The Anet business model

The Anet business model

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Posted by: Buck.7562

Buck.7562

Is to lure players in and wring as much money out of them as you can with microtransactions. The naked greed has been a turn off, and so has creating a game that gives advantages to people with more money to spend away on a game. You’ve introduced income inequality to the traditional meritocracy of gaming. Even though you still can’t buy skill the game is much more tedious to play with inadequate storage slots, and there’s other things in the gem store that make the game easier to play.

I overlooked this, but I thought I was buying the whole game. But I don’t think I’ll be buying the expansion.

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Posted by: Just a flesh wound.3589

Just a flesh wound.3589

I had a business once. I refused to sell anything because I didn’t want to be greedy and went bankrupt. Can you explain why?

Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.

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Posted by: Zoltar MacRoth.7146

Zoltar MacRoth.7146

lure players in and wring as much money out of them as you can with microtransactions. The naked greed..

I’m sure you’re a nice person and all but.. isn’t the greed really yours? They’re offering goods that their designers/programmers have worked hard to create. You’re not forced to buy them. And if you do want to buy them, you can do so without real money usually by collecting enough gold to buy gems to buy the item you want.
Apart from the initial purchase, I’ve never spent real money on anything in this game. Anet are making a loss on me. They need to rethink their evil plan.

creating a game that gives advantages to people with more money to spend away on a game. You’ve introduced income inequality to the traditional meritocracy of gaming.

Meritocracy of gaming…? I’m not sure that word means what you think it means. Money does bring advantages in all games and, in fact, in RL. And that is arguably a sad thing, but I’m not sure what alternative you’re proposing? You don’t pay a weekly subscription for GW2 as you would for WOW. Do you expect to keep getting free content for years to come? Who’s going to pay the staff who create that content?

Even though you still can’t buy skill the game is much more tedious to play with inadequate storage slots, and there’s other things in the gem store that make the game easier to play.

I worked hard in the game for weeks to accrue 77 gold, which I used to buy a storage slot. And it felt like a well deserved spend. I earned it. And in time I’ll purchase other items the same way.

I overlooked this, but I thought I was buying the whole game. But I don’t think I’ll be buying the expansion.

I propose Anet make a bundle called ‘the whole game’ which includes absolutely everthing the game has to offer (including legendaries) right from the start, so you won’t have to make any effort to acquire it. And I propose they sell it to you for $1,000,000. That’s fair, don’t you think?

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Posted by: eisberg.2379

eisberg.2379

Is to lure players in and wring as much money out of them as you can with microtransactions. The naked greed has been a turn off, and so has creating a game that gives advantages to people with more money to spend away on a game. You’ve introduced income inequality to the traditional meritocracy of gaming. Even though you still can’t buy skill the game is much more tedious to play with inadequate storage slots, and there’s other things in the gem store that make the game easier to play.

I overlooked this, but I thought I was buying the whole game. But I don’t think I’ll be buying the expansion.

boo freakn hoo. It doesn’t cost that much to get more inventory space, and you end up paying far less than a monthly subscription. You need to realize the point of MMOs it make more money beyond the sales of the game itself. They could have charged you $15 a month to play this game, which would have been $540 after 3 years, and that is far more than what it would cost to max out inventory space in this game.

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Posted by: Alpha.1308

Alpha.1308

I had a business once. I refused to sell anything because I didn’t want to be greedy and went bankrupt. Can you explain why?

can i + 5 this

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Posted by: Blaine Tog.8304

Blaine Tog.8304

Yes, let the entitlement flow through you.

Seriously though, GW2 is inarguably one of the best deals in gaming right now. If you don’t want to do the whole microtransactions thing, then don’t! Totally optional.

I main Ele and Necro, though I have an alt of each profession at level 80.
How to Condi Reaper on a budget
Everything I say is only in reference to PvE and WvW.

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Posted by: azizul.8469

azizul.8469

after clocking 7.7k hours for the game, and spent only the original GW2 pre-purchase all these while, i didn’t hesitate to spend another $50 for the game expansion…. bought HoT mid-July…

the business model is fair for everyone…..

Cutie Phantasmer/Farinas [HAX] – CD Casual
Archeage = Farmville with PK

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Posted by: Altair.8402

Altair.8402

How dare Anet try to make money!

