Guild Wars 2

This is directed at ANet. Is Living World Season 1 ever going to be brought back into the game as playable content? I know there is the recap of the storyline but it seems strange to me that so many players have been left out of the content that is so critical to the story in GW2.

Would love to see this personally.

Here’s the latest Dev post (from this week) about the issue:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Dev-quotes-from-Reddit/page/6#post6217693

Good luck.

Pretty much the situation is the same it has been since Season 2 ended:

Some devs want to bring Season 1 back, but the person/people who make that decision is saying no at the moment (and if neither Bobby Stein – a team lead – or Colin could before the latter left, the one who makes that decision can only be Mike O’Brian).

I cannot fathom at the decision behind it, truth be told. It’d be like telling the original Star Wars trilogy with only the first and third movies.

I am sad. This is something that personally made me ponder for a bit, and just accept it, even if I don’t want to. LW S1 was special to me, granted I did not get to play it all and really hope to see it return.

My sadness is not when S1 will return (if ever), but that Bobby Stein confirmed on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4palmf/living_world_season_2/) that they have no plans to extend the recap even though its incomplete…….why? I know that they want to cover the Scarlet/Mordy arc, but didnt a certain Captain’s Council member and former Consortium golem helped us defeat Scarlet? How will new players know who they, the Consortium and Canach are? The voting of Ellen Kiel vs. Evon Gnashblade was (and still is) unique because we the players directly participated, isnt that important?

It just baffles me why Aet would not want to recap more of the important stories that happened in S1 and only focus on one.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Here’s the latest Dev post (from this week) about the issue:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Dev-quotes-from-Reddit/page/6#post6217693

Good luck.

that post about the recap…..it genuinely saddens me

Honestly season 1 should have never been temporary. All making season 1 temporary accomplished was alienating players who couldn’t play during the time each part was available and denying future players the enjoyment of the hard work that went into making the content. And there is no significant hurdle to be overcome to make it permanent content. The only parts in need of modification are the few points that were map zergs and persistent map placed. See third paragraph for those.

The world even with that was never really a living world. Even as the game stands today most of it is still stuck as if the personal story wasn’t the past. We have zones such as Kessex Hills where significant circumstances have taken place. Yet the lionguard and centaurs still squabble despite the disputed land having been ravaged by the Toxic Alliance. Not to mention what are they still around for. They were annihilated. Those toxic offshoots don’t have the source to be offshoots from any more. The centaurs and lionguard should have made a truce and the zone being cleaned up by them both and the locals. And perhaps even have gone through that change already and now have new heart objectives and new dynamic events to reflect this hypothetical new truce between the centaurs and lionguard. This is just one example of this sort of clash of timelines. There are several other zones stuck in limbo where event and hearts should have changed to reflect the present.

My thoughts on transitioning each chapter into the story journal for permanent game content:

The lost shores (karka attacks and karka boss at end). This is one of the easiest scaling down. The first part defend lion’s arch was linear in that the event took place at one spot in lion’s arch. This would be instanced and scaled for 5 and/or 10 players or even multiples of 5 for 15, 20 etc if people or guilds want to go big on player numbers. Even at 5 or 10 the epic nature of the fight can be retained with proper numbers of mobs and type (reg, vet, elite, champ). Part two would be done the same as it was a single event that took place in one spot in lion’s arch. The investigation part that took place following this could be as small as one player instances (scaled up if one wishes to do it with more) as it was errand tasks and one enemy fights. Part 3 the ancient karka should be done as a world boss style fight. Due to the continued popularity of world boss fights this is the best way to retain the epic nature of this part considering it was in essence a world boss fight in design. It had a pre-events and the boss (ancient karka).

Flame and Frost: multiple instances for 1 to 5 players. And other than instancing the content would need no modification to the content as it is simply NPC dialog, object interacting, some small events fighting a few enemies, and some content originally designed as instances (would only be a matter of turning a switch to on so they can be accessed in the manner related to the story originally). For parts of this the instance would be the entire zone the NPCs or objects were contained in depending on the scope of the relationship of the NPCs and objects related to them. Certain environment scenery can be captured in cinematics to show us them if they were little things you would miss if you weren’t exploring to see them. Part of the final segment of this is in the fractals. But it is abridged to suit being a fractal.

The Secret of Southsun: This should be as simple as an instanced map of southsun as it was for this chapter. It was helping out a couple NPCs by doing events that were scaled for 1 or more people typically was only handful at them. Also scavenger hunts finding spots or items on the map. And a series of NPC dialogs telling a story. As with the previous this content shouldn’t need any modification aside from making it an instance.

Last Stand at Southsun: Unless I’m overlooking something this was two things. First krazed karka queen. Which I believe is what southsun is currently as the world boss and what not. There was also canach’s lair a solo story mode dungeon and 5 man explorable mode dugeon and simply a matter or turning it on. Any storytelling that lead up to either or both of these can be done within an instance.

