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Guild Wars 2: Official Response to "Dungeons" Article
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
Earlier today, a PC Gamer article was released titled, “Guild Wars 2 will sell you more dungeons". The title seems to have caused some confusion among some fans and we contacted Guild Wars 2 developer Eric Flannum for some clarification. Here is his response reassuring players that no decisions have been made as of yet and when they are, they will be based on player feedback:
Hey there, after reading the PC Gamer article I wanted to make sure that we clarified a few things. First, we haven’t decided on what exactly we are or aren’t going to offer for money post release. My answer to the dungeons question was meant to say “we’re open to whatever our players seem most interested in.” If after release you guys would like more story content, more dungeons, more events, more maps or whatever it’s something that we have to consider because ultimately making you happy is what makes us successful. Whether we release that in DLC (like the bonus mission packs in GW1) or whether we do it through expansions (Like Eye of the North) is yet to be determined. As to whether or not there are going to be items like XP boosts available in the in game store I can only reiterate what we’ve said before (and will continue to say) that we’ll release details on it when they are available and that our core philosophy of not requiring you to spend additional money to play the game and not making the game difficult or painful to play in order to encourage you to buy things from the store still stands.
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We here at MMORPG.com would like to thank Eric and the rest of the Guild Wars 2 team for their prompt reply to our inquiries.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Thanks MMORPG and Thanks Eric for clearing this up. That poorly worded (I'm trying not to call it deliberately misleading) article has caused a lot of confusion.
Oderint, dum metuant.
That was lightspeed fast.
Hey guys, I'm sorry, but, are you sure you actually asked ArenaNet, instead of heisting Eric's quote offa GuildWars2Guru?
I have always been under the assumption that GW2 would release additional content in the manner of expansion packs or DLC, and I definately hope they do. The additional content means that the game is doing well and I want it to do well. I don't want to pay for a sub (though I currently am anyhow) because I'm justifying my playtime vs the costs, but if I was buying expansion packs, I don't have to worry about getting my dollars worth by playing enough each week.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Yup, called 'em ourselves we did.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Sorry then. Just weird to see 'em giving the EXACT same answer :P. Kudos @ going at it straight away. That PCGamer article had A LOT of people riled up.
To summarize, all they are really saying is that, they will sell whatever it is players will buy. Whether that is content, or boosts, it seems they are open for whatever the community is willing to shell money out on. I guess thats something.
Anything even a little bit controversial is going to be blown up way out of proportion nowadays, especially with the slow news coming out.
I think it's more reasonable to say that they will look at how best to continue generating income from the game as they move past launch. some games have subs, GW1 had expansions, some games have microtransactions... They don't know yet beyond launch.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
I read that as: they will find out from the players first hand; what is seen as most acceptable to charge extra for.
...as they've already done with skill packs, make-overs, costumes, and storage panes.
Good riddance, how nitpicking we have become...
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
thnx for clearing this up!
Have fun storming the castle! - Miracle Max
I want mounts...LOL
I don't think it is nitpicking. People have real valid concerns which i think ArenaNet will think on before releasing. My concern is that if i pay for the game and they release a dlc dungeon for a quarter of the price i payed for the original game, it should have a quarter of the content of the original game. I don't like being penny pinched or gouged. So they should get a realistic grasp for what people are willing to put up with. I don't view dungeons as fluff either, i consider it serious content.
Archlinux ftw
I dont like dlc's oay arenanet through expansions is what makes me happy.I hate dlc's
I just hope it won't be 'mission packs' or 'dungeon packs'. It will split up the playerbase too much. I'm very much in favour of expansion like GW1 as it keeps things simple. Want to play Factions content? Just buy Factions, not map pack #12 with dungeon upgrade #5. (this is an example...)
"The additional content means that the game is doing well and I want it to do well. I don't want to pay for a sub (though I currently am anyhow) because I'm justifying my playtime vs the costs, but if I was buying expansion packs, I don't have to worry about getting my dollars worth by playing enough each week."
