Guild Wars 2

To do not build a classic expansion would be a mistake.

Its the best way to go for marketing and psychologic.

By the way, you would be sure to get cash fo the company.

Bring us challenge, a little more trinity, less dps and zerking (it kills the game) and more interest to craft.

Be careful, your game is good but players are too much volatile compared to gw1, because the gw2 fundation is not perfect.

I seriously refuse to believe that if Cantha or Elona continents would be introduced in this game, (and i strongly hope so), that they decide to give them to us like in pieces!!… a huge Jigsaw puzzle!!!!
That will take like…forever!!!!
Personally, I’m not willing to wait for that at all!!
(Sorry for my bad English).

Traditional expansions are worth waiting for. That’s an entire map of content and it needs a lot of time to be dreamed up, created, and tested to make sure everything goes well. And it’s not just the map and events, it’s possibly new weapons, armor, skills, maybe even new races and professions. When you start a new expansion, you are overwhelmed, but in an awesome way. It’s like “Holy cow, there’s so much to explore and do, but I can completely relax and enjoy it, because it’s here to stay!” I’m willing to wait years for an expansion, because I want the creators to take their time to make wonderful, permanent content without rushing it. All of the impatient players should understand that this is how great games are made. If by chance, an expansion is currently being worked on or is going to be in the future, I implore you, take all the time you need, and take pride in making it really awesome! (Also, please please please let it be Cantha! :big puppy eyes:)

I’m sure I’m not the only player who is willing to wait for big expansions. But I know some people are really impatient, and I do not understand that, because how can they expect to get great new game content if there’s not enough time to work on it? If living story-sized updates replaced an expansion, there wouldn’t be nearly enough time to adequately work on everything, and to allow for possible problems. What fun would it be to play one tiny chunk of map at a time? I like the freedom to roam haphazardly about the map in my explorations. Also, I’m not a big fan of the living story; I prefer the more traditional lore and permanent content that goes with a big expansion. That If-I-walk-all-the-way-to-the-horizon-what-will-I-find-beyond-there-feeling. And, you know, dragons. Cause dragons are freaking awesome! But I could tolerate the living story as long as Cantha and Elona return as big expansions someday. I’ll be sitting here, patiently waiting, saving up my money for a possible collector’s edition version, and daydreaming about what the rest of Tyria will be like. If it happens, I would be as happy as a skritt with the shiniest shiny.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Pacifica.9576:

Can we take this statement to mean that no “expansion” content has been worked on? Since I assume you’d have to know the method before you developed it all

We’ve said this before, so it shouldn’t be a spoiler, but it’s clear that the message hasn’t totally gotten out there yet:

For the past year, we’ve had some larger projects going on in the background we haven’t discussed yet. Our major focus however has been on making the core Gw2 live game as solid as possible, details of what’s coming still to address that core game experience can be found here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/looking-ahead-guild-wars-2-in-2013/
For the projects cooking in the background, we’ll go into more detail on those in the future.

Thanks for the response Colin, I feel reassured : )

I am actually scared how long can this game survive without expansion? Sure, currently there are still many players and newbies are comming, but what will the situation be in 2 or 3 years? Will they still have money to run servers and make a profit as well?

It seems to be more a question of comfort zones. The method used by most games is to work on larger projects while the customers devour the just released content. This has drawbacks since people go through content much much faster than it can be created. ANET wants to twist this a little and people freak out. They even say ‘yes we are working on large things to consume’ and people still freak out.
There is also the tendency for people to see you can have something in a big lump or several smaller lumps that add up to the same thing as to take the big lump such as large lottery jackpot winners. What happens is that the money is burned through faster than you could believe possible. I remember seeing George Foreman on a talk show explaining how he went bankrupt and how he solved it. Basically he set up a corporation and had himself paid on a regular basis rather than having direct access to the money.

Let’s be honest… I don’t think anyone can honestly expect 2 years of living story to match the scale of an expansion… just a quick comparison to WoW’s first expansion at the 2 year mark:

2 new races
11 new zones
A new PvP mode and 4 PvP maps
A new crafting profession
Increased level cap with new traits, skills, abilities, etc.
16 full dungeons with both normal and hard modes (32 total)
9 Raids (there isn’t even a GW2 equivalent to this….)
Hundreds and hundreds of quests, many of which were varied and exciting
A full story with TONS of lore
14 new reputations to earn with full associated rewards
35 armor sets
There’s more but this is getting embarrassing so i’ll stop.

