I really don't see why kensai's argument is that hard to get. I got it after the first couple of posts.
Had M&B been a professionally developed game from the start, Multiplayer, a single player with fleshed out quests, up to date graphics, pretty much all of the major innovations Warband features over the original, could have been expected. They are a minimum for any industry game of certain genres that want to be taken seriously. Most of the lauded features of Warband are bare essentials for "real" games. Therefore, it is more than reasonable to have expected them to be in the first game, at least if we are to compare M&B to the big league. That is why Warband should have been an expansion, so as to make the indie into big league.
But then, you might say, M&B has so much innovative great stuff, that the lack of these bare essentials don't matter. I agree, but great content is the difference between a mediocre "real" game, and a great one. It isn't an argument why these bare essentials should be missing from the original game. In the realm of big leagues, it isn't unreasonable for M&B to be criticized for lacking core features, and then requiring the purchase of a brand new game to get them. That just means the original didn't meet minimum requirements (even if it did blow away maximum requirements, if that makes sense).
Get it? It is a matter of principle. You sell a brand new game in a series, whose major contributions to the series were what should have been bare essentials in the original. However, where I disagree with kensai, is that I think TW made up for this shortcoming by the original being as great as it is. In stead of getting an original game with the bare essentials and run of the mill gameplay, with an expansion adding more great features, we got a original game with all the great features, and an expansion that gave use the bare essentials. It was really just a big reverse from the norm, which isn't a problem so long as the finished product is awesome.
...or at least, that would be the case if Warband was a mere expansion. As a new game, it spits both on the original and itself, by being two separate halves that should have been one. It spits on native because it means native was a great indie, but lacked the bare essentials. And it spits on itself by not adding enough compared to native.
I think kensai's problem lies in this big reverse. For it means he got all the good stuff first, being super-happy with that, only to get an underwhelming expansion featuring what should have been there to begin with. When buying the serial key, we were promised the full game when it came out, after all. For all intents and purposes, Warband is that full game, and we didn't get it without a separate serial key.
Now, personally, I don't care. With such a low price tag on both for the immense enjoyment I've gotten, I can overlook such things, which I see as pretty much just kinks in the creation process. But the principle is there, and should be plain to see. I mean, imagine buying the game retail, only to have it replaced with Warband what, less than a year later. Money-wise it's not a big gripe, but it would be hard not to feel somewhat cheated.
As for the repeated argument that you don't have to buy the game: Yes, this is true, but also completely fallacious. It does not address the issue. If there are criminals roaming the streets at night, you can just choose to stay at home. That is not a justification of such a level of crime, or a reason against protesting it.
(not that I care, I do it for free willingly).
