Guild Wars 2

I hope you people realize that the extra character slot is for pre-purchase only as that release stated. Which means if you want to be a smart consumer and not buy things sight unseen and no reviews….well…screw you.

I had a chat with a friend of mine regarding this expansion and I made the point that if this practice continues I’ll be better off waiting until gw2 is on its deathbed before buying expansions. She said that they probably won’t use this pricing model in the future and I couldn’t be certain….I decided to let her live in dream world a bit. So yeah….purchasing gw2 actually works out economically to be exponentially more beneficial to the consumer the longer they don’t purchase it. Interesting business decision-ask existing customers to pay full price for each expansion when they aren’t actually getting a full game.

Oh well, glad you guys got your character slot.

fixit.7189:

Unloveableone.6082:

fixit.7189:

So uh, I should request refund for ultimate then I guess? I bought it for the char slot which was an extra 800 gem worth and now that’s gone; it’s better just to go base version of hot now. Lame.

….how? You still have all of the extra pre purchase stuff and 3200 gems.
You spent 100 dollars to save 10 bucks?
Brilliant logic.

Well why not? Saving 10 bucks is saving 10 bucks, that’s what made it attractive; it’s the whole reason why I plunked down 130 bucks in the first place. I am glad you all got better deals, this is great news but not so great for ultimate. I would have expected maybe an extra 800 gems dropped onto delux/ultimate as well but apparently not.

Pretty sure they confirmed an extra slot for all 3 tiers, meaning your Ultimate now comes with 2 slots.

Imbune.5497:

So yeah….purchasing gw2 actually works out economically to be exponentially more beneficial to the consumer the longer they don’t purchase it.

Not necessarily.

If you count only the box price tag for the core game and expansions it gives that impression, but only if you place no value on actually being able to play the game.

Everything has a finite lifespan. The longer you wait into that lifespan to start playing the game the less time you have to play.

If you wait until a year before the game gets shut down to buy all five expansions you will get one year of play for $50 while someone else, buying each expansion as it comes out over a period of a dozen years, get twelve years of play for $260 (5 x $50 + $10 for core game).

You paid $50 for a year of play (and may not fully explore the game’s content). They paid slightly over $20 per year of play.

Cerpin.9152:

Yup, crybabies win …

Now they will never grow up to be reasonable adults and will continue throwing tantrums to get everything they think they deserve.

Congratz!

Congratz on posting a stellar example of the sort of childish toxicity that plagues an otherwise wonderful community.

If you don’t like tantrums, grow up and stop throwing them.

Anet’s been really good lately, especially after we said that all we ever wanted was a character slot for a bit of compensation in paying more and supporting the game. I was more than happy to buy the ultimate edition (which I did) in the end because of all the entertainment GW2 has given me, and I weighed in the fact that it’s not a subscription based game (although I’ve definitely paid more than most subscription based games for GW2 via gemstore – in comparison to my 10 years of playing Runescape), it’s definitely worth the money. The only thing that really bugged me was not even getting 1 extra character slot, but that’s been addressed now and the bleepstorm is over XD

Looking forward to Tuesday’s update (Well, Wednesday for me!). Seems there’s going to be a whole bunch of things to get excited about (traits change, choosing ascended armor and weapon stats via a mystic forge recipe etc.). Thanks for listening Anet, I really appreciate it.

Imbune.5497:

I hope you people realize that the extra character slot is for pre-purchase only as that release stated. Which means if you want to be a smart consumer and not buy things sight unseen and no reviews….well…screw you.

I had a chat with a friend of mine regarding this expansion and I made the point that if this practice continues I’ll be better off waiting until gw2 is on its deathbed before buying expansions. She said that they probably won’t use this pricing model in the future and I couldn’t be certain….I decided to let her live in dream world a bit. So yeah….purchasing gw2 actually works out economically to be exponentially more beneficial to the consumer the longer they don’t purchase it. Interesting business decision-ask existing customers to pay full price for each expansion when they aren’t actually getting a full game.

