Guild Wars 2

So I’m curious.

If the rumors are true, and this expansion sized patch is coming April 2nd, will you guys post at all at what might be coming in it? Surely if the patch is that size, you guys must have a ton of things that are done and ready to go with it already.

Maybe I’m just ignorant, but when did they say there would be an “expansion sized” patch?

Colin said something similar a year ago, but I don’t remember anything recently. Help?

No idea.

On the other hand, you can just put tons of useless data in a patch to blow it up the size of an expansion. Doesn’t mean to get exited about it then though.

Thanks Mark. I think it would be incorrect to call the “feature only” patch an “expansion-sized” patch, so I was wondering if there was something else that I missed.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

As Colin mentioned in this blog post, “Due to the size and scope of the final four story releases in season one, the next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.”

More information on this feature release will come available after the current living world arc wraps up.

Sorry, I cannot see an expansion sized patch in what is called a large “feature only” release.

Doesn’t seem to be the same. A large patch is a large patch, expansion sized is a whole different kind of expectation.

I think people in general are calling it an expansion sized patch because of its size only and not what the GW2 game establishment called it.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Mark Katzbach.9084:

As Colin mentioned in this blog post, “Due to the size and scope of the final four story releases in season one, the next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.”

More information on this feature release will come available after the current living world arc wraps up.

Sorry, I cannot see an expansion sized patch in what is called a large “feature only” release.

Doesn’t seem to be the same. A large patch is a large patch, expansion sized is a whole different kind of expectation.

People have different views of what expansion means. Most certain, people usually imagine an expansion to be what World of Warcraft has released in the past and continues with.

Raised level cap, a whole new continent, a new feature is usually what people associate expansion with.

Im Mudbone.1437:

I think people in general are calling it an expansion sized patch because of its size only and not what the GW2 game establishment called it.

We do not even know the size.
Why would people talk about it that way. And why would ANet not give a clarification. The last thing this game needs are more disappointed people because of false expectations.

We know how this ended with “an expansion worth of content” before.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Im Mudbone.1437:

I think people in general are calling it an expansion sized patch because of its size only and not what the GW2 game establishment called it.

We do not even know the size.
Why would people talk about it that way. And why would ANet not give a clarification. The last thing this game needs are more disappointed people because of false expectations.

We know how this ended with “an expansion worth of content” before.

By this statement one can assume it to be large; “Due to the size and scope".

Farzo.8410:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Mark Katzbach.9084:

As Colin mentioned in this blog post, “Due to the size and scope of the final four story releases in season one, the next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.”

More information on this feature release will come available after the current living world arc wraps up.

Sorry, I cannot see an expansion sized patch in what is called a large “feature only” release.

Doesn’t seem to be the same. A large patch is a large patch, expansion sized is a whole different kind of expectation.

People have different views of what expansion means. Most certain, people usually imagine an expansion to be what World of Warcraft has released in the past and continues with.

Raised level cap, a whole new continent, a new feature is usually what people associate expansion with.

Expansion is just that, an expansion of in game content. New skills, mobs, areas, mechanics ect that are a permanent addition to the launch box content.

Most of what anet has done so far is repainted and put in new furniture in different rooms of a house for two weeks at a time, then taken it all away, rather than adding a whole new room or a pool that sticks around for the life of the house.

expansion sized patch? yeah I doubt it. More like balance tweaks etc, not a whole lot of new content.

Im Mudbone.1437:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Im Mudbone.1437:

I think people in general are calling it an expansion sized patch because of its size only and not what the GW2 game establishment called it.

We do not even know the size.
Why would people talk about it that way. And why would ANet not give a clarification. The last thing this game needs are more disappointed people because of false expectations.

We know how this ended with “an expansion worth of content” before.

By this statement one can assume it to be large; “Due to the size and scope".

That quote was for the last 4 updates of LS season 1, not in regards of the feature patch.

Due to the size and scope of the final four story releases in season one

Im Mudbone.1437:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Im Mudbone.1437:

I think people in general are calling it an expansion sized patch because of its size only and not what the GW2 game establishment called it.

We do not even know the size.
Why would people talk about it that way. And why would ANet not give a clarification. The last thing this game needs are more disappointed people because of false expectations.

