Guild Wars 2

Honestly, how many of you would’ve rather seen an expansion pack?

Living story gives us:
- Free updates
- Every 2 or so weeks
- Small amount of content

An expansion pack gives us
- Paid update
- All updates in one big batch
- Massive amount of content

Now, I don’t want to sound like an ungrateful person, but I’d rather have paid for an expansion pack. Why? Because I would have loved to see a new profession, race, a lot of new lands and more! Me and friends have been speculating the Chronomancer ever since before release. We were all very sad when it didn’t come as we were wanting to make a video series about “Back to the Future”. Alas…

Derigar.7810:

Honestly, how many of you would’ve rather seen an expansion pack?

Living story gives us:
- Free updates
- Every 2 or so weeks
- Small amount of content

An expansion pack gives us
- Paid update
- All updates in one big batch
- Massive amount of content

Now, I don’t want to sound like an ungrateful person, but I’d rather have paid for an expansion pack. Why? Because I would have loved to see a new profession, race, a lot of new lands and more! Me and friends have been speculating the Chronomancer ever since before release. We were all very sad when it didn’t come as we were wanting to make a video series about “Back to the Future”. Alas…

If you got an expansion, I think you would still complain. You would get it done in 1 – 2 weeks then whine. But your post makes you sound ungrateful. Rather than saying, I really like the game but… then being as constructive as possible. Your post was one big whine. As we don’t know what is in store for us, in this LS2, we can’t say anything right now. You have assumed a lot.

I wonder how many got the hint dropped A.Net dropped in the beginning LS2 story. The hint was the Zephyrites are disciples of Glint. That is a HUGE hint drop.

Yeah, I like my content the same way I like my meals. Served on a plate rather than drip fed.
If they wanted to dump an expansion type release for free, more power to them.
Unfortunately, they need to play it like a traditional MMO and pad out the content because they need to stop the bleeding of players.

We know a single WvWvW map took one whole year, so it’s likely the current map (which they’re drip feeding) took a year or so, as well.
Unfortunately, it seems obvious these were their big projects, so whether you find that disappointing or not, it’s up to you.
Mega servers, wardrobe, China release were also probably the other big projects.
Who knows what their new big projects are, but expect similar results as above.

Sadly, they are extremely proud of their iterative process, so they’d have to drop that process to do an expansion type release. Which isn’t going to happen any time soon.

I would gladly pay for a Guild Wars 1 like expansion, that add new dungeons with tokens, weapons and armors linked to them, more than 1 skill per two years, new zones, new world boss and a complete new story.

Taygus.4571:

j
to burn through in a few days, just as you would with an expansion.

So much this.

@OP
As I’ve said before, in other threads just like this one -

It would not matter if the content came as an expansion, people would still simply burn through it in a matter of days, potentially hours (remember the first person burned through GW2 to 80 in 30-some-odd hours), and then go right back to kittening “more more more more more! gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme!”

Lévis.5489:

I would gladly pay for a Guild Wars 1 like expansion, that add new dungeons with tokens, weapons and armors linked to them, more than 1 skill per two years, new zones, new world boss and a complete new story.

Only EotN was an expansion. The others (Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall) were separate games – you could play one without having any of the other games. This was different than, say WoW, where you had to have the original or you couldn’t play any of the expansions.

Derigar.7810:

Honestly, how many of you would’ve rather seen an expansion pack?

Living story gives us:
- Free updates
- Every 2 or so weeks
- Small amount of content

An expansion pack gives us
- Paid update
- All updates in one big batch
- Massive amount of content

Now, I don’t want to sound like an ungrateful person, but I’d rather have paid for an expansion pack. Why? Because I would have loved to see a new profession, race, a lot of new lands and more! Me and friends have been speculating the Chronomancer ever since before release. We were all very sad when it didn’t come as we were wanting to make a video series about “Back to the Future”. Alas…

I definetly prefer this way. To me the words free ad every 2 weeks are more than enough reason. In addition that “Small amount of content” is a subjective opinion, that i dont share. For 2 weeks the kind of content we recieved and that it’ll be permanent is pretty good.

An expansion will give you like 30ish missions like the 3 we recieved last tuesday, 2 or 3 maps and you’ll have to pay for it. BIG NO.

