Guild Wars 2

“Has Living Story failed?”

Yes.

Agreed. Only, time to re-think it was probably a year+ ago.

One cliffhanger after another, without even resolving the previous one. Episode 8 had better resolve all of this, or I’m done. This pacing and drip feeding of the story is just inept.

I’m fine with the concept of small bits of content in small patches and I like how the plot builds up with more and more lines to connect later at some point – as many other people are, and no camouflaged expansion thread with provocative title will make me jump up in enlightenment and throw GW2 outta the window.

I don’t know what anet’s doing with all it’s time if this is the best they can give us.

Living Story can be a good thing between expension. Small story updates with some stuff in the gem store, it’s make the world living. But LS can’t replace an expension.

If the goal of LS was to replace it then LS has failed.

The Living Story has not failed. If you compare it to the personal Story it is a huge step forward: better storytelling, better mechanics and replayability via achievements. In this aspect the Living Story is a great success.

What has severe issues still is the Living World concept. There is still not enough support by other teams. This support is essential to deliver larger quantities of contnt beside the core (living) story. We clearly see the limits the small LW team has: long breaks to design things, very little content beside story instances, great fluctuations in delivered quantities. I really hope that Arenanet used Season 2 to learn necessary things about storytelling and the journal concept.

I also hope that the other teams work together on Season 3 and even 4. The delivery of an expansion via LW needs a lot of teams that work closely together. You need the LS team focusing on the core story and the embedding of content. In addition you need teams producing the content the LW should ship to us like maps, new weapons, skins etc. An expansion independent from the way of delivery needs a lot of teams collaborating. A small team of maybe 20 people is not a able to produce an expansion within one or two years – not via LW and not via x-pac.

At the moment we can clearly that that the focus is not LW – at least not Season 2.

Lets wait till it’s finished, shall we? Thank you.

Some people say yes but I say: not really. In addition to new story quests, I at least am given something new to do every 2 weeks as opposed to waiting months before anything good comes around to be finished in a heartbeat.

GscGunner.2419:

Lets wait till it’s finished, shall we? Thank you.

I was really hoping it would be finished when the first one ran its course. No such luck.

Well, not really failed per se. Season 2 is a thousand times better than Season 1, and in one sense, it’s succeeded in providing genuinely interesting new content, while also releasing very frequently.

That said, I still don’t think LS has the capability to provide the same volume/kind of content as an expansion. The map is still very little bigger than it was when it started.

The good news is the new underground jumping puzzel is sick

There have been four releases (IMHO) that have been fun to play. The rest have teetered between horrific and abysmal. Still no new weapons for the existing classes, no new classes, no new playable races and a few very small explorable areas – so yes, LS has been a failure to me.

I’d say everything besides the actual story and story instances is verying between good to great.

Story itself? Predictable and not very interesting (with one notable exception of course), the episodes are short, inconsistent, completely lack skeleton and have very little meat on them. Or rather – leaves.

Plus, characters of focus are in my opinion shallow, boring, borderline nuisance at best. Hell, it’s bad to the point of “there are interesting events all around, why am I stuck with these idiots?” questions. For example – Pact is preparing an offensive and interesting things happen – so we must go browse Caithe’s past. Grr.

Yeah, story isn’t worth making a long post, but still “Better fantasy story than Scarlet” (Yes, I went there and compared Scarlet to spits Twilight movies).

In short – everything but the story – 8/10. Story 2/10 (except the magnifivent episode… I will not name it, or I’ll cry over wasted potential).

Overall 0 5/10, will play, won’t buy gems till story gets better.

Caerbanog.3410:

Living Story can be a good thing between expension. Small story updates with some stuff in the gem store, it’s make the world living. But LS can’t replace an expension.

If the goal of LS was to replace it then LS has failed.

My sentiments exactly. If it is meant to be a replacement to fill in for expansions then absolutely unequivocally yes. If it is meant to add some content during the building stages of an expansion than it could very well work in that function….but only if we know an expansion is coming. After each major addition to the game thru an expansion there will be more to occupy your time coupled with the LW it could be the exact mix needed to finally satisfy the majority.

I’m enjoying the living story, as are my friends who play. I get messages most days about exciting little things they found in story instances or speculations about what’s coming next.

Random Wax Orc.7695:

Blockhead Magee.3092:

and a few very small explorable areas.

This alone is a hugely important issue. These tiny new zones are more arenas than areas. This may be, in part, due to the slow rationing out of the living story, however, I suspect it has more to do with megaservers.

