Guild Wars 2

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Kohlteth.3715:

As a brand new player I would LOVE to be able to play LS1 first to “catch up” with what is going on, as LA before it was destroyed looks great and would love to be able to play up to current, so I am then up to date…

Would love as a new player to be able to jump in for Free and play LS1 so we can catch up, would suck if I had to pay for content that was Free and in my mind, should be included to build the story

If you’re a new player, then it’s your lucky day. You don’t need to spend any money outside of the box price you paid for this game! Just convert Gold to Gems, and you can get all the extra you want, for zero (0) dollars!

This message is brought you to today by #TeamGnashblade.

Also, be sure to keep playing that BLTC “Flip my Item” for big rewards if you’re lucky enough to be the first dozen or so to get it to drop.

. . . seriously, people cleaned up on that so hard it’s amazing.

One more aside – stop chopping up analogies by picking out semantics and such, that’s getting annoying. Any analogy is by nature imperfect, and I really wish it had stopped the instant I hit fractions in grade school and had the pie analogy used. “But I don’t like cherry pies…” came from the back of the room, derailing the topic for days. Don’t let this happen to you.

Time to return to topic.

Honestly, there are only two downsides I can see to this:

- Players who cannot, for whatever reason, purchase Gems to purchase the unlocks. Let’s face it, there is a considerable chance people will not be willing/able to put the grind time in to earn Gold enough to buy 200 Gems. There are also people who are without access to a credit card for buying them via the store. This can foster a feeling of dissatisfaction over the apparently insurmountable fence between them and content they missed.

- New players when we hit Season 6 could look back, see the huge pile of price tags for the previous seasons, and decide to just opt out of the game entirely as a “naked and blatant cash grab” is seen. Assuming we actually get new players six years from now . . .

lordkrall.7241:

juno.1840:

lol, because I’m secretly plying for an expansion pack. Charging for content is the first step on that road.

Once ANet charges for content then they have to deliver something worthy of buying it in the first place. I think many players would agree that little in LS Season 1 was worthy of purchase.

So in a round about way, I’m lobbying to make the game better by channeling revenue towards content instead of cosmetic fluff.

Anyway, that is my motivation — pure and simple.

To be fair it is not uncommon for companies to released paid expansions that still sucks.

Lost Dungeons of Norrath.

I still want my money back for that one.

You get what could be compared to an expansion for free, as long as you pick up each piece within their respective 2 week periods… what other game does that? Even GW1 you had to pay for the expansions. Its not too much to ask for you to simply log on and receive free content is it?

And I do believe this season will expand playable maps, enemies, and missions at the very least.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Kohlteth.3715:

As a brand new player I would LOVE to be able to play LS1 first to “catch up” with what is going on, as LA before it was destroyed looks great and would love to be able to play up to current, so I am then up to date…

Would love as a new player to be able to jump in for Free and play LS1 so we can catch up, would suck if I had to pay for content that was Free and in my mind, should be included to build the story

If you’re a new player, then it’s your lucky day. You don’t need to spend any money outside of the box price you paid for this game! Just convert Gold to Gems, and you can get all the extra you want, for zero (0) dollars!

This message is brought you to today by #TeamGnashblade.

Also, be sure to keep playing that BLTC “Flip my Item” for big rewards if you’re lucky enough to be the first dozen or so to get it to drop.

. . . seriously, people cleaned up on that so hard it’s amazing.

One more aside – stop chopping up analogies by picking out semantics and such, that’s getting annoying. Any analogy is by nature imperfect, and I really wish it had stopped the instant I hit fractions in grade school and had the pie analogy used. “But I don’t like cherry pies…” came from the back of the room, derailing the topic for days. Don’t let this happen to you.

Time to return to topic.

Honestly, there are only two downsides I can see to this:

- Players who cannot, for whatever reason, purchase Gems to purchase the unlocks. Let’s face it, there is a considerable chance people will not be willing/able to put the grind time in to earn Gold enough to buy 200 Gems. There are also people who are without access to a credit card for buying them via the store. This can foster a feeling of dissatisfaction over the apparently insurmountable fence between them and content they missed.

- New players when we hit Season 6 could look back, see the huge pile of price tags for the previous seasons, and decide to just opt out of the game entirely as a “naked and blatant cash grab” is seen. Assuming we actually get new players six years from now . . .

There are a few things to consider that solves the issues you brought up.

1) Log in and play the content, and you get access to all of it for free

2) If you can’t afford to convert enough Gold to 200 Gems, that means you don’t have enough time to play all the current content, and go back to play the previous ones. That’s when we have a new problem with “too much content”, which no one ever complains about.

3) You don’t need a creditcard to buy Gems. You can use PayPal, or you can get Gem Cards from your favorite local retailer. See list here: https://www.facebook.com/GuildWars2/posts/10151161572874209

4) It can’t be a “blatant cash grab” when it doesn’t cost a single penny to get. It’s an optional purchase that can be bought using virtual currency you get in game.

BobbyStein.2315:

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Looking over the LS season 2 blurb I spotted this “Past episodes will be available for purchase for 200 gems”

Does this mean if we want to reply any LS content we need to pay for it in gems? Is it an unlock a chapter forever fee for every account or is it character bound? If we pay for a chapter can we team with people who haven’t?

Personally, not sure how I feel about this move. To me it seems to step over the ‘morality line’ and move GW2 to a payment model I don’t really like..

Hmm

If you log in during the release window of an episode (e.g. two weeks) you unlock the episode for your account. You can replay it as many times as you want for free. If you miss the release window and you want to play an episode that you didn’t unlock, you can purchase it.

It’s a lot like watching television in that you can watch (and record) an episode for free when it airs. If you miss it, you can buy the episode off iTunes later. Does that make sense?

or watch it trough a stream website for free, allot cheaper……

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Kohlteth.3715:

As a brand new player I would LOVE to be able to play LS1 first to “catch up” with what is going on, as LA before it was destroyed looks great and would love to be able to play up to current, so I am then up to date…

Would love as a new player to be able to jump in for Free and play LS1 so we can catch up, would suck if I had to pay for content that was Free and in my mind, should be included to build the story

If you’re a new player, then it’s your lucky day. You don’t need to spend any money outside of the box price you paid for this game! Just convert Gold to Gems, and you can get all the extra you want, for zero (0) dollars!

