Guild Wars 2

since the laurels now come from the dailies and f2p players don’t get those should i assume that f2p-players won’t be able to get any laurels?
how are they supposed to get ascended amulets? rings you can get in fractals and accessories through guild missions but afaik there’s no way to get certain amulets other than from the laurel merchant.

Tskales.2804:

The B2P restriction helped shield this game against the common MMO mouthbreather who turns pleasant communities toxic.

Whilst an influx of new players sounds good from a business sense, in the long run it could introduce destructive elements that bring the whole game much sooner than it should be put to rest.

And how do you propose they are going to do that at a rate of whispering one new player every 30 sec and only being able to spam in /s?

Tskales.2804:

The B2P restriction helped shield this game against the common MMO mouthbreather who turns pleasant communities toxic.

Whilst an influx of new players sounds good from a business sense, in the long run it could introduce destructive elements that bring the whole game much sooner than it should be put to rest.

You can’t talk in map chat, you can’t whisper anyone not in the same map then you unless you are mutual friends, and you are restricted to 1 every 30 secs. Basicly the only time you can speak to others freely is in groups for dungeons.

So how exactly will this affect the community?

I presume F2P accounts have access to achievements, and they can get a couple of laurels from them.

Otherwise, it works as another incentive for F2P accounts to purchase access to the full game, which I agree with.

zaced.7948:

how are they supposed to get ascended amulets?

By buying the full game.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

zaced.7948:

how are they supposed to get ascended amulets?

By buying the full game.

exactly, gw2 is still considered a btp game not ftp

Fox.3469:

Tskales.2804:

The B2P restriction helped shield this game against the common MMO mouthbreather who turns pleasant communities toxic.

Whilst an influx of new players sounds good from a business sense, in the long run it could introduce destructive elements that bring the whole game much sooner than it should be put to rest.

You can’t talk in map chat, you can’t whisper anyone not in the same map then you unless you are mutual friends, and you are restricted to 1 every 30 secs. Basicly the only time you can speak to others freely is in groups for dungeons.

So how exactly will this affect the community?

Bot Farmers.

Zev.3407:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

zaced.7948:

how are they supposed to get ascended amulets?

By buying the full game.

exactly, gw2 is still considered a btp game not ftp

No, the core game is free to play. The expansion is buy to play.
Surely you didn’t miss the big announcement?

“Today we’re making the core Guild Wars 2 game free for everyone. With Heart of Thorns coming, it was already a great time to invite friends and guild members into the game, and now it’s an even better one. We want to make it easy for new players to try the game because we believe that players who love Guild Wars 2 will buy Heart of Thorns.” -Mike O’brien

Fernling.1729:

Zev.3407:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

zaced.7948:

how are they supposed to get ascended amulets?

By buying the full game.

exactly, gw2 is still considered a btp game not ftp

No, the core game is free to play. The expansion is buy to play.

I think they should of offered a 20 dollar “account unlock” for those for some reason dont want HoT. Thats just me.

I dont see a reason to play the game doh, if you dont plan on getting HoT. Unless for the free PvP now.

Fernling.1729:

Zev.3407:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

zaced.7948:

how are they supposed to get ascended amulets?

By buying the full game.

exactly, gw2 is still considered a btp game not ftp

No, the core game is free to play. The expansion is buy to play.
Surely you didn’t miss the big announcement?

“Today we’re making the core Guild Wars 2 game free for everyone. With Heart of Thorns coming, it was already a great time to invite friends and guild members into the game, and now it’s an even better one. We want to make it easy for new players to try the game because we believe that players who love Guild Wars 2 will buy Heart of Thorns.” -Mike O’brien

It’s free to play.

But should not have access to laurels, legendary, or ascended gear. The game still has a price for a reason

Does core game users will have access to the elite specialization when HoT arrives?

Hi i have 2 question.
1. Is this only free for today only?
2. Is only PvP content of the whole game F2P?

Thank you..!

1) The core game is free forever from today forwards with some restrictions.

2) Up until you reach PvP rank 20, at which you will no longer receive PvP experience but can still participate in it. Further, other areas of the game are free to play now as well, I recommend you read the link I gave above for the full comparison.