Oh well, glad you guys got your character slot.

There are almost always reviews before release these days, and we don’t even have a release date yet.

As for the expansion thing. It’s a Buy to Play game, when you buy it you are buying into an existing world. From their perspective it’s far far far easier to manage things if everyone is on the same version of the game.
And I think most people are okay with that, the complaint (at least for most) wasn’t that new players got the base game free. The complaint first was that with it bundled the way it is it feels like we’re having to rebuy the base game on top of the expansion.
I realize they don’t see it this way, thus the problem they ran into.
People whine and point fingers and call us “entitled” and “crybabies”, but nobody feels like paying for the same thing twice, and then not getting to keep it. Had they had an expack only version at even $10 less that wouldn’t have been a complaint, but they were trying to make it as easy for new players to get into it as possible so they chose a lower price point for the bundle and felt $50 was as low as they could go.

Veterans are this kind of games bread and butter. New players are good and important, but they’re only “new players” for a short time.
How long would the game last if no one stayed more than a couple weeks?
It’s not that we’re “owed” anything for staying, truly, but at the same time making a point to acknowledge we exist and helped get the game this far, even by throwing us a bone, goes a really long way.

I’d wager this is going to be the pricing scheme going forward, hopefully slightly better thought out ahead of time though. (inevitably some are going to whine and complain now about getting a slot they don’t need, I’d rather have gems, I’d rather have this or that, etc. Which is why I myself suggested a better solution might be just to throw some gems into each tier instead of just a flat slot. Let people choose what to get with it. But I think this is going to go a long way to making a lot of people satisfied.)

Given the bad press, it’s the right decision. Hopefully, more than few players will be happy and the boards will calm now.

fixit.7189:

So uh, I should request refund for ultimate then I guess? I bought it for the char slot which was an extra 800 gem worth and now that’s gone; it’s better just to go base version of hot now. Lame. It’s awesome to here they did this but for ultimate purchasers this can be seen as a bit disappointing… :\

You still get a character slot and 4000 gems.

No thats not quite right. Now you get 2 character slots.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Given the bad press, it’s the right decision. Hopefully, more than few players will be happy and the boards will calm now.

There will always be something to complain about, and given how ambitious tomorrow’s patch is, I wouldn’t count on things being too calm.

But yeah, a good move on ArenaNet’s part that I hope will satisfy most players.

I wasn’t bothered about any of this in the first place and already bought the expansion the day it was offered, but as a confirmed altoholic, I won’t mind another character slot.

That will only bring me to 38, but it should get me by for a while.

Yikes. I forgot about tomorrow’s patch. Well . . . guess ANet better keep that fire extinguisher handy for tomorrow. . . .

I’m happy to see that ANet addressed the “vets getting a perceived worse deal,” and “players who bought between HoT reveal and HoT pricing potentially out cash” issues.

Now, it’s my hope they will focus on the, “Does HoT offer enough content to be worth its price” issue. All it would take for me to pre purchase would be enough info to evaluate the value for me.

Imbune.5497:

So yeah….purchasing gw2 actually works out economically to be exponentially more beneficial to the consumer the longer they don’t purchase it.

And yet those people are going to miss out on all the content, temp or otherwise, in part or whole, the longer they wait. Sure, they save money by waiting, but they’re totally kittened in the rear as far as actually being able to do content.

I wouldn’t exactly call it a “win” for anybody.

Here’s why I think that: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pre-purchase-community-address/

For all players who registered the core Guild Wars 2® game prior to January 23, 2015 and who upgrade their account by prepurchasing and registering any Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns edition before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns‘ launch, we will add one additional character slot to your Guild Wars 2 account.

After HoT launches veterans get won’t get the extra character slot.

Players who purchased the core game between January 23 and June 16 have until July 31 to get a refund on the core game price (but only if you bought a copy from ArenaNet). But:

…we will automatically refund what you paid for the core game should you decide to pre-purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns from our website or in-game store any time through July 31, 2015.

