Is it too much to ask for content to be permanent?

[Svifnymr]

I did it on a few guys, but... I never tried to fight anything. The guys at the cauldron I fought, yeah, but otherwise all mobs were so easy to avoid I never had to worry. "Boss Fights" were not hard, but did have a nice feel to them, I thought. (Where you felt like you could lose if you messed up, but also wasn't a "miss a twitch once and start over" deal.)

[Deleted]

Unfortunately I need to bring this thread back as the recent Halloween patch really annoyed me in a certain respect.

Last year for Halloween I was level 10-13 (can't remember exactly, I was in that frame though). I managed to get the first few books for the backpack item and was quite happy with that, especially since everyone kept saying "don't worry, it will come back next year too, and even if he won't come up from the fountain in LA, you'll still be able to get to finish your book"... well... guess what... you can't. I hoped I could, so this last week I ran around the other 6 locations with my candy powered meter from last year thinking "yea, this will be awesome, I'll get to read the final part of the story too!". But I didn't. Because... you know... the candy powered meter doesn't work anymore. It just consumes 1 candy corn and does nothing.

So, just a heads up, for the people thinking "yea, Halloween will return next year" or "yea, Queen's Jubilee will return next year and I'll finish the achievements then and get my mini-whatever" ... no, you won't.

And furthermore, since last 2 patches I noticed that now there aren't even enough achievements to finish in a weekend so that you can get your whatever prize there is and not have to worry that you can't log on ever few days. You now have to do achievements that are added as dailies. So now you do need to log and do those as well. And not only for some mini-candy-corn-elemental... but also if you want to see the full story. And you have to do it now... since probably next year it will be gone.

And now tell me, how is that a good content model? I don't think it is. I joined GW2 on the basis that it's a game where I can just log in every weekend, play a bit, have my fun, see some story and then use my weektime for thinks in real life without worrying "oh no, if I don't do X thing now I'll miss it forever!".

- - - Updated - - -

2 weeks feels a bit pressured to me for content with a lot of achievements. 4 weeks feels better for those.

They've been dialing this in as they go, if they keep up with 1 patch being 1 month long and the 2nd patch having permanent content in it along with rolling any dungeons back into Fractals (or any combination like that), I'll be pretty happy. Btw, did you catch Colin's comment about Invasions being permanent? Just imagining where they can go with this....

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/foru...o-Decide/first

Yes, the issue seems is that the stuff in the second patch isn't permanent and most times you miss out on a few things... like, for example, if you wanted your crystal node now, you can't get it anymore, can you? Yet that resource is important in a way. Now, you might say, well, it will come back next year... but... the Halloween stuff didn't all come back this year, did it? Sure, you can now get a candy corn node, but can you finish your book backpack item anymore? And here is the issue, how do you know what comes back and what does not? How do you know what is there for 2 weeks then gone and what is there for a longer time? You don't. We can make assumptions yes, but we don't know what will stay and what will go.

And that makes me feel pressured to play since next week the content might be gone forever. I of course don't know what will be gone and what will not... And I don't like feeling pressured to do something like a job.
Funny, someome made an analogy to WoW and raiding content. Yet as far as I remember, if I didn't have enough time to... raid the Sunwell for example, I still didn't worry that in 2 weeks it would be gone. And even with the more time limited stuff like the zombie invasion or the elemental invasion, they were both there for a month and even more actually and even more and it's not like you had a ton of content that you knew will go away... in the zombie invasion you had a set of armor to collect and your mini-game with being a ghoul. During elemental invasion you had elementals attacking the cities constantly and 4 mini-dungeons that were done in 15 minutes each. I can't remember good worthy remembering rewards during the elemental invasion.

[TrollShaman]

i dont find gw2 as addicting as WoW so I dont find myself logging in as much as i want to, on top or IRL obligations.
the living world concept is great, but i wish it lasts longer or make it permanent somehow

[Lane]

Halloween in general has been terrible this year, which sucks because I was really looking forward to it after a series of completely uninteresting LS updates (Teq, TA, etc.). The activities and the rewards are a shadow of what they were last year.

I'm just glad I was able to get the kill achievements done in Mad King's Labyrinth before everyone completely abandoned it. Despite the fact that most content persists for a month in cases such as this you almost have to do the achievements within the first week or they may become next to impossible to complete. I can't even imagine trying to get Viscount or Lich done now. As it is, I have to guest to super high pop servers like TC just to get the dailies done and even there most of them skip those two due to lack of people. (Incidentally, I'm also not a fan of them adding dailies as a requirement for meta achievements.)

I think Zephyr Sanctum is supposed to return more frequently than annually, but I'm not sure. It may be like SAB and show up every 6 months or so.

[nevermore]

I'm just glad I was able to get the kill achievements done in Mad King's Labyrinth before everyone completely abandoned it.

Idk, the Labyrinth still has a massive zerg running around every time I log on, on my server at least (Far Shiverpeaks EU). The only difference is people refuse to kill Lich now because it's just too annoying.