This message is brought you to today by #TeamGnashblade.

Also, be sure to keep playing that BLTC “Flip my Item” for big rewards if you’re lucky enough to be the first dozen or so to get it to drop.

. . . seriously, people cleaned up on that so hard it’s amazing.

One more aside – stop chopping up analogies by picking out semantics and such, that’s getting annoying. Any analogy is by nature imperfect, and I really wish it had stopped the instant I hit fractions in grade school and had the pie analogy used. “But I don’t like cherry pies…” came from the back of the room, derailing the topic for days. Don’t let this happen to you.

Time to return to topic.

Honestly, there are only two downsides I can see to this:

- Players who cannot, for whatever reason, purchase Gems to purchase the unlocks. Let’s face it, there is a considerable chance people will not be willing/able to put the grind time in to earn Gold enough to buy 200 Gems. There are also people who are without access to a credit card for buying them via the store. This can foster a feeling of dissatisfaction over the apparently insurmountable fence between them and content they missed.

- New players when we hit Season 6 could look back, see the huge pile of price tags for the previous seasons, and decide to just opt out of the game entirely as a “naked and blatant cash grab” is seen. Assuming we actually get new players six years from now . . .

I had to respond to this.
Let’s take an example you gave that GW2 is in 6th season. That would be in like 4-5 years:
1. You only pay for the story content of the episode, everything else that was released, like new zones, new boss, maybe new skills, proffesions, race, who knows how Anet is going to handle that stuff? is avaible to you as a new player for FREE.
2. I can see Anet selling episode, like season passes, more episode for lower cost, just like a LOT of single player games sell you season pass for their DLCs. And to be fair Anet way is more generous, because you only pay for story instances, other content that was introduced is free, so back to point 1.
3. Sorry but in this day and age is quite easy to get internet debit card. I got it when I was 18. If you are under 18, well then ask your parent to buy it for you.
4. And this is the biggest point… You don’t have to have seasons 1-5 to enjoy season 6. If you don’t want to conver gold to gem, or simply buy them. Then just read wiki about that story and you’ll catch up. And again all content that was introduced during the seasons 1-5 that isn’t a story instance is avaible to you.
5. They will probably sell GW2 super extra delux edition that contatins all seasons 1-5 for price tag of only 60$, and you save xx$ ammount of money.

TL;DR:
I don’t see how is this different from BMP in GW1, except that it rewards players that play this game on regular base. And I think thats the whole point. You aren’t punishing new players, you are rewarding your playerbase that is supporting the game.

sorudo.9054:

or watch it trough a stream website for free, allot cheaper……

Not legal in most countries though And I doubt they take illegal alternatives into consideration, but that might just be me.

SemmlerTh.2685:

€: another thing: please dont use the word “pay wall” in this context. That is just incorrect.

For most part I am positive about it (as long as it doe not become to much PS).

But the gems per episode is a pay-wall for resulting or new players. For them it’s not 200 gems but 800 or 1000 or more.

And I am not even against pay-walls if you get real content for it but in this case it’s likely not the expansion content that is behind the pay-wall but the story. Something people do feel is important but are likely less interesting to pay a 1000 gems on. Not to mention the rage you will get if an episode is not so good.

This is no problem for active players but it can be a problem for returning players. That’s why I say to just offer a service of “unlock all previous episodes” for 200 gems in stead of unlock 1 episode for 200 gems.

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

You get what could be compared to an expansion for free, as long as you pick up each piece within their respective 2 week periods… what other game does that? Even GW1 you had to pay for the expansions. Its not too much to ask for you to simply log on and receive free content is it?

And I do believe this season will expand playable maps, enemies, and missions at the very least.

It’s not an expansion more the story. And I would rather pay for an expansion so they can make money that way then get an expansion for free but feel the cash-shop influence.

But anyway I don’t think the episodes are really comparable to an expansion it will be pure story. If they add in expansion-like content that will always be available.

lordkrall.7241:

sorudo.9054:

or watch it trough a stream website for free, allot cheaper……

Not legal in most countries though And I doubt they take illegal alternatives into consideration, but that might just be me.

it’s legal to watch a video regardless of it’s content, it’s illegal to host copyrighted episodes.

Faerun.3091:

TL;DR:
I don’t see how is this different from BMP in GW1, except that it rewards players that play this game on regular base. And I think thats the whole point. You aren’t punishing new players, you are rewarding your playerbase that is supporting the game.

You’re pretty on here, and I honestly don’t have a problem myself with the arrangement as suggested.

. . . provided there’s a means of getting LS1 free to people who went through it when it’s included in the Story Journal.

This is definitely better than “you missed it, so you missed it for good”, it is notably more useful to have as permanent (if unlockable) content, and it might make Gems useful to people who otherwise wouldn’t bother.

The only downsides I saw, I pointed out . . . and I know I was reaching for the interpretations. However, they would still be points people would complain about. Unfortunately.

sorudo.9054:

lordkrall.7241:

sorudo.9054:

or watch it trough a stream website for free, allot cheaper……

Not legal in most countries though And I doubt they take illegal alternatives into consideration, but that might just be me.

it’s legal to watch a video regardless of it’s content, it’s illegal to host copyrighted episodes.

Aren’t all episodes of anything copyrighted, there’s just a choice not to exercise it?

SemmlerTh.2685:

For all these people calling this a “simply bad business decision” – do your homework, this is called a freemium pricing model and it works very good.

For all the americans Id like to give you a very interesting example, why this works very good for the rest of the world: We dont have hulu, we dont have neetflix (most countries that is); So for example, if the new GoT episode gets aired in, for example, the german tv, then you can rewatch it, if the tv station offers that kind of service. (I dont think they do)
Many Stations practice this “7 day rewatch”-thing, where you can watch shows 7 days after they have aired. If you wanna watch older episodes, you have to specifically buy them or have some sort of premium account. So if you missed this specific episode and you even missed the opportunity to rewatch it, then you have to pay, if you really want that content.

That is a working business model that doesn’t hurt anyone, plus, people are already very aware of that move. If you have watched the livestream or the recorded video, then youll know, that “bundles” are a matter of discussion.

