It’s not at all suprising. GW2 is based around a crafting materials economy, and expects all players noncombat play to be involved in that aspect of the game. It doesn’t have systems for crafters to turn crafting in to income, but rather assumes everyone is crafting everything (because they let you do that easily), and that the base materials are all of the value.
In addition, because everyone has easy access to crafting, adding craftable rewards without requiring them to be crafted would just make crafting, and thus the economy redundant and a waste of time.
Anet wants everyone to craft, and always has. It’s the most reliable source of stats, and is extremely quick to do for that reason. The entire ingame economy is built around it on purpose, and as a result new rewards will always include some crafting.
If you’re not a crafter, however, the LS rewards being account bound is a huge problem. I believe anet should stop making every single thing account bound, allowing players who choose not to craft to benefit from the crafting economy of new rewards by selling things. Not being able to sell geodes, keys, or recipies doesn’t encourage people to play content, it forces them to. That’s a perfect implementation for time limited content, but for permanent content it’s bad for the overall longevity of new zones.
I am a crafter in other games, but I found that its simply not necessary in GW2. Its not necessary for leveling and I have no expectation of crafting Ascended or Legendaries given the grind. So the only crafting I really do is Master for Dailies on my Artificer.
Anyway, I’d just like a little more variety. In Dry Top literally every item on the Merchant is a recipe except keys and junk bags.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
For those who don’t want to run about like crazy trying to get to all the bone minions, you don’t have to. Every time I tried to run to the next bone minion to get the wolf, I would get there in time for the minion to die. So I stayed in one spot and waited for the wolf right when it appeared. Took a long time to down the boss this way but I wasn’t frantically running around at least.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I’m really glad that Anet is looking into what can be done about this. But throughout the past year+ of the Living Story there have been a large number of issues for which the question has been “why didn’t they consider this before implementing the Living Story and create a solution for it then”? And most of these questions seem very obvious.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I get the by-play between Rox and Taimi, actually. Rox was there ‘first’ and I get the distinct impression that she’s just a touch jealous of Taimi bulldozing her way in (and let’s face it, she did). I think she’s a tad insecure and may be worried that Braham may like / prefer / whatever Taimi to her, company / friend wise. In short, she’s not big on sharing her friend’s attention with the kid.
What I want to know is why, as the ‘boss’, I’m reporting to a freaking child. Asura she may be, but child she remains. She should not be calling the shots.
I completely agree. Taimi is actually making me start to dislike the Living Story. I would never interact with her the way they are writing. And I can’t imagine that any adult who is strong enough to do what my character has done would either.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
Well, you’re in luck, my friend. There’s a feature in the game perfect for people like you who crave more difficulty, which allows you to tweak the difficulty so that the game is harder!
It’s called unequipping your gear.
No, Anet should definitely cater to individuals instead of the 99.99% rest of their customers. LOL
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
they did the same thing in GW1, instead of having animations appropriate to the situation all they used are basic animations.
i would actually like to see an option for more animations, not just idle but also walking/running ones. (not just NPC’s but also players)
take the running animation of the sylvari for instance, it’s like they can’t get forward without swinging their arms like an idiot…
Yep, Sylvari are children instead of serious adventurers. If there were two sets of character animations, “common” NPCs could have the current animations and “serious adventurer” NPCs and PCs could have the more serious animations.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I completely agree and the NPCs are obviously using the same animations that all characters have. So I would suggest that a “serious adventurer” version of idle animations be added for all characters which the developers can choose for serious NPCs. The upside is that those of us who prefer our characters to be serious adventurers could also choose that set of animations for our Player Characters as well!
In addition to idle animations, the NPC comments that they make when you click on them are also inappropriate. Several times I am asked to talk to Marjory in both Episodes and she makes provocative comments each time.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
The point is not that you can’t find material about LS1. The point is that there is nowhere in-game that you are told about previous events as a new character. You just get dumped into LS2 as though you know everything that went before already.
