Guild Wars 2

Now I am reading that someone F*ed and bought the expansions?

What is wrong with you guys?

It is a choice. You either buy it or you don’t, simple as that.

It’s been two days now and I have seen people wanting to boycott, down right refuse this expansion due to price and lack of character slots and lack of information as exactly what we are entirely getting when we buy this?

This is getting annoying now. Either you buy it or you don’t.

To me, this went from justified surprise, then anger, then ranting then rioting to seeming boycotting to now giving out “warnings”?

Guys, come on… calm down. Please.

Do not argue with raging people on the internet, you will not convince them no matter the right or wrong. In fact no one can.

I am sitting on the fence right now and watching how this debacle unravels before I make my decision on the expansion.

This has become a huge media storm:

http://kotaku.com/players-are-kittened-over-guild-wars-2-expansion-pricing-1712551999
http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-players-rightly-upset-by-heart-of-thorns-pre-purchase-scheme/
http://www.vg247.com/2015/06/19/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-price-pc/

just to name a few…

I want to know how ArenaNet would respond to this, or if they do respond at all.

My problem isn’t people who are saying we don’t know enough yet to justify the expansion or people who are complaining about not getting a character slot. My problem is the vitriol and disrespect, not to mention outright accusations of wrongdoing.

It’s pretty clear Anet changed direction late in the game with how they were going to offer the original game with HoT. Companies do it all the time.

DarkSpirit.7046:

I am sitting on the fence right now and watching how this debacle unravels before I make my decision on the expansion.

This has become a huge media storm:

http://kotaku.com/players-are-kittened-over-guild-wars-2-expansion-pricing-1712551999
http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-players-rightly-upset-by-heart-of-thorns-pre-purchase-scheme/
http://www.vg247.com/2015/06/19/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-price-pc/

just to name a few…

I want to know how ArenaNet would respond to this, or if they do respond at all.

Anet don’t have to response, they have done nothing wrong. People are just over reacting.

warbignime.4610:

DarkSpirit.7046:

I am sitting on the fence right now and watching how this debacle unravels before I make my decision on the expansion.

This has become a huge media storm:

http://kotaku.com/players-are-kittened-over-guild-wars-2-expansion-pricing-1712551999
http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-players-rightly-upset-by-heart-of-thorns-pre-purchase-scheme/
http://www.vg247.com/2015/06/19/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-price-pc/

just to name a few…

I want to know how ArenaNet would respond to this, or if they do respond at all.

Anet don’t have to response, they have done nothing wrong. People are just over reacting.

Even if they decide not to do anything, they should respond and say so. Simply hiding their heads in the sand would not make this debacle go away.

DarkSpirit.7046:

warbignime.4610:

DarkSpirit.7046:

I am sitting on the fence right now and watching how this debacle unravels before I make my decision on the expansion.

This has become a huge media storm:

http://kotaku.com/players-are-kittened-over-guild-wars-2-expansion-pricing-1712551999
http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-players-rightly-upset-by-heart-of-thorns-pre-purchase-scheme/
http://www.vg247.com/2015/06/19/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-price-pc/

just to name a few…

I want to know how ArenaNet would respond to this, or if they do respond at all.

Anet don’t have to response, they have done nothing wrong. People are just over reacting.

Even if they decide not to do anything, they should respond and say so. Simply hiding their heads in the sand would not make this debacle go away.

Because Anet are not stupid and knows not to talk with raging people on the internet?

Vayne.8563:

… not to mention outright accusations of wrongdoing.

They changed their position about requiring to buy the core game and then edited the FAQ to hide the fact they said that in the first place. Seems to be a smidge of deceitful marketing right there coupled with the $10 sales so new players could be ready for when the expansion hit.

If they had a statement within 48 hours of this hitting the fan it would have gone a long way in quenching the fires but all the time did was to allow the anger and rage to build upon itself.