In other words, in order to get a refund for the core game you have to pre-purchase the expansion first before July 31. Edit: I guess it makes sense. They don’t want to give people refunds that don’t purchase the expansion later.

At least near the end they let us know their plans ahead of time regarding future expansions

In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price.

I just hope next time they actually come up with something better for veterans who already own the core game and the HoT expansion.

^Go read it again. They said in the paragraph AFTER the one for those that would continue playing and buy HoT, that they’ll do the standard refund/closure for those that merely dont want to play anymore.

I bought Guild Wars: Complete Collection for $40. It was a few years before GW2 which everyone was hyped for so when I saw that GW1 box sitting there in the store, it seemed like an amazing deal. And it was, but I would soon wish I had been there since the beginning. You simply cannot compare playing the game for many years and experiencing it change and grow with getting the game after it’s completely finished.

Imbune.5497:

I hope you people realize that the extra character slot is for pre-purchase only as that release stated. Which means if you want to be a smart consumer and not buy things sight unseen and no reviews….well…screw you.

I had a chat with a friend of mine regarding this expansion and I made the point that if this practice continues I’ll be better off waiting until gw2 is on its deathbed before buying expansions. She said that they probably won’t use this pricing model in the future and I couldn’t be certain….I decided to let her live in dream world a bit. So yeah….purchasing gw2 actually works out economically to be exponentially more beneficial to the consumer the longer they don’t purchase it. Interesting business decision-ask existing customers to pay full price for each expansion when they aren’t actually getting a full game.

Oh well, glad you guys got your character slot.

That’s how all video games work. The longer you wait the cheaper it is. What world do you live in?

Am I the only one reading this as HoT release will be August 1st?

Kal Spiro.9745:

Am I the only one reading this as HoT release will be August 1st?

I’m guessing August 27 or when ever the anniversary is but it does point towards an August release date.

Basandra Skye.4031:

^Go read it again. They said in the paragraph AFTER the one for those that would continue playing and buy HoT, that they’ll do the standard refund/closure for those that merely dont want to play anymore.

I wasn’t talking about people who want a refund and have their account permanently closed. I was saying from the looks of things if you want a refund and to keep playing the game you need to buy the expansion first, meaning you have to fork over more money before you get back what is owed to you. Just my take take on it. I could be missing something.

The other thing is the free character slot for veterans that bugs me: it specifically states it’s given to veterans who purchase HoT before HoT releases. I assume this means after the expansion launches veterans get nothing extra who purchase the expansion late. Some veterans might not have the money now to buy it until after it launches, and when they do they’re out of luck.

The other thing is the announcement doesn’t mention which version of the expansion will give veterans a free character slot. Is it only the base $50 version? Does the Deluxe and Ultimate editions give an additional free character slot to veterans along with what it already comes with? I’m assuming it at least refers to the basic version. The announcement doesn’t clarify this.

Pickles.9436:

Its a win now, and to cover their butts later.

Basically, “oops, we werent expecting this reaction, give them the character slot.”
Yay win! I’m happy with this change even!

final paragraph: “We are going to give away previous needed content for free to new players from now on when a new xpac comes out. This is a heads up so you can’t yell at us for doing this again.”

aka: You get a free character slot now, but the future looks doubtful.

Nope the future doesn’t look doubtful. This is what most MMOs do now. It’s NORMAL. If you buy WoW now and you have the core game you get every expansion they ever offered free. EQ is doing. There’s no reason for a company not to do it. Who the hell is going to buy four, five six games just to play your MMO.

The future is bright because they’re doing this.

Charrbeque.8729:

Players who purchased the core game between January 23 and June 16 have until July 31 to get a refund on the core game price (but only if you bought a copy from ArenaNet). But:

…we will automatically refund what you paid for the core game should you decide to pre-purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns from our website or in-game store any time through July 31, 2015.

In other words, in order to get a refund for the core game you have to pre-purchase the expansion first before July 31. Edit: I guess it makes sense. They don’t want to give people refunds that don’t purchase the expansion later.

