Guild Wars 2

Snowmoon.1758:

What about someone who feels like taking a break from GW2 due to burnout?
1 year later, do you think he’ll still wanna pay for it?

It is rather likely that they will bunch up each season and sell it as a pack (most likely for a slightly lower price than buying everything one by one) which would basically be like buying an expansion pack, and people don’t seem to have much issue with that.

somsom.5201:

This seems like a VERY poor way to make money.

Why not put your effort into releasing an expansion, rather than hoping that people will spend 200 gems per “chapter” of a missed LS season? I mean, there can’t be that many people who will be willing to do that(not to mention just purchasing via gold).

This seems like an implementation we’ve seen before and ANet has backtracked time and time again on it. I’ve no doubt that they will again change their implementation to just give the LS unlocks regardless if you logged in or not(so save your gems/gold).

tl;dr: Focus on an expansion instead of hoping for people to shell out gems for (imo) substandard content.

PS: your TV show analogy doesn’t work, as I can set my DVR to record while I’m away(or watch whenever I want with HBOgo etc.).

It’s a compromise for those who wanted the permanent content and those who like the temporary stuff. Or should I say those who wanted interesting well rounded content. Next to those who enjoyed the half broken 2 week rushed content who are that unquestionably loyal, and don’t care about quality over quantity. Which exactly is the same reason why the Zhaitan fight is still a rushed half baked piece of garbage today. It’s the hallmark achievement for everyone who plays this game to see how Arena Net still takes care of their products even by today’s standards. The only difference between then and now it’s on a two week schedule rotation so hopefully you miss their mistakes, and get the tail end of it. Since we still have many people loyal enough to overlook those mistakes made by Arena Net. They buy Black Lion Key’s by the dozens on a daily basis, for their dire support for the abysmal RNG system over any real meaningful quality control.

You log in during the living world event: you get it for free, permanently, acc-wide.

You don’t log in for half a year, skip a lot content: each one costs 200 gems (VERY cheap).

Fair enough.

While we’re on the topic of paying, can i pay to get Trahearne killed?

I want to eat him for salad.
Vegetables are good for you.

I HATE YOU TRAHEARNE!!!

lol

Snowmoon.1758:

Making people pay for missed content is rather silly imo.
Can you imagine someone who missed 10 episodes of Season 2 due to exams
and when he finally comes back, he has to pay 2000gems JUST to unlock them to play? (considering 1 episode costs 200gems)

Why would he even bother to pay?
Seriously, judging by the quality of season 1’s story, is it even WORTH to pay 200gems?

You’re just encouraging people who are not able to play to actually seriously consider quitting the game.

Very VERY stupid move Anet.
This is probably one of the WORST decisions you’ve made.

You do know along as you log in during the 2 weeks a patch is up you’ll get the content forever, right? I think I can manage to sign in for a total of 5 minutes during my finals so I don’t have to pay.

BobbyStein.2315:

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Looking over the LS season 2 blurb I spotted this “Past episodes will be available for purchase for 200 gems”

Does this mean if we want to reply any LS content we need to pay for it in gems? Is it an unlock a chapter forever fee for every account or is it character bound? If we pay for a chapter can we team with people who haven’t?

Personally, not sure how I feel about this move. To me it seems to step over the ‘morality line’ and move GW2 to a payment model I don’t really like..

Hmm

If you log in during the release window of an episode (e.g. two weeks) you unlock the episode for your account. You can replay it as many times as you want for free. If you miss the release window and you want to play an episode that you didn’t unlock, you can purchase it.

It’s a lot like watching television in that you can watch (and record) an episode for free when it airs. If you miss it, you can buy the episode off iTunes later. Does that make sense?

lol bobby….you perfect little angel :P

i know there is a little devil inside of you with the internet and watching tv shows

An episode costs 22G 15S (200 gems). I bought minis worth more than that seriously. -.-

Seems like DLC gone wrong. I’d prefer Anet just charge everyone 200gem so they would have the resources to make content that doesn’t suck.

Instead they are shifting that burden on to the backs of players who travel a lot or take longer breaks from the game. Given the quality of S1 content (due in part to being free), I can’t imagine that many of the players in this category will actually want to buy missed episodes.

