Guild Wars 2

Why I’m asking this is because GW2 is more than ready for an expansion and really need one.
I think Anet is afraid that the expansion will not sell. my opinion is based on the negative posts about GW2 and the number of players still playing they have the numbers.
GW2 will be tested by its own expansion or by the release of new MMOs.
are they afraid to test GW2?

Expansion=same kitten you’re getting right now.

I haven’t done any LS and will never do.

tbh, they’re going to have to really up the stakes on what they put in an expansion to get people to buy it.

Knowing that what they consider “an expansion’s worth of content” are events, a new gear tier and the LS, they’ve got a lot to improve on.

expansion=new maps,more heart quest,more dynamic events,more npcs,new tier of armors added,more time gated crafting,more vistas and poi.

xephire.8324:

expansion=new maps,more heart quest,more dynamic events,more npcs,new tier of armors added,more time gated crafting,more vistas and poi.

Throw in quaggans and I bet all the 10 – 15 and 50 – 80 year old age groups playing this game will descend upon it like a hungry lion on a limping gazelle.

Skan.5301:

xephire.8324:

expansion=new maps,more heart quest,more dynamic events,more npcs,new tier of armors added,more time gated crafting,more vistas and poi.

Throw in quaggans and I bet all the 10 – 15 and 50 – 80 year old age groups playing this game will descend upon it like a hungry lion on a limping gazelle.

+1 so true.

but…. but…. I thought that.. any incoming expansion would be free for those who already bought the game…
someone lied to me?

saintange.5816:

but…. but…. I thought that.. any incoming expansion would be free for those who already bought the game…
someone lied to me?

You can grind for in game gold to buy the expansion i think.

saintange.5816:

but…. but…. I thought that.. any incoming expansion would be free for those who already bought the game…
someone lied to me?

Good one.

UNLESS you’re talking about the Living Story updates. Those are free. Though calling that an expansion would be blasphemous.

Hey, maybe a cash shop purchase! You know the devs like that cash shop.

Edit: xephire got it.

Expansions will most likely be realized with the LS. Why do you want to pay extra for a traditional expansion? I paid for my expansion ahead of time with gems!

ColinJohanson “Just to clarify a bit, as Mike said there are numerous teams beyond our Living World teams, and some of them are working on much longer term projects which we’ll go into details on much further down the road.” This is your expansion like content that will be released through the LS at some point.

nethykins.7986:

tbh, they’re going to have to really up the stakes on what they put in an expansion to get people to buy it.

Knowing that what they consider “an expansion’s worth of content” are events, a new gear tier and the LS, they’ve got a lot to improve on.

These are my thoughts exactly. With the current content Anet is putting out at the moment, I would not buy an expansion. And though I’ve enjoyed the game, I think it has run its course. For me anyway. The only things I do in the game nowadays are the daily and the monthly and then I log off. They would need a LOT more material in an expansion for me to be even slightly interested

While I’d be up for an expansion, I think it’s worth noting that selling a large, bundled product like an expansion does have some negatives as well as positives. When you do an expansion, you split the playerbase between those who have it and those that don’t, which means that the expansion can only have a very limited effect on the existing world. If the Clockwork Invasion, for example, were heavily extended and developed further into a full expansion back, for example, none of the invasions could take place in existing zones, because people in those zones might not have the expansion pack. Or else they’d have to cook up some off-the-wall solution, like forking zones between “with expansion” and “without expansion” versions, which still splits the players without pushing people to repopulate older, emptier zones. (Which a lot of the Living World releases encourage.)

Another disadvantage is the lack of flexibility. If you develop an expansion pack for a game, you’re limiting your ability to react to changes in the community, much less things you’ve done before. The Living Story, for example, has substantially fewer “talking heads” cutscenes than the Personal Story does, and that’s because the Living Story team, having decided that particular cut scene system was too distracting, decided to change it up. If we had an expansion already, it would probably be running off the same ideas and assumptions that the base game itself is.

People generally don’t seem to like Trahearne. I think it’s safe to say that, if they did an expansion without waiting to see what the reception to the base game storyline was, we’d probably be seeing a lot more of him. Maybe not, but my point is that the Living Story model is a lot more flexible than an expansion model, because you don’t have to develop tons of content at once and then release it in an expansion pack; if one Living Story release flops or the team learns something from its execution, they can apply those lessons. Maybe not in the next month, because these things take some time to change and test, but certainly a couple releases down the road, which is enormously more flexible than an expansion pack.