I’ve been in enough companies to see senior management and marketing foul up beyond all recognition while the engineering and manufacturing groups collectively face palm the screw up to say this is was just someone not thinking things through and it seemed like a good idea at the time rather than mustache twirling, hand wringing evil laughter from a darken room.

Behellagh.1468:

Vayne.8563:

… not to mention outright accusations of wrongdoing.

They changed their position about requiring to buy the core game and then edited the FAQ to hide the fact they said that in the first place. Seems to be a smidge of deceitful marketing right there coupled with the $10 sales so new players could be ready for when the expansion hit.

If they had a statement within 48 hours of this hitting the fan it would have gone a long way in quenching the fires but all the time did was to allow the anger and rage to build upon itself.

I’ve been in enough companies to see senior management and marketing foul up beyond all recognition while the engineering and manufacturing groups collectively face palm the screw up to say this is was just someone not thinking things through and it seemed like a good idea at the time rather than mustache twirling, hand wringing evil laughter from a darken room.

They changed position on requiring Core for HoT.
They editted the FAQ to reflect the new position.

Isn’t this the order everyone would do it in? No one would be upset about this.

What people are thinking is;

They changed position on requiring Core for HoT.
They didn’t change the FAQ to reflect the new position.

This would be the dishonest version…

I’m assuming people are thinking the guy who edits the FAQ was told NOT to edit it for ages for evil reasons. Or maybe they forgot to tell him anything. Or maybe they changed their position very last minute. Or maybe they were too busy thinking “it’ll be a great surprise lets keep it a secret so everyone gets excited when they hear it.”

The change of position on HoT and Core and the process after is something we know nothing about, but I don’t understand how “the FAQ was editted” proves anything for any interpretation.

warbignime.4610:

DarkSpirit.7046:

warbignime.4610:

DarkSpirit.7046:

I am sitting on the fence right now and watching how this debacle unravels before I make my decision on the expansion.

This has become a huge media storm:

http://kotaku.com/players-are-kittened-over-guild-wars-2-expansion-pricing-1712551999
http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-players-rightly-upset-by-heart-of-thorns-pre-purchase-scheme/
http://www.vg247.com/2015/06/19/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-price-pc/

just to name a few…

I want to know how ArenaNet would respond to this, or if they do respond at all.

Anet don’t have to response, they have done nothing wrong. People are just over reacting.

Even if they decide not to do anything, they should respond and say so. Simply hiding their heads in the sand would not make this debacle go away.

Because Anet are not stupid and knows not to talk with raging people on the internet?

Those raging people happened to have paid money to support their game, making them their customers. It is the same raging people who complained about the ascended gear tier and everything else. If ArenaNet doesn’t reply then the expansion would not be as successful as it could be.

Coulter.2315:

What people are thinking is;

They changed position on requiring Core for HoT.
They didn’t change the FAQ to reflect the new position.

This would be the dishonest version…

…Which kinda obviously is exactly what happened.

They changed their FAQ when they began the prepurchase. They had already decided how they would do the prepurchase when they began the prepurchase, obviously; and in order to make the assets (website, the rest of the buying interface, FAQ localization and etc), they had to make the decision A LOT before they began the prepurchase.

Besides, with Colin and other high ups in E3, the decision was clearly made some time ago.

Yet they didn’t say anything. They allowed people to continue buying the game in order to prepare for HoT, even with said money being effectively wasted.

You said yourself what this is.

warbignime.4610:

DarkSpirit.7046:

I am sitting on the fence right now and watching how this debacle unravels before I make my decision on the expansion.

This has become a huge media storm:

http://kotaku.com/players-are-kittened-over-guild-wars-2-expansion-pricing-1712551999
http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-players-rightly-upset-by-heart-of-thorns-pre-purchase-scheme/
http://www.vg247.com/2015/06/19/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-price-pc/

just to name a few…

I want to know how ArenaNet would respond to this, or if they do respond at all.

Anet don’t have to response, they have done nothing wrong. People are just over reacting.

