Guild Wars 2

If Anet want to make $$, they should release in China. Oh wait….

Devata.6589:

pdavis.8031:

Balsa.3951:

seriously china just got gw2 u honestly think they release a new box directly ??

and who say anet dont make money ?

I’m with you. It takes a huge amount of money and resources to launch a game in a new market, even if the game has already been launched. If anet was losing money they wouldnt even consider such a huge launch as the cost would be far more then the overall gain. Love it or hate it, the gem store does make money. While we dont have access to the actual numbers, we can see the exchange rate of gems to gold increasing. Which means lots of people are buying gems, using some and converting to gold. It takes so much gold to get gems, many people, myself included, will just spend 15-20 dollars and get the gems that way. Its faster and youll always get the same amount of gems.

Having an expansion model does mean that sales spike at the launch, there is little steady income until the next expansion. But the sales from a cash shop keep coming in. Its kinda like getting paid a 6 month salary at the start of that period, then nothing for another six months. You can have that, or have a Daily income that has much more of a potential of making more during that same 6 month period. I don’t know about you, but I would take the latter.

The only problem is that your numbers add up.

But let me first ask you something.. You buy gems to convert to gold. So you don’t like the game enough to play the content?
You did not buy the game to play it but to be then able to buy ingame items?

No to the numbers. We do have some of the numbers and here they are:
https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/151443/1q14_NCSoft.jpg
We can compare GW2’s graph with GW1’s graph to see the relevant incomes for the two.
Calculations here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/NcSoft-earnings-1Q-14/page/3#post4029793

What we see if that GW2 had done it the same way as GW1 (no cash-shop and regular expansions) they would likely have earned more money by now. Now maybe GW1 was a little to fast for a game like GW1 with expansions so lets say they would release an expansion every year then GW2 would have been earning more money with that model from the second expansion sale.

That is a steady income with a years interval. That should work just fine, numbers seem to show that it would generate more money and there would be no need for cash-shop focus so everything can be ingame resulting in a better game, more people and a better name for ArenaNet.

And then we haven’t talked about the period after that (longer term). This cash-shop focus alienates many people. That is not good at all for the long-term.

It might be just fine for you (since you are a buyer). You might not might that game-play is made a gold-grind to get more gem-sales you just buy the gold. But many people do care and do leave.

I never said I bought gems to convert to gold. I said I’ve bought gems. There were some items in the store I wanted. Any leftovers were converted to gold, yes, but that wasnt my motivation for buying them. I enjoy the content and play regularly.

Also those numbers don’t show how much revenue was game sales, and how much was gems. That is if they are seperate and not bundled together. It is also important to note that guild wars 2 was the fastest selling western mmo in history.www.guildwars2hub.com/news/guild-wars-2-fastest-selling-mmo-history
With over 3 million games sold in the first 9 months. Thats why you see a large drop off of sales toward the present. You can rest assured that number will shoot up again upon china release. So while they are at an average of income with their other games, its a far stretch to say they are losing money or not making enough.

They went with the cash shop for a reason. The expansion model is a fading trend, and cash shops are where most games are going. Not just mmos, every type of game you can imagine. Facebook type games are making millions, and its solely a cash shop revenue. There is no proof that money is being lost, or they arent making enough, and everything points towards a sustainable amount of income from the current model even if we dont have the exact numbers.

Phy.2913:

We do you guys think the quality of an expansion would be any better than the quality of the LS? They released an expansions worth of content, for free, and you guys complained about it.

I’m sorry your past mmo experiences have set such a low standard, not sarcastic, I really mean that.

Free does not mean good, and like GW2 almost every mmo has done the Living Story too in between QoL, balance, & expansion packs…they call them holiday & festivals. Anet has just done these festival/holiday events more while leaving out continual balance & xpacs.

and is it really that bad that players want to pay for a decent expansion, I mean here’s money?

I bought every single GW1 expansion, and if I had the money to purchase the expansion collectors edition, then I would have bought all CE.

I find that no items on Black Marketplace attracts me to purchase gems; however, I do find gem to gold conversion as the saving grace for GW2.

Areanet should incorporate an optional monthly fee ($15) with monthly perks such as:

• +15% more Karma, Experience, and Magic Find
• 30 days unlimited anywhere Bank, Broker, and General Merchant Access
• 30 days Unlimited Wardrobe Changes
  Monthly Bonus Exclusive: Asuran Golem Alternative Skin
  Next Monthly Bonus Exclusive: x5 Unidentified Dyes

Etc…

Areanet should release an expansion; especially, limited collector’s edition. Imagine a Cantha Ship for CE? I’m sold lol!
Include new legendary armor (community wants), new weapons skins, Tengu playable class, etc.