Redenaz.8631:

While I’d be up for an expansion, I think it’s worth noting that selling a large, bundled product like an expansion does have some negatives as well as positives. When you do an expansion, you split the playerbase between those who have it and those that don’t, which means that the expansion can only have a very limited effect on the existing world…

This ^

If such an expansion were released (and assuming it was interesting enough and not just repackaged LS), I’d buy it; but there is a VERY real risk of the split occurring and a significant portion of your folks without the expansion simply leaving.

Honestly, I think they want to try and push an expansion level of content through the Living Story because it would actually cost them a LOT less money to do so.

Producing, manufacturing, and shipping a DVD set, while not ridiculously expensive, isn’t exactly cheap either. If they can produce that sort of content via direct download for a fraction of the cost… I mean… it’s worth a shot.

xephire.8324:

expansion=new maps,more heart quest,more dynamic events,more npcs,new tier of armors added,more time gated crafting,more vistas and poi.

You have a point there. I Anet will make an expansion soon.

Here’s something you have to remember, Anet didn’t release Factions until 2 years after Prophecies and it took them 1 year to release the Stone Summit patch. It wasn’t until after the success of the Stone Summit patch that hey decided to finish up Factions for release. When they announce Factions they also announced that they’d be doing a Standalone every 6 months for GW. We ended up getting Nightfall 6 months after Factions and EotN a year after. Then Anet announced GW2 and here we are.

I find it amusing how the players here CLAIM they want GW2 to be different from other MMOs… yet on this very forum I see:

- Cries for a traditional “expansion” model.

- Instanced “raid” content.

- Hard modes.

- Tank/DPS/Healer trinity

It sure doesn’t sound like you all really want things to be all that different after all.

xephire.8324:

expansion=new maps,more heart quest,more dynamic events,more npcs,new tier of armors added,more time gated crafting,more vistas and poi.

If Anet does an expansion like they did with GW, it’ll be a whole new area(Elona most likely) and a stand-alone game that can be linked to GW2 like Factions and Nightfall were to Prophecies. There is still probably 35-50% of the current map that can be used for LS and maybe even just free content like we got with Southsun.

Galphar.3901:

xephire.8324:

expansion=new maps,more heart quest,more dynamic events,more npcs,new tier of armors added,more time gated crafting,more vistas and poi.

If Anet does an expansion like they did with GW, it’ll be a whole new area(Elona most likely) and a stand-alone game that can be linked to GW2 like Factions and Nightfall were to Prophecies. There is still probably 35-50% of the current map that can be used for LS and maybe even just free content like we got with Southsun.

Lol I wish Cantha and Elona will be released soon either through an expansion or LS updates.

Think of it this way:

They now have 4 teams doing Living story that rotate.

Atm, we are in the holiday months (oh! and the 1yr anniversary of Southsun Patch! We gotta remember that!) where they can basically play catch up and get content done ahead of time since the holidays were basically done last year. I believe colin said something like that since that content was already done.

The oct 15th patch is most likely just class buffs / nerfs with mad king being activated.

The next three updates afterwards will probably deal with ascended armor, crafting precursors, and the new legendary (my money is on a back piece), with a 1 and maybe 2 LS updates. Then its winter.

So really, everyone will probably start putting their hopes on Jan 7 (or 14) for anything considered “Big”.

The players they’ve lost won’t come back for an expansion.
The new players they get can’t even keep up with the new content.

Ahlen.7591:

Any expansion they release will probably sell pretty well tbh.

Don’t listen to the forums, typical whiny vocal minority really. Expansion would bring back players as well.

Considering how much entertainment/content you get for the price, it’s a pretty great return.

You seem to sound like a Dictator, “Don’t listen to the forums, typical whiny vocal minority really” in agreement with what Only you want to say.
.
Without “whinny vocal minority”, gw2 wouldn’t been released in beta.. unfortunately at this gw2 feel so much like it; lagss, crashes, freezes, unbalance class mechanics, etc…

also without “whinny vocal minority”, Arena.net wouldn’t Never released forums at all.

To your standards, they should been Dictators of Dictating their own vocal majority; their Self of what need to be said and done.

Am i getting this right or wrong?

In answering the Op, without Arena.net fixing the core problems with this game, releasing any expansions will only drive them further ‘down the pit’

For all it’s worth, GW2 still feels like it’s a beta game. Sure they’ve fixed a few bugs and problems, but the major problems, those that deal with content, progression, and pretty much everything else, still exist.

