The updates for season 1 were SO much better than this season’s. There we had Lost Shores with the Karka event, Flame and Frost with great events around the world and the new bosses in a dungeon, SAB, Dragon Bash, The election, the Jubilee, new dungeon, new world bosses, updated world bosses, EOTM, battle for LA…. Seriously Season 1 was amazing and had TONS of very memorable and fun content.
Season 2 is just to blah. Every 2 weeks we get a couple more story missions, and every 2 months we get a new zone to farm in, which are exactly the same kitten farms.
Anet, go back to the format you used for Season 1 ASAP. Not only was the content better, but it was much MUCH more memorable. I used to look forward to logging on every 2 weeks and getting ALL the achievements because each update was so starkly different. Now… I can hardly be bothered to step into PvE at all.
Season 1 zerg contents were always buggy and ANet couldn’t keep up with the number of bugs they had to fix on each release. So they went back to more solo or small group contents which is less buggy because easier to QA. I doubt we will see ever contents like season 1 anytime soon. Also they are focusing more on the lore and back story fillers which honestly I couldn’t care less about…but at least we have less bugs…
Season 1 zerg contents were always buggy and ANet couldn’t keep up with the number of bugs they had to fix on each release. So they went back to more solo or small group contents which is less buggy because easier to QA. I doubt we will see ever contents like season 1 anytime soon. Also they are focusing more on the lore and back story fillers which honestly I couldn’t care less about…but at least we have less bugs…
I don’t remember any bugs during Season 1 at all. Them not wanting to work as hard seems like a bad excuse.
So because people complained during season 1 we should stick with this broken and underwhelming story format? Season 2 is turning out WAY worse…
Well people complained during Season 1, and therefore they changed how they did it for season 2.
Going back to the season 1 format which people clearly didn’t like isn’t really such a good idea.
Season one was just a nightmare, sorry. The story was abysmal, the characters were worse than that and the content consisted entirely of huge, bug-ridden, zerg events with unfair reward systems.
Yeah, season two’s not perfect. We’re stuck with the characters and the plot from season one… but they’re trying. We’ve not had to spend weeks repairing signposts, etc. The story is taking us to new places, not just destroying old ones. Today’s update was tiny in comparison to the last one, but I’d take it over any season one update any day.
Going back to season 1’s format would be a mistake considering the good work in season 2 in making it available for all permanently.
In saying that, there are aspects of S1 which were good – the Tower, Battle for LA, even the invasions (for a while). It’s just that new Zones sort of take the place of the big open world cooperative gameplay S1 tried to aim for.
Season 2 is mostly better then most of season 1. I think your forgetting some of the crappy filler updates before good bits of content like the collecting meta-achievements stuffs before the tower of nightmares openned up or fixing signs. However I will state that the season 1 finale has yet to be topped (Marionette, EoTM, Triple Trouble Wurm, Prime Hologram fight). Sliverwastes are a step in the right direction but I feel they need to turn up the difficultly to make the zones super fun.
Rewards are just better too. Nomad’s is a bit of a joke stat set but Sinister trinkets as a reward for hard achievement completion is better then another dumb backpiece.
Ah-ha. That’s a good one. Season 1 had bugs galore which is less noticeable now because most of that content does not exist anymore. Even the last episode in season 1 was bugged with the 3 watchwork knights constantly being fixed till the last fours days.
While season 1 had somewhat of a deserve format and sometimes brought in some interesting gameplay mechanics. It was bogged down with a pitiful story, with a knockoff British Sylvari Harley Quinn Terrorist as the lead antagonist. Content half way developed or never implemented (Fractured Update). Content told to us to be something it’s not (Canach “dungeon”). All the while being temporary for 2 weeks, when the content was usually buggy for a full week an a half.
In my opinion Season 2 is far better in terms of story and content than Season 1. I think they are making great changes in the right direction. Simply because you liked Season 1 better doesn’t mean that that is the majority opinion. You are free to feel that way, but don’t assume to speak for everyone.
The two examples you used to illustrate how good season one was… are Lost Shores, and Flame and Frost. The two most complained about updates in the history of GW2. Lost shores was a DISASTER. and Flame and Frost had you running around fixing signs and looting the bodies of dead refugees. There was no lore in any of these updates. Season one was fun at times. I would rather have it the way it is now. I still haven’t mastered every episode, so in my opinion, I haven’t completed the content. The maps are super fun IMO. But you would rather have Flame and Frost?