Another thing that the developers should have thought out before they implemented the Living Story is how new players were going to be introduced to it after it already started.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I would have liked that too.
In a way I’m beginning to hate these Living World episodes.
Everything is just about killing the bad guys and stopping things getting worse.
No way of actually helping things to get better.
Festival of the Four Winds was based around raising funds for Lion’s Arch.
Honestly, it’d be ridiculous if the “heroes” of the game were running around picking up garbage in Lion’s Arch when there’s (potentially) a dragon about to make things worse.
No one can fight 24/7. Troops IRL are given furloughs to take a break from active combat. And many “heroes” like to help the needy when they are taking a break. So I think its a great idea.
LA has become so disorganized and hard to get around. Everyone I know prefers to go to some other main city to do stuff instead of LA.
We’re not troops.
We’re people trying to prevent potential world destruction and stop vines that are a very real, very immediate threat.
If you’d take a break from saving the entire world just to go kick around a city and pick up some garbage in the streets, then I’d like to vote you out of the running for being a hero.
Its called an “analogy”. And boy, a little serious aren’t you? Chill.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
Boneheart’s right, I spend most of mine on lockpicks. That said, this game pretty much does expect you to master crafting. It’s not that hard and is basically just a money sink, one which they’d rather everyone dump gold into.
One thing I hate about some MMOs is how they weight their rewards toward only one aspect of the game, essentially forcing anyone who wants a reward to take part in that one aspect. LotRO weights its rewards toward housing even though the majority of players don’t have a house. GW2 weights it rewards toward crafting and minis.
I’m not interested in minis. I might use one if they didn’t disappear every time you zone, if it didn’t take up an inventory slot and if it didn’t go to the collectibles bank every time you deposit all collectibles. Yes, I know about invisible bags but I don’t carry enough items that I don’t want deposited.
And getting back to recipes – I am actually a crafter in most MMOs. But in GW2, the only real reason to craft is to sell / share food / stones or to craft Ascended / Legendaries. I have 2 80s so far and at the rate they get mats I will never craft an Ascended or Legendary. And the Dry Top recipes are bound and I don’t want to spend the time / effort to get these recipes only to craft food for my own account.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I would have liked that too.
In a way I’m beginning to hate these Living World episodes.
Everything is just about killing the bad guys and stopping things getting worse.
No way of actually helping things to get better.
Festival of the Four Winds was based around raising funds for Lion’s Arch.
Honestly, it’d be ridiculous if the “heroes” of the game were running around picking up garbage in Lion’s Arch when there’s (potentially) a dragon about to make things worse.
No one can fight 24/7. Troops IRL are given furloughs to take a break from active combat. And many “heroes” like to help the needy when they are taking a break. So I think its a great idea.
LA has become so disorganized and hard to get around. Everyone I know prefers to go to some other main city to do stuff instead of LA.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
Why are all of the items purchased with Geodes only for crafters? Only non-crafter item is a bag with a few coppers and a piece of junk gear. Is Anet trying to push people to craft for some reason?
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
Yeah, Taimi at that point ended up in her “gatlin gun fist punch position” short GGFPP, but luckily continued to work on the holograms for me.
Good girl, but bad aim.
She should not handly delicate machinery like the hulk
This happened in my instance as well but luckily didn’t bug out. Taimi was punching away while “working on the control panel”. I thought maybe they didn’t have a “working on the control panel” animation so this one was used by default lol.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
In this video you see exactly what happens: Marjory and Kas run around and tell you what to do in the beginning, but then they disappear. I guess Kas is doing something – I guess those bubbles are for you to duck into to avoid damage. But providing minions and bubbles isn’t exactly a lot of help. A actual Necro and Mesmer would be doing DPS, debuffing, buffing, etc on top of providing minions and bubbles. I’m not sure why the devs decided to do it this way except to artificially lengthen the fight. That type of thing isn’t interesting and exciting, just frustrating and boring.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I just got done with the quest. I went on top of the walls to get to the arrow cart.
