Incredibly Disappointed at Living World Cost

[djseppe.4987]

Recently just got back into the game for the first time since release, and leveled a character up to 80.  Finished the story, and decided to unlock Living World....only to realize it's 200 gem FOR EACH chapter.  I did the first part of Season 2, Gates of Maguuma, and it consisted of just over an hour of content, mostly dialogue, that I'll never play again.  Looking over the other chapters and seasons, and it would cost me almost $60 in gems to unlock the rest of the story.  $60 for 22 hour-long story chapters with no replay value....really?

 

I've had no problems with the way the game is monetized until now, but this is some Train Simulator garbage.  Can we get these packaged up into a single, respectably priced option?

[Danikat.8537]

If you buy the bundled versions from the gem store there's a discount compared to buying each episode individually (I think it's 20%) and they often go on sale for less than that. The option to buy individual episodes is only really there for people who missed just 1.

 

Altenatively if you wait until later this month (and into next month) each episode will be available free for a week: https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/guild-wars-2-live-summer-2021/

[voltaicbore.8012]

Many have asked for this, and predict that failing to fix the issue that you faced here will also sink the Steam launch in an ugly way. I, for one, agree with you.

 

The seasons do occasionally go on sale. I nabbed all of Season 2 at a steep discount, and got the rest for free for logging in while they were live (which I know is not an option for you and other returning players).

[djseppe.4987]

6 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

If you buy the bundled versions from the gem store there's a discount compared to buying each episode individually (I think it's 20%) and they often go on sale for less than that. The option to buy individual episodes is only really there for people who missed just 1.

 

Altenatively if you wait until later this month (and into next month) each episode will be available free for a week: https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/guild-wars-2-live-summer-2021/

 

That's pretty cool, but am I reading that correctly?  One story per week....so it will take me 22 weeks to finish the old Living World stuff?

[Danikat.8537]

8 minutes ago, djseppe.4987 said:

 

That's pretty cool, but am I reading that correctly?  One story per week....so it will take me 22 weeks to finish the old Living World stuff?

That's only season 2 and 3, seasons 4 and 5 (aka Icebrood Saga) aren't included in that promotion. And it means you'll be able to unlock all the episodes over the course of 22 weeks. I don't know if you'll be able to finish them in that time (including all the achievements and extra bits), that depends on how quickly you can get through it and how much time you have to play. I'm sure some people could but I know it took me a lot longer than that, even just to do the bits which interest me.

 

But once you've got them unlocked you keep them forever, so there's no time limit on playing and finishing them. You don't have to do it all in one go, you can just do whichever bits interest you whenever you feel like it.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Danikat.8537

[Randulf.7614]

Seasons are hugely replayable. S2 is a bit of an exception since the maps aren’t locked behind a paywall, but everything else is worth the cost 

[DoggySpew.4529]

Isn't Anet going to do a showcase per week from Season 2 till the launch of EOD? Meaning, if you login during that showcase week, you will get the chapter for free?

[Randulf.7614]

33 minutes ago, DoggySpew.4529 said:

Isn't Anet going to do a showcase per week from Season 2 till the launch of EOD? Meaning, if you login during that showcase week, you will get the chapter for free?

Looks it

 

”Starting 25 May Living World episodes will be in the spotlight chronologically. Episodes are free to unlock during their spotlight week, and we’ll update them with new achievements. Complete all the new Living World Season 2 and 3 achievements to earn a voucher for a Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons precursor weapon. ”

[rrusse.7058]

@djseppe.4987

 

Just wait a little while, they are doing a showcase event and will be giving out the episodes again for season 2 and 3. That will start on May 25th.

[Pifil.5193]

6 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

That's only season 2 and 3, seasons 4 and 5 (aka Icebrood Saga) aren't included in that promotion. And it means you'll be able to unlock all the episodes over the course of 22 weeks. I don't know if you'll be able to finish them in that time (including all the achievements and extra bits), that depends on how quickly you can get through it and how much time you have to play. I'm sure some people could but I know it took me a lot longer than that, even just to do the bits which interest me.

 

But once you've got them unlocked you keep them forever, so there's no time limit on playing and finishing them. You don't have to do it all in one go, you can just do whichever bits interest you whenever you feel like it.

