Guild Wars 2

Reinholder.3460:

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

You realised you essentially just killed SWTOR…Right?

How so? Youll still have to buy the huge expansion packs with real money. The $15 sub on other MMO’s pays for the infrastructure and wage costs of the developers. In GW2, it seems the servers have been coded cheaply, and ANet seem intent on nickle and diming for almost everything. Trading post, and the fact that they intend to charge you for character slots and even to switch servers says enough.

The general consensus by those not blinded by the marketing spin have already said and proved that the game isnt worth a sub fee. At least not the $15 that other MMO’s charge for more features, a bigger game and more depth.

I realise i could be banned from the forums for this, but it seems that when you provide criticism, even constructive criticism, the posts get locked down pretty fast. But lets not get into that as that can be kept for a new thread.

Renegadeimp.8439:

ANet seem intent on nickle and diming for almost everything. Trading post, and the fact that they intend to charge you for character slots and even to switch servers says enough.

Because all MMo’s with a sub fee, offer server transfers, race changes, faction changes, character slots (ever played FF11? you had to pay for every single character slot) etc, completely free?
uh huh, thought not.
Some people, insisting on spouting their nonsense :/

One thing that is definitely going to work in ANets favor it the world stories. Every personal story essentially boils down to one of three plots (Orders). So ANet has the ability to have an event that will appeal to a massive amount of people, AND has a story behind it.

SWTOR wasn’t able to do this very well because each class had a different plot, and to that end, each plot had a decent number of different outcomes. GW2 is much more generalized outcomes that allow all of us to participate in the same world without feeling like we are removed from our own private actions.

So all other mmo’s force you to roll on one server then charge you to roll on another completely different server?

Im not taking about server transfers at all. Im talking about the ability to roll fresh on a new server which is something that this game does not offer. Heck, it even lacks the most basic of MMO features. A trade system.

There are a lot of other things that put other MMO’s, paid as well, above this game, but since it seems ANet ban when people mention them, it’s better not to let the thread descend into hate and vitriol.

Renegadeimp.8439:

Reinholder.3460:

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

You realised you essentially just killed SWTOR…Right?

How so? Youll still have to buy the huge expansion packs with real money. The $15 sub on other MMO’s pays for the infrastructure and wage costs of the developers. In GW2, it seems the servers have been coded cheaply, and ANet seem intent on nickle and diming for almost everything. Trading post, and the fact that they intend to charge you for character slots and even to switch servers says enough.

The general consensus by those not blinded by the marketing spin have already said and proved that the game isnt worth a sub fee. At least not the $15 that other MMO’s charge for more features, a bigger game and more depth.

I realise i could be banned from the forums for this, but it seems that when you provide criticism, even constructive criticism, the posts get locked down pretty fast. But lets not get into that as that can be kept for a new thread.

I can say with all honesty, that I haven’t spent a dime on gems since I’ve started. You can easily afford your extra bag slots with gold, as I have.

Why not hop over to one of those $15/month MMO’s and ask them for a free server change? See how that works out.

Of course a game isn’t going to have more content than a game like WoW upon release. What people seem to forget about WoW though, is that even with all of that content, the only bit of it that ever sees any action, is the current end-game content. Everything else sits and rots. (Or gets powered through by people leveling to end game.)

Renegadeimp.8439:

The $15 sub on other MMO’s pays for the infrastructure and wage costs of the developers.

Infrastucture in not an excuse for sub fees. Infrastructure/server costs for modern MMOs are miniscule. Look at the financial reports for companies that have to give them. NCSoft is just one example.
http://www.ncsoft.net/global/ir/earnings.aspx

Download the Q2 2012 summary. The Costs Breakdown (page 6) shows costs 154,450 (in millions of won). Down at the bottom it lists bandwidth at 5,634. That’s only 3.6% of the company’s costs and that is for ALL their MMO’s including Aion, Lineage 1&2, GW1 etc.

I’m willing to bet if someone were to investigate the server costs even back when UO came out, they’ll find that the sub-fees were still out of proportion to the cost of the servers.

