Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet held their launch date for GW2 very close to their chest, knowing full well that once WoW got wind of the date, they would time their release of MoP to coincide with the GW2 release.

This is the game MMO’s play: they try to time their releases to retain as many subscribers as possible and disrupt competitor’s launches.

We now know that Elder Scrolls Online is planning a Spring 2014 launch.

What I want am curious is what GW2 will release to coincide with the launch of ESO?

ANet clearly won’t say until much later (probably end of December or January). What do you think?

They release every 2 week.

Either a traditional expansion or an “expansion” within the LS. One of these is certain in 2014. No doubt about it.

A new living story issue will come out where all 5 remaining elder dragons team up and attack tyria together and turns out Scarlett was creating these alliances left and right so that they all fight the dragons together and she was the good guy (girl) and we ally with her to fight them..

Dragons are so frightened cuz we killed their sister ( stripper Zaitan) and will no longer face us that is why they bribed Scarlett to do all the mess in Tyria.
Arena net have nothing other than LS.

Legendary armor tier.

Speaking of the elder dragons have you ever wondered why Zhaitan seemed small in comparison to some of the others and he was the numero uno dragon? Think about it, in Frostforge Sound we face off against a single “Claw of Jormag”. Where is the rest of him?

Alright, I could not help myself, my apologies.

Legendary accessories and armor. Customizable stats. Triple the material cost of ascended.

Most likely another Scarlet chapter.

We will have to wait and see.

GW2 has the advantage over its competitors in that nobody really “quits” the game since it doesn’t have a monthly subscription.

If I was ANet I would try and schedule a “Classes 2.0” patch roughly 1 months after TESO’s launch. That’s when the initial months ends and people have to decide if they wish to subscribe.

If ANet pushes a patch then with revised class mechanics, new abilities and a trait overhaul I imagine that would help retain a lot of players.

But again, the “no subscription” is GW2’s strongest suit.

I too have a hard time accepting the standard subscription model after playing GW2 for a year.

Dee Jay.2460:

We will have to wait and see.

GW2 has the advantage over its competitors in that nobody really “quits” the game since it doesn’t have a monthly subscription.

If I was ANet I would try and schedule a “Classes 2.0” patch roughly 1 months after TESO’s launch. That’s when the initial months ends and people have to decide if they wish to subscribe.

If ANet pushes a patch then with revised class mechanics, new abilities and a trait overhaul I imagine that would help retain a lot of players.

But again, the “no subscription” is GW2’s strongest suit.

I too have a hard time accepting the standard subscription model after playing GW2 for a year.

Really? Subscriptions are typically in the range of $10-$15 a month. A trivial amount.

Just cut out Starbucks for a day or two.

Well Anet makes more money with the gem store than subs. The people they are paying for stuff in the gem store are paying more than enough to make up for no subs. one of my guild member pays $10 a week for gems and stuff.

I spend $10/mo on the gem store because I want to, but I like being able to NOT buy gems if I don’t feel like it or take a break from the game or there’s just nothing I actually wish to purchase with them. They get paid if they make a thing I want to spend money on – not just arbitrarily. As the person spending the money I’m pretty cool with this.

I don’t see myself playing a subscription-based game unless it’s the most amazing game I’ve ever played. There are so many other options I don’t want to tie myself to what feels like an obligation and outdated system if it’s not absolutely amazing.

Ceallach.8740:

I spend $10/mo on the gem store because I want to, but I like being able to NOT buy gems if I don’t feel like it or take a break from the game or there’s just nothing I actually wish to purchase with them. They get paid if they make a thing I want to spend money on – not just arbitrarily. As the person spending the money I’m pretty cool with this.

I don’t see myself playing a subscription-based game unless it’s the most amazing game I’ve ever played. There are so many other options I don’t want to tie myself to what feels like an obligation and outdated system if it’s not absolutely amazing.

I spend $15 a month and I get actual content. Actual dungeons/raids to run, actual attempts at class balancing and a halfway decent story. Not living story garbage that persists for 2 weeks and then goes away forever. I can go back and play content at any time I wish because it’ll never go away.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Dee Jay.2460:

We will have to wait and see.

GW2 has the advantage over its competitors in that nobody really “quits” the game since it doesn’t have a monthly subscription.

