Guild Wars 2

data.4093:

uknortherner.2670:

With the way the game industry functions these days, only a fool would pre-order anything unseen and untested. Contrary to claims that I am “punishing myself” for refusing to stump up the cash for something unseen and untested, I would say I’m being an astute consumer… Wouldn’t you?

The very notion of pre-ordering anything in an age of digital distribution is laughable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5Uj4XIT1Y

Absolutely love Mr. Biscuit’s take on pre-ordering. As some comments explain further, consumers can benefit from avoiding pre-orders. One of them pointed out how the number of pre-orders dictate release date(you’ll notice Anet never posted a release day) because high pre-orders means they can ship an incomplete product instead of refining it further.

Great vid! Thank you for sharing. :b:

GW1’s HotN was $20, it included 3 new parts of the map to explore, the introduction of 2 new races, a plethora of new dungeons and enemies, a great original story, and of course plenty of new items. The price felt justified for the content provided

GW2’s HoT from what’s been seen includes: Magumma wilds opening up (how much of it is opening up is still unknown), Masteries, Elite Spec’s, Guild Halls, a new class, more story (length unknown), revamped precursor system, and new items.

I honestly feel that warrants a $20-$30 dollar price tag, not the cost of the base game. I’d probably happily pay that much if a whole new continent were opening up (Cantha/Elona) but in HoT’s current state I’ll gladly hold on to my money

So you prefer to see your favourite game failing with 100,000$ loss [that means, less contents, slower support, everything going worse] than to say “ok I will give a try and see if I might like HoT”?
That’s so intelligent. So so intelligent.

@kill
Eye of the north was $39.99 when it was first released.

Neve.7134:

So you prefer to see your favourite game failing with 100,000$ loss [that means, less contents, slower support, everything going worse] than to say “ok I will give a try and see if I might like HoT”?
That’s so intelligent. So so intelligent.

Its not wise to speak about intelligence when….

And yes i prefer it failing with 100k, we vote with wallet. Nothing so far they showed is worth 45 euro.

skowcia.8257:

I am not going to buy xpac either, and many people i know says the same – couting friends and guild thats about 213 ppl. Gl hf in empty maps

I bet the maps wont be emtpy

insanemaniac.2456:

SkiTz.4590:

If you honest to god believe there are 7 million ACTIVE accounts ..woah.. i don’t know what to tell you…

did i say active? no i didnt kittening say active. i said entire playerbase. holy kitten.

“active” is wow losing 3m subs, 30% of their active playerbase, upon xpac release.

if your boycott can hurt that much, youll make anet stumble. some piddly 3% isnt gonna do that.

Losing 3m after gaining 3m (the highest gain they had with an expansion so far) it’s not really a lost. So a bad comparison but I understand you want to vent your hate for WoW as much as you can.

Neve.7134:

So you prefer to see your favourite game failing with 100,000$ loss [that means, less contents, slower support, everything going worse] than to say “ok I will give a try and see if I might like HoT”?
That’s so intelligent. So so intelligent.

Yes, actually.

Because massive monetary losses force either total failure or big changes for the better.

Seeing as the game is already headed in the direction of the former based on the past few announcement cycles we’ve had, and the price point for what should have been in a feature patch two months ago + LS for free, the former is already happening.

So why reinforce it?

If the content we’re getting was actually worth the $50, or wasn’t add-in content that should have been there from the beginning, nobody would really have the right to complain. It’s just from what we know, we’re not getting very much in HoT.

this whole “veterans who supported the game” take is rather amusing. No, you haven´t supported anything. You have payed for a service you used and probably enjoyed. If you actually spent money only to “support the company”, well, loyalty is reserved for friends, partners, whatever form of organization you are part of and admire. A customer placing loyalty in a business he has only business relations with is a fool. This is not a matter of ethos, but of economy. If you think the pricing is not to your liking, well, then don´t buy the product. Stop painting the seller as some sort of greater evil.

Fernling.1729:

@kill
Eye of the north was $39.99 when it was first released.

Thanks for that, I will say that I was late to jump in on EotN, felt I didn’t need it since I already enjoyed Prophecies and Nightfall so much, but for what it’s worth the launch price still felt justified considering ANet had already released 3 great campaigns filled to the brim with content beforehand.

EotN was completely optional (unlike HoT where no doubt Vanilla players will miss out on Living Story updates) loaded with ample story content and huge new portions of the map to explore, something HoT already lacks ( its 1 map split into 3 zones or biomes) perhaps it will make up for it with future LS updates but for what is currently known, the current price still just doesn’t feel worthwhile.

