Guild Wars 2

Vayne.8563:

Meglobob.8620:

when is the first guild wars 2 expansion coming out?

From what we have been told NEVER, there is never, ever going to be a expansion.

Living story updates every 2 weeks thou, instead…

They never said they’d never have an expansion? Why say so?

Because they basically have said that and its true Vayne?

They do use the phrase, ‘its not off the table’, but whenever you catch a dev being unguarded, its no expansion, not working on one. Of course someone on high gives them a smack and tells them to get on message, which is to leave the option open. But really no expansion for the foreseeable future…

haviz.1340:

Skan.5301:

Yes, long, long BEFORE that interview.

Manifesto was also long, long before November 2012.

And how much of that came to reality in the game?

And Vayne, come on man. Are you really going to stay a fanboy for life and never enter the rational thought process?

Why would they work on an expansion when the Living Story is what they’re focused on?

Skan.5301:

And how much of that came to reality in the game?

That was my point.

Skan.5301:

haviz.1340:

Skan.5301:

Yes, long, long BEFORE that interview.

Manifesto was also long, long before November 2012.

And how much of that came to reality in the game?

And Vayne, come on man. Are you really going to stay a fanboy for life and never enter the rational thought process?

Why would they work on an expansion when the Living Story is what they’re focused on?

They’ll work on an expansion when it’s financially beneficial for them to do so, pretty much like EVERY MMO on the planet.

My guess is after the Chinese version is out for a reasonable amount of time…and not until.

People are willing to say Anet lies and can’t be trusted, until they say something you want to believe. lol

they NEED to announce it soon, but they dont NEED to release it anytime soon. The simple announcement of an expansion makes gaming communities do backflips

So this is the second “i need grind something to do” thread today. It’s starting to feel like early November 2012 all over again. Whatcha gonna do this time, Anet?

Vayne.8563:

Do you really think Anet has ANY long term plans? Cause I’ve seen no evidence of it. They seem to be flying by the seat of their pants. That’s why it looks like they’re lying sometimes. Because they just sort of see what happens and rolls with it.

Doesn’t work out a lot. lol

Yeah they do, I’m 100% sure they do, they have a game design document, every game starts with the document. Rather than trying to explain it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_design_document

They are rarely released to the public. I’ve collected some though, they can get quite huge. What they seem to be doing is revising it as they go, post-launch, my guess. So they probably have a lot of things in the early conceptual documents that they wanted to do, but didn’t do due to time/dev/research restraints. Then other things on a wait and see, such as how players react to the RMT shop (real money transaction), then adjust content development to that to some degree.

When they say “nothing is off the table” it just tells me they are willing to revise the GDD to fit whatever best fits their interests. I can’t tell you where their interests lay, but a long-term over reliance on RMT does concern me.

Let’s face it, this is a no monthly fee MMO, thats what they do

every free MMO i play, its the same, every month they have a calender for events, some are “big” events like the LS with a few newly made stuff and a few are “achievements” like events alone with cash shop events and new cash shop items and then the events are gone and give others for the next month calender just like LS.

Vayne.8563:

Do you really think Anet has ANY long term plans? Cause I’ve seen no evidence of it. They seem to be flying by the seat of their pants. That’s why it looks like they’re lying sometimes. Because they just sort of see what happens and rolls with it.

Doesn’t work out a lot. lol

Yes, they have long term plans. As someone who claims to have run/managed a business you should know how this stuff works. Typical business plans include both short, and long term “road maps” and goals to help keep things on track and running smoothly. Considering I ran my own hobby business for years, this is something I am aware of.

Additionally, Colin has told us repeatedly that they have plans laid out well in advance. 6 months ago he told us they had the next years worth of content already planned. At PAX, he said they have a roadmap and that they plan on following it. Beyond that, we have been getting the “next 6 months expectations” blogs, and nothing has been said that we won’t get another come Jan/Feb.

Now, does that mean that everything is set in stone? Lol, nope. Nothing ever works out precisely as planned, life isn’t perfect that way.

Lighter.5631:

Let’s face it, this is a no monthly fee MMO, thats what they do

every free MMO i play, its the same, every month they have a calender for events, some are “big” events like the LS with a few newly made stuff and a few are “achievements” like events alone with cash shop events and new cash shop items and then the events are gone and give others for the next month calender just like LS.