Besides, if you think what an expansion would cost you, then its much cheaper to unlock these episodes. Lets say we have 24 episodes per season (even though it might be 20 or 18, because we had this long break – maybe only 15, because there might be some feature pack or festival releases), 2000 Gems = 25€ if you order it online, means 2,50€ for one past episode. That means, if you want to buy a whole year of episodes, that would cost you 60€. That is not much at all, especially if you consider, that there might be only 15 episodes per season, then we are at 37,50€.

The Third Season of Game of Thrones costs 29,90€ if you buy it digitally on iTunes. Thats 3€ per episode. Even more, if you buy it on DVD or blueray.

I dont know about you, but I have all available season of GoT & True Blood as DVD. It was worth my money, even though I had already watched them.

200 gems are about 20 exchanged gold atm. If you are doing a little bit of that and a little bit of this, then you get 5 – 10 gold per day easily. A player that is into the story will see this calculation and in most cases he/she will make the decision, that its worth the money.

I am so very happy about this decision. It show that anet knows what they do, and that they listen. I have expected this move for months now, seeing them doing now exactly what I predicted feels great

€: another thing: please dont use the word “pay wall” in this context. That is just incorrect.

There is one huge flaw in your theory. Give gamers the option to play and spend nothing, and they will do just that. The hard core gamers move from game to game. The few in comparison willing to spend real money in game, will dress their character as they wish, then they find no need to spend any further. I’m willing to say mt’s will die out. Ncsoft posted 113 million in revenues from GW2 the first year, 32 million the second year, and have said they are holding their own currently. Not very promising.. I hope it changes, but given their insistance to stick with the LS, I doubt it. We’ll see if the trickle effect of mt’s will exceed the tried and true influx every 6 months or so that true expansions brought to GW1. Which is alive and well, and holding it’s own also lol

@Tobias Trueflight.8350
Trust me… new players and returning ones getting screwed over was my first thought as well.
BUT then I got into thinking. And I realized, that you only pay for the story part of the release, everything else is still there (if it was permanent addition) for you to enjoy. And this is nice way of Anet to say.. Hey guys we still exist, look at all the cool stuff you get for FREE if you play our game even for one day in two weeks.
Then I thought about NEW players, and realised that by time that two, or three seasons have passed (I presume Anet will be adding more permanent content in other seasons as well, not just temp content where it makes sense. Like Tower of Nightmare, it wouldn’t make sense if tower was permanent addition to the game.) and we are in, lets say 4th season; there should be enough of a content for NEW player to enjoy. So once he/she is “done” with that content he/she can either buy it, or just convert gold to gems for episodes he/she would like to play while getting new episodes for free.
It would be cool if everyone gets it for free, BUT Anet needs to make money somehow. I personaly don’t find anything cool in gem shop to buy atm. But I would episodes if I missed.

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

SemmlerTh.2685:

For all these people calling this a “simply bad business decision” – do your homework, this is called a freemium pricing model and it works very good.

For all the americans Id like to give you a very interesting example, why this works very good for the rest of the world: We dont have hulu, we dont have neetflix (most countries that is); So for example, if the new GoT episode gets aired in, for example, the german tv, then you can rewatch it, if the tv station offers that kind of service. (I dont think they do)
Many Stations practice this “7 day rewatch”-thing, where you can watch shows 7 days after they have aired. If you wanna watch older episodes, you have to specifically buy them or have some sort of premium account. So if you missed this specific episode and you even missed the opportunity to rewatch it, then you have to pay, if you really want that content.

That is a working business model that doesn’t hurt anyone, plus, people are already very aware of that move. If you have watched the livestream or the recorded video, then youll know, that “bundles” are a matter of discussion.

Besides, if you think what an expansion would cost you, then its much cheaper to unlock these episodes. Lets say we have 24 episodes per season (even though it might be 20 or 18, because we had this long break – maybe only 15, because there might be some feature pack or festival releases), 2000 Gems = 25€ if you order it online, means 2,50€ for one past episode. That means, if you want to buy a whole year of episodes, that would cost you 60€. That is not much at all, especially if you consider, that there might be only 15 episodes per season, then we are at 37,50€.

The Third Season of Game of Thrones costs 29,90€ if you buy it digitally on iTunes. Thats 3€ per episode. Even more, if you buy it on DVD or blueray.

I dont know about you, but I have all available season of GoT & True Blood as DVD. It was worth my money, even though I had already watched them.

200 gems are about 20 exchanged gold atm. If you are doing a little bit of that and a little bit of this, then you get 5 – 10 gold per day easily. A player that is into the story will see this calculation and in most cases he/she will make the decision, that its worth the money.

I am so very happy about this decision. It show that anet knows what they do, and that they listen. I have expected this move for months now, seeing them doing now exactly what I predicted feels great

€: another thing: please dont use the word “pay wall” in this context. That is just incorrect.

There is one huge flaw in your theory. Give gamers the option to play and spend nothing, and they will do just that. The hard core gamers move from game to game. The few in comparison willing to spend real money in game, will dress their character as they wish, then they find no need to spend any further. I’m willing to say mt’s will die out. Ncsoft posted 113 million in revenues from GW2 the first year, 32 million the second year, and have said they are holding their own currently. Not very promising.. I hope it changes, but given their insistance to stick with the LS, I doubt it. We’ll see if the trickle effect of mt’s will exceed the tried and true influx every 6 months or so that true expansions brought to GW1. Which is alive and well, and holding it’s own also lol

I don’t want to be the jerk here, but I’m pretty sure that Anet is making enough money to continue the LS, otherwise they would have made expanison and said that LS was bad idea business wise. Also after last NCSoft’s conference call GW2 is their main earner after Lineage 1. So I think they are doing good, plus they just launched in China, so that will make some nice money for Anet and NC for next conference call.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

sorudo.9054:

lordkrall.7241:

sorudo.9054:

or watch it trough a stream website for free, allot cheaper……

Not legal in most countries though And I doubt they take illegal alternatives into consideration, but that might just be me.

it’s legal to watch a video regardless of it’s content, it’s illegal to host copyrighted episodes.

Aren’t all episodes of anything copyrighted, there’s just a choice not to exercise it?

team four star, mastermovies, other fan-made episodes.
all not copyrighted, all legal.

sorudo.9054:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

sorudo.9054:

lordkrall.7241:

sorudo.9054:

or watch it trough a stream website for free, allot cheaper……

Not legal in most countries though And I doubt they take illegal alternatives into consideration, but that might just be me.

it’s legal to watch a video regardless of it’s content, it’s illegal to host copyrighted episodes.

