As I say. It's not necessarily a bad thing that will be seeing expansions just weeks after the first is released.
I'm just saying that's what there gonna do !.......Understand that you will have the game for life, and be able to play for the most part years without paying a sub price. Who will profit the most?.... the ones that play for years.
Why do I think they will release expansions so often ?....It's simply taking too long for release for starters, second, it would be a smart move for more profit.
Advantages of quick expansions :
1) Make the first release shorter than people would expect. Make it a good quality, they will buy the expansions.
2) Video game sales and hype are quick fads. Then players move on to the next ( catch them when players are the most interested. Get expansions out while there interested ).
3) Lay off workers. Yes that's what companies like to do. Sorry thats how America works...why have them linger around paying health care.
Disadvantage of quick expansions :
..................Can't think of any !
Remember a few things. THIS IS NOT GW1, Guild Wars 1 was a huge unexpected success. Developers are smarter now, lessons have been learned. Developers will pump more money into a sure thing like GW2....This is not really a bad thing for the players. I'm just saying what they are gonna do !
Your assessment of Arena Net and proposed market strategies are simply flawed on the basis that Guild Wars 2 is not taking too long to release. It just seems that way because they chose to anounce the game when they JUST started development. This was back in early 2007 when the company chose to hault development of their standalone campaigns for the first game so they could make a full blown sequel. Full-time development hadn't started until after Eye of the North released, which was in August of 2007. That would put us at just over 4 years, which is not a lot of time considering that they heavily updated the original game's engine as well to incorporate and support all of their innovative features.
Most MMORPG's take 4-6 years to develop. The Austin studios for Bioware's Star Wars The Old Republic opened up back in 2006 and in 2008 when the game was anounced, Bioware told fans that 12 full-time writers had been working on the story for the game for two years prior. That would put SWTOR in the same window, over 5 years. Blizzard's World of Warcraft took approximately 5 years to develop as well, from 1999 to 2004.
Community Managers for Guild Wars 2 constantly remind players about everything I just said, so I honestly don't feel like hunting down links/sources for this. The fact remains it's highly unlikely for Arena Net to go a route that would hit a sensitive nerve in the gaming community, which is, essentially, launching with DLC. They also would not rush expansions that had no quality or longevity to them. Their continued success depends on whether or not they're making content that players want to play and pay for. And no one wants to pay for garbage.
That being said, there's absolutely no reason Arena Net shouldn't put a lot of effort towards expansions for the game post-release. That's how the business model works. They continue making large amounts of content for players to enjoy, and they make their money that way.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that Arena Net's going into closed beta with Guild Wars 2 by the end of the year, so there's no reason to suspect the game will take much longer than 5 years to complete, if at all.
This is simply marketing talk !
Anyone who had worked for a large company would understand what I'm saying by this. Yes, I know it takes a long time to make an mmo. Anyone here that has a small history of mmo's or at least two stars next to there name here on mmorpg.com would know that. But it seems too long never the less. It would be wiser to assume they are making several expansions at the same time, as it would be a smarter move as I stated by reading my "Advantages of quick expansions ".
Remember " Community managers for Guild Wars 2 ", like all Community managers are experts at drafting public letters. After all they go to collage !!....... They always leave room for interpretation.
Sure they took the early marketing scheme to hype there new eventual game that would be released someday. But it's still long never the less. What I see by doing so is a marketing scheme. Making my argument THAT MUCH MORE STRONGER !
- Only responsibility to the public is a good quality game.
- Only responsibility to themselves are quick expansion releases for maximum profit.
Guild Wars is taking so long because they are making all the expansion packs at once.
This is not Guild Wars 1. This is not ArenaNet's first mmo. They no longer have to portray a name for themselves. This in now 2011 and businesses are more into making profits than ever.
It's only my Opinion, but I'm often right......The Original Guild Wars 2 will be short, more so for the hardcore fast levelers. You will find the next paid expansion in the stores within two weeks, then the third and the forth soon after. You will not save anything. After a year you will be scratching your head thinking " I just paid the same amount as if I paid for an mmo and all its monthly fees ".
My Grandma used to say :
Nothing is free !
If it looks to good, it probably is not !
Sounds pretty far fetched, you dont have no sources or anything concrete either. Ofcourse they are going to aim for profitable business, but not like this.
You will find the next paid expansion in the stores within two weeks, then the third and the forth soon after.
