Guild Wars 2

I’d pay up to $60 depending on how big of an expansion it was.

Double the game size, double the cost. I’m fine with that. But if they want to give it to us cheaper then cool. So long as they don’t produce less just to have it cost less.

Serbianwolf.1652:

I wouldn’t pay more than 25$ for expansion. Not everyone are in financial position to pay for it, specially younger players(economic crisis ).

Anyway, I think Digital Deluxe (veteran)players deserve to get it for free since we paid more for same content that was around 3 years and bored us(veterans) to death.

25 is a bit low for any expansion i’m affraid. I expect 50 to 60 euro.

I can’t wait to see all the whining when they announce the level cap increase. They said if they ever did an expansion they would increase the level cap, but people seem to always just put their fingers in their ears and hum when it is brought up…

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I can’t wait to see all the whining when they announce the level cap increase. They said if they ever did an expansion they would increase the level cap, but people seem to always just put their fingers in their ears and hum when it is brought up…

I’m on the fence with this. What I don’t want is to see the ascended armor and weapons I have go to waste. I don’t want to grind for more weapons with higher stats.

But what if they had a token every five levels that you could get relatively easily that upgraded your gear easily and painlessly.

Then I wouldn’t care if there was a level cap increase or not.

I would pay 30€ if new expansion is Tyria size. like 20 new gigs , 30 maps, 10 dungeons, 2 classes, 10 new weapons, new weapon skills.

If its not like that then it must be free because they lost lots of players I dont think they will pay again.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I can’t wait to see all the whining when they announce the level cap increase. They said if they ever did an expansion they would increase the level cap, but people seem to always just put their fingers in their ears and hum when it is brought up…

Proof?

wouw.5837:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I can’t wait to see all the whining when they announce the level cap increase. They said if they ever did an expansion they would increase the level cap, but people seem to always just put their fingers in their ears and hum when it is brought up…

Proof?

Eric Flannum did say it in an interview, but Id’ have no idea how to go about looking for it. What I believe he said is that they’d like to raise the level cap.

$50 for early access & unique skin
after few months, free for everyone

paid & free, everyone happy

Some people think that Anet is sponsored by Santa or something. Things cost money, games cost money. Dont expect them to give games away?!

I’m going to guess too, all they’ll release is living story season 3 and all the hype is just because its almost time for the quarter reports and another round of investing

I vote for FREE expansion or update what will be called ,because they will get alot of money after the release,when more and more players will come from WoW,Aion,etc….If they are smart and not hungry for a “fast short small” fortune.It’s like i offer quality games i gain more money.Did you think they didnt do this futures with real money,if they wouldnt have enough money?!You all mistake !

Vayne.8563:

wouw.5837:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I can’t wait to see all the whining when they announce the level cap increase. They said if they ever did an expansion they would increase the level cap, but people seem to always just put their fingers in their ears and hum when it is brought up…

Proof?

Eric Flannum did say it in an interview, but Id’ have no idea how to go about looking for it. What I believe he said is that they’d like to raise the level cap.

I can’t find the video either. I think his wording was something like…

“When we consider an expansion it has always been our intention to raise the level cap”

That being said, their intentions could have changed.

I expect some kind of paywall for the new content that can not be overcome with Tyrian gold.

I wouldn’t mind it being paid as long as i have the option to buy it with ingame gems…

Vayne.8563:

wouw.5837:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I can’t wait to see all the whining when they announce the level cap increase. They said if they ever did an expansion they would increase the level cap, but people seem to always just put their fingers in their ears and hum when it is brought up…

Proof?

Eric Flannum did say it in an interview, but Id’ have no idea how to go about looking for it. What I believe he said is that they’d like to raise the level cap.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c7762pk

0:58:34 in time.

http://www.nowgamer.com/guild-wars-2-interview-arenanet-talks-release-date-beta-level-cap-personal-stories-esports/ (ctrl+f level)

Just remember guys, they have that VERY LARGE table that they keep piling stuff on… I’m sure it’s still on that table, whether they manage to find it and retrieve it from that table is a completely different subject.

One thing to point out, the youtube and the nowgamer link is before the game was released… so the idea has been around even before the release of the game…
Still wouldn’t get my hopes up, there has been so many flops in the past couple years when it comes to mmorpg’s and sequel releases….

aspirine.6852:

Some people think that Anet is sponsored by Santa or something. Things cost money, games cost money. Dont expect them to give games away?!

They do, but by their current expected revenue they can afford to pay every single one of their employees over a $100k annual salary, including bottom-tier customer support workers while still maintaining their infrastructure, building expenses, etc.

