I’ve been mulling over Guild Wars 2’s new content cadence for a while now, but last week’s roadmap of what to expect in the SOTO era really put the whole quarterly update system back into perspective for me because I realized that GW2’s cadence is basically exactly like Elder Scrolls Online’s. And I’m not sure what to think about it.
Elder Scrolls Online has been rocking the quarterly cadence for years and years now. The summer is anchored by a big chapter, and then there are three more patches spread out over the year (one leading into the chapter, two after) with varying but usually related bits of content. That’s pretty much what Guild Wars 2 is doing now, with a summer expansion kicking off a year with three more updates. And both games have smaller patches and events sprinkled in between too.
On paper, I love this. I like knowing what to expect! I like comfortable patterns and regular content! In practice, however, ESO’s system doesn’t light the hype machine on fire, and I don’t want GW2 to fall into something that too routine or spread apart. And there’s no denying that the hype machine for End of Dragons was insane compared to Secrets of the Obscure.
Does a quarterly content cadence work for MMORPGs? What’s the ideal MMORPG content cadence?
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!