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Posted by: Sylum.1806

Sylum.1806

Is to lure players in and wring as much money out of them as you can with microtransactions. The naked greed has been a turn off, and so has creating a game that gives advantages to people with more money to spend away on a game. You’ve introduced income inequality to the traditional meritocracy of gaming. Even though you still can’t buy skill the game is much more tedious to play with inadequate storage slots, and there’s other things in the gem store that make the game easier to play.

I overlooked this, but I thought I was buying the whole game. But I don’t think I’ll be buying the expansion.

The misinformation and lack of objectivity in this is astonishing. I’ve played F2P MMOs for years before I finally went “Buy-to-Play” with GW2, and I can say “giving advantage to players with more money to spend away” is the farthest thing from the truth to say about GW2.

Unless there’s somehow an attack or heal that scales with how awesome or unique you look, cosmetic and convenience features which are the only things sold on the Gem Store don’t count as an “advantage”.

I suggest you either need to play GW2 more or go out into the ugly world of F2P MMOs so you avoid looking like a salty commentator hopelessly out of their depth.

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Posted by: briggah.7910

briggah.7910

You can farm game gold and turn that into gems so you never have to spend real money if you do not want to.. It is your choice.

Player Vs Everyone
youtube channel - twitch channel

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Posted by: Sizer.3987

Sizer.3987

In soviet russia, video game company pays you!

Not meaning that as a joke (and its a terrible joke if it was), but that communism is pretty much the only system where companies goal isnt to make money off their customers.

80 Mesmer – Yaks Bend

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Posted by: Crossaber.8934

Crossaber.8934

Is to lure players in and wring as much money out of them as you can with microtransactions. The naked greed has been a turn off, and so has creating a game that gives advantages to people with more money to spend away on a game. You’ve introduced income inequality to the traditional meritocracy of gaming. Even though you still can’t buy skill the game is much more tedious to play with inadequate storage slots, and there’s other things in the gem store that make the game easier to play.

I overlooked this, but I thought I was buying the whole game. But I don’t think I’ll be buying the expansion.

Which company besides NGO are not doing this?

A capitalism world, money is power, all F2P game allow players to buy OP advantages with real money ONLY.

GW2 didn’t give such advantage to credit card warrior so where is the greed is coming from? Don’t be naive, creating a game of course is for making profit, if it is for charity, why not make a food bank instead?

(edited by Crossaber.8934)

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Posted by: Devata.6589

Devata.6589

I had a business once. I refused to sell anything because I didn’t want to be greedy and went bankrupt. Can you explain why?

You should have sold something.. You know, like the Anet president says.. We sell the game.

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Posted by: Devata.6589

Devata.6589

Well the thing is.. People can defend Anet as much as they want and I will not say they are greedy or anything, but the fact is that they do very much try to sell thing with their cash-shop, as that has been their main source of income this last 2 years, and that effects the game in a negative way.

One of the biggest problems imho with PvE is the reward system. Everything is currency-based and ‘best’ cosmetic items are not locked behind the hardest content but are being sold.

Good working reward models in content where Liadri, SAB (while it could have been better, like if the SAB mini’s where a drop in SAB) and MF. It is no coincident that those also where seen as one of the best PvE elements of GW2 by many people.

About half a year after release Anet decided to go for the LS approach and said “if we do this right there will be no expansion”, the rest is history. But it also resulted in them having to get their main income from another source as then the game and expansions (like they did with GW2). So we did see many cool items being introduced, but all in BLC and directly from the cash-shop instead (mostly) of as rewards from content. Makes sense as they have to get people to buy those items.

That resulted in content being less exciting (the possibility that a reward will drop creates excitement), less replayability and meant people would start grinding gold to buy their items.

It really resulted in most of the negative things we do say in GW2 at this moment.

It does then not matter if it’s not P2W (depending on how you define that) or only cosmetics or that you can use gold.. It effected the game in a negative way and that is what matters.

In the last announcement Mike O’Brien, the president of Anet talked about how great B2P was and that they would make the money by selling the game, so I truly hope we will now also see that happening. In fact, that statement is what I was hoping for, now only make is true Anet.