I am for sure gonna hold off. See if they drop the price. My biggest complaint is ANET is not real great at dealing with in game issues. Especially WvW. If the price does not drop well I will take that money and buy the new Bat man game coming out.

For a new account it’s a good price, for an upgrade to an existing account it’s a train wreck.

Targos.9516:

I hope people are smart enough not to purchase this, i quit 2 games that got greedy for money. l am ready to quit this game too.

GW2 has been making everything into a grind for the last 2.5 years and letting you buy your way out if that grind. That was the greedy part, while I don’t think the expansion pricing is optimal (not so much the price itself is a problem, but a char in the standard edition, and a CE edition would be nice) at least this time you get something for your money.

So the greedy part was / started 2,5 years ago. I don’t cosider the xpack greedy, maybe not optimal.

Not going to be per-purchasing because I don’t know jack about what I’m going to be getting and price is too high.

I understand their marketing decision of giving the base game for free with the expansion, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth that there isn’t an option to get the expansion without the base game for a better value. I don’t want the base game, already have it, and can’t even use it with the way the “bonus” is set up so for me it’s not a bonus.

Reddit thread is also pushing 3000 upvotes now too.

Ignoring the fact that $100,000 is 2000 players worth of expansion sales and the aformentioned thread had no where near that much participation, and remembering the reported sales after 1 year of the core game was 3.5 milion, your 2000 players amounts to 5%. If we lose 5% of our games playerbase, we will easily make up for that in new players excited about the game.

The opinions of people who frequent reddit, these forums, or forums in general about any game are hardly a reliable sample of the playerbase as a whole, if there are indeed 2000 people involved in this lamentatious debate, you are still short afew million opinions. Do the science:

For every one of you lamenting the injustices of this topic, there are enough people who dont care that make your sample demograph completely irrelevant, and the sooner you realize this fundamental truth about this topic, and any topic like it among forum-goers, the easier it will be on yourself: The people who enjoy the game, are looking forward to the xpansion are too busy enjoying the game and looking forward to the expansion to bother posting on a forum about how much they enjoy the game and are looking forward to the expansion.

Your revolution will not happen.

Greymelken.1892:

Ignoring the fact that $100,000 is 2000 players worth of expansion sales and the aformentioned thread had no where near that much participation,

eyestrain.3056:

Greymelken.1892:

Ignoring the fact that $100,000 is 2000 players worth of expansion sales and the aformentioned thread had no where near that much participation,

it could be 100,000 opinions, you are still short a few million opinions to have a reliable sample to make a relevant argument. It takes a certain type of personality to even participate in a forum to begin with. Dont pretend you dont know what I am getting at.

rapthorne.7345:

To the people trying to compare with WoW, you realise that they get their income bolstered by a mandatory $15/month subscription, right?

Did you know, that in WoW you can now buy game time with game money too? You don’t need to pay a dime anymore to play WoW.

And for notice I didn’t vote in reddit, but I will not buy expansion to my 11 accounts. And I bet there is a lot of us who didn’t vote in reddit, but decide not to buy this overpriced expansion.

11 accounts suggests a commitment to the game, I bet you buy expansions to at least 5 of them :P
—-

But he does make an interesting point: of the 2000 usernames involved in this vaunted reddit thread of discontent, how many of them are unique?

Neve.7134:

So you prefer to see your favourite game failing with 100,000$ loss [that means, less contents, slower support, everything going worse] than to say “ok I will give a try and see if I might like HoT”?
That’s so intelligent. So so intelligent.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-the-sunk-cost-fallacy-makes-you-act-stupid.html

I typically despise Reddit, but this is pretty good to hear, OP.

This will test our patience and resolve. We’ll see how many people give in, and how many don’t.

I do not see the issue. This is a pretty common promotion among game distributersRight now the sites selling “The Witcher 3” have as a promotion “The Witcher 1 and 2 for free”.

Those that already have the Witcher 1 and 2 do not get a discount. They buy the Wicther 3 and get another copy. Those that buy the Witcher 3 get 1 and 2 having never paid for them but such things happen if you wait.

Nor is this the only example. There litany of game companies that will bundle up older versions of a game when you buy the latest and greatest and few of them offer a doscount if you already owned those earlier versions.

In short whether the base version of GW2 included is immaterial when discussing price as is whether are not people own it already. All that is material is “Is 50 dollars the correct price for Heart Of Thorns” ?