We know how this ended with “an expansion worth of content” before.

By this statement one can assume it to be large; “Due to the size and scope".

That’s not even in regards to the feature patch… it’s about the final Scarlet LS chapters.

I want to make something very clear and thats that Colin never said this feature build that contains a lot of features would be “expansion sized”. The op must have misread something, perhaps it was from an interview back in january where colin mentioned a lot of expansion content they plan on adding but weren’t quite sure which medium they’d release it through. Content and features are generally two different things. Content(maps/dungeons/races). Features being, well features. Perhaps new utilities, new weapon/class matchups, a living story recap tool?, wardrobe?

Features, to me, would mean something that one could advertise in the manner of “Try us! We have _______.”

So, it could be anything from left nasal inhalers to housing and guild halls. It wouldn’t change the existing game or maps like an expansion would, but might give us some QoL upgrades and mechanics changes. (Fingers crossed for GvG someday)

At least, that’s my take on it.

if they are going to release an expansion,they will announce it 3-4 months before,because
first to build hype of course and get ex-players who left,excited about the game again and put gw2 on first page of gaming websites etc. generally to put gw2 on the map again with trailers and news, game play footage and such stuff.
anet is still silent and not a word on it yet, that is pretty much means the expansion is still 5-6 months away at least.
another problem is “wild star” do not forget both gw2 and wild star belongs to ncsoft and sad news about this fact is ncsoft is not going to make competition for its own game which is wild star with another property of company, another words for maximum profit you will see gw2 expansion after release of wild star. in my opinion, i really hope i am wrong about this though (lol)

The next day, a big announcement of a new class coming to GW2 on April 2nd…

The Brave Commando! With the addition of selling bear masks~

Mark Katzbach.9084:

As Colin mentioned in this blog post, “Due to the size and scope of the final four story releases in season one, the next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.”

More information on this feature release will come available after the current living world arc wraps up.

Well, last week the last of the 4 patches was release.

kokiman.2364:

Mark Katzbach.9084:

As Colin mentioned in this blog post, “Due to the size and scope of the final four story releases in season one, the next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.”

More information on this feature release will come available after the current living world arc wraps up.

Well, last week the last of the 4 patches was release.

The final living world release has been stated to be coming on the 18th. It will only be a summary release to recap the story from what I have read.
People are winding themselves up tighter than is healthy.

Yargesh.4965:

kokiman.2364:

Mark Katzbach.9084:

As Colin mentioned in this blog post, “Due to the size and scope of the final four story releases in season one, the next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.”

More information on this feature release will come available after the current living world arc wraps up.

Well, last week the last of the 4 patches was release.

The final living world release has been stated to be coming on the 18th. It will only be a summary release to recap the story from what I have read.
People are winding themselves up tighter than is healthy.

This.

Living Story will end March 18. And after that the time for the feature patch has come. But after that doesn’t mean March 19 or March 20.

In my guild (500 people) most of them believe that an expansion is coming after 18th… Some of them even think it would be an expansion that you will be able to buy on stores, and others even believe that instead of money, you will have the chance to buy it through gems…
I have tried to convince them that is not going to be the case, but seriously, due that there is no information , people are starting to hype themselves without control.

If I were Anet, I would be clear about what is coming, the sooner the better. With more urgency if is going to be less than what people is thinking…

Anet said several times before that they learn from the past, but in this case I think that may happen like the canach “dungeon” update…. a lot of hype followed by a lot of player dissapointment.
There is no point on tighten even more the rope between players and developers or company trust, right?
But well, i don’t work in anet, they’ll know how to handle it I guess.

PS: let me add that in general terms and because of the first months of poorly made updates, a lot of people felt that LS season 1 was not good, and every body is specially focus on what is coming. Maybe I’m wrong, but I believe that the first update of the LS season 2 is going to be of massive importance for the players. A bad start can means a lot of player issues. And not be clear about what is coming is a start of a bad start, in my opinion…

ANet’s got this weird idea, that it is good business not to tell their customers what to expect in the future.

They might think that people get curious, but all that happens is:

a) People get all hyped about what might happen and get disappointed

or

b) people think there is nothing coming and leave

A lose/lose situation.