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Season 2 is far superior to Season 1, in my opinion. Primarily because it is now permanent content.
I still think that the release schedule should be moved to a 3 or 4 week schedule though. It might give ANet more time to iron out bugs and give us “meatier” updates. (I’m OK with the amount of new stuff per release, but it seems that a lot of players find it insufficient. Having Echoes of the Past + Tangled Paths come out together might fix that.)
The Ancient Kraka event was pretty nightmarish with the bugs, the lag, and the disconnects. However . . . the loot was awesome and the battle epic! And it had people desperate to repeat the event over and over again.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind more events like that . . . but with less lag and bugs of course.
The Ancient Karka battle might be nice to bring back as a “large guild mission”, similar to Tequatl or Triple Wurm. (The bit where everybody did finishing stomps to break the floor was pretty cool.) I didn’t find the loot from it to be that awesome, to be honest; just more of the usual “2 blues and a green”. People only remember it fondly because of the higher than usual drop rate of Precursors, but you were still left to the mercies of RNGesus.
Sure, there are not as many epic mega eventes (yet), but the story and character developement, lore connections to personal story and gw1, depth and enterment value, the quality of cutscenes, and the story presentation and progression is a FAR better than season 1, you can’t even compair them really. sure, its not an amazing story now, but considering what they had in season 1, its a briliant revelation. they are finally heading in the right direction in terms of story telling, and you ask them to turn back?! ABSOLUTELY NOT!
IMO both Season 1 and Season 2 have good and bad points.
Season 2’s story is far superior and the overall quality is better (and they were actually permanent). However, all the patches feel the same (new area + story instances) and there are extremely common breaks.
Season 1 had a much worse story and had a bunch of bugs. However, because there were 4 different teams (which lead to the disjointed story) the patches all felt very different, making it feel like there was always something different to do. In addition they could actually keep up the 2 week cadence.
Overall, I liked Season 1 more because, even if it wasn’t permanent they were able to pump out enough patches that there was always something new to do, and the patches actually had some variety to them (dungeons, megabosses, mini-zones, holidays, etc).
The updates for season 1 were SO much better than this season’s. There we had Lost Shores with the Karka event, Flame and Frost with great events around the world and the new bosses in a dungeon, SAB, Dragon Bash, The election, the Jubilee, new dungeon, new world bosses, updated world bosses, EOTM, battle for LA…. Seriously Season 1 was amazing and had TONS of very memorable and fun content.
Season 2 is just to blah. Every 2 weeks we get a couple more story missions, and every 2 months we get a new zone to farm in, which are exactly the same kitten farms.
Anet, go back to the format you used for Season 1 ASAP. Not only was the content better, but it was much MUCH more memorable. I used to look forward to logging on every 2 weeks and getting ALL the achievements because each update was so starkly different. Now… I can hardly be bothered to step into PvE at all.
Most of season 1 wasn’t that stuff, Lost Shores wasn’t really part of Living Story, that was before living story.
the last thing i want is temporary content. so much wasted work/effort by Anet.
would just prefer some content similar to the very good mega-events from the end of season one (like marionette), could find their way to season 2 as permanent content to go along with the instanced episodes.
Chaos Organ (Ele), Pistol Opera (Thief), Modular Man (Eng)
MARA (EU) Gunnar’s Hold
So Far, all I know is, S1 always had me at the edge of my seat and couldn’t wait to see what was going to be thrown at me next. S2, well, just do the story in 20, 30min and move on.
Season 1 zerg contents were always buggy and ANet couldn’t keep up with the number of bugs they had to fix on each release. So they went back to more solo or small group contents which is less buggy because easier to QA. I doubt we will see ever contents like season 1 anytime soon. Also they are focusing more on the lore and back story fillers which honestly I couldn’t care less about…but at least we have less bugs…
I don’t remember any bugs during Season 1 at all. Them not wanting to work as hard seems like a bad excuse.
Please keep the season 2 format. New zones are awesome. I like the improved use of the dynamic event system in Dry Top and Silverwastes. The story is told better. The fight mechanics are more interesting.
Yes, episode 6 is a bit short and not on par with episode 5 (which was awesome). But that doesn’t change that the current format is well suited to tell a story.