I prefer this episodic system. In addition they have improved the content. Anet, dont listen too much these critics. People is actually in game enjoyng the content and take the Evon-Kiel debate as an example: people in forums are not the mayority of the community. The mayority is already playng, voting for Kiel and very much in favor on what you are doing.
Can be improved? Sure. Expansion is the best option? No way.

the game is still missing some more funny parts. grinding digital amounts just to buy it from someone else is the unfunniest way possible. like the achievement points. i maxed 30 titles in gw1 in about 2 1/2 months with my wife with new created chars (duo ritualists and played with no one else just we both) it was something you wanted to collect. now you cant really collect something because you get anything with an ease. explorer? walk 1m into a new region and you see miles beyond this point completely unrevealed…aha…nice.

no the heaviest kitten bs point is that you dont can get any challenge like legendary guardian/vanquisher/protector titles. even with the “new” chronicles there is nothing that let the player collect his actions in any way. this game is done in about 500h’s. i got anything i want and i have done it once because a 2nd one would get me into a psychiatric station. for me personally its a bad mistake making a manifesto – lying to us and doing something like a headless chicken running around.

but the most bad thing is. there is still no statement about all the negative points ppl collected over the past 2 years or that they never sorries for these mistakes and lies. the new kind to talk to the customer is another bs handling. most of the time just hot air and nothing really good comes out at the end. imho 2008 was the year where gw1 really died and gw never returns in the old glamourous shape of high quality and ideas. i would play it still today but i have done anything i wanted about 3-4 times in about 10kh’s.

Taygus.4571:

jiust log in once every 2 weeks, ..don’t play. in 6 months time, then play. Should have “lots of content” then.

to burn through in a few days, just as you would with an expansion.

That is not true, every 2 weeks content can finish in less than 2 hours so if u do the math for 6 months thats like 12 hours to finish all the 2 weeks contents. But if it was “Expansion” contents then it would last for months

Riaky.8965:

Taygus.4571:

jiust log in once every 2 weeks, ..don’t play. in 6 months time, then play. Should have “lots of content” then.

to burn through in a few days, just as you would with an expansion.

That is not true, every 2 weeks content can finish in less than 2 hours so if u do the math for 6 months thats like 12 hours to finish all the 2 weeks contents. But if it was “Expansion” contents then it would last for months

You did not finish this content in less than two hours. I’m calling BS on thsi for sure. Unless you just followed a Dulfy guide after it was out. Anyone can finish anything if someone tells them how to do it.

Kitarion.7926:

the game is still missing some more funny parts. grinding digital amounts just to buy it from someone else is the unfunniest way possible. like the achievement points. i maxed 30 titles in gw1 in about 2 1/2 months with my wife with new created chars (duo ritualists and played with no one else just we both) it was something you wanted to collect. now you cant really collect something because you get anything with an ease. explorer? walk 1m into a new region and you see miles beyond this point completely unrevealed…aha…nice.

no the heaviest kitten bs point is that you dont can get any challenge like legendary guardian/vanquisher/protector titles. even with the “new” chronicles there is nothing that let the player collect his actions in any way. this game is done in about 500h’s. i got anything i want and i have done it once because a 2nd one would get me into a psychiatric station. for me personally its a bad mistake making a manifesto – lying to us and doing something like a headless chicken running around.

but the most bad thing is. there is still no statement about all the negative points ppl collected over the past 2 years or that they never sorries for these mistakes and lies. the new kind to talk to the customer is another bs handling. most of the time just hot air and nothing really good comes out at the end. imho 2008 was the year where gw1 really died and gw never returns in the old glamourous shape of high quality and ideas. i would play it still today but i have done anything i wanted about 3-4 times in about 10kh’s.

Yes, mapping in Guild Wars 1 was much better. Much more fun. I love scraping the edge of every single zone over and over until I unfog the entire map. That was loads of fun.

Vayne.8563:

Kitarion.7926:

the game is still missing some more funny parts. grinding digital amounts just to buy it from someone else is the unfunniest way possible. like the achievement points. i maxed 30 titles in gw1 in about 2 1/2 months with my wife with new created chars (duo ritualists and played with no one else just we both) it was something you wanted to collect. now you cant really collect something because you get anything with an ease. explorer? walk 1m into a new region and you see miles beyond this point completely unrevealed…aha…nice.

no the heaviest kitten bs point is that you dont can get any challenge like legendary guardian/vanquisher/protector titles. even with the “new” chronicles there is nothing that let the player collect his actions in any way. this game is done in about 500h’s. i got anything i want and i have done it once because a 2nd one would get me into a psychiatric station. for me personally its a bad mistake making a manifesto – lying to us and doing something like a headless chicken running around.

but the most bad thing is. there is still no statement about all the negative points ppl collected over the past 2 years or that they never sorries for these mistakes and lies. the new kind to talk to the customer is another bs handling. most of the time just hot air and nothing really good comes out at the end. imho 2008 was the year where gw1 really died and gw never returns in the old glamourous shape of high quality and ideas. i would play it still today but i have done anything i wanted about 3-4 times in about 10kh’s.

Yes, mapping in Guild Wars 1 was much better. Much more fun. I love scraping the edge of every single zone over and over until I unfog the entire map. That was loads of fun.

I really disliked mapping in GW1 as part of the map was Glitching, in order to 100% of all maps. I never finished it because it was not fun to me and utterly boring. I am not saying GW2 is any easier or better but, certainly you don’t have to scrape every corner, etc. That I don’t miss at all.

