Guild Wars 2

MokahTGS.7850:

Boanoah.6719:

MokahTGS.7850:

Statements like in the OP just don’t seem to make sense and really just need to be ignored. HoT is a B2P expansion…it requires you to buy it to play the content. There aren’t any MMOs that release B2P expansions that work any differently.

GW2 is NOT F2P…never has been, never will be. It is B2P. They will continue to work on content for all areas of the game…they even have said as much in all of the interviews so far. There are pictures of Mastery’s for the vanilla part of the game…they are adding content to the vanilla part of the game…they said that there will be adventures added to ALL parts of the game…there is PvP and WvW content being added to the vanilla part of the game…just do your research and then buy the expansion…why?

Because you like the vanilla part of the game and you want to support ANet making more content. If you don’t agree, fine…don’t buy it, but please stop QQing about how your ball is being taken away from you…it’s not…in fact your being given a bunch of free new balls on top of the opportunity to buy a new playground to play in.

Some people…

I swear some people don’t read before responding.

PvE is not getting any ‘new balls’, all updates to the world will be happening in Maguuma, the living world [which brought us such great hits as season 1 and season 2 of the living story as well as Silverwastes, Drytop, Tequatl Rising, Toxic Alliance, Flame & Frost, the Karka Invasion, the destructio of Lion’s Arch and any such map updates] will no longer be happening in Pact Tyria.

The world of Pact Tyria, the game as it is now, will no longer be changing with updates to the Living World, there will be no Living Story seasons for vanilla players to engage in.

“The world will be as it is today.”

So you definition of new balls only includes Living World story…ok…then we don’t have anything to debate since I use a different definition that includes all content added to the game.

Collin stated that the LW story will be HoT dependent and that completely and totally makes sense. You might not like it, but it does not mean that the vanilla game won’t have new content added (new balls). Just not new story.

If that is what you are QQing about, then fine…just know that most people do not agree that GW2 should move forward the way you want.

In an MMORPG what content could we get without any story developments or changes to the world? Dungeons are story related, maps have only had story related changes, even event changes have been story related to a degree [Tequatl Rising being the best one I can think of.]

The Living World is what we can thank for Lion’s Arch being destroyed, for the Silverwastes and Drytop being opened, new events happening, new developments to the world. All of that is the Living World and our ability to interact in those changes is the Living Story, both are being focused entirely in Maguuma.

We will probably see basic class updates and tweaks as normal, maybe new weapons and armors, but the actual content with participation in PvE will not be changing in Pact Tyria.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Perhaps, OP, you should watch this interview and listen to what other Devs have to say, including the Lead Game Designer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ucihndtkmcs

It’s a bit of a different story. /shrug

He didn’t mention anything concrete, just examples of what they’ve done and a general sort of “I’m not really sure but I doubt we won’t” response overall. He named PvP and WvW which we know won’t be gated, however what we have heard on the subject of PvE is that it will be gated.

I’m sorry, but that doesn’t paint a different story from what I heard.

“I think we would be doing a disservice to our game if we didn’t go back and revisit places. We have already done that in the past….”

He also said, “Your question is what about stuff going foward?…I think the Development Team hasn’t totally solidified all of their plans of what are the next releases…Are they Living World stories, are they Living World stories exclusively just in the Jungle? I think they want to keep their options open, and that’s an honest answer.”

Lol, you should know by now things are never set in stone with Guild Wars 2. I don’t see the problem, but I hope you find a way to find some entertainment value in whatever happens in the future.

Good luck.

How else could it be done though? Should the living story episodes set in the new areas and cities be placed in old Tyria instead? Should those who didn’t buy the expansion have access to the new areas to play them? It’s the nature of an expansion that the story is gated behind it. Does WoW, for example, have the current expansion’s story available to non purchasers?

It’s also possible that the old Tyria will have updates and a living story arc relating to events there. They could have a living story about the rebuilding of Lions Arch for example. There could be one about searching for Sylvari spies for Mordremoth in old Tyria. Just because season 3 will be in the new area doesn’t mean the old one will be abandoned. It’s to ANet’s advantage to keep customers happy.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

How else could it be done though? Should the living story episodes set in the new areas and cities be placed in old Tyria instead? Should those who didn’t buy the expansion have access to the new areas to play them? It’s the nature of an expansion that the story is gated behind it. Does WoW, for example, have the current expansion’s story available to non purchasers?

It’s also possible that the old Tyria will have updates and a living story arc relating to events there. They could have a living story about the rebuilding of Lions Arch for example. There could be one about searching for Sylvari spies for Mordremoth in old Tyria. Just because season 3 will be in the new area doesn’t mean the old one will be abandoned. It’s to ANet’s advantage to keep customers happy.

Again I have to say: “I have no problems with content that happens in Maguuma being locked to Maguuma, if Living Story 3 happens entirely in Maguuma it shouldn’t be available to vanilla players.”

