Guild Wars 2

I just finished watching the 3-hour movie and have to ask the same question as many before me did:

Why in the name of the Six isn’t Season One available for purchase?

All events were instanced, so how hard can it be to make it an obtainable content? Seriously. The story is by far the most appealing in GW2! I also want those cool achievements and item rewards connected to it — but I mainly want it become available for its fun and exciting story.

So, what’s the problem, Anet? Don’t want more of my money?

They have answered this question before. It’s not easy. All of that content was designed when the game was a lot different, skills were different, players were less familiar with mechanics, megaservers weren’t in play yet.

Some events were instanced; many were not. And much as I liked LS1, a lot of what made it great was the spontaneity — content only lasted a few weeks, the meta had to be figured out quickly, and then poof, it was gone. I’m not sure how well some it would hold up if it were permanent.

In all likelihood, this would cost as much (and perhaps even more) than creating LS4 or LS5 and it’s nearly impossible for them to get it “right” so that both veterans and newbies would be satisfied with the results.

In short, this wouldn’t make them money; it would be a distraction to the progress they’re making in pushing the game in new directions.

You call it progress, I call it abandoning GW veterans by depriving them of superior content.

I would rather had them work on making LWS1 obtainable content than getting the new LWS3, to be honest. This current story is just bad, with only a few highlights (Canach, killing Caudecus, the Queen defending DR). I feel like they would have made more money with LWS1 than this. I doubt many will want to buy it (if they haven’t obtained it already by logging in in time).

Anyway, just my two cents.

Most of it were open world events and not instanced. And you can’t recreate this easily. It was a big mistake and many predicted it already. Bad, bad idea. Eventually, they realised it and went for instanced personal story like living story.

Well, big mistake or not, you need to take responsibility for it and correct that mistake.

There are so many areas on core Tyrian maps that make zero sense if you haven’t played LWS1!

For instance, the poisonous field in Kessex Hill (Greyhoof Meadows) along with all the dead Seraph plasterted all over the place. Not to mention the many other poisonous spawns/events all across central Tyrian maps.

They leave that content in there without any explanation whatsoever. It’s just sad and IMO bad for the game as story continuity has been broken that way.

Should LS1 exist? Categorically yes.

Is it easy to re-introduce? Absolutely not. Firstly, I can imagine the issues bringing back 4 year old code which has had whole new code and tech lumped on top since.
Secondly, it was designed for large open world world zergs and had very little fleshed out story to accompany it. Whilst the gameplay had some truly fun and epic moments, it would need to be re-fitted into the story journal. That takes time and resources, none of which they have.

It can’t be released as it was – it would cause vastly more confusion than what we have now, but I do believe it should have been a priority fix by now. It’s big ask to recommend a game to people when a section of story is missing and replaced with a completely inadequate recap video.

There’s an argument that fractals is the answer to restoring LS1 ala Molten, Aetherblade and Thaumonova. That’s a third of LS1 right there. Unfortunately, Nightmare fractal brought none of the LS1 story over with it, so whilst it is a great fractal, it seems that isn’t the answer anymore either.

Ultimately now, I don’t think we will ever see S1. Expac 2 and S4 are on the horizon and they have settled into a pretty stable release schedule. With WvW also needing some desperate resource allocation, I can’t see where the time to re-make S1 will come from regardless as to whether it is needed to fill the story hole.

@Randulf, you are probably right about the difficulties. Not probably, but definitely. I know it would have to be partially revamped for all the reasons you listed, and IMO (and yours as well) this should have been a priority these past couple of years. Other things could have waited, as neither the video recap in LA nor Fractals are a solution to the problem at hand.

It is clear that ArenaNet has become like all the other companies these days. It is no longer important (as in “the #1 priority”) to produce content of high quality (and I am not talking about the technical aspects of the game, although those often suffer too due to tight schedules). It is more important now to produce quantity, because it is falsely believed that this will bring in the big money. However, a lack of love for all the details that make a game great in the long run, for its story and continuity, quality in dialogue, excitement, and a proper pace of events, make players more likely (and rather sooner than later) move on to something else.

I remember the days in computer game development when fans had to wait a long time for a title to be released, but once the day came, they could be sure the title was going to have the quality of a final product, finished in every aspect, technically (no bugs) and in form and content. Since online gaming became the big seller, developers are in a constant race with their competitors about who throws out the most content most frequently.

So while you can see the love that was put in the making of GW2 and even in LWS1, transporting the idea well of what this game was all about, its character and atmosphere, it gradually faded into a product of overworked game creators who make decisions in a sleep deprived state pumped up on caffeine, stressed out about coming up with “brilliant, new ideas” (when often sticking to your old concept is best). This saddens me, as my expectations for the content (story-wise, i.e. what we were going to do and see of Tyria, what we would discover of the lore and the excitement connected to all that) have gradually faded along with it.

P.S. Yes, WvW has been shamefully neglected as well. I still don’t understand why one needs to invest a fortune into WvW gear when they could have easily adopted their build concept from PvP.

Funny, at the time, the story of Living World Season One was decried as terrible. Even after it finished. It only became ‘good’ years later. Might be a case of ‘grass is always greener’, or something.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Funny, at the time, the story of Living World Season One was decried as terrible. Even after it finished. It only became ‘good’ years later. Might be a case of ‘grass is always greener’, or something.