Now those that never owned the Witcher 1 or 2 and are paying 69 dollars for the Witcher might say “this is a great price”. Those that never owned GW2 and by the HOT expansion getting that and GW2 for 50 dollars might say “This is great price”.

Those that already owned those games , be it the witcher 1 or 2 or GW@ might think 69 dollars too much for the Witcher or that 50 dollars too much for an expansion is simply a price point issue and has nothing to do with “screwing veteran players”.

Is 50$$ too much for an expansion Yes or No. Wheter you got 5000 hours in on the game or NONE is irrelevant. If yes than do not buy it. Problem solved.

My personal opinion? A fairer price wiuld be 39.99$ Does this mean I will not buy it over that 10 dollar difference? I will probably fork it over but thta my decision to make.

An extra character slot would be nice. But I seriously don’t care.

I can’t believe how much people will complain about 10-20 bucks.

I just pre-ordered. To spite reddit and all the whiners. Im positive it will be money well spent, Anet can use the money to promote the expansion, which will promote more sales, more new people I can play with.

I paid a hundo. That removes the success of one of your signatures. I know many more that also paid a hundo. I can’t wait to Rytlock finish some of you in the mists.

DeceiverX.8361:

Seeing as the game is already headed in the direction of the former based on the past few announcement cycles we’ve had, and the price point for what should have been in a feature patch two months ago + LS for free, the former is already happening.

So, essentially, you want the game to get to the point where Anet is paying you to play their game. Free content on top of free content on top of free content- because game development is notoriously low cost.

Batelle.1680:

DeceiverX.8361:

Seeing as the game is already headed in the direction of the former based on the past few announcement cycles we’ve had, and the price point for what should have been in a feature patch two months ago + LS for free, the former is already happening.

So, essentially, you want the game to get to the point where Anet is paying you to play their game. Free content on top of free content on top of free content- because game development is notoriously low cost.

These are the same people that thought the xpac should be 10-15 bucks. Clearly more knowledgeable than any reasonable people that predicted $49.99. Does “kids these days” work well here?

HenleyLegoMan.4987:

It’s possible that there is also a bit of shady shenanigans being done by anet regarding the core game free with expansion:

It’s called sales figures.

Would be easy to say regardless of how many new players buy it, that the HoT expansion increased sales of the core game. Regardless of wether they purchased bundle could use the core game or not.

Anet will probably also release a statement saying that sales of the core game increased with the release of the expansion.

A very tangled web, we may all be caught in….

Interesting. I imagine they can count each HoT sale as two sales (core + HoT)for hype purposes and yet they’ll technically not be lying. I remember some controversy a while back where people claimed they were fudging with some numbers (was it WvW tournament player numbers? Something like that.)

Why do you think this will help your cause?

You are making a statement:

I want to play this game, which has only income through people making RL Cash purchases for the game and gems, but I am convinced and know for sure their income is not relevant to the continued existance of their product…. Which I eventually really want to play….. So I’m gonna call a boycot and have 100(200?) ppl not purchasing it… if from the 3,5 Million users 2 Million are gonna buy the expansion, 200 are having the illusion their 1/10000th share (or less) is going to be influential they should reconsider, just wait 3-6 months and get your discounted version for 5-10 euro off… if the content really sucks the game will be dead already. So you’ll save yourself more in the end.

If you are wrong and it is good: you’ll avoid the rush, the buggy beta’s and the hype trains, and you’ll lose the clean start, having all walkthroughs and new meta’s types out just for you to copy. And you vets will be 2nd generation Newbs in the expansion.

I’ll respect those who stick with their choices and I’ll be honest those who still go out and pre purchase HoT at a later stage…. How do you want to be taken serious in the future?

It’s like you leaving your car at home not wanting to buy fuel… It’s not going to get you anywhere…NCSoft will look and ignore you…

This is the worse excuse in any topic that always keeps popping up again.. It’s just a vocal minority… Yes forums are a minority but they are also a sample of your player base. For every person who say x on the forum, there might be 1000 people feeling the same way. While it’s likely not a perfect representation of the player-base it for sure is something you as company should look at, ignoring it with excuses as ’it’s just a vocal minority’ is closing your eyes for problems what is the worse you can do.

Note I personally do not have a problem with the price, but would like to see a CE edition and think a extra char-slot in the standard edition would be nice.

In light of the ‘free GW2’ (that is false, as you don’t get it if you already have it) it would also not be bad to give something extra to players who already have a copy.

So I don’t have a problem with the price, more with the packages and what’s not in them / available.

