Guild Wars 2

I may not understand economics very well, but it seems to me that if GW2 has just succeeded in getting hundreds of thousands of Chinese players, then their coffers are filling up now with new revenue. Congrats Anet.

Does this mean that we can expect a large, serious expansion in the next few months?

(As a former GW1 player, I’m not understanding the lack of expansions for this game, compared to others out there.)

Here’s hoping!

While people may pretend to understand it, no one accepts it. An expansion is a must to fill the void caused by terribly executed living story idea.

fourhim.3584:

I may not understand economics very well, but it seems to me that if GW2 has just succeeded in getting hundreds of thousands of Chinese players, then their coffers are filling up now with new revenue. Congrats Anet.

Does this mean that we can expect a large, serious expansion in the next few months?

(As a former GW1 player, I’m not understanding the lack of expansions for this game, compared to others out there.)

Here’s hoping!

The living story is your expansion.

When you say you want an expansion, do you mean like another box to buy off the shelf at Walmart or something? The lack of those kinds of expansions is something I personally find refreshing.

IIRC the game sorta flopped in China?

DonQuack.9025:

IIRC the game sorta flopped in China?

This is the link that I just read. Roughly 3.5 million more players, doubling the worldwide number of sales. This was as of July.

And Yes, I mean a box for sale at the store that will add a LOT of new content all at one time.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-10-guild-wars-2-is-a-big-hit-in-china

Let me put this into perspective for you, then:

World of Warcraft (vanilla) was released in November 2004. The first expansion came out in January 2007, over two years hence. Guild Wars 2 has only been out for a little over two years, and in that time they have had a relatively large amount of additional content that we paid NOTHING for. Just because you’d rather pay for a disc in the box doesn’t mean I, or even a majority, of GW2 players feel the same way.

gryph.8734:

fourhim.3584:

I may not understand economics very well, but it seems to me that if GW2 has just succeeded in getting hundreds of thousands of Chinese players, then their coffers are filling up now with new revenue. Congrats Anet.

Does this mean that we can expect a large, serious expansion in the next few months?

(As a former GW1 player, I’m not understanding the lack of expansions for this game, compared to others out there.)

Here’s hoping!

The living story is your expansion.

When you say you want an expansion, do you mean like another box to buy off the shelf at Walmart or something? The lack of those kinds of expansions is something I personally find refreshing.

The living story is a carrot on a stick. Not to mention they desperately need to get better writers and design characters that don’t belong on someone’s Tumblr blog like the current cast of “heroes.” It is all so underwhelming that I just mute the game and skip everything as fast as possible to get it all over with. The recent dragon fight where your character gets to fight the dragon alone was the only good part in recent memory.

An expansion creates whole new areas (not just a zone here and there), increases level caps, would maybe add a new weapon skill, add a new row or column of traits, and new utilities, etc., perhaps even a new race and/or class, and so on and so forth. It’s not a new quest every month.

I appreciate them at least making an effort but you can’t compare the LS to an expansion. The LS only has a few days of content to it.

Lets put it this way.
The odds of getting an actual GW2 expansion is as likely as us getting Mounts for GW2.

Heh heh heh~

So many sheep, so few shears.

You don’t need an “expansion”. You just want a box produced full of hope and rainbows? Why can’t content be pushed live, no box, much much lower overhead, etc.

The game needs something similar to raids, and no, sorry Anet, Tequatl open world junk doesn’t fill the lack of end game. Your vision to not do raid type content and instead focus on open world is a flop. Time to admit it, it’s been 2 years after all, the typical time it takes for game developers to reach the conclusion that things did not work out as planned.

GvG. Guild Halls. Monk Class. Raid type content. This is the type of stuff to push live with a pseudo expansion. Even though this game should have had GvG on day 1, it is “Guild Wars” after all.

Kamui.4038:

gryph.8734:

fourhim.3584:

I may not understand economics very well, but it seems to me that if GW2 has just succeeded in getting hundreds of thousands of Chinese players, then their coffers are filling up now with new revenue. Congrats Anet.

Does this mean that we can expect a large, serious expansion in the next few months?

(As a former GW1 player, I’m not understanding the lack of expansions for this game, compared to others out there.)

