Guild Wars 2

What if HoT is nothing more than a glorified over hyped map like SW. Do you remember all the advertising for how awesome SW was going to be? I am fearful that heart of thorns will be nothing more than the opening up of the maguuma area just a little bit more, with another gimmick movement skill like the crystals in drytop. and a couple new skills. Could you imagine if they had released Eye of the North with just one map, and a few new skills?

I am extremely skeptical that this so called expansion will be anything of substance.

(I will forgive you if you give me totem axes, and an 55 build from The Falls)

I have high hopes for more. HoT being an expansion we have to buy and all.

SW/DT are 100% free additional content.

It is very possible silverwastes will be very similar to the HoT expansion. But by giving us new specizalations and mechanics and things to level will help them build much more. A lot of tyria has yet to be explored still in gw2.

i believe silverwaste is part of the living story project
the living story project was thought as a method to bring new contents to the game on incremental basis, replacing the need for expansion.
but i think anet change their mind and decided that a expansion with tons of new things is better than incremental patches

SkyShroud.2865:

i believe silverwaste is part of the living story project
the living story project was thought as a method to bring new contents to the game on incremental basis, replacing the need for expansion.
but i think anet change their mind and decided that a expansion with tons of new things is better than incremental patches

Anet tried to be like Valve and HL2, both failed.

Personally I think Silverwastes is very well designed.

The problem with the area, as I see it, is that Silverwastes still gives too much rewards for too little effort, even after all nerfs. Just as brilliantly designed it was, and still is, poorly balanced. (Might be a trick to make us play more in “new” areas I guess – but I don’t feel it still is new.)

Also, the introduction of the area in all those layers over months did make us grind the area even more so I got kinda bored of it even before the Vinewrath was added.

Ah, yes, it is pretty much one of a kind too. It would have been nice with more areas of this semi-carefree-cooperation to make for more diversity and fun. (Dry Top is close I guess but require more serious organization and dedication to reach top tiers.)

Even with unbalanced loot, imho, I think that both Dry Top and SW has been great steps towards more fun and active maps were all the players get to work together towards a goal. I think it is very promising for the future and HoT – whenever it comes :-)

Reanne.5462:

What if HoT is nothing more than a glorified over hyped map like SW.

I know there are a lot of people who are bashing HoT for having too little content but this is just an absurd hyperbole and you know it.

HoT is confirmed to include.

- Multiple zones (not just the one that has been shown).
- Elite specializations (how is this just ‘a few new skills’?).
- The Revenant.
- Masteries.
- New skins.
- Guild Halls.
- Adventures.
- Probably other stuff that I am forgetting right now.

HoT also seems to include new personal story. It is speculated, though in no way confirmed, that there will be new fractals. The things that are most uncertain now are: 1) Whether there will be dungeons, 2) How many new zones there will be exactly (aside from that there will be more than one), 3) How big the zones will be and how long they will keep us playing, 4) How long the new personal story will be.

The new pvp map, the new wvw map, the new trait system, guild leaderboards and so on are of course not part of the expansion itself. Though they are coming at about the same time (somewhat earlier actually).

Reanne.5462:

What if HoT is nothing more than a glorified over hyped map like SW. Do you remember all the advertising for how awesome SW was going to be?

SW was awesome. But since it has been the only new content for months now…

SkyShroud.2865:

i think anet change their mind and decided that a expansion with tons of new things is better than incremental patches

Ya, I am wondering if there will be ‘tons of new things’ or only a small bit more than what they gave us with DT/SW

What are the “tons” of new things you are expecting?

If silverwastes was an expansion it would have still beat WoD in the content department lol.

Yes, hyperbole. No, I don’t care.

lets hope we’ll get the rest of maguma and they eventually take us to crystal desert. Cherry on top would be ring of fire too.

I just hope the new zones in HoT are nothing like Silverwastes/drytop. They are easily my least favorite zones in the entire game. I have a feeling they are going to be like them though.

Because HoT isn’t just “added a new zone”

-We get a specialization for each class
-We get a new class
-We get new legendaries
-We get craftable precursors
-We get guild halls
-We get a new PvP map
-We get a new borderlands
-We get PvE rewards based on the map

There are many other things we get that I’m most likely just forgetting, but even if HoT maps suck, the features are the ones we’ve been begging for, for a while meaning for must of us they won’t suck.

And in any case usually maps get teared threw anyway’s so I don’t expect much from “map” content that get’s boring fast, but the features are always going to be there.

