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[Column] Guild Wars 2: Living Story VS. Expansion, Fight!
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
When Guild Wars 2 first launched, players flocked to the game in swarms at an insane pace, which of course had to have made ArenaNet very happy. ArenaNet came up with the Living Story to not only add more content, but to constantly evolve the game world. While the Living Story may help keep players occupied, is it enough to quench our thirst for new content, or is it time for an expansion?
Read more of David North's Guild Wars 2: Living Story VS. Expansion, Fight!
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I know I won’t be waiting that long to see the rest of Tyria.
Comments
Funny. As far as I recall, expansions have always been paid for in every game I've played whether p2p, f2p or btp . I'd be interested to know which p2p game you play gives away it's full expansions?
I think too many "Living Story" updates were just cosmetic, and not really adding any substance to the game (e.g. WvW improvements, new dungeons, a LFG tool, improvements on crafting). In terms in PvE too many of them added instances and too few added dungeons.
In my opinion, they should have 1 expansion every 1-2 years (pre-declared) and a monthly "improvements" patch with some living story content added in. No one needs a bi-monthly schedule of something boring and pointless I'd say.
Long term, a game can only thrive by having epic PvP or very fun PvE (PvP versus Developers I'd call it). Right now, GW2 struggles considerably on the PvE side and only (marginally) delivers on the PvP side.
However, did I get my money's worth out of the game so far? HELL YEAH!, and then some!.
Would I pay some more money for similar levels of enjoyment through an expansion? YOU BETCHA!
Would I simply stick around for mild updates and little-to-no relevant anything, just because it's free? No way, sorry, I DO have a life. If no entertainment value is added, the population will probably start falling off.
Because ArenaNet doesn't make a single penny from the gem store, and subscription games like Final Fantasy XIV cups runneth over with content and features. =
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Expansions would be paid for. Not F2P
There's no difference between the living story and an expansion. The only difference is that an expansion lumps a sum of content into one pack, while the "living story" is doing a trickle release of content across a set period of time. From what I've gathered on the living story, it ended up failing to work right since the content had little impact on the game itself and served to confuse players who wanted to come back and pick up where they left off.
The MMO genre is pretty much spent at this point. Right now developers need to look back, see what worked and didn't work, and forge ahead to build games that use the better aspects of this genre.
It's beyond time for an expansion. ArenaNet needs to quit being so eager to innovate and give in to some standards - like a standard expansion. There's nothing wrong with giving players a whole new chunk of land and content therein. They've added some great content, like the Flame and Frost storyline, but its removal took away any chance at having historical value.
They need more zones, more dungeons, and more variety. It would be exciting to see some two group dungeons. It'd also be nice to see GvG, guild housing, player housing, but I digress.
sadly, 'living story' has not in anyway brought anything new to GW2-as an expansion would have.
at this point, its okay. i will be playing Elder Scrolls Online.
I do give Ante credit for creating a beautiful 'living' WvW..
No we wanted the same B2P model that GW1 had, not this crappy living story and bi-weekly store cash grab. I would have happily paid for content expansions, but that isn't what GW2 delivered.
Also F2P companies are not working for free, they are making quite a lot of money. You cant blame the payment model for ArenaNets poor design decisions.
Expansions generally have new land masses to explore, new classes and new features. The living story had none of that. What it had was cheesy kindergarten stories delivered in a linear manner, which went completely against the core of GW2. So no, it was nothing like an expansion. Look at the GW1 expansions if you want a good example of an expansion.
MMOs cannot do without expansions, but players do seem to think they are entitled to one every month even if they pay nothing. The idea of a living story dates back to the likes of AC and I have to say for the all the extra graphical punch GW2's are not hitting as hard as AC's did.
One area where GW2 excels is the mini stories where NPC play out a story which takes you on a quest journey. I have only seen something like that before in Lotro and GW2 has many more. That's something I would like to see more of.
The problem with The Living Story is the non-perminant content. It makes me people like me unwilling to even bother continuing to play if you can't do content that gives achievements and titles due to it being taken away.
The perfectionist in me that does every achievement possible in MMORPGs HATES the living story because of this.
If I'm focusing on doing something like getting items to obtain my legendary weapon, but then getting FORCED into getting the achievements due to the small time frame, thus putting off my legendary weapon grind, becomes very tedius and annoying after a while.
This game would be -perfect- if it had PERMINANT living story content. Anything else is just a huge disappointment.
EVE Online.
For the love of god ArenaNet, listen to your community and give us an expansion. I know that not the whole community wants an expension, but I do believe that the majority wants it.
The living story was a nice idea but after experiencing it for a whole year, I have no faith left. The story after a year is still very unclear to alot of people and the achievements that come with the update aren't what they are ment to be. Grinding x amount of y is not how achievements should be, imo. The story telling is bad and the update isn't polished. You can clearly see that it is a rushed project. Living story has become a quantity and not a quality, which is not good for a MMO. Expansions are always a wanted product and I have yet to see it fail to deliver. They were also very warm welcomed in the previous Guild Wars.
The expansions are what built up the fanbase in the previous series. I was a GW: Nightfall guy
I myself could care less about what is happening in Kryta, especially since there are no real Krytans around like the first game anyway. So at least let me see you either redeem yourselves with an Elona and Cantha expansion or piss me off so that I won't buy your games anymore due to your whitewashing of these cultures as well.
Just get it over with already as I am expecting to be annoyed. But at least its more legitimate content for those who will stay.
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
I'd rather get new content every 2 weeks, instead of waiting 6-12 months to play any new content !
the only weak point of the living story is that there is no way for someone that comes into the game afterwards to play the previous iterations and catch up to the story, which is holding back the game's growth.
If I wasn't playing from the start of the living story I would never have picked up gw2 at all
simply because, I'd think I'm not gonna play a game in which I can never get all the story that has been introduced before I joined.
Replayability is the main issue they have.
Not whether it's enough content or not.
Ding Ding Ding!
They're achievements i can never get back again if i miss them. I absolutely hate that.
Not bad game design, bad development focus. Game is just fine and a lot of fun. No trinity was a fail for many, living story failed to keep people playing but they kept pumping it out. Switch to a trinity system where teaming with classes matter and focus on persistent content. They would have a winning game. Payment model would work as well if people were playing.