Guild Wars 2

Tuathal.7208:

I may not have understood this correctly, so please correct me if I’m wrong.
Regarding the current Personal Story. This will now be locked away and only available for level 80 characters to repeat?
This means characters below level 80 won’t be able to play this, and level up with the XP from it.
It also means an end to key farming, unless you can replay the level 10 story for keys (which I doubt)?

no, the level 80 thing is just being able to choose between having your PS as the active story or the current LS as the active story quest. characters lvl 79 and under just can’t participate in LS quests until they hit 80 – due to difficulty.

PS is unlocked as you progress normally but isn’t replayable at this time (due to the fact it has permanent decisions to make)

I think is ok to charge 200 gems to a player like me, that have lvl 80 characters since long time. Meaning that if i missed a part of the LS is bcs i didnt want to log in, or couldnt do it, but no doubt i can pay 200 gems if i missed one part.

My question is, what happens with new players, the ones that just start (or didnt started yet) and/or started since some time ago but dont have any lvl 80 char yet?

I think those players shouldnt pay 200 gems for things that they didnt had the chance to play yet, or even knew that existed. To be honest, this isnt a new player friendly thing.

Sorry for the broken english

When the devs start incorporating S1 into journal, I hope they start with SAB. There are days I really miss the SAB content.

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

Turin.6921:

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

I like that they are going to make this material permanent but I’m really not impressed that the story line is monetized in any way. In my opinion that is a step in the wrong direction.

If you remeber to just login it does not cost a thing. Only players that bought the game after these releases will have an issue. And 200 are even easily made with gold too if you are an 80 LvL player…So as far as monetizing is concerned its pretty friendly..

If you’re at home and not on vacation, it does not cost a thing. Returning players will be kitten outta luck, and will have to pony up to play. That wont exactly encourage players to return. Like I said, it’s a step in the wrong direction.

Whether or not the price is “friendly” is debatable. I would note that game gold to gem prices have never gone down.

In all it’s not a bad idea, but there is a fly in the soup.

However Arena net is a company, and their product or labor isnt free. Customers always want free stuff but objectivily i dont see that being possible. Somebody stated earlier, i believe, that the cost for the entire season will be close to the cost of an expansion pack. I belive Living Story is Gw2’s substitute for Expansions. So lets hope that they make a great and worthy Season 2.

Nadesh.7953:

I think is ok to charge 200 gems to a player like me, that have lvl 80 characters since long time. Meaning that if i missed a part of the LS is bcs i didnt want to log in, or couldnt do it, but no doubt i can pay 200 gems if i missed one part.

My question is, what happens with new players, the ones that just start (or didnt started yet) and/or started since some time ago but dont have any lvl 80 char yet?

I think those players shouldnt pay 200 gems for things that they didnt had the chance to play yet, or even knew that existed. To be honest, this isnt a new player friendly thing.

Sorry for the broken english

You don’t need to be 80 to unlock the content. Any player logging in over the 2 weeks that chapter is active unlocks the content no matter what level they are. They just can’t play it until they hit 80.

What about the rare drops we had during Season 1? Items like the jetpack and the monocle. Will these drop again as well? Or is that not the kind of things we will be able to do?

My only question is. If/when season 1 if moved to the journal. Will we have to pay for it or will it be free? Just wondering.

Karizee.8076:

Nadesh.7953:

I think is ok to charge 200 gems to a player like me, that have lvl 80 characters since long time. Meaning that if i missed a part of the LS is bcs i didnt want to log in, or couldnt do it, but no doubt i can pay 200 gems if i missed one part.

My question is, what happens with new players, the ones that just start (or didnt started yet) and/or started since some time ago but dont have any lvl 80 char yet?

I think those players shouldnt pay 200 gems for things that they didnt had the chance to play yet, or even knew that existed. To be honest, this isnt a new player friendly thing.