 

Actually, I think that all 4 seasons, including the Icebrood Saga, are in the "Living World: Complete the Cycle" starting on May 25th. The reason is because in that section they say:

 

"Starting 25 May Living World episodes will be in the spotlight chronologically. Episodes are free to unlock during their spotlight week, and we’ll update them with new achievements. Complete all the new Living World Season 2 and 3 achievements to earn a voucher for a Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons precursor weapon. When the expansion launches, you can redeem it and begin crafting your very own third-generation legendary weapon.

 

After completing the new meta-achievement for all three playable Living World seasons and The Icebrood Saga, you’ll receive a legendary amulet as a powerful reminder of your role in shaping Tyria’s destiny.

 

The new achievements and their rewards will be available permanently, so you can always complete them even if you miss the spotlight weeks." 

 

Which implies to me all episodes in all 4 seasons will have their spotlight week and there will be new achievements for all 4 seasons. There are two rewards, the precursor voucher for season 2 and 3 and a legendary amulet for all 4 seasons. 

 

After all, if it's not all four seasons then it's not really "Completing the Cycle". 

 

That would take 27 weeks and end in November. 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Pifil.5193

[zealex.9410]

7 hours ago, djseppe.4987 said:

Recently just got back into the game for the first time since release, and leveled a character up to 80.  Finished the story, and decided to unlock Living World....only to realize it's 200 gem FOR EACH chapter.  I did the first part of Season 2, Gates of Maguuma, and it consisted of just over an hour of content, mostly dialogue, that I'll never play again.  Looking over the other chapters and seasons, and it would cost me almost $60 in gems to unlock the rest of the story.  $60 for 22 hour-long story chapters with no replay value....really?

 

I've had no problems with the way the game is monetized until now, but this is some Train Simulator garbage.  Can we get these packaged up into a single, respectably priced option?

I mean if you want to ignore the other content thats being added with each lw update. Ill be the first to admit that lw isnt the greatest at time but its well worth the 200 gems per episode price for the whole package especially the later seasons.

[Hanakocz.5697]

One note:

 

The spotlight weeks are not weeks to finish each chapters. They are weeks for replaying it for veterans, and to unlock it for newbies. You login once the week period, you get the chapter for free, forever. You can then keep working on it to play it on your own tempo.

 

Btw. this is same as previously. If you logged into the game for 10 seconds once per 3 months during all the years, you would have all unlocked for free as well.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Hanakocz.5697

[zealex.9410]

1 hour ago, Pifil.5193 said:

 

Actually, I think that all 4 seasons, including the Icebrood Saga, are in the "Living World: Complete the Cycle" starting on May 25th. The reason is because in that section they say:

 

"Starting 25 May Living World episodes will be in the spotlight chronologically. Episodes are free to unlock during their spotlight week, and we’ll update them with new achievements. Complete all the new Living World Season 2 and 3 achievements to earn a voucher for a Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons precursor weapon. When the expansion launches, you can redeem it and begin crafting your very own third-generation legendary weapon.

 

After completing the new meta-achievement for all three playable Living World seasons and The Icebrood Saga, you’ll receive a legendary amulet as a powerful reminder of your role in shaping Tyria’s destiny.

 

The new achievements and their rewards will be available permanently, so you can always complete them even if you miss the spotlight weeks." 

 

Which implies to me all episodes in all 4 seasons will have their spotlight week and there will be new achievements for all 4 seasons. There are two rewards, the precursor voucher for season 2 and 3 and a legendary amulet for all 4 seasons. 

 

After all, if it's not all four seasons then it's not really "Completing the Cycle". 

 

That would take 27 weeks and end in November. 

 

 

Nov 30th to be exact.

 

Curious i wonder if that could mean eod early Dec.

 

Edit: is Ibs included tho, its not branded as a lw season.

Edited May 2, 2021 by zealex.9410

[Pifil.5193]

1 hour ago, zealex.9410 said:

Nov 30th to be exact.

 

Curious i wonder if that could mean eod early Dec.

 

Edit: is Ibs included tho, its not branded as a lw season.

Well the Legendary amulet will require the completion of new achievements in "all three playable Living World seasons and The Icebrood Saga" so I'd say its counted in this "Completing the Cycle" thing. 

