expansions pay 2 play. fact or fiction?

A friend has told me that the expansion packs for guild wars will have a monthly fee, i havent seen any proof of this, but if it WILL BE, I wouldnt be suprised for them to be keeping it a secret until the expansions come out.

Does anyone have any PROOF of this? Its causing alot of chaos in the teamspeak server im always on, arguing that its true, not true.

Needless to say, if its true there are going to be alot of angry people.

I will either purchase the expansion, with no monthly fees attached, or get the expansion for free with a monthly fee, one or the other, NOT both.

So please, if anyone has some proof of this, or any comments, please post.

There will be no monthly fees for expansions because it's the same game just with extra content.

Ok, is this fact or just your opinion? If your a developer or work for the company, then I believe you. but if your just a guildwars player, how can you know for sure?

I sure hope your right

I don't need to be a developer to tell you public information which states that not now nor ever will there be a monthly fee.

It doesnt matter if its the same game with added content, they could still charge a monthly fee to have an expansion installed if they wanted to...

I know you say that its public information that it will never be pay for play, but that is for the main game, they dont specify anything about the expansions. sure, if you dont buy any expansions it will never be pay 2 play, but what about after you get an expansion?

I think im just worried lol... like i said, i hope your right!

lol on the FAQ on http://www.guildwars.com it says will NEVER be a monthly fee, i think that goes for everything, and i dont think theyre so mean as to not tell us about a monthly fee on expansions.

Do some research in the future.

company quote
there will not be a monthly fee at any time on this or future chapters

note that their business model is based on selling the content not a monthly fee

EDIT

the next chapter will have about the same content as the retail game and cost the same as a full game (about 50)
chapters are NOT mandatory to continue playing

alright, thanks folks. puts my mind at ease a bit.

it'll be more profitable for them just to come out with expansions regularly and charge for their purchase, than to start charging monthly fees. 95% of the guild wars buyers, including myself, would leave guild wars if it had monthly fees. They will gain far more revenue with the expansions. So you don't have to fear monthly fees, because it's the shittiest marketing move they could make. If I'm smart enough to figure this out, surely ANet and NCsoft have known this for a long time.

I totally agree with you, it would be a very stupid move and would end up making them less money in the end.

Koreans have a monthly fee IIRC and they are still playing a lot

Hi

I was speaking to NCsoft during the last press event, and they won't charge a monthly fee. I remember sometime in the past WoW was going to be free to play after you bought the game. The suddenly out of the blue they changed there mind and said they would charge. This is about the same time most of their developers walked and formed the company that would become Arena net. There is plenty of FreePlay MMORGPG with updates and content additions and a lot of these only have a few thousand player base with multiple servers. Mu Online and Conquer online are two of them. Conquer get round it by allowing players to buy equipment with real money rather than having to hope for a rare weapons drop. This will never happen with Guild Wars as the NCsoft rep confirmed. I'm not sure how MU online keeps going.

However I do suspect the money that will keep GW going will come from sales of the game and expansions which will out strip may other pay to play games, because it's no monthly fee so more people will buy it. Also they have a good dynamic and secure client server system, that outstrips many other PtP games, and is a licensable commodity.

From what I can gather the developers don't like the idea, they never have done and they probably never will. The game is sustainable purely on the sales of expansion packs, how do you think companies survive to produce the next in the series of games. Where would The Sims be if they had to charge a monthly fee to sustain the company. Because they can sustain a company and make a profit of games and expansions, who does Guild Wars need to charge. Yes they use server space, however many companies use server space for updates or online gaming, this is no different, they just use their servers creatively to host the world.

The people I have spoken to who are involved with NCsoft and Arena.net all love the game and don?t seem to be in the business of making stupid amounts of profit. Plus if you want to stay competitive in a world where MMORPG?s are coming out left right and centre they you need to do something no other company does.

NCsoft and Arena.net have always said the game will never be pay to play, to back down on such a public comment would loose them so much credibility as a company it would be suicide.

At the end of the day if the developers keep producing quality content for expansions, you will want to buy every one that comes out, if 1.5 (est) million people keep doing that then they will have enough money to continue the story. If you do the math for sales of a non PtP online game like quake 3 or unreal, and apply it to the sale price of the game minus manufacturing costs, you have more than enough money to sustain the company, and hire space on server farms. (However I think NCsoft run there own server farms.)

I have never heard a hint or even a suggestion that they will entertain the idea of Pay to Play. And as a reviewer if they did such a thing with an expansion, then it would get universally paned for that action alone. I think a lot of this is down to scare mongering, because it?s not part of their business model.


Gabby

If they're keeping it a secret, how would your friend know about it?

Did you know Microsoft's next Windows OS is going to incorporate a free MMORPG in order to put Sony out of business? Sony is the target but it's going to kill Guild Wars and WoW as well. Such a shame.

I know you won't find any info about this on their website, but that's because it's a secret.

Well, i am going to buy all of expansions, and the only reason that i came to guild wars, was because there was no monthly fee, and i believe there are lots of people that were the same as me.

- p0t4T0

Tell you're friend he's an idiot.

There are NO MONTHLY FEES.

Expansion packs will be released every SIX TO EIGHT months (not every 2 like WoW players have suggested) and will have the same amount of content as the first release. Which means the release of chapter 2 will DOUBLE the game for those who choose to buy it.

I say choose to buy it because you do not have to! If you say "meh.. I don't think I like chapter 2 very much... I'll stick with Chapter 1 until number 3 comes out" you can do that. They aren't going to kick you from the servers if you don't buy them. And you can still play with all your friends, enemies, and companions in the chapters that you have in common.


PS: Very informative and reassuring Gabby.

The expansion.

Say $50 every 6 months.

$100 per year. At 80% profit or more being that the engine is done.

PtP $10 per month and bad servers = $120 per year.

NCSoft and Area.net will make more money. Their will be no reason to charge a monthly fee. As that fee will be the expansion packs.

You will not need an expansion pack to keep playing though.

Happy customers and more profit with a liesenceable game structure such as the Quake engine.

Yes it is still all about money. They are just going about it much better.

"A happy customer will tell 2 to 6 other people. A mad customer will tell 5 to 15 people and be much more vocal. Keep your customers happy and you make money."