Guild Wars 2 May Be The End Of The Franchise

[Jun_Jun]

Snip.

I agree with most of your post bar one thing. The problem with GW2's microtransaction store isn't that cosmetic items are poor sellers or anything, it's the opposite. It's just the the cosmetic items they have up in their store are shit, cheap enough that you don't have to pay real money to get them and are so few that it takes you hardly any time to get them all.

If they want people to buy their cosmetic stuff they need to cycle in new stuff and cycle out old stuff. This gives the old stuff value for "not being available anymore" and new stuff is always valuable because people like shiny new things. I quit playing after the first month because the game bored me and went back a month ago just to see what the state of the in game store was.

It was nearly identical to how it was 5 months before. That's a crushing disappointment for people that would want to give them money to buy cosmetic stuff. It's painfully obvious that the GW2 team have no idea how to run an in game store. Give people enough time and they'll obtain everything through in game means but give them a time limit and they'll cough up if they want it bad enough.

And for the love of God, update your inventory. If you have the same items in the store for 6 months straight with nothing new then people will just stop checking it altogether. And they should want people to check their store every damn day hoping for something nice and new.

Actually they did have exclusive stuff in the game store for the months of October (Halloween theme), November (related to the new area/content), December ('Wintersday'), and the past couple of months they've been adding new little things, re-customisation, hairstyles/colours, back pack skins. It's not a whole lot at the moment, but they seem to be building it up little by little.
And for those months when they brought out those exclusive Items I bought them when I could, hell they even had a free Gandalf hat in the gem store to commemorate the release of the Hobbit.
Btw this is probably the worst article I've read so far on this site :/ Completely biased and taking a positive bit of news from a dev 'we aren't working on any expansions as of yet, we want to improve the core game before going any further with free monthly content' as ' this game is dying we have no plan for the future we're going F2P this game will be dead in a few months'. Seriously dude, this is kind of embarrassing and painful to read... (=_=

 

[Jun_Jun]

Wow, what a poorly written article. Obvious axe to grind along with petty gripes makes it difficult to take anything stated seriously, especially when the article itself is based around conjecture about a simple statement that expansions aren't in production yet after only over half a year.

I've gotta agree. It's one thing to have a slightly negative tone (or even a fairly misleading headline, like The Escapist has become fond of), but this article was the sort of thing you'd see in a user review on metacritic. The game did just come out half a year ago and fairly notable changes are being made monthly with large storyline and content updates.

While if there was no dev conformation on this I would have been a little bit worried about no new expansion in the works, after all Guild Wars 1 practically brought out a new expansion every year (back in it's heydays). But seeing how much work is going into these small details is enough for me, they are in the process of releasing new content every month which apparently is the same size as a fully fledged expansion. But instead of building new lvl 80 zones etc. They're going back through the core game and improving lower level areas, so now the lower level areas are really well populated again. Giving people more incentives to help lower level players with certain daily achievements which when completed reward level 80's with really cool swag and if a person is still levelling, it rewards you with not only tokens for aforementioned swag when level 80, but also a hearty chunk of exp for each achievement completed, all of them within everyone's reach. I think this is a lot better than an expansion, and to be honest it's what this game really needs atm.

 

[Deathfish15]

How biased and full of bullcrap is this article? Rhetorical question, the answer is "very much so".

I mean, you insinuate in the title alone that thee game isn't doing well and it seems like they're killing off the franchise. This isn't the case at all, nor is it anything of what was quoted from their statements.



1) The game has been out 9ish months, why on earth should they even be considering a sequel of Guild Wars 3? It's not on their plate because they're focusing on their new game (oh look, no WoW 2 and it's been 7 years! They must be dying!)

2) The reason they're not focusing on expansions is because they're focusing on their LIVE FREE CONTENT UPDATES! Holy cow! What a concept?! A company that gives free content for it's customers to get the to play, rather than requiring them to pay $$ monthly and $$ on a box. Take a look at their Game Update Releases page: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/march-2013/ An update every month since October...and customers LOVE IT!

3) There is a microtransaction store in the game called the Black Lions Trading Company (aka Gem Store). They make money off selling cosmetic stuff like Baby Quaggan backpack skin, character customization kits, dyes, none combat mini-pets, extra character slots, extra bank slots, and so on. This does get them tons of money (you'd be surprised at how many people are running around Lion's Arch with a BQ-backpack.

P.S. How much is Blizzard paying you to write this article so anti-Guild Wars 2?

 

[IronMit]

How biased and full of bullcrap is this article? Rhetorical question, the answer is "very much so".

