Guild Wars 2

Mif.3471:

Avatara.1042:

Ahahahahahahahahaha! Good one! Suggesting Anet will not milk everyone for gems? Comedy gold!

Yeah, what a bunch of scumbags. How dare they release an MMO without the usual $15 monthly fee and sell optional cosmetic items to pay their staff.

In stead of making money with expansion to pay there staff and have a good game.. Indeed.

To be honest you should be able to change hair style (including facial hair) in game. Go to the barber and change your hair. Thats why it is hair. That should have been so since the beginning. It’s just one more of those thinks we would have seen if there focus was on expansion, but because there focus is on the cash-shop it works with items from the gem-store. And even giving a onetime free change option would not do it.. It’s hair! You go to a barber for that.

Of-course it can cost in game money.. a few silver. That would make sense.

jheryn.8390:

Teege.4623:

jheryn.8390:

Charak.9761:

If you want to support the game, please stop putting money into RNG boxes.

These are stopping them from putting real straightforward skins into the store, and are consistently forcing you through this abusive gambling side of the game if you want something like fused weapon skins (outside of gold)

Actually buying RNG boxes does financially support the game. It just doesn’t support what you want out of the game.

Yeah if you love tossing out money and getting nothing in return it’s perfect.

What are you talking about? Charak said if you want to support the game not to buy RNG boxes. Not buying RNG in no way supports the game. Spending money supports the game no matter what you buy. RNG boxes or anything else.

Nowhere in my post did it say anything about RNG being perfect. In fact, the whole post had nothing to do with how great or bad RNG is. So, what the hell are you talking about?

There are multiple ways you can support a game and depending on the way you support a game it might change the game. For that reason I would only support buy buying gems and maybe if they are doing a good job I would buy gems for upgrades like bank-tabs of more char slots. That results in a focus on such elements. Buying limited available items focus them on doing that, buying RNG boxes focus them on that and so on. Because I see most cash-related ingame changes as bad I am basically only willing to buy expansion.

So no.. not spending money in one way does mean you do not support if you are willing to spend it in another way.. If Anet does not give the other option let them know you are willing to spend it in the other way then they might focus on that and so you get to support the game in the way you like with the result for the game the way you like it.

jheryn.8390:

Charak.9761:

If you want to support the game, please stop putting money into RNG boxes.

These are stopping them from putting real straightforward skins into the store, and are consistently forcing you through this abusive gambling side of the game if you want something like fused weapon skins (outside of gold)

Actually buying RNG boxes does financially support the game. It just doesn’t support what you want out of the game.

Thats what he is saying isn’kitten

EDIT: KITTEN? REALLY?? I did not talk about some female body part I said isn’t ……………………….. it?

Have they fixed the maximum number of characters when creating a title finally? Or can you still type more then you are allowed to resulting in an error when creating?

It’s this sort of software engineering that’s the problem.

Sylv.5324:

Devata.6589:

That not supported by their cash shop sales is going to result in LESS future game development is nonsense because they could generate money with expansion in stead of the heavy focus on the gem-store.

You should not post your opinion as fact. The FACT is, they are being supported by gem shop sales. If you refuse to support the shop, you refuse to support ANet. You can try to pull out whatever distractions from that fact that you can, but that doesn’t change anything.

No you are posting idea’s as facts. First of all do NOT!!! say ArenaNet is not being supported by the cash-shop (please quote where I say so).. Secondly I do NOT!!! refuse to support ANet (please quote where I say so). As a matter of fact I did support them by buying the game and if they turn back in the correct direction I am very willing to keep supporting them in the future. However I am not willing to support them by gem-sales… I am willing to support them on expansion IF they drop the gem-store focus.

Sylv.5324:

The Gem Shop does support ANet. I really wish folks would stop taking misinformation at face value, considering ANet has stated that the Gem Shop supports ANet, too.

A portion of that goes back to NCSoft as well, because NCSoft footed the very large bill to pay ANet for developing the game. In return, a percentage of the profits go back to the parent company.

I don’t know how anyone could spin this as bad when this is how every publisher works. Have a favorite author? Their publisher fronts the cost of the book, pays them an advance (which is what happened with GW2 as well), then takes royalties from the subsequent sales (boxes) and merchandise (cash shop). The author also gets a portion after the advance fee is covered (royalties). The ONLY way that Guild Wars could be afforded to be made was via this system.

By claiming that ANet is not supported by their cash shop sales, and therefore does not deserve to have stuff bought from their cash shop, is going to result in LESS future game development and LESS features and LESS of the things that folks want, because they will have LESS resources to devote to those things.

If you don’t take my word for it, then ask anyone involved in publishing as to how advances, royalties, etc, work.

Only one person said Anet would not get money for it.. So then better quote him.

That not supported by their cash shop sales is going to result in LESS future game development is nonsense because they could generate money with expansion in stead of the heavy focus on the gem-store. That would be better for the quality of the game and they would have income.

However there are still to many people buying gems for them to do so, so thats why we have seen the focus on the gem-store with all negative side effects. So yes you support ArenaNet but you do not support the quality of the game.

Eridani.8317:

Charak.9761:

Because 90% of the original designers of GW2 haven’t already been laid off… (you do realize your dungeon designer is gone right?)

Any source for that or are you just making kitten up?

I think he is referring to Robert Hrouda. He was part of the team.. I don’t think there is just one dungeon designer.

Here is the confirmation about that:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Robert-Hrouda-has-left-Arenanet/page/3

This is what he put on his facebook.

“Today marks the release of the last bit of content I built for ArenaNet. I had always hoped my last hurrah would be an epic dungeon that would stand the test of time, and provide entertainment for players to the very end… but instead it’s an instance that will only persist for two weeks, and then go away.”

Some more information you can find here: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/85058-robert-hrouda-leaves-arenanet/

Not so sure about the 90%. I think thats more a figure of speech. But I might be wrong.

marnick.4305:

Nuka Cola.8520:

How many more decades until this kind of mmo textures are gone?

Once every house in the world has a dedicated glassfiber connection.

Either that, or once MMOs become single player games.

To have masses of players on the screen is the definition of MMO. At the same time, this puts immense strain on the foundations of the internet which isn’t as easily fixed as turning on or off a few DirectX versions.

Textures have nothing to do with the Internet connection. Thats all in the client. Same for the DirectX effects. It comes down to the specs of your PC nothing else.

Internet connection has to do with the amount of information being send. For example if they really render the image of an char with the exact settings as you made it in character creations (not sure if they do, many mmo’s don’t) then for every person in your area all those ‘settings’ (how big is the nose and so on) have to been send to you. And every step they make or action they take needs to be send to you.

Of course more people (with hight graphics) also mean more work for your client but that sort of stuff has nothing to do with your Internet connection.