Dragon Bash: Oddly this holiday event contained a whole chapter of story telling of season 1. Without digging for videos of every moment of this update I can’t provide much detail here. However meaningless busy work could be removed to isolate the actual story content or simplified if it was an aspect of the story to retain the spirit of the original run of it. For example the consume 250 Zhaitaffy probably is not integral to the story nor setting off 100 fireworks. However certain NPCs present in lion’s arch for this were integral to the story. Those elements would have to be instanced. And throughout the event were originally instances definitely continuing the story. These instances should be as simple as turning them on.

Sky Pirates of Tyria: aetherblade retreat dugeon to be turned on. An abridged version of it is part of fractals. Marriner Plaque scavenger hunt would have to be instanced. There was also NPC dialog story telling in lion’s arch that would have to be instanced. There were the aetherblade spawns from hologram projectors in some maps and the caches in jumping puzzles. The hologram projectors could be redesigned into a story telling instance where the player fights some aetherblades in the spirit of the small events that happened on the persistent maps. A similar thing could be done to capture the spirit of tracking down the caches into a story telling instance where the player tracks down one or more caches. I can’t help but think I’m forgetting something integral to this chapter of the story that was only seen at the that time.

Bazaar of the Four Winds: This may be as simple as activating the zone to be a part of the story journal as all the other chapters would be made to be a part of as they are instanced to contain the storytelling of each of them. As I recall the lore created for this was that it was an annual event. If I recall correctly the zone was visited again once after this. A chapter of storytelling was intertwined with festival activities as busy work. I know for sure there was storytelling involving NPCs in lion’s arch. This would simply need to be instanced. And storytelling involving a couple series of NPCs in the labyrinth cliff zone this took place in. Finding all the sky crystals thing in the zone could be left intact. There was a find kites thing that happened all over the world I don’t think was relevant to the story. There was a diving spot in the zone that can be kept intact. Anything else related to this zone probably was part of future visit(s) to it.

Cutthroat Politics: This chapter had candidate trials in the labyrinth cliff zone. They were solo or up to 5 man instances using the personal story method of entry system. There was an introductory instance in this chapter. All storytelling for this chapter as far as I am aware took place within this zone. So it should be as simple as tweaking it to be the storytelling since the voting was already done. This could be handled in a single instance with a split choice instance to experience the two candidate trial instances. I think any followup story to the candidate trials took place in the next chapter. But if there is any timeline within this chapter that occurs after the canditate trials it would be another storytelling instance of the zone.

Queen’s Jubilee: There were baloon transports and a small event that happened at them. This could be a single instance to tell the story have the player kill the aetherblade in the even and board the baloon with a cinematic showing the arrival in divinity’s reach. There was a lighting of torches thing that could be instanced to tell that story element and award the torch item we got from it. This was followed by an opening ceremony instance. It would simply need to be turned on so it is available to the story journal. The queen’s gauntlet would obtain permanent status as accessed by the zone the crown pavilion. It would be instanced accordingly for this chapter. The zone was divided into six themed slices. Each slice had group event. As it was designed a group of 5 could do the event of a single slice. Instancing this for the story journal would be a matter of making it so that it is 5 man instance where the group does the slices events in series.

Clockwork Chaos: This is where things get more complex in making it available by the story journal. It starts off easy enough by turning on the closing ceremony instance so it can be accessed for the story journal. After is Emissary Vorpp some dialog and an event outside of ascalon settlement. This can be handled as instances the ascalon settlement thing as a 5 man instance. After this was scalet’s playhouse instance. Which simply would just need to be turned on for access from the story journal. After that were scarlet’s zone invasions. This was chaotic multi zerg map wide events. There was a basic structure in that it was three waves that had to be defeated (events success) and reinfocements that showed up and had to be defeated (event success) after each of the first two waves. After the third wave the map fought scarlet. In order for this to work as part of the story journal it has to be instanced. To retain the invasion scope and scale this could be an instanced world boss with the invasion target being a precise random spot in the zone random zone chosen from the zones and locations the events took place at the lead in time for it’s scheduled time to occur. Players would enter a public instance for this method. Or it could be designed as a new large party instance of say 15 or 20 players and the invasion target being a price random spot in the zone in a random zone chosen from the zones and locations the invasions took place at each time the instance is created. The original design should already have the scaling needed to make this content available in either of these methods.

Twilight Assault: The Aetherpath dungeon is still permanent content. I’m not sure if there was any storytelling outside of the dungeon. If there was then I assume it has to be instanced and also that and the dungeon path added to the journal for timeline of the journal.

Tower of Nightmares: A lead in cinematic would have to be created for this. As unless you were a info scrounger for every morsel about GW2 outside of the game or in the habit of checking every nook of the game for potential changes you missed lead in changes to this chapter. This lead in would have to be a cinematic that shows players the changes to the zone made in the blood and madness halloween update. Players started this with a story instance (the nightmare unveiled) when attempting to visit the zone. This should be a simple turn it on so it can be accessed by the story journal. An event took place at the base camp. This event would be a followup instance to the nightmare unveiled. Within it would be all the NPCs and their dialog and story content that was at the camp on the persistent map. Any story related to the krait obelisk shards should be easy to include where appropriate. I can honestly say I’m not sure how best to handle the toxic offshoot events. They are still currently in the persistent world for some strange reason. The NPC dialog and storytelling that are related to them would have to be in an instance. Perhaps a combination of more than one cinematic and a scalable instance for multiples of 5 man to do an offshoot event is the best way to handle this aspect of the story from this chapter. The zone had events to stop the toxic alliance from doing this and that. Those all can be formulated into a one instance where up to 5 players do the events in series. Or a series of instances one for each event.

