Please Stop Gating Content behind Personal Story/Living World

I just suffered through an hour plus of one chapter to unlock a WvW track, and realized how many times I have been stuck in the same or a similar position - doing stuff I really dislike just to be able to play the game. Absolutely NOTHING should be required in the "personal story" or the Living World instance stuff for a person to go anywhere in the world, or to have a means to get the stuff in the game. There's nothing I dislike more than to be forced to do content like this - even JPs, which I despise, are not as bad (although the forced wintersday and clocktower JPs come close).

Look, I dont care about cut scenes or voice acting in this case. If I want that, I can watch anime. I care about being able to play without worrying I will get disconnected or something and have to start over, or that I will be put in the same boat due to not realizing what a huge timesink I got into until it is almost time for work, etc. Having whatever insane, overly-costly open world requirements is fine - but requiring personal instances for unlocks is not. Just let us skip the entire thing if we want to, or play it for the mastery points BY CHOICE.

Agreed.

We should also be told in advance if we need certain items for future things... so I don't delete them and realise I need them... example tomes of knowledge... I always delete them but then realised I need 100 to buy something -_-

@Samnang.1879 said:Agreed.

We should also be told in advance if we need certain items for future things... so I don't delete them and realise I need them... example tomes of knowledge... I always delete them but then realised I need 100 to buy something -_-

Or... You could use them for spirit shards... Like it says in the description. Why are you deleting them?

I mean, a lot of items need a clear description to let us know if its safe to delete them or they are still needed.

But tomes of knowledge are not one of those items lol. Don't delete them.

@"Spook.5847" said:I just suffered through an hour plus of one chapter to unlock a WvW track, and realized how many times I have been stuck in the same or a similar position - doing stuff I really dislike just to be able to play the game. Absolutely NOTHING should be required in the "personal story" or the Living World instance stuff for a person to go anywhere in the world, or to have a means to get the stuff in the game. There's nothing I dislike more than to be forced to do content like this - even JPs, which I despise, are not as bad (although the forced wintersday and clocktower JPs come close).

Look, I dont care about cut scenes or voice acting in this case. If I want that, I can watch anime. I care about being able to play without worrying I will get disconnected or something and have to start over, or that I will be put in the same boat due to not realizing what a huge timesink I got into until it is almost time for work, etc. Having whatever insane, overly-costly open world requirements is fine - but requiring personal instances for unlocks is not. Just let us skip the entire thing if we want to, or play it for the mastery points BY CHOICE.

What WvW track was this?Sounds like you're playing the wrong genre of game, you know every mmo will tie rewards behind certain content right? The WvW track unlock is a reward for doing that content. If you don't like the content then don't do it, but then you don't get the reward.

@Samnang.1879 said:Agreed.

We should also be told in advance if we need certain items for future things... so I don't delete them and realise I need them... example tomes of knowledge... I always delete them but then realised I need 100 to buy something -_-

/wiki [item name] (or manually checking the wiki) will tell you whether you'll need an item for current content. They can't tell you about future uses an item has (minus chained unlocks such as the Boreal weapons since those were planned, if extremely poorly implemented with no warnings) because future recipes are still up in the air if they're being worked on at all. Not to mention future uses tend to be closely guarded after some instances of people using their insider knowledge to make bank.

When in doubt, hang onto things unless you're prepared to work on getting more of them.

@Psykewne.3025 said:

@"Spook.5847" said:I just suffered through an hour plus of one chapter to unlock a WvW track, and realized how many times I have been stuck in the same or a similar position - doing stuff I really dislike just to be able to play the game. Absolutely NOTHING should be required in the "personal story" or the Living World instance stuff for a person to go anywhere in the world, or to have a means to get the stuff in the game. There's nothing I dislike more than to be forced to do content like this - even JPs, which I despise, are not as bad (although the forced wintersday and clocktower JPs come close).

Look, I dont care about cut scenes or voice acting in this case. If I want that, I can watch anime. I care about being able to play without worrying I will get disconnected or something and have to start over, or that I will be put in the same boat due to not realizing what a huge timesink I got into until it is almost time for work, etc. Having whatever insane, overly-costly open world requirements is fine - but requiring personal instances for unlocks is not. Just let us skip the entire thing if we want to, or play it for the mastery points BY CHOICE.