What is funny is that I see multiple people say. I spend (a lot of) money on gems but don’t like the way the game is going now so might stop playing / spengin money.. The way the game is going now is strongly linked to the gem-store as its being build around the whole idea of how to get people to buy gems. And indeed thats not good for the game.

So basically buy spending so much money you guys made the game go in the direction it is going now. Hopefully you learned your lesson. There is no bad thing in giving money however, better do that for expansions so you know the game will go in the correct direction in stead of spending it on a cash-shop resulting in a game focusing itself around that with all negative side-effects that come with it.

Azala Yar.7693:

By the time I actually purchased the game it was already moving away from that ideal. With more content being aimed at guilds for one.

~

I felt with content like the living story, poor drop rates from mobs which made even farming mobs boring that the game was becoming less about the game and more about how to milk their customers by getting them to use the shop.

Wait what.. content for guilds? On of the main issue’s as a guild is the lac of things to do.. yes there are the guild-missions but thats it. WvW is zerg vs zerg, not really great for a guild because of overflow.

Bosses (Tequatl) are nice but also not great for guilds. Non-guild members might do thinks that mess thinks up and once again overflows stop people from getting in.

If it comes to that ArenaNet got it completely wrong if it comes to instances. What should be instanced, like raid attacks we see in boss fight is not really in an instance.. guild puzzle is no real instance but every map is an instance while that should have been one big open world.

Open world bosses are not bad but then also ad raids for guilds only so you can really work on tactics. And gives really something in WvW like a castle we can build and defend (have a look at ArcheAge) and let us really build a guild-house.. don’t just give us one, make a map where people can build them. There is not enough stuff to do for guilds.

What you refer to is most likely zerging but thats something else because it misses tactics.

Then again I 100% agree with the last part of your comment.

Vayne.8563:

I’ve spent more on this game than I would have on a sub, but I’ve subbed to many many games in the past and haven’t had nearly the enjoyment out of them. The only game that has held my interest for this long is Guild Wars 1.

Oow here you are again. So much money spend on GW2 and you have had no time to play it ( https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/Vayne-8563/showposts ). I feel for you.

@Vayne.8563
Tell me something. Do you get payed for these comments or do you really dislike the game a lot? But then why are you defending it?

It must be one of the two because whenever I am on the forums I see recent comments from you and I am on the forum at very differed times so it can’t be that we are just on it on the same times.

So if you are always on the forum you can’t even play the game.. what you would be doing if you really enjoyed it as much as you seem to do if we where to believe your comments.

I also had a look here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/Vayne-8563/showposts and it shows me hours for the last 24 hours (after that it become days). Then I see you literally post multiple things every hour with a break of 9 hours in between (guess thats your sleep-time).

Vayne.8563:

Mathias.9657:

Vayne.8563:

Mathias.9657:

haviz.1340:

I’m sure some of anet developers are sad as we all are. They wanted to make an epic mmo with esport but instead they are forced to create facebook games because metrics say so. Sadly.

Maybe they should start building a game for their players instead of stock holders.

Without stockholders there wouldn’t be a game at all.

Look at GW1, you can do both. And thank you sherlock.

Guild Wars 1 was made at a different time. A time with a lot less competition. All you need to do is look at the number of multiplayer fantasy games that were out when Guild Wars 1 came out that didn’t have a monthly subscription. There were none. Guild Wars 1 had no competition. There weren’t free MMOs everywhere you looked, with much more clout to get the name out there. No free Age of Conan, no free Lotro, no free Dungeons and Dragons Online, no free Superhero MMOs, no free Star Trek or Star Wars MMO.

I’m not sure why people don’t understand that Guild Wars 1 launched at a certain time and place, and frankly, it was far to intelligent a game to ever truly appeal to the masses. It doesn’t say much for the masses, mind you, but it’s what I believe.

It’s the WoW, EQ equation. EQ was probably the better game with the smaller audience. WoW made a lot of stuff accessible (read dumbed it down) and suddenly there were more players.

Guild Wars 1 was a great game. I won’t say otherwise.

But it was always going to be a niche game.

I have to disagree
First of all see this list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_games

And about free to play. Well GW1 was not F2P but B2P and how many games are now really B2P? GW1. GW2 could have gone for B2P and would still be pretty unique with there payment model.

Besides that, most of the games you name where games that started as P2P and failed with that having to turn to F2P. They don’t have very big playerbases and so aren’t very big competition. In fact since GW2 release the only big other releases are just now coming in. Other big players in the market are games like WoW and EvE but they already existed when GW1 was released if you would also look at other payment models.

marnick.4305:

I spent not even half that amount of money in euros. Don’t regret a single purchase, and still have 2k gems in the bank. The GW2 model is the best in the industry by a landslide.

That said, I paid only half a sub fee in euros, which is about triple the sub fee people pay in dollars. That’s another discussion though.

With the exception of the GW1 model. The GW2 model is not unique, at this moment it’s just a F2P model (but then requiring to buy the game) so in that way it can’t the the best in the industry.

Jordo.5913:

Charak.9761:

Mahaedros.7085:

I wanted to help the game and Anet out

Please don’t follow that belief, all gem store purchases are given to NCSoft

1. Developer makes a gem shop to bring in income.

there are two ways this plays out:

2a. No one buys gems thus creating no income.
2b. NCsoft sees gw2 as a failure, and slowly limits how much money Anet gets each month leading to layoffs and no more content updates

3a. A lot of people buy gems to support gw2.
3b. NCsoft sees gw2 as a moneymaker success, gives Anet more money to keep content coming out at a regular pace to keep people spending money in the gem shop.

i’m thinking the latter already happened and is why we saw Living Story updates go from every month to every two weeks

so yes, gem shop purchases do help support Anet

If that would be truth and if you would see the 2 weekly living story ad good new content then yes. A lot of people however disagree with you on this.

Now just for the record.. I don’t think the F2P model (so focusing on the cash-shop) is not able to generate enough money.. in the beginning it might even generate much more money. But the quality of the game is the issue here. When the focus on gem sales makes the game less fun, then less people will go away and income will also slow down. For a good mix of quality of the game and income I still think B2P model (focus on expansions for income) is the way to go.

Evans.6347:

Indubitably. Both me and my partner buy 50€ gems every month, so we’ve most certainly been supporting.

As I like to say, I’m doing my working at work. I’ll use a part of that money to bypass having to work in my gaming time too. If there are people who want and can spend hours farming daily, then good on them, but I’ll spend my precious free time doing enjoyable stuff thank you very much

And thats exactly why the system is as it is (the need to farm.. the game feeling like a job). It’s so people as you will buy gems. It’s also why a lot of people (not or less willing to buy gems) are complaining a lot about what the game is doing.