I’m beginning to think the people who actually say the game is “perfect” or “best MMO ever” or anything like that are quickly becoming the minority.

An expansion. I personally believe an expansion would be the same kitten as we have now with nothing new except areas and maybe a few 180s utility skills thrown into the mix to make it look like it’s worth buying. ANet devs are too busy rehashing old LS content into new ones and making more kittenty wings to give to the players who like to be quelled by rewards to worry about an expansion right now. Their gem shop makes them enough off of the kittening kittens that buy everything every 2 weeks.

In other words, they don’t have a reason to look towards an expansion as long as the easily disillusioned keep thinking the content every 2 weeks is considered new and will keep buying gems upon gems to get the worthless junk on the shop.

Galphar.3901:

Here’s something you have to remember, Anet didn’t release Factions until 2 years after Prophecies and it took them 1 year to release the Stone Summit patch. It wasn’t until after the success of the Stone Summit patch that hey decided to finish up Factions for release. When they announce Factions they also announced that they’d be doing a Standalone every 6 months for GW. We ended up getting Nightfall 6 months after Factions and EotN a year after. Then Anet announced GW2 and here we are.

Umm what?

Factions was released exactly one year after Prophecies. Guild Wars: Prophecies was released on April 28th, of 2005. While Guild Wars: Factions was released on April 28th, of 2006. The Stone Summit (or Sorrow’s Furnace) was released on September 7th, of 2005. Six months after Guild Wars’ initial release.

And Factions wasn’t even an expansion. It was an entirely new Campaign like Prophecies. Basically a whole new game. Released within a year.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

Galphar.3901:

Here’s something you have to remember, Anet didn’t release Factions until 2 years after Prophecies and it took them 1 year to release the Stone Summit patch. It wasn’t until after the success of the Stone Summit patch that hey decided to finish up Factions for release. When they announce Factions they also announced that they’d be doing a Standalone every 6 months for GW. We ended up getting Nightfall 6 months after Factions and EotN a year after. Then Anet announced GW2 and here we are.

Umm what?

Factions was released exactly one year after Prophecies. Guild Wars: Prophecies was released on April 28th, of 2005. While Guild Wars: Factions was released on April 28th, of 2006. The Stone Summit (or Sorrow’s Furnace) was released on September 7th, of 2005. Six months after Guild Wars’ initial release.

And Factions wasn’t even an expansion. It was an entirely new Campaign like Prophecies. Basically a whole new game. Released within a year.

And Guild Wars 2 had more content at launch than Factions and Prophecies put together.

Everyone knows the game launched too early. They spent the first year getting it to where it is now, which is playable. This project is so much bigger and more ambitious than Guild Wars 1, you might as well not try to compare.

50 devs vs 300. 25 missions in Prophecies and 13 missions in Factions compared to how many personal stories?

How many starting zones in the two games.

Hell people finished Factions in 1 week and complained there was nothing to do. One week!

Whinestorm will persist on forumland despite of releasing an expansion.

Vayne.8563:

SpyderArachnid.5619:

Galphar.3901:

Here’s something you have to remember, Anet didn’t release Factions until 2 years after Prophecies and it took them 1 year to release the Stone Summit patch. It wasn’t until after the success of the Stone Summit patch that hey decided to finish up Factions for release. When they announce Factions they also announced that they’d be doing a Standalone every 6 months for GW. We ended up getting Nightfall 6 months after Factions and EotN a year after. Then Anet announced GW2 and here we are.

Umm what?

Factions was released exactly one year after Prophecies. Guild Wars: Prophecies was released on April 28th, of 2005. While Guild Wars: Factions was released on April 28th, of 2006. The Stone Summit (or Sorrow’s Furnace) was released on September 7th, of 2005. Six months after Guild Wars’ initial release.

And Factions wasn’t even an expansion. It was an entirely new Campaign like Prophecies. Basically a whole new game. Released within a year.

And Guild Wars 2 had more content at launch than Factions and Prophecies put together.

Everyone knows the game launched too early. They spent the first year getting it to where it is now, which is playable. This project is so much bigger and more ambitious than Guild Wars 1, you might as well not try to compare.

50 devs vs 300. 25 missions in Prophecies and 13 missions in Factions compared to how many personal stories?

How many starting zones in the two games.

Hell people finished Factions in 1 week and complained there was nothing to do. One week!

All that ambition died 2 months after release. At this point, they could have just added jumping to Guild Wars and put in 5 years of work on Utopia and everyone would be happier.