That is simplifying the situation enormously. There were plenty of people who enjoyed S1 at the time and still hold that opinion. There are also plenty of people who never got to experience it who also would like to it return. It is those groups who tend to make these threads and a case for its return.

Considering the improvements in Anets storytelling and gameplay implementations since S1, even though I largely disliked all but a few aspects of it, I would actually be quite excited to see what they could do with the season using their built upon experience. That’s one reason I support its return despite being vocally against it at the time.

Regardless to the quality, S1 is still a gap in the story and having it return is only a good thing assuming they can ever allocate resources for it (currently unlikely).

Randulf.7614:

Considering the improvements in Anets storytelling and gameplay implementations since S1

The what now?

Mikhail.4961:

Randulf.7614:

Considering the improvements in Anets storytelling and gameplay implementations since S1

The what now?

Pretty much exactly what you quoted. Whether it is still “good” or “great” or not is a different subject, but there is noticeable improvement in the consistency of both story and dialogue since S1. An episode for eg no longer involves fixing signposts or map wide invasion events which progressed the story by almost nothing over a month+.

Gameplay mechanics in Silverwastes, S2, HoT maps and S3 also show varying degrees of gameplay improvements since S1.

Improvements vary greatly in these places, but it would be ridiculous to suggest Anet haven’t improved in these areas whatsoever.

Randulf.7614:

Mikhail.4961:

Randulf.7614:

Considering the improvements in Anets storytelling and gameplay implementations since S1

The what now?

Pretty much exactly what you quoted. Whether it is still “good” or “great” or not is a different subject, but there is noticeable improvement in the consistency of both story and dialogue since S1. An episode for eg no longer involves fixing signposts or map wide invasion events which progressed the story by almost nothing over a month+.

Gameplay mechanics in Silverwastes, S2, HoT maps and S3 also show varying degrees of gameplay improvements since S1.

Improvements vary greatly in these places, but it would be ridiculous to suggest Anet haven’t improved in these areas whatsoever.

I can’t talk about season 1 because I missed it, I’ve only seen some parts of it in different videos.

But I can compare season 2 and 3 as I played both of them. I noticed some sort of consistency in season 2 as it felt like if it’s been written mostly in one part. Characters had their personality, it’s been believable and interesting.

Season 3 however is an utter mess. There’s no consistency in the behaviour of the characters, everything feels completely unnatural and just makes sense if you look back (character 1 did this in episode 2 because he needed to find out things that will be clear in season 5 and the like). I didn’t notice any fixed style in the dialogue except for Taimi maybe. Plus, characters are just gone for no reason because of problems regarding the availability of voice actors and the like, so characters are missing the entire season and suddenly appear claiming: “I had stuff to do” makes it hard to believe. Your own character is constantly told to go there, go back to the other place, OH somehting else again happened there – only to justify the quantity of maps we’ve gotten
Oh look even more gw1 lore that’s been artificially put in there because people wanted to see more of it, go take a look! The entire season just feels artificial, like they’ve tried to put EVERYTHING in there from episode 2 on. The reveal of episode 5 – if it’s the truth as we know it at this point – is actually ridiculous if you look at the story as a whole.

The design of the instances vary as well, they’re either interesting, showing some exploring, investigating, speculating as in episode 1 – Out of the Shadows or rather boring, endless enemies in waves (vanilla GW2 personal story) like in A Crack in the Ice or even something completely different in other episodes.
You can notice that as well as you read through the feedback threads of each episode. The reason could be that season 3 has been officially confirmed to be written by 3 different teams in a certain rotation. Pretty difficult to keep consistency up if the teams are working on their own.

So I don’t agree to call season 3 an improvement over the other season(s).

Tekey.7946:

Randulf.7614:

Mikhail.4961:

Randulf.7614:

Considering the improvements in Anets storytelling and gameplay implementations since S1

The what now?

Pretty much exactly what you quoted. Whether it is still “good” or “great” or not is a different subject, but there is noticeable improvement in the consistency of both story and dialogue since S1. An episode for eg no longer involves fixing signposts or map wide invasion events which progressed the story by almost nothing over a month+.

Gameplay mechanics in Silverwastes, S2, HoT maps and S3 also show varying degrees of gameplay improvements since S1.

Improvements vary greatly in these places, but it would be ridiculous to suggest Anet haven’t improved in these areas whatsoever.

I can’t talk about season 1 because I missed it, I’ve only seen some parts of it in different videos.

But I can compare season 2 and 3 as I played both of them. I noticed some sort of consistency in season 2 as it felt like if it’s been written mostly in one part. Characters had their personality, it’s been believable and interesting.

Season 3 however is an utter mess. There’s no consistency in the behaviour of the characters, everything feels completely unnatural and just makes sense if you look back (character 1 did this in episode 2 because he needed to find out things that will be clear in season 5 and the like). I didn’t notice any fixed style in the dialogue except for Taimi maybe. Plus, characters are just gone for no reason because of problems regarding the availability of voice actors and the like, so characters are missing the entire season and suddenly appear claiming: “I had stuff to do” makes it hard to believe. Your own character is constantly told to go there, go back to the other place, OH somehting else again happened there – only to justify the quantity of maps we’ve gotten
Oh look even more gw1 lore that’s been artificially put in there because people wanted to see more of it, go take a look! The entire season just feels artificial, like they’ve tried to put EVERYTHING in there from episode 2 on. The reveal of episode 5 – if it’s the truth as we know it at this point – is actually ridiculous if you look at the story as a whole.