The Nightmares Within: As far as I recall this chapter was all contained within the tower of nightmares. Which was a public instance. Because it had the feel of a dungeon design but scaled for the number of players this should be easily changed to an instance for a specific number of players. Since the final instance of this content was 5 man it makes sense to me to have the tower be 5 man. You would have to complete the events same as it was in the chapter release to progress through the tower. There were nightmare chamber instances (also 5 man I believe) on each level of the tower and in one of several random locations for each level. These could still be random location and have to be completed as part completing the instance. Retaining the golem would allow the player to complete level 1 to unlock level 2 to do later if desired and 2 for 3. Arriving finally at the top for the dive and stuff that was up there including the nightmare incarnate. The only change to this chapter would be instancing any story content that was on the persistent map leading you into the tower and the tower being a limited player number private instance instead of a large player number public instance.

Fractured: This was a story mode along with the release of the thaumanova reactor fractal. I don’t know if playing today if someone never did the story mode if they can start it for other players or not. If not it can be turned on for access for the story journal. If it is still active one less thing to be done to have access to it in the story journal. If there was any storytelling that took place outside of this story mode it would probably have to be instanced.

Due to character limit this post continues in a second reply.

The rest of my post:

The Origins of Madness: I’m pretty sure this started with the marionette fight, followed by an instance a moment piece leading players to scarlet’s secret lair, followed by the kill probe defenders and destroy probes. The marionette fight design was similar to the final fights in the meta events of all the zones added after dry top. Because of that it should be simple enough to have it exist as a public instance fight that occurs on a timer like the final fights of the map metas. Providing the right incentives to do the content should make it as desirable as the others so there are plenty of players to do the content. If the original content was too demanding on player numbers then it can be scaled back to require less and still retain the spirit of it (or epic nature if you will). I can’t see it done as an instance that can be started at any time. Since it had 5 lanes even if you scaled it back to only 5 players a lane you would need to organize 25 players to do the instance so it would work better as a timed interval fight like the metas in that way you can have 50 or more players participate in a less player numbers demanding scale of the fight. The probe event and probe destroy could be done as cinematics and randomly picked location each time the story step instance is entered to provide both the scope and span of the content and experience of doing the events It can be scaled for 1 to 5 players. I have the feeling there is significant storytelling I’m forgetting about. Which if not in instances would probably have to be instanced for the story journal.

The Edge of the Mists: I’m pretty sure this whole chapter was all storytelling inside and outside of instances. All the stuff that happened on the persistent world just needs to be instance. The instances can be for 1 to 5 players and retain the original design to them. This chapter would be one of the easiest to transfer to the story journal.

Escape from Lion’s Arch: You entered LA my means of one of three portals which had a pre-event to the event in LA. Those pre-events would be easy enough to be 5 man instances containing all the stuff including storytelling and NPCs etc as they were for the original. The attack event on LA would easily be an instanced version of LA with a map meta. As a map meta the incentive to do it has to be such that it will keep enough players wanting to do it to make it being a meta successful. It being a map meta it would retain the original design. Taking into consideration that not the entire game population will be heading there to do it at any given time. So some adjustment may be needed to properly scale things so that it can be done successfully and still be epic and reward players excellently.

Battle for Lion’s Arch: This is even better suited as a map meta than escape is. It is more structured and suited for organizing players. The end of the meta would be prime hologram boss fight. Again taking into consideration that not the entire game population will be heading there to do it at any given time. So some adjustment may be needed to properly scale things so that it can be done successfully and still be epic and reward players excellently.

I think they need to take a cue from GW1 with the Pre/Post searing. As a character’s story evolves the instances of the maps they get should change. They need to scrub references to characters who die from maps unless it’s an story instance. If you have killed Zhaitan then you should get the affected maps that reflect his demise. It would make for interesting stories in Orr as factions via for control of the map. They could have some residual forces of Zhaitan trying to establish a power base around some lesser dragons. If someone didn’t do LWS1 then they should get old LA. If they have but not some rebuild story then they get the trashed one, etc. That IMHO is a living world.

Tekoneiric.6817:

I think they need to take a cue from GW1 with the Pre/Post searing. As a character’s story evolves the instances of the maps they get should change. They need to scrub references to characters who die from maps unless it’s an story instance. If you have killed Zhaitan then you should get the affected maps that reflect his demise. It would make for interesting stories in Orr as factions via for control of the map. They could have some residual forces of Zhaitan trying to establish a power base around some lesser dragons. If someone didn’t do LWS1 then they should get old LA. If they have but not some rebuild story then they get the trashed one, etc. That IMHO is a living world.

