Anniversary Video Discussion

[Agent Noun.7350]

@Ubi.4136 said:

@"SloRules.3560" said:All of this makes me think that these 2 seasons are going to be the ending ceremony of gw2 and after it's going into maintanance mode.

That's what I was saying in the "systems team" thread. The team redesign plus changing the content map they laid out for us makes me think either the ship is sinking or GW3 could be a reality. Which way I lean depends on how optimistic I feel at that point. Getting old enough that the lack of concrete info just makes me anxious, and not in a good way.

This seems like an odd conclusion to draw just after a patch that added entire new systems and overhauled an elite spec, with more in the future, along with the coming new personal instance stuff. What about the content map suggests they're sunsetting GW2 or that "the ship is sinking?"

It's entirely possible that they're taking longer on the next expansion so that they can overhaul more game systems that are showing their age. The teams that make content keep making content for a new Living World season while the Systems team keeps working on big changes for the next expansion.

[Blocki.4931]

If you think about it there is nothing a new expansion could bring that couldn't also be in a bigger LS patch. Or spread out over several of them. The only difference is that an expansion has content made from 4 or 5 LS releases and a few more design liberties with its masteries and such in map design, since you can guarantee that people will have them.

I'm all for bigger LS patches. Think about the "drought" that settles in between releases right now. People complaining they're done with the new content after a few days, most people after a couple of weeks before it goes back to waiting and having nothing in the meantime. This could be a very huge deal that will prevent any such situation from happening

[SloRules.3560]

@"Blocki.4931" said:If you think about it there is nothing a new expansion could bring that couldn't also be in a bigger LS patch. Or spread out over several of them. The only difference is that an expansion has content made from 4 or 5 LS releases and a few more design liberties with its masteries and such in map design, since you can guarantee that people will have them.

I'm all for bigger LS patches. Think about the "drought" that settles in between releases right now. People complaining they're done with the new content after a few days, most people after a couple of weeks before it goes back to waiting and having nothing in the meantime. This could be a very huge deal that will prevent any such situation from happening

Elite specializations? Revenant? Only (meaningful) things WvW and PvP got since forever.

[Agent Noun.7350]

@Blocki.4931 said:If you think about it there is nothing a new expansion could bring that couldn't also be in a bigger LS patch. Or spread out over several of them. The only difference is that an expansion has content made from 4 or 5 LS releases and a few more design liberties with its masteries and such in map design, since you can guarantee that people will have them.

Expansions have the opportunity to bring significantly larger mastery changes than Living World episodes do, along with new elite specializations. They also tend to come with a larger-scale story than you get in a Living World episode, new armor skins, larger systems changes, and that sort of thing.

That said, I also don't see any issue with doing more Living World episodes between now and the next expansion (assuming one is coming eventually, which seems like a safe assumption). Whether it's to give the team more time to make content for that expansion, more time to develop or polish new systems for that expansion (or overhaul old ones), or just to smooth over the usual pre-expansion content drought that any MMO has, or just to do another Living World season because that's what makes the most sense for the content pacing/dev pipeline.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:Here's some info for you: We will be moving straight into Season 5 at the conclusion of Season 4.

you run a tight ship.

[Danikat.8537]

@"Blocki.4931" said:If you think about it there is nothing a new expansion could bring that couldn't also be in a bigger LS patch. Or spread out over several of them. The only difference is that an expansion has content made from 4 or 5 LS releases and a few more design liberties with its masteries and such in map design, since you can guarantee that people will have them.

I'm all for bigger LS patches. Think about the "drought" that settles in between releases right now. People complaining they're done with the new content after a few days, most people after a couple of weeks before it goes back to waiting and having nothing in the meantime. This could be a very huge deal that will prevent any such situation from happening

That's what I was thinking as well, if they're able to make new maps, new skins, a new mount and whatever else has been released as part of LS Episodes I don't see why they can't do elite specs or other expansion features the same way. Maybe not all at once, it might be one or two elite specs per episode but then the first ones could come out sooner instead of waiting until the full set and all the other features are ready.