I certain my have gotten my hopes up and many others have as well as you can see on the feature patch wish list thread. Although I wouldn’t blame Anet on my dissapointment, I would blame myself and the forum community for getting me so hyped :p

my understanding was, that after the feature patch and end of LS season 1, there would be a patch-cooldown. after which they start pushing out the aforementioned expansion like content. i.e. something like the two maps next to brisban etc – and in my experience new maps definitely fit in the expansion like content drawer, if it’s necessary to stick a tag to everything.

as for wildstar, I wouldn’t be too concerned, they target quite different demographics with each game. yes, there’s overlap, but wildstar is a lot more like traditional mmo’s, with a holy trinity and lots and lots of grinding for levels and gear (if beta players want to disagree, they should remember that experience gain has been increased during beta).
personally, I think wildstar has the potential to become a fantastic game, but it’s not for me. I really miss the fluid combat of GW2 (sitting duck esper can’t even move while autoattacking for example) and prefer cosmetic grind over statgrind (ascended nearly put me off of gw2 for good though, worst addition ever).
the only thing that’s problematic is all the stuff besides the core game.. housing, community features, large scale organization possibilities (unlike from: let’s get us our own overflow and hope for the best), adventures/paths. gw2 needs to step up it’s game in this direction while maintaining it’s own uniqueness, instead of giving in and adding more geargrind or going back to the trinity.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-14-you-thought-that-was-it-for-guild-wars-2

Read that, Colin explains major parts of their future plans in the interview including expansion-like content to be released soon [ No, not feature patch, but literally expansion-like content as he compars it to what we await from other MMOs when they release an expansion ].

PS. The interview is quite new, nothing out-dated.

Nyel.1843:

This.

Living Story will end March 18. And after that the time for the feature patch has come. But after that doesn’t mean March 19 or March 20.

Not sure if we are talking about the same finale but this is what the official GW2 site said

After December 10, there will be just four releases left in the current major world story arc, which we like to think of as season one of the Living World. There are some major unanswered questions that remain: What is Scarlet trying to do? What is the motivation behind her actions? What are the “do not touch” devices? What will Scarlet do with the knowledge she has gained from her various collaborations? The answers to all of these questions, and one epic finale that will rock Tyria to its very core, await you in 2014

I don’t get your point as your statement is the same what I mentioned.

Conclusion of LS 1 : March 18

We had that same talk a year and a bit ago. At that time they even hyped the coming content in the next two monthes as being worth the amount of an expansion.
They delivered what again? I do not even remember, because it was so little.

Now people get their hopes up, and ANet is doing the same mistake.

What Colin says we get, and what we actually get is not necessary the same thing.

I hope people won’t believe this feature update will be an expansion, because it is NOT. Expansions take months to hype up and market, this is basically an update to focus on the features of the game rather than new content as people have been asking for changes to some of the mechanics.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

We had that same talk a year and a bit ago. At that time they even hyped the coming content in the next two monthes as being worth the amount of an expansion.
They delivered what again? I do not even remember, because it was so little.

Now people get their hopes up, and ANet is doing the same mistake.

What Colin says we get, and what we actually get is not necessary the same thing.

Yeah indeed a year ago we where also supposed to get an expansion-like patch or indeed a patch being worth the amount of an expansion. Still not sure what patch that was. But at some time you would think that content will come would you not?

Everyone hyping up the feature release with dates sometime in march is going to be sorely disappointed. During the previous WvWvW season / tournament thinghy they (Anet) stated no balancing would be done as to not disrupt the tournament. I see no reason for them to push the feature patch out between the 18th and the 28th of march while keeping the date secret and just repeating the tagline ’we’ll talk more when it’s closer’ over and over. They also stated that there would be a break after the LS concluded.

A lot of people feel that TESO big draw is the realm vs realm. It’s release date coincidentally coincides with the WvWvW spring tournament.
WildStar is considered somewhat overlapping with GW2s playerbase and releases sometime in June. Looking for the feature build to shake things up around then wouldn’t be crazy.

Also EverQuest Next and WoWs newest expansion due out later this year as well.
It would be resonable to expect the next ‘bigger & better / we’ve learned from the scarlet arc / listened to feedback’ version of the living story to begin around the same time or just before.