It’s not a good sign if you need to buy gems to overcome the farming and enjoy the game.

If they would have focus on expansions in stead of cash-shop then both groups could be happy.

Cash shop really works good on people who can’t really handle there own money. They tend to spend much more on much less with cash-shops (compared to P2P). I am willing to pay for the game, even did buy the correctors edition and if ArenaNet was doing what I liked I might at one point have both a few gems to unlock maybe some char slots but they did not what I like. They went over to a more F2P sort of payment model (focusing on gem-sales in stead of on box / expansion sales) and so I did not spend a single Dollar / Euro. Hopefully they will turn back to a B2P model where focus for income is the box sales and expansions sales. If they then indeed also drop the high focus on the cash-shop (and everything that comes with it) then I am more then willing to buy the new expansion. Well at least the customer has a choice.

This is a very long discussion that has also been going on for a very long time. Looking at the last few patches you would think ArenaNet finally did something with comments about this. SAB is a returning event and not really a living story, bossweek was also not really a living story and is permanent and the upcoming patch seems to be slightly link to the story but is a new permanent dungeon path (not sure if there is more). If they now only completely drop the temporary available achievements + reward and make that also permanent it’s much better. (then you only still have the temporary black lion stuff that should not be temporary)

Then again, ArenaNet seemed to be turning in the wrong direction a few times before and then spin around again and raced the other side so only time will tel.

It might also all be to little to late. Back when Colin Johanson said they would only have the story temporary but the content permanent they should have done that. But that was just before they announced a lot of time-gated content that would come out over the next half year and just before the politics stuff… once again temporary. The patch after that was again temporary and only now with SAB and bossweek it became a little better.

The only way to set the record strait is with a time-machine to relive the old events, As you might have noticed fractals is already some sort of time-machine so that fits in the story. But like Colin said, part of a living story is that it’s there and then it’s gone and if you where not there you missed it. Thats true but the only moment that comes to my mind if we talking about such moments was the karka invasion in LA and there where no achivements and no rewards linked to that. Besides old players do not miss that event and have the island that came out of it. Thats how it should be.

Living story should be a event building up slowly over time so you really feel you are part of it like with the Karka story (the introduction with the refugee’s was also slow enough but had achievements linked to it) and not with any of the later events that went so fast it felt like a drain in stead of a living story. At the end of one of those stories something big should happen like the Karka invasion. To make it even more epic this should be recorded for every server. Meanwhile no temporary achievements or rewards should have been linked to that story but the result of the big finally should end up in a a lot of new permanent content (it might even be mixed with an expansion), That now content will have achievements, rewards and so on.

Also should there be a history tab where you can read the passed story and see a movie from the final event. Because that gets recorded per server that means that the people that where there can be seen on the video. Then you have the epic feeling of a story, people are not being left behind with content being it dungeons, rewards or achivements and they can read back on the story if that interests them.

The time-machine can then only go back before it was build over the last year.. damm Asura, great technology but always some negatives about it.

Thats the only way I see a living story work and to ‘fix’ what have been done wrong with the living story until now.

Ashen.2907:

I keep seeing people refer to being tricked into buying gems. What trick ? Did Anet download a patch that causes your account to purchase gems whenever you activate your self heal ? Did they tell you that the gems were actually free and that you would receive a refund of the purchase price as soon as you sent some money to a Nigerian prince ?

Or do they allow you to buy gems if you want, potentially without spending a single dime of real world money, something offered in the gem store ?

Yeah, that is a one heck of a nasty trick….letting you spend your money on something you want and even allowing you to get what you want without spending any money at all.

That refers to marketing tricks. One of those marketing tricks is creating a sense of urgency. You can do that with limited items available or limited time available.

It’s psychological. Like a shop that uses a smell or images or even a specific way of division to get you to buy stuff in stead of just trying to provide you with the best quality items to get you to buy it.

tolunart.2095:

Devata.6589:

I think the total income would be about the same, most likely even higher because the people that spend a lot of money on gems will still do so also without heavy marketing tricks. They will pay some less and other people might not buy anything at all but the gem-store would then also be nothing more as a extra.

You realize that there are people who study these kinds of things for a living, right? They study the behavior of the market in this game and other games, and try to predict what would happen if the company did something, and what would happen if they did something else instead. They study real data and have education and experience doing this sort of thing. Their opinions generally count for more than some guy on the forums.

I’ve seen posts quoting from NCSoft’s financial reports, and it’s pretty obvious that the cash shop has provided a steady income that eliminates the pressure to develop an expansion because their investment of money and time is repaid almost immediately instead of a year or so later.

Yeah I do realize that. Do you also realize that those same sort of people are responsible for the many P2P models we have seen over the last 9 years… you know those that all failed. So that by itself does not say so much.

I also do understand that it does make them money (for now.. I think it’s more short run then B2P… GW2 is in a way still running on the B2P model from GW1 as thats really what made GW1 / ArenaNet big) but while I do look at it from the financial viewpoint for ArenaNet / NCSoft’s I also look at it from the viewpoint of quality of the game and the customer.

Something those people you refer to care a little less about. It’s like they say.. A good game with bad publicity may fail while a bad game with good publicity can make a lot of money. Guess what those people would prefer?

And then being a customer and looking from all those angles I say they should go B2P because it’s good for me and it’s good for them. F2P is financially better for me as I do not pay for cash-shop items but it’s not so good for my entertainment level and also not so good for the way I think about the company behind it.

Behellagh.1468:

How does removing a purely cosmetic item “effects the game in a bad way”. It doesn’t affect game play at all. It merely encourages players who want them to act now. It’s no different than any other limited time offer like the mini hippo calf or the infinite gathering tools. Here’s your window of opportunity, act now or regret not acting later.

The model does effect the game as the game is build around this idea. Thats also why we did see many temporary living story patches. It was an excuses for many of the temporary available items. From a business viewpoint not much more or less then that.

But taking this one thing sperate (removing a purely cosmetic item) does not effect the game itself. It does effect the way you play the game (pressured) and how the company handles it’s customers (bad by trying to trick them). It’s indeed the same as there “limited time offer like the mini hippo calf or the infinite gathering tools. Here’s your window of opportunity, act now or regret not acting later.”

And they where all just as bad and I did say similar things about that.

timmyf.1490:

Devata.6589:

They do not have to limit item items to get people to buy if there focus for income is not a F2P model but a B2P model so the main income will come from expansions.

1) I don’t like that minis are going away
2) So release paid expansions instead of giving us free content

I don’t see how these things are related? Even if they sell you a boxed expansion, they still won’t give you the minis for free. And if you just took your $15/month or whatever, bought gems, and converted to gold, you could have the minis and plenty left over.