And if you want to get into it, Guild Wars had way more content than GW2 does. The reason it doesn’t seem that way is because of the instancing. But trust me, GW is bigger, had way more options, and way more content than GW2 does at this point in time.

Edit: Spelling errors.

Vayne.8563:

SpyderArachnid.5619:

Galphar.3901:

Here’s something you have to remember, Anet didn’t release Factions until 2 years after Prophecies and it took them 1 year to release the Stone Summit patch. It wasn’t until after the success of the Stone Summit patch that hey decided to finish up Factions for release. When they announce Factions they also announced that they’d be doing a Standalone every 6 months for GW. We ended up getting Nightfall 6 months after Factions and EotN a year after. Then Anet announced GW2 and here we are.

Umm what?

Factions was released exactly one year after Prophecies. Guild Wars: Prophecies was released on April 28th, of 2005. While Guild Wars: Factions was released on April 28th, of 2006. The Stone Summit (or Sorrow’s Furnace) was released on September 7th, of 2005. Six months after Guild Wars’ initial release.

And Factions wasn’t even an expansion. It was an entirely new Campaign like Prophecies. Basically a whole new game. Released within a year.

And Guild Wars 2 had more content at launch than Factions and Prophecies put together.

Everyone knows the game launched too early. They spent the first year getting it to where it is now, which is playable. This project is so much bigger and more ambitious than Guild Wars 1, you might as well not try to compare.

50 devs vs 300. 25 missions in Prophecies and 13 missions in Factions compared to how many personal stories?

How many starting zones in the two games.

Hell people finished Factions in 1 week and complained there was nothing to do. One week!

I wasn’t comparing anything. I was just making some corrections to the quoted post.

If you want to get into it though, GW2 didn’t have more content at launch than Factions and Prophecies put together. GW2 doesn’t even have the full Kryta map that we can explore. GW1 had the full Kryta map, and combining that with Factions, we even had an entirely new map for Cantha. We had two personal stories with Prophecies and Cantha, while we only have one short story for GW2. We had tons of quests in GW1 (Prophecies and Cantha), while we have less Dynamic Events in GW2, and even less Hearts in GW2 compared to that.

Heck, we even had more PvP options in GW1 (Prophecies and Cantha) than we do in GW2 right now. We had way more skill choices in Prophecies and Cantha than we did in GW2 at launch. We even had more armor and weapon choices than we do in GW2.

So sorry, but content wise, Prophecies and Cantha greatly outweigh GW2 when it launched. And people “finished” GW2 in a few days. So not much comparison there.

Vayne.8563:

SpyderArachnid.5619:

Galphar.3901:

Here’s something you have to remember, Anet didn’t release Factions until 2 years after Prophecies and it took them 1 year to release the Stone Summit patch. It wasn’t until after the success of the Stone Summit patch that hey decided to finish up Factions for release. When they announce Factions they also announced that they’d be doing a Standalone every 6 months for GW. We ended up getting Nightfall 6 months after Factions and EotN a year after. Then Anet announced GW2 and here we are.

Umm what?

Factions was released exactly one year after Prophecies. Guild Wars: Prophecies was released on April 28th, of 2005. While Guild Wars: Factions was released on April 28th, of 2006. The Stone Summit (or Sorrow’s Furnace) was released on September 7th, of 2005. Six months after Guild Wars’ initial release.

And Factions wasn’t even an expansion. It was an entirely new Campaign like Prophecies. Basically a whole new game. Released within a year.

And Guild Wars 2 had more content at launch than Factions and Prophecies put together.

Everyone knows the game launched too early. They spent the first year getting it to where it is now, which is playable. This project is so much bigger and more ambitious than Guild Wars 1, you might as well not try to compare.

50 devs vs 300. 25 missions in Prophecies and 13 missions in Factions compared to how many personal stories?

How many starting zones in the two games.

Hell people finished Factions in 1 week and complained there was nothing to do. One week!

Uhm, I actually finished the story-line in Factions in 12 hrs with my Prophecies Ranger. That didn’t mean I was left with nothing to do, I still had the Assassin and Ritualist professions to level and take to Prophecies. Not to mention 3 other 20s to bring over to Cantha. Oh, and then there was Anet moving all PvP except GvG to the Battle Isles not to mention capping all my Elites on each character. When you compare all that including the replayability of GW, GW had much more content than what GW2 has.

Now I’m not saying we need an expansion, what we need is an actual GW2 not WoW in Tyria.