Fox.3469:

Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwBxKwmAIdo&feature=youtu.be

Woodenpotatoes.

All i see and hear is… Anet mindless squiring, and just that…. theres no real talking about the problems, is just a “i know that their gonna do a good job”

Near.7439:

Tskales.2804:

The B2P restriction helped shield this game against the common MMO mouthbreather who turns pleasant communities toxic.

Whilst an influx of new players sounds good from a business sense, in the long run it could introduce destructive elements that bring the whole game much sooner than it should be put to rest.

And how do you propose they are going to do that at a rate of whispering one new player every 30 sec and only being able to spam in /s?

well you cant confirm who’s your friend or can we, so goldspamers can add on map people an them wisper no?

Mikau.6920:

Does core game users will have access to the elite specialization when HoT arrives?

No. Core game is more or less dead with regards to new content, to access new stuff that will be added over time you’ll have to buy HoT.

Behellagh.1468:

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Dragonfeu.4356:

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/95982157-Account-types-Free-Core-HoT
https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/95982157-Account-types-Free-Core-HoT
https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/95982157-Account-types-Free-Core-HoT
https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/95982157-Account-types-Free-Core-HoT

All good! Restricted TP access, can’t access guild bank, can’t mail items, restricted access to chat so no bots. It’s fine, this will work out.

THE ONLY REAL PROBLEM, IMO, IS THAT NEW PLAYERS DON’T REALISE THAT THIS IS A TRIAL/RESTRICTED ACCOUNT, MAKE SURE TO LET THEM KNOW AND DON’T OVER DO IT ON THE REMINDERS TO BUY THE CORE-GAME, IT GETS ANNOYING AF

Apart from that, good move anet, make the trials account thing upgrade as accessible to players as the gem store, small reminders but not annoying popups every login. Also, make sure that you have restrictions on the gem store or the playerbase who has the core ( not trial ) game will get kittened off as gem prices will definitely rise. Also, make sure you can’t get the core ( non trial ) game off the gem store or everything you just did was for naught: They don’t pay money and they negatively affect the economy/gem trade ( if everyone who has trials does it ). Unless you want to make it expensive ( 150g ) but not overly.

Peace

They can sell gems but can’t buy them with gold. But they can receive mail of items and gold.

No they can’t, read the restrictions SLOWER. NO TRANSFER OF ITEMS OR GOLD FOR F2P ACCOUNTS.

I tested it myself, You CAN send items and gold to an account. And they CAN take it out of the mail. They CAN also return to sender said mails, with the items/gold attached. What they CANNOT do, as the list from Anet indicates, is SEND mail with gold or items.
So what I said is 100% accurate, test it yourself if you don’t believe, Or if I missed some fact or if certain items are restricted, then please correct me and alleviate those concerns.

*edit: or if somehow an update isn’t required to prevent what I tested, then it’s entirely possible Anet changed it, but per Anet’s FAQ
“Can’t send gold or items”
it doesn’t mention receive, which is what I tested.
So, perhaps should take your own advice?

Heylel.2109:

Bot Farmers.

If you watched the stream they said they have been beefing up their bot detection technology. Now if you believe them or not that is up to you.

Zalladi.4652:

1) The core game is free forever from today forwards with some restrictions.

2) Up until you reach PvP rank 20, at which you will no longer receive PvP experience but can still participate in it. Further, other areas of the game are free to play now as well, I recommend you read the link I gave above for the full comparison.

PvP experience until rank 20 means that they cannot raise PvP rank higher than 20 but still be able to play custom, unranked, ranked arena?

Thank you!

Tskales.2804:

The B2P restriction helped shield this game against the common MMO mouthbreather who turns pleasant communities toxic.

Unlike someone like you who treats everyone equally with kindness and understanding without prejudging them.

Heylel.2109:

Fox.3469:

Tskales.2804:

The B2P restriction helped shield this game against the common MMO mouthbreather who turns pleasant communities toxic.

Whilst an influx of new players sounds good from a business sense, in the long run it could introduce destructive elements that bring the whole game much sooner than it should be put to rest.