In the CE include the following:
- Special Dance Emote
- Cloth Map of Cantha
- Special Miniature

I do not know what else.

I do not know what is the problem with releasing expansions; however, it is common sense to continue what made GW1 so successful. It laid the foundations of success; therefore, why change it?
It is similar to how Coca Cola almost ran out of business, but they brought back the Coca Cola classic (Without the cocaine), and it reinvigorated their business with a valuable lesson.

Anyways, just putting my two cents in.

I do want an expansion, but more than that I want the gameplay and reward progression not dictated by the ‘free-to-play’ model – because while the game is ‘free-to-play’, it’s also to gain a buck, and running into such payment-model dictated gameplay is the same reason I can’t enjoy sub-based games.

I feel that expansion packs are not only the least intruding to gameplay and reward progression, they also make the most sense. “Like the game? Well how about buying more game?”

If I had to choose between the two – subscription or completely free-to-play – then sure, I’m gonna pick f2p, but neither are what I signed up for.

people need to realize, expansion content will take as long to beat as getting all the achievements in Living Story content.

KOPPER.1458:

I do not understand why some players think it has to be one or the other and not both. You can either only do expansion or only do gem store. Why can’t it be both?

Why do some think an expansion would drive players away? Expansions bring players in, even if only temporarily. The content has to make them want to stay, but a traditional expansion hypes the game up. Does LS do this? I’m not sure that it does. Perhaps a few of the LS patches do. Maybe.

Of-course you can have both but that does not yet mean you optimize sales or quality.
When you focus on a cash-shop it influences the game in a negative way for many game-players. Now if people do not have to pay for the game (what in case of GW2 they had) and expansions people may be more willing to accept it. In fact in many ways it mainly effects you if you don’t buy, that’s the way it’s designed. While not completely true. For example I love to hunt down items in the world but most of them are in a cash-shop in GW2. Sure I could buy them but what’s the fun in that?

Now if you focus on box-sales and expansions but have no or almost no cash-shop people must be willing to pay for the product and so are likely more picky and so are less likely to be oke with the way a cash-shop influences the game.

Meaning that with a heavy cash-shop focus you will have less people playing and so less sales. Something you want to optimize to increase cash-shop sales if that’s your main source of income, that would of course be level out with the income of those expansions.

However it means that having both does not also means higher income so from that viewpoint it might not be interesting.

Because I am willing to pay for content but do expect a high quality product that has everything in it I prefer a true B2P model. So no heavy cash-shop. (at best a name-changer, race-changer and a few more of those ’ out of game’ services.

I will not buy gems and if they don’t make changes to the model at this point with the current state of the game because of the cash-shop influence I am not even sure if I al willing to buy an expansion. It all depends on if they would make a change to a more expansion-based model. While if all those (directly and indirectly) cash-shop related issues weren’t there I would most likely buy a CE of an expansion without any problem because I would have much fun playing it.

So yeah you can have both, but that does not mean it’s optimal for sales or for the game. I do think it might be better for the game that cash-shop focus only but if it does not increase income enough and it would rise cost (because now you need to be busy with all the cash-shop related stuff like the LS and so on, and you need to develop an expansion) then they might prefer not to do it.

irk.2047:

people need to realize, expansion content will take as long to beat as getting all the achievements in Living Story content.

I can assure you that playing all my alts through another full game’s worth of content (that’s what I expect from a GW expansion) will keep me entertained for an amount of time that is several orders of magnitude larger than the few hours it takes me to do the bite-sized (and really small bites, at that) Living Story content helpings.

Why make an expansion when there’s enough kittens feeding the gem store.
Besides, the marketting hoax only works the first time. No way they can conjure up the same hype and expect ppl to fall for it AGAIN (not all of them, at least).

Phy.2913:

We do you guys think the quality of an expansion would be any better than the quality of the LS? They released an expansions worth of content, for free, and you guys complained about it.

Well it does not have to be good but it sure can be much better.

You see, the LS is not free as you claim. It’s payed with cash-shop sales and is there partly to increase cash-shop sales.

So if they make money with cash-shop sales they have to try and sell us cash-shop items. But every item that is in the cash-shop takes away from the game-play in the game. An item that is in the cash-shop is not in the world to hunt down. And if they would put items in the cash-shop and in the game then why would people buy the one from the cash-shop? Likely only because it looks better what once again would take away from the game-play because now you are better rewarded by buying something from the cash-shop then from killing the end-boss (as an example).
Put the same item in the world and in the game behind hard content and it totally devalues the item in the game-world.. Yeah nice that items from that hard content but you can also just buy it.

Then there is making everything in the game a gold-grind. Many people dislike it but it does improve gem-sales to be converted to gold.