I mean, you insinuate in the title alone that thee game isn't doing well and it seems like they're killing off the franchise. This isn't the case at all, nor is it anything of what was quoted from their statements.



1) The game has been out 9ish months, why on earth should they even be considering a sequel of Guild Wars 3? It's not on their plate because they're focusing on their new game (oh look, no WoW 2 and it's been 7 years! They must be dying!)

2) The reason they're not focusing on expansions is because they're focusing on their LIVE FREE CONTENT UPDATES! Holy cow! What a concept?! A company that gives free content for it's customers to get the to play, rather than requiring them to pay $$ monthly and $$ on a box. Take a look at their Game Update Releases page: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/march-2013/ An update every month since October...and customers LOVE IT!

3) There is a microtransaction store in the game called the Black Lions Trading Company (aka Gem Store). They make money off selling cosmetic stuff like Baby Quaggan backpack skin, character customization kits, dyes, none combat mini-pets, extra character slots, extra bank slots, and so on. This does get them tons of money (you'd be surprised at how many people are running around Lion's Arch with a BQ-backpack.

P.S. How much is Blizzard paying you to write this article so anti-Guild Wars 2?

I'm not into MMO's but I thought exactly the same thing as you. The absolute worse thing they can do is announce a new Guild wars is in development (even if it was, but it isn't and there shouldn't be). Announcing a sequel so early can only damage uptakers and micro transaction revenues.

 

[Jamous]

So long as they keep this one alive it doesn't really matter whether there's a sequel or not. WoW's proof you can keep a game going just by updates and expansions.

 

[Varis]

Wow, what a poorly written article. Obvious axe to grind along with petty gripes makes it difficult to take anything stated seriously, especially when the article itself is based around conjecture about a simple statement that expansions aren't in production yet after only over half a year.

Indeed. The article was horribly biased.

As far as I can tell, GW2 has been constantly bringing players more content, with the one-time serverwide events that change the whole game-world as well as with the new PvP-maps and general improvement of the UI, queuing-system and whatnot.
In my honest opinion, this doesn't to me at least, spell giving up and poor future. Bleh!

 

[TheComfyChair]

The writer of the article can always dream i guess.

The game has been out for 7 months, how many layoffs from arenanet have there been? There is also the fact they have said the game sold well beyond expectations, including the earnings call predictions for NCSoft!

They're not focusing on expansions because they're focusing on the base game for now.

That's all that needs to be said really

 

[Piorn]

Hopefully you really like the current state of Guild Wars 2 as developer ArenaNet has no plans to expand the game, and a sequel seems increasingly unlikely.

Now that's just plain wrong. Just because they don't sell expansions like in GW1, that doesn't mean they don't add new content.
In fact, there has been alot of new stuff, including new areas, missions, and dungeons, all for free.

New stuff is still being added, and it's far from stagnant.

 

[Mike Fang]

As a news reporter, I think this article's writer takes a lot of liberties with how he/she is interpreting the statements made here. Just because Arenanet's not currently planning expansion packs doesn't prove it's never going to. Neither does the fact they plan to continue to update the current game suggest the franchise is stagnating. Granted the writer has a point about the graphics drivers and such, but a solution may be possible (perhaps something akin to an HD re-release that carries over all the character data?). Overall, I think this is really jumping the gun, since the game's not even reached its one-year anniversary yet. I mean jeeze, you're saying the developers are letting the game stagnate by actually giving players time to explore the game world? It's bad enough that many mmo's development and plot pacing is dictated by the obsessive grind-style players, now the media's encouraging it too.

 

[Yuno Gasai]

I couldn't agree with this post more if I tried.

Why does it matter if GW2 doesn't go down the same route as basically every other MMO and rely on selling expansions? They've been regularly introducing new content for free, and while I don't entirely understand how they're making enough money to make their methods profitable, I'm not exactly going to kick a gift horse in the mouth.

They do have the Gem Store to make money, and while some people would argue it is ineffective, clearly they're doing something right as I'm aware of a fair number of people who spent in excess of £300 in the Gem Store purely in the first few weeks/months of its release.

 

[Ledan]

Wait what? What's with this extremely depressing and slanted article?
I read this story first on PC gamer, and it's not like the franchise is dying -_-
The game has been out for 6 months! It's good that they are still focusing on updating GW2 as opposed to launching expansions already, you get more bang for your buck. If you've been keeping an eye on GW2, there have been a lot of major updates.
As for GW1 having 3 expansions, over how many years eh? Just because ArenaNet isn't planning an expansion currently doesn't say much about what's down the pipeline.
As for there being no GW3... it isn't the death of the franchise, rather he is saying that currently they are focusing all their efforts on GW2 and want it to continually expand and grow.