On the boss fight, I believe that Marjory is supposed to be on the wall to supply you with the Bone Minions. But I don’t know what Kas is supposed to be doing. It would have been nice to have some more help.
Every time I tried to run to the next bone minion to get the wolf, I would get there in time for the minion to die. So I stayed in one spot and waited for the wolf right when it appeared. Took a long time to down the boss this way but I wasn’t frantically running around at least.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I just got done with the quest. I went on top of the walls to get to the arrow cart.
On the boss fight, I believe that Marjory is supposed to be on the wall to supply you with the Bone Minions. But I don’t know what Kas is supposed to be doing. It would have been nice to have some more help.
Every time I tried to run to the next bone minion to get the wolf, I would get there in time for the minion to die. So I stayed in one spot and waited for the wolf right when it appeared. Took a long time to down the boss this way but I wasn’t frantically running around at least.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I dislike crafting. I am willing to give my gold to those who enjoy crafting if a given desirable crafted item is tradable.
My gold is a return on time/effort invested in the game.
These weapon skins define success in the game ? Interesting take.
People who dislike crafting always make me smile.
Since I’ve leveled crafting to 500, I’ve been receiving ~2g for 1 minute of work each day. I’ve broken even in about 2 months and get an extra free dungeon run each day from that moment.
Um…if everyone crafted then no one would buy from you…
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
…for the first time in months just to see how the game is doing… I hopped into Kessex, I hopped into Cursed Shore. Guess what, all I saw were zergs. Zergs everywhere. A sea of players mindlessly beating down mobs Diablo style, which is cool in its own right but for an MMO? Im not so sure.
Is this what we consider fun now? Just being part of the blob that is beating down champs and elites? Is this engaging combat? Is this what we consider non-grindy combat? Im at range with my mesmer, and I randomly take a few ticks of damage..from what exactly? I cannot see…theres a big zerg in my face with a ton of effects going off. How can I see what is hitting me?
Seriously though, is this what people consider fun? Zero mechanic open world zerging? Im not trying to complain here, just trying to understand if this is what you all wanted and expected out of Guild Wars 2 when you purchased it.
Just curious: if you don’t like zerging, why did you do it?
For me, I could care less if people zerg or not. Barely affects my gameplay at all if I don’t want it. If I want to make a bit of money I can join a zerg for a while and when I’m tired of it I stop. Normally I go around the maps doing hearts and exploring since I have multiple alts. I keep my 80s for higher-level or more challenging content.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
A tornado has sucked up chickens. How do we deal with this? HIT IT WITH OUR SWORDS!
So… why are we not cleaving chickens in two? Why are we not being sucked in also? Why does everything in this game boil down to HIT IT WITH YOUR SWORD!?
Wouldn’t it have been better to make it an event that required some skill, such as running and catching the chickens as they are thrown from the vortex within a time limit? Every now and then it would spit out other debris such as eggs that temporarily blinded you, or pieces of chicken coop that caused bleeding?
Why not actually add some depth and reason by having different classes deal with it in a different way? By this I am not talking about just this event but all events. Give us reason to use different classes, to perform a task in a way unique to our actual choices when we made our character, rather than boil everything down into one tactic.
But no. As always… HIT IT WITH YOUR SWORD!!!
Basically, all classes in this game are treated merely as warriors, just with different ways of warring!
Omg, I so completely agree. I think it is so sad that MMOs have “kill things” as the basis for progression in the game. There are certain MMOs that gave me huge hopes for something other than killing things being a major part of progression but that didn’t happen. Sure, GW2 and some other MMOs have other activities but they don’t compete with “kill things” for XP contribution.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
i don’t mind our little NPC friends. i quite like them. i just can’t stand being referred to as “boss”, or “leader”, or any cheesy attempt to put me on a higher level. hell, even if i for some reason am their leader, don’t have it rubbed on my face all the time. i can understand kiel saying it. i don’t understand my supposed friends calling me “the boss” as if i was some mobster.