If they would focus on expansion sales to generate income there would at least not be a need for these sort of things. In fact as it might scare people away and make them unwilling to buy expansions you would like to prevent this sort of things. The question they then mainly have to answer is how do they get people to keep buying expansions and the best way to do that is to give good quality content (expansions) that keep people happy and willing to pay for it.

Ultimately that should increase the quality of the game.

But you are right, it would not guarantee anything. A B2P model (focusing on expansions) would only push them in the right direction but would not guarantee anything. Many people however do hope that that push will be enough.

Wanze.8410:

If Anet want to make $$, they should release in China. Oh wait….

The one does not excludes the other.

pdavis.8031:

Devata.6589:

pdavis.8031:

Balsa.3951:

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They went with the cash shop for a reason. The expansion model is a fading trend, and cash shops are where most games are going. Not just mmos, every type of game you can imagine. Facebook type games are making millions, and its solely a cash shop revenue. There is no proof that money is being lost, or they arent making enough, and everything points towards a sustainable amount of income from the current model even if we dont have the exact numbers.

I did read that wrong but it does not really change what I wanted to say. There is something in the cash-shop that you like. Now is buying that really fun or would be playing for more fun? Many people say “well you can convert gold to gems” so then the question would remain, did you not like to play to get the gold?
So what I am trying to point out is that by putting something in the cash-shop they do take something away from the game. Now you could still get it (grinding gold) but not really in a fun game-play way.

“Also those numbers don’t show how much revenue was game sales, and how much was gems. ”
No it doesn’t but it’s the best we can do with the numbers we have. However you may expect that the initial spike is mainly box-sales and there will for sure be people who did mediately buy gems for character slots and so on there will also be many box-sales in the quarters after that. So to level that out I did count the initial sales (that spike at the beginning) as pure box-sales and all income after that as pure cash-shop sales. That should easily level everything out the best we can with those numbers.

“With over 3 million games sold in the first 9 months. That’ s why you see a large drop off of sales toward the present. ” Yeah that only supports that it are mainly box-sales and that a B2P game (that is how many people did see GW2 on release because they released it as B2P and what they did with GW1) does have the potential to sell very good.

I am afraid that now they turned cash-shop focus even if they would be releasing an expansion they will not get close to sell that many while with GW1 they where able to almost sell as much copies of the first expansion as they did sell original copies.

I leave China out of it because it’s unrelated. There would be a China release whether they would use a true B2P model here or use the model they do now.

I never said they are losing money or where not making enough. I am not sure where you did read that?

You said “like getting paid a 6 month salary at the start of that period, then nothing for another six months. You can have that, or have a Daily income that has much more of a potential of making more during that same 6 month period. ” All I did show is that the numbers do no show what you are saying.. It does not seem to have much more of a potential of making more then the expansion-based model. In fact it seems to be the other way around. You are right about the fact that there is more or a period of no (lower) income in-between but that should be no problem. You simply work with the money form the last release. That is in fact how most businesses work. You invest and then later (and a year is not even that much) you earn, part of that you invest again and so on.

“The expansion model is a fading trend ”
Not sure why you would call it a fading trend. It is used a lot in non-mmo (counting sequels in the same model) and has never been used much in the mmo world but GW1 was successful with it and it made ArenaNet big. Then less then two years ago GW2 got released as B2P model (turned out to be a little different after release) and it became the fasted selling mmo on release in history. It’s not a popular model from a business standpoint likely because it’s more risky. Squeezing out money with a cash-shop is more easy using many marketing tricks. A successful B2P model means you also need to have a good product that people are willing to buy. Hyped would works for the initial game and it’s first expansion but want to keep selling expansions then you just need a good product.
So no the term fading is not correct.

Again, I never said they where losing money not earning enough or that they don’t have a steady flow of income. I only countered your comment that this would likely generate them more that a expansion based model would. I do however think that for the long term (3+ years) it will be more of a difference. I do think that a true B2P model has much better prospectives for in the long run simply because it alienates less people.

Smith.1826:

I do want an expansion, but more than that I want the gameplay and reward progression not dictated by the ‘free-to-play’ model – because while the game is ‘free-to-play’, it’s also to gain a buck, and running into such payment-model dictated gameplay is the same reason I can’t enjoy sub-based games.

I feel that expansion packs are not only the least intruding to gameplay and reward progression, they also make the most sense. “Like the game? Well how about buying more game?”

If I had to choose between the two – subscription or completely free-to-play – then sure, I’m gonna pick f2p, but neither are what I signed up for.

Yeah I completely agree.

KarlaGrey.5903:

Why make an expansion when there’s enough kittens feeding the gem store.
Besides, the marketting hoax only works the first time. No way they can conjure up the same hype and expect ppl to fall for it AGAIN (not all of them, at least).

