Is anet going to stick with its promise of chapters every 6 months?

I agree with VitisVinifera (in the above post), releasing a game before testing would mean TONS of exploits and bugs and worst of all Bad Player Reviews. Many people wait until they get some feedback from other players before buying the next expansion, if people find tons of bugs and problems like imbalance there will be bad reviews by the players and thus less revenue for the company (depending on the number of people who look at these reviews).

People have gotten really (in their own personal way) strict with anet because they were not pleased with one or both expansions, and they don't want to waste more money if people don't like the game.

I completely disagree. I would much rather have a well-thought out new chapter, with most of the content tested and tweaked, than a glorified Beta test.

Has anyone considered that the big "update" may be to the server or the engine? Or that they may include a more "permanent" feel to the game like environment changes. All of those things would impact the game without a new chapter and in the case of a new server or engine you would have a huge impact on how the financial came out. I think they will hold to a 6-9 month timetable as that is what their "stated" business model has said since before the initial beta tests several years ago.

An engine change would require the game being redone, then I bet GW2 would be a surprise "pay to get more features, but the stuff already here and 5 year old stuff will still be free" update, like Runescape.

I would rather have them add more and release longer as well. The real joke would be to wait the extra 6 months for another release and have it the size and scale of Factions and not Prophecies.

I wish some other mainstream company would make a pay-one time forever MMORPG. And by mainstream I mean something you actually have to go to best buy or gamestop and buy it, not some silly downloadable game on the net.

And what I heard what the structuring of the game is like in terms of development and timetables... is that games are actually developed for a full year as such...

first guild wars had to be created, however long that took first

Guild wars is released, factions development starts

Six months into factions development, another team begins nightfall development.

six months later (1 year that we remember) factions is released. At this point chapter 4 was supposed to be started in development.

Six months later nightfall is released. Chapter 5 is being developed now.

and the pattern is supposedly believed to be like that, though it seems like 6 months to us, the game has been in development for a whole year.

6 month schedule is not a promise it is a schedule. Schedules are modified all the time in all aspects of life be it a personal or business schedule. If you schedule an appointment for the Dentist and don't make that appointment then you will have to reschedule. All this talk about releasing a game that is "Not Complete" is hogwash in my opinion. I have finished all 3 campaigns and I found them to be hours of fun and enjoyment. I do not know of a game that is released on PC that does not have an update. There are bugs in all software. Microsoft releases a patch every second Tuesday of the month 12 months out of the year for Windows OS. If software designers waited to release software that is bug free then we would NEVER see a product come to market at all.

Quoted for Ultimate truth.

ANET Promised NOTHING in terms of realease date. Like many have said, it's a GOAL. Let's just give them space to make a great product without making them feel like they owe us something NOW.

I'd rather wait annother 6 months for next chapter, but get something really cool, new and well-thought-through. No imbalancing skills, proffesions or titles, cool ideas, great story etc etc

Id love to see where Anet actually "promised" to release a new campaign every 6 months?

Where is the signed contract or legally binding obligation to do that? Where did they shake hands or spit in their palms and promise this?

The idea of it coming out every 6 months was probably started by an Anet employee making a comment during an interview saying they would "like to" or "try to" release one every 6 months.

I dont mind how long they take to release campaigns. Id rather they spent the time polishing them up and perfecting them before release. If that means it takes 6 months or a year, then thats fine by me.

Otherwise we end up with more "Factions".

And considering the game is free to play and we're not loosing any money if we dont play, then why are you so bothered?

Just do something else until the new campaign comes out. Such as have a life outside of your room.

Some of you are talking as if you're going to go cold-turkey if they dont release another campaign within 6 months. Get a grip people. Its a game and your not paying to play it. Your not loosing out on anything if you have a break from it.

Everyone keeps asking where it is stated that:

It's somewhere in the Gaile Gray logs. A long time ago Gaile said something about releasing 2 chapters each year. But half a year ago (or something close) she said there would only be one release in 2007!

So I guess everyone should check the Gaile Gray logs... but since it's that many... nobody posted where this information was stated. And I'm not going through it either... cause I know what I read back then.

And please: no hero's in chapter 4 and absolutely no new characters!

I'll say it again. Where was it PROMISED? We already know Gaile has said that they'd like to stick to a 6-9 month schedule so what exactly was your point?

And if you don't like heroes then don't use them. Why are you asking for them to be taken out? People like you are so selfish in your demands...

I say they take their time. They never promised games every 6 months, they only said that is their aim.

No one wants a half assed chapter released.

I totally typed out a response to this before I went to work, but apparently the server ate it. Let's see if I can recreate it from memory.

I would like it--not that it will ever, ever happen--if they released a sort of "bare-bones" world for us to explore. Not much there, pretty basic. But then, over time, they add new outposts, new areas, new items, new bosses, new quests, new missions, everything. A true "evolving world" so to speak.

The downside, of course, would be the inevitable bugs--but so long as they aren't gamebreaking, I'm sure I could live with them.

Not that it's wrong for you to want a polished and completed product, of course. I'm merely offering another point of view, potential path to be followed.

I can't wait for another Guild Wars expansion, but I'll gladly wait a little longer if it means they have more time to fix things up. I think some other people pointed it out already, but we don't need a repeat of Factions. As much as I loved the new content in that game, the story was weak and the missions were down right depressing.

I think that the more chapters/skills/professions there are the more problems will arise with skill balancing and combinations people didn't think about in the first place. After Nightfall got released aNet made Domain of Anguish, pimped HA and implemented several skill balances. This kinda points out that there are more pressing matters to attend to then releasing a new chapter. Better wait and get something good.

I don t mind if they releas chapter 4 as they say.It would be better if they releas this summer near 8 month.As some ppl of us don t have very good computers.But this summer i am going to buy new one
So Anet you don t need to hurry up.

Thankfully they stopped making an expansion every 6 months but instead concentrated on quality of the game. They (supposedly) delayed the c4 release both because of work on its own quality and work on upgrading the whole GW franchise. I really hope this will mean a better C4 that's not just "more of the same, again" but full of cool new interesting things, refreshing and filled with new features.

Think about it: During the 6 months between Factions and Nightfall releases there were NO major updates to the game done. Now things are different as multiple updates on the game features, quality and longeivity are done or being worked on (like reconnects, party search, HA improvements, new system of skill rebalances, the upcoming automated tournaments and hard mode... +many more)

I think that they stopped using their model of working at 2 campagins at once and instead of having their people divided into 2 teams working on separate things, they have one strong team working on C4 and the rest working on the game we got now - updates, upgrades and a more active Events Team than ever. C5 is probably only early concept work or is even not thought about at all.
< This is pure speculation and may be totally wrong >

We would be screwed over if they would release a half baked product. So I'm all with Anet on this one.

Second thought, imo they never promised to roll out a chapter every 6 months. I don't own a signed contract between me and Anet stating I will get a chapter every 6 months. Neither do you right? Patience is a virtue. Some things are worth waiting for.

Okies, there seems to be alot of agreement on the 6-9 months timeframe as Anet's goal. Nine months on from NF is July, July is latter half of 2007 (bonza!), everyone could be happy.

The only real problem we have here is lack on concrete information form Anet. I'm inclined to agree that if we haven't heard anything by now (in comparison we'd had a PvP weekend for Factions this time last year) then we're not looking at a April release.

I'm ok with that, especially since it means a potential Chapter 5 wouldn't clash with Halloween like NF did. I like my spooky celebrations!