Showing Posts For Boanoah.6719:
GOLD TO CONVERT IT TO GEMS and use the converted Gems to buy the Expansion from the Gemstore,
I’ll just quote this little bit here as an opener to my reply.
This has not been confirmed to be the case, anywhere, there has been no mention of buying the expansion from the Gem store from anyone on the development team as far as I can find.
Secondly, I will probably eventually get the expansion, my negativity is not in regards to the price of the expansion or the fact that it’s gating Maguuma content to Maguuma. The negativity is pointed wholly to the fact that the Living World and Story are both being gated to the expansion from this point forwards, the great features that made the game unique and interesting are being gated.
It would be okay if they gated what happens to the jungle to the jungle, if it involves expansion content it should be gated, that’s not a problem at all. The issue is the “from here onwards” while the “core world will be as it is today”, which means that Pact Tyria, the majority of the map, will not be changing from that point forwards.
Even if you own the expansion that decision should at the very least be somewhat alarming of disturbing, chances are if you love GW2 it’s because of the LW and the LS bringing biweekly updates. Look at all the amazing things that have happened in the game, all of season 1, season 2, the massive world changing events, all of those things will stop happening for the core world. Lion’s Arch getting fixed, the cleansing of Orr, the purging of the Mordrem, the rise of the other elder dragons, that stuff will not be happening, or if it does it will not be in a way that players can interact with it unless they have the expansion.
Further, the mere fact that you are not concerned in the slightest with them switching to a WoW model is disgusting, GW2 is a unique gem that did so many things right. Copying any other MMOs practice of making an expansion and abandoning the previous world/content is not something that ANet should be doing.
Pact Tyria, as we have it now, is a living breathing and changing world, when the expansion hits that will stop, it will be no more alive than Orr. Notice he didn’t say “until after the Jungle” or “until we deal with Mordremoth” he said “from this point onwards”. Having a discussion about this should be important to you as a player if you love GW2 and want to see Pact Tyria continue to grow and flourish as it has.
It’s okay if that comes in a year after HoT is wrapped up, it’s not okay if it never happens.
OP is just wrong.
Vanilla GW2 players getting outclassed by power creep, that’s another story, and may well happen.what power creep? No level increase and no new gear tiers will be provided with the expansion. On top of that the majority of masteries will only be usable in HoT territory.
They could be referring to Specializations, which I have heard will be gated to the expansion, namely the GS Necro. If the specialization becomes a new part of the meta it will mean that current Necros, without the specialization at least, will become even less desirable in PvE.
Same could go for every class really, Necro was just one good example.
That keeps being mentioned and I keep failing to see how it will mean that Pact Tyria will need to update for those events. Much like Maguuma the map will open outwards in those directions, much like the Silverwastes/Drytop, however instead of being free they will be expansion locked.
From there the LS will take place in these ‘preliminary’ maps to introduce HoT players to the fact that Jormag/Kralk is beginning to stir more actively.
New events will occur in those maps prior to the release of the next expansion wherein HoT/Vanilla players who do not get the next expansion will get ‘time-locked’. Pact Tyria is getting gated to the time period before HoT, HoT will get gated to the state it was in prior to whatever comes next.
There is no need for them to advance Pact Tyria using this method, nor will they have to update Maguuma either.
If each expansion takes on the LW/LS in it’s entirety it makes it easier for them to develop and more cost effective to boot. We’ve already seen time-locked content in the game right now, Orr, it’s permanently locked to ‘pre-cleansing’ so that new players can still fight hordes of Risen. That will never change because there is no need for them to change it and leaving it as is will be best for new players going through the PS. Now apply that to all of Pact Tyria, there is no need for it to change if the idea is to advance through the expansions/game time-wise. Pact Tyria ‘makes sense’ as it is right now, excluding the changes to Lion’s Arch that were promised, like Orr it will be ‘dead’.
Players with the expansion can walk right across old Tyria to get to those new zones/maps just as we can walk from Silverwastes allllll the way back to the past in Orr without needing Orr to change.
The Heart of Thorns storyline didn’t start with Silverwastes/Drytop there was a big LS1 before that to set the scene.
Funny how you already know how they will do Jormag and Kralkatorrik, got a crystal ball or something?
