Guild Wars 2

Okay. I’d just like to say foremostly that Guild Wars 2 is definitely one of my favourite games of all time, and one that I always come back to.

However, I am a casual gamer, which means I don’t have as much time to play the game as other people do. Some weeks I don’t get online to play at all.

With that said… Can we have a break in between living story chapters?

I’ve seen mention in previous threads that there doesn’t seem to be time to finish the living story content and the normal (permanent) content at the same time, and I definitely feel that way… I keep postponing dungeon runs, personal stories, exploration, etc. because there’s always time pressure to finish the current living story chapter before it goes away.

But the problem is, the living story never goes away, because a new chapter begins as soon as the current one finishes, so all I seem to do is living stories now.

To make matters worse, living story events now overlap – Such as Flame and Frost and Super Adventure Box. I didn’t have time to do both. I just didn’t. Which is a shame because I REALLY wanted one of those pixel weapons. Now Dragon Bash and Sky Pirates are overlapping, I still haven’t found time to do the Aetherblade Retreat and it’s going to be gone less than a week. I likely won’t finish it, nor get my mini, because I have things in real life I need to take care of. * shrugs *

There are other problems too. Foremostly, it seems difficult to find PUGS to run normal content now; finding people for dungeons seems harder than ever, and the only solution seems to be to join a large active guild (which I have no desire to do, partly because I wouldn’t have time to contribute to one).

For people who enjoy the living story’s narrative (like me), there is an additional problem. Since the living story is a linear sequence of events, missing a chapter is like skipping a chapter in a book. Let’s say a user goes on holiday for 3 weeks and has limited internet access. They miss an entire chapter because chapters only last two weeks. The next time they get into the game, they are thrust into the midst of events that make no sense because they missed the previous narrative. Sure, they can look up what happened on the internet, but how fun is that?

It feels like casual gamers are being pressured to play when they can’t or don’t want to. After all, if you don’t play – on the predetermined schedule – you don’t get the rewards and you’re excluded. Hardcore players are kept happy, while casual players are left out. And that kind of stinks.

So what I propose… is giving us a break in between living stories. Maybe two weeks at minimum, maybe a month? So people can relax, enjoy their loot, breathe, and get some notice in advance as to when the next one is coming so they can make time for it. The game will still experience a constant stream of new content, but at a pace that can accommodate everybody.

I imagine a lot of casual gamers like me (who don’t come onto the forums often) feel the same way. Please consider it.

There are several other threads like this one, PeterThomas, all expressing similar views (and I’m one of them). I, too, would like to have some time to unwind and digest the events of a Living Story after each release. Your story about putting all the “normal” story on hold to do the Living Story rings true for me as well.

We love new content, ANet. We really do. But there’s no need to put them out at such a breakneck pace! Once a month, in the vein of Flame & Frost’s original pace, would be fine.

OP I certainly appreciate your point of view, but…..I consider myself casual, and I did miss the whole Molten Facility thing. I don’t mind that at all. Why does it matter if we miss things now and again? The world of Tyria is supposed to be ever-moving forwards after all.

I do share the sentiment that it can be a challenge keeping up with things, but I just don’t mind this at all. I do as much as I can, and enjoy it.

I’ve actually found this much content to be a deterrent to playing.
From a players perspective;
Imagine having a favorite TV show and no way to watch episodes you missed.

If you keep content moving this fast, can you give us ingame TVO?

I’m sure someone on the Dev team watches The Walking Dead and would find it rather disappointing if they had no way to watch the last season finale because they were working on this game. =)

PolarisNova.3867:

OP I certainly appreciate your point of view, but…..I consider myself casual, and I did miss the whole Molten Facility thing. I don’t mind that at all. Why does it matter if we miss things now and again? The world of Tyria is supposed to be ever-moving forwards after all.

I do share the sentiment that it can be a challenge keeping up with things, but I just don’t mind this at all. I do as much as I can, and enjoy it.

I tried to use reasoning this on a birthday, holiday, anniversary, baby shower, bachelors party and even a cup of tea with a stranger.
Hmmm?