That however does not mean I dismiss the complains with a bad ‘vocal minority’ claim.

I find the price especially fine if they would also go back to a true B2P model (what it does not look like).

Anet is still always pointing to the no-sub-fee as if that is something special. What was special with GW1 was their game being B2P, this game is not a true B2P game but mainly a cash-shop games and so nothing special on the market. From that perspective I can understand people expect also the price to be more like the rest of the market (so around 40). I would however vote to keep the current price but let’s get rid of the ‘F2P-mode’ they are using, focusing on all those micro-transaction.

Gav.1425:

Kost.1987:

This is really expensive for HoT.
There’s not many new things, it just doesn’t worth it. And we actually don’t really know what is exactly in this expansion.
Well… And why will I need to have another core if I already have one? It makes no sense…
A little bit strange move, I think.

How are you gonna tell me there’s not enough new stuff when you odn’t even know what’s coming?

We know very much what’s coming.
A few small sized maps,1 class,elite specializations,1 WvW map,1 PvP map,New Legendaries,Masteries,Guild Halls,and the continuation of LS.
Of those,most are QoL and class changes that the base game gets anyway.
I don’t feel like paying 45e-50$ for 3 Silverwastes and a new class.
Please,in case you know more about the provided content with HoT,share
it with us.

Edit:Also I definitely don’t expect the price to drop since that would be a slap
in the face of the ones that have already pre ordered.It’s not happening.
The only possible resolution would be to add more extras to the packages so that
the price can be justified.But that is highly unlikely.

JayMack.8295:

You’ve pulled one example in the near endless year on year ’I’m boycotting/not spending more money on (x)’ group of people. Also please link it, I’d be interested in reading on what whichever developer it was did to lose half their subs in a year, because you’ve just cherrypicked the ‘upset current crowd for new crowd’ bit to make it somewhat relatable to this, and I feel like there’s a lot more to that story.

This is rather a long story, but yes, there’s more to it.

Star Wars Galaxies was a sandbox, based around the Star Wars universe. There were no levels, just skills (250 skillpoints) that could be earned by actually doing something related to the skill you wanted. Skills were organized in professions, which included both combat professions, social professions (Dancer, Musician, Image Designer) and crafting professions (including merchant). It was possible to go all non-combat, all combat, or any mix that fit the available skillpoints. Keep in mind, the non-combat professions were not sidetracks, they were complete professions. Combat was not required to play. Many never killed anything.

Everything in the game was player made. Housing, cities, weapons, armor, clothes, food, buffs, medicines, you name it. The economy was entirely player driven. Resources had stats and spawned and changed on a 2 week schedule in wide areas (which you had to find). Premium stats meant literal gold rushes, for better stats meant better output.

There were no quests, just mission terminals. Rare loot came from hard to kill mobs, and was mostly crafting related. Content was player made, and revolved mostly around PVP (defending bases, raiding imperial/rebel cities) and economy. PVP was voluntary by means of a temporary/voluntary enemy flag system. You could stay completely neutral, though.

Keep in mind, the game was the second most successful MMO of the time, after Everquest.

Then WoW came out and had a million subs inside its first year. And the powers that be decided that SWG wasn’t living up to its potential. And decided to change the core game. In May 2005, levels were introduced, professions simplified, core mechanics changed. Being all combat was a must if you wanted as much as kill a rat. The playerbase was very upset, and the company, according to a former developer blog, started losing 10,000 subscriptions per month. They panicked. A new complete overhaul was implemented, simplifying things even further. Jedi, once a hard-earned unlock that took a long grind, became a starter profession. The playerbase revolted and basically quit en masse.

SWG was not perfect. It did need changes, it did need bugfixes. The player representatives (the profession correspondents) had been discussing this with the devs for quite a while. What we got was NOT what had been discussed. The few representatives from SOE and LucasArts that talked, made denigrating statements about the playerbase in televised and newspaper interviews, saying things like how people were just stomping their feet, and would come around.

We dit not.

Scott Jennings, otherwise known as Lum the Mad (game developer) wrote the following about it in his blog on MMORPG, calling it THE worst mistake made in MMO history.

http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/feature/3961/page/2

Also, this from a media analyst
http://henryjenkins.org/2006/07/so_what_happened_to_star_wars.html

Please keep in mind, I’m not saying that what happened to SWG will happen here, or that the situations are even close. What I am saying, however, is that it’s unwise to assume an upset player base will ‘come around.’ Or that an upset player base doesn’t mean what it says in forums and other channels about their upset.