-We get a specialization for each class = new skills
-We get a new class = new skills
-We get new legendaries = not content
-We get craftable precursors not content
-We get guild halls = I’ve heard that promise before, should’ve already had them
-We get a new PvP map = Don’t need an expansion to have a PvP map
-We get a new borderlands = blah
-We get PvE rewards based on the map = rewards are not content

What do you mean . . . if? The content on the new maps follows the Silverwastes to a tee. One must control certain ‘forts’ in order to progress the map according to information already release.

That’s the basic route for Silverwastes already. And they told us Silverwastes and Drytop were the ‘testing’ for these dynamic events in interviews.

There no if to your question at all.

Pretty sure we will be getting guild hall, new pvp & wvw world, and map reward for free, just imagine the backlash if they aren’t.

Problem of HOT is ANet still haven’t set a price tag yet, so it is hard to expect the actual amount of content. Honestly, from feature introduced so far, HOT feels more like a paid DLC than an expansion to me.

Tbh SW is pretty cool. Players love it.

HoT’s probably going to be a bunch of maps and a astory line leading up to the defeat of Mordremoth. The final battle will most likely be an event introduced at a later stage only to those who got the xpansion.

tbh I’ve worried the same thing. I’m not sure how expansive this expansive really is. I’ll feel like it’s too small till proven otherwise.

Given ANet’s track record with expansions, I can only assume that HoT will be tiny and have very little content.

Captain Unusual.9163:

Given ANet’s track record with expansions, I can only assume that HoT will be tiny and have very little content.

Based on which Expansions?

Walhalla.5473:

Captain Unusual.9163:

Given ANet’s track record with expansions, I can only assume that HoT will be tiny and have very little content.

Based on which Expansions?

He is likely talking about “More than an expansions worth of content.” If they truly believe what they released during that time was more than an expansions worth of content, we are in for a pretty small sized expansion.

Well, my feeling thus far is that GW2 has been a extremely good value. But I understand your concern and I to some extent share it.

I bought the game at launch and I haven’t had to pay anything (though I have) since nor have they implemented any aggressive P2W, and on top of that the rate at which you can earn the cash shop items is very fair comparatively . So thus far I have been very happy and I trust they will provide a good value.

I can understand if they need to fill the coffers a bit to keep the ship sailing.

As long as it’s reasonably priced and isn’t and isn’t an excuse to just add higher tier gear to obsolete the old stuff and they don’t add a bunch of stuff that’s like “you have to buy me to continue playing the game” i’ll be satisfied.

I will be disappointed though if it’s the end of free content updates or if the only content updates become locked by a paywalls of expansions.

I feel like Anet has done right by it’s players thus far so I’d like to trust they will continue on that path into the future.

Edited to add: I would prefer if they also offered the expansion for gems though. If for no other reason than to keep the adoption rate up. Perhaps a staggered launch, maybe six months after public release add a gems HoT upgrade.

Well it was only free if you were around when they rolled it out. Until they added the upgrade that unlocked all missed chapters at a 20% discount over the cost of each in My Story page it could have costed $20€ in gems, now only $16€. So if you just picked up the game during one of the recent 75% off sales, you already had an “expansion” waiting for you, at least for story.

Fernling.1729:

Walhalla.5473:

Captain Unusual.9163:

Given ANet’s track record with expansions, I can only assume that HoT will be tiny and have very little content.

Based on which Expansions?

He is likely talking about “More than an expansions worth of content.” If they truly believe what they released during that time was more than an expansions worth of content, we are in for a pretty small sized expansion.

Actually, I was referring to all the other Guild Wars expansions they’ve released in the past.

The only other expansion that was released was eye of the north, and I seriously doubt HoT will be that big, and involved.

How is Hall of Monuments fix coming btw…

What if we completely ignore specializations, Guild Halls and Masteries and think about the expansion as ONLY more maps.

The entire game is changing and you’re saying what if it wasn’t like that?

/thread

I highly doubt HoT will have all the content of typical AAA game expansions, but I’ll be glad for it’s arrival and the options it opens up regardless

rapthorne.7345:

I highly doubt HoT will have all the content of typical AAA game expansions, but I’ll be glad for it’s arrival and the options it opens up regardless

I absolutely agree with you. HoT will NOT have all the content typical of AAA game expansions. It won’t have a new race. It won’t raise the level cap. It won’t add new tiers of gear. Two of those three I’m quite happy with.

However, because it is different, I think the only way to really judge it is going to be, not on how congruent it is with what other games do, but how much actual play time it adds to the game.

Let’s say MMO X adds 12 new zones, five new dungeons and a new raid, plus new races/classes. If people play through that stuff in a couple of months, and that’s what they get out of it, then that’s two months of content.