NornBearPig.9814:

Seems like DLC gone wrong. I’d prefer Anet just charge everyone 200gem so they would have the resources to make content that doesn’t suck.

Instead they are shifting that burden on to the backs of players who travel a lot or take longer breaks from the game. Given the quality of S1 content (due in part to being free), I can’t imagine that many of the players in this category will actually want to buy missed episodes.

or if you don’t want to pay, take 5 minutes log in and log the kitten out. Assuming you care and if you don’t care enough to take 5 minutes within 2 weeks then you probably don’t care to do the story anyways.

I’m sorry Anet, but I can’t afford your game anymore.

LordEnki.9283:

I’m sorry Anet, but I can’t afford your game anymore.

Are you somehow forced to pay?

LordEnki.9283:

I’m sorry Anet, but I can’t afford your game anymore.

I agree. It is totally unfair to expect me to log into a game once every 2 weeks, assuming I care about the story or the game.

LordEnki.9283:

I’m sorry Anet, but I can’t afford your game anymore.

if you have the free time to make this post, you will very likely have the free time to unlock the living story episodes

Think that if Anet wanted the respect of the community they would have given ALL the LSS1 chapters for free.
This stinks of nickel and diming and seems to be the concurrent trend with Anet.
Milk all we can while we can, even with old rehashed content.
Why stop here Anet? Why not just charge gems to enter dungeons? Why not just charge gems to login?
Charging money for previously free content is a slippery slope that I hope Anet doesnt fall down.

silvermember.8941:

LordEnki.9283:

I’m sorry Anet, but I can’t afford your game anymore.

I agree. It is totally unfair to expect me to log into a game once every 2 weeks, assuming I care about the story or the game.

You can’t be bothered to double click an icon on your desktop, enter a password, wait 1 minute, then alt+f4? There are 20160 minutes in 2 weeks. I think you can set one of them aside to log in and out of the game. This is really only a problem for people who purchase the game 1+ years from now.

Some people complain about this but… I’m sorry, I think it’s ridiculous. People are entitled to their opinions, sure. You don’t like that they’re charging 200 gems if you don’t log in to get it free when it’s available for free… fine. I think it’s fine though. They need to make money and if charging just 200 gems for people to replay what they would have missed anyway is one way of doing it, that’s cool by me. I won’t be missing it anyway :-P

I sort of wish they came up with a way for us to vote on the news articles or had votes as on certain features so they could see (or maybe even in game votes like evon vs kiel) how many people really disliked these ideas. I can’t help but think the majority would be ok with this…

Stormcrow.7513:

Think that if Anet wanted the respect of the community they would have given ALL the LSS1 chapters for free.
This stinks of nickel and diming and seems to be the concurrent trend with Anet.
Milk all we can while we can, even with old rehashed content.
Why stop here Anet? Why not just charge gems to enter dungeons? Why not just charge gems to login?
Charging money for previously free content is a slippery slope that I hope Anet doesnt fall down.

you’re not getting S1 for free because, as of right now, you’re not getting it at all. it wasn’t designed with the journal in mind and would have to be overhauled to fit into the system

Xenon.4537:

silvermember.8941:

LordEnki.9283:

I’m sorry Anet, but I can’t afford your game anymore.

I agree. It is totally unfair to expect me to log into a game once every 2 weeks, assuming I care about the story or the game.

You can’t be bothered to double click an icon on your desktop, enter a password, wait 1 minute, then alt+f4? There are 20160 minutes in 2 weeks. I think you can set one of them aside to log in and out of the game. This is really only a problem for people who purchase the game 1+ years from now.

pretty sure that’s some sarcasm you’re replying to.

Stormcrow.7513:

Think that if Anet wanted the respect of the community they would have given ALL the LSS1 chapters for free.
This stinks of nickel and diming and seems to be the concurrent trend with Anet.
Milk all we can while we can, even with old rehashed content.
Why stop here Anet? Why not just charge gems to enter dungeons? Why not just charge gems to login?
Charging money for previously free content is a slippery slope that I hope Anet doesnt fall down.

