This is my second post during BlaugustReborn.

Today I want to talk about Expansions (DLC’s, seasons… you name it). More specifically about some issues I have with expansions.

1. Poorly named expansions. I’ve played (on and off) EVE for 11 years now, and I barely can connect one expansion with their content. There have been 16 expansions untill now with names as descriptive as “Inferno“, “Castor“, “Trinity“, “Kronos“… Now, with some more “story-driven” MMOs, the thing can work (think Legion for WoW), but EVE is more like… “Take these new mechanics and this balance pass. This is your new expansion”. So I have an approximate idea of when some systems become a part of the game, but don’t ask me the name related to them.
2. The overwhelming pack. This is obviously a personal thing. Probably people who have played the gamefor a while will know about the expansions and will have their memories but… Think for a second: Everquest has 24 so far. Final Fantasy XI has 11 (including what they call Add-ons). And given that we are talking about old school games, there is not much hand holding there so, if you’ve never played these games, good luck figuring out what or where you’re supposed to be at your level.
3. But wait, there’s more! You know this really good game, with immersive lore and a good story that, in the end, leads you and your friends to kill that powerful demigod that was going to destroy your world? Well, now the expansion hits, and you know what? That demigod’s mom is not happy about it. So get ready and begin killing bears and picking flowers again, because we need you to save the world again. I understand that some level of epicity is needed, but “end of the world” scenarios every other week gets boring soon.
4. Should have been at launch. Main two offenders that come to my mind are not strictly MMOs although they “have” an online component. Let’s talk about No Man’s Sky, first. They promised multiplayer (and a few other things). Two years later, they’ve finally managed to deliver. I’m ok with some features coming after launch, and I understand that on launch week servers are not going to be very reliable but they knew that multiplayer was not going to be ready at launch, nor “around lunch”. They simply lied. And my second example is Elite: Dangerous. They launched the game unfinished (planet landings come to my mind, there were more), but they came clear (at first). They warned us that some parts were not going to make it in time, but they will patch in the future. But later they announced “Horizons”, the first expansion, that will include a lot of the missing features… for those who would buy the expansion. What? We’ve already paid for that!
5. Aaaaand that’s it! I really enjoy Star Trek Online. It has its defects, of course, but the setting, the division of quest in episodic arcs, voice-acting… I love this game. But 6 quest and 1 single queue? You can’t call that “Expansion”. That is a patch. Yes, I know, 2 new races, a few ships… But for people that’s been playing for some time, it’s not much content. On the plus side, it’s free, as all the expansions on STO.

Of course, there is a lot of good parts that I enjoy about expansions, too. They add content to games I like, they usually attract new players… But I will write about it in another (non-ranting) post.