Anet gives us a break !!

Excellent point. I was reading down the thread thinking, "Somebody will post that it's not a 6-month game but a 6-month release schedule" and thanks to you for noting that. Also, thanks to the OP for keeping the point on the specific topic of players' accomplishments and not on concerns about quality; I think you've both done your homework.

I had a few people at E3 ask about the release schedule, thinking we were going to have 6-month development cycles. They expressed hesitation, even concerns, about what a dev team could produce in that amount of time. It was good to be able to explain that the devs have been hard at work on C3 for many months, and are, with the release of Factions, investing resources into C4 even now. These are full teams with an overview from several central team members to maintain continuity and a continued vision of the direction of Guild Wars.

I think you're going to love the look and feel and gameplay experience of C3! But you have several months to enjoy Factions, and from what we're hearing--and figures are showing--players are definitely having a blast!

Ch3 = Binky's Spelling Adventure?

So tired of seeing people complain about how ANET isnt putting enough time and effort into their "expansions" compared to Prophecies. If you think real hard and try to remember what Prophecies was like at release, there were TONS of problems with it. It was only through constant tweaking throughout the year that it's the polished work that it is now.

Hell, those improvements also carried onto Factions. So please stop ranting about how bad Factions is compared to Prophecies. It's getting old.

Is it just me...or should factions have came out earlier so we could already be playing ch3? (lol greed)

I can see your point, as you know there was a one-year span (to the day) from the release of Prophecies to the release of Factions. However, it took us a year to get the system into place, and to staff up with the excellent team required to accomplish the twice-a-year program. From now on, it'll be every 6.

Well, I saw the sneak peek of C3, and I have to say, I saw no Binky anywhere!

Hmmmmm... C4?

1 add on a year is Enuff
only people who have no job or no school or any thing else to do at all
will be able to keep up with 2 a year

I think by putting out 2 a year they are going to force people to choose one or the other

if they realE want to add some thing to the game
they should add more storage and more char slots
I know they are going to sell more char slots for 10 bucks each but when
im still waiting

and they have expert every thing else
why not expert storage
I would pay 100k for that

also will they be doing any free add on's with factions like they did with Prophecies
or is it going to be a pay every time for new add on's from here out

they said clearly sometime this summer so ir could be as late as September and still be summer.

I'm just worried that these chapters will be watered down expansions. I already feel that with Factions. I was expecting some more original features and gameplay but it feels more like an expansion. I'm still enjoying it but I can't see playing it as much as I did Prophecies. If I don't see some good improvements I probably won't be buying Chapt 3 anyway.

Perhaps, but I'm sure all of ArenaNet thought everyone would love the faction-farming gameplay of C2, too.

Who ever said there was going to be new professions in every expansion pack???

hear hear-

I guess that means the team has been avoiding the forums thus far. It is well known that those that enjoy the game aren't as expressive as those that are displeased. I guess they must be hearing it from somewhere else.

Figures don't necessarily mean complete enjoyment from everyone, obviously. I would say they are riding the success of GWP, and since some gameplay design/aspects of GWF are so different from GWP, you can be certain some are not too happy about the change. (ie. bonuses now ranked on how "speedy" you are - and some people recommend taking your time? )

I'm typing this reply, making sure that I choose my words correctly. It is not my intention to flame or scare you off, but these are my views that I must express. You must clearly know, that we have to "tip-toe" near your replies, or else we are in jeopardy of having our posts moderated or deleted all together.

I implore you, to not be blinded by the figures, and take some of the dear suggestions we have here to the development team. CH3's success (read: sales figures) depends on it, and surely a person in the company's business, not unlike yourself understands profit, if nothing else.

Right, I'm playing Factions because of the other elements in it (straight from the Prophecies quest system). It's a shame that when I finish those, all that will be left is the new grind system that Factions introduced. I don't PvP, and I don't relish the thought of running supplies over and over and over.

I know the feeling. I've played my ritualist for 15 hours and im still not off the starter island.

Although, I would still much prefer to have expansions as quickly as possible.

Also, it would be interesting to know the sales of GW:F and GW:P at this two week point in their release. I doubt GW:F is selling as well as GW:P did.

Yeah it will be a short period to do everything you wanna do, but I prefer not having everything ready on release than have to wait for new content, so I really like the schedule.

I am glad some points are made against ppl that says faction doesnt have quality. Just run the forum search and you will find 2 problems (on gameplay, you have the err 7 issue as well):
Alliance battles and Elite missions

Both are new concepts and I think the dev is working on it to polish it. Just as they have done with arena's in prophesies (I can remember several updates on that, both on rewards, as playabiltity and location) and with GvG. (I believe the lord got some updates and VoD as well)

Nice thing about GW is the technology behind it, that makes it possible to contineously stream updates to the users.

I am really looking forward to chapter 3 already, but first I dive in factions for some months

Anet is really smart.. instead of WoW which is (M=money) M=$12xmonths + $50 to buy, well then we get m=$12x12 for a whole year + buying it= $194
now we have GW, and offcourse you wanna stay with the newest version: 2x $50 =$100:12=$8.3 offcourse you're not forced to buy it but still, if you keep on buying (and i'm being cheap right now) you'll have an avarage of $8 a month, that's still not that much as WoW, but still a sort of monthly fee, and then we just have to wait and see if the versions will be as good as prophecies (in which factios has failed)

In my opinion factions has not failed. It's not (imo) as good as prophecies, but it's still worth the $50 i paid for it. And that because i can play factions with prophecies. kudos to the team who produced theese games, and gl with the next ones. This game still tops my list of games, and the other ones that come close to it (ie: wow), i have to pay more for.

and going along with what you've said... if wow = $194 a year and gw = $100 a year, then wow = $16.16 and gw = $8.33 a month. That's almost half the price of wow. That's not even close to the same ammout of money out of pocket to play the game. And your forgetting to mention some key points like content. There is way more content in prophecies+factions then there is in wow (and you can't count the upcomming expansion to wow without adding the extra cost for it, which would bring your monthy our of pocket to around $19.00). ammount of content in a year of gw > wow. also server quality in gw > wow. (i dont think anyone can disagree with this). Also support, and adding features to a game in gw > wow. Hands down (in tearms of price) gw laps wow in a 2 lap race.

Woah!

You are upset they are coming out so rapidly?

SO... if you played a traditional MMO like WoW you would be happy to pay $14.99 a month only to have new content every 1.5 years?

As long as ANET keeps the quality high I am all for every six months... this game has REDUCED my spending on games... cause its the only one I play anymore.

Got proof?

I think its already been established (without need of further proof as you call it) that each chapter has approximately 1 year of development from start to finish.

In fact, I believe Gaile even posted about that in this very thread Just a few posts above!

yes.

i read the announcements when they said we have launched GW and are now working on chapter 2.

6 months later the startup of chapter 3 by a separate complete team was announced.

also check several recent dev chats for further confirmation

EDIT

ALEX WEEKES (NCSOFT)