Guild Wars 2

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.

For a start, most free to play games, generally add content expansions for free, including EQ 2, just off the top of my head.

EQ 2 is owned by Sony. Not exactly a tiny business.

Belenwyn.8674:

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.

You can trade in game gold for Gems >.<

Naps Elif.7438:

Belenwyn.8674:

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.

You can trade in game gold for Gems >.<

Yeah, but the gems supposedly come from the pool created by people trading gems for gold.

Paradox.1380:

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.

I’m not impressed by any of those Terra and rift were terrible. They could not ask money for it because no-one would pay for it. PWI, I never heard of that game but it seems to be free anyway?
PoE is also a free game, and not even an mmo. Good game but I would not compare this to something like guild wars.

nexxe.7081:

I highly doubt that it will be a paid expansion. That would go against everything Anet has promised, even since GW1.

They do not like segregating players due to expansions. To some extent, even GW1 somewhat avoided this (extra campaigns/eotn weren’t required). This is why they strictly stick to a b2p model.

Anet’s philosophy has always been, buy once, play forever.

They only charge for one price to access their service and servers, and anything else they charge for doesn’t deny anyone this access.

I would love to see all these promises about only ever having to pay for the vanilla game in order to get access to every single thing ever released in the game.

You are also completely ignoring the fact that in Guild Wars you had to pay (full price no less) in order to access Factions and Nightfall, even if you already bought Prophecies. Which would go completely against what you claim ArenaNet having promised.

aspirine.6852:

Paradox.1380:

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.

I’m not impressed by any of those Terra and rift were terrible. They could not ask money for it because no-one would pay for it. PWI, I never heard of that game but it seems to be free anyway?
PoE is also a free game, and not even an mmo. Good game but I would not compare this to something like guild wars.

TSW as far as I know also gives expansion content for free, and as I mentioned earlier EQ 2.

The thing is, it’s not unheard of. It happens.

aspirine.6852:

Paradox.1380:

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.

I’m not impressed by any of those Terra and rift were terrible. They could not ask money for it because no-one would pay for it. PWI, I never heard of that game but it seems to be free anyway?
PoE is also a free game, and not even an mmo. Good game but I would not compare this to something like guild wars.

That wasn’t the question you asked. I answered what you said you didn’t know. You never said anything about you having to like said game for it o be free. Also just because you don’t like something doesn’t make it not good? And yes PWI is a Free to play internationally there is a Pay to Play version their expansions (the ones we get in the international version) are also free. I’ve played that game for over 6 years its a fantastic game (within reason and in my own opinion only). So there’s that.

Paradox.1380:

aspirine.6852:

Paradox.1380:

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.

I’m not impressed by any of those Terra and rift were terrible. They could not ask money for it because no-one would pay for it. PWI, I never heard of that game but it seems to be free anyway?
PoE is also a free game, and not even an mmo. Good game but I would not compare this to something like guild wars.

That wasn’t the question you asked. I answered what you said you didn’t know.

Fair enough

EQ 2 on the other hand was indeed a pretty big name. But on the ev2 site it seems to cost money?

Times are a-changin as the song goes.

In the old days, there was no way to make money besides selling an expansion because there were no cash shops. No one sold stuff. Now, companies are realizing there are other ways to support their products.

Every advantage you can get over the competition is one more reason to use your product. A price tag is a barrier to people trying your product, or returning to it.

A lot of people don’t go back to games because they have to pay more money to start up again. If Anet is one of the few games where that’s not the case, it’s an advantage.

Even if it IS a paid-expac or an Expac at all. I am almost positive most ANet will figure out a way to make the impact minimal and cosmetic (akin to the differences in the different versions of the base game).

They have been nothing less than transparent about their want and willingness to have as many people as possible on the same page and able to access relatively the same content.

Regardless of how they deliver it though, in my opinion, they are going to make the right choice for the game to see it grow as a whole.

Aye, I have a feeling that if it is a expansion it might simply be along the lines of: All open world and such changes are unlocked for everyone for free.

The new personal story (if such a thing comes with it) will require payment, as will potential new dungeons. That would seem somewhat fair in my eyes.

“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.”

I can name a few free expansions.

Rift, Nightmare Tide
Tera, Fate of Arun
Star Trek, all of them I think
Aion, Most of them
Eve, all of them

That’s all I can think of at the moment.

If you eliminate the F2P titles then there is only a few. Most of City of Heroes’ expansions were free before they went F2P. City of Villains was initially a paid expansion and so was their Going Rogue expansion even after F2P IIRC.

If it does end up free we’ll all get to see NCSOFT stock self destruct as the analyst hype about income from a paid expansion goes POOF! It’s up nearly 50% over the last three months.

Vayne.8563:

TSW as far as I know also gives expansion content for free, and as I mentioned earlier EQ 2.