Jesus, way to turn "we are really devoted to this game and are currently planning to make it stronger and better before going anywhere else" to "OMG GUILD WARS 2 IS THE DEATH OF THE FRANCHISE".

 

[lumenadducere]

Gotta agree with the others who are saying this is a really poorly-written article that has little to no research behind it. Not up to The Escapist's standards at all. The news from the GW2 devs about a month ago was that they've had higher numbers of players than they'd anticipated and that their daily users have been stable, with sales continuing and slowly increasing their numbers. Even with this they've said that they're focusing on their monthly updates and want to focus on those for now, and while there are no current plans for expansions they're likely to come some time in the future after they've taken care of their current plans.

I can understand that, given an utter lack of knowledge of the actual state of the game, one would apply their general knowledge of MMO trends to an isolated quote that's taken out of context. But...well, that's not really good investigation or journalism on your part, and it's definitely not what I expect from The Escapist.

 

[Serrenitei]

I think there's a couple faulty assumptions in this article, and the comments following it.
1) The author doesn't seem to have a solid understanding of the Guild Wars 2 business model. While as many others have pointed out, GW2 uses a Buy-to-Play model, which has a dollar figure barrier to entry to play the game at all unlike a true Free-to-Play title which does not have a monetary barrier to entry in the game. Additionally, Guild Wars 2 uses a cash shop to continue to make money. Real Money can be converted to gems, which can be used to purchase special in-game items or it can be converted into gold to use anywhere in the game. It should be noted that gold can also be converted into gems, but cannot be converted further into real world money.

The game makes it's money on the sale of gems. While many have said that it's easy to make money in the end-game, I think they need to remember that by virtual of being engaged on forums like this, that they and those in their immediate gaming circles are pre-disposed towards a certain game style. The majority of gamers do not peruse forums, and based on the numbers from NCSoft's quarterly financial statements, are spending a significant amount of money. In Q4, NCSoft as a whole saw a 24% rise in revenue over the previous year. Guild Wars 2 made up 45% of the revenue boost in sales, which also increased their net income by 31% year over year. So while individuals might anecdotally claim no one purchases gems, the numbers clearly indicate otherwise. (http://global.ncsoft.com/global/ir/earnings.aspx)

Personal side note: I enjoy the game, and make it a point to buy about $10 USD worth of gems a month to continue to support the game.

2) The author seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding about the MMO industry and the way content is pushed out. I don't think there has been a single MMO that has announced an expansion or intents of an expansion so soon after a launch. GW2 window to release a expansion and still be "On Par" still extends another 12-18months. In the case of the aforementioned DDO online released an expansion some years into it's life cycle. Rift and Trion didn't announce their first expansion until approximately 9 months into their game, and then didn't release until just shy of their 2 year mark.

MMOs are not like single player games that can announce an expansion virtually immediately after launch, or a sequel several months after launch. These games have shelf-lives measured in years, not months. It's not reasonable to expect something as complicated as a hugely interactive world, with thousands of simultaneous players be able to be 1) completely flawless from the get go, and 2) ripe for expansion without significant time put into polishing the existing experience.

Beyond that, the author would do well to note that the GW2 has been releasing new content steadily since launch free of charge. That has included opening new zones, tweaking balances, extending the story, new play-styles -- many of the characteristics found in a traditional expansion. Where traditional MMOs follow the WoW model of releasing new Raids every 6 months and a new expansion every 12-18 months, Guild Wars 2 is attempting a different model of content release, which is releasing smaller bits of content more frequently. The Secret World follows a similar model of smaller bits of content more frequently to keep people engaged. Both games now use a Buy-to-Play model, meaning there's a small barrier to entry, and then beyond that the game continually gives reasons to come back to the game. The existing WoW model shows a surge in subscriptions at an expansion release, almost immediately followed a massive slump until the next content release 3-6 months down the line.

In short, the author shows a certain ignorance of not only the MMO business as a whole, but also of NCSoft's content strategy. Information on both of these things are easily researched on the internet. While this might be an opinion-esque piece, the author's opinion is much more likely to be taken seriously if he can show an understanding of the MMO industry that extends beyond the anecdotal.

 

[JarinArenos]

Wow, what a poorly written article. Obvious axe to grind along with petty gripes makes it difficult to take anything stated seriously, especially when the article itself is based around conjecture about a simple statement that expansions aren't in production yet after only over half a year.

