What's With the No Future Expansion or Addons?

I'm having a hard time being inspired looking at what's in store for FFXI up until 2012. The planned content looks all right, but not interesting enough to justify a full year of subscription. And so I expect I'll probably be dipping in and out; subscribing to check out new stuff for updates, and then unsubscribing during the in-between. 2011 feels to me like it's preparing to be another 2009 (read: dull and drawn-out).

I guess what I'm mostly wondering is why Square is so steadfastly resistant to giving players what they so obviously want, a regular expansion or series of add-ons in a new region of Vana'diel. The lore within the game itself fuels frustration by dropping teasing lines about how interesting foreign continents are. And then instead of following some kind of logical routine that logically extends after Aht Urghan we keep getting this bewildering content based upon other times and dimensions.

I mean, I guess I don't really know where I'm going with this. I think to most long-time players it feels like the most obvious thing, but nonetheless one that simply aint happening year after year. I could tell you that many players, such as myself, are virtually waving their dollars in the air asking to be spent on something like this. So why so resistant? Most people (or at least I) would probably speculate that:

-FFXI is too old and doesn't generate enough profit to justify a legit new expansion. (However if this were true wouldn't you want to give players what they're demanding to make more profit?)

-The team that works on FFXI is too small and not capable of creating an entire new expansion.

-Square is putting all their focus right now on saving their years of work put into FFXIV.

-PS2 limitations. Maybe there really is something to it we don't know about, but actually PS2 limitations are mostly imagined or overstated by players. I really don't want to go there yet again.

-Paying programmers to work on the clunky old PS2 spaghetti code is difficult and painful to subject a human being to and could potentially be raised as cruel and inhumane. (Just kidding... I hope)

This is what many players are thinking and wondering about. It feels a little like Square is just sick and tired of FFXI and just quietly pampering it as it declines. But we don't have any real info to go on except that every year brings renewed hopes, followed by disappointment. But if the team at Square would want to supply us with any, even vague, info then that'd be interesting for sure.

TL;DR Wtf y no espansion?

I always did have a very bad feeling that WotG was going to be the last of the expansions. The timing and what it is(essentially the perfect "ending" to expansions. A go back in time storyline where we see the crystal war firsthand etc etc etc. Such a storyline is typically saved for when you run out of ideas. It just spoke volumes to me that they were expecting it to be the end of their FFXI work by going that route over the other options, not to mention the fact that they spread it out over THREE YEARS ugh)was a little too perfect with FFXIV on the horizon. They probably figured FFXI would be dropped like a hot potato by us for it. Then it didn't happen and they're like... oh... crap... noooo.

I really will be amazed if we ever see another expansion again, and until I see it I'll remain confident that they are content with giving us bread crumb add ons and the like as a replacement for expansions while they try to save their other game from extinction. They could do the expansion thing and have it download only and all that jazz at some point. But now any expansions after WotG would just seem awkward to me.

It's all a damn shame, really. But you got to look at it from my point of view - I damn well know I won't be playing this game to my death(at least old age wise, 50 years down the road...) Whatever time I have here I know it's limited. All I can do is take it one day at a time and make the best of it, and hope there's something after it that's as worthy as FFXI to take up my time. I'm not going to get all depressed and leave because I know the future isn't bliss. I know better than to expect whatever I'm playing will last forever. If I want something to last forever I'll stop playing video games and start playing real life because THAT will last until I die without question. It's the ultimate challenge to boot. But I'm content with the standard dull and boring normal life for the time being...

You know what really grinds my gears?

No new expansions. I'd gladly pay $50 bucks for a new expansion. >_>

Just don't take forever like with WotG.

I believe there will be at least one last expansion. However, it may take a while. there's been lots of mini expansions lately, to hold us over, I believe SE still has one big release in the works. Something that will be hard and lots of effort, to keep people playing for as long as possible. I just don't expect it to be anytime soon, I never believed it would be released this year, maybe by summer next year or something, quite possibly later. Or they do it like WotG and release it in increments. We'll see what to do until then.

There's not going to be another expansion disc anywhere. If they can do something about the space limitations, then there may be more add ons. With the current population, the add-on structure makes more sense as they don't have to produce discs or anything associated with that. All abyssea add-ons put together are more or less an expansion as a whole.

SE isn't "steadfastly resistant" to giving us stuff. They are simply more limited in what they are able to do at this point due to the age of the game, console limitations (mostly but not just PS2), etc.

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I believe there will be at least one last expansion. However, it may take a while. there's been lots of mini expansions lately, to hold us over, I believe SE still has one big release in the works.