 

I'd say a December release is likely, or even a delay to 2022. Which might explain why we won't see any EoD news until the end of July. 

[djseppe.4987]

It's cool that they're giving out the story over the course of many weeks, but for those people that like to play through, getting an hour of story a week for 5+ months sucks.  The alternative is to pay way too much for what's essentially DLC content.  I found the bundles in the story, but it's still way overpriced for what you get.  Maybe things get better as they go, but the first chapter I unlocked was basically just AFKing, watching story, and over in under an hour.

 

It would be nice if they dropped the price for old, short content for those people that are fine paying for it, but the current prices are a rip off.

Edited May 2, 2021 by djseppe.4987

[Pacificterror.7805]

28 minutes ago, djseppe.4987 said:

It's cool that they're giving out the story over the course of many weeks, but for those people that like to play through, getting an hour of story a week for 5+ months sucks.  The alternative is to pay way too much for what's essentially DLC content.  I found the bundles in the story, but it's still way overpriced for what you get.  Maybe things get better as they go, but the first chapter I unlocked was basically just AFKing, watching story, and over in under an hour.

 

It would be nice if they dropped the price for old, short content for those people that are fine paying for it, but the current prices are a rip off.

 

I was going to purchase each season purely for the maps (I bought the gem cards, was just waiting for the next sale). Luckily I missed the sale beginning of April, or I would have bought them all then.

[Danikat.8537]

12 hours ago, djseppe.4987 said:

It's cool that they're giving out the story over the course of many weeks, but for those people that like to play through, getting an hour of story a week for 5+ months sucks.

If that's a problem for you then you're going to have to reconsider how you approach this game, or possibly find a different one to play. The living story is usually released with much longer breaks between episodes: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Release

 

During season 1 and 2 we got an episode every 2 weeks, with gaps for festivals, then when they started adding a new map for each episode in season 3 and 4 the gaps got longer, with 1-2 months between episodes. The story isn't written or intended to be played all in one go, it's designed around the assumption that you'll do the story and explore the map, do meta events and complete some of the achievements in between releases (sometimes the story will even reference other activities). You can of course wait until it's finished and then do just the story all in one go and ignore the rest, but if you do you're going to have long periods with nothing to do.

 

(Also you may already be aware of this but if you want to play the entire story in order you'll need to include the expansions. Chronological order is Personal Story > Season 1 recap > Season 2 > Heart of Thorns > Season 3 > Path of Fire > Season 4 > Icebrood Saga.)

Edited May 3, 2021 by Danikat.8537

[zealex.9410]

19 hours ago, djseppe.4987 said:

It's cool that they're giving out the story over the course of many weeks, but for those people that like to play through, getting an hour of story a week for 5+ months sucks.  The alternative is to pay way too much for what's essentially DLC content.  I found the bundles in the story, but it's still way overpriced for what you get.  Maybe things get better as they go, but the first chapter I unlocked was basically just AFKing, watching story, and over in under an hour.

 

It would be nice if they dropped the price for old, short content for those people that are fine paying for it, but the current prices are a rip off.

Not gonna lie lw isnt kinda meh if you only gonna do the story and ignore everything else.

 

Se2 is deff weaker tho so idk, maybe they will do another sale on the lw leading up to the expac.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

23 minutes ago, zealex.9410 said:

Not gonna lie lw isnt kinda meh if you only gonna do the story and ignore everything else.

 

Se2 is deff weaker tho so idk, maybe they will do another sale on the lw leading up to the expac.

Might be iffy (regarding a sale), as they are giving the Episodes away at no cost. 

[djseppe.4987]

8 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

If that's a problem for you then you're going to have to reconsider how you approach this game, or possibly find a different one to play. The living story is usually released with much longer breaks between episodes: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Release

 

During season 1 and 2 we got an episode every 2 weeks, with gaps for festivals, then when they started adding a new map for each episode in season 3 and 4 the gaps got longer, with 1-2 months between episodes. The story isn't written or intended to be played all in one go, it's designed around the assumption that you'll do the story and explore the map, do meta events and complete some of the achievements in between releases (sometimes the story will even reference other activities). You can of course wait until it's finished and then do just the story all in one go and ignore the rest, but if you do you're going to have long periods with nothing to do.