As opposed to GW2 living story:
smash 10000000 pinatas
smash 10000000 holo things
ride a balloon
Join a zerg for some reason
…

It is pretty laughable to even attempt to go on. The 3 dungeons we’ve gotten so far could all fit inside the first half of a WoW dungeon, and would all be considered mechanicless tank and spank fights except for the aetherblade ones.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

ride a balloon

A balloon ride would have been cool, but we didn’t get to ride in a balloon. The game just told us we were riding in a balloon. We didn’t even get a cutscene showing us riding in a balloon. An actual balloon ride would probably have been too much like riding a mount. And we know how much anet hates mounts. Except for the concept artists…

SWTOR had a balloon ride. It was slow and boring and as buggy as any buggy content ever released into the wilds of GW2, but gosh darn it, they had it.

Here, though – hey, press F for a balloon ride to Divinity’s Reach! It’ll happen so fast you won’t even know it happened!

That’s what it’s like, living in a Living World.

We’ve gotten an expansion’s worth of content in all the updates already…what’s the problem?

No Walking.6349:

We’ve gotten an expansion’s worth of content in all the updates already…what’s the problem?

You and I must have very different notions on what constitutes an MMORPG expansion.

I don’t think it’s terribly productive to compare this game with WoW all the time. There are a million reasons ANet don’t want to ape WoW (and they’ve done a kitten good job, imo).

Let’s talk in terms of GW2, not GW2-vs-WoW.

Now, Colin’s told us that there are bigger projects going on in the background, and the LS is in its infant days, to be sure. It could very well ratchet up and give us bigger releases; maybe even new zones, and work on the campaign against the dragons. It could even take us into Elona or Cantha.

But a year contains 24 LS releases, if they remain bi-weekly. Two years would give us 48. Can you imagine the same scale of content in 24, or even 48, LS releases? I can’t imagine us getting the same experience of a continent, or a new dragon, or new areas to explore.

As I’ve said before, the LS has given us really great stuff; I am one of those who is consistently enjoying it. I simply doubt the mode of delivery for anything on the same scale. It would be piecemeal; it would take forever; and it would never have the same feeling. A zone would be released, and be swamped in the first day or so. The LS seems better suited to enriching the world that exists, not significantly expanding it.

Tachenon.5270:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

ride a balloon

A balloon ride would have been cool, but we didn’t get to ride in a balloon. The game just told us we were riding in a balloon. We didn’t even get a cutscene showing us riding in a balloon. An actual balloon ride would probably have been too much like riding a mount. And we know how much anet hates mounts. Except for the concept artists…

SWTOR had a balloon ride. It was slow and boring and as buggy as any buggy content ever released into the wilds of GW2, but gosh darn it, they had it.

Here, though – hey, press F for a balloon ride to Divinity’s Reach! It’ll happen so fast you won’t even know it happened!

That’s what it’s like, living in a Living World.

The problem is, do you really want that? They could take every waypoint off the map and make you use airships which come and go every hour, and trips between Orr and DR takes a hour. Everyone would hate it to bits.

Neilos Tyrhanos.5427:

Now, Colin’s told us that there are bigger projects going on in the background, and the LS is in its infant days, to be sure. It could very well ratchet up and give us bigger releases; maybe even new zones, and work on the campaign against the dragons. It could even take us into Elona or Cantha.

A lot of people keep bringing this up, and it’s certainly not untrue that he said as much. But there’s only so many times you want to hear your waiter to tell you the chef is still preparing your steak when you’re hungry for a substantive meal. This is particularly if you’re getting tired of eating the complementary bread.

darkace.8925:

A lot of people keep bringing this up, and it’s certainly not untrue that he said as much. But there’s only so many times you want to hear your waiter to tell you the chef is still preparing your steak when you’re hungry for a substantive meal. This is particularly if you’re getting tired of eating the complementary bread.

It’s true; I can see why people feel this way.

Personally, at this point in time I’m still satisfied with the content there is, but only if I know there are big releases coming. And, I find it harder to be excited for years of LS releases than I do about an expansion; I can’t see the world growing on the same level.

I think we’re probably both in the same boat with regards to what we want, though.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Tachenon.5270:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

ride a balloon

A balloon ride would have been cool, but we didn’t get to ride in a balloon. The game just told us we were riding in a balloon. We didn’t even get a cutscene showing us riding in a balloon. An actual balloon ride would probably have been too much like riding a mount. And we know how much anet hates mounts. Except for the concept artists…

SWTOR had a balloon ride. It was slow and boring and as buggy as any buggy content ever released into the wilds of GW2, but gosh darn it, they had it.

Here, though – hey, press F for a balloon ride to Divinity’s Reach! It’ll happen so fast you won’t even know it happened!

That’s what it’s like, living in a Living World.

The problem is, do you really want that? They could take every waypoint off the map and make you use airships which come and go every hour, and trips between Orr and DR takes a hour. Everyone would hate it to bits.

