Guild Wars 2

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Crise.9401:

BobbyStein.2315:

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?

I feel this is fine, and 200 gems is not a lot, it is an annoying amount in that you can’t actually buy 200 gems with real money directly, or as I recall any multiple of 200 below the 4000 gems pack. But with the currency conversion it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

In general I think this is a very reasonable business model.

Pretty sure you can buy 800 for 10 dollars or euros. That would be a multiple of 200 (200 × 4 = 800).

Also, and not related to the quote above, it’s funny people are commenting on how new players or others would have to buy Season One if and when it became available, when there were sooo many comments on how worthless it was. Why would people ‘need’ or even want to buy something deemed so worthless? Just seems amusing to me.

I feel the same way…I find it amusing also.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Pretty sure you can buy 800 for 10 dollars or euros. That would be a multiple of 200 (200 × 4 = 800).

Heh, somehow my brain ignored 800 completely, duh…

Also, to the people with the answers, edited some questions to my first post, that I think are fairly relevant for the long time future of this system.

I would buy season one if they made it available under the new model. Just sayin’

pdavis.8031:

I still don’t get why a new player jumping in in the middle of season 2 is being punished. It much like the TV analogy given earlier. If you started watching, say Game of Thrones because it happened to be on when you were switching through channels, heard about it from friends, in the middle of say season 3. We’ll you’ve missed Seasons 1 & 2. You shouldn’t be given the boxed DVDs of past seasons for free, just because you didn’t watch them. No if you enjoyed the last half of season 3, you’d be inclined to spend the $75 for the DVDs of Season 1 and after watching that, buy the DVDS for season 2. But wait! While you were getting caught up on Seasons 1 and 2, assuming you didn’t marathon them, season 4 has started. But you didn’t get to see the first half of season 3. And it’s not available on DVD yet! OH NO! But wait!! You can buy each episode of season 3 for $2.50!? AND the episodes of season 4 for the same price!? Praise the six!!! I don’t need to drop a bunch of money at once to have access to EVERY EPISODE!!!. Whats that? I get a free DVD copy of the newest episodes for just turning on my TV!? GOLLY GEE!!! THAT SURE IS SWELL!!

New players coming in will have no idea of whats going on yes. BUT they are not obligated to to buy anything. If they jump in with the story, find they like it, they have the option of buying each episode for a small price, they can start with an episode or 2, and if they like it, they can buy more with RL cash money, or by converting gold. It won’t turn away new players. In fact if they are coming from other games with expansion models, its just the next logical step after buying the game initially. IT’s something they are already familiar with and half expect from the start.

All they need to do is log in while season 4 is going on and it’ll be in their story journal. I mean, I’m assuming they’re logging in to “watch” previous seasons, right? It’s not like they’re going to be perpetually behind.

Edit: Oh, that’s what you were saying. When you said you don’t get why a player is being punished, you meant how. Sorry I misunderstood.

As a brand new player I would LOVE to be able to play LS1 first to “catch up” with what is going on, as LA before it was destroyed looks great and would love to be able to play up to current, so I am then up to date…

Would love as a new player to be able to jump in for Free and play LS1 so we can catch up, would suck if I had to pay for content that was Free and in my mind, should be included to build the story ( something that WOW Kittened up many years ago and part of why I no longer WoW because they have no clue how to keep a story running straight)

Then again I do not see that happening any more than them rewinding this ludicrous Trait system where I have to be lvl 50, to unlock traits I should have access to at 30.. without having to somehow get a lot of gold and Skill points I will need whil trying to get to 80, without spedning more RT cash buying gems to convert to gold to unlock something that was ( again) free to players before I started !!

Kohlteth.3715:

As a brand new player I would LOVE to be able to play LS1 first to “catch up” with what is going on, as LA before it was destroyed looks great and would love to be able to play up to current, so I am then up to date…

Would love as a new player to be able to jump in for Free and play LS1 so we can catch up, would suck if I had to pay for content that was Free and in my mind, should be included to build the story

If you’re a new player, then it’s your lucky day. You don’t need to spend any money outside of the box price you paid for this game! Just convert Gold to Gems, and you can get all the extra you want, for zero (0) dollars!

This message is brought you to today by #TeamGnashblade.

Kohlteth.3715:

As a brand new player I would LOVE to be able to play LS1 first to “catch up” with what is going on, as LA before it was destroyed looks great and would love to be able to play up to current, so I am then up to date…

Would love as a new player to be able to jump in for Free and play LS1 so we can catch up, would suck if I had to pay for content that was Free and in my mind, should be included to build the story ( something that WOW Kittened up many years ago and part of why I no longer WoW because they have no clue how to keep a story running straight)

Then again I do not see that happening any more than them rewinding this ludicrous Trait system where I have to be lvl 50, to unlock traits I should have access to at 30.. without having to somehow get a lot of gold and Skill points I will need whil trying to get to 80, without spedning more RT cash buying gems to convert to gold to unlock something that was ( again) free to players before I started !!

Would you really care that much if you had already the free content to fill your time with? Believe me if you have the time to do all the other freely available content and end up having the time to try the past ones, you would have the gold to buy S1 with in-game money…Its not a big deal

Its very cose to play to buy in that sense…Which exactly why older players have access to more content. The played the game for a longer time

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?

