Guild Wars 2

I stopped playing the game in February because I got really busy… and started replaying it last night and was hoping to catch up with the Living Story when…surprise! It was no longer there. Not the Flame and Frost, anyway. Is there any way to redo it? Are the officials planning to have it back any time soon? I really want to do it and am sure others are too, who missed it. If I can get an official response to this, it will be great!

Thank you in advance, I really like the game and would not like to miss on anything.

I already missed a few things because I got the game in December… I do not want to miss this as well.

I will wait for your answer then.

I’d also love a chance to catch-up on any Living Story Elements that I’ve missed.

I’d even be willing to pay for a transfer to a special sever where the Living Story Element I missed is still running, then back to my Home Server once I’ve caught up.
—hint-hint, nudge-nudge— I’m looking in your direction ArenaNet server folks…..

I had Real Life get in the way – the only thing I needed to complete was watching the Rox/Rytlock conversation after beating the last dungeon. It’s a bit depressing to work this hard just to have the whole thing fall to confetti because I didn’t watch one single animation…is there at least some way to turn off the “Living Story” box in the top right so that it’s not constantly taunting me with my abject failure?

I can say this much – as it seems this is the way “Living Story” content is going to work overall, I will not be participating in the Southsun stuff because I just can’t take it twice.

As long as I can keep up with the living story, all is fine and dandy. However, every part of the story I miss, makes me less likely to play. Currently I’ve missed Wintersday and SAB, both of which should come back one day, so it’s not a permanent loss. However had I missed some of the F&F achievements, I would be very much inclined to quit the game by now. Especially the dungeon, which only existed for 2 weeks.

I had to burn the southsun content. While fun, I couldn’t take the time I wanted for experiencing all of it properly. Even worse, I’ve got no time anymore to do old content. I’d like to finish my dungeon master and fractal achievements, but tough luck … can’t get in there if my limited time is forced squarely into limited content (which I’d also like to see).

Right now the living story is gearing up to a bi-weekly schedule. That’s just too much. I’ll start missing content, I’ll never catch up and that’ll be it for me. I can just see this happening one day. No one plays forever, and this living content will make taking a break more difficult than it should be.

Please, don’t let me quit this game. Keep the good content in. Don’t just remove what’s fun.

So, because you can’t spend time on the game people that can should not get cool exclusive stuff?

Why should ArenaNet cater for people that does not play their game actively?

lordkrall.7241:

So, because you can’t spend time on the game people that can should not get cool exclusive stuff?

Why should ArenaNet cater for people that does not play their game actively?

Define actively. I’m currently keeping up with the rate of content, but most people don’t play daily for years on end. Sometimes, real life happens. Sometimes real life and cool content happens at the same time … looking at Wintersday specifically. By missing too much cool content, people are less and less inclined to play actively.

A.net should indeed cater to returning players, give them a way to catch up. If that’s not possible, what’s the point in returning at all? And if returning isn’t possible, why have a sub-free model in the first place?

Take, for the sake of argument, someone who became father on the 1st of May. This guy was waiting for sentinel stats to be implemented. 18th of May he comes back to see these stats removed. Not only that, but he hears his stats, which are no longer available except for manipulated prices, were the rewards for the coolest dungeon yet. At that point, I’d stop playing at all if I was that young father. A game shouldn’t punish you for having a real life, a game shouldn’t punish you for being a contributing member of society.

Taking a break for 2 weeks doesn’t mean you don’t play “actively”. It merely means you’re a human being with responsibilities.
I play GW2 more than I train for triathlon and people already claim I’m crazy for doing triathlons. Yet you’d imply I’m casual in GW2. Go figure…

And if you play while an awesome party is taking place you are missing the awesome party.
There will always be people that will miss stuff, unless they add every single thing permanently to the game, and that would defeat the whole purpose of a living world.

People simply have to make decisions which is more important for them, I know some things are out of their control but that is a very small minority and should they really cater to a small minority rather than to the big mass?

They need to hide the achievements and make the old stories just that – stories. Making unobtainable things noticeable is a bad move for completionist.

One day, they’ll probably have some way to replay old stories, though open world changes will most likely be lost forever. At the current rate, they’ll be deleting an expansion’s worth of content every year, rather than giving new players that much more things to do.

I have some friends that are like, “I don’t want to miss anything but I also don’t want to be forced to login.” Simply put, they want to get all the achievements but only want to play for a month or so every few months, because that’s how GW1 was. The living story has caused people to quit, since they did.

