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Guild Wars 2 will sell you more dungeons
Shoju
Member UncommonPosts: 776
Guild Wars 2 will sell you more dungeons
Lead Game Designer Eric Flannum, while discussing the upcoming dungeon system in a recent interview with PC Gamer, revealed that Guild Wars 2 will be supported, in part, by microtransaction dungeon sales.
In discussing Guild Wars 2’s business model–which continues the stand-alone, subscriptionless model of the original that required players to purchase the game, but not pay a monthly fee afterward–Flannum told us that he believes subscription fees can cause a developer to get lazy, because they’re making money whether they actually support the game or not. He continued, “The thing I would say [about not having a subscription fee] is that we actually have the continued support development model that encourages us to make cooler things than anyone else… If we have to sell you additional content like microtransaction content or anything like that, we have to give you something that you’re going to want to buy. We have to earn your money.
“We don’t get to say oh well, you know ‘We don’t have to release this content this month, since they’re all going to give us their subscription fee anyways. Let’s just wait until next month and release this cool thing.’ We’re actually kind of bound because if we need income, if we need this game to make some money, we better provide things that people want to buy.”
“There are not many subscription-fee games that have equaled [what we've put out for the original Guild Wars since Prophecy shipped] so I think our content model ensures that you’re getting your money’s worth, because as the consumer you have the option to say ‘You know, I’m not going to buy that. That’s not good enough.’ Whereas the monthly fee [business model] takes it out of your hand. You better be getting something good every month for that–but that’s just not the case with a lot of games.”
We asked Flannum point blank if they would be releasing more dungeons post-launch that would be purchased as microtransaction purchases. Flannum confirmed to us that they’re definitely open to the idea–and more. “Yeah, we’re going to look at what the demand is. Look at what players want more of and we’re going have to release that stuff because that’s the stuff that players are going to be willing to pay for and that’s the stuff that’s going to make our company profitable.”
ArenaNet has already revealed that they’ll be selling Transmutation Stones, one-time consumable items used to customize your gear, in their cash shop. And although they won’t confirm if traditional cash shop items like XP boosts and fast travel consumables will also be sold, Flannum’s responses certainly makes it sound like there will be–if there’s demand for it from the playerbase.
But for now, ArenaNet has only confirmed that they’re planning to sell dungeon content as DLC and the transmutation stones. What do you think? Would you mind paying for an extra dungeon here and there if it means more fresh content coming out for GW2 on a regular basis, or would you rather they stick with the one-time-only payment and slow down development between expansions?
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/10/21/guild-wars-2-to-have-dlc-microtransactions/
Comments
I missed the part where he confirmed that they'll sell us more dungeons...
I guess that would make his title a lie...
I would much rather pay for extra dlc when I want it and not pay and endless sub fee for stuff that I might not even be accessing at the time basically making that sub an entrance fee to the game.
I think this is a very good thing, look at the support DDO has had since going F2P, alot more than it did when it was a P2P MMO.
I would actually prefer to buy my content updates this way rather than a monthly fee, pay for new content when it arrives rather than coughing up a monthly fee for stale old content that gets updated once in a blue moon, make the developers work for their money rather than handing it over mindlessly
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for me that´s a "maybe" and one that comes IF we accept that thing.
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I suppose it depends on how these DLC dungeons compare with the launch content dungeons. If there is any disparity between loot quality, for example, it could turn an otherwise optional DLC dungeon into a must-have, ergo 'forcing' people to pay for the DLC if they want to have the better gear.
On the other hand, if there is no disparity in loot drops and the difference lies solely on a cosmetic level, then I can see the population being much more relaxed about the whole thing.
Not having a sub fee goes to huge lengths to taking the sting out of these cash shops/item shops (whatever you want to call them), but people (myself included) will always keep a wary eye on these sort sof things. Remember Vibora Bay!
Wow, what a misleading interview name, can't even believe it's made by PC Gamer, also making so many assumptions basically out of thin air.
Anyway, I'll take DLC over monthly-fees, overpriced pixels and pay-to-not-play functions anyday as it's the thing that actually keeps you going. Paying for content like single-player games but in a MMO... *gasp*
I'd rather pay a sub fee and have all content available to me and have the same content as everyone else. At the end of the day, mr Eric knew that there was nothing he could do. We may be seeing a buyable class in an update in 2013.
I'm glad I haven't bought into the GW2 hype, although I played GW1 for about 3 years. The fact that there is going to be RMT selling CONTENT is going to net them one less customer than they thought they were going to have.
Hedonismbot: Your latest performance was as delectable as dipping my bottom over and over into a bath of the silkiest oils and creams.
You mean content like expansion packs?
Sensationalism.... again.
An Expansion has LOTS more than 1 dungeon. If you do have to pay for dungeons then its on its way down already. That dungeon could have unique loot and those that don't buy the dungeon will fall behind.
Good thing Eric emphasized on this openly to the community. This is the continuation of the model in GW1 (mission packs) and the same philosophy they used with expansion packs/campaigns, although I'm a bit letdown that it had to be a dungeon content, dungeons to me is a cornerstone of a fantasy MMO. But a pointer from the interview that I've always thought was true with subscription-based MMOs.