The problem is that the Living World and all it’s updates will be gated to HoT/Maguuma, which means that the core world will not be changing. The majority of content that has happened in GW2 to this point has been LW/LS dependent, the current dungeons we have are PS dependent.

With the expansion, according to Collin, the LW and LS will be dependent on having the expansion, all updates to both will be gated to the expansion from that point onwards. As a result, no LW and no LS means that Pact Tyria, the game as we know it now, will not be changing from that point onwards. No more LS chapters for vanilla players, not season 4, 5, 6, whatever, they will all be gated to expansion owners only, any vanilla players in PvE will be locked to the current content and only the current content.

PvP and WvW however will still be getting 100% free updates including a new game mode and maps.

Imagine if Dry Top and Silverwastes were locked behind an expansion. It’ll probably be as simple as that. You can do some parts of season 2, but you wouldn’t be able to enter those zones. The old world doesn’t get updated anymore because they stopped doing temporary content due to complaints. The days of season 1 and its truer vision of a living world are dead.

If however season 3 is available with the expansion, it will likely be the “personal story” of the expansion. If this is the case, it will actually be locked behind the expansion as content you’ve purchased, in the same was the original personal story (season 0) was.

Boanoah.6719:

It was confirmed by Colin in an interview that all Living Story segments, events, and updates will be gated behind the expansion. Nothing like the attack on Lion’s Arch, the Toxic Alliance, or the Silverwastes/Drytop will be coming out for vanilla players to interact with.

If you enjoy PvE but can’t get the expansion for a while you may as well quit or start playing WvW or PvP since neither of those are apparently being gated.

How do you guys feel about this? Is it justified that from this point on everything will be happening in Maguuma? It’s pretty much guaranteed to isolate the community between HoT and not so how will that affect PvE in general? If there’s a new hub in the jungles it’s likely that a majority of players will simply leave ‘Pact Tyria’ in the dust like ANet is doing.

I hope you enjoy doing the exact same content you’ve been doing already, because without HoT you get nothing from this point onwards.

Discuss.

How I feel about this? Anet has provided free updates for over 2.5years for the initial purchase price. Time for the playerbase that have been riding the freebie train to pony up in support of the game and the people involved that have provided such great entertainment. If $30-50 (assumed xpac cost) is too much with such a distance between now and release that Anet is providing maybe those players should reevaluate their priorities and how pc gaming plays into that.

I admit I feel unmoved by the thought of old Tyria not having Living Story updates after the expansion drops. I’ll be playing in the new zone and doing the updates there. That is where the war against the new dragon will be fought. Old Tyria will be behind the frontline and will be quiet, unless of course Mordremoth flanks the troops and hits the old area again, causing the living story to return in order to deal with it.

It’s a living world at war. The battlefields will shift as time goes by and old battlefields will be quiet.

Really, the only people to whom this will be an actual concern is those veteran players who don’t buy the expansion.

As a new player, I am not even sure how the Living story stuff works yet, lol.

I don’t get it… why make this difference? why… “Old Tyria” and “New Map” ? WTH?

“Old Tyria” is huge and we still have lots to do there, dungeons, farming, jumping puzzles…i highly doubt you did everything to do there.

And even if you did, so what? why do you cry so much about “old map” not having updates…it will most problably have. They stated that they like to revisit old locations.

But it only makes sense that at the beggining they will focus on the maguma jungle, why? to try and get more players to buy the expansion. And for all of those out there that scream “It’s not right…we want freedom and justince and equality…we want the expansion stuff but we don’t want to pay for the actual expansion” Kitten you, do you know what’s requited to develop a game, and maintain it, and keep working on it? money…

OFC they want as many players as possible to buy the Vanilla Game and the Expansion, that’s how it works.

OP get over yourself, as that annoying song tought us “Let it go” and as Barney Stinson tought us “New is always better”

EDIT: also why wouldn’t you want to explore this new zone as much as possible? We’ve had “Old Tyria” for 2.5 years…it’s time to explore something new…Even as a species, we humans keep exploring, first all the lands, then the sea, and even the space….it’s natural to explore and sometimes leave behind what you call “home”

Boanoah.6719:

It was confirmed by Colin in an interview that all Living Story segments, events, and updates will be gated behind the expansion. Nothing like the attack on Lion’s Arch, the Toxic Alliance, or the Silverwastes/Drytop will be coming out for vanilla players to interact with.

If you enjoy PvE but can’t get the expansion for a while you may as well quit or start playing WvW or PvP since neither of those are apparently being gated.

How do you guys feel about this? Is it justified that from this point on everything will be happening in Maguuma? It’s pretty much guaranteed to isolate the community between HoT and not so how will that affect PvE in general? If there’s a new hub in the jungles it’s likely that a majority of players will simply leave ‘Pact Tyria’ in the dust like ANet is doing.