Regarding this situation… I personally feel that not offering everyone an extra character slot for the expansion is a slap in the face. I feel that the expansion may be overpriced for what it is said to offer. I feel that opening the pre-orders for this expansion in THIS form, right after a set of profession changes that also has people upset, is highly unwise.

And as an upvoter, I can assure you my husband (who didn’t vote) and me for one are not going to buy the expansion but are actually winding things up and looking for another game to play. The fact I’m still posting should be read as an indication I still care some about the game and the direction it’s going in, but not as an indication I’ll be loyal in the end.

Devata.6589:

Greymelken.1892:

eyestrain.3056:

Greymelken.1892:

Ignoring the fact that $100,000 is 2000 players worth of expansion sales and the aformentioned thread had no where near that much participation,

it could be 100,000 opinions, you are still short a few million opinions to have a reliable sample to make a relevant argument. It takes a certain type of personality to even participate in a forum to begin with. Dont pretend you dont know what I am getting at.

This is the worse excuse in any topic that always keeps popping up again.. It’s just a vocal minority… Yes forums are a minority but they are also a sample of your player base. For every person who say x on the forum, there might be 1000 people feeling the same way. While it’s likely not a perfect representation of the player-base it for sure is something you as company should look at, ignoring it with excuses as ’it’s just a vocal minority’ is closing your eyes for problems what is the worse you can do.

its not just the 1000 people, its who the 1000 people are, and the personality traits that are common among them such that they would engage in a debate with so much unbridled juvenile emotion.

If video game forum participants could ever be considered as a reliable source of the sentiments of the consumer/player base they would have to be observed as a group of people who were evenly divided about their feelings about the game, and we know this isnt true. Look on any forum, any publisher, any game, any year, any genre… whatever. You will find the same thing, regardless of the quality of the game and your own personal feelings on it: 9 rage threads for every thread of praise. And in each thread of rage there would be 20 +1’s, upvotes, ikr’s’, et cetera, ad nauseum. Look even closer and patterns emerge, and the same nay-sayers invade the priase threads talking about ‘fanboys’ Every thread about how great something is buried under more hate.

I am not saying that every forum participant is a whiner, but what else is a whiner going to do? A forum is going to have a smaller number of the gamers happy about the game participating in the discussions then it will the whiners. If someone is happy about the game, they play it. A whiner has to whine. After map chat gets old, they need to whine to anyone who will listen (or read). Mommy doesent care, so take it to the forums.

Take this thread for example. It wasnt enough to have that discussion on reddit, someone had to come here to forum-en.guildwars2 and solicit that thread for more upvotes.

While not being completely happy with the packages I find the price oke, however I find it supposing so many people dislike it.
Many GW2 players seem to not be able to handle money and throw a lot of money in the cash-shop. There is an item in the cash-shop that lets you buy 6 finishers, that cost the same as the expansion.
So many people have been throwing away money to buy out of the grind a big part of the game has become (driven by that same cash-shop) and spending it on skins. But now they ask you to spend money on actual content and the bomb explodes.
Again, I agree the packages are not perfect, standard should have a char-slot and we should have a CE edition, but the $50,- price-tag, just as the $75 one is fine. If you want to want to spend your money right start with not buying gems, that was a waste of money and did only harm the game in making it a big grind. Rather spend that on expansion for €50,- on a yearly base.

I logged on today and Ive never seen the community of this game so toxic. Every chat from LA-TEQ-sPvP-and the few people in my guild that actually bothered to log on were all up in arms over this stuff.

I have 10 characters in ascended gear, played 6-7k hours on my account, purchased 2 bonus accounts when they were on sale for login dailies (one of’m even has a geared 80 on it so I can run certain dungeons twice a day if I feel like it), and I’ve spent around 500-600$ on gems since early release. Most of that money was in the first year, less the 2nd, and barely any in this last year because I’ve just been so upset at the direction of this game. I’ve also never spent nearly as much money as I have on other games (steam games and such) while also playing an MMO at the same time as this one. Ive had lots of friends flat out quit because of this announcement. Many of them giving away stuff on their accounts, and uninstalling. Lots of’m moving on to other MMOs like FF and AA. I try to convince people not to trash their accounts because they might come back (and they never did when other A.net stuff became an issue), but its honestly been an amazing game with 3 years of being ignored so A.net can cater to brand new players (China, NPE, Fractal rework). I mostly just login to do 1-4 dungeons in an hour or so assuming theres enough people around and move on to steam games.

