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  1. #1
    Dreadlord sinilaid's Avatar
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    Is living world paid content?

    So last time I played GW2 was during Scarlet's War. Decided to come back for PoF and now I see LV content on the cash shop, so is it paid or can I play it for "free"? I don't have HoT yet, will be getting it soon. Also love how even tho I got the digital collector's edition of the base game or whatever it's called the game treats me like a F2P scrub and spams "Upgrade to full version" messages all the time.

  2. #2
    Herald of the Titans Lotus Victoria's Avatar
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    All Living Story content is free if you log in when it's launched. After that, you need $$$ to unlock it back. Fair, if you ask me.


  3. #3
    Dreadlord sinilaid's Avatar
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    Ok thanks, yea it is fair I was just wondering. So I need HoT+PoF and S2+S3, that's almost €100 or so

  4. #4
    Merely a Setback PACOX's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sinilaid View Post
    So last time I played GW2 was during Scarlet's War. Decided to come back for PoF and now I see LV content on the cash shop, so is it paid or can I play it for "free"? I don't have HoT yet, will be getting it soon. Also love how even tho I got the digital collector's edition of the base game or whatever it's called the game treats me like a F2P scrub and spams "Upgrade to full version" messages all the time.
    Living story is essential DLC thats free if you log in before the next DLC is released. Living story episodes add rewards, lore, and content to the game for "free". They make their money buy marketing gem store promotions that run concurrent with Living Story releases which is why they ask you to pay after the "free" period expires. Mind you this free period is not ~3 months long...

    LS isn't essential but they do give you access to some nice rewards if you're someone who plays GW2 a lot. They are also nice if you want to play through the GW2 story but you can easily watch/read the story on the GW2 wiki.

    POF is actually a "standalone" expansion. It used to be that LS2 gave you easy access to HOT masteries but those masteries aren't mandatory in POF and they added more mastery points so that isn't necessary for new players. You won't need HOT unless you want context for the story. Actually you dont really need HOT for the story if you know your GW2 history, POF is mainly about GW1 stuff with GW2 connecting 250 years of GW story.

    Come POF, HOT is needed for HOT raids and gliding thats it. LS episodes can be earned through in-game gold. Gold towards LS episodes isn't hard dependent on your in game priorities.

    That spam to buy HOT is dumb but easily ignored. I have an account I paid for when vanilla GW2 was $10 and its constantly spammed to buy HOT. Found out you can't use most of the guild hall buffs if you haven't bough HOT.
    Last edited by PACOX; 2017-08-06 at 05:50 AM.

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  5. #5
    Dreadlord sinilaid's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pacox View Post
    Living story is essential DLC thats free if you log in before the next DLC is released. Living story episodes add rewards, lore, and content to the game for "free". They make their money buy marketing gem store promotions that run concurrent with Living Story releases which is why they ask you to pay after the "free" period expires. Mind you this free period is not ~3 months long...

    LS isn't essential but they do give you access to some nice rewards if you're someone who plays GW2 a lot. They are also nice if you want to play through the GW2 story but you can easily watch/read the story on the GW2 wiki.

    POF is actually a "standalone" expansion. It used to be that LS2 gave you easy access to HOT masteries but those masteries aren't mandatory in POF and they added more mastery points so that isn't necessary for new players. You won't need HOT unless you want context for the story. Actually you dont really need HOT for the story if you know your GW2 history, POF is mainly about GW1 stuff with GW2 connecting 250 years of GW story.