I hope you enjoy doing the exact same content you’ve been doing already, because without HoT you get nothing from this point onwards.

Discuss.

Could someone please clarify this for me? I have barely played in the last 6 months to a year… if I get the expansion…what does this mean for me?

Edit: I just re-read…and yeah I agree with everyone else. This is how most other games handle their expansions. If you didn’t pay for the expansion, you still expect to zone into Maguuma?

However… the one issue I will have with this is the idea behind living story and thus gating future content updates behind the expansion.

Living world… living breathing world. If you don’t buy the expansion, your living world ceases to be living. And no to mention, the world is bigger than one zone. So the sound of the phrase ‘living world’ is funny, when all that is changing is one zone when the expansion comes out.

But again…bills must be paid and this is a traditional thing to do with expansions.

as i understand the hunt for the new dragon takes place in the expansion areas, which makes sense. what i cant see is that nothing happens in old tyria or other living stories will go to another direction, f.e. crystal waste.

i think it will go this way in the future, one or two living stories to introduce the new dragon avaiable for everyone and after this the main part as an expansion.

#cesmode, even if you don’t buy the expansion, you still get a lot of freebies, that’s more that other games give you.

Also, ofc the story will return to “Old Tyria” cause it’s huge,and it would be a waste not to. It doesn’t make sense to go from “Old Tyria, New zone, Newer zone linked ONLY to the previews new zone” it doesn’t make sense. What will ANet do? teleport the dragons around? so they will avoid “Old Tyria?”

2 words; Bigger Picture

cesmode.4257:

Boanoah.6719:

It was confirmed by Colin in an interview that all Living Story segments, events, and updates will be gated behind the expansion. Nothing like the attack on Lion’s Arch, the Toxic Alliance, or the Silverwastes/Drytop will be coming out for vanilla players to interact with.

If you enjoy PvE but can’t get the expansion for a while you may as well quit or start playing WvW or PvP since neither of those are apparently being gated.

How do you guys feel about this? Is it justified that from this point on everything will be happening in Maguuma? It’s pretty much guaranteed to isolate the community between HoT and not so how will that affect PvE in general? If there’s a new hub in the jungles it’s likely that a majority of players will simply leave ‘Pact Tyria’ in the dust like ANet is doing.

I hope you enjoy doing the exact same content you’ve been doing already, because without HoT you get nothing from this point onwards.

Discuss.

Could someone please clarify this for me? I have barely played in the last 6 months to a year… if I get the expansion…what does this mean for me?

Edit: I just re-read…and yeah I agree with everyone else. This is how most other games handle their expansions. If you didn’t pay for the expansion, you still expect to zone into Maguuma?

However… the one issue I will have with this is the idea behind living story and thus gating future content updates behind the expansion.

Living world… living breathing world. If you don’t buy the expansion, your living world ceases to be living. And no to mention, the world is bigger than one zone. So the sound of the phrase ‘living world’ is funny, when all that is changing is one zone when the expansion comes out.

But again…bills must be paid and this is a traditional thing to do with expansions.

I might be wrong about this but the real living world is different from a virtual living world in that the real one doesn’t require paying hundreds of people to make content. The real living world also doesn’t need to have a single smoothly flowing story line that is coherent, doesn’t divide the player base and doesn’t confuse people with multiple ongoing story lines.

(Imo, most people in the real living world are confused enough about multiple ongoing story lines around them and don’t need it in game also),

Because clearly a game should cater to people that do not support the game.

/thread.

Zypher.7609:

Because clearly a game should cater to people that do not support the game.

/thread.

Reread the opening post, or maybe read the thread, I personally support ANet with gem store purchases since I have gotten the game.

Not buying an expansion =/= Doesn’t support the developer

This isn’t even the issue at hand, reading comprehension must be pretty low if several people are more than ready to assume anyone without the expansion is some kind of parasite.

Not dead. Undead! Because Revenants! And zombies shall walk the land once more…

For the duration of the expansion? Sure, I expect all content releases—including anything having to do with the Living Story—will involve Maguuma. They have to recoup development costs somehow, and pushing people into playing (and possibly buying) the needed content requirements does this.

When they actually start working towards a -new- expansion with a new foe? Then I imagine the Living Story will switch from Maguuma to wherever is closest. Meaning people who didn’t buy HoT (for whatever reason) will probably get to experience that again.

As for leaving “old Tyria” in the dust: well, we kinda do that already. Barring, say, Tequatl or Triple Trouble? Most of the content is either instanced or focused on the new areas they’ve introduced. There’ll always be people doing said content, though, to make their legendaries or level an alt, especially with the introduction of Precursors as a Mastery gain.