To be fair, the complaint was that those who purchased GW2 in advance of HoT were disadvantaged because the core game is now linked to HoT. If one is not buying HoT, then the disadvantage does not exist. Anyone who bought it with no intention to add HoT got exactly what they paid for and have no basis to complain.

While I can see some might get upset about needing to prepurchase to get the refund, I can also see an argument that leaving the refund offer open indefinitely might be problematic. There’s also the idea that if you bought GW2 because you wanted to access HoT, then a requirement to buy HoT to get the refund does not seem draconian.

Arcadio.6875:

As long as a character slot is included with any expansion that adds a class, I am happy. It does not bother me that new players get previous content included with the purchase of the latest expansion. That only benefits the community.

So you actually prefer to pay $100 for the exact same content that the creator of the game has effectively pegged as being worth $50?

Do you willingly double pay for all services, or is Anet just special?

Also, by your logic, if giving new players HoT for free only benefits the community, then clearly giving all players HoT for free would only benefit the community even more. Where’s your push for the entire community, rather than just those who haven’t played yet?

Vayne.8563:

Pickles.9436:

Its a win now, and to cover their butts later.

Basically, “oops, we werent expecting this reaction, give them the character slot.”
Yay win! I’m happy with this change even!

final paragraph: “We are going to give away previous needed content for free to new players from now on when a new xpac comes out. This is a heads up so you can’t yell at us for doing this again.”

aka: You get a free character slot now, but the future looks doubtful.

Nope the future doesn’t look doubtful. This is what most MMOs do now. It’s NORMAL. If you buy WoW now and you have the core game you get every expansion they ever offered free. EQ is doing. There’s no reason for a company not to do it. Who the hell is going to buy four, five six games just to play your MMO.

The future is bright because they’re doing this.

The issue is not even remotely that new purchasers get it for free. It’s how it screws over older players, who are paying more for supporting the product earlier

Who is going to buy 4-6 games for an MMO? Ask anyone who’s played WoW from core to current. Ask anyone who played Guild Wars from Prophecies to Eye of the North. And unless Guild Wars 2 has no more expansions, ask anyone who’s still around from core to the next expansion or two.

For those who have bought the 99 Euro Version it is a lose, cause the character slot is already in the base HoT

fellyn.5083:

fixit.7189:

So uh, I should request refund for ultimate then I guess? I bought it for the char slot which was an extra 800 gem worth and now that’s gone; it’s better just to go base version of hot now. Lame. It’s awesome to here they did this but for ultimate purchasers this can be seen as a bit disappointing… :\

You still get a character slot and 4000 gems.

No thats not quite right. Now you get 2 character slots.

But if you dont need it, they must refund it because some bought it because of the Slot.

I will try to get my money back and buy the base Version.

well, technically we were getting a good deal all along… at least for the ultimate edition. 4000 gems = $50 and a char slot = $10 for a cost of everything else left at $40. So divide $40 into the skins, guildhall item, mini rytlock and the expansion. Now its even better as it is $50 for the 4k gems, $20 for the slots, leaving $30 to divide into the remainder stated above…. Technically you are paying $30 for the game and expansion unless you deduct for the fluff…

CorrynnStarr.7942:

well, technically we were getting a good deal all along… at least for the ultimate edition. 4000 gems = $50 and a char slot = $10 for a cost of everything else left at $40. So divide $40 into the skins, guildhall item, mini rytlock and the expansion. Now its even better as it is $50 for the 4k gems, $20 for the slots, leaving $30 to divide into the remainder stated above…. Technically you are paying $30 for the game and expansion unless you deduct for the fluff…

It’s not. Such math as that is irrational. Anet has repeatedly stated its $50 for the expansion.

It’s only for them who prepurchase this on Anet’s own shop. Mind that prepurchase prices are never the best offers.

Haralin.1473:

For those who have bought the 99 Euro Version it is a lose, cause the character slot is already in the base HoT

I’ll get 2 now. SO I do not care.

