Size, Complexity and Content of Nightfall...

with more and mroe professions coming out i fear it will be impossible to beat the game with al of them before the next chapter comes out....

It's a little fast for me too... (agrees w/ OP). Yes, ANet needs to keep their money up or whatever, but some people aren't the "rush rush rush rush rush rsuh rush rush rush rush" kind who just play through and play through and play through. Prophecies, which I played for ~ 9 months, allowed me to start 3 characters. 1 finished the game, the other two I only had time to get up to the desert. Factions, I just gave up on. I disliked it so much. Nightfall, is like a REAL expansion to Prophecies. It's got a huge map, insane content, and I'm loving it so far. It doesn't bring much out for PvP, but that's what the PvP edition is for. I can definetely see it taking a few months to beat this game on my dervish, and I don't even plan on taking my other 4 characters through it. I might make a necro IF I manage to beat the game before the next expansion.

One thing that irks me about (said earlier on first page) this being the last chapter in the series, is the probably discontinuation of continent links and character crossovers. I hope we can still bring our oldies over there and have some fun, but given ANet's love for crushing people's sanity/means of income/in general fun at the same time, it doesn't seem likely. Dammit.


edit: on a side note, what most people tend to be forgetting here, is that the GWG community and the posters in this topic all FOR the shortening of the time or the maintaining of the time make up a rather small minority. Yes, there may be tons of registered members and some casual players to like to read about things so they can keep up knowledge-wise (like me), but to most people, it's really a hastle to spend $100 on a game that they can't even finish in the 6-months they're given. I know a lot of my friends in school haven't even bought factions or nightfall yet, just because they really don't see the worth when they still have fun playing through the first chapter. They really would like to crossover and join us (bouncing off the OP's guildie-catch-up-thing) but it's just not economically, or overall feasible for them to get the new chapter. If we took a survey of the ENTIRE populace, we'd probably get some very different majority/minority rates than you're seeing here (most people telling us to stop whining because they play faaaaaaaast).

http://www.computerandvideogames.com....php?id=148222

You can argue all you want about how it's a bad thing for 6 month gaps between Chapters, you're forgetting the most important thing here: ANET isnt making money if they're not releasing a game every 6 month to compensate for not having a monthly fee.

And don't tell me that they should hold off on the game and charge more for it. I doubt people want to wait a year and pay about 100 bucks for it. I sure don't.

On the contrary, I think it is you who does not get it.

As I see it, there's really only two feasible options:
1) Anet releases a new chapter every 6 months. The people can choose to buy the new chapter when and if they want to. This allows those that do not have the time to catch up as they see fit, and those that do have the time to finish the chapter quickly, like they always do.

2) Anet waits longer to release between chapters, thus allowing those slower players more time to catch up but alienating the players that already have taken 9 characters all the way through the game and have already been sitting around farming for 2 months, hanging on through boredom for new content from another chapter.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out which is the best of these two options, both for the masses and for Anet's business.

You want Anet to space out the chapters more? What do you suggest is a decent amount of time? 1 year? 2? There are people that, even in 1 year of playing, will not have achieved all they want to.

8 months or so would be good. longer would be better, but that gets outrageous.

@explodemyheart: you said "the masses". I have news for you. The "masses" of which you speak, are mostly made up of people who play through at a much slower pace than you do. Or most of the people who speak like you. You make up a very, very, very small minority of the player-base, especially assuming you HAVE taken 9 characters through. With ~2 million subscribers, I'm sure ANet is not DIRELY pressed for money, especially since it is an offspring company of NCSoft and is also probably fed a bit by it. Releasing a chapter every 8-10 months wouldn't hurt it at all.

Darcy got it just fine.

personally I think they should keep it at 6 months, the people who speed through it will be way done by then and craving more, your "a bit more than average" player will be ready for more by then and your average player will be "mostly" done by time the next one is out if they remain the size of Nightfall vs Factions.

I also like what has happend so far, Factions was more PvP related, Nightfall is more PvE related. Chapter 4 should be more PvP or a good mix (a la prohpecies). Why deny the content to players who want it sooner? those who don't can just wait to get it. I didn't buy factions until about 2 months ago and don't regret getting it that late, I never ran out of stuff to do while I played and I've played since Beta. However by time Nightfall rolled around I'd went through Factions twice already. Factions is a wee bit too quick, Nightfall seems to be more expansive but still smaller than Prophecies (though maybe about the same size at release of Prophecies).

I would like free content like SF and Tombs, as I am sure everyone would but I do not feel it is completly necessary.

6 months = 1 expansion I like the system, it works and it gets ALOT of content out there at once, something I prefer to leaking out content a little at a time.

Regarding rushing through chapters. Here's a thought:

At some point ANet is going to close their doors and shut down their servers. If your desire is to (eventually) see every nook and cranny of the Guild Wars universe, and you don't have enough time to complete a chapter in 6 month's time, then you will be out of luck.

This is something that has scared me away from WoW. I like WoW, but I am a "casual hardcore" gamer (don't play much, but serious about it when I do).

These "online only" worlds, as much as I love them, will some day disappear. I won't have the option to re-install and visit it later. They only live as long as the servers are running.

So, assume someone (like myself) buys chapters as they are released but can't complete them within 6 months (nevermind delving seriously into PvP).

At some point, I will have purchased a large amount of content that I haven't yet had an opportunity to play... and then ANet shuts down the servers.

I'm out of luck. Thus, the pressure to "rush" through the game with every spare moment of my time so that I don't miss out on anything.

While I love Guild Wars, I don't like the pressure, and it might make me "break" from Guild Wars early to cut my losses when that inevitable day comes.

if and when that ever happened, im prettysure thye could easily release a patch that allows us to download our char lists and play offline and connect p2p with other people.... the way they are set up thats basically what were doing now...

meanwhile other online games continue for many many years


Ultima Onlines world is 9 years old and *still* existing

EverQuests world is 7 years old and *still* existing



how long do you expect to play GuildWars for anyhow?

2 years max... maybe 3!

I hope the next chapter take it's time to get here so i can finish Nightfall with at least 4 of my 8 PvE characters.

I really don't get why people get all upset about a six months release.. I've played trough prophecies just recently.. had no problem at all finding a suitable party, found it immensly fun to play trough the game

Now that nightfall has arrived a lot of people skip towns to settle down in the world of Elona, still the towns in Prophecies are quite busy nowadays
Anet needs to make money, of course they do, that is the whole point of running a business.. Can't, and won't blame them for that To be honoust, I couldn't wait for the release of nightfall! I played trough factions, played trough prophecies, played trough nightfall now.. (rushed nightfall, just for endgame weapon and armor, was curious ) I took my time on the other two and enjoyed every second of it..

Now i'll play trough Nightfall in my own pace (bit slower ) just to see the sights, take a break and smell some roses (or whatever grows in the african highlands) and explore some nice sandy areas

Edit for grammer purposes