No, I don’t want that all the time. But for the event – hell yeah. If they say “Hey, take a balloon ride!” there ought to be a balloon ride.

Vol.5241:

darkace.8925:

Vol.5241:

But I’m sure they would be able to present as such.

A quick analogy I can think of:
Expansion = Movie
Living Story = Mini-series

Now consider the production values of a mini-series vs that of a blockbuster movie.

Well you can go compare Saving Private Ryan with Band of Brothers, both of which are highly acclaimed.

.

LS is more like twilight, loved by some, hated by more.

Vayne.8563:

Right, that’s what I’m saying…because that’s what Anet has said.

And I’m saying that when Anet says something it’s not written in stone, because they can just as easily make a 180 and say well, we didn’t actually say never and circumstances are different now blah blah blah.

Personally I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next two years we suddenly see an expansion bringing Cantha, simply because they said it’s unlikely to happen.

This would make me very sad :/ To be honest, I would probably quit if this was the case.

The thought occurs, could budget be the reason for no expansion? The real world economy is still not doing good, even Blizzard is going back to the drawing board for their mmo Titan. ESO will have a sub and mt’s. Guess they aren’t sure what is going to work.

If they do an expansion they must write it, hire voice talent, etc.. if the people I have talked to are like most, hardly any of them have spent any real money in game. They play for free and that is why they are here. I have a feeling that is how most players view the game. The players that gush over the game and say how wonderful it is might not feel the same is Anet dropped MT’s and added a monthly subscription (don’t start foaming at the mouth they won’t add one).

Upon further reflection they, (Anet) seem to be the most excited about the way the game is headed. Seems in game and here, most are worried and losing interest. I have said it before, Anet, make the game we want to play, not the game you want to play. Unless pesky things like profit and ROI are not important.

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

The thought occurs, could budget be the reason for no expansion? The real world economy is still not doing good, even Blizzard is going back to the drawing board for their mmo Titan. ESO will have a sub and mt’s. Guess they aren’t sure what is going to work.

If they do an expansion they must write it, hire voice talent, etc.. if the people I have talked to are like most, hardly any of them have spent any real money in game. They play for free and that is why they are here. I have a feeling that is how most players view the game. The players that gush over the game and say how wonderful it is might not feel the same is Anet dropped MT’s and added a monthly subscription (don’t start foaming at the mouth they won’t add one).

Upon further reflection they, (Anet) seem to be the most excited about the way the game is headed. Seems in game and here, most are worried and losing interest. I have said it before, Anet, make the game we want to play, not the game you want to play. Unless pesky things like profit and ROI are not important.

I think that could be a reason. That’s why I don’t expect any expansions before the China release. If China does well, they’ll rake in a bunch of cash. That might give them options they can’t consider right now.

My guess is that if China does well and the Chinese start crying for an expansion, there will be one.

Gehenna.3625:

Vayne.8563:

Right, that’s what I’m saying…because that’s what Anet has said.

And I’m saying that when Anet says something it’s not written in stone, because they can just as easily make a 180 and say well, we didn’t actually say never and circumstances are different now blah blah blah.

Personally I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next two years we suddenly see an expansion bringing Cantha, simply because they said it’s unlikely to happen.

I’m not saying they’re not going to bring Cantha in. I fully expect Cantha and Elona. I’m saying it’ll be an expansion, not a full game like they did with the first Guild Wars.

The reason they gave for saying it makes as much sense now as it did back then. When and if they come out with an expansion, it will be a true expansion, not a stand alone product.

Vayne.8563:

Gehenna.3625:

Vayne.8563:

Right, that’s what I’m saying…because that’s what Anet has said.

And I’m saying that when Anet says something it’s not written in stone, because they can just as easily make a 180 and say well, we didn’t actually say never and circumstances are different now blah blah blah.

Personally I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next two years we suddenly see an expansion bringing Cantha, simply because they said it’s unlikely to happen.

I’m not saying they’re not going to bring Cantha in. I fully expect Cantha and Elona. I’m saying it’ll be an expansion, not a full game like they did with the first Guild Wars.

The reason they gave for saying it makes as much sense now as it did back then. When and if they come out with an expansion, it will be a true expansion, not a stand alone product.

Ahh yeah, that I doubt as well. The stand alone thing was a way to get people to buy the new part without having to buy the original. Still, I do think that if they bring out Cantha or something, they will probably give some deal to include the original game. People generally don’t wanna spend 100 bucks to start a game.