Proof that ANet read these forums. Looks like I now have two spare slots.

I may take up key farming with the extra slot.....

Ty for listening to our complaints. Now i have no more issues with the prepurchase. I’m not bothered by ppl geting core for free, it actually makes sense with helping to revive stagnate community. As for veterans, we now get the additional char slot so u have 1 more then newbeis. I’m sure ppl will complain about 1 slot only costing 10 Eur and not 35 (45-10), but don’t forget new content has its price also. Providing the content will be as good as it was with core game (even if on smaller scale) game will be worth buying.

BladeBraverBureba.1052:

Vayne.8563:

Pickles.9436:

Its a win now, and to cover their butts later.

Basically, “oops, we werent expecting this reaction, give them the character slot.”
Yay win! I’m happy with this change even!

final paragraph: “We are going to give away previous needed content for free to new players from now on when a new xpac comes out. This is a heads up so you can’t yell at us for doing this again.”

aka: You get a free character slot now, but the future looks doubtful.

Nope the future doesn’t look doubtful. This is what most MMOs do now. It’s NORMAL. If you buy WoW now and you have the core game you get every expansion they ever offered free. EQ is doing. There’s no reason for a company not to do it. Who the hell is going to buy four, five six games just to play your MMO.

The future is bright because they’re doing this.

The issue is not even remotely that new purchasers get it for free. It’s how it screws over older players, who are paying more for supporting the product earlier

Who is going to buy 4-6 games for an MMO? Ask anyone who’s played WoW from core to current. Ask anyone who played Guild Wars from Prophecies to Eye of the North. And unless Guild Wars 2 has no more expansions, ask anyone who’s still around from core to the next expansion or two.

Which is less and less people which is why WoW changed it. They were getting less new people and now if you own the base game and the newest expansion you get every other expansion free, and there are a few of them. Since you’re using WOW as an example, why did WoW start doing it too?

Imbune.5497:

So yeah….purchasing gw2 actually works out economically to be exponentially more beneficial to the consumer the longer they don’t purchase it.

If you were to take this path, then would you even end up ever playing the game? I feel like the more we dig in to this situation, the more we lose sight of what we actually want.

Yes we can see this model as being anti veteran and yes, there is no doubt that the longer you’re playing this, the more we are paying as opposed to a newbie. But also understand that this model is a small price to pay for playing a premium MMO, using up real resources used to keep the game running. Also, consider that this more new user friendly model is putting us on the same page as them.

I mean, if you find a new friend who did not hear about this game or was on the fence because they didn’t know anyone else who played it (a HUGE incentive when considering a social game), you don’t have to tell them to buy two separate products just so you two can play the same content.

well well, what a “win”.

tfw you don’t care about the character slot and the FFXIV expac is $20 cheaper and has more content

Better than nothing, I guess. At least ANet listened, if only to save their own hides.

fixit.7189:

So uh, I should request refund for ultimate then I guess? I bought it for the char slot which was an extra 800 gem worth and now that’s gone; it’s better just to go base version of hot now. Lame. It’s awesome to here they did this but for ultimate purchasers this can be seen as a bit disappointing… :\

My understanding is that you are getting a bonus slot on addition to the one included. If you were going to send the gems anyway, you got that slot at a south discount. If you don’t have a need for 2 extra slots, there is always key farming…

I’m angry at Anet you people weren’t going to stop anyway your going to leech off as much as you can as is dictated by how most of you probably live.

The nanny state is strong in this game were already the laughing stock of the MMO world and even with this change more posts continue to sprout with people asking for more and more people in game are still tryig to get people to not purchase the expac and uninstall as a sign of protest they don’t want people to support Anet at all for something there parent company NCsoft and every other MMO company has been doing for years. It’s not about the so called issue but this people simply want the game to fail. At least other MMO stop inactive players from posting in there forums as every game has people who wish for its destruction yet this game has no filter as all the others do.