Aren’t all episodes of anything copyrighted, there’s just a choice not to exercise it?

team four star, mastermovies, other fan-made episodes.
all not copyrighted, all legal.

Fan-fiction is not an episode of the original, which are (generally) copyrighted.

After 6 pages of discussions/argument…..what has this thread achieved?
Probably at most some chuckles from Anet lol.

Move along folks, 200gems will happen whether we like it or not.
Heck its probably NCSoft’s idea, not Anet.

Ashen.2907:

sorudo.9054:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

sorudo.9054:

lordkrall.7241:

sorudo.9054:

or watch it trough a stream website for free, allot cheaper……

Not legal in most countries though And I doubt they take illegal alternatives into consideration, but that might just be me.

it’s legal to watch a video regardless of it’s content, it’s illegal to host copyrighted episodes.

Aren’t all episodes of anything copyrighted, there’s just a choice not to exercise it?

team four star, mastermovies, other fan-made episodes.
all not copyrighted, all legal.

Fan-fiction is not an episode of the original, which are (generally) copyrighted.

And either way, anything is copyrighted when it is created. It can only be enforced if it’s been a registered copyright.

. . . I used to look this up out of habit before I began writing amateur work. The usual goes, I am not a lawyer (and I’ve been told copyright is one of those places even the lawyers go ‘oh god no’ with regards to minutae in the laws).

I see we’ve had a lot of developer interest and assistance Sarcasm since they funneled us all in the one little thread to die off like everything else they don’t want to deal with. Meanwhile they’ve been busy discussing Destiny’s Edge 2.0 with their favorite children.

I really love this idea Anet will be implementing! I can’t wait!

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

SemmlerTh.2685:

For all these people calling this a “simply bad business decision” – do your homework, this is called a freemium pricing model and it works very good.

For all the americans Id like to give you a very interesting example, why this works very good for the rest of the world: We dont have hulu, we dont have neetflix (most countries that is); So for example, if the new GoT episode gets aired in, for example, the german tv, then you can rewatch it, if the tv station offers that kind of service. (I dont think they do)
Many Stations practice this “7 day rewatch”-thing, where you can watch shows 7 days after they have aired. If you wanna watch older episodes, you have to specifically buy them or have some sort of premium account. So if you missed this specific episode and you even missed the opportunity to rewatch it, then you have to pay, if you really want that content.

That is a working business model that doesn’t hurt anyone, plus, people are already very aware of that move. If you have watched the livestream or the recorded video, then youll know, that “bundles” are a matter of discussion.

Besides, if you think what an expansion would cost you, then its much cheaper to unlock these episodes. Lets say we have 24 episodes per season (even though it might be 20 or 18, because we had this long break – maybe only 15, because there might be some feature pack or festival releases), 2000 Gems = 25€ if you order it online, means 2,50€ for one past episode. That means, if you want to buy a whole year of episodes, that would cost you 60€. That is not much at all, especially if you consider, that there might be only 15 episodes per season, then we are at 37,50€.

The Third Season of Game of Thrones costs 29,90€ if you buy it digitally on iTunes. Thats 3€ per episode. Even more, if you buy it on DVD or blueray.

I dont know about you, but I have all available season of GoT & True Blood as DVD. It was worth my money, even though I had already watched them.

200 gems are about 20 exchanged gold atm. If you are doing a little bit of that and a little bit of this, then you get 5 – 10 gold per day easily. A player that is into the story will see this calculation and in most cases he/she will make the decision, that its worth the money.

I am so very happy about this decision. It show that anet knows what they do, and that they listen. I have expected this move for months now, seeing them doing now exactly what I predicted feels great

€: another thing: please dont use the word “pay wall” in this context. That is just incorrect.

There is one huge flaw in your theory. Give gamers the option to play and spend nothing, and they will do just that. The hard core gamers move from game to game. The few in comparison willing to spend real money in game, will dress their character as they wish, then they find no need to spend any further. I’m willing to say mt’s will die out. Ncsoft posted 113 million in revenues from GW2 the first year, 32 million the second year, and have said they are holding their own currently. Not very promising.. I hope it changes, but given their insistance to stick with the LS, I doubt it. We’ll see if the trickle effect of mt’s will exceed the tried and true influx every 6 months or so that true expansions brought to GW1. Which is alive and well, and holding it’s own also lol

You’re mixing years with quarters
They did 113 the release quarter and they did 33 in the last quarter of the 2nd year.

The first quarter was obviously bigger because of box sales that slowely diminished overtime as all those who meant to buy the game bought it. They have been constantly makeing between 25 – 38m quarter after quarter since release. In fact the 33m you mentioned for q4 2013 was 10m more then q4 2012 when they did 24m

as for gw1 their best quarter ever was q4 2006 when they posted 18m sales. For subsequent years Gw2 does in a quarter more then Gw1 did in a year. So if Gw1 is doing well and healthy never fear Gw2 is doing even better.

They’re choice of business model is not working as bad as you’re imagining.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Kohlteth.3715:

As a brand new player I would LOVE to be able to play LS1 first to “catch up” with what is going on, as LA before it was destroyed looks great and would love to be able to play up to current, so I am then up to date…

Would love as a new player to be able to jump in for Free and play LS1 so we can catch up, would suck if I had to pay for content that was Free and in my mind, should be included to build the story

If you’re a new player, then it’s your lucky day. You don’t need to spend any money outside of the box price you paid for this game! Just convert Gold to Gems, and you can get all the extra you want, for zero (0) dollars!

This message is brought you to today by #TeamGnashblade.

Also, be sure to keep playing that BLTC “Flip my Item” for big rewards if you’re lucky enough to be the first dozen or so to get it to drop.

. . . seriously, people cleaned up on that so hard it’s amazing.

One more aside – stop chopping up analogies by picking out semantics and such, that’s getting annoying. Any analogy is by nature imperfect, and I really wish it had stopped the instant I hit fractions in grade school and had the pie analogy used. “But I don’t like cherry pies…” came from the back of the room, derailing the topic for days. Don’t let this happen to you.

Time to return to topic.