Well if they promise to go really B2P starting with the next expansion it’s possible. But if they would stay cash-shop focused again sales will be much lower. And hyping it by saying it would not go B2P might help but if it turned out to be a lie sales of expansions after that will be much lower.

They already destroyed there good name. Maybe they don’t care but only a switch back and a mea culpa would help. So far however there is no mea culpa but just stubborn.

I believe Anet will make an expansion but it could be a year or more out still, if they do it at all. Since Anet wants to work on the LS, they need to make more of the LS content permanent. I don’t say permanent just so that people can replay it over and over but also for people that may have missed some of the LS. Not everyone has the time to get on a MMO daily or even weekly so they shouldn’t have to miss out on content due to having things in the real world take up their time.

I can make time whenever usually but I would like to see Anet improve the LS since they want to use that. There’s no point in wanting an expansion month after month in different threads when Anet has clearly said they would not make an expansion yet.

I think the current model is probably best. Buy the game, play the game. Cash shop is optional but nothing really pay to win but surely creates profit for Anet. Completely free to play is a bad idea because it allows far too many annoying people in the game, especially young kids.

My only complaint about the cash shop is that I wish Anet would add better looking skins. If you’re short on money then there’s a chance you’ve got free time so you can farm gold and buy gems. Also for anyone that rushes through a LS update in an a few hours is probably in the minority.

I remember people doing LS stuff well into when the next bi-weekly LS update would be added so either all those people in the game are just doing it just to do it or they enjoy it and are not rushing through it. This is nothing new on MMOs though. A dev releases new content and there are always some people that will rush through it and then complain about being bored, not enough to do, not enough content, update was too small.

While this happens there are still many people enjoying the content.

southbeatz.2780:

I believe Anet will make an expansion but it could be a year or more out still, if they do it at all. Since Anet wants to work on the LS, they need to make more of the LS content permanent. I don’t say permanent just so that people can replay it over and over but also for people that may have missed some of the LS. Not everyone has the time to get on a MMO daily or even weekly so they shouldn’t have to miss out on content due to having things in the real world take up their time.

I can make time whenever usually but I would like to see Anet improve the LS since they want to use that. There’s no point in wanting an expansion month after month in different threads when Anet has clearly said they would not make an expansion yet.

I think the current model is probably best. Buy the game, play the game. Cash shop is optional but nothing really pay to win but surely creates profit for Anet. Completely free to play is a bad idea because it allows far too many annoying people in the game, especially young kids.

My only complaint about the cash shop is that I wish Anet would add better looking skins. If you’re short on money then there’s a chance you’ve got free time so you can farm gold and buy gems. Also for anyone that rushes through a LS update in an a few hours is probably in the minority.

I remember people doing LS stuff well into when the next bi-weekly LS update would be added so either all those people in the game are just doing it just to do it or they enjoy it and are not rushing through it. This is nothing new on MMOs though. A dev releases new content and there are always some people that will rush through it and then complain about being bored, not enough to do, not enough content, update was too small.

While this happens there are still many people enjoying the content.

“Cash shop is optional but nothing really pay to win” “My only complaint about the cash shop is that I wish Anet would add better looking skins.”
So it’s just fine for the game that you take stuff out of the game (that skin) and put in in the cash-shop eliminating the game-play of hunting down those items in the game-world?

And what is your definition of P2W? If that item was in the world dropping from a boss or whatever would that not be a win, at least for those people hunting it down. And would putting it in the cash-shop then not be a form of P2W as you pay for what you would else win?

Yeah you might not get an easier kill (P2Kill) but not everybody cares about killing or stats. So what is P2W to you and why is taking those elements out of the game and so eliminating game-play no problem?

Jahroots.6791:

Perhaps we won’t get a full-on expansion, but instead the option to purchase access to additional maps via the gem store. Each would come with it’s own set of hearts and events, a handful of unique rewards (skins!) and hopefully at least one new dungeon between the lot. And of course, a boatload of loosely related fluff in the gem store

I don’t think new races or professions are likely in the immediate future though.

no to purchasing new maps via the gem store if they release they better release to all otherwise at that time id be gone for good. they stated all item in gem store were cosmetic only

i think anet keep making money out of people as much as possible with old content then when the numbers start falling sharply they will introduce expansion to bring back all ex- players and deja vo starts all over again. this is now the holy sentence for many game companies:
“INVEST AS LESS AS POSSIBLE BOTH IN TERMS OF MONEY AND TIME AND MAKE PROFIT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE”

Moss.5371:

“As for expansion, we are now focused on the Living World production, have not considered this issue.”

