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I was hoping someone would mention this. It was a huge "WTF ANet?" moment for me.
What gives, /u/BobbyStein ? Can't you guys let people access the S1 visions (for free) when they complete the core story? It would have been tremendous if you did it before you started the S2 recap.
If you ask around, you'll find this is a major barrier for a lot of new players. They simply don't have a clue who these randos are nor why they should care.
One of the big challenges with reviving S1 content is in how it was built years ago. At the time, it was decided that these releases should be considered as temporary live events and not as permanent content. Because of that (and because they weren't built within the framework of the story journal--you didn't access the content via journal it was all through map markers, special event UI, and mails for about two weeks per content drop if I remember correctly) it was sort of a patchwork of thematically related OW tasks and instanced story moments that you could technically do in any order. A lot of work would have to go into restructuring them and making them a more cohesive, linear story experience.
And yeah, the current structure of jumping from Personal Story into a brief S1 recap and then straight into S2 isn't great and I totally empathize with the criticism there. This is something that many of us on the dev side have been painfully aware of since the inception of LW.
One positive takeaway from the Visions of the Past treatment of the select S1 missions is that it proves that, as a concept, it's possible to revitalize at least some of that stuff. Between that and the upcoming Marionette event we've been able to rework some legacy content with decent results. Not sure what that means in the long term but I'm glad we've gotten at least that far.
I realize that my comments don't solve anything, but hopefully they provide some context as to why things are the way they are right now. The community discourse around it helps us understand how people feel about it and give us plenty to think about, and I appreciate the dialogue.
I still miss Ron Yuan as the male Charr VA. :( Lex Lang does a good job, but his voice sounds too... classy? It's a lot more smooth and refined sounding, whereas Yuan's performance sounded more growly, brutish and savage. It's kind of like the difference between a barbarian warrior and a courtly knight; both are good, but I made my Charr Warrior specifically because I wanted the previous "feel", and it's gone. It's kind of why I keep on sticking to Berserker over Spellbreaker. XD
Speaking of Ron, you should check out his new film The Paper Tigers. He's hilarious in it. Whole cast is awesome.
Late to the party, but can't you just repackage everything, then structure it around the story journal? Like, part of me feels many of you just don't want to bring it back "as it was" because it had "worse quality", but it's fine, moar people loved it nonetheless, don't let some shitty signpost memes devalue the development achievements from back then. I'm dead serious here.
I made this a while ago: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:Lon-ami/Living_World_Season_1 I think an approach like this would do just fine. For example, the solution I proposed for some of the world bosses there years ago is pretty much the modern take for Dragonstorm, so I'd say you'd be fine server-side with sharding and such.
For most of the "open world stuff in core zones", either take the side stories approach, or clone maps, then recreate the events there. For example, Flame and Frost, you can take the Cragstead map file (Which includes half of Wayfarer Foothills and half of Diessa Plateau), then build a new series of events aroud it, starting with the steam vents, and followed by the Molten Alliance attacks.
I feel like the biggest mistake of LW1 was using the live versions of zones for the events (the living world approach), when you should have duplicated the zones instead. Like, have Kessex Hills (original), intact in its 2012 iteration, then have Kessex Hills (Toxic Alliance) where the centaurs are gone, and the toxic alliance has taken over; then you can play all 3 originals releases there on a 3h loop, (1) take the outside, (2) enter the tower, then finally (3) the tower is destroyed and you clean the outside. The second Kessex Hills would be accessed through a different layer on the world map, with the original taking precedence.
Other MMOs can't represent the same zone in different moments of time, since they follow a classic "open world" approach (whereas GW2 has loading screens for every zone) so I feel like you're wasting a great opportunity there. Going into Cantha, it would be great to revisit the same zone after specific events; for example, Raisu Palace could work as a city hub, then later in the expansion it gets attacked and we return to a copy of the zone, where it's a warzone and everything is destroyed. You can use this approach to represent different seasons (same zone in spring then in winter) and different game modes (echovald pve, echovald pvp) too.
Nonetheless, LW1 was pretty good for most of its run, so don't let the bad press drag you down. If you were to get obssessed over "what could have gone better", you'd have to redo the whole game lmao; opening a dangerous precedent too, by the way. LW1, if it ever returns, should respect the original as much as possible.
Thanks for your thoughts and opinions. It's clear you've spent some time thinking on the subject and I appreciate it.
The short answer is, due to the nature in how S1 was built (a mix of special events, OW content, and some instances all outside the journal), and also due to the fact that the game engine, tools, and standards have evolved since then, it's a bit more complicated than just throwing it all in the journal and would require deeper investigation. But it's something we know people are asking for.
Keep sharing your thoughts and opinions on it. We read them all.