"subscription fees can cause a developer to get lazy, because they’re making money whether they actually support the game or not"...
We don’t get to say oh well, you know ‘We don’t have to release this content this month, since they’re all going to give us their subscription fee anyways. Let’s just wait until next month and release this cool thing.’ We’re actually kind of bound because if we need income, if we need this game to make some money, we better provide things that people want to buy
... I think our content model ensures that you’re getting your money’s worth, because as the consumer you have the option to say ‘You know, I’m not going to buy that. That’s not good enough.’ Whereas the monthly fee [business model] takes it out of your hand. You better be getting something good every month for that–but that’s just not the case with a lot of games.”
We'll have to see more details though like pricing. At the moment, they are open to the idea of dungeon DLC. There's a bit of assumption placed in this article by PCGamer.
Playing now: Cities: Skyline / Ori and the Blind Forest / Banished
I'd rather pay more for a large expansion pack than small transactions for dungeons. Mainly, it is a question of ease of playing together with friends or guildies. If we are running a group and someone has to stop to buy some dungeon, it would waste my time. It was easy in GW with just the big xpacs.
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I think the key here is that he said “There are not many subscription-fee games that have equaled [what we've put out for the original Guild Wars since Prophecy shipped] so I think our content model ensures that you’re getting your money’s worth..."
But there are more than enough subscription games in my eyes that have delivered more for the subscription then what Guild Wars has given across their entire line up or expansions. For example, CoX, WoW, FE, WAR hell, even SWG -- each of these games had more content then GWs original title plus at least 2 expansions, and with the monthly fee they've added, more areas, more classes, more skills, more content in as many months as it took GW to create their first paid "expansion".
Each game started with more content to begin with, while prophecies had a very small amount of content, and little to no progression. He should have kept the two payment models separate instead of trying to compare them in terms of value, as there really is no comparison in the longevity between P2P titles and Guild Wars 1. Understand I'm not talking about GW2.
Altogether though, I'd rather pay 15 bucks a month to get all of the content in the game - because lets face it, content is what keeps you playing. Buying a new dungeon for say, 2.99 that may give you 2 or 3 play throughs... maybe 10 or more if it has different difficulties and better rewards, would only last you a couple days. I'd rather have the content all up front instead of paying for it bit by bit and just leave the cosmetic items for the item shop.
If it happens, that's ok with me. I might even be the main one paying for them.
Guild Wars 2 is my religion
The article seems to be assuming too much and proclaiming it as truth, that aside...
I really don't like the idea of small bits of downloadable content, the community gets split, person x doesn't own that dungeon, can't play. Releasing a playfield as DLC on the other hand is likely to receive a wider audience and the community is less split, same is true of expansions. Dumping a new dungeon in to an existing playfield will just create too much of a split with the haves and have nots.
People apparently forgot how dungeons worked in GW1 and how they'll work in GW2. It's mostly a vanity thing due to best rewards being new skins and models for your armor and weapons. Is it unfair that not everyone will be able to get this stuff at first? Kinda. But it doesn't put you at any disadvantage.
Hmmm...I actually like the idea of 'a la carte' MMO content. For example, if they were selling raid dungeons separately - if you're not a raider you wouldn't buy it and you'd save your money. Then maybe you'd spend that money on some other content that more suits your play style. With the sub model we're all paying for each other's playstyles. And in some games a large percentage of the population never gets to see the content for which they paid.
I agree with EvilGeek about it being a problem in splitting the community. DLC works in single player games or as single player content (such as GW1 bonus mission packs). However, for any group oriented content then DLC could really be a problem. If they do implement this then hopefully they will have thought of it and either make them like the GW1 mission packs were or make the content completely scalable.
I will wait to draw my conclusion until I have heard more from Arena Net on this.
If they are going to be selling dungeons and such via cash shop instead of expansions, then I would be most disappointed in Arena Net for not keeping the same model the had with Guild wars1. A move like that could impact them very negatively.
So does this mean the buy to play model is now the buy to buy more model?
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Well.. virtual world games are officially dead I think we can say. Goodbye classic MMORPGs. Why bother trying for immersion when you just teleport all over the place and have missing pieces of the game until you pay extra
I will be severely disappointed if they start selling content separate from the main game and expansions. I think GW1 has spoiled me a bit. But one of the only reason I bought Guild Wars is because I knew I didn't have to spend more money to access additional content.
When I do buy GW2, I expect to have access to everything that they offer. If I find out that I am able to access less things than other people, I'll likely not purchase the game purely based on principle. Which is weird.
Seems like it I'm afraid...And if the dungeons turn out to have unique loot then I don't see how it's different from an item shop. In fact, with an item shop you still get to see all the content at least lol. And they seem to be trying really hard to make players to want to buy that stuff. I hope the "willing to buy" doesn't turn out to be a "need to buy".
Hopefully they won't be that stupid to put unique items in DLC.
DLC doesn't bother me so much, perhaps because I'm used to it from so many other games nowadays. I still would prefer expansions though.