So...what IS Living World?
In short, the season 2 package that you can buy in the gem store is basically an extension to the personal story. Dry Top and Silverwastes are also a part of season 2, but those are available to everyone for free.
The living world is a concept. The goal was to create a “living” world by changing the game over time. It just means they regularly add content to the game, and it was meant to be equivalent to an expansion over time.
With season 1, they tried to simulate the real world through temporary events that changed the world. The problem with that however was that the old content was overwritten and the temporary events would soon be lost. It was fine for active players, but for everyone else, the game was just losing content and the pace was too quick for casual players to actually play through everything.
With season 2, they separated the story from the changes to the world and for the most part, everything was made permanent. Dry Top and Silverwastes were the two zones added through the season, while the 8 episodes are what tells the story. Originally, they used to call the living world the living story, so personally, I call the episodes the living story, whereas the living world is the idea behind it. You can think of the living story as an extension to the personal story, except it can be replayed and offers a hard mode for achievements.
You can read through all the episodes by following the wiki. You can also join someone else’s instance if you just want to see the story.
Ahh, THANK YOU! That makes sense. I’ll probably go ahead and give it a try while on sale then. It sounds like the sort of thing that I’d want to experience sooner or later and this seems like a fun time while waiting on the expansion.
Hi, thanks for clarifying, as a returning player, basically new, I was wondering about that as well.
I am thinking about taking advantage of the sale too, but I am still level 30 and have some remaining questions:
1) Living World Season 2 applies for max level I assume?
2) Is unlocking it account bound, or would I have to purchase LS2 for all my characters?
3) Is it worth it worth the current 40% discount? I’ve been enjoying the personal story stuff so far
As I did go ahead and make the purchase, I can answer 1 and 2. Living World Season 2 IS exclusively for level 80 characters, but once purchased, you have it unlocked for all characters on the account.
As for question 3, I can’t help you there. I haven’t had time to try it out yet.
You might run into a little bit of difficulty if you were not around during Living Story Season 1. Since a lot happened during season 1 and also a lot of characters were introduced back then and I imagine you can feel a bit overwhelmed if you don’t know what happened during season 1.
Still, you can probably find what happened story-wise in season 1 on the wiki (or fan sites) if you are interested in the story.
You might run into a little bit of difficulty if you were not around during Living Story Season 1. Since a lot happened during season 1 and also a lot of characters were introduced back then and I imagine you can feel a bit overwhelmed if you don’t know what happened during season 1.
Still, you can probably find what happened story-wise in season 1 on the wiki (or fan sites) if you are interested in the story.
There is actually a Priory member in Lion’s Arch that has a Season 1 recap.
Just a couple questions as a new GW2 player.
1) So if I start now, I am no longer able to experience season 1?
2) If I never play living world, my game will be a certain way until I play season 2? Then those changes made by season 2 will be permanent and I cannot revert it?
1) So if I start now, I am no longer able to experience season 1?
Season 1 was played out in real time. Everything that happened is either now gone, or a permanent change to the world. There is currently no way to replay this content, however that is something that they would like to eventually redo in the same format as season 2. For now, all you can do is watch the recap video.
2) If I never play living world, my game will be a certain way until I play season 2? Then those changes made by season 2 will be permanent and I cannot revert it?
No, the open world is the same for everyone.
The living world concept was to create a living world, so all changes to the world are played out in real time regardless of what you as an individual have done. If you look under the story journal, you can see the year that the events occurred. In terms of the story, everyone is assumed to have completed it regardless of if you actually have. If you jump straight into season 2 for example, your character is the commander regardless of if you actually earned that title. Playing through the story now is like reliving events that took place in the past.
Because the world changes, for the best experience, you really want to play it as it’s released. When playing through the personal story for example, you’re sent back to the old Lion’s Arch prior to its destruction which occurred at the end of season 1. The Lion’s Arch that you see today was actually just rebuilt a few months ago. Prior to that, it was in ruins.
1) Living World Season 2 applies for max level I assume?
2) Is unlocking it account bound, or would I have to purchase LS2 for all my characters?
3) Is it worth it worth the current 40% discount? I’ve been enjoying the personal story stuff so far
1. Yep, level 80
2. Unlocks Account-wide
3. If you like playing through story content, then I’d say it is, I really enjoyed the LS2
Adding in: once you unlock it, it’s unlocked for all your alts, even ones you haven’t made yet. None of them have to be 80 at the time of unlock, they just have to get to 80 to play it whenever in the future you want them to.
I don’t know if the 40% offer is still going, but if it is, it’s worth it. You might want to do the achievements one day to unlock Luminescent Armor or just to enjoy a challenge, and that requires Chapters 5-8 (for the armor — there are challenges in all 8 chapters). You might want to experience the story from your own PoV, have control over the pacing, be able to read/interact with all the items yourself. If you do, and you didn’t buy it when it was cheaper, you’ll possibly be annoyed at yourself.
Also, it’s a large hunk of the narrative set up for what you’ll be experiencing in HoT. Given how superficial the summary video in LA is as to all the stuff that went down in LS1, playing through LS2 yourself will set the lore much more firmly in your mind.
1) So if I start now, I am no longer able to experience season 1?
Currently, yes.
Season 1 is no longer in the game. Each episode was released every two weeks and were removed 2 or 4 weeks after release (each episode’s story were in sets of two, most often). Exception was the first five (The Lost Shores + Flame and Frost arc) and the Tower of Nightmares arc (lasted about 2 months in total).
Due to the design of how Season 1 was experienced and progressed, it cannot be brought back without a deal of work. Most people will say that most of Season 1 was open world and built for zergs but this isn’t true – the main story was mostly (~80%) instanced, but the instances were designed to be once-per-account more often than not rather than once-per-character; half of the zerging stuff was due to not by design but by the fact that most players were wanting to do that limited-time content; and most of the open world content was no more relevant to the main plot than seeing risen in Kessex Hills or Gendarran is to the human storyline and charr/asura storylines (talked upon and visited once in chapter 3, otherwise irrelevant).
However, Colin Johanson and Bobby Stein – game developer lead and writer lead respectively – have both stated intent on reformating Season 1 into Season 2’s design format to allow it to be permanent and replayable. They have also said, however, that this will not even be possible until Heart of Thorns’ release – next month – so we won’t know if they’ll go through on this for probably 2-3 months and even that would be more of a status update of “we started this” rather than a release date.
I imagine the soonest we’d get Season 1 would be ~June 2016. If they had S1 as a main focus of development, we could see it by February though. But I’m doubtful of that.
For now, all there is in-game is the recap video that you’ll be directed to after completing Victory or Death (final personal story step). But there are many youtube videos that recorded Season 1 content, and the wiki has a good summary.
2) If I never play living world, my game will be a certain way until I play season 2? Then those changes made by season 2 will be permanent and I cannot revert it?
The game is a persistent world. This means that the changes made in the living world will affect everyone. So you’ll be seeing mordrem in the Iron Marches even though you haven’t played Season 2, when mordrem began appearing in the world.
You will never see the game as it originally was, except in the portions that were not yet changed.
In regards to instances, ArenaNet implemented a system for the personal story where if the location has been changed by the Living World then the story instance will show the original location. This is only seen in Lion’s Arch and Fort Concordia currently, and does not affect the one location in Season 2 where such technology would be relevant.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.