Do they have to respond? No. Should they? Yes. Even if the response is to tell the complaining players that nothing is going to change. And even just to say that they’re still discussing the options and have to weigh how easy the resolution is to apply, especially to those who have already purchased the game. And the latter one needs to be restated every few days.

1. Not responding means the side that wants ANet to go further has hope that things may change. Because nothing concrete has been said. This is especially true given ANet’s lack of communication on anything they are doing with the game. So they post and post in hopes to sway the company to do something in their favor.

2. The longer they don’t respond, the worse the damage from the event will be. And you can only discuss it for so long before players will think they’re just stalling to let the worst of the storm blow over before they pop out with a resolution. Especially if that resolution is not what those upset are looking for.

Test.8734:

Coulter.2315:

What people are thinking is;

They changed position on requiring Core for HoT.
They didn’t change the FAQ to reflect the new position.

This would be the dishonest version…

…Which kinda obviously is exactly what happened.

They changed their FAQ when they began the prepurchase. They had already decided how they would do the prepurchase when they began the prepurchase, obviously; and in order to make the assets (website, the rest of the buying interface, FAQ localization and etc), they had to make the decision A LOT before they began the prepurchase.

Besides, with Colin and other high ups in E3, the decision was clearly made some time ago.

Yet they didn’t say anything. They allowed people to continue buying the game in order to prepare for HoT, even with said money being effectively wasted.

You said yourself what this is.

I guess so, good thing they’re allowing people to get refunds from recent purchases then.

They didn’t edit the FAQ after the decision on HoT+Core was made because it would have caused the announcement of the preorder to happen out of their control, then give people the option to get the account shifted to the current offer if they want.

Seems reasonable way of preparing for an announcement with a safeguard to not screw buyers who bought in at the wrong time. Don’t you think?

Coulter.2315:

Test.8734:

Coulter.2315:

What people are thinking is;

They changed position on requiring Core for HoT.
They didn’t change the FAQ to reflect the new position.

This would be the dishonest version…

…Which kinda obviously is exactly what happened.

They changed their FAQ when they began the prepurchase. They had already decided how they would do the prepurchase when they began the prepurchase, obviously; and in order to make the assets (website, the rest of the buying interface, FAQ localization and etc), they had to make the decision A LOT before they began the prepurchase.

Besides, with Colin and other high ups in E3, the decision was clearly made some time ago.

Yet they didn’t say anything. They allowed people to continue buying the game in order to prepare for HoT, even with said money being effectively wasted.

You said yourself what this is.

I guess so, good thing they’re allowing people to get refunds from recent purchases then.

Only purchases that were made directly through them. Sucks for all those people that bought from amazon, humble bundle and other retailers.

Seera.5916:

warbignime.4610:

DarkSpirit.7046:

I am sitting on the fence right now and watching how this debacle unravels before I make my decision on the expansion.

This has become a huge media storm:

http://kotaku.com/players-are-kittened-over-guild-wars-2-expansion-pricing-1712551999
http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-players-rightly-upset-by-heart-of-thorns-pre-purchase-scheme/
http://www.vg247.com/2015/06/19/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-price-pc/

just to name a few…

I want to know how ArenaNet would respond to this, or if they do respond at all.

Anet don’t have to response, they have done nothing wrong. People are just over reacting.

Do they have to respond? No. Should they? Yes. Even if the response is to tell the complaining players that nothing is going to change. And even just to say that they’re still discussing the options and have to weigh how easy the resolution is to apply, especially to those who have already purchased the game. And the latter one needs to be restated every few days.

1. Not responding means the side that wants ANet to go further has hope that things may change. Because nothing concrete has been said. This is especially true given ANet’s lack of communication on anything they are doing with the game. So they post and post in hopes to sway the company to do something in their favor.

