Guild Wars 2

There’s a lot of complaining about how the pre-purchase of the expansion is bundled with the base game. In particular, people are ranting that newbies get the base game plus the expansion for the same price as we get the expansion and that sucks because they’re getting a better deal.

They’re not. I got the game almost two years ago, and the one thing that I got that newbies won’t is some of the most memorable experiences in my gaming history.

1. The tower of nightmares: I just finished leveling a character to 80 when this was released. I will never forget the utter insanity of going into that place for the first time, especially when we realized that stopping to rez downed players was a death sentence. The sense of chaos in that place was overwhelming, especially for a newly minted lvl 80.

2. The Marionette fight: If my entire account was stripped so that the only difference between me and a new player was the experience of this battle, I still wouldn’t complain. This was one of the most fun battles in my gaming history. The marionette looked amazing. Watching people fighting on other platforms was incredible, the feeling of helplessness when you saw member of other groups go down, wishing you could help, all of it built up to an incredible experience that I don’t think can ever be replicated.

3. The battle for Lion’s Arch: I will never forget watching that cut scene of Lion’s Arch in flames the day that patch hit, and the emotional impact of seeing some very well-known Lion’s Arch NPCs fighting for their lives. It really hit us right in the feels. The mayhem of trying to escort people to safety from the rising levels of miasma was intense. Also, I got a selfless potion which new players will never get.

4. The introduction of Triple Trouble: trying to battle that thing when it first came out, and after a few tries, thinking that we were close to beating it. HAH! Then we discovered that there were different phases, and killing one head required killing the other 2 in the next 60 seconds.

5. The festival of the four winds: Morphing into a baby dolyak for dolyak racing. Dolyak’s flying through the air. Enough said.

6. SAB: if it never comes back, newbs will never get to play it.

This list could go on. The point is, with living story being mostly instanced now, we will never experience the game the way we did in the first two years, and the memories created by those experiences are priceless.

TL;DR I think the argument that new players get more for their $50 than we do when buying HOT is a silly argument because what we have experienced in this game so far can never be replicated.

What about someone that bought this game at the special discounts that happened regularly all through this year? Remember, they didn’t get anything you menationed.

I don’t know. I can’t really speak for them. For me, I would have been happy to buy the game for $10 (so $10 more than the prepurchase bundle) in order to have a character ready for HOT so I can step into HOT right away. But, I’m sure that there are people who bought it for $40 between sales and are now legitimately disappointed.

I’m responding more to the argument by veteran players who say they are getting gypped because they’ve paid more for the same content as new players are getting. Personally, I feel like I got a lot more than new players will get, and $50 for the expansion does not seem like it is an unreasonable price.

Everyone is mad that the new player is actually getting something this time. They need convincing their still on top. The shiny legendary and stacks of Chinese gold they bought isn’t enough.

and you can buy it right now and start playing in the core world, so yea they should feel disappointed of have spending those extra 10$

Astralporing.1957:

What about someone that bought this game at the special discounts that happened regularly all through this year? Remember, they didn’t get anything you menationed.

That’s called “life”. It happens. Sometimes a person comes along at a later date and it just simply isn’t possible to have all the stuff people who came before them did.

Your argument can be offset simply by pointing out that those who DID purchase the game did so at a DISCOUNTED price therefore creating the argument that the discount offsets the things they missed out on.

But that is more about perceived value versus dollar value.

You are ignoring the fact that we payed for all those things when we bought the original game and every time we bought and spent gems on the gem store or the exchange to support this awesome game. You’re basically telling us to avoid buying gems to support the game because we are going to get charged retroactively anyway.

None of that actually comes from pre-purchasing HoT

It is a fallacy to argue that those are a benefit of pre-purchasing the expansion.

Huggywuggles.2814:

Astralporing.1957:

What about someone that bought this game at the special discounts that happened regularly all through this year? Remember, they didn’t get anything you menationed.

That’s called “life”. It happens. Sometimes a person comes along at a later date and it just simply isn’t possible to have all the stuff people who came before them did.

Do you realize this same argument contradicts what the OP says?

I don’t see why they can’t package a bundle that does not include the base game, for those of us that already have it, for a much cheaper price. I prepaid for the collector’s edition, and I’m happy I did, but to then pay a second full price for something I already have feels unfair to me.