Guild Wars 2

I am correct in assuming this? With Wintersday, we shouldn’t expect any new Living World content until January? And with an unnecessary cliffhanger… Thanks

followed by a 4-month break!

Maybe the next memory seed will show us that Caithe is hiding in a snowcharr in LA.

I think there is still one more chapter of the LS this year. Not sure how it will mesh with Wintersday. They will probably overlap since Wintersday is going to be the same as last year.

Until we actually hear that there will be a break, why not assume that it will follow the two week schedule?

Every time there have been a break they have told us so when the patch before said break launched.

If next POI shows a teaser picture we get Episode 8 together with Wintersday. Otherwise we can expect the last episode in January. The earliest date would be Jan 13th where the sPvP season ends.

Remember they usually do a 3 month break after the holiday’s. So if we don’t get it in 2 weeks it most likely will not come until March.

Since there is only 1 episode left I think they will do it in 2 weeks though, and then have the next feature patch in March.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Remember they usually do a 3 month break after the holiday’s. So if we don’t get it in 2 weeks it most likely will not come until March.

Usually?
That have never actually happened.

Last update in 2012 were on December 14th. First updated in 2013 was on January 28th.
Last update in 2013 were on December 10th and the first of 2014 was on January 20th.

lordkrall.7241:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Remember they usually do a 3 month break after the holiday’s. So if we don’t get it in 2 weeks it most likely will not come until March.

Usually?
That have never actually happened.

Last update in 2012 were on December 14th. First updated in 2013 was on January 28th.
Last update in 2013 were on December 10th and the first of 2014 was on January 20th.

Hmm you are right, the break was from April to July last year. The year before there was technically no break… but from December to March was the start of the LS and it started pretty slow. (Like glacially).

Lets hope there is no break this year.

They announced that Wintersday is going to be on Dec 16th this year, it was announced before Halloween. They have NEVER overlapped events so don’t expect it. Oh, and the only reason they haven’t officially re announced that Wintersday will be happening instead of the next Living World chapter is because they know it will kitten players off, after having given us TWO cliffhangers of which we’re no closer to resolving after this current episode. As far as I’m concerned, this episode was FILLER, thanks for that ANet right before ANOTHER break from the Living World….. Stop using cheap storytelling techniques like cliffhangers to keep people “hooked” and instead just tell a good story and tell a good portion of it every two weeks. I feel like we’re reverting back to the storytelling days of Season 1…..

webtoehobbit.4201:

They announced that Wintersday is going to be on Dec 16th this year, it was announced before Halloween. They have NEVER overlapped events so don’t expect it. Oh, and the only reason they haven’t officially re announced that Wintersday will be happening instead of the next Living World chapter is because they know it will kitten players off, after having given us TWO cliffhangers of which we’re no closer to resolving after this current episode. As far as I’m concerned, this episode was FILLER, thanks for that ANet right before ANOTHER break from the Living World….. Stop using cheap storytelling techniques like cliffhangers to keep people “hooked” and instead just tell a good story and tell a good portion of it every two weeks. I feel like we’re reverting back to the storytelling days of Season 1…..

Yes they have overlapped a special event with living story before. Blood and Madness 2013 overlapped with Tower of Nightmares. May want to do your research before saying something so definitive.

Tower of Nightmares launched two weeks prior to Blood and Madness, it was not a NEW release when Blood and Madness started, it was just available to play still during Blood and Madness, keep dreaming I suppose but you will be disappointed when Episode 8 DOESN’T happen while Wintersday is here.

Will you take back all your rage and shouts if it turns out we will get Episode 8 on the 16th?

webtoehobbit.4201:

Tower of Nightmares launched two weeks prior to Blood and Madness, it was not a NEW release when Blood and Madness started, it was just available to play still during Blood and Madness, keep dreaming I suppose but you will be disappointed when Episode 8 DOESN’T happen while Wintersday is here.

According to the release page itself, Tower of Nightmares released on the 29th of October, during Blood and Madness, not before.

Yes I will lordkrall, but I know ANets history.

Lazaar, I dont believe it launched at the same time, I was around when it all happened. But even if it did, Wintersday is an entire other beast, ANet takes a break for the holidays.

I imagine you’ll be surprised next episode when you learn that the cavern actually leads to Tixx’s secret workshop (built on top of a bloodstone) where he steals Sylvari lifeforce to power his toys, which is the Wintersday plot this year.