If I was ANet I would try and schedule a “Classes 2.0” patch roughly 1 months after TESO’s launch. That’s when the initial months ends and people have to decide if they wish to subscribe.

If ANet pushes a patch then with revised class mechanics, new abilities and a trait overhaul I imagine that would help retain a lot of players.

But again, the “no subscription” is GW2’s strongest suit.

I too have a hard time accepting the standard subscription model after playing GW2 for a year.

Really? Subscriptions are typically in the range of $10-$15 a month. A trivial amount.

Just cut out Starbucks for a day or two.

Logically you are correct but psychologically for many people subscription is a barrier that makes them feel like they are wasting their money/not making the most of their money if they aren’t playing 24/7.

Personally I’d probably be back at DCUO ( I spent more in their cash shop than gw2) if not for the fact to access my in game currency above 2.5k I have to sub (a lot of the newer items from npcs cost more than 2.5k) which makes progressing in the game and accessing the newer DLC content (raids) essentially impossible within a reasonable time frame.

Protoavis.9107:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Dee Jay.2460:

We will have to wait and see.

GW2 has the advantage over its competitors in that nobody really “quits” the game since it doesn’t have a monthly subscription.

If I was ANet I would try and schedule a “Classes 2.0” patch roughly 1 months after TESO’s launch. That’s when the initial months ends and people have to decide if they wish to subscribe.

If ANet pushes a patch then with revised class mechanics, new abilities and a trait overhaul I imagine that would help retain a lot of players.

But again, the “no subscription” is GW2’s strongest suit.

I too have a hard time accepting the standard subscription model after playing GW2 for a year.

Really? Subscriptions are typically in the range of $10-$15 a month. A trivial amount.

Just cut out Starbucks for a day or two.

Logically you are correct but psychologically for many people subscription is a barrier that makes them feel like they are wasting their money/not making the most of their money if they aren’t playing 24/7.

Personally I’d probably be back at DCUO ( I spent more in their cash shop than gw2) if not for the fact to access my in game currency above 2.5k I have to sub (a lot of the newer items from npcs cost more than 2.5k) which makes progressing in the game and accessing the newer DLC content (raids) essentially impossible within a reasonable time frame.

I also pay $8 for a Netflix streaming subscription and I don’t feel the need to watch 24/7 to avoid feeling like I’m not getting the most out of my sub. I doubt many others do as well.

Basically the same as a game sub. I don’t buy this argument that there is a “barrier” to subs other than a financial one. And if you can’t spend $10-$15 on a sub, you need to do something else other than gaming with your free time.

I don’t know and I don’t care but, I will say they need to announce something because I haven’t played in about 4 months because I hate the game now. pvp sucks and is imbalanced as all hell thanks to thief (this includes pve’s pvp WvW) leaving only pve the only balanced region for me imho. I want to play the freaking Tengu race and I want Cantha I’ve had enough of this Tyria bs and I don’t care about going to Istan/Vabbi.

and I will state in the first 8 months of the game I spent around 3-4 grand

Dark Catalyst.1028:

I also pay $8 for a Netflix streaming subscription and I don’t feel the need to watch 24/7 to avoid feeling like I’m not getting the most out of my sub. I doubt many others do as well.

Basically the same as a game sub. I don’t buy this argument that there is a “barrier” to subs other than a financial one. And if you can’t spend $10-$15 on a sub, you need to do something else other than gaming with your free time.

The amount of “you” in there makes me feel like you’re making a personal attack. In my case it’s not a financial issue, my yearly expense is 1/3rd of my income, Australian .Net developers are often being paid in the 80k – 130k range, on track to retire at age 45

I find subs to be a barrier, when I’m subbed to a game and I’m out doing something in my free time, I feel like the sub is a waste of my money so I ultimately end up spending all my free time with whatever I’m subbed to. Which is one reason I like how some sub MMO’s are handled in some some asian countries, you sub based on time (say 100hrs) which you can use over months if you don’t log in much. For me, personally and how I react to them, it’s not healthy so I avoid them (and with the vast majority of mmo’s these days going f2p after a year…it’s generally not an issue to wait a year)

I love this game but it is definitely starting to get stale. I for one will definitely check out ESO if there isn’t a major major content add before it comes out. The living story is a lame excuse for content.

SamEStabs.9756:

I love this game but it is definitely starting to get stale. I for one will definitely check out ESO if there isn’t a major major content add before it comes out. The living story is a lame excuse for content.

