The 3 stages of an expansion (denial and acceptance not included)

I know, I know, I haven't posted in ages so as an apology here's an extra long one.

I was talking to my GM the other day and he bemoaned the fact that I've been extremely lax and haven't posted in quite a while. I told him that if he gave me an interesting topic to write about I'd get off my proverbial and pump out some word soup. So here it is, a topic courtesy of Litter:

The game cycle from expansion to expansion.

This struck me as a particularly pertinent topic since we are all, as a wow community holding our collective breath in anticipation of a release date announcement from Blizzard for Cataclysm. Having rolled it about in my brain for a few days after the initial discussion with Litter, I decided that each expansion can be broken down into three key segments so strap in, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

1: Cataclysm's out KA-BOOM! (the post x-pac explosion)

General:
This one pretty much speaks for itself. The initial post expansion time is more or less totally insane. Servers' active populations go totally ballistic as old players come back to the game and current ones take time off work/school and basically do whatever they can to play as much as possible. Server instability can be an issue and don't even think of logging in without expecting a long queue (followed by a devastating disconnect if you happen to have logged previously in a major city). From a general play perspective this means you will never struggle to find a group for [kill random elite with 5 buddies] quests, random dungeons or whatever else and everyone is basking in the afterglow of masses of new content.

For a guild this is also an exciting time. Old guildies who took a break or stopped playing completely may be dragged back in by the lure of all the new shinies. There is a wealth of new content to experience together as you all rush to the new lvl cap and then furiously gear up for those first raids.
While its a great time to be in a guild with people you enjoy playing with, this time in the cycle can be tough on a guild's leadership as every man and his dog suddenly has the time and willingness to raid. It is often a very delicate process to determine the raiding make-up and it is almost guaranteed that at least one person will be unhappy to miss out.

This is also a crazy time for the in game economy as tradeskills receive an influx of new recipes to make and materials to farm. In this initial period mats in particular experience extreme inflation as all those with previously maxed skills push to the new trade-skill level cap. It's a great time to have gathering professions as even the most common items will sell for outrageous amounts. I remember when Wrath dropped I was selling stacks of borean leather for north of 80g, oh how I miss the good old days. In short: you can make a fortune early on with minimal effort or knowledge just ah everything you pick up.

2. The custard donut days (the smooth middle bit)

This period is the time where most aspects of play stabilise. There are daily quests to be done, random dungeons etc. and everyone knows what they're about. Servers are much better behaved with all the issues caused by massive numbers of players on at once a thing of the past.

These are the golden days for guilds. Typically this is a magical time for guild leadership as the core raid group is stable and bosses surrender their loot with willful abandon. Provided your guild isn't a complete mess you will progress to some degree and everyone will be happy. Foam sword fights in raid lobbies and pranks on druids by binding them on vent are frequent and hilarious.

This is also a great time to make money if that's your bag. The rampant inflation of the early days is over and prices settle down to some semblance of equilibrium so anyone with tradeskills and any amount of common sense can make gold.

Basically, the middle days are nice.

3. The beginning of the end (nope... that's pretty much it)

The third and final segment of the expansion lifecycle is like that girl you hooked up with at a random party and then dated for a little while: She seems pretty good to begin with, but soon the cracks (annoying laugh, slightly jealous etc) start to show and things degenerate until you've got a crazy stalker on your hands. Well maybe that was a bit over the top, but the general point is that for the most part its a downhill lside to the next expansion once the beta begins.

Everyone slows down because really, whats the point of grinding for that shiny new axe when the best weapon in the game currently will be replaced immediately by a blue or a quest green. For some guilds, the burnout experienced by running the same content for months on end is slow death-sentence. It's one of those unfortunate circumstances where guilds can be victims of their own success and implode once their goals are accomplished. It is extremely hard for officers to keep restless guildies motivated to raid the same content week in, week out for months on end (or a whole year in the case of ICC).

To Blizzard's credit they have gone some way towards combatting this by introducing achievements and hard modes into Wrath content. My own guild Scrubs n Nubs has been a beneficiary of this and I can appreciate the brilliance behind it. As a semi-casual 10-man raiding guild Scrubs had cleared all 10-man content with the exception of LK hard mode about 3 months ago. What followed was a two month headbutting contest with ol' frosty pants which ended with Arthas down and our raiders haveing cleared all 10 man Wrath content and sporting shiny new "Bane of the Fallen King" titles (a rarity on my server). Now if it wasn't for hardmodes being introduced (along with the strength of the guild's leadership), Scrubs would've completed all 10 man content 4 or 5 months ago and been stuck in that no-mans land between expansions.

Not only is there a raiding no-mans land before a new expansion hits, the economy also declines more and more rapidly as an x-pac approaches. This is both a problem and an opportunity as while the tried and true methods for making gold *cough* saronite shuffle *cough* slowly become unprofitable, there are endless opportunities for a shrewd investor to stockpile items that are cheap now but will skyrocket once the new content is available. (I won't detail stockpiling here as there are lists all over the wow blogosphere).

All in all, the nearer a new expansion gets, the more rapidly the winding-down effect occurs for the previous content and that is the third and final stage. Everyone who hangs around and doesn't take a break has different goals they want accomplished before new content drags them away, but these tend to be fairly insular and don't engender social play as much as activities in the earlier stages.


So there you have it! That's my take on the expansion life-cycle I hope you've enjoyed the ride.

-Seal

PS. In the interests of encouraging someone, (anyone) to comment here's a question: what's your stage 3 like at the moment and what are you doing in the lead-up to Cataclysm? (My next post will be what I'm doing until Cata drops)