Guild Wars 2

lordkrall.7241:

Suddenly? Without prior announcement?

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

That was released almost a month before Season 2 started.

Ok I stand corrected, ignore me

try think of it the other way around.

LS2 is actually paid content but player get it for free by login during the 2 weeks window.

huh, years ago, when I bought the game it was sixty dollars for the disk, it is only ten dollars to download the game now? Well if they aren’t charging sixty anymore I guess they have to make up the difference some how. At least they are still avoiding charging a monthly subscription fee.

Zebulous.2934:

huh, years ago, when I bought the game it was sixty dollars for the disk, it is only ten dollars to download the game now? Well if they aren’t charging sixty anymore I guess they have to make up the difference some how. At least they are still avoiding charging a monthly subscription fee.

Well a sub wouldn’t work anymore. I can’t think of any MMOs that started as F2P or B2P and then moved to a sub.

That said, I don’t play sub games anymore anyway. I just don’t feel like I should be paying just for the “priviledge” of accessing their servers. I’d rather spend my money on what I want, when I want.

I´m a returning player myself and i get the OP´s problem.
At first i was like “wtf” but after about 15 minutes i found out how to access it anyway, for free, without spending my limited gold.
Really not that hard mate…

Stop dragging matters of economics into the sphere of ethics, OP. This decision of Anet is neither wrong nor right in moral terms. Decide for yourself if buying these episodes is worth your personal expenses, let Anet worry whether the decision makes sense economically on a large scale for them. End of story.

Whilst I’m not a fan of the pay per chapter scheme, believing it is off putting to new or returning players, if it was really that much of an actual issues, I suspect Anet would or will adapt it if their metrics saw a decline in ppl buying chapters Vs buying the game. My suspicion is that that has not happened and it is in the main, working rather well for them.

What I’d like to see is an option to gift someone a chapter via the gem store. I know you can give someone gold to get round this, but it would be a nice etxra (and yes something I have suggested in the BL gem store thread already)

Active player is unable feel what is the feeling of returning and new player feeling when we login to the gamr and is given a choice like this. Anet: hi kaz I know you missed all the s1 and s2 but here you can enjoy s2 now, you just need to use your diamond to access. This feel really weird and offensive. Please just remove s2 totally like s1 and remove all the information from game. Right now the feeling is just like anet want to scam new and returning player

Crossaber.8934:

try think of it the other way around.

LS2 is actually paid content but player get it for free by login during the 2 weeks window.

It’s not even "paid* content though, it’s a matter of time management. You can get these episodes without spending a single dime. Not to mention the two-week promotion Free-per episode, is a pretty decent deal.

This isn’t like Shadow of Revan where if you don’t get the expansion, you can’t level up from 55 to 60. These were small bits of lore for us lore-nerds and nothing more, some achievement points and what not but otherwise just means to inflate player investment.

Here’s a solution to your gold problem; dungeons. If you and 3 of your friends all do the 3Ascalon catacombs paths, it’ll net you each 4.5 gold. If you all then pool that together, that’ll net you about 18 gold, which is a little over 100 gems. That’ll help you get one path open for one of you, the rest can then join in (you can do that once a day). Technically the living story isn’t behind a paywall, it’s just that you either EARN it or PAY for it. Earning it is not that hard however; Gold is pretty easy to get now ever since exp dungeon paths reward at least 1g.

Lets do keep in mind though that the transaction service is organic. The more people spend in game money for gems, the less value a piece of ingame currency will have. So while about 20 gold may get you 100 gems one day, it could easily drop to 50 over a long period of sustained transfer services. At least, that’s how I interpreted.

You choose not to log in, and choose not to be a dedicated players.
Your fault, and you cant complain about it.
It’s like you bought a one year subscribe, and then you afk for 9 months not logging on.
You can’t complain to the company to give you the 9 months back.

i want to return and enjoy the game but this living story issue really turns me off.Its really bad, we need to pay for old content and cant even access season 1.I will wait and see if they will make some changes about this.

In a couple of years time HoT will be “old content” Are we gonna see returning players QQ that the xpac isn’t free too?

I don’t think I’ve ever read a thread where the sense of entitlement has been any stronger.
We as players already get the opportunity to get the content for free. If you missed that window, a 2 week window at that, then that’s on you. Anet is a business and making content like the LS has costs. You know, little things like salaries, power, rent, paying suppliers. People like the OP and others whinging about not getting everything for free seem to think that game content is made out of the good will of the company. Do you people really think that the price of buying the game completely covers all the ongoing costs for the company? How naive can you be?

