Guild Wars 2

I can’t play any single game year-round. I know there are many others like me. I get hooked on a game and I usually play it for about 5 months at a time before I grow tired of it and move on to something else, but I will eventually come back. For instance, I played GW2 from October of last year to mid January before I got a little burned out and decided to go play Diablo 3 for a while. The Living Story model is a neat idea, but it really does punish those of us who don’t play your game exclusively. You have bi-weekly content added to the game, and then taken away. If you aren’t on at some point during those two weeks, then that’s just tough. You missed it. The Living Story has been compared to Game of Thrones. Well you know what? If I miss episodes of GoT, I can actually go back and watch them. If you miss Living Story content though? Well that’s just your problem…..sorry about that.

I’m going to use the dreaded WoW comparison here, but I think it’s appropriate for my argument. I’ve played WoW off and on for the last several years. What I love about it is that I can come and go as I please and still play all the content that’s ever been available. They added the Thunder Isles and a new raid shortly after the release of MoP. Well guess what? I can still go and do all the content there. It wasn’t added and then taken away. You just can’t do that with GW2, and it’s sad. I LOVED Guild Wars and I had such high hopes for GW2. I guess the added campaigns in Guild Wars just spoiled me over the years. GW2 is a great game. I’m not saying it isn’t. But it just doesn’t have the lasting appeal that it’s predecessor did, or that other MMOs have.

I’m just assuming that Arenanet is doing what they can with what little budget NCSoft is giving them, and I guess that’s understandable. It sucks…. but it’s understandable. I’m still going to hope for an Expansion one day though. A good chunk of permanent content that I can actually return to in a year and still play. Maybe Season 2 will bring that? That would definitely be a pleasant surprise.

P.S. I know that anyone who argues my points here will say that the Living Story DID add an expansion’s worth of content. My answer to you is, No it didn’t. If it had then that content would still be playable. What the Living Story does is constantly add Holiday-like events, that if you aren’t on during that holiday, you miss it. For those of you who play Guild Wars 2 exclusively, I’m sure the LS is great. This thread isn’t really for you.

Why should ArenaNet cater to the player-base that DON’T actively play their game though? Wouldn’t it be much more logical to cater to those that actually play the game at least a few times a week?

Yeah, we maybe need to leave.
I like the game, but I don’t want the game to be the center of my universe.
Sorry for liking to do other things beside playing Guild Wars 2.

lordkrall.7241:

Why should ArenaNet cater to the player-base that DON’T actively play their game though? Wouldn’t it be much more logical to cater to those that actually play the game at least a few times a week?

Even if I were actively playing GW2 every week I would want permanent content over temporary content. Wouldn’t you? I like to go back and play old content. Old Raids and Dungeons in WoW. Old missions and older content in Guild Wars like Fissure of Woe and Underworld. You just can’t do that with the LS.

Veteran players get punished to.

The resets, repeats and deletes they make us go through are hardly inspiring.

SoPP.7034:

Veteran players get punished to.

The resets, repeats and deletes they make us go through are hardly inspiring.

So, they punish veteran players.
They also punish returning players.
And they punish new players.

Anet has unlocked an achievment!! Make all your playerbase angry at the same time!!!

(Except white knights, those doen’t count for this meta)

Nat.4029:

Even if I were actively playing GW2 every week I would want permanent content over temporary content. Wouldn’t you? I like to go back and play old content. Old Raids and Dungeons in WoW. Old missions and older content in Guild Wars like Fissure of Woe and Underworld. You just can’t do that with the LS.

Oh, I agree, there should be (and will be) more permanent content.
But from the OP it did sound like you wanted it to be more or less specifically catered to people that take several month long breaks, rather than those that actively plays the game.

You can get permanent stuff with the Living Story (we already have examples of this, such as Edge of the Mist, Aetherpath, Fractals).