The money has already been spent if the content is complete, anyways, seeing as ANet has repeatedly stated they will make no announcements until the content is guaranteed to be released, due to the outrage from lack of delivery of certain WIP items which could not be finished before.

ANet fully paid for all development costs of the game and way more before the game even released. Gem store users account for revenue likely in the hundreds of millions annually. I get that games cost money, but it’s not like they’re hurting for cash, and the cost has already been paid for.

Zero Day.2594:

Vayne.8563:

wouw.5837:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I can’t wait to see all the whining when they announce the level cap increase. They said if they ever did an expansion they would increase the level cap, but people seem to always just put their fingers in their ears and hum when it is brought up…

Proof?

Eric Flannum did say it in an interview, but Id’ have no idea how to go about looking for it. What I believe he said is that they’d like to raise the level cap.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c7762pk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLHfq2lJY5A

0:58:34 in time.

http://www.nowgamer.com/guild-wars-2-interview-arenanet-talks-release-date-beta-level-cap-personal-stories-esports/ (ctrl+f level)

Just remember guys, they have that VERY LARGE table that they keep piling stuff on… I’m sure it’s still on that table, whether they manage to find it and retrieve it from that table is a completely different subject.

One thing to point out, the youtube and the nowgamer link is before the game was released… so the idea has been around even before the release of the game…
Still wouldn’t get my hopes up, there has been so many flops in the past couple years when it comes to mmorpg’s and sequel releases….

Thank you for the links. At least now people can see what Arenanet’s stance on lvl cap has been. Hopefully they answer the question directly at PAX.

DeceiverX.8361:

aspirine.6852:

Some people think that Anet is sponsored by Santa or something. Things cost money, games cost money. Dont expect them to give games away?!

They do, but by their current expected revenue they can afford to pay every single one of their employees over a $100k annual salary, including bottom-tier customer support workers while still maintaining their infrastructure, building expenses, etc.

The money has already been spent if the content is complete, anyways, seeing as ANet has repeatedly stated they will make no announcements until the content is guaranteed to be released, due to the outrage from lack of delivery of certain WIP items which could not be finished before.

ANet fully paid for all development costs of the game and way more before the game even released. Gem store users account for revenue likely in the hundreds of millions annually. I get that games cost money, but it’s not like they’re hurting for cash, and the cost has already been paid for.

Your comment just killed an investor who expects a profit from their investment. The money to make the game came from somewhere, from someone who expects to see a return on that investment.

DeceiverX.8361:

aspirine.6852:

Some people think that Anet is sponsored by Santa or something. Things cost money, games cost money. Dont expect them to give games away?!

They do, but by their current expected revenue they can afford to pay every single one of their employees over a $100k annual salary, including bottom-tier customer support workers while still maintaining their infrastructure, building expenses, etc.

The money has already been spent if the content is complete, anyways, seeing as ANet has repeatedly stated they will make no announcements until the content is guaranteed to be released, due to the outrage from lack of delivery of certain WIP items which could not be finished before.

ANet fully paid for all development costs of the game and way more before the game even released. Gem store users account for revenue likely in the hundreds of millions annually. I get that games cost money, but it’s not like they’re hurting for cash, and the cost has already been paid for.

Also to add, GW2 isn’t the only product that’s keeping ANet’s, or should I say NCSoft’s, pants up.

:/ It’s a bit strange how people believe and think that games NEED either a subscription or some sort of money flow… Hell someone a while a go even wanted to throw more money at ANet and proposed a kick-starter event to fund an expansion. Lol…

And subsequently any kind of release of major content would result in more players and thus more profits. People seem to very readily forget the gem store as a source of income, and believe that the vanilla game is the only thing that profits. I’ll guarantee you this; ANet has made a minimum of 2x its base game revenue from the gem store alone.

Plus think of other games (Unreal tournament, C&C franchise, Quake series), that didn’t have subscriptions or cash-shops, yet somehow managed to release expansions/squeals… GW1 didn’t have a cash-shop up until around nightfall…

Zero Day.2594:

DeceiverX.8361:

aspirine.6852:

Some people think that Anet is sponsored by Santa or something. Things cost money, games cost money. Dont expect them to give games away?!

They do, but by their current expected revenue they can afford to pay every single one of their employees over a $100k annual salary, including bottom-tier customer support workers while still maintaining their infrastructure, building expenses, etc.

The money has already been spent if the content is complete, anyways, seeing as ANet has repeatedly stated they will make no announcements until the content is guaranteed to be released, due to the outrage from lack of delivery of certain WIP items which could not be finished before.