Also the beta for the china release is just starting. Some down time from patching the game will be needed to help ensure a smooth release. Also there will need to be some initial time for chinese players to actually play the game a bit before assualting them with the release cadence of the living story.

With that said I wouldn’t be totally surprised if the dates couldn’t be penciled in something like this:
March 18th = Living Story epilogue
March 28th = WvWvW Spring Tournament
(TESO releases)
April 30th WvWvW Spring Tournament ends
June 10th = ‘Huge’ Feature Build patch (Maybe in mid / end of may? depends on china release
(WildStar releases)
June 24th = Balancing / tweaking / fixing of feature build patch
August #th = Living Story Arc 2 begins

October whould be halloween and the mad king again, december has tixx plus it is very likely that the SAB (april & september last year) could make another return in the mix somewhere along with BotfW (july~ish) and dragon bash (was june last year).

Oh, Colin is dreaming again about his expansion sized patches, how amazingly interesting.

By now you should’ve learned folks….

Where in the world do you people find where they said anything about an ‘expansion sized’ patch recently?

The patch after the 18th will come on April 1st. That is when we will get a new SAB. Hopefully, the feature patch and balance stuff will happen then. If not, doesn’t SAB usually last a month? I guess itcould come two weeks after that. Ready up! is ArenaNet’s bi-weekly Twitch feed about PvP. Players of that format are literally chomping at the bit for a new skill update. It’s past time for one. Long past time for a blance patch. Not just tweaks either, but more build diversity. We want meta shifts. And then, some of the less savory individuals that peruse these forums will bash in mercilessly even if they like it because that is what trolls do. It’s totally unfair. I for one am super excited for the balance patch in terms of PvP. For PvE though, the only thing I am interested in is a new playable race and new permanent zones. Brand spanking new zones are so long overdue.

Iason Evan.3806:

That is when we will get a new SAB.

Citation needed.

The team that works on the Super Adventure box are the ones that did the Marionette update. Two months is not enough time for a SAB update, I do not see it being too likely that we will be getting any SAB on April 1st.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

As Colin mentioned in this blog post, “Due to the size and scope of the final four story releases in season one, the next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.”

More information on this feature release will come available after the current living world arc wraps up.

Mark, if I give you a cookie, will you tell me early? =D

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Where in the world do you people find where they said anything about an ‘expansion sized’ patch recently?

Probably here:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-14-you-thought-that-was-it-for-guild-wars-2

“We have a couple of really big Guild Wars projects cooking in the background,” Johanson told me.

Later, he added: "Some of our players believe that because we are doing this Living World seasons, and these features or these big feature-builds, that it means that the features you would traditionally get in an expansion, or the content you would traditionally get in an expansion, is not something that will get added to Guild Wars 2. And that is not true at all.

“Not only are we doing those things, new features and content you would traditionally get from a boxed expansion are also things that will be added to Guild Wars 2.

“The thing that we haven’t decided yet,” he went on, "is what form that type of content will take. Is it right for Guild Wars 2 for that kind of boxed expansion? Is it right for that to be something we add, live, through storylines in the game? Is that something we want to sell through our in-game store? There are a lot of different options available to us.

“… but we absolutely are going to do sweeping new features that you would traditionally only get in expansions – large regions, content and progression additions to your characters in the form of growth and professions and races. Those are all things that you will see in the lifespan of Guild Wars 2.”

It does NOT say “next update is an expansion folks!”, but it talks, recently, about big projects, expansion-sized stuff, and adding things.

As Anet firmly believes in obscure communication, it got mixed with the previous statement linked some posts above about the “post Scarlet patch”.

Randall.7306:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Where in the world do you people find where they said anything about an ‘expansion sized’ patch recently?

Probably here:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-14-you-thought-that-was-it-for-guild-wars-2

“We have a couple of really big Guild Wars projects cooking in the background,” Johanson told me.

Later, he added: "Some of our players believe that because we are doing this Living World seasons, and these features or these big feature-builds, that it means that the features you would traditionally get in an expansion, or the content you would traditionally get in an expansion, is not something that will get added to Guild Wars 2. And that is not true at all.

“Not only are we doing those things, new features and content you would traditionally get from a boxed expansion are also things that will be added to Guild Wars 2.