Not really, just an example of how they could do it without changing Pact Tyria to do so, and while there was a season 1 it wasn’t a big hit with players [from what I’ve heard.] What players did enjoy a lot was season 2 which saw Silverwastes/Drytop, it’s unlikely they’d revisit season 1 for inspiration on how to progress one expansion to the next.
I’m 100% okay with this.
When there were vines and Scarlet attacks everywhere, it left a lore-breaking environment when the Living Story ended.
The only real ‘lore-breaking’ stuff I encountered since playing is Lion’s Arch and the NPE messed up events at Orr, only one of which was a victim of the LW.
They did a pretty ‘okay’ job of not changing areas with a major plot relevance that completely shatters the suspension of disbelief. Having to ‘save’ a ruinous Lion’s Arch or visiting a non-ruined Claw Island were definitely very strange events. I hope they fix it back up before abandoning Vanilla GW2 to work solely on Maguuma content.
I doubt they’ll abandon Vanilla GW2 completely. It’s fairly obvious that the game story is going to Maguuma with Heart of Thorns, but once we are done in the jungle the other Dragons are waiting, those are not in the Maguuma and they will need their own tie-in LS before opening up their expansion zones.
They will work on Maguuma content while we are fighting Mordremoth, because that makes sense, that’s where the story is, but once that’s done we will go back to the old zones to open up the next expansion.
Read my opening post and Collin’s own words.
Q: If there’s players that are playing and don’t buy the expansion will they still be able to do things in the Living World?
A: They will not, no, if you… basically everything that comes after the expansion you will need to own the expansion to be able to access, basically. Pretty much all updates from that point will be expansion specific and the core world will be what it is today.
“everything that comes after the expansion you will need to own the expansion to be able to access”
“the core world will be what it is today.”
What about that says:
“Only Maguuma content will be gated to expansion owners.”?
Well I don’t see how we can go from the Maguuma to the Crystal Desert or the Far Shiverpeaks. Will we get some kind of teleportation option or something?
That keeps being mentioned and I keep failing to see how it will mean that Pact Tyria will need to update for those events. Much like Maguuma the map will open outwards in those directions, much like the Silverwastes/Drytop, however instead of being free they will be expansion locked.
From there the LS will take place in these ‘preliminary’ maps to introduce HoT players to the fact that Jormag/Kralk is beginning to stir more actively.
New events will occur in those maps prior to the release of the next expansion wherein HoT/Vanilla players who do not get the next expansion will get ‘time-locked’. Pact Tyria is getting gated to the time period before HoT, HoT will get gated to the state it was in prior to whatever comes next.
There is no need for them to advance Pact Tyria using this method, nor will they have to update Maguuma either.
If each expansion takes on the LW/LS in it’s entirety it makes it easier for them to develop and more cost effective to boot. We’ve already seen time-locked content in the game right now, Orr, it’s permanently locked to ‘pre-cleansing’ so that new players can still fight hordes of Risen. That will never change because there is no need for them to change it and leaving it as is will be best for new players going through the PS. Now apply that to all of Pact Tyria, there is no need for it to change if the idea is to advance through the expansions/game time-wise. Pact Tyria ‘makes sense’ as it is right now, excluding the changes to Lion’s Arch that were promised, like Orr it will be ‘dead’.
Players with the expansion can walk right across old Tyria to get to those new zones/maps just as we can walk from Silverwastes allllll the way back to the past in Orr without needing Orr to change.
The thread title calls Vanilla GW2 “dead”.
It will not receive major content updates or world changes.
That’s a strange definition of dead. Dead would mean closed down, no longer available, ceased, pushing up the daisies, it’d be an ex-game (nudge nudge, wink wink).
Instead it is still available, only not evolving anymore. You can still do all content that is there today. Not exactly dead, to be honest. You can still drive your Ferrari 1.0 on the roads that have been there all the time. Only the new racetrack is reserved for Ferrari 2.0.
I don’t see a problem here. Either the xpac is worth your money in your consideration or not. If not, you lose nothing that you now have.
It’s dead in regards to the Living World, the ‘living’ world that changed maps, introduced events, and kept things fresh is now being moved entirely into Maguuma with any and all updates being expansion locked.