The design of the instances vary as well, they’re either interesting, showing some exploring, investigating, speculating as in episode 1 – Out of the Shadows or rather boring, endless enemies in waves (vanilla GW2 personal story) like in A Crack in the Ice or even something completely different in other episodes.
You can notice that as well as you read through the feedback threads of each episode. The reason could be that season 3 has been officially confirmed to be written by 3 different teams in a certain rotation. Pretty difficult to keep consistency up if the teams are working on their own.

So I don’t agree to call season 3 an improvement over the other season(s).

You are right about the consistency of S2 over S3, although I maintain the dialogue is superior in S3. S2 didn’t have spoken dialogue and it felt wrong. S3 hasn’t all been bad though – the use of Current Events to aid storytelling between episodes has been a great idea and a couple of the episodes themselves (1 and 4 for me) have been exemplary.

I disagree about the characters though. They are (finally) showing some personal development and the reactions of Braham, Morjory and Kas have all been very much in keeping with with the influences paid upon them.

S1 barely had a narrative at times and was via strings of epic events and a herald and various others ways they were trialling. It was all experimentation and it flowed a lot less consistently than S3 does now imo. S1 was going absolutely nowhere until the final episode.

So despite the flaws of S3, there are structures in place that make it better than S1. But, you are right, it feeling like it is being written by different teams each time has hurt it badly and the overall narrative has got lost with this final episode. There is a strong argument for S2 being better than S3 as you point out, but much less so versus S1.

The only parts of Season 1 left to salvage are basically the buttrobot and maybe the retaking of Lion’s Arch/fighting Scarlet, both of which could become fractals. Everything else has either already been reintroduced to the game (molten/aetherblade/tower of nightmare fractals) or is better off never spoken of again (the story instances).

Ashantara.8731:

I just finished watching the 3-hour movie and have to ask the same question as many before me did:

Why in the name of the Six isn’t Season One available for purchase?

All events were instanced, so how hard can it be to make it an obtainable content?

So, what’s the problem, Anet? Don’t want more of my money?

Watching a three hour movie maybe has given you a false impression of the storytelling back in the days, because Season 1 took place in two years. Storytelling in Season 1 was (especially in the beginnig) not very good. But there are also episodes in Season 1 that were epic.

Most of it was not instanced, but open-world. Some things, like the marionette-fight, could become an open world boss, but I doubt that a lot of open-world events of Season 1 would work very good when they become instanced.

And a resurrection of a changed and modified Season 1 would of course not be the same as it was originally.

BTW: You can play parts of Season 1 already because they exist as dungeon/fractal.

Ashantara.8731:

It is clear that ArenaNet has become like all the other companies these days. It is no longer important (as in “the #1 priority”) to produce content of high quality (and I am not talking about the technical aspects of the game, although those often suffer too due to tight schedules). It is more important now to produce quantity, because it is falsely believed that this will bring in the big money. However, a lack of love for all the details that make a game great in the long run, for its story and continuity, quality in dialogue, excitement, and a proper pace of events, make players more likely (and rather sooner than later) move on to something else.

Are you talking about GW2 or another game?

Yes, storytelling could be much better. But the biggest differences of GW2 to all the other games (I have played) is the high artistic quality and the love for details in GW2 in the world and maps.

Zok.4956:

BTW: You can play parts of Season 1 already because they exist as dungeon/fractal.

That’s not the same, it is missing a lot of context and all the loving details that were put into the story as a whole. I watched all the story chapters of LWS1, and many were fun and/or epic. You can’t “reproduce” that by scattering bits and pieces all over the place that make no sense unless they are tightly connected, and especially when the parts in between that made the story fun/great are missing.

Zok.4956:

Are you talking about GW2 or another game?

Yes, storytelling could be much better. But the biggest differences of GW2 to all the other games (I have played) is the high artistic quality and the love for details in GW2 in the world and maps.

I was talking about games these days in general, especially MMOs. They lack any epic atmosphere (due to hastily decisions and bad, forced writing) and are full of bugs. But let’s not go off-topic.

@topic: I think that Randulf and Tekey put it best. <3

As achievement-hunter I would love to play Season 1 and go for all the achievements locked behind it.

While I am a GW2 player from the first public beta, I missed out almost the entire Season 1 because I had serious problems adapting to GW2’s weapon-based skill system.

Now I am well back into the game I would love to replay the content I missed and obtain the achievement points that come with it. Please give all players the chance to play this content and obtain the achievements by re-releasing it into the game. Thanks.

The whole mystery of Season 1 and 2 was the best. I even believe that the dialogue was much better. Because out the character was a mute… the NPCs had to be a lot more active and interactive. I can’t stand how dumbed down our characters have become. They have been far through a lot to be the way they are.

There are too many pauses, too many “hmms” and “uhhhs”…. too many uncertainties and mistakes. Yes, our characters are mortals, have feelings and everyone makes mistakes. But they should’ve toughened up after everything they’ve been through. Seeing a charr and an asura behaving like this is mind-blowing.

