We're not getting a new Living World episode anywhere soon, are we?

[Jukhy.2431]

The info so far - no accurate timeline yet:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/arenanet-studio-update-the-future-of-guild-wars-2/
"Finally, we’re happy to confirm that we’re working on the next story update for Guild Wars 2, including a new map set in the Cantha region."

[firedragon.8953]

Honestly, I'm loving the polish given to existing content.
I'm happy to play through LWS1 (finally), and it's basically "new" even if it's not "next".
I'm really looking forward to the Battle for Lion's Arch strike mission.

Personally I really love a lot of the things Anet is doing (presumably for the Steam launch).
Didn't like the big recent "balance" patch (warrior main and all...RIP)
Also, I feel like we've been waiting for WvW alliances forever and new WvW content (maps, masteries, etc.).

But, yeah, taking a retrospective look over the last decade and improving on what we have in game and encouraging players to go back and try it was something I feel was neglected for too long to begin with.

[Vayne.8563]

6 hours ago, mindcircus.1506 said:

I go to a restaurant and I order a meal (expac) and get a side of fries (LW) with it.
Suddenly the restaurant doesn't give me the fries.
When I ask "Hey I thought this burger came with fries... it did last week"
The answer is "We are saving the cost of potatoes in order to put out new forks we think will attract new customers."
Never mind the fact I have been enjoying those fries and they were half the reason I bought the burger.

And you are telling me "Hey be happy with the new cutlery,  you get to use it too!.... hopefully next year you will get your fries again"

I really fail to understand why this forum is so quick to defend Anet 100% underdelivering compared to it's past efforts.

Except you didn't go into a restaurant and order a side of fries. You ordered and received a complete meal, which you assumed came with dessert. And Anet has already said more content will come in Cantha, so it's a matter of time scale.

No one really expected LS Season 1 to be coming back or, for that matter, a lot of QOL. The different between a meal and an MMO is that meals are meant to be eaten in a short period of time, where as MMOs span very long periods of time. If an expansion is a meal, you've been sitting at the table for a long time.  It took 9 months after HoT launched to get any new content besides raids and PvP tournaments. Here at least we're getting QOL and Season 1.

 

After Season 1, we're getting more new story content as well.  So you didn't order a side of fries and not got it. You may not like we your dinner was like but you ordered a dinner and received a dinner. The rest is just a bad analogy.

[mythical.6315]

9 hours ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

Please tell me they're not actually waiting to have fully re-released LWS1 before giving us a genuinely new LW episode. 😞

End of the year at the earliest but most likely not until next year due to their development cycle and when the first team may have started. 

[mythical.6315]

7 hours ago, ThunderX.6591 said:

For anything new after EOD, i think we need to wait the end of the re-release of LWS1 (that is good to have finally in the game as permanent contents), so, around spring - summer of 2023 before having some info on new contents for the game.

Nothing more we can do about it, we can only wait in the end.

Yep. The longest content drought in the history of the game would sure do wonders. 

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

6 hours ago, mindcircus.1506 said:

I go to a restaurant and I order a meal (expac) and get a side of fries (LW) with it.
Suddenly the restaurant doesn't give me the fries.
When I ask "Hey I thought this burger came with fries... it did last week"
The answer is "We are saving the cost of potatoes in order to put out new forks we think will attract new customers."
Never mind the fact I have been enjoying those fries and they were half the reason I bought the burger.

And you are telling me "Hey be happy with the new cutlery,  you get to use it too!.... hopefully next year you will get your fries again"

I really fail to understand why this forum is so quick to defend Anet 100% underdelivering compared to it's past efforts.

"Compared to its past efforts"

Did you somehow miss the part where over half their staff was fired during LWS4?

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Deleted, duplicate post.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Mariyuuna.6508

[Ashen.2907]

9 hours ago, Mariyuuna.6508 said:

"Compared to its past efforts"

Did you somehow miss the part where over half their staff was fired during LWS4?

Are you referring to the point when non gw2 project(s) were cancelled and employees working on them were let go, or moved back to gw2, but the gw2 team retained its size?

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

3 hours ago, Ashen.2907 said:

Are you referring to the point when non gw2 project(s) were cancelled and employees working on them were let go, or moved back to gw2, but the gw2 team retained its size?

Its not just about what they were working on, the posts from the devs at the time talk about how it devestated them because alot of those lost were friends and even family. It took the studio an entire year to visibly recover and that was just from what we could see from the outside.

