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Guild Wars 2 to avoid standalone MMO expansion model [update]

by Griffin McElroy on Jun 15th 2011 10:00AM

MMORPG developer ArenaNet is no stranger to implementing standalone additions to its subscription-free title Guild Wars, but it sounds like the studio won't follow the same strategy for the game's long-developed sequel. Speaking to Gamerzines, Guild Wars 2 lead designer Eric Flannum explained, "At this time we don't plan to continue with the standalone expansion model," adding that such add-ons "split our player base unnecessarily and also caused us to focus development effort on things that were redundant with the original release of the game such as tutorial areas and duplicates of already existing skills."

Update: An earlier version of this post misunderstood Flannum's message, which does not count out the possibility of traditional expansions -- only standalone add-ons which do not require the base game, such as Guild Wars: Factions and Nightfall. We apologize for the confusion, and thank the commenters who pointed out the error.

Via: VG247
Source: Gamerzines

Tags: arenanet, expansion, Guild-Wars-2, mmo, mmorpg, ncsoft, pc

Reader Comments (23)

Sadly, I think you guys have mis-read the article, or are missing out on some basic knowledge of GW1.

Anet said no "Standalone" expansions - in GW1, the overall game was split up into essentially 3 different games, GW1, Nightfall and Factions. You could buy any one of the two standalone expansions and play them without having GW1.

The article does not state that they will not be making any retail expansions, but hints that the expansions will be more like Guild Wars: Eye of the North expansion that requires players to have one of the previous standalone expansions tied to your account.

@Wakers yeah from what I can tell, I think you're right. The title of this article is misleading.

@Wakers you are correct. and they even said on twitter that people misread it too. There will be expansions, just not standalone ones because they wanted to get away from having several tutorials, duplicate skills, and some other things that they said wouldn't work well.

@Wakers That is exactly right. A spokesperson for ArenaNet even made a statement yesterday saying people misunderstood the statement. There will be expansion but not 'standalone' expansions.

@Wakers The title should, in fact, be the complete opposite: "Guild Wars 2 to Embrace Retail MMO Expansion Model"

Wow, Joystiq even misquoted their own source, lmao. Nice one guys.

@Wakers Part of the problem is that posts all over twitter are claiming 'Guild Wars 2 is moving away from the retail expansion model'

In other words, spreading fallacies or because someone either didn't read, or doesn't understand the difference between a standalone expansion and a retail expansion.

Either way, yes- lots of people are misinterpreting what's been said.

@MagikOvenMit Fully agreed. This would keep people from tarding all over this. lol

wow i actually like guild wars expansion plus it was a great way for them to make money so now i'm a little worried.

@bargaingamer Don't be. We'll get expansions like Eye of the North, just not standalone ones like Factions/Nightfall. This is just poor, inaccurate reporting on the part of Joystiq, is all. See the following:

http://twitter.com/#!/GuildWars2/status/80715421195571201

That does make sense.

Your Everquest expansion days were a bit different to Guild Wars expansions though.

You don't really "progress" to a next expansion in Guild Wars. You can start from any of them as well as the main game (bar 1).

Man I can't wait for GW2! The more I hear about it, the more it appeals to me over SWTOR. =D

Definitely looking more forward to GW2 than SWTOR, but this thing about expansions and playerbase fragmentation--I wonder if it really holds up. They're obviously going to offer SOMETHING. Whether it's DLC, or retail original-required expansion, or standalone expansion.. The player base will fragment no matter which path you take.

The cool thing about Prophecy, Factions, Nightfall, and EOTN, was that everyone could meet in the common PvP areas. People playing PvE were leading pretty fragmented lives anyway, given the way GW1 was structured.. If I only bought Factions, I could "chat" with someone who only bought Nightfall, and we could PvP together....but I wouldn't be able to do the Factions story missions. That's not too surprising though...I'm not sure how getting rid of standalone expansions would solve that issue.

It would get rid of redundant tutorials. I'll give it that. The only way to not fragment your playerbase is to make sure everyone has exactly the same thing...OR to make sure the expansions are not game/mission related at all. Selling stuff like inventory or character slots...or horse armor.

@sigma8
Some fragmenting of the playerbase is going to happen anyway, based on who buys the expansions, but that's in the hands of the players. With GW1's expansion model, you were shuffled off from the rest of the world for extended periods of time by default (especially since the path through the storylines and zones is -incredibly- linear in the early game).

@sigma8
To add (and answer your question): getting rid of standalone expansions helps solve the issue because it's offering an extension of the game, and not an entirely new game in and of itself. Sure, people who don't buy the expansion won't be able to participate in the new content, but it's less exclusive than basically recreating the game experience from the ground up and needing to design with the assumption that the player might never have touched the original game. Much of the early content for each of the given GW1 campaigns isn't even available to characters from other continents. In contrast, Eye of the North was a true expansion, with all characters able to head into the same content at the same level, and gathering in the same areas.

Does anyone else think the blue thing looks like Raz from Psychonauts?

@MystcLazrDragon

His head would need to be a bit wider.

@neocloud61 I doubt Felicia Day would voice a male character :p

Oh, Joystiq. Your articles are so adorable when you write them without even thinking about what was actually said.

Joystiq, you're a reporter, act like one.

I want to read the news and form my own opinion on it, not yours.

I was under the impression that some kind of expansion model was mandatory. GW2 starts off in Tyria, The main continent of GW and GW:EotN, with access to Cantha and Elona, the continents of Factions and Nightfall respectively, cut off.
I had assumed that they'd release some kind of expansion to allow access to the other two continents.
Wait, now that I think of it, the story of GW2 doesn't even have you kill all of the Elder Dragons, only Zhiatan. The big baddie is actually Primordus.
Expansions are GUARANTEED.

http://twitter.com/#!/GuildWars2/status/80715421195571201

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Guild Wars 2 to avoid standalone MMO expansion model [update]

Reader Comments (23)

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 10:07AM Wakers said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 10:17AM Integral said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 10:18AM littlejay2o02 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 10:22AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 10:42AM MagikOvenMit said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 1:19PM Gamer4Life said

Posted: Jun 17th 2011 9:52AM cedgedc said

Posted: Jun 17th 2011 9:53AM cedgedc said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 10:11AM bargaingamer said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 12:25PM HSamster said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 10:11AM joevill said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 10:12AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 10:32AM trinica said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 10:41AM sigma8 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 11:17AM Irem said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 11:25AM Irem said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 11:04AM MystcLazrDragon said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 11:41AM neocloud61 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 11:50AM littlejay2o02 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 11:40AM neocloud61 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 11:42AM clawbytes said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 11:50AM Lyon Artime said

Posted: Jun 15th 2011 11:59AM Snowblind said

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