The ‘living’ aspects of Pact Tyria are now dead, no living story, no living world, no living Tyria.
Living story will be heavily based on taking on Mordemoth and events in Maguuma. That content will only be available in HoT. Pretty open and shut, hard to really get upset about. Buy the expansion if you want the new areas and story. Like any MMO expansion.
And really it seems odd to not be down for expansions when you sign in for an MMO. They’re pretty commonplace in the genre, and it seems weird to pass up new content for a game you sink time into.
It’d be like playing WoW and refusing to buy their expansions. You can do that, but you’d be missing out on a bulk of new content, and it really calls into question why you signed up in the first place.
I am not against expansions, nor am I against content being locked to the expansion when it pertains to the events and maps in said expansion. The problem, at least for me, is that what made GW2 unique was the Living World and Story, I can’t think of any other MMO that can claim to have as much dynamic content as GW2 had.
Whole cities and maps were irrevocably changed because of the Living World, events were introduced and removed, players had a somewhat lasting effect on the world of Tyria.
New players could hop in, experience the PS and then the current LS, they too could see the world change as they played. It wasn’t just veterans that got to experience these things, the opening of the Silverwastes and Drytop, the Rising of Tequatl, the events leading into Maguuma. All of it were things they could see unfold and interact with, that’s a fresh concept in the stale MMO genre that made GW2 stand-out.
When HoT hits that will no longer be the case, GW2 will be no more innovative or interesting than any other expansion focused MMO. Pact Tyria, the world as it is now, will effectively be abandoned to focus entirely on expansion gated content.
Even players with the expansion will likely see frozen Tyria while the Jungle changes, and when the next expansion comes the Jungle too will fall silent.
Maybe it’s just me, I don’t know, I do plan on eventually getting the expansion but this is still bothersome. If I wanted to play a standard MMO I could get WoW for the same expansion focused business model, I like GW2 because it’s not that. A player should be able to get the base game and feel like they matter, they won’t and they don’t without the expansion.
What’s the selling point for core world GW2 at that point?
“Come play our game, you can do .5 year old content and then twiddle your thumb until you buy HoT, isn’t that great? You don’t have to pay monthly for a stale and time-locked experience! How innovative! You can even watch videos about Season 1 to see the content you never got to play or take part in, how grand.”
(edited by Boanoah.6719)
I’m 100% okay with this.
When there were vines and Scarlet attacks everywhere, it left a lore-breaking environment when the Living Story ended.
The only real ‘lore-breaking’ stuff I encountered since playing is Lion’s Arch and the NPE messed up events at Orr, only one of which was a victim of the LW.
They did a pretty ‘okay’ job of not changing areas with a major plot relevance that completely shatters the suspension of disbelief. Having to ‘save’ a ruinous Lion’s Arch or visiting a non-ruined Claw Island were definitely very strange events. I hope they fix it back up before abandoning Vanilla GW2 to work solely on Maguuma content.
I doubt they’ll abandon Vanilla GW2 completely. It’s fairly obvious that the game story is going to Maguuma with Heart of Thorns, but once we are done in the jungle the other Dragons are waiting, those are not in the Maguuma and they will need their own tie-in LS before opening up their expansion zones.
They will work on Maguuma content while we are fighting Mordremoth, because that makes sense, that’s where the story is, but once that’s done we will go back to the old zones to open up the next expansion.
Read my opening post and Collin’s own words.
Q: If there’s players that are playing and don’t buy the expansion will they still be able to do things in the Living World?
A: They will not, no, if you… basically everything that comes after the expansion you will need to own the expansion to be able to access, basically. Pretty much all updates from that point will be expansion specific and the core world will be what it is today.
“everything that comes after the expansion you will need to own the expansion to be able to access”
“the core world will be what it is today.”
What about that says:
“Only Maguuma content will be gated to expansion owners.”?
That means no more changing world or narrative for vanilla players.
That means no more changing world or narrative for players who are unwilling (or unable) to pay for it.
I did not buy a new Ferrari. I do not get to drive a new Ferrari.
Not quite.
“I did not buy a Ferrari 2.0. I do not get to drive my Ferrari 1.0 any further down the road.”
See how that works? Or better yet:
“I did not buy a new road. I do not get to drive any further on the old roads.”