1st off, it makes total sense, the OP is just either misguided or didn’t read properly.
Paying for content is absolutely fine, and you (a.net) are even making it so we can access it for free if you login during it’s two week launch window. What more can we (players) possibly ask for.

I’m also happy that it does require you (the player) to finish your original PS and reach level 80 before you can access LS-S2. This had to happen in order to provide more challenging content for level cap players.

Allowing any level to play LS-S2 would’ve resulted in inferior content difficulty.

I do have a few questions about the new system though:

• The S2 LS seems to be a continuation of the PS as such does that mean that LS2 will be mainly instanced 1 player content ?
• How will big epic Boss encounters be handled going forth ?
• Will there be 5 man type instances for LS-S2 boss fights ?
• Will these big Boss fights also be replayable forever ?

Devata.6589:

Being heavily against the cash-shop focus that this game has and how it effects this game I am not that heavily against the idea of unlocking the previous episodes for gems. Thats also not very strange as I am in favor of moving to expansion sales to earn the money and strip the cash-shop down (putting all those things in the game) and you can see some similarities between unlocking previous episodes and selling expansions. It’s still far from the same but has more similarities that how the cash-shop worked so far.

However I do think the way it’s done is still not good. Use 200 gems to unlock a previous episode? How about use 200 gems to unlock the previous episodes (and the upcoming 5*). And yes then still 200, not suddenly going up in the price.

The thing is that it would likely not even mean much lose in gem-sales. If somebody is has been gone for a while, lets say half a year then he is not very likely to go and unlock every episode for 200 gems paying 2400 gems. Not only that, you will get a huge load of negative feedback over smaller episodes because people did pay money for it. No, at best (not counting exceptions) they unlock two or three episodes that many people still repeatedly do. However a big group will not unlock everything and might in fact not game back to the game for that reason. What they see is a huge pay-wall and not for expansion-like content (because if you guys are going to put that in the game it will be already available for them) but for a huge list of episodes including there events and rewards. So asking money for every single episode makes no sense.

Letting people unlock all previous episodes for 200 gems will be something people will do and are also more likely to do again when having missed a few while if it’s pay per episode they might simply not buy them. *Before I also said that when unlocking all previous episodes they should also unlock the upcoming 5 (or 4 or 6 something like that). Obviously I don’t mean they should be able to play upcoming episodes but I mean that whenever they become available they will be unlocked for them also if they do not log in. This prevents people from waiting with unlocking the previous. Someone might come back from a vacation and have missed 2 episodes but the upcoming 2 months he might also have less time to be online, so just to make sure he does not now spend 200 gems and the misses another episode 3 weeks for now he decides to wait 3 weeks and 3 weeks become 6 weeks eventually not bother with it at all anymore. This is easily prevented by also unlocking the upcoming x events.

Doing it like I say here will mean more people being willing to return or jump into the game at a later time and will likely not drops the total number of sales you will get for unlocking episodes. And because you would have more people playing the overall income will also increase.

I hope you ArenaNet learned something now seeing how what many people did say already a year ago content should not be temporary. You come to the conclusion we where right so also take this advice into consideration and don’t wait another half year to conclude that the episode selling did not worked out as you hoped it would.

BTW, I’m still in favor of an expansion-based model because the changes do not remove most of the cash-shop focus related problem. Just to be clear.

Hence 200 gems per episode? Have you ever had to pay for anything in your life? Goods and services cost money, they are never free no matter what anyone has told you. You have to pay for them. I don’t understand what is so difficult about this concept for you, you pay 200 gems to unlock previous episodes. You don’t know what the quality will be of them, you assume it to be good though. Let me give you an example. If you watched the series Breaking Bad. You buy Season 1, not knowing if you will like it, but let’s assume you do. So you buy season 2, ALSO not knowing if you like it, but again you assume you will. Please stop littering the forum with your incompetency because you cannot understand that you have to pay for things that cost money, it’s pretty simple. You don’t know what the quality of these episodes/seasons will be so you just deal with it and you will probably buy them anyways because this is a great direction for 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?

No it doesn’t make sense. You are talking about having to go to a completely different company in order to access a TV episode you missed when it aired. In GW2’s case, we wouldn’t be going anywhere else to purchase the living story content we missed.

It’s pretty common for cable and satellite boxes to have DVR capabilities so you can set it to record TV shows and watch them at your convenience if you’re not going to be able to watch it when it airs, or if you want to rewatch a favorite episode. You may pay an extra little bit on your monthly bill to be able to do that, but you aren’t charged (as far as I know) each time you use the feature.

wait guys
wait
wait
guys
stop

wait

does this mean we’ll be able to buy a SUPER ADVENTURE BOX?

lordkrall.7241:

Or you can you know, login one time during the two weeks that event is available and have it unlocked for free.

It is unlock forever, for the account.

I just told my kids.. we cant go on holiday this year or maybe even next cos otherwise I gotta pay out another 200gems to catch up with LS season 2 …

EDIT – Problem solved, I just dug a big hole in the garden, filled it with sand then made another hole next to it.. just waiting for it to rain some more to fill the second hole up and create the perfect beach in my own back garden – they will never notice!

