Do a large update because of the recession?

First off. As far as games go they are buying. They are at the registers game in hand.
Second they DO need to add stuff if they want to keep people around long enough for GW2.
They have people working on GW1 AND GW2 why do you think they have expanded the GW1 Live team? So theyre not taking away from development for GW2.

I'm all for any added content, but what is this recession thing you speak of?

I don't want to make light of anyone still in hard times, but things are really picking up where I live. And believe me, if this backwards podunk town is doing good, major cities should be 6mo to 1yr ahead of us in recovery.

There won't be depression unless all the banks go broke and that won't happen in my Country and around the world.I don't think an update would bring back player to the unless there were major changes to the game itself.Perfect Wolrd is fine example of this free to dl and play.

I would like to see crafing in GW so that rare mats can be crafted instead of farmed and it would require a sub profession.

The big move to take people from other companies will be GW2. But if GW2 is really far far away (only Anet knows), I still think a good strategy for GW1 would be producing real additional content and keeping the game alive - just for the sake of showing the world that a game with this business model CAN STAY ALIVE and prospering for a long time. It's important as GW2 will use THE SAME BUSINESS MODEL - and it's a horrible marketing to have a long dead GW1 at the moment of GW2 release.

If management was up to me and I knew GW2 was going to release in 2010 or later, I would certainly dedicate significantly more resources and make a strong Live Team producing real new content for GW1, so nobody could whine the game's dying. Just one key thing - new content should require owning all 4 GW games, for many reasons. And If recession can really make people stop playing subscription MMO's they would have a viable alternative in a free to play forever GW1/2.

With no jobs to be had, what else would you have them do? Might as well sit at home playing video games until Obama comes up with something for them to do.

If this is true in america, how are the older teenagers getting jobs? Even if there are no jobs that pay high you can still live off the smaller ones if you sacrifice some things, you might as well make some money even if it isn't much then playing computer games all day.

Now back on topic, don't really see why ncsoft west would put in "free" content, and it doesn't really look like there getting hit hard by this.

Generally, during recessions people buy entertainment that is cheap and they don't have to travel far for(i.e. movies). Video games can also fill this niche.

You can't look at the recession in terms of individual companies; EA did poorly for a number of reasons (see: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...ntendo-wii.ars). The gaming industry as a whole is still healthy and has proven fairly resilient in the face of crumbling consumer spending (total sales in 2008 increased 22.9% over 2007 numbers).

On the other hand, economic optimism is naive. Granted, there will be pockets of prosperity, and with an 8% unemployment rate the overwhelming majority of US workers still have their jobs (for now), but that doesn't mean the economy is in good shape or otherwise on the road to recovery. The US stimulus plan is a bandaid on an economy suffering from a multi-trillion-dollar gunshot wound to the head (although sure, if you believe the Keynesians, the way out of a depression is to spend your way out). And the situation is grim pretty much everywhere in the world. Putin was up at Davos demanding help for a Russia that's been flattened by falling oil prices and poor decision-making, Asia's export economies are sitting idle because the rampant Western consumerism that powered them has hit a wall (and have you seen the Yen recently? Like, total lol amirite?), DRAM and LCD panel manufacturers are facing record inventories and below-cost market pricing, the semiconductor industry at large doesn't expect any real recovery for years, etc.

With things so bad, might as well stay home and play a video game.

The Working Poor by Shipler. It's a good read. It was mandatory for a class I was taking. Shipler interviewed a series of people labeled as "poor." He would go through their expenses. Some families paid the cable bill and went out to the movies, but didn't pay the phone or water bill. Unfortunately, people have their priorities mixed up.

I have a better reason for the large april update/skill update:
GW2.

GW2 and Anet's rep will be sealed and die (as it is currently) in GW1.

If you want to relate it to the real world recession, maybe they could make the hourly warnings louder and more incessant.

Why not bring out a kick ass expansion. Lure us with awesome things like huge level caps and crazy shiny trinkets that glow.

And make us pay through the nose for it.

