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Guild Wars 2 public Beta is here for pre-purchases! [Stress Test June 27th]

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docbon

Member
I win...Then again..I still play Guild Wars on a daily basis. :D

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for now.. :p

jesus christ thats almost two years of play time

how the heck
 

Hackbert

Member
Is idle time counting? if so i would half that amounts IMO.. I personally know a handful of similiar fellows.. True gw lovers. But often i wonder if they are playing or standing around.

I just got 9/50 *sad unmotivated pandaface* All I needed for the veteran armor + a nice bow like i have now ingame (urgoz longbow)
 

froliq

Member
Please blow me away this BWE, GW2.

Just so that I can feel better for paying in full upfront, while there's no release date.
 

Andiie

Unconfirmed Member
* This is just a thought dump on what I may or may not be excited about with GW2.

I've been watching a lot of videos lately to catch up on the hype for the game. I'm pretty excited to try out the game, everything looks really interesting.

There's a couple of things I'm not quite as hyped for though mainly the dynamic quests and the holy trinity being gone. Depends how they play out in-game though. I knew about this stuff already but seeing it in action makes me a little wary.
Dynamic quests because I don't like coming in late to an awesome event and only catching the tail end of it (seeing the "end boss" die as you run to help out, everyone cheering how awesome it was while you're crying 'cause you missed it), irritates me no end in other games that do something similar. And the holy trinity because there's nothing worse than not being able to drop aggro on a mob when your low on health. A couple of dungeon vids had me worried for this.

On the plus side I'm most excited about the scale of the world. Everything just seems to dwarf you and this for me is the best thing about the game. I also love the level of detail in the world. The amount of time and care that went into some of the environments is amazing. It feels like someone put it there for a reason. I can't wait to explore the world.

I'm warming to the combat system. I've been playing D3 last couple of days and one of the things I was disappointed about or I thought was maybe more of a missed opportunity was to have the skills change depending on which weapons you had equipped. Coming from WoW I love seeing skills numbers kept to a minimum. That game is absurd in this sense, having a 40 button ui full of skills.

Can't wait to try WvW. Hopefully it'll work out great.

Not sure which class I want to play yet. I barely know any :lol. I'll just play them all till one sticks I guess.
I've been thinking if this turns out as great as it could be I may end up leaving WoW for it. I've been a lover of that game forever but right now I feel done with it. Just need something to take my interest.
 

Retro

Member
Dynamic quests because I don't like coming in late to an awesome event and only catching the tail end of it (seeing the "end boss" die as you run to help out, everyone cheering how awesome it was while you're crying 'cause you missed it), irritates me no end in other games that do something similar.

That's something that could certainly happen, but that's just part of the real-time nature of the events system. However, ArenaNet has stated that anything 'epic' (like the shadow behemoth or swamp dragon fight) will be meta-events, which have zone-wide announcements in your quest tracker. So if something epic IS going down, you'll be notified about it if you're in the zone. A lot of those fights also lie at the end of a chain of events, so if you see a message like "The Swamp is restless" for the meta-event, it means there's something happening and you should check it out

And the holy trinity because there's nothing worse than not being able to drop aggro on a mob when your low on health. A couple of dungeon vids had me worried for this.

First, there is no aggro as you know it in other MMOs. Enemies have much more complex behaviors than simply attacking the player with the highest 'threat':
Interview with Colin Johanson said:
Q: How the AI of enemies will work? Specifically, how enemies will chose their target? Will they be capable of complex behaviour and combat strategies?

A: That’s a great question, because it’s something we don’t necessarely get asked details a lot. There are very few creatures in the game right now that have kind of their final skills and abilities that we intended them to have. For example, in the demo that we’re getting here at Gamescom… the undead army in the high level map is probably the closest thing to what I would consider to be in an army that has a lot work done on it at this point. Our creatures are going to be getting a lot of work between now and release. We have really been focused mostly on the players side of things at this point and on getting all the contet put together on. So creature balance will be kind one of the next things that we tackle, and we’ll be moving army by army in trying to give them themes and skills and AI details to each army specifically. In regards to AI and aggro… simple creatures will use an AI system to determine who attack, and one of the most important criteria will be who is the closest target to them, but there are also criteria like who’s doing damage, how much damage they’ve done… and other things like that. These are basic things that most creatures would use. Then there will be unique AI for a number of different creatures that will use specific skills or the entire creatures will do different things than that. There may be creatures, for example, who attack the furthest away player in the party. There may be creatures who try to focus on people wearing medium armor or light armor, and try to chase them around. There may be creatures that run away, there may be creatures who get out of the way of attacks, there may be creatures who specifically only use skills on people at specific times. So, all of these are aspect on which we’re going to work as we get closer to the release of the game.(Source)

(TL:DR - You can't count on an enemy just sticking to a tank like glue; everyone has to watch what they're doing and be aware of what's going on.)

