Last 2 updates worth of an expansion?

#1 - March 1, 2013, 7:10 a.m.

I remember back in november/december a dev saying that we could expect updates as big as an expansion on January/February. I was quite skeptical actually since usually things are blown out of proportion in games but I think it really didn’t even come close to expectations.

What we got is tweaks to professions, Increased drop rate of chests, more ascended accessories. The biggest update was the daily revamp and the laurel system and updates to sPvP. It’s not really that bad but I think close to an expansion was a bit too much.

To me something worth of an expansion is additional pve maps with events or a wvw map, pvp maps is good but just 1 was added, Additional skins, new weapons, levels or profession, or dungeons. And the only other thing that came close was the revamp to AC but I’m not sure if that was necessary.

What do you guys think?

#21 - March 1, 2013, 8:18 a.m.

I’ll throw out feature wise, many of the things we’ll be doing feature wise across the first half of 2013 are typically the type of features you’d likely only see in a paid expansion traditionally. We’re really excited about the opportunity to be able to do that for Guild Wars 2, and think there is something really compelling in that experience, which is really the only message we wanted folks to take from all of this. March will of course continue this tradition of free releases, major features, and of course the growth of living story as we expand its role in Gw2.

All of that being said, this is exactly why we try and avoid talking about stuff until it’s ready, if we say something early and it ends up not ending up exactly what people expect, it doesn’t work out for anyone. Saying something like “expansions worth of content” means different things to everyone, and is nearly an impossible goal to meet expectation wise since everything expects something different, which is a big part of why marketing stepped away from that plan very quickly after asking us to use it when speaking to the press/fans.

I imagine it’ll still get quoted until the end of time, but hope that helps explain where it came from, and what to expect. Just to re-iterate the post I made back in January:

“To set expectations accordingly, the January release will be a relatively small release that sets the table for the stories and features we plan to roll out with the Feb/March releases and beyond. Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided. In saying this will be an expansions worth of stuff in these releases, we’re talking about the number of new features that will be rolled out across PvE, WvW, and PvP in early 2013, which usually you’d only find in an expansion for a traditional MMORPG.”