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(06-02-2015, 12:19 PM)Telluride Wrote:(06-02-2015, 12:01 PM)Aaron Wrote: But technically speaking to both new and returning players, everything pre HW (100% of it for new people, a portion for returning when they start from where they left off) is /new/ content to them as they've never done it before. Its just not the new content THEY want to go through because they want what all the people who stuck with the game got. (Ignoring personal reasons for leaving or such)
Which brings me back to, there is literally nothing wrong with gating HW off save for probably the alts issue.
Well, no, technically, they don't want what people who stuck with the game got.
They want the new content, the stuff that we ain't got yet, either, because otherwise, they would have been back before, most likely. What we're telling them is "Hi, returning player! Yes, please, money first, no free ride for you... ah, there! Welcome to Heavensward! Did you SEE those dragons and griffins and cool new zone? Bet you can't wait for all that new content you just paid for. We'll see you in Ishgard in a couple of weeks, then... what? You want the new content now? Sorry, you were gone too long, and you're back in the "noob" category. Enjoy running around again... what? Why can't you just get the new class now? Sorry. Those are not for you yet. Have an Au Ra fantasia. Aren't those scales shiny? They might help you get over your disappointment for long enough for the catch-up slog."
This is a biased perspective, yes, but at anytime you're advertising a new product with a new feature, and using it to stir interest, you cannot JUST dismiss this perspective as biased, because to do so cuts off the experiences of people who are willing to pay more money to play a game they already kinda had, but because they want the new stuff, not because the MSQ is just that darned good.
As for gating, I've said all I care to say on that.
Bolded is the problem.
Designing and producing expansion content with returning players as the target audience does not make for a sustainable business model. These are the types of players who "MMO hop". They'll play through all of a game's content and then drop their subscription to go play a different MMORPG. They'll return in time for expansion content, pay a month or two's worth of subscription time in addition to the expansion price, and then they'll hop again, dropping their sub once more.
Are profits off these players a desired boon? Yes. But I would think, from all that I've heard, that by now WoW has made it evident that you can release all the expacs you want and still bleed players by the thousands. If you want players to stay with you and stay subscribed, you have to take a different approach. That Heavensward content is gated screams to me that the expac has been designed for and intended for current subscribers. They are, first and foremost, the target audience, not returning players. New players - and returning - who intend to stick it out through ARR into HW and beyond may become new long-term subscribers, and that's where the potential growth lies. Not in the hopper/jumper/burnout crowd.
![[Image: 1qVSsTp.png]](http://i.imgur.com/1qVSsTp.png)