Now companies are allowed to make as much profits as customers are willing to pay. And if someone thinks one year of sub-fees from any MMO results in content equal to 3-4 AAA games like Assassin’s Creed, Portal 2, Batman Arkham City and Call of Duty, then they are free to spend their money that way. But don’t try to rationalize that MMOs need to charge sub fees.

The subscription business was one of the biggest flaws of the MMO genre, and I’m glad to see it getting abandoned.

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

This is AMAZING! Thanks!

My poor little brain is boggled by the fact I feel I’ve gotten more from this game already than I did in any past sub-based game. Why did I bother? LOL

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

I <3 Anet.

Aaaand…here comes your answer: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-endgame-reimagined/

Last paragraph. Oh and it will be free.

I much rather just have a sub fee then have to buy DLC on a monthly basis, kinda ruinns the whole free to play if you are having to constantly buy new content.

Renegadeimp.8439:

The $15 sub on other MMO’s pays for the infrastructure and wage costs of the developers.

No they don’t. A game’s initial purchase fee easily covers the costs of development, server upkeep, and wage costs for developers, usually by a wide margin yielding at least 40% pure profit. Subscription fees quite literally pay for nothing.

Don’t take my word for it. WoW cost $200 million total to run, including server costs and post-release content development, between 2004 and 2008 (http://kotaku.com/5050300/how-much-has-wow-cost-blizzard-since-2004). In that time, they were over 11 million subscribers, so that many people had to have chucked at least $40 at the game. Do the math. Or don’t, because 440 million is a fun number and I like saying it.

This is 2012. It’s not the late 90’s or early 2000’s anymore. A subscription fee is no longer required to upkeep a triple-A MMO, and GW2 is proving that.

And before you complain about bugs, keep in mind that it took months for Blizzard to iron out the game after every single expansion update. If you weren’t ready for bugs, you shouldn’t be playing an MMO on release.

DusK.3849:

The $15 sub on other
This is 2012. It’s not the late 90’s or early 2000’s anymore. A subscription fee is no longer required to upkeep a triple-A MMO, and GW2 is proving that.

Another good example. When a company is buying giant bronze orc statues, you know they’re not worrying about providing for their infrastructure lol

But I have to wonder how much the subscription model was needed even back in the 90s? Certainly servers and bandwidth were far more expensive but the requirements were much lower as well. I really wish some gaming journalist would do a bit of historical research and write up an article on the subject which would be rather timely given how the sub-model is getting thrown out by companies.

Renegadeimp.8439:

So all other mmo’s force you to roll on one server then charge you to roll on another completely different server?

Im not taking about server transfers at all. Im talking about the ability to roll fresh on a new server which is something that this game does not offer. Heck, it even lacks the most basic of MMO features. A trade system.

There are a lot of other things that put other MMO’s, paid as well, above this game, but since it seems ANet ban when people mention them, it’s better not to let the thread descend into hate and vitriol.

The reason you can’t just roll a new character on a new server is because of World vs World. How awkward would it be to play WvW on a character one night, then play on the opposing server during the same match the next night. There will be a guesting system in the future that will allow you to play PvE content on other servers without transferring.

There’s no player to player trade system because they want you to be using the trading post. They might add player to player trading in the future though for the sake of additional options.

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

Colin, after reading this I made a beeline to your ingame Norn character that I found yesterday in Hoelbrak (and got a nice little chuckle out of) and dutifully /kneeled down at your feet. I’ve been there for 4 1/2 hours and counting.

Seriously though, this is why I am so proud of you guys at ArenaNet. Awesome news!

Dedish.7923:

I much rather just have a sub fee then have to buy DLC on a monthly basis, kinda ruinns the whole free to play if you are having to constantly buy new content.

Except that they’re giving you free content updates as well.

Not to mention that pretty much all MMOs still have ‘DLC’; what do you think an EXPANSION is?

I don’t think most people can finish the game FULLY.