If we enjoy two months of content in the expansion, even if it takes a different form, aren’t we getting the same value.

Keeping in mind that in most MMOs you blow through all 15 new areas to max level anyway, and there’s not usually a reason to go back to any of it. You get new dungeons, which you run until you gear up and then you never look at them again.

I personally like silerwastes. It feels a bit repetitive now that I’ve farmed it 500+ times, but I like the direction they are heading in.

If I am spoiled, it is only because gw1 spoiled me.
I want stuff to do in a game, not pretty pictures to look at. And so far Anet has not convinced me that HoT will be worth my time, has not convinced me it will be fun, but rather that it will just be a piece of artwork to buy and hang on my desktop.

If Silverwastes was an xpac then maybe they wouldn’t have made the luminescent armor purposefully ugly :/

Reanne.5462:

-We get a specialization for each class = new skills
-We get a new class = new skills
-We get new legendaries = not content
-We get craftable precursors not content
-We get guild halls = I’ve heard that promise before, should’ve already had them
-We get a new PvP map = Don’t need an expansion to have a PvP map
-We get a new borderlands = blah
-We get PvE rewards based on the map = rewards are not content

These are all content. They all take time for the devs to make. They don’t just appear out of nothing. They have jobs that require payment. There is no subscription to this game. Some content will need to be payed for to keep the game going and get better.

Reanne.5462:

-We get a specialization for each class = new skills
-We get a new class = new skills
-We get new legendaries = not content
-We get craftable precursors not content
-We get guild halls = I’ve heard that promise before, should’ve already had them
-We get a new PvP map = Don’t need an expansion to have a PvP map
-We get a new borderlands = blah
-We get PvE rewards based on the map = rewards are not content

I’m sorry when did you hear the guild hall promise before? Or even mention of it.

To my knowledge, Guild Halls have been mentioned prior to this annoucement by Anet exactly once, by Martin Kerstein on guru before there was a Guild Wars 2 forums.

He said that player housing would likely come with guild halls in the first expansion. That’s all that’s ever been said to my knowledge.

I don’t mind complaining, but you should get your facts straight when you do. Anet has never promised us Guild Halls. It was never in the feature list. It was never a promise we heard before.

Vayne.8563:

Reanne.5462:

-We get guild halls = I’ve heard that promise before, should’ve already had them

I’m sorry when did you hear the guild hall promise before? Or even mention of it.

To my knowledge, Guild Halls have been mentioned prior to this annoucement by Anet exactly once, by Martin Kerstein on guru before there was a Guild Wars 2 forums.

He said that player housing would likely come with guild halls in the first expansion. That’s all that’s ever been said to my knowledge.

I don’t mind complaining, but you should get your facts straight when you do. Anet has never promised us Guild Halls. It was never in the feature list. It was never a promise we heard before.

OK, maybe ‘promise’ was too strong a word, but after guild halls being an intricate part of GW1, I was not alone in my assumption, and expectation that they would be in this game.

Also, let me point out a couple things.

1. If guild halls are only for people who buy the expansion, there will be a riot of upset players. (seriously, I can’t go to my own guilds guild hall?)

2. If the WvW map is only for people who buy the expansion, that makes no sense either, do to it splitting up guilds that do WvW together, and would break the WvW experience of those without the expansion.

3. There are already more skins than any player could possibly use, anet has spit out 100’s of new skins for the Gem store, so don’t tell me they needed an expansion to release more skins.

4. If the flying mechanic will work anywhere on the continent, then I will concede that point, but if it only works in one area, like the crystals in DT, then I cry foul.

5. When the new skills are released, will players w/o the expansion not receive the new skills, therefor making that character inferior to people with the expansion? In PvP/WvW, will a chronomancer destroy a necro that didn’t buy the expansion?

(for the record, I’m not complaining, I am just exploring the idea whether the expac will be much better than SW)

It’s more about the size/cost or size/time ratios than anything else. I’ll assume the first 2 years of the game they weren’t working on an expansion at all.

If they release an expansion every 8-9 months for $20-30 then the size just needs to be a few new zones, a few chapters of LS, and 1 elite specialization + group content. Currently the best example of this is SWTOR.

If they release an expansion every 12-18 months for $40-50 then the size should be similar to a WoW expansion, with 12+ zones, new class, new race, 12+ dungeons, 3+ raids, new crafting profession, 20+ armor sets.

Most MMO’s seem to follow one of these two general trends. Large expansions every 1-1.5 years or smaller expansions every 9 months.