Here’s hoping!

The living story is your expansion.

When you say you want an expansion, do you mean like another box to buy off the shelf at Walmart or something? The lack of those kinds of expansions is something I personally find refreshing.

The living story is a carrot on a stick. Not to mention they desperately need to get better writers and design characters that don’t belong on someone’s Tumblr blog like the current cast of “heroes.” It is all so underwhelming that I just mute the game and skip everything as fast as possible to get it all over with. The recent dragon fight where your character gets to fight the dragon alone was the only good part in recent memory.

An expansion creates whole new areas (not just a zone here and there), increases level caps, would maybe add a new weapon skill, add a new row or column of traits, and new utilities, etc., perhaps even a new race and/or class, and so on and so forth. It’s not a new quest every month.

I appreciate them at least making an effort but you can’t compare the LS to an expansion. The LS only has a few days of content to it.

A few day’s content, huh? I stand by my assertion. There was NO content added to World of Warcraft for the first full two years of its existence. There was a non-zero amount of content added to GW2 within the first six months of its existence. Now we can debate the amount and/or quality of that content until we’re blue in the face; that’s not what I’m talking about here. If you want to go play an MMO that releases a box with a disc in it every couple of years, be my guest. I am just pointing out that business model does not equally appeal to everyone. For that matter, it doesn’t appeal to everyone. Like me.

fourhim.3584:

DonQuack.9025:

IIRC the game sorta flopped in China?

This is the link that I just read. Roughly 3.5 million more players, doubling the worldwide number of sales. This was as of July.

And Yes, I mean a box for sale at the store that will add a LOT of new content all at one time.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-10-guild-wars-2-is-a-big-hit-in-china

Go search up the reddits on the actual Chinese reaction the clamp down on negativity on their forums. and when I say clamp down I mean. CLAMP DOWN.

I really hope they have been working on an expansion, or at least will start working on one.

The living story isn’t even close to being a substitute for an expansion. How can anyone even argue that? Heck, it doesn’t even begin to compete with what other games that follow a similar update schedule put out.

The update model can work, it has for many other games, but for whatever reason ANet does it poorly and I’d rather have a “boxed” expansion over this.

I don’t know about Chinese but my money is fueling them enough on a monthly basis

Kamui.4038:

The living story is a carrot on a stick.

“Carrot on a stick” is the standard for MMO’s. They all provide content linked to rewards for players to chase. You might not like the flavor of this particular carrot as compared to others, but it’s not as if other MMO’s don’t motivate in similar fashion.

DonQuack.9025:

fourhim.3584:

DonQuack.9025:

IIRC the game sorta flopped in China?

This is the link that I just read. Roughly 3.5 million more players, doubling the worldwide number of sales. This was as of July.

And Yes, I mean a box for sale at the store that will add a LOT of new content all at one time.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-10-guild-wars-2-is-a-big-hit-in-china

Go search up the reddits on the actual Chinese reaction the clamp down on negativity on their forums. and when I say clamp down I mean. CLAMP DOWN.

It’s true that the player base nearly doubled with the Chinese release, but there are two things to consider with that fact:

1. China contains almost 1/6 of the total world’s population, at just over one billion people. Difficulties notwithstanding, it would have been foolish for Anet not to make some kind of attempt to get a market in a place where WoW and other popular MMOs already have a presence.

2. The box sales can be kind of deceptive with this business model, as it says nothing about how long those players remain and how much money they spend on an ongoing basis if they do. Anet or Kongzhong must have access to these figures, but I would think their reasons for keeping the information from the public would be self-evident.

Bri.8354:

I really hope they have been working on an expansion, or at least will start working on one.

The living story isn’t even close to being a substitute for an expansion. How can anyone even argue that? Heck, it doesn’t even begin to compete with what other games that follow a similar update schedule put out.

The update model can work, it has for many other games, but for whatever reason ANet does it poorly and I’d rather have a “boxed” expansion over this.

What about those of us that are perfectly happy without boxed expansions? Doesn’t our opinion count for jack?

gryph.8734:

Let me put this into perspective for you, then:

World of Warcraft (vanilla) was released in November 2004. The first expansion came out in January 2007, over two years hence. Guild Wars 2 has only been out for a little over two years, and in that time they have had a relatively large amount of additional content that we paid NOTHING for. Just because you’d rather pay for a disc in the box doesn’t mean I, or even a majority, of GW2 players feel the same way.

