Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone, just dropping by to say that I’m generally unsatisfied with the direction GW2 is taking in their development. While I do know many people enjoy the Living Story updates and continuous (at least for awhile) updates, I was sad to hear they were going to continue with this sort of progression forward. I know, and a lot of people I know were really hoping for an expansion (much like how GW1 operated) where there would be massive content updates, with permanent, new and fun dungeons, stories, you name it. Lets be honest here, how many of you press M, look at the map and are satisfied knowing that this is 1 map, with about 50% of its land being used. GW1 had 3, all with most or all of the land being used. When will we get to explore the Crystal Deserts? When will we see what happened to the Ring of Fire? There are a lot of missing links in my eyes, and though I play this game mostly for PvP, the PvE in this game is straight up saddening. The only difficult PvE in this game is FoTM, which is very repetitive and frankly unrewarding.
Anyway, sorry for getting off track. I really hope that either with season 2, or after it, the devs really focus on expanding their already small amount of content instead of releasing small, mostly temporary content.

I say, let them impress and interest us on July 1st. We will probably get Dragon Bashas a bonus too.

But that’s their big second chance. Blow some kitten up, thrill players, mop the floor with us! If we begin slowlyy, people will lost their hope. Give us a dungeon, mature story, leave the past mistakes of Biconics, Scarlet, zerg and story behind.

Devs, we count on you .

You are a bit late to the part (or well, a couple of weeks late). They have already confirmed that every single part of the Living Story in Season 2 will be permanent. Either by logging in during the 2 week (or more) period or by buying it for 200 gems.

They did add a new map in November 2012, and everyone seems to hate it. So maybe they will make sure to spend much more time on the next map added, instead of adding it for the sake of adding?
It also seems very likely that we will get new maps rather soon, seeing as we are headed to areas currently not accessible in game.

Tbh, as soon as I saw the announcement of living story season 2 being announced, I shifted my attention to wildstar, so I have missed quite a bit about the details of it. However, many people I know including myself have very high concerns on the direction of development this game is taking. Its been almost 2 years I believe and anet has added minimal end game content, much of which was temporary. I’m hoping for the best for gw2 and hope this living story season two will keep its player base. If living story fails to accomplish what I know many people are searching for, maybe its time to Focus on an expansion, or set aside a team to do so while they make living story updates.

Why assume they aren’t working on an expansion?
We KNOW that there are teams working on big things behind the scenes.

I share your hope, but its been 2 years. Numerous livestreams have stated they are focusing on making a living breathing world, and unfortunately I’m losing hope in an expansion any time soon.

I seem to remember them stating they had a team working on “expansion” content as well as the live update team. Granted that was before they started the Living Story, so the LS team could be the Expansion team.

lordkrall.7241:

They did add a new map in November 2012, and everyone seems to hate it. So maybe they will make sure to spend much more time on the next map added, instead of adding it for the sake of adding?

People hated Southsun because it was (and still is) considerably harder than Cursed Shore but with no better rewards. In fact, given the absence of large, mob-heavy events and chest-reward events like Temples, Southsun is significantly worse for rewards than Orr. Nowdays Southsun is used occasionally to farm for T6 materials, karka shells, and whenever the Karka Queen is up.

Anet did seem to learn from Southsun though, in particular that harder content has to be more rewarding to get players involved.

King.1985:

I share your hope, but its been 2 years. Numerous livestreams have stated they are focusing on making a living breathing world, and unfortunately I’m losing hope in an expansion any time soon.

The vast majority of games does not get expansions before that time have passed though.

I was (am) a bitter critic of Living Story Season 1, and honestly I’m still not thrilled to see them continue down this path with a second season, but…

With the announcement of season two featuring permanent content, I’m willing to give it a try. My biggest complaint was not being able to take my time to complete the content at my own pace, so…with that addressed, maybe it won’t be so bad.

We’ll see.

I think that they’ve done a decent job developing festivals and holidays in S1.

Dragon Bash to kick off season 2 when it’s now clearly re-focused on the dragons is a great idea.

I’d honestly prefer monthly LS updates (so that they can polish each one more) with a different festival taking place simultaneously.

Festival content would, of course, still be temporal and could be tied in with each release.

Imagine, DEv2 visits Dragon Bash in awe of Lion’s Arch’s resilience when they Marjory receives a report that her sister has gone missing and so she and Kasmeer go off to investigate while Braham, Rox, and Taimi stick around in Lion’s Arch to have some fun.

Each story quest doesn’t need the WHOLE team.

King.1985:

I know, and a lot of people I know were really hoping for an expansion (much like how GW1 operated) where there would be massive content updates, with permanent, new and fun dungeons, stories, you name it.

Everything in Season 2 will be permanent. It’s basically an expansion being given mostly for free in chunks rather than one whole piece.

King.1985:

GW1 had 3, all with most or all of the land being used.

Actually, GW2 covers more of Tyria than Prophecies did. Not Prophecies + Eye of the North, but more than just Prophecies alone. Even before Southsun. We may not have the Crystal Desert or Ring of Fire, but we have far more of Ascalon and Kryta than ever, and we have Orr which we never had either, and even a bit more of the Shiverpeaks (not much bit more).

Overall, we rather explore more than Prophecies alone, and Southsun acts akin to Grenth’s Footprint’s addition.

While it’s kind of sad that when one compares how much content we got in 2.5 years of GW1, we had Prophecies to Nightfall, including the updates that added Sorrow’s Furnace, the Titan Quests, and Domain of Anguish. But also consider that GW2 is more advanced, has larger scale, and has a far more intricate system than GW1 ever had – it takes a lot more effort to make the same amount of content than with GW1. It’d be far better if Season 1 was permanent, but I think ArenaNet learned their lesson on that, and even promised to bring it back as permanent in the future.

King.1985:

When will we get to explore the Crystal Deserts? When will we see what happened to the Ring of Fire?

Why would we go to either? What is the reason?

In GW1, we went to the desert because we were outcasted from the rest of Tyria, and we had to find a weapon to fight the mursaat. We went to the Ring of Fire in order to end the war with the mursaat. Now? Why go to the inhospitable and downright deadly landscapes? To satiate player curiosity? Sounds nice and all, but really, is there much purpose plotwise? And ArenaNet has always been one of doing things for the story in the past… this may have changed, I fear, given Scarlet, but I hold out hope for Season 2.

King.1985:

Anyway, sorry for getting off track. I really hope that either with season 2, or after it, the devs really focus on expanding their already small amount of content instead of releasing small, mostly temporary content.

Again, Season 2 is fully – or at least mostly – permanent from what we’ve been told.

Read up, my good lad, and let your fears subside until the brown stuff hits the rotating devices.

And besides, it seems like half of the company is working in the shadows, doing who knows what. Including Jeff Grubb and Ree Soesbee – two of their best writers and continuity designers.

“until the brown stuff hits the rotating devices.”

:D