The thing is, it’s not unheard of. It happens.

Not quite. TSW bundles (say on Steam) will usually include the oldest ‘expansion’ content, but not the most recent ones.

I knew that going into TSW last October/November. Not a bad attempt for me (given my wrists). But if that is what a ‘mild level’ grindy MMO is like, then I’m not likely to continue it – at least not regularly. Still got my $20 worth, easily, those two weeks I tried it (really nice lore/immersion btw, if you’re into horror or ‘dark days’ genres).

As for cost of an expansion: Depending on the cost and frequency of paid expansions, you can technically turn (twist?) a ‘buy once’ game into a ‘stealth subscription.’ Yes, it would cost less than ‘normal’ subs, but you still generate a somewhat steady revenue. Some may argue the expansion route is more stable actually (meh, not sure about that myself). So I’m wary of the announcement (more interested in the content, not costs), but will hold judgement for now.

Hopefully paid.

I’d appreciate a paid expansion. Something like 40-50€/$. There should be the option to buy them with gems for 4000 gems, so that people with no jobs/students etc. but a lot of time can buy it with gold to gem conversion.

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.

Exactly. If the company was strapped for cash due to an already-low but loyal player-base, then the paid expansion would probably be worthwhile to raise profits to cover development and maintenance costs of the game. If anything, free releases demonstrate faith in quality when it’s on the high end; Google could have decide to sell their search engine as paid software from day 1 like some of its competitors early on. Do you think they’d be doing as well if they did?

That said, doing so will reduce the number of long-term players. It’s a trend that has been seen in WoW and most other games which offer paid boxed expansion content. Because of their current success on a monthly basis with no new content, however, it makes no sense to try and money-grab a unified player-base with a paid, boxed expansion which will ultimately have the negative outcome seen as undesirable by the company in the past, will reduce long-term profits (which matter more as demonstrated), and is also very difficult to implement in an MMO environment without making the expansion purchase mandatory for playing the game at all; new items/gear, skills, classes, race, whatever it may be, heavily impact the game and its metagame strategies as well as the market. Shutting off players from these extremely important aspects of the game due to a pay wall is obscene and possibly game-breaking.

Nobody should feel the need to pay again for a shiny cardboard box. ANet is making a killing on this game and should and does have the support to release the best content. If they’re unable to do so, free or not, it demonstrates a fundamental flaw in the designers’ points of view and as such nothing will change that or verify incoming content as high quality.

Not to mention the press’s stance on a huge, high-quality free expansion. I’d say that in itself would sell a lot of copies of the game to new players, as then it really portrays the business model of the game in a very positive light.

But of course, that’s under the impression we’re facing an expansion; I still would not get my hopes up for anything except knowing something involving dragons and Sylvari.

Astralporing.1957:

Naps Elif.7438:

Belenwyn.8674:

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.

You can trade in game gold for Gems >.<

Yeah, but the gems supposedly come from the pool created by people trading gems for gold.

There was a pre-existing pool of gems and gold within the exchange when the game went live. Player created gold and gems are added and removed from that reserve. Arenanet does not directly make money from players exchanging gold for gems, and spending those gems in the cash shop. Arenanet indirectly makes money from gold to gem conversion because it increases the exchange rate for gems to gold, thereby increasing the likelihood of players spending money on gems and converting them into gold.

I will be disappointed if it is a free expansion.

Vayne.8563:

For a start, most free to play games, generally add content expansions for free, including EQ 2, just off the top of my head.

EQ 2 is owned by Sony. Not exactly a tiny business.

Guild Wars 2 is not a free to play game. We are a “buy to play” game. It is logical and within ANet’s model that the expansion would be “buy to play”.

I dont like crying about paid content. Expansion must be b2p and if you dont have enough money then dont buy it.

Kal Spiro.9745:

It’s not an expansion, it’s just more Living World. Anyone who expects differently is being deluded. There is absolutely nothing about the trailer that even remotely indicates anything more than Season 3

What was that? I can’t hear you over the EXPANSION ANNOUNCEMENT YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Kal Spiro.9745:

It’s not an expansion, it’s just more Living World. Anyone who expects differently is being deluded. There is absolutely nothing about the trailer that even remotely indicates anything more than Season 3

What was that? I can’t hear you over the EXPANSION ANNOUNCEMENT YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LMFAO! A few people on these forums are going to be eating crow now.

ProtoGunner.4953:

I’d appreciate a paid expansion. Something like 40-50€/$. There should be the option to buy them with gems for 4000 gems, so that people with no jobs/students etc. but a lot of time can buy it with gold to gem conversion.

Begone vile mouth!

I am sure it will be a paid expansion… how could it not be?