Then Anet can see out this financial downturn in a comfortable manner while the secret work of GW2 goes on in the background.

a hero for each non primary attribute would be nice
wammo 3 heros (covered, cant really see the point of a tatics dedicated wammo)
necro 3 heros, done
ele 3 heros, but with air,earth,fire,water, a extra one would be good
mesmer 2 heros, but inspiration magic blows, but would still be nice to have 3
ranger 3
monk 3
assassin 2, would be nice to have a 3rd, but few use them
rit 2, would be nice to have a 3rd, then 1 per attribute
derv, got 3 which hardly anyone uses ?
paragon got 2 which few people use, would be nice to have a 3rd tho

so ele, mesmer, assassin, rit, paragon

could just reskin a npc/henchman abit and there u go ^^

eventually, everyone that wants guild wars will have gotten guild wars. new stuff at this point i dont think will encourage new buyers.

to increase sales they probably need to do more to get it on the shelves. the population i see really affected by this is a parent buying a computer game for their kid, or the guy in high school that's lookin for something to spend his money on in the video game store. both of those situations are unaffected by brand loyalty and will just grab whatever looks shiniest.

Updates bring back old players for like 15 minutes.

Nothing brings in new players.

Just let them work on GW2.

You do not understand. There really are no jobs. Not even bad ones. The unemployment rate just hit 7.6%, and that's not an accurate figure because it only counts people who applied for jobs in the past month. The so-called underemployment rate, which is more accurate because it includes unemployed people who have given up and people who are willing and able to work full-time but can only get part-time jobs, is at 13.5%. That's worse than 1 in 10.

As for the teenagers, how are they getting jobs? They're not. Except for the ones protected by selective hiring rules like work-study, the teenagers are losing their part-time burger-flipping jobs to applicants with college degrees who used to be store managers at places like Circuit City. A posting for a crappy sales job at a mall can draw over 3000 applicants, many of whom are way overqualified in terms of education or experience or both.

Yeah, it's that bad.

OP's point was that improving their free-to-play game at a time when people are looking to cut discretionary spending might help them take a big bite out of pay-to-play WoW. I'm not sure if there's enough potential market share there to be worth spending the resources to take it, but OP is right that there's an opportunity for a-net here.

Their priorities make perfect sense once you realize that they know that they will always be poor.

Most of us who are neither poor nor idle rich make sacrifices today to ensure a better lifestyle for tomorrow. We believe that if we live frugally, advance in our careers, keep our debts manageable, and maintain a good credit rating, someday there will be a payoff with a modest house with a white picket fence, enough disposable income to live comfortably, and eventually a cozy retirement.

Now, try to imagine your life if that's not a possibility. Try to imagine your life if there will never be a better tomorrow. You will work a miserable job with no hope of meaningful advancement until you die or become too disabled to work. You will never have enough money to save for the future, or even to ever get out of debt. For some months, you won't even have enough money to pay your bills as they come due. That's your life today, and every day for the rest of your life. Why the hell not go to the movies? Pay the utilities just enough that they don't cut you off, pay the landlord just enough that he doesn't kick you out, and go to the movies. If that's as good as your life is ever going to get, you might as well go for it. Now, this might not be such a great deal for the landlord who's getting paid late every month because the rent money is getting spent at the movies, but it's not at all irrational on the part of the working poor person.

Let's try to keep this focused on Guild Wars please.

Yup Yup. Anet got your money when you bought the game/s (hence no monthly fee). Its hard for me to imagine them putting any more money into GW1, as they are putting their resources into their other games in development. Does Anet want you to remain faithful??? Sure they do....Realistically however, many players have probably moved on to AoC, or War, even WoW. They may or may not pop in every now and then and play a pick up game of PVO or see what the Guild is up to (remember no fee). My bet is Anet throws GW2 on the market...heck who know when, it could be 5 years down the road, but people will come back, especially if there is no monthly fee whats to lose??

The big update will be mini duels where our minis can duel other player's minis while we control them like in Polymock.

Seriously, I don't know about video games but, if there was another Great Depression I can assure you that alcohol sales will go up.

I don't see any problems with a small chapter say 40 to 50 quests and 8 to 10 missions maybe 1 new proffesion.

Do they need another huge update (new areas or armors or whatever) to grab peoples's attention? Maybe? But to be honest, it seems that they're putting alot of their time/resources on doing GW2 (based on what I seen on this forum) Even if they made new contents like SF, it might only bring back players for a short time before they lose interest again.