Passion has gone my friends [Merged]

[Sobx.1758]

19 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

It's not just about number of maps. It's about other stuff in those releases as well. Like, say, the size of the story. I must say that patches managed to surprise (in a negative way) even me, and i was one of the sceptics. The people that legit expected the same overall amount of content (just cheduled differently) than in original Expac +LS release system (and there were a lot of them)? They sure didn't feel good. Sure, you can say now that they should have been expecting the worst, not the best, out of Anet's announcements, but i haven't seen you saying that then, when a ton of people were defending that new schedule and calling all sceptics to be unrealistic doomsayers.

They didn't need to "expect the worst" (where did this even come from?), they should have just read what we've been told. Again, why would you expect any other content than what they specifically told us it will be? I don't get how are you surprised about anything here, maybe you can try being more specific? Size of the story is the one thing that wasn't mentioned I think, personally I don't see it as some big outlier from the previous releases, but maybe it's partially just me not caring that much about the story playthroughs anyways.

 

11 hours ago, Labjax.2465 said:

I mean, it's not really the right word for it, but the spirit behind it seems similar. The difference is the live service model being what it is now, companies don't want to give up the cash cow if they can keep raking in the money, but they also don't want to put a lot of resources into it if there isn't a promise of major return on investment, so stuff can end up in this sort of limbo place where it's technically still getting updates, but at a drastically reduced level of investment compared to its peaks. The employees themselves could be putting in just as much effort in as at the product's peaks, sometimes more so if consolidation is putting pressure on them to do more than one person's job, but realistically, if (for example) the workforce is 1/5th of what it was in the past, they won't be able to come close to matching the previous energy.

Still, I don't think reduced resources is intrinsically what causes some people to give the side-eye. It's more so when a company tries to compensate for reduced resources by overhauling existing systems to try to keep the profits at the same or higher level in spite of investing less into the game (ex: taking a piece from one part of the game, rune bonuses, and putting them into another, relics). It becomes sort of self-defeating at a certain point, as far as I can tell. Maintenance mode is arguably better in some ways than this kind of situation; at least with maintenance mode, the stuff that worked well continues to work well and stay the same.

No, the spirit behind it is not similar and that's not what "maintenance mode" means. So you're correct only at the part where you said "it's not really the right word for it". 🤷‍♂️ 
Shiyo claims gw2 was in maintenance mode since pof so... let that sink in 🙃 

Edited March 16 by Sobx.1758

[Krajtin.8956]

Guys, let's not forget that it is €25. Soto is not an expansion and let's not forget that it has been developed in 1 year. SoTo has a price of €25 and the next one will be the same in content and quality. and I will buy it

[Astralporing.1957]

2 hours ago, Krajtin.8956 said:

Guys, let's not forget that it is €25. Soto is not an expansion and let's not forget that it has been developed in 1 year. SoTo has a price of €25 and the next one will be the same in content and quality. and I will buy it

Bad movie won't become any more worth viewing just because tickets were cheap. All it means is that you lost less by going to the theater.

Edited March 16 by Astralporing.1957

[Sobx.1758]

18 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Bad movie won't become any more worth viewing just because tickets were cheap. All it means is that you lost less by going to the theater.

Seeing movie's runtime, buying a ticket to watch it and then complaining that it was short when you already knew the duration beforehand doesn't make it a good -or probably even valid- complaint.

[Krajtin.8956]

10 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Bad movie won't become any more worth viewing just because tickets were cheap. All it means is that you lost less by going to the theater.

So, tell me what price does LW3-LW4 have for you for the first 3 chapters developed in 1 year?

And don't tell me: "LW was free content" because it was as a strategy for veteran players. Because I remind you that I had to buy it

I'll tell you, SoTo has many characteristics of a LW:
- Recycled enemies
- Maps with some events
- 3 maps (developed in 1 year)

How many events do we have in Ember Bay?
How many new enemies do we have in Bloodstone Fen/Instan?How many legendary items do we have in LW3-LW4?