[Pifil.5193]

Thanks for the clear, unambiguous clarification Gaile. :heart:

[Batel.9206]

Didn't they do the same thing with Season One and Season Two? One led directly into the other, and there wasn't an expansion between them. Don't see how this is any different, or why it heralds the arrival of "game is DYIIIIIIIIIIIING!!1!" doomsayers.

[SloRules.3560]

@"Batel.9206" said:Didn't they do the same thing with Season One and Season Two? One led directly into the other, and there wasn't an expansion between them. Don't see how this is any different, or why it heralds the arrival of "game is DYIIIIIIIIIIIING!!1!" doomsayers.

Well you see, at start they said they won't be doing expansions and the idea for HoT didn't come after a year or more after the release of the game.

[Randulf.7614]

It's likely done to clearly segregate the tying up of PoF and the start of the expansion arc. That will allow for neat packages to be sold to new players and mean they wont have to rush into the set up which was the risk with ls4's current direction.

[sylvnfox.7086]

we had Gw2 core release -> lw1 -> lw2 -> HoT -> year long content drought -> lw3 -> PoF -> lw4. look at that and what do you see... I see a space between HoT and ls3 where a season of lw could have fit. 2 lw -> expac, 2 lw -> expac. now were getting 2 lw before another expac. everything is on course and as it should be. relax people

[Gaile Gray.6029]

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:Here's some info for you: We will be moving straight into Season 5 at the conclusion of Season 4.

you run a tight ship.

Hey now, question asked, question answered! :D

@Pifil.5193 said:Thanks for the clear, unambiguous clarification Gaile. :heart:

Happy to help.

[Zaklex.6308]

I still say that they're continuing to work on the schedule that MO laid out after HoT, that an expansion would be released every 2 years with LW season(s) in between. They could easily fit in two 6 episode seasons between expansions, though that would mean they'd have to pick up the pace a bit in LW episode releases, or they could have one season of 6 episodes and a second season of 4 to 6 episodes depending on how well the expansion is going, there are almost limitless possibilities on the combinations.

[Ashen.2907]

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:Here's some info for you: We will be moving straight into Season 5 at the conclusion of Season 4.

you run a tight ship.

Hey now, question asked, question answered! :D

@"Pifil.5193" said:Thanks for the clear, unambiguous clarification Gaile. :heart:

Happy to help.

"You run a tight ship," is a compliment IMO.

Thank you for the clarification.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:Here's some info for you: We will be moving straight into Season 5 at the conclusion of Season 4.

you run a tight ship.

Hey now, question asked, question answered! =)

heh, tru nuf. i like that saying tho lol.

[Ghostrider.6879]

I think this is a good sign. Living world contents are free and they are basically saying they are able to pump out free content for a longer period of time before needing that expansion money to fund the game.

[Talindra.4958]

Ah... Im at work.. I can't see any update just yet.. lol ???

[Drecien.4508]

No expansion means no new elite specialization cause we have a full roster as it is. I know I have some duplicate professions myself with different specializations. And we've kinda maxed out what we can travel with, gliders, mounts. So now we got chairs. To sit. And wait. And toys... And player housing. Boo.

[Ashantara.8731]

@SloRules.3560 said:All of this makes me think that these 2 seasons are going to be the ending ceremony of gw2 and after it's going into maintanance mode.

I think that is an extreme interpretation of the things you listed, and it doesn't sound very likely to me at all. I am certain the next expansion is already in the making. They wouldn't bother adding all this new QoL stuff if they do not intend to keep this game alive for a long time.

All that GW3 talk is nonsense IMO and mere panicmongering. How can a video so inspired and full of motivational statements from various devs on the future of GW2 result in the belief that the game is going to come to an end soon? Absolutely incomprehensible to me.