The problem with this idea is it would cut down map populations even more than they already are. This would be especially problematic in already-lower-population zones such as Kessex Hills (which had the Tower of Nightmares stuff from S1) and Lornar’s Pass (Marionette). So, to make that work, entire zones would have to become solo (or Party) instances like they were in GW1, which is what Anet tried to avoid when doing GW2; they want open world with other players in all zones rather than personalized instances for every explorable area.

Tekoneiric.6817:

I think they need to take a cue from GW1 with the Pre/Post searing. As a character’s story evolves the instances of the maps they get should change. They need to scrub references to characters who die from maps unless it’s an story instance. If you have killed Zhaitan then you should get the affected maps that reflect his demise. It would make for interesting stories in Orr as factions via for control of the map. They could have some residual forces of Zhaitan trying to establish a power base around some lesser dragons. If someone didn’t do LWS1 then they should get old LA. If they have but not some rebuild story then they get the trashed one, etc. That IMHO is a living world.

The persistent maps should always reflect the present conditions and circumstances of the world. They sort of already have done this. The problem is they leave other stuff in limbo that already happened like the people of the world don’t care that it has happened. Per my example of Kessex Hills. It’s present state spans multiple moments in time. I would think by now any lingering toxicity would have been cleaned up by the efforts of the one or more hearts who tasked the clean up. And other stuff I mention. We have now defeated the dragon that caused the problem with fort in the zone as well. Shouldn’t they be cleaning it up now? And what about all those waypoints and other placed destroyed by it. Shouldn’t they be getting cleaned up. And what about all the undead. Their numbers should have virtually disappeared now that Zhaitan has been defeated and all this time has passed.

RoseofGilead.8907:

The problem with this idea is it would cut down map populations even more than they already are. This would be especially problematic in already-lower-population zones such as Kessex Hills (which had the Tower of Nightmares stuff from S1) and Lornar’s Pass (Marionette). So, to make that work, entire zones would have to become solo (or Party) instances like they were in GW1, which is what Anet tried to avoid when doing GW2; they want open world with other players in all zones rather than personalized instances for every explorable area.

I believe you misunderstand. The persistent maps should always reflect the present conditions and circumstances of the world. There is nothing fracturing the population as there is not multiple persistent stats of one or more zones. All players do hearts, waypoints, POIs, vistas, events in the map as a reflection of the present conditions and circumstances or the map and world.

The past gets encapsulated into story telling instances much like the existing personal story and story two. In some parts of of story one an entire zone would have a story instance to tell the story as the content of that chapter spanned a whole zone. See my above as brief as possible concept of story one as story instances for the story journal. The only difference being that some are made to be group story instances and such as outlined in my reply about each chapter.

I should add and is probably better as a new reply, that I’d be willing to pay to have story one be permanent content. As long as the spirit of design of the content is well transferred to work as content that can be revisited in the spirit of the story journal. After all nobody wants parts of it butchered beyond recognition of what it was originally to be a part of the story. Which is why I posted as much info as I did here in regard to each part of story one. I believe it quite feasible to make it happen and much if not all the groundwork is already in the game that is needed to make it a reality.

Jia Shen.4217:

I believe you misunderstand. The persistent maps should always reflect the present conditions and circumstances of the world. There is nothing fracturing the population as there is not multiple persistent stats of one or more zones. All players do hearts, waypoints, POIs, vistas, events in the map as a reflection of the present conditions and circumstances or the map and world.

The past gets encapsulated into story telling instances much like the existing personal story and story two. In some parts of of story one an entire zone would have a story instance to tell the story as the content of that chapter spanned a whole zone. See my above as brief as possible concept of story one as story instances for the story journal. The only difference being that some are made to be group story instances and such as outlined in my reply about each chapter.

What Teko is talking about would have to split up the population unless Anet has a way to have multiple different instances of the same map share population.

“I think they need to take a cue from GW1 with the Pre/Post searing. As a character’s story evolves the instances of the maps they get should change. They need to scrub references to characters who die from maps unless it’s an story instance. If you have killed Zhaitan then you should get the affected maps that reflect his demise.”

To be like GW1 (and using the Zhaitan example), that would mean that Orr would have two different versions: one for pre-kill and one for post-kill. Done like GW1, pre-kill players would not be able to interact with post-kill players because they would be in a different set of town and explorable map instances. If they tried to do it more like GW2, though, I’m having trouble seeing how the two different story-progression groups would be able to play alongside eachother. Otherwise, you’d just be in a solo story instance for an entire map’s worth of content, which just seems very much the opposite of what Anet was going for in GW2.

The fact that they “aren’t working on this” perfectly exemplifies the dubious decision making under which this game has been managed.

Its absence single-handedly ruins the entire presentation of the game. Getting it in should have been their top priority two years ago, and now the majority of players never experienced the content under which nearly every major supporting character still being used was introduced and developed.

Totally kittening ridiculous.

Well I am one of the ones who missed big chunks of this, did bits here and their but none that included the new support character so when they got added to LS 2 and I did that first mission I was thinking “Who the heck are these people?”