The only thing SoTo is worse is the story and the instanced content (except Cerus Strike)

Edited March 17 by Krajtin.8956

[Holmindeboks.3490]

On 3/15/2024 at 9:26 PM, Sobx.1758 said:

Then why are you complaining about random being random instead of it magically favoring you?

Logging in to mmos weekly is still actively playing them, isn't it?

Why are you still going back to this tired "but wow" when you literally said you've quit it due to not getting any drops for months? Why do you keep repeating this "but wow" as if "wow drops were satisfying for you" when you.... quit it due to not getting drops? How is this supposed to make any sense?

I don't care you don't like me. You probably don't like me because you're hearing the truth you dislike. Like the one about your expectations of recieving rare loot while it still would be rare for others (because otherwise it wouldn't be valuable enough for you to consider it "worth it") being unreasonable. Or the one about you logging in weekly going against your claims of "not playing mmos". Ooor the one where you somehow repeatedly keep praising wow drops while you also said you've quit the game due to not receiving good drops for months.

Nah, I neither like or dislike you, I'm just pointing out your expectations are unreasonable and a lot of what you're writing makes no sense from my point of view or even goes against your own words from your other posts.

I dont care. You keep trying to diss me. I already said the comparison of wow versus guildwars 2. And no its not the truth.  Create your own words. I already said that in wow i got more drops in the playtime of those years 2009 till 2015 while in guildwars 2 i played from 2016 till 2023 actively and got only 1 infusion of 880 gold. I said that i played wow for 90 days after a break of 7 years and if i didnt get something i wanted (one of the few low drop mounts) i wont sub again. Ofc i wont get a mount drop of 1% or lower within 90 days. On only a few runs a week. Or i would be very lucky. And i didnt. The time i played wow more i got many low drop mounts. Look at a few posts of me ago. Or my last one. I explained it. You can say what you want. But you wont win. 
 

i didnt go against my own words. I havent said the whole story in first place. I only described the 90 days. But i played wow before. Those 90 days was just a come back (try) 
 

And about that loot that i want rare valleud items and others not. Right now it is the opposide while others get nice (rare) items and i didnt. In those years played. 

and about praising wow drops, some wows mounts are compareble with super rare loot in guildwars 2  you wont see them much or never. BUT wow also drop skins like shaman tier 6 look a like shoulders from black temple boss. Took me 17 runs before i got them on my hunter. But in guildwars 2 there drops nothing besides an infusion, this part is the store. And thats what bothers me. The only loot is super rare and further junk loot, while the rest of the loot is paid from store. And because its super rare it counts as nothing. And ofc ppl say you can convert gold to gems, true. But before you have sold enough junk loot to be able to buy 1600 gems for a mount you are 6 months further, so the balance is unreal. And because this way ppl buy gems earlyer because for 1600 gems they only have to work a few minutes. I once had a guildy doing webdesign and bought for 100 euro gems a month because he had to work only a few hours for that. This is not a point of free to play after buying an expansion. Its just nasty practise to make an empty loot table besides 1 super rare, if there would drop a few skins it makes it different. But there drops NOTHING!!  
 

and i am sure that players who say convert gold to gems are just buying the gems with cash but say this to defend the game. While they know how hard it can be to make some gold, ofc you can craft a legendary but that gold is gone after a few upgrades and a mount. And if you put the legendary on tp you have to be lucky if you not get undercut. 
 

ofc i can go play wow and stop whining here. But i am first busy on another game and because wow has a Playtime i feel forced to play wow because 60 days count down. While without a wow sub i can just play games what i like to play. 

but lets end this. If you dont understand what i said thats oke. 
 

