Please just pull the plug on the LS. With all due respect, the LS has a number of problems, not just in its execution, but in its basic concept and, frankly, has done little but worked tirelessly to sabotage this game’s success from day one:
1. It is inconsistent with the launch content and creates cognitive dissonance with the PS and launch dungeons. Why would all of that be ‘static’ but character-driven when everything since is ‘living’ and development-driven? It interferes too much with suspension of disbelief for anyone who’s nerdy enough to pay attention to it (me). The world doesn’t actually feel alive, it just feels like content is rushed in then yanked out for no particular reason.
2. The fast release cycle without even so much as a test realm means rushed, buggy content, which just goes without saying as being bad for the game and its reputation.
3. The constant release-pull-release-pull is a massive development vacuum that continuously diverts resources away from development that would result in actual growth, which any MMO needs to stay fresh. Over a long period of time, the game suffers immensely and has little to show for it compared to traditional content updates, which fuels disinterest for both veteran and lapsed players.
4. The content so far at least has had a very ‘flavor of the month’ vibe which fragments the overarching narrative and makes the world feel shallow. In part because of this shallowness, the releases also become trite very quickly, which helps drive further disinterest. This is a total shame because the world of Tyria is very interesting and has the potential to feel very deep and immersive if they could just do a better job of presenting the right lore in the right way and drawing players into a deeper, interconnected story.
5. Rushed, time-gated content release after release is just incredibly annoying. Completionists get frustrated and abandon the game, casuals don’t really get to experience it, and hardcore players don’t find it interesting enough to bother with. In short, it’s an epic fail for everyone that isn’t just in love with it for some arbitrary reason, which is almost certainly a minority of the players.
6. The business model to an extent encourages periodic, recurrent play rather than persistent play. When a player who lapsed a couple months back logs in to see what’s changed (which is common), they don’t see much except for a bunch of archived achievements they can’t get now, therefore they immediately check back out of the game. The hemorrhaging of players is another self-perpetuating snowball.
I care about this game immensely but, despite a few solid releases, it has been on the wrong track since launch. I do remain cautiously optimistic that year two will be better than year one, but you need to seriously get it together with the way the game is being developed.