Why do you want an expansion?

Vaoh

DLC:
• 1 normal zone and/or 2 dungeons
(Imperial City, Orsinium, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Shadows of the Hist)

Expansion:
• 1 massive zone
• 2-4 dungeons and 1-3 trials
• 1 new class
• Host of systems changes/improvements
(Vvardenfell+Trial 5: Red Mountain+Warden)

Of course there is some guessing..... but this is pretty much how these things go.

I want an expansion. Would also be fantastic for ESO!

Sausage

I really think they should ask if Bethesda wants to invest in Expansion, Come on, theres no big MMORPG coming in next couple year at least. New World By Amazon Game Studios is most likely the next big thing and even its some survival online MMO-hydrid. If ESO keeps declining, everybody is in WoW yet again.

Ships, own crew and sea batles would do the trick in the modern world and lets not forget how damn popular Pirates of the Caribbean was, yeah we need Pirates of the Caribbean expansion.

Rosveen

I don't care what they call it, I just want new content that caters to more than one playstyle and offers long-term entertainment that doesn't consist solely of grinding the same five quests over and over. If we also get Warden with that, it would be perfect.

Elsonso

As I see it, the main difference between an expansion and quarterly DLC is that, with an expansion, I have to wait a year, or more, to get the same content. With the quarterly drops, I get some of the content earlier.

Even if you don't count Imperial City, we got this much content over about 1 year:

* Go to any Tamriel game zone at any level
* Level scaling of the entire PVE world
* Introduction of three new zones, two small and one large
* Introduction of two new NPC guilds
* New NPC Guild daily quests
* World Boss and Delve daily quests
* 2 new passive skill lines
* 1x1 duels
* 2 new Group Dungeons (2 more with Imperial City)
* 2 new Public Dungeons
* 10 new Delves to explore
* 10 new World Bosses
* Maelstrom Arena
* Maw of Lorkhaj

A lot of studios will consider that to be an expansion. ZOS could have bundled all of that together and called it the "One Tamriel Expansion" and waited until October 2016 to deliver it. They could have also added Homestead to that list of stuff and delivered all of it in February 2017 as part of a single monolithic delivery of the "One Tamriel Expansion".

What we have up to this point is what they would have put into an expansion, if they were doing expansions. Don't see what you want? It would not have been in the expansion, either. Hoping for something different? There is nothing to say it would be in an expansion.

Quarterly updates are a whole lot better than expansions because we don't have to wait, and we get the exact same stuff they would be putting into an expansion.

DragonBound

I would love a big expansion.

Abeille

lordrichter wrote: »

Quarterly updates are a whole lot better than expansions because we don't have to wait, and we get the exact same stuff they would be putting into an expansion.

It isn't necessarily the exact same stuff, the way I see it.

With multiple DLCs, people won't necessarily own all the bits of content of the "expansion-sized" addition, and the small bits of content end up not being connected.
With a big Expansion Pack, we can get a longer story line that is all connected, because whoever owns that one bit will own all of it, necessarily.

I'm not sure if I was able to explain what is going through my head in a good way. I will use my favourie Skyrim mod as an example.

"Interesting NPCs" is my absolute favourite Skyrim mod. It is fantastic, it adds a bunch of very good npcs that have awesome personalities and that also have their own quests. Thing is, many of them interact with each other and need each other for some quests. And of course, this mod is HUGE.
So, once Skyrim Remastered dropped, it was possible to use mods in consoles. However, there is a limit to the size of the mod in XBox, so for it to be added to it the mod would have to be broken into smaller pieces.
But breaking the mod in smaller pieces has the potential to break many of the quests and interactions between the dozens of NPCs that are part of it. Because, say, NPC A has a quest with NPCs B and C, so they all would have to be in the same part of the mod. But NPC C also has a quest with NPCs D and E, so A, B, C, D and E would all have to be in the same part. And it goes on and on.
The alternative would be to make the NPCs not connected anymore, with no quests between them, making it possible to break the huge mod into smaller pieces. This is how I see the small DLCs we have in ESO. A bunch of small pieces of content that are not connected with each other. Like I would rather have the "Interesting NPCs" mods in its entirety, I would rather have bigger chunks of content with long connected quests than a bunch of separated smaller bits of content. Yes, even if I have to wait more for it.

BossXV

Doctordarkspawn wrote: »

BossXV wrote: »

DLC is for casuals, expansions bring long time replayability

I have never seen an 'expansion' that has offered long term replayability. Mind giving me some examples?