Second, when a player is killed, they do not automatically die and the group does not automatically wipe. Instead, they enter a "Downed State" where you must fight to survive. You have a 3 profession-specific abilities that let you attack (some professions have other options) and one heal (which also calls for help, alerting nearby players to your status). If you manage to kill an enemy or heal yourself enough, you "Rally", getting right back into the action.

Here's a video of it in action; it's kinda dark so you can't see what's going on in the fight, but you can see a player die, fight, and rally (actually, really quite a close call); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_8FiGG98-g&t=20s

In addition, any player, regardless of profession, can come over and revive you, making teamwork essential.

So, for example, if you're in a dungeon and the 'tank' dies, it's not an automatic wipe. Because the trinity is dead, everyone now has the ability and responsibility to fulfill all roles as needed; someone else has to take over keeping the enemy occupied while the 'tank' rallies or somebody runs over to help him. Of course, this example implies that there is one designated 'tank', which may not always be the case; it's up to all players to control what the enemies are doing, via Conditions (slow, stun, snare, blind), positioning (barrier spells, knockbacks, knockdowns, force pulls) and the environment (keeping them in doorways and other choke points or, in one awesome example, inside the radius of a trap that other players must continually spring).

The days of "LF1M - Tank", watching certain classes get a free pass on anything other than spamming attacks, wiping because of one person's mistake and all of the other garbage that is part and parcel of the MMO genre to this point are over. Good riddance.

Coming from WoW I love seeing skills numbers kept to a minimum. That game is absurd in this sense, having a 40 button ui full of skills.

Yeah, Skill bloat is a problem in all MMOs. You will never have more than 10 hotkeys (5 weapon-based, 1 heal, 3 utility, 1 elite), a handful of Function keys (for profession-specific features like attunements, toolbelt, virtues, pet controls, etc.) and dodge. Most of that stuff is automatically assigned too, so you won't have to worry about skills moving around, learning where your keys are, etc.

Not sure which class I want to play yet. I barely know any :lol. I'll just play them all till one sticks I guess.

Don't feel bad, man. Some of us of have been following the game for YEARS now and we still haven't decided what class we want to play. I'd recommend watching videos and maybe playing with a skill tool like this one; http://www.gw2tools.com/

And then spend the Beta (if you're in it) trying them all out.
 
The more I look at the Thief trait calculator the more it rises to be my main. The amount of different builds is crazy. Teetering between a high haste/venom build and a quick moving short-bow/stealth build that would be very annoying in PvP. The shadow stepping and trapping would make the second build so much fun to play. I really can't wait until Friday.
 

Jira

Member
Talking about enemy AI, I'd like to see at least 1 boss that went for the healers.

There are no healers...

But speaking of which:

"In regards to AI and aggro… simple creatures will use an AI system to determine who attack, and one of the most important criteria will be who is the closest target to them, but there are also criteria like who’s doing damage, how much damage they’ve done… and other things like that. These are basic things that most creatures would use. Then there will be unique AI for a number of different creatures that will use specific skills or the entire creatures will do different things than that. There may be creatures, for example, who attack the furthest away player in the party. There may be creatures who try to focus on people wearing medium armor or light armor, and try to chase them around. There may be creatures that run away, there may be creatures who get out of the way of attacks, there may be creatures who specifically only use skills on people at specific times."
 

Bree

Member
my guess - old farm bot account :eek:

Nope. Making money is so easy in Guild Wars I don't see how anyone could be bothered to bot. Thats my actual account that I play on. My main character is a mesmer. I spend a lot of my time in FA. Yes, it counts afk time. I don't afk for days at a time or anything. :p I play, most of the time.
 
I thought my 3400 hours over 82 months on Guild Wars 1 was a lot, but seeing some of the times that were posted on here makes me think that some of you people are crazy!
 