Instead of pauses I suggest just letting each chapter run a bit longer. Like have the dungeon be there for a month instead of 2 weeks.

That still allows you to catch your breath just the same since 4 weeks of Sky pirates and a 2 week break would be the same time as 6 weeks sky pirates.

It also allows them to do more QA work and iron out bugs and design the living story stuff to be a bit more interesting (seriously my F key is breaking soon, kitten pinatas/signs/etc).

And finally it allows people that dont have that much time to see more of each chapter at their own pace.

I am all for Mastruq’s idea of letting things last longer. However, currently the additions to the game do last a long time. They can easily be completed in a couple of days and last usually a ~month.

I don’t think that two week releases will see that change, as the last couple of releases were 2 weeks apart and they lasted for longer than two weeks. For example, Dragon Bash started June 11th and next instalment (Sky Pirates on June 25th) did not remove the Dragon Bash content.

I understand your desire to want to play more content, but you choose to play less regularly. That means that this can’t be that important to you, and I do not see why the entire game should change and warp itself to your personal schedule. For me, I am almost entirely bored of all non-living-story material in this game, so I only log in to play to check out this new stuff. I then play it, get bored, and log out until Guild Missions. Currently, there is not enough content for me to keep engaged, and my enjoyment is slowly fading away. So for players like me, more content = more enjoyment of the game.

Obviously, I understand it is hypocritical for me to say you cannot ask for the game to meet your schedule when I want it to meet my schedule. That is why I agree with Mastruq’s idea of having living story content last for a longer period, so you have more opportunity to enjoy it.

While a “catch your breath” period of a week or two between bouts of running around trying to get all the temporarily available achievements you can wouldn’t hurt, it looks like it’s not going to happen. Anet seems to be all-in on new content every two weeks.

Jemmi.6058:

I understand your desire to want to play more content, but you choose to play less regularly. That means that this can’t be that important to you, and I do not see why the entire game should change and warp itself to your personal schedule.

First of all, I do not choose to play less regularly. I have a job. And no, I will not quit it to play Guild Wars.

Secondly, at the beginning of my original post I stated that Guild Wars 2 is one of my favourite games of all time, and therefore very important to me. If the game wasn’t important to me, I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble to express my concerns here.

Just because I do not play the game as much as you does not mean I love the game any less.

As for your idea of extending the living story periods, I think it would be an improvement, but some of the issues I raised in my original post would still stand.

I wholeheartedly agree, TC, it’d be really nice to have some time between living story scenarios to unwind, enjoy some of the original content and actually get a chance to PvP a little.

I too have a full time job, and I honestly haven’t been able to play much dungeons or haven’t had any time at all finish up a lot of zones I’ve been wanting to complete for a few months now, all because I’ve only had enough time to chase down these limited time living story scenarios, and their respective achievements/unique items.

I can see how someone who has no job or isn’t in school would want this constant barrage of new content, but I seriously doubt that’s the situation for a lot of the player base of GW2.

PolarisNova.3867:

OP I certainly appreciate your point of view, but…..I consider myself casual, and I did miss the whole Molten Facility thing. I don’t mind that at all. Why does it matter if we miss things now and again? The world of Tyria is supposed to be ever-moving forwards after all.

I do share the sentiment that it can be a challenge keeping up with things, but I just don’t mind this at all. I do as much as I can, and enjoy it.

You may not mind it, but some people do, however, and there’s really no good reason to punish people, who have to work or have real-life obligations, for not having enough time to mold into Anet’s ridiculous schedule with the Living Story that’s been happening since May. It effectively cuts out people who want to enjoy a lot of other things this game has to offer but don’t want to miss out on one time events and the really cool items they can get from them.

I also agree that should have some time between them, like 1 week at the least!

IMO i would prefer the old system of expansions, because all what came with them is permanent, Vs. the Living Story Episodes, that mostly vanishes from the game when ends!

And funnily enough back when we had Flame and Frost people complained about the long time between updates.

No matter which way they go there will be people that don’t like it.

lordkrall.7241:

And funnily enough back when we had Flame and Frost people complained about the long time between updates.