[Kodiak.4213]

besides, we still have a few dragons to kill and figure out how to not blow tyria up at the same time, lol

[Bast.7253]

Kind of hoped we would get a trailer for the next episode snuck in somewhere! I'm excited about Sun's Refuge and am torn between wishing for a blog post detailing what we can do in it and wanting to wait to experience it in game.

I think I have more questions than answers due to this alone. Like the upgradable gear segment. If all of our characters are already decked out in ascended, what incentive do we have for the upgradable gear if the end result is just ascended? Will be curious to see if they add in something a step above ascended with stat-swappable armor since that's one of the bigger draws to getting legendary, but then at the same time reduces the value of legendary pvp and wvw armor.

And the sanctuary looked interesting. I imagine a lot of phasing tech from Guild Halls being in it, but I wonder how customizable it is. Will it create cause for a scribe/decorating revamp? Or simply a phased unlockable guild hall without customization and solely for vendors? With this coming next episode I wonder how far out we really are till the next episode? Seems like it might be awhile....

As far as the straight from season 4 to 5 bit, I believe someone on reddit said that during a stream it was mentioned from a voice actor or something that episode 5 of season 4 was confirmed. Not sure about 6 episodes. I do like the idea of expansions for the purpose of elite specializations, but outside of that there really isn't anything that's locked out of living world updates. And I suppose specializations aren't locked out but haven't ever been released in a living world update. (Don't see that changing either.)

I wonder what the mastery is that is being added as well. Wasn't any detail about it but I hope it enhances mounts and isn't lackluster like volatile magic collection or the heal skill.

All in all it's exciting to get at least a little info on the next episode, even if there isn't a release date or indication of it coming soon. If they planned on hitting the shorter release window for the rest of this season starting season 5 at the beginning of next year after the festivals would be pretty sweet.

I do think it's safe to assume that season 5 will come before the next expansion though. It makes sense considering how many maps received minor changes and the fact that we seem to be setting up to deal with Kralk from now on, which would be a lot to cram into the rest of this season. Might work out better this way from a storytelling perspective. Just hope the release cadence picks up a bit and we don't have as many delays and setbacks. It's like getting into a tv show and having the tv show go on a random 2 week or month hiatus because of football season or American Idol season #20932093 needs to for some be on every night for two weeks straight.

[Talindra.4958]

i have just seen the video.. its awesome.. epic!! :) Season 4 and season 5 omg !! :) and all of that.. without monthly subscription.. yeh~~ :)

[Linken.6345]

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:Well with a new LW, all anyone expects is new maps, currency, maybe even legendaries.For a new expansion though, the playerbase would demand a new class, a new race, something BIG like the Revenant / Gliding, or the PoF mounts.

Clearly it's easier to just release new LW content to keep the story running. I'd also surmise that their revenue is generated more from the Gem store these days than from the purchasing of expansions, but that's just a guess on my part.

Sorry to burst your bubble but we wont be getting a new race or class.We got 3 heavy 3 medium and 3 light classes now and 5 races is enough you can get more if they add more combat tonics tho.

[Michram.6853]

It raises a question: Do they have the money for the expansion?

[Omega.6801]

1) "We made it 6 years, Yay!" - Gratulations on that. I've been playing since launch and still enjoying myself. I like the episodic format of the LS as it keeps me occupied. The community is great and ANet seems to be constantly improving.

2) "We will go from LS4 to LS5" - I'm worried that this is reason for concern. Not that I want to complain about free episodic content going on for at least another year, far from that. But it feels like they're not planing on releasing an expansion in 2019. We know nothing at this point, so it's not worth panicing over it.

3) "Awesome personal instance!!!!" - Not that hyped about it. Never really saw what ppl wanted with it other than RP'ing. Our guild has a max level GH...and we hardly ever use it as it is very limited in use. I doubt that housing will be much different. I expect a huge time and money sink. So be prepared to spend 2-5k gold if you want a fully upgraded home instance and don't expect it to come with anything gamechanging super special. Maybe it's like one of the hubs(Mistlock Sanctuary, Lava Lounge, etc.) that we will have to build up from scratch. Keeping expectaions low here.