And to add to my growing list of edits: why would Lion’s Arch—a city that’s open to anybody—be restricted at all ‘cause of HoT? If anything, it’ll just be a patch that suddenly changes how the city looks for everybody. No event, just a notifier saying “Hey, we updated it!”

This isn’t the definite death of the Living World forever, just the suspension of it until HoT is done—it’s best to -not- read into everything a developer says as “Word of God.” They’re fallible, after all, and they’ve shown they don’t always come off as clear as they think.

Actually you will be able to play the new PvP type and you will be able to experience the new maps in WvW. So if you enjoy those gameplay modes, there’ll be new stuff even if you don’t buy the expansion.

I hope at least vanilla players can access guild bases, because it will suck hard if they are going to wilfully segregate guild feature access

I Don’t see why people will be having trouble saving money for the expansion you can just it with ingame gold its months away just save 10g everyday till you got 4-6k+ gems saved up and you should have enough or close to it. Since the expansion is buyable with gems.

Shevek.2691:

And to add to my growing list of edits: why would Lion’s Arch—a city that’s open to anybody—be restricted at all ‘cause of HoT? If anything, it’ll just be a patch that suddenly changes how the city looks for everybody. No event, just a notifier saying “Hey, we updated it!”

Well, herein lies the problem – because if Colin actually meant what he said, it will just not happen. Because LA is in core content, and that gets “frozen in time”.

It’s not a problem just for people that do not buy an expansion. I am (at the moment) planning to buy it, for example, but i’d rather HoT expanded the game, and not just moved it to new areas, leaving old ones abandoned. That would be a bad move, and would run contrary to the original idea that assumed that players will continue to revisit low level areas and that the whole game will be the endgame. Not just HoT.

I don’t want to be limited to just the new 3-4 zones until the next expansion hits. I don’t want to see the rest of the world becoming dead. And it has nothing to do with me “wanting something for free” (since, as i have already said, i will be buying HoT).

bobjoelol.5163:

I Don’t see why people will be having trouble saving money for the expansion you can just it with ingame gold its months away just save 10g everyday till you got 4-6k+ gems saved up and you should have enough or close to it. Since the expansion is buyable with gems.

We don’t know that it’s buyable with gems, there has been no statement to that effect. If there has, please link it, I’m sure many people on tight budgets would love to know they don’t have to piggy bank some real money to get ready.

in GW1 you can only play war in kryta if you have the first chapter, this was added well after GW was first released and well after the other two chapters were released and expansion.
i don’t think the old is going to be dead……if Anet does it smart ofcouse.

. . . weird name for the topic when that’s not the actual topic of the discussion, from what I can tell.

Also, really curious as to how you got that from what I watched . . . so far as I can tell, the Living Story is now the parts in the Story Journal while the rest of the updates are divorced from that and happen separately. You can still get into the Silverwastes without needing “Point of No Return”.

Astralporing.1957:

Shevek.2691:

And to add to my growing list of edits: why would Lion’s Arch—a city that’s open to anybody—be restricted at all ‘cause of HoT? If anything, it’ll just be a patch that suddenly changes how the city looks for everybody. No event, just a notifier saying “Hey, we updated it!”

Well, herein lies the problem – because if Colin actually meant what he said, it will just not happen. Because LA is in core content, and that gets “frozen in time”.

It’s not a problem just for people that do not buy an expansion. I am (at the moment) planning to buy it, for example, but i’d rather HoT expanded the game, and not just moved it to new areas, leaving old ones abandoned. That would be a bad move, and would run contrary to the original idea that assumed that players will continue to revisit low level areas and that the whole game will be the endgame. Not just HoT.

I don’t want to be limited to just the new 3-4 zones until the next expansion hits. I don’t want to see the rest of the world becoming dead. And it has nothing to do with me “wanting something for free” (since, as i have already said, i will be buying HoT).

Thing is, didn’t they confirm that LA would eventually get an update?

As for old areas being dead: I think that’s why the second part of the Mastery System—specifically the part about Precursors—is called “Pact Tyria” (at the moment). It’s supposed to encourage you to go back and replay the old content. The other part of this? HoT is supposedly their “framework” expansion for what’s to come. Which could mean any number of things.

So, yeah. Right now? I can see why people might be worried— but on the same token, I can also see there’s points where people might be overreacting. The expansion is, by and large, focused on what the Living Story has been alluding and building up to—the Maguuma Jungle. So it makes sense that we’ll be spending a bit of time there.

Once we’re -done- with Mordremoth? I imagine we’ll then spend more time along the borders of wherever the next threat is with a blend of LS seasons 1 and 2 styled content.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

. . . weird name for the topic when that’s not the actual topic of the discussion, from what I can tell.

Also, really curious as to how you got that from what I watched . . . so far as I can tell, the Living Story is now the parts in the Story Journal while the rest of the updates are divorced from that and happen separately. You can still get into the Silverwastes without needing “Point of No Return”.

