Ut, calling stalled content release fraud is a stretch. Pretty much the only thing I blatantly disagree with in the last 5 pages. Not even taking into account how many of the then "current" gamers even understood the unfinished content and broken quests.
I should clarify for you.
The Velious expansion - sold as advertised:
1) Sleeper's tomb was not itemized. The Sleeper art was not finished. The 4th warder was buffed on purpose to make it impossible to pass, and when a guild did so using exploits to do so, they banned them because it showed the public they hadn't finished what they had already sold and advertised,
2) Same expansion: Plane of Mischief wasn't finished, populated, or itemized. Nor were the quest lines finished. Not bugged, Not finished.
3) NTOV wasn't itemized for 2 months.
Shadows of Luclin - sold as advertised:
Vex Thal not finished and graphical patches for the zone came 6 months later. Maiden's eye drop was artificially bugged to prevent keying. Gating content to be able to have control to stop players from entering what was already sold, but not complete when sold.
Planes of Power: Sold as advertised:
Plane of Water, Air, and PO time completely not finished. Developer boxes in PO Time for 5 months post launch. Artificial movement bug placed within POW Water to stop players from advancing but sold as a complete expansion.
I could go on and on about what they did here. And Smedley even admitted it. I won a bet, which was a free all access pass back in 2006 on the FoH forums.
They sold unfinished expansions as complete, false advertised on the box, and tried to finish them after already having collected the revenue and charging subscriptions for the content to be played out.
Stalled content was the basis for this model and artificial gates were the mechanism in which they tried to hide the fact.