Guild Wars 2

So according to the news, the next living story patch won’t come until late January.
But isn’t this what we wanted?
For the developers to put more time into each release so that its more polished and engaging.

I’m not complaining. It IS exactly what I wanted.

It’s just that whenever something new is released, it’s usually different factions of players complaining. When they’re happy, they don’t speak up, but when something is wrong, that’s when the screaming starts.

It’s also why forums seem to be relentless pits of negativity, because happy or content customers usually don’t say anything.

I agree with Zaxares. Most people don’t speak out when they like something. It only looks like everyone hates the Living Story because they’re the ones giving feedback, but they don’t make up the entire player base. So there might not actually be an accurate way to tell for sure if most people like the Living Story or not.

im not complaining its giving us enough time to do the wintersday stuff plus enjoy the holidays. scarlets only got four more chapters and they are taking more time to do them and she hopefully gone for good and then a big content update afterwards…all good news in my book. they are going to reveal why she did all she did which might make some of us happy with all the not knowing why she was doing stuff.

The Living Story and I don’t get along well but I am absolutely thrilled to see them spending more time on the releases. I am also very happy to see that one of the patches will be devoted to nothing but ‘features’.

I do hope they, at the very least, add the ability to move and resize the GUI elements, as in the first game.

Not complaining at all, they can take as much time as need off from the LS/LW I can safely say that I wouldn’t miss it for at least 6 months if ever.

I also really love the fact that they are taking a break, it allows me to take a break and enjoy the wintersday content! Not rush through it like we had to with everything else. (I didn’t rush through Fractured either btw…was too mad about the changes so I didn’t bother with the achievements).

I think this whole update is great and am looking forward to next year.

Elbegast.6970:

The Living Story and I don’t get along well but I am absolutely thrilled to see them spending more time on the releases. I am also very happy to see that one of the patches will be devoted to nothing but ‘features’.

I do hope they, at the very least, add the ability to move and resize the GUI elements, as in the first game.

I don’t think they are spending more time, I think they are taking a holiday. ArenaNet usually has less people working around Christmas/New Year.

I’m glad about longer break from updates. It really feels refreshing. And maybe this time they will add somethings that is actually interesting and fun to play.

I think it’s great. They’ve been working extremely hard all year and deserve a breather.

And hopefully the next chapter will be the best so far.

This is exactly what we wanted and nobody is complaining, I havent yet seen any hate threads. People are actualy Ok with anet spending some time to polish their updates. On the other hand you are kind of stirring up stuff with this thread people might start to create those threads soon.

UnknownAssailant.2375:

So according to the news, the next living story patch won’t come until late January.
But isn’t this what we wanted?
For the developers to put more time into each release so that its more polished and engaging.

There is literally nothing the devs could release that would not result in at least 2-4 threads complaining.

People still seem to think that these releases are developed in a fortnight. They are prepared over a much longer period. It doesn’t bother me if they spend 8 weeks preparing updates and release them monthly, or spend 8 weeks preparing them but releasing them fortnightly.

I kinda wish they wouldn’t even adhere to a schedule and, instead, just surprise us when a new patch is ready.

Shiren.9532:

Elbegast.6970:

The Living Story and I don’t get along well but I am absolutely thrilled to see them spending more time on the releases. I am also very happy to see that one of the patches will be devoted to nothing but ‘features’.

I do hope they, at the very least, add the ability to move and resize the GUI elements, as in the first game.

I don’t think they are spending more time, I think they are taking a holiday. ArenaNet usually has less people working around Christmas/New Year.

Bingo. The responses in the CDI have made it pretty clear that there isn’t any sort of change in release protocol coming any time soon, it’s just an allowance made for ANet to take some deserved time off over the holidays. The benefit for us players is that it allows this latest release to linger a little longer than usual. It’s a mistake, however, to take this extension as anything more than an exception to the rule .

Who’s complaining? Most people have been asking for a break, far as I can tell.

Come to think of it, it’s kinda sad that the only time they’ll give us some time off is during the holidays, as though they’re our employers or something.

And if that’s the case, we should at least get a christmas bonus. Some extra gems for all our hard work grinding achievements this past year. Amirite?

Zaxares.5419:

I’m not complaining. It IS exactly what I wanted.

It’s just that whenever something new is released, it’s usually different factions of players complaining. When they’re happy, they don’t speak up, but when something is wrong, that’s when the screaming starts.

It’s also why forums seem to be relentless pits of negativity, because happy or content customers usually don’t say anything.