Taygus.4571:

jiust log in once every 2 weeks, ..don’t play. in 6 months time, then play. Should have “lots of content” then.

to burn through in a few days, just as you would with an expansion.

You got the OP wrong, he wanted paid contents,
therefore he should not log in for months and then buy gems with credit card to buy all the season 2 contents in one go.

I personally prefer to get new stuff every two weeks that lasts a few hours instead of waiting 6-12 months to get content that lasts a week or two.

The amount of content is probably more or less the same. It is simply difference in how and when it is delivered. Some people prefer to have it bunched up, others prefer to have it dropped during a longer period of time. Simple as that.

I don’t think expansions add any more content as a free update would. If you look at other games expansions usually just add new raids or a new feature basically resetting the grind all over again creating an illusion of extra content.

lordkrall.7241:

I personally prefer to get new stuff every two weeks that lasts a few hours instead of waiting 6-12 months to get content that lasts a week or two.

The amount of content is probably more or less the same. It is simply difference in how and when it is delivered. Some people prefer to have it bunched up, others prefer to have it dropped during a longer period of time. Simple as that.

What? xpac content = new gears, weapons, dungs, skills, new bosses, etc possibles races/classes.
When the heck has this bi-weekly update system produced something like that?
Majority of these bi-weekly updates are ONLY focused story + new gemstore stuff and tool tip updates LOL…. .its been 2 years and still haven’t seen anything remotely close to xpac like content being added to this game. By this time around, GW1 had factions and that xpac alone had more content added than what anet has added to GW2. And i mean NEWCONTENT , not some silly features and revamps to runes and terrible class balancing

NA/EU playerbase has dwindled big time because of the lack of real content (xpac like) updates..Its been 2 years, this game needs it now more than ever and it shows.

Chase.8415:

I don’t think expansions add any more content as a free update would. If you look at other games expansions usually just add new raids or a new feature basically resetting the grind all over again creating an illusion of extra content.

So true – the other thing is people feel that if they pay for an expansion, then they are getting something. Getting something for nothing means it should have been in the game right along. This is the thinking of forum posters that want a paid expansion……

Dusty Moon.4382:

Vayne.8563:

Kitarion.7926:

the game is still missing some more funny parts. grinding digital amounts just to buy it from someone else is the unfunniest way possible. like the achievement points. i maxed 30 titles in gw1 in about 2 1/2 months with my wife with new created chars (duo ritualists and played with no one else just we both) it was something you wanted to collect. now you cant really collect something because you get anything with an ease. explorer? walk 1m into a new region and you see miles beyond this point completely unrevealed…aha…nice.

no the heaviest kitten bs point is that you dont can get any challenge like legendary guardian/vanquisher/protector titles. even with the “new” chronicles there is nothing that let the player collect his actions in any way. this game is done in about 500h’s. i got anything i want and i have done it once because a 2nd one would get me into a psychiatric station. for me personally its a bad mistake making a manifesto – lying to us and doing something like a headless chicken running around.

but the most bad thing is. there is still no statement about all the negative points ppl collected over the past 2 years or that they never sorries for these mistakes and lies. the new kind to talk to the customer is another bs handling. most of the time just hot air and nothing really good comes out at the end. imho 2008 was the year where gw1 really died and gw never returns in the old glamourous shape of high quality and ideas. i would play it still today but i have done anything i wanted about 3-4 times in about 10kh’s.

Yes, mapping in Guild Wars 1 was much better. Much more fun. I love scraping the edge of every single zone over and over until I unfog the entire map. That was loads of fun.

I really disliked mapping in GW1 as part of the map was Glitching, in order to 100% of all maps. I never finished it because it was not fun to me and utterly boring. I am not saying GW2 is any easier or better but, certainly you don’t have to scrape every corner, etc. That I don’t miss at all.

Yes, that was sort of my point. It was absolutely horrible. Triply so if you were colorblind like me. I felt punished by it.

SkiTz.4590:

lordkrall.7241:

I personally prefer to get new stuff every two weeks that lasts a few hours instead of waiting 6-12 months to get content that lasts a week or two.

The amount of content is probably more or less the same. It is simply difference in how and when it is delivered. Some people prefer to have it bunched up, others prefer to have it dropped during a longer period of time. Simple as that.

What? xpac content = new gears, weapons, dungs, skills, new bosses, etc possibles races/classes.
When the heck has this bi-weekly update system produced something like that?
Majority of these bi-weekly updates are ONLY focused story + new gemstore stuff…. .its been 2 years and still haven’t seen anything remotely close to xpac like content being added to this game.

NA/EU playerbase has dwindled big time because of the lack of real content (xpac like) updates..Its been 2 years, this game needs it now more than ever and it shows.