ANet fully paid for all development costs of the game and way more before the game even released. Gem store users account for revenue likely in the hundreds of millions annually. I get that games cost money, but it’s not like they’re hurting for cash, and the cost has already been paid for.

Also to add, GW2 isn’t the only product that’s keeping ANet’s, or should I say NCSoft’s, pants up.

*:/ It’s a bit strange how people believe and think that games NEED either a subscription or some sort of money flow… * Hell someone a while a go even wanted to throw more money at ANet and proposed a kick-starter event to fund an expansion. Lol…

Please tell me you are being sarcastic!

Zero Day.2594:

DeceiverX.8361:

aspirine.6852:

Some people think that Anet is sponsored by Santa or something. Things cost money, games cost money. Dont expect them to give games away?!

They do, but by their current expected revenue they can afford to pay every single one of their employees over a $100k annual salary, including bottom-tier customer support workers while still maintaining their infrastructure, building expenses, etc.

The money has already been spent if the content is complete, anyways, seeing as ANet has repeatedly stated they will make no announcements until the content is guaranteed to be released, due to the outrage from lack of delivery of certain WIP items which could not be finished before.

ANet fully paid for all development costs of the game and way more before the game even released. Gem store users account for revenue likely in the hundreds of millions annually. I get that games cost money, but it’s not like they’re hurting for cash, and the cost has already been paid for.

Also to add, GW2 isn’t the only product that’s keeping ANet’s, or should I say NCSoft’s, pants up.

:/ It’s a bit strange how people believe and think that games NEED either a subscription or some sort of money flow… Hell someone a while a go even wanted to throw more money at ANet and proposed a kick-starter event to fund an expansion. Lol…

That was me actually since I was convinced the GW2 profits were being siphoned off to help develop other games published by NCSoft such as Wildstar; it’s all in the past now as we have enough circumstantial evidence to indicate that as expansion is coming.

The idea was sound think of it as when a nonprofit applies and gets a grant for a specific project, legally that money can only be applied to the project that the grant was for, not any other parts of the nonprofit’s budget. That Kickstarter would have made us patrons of a specific art project so to speak.

DeceiverX.8361:

And subsequently any kind of release of major content would result in more players and thus more profits. People seem to very readily forget the gem store as a source of income, and believe that the vanilla game is the only thing that profits. I’ll guarantee you this; ANet has made a minimum of 2x its base game revenue from the gem store alone.

No i dont see how a gemstore can give enough money to pay for 300+ employees. Do you think the gemstore gives around 1.5 to 2 million a month?

aspirine.6852:

DeceiverX.8361:

And subsequently any kind of release of major content would result in more players and thus more profits. People seem to very readily forget the gem store as a source of income, and believe that the vanilla game is the only thing that profits. I’ll guarantee you this; ANet has made a minimum of 2x its base game revenue from the gem store alone.

No i dont see how a gemstore can give enough money to pay for 300+ employees. Do you think the gemstore gives around 1.5 to 2 million a month?

It’s actually entirely possible. Going by the 3Q2014 NCSoft report, GW2 in royalties made 22,260,000,000 KQW or 20,556,335 USD.

(http://coinmill.com/KRW_calculator.html#KRW=22260000000)
(http://global.ncsoft.com/global/ir/earnings.aspx)

Note: If I am reading this report correctly, the numbers shown are KWN (Korean Won) in Millions as shown on the statements (unit: KWN in MN). However these number reflect NCSoft and don’t show how much of that Anet is getting. But my guess is they are getting enough to cover their expenses and have a profit. Also as this is just royalties, it is unclear if that includes gem sales or not.

It should be a paid expansion only because people will see a higher value in that versus a free expansion. The human mind is an amazing thing when look at how it perceives value.

Also doing a level cap increase would be pointless, given the amount of tomes players would most likely have by the time the expansion releases. It would also serve to just kitten off the players since it invalidates their gear.

There is one thing for certain though, we are getting easier precursors.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I can’t wait to see all the whining when they announce the level cap increase. They said if they ever did an expansion they would increase the level cap, but people seem to always just put their fingers in their ears and hum when it is brought up…

I would be fine with a raised level cap if ascended and legends gear scale as you level to the new cap.

Zero Day.2594:

DeceiverX.8361:

aspirine.6852:

Some people think that Anet is sponsored by Santa or something. Things cost money, games cost money. Dont expect them to give games away?!

