Guild Wars 2

one thing i beg to know, is that all this time Arenanet has been releasing content updates for free, why are they doing an expansion all of a sudden, especially an expansion that partially just seems to follow Living World? i am glad to see more wvw and pvp content, but as you can see with Skyhammer, Courtyard, and Edge Of The Mists, an Expansion business model was never used to market these updates. and while guild halls, specializations, and a new class could merit the use of an expansion, i am sort of sour after all this time not being able to see the Tengu race being introduced into the playable characters list.

now if Tengu were a part of this release (which thematically wouldn’t work technically), i would be rejoicing more than questioning Anet’s intentions. i can only imagine the mentalities and plans that go through NCSoft and Anet’s CEOs, for i think that they are the ones who call the shots on what should be released and worked on, and what they want to charge money for. but of all this, was Tengu so far down the priorities list that you wanted to jump the gun and charge for an expansion without having a full plate and a dessert?

let’s look at Sony for a second… SoE usually stocks up 20-40 zones per expansion, and or a major new mechanic or revamp, new bosses, new items, and every so expansions have a new race or class whenever they released for EQ and EQ2 (which are dying games that they ruined by their own hands for many various reasons), and no one questioned their expansion methodology because they were once the kings, and then Blizzard, who originally ripped off Games Workshop’s Warhammer and 40K, eventually ripped off half of everything that made Everquest what it was, so you started to see the same patterns of gameplay and expansion and payment models in that.

moving onto Guildwars, which i can’t say much because i didn’t like the first GW (no jumping, it made me sad), was a nice break from the subscription fees, though i am well aware of the expansions, but to what details they held, i cannot say nor accurately compare to this situation, but even so, i feel like this new GW2 expansion is only 80% what we should expect from an expansion, but of course, if this expansion offers more than 1 or 2 new zones, that helps your case, but mind you, 7 zones in EQ = 4 zones in EQ2 = 3 zones \- in GW2, and those games come with 10 new zones per expansion, so i hope you filled that map up, otherwise i expect a bit of a community backlash.

this is my 2 cents anyways, but i am actually wondering, as i said before, why the expansion all of a sudden?

All of a sudden? They’ve been working on it for years. The LS has been extra stuff, aimed at leading the story towards the expansion.

I get this from various dev postings and the comments in the last Points of Interest.

Personally, I wouldn’t consider something they’ve been working on for over 2 years all of the sudden.

I peed myself a bit when i received word today…looking forward to it

Not sure why you think it is “all of a sudden”

The game has been slowly bleeding players for the entire year. We got basically no content with the current method. Clearly the metrics showed that it wasn’t working. So instead they have been working on an expansion.

This is definitely not all of the sudden… the LS has all been leading upto this, the shenanigans with Rytlock earlier and Marjory suddenly getting a greatsword as a Necro are two plain examples of this.

I doubt they had planned quite this far ahead when they gave Trahearne a greatsword but it must have had a role to play in their choices post launch when they started to work on this.

In terms of story beats for HoT, go watch the last PoI on youtube, this has been coming for quite some time when all of those things are put together.

also don’t forget that each class is getting specializations, which are like subclasses and even increase the types of weapons the class can use.

so geniuses, what does this mean? i was more looking for a direct response from Anet themselves, but since you all obviously are best friends with Anet, then what does this all mean? this could mean that their Living World experiment failed or didn’t keep the game going the way they wanted, or it means they wanted to release something that would have taken a surplus of work to achieve so the Expansion model was introduced to afford it. that is my theory, but i would prefer confirmation from someone who actually knows.

Um … they’ve been working on this for two years or more. It’s not because the LS “failed,” which it didn’t, they’ve been constantly enhancing it.

Feel free to wallow in your negative views. I’ll stay in my happy place.

many of the features in the expansion do not seem like things they could reasonably introduce through LS alone. Specifically the new profession, the mastery system, and the specializations.

As already stated, their is nothing sudden about this. The amount of content you get in a good expansion can take years to create.

The Living World is free content to keep us in game till expansion releases. The expansion does not follow the Living World, the Living World built up towards the expansion.

Your understanding about the whole situation seems strangely skewed Utomneian.

my understanding is that game companies make money and want to make money, how come i have only heard about this expansion today?

Utomneian.9013:

my understanding is that game companies make money and want to make money, how come i have only heard about this expansion today?

Because it was announced today..?

i feel like we are not kept very well in the loop of things sometimes

Utomneian.9013:

i feel like we are not kept very well in the loop of things sometimes

Huh?

Everything remains unknown until it is announced. We had no idea that they were making Guild Wars 2 until they announced that they were making Guild Wars 2.

and that’s why i’m upset

but i’m also upset that they chose to release an expansion without a new race tied to it.

