Guild Wars 2

It may simply be a renaming of the game, much like other games do when they release substantial updates (IE, RIFT: Nightmare Tide/Storm Legion, AION: Ascension/Steel Cavalry, etc)

That’s not to say there won’t be a substantial update to the content, but it may not be a paid expansion (given developers have in the past said that wasn’t a direction they were going down)

rapthorne.7345:

It may simply be a renaming of the game, much like other games do when they release substantial updates (IE, RIFT: Nightmare Tide/Storm Legion, AION: Ascension/Steel Cavalry, etc)

A substantial update is pretty much what an expansion is, by definition.

Have the naysayers really reached a point where they are now arguing semantics? “Yeah we’re getting five new zones, new race, new class and new skills for each profession, but it’s just an update. It’s not an expansion!”

Tom Gore.4035:

rapthorne.7345:

It may simply be a renaming of the game, much like other games do when they release substantial updates (IE, RIFT: Nightmare Tide/Storm Legion, AION: Ascension/Steel Cavalry, etc)

A substantial update is pretty much what an expansion is, by definition.

Have the naysayers really reached a point where they are now arguing semantics? “Yeah we’re getting five new zones, new race, new class and new skills for each profession, but it’s just an update. It’s not an expansion!”

I consider an “expansion” something paid for to access extra parts of the game on top of the base game(akin to GW1 expansions/WoW expansions), but an update something part of the base game, that will change the game as a whole potentially for free/an optional cost

rapthorne.7345:

Tom Gore.4035:

rapthorne.7345:

It may simply be a renaming of the game, much like other games do when they release substantial updates (IE, RIFT: Nightmare Tide/Storm Legion, AION: Ascension/Steel Cavalry, etc)

A substantial update is pretty much what an expansion is, by definition.

Have the naysayers really reached a point where they are now arguing semantics? “Yeah we’re getting five new zones, new race, new class and new skills for each profession, but it’s just an update. It’s not an expansion!”

I consider an “expansion” something paid for to access extra parts of the game on top of the base game(akin to GW1 expansions/WoW expansions), but an update something part of the base game, that will change the game as a whole potentially for free/an optional cost

Ok. You can do that. But that doesn’t make it a universal definition.

I have learned myself to not have high expectations. I know from leakage of information there will be a new race (Tengu) and new zones to explore, but I do not have any more expectations for WvW and PvP balance, because of mistakes done so far in listening wrong feedback coming from kids complaining on forums. So please forgive me if I do not have any high expectations. What will be… will be… same for me.

Acrisor.8097:

I have learned myself to not have high expectations. I know from leakage of information there will be a new race (Tengu) and new zones to explore, but I do not have any more expectations for WvW and PvP balance, because of mistakes done so far in listening wrong feedback coming from kids complaining on forums. So please forgive me if I do not have any high expectations. What will be… will be… same for me.

I would love to have a source for that leaked information.

The post you made right now is the exact reason why people overhype and rage about stuff.
What you said here will be taken as outright facts by some people and if it does not happen, people will blame ArenaNet for lying and rage like mad.

Still, we’re getting an expansion…Im pretty hyped threw the roof…XP

I don’t understand the hate against slyvari. They are the only interesting race in the game.

I also don’t understand this new plot device of making all the other races hate them because they can become dragon minions… the entire personal story was about the slyvari saving the other races because they all became dragon minions and the slyvari were the only ones who didn’t.

Humans, asura, norn, charr… all undead minions…

Humans, charr, asura, norn… all branded

Humans, charr, asura, norn… all icebrood… many norn volunteered to be icebrood…

If anything the slyvari should wipe out those 4 races since they are the ones causing all the problems in the world.

I don’t intend derailing the hype train, but here’s a thing:
“On January 8 2015, NCsoft filed to trademark Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. The type of the trademark is service mark.”

Source

Valento.9852:

I don’t intend derailing the hype train, but here’s a thing:
“On January 8 2015, NCsoft filed to trademark Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. The type of the trademark is service mark.”

Source

You are ignoring the fact that there were multiple ones filed.
Two of which were trademarks for toys and games respectively.

http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4802:hqyty.2.3
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4802:hqyty.2.4

EDIT: eh, the links might not work.
In that case just go here http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp and search for Guild Wars and you will see multiple points for Heart of Thorns.