Maybe a few really were upset about a character slot and maybe people really wanted to milk out something and are satisfied but that’s obviously the minority because they’ve already shifted the goal post to beg for more.

Pickles.9436:

Its a win now, and to cover their butts later.

Basically, “oops, we werent expecting this reaction, give them the character slot.”
Yay win! I’m happy with this change even!

final paragraph: “We are going to give away previous needed content for free to new players from now on when a new xpac comes out. This is a heads up so you can’t yell at us for doing this again.”

aka: You get a free character slot now, but the future looks doubtful.

People seem to forget about Living Story. New players who purchase now still have to pay for season 2, and currently have no access at all to season 1. They (probably) won’t ever get to witness the destruction of Lion’s Arch, run the removed TA path, or climb the Tower of Nightmares. Who’s to say that there won’t be any of that style of update in the future before the next expansion hits? Yeah, they save some money on the core game, but much of the content for that core game has come and gone.

Xhyros.1340:

Pickles.9436:

Its a win now, and to cover their butts later.

Basically, “oops, we werent expecting this reaction, give them the character slot.”
Yay win! I’m happy with this change even!

final paragraph: “We are going to give away previous needed content for free to new players from now on when a new xpac comes out. This is a heads up so you can’t yell at us for doing this again.”

aka: You get a free character slot now, but the future looks doubtful.

People seem to forget about Living Story. New players who purchase now still have to pay for season 2, and currently have no access at all to season 1. They (probably) won’t ever get to witness the destruction of Lion’s Arch, run the removed TA path, or climb the Tower of Nightmares. Who’s to say that there won’t be any of that style of update in the future before the next expansion hits? Yeah, they save some money on the core game, but much of the content for that core game has come and gone.

Well it’s kinda their problem that they didnt start playing the game sooner. :/
I got all of that for free just by loggin in.

BladeBraverBureba.1052:

So you actually prefer to pay $100 for the exact same content that the creator of the game has effectively pegged as being worth $50?

Do you willingly double pay for all services, or is Anet just special?

Also, by your logic, if giving new players HoT for free only benefits the community, then clearly giving all players HoT for free would only benefit the community even more. Where’s your push for the entire community, rather than just those who haven’t played yet?

I’ll actually have spent $110 because the game was $60 at release. I don’t mind because I will have played the game for 3 years longer than the new players.

I have another post in this topic mentioning that I bought GW1 Complete for $40 which contained all 3 campaigns and the EOTN xpac. Should players who bought GW1 at release be jealous? Not really. They got to enjoy the game for many years. I am actually envious of them since I got into GW1 so late. It seems like it was an amazing ride.

This game has gone through a price drop and multiple sales with the most recent ones being $10. Did you complain? I didn’t because that’s what happens to most products over time. At this point, throw it into the xpac for new players to make the game easier to get into. Having to buy two things serves as a barrier that might turn away many potential new players. I want our community to grow because that benefits me. More people to do dungeons with. More people to fight with and against in pvp. Some of these new players may one day join my guild and we’ll become close friends.

People need to stop being childish over new players getting good value. The $60 I spent has been amazing value over 3 years. The $50 I will probably spend on the xpac (haven’t yet) may end up having amazing value as well if I continue to play the game for years using the features and content introduced in it. I did have an issue with the $50 tier not coming with a character slot and now they are giving it to veterans.

One day there will be a GW2 Complete for a very cheap price containing the base game and all expansions. Someone will pick it up and get great value for the price they paid. But they will have come so late they will have missed most of the ride. I won’t be envious of the lower price they paid compared to me.

why do people car so much to get best cheaper option no matter the cost? (not $$cost)
wan the cheaper options available? don’t get the game until the final expansion, loose years and years of fun because you just prefer to pay less.
what happens in here is what happens in EVERY MMO, with each new expansion, previous content becomes cheaper to get. are you going to react like this with each new expansion?
I bought WoW mists of pandaria for the regular price, and got a really cheap price for the rest opf the game (core game + all previous expansions) it’s how it works, get used to it.