And players like you keep the base game and don’t buy the expansions, then. I don’t understand why we can’t have BOTH “living world” and occasional expansions at the same time.

fourhim.3584:

gryph.8734:

Let me put this into perspective for you, then:

World of Warcraft (vanilla) was released in November 2004. The first expansion came out in January 2007, over two years hence. Guild Wars 2 has only been out for a little over two years, and in that time they have had a relatively large amount of additional content that we paid NOTHING for. Just because you’d rather pay for a disc in the box doesn’t mean I, or even a majority, of GW2 players feel the same way.

And players like you keep the base game and don’t buy the expansions, then. I don’t understand why we can’t have BOTH “living world” and occasional expansions at the same time.

As I said, the living world IS the expansion. It’s the same reason there’s nothing akin to the living world in World of Warcraft. They do expansions instead.

You may not understand why Anet doesn’t do boxed expansions, and I’m pretty sure I’m not in a position to try to explain particulars to you as I’m not an Anet employee, but I assure you there is most definitely a reason for it. And I’m sure that reason has something to do with the fact that Anet’s goal all along has been to distance itself from other MMO’s and their respective business models.

Yes, I do feel as though Anet has failed somewhat in that effort to distance themselves with the release of this latest content patch. Various players have had various levels of success in articulating that, but I really do believe that’s what it boils down to. And it’s just not enough to really tick me off — yet.

In closing, if you want a game with expansions, go play a game with expansions. I think it’s all the carping and moaning about the game that occurred pre-September Features Pack that has gotten us to this sorry state. And quite frankly, I don’t want a bunch of naysayers damaging this game more than they already have.

gryph.8734:

Bri.8354:

I really hope they have been working on an expansion, or at least will start working on one.

The living story isn’t even close to being a substitute for an expansion. How can anyone even argue that? Heck, it doesn’t even begin to compete with what other games that follow a similar update schedule put out.

The update model can work, it has for many other games, but for whatever reason ANet does it poorly and I’d rather have a “boxed” expansion over this.

What about those of us that are perfectly happy without boxed expansions? Doesn’t our opinion count for jack?

Are you really happy with the pace, quality, and direction of the living story? Have you ever played another game that follows a similar model and seen what they can put out in comparison to GW2? I’m not saying we need a boxed expansion, but I doubt they will ever bring the current model up to a level that can match what one can put out there.

gryph.8734:

Kamui.4038:

gryph.8734:

fourhim.3584:

I may not understand economics very well, but it seems to me that if GW2 has just succeeded in getting hundreds of thousands of Chinese players, then their coffers are filling up now with new revenue. Congrats Anet.

Does this mean that we can expect a large, serious expansion in the next few months?

(As a former GW1 player, I’m not understanding the lack of expansions for this game, compared to others out there.)

Here’s hoping!

The living story is your expansion.

When you say you want an expansion, do you mean like another box to buy off the shelf at Walmart or something? The lack of those kinds of expansions is something I personally find refreshing.

The living story is a carrot on a stick. Not to mention they desperately need to get better writers and design characters that don’t belong on someone’s Tumblr blog like the current cast of “heroes.” It is all so underwhelming that I just mute the game and skip everything as fast as possible to get it all over with. The recent dragon fight where your character gets to fight the dragon alone was the only good part in recent memory.

An expansion creates whole new areas (not just a zone here and there), increases level caps, would maybe add a new weapon skill, add a new row or column of traits, and new utilities, etc., perhaps even a new race and/or class, and so on and so forth. It’s not a new quest every month.

I appreciate them at least making an effort but you can’t compare the LS to an expansion. The LS only has a few days of content to it.

A few day’s content, huh? I stand by my assertion. There was NO content added to World of Warcraft for the first full two years of its existence. There was a non-zero amount of content added to GW2 within the first six months of its existence. Now we can debate the amount and/or quality of that content until we’re blue in the face; that’s not what I’m talking about here. If you want to go play an MMO that releases a box with a disc in it every couple of years, be my guest. I am just pointing out that business model does not equally appeal to everyone. For that matter, it doesn’t appeal to everyone. Like me.

