Guild Wars 2

Hey everybuddy!

So my guild has recently had a lot of discussion around the living story season 2 and whether or not it will be left available or be removed from the game just as season 1 was before. Some people believe it will be removed since HoT will be season 3 and others think it will stay as it’s still directly related to the story of the expansion.

I am looking for an official response on this or at least be pointed in the direction of directly related responses from Arena Net.

Thanks!
-Van

If I remember some old threads I dug up correctly….

the reason season one isn’t available is because it was more like an active world event rather than a set of personal story instances. Meaning they cant just have season one active for anyone who buys it, since that would require public world events to make work, which wont work on a per player bases.

Season two is just a bunch of instances, like the personal story, so that is possible to forever stay active because anyone who buys it can just do it at will no need for public event management and coordination.

I don’t think they would ever have a reason to remove season two, and I bet they wish they hadn’t done season one in the same manner they did given how that content cannot be feasibly redone ever again (as I am to understand at least)

It won’t be removed.

Season 1 isn’t available because the content was almost all open-world events, rather than instances like Season 2. Anet has said that they’d like to rework Season 1 into some instances that people can replay, but there’s no timetable for it, and I wouldn’t hold my breath for one. (Which is fair. It would require a ton of resources they could be devoting to new content, so it’s hard to find the time/budget for it.)

There’s really no reason to remove Season 2. It helps lead people into Heart of Thorns, and it’s a source of potential income that requires no additional resources.

Living Story Season one was atempt at making tyria more “alive” via chain of events that from the very beginning were meant to occur only once. But after that ArenaNet realised that it may not be best policy so season two was designed from the beginning to actually be replayable. at some point they were talking about how difficult would be make season one come back in a way allowing players that missed it to catch up, but after we got that cinematic summarising it I don;t thing that it will happen – for sure not to soon (but then from roleplaying standpoint that cinematic makes nearly no sense – the Pact commander is told about stuff he was supposed to participate t and is told that he/she have slained crazy sylvari…. yeah sure great idea :/ )

Lord Trejgon.2809:

(but then from roleplaying standpoint that cinematic makes nearly no sense – the Pact commander is told about stuff he was supposed to participate t and is told that he/she have slained crazy sylvari…. yeah sure great idea :/ )

Actually, I’ve just played through the Living Story again and there is a part where after speaking to Trahearne he says “Let’s go meet the other Pact Commanders” (or something to that effect), you then run to leaders of the Vigil, Whispers and Priory. It stood out to me as I was like “Hey! I thought I was the only Pact Commander? >:(” – Wasn’t quite sure if it was a dialogue mistake that’s been overlooked or what.

When I watched the Scarlet trailer and it kept saying “Pact Commander this” “Pact Commander that” I just put it down to “Other pact commanders”. I know it keeps saying “THE Pact Commander” but it made better sense in my head after that little line in the Personal Story.

I know it’s stretching, but it made me happier :P

Edit: The one problem with it is the description in the Personal Story log, that defo says “I did this” and “I did that”. I ignore this ^^

Season 2 is permanent content.

Season 1 was designed to be temporary, but the negative views made Anet change their mind. They said they’ll someday remake S1 in S2’s format though.

Edit: Official statement.

StrangerDanger.3496:

the reason season one isn’t available is because it was more like an active world event rather than a set of personal story instances. Meaning they cant just have season one active for anyone who buys it, since that would require public world events to make work, which wont work on a per player bases.

Redenaz.8631:

Season 1 isn’t available because the content was almost all open-world events, rather than instances like Season 2.

This is the common belief, but is ultimately not true. The reason it was temporary is because that’s what ArenaNet wanted. The primary story was still told in instances and dungeons, just like the personal story, however Season 1 was designed with two mindsets in mind:

Firstly, that you didn’t need to complete the personal story to play or understand S1. This in turn meant that they had to make “redactions” from the PS’s outcomes to avoid spoilers (such as Logan stating that he would not return to Kryta until all Elder Dragons are defeated, however in Season 1 he very clearly does).

Secondly, that it would be showing only the current state of the world. This means taking away things after implementing them as the state of the world changes.

Both ended up going belly up though, mainly due to player complaints.

The Season 1 story instances, unlike the Personal Story and Season 2 story instances, were determined by account rather than character – and were often tied to achievements. Because of this, it’s not a simple case of converting into the story journal. And while most of the main story was told in the instances, and the open world stuff could mostly be re-added without any harm to the world’s story (no more than the human-charr treaty still being under the same state of negotiations for 3 additional years at least), there were some open world stuff that wouldn’t work any longer such as The Lost Shores and Escape from Lion’s Arch. And there were zerg instances like the Tower of Nightmares which makes the conversion harder. Though the addition of raids allows new avenues for how to return that content.

Overall, Season1 consists of 30 story instances and 2 dungeons. And the main story is told through all of them, and only about 15 or fewer open world events.

StrangerDanger.3496:

Season two is just a bunch of instances, like the personal story, so that is possible to forever stay active because anyone who buys it can just do it at will no need for public event management and coordination.

This is also untrue. Season 2 was a mixture of instances and open world events just like Season 1. If it wasn’t the case, then Dry Top and Silverwastes would be barren. :P

But even ignoring that, we have the new events in Iron Marches, and the changes to events across Ascalon and in Frostgorge Sound (part of Episode 3).

Season 1 contents were series of events for a few weeks. And then ANet remove the contents and put in another ones to proceed the stories. As each series required the whole map to work together, they were not intended to be replayable.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I am still playing through Season 2 and hope it stays because I want to replay it with more characters and also obtain all the achievements as well, which will take some dedication and time.

Best,
-Van