Story content its not newbie friendly

[Linken.6345]

56 minutes ago, Jianyu.7065 said:

I purchased HoT and PoF separately - how should I feel about this?

I bought core and up so Im more oppressed I guess.

[Jianyu.7065]

9 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

I bought core and up so Im more oppressed I guess.

Yeah, so did I - I guess that didnt come through in my reply. But I also purchased everything originally back through GW1.

The point is, in just purchasing the original game (collectors edition) and HoT - I spent as much as players are spending today for everything. But I aint mad about it.

But if you feel oppressed, wow dude...thats crazy...

[deathdealer.2197]

They should iddmake bundles thatmake more sense.

Ls2 bundle, a hot,ls3, pof, bundle, etc a chronological purchase path so to speak

[oZZie.4762]

On 8/15/2023 at 11:36 AM, IAmNotMatthew.1058 said:

"We have to pay less for our game than other MMOs, but it should be even less"

Yes, low quality/low effort stuff should cost less or be bundled together in the long term. But I wasn't talking about comparing to other MMOs. I was talking about them improving their own unique business model because it's a win/win for everyone.

[Ryou.2398]

On 8/14/2023 at 9:45 AM, Tora.7214 said:

I invited a couple of friends to play snd they are loving the game so far and want to keep playing it they are also loving the story too much and i don't know how to explain to them that if they want to experience it all they have to cash in approximately 125$ minimun for all the expansions and LS content available.

People are engaged when they tell you x game is very good and f2p, but then feel betrayed and leave when realizing that more than half the game is blocked behind a paywall. Most people might start playing knowing that there have expansions. But have no idea that there is a lot more of very important story locked behind LS wich is also locked behind a not too humble paywall.

Imo LS seasons should be included alongside the expansion content they are related to, not as individual paid content. Other f2p mmo offer similar deals for their in between content. Like SWTOR only asking you to pay once in order to unlock all story released to that point. Or ESO offering you just to buy the latest expansion will will then include all the previous released expansions and episodes.

Not saying gw2 should gift their previous expansions, WoW and FFXIV do that but they are p2p games. But at the very least each expansion should include the whole story package that comes with it, the LS related to that expansion.

I gotta say this is a reach its this mentality which caused all of these crappy f2p mmo mentalities in the first place, gw2 does it in the old school buy to play way and if anyone knew a bit of history of gaming they would understand why that is extremly important in this day and age.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Ryou.2398

[oZZie.4762]

32 minutes ago, Ryou.2398 said:

I gotta say this is a reach its this mentality which caused all of these crappy f2p mmo mentalities in the first place, gw2 does it in the old school buy to play way and if anyone knew a bit of history of gaming they would understand why that is extremly important in this day and age.

Mate...historically, MMOs leaned very hard into a subscription model all the way back to MUDs. Ironically, one of GW2's main selling points was that it diverged from this old school model and was buy to play. Nowadays, GW2's contemporaries are ESO and Black Desert (b2p too but with P2W as a replacement for expacs/LW) or maybe Crowfall if you'd count that game.

Anyways, your observation seems more like taking an opportunity to sneer at f2p using a nonsensical appeal to history. I'm no fan of f2p but that's just wrong. The only old school thing about GW2 is that it still does formal expacs, and it's moved away from that with LW stuff and the upcoming mini-expansion.

[Ryou.2398]

15 minutes ago, oZZie.4762 said:

Mate...historically, MMOs leaned very hard into a subscription model all the way back to MUDs. Ironically, one of GW2's main selling points was that it diverged from this old school model and was buy to play. Nowadays, GW2's contemporaries are ESO and Black Desert (b2p too but with P2W as a replacement for expacs/LW) or maybe Crowfall if you'd count that game.

Anyways, your observation seems more like taking an opportunity to sneer at f2p using a nonsensical appeal to history. I'm no fan of f2p but that's just wrong. The only old school thing about GW2 is that it still does formal expacs, and it's moved away from that with LW stuff and the upcoming mini-expansion.

What are you talking about? This is another reach your clearly purposely trying to descredit my point and putting words I never wrote lol, I never stated sub was not the original also if your trying to say it failed your wrong everquest 1 is still around for a reason lol it was the companies hiring tons of shills so they can push the free to play agenda, all of this has been exposed and my response was extremly accurate to the post so nice try.

