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What extra content would you pay for in GW2 ?
Lord.Bachus
Member RarePosts: 9,686
After release the Development team will be split in 2 basic teams... One team will start working on the first big expansion box while the other team will start working on live game updates... The Expasnion box will probably contain another continent (what happened to those in the last few hundred years) with a whole new story, new classes, and probably as much content as the orriginal game...
But the other team will start working on smaller content, some of it will be free, but some of it will (probably) be available in the cash shop. (Much like the Lotro model) I'll make a small list of possible content.... (keep in mind that the gear found in certain zones shall and should not be more powerfull then the gear in the game itsleves)
What kind of content would you pay for ?
-New zones including dynamic events and lore and story components...
-New Dungeons...
-New Mini games... (high quallity)
-Quest packs, that extend your personal story...
-More structured PvP maps...
-Adventure instances (much more like the zones of the orriginal GW)
The developers allready have stated that these dowloadable upgrades will be created by what the players demand, so if enough players demand something it could just happen... I can even see double group content happening in the future (which some would call raids) as long as enough players are willing to pay extra money for this kind of content...
And then, how much would you pay for new downloadable content ?
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Comments
The only content I will ever pay for in GW2 besides the original version would be expansions. I will never pay for any DLC that might come out.
I'd pay for new mini games, quest packs, dungeons and instances if the price/quality was right. I just hope they would also be buyable outside the online store. New zones belong with expansions (and big patches) imo, otherwise it will cause too much fracturing between people who buy stuff in the store and people who don't. The same goes for Structured PvP maps.
Ye i think romanator0 got it right here. The question is more, should they put content outside of expansion, and only in their shop? I mean wouldn't it cut the community more, some already don't want to buy all the expansions, but if you add special content in the cash shop to? I don't know.
That could work if those content are part of expansion though. I'm not sure about this all tbh. Too much expansions can get them into trouble too, if they release too often, and people will think they are kind of asking super sub, like 3 or 6 month sub.
Ye maybe they could sell the dungeon from this expansion alone in the cash shop for ex. Especially if they plan on making a lot of expansions in a short time span (3 month). I don't really know how they plan to do those so i'm shooting in the dark here. Having some new DE every 3 month would be great i think for ex.
None of the above lol, and not because I'm cheap...
Imo any content that is communal should be free. Why? Because such content's quality depends on the number of players participating.. Say you open a new structured PvP map and offer it in the cash shop. You're restricting access to the map and therefore making it less likely to pop and therefore bad value for money.
One of the strong points of the F2P model is that you populate the world with F2P players which provide paying customers wiht content and companionship, not to mention create the impression that the game is popular. TF2 is a good example of this - premium players always have a gazillion servers available to play on because they're filled up with F2P folks.
What I would pay for?
- fancy and fun items and pets. I'd pay a few bucks for a pie I can throw into other people's faces, for example
- merchandising. Material stuff like t-shirts or funny toys I can carry around.
- Extra character slots even though I don't like the concept. Imo that's one of the things that go into "convenience" territory and once you start paying for convenience you give the devs a motivation to make the game itself less convenient.
- Personal story content, because it is solo/co-op so its quality is not dependent on the number of people around. Ofc, when you buy new chapters in your personal story you should be able to invite other people in even if they don't have the content pack purchased.
In any case I should never feel "forced" to buy DLC or else I'll feel I'm missing something. Imo cash shop stuff should be something I'll buy to show my appreciation of the game and never a requirement for fun.
Then you might miss a lot of the game as it is allready semi officially announced that there will be downloadable content...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I'll pay only for expansions. From the store I'll buy only char slots, chest space and costumes. I wont pay for any kind of content put there. This will probably make me to stop playing.
THis is not a F2P game... This is a game with a huge development team, that needs to be payed... Its either paying for DLC, or no extra content at all between expansion packs... as we have seen with the orriginal GW..
They said they see the fact that people need to pay for extra content works like the perfect reason to make a lot and good high quallity content , ... compared to subscription games that arent pushed to invest in their content patches...., the current model will allow GW2 to push more content then any subscription based game... and we all know that the slow pace of extra quallity content in games like WoW is the main reason people get bored
Do you guys that refuse to pay for extra content also refuse to pay subscriptions?