Mike O’Brien, yesterday
http://news.17173.com/content/2014-05-17/20140517123651663_1.shtml

Wait what?! “Not considered the issue”? After a negative reception to the Living World, noted by the CDI, and playerbase’s pleas for an expansion. Really.
A pity, I liked this game.

darkace.8925:

Nick.6972:

Rezz.8019:

What is the point of expansion….

It’s like movie sequels. No quality but just there to make extra money. I prefer it the way it is now without any expansions or anything like that.

Living Story is exactly what you described and worse.

Much worse. The content released via Living Story is of significantly lower quality and contains significantly more bugs than that released via expansion.

No, no it’s not. The only difference is that it comes in short intervals, and thus you don’t get the “OMG SO SHINY AND NEW” effect as an expansion.

Expansion in most games tend to have the singular purpose of raising the level cap, resetting progress markers, and throwing everybody back on the hamster wheel. Given GW2’s game design, it doesn’t lend itself well to that, and quite frankly I would drop the game very quickly if I thought they were going down that route. If you want to play the power creep shuffle, there are plenty of other games for that.

hedix.1986:

Moss.5371:

“As for expansion, we are now focused on the Living World production, have not considered this issue.”

Mike O’Brien, yesterday
http://news.17173.com/content/2014-05-17/20140517123651663_1.shtml

Wait what?! “Not considered the issue”? After a negative reception to the Living World, noted by the CDI, and playerbase’s pleas for an expansion. Really.
A pity, I liked this game.

What issue is he talking about in the first place (there are so many)? My Chinese is not what it used to be.

Rynn.1324:

darkace.8925:

Nick.6972:

Rezz.8019:

What is the point of expansion….

It’s like movie sequels. No quality but just there to make extra money. I prefer it the way it is now without any expansions or anything like that.

Living Story is exactly what you described and worse.

Much worse. The content released via Living Story is of significantly lower quality and contains significantly more bugs than that released via expansion.

No, no it’s not. The only difference is that it comes in short intervals, and thus you don’t get the “OMG SO SHINY AND NEW” effect as an expansion.

Expansion in most games tend to have the singular purpose of raising the level cap, resetting progress markers, and throwing everybody back on the hamster wheel. Given GW2’s game design, it doesn’t lend itself well to that, and quite frankly I would drop the game very quickly if I thought they were going down that route. If you want to play the power creep shuffle, there are plenty of other games for that.

While I did see many people here ask for expansion I did not see them ask for things like raising the level-cap and resetting progress markers. If you have a second look it seems most are mainly asking for horizontal progression.

The LS did not add much of that. In fact much of the horizontal progression (you know like getting skins) is taken out of it to put in the cash-shop. An expansion could hold a new set of mini’s like we did but if it’s in the world it could take you a year to collect them all. Put them in the cash-shop and it’s all a gold-grind if you even still care. I don’t care much about them as collecting is not fun anymore. There are just a few sets of mini’s I like because of the looks.

All in all the LS is a grind of events and achievements against time to complete the achievements and get the rewards. All the time having a timer over your head. It’s really interesting.. I don’t like sub-based games because they put a timer over your head (play for when you payed) and GW2 has a cash-shop game that managed to create that same feeling and has the negatives of F2P games and still needing to buy the game. Going from one the best model with GW2 to creating maybe the worst model. It’s impressing.

Anyway, that’s really very different from what most expansions give. At least horizontal progression is still a game-play element and is fun in those games and can keep you busy up until the next expansion. In GW2 that part is taken out (moved to the cash-shop) or all boils down to a boring gold-grind. More thanks to the cash-shop focus then to the LS but one can see how the two go hand in hand.

Rynn.1324:

darkace.8925:

Nick.6972:

Rezz.8019:

What is the point of expansion….

It’s like movie sequels. No quality but just there to make extra money. I prefer it the way it is now without any expansions or anything like that.

Living Story is exactly what you described and worse.

Much worse. The content released via Living Story is of significantly lower quality and contains significantly more bugs than that released via expansion.

No, no it’s not.

Is it just me, or does it strike anyone else as rather weird to argue about the qualities of something that doesn’t exist?

Rynn.1324:

Expansion in most games tend to have the singular purpose of raising the level cap, resetting progress markers, and throwing everybody back on the hamster wheel. Given GW2’s game design, it doesn’t lend itself well to that, and quite frankly I would drop the game very quickly if I thought they were going down that route.

So maybe they shouldn’t create an expansion like ‘most games’ tend to? Perhaps they could create it in the style they themselves used for GW1?

If you want to play the power creep shuffle, there are plenty of other games for that.

Who are you addressing here? Has anyone asked for ‘power creep shuffle’? Or are you answering your own limited way of imagining what an expansion could be like?