Every achievement, every personal story for EACH race, every crafting profession maxed out etc… impossible for me… there will be races and classes which I simply won’t have time to play till lvl 80 ever! >.<

Getting lvl 80 = not finishing the game, it is not even halfway…

In other MMos like Aion and TERA you can actually finish most of the content by lvling to the cap because there is only one path that everyone follows to completing it e.g. all characters go through the same zones, same instances without different “paths”, some campaign / story.

However, in GW2, you have so many options, you can do some zones and not others, or choose a different path for instances instead of running the same instance again and again and again.

The problem I have with GW2 is I will probably never see all the content it has to offer, even all the event possibilities for EVERY EVENT.

>.<

EDIT: On stories, I think Anet needs to make them interesting as they are too predictable with little intellectual stimulation. Quality over quantity for stories next time please! :P

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

When will the first of these content updates begin to show up?

SWTOR at launch: We want to make people feel like they are getting their money’s worth every month, so we will be releasing new content updates every month.

9 MONTHS LATER: 3 content updates have been released.

GW2 at launch: We will be giving consistent updates free!

Let’s hope that means monthly updates. RIFT gives content patches every 2 months, so in order to “give more content than any sub-based MMO” they need to release a patch monthly. New events and at least one piece of content would be ideal, I think.

I predict a surprise content update before September ends. A couple new Dynamic Events and a new dungeon included. I’m also buying gems every month too…because even if we got NO new content at all for 2 years until the first expansion, I would still pay a subscription fee. I like this game that much. So I’m going to prove it by buying a bunch of random crap from the store.

But come on ANet! Let’s bring Update 1.1 by the end of September!

Basen.8506:

Thats the spirit mark, maybe if we can get enough people on this topic we can implant the idea to anet

No need for that because they have real data that players will and do buy small expansions, chapter expansions, and who knows what else. That date came from Guild Wars ¹.

But, good effort nonetheless. And to answer your question, it’s a resounding Y-E-S, YES!!!

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

thank you so much for that statement. I really hate those little (sry for the word) kitten updates or how its nowadays called “dlc” with like 2 missions, 1 new weaponskin and idk 1 new area to explore for a few $. And they just release a ton of them…..
I dont mind buying major updates (like factions / nightfall / eotn in gw1), where I have BIG, NEW content.
again thank u ANet for that statement <3

Renegadeimp.8439:

How so? Youll still have to buy the huge expansion packs with real money. The $15 sub on other MMO’s pays for the infrastructure and wage costs of the developers. In GW2, it seems the servers have been coded cheaply, and ANet seem intent on nickle and diming for almost everything. Trading post, and the fact that they intend to charge you for character slots and even to switch servers says enough.

The general consensus by those not blinded by the marketing spin have already said and proved that the game isnt worth a sub fee. At least not the $15 that other MMO’s charge for more features, a bigger game and more depth.

I realise i could be banned from the forums for this, but it seems that when you provide criticism, even constructive criticism, the posts get locked down pretty fast. But lets not get into that as that can be kept for a new thread.

The GW servers seem waaaay more stable than the SWTOR servers (and so I believe better coded).
Most subscription MMO’s I have tried lately have been one by one adopting a free-to-play model. Seems even subscription games aren’t worth a sub fee.
Trading post is fine player interaction, I think you meant the Gem Store.
You get 5 character slots, this may be less than subscription MMOs give but will be enough for many people. Those that want more can buy more (and do) with the savings from not having to pay a monthly sub…

Basically, this game obviously isn’t for you. Most of us don’t want a cookie-cutter clone of every other MMO out there. We like GW2 and don’t want Anet to cave in to the people who complain for the sake of it.

Lucazzy.1709:

But come on ANet! Let’s bring Update 1.1 by the end of September!

I hope not. I don’t want to see them doing what the other companies who are afraid of GW2 did – they released patches, beta, launch, new content, and what not, on dates near or exactly on GW2’s launch dates – 3-day headstart, 1-day headstart, public launch.

Doing that is a strong indication that you are afraid of the competitor. You recognize publicly that the competitor did the right thing and is on the right path. Let them keep their worries internally in their office’s four walls.

