This week’s Topic of the Week is all about the “Speed and Content of Expansions”. What is better, faster expansions with less content or slower expansions with more content. The pros and cons are simple, with faster expansions you have to go out and buy a new expansion at semi-frequent intervals and the game becomes saturated with changes. The pros are, well, you get to explore new areas and do new things on are much more frequent basis. With slower expansions, you have long periods of time where you’re working with the same ‘ol stuff but the changes are more balanced out.

Our poll this week features many options in relation to this topic and as always we have a forum thread just waiting for your opinion. So read on for my take on things then scroll down to jump into the action over at our forums.

My Take on Things

The Burning Crusade arrived after a little over two years after the launch of World of Warcraft (WoW). The expansion took a very long time in development and was shined with the massive amounts of polish that Blizzard added to it. Massive amounts of new content was added to the game without changing much of the core gameplay. So that leaves a question, what’s next?

It’s evident by the quality of The Burning Crusade that giving expansions time to cook (so to say) will bring out the best experience possible. With Blizzards support of their game, it isn’t like we were high and dry those two years. It took a full six months to get a large amount of the population to the end game and start with Molten Core and during that time all kinds of new things were added to help extend the games life. Battlegrounds, new instances, and content continued to poor in. Although, it was a rather lengthy wait for those who were able to accelerate through the content.

Blizzard has commented that they should have another expansion ready to go each year, but that’s not set in stone. We could see it sooner (or probably later). The quicker an expansion is released, the less time they have to work on it. The longer it takes, the more we’re stuck with the same old thing but we get to see way more content and polish. Both things are very similar and either is “good or bad” from an unbiased point of view.

However, it is my opinion that the next expansion should take at least over a year of development, if not more. Blizzard has already proven that they can use that time wisely and I’m the type of person who goes along with what we know works. Assuming we continue with the content patches, I’m sure The Burning Crusade will last a lot. Most people I know are barely to 70, much less attempting raiding.

It’s true that it is possible to get an expansion out every six months. Set up two teams to work on two different expansions and have each take a year. You get the same amount of polish and time to develop, but you get a new expansion every six months. The only problem with that, at least from my point of view, is the amount of game changes that come with each patch.

Some games, like Ultima Online were built for expansions. Each expansion just simply adds more content and some new classes that fit in line with the old ones. There was no balance issues, well there were, but they generally were easy to fix given the games structure. However, in the case of WoW, each expansion is like sending waves through a massive sea. If it isn’t perfectly balanced then it’s going to upset the already turbulent waters.

So with that reason, I say give us something new every year and a half. Not quite two years, but let’s go over that year mark. I like the way Blizzard does things. They keep free (and rather large) content updates that add in enough to make the game seem kind of fresh. Even if some patches only apply to some players, there is always something new to do.

That isn’t to say that WoW is going to eventually need the generic graphics update expansion that redoes the graphics. WoW’s aging graphics are part of its popularity, being able to run smoothly on old computers while still looking rather good. However, with the future of gaming going to some absurd levels of detail, we’re probably going to want something new graphics wise and that something we’ll want within 3 years.

Although, personally, I’d prefer the game to include some way to do expansions and booster packs. Say every six months you a new, inexpensive, mini-expansions was released with a new area (or planet) to explore. It wasn’t absolutely needed, but would contain about a month or two worth of content. Then every year and a half we get the full fledged updates. That’s really what I’d like to see, although like anything you want with a game… it probably isn’t going to happen.

That’s my take on things, what’s yours?

VOTE IN OUR POLL!

Faster expansions or more content?

• I want my expansions FAST, 6-12 months!
• I want my expansions MEDIUM, 12 to 24 months!
• I want my expansions SLOW, 24+ months please!
• I have an opinion that I'm going to post that doesn't fit the above.
• Comedy Option: Expansions? Who needs them, all new content should be free.

VOTE HERE