There were instances solely dedicated to character development in Season 1. The best thing about that season was that it didn’t take itself too seriously. Everything made sense in the end, and ANet poured as much effort as they ever did. There was a lot of content even outside the game such as advertisements, contests, videos, promotions, and talks. Season 3 is trying to be gritty, and serious… without realizing that it’s doing worse. Too many moments don’t add up and now I can’t stand Taimi. I just want her to die, honestly. She has the answer to everything, and even when she’s wrong, she’s right.

Let’s not forget that th dialogue in LW1 and LW2 while “funnier”, it was also maturish when it came to mature subjects. There was even curse words.. Now it seems like it’s trying its best to be kid-friendly.

Let’s not all forget that Demmi scene… Terrible dialogue, terrible pacing and flawed logic behind the characters themselves. They’re also ruining Cannach.

Did the 3 hour movie mention how much of Season 1 consisted of scrambling to complete achievements that boiled down to “find object, press F, repeat another 49 times”? Or “kill 500 of this weeks novelty enemy”?

Or the fact that a lot of the story only really worked in retrospect. At the time there was a lot of complaining about it. At first the claim was that Anet had totally forgotten about the dragons because the story was just 2 weeks of fighting one random group who appeared for no reason, then 2 weeks fighting another random group, then a festival that’s never been mentioned in lore before, then another random group…

Then they introduced Scarlet and people were angry that all this mess was supposedly the fault of one random blatant Mary Sue and still had nothing to do with dragons and claimed it was a half-hearted attempt to shoe-horn some continuity in at the end.

It was only right at the very end that we found out actually it was all one long build-up to introducing a new dragon (which made people angry that we weren’t going after the ones who were already around). In retrospect, viewed through that perspective it makes sense, but at the time no one knew anything we were doing one month had any relation to what we did the next month.

Sure some of the meta-events were fun, like the Marionette fight. But as other people said the Vinewrath was said to be very similar when Silverwastes was first released, but the fact that it’s permanent means it got to the point where almost everyone knew what to do and there was no challenge to it.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked Season 1 (except for being temporary), but I liked Season 2 and 3 as well. I think if you haven’t enjoyed any of the permanent Living Story you wouldn’t have found Season 1 any better. Different in some ways, but it wasn’t some magical time when everything in GW2 was amazing and everyone loved it.

The grass is always greener on the other side of the hill and nostalgia goggles makes everything look great. I, for one, disliked Season 1 even though I think it should return in some form for continuity’s sake. There were multiple problems with the format and there were numerous times where players were wondering if the devs were doing anything with the storyline anytime fast because it felt like we were bouncing from one festival to another with no real continuity in between.

Ask anyone what was good about season 1 and most will say the Marionette fight and the Battle for Lion’s Arch. What I remember about Season 1 was pressing F on a bunch of signposts for two weeks and an evil sylvari that created an impossible alliance-of-the-week of enemies that should have been fighting each other instead of us.

“Best” story is subjective, but for me the story behind season 1 was probably one of the worst ever written for the franchise. Scarlet’s backstory had to be retconned so hard that even today she seems like an unstoppable savant. When it was first written, she had graduated from all three asuran colleges, which even asura don’t do. It’s been retconned to read that she got special permission to take courses from all three. It still doesn’t change the issue that she still learned everything possible from a norn blacksmith, a charr sniper, and a hylek alchemist to become the super engineer that somehow (never explained) managed to convince six different insular isolationist groups to team up and work together in her Molten Alliance (Dredge and Flame Legion), Aetherblade Pirates (Inquest and Bandits, I’ll give props to this as this is actually believable due to events in Brisban), and Toxic Alliance (Krait and Nightmare Court).

A lot of people seem to like Scarlet. I’ll give you that they got a really good voice actress for her, but the way her character was written as our personal nemesis never rang true for me and I was more annoyed at her antics than anything else and wanted something more in the updates than the oh let’s fight Scarlet’s newest Evil alliance (with a capital E).

LW1 was highly criticized at the time and even more so when Scarlet came about. I personally disliked Scarlet because she seemed like a bad discount Joker.

RandomWolf.3986:

There were instances solely dedicated to character development in Season 1. The best thing about that season was that it didn’t take itself too seriously. Everything made sense in the end, and ANet poured as much effort as they ever did. There was a lot of content even outside the game such as advertisements, contests, videos, promotions, and talks. Season 3 is trying to be gritty, and serious… without realizing that it’s doing worse. Too many moments don’t add up and now I can’t stand Taimi. […] She has the answer to everything, and even when she’s wrong, she’s right.

Let’s not forget that th dialogue in LW1 and LW2 while “funnier”, it was also maturish when it came to mature subjects. There was even curse words.. Now it seems like it’s trying its best to be kid-friendly.

I whole-heartedly agree with this analysis, the marked parts in particular.

Danikat.8537:

At the time there was a lot of complaining about it.

That’s because a) it was new to people, and b) they didn’t know what was to come (had they future-peaked into certain parts and aspects of HoT and S3, they probably would have been most grateful for what they had at the time).

Ashantara.8731:

That’s because a) it was new to people, and b) they didn’t know what was to come (had they future-peaked into certain parts and aspects of HoT and S3, they probably would have been most grateful for what they had at the time).

