Curse

Great Gjl · May 26, 2005, 05:22 PM // 17:22

What exactly will we be paying for? Another half-arsed 'story' ending and more items to grind for?

chowdah · May 26, 2005, 05:35 PM // 17:35

They've critical hit me in the wallet for the expansion - /me takes $50 damage

Zfactor · May 26, 2005, 05:49 PM // 17:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by BE|Dac

So far I will not be, The grind is literraly soo long I barely have 1/7th of the total skills in the game not to mention runes.

With the coming expansion I will be buying another long list of skills I will look at and wish I had unlocked, and more PvE to bore myself with.

Not to mention from what I am guessing they will add like 1 new pvp area and hype it up.

Whats your take? You paying another 50$?

I will be buying the expansions, I have yet to grind and I find that skill acquisition has been a breeze (i have all but 2/3 of the elites for my monk/me, and I will be getting the elites from areas I never visited - e.g. no grind, just new exploration)

Corwin_Andros · May 26, 2005, 06:21 PM // 18:21

The thing I like is that while I plan on buying the expansions, it isn't necesary. It will be my choice. Personally I want to see what the next big step or story is going to be.

I've spent my money.. almost $100 with the different pre-orders and the CE. The first expansion/"chapter" isn't due out until Q1/2006. If it costs another $40 or $50 then all is well.. By then I expect that even with the extra I've spent compared to someone that bought the basic game and no pre-orders, I'll probably be somwhere at about $.03/hr by the time I spend another penny on GW. At the moment I'd say I'm at about $.30/hr as it is in less than a month.. (gotta love being on break after college..)

ANd between now and the next chapter, how many updates like this upcoming 2 area one will we be seeing for absolutely nothing? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surpirsed if it all totalled up to what normally equates to a typical expansion in other games. Not bad for nothing.

This game is one hell of a value compared to any of the other multiplayer games online. In the others given 9 months between the release and the planned 1st expansion, were I playing a game that only requires $10/month (I don't know all the prices since I refuse to pay to play a game I already paid for) I'd have spent $50 for the game and after the 30 free access would have spent another 80 just to play, before I spent another $30 on an expansion plus a continuing $10/month..

Even if they came out with a new chapter every 6 months like clockwork, it would be cheaper than those other games.

Zfactor · May 26, 2005, 06:26 PM // 18:26

On a side note, if expansions cost $50 and come out every what? six months give or take, that is basically $8.33 a month, just paid in a chunk. That's on par with the lower-end priced per month games that I know of. From what I hear Lineage 2 is cost per month and free expansions, tho thats just what somebody told me.

Corwin_Andros · May 26, 2005, 07:47 PM // 19:47

Guess we'll just have to wait and see how often the expansions actually come out and how big they are compared to other game's expansions.

Ninna · May 26, 2005, 08:32 PM // 20:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cindare Sunstriker

Guildwars is our last attempt to enjoy MMOs. We're sick and tired of monthly fees, we're sick and tired of expansions that punish you for not buying them. AreaNet says you won't need to have the expansions to play

Areanet says you won't need expansions to compete in PvP
- not further play PvE

Future expansions
http://www.guildwars.com/faq/default.html#release

Quote:

Yes. Purchasing the newer chapters of Guild Wars will not make you strictly more powerful. You will have access to many more strategic options, due to the expanding nature of the skills, abilities, items and professions that you enjoy with each chapter.

It would be similar to building a deck in Magic: The Gathering™: The more cards you own, the more different playing decks that you can choose from to use in the game.

When you buy the chapters of Guild Wars, you will acquire a larger collection of skills and abilities from which to build your skill set, but you will not gain more power. So if you purchase a chapter and your friend does not, you will still be able to play competitively against and with one another.

Lineage 2 expansion is not free, Chaotic Chronicles is 20.00

many MMOs charge 12.00 per month

Lazarous · May 26, 2005, 09:03 PM // 21:03

In response to the original question: I will not be picking up the expansion at release. At the very least i will wait to hear reports of any massive changes to gameplay, but unless a.net addresses the various issues discussed in numerous threads on this forum and others I'll just be giving it a pass completely.

Laz

Creston · May 26, 2005, 09:08 PM // 21:08

50 bucks no. 20 or 30 bucks, depending on amount of content, yes.

However, I can understand why PvP players probably won't, since it's not supposed to make any difference in PvP if you have the expansion(s) or not.
And because of the need to keep PvP "balanced", they won't increase levelcap etc, meaning you'll stay level 20 forever and fight level 20-30 monsters forever, which WILL turn off a lot of the PvE players.
Not necessarily myself, I'm having a great time, but I can see how this can become an issue.

