Guild Wars 2

I’ve said before that I think a-net is working too much on LS for their own good. That the system at first might be the best way to keep people in the game as you constantly make them work toward new tasks, but that on the long term it would burn players as the pace of LS and achievements are starting to feel more like tasklists with an end date than a game. When we finish working hard in the real world, we don’t want to work more in our free time.

There was a time many months ago (too many now) where the pace was about right. You could dedicate some time to it, and the tasklist wasn’t so big (Halloween was the way to go, or the F&F that was divided in 3 full months instead of having all arcs in the same one, which also gave a sense of world progression instead of a rushing story).

But right now the pace is too fast, we have things to do and hard work in real life and when we play we want to relax, not to be in tension to finish our task list.

Worst part is that now with the 2 weeks content updates, they make the harder part of each story last less than the easier one (4 weeks for jubilee, 2 weeks for scarlet, 4 weeks for dragon bash, 2 weeks for aetherblade dungeon and its hard achievements, etc…).

But I’m starting this thread to share the story of a very good player on my guild. More specifically, a guy that already has 10K achievement points, so you can’t say he is a bad players, a newbie, someone that tried the game but wasn’t much into it or anything else. He is a great player and it’s great to have him in all kinds of content.

A couple of days ago, I received some mail from him with very valuable stuff for me and what looked like a goodbye text.

I asked him about that and he told me he would still connect for our guild weekend missions and things like that, but that LS had finally burned him, that he was expecting the game to go in a very different direction and that he works too much time a day and he simply didn’t want to keep doing tasklists. He was disappointed with the direction the LS is taking throwing so much content our way and expecting us to finish it like we didn’t have works and projects to do too. We’re talking about a player that didn’t mind to dedicate a lot of time to the game before all this happened, so much that he had 10K achievement points because he was having fun with the game.

And while I’m trying to convince him to stay, I can’t say I don’t share at least part of his thoughs. Even I have though about it, about just ignoring LS because it is burning me. In my case I’m a GW1 God Walking Among Mere Mortals that finished all elite areas and all hard mode quests like the HM titans or winds of change. I am a completionist and I’ve proven before that I can excell at it (GWAMM isn’t exactly an easy task), and with all that, I’m starting to feel the need to rest from this game too.

“Rest” from this game. That’s a big problem. A game should be what you do to rest from work, not more work that you need to rest from.

Continue in next post.

We really apreciate all that hard work you’re putting into the Living Story, it is a compliment to say that you’re working TOO MUCH indeed, but the thing is, you’re doing it to a point where you’re burning your players, including some great ones like my guildmate that I’m starting to miss in the game. I won’t label myself as great, but I can speak from the perspective of a GWAMM, which means I got experience at completing hard achievements, and you’re putting too many tasklists in the game and it feels really wrong. Not to mention that you’re also puting hard content on short time frames (hard + temporal is a bad thing, hard is great, temporal is fine, both are super bad, imagine needing to complete Mallyx in a month).

You know what I really loved about GW1? That because it didn’t have monthly fees, I could stop playing for 2 months as I didn’t have to amortize it, and then return to it when I felt I wanted to. Of course you would have to work a bit after returning to keep up with other players, but you could do it and you could set the bar where you wanted because you wasn’t limited by constant tasklists. But now all this LS thing is giving a sense of missing the game experience if you don’t play a lot every month.

As I said, that is a good thing from a business perspective, but please, take into consideration that you might be “killing all your cows” for a big feast now, but you’re not considering to separate some of them to breed and have more cows in the future.

The system is already burning players, including many of the good ones that are the ones keeping the community going like this guildmate I told you (there are many other players that will play for a while, follow the trend, then jump to a different game, but you’re losing guys that were really dedicated to the game and loved it).

Please, strongly consider slowing down the pace, I’m not saying “no more LS”, it’s how you wanted to do things and it’s good to see our impact over the world, but I would like to return to the pace of events and achievements of Halloween and Flame and Frost. We have work to do and we want to enjoy the game because we LOVE Tyria.

Don’t eat your cows so fast, if you take care of them you will have more and bigger cows in the future

PS: About the “cows” stuff… english isn’t my first language so I’m not sure what kind of refrains you have, but I think the idea is clear :P

So much this.

I was completely relieved when I saw the Queen’s Speech was going to be a low key arc with virtually nothing to do. I thought I could finally take a few days break from Living Story content to play parts of the game I enjoy.
Haha nope. Clockwork Chaos rolls around, and now I have to idle in LA nearly every hour hoping RNG blesses a map I need so I can run around in a zerg for 45 minutes to get 1/13th of a single achievement. Not to mention the other achievements coexisting with that one as well, and a dungeon.

Some days I think the core game was all just a dream, where you could play the game no strings attached and not miss out on a temporary story/lore or achievements.

I’d almost prefer the game breaking bugs during headstart than a few more Living Stories. I can’t keep up, I can’t play what I want without being left behind, and I start to wonder why do I care. I can’t even begin to imagine how newer players feel, they don’t have any time to explore or go for map completion unless they blow off the latest story arc.