If they could even set up a chain of fractals that covered the key points from LS 1 that would be good enough, they still miss out on the experience of having it in the open world and any associated rewards and achievements but they don’t miss out on the story and lore which is the games foundations.

It can also make it harder for newer players to enjoy these new support characters since they missed the initial meetings and work together which is the key point in developing an interest in people and as they are a big part of the game now it can negatively affect new content they are involved in and peoples opinion of it.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Pretty much the situation is the same it has been since Season 2 ended:

Some devs want to bring Season 1 back, but the person/people who make that decision is saying no at the moment (and if neither Bobby Stein – a team lead – or Colin could before the latter left, the one who makes that decision can only be Mike O’Brian).

I cannot fathom at the decision behind it, truth be told. It’d be like telling the original Star Wars trilogy with only the first and third movies.

There’s a way to do it, but it’d take time and resources. If they make instances for everything, it can be done, but it would take a long time, especially since quite a few of the early LS chapters could be turned into 4-6 instances on their own.

Example, Frost and Flame. Instance for talking with Rytlock, instance where you save refugees and fight off flame legion and dredge, instance where you do the nursery saving with Rox, instance where you meet Braham, instance where you save his hometown, and finally an instance where you do the Frost and Flame dungeon thingy, except it’s now set as a permanent place you can enter on the world map (as a story dungeon).

That’s 6 instances they have to make, which is easily enough to be a LS chapter of its own. Sure that’s only a very early example, but now imagine they take everything we did and do something with it, including adding new dialogue and story to flesh things out. This includes saving the characterizations and problems originally there, such as Scarlet. Imagine, we beat her minions in the ‘invasion’ subsection and fend her off, only for her to say that thanks to us she now has battle data for her watchwork minions as well as their current weaknesses, so she can improve on them.

Jia Shen.4217:

Honestly season 1 should have never been temporary. All making season 1 temporary accomplished was alienating players who couldn’t play during the time each part was available and denying future players the enjoyment of the hard work that went into making the content.

As a player having come back from a 3 year hiatus, I can’t agree more with this quote. I paid for the original release three years ago, I’ve picked up the expansion recently and I’d like to think I am actually entitled (I despise that word, but quite frankly I’ve paid for the content) to play the entire story. I’m not looking for S1 to be free, I’d just like it to be available. Since S2 is permanent and S3 as well, there is no logical reason to have made S1 temporary. In fact, in light of the recent reduction in S2 pricing, it’d be AWESOME if they simply made a S1/S2 bundle for the old cost of S2. #marketing

Jia Shen.4217:

Honestly season 1 should have never been temporary. All making season 1 temporary accomplished was alienating players who couldn’t play during the time each part was available and denying future players the enjoyment of the hard work that went into making the content.

I can’t agree more.

Also the achievements from the past have been poorly designed, there is even a leaderboard, how is a new player gonna even catch up when you are not even able to get them anymore.

vanted.5761:

Jia Shen.4217:

Honestly season 1 should have never been temporary. All making season 1 temporary accomplished was alienating players who couldn’t play during the time each part was available and denying future players the enjoyment of the hard work that went into making the content.

I can’t agree more.

Also the achievements from the past have been poorly designed, there is even a leaderboard, how is a new player gonna even catch up when you are not even able to get them anymore.

People care about the achievement leaderboard?

I said when ANet asked us how he felt about temporary content, I told them it was a bad idea, and I hated it with the power of a thousand suns. Making anything in an MMO temporary is a bad idea, out side of yearly festivals.

Grettings Anet,

Although I’m a pvx player, I must confess that the main story delivers most of the entertaining for me. It happens that I had to take a break right after the Karka Island map release, and when I came back, the LS2 had just started and I missed all of that content.

Of course, I watched every movie got updated about what happened, but each time it just made me crave even more to get a chance to play it. I got the impression that you guys really tried to give some story telling quality, like that Marjory noir style introduction, and also asa I started playing LS2 I could tell that things improved in that aspect (although in HoT, the last Mordremoth moments where kinda generic mmo narrative tbh, but that can be looked aside if it doesn’t happen again) .

The point is: I would give anything to play it, and since I got back to this game, I keep dreaming when I’ll read some news about it. Is there a chance, or it’s all scrapped and won’t come back?

Also, keep investing on lore and and story telling, I’m sure that is what it makes this game really special for many of us! Don’t overlook it and let those Elder Dragons become just some generic bad guys! You guys created a threat so immeasurably powerfull that the poor mortals in Tyria can’t hardly comprehend how tiny they are in comparison. Stars realign, landscapes changes, the gods cower in fear, isn’t something like an Ice Age that cames and recicles the planet? Don’t make them say “huaaarr I’m the only victor, you can’t defeat me, take that, muahahahaha”. I’m serious. Don’t waste your precious lore like so many games do.

If you agree, help me make this gets notice, somehow.

May the six watch over you.

There are a lot of players that agree with you and would love to see LWS1 come back. And if you believe some people on the forums (I’ve never seen a direct source, just other forum members saying this), there are even some devs at ANet who want to bring back LWS1, but there are also other devs that don’t. So far no one with enough pull has wanted it for it to become a reality, but at least there’s hope that devs are trying to do this for us

That’s something I would like to see also.
I started playing Guild Wars 2 last year, and didn’t even know much then. But now it would be great if I could play Living season 1 also.