Well this isn’t exactly a free game. Short-term they have the initial box fee to run on. They are also using the gem store to gain further revenue. What we don’t know is how they are going to sustain the project for the long-term. If it’s by the gem store, then yes it becomes as you suggest. If they go with paid expansions then it takes the game in another direction. It’s been a year and no mention of an expansion, so people are unsure what to expect with further development; which path it will take to self-sustain the project. The two outcomes can be very different.

As for no monthly fee, that doesn’t matter. If by expansion, it’s just being sustained by the expansion fee rather than subscription fees. It’s not so different than charging a subscription fee but releasing free included expansions as some other mmo’s do. It’s just an inverted business model but the outcome is the same more or less. But if it goes to rely on RMT, then yes it will more resemble your generic f2p game as time goes by, imo.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Vayne.8563:

Do you really think Anet has ANY long term plans? Cause I’ve seen no evidence of it. They seem to be flying by the seat of their pants. That’s why it looks like they’re lying sometimes. Because they just sort of see what happens and rolls with it.

Doesn’t work out a lot. lol

Yes, they have long term plans. As someone who claims to have run/managed a business you should know how this stuff works. Typical business plans include both short, and long term “road maps” and goals to help keep things on track and running smoothly. Considering I ran my own hobby business for years, this is something I am aware of.

Additionally, Colin has told us repeatedly that they have plans laid out well in advance. 6 months ago he told us they had the next years worth of content already planned. At PAX, he said they have a roadmap and that they plan on following it. Beyond that, we have been getting the “next 6 months expectations” blogs, and nothing has been said that we won’t get another come Jan/Feb.

Now, does that mean that everything is set in stone? Lol, nope. Nothing ever works out precisely as planned, life isn’t perfect that way.

I don’t think they have long term plans. I think they have ideas. I’ve seen some very successful businesses run by the seat of their pants. Hell, MY business was run without much of a plan. That is to say, we sold stuff that we could make a profit on…and that was the plan. But I didn’t have any deep cache of lore to go to to run the business I ran, because computers changed too fast to figure out that stuff anyway. Your plan was to look at what everyone else was doing and adapt on the fly. Some plan.

Yes, I ran a business. Until I saw what the competition did, particularly the big guys, I couldn’t devise a survival strategy. You know, pharmacies started selling printers. Why would someone buy a printer from me, when they could get it cheaper next door. I had no business plan for that, because I didn’t realize that would happen till it did, and I had to react.

This is a genre that changes very quickly. Companies have to think and adapt on their feet. Whatever plan they have unquote is a guideline because they’re guessing.

That’s why things seem to change all the time. Because they’re changing all the time.

Vayne.8563:

I don’t think they have long term plans. I think they have ideas. I’ve seen some very successful businesses run by the seat of their pants. Hell, MY business was run without much of a plan. That is to say, we sold stuff that we could make a profit on…and that was the plan. But I didn’t have any deep cache of lore to go to to run the business I ran, because computers changed too fast to figure out that stuff anyway. Your plan was to look at what everyone else was doing and adapt on the fly. Some plan.

Yes, I ran a business. Until I saw what the competition did, particularly the big guys, I couldn’t devise a survival strategy. You know, pharmacies started selling printers. Why would someone buy a printer from me, when they could get it cheaper next door. I had no business plan for that, because I didn’t realize that would happen till it did, and I had to react.

This is a genre that changes very quickly. Companies have to think and adapt on their feet. Whatever plan they have unquote is a guideline because they’re guessing.

That’s why things seem to change all the time. Because they’re changing all the time.

Just because things change and adapt doesn’t mean they don’t have previously laid plans, ie a roadmap. It’s rare that businesses survive flying by the seat of their pants, because the roadmap is what helps build the solid foundation on which to stand and helps to keep them on track. Considering the living world initiative is something they talked about before the game luanched, I’m sure these things have been planned for sometime. The actual implementation…maybe not so much. Technology is funky that way.

With the way their living story teams rotate, if each one gets a 3-4 month development process, they definitely have pre-laid plans for at least that long of a time period (3-4 month time span). Considering each arc sort of ties into the next, the story has to be planned out further than that, so when one team is ‘done’ and needs to start on its next assignment it knows what it’s doing. That’s generally how development works. You have logs of things to do and a game plan for how to approach them. Yes, today some may be high priority, but tomorrow something might crash and take precedence. That alters the overall plan some, but it doesn’t blow it out of the water.

Vayne.8563:

This is a genre that changes very quickly. Companies have to think and adapt on their feet. Whatever plan they have unquote is a guideline because they’re guessing.

That’s why things seem to change all the time. Because they’re changing all the time.

