There seems to be a somewhat disturbing trend in MMOs – that simple ‘patches’ are becoming obsolete. Well, calling them that, anyway.
Take Darkfall, which today announced a new ‘expansion’. This being in air quotes since the primary features of this expansion are what you’d normally see in a, well, patch, such as balance changes and new equipment. A few other features, such as housing, obviously fall under the heading of ’stuff we were supposed to get in by release but then our schedule slipped’. Well, hell, put it in a patch and call it a ‘free expansion!’
Darkfall isn’t the first to do this, of course, although their announcing an ‘expansion’ 3 months after releasing the original game (which they may want to update their web site about at some point) must count as some sort of record. But they’re not the first. Mythic pioneered the “make a really big patch and call it an expansion pack” trend with Dark Age of Camelot (full disclosure: I worked there at the time, and was part of the team that made them). Beginning with Foundations, which introduced player housing, and continuing with New Frontiers, which revamped the realm vs realm endgame – both of these were fairly major additions to the game, with new zones and game systems, but probably not enough to sell in a box. So put it in a really big download file and call it an expansion! The lines start to blur starting around Darkness Rising, which was distributed like the ‘free’ expansions but was one you had to pay for. Today all expansions, both free and paid, appear together in one happy list. And ironically, to further confuse the distinction, every expansion that was sold in a box in stores can now be downloaded for free off the website.
Mythic continued the tradition with Warhammer Online, yet confused the issue still further. Shortly after Warhammer’s release, Mythic announced the Call to Arms expansion, which promised the classes that were pulled from the game’s release at the last minute as well as new content and rebalancing and… well, you know. Things you’d see in a patch. And… you did see them in a patch. Or series of patches. Call to Arms was released over a period of roughly four months – the first patch introducing 2 classes in March (the other two being patched in the previous November) and the second patch introducing a new high level zone in June, and a third patch introducing promised class balance features yet to appear. The difference between patches and expansions in this case appears to be.. well, they called this collection of patches an expansion!
Other games do this as well. Eve Online has released several mega-patch downloadable “expansions“. Lineage 2 calls every patch a “chronicle” or expansion. City of Heroes calls them “issues“. Does anyone reserve the term “expansion” for a ton of content in a box and “patch” somewhat less but still significant content in a download, and still make a profit?
#1 by Jarnis on July 7th, 2009
Reason is the press.
When you yap around about an expansion, almost every news outlet out there will cover it as news. Reporters probably won’t spend 2 minutes to figure out what it even contains – they’ll just copy-paste a ready-made bullet pointed list of major features, plaster it all over as news and, look, old MMO got back in the news.
Patches generally don’t get the same coverage, with WoW being the major exception (and even they have gone towards mega-patches that have specific names, with a couple of small bugfix patches to follow each one).
Besides, the whole concept of boxed expansion sold in stores is rapidly going out of style… probably because of the pain to make the game support those who paid for the box and those who didn’t. EVE for example has never done a boxed expansion due to this.
#2 by Bonedead on July 7th, 2009
I agree with Jarnis. Before the WoW days (of dewwwwm!) when you stopped playing an MMO you usually wouldn’t go back until there was an expansion. Later you find out that if you had kept an eye on the patches, you would have returned a few months sooner. I know that happened with me and DAoC a few times, missing a few small “big” changes that would’ve brought me back.
#3 by wilhelm2451 on July 7th, 2009
I initially read the title as “Patching ISO 2001″ and was really confused.
WoW of course still follows the patch/expansion rule of thumb and makes a profit. EQ and EQ2 also still follow the old patch/expansion thing and I assume they make a profit. Of course, for a while there EQ was dumping out expansions twice a year that were closer to the patch end of the spectrum.
But if you’re not the leader of the pack (say UO, then EQ, then WoW) you want to break the rules or at least redefine them in your favor. If Blizz issues an expansion every two years and charges $40, then you can position yourself favorably by launching a FREE expansion for all subscribers every six months.
Like the Avis ads used to say, “We’re #2, we try harder.”
#4 by Gx1080 on July 7th, 2009
Patches just doesnt sound as cool. As simple as that.
Oh, BTW, the new look of the site its awesome.
#5 by geldonyetich on July 7th, 2009
Technically, working on patches is your subscription money at work. It’s not a bad idea to make it sound less like, “thanks for funding us to fix the broken game you bought anyway” to make it sound more like, “thanks for funding us to continue to expand this awesome game.”
There shouldn’t be much to words – mere labels. However, rarely do people take the time becoming so very awake as to think beyond the words – it’s so much easier to be an unthinking animal who jumps at the worse possible interpretation of any stimuli they encounter.
#6 by The Alien on July 7th, 2009
CoH does have Issues…but they also have expansions. CoV and the forthcoming City of Rogues are termed expansions and get sold in a box somewhere.
Issues are just content patches.
#7 by Trevel on July 7th, 2009
LOTRO -> Chapters (and appropriately so: They each add new “chapters” to the base story)
#8 by Caladein on July 7th, 2009
I don’t have much issue with renaming your “patches” to fit a theme: Issues (CoH) or Books (LotRO) are the two big ones there.
If you’re going to go for the quarterly mega-patch like WoW (post-BC), EVE, or Lineage 2, the title of “expansion” does seem a bit sleazy.
#9 by Thomas on July 7th, 2009
Warhammer distinctly calls it “Live Expansions” and “Expansions”, denoting so-called ‘mega patches’ and paid-for, optional expansions, respectively.
I think the distinction there is important – one is an optional set of content, the other is a mandatory content update of the game. Not whether it is a boxed product or not.