Sorry for the broken english

You don’t need to be 80 to unlock the content. Any player logging in over the 2 weeks that chapter is active unlocks the content no matter what level they are. They just can’t play it until they hit 80.

Thx for the answer. I understand that but i wanted to give some margin, since are the lvl 80 that can play it and benefit from it. Being lower lvl, maybe i dont even know about the LS (taking in account that i wont be able to play it yet), which doesnt give the incentive to log to unlock it.

In any case, new players should get the LS unlocked. One thing is to pay from time to time for a LS part i miss and another is to pay for the full thing when i didnt even had the chance to log in and get it for free bcs i didnt had the game.

I also agree this is a fantastic addition to the game for the following reasons:

• Living World Content is permanent
• Arenanet has an opportunity to make revenue on content that is releasing free then if someone wants to enjoy the content or feels the rewards are great they can purchase the story.
• It maintains the sense of change in the world while still having a mechanic to enjoy all that wonderful content.
• Adds potential to “Your Story” specific arcs

I hope the execution of this goes smoothly and we can begin seeing greater immersion in the world.

The announcement this morning said that episodes representing season one of the Living Story will be made available in time.

What will the most likely availability of these episodes be?
Purchase Required/Free to LS Episode 1 Vets/Completely F2P ???

(I do not expect a answer to be immediately available, except possibly from the mouth of a ANet employee. I respect that any answer i receive this early is not guaranteed to be the final plan. )

Just a thought maybe for season 3. Allow people to log into their gw 2 account via the web (like we can dl the game) to activate the content in the event they are away for an extended period of time. Since we are now looking at LW as DLC, allowing people to get the DLC via a website if they have an active account would allow people to grab it off of any device. With the use of mobile devices, no one could say that they “couldn’t” get access to the content.

LordEnki.9283:

It creates more holes in your pockets since you have to pay for past journals.

All you need to do is log once every 15 days to get all the content for free, you don’t even need to play, just log.

I can see there’s a lot of enthusiasm but personally am worried by the statement that its intended to be challenging for skilled players. Whilst I’m an enthusiastic and regular player there’s no way I can be considered skilled. I hope the difficulty level is not set too high

LordEnki.9283:

It creates more holes in your pockets since you have to pay for past journals.

Only if you want..the current format there is no way to get to a story you missed so the new feature does not affect anyone that doesn’t want to spend the cash or 30 gold in game, your world remains unchanged.

zrangon.6415:

I can see there’s a lot of enthusiasm but personally am worried by the statement that its intended to be challenging for skilled players. Whilst I’m an enthusiastic and regular player there’s no way I can be considered skilled. I hope the difficulty level is not set too high

That part is talking about achievements, not the the content as a whole.

The achievements are intended to be challenging, not the content itself.

BobbyStein.2315:

DoctorOverlord.8620:

One of the strengths of ArenaNet has been they’re ability to recognize holes or failings and take steps to fill them. People have been complaining about missing the past story lore and it’s cool to see them implementing a system to address that.

Heck, I might even try to finish those post-Claw Island missions on my PS now.

We’re also trying to put a little more info in the Story Journal once you’ve completed a Living World story instance, like a slightly more detailed recap that not only includes the plot and action details, but also touches upon the character moments.

Maybe you could put some of those back-stories in there as a discover able or unlockable item too. Rather than just putting them on the news blog. More people might get the chance to enjoy them…

zrangon.6415:

I can see there’s a lot of enthusiasm but personally am worried by the statement that its intended to be challenging for skilled players. Whilst I’m an enthusiastic and regular player there’s no way I can be considered skilled. I hope the difficulty level is not set too high

To further clarify what krall and Dark are saying…

The content is not what the devs were referring to. After you complete the content or story component, achievements become available. Those achievements are intended to be the challenging part, and by being permanent, means you can work on them as you please.

As someone who is very likely to miss some releases in future I love this new system.