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If they were going to why would they not tell us? They don't even say they have any more "abyssea style addons" to give us in the future, if they do have such things coming they should put out a teaser now while a lot have returned and are slowly getting bored of Abyssea. I like the roadmap but they really do need to state if they have any plans for any kind of expansions/addons now before people lose intrest again.

Right now it looks like there will be no more expansions ever and no addons either, if there were there would be no reason not to say so. It's not hard to say "we do have plans to release more expansions/addons in the future" to keep intrest there.

This thread needs to get at least 50+ Pages. I'm throwing my word in.

I really want a new Box Expansion that Visits another Continent, The Far East, the Northern Gigas homeland, the Western lands, or the Southern, I really don't care. Completely NEW and refreshing zones like Whitegate was.

Does anyone remember the super-long Boat ride? how exciting it was to be going to the new place? your first steps into Whitegate? I do, And it was worth the money.

Anyone remember looking at Teaser photos for ToAU? looking at Arrapago Reef? the glowing mist and the ghost-ships? yah, I do. And i want that feeling again, not "oh, Its this zone again... okay"

The thrill of an entirely new unexplored world... I want it back :(

I'd gladly, gladly pay full price for a box-expansion. Its obvious the vast Majority of your playerbase wants a new expansion. This game can live for several more years... please consider the please from us...

It doesn't even need to contain new jobs, We just want new worlds to explore, the ones we repeatedly hear about. (the Far west wouldn't really offer more jobs, SAM/NIN come from there, The North i could only Imagine Vikings, but thats WAR, and The West could lend to some new jobs, but i think the south is mostly RNG/THF/etc, the typical Mithran jobs shown in WoTG)

I'd love to see a new expansion as much as you, but we have to look at the truth. WotG was finished few months ago(sucks I know, but that's how it went), I doubt we can expect a new one before 2012(remember the time gap between ToAU and WotG? Gonna be the same). I'm impatient of seeing new stories as well, but I'm also dealing with accepting that it can't be soon.

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Originally Posted by Seha

I'd love to see a new expansion as much as you, but we have to look at the truth. WotG was finished few months ago(sucks I know, but that's how it went), I doubt we can expect a new one before 2012(remember the time gap between ToAU and WotG? Gonna be the same). I'm impatient of seeing new stories as well, but I'm also dealing with accepting that it can't be soon.

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I Don't expect one anytime soon either. I can realize that.

My Only fear is that they may think it wouldn't be worth the Effort, Maybe not enough people would buy it, etc. I just want to let them know they have heavy support and want for one :(

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Originally Posted by Gwynplaine

I guess what I'm mostly wondering is why Square is so steadfastly resistant to giving players what they so obviously want, a regular expansion or series of add-ons in a new region of Vana'diel. The lore within the game itself fuels frustration by dropping teasing lines about how interesting foreign continents are. And then instead of following some kind of logical routine that logically extends after Aht Urghan we keep getting this bewildering content based upon other times and dimensions.

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Apologies, I haven't read the rest, I just wanted to respond to this:

Beginning with ファイナルファンタジーＸ, we have not seen a map of the entire planet. As with many of the other entries, we do see some strange other dimension, however.

XI did what I think would be neat for sequels to XII and XIII to do, which is suddenly have reason to visit new areas after a particular story line has been resolved, while maintaining game mechanics (the way X-2 did not). I don't want to get into this point, despite having more to say about it, because it's beyond the reason for this post. lol

Abyssea expansions must of sold amazingly well and for honestly little dev time, I can't believe they wouldn't release more tbh. Maybe they will but they don't want to put out too many to ruin it, whatever the case they should at least tell us what the future plans are for expansions/addons.

I'd like to see a new Expansion, but being realistic, I know they may think that it may not be worth the effort at the moment.

As for new areas for an Expansion, in order of preference:
-Mithra Homeland
-Far East

These are the only 2 I'd like to see. To be clear, I want a kick butt story to go with it as well. (CoP and WotG, are both Excellent, RotZ and ToAU, were ok)

-Storylines could revolve around the emptiness that appeared in the Far East (mentioned by Tenzen in CoP) and they've requested help investigating it from the Empire. As far as the Mithra Homeland is concerned, it could resolve around Perih Vashai sending you and Semih LeFinah to the Mithra Homeland to have her take a series of trials to determine if she could be the next Mithra Chieftaness of Windurst. (This could be an actual solo or with Fellow NPC mission set)

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Originally Posted by Fiarlia

You know what really grinds my gears?

No new expansions. I'd gladly pay $50 bucks for a new expansion. >_>

Just don't take forever like with WotG.

