Prologue equals episode 1?

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@PseudoNewb.5468 said:

@"Stephane Lo Presti.7258" said:Just so that we're all on the same page: the Prologue episode, called "Bound by Blood" and releasing on September 17, takes place before Episode 1 of the Icebrood Saga!

I don't think I am on the same page, yet...

So to confirm. Not all content releases will be of equal size, regardless of if it is story instances, new open world map areas, or other types of potential content for any part of the game? Is being a non-standard release what makes this release not a numbered episode? Does this also mean that there is going to be a more irregular release cadence? It seems there are still numbered episodes, though, so are numbered episodes things that have a targeted schedule, while everything else can be more variable?

Or is designating this as the prologue, strictly a narrative distinction?

I just want it explained clearly, I can guess there will be numbered episodes, non-numbered episodes, and other content releases through the living world calendar. But this is very uncertain to me. If there is not yet a concrete release idea for the foreseeable future, can the team explain, maybe this idea, but if not perhaps this second idea...? Just to provide clarity if not a "promise".

I would also like clarification on if this content being free with PoF, means that there is no longer a, if you login during the release, stipulation for being free. Is that being eliminated for this content? If not then is the login requirement tied to numbered episodes, so that any potential out of episode content will be designated as part of a numbered episode to determine it's release window, and inclusion in episode purchases in the gem store?

They have stipulated that this season's (Saga) Episodes will be free (when logging in) until the next Episode releases (see News Blog). No clarification about other releases, but, so far, those have always been free (and never found in the Gem Store).

[MashMash.1645]

I still don’t understand what we are getting at all.

Like, if you aren’t around are you going to miss out on content forever like with Season 1?

Edit: I see episodes mentioned. So it’s basically Living Story, but they’ve re-named it?

[Naxos.2503]

From what I gathered from the presentation, and the wording, I'd say each episode is likely to open up parts of a larger map. So the prologue will Probably let us explore the entrance and immediate area ?

[Fueki.4753]

@MashMash.1645 said:Edit: I see episodes mentioned. So it’s basically Living Story, but they’ve re-named it?

I still think it's called Season, just the title of the Season contains the word Saga.They claimed to give Season 5 more expansion-like features, so maybe they count 'having a name' as one of the expansion-like features.

[Dami.5046]

A prologue is :a separate introductory section of a literary, dramatic, or musical work.oran event or act that leads to another.and is a noun.So in our case the former.

[Fueki.4753]

@Dami.5046 said:A prologue is :a separate introductory section of a literary, dramatic, or musical work.oran event or act that leads to another.and is a noun.So in our case the former.

It could be both.

[Rasimir.6239]

@"PseudoNewb.5468" said:So to confirm. Not all content releases will be of equal size, regardless of if it is story instances, new open world map areas, or other types of potential content for any part of the game?I don't think living story releases have ever been of "equal size". For example, comparing "War Eternal" with its map-wide meta and Skyscale mount to "A Bug in the System" with the golem backpack, I find it hard to decide whether or not they are "equal". Episode 6 definitely had a much larger impact on my everyday gameplay.

What, in your mind, decides the "size" of an episode? How do you weight one-time unlocks (mounts, Sun's Refuge, armor or weapon sets) versus repeatable content (meta events, bounties, mini dungeons like the Thunderhead Keep treasure rooms)? Do optional achievements count towards the size? Map/no map, size of map/map area unlocked?

Looking at even just the episodes of season 4 I find it hard to pin down the "size" of each episode, as that will vary widely from player to player depending on their (personal) metric and the kind of content they enjoy (or don't). You have the "living world is only 2 hours of content" crowd on one end of the spectrum, that apparently find all episodes the same size (assuming they measure by the play hours they always throw around), and the "I never tier of playing in this map/replaying this story" crowd on the other end to whom the episodes seem to be endless.

If you want a confirmation of the equality of release size, then your best bet is to define what "size" means to you in relation to content releases. Still that might be totally different from how ANet defines size (the first definition that comes to my mind is "a polished, well-rounded package of content"). I doubt they can give you a satisfactory answer to this question.