Retro

Member
My wife found these awesome posts over at Something Awful today, thought I would C&P them here since it actually has a lot of really good points and useful info. All credit goes to "Andry" and "Minorkos" over at the SA forums (links to their posts provided at the end of each quote). Highlighting the really awesome tips.

Andrii's Tips and Tricks for "Getting the Most out of Your Beta Experience"

- Don't just skip through the questions after you design your character. Your answers impact your story and will also impact some NPC interactions in different areas.

- Guilds can be created the second you are out of the cinematic. Hit "G" to create a guild or to represent/stand down from a guild.

- The intro instance boss encounter WILL down you. This is so you can see how downed works. Even if you stay downed, the NPCs will win the encounter for you. For most classes, the 3 button will get you back up.

- Right away, hit H then select the PVP tab. Hit "Be in the Mists". After you port, there will be an Asura Gate in front of you. Take it to Lion's Arch. After this port, cross the bridge to Lion's Arch. At the fountain make a left. Here there are Asura Gates to every major city. The gates to Asura and Sylvari land will be blocked. Port to each major city and get the waypoint for zippy travel around the world. (This of course will also let you choose your newbie leveling zone)

-Waypoints are graveyards. As you begin exploring and leveling, you want to collect waypoints as fast as possible. Before you start working on a heart or dynamic event, get the closest waypoint or you will be very sad when you die and have to schlep all the way back.

- Go to Divinity's Reach because... god drat it's amazing. Best city in any MMO ever.

- Your weapon skill unlock makes progress by killing a mob. When you get a new weapon, grinding out the unlocks real quick will make for a more varied and strategic game experience early on.

- You can buy AND sell to the auction house (trading post) from anywhere. You have to go to a city to pick up what you have bought or sold however. You can also place buy orders.

- There are no breadcrumbs and no quest hubs. You progress in this game by EXPLORING. Pick a direction that looks good and you will stumble upon adventure. Getting sidetracked is how you will spend most of your time.

- There is no character trading. The mail system is instant, can be done from anywhere, requires no mailbox, and is the primary method for exchanging things between characters.

- You want to gather. There is no gathering skill. If two people hit a node, both get full reward. You can get upgrades for your equipment in the form of crystals from gathering. Even if you don't intend to craft you should gather for the crystals. You will need a consumable to gather. Axes are for logging, picks are for mining, sickles are for herbs and veggies. Most merchants sell these.

[Edit: Retro here; I think he means in order to get the crystals, you will need one of the consumables, as we've seen players without these tools still gathering from nodes.]

- You will start getting karma quickly. When you fill up a heart, the NPC will sell you gear or other goodies for karma. DO NOT BANK KARMA. Keep in mind you aren't getting gear quest rewards... because there are no quests. If a karma vendor has an upgrade for you, buy it then and there. This will insure that your relative power stays above the mobs you are fighting.

- DO NOT RUN AWAY AFTER COMPLETING ANY DYNAMIC EVENT. This is the best advice I can give. Most of the time, after a dynamic event completes, the NPCs will chat for a minute and then another dynamic event will start. You owe it to yourself to hang out and see what the next bit is. If you stay in a place for 3 minutes or so and nothing happens, it is safe to move on. The world around will change A LOT. Whether you are there to see it, is entirely up to you.

- If you have no idea where to go, look for a scout. They are marked with binoculars. They will reveal hearts for you. Also sometimes NPCs will beckon to you or run up to you and say "hey jerky, help a bro". Talk to these NPCs. They will reveal previously hidden dynamic events.

- If you see a different looking dynamic event box that has a background and stays active in a wide area, this is the zones meta dynamic event and requires coordination over a wide area to progress. The end of these events are usually really really satisfying. For instance in the human zone, there is a gigantic scary netherworld monster.

- There is no reason why you have to go to a higher level zone. You will automatically downlevel for an area and get appropriate rewards. If you finish a 1-15 zone, consider going to another 1-15 zone.

- Combat: Your 1 skill is autoattack. Everything else has a cooldown. Since you have a small number of skills this means you can do something you've probably never done in an MMO: look up. The primary thing holding your attention should be where and how you are moving and tells from the mob. To take care of that, you've got to watch carefully.

- Combat: Circle-strafe is your friend.

- Combat: If you run up to a mob, usually they will pause for a split second to punch you or to wind up a big attack. Use this to your advantage.