2. The longer they don’t respond, the worse the damage from the event will be. And you can only discuss it for so long before players will think they’re just stalling to let the worst of the storm blow over before they pop out with a resolution. Especially if that resolution is not what those upset are looking for.

This is not even as big of back lash when ascended gear was introduced. People were saying if they put ascended in the game this game will die. We all saw how that turn out.

Jaymee.1560:

Now I am reading that someone F*ed and bought the expansions?

What is wrong with you guys?

It is a choice. You either buy it or you don’t, simple as that.

It’s been two days now and I have seen people wanting to boycott, down right refuse this expansion due to price and lack of character slots and lack of information as exactly what we are entirely getting when we buy this?

This is getting annoying now. Either you buy it or you don’t.

To me, this went from justified surprise, then anger, then ranting then rioting to seeming boycotting to now giving out “warnings”?

Guys, come on… calm down. Please.

I never seen people rage over 10 dollars in my life or 800 gems. Any long term player can easily get 800 gems in game without spending a dime.

Funny thing was the hype for the new profession was not that great, then all of sudden everyone and their mother wants to play one now after the pre-order was put online.

Fernling.1729:

Coulter.2315:

Test.8734:

Coulter.2315:

What people are thinking is;

They changed position on requiring Core for HoT.
They didn’t change the FAQ to reflect the new position.

This would be the dishonest version…

…Which kinda obviously is exactly what happened.

They changed their FAQ when they began the prepurchase. They had already decided how they would do the prepurchase when they began the prepurchase, obviously; and in order to make the assets (website, the rest of the buying interface, FAQ localization and etc), they had to make the decision A LOT before they began the prepurchase.

Besides, with Colin and other high ups in E3, the decision was clearly made some time ago.

Yet they didn’t say anything. They allowed people to continue buying the game in order to prepare for HoT, even with said money being effectively wasted.

You said yourself what this is.

I guess so, good thing they’re allowing people to get refunds from recent purchases then.

Only purchases that were made directly through them. Sucks for all those people that bought from amazon, humble bundle and other retailers.

Shame for them, but someone will always fall on the wrong side of a change. They made reasonable efforts to minimise the damage in my view while keeping to the “make a big statement at E3” plan (which I’m sure they were required to do).

The FAQ edit has been used as some symbol of evil, its just one of those things that comes from press events and marketting while they put up a safety net for customers they could verify purchases from (direct sales).

warbignime.4610:

Seera.5916:

warbignime.4610:

DarkSpirit.7046:

I am sitting on the fence right now and watching how this debacle unravels before I make my decision on the expansion.

This has become a huge media storm:

http://kotaku.com/players-are-kittened-over-guild-wars-2-expansion-pricing-1712551999
http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-players-rightly-upset-by-heart-of-thorns-pre-purchase-scheme/
http://www.vg247.com/2015/06/19/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-price-pc/

just to name a few…

I want to know how ArenaNet would respond to this, or if they do respond at all.

Anet don’t have to response, they have done nothing wrong. People are just over reacting.

Do they have to respond? No. Should they? Yes. Even if the response is to tell the complaining players that nothing is going to change. And even just to say that they’re still discussing the options and have to weigh how easy the resolution is to apply, especially to those who have already purchased the game. And the latter one needs to be restated every few days.

1. Not responding means the side that wants ANet to go further has hope that things may change. Because nothing concrete has been said. This is especially true given ANet’s lack of communication on anything they are doing with the game. So they post and post in hopes to sway the company to do something in their favor.

2. The longer they don’t respond, the worse the damage from the event will be. And you can only discuss it for so long before players will think they’re just stalling to let the worst of the storm blow over before they pop out with a resolution. Especially if that resolution is not what those upset are looking for.

This is not even as big of back lash when ascended gear was introduced. People were saying if they put ascended in the game this game will die. We all saw how that turn out.

But the important thing is that they responded and it died down.

Personally, I am annoyed with their half in/half out policy with ascended items. They want the ascended gear tier to act as an expensive gold sink but they refuse to make them useful enough for most people to feel compelled to acquire.