I thought for the longest time that it loses it’s “Christmas morning” effect; however, with the recent two updates that they’ve withheld information from the public (and more importantly, Dulfy, until days after the release) it’s had somewhat of a return with that effect.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Let’s be honest… I don’t think anyone can honestly expect 2 years of living story to match the scale of an expansion… just a quick comparison to WoW’s first expansion at the 2 year mark:

2 new races
11 new zones
A new PvP mode and 4 PvP maps
A new crafting profession
Increased level cap with new traits, skills, abilities, etc.
16 full dungeons with both normal and hard modes (32 total)
9 Raids (there isn’t even a GW2 equivalent to this….)
Hundreds and hundreds of quests, many of which were varied and exciting
A full story with TONS of lore
14 new reputations to earn with full associated rewards
35 armor sets
There’s more but this is getting embarrassing so i’ll stop.

As opposed to GW2 living story:
smash 10000000 pinatas
smash 10000000 holo things
ride a balloon
Join a zerg for some reason
…

It is pretty laughable to even attempt to go on. The 3 dungeons we’ve gotten so far could all fit inside the first half of a WoW dungeon, and would all be considered mechanicless tank and spank fights except for the aetherblade ones.

Do NOT forget , that we are getting this Content of the living Story for FREE , we do not have too Pay, like for one Expansion. And it just started about 1 year ago ,we have 1 full Year in front of us too Compare it with the WoW first Update that you had too pay 24 Months Sub + Expansion = about 390€ in total for the first 2 Years (15€ every Month +30€ Expansion).

I’d like a poll on this, but in my opinion I would prefer to have an expansion, however, like another post I had written, I can see how a living story release could be viable. Similar to the GW1 winds of change/war in kryta storylines but the quality and cohesion of those releases would have to be vamped up greatly in comparison to the current living world updates.

Contents of Traditional Expansions:
(correct me if I am wrong)

(-) New PvE Maps and events (exploration dimension)
(-) New character levels / gear levels
(-) New races
(-) New classes
(-) New weapons for existing classes
(-) New skills for existing classes
(-) New PvP content (e.g. game modes)
(-) New WvW content
(-) New event types/structures
(-) New plotline the player has full access to whenever he wants to complete it at his own pace
(-) New content for coordinated PvE groups (endgame for lack of a better word)
(-) New types of endgame activities (not including asking the player to transfer to another mode of playing, such as PvP or WvW).
(-) New visual stylings

After one year of GW2, you can see that while the traditional expansion statement still stands, the expectation it creates is not met; creating threads such as this one.

Looking at what the living story does, I get the impression, it is mainly filler material, with experimental stuff thrown in. You could not sell this, if you wanted. The living story is certainly a welcome addition and far from being as negative as some make it out to be. But it does have a mission, which is player retention at economic costs and not handing out a free expansion. Living story will never stand up to any expansion, it does not even stand up to DLC from games such as Borderlands 2. Because living story is free and there isn’t pressure on the developer for it to be good enough to sell. Sometimes a living story update adds something which was promised before release, or tries to bring something to the game that did not work out that well, e.g Fractals trying to fix dungeons.

Particularly the lack of new areas, races, classes, weapons, skills, and traits shows that the living story is not to be mistaken for an expansion. We might find the things we find in the living story be part of an expansion, but only a little part and not the part that makes us fork over $50.

Lance Darkrage.1398:

I’d like a poll on this, but in my opinion I would prefer to have an expansion, however, like another post I had written, I can see how a living story release could be viable. Similar to the GW1 winds of change/war in kryta storylines but the quality and cohesion of those releases would have to be vamped up greatly in comparison to the current living world updates.

War in Kryta & Winds of Change were great fun, brilliant for free content, but they only gave us more stuff to do in the existing world. They did not grow the world. The LS is the same, I feel.

@Neilos – Right, they would certainly have to expand the map and world of course, as of yet it has indeed been mostly self contained, but I can see how it could be applied to expansionary content, almost episodic. Such as every couple of weeks with an Elona campaign release a new zone including missions, events, etc… were added as the story moved through towards the objective. Like the way we moved through GW1 campaigns through zones and missions. However this would be time gated due to a release schedule. I can see how it would be cool to episodically follow a main storyline like nightfall through missions every 2 weeks. One release we follow the story arch of the invasion of Kourna, next the recovery of Koss, the treaty and saving of centaurs, asking for the aid of Vabbi, etc… This could be followed by several sub storylines and growing characters like a normal campaign. I’m sorry if I’m not quite explaining it clearly, but that’s my vein of thinking.

Honestly if you don’t pay attention to the lore than you don’t really give two kittens about this game.

If you don’t like where the story is going tell the devs! The way it is being presented is fine IMO.

More than half of you only do LS for the achievement points and the get rich quick schemes…. None of you actually care about story.

