How Many of you will be picking up the expansion.

I hope they do more than add two large areas. I'm hoping for much more depth added to PvP rather than simple battles between teams of 8 for bragging rights and sigils. Alliances between guilds should be added, with alliance chat. Additions to the guild hall like a simple message board, a way to display your characters to others, planning tools, a guild area where you could train people to fight... all sorts of stuff.

I'd buy it though, because the only way this whole PC gaming market is to improve is if we as players support inovative games. You might not like GW, but you have to admit that it's inovative.

Expansions are just going to be more PvE content and more PVP areas, probably one or two an expansion.

If the PvE got extended, I could see game lasting a long while, but quickly finishing the PvE and having to item/skill grind through the game can get tiresome.

I have no problem with the level cap, I think its a lot of people coming from Final Fantasy land and pretend console RPG games where your character can be a 167th level whatever that need to be gratified with having more levels than the guy next to them.

Who cares what the level numbers are, have the expansions just add more high end PvE content for lvl20 players and you are fine.

Also for people shocked that they are talking 'expansion' already, look what last week was...freaking E3, if you dont talk about it there...it doesnt exist, and so goes the gaming world.

When the expansions come out, I'll be there with bells on. This game has completely blown away and replaced a MUD I played for 4+ years, and I intend to dance with the one that brought me, so to speak. It would definitely be nice to see a higher level cap and/or new plot point(s) in the expansion, but I'll be happy to at least give future expansions a chance, no matter what the additional content is.

Probably not if nothing is done about PvP grind.

It's very unusual that you have half of the people complaining about grind, and the other half complaining about how quickly people have become maxed out.
I guess it's impossible to please everyone.

Personally, I will pick up the expansion if I am still playing this game when the expansion comes out. Right now I am enjoying myself tremendously with this but I have a tendancy to lose interest in games pretty quickly. Since there's no monthly fee I may come back to it after a while of not playing... just like I did MANY times with Diablo II.

I am Bored!

Are You?

If the expansion has an auction house or a market or some easier way to buy/sell items, then I would definitely get it. If not, then I'd probably still get it anyway.

This could also help with the infinite "grind" problem that people seem to have a problem with. You could buy the items you need. I personally think you should have to quest for skills though. CREATE your character, you don't just get born with the ability to be a god. I find if you just play the game do the missions AND the quests you get the skills/items you want/need. Of course I'm not all that interested in PvP or GvG. If I wanted that, I'd play Unreal Tournament 2004 again or some other FPS where I could kill like a madman.

I agree that for you to compete in the High Level PvP that there is such massive grind to do so. High Level PvP is considered as being in the first page of the ladder, top 20 GvG'ing guilds. I like most of my guild had beaten the game 1 week after GW was released and we are still PREPARING to have fun. Fun for me is being in the same playing field as my opponents. That is taking forever because we are grinding for skills that we need for our team build, runes to maximize our efficiency and weapon upgrades to further to push the toons to their limit. Anyways, if the dev's fail to fix this grind for hardcore PvP'ers, A.net will be losing my support for their expansions and undoubtedly other players that left DAoC, WoW, and others to join this game for A.net's claim of no "preparing to have fun."

Couldn't agree more, people should enjoy the social side not rush through it, Im only lvl 14 and I bought it at release.

[PS: Is that Mr.Matt from GF?]

I'll most likely buy first expansion. After that will depend on what that expansion adds to the gameplay experience. Things like more armour choices, some mechanics to hasten the preparation for PvP, more condensed maps(I hate those huge maps with nothing interesting along the way), more PvE things to do and more PvP variety.

The level cap of 20 is fine with me. Its just a number and doesn't mean anything.

I just started my second character not long ago. To be honest, some of the quests that requires trekking through a couple of maps are getting on my nerves. Running and running with boring fights that does nothing except slowing you down. I wonder whether I'll be bored to death when I do it all again with the next character.

I feel bad for you. I've been having fun since the first time i logged in.

I will buy the expansion.

I think expansion packs have a good potential to be beneficial to the game for PvE. I will not even comment on PvP because at this time I've had no interest in PvP. Eventually I will venture in the PvP aspect of the game but for now I'm content working on 1 character and completing the game and quests, then trying a different character. I won't speak about something I know little of.

I feel expansion packs will only be beneficial if they do the following:
1 - they need to bring us new areas (we already know we are getting 2 so this is not one to worry about).
2 - expect to see newer items (armors, weapons, etc.).
3 - expect to see a level cap raise at least once a year (I say this because only a very small minority of people will have the possibility of being happy being level 20 after a number of expansion packs. RPGers enjoy the fact of achieving new levels, fighting new mobs around their levels, finding items, completing quests).
4 - expect to see new mobs (Hopefully not a lot of repetitive ones like renaming a scorpion all the time).
5 - adding new quests and missions.

Granted I do not think that anyone should expect to see all of these occur within one expansion, but from my perspective all of these should be a given within a year's time. I also have a feeling they may eventually make it harder to level up as fast. Yes the casual player does not want to spend hours upon hours trying to get one little level. They have intended the game for casual and hardcore players. However, people have to realize that if caps raise so will amount of xp required to level, which means you may have to do more quests and missions or form xp groups. Some games even for hardcore players required a weeks worth of xp groups @ 6 hours a day. I don't think this will happen here, but there will be a correlation and it's rightfully so. Level increase means + in amount of xp required.

I have a question and I mean this in all seriousness.