Without expansive zones, the game loses its epic feel and diminishes the sense of exploration and discovery.

The Silverwastes is not tiny.

Content Wise? It’s about 1/3 of what we got from the 1st 2 years of GW1 with the only increase in quality being the graphics.. So for the most part, yeah.

Story Wise? Absolutely. I barely play because this isn’t Guild Wars anymore. It’s SJ Wars.

Feature Wise? it’s ok.. No new races/classes is a huuuge let down.

CMM.6712:

The Silverwastes is not tiny.

It’s 1/4 the size of a regular zone. How is that not tiny?
If they made the original game at the rate that they are releasing zones in the LS, it would take around 40+ years to complete.

DarksunG.9537:

Content Wise? It’s about 1/3 of what we got from the 1st 2 years of GW1 with the only increase in quality being the graphics.. So for the most part, yeah.

Story Wise? Absolutely. I barely play because this isn’t Guild Wars anymore. It’s SJ Wars.

Feature Wise? it’s ok.. No new races/classes is a huuuge let down.

i’m just hoping that the Mordremoth fight will be a dungeon.

i like to also say that for a number of my friends who have left the game and may like to return; their biggest deterrent is basically they missed out on alot of content thats no longer available, they feel left out…

As someone who has played since BWE2, did everything in LSs1, and has done all the personal story parts of LSs2, I can say yes.

If Anet wants to release a new jp, good! then just do it..they don’t need the LS for that.

Want a story? Anet has great artists, start a Living Story comic on the website or ingame that ends in a climatic expansion pack worth of real content and Tyria changing.

The best part of this episode for me is the wallpaper.

Absolutely it has failed completely. Don’t let the nay sayers tell you otherwise, even though that’s all anet will listen to and keep patting themselves on the back job well done. It’s called lower expectations, and that’s what everyone is getting used to. “Well it’s better then the crap from 6 months ago, so that’s good.” is a terrible mentality to have towards living story. I said it last year when these problems reared their head, there is a massive disconnect between what anet releases as living story, and the rest of the world. The whole scarlet ordeal had no business being a part of the lore of this game, not to mention that every detail of that story showed what lack of creativity this living story has.

The problem with GW2 has been and seemingly will be until the game ends… “the grind”. The game is so linear and its not even funny. There’s no working to “better” your character. Every quest completed, every new zone explored feels less and less rewarding then the one before it, and that is what continues to drive people away. People play games for positive feedback, not to be presented with boring tedious and repetitive work.

I think it its a fail because its not what most players are waiting for (and i´m really sad to admit this…)

Indeed, seasons start usually quite strong but tend to a letdown after some time. Regarding character drawing, story arc and its clarity its no comparison to GW1 any more. I really try to focuss on the good things and i´m willing to engage with the “big overall concept”, but somehow all the details feel so disconnected. Maybe they aimed a little bit too high and and are facing the limitation of the artistic tools now (in the end its only a game, you simply DON`T HAVE the possibilities of a novel or a film…)

I fear ANet has either an elaborate, but tremendously slow overall plan concerning the story (to make as much money as possible with the product in the progress) or has just taken it into its head to deliver content that way wheter its working or not. I really aprecciate the thought and spirit behind – the attempt to do something new in the highly competitive MMORPG-field, but why stick to it when it is disappointing for so many fans?

Personally, i think its possibility no. 1. They will presumably bring out an expansion during 2015 yet even this would mean new races, maps (a bunch of them, not the patchwork we got so far) professions, classes etc. after aprox. three years!! for the first time (something i hoped for during the first 12-15 months). Given that pace it will take us a decade to defeat the elder dragons (and spent fortunes in the gemshop in the meanwhile…)

Season 2 is certainly better than season 1 and they made some improvements but i can´t get rid of the feeling that they play the long run, stetching the already thin concent out for as long as possible, before finally giving us the expansion we crave for…

Besides, i really respect what ArenaNegt is doing and hope the best for the game cause it has such a huge potential. Fingers crossed that they find a way to build on the foundations of the fantastic GW1 lore (ideally in form of an addon ^^)

kind regards to all players

Ben

Has it failed? Well, since you are obviously baiting the bile-spitters instead of the sunshine ward, let’s throw out some balance.

Or not; I give up. I had a post, and I’m deleting it. You won’t read it anyway without scoffing into your sleeve, writing me off as a “white knight,” and heading off to the fridge for your second daily pint of bile. Why play this game?

Get over the lack of expansion, folks. Believe it isn’t coming. You’ll sleep better and make better decisions, like, say, make spot suggestions for things needing fixed.