Honestly, there are only two downsides I can see to this:

- Players who cannot, for whatever reason, purchase Gems to purchase the unlocks. Let’s face it, there is a considerable chance people will not be willing/able to put the grind time in to earn Gold enough to buy 200 Gems. There are also people who are without access to a credit card for buying them via the store. This can foster a feeling of dissatisfaction over the apparently insurmountable fence between them and content they missed.

- New players when we hit Season 6 could look back, see the huge pile of price tags for the previous seasons, and decide to just opt out of the game entirely as a “naked and blatant cash grab” is seen. Assuming we actually get new players six years from now . . .

If you can’t earn 20 gold in this game chances are you have other things you could be doing then reliving old stories out of curiosity

By season 6 seasons 1 to 4 would likely be in unlock packs are reduced prices. Like skill packs in – 21

Evo Sapien.5298:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Kohlteth.3715:

As a brand new player I would LOVE to be able to play LS1 first to “catch up” with what is going on, as LA before it was destroyed looks great and would love to be able to play up to current, so I am then up to date…

Would love as a new player to be able to jump in for Free and play LS1 so we can catch up, would suck if I had to pay for content that was Free and in my mind, should be included to build the story

If you’re a new player, then it’s your lucky day. You don’t need to spend any money outside of the box price you paid for this game! Just convert Gold to Gems, and you can get all the extra you want, for zero (0) dollars!

This message is brought you to today by #TeamGnashblade.

Also, be sure to keep playing that BLTC “Flip my Item” for big rewards if you’re lucky enough to be the first dozen or so to get it to drop.

. . . seriously, people cleaned up on that so hard it’s amazing.

One more aside – stop chopping up analogies by picking out semantics and such, that’s getting annoying. Any analogy is by nature imperfect, and I really wish it had stopped the instant I hit fractions in grade school and had the pie analogy used. “But I don’t like cherry pies…” came from the back of the room, derailing the topic for days. Don’t let this happen to you.

Time to return to topic.

Honestly, there are only two downsides I can see to this:

- Players who cannot, for whatever reason, purchase Gems to purchase the unlocks. Let’s face it, there is a considerable chance people will not be willing/able to put the grind time in to earn Gold enough to buy 200 Gems. There are also people who are without access to a credit card for buying them via the store. This can foster a feeling of dissatisfaction over the apparently insurmountable fence between them and content they missed.

- New players when we hit Season 6 could look back, see the huge pile of price tags for the previous seasons, and decide to just opt out of the game entirely as a “naked and blatant cash grab” is seen. Assuming we actually get new players six years from now . . .

If you can’t earn 20 gold in this game chances are you have other things you could be doing then reliving old stories out of curiosity

By season 6 seasons 1 to 4 would likely be in unlock packs are reduced prices. Like skill packs in – 21

lol i doubt gw2 will even reach season 6.
And if it is already season 6 and you still haven’t done Seasons 1 – 4, i’d
recommend moving on to a newer mmo rather then pay for them tbh.

people forget that you can play each episode for free even if you’ve missed it:

Just ask a guildie / anyone (lfg-tool) who has got the episode to invite you to his/her group and replay the mission. If you like it, buy it for the achievenments and rewards.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

people forget that you can play each episode for free even if you’ve missed it:

Just ask a guildie / anyone (lfg-tool) who has got the episode to invite you to his/her group and replay the mission. If you like it, buy it for the achievenments and rewards.

Exactly, someone with some common sense !

Though they could have done the other way around I think less people would have minded, like, you get all the rewards and titles even if you missed them by talking to a npc and saying : “Hi ! I’d like that backpack skin and this title too ! I can ignore the LS and contents, I don’t care…”

LordEnki.9283:

I see we’ve had a lot of developer interest and assistance Sarcasm since they funneled us all in the one little thread to die off like everything else they don’t want to deal with. Meanwhile they’ve been busy discussing Destiny’s Edge 2.0 with their favorite children.

Since you posted just to basically attack them, I’ll play advocate and politely request that you actually look at the job titles of those 2 Arenanet employees that posted that. One narrative designer, the other, lead writer. There isn’t much, if anything, either of them can tell you, and every time an Arenanet employee posts ‘thanks for your feedback’ or anything similar, they are flamed for not doing enough, not acknowledging players or listening to feedback… (think on that irony for a moment). Also, I was told this idea originated with one of the CDI’s, aka, player feedback. And it has been pointed out that they read, but don’t necessarily reply, because let’s face it, posts like that do not warrant a response from them.

In the interest of disclosure, and before I’m flamed for my post, No I am not happy with how parts of the game are going. I dislike megaserver for many reasons. Bugs in certain skills tick me off, and some decisions involving some classes contributed to me playing them less, despite one having been almost the only one I played for like 7 months. I effectively quit back at dragon bash because I was disgusted with there being no real story or missions/quests to everything they were doing involving LS. I missed out on some good things because of that. Some I’d have been interested in playing after I started getting on more, months later. Would I pay 200 gems? No, I’d have made sure to log in to unlock it in case I might eventually want to play it later, for free. But with how Season 1 was done, I don’t even have that ability.

Aedelric.1287:

When you add season one it better be free or their will be serious trouble.

I am not paying for content I logged on every day for.

I second this. Though I took a break from the game during Season 1. Had I known this was going to happen I’d have logged in every patch. This hardly seems fair.

We don’t know if they will charge for season 1 or not. Hell, they haven’t even started devoting any resources to see if they even can. Let’s not get our panties in a bunch.

Personally, I could see season 1 being free to those that participated, and purchasable for those that did not. Thus logically following the model they have set forth. If they can even do it.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

We don’t know if they will charge for season 1 or not. Hell, they haven’t even started devoting any resources to see if they even can. Let’s not get our panties in a bunch.

Personally, I could see season 1 being free to those that participated, and purchasable for those that did not. Thus logically following the model they have set forth. If they can even do it.

Amen!!

I like how many people are automatically assuming that Season 1 will be available through the journal at a later date TBD. The only this ever said about Season 1 and the Journal was 1) that it was not built with the journal in mind, 2) It won’t be available at launch of the journal, and 3) that they hope to add season 1 in the future. This implies that the open world mechanics of season 1 are incompatible with the mechanics of the journal and would require require an extensive reworking of all the content to make it compatible. Since we know nothing about season 2, and how its going to be presented, anything discussed on the matter is purely speculation at best.