I’m 100% okay with this.
When there were vines and Scarlet attacks everywhere, it left a lore-breaking environment when the Living Story ended.
The only real ‘lore-breaking’ stuff I encountered since playing is Lion’s Arch and the NPE messed up events at Orr, only one of which was a victim of the LW.
They did a pretty ‘okay’ job of not changing areas with a major plot relevance that completely shatters the suspension of disbelief. Having to ‘save’ a ruinous Lion’s Arch or visiting a non-ruined Claw Island were definitely very strange events. I hope they fix it back up before abandoning Vanilla GW2 to work solely on Maguuma content.
. . . weird name for the topic when that’s not the actual topic of the discussion, from what I can tell.
Also, really curious as to how you got that from what I watched . . . so far as I can tell, the Living Story is now the parts in the Story Journal while the rest of the updates are divorced from that and happen separately. You can still get into the Silverwastes without needing “Point of No Return”.
That’s the Living World vs the Living Story.
The world changing and advancing is LW, this is what brought about the fall of Lion’s Arch, the opening of the Silverwastes and Drytop, as well as the changes we saw from the Toxic Alliance and Scarlet’s meddling. The LS on the other hand is the overall narrative for those events and how we interact with them.
The LS is dependent on the LW in some aspects and the same is true in reverse.
Voting Kiel or Evon was an example of how the LS impacted the LW, Kiel was voted in and the council didn’t listen to her, this is what made Lion’s Arch such an easy target for Scarlet. If Evon had won it’s likely the city would’ve been better armed/guarded for the invasion so that events may have played out slightly different. It’s likely Lion’s Arch would still be destroyed however, just with more guard NPCs hanging around.
Further, as you said, a player can get into the Silverwastes without owning season 2 or interacting with the LS. You don’t need to participate in the LS to interact with the LW much like in real life, the world changes even if you don’t engage in the how or why it changes. That said it seems that the LW and LS are both being focused entirely within Maguuma and all future updates are apparently being gated to expansion owners.
That means no more changing world or narrative for vanilla players.
It is possible that that decision may change or that Collin didn’t quite mean what was said. However just going off what he said it seems that the team is shifting to an expansion-centric model.
In which case, yes, Pact Tyria is effectively dead unless you buy the expansion.
Because clearly a game should cater to people that do not support the game.
/thread.
Reread the opening post, or maybe read the thread, I personally support ANet with gem store purchases since I have gotten the game.
Not buying an expansion =/= Doesn’t support the developer
This isn’t even the issue at hand, reading comprehension must be pretty low if several people are more than ready to assume anyone without the expansion is some kind of parasite.
How else could it be done though? Should the living story episodes set in the new areas and cities be placed in old Tyria instead? Should those who didn’t buy the expansion have access to the new areas to play them? It’s the nature of an expansion that the story is gated behind it. Does WoW, for example, have the current expansion’s story available to non purchasers?
It’s also possible that the old Tyria will have updates and a living story arc relating to events there. They could have a living story about the rebuilding of Lions Arch for example. There could be one about searching for Sylvari spies for Mordremoth in old Tyria. Just because season 3 will be in the new area doesn’t mean the old one will be abandoned. It’s to ANet’s advantage to keep customers happy.
Again I have to say: “I have no problems with content that happens in Maguuma being locked to Maguuma, if Living Story 3 happens entirely in Maguuma it shouldn’t be available to vanilla players.”
The problem is that the Living World and all it’s updates will be gated to HoT/Maguuma, which means that the core world will not be changing. The majority of content that has happened in GW2 to this point has been LW/LS dependent, the current dungeons we have are PS dependent.
With the expansion, according to Collin, the LW and LS will be dependent on having the expansion, all updates to both will be gated to the expansion from that point onwards. As a result, no LW and no LS means that Pact Tyria, the game as we know it now, will not be changing from that point onwards. No more LS chapters for vanilla players, not season 4, 5, 6, whatever, they will all be gated to expansion owners only, any vanilla players in PvE will be locked to the current content and only the current content.
PvP and WvW however will still be getting 100% free updates including a new game mode and maps.
(edited by Boanoah.6719)
Perhaps, OP, you should watch this interview and listen to what other Devs have to say, including the Lead Game Designer.