No…I think the expansion would sell really well…

It would also cause more new people to jump aboard, ie…get the original GW2 + Expansion.

If they released a bundle with GW2+expansion, plus expansion on its own for everyone who also had original they would sell the most…

Current sales are between 3m to 4m, a expansion would sell 2m to 3m at least and a bundle of GW2+expansion would sell 1m+, those would be new players.

It would after be same level of quality as original game and joined up, not like the living story is now, all over the place and a bit of a mess…

The simple answer is that they don’t know. In a recent interview they said they haven’t decided -yet- if they will release expansions with boxes or within the LS. The LS we get now is not considered an expansion-like content, even by the devs themselves.

I say, for the good of the game, the community, for everyone involved, they should make up their minds and decide. Boxed Expansion or through the LS, it’s their decision, probably of the higher ups, and it must be made so we stop getting filler content and start getting something big.

Expansions would make it harder for people to return to the game from a layoff (if they’ve missed an expansion) — this goes against the F2P/easy to pickup after quitting principle.

Besides, with such quality content coming out of the Living Stories, why would we need expansions?

Assyrian.4827:

Why I’m asking this is because GW2 is more than ready for an expansion and really need one.
I think Anet is afraid that the expansion will not sell. my opinion is based on the negative posts about GW2 and the number of players still playing they have the numbers.
GW2 will be tested by its own expansion or by the release of new MMOs.
are they afraid to test GW2?

I believe due to MMO inflation in competition on the market in the upcoming year from new hyped MMOs, Anet aka NCSoft are waiting to release X-pacs near the release of these new MMOs to pull back leaving members.

Although I am peeved about the state of the game currently and ESPECIALLY Mike Z’s response about the manifesto at Eurogamer (or really, lack of response), I would STUPIDLY still buy an expansion, and I know my wayward guild would aswell, but as soon as we’d done all the content we’d head off to whatever we were doing

Vayne.8563:

SpyderArachnid.5619:

Galphar.3901:

Here’s something you have to remember, Anet didn’t release Factions until 2 years after Prophecies and it took them 1 year to release the Stone Summit patch. It wasn’t until after the success of the Stone Summit patch that hey decided to finish up Factions for release. When they announce Factions they also announced that they’d be doing a Standalone every 6 months for GW. We ended up getting Nightfall 6 months after Factions and EotN a year after. Then Anet announced GW2 and here we are.

Umm what?

Factions was released exactly one year after Prophecies. Guild Wars: Prophecies was released on April 28th, of 2005. While Guild Wars: Factions was released on April 28th, of 2006. The Stone Summit (or Sorrow’s Furnace) was released on September 7th, of 2005. Six months after Guild Wars’ initial release.

And Factions wasn’t even an expansion. It was an entirely new Campaign like Prophecies. Basically a whole new game. Released within a year.

And Guild Wars 2 had more content at launch than Factions and Prophecies put together.

Everyone knows the game launched too early. They spent the first year getting it to where it is now, which is playable. This project is so much bigger and more ambitious than Guild Wars 1, you might as well not try to compare.

50 devs vs 300. 25 missions in Prophecies and 13 missions in Factions compared to how many personal stories?

How many starting zones in the two games.

Hell people finished Factions in 1 week and complained there was nothing to do. One week!

And how much copy paste content, empty zones that lack purpose, living story quests that you never do. I stopped at lvl 40 or 50 because after that the game feels like resident evil. You also have no dynamic dialog, which really devours the rpg value of the personal story. It doesn’t feel very personal.
Oh and how many pvp modes*? And how much grindy, trivial but time gated “carrot on a stick” noncontent?
It’s a good game but I feel that if certain bad ideas would have been scrapped, the game would be a lot more enjoyable.

*Propechies + factions = (ta / ra), gvg, ha + fa + ab + jq which is 6. Gw2 has 2 modes.

chemiclord.3978:

I find it amusing how the players here CLAIM they want GW2 to be different from other MMOs… yet on this very forum I see:

- Cries for a traditional “expansion” model.

- Instanced “raid” content.

- Hard modes.

- Tank/DPS/Healer trinity

It sure doesn’t sound like you all really want things to be all that different after all.

Good thing the forums is one person and their opinion amirite. It’s totally not a bunch of people with varying opinions.

I really doubt they’re afraid of that, given how well the game sold initially. I think they’re just hoping that the living story and gem sales can drive the game while they clean things up. There’s no point in putting out an expansion on an unpolished game unless you really need the revenue.

