Guild Wars 2

I bought GW2 at launch, but I never really got into it because it chugged on my hardware. I recently upgraded and now it runs beautifully, but I just learned something that has made me reconsider returning.

From what I can tell, the vast majority of patched-in content since launch has been up for only a limited time and then removed from the game. Apparently this is called the “Living Story”, because it adds ‘life’ to the world, but all it’s done for me is bring death to my interest in the game.

I’m all for temporary holiday festivals that return every year, but entire dungeons and quest chains that are integral to advancing the story of Tyria being removed sits very poorly with me. I just aborted an attempt to get into RIFT because the developers are in the midst of cutting out half of the quests in the game, just so that players don’t have “an overwhelming amount” of choice in how they play the game. That’s ridiculous.

Please give some sort of ‘flashback’ option to those of us who missed out on these events. I can’t get into a game that plays keep-away with its content. I’d much rather return to a game that introduces new stories, lore, and adventures and then KEEPS them in the game.

You only missed Flame & Frost, the first part of the Living Story. The second part is going on right now.
I’m sorry that not being able to do one dungeon killed your interest in the game. Maybe you could try doing this part now and see if you like it?

ROFL! So true Gabby.

I know it can be a pain missing out on this type of stuff but believe me, people were wanting new content to they had to please the people that played quite a lot, and this was their solution. You can always find out about the story from the GW 2 lore site but you really haven’t missed much, if one story you missed turns you off, good luck actually playing then.

Treadstone.2564:

Please give some sort of ‘flashback’ option to those of us who missed out on these events. I can’t get into a game that plays keep-away with its content. I’d much rather return to a game that introduces new stories, lore, and adventures and then KEEPS them in the game.

I’d rather not. That means the patch sizes would just keep getting bigger. You want a way to not miss content? Easy. Play the game. Other than the one off mega karka thing previously (which was super short) all the other content actually sticks around for a number of days/weeks giving you ample time to participate.

Having fresh content keeps regular players interested, and plot wise makes more sense. Why would you raid a Molten Alliance facility that’s already been exploded, and destroyed years after the Molten Alliance was already crushed?

Long story short ANet makes the game for people that play the game, not for people who don’t play the game. Pretty logical when you think about it.

Joseph Skyrim.2470:

Treadstone.2564:

Please give some sort of ‘flashback’ option to those of us who missed out on these events. I can’t get into a game that plays keep-away with its content. I’d much rather return to a game that introduces new stories, lore, and adventures and then KEEPS them in the game.

I’d rather not. That means the patch sizes would just keep getting bigger. You want a way to not miss content? Easy. Play the game. Other than the one off mega karka thing previously (which was super short) all the other content actually sticks around for a number of days/weeks giving you ample time to participate.

Having fresh content keeps regular players interested, and plot wise makes more sense. Why would you raid a Molten Alliance facility that’s already been exploded, and destroyed years after the Molten Alliance was already crushed?

Long story short ANet makes the game for people that play the game, not for people who don’t play the game. Pretty logical when you think about it.

Sorry, I still don’t see the logic behind it.

If a piece of permanent content is added, regular players can play it all they want, and so can irregular players.

If a piece of temporary content is added, regular players can play it for as long as the developers want them to, and it is removed whether or not they’ve played as much of it as they wanted to. Irregular players miss out.

There is no logic to be found in why Arenanet has chosen the second scenario.

New content does keep players interested, but permanent new content is ALWAYS better than temporary new content, unless it’s garbage content that didn’t deserve to be in the game to begin with.

Actually Joseph is right imo. Take Southsun for example. It is permanent and before this event I went there for one reason and one reason only, Farming powerful bloods. Same with Orr I go there once per day now because the farms have been ruined. I go for the Ori and Omnomberry Nodes then I get as quickly as possible because there is nothing there interesting anymore. The world boss item upgrades were a step in the right direction for regular players but I can out pace that gold gain in 30 minutes of farming. Irregular players will always miss something that is just a fact. Whether it is permanent or not they will miss something, For example a game that has raids. The regular players will outgear and progress faster than the irregular players then they will move to the next tier up, leaving behind the irregular players. The irregular players may eventually find a group for it but by the time they are geared up far enough to progress they will be stuck behind again and it will just keep repeating itself. If i call in sick to work and they give a day bonus that day, I am not going to be upset because we don’t a bonus everyday. Just a fact of life somethings you will miss, if you don’t have the time to be there.

