Feedback:User/Santax/Crowdfunded development of Guild Wars Beyond
Crowdfunded development of Guild Wars Beyond
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| User | Santax |
| Categories | Player vs. Environment → Quests Player vs. Environment |
Fan reception for Guild Wars Beyond was overwhelmingly positive, and it remains a personal favourite of mine for both story and gameplay. More chapters were planned, but with dwindling player numbers and Guild Wars 2 presumably needing all hands on deck for the final stages of its development, they were never implemented. Although Guild Wars is aging, it has aged well, and its fundamental design remains unique and robust.
The proposal is simply that development of Guild Wars Beyond should continue. To begin with, the aborted chapter of Beyond set in Elona should be tentatively crowdfunded, and depending on the level of success, this can be expanded as funding allows.
Why crowdfunding?[edit]
Although proposals have been made in the past for resuming development of Guild Wars, there have always been questions about commercial incentive. For example, although it is my belief that there would be sufficient interest for it to be worthwhile, I don't have any hard evidence of this. Furthermore, it is not clear how it could be cost-effective to spend money on continuing to develop a game whose userbase is small, is not paying a subscription fee, and has no expectation of new content. I believe that crowdfunding, a funding model that has exploded in popularity in the time since Guild Wars ceased active development, provides a natural answer to both of these questions.
Crowdfunding ensures that production costs are covered and that enough interest exists to make the project worthwhile, before development begins.
What new content would this entail?[edit]
To begin with, it would be sensible to start with content that was designed but never implemented: the Elona chapter of Beyond. As a stretch goal (and an ambitious one at that, since the resources required to implement it would be significantly higher), you could include content that appears to have been planned but never designed: the story of the establishment of Ebonhawke, including the fate of Evennia.
If the campaign is incredibly successful (admittedly more successful than I would probably expect), you could go even further, with a second Bonus Mission Pack or even an Eye of the North-sized expansion.
How much will this cost?[edit]
That depends on how far you want to go. According to John Stumme, the Beyond chapter set in Elona has already been written, just not implemented. So for this chapter, costs related to writing and design should be minimal - the main cost would be in implementation. Assuming the chapter is similar in scope to Winds of Change, there should be no need for any new environmental art assets, just character art assets (which can be offset by offering them as new costumes in the in-game store, and possibly as backer rewards). Since this is Guild Wars, there will be no costs associated with voice acting. The main work would be programming. Overall, this chapter should be relatively inexpensive.
The Ebonhawke chapter would require a larger investment of resources. It would require writing, design, both character art and environmental art (to the tune of an entire new explorable area and outpost), and of course, implementation.