They do, but by their current expected revenue they can afford to pay every single one of their employees over a $100k annual salary, including bottom-tier customer support workers while still maintaining their infrastructure, building expenses, etc.

The money has already been spent if the content is complete, anyways, seeing as ANet has repeatedly stated they will make no announcements until the content is guaranteed to be released, due to the outrage from lack of delivery of certain WIP items which could not be finished before.

ANet fully paid for all development costs of the game and way more before the game even released. Gem store users account for revenue likely in the hundreds of millions annually. I get that games cost money, but it’s not like they’re hurting for cash, and the cost has already been paid for.

Also to add, GW2 isn’t the only product that’s keeping ANet’s, or should I say NCSoft’s, pants up.

:/ It’s a bit strange how people believe and think that games NEED either a subscription or some sort of money flow… Hell someone a while a go even wanted to throw more money at ANet and proposed a kick-starter event to fund an expansion. Lol…

Guild wars 2 is the only product keeping Anet’s pants up. Ncsoft has aion and blade and soul in korea to sustain their profits. The point being if guild wars 2 becomes unprofitable they are going to be firing staff in Arenanet just like Ncsoft did to Ncwest.

Also You do need a way to generate cash flow, I have no idea why you seem to think they don’t. Also I doubt any kickstarter would have enough money to play 300 employees at a rate of 30-100k. Then again I suspect your whole post was just a joke.

Wetpaw.3487:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I can’t wait to see all the whining when they announce the level cap increase. They said if they ever did an expansion they would increase the level cap, but people seem to always just put their fingers in their ears and hum when it is brought up…

I would be fine with a raised level cap if ascended and legends gear scale as you level to the new cap.

I don’t know why people thinking they will be a a level increase especially given how easy it is to level and given how many tomes players have. I do think they might introduce a new class and I do think they might bring back Dual classes and then require you to relevel the secondary class. If they were to do that, it would be brilliant since a lot of people would completely ignore the relevel aspect and focus on the dual classing.

ANet gets cash flow from the gem store. A lot more than they got with GW1. This is why they could afford to make a free expansion, and I really really REALLY hope they do, because a paid expansion would fragment the playerbase.

Andred.1087:

ANet gets cash flow from the gem store. A lot more than they got with GW1. This is why they could afford to make a free expansion, and I really really REALLY hope they do, because a paid expansion would fragment the playerbase.

That’s a terrible argument since guild wars 2 arguably requires more resources to run than guild wars 1 which it does. Arenanet is 300+ versus ~50 when guild wars 1 was being made.

Secondly, it isn’t about if they have money. From an investor standpoint, Ncsoft has literally ZERO reason to give the expansion for free. They already know a lot of people are going to buy it, it would be like leaving money on the in other to please a few people who wont buy the expansion.

i really hope that IF it’s an expansion it doesn’t raise the level cap, it’s bad enough to have lvl 80 as lvl cap (lvl 40 would’ve bin fine).
however, i would never pay more then €25,- for an expansion and it better be an expansion in every sense of the definition.

just a small list of many i expect to be in it:
- not 1 armor set, i want to see at least 4-6 armor sets per armor class.
- 5 weapon sets.
- a whole new area (at least the size of EotN).
- mission areas
- new weapon types
- more weapon choice for professions
- new jumping puzzles
- a more GW1-like story line
- a more in-world way to use some gem store services. (like having a barber to change hair styles and a makeover apparatus to change body)
- profession changer

again, just a small list of what i expect in an expansion of €25,-

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I can’t wait to see all the whining when they announce the level cap increase. They said if they ever did an expansion they would increase the level cap, but people seem to always just put their fingers in their ears and hum when it is brought up…

They said they’d like to increase the level cap, not that they would actually do it. Big difference.

And it would be completely assinine if they did. Having to regrind gear for my 20 alts would be a nightmare. And for what? Levels don’t mean a thing in this game anyway.

Psientist.6437:

Please tell me you are being sarcastic!

silvermember.8941:

Guild wars 2 is the only product keeping Anet’s pants up. Ncsoft has aion and blade and soul in korea to sustain their profits. The point being if guild wars 2 becomes unprofitable they are going to be firing staff in Arenanet just like Ncsoft did to Ncwest.

Also You do need a way to generate cash flow, I have no idea why you seem to think they don’t. Also I doubt any kickstarter would have enough money to play 300 employees at a rate of 30-100k. Then again I suspect your whole post was just a joke.