The player base raised an issue in not getting access to S1. Anet acknowledged that they are looking into making it available but there are technical challenges to do that. They made S2 permanently available content with a caveat that if you missed the window you’ll have to pay for it this is an entirely fair exchange. 200 gems is also a very tiny cost.

Continued development in the game has to be a two way street. Anet makes content for the players and in return the players should, at one point or other, pay out a least a token to support that ongoing development. Continuously asking for more free stuff that costs a company a great deal to produce is the height of foolishness, naivete and spoiled childish entitlement.

Artemis Thuras.8795:

In a couple of years time HoT will be “old content” Are we gonna see returning players QQ that the xpac isn’t free too?

I would honestly not be surprised

Arenanet try to be really nice and people twist that in an example of greediness.

Lets look at your other Buy to play games
You got

The Secret world, Defiance, Soon to be Elder Scrolls online. Even Lotro to a degree (base game is free to a degree you have to buy 1/2 of it still, additional releases are Buy to play)

Each and everyone of these releases content thats paid for. Elder scrolls online not doing it yet but they did announce they will do it. Just like Gw2.. you have to pay to play the new content. Gw2 is being nice by offering 3 alternatives if you have a hard time paying.

1. Log in even for 1 second while the content window is still active and you get it for free.
2. Join a friend who has the thing unlocked
3. Use in-game gold to buy it.

I dont see people complaining that you need to buy issues in The Secret world. Yet because Arenanet have given us a way around that, somehow that makes them greedy?

Buy to play simply means you need to buy the content to play it. It doesnt mean all new content will be free.

Ok no .. just no

Anet pumps out LS content pretty much every 2 weeks (not counting breaks of) and if you log just for a second you can get it FREE

I’ll give somethe benefit of doubt and say pc broke down. If you want to play the content you can pay 200 gems so.. $2.50 … since you cant buy gems per dollar you have to just buy 800 gems which is $10 … dude thats pretty kittenin cheap to get 4 LS episodes (a good few hours of content) OR one episode and something shiny.

Ok now lets say you are a little kitten cash and $10 is somehow too much. As of right now 11gems=1g. 200/11 = 18g 18s 19c. (Its 18.18182 in case you cant see the maths) now just round that up to the next gold, 19g.

19gold . . . This is stupid easy to get <.< and tbh you will probably only really have to grind out for the first episode because througout the episode you will get loot and can sell for gold.

So ANet has given you four options:
Log in for 2s per 2weeks for FREE
Buy 4 for $10 or buy 1-3 and get other stuff
Play the F###ing game and getting a very minimal amount of gold
Have a friend host the instance for FREE

And for a fifth, additional option… kitten

Side note: sorry for being toxic in this post but this crap is my #1 pet peive when it comes to gamers
And if you need assistance or some tips for getting 19g feel free to PM me in game or here on the forums >.>

Okay, you paid 10 bucks for the game but can’t afford 20 bucks for the LS2 episodes (well more like 17.5 bucks since you logged in for episode 8 ) ?

C’mon, they have to make some money somewhere. All other games still have expansions AND a subscription fee. Would you prefer pay $15 per month to play or get some OPTIONAL content for an OPTIONAL $20 (since they can be bought with in-game gold).

This is still cheaper than their $40 full price that you would have paid.

Go troll somewhere else because it’s clear you don’t like this game if you don’t stay updated.

I stopped playing for 6 months, but still kept up-to-date and logged in to get most episodes (missed one, but bought it no problems).

If you find that too expensive, you clearly haven’t played ANY other MMO. Even F2P MMO are more expensive than B2P… I know it. GW2 is the cheapest and best MMO I have ever played, even if they charge for DLC (you can see LS2 as an optional DLC), and I did try quite a few of them.

Alexander Dragonfang.1759:

Mental Paradox.3845:

Tasty tears. Mhhh.

Seriously though, there’s nothing dishonest about any of this. The base game is B2P. So is the additional content, as it is with every other game ever. Only Anet is nice enough to make it free for active players who bother to log in ONCE for ONE SECOND during those two weeks. Can’t bother with that? Don’t complain it ain’t free anymore.