This is like buying a book to read when you want to, only to learn that every day someone bursts into your room and rips out the first 5 pages. Now instead of reading it when you’re bored or interested, you have to read it every day or you lose.

I have to agree with you Lokheit. I do love difficult content too and even if I didn’t play the original Guild Wars, I can safely say that I am dedicated and patient player. I can work on difficult achievements and get them (Battlemaster title in WoW) but if the game never gives us, the players, a break, it will burn us out.

I consider myself a decent player and one of those players that often want more content and achievements to do..but this living story stuff is just too much. The funny thing is, when new LS starts, I just check the achievements I need to do and I start doing them. Only after I’ve completed the achievements I can relax and enjoy the content really..

I’m sure people are different and lots of people like the way LS is going. But Like Lokheit said, you are burning out your more “hardcore” fans.

Although I agree, but on the other point of view, your friend has over 10k achievement points. I could imagine that as a point where he is already saw almost everything of what GW2 could offer. So he’s simply getting bored and just want something totally new.

Lokheit.7943:

“Rest” from this game. That’s a big problem. A game should be what you do to rest from work, not more work that you need to rest from.

Right, I agree. But three thoughts come to mind on that sentence, even though I agree with it.

- It’s really the responsibility of the player not to burn themselves out on the game. And it goes for any game, not just this one. Even the best things can become boring or unwanted over time if you have it often enough.

- There’s a difference between a game you play just to rest from work, and a game you play to be engaged. They can, in fact, be the same game. I use Minecraft as an example if only because some days I feel like just zoning out with some music and going strip mining for diamonds. Others I want to try my hand at architecture. They don’t often mix.

- You really do need to “rest” from this game, because continuous and intense play periods happen to trip that wonderful Diminishing Returns and I think it’s only by “taking time off” you start to clear from it. I’ve played three hours a night (non-consecutively) for the last three days on invasions. Why non-consecutive? My PC needs a break from the workout. I’ve hit DR, very notably within 30 minutes of starting tonight.

(I’m not going to discuss Diminishing Returns, other to say some actual warning of when you’re coming up on it would be nice, as well as some way of knowing what you have to do to recover from it. And I understand at least two arguments against warnings or announcements of such.)

what about
jan/feb/march new map + story
apr/may/jun new map + story
juli/august dragonbash/aniversary in the 6 cities, just party stuff, no evil happeings
september small story
oktober halloween
november small story
december wintersday

and most of it permanent, then even if you go away a bit for a few months you can come back and do the new maps on your own pace

daily and monthly still stays.

There is no way someone with 10k+ achievements can be considered a casual player. If he truly has managed to get that much while still having a full time work and other life obligations as you say that is the reason for him not being able to keep up with the LS. Than he most likely just burnt himself out on the content.

I have a full time job and usually only play about 2-3 hours a day. I am at about 4.5k achievements which still is not considered a casual player. I have no trouble each week being able to experience all of the content. I do not complete all of the achievements each event, at first I was a little sad that I couldn’t complete them. But as other threads have pointed out, once you get out of the mindset of “must complete them all”. The game feels perfectly fine, I look forward to the two week updates. IMO achievements are there for a guiding point, and a fun reward for participating in parts of the game, they are not a checklist that should be 100% complete all the time.

TL:DR- Your friend burnt himself out from the game, not the other way around.

I agree with you that the pace of Halloween and Flame and Frost were less hectic. I do hope they slow the pace down. I have to go out of town next month for 10 days. I hope I don’t miss out on something that I would really like to see, do , or have as a reward.

It’s too bad you can’t take a break for a couple of weeks and not permanently miss out on content, achievements, and rewards.

Edit: And I disagree with those who say that living story is not contributing to burn out on the game. For some it is contributing to burn out. For others it is contributing to frustration and annoyance. Despite being fun. For others it is doing neither. The consequences vary.

10k+ achievement points means nothing. We have someone in our guild with that many points and he is a terrible player. I had to carry him through the Funhouse, for crying out loud. By that I mean that I went in with him and did the whole thing myself, getting him the achievements for saving Faren within 3 minutes and not dying. He did nothing the whole time, because I told him to do nothing, so he wouldn’t die. He couldn’t do it himself, and he couldn’t do it as part of another group despite a dozen attempts. This also isn’t the first time I have had to carry him.

He is a great guy, but a bad player; that’s all okay, not everybody is good at the game. Again 10k+ achievement points means nothing at all. Since that is the basis of your whole claim that “even great players” are burning out, I have to say that you are wrong.

As for there being too much content released too quickly: I had every achievement in this update done yesterday, 2 days after the update came out, and I didn’t play on the day of the update. That doesn’t sound like too much content to me. If anything, I wish they would pick up the pace.

Kapina.9012:

but if the game never gives us, the players, a break, it will burn us out.