Based on the revealed content so far it seems like Anet is going for the smaller but faster expansion pace. Once we know the price we will have a better idea of what Anet thinks it is doing. Then the wait will be seeing when the next expansion is announced.

Reanne.5462:

Vayne.8563:

Reanne.5462:

-We get guild halls = I’ve heard that promise before, should’ve already had them

I’m sorry when did you hear the guild hall promise before? Or even mention of it.

To my knowledge, Guild Halls have been mentioned prior to this annoucement by Anet exactly once, by Martin Kerstein on guru before there was a Guild Wars 2 forums.

He said that player housing would likely come with guild halls in the first expansion. That’s all that’s ever been said to my knowledge.

I don’t mind complaining, but you should get your facts straight when you do. Anet has never promised us Guild Halls. It was never in the feature list. It was never a promise we heard before.

OK, maybe ‘promise’ was too strong a word, but after guild halls being an intricate part of GW1, I was not alone in my assumption, and expectation that they would be in this game.

Also, let me point out a couple things.

1. If guild halls are only for people who buy the expansion, there will be a riot of upset players. (seriously, I can’t go to my own guilds guild hall?)

2. If the WvW map is only for people who buy the expansion, that makes no sense either, do to it splitting up guilds that do WvW together, and would break the WvW experience of those without the expansion.

3. There are already more skins than any player could possibly use, anet has spit out 100’s of new skins for the Gem store, so don’t tell me they needed an expansion to release more skins.

4. If the flying mechanic will work anywhere on the continent, then I will concede that point, but if it only works in one area, like the crystals in DT, then I cry foul.

5. When the new skills are released, will players w/o the expansion not receive the new skills, therefor making that character inferior to people with the expansion? In PvP/WvW, will a chronomancer destroy a necro that didn’t buy the expansion?

(for the record, I’m not complaining, I am just exploring the idea whether the expac will be much better than SW)

First of all, since Anet was quite clear that Guild Halls would NOT be in the game at release, nor were there near term plans to make them, anyone who’d done the research would know they weren’t going to be there. Anet said as much.

Secondly, every game with an expansion goes through a similar process. Dungeons will be off limits to people who don’t own that expansion. Levels, or certain skills will be off limit.

Even Guild Wars 1 had this problem. If you didn’t buy EotN you didn’t get PvE only skills that some people insisted on to run certain instances. For that matter, all the dungeons in the game were in EotN. If you want to run dungeons, you played Eye.

The whole way this expansion is being treated by players is silly. It’s rewriting the entire game’s progression and we don’t even know everything about it yet.

You’re so fond of bringing up Guild Wars 1. Well if you didn’t have expansions, you were definitely at a disadvantage in Guild Wars 1. You bought the games or you didn’t get the skills. Hell, Rit is arguably one of the most powerful professions but you couldn’t get one unless you bought Nightfall.

That’s the way MMO expansions work. Buy the expansion or don’t play the game.

Take gliding as an example. Gliding would break the early game. The maps weren’t designed to handle it. How do I know? Anet said so. Therefore gliding will be limited to the new zone.

Reanne.5462:

1. If guild halls are only for people who buy the expansion, there will be a riot of upset players. (seriously, I can’t go to my own guilds guild hall?)

I remember Anet saying that people without the expansion will be able to enter guild halls but the functionality of the halls will be limited for them. I might be wrong though.

2. If the WvW map is only for people who buy the expansion, that makes no sense either, do to it splitting up guilds that do WvW together, and would break the WvW experience of those without the expansion.

The WvW and PvP maps are already confirmed to be available for everyone.

3. There are already more skins than any player could possibly use, anet has spit out 100’s of new skins for the Gem store, so don’t tell me they needed an expansion to release more skins.

This is just a minor thing and not one of the major features. No one is claiming that they made the expansion for the skins. It is vice versa. They make an expansion so they also make new skins.

4. If the flying mechanic will work anywhere on the continent, then I will concede that point, but if it only works in one area, like the crystals in DT, then I cry foul.

It will work in the entire jungle, not anywhere outside of the jungle. How could it? Only the new zones will be designed with the gliders in mind. All other zones were not. It could make vistas and jumple puzzles easier and it could lead to more map breaking. How is it realistic to expect the gliders to be used outside of the jungle?

5. When the new skills are released, will players w/o the expansion not receive the new skills, therefor making that character inferior to people with the expansion? In PvP/WvW, will a chronomancer destroy a necro that didn’t buy the expansion?

Anet has stated that elite specializations should be equal in power to core specializations. In other words, those with the expansion should have more options but not better options. In reality it will take multiple balance patches for that to be true of course, if it will ever be true.