FFXIV let`s me play 1 year old content. WoW let`s me play 8 years old content. RO let`s me play 10 years old content. TSW let`s me play 3 years old content. There you have sub-based, B2P and F2P examples. And is like this in pretty much ALL MMO`s on the market.

You know what they do? they might or not charge you for TIME (sub-based) or FUTURE content (B2P-F2P). but they don`t charge you OLD content. I don`t know how i have to explain this in the year 2015 lol.

Worse, they already locked out all new players of the MAIN narrative of the game for pretty much one year. Is like buying a regular game, but since one year passed, you have to start halfway into the argument. Second, you already bought the game, but you have now to pay for the 90% of the remaining argument because you TOOK TOO LONG TO BUY IT. Imagine starting metal gear solid at the Rex boss fight LOL, you can`t play half disc 1 and you have to buy 90% of the disc 2 to properly understand why you are fighting Rex, which you even after paying will not know cause you can`t play like 40% of the game anyway. Sound smart? no, because, lol no, thats not how you do games. LOL.

New players right now go like:
-personal story
-BIG SPACE OF EMPTYNESS BECAUSE YOU DIDN`T BOUGHT THE GAME ON TIME OR LOGED IN IN TWO YEARS, THE SCOURGE OF THE UNFAITHFUL!
-hey nice to see you again! remember the things we did? no? well, nvm, pay to play them even if you already payed for them and try to guess what happend, maybe look for youtube videos.

And don`t even mention buying chepters with gold transactions per gems, cause i have dirty 20 gold which i can`t even buy half the gems i need for 1 of the 7 episodes me and my friends are missing, not to mention this shouldn`t even be a thing in the first place.

Wow is subscription and has plenty of content that is null and void. FFXIV is subscription too. RO only recently went F2P (at a cost if you use F2P servers).

You are literally complaining because you messed up. The model for the new season 2 content in terms of unlocking was unveiled before it even took place, a little bit of reading would have solved that for you. If you can log onto the forums and cry with essay posts, you could easily have found a minute during a TWO WEEK BRACKET to log in and log out.

ATM it is around 30g per episode. Not that hard to get.

What people got for $10 was the same as whoever paid full price.

You can still access the new areas and new events, as well as the swathes of updates and features added since launch. You just don’t get story episodes.

What you are saying in terms of WoW equivalence is;

“OMG I just bought wow and why can I not do the pre-expansion patch content?! Also why can I not use the old talent trees? I want a hunter with mana kitten! Why can’t I do old achievements for easy titles? I want to play in old Barrens! Why can’t I play the old dungeons?! I want to get the old Battleground titles and armor! I want to go to the old areas before they changed stuff! I bought the game kitten I have a right to old content/locked content! How dare the game move on without me!”

In terms of new players, yeh thats a problem, but I can imagine the community and Anet are looking at that. Who knows, the seasons might be bundled in with the expansion. No reason to act like a child though.

I’m always astounded by the people in these threads. You can easily get the 30g you need to buy 200 gems in a single day by the time you’re done with your personal story. And that’s beside the option of playing through the living story with a player who already has it unlocked (although it would be nice if everything wasn’t locked to the instance owner).

I can understand having some remorse over missed opportunities, but the amount of entitlement some people have is just mind-boggling.

You paid for the game (at a huge discount if you bought it recently) and get to enjoy it in full with a massive amount of updates and new content added since release that’s available to everyone. On top of that, you can pay a tiny fee (with in-game money!) and unlock tens of hours of additional content which you would otherwise have to pay for if it was bundled into an expansion, like it’s generally the case with every other MMO. All of that without ever having to pay a dime for subscription just so you can log in at your leisure.

The game has many flaws (many of which have persisted since the release), but come on, let’s be serious—the business model isn’t one of them.

GoddessOfTheWinds.2937:

Okay, you paid 10 bucks for the game but can’t afford 20 bucks for the LS2 episodes (well more like 17.5 bucks since you logged in for episode 8 ) ?

C’mon, they have to make some money somewhere. All other games still have expansions AND a subscription fee. Would you prefer pay $15 per month to play or get some OPTIONAL content for an OPTIONAL $20 (since they can be bought with in-game gold).

This is still cheaper than their $40 full price that you would have paid.

Go troll somewhere else because it’s clear you don’t like this game if you don’t stay updated.