Well I guess this is their way around developing expansions and hiding the criticism of temporary content…

Charrbeque.8729:

No it doesn’t make sense. You are talking about having to go to a completely different company in order to access a TV episode you missed when it aired. In GW2’s case, we wouldn’t be going anywhere else to purchase the living story content we missed.

It’s pretty common for cable and satellite boxes to have DVR capabilities so you can set it to record TV shows and watch them at your convenience if you’re not going to be able to watch it when it airs, or if you want to rewatch a favorite episode. You may pay an extra little bit on your monthly bill to be able to do that, but you aren’t charged (as far as I know) each time you use the feature.

Your analogy doesn’t work here, because you need to actually play the content first before you can access it later for free. It would be akin to having to watch the TV episode first, record it, and then you can rewatch it later on. That’s oldschool, before automatic DVR technology. On the other hand, if you completely missed the LS content/TV show, you can pay to have a chance to watch it for the first time.

Charrbeque.8729:

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?

No it doesn’t make sense. You are talking about having to go to a completely different company in order to access a TV episode you missed when it aired. In GW2’s case, we wouldn’t be going anywhere else to purchase the living story content we missed.

It’s pretty common for cable and satellite boxes to have DVR capabilities so you can set it to record TV shows and watch them at your convenience if you’re not going to be able to watch it when it airs, or if you want to rewatch a favorite episode. You may pay an extra little bit on your monthly bill to be able to do that, but you aren’t charged (as far as I know) each time you use the feature.

I can’t believe there’s anybody whining about this, but thankfully most aren’t. It’s objectively a major improvement over what we have now, and the cost (which you only have to pay if you both missed it originally AND want it now) is very modest and well within reason.

Frankly, I want the game to make enough money to produce good content, which it may well not have enough sources for right now. This makes a lot of business sense and benefits players.

Charrbeque.8729:

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?

No it doesn’t make sense. You are talking about having to go to a completely different company in order to access a TV episode you missed when it aired. In GW2’s case, we wouldn’t be going anywhere else to purchase the living story content we missed.

It’s pretty common for cable and satellite boxes to have DVR capabilities so you can set it to record TV shows and watch them at your convenience if you’re not going to be able to watch it when it airs, or if you want to rewatch a favorite episode. You may pay an extra little bit on your monthly bill to be able to do that, but you aren’t charged (as far as I know) each time you use the feature.

You do in fact pay for the DVR service as a subscription. You pay a higher cable rate to have it included in most cases than you would with base cable which typically does not include such services.

In this case, you could pay a subscription of fifteen bucks a month and have it included, or you pay two fifty for an episode you missed since there’s no subscription associated.

Calys Teneb.7015:

Charrbeque.8729:

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?

No it doesn’t make sense. You are talking about having to go to a completely different company in order to access a TV episode you missed when it aired. In GW2’s case, we wouldn’t be going anywhere else to purchase the living story content we missed.

It’s pretty common for cable and satellite boxes to have DVR capabilities so you can set it to record TV shows and watch them at your convenience if you’re not going to be able to watch it when it airs, or if you want to rewatch a favorite episode. You may pay an extra little bit on your monthly bill to be able to do that, but you aren’t charged (as far as I know) each time you use the feature.

You do in fact pay for the DVR service as a subscription. You pay a higher cable rate to have it included in most cases than you would with base cable which typically does not include such services.

In this case, you could pay a subscription of fifteen bucks a month and have it included, or you pay two fifty for an episode you missed since there’s no subscription associated.

You have a good point. I didn’t realize this, because I don’t have a DVR or Digital cable. I’d rather play GW2 than to watch TV anyways.

Charrbeque.8729:

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?

No it doesn’t make sense. You are talking about having to go to a completely different company in order to access a TV episode you missed when it aired. In GW2’s case, we wouldn’t be going anywhere else to purchase the living story content we missed.

It’s pretty common for cable and satellite boxes to have DVR capabilities so you can set it to record TV shows and watch them at your convenience if you’re not going to be able to watch it when it airs, or if you want to rewatch a favorite episode. You may pay an extra little bit on your monthly bill to be able to do that, but you aren’t charged (as far as I know) each time you use the feature.

You don’t have to pay 200 gems each time you want to revisit the story, if I’m understanding it correctly. You just pay it once and that episode is unlocked for your account. Or, alternately, you login and it’s unlocked.

Guhracie.3419:

pdavis.8031:

I still don’t get why a new player jumping in in the middle of season 2 is being punished. It much like the TV analogy given earlier. If you started watching, say Game of Thrones because it happened to be on when you were switching through channels, heard about it from friends, in the middle of say season 3. We’ll you’ve missed Seasons 1 & 2. You shouldn’t be given the boxed DVDs of past seasons for free, just because you didn’t watch them. No if you enjoyed the last half of season 3, you’d be inclined to spend the $75 for the DVDs of Season 1 and after watching that, buy the DVDS for season 2. But wait! While you were getting caught up on Seasons 1 and 2, assuming you didn’t marathon them, season 4 has started. But you didn’t get to see the first half of season 3. And it’s not available on DVD yet! OH NO! But wait!! You can buy each episode of season 3 for $2.50!? AND the episodes of season 4 for the same price!? Praise the six!!! I don’t need to drop a bunch of money at once to have access to EVERY EPISODE!!!. Whats that? I get a free DVD copy of the newest episodes for just turning on my TV!? GOLLY GEE!!! THAT SURE IS SWELL!!