If you think that a major investment like GW2 can survive without a good buiseness plan you're death wrong, they can not survive between expansion packs without a major source of income. I am sorry if i wake you up rudely, but nothing in this world comes for free.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I won't pay for any of the stuff you listed on here seperately myself, but it would make sense that once a FULL expansion pack is available that they could allow people to pay to download parts that interested them. For instance if you were someone that ONLY played PVP then wouldn't it be nice to be able to pay less for just the PVP aspect of the expansion, and avoid all the PVE, or reverse that. It works the same way.
If however they are releasing stuff like this all the time, and making you buy it to enjoy the game I think I'm going to buy an E-machine for web browsing, and never play a PC game again. "Help me Arena-net you're my only hope"
The trick is to create content that doesn't split the community, I wasn't happy when they stated they are considering offering dungeons as DLC, I won't be too happy about mini games or pvp maps either, those sort of things need to come as part of expansions or as mini expansions. I think it far more likely that people would pay out for a mini expansion that contained a whole new zone, complete with dungeon and minigame, buying a mini game or dungeon stand alone immediately begs the question of population, how many others bought it, more importantly how many of my friends and guildies bought it, wrap them up in a new zone with plenty to appeal to everyone and it's likely to get more sales imo.
Adding branching storylines to the personal storyline or soloable content (like the current action pack you can buy in GW) won't split the community and therefore gets a thumbs up from me.
Oh I'm sorry I was under the impression we were going to have to PAY FOR THE BOX. Most games now cost $60 on release so let's work with that assumption. And lets throw out a small number like....1 million people buy the game. That's 60 million dollars PLUS NON ESENTIAL cash shop items. If they can't make an expansion on that budget then they aren't doing so hot. and you KNOW that more that 1 million people are waiting for this freaking game.
My take is i expect a content rich game from release,i don't want developers to tell mne it's coming down the road.All that means is they released an unfinished product .They are banking on making more money by giving you the content that SHOULD have been there on release.
I am by no means picking on GW2 here,i expect this from all game.What i have seen is a ton of lazy efforts by developers across the board.FFXI is one game i always gave praise to because it was designed for a console system that was pretty much at capacity from day 1.They made that game as content rich as was possible and hoped to reecover the costs later.
I doubt we will ever see this again as proof by Square's lame attempt in FFXIV.Now developers are making very shallow game play and rely on recovering costs instantly,again not just GW2 but all games.
There might be some excuses for hidden costs or added costs down the road,but as for myself i don't like it one bit.The reason is simple,if i am a well paid producer suppose to design a COMPLETE rpg experience,i would plan my game out right to the end.This does not mean after thoughts or future cash shop items or maybe we will add this or that later.
MY last real good experience and value from a game was UT99.It gave me everything i could expect a complete game engine/editor,online pvp full of action.Even the PVE part of the game was great,so it lacked almost nothing ,therefore it was a FPS released fully complete as a fps.The only after additions were to update the code/net code to make it perform better,that i can live with as an after release fix.
One last thing, and again this is not to pick on GW2,but i not onl;y want a complete RPG experience full of content on release ,i want it to be in depth,not some shallow shell of what it could be or should be.The thing is this is a business so devs are doing what makes them money,there is no other option ...period.With this in mind can anyone truly say they are playing a GOOD game and not one just desigined to make money?UT99 and FFXI have been about the only two games that gave me the feel of game first ,profit later.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Sorry if this is not politically correct, but I loved GW1 and bought everything there was to buy in the cash shop several times over (I have sons who also play) and when GW2 comes out I fully expect to buy everything there is on offer there too. I tend to play one game at a time and get very immersed, and I would not want to miss anything.
From an idealogical point of view, I'm very aware that these games are big expensive endeavours to create, and I don't have a problem paying for additional content if that keeps Anet's business model going, so that the company and the game stay healthy. They seem to have found a reasonable balance in GW1 with the cash shop offerings, and I suspect they'll do much the same for GW2. Their business model does encourage them to keep producing regular tranches of high quality content to sell, and I like the idea of that.
