Guild Wars 2 getting 'consistent free content updates'

Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet has again assured that, like its predecessor, the subscription-free MMORPG will receive "consistent free content updates" as well as more microtransaction doodads and, eventually, "large-scale" expansions. After players ummed and erred about running out of things to do, game director Colin Johanson stepped in to say all was peachy keen and new content was coming.

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Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet has again assured that, like its predecessor, the subscription-free MMORPG will receive "consistent free content updates" as well as more microtransaction doodads and, eventually, "large-scale" expansions. After players ummed and erred about running out of things to do, game director Colin Johanson stepped in to say all is peachy keen and new content updates are coming.

"No need to buy them, Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward," Johanson explained on the GW2 forums. "Our goal is to make it so you get more from Gw2 for free than you get from a game you pay a subscription for."

Guild Wars 2 sold two million copies in just over a fortnight, so there are lots of people to please. Our Ozzie is certainly pleased with all he's seen so far.

"On top of a large amount of free bonus content, we will be expanding on offerings in the Black Lion Trading Company going forward, as well as be doing large-scale expansion content down the road," Johanson said. "We do appreciate that you'd like to buy lots of new content, but we'd prefer to give a lot of it to you for free, cause that's what we think a responsible MMO company does!"

According to Johanson, ArenaNet will start revealing more of its plans "over the next month or so."

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 18, 2012 6:00 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Guild Wars 2 getting 'consistent free content updates'.

    Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet has again assured that, like its predecessor, the subscription-free MMORPG will receive "consistent free content updates" as well as more microtransaction doodads and, eventually, "large-scale" expansions. After players ummed and erred about running out of things to do, game director Colin Johanson stepped in to say all was peachy keen and new content was coming.

    • reply
      September 18, 2012 6:09 AM

      [deleted]

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        September 18, 2012 6:33 AM

        I only kept playing WoW because I was paying money for it. I felt like I had to play all the time or I was just wasting money. After Vanilla and BC much of my time in game wasn't fun. It was just running on a boring treadmill all day with no end in sight. To do the things I wanted to do required long long long runs to even get to the point where it was fun or I could compete with other people only to have it reset again after a short time.

        Guild Wars 2 is much different, old school meets new school. I haven't seen an MMO with an expansive and explorable world such as Guild Wars 2 in a long long time. Everything is always these small cornered off areas with no reason to explore every nook and cranny. I'm not paying a monthly fee so any time I get bored or need a break I can put the game down and not feel like I just wasted $15 or fear the future solo grind because my friends got so far ahead of me while I was gone.

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          September 18, 2012 8:06 AM

          That's pretty much how I feel about GW2. I like it because I don't feel pressured to play because I'm paying for a monthly fee.

          Also, if people didn't rush through newly launched MMO's they wouldn't run out of things to do so fast. They don't read any story, they skip through everything and find the quickest way to get to max level and then complain when they get there.

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            September 18, 2012 8:21 AM

            A lot of people who "rush" through a game just play a lot. Especially in a game like GW2 where basically anything you do gives you xp.

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            September 18, 2012 9:26 AM

            I don't feel like I've been rushing through it at all, and I'm probably 2 weeks away from my 2nd level 80 character. I've watched all the story cutscenes, done a lot of the formatted PvP, and taken breaks from it (to play other games, of course).

            In GW1, 2/3 of the game's content at launch was made for max level players. GW2 just runs out of bite-sized/casual max level content pretty quickly. You get through the 2-3 max level zones, and then the only goals left are: massive grind dungeon armor, massive grind 100% explorer, or massive grind a legendary weapon.

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              September 18, 2012 9:43 AM

              Looks like they made the dungeon armor take long with the recent change to prevent quick farming too.

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              September 18, 2012 10:03 AM

              Trust me, if you almost have two level 80 characters at this stage you really have not been taking it easy.

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              September 18, 2012 6:25 PM

              how many hours have you played? I've logged in about 70 hours and have two level 40 characters.

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          September 18, 2012 10:47 AM

          If you pay $12 for a buffet do you feel like you can't leave otherwise you are wasting too much money?

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            September 18, 2012 11:06 AM

            Stupid analogy is stupid.

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              September 18, 2012 11:55 AM

              Maybe so, but it's correct.

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                September 18, 2012 1:08 PM

                It's not even close to being correct, but i'm not going to argue.

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                September 18, 2012 3:44 PM

                A better analogy would be, "if you pay for a $12 buffet, but lose your hunger without eating anything, do you feel like you are wasting money if you just leave."