See someone people seem to lump the survival of a game with how it’s (the game itself – not the company as a whole) able to get money, some even bubble it up and say that this one game is responsible for the survival of the company as a whole. So, no it wasn’t a sarcastic joke. It’s like saying D3 will not survive another month because it doesn’t a cashshop or a subscription, and golly gosh how did they manage to pull of releasing an expansion – santa must have dropped them a couple mills to fund that.

NCsoft also has a few other games besides the two you’ve listed… As for becoming either unprofitable, I never suggested that… Pretty sure they were profitable upon release, like they didn’t spend some odd millions of dollars to make less than that when released… Otherwise things would be different now. The gemsales is more like extra fuel for them, that may or may not be used as we are expecting it to (we really have no solid proof the the money is going into developement of GW2, we hope so, we assume so, but we’re not NCSoft’s/ANet’s finicial employees that handle budgets and whatnot).

Besides just cash flow from games… pretty sure you can buy/trade their stock.

Weirdly enough, GW1 didn’t have a cashshop until around Nightfall, yet somehow mananged to have a nice stream of updates, release an expansion and start/complete a good portion of the next expansion – considering how they must have been so hurt for money (being sarcastic after the “-” and before the “(”).

silvermember.8941:

Andred.1087:

ANet gets cash flow from the gem store. A lot more than they got with GW1. This is why they could afford to make a free expansion, and I really really REALLY hope they do, because a paid expansion would fragment the playerbase.

That’s a terrible argument since guild wars 2 arguably requires more resources to run than guild wars 1 which it does. Arenanet is 300+ versus ~50 when guild wars 1 was being made.

Secondly, it isn’t about if they have money. From an investor standpoint, Ncsoft has literally ZERO reason to give the expansion for free. They already know a lot of people are going to buy it, it would be like leaving money on the in other to please a few people who wont buy the expansion.

With the bolded part I can agree.

Oldirtbeard.9834:

That was me actually since I was convinced the GW2 profits were being siphoned off to help develop other games published by NCSoft such as Wildstar; it’s all in the past now as we have enough circumstantial evidence to indicate that as expansion is coming.

The idea was sound think of it as when a nonprofit applies and gets a grant for a specific project, legally that money can only be applied to the project that the grant was for, not any other parts of the nonprofit’s budget. That Kickstarter would have made us patrons of a specific art project so to speak.

As sound as the idea was (though, who knows how much cost it would have actually covered)… It’s a very bad idea for us as customers. It can possibly open up another door for milking us. Cash-shops, Subscriptions, and now… Kickstarter projects.

silvermember.8941:

…
There is one thing for certain though, we are getting easier precursors.

The hype-building is real.
I will gladly buy a ticket onto this hype-train.

Andred.1087:

ANet gets cash flow from the gem store. A lot more than they got with GW1. This is why they could afford to make a free expansion, and I really really REALLY hope they do, because a paid expansion would fragment the playerbase.

In that case, GW2 would have gone free to play. There is no point whatsover in having the game B2P when you can make it free to play and get tripple the population and far more people buying gems if you are not going to charge box pricee for new content and there are really few people buying the game, 2 years after release.

The fact that Anet has a B2P model in the first place means that they have to create content fitting that model. And to have the game B2P while not realising expansions/paid content makes no sense whatsover.

nGumball.1283:

Andred.1087:

ANet gets cash flow from the gem store. A lot more than they got with GW1. This is why they could afford to make a free expansion, and I really really REALLY hope they do, because a paid expansion would fragment the playerbase.

In that case, GW2 would have gone free to play. There is no point whatsover in having the game B2P when you can make it free to play and get tripple the population and far more people buying gems if you are not going to charge box pricee for new content and there are really few people buying the game, 2 years after release.

The fact that Anet has a B2P model in the first place means that they have to create content fitting that model. And to have the game B2P while not realising expansions/paid content makes no sense whatsover.

But clearly having a cash-shop (or a subscription for some games) shows that they’re in need of money, and w/o it the game will go afloat. I seem to have too much, and must throw it at them and convenience others that they need it and they should throw their money at them too.

aspirine.6852:

DeceiverX.8361:

And subsequently any kind of release of major content would result in more players and thus more profits. People seem to very readily forget the gem store as a source of income, and believe that the vanilla game is the only thing that profits. I’ll guarantee you this; ANet has made a minimum of 2x its base game revenue from the gem store alone.

No i dont see how a gemstore can give enough money to pay for 300+ employees. Do you think the gemstore gives around 1.5 to 2 million a month?