How do we know it is dwindled? Is it your opinion or do you actually have proof? The game is 2 years old, what do you expect and it a B2P game? Without a sub, people are free to come and go as they want – there is no obligation to ‘get your money’s worth’ each month. Also, GW2 was recently released in China and it seems to be doing well there for a game with a business model that they are not used to.

GW1 had this same issue – the next game came out people would flock back – play until done and leave. The same thing would happen here as people would buy play until done and leave. If you are expecting anything different, you are sadly mistaken.

I’d rather have an expansion/campaign, that would be a whole lot of new skills, new professions, new lands (Cantha Elona) to explore (not one zone) and probably new dungeons.

Things that the free updates haven’t delivered so far.

Dusty Moon.4382:

SkiTz.4590:

lordkrall.7241:

I personally prefer to get new stuff every two weeks that lasts a few hours instead of waiting 6-12 months to get content that lasts a week or two.

The amount of content is probably more or less the same. It is simply difference in how and when it is delivered. Some people prefer to have it bunched up, others prefer to have it dropped during a longer period of time. Simple as that.

What? xpac content = new gears, weapons, dungs, skills, new bosses, etc possibles races/classes.
When the heck has this bi-weekly update system produced something like that?
Majority of these bi-weekly updates are ONLY focused story + new gemstore stuff…. .its been 2 years and still haven’t seen anything remotely close to xpac like content being added to this game.

NA/EU playerbase has dwindled big time because of the lack of real content (xpac like) updates..Its been 2 years, this game needs it now more than ever and it shows.

How do we know it is dwindled? Is it your opinion or do you actually have proof? The game is 2 years old, what do you expect and it a B2P game?Without a sub, people are free to come and go as they want – there is no obligation to ‘get your money’s worth’ each month.

GW1 had this same issue – the next game came out people would flock back – play until done and leave. The same thing would happen here.

dude its dwindled.
Why do you think Megaservers were implemented? There were a number of dead servers, this was basically a server merge when anet implemented megaservers. Why would you just now merge servers? because of how dead some of the servers are!

This game used to have more than just 500 freaking twitch viewers. Now it barely tops 1-2k for the biggest community hosted events or big pvp tourneys.

I agree with you that you aren’t obligated to keep playing, but I want to play it! unfortunately its become a dull for myself and many of my guildies. No one plays an MMO just to see a story being updated every couple weeks. We are just 1 update into LS2 so we’ll see where this goes… hopefully we see big changes soon

The system now works for me. As posted above just don’t log in for 6 months to a year and then buy everything, get the new car smell plus pay for expansion all at the same time. Those players that played the whole time get what they want as well.

SkiTz.4590:

What? xpac content = new gears, weapons, dungs, skills, new bosses, etc possibles races/classes.
When the heck has this bi-weekly update system produced something like that?
Majority of these bi-weekly updates are ONLY focused story + new gemstore stuff and tool tip updates LOL…. .its been 2 years and still haven’t seen anything remotely close to xpac like content being added to this game. By this time around, GW1 had factions and that xpac alone had more content added than what anet has added to GW2. And i mean NEWCONTENT , not some silly features and revamps to runes and terrible class balancing

NA/EU playerbase has dwindled big time because of the lack of real content (xpac like) updates..Its been 2 years, this game needs it now more than ever and it shows.

Hmm lets see:
New gear – check
New dungeons – check
New skills – check
New bosses – check.

So a grand total two of six from your list have yet to be released with the 2 week schedule.

You are also suggesting that Factions was an expansions, which is incorrect. It was a standalone game which was probably rather far along even before release of Prophecies.

SkiTz.4590:

Dusty Moon.4382:

SkiTz.4590:

lordkrall.7241:

I personally prefer to get new stuff every two weeks that lasts a few hours instead of waiting 6-12 months to get content that lasts a week or two.

The amount of content is probably more or less the same. It is simply difference in how and when it is delivered. Some people prefer to have it bunched up, others prefer to have it dropped during a longer period of time. Simple as that.

What? xpac content = new gears, weapons, dungs, skills, new bosses, etc possibles races/classes.
When the heck has this bi-weekly update system produced something like that?
Majority of these bi-weekly updates are ONLY focused story + new gemstore stuff…. .its been 2 years and still haven’t seen anything remotely close to xpac like content being added to this game.

NA/EU playerbase has dwindled big time because of the lack of real content (xpac like) updates..Its been 2 years, this game needs it now more than ever and it shows.

How do we know it is dwindled? Is it your opinion or do you actually have proof? The game is 2 years old, what do you expect and it a B2P game?Without a sub, people are free to come and go as they want – there is no obligation to ‘get your money’s worth’ each month.

GW1 had this same issue – the next game came out people would flock back – play until done and leave. The same thing would happen here.

dude its dwindled.
Why do you think Megaservers were implemented? There were a number of dead servers, this was basically a server merge when anet implemented megaservers. Why would you just now merge servers? because of how dead some of the servers are!