 

[Krajtin.8956]

29 minutes ago, Holmindeboks.3490 said:

I dont care. You keep trying to diss me. I already said the comparison of wow versus guildwars 2. And no its not the truth.  Create your own words. I already said that in wow i got more drops in the playtime of those years 2009 till 2015 while in guildwars 2 i played from 2016 till 2023 actively and got only 1 infusion of 880 gold. I said that i played wow for 90 days after a break of 7 years and if i didnt get something i wanted (one of the few low drop mounts) i wont sub again. Ofc i wont get a mount drop of 1% or lower within 90 days. On only a few runs a week. Or i would be very lucky. And i didnt. The time i played wow more i got many low drop mounts. Look at a few posts of me ago. Or my last one. I explained it. You can say what you want. But you wont win. 
 

i didnt go against my own words. I havent said the whole story in first place. I only described the 90 days. But i played wow before. Those 90 days was just a come back (try) 
 

And about that loot that i want rare valleud items and others not. Right now it is the opposide while others get nice (rare) items and i didnt. In those years played. 

and about praising wow drops, some wows mounts are compareble with super rare loot in guildwars 2  you wont see them much or never. BUT wow also drop skins like shaman tier 6 look a like shoulders from black temple boss. Took me 17 runs before i got them on my hunter. But in guildwars 2 there drops nothing besides an infusion, this part is the store. And thats what bothers me. The only loot is super rare and further junk loot, while the rest of the loot is paid from store. And because its super rare it counts as nothing. And ofc ppl say you can convert gold to gems, true. But before you have sold enough junk loot to be able to buy 1600 gems for a mount you are 6 months further, so the balance is unreal. And because this way ppl buy gems earlyer because for 1600 gems they only have to work a few minutes. I once had a guildy doing webdesign and bought for 100 euro gems a month because he had to work only a few hours for that. This is not a point of free to play after buying an expansion. Its just nasty practise to make an empty loot table besides 1 super rare, if there would drop a few skins it makes it different. But there drops NOTHING!!  
 

and i am sure that players who say convert gold to gems are just buying the gems with cash but say this to defend the game. While they know how hard it can be to make some gold, ofc you can craft a legendary but that gold is gone after a few upgrades and a mount. And if you put the legendary on tp you have to be lucky if you not get undercut. 
 

ofc i can go play wow and stop whining here. But i am first busy on another game and because wow has a Playtime i feel forced to play wow because 60 days count down. While without a wow sub i can just play games what i like to play. 

but lets end this. If you dont understand what i said thats oke. 
 

 

It is true that the drops in WoW are higher than GW2. But think that WoW can do that because EVERY MONTH WoW receives €12.99 from all players.

Are GW2 drops unfair? Yeah
It's also unfair to play and pay for post-DragonFlight patches with poor, repetitive content. Choose wisely

[Holmindeboks.3490]

3 minutes ago, Krajtin.8956 said:

It is true that the drops in WoW are higher than GW2. But think that WoW can do that because EVERY MONTH WoW receives €12.99 from all players.

Are GW2 drops unfair? Yeah
It's also unfair to play and pay for post-DragonFlight patches with poor, repetitive content. Choose wisely

In the end they are all the same. And only want our money and they dont care much about us. I have to say that guildwars 2 has the best support from all games i have played. With refunds etc. Ubisoft is the worst and cant be called a support. I havent played dragon flight. If i would play wow again i just use end game greenies and solo old expansions i missed. 

[Astralporing.1957]

3 hours ago, Krajtin.8956 said:

So, tell me what price does LW3-LW4 have for you for the first 3 chapters developed in 1 year?

And don't tell me: "LW was free content" because it was as a strategy for veteran players. Because I remind you that I had to buy it

I'll tell you, SoTo has many characteristics of a LW:
- Recycled enemies
- Maps with some events
- 3 maps (developed in 1 year)

How many events do we have in Ember Bay?
How many new enemies do we have in Bloodstone Fen/Instan?How many legendary items do we have in LW3-LW4?

The only thing SoTo is worse is the story and the instanced content (except Cerus Strike)

What price? Without expansion to carry it, they are not worth much, i am afraid. And that's exactly what SotO is to me. A poor quality LS that might have been somewhat fine (even if somewhat meh, and in lower ranges of LS quality we've got so far) if it was part of normal cycle release, but is not okay as a replacement for that cycle.