You are aware that they have said nothing at all about the cost for S1, right?
They have even stated that it won’t be in the journal at release, but might be added later, and as such your whole post is completely invalid.

For all we know WHEN/IF S1 becomes available it WILL be for free.

Malkizid.3925:

LordEnki.9283:

I’m sorry Anet, but I can’t afford your game anymore.

if you have the free time to make this post, you will very likely have the free time to unlock the living story episodes

Plenty of people are NEW to the game…do you expect them to shell out $100+ once S1 becomes available(and S2 as well depending on when they join in)?

Lets be clear: this isn’t an expansion. This is content that was temporary that is basically being made into DLC, albeit “hidden” DLC. When someone buys the game they won’t see any expansions listed, but upon logging in…they’ll find that they “need” to get S1 + S2 etc. to get caught up. ANet is already giving out the chapters if people log during the 2 week window: why not just do it outright and save the headache for new players?

If someone buys the game after the end of living story 2, they’d have to pay to unlock living story 2.

If someone told me I’d have to pay to unlock content that was free previously and every one else has permanent access simply because they owned the game at the time and logged in, and because I didn’t own the game at the time and couldn’t log in i have to pay (and there’s no real reason it can’t be equally free for me), I’d simply walk away.

Alternatively, they’d have to grind gold to play the story-line, which is also a bad idea when you already have to gear up characters cause you’re a noob. I’d imagine casual players who went on vacation or something wouldn’t be happy either.

While it’s a far nicer offering than forcing existing players to pay for an expansion, it’s not a healthy business decision for attracting new players to the game.

BobbyStein.2315:

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Looking over the LS season 2 blurb I spotted this “Past episodes will be available for purchase for 200 gems”

Does this mean if we want to reply any LS content we need to pay for it in gems? Is it an unlock a chapter forever fee for every account or is it character bound? If we pay for a chapter can we team with people who haven’t?

Personally, not sure how I feel about this move. To me it seems to step over the ‘morality line’ and move GW2 to a payment model I don’t really like..

Hmm

If you log in during the release window of an episode (e.g. two weeks) you unlock the episode for your account. You can replay it as many times as you want for free. If you miss the release window and you want to play an episode that you didn’t unlock, you can purchase it.

It’s a lot like watching television in that you can watch (and record) an episode for free when it airs. If you miss it, you can buy the episode off iTunes later. Does that make sense?

That doesnt sound very friendly for new players, or is different for them. I said this bcs i am ok to pay 200 gems if i miss a part of the LS, but for a new player is different, they would need to pay for each part.

Pretty much everything I want to say has been said already but I’ll highlight some fine points:

- You can log in, just once, for fifteen seconds every two weeks to get your next chapter.

- It’s $2.50 USD to purchase content you may have missed for whatever reason.

- That’s 65$ USD (max) if you miss an entire year’s worth of content.

- It’s a nice balance between players who want previous content in the game, verse those who’ve already played it.

- If you’re interested in minis, armor pieces (like back skins), or special ore nodes? Those are usually on the gemstore for 200-800 gems. Which means, you have the option of getting these things for free (by playing the content) or you spend the same amount (if not less) to get them.

I’m personally all for this adjustment. Not only does it give players a chance to complete content they may have missed, but it also appears that they’re trying to make things less zergtastic.

Enokitake.1742:

If someone buys the game after the end of living story 2, they’d have to pay to unlock living story 2.

If I buy lets say Lord of the Rings Online today, I have to pay to unlock a kitten-ton of expansions. How is this different?

Morsus.5106:

Sweetblue Huntress.9856:

Morsus.5106:

Will the story episodes you buy be instanced? If so, how do players handle stuff like the destruction of Lion’s Arch? If it isn’t instanced, what’s to stop people from farming events like the destruction of Lion’s Arch of the original Queen’s Gauntlet indefinitely?

From the Announcement:

“Also, because Season 1 of Living World was not built with the Journal in mind, it will not be available in the story Journal on initial launch when Season 2 begins. We do hope to add Season 1 to the Journal in the future. As I mentioned earlier, only festivals will continue to use the gold star UI. They will not be in the story Journal, and they will remain as temporary content that comes in each year for a period of time and then packs up and leaves when the festival has completed.”