I may not 100% know what is coming in HoT, but based on what we do know, its not a 50(+10)$ expansion. Honestly.. just tell me you’re doubling the amount of dungeons in this expansion and I’ll buy the 100$ version right now because that one offers the best deal. But as of now.. not only am I definitely not pre-ordering it, but I prolly wont even buy it. :_:

Hearte.6852:

So the total is easily over $100,000 in lost sales, just from those who have viewed that thread and voted. It’s not a perfect metric

This seems to be the same math as when game publishers say: a 1000 people pirating the game is 1000 less sales.
Those who were never going to buy the expansion and those who never even liked GW2 all that much are all people who would also up vote. In fact those people most likely (thanks to confirmation bias) very very much like and want HoT to not be a good product.

jihm.2315:

what the kitten is wrong with people this days?
the expansion price is good and fair .
simple as that.

Some players are looking back at the GW1 days with rose-tinted glasses.
Some players after mono-gamers and don’t really know that $50 is actually pretty standard for game prices these days.
Some players just want to get he best deal and are fanning the flames in hopes that Anet will lower the price.
Some players don’t feel (in contrast to know) that the game is worth $50.
Some people are simply reinforcing their decision to not buy HoT.

Warcry.1596:

Am I wrong to feel the price is fair? Even though I work 15-20 hours a week at $9.00 an hour.

I think it’s a matter of perspective.
I’d imagine most gamers in the US and EU probably wouldn’t see this as being unreasonable. I’d also wager that most average gamers have gotten use to the $40-70 price tags of modern gaming.

SkiTz.4590:

Maybe to you.
But for veteran players who have been supporting the game for years, its a slap in the face to not AT LEAST give them 1 free character slot to try out the new class…

Which is a different argument.
Is price of the expansion at $50 acceptable? And should veteran players be rewarded for being veteran players?

bloodletting wolf.2837:

I’m not paying $50 for a living story season with a few extra bells and whistles unless you can somehow prove that it is anything more than that.

No one can except ANet, wait for more information.

The Spiral King.2483:

It has nothing to do with being too expensive to afford.

Not for you, but do remember that there is more than a single conversation going on here.

IIvIIozzie.9250:

The lack of content patches since HoT’s announcement,

This is actually pretty standard practice for expansions in MMOs.

Channel.9402:

After this expansion gw2 core game will be gone since it’s bundle for free in HoT. So basically new player buy the “new gw2” at 50usd while vet player will be buying………!!…

Veteran players have been playing the games for years. That’s what they’ve gotten for the money they paid ANet.

SkiTz.4590:

If you honest to god believe there are 7 million ACTIVE accounts ..woah.. i don’t know what to tell you…

7 million people purchased the original game. So I’m guessing they’re using that figure to indicate possible purchases of HoT.

Aviate.1376:

I will not but hot because anet went in early aceess direction. This is kitten. 50euro for 3 zones and they dont give even one char slot.

Link? We don’t know if there will be 3 zones, we don’t know how many zones there will be besides the 1 we’ve seen so far.

mikeew.8607:

My wife and I will not be pre purchasing or purchasing HOT until the pricing is in line with the content released.

And no one outside of ANet knows how much content there will be. I’m all for caution when it comes to pre-purchasing, however stating that you know how much content there will be is clearly a lie (unless you have insider information).

Gav.1425:

You could always wait 3 years and buy HOT on sale for $10.

Hey you could wait for the next expansion and HoT might even be free

The Dervish.7384:

Now, i cant use my HoM… HoM is not like they promised also. How can i trust Anet again if they release stuff they promised for HoT? So, i dont.. pre-purchase, never.. lol.

Good wait for release and some reviews and feedback.

John.8507:

If they removed the core game from the pre purchase for those who had it then surley they could make it cheaper.

ANet has stated that the core game was a free addition, meaning that it wasn’t used to calculate the price.

The price is fair imo but it lacks a character slot, if the character slot was included that would help a lot..

Maybe you all think the free addition of the vanilla is a crime, but remember you paid for 3 years of uptime for 50+ servers, maintenance, bandwith , electricity and ppl developing this game during this time.

Now saying it’;s to expensive is like going to the garage and saying they should reduce the cost of maintaining your car cause ppl buying a new one will get a free airconditioning,

Have fun, If you stand with it, I respect you, If you buckle and buy it You lose my respect,

I bought it. I do not condone your actions, I think they are childish and immature.

at release this game was to have regular updates, after removing initial bugs and problems LS S1 started, provinding you content, whihc was frowned upon as it was not repreatable, so Anet listened and changed and made S2, which was frowned upon as ppl didn’t want additional personal story, Ppl started screaming for a REAL expansion, so A-Net listened and made you an expansion. claimed a name, and started promotions, and now you are saying it’s all wrong?

