LW Episode 3 Release and Future Releases

A message from Mike Zadorojny:

Hi everyone,

The Living World Team currently is hard at work preparing Episode 3 of Living World Season 4. We’re excited about how it’s shaping up, but wanted to give you a heads up that the release date will be a little outside our normal release cadence.

Our key focus while creating the Living World experience is the quality bar we’ve set for ourselves for each episode. With the amount of gameplay and breadth of content in Living World, we noticed that we had an opportunity to make some adjustments to how we approach developing each episode that will help us hit our quality standards more consistently. This logistical change has had some short-term “cost” in time, but will provide benefits to all Living World episodes moving forward.

We’ll be announcing Episode 3 as the date gets closer, and everyone on the team is looking forward to playing this new content with you!

Anet Devs, you could release an episode every two months, every month, or every week and you will always have dedicated fans anxious for the next one. Personally, all I want is for you to create content to the best of your ability within the reasonable amount of time that you need.

I was disappointed with the last LW episode because to me it seemed very rushed and bloated beyond necessity. Too much time and development work may have been spent on specific parts of that episode causing other areas to lack and overall the whole episode was disconnected. It was stretched thin to make the episode feel longer and this made much of the content feel empty and redundant.

I can only request and suggest, that you focus on quality over quantity. Put in fewer storylines and elements, yet make the ones you choose layered, detailed, original, surprising, and design the mechanics to be more creative and exciting. Not just a "one and done" type of episode. Only then can a LW episode consistently meet the release cadence you set for yourself and have the quality that players hope for and that you expect to achieve.

Link to the original message in case anyone else missed it: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/41775/season-4-episode-3-is-on-the-horizon

I'm fine with a delay honestly. I play slower than the majority of people on the forum (but faster than a lot of people I know in-game who don't ever visit the forum) at the best of times, and this time of year is always busy for me. I feel like I've got more than enough to do in-game without having another episode added, and although I would play a new one if it came out I don't mind not having one. If I get bored with the stuff already available I'll just play something else and come back to GW2 when the episode is released.

Edit: And yes, like @Cyrin.1035 said I'd rather wait and have a better release than get a rushed one to match some arbitrary deadline set ages ago. IMO too many games fall into that trap these days and then you get the mess of day 1 patches and 'this is now DLC you have to buy separately because we ran out of time to put it in the base game' and half-finished systems/stories...

And hey, it's still doing better than Shenmue 3.

We aren't waiting for "quality" we're waiting for PR.

Awfully suspect timing, Anet at E3....You do the math.

I don't lurk around GW2 forums/subreddit much, but I think this is the first time I've ever seen anyone disapprove of ABITS as a LW installation. o_o;

if it is to maintain quality I do not care about deadlines.

They kept back to have a triple release during e3 to create a fuss. Makes sense marketing wise. I definitely do not mind delays as long as there is a reason for it. And there is here. I just hope that triple releases do not become the norm cause they do spread the content delivery too thin.

Whilst I can live with not having the patch this week/next week, I would have preferred something better than a flaky "it'll be released when it's done" like they've always done.

Never mind I suppose...

I prefer to have it right rather than rush it. I look forward to seeing it when it's ready.

@"Cyrin.1035" said:

A message from Mike Zadorojny:I can only request and suggest, that you focus on quality over quantity.

This, this and this.

Take the time you need dear devs. <3

Oh and dont forget to work with a cat on your desk.

Purrs are known to increase productivity.

What ? What do you mean by "this is ridiculus" ? o_ô

Maybe I'm the only one here, but I prefer a short interval (no more than 2 months) between episodes over quality...

No worries, ANet! I rather have a polished and well-done episode content than a rushed and bugged one.Of course I want content ASAP, (don't we all? :tongue: ) but I do understand there can be some delayed adjustment or other fun errors to deal with.Looking forward for the new episode! :D

@Zaraki.5784 said:Maybe I'm the only one here, but I prefer a short interval (no more than 2 months) between episodes over quality...