Healix.5819:

They need to hide the achievements and make the old stories just that – stories. Making unobtainable things noticeable is a bad move for completionist.

One day, they’ll probably have some way to replay old stories, though open world changes will most likely be lost forever. At the current rate, they’ll be deleting an expansion’s worth of content every year, rather than giving new players that much more things to do.

I agree with you that the previous/ any unobtainable achievements need to be hidden as its very unclear at times what is still achievable and what is not.

Deleting previous content is probably a good way to keep the world clean and moving forward, there are numerous games out there on the market that had tons of expansion content that never gets visited, even by new players once newer content is out and just sits there wasting valuable server space, as time progresses players tend to take the fastest/simpliest route to get to the latest content and bypass all the previous “old” content, occassionally revisiting when time permits or there is nothing else to do but this affects a much small minority, where as the masses tend to stay with the latest and greatest.

lordkrall.7241:

And if you play while an awesome party is taking place you are missing the awesome party.
There will always be people that will miss stuff, unless they add every single thing permanently to the game, and that would defeat the whole purpose of a living world.

One of the main reasons I started playing GW2 was because I could go to a party and not get behind on the game. There’s plenty of ways to create a living world without constantly removing the newest content. Having a stream of new content on a monthly basis makes the world alive, removal of content is irrelevant.

People simply have to make decisions which is more important for them, I know some things are out of their control but that is a very small minority and should they really cater to a small minority rather than to the big mass?

If catering to a “small minority” can be done by doing nothing, I would suggest doing so isn’t a bad idea. Furthermore, I’m amused you’d call people with RL responsibilities a “small minority”. Personally, I’d consider those the big mass.

Hello,

So recently I’ve seen a lot of post about people saying they weren’t able to complete the living story and how it was unfair. My word to you is deal with it. I’m sorry, but I just don’t see how people can complain about this. The core concept of the LS is to demonstrate a living world. It has its problems, true, but the things last for 2 weeks or high. The flame and frost one (if you count all the chapters) lasted for about 3 months. The recent chapter we’re in right now last 2 weeks (we have about a week left from today). I have been able to complete what each chapter had to offer in 2-3 hours. If you can’t spend at least 2-3 hours in Gw2 on the living story in a month or 2 weeks, you don’t seem to really care about the game. Anet is at least trying to reward dedicated players to the game and those who haven’t quit yet, and I like that. I appreciate what they are doing. I see no reason for them to allow players to redo this stuff and make it up when the whole premises about the living story is that it is supposed to represent the world is alive and evolving. That would go against the whole concept.

If you don’t want to be left behind in the living story, watch the game! Even if you quit, dont just ignore for the next 3 months and comeback and realize you made a mistake. Look at the release notes. It is not like you are paying a sub fee. Hop in for a couple of hours in one day and just complete it all.

Just as a polite reply to your rather short sighted rant about other players there do seem to be quite a few server loading issues with the current LS.

Personally I have been able to complete all of the other LS bits (bar the audio logs because that was just tedious) but this is proving difficult. I have for instance spent the last 2.5 hours (about the time it takes you to complete the LS) just attempting to be able to log in and play in Southsun cove.

I have (after many mant tries with it lagging out and crashing or freezing) had to give up in the end in an attempt to complete my dailies.

Maybe consider that others may be making valid points before getting on your high horse.

gemgenie.4560:

Just as a polite reply to your rather short sighted rant about other players there do seem to be quite a few server loading issues with the current LS.

Personally I have been able to complete all of the other LS bits (bar the audio logs because that was just tedious) but this is proving difficult. I have for instance spent the last 2.5 hours (about the time it takes you to complete the LS) just attempting to be able to log in and play in Southsun cove.

I have (after many mant tries with it lagging out and crashing or freezing) had to give up in the end in an attempt to complete my dailies.

Maybe consider that others may be making valid points before getting on your high horse.

I understand where you’re coming from, and I know i’m coming off a bit rude. But in your case that sounds like a client side issue, not server side. I never heard of someone having that problem.

My biggest problem is that these people are blaming Anet for them not being able to complete it, despite having a ton of time. I remember seeing a recent post that started out as " I quit playing in feburary and recently came bacK" and he sounded upset that he couldn’t play FnF again. I just thought to myself, well duh. You quit the game for almost 3 months.