To answer your question: Queen’s Gauntlet is a festival thus temporary and Destruction of LA is Season 1. Once they put Season 1 in the journal, then I guess you’ll have a definitive answer.

Except that pretty much means we won’t be seeing large scale content in Season 2, because if they do an event like the destruction of LA, or the marionette, etc. it couldn’t be put in the journal.

There are still ways to do them. Destruction of LA could have been a 15-man ‘raid’ instance.

An interesting excuse for replaying past events is something like FF14’s ballad Altima Weapon fight, where it is simply a replay if the past events inside your head. Marionette could be re-experienced by a large group as a powerful illusion cast by a Mesmer or something.

200 gems is $2.50 USD. To all the people assuming LS1 will be $100+ upon release, it will actually be about $62.50 when counting all releases and subtracting the festival ones which don’t count because they are always temporary. And again, it’s reasonable to assume Anet will make those free (or at least part of a cheaper package) since they came before any of this journal business was invented.

lordkrall.7241:

Enokitake.1742:

If someone buys the game after the end of living story 2, they’d have to pay to unlock living story 2.

If I buy lets say Lord of the Rings Online today, I have to pay to unlock a kitten-ton of expansions. How is this different?

Because every other player also had to pay to unlock expansions.

In this case, the new player is essentially paying a premium for not owning the game since launch and being able to log in.

As i get it, it’s only about instanced stories, like the dialogues in the current phase of Living Story.

If they add permanent content, then you will access it without having to pay, even if you didn’t log in at that time.
If they add a temporary content like the Nightmare Tower in Kessex Hills, you will only get the story instance (i.e. killing the toxic hybrid) and not the complete tower.
Also i think this “past content” would only contain the story rewards (like Gas Mask), and the not unique loot of that content (Jetpack)

TL;DR Those who miss the Living Story will only get the story if they pay for it. They won’t get less, they won’t get more, only the story.

Correct me if i get it wrong.

lordkrall.7241:

Enokitake.1742:

If someone buys the game after the end of living story 2, they’d have to pay to unlock living story 2.

If I buy lets say Lord of the Rings Online today, I have to pay to unlock a kitten-ton of expansions. How is this different?

Pretty much this ^ If someone missed all of season 2, they hypothetically missed a year’s worth of content. That means they hypothetically missed an expansion (seeing most games do expansions yearly – biyearly).

If I want to play Guild Wars and unlock all the content? I have to buy Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North. If I want to play World of Warcraft and unlock all of the content? I have to buy Burning Crusade, Lich King, Pandera. . .

Forgive me if this has been already answered but I am sort of in a confused/panic state regarding this new content release. I understand the fact we must log in during the first 2 weeks of its release to get it free; however, it is mentioned that otherwise, you would have to “pay” for season 1 or something.

My question is if a friend of mine was to join like later in this year on December, would he/she have to pay a fee just to enjoy the original personal storyline or is it just the new content coming July have to be paid for?

Mint Rain.6798:

lordkrall.7241:

Enokitake.1742:

If someone buys the game after the end of living story 2, they’d have to pay to unlock living story 2.

If I buy lets say Lord of the Rings Online today, I have to pay to unlock a kitten-ton of expansions. How is this different?

Pretty much this ^ If someone missed all of season 2, they hypothetically missed a year’s worth of content. That means they hypothetically missed an expansion (seeing most games do expansions yearly – biyearly).

If I want to play Guild Wars and unlock all the content? I have to buy Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North. If I want to play World of Warcraft and unlock all of the content? I have to buy Burning Crusade, Lich King, Pandera. . .

Aye, but every other GW1 or WoW player had to pay too. Expacs are not just new players who have to pay for access, it’s every player.

This is a premium charged on being a new player, instead of all players accessing new content. That’s not a healthy decision to grow a game (but it’s a very healthy decision for making existing players happy).

