I’ve been playing GW2 for a little short of 2 years, and as much as I love this community and this game it seems there are two sides of people;
Those who can’t except the cost due to financial difficulty or lack of information about the expansion to make an educated purchase.
-And-
Blind fans with hair-trigger purchasing mistaking the first group of players for being “Cheap”, “Whiny”, “Entitled”, or “Not Guild Wars 1 players”. This latter group seems to be prominent both in-game and on these forums with their “NO REGRETS YOLO” mentality towards the expansion. The last option which is profoundly hilarious.
Let’s start with saying there’s not even a release date for this game. They could stall and stall for years and you’d be stuck with that purchase.
I’m a person who plays with financial difficulty. I pay roughly 100-120$ a year in gems and I plan to always buy gems. Is it mandatory? No. Should I be at fault for spending money on gems? No. Let me say that I SUPPORT THIS GAME by buying gems THAT’S WHY I DO IT.
So let’s talk about the hard facts expansion. Heart of Thorns has kitten price tag, and comes with nothing. What do we expect to see in Heart of Thorns and get?
- A copy of the Core game that we already own and yet cannot use or give away.
- New sPVP Map
- New WvW Borderland
- New Zones to Explore.
- New Class to play. For Veterans such as myself with 6 slots, all 80s, it will cost us an additional 10$ to create such a character.
- Elite Specilization enabling your new weapon class.
- Gliders and “Mastery” system
- Guild Halls.
So what don’t we know about the expansion, or what don’t we expect to get?
- Unspecified number of Zones to explore. It could be two, five, twenty, forty-eight. As someone who currently has 2.4k gold, I’m didn’t make this wealth gambling and that’s essentially what you are doing pre-purchasing.
- Nothing has been said about story missions. Will there be two quests? or twenty? or none? I’m sure it’s not the last option, but once again nothing has been said.
- No Beta-events for pre-purchasing, so there’s literally 0 incentive why anyone should pre-order other than your typical bragging rights.
- No Pre-order bonus of any kind for pre-purchase.
- The “Free” core game can not be used whatsoever for current owners.
What do we know about the expansion and this “sale”?
- The expansion costs more than the game itself. We are literally paying MORE for LESS.
- Veteran players get shafted. New players get a free copy of the core game they can use. Veterans get to pay full price of an expansion new players do and get another free copy of the base game that is un-usable. So it becomes a 50$ expansion.
- The deluxe edition is 25$ ADDITIONAL on top of 50$ for a toon slot(10$ value), Glider and Guild Hall decor. I highly doubt Veterans consider the latter valued at 15$. ESPECIALLY since most of us probably have a Rytlock Mini. Most people would imagine a special addition would have a MINOR cost inflation with extra features.
-Side bar, I paid $25 for my little brother’s DIGITAL DELUXE EDITION of Guild Wars 2, which came with MORE content and special features for LESS EVEN AT BASE VALUE. The package is typically 50$ and comes with far more content and promotional items than the expansion.
- So that just leaves the “Ultimate” edition. This package is literally the ONLY COST EFFECTIVE BUNDLE. Why? The game “upgrade” costs 50$, a toon slot costs 10$, the 4k gems has a value of 50$, the glider is likely worth 10$~.
- The game is targeted towards new players and shaft the current players, EVEN THE NEWER CURRENT PLAYERS WHO BOUGHT THIS ON SALE IN ANTICIPATION FOR THE EXPANSION. I made and mentored MANY new players who entered this game in the last 6 months who came in anticipation of this expansion, image their disbelief when they find out, they paid 10$-20$ for the game ONLY TO HAVE TO BUY IT AGAIN IN A PACKAGE.
- New players and Veteran players get shafted for HoT Newbs. HoT Newbs essentially save 30$ by purchasing HoT(40$ base game, 40$ Expansion for 50$).
So I implore that if you believe you made an “educated” purchase with HoTs, I pray and hope that this opens your eyes. Even a little.