Since I am obliged to post something spiteful regarding LS here, I will take the opportunity.

I haven’t liked the quality of the script for the last few episodes, particularly the wrap-up segments at their respective ends. I may or may not be able to write better, but I think I could have come up with something that doesn’t feel half-hearted, treats the characters with a bit more respect, and doesn’t make the player look dense. We need more than plot points with minimal dialogue that only serves as a surrogate exposition.

Has Living Story failed?

If you treat this as a question for which an objective answer exists, that answer would be “no”. It has not failed. People log in by the thousands. ANet is making money and sustaining the company and the game.

If you treat this question as what it is – personal, subjective opinion, MINE still is “no”. I go out of my way to log in and make time for the new content and I am enjoying myself.

Sariel V.7024:

Since I am obliged to post something spiteful regarding LS here, I will take the opportunity.

I haven’t liked the quality of the script for the last few episodes, particularly the wrap-up segments at their respective ends. I may or may not be able to write better, but I think I could have come up with something that doesn’t feel half-hearted, treats the characters with a bit more respect, and doesn’t make the player look dense. We need more than plot points with minimal dialogue that only serves as a surrogate exposition.

I think that’s where most of the anger stems from. It’s almost as if the developers are blind folded as to what game they are actually producing content for. Not to mention the fact that user requests and complaints go largely ignored. Trust me, the vile hatred of LS is not just random trolls spouting off just because, its majority of the player population that is not just disappointed with just how bad the LS is but angry that it has come to this. More people would invest real dollars into this game if it was actually worth investing in, in fact I’d go as far to say that some of us would even pay a 15 dollar monthly fee for a game like this, IF it backed it up with content. EVE online is a perfect example of this, you can get lost in eve online and not even realize that you’re paying that monthly fee, that’s how good the story writing is, and that’s how impressive the gameplay is.

This is what I’ve been talking about these past few days. The people defending LS as a perfectly viable way to deliver “expansion worthy content” don’t understand what formatting does to an entertainment experience. When the studio is driven to release things on a biweekly basis, it 100% shapes everything about those releases. Biweekly is practically the blink of an eye in game development terms. It’s quick and fast. So what you get is quick and fast content. It’s just not satisfying.

I dub this the Lost Effect. Lost was a show that seemed to employ a strategy of throwing egregious numbers of plot twists at the audience as a tactic to get them to tune in next week, or keep them hooked to the TV during the commercial. This is dishonest story design. It’s designed to manipulate the audience into repeat viewing NOT through quality story, but through gimmicks and trickery.

This is what they (in the industry) call a hack writer. It’s a person (or people) who have no talent for writing. Instead they employ manipulation to increase ratings. Like someone else said: Anet, you aren’t a TV show. This is a video game. Stahp et.

Edit:

I’d like to clarify, I don’t think the LS has quite gone that far. It’s not too late for Anet to make sure they deliver solid story experiences without gimmick tricks to keep us coming back. What story we have so far has been really good. It’s just that the slope is slippery and I think a lot of us are feeling the effects of gravity so to speak…

Honestly I’m sure Anet’s writers are really talented. It’s just that managers and producers need to allow that talent to shine through, and it might mean expanding the scope of story releases beyond 1-2 hours of playtime. Please don’t be afraid to change it up, Anet.

DarksunG.9537:

Content Wise? It’s about 1/3 of what we got from the 1st 2 years of GW1 with the only increase in quality being the graphics.. So for the most part, yeah.

Story Wise? Absolutely. I barely play because this isn’t Guild Wars anymore. It’s SJ Wars.

Feature Wise? it’s ok.. No new races/classes is a huuuge let down.

CMM.6712:

The Silverwastes is not tiny.

It’s 1/4 the size of a regular zone. How is that not tiny?
If they made the original game at the rate that they are releasing zones in the LS, it would take around 40+ years to complete.

Let’s say I have a square and a rectangular container. The square container has half the surface area of the rectangular container when viewed from top. Is the rectangular container larger than the square container?

What if the square container was taller than the rectangular container and had a volume of 5 times that of the rectangular container as a result?

My point is that you cannot simply judge something based on a two dimensional view.

The LS probably failed for you….BUT I LOVE IT!!!

Ayrilana.1396:

DarksunG.9537:

Content Wise? It’s about 1/3 of what we got from the 1st 2 years of GW1 with the only increase in quality being the graphics.. So for the most part, yeah.

