Between a Rox and a hard place.

Image credit: ArenaNet

ArenaNet has announced a major shift in its live service Guild Wars 2 operation today, ditching separate payments for Living World seasonal add-ons and packaging the narrative storylines alongside the MMO's expansions instead.

Up until today these Living World releases, which act as narrative links between the major beats of the overall tale of Guild Wars 2, have been sold separately from major content expansions. Now, players who buy an expansion like Heart of Thorns will get a Living World season free of charge.

Here's the Guild Wars 2 End of Dragons features trailer. Watch on YouTube

The problem with how this used to work was it meant players who just bought expansions would miss information about what key characters were up to, and major developments would be left largely unexplained.…