You can’t talk in map chat, you can’t whisper anyone not in the same map then you unless you are mutual friends, and you are restricted to 1 every 30 secs. Basicly the only time you can speak to others freely is in groups for dungeons.

So how exactly will this affect the community?

Bot Farmers.

Free accounts can also not send items or gold to other accounts…

My god it’s like people are literly braindead, READ THE RESTRICTIONS then comment.

online.1278:

PvP experience until rank 20 means that they cannot raise PvP rank higher than 20 but still be able to play custom, unranked, ranked arena?

Thank you!

Actually, upon re-reading the blog and comparison charts, it suggests that the free players will be able to rank past rank 20 and continue. It simply states that unranked and custom matches will be locked off to them until they reach PvP rank 20:

Blog

They can play PvP immediately but must get to rank 20 before using custom and unranked arenas.

Source

So perhaps there is no rank limit for free accounts at all?

They really need to sticky this at the top of every page.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/95982157-Account-types-Free-Core-HoT

Differences between account types.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/95982157-Account-types-Free-Core-HoT

Why worry about the ALREADY screwed-up TP?? After all, MOST of the items needed for high-level armor/weapons are already just “names”—because they ALL depend on the multitude of “unobtainables” in the game!!!
The bigger concern that we, the “been there, done that, got the tee” players SHOULD be talking about is the HIGH LEVEL OF CONCERN that ANET has given us—- after we bought this game—now we’re being told to “buy the next one”——————————huh????
As I understand it, while GW2 will now be “free” (albeit “slightly” restricted)————ALL of the restrictions “miraculously disappear” as soon as these “freebies” buy HoT——————and us old hands get a raspberry from ANET (oh yeah, and a new moth eaten suit!!!).
C’mon ANET, try to remove your head from a nether region——-and PLEASE start thinking about those of us who have KEPT you able to reach this point!!

briggah.7910:

Heylel.2109:

Bot Farmers.

If you watched the stream they said they have been beefing up their bot detection technology. Now if you believe them or not that is up to you.

I assume you’re not in the IT field, but these technologies improve on both sides at the same time. When they beef up their bot-detection softwares, at the same time the ones who write bot programs can do the same and write code that will bypass the detectors’ improvements.

Now, with a subscription\purchase system, using a bot to actually test these improvements is dangerous an could cost an account. That’s why generally people who goldsell and do that stuff will hack another user’s credentials.

With this Free system it becomes more convenient for the botters to test their products using one of these free accounts, the programmers can check how long their products can cheat the system and act accordly, allowing them to actually ‘field test’ their stuff. (Bots follows patterns and bot dectectors I guess will examine such patterns.) Even if the botters won’t write improvements, they can just let their bot running and then upgrade the accounts that ‘survive’ for $10 and make money out of it.

Also, I don’t think the detectors programs can keep whole servers under surveillance 100% of the time, it would be a massive use of resources and consequent lag.

It’s not about trusting or not trusting them, it’s about knowing how things go in this specific field.

Behellagh.1468:

They really need to sticky this at the top of every page.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/95982157-Account-types-Free-Core-HoT

They should, but it doesn’t answer every question, and some things are misinterpreted. There is far too much misinformation out there about what free accounts can and cannot do, which leads to some cap filled posts that aren’t completely accurate.

Fox.3469:

Free accounts can also not send items or gold to other accounts…

My god it’s like people are literly braindead, READ THE RESTRICTIONS then comment.

1. Farm 100k Gold on a Free Account.
2. Upgrade on a Weekend and sell it for way more than the code did cost.
3. Repeat.

Oh who could possibly have tought of this.

Not to mention that there’s absolutely no limit to scam of any sort left.

Also, I can make a free account, run a bot for a week and play a fully equipped lvl 80 char as I want… what’s the sales point of GW2 again…?

Face it, there is no way to prepare a Game for what comes with being F2P. You can NOT hold Buy2Play standards in terms of community etc. if you suddenly get rid of the “behave or lose your 50€+ account” – argument.

Mike.3460:

Fox.3469:

Free accounts can also not send items or gold to other accounts…

My god it’s like people are literly braindead, READ THE RESTRICTIONS then comment.