I am very familiar with the MMO genre, having played them since the original EQ over 26 years ago. In this case, the "content" is WvW. I should not have to gain the opportunity to work to earn my rewards ONLY by being forced to participate in the school play. Not only that, but this game is never retuned after they nerf our powers into the ground, as has been repeatedly done over the years.

@"Spook.5847" said:I am very familiar with the MMO genre, having played them since the original EQ over 26 years ago. In this case, the "content" is WvW. I should not have to gain the opportunity to work to earn my rewards ONLY by being forced to participate in the school play.Then i have a good news for you: you don't have to. Most tracks are not locked behind LS content, and a number of them are even WvW-specific, with WvW being the only way to obtain rewards from them - even for PvE players.

@Astralporing.1957 said:Then i have a good news for you: you don't have to. Most tracks are not locked behind LS content, and a number of them are even WvW-specific, with WvW being the only way to obtain rewards from them - even for PvE players.

OP is just bitter that they actually needs to play the game in order to get Skins and Emotes.

Fashion Wars is a cruel mistress.

@Psykewne.3025 said:

@"Spook.5847" said:I just suffered through an hour plus of one chapter to unlock a WvW track, and realized how many times I have been stuck in the same or a similar position - doing stuff I really dislike just to be able to play the game. Absolutely NOTHING should be required in the "personal story" or the Living World instance stuff for a person to go anywhere in the world, or to have a means to get the stuff in the game. There's nothing I dislike more than to be forced to do content like this - even JPs, which I despise, are not as bad (although the forced wintersday and clocktower JPs come close).

Look, I dont care about cut scenes or voice acting in this case. If I want that, I can watch anime. I care about being able to play without worrying I will get disconnected or something and have to start over, or that I will be put in the same boat due to not realizing what a huge timesink I got into until it is almost time for work, etc. Having whatever insane, overly-costly open world requirements is fine - but requiring personal instances for unlocks is not. Just let us skip the entire thing if we want to, or play it for the mastery points BY CHOICE.

Pretty much all the LS track. They give similar rewards to the corresponding LS map as an alternative to playing on said map. Some items are even easier to obtain this way!

Most tracks doesn't even require playing the full episode to unlock.

100% of my skycale map currency grind was done via reward track, but even with that i still play ls content, and im near completing it.

@Spook.5847 said:I just suffered through an hour plus of one chapter to unlock a WvW track, and realized how many times I have been stuck in the same or a similar position - doing stuff I really dislike just to be able to play the game.Please be precise. Unlocking a WvW reward track is not a requirement for being able to play the game. It is required to get the rewards from that track.

Experiencing the storyline, voice acting and cutscenes is a part of experiencing the game itself. If you don't like it then play another game that doesn't have them or that allows you to skip em.

Or even better, we should just get all the game content as soon as we create our character and log in, at level 1. Free mounts, free masteries, free gear, free everything, without moving at all from the starting zone. /end of sarcasm

@DreamyAbaddon.3265 said:Experiencing the storyline, voice acting and cutscenes is a part of experiencing the game itself. If you don't like it then play another game that doesn't have them or that allows you to skip em.

Yeah, maybe the game just isn't for OP if he has so many complaints about it. Guild Wars has always been a story focused franchise.

@Spook.5847 said:Look, I dont care about cut scenes or voice acting in this case. If I want that, I can watch anime.

If I wanted rewards, I’d go to work,If I wanted gameplay, I’d play chess.If I wanted a soundtrack, I’d listen to Spotify.

Point is, there’s nothing wrong with wanting story in a game.

Well Gw2 is a story driven PvE MMO.. the PvP modes are irrelevant for the most part and that's been pretty cemented by all the neglect it's gotten over the last several years the game has been out.PvE gets almost all the attention because that's what sells the game, makes them money off the cash shop, that's where most of the player base is and prefers to spend their time and that's what most players want more of.

I'll never understand people who only play Gw2 for the PvP.. they're basically buying expansions purely for the elite specs and nothing else.. paying full price for like 10% of the game.. that baffles the kitten out of me tbh.But each to their own.

I agree with OP though to some extent.. nothing in WvW or PvP should be locked behind anything you have to play PvE to obtain.. but that also goes both ways for me.Nothing in PvE should require you to play WvW or PvP either.I've seen a lot of people talk about needing to go into WvW for legendary's etc and I agree that there should be some way they can avoid doing that as well.Allow all game mode rewards to be accessed and earned exclusively in those modes, that's the best solution.You wanna sell people on each mode then do it with exclusive skins.. for the most part Gw2 has done that though.

