Guild Wars 2

Honest question – do players think the new model they outlined in the AMA a few weeks ago qualifies as living world? To me, the living world meant ongoing changes that made the game feel like it was growing alongside my character – even if those changes were small.

It really feels like they have made the decision to abandon the living world concept (that was the core of the game at launch) in lieu of an less intensive development path. What they have outlined is the same tired model every other game uses – and definitely not giving the feel of a living, changing world any longer.

I just don’t see the point of having a forum section dedicated to Living World when there really is no longer a living world in the game.

I didnt see the living world concept as core to the game at launch. The world did not change, beyond limited event cycles, any more than did other games in my opinion. I liked the launch game quite a bit though.

The living world was added later and, seemingly, was a failure on its own. This is why Anet is trying a combination expansion plus LW approach now.

The game was never in a ‘living world’ state. Any changes made where focused on the main story/stories (always revolving around Kiel, Scarlet, and the biconics directly or indirectly), and they would be gone without a trace (for the most part) within a month’s time. A true living world would have had the style of Southsun Cove’s releases or Tower of Nightmares arc (the months’ content no longer accessible but the ‘aftermath’ still around) with the Halloween 2012 update of adding mini-dungeons and events across the world (even if only 5 or so at a time).

The ‘fake living world’ that was Season 1 was a bad design ultimately because it created a lot of effort from ArenaNet for no direct profit and no lasting effect on the playerbase. And it was far from a core aspect of the game, since it began two months after release (or four if you don’t include The Lost Shores) and didn’t have a trace of a ‘true living world’ until a year after release.

The name ‘living world’ or ‘living story’ has always been a misnomer.

However, I do not believe that their model is the ‘same tired model every other game uses’ since most other games just go expansion → expansion → expansion; GW2 is going ‘series of temp-free DLCS → expansion → series of temp-free DLCs → expansion’.

I wouldn’t mind a mixture of Season 1 and Season 2’s set up – if we look at Tower of Nightmares as the core foundation of what Season 1 should be, and take permanent instances as, well, being permanent. That would give the best feeling of a living world, especially if they periodically include events unrelated to the main plot but related to zone plots across the game.

I’m not advocating any particular season of living world or saying we should go back to the season one model. It just seems like they currently have abandoned even trying to create the feel of a living world in the game (instead relying on the rare feature drop approach every other AAA MMO takes), which I find disheartening.

It felt like they were fine tuning it and continually trying to hone the idea, but, now, it just feels like they’ve given up on it. If that is the case, there really is no need for this sub forum any longer.

They’re still doing living world seasons. I don’t get where you’re coming from with ‘relying on the rare feature drop approach’.

There’s pretty much an 8 month wait before and after HoT for new story, but that doesn’t mean they’re not doing focus on story anymore.

We still have a Season 3 coming, and it’s going to be – as far as we know – a lot like Season 2 in structure and format.

I think that if HoT had been better received the next LS chapter would have seen a sooner release date.

It seems as if fixing elements of HoT (and WvW) are delaying additional content release.

Yes, I know that a new story chapter is coming, but in the meantime, the world remains static – unchanged – for most of the year.

Every MMO has a story (or at least most do) – that isn’t the living world. Living World means the world feels alive – changing and growing regularly through new adventures, adversaries and heroic tasks. Whether you see it as a good or bad thing, that isn’t happening anymore – and will not be based on what we heard in the AMA.

Every (most) AAA mmos do major content drops between expansions. Most players are familiar with WoW raids, but Blizzard regularly gives players new maps/dungeons/etc as part of the non-expansion schedule as well – and have since the game came out. Pick just about any other AAA MMO and you will likely find the same.

What set GW2 apart from those games is that they historically tried to deliver that content in an organic form – giving the impression that the world was not static. While they didn’t always succeed at that task, it did (for a time) serve to keep many of us continually entertained and invested in the game.

Yes, we are getting a chapter 3 of the GW2 story, but it isn’t being delivered in that organic sense – nor are they even attempting to do anything other than what every other AAA MMO is doing with their content drops. It isn’t a living world any longer.

Maybe change the name of this section to Story Chapters or something like that, but what we are seeing in the game now is not a living story by any serious definition of the term.