No matter which way they go there will be people that don’t like it.

True enough, but those were the same people (or people cut from the same cloth) who played 10 hours a day every day after release and then complained just a few weeks later that there was nothing to do in the game. Now consider the players who work 40 to 60 hours a week and have familial obligations at home also want to enjoy the Living Story content.

The former group you can never please. You literally cannot release content fast enough to satisfy them. The latter you can please if you give them enough time to catch up when they do get the time to play.

Sure, you don’t want to wait forever for them. But I personally think two weeks to get a bunch of busywork achievements, run dungeons, catch up on story-related cut scenes is a bit too short. This is especially true if Achievement Points are going to be used for rewards.

lordkrall.7241:

And funnily enough back when we had Flame and Frost people complained about the long time between updates.

No matter which way they go there will be people that don’t like it.

I’m all for loads of new content. I love seeing new things popping up for us to do. the more the merrier, and i really dont mind at all if they can actually produce content faster than the rate im going through them. The main point of the issue however is its temporary nature. A bazillion new content is fine, so long as i can take my own time going through them. I dont go thru all achievements and aspects of each content, but there are always stuff i really look forward to.

As of the OP, a break seems nice but i really dont see them doing this if they can actually keep the pace up. again, much easier to make the content around longer or permanent, it still aloows ppl that need to catch their breath do so.

Dark Jericho.8609:

PolarisNova.3867:

OP I certainly appreciate your point of view, but…..I consider myself casual, and I did miss the whole Molten Facility thing. I don’t mind that at all. Why does it matter if we miss things now and again? The world of Tyria is supposed to be ever-moving forwards after all.

I do share the sentiment that it can be a challenge keeping up with things, but I just don’t mind this at all. I do as much as I can, and enjoy it.

You may not mind it, but some people do, however, and there’s really no good reason to punish people, who have to work or have real-life obligations, for not having enough time to mold into Anet’s ridiculous schedule with the Living Story that’s been happening since May. It effectively cuts out people who want to enjoy a lot of other things this game has to offer but don’t want to miss out on one time events and the really cool items they can get from them.

Yes I can appreciate that, and obviously some people mind it otherwise this thread wouldn’t exist. I’m not sure I agree the schedule is ‘ridiculous’, more very ambitious, and yes the content has been coming thick and fast of late.

But the fact is, an MMO can’t cater to everyone, and I think part of GW2’s issues atm, is that ANet seem to be trying to make everyone happy. It’s not possible, You either cater to very casual players, and the mid-to hardcore players will complain there’s not even content to satisfy them, or you accept that some people will miss some things.

At the end of the day, we are not having to pay extra for these things, so it’s not a case of paying a certain amount per month and not feeling you are getting value for money….this is free stuff. The game is already diverse enough that people can jump in whenever and do these things, asking them to slow down for the ultra casual is not fair for those who can or do put more time into the game.

It is a delicate balance, and I am adult enough to accept I won’t catch everything and that is perfectly okay.

I was one of the people complaining about the slow pace of January/February/March, and I stand by that.

I think I wrote that in another post but I feel the amount of polish has dropped with Southsun and beyond, and since I am not privy to internal reasons I attribute this change to the obvious cause: releasing a chapter every month.

So given the choice between very slow and very polished, a bit slow and polished enough, or fast and lacking polish, I am for the middle ground.

lordkrall.7241:

And funnily enough back when we had Flame and Frost people complained about the long time between updates.

No matter which way they go there will be people that don’t like it.

Flame and Frost (at least the first 2 months) were TOO slow. It was a whole month to pound in a few signposts.

This type of a 2-week update schedule will be MORE stuff to do in half the amount of time. That’s too much.

There’s a happy medium between the two, where its not trying to stretch a weeks worth of content into a month but also not trying to cram a months worth of content into a couple weeks either.

Electro.4173:

There’s a happy medium between the two, where its not trying to stretch a weeks worth of content into a month but also not trying to cram a months worth of content into a couple weeks either.

Very well said.

darkace.8925:

Electro.4173:

There’s a happy medium between the two, where its not trying to stretch a weeks worth of content into a month but also not trying to cram a months worth of content into a couple weeks either.