You say you are usually right. I have a hard time believing that with statements like these. Anet has said there will be an expansion every 6 months. Somehow I doubt they will even keep that up after the first couple. Secondly they WILL have a mostly cosmetic cash shop (no real details on exactly what will be there yet) so they will be making money inbetween expansions.
Also most MMO's are working on expansions before the initial launch. Most of them even admit it. So you arent telling anyone new as far as that goes.
And lastly why should MMO's be any diffrent than any other game market out there? WTF do people think DLC is? Its bits and pieces of the game that developers go "Hey this is cool and we can cut it out of the origional game and sell it for an extra $5-$10 as DLC less than a month after we release the game.".
Your assessment of Arena Net and proposed market strategies are simply flawed on the basis that Guild Wars 2 is not taking too long to release. It just seems that way because they chose to anounce the game when they JUST started development. This was back in early 2007 when the company chose to hault development of their standalone campaigns for the first game so they could make a full blown sequel. Full-time development hadn't started until after Eye of the North released, which was in August of 2007. That would put us at just over 4 years, which is not a lot of time considering that they heavily updated the original game's engine as well to incorporate and support all of their innovative features.
Most MMORPG's take 4-6 years to develop. The Austin studios for Bioware's Star Wars The Old Republic opened up back in 2006 and in 2008 when the game was anounced, Bioware told fans that 12 full-time writers had been working on the story for the game for two years prior. That would put SWTOR in the same window, over 5 years. Blizzard's World of Warcraft took approximately 5 years to develop as well, from 1999 to 2004.
Community Managers for Guild Wars 2 constantly remind players about everything I just said, so I honestly don't feel like hunting down links/sources for this. The fact remains it's highly unlikely for Arena Net to go a route that would hit a sensitive nerve in the gaming community, which is, essentially, launching with DLC. They also would not rush expansions that had no quality or longevity to them. Their continued success depends on whether or not they're making content that players want to play and pay for. And no one wants to pay for garbage.
That being said, there's absolutely no reason Arena Net shouldn't put a lot of effort towards expansions for the game post-release. That's how the business model works. They continue making large amounts of content for players to enjoy, and they make their money that way.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that Arena Net's going into closed beta with Guild Wars 2 by the end of the year, so there's no reason to suspect the game will take much longer than 5 years to complete, if at all.
Yes, I know it takes a long time to make an mmo. Anyone here that has a small history of mmo's or at least two stars next to there name here on mmorpg.com would know that. But it seems too long never the less. It would be wiser to assume they are making several expansions at the same time, as it would be a smarter move as I stated by reading my "Advantages of quick expansions ".
Seriously what are you smoking? You do realize in that paragraph right there you not only contradict yourself but the statement alone makes me think you are 12yrs old?
So uh you know MMO's take a long time to make but it seems to long anyway. And because its actually not taking longer than any other mmo but it just SEEMS like it is it would be wise to assume they are making several expansions at the same time?
Seriously man there is a severe lack of critical thinking involved with that. Like I said in my other post most MMO's ARE working on there first expansion before the initial release of the game. Thats not restricted to Anet. Its been admitted by Blizzard, Turbine, NcSoft, and many, many other large companies. But you are claiming Anet will have 3+ expansions in the first couple months. I dont understand how anyone who is an adult could possibly come to thoes conclusions rationally.
Releasing expansions right after game release has to be one of the worst moves distibutor can make, ever. Players simply won't buy them, they're still not done with content from original game, and they're not ready to spend another 30-50$ on the same game. It's terrible marketing move, it means selling product for which demand will exist no sooner than after 3 months. Also, just imagine shitstorm of bad word such a move would cause, they'd have to pump millions into marketing to deal with it.
Anet may have some teams already working on expansion (mainly because different team types operate in different timeframes of development process, and some of them already have nothing to do in the core game), but there is no way they will release major expansion within 3 months from game release without shooting themselves in the foot.
You say you are usually right. I have a hard time believing that with statements like these. Anet has said there will be an expansion every 6 months. Somehow I doubt they will even keep that up after the first couple. Secondly they WILL have a mostly cosmetic cash shop (no real details on exactly what will be there yet) so they will be making money inbetween expansions.
Actually, Arenanet has specifically said they're NOT going to do an expansion every 6 months.
That was their projected rate for Guild Wars, and they said that's too hard of a pace to keep up, so they're planning on more than 6 months, not less.