I also took the liberty to remove the comment on the wiki, seeing as it is false.

Nick.6972:

Vayne.8563:

Nick.6972:

Hopefully this is the last plant people story arc we’re getting, I doubt I’m the only one who’s rather tired of seeing sylvari in everything.

Is there anything about this game you do like?

Of course, sadly those parts of the game are heavily neglected – Fractals and WvW.
Since we know that dungeon developer team has been disbanded and knowing the poor (even worse than in PvE) WvW communication – I’m not hyped.
For all we know they might me working on a new WvW map, but with no one caring about feedback or listening, it might end up being another EOTM.

For me personally, new PPT system alone would be better than all the last 8 episodes of the living story.

These are the types of comments that burn me the most. EotM had an alpha server filled with WvW guild who all commented on it at the time. I was on that server and I read those forums.

Many of the comments made on those forums were incorporated into EotM.

The things that people complain about EotM today weren’t raised on those forums to my knowledge. EoTM didn’t become something great because Anet put in a test server or didn’t listen to people.

In fact, EoTM to me, illustrated just how hard Anet’s job really is. A whole lot of people and guilds, including mine, tested EoTM, and none of us saw what it would become.

That said, EotM is undoubtedly a popular part of the game anyway. A lot of people like it.

But a lot of the WvW’ers who tried it and liked it in alpha don’t like it now.

Listening to the fans and giving them early access did exactly what to help?

One thing’s for sure: there is something on the table.

Eric.6109:

One thing’s for sure: there is something on the table.

Or under the chair.

Tom Gore.4035:

rapthorne.7345:

It may simply be a renaming of the game, much like other games do when they release substantial updates (IE, RIFT: Nightmare Tide/Storm Legion, AION: Ascension/Steel Cavalry, etc)

A substantial update is pretty much what an expansion is, by definition.

Have the naysayers really reached a point where they are now arguing semantics? “Yeah we’re getting five new zones, new race, new class and new skills for each profession, but it’s just an update. It’s not an expansion!”

In answer to your question? Yes. They will always find something to argue about.

They’re grasping at just about anything to make some sort of argument.

Nick.6972:

@Vayne You mean testers like WoodenPotatoes who has countless of times addmited in his videos that he doesn’t really know how WvW even operates? His PvE guild? Good job right there, now, please, prove me wrong by going to WvW section and making a thread about it, lets see how many people agree with you, of course you won’t do that.

No, they invited WvW guilds, actual WvW guilds to play the new map. No one has to agree with the truth for it to be true.

Did you go to the EoTM beta. Many of the big WvW guilds were there. Why do you bother answering when you clearly have no idea of what went on?

BlueOcean.5380:

Me too. Just looked up PAX info: (bold highlight mine)

“Guild Wars 2: Beyond the Point of No Return
Join ArenaNet president and co-founder Mike O’Brien and Guild Wars 2 game director Colin Johanson for an exclusive sneak peek at what’s next in Guild Wars 2 and be among the first to hear how we’re setting up a new framework for how an MMO can grow its universe. The Living World was just the beginning.”

An expansion would not be called a new framework.

I wonder if “a new framework to grow an MMO universe” means we’ll be getting a tablet app expansion, and potentially be able to grow our characters via adventures in the app. Data will be transferred back and forth between platforms.

Like I posted yesterday, they had to say something regarding their purpose for being there so how else could they phrase an expansion without saying it was an expansion? It’s them trying not to spoil the announcement prior to Pax, plain and simple, it’s called spin.

Anyway, there are multiple ways they can bring this forward but as many have mentioned, companies do not trademark something unless it is a product to be sold and as such you can color this any way that makes you feel comfortable but it will be an expansion that may come in several forms one of which I’m convinced is a box format just for the pure monetary gains they bring. There will likely be a way to purchase through download using gems which is not something that has happened in the past and this also allows for people to use their in game gold to convert to gems.

Vayne.8563:

No one has to agree with the truth for it to be true.