Story Wise? Absolutely. I barely play because this isn’t Guild Wars anymore. It’s SJ Wars.

Feature Wise? it’s ok.. No new races/classes is a huuuge let down.

CMM.6712:

The Silverwastes is not tiny.

It’s 1/4 the size of a regular zone. How is that not tiny?
If they made the original game at the rate that they are releasing zones in the LS, it would take around 40+ years to complete.

Let’s say I have a square and a rectangular container. The square container has half the surface area of the rectangular container when viewed from top. Is the rectangular container larger than the square container?

What if the square container was taller than the rectangular container and had a volume of 5 times that of the rectangular container as a result?

My point is that you cannot simply judge something based on a two dimensional view.

I agree. The Silverwastes may be (right now anyway) half the size of Kessex Hills, but there is a hell of a lot more going on in them. I have spent so many hours in the Silverwastes and every time I think I’m about to get bored, something completely new is added.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

I agree. The Silverwastes may be (right now anyway) half the size of Kessex Hills, but there is a hell of a lot more going on in them. I have spent so many hours in the Silverwastes and every time I think I’m about to get bored, something completely new is added.

I can guarantee there are many events you’ve never seen in the normal game world. Seeing a new event doesn’t suddenly make Silverwastes more dense. Even if the content were double in terms of density (which it’s not) it would take 20+ years to make the original game. You people need to stop pretending so blatantly that everything is the same in quality & quantity right now. There is nothing wrong with liking the new content, but lying about how much there is doesn’t make it true.

DarksunG.9537:

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

I agree. The Silverwastes may be (right now anyway) half the size of Kessex Hills, but there is a hell of a lot more going on in them. I have spent so many hours in the Silverwastes and every time I think I’m about to get bored, something completely new is added.

I can guarantee there are many events you’ve never seen in the normal game world. Seeing a new event doesn’t suddenly make Silverwastes more dense. Even if the content were double in terms of density (which it’s not) it would take 20+ years to make the original game. You people need to stop pretending so blatantly that everything is the same in quality & quantity right now. There is nothing wrong with liking the new content, but lying about how much there is doesn’t make it true.

Do the JP and explore the the area beneath while trying to get the golden badges. The map is roughly the size of the original ones when you take that into consideration.

What we’re experiencing is called the Sagging Middle of a story line. This is the part where things are explained, shown, and pace drags. Toward the end, as with the beginning, the excitement should pick up again when we’re near the end.

Sadly, poor writing is to blame as Xenon’s post bares this out.

For me, the simple fix to my one complaint about the story would be giving us the option of telling Caithe to get bent and NOT follow us. She could still turn up at the end and…do what she did…by popping out of stealth then disappearing again. That would, at least, make our characters seem less dense. She was acting squirrelly, we noticed, we should have had the option of keeping her away.

So… It didn’t. Actually. But the direction in wich it all is going tends to reveal dull and worthless experience. Why? I don’t see nothing special in work done rather then huge work to delete any critisism ever from forums and make it “look” good. =)

Is there smth special in this LS? Yes. Can you meet it in any generic fantasy novel (say Forgotten Realms)? Why ofc! So ANet keeps things seem positive on the surface. And the game loses smth special about it. All the people I ask care very little about the plot. Sometimes achievements and challenge (if some find it here in any form – well, lucky for them!). =)

LS reminds me of half-cooked single player RPG stuff. It happens – yes it is. Does it matter? Practically not. It only drives the plot to show that smth happens when generally it wraps the expansion (a little bit) zone by zone for us to swallow… with a reason of some sort.

Alot of this game and the LS stuff too reminds me of how Baldur’s Gate franchise was created. Classes in GW2 – are divided and masked mix of abilities from AD&D 3rd+ but here you can change basically from Assassin to Bounty Hunter spec of a thief in a minute. No need to level new alt. -) And such thing keeps the LS – it is old idea. Adding stuff like little chunks of content. But here they are too small. Remembering BG1 – Durlag’s Tower. Not ot mention BG2 – Throne of Bhaal.

So to summ it up – need more meat! Stories and characters that matter. Intrigue in some sort or drama in another. For this we need charisma for protagonists and ALOT of it. So that more people care. And not only – Oh, wow! New jumping puzzle!

I was really enjoying the latest saga, but the Dodgy Crowd achievement ruined it for me, and now I’m giving up on them all together.

The insane amount of bandit crests and RNG parts has made the open world rather tedious as well. The breach is the only thing worth doing… and that’s a shame.

Story wise i think its ok. Its a little slow but that prevents me from rushing it I suppose.