Trust me its not a client side issue – husband is an IT technician and has checked out the network – other parts of the game play fine. Finally managed to make it out of Southsun and have just managed to complete my dailys in Queensdale. Southsun just seems to be getting hammered with the LS being based there.

Had no isses with Southsun until this section of the LS.

Fair enough the people who havent played for 3 months cant really moan too much but I doubt all the people moaning have not played in 3 months. Your right it did come across a tad rude and a bit “im alright jack” which is why I just thought I would point out that others are having isuses despite trying to complete it.

I see how it was impossible for you to post this in one of the many threads already talking about this specific issue. Your post and point of view is a unique and special snow flake that is so important and ground breaking that it deserves it’s own thread. Your post needs its own thread because it’s more important than all the threads about this issue.

Op I understand how you feel since my real life is also very demanding. So far I have completed very little of the Living Story content- I did what i could when I had time but achievements and such cannot be a priority for me.
With South sun I got the back piece I wanted quickly because I know that I will probably miss the last part entirely since I am not sure I will be even able to log in in the next 3 weeks.

That said- I do think it is a good thing that they sped up the LS content- if you look at the tremendous amount of QQ on here about how F&F was just too slowly paced, you can see why.
It makes sense that as a living story things change rather rapidly.

I am sure that at this point they are testing the waters and will eventually find a way to engage most players and find the perfect balance between permanent and temp content.
Unfortunately since some of the content will be permanent and some not- if we miss out we miss out.

That does not bother me so much because I know there will always be something cool to do when I do get to play.
I guess it comes down to does it matter that much to you or can you still have fun within that framework

Morrigan.2809:

That said- I do think it is a good thing that they sped up the LS content- if you look at the tremendous amount of QQ on here about how F&F was just too slowly paced, you can see why.
It makes sense that as a living story things change rather rapidly.

Yes absolutely, the F&F was a bit slow, but why can’t the stories overlap a bit? It would make sense for F&F to disappear in mid-june, for Southsun to disappear in mid july and so on while new stories commence. That way, in one binge, a casual player could play catch up once in a while. Even the most casual player has these days where he just plays videogames all day long.

I care about the game, since it’s my primary hobby. But even my primary hobby is still a hobby. I care far more about keeping my job, fiancée, family and friends. Some of those can sometimes take up ALL time for 2-3 months. That could potentially mean missing out on an entire story arc.

And that’s really the big deal. Getting a kid can and will force your hand for several months. Some jobs will have you go abroad for 4 months to start up a new machine or company. At the end of those 4 months on a oil platform or 3 consecutive 100 hours workweeks, these people bring home thousands of dollars, ready to spend on their hobby, only to see they missed out on entire story arcs. That’s not fun.

That’s what a.net is denying people. They are denying it most to the people who contribute hardcore to society, be it by having kids, studying+passing exams or advancing the economy. These people, who need a hobby to relax after a crushing deadline are hurt most by the living story.

Would you agree that these people also deserve a way to access the best content in the game?

They can’t overlap simply because they are based on each other.
The whole Southsun issue is based on the fact that people have fled from the Molten Alliance and want a new life, and now they want to leave because they don’t want to be slaves and their former homes can be rebuilt since the Molten Alliance is no longer a threat.

Why would they want to go back and rebuild stuff if the issues that made them flee in the first place is still there?

I imagine something like this.

The living world stays as it is. Once the complete chapter is done however – the main steps are still available in “your” living story – similar to the “personal” story. Something like the dungeon would not work as a 1:1 translation but a lot of the rest could.

Yes, I already dredge my 2 week summer holiday lol.
Dread, I know.

I’d like some overlap between chapters, preferably ones that are totally unrelated to each other. It gives the sense that the world is alive, and not everything and everyone is connected on the same story string. That way the basic stuff and warm up and finale parts can run a bit longer without causing the impression that there is only 1 hour of content for 2 months like in early F&F, because there would be a concurrent story wrapping up or starting somewhere else in the world of Tyria.

Your real life is more important then a game, that’s good. Dont sweat what happens in the games you dont play, just enjoy it while you do. I mean to obsess about not completing all Wintersday achievements now in May I would have to actively search for them in the achievement section, its not like the stuff thats in the past is right there in your face forever.

It is my belief that people who obsess about missing temporary content in a game are missing the whole point. If real life gets in the way, that’s a good thing! It means you have your priorities straight. If you happen to miss out of temporary content, so be it. It will not affect your real life, so why worry? I misses out on the Lost Shores events, but I’m not going to quit the game or complain about it. Stuff happens.

lordkrall.7241:

So, because you can’t spend time on the game people that can should not get cool exclusive stuff?