“And if you just took your $15/month or whatever, bought gems, and converted to gold, you could have the minis and plenty left over.” and now here is somebody who seems to think I am asking for a P2P model. Really time to go to bed and rewrite it tomorrow.

But to answer the question how it is related. Well it’s not “not liking that they go away” it’s “me not liking what the F2P model does, and part of that is taking this away”.

When they got money with expansion they might indeed give them for free.. well I would have paid for them with the expansion (nothing is free) and you would be able to collect them from the world. But it’s the model thats the problem (I do not like what is does to the game) and that same model is the reason they take away that mini-pack. Just as it’s that same model that can be blamed for time-gated contend, temporary content, P2W items like the infinite continue coin, temporary available items, presents for gem-buyers and so on.

And thats what this topic was about. I tent to take one example to build my topic around but that does not seem to work here so much.

Simon.3106:

Look here, “dood” (hehe), you don’t need to purchase anything from Gem store to look awesome… Take me for instance.

I seem to have been saying thinks I can remember. Some other guy said mini’s are not required you say you don’t need to buy items and yet I can not remember saying any of those things.

The admin seems to thinks it has something to do with the black lion trading company.

Time to go to bed and make a clearer topic tomorrow.

Lexandro.1456:

Wait, how exactly do mini’s which do absolutely nothing other than run around your feet have any bearing on the actual game?

The game is B2P, you can get EVERY single bit of content in the game for in game gold. Yes its true you can. There is NOTHING in the gem store that actively forces you to purchase it to progress content. There is nothing in the gem store you cannot get by simply playing the game.

How is this in anyway related to a F2P model which actively requires you to purchase content to progress your class, or purchase access to BiS gear, or require you to purchase accesss to level up beyond an arbitrary level, or that requires you to purchase different “races” just to change character type?

In short it doesnt have any relation whatsoever to F2P.

I already answered this in my last reaction and in the original topic but will be more specific to your question here. A F2P model means your main income comes from the cash-shop. A P2P model means your main income comes from subscription and a B2P model means your main income comes from box-sales (the original game and expansions).

The idea that a game is only F2P if it’s basically is B2W (your explanation in short) is flawed. Many F2P games are B2W but that by itself does not make it F2P. Where the main income comes from and so where the company puts it focus makes the business-model.

There business if focus around… makes business-model.

GW2 has it focus now on the cash-shop, you can also see that in many ways and so this game uses a F2P business model. The name F2P is simply evolved that way because games that are free to play nearly always try to make there money with the cash-shop but it’s just a name. The fact that you buy a game does not make the business model not focusing on cash-shop… so being the F2P business model.

So in short. GW2 uses a f2p business model but next to that they also ask money to buy the game.

Ping.5739:

you realize this game is b2p not f2p right?

i believe you mean sub2p?

I already give answer in my first post on this reaction because I knew it would come. The fact that you buy this game does not make it a B2P game meaning it use a B2P business model. The game at this moment uses a F2P business model but you are also required to buy it.

Just like WoW uses the P2P business model but also requires you to buy the game. People don’t say WoW is a B2P game they say it’s a P2P game.

Funny the topic has been moved to Black Lion Trading Co because it would better fit the subject. While related it for sure does not better fit this subject. Reason might be that less people get into this sub-thread. Please move it back. It does not belong here, the discussion about the payment model (subject of this topic) does belong in the discussion section, not in a sub-thread thats part of the F2P model.

DusK.3849:

I wasn’t aware you need minis to play this game.

I hope I can do Arah or Tequatl with the minis I got without gems.

Hmm I wasn’t aware I (or anybody else) did say that they are required. But if you make the conclusion I did say that then I make my sincerest apologies for that. No, minis are not required to play this game. Nor are weapon-skins and many other items in the gem-store.

And even better, it has nothing to do with the matter of the subject.

Bloodstealer.5978:

Huh.. so seeing a gem store purchase that, by your own admission has been in the game since like the start, is being taken out of sale you felt compelled to whine about the business model of the game.
If this was so important an item to you, then you have had plenty of time to buy it… kinda like going into a shop in January seeing something you like then coming back in December to find its no longer on sale…..

You forget, this isn’t a game to ANET its a business and one that is required to find revenue streams… so things come and things go and things can change at the drop of the hat.
Some MMO that have gone F2P leave everything in the shop but as now stuff comes in the pages become cluttered and players don’t like to have to wade through endless lists of stuff to get to where they want.
Whether you like it or not F2P is the the platform that drives GW2.. we want content and we want fluff.. expansions are longer time scale workings and to do that requires the game to keep churning a profit out… somewhere (soon I hope) I guess an expansion will be forthcoming in the meantime to keep us all happy they have promised quick turnaround content patching and so far they have kept their word, buggy as it may be most of the time, but imagine GW2 if it kept the same tradional content turnaround… 3-6 months – with new MMO’s, expansions etc coming out all around them they need carrots to dangle in front of us so refreshing gemstore and LS patches are how they choose to do it until such a time as they push out something bigger.

Remember, either way no one is forcing you to spend money on gems or gemstore items but your view on F2P is your own and I don’t share it… and I still an avid monthly subber in the same MMO I have played since beta many,many moons ago.
You bought GW2 knowing that aside from the boxsale there would be a gemstore to purchase stuff.. who are you to now suddenly demand ANET do as you say anyway.

First of all it’s not whining. Your reactions on my topics comes closer to whining if you ask me.

No it’s not this one thing they take away it’s the many things they have been doing and now they also start removing the good things.. as it was good because it was permanent.

This is not a normal shop. Normal shops will keep the product until it is sold out but digital items are never sold out.

“You forget, this isn’t a game to ANET its a business and one that is required to find revenue streams…” Where do I forget that. Pretty sure it’s the whole thing I talk about. And I say they use the wrong business model for there business. They use a F2P business model while they should be using a B2P business model.
“players don’t like to have to wade through endless lists of stuff to get to where they want.” thats the worse excuse I have ever seen. Then make a filter for those people.. Filter on items added in the last months, 3 months, half year, year. There you go, easy solution for your excuse to remove items.

“who are you to now suddenly demand ANET do as you say anyway.” You may call me Devata and I am telling (or as you like demanding) this ever since the F2P model became more obvious. Yes I know they had a gem-store and that by itself is no problem. I also know they ask money for there product making it seem to be a B2P product. The business model they became big with.

And for the record.. they where not planning an expansion (thats because they get there money in another way), after many complains they are now reconsidering it but to be honest, it would be pretty rude if they continue with this F2P focus on the gem-store and also ask money for an expansion so if they keep doing this they might as well keep to there plan to never have an expansion. But I would prefer switching focus from the cash-shop to expansions as income and then I would have no problem paying for that expansion.