And dont call me mate unless you mean it I am not your buddy clearly.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Ryou.2398

[GuruChaz.9314]

Actually, even though the base content of this game is NOW free to play, when the game was originally released we had to pay for it.  Free content was added later with patches.  When an expansion was released, we had to pay for it also.   We just didn't have to pay a monthly fee to play.   It was purchase once and play all you want.    Now that the game has 10 years of accumulated content and expansions, your least expensive route as a new player is to just buy a bundle that includes all the main story expansions for $49.99

[oZZie.4762]

43 minutes ago, Ryou.2398 said:

What are you talking about? This is another reach your clearly purposely trying to descredit my point and putting words I never wrote lol, I never stated sub was not the original also if your trying to say it failed your wrong everquest 1 is still around for a reason lol it was the companies hiring tons of shills so they can push the free to play agenda, all of this has been exposed and my response was extremly accurate to the post so nice try.

And dont call me mate unless you mean it I am not your buddy clearly.

Ok. I honestly have no clue what you're trying to say if "gw2 does it in the old school buy to play way" doesn't mean exactly what it says. Because "old school way" for MMOs means subscriptions and we both know GW2 has no subscription. Not trying to be a jerk here, I'm just having trouble understanding your run-on sentences and compounded ideas with lack of punctuation. I'll take some blame here for putting in a good faith effort and falling short on reading comprehension.

"Mate" is just a common form of addressing someone in my country. I get that it's different in someone else's country and I'll be respectful of that, and you can do the same for others too.

[Cuks.8241]

Im with the author. LS are just a strange model. If I would care about story I would not be playing gw2, because when I would saw all the dlcs I would need to buy to play it in order, I would quit. I expect years old content to come cheaper and there are old great story centered games out there for fraction of cost (much better story thean gw). 

Ive bought a few other games recently and usually you can get reasonably priced bundles of old content. Or just free if you buy the latest iteration. Basically I think 60-70 € bundle should give everything up to date. 

Also LS2 is kinda bad, should come f2p. 

It would be easier if LS would not be part of the main story. 

But you wont get sympathy on this forums. Lots of player are like if I payed 10 y ago you should too. And funnily they probably didnt pay for LS chapters. 

[Blade Syphon.4325]

...Have we really reached the point where we have people complaining that a rough $10 per LS season is too much of a barrier of entry for new players to afford?

As others have already pointed out, having to pay a grand total of $125 for literally every piece of content in Guild Wars 2 is not at all a bad deal, at all, and nothing says you have to purchase it immediately. A new player just getting into the game has the entire Core Campaign and Season 1 free to them, and there's no reason why they should feel obligated to pay for anything expansion or LS wise until after they've completed that large chunk of content, save for possibly dropping $30 for the HoT and PoF bundle for the sake of having a Raptor mount from the get go.

Beyond that? We're talking the price of two cups of Coffee from a Starbucks for a Living Story Season, and half the asking price of a regular AAA title release for End of Dragons and Secrets of the Obscure. Bonus points - Once you've purchased the content, it's yours forever, with out any worry of having to pay a Sub fee on top of it.

That...that isn't expensive, and that's not a barrier to entry to anyone who has any form of income. And frankly, if you have time to play an MMO, you probably have time to throw away some disposable income in the process. So no, I do not agree that anything needs to be done to make the LS content or expansions more accessible, other than possibly making the bundles more obvious and easy to locate in the in-game gem store.

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

5 hours ago, oZZie.4762 said:

Yes, low quality/low effort stuff should cost less or be bundled together in the long term. But I wasn't talking about comparing to other MMOs. I was talking about them improving their own unique business model because it's a win/win for everyone.

And that's why they shouldn't cut their prices. You can go around and look at other MMOs how they do it and you'll come back realizing that spending the equivalent of "newest expansion+half year playtime" on all the content GW2 has to offer is good. 

The quality isn't lower than elsewhere. if you look at any MMO you'll see similiar issues, except most of them ask for more money than Anet does per expansion on top of paying each month. Anet could literally release SoTO 5 times a year and you'd still have a bit of money left if you used a yearly WoW sub budget. 

[Ryou.2398]

1 hour ago, oZZie.4762 said:

Ok. I honestly have no clue what you're trying to say if "gw2 does it in the old school buy to play way" doesn't mean exactly what it says. Because "old school way" for MMOs means subscriptions and we both know GW2 has no subscription. Not trying to be a jerk here, I'm just having trouble understanding your run-on sentences and compounded ideas with lack of punctuation. I'll take some blame here for putting in a good faith effort and falling short on reading comprehension.