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              September 18, 2012 4:01 PM

              Well whatever. Forget the anolgy. The fact that I hear and read so often that people feel like they can't stop playing WoW because they paid somewhere between $12 and $15 dollars for it that month just shows how broken human are when it comes to this sort of thing. I think we can pretty much all agree that amount of money isn't a lot for most people, and if they were going to purchase something with it once, they don't worry about it, but for some reason when it is instead spent toward something that can only be used for a limited time people feel compelled to keep using whatever it is they are renting as much as possible otherwise they are "wasting all that money"

              I mean if you played 12 hours of WoW that month instead of 30 hours it's not like the entire $15 is wasted right? so at that point you are throwing away some fraction of the 15 right? And maybe 12 hours is worth $15? Maybe people shouldn't worry about $15 that much, or just cancel their account...

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        September 18, 2012 9:29 AM

        I played WoW and I like GW2 more, what stuff do you like more about wow?

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          September 18, 2012 9:43 AM

          I haven't played much WoW since the pre-MoP patch...but every time I do I find myself wanting for most of GW2's features.

          It's hard to go back to WoW in a lot of ways, IMO.

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          September 18, 2012 9:58 AM

          as much as people are right about there being parts of the holy trinity that suck, dungeons in Wow are way way way way better than GW2.

          Theres just something about the combined skill and teamwork of a trinity group that beats out a zerg in GW2. Its all played out now, but i remember first learning to focusfire certain mobs in certain orders, moving out of the shit, having to time my skills with certain mob effects to stay alive, learning how to hold aggro on a mob, and picking up other mobs that DPS pulled off me (or watching them die).

          Thats just the tanking. I raid tanked and raid healed, and in the end found them way more fun than raid DPS. GW2 is all DPS. I even try to play like a healer now and then as ele, but its just not he same game. GW2 is an AMAZING game and i play a lot of it (and will give them even more money for more expansions) but the dungeons leave me wanting WAY WAY more.

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            September 18, 2012 10:16 AM

            Agreed. I love GW2 and find a lot of it to be far superior to WoW (or at least significantly simpler/more convenient), but the dungeons are just not fun whereas I love dungeons in WoW.

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            September 18, 2012 10:44 AM

            If GW2 is all DPS and that's how you play it. You aren't doing it right. It's swaping through the holy trinity for each person each fight. If everyone is dodging and doing their thing you DPS. If someone is taking a beating i'm switching weapons to support/cc. If I am taking a beating i'm switching to defense while someone should be switching to support/cc for me and others should be DPSing. When everyone knows what they are doing it's a fine dance and a beautiful thing to watch and be apart of more so then any WoW raid or dungeon.

            WoW raiding and dungeons was some of the most boring times in a game I have ever had. DPS on my hunter was me trying not to fall asleep at the keyboard. I have done this once or twice in the middle of a raid. Healing was just wack a mole bs and super boring but id rather this than DPS. Tanking was the most fun out of all of them but only because I had to learn all the fights. Once I knew everything it was AFK mode.

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          September 18, 2012 10:41 AM

          - Automatic dungeon finder
          - The fact that holy trinity actually worked in WoW because multiple classes filled the roles of the trinity
          - Way better looking armor/weapons (personal pref here)
          - I actually had more fun in PVP in WoW than I did in GW2 (note: balanced pvp != fun in all cases)
          - As others mentioned, dungeons are way, way more fun in WoW
          - I actually liked the aggro mechanic in WoW (I loved tanking)

          GW2 seems like a simpler, more casual friendly WoW which has more modern features in some areas, but lacking in some of the old school mechanics (which were fun) because it attempts to innovate and try something new, which ArenaNet are to be commended for.

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            September 18, 2012 11:08 AM

            GW2 simpler? No, absolutely not.

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            September 18, 2012 3:48 PM

            Well, I can tell you there's absolutely no way I would ever wipe as much in a standard MMO in the first dungeon (if it happens at all) as I have in Ascalon's. I'm pretty sure I/my groups were just doing something horribly, horribly wrong and it's possible to have a smooth dungeon run if everyone plays how they should.

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      September 18, 2012 8:18 AM

      Blizzard is a money grubbing corporate cog. I'm glad ArenaNet know how to be a respectable developer.

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        September 18, 2012 8:26 AM

        lololol

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        September 18, 2012 9:13 AM

        Did you try opening up that second bank slot yet? Or try opening a locked Black Lion chest?

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          September 18, 2012 9:16 AM

          [deleted]

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            September 18, 2012 5:34 PM

            I was only able to open 6 in a row, now my bank is full of useless potions that change how I look. I'm not 80 yet so I have nowhere near enough gold to exchange for gems.

            Tricksy devs, make the contents of the chests you open fill up your bank so you want to buy a new slot immediately!

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          September 18, 2012 9:30 AM

          I have a second bank slot (thinking about a third). I've opened a lot of black lion chests. Did it all with excess in-game currency, no problem. The gold>gem conversion rate is great right now.

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          September 18, 2012 9:44 AM

          Did you buy gems with ingame gold, which is actually not that expensive?