Devata.6589:

While I did see many people here ask for expansion I did not see them ask for things raising the level-cap and resetting progress markers. If you have a second look it seems most are mainly asking for horizontal progression.

The LS did not add much of that. In fact much of the horizontal progression (you know like getting skins) is taken out of it to put in the cash-shop. An expansion could hold a new set of mini’s like we did but if it’s in the world it could take you a year to collect them all. Put them in the cash-shop and it’s all a gold-grind if you even still care. I don’t care much about them as collecting is not fun. There are just a few sets of mini’s I like because of the looks.

I was speaking in terms of how expansions normally operate. However, I agree that horizontal progression is what I and many others hope for. However, to me horizontal progression lends itself better to the episodic nature of LS than it would an expansion, which throws a blast of content at you all at once.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Who are you addressing here? Has anyone asked for ‘power creep shuffle’? Or are you answering your own limited way of imagining what an expansion could be like?

It’s not my own limited way, it’s been what the overwhelming, vast majority of MMORPG expansions I’ve experienced have done. Arenanet has already backtracked and went against their stance of Exotics being the top armor tier; do you really think they wouldn’t consider using an expansion as a cheap way to reset progression mechanics in some way?

Rynn.1324:

It’s not my own limited way, it’s been what the overwhelming, vast majority of MMORPG expansions I’ve experienced have done. Arenanet has already backtracked and went against their stance of Exotics being the top armor tier; do you really think they wouldn’t consider using an expansion as a cheap way to reset progression mechanics in some way?

Maybe people asking for an expansion are looking at what the vast majority of previous ANet games have done with them, i.e. GW1, instead of looking at what other companies do.

As for your other point, I have no idea what they’d consider because I’m not a mindreader. I’d expect them to introduce new avenues of progression in an expansion, running parallel to the ones that already exist. Like they did with GW1 expansions. If they don’t, I might not be interested in an expansion at all.

ricky markham.8173:

Jahroots.6791:

Perhaps we won’t get a full-on expansion, but instead the option to purchase access to additional maps via the gem store. Each would come with it’s own set of hearts and events, a handful of unique rewards (skins!) and hopefully at least one new dungeon between the lot. And of course, a boatload of loosely related fluff in the gem store

I don’t think new races or professions are likely in the immediate future though.

no to purchasing new maps via the gem store if they release they better release to all otherwise at that time id be gone for good. they stated all item in gem store were cosmetic only

Well, look at it like this: You’ve got to pay for expansion content regardless of how it’s made available to us. If it’s broken up into small packages (LotRO and DDO have done this, I believe it worked reasonably well there) that can be bought for gems, then we have the option of spending cash or grinding and doing a gold→gem conversion. And this way, we only need pay for the content that we find interesting or appealing.

GW1 would not be half the game if it weren’t for its 3 expansions.
GW2 improvements two years on literally are laughable compared to the one GW1 had at this point in time.

There hasn’t been a single full endgame dungeon since the Living Story doctrine began (one overall, Fractals, which was before they decided on quantity over quality)
You might say the handful instances we got delivered via LS count as “endgame dungeons”. First of all endgame, at least to me, implies not being able to finish something on the first 1-2 try, i.e. it has longevity (of which reasonable difficulty is a major part), which of course isn’t compatible with the 2 week framework of LS. But more importantly, to anyone who wasn’t around at exactly that time interval, they are irrelevant. They don’t exist anymore.
No new zones. Expansions gave us entire continents.
There has only been exactly one full, ingame earnable armor set. And it’s tied to an insane amount of grind. Each expansion of GW1 gave us dozens of new armor skins, all ingame acquirable.
The new weapon skins have mostly either been locked behind a (legally unregulated) gambling wall, or were festival skins like Toy/SAB weapons, which is a shame.

In almost two years, we got 5 new traits per class + one healing skill. I haven’t done the math, but in — wait for it — GW1 I reckon there were over 1000 new skills (separating it by class is meaningless because you could dual-class), 4 new professions and several new weapon types.

What exactly is happening here? Well it’s not hard to lift the curtain a bit. NCSoft is keeping this game on life-support mode and is essentially milking it’s established consumer base. The profits of this, however, don’t go into improving and advancing the game itself. Since this company is a multinational corporation with several (dozens?) of MMOs under it’s hood, they mainly flow into subsidizing other upcoming projects.
Since due to the anemic life-support approach there is probably very little comparative growth amonst the GW2 user base still in the established Western markets, the only way to grow it’s base is via the release in the biggest untapped market, China, where this strategy will be continued (whereas another way to grow it would be via an expansion, which traditionally is the biggest marketing coup a game can receive after it’s release).