[Krajtin.8956]

13 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

What price? Without expansion to carry it, they are not worth much, i am afraid. And that's exactly what SotO is to me. A poor quality LS that might have been somewhat fine (even if somewhat meh, and in lower ranges of LS quality we've got so far) if it was part of normal cycle release, but is not okay as a replacement for that cycle.

Of course, LW cannot be a replacement for what Anet offered us with its expansions. But we already know that they are working on that secret project and we have no other way but to wait (who knows, 2026) to find out if they will use the real resources that GW2 needs again or if the new game will be their new future for the company.

Edited March 17 by Krajtin.8956

[Astralporing.1957]

1 hour ago, Krajtin.8956 said:

Of course, LW cannot be a replacement for what Anet offered us with its expansions. But we already know that they are working on that secret project and we have no other way but to wait (who knows, 2026) to find out if they will use the real resources that GW2 needs again or if the new game will be their new future for the company.

They won't. If they can justify pulling out resources from GW2 now, when it is their only source of income, they will be able to justify it even more when they won't be so dependent on it anymore. And if their other project capsizes, as it happened when they tried it before, we'll go back to old post-IBS situation, but starting at an even weaker base than then. If GW2 players will allow devs to get away with such behaviour now, there won't be any winning scenario for this game anymore.

[Holmindeboks.3490]

2 hours ago, Krajtin.8956 said:

Of course, LW cannot be a replacement for what Anet offered us with its expansions. But we already know that they are working on that secret project and we have no other way but to wait (who knows, 2026) to find out if they will use the real resources that GW2 needs again or if the new game will be their new future for the company.

Secret project, star citizen 2.0? 

[Krajtin.8956]

51 minutes ago, Holmindeboks.3490 said:

Secret project, star citizen 2.0? 

https://boards.greenhouse.io/arenanet/jobs/5488580

[Sobx.1758]

On 3/17/2024 at 12:07 PM, Holmindeboks.3490 said:

while in guildwars 2 i played from 2016 till 2023 actively and got only 1 infusion of 880 gold.

880gold drop is a rare valuable drop. If those items were consistently dropping, they wouldn't be worth as much as they are. Because of that, your expectations are unreasonable.

Quote

I said that i played wow for 90 days after a break of 7 years and if i didnt get something i wanted (one of the few low drop mounts) i wont sub again. Ofc i wont get a mount drop of 1% or lower within 90 days. On only a few runs a week. Or i would be very lucky. And i didnt. The time i played wow more i got many low drop mounts. Look at a few posts of me ago. Or my last one. I explained it.

In that case you also should be fine with not being able to expect those rare drops here. The skins are dropping here too though -and if they don't, they're accessible through raid/strike currency. But that doesn't get in the way of you repeating "no skins" and that gold to gems doesn't count, even though you've tried claiming wow is f2p because you can grind out the sub. Not sure what logic you're using to hold these opinions at the same time.

Quote

And about that loot that i want rare valleud items and others not. Right now it is the opposide while others get nice (rare) items and i didnt. In those years played.

The same way "others" win the lottery and you don't. It's because apparently in your mind you're counting yourself as a single entity and the whole rest of playerbase (or "rest of the people buying lottery tickets") as another single entity where it's "you getting an item" vs "one/some of all of them getting an item".

Quote

and i am sure that players who say convert gold to gems are just buying the gems with cash but say this to defend the game.

Wrong.

Quote

ofc i can go play wow and stop whining here.

Ofc you can, but then again you kept saying you've quit mmos (while still logging into gw2 to try and get drops from metas -again, not sure how that's supposed to work where you quit mmos but also keep logging into at least one of them), so one would believe you're actually not playing wow nor gw2?

[Shiyo.3578]

On 3/15/2024 at 9:43 PM, Astralporing.1957 said:

Crazy that people are still in denial about GW2 being in significantly reduced resource use mode after seeing Gyala and SotO.