Why should ArenaNet cater for people that does not play their game actively?

I spent days, multiple times a day too, trying to get some of that exclusive cool stuff and it never dropped. Just because it’s available and you put in the effort, doesn’t mean you will get it.

What’d be nice is to see A.net implement recipes for those items from the Mystic Forge so if you weren’t able to receive the content through the effort of dungeon runs or questing, you could achieve the content through farming for mats to craft that content that you’ve had your eye on after the content is “decommissioned”.

That way people with a life can still have their life and have goals in game even if they miss out on content.

Forewarning: This will be a lengthy post, but I’m providing my sentiments in hope it can improve the game.

I sit above 500 hours in gameplay time, having 2 max level characters and 2 others sitting in their 50s. The first six months of this game were golden for me. I enjoyed exploring the dungeons, I enjoyed exploring the world. There was something to see, to enjoy and a sense of permanence to the world around. It also set the stage for hope – hope to see new permanent zones, skills, and challenges. Then I completed the Dungeon Master title, and my personal story. Following that, I completed crafting leveling. Once those two things were completed, I feel like I ran out of things to do. I feel like I ran out of meaningful activities. Let me elaborate on some of the problems I see with the Living Story approach…

What the problems are:

-It does not address the need for alternate leveling Paths.

Part of the fun of MMOs are alternate characters – you get to see new zones, new stories, and new skills. The vanilla game dries up after level 30 – 40, when the racial content dwindles down and the personal story addresses the world story. I see several leveling paths, that are dictated around the story in Orr. It all funnels through there. Sadly, Sylvari and Asura zones are few compared to Norn, Charr, and Human – all of whom share several zones across levels. The addition of the living story does not address this vacuum of zones and leaves us with content that takes at most 30 hours.

-It does not add deep content to the world (thus far).

For all the frustration of Orr’s dungeons, they really offered a great back story. I view those dungeons as great lore references for that area. Living story’s episodic nature provides only something to the degree of ‘stop these factions from fighting’. Well, why are they fighting in the first place? Why should I care about the Consortium or the settlers to begin with?

- It does not expand upon the foundation the game set in the first 6 months, but changes course drastically from what some were expecting.

We have 20-some zones from the vanilla game, all of which are beautifully done. Yet, so few are actually worth going back to again. The beginner zones have boss instances, the end zones have good loot. The rest in between has only the leveling experiences and possibly the crafting materials. That’s not enough. The living story could address those middle zones, yet it doesn’t. It has us put signs together.

What can be done:

- make dungeons more populous, one per zone

I view dungeons as the replacement for missions from the first game. Given this viewpoint, it’s essential to have more. It gives players more content to see and it gives the story tellers a chance to expand upon the already rich universe. It also leaves behind a permanent place to go to.

- Add more paths to existing dungeons

I’m all for having the story progress. But as you can flip back to previous book chapters, it’d be nice to have the dungeon stories progress. Let’s the see charr battle more with the ghosts. Players can then choose what phase to play in, with the higher phases offering more rewards.

- release living story less frequently and heavier in content

I find it distasteful to get a few events only and then having it supposed to be equivalent to an expansion. I believe this displeasure is inherent to the dynamic world model, but releasing heavier content would alleviate some of it. For instance, having something similar to the Orr temple events would be awesome.

- leave behind permanent, repeatable content

I understand and accept that most of the living story content can’t be repeatable. However, the dungeon we experienced was great and was a historical moment in the world. I’d love to be able to reference that again and have a recap of that event, if I so choose.

Points to take home:

If you are giving an expansion worth of content over a several month period, you’re not giving us an expansion. You’re giving us shallow content that could have been bundled better.

If seasoned players have to ask what to do next, you’re doing it wrong.

The problem is that there is no more permanent content to enjoy. It keeps changing; it’s a revolving door of shallow content. The people complaining are legitimately being done a disservice.

I’m just going to state this now but this thread is important unlike what what shiren was complaining about.

Seriously guys, you will always be missing things. You’ll be missing events in the world, you’ll be missing awesome events in the game world too. Hell I haven’t even played half of the console games my friends have and they say it’s so fun! Yet I know i’ll never have the time to do it, you gotta pick your choices wisely. I know it can suck if you miss an event but seriously you can read up on it, the GW 2 lore updates pretty kitten fast so you can get into the story and what is going on and happening fairly well.