People… you don’t NEED LS1.. or LS2.. or LS3.. If we we’re on LS4, you could play LS4 without having any of the previous LS’s… You know, right at the start, that’s better than other models where you need all previous content to play the current.

Now.. if each LS was called an expansion.. but if you’re playing when it released you got it for free and everyone else after had to buy it… I think most people would realize that this model is already common place (except for the free part for people currently playing.. sweet deal). The only difference is that they’re breaking it up by episodes and allowing you to buy each individual one if you wish OR you can just start playing the newest LS for free like everyone else. This is a good thing. This model is good. It’s good for us and good for them.

Also.. I know i made the comparison to the expansion model.. but an even better comparison that they themselves have used… Television series. You watch it for free on TV when it airs.. after that, you need to buy the season (in some cases, like this one, you can buy by the episode). Once again, this is a good model. It’s been used before and I’m glad it’s being used here.

I can’t for the life of me understand peoples complaints… Should everything in the world be free? Don’t you realize that “other” games.. other forms of media.. do this very same thing?

Enokitake.1742:

If someone buys the game after the end of living story 2, they’d have to pay to unlock living story 2.

Wouldn’t be any different than said person buying the game after an expansion came out. They’d still have to buy the expansion…

If someone told me I’d have to pay to unlock content that was free previously and every one else has permanent access simply because they owned the game at the time and logged in, and because I didn’t own the game at the time and couldn’t log in i have to pay (and there’s no real reason it can’t be equally free for me), I’d simply walk away.

I can only sort of see this argument. However, games do all sorts of promotional things like this all the time. “Log in during such and such time and get free ‘x’” Don’t log in, you don’t get it, but you can still buy it later. The free storage panel in GW1 is something that comes to mind.

Alternatively, they’d have to grind gold to play the story-line, which is also a bad idea when you already have to gear up characters cause you’re a noob. I’d imagine casual players who went on vacation or something wouldn’t be happy either.

Actually as a casual player that will be going on vacation at the end of July it doesn’t bother me at all. We’re talking 2.50$ usd per chapter that I miss. Now if it were 10$ per chapter, yeah then I’d have an issue…

While it’s a far nicer offering than forcing existing players to pay for an expansion, it’s not a healthy business decision for attracting new players to the game.

So now we’re not willing to pay for expansions? Granted we don’t know what LS2 will contain, but if it contains a bunch of expansion content (zones, skills, weapons, a dungeon or 2, and new story) that wouldn’t be worth paying a few dollars for?

This is just the latest step in a series of steps for what I call “money creep”.

I have been pointing out this trend since beta. Each time I was shouted down by the fans. People quoted all sorts of wiki articles in my face about “slippery slope fallacy” and “false analogy” and a host of others.

They continually justified Anet’s move by saying that it was only this and not that, until that came along then they used the same argument again. The goal post keeps moving and the masses don’t even notice.

Anet has almost flawlessly executed the frog in the pot scenario. They must have some sort of marketing genius department that has meticulously calculated the rate of temperature increase to the pot. It is amazing to me how well it has been working.

I mean kitten their tagline for china’s launch was “buy once and play free forever”.

And now not even 3 weeks later it is “buy once and play free until you go on vacation!”

At this quickening pace of progression I expect by this time next year we will have to pay gem fees just to log on.

I do like that the Living World is becoming more-so permanent. I think that is a great step forward but having a cost for missed content is now a few steps backward. 200 gems isn’t a lot at first if you miss an episode here or there but for someone just starting to play, 200 gems for months (perhaps years) will indefinitely add up to high costs. It’s roughly a little more than $60.00 US for a years worth of content. An expansion for most games is generally around $30.00 (from what I have seen). I think that if ArenaNet wants players to pay for missed content, it should be 100 gems instead of 200 to reflect the prices of current boxed (or digital) expansions.

I realize that it is very easy to login to the game being a current player but I really feel for new players that might start in a few months or years time. The cost will add up quite high for a years worth of content. Cut the cost in half or perhaps eliminate the cost altogether and you will have a lot more of your happy customers that quite honestly seem a little sparse as of late.