I disagree with this entirely. Some people still prefer LS1’s way of things, but the overwhelming negativity and hostility towards LS1 during its 18 months outweighs the amount we’ve had for HoT and LS3 combined in their own 18 month initial period.

The amount of positivity towards LS1 at the time was difficult to find (although it did exist and I think the dire story often overshadows some of those fun gameplay moments). The reception of HoT and LS3 is a lot more balanced to both sides of the argument in comparison.

I have to agree with the above post.^

If one wasn’t privy to the forums during Season One, one might have missed the plethora of threads and posts about the story. Especially disliked was Scarlett Briar. Not to mention, the threads about the delivery.

I, personally, much preferred Season One to Season Two, and even to Season Three. But I, and a few others, were much in the minority at the time.

Season 1 was not the best Living Story. In fact, DURING Season 1 I remember tons and tons of complaints about Scarlet, about the boring stuff you had to do, particularly in the beginning. Living story Season 1 probably had the best events, because it was in the open world as well as instances, and it was going away so there were no limitations and people complained.

There have been far more complaints about the Living Story Season 1 than there ever were about anything after, including the HoT story. At the time, the Living Story Season 1 was the target of much negative commentary from the fan base.

At the time, I remember defending it, even though I agreed that having temporary content puts too much pressure on people and it’s not fair to people who can’t make it,

But at the end of the day, Season 1 was not universally accepted or critically acclaimed by the playerbase. Some even called it a debacle.

Vayne.8563:

At the time, the Living Story Season 1 was the target of much negative commentary from the fan base.

At the time, I remember defending it, even though I agreed that having temporary content puts too much pressure on people and it’s not fair to people who can’t make it

I bet most of the complaints were about that, not about the story-telling itself.

And yes, I can imagine people hated Scarlet Briar (she was a sterotypical comic book lunatic villain after all), but all the story missions/events during the season per se must have been quite fun story-wise (at least that’s my impression from watching the three-hour video). Things including DR, LA, sudden occurances all over Tyria, the detective work during the investigation, Southsun Cove and the Consortium, the festivities, the election, etc. All that seems incredibly exciting and fun and much better story content than HoT and LWS3.

Edit: But regardless of whether one liked S1 or not, it is still vital content story-wise (I had so many “Ah!” moments watching that three-hour video), and not having it in the game right now for everyone to be able to fully access it as a whole is unacceptable as it ruins a lot of subsequent story content. A huge chunk of the GW2 campaign is simply missing!

Well, whether one feels it is ‘unacceptable’, or no, the Devs have stated why it is not likely to make an appearance any time soon. (You can find the Dev posts [quoted] in the other current LWS1 thread.) The Devs are pointing players to the video created now, so I’m guessing that further removed any feelings of need (by the Devs) to create a longer cut-scene compilation/recap.

Do be aware…should LWS1 ever return, it won’t be anything like the original. Even way back when Season One was fresh, and players asked about it being brought back, the Devs stated it would only be brought back as something like Fractals, or content similar.

Good luck.

Ashantara.8731:

Vayne.8563:

At the time, the Living Story Season 1 was the target of much negative commentary from the fan base.

At the time, I remember defending it, even though I agreed that having temporary content puts too much pressure on people and it’s not fair to people who can’t make it

I bet most of the complaints were about that, not about the story-telling itself.

And yes, I can imagine people hated Scarlet Briar (she was a sterotypical comic book lunatic villain after all), but all the story missions/events during the season per se must have been quite fun story-wise (at least that’s my impression from watching the three-hour video). Things including DR, LA, sudden occurances all over Tyria, the detective work during the investigation, Southsun Cove and the Consortium, the festivities, the election, etc. All that seems incredibly exciting and fun and much better story content than HoT and LWS3.

Edit: But regardless of whether one liked S1 or not, it is still vital content story-wise (I had so many “Ah!” moments watching that three-hour video), and not having it in the game right now for everyone to be able to fully access it as a whole is unacceptable as it ruins a lot of subsequent story content. A huge chunk of the GW2 campaign is simply missing!

People HATED Scarlet and a lot of it was about the story telling, though not all of it obviously.

Ashantara.8731:

Vayne.8563:

At the time, the Living Story Season 1 was the target of much negative commentary from the fan base.

At the time, I remember defending it, even though I agreed that having temporary content puts too much pressure on people and it’s not fair to people who can’t make it

I bet most of the complaints were about that, not about the story-telling itself.

And yes, I can imagine people hated Scarlet Briar (she was a sterotypical comic book lunatic villain after all), but all the story missions/events during the season per se must have been quite fun story-wise (at least that’s my impression from watching the three-hour video). Things including DR, LA, sudden occurances all over Tyria, the detective work during the investigation, Southsun Cove and the Consortium, the festivities, the election, etc. All that seems incredibly exciting and fun and much better story content than HoT and LWS3.

Edit: But regardless of whether one liked S1 or not, it is still vital content story-wise (I had so many “Ah!” moments watching that three-hour video), and not having it in the game right now for everyone to be able to fully access it as a whole is unacceptable as it ruins a lot of subsequent story content. A huge chunk of the GW2 campaign is simply missing!