This game used to have more than just 500 freaking twitch viewers. Now it barely tops 1-2k for the biggest community hosted events or big pvp tourneys.

I agree with you that you aren’t obligated to keep playing, but I want to play it! unfortunately its become a dull for myself and many of my guildies. No one plays an MMO just to see a story being updated every couple weeks. We are just 1 update into LS2 so we’ll see where this goes… hopefully we see big changes soon

AHH, conspiracy theory reasoning. It is what it is. Every game dwindles after 2 years. Most dwindle after 1-3 months. As an example look at SWTOR and ESO prime examples. ESO is trying to change the bleeding of players and this is due to the fact they get most of their money from subs and the CS. If they don’t have them, they don’t have a game. The Business model of this game is that you paid for the game at the beginning, period – play as much as you want or don’t. You can always come back.

Honestly, why are people comparing LS2 to “Expansion”. No matter what LS2 or any LS 1, 3 or 4 updates will ever have the contents that Expansion deliver! PERIOD.

Riaky.8965:

Honestly, why are people comparing LS2 to “Expansion”. No matter what LS2 or any LS 1, 3 or 4 updates will ever have the contents that Expansion deliver! PERIOD.

Ever is a really really long time.

Vayne.8563:

Riaky.8965:

Honestly, why are people comparing LS2 to “Expansion”. No matter what LS2 or any LS 1, 3 or 4 updates will ever have the contents that Expansion deliver! PERIOD.

Ever is a really really long time.

“Diamond last forever”

Season 2 seems set to deliver a much more expansion like experience than S1 did. We are rumored to be getting a new zone or part of a zone every month for the whole season. That should work out to 5-6 new full zones by the end, which is the same as an expansion.

I suspect we will see new weapons and hopefully new skills soon as well. Though to be honest 1-2 new skills is all you see in an expansion anyway, so not sure what people expect there.

New class and new race… I would like to see these, but I don’t see them happening without an expansion. Sure it is possible, but it seems more like a pipe dream than a reality.

Hopefully we will see new dungeons soon. I think there is a great possibility to include them in this season, I just hope they are totally new and full dungeons. This one is more of a wait and see. I however don’t see why this would be expansion only. We already got 2 fractals and 1 dungeon path from S1. They should be able to pump out bigger and better dungeons now that they have their footing.

Vayne.8563:

Anet hasn’t said they’ll never come out with another profession. They haven’t said they won’t come out with another playable race. They haven’t even ruled out having an expansion.

Given how slow they’ve been to implement relatively simple things like class balance and new skills, why would anyone expect they’re going to add a new profession?

Given the costs of paying voice actors to voice a new race for an already outdated Personal Story, why would anyone expect they’re going to add a new playable race?

What you say is true, they haven’t ruled any of those things out. But neither have they given us any reason at all to believe any of those things will be added to the game.

Vayne.8563:

They’re STILL giving you living story. They are working on larger projects in the background, and have not yet decided how to deliver it.

They’ve supposedly been working on “larger projects” in the background since the game launched. I’m sure they’re working on projects of which they haven’t spoken, some of it they’d even deem “large” (the last features patch, for example), but the “larger projects” thing is nothing more than PR speak designed to placate and string along players who are growing increasingly antsy.

Vayne.8563:

This content isn’t being provided instead of an expansion. It’s just being provided.

If the two options for expanding the game are in small, free installments or large, paid blocks and the company has decided to eschew the latter in lieu of the former, then yes, that very much looks to be a case of “providing this instead of that”.

darkace.8925:

Vayne.8563:

Anet hasn’t said they’ll never come out with another profession. They haven’t said they won’t come out with another playable race. They haven’t even ruled out having an expansion.

Given how slow they’ve been to implement relatively simple things like class balance and new skills, why would anyone expect they’re going to add a new profession?

Given the costs of paying voice actors to voice a new race for an already outdated Personal Story, why would anyone expect they’re going to add a new playable race?

What you say is true, they haven’t ruled any of those things out. But neither have they given us any reason at all to believe any of those things will be added to the game.

Vayne.8563:

They’re STILL giving you living story. They are working on larger projects in the background, and have not yet decided how to deliver it.

They’ve supposedly been working on “larger projects” in the background since the game launched. I’m sure they’re working on projects of which they haven’t spoken, some of it they’d even deem “large” (the last features patch, for example), but the “larger projects” thing is nothing more than PR speak designed to placate and string along players who are growing increasingly antsy.

Vayne.8563:

This content isn’t being provided instead of an expansion. It’s just being provided.

If the two options for expanding the game are in small, free installments or large, paid blocks and the company has decided to eschew the latter in lieu of the former, then yes, that very much looks to be a case of “providing this instead of that”.

Yep and you haven’t seen larger projects. I suppose you think Edge of the Mists is nothing. I get you don’t like the game, but saying they haven’t done is demonstrably wrong.

