Story chapters still behind a pay wall? seriously?

[Fangoth.3164]

@"SaskiaElite.8132" said:Why can't they make at least old ones free to play? As a former veteran player who purchased this like in year one, I still did not understand why Anet is so strict about their story chapters and it keep sending me spam GUI pop up everytime I login into the game. Those "stories" are without actual voice acting and cutscenes, so they arent cost them million of dollars or anything like that.

It is time to making them free to play for everyone. GW2 had a rough time last year same as wow and swtor, it is time to embrace your playerbase, not your publisher's orders. Just give us something new to play, other than broken matchmaking for dungeons and toxic fractals. Half of the playerbase don't even know how to play tier 2 fractals nor have the proper gear, it is time to level down things for easy understanding. In game economy is also broken since years.

Make the story chapters free to play please. Thank you

speaking of having things to play: spend 2 day doing fractals dailys and you get the gold to buy the story chapter. OMG its free :oand for next ones if you cannot log in in game every 2 month well you do 2 fractals when coming back ;)

@Liewec.2896 said:i'd especially like it if the new ones weren't behind a paywall, atleast until after they get em finished with voice acting,because i wanna wait until they're finished to play them,and it'll suck if i need to choose between paying to play the finished versions or playing an unfinished version and getting spoilers.

go on a secondary character and click start the episode, log off and you will unlock it without spoilers

[Astyrah.4015]

@Vayne.8563 said:

@"Eloc Freidon.5692" said:People excusing Anet for a terrible business model that only escalates the entry price of the game the older it gets is really sad.

I've played a LOT of MMOs. None of them hav had a better business model than this one. Not one. And by a lot I mean most of them.

I'm not sure what's worse. Free to play pay to win MMOs or MMOs that offer "optional" subs that you need to pretty much play the game, or MMOs that charge $15 a month just for the privileged of playing the game AND sell you expansions and usually have a cash shop. Charging for content isn't a terrible business model, and giving it away free to loyal players is pretty damned generous. So is allowing you to buy it with in game gold.

The only thing I don't agree with is the lack of packages to buy it up front, when you first purchase the game.

agree

gw2 hit it right with their business model and it's so easy to invite friends to play the game since they lose nothing (core game is free) and should they like it but quit eventually, it's also easy enough to get back to and pickup where you left off.

had a hard time getting friends to try ff14 before because of the box price + sub price so the barrier to entry is high compared to this game.[[not to mention stereotype of it having boring combat and a boring early game experience (thought they're fixing the latter)]]

i've also played other games and p2w games (iRO/Ragnarok Online being the only p2w MMORPG that i still play from time to time) and you tend to spend waaaay more than gw2's expansions + living world story unlocks if you wanna have fun (or in most cases stay competitive) in those games

-going back to the living story paywall, at this point they should also sell a S2+S3+S4 megapack at a bundled special price for the new players or the returnees who completely missed everything-

[coso.9173]

Living world episodes are dlcs. Most mmos have paid dlcs. In eso you get the main game, but the expacs and then if you want buy the dlcs. It's the same.Other games have only expacs though. But their in between stories don't have new maps or stuff like that.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@Fangoth.3164 said:

@"SaskiaElite.8132" said:Why can't they make at least old ones free to play? As a former veteran player who purchased this like in year one, I still did not understand why Anet is so strict about their story chapters and it keep sending me spam GUI pop up everytime I login into the game. Those "stories" are without actual voice acting and cutscenes, so they arent cost them million of dollars or anything like that.

It is time to making them free to play for everyone. GW2 had a rough time last year same as wow and swtor, it is time to embrace your playerbase, not your publisher's orders. Just give us something new to play, other than broken matchmaking for dungeons and toxic fractals. Half of the playerbase don't even know how to play tier 2 fractals nor have the proper gear, it is time to level down things for easy understanding. In game economy is also broken since years.

Make the story chapters free to play please. Thank you

speaking of having things to play: spend 2 day doing fractals dailys and you get the gold to buy the story chapter. OMG its free :oand for next ones if you cannot log in in game every 2 month well you do 2 fractals when coming back ;)

@Liewec.2896 said:i'd especially like it if the new ones weren't behind a paywall, atleast until after they get em finished with voice acting,because i wanna wait until they're finished to play them,and it'll suck if i need to choose between paying to play the finished versions or playing an unfinished version and getting spoilers.

go on a secondary character and click start the episode, log off and you will unlock it without spoilers

You don't need to 'start the episode' on any character. You need only log into the account and a character anywhere in the game during any time the Episode is live.