Did you go to the EoTM beta. Many of the big WvW guilds were there. Why do you bother answering when you clearly have no idea of what went on?

Nice fallacy.
I agree, there’s no point in arguing with you, I’m wrong, you’re right, just like always on any given topic.
To see what major success EOTM was (just like Skyhammer) all I have to do is log into the game and see it for myself.
EOTM clearly is serving its purpose.
Have a nice day.

Nick.6972:

Vayne.8563:

No one has to agree with the truth for it to be true.

Did you go to the EoTM beta. Many of the big WvW guilds were there. Why do you bother answering when you clearly have no idea of what went on?

Nice fallacy.
I agree, there’s no point in arguing with you, I’m wrong, you’re right, just like always on any given topic.
To see what major success EOTM was (just like Skyhammer) all I have to do is log into the game and see it for myself.
EOTM clearly is serving its purpose.
Have a nice day.

It’s impossible to argue with me, if you’re not even listening to the argument.

You say they’re coming out with an expansion without asking us. And you implied because of that we’re going to be unhappy.

My response was factual. Factually there was an EoTM alpha test. Factually many of the big WvW guilds participated in it. And factually many of those same guilds can’t stand EotM.

The only reason you can’t argue with me is because you’re not following the argument and just believing that I’m saying EotM is great for everyone.

My argument goes back to Heart of Thorns. I don’t think that consulting anyone would necessarily make it a better product. If anything is wrong when it comes out, they can correct it, but you don’t necessarily build a better game by building by committee.

Nick.6972:

Vayne.8563:

No one has to agree with the truth for it to be true.

Did you go to the EoTM beta. Many of the big WvW guilds were there. Why do you bother answering when you clearly have no idea of what went on?

Nice fallacy.
I agree, there’s no point in arguing with you, I’m wrong, you’re right, just like always on any given topic.
To see what major success EOTM was (just like Skyhammer) all I have to do is log into the game and see it for myself.
EOTM clearly is serving its purpose.
Have a nice day.

I pretty much never agree with Vayne… like ever…

But in this case if you did even a small amount of research you would see he was right. Anet invited the biggest WvW guilds to participate in testing and allowed many other guilds to apply via an application process. There were several thousand players invited to play in the beta. I wasn’t one of them so I don’t know what they said in the beta forum, but it did happen and the biggest WvW guilds were involved.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Nick.6972:

Vayne.8563:

No one has to agree with the truth for it to be true.

Did you go to the EoTM beta. Many of the big WvW guilds were there. Why do you bother answering when you clearly have no idea of what went on?

Nice fallacy.
I agree, there’s no point in arguing with you, I’m wrong, you’re right, just like always on any given topic.
To see what major success EOTM was (just like Skyhammer) all I have to do is log into the game and see it for myself.
EOTM clearly is serving its purpose.
Have a nice day.

I pretty much never agree with Vayne… like ever…

But in this case if you did even a small amount of research you would see he was right. Anet invited the biggest WvW guilds to participate in testing and allowed many other guilds to apply via an application process. There were several thousand players invited to play in the beta. I wasn’t one of them so I don’t know what they said in the beta forum, but it did happen and the biggest WvW guilds were involved.

The problem is no one saw it coming because they invited WvW players to get their response. They didn’t invite PvE players who turned it into a zerg fest.

And the funny bit was, the kind of people who turned it into a zerg fest wouldn’t have done it on an alpha server anyway, because they do it to farm…and farming stuff on a server when you can’t take it with you is a waste of their time.

It would only become apparent when it went live…at which point it’s hard to change because so many do like it.

There will be an expansion. Everybody in doubt is in denial or should simply rework his grip on reality. It’s long overdue, so good for all.
There will be outcries in any possible direction, but who really gives a rat’s kitten .

perilisk.1874:

Awesome! Hopefully the logo and name implies that we can finally get some content that’s focused on the Sylvari.

I’m hoping thats sarcasm, cause its already been mostly focused on the Sylvari since launch…

(back office talk at ANet)
“We’re not making money on that crap we threw in the GemStore. Time for action!”

EXPANSION RELEASE!

“That’ll be $50 kiddies! NOW PAY UP!”