• If I have time I can log in and play the content during it’s 2 week window just like I can now.
• If I don’t have much time I can log in to unlock it and then play it later when I do have time.
• If I can’t log in at all (in my case probably because I’m away for work and have no access to the internet or a computer that can run the game) and it sounds like something I want to play I can buy it later.
• If I can’t log in and it sounds like something I don’t want to play I can not pay for it and carry on playing the stuff I’ve already got.

I’m impressed by the price too. I paid 200 gems for a novelty animal hat for my main character (this was before you got them for everyone), I’d be quite willing to have paid the same for most of the Season 1 releases.

But I also like that they’re going back to the story panel as a way of directing us through content. Using achievements to show players where to go and what to do never really worked IMO and the combination of achievements, the event UI, mail and NPCs was just a mess. Most players resorted to using the wiki or a guide to show them what was going on. Now it should be much clearer and the achievements can go back to actually being achievements.

Well I just want to add my 2 cents here that I think this is fantastic. Just when I start to get a little upset with my favorite game, they go and change stuff for the better.

Personally, I did miss several parts of Season 1 due to RL commitments, so I wasn’t able to get all AP and bonus shinies. I’d be happy to buy some gems to play through it. Also, even though I’m probably classed as a casual player, I like the thought of having some tougher content. I was getting really depressed by zerg training all the content. A challenge now and then never hurt anyone. I just hope most of it is soloable, because it would not be fun to try to get other people involved if they have already done content or didn’t want to pay to unlock.

All in all though, awesome.

BobbyStein.2315:

We’re also trying to put a little more info in the Story Journal once you’ve completed a Living World story instance, like a slightly more detailed recap that not only includes the plot and action details, but also touches upon the character moments.

That’s also great to hear!

The more I think about it, the more this system makes real sense. It sounds like an excellent way to make certain the important story plot points are clearly communicated to the players.

I saw Massively call this a “DVR” system, heh. It seems more like a book to me. (Or a journal ) Something you can have on the shelf and flip open to any chapter to remind yourself what happened in the story (And don’t anyone say they haven’t done that with Game of Thrones or some other lengthy series they read).

I also wanted to mention that I was very enthused to hear about the new achievement system! This is a clever mechanic to offer the content in the LS at different levels of difficulty. I had issues with some past storylines where the lore was gated behind difficult content which was the only way to see it.

Single player RPGs have had a long tradition of difficulty settings and when I play an RPG, I go through it first on Easy mode to see the story, then I’ll go through it on the harder modes to unlock all the other stuff and to make repeating it more interesting.

I wondered why this type of design wasn’t followed in MMOs (not just GW2 but the whole genre) and why past MMOs insisted on hiding so much of their lore in dungeons and raids behind a single level of difficulty (usually the most hardcore). Shared lore and knowledge of the game is one of the important unifying things of an MMO community, it needs to be freely shared. GW2 took some steps to fix this with the Story Mode/Explorer Mode dungeons but that brilliant concept could have been applied even further.

And it looks like you folks are doing that. This achievement system seems like it is allowing you to basically offer the LS content with both Story and Explorer Modes. Thus insuring the whole community, casual and hardcore alike, will be able to see the story/lore while also providing challenges and repeatable play. Well done!

I think this is one of those innovations that we’ll see taking root in the entire MMO genre. I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Who knows? Maybe everyone will get S1 free, maybe only those who were online/active playing during that time, maybe nobody. It’ll take some time, anyway, till S1 will be available. We’ll see.

So —everything will be soloable then??? It really better be.
Just give me a proper expansion instead of the nickle and dime approach.

Blude.6812:

So —everything will be soloable then??? It really better be.
Just give me a proper expansion instead of the nickle and dime approach.

But they aren’t nickle and diming you if you’re playing. Its free…. which I think is awesome. Of course, you could just wait til the end of the season and buy the whole pack, just like it was an expansion… Up to you…

Gotta say, this news had me up in arms at first. I’ve been a staunch advocate of temporary content and a world moving forward permanently. However, the blurb about more difficult achievements certainly helps. At least we’ll still have to earn our rewards. I have now gone from knee-jerk against to cautiously hopeful, and steadily warming to the idea. I’ve been happy with almost all of Anet’s moves thus far, and I’m sure this’ll turn out great.