People keep saying they’ve had two years. They’ve had two years. Well, you know, many MMOs have expansions every two years…but they don’t always launch in China in between. I strongly suspect that the timing of things is quite intentional (as you’d think it would be). They’ll have an expansion about a year after the China release. There was no point in releasing it before.

Business release stuff when it makes sense to release them from a business perspective.

2 weeks of patches are better than expansion per year. Especially a game like GW2, that has no proper end game in PVE and has repetitive and boring PvP/WvW, suffers hardly without new updates.

lordkrall.7241:

I personally prefer to get new stuff every two weeks that lasts a few hours instead of waiting 6-12 months to get content that lasts a week or two.

The amount of content is probably more or less the same. It is simply difference in how and when it is delivered. Some people prefer to have it bunched up, others prefer to have it dropped during a longer period of time. Simple as that.

It’s not as simple as that. Even if the quantify of content is the same either way, the quality isn’t. The were a lot – and I do mean a LOT – of serious bug in the first season of the Living Story that slipped past an overtaxed QA department. Then there’s things like our Player Characters going voiceless because the the two week release schedule couldn’t accommodate ten different voice actors. A two week release schedule just doesn’t afford the developers the time to ensure the level of polish is where it otherwise could be.

^ what he said, everytime the 2 weeks content release we have like 10 new builds after just to fixed bugs on the first day.

Vayne.8563:

Yep and you haven’t seen larger projects.

How do you know? How do you know Fractals of the Mists, the currency wallet, and Edge of the Mists weren’t the big projects to which they were referring? How do you know the release of the game in China wasn’t the big project to which they were referring? You don’t. And neither do I. That’s why “big projects behind the scenes” works so well as PR speak.

Vayne.8563:

I suppose you think Edge of the Mists is nothing.

You’re putting words in my mouth. No, worse than that…you’re twisting my words completely. Frankly, I thought you were better than that.

Vayne.8563:

I get you don’t like the game, but saying they haven’t done is demonstrably wrong.

A. If I didn’t like the game, I sure as hell wouldn’t be wasting my time on these forums. That I’m displeased with the direction the game has taken since release doesn’t mean everything I originally loved about the game is undone, and it doesn’t mean I should abandon any hope of the game returning to its former glory.

B. What have I said that is demonstrably wrong?

Vayne.8563:

People keep saying they’ve had two years. They’ve had two years. Well, you know, many MMOs have expansions every two years…but they don’t always launch in China in between. I strongly suspect that the timing of things is quite intentional (as you’d think it would be). They’ll have an expansion about a year after the China release. There was no point in releasing it before.

The release of the game in China is great for the developers and the publisher, but it doesn’t change the fact that the game has gone almost two years without many of the features players expect when they’re promised* an expansion worth of content.

• Let’s please refrain from yet another argument over the semantics of “promise”.

Vayne.8563:

Business release stuff when it makes sense to release them from a business perspective.

Sure, but miscalculations can and do happen in the business world.

darkace.8925:

Vayne.8563:

Yep and you haven’t seen larger projects.

How do you know? How do you know Fractals of the Mists, the currency wallet, and Edge of the Mists weren’t the big projects to which they were referring? How do you know the release of the game in China wasn’t the big project to which they were referring? You don’t. And neither do I. That’s why “big projects behind the scenes” works so well as PR speak.

Vayne.8563:

I suppose you think Edge of the Mists is nothing.

You’re putting words in my mouth. No, worse than that…you’re twisting my words completely. Frankly, I thought you were better than that.

Vayne.8563:

I get you don’t like the game, but saying they haven’t done is demonstrably wrong.

A. If I didn’t like the game, I sure as hell wouldn’t be wasting my time on these forums. That I’m displeased with the direction the game has taken since release doesn’t mean everything I originally loved about the game is undone, and it doesn’t mean I should abandon any hope of the game returning to its former glory.

B. What have I said that is demonstrably wrong? If you’re going to call me a liar, you’d kitten ed well better be have cause to do so.

Vayne.8563:

People keep saying they’ve had two years. They’ve had two years. Well, you know, many MMOs have expansions every two years…but they don’t always launch in China in between. I strongly suspect that the timing of things is quite intentional (as you’d think it would be). They’ll have an expansion about a year after the China release. There was no point in releasing it before.

The release of the game in China is great for the developers and the publisher, but it doesn’t change the fact that the game has gone almost two years without many of the features players expect when they’re promised* an expansion worth of content.

• Let’s please refrain from yet another argument over the semantics of “promise”.

Vayne.8563:

Business release stuff when it makes sense to release them from a business perspective.

Sure, but miscalculations can and do happen in the business.

You’re so jaded on this game,. you don’t even see what you’re doing.

So you think they created Edge of the Mists and completely stopped. They’re not working on anything but living story. You have no evidence of this, you’re just presuming it. It’s a guess. Because you’re down on the game.