1. Farm 100k Gold on a Free Account.
2. Upgrade on a Weekend and sell it for way more than the code did cost.
3. Repeat.

Oh who could possibly have tought of this.

Not to mention that there’s absolutely no limit to scam of any sort left.

Also, I can make a free account, run a bot for a week and play a fully equipped lvl 80 char as I want… what’s the sales point of GW2 again…?

Face it, there is no way to prepare a Game for what comes with being F2P. You can NOT hold Buy2Play standards in terms of community etc. if you suddenly get rid of the “behave or lose your 50€+ account” – argument.

Even better…

Considered that Free accounts had been invited to go posting in other forums rather than the official one, it would be even harder for ANet to keep in check the transactions that happen behind them. Because, let’s all remember that if people still sell Gold, then it means that there is people who buys it.

This is confusing me aswell. what are you supposed to play in PvP to get to rank 20 if you’re not allowed to play unranked arenas??

Made a F2P account to look but the TP is vast and wide. There does seem to be less classes of items. That’s all I noticed before logging off.

Revolutionen.5693:

This is confusing me aswell. what are you supposed to play in PvP to get to rank 20 of you’re not allowed to play unranked arenas??

You can play the hotjoin dedicated servers (the ones named “Server 081” etc, just not custom-made hotjoin servers) and I guess Ranked matches (unless there is a universal rank requirement for those – I don’t play much PvP so I could very well be wrong).

Mike.3460:

Fox.3469:

Free accounts can also not send items or gold to other accounts…

My god it’s like people are literly braindead, READ THE RESTRICTIONS then comment.

1. Farm 100k Gold on a Free Account.
2. Upgrade on a Weekend and sell it for way more than the code did cost.
3. Repeat.

Oh who could possibly have tought of this.

Not to mention that there’s absolutely no limit to scam of any sort left.

Also, I can make a free account, run a bot for a week and play a fully equipped lvl 80 char as I want… what’s the sales point of GW2 again…?

Face it, there is no way to prepare a Game for what comes with being F2P. You can NOT hold Buy2Play standards in terms of community etc. if you suddenly get rid of the “behave or lose your 50€+ account” – argument.

500 gold at a time because the transfer restrictions are still in place. Plus all that gold going out will flag the account as suspicious assuming they hadn’t caught it while it was farming.

You pretend that they aren’t prepared for this or thought of this themselves.

Heylel.2109:

briggah.7910:

Heylel.2109:

Bot Farmers.

If you watched the stream they said they have been beefing up their bot detection technology. Now if you believe them or not that is up to you.

I assume you’re not in the IT field, but these technologies improve on both sides at the same time. When they beef up their bot-detection softwares, at the same time the ones who write bot programs can do the same and write code that will bypass the detectors’ improvements.

Now, with a subscription\purchase system, using a bot to actually test these improvements is dangerous an could cost an account. That’s why generally people who goldsell and do that stuff will hack another user’s credentials.

With this Free system it becomes more convenient for the botters to test their products using one of these free accounts, the programmers can check how long their products can cheat the system and act accordly, allowing them to actually ‘field test’ their stuff. (Bots follows patterns and bot dectectors I guess will examine such patterns.) Even if the botters won’t write improvements, they can just let their bot running and then upgrade the accounts that ‘survive’ for $10 and make money out of it.

Also, I don’t think the detectors programs can keep whole servers under surveillance 100% of the time, it would be a massive use of resources and consequent lag.

It’s not about trusting or not trusting them, it’s about knowing how things go in this specific field.

Just cause you think I’m a kid doesn’t mean I don’t know how things work. I even did some programming back in the good old days of AoL. I actually worked with computers/networking for over 13 years. Every game has botter’s but it has to do with the company stopping them.. Have I ever seen a bot in this game? No not personally so in a way I feel they have done a good job so far. Other games you can spot the bots right away pretty much.

I’m pretty sure they will try and be one step ahead of the bots.

Mike.3460:

Fox.3469:

Free accounts can also not send items or gold to other accounts…

My god it’s like people are literly braindead, READ THE RESTRICTIONS then comment.