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            September 18, 2012 10:27 AM

            I didn't notice you could. I just assumed that once I tried to open a lockbox without a key and it took me to the store page, that it was the microtransaction currency and didn't look much further.

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          September 18, 2012 10:33 AM

          [deleted]

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            September 18, 2012 1:11 PM

            rarely, but yes.

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              September 18, 2012 3:51 PM

              They drop at about the same rate as the chests do for me. Plus, as other people said, you get keys from opening the chests sometimes. I've been able to open every chest I've gotten so far.

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                September 18, 2012 4:53 PM

                I opened 10 chests in a row with 1 key because they all had keys in them.

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            September 18, 2012 1:19 PM

            [deleted]

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          September 18, 2012 1:11 PM

          i've done both. and i bought the gems with gold. it was pretty cheap to do, too

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          September 18, 2012 3:43 PM

          I've opened like at least 15 chest. At least, I got 5 keys in a row one afternoon doing the last few vistas and poi's in areas I ran through.

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          September 18, 2012 4:52 PM

          I opened 4 bank slots, and 3 personal bag slots without spending one red cent.

          • DM7 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            September 18, 2012 8:12 PM

            Damn son, send me some gems! ;)

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        September 18, 2012 9:14 AM

        ROFLCOPTER!

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      September 18, 2012 8:42 AM

      Downloading the mac client now.

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      September 18, 2012 9:02 AM

      how are people running out of things to do? theres more to finishing the game than leveling 1 character up ti 80 and quitting.

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        September 18, 2012 9:39 AM

        Not really. There's nothing to progress through at level 80. Nothing to do except the same shit over and over.

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          September 18, 2012 3:54 PM

          And how is this different from any MMO? Content will always be finite, you will always be doing "the same shit over and over" at some point for gear till they add new stuff to do or strive for.

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        September 18, 2012 10:00 AM

        Them saying 'endgame is the maingame' made me not want to rush to 80. Im taking my sweet time across multiple characters and it seems to be working out better than those sitting at 80 and going 'now what?'.

        I figure by the time i get one of those up to 80, ill want to work towards a legendary weapon and have reasons to do Explorable modes and such.

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      September 18, 2012 9:13 AM

      Dear ArenaNet

      Please to be giving ground mounts. Obviously flying mounts would break all kinds of puzzling stuff so they're a no go. But this poppycock of running around on foot is weaksauce. Look at the fat sacks of cash blizzard made selling mounts on their store for obscene amounts of money, and realize that you're a microtransaction game and make with the mounts.

      Sincerely,
      Everyone

      • reply
        September 18, 2012 9:15 AM

        [deleted]

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        September 18, 2012 9:40 AM

        You can already run through entire zones in under 5 minutes. How fast do you want to go?

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        September 18, 2012 9:54 AM

        Dear lazy ass, no. Walk and use the waypoints

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          September 18, 2012 10:47 AM

          And the various buffs that pretty much every class has to run faster or zip across the map.

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        September 18, 2012 9:57 AM

        [deleted]

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        September 18, 2012 10:04 AM

        Since I can teleport everywhere why would I want a ground mount?

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          September 18, 2012 10:28 AM

          [deleted]

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          September 18, 2012 10:31 AM

          There's just been plenty of times when running around gathering trees and vegetables that I wished I could be moving quicker between nodes for crafting mats.

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          September 18, 2012 10:35 AM

          Probably to save money. As you level up teleporting gets more expensive for the same distance. So at 80 if you are standing directly on a waypoint and wanted to go there you'll still end up paying 1silver which is weird.

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          September 18, 2012 10:37 AM

          I'd like mounts just cause I like collecting mounts, not really needed to get around, just fun to have.

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        September 18, 2012 10:38 AM

        lol, no

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        September 18, 2012 10:41 AM

        In WvW maybe, but that might brake balance. Imagine people having the ability to very quickly get to a contested castle. A never ending influx of defending or attacking players = not good.

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          September 18, 2012 1:12 PM

          WvW Reinforcements already arrive too fast without mounts. It's getting to be like a bank robbery with our current matchup. You've got about 3 minutes before the winning team shows up to crush you

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            September 18, 2012 3:56 PM

            So just don't allow mounts in WvW? I'm pretty sure they'll add mounts at some point, because that's what people love to spend money on.

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        September 18, 2012 1:11 PM

        Na, I don't miss them, at all.

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      September 18, 2012 6:04 PM

      How ur class balance

      http://i.imgur.com/IS1Ya.jpg

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        September 18, 2012 6:30 PM

        what are you trying to prove here? you seem to bitch about balance a lot, but all i see in that screenshot is a game that has been going on for probably about a minute, and the blue team already killed their NPC, which is the only reason why they are up in score.

        • reply
          September 18, 2012 7:11 PM

          There is a good reason everyone picks thief.

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