This is just a state of mind. When you turn on the radio, you don’t worry about the thousand shows you missed across all the radio stations since yesterday. You turn on the radio to listen to the show that is on now. Treat your GW2 the same way. Log on and play the living story that is there now. A returning player has exactly the same content now as anyone else. Just like the radio, you don’t need to know what has gone before in order to enjoy what is there now.

There should be a story line recap for returning players. Comparing the storyline to Game of Thrones is a bit laughable though.

also I don’t think we should be confusing rewarding players who play continuously with punishing players who don’t. They’re not the same. Just because we don’t get rewards while we don’t play doesn’t mean we’re punished, we’re just not rewarded.

I’m in the same boat as OP, I was on almost a year long hiatus and I’m back and loving it, but I missed almost the entire LS. That sucks, but I don’t feel punished. I think they should do a mixture of permanent and temporary content, and it does look like that’s the direction they’ll go with season 2, so you won’t hear complaints from me.

People really misunderstood the reference made to Game of Thrones.
They never said the story was close to Game of Thrones.
They said that the amount of SPECULATIONS about what would come next would be around the level of Game of Thrones.

Stooperdale.3560:

This is just a state of mind. When you turn on the radio, you don’t worry about the thousand shows you missed across all the radio stations since yesterday. You turn on the radio to listen to the show that is on now. Treat your GW2 the same way. Log on and play the living story that is there now. A returning player has exactly the same content now as anyone else. Just like the radio, you don’t need to know what has gone before in order to enjoy what is there now.

There should be a story line recap for returning players. Comparing the storyline to Game of Thrones is a bit laughable though.

Not the same at all.
It’s more like watching a tv series and missing a few seasons.
You missed the story, maybe there even other characters, the flow is destroyed. The experience is ruined.
But with tv series you can marathon the seasons that you lost. Here, you can’t.

And let’s not talk about skins, minis and those.

Feels very punishing.

And it’s one of my biggest complains about the game. The feeling that you must hurry. Always hurry because the content will be lost forever. It’s stressful.
I do not play to stress, I play to relax and have fun.

They need to subconsciously “punish” players who stopped playing, so that they could condition these players to not leave Guild Wars 2, which in turn could provide them with revenue with your money, provided you will buy gems. Perhaps a certain percentage of the population buying gems is enough to sustain GW2, so what they need to do is to increase the players to increase the probability of gem buying. Even though the percentage of people that are buying gems does not change, the numbers however increases the possibility (or volume) of gems being bought, thus increasing their profit.

I do hope the LS2 lives up to expectations, or I’m going to be kittened, feeling ripped off lol. I have high hopes though. No more forcing statements down our throats please. Maybe make LS2 attractive for leveling up, I don’t know, EotM had become uplevel kindergarten. How about the rewards? Marionette reward system is good (in the sense that people feel they are actually getting something when they kill mobs), where you can get tokens and combine them to get a ‘key’ and then use that to open a chest depending on the key type. Tweaking this would be you get random rewards depending on chest type. Maybe make keys tradable (can it be abused though)?

PS. Please make LS1 replayable, or cycle the LS events again (as opposed to outright replayability of all events, so that the population will be concentrated on the events themselves).

Stooperdale.3560:

This is just a state of mind. When you turn on the radio, you don’t worry about the thousand shows you missed across all the radio stations since yesterday. You turn on the radio to listen to the show that is on now. Treat your GW2 the same way. Log on and play the living story that is there now. A returning player has exactly the same content now as anyone else. Just like the radio, you don’t need to know what has gone before in order to enjoy what is there now.

There should be a story line recap for returning players. Comparing the storyline to Game of Thrones is a bit laughable though.

Using the radio is a bad example. Even radio shows are archived and can be listened to again. Songs? They’ll come on again, or I can buy them and listen to them as much as I want. So, of course I won’t worry about what was on before I started listening.

I got feed up with the temporary content, so I’m not buying gems anymore.
I really need more bank space (being an hoarder and all) but I’m bitting my lips and not buying gems. If I buy gems now the message will be “temporary content is ok.”.