Very well said.

couldnt agree more…

Well, with each new temporary content release I’ve done less of it and had less interest in it. Now, I’ve just not even bothered to look at the latest. For some I’m sure this is perfect for them and they will enjoy it. For me, I’ve gone back to EQ2 and Lotro and have relegated GW2 to doing my daily and participating in WvW. The funny thing is, I didn’t participate in PvP in any other game so it isn’t that PvE bores me. In EQ2 and Lotro its all PvE for me.

I do like many things with GW2. I like the gameplay itself – how you use your weapons, how you can fight and use skills while moving, how in fact you HAVE to keep moving to survive. I like how the harvest nodes are yours alone, the loot is yours alone, and the competition for kills is much less than normal games.

However, there is much missing that would keep my interest. I like a variety of things to do and I don’t like deadlines. I don’t mind holiday content. I don’t like here today gone forever in a week or two content.

That is why I decided not to purchase Defiance. I thought the game looked interesting and it was tied to the tv show I’m watching and was on the verge of buying it when I saw that they were going to have content that you had to do each week and it would then be gone. I just don’t like that kind of game. I have enough deadlines at work, I don’t need a game that has constant deadlines. Some of you have said, but you don’t have to do the achievements! Just ignore them if they are not your cup of tea! However, that seems to be the focus of the game now. I would love to do other things but where are these other things to do that have been added? The quests and stories that have been added?

There is much I like about GW2 but I think it is becoming more of what I don’t enjoy and perhaps they will not add what draws me to the other games for a long time to come.

I want the feeling I have when I play Lotro and EQ2. The feeling that there is much to do and I have all the time in the world to do it. I like appearance armor, and houses to show off my rewards from questing, and a feeling of immersion in a game world where I learn about the history of the world and the people in it. I just feel disconnected from GW2. The personal story is over too quickly, and the people who are your friends just disappear on you. I don’t know much about most of the inhabitants in the world. It’s hard to describe what is missing I suppose but it is definitely missing. I started getting more immersed with Rox and Braham’s stories, then it was over.

I want more minigames. I want hobbies. I want housing and cool stuff. I want crafting to mean something. I played GW1 from the time they previewed it at E3. I really wanted GW2 to be as compelling and entertain me as much. Oddly GW1 didn’t have the house items. or crafting, and the appearance armor was sparse and came late in the game. But that didn’t bother me because we had the quests, the missions, FOW, UW and so many fun things to do.

The good thing is that there is no subscription so I can continue to do the daily, the monthly, and WvW. Perhaps they will add more permanent things to do that I enjoy. I really want to keep playing this game.

Honestly, I think if they left the content in the game, then it would add more and more to do in the game and the pressure to do it NOW would be gone. Right now there are two things that I don’t like. It’s temporary and it has a deadline. You could still release new content every month. Just leave it in.

PolarisNova.3867:

Yes I can appreciate that, and obviously some people mind it otherwise this thread wouldn’t exist. I’m not sure I agree the schedule is ‘ridiculous’, more very ambitious, and yes the content has been coming thick and fast of late.

But the fact is, an MMO can’t cater to everyone, and I think part of GW2’s issues atm, is that ANet seem to be trying to make everyone happy. It’s not possible, You either cater to very casual players, and the mid-to hardcore players will complain there’s not even content to satisfy them, or you accept that some people will miss some things.

At the end of the day, we are not having to pay extra for these things, so it’s not a case of paying a certain amount per month and not feeling you are getting value for money….this is free stuff. The game is already diverse enough that people can jump in whenever and do these things, asking them to slow down for the ultra casual is not fair for those who can or do put more time into the game.

It is a delicate balance, and I am adult enough to accept I won’t catch everything and that is perfectly okay.

It’s very possible to make everyone happy, simply by doing what has been suggested in this very thread, leaving content in permanently and not this awful “for one time only!” nonsense. If they’re not going to slow down on LS, then they could at least make each new chapter of it permanent, by being accessible to players old and new.

