ArenaNet's Colin Johanson Pledges Free Guild Wars 2 Content Updates

Written by: Jason Winter (Twitter @winterinformal - Google+) | September 13, 2012 1:30 pm

ArenaNet's Colin Johanson Pledges Free Guild Wars 2 Content Updates

23 Comments

Colin Johanson hit the ArenaNet forums today with a rather exciting announcement for Guild Wars 2 players:

Gw2 will feature consistent free content updates and in-game events going forward. 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.

This comes in response to the original poster putting forth the question of “how many of you would be willing to purchase small expansion packs each month?” While most people seemed to answer that they would, Johanson put a stop to such nonsense quickly, going on to say:

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!

In truth, this isn’t a revolutionary stance, since most MMO companies have content updates every few months.

However, most of those games pay for those updates with subscription fees, so being able to provide this level of service without monthly income for ArenaNet or NCSoft — or, rather, only through income from game sales and the Black Lion shop — is commendable.

As to whether it’s “responsible” — well, that’s up to the bean-counters to figure out!

7:17

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15 comments

http://www.facebook.com/people/Marcelo-Linhares/100000041974498 Marcelo Linhares

Good guy greg.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Reed-Summers/1071061816 Reed Summers

baller.
Lynx Raven Raide

The original plan for GW1 was a campaign every 6 months, they fell behind initially with factions but EotN came in a bit late cause they had worked on Utopia then decided to scratch it in favour of making GW2
Glenn Hyatt

Not going to buy the hype words are nice, but until action proves there is no reason to get excited. Of course they want your money I know people in my life that have spent over 250 bucks in the first month of this game.
- http://twitter.com/dtwlamb Anthony 앤서니
  
  No not really Anet has said many things and all have been spot on they care and they want people to enjoy the game, they will always offer what they do now in the item mall, and will add more costumes, boosts, and more small things to make your life easier, but this statement can ring true, they believe they don’t need your money for content/expansion packs why would they, they are comfortable with where they are and how they do things.
- http://twitter.com/tlu_ Thomas Hoyt
  
  -1
- Lycronis
  
  What hype? Their track record has already been proven with GW1 and there is absolutely zero evidence to suggest that this will change with GW2.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    There was alot of hype, but Arenanet reputation validated the pre-purchase.
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

Good to hear. While I haven’t purchased any gems yet, seems Arenanet is selling plenty of gems.

Seems to be plenty of unused gates for new content.

I think the “responsible MMO” statement is a jab at SWTORs free to play plans. The idea you would need to purchase coins to run operations or more than a couple of warzones. Or unlock new content. If only had SWTOR been more like GW2 from the start, that would have been an amazing MMO.

Or TSW having both a sub fee and cash shop.

Guess it could be WoW, but WoW includes 50 character slots, in game bag slots, in game pets, in game mounts, in game cosmetic items, raiding (woot, woot 16 raid bosses in the first tier of Mist of Pandria), competitive dungeons and gear based progression. Still dont understand why people buy gold in WoW, the economy is there if you simply want to earn it in game.
http://twitter.com/borded nathan law

i wouldn’t expect expansions to come to quickly, the making of book in the collectors edition said that one of the reasons they decided to make guildwars 2 was to break what had become a 6 month expansion cycle that they could not keep up with. (utopia would have been out 6 months after nightfall but was cancelled for eotn)
bsqminus4ac

On a related note, do you guys think there is going to be a special event centered around Halloween/Harvest? Maybe the Norns area could have an Oktoberfest like event?

I’m not so sure. It seems awfully close to release. They’d have had to have been working on it BEFORE launch.
- http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
  
  Back in GW1 they had a yearly Halloween event involving the return of the dead Mad King Thorn. I don’t know if it will ever come back, but in a particular branch of the human personal story there is mention of a “Mad King’s Day.” Just putting that out there.
Sharuko

Pretty obvious why they are doing it. People got to 80 and realized there is nothing to do at endgame. So they want to “promise” this content so players stick around. Unless they do something about it in a couple of weeks, people will quit in droves.
- Dibface
  
  Oh come on dude. Like they weren’t going to provide additional content anyways. Like the article said, most MMOs provide content updates every few months. It’d be preposterous to think that this wasn’t something already on the plate internally.
  
  Also, they’re not “promising” (why the quotations?) content, they’re promising FREE (keyword) content. Big difference. Sure, they’re a business and they want people to stick around, but it’s not quite as sinister as you make it out to be. This isn’t some sort of false promise, like “oh no please don’t leave we’ll do something we swearrrr.” This stuff is already being devoloped; That’s just how it works. Take off the tin-foil hat and chillax.
- Josh Rosenvelt
  
  Rifts Storm Legion is only coming out in November, where will players go? Sure the 8 – 12 year olds who got this game bought for them by there parents realise it’s a bit too complex and will jump ship to MoP, but what about the rest of the players? Maybe play borderlands 2, wait for Planetside 2 if FPS MMOs are there thing…
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Poor Rift, I really hope this expansion does well for them. The player base for Rift seems to have a really big chip on their shoulder and over estimate the difficulty of their game. Players I spoke with did not leave the game because it was too difficult. They usually complain about bugs and players jumping ship to other shards.
- benzjie
  
  Does your brain hurt when you think positive thoughts ?
- Ravenstorm
  
  “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
- Spammerbam
  
  Players will come and go in GW2. That’s what the game is designed for — being casual. Just like GW1, there will always be contents and expansion being added. So, players can stop playing whenever they feel like it, and come back to a whole new setting with new events.
  
  Players quitting GW2? Not even a problem.
  When players quit Tera, they never come back.
- http://twitter.com/inkthedink INKS
  
  this is actually just like GW1 go figure.
- RolyVento
  
  Sharuko you must not have reached level 80 yet because trust you me there are tons of stuff to do, so much that is actually a grind and for the first time in my gaming life I am enjoying the grind.
  
  here is how it plays out: You get to level 80 and realize that there is a server wide raid zone called ORR but to get to the last dungeon in the game and kill the boss of the game you as a guild and as a server have to clear these “god” temple to be able to push thru the zone section to be able to open up the last dungeon.
  
  But before u kill this boss u need to have the right gear to do this you would have to work on your crafting to get the top gear or legendary which is another grind but a fun one.
  
  Along this path you have to complete events non stop to get karma which in turn can get you even better gear and stuff.
  
  The zone bosses are like raids, super fun, super interactive and will keep you entertained for hours.
  
  and this is just the PvE side, there is another world in sPvP and WvW which I wont cover here…
  
  So in short, there is lots of stuff to do at end game in GW2, u just have to reach level 80 and find out!
  
  Good luck!
- sukhdeep bhatti
  
  Brookah please
- St_Draco
  
  You are so right. Total Tera Clone

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