That’s how things work. You come out with something, you move to the next project. If you don’t believe that they’re working on anything, that’s absolutely fine. I remember lots of people saying they’re working on nothing before EoTM came out. Hell, even the journal is something that’s a big project they were working on that provides a lot of potential for the game to grow in new ways.

They’re still building the architecture. The megaserver was a big project. You think they’re just going to take everyone who worked on everything prior and put them all on the personal story?

I think over the course of time, you’ll find out otherwise.

“They’re still building the architecture.”

If you stop defending Anet like you are defending your parents from evil thieves, you will understand how funny this sentence is.

If this system is not %100 ready, why did they force this MEGACRAP on us? Couldn’t they just turn several maps (one map from each level+one city map) and test their system? Or maybe for one week, they could change every map to a megaserver, collect data and then return to the old system until they could do everything perfect?

Phoenixlin.8624:

“They’re still building the architecture.”

If you stop defending Anet like you are defending your parents from evil thieves, you will understand how funny this sentence is.

If this system is not %100 ready, why did they force this MEGACRAP on us? Couldn’t they just turn several maps (one map from each level+one city map) and test their system? Or maybe for one week, they could change every map to a megaserver, collect data and then return to the old system until they could do everything perfect?

Yes, you don’t like the game. I get that.

MMOs are constantly building and adding new architecture. When they stop,. the game dies. WoW is going back to basic character models now? Because you have to keep working on stuff and updating stuff.

Love the mega server. Wish they’d done it sooner. Happy that they finally did it. Not a moment too soon. Completely revitalized the game. Great idea. Love it.

And it came out with the wardrobe and account bound dyes. Now they have the journal. It’s amazing how people ignore stuff they don’t like. These are all major projects. More will be coming.

You might not like them. That does happen, unfortunately. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that MMOs constantly build their own architecture. They add housing. They add mounted combat. They add PvP types.

And in some cases those major changes sink the game (as happened with Star Wars Galaxies).

But I’m relatively sure that’s not the case so far with Guild Wars 2. Time will tell.

Vayne.8563:

You’re so jaded on this game,. you don’t even see what you’re doing.

I could just as easily say to you “you’re so enthralled with this game you don’t even see what you’re doing,” but I’d rather discuss the actual game than play armchair psychiatrist. Now then, I’m still waiting for you to show me where I said something demonstrably wrong.

darkace.8925:

Vayne.8563:

You’re so jaded on this game,. you don’t even see what you’re doing.

I could just as easily say to you “you’re so enthralled with this game you don’t even see what you’re doing,” but I’d rather discuss the actual game than play armchair psychiatrist. Now then, I’m still waiting for you to show me where I said something demonstrably wrong.

Except I’m not enthralled. People keep saying it, and it continues to be wrong. To be fair-minded is not to be enthralled.

It’s not that you said anything “wrong”. You said something that seems to go against what we’ve been seeing. We’ve seen a constant flood of “big” projects all along, whether you like them or you count them as big or not. And most of them were completely unanticipated. No one anticipated the Fractals. They came out of nowhere. They just showed up one day. Getting rid of culling was a huge project, but it’s done. The wallet. EotM. The new path of TA (which I think is one of the best dungeons in the game).

And because some of the stuff was temporary, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t big projects. The destruction of LA was pretty big. The marionette fight too. These were great things. They’re not here anymore, but Anet has now said that the LS season 2 stuff would remain.

The thing is, the big projects keep coming and people keep doubting. They say stuff like maybe this is the big project they were talking about. Anet hasn’t had any mass lay offs. We’d have heard about it. Anet is still hiring.

So, in my mind, if they’ve already been coming out with stuff, they’re going to keep coming out with stuff. It’s much more reasonable than saying they won’t. I’m seeing what they’re doing and figuring they’ll continue.

You’re seeing what they’re doing and figuring they’ll just stop. Based on what?

I’m skipping most of the thread, so I can give my answer without getting sidetracked by something else. Apologies if someone beat me to this.

I would rather have an expansion. Why? Quality. Let me compare Dry Top and Queensdale (to use a zone I think most players know fairly well) to explain what I mean:

Dry Top is a good area. Maybe even awesome. But it’s small. Why? Most of us seem to agree that it’s only part of the zone, and we’ll be getting the rest of it in installments as the story goes on. I’m going to take a guess and say it will be 6 installments, separated out over the course of LS2. Sounds good, right? New zone in the LS, we just get it in parts.

But that’s the problem, it’s in parts. This requires designing a zone that is broken up into smaller parts. Nothing in Part A can require Part B because Part B won’t be out yet when Part A goes live. And the zone can’t be wide open, there have to be pinch points where progress can be cut off to keep us from getting further into the zone than we’re supposed to at any point.