 

Has it even been confirmed that the GW2 team didn't shrink significantly? I've seen this multiple times but as far as I can tell, there's no developer statement on it (that I can find).

 

Since about midway through IceBrood Saga players have been noticing that alot of the current developers don't intimiately know how the game works, suggesting they'd been replaced not long before that. This is especially evident in recent content, where old systems seem to be completely forgotten.

 

It seems odd for so much of the development process to be fresh, don't you think?

Edited July 20, 2022 by Mariyuuna.6508

[Ashen.2907]

1 minute ago, Mariyuuna.6508 said:

Its not just about what they were working on, the posts from the devs at the time talk about how it devestated them because alot of those lost were friends and even family. It took the studio an entire year to visibly recover and that was just from what we could see from the outside.

 

Has it even been confirmed that the GW2 team didn't shrink significantly? I've seen this multiple times but as far as I can tell, there's no developer statement on it (that I can find).

 

Since about midway through IceBrood Saga players have been noticing that alot of the current developers don't intimiately know how the game works, suggesting they'd been replaced not long before that. This is especially evident in recent content, where old systems seem to be completely forgotten.

 

It seems odd for so much of the development process to be fresh, don't you think?

It was confirmed that the GW2 team retained its size....but there were definitely examples of more experienced people leaving while othsrs, less experienced with GW2, remained. In some instances it was a decision by the more experienced person to go so that someone with less ability to bounceback from a layoff could stay employed. I am sure that this has had an impact. As to the, "devastated," part....I guess I am old fashioned. I think that a person who is being paid to do a job should do it even if a friend was laid off because they failed to produce. Its a job, not an adult daycare.

[Ledi.9742]

tbh i much prefer them to take a breather and just polishing and re-releasing old stuff over rushing to pump out new content. focusing on "less demanding" content that is mostly just fixing up already existing content allows them to meanwhile actually work on the new content at their own pace without the pressure of having to get it out as soon as possible, and still keeping up the steady flow of updates.

[kharmin.7683]

2 minutes ago, Mutisija.5017 said:

tbh i much prefer them to take a breather and just polishing and re-releasing old stuff over rushing to pump out new content. focusing on "less demanding" content that is mostly just fixing up already existing content allows them to meanwhile actually work on the new content at their own pace without the pressure of having to get it out as soon as possible, and still keeping up the steady flow of updates.

Not sure what kind of resources you think ANet has to both polish existing content and develop new while still keeping a steady flow of updates.

[Bast.7253]

I'm assuming whatever their original development flow in previous expansions was just too hectic for the studio to keep up with. I'm guessing they're also having to re-code/restructure Season 1 from its original format to the traditional living story format which is probably a greater amount of work than I gave credit for. 

Still feels a bit on the lighter side to me. I mean embolden mode is great, converting currencies are great, and the world bosses I'm sure weren't easy to dig into legacy code and revamp but I haven't done them yet so I'm not sure how involved they really are yet. 

The bad and only consistent thing about this studio is that they're inconsistent. For a little while we'll get living story episodes, current events in between, rush events, wvw events, polish and qol updates thrown in occasionally. Now it's like... living story season 1 rerelease.. some qol updates.. minor profession changes every couple of months, and.... a festival that has minimal changes beyond one or two new armor pieces. 

I mean Dragon Bash, Queen's Gauntlet, and Festival of the Four Winds are so outdated in terms of story context at this point that it's just kind of.... why? 

They may also be having a tough time training newer devs given how many veterans were laid off awhile back. There's probably quite a bit of legacy code and highly specialized internal tools they've built that take a good amount of training to start really being productive with. 

I think there are still things they can do to liven up the game though in the downtime. They've had boss rushes, meta event rushes, wvw events, all of these different special events that I would think could be placed on a rotating consistent schedule and automated somehow - maybe even add a calendar similar to what WoW does with theirs that shows these events and when they'll be active during the month.. add in the new embolden raid wing rotation and give at least veteran players more options to choose from in terms of what they can do in game beyond whatever is currently in the spotlight for the week/month. 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Point of No Return - January 2015

Next release: Heart of Thorns - October 2015

 

Thus, another example of Releases not coming fast and furiously. 

[Cameryn.5310]

Kind of funny... I was just about to ask on the forums "is there any news about a new chapter of Guild Wars 2 coming any time soon?"  I've been around since prior to Living Story being a thing, so I've already done LS1 in the past, and though I'm very appreciative that they made it available again, I'd much rather them move forward.

