PC Gamer: Dungeons as DLC

http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/10/21/gu...otransactions/

Okay, so before anyone else starts the flame-war, let me just bring to the table the thought that Dungeons as DLC work mechanically the same as the Bonus Mission Pack, both in content and in rewards, with the exception that they are highly repeatable due to Explorable Mode.
With that said, flame away!|||Selling dungeons as DLC is a matter of implementation, but in principle fine with me.
Selling things like XP boosts means bye bye Guild Wars 2.|||Hmm... hmm...
Well, they do need to make money. I am interested in seeing what they would offer (I did like the BMP).

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ArenaNet has already revealed that they�ll be selling Transmutation Stones, one-time consumable items used to customize your gear, in their cash shop. And although they won�t confirm if traditional cash shop items like XP boosts and fast travel consumables will also be sold, Flannum�s responses certainly makes it sound like there will be�if there�s demand for it from the playerbase.




I disagree with this. XP boosts and fast travel consumables seem like game-advantage non-cosmetics. Something Anet said they would not do. Sure Anet will try to give the players what they want as far as micro-transactions, but not if it is not cosmetic.|||Quote:








I disagree with this. XP boosts and fast travel consumables seem like game-advantage non-cosmetics. Something Anet said they would not do. Sure Anet will try to give the players what they want as far as micro-transactions, but not if it is not cosmetic.





PC Gamer, as the recent articles prove, is still suffering a bit from carpet-tunnel syndrome by comparing GW2 to common MMOs, so the exp potions and fast travel consumables make no sense whatsoever when we have a flat level curve and a waypoint system.|||I"ll just Copy-paste my post from gw2g,

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IF it goes for sale, there are things to be considered.
If 1 person buys, do his party members need to buy it as well?
Can they enter the dungeon without having bought it?
Is the dungeon worth it?
Really, I haven't touched my BMP in.. A long time.
I do use the fancy Tengu staff on my ele though.
Do they bring in new item skins? Skins anyone can get in the normal game?
Are these skins trade able? This'll hit the Economy big, you know.
The dungeons just there for the thrill/exploration + XP/Karma reward?
Is it 1 dungeon? Multiple dungeons?
The price? EXCHANGE RATE!? (Oh exchange rate.. You're so horribly unfair..)
It'll be compared to the game price no doubt.
1 dungeon for 10 bucks? 5 bucks? What, the full game was 50?
Is it worth it to pay the game price AGAIN for an extra 5-10 dungeons?




Note that I'm only familiar with DLC through word of mouth for non-MMO's.
Like uh, Blazblue I think.
Only know the GW1 stuff firsthand, and I'm not doing a lot with it.|||If one currently looks at the purely cosmetic prices of the in-game store now; most of those prices together quickly equal half or the price of a GW chapter alone (I see cosmetic prices more of a "donation" to Anet).
Whether cosmetic or playable, in-game store item prices I am going to speculate are going to follow the same trend in GW2.
Meanwhile, I am patiently awaiting to see what Halloween Costumes Anet has come out with for this year ^^ (if they were not referring to the Costume Brawl...).|||I can't really consider the costume brawl a costume brawl unless I see a bulky warrior in Nika's tight clothing.|||I think the article was badly worded. Eric said yes to additional content as DLC, but then the article writer (not Eric) extrapolated that to XP boosts and speed boosts. I think that this may be like the article writer putting words into Eric's mouth, quite incorrectly too.
ANet has so far been pretty consistent about not giving paying players an advantage except for cosmetics and content. They have yet to release or confirm or even directly hint at anything related to pay-per-use consumables that confer gameplay advantages (unless you count T-stones as giving a gameplay advantage).
@Karuko: you and all of your team would need to buy the dungeon to party in it together, that I'm 95% confident of.|||Oh dear. Another point for the "GW2 is turning into another one of those crappy F2P MMOs where everything costs money" argument.

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Okay, so before anyone else starts the flame-war, let me just bring to the table the thought that Dungeons as DLC work mechanically the same as the Bonus Mission Pack, both in content and in rewards, with the exception that they are highly repeatable due to Explorable Mode.




The catch with the BMP was that it originally wasn't microtransaction content, but free with a $30 purchase from the store (which for most people amounted to just buying EotN digitally).
It stung then because I wanted the EotN box copy but had to choose between it and the BMP, and later it turned out that choice wasn't necessary because they made the BMP purchasable, but that's apples and oranges to dungeon DLC.

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@Karuko: you and all of your team would need to buy the dungeon to party in it together, that I'm 95% confident of.




Another F2P MMO I've tried that had this sort of thing, Dungeons and Dragons Online, let you buy "guest passes" that let someone who doesn't own the dungeon to play through it once with you, for something like 50 cents.|||Quote:








Oh dear. Another point for the "GW2 is turning into another one of those crappy F2P MMOs where everything costs money" argument.




I expected better from you.
Those crappy F2P MMOs charge you every time you want to enter a "pay" dungeon. They don't offer a permanent unlock.
And the last time I checked, you still had 10+ dungeons with the main game, personal story (which, btw, is a perfect place for more microtransactions. Oh wait, that's bad right? Money and stuff for content...), Dynamic Events and PvP.
Where's the "everything costs money" BS coming from?


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The catch with the BMP was that it originally wasn't microtransaction content, but free with a $30 purchase from the store (which for most people amounted to just buying EotN digitally).
It stung then because I wanted the EotN box copy but had to choose between it and the BMP, and later it turned out that choice wasn't necessary because they made the BMP purchasable, but that's apples and oranges to dungeon DLC.





Please, don't bring marketing into a feature discussion. Regardless of how the BMP was marketed, as of today, you have to pay to experience an handfull of content that reward you with exclusive skins, which btw, work the same as Dungeons DLC.
It's like saying that Brand A did a launching promotion to their oranges while Brand B did not, and saying that Brand A oranges are not oranges but apples.
It's stupid.
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When T-stones were announced the community cried wolf. One of the reasons listed was that it was not an unlock but a consumable.
Anet releases, non-power related, content for unlocking, and people still cry wolf.
I'm as much of a consumer as the next guy. I want as much bang for my buck as the next guy. But if you're going to flame a feature, do it coherently.