Gizmoitus.7241:

If i call in sick to work and they give a day bonus that day, I am not going to be upset because we don’t a bonus everyday. Just a fact of life somethings you will miss, if you don’t have the time to be there.

But this isn’t real life. This is a video game. And GW2 is not trying to be a real-lfie simulator.

Your example about raiding players has nothing to do with temporary content.

For instance, I missed out on defeating the final boss in one of WoW’s expansions.

But when I returned a year later, he was still there! He wasn’t removed, and I was able to enjoy the raid and the boss fight.

No one has given me a single good reason why temporary dungeons and quests are a good thing, and why their removal from the game is a good thing.

Treadstone.2564:

No one has given me a single good reason why temporary dungeons and quests are a good thing, and why their removal from the game is a good thing.

Because there is not a good reason. The temporary dungeons should become Fractal dungeons after the events are gone IMO.
However, the removal of that content, which is not even that big, is not a good reason for stop playing. That reminds me of the people that scream “I AM LEAVING THE FANDOM” all over the internet when something that they don’t want to happen ends up happening in a show/book/game/etc.
What I’m saying is that your complaint is valid, but that you should enjoy the content while you can since it is not staying forever, and that the fact that said content is temporary doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t give it a try and have fun while it lasts

Treadstone.2564:

Sorry, I still don’t see the logic behind it.

If a piece of permanent content is added, regular players can play it all they want, and so can irregular players.

This is true. However what will hapkitten eventually the regular players will eventually just stop using it out of boredom, and means the patch size for irregular players will be ever increasing to include all the stuff they’ve missed, Also it makes all the “trophies” if you want to call them that of past events not really worth anything since eventually everyone will have them.

Also it will make the world incredibly stale and bland. For example do many people still want to run arah story mode after completing it? How many people still run fractals as compared to when they were new?

Treadstone.2564:

If a piece of temporary content is added, regular players can play it for as long as the developers want them to, and it is removed whether or not they’ve played as much of it as they wanted to. Irregular players miss out.

There is no logic to be found in why Arenanet has chosen the second scenario.

Temporary content as I mentioned earlier works better with telling a story. You didn’t give an answer to why someone would “raid the molten facility” years after the molten alliance was crushed btw. For regular players it would make no sense, other than for the lolz or loot drop (which would probably be easier to buy instead if there was no time limit to get it).

More importantly to ANet, temporary content gives people the “oh kitten I need to play GW2 nao!” syndrome. Why? The same reason shops have discount sales. To get people looking in, sampling their wares. If they like it, they may stick around at least until they get bored with the product, which in this case is pixels and plot.

Ideally I’d like to link ANet as a dealer of short-duration addictive substances as it would better suit my case but I think that would give me an infraction. ;p

Honestly, F&F wasn’t that great compared to the new one anyhow. I really like this approach; every month or two there’ll be something new and different going on.

There is another potential issue. I’m a completionist, I want to get and do everything. However, with a living story you only get a set period of time to do stuff. Combine this with the fact that life is unpredictable, and can potentially prevent you from having quality GW2 time for long durations, that means that I miss out on things I will never be able to catch up on again. Anet is so creative, I enjoy what they do and to miss out on it and not ever have the ability to participate again sort of sucks. Also, if you are worrying about trying to do everything, you don’t play the rest of the game. My worry is that living content comes out so fast it will side track the rest of the game for people who want to experience as much as they can since they could play the rest of the game “any other time.”

supermanboy.4592:

There is another potential issue. I’m a completionist, I want to get and do everything.

Think of this as a good opportunity to break yourself of that habit. It’s a bad one, and will only make you more and more unhappy as you get older.

:)

Just because you missed out on an event in the past is no reason to deprive yourself of experiencing events in the future. I didn’t get to go to the Superbowl this year but would definitely go if I could next year.

