I tend to think of AoD as more of a "Feature Bundle" than an "Expansion". Sure it's just wording, but I would have liked to see EQ2 stick to the formula of "expansions", and just market AoD as a feature bundle, because to me it's certainly not an expansion. My definition of an expansion includes the following things: New Overland Zones New Dungeons New Raids New Spells/CA's and/or AA Abilities Increased AA and/or Level cap New Primary Questline/Storyline, (IE CLaymore, SoD, Ethernauts, etc) New Race/Class A new "Tier" of itemization A progression path through new content. So AoD meets only 2 of my criteria for an expansion, and the increased AA cap is only meeting it by name, not by spirit, because I have virtually nothing to do with these new AAs. I am not trying to gripe about AoD, just wishing they called it something else besides an "expansion". Thoughts?
Yeah Crabby I completely agree. EQ2 addicts look forward to an expansion like a fat kid looks forward to pwning his birthday cake solo. It is 100% understandable that people are frustrated with this so-called expansion's lack of content. Expansions are a ray of hope to many, you can hope for AA changes, gear changes etc. We got nothing with this, and for the same price? I'm appreciative of Beastlords, Mercs, and Reforging.... and even tho I bought it, I still have a bad taste in my mouth. Smoke I would say your "Better plan" for expansion releases has failed in the court of popular opinion.
No fustration here at all. It was all clear on forehand what this expansion was about, so no problem at all. And lack content? I don't think so.... Read the update notes again, I would say.
If you tell someone something enough times they will come to believe it. Especially when they really really want to believe it to start with.
I still find it utterly ridiculous they charged $40 for this. $20 is really the very maximum of what it's actually worth. I'm aware that it took a long time to develop. Maybe if the greedmongers up above stopped strangleholding the dev team...
They've said for awhile now that Destiny of Velious was the last "expansion" pack that expanded the land mass that they would charge for. I've only been back a little while and I know that. It baffles me how many people missed that point. Expansion is expanding the gameplay. Your definition of expansion may be different than mine, but expansion by its definition is expanding the offerings of a game. They've revamped Freeport, that's free and expands the quests available and creates a much much better Freeport. They'll be releasing another landmass soon I am sure, probably around March if their timeline holds up at all. That'll be free additions to the Velious stuff you previously shelled out for. Don't get me wrong I am no SOE fan, in fact we've had so many differences over the years they should be thanking me for even buying a Sony product at all, but the fact is in this instance the team has done a great job of presenting a quality piece of work for a relatively market-friendly price that you don't even have to purchase. Oh, and if you only play 1 or 2 characters you don't even have to pay for the game at all anymore. So there's that. The only thing this expansion did that tweaked me off (and the reason I won't be buying it) is because they aren't offering DoV along with it. I was hoping to get all caught up with my friends, but apparently that's not happening this holiday season. C'est la vie.
simianthief wrote: If they had offered the previous expansions and tacked on another character slot for BL, and dropped the price abit it would not have cause as much controversy.
We've grown accustomed to believe that "Expansion" involves not only features but additional zones for players to explore ... Expansion = Expanded ... not necessarily in features or in-game new land content. Eventually, game developers may change their terminology to Feature Additions and Zone/Content Packs.
VikodiN wrote: Well, generally expansions in all mmo's significantly increase or add dungeons to existing lands. Addition of features, classes etc, are not considered to be expansions and would fall more into the current realm of dlc.
simianthief wrote: Maybe so, but has any Paid Expansion, in the history of gaming, every really deviated from the norm so much as to not include any zones, encounters, quests, or itemization? AoD is DRASTICALLY different from any expansion that I've ever heard of from ANY game, and as such I don't feel it should be called an Expansion. I like another posters idea of just calling it DLC.
Crabbok@Unrest_old wrote: I have issued the challenge in two threads now without anyone providing an example; this will be the third. They tried mentioning Eve, but I guess they failed to remember that CCP doesn't charge for expansions...lol...which mean by virtue of division by zero the value actually approaches positive infinity. So, once again, I challenge anyone to name any game expansion that has had less bang for the buck than this one.
simianthief wrote: This is not exactly true. They said the second half of velious would be included with the first half, and that the Velious stuff will keep coming out through 2012 and 2013, but after that is all done I imagine they'll have either another expansion, or they'll move away from full expansions and focus more on smaller 'adventure pack' type updates... but either way I think there's a good chance they'll charge for non velious content once they finish with Velious. Now as for the whole topic of this thread.... We get it already. Some people are content with it and some people aren't, and either way SoE is keeping the price where it is. If you hate it so much, but feel like you have to have it, buy it with saved up SC.
Again, not a fanboy of SOE, but they are giving the landmasses for free now. They are just changing their paradigm, and since they were at the forefront of the MMO genre, I can understand why they need to reinvent themselves to set themselves apart. But man do I want to play a Beastlord, so I really have no justification for sticking up for them.