It’s a bit of a different story. /shrug
He didn’t mention anything concrete, just examples of what they’ve done and a general sort of “I’m not really sure but I doubt we won’t” response overall. He named PvP and WvW which we know won’t be gated, however what we have heard on the subject of PvE is that it will be gated.
I’m sorry, but that doesn’t paint a different story from what I heard.
Statements like in the OP just don’t seem to make sense and really just need to be ignored. HoT is a B2P expansion…it requires you to buy it to play the content. There aren’t any MMOs that release B2P expansions that work any differently.
GW2 is NOT F2P…never has been, never will be. It is B2P. They will continue to work on content for all areas of the game…they even have said as much in all of the interviews so far. There are pictures of Mastery’s for the vanilla part of the game…they are adding content to the vanilla part of the game…they said that there will be adventures added to ALL parts of the game…there is PvP and WvW content being added to the vanilla part of the game…just do your research and then buy the expansion…why?
Because you like the vanilla part of the game and you want to support ANet making more content. If you don’t agree, fine…don’t buy it, but please stop QQing about how your ball is being taken away from you…it’s not…in fact your being given a bunch of free new balls on top of the opportunity to buy a new playground to play in.
Some people…
I swear some people don’t read before responding.
PvE is not getting any ‘new balls’, all updates to the world will be happening in Maguuma, the living world [which brought us such great hits as season 1 and season 2 of the living story as well as Silverwastes, Drytop, Tequatl Rising, Toxic Alliance, Flame & Frost, the Karka Invasion, the destructio of Lion’s Arch and any such map updates] will no longer be happening in Pact Tyria.
The world of Pact Tyria, the game as it is now, will no longer be changing with updates to the Living World, there will be no Living Story seasons for vanilla players to engage in.
“The world will be as it is today.”
So you definition of new balls only includes Living World story…ok…then we don’t have anything to debate since I use a different definition that includes all content added to the game.
Collin stated that the LW story will be HoT dependent and that completely and totally makes sense. You might not like it, but it does not mean that the vanilla game won’t have new content added (new balls). Just not new story.
If that is what you are QQing about, then fine…just know that most people do not agree that GW2 should move forward the way you want.
In an MMORPG what content could we get without any story developments or changes to the world? Dungeons are story related, maps have only had story related changes, even event changes have been story related to a degree [Tequatl Rising being the best one I can think of.]
The Living World is what we can thank for Lion’s Arch being destroyed, for the Silverwastes and Drytop being opened, new events happening, new developments to the world. All of that is the Living World and our ability to interact in those changes is the Living Story, both are being focused entirely in Maguuma.
We will probably see basic class updates and tweaks as normal, maybe new weapons and armors, but the actual content with participation in PvE will not be changing in Pact Tyria.
They have already stated LA will be fixed in future content. It was a forum post a month or 2 back.
Gating the LS behind the expacs does not mean vanilla Tyria is out of action. S2 gates the story, it still changed vanilla Tyria.Also, even in the infinitesimal chance what you say is their plan…..plans change.
The Living World will no longer be changing Pact Tyria in a way that vanilla players will be able to interact with it, according to Colin’s own words. We may see Lion’s Arch get fixed before HoT but if what he said is true it means it won’t be happening after HoT is launched.
I could be wrong, hey, maybe he misspoke or didn’t understand the question but it boils down to a very simple point:
“Will players without the expansion be able to participate in the living world?”
“No.”
That sounds like to me, that the expansion living world section can’t be played without the expansion.
The Living World will be expansion only when HoT hits is what sounded like to me, because that’s exactly what Colin said: “All updates from then on will be expansion gated.”
They cannot change Pact Tyria with expansion content without locking out that zone for vanilla players, since we will not be getting living story or living world updates that means no changes to vanilla Tyria. GW2 as we have it now will be what it is now for the rest of the games longevity, assuming things stay on the path Colin outlined.
If the game moves to an expansion focus it will mean Maguuma will one day be frozen like Pact Tyria and that the Living World will then move wholly to the next expansion.
They have already stated LA will be fixed in future content. It was a forum post a month or 2 back.