I couldnt agree more but I checked out in terms of actually playing more than to get on and let the guild know I’m not dead every other week or 3 weeks in about 4 and a half months ago now

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Ceallach.8740:

I spend $10/mo on the gem store because I want to, but I like being able to NOT buy gems if I don’t feel like it or take a break from the game or there’s just nothing I actually wish to purchase with them. They get paid if they make a thing I want to spend money on – not just arbitrarily. As the person spending the money I’m pretty cool with this.

I don’t see myself playing a subscription-based game unless it’s the most amazing game I’ve ever played. There are so many other options I don’t want to tie myself to what feels like an obligation and outdated system if it’s not absolutely amazing.

I spend $15 a month and I get actual content. Actual dungeons/raids to run, actual attempts at class balancing and a halfway decent story. Not living story garbage that persists for 2 weeks and then goes away forever. I can go back and play content at any time I wish because it’ll never go away.

Pretty much this.

This game encourages over spending on gems for little in return. Though I’ve managed to resist the temptation for the very principle of the matter.

Dee Jay.2460:

I too have a hard time accepting the standard subscription model after playing GW2 for a year.

After GW2 I have the opposite experience. For the first time in years I am looking at going back to sub based games rather than no monthly fee (F2P or B2P) games.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

I don’t buy this argument that there is a “barrier” to subs other than a financial one. And if you can’t spend $10-$15 on a sub, you need to do something else other than gaming with your free time.

The barrier is there (for some people) not because they cannot afford $10 -$15 per month, but because they do not like the idea of renting their games. A guild-mate in a hybrid model game averaged $70 – $80 per month in cash shop expenditures but refused to pay $10 per month for a subscription that would have included much of what he was buying through the cash shop.

a new map: skyrim or morrowind

Back on topic: I’m betting that they are holding out their more exciting releases to coincide with TESO, EQN, and other upcoming MMOs. If they keep pumping out one mediocre piece after another then I will have no problem jumping ship to another MMO when it launches.

I predict an upgrade to level 100 characters!

That should be fun!

race change , then one month later profession change. 2000 gems ea.
you will lose all personal story gains and start over when changing races.

Things I expect for 2014:

- Ascendend/Legendary Armors/ Accessoires (craftable)
- Housing
- New WvW Maps (Edge of the Mists and other new ones)
- Craftable Precursors (legendary armors/accessoires means also ,armors/accessoires get also precursor sets/accessoires, hopefully these weill be ascended ones too so that we just can use our current stuff to use it to improve them to legendary items)
- Alot new Skills/ Traits (Redesign of Trait System)
- Sub Classes and other improved aspects for better Character Progression
- 1-2 new Maps to explore within Tyria
- Making Claw Island together with a new explorable Map revitable together with LS content around that
- Redesign of Underwater Combat / Underwater Traits
- Class Specific WvW Skills
- Maxing of all the current WvW Skills to 10 Tiers as like the first two Skills about killing guards, which currently are the only 2 skills with 10 Tiers
- New PvP Maps/ Modes (Duels, GvG)
- Permanent Reimplementation of the Crown Pavillion
- Implementation finally of all those missing Minigames, that should have been i nthe game from begin on, like Polymok, Bar Brawls, Archery ecr.)
- New Fractals/ Dungeons
- Redesign of all Dungeon Bosses and World Bosses, especially world Bosses, like the Claw of Jormag, Shadow Behemoth, Shatterer, Higher Fire Elemental, Huge Jungle Wurm…
- Implementation of new Weapons, like Great Axes, Halberds, Whips, Crossbows, Flails, Quarterstaffs, Claws/Fistcuffs, Recurve Bows, Chakrams and making older existign weapons also more usable for the classes, liek giving Thiefs the option to use Swords also offhand, adding Hammers & Maces to Engineers and so on …

- Tons of new Town Clothes
- 3rd Minipet Set of 50+ new Minipets:
- Lots of new Shop Items, new Hair Styles, new Face Styles, new Hair Colors

Thats so far everything I’d expect from 2014 through Patches, because its all content, that can get implemented with Patches, nothing of it is too big of data size, that it wouldn’t fit into the basically 350 MB of a biweekly patch …

Anything else like new playable races, new continents, next personal story part ect. I think are things left open for Expansions, which I expect first to happen in the End of 2014, so basically 2 Years after the game release (August 2014), after GW2 has been released in China, because this makes imo most sense to release big expansions first, once the game has been released in China, because they can combine the main Game with the Expansion Content together, when they release the game in China, what would be a good marketing strategy…especially due to Blade & Soul booming currently in China, what is the reason why NC Soft delayed their release plans for GW2 in China to 2014.