I’m afraid the story was just as much panned as the antagonist and temporary nature. This isn’t us putting down on you wanting or liking what you are seeing from LS1- I do agree a return is necessary, regardless as to whether it will or not and can in some ways empathise with those who did like it
Just bear in mind, LS1, in the form it was put out, with the story (and very little it was) we were given, was utterly despised. So much so, the devs actually stated they had to adjust LS1 as it was being put out and placate the community to say it would all tie up at some point and the Dragons had not been forgotten about.

You are right though, that ppl did enjoy the events and open world content, but the story behind those events, the logic and the lore (or lack of mostly) – was heavily criticised.

The thing to bear in mind though, is that with the knowledge they now have, they would produce a vastly better LS1 reduxed story to be slid into the story journal as evidenced by the praise LS2 received at the time for producing a better constructed story overall. Episode 1 and 2 of LS2 did more to explain what was going on in LS1 than LS1 really ever did in 18 months.

Most – Anet included – recognise the gaping hole, but it is a time + resource matter, one which seems unlikely to be overcome in the near future, since the focus is on newer content.

I disliked LS1 enough to take a break from the game, and came very close to uninstalling. I felt then, as I do now, that the concept of the living world, iterspersed with paid expansions, was a good one, but the direction of LS1 led me to believe, at the time, that ANet was not sufficiently competent, or was insufficiently dedicated, to pull it off.

Ashen.2907:

[…] led me to believe, at the time, that ANet was not sufficiently competent, or was insufficiently dedicated, to pull it off.

Well, it hasn’t gotten much better then, if you ask me. This season has been totally weird in many ways, even though some elements of it were dearly loved. The badly written dialogue of a severely childish nature did its fair share of leaving a bad aftertaste in my mouth.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Well, whether one feels it is ‘unacceptable’, or no, the Devs have stated why it is not likely to make an appearance any time soon. (You can find the Dev posts [quoted] in the other current LWS1 thread.) The Devs are pointing players to the video created now, so I’m guessing that further removed any feelings of need (by the Devs) to create a longer cut-scene compilation/recap.

Do be aware…should LWS1 ever return, it won’t be anything like the original. Even way back when Season One was fresh, and players asked about it being brought back, the Devs stated it would only be brought back as something like Fractals, or content similar.

Good luck.

Fractals lack context though. Most of the LS1 fractals make absolutely no sense (story wise) to me as someone who wasn’t playing during (most of) LS1 (and I did bother to read up on some of it). That’s something that really needs to be addressed imho (eg. add a questchain around the fractals to provide context or something like that)

Missing the LS1 is easy to solve: enter a fractal 40 farm, and repeat that 200 times. Watching 200 times the “thrilling” cutscene and the braham speeches.

Ashen.2907:

I disliked LS1 enough to take a break from the game, and came very close to uninstalling. I felt then, as I do now, that the concept of the living world, iterspersed with paid expansions, was a good one, but the direction of LS1 led me to believe, at the time, that ANet was not sufficiently competent, or was insufficiently dedicated, to pull it off.

For my luck, at the time, I was a newbie and ignored the events, I thought the central point of the game was to explore the map. And I think that’s the impression newbies have. The first impression many have of guild wars 2 is that it is a type of Zelda version larger.

LS1 was not this perfectly packaged season that everyone now thinks it was. There were more complaints in season 1 than I’ve seen during any other time in the life of GW2. People just forget how it really was back then. This reminds me of a comment WoodenPotatoes once made:

“One day we will all look back at season 1 with rose-tinted glasses and talk about how great it was.” (paraphrased)

I knew he was right then. This thread has proven that now.

Vesuvius.9874:

LS1 was not this perfectly packaged season that everyone now thinks it was. There were more complaints in season 1 than I’ve seen during any other time in the life of GW2. People just forget how it really was back then. This reminds me of a comment WoodenPotatoes once made:

“One day we will all look back at season 1 with rose-tinted glasses and talk about how great it was.” (paraphrased)

I knew he was right then. This thread has proven that now.

Sort of yes. To be fair most people are pointing this out in the thread. I think the OP is looking at LS1 through a condensed video rather than firsthand experience, which means it is understandable they might look upon it wistfully without knowing what we know.

The only thing that should be brought back from season 1 is the marionette.

Randulf.7614:

Sort of yes. To be fair most people are pointing this out in the thread. I think the OP is looking at LS1 through a condensed video rather than firsthand experience, which means it is understandable they might look upon it wistfully without knowing what we know.

Exactly. And I will say it a third time: Regardless of whether one liked S1 or didn’t, it still leaves a huuuuuge gap in the story at its current state that isn’t filled properly (neither with fractals nor with the lame summary by the LA NPC).

I am currently playing S2 for the 5th or 6th time, and it is also way better than anything that HoT and S3 provided (although S3 had the enjoyable “teaching Aurene” story mission as well the cool Divinity’s Reach story mission, and Canach, which is always a plus).

But that is beside the point, too. Like I said, as a dev, you need to do something to close that gap for newer players, because the current state is unacceptable.

Ashantara.8731:

Randulf.7614:

Sort of yes. To be fair most people are pointing this out in the thread. I think the OP is looking at LS1 through a condensed video rather than firsthand experience, which means it is understandable they might look upon it wistfully without knowing what we know.