- Combat: Look at your skill tool tips and check for conditions. Conditions are fight changers. Sure you can just spam 1 and win, but proper use of conditions will greatly increase your survival and speed of killing.

- Combat: COMBOS - If you pull off a combo (a special attack combining your skills with another players skills) you will see "combo" in the heads-up combat spam. Experiment with this for hilarity and hi-jinks. The easy combos involve a field + a projectile or a field + a jumping/leaping attack.

- Combat: Move, move, move!

- Your 7, 8, 9 skills unlock at 5, 10, and 20 respectively. To get skills you need skill points. Do skill challenges for skill points. Every major city has a few skill points that you can just buy.

- Traits unlock at 11.

- In combat weapon switching unlocks at 7.
(Original Post)

Minorkos said:
- PvP: You can do structured PvP from level 1. You will be sidekicked to level 80 and given access to every ability and trait in the game. Technically, you can do WvW as a level 1 guy as well but it's not really a good idea. Unlike in structured PvP, you aren't fully sidekicked to level 80. You should unlock some of your utility skill slots before you dive into WvW.

- PvP: The PvP in GW2 is quite different than in other MMORPGs. Your gear and level are completely meaningless in structured PvP. Like mentioned before, everyone has access to the same stuff. There is no stat comparing, PvP armor or any other typical MMORPG PvP bullshit. If you lose a fight, it was because the other guy was better at PvP than you. No excuses. Of course, this also means that if you beat a guy in PvP, it was because of your own ability. This isn't a big deal for many of you, but for a PvP guy like myself it's very important. I just really hate it when someone in PvP has a number advantage over another person! However, if you really like number comparing contests, look into WvW! In WvW, your PvE gear is still relevant. You will be stronger than lower leveled dudes too, but not by too much.

- PvP: There's a lot more thinking involved in GW2's PvP. Rather than playing whack-a-mole with your cooldowns, you actually have to look at your enemy and see what he's doing. If he's dueling with you 1v1, stack conditions like vulnerability, weaken, and blind on him (limit his DPS, buff your own). If he's trying to escape or kite you, use cripples and immobilizes. If he's channeling stuff, interrupt him with a daze or a knockback. Stuns are always useful for every situation. There is no resource (except for thief's initiative), so the only thing that limits your abilty use is time. You can only use one ability at a time, so make sure you're using the right one at the right time. You will most likely have only a few abilities that deal pure damage. The rest have at least some utility aspect to them, so always check what exactly your abilities do.

- PvP: Also, remember that you can change your abilities and traits whenever you want to. There is no reason not to constantly experiment with different builds.

- PvP: Even if you don't usually like PvP in MMORPGs, you should try WvW anyway. According to testers, it's apparently like PvE against intelligent opponents. There's a bunch of things that make it a lot less stressful than typical PvP. You can't see the enemies' names and they can't see yours, so you're basically anonymous. Also, the overall pace is much slower than in structured PvP. You can just chill out and defend a keep all day if you want to.
(Original Post)

If this violates some kind of GAF rule about posting from outside forums, please let me know or just remove the quotes. I checked the TOS but it only mentions copyrighted material such as magazine scans and such.


Wow, the guy in that first comment correcting him sounds like a total douchebag
JUWnj.gif
. Good article though, his nitpicking about chainmail bikinis (which the games he mentions are MUCH worse with) and his incorrect statement about dialogue choices notwithstanding.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
From the article:
"...I encounter four familiar NPCs in the middle of an argument: the descendants of Guild Wars 1’s NPC henchmen, squabbling over what adventure to go on next."

That is awesome. I cannot wait to see who hooked up with who.

Well
Mhenlo and Cynn
were practically getting it on in the middle of killing a rampaging horde of Naga, so my money's on a kid or two from that pairing.
 

Shrennin

Didn't get the memo regarding the 14th Amendment
Thanks for that information, Retro. A lot of that will be very useful.

I think that sidekicking down may become standard for MMOs after this. It makes way too much sense and keeps all zones current in some way. Even if the quest system is traditional, sidekicking down means you can never outlevel quests.

I'm just glad that ANet took out the ability to sidekick up to higher level areas. There needs to be penalties for exploring areas that players haven't earned the right to be in yet (it creates a sense of emergency when you're exploring a zone that is full of higher level creatures).
 