[Shiyo.3578]

They shouldn't be free if you log in, but instead should have more content for other modes besides just story + a map. This way they can make more money AND we can get more content. Them being free for logging in then charging if you don't log in during that time(so new players get turbo screwed) benefits NO ONE.

[Sheader.6827]

LWS 2 is ridiculously overpriced that I have no clue why it still costs 1260 gems. You get literally NOTHING but story instances. LWS 3 and 4 I could get behind because you get both maps and story (+mounts and whatnot) but LW Seasons should be unlockable with the full purchase of the game alone. Its very very shitty monetization and and a good way to keep new players out of the loop and milk pointless bucks from them.

[zealex.9410]

I dont get why they should be free? They are additional content that the studio spend manpower and resources on.

Bundling them on expansions at a reduced price? Sure.Making a sub service for lw like eso plus? Why not.Having it all be more clear? Propably?

[Westenev.5289]

@Liewec.2896 said:i'd especially like it if the new ones weren't behind a paywall, atleast until after they get em finished with voice acting,because i wanna wait until they're finished to play them,and it'll suck if i need to choose between paying to play the finished versions or playing an unfinished version and getting spoilers.

Is this a valid opinion? I mean, all you have to do is log in once every 3 months to unlock them. From there, you can choose to ignore them or play them whenever you like.

[Rogue.4756]

Why didn't you just log on when they were released? You didn't even have to play, just log on. As a "veteran" of the game you should know that.

[kharmin.7683]

@"zealex.9410" said:

Making a sub service for lw like eso plus? Why not.Please, no. For "why not", please see previous threads on making GW2 subscription based (in part or whole).

[Danikat.8537]

I agree that they should offer players the opportunity to buy Living World seasons at the same time as getting the game itself, either as an additional item or through some sort of bundle. It doesn't need to be cheaper, but it would be helpful to see exactly how much content is available to purchase and to have the option to get it all in one transaction if you're sure you want it. They do offer Season 2, but for some reason none of the others.

Although the downside there is I can imagine some new players might be upset to buy it when they first get the game and then find out they could have gotten it for free by converting gold into gems.

I don't agree that it should be free though. As other people have said it's normal these days for games to have DLC (especially long-running MMOs) which is purchased separately, and Anet need to make money from something other than just an expansion every 3 years or so. I already think it's strange that they give episodes out for free when they're first released, but I think that's a hold-over from Season 1 when episodes were free but only available temporarily. As much as players were happy with the change to permanent content I doubt it would have been nearly as popular if they'd been charging for it right from the start.

Also it still seems relatively cheap to me. GW2 costs £25.99 for the base game and both expansions, and it's 4600 gems or £48.88 for Season 2, 3 and 4 and all 7 Icebrood Saga releases currently available, for a total cost of £74.87 which is not much more than a new single-player game, at about £40-60.

For comparison if I wanted to get everything in Elder Scrolls Online today I'd have to spend £54.99 for the base game and the 4 'chapters' then an additional 20,500 crowns (aka gems) for all the other DLC (for those familiar with the game no I didn't include the Imperial City DLC and yes I did use the Guilds & Glory bundle instead of the separate DLCs). The cheapest way to do that is to buy a 21,000 crown pack at a cost of £109.99 (there are smaller packs, but they cost more per crown). So that's £164.98 to get everything.

(Or, for £259.99(!) you could get the special edition of a Spongebob Squarepants game...which I can only assume is not marketed to kids like the normal version.)

[Lurana.7506]

@"SaskiaElite.8132" said:Why can't they make at least old ones free to play? As a former veteran player who purchased this like in year one, I still did not understand why Anet is so strict about their story chapters and it keep sending me spam GUI pop up everytime I login into the game. Those "stories" are without actual voice acting and cutscenes, so they arent cost them million of dollars or anything like that.

Guys, there's so much for free in this game. Anet needs to get the money to pay their employees somehow. So everything is fine. And considering the new chapters: voice acting will be added as soon as it is possible, so you they will be full story chapters. And you don't have to pay for LW as long as you log into the game ONCE in about two month. Even though they are without voice acting right now, a lot of work was put into them.