So you'd be okay with escorting NPCs and fixing road signs for two months, so long as they held to a strict 2 month schedule?

Honestly I like the notice. If the Devs personally feel that the episode is not on par, then I shall wait. Tbh living world seasons aren’t as good as the expansion. However season 4 is the best season they have done so far.

I agree then don’t agree about the post. I agree that they should only have living world seasons a little short and then dev work on expansion 3. Because even though as much as living world seasons have content. I want rather new features for the game with the content. Yea we had the water skill buffs. But I honestly wish they added more other things important that would involve underwater. Maybe a underwater raid? A underwater map? More underwater fractals? Etc.

I don’t agree with time limit though. As much as we the people have jobs and businesses. There are times at work, and life that make something you want to be perfect. And tbh if I had a dev job and feel my work could’ve been better, I wouldn’t release until I am personally satisfied. That way I would know the people playing would also love what I have designed. They did give a time which was 2-3 months. Give them some more time so they don’t give us a jacked up episode. After all it is free. And if they needed money for the episode I would rather pay for living world season so the pace and quality would be better. But since it’s always free it just lets you know how great arenanet is.

@JDub.1530 said:

@Zaraki.5784 said:Maybe I'm the only one here, but I prefer a short interval (no more than 2 months) between episodes over quality...

Yes.But to me, a better solution would be to deliver single missions at 2-3 weeks interval, not all together (like dry top and silverwastes were) discovering the new map a little at a time.

@JDub.1530 said:

@Zaraki.5784 said:Maybe I'm the only one here, but I prefer a short interval (no more than 2 months) between episodes over quality...

So you'd be okay with waiting an unknown amount of time between releases?Not everybody has still much to do in the game saving Living Seasons so having to wait without a strict release in boring and annoying.

@Zaraki.5784 said:

@JDub.1530 said:

@Zaraki.5784 said:Maybe I'm the only one here, but I prefer a short interval (no more than 2 months) between episodes over quality...

OMG no, just no, I hated that method back then. Any other solution would be better, even crappy hearts-maps.

I am a little worried that this is happening two times in a row. I am not especially stressed as I know that LS4-2 was a pretty massive patch, and I'm expecting 4-3 to be pretty similar.

Direct consequence of adding mounts making the maps bigger, maybe?

@TigStripe.2379 said:I don't lurk around GW2 forums/subreddit much, but I think this is the first time I've ever seen anyone disapprove of ABITS as a LW installation. o_o;

what is ABITS short for?

@Linken.6345 said:

@TigStripe.2379 said:I don't lurk around GW2 forums/subreddit much, but I think this is the first time I've ever seen anyone disapprove of ABITS as a LW installation. o_o;

A bug in the system.

@"Ayrilana.1396" said:The last delay that we had was a week. All other delays were about that long. The one due to the blizzard wasn’t delayed more than a week either.

Yes you named two facts. Prove that they’re related though.

Really ?

I have to "prove" something that only Anet themselves can at this point. Good when the 12th rolls around and you have an Anet live broadcast from E3 with the latest chapter and announcement its live you can thank me later.

@TexZero.7910 said:

@"Ayrilana.1396" said:The last delay that we had was a week. All other delays were about that long. The one due to the blizzard wasn’t delayed more than a week either.

Yes you named two facts. Prove that they’re related though.

Well people are treating it fact that Anet delayed the episode because of E3. I’m pretty sure that Anet isn’t just going to lie to us about the reason why the episode was delayed. I’m not sure if that’s a PR hit worth taking.

An Update on Episoed 2 - 02/20/2018

@Mike Zadorojny.7058 said:Hey everyone!