The WoW content in the beginning of the game was hard enough for most players to get through that Blizzard actually had some breathing room to fix their game up and start releasing more content. Cata and MOP dumbed the game down so severely that people just walk through content and then are lift sitting on their thumbs. The last year of Wrath also saw a long period of time without content where a lot of people unsubbed only to be greeted by Cataclysm (this is around when I quit WoW). Don’t get me started on MOP — I got this crap on sale to try it out and regret spending even 10 dollars on it.

As for LS vs Expansion: you get what you pay for, and LS is essentially free (aside from introducing new skins which are optional to buy) hence its lower quality, shortness, and lack of novelty. I don’t enjoy having to essentially buy the game again every year or two but if it means revitalizing the game then so be it.

Maybe you are satisfied with table scraps and that’s your prerogative, but other people also have other standards. Right now though I don’t care about an expansion or the living story. This patch has done me in enough that at this point I’m exhausted and just want GW2 back…

fourhim.3584:

I may not understand economics very well, but it seems to me that if GW2 has just succeeded in getting hundreds of thousands of Chinese players, then their coffers are filling up now with new revenue. Congrats Anet.

Does this mean that we can expect a large, serious expansion in the next few months?

(As a former GW1 player, I’m not understanding the lack of expansions for this game, compared to others out there.)

Here’s hoping!

In Asia, each living story chapter is probably sold for gems. So in Asia it doesn’t matter whether the Living Story is an expansion or gem store, it will still bring in similar revenue.

The Living Story is an admirable effort, at least at heart, to continue to bring refreshes and change to the existing game worlds. Giving additional reasons to revisit areas, adding new events, reshaping parts of the world. Debates of execution aside, it’s a good idea at its root.

While that’s all well and good, it’s a neverending conveyer belt of snacks, when sometimes what’s wanted is a full course meal. Huge tracts of land, numerous new world and mega-bosses, leaps and plunges forward into story and lore. Typically a new race and/or class to shake things up. Enough to keep a relaxed player busy for a month or so (there will always be content-blitzing players, though) with more and new things to do even after all of the immediate new content is explored. This works well in tandem with the LS concept, rather than one supplanting the other.

There’s also more than one way to unleash expansion-level content in today’s world of digital distribution. It doesn’t have to be heading to Amazon or Walmart to grab your box and key anymore. Acquisition doesn’t have to be just opening up your wallet and handing over $50 for the entire brick of content.

On an entirely unrelated note, this is the most archaic forum system I’ve seen released with a game so recent.

Bri.8354:

gryph.8734:

Bri.8354:

I really hope they have been working on an expansion, or at least will start working on one.

The living story isn’t even close to being a substitute for an expansion. How can anyone even argue that? Heck, it doesn’t even begin to compete with what other games that follow a similar update schedule put out.

The update model can work, it has for many other games, but for whatever reason ANet does it poorly and I’d rather have a “boxed” expansion over this.

What about those of us that are perfectly happy without boxed expansions? Doesn’t our opinion count for jack?

Are you really happy with the pace, quality, and direction of the living story? Have you ever played another game that follows a similar model and seen what they can put out in comparison to GW2? I’m not saying we need a boxed expansion, but I doubt they will ever bring the current model up to a level that can match what one can put out there.

I was happier with the game pre-September Features Pack than I have been since. But that’s mostly because I hate to hear all the carping and moaning going on. As a certifiable lore junkie, I’m happy with the living story. I’m happy to get a few bites here and there, every couple of weeks, rather than a huge boxed expansion pack to fork out another $50 every two-to-three years. I’ve never felt obligated to spend a single dime on GW2 for any reason, and that’s one reason I’ve stuck with the game as long as I have even though I have spent quite a bit of money on it of my own volition.

Corpus Christi.2057:

While people may pretend to understand it, no one accepts it. An expansion is a must to fill the void caused by terribly executed living story idea.

Speak for yourself. I don’t feel a void and I don’t think the LS is terribly executed.

As long as ANet continues to make money with their current plans, they don’t have to go back to traditional forms of content rollout.