LW5 and new expansion.

[Ulysses.2058]

Would you have preferred another expansion instead of a new LW season? Are you happy with two consecutive LW seasons? Do you agree with season 5 but expect another expansion afterwards, at some point? Let us players express our expectations.

 

Edit: I mean expansion and LW with the typical features they have had up until now. If you wouldn't mind a LW with expansion features, vote "Other" and say so in the comments.

[maddoctor.2738]

The answer depends on the kind of content we'll get in Season 5.

If it's the same as Season 4, they I'd prefer an expansion, if it contains expansion-like features, like elite specs, a new mastery similar to mounts/gliding and so on, then I'll be happy with having LW season instead of an expansion.

[Danikat.8537]

I don't mind either way. To me the only differences are that an expansion is released all in one go and then it's other factors which mean it takes me months to play through it all and I have to pay for it. I don't mind paying for new content but I certainly won't complain about getting it free and because it takes me months to finish it either way it doesn't really matter to me if it's released all at once or gradually.

 

Although I do enjoy the speculation that happens when everyone is going through the story an episode at a time and that can't happen when some people are able to finish it in a few days and then know all the answers to the questions slower players are coming up with, or those questions never come up because even slower players like me will just do the next bit instead of wondering what's going to happen.

[Tarlonniel.6534]

Honestly, I don't care what they call the new story content, as long as there _is_ new story content. Preferably with some new explorable zones attached.

[Ulysses.2058]

Just to make the poll a little bit clearer, I meant expansion and LW with the typical features they have had up until now. If you wouldn't mind a LW with expansion features, vote "Other" and say so in the comments.

[Einlanzer.1627]

It's really hard to say until we see what they do with LW5. I have always had a slight bias for expansions over the LW because they tend to accomplish a lot more, but that could change with the announcement they made a few months back about giving teams more control.

 

My main issue is that they're focusing too much on the story at the expense of everything else. This would be dubious even if the story was amazing, and it isn't. At this point we need a renewed focus on new and revamped features/systems instead of story content. Not to say we should get none of the latter, but it really should take a back seat for a while. Maybe work on bringing back LW1 or adding new dungeon/raid content at a faster rate.

[Makuragee.3058]

> @"Einlanzer.1627" said:

> It's really hard to say until we see what they do with LW5. I have always had a slight bias for expansions over the LW because they tend to accomplish a lot more, but that could change with the announcement they made a few months back about giving teams more control.

>

> My main issue is that they're focusing too much on the LW at the expense of everything else. At this point we need a renewed focus on new and revamped features/systems instead of story content. Not to say we should get none of the latter, but it really should take a back seat for a while. Maybe work on bringing back LW1 or adding new dungeon/raid content at a faster rate.

 

Everything but raid please.

[Einlanzer.1627]

> @"Makuragee.3058" said:

> > @"Einlanzer.1627" said:

> > It's really hard to say until we see what they do with LW5. I have always had a slight bias for expansions over the LW because they tend to accomplish a lot more, but that could change with the announcement they made a few months back about giving teams more control.

> >

> > My main issue is that they're focusing too much on the LW at the expense of everything else. At this point we need a renewed focus on new and revamped features/systems instead of story content. Not to say we should get none of the latter, but it really should take a back seat for a while. Maybe work on bringing back LW1 or adding new dungeon/raid content at a faster rate.

>

> Everything but raid please.

 

I don't really raid personally, but I think the game benefits from having them by offering hardcore content for competitive players, and I think it's important to retain a community of competitive players for the overall health of the game, even if they are only a small % of the player base.

 

That said, I really think we need a focus on more 5-man content as well as system/feature updates and less of a focus on new open world metas. They've arguably added too many different competing metas to the game at this point and they need to dial it back. New zones going forward should mostly be for exploration and story/collections with only the occasional exception. Honestly, the game may be improved by removing some of the existing metas so that players aren't so over-distributed.

[Opopanax.1803]

How is this poll even possible to answer? No one knows what season 5 holds yet, do they?

 

Or did I miss the reveal??

[Naxos.2503]

From my point of view, they need more time to even find what they can use for an expansion, since Heart of Thorns added gliders, and Path of fire added mounts, both of which are significant mechanics to implement. I'd think adding another mechanics to this will require a lot of planning and work, and so extra time given by one more Living Story season makes sense to me -Provided there is an expansion coming after it-. I also think they need to quickstart the story with Something before throwing us into another grand adventure. Path of Fire's antagonist was introduced through a past Living World season before, and the effect of it was good (provided you had seen that season).

 

As for why, well, Guild wars 2 creates big waves when it releases an expansion, bringing extra players to the game more than Living World, which is more interesting for existing players (Players who already own expansions tied to them, and know and are invested in the story). It also offers a direct Financial support for the game, as opposed to Something which is less guaranteed, like past Living Story Episodes, and microtransactions that dont particularly seem useful to some, or to the taste of others.