I don’t see how being “adult enough” equates to sitting back and letting a game I pre-ordered over a year ago and have enjoyed since Beta Weekend 2 and have been immersed in, slowly degrade to the buggy, overlapping, temporary achievement chasing rushfest it’s been since early May, or that I have to sit out this content because I don’t have as much free time as others, when this content shouldn’t be rushed nor temporary in the first place. It’d be much better for everyone to leave everything accessible from current and previous LS content, or slow it down enough to make it actually work properly for every player to experience.

This is absolutely rediculous. I for one like the idea that there is so much to do that I miss out on some stuff. Expecting to be able to do every single thing in the game when you are a casual player is expecting too much. There should be more content than you can accomplish.

Imagine you went grocery shopping and the stores only had a couple of items to allow you to try everything they have to offer and not miss out. That would suck. I prefer to be overwhelmed by choices, pick the most attractive, and miss out on some of less interesting ones. It’s the same for the game. Give me more content than I can possibly play, so that I always have good choices of content when I log on.

havoc.6814:

This is absolutely rediculous. I for one like the idea that there is so much to do that I miss out on some stuff. Expecting to be able to do every single thing in the game when you are a casual player is expecting too much. There should be more content than you can accomplish.

Imagine you went grocery shopping and the stores only had a couple of items to allow you to try everything they have to offer and not miss out. That would suck. I prefer to be overwhelmed by choices, pick the most attractive, and miss out on some of less interesting ones. It’s the same for the game. Give me more content than I can possibly play, so that I always have good choices of content when I log on.

While i wont comment on the grocery store example, some ppl will say its quite apt, others might think it doesnt suit the situation. I will stay on the fences on that.

Having said that, I understand there are people that aim to have every aspect of the content achieved, and there are people like myself, who are more… selective at what we want to do in a given content. Yet even those are subjective because, lets face it we all like different things. We chose to do the things we like, or chose to do the things that will reward us with the things we like. but what happens when the stuff we want, just the specific one, is gated in such a way that you really really have to spend such time on it that god forbid if u ever have other emergencies that prevent u from logging on. And look some people can do contents fast, some people do them slower. (like dailies, some ppl say they do it in 10 minutes, some do it longer).

I am also of the opinion that it seems rather counter productive for the devs to work so hard to make contents only for people to skip or miss them just because they couldnt keep up. I find that notion rather… foolish, if u dont mind me saying.

I think we can all agree that we want more content. After all, playing a game is all about having content that you want to do. I think the difference is that some of us think they could leave the content in the game.

The current pace of the LS is definitely getting a bit tiring. Quality > quantity for me in all cases, and so far I feel it’s been a lot more quantity than quality. It’s getting better, but since the pace is also due to increase I can’t say I’m not concerned. I’m also casual, as in I usually play 2-3 times a week at most. The trouble at the moment is that even when content from the living story is made permanent, people abandon it the week after because there is new living story content again to work on – see Southsun Cove as a prime example. LS has become the new treadmill, and since a lot of it so far has been driven on trashy RNG and achievement grinding, I think that’s a fair metaphor.

I’ve found the sky pirates arc less frantic than the last few living stories, primarily because a) I’m still feeling pretty ‘jaded’ about the jade ticket RNG farce and the wasted effort gone into trying to get one and consequently have a few less kitten s to give about the LS in general, and b) the reward for the sky pirates achievement isn’t something I particularly care about in and of itself. It’s been pretty nice to spend my few gaming sessions a week mostly working on my progress in the core game again for a while.

generalraccoon.3857:

-snip-
I am also of the opinion that it seems rather counter productive for the devs to work so hard to make contents only for people to skip or miss them just because they couldnt keep up. I find that notion rather… foolish, if u dont mind me saying.

The devs don’t make content only for people to skip. Nonetheless, all content gets skipped, or do you believe that everybody is really doing everything in the game. The idea is to make enough content that everybody has something they will enjoy doing, and can skip the stuff they don’t enjoy.

I don’t mind you saying that the notion as you put it is foolish. It was, after all, your notion, and nowhere near what I wrote.