I want to upvote this comment more. Finally someone who argues right and doesn’t complain with no real reason…

I like this step and I really hope it will yield sweet fruits. If not, … now, that would be a real shame.

Best thing I’ve seen lately. I was really needing a break lol

Now, maybe I can just play without press of “Temporary content”.

I agree. I have plenty of time to complete what I want to do even with my holiday activities irl.

Think Anet deserves their break. Because despite my complaining, I think they’re overall doing a good job.

A small thing I really liked is how this last release had a lot of NPC chatter, including random npcs in other parts of Kessex Hills (like Fort Salma) talking about the recent event.

And Kiel and Gnashblade had some small dialogue about previous events. Stuff like this I’d like to see more, as it is starting to feel a lot more like a story.

I’m just glad I can take a break from LS for a while and do something else for once in gw.

Always feel like I’m rushing to finish the LS and never have time to just play. Maybe I want to do dungeons for a while w/o worrying that I’m missing out on content. Also playing an alt is fun sometimes, their story instances etc.

A break is just what we needed. I wish we could get more of them.

I don’t mind waiting, but now there’s a problem of what to do in between waits. The Nightmare Is Over & Fractured are basically finished, and there’s no way of completing some aspects of the nightmare part.

thank god no more new patch until 21st Jan.

yeah this is exactly what i want, lesser frequency of LS… at least i can take current one slowly…

ANET, make this new frequency (1-month instead of 2-week) permanent pls…..

Elbegast.6970:

I kinda wish they wouldn’t even adhere to a schedule and, instead, just surprise us when a new patch is ready.

^THIS!

I’m certainly not complaining. I’m thrilled to have a little break to just chill out and do whatever instead of being rushed through another 2 weeks of limited content (especially since I love me some Bell Choir and the JP and its nice to be able to do them more often without feeling like I’m wasting time I need to use on other stuff).

That said, its probably different people complaining about different things. Some want less updates, some are “done” with the core game and the bi-weekly updates are the only thing they feel they have left to do. The latter group are the ones who might be complaining about the lack of updates until the 21st.

That said, I haven’t seen many complaints about no updates until January anyway.

argl, I’ll probably take me with sticks … but I am in trouble. I would have liked a little something more Wintersday as a competitor has Tixx …

During this break, I turn-by-round.

nexxe.7081:

I don’t mind waiting, but now there’s a problem of what to do in between waits. The Nightmare Is Over & Fractured are basically finished, and there’s no way of completing some aspects of the nightmare part.

Oh noes, you might have to run dungeons, explore, craft, organize guild missions, build up alts, farm meta events, play personal stories, work on your legendary, WvW, sPVP, or work on your achievements. You know… The stuff that the game offers that is always around and doesn’t suck.

Seriously, I don’t get why people think they have to have a continuous stream of new content to enjoy the game. Guild Wars 2 is a rich and full environment without the addition of crappy temporary content. Go play.

GW1 hardly had any new content after Eye of the North, and we had long waits between campaigns, but people still logged 2000+ hours into it. No reason why GW2 should be any different.

And if that fails, there’s always other games. I hear Steam and other fine online services are full of them.

So we only have those lame mini games to 21jan >,<

still that content does not matter bicous its not perm.

its not content.

this have ben said a million of times the game is loosing players but gaining none bicous people don’t have a reason to come back….

you don’t see it yet but give it maybe 2 years and if they stay with this living story temp content crap it wont end well il just hope they pull their head out of their kitten .

The only accurate way to measure what does the playerbase like and what we don’t, is by putting a poll in place, that would show up on the screen after finishing (for example) LS meta achievement asking you questions what did you enjoy and what not. That would be a pretty accurate method I think.

zwierz.9012:

The only accurate way to measure what does the playerbase like and what we don’t, is by putting a poll in place, that would show up on the screen after finishing (for example) LS meta achievement asking you questions what did you enjoy and what not. That would be a pretty accurate method I think.

I remember the poll they did for GW1 WiK story and i wounder why they havent done that again to get a general feel for what the playerbase likes or dislikes.

Over all maybe they should run 3 months and then take a month off so each season of the LS would have 3 chapters and get a month off in between

zwierz.9012:

The only accurate way to measure what does the playerbase like and what we don’t, is by putting a poll in place, that would show up on the screen after finishing (for example) LS meta achievement asking you questions what did you enjoy and what not. That would be a pretty accurate method I think.

I already put a thread about this into the suggestions forum. Pretty sure they ignored it.

Just wait- they’re going to spend lots of time trying to make the Shatterer and Claw of Jormag JUST as difficult (if not 10x harder) than Tequatl! That’s what they’re spending their time on. “Let’s make these bosses as difficult as we can!”

