Guild Wars 2

So, another expansion is on the way. That’s going to happen. Heart of Thorns was divsive at best. The largest criticism being content-light for the price point, and now, the assumption that Anet won’t deliver advertised content.

I think it’s safe to say nobody wants a disappointment.

So, based on the following assumptions:

4 PvE Zones, 1+ collection per map

Personal Story mode of the same length as HoT

1 WvW map(it seems a safe assumption that they are now planning to rotate the WvW maps rather than remove them entirely)

2 New Guild Halls

9 New Elite Specs

1 new PvP map. I’m not really adequately qualified to make any assumptions about PvP, because I’ve honestly only played it once back within the first year. But so honestly this is an arbitrary standard just for the purpose of a basis for discussion

Mastery progression roughly equal to the effort of leveling a character to 80

1 Raid wing within 6 months

Retention of good faith on advertised features: although that doesn’t seem likely, it should go without saying that people will be disappointed in the product if Anet breaks their good faith on features

And assuming the following exclusions:

No new classes

No new Legendaries

I am going to give Arenanet the benefit of the doubt that, now let’s exclude price point at the moment, Heart of Thorns was as much content as they could handle in the timeframe of the expansions development. I honestly DO feel they worked as hard on the content we got, and they didn’t waste time making it. I was personally satisfied with the individual pieces of content we got(not speaking of the amount, just each piece as individual piece, and full disclosure, no I’m not a primary PVP/WvWer).

So based on these assumptions, plus whatever PvP content you explicitly state(since like I said, I’m really clueless about) what would you pay for this amount of content?

Also, full disclosure, I’m not buying any expansion until thy start working on the new Legendary Journeys they advertised to us for the first expansion.

I also edited in other assumptions to base the discussion on, so if your posting overlapped with my edit, please reread and edit your response appropriately. Sorry about that.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I suppose I should participate as well. I would pay $40 for that, pending the announcement they are getting back to work on the Legendary Journeys.

Ticky.5831:

Let’s help Anet make a well-priced Xpack

I would pay 20€ for their next “expansion pack”

I would pay $60 for that. More than that, I would possibly balk.

I would pay $50, or more…as I did.

I’m addicted to this game, so I have to face facts. I’ll pay whatever it costs. /shrug.

This also seems to be assuming no major new mechanics, like gliding. Masteries were, like specializations, built with growth in mind, so I expect to see similar things from those, but gliding was a pretty major feature. I use it more than anything else from HoT, including specializations, even in Central Tyria.

I don’t know what the next “gliding” will be, or whether there will be something comparable, but it was a revolutionary feature in my book.

Your placeholder expansion is also missing story length. Is it as long as HoT? Shorter? Longer? I know that’s a key feature for a lot of people, myself included.

Redenaz.8631:

This also seems to be assuming no major new mechanics, like gliding. Masteries were, like specializations, built with growth in mind, so I expect to see similar things from those, but gliding was a pretty major feature. I use it more than anything else from HoT, including specializations, even in Central Tyria.

I don’t know what the next “gliding” will be, or whether there will be something comparable, but it was a revolutionary feature in my book.

Your placeholder expansion is also missing story length. Is it as long as HoT? Shorter? Longer? I know that’s a key feature for a lot of people, myself included.

Yeah sorry, edited in the story length. I agree about gliding but I didn’t put “new feature like gliding” in under assumptions because I thinks it’s too abstract and makes for prejudicial expectations; people who liked gliding are going to pre-judge it as being as good as gliding and vice-versa, without any concrete info.

If they bring really important changes to their server architecture, make the game more optimised and use an opensource API for that (even tho that’s not goin to fix all of the problems) then I’d pay anything
If not, then $20 seems fair… but they’re charging more than that.. :/

Also edited in 2 new guild halls, and Personal Story of the same length as HoT under assumptions.

They had better resume delivery of Legendary Weapons and Precursor collections BEFORE they announce another expansion or many will not be interested.