I don’t always agree with Vayne, but he’s spot-on here.

Blizzard are a good example. They have moderate-to-long-term plans in terms of where they want to go plot and location-wise (i.e. “fluff”), vague ones, in their games, but their plans for mechanics, or for nearer-term content? Those change absolutely constantly, by their own admission.

This is a large part of their success. Another game comes up with a good idea? Well, WoW’s development is agile enough that they can steal it, rather than remaining tied to ultra-specific plans. You can see this too in how they virtually rebuild the game every expansion – accounting for changes in the world of MMOs, for what’s fun and what isn’t, and so on.

I mean, they’ve done 180s, they’ve delayed stuff they wanted to do for years and years, they’ve changed course countless times, and I’m pretty sure that’s helped them.

I expect that things are similar at ArenaNet. They have longer-term plans regarding fluff and story, and so on (I hope!), but only shorter-term ones with mechanical stuff. With games like TESO and WildStar on the way, they will undoubtedly need to adapt, and to move rapidly.

That said, not planning to do expansions is a fairly big deal – if they change their mind on that it will not be trivial to reverse course on it, because you need multiple teams working on an expansion for months or years. So I wouldn’t anticipate an expansion any time soon.

The game need the long-term content that only comes from a real expansion pack. The 2 week limited event checkoff list get’s old real fast. the game is just been filled with useless limited content, when was the last time anyone did Moa or crab races?

Eurhetemec.9052:

Vayne.8563:

This is a genre that changes very quickly. Companies have to think and adapt on their feet. Whatever plan they have unquote is a guideline because they’re guessing.

That’s why things seem to change all the time. Because they’re changing all the time.

I don’t always agree with Vayne, but he’s spot-on here.

Blizzard are a good example. They have moderate-to-long-term plans in terms of where they want to go plot and location-wise (i.e. “fluff”), vague ones, in their games, but their plans for mechanics, or for nearer-term content? Those change absolutely constantly, by their own admission.

This is a large part of their success. Another game comes up with a good idea? Well, WoW’s development is agile enough that they can steal it, rather than remaining tied to ultra-specific plans. You can see this too in how they virtually rebuild the game every expansion – accounting for changes in the world of MMOs, for what’s fun and what isn’t, and so on.

I mean, they’ve done 180s, they’ve delayed stuff they wanted to do for years and years, they’ve changed course countless times, and I’m pretty sure that’s helped them.

I expect that things are similar at ArenaNet. They have longer-term plans regarding fluff and story, and so on (I hope!), but only shorter-term ones with mechanical stuff. With games like TESO and WildStar on the way, they will undoubtedly need to adapt, and to move rapidly.

That said, not planning to do expansions is a fairly big deal – if they change their mind on that it will not be trivial to reverse course on it, because you need multiple teams working on an expansion for months or years. So I wouldn’t anticipate an expansion any time soon.

Vayne says they have no long term plans. Essentally they ‘cant’ because of how the industry works, and you agree…. Then go on to state that WoW has “moderate-to-long-term plans in terms of where they want to go plot and location-wise” as an example? That’s actually a direct contradiction of what Vayne was saying.

Yes, no plan is set in stone, but I’m sure Anet has “plans” for where they want to go; how they want to story to play out, what maps they are opening up and possible a rough ‘when.’

Things that are in a traditional expansion with be realized through the living story. Some living stories will be much bigger than other ones.

Don’t inspect a huge amount of features all at once. We will get new zones, races, crafting, new stories, housing, guild halls and so on. But don’t expect it in one large bulk expansion!

As it seems, they don’t need to make huge additional content, if they can sell stuff on gem store together with this lackluster, shallow content updates they give us at the moment.

Why put energy in new zones, campaign, area, continent, races, professions, crafting, weapons etc. etc. if it is not needed? I still hope, but am still very disappointed after over a year. Never expected such lackluster, boring, festivity, zerg-oriented shallow non-content like this.

There are some good parts though, the two temporary dungeons and now the new permanent (yay) dungeon next week. My hopes haven’t died :-)

Vayne.8563:

I don’t think they have long term plans. I think they have ideas. I’ve seen some very successful businesses run by the seat of their pants. Hell, MY business was run without much of a plan. That is to say, we sold stuff that we could make a profit on…and that was the plan. But I didn’t have any deep cache of lore to go to to run the business I ran, because computers changed too fast to figure out that stuff anyway. Your plan was to look at what everyone else was doing and adapt on the fly. Some plan.

