Anet - Good job, but maybe it's time to change strategy!

I hope this is an entertainable idea for A.Net. One epic and amazing game a year is 10x better than having one every year and a half with a half-ass one thrown in the middle somewhere. They could have released an expansion for Tyria (another couple areas like sorrows furnace except fighting back Charr and White Mantle or adding in the other two Godly worlds) instead of Factions and used the extra programmer power to add a lot of features that would make the game near flawless.

Take this threads advice if its monetarily feasible, A.Net. It's a grand idea.

On another note, there are a lot of people I trust here in this thread saying NF really restored their faith in Guild Wars. I think I'll cave in and give it a shot. See ya'll in Elona!

Alot of interesting counter-arguments.


I noticed that with Battlefield 2, EA met the demands half way. Between the release of expansion packs, they created something they called "booster packs", which was like mini expansions, at a better price. The benefit, that was that they where cheaper and was quicker to develop.

So what if you met the two sides half way through?

You release an expansion pack a year, with 1,5 year of development, and then release small booster packs every 3th month or so?


What would a booster pack contain? a new class + 100 skills and a mini 4 hour story campaign? for 15 bucks?

for example?

How would this work? Nightfall team continues to work on expansion as they always have, except this time they would get 6 months extra worth of development time to make bigger additions and better products.

the other development team(the factions team, would be split into two). One part would work on these 3th month releases of booster packs, while the other would join the content live update team, to improve and enhance the current game. assist with events, fix bugs, add new features and so on.


Could you imagine this. sort of like a side quest campaign.. perhaps a pre-searing campaign or a time travelere campaign, or whatever? not big enough for an entire expansion or big theme, but a radical change that can be quickly distributed throughout the internet because of lesser development time. quicker content for the people?


BF2 and HL2: Episodic content are perhaps not the brightest examples to use, since they have not worked too well(according to some) but the idea is interesting.


I wanna see campaign 4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and so on much more than GW2 myself. I hope I will play GW when im 87!
However, I dont want to look back at GWP and GWF and never play them. Thats why I feel its important to keep past campaigns fresh and exciting.


I am playing nightfall, and it hit me while watching the hilarious cut scene with the centaur hero, Zhed, who repeatedly harasses the player by calling him/her "two-legs", and how much added value the lip synching, facial animations and improved cut scenes had added to the game. it was so much better, that I think GWP and GWF would be reborn if they had this incorporated into them.

Particularly GW Factions story would BENEFIT, so much from this. I think the problem with Factions storyline was that people could not feel much sympathy or relate to Shiro, because his lack of emotional detail. if this was incorporated I think it would help so much. so much that im almost desperate to see it happening.

No, there were a higher percentage of broken skills. There still are. See discord, for one.

LOL very true. Factions PvE was teh suxxors.

At the rate things are going, campaign 4 will take place in outer space, the new classes will be High Templar and Ghost, and the best elite skill will be Summon Nuclear Launch, which kills all enemies on the map after 20 seconds of casting. Luckily, all those monsters were illusions created by the High Templars...
I hope you get laid first :/

I get the gist of this and agree mostly with it however there will be a chapter 4 before GW2 starts.I saw this on the map of the Consulate Office as there were 4 or 5 continents.I would have to say 6 months of Dev time is to short to put in a game like GW as we all know how great Prophecies was and still is today.It would be best if they looked at thier best product being chapter 1 and took some lessons from that and maybe do further beta testing for a week not just weekend.The only thing i don't like about NightFall is when coming from Tyria you have to start on the Island unlike Factions which I had a better beginning.

I'm hoping ANet will shift its attention to smaller expansions rather than big standalones. The expansions would add a few quests to the standalones(mainly to access the new content) and have new missions elsewhere. The fact is that we've exhausted all the close by countries and continents. I'd like GW2 to focus on the other side of the globe but until then we could explore landmasses or islands closer to the 3 we already have. ANet knows we want a Gwen uber-quest. Ok...I want a Gwen uber-quest. Buts its a good idea.

how often do JEFF STRAIN/ALEX WEEKES/GAILE GRAY have to tell you that there are two (2) teams working on a 6 month staggered release schedule and that each chapter gets ONE FULL YEAR AND NOT SIX (6) MONTHS?

oh yea there is a 3rd team for special events as well

Ever heard of new players that are more likely to buy older chapters that they don't have if it is updated to be as good as the newer ones? I'd still like menhlo, cynn, devona, adian Heros (as in the heros from Nightfall, that we can bring into our party whenever we want), and a ritualist hero so we can have at least one hero for every profession.

/signed to the OP, but

I highly doubt ArenaNet will be able to update previous chapters for a while. If they ever do, it will probably be after chapter 5 or 6, at the latest, just because of their business plan. Thats fine with me though. As long as they can keep improving with every chapter, like they are currently doing, then I'm not complaining.