This is brilliant news to me.

I’ve been lucky so far but I’m very likely to miss at least some releases in future (literally unable to get to a computer that can run the game and has internet for more than 2 weeks). Now if I get back home and decide it sounds like something I want to play I have the option to buy it. If it doesn’t sound interesting I just don’t buy it.

And as someone pointed out 200 gems is a great price because for an individual release it’s very cheap, but over a whole season it adds up to about the same as an expansion – which fits with what they said about Season 1 being an expansions worth of content.

So if you’re away for long enough that you miss an entire season it’s just like you’re playing any other MMO and a new expansion has come out. Except you have the option to pick and choose which parts of that expansion you want to pay for.

Under the new system I could have paid less and gotten Factions without the Challenge Missions which I never played anyway, for example.

So I did read the whole article and let is sink in little.

While keeping my reservations (still need to see in in reality) it seem to be much better then before, it’s in fact similar to one of my suggestion I did almost a year ago.
There are however three (or four) possible problems, but maybe it’s not.. like I said we need to play it to see it.

1 It might be a little to much Personal Story. Personally I totally dislike the PS. I play a MMO to play an MMO not to play an single-player game and the PS was just a single-player game. I in fact have not yet completed the PS on any character, still plan on it.
However maybe thats not the case, maybe most is just open world stuff like we had in Season 1 (little different) and the personal story elements are not much more then an NPC telling a little story. If it would really be like the PS with mainly single player (yes you can take a group) activities that would be a big let-down.

2 I do hope the open world activities will be designed in a way that you can still effectively do them with a smaller group, while also suitable for for bigger groups in the open world Because it’s nice that it’s still available after the event is over but if it’s zergy content like we had so much of in Season 1 thats it’s still not re-playable with a smaller group. I’m not sure if when you do the open world content at a later time you can do that with a party or get thrown in an sort of overflow but even if the last is the case the more episodes you add the less people will end up in those episodes meaning you can forget about doing content that required zerging. So no more content that required zerging.

3 Last concern is that you build up a huge list of episodes that will seem impossible to complete for new comers or people people who would have taken a break. It’s no problem there is so much new content. The problem is that people see a huge list of episodes and then are like “never gonna catch up”. This could be reduces but not removed by having monthly in stead of 2 week updates. There is no real solution for this when using episodes but having an episode pet month, not per 2 weeks would make the problem half the size.

The fourth problem is related to the episode-sales but I will post that in the thread that’s specifically about that.

Link: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Paying-for-past-content/page/3#post4094962

Anet how does this affect more casual players wanting to complete the living story but not being the best at the more difficult achievements. Is it a two finger salute to us telling us we don’t get the content and a chance to get nice rewards out of it if we are not in that tier of skilled gamers. Isn’t that alienating a lot of your player base? I do like the idea of a replayable story journal.

Iarkrad.8415:

The announcement this morning said that episodes representing season one of the Living Story will be made available in time.

What will the most likely availability of these episodes be?
Purchase Required/Free to LS Episode 1 Vets/Completely F2P ???

(I do not expect a answer to be immediately available, except possibly from the mouth of a ANet employee. I respect that any answer i receive this early is not guaranteed to be the final plan. )

Fractals.

Vol.7601:

I don’t quite get the concept of charging 200 gems for previous releases.

I don’t mind it in concept – after all, it’s a ‘convenience’ fee for accessing something you did not experience in the 2 week period, but who would pay 200 gems for a story instance that lasts no more than 10 minutes?