Stormcrow.7513:

Think that if Anet wanted the respect of the community they would have given ALL the LSS1 chapters for free.
This stinks of nickel and diming and seems to be the concurrent trend with Anet.
Milk all we can while we can, even with old rehashed content.
Why stop here Anet? Why not just charge gems to enter dungeons? Why not just charge gems to login?
Charging money for previously free content is a slippery slope that I hope Anet doesn’t fall down.

Hold up there. They never stated that LS1 content would be charged out at 200 gems per episode. They only said past episodes will be charged 200 gems.
By this statement I read that they are referring to LS2 episodes that you miss.

After all they also state that at this time LS1 episodes will not be available as they were never designed for this new system. They may implement it later.
AND
If they do, I’ll bet you a shiny gold piece that Anet will do the right thing and give these past episodes to the players who completed it for free.

I get the sense that this isn’t a high priority for them though, so don’t hold your breath.

Until it’s stated one way ore the other clearly, don’t worry about it.

Kinasato.4657:

Forgive me if this has been already answered but I am sort of in a confused/panic state regarding this new content release. I understand the fact we must log in during the first 2 weeks of its release to get it free; however, it is mentioned that otherwise, you would have to “pay” for season 1 or something.

My question is if a friend of mine was to join like later in this year on December, would he/she have to pay a fee just to enjoy the original personal storyline or is it just the new content coming July have to be paid for?

He would have to pay for the content leading up to whenever he joined the game. That’s if he wants the rewards, which will most likely be mini-pets and backpiece skins. He doesn’t have to pay a dime to play with you otherwise.

People seem to think that in order to access the game itself, they have to purchase every single episode up to the current one, which simply isn’t true.

Kinasato.4657:

Forgive me if this has been already answered but I am sort of in a confused/panic state regarding this new content release. I understand the fact we must log in during the first 2 weeks of its release to get it free; however, it is mentioned that otherwise, you would have to “pay” for season 1 or something.

My question is if a friend of mine was to join like later in this year on December, would he/she have to pay a fee just to enjoy the original personal storyline or is it just the new content coming July have to be paid for?

PS – is a part of the game. It comes with buying the game. There is nothing extra required here.

LS1 – we don’t know if this will require being paid for or not. It will not be in the new journal when it releases July 1st. They are looking at adding it in, but we know nothing beyond that.

LS2 – She would need to purchase any chapters she missed prior to her joining the game if she desires to play them. Anything she is able to log on for will unlock for free.

This isn’t very fair to new players or players who cannot consistently jump onto GW2 due to complicated reasons. I would understand if you sold an entire season for a reasonable amount of gems, but not pieces of them.

We also need a clearer understanding of what an episode is. Is it just a single instance or is it a certain amount of instances bundled up (Example: flame and frost episode would contain from meeting Rox and Braham to the Molten Alliance Dungeon) Do the rewards for a whole “episode” justify the 200 gem price? If these are replayable, what is the reason to replay them after we completed them once?

From what I am seeing with the price they are really banking on players to just farm gold to unlock the episodes, which (guess what) doesn’t really earn them money.

Enokitake.1742:

Mint Rain.6798:

lordkrall.7241:

Enokitake.1742:

If someone buys the game after the end of living story 2, they’d have to pay to unlock living story 2.

If I buy lets say Lord of the Rings Online today, I have to pay to unlock a kitten-ton of expansions. How is this different?

Pretty much this ^ If someone missed all of season 2, they hypothetically missed a year’s worth of content. That means they hypothetically missed an expansion (seeing most games do expansions yearly – biyearly).

If I want to play Guild Wars and unlock all the content? I have to buy Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North. If I want to play World of Warcraft and unlock all of the content? I have to buy Burning Crusade, Lich King, Pandera. . .

Aye, but every other GW1 or WoW player had to pay too. Expacs are not just new players who have to pay for access, it’s every player.

This is a premium charged on being a new player, instead of all players accessing new content. That’s not a healthy decision to grow a game (but it’s a very healthy decision for making existing players happy).