I stopped playing for 6 months, but still kept up-to-date and logged in to get most episodes (missed one, but bought it no problems).

If you find that too expensive, you clearly haven’t played ANY other MMO. Even F2P MMO are more expensive than B2P… I know it. GW2 is the cheapest and best MMO I have ever played, even if they charge for DLC (you can see LS2 as an optional DLC), and I did try quite a few of them.

First of all, not everyone has a lot of disposable income every month. When you have bills, car upkeep etc. sometimes you find that you don’t even really have 20 bucks at the end of the month that isn’t going to go to one bill or another, so please refrain from assuming anyone can just pull 20 bucks out of nowhere and not possibly need it somewhere else.

Also, just because a game may be “cheaper than other MMOs” doesn’t mean they decided they needed to spend that kind of money. You pay for a game that you can afford and some people may feel ripped off that they can’t play the whole thing. Not everyone is use to today’s gamer’s mentality where they don’t mind having a bunch of content thats not originally available when you actually pay for the game.

I personally was able to get all the content unlocked but I think it would be arrogant of me to just assume its easy for everyone to do it. There are a lot of things that came up when Season 1 was going on and i missed most of it. Even with the current system, i would have had to pay for most of it anyways, so I can understand how someone could miss out.

Whether you agree with charging for missed episodes or not, everyone should really not comment on the difficulty of actually being there during the release window.

Sekhmet.6153:

GoddessOfTheWinds.2937:

Okay, you paid 10 bucks for the game but can’t afford 20 bucks for the LS2 episodes (well more like 17.5 bucks since you logged in for episode 8 ) ?

C’mon, they have to make some money somewhere. All other games still have expansions AND a subscription fee. Would you prefer pay $15 per month to play or get some OPTIONAL content for an OPTIONAL $20 (since they can be bought with in-game gold).

This is still cheaper than their $40 full price that you would have paid.

Go troll somewhere else because it’s clear you don’t like this game if you don’t stay updated.

I stopped playing for 6 months, but still kept up-to-date and logged in to get most episodes (missed one, but bought it no problems).

If you find that too expensive, you clearly haven’t played ANY other MMO. Even F2P MMO are more expensive than B2P… I know it. GW2 is the cheapest and best MMO I have ever played, even if they charge for DLC (you can see LS2 as an optional DLC), and I did try quite a few of them.

First of all, not everyone has a lot of disposable income every month. When you have bills, car upkeep etc. sometimes you find that you don’t even really have 20 bucks at the end of the month that isn’t going to go to one bill or another, so please refrain from assuming anyone can just pull 20 bucks out of nowhere and not possibly need it somewhere else.

Also, just because a game may be “cheaper than other MMOs” doesn’t mean they decided they needed to spend that kind of money. You pay for a game that you can afford and some people may feel ripped off that they can’t play the whole thing. Not everyone is use to today’s gamer’s mentality where they don’t mind having a bunch of content thats not originally available when you actually pay for the game.

I personally was able to get all the content unlocked but I think it would be arrogant of me to just assume its easy for everyone to do it. There are a lot of things that came up when Season 1 was going on and i missed most of it. Even with the current system, i would have had to pay for most of it anyways, so I can understand how someone could miss out.

Whether you agree with charging for missed episodes or not, everyone should really not comment on the difficulty of actually being there during the release window.

If that’s the case, then such people should really rethink the need to have things like
1. Internet – that’s not a necessity like food and shelter
2. Games – that’s not a necessity like a food and shelter
3. Cigarettes – that’s not a necessity like a food and shelter

People who are going through economic hardship are not likely to have the time nor money to spend on anything that is not necessary to survival. So that’s hardly an argument.

That being said, GoddessOfTheWind’s rhetoric is a bit OTT.

What’s worse, not being able to replay the content if you have missed it or not? They didn’t need to make a story journal, LS could have been a two week hit or miss, case closed. You are provided with the option to pay a minimal fee to gain access to something you missed.

That said, it’s not really worth it. Don’t flip about LS, most of them are half-baked.

Alexander Dragonfang.1759:

lordkrall.7241:

Why do you refuse to acknowledge the fact that you DO NOT HAVE TO PAY IN ORDER TO ACCESS THE CONTENT?

Either you can trade gold for gems. OR you can join someone that have the content unlocked.

Paying with real money is one out of THREE options. Why do you only focus on that one while completely disregarding the other two?