If after almost a month you are all still PREPARING to have fun, who are all these folks already playing and having fun in HoH?

They seem to be doing just fine without all these months of grinding out stuff, PREPARING to have fun.

I've said this more than once.. PvP folks are pulling the GRIND hats onto their own heads. Everyone has had the game the same amount of time, more or less. SO how is it that the people dominating HoH and the ladder are doing so while everyone else is still preparing themselves? The only reasonable answer is that they have went out and PLAYED. Oh I'm sure that they take their forrays into the drab world of PvE to find the odd skill or rune, but obviously these folks seem to have invested their time where it counts.. in the PvP portion of the game.

Sure.. In the end, the extra skills and equipment will give a more polished team an edge, but that doesn't mean you can't play and enjoy the game without all that crap. You folks are making yourselves miserable worrying about whether Guild X has a skill you and yours doesn't.. Quit griping and work in PvP to overcome it with what you have at hand.. Think of it as a bigger challenge. Guess what? When you do happen across that skill or rune you always dreamed of.. it will give you a bigger edge since you learned how to play without it in the first place.

I equate the current problem to what I see my oldest doing in school. When I was his age we had to actually sit down and practice math and English until we learned how to do it right in our own heads with minimal references. Only then were we allowed to use things like calculators and spell checkers on the computer to do our thinking for us. My son though can't manage to get through his math classes without a calculator because they have always allowed calulators and can't spell very well because they are supposed to use spell checkers on the computer instead of looking things up the old way by using a dictionary. He has to have his "crutches" or he just doesn't stand a chance of passing.

The current attitudes of many PvP folks reflects this sort thought process.. "I can't play if I don't have all the toys first". It just isn't so unless you all insist on making it that way.

I'd be willing to bet that if those of you that are doing the loudest complaining would just play the damn game and worry about the elites and runes as they come instead of thinking you can't play without them, you would find yourselves fairing a lot better in the end once everyone has them. But guess what.. That is what many of the folks on top are doing right now.. Sure they grind a bit, but they are working with what they have and getting steadily better while you are sitting on your duffs PREPARING.

SO grind away and wait and wait and convince yourself that you are just preparing.. but by the time you get around to actually playing everyone will have what you do. THe difference is that a lot of them will have been actually playing a perfecting the skills they have and been incorparating the new things as they acquire them and you will still find yourselves holding the short end of the stick.

Corwin, the problem is that many of the skills are balanced by their counters. With ~150 per class its almost required. If you have one of the counters, and they range in effectiveness, you are fine but if you don't have one then you are at a huge disadvantage. So the choice is, grind now for the counters or wait till someone beings something you don't have a counter to, get your butt kicked and then have to go grind to capture X skill. In addition it takes 8 people to make an effective team, not everyone can play at the same times and not everyone can play all roles. This means that the person who is your best warrior might not be able to play a warrior because he hasn't had the time to unlock the skills needed, the same is true of any of the roles. Right now time is far too important.

In many ways its the same kind of psychology that makes people want to get unpleasant tasks over with, so they aren't looming over your head. Tombs is easier to go into than GvG right now, because losing doesn't cost you anything.

she will be more than ticked as it will cost more than the usual 20 dollar expansion

they are talking in the 50 dollar range

OF COURSE THEY ARE OFFERING AN ENTIRE NEW CHAPTER THE SAME SIZE AS THE ORIGINAL GAME FOR THE MONEY

so maybe it is worth it

i will buy it if only to help keep them going for the fun i have had already

No need to be snippy. =/

I'm sure it will all be very fun and enjoyable. It's just that my partner was (as I was) under the impression it was all inclusive and he's going to be more annoyed/angry than I to find it is not.

For the record -- I wasn't complaining. I was merely pointing out that we were under the impression that it was all covered. As are many of our friends.

Perhaps no one at ArenaNet understands that at first blush, it does sound it... five of my friends who were trying to decide if they wanted to play have now decided not to because they feel as if the wording and lack of clarity with regard to 'chapters' is deliberately misleading.

Bleh. Just when I was starting to enjoy it, too. Oh well.

though it would be hard to do since it runs off a server, I think they should release an SDK and let the leet modders out there make weapons and armors and even items! that will raise game content fast and keep it newer and more exciting! Just let the developer say what is cool or notand can get in the game!

what is unclear about this?
the wording has been like that from the first mention so it hasnt been changed on you either

How much will Guild Wars cost? How much will additional chapters cost?

Guild Wars will be priced at a comparable cost to other first-tier PC games. The subsequent chapters of Guild Wars will also be comparably priced in relation to other games.

I will be buying the expansion, no doubt. What I want tho isn't so much more "stuff", like armors, classes, and items, even though they are pretty great too. What I am looking for is new game play options. Right now you have the Quest/PvP thing and that is all good, but there needs to be more PvP options for lower level characters and guilds. The random grouping, random map thing is ok, but it only serves to get the match going a quickly as possible. Add some of these "Capture the Relic" games to what's available, and some team vs. attacking monsters sort of things, then I would be very happy.

Some mini games would be awesome to. Like a simple card game people can play in the cities with one another. Something like Tetra Master, only within the game engine. Adding Taverns where you can hang out and play minigames would be really awesome. Imagine two guilds getting out of the arena and then competing at a game of darts over some virtual brews. It would really foster the community aspect of the game.

-F

i'll be buying all gw expansions. this game is just too much fun.