That’s the Living World vs the Living Story.

The world changing and advancing is LW, this is what brought about the fall of Lion’s Arch, the opening of the Silverwastes and Drytop, as well as the changes we saw from the Toxic Alliance and Scarlet’s meddling. The LS on the other hand is the overall narrative for those events and how we interact with them.

The LS is dependent on the LW in some aspects and the same is true in reverse.

Voting Kiel or Evon was an example of how the LS impacted the LW, Kiel was voted in and the council didn’t listen to her, this is what made Lion’s Arch such an easy target for Scarlet. If Evon had won it’s likely the city would’ve been better armed/guarded for the invasion so that events may have played out slightly different. It’s likely Lion’s Arch would still be destroyed however, just with more guard NPCs hanging around.

Further, as you said, a player can get into the Silverwastes without owning season 2 or interacting with the LS. You don’t need to participate in the LS to interact with the LW much like in real life, the world changes even if you don’t engage in the how or why it changes. That said it seems that the LW and LS are both being focused entirely within Maguuma and all future updates are apparently being gated to expansion owners.

That means no more changing world or narrative for vanilla players.

It is possible that that decision may change or that Collin didn’t quite mean what was said. However just going off what he said it seems that the team is shifting to an expansion-centric model.

In which case, yes, Pact Tyria is effectively dead unless you buy the expansion.

While the “old” maps won’t have updates, surely they won’t die out. People aren’t suddently going to stop killing world bosses, doing dungeons, guild missions, farming, etc. I’m 100% ok with future updates being applied to expansion owners only.

People could afford to buy GW2. People could afford a gaming computer and internet bill. I think very few will be unable to obtain the expansion. I’m sure there are many with a close knit group of friends who would be willing to chip in if one couldn’t afford it. We have had several weeks to save up for it, too. Save $5 per week and you can get the expansion when it comes out.

I’m more interested in how the new skills will affect PvP as far as player with expansion vs without.

More likely several months.

Guess this depends on how much the expansion adds and how much it costs. I get the sense it’ll be a couple new maps and a class and new specializations given that all the content upgrades to date have had very little real content.

I do not consider a new class or a new weapon for each class to be true new content. If this expansion is going to work it needs new maps and new dungeons first and foremost. A LOT of them. otherwise it’s just “here play the same kitten but on a new character!” we’ve all already played the old content on the existing 8 or whatever classes we dont’ care.

Also how much is this expansion going to be? it seems very light on content so far so anything over $30 is way too much imo for what we’ve seen. $20 seems more suited.

This will decide how split the playerbase is. Few people will pay for an expansion that doesn’t provide significant new stuff. I only came back for the expansion when i heard about it and if it ends up being small i’ll leave again.

i don’t particularly care that everything new will focus on the expansion because that’s what it is. you buy the vanilla game and get the vanilla game. that’s kinda how it works.

vespers.1759:

Guess this depends on how much the expansion adds and how much it costs. I get the sense it’ll be a couple new maps and a class and new specializations given that all the content upgrades to date have had very little real content.

I do not consider a new class or a new weapon for each class to be true new content. If this expansion is going to work it needs new maps and new dungeons first and foremost. A LOT of them. otherwise it’s just “here play the same kitten but on a new character!” we’ve all already played the old content on the existing 8 or whatever classes we dont’ care.

Also how much is this expansion going to be? it seems very light on content so far so anything over $30 is way too much imo for what we’ve seen. $20 seems more suited.

This will decide how split the playerbase is. Few people will pay for an expansion that doesn’t provide significant new stuff. I only came back for the expansion when i heard about it and if it ends up being small i’ll leave again.

I completely disagree with this. It seems some people are locked in this old thought process where dungeons are all that’s important in an MMO or we can’t have challenging content without dungeons or that more maps means more stuff to do by default. I don’t think that’s the case.

The mastery system will give people stuff to work towards that can grow with the game. The specialization system will give people new ways to expand their professions moving into the future.

New expansions come out in games all the time and usually they raise a level cap, add tiers of gear and hide the gear in raids. That’s not going to work in this game and those waiting for it may indeed be disappointed.

But what if the game introduces challenging content that’s not dungeons? What if it has as much playability and replayability as an expansion in any other MMO?

Every mmo expansion ever made in the history of the internet has had content that you could only access if you bought said expansion, which is why its called an “expansion”. If everyone could access the new content without paying for it, then it wouldnt be a paid expansion, it would just be a patch. So its not like theyre doing anything groundbreaking here.

Also id guess halloween/wintersday/ect. will still be in cities, and something will probably happen in lions arch, plus pvp events and wvw tournaments, so its not like the old zones will be a ghost town.

Vayne.8563:

vespers.1759:

Guess this depends on how much the expansion adds and how much it costs. I get the sense it’ll be a couple new maps and a class and new specializations given that all the content upgrades to date have had very little real content.