Yes, actually. Quarterly they’ve earned between $20 to $30 million each year, demonstrating that since launch from gem profits alone, a good $250 million alone has been from gem sales, whereas only about $200 million has been from actual game sales. What this means is that more money is spent on gem store purchases than game purchases, causing the gem store to become ANet’s primary source of revenue. While a paid expansion may cause a surge in income, so would any major additions, even free ones, just due to the sheer number of returning players catching up and subsequently spending money on gems.

Paid expansions can lead to fragmented player groups and ultimately cost more money over time, for as mentioned, retaining players leads to causing higher revenue versus an influx of new short-term purchases over the scope of a few years.

Ultimately, due to ANet’s ongoing economic success, I would as a business leader actually prefer to keep the expansion content free, as a surge in profits is almost guaranteed no matter the price of the release due to a resurgence of lost player activity, and the long-terms risks of fragmentation and negative publicity would possibly be cost-prohibitive and not worth the risk of a higher surge in profits.

Those with money to spend on the game are going to spend it, regardless of the magnitude of necessity.

I’m assuming that an expansion would be paid, and I’m fine with that. ANet has already given us a massive amount of content for the box price, and the number of hours I’ve spent on the game make it a very good value for my money. I never expected endless content without ever having to pay for any of it. I’d be happy to buy an expansion when/if the time comes.

DeceiverX.8361:

Ultimately, due to ANet’s ongoing economic success, I would as a business leader actually prefer to keep the expansion content free, as a surge in profits is almost guaranteed no matter the price of the release due to a resurgence of lost player activity, and the long-terms risks of fragmentation and negative publicity would possibly be cost-prohibitive and not worth the risk of a higher surge in profits.

Those with money to spend on the game are going to spend it, regardless of the magnitude of necessity.

And those that cant afford it (I got the game half off and paid with a gift card from a holiday), wont pay for the expansion.

As for the rest, that’s exactly what I read back when I first started. They avoided traditional expansions (use google if you people dont understand the concept here) because of the divisiveness it causes in the playerbase. Look at GW1 as an example. You’ve got Prophecies as the main game, however, Factions and Nightfall are both standalone expansions, each functioning as a separate game. As a result you’ve got 3 different groups of players. Combine the expansion ability, you’ve got another 3 groups (Proph/faction, proph/nightfall, all 3). Add in EotN, another expansion, you add in several more groups of players (proph/eye, proph/eye/faction, and all 4). In all that’s NINE individual groups of players that cannot fully interact with each other.

Players either didnt buy the remaining areas and regretted it, or simply didnt buy the game in the first place. With GW2, you have none of that. You buy the game, you get EVERYTHING (hush about LS1 stuff, you can say the same about wintersday and halloween). It’s been that way since Day 1. If you owned the game, the content was there for you to do. LS1 may be historic content, but someday it may be possible to open it up. LS2 only takes like… what? 30 gold? Few days of farming and market work. That’s something people need to consider. If they didnt bundle up the LS content and release it as a paid expansion, why would they charge for an expansion now? And provide legitimate reasons please.

aspirine.6852:

DeceiverX.8361:

And subsequently any kind of release of major content would result in more players and thus more profits. People seem to very readily forget the gem store as a source of income, and believe that the vanilla game is the only thing that profits. I’ll guarantee you this; ANet has made a minimum of 2x its base game revenue from the gem store alone.

No i dont see how a gemstore can give enough money to pay for 300+ employees. Do you think the gemstore gives around 1.5 to 2 million a month?

I believe Guild Wars 2 is taking in about 8 million dollars a month, or seems to be if I remember the NcSoft quarterly report. I’m sure most of that is gem store sales. There just aren’t that many new sales, and more to the point, most of those new sales will likely be at $20.

If this is an expansion, and if the content is big, like new classes, races, areas, etc., the logic tell me it should be sold, money directly, not gems. But everything is possible.

well it is true that they gotta go either money or free if it’s an expansion. If they’ll go like “if you bought 1000 gems so far it’s free for you” it’ll be an uproar. Given it’ll indeed be an expansioin. Well 8 more days and we’ll know.

Vayne.8563:

aspirine.6852:

DeceiverX.8361:

And subsequently any kind of release of major content would result in more players and thus more profits. People seem to very readily forget the gem store as a source of income, and believe that the vanilla game is the only thing that profits. I’ll guarantee you this; ANet has made a minimum of 2x its base game revenue from the gem store alone.

No i dont see how a gemstore can give enough money to pay for 300+ employees. Do you think the gemstore gives around 1.5 to 2 million a month?

I believe Guild Wars 2 is taking in about 8 million dollars a month, or seems to be if I remember the NcSoft quarterly report. I’m sure most of that is gem store sales. There just aren’t that many new sales, and more to the point, most of those new sales will likely be at $20.