HoT is a great xpac hope to see more like it. New zones were perhaps some of the best I have ever seen in MMO games, lots of exploration involved, many things to do. Difficulty was good, and more challenge is always welcome.

I can’t say. It would very much depend on things like what is in those zones. Zones heavily aimed at map meta events, not interested. It would also depend on the nature of specializations, and other stuff.

I’ll pay $40 and only IF they finish missing HoT features first, including the now cancelled legendaries and journeys.

Return to the play as you want key philosophy, everything is available no matter how you want/like to play. Nothing locked behind content that you don’t want to play, time gates or mini games.
Nothing like HoT again.

I believe that $20-40 is reasonable, but – I will currently not buy anything released by a.net until they complete the content I paid for in the first expansion. I also will not buy any future expansions where content is not included but promised after release.

Guild wars 2 addict so il pay whatever it costs.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I can’t say. It would very much depend on things like what is in those zones. Zones heavily aimed at map meta events, not interested. It would also depend on the nature of specializations, and other stuff.

This.

I would pay $30, and more for gemstore items related to new masteries (whatever the equivalent of glider skins happens to be).

My pricing strategy for each expansion (assuming they are of the scope mentioned in the OP) would be:

For existing players who just need the current expansion:

• $29.99 – Standard Expansion. Unlocks the current expansion. Does NOT include the core game or any previous expansions.

• $49.99 – Deluxe Expansion. Unlocks the current expansion. Also includes an exclusive outfit, mini and title themed to the expansion’s region, and a stack of 10 experience boosters. Does NOT include the core game or any previous expansions.

For new players or those who need to catch up with previous expansions:

• $59.99 – Complete Edition. Includes the Standard Edition of the current expansion, as well as the core game and all previous expansions.

• $79.99 – Deluxe Complete Edition. Includes the Deluxe Edition of the current expansion, as well as access to the core game and all previous expansions.

For those who want to kick in a little more to support ArenaNet, even beyond the Deluxe Edition:

• Purchase the Deluxe Expansion, Complete Edition or Deluxe-Complete Edition and receive a ONE TIME special offer to also buy 4,000 gems for $39.99 – a $10 savings. Discount only applies if gems are purchased at the same time as the expansion.

And for situations where you just need a single previous expansion:

• Any previous expansion may be purchased for $19.99 each.

I would by it sooner or later, depends on how much money I have at the time. $50 was a little too extreame for HoT but I pre-purchased it and I would probably do that with next expac too if the pricetag is the same. Also, games seems to be more expensive nowdays… I mean even Indie aplha games costs about $20. I dunno. I got my moneys worth with HoT, it was a great expansion in my opinion, it is how they handled the things that came after that I am a little sad about. But still the money I spent on the game has been repaid by Anet with all the ammount of entertainement they have given me.

I would pay 50 dollars for it again, no problem. I find the zones have such a high quality to them.
However, I hope more enemies are added in the maps, encountering just 2-3 modremoth minions is too easy, increase it to like 8 . Make the places feel super dangerous.

Also, I would really like that there be more armor sets included. I know ANET says they take a lot of work but it would be sweet if we got like, 10 brand new sets of each armor weight.

PvE content (Cantha?) (at least 300 hours worth) new weapons, armors and well coop dungeons, extra character slot… i’d pay 90AU

Another HoT expac and i’d pay $15AU?

No more tree people please…

Couldn’t care less about fotm, raiding or pvp of any types.

I could care less what’s in the expansion pack. I’ve yet to play any game where the number of anything mattered in terms of how fun it was. 1,000 maps can be horribly dull. 20 professions is unimpressive is 18 are underpowered or boring.

What I want is what Mike O’Brian says it’s his job to deliver: fun.

And unlike other games, GW2 is a great place for ANet to show they can do it, since they offer us feature & content updates without charging a subscription and an expansion price.