EVE-Online is a different beast, as all their expansions are what Mythic refers to as live expansions; Mandatory, big & free updates, and they have no traditional expansions.
#10 by Apache on July 7th, 2009
Patches are now “hot fixes”
#11 by thundercock on July 7th, 2009
haha. i totally dont remember using thundercock as a name here, but whatever, ill roll with it.
anyway, i think the reason they switched to the word “expansion” has to do more with connotation than anything else. “expansion” makes you think they are adding a shit ton of new (hopefully) awesome to the game, where as patch makes people think they are saying “this was broke… NOW ITS LESS BROKE!!”
i mean, i call bullshit one way or the other, but thats just me.
further upon that, having 50,000 characters and calling it “patch notes,” … well, thats kind of retarded. i dont even read them anymore for warhammer, because they all say the same shit. “our game is so awesome, that were going to change this to make it do damage from range to make it awesome because you are awesome than we wanted you to be!!! WAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!! (or some other similar downy baby battle cry)”
#12 by Trodknee on July 7th, 2009
It may be difficult to classify exactly what qualifies as an expansion anymore… but actually releasing the info about what’s in the expansion a mere day before releasing it has to disqualify you.
The media angle makes sense normally, but this is Darkfall we are talking about. You didn’t see any news about the Darkfall ‘expansion’ on the major gaming news sites like Blues. That could be because no one in the mainstream takes Darkfall any more seriously than Lum does. Or it could be that the only ‘North American Publisher’ for the game is some Aventurine shell company. And they are far too busy doing last minute testing on their expansion feature dump to actually publicize their own game.
The only ones who know or care about Darkfall anymore are their rapidly depleting fanboy base and the haters who love to mock them. They will get some people who have quit to come back, but many are far too burnt to even consider it. They will retain some subs that would have otherwise quit. But they won’t bring in any new subs at this point without a real publisher. This is clearly just a last gasp money grab before the bell tolls for Darkfall.
I had considered writing a long review of Darkfall from the perspective of a ‘hardcore pvper’ who is in an established guild who actually played the game intensively for 2 months but still thinks it’s a pile of garbage. Unfortunately, like Lum, I’ve come to the conclusion that too few people actually give a damn about the game to make it worth my time.
#13 by Rog on July 7th, 2009
Whatever happened to patch early, patch often.
I’ve always appreciated the small patches, I’d rather get one a week or so, put my waiting / download time in the seconds, rather than get these huge monolithic patches every few months.
#14 by dartwick on July 7th, 2009
Eve shows how it really is hard to classify this stuff.
Twice a year they release an “expansion” which is definitely more than the frequent patches. And they have never released an “expansion” that you had to pay for. The vissible content seems thin in them but they often end up practically reinventing the game.
They are more like the “modules” that DFO puts out from time to time.
#15 by Redwolf on July 7th, 2009
Huh. I always figured a “patch” fixed things, including rebalancing. Similary, an “expansion” to me 1) includes new stuff and 2) is optional.
If you cannot play the game without the software, that’s not an “expansion” in my book.
#16 by wufiavelli on July 7th, 2009
They put in housing. a new small scale conquer system similar to resource nodes in SB, a teleportation system, character customization system, and weather system. Of these only weather was suppose to be for launch.
All of this easily qualifies as an expansion. Sure there are no new areas, but DF does not need new areas it is big enough. The main question that needs to be asked is the quality of these systems game design wise. Given darkfalls past history i have my doudts but wish for the best.
#17 by thundercock on July 8th, 2009
logic has no place here.
#18 by Jerid on July 8th, 2009
Actually, to be totally forthcoming with COH. They appear to have layers.
First they have standard patches: http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/patch_notes/
Then they have their issues (or “game updates”): http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/game_updates/game_updates_-_issue_list.html
And finally They have expansions (COV and the upcoming Going Rouge)
(Of course to muddy things more, they also have their Purchasable “Booster Packs”: http://www.cityofheroes.com/buy_now/products/buy_city_of_heroes.html)
#19 by yunk on July 8th, 2009
Why does it have to be “in a box”? You are showing your age!
Seems expansions involve new content. Maybe not a ton anymore but it’s free. After all new content does “expand” the game.
I don’t see the issue here. The only issue is when they say things like “what other game added 2 classes only a few months after release” which was a pretty silly thing to say. But calling a new zone an expansion is exactly correct.
#20 by Vetarnias on July 8th, 2009
@yunk
In my case, it has to be “in a box”, especially if the price is almost identical to that of a download, because my damn Internet is metered.
#21 by Votan on July 9th, 2009
Lineage 2 was a nice change as the “chronicles” did add a lot of new content and never once required a box purchase or other investment in the game. While L2 never going to be a big success with the easy mode NA audience, it was nice not to have to shell out $40 every year on some “expansion” I wish more games “patched” than rip me off for $40 for something that should have been a patch in the first place. See EQ2.
L2 is the game I always return to when I want to screw around with a MMO because it does not require me to spend $40-50 to catch up on “expansions” since I last played.
#22 by Muckbeast on July 10th, 2009
City of Heroes really used to annoy me with this “free expansion” canard. There is nothing free about content added to a game that costs $15 a month – especially in a chronically content light game like City of Heroes.
I always felt this type of dishonesty really hurt the credibility of the company, and just encourages fanboys to thrust their heads even further in the sand.
-Michael Hartman
http://www.muckbeast.com
#23 by We Fly Spitfires on July 11th, 2009
Heh, it’s bloody complicated isn’t it. IMO anything that is something you have to buy and is optional is an expansion and anything you are forced to download for free is a patch.
Throwing around the e-word is just a way to build hype imo these day.