You the vocal minority brought this on yourselves. Free bi weekly updates was a biit much but free updates were a thing and you veto-ed it. Now deal with your own selfcreated monster.

Oh and for ppl being kittened of they cannot trade their gold for the expansion, You CAN buy your character slot for gold. Deal with it.

I was a 100% pre-purchaser right up until the moment they made it available…..

I’m still struggling with how I’ve done a 180 on this and not got it yet.

Not buying for 45 euro, that’s insane, considering I bought the main game for 42 euro back in the day and now you don’t even get a character slot (you did with gw1 xpacs). Anet got really greedy.

Fhaeris.9237:

Not buying for 45 euro, that’s insane,

thats industry standard

considering I bought the main game for 42 euro back in the day

1095 days, in fact.

(you did with gw1 xpacs).

10 years ago, and I remember how generous they were with bag/storage space, so do you.

Anet got really greedy.

stop. and read what you just typed, and think long and hard about the concept of greed, and whatever notion of entitlement that you have, having paid only 42 euros for the entertainment you could have had over the last 3 years.

Now: what is greed?

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

Maybe you all think the free addition of the vanilla is a crime, but remember you paid for 3 years of uptime for 50+ servers, maintenance, bandwith , electricity and ppl developing this game during this time.

Now saying it’;s to expensive is like going to the garage and saying they should reduce the cost of maintaining your car cause ppl buying a new one will get a free airconditioning,

Have fun, If you stand with it, I respect you, If you buckle and buy it You lose my respect,

I bought it. I do not condone your actions, I think they are childish and immature.

at release this game was to have regular updates, after removing initial bugs and problems LS S1 started, provinding you content, whihc was frowned upon as it was not repreatable, so Anet listened and changed and made S2, which was frowned upon as ppl didn’t want additional personal story, Ppl started screaming for a REAL expansion, so A-Net listened and made you an expansion. claimed a name, and started promotions, and now you are saying it’s all wrong?

You the vocal minority brought this on yourselves. Free bi weekly updates was a biit much but free updates were a thing and you veto-ed it. Now deal with your own selfcreated monster.

Oh and for ppl being kittened of they cannot trade their gold for the expansion, You CAN buy your character slot for gold. Deal with it.

Either you have no sense of basic economics or you truly do not know how this game makes its money longterm. Let’s cue you in: it’s NOT from the price we paid for the initial game, that was more to defray development costs and give a startup buffer. GW2 makes its money from the gem store. In which most of us spent considerable amounts over they time we played. So, dear heart, nothing ever came ‘for free’ and from the NCSoft financial reports, Guild Wars 2 still turns a nice profit in the EU and NA.

As to content additions: what this game has offered in the past 3 years completely PALES compared to what other games (even those with the same payment model) offer. Which is a problem, for if you want to keep your players long term (and have them keep paying for gems) you actually have to give them a reason to do so.

Now coming to HoT… I serious have to question your instant judgement there as well. If you have a good look at what is currently known to be incorporated in the expansion, it’s not all that much, especially if you’re a pure WvW or PVP player. Yet we’re asked to pay the same as we’d pay for most FULL games. And if Anet then doesn’t even add 1 extra character slot for every bundle, so existing players cannot actually try out the new class that’s made so much off… then it looks like nothing more than a money grab, raising the effective price of the expansion to a minimum of $60.

It’s not about the money, or even the in-game gold. It’s the principle. And the apparent lack of respect for the existing player base.

You call that immature, but personally, I consider swallowing everything put before you without questioning as something that is not exactly something showing mature deliberation… or good sense.

Already Bought !!!!
Please more “don’t buy thread” can’t make me laugh enough.

To be honest, might it be 50 or 100 bucks, the price seems fair to me. After all, I played this game more than any other I ever bought.

I know people will say that it doesn’t mean anything, but it’s just a matter of opinion: some people will buy $60 games every year, even if it’s the same old game with one extra weapon or map.

Here we have a new story, with supposedly new episodes coming during the year. They’ve changed most of their system (“about time” would say some, but work isn’t easy), added new features, and took a new direction with evolution and variation of fighting styles. To me, the work they have done is comparable to what they did before GW2 was released (they had the basis, but had to change some things). They are opening a new path for a brighter future.