Of course, it’s not so simple since everyone has a different idea of fun. On the other hand, ANet got it right more often than not from 2012 to ~2014, so I have every hope that they’ll manage to improve upon this for 2016-2017.

tl;dr if ANet delivers exciting updates between now & the next expac, I’ll pre-order it so I can start playing Day 1. (And if they don’t, well, there’s no subscription so I’ll take breaks and not worry too much about it.) I could care less about what they say is going to be in that expac.

Ticky.5831:

So, another expansion is on the way. That’s going to happen. Heart of Thorns was divsive at best. The largest criticism being content-light for the price point, and now, the assumption that Anet won’t deliver advertised content.

If they couldn’t deliver us a “content-light” xpac there’s no way they’ll be able to implement the plethora of suggestions the forums generate. I have no faith that the next xpac will even equal HoT let alone be a fully-realised product.

StormageddonBK.9842:

Ticky.5831:

So, another expansion is on the way. That’s going to happen. Heart of Thorns was divsive at best. The largest criticism being content-light for the price point, and now, the assumption that Anet won’t deliver advertised content.

If they couldn’t deliver us a “content-light” xpac there’s no way they’ll be able to implement the plethora of suggestions the forums generate. I have no faith that the next xpac will even equal HoT let alone be a fully-realised product.

Well, this topic isn’t about generating ideas, it’s about communicating price expectations from an established baseline.

Elric Of Melnibone.4781
Wanderinlost.7964
Blude.6812
IndigoSundown.5419
Illconceived Was Na.9781

I respect that you have opinions to voice, but without a monetary value, they are completely irrelevant to the thread.

Maximus Delion.8719:

~snip – pricing schemes that don’t include the current expansion~

Speaking for myself, I would like to see expansions include all previous expansions, because I want them to build on each other. If you assume all players have access to, say, gliding, you can continue to use mechanics like that in new maps and gameplay, instead of just leaving it as a one-off mechanic that gets used in Magus Falls and nowhere else.

I’m not saying the new zones need to be littered with bouncing mushrooms, but I think there’s a benefit to knowing what people have access to, up to a point, and being able to utilize all the game mechanics they’ve added so far.

I was OK with the price of HoT – if I play a game a lot, I am happy to pay for it (within reason, obviously).

My issue was more with bad decisions – like all guild progress being made impossible for one-person guilds.

I preferred guild progress as it was pre-HoT – slower for very small guilds, but still possible.

Also, HoT is simply too “hardcore” for the average player, IMO.

Games devs should know, by now, that raiding only works, for the majority of players, if you provide a decent casual (i.e. LFR-style) version.

I don’t see why we have to sit and watch (and pay) while games companies make the same type of mistakes, over and over…?

They should be able to learn from their own (and other companies’) mistakes and not repeat them.

Rather than appearing to think they can re-invent the wheel, every few years and/or that things have drastically changed since the last time something simply didn’t work; just to, inevitably, find out they can’t and they haven’t.

Designing a game should be a logical, objective, open-minded process, based on pleasing (or not displeasing) the majority.

Not a selfish, subjective, short-sighted, prejudiced one, with individual devs implementing their own very personal visions, at the expense of the happiness of most of the people who pay for the game.

They should also learn to stop listening to the people who only want to take things away from other players.

If one of your kids asked for a new toy, you would probably listen to them and try to get that toy for them, at some point.

Whereas, if one of your kids demanded you took a toy away from his brother/sister and said that was the only way he could be happy, you not only wouldn’t do that, you would tell him off and probably ground him.

…and yet, we have to sit there and watch devs reward the second type of “kid”, in games, time after time.

That kind of behaviour makes games worth roughly $0.00 to most people, frankly.

Anet doesn’t seem to be the worst for this kind of behaviour, to be fair, but with HoT they did start wandering down that path, IMO.

There’s a good reason why games like Wildstar flop and WoW loses millions of subs when they neglect LFRers and try to remove flight.