New players coming in will have no idea of whats going on yes. BUT they are not obligated to to buy anything. If they jump in with the story, find they like it, they have the option of buying each episode for a small price, they can start with an episode or 2, and if they like it, they can buy more with RL cash money, or by converting gold. It won’t turn away new players. In fact if they are coming from other games with expansion models, its just the next logical step after buying the game initially. IT’s something they are already familiar with and half expect from the start.

All they need to do is log in while season 4 is going on and it’ll be in their story journal. I mean, I’m assuming they’re logging in to “watch” previous seasons, right? It’s not like they’re going to be perpetually behind.

Edit: Oh, that’s what you were saying. When you said you don’t get why a player is being punished, you meant how. Sorry I misunderstood.

Yeah my bad.

Also, guys, this is totally something that was requested in the Living Story CDI. If anyone still thinks they’re not utilizing the CDI threads, you’re not paying attention.

Pdavis, I’m pretty sure the bad was mine. I caught it on a second read-through, I just had a reading comprehension fail. I didn’t mean to sound all, “YOU USED THE WRONG WORD!” at you.

@guhracie

No worries.

Bloodstealer.5978:

lordkrall.7241:

Or you can you know, login one time during the two weeks that event is available and have it unlocked for free.

It is unlock forever, for the account.

I just told my kids.. we cant go on holiday this year or maybe even next cos otherwise I gotta pay out another 200gems to catch up with LS season 2 …

EDIT – Problem solved, I just dug a big hole in the garden, filled it with sand then made another hole next to it.. just waiting for it to rain some more to fill the second hole up and create the perfect beach in my own back garden – they will never notice!

Well I guess this is their way around developing expansions and hiding the criticism of temporary content…

Really…?The 5 extra bucks you will have to spend or the 3 extra days of gaming to raise the in-game money is enough to make you feel you should not go on holiday…

Turin.6921:

Bloodstealer.5978:

lordkrall.7241:

Or you can you know, login one time during the two weeks that event is available and have it unlocked for free.

It is unlock forever, for the account.

I just told my kids.. we cant go on holiday this year or maybe even next cos otherwise I gotta pay out another 200gems to catch up with LS season 2 …

EDIT – Problem solved, I just dug a big hole in the garden, filled it with sand then made another hole next to it.. just waiting for it to rain some more to fill the second hole up and create the perfect beach in my own back garden – they will never notice!

Well I guess this is their way around developing expansions and hiding the criticism of temporary content…

Really…?The 5 extra bucks you will have to spend or the 3 extra days of gaming to raise the in-game money is enough to make you feel you should not go on holiday…Really?

Pretty sure he was being sarcastic…apparently it went right over your head. You must be sheldon cooper….

I love it love it love it!! Did I mention I love it?!

Silent The Gray.3091:

Hence 200 gems per episode? Have you ever had to pay for anything in your life? Goods and services cost money, they are never free no matter what anyone has told you. You have to pay for them. I don’t understand what is so difficult about this concept for you, you pay 200 gems to unlock previous episodes. You don’t know what the quality will be of them, you assume it to be good though. Let me give you an example. If you watched the series Breaking Bad. You buy Season 1, not knowing if you will like it, but let’s assume you do. So you buy season 2, ALSO not knowing if you like it, but again you assume you will. Please stop littering the forum with your incompetency because you cannot understand that you have to pay for things that cost money, it’s pretty simple. You don’t know what the quality of these episodes/seasons will be so you just deal with it and you will probably buy them anyways because this is a great direction for the game.

Did you in fact read the comment or do you just start insulting? No problem, an insult from some people might be a compliment. First of all I don’t say it should be free all I say they should sell unlocking all the previous episodes, not sell them one by one. Likely they would not earn less as I also detailed explain so money-wise there would not be a huge difference for them. (you could disagree with that but then you tell why. Anyway to disagree with thay you first need to read it)

Secondly what I have always been saying, and I even repeated at the end of this comment is that I was and still am in favor of using an expansions-based model. If I was so against paying or would not understand that a company needs to make money why the heck would I suggest an expansion-based model? I don’t support the cash-shop model (so won’t buy gems) but I have nothing against paying for content. I did in fact by the CE edition of the game. And now I am asking to use an expansion-based model (not what this post was about btw) meaning I would have to pay for it. Releasing an expansion every year would mean I would have already have paid one and where soon going to need to pay another one. While I don’t buy gems so I have now not spend a single dime since release.

So really I ask you, if I would be so against paying money or I would not understand they need money why the heck would I be asking for a model that would cost me more!?

Anyway it was also completely off-topic. You know I am against the cash-shop for very valid reasons, you apparently never bothered to think about what I was saying meaning I would basically be asking for a way to pay and now you see my comment here, only read the first line and leave a complete off-topic reaction that makes no sense whatsoever.

pdavis.8031:

Turin.6921:

Bloodstealer.5978:

lordkrall.7241:

Or you can you know, login one time during the two weeks that event is available and have it unlocked for free.

