Content: Small tid bits (short wait), or large bulky content (longer wait)

Incomparable

As it says in the title, which would you prefer;

Small tid bits of content (short wait), or large bulky content (longer wait)? 

Of course people will always want something new to do at end game. Having said that, lets assume the content in question is story. Let the pvp, and raids be their short term content and their new content to give their players. 

So the question is more directed into new areas of the world that add story, and environment. 

Should story be coming in short small patches, or longer waits that are full fledged expansions?

Would prefer an extra scene to your story, or a full chapter?

Maybe consider that you enjoyed the game, and are thinking of taking a break, what would bring you back?

Would knowing that there are constant small updates to story, or something much larger add to retention? In the end for the person that takes the break, the accumulation of small content would be similar to a large content update, however also possibly considering the trade-offs of development, which sounds more appealing to you.

Kevyne-Shandris

Want gear to last for 6 months to make them worthwhile even getting.

 

Want quality improvement patches more than content, because if the game is already established it already has a ton of content. Not fun going into instances that was raced to meet a patch deadline and the boss gets repeatedly stuck so can't kill it; AI pathing is borked; or you walk in and fall to your death.

 

Quality over quantity.

Kevyne-Shandris

Originally posted by DMKano

I think the way Rift is doing it now is imo best - weekly content updates (medium content).

I think most dev studios just don't have the processes or resources in place to pull it off as well.

Or they realize that a constant stream of content it no longer resembles epic content anymore, and it feels more like a drive-thru from Taco Hell.

Jemcrystal

At first I thought this was going to be a discussion about loading times.  As in the option to wait until the graphics all load before you see the screen or let you see the graphics loading a tiny bit at a time but movement isn't impaired.  

 

But you're talking about patches.  It is always better to get short quick patches.  But sometimes there isn't any choice but to get a big expansion.  The devs are literally adding a huge chunk of land to the game board.  It's going to take time to download.  But the smaller the patch the better.  Less wait time.  No upset customers who are usually doing something in the game that has nothing to do with the new content being patched in.

Cephus404

While sure, when you're talking about a huge expansion where they're adding whole new lands to the game, that has to come in a large chunk, there's really no way around it, but I don't want a game that only updates once a year, I want a constant stream of small new things, especially if I've been playing the game for a while.  If I'm out of new content and I know I have to wait a year until their next huge update, I'm just going to stop playing the game and probably won't come back in a year to see what they finally put out.  I want there to be a constant wave of new quests, new dungeons, new stories, etc. and when you do those huge releases, that will provide enough content to be consumed for quite a while.

waynejr2

Originally posted by Incomparable

As it says in the title, which would you prefer;

Small tid bits of content (short wait), or large bulky content (longer wait)? 

Of course people will always want something new to do at end game. Having said that, lets assume the content in question is story. Let the pvp, and raids be their short term content and their new content to give their players. 

So the question is more directed into new areas of the world that add story, and environment. 

Should story be coming in short small patches, or longer waits that are full fledged expansions?

Would prefer an extra scene to your story, or a full chapter?

Maybe consider that you enjoyed the game, and are thinking of taking a break, what would bring you back?

Would knowing that there are constant small updates to story, or something much larger add to retention? In the end for the person that takes the break, the accumulation of small content would be similar to a large content update, however also possibly considering the trade-offs of development, which sounds more appealing to you.

When you say long waits, do you mean 4 weeks or 4 years? 

How about just in time content?

Helleri

I like the new system Runescape instituted (well it releases later this month anyways). Up to 7 times a month there are in-game guaranteed polls. Their are a few levels of polls ranging from:

(Ruby Polls) Short term updates with minimal game impact.

(Emerald Polls) Mid term updates with moderate game impact.

(Diamond Polls) Long term updates with significant game impact.

 

Each Poll asks players to vote on where the Runescape team will focus it's development efforts (between several options). Each poll also gives an ETA on the update (should that one be chosen by the players). Popular options that didn't quite win out will be revisted along side new options in future polls. Many of the suggestions come from popular player made suggestion forum threads and user submitted content.

 

They decided to set this up with the close of last year, when they simply did not make even half the benchmarks they thought they would be able to at the beginning of last year. They apologized for spreading themselves to thinly and gave the power to the players. I am really looking forward to the advancements that will come under this player power development system.

 

Incomparable

Originally posted by waynejr2

Originally posted by Incomparable

As it says in the title, which would you prefer;

Small tid bits of content (short wait), or large bulky content (longer wait)? 

Of course people will always want something new to do at end game. Having said that, lets assume the content in question is story. Let the pvp, and raids be their short term content and their new content to give their players. 

So the question is more directed into new areas of the world that add story, and environment. 

Should story be coming in short small patches, or longer waits that are full fledged expansions?

Would prefer an extra scene to your story, or a full chapter?

Maybe consider that you enjoyed the game, and are thinking of taking a break, what would bring you back?

Would knowing that there are constant small updates to story, or something much larger add to retention? In the end for the person that takes the break, the accumulation of small content would be similar to a large content update, however also possibly considering the trade-offs of development, which sounds more appealing to you.

When you say long waits, do you mean 4 weeks or 4 years? 

How about just in time content?

Around a month or less for short waits. It can even be a few months.

A long wait would be a few months up to a year.

There is no definite number, but more of a reasonable time bracket you expect when comparing short term development and long term development. 4 years is too long, and I have never heard about an update for a game take that long. So within reason, since the question is very open ended, and it depends on the game and the development team.

Vrika

I think there should be both. Large expansions that really change the game and try to improve the game mechanics and add new features too, and small content updates that give a little bit of extra exploring plus add some balancing changes.

Sajman01

Much rather wait a year for new content then get reskinned content every 2 weeks.

pierth

I chose the latter as I'm not a gamer that logs in daily- usually more like once or twice a week so the longer wait doesn't affect me like it would some hardcore types that log in 4+ hours daily.

In my younger days I was that daily type and I found that EQ1 was perfect for my playstyle- everything took time and I had plenty of time to throw at it. On top of this aside from having bulk content expansions about yearly iirc there were also live GM events fairly often so even if something like that isn't considered content it certainly broke up the monotony.

waynejr2

Originally posted by Incomparable

Originally posted by waynejr2

Originally posted by Incomparable

As it says in the title, which would you prefer;

Small tid bits of content (short wait), or large bulky content (longer wait)? 

Of course people will always want something new to do at end game. Having said that, lets assume the content in question is story. Let the pvp, and raids be their short term content and their new content to give their players. 

So the question is more directed into new areas of the world that add story, and environment. 

Should story be coming in short small patches, or longer waits that are full fledged expansions?

Would prefer an extra scene to your story, or a full chapter?

Maybe consider that you enjoyed the game, and are thinking of taking a break, what would bring you back?

Would knowing that there are constant small updates to story, or something much larger add to retention? In the end for the person that takes the break, the accumulation of small content would be similar to a large content update, however also possibly considering the trade-offs of development, which sounds more appealing to you.

When you say long waits, do you mean 4 weeks or 4 years? 

How about just in time content?

Around a month or less for short waits. It can even be a few months.

A long wait would be a few months up to a year.

There is no definite number, but more of a reasonable time bracket you expect when comparing short term development and long term development. 4 years is too long, and I have never heard about an update for a game take that long. So within reason, since the question is very open ended, and it depends on the game and the development team.

I think a number is important.  If you were a dev and polled players about if they want content in  a short time rather than a specific number, then you might have a problem.  For example, 4 weeks is short for the player while the devs think short is 6 months or more.  Neither is getting what they want out of using vague terminology....