Thing is, given how many points are available with the dailies (if you complete them all, including the WvW bit and sPvP), this is something outside of the living story that also never gives a break. One can’t fully blame the living story and its APs for burn out, though as a dedicated player who is experiencing burnout, I do think the living story is the biggest culprit.

Thank guys for the support, I really hope a-net realizes they’re doing too much for people with not so much time for the game to keep up, and we love Tyria.

As I said, when the critic is that you work too much, you can take it as a compliment as the problem is not how much you’re working. But I think if they dedicated more of those resources to other needs (and there are still many things requiring attention since release) and just slowed the pace of LS it would be great.

havoc.6814:

10k+ achievement points means nothing. We have someone in our guild with that many points and he is a terrible player.

I can tell you this guy is a great player, faaaaaar from terrible (the kind of guy you WANT in a run through Arah) Idk about the guy in your guild, but normally with so many points, a player should’ve gotten some experience at least. I can confirm this guy got a lot.

About the comments saying “he burnt himself”, no he didn’t he already got a ton of points before the madness began just by playing the game because he enjoyed it, but the way all this content is being thrown at us, instead of just being there so we can set our own timetables and pace ourselves to enjoy the game.

And while I started the thread because seeing this great player in my guild taking this decission (at least we will still have him for our sundays missions) fueled my already existing thoughs on the matter, this is something that has been brought up before, it’s not just him.

I’ve heard many others not enjoying how we’re constantly receiving tasklists at an increased pace. It feels like work instead of the way we have to forget about work, and that simply isn’t right. I know many people is starting to realize that they no longer care about this exhausting succession of frenetic updates and are looking for other games as they don’t see the situation changing.

As I said, I can speak from the perspective of someone that completed nearly everything in GW1, and that game (and GW2 during the first months) felt like the perfect formula. You didn’t felt obligated to keep with the pace of the game, yet you have multiple things to do with your time playing it.

I’m fine with adding to the living story gradually, it’s a good idea to explore, but Flame and Frost was the way to go, this is getting too frenetic and this is potentially very dangerous to keep your core of players. It’s what I said with the cows, they’re seeing a lot of profit for today, but it is very dangerous for the future.

Amanda Whitemoon.6173:

what about
jan/feb/march new map + story
apr/may/jun new map + story
juli/august dragonbash/aniversary in the 6 cities, just party stuff, no evil happeings
september small story
oktober halloween
november small story
december wintersday

and most of it permanent, then even if you go away a bit for a few months you can come back and do the new maps on your own pace

daily and monthly still stays.

This seems right, as long as they don’t continue with the update + 2 weeks only aditional update with all the hard and time consuming stuff in that part madness we’re getting lately. Hard content is great, I love it (I know I loved beating Mallyx and the Hard Mode of Titan Quests and Winds of Change with my 7-hero team), but hard and time consuming content inside temporal updates with a timetable is bad :S

One does not simply take a break from Guild Wars 2.

I loved Mad King content, Wintersday and Super Adventure Funbox. It went downhill from that, but the absolute and total low point was Liadri.

I do to this game the same way I do to Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed, or any other super long game when I get bored…..

…I stop playing. I haven’t played Skyrim in almost a year, and I just started again this week with a new character, and it has been really awesome playing through again.

Shpongle.6025:

One does not simply take a break from Guild Wars 2.

Challenge Accepted! Because I jumped back into Skyrim, I am slowing down my endless Guildwars 2 Grind, and I might hop on to finish a Daily or do a dungeon with friends if they ask, but, it might be October before I hop into the game again (because I missed it the first time while taking a break from this game!), but as far as playing the game with a fresh character and getting serious again, it could be a year from now.

BUT! It doesn’t cost me a penny to play the game, so what does it matter if I quit now and come back in 5/6/12 months?

Chrispy.5641:

I do to this game the same way I do to Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed, or any other super long game when I get bored…..

…I stop playing. I haven’t played Skyrim in almost a year, and I just started again this week with a new character, and it has been really awesome playing through again.

Shpongle.6025:

One does not simply take a break from Guild Wars 2.

Challenge Accepted! Because I jumped back into Skyrim, I am slowing down my endless Guildwars 2 Grind, and I might hop on to finish a Daily or do a dungeon with friends if they ask, but, it might be October before I hop into the game again (because I missed it the first time while taking a break from this game!), but as far as playing the game with a fresh character and getting serious again, it could be a year from now.

BUT! It doesn’t cost me a penny to play the game, so what does it matter if I quit now and come back in 5/6/12 months?

This is kinda what I did with Guild Wars 1 after immense, extreme frustration trying to get Master’s Reward on Eternal Grove (HM). I literally took a break for a long time after finishing those Guardian titles.

My rationale? It’ll be there when I get back. For now, I got mudcrabs and Ash Zombies to go beat on.