It is unlock forever, for the account.

I just told my kids.. we cant go on holiday this year or maybe even next cos otherwise I gotta pay out another 200gems to catch up with LS season 2 …

EDIT – Problem solved, I just dug a big hole in the garden, filled it with sand then made another hole next to it.. just waiting for it to rain some more to fill the second hole up and create the perfect beach in my own back garden – they will never notice!

Well I guess this is their way around developing expansions and hiding the criticism of temporary content…

Really…?The 5 extra bucks you will have to spend or the 3 extra days of gaming to raise the in-game money is enough to make you feel you should not go on holiday…Really?

Pretty sure he was being sarcastic…apparently it went right over your head. You must be sheldon cooper….

As long as you explain to your kids why GW2 is more important than going to the beach, they’ll understand. And a good parent would bond with their kids by forming a family only Guild! Get them all their own accounts, and you can slay dragons together.

Sarrs.4831:

wait guys
wait
wait
guys
stop

wait

does this mean we’ll be able to buy a SUPER ADVENTURE BOX?

No that is considered a festival.

Devata.6589:

Anyway it was also completely off-topic. You know I am against the cash-shop for very valid reasons, you apparently never bothered to think about what I was saying meaning I would basically be asking for a way to pay and now you see my comment here, only read the first line and leave a complete off-topic reaction that makes no sense whatsoever.

There aren’t many valid reasons against having a microtransaction shop. The company has a responsibility to make money. If you present players with optional content for real money, key word optional, then it’s the players who decide if they want to pay or not. This becomes a different story when you sell “cash shop” items that grant overpowered advantages over non-paying players. This is call P2W, and it’s a good thing GW2 isn’t like this.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Devata.6589:

Anyway it was also completely off-topic. You know I am against the cash-shop for very valid reasons, you apparently never bothered to think about what I was saying meaning I would basically be asking for a way to pay and now you see my comment here, only read the first line and leave a complete off-topic reaction that makes no sense whatsoever.

There aren’t many valid reasons against having a microtransaction shop. The company has a responsibility to make money. If you present players with optional content for real money, key word optional, then it’s the players who decide if they want to pay or not. This becomes a different story when you sell “cash shop” items that grant overpowered advantages over non-paying players. This is call P2W, and it’s a good thing GW2 isn’t like this.

People point at GW1 as having an expansion only model. However, this is entirely incorrect. GW1 also had a cash shop.

Keep in mind that this was back when Anet was TINY compared to today even when they’re still considered a small studio.

There are no MMOs that subsist on an expansion-only model.

As long as players who were there during Living Season 1 don’t have to fork out gems to see the story again, I’d love to see LS1 make a return under this new system. It could be done by looking to see if the player has completed at least one achievement from the old categories. (And since most of them have something ridiculously simple like “show up and watch this cutscene”, I imagine the majority of players would qualify automatically.)

Isn’t this basically an expansion model which lets us use Ingame gold and choose which content we want to pay for?

Seems like a good deal to me. A REALLY great deal! A new refreshing, new business model in the world of MMOs? People are complaining why?

Calys Teneb.7015:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Devata.6589:

Anyway it was also completely off-topic. You know I am against the cash-shop for very valid reasons, you apparently never bothered to think about what I was saying meaning I would basically be asking for a way to pay and now you see my comment here, only read the first line and leave a complete off-topic reaction that makes no sense whatsoever.

There aren’t many valid reasons against having a microtransaction shop. The company has a responsibility to make money. If you present players with optional content for real money, key word optional, then it’s the players who decide if they want to pay or not. This becomes a different story when you sell “cash shop” items that grant overpowered advantages over non-paying players. This is call P2W, and it’s a good thing GW2 isn’t like this.

People point at GW1 as having an expansion only model. However, this is entirely incorrect. GW1 also had a cash shop, and by many standards was not successful until they introduced the cash shop.

Keep in mind that this was back when Anet was TINY compared to today even when they’re still considered a small studio.

There are no MMOs that subsist on an expansion-only model.

Also, while GW1 had an expansion model and a small cash shop one, GW2 is making NCSoft a heck of a lot more money now, than in all the years GW1 is in existence.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

pdavis.8031:

Turin.6921:

Bloodstealer.5978:

lordkrall.7241:

Or you can you know, login one time during the two weeks that event is available and have it unlocked for free.

It is unlock forever, for the account.

I just told my kids.. we cant go on holiday this year or maybe even next cos otherwise I gotta pay out another 200gems to catch up with LS season 2 …

EDIT – Problem solved, I just dug a big hole in the garden, filled it with sand then made another hole next to it.. just waiting for it to rain some more to fill the second hole up and create the perfect beach in my own back garden – they will never notice!

Well I guess this is their way around developing expansions and hiding the criticism of temporary content…

Really…?The 5 extra bucks you will have to spend or the 3 extra days of gaming to raise the in-game money is enough to make you feel you should not go on holiday…Really?

Pretty sure he was being sarcastic…apparently it went right over your head. You must be sheldon cooper….

As long as you explain to your kids why GW2 is more important than going to the beach, they’ll understand. And a good parent would bond with their kids by forming a family only Guild! Get them all their own accounts, and you can slay dragons together.