Retro

Member
I think that sidekicking down may become standard for MMOs after this. It makes way too much sense and keeps all zones current in some way. Even if the quest system is traditional, sidekicking down means you can never outlevel quests.

Hopefully a LOT of things become standard for MMOs after this (i.e. Overflow servers, no server restrictions, etc.). Not that it matters since I've found my MMO for the next decade and a half, but.... yeah.
 

Complistic

Member
Hopefully a LOT of things become standard for MMOs after this (i.e. Overflow servers, no server restrictions, etc.). Not that it matters since I've found my MMO for the next decade and a half, but.... yeah.

Well one of the cool things about GW2 is the no subscription fee. You can play other games and other MMOs when you want, but you can also come back to GW2 any time you want.
 

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
Hopefully a LOT of things become standard for MMOs after this (i.e. Overflow servers, no server restrictions, etc.). Not that it matters since I've found my MMO for the next decade and a half, but.... yeah.

Everyone in here saying "oh you guys are crazy for playing this 5'000+h" just have to wait a few years and then look back at how much you've been playing GW2 ;)
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Well one of the cool things about GW2 is the no subscription fee. You can play other games and other MMOs when you want, but you can also come back to GW2 any time you want.
I put more time into GW than I would've in any other MMO as a result of how much less money I had to put into it. I'd say I've spent roughly 150 bucks on Guild Wars total. I've been playing it to some degree for 6.9 years. And that's not counting time from the beta, which I played a LOT.

In WoW terms (I forget what a monthly subscription is) that's like $800+ if it's 10 dollars/month.

It was easy to see the sacrifice of a persistent world for the savings. But with that implemented with no monthly fee (these guys must have so much capital) it's going to last.
 

Retro

Member
Everyone in here saying "oh you guys are crazy for playing this 5'000+h" just have to wait a few years and then look back at how much you've been playing GW2 ;)

You know what? I actually said "Decade and a half" when I meant "Half a decade". I think my hype is showing.
 

Retro

Member
We all know you really meant 15 years, it's okay.

To be honest, if they drop expansions every year or so like they did with GW1, it could go on for quite a while. Hell, Everquest is still going, right?

Edit: No shit, Meridian 59 is still going? Wow.

on that note, what do you guys think IS the lifespan of a MMO?
If the engine is built well enough to accommodate improvements, the visual style is such that it can age well without looking dated (see: WoW's now-hideous low-poly vanilla races), and the gameplay is solid but expandable... I think 10 years is completely reasonable. I see them adding new content to GW2 in the form of new weapon types, maybe a new Profession or two, but lots of new content in terms of dungeons, continents, PVP maps. Maybe a new race? Not sure how they might expand WvWvW though, unless they add new maps and you switch between them each week, or they simply drop the old map and add a new one with more unique terrain or something.

If you look at something like Mario where the core verb is "Jump" and then you give players a billion situations in which to use the verb, the game can go on for quite a while (in Mario's case, the 2-D games alone are still going strong after almost 30 years). The context in which you do all of the verbs in GW2 can always change and make the game fresh. Obviously I haven't played it yet, but it LOOKS like the gameplay in GW2 will stay fresh as long as there are new, interesting ways to play. Unlike other MMOs where they add new skills and such to the expansion, but it's usually just a way to do something easier, flashier, or something another class can do that you might want. The core gameplay doesn't really change and usually aren't much fun to begin with.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
I expect that we'll get expansions every two years. However, we'll get major game content every 3 months or so.
 

Retro

Member
I expect that we'll get expansions every two years. However, we'll get major game content every 3 months or so.

Two years seems like quite a gap, but it really depends on how major those content updates are. Knowing ArenaNet, their future content plan for the game might be something completely unexpected and possibly quite amazing.

It feels strange to be discussing the future of a game that isn't even out yet.
 

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
Two years seems like quite a gap, but it really depends on how major those content updates are. Knowing ArenaNet, their future content plan for the game might be something completely unexpected and possibly quite amazing.

It feels strange to be discussing the future of a game that isn't even out yet.

Didn't they say they wanted to bring expansions more often to make up for not having a subscription fee? because that seems to be their major source of income after the main game...
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Two years seems like quite a gap, but it really depends on how major those content updates are. Knowing ArenaNet, their future content plan for the game might be something completely unexpected and possibly quite amazing.