-snicker-

Allelya.6830:

(back office talk at ANet)
“We’re not making money on that crap we threw in the GemStore. Time for action!”

EXPANSION RELEASE!

“That’ll be $50 kiddies! NOW PAY UP!”

-snicker-

Happily pay that, actually I’m hoping they have a collectors addition so I can maybe get a couple other goodies. My other hope is that they repeal this closed door policy at the Pax meeting so we don’t feel so ostracized from the plans going forward.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

Allelya.6830:

(back office talk at ANet)
“We’re not making money on that crap we threw in the GemStore. Time for action!”

EXPANSION RELEASE!

“That’ll be $50 kiddies! NOW PAY UP!”

-snicker-

Happily pay that, actually I’m hoping they have a collectors addition so I can maybe get a couple other goodies. My other hope is that they repeal this closed door policy at the Pax meeting so we don’t feel so ostracized from the plans going forward.

Same here. I’d rather pay and get an actual expansion than getting LS for free.

Are we sure this isnt just going to be S2 sold as a bundle?

GreenAlien.5623:

Are we sure this isnt just going to be S2 sold as a bundle?

Yes. 15 characters.

Allelya.6830:

(back office talk at ANet)
“We’re not making money on that crap we threw in the GemStore. Time for action!”

EXPANSION RELEASE!

“That’ll be $50 kiddies! NOW PAY UP!”

-snicker-

You make it sound like they just started working on it. I think it’s extremely likely that they have been working on this for a very long time; especially considering how soon it should be rolling out according to their Q3 predictions.

Also, Anet and NCsoft are making a killing off of the Gemstore; and mind you it’s not like we’re going to pay 50$ (if it even is that much) for nothing.

At this point, anyone who thinks it’s S3 of the living world are delusional. So much evidence points to the contrary of that that it’s inconceivable; Mike and Colin are going to have the Pax stage for 90 minutes to talk about Heart of Thorns, anyone who believes that those key figures in the game’s development are just going to talk about S3 plot threads for an hour and a half are insane.

Allow me to list all the evidence that points to it being an expansion of some kind:
Name Trademark; not used for any Living World content to date.

Buzzphrase “What lies beyond the Living World” suggests that it is not the living world.

The dragon logo has only been used once before; for the original game box.

Key figures in the games development have the Pax stage for 90 minutes soon after the trailer.

Q3 predictions are obscenely high for there not to be any substantial payed content.

Vayne.8563:

Nick.6972:

Vayne.8563:

Nick.6972:

Hopefully this is the last plant people story arc we’re getting, I doubt I’m the only one who’s rather tired of seeing sylvari in everything.

Is there anything about this game you do like?

Of course, sadly those parts of the game are heavily neglected – Fractals and WvW.
Since we know that dungeon developer team has been disbanded and knowing the poor (even worse than in PvE) WvW communication – I’m not hyped.
For all we know they might me working on a new WvW map, but with no one caring about feedback or listening, it might end up being another EOTM.

For me personally, new PPT system alone would be better than all the last 8 episodes of the living story.

These are the types of comments that burn me the most. EotM had an alpha server filled with WvW guild who all commented on it at the time. I was on that server and I read those forums.

Many of the comments made on those forums were incorporated into EotM.

The things that people complain about EotM today weren’t raised on those forums to my knowledge. EoTM didn’t become something great because Anet put in a test server or didn’t listen to people.

In fact, EoTM to me, illustrated just how hard Anet’s job really is. A whole lot of people and guilds, including mine, tested EoTM, and none of us saw what it would become.

That said, EotM is undoubtedly a popular part of the game anyway. A lot of people like it.

But a lot of the WvW’ers who tried it and liked it in alpha don’t like it now.

Listening to the fans and giving them early access did exactly what to help?

Much of the EotM feedback was not incorporated into EotM either. You don’t mention that. The two things I remember getting added on feedback are fences and destroyable bridges.

Not sure where you were, but the writing was on the wall for EotM even in testing. EVERYONE knew that EotM was going to be a zerg fest, this had spilled into the normal WvW forum and there were debates there about it. The concern was also raised about rewards for attacking and not defending. It’s absolute amateur hour level design to think that players will do something for no reward. Players always take the path of least resistance to rewards, thus since defending gives no rewards and attacking does, everyone just does round robin.