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Pretty sure WoTG was spread over 3 years because of XIV's development, ToAU was shorter in terms of completion cycle since it was mostly end-game system additions anyway.

PS2 and 160k players.

i think there will be a expansion but i honestly think there wating for vanafest or a NA player fest to tell us. All the expansions have been presented at vanafest if i remember right it would just seam right. its not on the time line to make it a shock when it is finely presented .

To me, the year-long timeline makes a pretty big statement about Square's attitude toward FFXI. And what it says is that it's not deserving of any significant new development. I don't want to sound insulting as I'm sure the current dev team puts a lot of hard work into all the things that will be coming out. But it's still short from what you'd expect from the usual.

Right now I feel as though my monthly subscription is going toward keeping FFXIV on life-support, while the game I actually support dwindles. And that's another reason why my subscription this year will probably be on-and-off.

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PS2 and 160k players.

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PS2 is no excuse, they can make an expansion for the other platforms and leave ps2 as it is. People WILL upgrade if it's important enough to them (which it is even if they say otherwise). And 160k is way low, I hope you didn't get that number from FFXIAH cause that is no indication since Abyssea, the AH is nowhere near as important and used as it used to be.

Also I don't know if you know this but 200-300k players is a very respectable playerbase for an MMO(with no chinese etc playerbases), especially one that has fully paid for itself. Don't put wow as the bar here, thats a freak in the MMO world. No other MMO has ever or will ever come close to that again.

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To me, the year-long timeline makes a pretty big statement about Square's attitude toward FFXI. And what it says is that it's not deserving of any significant new development. I don't want to sound insulting as I'm sure the current dev team puts a lot of hard work into all the things that will be coming out. But it's still short from what you'd expect from the usual.

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This. I find it really annoying they are reading this and ingoring it, it's not hard to give a simply "yes we plan to produce more expansions/addons", throw us a bone already.

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Right now I feel as though my monthly subscription is going toward keeping FFXIV on life-support, while the game I actually support dwindles. And that's another reason why my subscription this year will probably be on-and-off.

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This riles me up too, feels like i'm feeding the lion that is going to one day kill me. I used to have 5 accounts and 40 gardening mules, since I got the impression I was paying to develop FFXIV I canceled 3 accounts and all the gardening mules. Only have my own and pay for my sisters account now, hell I even paid when I was away for months. I loved FFXI so much I wanted to support it to the full and have never let my subs drop once in 7 years. That's quickly changing.

I would also love to see an expansion in the future, with brand new zones and mobs, and storyline(s). To be honest I don't have much hope that there will be one, but you never know, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

SE wont make one cuz people will just say SE is selling gear via Expansions~

A new expantion new zones story lines everthing would be awsome. NO more copy pasted areas like wotg or abyssea actual new zones.

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PS2 is no excuse, they can make an expansion for the other platforms and leave ps2 as it is.

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People who only played on the PS2 and may not have a PC (I know a few myself) would be more likely to quit than go out and buy a PC or an xbox if forced to upgrade.

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People who only played on the PS2 and may not have a PC (I know a few myself) would be more likely to quit than go out and buy a PC or an xbox if forced to upgrade

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Really? I don't know anyone that plays that has no access to either a PC, xbox or ps3 even if they mainly use ps2. All the other 3 options are cheap now too..can even buy them 2nd hand on ebay, I highly doubt there are many people that are so poor they can't buy one of these cheap options for a better experience. If they are why are they paying for a monthly sub for an MMO.

Anyway I never said not to carry on supporting PS2, I said to give expansions for everyone else. No matter which way they went PS2 players won't get the expansions anyway so it's no loss to them at all either way.

The small number that would genuinly not upgrade, ever, under any circunstances after playing for years and the prospect of a massive boost to the game is so small it's insignificant.

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Originally Posted by Runespider

PS2 is no excuse, they can make an expansion for the other platforms and leave ps2 as it is. People WILL upgrade if it's important enough to them (which it is even if they say otherwise). And 160k is way low, I hope you didn't get that number from FFXIAH cause that is no indication since Abyssea, the AH is nowhere near as important and used as it used to be.

Also I don't know if you know this but 200-300k players is a very respectable playerbase for an MMO(with no chinese etc playerbases), especially one that has fully paid for itself. Don't put wow as the bar here, thats a freak in the MMO world. No other MMO has ever or will ever come close to that again.

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I never compared it to WoW. No one is going to green-lit an expansion when the PS2 isn't even really supported anymore by Sony. Right, they could drop the PS2... except a large majority of the JP playerbase supposedly plays on PS2, that'd be shooting themselves in the foot on the long run.