I completely agree. I especially don’t understand why I am “the boss” and yet I don’t get to make any decisions or tell anyone what to do (me personally, not the writers who might make my character perform these actions). If I am not going to make decisions or tell people what to do, I would rather just be one of the team than have this fake leadership.
my proposed alternative: this goes in hand with my other complaint (that the dialogue-heavy parts don’t really have any animations and you can picture the VAs inside their booths talking because the characters are just not moving, the fort salma scene was one such moment), but animate the NPCs more to represent who they’re talking to.
use the “turn left/right” animations to turn the character to the player (or as close to the player as you can if he’s one of those kids that keeps running around during story) or hell, just snap them (would look lame though), but make them face who they’re talking to. this would allow writers to use more second person, which in turn means using less titles.
point is, i don’t like being called boss, and i don’t like that the characters outside cutscenes are glorified dolls (you know, like when you play doll, or the boy equivalent of playing doll, you don’t really move the characters, you just use different voices).
When I started “Entanglement” in Scarlet’s room, the first time Taimi said something about “the boss” I stood there for a minute waiting for something to happen lol. I had no idea she was talking about me since no one looked at me or indicated me in any way.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
those who comprehend the game like a lobby with a character selection screen, an equipment locker, a chat and LFG, and a portals room to dungeons, farming sites, WB, and battle grounds, and
those who want an open world to stride across, possibly with some other irl contingency implemented as well.
There is nothing stopping you from striding across the world right now. I really don’t see the issue.
“We should remove all buses from the world because I prefer to ride my bike to work rather than take the bus.”
Huh? O.o
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
GW2 was not presented as a jumping game when I purchased it or when I purchased gems. Jumping is a significant part of the game, but those parts are almost entirely optional. Legendary weapons are so out of reach for me that I don’t care at all for Map Completion. Therefore I simply don’t complete the Vistas after several tries and all Jumping Puzzles.
Yes, MMOs change over time but adding jumping as a requirement to experience the general map is a huge change to mechanics that is either a physical or mental barrier for many people. It is equivalent to taking a game with optional PvP and suddenly deciding to have Open World PvP. Some of the players say “cool, a new challenge” and some say “hey, I didn’t sign up for this.”
I understand that the devs are trying to add new, fun mechanics to the game but I think they are all in the camp of the players who simply don’t understand how physically or mentally challenging constant jumping can be for some people.
Wow.
I don’t like jumping puzzles, hate’em really, but you’re making mountains out of skritt-hills.
ONE short jumping game. ONE. Four-five jumps.
Wait until today’s update. If they add another “mandatory” jump sequence, then I’ll agree with you that it’s a trend.
I don’t understand what you’re referring to. Dry Top isn’t a “jumping game”, its a map and it certainly doesn’t have only 4 or 5 jumps.
All the jumps you have to do to get to the story instances and whatnot, and even in the instances, are incredibly easy jumps, even if you’re taking the time to position yourself. It’s not like they’re making you pull the Mad Clocktower levels of the stuff, or even the Wintersday JP levels. They’re asking you to do simple levels of jumping, akin to map completing one of the starter towns.
First, I’m not talking about only the story instances, I’m talking about the world map called Dry Top. I object to having lots of jumping required to experience a part of the world (rather than optional content).
Second, yes there have are many people like you who simply are not able to understand the POV of people who have trouble with jumping or simply don’t like jumping. You telling me that its easy does not in fact make it easy. Playing an instrument is easy for some people. But there are some people who just aren’t good at music. That’s just the way life is and telling the people who aren’t good at music or who don’t like playing an instrument that they should just do it because its easy won’t make any difference.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I believe that Tier 4 is only a discount of the Tier 3 and lower items so its not really “necessary”. Tier 4 seems to need some kind of organization of the map to get the most events possible. But I call out events that I see in map chat and sometimes literally no one comes to help me with them.