If they are not useful then remove them, otherwise make them useful. Stop wasting time going back and forth!

I wont be surprised they also can’t decide on what to do with this HoT issue.

Seera.5916:

Do they have to respond? No. Should they? Yes. Even if the response is to tell the complaining players that nothing is going to change. And even just to say that they’re still discussing the options and have to weigh how easy the resolution is to apply, especially to those who have already purchased the game. And the latter one needs to be restated every few days.

1. Not responding means the side that wants ANet to go further has hope that things may change. Because nothing concrete has been said. This is especially true given ANet’s lack of communication on anything they are doing with the game. So they post and post in hopes to sway the company to do something in their favor.

2. The longer they don’t respond, the worse the damage from the event will be. And you can only discuss it for so long before players will think they’re just stalling to let the worst of the storm blow over before they pop out with a resolution. Especially if that resolution is not what those upset are looking for.

I’m not surprised it’s taking them time to react to this situation. They were trying to hype things up at E3 and it backfired. Catching them off guard would be an understatement and big companies aren’t able to react quickly in cases like this. Too many things have to go through too many people to make decisions, it’s a process that takes time. I’m sure there a bunch of people working overtime to make a decision and to formulate a proper statement and when it is ready they will come out a say it. The last thing they want is to come out, say the wrong thing and make things worst than they already are.

If at anytime since the announcement some one from ANet CS ever told an upset player that the FAQ never said you had to buy the base game, it would be a problem.

During last August’s anniversary sale transmutation charges were on sale. Except whoever was in charge of calculating the discounted price screwed up. It was suppose to be 30% off. So instead of 150 for 5 / 270 for 10 / 600 for 25 being discounted to 105/189/420 gems they were discounted to 105/210/525 gems. That’s 30%/22.2%/12.5%.

After this was pointed out someone went into the gem shop and raised the full price to 150/300/750 and reverting it back to 150/270/600 once the sale was over rather than fixing the sale price and tracking down those who bought at the wrong price and refunded them. It’s minor compared to the issue today but it’s not like they didn’t take the easy route before.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Wrong-advertising-in-Gem-Shop/first#post4347304

Julie Yann.5379:

Seera.5916:

Do they have to respond? No. Should they? Yes. Even if the response is to tell the complaining players that nothing is going to change. And even just to say that they’re still discussing the options and have to weigh how easy the resolution is to apply, especially to those who have already purchased the game. And the latter one needs to be restated every few days.

1. Not responding means the side that wants ANet to go further has hope that things may change. Because nothing concrete has been said. This is especially true given ANet’s lack of communication on anything they are doing with the game. So they post and post in hopes to sway the company to do something in their favor.

2. The longer they don’t respond, the worse the damage from the event will be. And you can only discuss it for so long before players will think they’re just stalling to let the worst of the storm blow over before they pop out with a resolution. Especially if that resolution is not what those upset are looking for.

I’m not surprised it’s taking them time to react to this situation. They were trying to hype things up at E3 and it backfired. Catching them off guard would be an understatement and big companies aren’t able to react quickly in cases like this. Too many things have to go through too many people to make decisions, it’s a process that takes time. I’m sure there a bunch of people working overtime to make a decision and to formulate a proper statement and when it is ready they will come out a say it. The last thing they want is to come out, say the wrong thing and make things worst than they already are.

Given their past history, I’m not surprised either. But that doesn’t mean that the longer it takes for them to post a response the worse the damage control will have to be.

I for one, am glad they didn’t post an immediate solution. It means it’s not a knee jerk reaction to the PR and the solution will hopefully be something that pleases the most players of all possible and reasonable solutions.

Funny thing to me, is, a good portion of this particular controversy could have easily been avoided with the addition of a character slot in the $50 package.