Destai I do believe they are making an expansion but they needed to quiet down some of the player base that was actually insulted by having nothing to ‘do’ so this was their solution. There are people the opposite of you that think this needs to happen more often. Believe me you can never please anyone.

marnick.4305:

I care about the game, since it’s my primary hobby. But even my primary hobby is still a hobby. I care far more about keeping my job, fiancée, family and friends. Some of those can sometimes take up ALL time for 2-3 months. That could potentially mean missing out on an entire story arc.

And that’s really the big deal. Getting a kid can and will force your hand for several months. Some jobs will have you go abroad for 4 months to start up a new machine or company. At the end of those 4 months on a oil platform or 3 consecutive 100 hours workweeks, these people bring home thousands of dollars, ready to spend on their hobby, only to see they missed out on entire story arcs. That’s not fun.

That’s what a.net is denying people. They are denying it most to the people who contribute hardcore to society, be it by having kids, studying+passing exams or advancing the economy. These people, who need a hobby to relax after a crushing deadline are hurt most by the living story.

Would you agree that these people also deserve a way to access the best content in the game?

I respect that you are taking real life problems over the game. I just don’t like it when people act like it is a problem because they missed it. As in they should be able to redo it. The whole point of the living story is thakitten is temporary. Anet wants to make it seem like our personal story last forever, that the world of tyria is an actual world that events will happen as time progress. A major selling point to the publisher of the living story was thakitten will cause players to come back to the game for X amount of days (depending on the person) in order to complete it since it is one time only. More players playing = more of a chance they will spend money. The LS is quite honestly one of the major reasons I’m sticking with the game because this is the only reasonable (in my eyes) way that they reward dedicated players. Plus, despite a few story problems, I think its been a really cool thing so far.

So I’m not attacking people who take real life over the game, by no means i am. I’m attacking those people who quit the game or ignore it and then rage at others/anet/on the forums because they weren’t able to do it.

marnick.4305:

That’s what a.net is denying people. They are denying it most to the people who contribute hardcore to society…[the ones who spend months away from the game]. Would you agree that these people also deserve a way to access the best content in the game?

Sure but the best content hasn’t come out yet (given that the content will be continously changing and is really depended on taste) so I don’t see what the problem is. If your question was should those people who could not play the game be able to experience the stuff they missed out on?

Nope. That’s the whole point of temp. content. To get people in there now because they want “special” pixels that may never again be aligned in some fashion, or ticking some box.

People that actually play the game are rewarded by the game.
People that choose real life stuff are rewarded by real life stuff.

It’s really a win/win, and only by your own perception are you actually “losing” anything.

marnick.4305:

Having a stream of new content on a monthly basis makes the world alive, removal of content is irrelevant.

Remember you said that when the lag kicks in from the gazillion events taking place at once. Just think of all the events that already have happened or are happening. Now imagine all of them active at the same time forever on a loop, plus any future content stacked on top. The top right of your screen would be always filled with nearby events!

Then think of a poor newbie trying to lag past dredge sonic devices, tixx’s crazy toys, haunted doors spewing for plastic spiders, random karka attacks and sudden molten alliance raids. You’d need to time your run into the karka hive well too incase something there isn’t bathing in the lava at the time. ;p

Joseph Skyrim.2470:

marnick.4305:

Having a stream of new content on a monthly basis makes the world alive, removal of content is irrelevant.

Remember you said that when the lag kicks in from the gazillion events taking place at once. Just think of all the events that already have happened or are happening. Now imagine all of them active at the same time forever on a loop, plus any future content stacked on top. The top right of your screen would be always filled with nearby events!

I’m imagining it and I’m seeing a living bright future. I can’t see anything wrong with it. Personally I thought the Wayfarer Foothills were better than ever before with the mass events happening everywhere.

Then think of a poor newbie trying to lag past dredge sonic devices, tixx’s crazy toys, haunted doors spewing for plastic spiders, random karka attacks and sudden molten alliance raids. You’d need to time your run into the karka hive well too incase something there isn’t bathing in the lava at the time. ;p

Let’s ignore for a moment the holiday content because it makes sense to be temporary and focus on the living story that doesn’t happen in the entire world at the same time …

Sure the newbie will find sonic devices and molten alliance raids. He’ll think the Wayfarer Foothills is the best designed zone in the game with unique mechanics.

As for lag … most of that is fixed with a bit of ram and a half-decent videocard, both ain’t expensive. 200 euros is all you need to remove lag in PVE.