Yes, I ran a business. Until I saw what the competition did, particularly the big guys, I couldn’t devise a survival strategy. You know, pharmacies started selling printers. Why would someone buy a printer from me, when they could get it cheaper next door. I had no business plan for that, because I didn’t realize that would happen till it did, and I had to react.

This is a genre that changes very quickly. Companies have to think and adapt on their feet. Whatever plan they have unquote is a guideline because they’re guessing.

That’s why things seem to change all the time. Because they’re changing all the time.

Well like we say, an idea is just an idea until it’s written down, then it becomes a plan. Everyone has ideas, and there are so many ideas out there they are worth about 2¢ ea. But when you write it down, then it starts to have some worth. This is very true in indie circles as well, the ones you just know will vapor are always the ones with nothing but an idea, no matter how much they code or animate. So it becomes standard practice, and even more so for a AAA with investors. Probably would have never even started w/o a 5k page document, projecting years in advance at least generally. Successful indie projects (ones that don’t vapor), often run 1k pages to start (for RPG’s/MMO’s etc), sometimes less depending on how small the team is or the depth of the project.

Yeah the business side can be odd, but what it comes down to is a business that produces a product or products. The GDD covers the game, it’s the product, but the company has it’s own business model/structural plan. And then when you have multiple partnerships (e.g. publishers, development studios, investors, third-party vendors such as speedtree etc.), contracts and profit splits, it gets all the more complicated.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Eurhetemec.9052:

Vayne.8563:

This is a genre that changes very quickly. Companies have to think and adapt on their feet. Whatever plan they have unquote is a guideline because they’re guessing.

That’s why things seem to change all the time. Because they’re changing all the time.

I don’t always agree with Vayne, but he’s spot-on here.

Blizzard are a good example. They have moderate-to-long-term plans in terms of where they want to go plot and location-wise (i.e. “fluff”), vague ones, in their games, but their plans for mechanics, or for nearer-term content? Those change absolutely constantly, by their own admission.

This is a large part of their success. Another game comes up with a good idea? Well, WoW’s development is agile enough that they can steal it, rather than remaining tied to ultra-specific plans. You can see this too in how they virtually rebuild the game every expansion – accounting for changes in the world of MMOs, for what’s fun and what isn’t, and so on.

I mean, they’ve done 180s, they’ve delayed stuff they wanted to do for years and years, they’ve changed course countless times, and I’m pretty sure that’s helped them.

I expect that things are similar at ArenaNet. They have longer-term plans regarding fluff and story, and so on (I hope!), but only shorter-term ones with mechanical stuff. With games like TESO and WildStar on the way, they will undoubtedly need to adapt, and to move rapidly.

That said, not planning to do expansions is a fairly big deal – if they change their mind on that it will not be trivial to reverse course on it, because you need multiple teams working on an expansion for months or years. So I wouldn’t anticipate an expansion any time soon.

Vayne says they have no long term plans. Essentally they ‘cant’ because of how the industry works, and you agree…. Then go on to state that WoW has “moderate-to-long-term plans in terms of where they want to go plot and location-wise” as an example? That’s actually a direct contradiction of what Vayne was saying.

Yes, no plan is set in stone, but I’m sure Anet has “plans” for where they want to go; how they want to story to play out, what maps they are opening up and possible a rough ‘when.’

An idea or concept is not a “plan”. A plan is something very specific. Some writers write with outlines…that’s a plan for what you write. Piers Anthony outlines everything to the letter. Some writers write from the seat of their pants. Stephen King does this. It’s talked about in his book On Writing. He often has no idea where a story will go.

Having an idea or concept is not the same as a plan. Why do you think so many people call the manifesto a lie? It wasn’t a “plan” it was a concept.

Vayne.8563:

An idea or concept is not a “plan”. A plan is something very specific. Some writers write with outlines…that’s a plan for what you write. Piers Anthony outlines everything to the letter. Some writers write from the seat of their pants. Stephen King does this. It’s talked about in his book On Writing. He often has no idea where a story will go.

Having an idea or concept is not the same as a plan. Why do you think so many people call the manifesto a lie? It wasn’t a “plan” it was a concept.

I think we simply disagree on what a ‘plan’ or ‘roadmap’ is precisely.

Plan:
“A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective.”