SotO has the worst metas since Core.

The expansion released, then had a fractal event while fractals were so bugged they were completely non-funcitonal (CMs), and it still went unfixed for weeks.

All of SotO's metas are unfun and extremely unrewarding unless you need legendary armor.

Rifts are the worst content in GW2, period. Up there with trash like crab toss and southsun survival.

Afking for pips in WvW is more fun than doing the metas or Rifts for legendary armor.

The first update added basically nothing to work towards or do, in an already weak expansion with nothing to do and no rewards.

 

Edited March 20 by Shiyo.3578

[uberkingkong.8041]

Everyone seems to be blaming the latest expansion for the "passion is gone".

If SotO was a living story instead of an expansion would it change anything about "passion is gone". People playing blame game or something right now.

If you dislike SotO, it being a LS or expansion your going to feel the same way about it regardless, the OP is saying "passion is gone" and everyone is talking about SotO its not a legit expansion and so on. Thats not the issue, the OP is saying "passion is gone". Not that they gotta pay $25 and it was rushed and so on. Thats the content GW2 has so far, and "the passion is gone".

 

Could there be other factors?

[Astralporing.1957]

4 hours ago, uberkingkong.8041 said:

Everyone seems to be blaming the latest expansion for the "passion is gone".

If SotO was a living story instead of an expansion would it change anything about "passion is gone".

Yes. Expectations towards living story are not the same as towards expansions. When LS is mediocre, we can always look ahead to the next expac, but when expac is so bad, where can we look towards to?

Besides, no, SotO was bad, but it started a bit earlier, with what came after EoD. EoD itself wasn't all that stellar either, but it could have been salvaged with decent LS following it, and a good next expansion. Instead, what we've got is Gyala and then SotO. WHich not only is bad content-wise, but is also laying foundations for a further quality decrease and a shift towards more grind-based "preparing to have fun" approach. Without ever making good on the "having fun" part.

[Shiyo.3578]

17 hours ago, uberkingkong.8041 said:

Everyone seems to be blaming the latest expansion for the "passion is gone".

If SotO was a living story instead of an expansion would it change anything about "passion is gone". People playing blame game or something right now.

If you dislike SotO, it being a LS or expansion your going to feel the same way about it regardless, the OP is saying "passion is gone" and everyone is talking about SotO its not a legit expansion and so on. Thats not the issue, the OP is saying "passion is gone". Not that they gotta pay $25 and it was rushed and so on. Thats the content GW2 has so far, and "the passion is gone".

 

Could there be other factors?

EoD was trash, too.

The games been terrible for a while. Drizzlewood is still the last farm map we've gotten.

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

13 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Yes. Expectations towards living story are not the same as towards expansions. When LS is mediocre, we can always look ahead to the next expac, but when expac is so bad, where can we look towards to?

That's why people were fine with the quality of IBS dropping as it went on. Oh wait, people whined their kitten off just like with Soto now, if not more.

[Astralporing.1957]

57 minutes ago, IAmNotMatthew.1058 said:

That's why people were fine with the quality of IBS dropping as it went on. Oh wait, people whined their kitten off just like with Soto now, if not more.

Because Champions was beyond even SotO levels. There are limits, you know. Still, people might have whined about it, but were mostly optimistic about the future. Now it's not the same, because what's coming will be more of the same.

[luigiormario.7305]

16 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

When LS is mediocre, we can always look ahead to the next expac, but when expac is so bad, where can we look towards to?

Besides, no, SotO was bad, but it started a bit earlier, with what came after EoD. EoD itself wasn't all that stellar either, but it could have been salvaged with decent LS following it

Did you really just say if an expac is bad where can you look to, and then proceed to say decent LS could salvage it? 