Some feedback on the living story & updates:

IMO these living story updates aren’t very ‘living’, all the NPC’s forgets who you are and that you’ve met before. There’s so much room for improvements if they weren’t rushed and released so tightly one after another.

In this update for example, fending off the invasion forces threatening the whole region and its inhabitants/NPC’s doesn’t care, they’ll fight you (the heroes) together with the robotic invaders whom are trashing their places, I mean just spawning then standing there doing nothing till you zerg them.

There could’ve been some dialogues & interaction with a centaur leader for example for a temporary cease fire and make them neutral in-game during the event but you can still fight them if you attack first.

Also, instead of the short stories posted on the forums which I think not many people will read anyway, how about you make some short cinematics in-game or flashbacks during a dungeon.

When I heard about Scarlets playground I imagined it’d be a new place like a house with traps/wacky stuff in DR or something but nope, it’s the pavilion. That’s fine though, I shouldn’t have high expectations.

More development time and quality over skin cash cow events mainly consisting of killing a large amount of enemies and doing a bunch of achievements.

These were my thoughts. Idk what you others think but the living story is very shallow.

Lance Darkrage.1398:

@Neilos – Right, they would certainly have to expand the map and world of course, as of yet it has indeed been mostly self contained, but I can see how it could be applied to expansionary content, almost episodic. Such as every couple of weeks with an Elona campaign release a new zone including missions, events, etc… were added as the story moved through towards the objective. Like the way we moved through GW1 campaigns through zones and missions. However this would be time gated due to a release schedule. I can see how it would be cool to episodically follow a main storyline like nightfall through missions every 2 weeks. One release we follow the story arch of the invasion of Kourna, next the recovery of Koss, the treaty and saving of centaurs, asking for the aid of Vabbi, etc… This could be followed by several sub storylines and growing characters like a normal campaign. I’m sorry if I’m not quite explaining it clearly, but that’s my vein of thinking.

There are some benefits I can see— certainly, if new zones and storyline were released in this way, we’d never be short of people to interact with.

But it would also mean we couldn’t really complete the content at our own pace. A new zone/ story chunk would be released, and would be swamped during its release. Those who played immediately would be part of the “Living Story”; those who took a month’s break from the game would have a totally different experience, and would have to “catch up” with the others if they wanted to experience it in the same way.

My main fear, though, as always, is just that it couldn’t match the scale of an expansion. There’d need to be new zones every fortnight or so. And, since I imagine that many LS releases would continue to be events, or temp dungeons, this wouldn’t be the case. Plus, I can’t see a LS release taking us to another continent— and, if it did, we couldn’t explore it at will.

There’d be no sense of large-scale exploration.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

More than half of you only do LS for the achievement points and the get rich quick schemes…. None of you actually care about story.

To be honest, I care a helluva lot about the Lore and the story in this game, just as I did in GW1.

I have problems and worries about that, too, but that’s a completely different issue.

I really don’t mind them using living story to bridge the gap between the expansions, and lead up to them. I know most people would be ok with that, but they still want a full-on expansion pack. But I also see the problems it would cause. think about it this way: If they release a whole new expansion, and did it like GW1 where it was an actual separate game you had to purchase, it would lock people out of it until they purchased the new expansion. Also, it would be difficult at best for them to continue living story in the original content while still trying to progress it in an expansion that not everyone can play right away. This poses a huge problem, and can’t simply be remedied by them making the expansion free, because then they lose out on tons of profits that would help go towards development of any new content.

So now we’re back to our original plan- doing living story and using that alone to flesh out and build up the new content. By doing this, they can make plenty of profit off of the LS gem store goodies we’ve been seeing, while still allowing everyone to continue to enjoy the content,

I think, then, it is up to us as the players to learn to think a new way about how expansions will be in the future of this game. We’ll have to learn some patience too, because right now most of us are used to getting the whole pack dumped on us to jump into when a new expansion hits, but it simply won’t happen that way this time and we have to learn to wait it out and see where the story takes us.

My understanding of this is that they are planning an expansion, they just don’t know which type of release (living world, DLC, traditional expansion) will net them the most money.

Corian.4068:

My understanding of this is that they are planning an expansion, they just don’t know which type of release (living world, DLC, traditional expansion) will net them the most money.

The current set up with small regular updates is cheapest for them. That’s why they do it. They say themselves that an expansion is unlikely. It will only happen if they have no choice basically.

All I have to say is I’m ready for that expansion NOW!. I want more levels and more places to explore. As many as 60-80 more levels. And lots more places to explore. And Kodans and Quaggan races. So rack it up Anet I don’t want to wait as long for this as I had to for GW2 because life is too short.

