Captain Commander of a Sky Edge Piracy
Do we really need expansions?
I don’t really mind if games release content as an xpac, or bit by bit, I just want it to be non-rushed, quality content and available to as many people as possible.
“Turns out when people play the game, they don’t admire your feet at all.” sephiroth
I don’t really mind if games release content as an xpac, or bit by bit, I just want it to be non-rushed, quality content and available to as many people as possible.
This. The moment I saw the release date on the ‘expansion’, I knew it would be a limited rush job. And despite the white knights desperate to say it was more than four maps . . . it was four maps.
Don’t give us that ‘another level means another map’ nonsense.
I don’t mind an expansion. But I do mind a half-baked, unfinished, untested mess plagued with bugs and then beaten to death with nerfs because it was not properly tested in order to make some undisclosed deadline.
Do we really need expansions?
No, but certain persons screamed to high heaven for them in the first place . . . and here we are . . . those persons no longer around, interest at an all-time low, and the population held together thanks to free-to-play.
Not the scenario anyone envisioned a year or so ago.
Gone to Reddit.
(edited by Ardenwolfe.8590)
I don’t really mind if games release content as an xpac, or bit by bit, I just want it to be non-rushed, quality content and available to as many people as possible.
This. The moment I saw the release date on the ‘expansion’, I knew it would be a limited rush job. And despite the white knights desperate to say it was more than four maps . . . it was four maps.
Don’t give us that ‘another level means another map’ nonsense.
I don’t mind an expansion. But I do mind a half-baked, unfinished, untested mess plagued with bugs and then beaten to death with nerfs because it was not properly tested in order to make some undisclosed deadline.
Do we really need expansions?
No, but certain persons screamed to high heaven for them in the first place . . . and here we are . . . those persons no longer around.
To be honest it’s really 3.5.
Dragon Stand is a map in the strict technical sense but there is no element of exploration and no events/story outside of the limited time, every couple hours meta event.
It can be considered a map about as much as the raid areas could be considered new maps.
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How would they make the same amount of money they got by selling a million copies of Heart of Thorns ? It’s all well & good to say they could deliver content without an expac; it’s another to talk about how they stay in business doing so.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Exactly!
While I think the people who complained about living story and pressed for an expansion did influence ANet to some degree, perhaps they realised on their own that providing content for free was not sustainable. I can’t see how it would be in a game where you can convert gold to gems and not spend a penny beyond the initial box price. Something has to put food on the table.
They probably could, but there is obviously more to be made with an expansion than any gem store tie ins could ever make them.
The other element is that the expansion is a hard gate to content that is a very appealing carrot to dangle in front of f2p people to get them to pony up the $50.
While it would be possible to do this with LS content. It would be incredibly hard to implement without the new maps to keep it on.
Imagine trying to create LS1 style content but also needing a way to keep free to play people from participating. Do you create 2 instances of maps so they can’t participate?
While that might be feasible it doesn’t make the game appealing to f2p people when certain maps look devoid of players because they are all on the “proper version”. Ideally, you want f2p intermingling with paid players as much as possible to entice them to pay to access the same loot and services.
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I think we do need expansions. As fun as Living Story is, I don’t think I’ve ever really seen it deliver anything that isn’t “More of the Same”. At least not in the same sense that an expansion enables.
It was the Living Story that took our army away and gave us a half-dozen losers instead.
The issue is that when people said they wanted Anet to release expansions, they weren’t thinking anything close to HoT.
When they were thinking of expansions, they imagine WoW size expansions or Gw1 style expansions. Large amounts of content, content that would last for a year – 2 years, lots of new rewards that are worth getting, etc.
HoT was a decent expansion, but it wasn’t anything what so many expected when they asked for expansions online.
If another level equals another map, what do they say about SW? Nearly the whole of the JP runs underneath SW, but the population of this “second map” isn’t exactly bursting at the seams.
Seriously, both dry top and SW were released in LS updates, fairly close together. Granted we had to wait awhile to get them, but we did get them for free, and when you take into consideration the size of the initial map, there was plenty to do before their release. The size and content in the expansion does not warrant people waiting 1-1/2 – 2 years for new stuff that interests them.
Could new maps/content be released as LS’s/updates? Yes!
When?
How much is good enough for most of us?
What area updates will satisfy the most players?
Those are the questions.
Sorrows Furnace
[HaHa] Hazardous Hallucination
[HaHa] Hazardous Hallucination
Its pointless to compare WOW type expansions with GW2 expansions.
WOW is a P2P game, so the economics are totally differant to a F2P game.
GW2 needs expansions to generate revenue to keep the game going, as the gem store wont even come close.
How many players in GW2 spend $15 a month in the Gem store?
I personally prefer to get content more often than an expac, even if it’s small bits of new content, it helps a lot to prevent the game getting stale.
“Do we really need expansions?”
Apparently yes, because when there were only living stories people keep asking Anet to make an expansion so they have more professions, more permanent stuff, etc.
LegAcy: Asking and Needing are two different things
mauried: I think we can make the argument for wow expansion vs gw2 expansion if you look at the numbers year 1 gw2 did better then wow year 1 in sells. its only after time for wow to grow and became a power house that it is know it was not a overnight process. really you can look at all Fantasy base MMOrpg as reference since MMOrpg is the subject not the payment method.
Illconceived Was Na: i there allot of ways one can pay for content without and expansion like DLC works as beginning of the living story that gives you the set up for next living story with maps and including new elite classes and races…. Like Hot 4PVE maps and the druid, daredevil and so on. including gemstone items like furniture, Outfits and so on.