“The thing that we haven’t decided yet,” he went on, "is what form that type of content will take. Is it right for Guild Wars 2 for that kind of boxed expansion? Is it right for that to be something we add, live, through storylines in the game? Is that something we want to sell through our in-game store? There are a lot of different options available to us.

“… but we absolutely are going to do sweeping new features that you would traditionally only get in expansions – large regions, content and progression additions to your characters in the form of growth and professions and races. Those are all things that you will see in the lifespan of Guild Wars 2.”

It does NOT say “next update is an expansion folks!”, but it talks, recently, about big projects, expansion-sized stuff, and adding things.

As Anet firmly believes in obscure communication, it got mixed with the previous statement linked some posts above about the “post Scarlet patch”.

I think these are the lines it’s about:

“When [Living World Season One] ends [on 4th March], we’re going to take a break for a little bit and then we’re going to do one really big feature patch that is more akin to what people see from some of our [MMO] competitors,” said Johanson, "where they bundle a lot of features together into a really big patch every now and then.

“We’re going to provide that experience and have this huge feature build that has a whole lot of gameplay-changing elements, a lot of quality of life improvements, a lot of features bundled together into one big patch. And that’ll come some time not too far after Season One completes.”

It’s extremely vague but the biggest different with them and there competitors is not having had an expansion.

And here he defines that ‘feature patch’ ad a big patch as you would see with there competitors with many gameplay-changing elements, QOL stuff and a lot of features bundled together into one big patch.

I vaguely recall reading that article. “Big patch” doesn’t equate to “expansion size” patch though. Of course ‘a couple of really big projects’ could be an expansion, but we have no more information than that… a couple big projects…that they aren’t ready to talk about yet. Obviously they aren’t ready to be released and need more time, patience is a virtue.

There has since been a twitch stream that stated that the upcoming March 18th patch is not the features patch, but a maintenance patch. Basically clean up, and we should be getting some epilogue stuff for LS. (See, I do pay attention)

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

I vaguely recall reading that article. “Big patch” doesn’t equate to “expansion size” patch though. Of course ‘a couple of really big projects’ could be an expansion, but we have no more information than that… a couple big projects…that they aren’t ready to talk about yet. Obviously they aren’t ready to be released and need more time, patience is a virtue.

There has since been a twitch stream that stated that the upcoming March 18th patch is not the features patch, but a maintenance patch. Basically clean up, and we should be getting some epilogue stuff for LS. (See, I do pay attention)

Even then, the fact still remains that their “feature patch” currently expected in early April needs to deliver. They’ve put this sucker off for nearly four months, and the longer you advertise something, the larger expectations grow.

I’d hate to be on ANet’s PR team if and when this blows up.

ColinJohanson.2394:

We’ll go into more detail soon, just to re-iterate so it’s clear:

“The next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.”

A feature release is not an expansion, it’s a release focused on game features. Examples of game features we’ve done in the past would be: guild missions, account achievement system, spectator mode, new pvp maps, daily world boss chests, removing culling and giving visibility options, the WvW WxP system, etc.

Thank you, those speculations get out of hand fast…

ColinJohanson.2394:

<snip>

“The next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.”

Would you mind telling us whether or not the large feature only release will occur before or after the WvWvW spring tournament?

the man Himself has spoken!

Cantha = feature.

Nods.

Cantha?

ColinJohanson.2394:

We’ll go into more detail soon, just to re-iterate so it’s clear:

“The next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the first season of the Living World 2014 has finished.”

A feature release is not an expansion, it’s a release focused on game features. Examples of game features we’ve done in the past would be: guild missions, account achievement system, spectator mode, new pvp maps, daily world boss chests, removing culling and giving visibility options, the WvW WxP system, etc.

Just to be clear, you are going to have to stop copy pasting that one in a week. After the living story is over. I fully expect on that day they can replace it with this message:

“The next round of major features will be bundled together into a large “feature only” release that will come after the second season of the WvW tournament has finished.”

I’m beginning to think that Colin is a robot or an A.I. because he seems to be stuck in a repetition loop.

Flytrap.8075:

I’m beginning to think that Colin is a robot or an A.I. because he seems to be stuck in a repetition loop.

That’s what happens when people ask the same question over and over.

Robot or not, if we get new guild missions, I may just fly to Seattle and kiss him on the mouth.