If I understand correctly, the 200 gems unlock not only the story instance, but also the achievements, the ability to gain rewards, and possibly changes to the open world such as (now I’m making up things) new dialogue in existing NPCs, new NPCs altogether, doors on buildings that wouldn’t open before, portals to new maps…

There’s every possibility that these chapters will be worth 200 gems (10-15 gold, only available to level 80s so it’s definitely very very affordable).

joneb.5679:

Anet how does this affect more casual players wanting to complete the living story but not being the best at the more difficult achievements. Is it a two finger salute to us telling us we don’t get the content and a chance to get nice rewards out of it if we are not in that tier of skilled gamers. Isn’t that alienating a lot of your player base? I do like the idea of a replayable story journal.

The achievements are got to be difficult. But you can replay them as often as you like to gain them. So you will never miss out. His is also a good way to get people to learn how to play the game better rather than just zurg.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Vol.7601:

I don’t quite get the concept of charging 200 gems for previous releases.

I don’t mind it in concept – after all, it’s a ‘convenience’ fee for accessing something you did not experience in the 2 week period, but who would pay 200 gems for a story instance that lasts no more than 10 minutes?

If I understand correctly, the 200 gems unlock not only the story instance, but also the achievements, the ability to gain rewards, and possibly changes to the open world such as (now I’m making up things) new dialogue in existing NPCs, new NPCs altogether, doors on buildings that wouldn’t open before, portals to new maps…

There’s every possibility that these chapters will be worth 200 gems (10-15 gold, only available to level 80s so it’s definitely very very affordable).

I believe you are correct, this is how I’m understanding it as well. It’s an extremely wise move on Arenanet’s behalf. Being able to get those achievements I missed, and to make this temporary content permanent, boy, that would be amazing, and for only 200 gems. That is one heck of a deal. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to take this deal, it’s like digging through the $5 movie bin at wal-mart. I’m very excited about this and can’t wait to see when this becomes available.

zrangon.6415:

I hope the difficulty level is not set too high

joneb.5679:

Anet how does this affect more casual players wanting to complete the living story but not being the best at the more difficult achievements.

I think it’s appropriate to compare this LS Achievement system to another system already in GW2 – the Story Modes and Explorer Modes on their dungeons.

A Story Mode dungeon allows a PUG to run through a dungeon to see the storyline. The Explorer Mode allows players to repeat the content but at a higher difficulty and for greater rewards. (Much like difficulty setting that single player RPGs have used for years, it’s great to see this design idea being implemented further in an MMO.)

This Achievement system seems like a similar mechanic. I’m willing to bet the initial run through the LS content will not be hard so casuals can complete it. I think the achievements are meant for people who want to repeatedly grind the content at much harder levels of difficulty.

Although I do hope that the initial level of difficulty of the LS is not very high at all, I think it should be tuned to even below that of the Story mode dungeons. Lore and story should be easily and readily accessible to the whole MMO community. Challenging content should be meant as a way to get worthwhile rewards, not a gate barring you from seeing the story.

Plus they can always keep increasing the scale of the difficulty if they are using mechanics like Fractals of the Mist. So there’s no reason they can’t start at a very low level of difficulty in the beginning to make sure the story is seen by everyone.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Iarkrad.8415:

The announcement this morning said that episodes representing season one of the Living Story will be made available in time.

What will the most likely availability of these episodes be?
Purchase Required/Free to LS Episode 1 Vets/Completely F2P ???

(I do not expect a answer to be immediately available, except possibly from the mouth of a ANet employee. I respect that any answer i receive this early is not guaranteed to be the final plan. )

Fractals.

FTW

But seriously, i doubt it will all be that simple. Or maybe it will be. We will all see.

We’re already having debates in the Living World forums.

Just to be clear it was never said that season 1 WILL become a part of the Living Story journal:

“Also, because Season 1 of Living World was not built with the Journal in mind, it will not be available in the story Journal on initial launch when Season 2 begins. We do hope to add Season 1 to the Journal in the future.”

Edited for clarity.

That being said, I can see Season 1 being sold as a bundle later one or stay with the current 200 gems/episode. With all the negative feedback about season 1, I don’t see them ever really going through with implementing it, and IF they did I don’t see hordes of people rushing to get them. Just my thoughts.