I don’t feel that the “new player” argument here is a strong one for a multitude of reasons. I’ll list them off:

First, a new player probably isn’t going to initially want to go back and play through all the living stories they missed. They’re new to the game. The first thing on my mind wouldn’t be, “Let’s do all this stuff I missed and I’m under level for!” My first thought would be: explore the game. That’s going to be doing hearts, running around in the content that’s present, and completing by personal story. Only after all that may I take a look at the previous living story content and go, “Huh, maybe I’ll play that.”

Second, you’re trying to account for interest that may not be existent. How many Living Stories have bored people (who have been consistently playing the game?). If say week 6’s story is boring. Don’t buy it. You get to pick and choose if you want filler or not.

Third, it’s not limited to new players. There’s a lot of players in GW2 who take breaks, play other games, or get caught up in real life.

Fourth, no one in this game has to spend actual money to buy things. Getting 200 gems through gold isn’t hard. A new player is going to have access to in game funding like everyone else.

I feel like by the time a, “New player,” takes interest in the content they may have missed, they’re not going to be an entirely new player anymore. Furthermore, they’ll actually have feedback on the stories they missed and get to decide for themselves if it’s worth it.

All the complainers are forgetting a key mechanic that makes this debate invalid. Since you can exchange in-game Gold for Gems, you don’t have to pay a single cent for content. Zero (0).

Kinasato.4657:

Forgive me if this has been already answered but I am sort of in a confused/panic state regarding this new content release. I understand the fact we must log in during the first 2 weeks of its release to get it free; however, it is mentioned that otherwise, you would have to “pay” for season 1 or something.

My question is if a friend of mine was to join like later in this year on December, would he/she have to pay a fee just to enjoy the original personal storyline or is it just the new content coming July have to be paid for?

The personal story is not effected by this in the slightest. All the the past episodes of the Living Story that they missed will have to be purchased for $2.50 USD each. So if there is an episode release every 2 weeks to 1 month, exluding festivals, starting in July, they would have to buy each of the episodes up to december. But will be unable to play them until they reached Level 80. This is optional of course. If they are coming so late into the story they may not even care about the LS as they would be more focused on learning and enjoy the game.

somsom.5201:

Plenty of people are NEW to the game…do you expect them to shell out $100+ once S1 becomes available(and S2 as well depending on when they join in)?

Lets be clear: this isn’t an expansion. This is content that was temporary that is basically being made into DLC, albeit “hidden” DLC. When someone buys the game they won’t see any expansions listed, but upon logging in…they’ll find that they “need” to get S1 + S2 etc. to get caught up. ANet is already giving out the chapters if people log during the 2 week window: why not just do it outright and save the headache for new players?

if people are new to the game, they’re probably more likely to play the core game/whatever living story is out at the time than drop a bunch of gems on past content. i really don’t see all that many people buying every episode, they’re more likely to spend gems on ones that have rewards they want or ones they think sound interesting. an episode in the current economy is roughly twenty gold, not exactly breaking the bank, and i’m sure there will be bundles for people that want to buy a whole season

no, this isn’t an expansion, it’s the living story, and this is a huge improvement over the model they have now, where if you want to know what happened in the previous LS releases you look it up on the wiki

Kinasato.4657:

Forgive me if this has been already answered but I am sort of in a confused/panic state regarding this new content release. I understand the fact we must log in during the first 2 weeks of its release to get it free; however, it is mentioned that otherwise, you would have to “pay” for season 1 or something.

My question is if a friend of mine was to join like later in this year on December, would he/she have to pay a fee just to enjoy the original personal storyline or is it just the new content coming July have to be paid for?

It’s just the new content that comes in July,and not even all of it,as it has been mentioned that there will be changes in Tyria that will be permanent ( like adding a new map for example).These things,as i understood, won’t be affected by the journal,but will be added during LS S2.

So your friend doesn’t have to buy the LS episodes that come out in July,he can just ignore them.He can look it up on the wiki or youtube if he wants to.

If he likes it very much and wants to play it or wants the rewards then he will have to pay 5$ for 1 months worth of content.

It is optional, there will be noone forcing him to buy it.

No one is forcing anyone to buy anything.

Only people complaining here are the people that want to play the game for free. Regardless of seeing or playing the content.