"Mate" is just a common form of addressing someone in my country. I get that it's different in someone else's country and I'll be respectful of that, and you can do the same for others too.

Im just going to apologize for being a little on the defense as I have not had good experiences in the past here. Buy to play guild wars 1 when it first came out is a fairly old school system of course its not going to be as old school as an early 90s mmo. Buy to play mmos like games existed not long after. But there was not half as many as buy to play sub based. Anyways this is a game forum not my job there are many trolls and I am not going to put in the effort as well as I would for people I want to impress, regardless it was very understandable rather anyone has an issue with it or not.

[FalanuLachance.4576]

@OP: Tell them, it's worth it. When they see their achievement ledger, they'll know they invested in years of playtime, so GW2 is dirt-cheap, even if you buy all the ultimate editions.

Edited August 17, 2023 by FalanuLachance.4576

[Ashen.2907]

I would much rather have seen LS seasons as side stories largely disconnected from the main story. Stand alone stories in their own right. That way people could choose to skip them without impacting the coherency of the main story. And because they could then have provided a break from the main story as a change of pace.

That said, LS is a product, the product of someone's (many such) labor and so it is not unreasonable to charge for it. ANet has given the playerbase several options in terms of currency they will accept (or have accepted) as payment for LS chapters. One can spend real money, one can spend in game gold, and one could login during specific windows of time. 

[Firebeard.1746]

On 8/14/2023 at 7:45 AM, Tora.7214 said:

I invited a couple of friends to play snd they are loving the game so far and want to keep playing it they are also loving the story too much and i don't know how to explain to them that if they want to experience it all they have to cash in approximately 125$ minimun for all the expansions and LS content available.

I know the game being f2p Anet has to make income somehow, but doesn't seem fair having to pay the price of 2 expansions to obtain content that was originally free when it released. 

People are engaged when they tell you x game is very good and f2p, but then feel betrayed and leave when realizing that more than half the game is blocked behind a paywall. Most people might start playing knowing that there have expansions. But have no idea that there is a lot more of very important story locked behind LS wich is also locked behind a not too humble paywall.

Imo LS seasons should be included alongside the expansion content they are related to, not as individual paid content. Other f2p mmo offer similar deals for their in between content. Like SWTOR only asking you to pay once in order to unlock all story released to that point. Or ESO offering you just to buy the latest expansion will will then include all the previous released expansions and episodes.

Not saying gw2 should gift their previous expansions, WoW and FFXIV do that but they are p2p games. But at the very least each expansion should include the whole story package that comes with it, the LS related to that expansion.

Also they can purchase living world seasons for gold. THe only thing you must pay money for is expansions. I know grinding gold isn't fun, but it's an option if they don't have the cash. They really should demote EoD and bundle it with PoF and HoT now that Soto is on the horizon. 

Sometimes if you're patient LWS content is just made free. Though that might not happen again. 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Firebeard.1746

[Lucy.3728]

On 8/14/2023 at 4:45 PM, Tora.7214 said:

they are also loving the story too much and i don't know how to explain to them that if they want to experience it all they have to cash in approximately 125$ minimun for all the expansions and LS content available

This system ruined my story experience when I returned after a 7 year break. 😞

I played the HoT and PoF stories without the in-between stories (I didn't have them, didn't even know they were necessary for the feeling of a story continuation, thought they were just some expansion-related fillers I could do anytime later - like filler episodes in TV series) and was confused about the people. HoT was my worst experience with the story.  Lots of unfamiliar people - who I had no connection to or interest in - were constantly babbling and kept me from playing. Add to that the tougher enemies.

I played the seasons in the order I got them later, and it was a chronological mess. (I returned when the middle of IBS was released, and bought other seasons with gems when they were on sale. I had to collect a lot of gold first to do that, though. I can't imagine a more unfriendly system).

The only story I liked was IBS because it actually felt like a standalone story. If you ignore the fact that it ended up killing two dragons that were actually part of the main story.  😆🤔

And for me it wasn't just the more money it would cost. With EoD and now SotO I bought the most expensive version just to express my support for Anet, I don't need those gems for extra money. But I was not there yet when I returned. I'm not spending 100 bucks on something I might drop after a few months.

The chronological story mess is just one point for the beginner-unfriendly system, or let's call it unbalanced.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Lucy.3728
typos