I've really enjoyed this thread, and thought there were a good bunch of ideas in here. I'm surprised though that nobody suspects, like I do, what the next Trilogy (or the one after it) will be about:
THE PAST.
It's been done so many times, and for good reason: it's relatively easy. The lands are already in place, much of the story is already figured out (since at the end, it has to line up with its known future), and there's no need to introduce new professions or skills. Of course, something would need to be new and fresh... how about races? Dwarves.. Centaurs... Elves? Of course, in order for a player to pass between "past" and "present" worlds, they would have to be made to believe that the one in the "past" is the great-grandparent of the one in the "present" (except Elves, who are known for their longevity), because there needs to be some reason why essentially the same "person" with the same name and same skillset would exist in both time frames, without having to introduce time travel -- though time travel could be cool too; when magic exists, anything is possible, and someone could've introduced ruptures in time that provide consistent links between some kind of "before" and "after". This would work better if the trilogy in question is in the FUTURE rather than the past, just.. because. But anyways, let me get back to more serious responses to the things discussed above....

I have to say that really really dislike the idea of mini-expansion packs that aren't whole new Chapter releases. I think the current model is an excitingly innovative one. Ordinary game expansion packs are cruel, in my opinion, because there is always the suspicion that the content was left out of the original release just to get more money out of the players.. or even worse, the content is so tempting that the players feel they HAVE to get it in order to continue enjoying the game. I much prefer the idea that the new chapters are big enough to be treated as whole new games, even though I will be continuing to play my characters in the much larger interconnected world. I'm just glad that I don't have to get the next chapter until I'm ready to experience it. I'm very glad that I don't have to get Factions in a hurry just because I really want Material Storage, and I'm grateful to the developers for deciding to make it available in all chapters -- and I hope they do something similar with any other new features that can be added so easily to existing chapters.

The worst part about the idea for mini-expansions is the suggestion that they could contain new professions. I am amazed that Anet has done so well with adding new professions without disrupting balance, because of my prior experience as a programmer at an oldschool multiplayer text-based game -- balance is one of the toughest things to make work, especially when adding new skills or professions. Kudos to them for doing so well!! (I wholly support the skill balance revisions, also from my experience doing the same thing. Balance is tricky, and I'm betting it's possible for players to contribute to it by carefully explaining their situations to the developers instead of just crying "nerf!" when some change is not to their liking.) But above all else, the "new professions" in the new Chapters makes sense the way it is, because these new professions actually come from the new lands (this makes sense to me for all except Assassin, I must admit, though I suppose the notion that there are no Assassin trainers in Ascalon explains it well enough).

If people feel that the older chapters could benefit from cosmetic upheaval, like lipsyncing and whatnot, it could be called a Special Edition (or is that name already taken?) and it could replace the original edition on the shelves so new players get to enjoy the wonderful game experience, without feeling like they're buying an "old game". Any new content should be made available in both the Original and Special editions, and it wouldn't be done at a loss because the Special editions would still be bringing in profit. Then players of the old version would not miss out on content, just eye candy, unless they wanted to upgrade to Special edition. I can see it now: "For a special low-low price of $19.99, upgrade Original to Special edition and get two more character slots!" The game is still amazing, and with proper care it could continue to draw new players in and thus keep the towns brimming with excitement and potential groupmates.

I really love Guild Wars for all that it is, and all that it isn't. I don't think they'll need to do a total upheaval in order for future chapters to stay popular, except to keep up with the latest graphics capabilities. I love how small changes can be added to all chapters as they become available, and am looking forward to things like the extra storage (even if it's just more storage upgrades), and improved ways to advertise items to buy/sell/trade with other players (i've gotta go find a thread that discusses ideas for this! I have way more than two cents to contribute!)

And lastly, I have to agree with the person who said they hoped they'd still be playing GW at age 87! See you in 2065!!

ROFL

Oh dude! THE PAST! That is a great idea. Remember presearing Ascalon? Still the coolest area of all 3 games IMOH! Now imagine a whole world like that! And a flourishing Ascalon city!

One thing that i am wondering about though is the graphics engine, in 1 or two years time we are going to need a major overhaul to the whole thing. I don't know hoe flexible the current engine is, but there is only so much you can do before you just have to write a new one from ground up.

I think, with the amount of chapters out, that there should be a small area accessible to owners of any one of the campaigns. It would be a great hub of activity.

You mentioned somewhere in there, that they should change the system requirement add in HDR & Direct 10X graphics. I’m sorry but NOOOO! I hate when games do that, it screws everything up period, no two if & ands, or buts about it. When I pay for a game license that states clearly on the box what the recommended requirement are that should be it. Certain games (I could name a few but I’m not due to there might be some fans here) have done this in the past, and it makes certain things simply unplayable. Have screamed and yelled at people about this but their typical response is of course “you should upgrade your computer.” Even if the video card is only six months old from its original release and state that’s it’s not their problem. Example someone tells someone else they should upgrade from the NVDIA 7800 GT OC BFG series, to the 7900 GT OC BFG series for something like HL2 (that is absolute idiocy). I could go on but, I rather not.