PS: Everyone talking about Marionette… I missed it. I don’t even know about what they’re talking!! Drives my nuts!! Stupid temporary content!!

PS2: +1lesbillion to the make the LS1 replayable idea.

Lets make a better example then.

If I decide to go on a vacation, and during that time something really big happens in my hometown.
I would miss that big thing, because it happened when I was away.

Thats just how life is. Things happen, you miss things. Life goes on.

lordkrall.7241:

Lets make a better example then.

If I decide to go on a vacation, and during that time something really big happens in my hometown.
I would miss that big thing, because it happened when I was away.

Thats just how life is. Things happen, you miss things. Life goes on.

I wish that I can choose to play another life… you analogy makes me sad.

Anyways!! I play games because they’re not like real life… that’s the point…
Even with the Truck Simulator, you can crash against a tree at full speed (not that I did it because I was speeding in the rain… no, never again) and don’t die. And that’s the wonderful thing.
Why take the worst things about life into videogames?

While I understand the frustration of those who missed parts of the LS season as I did, it does make sense NOT to be able to go back and redo that content. If they were to bring back anything from the LS, it would be a part of a fractal, as we’ve seen with the Thermanova (sp?) reactor. Bringing back the major events like the Tower of Nightmares, The Marionette, and the total destruction of LA just wouldn’t make sense. Game wise, it’s already in the past. Now they did say that moving forward with LS season 2, there will be permenent content added, what exactly is not known at this time. Overall the idea behind the LS is that its LIVING. It continues to grow and evolve and change. Now unless there is a time warp that allows players to go back in time to replay those events, it just cannot happen. Also most of that content REQUIRED a large amount of players to complete. While many of those who missed it, or new to the game would be able to do it again, many of the “vets”, at least on the forums, didn’t like it to begin with, and would be far less inclined to run it again. Leaving a much smaller player base available to be able to do it. Take the Watchwork Invasion. Everyhour or so a map was invaded with a HUGE amount of enemies, and took a full maps worth to drive them back on time. Towards the end of that event, while it was still going on, it was rare to see more than 5-10 people doing it anymore.

TLDR: Expansions > Living Story

Expansions offer a plethora of new permanent content to a game that can be accessed and played throughout the remainder of the game’s lifetime.

Living Story adds small chunks of temporary content. Most of which just changes existing maps in the game. It was obviously A-net’s answer to NCSoft saying, “We’re not funding an expansion. Do what you can with x amount or GTFO.”

They are at the mercy of NCSoft, which is a shame.

lordkrall.7241:

Lets make a better example then.

If I decide to go on a vacation, and during that time something really big happens in my hometown.
I would miss that big thing, because it happened when I was away.

Thats just how life is. Things happen, you miss things. Life goes on.

I understand the point here, but is this a real life simulator or a fantasy MMO? My son was born a few months ago, and I just can’t play MMOs right now. Diablo 3 works because I can play by myself and leave at any time without penalty, but MMOs are different. This is what I like about other MMOs like WoW. I can miss several months or even 2 years of the game’s life, but still be able to come back and play the things I missed out on when they were first released. That’s all I’m saying. If they can’t afford big expansions and want to keep the LS model going, that’s fine. It just sucks for players like myself.

rincewind.9528:

SoPP.7034:

Veteran players get punished to.

The resets, repeats and deletes they make us go through are hardly inspiring.

So, they punish veteran players.
They also punish returning players.
And they punish new players.

Anet has unlocked an achievment!! Make all your playerbase angry at the same time!!!

(Except white knights, those doen’t count for this meta)

Coolest answer in these forum for a long time. You made my day

Nat.4029:

I understand the point here, but is this a real life simulator or a fantasy MMO?

