Guild Wars 2

Anet,
what about a limited-time/weekend access to HoT for the non-HoT crowd? I can see it helping players who don’t have HoT to decide if it’s worth their purchase.

You already have the account-mirroring technology from your beta weekends leading up to HoT.

They won’t do that until HoT is fixed. It has some glaring issues. No point in making a demo weekend now.

Beta was running in isolated server where all the items you earned had no value and you lost everything once it ended. What would be value of such limited beta server when deciding about HoT? I am not sure what you are after, do you just want to see the new HoT maps or just try the new skills elite specs provide?

I’m not trying to get anything out of it myself (except probably more ppl to play/chat with in the long term), it’s a suggestion to Anet. I’ve already got HoT and participated in the beta weekends, so I know it’s limitations. As mentioned, it’s value would be to give the undecided a means to try before buying.

I don’t see any fixes that are absolutely needed for this to work. WvW does comes to mind, but that’s an issue for the core game. There are legendary bugs, but I’d be amazed if anyone could complete a legendary journey in the space of a weekend. And the difficulty of the encounters seem to be in line with Anet’s intentions. There are other bugs, but none that would be significant to someone who has 2 days to see what HoT has to offer over and above the core game.

Reason I bring it up now, is if Anet does do something of the sort, it should be sooner rather than later. The longer they wait, the less interest there would be. And like I said, the technology is already there.

Edit:
Technically, during BWE, the servers weren’t completely isolated… i.e. you could still travel to LA with your Rev and interact with the non-beta characters. Main limitations were that you couldn’t keep any loot/gold/achievements earned while on the beta character, and the systems that could unbalance the non-beta game were disabled while you were on that character (e.g. TP, mail, guild bank). Heck, one of my guildies did triple trouble on his beta-Rev and an ascended chest dropped for him… RNG gods at their worst!

The best HoT demo is now live: gliding in Tyria. An inspired sales tactic I reckon.

DoctorDing.5890:

The best HoT demo is now live: gliding in Tyria. An inspired sales tactic I reckon.

It is, and so is everyone who runs around with their HoT legendaries. But in a few months the wow factor will be gone and Anet will have made all the sales they can from those. And when that time comes, there will still be people sitting on the fence.

Since HoT > gliding + legendaries, why not let the full game speak for itself?

onevstheworld.2419:

The longer they wait, the less interest there would be.

^

I have not read a lot of good and I want also a test before purchase. Today I no longer miss HOT.

Every time they make a HOT only update (raids, LS3, new legendaries) they add more value to HOT and renewed interest, and HOT will only get cheaper as time goes on.

I expect ANet will refund if you ask it, within a short window of time. So there’s always buying, trying for a few days then getting a refund if it turns out you dislike it.

This kind of trial wouldnt really work or be too effective, anything you would want to trial could just be looked up on youtube. And a lot of the HOT content requires some kind of time investment or progression, so what would be the point of testing things like masterys when you wouldn’t get to get them very high or keep the progression anyway

Players are better off just looking up videos and deciding based off that instead of playing a demo only to have to do it over again if they buy it

I’m amazed some people find fences to be so comfy.