Then, just as we’re about to give up on ever finding the egg, as the final memory was completely unrelated, Caithe comes back and tells us that she took it back to Glint’s lair, since we were blabbing to everyone about it and thus too stupid to be trusted with carrying it.

She’ll tell us that she got Taimi to build a mobile waypoint, and tell us to plant it and send mail (and 3s) to her when we get where the egg needs to be, so she can just WP in with the egg without it getting jacked en route.

webtoehobbit.4201:

Lazaar, I dont believe it launched at the same time, I was around when it all happened. But even if it did, Wintersday is an entire other beast, ANet takes a break for the holidays.

Exactly, they (and basically every one else in this line of business) takes a break during the holidays. And as such it is very unlikely that they would not release the finale of season 2 BEFORE that.
It would make very little sense to have a break and then have just one more episode and then another break after all.

And if it was indeed going on a break I am rather sure we would have heard by now.

webtoehobbit.4201:

Lazaar, I dont believe it launched at the same time, I was around when it all happened. But even if it did, Wintersday is an entire other beast, ANet takes a break for the holidays.

Even the trailer video on Anets youtube channel states the date. The fact is that there has been a special event and living story going on at the same time, so they will probably do it again for Wintersday. http://youtu.be/F2GWu7egr4A

perilisk.1874:

I imagine you’ll be surprised next episode when you learn that the cavern actually leads to Tixx’s secret workshop (built on top of a bloodstone) where he steals Sylvari lifeforce to power his toys, which is the Wintersday plot this year.

Then, just as we’re about to give up on ever finding the egg, as the final memory was completely unrelated, Caithe comes back and tells us that she took it back to Glint’s lair, since we were blabbing to everyone about it and thus too stupid to be trusted with carrying it.

She’ll tell us that she got Taimi to build a mobile waypoint, and tell us to plant it and send mail (and 3s) to her when we get where the egg needs to be, so she can just WP in with the egg without it getting jacked en route.

i loled.

webtoehobbit.4201:

Stop using cheap storytelling techniques like cliffhangers to keep people “hooked” and instead just tell a good story and tell a good portion of it every two weeks.

Was originally going to berate you on this, but examining the point turned me around.

I don’t think cliffhangers are bad, and at this stage in the story we can fully expect them between episodes. But if we’re going to liken this to a tv series or a miniseries, then we can expect some plot elements (or subplot elements) to be resolved by chapter’s end. We did have that with the last chapter, in finally catching up with the MoP and him dying, but the overall resolution felt weak because Caithe’s actions and characterization were way too ambiguous. Overall I keep seeing a lot of loose ends that get their due nod but remain loose and poorly explored.

Oh my Balthazar… If I have to wait until Jan 28th to open that stupid cave… Do we not have thousands of engineer players, each with [Big Ol’ Bomb]??? Do we not have a fleet of giant air ships with cannons? When Jory said she needed to go back to the priory to figure out how to open the door, I almost flipped my desk over…

THIS STORY PACING IS BAD

lordkrall.7241:

webtoehobbit.4201:

Lazaar, I dont believe it launched at the same time, I was around when it all happened. But even if it did, Wintersday is an entire other beast, ANet takes a break for the holidays.

Exactly, they (and basically every one else in this line of business) takes a break during the holidays. And as such it is very unlikely that they would not release the finale of season 2 BEFORE that.
It would make very little sense to have a break and then have just one more episode and then another break after all.

And if it was indeed going on a break I am rather sure we would have heard by now.

Well, the devs read these boards, why not let a dev clear this up? Oh ANet devs, what be the verdict on this?

Xenon.4537:

Oh my Balthazar… If I have to wait until Jan 28th to open that stupid cave… Do we not have thousands of engineer players, each with [Big Ol’ Bomb]??? Do we not have a fleet of giant air ships with cannons? When Jory said she needed to go back to the priory to figure out how to open the door, I almost flipped my desk over…

THIS STORY PACING IS BAD

I feel ya Almost did the same thing.
Seriously don’t tell us the chest piece is coming next year.

I don’t think they’ve actually confirmed that the next patch will ONLY be Wintersday, so I suppose its technically possible we’ll get another LS as well as the start of Wintersday.

