> > That's what I meant. On Guild Wars, servers are created dynamically to balance the load, and you can choose which server you want to use at any time. My apologies for the poorly worded comment.
>
> Ah, that's pretty cool. Since there are different server types (PvP, non-PvP, role playing) that can't entirely work on WoW, but sometimes it would be nice. I wouldn't really want characters who levelled on the (much easier) non-PvP servers to be able to jump onto a PvP server once they reached the maximum level, but a little more flexiblity would be appreciated.

In GW, cities and outposts (which do not allow combat) are shared, and it is there that you select a server to meet others on (or just use the one you've been assigned to). When you go out into the field, EVERYTHING is instanced to your party, so you don't encounter other players randomly during that part of the game. Hence, PvP as a regular thing is irrelevant. PvP is accomplished through the use of arenas; any character can go into the arenas for PvP play, but you aren't confronted with it under normal play conditions. (One exception -- I have been forced to play about four minutes of PvP as part of the core game storyline. Out of twenty or thirty hours, I figure that's not too much, despite my hatred for PvP play in general.)

> > > As for the monthly fee, well, you get what you pay for...
> >
> > I will respond to this with an honesty not well suited to a flame. (OK, so I'm just bad at flaming people.) There does seem to be some truth to this (my roommate was a beta tester for WoW and he does find that GW isn't as much fun as WoW was) but GW is still a lot of fun, and I like the fact that I don't feel like I'm wasting money if I don't play enough.
>
> Actually I know nothing about GW, I was just flaming you back when I said that about price/quality. Blizzard kind of upsets me with WoW -- it was released obviously unfinished and it's just within the last month or so that it's starting to look like it's OUT of beta. Version 1.5 should really have been 1.0.

GW streams new content to users constantly (happens automatically during play) but because I'm not paying a monthly subscription, I don't care too much about whether or not the game is "complete". Officially, they plan to release some major new content this way, but they have also said that they will sell additional "chapters" as well. The new chapters won't be required, of course, but I suspect the bulk of the improvements will come from the new chapters. I'm curious to see what kind of content these include, what gets streamed to me for free, and what the cost and frequency of the new chapters turns out to be.

> > That being said, if WoW releases major expansions to the game without asking users to go out and spend another $50 on an expansion pack, it will start to look a lot better.
>
> Blizzard has never released a game without releasing an expansion pack, so I expect that they will eventually do that. They have, however, added some significant content for free. Some of that (the PvP honor system and the imminent PvP Battlegrounds) was clearly supposed to be part of the original game, so it doesn't count.
>
> But we've also seen a new high-end dungeon and a bunch of other new content come out since the launch. We'll see how it keeps up.


With WoW being the first (to my knowledge) subscription-based game from Blizzard, I think they could justify a great deal of additional content without expansions. I also think that it would be a very wise business move on their part -- major new content will keep current subscribers paying and entice new subscribers away from games using the FFXI business model.

> > I do know that Final Fantasy XI took all of the worst approaches to that stuff, though -- weak gameplay, monthly subscription fees, extra cash for expansion packs, and a wonderful clause in which your CD key becomes unusable forever if you don't pay subscription fees for three months. That's right, if you take a three month break from playing the game and don't choose to pay during that time, you have to go out and buy another copy of the game. Square/Enix has a hand deeply in the consumer's pocket...
>
> That sounds awful. Glad I never played it. One nice thing about WoW is if you cancel your subscription, not only is your key still valid but your characters are all saved indefinitely. Blizz has said you can quit and reactivate your subscription a year later without penalty.

That's the kind of thing I expect from a quality company like Blizzard, and I would have expected from Square/Enix. I was VERY displeased with FFXI, and I haven't even told you yet about the problems such as insufficient information to complete missions, or the inability to do anything fun without a group of friends to keep you alive.

> Stephen

Don Monkey