I do not consider a new class or a new weapon for each class to be true new content. If this expansion is going to work it needs new maps and new dungeons first and foremost. A LOT of them. otherwise it’s just “here play the same kitten but on a new character!” we’ve all already played the old content on the existing 8 or whatever classes we dont’ care.

Also how much is this expansion going to be? it seems very light on content so far so anything over $30 is way too much imo for what we’ve seen. $20 seems more suited.

This will decide how split the playerbase is. Few people will pay for an expansion that doesn’t provide significant new stuff. I only came back for the expansion when i heard about it and if it ends up being small i’ll leave again.

I completely disagree with this. It seems some people are locked in this old thought process where dungeons are all that’s important in an MMO or we can’t have challenging content without dungeons or that more maps means more stuff to do by default. I don’t think that’s the case.

The mastery system will give people stuff to work towards that can grow with the game. The specialization system will give people new ways to expand their professions moving into the future.

New expansions come out in games all the time and usually they raise a level cap, add tiers of gear and hide the gear in raids. That’s not going to work in this game and those waiting for it may indeed be disappointed.

But what if the game introduces challenging content that’s not dungeons? What if it has as much playability and replayability as an expansion in any other MMO?

what challenging content has there ever been outside of dungeons (and by dungeons i mean fractals)? there’s none. Group events are by design a mindless zergfest and always have been. Anet has shown no inclination to add raids or even group content with a party size larger than 5.

All the mastery system does is give you a new weapon… so you can go ahead and do the same thing you’ve been doing all along but with a couple new skills. That will not provide any lasting reason to stay anymore than collecting cosmetic items will. At the end of the day you get your shiny sword and then… do the old content again with it.

I’m also unsure why you think a raised level cap and new gear “won’t work” when ascended gear is exactly that except extremely poorly executed and awful? it’s a gear treadmill of the worst kind because there’s literally no content that necessiates having it. if they added a gear grind that required the new gear to progress i’d be fine with it. Instead it’s “look guys i grinded 1000 fractals to get my ascended gear so i can do more fractals!” (except that nobody actually gets enough drops to complete a set).

rhapsody.3615:

While the “old” maps won’t have updates, surely they won’t die out. People aren’t suddently going to stop killing world bosses, doing dungeons, guild missions, farming, etc. I’m 100% ok with future updates being applied to expansion owners only.

Again, the problem is the wording seems to suggest it won’t be “for expansion owners only”, but “for expansion areas only”.

If you devide the cost of the original game by 2.5-3 years it seems pretty cheap compared with any subscripion based game.

vespers.1759:

Vayne.8563:

vespers.1759:

Guess this depends on how much the expansion adds and how much it costs. I get the sense it’ll be a couple new maps and a class and new specializations given that all the content upgrades to date have had very little real content.

I do not consider a new class or a new weapon for each class to be true new content. If this expansion is going to work it needs new maps and new dungeons first and foremost. A LOT of them. otherwise it’s just “here play the same kitten but on a new character!” we’ve all already played the old content on the existing 8 or whatever classes we dont’ care.

Also how much is this expansion going to be? it seems very light on content so far so anything over $30 is way too much imo for what we’ve seen. $20 seems more suited.

This will decide how split the playerbase is. Few people will pay for an expansion that doesn’t provide significant new stuff. I only came back for the expansion when i heard about it and if it ends up being small i’ll leave again.

I completely disagree with this. It seems some people are locked in this old thought process where dungeons are all that’s important in an MMO or we can’t have challenging content without dungeons or that more maps means more stuff to do by default. I don’t think that’s the case.

The mastery system will give people stuff to work towards that can grow with the game. The specialization system will give people new ways to expand their professions moving into the future.

New expansions come out in games all the time and usually they raise a level cap, add tiers of gear and hide the gear in raids. That’s not going to work in this game and those waiting for it may indeed be disappointed.

But what if the game introduces challenging content that’s not dungeons? What if it has as much playability and replayability as an expansion in any other MMO?

what challenging content has there ever been outside of dungeons (and by dungeons i mean fractals)? there’s none. Group events are by design a mindless zergfest and always have been. Anet has shown no inclination to add raids or even group content with a party size larger than 5.

All the mastery system does is give you a new weapon… so you can go ahead and do the same thing you’ve been doing all along but with a couple new skills. That will not provide any lasting reason to stay anymore than collecting cosmetic items will. At the end of the day you get your shiny sword and then… do the old content again with it.

I’m also unsure why you think a raised level cap and new gear “won’t work” when ascended gear is exactly that except extremely poorly executed and awful? it’s a gear treadmill of the worst kind because there’s literally no content that necessiates having it. if they added a gear grind that required the new gear to progress i’d be fine with it. Instead it’s “look guys i grinded 1000 fractals to get my ascended gear so i can do more fractals!” (except that nobody actually gets enough drops to complete a set).