 

(Also you may already be aware of this but if you want to play the entire story in order you'll need to include the expansions. Chronological order is Personal Story > Season 1 recap > Season 2 > Heart of Thorns > Season 3 > Path of Fire > Season 4 > Icebrood Saga.)

I get that it's supposed to be spread out, and that's fine for new content, but it's frustrating for old content you're trying to catch up on.  It's like if Netflix made you watch it's old content one week at a time.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Except the 'content' (releases) aren't just the Living World stories. 

In most cases, they are maps, achievements, quests, metas, collections, etc., etc. 

There's much more content to 'catch up on' than just the story.  

 

I'm sure you will have plenty of time to catch up on the story before the release of End of Dragons. 

[DaG.5103]

53 minutes ago, djseppe.4987 said:

I get that it's supposed to be spread out, and that's fine for new content, but it's frustrating for old content you're trying to catch up on.  It's like if Netflix made you watch it's old content one week at a time.

I could be wrong, but based on your comments, there's one big disconnect here: LW season 2 is an anomaly in that its episodes introduced 2 new maps (4 episodes per map: much slower than other releases) and that those maps were not locked behind owning the episodes. In Seasons 3 and 4, every new episode comes with a new map that includes new rewards, currencies, events, meta events, and achievements. In IBS, there are 3 new maps and a pile of repeatable content spread between its episodes.

Whether we are talking weekly or monthly, the concept has always been that you do the story - generally not a huge time investment - but then you also have lots of activities on the map to do and currencies to obtain and achievements to work for.

 

For example, in Dry Top, the map you went into for Season 2, there's a big meta-event every hour where a sandstorm sweeps in. Completing events within that awards you geodes, which you can use to buy lockpicks. The sandstorm reveals various chests that your lockpicks can open, with which you can earn Fossilized Insects that you can turn into the Ambrite Weapons. Geodes are also used in legendary precursor crafting and for other purchasable rewards in the map. There are also a variety of other achievements, like finding the Lost Coins and defeating the Skritt Queen, which earns you a Central Tyria Mastery Point (you'll want those if you get the expansions!).

 

Once you get into Season 3 and forward, you'll need to own the respective episode in order to access that episode's map. And you'll find excellent rewards worth playing the maps for, including Ascended gear, more cool weapon and armor skins, unique gizmos, new Mounts, and more.

 

I know it can be annoying to have to wait a week for each episode, but it's being given to you for free instead of having to pay for it. There is only one other time where I can recall them offering an old episode for free - and it was last year, right after the pandemic hit, and it only applied to Icebrood Saga episodes for a short time. If it bothers you that much, you can still buy them, but I think if you just spend some more time immersing yourself in each new map you'll have plenty to do still!

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by DaG.5103

[zealex.9410]

3 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Might be iffy (regarding a sale), as they are giving the Episodes away at no cost. 

Ik but op apparently doesnt want to w8 26 weeks.

[BlueJin.4127]

Waiting 20+ weeks to catch up on the story does sound disappointing. If it’s any consolation, after LWS2 and LWS3, you need to play through HoT and PoF stories, respectively. This may help make the wait a bit less of a drag, depending on how fast you plow through the story.

In order:

Personal story -> LWS1 recap -> LWS2 -> HoT -> LWS3 -> PoF -> LWS4 -> IBS

Edited May 4, 2021 by BlueJin.4127

[Firebeard.1746]

On 5/2/2021 at 4:36 AM, djseppe.4987 said:

Recently just got back into the game for the first time since release, and leveled a character up to 80.  Finished the story, and decided to unlock Living World....only to realize it's 200 gem FOR EACH chapter.  I did the first part of Season 2, Gates of Maguuma, and it consisted of just over an hour of content, mostly dialogue, that I'll never play again.  Looking over the other chapters and seasons, and it would cost me almost $60 in gems to unlock the rest of the story.  $60 for 22 hour-long story chapters with no replay value....really?

 

I've had no problems with the way the game is monetized until now, but this is some Train Simulator garbage.  Can we get these packaged up into a single, respectably priced option?

If you're patient you'll be able to get most of them for free starting End of May.