25-30$ would have been a fair price for heart of thorns in my country.

the price i had to pay was far too high for what i got, and even higher for what i’m not getting now.

Ticky.5831:

I respect that you have opinions to voice, but without a monetary value, they are completely irrelevant to the thread.

I echoed your own statement that they need to start delivering on Legendary journeys before they start talking about another expansion pack which is one reason price is irrelevant.

The second reason is within reason price really doesn’t matter at all to me. I opted for the $100 version because I knew I would get more than my moneys worth, and even without the rest of the Legendary weapons I feel I have already got that. I was completely entertained for the last six months or so and had plenty to do. Everything they deliver from now until the next expansion will be completely free.

My issue is that I now need something worthwhile to work on (while waiting for LS3) and I started on Astralaria, but my heart is not really in it. GW2 is not as ‘fun’ as it was without the shinies to look forward to.

People only buy and play GW2 to relax and have fun and counting how many maps or elite specializations are in an expansion has no real bearing on how much FUN it will provide the purchaser. How much people are willing or ABLE to pay is highly related to their income level so I don’t see how a poll on desired price is meaningful.

For HoT, gliding and the mastery system alone provided a large amount of the fun for me with the Legendary journeys coming in as the most important long term fun.

$20. Maybe $30. That’s how much I feel HoT was worth, but I paid $50 for it. So I’m not paying more than $20, I need to get refunded on my past investment somehow.

How can we set a fair price on the next expansion when they haven’t fully delivered this one and give every indication that they’re not going to? Let them finish this one, then we’ll talk about the price of the next.

Best selling expansion ever…

Primordus, playable Dwarves and Depths of Tyria.

Source for “next expansion”?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

How can we set a fair price on the next expansion when they haven’t fully delivered this one and give every indication that they’re not going to? Let them finish this one, then we’ll talk about the price of the next.

This

Infusion.7149:

Source for “next expansion”?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

How can we set a fair price on the next expansion when they haven’t fully delivered this one and give every indication that they’re not going to? Let them finish this one, then we’ll talk about the price of the next.

This

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/state-of-the-game-update-q1-2016/

So as we transition into a future where we’ll be balancing development between the next expansion and regular updates, what will these updates look like for Guild Wars 2?

Not gonna make any demands or express how much I would pay, but, I’d want to see if I liked it before I spent money on it. If it appeals to me, well I pre-ordred their largest HT bundle, so I’d pay whatever was the best deal. Just not willing to pay for it, till I see it this time around. Hope they understand.

Guhracie.3419:

Infusion.7149:

Source for “next expansion”?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

How can we set a fair price on the next expansion when they haven’t fully delivered this one and give every indication that they’re not going to? Let them finish this one, then we’ll talk about the price of the next.

This

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/state-of-the-game-update-q1-2016/

So as we transition into a future where we’ll be balancing development between the next expansion and regular updates, what will these updates look like for Guild Wars 2?

Not sure what you’re trying to say here. These updates look like money taken from your customers for an advertised product and not delivered? Because that’s what it is until they put the Devs back on precursor crafting, and deliver this “update.”

Like I said. FIRST they deliver what was paid for THEN we can talk price.

Ticky.5831:

StormageddonBK.9842:

Ticky.5831:

So, another expansion is on the way. That’s going to happen. Heart of Thorns was divsive at best. The largest criticism being content-light for the price point, and now, the assumption that Anet won’t deliver advertised content.

If they couldn’t deliver us a “content-light” xpac there’s no way they’ll be able to implement the plethora of suggestions the forums generate. I have no faith that the next xpac will even equal HoT let alone be a fully-realised product.

Well, this topic isn’t about generating ideas, it’s about communicating price expectations from an established baseline.

Elric Of Melnibone.4781
Wanderinlost.7964
Blude.6812
IndigoSundown.5419
Illconceived Was Na.9781

I respect that you have opinions to voice, but without a monetary value, they are completely irrelevant to the thread.

