A Long Time Between Drinks
Posted by Stropp on August 30, 2007How Often Should Expansions Be Released?
Since the Wrath of the Lich King expansion was announced a few weeks ago, there has been quite a bit of commentary around the traps. The official World of Warcraft forums have been abuzz with forum posters offering many varied opinions.
One of the opinions that I’ve seen a few times is that Blizzard shouldn’t be releasing this expansion so soon after The Burning Crusade. Even though by the time Wrath of the Lich King is released it will be around a year since the release of The Burning Crusade. Part, perhaps most of this desire for a long gap between expansions is due to the effect on raids and the gear obtained through raiding.
Understandably, raiders don’t want the gear that they have worked so hard to get to become obsolete shortly after they obtain the last piece. At the same time, the experience of the last expansion was devastating on the raiding community. On my server, no-one wanted to raid just prior to the expansion. It became harder and harder to fill a raid. Everyone wanted to wait until it was released.
However, a long period between expansions leaves non-raiders high and dry. Getting from level 60 to 70 didn’t take quite as long as we originally expected, so that even a reasonably consistent casual player should reach 70 well within a year. If that player doesn’t raid, or participate in PvP, there isn’t a lot they can do apart from leveling up another character. Take too long between expansions and those players are likely to cancel their accounts until the next expansion is released. If something better comes along in the meantime they might not come back.
So how long a time should a company have between expansions?
To answer that, lets look at Everquest 2. Since it hit the market there have been three expansions and three adventure packs, and the fourth expansion is in the works and soon to be released.
In the same amount of time, WoW was released a fortnight after EQ2, Blizzard have released The Burning Crusade expansion and are just about to release Wrath of the Lich King.
However, the difference between the Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft expansions is that they are heading in different directions. World of Warcraft is expanding vertically. Each pack increases the level cap (and I’ve heard a rumour that each expansion will do this, but remember it’s just a rumour) and adds high level content but doesn’t add any real mid-level content.
On the other hand Everquest 2 is expanding horizontally. Each of the expansions has added a bunch of mid-level areas, as well as increasing the level cap once to 70. The Echoes of Fayder expansion brought back areas from the original Everquest, but made them accessible to a large range of players. The upcoming expansion Rise of Kunark will once again add a new race to play, expanding the bottom and middle of the game as well as increasing the level cap to 80.
If Blizzard is going to continue to expand World of Warcraft vertically, each time raising the level cap and adding higher level content, then the one expansion a year schedule that they have previously announced would be the way to go. Release more often and raiding will suffer. Release less often and the casual players will disappear.
Having said that though, my opinion is that expansion packs should be released often. I think the developers of Everquest 2 have worked out a decent balance in releasing new content for each content level. The altaholics like myself are happy because of new races and low level content. There’s plenty of different mid-level content around to explore, in fact you’ll out grow it before you can see it all. And there’s regular high-level expansions.
Personally, I think Blizzard should take a page from SOEs book on this one. They certainly have the capacity to do side by side development of expansions or adventure packs, and there is a definite need to expand the middle of the game. I’m not all that keen to do STV again. I’d love an alternate option for 30 - 40.
Tell me what you think. How long do you reckon the period between expansions should be?
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Hmm my two cents on the recent announcement of the expansion is varied.
I bought the burning crusade after i had been off wow for a few months. I logged in my lvl 60 human rogue and went thro the portal and did literally two quests, i then realised i didnt want to be alliance so re rolled blood elf rogue.
Now due to various factors iv not been able to dedicate alot of my free time to WoW so presently i am lvl 47, i assume i will get to lvl 70 and experience most of what outland has to offer before the next expansion however i feel like im being rushed. I would rather take it at my own pace however i dont want to be left behind and this ‘Hero’ class thing has me intrigued. It also comes down to items etc as well…. are you going to be able to justify paying 500g for a certain lvl 70 dagger that is going to be bettered by a green item in the expansion?
It will be interesting to see the outcome on the WoW community but i must say i am genuinely excited again about playing WoW which wasnt the case before the release of the burning crusade, whether this continues with the Lich King is a question i cant answer at present.
Well to attempt to answer in a sentence: When they have enough content to make it worth releasing.
The part I find interesting is, as you said, WoW is expanding vertically. I think if they don’t do some horizontal expansion, they hold great risk to their casual players. I don’t know exactly what you call casual, but I’d definitely consider myself a very casual MMO player, not so much in the “I play once in a blue moon” fashion as the “I don’t crunch level”
I love making new characters, trying things in a different manner, but eventually, if they don’t have enough ways for me to do things or a really good reason for me to continue leveling, I’ll get bored and move on. There are a lot of MMOs out there that are really just as good. And being high level for the sake of being high level? I could care less. I know there are a lot of gamers like me who care more for the content than the level grinding, and if they don’t do something to appease those, they’re going to lose a nice chunk of the MMO market.
@Super Ally - the DK Hero class idea is one of the more intriguing concepts that have been put forward. The high level start is something that is old hat for pen and paper RPG players. How it translates to online RPGs will be interesting to see.
@Comrade Ravenhawk - Thanks for your comment. I’m definitely in the same camp as you wrt alts. There’s something about trying new things that appeals to me and keeps things fresh.
And there are a lot of new MMOs on the way. It seems like every week I hear of one or two being announced. Very soon there is going to be a lot more choice for bored players.
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