Also, they need to get the expansion out pretty soon, preferably before Xmas. I can't see myself playing Guild Wars for 6 months, and once I stop I'm not sure I'd come back.

Some things I would like to see in the expansion is an actual expansion of the gameplay. FAR BETTER ways to pick up groups to do missions with (perhaps a window that shows which people are looking for groups, who they already have in them, what level etc, and what they are looking for?) rather than having it spammed in the chat window over and over again.
Same for sales, right now towns are just SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM. And nobody ever reads it.
You can see one guy shouting that he needs a monk in his group, and the next line is a monk shouting that they are looking for a group. And they'll repeat this 20 times, one after the other...

Perhaps if no increase in the levelcap, we'll get an increase of skills? From 8 to 10 or so? This isn't necessarily i nthe expansion, since it needs to stay balanced, but I do wish I could bring more skills. I feel way too specialised for certain things, rather than being able to tackle multiple scenarios.

Just tools to make our lives easier

Also, in the end, roleplayers like to gain XP. This has been a staple of RP'ing ever since its inception. Taking it away is going to annoy a lot of people..

Creston

Garias Whitanian · May 26, 2005, 09:09 PM // 21:09

I cant say till i know whats in it

Sausaletus Rex · May 26, 2005, 09:27 PM // 21:27

Quote:

How Many of you will be picking up the expansion.

If the game remains in its current state then, no, I don't think I will buy any expansions. My experience with just this chapter has been arduous enough that the prospects of going through it all again with the next one fill me with nothing but apathy rather than enthusiasm.

It's been a month and perhaps it's familiarity breeding contempt but I really am starting to question exactly what it was I saw in this game in the first place. There are significant, structural problems with the way things work and they are apparently met with dismissal or disregard. And, no, I'm not just talking about the interminable "PvP=grind" but the things like an economy spiraling out of control and the awfully repetative, uninspired, and overly long mission design. PvE that relies on tricks and traps like Spectral Agony and cranking up monster levels to provide a challenge rather than presenting intelligent and inventive tactical situations to press my abilities. The tons and tons of useless junk cluttering up my inventory because I don't have hours a day to stand around town trading even if I didn't have the money to buy anything I needed anyway. The game feels sloppy and rushed to make release and it's become increasingly clear that I'm not one of the people it's been geared towards.

What's kept me going, beyond my sense of duty and obligation to this site and the fine people that have helped to make it what it is, has been the promise of being able to customize and experiment along with everyone else as the strategy and meta-game advanced but it just hasn't crystalized and, if anything, things have regressed. I'm not sure when it hit me, perhaps it was on my third or forth infusion run. Or one of the many times waiting in the lobby as people had some variant on this conversation: "Okay, I really like to play Warrior." "Do you have a Superior Absorbtion, because I do." "No, I don't. But I do have Superior Death, I'll make a Necro but I don't really have the skills for it." "Well, I've got the skills for a Necro build, why don't you play the ele then?" Or when the only reason I'd log in would be to check on something before I made an update or a post around here. Or perhaps it was last night when I finally found a group to play some Tombs with and we spent several hours not playing Tombs but hunting down elite skills and running people to outposts so that we could put a build together. Whatever it was, I wasn't having fun. I wasn't even preparing to have fun, I was just going through the motions. But I've come to realize that I can't stand the game and if I was asked to purchase it again today, I wouldn't. And this is from someone who's well connected and has numerous resources at their command to make the experience easier and better. I can only shudder to think what that person who just walked into the store, saw the box on the shelf, and decided to give the game a try is going through.

Or course, that's the beauty of a game with no monthly fee. Now that I've paid for it, I can pick it up or put it down whenever I want. I can still play whenever I want, whenever I can forget my ever-increasing disillusionment. Although, of course, if I ever stop I'll be even further behind in capturing skills and unlocking content than I am now. Perhaps things will improve, perhaps not, I really can't be bothered to care at this point. I've bought the game and I've got my access key so I can play whenever I want and we've been assured that expansions are going to be optional so while I might set the game aside for now I can always come back to it later on. I'm really not sure that's going to be the case and that being without expansions is going t hamstring me and prevent me from getting the most out of the game the same way not having three hours to track down a boss with a skill has kept me from playing with some groups already. But more and more I look upon my purchase of the game as a mistake and one I compound daily so I'm not very likely to make it again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thorizdin

Tombs is easier to go into than GvG right now, because losing doesn't cost you anything.

Not only that, but more profitable, too. What can you lose in the Tombs? The time to crawl back to the hall? What can you lose in GvG? Ladder position.