Not only have they speeded up the new content updates to 2 weeks but the achievements seem to take considerably longer timewise to complete…

A lot of Flame & Frost took you 3-4 hours at the most…

Clockwork Chaos takes ages to get everything…you after wait hours just for the correct zone to complete your invasions defeated…

Anet have gone too much the other way and given way too much to do in a 2 week window…need to tone it down some…

BobbyStein.2315:

I can empathize with having a busy life and not always being able to fit my gaming schedule in between work, home life, and social commitments. Your comments are not lost on us.

We’re exploring some ideas for the future, including a system that would allow certain bits of Living World content to be accessed independent of the release. Plans and designs have not been solidified yet, so I want to temper your expectations. But if you have any opinions on the matter feel free to let us know. We’re already looking at ways to leave some LW content behind to evolve Tyria and improve the game. This would be one element of it, should we decide to build such a feature.

From https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Living-World-makes-me-sad/first#post2536548

I think people are letting the tail wag the dog. The game is supposed to have new content for when you log on. You should not be logging on because the game has new content. There is nothing in the living story chapters that you cannot afford to miss.

Lokheit.7943:

As I said, that is a good thing from a business perspective, but please, take into consideration that you might be “killing all your cows” for a big feast now, but you’re not considering to separate some of them to breed and have more cows in the future.

In regard to cattle, anet’s policy might be summed up thus: “I shot a heifer into the air, it fell to earth I knew not where.”

But anyway, yes, I agree. Further, it’s not just the slam bam delivery, it’s (in my view) the lack of depth (I almost said ‘redeeming qualities’ but changed my mind) in the slam bam content being delivered. This Clockwork Chaos thing, for example – too much ‘die die die’ and not enough ‘why why why’. If you see what I mean.

I have to agree that, while I like updates, I also want to play the regular game (you know, the one that took years to develop) without feeling left behind with these grindy LS requirements.

I am no dumb player, I like gold and loot. What’s the best (and frankly easiest) way to get those things – Living Story every time. And when LS allows for an endless grind, I am no longer playing GW 2. I am merely playing the LS.

At this rate, ANet could just create instance maps with an endless grind (i.e. the Crown Pavilion) and disable all the other stuff. It would save server space.

actually, I like the living story a lot, but yeah 2 weeks then new LS?? there,s not too much time, I work and get to play 2hrs a day and whole day weekends, I wanna experience a other parts of the game on another character, and I cant do anything because im stuck with LS for the whole 2weeks just to get the AP, I couldn’t even get map completion on my other characters now since I need to do LS for my free time

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Chrispy.5641:

I do to this game the same way I do to Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed, or any other super long game when I get bored…..

…I stop playing. I haven’t played Skyrim in almost a year, and I just started again this week with a new character, and it has been really awesome playing through again.

Shpongle.6025:

One does not simply take a break from Guild Wars 2.

Challenge Accepted! Because I jumped back into Skyrim, I am slowing down my endless Guildwars 2 Grind, and I might hop on to finish a Daily or do a dungeon with friends if they ask, but, it might be October before I hop into the game again (because I missed it the first time while taking a break from this game!), but as far as playing the game with a fresh character and getting serious again, it could be a year from now.

BUT! It doesn’t cost me a penny to play the game, so what does it matter if I quit now and come back in 5/6/12 months?

This is kinda what I did with Guild Wars 1 after immense, extreme frustration trying to get Master’s Reward on Eternal Grove (HM). I literally took a break for a long time after finishing those Guardian titles.

My rationale? It’ll be there when I get back. For now, I got mudcrabs and Ash Zombies to go beat on.

That rationale would be fine if that was how Guild Wars 2 worked. “It will be there when I get back,” sadly does not work when referring to the Living Story, which is the BIGGEST problem.

Just skip the event if it’s not fun. Much easier said than done — especially if you’re addicted to achievements or if you want to keep up with the farms and inflation. But in the end, that’ll be the only thing that tells Anet to slow things down and focus on quality, not quantity.

I agree with lots of comments and arguments in this thread and this is all good feedback for the devs. Don’t forget, Collin has said many times all this LS stuff is experimental and nothing is set in stone. They’re trying different things and see what players like/don’t like and trying to find that middle ground. So I guess feedback as long it’s constructive is a good thing. It can only improve things in the log run.

I have to agree to an extent. There’s nothing wrong with Anet creating new content frequently but it’s just the fact that it’s all temporary is what kind of ruins it. Due to the content essentially being erased after it’s duration, one feels as if they have to focus solely on that stuff so that they don’t miss out. This temporary nonsense needs to end soon.

What is missing from ANet are clear statements, in the news on the front page or similar central source rather than in some long forum thread, about what will be one time only kind of temporary, and what will be seasonally temporary (meaning that you get another shot at the achievements and prizes in a years time).

This would allow people to prioritize the parts that can only be completed once or be forever lost, and work on the rest at a more sedate pace.

Xalugami.2096:

Haha nope. Clockwork Chaos rolls around, and now I HAVE to idle in LA nearly every hour hoping RNG blesses a map I need so I can run around in a zerg for 45 minutes to get 1/13th of a single achievement.

It’s a game, you don’t “HAVE” to do anything. You could log in and only do jumping puzzles if you wanted to. The real word here is you WANT to do it.