Don’t believe me? http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/editorials/hands-edge-mists

Did you read the bit about rewards near the end and it turning into a “grind train”, sounds like the karma train we have now right? I guess that guy is just a clairvoyant though, OR ArenaNet just ignored a lot of feedback on the overall design of the map/rewards and focused on little things that aren’t really game changers, which has been what they’ve done since the the game released. I mean seriously, if the press saw the issues then you can bet the forums saw the issues. I would absolutely love it if they released the archived EotM testing forums, then we could really see what ArenaNet listened to and what they didn’t.

EotM is popular because it’s easy farm. WvW players largely hate it. If you nerf the loot rewards in EotM the populations will drop dramatically overnight. This has been the case with almost everything in GW2, the popular things to do aren’t fun at all but give better loot. That is a sign of poor game design, you want things to be popular because they are fun. How much do you want to bet that you could slap a chance at awesome loot onto any event in the game and suddenly it will become popular, of course you need to abide by the effort/reward ratio.

The official twitter accounts just used #GW2HoT… Guess it’s coming!

Edit: Nevermind, there’s that video too (I don’t know if most of it was shown in-game, I can’t play until next week… I hate you ANet, you release your most important patch when I have to give some students private lessons, give them exams and correct them).

WHO WANNA SIT NEXT TO ME ON THE HYPE TRAIN? I brought Belgian waffles!

Vayne.8563:

Nick.6972:

@Vayne You mean testers like WoodenPotatoes who has countless of times addmited in his videos that he doesn’t really know how WvW even operates? His PvE guild? Good job right there, now, please, prove me wrong by going to WvW section and making a thread about it, lets see how many people agree with you, of course you won’t do that.

No, they invited WvW guilds, actual WvW guilds to play the new map. No one has to agree with the truth for it to be true.

Did you go to the EoTM beta. Many of the big WvW guilds were there. Why do you bother answering when you clearly have no idea of what went on?

Thats part of the problem. Invitational testing that focuses on a narrow selection of the various types of players that the tested material will be exposed to will not provide sufficient direct experience of how the population as a whole will use the tested material. If the company is going to choose such a narrow test group then it is up to them to guess how everyone not meeting their narrow criteria for being a tester will treat the tested material.

In any endeavor, if a company chooses to not include important and relevant data in the development of their product, the consequences are their responsibility.

I believe anyone with a Guild could send apply for an invitation to the EotM test server. I know I read about that, way back when. Josh made many threads/posts about it.

Valento.9852:

I don’t intend derailing the hype train, but here’s a thing:
“On January 8 2015, NCsoft filed to trademark Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. The type of the trademark is service mark.”

Source

As lordkrall correctly pointed out, there were several trademarks that were submitted. You can easily do a search for Heart of Thorns and multiple trademarks will show up under NCSoft’s name. That many trademarks would not be submitted if the intent was simply to release season 3 of the living story or do a few small updates.

As I mentioned earlier, companies don’t register trademarks unless they intend to sell a product or service. Trademarks are generally used to help market a product and protect key features of said product. A logo, a name, a slogan, the name for a technology, etc. Given that Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns is a new trademark that is being treated as a separate entity from Guild Wars 2 (along with all of the associated logos and names), the logical conclusion is it’s a brand new product that will be distributed and sold as such. In other words, it’s an expansion or new campaign based on the Guild Wars 2 core game.

I can understand people being skeptical given some of the past comments about there “never being a Guild Wars 2 expansion” (I believe the statement was there were no current plans at the time the question was asked) but the evidence that this is actually the plan now is pretty overwhelming. What’s unclear at this point is what shape the expansion will take, how much it’ll cost, what it will include, when it’ll be released, etc. We’re going to have to wait until PAX South to find out some (all?) of those things.

Sure are a lot of “I told you so” even before it’s announced. Hope that doesn’t come back to bite you guys in the behind when it’s not what you expected. . . .