Exactly. And I will say it a third time: Regardless of whether one liked S1 or didn’t, it still leaves a huuuuuge gap in the story at its current state that isn’t filled properly (neither with fractals nor with the lame summary by the LA NPC).

I am currently playing S2 for the 5th or 6th time, and it is also way better than anything that HoT and S3 provided (although S3 had the enjoyable “teaching Aurene” story mission as well the cool Divinity’s Reach story mission, and Canach, which is always a plus).

But that is beside the point, too. Like I said, as a dev, you need to do something to close that gap for newer players, because the current state is unacceptable.

In the end, it boils down to a business decision. If it doesn’t make business sense to divert resources from adding content that brings in revenue (like the new expansion) to adding content that will not bring additional revenue (like converting the S1 format to S2 and later format), then they’re simply not going to do it. Keep in mind that other than their playerbase, they are also answerable to their shareholders.

Should they add S1? Yes, I think they should.
Will they add S1? No, it is very unlikely.

Vesuvius.9874:

Ashantara.8731:

Randulf.7614:

Sort of yes. To be fair most people are pointing this out in the thread. I think the OP is looking at LS1 through a condensed video rather than firsthand experience, which means it is understandable they might look upon it wistfully without knowing what we know.

Exactly. And I will say it a third time: Regardless of whether one liked S1 or didn’t, it still leaves a huuuuuge gap in the story at its current state that isn’t filled properly (neither with fractals nor with the lame summary by the LA NPC).

I am currently playing S2 for the 5th or 6th time, and it is also way better than anything that HoT and S3 provided (although S3 had the enjoyable “teaching Aurene” story mission as well the cool Divinity’s Reach story mission, and Canach, which is always a plus).

But that is beside the point, too. Like I said, as a dev, you need to do something to close that gap for newer players, because the current state is unacceptable.

In the end, it boils down to a business decision. If it doesn’t make business sense to divert resources from adding content that brings in revenue (like the new expansion) to adding content that will not bring additional revenue (like converting the S1 format to S2 and later format), then they’re simply not going to do it. Keep in mind that other than their playerbase, they are also answerable to their shareholders.

Should they add S1? Yes, I think they should.
Will they add S1? No, it is very unlikely.

But honestly I think LS1 being missing and LS2 being “optional” (and paid content that many do not get before getting into HoT) has cost them in a way. The jump in difficulty from PS to HoT is…massive and I honestly don’t want to make a guess as to how many people quit over that.

Even if adding some of that back for everyone isn’t feasible I do feel that they should do something to make the difficulty rise more gradually, if nothing else maybe re-tune the PS some.

LS1 was the best because the world was changing and the events were serious. There was so much hate and yet no one really gave them (Arenanet) a chance to work out the bugs. Therefore you get this watered down and really crappy Politically Progressive storyline which, like all things Progressive, lack focus and enough oomph for you to give a crud about what is going on after it has burned itself out. Thus the interest dies and the work & effort put forward is all for naught because the plan/story was always doomed to fail due to its own lack of morality. In Short: Bad Storytelling from Writers limited by the limited attention span and imaginations of their viewers/readers.

The debut of Balthazar was lackluster, not because of his behavior in the story, but the lackluster fluff environment of GW2. Nothing is serious, it simply doesn’t have the atmosphere to make you care unless you ignore the horribly written romance pushes on the community between two women (that obvious have teenage angst for one another and still believe in the illusion of teenage love, like the children they are), Poor Development on Braham’s Character/Background and his Love for his Mother (Eir, well she was poorly developed also— time constraints and all that) which left us caring nothing for his loss or the loss to Tyria with her death. At least Rox and Canach are well written, albeit that Canach should have been burned on a Pyre in the middle of Lion’s Arch over a year ago.

The Guild Wars Universe is a serious one. It makes that of World of Warcraft look like Child’s Play. Yet, it is consistently losing its structure, its canon, and its epic power plays. The Dragon’s themselves were watered down from their true magnificence for the sake of soothing the player’s illusion of importance—- and even that illusion has of importance has been directly targeted by the HoT and LS3 story arcs.

Should the Pact have been able to Defeat Zhaitan? No.

Should the Exalted have been more important to the defeat of Modremoth and the further Unification of Mainland Tyria? Absolutely.

Will the ‘Human’ Gods be revealed to have never left Tyria and/or come back to Tyria? I hope so!
—————-
We will only know what it will be like as the expansion is hinted towards. I hope the damage can be repaired, but that requires a community that cares about more than game mechanics.

The biggest problem by far is the character cast and the way anet decided to tell their story.

Once you finish the personal story, you’re throw into a completely different story arc full of literally whos with no context or relevance whatsoever (Rox, Taimi, Salads, the norn guy etc.).

And if you do want context for the current story and characters you need to spend like 20 dollars to buy all the previous seasons.

it’s ridiculous

armaduras.8972:

The Guild Wars Universe is a serious one.

Do not make me laugh, at this point it’s a complete joke.

It was clear that the anet, it seems, concluded that plushies of Taimi and Aurene sell more.

Expect Rytholock to be killed, He speaks thick and is too adult.

The dragons are sleeping, they are big and too aggressive. Villains will now be plushies versions of Gods.

And of course, the legendary weapons, will all be comic style.