I am also not saying the cash-shop should be completely removed, they can keep selling bank-slots and so on, but most and best cosmetic items should be put in the game as rewards for content and then release the next expansion 1,5 from now as a source for most of the income. Yes, then €50,- is also an acceptable price.

(edited by Devata.6589)

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Posted by: TJgalon.5012

TJgalon.5012

The way I see it, I do nt pay a sub. I played this game for something like 700 hours in the almost year I had it, and I had a ton of fun. I even help my gaming partner enjoy it much more then she ever had in the 3 years or so she had it. So we donate, get 10$ worth of gems, and buy a cute mini or a outfit or something.
The tools, the bags, they are there if we want them to ease the game play but so far, nothing in the shop is needed to enjoy the game. (though one might argue the ls2 or charcter slots, but that personal taste). If you wish to donate to the game, do it, if not, don’t but I really see no point in this thread.

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Posted by: Dikeido.8436

Dikeido.8436

One of the biggest problems imho with PvE is the reward system. Everything is currency-based and ‘best’ cosmetic items are not locked behind the hardest content but are being sold.

What do you think would happen if all the ‘best’ cosmetic items are were locked behind the hardest content instead ? First the casual would complain then they quit, Good job you just kill a game that was made for casual player. I don’t agreed with many of Anet decision but I also understand that they are a business. Do I want more and better BLINGs to be world drop hell yeah I do but not at the cost of the game get shutdown do to lack of income.

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Posted by: Zoltar MacRoth.7146

Zoltar MacRoth.7146

@Devata – the way it is now, everybody gets a great base experience and if they want bling, they pay for it. Your proposal means that players like me (who don’t want bling) would be subsidising players like you (who do). Does that sound fair?

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Posted by: moiraine.2753

moiraine.2753

Judging by OP post history i will say he has barelly played the game lately.Don’t feed the troll peeps.

TxS – Tequatl Slayer Alliance (EU)

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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

I keep seeing this name thrown around….Who the heck is Sam???

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Posted by: Devata.6589

Devata.6589

One of the biggest problems imho with PvE is the reward system. Everything is currency-based and ‘best’ cosmetic items are not locked behind the hardest content but are being sold.

What do you think would happen if all the ‘best’ cosmetic items are were locked behind the hardest content instead ? First the casual would complain then they quit, Good job you just kill a game that was made for casual player. I don’t agreed with many of Anet decision but I also understand that they are a business. Do I want more and better BLINGs to be world drop hell yeah I do but not at the cost of the game get shutdown do to lack of income.

Main this is, that it should be locked behind content. It then makes sense that harder content rewards better items then easy content. That does not mean that easy content should also not reward very good items.

Also how much of “the hardest content” would there be.. 3 / 6 things? Let’s say they reward 2 items, you are talking about 12 items max.. all the rest in in easier content.

The important part is that it’s rewarded ingame, not how hard the content is.

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Posted by: Devata.6589

Devata.6589

@Devata – the way it is now, everybody gets a great base experience and if they want bling, they pay for it. Your proposal means that players like me (who don’t want bling) would be subsidising players like you (who do). Does that sound fair?

It’s about the reward system, that is part of what makes content good. No the way I describe it you just pay for the content.. that is it, you do not pay for the bling, the bling is part of the content.

The way it is now, people who buy the bling pay your content, and worse, the content suffers for it. So it’s just the other way around.

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Posted by: Devata.6589

Devata.6589

I keep seeing this name thrown around….Who the heck is Sam???

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mike_O'Brien

Not sure why people name him Sam, but they do so I guess if that’s how he likes to be named.

Edit: Oke, idk.. I have seen the name Sam being used.. Well I will keep it at Mike O’Brien to keep it clear.

(edited by Devata.6589)

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Posted by: AdaephonDelat.3890

AdaephonDelat.3890

I keep seeing this name thrown around….Who the heck is Sam???

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mike_O'Brien

Not sure why people name him Sam, but they do so I guess if that’s how he likes to be named I will do the same.

The call him Mo at the Anet offices (as confirmed by Dev’s on forums and by Colin on Saturday’s live stream).

[BAD] a casual PvE guild on Aurora Glade.
http://bad-eu.guildlaunch.com
The Family Deuce. Asuran Adventure Specialists.

