suppose that might have to do with the fact that I can play quite often and thus like to get new stuff more often than once a year.

You also have to keep in mind that an expansion would most likely deliver more or less exactly the same content as the living story, but as a package instead of smaller parts released over time. So the whole argument that it is “boring and predictable” is rather silly, since the expansion would be even more so, seeing as you wouldn’t have the suspense between releases.

What in god’s green earth are you talking about. Do you even understand what an Expansion is? Because I’m starting to think you don’t.

In the past year, we’ve recieved a LS update every two weeks, for a grand total of 21 updates. Of those updates, only a handful of the content that was added was permanent, and of that permanent content, the majority of it was system related.

Do you really believe than Expansion would deliver less content than a year of LS updates? Or that somehow the LS system is better? Ask anyone here on the forums, or in game, what they would rather have:

Another year of temporary content with a handful of permanent content thrown in, or a full fledged expansion filled with permanent content, and the answer is obvious.

The Living Story concept would be fine, if the content they added was permanent with each patch. But it’s not, and people are getting fed up with it. What Anet is doing now is no different than what Zynga did with Farmville. In order to make the game look good for NCsoft, they’re shoving terribly made content in our faces every two weeks to give their share holders the allusion that people are playing constantly, as if they miss out on playing for even one week, they miss out on content that will never be available again to them.

I’d be all for the Living Story system if, and only if, the content added with each update was permanent. And don’t give me that PR excuse of “Well this way the story is ever evolving” nonsense. When I beat a single player RPG, the game doesn’t implode on it’s self because the world has been saved, and it would make no sense for me to play it again. When I play any other MMO, I don’t have expansion content from previous expansions removed with the new one because “it doesn’t make sense for that content to still be in the game since the story has moved past it”.

Believe it or not, Players can suspend their disbelief for a story line when it comes to timelines, and especially when it comes to playing through an RPG from start to finish. Anet, however, doesn’t believe this, and would rather us keep dangling a carrot on the stick with temporary content to keep players coming back week after week.

Mark my words, and I really wish I was wrong about this, but 2014 is going to be no different than 2013 in terms of Anet developing content. They’ll keep putting out more and more terrible updates, refuse and flat out ignore player feed back, and when December of 2014 rolls around, we’ll get the same pat on the back PR garbage we got from them in a developer feed about how 2014 for GW2 was an amazing year, and its still the best game you can play for free any time.

Blade Syphon.4325:

Mark my words, and I really wish I was wrong about this, but 2014 is going to be no different than 2013 in terms of Anet developing content. They’ll keep putting out more and more terrible updates, refuse and flat out ignore player feed back, and when December of 2014 rolls around, we’ll get the same pat on the back PR garbage we got from them in a developer feed about how 2014 for GW2 was an amazing year, and its still the best game you can play for free any time.

This. There’s been zero evidence that Anet has learned anything from last year’s Living Story experience. (I actually think the Living Story idea is good, but the implementation has been total fail.)

They’re just going to continue doing what they do best: talk big and then completely fail to deliver.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Blade Syphon.4325:

Mark my words, and I really wish I was wrong about this, but 2014 is going to be no different than 2013 in terms of Anet developing content. They’ll keep putting out more and more terrible updates, refuse and flat out ignore player feed back, and when December of 2014 rolls around, we’ll get the same pat on the back PR garbage we got from them in a developer feed about how 2014 for GW2 was an amazing year, and its still the best game you can play for free any time.

This. There’s been zero evidence that Anet has learned anything from last year’s Living Story experience. (I actually think the Living Story idea is good, but the implementation has been total fail.)

They’re just going to continue doing what they do best: talk big and then completely fail to deliver.

You should probably unsubscribe then, I know I did.

Lord Kuru.3685:

This. There’s been zero evidence that Anet has learned anything from last year’s Living Story experience. (I actually think the Living Story idea is good, but the implementation has been total fail.)

…Of course there is zero evidence. While they may have been aware of an issue for two months, the content has been under construction for four, so they can’t very well scrap it and still manage to produce pliable material within the remaining time. If we are to see that they have learned something, it will either be in the conclusion, or season 2.

aspirine.6852:

Start working on it? There are more than 300 people at anet, you dont think they all work on the living story do you?

Oh yeah, 10 of them are working on balance, and that’s why we are getting perfectly balanced classes and zerker nerfs and perma stealth still all over WvW. The other 289 are working on Living Story. And the last one is cleaning the toilets.

Seriously people, Living World is just a diversion to tide me over until a real expansion hits. By “expansion” I will define it as such, because I don’t want to get caught up in a stupid semantics debate:

• At least 1 new playable race
• At least two new classes
• A continuation to personal story after Zhaitan has been killed about 50% as long as the original personal story for all races and paths
• At least 10 new zones, some of which are the standard levelling zones for the new playable race
• A kittenload of new skills and trait lines
• Raising the level cap to 100, allowing for more points too be bought for traits

And if I’m lucky, a revamp of the skill system to allow skills to be slotted per your whim into weapons (limited to skills for that weapon, of course, but dear God give us the option to customize our skill bars further)

Oh and a part in the personal story where I can watch Trehearne and Scarlet getting roasted over a spit in Southsun Cove while I drink an Apple Karka Martini.