It is a fantasy MMO, that is based in a real world, with real problem, real progression and real changes. Just because it is a game doesn’t mean it must remove everything that is from real life.

lordkrall.7241:

Why should ArenaNet cater to the player-base that DON’T actively play their game though? Wouldn’t it be much more logical to cater to those that actually play the game at least a few times a week?

I think he means that those players shouldn’t get screwed with temporary content. Bringing back the festival was a good call this year, even if it is different.

While some players take breaks to play other games, a lot of gamers get swamped at work and are not able to play consistently year round. It IS in Arenanet’s interest to at least keep these players in mind. Generally they may be more willing to buy gems than younger gamers who have 15 hours a day to play.

I have put in close to 3,000 hours game play over 427 days ; keeping in mind I took a 4-6 month break (yes to play Diablo 3). So I think I put my due in; I should somehow be able to access missed content or content I really liked. Unlock content and make it an account bound unlock. through gems or “Free” by the means of achievement chest points. They (Anet) calls this content LIVING STORY….BUY its MY Living Story….it is MY story. I agree Guild Wars 1 is still way ahead on the story part of the game than Guild Wars 2.
I really like Guild Wars 2; that’s why I wrote this comment. Anet said they didn’t want Guild Wars 2 to be a grind….BUT a mini non-permanent two week content update IS just THAT:_( They REALLY need more permanent content.

PS. Needed: Dragon Revelry Starcake Recipe; Halo Headgear; Fused weapon skin, Scythe Staff skin, Ghastly Grinning Shield skin, and blades for back piece PLEASE all items missed or unattainable during event by me. pretty please Anet!

One of the biggest meta-complaints that players from MMOs have had since the days of Everquest and before is that the worlds feel less than alive because they are static.

ANet give a taste of an evolving world and people go berserk.

Developers just can’t win.

This does a require a paradigm shift in thinking. You can not tell stories without creating a past. If you miss the content, it’s not a big deal, seriously, relax, they even bring back rewards now.

Most times a new story part is on for two weeks or more and it usually takes less than an hour(Read posts about expansion and read how they think LS content is to short). Saying you don’t have time to play 1 hour in a two weeks period sounds fishy to me… Don’t wanna offend but to me it sounds more like ‘I got bored of the game and tried other games, but I return to GW2 since there is no better games but now I missed the story just becouse of that’. Sure I feel sorry for you guys who gets bored of the game comes back and has missed alot of the story. Though there is a pretty good recap in game now and you have http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_season_1 .

I hope that due time Anet will find a way for players to play an unrewarded Instance to play the old LS content alone or in groups. yes unrewarded, I feel sorry for players that have missed the story but the uniqe rewards are for the people who actually stay true to the game at that specific time.

Its not like we, who did play, can still access it, whether we got the rewards or not.

Mian.1945:

One of the biggest meta-complaints that players from MMOs have had since the days of Everquest and before is that the worlds feel less than alive because they are static.

ANet give a taste of an evolving world and people go berserk.

Developers just can’t win.

Just because it’s different doesn’t mean that it’s good.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

Most times a new story part is on for two weeks or more and it usually takes less than an hour(Read posts about expansion and read how they think LS content is to short). Saying you don’t have time to play 1 hour in a two weeks period sounds fishy to me… Don’t wanna offend but to me it sounds more like ‘I got bored of the game and tried other games, but I return to GW2 since there is no better games but now I missed the story just becouse of that’. Sure I feel sorry for you guys who gets bored of the game comes back and has missed alot of the story. Though there is a pretty good recap in game now and you have http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_season_1 .

I hope that due time Anet will find a way for players to play an unrewarded Instance to play the old LS content alone or in groups. yes unrewarded, I feel sorry for players that have missed the story but the uniqe rewards are for the people who actually stay true to the game at that specific time.

So, people who take a break are traitors and don’t deserve content?
In fact, it’s the feeling that the “catch the carrot against timers” content gives.
So… guess that players like me are unwelcomed to this game and need to leave asap.
At least I’m glad that I refrained from buying gems lately.