I would like to have a full traditional expansion that will take me some days/weeks to run through it than a piece by piece living story release that will kill my anticipation for it

They’ve got people by the balls with their constant ‘limited time’ grindfests- why on earth would they risk ruining their cash cow by putting a considerable amount of time, money and effort into an expansion that will likely be less profitable than mindless loot pinata content and the sense of urgency they’ve instilled in farming fast before they nerf it (see Deadeye).

No, we’ll never see an expansion, not until they reach a time where people say ‘hey, zerging and grinding’s boring, we want something new!‘. Unfortunately- people will have to say it with their wallets, and that’s not happening.

Vayne.8563:

Anet has said from the beginning they would never do this again. The reason given was that when Factions came out, it divided the playerbase. They won’t do that again.

And content that disappears completely so that some players have rewards and achievements from it while other players are forever denied the chance to get them doesn’t divide the playerbase?

At least GW1 players had the option to buy Factions at a later date and play it whenever they wanted.

I for one would prefer the expansion. The living story could be neat, but so far has not delivered any where near the type of experience that a fresh expansion brings. The game needs new classes, new skills, new hairstyles, new armor. Instead we get mini-games and sub-par story telling every two weeks.

VOLKON.1290:

ColinJohanson.2394:

I just want to remind folks again, the features and content you’d traditionally find in an expansion will absolutely be added to Gw2. The thing we haven’t decided is what form the release of that content would be presented in, be it a traditional expansion, living world, or some other form.

Personally, I’d love to see how it can go with the Living World as the means of injection. Seeing games like Wildstar and ESO declaring they’ll be subscription based games makes me think how high you all have raised the bar on the whole pricing model for MMOs… think about it, are those games going to be able to surpass what you all at ANet are doing as far as new content goes, and surpass it enough to actually justify the subscription fee? I have my doubts. You have a real winning formula here, I hope to see things continue along this front.

I agree that Wildstar and ESO are making a bad decision there. I think there financial managers are simply stupid (and I am smarter.. usually I don’t talk like this but it’s fun to point to this statement after they stop with there subscription fee because it did not work). Anyway, ANET did have the winning formula. That was B2P, however soon they turned to a F2P game and we are at a point where it is already F2P so I wonder that even if they would bring out expansions they would also make changes in the game turning it back to a B2P game (with focus on the box-sales) in stead of a F2P game (with focus on the cash-shop) like it is now.

Colin promised in a interview a few weeks ago that the 2 weeks updates would be nothing more then a story and all the content would be permanent. The first patch released after his promise was more of the same temporary content. Every 2 weeks a list to do and a little reward you get for it. (But heey they had bigger teams so better content.. to miss out on?) That makes this game more like a second job then a game and thats why a big part of the people are leaving. Only thing that is holding me is the guild but I haven’t been bothered with many of the achievements after Colin’s lie and my online times have also dropped drastically.

It all has to do with the F2P mentality. Yeah Anet does that a little differed then we see in most F2P games but a F2P mentality nonetheless. For some people that works for many it does not. I prefer the B2P mentality that they had in GW1. Oow and just for the record, i’m no GW1 fanboy. I did not like the game, it simply was not my game with all it invisible walls (to bad GW2 inherited that) and it’s instance based style (still in GW2 but not as bad as in GW1). But there payment method was the best. Focus will then also be on the big content, not on the question “how do we get people to log in and buy gems” because then you start to force people and that works for some time but not for very long. But then again.. maybe GW2 has no long-term plans. While there biggest competitors had stands on GamesCom this year GW2 only had some people walking around with there T-Shirt. Makes you wonder what there long-term plans really are.

Gehenna.3625:

Vayne.8563:

Gehenna.3625:

Vayne.8563:

Right, that’s what I’m saying…because that’s what Anet has said.

And I’m saying that when Anet says something it’s not written in stone, because they can just as easily make a 180 and say well, we didn’t actually say never and circumstances are different now blah blah blah.

Personally I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next two years we suddenly see an expansion bringing Cantha, simply because they said it’s unlikely to happen.

I’m not saying they’re not going to bring Cantha in. I fully expect Cantha and Elona. I’m saying it’ll be an expansion, not a full game like they did with the first Guild Wars.

The reason they gave for saying it makes as much sense now as it did back then. When and if they come out with an expansion, it will be a true expansion, not a stand alone product.

Ahh yeah, that I doubt as well. The stand alone thing was a way to get people to buy the new part without having to buy the original. Still, I do think that if they bring out Cantha or something, they will probably give some deal to include the original game. People generally don’t wanna spend 100 bucks to start a game.