It feels strange to be discussing the future of a game that isn't even out yet.

For an MMO though, the future is a big aspect of the game unlike other genres.

Didn't they say they wanted to bring expansions more often to make up for not having a subscription fee? because that seems to be their major source of income after the main game...

This could be true. I mean we had frequent Guild Wars 1 "expansions"
 

Jira

Member
The gap between Prophecies and Factions was exactly 1 year, Factions to Nightfall was 5 months. and Nightfall to EoTN was 11 months and the only true expansion. ANet are 12 times larger than when they launched Prophecies and 3 times larger than when they launched EoTN. Even in just those 2 years where content was flowing, they managed to release a ton of content and features/balances. They have the first 2 expansions already roughed out, they're splitting the team into a live team and an expansion team. Now that they're a much larger team that has had many years working with the same engine and tools they've become extremely proficient. They've said they can pump out new events as fast as 2 days - 2 weeks depending on the QA testing involved and will be patching in new DEs without telling us so the world is always going to be changing whether we know it or not. Beyond that it's important to recognize that content will always keep coming, they're forced to produce content and a timely rate and good content at that because if they don't then people may be less likely to buy an expansion which is a huge chunk of their income. They have no subscription to fall back on and so this means they can't become complacent like other developers.
 

nataku

Member
I'm expecting an expansion every year at the very least. They wanted GW1 campaigns to be released every six months, even though they didn't hit it for every one.

The campaign every six months restricted them in what they could do, so I don't think they'll go full expansions every six months. I'm guessing major expansions every year, and maybe mini missions/expansions in between or something.

But, in fact, the restrictions of the every-six-months model meant the team found itself perpetually wistful over what didn't make it into the game.

“We sat down to discuss what was going to go into Campaign 4 and realized we couldn't do all the things we wanted,” says Game Designer Eric Flannum. “Why? Partly because we’d need more time [than six months], and partly because some ideas wouldn't work well with things we’d done before.”

At that point, there were still no plans to fix a system that didn’t seem broken. But ArenaNet Co-Founder Jeff Strain decided to let everyone “freestyle a little bit,” he says. “And the more we talked, the more excited we got about what we could be doing.”

What the team felt it couldn’t do was implement its exciting new ideas in the game’s current campaign-every-six-months plan. While the promise of fresh standalone content twice a year sounds great to players, its requirements have actually caused Guild Wars to become somewhat convoluted from a game-design perspective.

“With each new campaign, we’ve been trying to introduce brand-new mechanics that change how the game plays. That’s led to the need for larger and larger tutorials to explain the new mechanics, and it’s made each campaign’s beginning experience much more bloated,” explains Flannum. “And since every new campaign was aiming to bring in new players—thus requiring bigger and bigger tutorials—plus aiming to give stuff to older players, the list of skills just kept growing.” Each campaign that’s been added to the Guild Wars world—three in total—has added another layer of design that, in the name of making things easier for new players, has actually ended up creating barriers to entry as they try to sort through multiple training areas, increasingly intricate tutorials, and an ever-ballooning list of skills.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Utopia
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
The gap between Prophecies and Factions was exactly 1 year, Factions to Nightfall was 5 months. and Nightfall to EoTN was 11 months and the only true expansion. ANet are 12 times larger than when they launched Prophecies and 3 times larger than when they launched EoTN. Even in just those 2 years where content was flowing, they managed to release a ton of content and features/balances. They have the first 2 expansions already roughed out, they're splitting the team into a live team and an expansion team. Now that they're a much larger team that has had many years working with the same engine and tools they've become extremely proficient. They've said they can pump out new events as fast as 2 days - 2 weeks depending on the QA testing involved and will be patching in new DEs without telling us so the world is always going to be changing whether we know it or not. Beyond that it's important to recognize that content will always keep coming, they're forced to produce content and a timely rate and good content at that because if they don't then people may be less likely to buy an expansion which is a huge chunk of their income. They have no subscription to fall back on and so this means they can't become complacent like other developers.

Don't forget they have cashshop. You are right though. I retract my previous statement. We'll probably get yearly expansions that cost around 40 bucks. If it's more I'll be shocked. They will also all come out in November.
 

Jira

Member
I'm expecting an expansion every year at the very least. They wanted GW1 campaigns to be released every six months, even though they didn't hit it for every one.

