Expansions Can Help Define An MMORPGs Life - Is There One That Specifically Stands Out To You? | MMO

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Expansions Can Help Define An MMORPGs Life - Is There One That Specifically Stands Out To You? | MMORPG.com

We're entering that time on the calendar where multiple games are getting expansions. It doesn't happen every year where you see three or four MMOs getting expanded upon, but this year we're definitely being given a treat. Expansions themselves can help define the lifetime of an MMO - so is there one that stands out to you?

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Infeareal

Asherons Call: Dark Majesty was that for me I guess. Everything leading up to it. The 30 day blocks of story. Housing came with that expansion and has set a need for housing in any game I have played since. Generally if there is good housing in a game I last a lot longer in it. I had family and real life friends that played together. We roamed the lands finding the perfect houses and then the items needed to purchase them. Exploring the new island Marae Lassel with my guild (Monarchy). Taking my mom out on quests to see the content. Good times.

IceAge

Lineage 2 : C4 & C5

Aion : 2.0 - Assault on Balaurea

WoW : Legion

This expansions really influenced the game for me, in a good to very good way.

Rungar

the one that stands out to me the most is Trials of Atlantis for daoc.

its memorable because it destroyed the game.

kjempff

The gamechangers for me:
WoW Burning crusade expanded the game.
WoW Wotlk further expanded.
WoW Cataclysm killed the game.
EQ Shadows of Luclin expanded the game.
EQ Planes of Power continued expanding (beyond space and time..pun).
EQ GoD first of two deathblows.
EQ (the one with monster missions and mercs) final death blow.

Lithuanian

Lotro's MORDOR.
Yeap. Evil that never sleeps (even with one eye poked). Huge land. Stories. Lots of enemies to fight, deeds to finish, things to explore and witness.
After that - sorry, nothing special. Little regions (Vales of Anduin; even if rp-wise it was great) or "me dwarf me fight" boredom (War of three peaks), or "let's copy-paste town, colour in blue" (Minas Morgul). Regions, where one has no stories, nothing to care about. Except audio books, of course.

marcjt20

SWG : Jump to Lightspeed. A shame that game died .

cameltosis

Unfortunately for me and my preferences, every expansion I've experienced has made the game worse, so they are not something i look forwards to.

The standout expansion for me that was the absolute worst was Mirkwood for LotRO.

Smashembro

Anything to do with Tabular Rasa bring the game back there is nothing that comes close get over yourselves and let us play it again

LackingMMO

EQ Kunark and Velious! Those two were when i would say EQ was at its peak. Such a cool feeling going to those areas, the dungeons, raids and all. It just killed on every level. EQ2 had some very solid xpacs as well.

BruceYee

For me expansions are a good way to determine what the developer/company is thinking at a certain time.

LOTRO

Moria - full of passion/motivation

Mirkwood - got bored

every other expac since then - still interested and willing to put 'enough' effort to make it appealing to most of their player/fanbase.

D&D every expac - still do enough to cater to their loyal fanbase.

EQ2 every expac - does enough to keep players happy.

ESO - just thinks about copy/reskin content to make $$ and label as something new. Very lazy.

FFXIV - Still motivated.

WoW - all about the $$ zero passion.

GW2 - every expac feels like it could be the last.

NW their love of $$/profit motivates them to release acceptable/slightly better than mediocre content.

BruceYee

Infeareal said:

Asherons Call: Dark Majesty was that for me I guess. Everything leading up to it. The 30 day blocks of story. Housing came with that expansion and has set a need for housing in any game I have played since. Generally if there is good housing in a game I last a lot longer in it. I had family and real life friends that played together. We roamed the lands finding the perfect houses and then the items needed to purchase them. Exploring the new island Marae Lassel with my guild (Monarchy). Taking my mom out on quests to see the content. Good times.

They (EG7) REALLY should bring that game back. I mean, of ALL the games(mmo) that should be legit revived and never shut down again it's AC. Bring back AC2 while they are at it as well.

DrunkWolf

Asherons Call Dark Majesty brings back so many great memories. I remember going to the store and buying multiple copies right when it came out for my friends in europe that i played with since it wasnt out there right away.

back in those days people from all over the world played on the same servers.

