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I truly Hope there will be No Content Droughts
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So many MMOs and so much potential, but once the developers release the base game, they spend half a year following it with something new. I have been playing WoW for 9 years, but once WLoD came out, the game went through extensive content droughts, which caused my entire guild to quit the whole game. Ashes looks like a beautiful game, and developing new content for it might be time consuming, so i suggest IS prepares for such a scenario. A scenario where developing new expansions takes more than a "Quarter" of a year.
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One example I like is Guild Wars 2. There is just so much to do in terms of crafting, jump puzzles, exploring and a lot of other achievement related activities. I generally like to dabble a little in everything, so I find myself running around doing almost everything in GW2 while barely scratching the surface.
The risk of something like this is that you spend a lot of time crafting content where only a subset of your content appeals to particular people.
If they keep me busy with achievements and puzzles I'll be fine.
Also... some players play 8 hours/week and some play 12hours/day.
You need to keep the second group busy but also not make 1st group feel like they're ages behind.
Did they say anything about in-game puzzles? Like jumping puzzles, riddles etc? I remember I created a topic about it but I didnt see any dev mention anything like that.
My analogy for WoW vs. Ashes of Creation is a comparison of the toys parents buy for their kids.
WoW is like when parents buy their kids all the latest, greatest "hot item" toys that are popular but don't have enough substance to provide staying power. These toys have specific things they do, and that's it. They soon gather dust or end up in the garage sale.
Ashes is more like the toys that are open-ended in what can be done with them. Toys that don't do specific things, but rather offer children the opportunity to explore with their imagination. Toys like Legos, erector sets, art related "toys" like Playdough (or just clay), Etch-A-Sketch, paints, crayons, etc. Basically, anything that is limited only by the imagination of the child.
Personally, I truly hope Intrepid never caves to pressure to keep adding stuff for the people who can't figure out how to entertain themselves. They're giving us a dynamic game world where the only real limitation is how imaginative we are in what we choose to do with it.
There won't be a content drought because we create/drive the content. We ARE the content.
Yeah but they can be optional. Not required. Not everything is for everyone. I - for example - dislike crafting, and a lot of people share this opinion. Will I be missing a lot by not crafting at all? Yes. Am I forced to do this? No.
The same should be with puzzles
Kl...i think they said they wanted to add some kind of content every quarter or so. there will always be some kind of drought, that when you do stuff that you wouldnt normally do
a side quest i can live live
The nice thing about GW2 jumping puzzles are that they are largely out of the way and require some effort to reach them. It's a totally optional endeavour, so you won't find yourself going through a certain important questline and get railroaded into a jumping puzzle (as far as I remember).
The other nice thing about it is a lot of times, the jumping puzzle in GW2 carries a bit of story to it. One of the more popular one is located in the mountains only accessible by a series of hidden steam-vents boosted jumps and illusionary wall. Inside the mountain you will find a hangar of airships belonging to a fabled outlaw gang. You got to navigate yourself through pipes, giant gears and railings and run through ships until you make it to the top of the fleet for the hidden loot.
Here's a video of the jumping puzzle I just described. It was one of my fondest memory of the game.
The second part of the video talks about "diving goggles" which are places in GW2 where a jumping goggles lies on a typically very high location. You put on the goggles and it strips you into your swimming costume. You do a dive, enjoy the scenery and unlock an achievement. Jumping puzzles don't always overlap with a diving goggle. Diving goggles are just another part of the the game that encourages exploring.
The buildings we build after we hit Stage 6 generate new content. Around the globe.
I doubt all 5 metropolises will be built in 3 months.
New buildings for any node past Stage 3 generate new content regionally.
So, we will have lots of new content constantly popping for quite some time even without the devs adding brand new content.
But, the devs are planning to release DLCs quarterly anyways.
Whether they can actually keep to that schedule remains to be seen.
Ashes is not buy to play.
I'm with @Possum on this. The very essence of why this game will appeal so much is because it's not add 5 levels and a new dungeon which we'll race to complete in 5 days and show our shiny new skins on the forums. If that's what you want then there's the majority of MMOs out there right now waiting for you.
The dynamic nature of server development will ensure that players will always have ways of making "end game" or "end content". The server will be what you make of it, will be as exciting or as boring as you make it. That's where Ashes will be inclusive like no other MMO on the market, if they deliver, and that's where it's success will come from.