Features and content wise. Its a complete let down. I much prefer big chunks of content over tiny nibbles.

I’ve come to the point I don’t log in-game anymore to play LS and don’t bother with any of it anymore and simply read the summary on the wiki after a few episodes. For some reason it gives me a lot more “feel” towards the original love I had for GW1’s lore, something I never got from the PS or the LS from playing it ingame.

Then again, I don’t log in anymore at all.

For me and my friend, who are two fanatics for every bit of lore we can get from every game we play (GW1 replay and all the books; Magic which we get every new post about expansions lore and every bit of flavor text; RO plus fanfics; EL; DS speculations; DotA lore), the LS has failed completely to deliver content for the plot. We can only compare it to an “Idiot plot”, and we are almost at the edge of our patience to keep doing these 20 min bad storytelling every two weeks (my friend only did the last episode because I convinced him really hard to do so).

So, well, for the storytelling LS has failed completely, and you will understand why if you go search what “Idiot Plot” means.

For content… well.. “maps” that get boring in two days? No, thanks. A new JP that is more about exploration than a Jump Puzzle? No, thanks very much. Wardobre for pets and a new mail bird skin?!?!?! Now that is something!!

It’s been two years, guys. Two. y.e.a.r.s. The soonTM excuse doesn’t works anymore and people are getting tired of it.

Warning: The following post contains many rhetorical questions. If you feel the need to actually answer all of them, look up the meaning of the word rhetorical.

misterman.1530:

For me, the simple fix to my one complaint about the story would be giving us the option of telling Caithe to get bent and NOT follow us. She could still turn up at the end and…do what she did…by popping out of stealth then disappearing again. That would, at least, make our characters seem less dense. She was acting squirrelly, we noticed, we should have had the option of keeping her away.

Agreed. Choice, or the appearance of choice would bring the LS to a whole new level. Caithe didn’t even participate in the final boss fight before she stole the egg. Maybe that was a bug but it shows even more how little her character was required for story progression and how unobservant or willfully ignorant our characters were.

This would also help with replayability. Choose to tell Caithe to take a hike and you get the ending above. Play it again? Choose to have her along and she acts even more squirelly. She gives hints about having been here years ago but it’s a long story and she refuses to tell us. Some little easter egss to mitigate the idiot ball we’re carrying by not screaming “Why are you even here?!!!” before the last scene.

Back on topic: failed? No. The LS needs improvements in writing and content (and choice. Don’t forget choice) but it’s an ambitious and novel undertaking and I feel Anet is learning and improving as we go. The way the LS has managed with Season 2 to progress from the PS is very well done. It definitely gives the impression that something big is on the horizon.

The year before GW2 released another MMO boasting of their storytelling released in a galaxy far, far away. It took nearly no time at all to complete the story, with no global/galactic implications and then what were you supposed to do? I left because there was no update to the story and it soon fell flat into a daily grind fest or the Raid or Die mentality.

Has GW2 gotten grindy? No more than usual (try making a Legendary) and far less than TOR or that other game. Yes, 7000 bandit crests is a little rediculous for this one release, but how many candy corn cobs did you collect a couple months ago? Just because the illuminated armor is the first, earned skin released in a long while; do you really need it? I like the way my toons look right now.

Has the LS taken the place of a real expansion? It doesn’t yet seem so and thus far the release schedule has been on par with that other game. ANet released GW2 in August of 2012. The first major expansion for that other game appeared 2 years and 3 months after initial release. We’re starting to fall behind that but we’re already expanding the map. Also consider that other game was bringing in nearly $100,000,000 per month in subscriptions at that point. I’m reasonably sure that we’re not spending nearly that much on GW2 and we’re getting a better game IMO.

And you just got a Panda. That took that other game over a decade. What more could you want?

Well, I hope the LS are just fillers. Everything else would be ridiculous compared to industry standard. I hope they work on an expansion with a new campaign with 10-15 new maps, dungeons and raids, new skills, traits, weapons, classes or races. Everything else would be a letdown.

ProtoGunner.4953:

Well, I hope the LS are just fillers. Everything else would be ridiculous compared to industry standard. I hope they work on an expansion with a new campaign with 10-15 new maps, dungeons and raids, new skills, traits, weapons, classes or races. Everything else would be a letdown.

So you’re expecting them to release an expansion roughly the size of the current game? Do you realize how long it took them to make GW2?