“a set of actions that have been thought of as a way to do or achieve something”

“something that a person intends to do”

I believe Anet has something like this, based on the definitions above. It doesn’t have to be insanely complex, and it doesn’t have to be for the next 5 years even; however, I can easily see them having mapped out what they want to achieve and push out to us over the course of the next year. They’ve obviously mapped out what they want to achieve over the 6 months of July through December…Colin spelled it out to us in a blog. (Considering how fluid the game and development markets are, I consider 6 months to be a ‘long’ term)

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Plan:
“A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective.”

“a set of actions that have been thought of as a way to do or achieve something”

“something that a person intends to do”

I have a plan of crafting a legendary at some point.

I do not have the specifics of how I’m going to do it. I’m a PvE explorer but I know it will take me through the lands of Explorable Mode dungeons and WvW exploration and play, and the land of the crafting and farming. Do I know which land I go through first once I finish my PvE exploration parts? Nope.

That’s a long term plan.

ANet probably has a long term goal like that. They know where they want to end up and what things they have to do to achieve that, or at least a handful of those steps, definitely the bigger ones. Might their long term goal change as they evaluate the responses of the baby steps needed to reach that goal?

Sure.

Just like my decision to craft my legendaries might. I might find one aspect of getting legendaries to be way too difficult for me or way too boring so I’ll just buy one after getting tons of gold. Or I might decide that I don’t want to craft both of my legendaries and just craft one and buy the other.

Or I might decide that making legendaries is fun and create legendaries for cheap because the fun factor outweighs the cost difference.

Banono.4597:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-03-its-unlikely-guild-wars-2-will-ever-get-an-expansion-pack

Not in the foreseeable future, maybe never.

Seems like NCSoft won’t give ANet the funding to make an expansion. Because it is idiotic to tell your playerbase that there is nothing big to look forward to. I guess GW2 is the red headed step child of NCSoft while WildStar might be their favorite child.

Op

Once and for all, there will not be an expansion.

It would be suicidal for Arena.net to release one; due to the overdue unfixed problems and hectic bugs which still plauging gw2 since release.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Upcoming_changes_and_features read mentioned section.

also this: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/18/guild-wars-2s-colin-johanson-outlines-big-plans-and-course-cor/

The expansion is already here. It’s called:

Grind Wars 2: Gates of Time

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

I think we simply disagree on what a ‘plan’ or ‘roadmap’ is precisely.

ISO/IEC 12207
Embrace it and become enlightened.
You guys can argue all day over PR usage in terminology. I prefer saying “mile-stones” when dealing with the public, but really it’s just a matter of interpretation.

OP: There are teams working on permanent content like new zones etc. They really do just want to have these 2 week releases though for the foreseeable future. For the rest of the thread getting derailed, it’s just the same old people with the same old tired arguments.

Davidm.2419:

when is the first guild wars 2 expansion coming out?

Next year. When all the new big MMO titles have come out and ArenaNet realises, the living story did only quite well, because there has been no real competition in 2013. No matter who said what to whom, they will do, what pays the bills best. A good sound expansion is the only way to get those people back who aren’t playing anymore but are still interested. My guild is full of such people.. no, empty would be a better term for it. Only 10% of the guild are still playing but about 75% are still waiting for an expansion to come back. Nobody will do this for a two week content feature. They want to get garanteed fun for weeks or months and would pay for it. If ArenaNet can’t provide this, they will buy it in another game.

And all this will happen in 2014, or GW2 will loose massivly due to other games. It is pretty simple and they know it.

Burnfall.9573:

Op

Once and for all, there will not be an expansion.

It would be suicidal for Arena.net to release one; due to the overdue unfixed problems and hectic bugs which still plauging gw2 since release.

Like that bug that allows people to pick “Thief” as a playable class amirite?

You dont always need an expansion for a big update . GW1 added zones without expansions so why couldn’t it be done here? I could certainly see living story add the Crystal Desert or Maguma Wastes perhaps even further north into the Shiverpeaks who knows .

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Vayne.8563:

An idea or concept is not a “plan”. A plan is something very specific. Some writers write with outlines…that’s a plan for what you write. Piers Anthony outlines everything to the letter. Some writers write from the seat of their pants. Stephen King does this. It’s talked about in his book On Writing. He often has no idea where a story will go.

Having an idea or concept is not the same as a plan. Why do you think so many people call the manifesto a lie? It wasn’t a “plan” it was a concept.

I think we simply disagree on what a ‘plan’ or ‘roadmap’ is precisely.

Plan:
“A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective.”

