I ran across an intriguing chunk of comments down below Justin’s impressions piece on Star Trek Online’s latest expansion. One reader said he was disappointed in the release, not for what it did offer but for what it didn’t, and that prompted back and forth between several commenters over what we should expect from content releases that the studios themselves are calling expansions. “There are certain expectations about an expansion and they were simply not met in this case,” one wrote, but another argued that “people need to adjust their perception of what an expansion is.”
This topic comes up every once in a while, but the truth is, the answers shift over time precisely because the definitions erode — sometimes because of coincidental trends, but sometimes deliberately because studios redefine terms unchallenged. Studios have actually emailed us asking us to use the word expansion instead of patch when we’ve “downgraded” an update or used the two interchangeably. The words really matter — to us, to you, and very definitely to them.
In my mind, EverQuest and World of Warcraft expansions are most in line with what I consider a true expansion, but I concede that very few games actually put those out anymore, so I’m not sure there’s much point to holding to a standard fast becoming irrelevant. How about you? What do you expect from MMORPG expansions in 2016?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