We are fast approaching the end of our 2-3 month cadence window for Living World Episodes and this morning we were hoping to unveil the Episode 2 Trailer along with the announcement of its release date. However, as we were preparing the episode for launch we discovered issues that we want to take additional time to address, to make sure it lives up to our standards. Once we have nailed down the last few details, started the process for moving the build to Live, and are confident when the episode will launch, we will release the trailer. Thank you for patience and bearing with us as we put the finishing touches on Episode 2. We look forward to playing the next chapter of Living World with all of you once it is released.

Thanks!Mike Zadorojny

Season 4 Episode 3 is on the Horizon - 05/29/2018

@"Ruby Bayer.8493" said:A message from Mike Zadorojny:

Hi everyone,

The Living World Team currently is hard at work preparing Episode 3 of Living World Season 4. We’re excited about how it’s shaping up, but wanted to give you a heads up that the release date will be a little outside our normal release cadence.

Our key focus while creating the Living World experience is the quality bar we’ve set for ourselves for each episode. With the amount of gameplay and breadth of content in Living World, we noticed that we had an opportunity to make some adjustments to how we approach developing each episode that will help us hit our quality standards more consistently. This logistical change has had some short-term “cost” in time, but will provide benefits to all Living World episodes moving forward.

We’ll be announcing Episode 3 as the date gets closer, and everyone on the team is looking forward to playing this new content with you!

I knew I have read this message before. However postponing two deadlines in a row, those explanations indicate a greater issue. The pressure in this genre is pretty high and with the approaching E3 in the near future, it sure is quite real. It is your job, and you know how to do it. It is done, when it is done. Take your time, as much as you feel comfortable and maybe even more.

If you have problems to reach the 2-3 month cadence, feel free to add or extend some filler events. We had an issue a year or two ago with a LS episode launch the beginning of a year. It was delayed, but lunar year remained active for the time being.

Good luck with the fixing and thanks for the information.

@Ayrilana.1396 said:Well people are treating it fact that Anet delayed the episode because of E3.

Because it's a very logical assertion to make seeing as they have not 1 but 2 rooms.Even for PAX south they only had a single panel to showcase HoT. So you tell me why a company whose only product is GW(Franchise) might have 2 rooms at E3 if not to showcase something that's upcoming...which i hope i don't have to explain that LS chapter + Raid + Fractal + potential WvW updates would indeed fall into that category.

@TexZero.7910 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:Well people are treating it fact that Anet delayed the episode because of E3.

How is it logical to completely disregard what they had stated today for the reasons only to continue going with the speculative narrative people were using prior to the announcement?

@"TexZero.7910" said:We aren't waiting for "quality" we're waiting for PR.

Awfully suspect timing, Anet at E3....You do the math.

@Turin.6921 said:They kept back to have a triple release during e3 to create a fuss. Makes sense marketing wise. I definitely do not mind delays as long as there is a reason for it. And there is here. I just hope that triple releases do not become the norm cause they do spread the content delivery too thin.

@Turin.6921 said:They kept back to have a triple release during e3 to create a fuss. Makes sense marketing wise. I definitely do not mind delays as long as there is a reason for it. And there is here. I just hope that triple releases do not become the norm cause they do spread the content delivery too thin.

These two get what's going on, nothing nefarious here it's just business.

That said I would like to add a third reason.

ESO Summerset just released, and Bless a new MMO released, you do not put out a smaller PVE content patch to compete directly with an Expansion, ANet makes a lot of their money for future development off of the first few weeks if LW tourists popping back in for a week or two to play the new patch and buy some shiny cosmetics to look good while doing it. Naturally between the release if ESO Summerset and E3 the tourists will have picked through Summerset and, Bless, will be waiting to move on to some thing else.

What will that be, a triple release patch, possible even quadruple release LW Episode, Fractal, Raid, PVP Map.

Im genually curious how much quality maters when u end up having mini content droughts inbetween every episode.

Idk about you but 3+ months is just too much. A new fractal every 6 months is insane imo, You could release raids, fractals and Lw seperately to combat that feel of "nothing to do" but anet is hell-bent at releasing months worth of content all at once.