I agree with some folks that discussed in game today that Anet have shown us very little as to what we’ll be getting when we get HoT. Okay, I understand that raises questions. But for other people to start rallying up protests against this… this is where I would stop and say – “Use your head, folks.”

There was someone in DR today who is all but convinced that we are only getting 1 to 2 more new maps. I disagree with this. Just because it hasn’t been SEEN doesn’t mean that what they have shown us is all that’s going to exist.

I also understand a lot of these players are children, so I am likely to not all out ignore their statements, but they don’t come to the forefront of the argument.

It is not cheap to produce these games, and it takes money. A LOT of money. They have paychecks to hand out to their designers. I agree that the price was a little steep at $50 for having no extra character slot but… then again, how many character has anyone of us deleted out of sheer boredem? Therefore, there’s your character slot right there.

I think they could have gone about this a tad differently, but what’s done has been done, Can they truly change it now? My husband and I both bought the $100 package, if they were to change anything how would my husband and I be reimbursed? Think about it.

Jaymee.1560:

I agree that the price was a little steep at $50 but… then again, how many character has anyone of us deleted out of sheer boredem? Therefore, there’s your character slot right there.

I have played GW1 ever since May 2005 all the way to GW2 beta and now. How many characters have I deleted due to boredom? ZERO!

I don’t believe in wasting my efforts. If buying the expansion is equivalent to buying a toaster then I don’t mind, but this is a MMO expansion and the relationship between ArenaNet and their customers go much further than simply buying a 1-time payment item.

How they respond to their customers would give me an idea on what I am actually paying for.

DarkSpirit.7046:

I have played GW1 ever since May 2005 all the way to GW2 beta and now. How many characters have I deleted due to boredom? ZERO!

I don’t believe in wasting my efforts.

LOL, I didn’t mean EVERYONE has, but a good lot of us have. Personally, I rather delete a character then fork over 10 bucks just to make another one. This decision came after I realized I had 22 character slots. I haven’t bought anymore since and that was 2 years ago, so… But, I understand where you’re coming from.

Jaymee.1560:

Funny thing to me, is, a good portion of this particular controversy could have easily been avoided with the addition of a character slot in the $50 package.

I agree with some folks that discussed in game today that Anet have shown us very little as to what we’ll be getting when we get HoT. Okay, I understand that raises questions. But for other people to start rallying up protests against this… this is where I would stop and say – “Use your head, folks.”

There was someone in DR today who is all but convinced that we are only getting 1 to 2 more new maps. I disagree with this. Just because it hasn’t been SEEN doesn’t mean that what they have shown us is all that’s going to exist.

I also understand a lot of these players are children, so I am likely to not all out ignore their statements, but they don’t come to the forefront of the argument.

It is not cheap to produce these games, and it takes money. A LOT of money. They have paychecks to hand out to their designers. I agree that the price was a little steep at $50 but… then again, how many character has anyone of us deleted out of sheer boredem? Therefore, there’s your character slot right there.

I think they could have gone about this a tad differently, but what’s done as been done, Can they truly change it now? My husband and I both bought the $100 package, if they were to change anything how would my husband and I be reimbursed? Think about it.

All they have to do is give us more digital stuff for the same amount of money. The best would be gems cause it’s flexible. Not everybody needs a character slot or title or a specific skin. Add 800 to 1200 gems to each of the packages would increased the perceived value of those packages. If you already bought a package you have bonus stuff waiting for you next time you log in. Anet sells more HoT, people get more stuff, those who have never used gems before get to experience the gemstore and maybe start buying more which equals for profit for Anet. Everybody wins.

Jaymee.1560:

DarkSpirit.7046:

I have played GW1 ever since May 2005 all the way to GW2 beta and now. How many characters have I deleted due to boredom? ZERO!

I don’t believe in wasting my efforts.

LOL, I didn’t mean EVERYONE has, but a good lot of us have. Personally, I rather delete a character then fork over 10 bucks just to make another one. This decision came after I realized I had 22 character slots. I haven’t bought anymore since and that was 2 years ago, so… But, I understand where you’re coming from.