    Come POF, HOT is needed for HOT raids and gliding that's it. LS episodes can be earned through in-game gold. Gold towards LS episodes isn't hard dependent on your in game priorities.
    Thanks for the reply. I'm interested in the story and lore of GW, have been since Prophecies so I want to play through the story as it unfolds. Now why I haven't played the game as it's been developed? I don't even know myself. Also about the bold part, that's really cool. Is there more info about that system in the wiki or somewhere? (Wiki is blocked at work for some reason so can't check myself)

  6. #6
    Merely a Setback PACOX's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sinilaid View Post
    Thanks for the reply. I'm interested in the story and lore of GW, have been since Prophecies so I want to play through the story as it unfolds. Now why I haven't played the game as it's been developed? I don't even know myself. Also about the bold part, that's really cool. Is there more info about that system in the wiki or somewhere? (Wiki is blocked at work for some reason so can't check myself)
    So LS episodes are bought with gems. You can buy gems with gold. A lot of people grind out enough gold to buy LS episodes. LS2's story can be accessed for free if you find a play that has LS2 to give you access to it. You won't get the rewards but you'll be able to experience the story. LS3 cost $10 or 800 gems, whatever that translates into in game gold. That leaves the main story from HOT, which only revolves around one specific dragon whose story ends with the core HOT story.

    I mean if you really want the story from Scarlet -> present GW2 day, someone or myself included, could give your a brief rundown of it. Again, you'll be missing the rewards but you'll have the story. At least a TLDR version of it.

    PS: LS3 cost 800 gems right now. Thats $10 or ~215 gold.

    https://gw2efficiency.com/currencies/gems
    Last edited by PACOX; 2017-08-06 at 06:10 AM.

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  7. #7
    Merely a Setback PACOX's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bovinity Divinity View Post
    But in fairness, 800 gems is ~214 gold, which would be more time spent farming to get than the LS episodes themselves offer in actual story content. If nothing else, it's ~10 hours of farming to save $10, so you're working for $1/hour running Silverwastes or something. Eh.

    Best to just spend the cash on it, if you're really interested. Stuff is "technically" buyable with gold in GW2, but generally you'd have to be nuts to make that time/money exchange.
    Anecdotal, but I've seen players who preferred grinding the gold, others who rather pay the $10. People with older accounts with stuff thats now valuable or new players who had nothing to spend their gold yet tend to like the gold conversion. Others rather drop the $10.

    $1/hr playing game on your day off isn't terrible. LS3 maps practically give away ascended gear, worth it in my book. Thats like what, a week of gameplay during the work week?

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  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Bovinity Divinity View Post
    "Give away" in the form of more really, really lenghty grinds, woohoo. (I've done everything in Bloodstone Fen and still am nowhere near even one ascended item)

    And no, $1/hour is terrible. Just pay the $10, your time isn't worthless.
    To add you don't need to buy everything at once. I don't recommend rushing through the content for story. The dry top zones are fantastic and gave me hours of entertainment
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  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by zito View Post
    To add you don't need to buy everything at once. I don't recommend rushing through the content for story. The dry top zones are fantastic and gave me hours of entertainment
    Silverwastes is probably my all time favorite LS map

  10. #10
    Merely a Setback PACOX's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bovinity Divinity View Post
    "Give away" in the form of more really, really lenghty grinds, woohoo. (I've done everything in Bloodstone Fen and still am nowhere near even one ascended item)

    And no, $1/hour is terrible. Just pay the $10, your time isn't worthless.
    I don't understand your point. If I'm already know I'm going to put 10 hours into the game then why use my real money?

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  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Lotus Victorya View Post
    All Living Story content is free if you log in when it's launched. After that, you need $$$ to unlock it back. Fair, if you ask me.
    That's some hot bullshit. Good thing I didn't invest a lot of time in such a corrupt game. FF XIV and WoW are thousands of times better, just pay a sub fee and you got all the content ready for you to be played. An MMO which punishes people who take a break from the game is fucking retarded.

  12. #12
    Right now you can get all of LS season 2 for 960 gems (about $12), that is less than a month subscription from either of those two games. I think the comment above is way out of bounds.

  13. #13
    I still would like to see your definition of content. Seems to be very subjective.

    Everyone wants everything for free. Entitled generation I guess

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Valeron View Post
    I still would like to see your definition of content. Seems to be very subjective.

    Everyone wants everything for free. Entitled generation I guess
    Content related to the story is content. Saying it's not is just silly. And Living World season 3 on top of the story has new zones just like season 2 does.

    So yeah Living Story is content. And it unlocks more content.