Wifeaggro13 wrote: »

Doctordarkspawn wrote: »

BossXV wrote: »

DLC is for casuals, expansions bring long time replayability

I have never seen an 'expansion' that has offered long term replayability. Mind giving me some examples?

Kunark eq2 fyadwer EQ2 ,Godslayer AOC, all of those had about 6 months or more of replayablity faction quests guild quests more crafting tiers. dungeons and raids. new starting zones for those that wanted to reroll. ESO DLC's are about 2 weeks worth of play time

Plus everything in wow, ff, star craft, , ect, ect

Wolfshead

BossXV wrote: »

DLC is for casuals, expansions bring long time replayability

So you are while to play same content for 8 or even 12 month for that is what happen each time WoW drop a expansion you complete expansion in 1 - 6 month and rest of time you just farm and you get some small update nothing worth it.

And consider the most "hardcore" player complete ESO only 1 - -2 month after it was release and then went to forum whine like hell that ZoS was not fast enough put out more content yeah i dont really think that anyone want to do through again it was 9 out 10 post back then whine about lack content and how slow ZoS was.

jwboudreau1b16_ESO

Danikat wrote: »

Recently I've seen a lot of people talking about how much they want an expansion and would love it if ZOS made one instead of more DLC and I really don't get it.

What can they do in an expansion that they can't do in DLC?

As far as I can see an expansion is just a bigger chunk of content, so making one instead of DLC just means waiting longer to get the same stuff all in one go. That's exactly what happened with my other MMO. They had been gradually introducing a new region and storyline with new mechanics periodically, then caved to player demands for an expansion and all releases stopped for 8 months, then we got basically 8 months of releases bundled together.

It seems like 6 of one or half a dozen of the other.

What am I missing?

I think that you probably got your answer by now. People just want more.

The thing to keep in mind is that they don't work on one DLC, then release it, then work on another and release that. They constantly have multiple projects that they're working on. It's entirely possible that they're working on an "expansion" level zone right now that will launch as DLC. Also, a lot of these comments are discounting the accomplishments of these smaller updates. This year, we got the Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood with daily activities, Style Parlor, One Tamriel, LFG changes and more. Some of these were huge, foundational changes to the game. I, for one, am more than happy to wait longer for content when changes like this come out.

Lol at the hope of adding another class. They're still, years after launch, balancing the classes that they launched with. That's not a knock on ZOS - ESO would be a super hard game to balance. I wouldn't expect any new classes in the near future. I may be wrong, but I can't see it. We will hopefully learn more about what's coming in the Road Ahead by Matt Firor, which should come out this month.

I don't think that we'll be seeing an end to the content distribution cycle any time soon, but who knows. I know that they've stated that the majority of players are more casual and that this cycle works well for them.

driosketch

Wifeaggro13 wrote: »

Actual content, not just solo story line with no impact on your chr. Reworked cp system. New dungeons, some new trials for the hardcore guys, I don't do those myself but I'm not a selfish player . Some battlegrounds for the pvprs small scale scenarios.

CP system and tweaks are already part of the update schedule that occurs. New dungeons came with with two of the dlc, new trial came with thieves guild. Battlegrounds, that they are supposedly working on, will likely also be in a quarterly update. They could even do the same with a new class.

I'm still not seeing any distinction between "dlc" and "expansion" other than just wanting more. I too would like more, but I think updates 11, 12, and 13 would have included even new half zones if the studio could deliver that much content at once.

Sinthrax

They are getting the same price for 4 hours of content that you use to pay for months of content. Which sounds smarter to you as a company?

Izaki

MOAR TRIALZZZZZZ

FLuFFyxMuFFiN

I think the real question here is "Why wouldn't we want an expansion?"

Wifeaggro13

Sinthrax wrote: »

They are getting the same price for 4 hours of content that you use to pay for months of content. Which sounds smarter to you as a company?

well we cant tell if it was smart or not lol this is the first time this type corporate scam has been pulled in a MMO to this great of extent. it could end up ESO goes the route of complete F2P after this and be a total niche.

ArchMikem

The term "Expansion" is a left over way of describing an additional addon or "extension" for games back in the 90's and early 2000's. These were typically sold in boxed physical copies, before the age of Digital Downloads. Now-a-days DLC is practically the same thing as Expansions, they're just more aptly named "Downloadable Content".

Long story short, DLC and Expansions are the same thing.