@Liewec.2896 said:i'd especially like it if the new ones weren't behind a paywall, atleast until after they get em finished with voice acting,because i wanna wait until they're finished to play them,and it'll suck if i need to choose between paying to play the finished versions or playing an unfinished version and getting spoilers.

No. Just log into the game once and play them when thry were updated. Then you got a free and full fletched LW.

[mercury ranique.2170]

Giving stuff away for free is bad imo.

However, making a smarter single wall would be much more friendly and transparent.

So sell a bundle that includes all content in a single bundle and give discounts if your account allready has it partially unlocked

The real issue is that some stuff is given for free (and nothing is really free).

To solve this I would suggest to sell two packages.

1: buy PoF and get core and HoT for free

2: buy all living world episodes.

If you already have partial unlocks, you get a discount

[TrOtskY.5927]

@Shiyo.3578 said:They shouldn't be free if you log in, but instead should have more content for other modes besides just story + a map. This way they can make more money AND we can get more content. Them being free for logging in then charging if you don't log in during that time(so new players get turbo screwed) benefits NO ONE.

What? It benefits the people who long in and get the free content, doesnt it? You said it yourself!...I am gonna refrain because I have already had a warning in this thread.

[Shiyo.3578]

@TrOtskY.5927 said:

@Shiyo.3578 said:They shouldn't be free if you log in, but instead should have more content for other modes besides just story + a map. This way they can make more money AND we can get more content. Them being free for logging in then charging if you don't log in during that time(so new players get turbo screwed) benefits NO ONE.

What? It benefits the people who long in and get the free content, doesnt it? You said it yourself!...I am gonna refrain because I have already had a warning in this thread.

Thus we get less content since it's free and not a good revenue source. Anet is a business not a charity.

[Sigmoid.7082]

@Shiyo.3578 said:

@TrOtskY.5927 said:

@Shiyo.3578 said:They shouldn't be free if you log in, but instead should have more content for other modes besides just story + a map. This way they can make more money AND we can get more content. Them being free for logging in then charging if you don't log in during that time(so new players get turbo screwed) benefits NO ONE.

What? It benefits the people who long in and get the free content, doesnt it? You said it yourself!...I am gonna refrain because I have already had a warning in this thread.

Thus we get less content since it's free and not a good revenue source. Anet is a business not a charity.

Weird conclusion and random assumption based on an oversimplification of something that really isn't a problem.

[voidek.5738]

Even F2P accounts can unlock them, if they log into game in time though ;)

[Lurana.7506]

@voidek.5738 said:Even F2P accounts can unlock them, if they log into game in time though ;)

Yeah, but you need to buy the expansions (meaning: PoF) to be able to play them...

[voidek.5738]

@Lurana.7506 said:

@voidek.5738 said:Even F2P accounts can unlock them, if they log into game in time though ;)

Yeah, but you need to buy the expansions (meaning: PoF) to be able to play them...

Well, yeah, of course. But say you planning to buy the game and you testing for year or so on F2P acc. You had all the chapters on your upgraded acc. At least that;s what happened to me. :3

[Super Hayes.6890]

@TrOtskY.5927 said:

@Shiyo.3578 said:They shouldn't be free if you log in, but instead should have more content for other modes besides just story + a map. This way they can make more money AND we can get more content. Them being free for logging in then charging if you don't log in during that time(so new players get turbo screwed) benefits NO ONE.

What? It benefits the people who long in and get the free content, doesnt it? You said it yourself!...I am gonna refrain because I have already had a warning in this thread.

Yeah me too even though I was on topic. These episodes should not be free. It is crazy generous that they are free for a while at thier release.

[Lurana.7506]

@voidek.5738 said:Well, yeah, of course. But say you planning to buy the game and you testing for year or so on F2P acc. You had all the chapters on your upgraded acc. At least that;s what happened to me. :3

True :) I really like the payment concept behind LW chapters. I tested as f2p at the beginning too and after I upgraded soon after I had some chapters already unlocked.

[Obtena.7952]

@SaskiaElite.8132 said:Why can't they make at least old ones free to play?

Because there is likely a cost to Anet for doing so.