I love the fact that LS2 is a vast improvement to LS1. However, what kills me is that it feels like we were promised so much more, and got nothing. I anticipated the entire Maguuma jungle to be open to players by now, and all we have are two small gimmick maps that I never even bother to venture into aside from when the LS requires me to go into them. I miss the feel of the traditional maps. With the hearts and all the other content. I’ve lost the feeling of being on an adventure because it doesn’t feel immersive and explorable, it feels like a zerg party. And as far as the writing is concerned, it’s better but not reaching its full potential. I just really dislike the cliffhanger after cliffhanger with no resolution leading us on. All in all it feels dragged out and thin, and I can only hope this doesn’t mean that we were just being teased this whole time only to have an expansion that focuses on the area of Tyria we assumed would be given to us this season.

Ayrilana.1396:

ProtoGunner.4953:

Well, I hope the LS are just fillers. Everything else would be ridiculous compared to industry standard. I hope they work on an expansion with a new campaign with 10-15 new maps, dungeons and raids, new skills, traits, weapons, classes or races. Everything else would be a letdown.

So you’re expecting them to release an expansion roughly the size of the current game? Do you realize how long it took them to make GW2?

Yes, I follow this franchise since 2006. They released 2 campaigns within 1.5 years, about 1/2 and 2/3 the size/content of the original game with 4 new professions and features.

Yes, I know games become more complex. But I mentioned the ‘industry standard’ not just be cause; there are numerous examples that release amounts of ‘living story’ AND in addition expansions every 2 year. Just look up some of the leading MMOs (no, not only WoW).

ProtoGunner.4953:

Ayrilana.1396:

ProtoGunner.4953:

Well, I hope the LS are just fillers. Everything else would be ridiculous compared to industry standard. I hope they work on an expansion with a new campaign with 10-15 new maps, dungeons and raids, new skills, traits, weapons, classes or races. Everything else would be a letdown.

So you’re expecting them to release an expansion roughly the size of the current game? Do you realize how long it took them to make GW2?

Yes, I follow this franchise since 2006. They released 2 campaigns within 1.5 years, about 1/2 and 2/3 the size/content of the original game with 4 new professions and features.

Yes, I know games become more complex. But I mentioned the ‘industry standard’ not just be cause; there are numerous examples that release amounts of ‘living story’ AND in addition expansions every 2 year. Just look up some of the leading MMOs (no, not only WoW).

You can’t compare what they did in GW1 as that game was entirely different. It’d be like comparing Diablo 3 to WoW. The only thing that GW1 and GW2 have in common is the basic design of the world and the lore. The maps, combat system, etc are completely different.

Ayrilana.1396:

So you’re expecting them to release an expansion roughly the size of the current game? Do you realize how long it took them to make GW2?

They already have the base game in place. When they started making GW2, they had to design it from the ground up: all professions, all of their skills, how combat would work, all the items and stats in the world, the economy, etc. etc. Your comment doesn’t make much sense.

So you’re assuming that creating 10-15 new maps will not take much time? You’re expecting new races, classes, traits, utilities, etc to not take much time either? I’m not saying it’ll take the entire length that it took to create GW2 but to expect all of this within a year or two timeframe doesn’t make much sense.

Nilkemia.8507:

One cliffhanger after another, without even resolving the previous one. Episode 8 had better resolve all of this, or I’m done. This pacing and drip feeding of the story is just inept.

Yes this last living story really disappointed me for this very reason. To leave us with such a huge cliffhanger of caithe stealing the egg and then to not advance that story at all and instead focus on something completely different was frustrating.

It reminded me of Lost, the TV show.

I will forgive A-net if they revisit the egg next update, but if we have to go a whole month and a half without any advancement to the story after that cliffhanger, I’ll be very annoyed.

Ayrilana.1396:

So you’re assuming that creating 10-15 new maps will not take much time? You’re expecting new races, classes, traits, utilities, etc to not take much time either? I’m not saying it’ll take the entire length that it took to create GW2 but to expect all of this within a year or two timeframe doesn’t make much sense.

You’re speaking as though this was their first foray into the MMO world. Anet knows exactly how long their content should last and what’s needed to keep it profitable and growing. They know they can’t continue to just push through LS, it won’t work long term, heck it’s already showing signs of petering out. Many players I know personally gave up on that whole format after season one, heck my entire original guild bailed and none of them will return unless and expansion is coming.

The living story should be nothing but filler used to keep interest going and as a way to continue to draw income in between the expansions. If the decision was made at some point that LS could play both those roles, it was a bad decision because I guarantee it won’t be enough to sustain a healthy population.