Quizzical

Expansions tend to make MMORPGs worse, though that's mostly because they tend to be implemented badly.  The problem is that developers tend to deprecate old content when they add the new content in an expansion, often leaving the game with only about as much real content as it had before.  Worse, they leave much of the old content in a stupidly broken state, but make you slog through it anyway in order to get to the new content that is still being maintained.

It's not the case that MMORPGs have to implement expansions in such a weird manner.  Some have added new content without destroying the old, such as DDO, Guild Wars 1, or Uncharted Waters Online.  But many MMORPG developers seem to stop caring if their old content is in a playable state not long after adding an expansion, and that can wreck a game very quickly.

prizm1234

WoW-WotLK is still my favorite for that game, but i liked Legion and Pandaria
CoH- City of Villains overall my favorite
EQ1-Scars of Velious, then Planes of Power, then Kunark
SWToR- Shadows of Revan

ConstantineMerus

Final Fantasy XIV got better with each expansion. 

Celcius

I feel like the common trend among MMO expansions is the first one or two are good then it is all downhill from there. This is with the exception of ESO which doesn't have expansions in my book. All their "chapters" are is content that they were going to release as DLC but shaved off one DLC a year to market it as a "chapter" so they don't have to give it away free with the subscription.

Asariasha

Rungar said:

the one that stands out to me the most is Trials of Atlantis for daoc.



its memorable because it destroyed the game.

Disagree. Trials of Atlantis was a grand moment in MMORPG history.

Yes, getting artifacts, farming artifact scrolls to unlock them, leveling artifacts, and reaching master level 10 was a tedious task, but if you made friends in game and joined a guild/alliance, it was straightforward and easy.

What I find remarkable is that Mythic Entertainment was setting new standards in the design of MMOs at the time. Maps like Sobekite Eternal (ML 2) was beautiful and featured fantastic verticality and fun mechanics. Same goes for farming scroll in the ocean zones or finding out how to use specific ML skills to get certain artifacts. They also expanded the base game with abilities through master levels and artifacts to the point where entirely new possibilities emerged within the known framework.

I get it that it destroyed the immersion and status quo for some players, but in the end, player number dramatically increased with the release of ToA. It was the time when they increased the server population cap in EU.

Asariasha

Elder Scrolls Online - One Tamriel. This update finally made the game enjoyable in its whole scale without enforcing players to go a specific route.

Star Wars the Old Republic. I can't name a spcific update but this game aged extremely well. They continuously add new superb content and I assume content-wise they even beat WoW.

kjempff

Celcius said:

I feel like the common trend among MMO expansions is the first one or two are good then it is all downhill from there. This is with the exception of ESO which doesn't have expansions in my book. All their "chapters" are is content that they were going to release as DLC but shaved off one DLC a year to market it as a "chapter" so they don't have to give it away free with the subscription.

Sort of yes. I think the trend is that most mmo (with depth etc to actually survive long term) peak around 3-5 years (xpansion or not), and then it is downhill from there.
Or downhill...well they often change their some fundamentals at that point, and thereby alienating they current player base.

You could argue why that is the case.
Maybe the founding people move on after maybe up to 10? years on one project (can't blame them for that), and new people take over.
Maybe it is unavoidable that a game has to change to not become stale.
Or other reasons?

Nepheth

Guild Wars - Factions

Guild Wars 2 - Heart of Thorns

World of Warcraft - WOTLK and Legion

Elder Scrolls Online - Summerset

Albion Online - Lands Awakened

rosepetal870

Wow -wotlk
Final fantasy xiv - shadowbringer
Sadly I have left playing both games . As I don’t think endwalker is going in right direction and wow you all people know how it is now

Scot

Mines of Moria for me, what you think about an expansion does rather depend where you are at in a game. If you have reached end game an expansion is based on its own merits, if you have not it is just more content to be done. These days real expansions are a rarity and any MMORPG doing them should be praised.

Greatsword

Anarchy Online - Shadowlands

JudgeUK

FFXIV Heavensward - raised the bar with a great expansion. How do SE top that?
FFXIV Shadowbringers "hold my saki" - amazing expansion

Scot

Greatsword said:

Anarchy Online - Shadowlands

This is a case in point, Shadowlands seemed great to me but it was already there when I joined so hard to know how big a difference it made. A lot of thought went into AO, its gameplay and were the game should go; which is part of the reason they pushed the game past a launch worse than New Worlds and on to a totally solid MMORPG.