Adrian.4857 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 To be more precise, I can also grind until I get the gold but it would be 800 gold and that is a lot of grinding (The only reason why I started playing PvP was for the gold). I bought this game so I can play occasionally and enjoy the story, not to grind or try to become the best at PvP, and having Living World seasons 1 and 2 locked because you need to pay or grind your time away just takes he whole fun away, why should I pay more to do the story? I can understand asking to pay for cosmetics, but asking the players to pay for the story is lower than what EA did. Path of Fire is what convinced me to buy the game, the landscapes were super awesome, the mounts were fantastic (I actually used a level 80 boost so I could get the mount for my main character) and the story seemed interesting, and unfortunately I was unable to do the story or even step foot in the Crystal Desert with my main because skipping a big chunk of the story does not only ruin it, but it leaves you super confused (Who the hell is Taimi? Who is Elen Kiel? I never met them, all I can do is read about them on the internet). So yeah, bottom line is: you should make the story free, that's the right thing to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crossaber.8934 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 The LW story is free, if you login during each EP launch period. If you are playing every week since PoF, all the future LW EP will be unlocked for you even you are PvP exclusive. I am not saying this system is good, but it is a reason to keep players to login once and a while. On the other hand, LW was supposed to keep updating with new story and be gone if you are not around by the launch period... therefore LW season 1 is not replayable, be glad season 2 and the seasons after are not gone forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemezijus.6851 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Think of it as paid expansions if you will. You can technically play PoF without playing HoT. Yes, you would miss a lot of lore and story behind it but that still does not prevent you from playing PoF. In other words, you get what you paid for and HoT is not locking the content for you. Living world seasons is something like that. You can either buy them as they open new content for you or watch a recap video and play what you paid for with background knowledge. The merit of Living World is that you get it unlocked on the go if you just login during the right time windows. I find it all fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inculpatus cedo.9234 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 I do not find absurd the fact the Living World Seasons are free of cost for those willing to log in during live. I also do not find absurd the fact that all that content (sans Season 1) can be acquired at no real money cost. Asking the Devs to create even more content without pay _may_ be considered absurd. /shrug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WARIORSCHARGEING.2637 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 it has been this way since the second living story came out . and will never be changed at all no matter how many think it is not right or it is right. it does make it rough for the new player to the game in a way as never playing it before. compared to thos that play like me since the game been out in 2012 ,. and are able to unlock it for free so that is just how it is. new players to the game have to buy 2 gem cards to unlock the living storys which in my country is another $50.00 usd on top of the game and pof pack . far as EA and this company goes their is not much difference to them at all . they make a product to make money and if good we spend our hard earned money to hopefully get some fun out of it for a year or more . and that is where it ends between EA and this company being compared versus back in the day when guild wars was king and the game had good stuff versus guild wars2 where that changed back in about 2013 when the employees that made guild wars left the company for good living story seasons 1 no one can ever replay it not even us vet players even !! given the game state and the badly way the game was coded and made back in 2012 well no matter how we all cry and beg for living story 1 to come back its not happen that ship is sailed you need to let it go . pof is based off the first game guild wars and where you can go to the Crystal Desert and so forth compared to the guild wars 2 version Crystal Desert which is close but not that close to guild wars . far as Taimi Elen Kiel they are only with guild wars 2 only and not guild wars and the so called lore that guild wars2 has which is not that very much compared to its name sake game guild wars . guild wars 2 lore in this game is and always has been so badly broken even more so with living story 2 and 3. not going to happen no matter how much the player base new or vet begs or crys for it to be free . just not going to happen new players just got to get used to spending the extra $50.00 or more with each new living story that comes out they was not around for . btw guild wars never had mounts or any thing at all like guild wars2 has got as well as the story in guild wars was far more better wrote compared to guild war2 which the storys in guild wars 2 are these days a sad joke the really sad part of this whole thing is the original guild wars dev team is no longer with the company since 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ardenwolfe.8590 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 I've never paid to play any part of Living Story or World. . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just a flesh wound.3589 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Just out of curiosity OP, when you buy one book of a series do you expect to get the rest for free or do you understand that the author is writing for more than just the joy of telling a story and wants to pay bills also. At any rate, as long as you log in once a month you’ll get them free or you can buy with gold, which not many games will allow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrubySzymek.1362 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 I think previous LW seasons should be bundled with expansion purchases (deluxe and ultimate) as they provide crucial story developement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inculpatus cedo.9234 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Funny, I saw several Devs say they had been with the company for more than 10 years in the PoF videos. Also, our Game Director has been with ArenaNet all through Guild Wars and GW2. You can look up the Devs on the Guild Wars Wiki and see some writers' names that are still here posting on the forums. It's amazing what a bit of research will show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blood Red Arachnid.2493 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Locking the story steps has always been a bit of a weird decision. It is better than the previous idea of deleting content after its time has passed. The idea (I'm guessing) is that Anet wanted to keep players coming to the game regularly, so they incentivized players logging in once every few months to unlock the story steps. This is done to keep the community active, but ultimately it is a form of negative reinforcement for intangible gains. For returning players, this is quite the form of discouragement. I do agree that this is a terrible business practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X T D.6458 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 You literally have months to simply login **ONE** time while a **FREE** living story episode is live and afterwards it is unlocked on your account forever. You get an entire map, new episode and tons of stuff to do. Considering