More grinding, more time gating, more pound 50 signs.

ESO isn’t all that great. It’s literally a WoW clone with pretty graphics and improved AI, and is great if you want to play The Elder Scrolls with your friends. I wouldn’t worry too much if I were ANet about ESO or Wildstar. It’s EQNext we’ve got to watch out for, but until there’s been more information out on it we can’t conclude if it will actually be a good game or just another SOE money grab (see: PS2; Dragon’s Prophet).

ESO is pretty far from being a WoW clone. It’s much closer to being a GW2 clone. With that said, it’s hardly anything to be worried about, aside from the hype…but look at how that turned out for SWTOR.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Ceallach.8740:

I spend $10/mo on the gem store because I want to, but I like being able to NOT buy gems if I don’t feel like it or take a break from the game or there’s just nothing I actually wish to purchase with them. They get paid if they make a thing I want to spend money on – not just arbitrarily. As the person spending the money I’m pretty cool with this.

I don’t see myself playing a subscription-based game unless it’s the most amazing game I’ve ever played. There are so many other options I don’t want to tie myself to what feels like an obligation and outdated system if it’s not absolutely amazing.

I spend $15 a month and I get actual content. Actual dungeons/raids to run, actual attempts at class balancing and a halfway decent story. Not living story garbage that persists for 2 weeks and then goes away forever. I can go back and play content at any time I wish because it’ll never go away.

It just wasn’t worth it for me, personally. For what I did in WoW I didn’t feel like it was worth $15/mo. There are things I miss – but they’re not enough and I’d rather not divide my time anyway.

I understand if someone else DOES find it worth $15/mo for WoW or another game that has a subscription – but it just wasn’t what I wanted.

I wouldn’t be totally adverse to a game with a subscription but it would have to be that much better since I feel a bit wary. There are things that GW2 lacks that I would LIKE to see in an MMO, but none of the options right now really jump out at me. I’m curious about ESO and will certainly try it – I’ve heard mixed things so far and it would have some high hopes to live up to for me to want to spend a monthly fee to play – otherwise I can just play Skyrim and KOTOR and have “that” kind of RPG experience and play GW2 for the “MMO”. If there’s ever a game that really has both, great ! I’m happy to wait for it, but I don’t want to pay $15/mo for a game that I feel only gives me half of what I want or less – at least with GW2 I don’t have to pay them and I’ve never spent more than $10/mo on it so I don’t think I’m in danger of being that person who constantly binges $80/mo on something they’re not actually happy with.

SamEStabs.9756:

I love this game but it is definitely starting to get stale. I for one will definitely check out ESO if there isn’t a major major content add before it comes out. The living story is a lame excuse for content.

So simple, so true. Our whole guild would sign this. Without an expansion to offer some months of content (casually speaking) ESO might do the trick. LS won’t keep us. A fee does not frighten us as well.

Ashen.2907:

The barrier is there (for some people) not because they cannot afford $10 -$15 per month, but because they do not like the idea of renting their games. A guild-mate in a hybrid model game averaged $70 – $80 per month in cash shop expenditures but refused to pay $10 per month for a subscription that would have included much of what he was buying through the cash shop.

Honestly, this does not sound very clever of your guild-mate and shouldn’t by logic be a good argument vs. sub fees. I would not still play GW2 by now, if we would have to pay a fee, right. But I also won’t pay a mere cent to ArenaNet until they offer a sound expansion. I am gladly willing to pay for good content. It is my hobby like sports or other stuff I have to pay monthly fees for.

GW2 does not use the fee model, they sell RNG stuff in a shop for it, where every second person feels betrayed, when he does not get, what he really wants. I prefer a honest fee over that model every day!

Protoavis.9107:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

I also pay $8 for a Netflix streaming subscription and I don’t feel the need to watch 24/7 to avoid feeling like I’m not getting the most out of my sub. I doubt many others do as well.