Gating the LS behind the expacs does not mean vanilla Tyria is out of action. S2 gates the story, it still changed vanilla Tyria.Also, even in the infinitesimal chance what you say is their plan…..plans change.
The Living World will no longer be changing Pact Tyria in a way that vanilla players will be able to interact with it, according to Colin’s own words. We may see Lion’s Arch get fixed before HoT but if what he said is true it means it won’t be happening after HoT is launched.
I could be wrong, hey, maybe he misspoke or didn’t understand the question but it boils down to a very simple point:
“Will players without the expansion be able to participate in the living world?”
“No.”
Statements like in the OP just don’t seem to make sense and really just need to be ignored. HoT is a B2P expansion…it requires you to buy it to play the content. There aren’t any MMOs that release B2P expansions that work any differently.
GW2 is NOT F2P…never has been, never will be. It is B2P. They will continue to work on content for all areas of the game…they even have said as much in all of the interviews so far. There are pictures of Mastery’s for the vanilla part of the game…they are adding content to the vanilla part of the game…they said that there will be adventures added to ALL parts of the game…there is PvP and WvW content being added to the vanilla part of the game…just do your research and then buy the expansion…why?
Because you like the vanilla part of the game and you want to support ANet making more content. If you don’t agree, fine…don’t buy it, but please stop QQing about how your ball is being taken away from you…it’s not…in fact your being given a bunch of free new balls on top of the opportunity to buy a new playground to play in.
Some people…
I swear some people don’t read before responding.
PvE is not getting any ‘new balls’, all updates to the world will be happening in Maguuma, the living world [which brought us such great hits as season 1 and season 2 of the living story as well as Silverwastes, Drytop, Tequatl Rising, Toxic Alliance, Flame & Frost, the Karka Invasion, the destructio of Lion’s Arch and any such map updates] will no longer be happening in Pact Tyria.
The world of Pact Tyria, the game as it is now, will no longer be changing with updates to the Living World, there will be no Living Story seasons for vanilla players to engage in.
“The world will be as it is today.”
Umm, did you watch the Angry Joe video? Colin evades lots of things with “I can’t talk about that yet,” but does say vanilla professions are getting reworked and that guild halls and the new PvP and WvW modes will be available even if you don’t buy HoT, though you might need the expansion to make full use of them. Vanilla isn’t getting frozen.
… suddenly I want ice cream.
It doesn’t matter what he said to Angry Joe, what he said to Bog Otter is my concern.
Living world and living story updates from here on will be expansion locked, updates to the world will be happening in Maguuma while Pact Tyria will be, and I quote: “the way it is today.”
No, in Colin’s own words all updates will be happening in the expansion and the world as it is now will stay that way.
where pray tell me will they host next Wintersday if we don’t seem to be getting a new hub?
And better yet, lets say Jormag attacks as our next enemy. How do you expect him to cross the whole Tyria to get to Maguuma and attack them specifically? Remember that majority of the dragons are kind of in a circular formation around Tyria and I highly doubt that when they close this ark, they’ll bother somehow magically transporting them half the world away in order to make them previous expansion exclusive.The whole ark, for the expansion’s lifetime will stay in the expansion though. Which can be between 1 to 3 years. So yes, your world will stay static for around 3 years, excluding holiday events, but if afterwards we’re not digging deeper that way (like I said, unless we’re going to Elona), bringing everything from half the world away there specifically would be hard to write in. Therefore it will likely come back to Tyria before digging in a different direction with a different expansion.
EDIT: that’s assuming that we’ll still get living stories even though. For all we know the game might be moving to expansion packs only model.
You can say that but Colin said differently and I trust his words a lot on the topic, Pact Tyria, the game as we have it now, will not be changing from HoT onwards. If we go Jormag next it’s likely they’d just expand North and the map that way will update and change, Maguuma would then be like Pact Tyria right now, unchanging.
That’s what a lot of people don’t seem to be getting, it’s not an issue of Maguuma’s story being locked to Maguuma, it’s an issue that the story of GW2 vanilla ending. Pact Tyria will not be getting updates, it will not be part of the Living World and any non-expac players will be stuck in it’s limbo as well. Living story segments may happen in gated instances within Pact Tyria but vanilla players and the vanilla world will not change or be able to take part in it.