Now, look at Queensdale. There’s a zone that has a few pinch points, but only small areas (bandit caves) can be cut off from access. Mostly, it’s a fairly open zone with plenty of freedom as to where you go. Picture what they would have to do if they wanted to break it into 6 installment parts. It’s not pretty, and it pretty much wrecks the whole feel of the zone, right?

This is the real problem with the LS versus an expansion, the need to break things down into smaller updates. The need to make things fit into a smaller updates instead of releasing it all at once is a limitation on what they can pull off, and I’m sure it applies to more than just zones. LS2 Ep1’s plot had a very clear break in the plot, for example, to allow for people to stop at that point. It seems like a good stopping point at first, until you realize our characters would (most likely) NOT just stop there for a while. Again, it’s a break they’ve been forced to build into things to accommodate the LS style of updates.

This is the main reason why I think an expansion would be better.

I would prefer a ‘proper’ expansion to living story. I am happy to pay for it, even upto $60 (same price as orginal game) for a real sizable chunk of content which is of the same standard quality wise as the original GW2 release. Ideally, it would be 60% PvE, 20% WvW and 20% PvP content split, something new for all areas of the game.

But, I accept Anet had no real choice but to go ahead with living story season 2.

Why? Because when a expansion is released, which it eventually will be, its better to release it worldwide, including in China. With the game just releasing in China, it was impossible to have a paid expansion being released as well. But this time next year or even slightly earlier, I think a expansion will be announced for everyone.

So, we just after ‘live’ with living story till then…

Derigar.7810:

Honestly, how many of you would’ve rather seen an expansion pack?

Living story gives us:
- Free updates
- Every 2 or so weeks
- Small amount of content

An expansion pack gives us
- Paid update
- All updates in one big batch
- Massive amount of content

Now, I don’t want to sound like an ungrateful person, but I’d rather have paid for an expansion pack.

If Anet came out tomorrow and said “we’re scrapping the entire Living Story concept and we are going to release an expansion in 2015”, all the Expansion chanters would be here complaining about having to wait 10 months for new content, instead of celebrating getting what they want.

Riaky.8965:

Taygus.4571:

jiust log in once every 2 weeks, ..don’t play. in 6 months time, then play. Should have “lots of content” then.

to burn through in a few days, just as you would with an expansion.

That is not true, every 2 weeks content can finish in less than 2 hours so if u do the math for 6 months thats like 12 hours to finish all the 2 weeks contents. But if it was “Expansion” contents then it would last for months

Twenty-six hours.

How long was this game in development, what should be in an expansion, and how long do you think the expansion should take to develop?

Gotta love how you smuggled new races and professions into the second option, just to give it a leg up. I know that’s the format those features usually come in, but if ArenaNet is serious about not releasing a boxed expansion then they can surely find the right way to bring such things into the game by alternate means.

All things being equal, I would much rather play an MMORPG with regular, sustained updates, than one that has a handful of larger expansions over the years but is mostly stagnant the rest of the time. Also, a game that depends on a cash shop for sustained income does not benefit from a model where players blitz through an expansion in a couple months and then leave.

Why assume that if ArenaNet weren’t doing Living Story, we would suddenly be getting new races and professions instead? They should release such things when they have enough ideas for them to make it worthwhile, not just “because it’s a box expansion and it’s expected.”

Vayne.8563:

Except I’m not enthralled. People keep saying it, and it continues to be wrong. To be fair-minded is not to be enthralled.

They aren’t wrong.

So I shouldn’t tell you I have over 7000 hours logged…gotcha.

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

Except I’m not enthralled. People keep saying it, and it continues to be wrong. To be fair-minded is not to be enthralled.

They aren’t wrong.

So I shouldn’t tell you I have over 7000 hours logged…gotcha.

Oh look, another person who adds 2 plus 2 together and gets 87. It doesn’t work that way.

Most of the time is AFK. The game is open mostly to chat with guildies. While I do other stuff around the house. Hardly the same as saying I’m enthralled.

Now I will say I do like my guildies. So I chat with them in guild chat between stuff going on in real life.

That makes me enthralled the game somehow? LMFAO.

FYI, 2 + 2 = 4.
Next, you’ll tell me you don’t farm! Ha, ha.

Vayne.8563:

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

Except I’m not enthralled. People keep saying it, and it continues to be wrong. To be fair-minded is not to be enthralled.

They aren’t wrong.

So I shouldn’t tell you I have over 7000 hours logged…gotcha.

Oh look, another person who adds 2 plus 2 together and gets 87. It doesn’t work that way.

Most of the time is AFK. The game is open mostly to chat with guildies. While I do other stuff around the house. Hardly the same as saying I’m enthralled.

Now I will say I do like my guildies. So I chat with them in guild chat between stuff going on in real life.

That makes me enthralled the game somehow? LMFAO.

More involved with guildies as friends, makes the game much more fun. It is easier to play and relax that way, compared with a bunch of strangers.