Ardenwolfe: I Agree with you but not lets start doing finger pointing blame game, the past is the past we can’t change it but lets move forward and keep it civil and respectful.
Captain Commander of a Sky Edge Piracy
Just because HoT was an ‘expansion’ isnt why it sucked.
CBomb: Then why did it suck and how did it get to the point of sucking?
you have a thought on the subject please tell us thanks
Captain Commander of a Sky Edge Piracy
Expansions can be good. My opinion on why I think HoT sucked is irrelevant.
My ‘thought on the subject’ was that simply being an expansion has no bearing and I already said that.
Hot brought a lot of power creep, but especially to pvp so I’m a little iffy on yet another one. Especially when they haven’t finished the legendary weapons that were supposed to come with hot
Whether it be free content, or paid content, I hope future content is like LS Season One, and not like LS Season Two. LS Season Two, for me, was play-through once, and never seen again.
Yes we do.
Getting an expansion is like getting a nice, expensive, gift on christmas.
For example, you get an iPhone on christmas and you open it and can begin adding contacts, customizing it, downloading apps, ect.
With the living story method its like getting an iphone, except for the first 2 weeks you can only do phone calls. No texts, no apps, nothing else.
After first 2 weeks, you can now text with your phone. Then theres a break for 4 weeks. After the break, you can add contacts and customize them. Ect you get the idea.
The world needs expanding first and foremost, more dungeons and open world with rewards that rival other content..
Not more PvP, Raids and WvW etc
Spending $200 000 on some PvP league instead of putting it back into the game is just insanity, that needs it more than anything..
With the amount of content given to us in the first 2 years(which I wouldn’t mind paying for portions of) versus the amount of content we got from the get-go in HoT I’d say No, we don’t need expansions.
Having said that, I also believe that what ANet released with HoT was never meant to be a traditional expansion, but rather a sort of re-sub period to the live version of GW2. Instead of paying every month and getting the content, it’s more of a bi-yearly sub price to keep up and get access to updates, which I’m okay with. The way it was marketed though, that’s a whole other discussion.
I’m fine either way. In fact I want to give my money to Anet, just not for another HoT.
I want the world that feels like part of Tyria. No more this maze runner, meta bull crap, where even map notifications call, what is suppose to be cave, “a Lane”.
I think this game needs expansions, not because it has to have that expansion style content drop but, because it needs the publicity in general gaming media as well as the retail presence an expansion brings.
Personally, as an existing player I couldn’t care one bit if we got every piece of content in living story / feature pack style updates. Content is content, and with season 2 they showed they can reach a satisfactory quality (I don’t think the quality of HoT content, in particular the story, was much different from season 2).
I think there is a model they could adopt that is not really expansion packs but carries the same benefits in terms of media coverage and retail presence if they play it right. However, this would put more pressure on the gem store when it comes to existing players. This mode would be release content at a steady pace into the game, use some variant of LS2 model when it comes to monetization… then periodically release “season packs” through retail and make big deal out of stuff that has come to the game since previous pack.
Call it a periodic re-launch of sorts. This wouldn’t totally exclude the possibility of actual expansions, but it would mean there is not as much pressure in their production and they could take their time. This game definitely does not need yearly expansion packs (I think it would be detrimental actually), but it could use the media presence from something similar to an expansion pack every so often.
They can’t really play the P4F card more than once after all.
I think this game needs expansions, not because it has to have that expansion style content drop but, because it needs the publicity in general gaming media as well as the retail presence an expansion brings.
This. Expansions bring publicity which bring more players.
I’m an example of this. I didn’t play this game during core, I was off playing SW:TOR for the previous 3 years. However I was getting very disgruntled with SW:TOR last fall and during this period of disgruntledness I happened upon a HoT advertisement. I googled gw2 saw it had a f2p option, and downloaded to client intending to just try it out and not expecting much. 2 weeks later I was putting my credit card info into guildwars2.com
Its pointless to compare WOW type expansions with GW2 expansions.
WOW is a P2P game, so the economics are totally differant to a F2P game.
GW2 needs expansions to generate revenue to keep the game going, as the gem store wont even come close.
How many players in GW2 spend $15 a month in the Gem store?
Another thing people need to realize about WoW is that WoW has way lower graphical fidelity, and a thing about graphics is that the lower a game’s fidelity are, the less manhours are needed to make assets for it.
WoW can put out huge expacs because Blizzard needs far less manpower and money to make content compared to modern mmos.
Sanity is for the weak minded.
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(edited by Crinn.7864)
Another thing people need to realize about WoW is that WoW has way lower graphical fidelity, and a thing about graphics is that the lower a game’s fidelity are, the less manhours are needed to make assets for it.
WoW can put out huge expacs because Blizzard needs far less manpower and money to make content compared to modern mmos.
This is so true, at least as far as 3D games go… for games with locked perspective or ones that use a lot of 3D on a 2D plain it is not quite so straightforward. But in any MMO the longer the games history the more of the costly stuff you will in a backlog like animation rigs etc. you can just make minor adjustments to.
Once ArenaNet stops rebuilding in-game systems at every turn, and only then, will they enter a period in which their content production will begin to be truly streamlined and we’ll see more content for the same investment from their end. I really hope we will start to see this once the WvW overhaul and map restoration are done, but we’ll have to wait and see.