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Posted by: zoejo.2317

zoejo.2317

Seller: “This is my product”
Buyer: “I like your product”
Seller: “This is its price”
Buyer: “I think it is adequate”
Seller: “Let’s exchange!”

Exchange happens.

Buyer: “Wait. I want a totally different product than the one I made the informed decision to buy”
Seller: “But this is the product I offer!”
Buyer: “It is not what I want now. You are greedy”

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Posted by: zoejo.2317

zoejo.2317

Main this is, that it should be locked behind content. It then makes sense that harder content rewards better items then easy content. That does not mean that easy content should also not reward very good items.

The important part is that it’s rewarded ingame, not how hard the content is.

Gear IS rewarded ingame. Do you get anything with stats from the gem store? Or are you suggesting they lock cosmetics with no stats or usefulness whatsoever behind difficult content?

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Posted by: Beldin.5498

Beldin.5498

You should better play some Nexon Games then .. i have heared they actually
pay you money to play their games.

EVERY MMO is awesome until it is released then its unfinished. A month after release it just sucks.
Best MMOs are the ones that never make it. Therefore Stargate Online wins.

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Posted by: Heylel.2109

Heylel.2109

To be honest ANet business model in general was kinda cool to me, or at least it was until they came up with HoT. I’ll be honest, I’m perfectly cool with them publishing the game and then making money with microtransations, as long they let me play a completely functional game and leave the microtransations for completely optional things or to speed up my progress.

This as long the ultimate goal is reachable with or without making use of these microtransactions.

If you can get gems to get exclusive appearance, get extra character slots, buy stuff that is available for gold as well (To spare yourself from the pain of farming.), then I’m totally cool with it. It’s not ANet greediness, more trust upon different people giving different value to the same thing and being able to make big money out of this.

Now, what concern me are different things:

The first is how they decided to give for free the Core Game and raise the price of HoT to a full game pricetag, rather than an expansion. Again, I consider this a poor choice, but don’t associate this to greediness. In fact, I believe is the strategy they came up to manage making the income NCSoft required for them to make out of HoT.

To explain myself better:

It’s evident people are no more interested in the game, beside the enthusiasts here on the Forum, if ANet had decided to give a free access to the game there should be a reason and for sure isn’t charity or good heart.

It’s pretty reasonable to assume that, if they had gone for a more traditional $30 for HoT and required purchase of the Core Game, even at $20 no one would have purchased the latter. Again, no reason otherwise to make the game free to access if they were expecting more people to come.

HoT at $50 thus becomes the best choice to go for, it kinda ‘forces’ older player to buy it (Because a lot of people will not want to see the progress of their characters to stop.) and including the Core Game may end up luring some of the free players into getting it.

But that means that ANet is literally relying on existing players to keep the balance positive, having little to no faith about the release of HoT being able to bring new blood to the game.

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Posted by: Devata.6589

Devata.6589

Main this is, that it should be locked behind content. It then makes sense that harder content rewards better items then easy content. That does not mean that easy content should also not reward very good items.

The important part is that it’s rewarded ingame, not how hard the content is.

Gear IS rewarded ingame. Do you get anything with stats from the gem store? Or are you suggesting they lock cosmetics with no stats or usefulness whatsoever behind difficult content?

Yes.

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Posted by: Devata.6589

Devata.6589

To be honest ANet business model in general was kinda cool to me, or at least it was until they came up with HoT. I’ll be honest, I’m perfectly cool with them publishing the game and then making money with microtransations, as long they let me play a completely functional game and leave the microtransations for completely optional things or to speed up my progress.

This as long the ultimate goal is reachable with or without making use of these microtransactions.

If you can get gems to get exclusive appearance, get extra character slots, buy stuff that is available for gold as well (To spare yourself from the pain of farming.), then I’m totally cool with it. It’s not ANet greediness, more trust upon different people giving different value to the same thing and being able to make big money out of this.

Now, what concern me are different things:

The first is how they decided to give for free the Core Game and raise the price of HoT to a full game pricetag, rather than an expansion. Again, I consider this a poor choice, but don’t associate this to greediness. In fact, I believe is the strategy they came up to manage making the income NCSoft required for them to make out of HoT.

To explain myself better:

It’s evident people are no more interested in the game, beside the enthusiasts here on the Forum, if ANet had decided to give a free access to the game there should be a reason and for sure isn’t charity or good heart.