Basically the same as a game sub. I don’t buy this argument that there is a “barrier” to subs other than a financial one. And if you can’t spend $10-$15 on a sub, you need to do something else other than gaming with your free time.

The amount of “you” in there makes me feel like you’re making a personal attack. In my case it’s not a financial issue, my yearly expense is 1/3rd of my income, Australian .Net developers are often being paid in the 80k – 130k range, on track to retire at age 45

I find subs to be a barrier, when I’m subbed to a game and I’m out doing something in my free time, I feel like the sub is a waste of my money so I ultimately end up spending all my free time with whatever I’m subbed to. Which is one reason I like how some sub MMO’s are handled in some some asian countries, you sub based on time (say 100hrs) which you can use over months if you don’t log in much. For me, personally and how I react to them, it’s not healthy so I avoid them (and with the vast majority of mmo’s these days going f2p after a year…it’s generally not an issue to wait a year)

That was more of a “general” you, not you specifically.

We’ll have to agree to disagree I guess. I pay a monthly access fee for several services: cable TV, internet, Netflix, etc. and I don’t feel like I’m “wasting” my money if I’m not using those services 24/7. Same goes for gaming.

And you know what? If they want to keep getting my subscription fees it’s in their best interests to keep my happy. Whereas GW2? They already got your box fee. And if you don’t use their RNG gemshop what right do you even have to complain? You’re playing their game for free.

It must even not be TESO, theres so many good games in the pipeline for the next coming 2 years.
Made a thread for a little experiment exactly for that to test out reactions about how people think about GW2 in context, when they just see on one look, what is all in the pipeline for the next years to come and among them are some real good pearls.

GW2 gets massively competition soon and there is naturally the question very interesting about how ANet wants to ensure, that the Game won’t be dead in the like next 2 years due to players moving over to all those upcoming games.

I think personally, ANet has to take a good look at those competitors, because those upcoming games have alot of features and mechanics, that are either working much better, look much better, or are just mechanical wise more interesting/innovative, offering also certain things, that GW2 currently offers not.

The MMO market isn’t sleeping, it permanently develops itself further.
However I don’t think that Anet has to develop thmself back into the stoneage by reintroducing such bullcrap, like monthly fees.

The Guild Wars Franchise is the perfect example therefore, that you can create AAA MMORPG’s of quality completely without monthly fees, develop also on a constant manner new content without such a fee and still make alone through an Ingame Shop enough profit to maintain all this.
In regard of this is Anet a paragon and alot more companies should finally follow that financing model more.
However, to stay true, this is basically also the only real innovative thing, anet has done so far, when it comes to innovative gameplay features and mechanics, I’mo the asian MMORPG’s are far ahead. They do alot more to develop always new mechanics and to make new features possible to improve the MMO’s, because there is far much more competion, than here in Europe or in the US. Most MMO’s still get developed and produced in Asia and thats why I can also understand, why NC Soft/Anet delay the release of GW2 for the asian territories, because the market there is very difficult with so much competition there, also again in regard with all of these upcoming new games in the next years it doesn#t become soon easier for Anet and GW2 to set a safe foot in Asia I think.

Thats why I believe, the next years will be critical for GW2, but I’ve faith in ANet, that they will come up with some good plans. I guess we will see at the 3rd quarter to the end of 2014 the official first expansion.
That would be the perfect time for one, literally 2 years after the release of the game.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

And you know what? If they want to keep getting my subscription fees it’s in their best interests to keep my happy. Whereas GW2? They already got your box fee. And if you don’t use their RNG gemshop what right do you even have to complain? You’re playing their game for free.

If I ever find a sub based game that kept me happy, I might consider it. The ones I’ve played kind of kitten me off. The only online game that kept me interested for more than a year was GW. Had ANet stuck more closely to their GW model with GW2, it’s likely that GW2 would have pleased me more than it did.

The only way they can retain players, bring players back and get new players is with an expansion. Nobody but the people dedicated to the game cares about the LS, new people or players who quit don’t read online for the next “Patch with Scarlet teaming up with the quaggans making them super toxic aetherblade pirate berserkers”.

The only way to counter is with an expansion, an expansion changes gameplay, it changes the world permanently, that’s what many old, dedicated and new players want.

Being honest I’d rather pay a monthly fee for more actual PERMANENT content, QoL improvements, etc, etc. When you put all the rewards in the gemstore, what’s left to work for?