Besides, it is better to do nothing and still see the sales and CCU (concurrent users) going up because that’s tells much more – it means the game truly is a success despite the new content and efforts of your competitors.

If anything, new content or major content patch for GW2 or any event thereof, should start mid or late October. Give late September and early October to the Pandas, watch the sales and CCU. If it still goes up and the curve did not show a lot of sales/CCU slowing down, then GW2 is no doubt a huge success. After that, it’s time to do retention

With a freemium model I wouldn’t mind at all.
I’ll happily pay $40-50 a month if I do it on my own terms, rather than paying the same price just to play a game.

Shael.4703:

Lucazzy.1709:

But come on ANet! Let’s bring Update 1.1 by the end of September!

I hope not. I don’t want to see them doing what the other companies who are afraid of GW2 did – they released patches, beta, launch, new content, and what not, on dates near or exactly on GW2’s launch dates – 3-day headstart, 1-day headstart, public launch.

Doing that is a strong indication that you are afraid of the competitor. You recognize publicly that the competitor did the right thing and is on the right path. Let them keep their worries internally in their office’s four walls.

Besides, it is better to do nothing and still see the sales and CCU (concurrent users) going up because that’s tells much more – it means the game truly is a success despite the new content and efforts of your competitors.

If anything, new content or major content patch for GW2 or any event thereof, should start mid or late October. Give late September and early October to the Pandas, watch the sales and CCU. If it still goes up and the curve did not show a lot of sales/CCU slowing down, then GW2 is no doubt a huge success. After that, it’s time to do retention

Hmm, true. However, I do hope we get content monthly. Monthly = keeps me playing the game more often.

Nyxx.8316:

Hi Basen,

I think it’s important to ignore your numerical level in this game and focus more on the content available. There is no real “leveling too fast” because your level scales to the zone you’re in. So if you hit level 80 you can still go to a level 1-15 zone you haven’t gone to before and work on the quests, vistas etc without being very overpowered for the zone.

The main focus of this game, at least to me, is exploration. I know that will take a fair amount of time for me, and then once I’ve hit 80 with one character and seen all that I can, I’m going to roll another and do it all again. I know that may sound boring to some, but for me, I have no problem repeating content as long as there’s something new. In the case of this game, it’s a new character’s story that will keep me going.

Small content updates could be possible but I am very much against mounts for this game- they serve no real purpose. With fast travel on your map, you can get to locations fairly quickly and mounts only succeed in creating annoyances i.e. people who stand on top of vendors with their mounts so you can’t see the vendor.

ArenaNet’s usual business model (at least, for GW1) was to release expansion packs, though I can’t quite remember how frequently they were released. In my opinion, with how I play the game, it will take me a long while to see all there is to see between vistas and each character’s story.

The beauty of this game is you can enter and leave as you please since their isn’t a monthly fee. So if you finish the game and get bored, you can go play something else till they’re ready to release an expansion pack. Then you get to revisit the world all over again.

This is just my two cents/euros (what is the exchange rate these days, anyway?) :o)

Cheers!

This right here sums up much of what I enjoy about the game. And why I appreciate the ‘no sub fee’ aspect of it. It reminds me of when I was younger and I would play platform games over and over again. I could do a full playthrough of Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES in under 4 hours. And I would do it over and over again. Talk about there being NO ENDGAME. This is at least a dynamic world, which provides endless levels of enjoyment for people like me. This really does bring out a lot of RPG elements, mainly in the sense that there is so much to do if people just used their imaginations a little and didn’t expect everything to be handed them in a nifty package. Its not hard to see all that ArenaNet has given us in this game if people just actually took off their ‘Generic MMO Glasses’ and took a look around.

Everquest 2 already tried this with their adventure packs, which they stopped producing. It causes segregation with the community. It’s annoying having to pay for mini content updates constantly and plenty of people don’t like it. Big meaty expansion packs are much better and I believe most players are more comfortable with that.

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

What exactly do you mean by offerings in the Black Lion Trading Co?