Since gold has a relative market value cause can be traded for gems, gold and gems are exactly the same really, now, considering the trade values, for a new player buying this chapters is completely impossible, and by the time they are able to mass that many gold, who knows, Anet might even lock the LS2 away. So no, the gold one isn`t free.

The second option is reasonable, but since none of us can get into them lol, and considering there is people SELLING to be away with the trade of gems…. This is not a easy way, but well, better is nothing.

And third, this shouldn`t even be a thing. But since it is, i guess me and my friends will have to enjoy the spectacular story line of GW2 through youtube videos, because, you know, thats how you enjoy games today anyway.

Yes, this system sucks. It’s like DLC. I can understand why ANet did it, but I’m not particularly happy. It is free if you log in every 2 weeks though, which is a nice touch.

Have you tried asking guildmates if you can go through the instances with them? I’d be happy to do them with you and your friends, I need help with some of the achievements anyway.

Alexander Dragonfang.1759:

I knew that after 2 years the only players would be remaining on this forums would be die hard white knight, but this is amazing LOL.

Obviously, you have also been away from the forums for 2 years. This forum has tons of dark nights on it that will whine about anything and everything. If you did a search on this subject, you would literally find hundreds of threads of people screaming about this very thing.

Plus, it doesn’t matter if you had real life issues that kept you away from the game. The game isn’t going to stop for you or anyone else in that sort of situation. To expect it to is completely unrealistic. And as has been already said here on this thread, you DON’T have to pay for the past stories…..you can exchange gold for gems to get them, or just hook up with some people who have already done it. (There are tons of people in game that are willing to help others with that…..you just have to ask and be a bit patient)

Venatorn.7619:

Ok no .. just no

Anet pumps out LS content pretty much every 2 weeks (not counting breaks of) and if you log just for a second you can get it FREE

I’ll give somethe benefit of doubt and say pc broke down. If you want to play the content you can pay 200 gems so.. $2.50 … since you cant buy gems per dollar you have to just buy 800 gems which is $10 … dude thats pretty kittenin cheap to get 4 LS episodes (a good few hours of content) OR one episode and something shiny.

Ok now lets say you are a little kitten cash and $10 is somehow too much. As of right now 11gems=1g. 200/11 = 18g 18s 19c. (Its 18.18182 in case you cant see the maths) now just round that up to the next gold, 19g.

19gold . . . This is stupid easy to get <.< and tbh you will probably only really have to grind out for the first episode because througout the episode you will get loot and can sell for gold.

So ANet has given you four options:
Log in for 2s per 2weeks for FREE
Buy 4 for $10 or buy 1-3 and get other stuff
Play the F###ing game and getting a very minimal amount of gold
Have a friend host the instance for FREE

And for a fifth, additional option… kitten

Side note: sorry for being toxic in this post but this crap is my #1 pet peive when it comes to gamers
And if you need assistance or some tips for getting 19g feel free to PM me in game or here on the forums >.>

Well said. Spot on post.

When they came up with and released Season 1, the concept was that in order to make a world that felt alive, they needed to have it change and to have new things happen each chapter. These things were often zone wide events. In order for the story to progress and in order to feel like things were actually happening ‘live’ in the story, this content turned out to be temporary. A really neat and fun idea, but it left out people who weren’t on at the time, and people who joined after.

After a lot of talk (and complaining, let’s not forget that), ANET decided on a new route for Season 2. More instanced chapters that held the story and were solo-able. But to encourage players to be active for each new chapter so that again, the world felt living and breathing, they only make them available to unlock for free temporarily, which is a fair compromise IMO. And this is coming from someone who took a break from right before the end of Season 1 and until halfway through Season 2 (and bought the back story chapters after realizing how much fun the newer ones were).

I guess what I’m trying to say is ANET is trying to do it’s best to listen to the constructive comments of the community and evolve their story delivery, and this is a fair system. I’m sorry if it feels crappy to you, and that you took a bad time off. But honestly, did you really expect to quit for a year and a half and have the exact same game experience as people who have been playing that entire time? This is an MMO. If you want to enjoy yourself and still be somewhat casual (or be willing to take time off of the game), you need to throw away the completion side of your brain, and accept that you will be unable to have everything without putting in the time.

I lolled at the comparison to WoW. To play wow you spend $20 for the base game and if paying long term subscription $155 per year. so 1 year cost of $175.