As for the paying gems because you missed an episode? I don’t see it as a big deal. Many people have said before if content, past or future, were available for purchase on the gem store, they would gladly pay for it. Thats basically what this is. For those who are already convinced that Season 2 is going to be as bad or worse (in their opinions) than season 1, they forget that they don’t have to buy it OR play it. Many others are looking forward to it, and don’t mind having to pay $2.50 USD/convert gold to play if they missed it. Either way Anet has made their decision, it’s not going to break the game, the sky isn’t falling, and people will leave and more people will join, and life goes on.

pdavis.8031:

Either way Anet has made their decision, it’s not going to break the game, the sky isn’t falling, and people will leave and more people will join, and life goes on.

Also known as “circle of life” Simba is GW2 and Mufasa is Anet haha

Faerun.3091:

pdavis.8031:

Either way Anet has made their decision, it’s not going to break the game, the sky isn’t falling, and people will leave and more people will join, and life goes on.

Also known as “circle of life” Simba is GW2 and Mufasa is Anet haha

OT: so Simba (GW2) runs away, Mufasa (Anet) dies, then Simba returns, Kills Scar (NSCoft?), become king and thrives and lives happily ever after, and sires a new cub (GW3)? So in the end GW2 wins and all is well with the world.

Well that escalated quickly haha

Faerun.3091:

Well that escalated quickly haha

Just following the analogy :P

pdavis.8031:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

We don’t know if they will charge for season 1 or not. Hell, they haven’t even started devoting any resources to see if they even can. Let’s not get our panties in a bunch.

Personally, I could see season 1 being free to those that participated, and purchasable for those that did not. Thus logically following the model they have set forth. If they can even do it.

Amen!!

I like how many people are automatically assuming that Season 1 will be available through the journal at a later date TBD. The only this ever said about Season 1 and the Journal was 1) that it was not built with the journal in mind, 2) It won’t be available at launch of the journal, and 3) that they hope to add season 1 in the future. This implies that the open world mechanics of season 1 are incompatible with the mechanics of the journal and would require require an extensive reworking of all the content to make it compatible. Since we know nothing about season 2, and how its going to be presented, anything discussed on the matter is purely speculation at best.

As for the paying gems because you missed an episode? I don’t see it as a big deal. Many people have said before if content, past or future, were available for purchase on the gem store, they would gladly pay for it. Thats basically what this is. For those who are already convinced that Season 2 is going to be as bad or worse (in their opinions) than season 1, they forget that they don’t have to buy it OR play it. Many others are looking forward to it, and don’t mind having to pay $2.50 USD/convert gold to play if they missed it. Either way Anet has made their decision, it’s not going to break the game, the sky isn’t falling, and people will leave and more people will join, and life goes on.

They said it will come back, not that they hope it come back. It is just a matter of when. http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/4412034 13:27

Funny how you did get all the information they said seconds before saying season 1 will come back at some point but that sentence itself you did hear as that they hope it would come back.

Just to get your facts strait.

On a more general note. Now I think about it, did they ever say that you would not be required to play a previous episode in order to play the later episodes? Everybody assumes that is the case (including me) but you never know. It might be one of those things then become apparent after the patch is released. Because that would also shine a whole new light on the “paying for past content” thing.

You can find the answer to your question in the link you provided^.

As for them stating emphatically that Season One will return, they stated just as emphatically that they hoped it would return. In fact, the very same person stated both:

We do hope to add Season 1 to the Journal in the future.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-story-journal/

Somewhat contradictory, but we are all only human. =)

@Devata
I haven’t seen the stream (and can’t as I’m at work) but as Inculpatus said, I got my information from the blog. (Personally I take the written version more seriously, as slips of the tongue can and do happen, and with it written down the author has a chance to review and ensure that what is being said is accurate and clear. But thats just me.)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You can find the answer to your question in the link you provided^.

As for them stating emphatically that Season One will return, they stated just as emphatically that they hoped it would return. In fact, the very same person stated both:

We do hope to add Season 1 to the Journal in the future.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-story-journal/

Somewhat contradictory, but we are all only human. =)

I think there is an element of concern on their part in regards to whether they can retrofit it to use it in the journal. As Kate points out a large chunk of season 1 revolved around large scale battles (like battle for LA) and they have to figure out how to make that work. So they are saying it will come / hope it will come, but it all boils down to whether it is technically possible or not.

pdavis.8031:

@Devata
I haven’t seen the stream (and can’t as I’m at work) but as Inculpatus said, I got my information from the blog. (Personally I take the written version more seriously, as slips of the tongue can and do happen, and with it written down the author has a chance to review and ensure that what is being said is accurate and clear. But thats just me.)

I would agree that it if they said it will come in the live-stream it could be a slip of the tongue. However they did go into that statement stating it was really more a matter of when. So then it’s not just a slip of the tongue any-more. They talk more detailed about it and it’s released later then the blog-post so I think it’s very valid to use take that statement.

Anyway, my comment was more because you said you ‘liked it’ that people acted as if Anet said they would add in season 1 while they did not (according to you). So I did show you that Anet indeed said they would. That’s then also why people say so.

@Inculpatus cedo.9234
I guess I did miss that part. They did say you would not need to complete it to unlock the next episode but did they also say you did not have to complete it to be able to complete the next episode. It came to my mind because they also talked about how it would be similar to the PS in the way it worked but only that you could also replay previous episodes. But I guess you can just play new episodes without having to complete previous ones. It would be strange if it would not be the case. It would make sense from a story standpoint but not from a game-play standpoint.

This is one of the most idiotic and greed driven ideas I have ever heard of. I just took alittle break(literally 2 weeks) after the worldvworld reward fiasco came back to find I have to pay 200 gems to access the week of content I missed. Your really going to punish players for not being constantly apart of your community 24/7/365 . that’s is the fastest way to drive payers away. Not cool arena net. I expect great things from you not this petty little $$$$ fest your trying scare up. I’m pretty sure this goes against your prosmise of 1 time fee for content. it may not be a subscription but it certainly is exploiting players to pay more than the cost of the game to enjoy content.

I see you have a necro rule here too. this is my first time psoting even tho ive been a player since Gw2 started. I will take the consequences of posting this. That is how outraged I am about arena charging gems for the living world. Its very unprofessional

I decided to return after hearing that some people find Season 2 to be an improvement over Season 1. Giving my long break from the game and the current lack of MMOs I find worth a spit, I was ready to be open minded and see if I could recapture some of the original magic.

