[MUD-Dev] expansion packs

[Derek Licciardi]

From: Matt Mihaly
> On Mon, 9 Dec 2002 Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com wrote:

>> Playing AC2 really reminded me that it's going to become harder
>> and harder to launch new MMOs given that the old ones keep
>> getting polished and enhanced. Launching a sparse game and
>> planning to pad it out for two years is looking increasingly
>> unviable.

> I was thinking about this yesterday. It seems like there are two
> forces at work, at least with the current models.

>   1. Existing games keep releasing more and more content in the
>   form of expansion packs. This makes the bar for a new game
>   increasingly high, especially as it's nearly impossible to
>   really know what's going to work until you've got players
>   actually playing the game. That gives games that have been
>   around for awhile the ability to tweak here and there in small
>   ways that add up to a huge incumbent advantage, potentially.

>   2. The more expansion packs a game releases, the less impact
>   each one is going to have on existing players, and on new
>   players. If you're a new player, do you really want to buy 4 or
>   5 boxed products to get "everything" available in a game (like
>   Everquest), or will you want to purchase one of the new boxed
>   games, that may have features (mounts or whatnot) available only
>   in the expansion packs of existing games?

> Do those of you working on the big games think this is a problem?
> Will players get "expansion pack fatigue"? It's one thing for text
> games to continually add content for years and years, because
> there are no downloads, and usually no cost to enable the extra
> features, but I would find it very daunting to approach EQ as a
> new player and see all those expansion packs I know I'm going to
> have to buy. My girlfriend has experienced something similar with
> the Sims and all their expansion packs.  

How about the other way around.  I didn't purchase Planes of Power,
but I paid retail for each expansion in EQ as they were being
released.  You can now buy the entire 5 box set for the cost of
roughly EQ and Kunark.  Oh it comes with a nice gold case, and even
other things that my boxed sets never had.  It seems to me that it
looks like the ole AT&T way of doing business.  New Customers are
worth more than old customers who have been feeding you for the past
years, so do everything in your power to please the new customer
even though they haven't given you a dime yet.  BTW, I felt the
fatigue shortly after the release of Kunark because I was 6 months
late into the game.  Velious was purchased because... well I'm not
sure why and Luclin so that I could get to the bazaar.(never
actually adventured in Luclin)

As for the original thought, Expansion packs work in two ways, they
add to the bar that new developers need to overcome in order to
release a game.  They also add to a small, but growing with every
pack release, group of players that can't keep up with the expansion
pack fatigue mentioned above.  These players look to cut their
losses and begin anew with a fresh game.  Think about EQ and the
rampant object inflation that has occured in the world.  A newbie in
that world barely stands a chance of ever catching the power curve
from expansions even with level 1 mobs dropping platinum.  If you're
not on the cutting edge of the releases, waiting for them to get
your next power upgrade, there is a good chance you'll give up the
race sooner or later and go looking for the next game.(or resort to
Ebay to catch up) In the end I think the effect of expansion packs
make the content bar somewhat higher, but it also increases the
available pool of players that you can market your game to, so its a
wash.

Derek


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