You want monetary value? Since the example presented in the OP looks remarkably like HoT, and since I do not consider HoT to be a good value at any price, I would pay $0 for a similar XPac.

Oh for a Price. I’d easy drop $50 USD, and up to $90 if they tossed in a bunch of points like they did with HoT.

But, just for the base Expansion, I’m good for 49.95 for that content, if I liked what I saw. Pre-Order would never happen again at this point.

When I think Expansion I think 20-30 dollar price range. But the new business model is F2P for everything other than the latest expansion. So if they continue that business model, then new players would get core+hot+new xpac for ~30 dollars.

WHAT THEY SHOULD DO is offer the xpac to existing hot owners for $29.99 and the new people or f2p $59.99

We can go a step further and offer those who paid for core but not an updated version with xpac for $39.99

So for all xpacs and core:

F2P/New Players $59.99
Payed for Core $39.99
Payed for Hot $29.99

I’d say the price plan I proposed would stop people from raging over pricing like last time. It would draw some of those disgruntled with content and pricing back into the game.

Also, it benefits those new and old to the game. New people are getting 2 xpacs + core for $59.99 which is a great deal.

The vets are getting a 30 dollar xpac which I believe is a good price for an xpac.

This way anet continues the business model of offering the complete updated game for full price $59.99 while still offering a reasonable price to vets.

But will this make as much money, or might it make even more? I believe the delivery of the 2nd xpac and its pricing will be a crucial time for Anet. I think its possible that they could make more money by offering a cheaper solution to vets.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Guhracie.3419:

Infusion.7149:

Source for “next expansion”?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

How can we set a fair price on the next expansion when they haven’t fully delivered this one and give every indication that they’re not going to? Let them finish this one, then we’ll talk about the price of the next.

This

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/state-of-the-game-update-q1-2016/

So as we transition into a future where we’ll be balancing development between the next expansion and regular updates, what will these updates look like for Guild Wars 2?

Not sure what you’re trying to say here. These updates look like money taken from your customers for an advertised product and not delivered? Because that’s what it is until they put the Devs back on precursor crafting, and deliver this “update.”

Like I said. FIRST they deliver what was paid for THEN we can talk price.

I was responding to the original post I quoted that asked for a source that a next expansion was in the works.

Using HoT as a standard I would not be willing to spend more than 40/45 euro. But as we currently have no information on the expansion I see is no point talking about it’s price.

I will say that nothing beyond what is initially in the expansion will influence my decision to purchase. My good faith on their promise to deliver specific content after release was broken with HoT, so I will no longer listen to any future promise when deciding to purchase.

I think anywhere between $30 – $50 is reasonable for an expansion pack, depending on the features being offered. That said, ANet’s behavior has caused me to create a simple ruleset to determine my purchasing behavior:

1. All content and features must be finished at the time of my purchase. No vapor-ware features.

2. I will not pre-purchase an expansion from ANet. Not ever.

3. If the expansion includes a new profession, it must also include a character slot. Note that this character slot is not “free”; I am paying for the expansion, and it should include a character slot with my purchase. Expecting me to pay more money to purchase a character slot in order to access content I have just purchased is not acceptable to me; nor is expecting me to delete an existing character. This is a deal breaker for me.

Opinions on how EVERYTHING from hot was totally botched aside; I would pay no more than $20 for the next expansion.

I -do not care- what they SAY will be released with it. I -do not care- what they SAY will be added later with it. They’ve proven both of those can easily be lies. However, I have played gw franchise games since Nightfall so I feel obligated to buy an expansion and give them another chance if it is no more than $20. Especially considering HoT and Core game will be released with it for free to new players (unless that was a lie too); They can afford to give their older players a price break to show us they didn’t just kitten up again.

Another reason is because I’ve played more hours in other games recently that cost $15 than I played in HoT.

While it isn’t required for me, I do think it would be nice to see two pvp maps instead of one. One new stronghold map and one new conquest map.