I find it very strange that the driving force (contentwise) for a MMO has turned into instanced singleplayer-content.
If I wanted to play a singleplayer-game I still have gems like Witcher 2 or Skyrim lying around unfinished – and I simply can´t see how GW2 Living Story season 2 should be able to compete with games like that. That´s simply not where GW2 shines as it´s outstanding features are the open world and events.
The ONLY reason I can imagine why someone would really care for LW season 2 is because of the lore-driven story – which I don´t care about at all, in fact characters like Braham or Taimi riding her Golem (Bioshock anyone?) are borderline immersion breaking for me. Kidwars 2 ftw . . .
Anet, go back to the format you used for Season 1 ASAP. Not only was the content better, but it was much MUCH more memorable. I used to look forward to logging on every 2 weeks and getting ALL the achievements because each update was so starkly different. Now… I can hardly be bothered to step into PvE at all.
… I couldn’t disagree more. Aside from the Marionette, LA and a few things about the Tower of Nightmares I just don’t remember that much of S1, and looking at my achievement log it seems I skipped content entirely on several occasions. Towards the end they started to get it right, and it’s no coincidence that I find S2 compelling for similar reasons. Storyline is more interesting by comparison (if a little more like an interactive TV series than a game – would still like sidequests) and releases seem better paced.
I think Arenanet has hit the nail on the head with the mixture of temporary and permanent content – open-world is best for permanent and little-changing events, instances are best for time-based story and allow players to revisit content later. Perhaps if S1 had been done the same way it would have been a little more appealing. But bringing back some of the larger events as raid content might be a better way to address the problem at this stage.
I do tend to focus on the story perspective though, as opposed to instanced group content where S2 has been rather light. It probably is about time we saw some dungeons.
I think OP was trying to say he wants more in-depth content as opposed to what we are currently seeing. Echoes was a big step forward, however Tangled Paths is arguably as big of a step backwards. Yes, S1 was buggy, but is clicking through waves and waves of dialogue really better?
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I think OP was trying to say he wants more in-depth content as opposed to what we are currently seeing. Echoes was a big step forward, however Tangled Paths is arguably as big of a step backwards. Yes, S1 was buggy, but is clicking through waves and waves of dialogue really better?
Um…yes. Because there’s more to it than just that text, it tends not to be even half as buggy as Season 1’s content, and save for some unskippable cutscenes, it can be skipped or looked at on your choosing once unlocked. Oh, and it’s not only around for 2 weeks then gone forever.
I fail to see how Season 1 was more “in-depth”…and I was there since Flame and Frost.
The updates for season 1 were SO much better than this season’s. There we had Lost Shores with the Karka event, Flame and Frost with great events around the world and the new bosses in a dungeon, SAB, Dragon Bash, The election, the Jubilee, new dungeon, new world bosses, updated world bosses, EOTM, battle for LA…. Seriously Season 1 was amazing and had TONS of very memorable and fun content.
- Lost Shores, SAB and Tequalt Rising : It wasn’t part of Season 1. They were ‘’Special Event’’ update. It’s obvious if you played the event and it written on the official website
- Updated world bosses, Updated dungeon (only AC) and EOTM were not part of Season 1 either. There were just updated content wihout any link to season 1.
- Flame and Frost lasted 4 months and only the last update gave us something nice with mini dungeon. The first 3 months we were just running around clicking on object on the ground for achievement. There were the worst update of the game EVER.
- Dragon Bash, the Jubilee, Battle of LA were nice. But I preferred the Edge of Madness with the Marionette. I also liked the Bazaar.
For the story telling. Season 2 win. They screw up scarlet by using her in all situation, but each time she showed up, she only said : ‘’Ah ah it was me all along, see ya kitteners’’. She could have been a super cool character like the Joker, but she end up with everyone hating the character and not a the good way.
The format of season two is way better where you can get back in it at anytime.
You can make the point that, there were more content on the season 1 than season 2. But of course. Season 1 ran for 20 episodes. Season 2 is at the 6th episode. They gave us 2 new maps (even if they are small). And a couple of nice events/fight. It’s not perfect, but I prefer Season 2. Maybe you don’t remember some of the SUPER dry period in term of content and fun that we had in season 1. It’s easy to only remember the best moment in year in a half of update of Season 1.