In case there was any doubt about Anet hyping this event to the max they now posted it in gigantic letters on the front page and made an announcement for it:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/join-us-january-24-on-twitch/

Im not sure that announcing an upcoming event, particularly on your own peoperty, constitutes hype.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Sure are a lot of “I told you so” even before it’s announced. Hope that doesn’t come back to bite you guys in the behind when it’s not what you expected. . . .

Ok, if it isn’t an expansion pack or new campaign of some sort, what is it? Why has NCSoft trademarked a new logo, a title, and other related items? And no, it doesn’t mean it’s season 3 of the living story. They haven’t taken these kind of steps for the other seasons. So, what is it?

Ashen.2907:

Im not sure that announcing an upcoming event, particularly on your own peoperty, constitutes hype.

Indeed. It’s just marketing. And of course they want people to be excited about it. They’re probably just as excited to be able to talk about this project. Excitement/interest generally results in sales. They want to make money and they want happy players.

Ashen.2907:

Im not sure that announcing an upcoming event, particularly on your own peoperty, constitutes hype.

What would you consider hype? An epic trailer with an in-game advertisement for an event? An announcement on the front page of the games website?

What exactly would Anet have to do to be considered hyping up their announcement for it not to be the players fault for “setting themselves up for disappointment”?

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Ashen.2907:

Im not sure that announcing an upcoming event, particularly on your own peoperty, constitutes hype.

What would you consider hype? An epic trailer with an in-game advertisement for an event? An announcement on the front page of the games website?

What exactly would Anet have to do to be considered hyping up their announcement for it not to be the players fault for “setting themselves up for disappointment”?

You honestly think that announcing an upcoming event or product on your own website/property is hype ?

What exactly have they hyped ? They have made not one single claim, that Ive seen, other than that there is something that comes after The Point of No Return and that it will be announced at a certain place/time for those interested.

The local convenience store near my home has a sign on the door advertising a free donut with purchase of coffee during certain hours. Hype?

If a player makes up, invents, elements that have in no way been claimed then any disappointment when the invented element fails to appear is the players own fault.

I have just received an epiphany that the upcoming release will include a free car for all players with a Ranger main. If I dont get one I will be horribly disappointed and it will be Anets fault for all of the hype.

Ashen.2907:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Ashen.2907:

Im not sure that announcing an upcoming event, particularly on your own peoperty, constitutes hype.

What would you consider hype? An epic trailer with an in-game advertisement for an event? An announcement on the front page of the games website?

What exactly would Anet have to do to be considered hyping up their announcement for it not to be the players fault for “setting themselves up for disappointment”?

You honestly think that announcing an upcoming event or product on your own website/property is hype ?

What exactly have they hyped ? They have made not one single claim, that Ive seen, other than that there is something that comes after The Point of No Return and that it will be announced at a certain place/time for those interested.

The local convenience store near my home has a sign on the door advertising a free donut with purchase of coffee during certain hours. Hype?

If a player makes up, invents, elements that have in no way been claimed then any disappointment when the invented element fails to appear is the players own fault.

I have just received an epiphany that the upcoming release will include a free car for all players with a Ranger main. If I dont get one I will be horribly disappointed and it will be Anets fault for all of the hype.

When said company is starting to trend #GW2HoT and advertising “Save the Date” on the front of their game page… yes that is hype. Hype for what is a different issue all together.

Chrispy.5641:

flipyap.5789:

BTW, anyone else notice the Mursaat in the trailer? Or the two handed land spear?

Yup. I don’t want to call it a Mursaat yet, but it was certainly my first thought. Also…..

…..

SPEARS!

Britney is that you???? xD

Ashen.2907:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Ashen.2907:

Im not sure that announcing an upcoming event, particularly on your own peoperty, constitutes hype.

What would you consider hype? An epic trailer with an in-game advertisement for an event? An announcement on the front page of the games website?

What exactly would Anet have to do to be considered hyping up their announcement for it not to be the players fault for “setting themselves up for disappointment”?

You honestly think that announcing an upcoming event or product on your own website/property is hype ?

What exactly have they hyped ? They have made not one single claim, that Ive seen, other than that there is something that comes after The Point of No Return and that it will be announced at a certain place/time for those interested.

The local convenience store near my home has a sign on the door advertising a free donut with purchase of coffee during certain hours. Hype?