On 3/17/2024 at 11:58 PM, Astralporing.1957 said:

A poor quality LS that might have been somewhat fine (even if somewhat meh, and in lower ranges of LS quality we've got so far) if it was part of normal cycle release, but is not okay as a replacement for that cycle

This being your summary of SOTO, I take it you are assuming then that all future 'expansions' will be, in your opinion, as bad or worse than SOTO? Would you prefer to have several good quality LS seasons, or a non-stellar expansion such as EOD from your perspective? 

 

Whilst I can see why you're disheartened due to the first release of this new cycle being not to your liking (personally am of the opposite opinion, I enjoy SOTO), I don't think traditional expansions carried the cycle. I believe this new cycle still has the potential to please everyone if the content quality is there. I think just the mindset of living world vs expansion isn't the best way of looking at the new cadence. 

[Astralporing.1957]

14 minutes ago, luigiormario.7305 said:

Did you really just say if an expac is bad where can you look to, and then proceed to say decent LS could salvage it? 

This being your summary of SOTO, I take it you are assuming then that all future 'expansions' will be, in your opinion, as bad or worse than SOTO? Would you prefer to have several good quality LS seasons, or a non-stellar expansion such as EOD from your perspective? 

 

Whilst I can see why you're disheartened due to the first release of this new cycle being not to your liking (personally am of the opposite opinion, I enjoy SOTO), I don't think traditional expansions carried the cycle. I believe this new cycle still has the potential to please everyone if the content quality is there. I think just the mindset of living world vs expansion isn't the best way of looking at the new cadence. 

"it could have been salvaged with decent LS following it, and a good next expansion."

You really should not be omitting key parts in a sentence, because then, yes, it indeed starts making less sense. Not because it didn't have one in the first place, but because you intentionally tried to mangle it.

Like i said, EoD wasn't all that good. You could see it was unfinished and rushed to launch, and some parts could definitely use up a rework , but by itself that wasn't a critical issue issue. If it was followed by decent (notice, i said "decent", not "good") LS, just good enough to somewhat satisfy players before a better expansion arrived, it would have just been a bump on the road. The issue was that we got neither a decent LS, nor (again, a key part) a good following expansion.

14 minutes ago, luigiormario.7305 said:

This being your summary of SOTO, I take it you are assuming then that all future 'expansions' will be, in your opinion, as bad or worse than SOTO? Would you prefer to have several good quality LS seasons, or a non-stellar expansion such as EOD from your perspective?

EoD, no matter how badly i'd think about it, is still way above SotO. So, yes, i'd definitely prefer another expansion of that level over what we've got. Even good quality LS would have been better that what we received (although i'd accept LS instead of an expansion only as a stopgap measure before they can get theirgame back in order). But first and foremost i'd rather they didn't use this game as just a fundraiser for some other projects i know nothing about (and which, if succesful, will likely kill GW2).

14 minutes ago, luigiormario.7305 said:

Whilst I can see why you're disheartened due to the first release of this new cycle being not to your liking (personally am of the opposite opinion, I enjoy SOTO), I don't think traditional expansions carried the cycle. I believe this new cycle still has the potential to please everyone if the content quality is there. I think just the mindset of living world vs expansion isn't the best way of looking at the new cadence. 

Thaditional expansions were a key factor from the very beginning. Their experiments with LS (both LS1 and LS2) were unsatisfying on their own, and Anet was practically forced to develop HoT. And then the game did very well until they decided to abandon the expansion model again with IBS. EoD (as bad as it was) still brought a revitalization of the game. With SotO i don't see any of this. What i see instead is the overall negative feeling that dominated the game during later IBS just before Anet gave in and announced that there will be a third expansion after all.

Except this time i see far more worrying signs around.

[luigiormario.7305]

1 hour ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

"it could have been salvaged with decent LS following it, and a good next expansion."

You really should not be omitting key parts in a sentence, because then, yes, it indeed starts making less sense. Not because it didn't have one in the first place, but because you intentionally tried to mangle it.