Joseph Skyrim.2470:

marnick.4305:

That’s what a.net is denying people. They are denying it most to the people who contribute hardcore to society…[the ones who spend months away from the game]. Would you agree that these people also deserve a way to access the best content in the game?

Sure but the best content hasn’t come out yet (given that the content will be continously changing and is really depended on taste) so I don’t see what the problem is. If your question was should those people who could not play the game be able to experience the stuff they missed out on?

We’re not talking holiday content, that actually makes sense to go away and is permanent in a sense too, next year it’ll just come back. We’re talking about entire storylines being available only for three months … That really makes no sense.

I liked the F&F storyline, and in it’s entirety was worth something. How can I convince someone to return after a few months of inactivity? By telling them they missed out on a cool dungeon? Good luck …

This is not a game made for you to be able to get everything.

marnick.4305:

Joseph Skyrim.2470:

marnick.4305:

That’s what a.net is denying people. They are denying it most to the people who contribute hardcore to society…[the ones who spend months away from the game]. Would you agree that these people also deserve a way to access the best content in the game?

Sure but the best content hasn’t come out yet (given that the content will be continously changing and is really depended on taste) so I don’t see what the problem is. If your question was should those people who could not play the game be able to experience the stuff they missed out on?

We’re not talking holiday content, that actually makes sense to go away and is permanent in a sense too, next year it’ll just come back. We’re talking about entire storylines being available only for three months … That really makes no sense.

I liked the F&F storyline, and in it’s entirety was worth something. How can I convince someone to return after a few months of inactivity? By telling them they missed out on a cool dungeon? Good luck …

The whole point of the living story is that theres always something going on, how are people who don’t have time for those couple of hours to complete the basic stuff going on at the moment magically finding the time to go back and complete all these previous arcs?

Deified.7520:

gemgenie.4560:

Just as a polite reply to your rather short sighted rant about other players there do seem to be quite a few server loading issues with the current LS.

Personally I have been able to complete all of the other LS bits (bar the audio logs because that was just tedious) but this is proving difficult. I have for instance spent the last 2.5 hours (about the time it takes you to complete the LS) just attempting to be able to log in and play in Southsun cove.

I have (after many mant tries with it lagging out and crashing or freezing) had to give up in the end in an attempt to complete my dailies.

Maybe consider that others may be making valid points before getting on your high horse.

I understand where you’re coming from, and I know i’m coming off a bit rude. But in your case that sounds like a client side issue, not server side. I never heard of someone having that problem.

My biggest problem is that these people are blaming Anet for them not being able to complete it, despite having a ton of time. I remember seeing a recent post that started out as " I quit playing in feburary and recently came bacK" and he sounded upset that he couldn’t play FnF again. I just thought to myself, well duh. You quit the game for almost 3 months.

Protip: People usually quit games and come back months later expecting more stuff to do, not the same or less. That was the whole point of leaving to begin with, was there was nothing to do.

That said, I finished the Southsun LS in about 2-3 hours. It’s pretty short.

Deified.7520:

Hello,

So recently I’ve seen a lot of post about people saying they weren’t able to complete the living story and how it was unfair. My word to you is deal with it. I’m sorry, but I just don’t see how people can complain about this. The core concept of the LS is to demonstrate a living world. It has its problems, true, but the things last for 2 weeks or high. The flame and frost one (if you count all the chapters) lasted for about 3 months. The recent chapter we’re in right now last 2 weeks (we have about a week left from today). I have been able to complete what each chapter had to offer in 2-3 hours. If you can’t spend at least 2-3 hours in Gw2 on the living story in a month or 2 weeks, you don’t seem to really care about the game. Anet is at least trying to reward dedicated players to the game and those who haven’t quit yet, and I like that. I appreciate what they are doing. I see no reason for them to allow players to redo this stuff and make it up when the whole premises about the living story is thakitten is supposed to represent the world is alive and evolving. That would go against the whole concept.

If you don’t want to be left behind in the living story, watch the game! Even if you quit, dont just ignore for the next 3 months and comeback and realize you made a mistake. Look at the release notes. It is not like you are paying a sub fee. Hop in for a couple of hours in one day and just complete it all.