If a player makes up, invents, elements that have in no way been claimed then any disappointment when the invented element fails to appear is the players own fault.

I have just received an epiphany that the upcoming release will include a free car for all players with a Ranger main. If I dont get one I will be horribly disappointed and it will be Anets fault for all of the hype.

I believe ANet is hyping up the announcement, which will in turn, hype whatever HoT ends up being. To the next question, yes the sign on the door would get some donut lovers very excited and the outcry at removing the promotion would be crazy (at least from the donut people).

I am also very excited to recieve a new car. I hope your epiphany is correct

Eric.6109:

One thing’s for sure: there is something on the table.

It’s not in the water? That dang quaggan was lying all this time?!

Someone record twitch chat. It’s gonna be beautiful.

Tom Gore.4035:

rapthorne.7345:

It may simply be a renaming of the game, much like other games do when they release substantial updates (IE, RIFT: Nightmare Tide/Storm Legion, AION: Ascension/Steel Cavalry, etc)

A substantial update is pretty much what an expansion is, by definition.

Have the naysayers really reached a point where they are now arguing semantics? “Yeah we’re getting five new zones, new race, new class and new skills for each profession, but it’s just an update. It’s not an expansion!”

Living story season 1 gave new regions and content. Was it an expansion? Living story season 2 gave new regions and content. Was that an expansion? No, it wasnt an expansion. Imo it’s people that share your mindset that seem to argue semantics. By and far, when people talk about an expansion in the context of the gaming industry, they’re talking about paid content releases on the level of Factions, Nightfall, or EotN for GW1, aka the “traditional” expansion. The Living Story was content released locked behind the passage of time, not payment.

I mean, lets face it, would you people be any different on the forums if they bundled each season into a “box set” that cost nothing, yet gave you all the content all at once? You’d have finished it in weeks instead of the months it was drawn out.

Now, to break down this post.

Not to be the killer of joy in all this, but regardless of whatever Anet puts out at this point, the RP campaign between here and whatever they’ve been doing really won’t add up to a redemption for a lot of people. The most it can do right now is keep the boat from going under.

Things Anet still needs to learn to do:
- Stop making promises: SAB isn’t back, hasn’t been back, isn’t coming back.

What did they promise regarding SAB? That it’d be back? Did they say when? Then they didnt break any promises. IIRC, they’ve even stated before that while they DID want to work on SAB, the fact that it was joke content (and meant as such) meant it sat on the bottom rung of the ladder and basically anything else was more important for devotion of time and resources.

- Stop lying. Refer to above, precursor crafting

Lying about what? They’ve blatantly stated that while they’d like prec crafting to have been finished in 2013, kitten happened and with the ‘14 feature patch changing the story journal, they scrapped basically everything they had developed because it was now obsolete. Did you craft mawdrey by any chance? Yes? There’s a hint there regarding how they may be doing prec crafting in the future. Choosing to ignore information they’ve put out doesnt mean they’re lying.

- Stop being cheap: Copy-pasting every single piece of content already produced in some way

This one has me at a loss. What, exactly, are they copying as far as content already produced in some fashion? And how does it make them cheap? Are they copying from other games? (Not new, fyi, happens all the time) Copying from old content? Happens all the time.

- Stop breaking things that work fine: Traits, Personal Story, the whole NPE

Given today’s youth in society, I sincerely think the game isnt giving enough handholding still. And that’s putting it very nicely.

- Stop NOT communicating with the player base. Gaile’s great, but she must have a heart of some ungodly tough alien alloy because she’s literally being given the task of “Go swim in the feeding frenzy”. Anet’s communication looks something like this, *Screenshot a portal. Add text, “November 4” *.

Frankly Gaile’s doing what is basically the work of a Saint. I admit it, with they way a lot of you post against anet and their staff, I’d have told you to go stuff it in the most graphically way possible and then resigned. Or withdrew my job application. One of the two. The community on the forums is for the most part one of the most hateful groups I’ve ever seen. Maybe you guys can step back and understand just how much they want the game to succeed if they willingly wade through all this crap that gets posted.