However, I’m not sure how likely that is, since at least this year we tend to only get 1 event at a time . Either LS or a holiday event.

And also, I believe Anet usually starts their holiday break sometime in the middle of December, and that wouldn’t leave much (if any) time for them to push fixes for any content they release on the 16th. Lack of fixes probably won’t be a huge problem for Wintersday alone, since they’ve already confirmed its basically going to be last years content returning and that’s already had a live fixing period. But if they push out another LS episode at the same time… well, being unavailable for bugfixes could be a very big problem indeed.

Here’s hoping Ep. 8 drops on December 16th and is allowed to play on while Wintersday also comes.

Wintersday last year and Halloween this year didn’t change from previous year because of China launch, are we then to expect a different Wintersday this year?

If so, then I can live with Ep. 8 and LS2 not concluding until mid January, but if we’re getting another regurgitated 4-week Wintersday, I’m going to be disappointed. Then I would NEED Ep. 8 to play with for those 4 weeks too, and put an end to this shameful pacing of the story…

webtoehobbit.4201:

Well, the devs read these boards, why not let a dev clear this up? Oh ANet devs, what be the verdict on this?

Because if they do people will whine about them only ever posting in irrelevant threads instead of posting in those threads that have “legit” questions? Like every other time they have posted in threads like these.

There is nothing that suggest we will not get the next living story chapter on the 16th. If we would not get it by then the devs would already have told us so. At least if we look at the past (which people love to reference when they complain).

There still is one more Tuesday (the 9th) before Wintersday, so let’s hope the next LS episode will be then.

Anyandrell.6238:

There still is one more Tuesday (the 9th) before Wintersday, so let’s hope the next LS episode will be then.

If that was the case we would already have had teasers for it.
They have also never had releases two weeks in a row.

The next episode will release with wintersday and then there will be a break as was done last year. The last wintersday update also updated kessex hills with the destroyed tower and even added a new set of achievements for the LS (LS and holiday released at the same time). There was then a 6 week break (Dec 10 – Jan 21)

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/A_Very_Merry_Wintersday

lordkrall.7241:

webtoehobbit.4201:

Well, the devs read these boards, why not let a dev clear this up? Oh ANet devs, what be the verdict on this?

Because if they do people will whine about them only ever posting in irrelevant threads instead of posting in those threads that have “legit” questions? Like every other time they have posted in threads like these.

There is nothing that suggest we will not get the next living story chapter on the 16th. If we would not get it by then the devs would already have told us so. At least if we look at the past (which people love to reference when they complain).

See, this is not how logical people think, you can’t just assume that something will happen until it’s proven otherwise. That’s like saying, well they haven’t said that precursor crafting WON’T be in the Dec 16th update, so until we hear otherwise, it will definitely be in that patch.

If we operated by that kind of logic then we’d have to assume that unicorns, bigfoot, loch ness monster and all of those were fact until otherwise proven not to exist.

We should get Episode 8 along with Wintersday on the 16th. This will likely be followed by a few week gap until the 13th or 20th for the holidays. We’ll then likely get WvW Tournament: Season 4 while they work on wrapping up LS Season 3.

It would be nice if the future PoI shows could tell us if there will be a preview at the end.

Yeah, PoI told us nothing, and still complete silence from the devs either which way on whether we will be getting Episode 8 on the 16th or not…. A quick “Yes” or “No” answer would suffice, but I don’t get why that is so hard?

webtoehobbit.4201:

See, this is not how logical people think, you can’t just assume that something will happen until it’s proven otherwise. That’s like saying, well they haven’t said that precursor crafting WON’T be in the Dec 16th update, so until we hear otherwise, it will definitely be in that patch.

If we operated by that kind of logic then we’d have to assume that unicorns, bigfoot, loch ness monster and all of those were fact until otherwise proven not to exist.

We have information:
The Living Story will be released every other week.

Until we hear something else (such as information about a break) that information is the correct information and thus we should base our assumption on said information.

I wish I could say that I’m sorry for what I’m about to say but…… I TOLD ALL YOU SO HAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Hey, I never thought they were willing to tank the momentum of the story like this. I’m genuinely surprised. I guess cynicism wins the day (and the year).

Yep, indeed it will be taking a break, quite surprising.