Mochann.5298:

Seriously people, Living World is j,ust a diversion to tide me over until a real expansion hits. By “expansion” I will define it as such, because I don’t want to get caught up in a stupid semantics debate:

• At least 1 new playable race
• At least two new classes
• A continuation to personal story after Zhaitan has been killed about 50% as long as the original personal story for all races and paths
• At least 10 new zones, some of which are the standard levelling zones for the new playable race
• A kittenload of new skills and trait lines
• Raising the level cap to 100, allowing for more points too be bought for traits

Sounds like a fair deffinition to me. I don’t care how we get it, whether through a box with cd, a patch update, or something you buy at the gem store, as long as we get the content you listed within exceptable variences, its an expansion. the only point I would venture to add is that all content must be permanant.

lordkrall.7241:

Lets not talk for everyone shall we?
I for one prefer the current way of releasing stuff, but I suppose that might have to do with the fact that I can play quite often and thus like to get new stuff more often than once a year.

You also have to keep in mind that an expansion would most likely deliver more or less exactly the same content as the living story, but as a package instead of smaller parts released over time. So the whole argument that it is “boring and predictable” is rather silly, since the expansion would be even more so, seeing as you wouldn’t have the suspense between releases.

Factions, Nightfall and Eye of the North says hi.

Anet produces better work when they have had a reasonable amount of time to design and test it.

Lucky.9421:

Factions, Nightfall and Eye of the North says hi.

Anet produces better work when they have had a reasonable amount of time to design and test it.

Factions and Nightfall were not expansions. They were their own games and were being developed even before Prophecies was released as far as I remember.

The only actual expansion GW1 had was Eye of the North. And that didn’t really add much more than the LS have done (and it took much longer time to release that as well.)

lordkrall.7241:

Lucky.9421:

Factions, Nightfall and Eye of the North says hi.

Anet produces better work when they have had a reasonable amount of time to design and test it.

Factions and Nightfall were not expansions. They were their own games and were being developed even before Prophecies was released as far as I remember.

The only actual expansion GW1 had was Eye of the North. And that didn’t really add much more than the LS have done (and it took much longer time to release that as well.)

Oe oh, EOTN brought great new areas, new heroes. Very overpowered pve skills(with their corresponding ranks), Lot’s of great dungeons and lots of good new weapons(ok after the weapon design contest). EOTN was a great expansion for me.

aspirine.6852:

Oe oh, EOTN brought great new areas, new heroes. Very overpowered pve skills(with their corresponding ranks), Lot’s of great dungeons and lots of good new weapons(ok after the weapon design contest). EOTN was a great expansion for me.

Oh, I have never claimed that EotN was a bad expansion, I am simply stating that the amount of stuff added wasn’t much more than we have seen with the Living Story model, but still took longer time.

Expansion worth of content from the LS you say? Living world gives us the same content as an expansion, you say? Even if we had all the living world updates rolled into one expansion it would be one disappointing expansion (for me at least). Totally not on par with GW1 expansions.

lordkrall.7241:

aspirine.6852:

Oe oh, EOTN brought great new areas, new heroes. Very overpowered pve skills(with their corresponding ranks), Lot’s of great dungeons and lots of good new weapons(ok after the weapon design contest). EOTN was a great expansion for me.

Oh, I have never claimed that EotN was a bad expansion, I am simply stating that the amount of stuff added wasn’t much more than we have seen with the Living Story model, but still took longer time.

That’s laughable. The amount of content in LS doesn’t come close to what EotN had. And guess what… All the content that EotN added can STILL BE ACCESSED. All those zones, dungeons, mini games, GEAR….. They are all still there for us to enjoy each time we log in. I have no problem with them doing this LS content, but the people who keep trying to say it’s added so much “content” to GW2 are just silly. If it added content, it would still be there.

MastaNeenja.1537:

Even if you try to work into that angle, which I disagree with, because I’d still buy another stand alone game that could be played by itself or linked to GW2 which would expand upon the GW2 universe ergo it is an expansion. Yes that’s right I will pay good money for good content, the stuff they are doing with LW is free content for a reason.

Eye of the North the only expansion by your definition still provided way more content than LW has. On top of that all of EOTN is permanent repayable content that you can play at your own pace, because it was so robust they didn’t need to gate the content in two week increments to extend the play life. This allowed player to enjoy it at their own pace rather than an outside force dictate it for them.

edited, got my Anet products mixed up. Meant EOTN typed Nightfall by mistake.

I agree 100%.
The fact some people actually believe LS delivered the same content as EOTN (or any of the campaigns) is unfathomable, inconceivable and outright laughable.

It’s just not true in so many ways (most of which are stated above).