I must say that is a lot more money that I thought they made with just gems.
Still I prefer the expansion to cost money, because in my eyes it sounds wrong not to ask money for such a big part of the game. It kinda makes the company look like amateurs not being able to ask money for a huge new part of the game.
And I have no problem paying the same as any of the gw1 stand alones/expansion.

Everyone should be ready and willing to pay for the expansion BUT!!! please don’t place this expansion in the trading post like you’ve done with the Digital Deluxe Edition. If they do then they will get far less money in the long run. Cause even I would spend my time vs my RL money to trade gold into gems and buy the expansion.

aspirine.6852:

Vayne.8563:

aspirine.6852:

DeceiverX.8361:

And subsequently any kind of release of major content would result in more players and thus more profits. People seem to very readily forget the gem store as a source of income, and believe that the vanilla game is the only thing that profits. I’ll guarantee you this; ANet has made a minimum of 2x its base game revenue from the gem store alone.

No i dont see how a gemstore can give enough money to pay for 300+ employees. Do you think the gemstore gives around 1.5 to 2 million a month?

I believe Guild Wars 2 is taking in about 8 million dollars a month, or seems to be if I remember the NcSoft quarterly report. I’m sure most of that is gem store sales. There just aren’t that many new sales, and more to the point, most of those new sales will likely be at $20.

I must say that is a lot more money that I thought they made with just gems.
Still I prefer the expansion to cost money, because in my eyes it sounds wrong not to ask money for such a big part of the game. It kinda makes the company look like amateurs not being able to ask money for a huge new part of the game.
And I have no problem paying the same as any of the gw1 stand alones/expansion.

Actually, there are big corporations that do give away content for free. It doesn’t make them amateurs.

The point is, the company is structured with the idea that the cash shop will be profitable enough to run the game.

Charging for an expansion creates a rift in the player base. If people aren’t willing or can’t afford to buy the expansion they can no longer play with their friends and guild mates.

It creates haves and have nots.

If everyone gets the new content free, it means the game loses no one on that one particular matter anyway.

One of the things that Anet found with Guild Wars 1 was that releasing Factions and Nightfall (admittedly stand alone games) divided the player base. They’re desperate not to do that.

That’s at least in part why the mega server was created. There were already empty zones. Anet directly said they didn’t want to create too many new zones before the megaserver technology was in place. They didn’t want to have what happened in just about every other MMO to happen here.

They didn’t want everyone crowding around in the new zones and the rest of the world feeling abandoned.

I don’t know why it would be considered amateur to make a decision based on good business. One would assume if they didn’t charge, it would be because it benefited them not to.

Vayne.8563:

aspirine.6852:

Vayne.8563:

aspirine.6852:

DeceiverX.8361:

And subsequently any kind of release of major content would result in more players and thus more profits. People seem to very readily forget the gem store as a source of income, and believe that the vanilla game is the only thing that profits. I’ll guarantee you this; ANet has made a minimum of 2x its base game revenue from the gem store alone.

No i dont see how a gemstore can give enough money to pay for 300+ employees. Do you think the gemstore gives around 1.5 to 2 million a month?

I believe Guild Wars 2 is taking in about 8 million dollars a month, or seems to be if I remember the NcSoft quarterly report. I’m sure most of that is gem store sales. There just aren’t that many new sales, and more to the point, most of those new sales will likely be at $20.

I must say that is a lot more money that I thought they made with just gems.
Still I prefer the expansion to cost money, because in my eyes it sounds wrong not to ask money for such a big part of the game. It kinda makes the company look like amateurs not being able to ask money for a huge new part of the game.
And I have no problem paying the same as any of the gw1 stand alones/expansion.

Actually, there are big corporations that do give away content for free. It doesn’t make them amateurs.

The point is, the company is structured with the idea that the cash shop will be profitable enough to run the game.

Charging for an expansion creates a rift in the player base. If people aren’t willing or can’t afford to buy the expansion they can no longer play with their friends and guild mates.

It creates haves and have nots.

If everyone gets the new content free, it means the game loses no one on that one particular matter anyway.

One of the things that Anet found with Guild Wars 1 was that releasing Factions and Nightfall (admittedly stand alone games) divided the player base. They’re desperate not to do that.

That’s at least in part why the mega server was created. There were already empty zones. Anet directly said they didn’t want to create too many new zones before the megaserver technology was in place. They didn’t want to have what happened in just about every other MMO to happen here.

They didn’t want everyone crowding around in the new zones and the rest of the world feeling abandoned.