Ever played the PS from 1 to 80 recently? You visit Lion’s Arch to save it when it’s already destroyed, you cleanse Orr to leave it infested with risen, those are results of the Living World. The story and certain map segments are ‘locked in time’ as they are and when Maguuma hits all of Pact Tyria will be the same way, locked.
That means Lion’s Arch probably won’t be fixed, Orr probably won’t be cleansed, and the maps will be stuck as they are now.
Sure, we may get seasonal events but nothing else will be coming, LS season 4 will be expansion gated, 5, 6, 7, etc will also be gated, the only part of the world to change or evolve will be Maguuma. At least until the next expansion when it will probably be time locked to the way it was when HoT ended and whatever comes next picks up again.
Boanoah, I’m sure that you’ll still get your holiday events and after the expansion’s lifetime, the next living story before the expansion will probably come back to Tyria (if we’re battling a new dragon and not battling our way to Elona, in which case it would happen in the maguuma).
You’re not barred from updates. You’re barred away from the story line that has to do with the expansion and all LSs surrounding it. And that’s normal. You’re acting as if you never seen an MMO get an expansion before.
No, in Colin’s own words all updates will be happening in the expansion and the world as it is now will stay that way.
I’m not sure it’s safe to assume that nothing in mainland Tyria will change with the future Living World releases.
You just won’t be able to access the story instances which explain it all.
But I fully expect Lion’s Arch to be rebuilt, Mordremoth’s influence to grow, etc.
Sorry, but you’re mistaken, the question and answer are as follows:
Q: If there’s players that are playing and don’t buy the expansion will they still be able to do things in the Living World?
A: They will not, no, if you… basically everything that comes after the expansion you will need to own the expansion to be able to access, basically. Pretty much all updates from that point will be expansion specific and the core world will be what it is today.
This is the purpose of expansions. If the majority of content is available/modifications of the Old World then it would be called an “update.”
And consider what WoW did with Cataclysm. They created an expansion that re-worked their entire old world and then forced you to pay for it. There was no playing the game at all, not just being left out of the expansion areas. Many games become Expand-or-Leave. Giving players the option in this case is being very generous to the existing player base.
As Andred points out, the likely scenario is if you don’t want to buy the expansion, you’re not nlikely to stick around anyway. Sorry to fanboy all over your obviously biased and inflamatory OP.
It’s a baseless assumption, I play every day when I can and have put more money into the game via gem store than what I paid for it [that said I did get it during the sale from a friend so the 40-50$ I was able to put in should cover that.]
I just doubt I’ll be able to have that same amount of disposable income anytime soon which means, for me at least, the game is dead.
It’s also saddening to see that no one else cares that Tyria is now in a limbo like Orr, never changing or updating in a meaningful way. Without LS there is no LW, nothing like Lion’s Arch or the Toxic Alliance or Flame & Frost will be happening since those were LS events. A major selling point and strong element of the game is now gated with a powerful distinction between HoT and not emerging.
Heck, the most prominent assumption seems to be “if you don’t get HoT you’re probably a quiter anyways” which is entirely opposite to what I’m saying.
I should also clarify, I’m not complaining that the maps/events/dungeons in Maguuma are being gated, I’m complaining that the rest of Tyria is now stuck in a permanent and unchanging limbo without development.
Maguuma content should be gated to HoT, moving the LS in it’s entirety to Maguuma is the issue.
Wasn’t the point of GW2 having an LS to make it ‘fresh’ and different? Tyria was a living breathing world that would change every now and then, without the LS that means no changes. Any and all changes in the world will now take place in the Jungles, it’s okay to have jungle limited events and story segments, what was said is that “LS will be gated to the expansion from here onwards.”
This isn’t WoW, WoW didn’t have a living world, it had a segmented narrative that you needed to buy expansions in order to follow, but even then the ‘vanilla’ world still changed. Cataclysm being the biggest example of that, even if you didn’t buy Cata you could still play in that newly changed world you just couldn’t do the new dungeons/raids/areas.
I personally hope they don’t leave the rest of Tyria to die, but from what was said it certainly seems like it be.
It was confirmed by Colin in an interview that all Living Story segments, events, and updates will be gated behind the expansion. Nothing like the attack on Lion’s Arch, the Toxic Alliance, or the Silverwastes/Drytop will be coming out for vanilla players to interact with.