If you are playing this game doing things you don’t want to do then they real issue is you, why are you playing a game you don’t enjoy.

Yes, so put more work into other areas like pvp. You are losing pvp players, and now over doing it with LS you are losing those players. How about evening out the game all around?

I do kinda wish they would just cut the LS to one big update monthly, and maybe one small one and that would be it for the month. Then they could devote more resources to actual QoL stuff like guild halls, improved personal home instance, ect. Things we all have been anticipating since release.

Excellent post, you spoke my mind. Personally, I feel a sense of dread whenever a new content is due to be released because it meant more time-limited content.

2 week events is a bit much in my opinion, with me and my group of friends constantly scrambling to finish the achievements, for fear of losing out on the temporary content. Often times, we curse and swear at the start of the event, and we try to start on the content as soon as possible because we don’t want to be caught off-guard by content that could take a loooooooooong amount of time like the Aetherblade Retreat achievements and Light Up the Darkness.

Most of us (in my group) agree that the LS events are starting to feel like a chore because of how rapidly its being dished out. Just like Xavos.9357, we want to experience the open world content and yet most of us don’t even have time to enjoy that aspect of the game anymore because we only have enough spare time to finish our LS.

I’d really like to appeal to ANet to reduce the rate at which contents are being released, or at least reduce the amount of time required to do these contents. I personally appreciate hard content because they challenge my skill, but like what the OP said, hard and temporal contents really don’t mix. Keep making hard contents, but don’t make them temporary, we want to challenge ourselves at our own pace, not confined with a tiny 2 week time frame. Of course, you can argue that content like the Gauntlet is available for 4 weeks, but realistically, we only have 2 weeks to finish it since new content is always being dished out every 2 weeks.

Thobek.1730:

It’s a game, you don’t “HAVE” to do anything. You could log in and only do jumping puzzles if you wanted to. The real word here is you WANT to do it.

If you are playing this game doing things you don’t want to do then they real issue is you, why are you playing a game you don’t enjoy.

I never understood that “you don’t HAVE to” mentality. Which I’m fully aware is a personal thing, but this is really not that great of an excuse. Some people are completionists simply because they don’t agree with “you don’t have to”. They make the content, and we’re the ones who strive to complete it. This sure as heck doesn’t mean we can’t burn out on it, and alert the developers to when its getting ridiculously overwhelming to where the regular players might start feeling the burn soon.

Other things that pop into my mind when I hear “you don’t have to”:
You don’t have to go through college. You don’t have to shower. You don’t have to live in a house. You don’t have to keep all of your limbs intact. Not on the same scale to playing a video game, but I am very passionate about my beloved hobby.

Stooperdale.3560:

I think people are letting the tail wag the dog. The game is supposed to have new content for when you log on. You should not be logging on because the game has new content. There is nothing in the living story chapters that you cannot afford to miss.

That would be a really strong argument if they didn’t throw everything away after its over. I have a bunch of friends that can’t bring themselves to play because they missed too much content. If someone who stopped shortly after launch as a fully exotic-wearing Lv.80 decided to come back to play next update, what would they see?

• 1 new empty map (with 0 contribution to World completion)
• Some heavily RNG-based weapon skins (most of which unavailable)
• 1/3rd of a new Gear tier (Ascended Trinkets)
• A small dungeon with only 9 mini-instances (I honestly can’t believe it’s taking them a year to add more to this)
• New or adjusted menu interfaces (Achievement UI)
• A few new systems (WvW Rank, PvP rework)

Nothing else seems to ring a bell. Looking at this list would make me wonder what else they’ve done (as it sure looks pretty small). Then they quickly find out most of the dev time has gone into all new dungeons, new instances and a ton of lore & stories that wont ever be able to get played again (as far as the MWF & AR Fractals, there’s no way Anet would keep them the same size, so they’re going to be cut instances).
When Fractals of the Mists came out, the size of the instances seemed so short & sweet to the point it hinted at there being more added over time, maybe bi-monthly, gosh was I wrong. I’m at least glad they haven’t introduced Temporary Fractals though.

There seems to be two arguments here. (1) There’s too much to do each month and (2) anyone who logs on after a break can’t find anything new to do in game. Clearly they don’t go together. Missing content doesn’t matter as long as there is something to do when you log on. Having too much content doesn’t matter as long as you can have fun doing something when you log on.

Adminir.8140:

That rationale would be fine if that was how Guild Wars 2 worked. “It will be there when I get back,” sadly does not work when referring to the Living Story, which is the BIGGEST problem.

Yes, but . . .

Name one thing, one thing which is so absolutely vital to have I would be remiss in not logging in to get it? So far I haven’t seen anything which fits that bill. I’ve seen a lot of interesting nice things, but nothing which made me stand up and shout:

“Here’s my wallet! I must have it!”