GW2 at $40 to buy then zero ongoing cost, even adding the LS purchase, you’d be at around $60.

Now if you’d been playing either game for 2 years, WoW cost of $330 and GW2 still $60…

Guildwars2 is a great value, that’s all there is to it. And the OP’s friends got the game on special for $10 to boot, so the complaints are just hilarious…

I never realized that WoW gave you their old expansions for free.

nGumball.1283:

I never realized that WoW gave you their old expansions for free.

The key word being “Expansions”.

Also the fact that they are cheaper over time and if you buy the full game again you are not paying £200 but a price which relates to a normal game.

Venatorn.7619:

Ok no .. just no

Anet pumps out LS content pretty much every 2 weeks (not counting breaks of) and if you log just for a second you can get it FREE

I’ll give somethe benefit of doubt and say pc broke down. If you want to play the content you can pay 200 gems so.. $2.50 … since you cant buy gems per dollar you have to just buy 800 gems which is $10 … dude thats pretty kittenin cheap to get 4 LS episodes (a good few hours of content) OR one episode and something shiny.

Ok now lets say you are a little kitten cash and $10 is somehow too much. As of right now 11gems=1g. 200/11 = 18g 18s 19c. (Its 18.18182 in case you cant see the maths) now just round that up to the next gold, 19g.

19gold . . . This is stupid easy to get <.< and tbh you will probably only really have to grind out for the first episode because througout the episode you will get loot and can sell for gold.

So ANet has given you four options:
Log in for 2s per 2weeks for FREE
Buy 4 for $10 or buy 1-3 and get other stuff
Play the F###ing game and getting a very minimal amount of gold
Have a friend host the instance for FREE

And for a fifth, additional option… kitten

Side note: sorry for being toxic in this post but this crap is my #1 pet peive when it comes to gamers
And if you need assistance or some tips for getting 19g feel free to PM me in game or here on the forums >.>

I totally agree, except for one thing which isn’t something you can’t control. The information you put right there isn’t exactly out in the open.* It just shows you to pay gems, and not how to get those.

The first option, to new players is pointless. An option, in my opinion anyway, is that ArenaNet needs to bring out a pack where you get sorts of a Season Pass (I hate the word too, but yeah).

I mean, it’s really disappointing to find out that half of the game is still inaccessible after buying it. We’ve all been there, and it’s still very annoying.

So my solution to this problem that DOES keep coming back. Offer to buy the game as a whole (for a fair price) rather than letting people find out ingame they have to pay extra.

=

*Sure you can scroll through the news and find that it was introduced, but when you’re a new customer you don’t see it, nor do you usually read up on all the specific updates.

FrizzFreston.5290:

The first option, to new players is pointless. An option, in my opinion anyway, is that ArenaNet needs to bring out a pack where you get sorts of a Season Pass (I hate the word too, but yeah).

I mean, it’s really disappointing to find out that half of the game is still inaccessible after buying it. We’ve all been there, and it’s still very annoying.

So my solution to this problem that DOES keep coming back. Offer to buy the game as a whole (for a fair price) rather than letting people find out ingame they have to pay extra.

New accounts could have all episodes of the current season of LS open up to them until the end of the season or one month, whuichever timeframe is longer. Past seasons would be P2P like for everyone else. Simply start each season with a generic trailer of where we are in teh story and move on from there.

For returning players, your kitten out of luck. This was announced and it was implemented in an extremely user friendly and time efficient manner to get everyone paying attention free access to the season.

I took a break. My schedule changed and I wasn’t paying attention. I payed for the first half of LS2 without complaint.

Every single one of these threads sounds like this to me now. “My favorite band was in town for a free show Friday night and I missed the announcement or I had to work or (insert excuse here) so I missed it. They should come back and play for me on a night when I can make it. Those people over there got it for free. Why should I have to pay for the CD?”

Stop. Just stop. Living Story is a wonderful gift that Anet gave us between release and the Expansion. They promise even more after the expansion. If you already owned the game and missed it, it’s not their fault.

let me tell you a small but true fact, the whole LS is worth as much as a costume.
you read it perfectly correct, just 700 gems for EVERYTHING and no more.
why you might ask, because i have played new and bigger games that were cheaper then this.

it’s an update ppl, would you see it as “ok” if you had to pay for a game update if you didn’t play for a bit?
ofcouse not, it makes no sense so why would this be any different…..it’s not btw.