It won’t work because the core constituency of this game doesn’t want it and many will leave. I’d call that not working. There has been more than one thread about raising the level cap.

More to the point, what has been up until now is 100% irrelevant. The issue with challenge isn’t one of dungeons or not dungeons. It’s a lot to do with AI which they’ve done a lot of work on.

People who have played the demo even the early part have said you have to be more on your game and you have to use more skills.

Changes to the way the AI works will affect game difficulty. Adventures are a new type of content that could well be difficult content. They’re changing the game.

All you can say is SO FAR Fractals are the only difficult content (and frankly a lot of people think Liadri was difficult and that was neither an instance nor a dungeon).

You’re simply saying it’s been this way so far, so it must always be this way.

I question that logical bias.

This is standard blizzard tactic. Remember diablo 3?.. it was released purposefully broken so they could sell the fix as an the expansions.

Anet doing the same thing with gw2, or something similar actually. Released a finished game, break it midway by completely butchering things like the trait system and then offering the fix in the expansion. Genius

Lifestealer.4910:

This is standard blizzard tactic. Remember diablo 3?.. it was released purposefully broken so they could sell the fix as an the expansions.

Anet doing the same thing with gw2, or something similar actually. Released a finished game, break it midway by completely butchering things like the trait system and then offering the fix in the expansion. Genius

Evidence?

Anet didn’t “release a finished game”, at least not in the sense of having guild halls, which a lot of people wanted, or having more than one format of PvP, which a lot of people wanted.

First person view and FOV changes could have been included in the update, but they’re being included for free before the update, fixing problems that some people had with the game.

I think this is a far cry from what you’re saying.

The wardrobe was added and that fixed some of the existing issues in the game.

bobjoelol.5163:

I Don’t see why people will be having trouble saving money for the expansion you can just it with ingame gold its months away just save 10g everyday till you got 4-6k+ gems saved up and you should have enough or close to it. Since the expansion is buyable with gems.

That is pure speculation.

I’d hope it would be available in the gemstore, but I have yet to see any official comment on this.

I dont think Anet will even comment on this pre release since they need to instant cash from preorders before the poor guys buy it ingame.

Pretty sure Anet only bothers with an expansion to found to game/ because the gemstore doesnt bring enough cash in.

Vayne.8563:

More to the point, what has been up until now is 100% irrelevant.

You’re simply saying it’s been this way so far, so it must always be this way.

I question that logical bias.

Let’s all disregard the things Anet has been doing for the past 2 years because we hope they won’t continue to do them!

K.

vespers.1759:

Vayne.8563:

More to the point, what has been up until now is 100% irrelevant.

You’re simply saying it’s been this way so far, so it must always be this way.

I question that logical bias.

Let’s all disregard the things Anet has been doing for the past 2 years because we hope they won’t continue to do them!

K.

I’d rather listen to what they’re saying than ignore what they’re saying. We know for a fact they hired an AI guy during those two years. We know for a fact he’s been working on the AI. We know for a fact that Anet addressed the game developers conference on AI this year. We know for a fact Anet has said they’re working on more challenging content (which they haven’t said before).

We also know that the Silverwastes is harder content than most of the other open world content.

Those are all facts. You want to ignore all those facts to make the assumption the expansion won’t change anything, after they’ve said it’s changing.

Okay, that’s your prerogative. But saying something is the way it is because that’s how it’s been is faulty logic.

By your logic, there will be no new professions in the expansion because we haven’t had a new profession yet.

Vayne.8563:

By your logic, there will be no new professions in the expansion because we haven’t had a new profession yet.

So then by that same logic we won’t be getting an expansion because we never had one, lol

Vayne.8563:

vespers.1759:

Vayne.8563:

More to the point, what has been up until now is 100% irrelevant.

You’re simply saying it’s been this way so far, so it must always be this way.

I question that logical bias.

Let’s all disregard the things Anet has been doing for the past 2 years because we hope they won’t continue to do them!

K.

I’d rather listen to what they’re saying than ignore what they’re saying. We know for a fact they hired an AI guy during those two years. We know for a fact he’s been working on the AI. We know for a fact that Anet addressed the game developers conference on AI this year. We know for a fact Anet has said they’re working on more challenging content (which they haven’t said before).

We also know that the Silverwastes is harder content than most of the other open world content.

Those are all facts. You want to ignore all those facts to make the assumption the expansion won’t change anything, after they’ve said it’s changing.

Okay, that’s your prerogative. But saying something is the way it is because that’s how it’s been is faulty logic.

By your logic, there will be no new professions in the expansion because we haven’t had a new profession yet.

This will surely be the first time Anet has lied. Of course they’re saying a bunch of great things.. they want to push the expansion. I don’t give a kitten what they say until they prove it with actions and so far they’ve gone back on just about every promise they’ve made so far.