Jamais vu.5284:

GW1 would not be half the game if it weren’t for its 3 expansions.
GW2 improvements two years on literally are laughable compared to the one GW1 had at this point in time.

There hasn’t been a single full endgame dungeon since the Living Story doctrine began (one overall, Fractals, which was before they decided on quantity over quality)
You might say the handful instances we got delivered via LS count as “endgame dungeons”. First of all endgame, at least to me, implies not being able to finish something on the first 1-2 try, i.e. it has longevity (of which reasonable difficulty is a major part), which of course isn’t compatible with the 2 week framework of LS. But more importantly, to anyone who wasn’t around at exactly that time interval, they are irrelevant. They don’t exist anymore.
No new zones. Expansions gave us entire continents.
There has only been exactly one full, ingame earnable armor set. And it’s tied to insane grind.
Each expansion of GW1 gave us dozens of new armor skins, all ingame acquirable.
The new weapon skins have mostly either been locked behind a ticket lottery, or were festival skins like Toy/SAB weapons, which is a shame.

In almost two years, we got 5 new traits per class + one healing skill. I haven’t done the math, but in — wait for it — GW1 I reckon there were over 1000 new skills (separating it by class is meaningless because you could dual-class), 4 new professions and several new weapon types.

What exactly is happening here? Well it’s not hard to lift the curtain a bit. NCSoft is keeping this game on life-support mode and is essentially milking it’s established consumer base. The revenues of this, however, don’t go into improving and advancing the game itself. Since this company is a multinational corporation with several (dozens?) of MMOs under it’s hood, the profits mainly go into subsidizing other upcoming projects, like WildStar.
Since due to the anemic life-support approach there is probably very little comparative growth amonst the GW2 user base still in the established Western markets, the only way to grow it’s base is via the release in the biggest untapped market, China, where this strategy will be continued (whereas another way to grow it would be via an expansion, which traditionally is the biggest marketing coup a game can receive after it’s release).

That’s true. The amount of new, permanent content that we got during Season 1 of Living Story is a joke.
No a funny one, obviously.

Since we are now synchronous with China I would not expect an expansion with costs before June 2015. We will see expansion(s) without costs. Season too will start soon: A season 3 for Winter/Spring 2015 seems realistic. For the volume of permanent content delivered by season 2 we have to see how much the teams beside the LW teams have produced. Der concept of LW can launch an expansion over a period of 6months assumed the devs have the permanent content ready.

Last year there was not enough permanent content released. The LW teams designed their part, but from other teams came almost nothing. The first year of LW was mainly an process optimisation and coordination. There was a lot of feedback via CDI what should be improved. Many things are now acknowledged for the development of season 2.

Will the LW concept provide the same experience as an expansion with costs? Yes and no. The answer is “no” if you look at the schedule and timetable. With LW you get content within the first month with an expansion. With costs there will be nothing launched until it’s official launch. When a season of LW ends the expansion with costs just starts. Ar the end both concept have provided the same amount of permanent content. The LW concept provided even more to do based on the temporary story arcs.

The answer is “yes”, if you simply ignore the complete season and wait until the last batch of permanent content is launched. Then you have the same experience as buying an expansion with costs in regards to permanent content.

I think NCSoft is simply more interested in funding it’s other games than giving Anet what it needs to pump out a GW2 expansion. Gem store sales alone are probably not enough to fund an expansion. And if you think NCSoft doesn’t take a giant bite out of the gem store revenue, think again.

Manasa Devi.7958:

An expansion is the only thing they can offer that I’ll pay for.

Pretty much this.

I think NCsoft is milking it. Resources are allocated elsewhere and in other markets.

Difference between expansion and LS :
If you’re new/you start a new char, you get a whole expansion to play additionnaly as opposed to the LS where you have a short additional content.

Let’s face it, we’ve used the virtual world of gw2’s to the pulp, we need some new stuff, and a lot of it at once.

An expansion makes it so new comers have way more content to go trough. I think they’re not forced to make an expansion but god please add new maps and horizons. The LS didn’t have ‘’adding new maps’’ as a goal because Anet said they wanted to exploit their current world a bit more. Now is time they add a whole bunch of new stuff, not just a little bit, a lot !

Yes, I would pay a one time fee for an expansion also. How about $15?

Expansions are done to reinvigorate cashflow. The fact that we have not seen an expansion is evidence that the cashflow does not warrant the unnecessary risk of producing and releasing an expansion.

Until such time as the gem store fails to meet their revenue requirements, there will not be an expansion.

Lankybrit.4598:

Yes, I would pay a one time fee for an expansion also. How about $15?

Too small. For $15 I can’t see us getting anything substantially better than the free LS content we’ve had. I expect $40+, and I would gladly pay it if it offered plenty of new zones, dungeons, playable class/race, story, etc.