I log in and find this.

The tin foil hat theories gain even more credence. For what ever reason, ANet is trying to kill GW2 by any means necessary, even if it’s a death by a thousand cuts. This one cuts a bit deeper than many of the rest.

This is a massive slap in the face to people who take a break and expected ANet to keep the promise that once you’ve bought the game, you can return at any time and have access to all the non-expansion content you missed, at no extra charge. This stomps on the promise that players will not be gated from game content by pay-walls and segregated based on who has what. It’s also guaranteed to discourage new players, make it harder for current players to create friends and to provide a rude tumble in the mud for new players who do “buy to play”, only to find they have to pay extra for content they could have had for free, if only they had bought a few months earlier.

Very sad, even more so because the community that’s left could only fill six pages in response.

China has been a huge hit for GW2, but mid to long term is still uncertain. If it remains a huge hit six months from now, I’m guessing Western players and forgotten promises will become of little concern, and the game will continue to transition to the high greed, “evil” cash shop model.

We all love to see a diamond in the rough polished via hard work and talent into a brilliant gem; this is the first time I’ve ever seen MMO developers launch with the Hope Diamond and then try so hard to transmute that diamond back into a lump of coal.

How we can witness a high water mark in MMO launches and an all time low in ongoing MMO development from the same title continues to be beyond me. Einstein’s definition of insanity strangely comes to mind as I ponder this quandary.

The Who, What, When, Where and Why of it would make a compelling novel, I hope some day someone will have the guts to write it and maybe then, some of this will make some sort of twisted sense from the perspective of those who fell down a dark rabbit hole and never once looked back…

Fiontar.4695:

This is a massive slap in the face to people who take a break and expected ANet to keep the promise that once you’ve bought the game, you can return at any time and have access to all the non-expansion content you missed, at no extra charge.

When have they ever said that?

They said the game wouldn’t have a subscription fee (which is paying to access the game you’ve already paid for), but that’s not the same as promising that players would always have access to everything that was released for free.

Fiontar.4695:

This is a massive slap in the face to people who take a break and expected ANet to keep the promise that once you’ve bought the game, you can return at any time and have access to all the non-expansion content you missed, at no extra charge

Would love to see a source for this.
Especially since before this update you couldn’t even see the content at all if you missed it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can do every single part of the missed parts without paying anything by joining someone that have them unlocked.

Fiontar.4695:

I decided to return after hearing that some people find Season 2 to be an improvement over Season 1. Giving my long break from the game and the current lack of MMOs I find worth a spit, I was ready to be open minded and see if I could recapture some of the original magic.

I log in and find this.

The tin foil hat theories gain even more credence. For what ever reason, ANet is trying to kill GW2 by any means necessary, even if it’s a death by a thousand cuts. This one cuts a bit deeper than many of the rest.

This is a massive slap in the face to people who take a break and expected ANet to keep the promise that once you’ve bought the game, you can return at any time and have access to all the non-expansion content you missed, at no extra charge. This stomps on the promise that players will not be gated from game content by pay-walls and segregated based on who has what. It’s also guaranteed to discourage new players, make it harder for current players to create friends and to provide a rude tumble in the mud for new players who do “buy to play”, only to find they have to pay extra for content they could have had for free, if only they had bought a few months earlier.

Very sad, even more so because the community that’s left could only fill six pages in response.

China has been a huge hit for GW2, but mid to long term is still uncertain. If it remains a huge hit six months from now, I’m guessing Western players and forgotten promises will become of little concern, and the game will continue to transition to the high greed, “evil” cash shop model.

We all love to see a diamond in the rough polished via hard work and talent into a brilliant gem; this is the first time I’ve ever seen MMO developers launch with the Hope Diamond and then try so hard to transmute that diamond back into a lump of coal.

How we can witness a high water mark in MMO launches and an all time low in ongoing MMO development from the same title continues to be beyond me. Einstein’s definition of insanity strangely comes to mind as I ponder this quandary.

The Who, What, When, Where and Why of it would make a compelling novel, I hope some day someone will have the guts to write it and maybe then, some of this will make some sort of twisted sense from the perspective of those who fell down a dark rabbit hole and never once looked back…

BUT you DO have the ability to replay it……. something those of us who bought the game after LS1 will probably never get to see again, I would LOVE to be able to play LS1 to actually find out who the heck Kasmeer etc actually are !

But I cant, and why is that ? Because I wasnt here when LS1 was on,. !

You missed part of LS2 , BUT Anet now allows you to be able to still play it, just costs ya , OR you could have logged in for 30 seconds in that 2 weeks and had it for free !

No pleasing some people I guess.

lordkrall.7241:

Would love to see a source for this.
Especially since before this update you couldn’t even see the content at all if you missed it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Guild-wars-2-content-update/first#post86706

Johanson discussed the issue of additional Guild Wars 2 content over on the game’s official forums.

“No need to buy them,” Johanson stated, “Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.”

“We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does.”

This is more recent. From 2010 through 2012, there were numerous Arenanet blog posts detailing many elements of the game and the business model that have since been abandoned. When those blog posts became a thorn in their side, they deleted them and they can’t even be found any longer in the Way Back Machine internet archives.

I obsessively followed this game’s development, played obsessively for many months and was a very active proponent of the game from 2010 through mid 2013. I read everything I could get my hands on and I know with certainty that they clearly stated that they did not want to segregate content behind pay walls, short of a full expansion and that they would never sell anything in the cash shop other than cosmetic items and conveniences.

Giving a paid cash shop item free for a limited time does not make it a free item, it’s a paid cash shop item regardless. If being able to trade gold for gems to buy them makes them “free”, then there are absolutely no bounds as to what they could or should offer on the cash shop, since you could just grind for hours to buy any of them “for free” using in game gold.

The problem isn’t just promises broken or semantics. It makes zero business sense to add pay wall barriers for content if part of the goal of that content is to attract new and returning customers. The price per chapter isn’t significant, but most will bristle at it on principle. For those who look at the game months from now, the cumulative costs will be significant.