Actions speak louder than words and i’m shocked people like you still eat up everything they say.

vespers.1759:

Actions speak louder than words and i’m shocked people like you still eat up everything they say.

You shouldn’t be, honestly. Mostly because if the reaction is to not trust anything they say, then there’s no point in pressing them for any communication . . . because it’s obviously smokescreen and/or untrue.

. . . really I wonder at the logic on display sometimes when things like this happen.

Lifestealer.4910:

Anet doing the same thing with gw2, or something similar actually. Released a finished game, break it midway by completely butchering things like the trait system and then offering the fix in the expansion. Genius

They did it before with heroes as the “fix” for how bone-dead stupid henchmen were. I’m surprised you forgot about that.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

vespers.1759:

Actions speak louder than words and i’m shocked people like you still eat up everything they say.

You shouldn’t be, honestly. Mostly because if the reaction is to not trust anything they say, then there’s no point in pressing them for any communication . . . because it’s obviously smokescreen and/or untrue.

. . . really I wonder at the logic on display sometimes when things like this happen.

I’m seriously wondering if you’re mentally kittened or attempting to troll because i don’t see how anyone with average intelligence could respond like this. My point is that we should take everything they say with a grain of salt because we’ve been burned so many times in the past.

vespers.1759:

Vayne.8563:

vespers.1759:

Vayne.8563:

More to the point, what has been up until now is 100% irrelevant.

You’re simply saying it’s been this way so far, so it must always be this way.

I question that logical bias.

Let’s all disregard the things Anet has been doing for the past 2 years because we hope they won’t continue to do them!

K.

I’d rather listen to what they’re saying than ignore what they’re saying. We know for a fact they hired an AI guy during those two years. We know for a fact he’s been working on the AI. We know for a fact that Anet addressed the game developers conference on AI this year. We know for a fact Anet has said they’re working on more challenging content (which they haven’t said before).

We also know that the Silverwastes is harder content than most of the other open world content.

Those are all facts. You want to ignore all those facts to make the assumption the expansion won’t change anything, after they’ve said it’s changing.

Okay, that’s your prerogative. But saying something is the way it is because that’s how it’s been is faulty logic.

By your logic, there will be no new professions in the expansion because we haven’t had a new profession yet.

This will surely be the first time Anet has lied. Of course they’re saying a bunch of great things.. they want to push the expansion. I don’t give a kitten what they say until they prove it with actions and so far they’ve gone back on just about every promise they’ve made so far.

Actions speak louder than words and i’m shocked people like you still eat up everything they say.

I defy you to make a list of every promise they made and then make a list of every promise they went back on.

See Anet literally said thousands of things before release and half a dozen of them have changed. Which is a kitten good track record. That you focus on the few that have changed isn’t anyone’s fault but your own.

And then there are all the things people say are promises that were never promised. I think a good percentage of this forum needs to learn what a promise is, because many a time people are misconstruing intent for promise or something as a promise that Anet said can change.

In fact, Anet said a bunch of things. They said there was no dedicated tank and healer and there is no dedicated tank and healer. They said weapons would have skills on them and weapons do. They said there’d be eight professions and there were.

Anet made so many statements and a handful of things have changed as happens in any big project.

Saying they’ve gone back on just about every promise they made is not only demonstrably untrue but borders on complete dishonesty.

vespers.1759:

I’m seriously wondering if you’re mentally kittened or attempting to troll because i don’t see how anyone with average intelligence could respond like this. My point is that we should take everything they say with a grain of salt because we’ve been burned so many times in the past.

I think it’s the first one, really. I had to put my safety helmet on to type, you know.

Besides, you missed what I was saying. You shouldn’t be surprised some people take them at face value. They just happen to not be quite as strongly cynical, or suspend it for developers they actually like.

Anything else you want to read into it? That’s on you.

[quote=4847495;Mireles ]

Seriously, assuming the means are there, whos playing now that will absolutely not purchase the expansion?

People that are not getting the expansion probably don’t plan on playing much longer or not really invested in the game that much. The game itself is in its 3rd year. Sorry, but unless you are a minor with no income, if you can’t afford or save 50$ the expansion you really need to evaluate if you should be playing video games.[/quote]

I’m playing now, but am unsure if the expac will have what I want. We will see.

I think the previous world will be less busy after HoT, but this is true of every MMO. The majority of players are always out in the latest/highest level area. I don’t think there’s any way to avoid it. Some people, like new players buying the game in the future, will be in the lower level areas, but for the most part people won’t be there. They’ll be in the expansion. With ToK, most people don’t even have to level their revenants, making it even less busy than it would have been, from comments I’ve seen.

I’m 100% okay with this.

When there were vines and Scarlet attacks everywhere, it left a lore-breaking environment when the Living Story ended.