Oh sure, they’ll do it like Wow does. When you buy the new thing it includes the old thing. But it won’t be a stand alone game…and therefore it’s hard to compare these two products directly. They really are different things.

Devata.6589:

Colin promised in a interview a few weeks ago that the 2 weeks updates would be nothing more then a story and all the content would be permanent. The first patch released after his promise was more of the same temporary content. Every 2 weeks a list to do and a little reward you get for it. (But heey they had bigger teams so better content.. to miss out on?) That makes this game more like a second job then a game and thats why a big part of the people are leaving. Only thing that is holding me is the guild but I haven’t been bothered with many of the achievements after Colin’s lie and my online times have also dropped drastically.

Colin’s lie? He said every single thing would be permanent? He said it would start immediately? I think maybe you need to reread what Colin said, because if he lied, a whole lot more people would be saying it than you.

As for a “big part of the people are leaving”, I’m pretty sure that’s not true. I can’t prove it, but this game is packed. I think the concurrency rate is higher than it’s been in a long long time.

Each time a new patch comes out, it takes a longer and longer time for me to get onto my server, and off of the overflows.

I don’t where you get your info from but it doesn’t jibe with mine.

ColinJohanson.2394:

I just want to remind folks again, the features and content you’d traditionally find in an expansion will absolutely be added to Gw2. The thing we haven’t decided is what form the release of that content would be presented in, be it a traditional expansion, living world, or some other form.

Make all the Elder dragons fight each other in some elaborate ruse and kill off the weakened victor so that we may focus on more important enemies like the Mursaat and Palawa Joko. You know it to be true Colin that the dragon’s are a bad overworked cliché in fantasy gaming.

i prefer living story style.

we get to explore new places, one at a time, along with lots of other players.

I rather like the whole Living Story concept, though some aspects (like the current Invasions requiring a party to avoid overflow) may not be the best for loner gamers like me. Regardless of play style, if there is something more to be explored in Tyria, I am all for it. I (and likely many others) would jump at the chance to see what is behind the Tengu wall, for example, whether this is done through the Living Story or some other means.

Hi guys, I’m mostly a PvP player. You know, from the totally forgotten step-children community.

I just wanted to say that Living World doesn’t exist in PvP. Basically, no expansion = no hope for new gamemodes or other important lacking features. Pvp development is near to non-existing.

Also, in GW1 we had a content to play and after the content we could usually get a weapon for free. Now we don’t have content but have RNG boxes that can drop new skins. PvP players earn 0 gold, can’t afford these things.

Basically, we can’t even have the new skins from PvP. Nor the champion reward skins.

ArenaNet is becoming well-known for doing the total opposite of anything that is logical and the community wants.

#believeinexpansion

WoW was released November 2004, and the first expansion in January 2007. They’ve done an expansion every two years, more or less. I’m not sure why people expected a full GW2 expansion after only one year.

Not that WoW is the only way to do things.

Vayne.8563:

Gehenna.3625:

Vayne.8563:

Gehenna.3625:

Vayne.8563:

Right, that’s what I’m saying…because that’s what Anet has said.

And I’m saying that when Anet says something it’s not written in stone, because they can just as easily make a 180 and say well, we didn’t actually say never and circumstances are different now blah blah blah.

Personally I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next two years we suddenly see an expansion bringing Cantha, simply because they said it’s unlikely to happen.

I’m not saying they’re not going to bring Cantha in. I fully expect Cantha and Elona. I’m saying it’ll be an expansion, not a full game like they did with the first Guild Wars.

The reason they gave for saying it makes as much sense now as it did back then. When and if they come out with an expansion, it will be a true expansion, not a stand alone product.

Ahh yeah, that I doubt as well. The stand alone thing was a way to get people to buy the new part without having to buy the original. Still, I do think that if they bring out Cantha or something, they will probably give some deal to include the original game. People generally don’t wanna spend 100 bucks to start a game.

Oh sure, they’ll do it like Wow does. When you buy the new thing it includes the old thing. But it won’t be a stand alone game…and therefore it’s hard to compare these two products directly. They really are different things.

The GW1 expansions were unique in their way. Still, before GW2 came out they were saying that they wouldn’t bring back Cantha or Elona, because that would divide the player base as they felt it had in GW1. That’s the reason they gave for not continuing with expansions in GW1 and why EotN was different as it was than the other expansions.

They have said at later stages that they wouldn’t bring out new continents or expansions but then things get a bit vague. And now it seems like the latest version of their truth is to say they don’t want to make expansions in the same way (stand alone).

And you certainly seem convinced that they will bring out the continents even though a few years ago they already started saying they wouldn’t.