Of course!!! As soon as my little one is old enough (hes 2)I total am planning on doing that! (Seriously not just gw2, but pathfinder, the legend of zelda, etc.) Just need to convince the wife to play. Thats the hard part.

pdavis.8031:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

pdavis.8031:

Turin.6921:

Bloodstealer.5978:

lordkrall.7241:

Or you can you know, login one time during the two weeks that event is available and have it unlocked for free.

It is unlock forever, for the account.

I just told my kids.. we cant go on holiday this year or maybe even next cos otherwise I gotta pay out another 200gems to catch up with LS season 2 …

EDIT – Problem solved, I just dug a big hole in the garden, filled it with sand then made another hole next to it.. just waiting for it to rain some more to fill the second hole up and create the perfect beach in my own back garden – they will never notice!

Well I guess this is their way around developing expansions and hiding the criticism of temporary content…

Really…?The 5 extra bucks you will have to spend or the 3 extra days of gaming to raise the in-game money is enough to make you feel you should not go on holiday…Really?

Pretty sure he was being sarcastic…apparently it went right over your head. You must be sheldon cooper….

As long as you explain to your kids why GW2 is more important than going to the beach, they’ll understand. And a good parent would bond with their kids by forming a family only Guild! Get them all their own accounts, and you can slay dragons together.

Of course!!! As soon as my little one is old enough (hes 2)I total am planning on doing that! (Seriously not just gw2, but pathfinder, the legend of zelda, etc.) Just need to convince the wife to play. Thats the hard part.

When GW2 gets a marriage update, you can fix that problem too!

Back on topic – let’s all be glad that the CDIs are working, and that we’re finally seeing major changes because of it.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Charrbeque.8729:

No it doesn’t make sense. You are talking about having to go to a completely different company in order to access a TV episode you missed when it aired. In GW2’s case, we wouldn’t be going anywhere else to purchase the living story content we missed.

It’s pretty common for cable and satellite boxes to have DVR capabilities so you can set it to record TV shows and watch them at your convenience if you’re not going to be able to watch it when it airs, or if you want to rewatch a favorite episode. You may pay an extra little bit on your monthly bill to be able to do that, but you aren’t charged (as far as I know) each time you use the feature.

Your analogy doesn’t work here, because you need to actually play the content first before you can access it later for free. It would be akin to having to watch the TV episode first, record it, and then you can rewatch it later on. That’s oldschool, before automatic DVR technology. On the other hand, if you completely missed the LS content/TV show, you can pay to have a chance to watch it for the first time.

you also got it wrong !

you only need login during those 2 weeks to unlock it.
nowhere does it say you need to play it for it to unlock lol.
you can login unlock it, than go to the beach, comeback later and still play that content whenever you feel like it.

Latinkuro.9420:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Charrbeque.8729:

No it doesn’t make sense. You are talking about having to go to a completely different company in order to access a TV episode you missed when it aired. In GW2’s case, we wouldn’t be going anywhere else to purchase the living story content we missed.

It’s pretty common for cable and satellite boxes to have DVR capabilities so you can set it to record TV shows and watch them at your convenience if you’re not going to be able to watch it when it airs, or if you want to rewatch a favorite episode. You may pay an extra little bit on your monthly bill to be able to do that, but you aren’t charged (as far as I know) each time you use the feature.

Your analogy doesn’t work here, because you need to actually play the content first before you can access it later for free. It would be akin to having to watch the TV episode first, record it, and then you can rewatch it later on. That’s oldschool, before automatic DVR technology. On the other hand, if you completely missed the LS content/TV show, you can pay to have a chance to watch it for the first time.

you also got it wrong !

you only need login during those 2 weeks to unlock it.
nowhere does it say you need to play it for it to unlock lol.
you can login unlock it, than go to the beach, comeback later and still play that content whenever you feel like it.

Don’t forget turin is making a beach in his backyard so we can go there after we log in.

Yupnjust log in, load up a character, quit, and you’re good to go. Its all in the blog….

pdavis.8031:

Latinkuro.9420:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Charrbeque.8729:

No it doesn’t make sense. You are talking about having to go to a completely different company in order to access a TV episode you missed when it aired. In GW2’s case, we wouldn’t be going anywhere else to purchase the living story content we missed.

It’s pretty common for cable and satellite boxes to have DVR capabilities so you can set it to record TV shows and watch them at your convenience if you’re not going to be able to watch it when it airs, or if you want to rewatch a favorite episode. You may pay an extra little bit on your monthly bill to be able to do that, but you aren’t charged (as far as I know) each time you use the feature.

Your analogy doesn’t work here, because you need to actually play the content first before you can access it later for free. It would be akin to having to watch the TV episode first, record it, and then you can rewatch it later on. That’s oldschool, before automatic DVR technology. On the other hand, if you completely missed the LS content/TV show, you can pay to have a chance to watch it for the first time.

you also got it wrong !

you only need login during those 2 weeks to unlock it.
nowhere does it say you need to play it for it to unlock lol.
you can login unlock it, than go to the beach, comeback later and still play that content whenever you feel like it.

Don’t forget turin is making a beach in his backyard so we can go there after we log in.

Yupnjust log in, load up a character, quit, and you’re good to go. Its all in the blog….