The loss in potential revenue from new or returning players who will pass on by because of these ill conceived pay walls greatly exceeds the occasional purchase by a current player who due to circumstance misses the free period for a given chapter. In fact, for those “just barely hanging on”, the “pay for this now, since you missed it when it was free” kick to the nether regions may knock many such players right from the game.

The story about Season Two should be “come on back and see how much we have improved, we’ve worked really hard to earn another look”, not “trust us, living story is much better now, but you’ll have to pay us extra to find out, since you missed the time window when you could have gotten it for free”.

BTW, I spent a lot of money on this game the first year. Much more than the equivalent in subscription fees. I’m not adverse to spending money for a game I like with developers who earn my good will. The first thing I did after patching the game yesterday and loggeing in was to stake out potential gem store purchases, assuming Season Two was able to hook me back in. I found $100 worth of stuff to put on my wish list and that would only cover one of my two accounts.

Then, I turned to the Season Two living story and found the first two chapters behind a pay wall. That was the end of me giving ANet yet another chance.

It’s just an illogical, completely unnecessary and very passive aggressive slap in the face for returning or new players, who might otherwise have been enticed by word of this seemingly improved Season Two.

I feel bad for the content developers, it seems like the business side of things just couldn’t help but find some way to diminish the potential benefits of their work towards breathing life back into the game.

The story for Arenanet post 2012 can be summed up by “One step forward, two steps back. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat…..” When ever someone works kitten the silver lining, others just seem determined to add a heavy layer of stubborn tarnish before it gets released.

Fiontar.4695:

Then, I turned to the Season Two living story and found the first two chapters behind a pay wall. That was the end of me giving ANet yet another chance.

Really? Because that was known before they started LS2, they were going to do that; if you logged into a character for even five minutes you got access for free. Otherwise, 200 Gems.

It’s just an illogical, completely unnecessary and very passive aggressive slap in the face for returning or new players, who might otherwise have been enticed by word of this seemingly improved Season Two.

Still better than LS1 “you snooze you lose” . . .

I’m pretty neutral on the 200 gem cost.

I am confused by people accusing ANet of requiring real world money for missed episodes. 200 gems is < 20 in-game gold. No real money required. No debit/credit card required. Just a bit of in-game gold.

What’s the problem?

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Fiontar.4695:

Then, I turned to the Season Two living story and found the first two chapters behind a pay wall. That was the end of me giving ANet yet another chance.

Really? Because that was known before they started LS2, they were going to do that; if you logged into a character for even five minutes you got access for free. Otherwise, 200 Gems.

It’s just an illogical, completely unnecessary and very passive aggressive slap in the face for returning or new players, who might otherwise have been enticed by word of this seemingly improved Season Two.

Still better than LS1 “you snooze you lose” . . .

Sorry, but most lapsed players and potential new players did not know about this in advance. Why would you give people late to the game or taking a tentative peak back due to the buzz a very real reason to take a pass? It makes no sense at any level.

It would have been much better than the completely temporary content of S1. If the content itself is up to snuff and new/returning players get hooked on the new content, some will be converted into active, paying customers. Instead, it’s still “you snooze, you lose”, but only for the people they should be focused on winning or winning back.

It makes zero sense. It may keep short sighted fans happy, knowing they got something for free that those “less dedicated” have to pay for, but it’s horrendous business sense. When you have a game that desperate needs people to give it another chance and you have new buzz worthy content that is likely to bring people for another look, you don’t say “sorry, you missed out, free content is only free if you’ve been playing; want to check out Season Two? Pay up”.

It’s yet another example of ANet finding a way to ensure the fruits of their labors rot on the vine. It’s a clear pattern of self sabotage, but I can’t understand how a studio of over 300 can produce self destructive behavior typically reserved for individuals. No one says, “Hey, wait a minute guys, this makes no sense if the goal is to increase the player base and up our revenue”?

I continue to be befuddled.

Sytherek.7689:

I’m pretty neutral on the 200 gem cost.

I am confused by people accusing ANet of requiring real world money for missed episodes. 200 gems is < 20 in-game gold. No real money required. No debit/credit card required. Just a bit of in-game gold.

What’s the problem?

That’s a flawed argument and the minute you accept it, that’s the minute when “anything goes” with the gem store. Why not sell level 80s for 2,000 gems, anyone can convert their gold to gems to unlock an instant level 80. Why not sell a new higher tier of uber-stat armor and weapons, exclusive to the gem store for 8,000 gems a set, anyone can farm the gold and convert it to gems, never being forced to spend real money. Etc…

What happened to only ever selling items of cosmetic or convenience value for gems? Game content is clearly neither.

There are two separate issues here and they both weigh completely against. The ethics of charging extra for content that was supposed to be free; and the fact that putting high visibility, new content, with the potential to tempt new and returning players into giving the game another look, behind a pay wall, is just a marketing and business disaster.

That they insulate themselves against the ire of active players, who didn’t happen to be away from the game at an inopportune time, by giving them the content for free doesn’t negate the glaring negatives. It just gives people an excuse to keep their heads in the sand as the game continues to lose steam in the West.

If I was still an active player, I’d be even more ticked off, knowing that the company is throwing away more potential business during the once yearly window of opportunity that a new season refresh offers.

Fiontar.4695:

Sorry, but most lapsed players and potential new players did not know about this in advance. Why would you give people late to the game or taking a tentative peak back due to the buzz a very real reason to take a pass? It makes no sense at any level.

I don’t know, your argument doesn’t pass the smell test because there obviously was enough buzz to get you to look back at GW2, and if you had looked closer you would have seen the Journal feature remarked on with the start of LS2.

So, it’s got enough buzz for you to impulse return, but not enough for you to look at what you’d be returning to?

It would have been much better than the completely temporary content of S1. If the content itself is up to snuff and new/returning players get hooked on the new content, some will be converted into active, paying customers. Instead, it’s still “you snooze, you lose”, but only for the people they should be focused on winning or winning back.

Sure, it’s “lost”, exactly as completely as the Marionette fight (for now) which nobody just joining up will ever experience again. Except now if they want to do Gates of Maguuma they’ll need to get 200 Gems. And they still won’t get to do “Sky Pirates of Tyria”, for instance.

Sure, it’s still “you snooze, you lose”, uh huh.

I continue to be befuddled.

So do I.

. . . moa doesn’t taste anything like chicken. I’ve been lied to.