You say you are usually right. I have a hard time believing that with statements like these. Anet has said there will be an expansion every 6 months. Somehow I doubt they will even keep that up after the first couple. Secondly they WILL have a mostly cosmetic cash shop (no real details on exactly what will be there yet) so they will be making money inbetween expansions.
Actually, Arenanet has specifically said they're NOT going to do an expansion every 6 months.
That was their projected rate for Guild Wars, and they said that's too hard of a pace to keep up, so they're planning on more than 6 months, not less.
Geeeees,.........Thats why the game is taking so long, try reading the post ! there making them all before release !
Geeeees,.........Thats why the game is taking so long, try reading the post ! there making them all before release !
But it's not. Like several other people have mentioned which you refuse to acknowledge. GW2 is approaching 5 years in development time. SWTOR will take 7 years by the time it's released. By your logic SWTOR is making all their expansions as well.
Comments
total troll.
This is simply marketing talk !
Anyone who had worked for a large company would understand what I'm saying by this. Yes, I know it takes a long time to make an mmo. Anyone here that has a small history of mmo's or at least two stars next to there name here on mmorpg.com would know that. But it seems too long never the less. It would be wiser to assume they are making several expansions at the same time, as it would be a smarter move as I stated by reading my "Advantages of quick expansions ".
Remember " Community managers for Guild Wars 2 ", like all Community managers are experts at drafting public letters. After all they go to collage !!....... They always leave room for interpretation.
Sure they took the early marketing scheme to hype there new eventual game that would be released someday. But it's still long never the less. What I see by doing so is a marketing scheme. Making my argument THAT MUCH MORE STRONGER !
- Only responsibility to the public is a good quality game.
- Only responsibility to themselves are quick expansion releases for maximum profit.
This could very well be there Mission Statement
I stopped taking the OP seriously when he mentioned an expansion release only 2 weeks after launch. Haha.
Sounds pretty far fetched, you dont have no sources or anything concrete either. Ofcourse they are going to aim for profitable business, but not like this.
I simply can't take you seriously. Your claim and explanation makes almost no sense, while also being based on a rejection of actual facts.
You say you are usually right. I have a hard time believing that with statements like these. Anet has said there will be an expansion every 6 months. Somehow I doubt they will even keep that up after the first couple. Secondly they WILL have a mostly cosmetic cash shop (no real details on exactly what will be there yet) so they will be making money inbetween expansions.
Also most MMO's are working on expansions before the initial launch. Most of them even admit it. So you arent telling anyone new as far as that goes.
And lastly why should MMO's be any diffrent than any other game market out there? WTF do people think DLC is? Its bits and pieces of the game that developers go "Hey this is cool and we can cut it out of the origional game and sell it for an extra $5-$10 as DLC less than a month after we release the game.".
Seriously what are you smoking? You do realize in that paragraph right there you not only contradict yourself but the statement alone makes me think you are 12yrs old?
So uh you know MMO's take a long time to make but it seems to long anyway. And because its actually not taking longer than any other mmo but it just SEEMS like it is it would be wise to assume they are making several expansions at the same time?
Seriously man there is a severe lack of critical thinking involved with that. Like I said in my other post most MMO's ARE working on there first expansion before the initial release of the game. Thats not restricted to Anet. Its been admitted by Blizzard, Turbine, NcSoft, and many, many other large companies. But you are claiming Anet will have 3+ expansions in the first couple months. I dont understand how anyone who is an adult could possibly come to thoes conclusions rationally.
Releasing expansions right after game release has to be one of the worst moves distibutor can make, ever. Players simply won't buy them, they're still not done with content from original game, and they're not ready to spend another 30-50$ on the same game. It's terrible marketing move, it means selling product for which demand will exist no sooner than after 3 months. Also, just imagine shitstorm of bad word such a move would cause, they'd have to pump millions into marketing to deal with it.
Anet may have some teams already working on expansion (mainly because different team types operate in different timeframes of development process, and some of them already have nothing to do in the core game), but there is no way they will release major expansion within 3 months from game release without shooting themselves in the foot.
Actually, Arenanet has specifically said they're NOT going to do an expansion every 6 months.
That was their projected rate for Guild Wars, and they said that's too hard of a pace to keep up, so they're planning on more than 6 months, not less.
Geeeees,.........Thats why the game is taking so long, try reading the post ! there making them all before release !
But it's not. Like several other people have mentioned which you refuse to acknowledge. GW2 is approaching 5 years in development time. SWTOR will take 7 years by the time it's released. By your logic SWTOR is making all their expansions as well.