Also I doubt a large majority of the popular goes 90 days without buying anything on the Auction House (that's FFXIAH definition of an active character) and we're not even counting the mules included in the numbers, the real number is probably much lower than SE care to admit.

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Really? I don't know anyone that plays that has no access to either a PC

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There are a lot. I personally know people who literally bought a PS2 and got internet access just for this game.

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Right, they could drop the PS2... except a large majority of the JP playerbase supposedly plays on PS2, that'd be shooting themselves in the foot on the long run.

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Considering FFXIV at best will only really appeal to FFXI gamers if this is true they will have no audience to sell the game to on PS3.

Sometimes you have to make the hard decisions, lose a few thousand players or lose them all, no more expansions or a stagnant game when there are very strong competitors coming out is not a good thing.

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Also I doubt a large majority of the popular goes 90 days without buying anything on the Auction House (that's FFXIAH definition of an active character) and we're not even counting the mules included in the numbers, the real number is probably much lower than SE care to admit.

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I had 5 accounts and many jeuno mules, I only ever bought shihei on 1 mule and never anything else. Even that was so infrequent that even that single "active" char now and then had a red X on it. Lots also have alts for Abyssea soloing now and as I said unless you buy shihei there is very little reason to buy anything on the AH at all so yeah many players will appear inactive but still play since they just don't have a reason to use the AH.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

There are a lot. I personally know people who literally bought a PS2 and got internet access just for this game.

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But you have to admit, That Situation is incredibly limited, probably less than 1% of the FFXI population Owns nothing but a PS2 to play it on. I wouldn't say "Theres a lot", Cause I have not met a single one outside of the people you've mentioned.

A lot of them probably bought it for the PS2 to begin with for whatever reason, and just don't wanna pay for the expansions on their PC (Even though its like, 5$ now). Who can blame em.

Is this schedule of updates not the exact same or almost at least schedule they gave us at the beginning of Abyssea? People acting like "OMG! Oh noes!!! this is the end of updates 4EVARRRRRR" Seriously chill out. The have a decent amount of things for us to do coming up soon. What with dynamis revamp, and this new battle content we've yet to experience.

I know as a long time player. One who was in a balls to the wall End game linkshell for almost 2 years prior to Abyssea doing events 6 out of 7 days. I have a few things I still need from dynamis, and there's plenty of -1's I still need. Being able to low man some dynamis, tackle this new battle system coming, and finishing up a few things here, and there in Abyssea will satisfy even a hard core type such as myself. Not indefinitely sure, but with summer around the corner it should last till the cap goes up.

Best thing we can do to show SE we want a full sized expansion is too show your support on here. Let em know you are down to drop $40-50 on a full expansion. Idk what the costs involved are exactly, but most expansions in the past were 25ish iirc. If we're willing to go almost or double that, and take into account it can be downloaded now which saves costs. I would think there might be a shot at it if enough people voice their support!

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I'd gladly, gladly pay full price for a box-expansion. Its obvious the vast Majority of your playerbase wants a new expansion. This game can live for several more years... please consider the please from us...

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completely agree.

As some mentioned about Abyssea with 3 add-ons. I always considered Abyssea almost like a full expansion, although it was small. You pay $30 if you want the entire thing, and you got your storyline there with all the jazz, and several bosses that must be defeated. I know there is only 10 zones to explore (Empyreal Paradox being one of them) and they all look similar, but so did most zones in WotG anyways.

I believe SE will make a new full or parts of a huge expansion in the future where we can explore new lands and continents. Maybe they are in the works of one right now. Right now I think the lvl cap increase is a lot of work for them to make sure job abilities, skills, and spells are balanced and not over powered. It seems like they also want to tweak any other issues players had in the past since there's a pile of those fixes/changes players been demanding. I can see us having a great new expansion sometime after we reach lvl 99.

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I wouldn't say "Theres a lot", Cause I have not met a single one outside of the people you've mentioned.

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That's true to an extent, but I don't "know" a lot of people- so if I know multiple people who are in this situation, it stands to reason there are other people that do too. In japan, with the game being released for PS2 first, there are many more PS2 users there.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

That's true to an extent, but I don't "know" a lot of people- so if I know multiple people who are in this situation, it stands to reason there are other people that do too. In japan, with the game being released for PS2 first, there are many more PS2 users there.

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I know a lot of JP play on the PS2, But thats not what i was addressing :X, I was addressing that You mentioned some people "Only owning a PS2" for FFXI, no computer, Xbox, nothing.

i said "There's probably not more than 1% of the FFXI population who only owns a PS2 to play FFXI".

I can't prove it but I'd stand by it. In this day and age theres very few households that don't own at least 1 Computer. I know some people obviously don't for financial reasons...