And the reason you don’t get to see all the events is because then it would be easier to get to Tier 4. They want it to be a challenge.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
Regarding waiting until 80 to do Living Story, last year none of my characters were level 80 but I participated in the Living Story and didn’t have any problems. I continued with my Personal Stories while the Living Story was going on. This year they changed the Living Story to be instances in the same system as your Personal Story. But I still am not having a problem doing the Living Story instances even though my 2 level 80 characters have not completed their Personal Stories.
My opinion is that I would hate to miss doing the Living Story while everyone else is doing it. That’s one objection I have to needing to be 80.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
So Season Two story instances don’t go away even though I’m not 80 atm?
The Season Two instances will be available when you reach 80 as long as you login to GW2 at least once while each Living Story update is live. If you fail to login during that 2 week period, they say that you can purchase the story instance from the gem store.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
Was never fond of this mechanic in GW1…..I never seemed to have the right key on the right character when a chest became available….very frustrating.
I definitely would NOT like chests in the rest of the world if you needed a bunch of different keys. I don’t want the aggravation above and I don’t want to clog up my inventory with a bunch of different keys.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
GW2 was not presented as a jumping game when I purchased it or when I purchased gems. Jumping is a significant part of the game, but those parts are almost entirely optional. Legendary weapons are so out of reach for me that I don’t care at all for Map Completion. Therefore I simply don’t complete the Vistas after several tries and all Jumping Puzzles.
Yes, MMOs change over time but adding jumping as a requirement to experience the general map is a huge change to mechanics that is either a physical or mental barrier for many people. It is equivalent to taking a game with optional PvP and suddenly deciding to have Open World PvP. Some of the players say “cool, a new challenge” and some say “hey, I didn’t sign up for this.”
I understand that the devs are trying to add new, fun mechanics to the game but I think they are all in the camp of the players who simply don’t understand how physically or mentally challenging constant jumping can be for some people.
Wow.
I don’t like jumping puzzles, hate’em really, but you’re making mountains out of skritt-hills.
ONE short jumping game. ONE. Four-five jumps.
Wait until today’s update. If they add another “mandatory” jump sequence, then I’ll agree with you that it’s a trend.
I don’t understand what you’re referring to. Dry Top isn’t a “jumping game”, its a map and it certainly doesn’t have only 4 or 5 jumps.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I always laugh when I see suggestions to take away amenities because they make the game too easy. Everyone with an account should be an adult (by the agreement) and so should be able to make the decision to not use amenities if they want more of a challenge. I see groups and guilds in many MMOs that create their own challenges rather than demand the game be made more difficult for everyone else just because they want more of a challenge.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
GW2 was not presented as a jumping game when I purchased it or when I purchased gems. Jumping is a significant part of the game, but those parts are almost entirely optional. Legendary weapons are so out of reach for me that I don’t care at all for Map Completion. Therefore I simply don’t complete the Vistas after several tries and all Jumping Puzzles.
Yes, MMOs change over time but adding jumping as a requirement to experience the general map is a huge change to mechanics that is either a physical or mental barrier for many people. It is equivalent to taking a game with optional PvP and suddenly deciding to have Open World PvP. Some of the players say “cool, a new challenge” and some say “hey, I didn’t sign up for this.”
I understand that the devs are trying to add new, fun mechanics to the game but I think they are all in the camp of the players who simply don’t understand how physically or mentally challenging constant jumping can be for some people.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
GW2 was not presented as a jumping game when I purchased it or when I purchased gems. Jumping is a significant part of the game, but those parts are almost entirely optional. Legendary weapons are so out of reach for me that I don’t care at all for Map Completion. Therefore I simply don’t complete the Vistas after several tries and all Jumping Puzzles.
Yes, MMOs change over time but adding jumping as a requirement to experience the general map is a huge change to mechanics that is either a physical or mental barrier for many people. It is equivalent to taking a game with optional PvP and suddenly deciding to have Open World PvP. Some of the players say “cool, a new challenge” and some say “hey, I didn’t sign up for this.”