OT: but the beach made me think of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L8aMI2dwf4

Calys Teneb.7015:

pdavis.8031:

Latinkuro.9420:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Charrbeque.8729:

No it doesn’t make sense. You are talking about having to go to a completely different company in order to access a TV episode you missed when it aired. In GW2’s case, we wouldn’t be going anywhere else to purchase the living story content we missed.

It’s pretty common for cable and satellite boxes to have DVR capabilities so you can set it to record TV shows and watch them at your convenience if you’re not going to be able to watch it when it airs, or if you want to rewatch a favorite episode. You may pay an extra little bit on your monthly bill to be able to do that, but you aren’t charged (as far as I know) each time you use the feature.

Your analogy doesn’t work here, because you need to actually play the content first before you can access it later for free. It would be akin to having to watch the TV episode first, record it, and then you can rewatch it later on. That’s oldschool, before automatic DVR technology. On the other hand, if you completely missed the LS content/TV show, you can pay to have a chance to watch it for the first time.

you also got it wrong !

you only need login during those 2 weeks to unlock it.
nowhere does it say you need to play it for it to unlock lol.
you can login unlock it, than go to the beach, comeback later and still play that content whenever you feel like it.

Don’t forget turin is making a beach in his backyard so we can go there after we log in.

Yupnjust log in, load up a character, quit, and you’re good to go. Its all in the blog….

OT: but the beach made me think of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L8aMI2dwf4

OT: I want one!!!!

Put bluntly, this is unacceptable.

Making the content available for free obviously costs you nothing, ArenaNet. I mean, I know it’s not actually nothing, there’s development time there, but in this case it’s apparently being viewed as standard operating costs of the game, since you’re making it available for free in the first place. It costs you nothing if a player logs in when the content is “new”, and it will cost you that same nothing if a player logs in when the content is “old”.

How then can you possibly justify installing a paygate on this free content after a certain time limit?

Charging after the fact for anyone who was unwilling or, worse, unable to be there (if someone gets hit with Hurricane Sandy I doubt they’ll be playing GW2 for some time) when the content was new feels, frankly, extortionist.

its a fine move, that has no downside vs. the current model.

the current LS story model had temp content that disappeared forever after it was live.

the new model makes it permanent for anyone who actively plays (or just logs in every once in a while) and playable for those that missed it for a small fee.

complaining about this now, before it even launches, is pretty rash. we don’t know what the LS content will be or if the total season will be worth the price of a typical expansion. my guess is it will be somewhere in between a typical expansion, and what we got with LS 1, since it is free for anyone who plays (generating no additional income on its own)….but has to be good enough to be worth spending gold/gems on if you miss it (if its only as good as personal story quests or some of the weaker LS 1 releases, then no one will bother).

sablephoenix.1593:

Put bluntly, this is unacceptable.

Making the content available for free obviously costs you nothing, ArenaNet. I mean, I know it’s not actually nothing, there’s development time there, but in this case it’s apparently being viewed as standard operating costs of the game, since you’re making it available for free in the first place. It costs you nothing if a player logs in when the content is “new”, and it will cost you that same nothing if a player logs in when the content is “old”.

How then can you possibly justify installing a paygate on this free content after a certain time limit?

Charging after the fact for anyone who was unwilling or, worse, unable to be there (if someone gets hit with Hurricane Sandy I doubt they’ll be playing GW2 for some time) when the content was new feels, frankly, extortionist.

Yeah, because developing the system to allow it to be replayable cost them nothing, too. Obviously.

If you’re hit with a hurricane and your biggest fear is that you have to pay 200 gems if you want to replay a 2-week bit of story from Guild Wars, count yourself lucky.

I see guys, you just log into forum to complain about something. shame on you. this is a wonderful solution that take care of each position, devs and player and of player who want permanent content and those who won’t.

What is the problem to pay for past lw episode? 200 gems are like 1 day of gold farming, there’s no require of real money if you don’t want to support the game.

And if you don’t play it, and just want to come to see what’s new somethimes, well go to play something else.

GG Anet.
End of story.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Devata.6589:

Anyway it was also completely off-topic. You know I am against the cash-shop for very valid reasons, you apparently never bothered to think about what I was saying meaning I would basically be asking for a way to pay and now you see my comment here, only read the first line and leave a complete off-topic reaction that makes no sense whatsoever.

There aren’t many valid reasons against having a microtransaction shop. The company has a responsibility to make money. If you present players with optional content for real money, key word optional, then it’s the players who decide if they want to pay or not. This becomes a different story when you sell “cash shop” items that grant overpowered advantages over non-paying players. This is call P2W, and it’s a good thing GW2 isn’t like this.

(Also @ Calys Teneb)

There are many valid reasons and some people care about stats other about looks. In a game everything is optional. However my post here was not about the cash-shop in general so I won’t go more into that here. You want to discuss that more with me? Fine but not here.

I have an own thread especially for that: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/A-focus-on-micro-transactions/page/3#post3822508

So go there if you want to talk more about that. Here I am specifically talking about the way paying for episodes work (what this thread is about) and I want to keep that clean and on topic.

in F2P/B2P MMO business, developers get more money from the casuals than the hard core players, since the casuals always find the most convenient way of playing the game and willing to pay anything just to access what they like in the game.

i considers those missing the 2-weeks window the casuals.

yeah…. 2 days of farming dungeons will get you 200gems nowadays. it is not hard.

start hoarding now !