I omitted that part because if you are relying only on a good expansion to salvage a poor one, you are waiting a very long time. I took your statement to mean a decent LS is a satisfactory level of content- it's fine to get dissappointed, but you can never guarantee the next expansion would be up to your standards. Even without omitting that part, you answered your earlier statement, so it makes just as little sense. 

1 hour ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

EoD, no matter how badly i'd think about it, is still way above SotO. So, yes, i'd definitely prefer another expansion of that level over what we've got. Even good quality LS would have been better that what we received (although i'd accept LS instead of an expansion only as a stopgap measure before they can get theirgame back in order). But first and foremost i'd rather they didn't use this game as just a fundraiser for some other projects i know nothing about (and which, if succesful, will likely kill GW2).

I didn't ask if you'd prefer it over what we got. My issue with what you seem to be saying is that a 'perfect' LS season still wouldn't compare to a 'perfect' expansion, in an ideal world. As you have just indicated, you are someone who only accepts LS as filler material.

 My major point here is that it appears to me that you have preconceived these new expansions as LS, when they're more of a hybrid even from your definitions. It really seems as though no matter if the next one is worse, the same, or better, you have predetermined that nothing will match a traditional expansion. I don't deny previous expansions were good for the game, but you seem determined to say these won't ever work, only your preferred model will. 

At the end of the day,  some people like SOTO, others don't (like with previous expansions), but if you're so determined only one structure will work I'd be looking at a different game. 

 

Edited March 21 by luigiormario.7305

[quake.9023]

 i took 3.5yrs off after 6yrs playing. played 2yrs...now dnt feel like playing again

[Astralporing.1957]

11 hours ago, luigiormario.7305 said:

I omitted that part because if you are relying only on a good expansion to salvage a poor one, you are waiting a very long time.

Yes. That's why you need both - a decent LS to give you that time, and a good next expansion to make up for the poorer one. You can't make do with just one. As the past has shown without doubt the expansion is pretty much obligatory if you want to at least keep up the game quality and player interest. At the same time, you are right, making an expansion takes time, and you do need to keep players interested in the meantime - that's the role of LS.

11 hours ago, luigiormario.7305 said:

I didn't ask if you'd prefer it over what we got. My issue with what you seem to be saying is that a 'perfect' LS season still wouldn't compare to a 'perfect' expansion, in an ideal world. As you have just indicated, you are someone who only accepts LS as filler material.

A "perfect" LS might theoretically indeed be able to equal expansion, and with perfect PR presentation keep player interest at the same level. In reality however that's just fiction. Anet is simply incapable of ever delivering an LS on that level. That's not an accusation, btw - i don't think there are any game studios capable of doing that. At the very least it would require a much bigger team, and an order of magnitude greater resource expenditures. That's simply not going to happen even in the best of worlds. And we aren't in the best of worlds at the moment - not even close.

11 hours ago, luigiormario.7305 said:

 My major point here is that it appears to me that you have preconceived these new expansions as LS, when they're more of a hybrid even from your definitions.

I'm simply saying what i see. And from what i see, SotO is at best IBS level - and that's only thanks to the SotO itself, because the patches are way below that line.And if IBS was finished, and not cancelled halfway and saddled with Champions, it would win that contest hands down.

11 hours ago, luigiormario.7305 said:

It really seems as though no matter if the next one is worse, the same, or better, you have predetermined that nothing will match a traditional expansion. I don't deny previous expansions were good for the game, but you seem determined to say these won't ever work, only your preferred model will.

No. I am saying that at this moment, with the amount of resources Anet is willing to spare on GW2 (and the quality of work that results in), they seem incapable of matching the old level of content, or even keep the game from sliding down.

Honestly, you seem to miss the main point beyond the new structure - it's here because thay are no longer able to deliver the content under old one. The new model is all about reduced resource expenditures - less work at less effort. You don't have to think too hard to realize that this is inevitably going to result in less (and poorer quality) content. There's just no way around that. If they could deliver content in the new structure at no loss to neither quality nor quantity, there would have been no reason to change the whole release schedule in the first place.