2.0 options for existing players: ISO download? digital copy disc?

[ispano]

I'm having a hard time imagining a feasible way to do this, considering that that MMOs these days can stretch to well over 12 GB of data.

What's wrong with downloading a baseline client for the current major version (i.e. 2.0, 3.0, 4.0), and downloading the other updates after installing that client?

Having a disc to install the base client from, then patch it is far less taxing on some people's bandwidth limits. As much as it should be, not everyone has unlimited bandwidth. Far more than people may think really. Plus, pressing a few extra discs isn't all that expensive, not to mention, people would be willing to pay media/shipping costs.

Even then, one idea was an ISO, so we can burn our own, although a pressed disc would typically last much longer.

[Wolfie]

Having a disc to install the base client from, then patch it is far less taxing on some people's bandwidth limits. As much as it should be, not everyone has unlimited bandwidth. Far more than people may think really. Plus, pressing a few extra discs isn't all that expensive, not to mention, people would be willing to pay media/shipping costs.

Even then, one idea was an ISO, so we can burn our own, although a pressed disc would typically last much longer.

That's pretty much what every game does these days, so... I wouldn't worry about it. Especially MMOs that require a persistent internet connection. When you buy an expansion game box, you're really just buying the license key for it, and then a plastic disc with the free game client upgrade that you would have gotten regardless when you logged into your old stuff.

Which is also why some MMOs these days have their boxed expansions priced at $10-30 more than just buying the upgrade via digital download.