NCSoft's Incentive-

Considering NCSoft is charging no monthly fee and will already have recovered some small amount of money from the purchase price, what is their incentive to maintain constant content updates OUTSIDE OF releasing new expansions?

- edit -

Just while trying to spread word of mouth about this game, a few of my friends pointed out that, technically, since we're not paying on a per-month basis, NCSoft has no real incentive to update content outside of expansions.

Even more, since there is no per-month fee, it looks like a financial risk that might eventually shift into a "well, we're going to charge a monthly fee now. Sorry. It's in the TOS."

Thoughts?

They could do that, but if you recall, Blizzard doesn't charge a monthly fee for battle.net access in diablo 2. And if I recall correctly, many many people still play, and updates were actually pretty recent for it.

Well for the game to continue making money they need to keep the players interested enough to buy the expansions. I know that if ANet does not support the game between expansions, then I will probably stop playing it. They know the same thing that if they dont support the game people wont play it and people wont buy their expansions.

To use a game in another style of playing, people are still buying Age of Kings: the Conquerors and playing it. Regardless of how old the game is, if it is good, people will keep buying it forever.

Yeah, I'm sure in terms of balancing and fixing exploits, Anet will keep updating the game on a regular basis. But if they hold back new maps or areas for the expansions, I have no problem with that.

they have every incentive to add as much as they reasonably can for the word of mouth advertising it will get (for good or bad)

the main incentive is their profit margin. make more people happy get more people buying the game equals more profit

as for switching to a monthly fee that is out of the question.
note that they have a huge backer with a lot of online gaming experience who looked at their business model very closely

besides no monthly fee is one of its primary customer draws. lose that and the customer base would drop

Arenanet is pretty hardcore about expansion support. you bet your bottom dollar that thorough planning has gone into this revolutionary marketing approach.
their profit depends on units sold instead of subscription fees so it is in their best interests to keep selling more units. Arenanet will devote half of the current development team to the next expansion while the other half will continue with maintenence and content for the first chapter. then they will switch over to work on the next expansion when the first expansion is released. your friends most likely are making assumptions with no basis other than the fact that they feel the need to justify their own subscription expenses.

The expansions will count for a lot, as will the customer support and extras already invested. The word of mouth proves to be invaluable for a game such as this, and makes the expansions look all that much more promising when they're providing a fresh and enthusiastic environment to play.

Given the success of modular gaming (i.e. The Sims) and the fact that smaller expenses over a longer period of time are more accessible to a larger public, I expect that Guild Wars will do very well for a number of years... at least until Guild Wars II.

Would you buy any of the expansions if the the original product wasn't of decent quality? Well that would probably be my incentive.

well. im pretty sure the number one reason/incentive theres a ton of ppl here in the forums and those that played beta and will be playing @ release is "the no monthly fee", which sets it apart from the other mmorpg (or rpg if it doesnt want to be called a mmorpg.hehe) and if there's an official news of "there will be a monthly fee" in the distant future, people will leave then. (plain and simple). free=incentive. fee=theres always something else to do.

i.e. diablo 2: lod i only stopped playing when hl2 came out cuz i was into counterstrike source. d2 is still alive and theres still a ton of ppl in d2 cuz its free and enjoyable. when its a free game, even if ppl leave it, it will always be balanced or surpassed by the number of newcomers. So, with pay2play, when ppl leave its because its not as "worth it" and words will spread and newcomers die down.

again. they did say their profit = chapters/expansions = no monthly fees.
and from the looks of the total fanbase around the world, they will have profit.
I will just hold them to their word. (have faith.hehe)

Also don't forget that not everyone will buy the game in the first month, because throughout the months people will buy this game continuously although I assume that it wouldn't be as massive as the first month, but I believe they will generate enough income already month by month. Then with servers and what not because of the no monthly fee people that want to take a break just take a break and eases any issues with server costs and the likes

So the argument is, since there is no monthly fee, they're dedicated to recouping what losses they having because of this by focusing on quality and content--and, through this, catching the attention of other MMORPGers?

since the game has not come out yet and initial sales income hasnt been totaled up how can you say they are having losses?

they have the initial investment in development costs but what game does not have them?

wait until it is out for a while , actual operating costs are known as well as comtinuing sales of the game before saying profit or loss

6 months in between expansions is not a very long time (in computer gaming time, I mean there's a game called ARC put out by Sierra that has been running online for more than 9 years...), for the alleged amount of content these expansions will provide. I'm reasonably sure that when GW is released, there will be enough sales of copies of the game to keep up with the costs etc, and would more than likely (well there's no other option) carry Anet for 6 months, until which then the new expansion would carry them another 6.

My bet is that they won't come out with much between expansions and--frankly--that is 100% fine with me.

Fact is that the game as shipped will have more content than most single player RPGs of a similar price. Why should I expect more?

The whole "continuous stream of content" promise made by subscription MMORPGs (which has proven to pretty much always have been an exageration at best and a lie more often than not) need not apply here for the simple reason that paying for the new content in expansions is 100% fair.

Somehow fair approaches seem to work out better in the long run: no idea why

Losses as in, "Well, this is what we -could- be making if we had a subscription fee like everyone else."

They don't think that way, they come from Starcraft, Warcraft, Battle.net.
None which charge fees other then to buy the game.

Besides, they know they have people hooked already. Guild Wars pre-order is EBGames #1 seller.

Hmm... I guess NO ONE even thought about the fact that if they charged a fee we could all sure for fraud? Or maybe even get our full price back, because they stated there would never be any fee for any reason except to buy the primary product or expansions. So if they wanted to kill their company they could go back and charge a fee, But then the end of Guild Wars would be right around the corner then....
(NOTE: What you wanna go back to P2P?)

I think it is important to remember that the gw server cost is nowhere near the cost of a persistant online world game.

I'm not saying that they would necessarily start charging.

However, if they wanted to, I'm sure there's some clause in the TOS that would permit them to do so.

It wouldn't be good for publicity, that's for sure.

I'm just Devil Advocating here.

You think they'll ever update with quests here and there, or reserve all content updates for an expansion?