A PvE player says they don't want to play WvW for their rewards and this community jumps in with a dozen half-baked ideas for the devs to soften the acquisition of a GoB."make it tradeable!""make it purchasable for badges of honor!"A WvW player says they don't want to play PvE for their rewards and this community tells them..."If you don't like it then play another game"Thanks @"DreamyAbaddon.3265" super productive.

There was a time not so long ago when new cosmetic rewards such as armor skins were earnable in WvW/sPvP via reward track. This is true for just about every(non gemstore) armor set released up to and including those that shipped with PoF. When a new map released we were also given an associated reward track in competitive to earn the skins.This changed in Season 4. Players in WvW are not able to earn things like the Runic or Requiem or MistShard sets. Since Grothmar, the reward track for the current content has offered nothing but a small map currency stipend at the end of the track. No access to things like the Stormcaller, or Tengu weapons, no access to the armor skins.

While the OP going full Karen about a an hour of PvE to unlock a reward track is pretty ridiculous, there is an actual problem here that goes to the core of the "play how you want" mantra of the original developer vision for this game.Ignoring this and telling the player to eff off and play something else because they favor a different game mode than you is not helpful, constructive, or inclusive.

highlights many posts from this thread for when people complain about GoB

@Samnang.1879 said:Agreed.

We should also be told in advance if we need certain items for future things... so I don't delete them and realise I need them... example tomes of knowledge... I always delete them but then realised I need 100 to buy something -_-

I saw devs on the Livestream asking each other why players don't delete ... I think it was Legendary Spikes from WvW. We don't delete things because we don't know what the devs will implement in the future... but here's the irony... because they might not work there long, neither do THEY! So why they're mystified about this is beyond me.

I agree with the OP.

............................

Please gate all rewards behind the personal story.I don't want world events or whatever the living story is.I want to go back to my personal story and don't touch anything else. Looking for my lost parents or hunt a white buck... this is when the game was awesome

@Spook.5847 said:

Look, I dont care about cut scenes or voice acting in this case. If I want that, I can watch anime.

Absolutely this! We need a skip button on all cinematics. I play the game to kill monsters, not watch movies. Leave the cut scenes alone, just add a skip button, please!

@Svarty.8019 said:

@Samnang.1879 said:Agreed.

We should also be told in advance if we need certain items for future things... so I don't delete them and realise I need them... example tomes of knowledge... I always delete them but then realised I need 100 to buy something -_-

It just goes to show how detached they are from the players' experience in the game... :#

@Mortifera.6138 said:

@"Spook.5847" said:Look, I dont care about cut scenes or voice acting in this case. If I want that, I can watch anime.

Nothing wrong in wanting story? True, but why is it required to enter new map? I couldn't care less about WvW/PvP but the story is trash. I have no intrest in listening to NPCs vapid one-liners and the endless comic reliefs, and the "witty banter" replacing basically everything in the story. After all, there is nothing left but "witty banter". Yes, when i play games, i want gameplay. Big shock, i'm sure.

@"mindcircus.1506" said:No access to things like the Stormcaller, or Tengu weapons, no access to the armor skins.

While the OP going full Karen about a an hour of PvE to unlock a reward track is pretty ridiculous, there is an actual problem here that goes to the core of the "play how you want" mantra of the original developer vision for this game.Ignoring this and telling the player to eff off and play something else because they favor a different game mode than you is not helpful, constructive, or inclusive.

You can unlock half a dozen stormcaller and boreal weapons trough WvW. As for tengu weapons, you can always buy them anyway.

A long time ago hero points wasn't a thing. You got your skillpoints to unlock everything by leveling. When they added hero points I actually spoke out that they semi-forced players to explore their world to get the full potential of their characters strength. I argued that if the world is interesting then players will explore it regardless, without being pushed into it. Then, when I did path of fire and could not progress because I didn't have raptor masteries I was angry that I had to go exploring to progress the story. Both this and what you said is still a prevalent practice. I don't enjoy gating content or pushing players to explore and do achivements. And then it turns out the skyscale is locked behind an incredibly bloated chain of achivements. ANet, not everyone likes to achivement hunt.