I'm all for exploration, but I think people want something engaging to do, over exploration. When WOTG did come out, I explored just enough to get all the campaign battle areas, and I was satisfied with what I saw along the way. All the while, I was a bit irritated and ready to get to the fighting. If people truly wanted content(story) and exploration, questing would be more requested.

The world of FFXI is already huge. Why not put more time into making those "engaging things to do" instead of wasting time building newer places that will lose it's "wow" factor within days. FFXIV is pretty as hell with all the new lands you can ask for, but it was rejected for a good reason.

/wave Krabnuckle I like Krabnuckle. That's a good person right there. When Krabnuckle speaks, you guys should pay attention.

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Originally Posted by Miiyo

I'm all for exploration, but I think people want something engaging to do, over exploration. When WOTG did come out, I explored just enough to get all the campaign battle areas, and I was satisfied with what I saw along the way. All the while, I was a bit irritated and ready to get to the fighting. If people truly wanted content(story) and exploration, questing would be more requested.

The world of FFXI is already huge. Why not put more time into making those "engaging things to do" instead of wasting time building newer places that will lose it's "wow" factor within days. FFXIV is pretty as hell with all the new lands you can ask for, but it was rejected for a good reason.

/wave Krabnuckle I like Krabnuckle. That's a good person right there. When Krabnuckle speaks, you guys should pay attention.

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Exactly!

Also, One thing, The reason you probably didn't bother exploring WoTG Areas is probably because they were all (but 3) Just rehased zoned you've been in a thousand times :P

If you're like me, The second i got to Whitegate, It felt like a whole new game. The music, the scenery, I kinda want that feeling again :)

And content. Definitely Content.

PS2 a problem for releasing a new box expansion you got to remember the PS2 HDD partition is almost full in fact if you remember awhile back the PS2 versions stopped working due to too many temp files making people reinstall so now SE has to be really careful to avoid that.

2nd Sony doesn't even support new PS2 games being released in US and in Europe. So given all that its just a big logistical nightmare to release a new boxed expansion.

Now they could release a the new expansion as an download, or a new addon but then we have that PS2 HDD being at almost capacity again. I doubt SE wants to leave out that 1/3 of the player base in Japan and like 5% in the US that still uses a PS2. They would have an issue with some users having this new content PC and Xbox360 players while PS2 players can't have it due to the hard drive being very full.

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Originally Posted by Karbuncle

This thread needs to get at least 50+ Pages. I'm throwing my word in.

I really want a new Box Expansion that Visits another Continent, The Far East, the Northern Gigas homeland, the Western lands, or the Southern, I really don't care. Completely NEW and refreshing zones like Whitegate was.

Does anyone remember the super-long Boat ride? how exciting it was to be going to the new place? your first steps into Whitegate? I do, And it was worth the money.

Anyone remember looking at Teaser photos for ToAU? looking at Arrapago Reef? the glowing mist and the ghost-ships? yah, I do. And i want that feeling again, not "oh, Its this zone again... okay"

The thrill of an entirely new unexplored world... I want it back :(

I'd gladly, gladly pay full price for a box-expansion. Its obvious the vast Majority of your playerbase wants a new expansion. This game can live for several more years... please consider the please from us...


It doesn't even need to contain new jobs, We just want new worlds to explore, the ones we repeatedly hear about. (the Far west wouldn't really offer more jobs, SAM/NIN come from there, The North i could only Imagine Vikings, but thats WAR, and The West could lend to some new jobs, but i think the south is mostly RNG/THF/etc, the typical Mithran jobs shown in WoTG)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 aaaaand 10!

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Originally Posted by Karbuncle

I'd gladly, gladly pay full price for a box-expansion.

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Set and point. Who wouldn't? I guess a really big thing preventing this is the unknown, would it be worthwhile to do so? I say put up a poll (ooooo. that's a good suggestion for a website feature) on POL for all to do, and see who would pay and how much they would pay. Let the numbers do the deciding.

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Originally Posted by Miiyo

Set and point. Who wouldn't? I guess a really big thing preventing this is the unknown, would it be worthwhile to do so? I say put up a poll (ooooo. that's a good suggestion for a website feature) on POL for all to do, and see who would pay and how much they would pay. Let the numbers do the deciding.

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Needs to be done!

maybe they want to wait the 10th anniversary to release new add-on box, and the major updates will be the preview for this new areas.

You know thats a brilliant plan. They should release a Brand New Box expansion to commemorate the 10th Anniversary.

Also, I said 50+ Pages, And we're on page 4. GET WORKING D:

Make it happen, Krabknuckle!
:P