I was actually wanting to make a similar thread as the op. The past events werent so bad but this new one is really annoying. I havent even participated because of how tedious it is. And the worst part is that i havent even done liadri yet because i procrastinated and now i have to participate in this one in order to even try again. Anyways this 2 week thing is a little much and its sad to hear of great players leaving because of this.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Adminir.8140:

That rationale would be fine if that was how Guild Wars 2 worked. “It will be there when I get back,” sadly does not work when referring to the Living Story, which is the BIGGEST problem.

Yes, but . . .

Name one thing, one thing which is so absolutely vital to have I would be remiss in not logging in to get it? So far I haven’t seen anything which fits that bill. I’ve seen a lot of interesting nice things, but nothing which made me stand up and shout:

“Here’s my wallet! I must have it!”

Anything living story related IMO. All those missed achievement points, all the missed meta rewards, EVERYTHING related to this temporary content, for me at least. Missing out on something that I will never ever see again is a huge disappointment to me.

Even if I haven’t played WoW for 2 years, I can still go back and get all the old tier raid achievements, the old raid meta rewards (such as mounts, etc), complete all quest lines leading up to achievements and titles, etc. I can experience everything in the game because it is there to stay. Sure, things change such as the reworking of Naxx 40 man into a 10/25 man instance, but I can’t really think of any other content that I could not physically explore for myself years down the road.

Even if I picked up the game today, for the very first time, 9 years AFTER the game was released, I can still go back and run Molten Core, BWL, or AQ40. Sure, maybe I can’t complete the Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest to unlock the gate for the first time on a server, but it is not like WHOLE zones are disappearing. (Crown Pavillion, Queen’s Gauntlet, Aetherblade Instance, Molten Facility, Zephyr Sanctum, etc)

If I were to pick up Guild Was 2 today, for the very first time and log in, I would not be able to experience ANY of the Living World content. I would load into the game and would only (most likely) be aware of current LW story. So I would say to myself, who are these Aetherblades, who is the Molten Alliance, who is Scarlet? (Though tbh, most of us even after playing all the LS are still asking that question…)

10k achievement points. Valuables to give away just like that. I’d guess over 1500 hours played. That burns out anyone. Living Story has nothing to do with that. He just played too much.

It’s a sub free game. Take a break, take some time. Everything’s gonna be allright.

Completely agree with burn out of the game.

2 week content is just too much. Most of the time i get enough time to experience all the new content. But lately with real life content of my own, Simply haven’t been able too. And knowing 99% of the content is temporary and will last 2 to 4 weeks, and simple don’t have the time to experience the content its putting me off the game game completely and i love this game over 2,500 hours played so far in the game.

A group of us was discussing the guildwars 2 and basically everyone is getting sick of this temporary 2 to 4 week content. It just too much, not enjoying the game because it feels like a job if you want to experience all the new temporary content especially if you have limited time to play the game. Some days all i want to do is do some leveling with an alt. But i feel i can’t because i want to see what all this new content is about knowing it will be disappearing soon enough. Its heartbreaking and so frustrating.

If you going to make so much temporary content would be awesome if you miss an update and didn’t to do it fully you could like spend gems or gold to revisit the Living story you missed out on and you could experience at your own pace as you could choose when you want to unlock it when you have the time to actually enjoy and do the content.

You do the pvp arenas using gems, why can’t we do that with living story content, so we could revisit it anytime we want if we are willing to use gems or gold to unlock it for a certain amount of time. I know quite a few people that would love to revisit some for the old living story stuff because they loved it so much and doing this would delight them and i think would make everyone happy and could do the achievements, experience past content when they want and have time to do so and at the same time would generate income for Arenanet/NCsoft.

Unlock the content for yourself for 2 weeks, 1 month and permanently. 500 gems, 1500 gems and 3000 gems respectively something like that. Could make it like an over flow and instance for those that have purchased/unlocked the content through the gem store. And with the unlock you unlock the achievements that went with it and to add even more game play, etc you could add difficulty levels for the old content. The possibilities are endless, the content has already been done and new and veteran players can enjoy the past if they missed out, want to enjoy it again or catch up on some achievements they never got done. And we get our permanent content and temporary content at the same time, everyone wins.

I do not mind the speed of the content, I think it is about right for casuals and hardcore. A few thing that could be done, is to leave some of it behind so the casuals or new players could still experience it after, so they do not miss out. While the Hardcore who get it done get the rewards of putting the in time. That would work for me.

It is what content that is being pushed out that I dislike. On the one hand I want more permanent stuff, but what makes some of it good is I do it once and I stop. I loved the Halloween clock tower and and will do it again once it comes back, but if it was there all the time I might not want to do it. As I could then do it whenever I want, maybe that is just me. This applies for things like the pavilion and all the living story content.

As for content that could be left behind, instances for the story maybe? Dungeons! To see what happens after in some cases. Such as the Molten Alliance! They are back now, so they must have bases. This time let us do some explorable paths inside to clean it all up and make sure they do not come back. Just like a after math of what happens after the event is done. They could even give us more permanent content by giving us new paths in the dungeons we have. Some the Molten alliance might have tried to go to either COF or SE to hide after we destroyed their bases. This could give Anet a story for some explorable paths.