It’s pretty reasonable to assume that, if they had gone for a more traditional $30 for HoT and required purchase of the Core Game, even at $20 no one would have purchased the latter. Again, no reason otherwise to make the game free to access if they were expecting more people to come.

HoT at $50 thus becomes the best choice to go for, it kinda ‘forces’ older player to buy it (Because a lot of people will not want to see the progress of their characters to stop.) and including the Core Game may end up luring some of the free players into getting it.

But that means that ANet is literally relying on existing players to keep the balance positive, having little to no faith about the release of HoT being able to bring new blood to the game.

Sure, some people like cash-shop games, other like B2P games. It just depends on your personal preference.

I like the hunt for cosmetics and as you can understand.. selling those items in a cash-shop destroys or at least hurts that game-play so then I prefer B2P where such items should be in the game and where I pay for the content.

The thing is however that this game was being promoted as B2P, and this was done again in the last press-release. So I think it’s perfectly reasonable to then also ask for that. You will not see me very long in a lot of F2P games. I truly hope that they indeed go back to B2P again with HoT.

Also GW2 does not really need to bring new blood to the game (still would be better if they did).. What would be more important is to get back some of the old they lost, and keep it this time.

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Posted by: BrooksP.4318

BrooksP.4318

The only two “greedy” things I can think of with Anet, was lotto based gem items. While BL keys I can somewhat understand, but with like dyes it bothered me. Like “Awesome X Dye For Sale” but you really only get a minor chance of getting it. If they wanted to create rarity then they could have done a limited time sale, or limit the amount a player could buy. While smart from a financial standpoint, it’s a pretty petty way to do it.

Also the other thing would be the HoT release. Not anything about the core and vets, but they should have informed the inclusion initially after releasing info on HoT. It was bad to release info about HoT trying to bait people to buy the core, only to mention later it was included. I know they did a refund after, but it was still a shady move.

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Posted by: Heylel.2109

Heylel.2109

To be honest ANet business model in general was kinda cool to me, or at least it was until they came up with HoT. I’ll be honest, I’m perfectly cool with them publishing the game and then making money with microtransations, as long they let me play a completely functional game and leave the microtransations for completely optional things or to speed up my progress.

This as long the ultimate goal is reachable with or without making use of these microtransactions.

If you can get gems to get exclusive appearance, get extra character slots, buy stuff that is available for gold as well (To spare yourself from the pain of farming.), then I’m totally cool with it. It’s not ANet greediness, more trust upon different people giving different value to the same thing and being able to make big money out of this.

Now, what concern me are different things:

The first is how they decided to give for free the Core Game and raise the price of HoT to a full game pricetag, rather than an expansion. Again, I consider this a poor choice, but don’t associate this to greediness. In fact, I believe is the strategy they came up to manage making the income NCSoft required for them to make out of HoT.

To explain myself better:

It’s evident people are no more interested in the game, beside the enthusiasts here on the Forum, if ANet had decided to give a free access to the game there should be a reason and for sure isn’t charity or good heart.

It’s pretty reasonable to assume that, if they had gone for a more traditional $30 for HoT and required purchase of the Core Game, even at $20 no one would have purchased the latter. Again, no reason otherwise to make the game free to access if they were expecting more people to come.

HoT at $50 thus becomes the best choice to go for, it kinda ‘forces’ older player to buy it (Because a lot of people will not want to see the progress of their characters to stop.) and including the Core Game may end up luring some of the free players into getting it.

But that means that ANet is literally relying on existing players to keep the balance positive, having little to no faith about the release of HoT being able to bring new blood to the game.

Sure, some people like cash-shop games, other like B2P games. It just depends on your personal preference.

I like the hunt for cosmetics and as you can understand.. selling those items in a cash-shop destroys or at least hurts that game-play so then I prefer B2P where such items should be in the game and where I pay for the content.

The thing is however that this game was being promoted as B2P, and this was done again in the last press-release. So I think it’s perfectly reasonable to then also ask for that. You will not see me very long in a lot of F2P games. I truly hope that they indeed go back to B2P again with HoT.

Also GW2 does not really need to bring new blood to the game (still would be better if they did).. What would be more important is to get back some of the old they lost, and keep it this time.