[Cyninja.2954]

I'll be honest, I would have prefered another expansion at this point.

 

I don't think Living World Episodes have the same draw, nor do they provide as much coherent content as a full expansion storyline. I understand why they went with Living World Season 5, given they had no idea if there would be any content after Season 4, I just wish there had been more room for an expansion.

 

That said, it depends on what Living World Season 5 brings and if those episodes are bigger in scope than past Living World episodes (I'm sceptical). I do think an expansion has to come down the road though if this game is to see many more good years.

[TheGrimm.5624]

> @"Einlanzer.1627" said:

> It's really hard to say until we see what they do with LW5. I have always had a slight bias for expansions over the LW because they tend to accomplish a lot more, but that could change with the announcement they made a few months back about giving teams more control.

>

> My main issue is that they're focusing too much on the LW at the expense of everything else. At this point we need a renewed focus on new and revamped features/systems instead of story content. Not to say we should get none of the latter, but it really should take a back seat for a while. Maybe work on bringing back LW1 or adding new dungeon/raid content at a faster rate.

 

I like the LW, but it really is a tool to connect points between each expansion. Now that doesn't mean they can't release expansion level content thru LW, but we haven't seen them do that so far so until we do it's hard to gauge. If they are going to go that route they will also need to do better communication and marketing with the existing player base to sell this as positive thing. Hate to say hype-train but if that is the business plan then they will need some of that to keep people excited about new content. Take the legendary runes. People have been asking for it for a while. But now take it as a stand alone feature versus a feature as part of an expansion. Which has more weight? That's the question they will need to figure out how to measure which is the risky thing with any expansion. How to release enough content for players of disparate parts of the game. The legendary runes will mean nothing to the PvPers just as new PvP maps may mean nothing to pure PvErs. So by going no expansion ANet will need to balance these micro-releases in a staggered form to keep content impacting all the different types of players they have. Will have to see how the model works since the current plan is LW with last word being no plan on expansions. Time will tell.

[serialkicker.5274]

Never liked Living season stuff. Always thought, sure, let's give them another chance, maybe next season will be better. But it's always pretty much same thing really.Too many maps, not enough replayability, short and pretty average story with no good characters and long waits between episodes. If you'd take all living world seasons away right now, it wouldn't feel like game would lose much content really, imho.

[zealex.9410]

Even if we get some expansion like features in se5 its not gonna be like an expansion in terms of some things. How will they add elite specs, one at a time or all together? The biggest strength of an expac story is the pace and the fact that they arent bound by this "episodic" bs aproach which only exist because the episodes take time to make and in no way its seen in the episodes themselves.

 

I never got really invested in lw because the release cadence put any momentum an episode might had on hold and any investment i would've had came crushing down by an arbitrary "heh, w8 3 or 4 months" which in no way translated or was justified story wise.

 

Besides that? are we gonna see entirely new continents in the next season? Entirely new enemies and enemy models as well as game systems and new selling points that would make it expansion like? To be honest the most i expect is some new zones and a new mount every 3 episodes or so.

 

Are we gonna get a new set or raids and fractals for se5? With no expac on the horizon and se5 being presented as the middle point does that mean we gonna see a new row of se5 related raids?

[zealex.9410]

> @"Einlanzer.1627" said:

> > @"Makuragee.3058" said:

> > > @"Einlanzer.1627" said:

> > > It's really hard to say until we see what they do with LW5. I have always had a slight bias for expansions over the LW because they tend to accomplish a lot more, but that could change with the announcement they made a few months back about giving teams more control.

> > >

> > > My main issue is that they're focusing too much on the LW at the expense of everything else. At this point we need a renewed focus on new and revamped features/systems instead of story content. Not to say we should get none of the latter, but it really should take a back seat for a while. Maybe work on bringing back LW1 or adding new dungeon/raid content at a faster rate.

> >

> > Everything but raid please.

>

> I don't really raid personally, but I think the game benefits from having them by offering hardcore content for competitive players.

>

> That said, I really think we need a focus on more 5-man content as well as system/feature updates and less of a focus on new open world metas. They've arguably added too many different competing metas to the game at this point and they need to dial it back. New zones going forward should mostly be for exploration and story/collections.

 

I disagree with the second part, not because i dont think they have sort of bloated metas but because they did just that woth the pof maps and they flopped hard. Imo lw should be this exploration meme thing and have expansions which take longer amd have more thought put into them bring new metas and world bosses.

[MokahTGS.7850]

I would prefer ANet to develop a few more titles other than GW2...other dev houses do more with less. You may not agree, and that's OK.

[otto.5684]

> @"Opopanax.1803" said:

> How is this poll even possible to answer? No one knows what season 5 holds yet, do they?

>

> Or did I miss the reveal??