This is also why I was so surprised to see Tyria back in GW2 with so many zones. The world is huge compared to GW1 originally. It seemed to defeat the purpose of not wanting to spread people out too far.

Of course the game now has champion zerging and fractals and that’s about all people do unless there’s an event. That technically does bring people together if you have so few places that people tend to find interesting to be at for the loot of course. That does beg the question why create such a big world, that is actually too big and probably cost a lot of resources to make only to abandon it and funnel people in a couple of activities.

My guess is that when Cantha comes out, Tyria will be all but abandoned. I guess I will forever be confused between three things: What they originally said, what they said after and what they did in the end.

Wanderer.3248:

WoW was released November 2004, and the first expansion in January 2007. They’ve done an expansion every two years, more or less. I’m not sure why people expected a full GW2 expansion after only one year.

Not that WoW is the only way to do things.

When WoW came out it was a disaster. Servers not working, long queues etc. People were more forgiving though and it was something new for a lot of people at the time. People were quite loyal.

Nowadays we see that any MMO comes out with big fanfare, make lots of sales the first month or two and then it collapses like a pudding. People actually get bored with games within the first couple of months. This is why there is more pressure on bringing out new content more quickly.

This game has been out for a year now. They sold over 3 million copies of the game but the first 2 million were at the beginning. Sales are way down, but that’s normal. It’s impossible to tell how the retention is of active players cause there are no clear numbers on it, but my guess is that at least half the players that bought the game don’t play anymore or only log in occasionally to have a look, because well, it’s without sub. I guess that because that normally happens that about half the player base leaves.

Now I am no saying that the game is dying. NcSoft in their report, even though sales were down again last quarter, said that GW2 is stabilising. That means to me that they feel they’ve reached the bottom of the decline. And the basis may well be enough to sustain the game and China is opening. That’s an interesting element because from what I see other games, even Asian ones seem to bring games to China without subs. Apparently China is interested in sub free games. That could be ideal for a game like GW2. Whether they like not having to grind for their gear is another thing.

Still I don’t expect any expansions for now because China will probably bring in a lot of cash with the existing game and there won’t be a chance on an expansion till the game’s been out there for a while. That wouldn’t make financial sense.

Gehenna.3625:

Vayne.8563:

Gehenna.3625:

Vayne.8563:

Gehenna.3625:

Vayne.8563:

Right, that’s what I’m saying…because that’s what Anet has said.

And I’m saying that when Anet says something it’s not written in stone, because they can just as easily make a 180 and say well, we didn’t actually say never and circumstances are different now blah blah blah.

Personally I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next two years we suddenly see an expansion bringing Cantha, simply because they said it’s unlikely to happen.

I’m not saying they’re not going to bring Cantha in. I fully expect Cantha and Elona. I’m saying it’ll be an expansion, not a full game like they did with the first Guild Wars.

The reason they gave for saying it makes as much sense now as it did back then. When and if they come out with an expansion, it will be a true expansion, not a stand alone product.

Ahh yeah, that I doubt as well. The stand alone thing was a way to get people to buy the new part without having to buy the original. Still, I do think that if they bring out Cantha or something, they will probably give some deal to include the original game. People generally don’t wanna spend 100 bucks to start a game.

Oh sure, they’ll do it like Wow does. When you buy the new thing it includes the old thing. But it won’t be a stand alone game…and therefore it’s hard to compare these two products directly. They really are different things.

The GW1 expansions were unique in their way. Still, before GW2 came out they were saying that they wouldn’t bring back Cantha or Elona, because that would divide the player base as they felt it had in GW1. That’s the reason they gave for not continuing with expansions in GW1 and why EotN was different as it was than the other expansions.

They have said at later stages that they wouldn’t bring out new continents or expansions but then things get a bit vague. And now it seems like the latest version of their truth is to say they don’t want to make expansions in the same way (stand alone).

And you certainly seem convinced that they will bring out the continents even though a few years ago they already started saying they wouldn’t.

This is also why I was so surprised to see Tyria back in GW2 with so many zones. The world is huge compared to GW1 originally. It seemed to defeat the purpose of not wanting to spread people out too far.

Of course the game now has champion zerging and fractals and that’s about all people do unless there’s an event. That technically does bring people together if you have so few places that people tend to find interesting to be at for the loot of course. That does beg the question why create such a big world, that is actually too big and probably cost a lot of resources to make only to abandon it and funnel people in a couple of activities.

My guess is that when Cantha comes out, Tyria will be all but abandoned. I guess I will forever be confused between three things: What they originally said, what they said after and what they did in the end.

I’ve never seen them say they wouldn’t bring out the other continents. Most recently Mike Z has said he’d like to. Not sure where I saw it, but that’s the latest.