The reason for why we want them is simple, it brings new experiences to the game in order to reinvigorate the players.

Tannus15

I want to be able to restyle equipment.

One of my preferred "grinds" is acquiring style motifs but I have lost all incentive to do this since I'm not crafting much gear anymore.

I still think 1T is a big step forward for the game, but most of my gear is now acquired from dungeons. I'd really love to be able to change the style of that gear.

Danikat

Maybe I should have made the question clearer, something like "Why do you want an expansion instead of DLC?".

I know what an expansion is, what I don't understand is how it's any different to DLC - its different names for the same thing, (loosely) based on how they're made available (with expansions typically sold on a disc in a box or, these days, via download and DLC only via download).

And in that respect I'm still confused. There seem to be two kinds of answers here: one is people explaining that both are the same thing with different names and the other is people simply listing content or features they want to see in the game with no explanation of why ZOS can't release those features and content as DLC.

Put it this way: If ZOS released a big chunk of new content...for the sake of argument lets say all the missing parts of Black Marsh* (everything south of Shadowfen divided into several maps), with new dungeons and trials with new gear, a new storyline which carries on from the end of Craglorn/Orsinium, a new character class, maybe even a new race and some assorted other features, they charge $40 for it BUT the only way it's available is through the DLC section of the crown store is that not an expansion?

If they release the exact same thing at the same price but via the website and/or on a disc is it somehow different? Is it better?

*I only picked that location because it's a large chunk of currently blank map, feel free to replace it with the rest of Skyrim or the Summerset Isles or wherever you personally want to go.

Abeille wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

Quarterly updates are a whole lot better than expansions because we don't have to wait, and we get the exact same stuff they would be putting into an expansion.

It isn't necessarily the exact same stuff, the way I see it.

With multiple DLCs, people won't necessarily own all the bits of content of the "expansion-sized" addition, and the small bits of content end up not being connected.
With a big Expansion Pack, we can get a longer story line that is all connected, because whoever owns that one bit will own all of it, necessarily.

It doesn't have to be that way though. Guild Wars 2 has a continuous storyline for their DLC (what they call the Living Story) with reoccurring characters, references to past events, the whole lot. Even though many people won't have played all of it and thanks to their original idea of making new content only available temporarily (which is exactly as stupid as it sounds) it's actually impossible to play the first 'season' (aka first years worth of content) any more.

I think it would really frustrate me if I was in that situation, but it seems to work for other people. I suppose it's like long running TV shows, like Days of Our Lives or Eastenders. No one's going to start from the beginning and watch all of the previous episodes to catch up, but they still attract new viewers. People start watching at whatever point it's at and learn who the characters are and maybe a brief summary of past events and then follow events from that point on for as long as it interests them. With Eastenders people regularly miss episodes too because it's on so much it's impossible to keep up, but they just pick it up again when they have time.

Whether one approach is better than the other is debatable. But it's definitely possible to release a long storyline episodically and for players to follow it if you do.

GawdSB

I'm pretty sure ESO is working on and has been working on actual expansions for quite sometime now. We've seen previews of them.

Abeille

Danikat wrote: »

It doesn't have to be that way though. Guild Wars 2 has a continuous storyline for their DLC (what they call the Living Story) with reoccurring characters, references to past events, the whole lot. Even though many people won't have played all of it and thanks to their original idea of making new content only available temporarily (which is exactly as stupid as it sounds) it's actually impossible to play the first 'season' (aka first years worth of content) any more.

I think it would really frustrate me if I was in that situation, but it seems to work for other people. I suppose it's like long running TV shows, like Days of Our Lives or Eastenders. No one's going to start from the beginning and watch all of the previous episodes to catch up, but they still attract new viewers. People start watching at whatever point it's at and learn who the characters are and maybe a brief summary of past events and then follow events from that point on for as long as it interests them. With Eastenders people regularly miss episodes too because it's on so much it's impossible to keep up, but they just pick it up again when they have time.

Whether one approach is better than the other is debatable. But it's definitely possible to release a long storyline episodically and for players to follow it if you do.

Hold your horses.

Exactly because people complained about the temporary format, they changed it and allowed people to purchase chapters after they are over. The Living Story is (or at least was) free for everybody who logs in the first two weeks after each of the chapters are released, so they are actually updates to the base game that every mildly active player will get if they just log in during the time frame with no additional cost. That's why they can make it all connected with little issues, that's why it works for them.