[Valeron]

probably depends on the server, every time I go into the Labyrinth there is always a zerg and most times I'm in overflow in it as well

[Svifnymr]

Yeah, I'm hoping tomorrow's update will have something new Halloween related, but the Krait update doesn't seem to sync with that so much. Was expecting at least the return of an updated Mad King dungeon.

As for the books, I had one complete and 3 alts with incomplete's, so I am also a little disappointed there's no system for it this year. My friend who was level 15ish last year did manage to get a complete book though. Depending on the kindness of strangers a lot in Sparkfly, but he got it.

I haven't been in the labyrinth this past week at all. The rewards aren't there, and the effort isn't worth it.

[Spl4sh3r]

While the greedy part of me wishes all content was permanent, it wouldn't really be good for the game. Part of the reason they can do dynamic content is because the world is constantly changing. With the pace they create things, it also prevents a stockpile of overwhelming content for new players. Better to let it be how it is, though I'd prefer it to be a tad bit longer.

Actually most of the stuff can be permanent without affecting anything else. Of course seasonal stuff shouldn't be permanent, but they should appear identical (with new stuff maybe!) each year. Other than that new zones that only last during the events have no real reason not to be permanent no matter what lore they add with it. For example with the Bazaar, the island is there all the time, but since the event is over we can't access it for some reason. That makes no sense. The voting thing from Bazaar however makes sense to be temporary otherwise how are they meant to see who wins if the vote never ends. Things that happen out in the world is also something that can't be permanent. I mean the balloons for the jubilee doesn't make sense to be permanent, however the new area in Divinity's Reach it should be a permanent place.

[Kelimbror]

I mean the balloons for the jubilee doesn't make sense to be permanent, however the new area in Divinity's Reach it should be a permanent place.

I wasn't referring to any specific land mass, but obviously to the events surrounding them. However, there would be no point in leaving the areas as it would require them to spend additional development time on something trivial. Otherwise you would just have an empty place to go stand around in and what would be the point of that?

[Deleted]

Actually most of the stuff can be permanent without affecting anything else. Of course seasonal stuff shouldn't be permanent, but they should appear identical (with new stuff maybe!) each year. Other than that new zones that only last during the events have no real reason not to be permanent no matter what lore they add with it. For example with the Bazaar, the island is there all the time, but since the event is over we can't access it for some reason. That makes no sense. The voting thing from Bazaar however makes sense to be temporary otherwise how are they meant to see who wins if the vote never ends. Things that happen out in the world is also something that can't be permanent. I mean the balloons for the jubilee doesn't make sense to be permanent, however the new area in Divinity's Reach it should be a permanent place.

Indeed, I fully agree with this!

[Shink]

16 hours of content, spread between 2 weeks, if you can't find a way to spare some time, i don't think you should be trying to play a MMO, because you are busy enough to not be able to play

[weaponxlogan]

We should have content that changes the world forever. I don't want to mention WoW's Cata but I really liked the idea. It could be once a year, but something big. Of course on top of all the other living contents. I'm just saying adding a once a year huge event.

[lawow74]

I like the idea of temporary rewards that are cosmetic, but things that give you some little bennie, like a permanent mining node in your home instance, those should be perennial.

[weaponxlogan]

I like the idea of temporary rewards that are cosmetic, but things that give you some little bennie, like a permanent mining node in your home instance, those should be perennial.

yes, i completely agree with you on that one. I don't like the nodes added to your home.. imo = useless It would take weeks and months to craft something while mining 3 times a day..

[Lane]

They just need to add 4-5 more nodes and then the gathering daily will be super easy!

[Deleted]

16 hours of content, spread between 2 weeks, if you can't find a way to spare some time, i don't think you should be trying to play a MMO, because you are busy enough to not be able to play

Yeah, what about the new players? I mean, let's say I joined the game now. And I see "Scarlet's minions are attacking X zone". Who is Scarlet to them? Nobody, just some random nobody, so why should they care? She doesn't offer them loot better then everything else since this is not a game about improving in stats after a level and if they are not encouraged to care about lore either... why would they even bother to do any of her events? She's a nobody attacking some random zone. If anything, she's just annoying since she interrupts the normal flow of the zone with no purpose as a nobody (heck, not even I who was there when she appeared understood why she attacked us to be honest, but for newer players it's even worse) attacking everything for no reason.

[Lane]

The Scarlet invasions are terrible now anyway. Wave 1 takes far too long. Since it's mostly unrewarding no one really wants to bother with it. You also can't work on minions during Wave 2 anymore. I don't know if I've been unlucky or if they purposely have made Molten Alliance always come first, but basically you either never get to the Aetherblades (the only real reason to bother with the invasions) or if you do you have at most 5 minutes worth of farming before you fail the event.

Granted, this is just the experience I've had on my server. Regardless, I used to like doing the invasions but now I don't bother, it's just a waste of time unless you happen to already be in the invasion zone.

[lawow74]

I dunno how it is on my server, but that sounds about right for the Invasion events nowadays. Folks either chase the meta for the new Living Story or stick to the tried-and-true champ trains/world bosses, IME.