Tbh I don’t think people want an expansion necessarily…they just want to know where the game is headed in terms of new zones, plot lines, player/guild housing, etc… and expansions traditionally provide that structure for future development. Nobody knows what’s happening next week in this game, let alone next month or year.

Triple dog dare them. That will get them moving.

Many of the complains you see now are coming from things that are put in the game to get people to buy gems. Living story is there to have an excuse to put also temporary items in the gem-store and have people logging in. same for time-gated content.

No fun in collecting pets because they are mostly in the gem-store.

Gold driven system because them people are more likely to buy gems to convert to gold.

What do you think about an ingame barber where you can cut your hair for 15 silver.. well then they can’t sell the hair using gems.

Anet should focus on expansions as income not on gems. Then they would be able to improve the game in stead of having to make compromises to get people to buy gems.

In a way they made a ingame poll about this. Do we want a gem-store focus? The gem-store guy Evon lost the election.

So go focus on the expansions.

Then again.. while there are still many people with bad money management skills who spend many money on the gem-store because every time Anet creates a sense of urgency or whatever to get people to buy an item they can’t refuse.

xephire.8324:

Skan.5301:

xephire.8324:

expansion=new maps,more heart quest,more dynamic events,more npcs,new tier of armors added,more time gated crafting,more vistas and poi.

Throw in quaggans and I bet all the 10 – 15 and 50 – 80 year old age groups playing this game will descend upon it like a hungry lion on a limping gazelle.

+1 so true.

- 2 so untrue

If they announce an expansion, if anything, they would make more currency and it would bring back a lot of players. Introduce new playstyles for existing weapons as well as expanding on existing ones, introduce the Tengu/Largos. Introduce Northern Tyria, Cantha, and Elona. New professions… The possibilities are endless.

Nightarch.2943:

If they announce an expansion, if anything, they would make more currency and it would bring back a lot of players. Introduce new playstyles for existing weapons as well as expanding on existing ones, introduce the Tengu/Largos. Introduce Northern Tyria, Cantha, and Elona. New professions… The possibilities are endless.

They would make less off a traditional expansion. Not everyone will buy it and leave the game.

I already paid for a expansion in gems!

Onshidesigns.1069:

I already paid for a expansion in gems!

I would never give currency to a company that does not fix major issues in game after a bloody year.

xephire.8324:

Expansion=same kitten you’re getting right now.

Some things a Guild Wars 2 expansion would probably have:
– New zones
– Expanded Personal Story
– A coherent story

Some things a Guild Wars 2 expansion would possibly have:
– A new playable race

Some things the Guild Wars 2 Living Story absolutely hasn’t delivered:
– New zones
– Expanded Personal Story
– A coherent story
– A new playable race

You really think that ArenaNet, being afraid that their expansion might not sell well, decided to instead add free content to the game instead (which still costs them the same to build in terms of manpower)?

Just think about that for a second. Does your premise still make sense now?

The LS is the expansion. Instead of releasing everything in one installment they do it little by little, gradually changing the face of Tyria with more content (and eventually new zones, races, stories). That’s what they keep saying and repeating to everyone but I guess most of these posters can’t seem to wrap their head around that concept.

ThiBash.5634:

You really think that ArenaNet, being afraid that their expansion might not sell well, decided to instead add free content to the game instead (which still costs them the same to build in terms of manpower)?

Just think about that for a second. Does your premise still make sense now?

Yes I do.
GW2 has core problems and patch after patch it is getting worst (condition damage/vertical progression) it was a better game at release.
what they are giving now is not free someone is paying for it. but how many wings and bag items they are going to buy without new players that will decrease.
instead of going for more audience they decided to keep what they have now.
what we are getting from LS has nothing to do with GW2 lore. who is going to invade the next city the green pirates from Mars.

Charak.9761:

The players they’ve lost won’t come back for an expansion.
The new players they get can’t even keep up with the new content.

Wrong, most players who have left would only come back with a decent expansion. 80% of my guild stopped playing and waits for either a good new MMO or an expansion worth of content. LS only offers new content for some hours a month. This might be enjoyed by active players, but nobody who has already left really cares for this temporary mini content.

The point is: GW2 currently lacks competition. There will be some bigger titles in the next half year and GW2 will loose big chunks of players, if they don’t offer (much)more than they do now. I would buy an expansion, just to be able to play with my guildmates again for a longer period of time. I would buy another promising game for the same reason as well. I am not the only one thinking this way.