I think this is great news. As long as the content is good (like real expansion content) I have no problem paying for it if I miss it. I also have a baby on the way, so I would have missed most of Season 2 anyways, if not for the journal. Now I have options!

Tranc.6780:

I think this is great news. As long as the content is good (like real expansion content) I have no problem paying for it if I miss it. I also have a baby on the way, so I would have missed most of Season 2 anyways, if not for the journal. Now I have options!

Grats on the baby!!

I like what i’ve read so far, but i’ll have to try it when it goes live to see if it’s good enough.

Charging gems for story content is a terrible idea though. That’s akin to a monthly subscription, but at least in a subscription mmo, you get all the content, instead of having it in piecemeal chunks. Just terrible.

nexxe.7081:

I like what i’ve read so far, but i’ll have to try it when it goes live to see if it’s good enough.

Charging gems for story content is a terrible idea though. That’s akin to a monthly subscription, but at least in a subscription mmo, you get all the content, instead of having it in piecemeal chunks. Just terrible.

You do realise that the story content is free……only if you missed out on an episode now you have the option to buy it.

Really,you only have to log in once every 2 weeks to get all the stories unlocked for free.

GW2 has no sub,has no expansion you must buy, and you don’t have to buy the LS Episodes either (even if u miss out on some of them its not a must to complete them only if you want to)…so what is ooooh soooooo terrible?

nexxe.7081:

I like what i’ve read so far, but i’ll have to try it when it goes live to see if it’s good enough.

Charging gems for story content is a terrible idea though. That’s akin to a monthly subscription, but at least in a subscription mmo, you get all the content, instead of having it in piecemeal chunks. Just terrible.

Like expansion packs?

I’m not sure why anyone is thinking that this shift means no more large scale boss fights like Marionette. Such content would fit perfectly into the world boss schedule implemented alongside Megaservers. There are also blank spaces in the current boss schedule that are yet to be filled. Seems to me like those were put there to accommodate Season 2 Living Story major bosses.

Personally, speaking as someone who missed just about all of Season 1, I think this move is excellent. Looks like Arenanet learned a lot from Season 1 and its implementation. Really looking forwards to Season 2 now.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Blude.6812:

So —everything will be soloable then??? It really better be.
Just give me a proper expansion instead of the nickle and dime approach.

But they aren’t nickle and diming you if you’re playing. Its free…. which I think is awesome. Of course, you could just wait til the end of the season and buy the whole pack, just like it was an expansion… Up to you…

Money creep—-everything lately just adds more.
And no way is heck does this compare to proper expansion in any way shape or form.
Sure you can play for free—ONCE YOU HAVE BOUGHT IT—-but it is evolving into a p2p and p2w game.
And based on season 1—-season 2 doesn’t hold much promise. You really can’t speculate that all of a sudden every episode will spectacular instead of mediocre with the odd good part. Unless of course there is a whole new group of devs.

This actually sounds really neat, and I’m pretty excited about it. I’m also hoping that the part about ‘permanently altering or expanding’ means we’ll be seeing some new zones as well (and hopefully complete with hearts, JPs, Vistas, SPs and all the other good stuff).

I do have a question.

What happens with Achievement Points?

I don’t WvW or PvP, those folks seem to have access to big boosts of APs as part of their seasons or tournaments or whatever it is. All I get as someone who really only PvEs any more (used to WvW, don’t care to any more), and doesn’t do Fractals or Dungeons, are the Living Story achievements and the meta achievements, as well as those part of festivals (like we have now).

Now, it could have said in the announcement and I totally missed it, but will there still be ongoing ‘batches’ of APs that are introduced in the PvE world as part of Living Story (or something else) as part of this new system besides the festival APs that appear?

Thanks.

Nimarrna.5924:

nexxe.7081:

I like what i’ve read so far, but i’ll have to try it when it goes live to see if it’s good enough.