I would say it either means that Episode 8 is not the last episode, or that episode 8 is so big that they do not want to drop it just before most employees go home to celebrate Christmas with the family.

lordkrall.7241:

Yep, indeed it will be taking a break, quite surprising.

It would have been more surprising if there wasn’t a break.

lordkrall.7241:

Yep, indeed it will be taking a break, quite surprising.

I would say it either means that Episode 8 is not the last episode, or that episode 8 is so big that they do not want to drop it just before most employees go home to celebrate Christmas with the family.

Or… they just want to stretch out the season artifically because there is so little in total.
Not saying they are, but it is a possibilty and considering the size of the past few updates a likely one at that.

I really like the game; the core gameplay is fun, but the (amount of) added content since release was quite disappointing for me personally.

also: taken from the other thread
Taken from http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/08/12/guild-wars-2s-living-world-mid-season-finale-launches-today/
“The Dragon’s Reach: Part 2, launches today, opening a brand-new explorable area within Dry Top and adding PvP perks. Says ArenaNet, … The launch brings to a close the first half of this current living world season; the storyline will resume “this fall.”

Looks to me like episode 4 was indeed the halfway point.

Crovax.7854:

lordkrall.7241:

Yep, indeed it will be taking a break, quite surprising.

I would say it either means that Episode 8 is not the last episode, or that episode 8 is so big that they do not want to drop it just before most employees go home to celebrate Christmas with the family.

Or… they just want to stretch out the season artifically because there is so little in total.
Not saying they are, but it is a possibilty and considering the size of the past few updates a likely one at that.

I really like the game; the core gameplay is fun, but the (amount of) added content since release was quite disappointing for me personally.

also: taken from the other thread
Taken from http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/08/12/guild-wars-2s-living-world-mid-season-finale-launches-today/
“The Dragon’s Reach: Part 2, launches today, opening a brand-new explorable area within Dry Top and adding PvP perks. Says ArenaNet, … The launch brings to a close the first half of this current living world season; the storyline will resume “this fall.”

Looks to me like episode 4 was indeed the halfway point.

Or they put in wintersday which is something thats ready to go so that they don’t have to spend their time fixing bugs and working out problems instead of being home for the holidays with their families.

Yeah, but you know, we didn’t force them to choose this schedule. They chose it themselves, and they could’ve started the living story 2 weeks earlier, and thus avoided this problem in the first place.

Becka Williams.4978:

Yeah, but you know, we didn’t force them to choose this schedule. They chose it themselves, and they could’ve started the living story 2 weeks earlier, and thus avoided this problem in the first place.

Or combined the last two updates like someone suggested.

lordkrall.7241:

Yep, indeed it will be taking a break, quite surprising.

I would say it either means that Episode 8 is not the last episode, or that episode 8 is so big that they do not want to drop it just before most employees go home to celebrate Christmas with the family.

Your shield arm is mighty.

I am genuinely curious though, how and why you hold such unwavering faith in a company in which I assume you have no personal stake?

I’ve played GW1 and 2 since Beta and have had some truly great and unforgettable memories in the world of Tyria. I care about the franchise and I care about the Guild Wars world. This is why I’m baffled as to why you continue to make excuse after excuse for the people currently producing content for this world.

Judging by the frequency of your posts, I’m assuming that you care about this game/world too? Why then, do you continue to turn a blind eye to the damage being done to it? When a franchise you love is improperly handled, cheaply monetized, serialized, and treated with a blatant disrespect to the lore and the characters, it should sting a little as a fan.

Star Trek fans paid close attention when JJ Abrams took the helm in rebooting the popular franchise. Star Wars fans are intently watching Disney’s handling of their beloved series. Long time readers of the Ice and Fire series no doubt focused in on the production of the HBO series, Game of Thrones.

Fans care about their games for various reasons Krall. It is rarely the right answer to try to silence fans or encourage passionate players to find a new game. This leaves only a homogenous voice of un-questioning support for a company that may or may not have your best interests in mind! At that point, it is nearly too late to effect any change or maintain any oversight in a game you’re passionate about.

I think many people have memories, experiences, and personal stakes in the GW universe. As you have many times said, it is Arena Net’s game world to program but I don’t think it is entirely theirs to mold and create. It isn’t a case of like it or leave it That’s not how liking or loving something works. I hope you keep that in mind as you interact with passionate players hoping to preserve or improve their favorite game universe. I look forward to a discussion, no doubt.