Cherokeewill.7504:

New accounts could have all episodes of the current season of LS open up to them until the end of the season or one month, whichever timeframe is longer. Past seasons would be P2P like for everyone else. Simply start each season with a generic trailer of where we are in the story and move on from there.

That sounds hugely unfair. It’s buy to play, not buy to play and pay more later to keep it unlocked. What I meant with a fair price would be something like: the normal price + added gem price – a little discount (maybe).
There’s something to say to buy the game as a whole rather than leaving chapters out. Of course there’s something to say for proper messaging that it’s also possible to earn/buy the chapters later, but yeah. ( I kind of think you misunderstood that)

For returning players, your kitten out of luck. This was announced and it was implemented in an extremely user friendly and time efficient manner to get everyone paying attention free access to the season.

An idea could be to buy a whole season as a pack at a discount for those who took a long leave. (maybe even only buy with money rather than gems) Or put it as an extra when buying the expansion. But yeah, it’s not even that big of a price to deal with regardless. I find it weird that people make a such deal out of paying a little for additional content. Especially an MMO.

I thought one of the selling points of this game was being able to turn it off for a couple weeks/months and when you returned you wouldn’t be falling behind or have some kind of consequence. No pressure to log in, you know? Seems like most of you have lost your way…

Drakortha.6974:

I thought one of the selling points of this game was being able to turn it off for a couple weeks/months and when you returned you wouldn’t be falling behind or have some kind of consequence. No pressure to log in, you know? Seems like most of you have lost your way…

The selling point was that you could leave for a couple of months and then come back without having to grind a new set of gear in order to play.
That have not changed.

They have however never in any way or form claimed that you will always be able to get every single thing ever released in the game for free.

Drakortha.6974:

I thought one of the selling points of this game was being able to turn it off for a couple weeks/months and when you returned you wouldn’t be falling behind or have some kind of consequence. No pressure to log in, you know? Seems like most of you have lost your way…

You won’t fall behind in terms of gear. But from the get-go of Living Story it was designed so if you missed it, you missed it. Like in real life if you were on vacation when some cool party happened back home. You missed the party. They were/are trying to mimic that kind of linear time-line.

At least now they’ve allowed people who weren’t around for LS2 chapters to at least unlock them.

Personally, I would have been fine with it being like LS1 where if you missed it you missed it. But I’m OK with this system too. The only ones that hated this system were the ones that weren’t really even playing the game so they missed the content.

You didn’t fall behind at all in terms of gear, you just didn’t get to experience some cool encounters.

Maybe log in more often?

As far as content goes, there’s no way not to fall behind. I mean, if someone played for the first three months and then quit, and is logging in right now, or let’s say after the expansion. Of course they will be behind in terms of content they haven’t done (fractals, certain dungeons, EoTM, HoT content, etc.). But they are still max level, and if they are outfitted in Exotic then they are geared adequately for everything out currently minus FoTM10+ (andyou only need ascended accessories to be able to play up to FoTM30 easily).

It seems like to me the original poster gave up.
I would like to bring to the table a few things.
1. Brand new players should not bother trying to play any of the living story. This takes place a few years after their personal story missions, thus spoiling them.
2. There business model might not be the greatest, but living world story chapter 1 isn’t the type of content you can just replay, since it altered the game world in real time.
3. The game is you buy it once and you have what’s in the box for ever no payment again. This excludes seasons of living story, as it was added afterwards, and a few permanent things adds to the base of the game, is level 80 dungeon, silver wastes etc.

Please try to understand these few points and the good points fellow gamers added on work around to the unlocking of content. This is a great game by itself without the need to do the living story, so just play what you have and enjoy it while working your way up to play HoT.
Cheers.

Cosmin.8306:

Because bias , and if we’re the whiteknights i guess this makes him the blacknight

I think green knight is more appropriate.

Sariel V.7024:

Cosmin.8306:

Because bias , and if we’re the whiteknights i guess this makes him the blacknight

I think green knight is more appropriate.

Clever.