I hope to see that back in game, so new players and those who werent able to play at this time, can also do that and get achivements.

ANet said they are looking as a way to do it, but it’s currently not being worked on, that’s what we where told a few months ago, a google search might.find the relevant thread.

I kinda wish LS1 to not come back. Feels more rewarding to people who were actually there. The skins and stuff we got from it have a bigger value since we were there and we got it.

OriOri.8724:

There are a lot of players that agree with you and would love to see LWS1 come back. And if you believe some people on the forums (I’ve never seen a direct source, just other forum members saying this), there are even some devs at ANet who want to bring back LWS1, but there are also other devs that don’t. So far no one with enough pull has wanted it for it to become a reality, but at least there’s hope that devs are trying to do this for us

I think you’ve misunderstood.

Near as I can tell, absolutely no one is against having LS1 return to the game. What people are writing about is the magnitude of the effort it would require to do so. The original LS included epic battles that took place in the open world, it included instances which were designed around the mechanics available at the time, it made use of voice actors that are not necessarily available to ArenaNet now, and it included code which was written by people who have moved on to other places.

As a result, it would be an enormous effort to bring it back like veterans experienced it. So, it’s certain that ANet would attempt to transform it into a similar format to the current LS2 & HoT stories. That requires rewriting code, reanimating, readjusting mechanics (scaled to the professions/skills at the time), and rewriting the story to fit into that format. None of that would be easy to do.

And when done, we’d end up with something that would be much appreciated by all the new players since LS1, but if that’s all it was, would be rehashing content.

So in ANet’s shoes, what would you do? Put all that effort into bringing LS1 back and please new players? Or work on new content that would please both veterans and newbies?

tl;dr Virtually everyone would like to see LS1 return to the game. The question is: what else could ANet do with the same resources?

The best way to bring back LS 1 is through fractals I would say…..Who knows, maybe that is what we are going to get for the new ones. If not, fingers crossed for the next expansion

I only joined the game last year. And It’s awful at how much content I missed.. It would be incredible to see it back.

And what Was Na mentioned, what voice actors aren’t available to Anet anymore?

Any VO actor that is not available because of other obligation, doesn’t want to work on the project, or any other reason they might have. It’s not like they have a long-term contract.

It’s just something that would have to be considered. I’m not sure the community would be mostly pleased with how Season One might be offered again. I, personally, am not that fond of single-player instance replayability, nor the instances that require larger groups of players. I truly prefer the Open World content, but that’s just me.

flog.3485:

The best way to bring back LS 1 is through fractals I would say…..Who knows, maybe that is what we are going to get for the new ones. If not, fingers crossed for the next expansion

I disagree, some of the larger fights and especially the battle for LA could be a fractal. But overall LWS1 if it returns needs to return as open world instances.

Kaedian.9463:

Jia Shen.4217:

Honestly season 1 should have never been temporary. All making season 1 temporary accomplished was alienating players who couldn’t play during the time each part was available and denying future players the enjoyment of the hard work that went into making the content.

As a player having come back from a 3 year hiatus, I can’t agree more with this quote. I paid for the original release three years ago, I’ve picked up the expansion recently and I’d like to think I am actually entitled (I despise that word, but quite frankly I’ve paid for the content) to play the entire story. I’m not looking for S1 to be free, I’d just like it to be available. Since S2 is permanent and S3 as well, there is no logical reason to have made S1 temporary. In fact, in light of the recent reduction in S2 pricing, it’d be AWESOME if they simply made a S1/S2 bundle for the old cost of S2. #marketing

Most people knew it was a mistake even at the time. Doing temporary content as anything other than supplementary fluff makes zero sense for the longevity of the game.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Pretty much the situation is the same it has been since Season 2 ended:

Some devs want to bring Season 1 back, but the person/people who make that decision is saying no at the moment (and if neither Bobby Stein – a team lead – or Colin could before the latter left, the one who makes that decision can only be Mike O’Brian).

I cannot fathom at the decision behind it, truth be told. It’d be like telling the original Star Wars trilogy with only the first and third movies.

There’s a way to do it, but it’d take time and resources. If they make instances for everything, it can be done, but it would take a long time, especially since quite a few of the early LS chapters could be turned into 4-6 instances on their own.

Example, Frost and Flame. Instance for talking with Rytlock, instance where you save refugees and fight off flame legion and dredge, instance where you do the nursery saving with Rox, instance where you meet Braham, instance where you save his hometown, and finally an instance where you do the Frost and Flame dungeon thingy, except it’s now set as a permanent place you can enter on the world map (as a story dungeon).

That’s 6 instances they have to make, which is easily enough to be a LS chapter of its own. Sure that’s only a very early example, but now imagine they take everything we did and do something with it, including adding new dialogue and story to flesh things out. This includes saving the characterizations and problems originally there, such as Scarlet. Imagine, we beat her minions in the ‘invasion’ subsection and fend her off, only for her to say that thanks to us she now has battle data for her watchwork minions as well as their current weaknesses, so she can improve on them.