“So, people who take a break are traitors and don’t deserve content?”

When you come back you have exactly the same content available to play as everyone else. Someone who logs on today can play the festival events and it doesn’t matter whether they have been away for 1 minute or 1 year, that’s the content.

Why do you feel the game owes you extra content? You haven’t been paying money for the time you weren’t there.

Stooperdale.3560:

“So, people who take a break are traitors and don’t deserve content?”

When you come back you have exactly the same content available to play as everyone else. Someone who logs on today can play the festival events and it doesn’t matter whether they have been away for 1 minute or 1 year, that’s the content.

Why do you feel the game owes you extra content? You haven’t been paying money for the time you weren’t there.

Well, with that attitude why I will bother in spending money.
They will use it to develop temporal content that I will be unable to enjoy.
It’s pretty stupid spending money to not do something.
Guess that’s not the game for me after all. Shame that I realized before spending money in it.

lordkrall.7241:

Why should ArenaNet cater to the player-base that DON’T actively play their game though? Wouldn’t it be much more logical to cater to those that actually play the game at least a few times a week?

Perhaps MORE of these inactive people would return to GW2 if the game catered to players who have schedules that prevent them from dedicating a set amount of time per week to a game?

There’s also the fact that the Living Story isn’t exactly the most friendly towards active players who don’t take breaks either. I’ve missed a few LS episodes because I only had a small amount of time to play the game at that point and I felt like spending that time doing WvW.

Of course, that reduces my will to play subsequent LS episodes considering I have absolutely no idea why I’m doing what I’m doing. It’s like watching a television series, missing two or three episodes and being expected to pick up from the latest episode without being afforded the opportunity to fill in the gaps by going back and re-watching what I missed. Having a busy schedule doesn’t make me any less of a fan of the television series, or in this case the game. It simply means that as much as I would love to sit around and play GW2 all day, every day (I really would), I have a job and responsibilities that sometimes get in the way of me doing so.

Ultimately, Living Story content does not have to be temporary. And I think that’s what frustrates a few people who have erratic schedules at times. ANet could fix this either by simply moulding the storyline to fit content that doesn’t have to get removed, or by simply adding Story Books, which would be instanced archives of old content so that players don’t have to rush to finish content while it’s still around. Why can’t someone relive the destruction of Lion’s Arch in an instanced environment? Obviously one can’t relive things like the in-game election, but that should be an exception, not the norm. At the very least re-watchable cinematics could be introduced to help fill in the story gaps in cases of content that HAS to be temporary.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and I think there should be more of a will to cater towards a range of players.

I don’t really know why I continue to argue because the more I think about Living Story, the more I realize that the only reason it even came about was because NCSoft still hasn’t given Anet approval to develop an expansion. I’m hoping Wildstar flops, because MAYBE then NCSoft will decide to pump some money into this franchise and help it succeed. You can’t tell me that Anet would rather be doing this Living Story junk over large-scale expansions. The constant defenders will say “It’s revolutionary!” “There will be an entire expansion’s worth of content for FREE!”

No…. all it is, is a cheap way to add “content” to a game when you don’t have the necessary funding.

Maybe I’m completely wrong. Maybe they’ll announce everything that is involved in Season 2 and it really will be an expansion’s worth. Such as, several new zones, new race, new skills, new weapons, weapons skins(that AREN’T gem purchases), new dungeons, dungeon gear….

If that’s the case, I’ll be the first one to say I was wrong.

Can someone answer me this?

Take a piece of temporary content. Let’s say the Marionette. During the point in time when these events were taking place, we fought the Marionette in Lornar’s Pass. Time passes, say 2 months later, we beat Scarlet.

You decide to go back to Lornar’s Pass. What are you expecting to see in Lornar’s Pass?If you are one of those whining about “permanent content” and are expecting the Marionette to still be there, how would you explain its existence even though you have killed its master, Scarlet? Also, how do you explain what time you are in? Does going back to Lornar’s Pass mean you’ve suddenly moved 2 months back in time?

