Guild Wars 2

I appreciate the grand experiment that has been the “living story”. And while the idea of there being content updates every two weeks sounds amazing on paper, in practice I have been nothing but underwhelmed. The actual gameplay of the content tends to revolve around tired mini-games, or dynamic events that are slightly different from how they were before.

This latest addition introduce a huge, awe-inspiring tower in the middle of Kessex that cannot be interacted with. We’re introduced to it’s sprawling majesty, and then immediately handed a bucket and sent to collect thingies. Why? Who cares. It’s not like it matters. Maybe you get an achievement. Maybe you unlock a special weapon or armor skin you and a few thousand other people can all have.

It’s not good that I can be introduced to the new content update at 6pm and be tired of it by 9pm. Because after those three hours are up, there’s another two weeks to wait for the next three hours of possible entertainment.

The killer thing is, I can tell that there are cool ideas here, and I know the dev team are trying to deliver on some epic-scale stuff. But the time constraints to get this content out so rapidly means that so many corners have to be cut that by the time we get it, it’s hardly even worth having. I feel that most players appreciate the effort, but the actually enjoyment of the new content is rather muted. A sort of shrugging of shoulders as people realize, oh, okay, more stuff to grind. Yippee.

Speaking only for myself, I’d be perfectly happy with waiting a few extra weeks or months, if the content, when it got here, was really good. Something more complex, something with more options. It just seems that more and more, content is coming out and I’m thinking to myself, this could have done better with a little more time in the oven. I don’t mind the wait, if the payoff is better overall.

This is the part where I’d say I could enjoy myself in WvW in the meantime while I wait, but the WvW guys screwed that up with these awful, awful leagues, but that’s a topic for a different forum.

Very well-said. Thank you for taking the thoughts out of my head and writing them down in such an eloquent way.

there’s a whole thread based on this and other issues that deves are actively looking at

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Collaborative-Development-Topic-Living-World/first

They’ve already said there’s no use in discussing the frequency of the LS updates. I have a feeling that they’re dictated by marketing/corporate and there’s nothing they can do about it.

rizzo.1079:

They’ve already said there’s no use in discussing the frequency of the LS updates. I have a feeling that they’re dictated by marketing/corporate and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Than I really do hope Anet is prepared for the backlast and loss of players that it’s going to bring.

Not only is telling the community “We’re doing it this way, and there’s no changing that, so deal with” more or less a PR disaster, but as the TC said, these living story updates are starting to get progressive worst again instead of better. The quality of content we’ve received in these updates peaked with the Queens Jubilee, and has since started to plummet into a downward spiral of bad, worst, and terrible.

Before long people are going to simply stop caring about the game, and move onto something that offers them more engaging and compelling content. GW2 being Free to Play isn’t enough of a selling point anymore, and it never was when the game first released either.

This isn’t 2005 when the idea of a Free to Play MMO is a novel idea. We’re reaching a point now where the subscription model MMO is on it’s way out, and it seems like Anet was still banking on GW2 being free to be enough of a selling point to keep people interested, and it’s starting to become very obvious that it’s not.

Blade Syphon.4325:

rizzo.1079:

They’ve already said there’s no use in discussing the frequency of the LS updates. I have a feeling that they’re dictated by marketing/corporate and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Than I really do hope Anet is prepared for the backlast and loss of players that it’s going to bring.

You’re going to want to post your comments here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Collaborative-Development-Topic-Living-World/page/25#post3148562
They’re actually participating in that thread.

Haven’t you seen the ads? “Every two weeks, free DLC.” This is a selling point. I would rather have Expansions to be honest.