I really loved looking forward to the new maps and new story chapters (especially LW seasons 3 & 4) and how everyone would be doing meta events on the new maps.  

So I take it there's no news on this front and it's unlikely we'll see any NEW content in 2022, right?  If so, that's a real shame.  I've already leveled 3 characters through EoD and I'm taking a break from playing until we get a new LW chapter.

Edited July 21, 2022 by Cameryn.5310

[lezbefriends.7516]

They don't care about the 30-year-old oldschool players. They're trying to get the next generation of gamers to play their game... which means polishing their old game for Steam is top priority.

[otto.5684]

On 7/19/2022 at 4:46 PM, Kayberz.5346 said:

More likely is that anet is probably going to rebrand upcoming new content releases as something other than "living world"

 

With the "Elder dragon saga" finished im betting anet doesn't want to call the upcoming content as "season 6" but instead have whatever it is start fresh, so that new players dont feel obligated to play the previous seasons to know whats going on.

Its probably going to be very similar if not identical to previous living world seasons just with a new name. Similar to what they did with icebrood saga

They can call it potatoes. The question is when is it coming? And please do not tell me all they have is releasing old rehashed content, that should have been in the game years ago.

[Pifil.5193]

1 hour ago, otto.5684 said:

They can call it potatoes. The question is when is it coming? And please do not tell me all they have is releasing old rehashed content, that should have been in the game years ago.

 

Unfortunately that's exactly what they're doing.

 

It's nice to have LS1 back in some form but it does mean that the next story step will probably not be out until early next year, I'd guess February, regardless of whatever it may be called or what form it might take.

 

The vast majority of the devs will be working on the next story steps and the next expansion but the change in direction back during the IBS and the current goal of backfilling LS1 and polisho other content for Steam has really screwed up the chance of delivery of new content this year.

[otto.5684]

6 hours ago, Pifil.5193 said:

 

Unfortunately that's exactly what they're doing.

 

It's nice to have LS1 back in some form but it does mean that the next story step will probably not be out until early next year, I'd guess February, regardless of whatever it may be called or what form it might take.

 

The vast majority of the devs will be working on the next story steps and the next expansion but the change in direction back during the IBS and the current goal of backfilling LS1 and polisho other content for Steam has really screwed up the chance of delivery of new content this year.

Then why did they bother at all with LWS1. Having it is nice, but it should never be at the cost of new content. This a waste of dev resources.

[mythical.6315]

LS1 was a gap in the story so it makes sense that they try to bring it back into the game in an effort to prepare for a wave of new players with the Steam release. 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Not just because of Steam; bringing back LW Season 1 has been one of the most requested things for years and years. 

[mythical.6315]

True but if the game was not going to release on Steam, would they have done it?  

[Labjax.2465]

1 hour ago, otto.5684 said:

Then why did they bother at all with LWS1. Having it is nice, but it should never be at the cost of new content. This a waste of dev resources.

Because every game has natural turnover on players, so keeping new players around is important and that experience has long been neglected in a number of areas, one of them being a huge gap in the player story.

Doing so might cost them the attention of some players who need new content to keep them showing up. There are always tradeoffs. But in the long-term, this and other efforts will hopefully make new player retention higher, helping the game to grow and justify whatever funding is needed for new content for many more years to come.

Also, it's not as bad of a tradeoff as it might seem, since all you have to have done is joined the game after LW1 to have missed this content permanently (and it happened pretty early in the game's history), so there is likely a large percentage of veteran players who have never seen it and for them, this is new content.

[Pifil.5193]

8 hours ago, otto.5684 said:

Then why did they bother at all with LWS1. Having it is nice, but it should never be at the cost of new content. This a waste of dev resources.

 

I think the choice isn't between LS1 or a new story release the choice is between LS1 or another content drought. Remember the 10 month or so gap between the launch of HoT and LS3? I think we'd be seeing that kind of gap again if they didn't have LS1 to rerun. 

 

I would think that it's a lot quicker to polish and rework old content than to produce new content. They're working on both the next story for this expansion and also the next expansion at the same time. The LS1 rerelease buys them done time and also allows them to mostly complete the game's storyline.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

On 7/19/2022 at 4:14 PM, mindcircus.1506 said:

I literally lol'ed.

 

On 7/19/2022 at 4:16 PM, Ashen.2907 said:

I choked on my drink.

 

Yes. Yet another very uneventful year of filling the gaps

 

At least LW1 will be in the game. "Balance" doesn't effect the vast majority casual audience.