Is the expansion worth $50?… Maybe not, we don’t know for sure, but with such a price, we expect a lot of content just like the base game. However, I see the price not as the price of the expansion as it will be released, but as an investment for quality updates that will begin soon, for new weapons, new skills… And maybe some kind of guarantee we will not wait another 3 years before beating the bottom of another dragon

Have I prepurchased the expansion? … No. Why? Because I think that a free character slot is the minimum they could offer. It’s like buying a house with a nice view on something, and when you get it… It doesn’t have windows. A free character slot was asked by many, because one of the most interesting feature in the expansion is the Revenant. Why should I delete a character I spent time on or pay again for something that should be included?

New players, who never used any profession, will have the opportunity to play as a Revenant and, for the same price, will have twice (if not more) the content veteran players are getting. “But you had LS1 and 2”, that’s true, but I don’t have LS1 anymore, and if I missed a LS2 episode I would have to pay for it.

It’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message. In the end I will buy the expansion, but first I would like to hear from ANet about putting every player on the same level: being equal doesn’t mean being fair, so it’s up to them to decide if they want to be fair with both their playerbase, or equal, because rememeber, they don’t want to split the playerbase, yet they are doing it.

Greymelken.1892:

Fhaeris.9237:

Not buying for 45 euro, that’s insane,

thats industry standard

considering I bought the main game for 42 euro back in the day

1095 days, in fact.

(you did with gw1 xpacs).

10 years ago, and I remember how generous they were with bag/storage space, so do you.

Anet got really greedy.

stop. and read what you just typed, and think long and hard about the concept of greed, and whatever notion of entitlement that you have, having paid only 42 euros for the entertainment you could have had over the last 3 years.

Now: what is greed?

Industry standard? For expansions? Really? Maybe for WoW, but WoW is not the industry.

If I look at the other MMO I play… Eve just had it’s 6-monthly expansion (free). But that’s a sub game, so I guess you don’t think it counts, even if most of us spend more on gems than we spend on subs. OK then. The Secret World (f2p) just had another issue for 960 funcom points…less than 10 Euros. SW:TOR (f2p with limitations) had an update in April and is announcing another… both free.

So yeah, I think ANet is a bit on the expensive side in comparison.

As to ‘entitlement’… that’s a stupid buzz word, which is currently misapplied all over the place. What you have here is a question of value for money, which is exacerbated by the fact that one of the main features of the new expansion, the Revenant class, is inaccessible for veterans (at least those who have not already paid $$ for extra character slots), unless they fork over another $10 on top of the expansion. Which is just bad marketing and bad PR.

You’re going to buy the expansion, and you know it. Don’t kid yourself.

Sube Dai.8496:

An extra character slot would be nice. But I seriously don’t care.

I can’t believe how much people will complain about 10-20 bucks.

I love this sort of opinion, it shows how companies get away with overpricing products that people like this comment then buy, regardless of what others perceive as proper value.

I’ll happily sell you a gobstopper for $24.99 instead of $0.99. After all, what’s 10 or 20 bucks, right? PM your address, I’ll happily sell you and all the others who have that opinion anything you want at 10-20 bucks over what I can get it delivered to you for.

Not going to pre-purchase.

Why?

1. I don’t need another copy of the core game.

2. The base price is too high for an expansion that features a ton less of content than the core game, yet costs the same.

3. There’s other games that cost half that, and are a full multiplayer game

4. While I was very hyped for GW2, only a few features of HoT interest me: guild content, specialisations and revenant. So I’ll wait until this game goes on massive sales, or price gets adjusted.

5. Current info about the content HoT will give us is shallow at best.

GG.

The Spiral King.2483:

Pimsley.6087:

Get better jobs if this is too steep a price.

It has nothing to do with being too expensive to afford. $50 is basically nothing to someone with even a mediocre full time job. I have seen this faulty argument at play a ton of times over the years, and it has never made any more sense than the first time I saw it.

Indeed. It’s not so much about price, it’s about worth. I could throw money at anyone at all and not be broke, yet I don’t do it. Because I don’t think they’re worth the money.

It’s like going to a portable shop and buying an iPhone because it’s cover says “iPhone”, but in quality there’s models available for half the price and just as good or fancy. But, by all means Pimsley, throw your money at Anet, I’m sure they’ll thank you for it by ignoring your favourite game mode for 3 years (~hint~ wvw ~hint~).

80%of the player in this thread who now shout i would not buy it, will be the first in the jungle.

Gamers are not consistently and they know it