1. Farm 100k Gold on a Free Account.
2. Upgrade on a Weekend and sell it for way more than the code did cost.
3. Repeat.

Oh who could possibly have tought of this.

Not to mention that there’s absolutely no limit to scam of any sort left.

Also, I can make a free account, run a bot for a week and play a fully equipped lvl 80 char as I want… what’s the sales point of GW2 again…?

Face it, there is no way to prepare a Game for what comes with being F2P. You can NOT hold Buy2Play standards in terms of community etc. if you suddenly get rid of the “behave or lose your 50€+ account” – argument.

I’ve faced it, i’ve seen many communities in other online game flourish with F2P, i don’t see how this one should be different since it already is a nice community.

Btw, the botting thing, i think you underestimate how obvious it will be if F2P accounts suddenly make loads of money.

Zalladi.4652:

Revolutionen.5693:

This is confusing me aswell. what are you supposed to play in PvP to get to rank 20 of you’re not allowed to play unranked arenas??

You can play the hotjoin dedicated servers (the ones named “Server 081” etc, just not custom-made hotjoin servers) and I guess Ranked matches (unless there is a universal rank requirement for those – I don’t play much PvP so I could very well be wrong).

I see what you’re saying, but I don’t think it makes sense to restrict unranked arenas and not ranked, when the ranked matches are meant for more experienced players. Maybe there’s been a typo on their post or something. Also why are they not mentioning the pvp restrictions on the account comparison page? >_<

I have seen quite the number back in the days I played, it was one of the reasons for me to distance from GW2, not the botting themselves but the loneliness of servers populated only by them.

That said, you said it right they will try, but if you really have experience you’d know that Crime Pays Off. Networking isn’t the same as dealing with Social Engineering, Hackers, Security and stuff like this. No offense meant, but it’s a very different field where you don’t just need the know how but also an open mind and being inclined to cheat the system.

We’re talking about bots, but eh, someone else ever pointed out they can just farm it the hard way. Kill stuff, gather money, sell your items. Then upgrade for cheap and sell the gold to someone.

Or people could level up the free accounts and then sell the accounts themselves to players who’d just upgrade them to HoT and get a character with both level and money already set.

Blizzard or even Microsoft couldn’t do a bit about people hacking, in the larger meaning of the term, their systems. You can still buy Gold in WoW or Diablo, a lot of people gets cracked versions of Windows.

Whatever you can say, it’ll be an always present problem AND the change to the Free business model made it easier for people whom wanted to cheat the system.

SkullProX.7083:

NO, NO, NO, NO AND NO!

because…?

Behellagh.1468:

Anyone actually tested that yet. The F2P FAQ only says that they can’t send items or gold, nothing about receiving them.

Okay I just tested this and you can mail coin at least to F2P accounts.

Hello everyone, I wanted to share my feedback.

When I first heard the information on F2P leaked, I was legitimately concerned. I have been part of this wonderful community since GW1 and am so pleased to see it continue its constructive and friendly ways in GW2. I knew that Anet has been trying to remove barriers to players but was worried this was a step too far. I believed that Anet should have at least a small fee for the effort they put forward making this game. Not only do they deserve a living for their work, but I also viewed the cost to buy the game a minimal but justifiable way to keep the game and its community at the high level of quality it currently is by filtering out what F2P may bring.

After reading the information Anet has posted about F2P, I gladly admit I’m looking forward to it with them. Anet has at every point that I have seen since the beginning of GW1 made very careful and thoughtful plans. They are like surgeons, making precision moves to make everything work. I believe they have done it again. From reading the posts, it looks like they are making a very balanced approach at introducing F2P.

It will give people who want to try it before they buy it an ideal platform to do just that. Heck, if they are willing to live with the limitations they don’t have to pay a cent. That said, I do not doubt many people will see how amazing this game is and gladly get the core or other versions. I also believe they have limited the potential to abuse the community in a way that will not severely limit someone who is trying out the game for fun.

Anet, thank you as always for being so careful. It is not just your community that is at stake, it is ours. We are all custodians of what we have built so far. I look forward to helping many new friends in game.