Xcom.1926:

You do know they have to make money right? If people are not spending as much they almost have to change the cash shop so they spend. People don’t like to spend money so they have to do limited time offers.

Yes, as you could have read in my post I say they should make money with a B2P model. That means a focus on box-sales and that includes the sales of expansions.

They do not have to limit item items to get people to buy if there focus for income is not a F2P model but a B2P model so the main income will come from expansions.

Absconditus.6804:

unless you were lucky enough to be there that is.

I was there, We did see the ArenaNet employee and we almost talked to her to ask where the GW2 stand was (turned out they did not have one this year) but figured we would find it on our own (she just entered a building we left so then we had to rush after here in the crowd to ask where the stand was).

Then we come home and find out about Mr Sparkles.

But I can make it better. Last year they gave ingame GW2 T-shirts. We where there but they stopped giving it out because… here it comes… that would be unfair as not everybody would get the same change for getting it.

Eventually some fan-sites got the possibility to give some away, I did sign up on the contest to get one but mist out on it. So there you have it. 2 times taken the time and will to go / search for there stand and never got anything. Now I don’t mind it if they do not give anything but the way they do it is really bad. Well maybe Mr sparkles will be available next year again (that would then at least be a good decision) and for sure that we will ask an Anet employee for it next year if Anet will be there next year.

tolunart.2095:

Devata.6589:

GW2 should focus on expansions for income so there is no more need for this sort of bad behavior. Bad behavior because imo it is purely based on getting a profit at the expense of the customer in stead of trying to get money by working together with the customer. For the record, there is nothing wrong with a company trying to make money from the customer or every trying to get filthy rich, they have my go on that, it’s the way you do that and the quality effect it has on the product. They try to trick you into buying instead of really creating something you would simply buy without this trick.

So, Anet should settle for making $10 mil once a year instead of making $2 mil per month?

I think the total income would be about the same, most likely even higher because the people that spend a lot of money on gems will still do so also without heavy marketing tricks. They will pay some less and other people might not buy anything at all but the gem-store would then also be nothing more as a extra.

That is if you would keep the gem-store. Looking at how company’s handle then as customer you might not trust them with it and prefer to have no cash-shop at all.. but lets amuse that with focus on other income they make a good cash-shop with just some fun items permanently available and no focus on it.

Besides that the game stays hot because expansions will get people back and get more attention in the (game)news. Active players and new players will buy the expansions and so on.

Another big plus is that you alienate way less people meaning you have a longer live spawn. But while I think they might make the same or maybe even more lets say they make a little less (per year)

So should they then settle for 22 mil per year (over a live-spawn of lets say 5 year) in stead of 2 mil per month (over a live-spawn of lets say 12 years). Yes they should. They will have a better name as a company, they create a better product,, the customers are not being tricked and the game brings in money for a longer time.

The heavier the focus on the cash-shop the more they might make in the short run (your month) but the shorter the life-spawn.

Behellagh.1468:

Well they use a Cash Shop model for continuing income but the game doesn’t have all the travesty for a pure F2P game like MapleStory. We aren’t excessively short changed by inventory space or even outfits (although that is arguable) and the quests aren’t excessive grinding. We grind for other reasons but not to just complete the quests. Areas or classes aren’t gated off as they are in some games that moved from subscription to hybrid F2P. We have it quite good here.

But the game does need to bring in a relatively constant stream of income. So it’s only natural that things that sell well once will have “sequels”. It could be a new armor set that related to a LW arc or simply more pets. And isn’t it better to have a separate item for new pets than simply add it to the drop table for old ones? You have all the old ones, you aren’t interested in getting more of those, just the new ones.

Your point Devata seems more in line with the pro expansion/anti Living World crowd rather than pro or anti cash shop crowd, but I can see how one can overlap the two.

Adding a new item is not the problem, removing the old one (to create a form of pressure to buy) is.

And it is not so much as expansion versus Living World but B2P vs F2P And yes B2P would mean a focus on expansion and Anet uses there living story as a ‘cover’ for there temporary sales but they could use multiple other systems for that. However the Expansions vs Living story is also about the sort of content while I am purely talking about the financial viewpoint and it’s impact on the game.

Like you say, they need to generate a constant stream of income. I totally do understand that and thats not the problem but if you do that in a way that effects the game in a bad way then thats the problem.

AntiGw.9367:

People bandy around many things, including nobodies like Athene, Kripparian etc.

At least Extra credit made a coherent and enjoyable video that makes a valid point.

Yet it did not really address the bad behavior we see in GW2. And fact is that there is almost no F2P game that does not seem to be affected by this ‘bad behavior’. Now if it is next to a other payment model it might work (I did see some fair credit shop in sub-based games for example). But as soon as there focus is F2P they always tent to get into the bad behavior. The reason most likely is because a game that focuses on P2P or B2P has it’s marketing team also focusing on that while a F2P game has it’s marketing team focusing on the credit shop so they come up with idea’s to improve those sales but that are always idea’s that have an effect on the game itself and so are nearly always bad for the game.

The hard reality might be that customers simply can not trust company’s on creating a good credit shop when that credit shop has the focus (and maybe even when it has no focus).

B2P is the way to go if you ask me but for as long as people get tricked into buying gems companies seem to prefer that (and sub-based). However for a model thats good for the game, the company and the customer you really want B2P (and then not DLC except for big expansions because DLC is also a from of extra content for credit).

I just posted this topic: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Please-use-a-B2P-model-instead-of-a-F2P-model/first#post2860616
and then I saw this one. Have a read at my topic and then you might understand why.

GW2 is using a F2P model meaning they will try to get people to buy gems as that is now there main source of income. They know that some people like to collect some items. Maybe all mini’s maybe all items belonging to some event, so they do this simply because they know people want that one mini and because they hope that in this way people will buy gems.

GW2 should focus on expansions for income so there is no more need for this sort of bad behavior. Bad behavior because imo it is purely based on getting a profit at the expense of the customer in stead of trying to get money by working together with the customer. For the record, there is nothing wrong with a company trying to make money from the customer or every trying to get filthy rich, they have my go on that, it’s the way you do that and the quality effect it has on the product. They try to trick you into buying instead of really creating something you would simply buy without this trick.

Edit: I will make a new topic tomorrow that might be clearer as some people do not seem to understand the issue.

I just saw this message: “Leaving Soon: Minis 3-Pack Set 1” and that was what eventually triggered this post, however I did already address it in other topics.

One of the worst things that we have been seeing in GW2 is the introducing of limited time aivilible content, no mather if that where the living story or the gem-store items.

Now in stead of stopping with that bad F2P tactic you guys are also removing the ones that where permanent.