I think OP was trying to say he wants more in-depth content as opposed to what we are currently seeing. Echoes was a big step forward, however Tangled Paths is arguably as big of a step backwards. Yes, S1 was buggy, but is clicking through waves and waves of dialogue really better?
Um…yes. Because there’s more to it than just that text, it tends not to be even half as buggy as Season 1’s content, and save for some unskippable cutscenes, it can be skipped or looked at on your choosing once unlocked. Oh, and it’s not only around for 2 weeks then gone forever.
I fail to see how Season 1 was more “in-depth”…and I was there since Flame and Frost.
Then surely you already know the answers the the following questions:
Has S2 introduced a new dungeon path? No.
Has S2 introduced new fractals? No.
Has S2 introduced new skills? No.
Has S2 introduced new holiday events? No.
Has S2 introduced new world boss events? No.
Has S2 introduced new conditions? No.
Has S2 introduced new WvW maps? No.
Has S2 introduced new SPvP maps? No.
Has S2 introduced new SAB zones? No.
Has S2 even heralded the return of SAB? No.
And of course, did S1 have a 2 month long break in the middle of it? No.
This is why, in my opinion, Living Story: Season 2 is a FAILURE, and the ONLY way it will redeem itself (particularly after that horrendous 2 month break) would be for the remaining 2 episodes to be every bit as large and grand in scale as Echoes of the Past.
I’ll gladly trade the hours I’ve spent clicking through dialogue boxes, watching cut scenes, or waiting for NPCs to stop talking to I can continue my quest for the bugs of S1 (which weren’t anywhere near game-breaking for me).
Homeworld: Dragonbrand—Necro main Sors Immani, leader of Ripple Effect [RE]
aka Thalakos Dralnu, Voxt Umultus, and Jalis Haafingar. Vulgarity is no substitution for wit.
I’ll eagerly await the format of S3, I mean that ought to be XPac 1 seeing as both format of S1 and S2 don’t live up to standards of the players.
I agree about less stuff in S2, plus the break nearly killed me, and if only Echoes of the Past was the big one because they those months to prepare and now we’re back to subpar stuff released on a fortnightly basis, there’s issues with Anet’s chosen delivery format.
I seriously hope we’re in for a good old expansion in 2015, after S2. S3 of a living world can come later when all the quirks have been figured out and removed.
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Both seasons have their up’s and down’s, S1 had lots of content while S2 so far has lots of lore and story.
If I have to be honest I have zero interest for S2, it’s been horribly boring so far to me (and I do like the story). However I feel like we’re getting nowhere, taking baby steps for everything.
idk it’s been like this since the breaks and WvW tournament, maybe I want a bit of both seasons, or maybe I’ve done everything in the game and there’s nothing new so far that can re-sparkle my interest…
What infuriates me, as well as others as I’m sure, is the fact they’ve reneged on so many promises .
To point out some key talking points from the announcement (dated July 2, 2013):
“Our goal is to make Guild Wars 2 the most frequently updated and best supported game experience you can find, and to that end, every two weeks there will be a release with brand new playable content and a mix of supporting features and updates across the entire game. As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days— those are now the only two states you’ll find the world of Tyria.” — Killed by a 2 month break.
“overhaul our explorable dungeons to make them more exciting”: nope
“introduce new fractals”: nope.
" introduce holiday festivals and other events that will appear on a yearly basis, but with updates and changes each year": ha, nope.
Homeworld: Dragonbrand—Necro main Sors Immani, leader of Ripple Effect [RE]
aka Thalakos Dralnu, Voxt Umultus, and Jalis Haafingar. Vulgarity is no substitution for wit.
Season 1 added one zone which was poorly designed with no reason to stay, story took forever and was poorly written, took forever to have interesting events (started with repairing sign posts) and most of the main updates came from the feature patch and not the actual living story. Season 2 added two zones with different mechanics, story has been amazing (echos of the past is the best example if you haven’t played it yet), and patches been interesting events. Think you mix seasons of living story with updates since you mentioned Holidays (which were meant to be repeats), SAB, fractals, etc. which were all outside of Season 1. Although I think I get what you mean. The game could use some big new features.
People only remember it fondly because of the higher than usual drop rate of Precursors, but you were still left to the mercies of RNGesus.