I understand that the devs are trying to add new, fun mechanics to the game but I think they are all in the camp of the players who simply don’t understand how physically or mentally challenging constant jumping can be for some people.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
If Anet wants to have map-wide organization be a function for reward, there needs to be actual tools for map-wide organization (ikr). I don’t understand why they wouldn’t make the tools before introducing the need for organization. O.o
There are tools.
There are tools to organize an entire map?! Wow, I guess I missed them – please show me!
/sarcasm
The only tool to try to organize a map is map chat. But that is not sufficient as is abundantly clear.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
It would be interesting to see what kind of answers you got if you guys showed that loading screen to those of your friends and family who don’t play this game and asked them what it was.
How does this make sense? Those people wouldn’t even know what Dry Top is let alone what the game is all about.
And players who haven’t been to dry top yet don’t know what it looks like either. And they would never look at that picture and come to the conclusion that it was even a landscape, nevermind that it was a desert with rocky outcroppings, etc.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I haven’t checked it myself but when I was passing through Gendarren Fields I did find a star in my map (similar to a personal WP you put or the story WP but not green) that was titled Living Story Season 1 recap or something similar to recap. You could try checking that out.
That star leads you to Bloomanoo and Peneloopee who give a very quaggan-oriented “recap” in about 4 sentences. I’m not sure that’s worth a map star and the name “Living Story Season 1 Recap” but I would definitely give it a map star just so people can find the quaggans
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
They’re trying to continue Kotakis style even though he’s not with the company anymore, and while I think they largely do a good job of that, this and the Kessex hills art are giant ugly mars on the game. Kekai knew where to reign in his composition so that there was still multiple clearly distinct elements in a piece in spite of his heavy stylizations, this loading screen is not clear beyond the most basic shape of the positive and negative space.
If the artist who represents the game style is no longer available, and they CLEARLY don’t have an artist who can approximate that style, they should just give up that style. The loading screen mentioned in the OP doesn’t look anything like Dry Top.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
They are working on looking into making the first living story available through the story journal, it just may take some time/may not be possible since it was not designed with the journal in mind.
Anet should have considered this problem when they first came up with the Living Story idea. If a new or returning player comes into the LS, how do they know what is going on? Since this new Season is a continuation of the First season, how do new players know what happened in the first season? Yes, they can read the Wiki but there should be a in-game resource that not only explains the situation but gives some cinematics to provide the flavor of what has gone before.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
If Anet wants to have map-wide organization be a function for reward, there needs to be actual tools for map-wide organization (ikr). I don’t understand why they wouldn’t make the tools before introducing the need for organization. O.o
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
The big difference between a normal MMO expansion and the LS is that a normal MMO expansion continues to exist in the world. It becomes part of the overall MMO world where the LS content mostly is just gone as the story progresses. Don’t get me wrong – I am not one of the people who go through content so fast that I’m waiting around between LS updates. But I recognize that there are people like that.
But is that really a valid argument now, when LS2 will be permanent? Sure it could have worked with LS1, but nowadays when stuff will be permanent it doesn’t really work.
When another MMO adds an expansion, they (commonly – don’t need to hear about exceptions) add a large territory of map as well as all the quests and other activities that are in that new territory. For LS1, Anet re-used maps that already existed. They changed them and added LS activities which then went away when the LS was over. So what was new to do when Season 1 ended? Edge of the Mists if you WvW, some dungeons if you do those, I can’t think of anything else.
This season we have a permanent “story” instance. It isn’t part of the world. Yes we can redo it at any time, but why? Are you going to do it for loot or XP?
We do have a new map, but it is small. It seems like it will keep growing through the season and hopefully that is true. Will the current activities on that map stay when the LS events or the season is over? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
“They” need to do something, like making each LS update larger because the FAR FROM CASUAL players have nothing more to do once done, as it is EVERYTHING can be done and finished with in 3 to 5 hours leaving us with nothing to do until the next TINY LS update.