Why is it that of all changes made in GW2 since release 10% has been for the good and 90% have been for the bad.

Well let me answer my own question.. because this game started pretty much as a B2P game and became more and more a F2P game. Yes you still buy the game but that by itself does not make it a B2P game, just like we say WoW a sub-based game. It has to do with what business model the company uses (not just if you buy a game or not).

One of the main reasons (for me) to buy GW2 is because it was a B2P game and it proved to be loyal with that in GW1. GW1 was not my game but the business model has always had my attention. Now ever since release of GW2 this game because more more more F2P and many of the bad changes in the game can be directly linked to that business model just like removing these mini’s now.

From a game viewpoint (is it good for the game?) there is not 1 good excuse to remove them. From a F2P payment model viewpoint however it makes a lot of sense. They hope people will buy them now and they will bring this set back later available for a limited time “his is your last chance to buy the 3-pack booster outside of limited special event sales.” so they should also bring up more. Or at least that is what they hope. They hope that they can trick (yes that what it is) people into buying it.

I will never buy any gem for money because that obviously provokes bad behavior for the financial team behind GW2 (and probably any other game). In that way cash-shops seem to be kryptonite for games.

So I would like to ask Anet to please change there business model from a F2P model that focuses on cash-shop income back to a B2P game that focuses on expansions for income. That should also solve most of the problems in the games. I could address all those bad changes (like time-gates / temporary content) but most of them will simply resolve eventually when moving to a B2P model. Bring all temporary stuff permanently back and focus on qualitative good expansion for income.

Players who do see many of these problems should also be aware for the reason. Buying gems to get that limited available items will not help you because there will be some new item a few weeks from now you want. If you like to collect them all best is to not collect any of them as that is the only way GW2 might become a good B2P game without the bad influence of the F2P payment model.

zeromius.1604:

Time gating is what keeps grind in check. If it weren’t there then people who have more time and money than everyone else would get their gear long before everyone else. Basically, the complaints would be far more numerous. As for the grind itself, it’s there for people who have too much time on their hands. It’s similar to gold sinks such as 20 slot bag runes, cultural armor, gem store items, and the commander tag. They’re meant for people with too much money in their hands. When you look at things from a different perspective it all makes sense.

People with more (ingame) money still get there gear faster and it is no problem that people with more time get it faster.

Besides that, with the temporary stuff people with less time might miss out totally on some of the gear.

“the commander tag” WAS there for people who wanted to command a group.. like guild-leaders. By now so many people have it that it became useless but that was what is was for. You could get that 100 gold together pretty easy if you worked together with a guild and else it used to be very hard to get it.

So it does not make sense. And it is also very bad game design. Time gated and temporary content is not something you want in your game it destroys your game.

The only way it does make sense is from a marketing viewpoint when you want to make money fast and have no long-term goal. It will get people to log in and buy gems until they get burned out buy the game. Even if the game misses content that keeps people playing (end-content) then time-gated and temporary content will get people to log in and buy gems for some time.

Personally I see MMORPG’s as long term games so then this sort of content is bad. But maybe investors see MMORPS’s more and more and short time money makers.

TexRob.5183:

The only reason this thread isn’t longer is because you either love or hate SAB. People who see SAB as a break, probably aren’t as annoyed by the pace right now.

I do like SAB still I see it as a break because it’s not a living story patch. So basically we do not have a Living story patch this week. Needles to say that in that way it’s the best patch in a long way. But that does not mean you are suddenly not annoyed by the pace because they have one patch in-between that isn’t a living sotory patch. If Anet has not changed is mind next week the next living story patch is released.

Esquilax.3491:

I log in every few weeks for a break from other games, and I’m welcomed and greeted by some new content to explore, have fun with and then move on.

If a living story would take longer but have no achivements / rewards and then would end with leaving a big chunk of new temporary content including rewards and achivements and so on then you would also have stuff to do after your return. First few times you ‘return’ you will need to do the new content because you can not finish that is a short time and then later there will be complete new content.

So I am not sure why you disagree because the thinks you say in favorite would still be there with a better system.

But if people really want Anet to stop with this it might be getter to complain about the F2P model they are now following because thats the reason for this sort of bad decisions. Even if they would stop with the living story (like it is now) they will add something else in stead just as bad because they need to pressure people to log in and buy gems and it is that pressure that people do not like.

Daddicus.6128:

For those who have said ANet is just using it as a way to garner more real money purchases from the BLTC, I’m not sure I agree. And, even if I did, I can’t fault them for it, because it’s where their only long-term revenue stream will come from.

(Unless Coke or Pepsi billboards start appearing in Lion’s Arch.)

However, even goodies in the BLTC don’t require new content. How about a mining pick that miners found deep in a Molten Alliance cave that’s now abandoned? Heck, there were those periscope things shooting at you weeks after the event was over (which was a nice touch, IMO).

“I can’t fault them for it, because it’s where their only long-term revenue stream will come from.” Thats funny because my complains eventually leading up to these complains started with complaining about them needing this sort of revenue. When they said they had no focus on expansions I got worried and we already saw more and more of this sort tactics being used in the game.

GW2 should be B2P so based on expansions. Not F2P running on these sort of marketing tricks. There only (or main) long-term revenue should come from expansions. But is it now already coming from a F2P business model.

CharrGirl.7896:

Randulf.7614:

Flame and Frost had all the makings of a decent story, but was too spaced out. Now we have too short, too rushed stories without meaning or explanation. A story takes as long as it needs to be told.

If they took all short stories they release on the front page and implemented them in the actual updates in form of some kind of cinematics or similar, it would be much easier to understand and follow the general storyline.

Take Scarlet’s story for example. I think it’s great. But you don’t see any of that in game.

Imagine if they took their time and told the story in form of artistic cinematic. How much better these little stories would be…

The problem is. It should be one big story like we saw with the first one (That still wasn’t like I would like it to be (see me fist comment) but at least it was an unfolding story) but this are like you say yourself little stories. cinematics or not. And the achievements / rewards en temporay nature make them feel like a job.

The only stories I understood where the first two. Flame and Frost and “The Secret of Southsun” Well sort of that last one. I know how we found that island from some time before that and I know that in the meanwhile we build settlements and now we dropped the refugees there. What was going on there with attacking mobs is not really clear.

The other stories..? Some people attacked us, then some other people attacked us, then somebody died, then somebody needed to replace the dead person and then some witch came along and attacked us with the people who attacked us before. Oow yeah and meanwhile some people that life in flying ships came by to trade goods. Thats about right but I can’t say it’s really an nice unfolding story where i was part of.

