ToySoldier

MazingerZ, on 10 December 2012 - 11:11 PM, said:

The magic of Youtue/ITune format is micro-transaction based on player reviews of small packets of contents.  Quality control in a format like that is automatic where the host/providercan compile player reviews.  There may even be players who want to make a living doing their own critique channel.

One reason I'm excited about this format is I see forums like Guru are involving players hitting "like".  To me Guru is a lot more fun for me than a heavily official GW2 forum.  In the end the masses of people can then follow their own favorite reviewer/poster and find their favorite modules of GW2 to play, etc.  A forum like GW2 can almost go hand-in-hand with this kind of modular-content concept.

To tie in on the topic: Both subscription and cash shop atm are generating grind-content due to a lack of development manpower/funds.  Grind is the only way for a limited team to deal with massive consumption of content.  But when it's open source, there will be all sorts of geniuses in the player population to develop diverse new content, like in the case of Youtube.  There will be crap, yes, but there will also be ample reviewers participating to lend guiding lights.

My favorite dynamic events: Harathi Hinterlands, Kessex swamp boss, Queensdale bandit invasion, remind me of all the fun I used to have in Everquest raids without the pain of being in a guild full of politics, loot drama, keeping a 54-roster while having to leave some players out of a raid phase, waiting for enough players to show up, keeping track of DKP, etc. that made raids a job.

I love how those dynamic events are scaled to number of players, and how flexible players can choose their own roles in an impromptu raid-like event.  DPS, heal, cure, tank, rez.. all those roles were taken at will.  The player coordination needed generated a team spirit among random players.  In the end I saw people cheering, thanking each other for a great job.  It made me smile every time.

Hoping for more of those dynamic events to happen on demand.  These days though players are thin in all these zones. Maybe GW2 can make a new zone full of those events so all "raiders" can hang out there and do the DEs there, moving from one to another of their choice.  I'd probably hang in that zone everyday.

Thanks Dusk.  I wasn't thinking about servers, but more mini expansions where a PvE player can buy to see more zones, or SPvP players can host more maps (which is already the case).  WvW maps, as well as some group dungeons with, or without, jumping puzzles.  Some PvE zones with more active play in the type of hand-eye coordination.  Some PvE zones will be bought by players like me for relaxation mode.

It's like we'll be buying pizza topping choices after purchasing the initial dough base.

Your idea about servers is interesting. It got me thinking:

If there are some servers where Ascended gear does not exist, I guess ANet will find out quickly how their revenue may change.  That is not likely to happen though due to what Capn_Crass said.  It's hard to balance or even maintain one ruleset.

Caution: Everquest has tried various types of servers.  Their RP server became a farmer server due to its loots being all-trade.  Roleplayers became near extinct on that server.  So setting up server types need to be done carefully.

Another idea:  Independent servers could work in the sense EQ now has a classic server hosted by an independent group.  If special-rule server happens, such as all the types you mentioned, a company like ANet may even be set up to selling the basic world to groups that host their own servers, and collect a royalty.  Again, will rulesets be balanced?  No one knows.  One way it will work may be if some dedicated server hosts are willing to go through setting up the balance numbers themselves.

Reading all these interesting posts is making me think:  What if down the road certain posters will get subscriptions from readers, and can earn 1 cent for each read they receive from being on a reader's sub list?  It can make some interesting forums to read.  A forum can still be run via some sort of ads so the reader's won't need to pay.

Then it came to me: Cash shop and sub are probably both going to be history one day.  As I read somewhere, MMORPGs may turn to apps for world building where players can generate content for other players to play.   And the Youtube publishing model may happen for good modules made by good player/designers.

Very interesting discussion in the last several pages here.

It seems to me GW2 is attempting to provide niches for different demographic players, like the devs had in mind: "PvE world for the casual sandbox players.  Personal story dungeons for group-oriented players.  WvW for the casual PvP crowd, SPvP for smaller PvP groups.  Ascended gear for the VP players."   But in the end players feel they can perhaps get their favorite niche in a devoted niche game.  Starting to make me wonder if GW2 may be better off taking the business model of ITune, selling small packets of game areas rather than a whole CD.  Its current model is like a music store trying to cram country music, rock, opera, etc. all in the same package to a vast customer base for music.

VP is where it gets most emotional.  In VP, the top tier players need to have lower tier to make them feel good.  And most people do not pay to feel inferior.