Well, ppl who refuse to pay for DLC maybe better skip gw2, becouse thats the way to earn money in B2P model - no subs but you pay for additional content. But imo its fair deal, just count how much you payed for P2P mmo of your choice and how much content you got for it.
I will pay for what i will find worth my money, if pricing will be in line with gw1 pricing probably everything, becouse i doubt it will cost me more than regular mmo sub.
If I were to buy Diablo 3, I wouldn't pay any extra for anything. It's why I find the idea of a real-cash auction house so offensive.
But an MMO is a different beast entirely. I'd pay for extra content. I wouldn't want to pay for, say, items. I think in-game auction houses do that by themselves. But content is a great idea.
See, the subscription model is flawed and allows a lazier approach to content release. They can just slap you with a game and yawn it out for a year and a half before wondering if maybe they should drop an expansion on you to keep you interested. Meanwhile, you get bored, spend months to a year at cap-level running the same raids like a mousetrap for mythical items which don't really mean much anyway.
If the content I was buying made the world in which I was playing feel like it was changing and thereby expanding my RPG experience, I'd pay for it. I don't think I mean dungeons. I think I mean unlocking new areas, or more of those "personal quests" etc. Because often, after launch, a lot of the soul of the game is forgotten in favour of streamlining the experience. That is, skill trees get more basic, long complicated quests get scripted out in favour of instant-purchasing with gold, and everything starts getting tunnelled toward allowing new players to level so fast they don't have time to learn their class. This has a secondary effect of gutting the game of the very thing you loved playing when you first started and new players soon get used to getting everything so quickly that they show little patience with anything and then you get that whole "lack of community" thing everyone's talking about lately.
But offering content on a more lateral basis is something I'd think of as cool, and would pay for. It would take the time to create, test, and to implement. Sure, it wouldn't take as much as designing new expansion packs, but it would be interesting.
Take, for example, WOW's many festivals. Those of you who played them once never really play them again. Why not? Because they're the same every year. So much the same that some of them are just a cringe-fest because the only people showing up to them are new players who soon get frustrated because half the content is designed around having many players involved but everyone else has seen it and just isn't interested.
But if they were changed on a regular basis... If festivals came and went, it would give the game as a WHOLE a more malleable and sustainable FUN factor. And frankly, I'd pay for that level of service from a game provider. I'd pay a subscription for it, for sure. But if the company chose to make it so I could pick and choose which ones I wanted to engage myself in and purchase them, then I'd be all in for that, too.
I think we demand too much from game companies. We want them to make the BEST game. The GREATEST and most IMMERSIVE game ever. And we want daily updates. We want new skills every minute and we want the best raids and dungeons. And above all else, we want it free!
I don't want to pay to win. But I don't mind paying to have even more fun. Because if the fun is worth it, then what's a few more dollars I would have spent on more chocolate anyway?
not that you can ever have enough chocolate, either.
and, speaking of which, I'd pay to have peanuts in my chocolate tonight...
Well I'm telling it like I feel. And there is that fact about communal content suffering from lack of players which make it less popular and so on in a vicious circle.
While GW2 is not F2P, downloadable content is definitely something F2P games have the most experience with so it's worth studying that experience.
Imo, if they want to sell content, they should do so in large inclusive packs, aka expansions. I'd have nothing against buying a large expansion every 6 months or so, in fact I'm looking forward to it. However imo selling content in small discrete packs is not really the way to go with their cash shop for all the above reasons.
.. and I have no problem with buying cosmetic/fun items and such. It really is not a case of cheapness. I'd gladly spend some $$ in their cash shop if I like the game. So it's not an issue of money but on exactly how to sell that content. Again, I'd rather pay a lump sum every 6 months or so than pick and choose, nickel and dime dungeons and arenas on a monthly basis... and then have to talk my friends into buying that same content so we can play together /rolleyes. It's just needlessly fidgety - a big fat expansion that everybody knows about is a much cleaner deal imo.
I'm sorry i realy dont understand this hysteria against DLC. Whats the deal if you buy big expansion for 45$ or if you buy it in 3 smaller DLC for 15$ each ? I fail to see difference, technicly if you buy your big expansion oline without box its still DLC ...