“a set of actions that have been thought of as a way to do or achieve something”

“something that a person intends to do”

I believe Anet has something like this, based on the definitions above. It doesn’t have to be insanely complex, and it doesn’t have to be for the next 5 years even; however, I can easily see them having mapped out what they want to achieve and push out to us over the course of the next year. They’ve obviously mapped out what they want to achieve over the 6 months of July through December…Colin spelled it out to us in a blog. (Considering how fluid the game and development markets are, I consider 6 months to be a ‘long’ term)

It’s the difference between the verb plan and the noun plan.

I plan to do something. That’s a verb and not very specific.

Let’s draw up a plan. Do they have a plan? That’s very different than planning to do something.

The problem is when people say someone has a plan in an industry that changes fast, what they really have is an intention. It’s a whole lot less than a plan. You can plan for lots of stuff….but it’s very tenuous. A plan makes it sound like something solid. And this is the problem that’s been going on for ages now.

Anet says something and people think it’s a promise. They use the word promise. Anet promised there would be no vertical progression. Well, no, Anet said there wouldn’t and the situation seems to have changed.

They’ve said over and over again they iterate stuff. They change stuff. This is not unusual at all with artists and the game is made my artists. That’s why the whole logic thing doesn’t always seem to fly. They’re trying new stuff, they’re experimenting, they’re iterating.

Now, how does the oft used word iteration mesh with the word plan?

If they have a plan of what to do, but it’s going to change and they’re not going to stick to that plan, how is that not the same as not having a plan at all. I could rephrase I suppose. They have no plans that are solid enough to announce and no plans that are likely to play out. I really think they have brainstorming meetings, someone comes up with an idea and they hash it out and think, yes, that’s good.

In fact, I know that’s how they work because I read that’s how they work. Which would make the idea of long term plans tenuous at best.

Im Mudbone.1437:

silvermember.8941:

They keep saying they wont be an expansion, but I am pretty sure NCsoft (and wisely) force them to make an expansion. To me, an expansion is away to reset the game and try and get back some of the people that might not be paying attention.

NCsoft is the reason we have all the garbage crap in the game, like the Gem store, RNG and the like, if NCsoft has it’s way we may never see an expansion, It’s ANET that would do the deed and release one, but, since NCsoft is pulling the strings, again, we may not

Ironically, it has been NCsoft that has been talking about expansions to their investors, while Arenanet has been saying “If we do things right, there will never be an expansion” It is Arenanet that literally rather not do an expansion and want to release expansion worthy stuff for free over time.

Galphar.3901:

silvermember.8941:

Im Mudbone.1437:

silvermember.8941:

They keep saying they wont be an expansion, but I am pretty sure NCsoft (and wisely) force them to make an expansion. To me, an expansion is away to reset the game and try and get back some of the people that might not be paying attention.

NCsoft is the reason we have all the garbage crap in the game, like the Gem store, RNG and the like, if NCsoft has it’s way we may never see an expansion, It’s ANET that would do the deed and release one, but, since NCsoft is pulling the strings, again, we may not

Ncsoft is also the reason they guild wars 1 and 2 were MADE and Release, so what’s your point. Most companies wouldn’t have taken the risk for gw1 and if gw1 wasn’t made 2 wouldn’t be made. So ultimately, your point is moot and is spoken out of ignorance for reality. If you want to see a real cash shop go play Swtor.

unlike you I have no beef with Ncsoft or the cash shop. See the difference between YOU and ME is that I am not affected by any of the RNG crap nor do I care if it affects everyone.

Yes NCSoft is the reason these two games were funded and published. What you need to remember is that NCSoft was just the PUBLISHER of GW. Meaning they had NO say in the content or how the game was run. Looks like they decided to take a bigger hand in the developement of GW2 tho, hence the Gem Store, Gear Progression, ect.

NCsoft has owned Arenanet long before Guild Wars 1 was released. Arenanet was formed in 2000, and NCsoft bought them in 2002. NCsoft was not just the publisher, they literally owned Arenanet before Guild Wars 1 was even released, 3 years before it released. So yeah, NCsoft had a lot of say in the development of Guild Wars 1 since NCsoft owned Guild Wars 1 and Arenanet three years prior it being released.

haviz.1340:

Vayne.8563:

Except that Factions and Prophecies together had less content than Guild Wars 2 at launch. Nice try though.

I’m sure pvp in gw2 is blooming thanks to all that content we have.

Developers stated that Guild Wars 2 now has more people playing GW2 PvP than they ever had playing PvP in the history of GW1, and Guild Wars 2 hasn’t even released in places like China and Korea, where as Guild Wars 1 did. So yeah, PvP is booming comparatively.

eisberg.2379:

haviz.1340:

Vayne.8563:

Except that Factions and Prophecies together had less content than Guild Wars 2 at launch. Nice try though.