New content comes out and a literally takes 3 hours to finish off. The rest of the the 2 weeks till then next release is your break.

havoc.6814:

The devs don’t make content only for people to skip. Nonetheless, all content gets skipped, or do you believe that everybody is really doing everything in the game. The idea is to make enough content that everybody has something they will enjoy doing, and can skip the stuff they don’t enjoy.

I don’t mind you saying that the notion as you put it is foolish. It was, after all, your notion, and nowhere near what I wrote.

You are right of course in that content do get skipped, like speed running dungeons. My sentiment there is simply that people, some of them, just can’t get into the content, despite them wishing to do so, due to insufficient time or opportunity. It’s one thing if people skip because they want quick rewards, or they are bored or uninterested in doing a content, because thats their choice. but if they want to and they can’t… well i just feel its better for devs to actually pace it so that the most number of people can partake in the content. Or, just make it permanent :P

panzer.6034:

New content comes out and a literally takes 3 hours to finish off. The rest of the the 2 weeks till then next release is your break.

Secret of Southsun was like that, and that was good. I finished everything in one day. But this is not possible with Sky Pirates.

I’ve spent way more than 3 hours simply trying to fill out the various “Aetherblade Assassin” achievement tracks, and I still haven’t gotten them all.

Not to mention that the Aetherblade Retreat can take a few hours to do, the jumping puzzle can take a long time if you fall at all (or lag), and the fact that all of the Aetherblade caches are in jump puzzles of their own that also take time…

3 hours? Really?

What about the people who haven’t explored much, and have to travel for hours to get to the jump puzzle locations? They can somehow finish all this content in 3 hours?

I’m sorry, but if this could have been completed in 3 hours, I would have completed it already, but I haven’t. * shrugs * This is not the same pace as Southsun, not even close. With Southsun we had double the time and half the content to finish.

I am all for making living stories that can be done in a day; then at least people can find time to set aside one day to do them. But that’s not what we currently have.

And since we don’t have that, I proposed the idea of breaks between Living Stories. Or at least bring them back to the same pace as Southsun – Minimum one month, and content that doesn’t require hours of grinding.

PeterThomas.7243:

And since we don’t have that, I proposed the idea of breaks between Living Stories. Or at least bring them back to the same pace as Southsun – Minimum one month, and content that doesn’t require hours of grinding.

Southsun was bad because there wasn’t jack to do. 3 hours of content and then a month break should not be the goal, IMO. Maybe they should make things that last longer, but have elements that are do-able after the event so people won’t feel as rushed but less stuff + more time is the worst they could do, based on the current vacuous type of content they’ve been putting out.

panzer.6034:

Southsun was bad because there wasn’t jack to do. 3 hours of content and then a month break should not be the goal, IMO. Maybe they should make things that last longer, but have elements that are do-able after the event so people won’t feel as rushed but less stuff + more time is the worst they could do, based on the current vacuous type of content they’ve been putting out.

I would say that firstly, some people didnt find the amount of stuff in southsun event all that bad. these are people that might not even make it to login each day. but i would agree it gets rather empty after awhile because in fact i feel that the 2 week pace is good for such a content, not its month long duration. now some might disagree of course but try and be reasonable, not everyone can finish content as fast as the select few. the newer dragonbash and/or aetherblades with its HUNDREDS of stuff however might be a different thing.

i would agree however to a repeatable content after that, elements that are do able after the main stuffs as you say. this gives people with time to burn something to do, or earn stuff, make money, get shinies etc.

I think the reason why they are so close together and over lakitten o the game doesn’t go stagnant. With those at lvl 80 and have done the main quest it leaves nothing else to do. It’s a problem in other games that drives people to leave and play other games. I agree that RL happens and that missing a chapter sucks. I’ve missed a lot because of the breaks I take. If Arena net could do a Narrative of mini archs on the website I would be fine with that. Showing a lil comic strip style with artwork they are really kitten good at and with someone telling the “Story thus far” it would keep people up to date as well as provide those that missed parts a opportunity to see and enjoy the story that was told.

Time for living stories to last 2+ months at a time, which currently means 4 stories would run at the same time. Seems to be that way with Dragon Bash.