Well I have 2 of every professions + 1 for key farming so that is 17, not quite as much as you have but I have enough. I also bought another account for my son and a few other character slots for him.

If I don’t like the appearance of my characters, I just buy them new armor or change their faces/sex. Certainly much cheaper and less boring, time-wise, than to create a new character to build them up to level 80 again.

Julie Yann.5379:

All they have to do is give us more digital stuff for the same amount of money. The best would be gems cause it’s flexible. Not everybody needs a character slot or title or a specific skin. Add 800 to 1200 gems to each of the packages would increased the perceived value of those packages. If you already bought a package you have bonus stuff waiting for you next time you log in. Anet sells more HoT, people get more stuff, those who have never used gems before get to experience the gemstore and maybe start buying more which equals for profit for Anet. Everybody wins.

I would accept that, definitely. But seeing as how Anet hasn’t responded yet to the uproar, I wouldn’t bank on them sending apologies in that form.

Coulter.2315:

They didn’t edit the FAQ after the decision on HoT+Core was made because it would have caused the announcement of the preorder to happen out of their control

Yeah… Only the FAQ update has absolutely nothing to do with the prepurchase announcement. It would have been very easy to change the FAQ to what it currently says without announcing or beginning the prepurchase, so ArenaNet would still have their “big E3 thing”.

In fact, it wouldn’t only have been easy. It would also have been honest.

Test.8734:

Coulter.2315:

They didn’t edit the FAQ after the decision on HoT+Core was made because it would have caused the announcement of the preorder to happen out of their control

Yeah… Only the FAQ update has absolutely nothing to do with the prepurchase announcement. It would have been very easy to change the FAQ to what it currently says without announcing or beginning the prepurchase, so ArenaNet would still have their “big E3 thing”.

In fact, it wouldn’t only have been easy. It would also have been honest.

How many minutes do you think it would be up before the screen shots and “HoT PREORDER BONUS CONFIRMED” happened? They allowed for refunds for as many customers as they could.

Coulter.2315:

Fernling.1729:

Coulter.2315:

Test.8734:

Coulter.2315:

What people are thinking is;

They changed position on requiring Core for HoT.
They didn’t change the FAQ to reflect the new position.

This would be the dishonest version…

…Which kinda obviously is exactly what happened.

They changed their FAQ when they began the prepurchase. They had already decided how they would do the prepurchase when they began the prepurchase, obviously; and in order to make the assets (website, the rest of the buying interface, FAQ localization and etc), they had to make the decision A LOT before they began the prepurchase.

Besides, with Colin and other high ups in E3, the decision was clearly made some time ago.

Yet they didn’t say anything. They allowed people to continue buying the game in order to prepare for HoT, even with said money being effectively wasted.

You said yourself what this is.

I guess so, good thing they’re allowing people to get refunds from recent purchases then.

Only purchases that were made directly through them. Sucks for all those people that bought from amazon, humble bundle and other retailers.

Shame for them, but someone will always fall on the wrong side of a change. They made reasonable efforts to minimise the damage in my view while keeping to the “make a big statement at E3” plan (which I’m sure they were required to do).

The FAQ edit has been used as some symbol of evil, its just one of those things that comes from press events and marketting while they put up a safety net for customers they could verify purchases from (direct sales).

This whole changed FAQ situation wouldn’t be an issue at all if the standard $50 edition wasn’t such an inferior deal for people already owning a GW2 account. If that package was a bit more attractive for “veterans”, whether they played for 3 years or 3 weeks, people would be jumping with joy that they got into the game just in time, instead of feeling like someone pulled a fast one on them.

ANet managed to make 2 badly received decisions that actual synergize to make things even worse. Quite amazing, actually.

Mmm… I hate the agree with that but… in a way, I see your point. New players coming into the deal get one hell of a welcoming gift, where as we Veterans… not so much.