also you can always buy the gems with gold. I think its fair the way it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrubySzymek.1362 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 > @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said: > Locking the story steps has always been a bit of a weird decision. It is better than the previous idea of deleting content after its time has passed. The idea (I'm guessing) is that Anet wanted to keep players coming to the game regularly, so they incentivized players logging in once every few months to unlock the story steps. This is done to keep the community active, but ultimately it is a form of negative reinforcement for intangible gains. > > For returning players, this is quite the form of discouragement. I do agree that this is a terrible business practice. I'd say that since LW3 paying for LW seems justified. New episodes are not just story steps, these are new maps, new rewards, new achievements, new collections. This is much more than just story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taygus.4571 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 > @"X T D.6458" said: > You literally have months to simply login **ONE** time while a **FREE** living story episode is live and afterwards it is unlocked on your account forever. You get an entire map, new episode and tons of stuff to do. Considering also you can always buy the gems with gold. I think its fair the way it is. Unless he's a new player. At OP, I see nothing wrong with paying for LS episodes. I do think however Anet should create an option when buying the expansions that includes the stories. This would make it obvious to new players, that it doesn't all unlock with the expansions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X T D.6458 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 > @"Taygus.4571" said: > > @"X T D.6458" said: > > You literally have months to simply login **ONE** time while a **FREE** living story episode is live and afterwards it is unlocked on your account forever. You get an entire map, new episode and tons of stuff to do. Considering also you can always buy the gems with gold. I think its fair the way it is. > > Unless he's a new player. > > At OP, I see nothing wrong with paying for LS episodes. > I do think however Anet should create an option when buying the expansions that includes the stories. > This would make it obvious to new players, that it doesn't all unlock with the expansions. > Bundles would be a good idea as a special edition. Kind of like a season pass deal that other games offer so you can get all the dlc at once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexi.1398 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 For all the content you can get in one season 3 episode (a huge map and lots of achieves, collections, and even good exotic/ascended gear), 400 gems (100 gold) for two episodes is a steal. Spend a few hours in silverwastes or istan metas or fractal dailies and you'll have them unlocked pretty quick. You don't get as much from season 2 episodes but they're worth it just for mastery points imo. If you just want story, youtube is there. Also: "(Who the hell is Taimi? Who is Elen Kiel? I never met them, all I can do is read about them on the internet)" - even if you buy the living season episodes you won't understand this because you meet them in LS1 as far as i understand it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STIHL.2489 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Taimi came about with HoT, if you didn't buy HoT, you should not get that story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danikat.8537 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 I think there would definitely be a benefit to offering a bundle where you can buy everything together (or at least each expansion with its relevant Living Story season), but I don't find it strange that we have to pay for them. In any other game the Living Story would be called DLC, everyone would have to buy it and no one would think twice about it. But because they came up with a new name and for some reason give each release a promotional period when it's free people expect it to always be free for everyone. If I had to choose I'd actually rather they charged everyone for the actual content and included more cosmetics for free. That would be closer to what I think of as the normal system where you buy a game if you want to play it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ardenwolfe.8590 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Personally, I think a bundle sale for Living World episodes is a fantastic idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shirlias.8104 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 30 eur every 2 years, yet complaining for everything. Yuk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarcShriek.5829 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 I think it's fine. The price is cheap and you can grind out gold so it's free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Durzlla.6295 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 > @"STIHL.2489" said: > Taimi came about with HoT, if you didn't buy HoT, you should not get that story. Taimi came in before HoT she came into the story in LW1, she was a fan of Scarlet due to the genius in Scarlets machines and tech. However, she was a relatively minor character then, most of her story pre HoT was LW2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndigoSundown.5419 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 When reading posts like the OP's, I find myself wondering whether ANet should have bundled LW episodes with the XPac's. For instance: HoT (original): $50 HoT + LS2: $60 PoF: $30 PoF + LS3: $40 PoF + HoT + LS2 + LS3: $65 Using this method, they could still offer the current season in the same fashion they do now, and still sell LW seasons in the store (which can be gained via gold). Perhaps the additional (cash only) alternative would offer some perspective and make the gold option seem more attractive. As to the question in the thread title... No, I don't find a business asking people to pay for its products absurd. Neither do I find it absurd for said business to offer some product for free as a loyalty reward to ongoing customers. The former practice is universal, the latter fairly common. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trise.2865 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Though entertaining and interesting, the Living World stories are ultimately irrelevant compared to the primary Personal Stories. All of the important information is given to you up-front, allowing you to progress through the story unimpeded. For example: Who is Kasmeer Meade? She's a politician and friend whom Balthazaar has harmed greatly by injuring someone important to her, named "Marjory". That's all you need to know, because that's all that's important to the current story, and all of that comes out in the opening mission. The same is true for Ellen, Rytlock, Taimi, and Canach, Balthazaar, Palawa Joko, Zalambur, Kormir, Kralkatorrik, etc., etc. Everything you need to know about them is given to you as soon as they show up or become important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkoNS.3261 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 living story is free if you log in once when the episode is active, if you cant log in for 10 sec once in a month or more you deserve to pay. just my opinion, what is not ok is the mount and glider skins those are out of control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayakaru.6583 Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Yes, i find it absurd that a company asks me to pay for their product. Gw2 should be completely free!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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