The whole idea of Living World is that time is constantly moving forward like in the real world. Events are happening everywhere and you need to be there when it happens to experience it.

People complaining about missing events is like complaining about "Ah crap! I missed World War 1 and 2 because I wasn’t born yet. Ok everyone, we need to get everyone together and fight two more wars because a lot of people “missed” it… "

Vesuvius.9874:

Can someone answer me this?

Take a piece of temporary content. Let’s say the Marionette. During the point in time when these events were taking place, we fought the Marionette in Lornar’s Pass. Time passes, say 2 months later, we beat Scarlet.

You decide to go back to Lornar’s Pass. What are you expecting to see in Lornar’s Pass?If you are one of those whining about “permanent content” and are expecting the Marionette to still be there, how would you explain its existence even though you have killed its master, Scarlet? Also, how do you explain what time you are in? Does going back to Lornar’s Pass mean you’ve suddenly moved 2 months back in time?

The whole idea of Living World is that time is constantly moving forward like in the real world. Events are happening everywhere and you need to be there when it happens to experience it.

People complaining about missing events is like complaining about "Ah crap! I missed World War 1 and 2 because I wasn’t born yet. Ok everyone, we need to get everyone together and fight two more wars because a lot of people “missed” it… "

How do you explain the Marionette continuously attacking once every 2 hours for 4 weeks, after being defeated multiple times. These events should occur one time and one time only. Also do not tell anyone what the event start times will be. That needs to be random as well, because……. real life.

The “permanent content” I’m talking about isn’t this LS stuff. I’m talking about multiple new zones (Crystal Desert, Fire Islands, Cantha?), new dungeons, dungeon gear, new skills, new race, new weapons, new weapons skins (that AREN’T for sale in the Gem Shop.) If content is added to the game, I want to be able to play it again a year or two from now if I want to. If my son is born and I have no time at all to play any type of video game, I’d like to be able to catch up on things I’ve missed, just like I can with other MMOs. Of course, zerg events like the Wurms and Marionette can’t be done solo unless they scale everything down and add in AI to help you with the fights. If the LS is the way they are going to continuously add the illusion of new content, then I’m out I guess. Changes to existing zones via a 2 week long event isn’t really “adding new content” in my book. Especially since it takes away old content.

Nat.4029:

How do you explain the Marionette continuously attacking once every 2 hours for 4 weeks, after being defeated multiple times. These events should occur one time and one time only. Also do not tell anyone what the event start times will be. That needs to be random as well, because……. real life.

The “permanent content” I’m talking about isn’t this LS stuff. I’m talking about multiple new zones (Crystal Desert, Fire Islands, Cantha?), new dungeons, dungeon gear, new skills, new race, new weapons, new weapons skins (that AREN’T for sale in the Gem Shop.) If content is added to the game, I want to be able to play it again a year or two from now if I want to. If my son is born and I have no time at all to play any type of video game, I’d like to be able to catch up on things I’ve missed, just like I can with other MMOs. Of course, zerg events like the Wurms and Marionette can’t be done solo unless they scale everything down and add in AI to help you with the fights. If the LS is the way they are going to continuously add the illusion of new content, then I’m out I guess. Changes to existing zones via a 2 week long event isn’t really “adding new content” in my book. Especially since it takes away old content.

What happens to these new zones after they are added and months down the line people stop going there? Do you leave them in game as dead zones? Do you remove them? Is there something you’d do differently?

“I don’t really know why I continue to argue because the more I think about Living Story, the more I realize that the only reason it even came about was because NCSoft still hasn’t given Anet approval to develop an expansion”

As a person who has bought many expansions in the past I’m happy to see an MMO try something different. Expansions were a marketing dream. Put new content into a package that customers have to buy. Make the game without the expansion so poor that everyone has to buy it. Raise the level cap, but only for people with the expansion. New pack and bank space, but only for people with the expansion. New top gear, but only for people with an expansion. If you want to play with friends, everyone needs the expansion as nobody wants to be in the old zones. Everyone has to play the new expansion to get back to where they were on the gear treadmill.