It's 1 thing if company sells unfinished product and then wants to charge you additional money for finishing story (hello Bioware and DAO ...) and another if it will release finished product and then adds more to the world. Story of initial gw2 is about Zaitan and I realy doubt that anet will let us to kill him in payed DLC.
It's not hysteria. Actually i like the model and wouldn't have anything against it in a single player RPG game, for example. Like you buy new episodes regularly and such.
However, I feel that the DLC in small packs model is not really ideal for a mmo game because not everybody buys it and you have to check your friends whether they have it, then you have to talk them into buying it.. And then you have to check the shop constantly to see if there is some new DLC on that you have to pay 5$ or whatever just so you can stay current...
It's just needlessly fidgety. I'd rather pay 45$ for a full expansion than 3 x 15$. And it's better for the devs because EVERYBODY is going to buy the 45$ expansion while not everyone will buy all 3 15$ DLC packs.
If Anet sells their expansions at double the WoW rate I think everybody's going to be happy and there won't be any need to nickel and dime players with tiny DLC pack. Personally I think a nice 45$ content expansion every 6-9 months would be ideal. That combined with a fluffy cash shop would provide the devs with more than enough revenue imo.
But you also miss the fact that you and your friends might not like some content, like new dungeon becouse you are PvP players (just example) and you save your money becouse you dont pay for content you dont play. Also adavantage of smaller DLC packs is that developer can release them faster and you dont have to wait 1y and more for next big expansion to get something new.
These are both valid points, but personally I'd rather buy a big fat expansion and feel safe in knowing that now I and all my friends are up to date... The fact that in that expansion there might be some content i'm not interested in is amply offset by the convenience. Yup, I'd buy say 15$ of extra content I' not interested in just for the convenience.
As for constant incremental updates to the game... Well let me put it this way. Would you rather have your birthday presents given to you incrementaly over the course of the year or do you like that big party with all the prezzies on a huge big pile? I know what I like more.
And to stretch the metaphor even further, even if there are presents you don't really like in that big huge pile, you are much likely to shrug it off, dazzled with all the other presents. If you get each present separately you're much more likely to feel disappointed. ("Thank you grandma for the wonderful socks." Lol)
I'd be happy to pay for extra weapon types and (thus) skills for my character. More customisation, taunts, emotes, titles.
New maps and etc... maybe but then you begin to split the community. New skills don't have to, if they are of equal power to the originals. But people will always complain. The game needs to consistently make money, you can't expect them to roll out free stuff forever or just keep trying to sell fluff to stay afloat. Meaningful, game-enhancing things like extra skills will make people buy an expansion while letting the entire playerbase still play together.
-Desagidit
Quest packs that extend personal story and new zones with dynamic events. I'm a PVE freak.
I want to reborn as a Sylvari.
I would pay for expansions.
Expansions: new area + new race + extra character slot seem like the perfect thing. New professions seem like they're unneeded.
Other than that: maybe some cosmetic stuff. I'm quite reluctant about downloadeable dungeons and PvP maps and what not since it will split the player base. How would DLC dynamic events or dungeons even work? Run into an area and get a message that you need to buy this or that to be able to access this? I prefer to not even see a hint of cash shop in the game. Cash shop should be as purely outside of the game as possible.
People are complaining about a split up community.....
I think if you buy all new content every month, you might still pay way less/month as a standard MMO subscription.... I personally think the adult part of the community will buy all downloadable content they create for the game without a single tought if they keep the monthly cost at about $10 or less.... And i personally am a strong beleiver that this is the buiseness model that Arenanet is aiming at.....
And the more they sell.... the more money they make which allows them to make more conetent/$spend
If something is awesome and has a real good vallue/ money spend, then i don't even doubt for a seccond they will sell a lot of it....
And when a new Expansion box arives at the stores.... people can buy all previously released content at a reduced rate in a single package if they would like that ..... Or buy a box containing all gamecontent including the new expansion, the orriginal game and all previously released content...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Not nly a new Area... a whole new continent as huge as the orriginal game + new race + 1 or 2 new classes sounds more like what A-net used to do in the orriginal game....
Anyway, uptill now Arenanet has allways said that new races and new classes will only be available in expasion boxes ...... On top of that they have allways said that stuff like Armor and skills and Weapons will allways be avaialble to everyine playing the game...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)