 

Expansion >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> any other content

[Einlanzer.1627]

> @"zealex.9410" said:

> > @"Einlanzer.1627" said:

> > > @"Makuragee.3058" said:

> > > > @"Einlanzer.1627" said:

> > > > It's really hard to say until we see what they do with LW5. I have always had a slight bias for expansions over the LW because they tend to accomplish a lot more, but that could change with the announcement they made a few months back about giving teams more control.

> > > >

> > > > My main issue is that they're focusing too much on the LW at the expense of everything else. At this point we need a renewed focus on new and revamped features/systems instead of story content. Not to say we should get none of the latter, but it really should take a back seat for a while. Maybe work on bringing back LW1 or adding new dungeon/raid content at a faster rate.

> > >

> > > Everything but raid please.

> >

> > I don't really raid personally, but I think the game benefits from having them by offering hardcore content for competitive players.

> >

> > That said, I really think we need a focus on more 5-man content as well as system/feature updates and less of a focus on new open world metas. They've arguably added too many different competing metas to the game at this point and they need to dial it back. New zones going forward should mostly be for exploration and story/collections.

>

> I disagree with the second part, not because i dont think they have sort of bloated metas but because they did just that woth the pof maps and they flopped hard. Imo lw should be this exploration meme thing and have expansions which take longer amd have more thought put into them bring new metas and world bosses.

 

I don't think PoF flopped at all. I think people loved the zones but then left them because there was no incentive to stay in them. But you don't have to use Metas for that. You can offer various collections; you can make the zones enjoyable for repeat casual farming like most of the LW maps are.

 

PoF zones offer none of those things, and to top it off they are punishing to explore because of mobs being overtuned given that they are fundamentally casual/exploration zones. It blows my mind they haven't gone back and adjusted that. If they would fix that I would pretty much guarantee they'd see a substantial population increase because they are environmentally so well done.

[hugo.4705]

I always preferred xpacs, ls3 was nice due to varied environments each map, ls4 is cheap: desert, archipelago (well made) desert, desert, mountain and mixed (cool last map).

 

Living seasons are poorly made with non sense between episodes or totally recreating a plot from nothing with awful change, obvious change in ls4 between e2 and e3. It's rushed and not that much replayability. Xpacs have way far more contents, it brings ton of players are full of lore and easter eggs even well made dialogues or environments. Sure you can put a mount or armor set in ls maps but IT'S JUST NOT THE SAME THING. It always feel like the efforts are concentrated either on the goodies (mount/armors set/weapons sets/collections) or on the map itself (quests, environments, meta). Pretty clear, sandswept was MAP, kourna was GOODIES.

 

I would have prefered an asuran expansion answering the mysterious still non-found uncategorized fractal city, quora sum and the cube at the east of Rata Novus, would put my hand to cut that woodland is full of asuran structures like in the artworks.

I for now don't think ls5 will be great considering the bad endings of joko/kralk, could have been better for THE threat of the season, joko would have been a better plot. I may be wrong, at least I wait to see the first-second episodes to judge.

[TwilightSoul.9048]

As long as they haven't improved the way the game feels I would prefer smaller updates like LW so that they can get a feel for what the game needs at the moment before they rush out another expansion which feels empty in the end.

I feel like they're moving in the right direction at the moment since the last LW Chapter and their announcements for the upcoming LW Season and I hope they can improve further before they dish out the next expansion. The World needs to feel alive again as it did in Season 1 & 2 and it hasn't done that ever again since then and it's time to change that.

[Ayrilana.1396]

I don’t mind either way. A living story season is pretty much the same as an expansion anyway except it’s just spread out over time. As long as the quality remains high then I can’t complain.

[Einlanzer.1627]

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> I don’t mind either way. A living story season is pretty much the same as an expansion anyway except it’s just spread out over time. As long as the quality remains high then I can’t complain.

 

No, it isn't, or at least it hasn't been in the past. Not by a long shot. I'm sincerely hoping they change that for LW5.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> Would you have preferred another expansion instead of a new LW season? Are you happy with two consecutive LW seasons? Do you agree with season 5 but expect another expansion afterwards, at some point? Let us players express our expectations.

My expectations are that ANet has been making games for longer than I have and they are more likely than I to know what makes for a fun experience for the community, and that will help them stay in business.

 

Accordingly, I don't care whether it's LS5 or a new expansion. I care whether the game is fun to play, not about how ANet chooses to deliver the fun.

[Ayrilana.1396]

> @"Einlanzer.1627" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > I don’t mind either way. A living story season is pretty much the same as an expansion anyway except it’s just spread out over time. As long as the quality remains high then I can’t complain.

>

> No, it isn't, or at least it hasn't been in the past. Not by a long shot. I'm sincerely hoping they change that for LW5.

 

Quality is subjective but I haven’t noticed a difference between the quality in an expansion and an LS episode. I haven’t felt any content release so far to be of low or mediocre quality.

[Zaklex.6308]

If they can deliver "expansion like" content in LW5 I'll be happy...actually I'll be happy either way, as long as there is new content to play.