If you enjoy PvE but can’t get the expansion for a while you may as well quit or start playing WvW or PvP since neither of those are apparently being gated.
How do you guys feel about this? Is it justified that from this point on everything will be happening in Maguuma? It’s pretty much guaranteed to isolate the community between HoT and not so how will that affect PvE in general? If there’s a new hub in the jungles it’s likely that a majority of players will simply leave ‘Pact Tyria’ in the dust like ANet is doing.
I hope you enjoy doing the exact same content you’ve been doing already, because without HoT you get nothing from this point onwards.
Discuss.
EDIT
A lot of you seem to assume I am saying Maguuma should be free, I am not, I am in no way saying vanilla players should be able to go to Maguuma without the expansion. I am not saying any Living Story that happens in Maguuma should be open to vanilla players.
The ‘issue’ here is that Maguuma will be the sole focus and hub of all Living World/Living Story updates from expansion onwards.
These are the exact words of the question and answer:
Q: If there’s players that are playing and don’t buy the expansion will they still be able to do things in the Living World?
A: They will not, no, if you… basically everything that comes after the expansion you will need to own the expansion to be able to access, basically. Pretty much all updates from that point will be expansion specific and the core world will be what it is today.
See that last part?
“the core world will be what it is today.”
That means that Pact Tyria/Vanilla Tyria will not be changing once the expansion hits, all updates to the world and the story will be happening in Maguuma. If they are switching to an expansion focused model this will mean that each successive zone will take the Living World and Story while leaving the previous zones ‘time locked’.
No rebuilding of Lion’s Arch that players can interact with, no story based events, no changes to existing events for a story reason such as Tequatl rising, no dungeons.
The only updates existing vanilla PvE will get are class changes/tweaks and Fractals/Seasonal changes if those are 100% literal words.
Remember the destruction of Lion’s Arch? Flame and Frost? The Toxic Alliance? Any and all of LS season 1/2? Nothing like those will be happening in Pact Tyria once the expansion hits, at least if Collin meant what he said.
That is the ‘death’ of the Living World of Tyria as we know it currently.
As well the notion that new expansions and dragons need changes to happen to Tyria? Not really, say Jormag is next, they’ll open up maps further north where the expansion happens, no need to change Pact Tyria for that. Don’t even need to leave Maguuma to have that direction be introduced, just need Trahearne to say Jormag is rising and to hop on a airship for the north.
That’s it, that’s all they’d need to do to leave Pact Tyria just the way it is, further nothing in Maguuma can have a drastic effect on the vanilla map without gating that map from non-expansion players.
The Living World that made GW2 unique is no longer happening, it is the “Living Expansion”.
(edited by Boanoah.6719)
There is nothing polluting or ridiculous about them aside from being too popular.
And, you know, heinously large and showy, at least for something that took zero imagination
So they’re big? You know what’s worse than wings that fit the lore and came from GW1? Holographic flapping wings, wimpy undead wings, the giant glowing metal blade wings.
No more visual pollution plz.
it’s getting ridiculous and completely out of this game, At least you can RP as an Harpy now.
How so? The wings match the “Raiment of the Lich” wings from GW1, which were missing from the GW2 version of the same outfit.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Raiment_of_the_Lich
There is nothing polluting or ridiculous about them aside from being too popular.
New player here, got the game during that 75% off sale [a friend bought it for me] and I only recently completed the Personal Story.
The greatest fear scene with the tree was rather confusing for me, I fully expected that to play into the coming story segment but it didn’t at all. I have since learned it was supposed to before it got cut from the game and I have to say that the current set-up is horrible.
Instead of the tree saying something meaningful she is essentially asking a random question that doesn’t mean anything. It would be like visiting the Queen of England before a very important mission only to have her ask you if you’re scared of bees, spiders, or ants. It comes out of no where, is unexpected, and does nothing for the mission other than making the Queen look a little ‘loopy’.
I hope this aspect gets re-added to the game at some point, as well as seeing the story progression get fixed.
I don’t know who it was that decided to RUIN the story for new players but they should be fired and replaced with a potato. Unlike the current employee the potato would actually make good decisions.
Thank you for your time.