^ I wouldn’t complain about that though. I love the current Tequatl fight….

But yeah, that aside- I don’t always participate in the living story- but I’ve found quite a few them really fun. The more time they spend on them, the better. I’m looking forward to the Jan 21 updates!

I’m not complaining. Frankly, I didn’t mind the old 4-week schedule. I’m quite capable of entertaining myself without this 2-week quick rinse cycle.

Elbegast.6970:

I kinda wish they wouldn’t even adhere to a schedule and, instead, just surprise us when a new patch is ready.

I’d honestly be fine with this as long as they give us at least a week notice before the new patch, like they do now with the release page.

Some of us procrastinate achievements occasionally. :P

What if… brace yourself… they didn’t want to use this time to make content but to just have an extended vacation?

Soulstar.7812:

What if… brace yourself… they didn’t want to use this time to make content but to just have an extended vacation?

That is not the case, because they are not only extending the next release, but the following three as well, so unless you’re telling me they’re going to take 2-3 months vacation, they are definitely spending more time on the content.

Louveepine.7630:

argl, I’ll probably take me with sticks … but I am in trouble. I would have liked a little something more Wintersday as a competitor has Tixx …

During this break, I turn-by-round.

Google translate is bad for you, you know.

Longer between living story installments is exactly what I wanted, strictly under the understanding that the content would be better quality and with more quantity.

I am only annoyed that this Christmas content was severely lacking, hardly anything new, not rewarding enough and no where near enough things to do to last one week let alone nearly two months.

Still, I am optimistic for next year, so long as we have no more Scarlet rubbish.

UnknownAssailant.2375:

So according to the news, the next living story patch won’t come until late January.
But isn’t this what we wanted?
For the developers to put more time into each release so that its more polished and engaging.

I was under the impression the delay was so the developers could enjoy their holidays after a year of pumping out content on short cycles, not for exclusively for extra polishing time. From the preview of upcoming content (2013 in review) I believe only the next cycle will exceed the standard 2 weeks, while the remaining cycles will be back to 2 weeks, as opposed to over a month from here on out. Additionally, they have multiple teams working on different LS patches, so it’s not as though the LS updates we see are only two weeks worth of work, it more likely closer to 6-8 weeks, or more depending on the number of teams they have working on this content. (According to the twitch livecast with GW2 staff)

Frankly, I love the 2 week cycles, especially after playing games where this sort of content would likely occur every 3-6 months, with anything of lasting significance taking at least 1 year, resulting in extended periods of utter stagnance in game.

Interestingly, the Living World 2013 Review update states that “Due to the size and scope of the final four story releases in season one, the next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.” The “feature only” bundled release sounds a bit more like a mini-expansion, as opposed to a series of easily completed (within 6-8 hours) two-week LS events. BUT perhaps that’s just wishful thinking, after researching game lore and coming to understand the wealth of potential this game has for future story content.

I’m making this short and concise. Towards the end of 2013 there were at one point four Living Stories, including WvWvW Season 1, some with many achievements crossing over and running simultaneously. People complained and rightly so as this was overload. It annoyed me and I didnt complete the second part of the Nightmare Tower, Fractured or WvWvW S1.

Suddenly from one extreme to another we now have nothing for nearly 4 weeks as the last part of the Nightmare story was much easier in my opinion and the Wintersday stuff is just a festivity filler with barely any challenge. I’m a casual and probably average player and my RL schedule hasn’t changed much and I managed it with ease very quickly.

I don’t get a holiday at this time of year, its work as normal for me but I do think hard working people do deserve a holiday but four weeks.? Don’t give me the blowing hot then cold argument. There is one thing many people are most consistent in and that’s the inability to moderate or balance and in this case its the prime example of too much leading to complaints and now too little! Why was so much Living Story pushed out at one time though and then little to nothing substantial for so long? Thats just poor management in my opinion.

Lots of QQ from all these completionists. You DONT have to play the game for achievments. Jeebus yall not playing for fun?

Doing it wrong. Your AP means nothing in so many ways. Park the ego and enjoy the ride.

I’m not complaining. I don’t have to burnout to get my bells and snowball mayhem Cheevos. The pace which I can do snowball mayhem… So much better than the rush to finish lunatic inquisition.

Ahhh…feels nice to be able to breathe and relax. Take all the time you need ANet because this girl’s got Blaze things to do…

I should come to the forum more often, pat ArenaNet on the back.

I’m not complaining. it was a good break.