I’ve posted on many threads like this before, but I also agree that the pace of the LS needs to be slowed down a little. Make it just one update a month, or spread out the content over several months like Flame & Frost.

It feels a bit like we’re being shuttled from one story to the next with no real opportunity for a break in between. It’s different from how it was during Halloween and Wintersday last year, where the festivals were massive and exciting because the open world was relatively quiet and static in between.

Now it’s like there’s tons of new content to do every month, so it’s lost its novelty, but at the same time, you HAVE to do it if you don’t want to miss out. It’s a bit like watching a horror movie; you can’t keep your audience on a constant feeling of edge, because it stops being fun after a while. You need to have periods where things calm down, people can relax and release the tension. Being on a constant adrenaline high can be exciting for a while, but if that becomes the normal state of being, then it just becomes exhausting.

I completely agree with the OP. Personally I have stopped playing GW2… for two and a half weeks now? I, too, was extremely bored and “burned out” by the tasks/achievements/dailies/monthlies, … you name it. The game is at this very moment a chore and everything that was fun about it, became a grinding nightmare.

I didn’t come to this forum just to flame on Arenanet, but this story has been going around the forums since the start of the dailies/monthlies, the fractals and the living story. The moment they implemented those the whole game gradually became one giant freakin’ taskitten

pt playing because of a “it might get better” feeling. But now, one day I totally had enough of it. Tons of people have been complaining about arenanets orientation with this game, and yet instead of fixing it… they add more grind content with each patch.
So I quit. I loved this game, as a GW1 veteran, but it just doesn’t make up to it’s name and I think arenanet will loose more and more players if they continue on this downward path into grind/farm/no-brains/chore etc.

I play games because they’re fun, that’s why they’re called “games”, I don’t play them so I can frustrate myself at farming money and noticing that I still need to farm more and more.

Sirendor.1394:

The game is at this very moment a chore and everything that was fun about it, became a grinding nightmare.

+1. Nothing more to add.

so your burned out? you want the content to slow down? how about YOU take a break…there are others here that are enjoying all the content. I for one am. Also no one is making you do the achievements. This game (at least i see it) once you hit level 80 is all about setting personal goals, get a legendary, get achievements, get map completion, play wvw, play pvp, rp, etc. In nature achievement hunting is grindy, just like getting a legendary is grindy. Re-evaluate what you want to do in this game, and if it isn’t fun for you anymore then take a break. No need to ruin everyone’s fun just because YOU need a break. Also the good thing about all the content is say you do take a break, ok you miss out on a couple releases, but guess what when you come back, there will be another one. At least just take a break and watch the LS releases on the website and come back and try the ones that interest you.

I’ll just add my own view to this topic. I took a break after the wintersday event and came back for queen Jennah’s jubilee. Did I miss a lot of content? I guess so, but none of it really mattered to me. If you’re the type of person to say “I can’t keep up with the updates because I actually have a life” then you should also be the type of person who can come back to the game and say “Wow, flame and frost sounds like it was pretty cool. Scarlet was being hinted at from way back then? She must be kitten”-and she is. When the game first came out I was on pretty much every day, grinding, doing map completion, finishing the storyline and generally exploring every part of the game that interested me. None of that has changed for me just because I don’t have time to keep up with ever single living world update. I read up on the storyline going on in the living world and was genuinely interested to find out who Scarlet was.

Arena net introduced the living story to keep up the idea that they created with dynamic events. Players shape the world around them and feel like they’ve made a contribution. The idea was good and the constant updates kept many players coming back with every new update. Now that players have gone through it for a year, the events are likely to slow down a bit anyway. Honestly I think that this year they SHOULD slow it down. Re-release some of last years events that they can do as an anniversary thing like the mad king, wintersday and dragon bash. That should free up their teams for what we’re all really hoping for. A true update that could hopefully be completed by september 2014. Perhaps adding a new map and taking us to visit Palawa Joko in Elona and revisiting the storyline that was started in guild wars 1. Perhaps instead the sea route will be re established and we will be able to travel to Cantha and begin negotiations with their ruler who according to the lore will hate all non-human characters.

Basically, I don’t mind missing the living story events, so I don’t agree with them being burning. I enjoy completing them when I have the time, but am happy to focus on other parts of the game even while the rest of the servers continuously farm events. I also wouldn’t mind if they took a break from them and instead took the time to begin shaping a further expansion to the storyline and world of Tyria. If they truly want players to feel like they shape the world around them then what better way is there than letting us complete another adventure? That’s my opinion anyway. Balancing everyone’s personal loves for this game is what Arena net have to try to accomplish though. Living story is a good way to bring a bit for everyone to enjoy every few weeks, as long as they can just do what they enjoy and not feel that they have to accomplish everything.

minbariguy.7504:

Sirendor.1394:

The game is at this very moment a chore and everything that was fun about it, became a grinding nightmare.