I’m sure pvp in gw2 is blooming thanks to all that content we have.

Developers stated that Guild Wars 2 now has more people playing GW2 PvP than they ever had playing PvP in the history of GW1, and Guild Wars 2 hasn’t even released in places like China and Korea, where as Guild Wars 1 did. So yeah, PvP is booming comparatively.

Have they said that? I missed that.

Yeah, I’m a PVe’er so naturally my comments are geared toward PvE and might not have any relevance to PvP at all.

If they took all the PvP out of this game, it wouldn’t adversely affect my experience in the slightest (not that I don’t want to see a healthy PvP population…I just personally don’t enjoy it).

Vayne.8563:

eisberg.2379:

haviz.1340:

Vayne.8563:

Except that Factions and Prophecies together had less content than Guild Wars 2 at launch. Nice try though.

I’m sure pvp in gw2 is blooming thanks to all that content we have.

Developers stated that Guild Wars 2 now has more people playing GW2 PvP than they ever had playing PvP in the history of GW1, and Guild Wars 2 hasn’t even released in places like China and Korea, where as Guild Wars 1 did. So yeah, PvP is booming comparatively.

Have they said that? I missed that.

Yeah, I’m a PVe’er so naturally my comments are geared toward PvE and might not have any relevance to PvP at all.

If they took all the PvP out of this game, it wouldn’t adversely affect my experience in the slightest (not that I don’t want to see a healthy PvP population…I just personally don’t enjoy it).

Yeah, they said it around the 1 year anniversary.

Some just don’t get it.
As long there is LS there will be NO expansion as you know it.

Assyrian.4827:

Some just don’t get it.
As long there is LS there will be NO expansion as you know it.

Right, because you said so.

Read my posts or read upcoming changes in wiki. Anet put something there you all will like to see.

guys, really, this game has seen 18 Content Updates. Now Content Updates are not necessarily full scale Expansion Packs. But when one takes into account the fact that this game is largely a Free To Play game with a Cash Shop, one has to understand that Content Updates are generally how the large majority of Expansions are going to be handled. Other Online Games utilizing the free to play model use the exact same Content Update System as opposed to straight Expansion Pack Releases because it is cheaper to produce several smaller content updates over the course of several months as opposed to a single large scale expansion pack. This is especially true in games that utilize the kind of voice acting that this game utilizes (though I personally only know of only one other MMORPG that utilizes voice acting in it).

eisberg.2379:

Developers stated that Guild Wars 2 now has more people playing GW2 PvP than they ever had playing PvP in the history of GW1, and Guild Wars 2 hasn’t even released in places like China and Korea, where as Guild Wars 1 did. So yeah, PvP is booming comparatively.

I’m sure they are happy of all those hotjoin farmers that are playing, skyhammer most likely. There are 5-10 minutes long queues in primetime for soloq, while teamq almost completely dead fighting against same teams over and over.

Galen Grey.4709:

Irony is we already got more then Mini games and jumping puzzles but Everyone seems to forget the 100+ Guild missions, 2 Dungeons, 50+ new Dynamic Events, 3 PvP maps, 3 news mini dungeons, a new meta event, a new zone and the changes to WvW. Seems for some people what counts is what they dont like and everything else they like well that’s like it never existed.

It’s not that I’ve forgotten, or am unaware… It’s that I DON’T CARE.

I’m not in a big guild and I’m not a sPvP player. The 2 new dungeons are GONE, so they don’t do much for my entertainment choices today, tomorrow, or next week.

And Southsun as a ‘new zone’ is about the most egregious example I’ve ever seen of content failing to scale to the number of players present. Its like the worst day in Orr (and there were some BAD ones) multiplied by about a factor of six.

I’m enjoying the game because of a certain enjoyment in the long-term pursuit of cosmetic goals and a basic appreciation for the class system/core combat gameplay, but I can’t say the deluge of 2 week play-hard-or-miss-it events is really that satisfying.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

guys, really, this game has seen 18 Content Updates. Now Content Updates are not necessarily full scale Expansion Packs. But when one takes into account the fact that this game is largely a Free To Play game with a Cash Shop, one has to understand that Content Updates are generally how the large majority of Expansions are going to be handled. Other Online Games utilizing the free to play model use the exact same Content Update System as opposed to straight Expansion Pack Releases because it is cheaper to produce several smaller content updates over the course of several months as opposed to a single large scale expansion pack. This is especially true in games that utilize the kind of voice acting that this game utilizes (though I personally only know of only one other MMORPG that utilizes voice acting in it).