I have 6 Alts and have played the first few zones in each starting area . . . I am STILL finding things!!!
Hidden areas, Events that chained differently, events I have never seen.

There is NO way people have seen all the content or even close.

People should stop leveling for the sake of leveling and start playing.

I’ve been playing one character since head start and I still have 8 areas left on the map to cover (I’m level 68). I haven’t finished my personal story yet and I’ve only done two dungeons on story mode. I’ve completed 3 jumping puzzles and have no idea where all of them are. I haven’t even tried out pvp or wvw yet. I honestly don’t know how people can say they’ve run out of stuff to do already. It boggles the mind.

Oh and lest I forget… <3 you Colin. Can’t wait to see what new stuff you guys have waiting in the wings for us. I’m never going to finish this game, am I? =D

This is my first mmo and I am thoroughly impresses by how this company treats its community. What a fantastic fun game they have put together. Cheers.

Every month? Well if it’s good content worth the money, then hell yes.
But, every month, that would be quite hard for the ANet team to pump out good content for each month.

It’s an interesting idea but they would need to do it in a way that doesn’t give any advantage to the people buying these things. Basically, it would just equal to question elsewhere except that graphics and/or sounds and/or text is new. If people are willing to pay for that and the developers are willing to create a team dedicated to creating that content, then it seems like a fine idea!

I, personally, probably wouldn’t buy into that unless the content is really cool. But the more tools people have to help themselves enjoy the game the better, in my book.

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

Can you at least confirm one thing?

That you will be catering to PvE Dungeon/Raiders/Crawlers (at level 80) and be revamping the current system for more fun/challenge/reward balance.

Every second to level 80 was fantastic and even some stuff after that (jump puzzles <3) and pvp is great.

But the current dungeon system is not that fun or rewarding.

Can you shred any light on this subject or at least say you will be soon?

Snaylor.2760:

NyghtProwler.9386:

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

That business mentality will keep me as a loyal customer for years to come. Awesome post.

Why not wait and see how its actually put into practice?

I don’t believe it for one second with a cash shop in the game.

Why don’t you go take a look at how they have handle it past already in GW1. All Colin promised here was to keep doing what they have always done. Add small updates for free like “War in Kryta”, “Hearts of the North” and “Winds of Change” updates. And doing large-scale updates for a price like the EotN expansion.

Oh, and the old game had a cash shop also.

You cannot compare GW1 to a modern MMO. Especially when GW1 cant be considered an MMO anyway.

No. When i tried to play regular MMOs while waiting for GW2, i found myself tapping the Shift key a lot, trying to dodge… I tried to strafe while using my skills… but no, i couldn’t do that. Combat was almost always clunky and boring.

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

I like this answer. I think ANet’s biggest strength is their positive attitude towards their players and their ability to connect with the community in a positive way. I appreciate this and have no problem throwing a few dollars their way in the gem store from time to time.

LittleZoe.4970:

No. When i tried to play regular MMOs while waiting for GW2, i found myself tapping the Shift key a lot, trying to dodge… I tried to strafe while using my skills… but no, i couldn’t do that. Combat was almost always clunky and boring.

Nicely stated. A big difference.

i mean wow, just wow this is so mindblowing that i am acctualy trying to find whats wrong in that offer

Renegadeimp.8439:

So all other mmo’s force you to roll on one server then charge you to roll on another completely different server?

Im not taking about server transfers at all. Im talking about the ability to roll fresh on a new server which is something that this game does not offer. Heck, it even lacks the most basic of MMO features. A trade system.

There are a lot of other things that put other MMO’s, paid as well, above this game, but since it seems ANet ban when people mention them, it’s better not to let the thread descend into hate and vitriol.

Of course they’re going to charge for server transfers, paid mmo’s do that too. But you will be able to guest for free anywhere you like, you just can’t do WvW unless you’re on your home server. You can join guilds on other servers while staying on your own, if you have friends elsewhere, for example.

You can also use in game money to pay for a transfer if you desperately want a different WvW server.