I’m someone who thinks that fashion should be available from the very begin or, at worst, locked behind crafting professions. Something that would require a bit of effort, but not being an epic adventure to achieve. And I generally frown at companies looking popular colors like black or white behind a pay wall, ESPECIALLY when it comes to hair. So yeah, personal preferences counts a lot in this.

But on the other hand, I’d rather see a fashion cash-shop, where other players can play to look cooler than me, than a power cash shop where I’m required to purchase items with real money to be reasonably competitive in PvP or PvE.

And eh, I’m one of those lost who had returned to see what HoT was bringing to the game and had decided to not give it a try at all due to ANet policy. From my point of view, it feels more like they had given up on the gone and are trying to lure the new blood into this.

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Posted by: Devata.6589

Devata.6589

To be honest ANet business model in general was kinda cool to me, or at least it was until they came up with HoT. I’ll be honest, I’m perfectly cool with them publishing the game and then making money with microtransations, as long they let me play a completely functional game and leave the microtransations for completely optional things or to speed up my progress.

This as long the ultimate goal is reachable with or without making use of these microtransactions.

If you can get gems to get exclusive appearance, get extra character slots, buy stuff that is available for gold as well (To spare yourself from the pain of farming.), then I’m totally cool with it. It’s not ANet greediness, more trust upon different people giving different value to the same thing and being able to make big money out of this.

Now, what concern me are different things:

The first is how they decided to give for free the Core Game and raise the price of HoT to a full game pricetag, rather than an expansion. Again, I consider this a poor choice, but don’t associate this to greediness. In fact, I believe is the strategy they came up to manage making the income NCSoft required for them to make out of HoT.

To explain myself better:

It’s evident people are no more interested in the game, beside the enthusiasts here on the Forum, if ANet had decided to give a free access to the game there should be a reason and for sure isn’t charity or good heart.

It’s pretty reasonable to assume that, if they had gone for a more traditional $30 for HoT and required purchase of the Core Game, even at $20 no one would have purchased the latter. Again, no reason otherwise to make the game free to access if they were expecting more people to come.

HoT at $50 thus becomes the best choice to go for, it kinda ‘forces’ older player to buy it (Because a lot of people will not want to see the progress of their characters to stop.) and including the Core Game may end up luring some of the free players into getting it.

But that means that ANet is literally relying on existing players to keep the balance positive, having little to no faith about the release of HoT being able to bring new blood to the game.

Sure, some people like cash-shop games, other like B2P games. It just depends on your personal preference.

I like the hunt for cosmetics and as you can understand.. selling those items in a cash-shop destroys or at least hurts that game-play so then I prefer B2P where such items should be in the game and where I pay for the content.

The thing is however that this game was being promoted as B2P, and this was done again in the last press-release. So I think it’s perfectly reasonable to then also ask for that. You will not see me very long in a lot of F2P games. I truly hope that they indeed go back to B2P again with HoT.

Also GW2 does not really need to bring new blood to the game (still would be better if they did).. What would be more important is to get back some of the old they lost, and keep it this time.

I’m someone who thinks that fashion should be available from the very begin or, at worst, locked behind crafting professions. Something that would require a bit of effort, but not being an epic adventure to achieve. And I generally frown at companies looking popular colors like black or white behind a pay wall, ESPECIALLY when it comes to hair. So yeah, personal preferences counts a lot in this.

But on the other hand, I’d rather see a fashion cash-shop, where other players can play to look cooler than me, than a power cash shop where I’m required to purchase items with real money to be reasonably competitive in PvP or PvE.

And eh, I’m one of those lost who had returned to see what HoT was bringing to the game and had decided to not give it a try at all due to ANet policy. From my point of view, it feels more like they had given up on the gone and are trying to lure the new blood into this.

I think it is both bad.. cosmetics ‘hurt’ me more than stats because I don’t do PvE and in WvW little less stats don’t make a difference… still I would not suggest that, as I said I think it’s both bad.

A ore important question is.. why did you leave? And what was the reason for that.. So let’s say your reason was “the game got boring”, then why do you think the game got boring for you.

This is something Anet really has to fix.. If they do, you (or people like you) might come back in a few months anyway and even more important, this time you might stay, buying the next expansion and the 3th and so on.