I don’t know why it would be considered amateur to make a decision based on good business. One would assume if they didn’t charge, it would be because it benefited them not to.

Good reasons, I think it’s personal to me. It makes the company doubt if their content is enough that peoplewould pay money for it.
For instance Diablo 3 expansion was a lot less than I expected.(and expect from an Anet expansion) yet people gave a kittenload of money o Blizz because it was expected to be good. Blizzard did not doubt they could get a lot of money for it.

Naps Elif.7438:

Everyone should be ready and willing to pay for the expansion BUT!!! please don’t place this expansion in the trading post like you’ve done with the Digital Deluxe Edition. If they do then they will get far less money in the long run. Cause even I would spend my time vs my RL money to trade gold into gems and buy the expansion.

They will get the same amount of money. Each gem offered in the trading post was bought for real money.

I’m hoping it’s paid. I’d rather pay good money for an awesome expansion than get a mediocre expansion for free or cheap. This is a game I’m willing to put hundreds of hours into after all. I’d definitely pay for the extra content. The people who don’t want to pay for a expac at all can still play the game for free as they’ve always done. What are they going to do? Say “well I don’t want to pay for new content, so I’m gonna stop playing and get zero content forever!” Besides, I think the people who provide revenue for Anet (the gem store users) will be the ones willing to pay the expac anyway.

Severino.3604:

I’m hoping it’s paid. I’d rather pay good money for an awesome expansion than get a mediocre expansion for free or cheap. This is a game I’m willing to put hundreds of hours into after all. I’d definitely pay for the extra content. The people who don’t want to pay for a expac at all can still play the game for free as they’ve always done. What are they going to do? Say “well I don’t want to pay for new content, so I’m gonna stop playing and get zero content forever!” Besides, I think the people who provide revenue for Anet (the gem store users) will be the ones willing to pay the expac anyway.

But you’re making the assumption that the price you pay for it will affect it’s quality and that’s not a good assumption.

I’ve played paid expansions for games that were horrible and played free expansions that were a lot of fun. The price doesn’t make the expansion better.

In fact, by the time they decide to charge for it or not, the work is already likely done. The quality of the expansion will not be higher if they charge for it.

I want paid quality product.

Vayne.8563:

Severino.3604:

I’m hoping it’s paid. I’d rather pay good money for an awesome expansion than get a mediocre expansion for free or cheap. This is a game I’m willing to put hundreds of hours into after all. I’d definitely pay for the extra content. The people who don’t want to pay for a expac at all can still play the game for free as they’ve always done. What are they going to do? Say “well I don’t want to pay for new content, so I’m gonna stop playing and get zero content forever!” Besides, I think the people who provide revenue for Anet (the gem store users) will be the ones willing to pay the expac anyway.

But you’re making the assumption that the price you pay for it will affect it’s quality and that’s not a good assumption.

I’ve played paid expansions for games that were horrible and played free expansions that were a lot of fun. The price doesn’t make the expansion better.

In fact, by the time they decide to charge for it or not, the work is already likely done. The quality of the expansion will not be higher if they charge for it.

I cant name even one free expansion for any game. Perhaps you could name a few?
On the other hand, the 2 extra payed campaigns from gw1 and the payed eotn expansion were awesome.

aspirine.6852:

Vayne.8563:

Severino.3604:

I’m hoping it’s paid. I’d rather pay good money for an awesome expansion than get a mediocre expansion for free or cheap. This is a game I’m willing to put hundreds of hours into after all. I’d definitely pay for the extra content. The people who don’t want to pay for a expac at all can still play the game for free as they’ve always done. What are they going to do? Say “well I don’t want to pay for new content, so I’m gonna stop playing and get zero content forever!” Besides, I think the people who provide revenue for Anet (the gem store users) will be the ones willing to pay the expac anyway.

But you’re making the assumption that the price you pay for it will affect it’s quality and that’s not a good assumption.

I’ve played paid expansions for games that were horrible and played free expansions that were a lot of fun. The price doesn’t make the expansion better.

In fact, by the time they decide to charge for it or not, the work is already likely done. The quality of the expansion will not be higher if they charge for it.

I cant name even one free expansion for any game. Perhaps you could name a few?
On the other hand, the 2 extra payed campaigns from gw1 and the payed eotn expansion were awesome.

PWI – All 6 Expansions have been free
Neverwinter – Expansions been free
PoE – Expacs Been Free
Terra – Latest Expac was free
RIFT – Lastest Expac free

I could name more but I don’t wanna be infracted.