P.S. it would be nice if they gave 50% off the base game if you included the expansion in your purchase, or something like that, to help draw new players in.

I’m willing to pay 50 bucks for an expansion, heck, 120 if they have a collector’s edition !

Same here.
50 bucks for an entire continent and everything that comes with it? Sign me up!

I’d pay anything for a campaign/expansion that would add the amount of new content that GW1 campaigns/expansions added. No doubt it, be it 50, 100 or 150 Euros!

mtpelion.4562:

Expansions are done to reinvigorate cashflow. The fact that we have not seen an expansion is evidence that the cashflow does not warrant the unnecessary risk of producing and releasing an expansion.

Until such time as the gem store fails to meet their revenue requirements, there will not be an expansion.

This is true, but I think part of it is simply NCSoft ineptitude. Just look up the way NCSoft treated Richard Garriot, and the controversial shut downs of several of their MMOs to see how cool they are as a company. I’m not saying they are the worst publisher, but… things like this are exactly why indie developers exist. It’s also why they are developing Star Citizen without a publisher.

KarlaGrey.5903:

Why make an expansion when there’s enough kittens feeding the gem store.

Pretty much /thread right here.

Until the cash flow starts to die off, we’ll see nothing new.

Besides guys, they did just release a huge expansion, with over a dozen zones. China.

What I want in this games is:

1.) New races
2.) New land to explore
3.) News skills
4.) New weapons
5.) New dynamic events
6.) Well written and deep lore that is expressed in every aspect of new content. Some shallow content is fine but depth is needed.

If that comes in a box expansion, I’ll buy it. If it’s free, I’ll take it. I just want more to do in Tyria and I am willing to pay for that.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Same here.
50 bucks for an entire continent and everything that comes with it? Sign me up!

It would really suck to be the people who need to 100% map completion after than expansion launches.

Rynn.1324:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Same here.
50 bucks for an entire continent and everything that comes with it? Sign me up!

It would really suck to be the people who need to 100% map completion after than expansion launches.

GW1 handled that pretty easily.

Just have map completion based on each continent.

Prophet.6257:

Rynn.1324:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Same here.
50 bucks for an entire continent and everything that comes with it? Sign me up!

It would really suck to be the people who need to 100% map completion after than expansion launches.

GW1 handled that pretty easily.

Just have map completion based on each continent.

^this

There is not alot left to do in the game besides Teq and Wurm.
I joined TTS and even then it is almost impossible to get into a hosted server to do the events.
I find myself trying to get in and then giving up.
I have downloaded another MMO to occupy myself until new content(not rehashed stuff) is released.
It is too bad really because I like GW2 but when you can’t get into a server that can accomplish the raids there really isn’t too much of a reason to log in.
The other MMO I downloaded is good(it starts with a T ) but still isn’t the same.
Hopefully Anet can read the metrics(since they do that instead of listening to the community) and figure out that people are not bothering to log in as much

It’s nice to have free content and stuff, but it’s sad to see 90% of it being temporary and having little permanent additions to the content. The “Living Story” just doesn’t seem grand enough to be very fun, it’s just something on the side that you say “Oh it’s there” after doing it for 1 hour you go back to farming fractals or whatever.

Stormcrow.7513:

There is not alot left to do in the game besides Teq and Wurm.
I joined TTS and* even then it is almost impossible to get into a hosted server* to do the events.
I find myself trying to get in and then giving up.

What? really?

so far I’ve had no trouble completing teq(have yet to see it fail) buy jumping into map 30-40min before spawn.

Wurm, I’ve only completed once…it was organised. and we had to wait about 40 min early…I had no trouble getting into the map.

I go early usually then they jump maps and I end up not being able to get in.
I just log off after about 5 minutes of attempting to join a server.
It isn’t TTS’s fault at all and they are fantastic to play with, it is the crappy megaserver system.
Pretty much given up since those are the only things that I find fun after 2 years.

Rynn.1324:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Same here.
50 bucks for an entire continent and everything that comes with it? Sign me up!

It would really suck to be the people who need to 100% map completion after than expansion launches.

Simple solution: Divide 100% map completion by content. Vanilla game map completion is 1 achievement track. Expansion map completion is a new, separate track.

Stormcrow.7513:

I go early usually then they jump maps and I end up not being able to get in.
I just log off after about 5 minutes of attempting to join a server.
It isn’t TTS’s fault at all and they are fantastic to play with, it is the crappy megaserver system.
Pretty much given up since those are the only things that I find fun after 2 years.

its the megaservers fault because they jump maps? maybe you need to be quicker to taxi in. or ask them not to jump maps so often.

Like I said, I’ve had not trouble with teq. I do it everyday since megaserver.