Edit: Another option if $20 simply would not cut it; Add a trial period (even for existing players). This trial should save the progress you make too so when/if you purchase the xpac you don’t have to do everything all over again. Let people play what’s there for a limited time and THEN decide if it’s worth it.

I would expect Anet keep to the same plan they done with Heart of thorns.

base game and last expansion plus new expansion rolled into one set price

3 different price plans with bonuses

what I would like see is

: 9 new elite professions
: a new playable race (I need a good reason make another character) I vote tengu because it was in development
: a new region with either the same number of high detailed maps as HOT or at least 6-8 silver wastes quality maps
: at least 3 new weapon collections and 3 new armour collections
: a good quality story like HOT but a bit longer thou
: 1or 2 new guild halls
: at least 1 new pvp game mode with a deathmatch style gameplay 10 vs 10
: some new maps for stronghold and at least 3 maps for new game mode
: no new wvw content (don’t want get a new borderlands disaster like last time)
: new masteries
: one new gimmick ( not flight based we got gliding already) pogo sticks, surf boards, anything interesting really.
: 1 raid wing release in parts after expansion and living story to expand on the story.

Guys, you’re talking about $20 expansions, yet almost every lvl 80 player I see IG has infinite gathering tools (that I can see) and probably a salvage-o-mattic, extra bag slots, etc (I can only guess). You’re not willing to pay more than 20 or 30$ for an expansion, yet you’re willing to pay $50 per character to fix something deliberately made frustrating (25 uses salvage kits etc). You get the game and the expac you deserve I guess.

I’d gladly pay $100 for an expansion if the gemstore was GW1-like.

Sir Mad.1092:

Guys, you’re talking about $20 expansions, yet almost every lvl 80 player I see IG has infinite gathering tools (that I can see) and probably a salvage-o-mattic, extra bag slots, etc (I can only guess). You’re not willing to pay more than 20 or 30$ for an expansion, yet you’re willing to pay $50 per character to fix something deliberately made frustrating (25 uses salvage kits etc). You get the game and the expac you deserve I guess.

I’d gladly pay $100 for an expansion if the gemstore was GW1-like.

Not everyone paid $50 per toon for gathering tools etc, I earned the gold, converted to gems, got my gear.

Sir Mad.1092:

Guys, you’re talking about $20 expansions, yet almost every lvl 80 player I see IG has infinite gathering tools (that I can see) and probably a salvage-o-mattic, extra bag slots, etc (I can only guess). You’re not willing to pay more than 20 or 30$ for an expansion, yet you’re willing to pay $50 per character to fix something deliberately made frustrating (25 uses salvage kits etc). You get the game and the expac you deserve I guess.

I’d gladly pay $100 for an expansion if the gemstore was GW1-like.

infinite harvesting tools, salvage kits, etc will last me forever. The “expansion” had a few hours of content at best and has already started slashing features(which hilariously makes the new HoT content even less useful, since the whole point of the new map metas is getting currency/materials for the new legendaries). The tools are a much better investment, especially since I bought all of mine with gold. I use to spend money on Anet games, but they’ve proven time and time again that they don’t want to deliver what they promise and as this thread proves, that the devs don’t give a kitten about the players.

due to all the circumstances we as players faced since HoT arenanet delivers the expansion for free.

each player can try it out then and can freely buy a number of special expansion-gems in the gemstore based on what each player thinks the expansion is worth.

like if i think its worth 10 bucks i buy 10 expansion gems.
someone who believes its worth 50 bucks buys 50 expansion gems.
someone who thinks arenanet shall get 26 dollars enters to buy 26 expansion gems.

is arenanet self confident enough for such a project?

I think it’s funny that this entire thread is completely subjective and yet each person attempts to argue from a position of objectivity, and particularly on what Anet “should” charge for an expansion.

They are going to charge $49.99 for the next expansion, with higher prices for extra stuff. There won’t be a “$20 version”.

Why? Because that’s how much those things sell for – or do you not live in the real world?