Hell, people “buying” the game now already pay 50% LESS for the game itself.

Not to mention the free episode they would probably get from just logging in that very day and the next.

I don’t know who is more greedy here, the players, or ArenaNet.

If they were to release the content as an expansion pack for 45 dollar or € then you wouldn’t see anyone complain.

Ultimately, it’s in your hand if you want to buy “the crappy content”. How is that bad? You can basically select what you want to pay for.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This is just the latest step in a series of steps for what I call “money creep”.

I have been pointing out this trend since beta. Each time I was shouted down by the fans. People quoted all sorts of wiki articles in my face about “slippery slope fallacy” and “false analogy” and a host of others.

They continually justified Anet’s move by saying that it was only this and not that, until that came along then they used the same argument again. The goal post keeps moving and the masses don’t even notice.

Anet has almost flawlessly executed the frog in the pot scenario. They must have some sort of marketing genius department that has meticulously calculated the rate of temperature increase to the pot. It is amazing to me how well it has been working.

I mean kitten their tagline for china’s launch was “buy once and play free forever”.

And now not even 3 weeks later it is “buy once and play free until you go on vacation!”

At this quickening pace of progression I expect by this time next year we will have to pay gem fees just to log on.

“buy once and play free forever” is still true. There is no subscription fee.. just like gw1. You only need to buy the episodes if you want to play them for the rewards, I’m sure you can find out about the story otherwise. And.. paying gems just to log on… you get to there.. from this? Come on now…

Personally, I think this is a pure improvement over the old system, and have difficulty seeing what about it there could be to dislike.

Old system: If you logged in regularly, you got to play all the content for free, but only during the release period. After that, it was gone forever. If you did not log in regularly, you never got to play that content. Ever.

New system: If you log in regularly, you get to play all the content for free for as long as you want. It never goes away, even after the release period. If you don’t log in regularly, you have the option of paying to gain permanent access to the content you missed.

Both people who log in regularly and those who don’t are strictly better off under the new system, because both groups get more access to content/choices than they had before.

TheRiverBlues.2607:

This isn’t very fair to new players or players who cannot consistently jump onto GW2 due to complicated reasons. I would understand if you sold an entire season for a reasonable amount of gems, but not pieces of them.

New players that can’t get on for complicated reasons? I’m not even going to speculate here, but ok. Still, there isn’t anything saying that they won’t bundle and sell the whole season as a package deal at the end of it. At which point it would be no different than buying an expansion. Doesn’t mean they will, but it’d just be moronic if they didn’t.

We also need a clearer understanding of what an episode is. Is it just a single instance or is it a certain amount of instances bundled up (Example: flame and frost episode would contain from meeting Rox and Braham to the Molten Alliance Dungeon) Do the rewards for a whole “episode” justify the 200 gem price? If these are replayable, what is the reason to replay them after we completed them once?

Yes, part of the issue at hand is that we don’t know how much a chapter entails. Is a chapter equivelent to F&F Part 1, or the whole month that was Tower of Nightmares? Huge difference in scope there. 200 gems (2.50$ usd) isn’t a huge amount, but whether or not its worth it depends on the content, which all we can do is wait and see. However, everything is now permanent, so that’s at least a positive for it.

From what I am seeing with the price they are really banking on players to just farm gold to unlock the episodes, which (guess what) doesn’t really earn them money.

Well giving it away free doesn’t make them money either, but that’s the primary mode they are using here. It only costs if you miss it.

lordkrall.7241:

Enokitake.1742:

If someone buys the game after the end of living story 2, they’d have to pay to unlock living story 2.

If I buy lets say Lord of the Rings Online today, I have to pay to unlock a kitten-ton of expansions. How is this different?

Are you kidding?

Because for someone who logged in during that 2 week span…they got it for free! Have fun being a new player and having to buy:

• base game
• S1
• S2
• S#

Each season is ~$60…

Snowmoon.1758:

I actually HATE the word Scarlett. imagine that.

How do you think I feel? One of my characters is named Scarlet! ;__;
Except she’s my little kitten of the night mesmer~ I like her~