While I completely agree that those who snoozed through the living story should lose out on the benefits it brought; I do think it would be really cool for ANet to re release some of the major encounters, ie. molten bosses and lost shores boss, as new fractal events so they can be experienced by those that missed them. I personally have not experienced all of the events, I completely missed lost shores and super adventure box, my own darn fault, but I was also able to complete all of the flame and frost content in about 1.5 to 2 hours, and the secret of southsun takes about the same amount of time. My advice to those who complain about missing this stuff, suck it up, pick a day when you have some time, sit down and do as much of the content as you can, if you miss some then tough “you cant always get what you want.”

Jam.4521:

The whole point of the living story is that theres always something going on, how are people who don’t have time for those couple of hours to complete the basic stuff going on at the moment magically finding the time to go back and complete all these previous arcs?

Jam makes a good point here. If you don’t have time to complete the current story arc, how are you supposed to complete previous ones too? The point of the LS is to award people who do have a lot of game time and are getting bored with the normal content. While I agree with people that we do need more permanent content, the temporary LS content is by no means a bad thing.

Yeah but dungeons aren’t fun, so focusing all that effort on them is a bad idea.

Also this does expand on content introduced in the first 6 months; it certainly seems related to Lost Shores, anyhow.

Aeonblade.8709:

Deified.7520:

gemgenie.4560:

Just as a polite reply to your rather short sighted rant about other players there do seem to be quite a few server loading issues with the current LS.

Personally I have been able to complete all of the other LS bits (bar the audio logs because that was just tedious) but this is proving difficult. I have for instance spent the last 2.5 hours (about the time it takes you to complete the LS) just attempting to be able to log in and play in Southsun cove.

I have (after many mant tries with it lagging out and crashing or freezing) had to give up in the end in an attempt to complete my dailies.

Maybe consider that others may be making valid points before getting on your high horse.

I understand where you’re coming from, and I know i’m coming off a bit rude. But in your case that sounds like a client side issue, not server side. I never heard of someone having that problem.

My biggest problem is that these people are blaming Anet for them not being able to complete it, despite having a ton of time. I remember seeing a recent post that started out as " I quit playing in feburary and recently came bacK" and he sounded upset that he couldn’t play FnF again. I just thought to myself, well duh. You quit the game for almost 3 months.

Protip: People usually quit games and come back months later expecting more stuff to do, not the same or less. That was the whole point of leaving to begin with, was there was nothing to do.

That said, I finished the Southsun LS in about 2-3 hours. It’s pretty short.

Wish I could – not because im not trying but ive been booted out 7 times tonight and usually only able to play for a few mins at a time when I get in. Yesterday was fine but Tuesday was as today, constantly being disconnected.

Timed storylines should be considered when theres major issues as weve had with Southsun in the last couple of weeks. As it stands its looking unlikely that I will complete all the current LS achievements by the end of the month unless its fixed in the next day or 2. As I said its certainly not through lack of trying.

White Dragon.5429:

Jam.4521:

The whole point of the living story is that theres always something going on, how are people who don’t have time for those couple of hours to complete the basic stuff going on at the moment magically finding the time to go back and complete all these previous arcs?

Jam makes a good point here. If you don’t have time to complete the current story arc, how are you supposed to complete previous ones too? The point of the LS is to award people who do have a lot of game time and are getting bored with the normal content. While I agree with people that we do need more permanent content, the temporary LS content is by no means a bad thing.

I see where your coming from on this for rewarding those who play for hours and hours (like me) but I seem to remember something being said about there being no expansion packs for GW2 as there were for GW1 (Nightfall, etc).

Taking that into account then effectivly the LS becomes the “expansion”. Now consider as said above a player who played GW2 from the start and completed as much as possible….. then left with nothing to do. The player takes a break from the game returning a few months later to look for new content only to find that they have missed out on what is now effectivly the expansion packs for this game and there is still no new content available. I would be pretty disheartened if it was me.

In all honesty im not quite sure how A.Net can future proof themselves with this? Maybe make old LS storylines available through some kind of instance based system
that a player can activly choose to play if they missed it first time

Looking at this from a purely business headed perspective then the LS can be seen as both an opportunity (keeps interest there for current players) AND a threat (all new content added is time dependant and has a shelflife – not good for retention of returning players/people taking holidays/working away from home …). Just depends on which way you are looking at it from.

marnick.4305:

Joseph Skyrim.2470:

marnick.4305:

Having a stream of new content on a monthly basis makes the world alive, removal of content is irrelevant.

Remember you said that when the lag kicks in from the gazillion events taking place at once. Just think of all the events that already have happened or are happening. Now imagine all of them active at the same time forever on a loop, plus any future content stacked on top. The top right of your screen would be always filled with nearby events!