Vayne.8563:

Devata.6589:

Yes did did see this phrase being used more lately but not to justification everything from wanting to farm 24/7 to wanting rewards for little more than logging on. It’s true that Anet removes all form of farming (look now at SAB) and that people don’t like it but this phrase is not mainly used when people complain about the ascended gear. The highest level and so most important gear in the game and it can only be created with crafting so if you do not like that one aspect of the game well then to bad for you. And thats why people complain about it and refer to Anets statement about play the way you want. They want the ascended gear also available in other ways. Chest from JP, drops from dungeons and so on. So people who prefer JP’s can get them, people who like dungeons can get them and so on and indeed people who like crafting can also get them. Just like it was with the expansion.

Personally I don’t care that much because for now it’s not very useful anyway but in the near future it might become a requirement and I so dislike crafting in GW2 that I haven’t even 1 char with 1 craft over 200 (and I have the game since pre-release). Meaning that if I want to get that level of gear I am now forced to spend a few hours leveling all crafts be some boring dragging en clicking.

Funny thing is. In other MMO’s that I played crafting was my main thing. Nearly all MMO’s have fun-crafts that let you create fun things. There are game where you can make fun items (most known will be WoW with engineering) or where you can breed you own mounts and so on. Doing that usually sends you all over the world because you need specific items or recipes and meanwhile it also lets you level your other crafts because you need some items from them as well. Every time you are looking forward to that next cool item you can craft. Crafting in GW2 is a grind until level 400 / 500 so you can finally create that thing that you want / need.

When I am bored some day I will just follow some guide to get me to the max levels so thats why I don’t care so much but I do understand why people complain about it.

Surprisingly I agree. I don’t personally mind the crafting and I think crafting in this game needed something to give it a boost, but this isn’t the way to do it.

I’m not personally upset with how it is, because it’s no big deal for me to craft. But I can see why others would be upset about it.

Well it’s nice that we sometimes also agree with each other.

colesy.8490:

Yup, “play how you want” is probably the worst thing ANet ever said.

People constantly use it as a way to excuse players who run weak builds, weak gear or aren’t willing to learn encounters.

Thats not really the “play how you want” phrase they use for those discussions. What Anet also said that because they removed the holy trinity they would give the player an option to do all taks and so you could get al sort of builds / groups. However at this moment there are just a few builds that everybody wants (beserker) and for dungeons people mainly want warriors, guardians and elementalist.

You talk about excuse for a weak build but they say.. there should not be something like a weak build or a weak class. Everything should have it’s own advantages. The weak build problem however you have in all mmo’s. Many mmo’s have many ways to build your char and it always ends in just one to max 3 builds that everybody uses because they are superior to the rest. And the removal of the holy trinity did just the contrary of what they said. In stead of making more mixed combination it became less mixed combinations. I don’t think removing the holy trinity was a bad thing. It was fresh idea that could have worked the problem is that they took it out, gave everybody all possibilities and that was it and that failed. What they should have done was giving every class very unique but also very useful abilities that would mean that every class was superior is his own way and so they where are useful so not required in good fights / dungeons. But thats not what happened.

Just for the record. While I think Anet could have done that better I do not care that much about it. It’s just to explain to you why people complain about ‘weak’ builds.

Yes I did see this phrase being used more lately but not to justification everything from wanting to farm 24/7 to wanting rewards for little more than logging on. It’s true that Anet removes all forms of farming (look now at SAB) and that people don’t like it but this phrase is now mainly used when people complain about the ascended gear. The highest level and so most important gear in the game and it can only be created with crafting, so if you do not like that one aspect of the game well then to bad for you. And thats why people complain about it and refer to Anets statement about play the way you want. They want the ascended gear also available in other ways. Chest from JP’s, drops from dungeons and so on. So people who prefer JP’s can get them, people who like dungeons can get them and so on and indeed people who like crafting can also get them. Just like it was with the exotics.

So it’s not what you say “you could achieve absolutely any goal by doing whatever you want”. They do not talk about every specific weapon or skin or title. It go’s about a whole level of gear (now weapon gear but armor is also coming). Take the part you dislike most in this game and imagine you need to do that to get the ascended gear level or for that matter that you need to do that to level up. Thats about the same idea.

Personally I don’t care that much because for now it’s not very useful anyway but in the near future it might become a requirement and I so dislike crafting in GW2 that I haven’t even 1 char with 1 craft over 200 (and I have the game since pre-release). Meaning that if I want to get that level of gear I am now forced to spend a few hours leveling all crafts.. some boring dragging en clicking.

Funny thing is. In other MMO’s that I played crafting was my main thing. Nearly all MMO’s have fun-crafts that let you create fun things. There are games where you can make fun items (most known will be WoW with engineering) or where you can breed you own mounts and so on. Doing that usually sends you all over the world because you need specific items or recipes and meanwhile it also lets you level your other crafts because you need some items from them as well. Every time you are looking forward to that next cool item you can craft. Crafting in GW2 is a grind until level 400 / 500 so you can finally create that thing that you want / need.

When I am bored some day I will just follow some guide to get me to the max levels so thats why I don’t care so much but I do understand why people complain about it.

Mortifer.2946:

I agree with OP. Doing this living story feels more like job because there are deadlines. And nobody wanna miss it.

Untill you have missed something our you are burned out and then you don’t care at all anymore. Then you leave the game.

They focus on the “And nobody wanna miss it.” part. This ensures them that people will log in and also spend gems because there is also a lot of temporary content related to the living story patches (buy it not or miss out on it). And that tactic works for a few months but in the end it alienates a lot of people. It are basic marketing tricks they use but most likely they have an incompetent marketing team as they do what they learn from the books but fail to so what the consequences are (in this case) on a longer run. Or they might simply have no long time goal for GW2. It’s all a show, they are now trying to fill the pockets and then leave it to die. Thats also an option.. if thats what they want they have a very competent marketing team.

Raine.1394:

The pace is ridiculously too fast. And, it is all at the expense of an evolving permanent world, deeper storytelling, less buginess, and general game polish and balance. My plea from the beginning was to move to a longer development cycle. Rather than longer, they moved from 1 month to two weeks. As a software developer myself it’s silly on the face of it. And, we are witnessing a negative now that I didn’t articulate and that’s burnout. I’m feeling it myself. I’d like to just relax and play for awhile without all the stuff with a perceived need to do. And this would be the time-gated achievements that go away if you don’t do them now. Imagine an evolving living world that was permanent and the achievements didn’t go away every couple weeks. That would be a player-oriented MMO and one that I would love to play.

In there defense and to get your facts right. They did move to a longer development cicle. They when from 1 small team to 4 bigger teams so while they moved from 1 month to 2 weeks the development cycles became bigger. Thats also why you see that the patches have become bigger. But this however does not solve the problem… it makes it worse.

A lot of content but temporary. a list to do. People burn out very fast like this.