So basically releasing more content, and as such taking longer between updates which basically gives the same result, other than if they spread it out you have new stuff for 3-5 hours every two weeks instead of new stuff for 10 hours every second month?
The big difference between a normal MMO expansion and the LS is that a normal MMO expansion continues to exist in the world. It becomes part of the overall MMO world where the LS content mostly is just gone as the story progresses. Don’t get me wrong – I am not one of the people who go through content so fast that I’m waiting around between LS updates. But I recognize that there are people like that.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
Since the devs know this is an issue I don’t know why they don’t made a huge announcement about picking up your TP items every time they release new LS.
Fixing the bug would be better but they can’t seem to do that
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
While a game shouldn’t “revolve” around any handicap, I do believe that game developers should keep it in mind.
GW2 started as a normal MMO with Story being the emphasis. Jumping was never mentioned as a required part of the game. It was always optional.
People talk about Vistas requiring jumping, but map completion isn’t required. If I come across a Vista that is taking too long to complete, I simply don’t complete that Map. Its not like the rewards for map completion are great. And a large percentage of players aren’t worried about World Completion for Legendaries. For a large number of players, Legendaries are so out of reach that they don’t even worry about them. They just play maps / LS / WvW. Look around at the huge number of people with no star – those are not all new players.
Requiring jumping to experience content is a huge issue. At the Four Winds Festival last year, I went to the cliffs and died over and over and over. This was not fun (shocking) and I quit the game because all my friends were doing the festival and I could not join in. I went to play something else and didn’t come back until Halloween. This year I decided to try the cliffs again mainly because they removed armor damage. I think they should also remove waypoint costs at festivals because festivals should be fun and having to pay WP every time you die adds up.
TLDR: jumping is fine for optional stuff, don’t make it required to experience reqular content.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
Jumping vistas has no cooldown timer, and not all players choose to do them. Not even for map completion.
I only recently got mine, btw, after 2.5k+ gamehours. I took the time to do them, as I need time to position my char and carefully look at positions. (sidenote: I myself “train” this also in LA for example; the three pillars next to the TP near mystic forge being one spot to do so.)
Yes, Anet can make dungeon-/ boss fights which involves jumping. Until now I am not forced to jump. No idea what the future brings.
It’s perfectly fine if someone likes the jumping stuff in this game; there are players who do not. And for some Anet now effectively locks players out of the new content, by making jumping mandatory. Without thinking of alternatives.
Maybe it’s the tight budget they spoke about on that last video, I do not know.
By all means, tie more things together but don’t limit creativity for those minority who are disabled and unable to do simple mechanics like a simple jump…
‘Screw the “crippled” as long as I get my dose of GW2.’
I really hope this is not the attitude Anet will show.
Games shouldn’t be played by handicaps unless they can figure a work around to play them. But games like gw2 also shouldnt revolve around them either.
Wow, this thread is chock full of heartless people. What a thing to say.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I understand there are complications customizing the story for each decision in the personal story, but what about our biography choices? Things like our warband or dream to join the circus should really play a bigger role influencing the decisions our character makes.
For example, an Ash legion charr should take a more tactical approach, whereas a Blood legion should confront their foes head on.
A human character who’s lost his parents might sympathize more with a character in a certain situation, and focus on defending them during an invasion. However, someone wished to join the circus could be trying to keep a crowd calm and provide motivational support.
Or what about my human’s social status? A street rat might be able to woo Riot Alice into helping out, and provide tactics needed to infiltrate a bandit hideout, as opposed to blasting in with guns roaring like a Noble would do (ironic…)
This needn’t happen for every mission of course, but it would be nice if our biography decisions influenced at least a bit of it. I want to feel more characterization of the protagonist I worked so hard to create.