As soon as you first logged into their servers they have been watching you to judge what players like, dislike and to determine what to look for to spot bots, gold sellers and gold buyers. They know what’s going on on every map instance, CS may not know but the devs certainly do. It’s there game.

If you thought this was new you are horribly ignorant. And this is true with every multiplayer online game.

Behellagh.1468:

As soon as you first logged into their servers they have been watching you to judge what players like, dislike and to determine what to look for to spot bots, gold sellers and gold buyers. They know what’s going on on every map instance, CS may not know but the devs certainly do. It’s there game.

If you thought this was new you are horribly ignorant. And this is true with every multiplayer online game.

Yeah, but that’s a passive screening, an active one (As people is led to believe.) would be entirely different matters in terms of game performances.

Skabb.8714:

I just requested a refund for heart of thorns and I will then be uninstalling. Enjoy the couple hundred dollars I spent in the last week. It will never happen again. I did not purchase an expansion to a F2P game and I will not pay for an expansion to a F2P game. If I wanted to be harassed by immature kittenbags who dont even have to purchase anything in order to harass those that did, I’d play literally any other MMO!

Have you tried walking around the starting areas to see if you get harassed by F2P players before making that decision? Chances are, you will be untouched, or in this case, un-whispered.

And yes, they do need to purchase the full edition to get rid of their restrictions.

People are taking the whole “F2P” thing at face value way too much, if you actually look into what Arena-net are ACTUALLY doing you’ll find that F2P players can’t use the TP, can’t use map chat and have other restrictions designed to prevent us “paid players” from having our game-play experience ruined by bots/trolls/gold sellers

All this means is tons of new people can play the game without spending a dime, which also means you can invite friends/family to try out the game with you before buying it, Great Move Arena-net! I am super pumped

Zalladi.4652:

Skabb.8714:

I just requested a refund for heart of thorns and I will then be uninstalling. Enjoy the couple hundred dollars I spent in the last week. It will never happen again. I did not purchase an expansion to a F2P game and I will not pay for an expansion to a F2P game. If I wanted to be harassed by immature kittenbags who dont even have to purchase anything in order to harass those that did, I’d play literally any other MMO!

Have you tried walking around the starting areas to see if you get harassed by F2P players before making that decision? Chances are, you will be untouched, or in this case, un-whispered.

And yes, they do need to purchase the full edition to get rid of their restrictions.

So what you are saying is that you dont know my experiences, my history, my knowledge or my personality? And yet you feel qualified to tell me what I should do, even without knowing what I have done? How very typical and EXACTLY my point. I get enough stupid from the people already in the game, at least those people had to do more than create a free email address to get there. I appreciate the sarcasm on your part to help support my stance on the matter.

why is free to play gw2 not on steam ?
why?
we could get more players there.

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

current / peak
Concurrent Steam Users: 6,395,949 / 9,524,812

6 – 9 million players log into steam everyday.

ncsoft stop being so greedy and losing out in the long run.

1. For players who play for free, the full game is pay-to-win.
2. WvW is toast.
3. Buy HoT now… core game included for free! That was really disingenuous.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

why is free to play gw2 not on steam ?
why?
we could get more players there.

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

current / peak
Concurrent Steam Users: 6,395,949 / 9,524,812

6 – 9 million players log into steam everyday.

ncsoft stop being so greedy and losing out in the long run.

Because then Anet would have to give a cut of the full game purchases to Valve, which would hurt the game’s income more than the extra sales from Steam.

Chances are, if there is someone on Steam that wants to play GW2, they will most likely already have it.

(Edited to reflect thread merge)

No because HoT comes with an unrestricted core game where F2P is restricted.

Zalladi.4652:

Because then Anet would have to give a cut of the full game purchases to Valve, which would hurt the game’s income more than the extra sales from Steam.

Chances are, if there is someone on Steam that wants to play GW2, they will most likely already have it.

that would be nc soft, not anet.
nc soft decides all the money things.
anet works for nc soft.

they can still get 100% revenue for sales on their own website (buy.guildwars2.com)
they will be earning extra on sales on steam.

nc soft is just too greedy to look past that.