Guild Wars 2

So I am returning to the game after quite a long break. Since I’ve been away for so long I’ve missed quite a lot of the Living World story.
Is there any way to do those earlier Living World story missions to get the story of the world or am I just stuck in the dark?

You can’t replay stories from Season 1, but you can unlock earlier episodes of Season 2 using 200 Gems each episode.

Alternatively, there are summaries on the Wiki you can (kinda) read.

Ah ok thanks. Pretty lame you not only can’t replay season 1 but you have to pay for the other season 2 episodes.

Season 1 isn’t replayable at the moment because ANet used world events to tell most of the story. These world events greatly altered affected maps depending on the episodes and many of these required large groups of players to complete. So even if they remake the events in instances like in Season 2, you’d still have a really hard time finding enough players to attempt the story. Instead, ANet has released some of the dungeon instances form Season 1 as Fractal dungeons for players to replay.

Season 2 episodes that you miss by not logging in during the 2 weeks it was available is a financial decision to encourage players to log in at least once every 2 weeks just to gain access to the episode for free.

So if I am returning now after a couple of years chances are by the time I get current that season 1 and 2 will not be available to me?

Season 2 is available now. Log in before Tuesday the 27th and you’ll unlock the last episode of season 2 for free. The other episodes will cost 200 gems each if you want to own them. Or you can join someone else who has them unlocked and play through them that way.

Remember you can also convert gold to gems to buy the episodes.