Awkwardly here’s wishing it is actually a paid expansion. This might not make sense coming from a consumer, but free “big” updates never seemed to work in the company’s favor

It might be and it might be not, since this expansion brings some advantages over other players. Many of them will not be able to purchase the expansion

I am quite confident this is going to be paid.

I think they would have announced it if it was free during the presentation. How much will it cost? It’s hard to say, there is a lot of details that were missing from the presentation that makes it difficult to see the real scale of the expansion. I’d be surprised if it’s more than $49.99.

Paid digital download and box pack(those should be ready in advance lol) will be available.

Check the HoT FAQ, it’s paid digital and boxed, and you will need GW2 to play HoT

I have no issue paying for the expansion. I have certainly got my money’s worth with GW2 over the last couple years.

ill say this now, i game to guild wars 2 after being told that expansions come out free, unlike WoW. at the moment im a bit upset that this is being charged for. i still enjoy the game more than WoW but im not about to spend more money on an expansion than i spent on the core game. that kittened. fair enough it was on sale from gamestop for $30 but even if i paid $50 for it i would have an issue paying another $50 for an EXPANSION! Companies need to stop being greedy and grow some brains. i MIGHT buy the expansion if i see the price drop to about $25 since the preorder for $50 includes the core game WHICH I ALREADY OWN AND SHOULDNT HAVE TO BUY AGAIN!

chrtylee.5280:

snip!

Are you a necromancer in-game too?

Super post necro, but… You are not buying the core game again, you are buying the expansion, and the core game comes with it for FREE, so if you were a new player and didn’t own the game you could jump on board.

If you bought something on sale, then complain something not on sale is more expensive… You should just do what you did with the first one and wait till it’s on sale.

A-net has given us TONS of free content. People wanted an actual expansion, complaining LW wasn’t “new enough”… Now A-net gives us an expac and people want free content. How can a company “grow brains” and make money when customers say one thing then complain when they get it…

chrtylee.5280:

ill say this now, i game to guild wars 2 after being told that expansions come out free, unlike WoW.

Not sure who told you that, but Anet never said any such thing, as far as I know.

Necroed an unecessary thread to agitate a topic that has been dealt with mostly. Reported.

chrtylee.5280:

ill say this now, i game to guild wars 2 after being told that expansions come out free, unlike WoW. at the moment im a bit upset that this is being charged for. i still enjoy the game more than WoW but im not about to spend more money on an expansion than i spent on the core game. that kittened. fair enough it was on sale from gamestop for $30 but even if i paid $50 for it i would have an issue paying another $50 for an EXPANSION! Companies need to stop being greedy and grow some brains. i MIGHT buy the expansion if i see the price drop to about $25 since the preorder for $50 includes the core game WHICH I ALREADY OWN AND SHOULDNT HAVE TO BUY AGAIN!

Yes gamers should get some brains. A year of WOW costs you well over $100 plus the price of the expansion. I’ve played Guild Wars 2 for under a hundred dollars for 3 years.

I’ve gotten free content updates during that time and I’ve seen a lot of QoL updates I didn’t have to pay for at all.

If you left WoW for this, you left a game that charged you every month just to play. Complaining that every couple of years you have to buy the new areas seems really silly to me.

Cyninja.2954:

Necroed an unecessary thread to agitate a topic that has been dealt with mostly. Reported.

There’s no rule against necroing threads.

Vayne.8563:

Cyninja.2954:

Necroed an unecessary thread to agitate a topic that has been dealt with mostly. Reported.

There’s no rule against necroing threads.

Let’s check the Code of Conduct shall we and see if this necro violates some points in there? https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/forum-code-of-conduct/

1.) Read the forum before asking a question. There’s a good chance your question has already been answered.

2.) Use the search function before posting. This will focus the discussion and facilitate a response.

3.) Do not spam. This includes bumping threads or making posts that lack content.

4.) Be respectful. Be pleasant to forum members, staff members, and moderators.

5.) Do not submit “trolling” posts or threads. We define “trolling” as commenting in a manner intended to elicit overly strong negative and emotional responses for mere shock value, attempting to derail threads, persistently posting off-topic, or engaging in personal attacks on another forum member. Accounts made with the sole intent to “troll” will be terminated. (picking up the most rage filled topic from the last 2 weeks, check)

6.) Do not make alternate forum accounts. Users are permitted one account per person. Alternate accounts will be terminated, and users involved in creating alternate accounts will be subject to discipline at the discretion of the moderator staff. (first post necroing a thread from 5 months ago on a hot topic? Sure)

7.) All forum content is permitted or removed at the discretion of ArenaNet.

On that note, I really hope whoever used his alt account did not login both his main and alt via the same IP (then again some people are that stupid). And if they did, give the main nice 3 day temp ban off the forums with some infraction points (and the alt a perma ban) . Should clear things out.