This is what I took away from the article as well. Really not up to escapist standards.
Also, cheap shot at a flooded F2P market? You do realize that GW2 has an upfront box cost, right?

 

[DTWolfwood]

I kind of applaud that idea, but I'm horribly confused how that can remotely be economically feasible. They don't charge for patches, they don't charge for actual content, they don't have any sub fee of any kind, they dont plan on expansions, so the only income is the box fee for Guild Wars 2?

How can that possibly sustain them in the long term?

Is there somethin I'm missin here?

Same way any multiplayer game sustains it self. Continual sales of the game until no one is interested in buying it or it becomes more expenses to run the game then to sell, then they shut it down.

Multiplayer games in the past on PC never charged for patches, y is that suddenly a strange thing in this day and age?

Also micro transactions.

 

[shintakie10]

I kind of applaud that idea, but I'm horribly confused how that can remotely be economically feasible. They don't charge for patches, they don't charge for actual content, they don't have any sub fee of any kind, they dont plan on expansions, so the only income is the box fee for Guild Wars 2?

How can that possibly sustain them in the long term?

Is there somethin I'm missin here?

Same way any multiplayer game sustains it self. Continual sales of the game until no one is interested in buying it or it becomes more expenses to run the game then to sell, then they shut it down.

Multiplayer games in the past on PC never charged for patches, y is that suddenly a strange thing in this day and age?

Also micro transactions.

There's quite a large cost difference between an MMO and your average CoD game.

 

[LiveSpartan235]

Read the article wow I have to agree with just about everyone else here that article was terrible and sensationalist.

 

[DTWolfwood]

I kind of applaud that idea, but I'm horribly confused how that can remotely be economically feasible. They don't charge for patches, they don't charge for actual content, they don't have any sub fee of any kind, they dont plan on expansions, so the only income is the box fee for Guild Wars 2?

How can that possibly sustain them in the long term?

Is there somethin I'm missin here?

Same way any multiplayer game sustains it self. Continual sales of the game until no one is interested in buying it or it becomes more expenses to run the game then to sell, then they shut it down.

Multiplayer games in the past on PC never charged for patches, y is that suddenly a strange thing in this day and age?

Also micro transactions.

There's quite a large cost difference between an MMO and your average CoD game.

How about real F2P MMOs? They don't charge for patches, or new content, and they don't even carry a box cost. The fact Guild Wars 2 makes you buy the game means they have an extra revenue stream.

If they can't sustain the game, they simply shut it down. Its not complicated is all I'm eluding to.

Again micro transactions.

Spoiler: rant

p.s. i find it comical people in this day and age expect to be charged for everything and think that is right and normal. Companies did exist and made profit off of selling videogames before the advent of "DLC" so as a consumer, why should we expect less content for more money?

 

[Thyunda]

Something remotely related: They once let slip that they had only 1 or 2 people work on class balance after release... so yeah, was pretty obvious.
Though that may have been an elaborately crafted fake for all I know... they actually seem to have started making actual class changes again.

I'd believe it, as Necro and Mesmer are poorly balanced for anything outside PVP, condition builds are worthless outside of PVP due to the retardedly low 25 condition cap, and Warrior is so OP as to be stupifying. I recently went back to playing with some friends and made a warrior, by lv50 I've face tanked every champion I've come across, and soloed most of them. A task neither my Necro or Thief are even remotely capable of.

As for expansions, they better put something out there against this statement. Knowing that there may not be any more content coming is the fastest way for me to no longer want to play, seeing as Living Story is kinda suck, even they admit that. FoTM was a good idea, but desperately needs more floor types added in before I'm willing to climb it more.

Duuuude the only class I can't nail in PvP is a damn thief. I play an engineer, and between my tornado assaults (bust the gate open with battering rams and then Elixir X it into the courtyard. Defenders get thrown across the courtyard before they even have a chance to react) and my shield, nobody can take me one on one.

With one exception.

This bastard thief who just materialised behind me every time I killed an opponent. Stabbed in the back, dead. Every goddamn time. He even hung around waiting for my partner to get too far away, then showed up again. DX

 

[Ickorus]

Serrenitei summed up quite nicely what I would've liked to say, of course, I'm at work at the moment so I couldn't devote any amount of time to typing up a well-thought-out and well-constructed response so bravo Serrenitei.

Read the article wow I have to agree with just about everyone else here that article was terrible and sensationalist.

Welcome to The Escapist.