    Calling people entitled though is really grasping at straws and acting like the game can do no wrong.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by UnifiedDivide View Post
    Paying for story content that should be free? Genius.
    Agreed. I imagine they will make people pay for Season 1 since they supposedly have intentions to bring it back.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Bovinity Divinity View Post
    "Free"

    You mean the box price they paid?

    On top of the nickel-and-diming for convenience that the game is constantly throwing at you. I'm sure everyone who plays has at least shelled out cash for a character slot or bag space, because fuck the limits on those in a game that's not F2P.

    (And don't throw around the "entitled" shit. That's so beneath everyone here.)
    There is no nickle and diming. The store itself is actually fine. Nothing in there is pay to win or remotely pay to win.

    I agree the story shouldn't have a price put on it after time but to say the game nickles and dimes is silly. The store itself is cosmetic or account upgrades.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Bovinity Divinity View Post
    You're right, there's nothing "pay to win", but shit like character slots, bag space and bank space being so limited in a B2P game pretty much makes me want to punch a baby.

    I expect that kind of, "Haha, fuck you, your character can barely carry a sack of rice without falling over unless you pay us." shit out of a pure F2P game. I still hate it there too, but at least it's expected. In a game with box sales and very limited support, though? I dunno. It's obnoxious to me.
    5 slots isn't so bad, Bag slots if I recall starts you out with 4 and there are huge size bags but I do agree on bank space. That should be way more by default.

  17. #17
    Herald of the Titans Lotus Victoria's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Valaut View Post
    That's some hot bullshit. Good thing I didn't invest a lot of time in such a corrupt game. FF XIV and WoW are thousands of times better, just pay a sub fee and you got all the content ready for you to be played. An MMO which punishes people who take a break from the game is fucking retarded.
    I disagree. It rewards people that stick to the game with free content. You can farm gold for gems, and they give tons of discount on LS chapters frequently for those willing to catch up on the story, so, I stick with my opinion.


  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Lotus Victorya View Post
    I disagree. It rewards people that stick to the game with free content. You can farm gold for gems, and they give tons of discount on LS chapters frequently for those willing to catch up on the story, so, I stick with my opinion.
    No. It's a cash grabby way of gating the story. Feel free to stick to your opinion. But that is what it is. It punishes those for not wanting to commit to a game which no game should ever do. It should give you an incentive to come back when you wish. Making people who decided to take a break pay for the story is not a good incentive.

    There are better ways to reward those who stick to the game. Daily rewards (oh wait), Anniversary gifts (oh wait) and god knows what else. There should not be an incentive to log in or be made to pay for the story. Because that is not an incentive.

    The story should not have a cost unless it's an expansion. Simple as that.
    Last edited by Eleccybubb; 2017-08-06 at 09:10 PM.

  19. #19
    Herald of the Titans Lotus Victoria's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    No. It's a cash grabby way of gating the story. Feel free to stick to your opinion. But that is what it is. It punishes those for not wanting to commit to a game which no game should ever do. It should give you an incentive to come back when you wish. Making people who decided to take a break pay for the story is not a good incentive.

    There are better ways to reward those who stick to the game. Daily rewards (oh wait), Anniversary gifts (oh wait) and god knows what else. There should not be an incentive to log in or be made to pay for the story. Because that is not an incentive.

    The story should not have a cost unless it's an expansion. Simple as that.
    Technically, a LS chapter comes every 2-3 months. If you log in ONCE, for 10 seconds, during those 3 months, you get the stuff for free. I see no problem in that.


  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Lotus Victorya View Post
    Technically, a LS chapter comes every 2-3 months. If you log in ONCE, for 10 seconds, during those 3 months, you get the stuff for free. I see no problem in that.
    And what if someone is unable to? Why should they be punished for it?

    Stop pretending this is to do with commitment to the game. There are better ways to reward commitment which they currently do.

    The problem is right there. You choosing not to see it is an even bigger one.

    Not saying the game is bad. But their handling of Living Story is. And a few conveniences such as bank space specifically.

    The story should be a free part of an MMO forever. Not for 3 months. I would not be surprised if they pulled that when they eventually bring back Season 1.

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