Actually even most free to play games come out with expansions. Lotro has. DDO has. Perfect World has.

Your argument is that this is cheaper for the company to do than selling a million copies plus of another box?

That makes no sense. The traditional way developers increase interest and revenue in their game is to come out with an expansion.

eisberg.2379:

haviz.1340:

Vayne.8563:

Except that Factions and Prophecies together had less content than Guild Wars 2 at launch. Nice try though.

I’m sure pvp in gw2 is blooming thanks to all that content we have.

Developers stated that Guild Wars 2 now has more people playing GW2 PvP than they ever had playing PvP in the history of GW1, and Guild Wars 2 hasn’t even released in places like China and Korea, where as Guild Wars 1 did. So yeah, PvP is booming comparatively.

I find that incredibly hard to believe, but even so GW2 has a much larger population so it would make sense. Pvp still sucks regardless.

Mathias.9657:

I find that incredibly hard to believe, but even so GW2 has a much larger population so it would make sense. Pvp still sucks regardless.

I thought that the aspect arena was good, though temporary content. Not epic, but good. But still, yes the short-fall of pvp in this game is that it’s more multi-player centric and not “mmo”. When can we build bases in the living world and defend them? capture zones and deny the opposing factions to city access etc? No, I guess I’m thinking “mmo”, my bad. hehe

Ok, no expansions for the game. I’m fine with that. What bothers me is that after more than a year now still no new territories opened. I mean, don’t tell me the rest of the world is just a fancy good looking smear with a brush.

Well all we got in response to this and other questions at the GW2 dev chat with Mike Z at Eurogamer was “Nothing is off the table”, that was literally his answer to EVERY question in the Q&A

In fact, here’s the Eurogamer dev chat
The first question in the Q&A was me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axLVJfzCe74

Unfortunately, the devs don’t know if they want to have a paid expansion or not. I can’t remember the exact quote but it was something like “we haven’t decided if we will do paid expansions or expand the game through the living story”.

Why do you think we are getting “filler content” so far, I mean content that has nothing to do with dragons.

For the good of the game, i DO hope they decide soon. I’m sure they are already working on expansion content, expansions aren’t made in a month, and big companies should start working on expansions soon after release (with a small team at first of course that gets larger and larger).

I bet it’s the “higher ups” who haven’t decided which method to use yet. Content is being made, the delivery method hasn’t been decided yet.

Tbh so many people i know have already left the game, myself included, cause lack of proper endgame. I came back to see the living story, was only happy with what they did to tequatl. I don’t buy this “2 week to a month” type of content that only forces you to do things “now or never”.
Expansion would be cool, repairing what is broken first (like that terrible zhaitan fight!!!!!!) would also work. At least they gave us a big farm (ascended weapons, soon armor) so we have a feeling like there IS an endgame and sth to work on… same as endless achievement point farm for rewards…
A full paid expansion COULD be a relic from some past times, but no matter what you guys say, living story is bullkitten… just a filler for lack of proper content… Even this years halloween feels kinda lacking compared to last years…. I expected, if there wouldn’t be a mad kin’s dungeon and scavenger hunt (tbh i hoped for scavenger hunt that would improve the book to ascended level), that at least the replacing content would be the same quality or better, not 10 times worse. They couldn’t even work on that… Recycled content that was somwhat cut compared to last years is all I can say.
Hope they turn it around and give us sth worth mentioning… In a year, all I can see is a few more activities and a lame karka island. Most of the players thinking of returning to the game see the same.
Oh, yeah, player base may still be growing, they do a nice work with advertising and improving the game you can buy now (you get a gem store armor and whatnot), but only cause more people are buying the game and since there is no subscription, nobody is rly leaving it, although they don’t play atm. But at one point that will stop.
Give us sth decent… Or I will be one more of the people “not playing the game no more”.
Thank you for reading.

There’s a lot of possible models you could use.

TSW does DLC packs. They’re all solid content updates with new storyline, new areas, dungeons and etc.

RuneScape went even further than GW2 and does weekly updates. You do get a bit of everything, but it seems to be working considering the game is a decade old and still running strong.

The problem with GW2’s model is that it doesn’t expand the core game. Most of the content made gets removed 2-4weeks later. This is what’s turning people off.