Just arrived in my hands, Exactly at this moment in which I wrote this post, a video leaked , a video-trailer of the next expansion. WARNING Leaks/spoiler of next xpac at the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI2Wyi-V6Q8

Hyper Cutter.9376:

The only parts of Season 1 left to salvage are basically the buttrobot and maybe the retaking of Lion’s Arch/fighting Scarlet, both of which could become fractals.

Buttrobot? you mean this guy?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hero-Tron

But yeah I wish they could bring S1 back, maybe someday?……eventually? at least fix that awful recap. The recap doesnt mention Ellen Kiel vs Evon Gnashblade, Hero-tron’s journey, and canach’s involvement with the Consortium.

ugrakarma.9416:

armaduras.8972:

The Guild Wars Universe is a serious one.

Do not make me laugh, at this point it’s a complete joke.

It was clear that the anet, it seems, concluded that plushies of Taimi and Aurene sell more.

Expect Rytholock to be killed, He speaks thick and is too adult.

The dragons are sleeping, they are big and too aggressive. Villains will now be plushies versions of Gods.

And of course, the legendary weapons, will all be comic style.

Just arrived in my hands, Exactly at this moment in which I wrote this post, a video leaked , a video-trailer of the next expansion. WARNING Leaks/spoiler of next xpac at the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI2Wyi-V6Q8

Do you read before replying? I did mention the same concerns that you pointed out and thus, I agree with you. The Guild Wars universe is serious, and my previous post was directed towards the watering down of the lore.

Ashantara.8731:

Well, big mistake or not, you need to take responsibility for it and correct that mistake.

There are so many areas on core Tyrian maps that make zero sense if you haven’t played LWS1!

For instance, the poisonous field in Kessex Hill (Greyhoof Meadows) along with all the dead Seraph plasterted all over the place. Not to mention the many other poisonous spawns/events all across central Tyrian maps.

They leave that content in there without any explanation whatsoever. It’s just sad and IMO bad for the game as story continuity has been broken that way.

I dont think its a mistake.

GW2 was suppose to be a interactive living world MMO.

If you missed it you missed it, if im a professional fighter and i lose a fight badly and cant fight my next fight on the contract i dont get to keep that fight.

If i have a massage appointment and i get into a car wreck and fall into a coma, they dont care. They will still charge me the $10 appointment fee.

If GW2 wanted to stay with the same pace i would of prefered it. Having live events means people want to be in the game at that time doing things. WHen they came out with the 2 dungeons, people wanted to play those dungeons.

If they had a better system so players could get tokens for the mini’s/ or X item it would give them a chance to get what they wanted. Instead of like my case where i did the dungeon 69 times and didnt get a mini or a molten back back.

GW2 is very blah right now because its trying to cater to everyone. Its turning into every other MMO, which is why you can leave for 2-3 months. Pick up your LS and leave again for another 2-3 months and miss nothing.

Its hard to be in a interactive MMO world when nothing is happening.

armaduras.8972:

ugrakarma.9416:

armaduras.8972:

The Guild Wars Universe is a serious one.

Do not make me laugh, at this point it’s a complete joke.

It was clear that the anet, it seems, concluded that plushies of Taimi and Aurene sell more.

Expect Rytholock to be killed, He speaks thick and is too adult.

The dragons are sleeping, they are big and too aggressive. Villains will now be plushies versions of Gods.

And of course, the legendary weapons, will all be comic style.

Just arrived in my hands, Exactly at this moment in which I wrote this post, a video leaked , a video-trailer of the next expansion. WARNING Leaks/spoiler of next xpac at the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI2Wyi-V6Q8

Do you read before replying? I did mention the same concerns that you pointed out and thus, I agree with you. The Guild Wars universe is serious, and my previous post was directed towards the watering down of the lore.

I have to agree about the Lore, GW1 and the books pictured things and life and death such as the dwarfs and there fight and eventually losing.

Even our fight vs Zhaitan and the corruption of Orr and all the steps we took to defeat him. A personal story, 8 dungeons and PvE events with champions you need to do to open said dungeons.

Everything since HOT release has felt ex-machina in a child friendly version which has definitely pushed me away.

I mean seriously the commander literally challenges everything to a fight and he/she just expects to win and yet has no back bone when dealing with her/his allies. It truly makes no sense.

armaduras.8972:

Do you read before replying? I did mention the same concerns that you pointed out and thus, I agree with you. The Guild Wars universe is serious, and my previous post was directed towards the watering down of the lore.

my apologies to u. I did read lazily and created a scarecrow.
And yes, we basically complain about the same things.

ugrakarma.9416:

Expect Rytholock to be killed, He speaks thick and is too adult.

“Adult”? Even Rytlock has been reduced to childish stereotypes. He is no longer “funny” grumpy but 100% immaturely annoying like Braham.

ugrakarma.9416:

The dragons are sleeping, they are big and too aggressive. Villains will now be plushies versions of Gods.

And of course, the legendary weapons, will all be comic style.

Afraid so.

ugrakarma.9416:

Just arrived in my hands, Exactly at this moment in which I wrote this post, a video leaked , a video-trailer of the next expansion. WARNING Leaks/spoiler of next xpac at the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI2Wyi-V6Q8

Hahaha, thanks for the laugh!