But what can you gain in GvG? Uh, well, ladder position on a ladder a lot of people playing don't know or care about. And, apparently, a chance to play against the developers at next year's E3. That's about it. What can you gain in Tombs? Fame points which can earn you skill points and bragging rights. Rare drops which you can use or perhaps unlock with. Sigils which you can sell for money to buy runes and weapons. And free advertising thanks to your name being broadcast around the whole game whenever you win.

Tombs is where it's at right now. The ladder is inconsequential and will be for a long time to come. There's no incentive to play and people are still too busy collecting what they need to put together things to take it all seriously. When, that is, they can find a game. Which, of course, is a problem because the Tombs while a lot of fun and probably my favorite place to play is horribly distorting to strategy and the overall development of the game. The goal is not to get to the hall but to hold it which means that people are coming up with better and better defensive schemes where it's nearly impossible for them to lose once they have that dias. And the various imbalances in the game such as the lack of effective enchantment removal and things like Life Bond damage triggering Healing Seed really start to tell. Winning in the Tombs requires the skills of being able to survive the climb there, unseat the team holding the hall by finding a way around whatever they're using that's broken, and then the endurance to last there as long as you can stand. An interesting challenge, to be sure, but not exactly the sort of strategic combat on a level playing field I've been looking for.

super dooper · May 26, 2005, 09:53 PM // 21:53

Yeah, I'll be picking up expansions, maybe not as soon as they're released, but I will. It's all a matter of opinion. (so pretty pretty please stop with the grind and no grind, this sucks and that doesn't threads, or at least post it all in one massive thread that I can avoid :P. I think there has been more threads on that 'subject', than anything else.)

Silvanus · May 26, 2005, 10:33 PM // 22:33

I will be getting any and all expansions the moment they hit the shelves...maybe even reserve my copy...

Typhoon · May 26, 2005, 11:06 PM // 23:06

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think they support this game directly from retail sales. I read somewhere that they keep a large portion of their earnings in the bank, and use collected interest to pay the fundamental upkeep costs for maintaining the game. Expansions, or "chapters" are to help pay for the development costs for expanding the game, while also adding to the "nest egg."

Levian Lain · May 26, 2005, 11:31 PM // 23:31

I've had a very good experience with GW, and plugged in 100+ hours into my main character. I've finished all the story content in the game, and I'm now exploring areas I haven't, and PvPing in the arenas/HoH.

I've only had a few bad experiences, but I just shrugged them off, adjusted, and moved on. I've experienced much harsher conditions in other games, and GW doesn't compare to those experiences.

I've felt like I got my money's worth, so I will pick up the next expansion when it comes out in 2006. For a game that doesn't have a monthly fee, it gets quite a bit of support and free updates, some which are a bit bigger (new areas, music, art, etc).

The only thing that would make me NOT buy the expansion, is if it's the full price of a game ($50). Usually, expansions for games are in the 20-40 range.

Loviatar · May 27, 2005, 12:07 AM // 00:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Levian Lain

The only thing that would make me NOT buy the expansion, is if it's the full price of a game ($50). Usually, expansions for games are in the 20-40 range.

considering that they have said it will be equal to the size and content of the full original game instead of the standard much smaller *EXPANSION*they said each new *CHAPTER* would be priced accordingly

edit
from GW FAQ

note comparison to games not expansions for the chapters

Guild Wars will be priced at a comparable cost to other first-tier PC games. The subsequent chapters of Guild Wars will also be comparably priced in relation to other games.

Tala · May 27, 2005, 12:31 AM // 00:31

I will buy the expansion as soon as it hits the shelves.

I really have only one concern and I'll admit, it's probaly just me.

Many of the later quests seem extremely hard. Meaning you must run through them a few times, with a few deaths in order to complete them. Coming from a pen and paper background it just kills me that dying, rezzing, taking a few more down, and continuing is a viable tactic.

But I do love their story content, so yup...it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

xakia · May 27, 2005, 04:46 AM // 04:46

People always find things to whine about. They'll whine about the game and continue to play it. Heck, this post is a whine. I'm whining about whining. I'm sure someone will find an excuse to whine about my post. Now I'm whining about someone whining about my post.

Immortal Flame · May 27, 2005, 04:57 AM // 04:57

I will very likely be getting the expansion. I think this game is one-of-a-kind, and since I'm a casual gamer, I don't want to spend a year to be competitive like in most MMOs. Missions can be frustrating, but I find them much much less frustrating then farming, crafting, and queueing for bosses.

Stur · May 27, 2005, 11:53 AM // 11:53

Wow Rex your so cheerful about things

Yes I'll be buy the expansion, hell I plan on buying 2, 1 for both accounts I know own