Or, alternatively, they do nothing and as more and more new players go through the game, they have absolutely NO bloody clue what’s going on with these suddenly popping in characters, don’t know and don’t care about Scarlet Briar, are confused as hell as to why LA looks different in story instances. And on top of that you have old players who were there for all or some of Season 1 forgetting and being unable to replay the content – less an issue but still an issue – with no true means of a simple recap via story journal (the original purpose of the thing).

Which is what ArenaNet is doing. They are trying to sell the original Star Wars trilogy without the Empire Strikes Back movie being available.

Yeah, it’d take time and resources to do, but not only is it new content for so many players now, but it’s story important too, and even old players would enjoy replaying that content again just as they would new content.

flog.3485:

The best way to bring back LS 1 is through fractals I would say…..Who knows, maybe that is what we are going to get for the new ones. If not, fingers crossed for the next expansion

In my opinion, that’s the worst way. And in all honesty, probably would take more work than just bringing it back as story instances with the minor open world events being permanent.

I wouldn’t mind them turning the bigger fights (mainly: Ancient Karka, Twisted Marionette, and Battle for LA) into a guild mission or raid – but only on top of a single player version (we don’t need a repeat of Arah story).

Kaedian.9463:

Jia Shen.4217:

Honestly season 1 should have never been temporary. All making season 1 temporary accomplished was alienating players who couldn’t play during the time each part was available and denying future players the enjoyment of the hard work that went into making the content.

As a player having come back from a 3 year hiatus, I can’t agree more with this quote. I paid for the original release three years ago, I’ve picked up the expansion recently and I’d like to think I am actually entitled (I despise that word, but quite frankly I’ve paid for the content) to play the entire story. I’m not looking for S1 to be free, I’d just like it to be available. Since S2 is permanent and S3 as well, there is no logical reason to have made S1 temporary. In fact, in light of the recent reduction in S2 pricing, it’d be AWESOME if they simply made a S1/S2 bundle for the old cost of S2. #marketing

I’m pretty much in the same boat. Bought the game when it first came out at base, been gone 3 years, just got back into the game and now I’m missing a good chunk of the story line I didn’t get to play. The history lesson did not cut it for me, if anything it was more of a spoiler and big let down that I didn’t get to play it. Just always assumed it would be there when I got back, never ever thought they would not have something as important as the story line unavailable in a very heavily story driven game. I’ve already read all the details as to why it’s been so hard for them to put it in again, and I’ve got to question the wisdom as to who’s idea it was to not make it replayable in the first place. So I’m sorry to say to ArenaNet that I won’t be purchasing the next expansion pack anytime soon until it’s made available.

The truth is,even if they scaled down the events and converted them to single player instances,it won’t be anything like LW s1 was.

The events occurred in ‘real time’,each instalment lasted for a couple of weeks,and as the events unfolded the world of the game changed around us.
Everything,even the annual festivals,was interwoven to the LW.
And it was heavily open world,multi tiered raid content.
Seasons 2 and 3,although they retain the naming of LW,they are not the same.
They are single player focused,with an option for grouping,and nowhere near as grand or complicated as season 1.

What you are asking for, is the equivalent of a single player instance for the DS raid.
And s1 was full of such raids.
Even if they built it,it wouldn’t be the same.

You are going to solo run the Flame and Frost and Aether Blade dungeons,you are going to make the Tower of Nightmares and the Marionette and the Attack in LA and the Battle for LA,and all the other zone wide raids,solo instances,and what about Dragon Bash and the Zephyrites festivals,there were significant events related to the story that took part there.
And what about the voting,you are going to vote for what,the leader is already elected,even you you vote for Evon it won’t matter.
And the list goes on.

They should focus of creating a better,lengthier and more detailed recap,and maybe add some new s1 related fractals.

As for why they did it that way,I’m glad they did.
It’s the most innovative they ever got and probably will ever be,and it was a nice change from the set in stone worlds of all the other MMOs out there.

Aenaos.8160:

The truth is,even if they scaled down the events and converted them to single player instances,it won’t be anything like LW s1 was.

The events occurred in ‘real time’,each instalment lasted for a couple of weeks,and as the events unfolded the world of the game changed around us.
Everything,even the annual festivals,was interwoven to the LW.
And it was heavily open world,multi tiered raid content.
Seasons 2 and 3,although they retain the naming of LW,they are not the same.
They are single player focused,with an option for grouping,and nowhere near as grand or complicated as season 1.

What you are asking for, is the equivalent of a single player instance for the DS raid.
And s1 was full of such raids.
Even if they built it,it wouldn’t be the same.

You are going to solo run the Flame and Frost and Aether Blade dungeons,you are going to make the Tower of Nightmares and the Marionette and the Attack in LA and the Battle for LA,and all the other zone wide raids,solo instances,and what about Dragon Bash and the Zephyrites festivals,there were significant events related to the story that took part there.
And what about the voting,you are going to vote for what,the leader is already elected,even you you vote for Evon it won’t matter.
And the list goes on.