If you’d come back to an MMO but not kept up with paid expansions then you would be way behind where you are now with GW2 Living Story. You could argue that by paying money you could catch up, but that’s exactly what the greedier MMO sellers want – everyone needing to pay to keep up with the game.

I wonder when the complaints about temporary content will end since Anet said already that Season 2 will be all permanent….

I totally agree and subscribe to this. Not only is it punishing returning players has it is also punishing new players. Getting into a game mid-story is crap. That’s the main reason why I stoped playing the second time, when I came back it was during that scarlet robot invasion thing and by then I had no idea of wtf was going one, couldn’t care so there was nothing to do other than the usual fracts and stuff… What I think they should do to solve this problem would be to reduce the length of the living story by let’s say instead of 1 year 6 months, and use the rest of their time in developing permanent content. More dungeons, more mechanics, etc…

lordkrall.7241:

Nat.4029:

I understand the point here, but is this a real life simulator or a fantasy MMO?

It is a fantasy MMO, that is based in a real world, with real problem, real progression and real changes. Just because it is a game doesn’t mean it must remove everything that is from real life.

Then why isn’t there real permanent death? How far do you want to take this “real life” thing?

The way I think it should have been doe is this.

Each update should have open world content and instanced content.

The bulk of the story telling content should be done in the instanced content.

The open world content should have story content for those who seek it out, but mainly to do with character development. And yeah, every time I notice Braham and Taimi talking I will seek them out.

The instanced stuff should be playable at least once for players who return. A bit like the personal story.

As a regular player I enjoy the feel of living world stuff, and far prefer the feeling of development this brings over what a straight expansion in one hit would feel like. It’s one thing to walk past a ruin and have an NPC tell you that there a back story to it, it’s quite another to remember it.

minbariguy.7504:

Then why isn’t there real permanent death? How far do you want to take this “real life” thing?

Well to be fair technically you never die.
You get defeated, which could be read as too weak to keep fighting, but not dead

Vesuvius.9874:

Can someone answer me this?

Take a piece of temporary content. Let’s say the Marionette. During the point in time when these events were taking place, we fought the Marionette in Lornar’s Pass. Time passes, say 2 months later, we beat Scarlet.

You decide to go back to Lornar’s Pass. What are you expecting to see in Lornar’s Pass?If you are one of those whining about “permanent content” and are expecting the Marionette to still be there, how would you explain its existence even though you have killed its master, Scarlet? Also, how do you explain what time you are in? Does going back to Lornar’s Pass mean you’ve suddenly moved 2 months back in time?

The whole idea of Living World is that time is constantly moving forward like in the real world. Events are happening everywhere and you need to be there when it happens to experience it.

People complaining about missing events is like complaining about "Ah crap! I missed World War 1 and 2 because I wasn’t born yet. Ok everyone, we need to get everyone together and fight two more wars because a lot of people “missed” it… "

I’ve killed Zhaitan FOUR times.
After Dragon Bash.

That’s my answer.

Bob F It.5701:

I’ve killed Zhaitan FOUR times.
After Dragon Bash.

That’s my answer.

The main difference there is that the whole personal story/dungeons are locked in time.
It actually takes place over a year before the current in-game time, and as such you are basically experiencing the past (and all of it is completely instanced no less.)

rincewind.9528:

Mian.1945:

One of the biggest meta-complaints that players from MMOs have had since the days of Everquest and before is that the worlds feel less than alive because they are static.

ANet give a taste of an evolving world and people go berserk.

Developers just can’t win.

Just because it’s different doesn’t mean that it’s good.

And just because YOU don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s bad.

minbariguy.7504:

Then why isn’t there real permanent death? How far do you want to take this “real life” thing?