- Refer to any of the above to see if this is resolved with an expansion. No? Okay, well… that’s going to continue to really pull down any long term profit besides the money an expansion brings.

So, in short, if we’re getting an expansion… great. If they expect it resolves anything… I’m not sure it will. It will buys them time to save the game. That’s about it.

I dont see how any of the above has to deal with an expansion, if that’s truly what’s being announced. I’ll admit Anet’s track wreckord seems less than stellar, enough that I honestly doubt we’re getting an expansion.

As for the hype train, I hope you guys can live 6 months without new content if they’re really announcing an expansion, cause that’s probably going to be what happens if they cant hire more staff.

Ragnarox.9601:

Chrispy.5641:

flipyap.5789:

BTW, anyone else notice the Mursaat in the trailer? Or the two handed land spear?

Yup. I don’t want to call it a Mursaat yet, but it was certainly my first thought. Also…..

…..

SPEARS!

Britney is that you???? xD

That’s Foalain actually. She went even more batkitten insane thanks to mordremoth.

Sorry to break it to all of you, but it is not an expansion.

ArenaNet has been taken over by the Illuminati, and Heart of Thorns will be the final step in their master plan to convert all of us.

See the picture below for proof of my theory.

Naus the Gobbo.5172:

Sorry to break it to all of you, but it is not an expansion.

ArenaNet has been taken over by the Illuminati, and Heart of Thorns will be the final step in their master plan to convert all of us.

See the picture below for proof of my theory.

All those triangles surrounding the eye, and you had to pick the one that didn’t exist? Good find nonetheless!

Tharomir.6985:

Vayne.8563:

Tharomir.6985:

Vayne.8563:

Tharomir.6985:

When did this become another Vayne vs. the world thread? We know how he feels about the game, stop feeding him.

You have no clue how I feel about the game. Not even the beginnings of a concept. If you paid even slight attention to what I’ve been saying or what I’ve said, you’d know better.

Please stop picking fights! We get it!

Stop personally attacking me. I didn’t make a post and name you. If there’s anyone picking a fight here, it’s you. Don’t single me out or name me, because I’ll reply.

How silly is it that you’d talk about me and then accuse me of picking fights. lol

Seriously, you don’t have to reply to every post you disagree with and tell them how they’re wrong! Your posts end up sounding rude and pretentious and detract from the discussion at whole. Your opinion isn’t valued that much. That’s the last I’ll say about it, I’m done feeding you, and I hope one day soon others will also learn to stop.

I’m glad you know how much my opinion is valued. As long as people keep talking about stuff as fact that is merely their opinion, I’ll reply.

More to the point there are dozens and dozens of posts I disagree with that I never reply to. So I don’t reply to every post that I disagree with.

I’m glad you’re done “feeding me”, you should have kept your thoughts about me to yourself. If you see me doing something that breaks forum rules, feel free to report me to a moderator. If I’m not breaking forum rules, then your opinion has as much value as mine does.

Valento.9852:

I don’t intend derailing the hype train, but here’s a thing:
“On January 8 2015, NCsoft filed to trademark Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. The type of the trademark is service mark.”

Source

I would like to add onto this since a majority of you likely skimmed over it in your hyped up senses right now.

Quote’s taken from the link.

“A service mark differs from a trademark in that the mark is used on the advertising of the service rather than on the packaging or delivery of the service, since there is generally no “package” to place the mark on, which is the practice for trademarks."

“Under United States law, service marks have a different standard of use in order to count as a use in commerce, which is necessary to complete registration and to stop infringement by competitors. A trademark normally needs to be used on or directly in association with the sale of goods, such as on a store display. As services are not defined by a concrete product”

This will not be a boxed Expansion therefor. Will it be electronic? Possibly, but its hard to imagine them not releasing boxed version.

That doesnt mean that it wont be a large sum of content or “Expansion Like Content”. Lets not forget ANet has called all their Context Expansion like. I feel this is simply a step they are taking to monetize a part of the story yet.

Ill be hyped when I see it in actuality, until then I wont hold my breath.

Edit: In re-reading just now, I could see this as paving the way and path to an expansion later on, but not so soon, again I wont hold my breath and Ill wait to see what happens on the 24th.