They should focus of creating a better,lengthier and more detailed recap,and maybe add some new s1 related fractals.

As for why they did it that way,I’m glad they did.
It’s the most innovative they ever got and probably will ever be,and it was a nice change from the set in stone worlds of all the other MMOs out there.

Not all of that would strictly be needed to reintroduce LWS1 as instanced content. It would be enough to just be able to run through scaled down content. The larger open scale battles could easily have a very scaled down instance so a player can get the lore, and then also be made into a fractal. Battle for LA for instance would make a fantastic new fractal. No one here said that it would be identical to LWS1, but we still think we should be able to play through the content.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Pretty much the situation is the same it has been since Season 2 ended:

Some devs want to bring Season 1 back, but the person/people who make that decision is saying no at the moment (and if neither Bobby Stein – a team lead – or Colin could before the latter left, the one who makes that decision can only be Mike O’Brian).

I cannot fathom at the decision behind it, truth be told. It’d be like telling the original Star Wars trilogy with only the first and third movies.

There’s a way to do it, but it’d take time and resources. If they make instances for everything, it can be done, but it would take a long time, especially since quite a few of the early LS chapters could be turned into 4-6 instances on their own.

Example, Frost and Flame. Instance for talking with Rytlock, instance where you save refugees and fight off flame legion and dredge, instance where you do the nursery saving with Rox, instance where you meet Braham, instance where you save his hometown, and finally an instance where you do the Frost and Flame dungeon thingy, except it’s now set as a permanent place you can enter on the world map (as a story dungeon).

That’s 6 instances they have to make, which is easily enough to be a LS chapter of its own. Sure that’s only a very early example, but now imagine they take everything we did and do something with it, including adding new dialogue and story to flesh things out. This includes saving the characterizations and problems originally there, such as Scarlet. Imagine, we beat her minions in the ‘invasion’ subsection and fend her off, only for her to say that thanks to us she now has battle data for her watchwork minions as well as their current weaknesses, so she can improve on them.

Or, alternatively, they do nothing and as more and more new players go through the game, they have absolutely NO bloody clue what’s going on with these suddenly popping in characters, don’t know and don’t care about Scarlet Briar, are confused as hell as to why LA looks different in story instances. And on top of that you have old players who were there for all or some of Season 1 forgetting and being unable to replay the content – less an issue but still an issue – with no true means of a simple recap via story journal (the original purpose of the thing).

Which is what ArenaNet is doing. They are trying to sell the original Star Wars trilogy without the Empire Strikes Back movie being available.

Yeah, it’d take time and resources to do, but not only is it new content for so many players now, but it’s story important too, and even old players would enjoy replaying that content again just as they would new content.

flog.3485:

The best way to bring back LS 1 is through fractals I would say…..Who knows, maybe that is what we are going to get for the new ones. If not, fingers crossed for the next expansion

In my opinion, that’s the worst way. And in all honesty, probably would take more work than just bringing it back as story instances with the minor open world events being permanent.

I wouldn’t mind them turning the bigger fights (mainly: Ancient Karka, Twisted Marionette, and Battle for LA) into a guild mission or raid – but only on top of a single player version (we don’t need a repeat of Arah story).

Agree with this post on all points.

Aenaos.8160:

The truth is,even if they scaled down the events and converted them to single player instances,it won’t be anything like LW s1 was.

The events occurred in ‘real time’,each instalment lasted for a couple of weeks,and as the events unfolded the world of the game changed around us.
Everything,even the annual festivals,was interwoven to the LW.
And it was heavily open world,multi tiered raid content.
Seasons 2 and 3,although they retain the naming of LW,they are not the same.
They are single player focused,with an option for grouping,and nowhere near as grand or complicated as season 1.

What you are asking for, is the equivalent of a single player instance for the DS raid.
And s1 was full of such raids.
Even if they built it,it wouldn’t be the same.

You are going to solo run the Flame and Frost and Aether Blade dungeons,you are going to make the Tower of Nightmares and the Marionette and the Attack in LA and the Battle for LA,and all the other zone wide raids,solo instances,and what about Dragon Bash and the Zephyrites festivals,there were significant events related to the story that took part there.
And what about the voting,you are going to vote for what,the leader is already elected,even you you vote for Evon it won’t matter.
And the list goes on.

They should focus of creating a better,lengthier and more detailed recap,and maybe add some new s1 related fractals.

As for why they did it that way,I’m glad they did.
It’s the most innovative they ever got and probably will ever be,and it was a nice change from the set in stone worlds of all the other MMOs out there.

Amen.

I would like to see at the very least the instanced segments of LS1 return. There are so many gaps between character introductions and motivations to plot relevant information, that it is perplexing and even confusing to people who missed LS1. A quick summary is not enough either by Ela or via wiki/youtube.

Was it special for those of us who were there? Undoubtably. But there are new players coming into the game all the time and they deserve to actually meet Marjory and the others in the story, not suddenly have DE2.0 suddenly call them boss in LS2 or HoT without context.

This is a game. We should play the story and not have an NPC tell us what we did during it.