Nothing in the past content is required for experiencing future content. Yes, you can feel sorry you missed something, just like you would if you missed a great concert or event in real life – but that shouldn’t stop you from looking forward to the next great concert or event that you can go to.

Treadstone.2564

But this isn’t real life. This is a video game. And GW2 is not trying to be a real-lfie simulator.

erm it acutally is, hence been called “living story” say 1monthly updated it like a day/week ingame time .
the event are a made to keep those who complained they were getting bored of the old monotomy of farming for their skins and wanted more story in the end game. it’s tempory because it follows in game real time. – once the world is changed it done. best example was the statue in lions arch, which blew up and was under construction each month till they finished.

I understand you couldn’t play becuase of your machine setting, tempory content is annoying, but the living story are world global events, have multiple running at the same time would mess things up (like what is happening in certain ascalon areas).

Blaeys.3102:

Just because you missed out on an event in the past is no reason to deprive yourself of experiencing events in the future. I didn’t get to go to the Superbowl this year but would definitely go if I could next year.

Nothing in the past content is required for experiencing future content. Yes, you can feel sorry you missed something, just like you would if you missed a great concert or event in real life – but that shouldn’t stop you from looking forward to the next great concert or event that you can go to.

But concerts and football games don’t have storylines to them. This game does.

Imagine if you missed four or five episodes of a TV show that you’re really into, and you want to catch up, but they have been destroyed forever. They’ll never be re-aired or released on video. Wow.

Or imagine a series of fantasy novels in which you have a limited amount of time to read the latest chapter before all copies spontaneously burn to ashes.

“I started reading Game of Thrones, and the first four books were great, but the fifth book doesn’t exist anymore. They’ve moved on to the sixth one. The fifth book was only around for two weeks. It was temporary.”

The analogy is: you can’t go back in time and go to the concert yourself, but you can listen to the bootleg and/or watch a recording.

As for the TV series example, you can catch up with TV, but you cannot magically go back to the time when everybody was discussing these episodes on imdb free of spoilers about future episodes.

And in GW: All the recordings are on youtube, you just can’t be there and do it yourself.

In general: I understand that ANet uses temporary content to make sure that players come back WHILE the gem store items are up, and don’t put off playing indefinitely, comfortable in their knowledge that they can always come back. I understand it from a business perspective. Yes, it sucks for some of us.

A compromise would be to make some of the content replayable (as has been suggested before: a shortened version of MF as a fractal) and I would fully support this. But I don’t expect related achievements to come back.

Hi, the reason that I am reading this thread is because I am hoping to find if here is anyway to get the achievements that I missed during my absence for a few months. Just like the OP I wasn’t playing the game since release but only came back months later.

Like some serious gamers, I look forward to get 100% completion. Since there is no way to get the missing achievements for certain time event, I don’t feel the kind of willingness to continue further after I got all 8 profession to lv80…. And if I am spending all day on the forum, it means the game is gg to me.

Hopefully there is a way to let us do the missing achievements.

Treadstone.2564:

But concerts and football games don’t have storylines to them. This game does.

Imagine if you missed four or five episodes of a TV show that you’re really into, and you want to catch up, but they have been destroyed forever. They’ll never be re-aired or released on video. Wow.

Or imagine a series of fantasy novels in which you have a limited amount of time to read the latest chapter before all copies spontaneously burn to ashes.

“I started reading Game of Thrones, and the first four books were great, but the fifth book doesn’t exist anymore. They’ve moved on to the sixth one. The fifth book was only around for two weeks. It was temporary.”

I can just imagine Rickon Stark (youngest of Eddard’s kids) being annoyed that he can’t take part in the final part of the Baratheon rebellion against the Targaryens because he hadn’t made his character yet when those events took place and now argues with the old gods and the new to make a time loop so that that battle can continue to happen, along side the day to day life at King’s Landing, the numerous weddings, and the battle of the Blackwater at the same time so he can take part in all of them, knowing that no matter what he does it won’t change the outcome but he doesn’t care. At least this way he gets to experience it.

Reading about it or being told about it afterwards isn’t good enough you see. He has to live it. Does that sound about right?