People, please! Can we all just take a small step down off the Soapbox of Entitlement +8 and leave the poor analogy alone? I know Bobby was the one who brought it up, but he did so to draw some similarities between the two. He never asserted or even implied that the content delivery mechanisms are identical. Of course the analogy is going to break down if you take it literally. All analogies do! Talk about missing the forest for the trees!

You know what else GW2 doesn’t do the same as TV? Bombard you with ads every 10 minutes! Is there honestly anyone in this thread that would choose free “On Demand”-style content delivery if it meant that ANet was allowed to slap an AdWords banner down the side of your screen?

ANet makes money by drawing people into the game. Simply put, more players playing = more opportunities for sales. For ANet to be financially capable of releasing content, we need to continue playing. Even if you don’t buy any gems in a given month, simply being in the game contributes towards its health by helping make the world feel alive. If you weren’t around for an episode, you didn’t contribute towards it. Simply giving it to you for free would be unfair to the rest of the players who did.

Alright so to break all of this down and provide some constructive feedback.

For us as customers its important that the product we pay for is worth the money. Therefore it’s important, Anet, that these episodes hold their money’s worth. This is however abstract and will differ from customer to customer. Therefore i suggest that that we as experienced customers provide great and constructive feedback on these episodes via forums, ingame and other relevant medias.

Also i don’t see this “log in now and get it for free” as something negative. Honestly i feel appreciated by A-net for my active participation. This is in my point of view similiar to a customer rewards program which is something other mmos play around with aswell.

Lastly i think it’s important for all of us to respect eachother. Every person has their own point of view, based on alot of different variables that affect their preferences. How wierd something may actually sound, this “something” is actually most likely a reality for the person conveying it. Try stay open minded, and that goes for all sides!

Have a great day/night everybody!

I agree with OP here. With all the “you can take a break we’ll be here” and Living Story being sold as “free updates”, having to pay if you missed a chapter seems a bit shady to me.

I mean, one of the points of this feature, besides replyability, seems to be not punishing returning player for missing the “free content updates”, so why punish them anyway?

Moss.5371:

I agree with OP here. With all the “you can take a break we’ll be here” and Living Story being sold as “free updates”, having to pay if you missed a chapter seems a bit shady to me.

I mean, one of the points of this feature, besides replyability, seems to be not punishing returning player for missing the “free content updates”, so why punish them anyway?

They likely do it mainly to prevent people from leaving. Then can say people can leave but they don’t want people to leave. So this way they try to keep people logging in. Meanwhile they also seem to use it to try and earn some extra money.

So that makes sense and I am not against it. The problem just is that asking 200 gems per episode is likely going to have a negative effect (like I explained before). I stay with the idea that if they would simply ask 200 gems to unlock all previous episodes and x upcoming (not having to log it then to unlock them) they would have the same positive effect’s likely even sell more and would not have the negatives. And I am really not saying they because I am afraid I would have to pay to much. I log in once every two weeks anyway.

I really say this because I think doing it that way is much better for the game then selling it per episode.

sablephoenix.1593:

Charging after the fact for anyone who was unwilling or, worse, unable to be there (if someone gets hit with Hurricane Sandy I doubt they’ll be playing GW2 for some time) when the content was new feels, frankly, extortionist.

How come it is unacceptable here, but it is fully alright that you have to pay in order to pay for something you missed when it was shown on television while those people that watched it (or recorded it) don’t have to pay for it?

I don’t get why people complains about the 200 gems if you missed an update.
I mean, we already pay for Trasmutation Charges, or banks space, bag space, char slots… see the pattern here?
That’s because we don’t pay subscription. I mean, anet needs to make money.
It’s just natural and part of the bussiness model.
And if you have time instead of money, you can always buy things with gold.

Anyways, more important…

Bring Season 1 to the system anet!!
Shut up and take my gems!!!
=P

PD: I’m totally hyped for Season 2 now…

From what I see is there is no real cost to the living story season two episodes. Those 200 gems are not a cost at all, it is a choice on how they are paid for. If you buy the gems with real money you help support the game of course. You give Anet money for that service.

Unlike any game out there you do not have to do this. It is just as easy to convert gold into gems from the game. Most games gem style currency is locked into one thing, real money. Guild wars 2 is not it is either you pay the money or lose some in game gold. So how is anyone paying if they have that choice.

I will spend real money on gems once in a great while not because I have to because I want to, that is my choice. I have a way to make gold that works for me I may not farm 50g a day or hour like some say they do it takes a bit. I don’t care as long as I get what I want. I probably average 5-10g a day which is fine with me. In GW1 I had so much gold I had to have it held on three accounts.

In GW2 I make enough to buy what I want in the gemstore for example 4 -800 gem armors, two 1000 gem gathering tools, and a few make over kits. All bought with in game gold. I do not have or want three accounts for this game. I am a casual player meaning for me I do not do a lot of dungeons, fractals , and such things. I help sometimes with leveling others, gathering, and just messing around.

Anyway I find that this idea of having to spend money on anything is a choice here never forced on you, only suggested