Expansion Confirmed [1-24-15], Heart of Thorns

[Edge-]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c...nd_ws_down_in/

Relevant bit (if the translation is accurate):

The game is now two years old. And therefore in the not too far future we do think that we will have an opportunity to show our plans about expansion packs for this game

Interesting.

[carnifex2005]

Yeah, I suspect we'll get expansion talk after the end of this season of the Living Story. I think the expansion will be heading to the Crystal Desert / Elona and a showdown with Kralkatorrik and Palawa Joko.

[Valeron]

I'll believe it when I see it

but a good opportunity to release an expansion would be after this current LS season

[Oneirophobia]

I think it will concern Mordremoth. We will probably fail at stopping it and we'll basically discover the living story was essentially a giant pre-expansion event.

[Chickat]

All GW2 has to do to make me a fan is introduce gear progression. I know they wont do that, so ill be excited for you guys.

[Deleted]

Thats awesome news - But the bit meh saying that they can share the plans in not too far future. Makes me wonder how far the actual expansion is then

..... or well "expansion packs" wonder what they mean by that. I guess one could see dry top (for example) as an expansion of sort? It is a new map and therefor an expansion of the game...? Maybe I'm just over thinking it

[Deleted]

Link doesn't work ;<

[Deleted]

Testing 1..2...3...

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c...nd_ws_down_in/

That one seems to work.

There is a Post called "NC Earnings Report Q3" on http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/ otherwise

[Lane]

I'll believe it when I see it

Yeah, my first thought as well.

[Fencers]

I wonder if an expansion provides the development resources for Anet to change the gameplay of GW2 more drastically. The game over 2 years has been relatively shallow and poorly designed. I suspect the minor revisions made to the gameplay of GW2 were deployed in part due to limitations in their engineering of the game's primary systems and code.

In other words, they can't change up the gameplay too much because their tools and resources do not allow them to do so easily. Before Anet were given the budget for GW2 they operated like as a AA boutique development house.

I know that many of the team leads and designers at Anet are also the primary programmers for their core systems. And there were only like 4 TLs according to Jon Peters' off-handed comment once. Which explains perfectly Arena.net's historically laughable record in deploying and implementing secondary systems in contrast to their highly efficient primary design.

I am interested to see where this goes developmentally.

[Meledelion]

"In other words, they can't change up the gameplay too much because their tools and resources do not allow them to do so easily. Before Anet were given the budget for GW2 they operated like as a AA boutique development house."

I was quite impressed with some new mechanics that came with SAB on a relatively short notice.

The main issue seems to be that they're just too scared of making things complex. If they can normalize something, they will which is a bad thing for action games that tend to have shallow content already.

There's literally more depth/complexity in Clicker Heroes, which is quite shocking IMO.

[Exroyal]

Just wanted to let y'all know that NCsoft is gonna hold a confernce this coming tuesday which is gonna be about NCSofts big future plans. Nothing has been promised and i'm 90% sure GW2 wont even be mentioned, but hey, now we can speculate on a future expansion.

[Lionor]

The game over 2 years has been relatively shallow and poorly designed.

I'd very much argue against the above statement. I believe the game is very well designed and all in all one of the best games currently on the market, from a consumer point of view. All I care about is: (a) its fun, (b) I want to log-on to check things out regularly and (c) when I log-on I usually stick around for quite some time because I'm having fun. I've been very impressed by GW2 because I approached it with great negativity (due to the lack of a traditional triad structure) but it won me over big time simply because the game is built around having fun.

Now I know you have a technical background in game design (as stated in other threads) so you may be using such criteria to judge the game with but I can tell you that from the consumer point of view it is a brilliantly designed entertainment product. Also (and this is not meant as a personal attack) I couldn't help but notice you have grown quite negative towards this game over the past couple of weeks. The only reason I'm mentioning this is so that people that have not followed several threads from months ago are not scared away from the game because even though extremely eloquent, informed and well structured your posts are (some times) purely subjective (as they have every right to be).

All in all, it's not perfect, but it's the first game in many long years that made me have fun so I would very much like to see what more an expansion would add!

[Fencers]

I was quite impressed with some new mechanics that came with SAB on a relatively short notice.

Mechanically, only minimally. Most of the actions in SAB were device driven and/or wrapped in the preexisting methodology of input in GW2. Like using the whip was another function of the bundle system of interaction or using the slingsot, etc.

There were some very creative uses of the already established play systems and interactable geometry. I do consider the SAB to be the pinnacle of Arena.net game design.

But the base game? It's pretty stale/unchanging for the most part. Which isn't very complex as you already mentioned.

There's literally more depth/complexity in Clicker Heroes, which is quite shocking IMO.

Indeed. But we have a whole thread for Clicker Heroes to discuss it.

I can tell you that from the consumer point of view it is a brilliantly designed entertainment product.

I do think GW2 is wildly fun and entertaining. Also a tremendous value for the investment. No argument there.

However, in terms of game design GW2 has some contradictory or counter intuitive elements of play. The only real standard as to whether or not a game is "well made" is in how consistent, harmonious and tightly wound (so to speak), the rule set for play is expressed.

One can find "poorly designed" video games fun all the same. Just as a "bad movie" can be enjoyable.

[barackopala]

Fuck yes fuck yes fuck yes! please revamp wvw maps too !

[Svifnymr]

Guild Wars 2: Rise of the Conditions expansion!
New Tengu race!
New Ritualist Class!
New Condition cap of 50 stacks instead of 25!

[lawow74]

Guild Wars 2: Rise of the Conditions expansion!
New Tengu race!
New Ritualist Class!
New Condition cap of 50 stacks instead of 25!

New Level-O-Tron item in the Gem Store, automatically scaling rare-quality gear that comments on every action you take!

[Exroyal]

So when do you guys expect the expansion? I expect some sort of reveal in 2015 and a release late 2016/ early 2017. The LS will probably how we deal with Mordremoth and new expansion will bring one or two more dragons until ANet reveals plans for the future.

[Vizardlorde]

If they increase the level cap Im quitting... I spent way too much time on my ascended junk and legendary for it to become worthless junk. If its just pure content and new skins and stuff thats not better (statwise) than what i have I'll welcome it with open arms though.

[rhandric]

Vizard, judging by past experience (GW1 + it's follow-on campaigns), level cap should stay the same. Hopefully they continue with that model, and in a horizontal progression game, that makes the most sense.