Charging gems for story content is a terrible idea though. That’s akin to a monthly subscription, but at least in a subscription mmo, you get all the content, instead of having it in piecemeal chunks. Just terrible.

You do realise that the story content is free……only if you missed out on an episode now you have the option to buy it.

Really,you only have to log in once every 2 weeks to get all the stories unlocked for free.

GW2 has no sub,has no expansion you must buy, and you don’t have to buy the LS Episodes either (even if u miss out on some of them its not a must to complete them only if you want to)…so what is ooooh soooooo terrible?

I’m thinking long-term here.

Hypothetical: In 6 months, or a year, someone buys gw2. They finish their personal story, which comes free with the game. Then Season 2 ends. Season 3 starts, but the new player missed out on Season 2.

Does this mean they have pay for each update to Season 2 to catch up to Season 3? Season 1 had around 20 story updates added to it.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/
Flame & Frost, Secret of Southsun, Sky Pirates of Tyria, Bazaar of the Four Winds, Blood & Madness, etc.

That’s 20 × 200, which equals 4000 gems.

That’s very unreasonable for a new player just starting out.
I’m just trying to get clarification here, because we don’t know all the details yet.

nexxe.7081:

Nimarrna.5924:

nexxe.7081:

I like what i’ve read so far, but i’ll have to try it when it goes live to see if it’s good enough.

Charging gems for story content is a terrible idea though. That’s akin to a monthly subscription, but at least in a subscription mmo, you get all the content, instead of having it in piecemeal chunks. Just terrible.

You do realise that the story content is free……only if you missed out on an episode now you have the option to buy it.

Really,you only have to log in once every 2 weeks to get all the stories unlocked for free.

GW2 has no sub,has no expansion you must buy, and you don’t have to buy the LS Episodes either (even if u miss out on some of them its not a must to complete them only if you want to)…so what is ooooh soooooo terrible?

I’m thinking long-term here.

Hypothetical: In 6 months, or a year, someone buys gw2. They finish their personal story, which comes free with the game. Then Season 2 ends. Season 3 starts, but the new player missed out on Season 2.

Does this mean they have pay for each update to Season 2 to catch up to Season 3? Season 1 had around 20 story updates added to it.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/
Flame & Frost, Secret of Southsun, Sky Pirates of Tyria, Bazaar of the Four Winds, Blood & Madness, etc.

That’s 20 × 200, which equals 4000 gems.

That’s very unreasonable for a new player just starting out.
I’m just trying to get clarification here, because we don’t know all the details yet.

We don’t know yet if there will be a bundle sold for every season ,if so it will most likely have a price that will encourage ppl to buy it.
We can’t know if Season 1 will ever be included in this journal.As the devs said they hope they can implement it in the future.

Others have already stated that when a new player buys the game,he will first engage in questing,leveling,events and so on.They won’t be concentrating on things that were released 1 year ago or so.

And no,if you missed out on season 1 and 2 and season 3 is starting, you don’t have to buy the other 2 seasons to be able to participate in season 3.You will get season 3 for free.

Bazaar doesn’t count. Blood and Madness don’t count, they’re FESTIVALS, not living story content. I count 13 releases (I counted the two candidate LS as one, since they were basically the same thing), so that’s 2600 gems, or what, 30 bucks? Plus, you can’t access them until you hit level 80, and there’s a fair bit of content to do, plus, if they joined half way, that’d be 6-7 releases, or 1200-1400 gems. It’s not an oppressive amount, and is far less than what you’d pay for WoW, which I might remind you, doesn’t let you experience any content after level 20, and the first month unless you pay 15 dollars a month. So, to recap: 15 dollars 1 month of content, or 30 dollars for a years worth of content, plus all the content that comes with the game when you buy it.. What’s the better deal?

Will we be able to access the free LS content even if we haven’t unlocked the previous stages?

I’m sure you will. That would be incredibly strange, otherwise.