That's exactly how I feel bro!
Mounts is the sort of thing that should be in the Item store, since it's not necessary for gameplay.
sadly, most of the members from our old guildwars guild have gone to log-in to their accounts only to find they have been permenatly blocked by NCSoft.
They wont unlock them unless they are provided with information which no longer exists (like credit card originally used to purchase)
So thats several years of time and money wasted.... hmm, dont think we'll be going through the same thing again.
Your bank will be able to tell you which credit card was used for GW transactions. Go and see them, you won't be asking for a loan so they will be pleased to see you.
online expansion = dlc ... every cointent you buy online is technicly dlc - doesn't matter how you call it.
well lets see. i seem to recall that the current gw method of post release material is done is things like the two earlier expansion packs(can't think on names right now night something and .... can't remember other) . They were as large as the game in expanded size and cost as much as the game did. They are worth every peny with additional map area, quest and characters. new characers also means new item lines for character.
needless to say. I like the way they have it. as long as they keep the time to hit max lvl the same from expansion to expansion and base i am happy. they really fudged over when they made it to easy to get to max lvl on expansions. then started fusging the market place by making things more or less exspensive.
if they don't screw with the market and they keep a balanced lvl up to max time all should fly smoothly. though i am not sure how I feel about a lack of healer chars, now that everyone will have heal moves. guess it could help since that was sorta why the game was declining when i last played.
We are months from release, they are throwing this stuff out early, I'm guessing in order to gather feedback on their potential player base reaction. Good move, it does show that they are prepared to look at what the community wants and is prepared to pay for. I know for a fact they watch forums and they've always been approachable (I spent a brief time managing a GW listed fansite) so I have no doubt that they listen and act accordingly.
It gives me the opportunity to say what I don't want which is anything that has potential to split the current contents community, adding dungeons would fall under that.
It's good to get all this exposed early, all the F2P games I've beta tested all left out their real cash shops until the last phases of testing and then adjusted them more come release, none of those games gave much opportunity for feedback. Good move Anet.
Actually, I can understand the confusion this person exhibits. Normally, when a game has DLC, it's a small amount of content (similar to this proposed selling dungeons manner), instead of, say, an expansion-level content, or campaign. I would argue that a DLC is better defined as online-only mini-expansions.
That said, I definitely am worried about this turn of events. The one immutable fact about all DLC I have seen is that it is ridiculously overpriced for the content you actually get when juxtaposed against the base game and its content. For instance, in Mass Effect 2, you spent 50 dollars for the original game, and that original game could net you a solid 50 hours of gameplay if you went out and did everything. You could accomplish even more if you went out and did all the side quests/etc, but you still generally got a huge amount of value for your dollar in a strict dollar:time ratio. However, with many of the DLC's released for the same game, you spent 5+ dollars (I forget the actual amount), but get less than an hour's worth of content.
This is ultimately the plague for DLC that I have seen thus far. You never have the costs justified by the content. You see this most often in things like skin packs (building one texture isn't particularly time-consuming/difficult, pending tools available), cosmetic items (one model+1 texture. Bonus points if you're using a model that already exists (That Retarded Horse) and you can start to see a massive ammount of the entire industry of DLC overcharging for just about everything.
The closest to not-overpriced I've seen is pretty much GW1's Bonus Mission Pack, but it still pales in comparison to that own game's expansion, Eye of the North, which had far more wide-reaching storylines, more zones, more content, really, for the cost. And this is with factoring the price differential in. DLC's are overpriced for the amount of content they give, which would serve as a reason for me to not want to buy them.
That's not to say all DLC is bad. Far from it. It's just, for every Diplomacy or Entrenchment that's out there (Sins of a Solar Empire's DLC) you run into about 10 TRH's or Stimulus Map Pack, which is why I prefer the expansion/campaign style of content delivery, which generally gives more bang for your buck, nevermind the quality of content is often better anyways.