There are afew MMOs with permanent death, the difference is that they cater to an entirely different kind of player than GW2 does.
Whereas games like Salem, Haven & Hearth or Wizardry can get away with it, GW2 would simply drop dead the second something like that was included, Infact, as a player, death isn’t even present in GW2. You fall down and if you fail to get up, you become defeated but you never die.

However, noone is asking for permadeath, noone even suggested it.

GW2 is taking a new approach to how things are progressing and as with all methods, there are pros and cons to it..
But the primary problem I have with GW2s approach is that it does nothing to promote the game to new players, it does not motivate old players to return. It merely attempts to shower the current playerbase with content that, while the setting changes, still remains on the large scale pretty much identical.
You collect token A to recieve item B. Include Chest C with a randomly generated reward that is in the vast majority of cases not something any player would ever want and you wound up with the various coffers or champion bags that seems to be held in such high regard.

Personally I just got fed up by it, I greatly enjoyed southsun survival and quite afew of the bossfights presented in the first season of the Living Story.. But I departed for a month and when I returned, I had no interest at all in following the story, merely because I had missed a step. Had I been able to go back and do it on my own, I’d gladly have continued. Altho I don’t quite feel as the game has any real reward to it.. If I want a bonnetti’s rapier for instance, I’d be far better of acquiring gold to purchase one over attempting to find one of my own in one of the gambling bags. Had I instead had a means of simply gathering 15.000.000 peaceblooms and complete 490.000 dynamic events to trade for one, then atleast that’d be a goal to work towards with a reward of actual worth.

But we’ll see what Living Story 2 brings, I know my expectations are fairly low atleast.

lordkrall.7241:

The main difference there is that the whole personal story/dungeons are locked in time.
It actually takes place over a year before the current in-game time, and as such you are basically experiencing the past (and all of it is completely instanced no less.)

Living Story could be designed with time-locked instances being accessible to characters that haven’t been through the content. This would allow new and returning players to catch up at a pace that suits them, and enjoy the content.
Instead, we have to keep assigning some character as Exposition Fairy (this is currently Tiami), and violate that silver rule of exposition “Show, don’t tell”. Or, as() so many keep pointing out, switch the game off and start researching the backstory on the wiki and whatnot.

Stooperdale.3560:

This is just a state of mind. When you turn on the radio, you don’t worry about the thousand shows you missed across all the radio stations since yesterday. You turn on the radio to listen to the show that is on now. Treat your GW2 the same way. Log on and play the living story that is there now. A returning player has exactly the same content now as anyone else. Just like the radio, you don’t need to know what has gone before in order to enjoy what is there now.

I refuse, because GW2 is a video game. Every video game I’ve purchased in my entire life worked like this: you buy the game, all of the content is yours to experience at your leisure (holiday events aside.) This has been a truth of video games since the original pong. GW2 is the first game I’ve experienced that introduces content and then takes it away from you.

This is not real life. It’s not radio (which, btw, is recorded and you can go listen to it as you please.) It’s a video game. And this video game has broken the most basic of expectations by removing content.

Bob F It.5701:

Living Story could be designed with time-locked instances being accessible to characters that haven’t been through the content. This would allow new and returning players to catch up at a pace that suits them, and enjoy the content.
Instead, we have to keep assigning some character as Exposition Fairy (this is currently Tiami), and violate that silver rule of exposition “Show, don’t tell”. Or, as() so many keep pointing out, switch the game off and start researching the backstory on the wiki and whatnot.

The main issue with that however is the fact that the vast majority of it took place out in the open world, and much of it required rather large groups of people.

IF they were to add something like this, they would basically need to have multiple versions of every single map that had any part of Living Story in them (and quite a few of them would require 3 or more versions (the live one, living story #1, living story #2 for example)) and that would take quite a bit of resources for something that might very well be used by a very limited amount of people.

How would the warrant spending that time and money on something that might be used by lets say 10 people out of a couple of hundred thousands each week?