Well, you bought your ticket to watch a movie, you were late cause of heavy traffic, you lost 15 minutes of the movie.. You can’t yell “start the movie again, I got heavy traffic”. Or neither ask to watch the first 15 minutes in another movie session cause your ticket already expired.

raiaknl.6348:

Well, you bought your ticket to watch a movie, you were late cause of heavy traffic, you lost 15 minutes of the movie.. You can’t yell “start the movie again, I got heavy traffic”. Or neither ask to watch the first 15 minutes in another movie session cause your ticket already expired.

Not the same for reasons stated in this thread.

raiaknl.6348:

Well, you bought your ticket to watch a movie, you were late cause of heavy traffic, you lost 15 minutes of the movie.. You can’t yell “start the movie again, I got heavy traffic”. Or neither ask to watch the first 15 minutes in another movie session cause your ticket already expired.

None of which has anything to do with the cinema.

If you missed 15min of the movie because the cinema started 15min early then you would have a leg to stand on. Everything else in your analogy is on you, not the cinema.

Actually, even though I got all of the season 2 episodes as they were released, I do not agree with the decision to charge people for the episodes if they didn’t, or were not able to, log in during the free period. People have lives outside of gaming and sometimes it takes them away from the games, completely, for a while. As well as unfortunate things like pc’s going down and extended internet service interruptions which can be caused by any number of reasons.

These are continuations of the Living Story, not expansions. A storyline that starts with the original release. I, myself, missed a season (nightmare tower, destruction of Lion’s Arch, etc) and that season is just gone. I can’t do it and had to go online to catch up on the story for season 2 just to understand what led up to these events. I mean really! When I logged back in after my leave from the game (season 2, episode 1 was just released), I popped in Lion’s Arch and literally, out loud, to myself, asked, “What the heck happened to Lion’s Arch?”

I think ArenaNet could do better, but I also think Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 are among the best mmo games out there. I just hope ArenaNet doesn’t ruin it by making so much of it cash oriented, like some other gaming providers have. They will, after all, be having real expansions, which will have to be purchased, as with any other reputable game, including those which are subscription based.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Edit: Forgot to mention about the issue of new players just joining the game. Guild Wars 2 is supposed to be a free to play game. But for people who are just joining, it isn’t. They get their personal storyline for free, but not anything else, save for quests, pvp, and wvw. For them it is a pay-to-play game. They must pay for each episode. Yes, it’s 2.50 USD per episode, but it’s still not free to play, as ArenaNet had said it would be. I remember they said, “Free to play and always will be.” But it’s not, is it? Not for everyone!

Tom Gore.4035:

Alexander Dragonfang.1759:

Is their fault for not buying the game earlier? is my fault for not logging in for 2 years?

Yes. Yes it is.

Sometimes there’s an opportunity, and if you miss it, it’s gone.

This. Please close this thread.

punkinkatt.4823:

Edit: Forgot to mention about the issue of new players just joining the game. Guild Wars 2 is supposed to be a free to play game. But for people who are just joining, it isn’t. They get their personal storyline for free, but not anything else, save for quests, pvp, and wvw. For them it is a pay-to-play game. They must pay for each episode. Yes, it’s 2.50 USD per episode, but it’s still not free to play, as ArenaNet had said it would be. I remember they said, “Free to play and always will be.” But it’s not, is it? Not for everyone!

The game have NEVER been advertised as Free to Play.
The fact that you have to pay for your account shows that at once.

They have also never said that every single thing ever released will be free.

And claiming they get nothing and then pointing out that they get 95% of the game seems rather weird as well.

The ONLY thing they do not get is the STORY parts of the Living Story. They still get all the new areas, all the new Dynamic Events and most of the new rewards.

You are also disregarding the fact that have been brought up multiple times in this thread: There are multiple ways to access the story quests.
1: Buy them with gems bought with real money.
2: Buy them with gems bought with gold.
3: Join someone that have them unlocked.

That means that 66% of the ways to do it involves no real money invested whatsoever.

lordkrall.7241:

The game have NEVER been advertised as Free to Play.

Yes it has, just not in that way (F2P). The game has always been advertised as being buy once, then free to play. They only meant that you would always be able to login to the game without having to pay more.

Sadly it seems this thread isn’t getting anywhere.

As pointed out before:
1. There are many different ways to access the story content of the Living Story.
2. This game is not FREE to PLAY. It is simply BUY to PLAY and SUBSCRIPTION FREE. Arena net is entitled to charge for content. Be grateful it is a mere 200 gems a chapter.

Since the discussion in this thread has derailed and is no longer constructive this thread is now closed.