+1. Nothing more to add.

+ another +1

Sirendor.1394:

I completely agree with the OP. Personally I have stopped playing GW2… for two and a half weeks now? I, too, was extremely bored and “burned out” by the tasks/achievements/dailies/monthlies, … you name it. The game is at this very moment a chore and everything that was fun about it, became a grinding nightmare

I don’t have a problem with tasks and achievements. I do have a problem with them being temporary. I think that’s what’s burning me out. In combination with your next point:

I play games because they’re fun, that’s why they’re called “games”, I don’t play them so I can frustrate myself at farming money and noticing that I still need to farm more and more.

This.. soo this.

I don’t have a problem with the rate of content, as I know people who literally gets everything done in 2 days then get bored. Also, you don’t even need to complete every minor achievement to get the main reward like the Watchknight mini, as dailies count towards that too.

What I do have problems with is the quality of the plot behind those updates and the fact that what I consider to be the core of the game, stuff like DEs, are being ignored. You go to a zone other than CS or FS, and basically nothing there actually gets done, they need to fix that and give us a reason to care about those events. Also, we havn’t had a new dungeon for a long, long, time.

On a side note, what do you guys actually grind for? I don’t think I’ve ever actually grinded at all and I don’t feel behind the curve at all.

DOW Mageski.2097

A few thing that could be done, is to leave some of it behind so the casuals or new players could still experience it after, so they do not miss out. While the Hardcore who get it done get the rewards of putting the in time. That would work for me.

Being rewarded for investing time is neither casual nor hardcore, it’s just tryharding.

Having no life is not equivalent to skillful play.

Solid Gold.9310:

minbariguy.7504:

Sirendor.1394:

The game is at this very moment a chore and everything that was fun about it, became a grinding nightmare.

+1. Nothing more to add.

+ another +1

+1 Exactly. Guild Wars 2 has turned from an entertainment into a job that pays its players monthly with cosmetics (and achievement points for completionists).

SlaYer.2138:

Solid Gold.9310:

minbariguy.7504:

Sirendor.1394:

The game is at this very moment a chore and everything that was fun about it, became a grinding nightmare.

+1. Nothing more to add.

+ another +1

+1 Exactly. Guild Wars 2 has turned from an entertainment into a job that pays its players monthly with cosmetics (and achievement points for completionists).

Really? Because, you know, I have to work a lot harder at my job than I do playing this game. I also have to grind my teeth and get along a lot more, swallowing things I dare not utter even in anonymity.

You know what it reminds me of more? Booster Draft at Friday Night Magic. You’d never place “in the money” if you were too casual unless you were really lucky, but it took a lot of studying and a good amount of effort to get the local metagame down enough to do better by skill alone.

All this for $12 a night. You can see why I stopped going. (At least I got to keep the cards.)

I’m less than 50 points away from 5k achievement points and I haven’t felt motivated to go into the game to actually play it for about a week now because I know I’ll have to spend minimally an hour in the game to get 1/13th of an achievement and school has started. The reward is the best ever IMO, but I just can’t bring myself to spend that much time in-game for just 1/17th of the meta-achievement. Yes, I could do one event a day, that would be one hour a day, but that’s even necessarily not even all that feasible on some days, particularly weekdays. Even so, I could get disconnected! And then spending that hour in-game would have been pointless, unfun, and demotivating with no progress made.

A couple guildies were eager to try out the new content… until the Queen’s Gauntlet came around. Then they (and I) got tired of GW2. It was way too much kill x and y and way too fast-paced. Can’t we go back to the monthly system where I can spend time in-game doing the Living Story content for a couple of weeks and doing the other stuff in the game I want to for the other two weeks? My guildies and I haven’t gone back to personal stories ever since the Living Story pace picked up. Because LS is temporary and personal story is permanent. It discourages doing permanent content and encourages doing transient content all the time.

I want a break from the Living Story! I want to go back to fighting dragons! I haven’t finished one character’s personal story and I have 2 level 80s and one level 40 and have been playing the game since beta. I’d like to do dungeons. But I feel like I don’t have the time because I want to experience the new content but it takes me the whole two weeks to finish it, then there’s newer content. Yes, I know you can finish the achievements in about a month, as you can still do the old achievements, but it just bogs you down more. And right now you can’t do the old achievements until you do the new ones. Which is a really really bad move, IMO. What if someone wants to finish the old content before doing the new content and they just didn’t have the time to do so in two weeks?

And please, be more creative with achievements! The Bazaar was by far the best in terms of variety! If more LS had that kind of variety, that would be awesome!

It being classified as either work or play is irrelevant. The key detail is that it seems that people aren’t having fun in a game. And games are supposed to be fun!

Edit: I realize I don’t have to do the living story… but it’s transient! I have to at least try it out! And the LS ideas are generally just good enough or the reward good enough that I’d like to get the reward or play them. And if I’m “burned out” of Living Story, then that means I’m burnt out of Guild Wars 2, which means less playtime from me.