One reason why I don’t touch subscription based games with ten-foot clown pole is because I don’t believe in giving money for goods that may or may not be what I want and in fact may or may not even come. If ANet release additional content for free, I am all the more grateful, but if it’s good content, I’ll pay. In fact, I would prefer it if ANet sold really big expansions with new maps, new characters, new stories, new classes, and even more levels if they want (I don’t care either way). I am hoping for more CE that include additional statutte of famous characters, as long as it’s not Logan (maybe if it’s Logan+Jennah) or Trahearne (I’d much rather have one of Sieran), and with better digital items than the current DE.

I recognize that each active GW2 player incurs a maintenance cost for ANet/NCSoft, but hopefully the Gem Store generates sufficient income to offset that. I’ll entertain small content (non-cosmetic/non-convenience) updates made available through the Gem Store if it be good, but I prefer if ANet roll the cost into bigger releases. This sounds like a repeat of what Colin said. So yeah, I support the path ANet is on.

There’s no way they could release new content (worth purchasing) every month. They are too small, too art-driven, and too naive to commit to such a demanding schedule. Look at how many bugged/broken/unfinished pieces of content are still rampant in the present game. They’ve been so busy playing internet security police that barely anything has been fixed.

As it has been said several times already, I’ll echo the sentiment: Might as well have a sub and be pay to play.

While I will certainly purchase big expansions paying monthly for ‘mini expansions’ is just calling a subscription by another name.

Personally, I like GW2 thus far because it is not pay to play. It’s a nice break from the other games of its ilk. I don’t own a next gen console and am glad to have paid $60 for a game that will provide me with hundreds of hours of content.

Snaylor.2760:

X The Manimal.5293:

Snaylor.2760:

Nyxx.8316:

Renegadeimp.8439:

ColinJohanson.2394:

No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for.

On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road.

We’ll cover a lot of the details on the kind of support and plans we have in place over the next month or so on the Gw2 blog and with our press partners.

We do appreciate that you’d like to buy lots of new content, but we’d prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that’s what we think a responsible MMO company does!

Thats pretty much what ever modern MMO does though. It’s certainly not unique.

I’m sorry, but which ones? All the ones I know of make you pay a sub… and those that are F2P limit content until you start giving them money. (WoW, LOTR, SWTOR)

Same with this game in the form of yearly 40-60$ expansions. With Lotro I could have pretty much unlocked the entire game for 6 months with the 250 or so turbine points they give you for extra crap.

Anet is far from a saint, they have no sub fee because A) I highly doubt this game would be successful if it had one (I know I wouldn’t have bothered picking it up) and There are many other MMOs that are just as good as this one.

Careful there, you’re threading into subjective territory now. Not everyone thinks those “many MMOs” that YOU play are as good as this one. Not even close.

Objectively speaking WoW, TOR and RIFT (and a few others) are all good quality games, what it comes down to is personal test.

The only reason I bought this game was because I was getting tired of TOR and WoW and didn’t want continue to sub to either one for the few months that I wasn’t going to play them, if it had a sub fee I promise you that not as many people would play it for years and years.

That’s all speculation and we have no real way of knowing since ANet won’t switch to a sub-fee. So what good does your “promise” serve? You’re operating on pure conjecture and it’s getting this thread nowhere.

Since there are only 2 heavy armor classes, will you please make a Death Knight for the expansion?

Kravick.4906:

wakko.5248:

I’d rather have big expansions like nightfall and factions

I have to agree with this.

Anet tried the mini pack thing once in GW1. It was basically just a series of mini missions for weapon skins. None of the skins were very good though. In fact I never saw anyone use them. I don’t think it was a very popular idea. Back when I was playing GW1, I asked several of my guild mates and even asked random people about those mini missions and if it was worth paying the $10 to unlock them, and almost everyone said it wasn’t worth buying it. Of course, only Anet really knows the numbers there.

I loved the charr staff for my necro. It was awesome looking. I didn’t like the Tengu weapons or the Mursaat weapon skins at all though. The pack was fun, however.

Wow, I have seen some threads necro’d before but never one that was 8 months old. wow

As this topic has run it’s course it is now locked.