Because it was about kitten time!!

Utomneian.9013:

but i’m also upset that they chose to release an expansion without a new race tied to it.

We do not need a new race, considering it is in a jungle and Sylvari the main race associated with Mordremoth is already in the game, what would you have recommended?

With the sheer quantity of content announced, I am happy to forgive not getting a new race.

OP, have you played an MMORPG before? What normally happens is the base game is released, the company then release small content patches to keep the players playing, then work up to a big expansion after a few years of initial release.

The Living world content patches are Anets version of the small content patches, and the Expansion is their version of an… expansion.

This is the normal way things are done, but with Anet you have been given much more from the small content patches, and they havent charged you a monthly subscription.

Utomneian.9013:

and that’s why i’m upset

So you are upset that you didn’t magically know about it until they told us about it?
How does anyone ever know anything without being informed about it?

I do not like the trickle-down content as much as just buying a huge expansion pack. This is exactly the news I was hoping for. Im glad there is no increased level cap and there are opportunities for classes to try new weapons.

what i would suggest? well, Anet was releasing the jungle maps in a paced fashion as is, that kind of stuff could have been introduced gradually as it has and always been, then as for the guildhalls, masteries, weapon skills and specializations, new class, new maps (pve/wvw/pvp), that also could have been set to simmer until they were ready to delve into Tengu lore and story, so we could have all of that combined, making it worth the full price of a typical expansion. i won’t pay more than 30 dollars for this expansion as is, but i’d pay 60 for Tengu by themselves. it’s eye of the beholder my friends, it’s my schtick, i wanted Tengu above all else and i waited and asked for it along with hundreds if not thousands of other players for at least a year and a half.

Glad there are still popcorn-worthy threads popping up. Thought things were going to well for Anet.

You will have to wait quite a while, considering how long is has taken for us to get to Moredremoth, you may have an exceptionally long time to wait till you get to Primordius and Tengu.

This announcement has pleased very many people, I am sure you will come around eventually, once common sense raises its head.

They never once said they wouldn’t do an expansion, nor did they say they would.

And they did say in todays announcement that they had been working on this content for nearly the last two years, pretty much since launch. My guess is they hadn’t decided until recently whether this was going to be an expansion or LS yet.

Utomneian.9013:

i have no common sense, i have uncommon sense, and this sense tells me that Anet have been puppeted by NCSoft once again for the sake of money, unless you find proof otherwise.

I apologise, I should have said cooler heads it was wrong of me to imply you had no common sense. But you are obviously upset and I suggest just ignoring the announcement and coming back when you have thought over it a bit and Arena Net have more to show you.

Yes Tengu is the most important thing they could have spent time on. Forget actual content and gameplay or maps and progression. A totally pointless FOR LOOKS ONLY new race is exactly what they should have been working on first and foremost.

Utomneian.9013:

so geniuses, what does this mean? i was more looking for a direct response from Anet themselves, but since you all obviously are best friends with Anet, then what does this all mean? this could mean that their Living World experiment failed or didn’t keep the game going the way they wanted, or it means they wanted to release something that would have taken a surplus of work to achieve so the Expansion model was introduced to afford it. that is my theory, but i would prefer confirmation from someone who actually knows.

No one get’s what you are going on about. Obviously an expansion of this size is planned well in advance; it’s not a reactionary action that indicates any sort of failure. It simply means we are getting an expansion, nothing more. You don’t need to be an Anet insider. MMO’s plan expansions ALL the time, even with content updates in between. There isn’t anything exceptional going on here. I know that bursts all conspiracy theory bubbles but even if there was a reason for the expansion other than “It was always the plan to do it”, we would never be told it anyways.

So much hate which when you boil it all down is just to disguise the qq at no Tengu.

Some people will complain at anything, honestly.

Tengu would have opened up tons of zones, story content, and would be open to other content semi related or unrelated altogether. all this new expansion is doing is a Jagex, where you get a bunch of content for free, but everything else requires money for, and that is fine, i was a Runescape player for a good time, but i am not 100% satisfied with the content put forth.

Utomneian.9013:

this could mean that their Living World experiment failed or didn’t keep the game going the way they wanted

Yep.

Stopped working on the game in order to prep it for China release = China release was a failure.

Living World was meant as a way to add content that people usually see in expansions = players kept leaving and profits were falling.

So, the last, desperate answer? Try to make players come back with an expansion.

This one will make or break ArenaNet. If the expansion is bad – if ArenaNet has a lot of great ideas but a very flawed execution (which is what they do most of the time), well… I remember a game called City of Heroes.

I’m glad there won’t be ugly bird people running around squawking boon-appliance lines.