I’m imagining it and I’m seeing a living bright future. I can’t see anything wrong with it. Personally I thought the Wayfarer Foothills were better than ever before with the mass events happening everywhere.

Then think of a poor newbie trying to lag past dredge sonic devices, tixx’s crazy toys, haunted doors spewing for plastic spiders, random karka attacks and sudden molten alliance raids. You’d need to time your run into the karka hive well too incase something there isn’t bathing in the lava at the time. ;p

Let’s ignore for a moment the holiday content because it makes sense to be temporary and focus on the living story that doesn’t happen in the entire world at the same time …

Sure the newbie will find sonic devices and molten alliance raids. He’ll think the Wayfarer Foothills is the best designed zone in the game with unique mechanics.

As for lag … most of that is fixed with a bit of ram and a half-decent videocard, both ain’t expensive. 200 euros is all you need to remove lag in PVE.

Hehe your version of a “living bright future” is one trapped in time where nothing you as a player do, will really matter. Sure it sounds like fun at the start, but lets see if you still want to be running into dredge sonic devices a year from now when no one even remembers what the molten alliance were about.

I’m intrigued you said “Let’s ignore for a moment the holiday content because it makes sense to be temporary and focus on the living story that doesn’t happen in the entire world at the same time …” and have a few questions with that.

First, I was just using it as a sample so that you would get an idea of how things would be stacking. Events and mobs would be coming out of your ears if ANet keeps releasing content each month. In a year that’s potentially 12 new sets.

For the issue of lag you said As for lag … most of that is fixed with a bit of ram and a half-decent videocard, both ain’t expensive. 200 euros is all you need to remove lag in PVE. Yeah that’s all well and good for rich clients but it won’t fix the problem. Adding more AI/NPCs for those extra events lags the SERVER. It doesn’t matter how good your connection is or how good your machine is. If the server lags, you lag. The only benefit of this is the monsters will be “lagged” too so I guess if you like playing chess it’s ok.

Secondly, why are you happy to let holiday content be temporary? Even if it comes back it won’t be the same as it was before. You really think the mad king’s clock tower is going to reappear as it was? Do you assume that when the SAB returns you’ll be able to get the same weapon skins (hint: you wont)? Yet it seems you are OK to let this slide. You are ok to let this go and evolve, but for some reason you don’t want to let this other “event” called the living story to go off and evolve too?

marnick.4305:

We’re not talking holiday content, that actually makes sense to go away and is permanent in a sense too, next year it’ll just come back. We’re talking about entire storylines being available only for three months … That really makes no sense.

I liked the F&F storyline, and in it’s entirety was worth something. How can I convince someone to return after a few months of inactivity? By telling them they missed out on a cool dungeon? Good luck …

[Edited due to Topic merge! Comments on your being OK with holiday events being temporary are above!]

How do you convince someone to return from inactivity? Say “Hey! There’s new content starting up this week and I could really use your help!” That actually is a good thing to remember for anything you want someone else to go do/try. Never just tell them to go and do it. Always go with them. They (and you) will have more fun playing together anyway.

Not sure why all the drama…

All I asked was “Please give me a way to make the UI stop taunting me for my failure”. I put my thoughts about making Living Story content phase out SO FAST here just for A.net – I like the product, enjoyed F&F, but won’t be participating in content that goes this fast because my schedule for leisure time isn’t that predictable. Maybe A.net hears it and changes something; maybe I’m on the minority side of the issue.

The frustrating part is that at no point when I logged in did the launcher nor anything in-game notify me “You need to finish this quest or it’s going to disappear and you’ll be left holding the bag.” I guess if I spent time on the forum trolling for news, I would have probably known it was ending – but that’d be one more thing pulling me away from the game, since every second I’m here interacting on the forum is a second I COULD have used to play the game itself.

The whole thing was just kind of mis-managed, IMO, and I hope A.net sees this message and considers it before ending the next Living Story branch. All this did for me was ensure that I wouldn’t participate in the Living Story stuff at all; which is sad, because I actually love the idea, I just can’t keep up with the pace.

Above, I agree when you come back to the game after a story arc is finished I reckon they should move old arcs to a tooltip like our own personal story with a little write up and short story to cover the previous history, as well as removing the achievement sections, then when you come back you can see what has happened, then slot into the new story line knowing the background, and not seeing random achievements that you won’t ever be able to complete.