Very true. It seems like they scrapped this system. If not I agree that it would be nice to see it more in action.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I just watched Guild Wars 2 – Points of Interest: Episode 2, which is about the first chapter of Living Story Season2. http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/4590714 Near the end(shortly after the 32 minute mark) they bring up a twitter question phrased in exactly the same wording as my original thread which was merged into this one “Why is Living Story Season 2 only for people who can jump?” They then explain that they’re exploring new game play avenues, and that “joy of movement” is a big theme for this release, and that “verticality” is a big part of it. and that being able to scale cliffs and explore should be fun for us. They want Dry Top to be very unique, and “verticality” fits very well with the Zephyrite theme. But they never really address the question(“Why is Living Story Season 2 only for people who can jump?”) IMO. I don’t know that they really understood that the person was asking why they were doing something that could exclude people who can’t jump from the new content. That they would be inducing hardships and difficulties for part of their player base.
I’m pretty sure they understood the question. The answers they gave are called “spin”. You may have noticed that politicians sometimes also avoid giving direct answers to questions that would be bad for them to answer.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
The worst part is when he keeps shielding at the end – you are forced to go to him to break the shield and he keeps grenading so fast I couldn’t even get up there several times. Get almost there – boom, knocked off. Very frustrating fight.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
You are complaining about optional content in a game that is all optional content and “play how you want”
This is literally a non-issue because you can just ask for a mesmer port. You don’t even have to know a mesmer. I bet if you asked map chat you’d find someone to do it for you.
Complaining about not being able to do one small portion of the game is completely silly when you can flat-out bypass it.
It’s like if I were to complain that since I’m bad at maths, they should remove the TP because I can’t play the TP to get money.
Don’t take this as a knock against your physical limitations, it’s not meant as one, but I’m just trying to point out that there is already an in-game way to bypass this instead of demanding that anet tailor make its experience around you specifically
This is not a festival, the Living Story is the new content of the game. And I’m not going to sit in chat and beg for a port. I should be able to complete the content by myself.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
I am with Krall here. The guy never said anything about bad computer or ISP issue he just said “he couldn’t do them”. Now I used to suck at JP’s and there are some I still can’t do but I don’t rage quit trying them any more, because guess what, I went out and practiced doing them and learning the best way to move, when to jump, timing and such.
So it is very possible to train on how to do a jumping puzzle just like Krall said, I don’t see anything in this post trolling except the guy Krall was talking to keep changing his reason for not being able to do something.
As for the new content I am loving it. I think it is a nice addition. I do hope they don’t make all new zones this way. But seeing as the Zeph ship crashed here I don’t see them doing this for all the zones.
“Practicing” and “training” is something I do in real life. I don’t want to do it in a MMO. I play MMOs to have fun. If there is any learning curve it should be something that happens through normal play. I.e. when I play a new character at low levels I learn how to dodge, how to use different weapons, how to gear my character. As levels go up and the mobs are more difficult my game play gets better. I don’t have to “practice” one thing over and over again. And I’m not going to. If Anet is going to gate actual story content with jumping, I will simply leave when I get to a point where I can’t access the content.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
Well, you can imagine that the number of complaints is small because the Bazaar is a minor event. I despise the jumping in GW2… mostly because you can easily die when you fail, partly for all the longer jump sequences that force you to start over from jump #1 if you miss jump #100. However, I wouldn’t complain about the Bazaar because if I don’t jump there, I’m just missing access to stuff I can probably get elsewhere. If I can’t even traverse a map zone without having to literally jump through hoops, that’s a different issue.
I completely agree, and the aspects being temporary is even worse. As others have said, I don’t have as much of a problem with jumping being part of a festival because that isn’t a part of the story. (Although I did refuse to do the Four Winds event last year because of all the jumping / dying.) But I do have a problem with gating the story that everyone is supposed to enjoy with jumping.
it’s this luck based mystic toilet that we’re all so sick of flushing our money down. -Salamol
Im not trying to complain here, just trying to understand if this is what you all wanted and expected out of Guild Wars 2 when you purchased it.