Temporary / time-gated content is always bad.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Per Colin’s Pax interview, its not one or the other. We will see both.

Side Note: Anyone else notice that anytime we ask about an expansion, they tell us they aren’t ‘focused’ on one, and then point out that they have ‘big projects in the background’ that they aren’t ready to talk about yet?

So you think they are focused on it in secret. Well I don’t think they are because there whole business plan seems to have shifted to F2P. Strong focus on gem-store and using marketing techniques trying to get people to buy gems and making the game worse in the progress.

If they would continue like this and start selling expansions it would be simply asocial. You pay with expansions or you go for a F2P game where you can expect this sort of bad marketing tricks ingame. They should simply drop the F2P plan and go back to B2P so expansions. In the meanwhile they can still have a living story but that would that not look as it does now.. it would most likely be much better because the focus of it is “make a good living story” instead of “make sure people log in and buy gems”.

Expansions but then they should also stop there F2P tactic / gem-store focus they now have. Thats destroying the game.

Snowshadow.3105:

Is GW2 shifting its target group? from casual gamers to hardcore gamers?

One of the most important reasons why I and most of my friends bought this game, is that we thought it was a game not specifically designed for hardcore gamers, but also for casual gamers, that play the game only at the weekend or sometimes after we come home from work. But the recent development of the game makes it nearly impossible for casual players to “keep up” with the other players. I’m going to list a few points that heavily disadvantage casual players in my opinion, hoping to call some attention to the problem. There are a lot of changes that discourage casual gamers:

- Introduction of the ascended gear:
It all started with the fractals which lead to the first ascended equipment available in the game. This first equipment was only available for players that play the fractals quite often. In my opinion too often, because searching for a group in your level became harder and harder the following weeks. I know they fixed part of the problem, but then came the rest of the gear. Assuming, you still hadn’t been able to get to fractals level 10, you got a new possibility of getting the ascended gear, dailies. This – again – kind of solved the problem for players with only one character, so they were at least able to get the best possible equip on one character in about half a year playtime. (I know it’s possible to get it faster, but it’s really hard to do so. I just don’t have time to do them every day.) Let’s not even talk about the stuff you need guild points for and the problems involved with it regarding smaller guilds. Just some days ago, I was able to get the rest of my ascendant gear, even though I’ve been playing this game since it was released. I am still missing the overpriced back piece though.

Yesterday a new patch introduced yet another set of ascended gear. This time it’s getting really ridiculous. You need more than 100Gold to level one profession up to 500 before you can see which resources you need for the gear. I don’t even want to think about the next update that introduces the rest of the stuff.
All this in a game where the developers said there won’t be an item progression system so all players are equally equipped and it’s a skill based game.
I’m really getting tired of trying to get the best equipment in order to keep up with other players, just to realize by now my stuff is outdated once again. Why do I even want to keep up with the other players you might ask? See the point below.

Maybe it shifts no none-existing players? The temporary content is bad for hardcore players because they want to get all there achievements and thats impossible now for anybody with a life (there are many HC players with a life). And for casual it is bad because they also mis out on a lot of stuff. The only group who it is not bad for is for those who really don’t care about it.

The ascended gear has two problems. IT requires crafting and while I loved crafting in some other mmo’s.. loving meaning it was the main thing I did I don’t like it at all in GW2. It’s a boring grind to level 400 now 500 and then you can make what you need. In other mmo’s they usually have some sort of fun craft that rewards you at every level with some fun items and are linked to the none-fun crafts so you level them in the meanwhile. So you have fun leveling. Before not liking crafting was no problem but now it is.
Another problem is the time-gated part of it. Temporary / time-gated content is bad for every game and about every player.

Hamartia.3421:

My thoughts:

5 week releases. First part for two weeks, second part for three weeks.

One week off in-between.

This gives each Living Story time TWO FULL WEEKS extra to do work, while making us appreciate Living Story content more since we get a week to relax and breathe.

So you like to get to do list in a game that have a time-limit on them? Looks like work instead of a game.

Daddicus.6128:

Wow, I seem to have touched a nerve.

Well, maybe they’ll see it and correct things.

From what I see, they need a few things absolutely:

First, slower content-ending stuff. In other words, go ahead and start them as often as you like (although I recommend less often), but allow us to at least follow the content through before throwing them into the furnace.

I couldn’t get both achievements for the election because there simply wasn’t enough time; I had started later in the cycle. So, by the time I realized there was limited time, there weren’t enough days left to finish.

Besides, who ever heard of a congressional election lasting only a month?

Second, let us know if the loot that was special to that content period will become worthless or not. How many of you have stacks of candy canes, but no way to spend them? Sure, we could have recipes that use them. But, those recipes were only available during the Halloween content changes.

I’m glad that my leftover gaming tokens will get put to use. But, I’m saddened to know that the other loot I received last time WOULD BE useful, if I hadn’t purged them. :p

Finally, find ways to get us interested in the actual storylines. I had absolutely no time to study the storylines of the Lion’s Arch stuff, because I couldn’t even keep up with the missions. That stuff would have been very interesting, but we were never given the chance.

Well it’s not really a new nerve you hit. This sort of complains are coming for multiple months now. And looking at the overall reactions you are not in the minority but the majority.

About Anet fixing it. After many complains for a long time Anet did react on it in this interview http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/2585362 saying they would change it. That however turned out to be a lie. Two days later they showed what was coming for the next half year and that was more time-gated content. (What is really the same as temporary content) also politics was released and then removed after two weeks and the following patches where once again the same sort of temporary non-content.

Reason for this sort of content seems to be (imo) that GW2 went from B2P to F2P. Now they want to focus on cash-shop in stead of income from expansions meaning they need to give people reasons to buy stuff. Every patch also has temporary gem-items linked to it and we even saw some B2W. For example with the politics there was a gem-item to get more votes and now for the SAB they created a mode that is not based on skill but trial and error. Meaningeverybody can do it, you just need a lot of tries and what do we see, an infinite count in the gem-store. Anyway enough about the reason behind the discussion.

It does not feel like a living world but like a list of achievements we get trying to pressure us in logging in and buying gems. Works on the short run does not work on the long run and that ‘long run’ is not so very long we are already at the end of that.

What the living story should be is more like we saw with the first Living story patch but without achievement linked to it. We really saw a story unfolding with the refugees. That should build up but never have rewards or achievements linked to it and it should end in a way that we did see with the the lost shores event (without the bugs). That event should then reveal new permanent content (like a new map but that is not a must. Other sort of permanent content is also fine) with achievements, rewards and so on. Then you really have a story going on leading up to content and nobody has to miss out.. well maybe the event that happens you mis but you might be able to see that back. There are then no achievements or rewards you miss out.