The campaign every six months restricted them in what they could do, so I don't think they'll go full expansions every six months. I'm guessing major expansions every year, and maybe mini missions/expansions in between or something.



http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Utopia

Yeah I think we'll get an expansion every year with content patches in-between every 3 months and balance patches/fixes in between those.
 

Jira

Member
Don't forget they have cashshop. You are right though. I retract my previous statement. We'll probably get yearly expansions that cost around 40 bucks. If it's more I'll be shocked. They will also all come out in November.

Oh yeah of course, but no player ever has to spend money in the cash shop if they don't want to. Granted, people will buy Gems just to get Gold, people will trade Gold for Gems and ANet will get their money so everyone wins. Though that isn't to say players must buy expansions either, but an expansion and a cash shop item are entirely different things when it comes to revenue. Though hell, honestly you could very easily spend more of your real money than the price of an expansion. I just don't think ANet is going to sit back and be slow about support, they've gone all in already with their design so a lack of support post-launch would be baffling. I fully expect them to rival Trion in post-launch support.
 

Retro

Member
The gap between Prophecies and Factions was exactly 1 year, Factions to Nightfall was 5 months. and Nightfall to EoTN was 11 months and the only true expansion. ANet are 12 times larger than when they launched Prophecies and 3 times larger than when they launched EoTN. Even in just those 2 years where content was flowing, they managed to release a ton of content and features/balances. They have the first 2 expansions already roughed out, they're splitting the team into a live team and an expansion team. Now that they're a much larger team that has had many years working with the same engine and tools they've become extremely proficient. They've said they can pump out new events as fast as 2 days - 2 weeks depending on the QA testing involved and will be patching in new DEs without telling us so the world is always going to be changing whether we know it or not. Beyond that it's important to recognize that content will always keep coming, they're forced to produce content and a timely rate and good content at that because if they don't then people may be less likely to buy an expansion which is a huge chunk of their income. They have no subscription to fall back on and so this means they can't become complacent like other developers.

Nicely said. I had forgotten that they've already planned out the next two expansions. In theory, this should lead to some interesting foreshadowing and a steady build towards events rather than "LOL, here's a new villain, surprise!" approach Blizzard loves to use.

Discussing our second and third helpings of the game when we haven't even had an appetizer yet makes me feel guilty, like we don't appreciate all of the stuff that's going to be in the game at launch...

4 days, 22 hours, 50 minutes, 40 seconds... gonna be a long week.
 

Jira

Member
Nicely said. I had forgotten that they've already planned out the next two expansions. In theory, this should lead to some interesting foreshadowing and a steady build towards events rather than "LOL, here's a new villain, surprise!" approach Blizzard loves to use.

Discussing our second and third helpings of the game when we haven't even had an appetizer yet makes me feel guilty, like we don't appreciate all of the stuff that's going to be in the game at launch...

4 days, 22 hours, 50 minutes, 40 seconds... gonna be a long week.

Hopefully we get the client tomorrow and hopefully we can mess with our keybinds before logging in.
 

TheYanger

Member
Seeing as Meridian 59 is still running after 16 years, at this point we have no idea what the average lifespan even is because so few have ever "died".

Eh, to be fair, M59 isn't 'still' running. It was shut down and then restarted by a smaller company. Now UO...that's been running for ages. I'm sure there are still muds that have run for 20 years or more at this point, the question is mostly compatibility/support i'd imagine in terms of keeping a graphical mmo running that long.
 

ShaneB

Member
The great MMO's never really die I guess unless the servers do, they build communities that last and never really want to move on. You get so invested in the time you've spent and can't fathom just leaving it all behind.
 

Smiley90

Stop shitting on my team. Start shitting on my finger.
Who of you guys is going to take the best (preferably high-res) videos/screens and do writeups? If not here, then where? :D
 

TheYanger

Member
Who of you guys is going to take the best (preferably high-res) videos/screens and do writeups? If not here, then where? :D

I'm not sure who else plans to, but I intend to stream as much as possible, I'll throw it up when it's closer to time. If the client doesn't run too poorly (i7 2600 and gtx 560 ti, so here's hoping) my upload is ~30-35 megs/sec so it's usually very clear.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
I will not be doing videos, however I will be doing write-ups for RPG Site. My write-up from the closed beta is also there if you want to check it out.
 
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