Part of the issue I have is the lack of feedback on content. We have no real idea what we are getting but are being asked to pay up front. I suspect what the issue is, is the game isn’t close to release. They need the money to actually finish the game, (which is why there are few teasers and not much information).
With every other MMO I have played the developers have been more than happy to show all the new areas, dungeons, playable races, etc, but not Anet. They’re being awfully secretive about everything, as if HoT was a stand alone game and something entirely brand new.
So far past history has shown that Arena Net is not to be trusted.
You have the fiasco that occurred with Super Adventure Box (buy an Infinite Continue Coin from the Gem Store but it’s been two years since any new SAB content), the Gem Store fiasco where you can only buy a set amount of Gems rather than the exact amount you want and the amount of gems needed to purchase a shiny is off by a small margin, meaning that by buying their set increments you’re always down a small amount and must purchase more to get exactly what you wanted.
Then there is Mawdrey. They don’t tell you up front that in order to complete Mawdrey you must have the Living Story Season 2 unlocked and complete the “Party Politics” story. Anyone who either didn’t keep the chaos orb or who wasn’t around for the mini expansion (which is only available now for purchase for 200 gems) cannot craft Mawdrey, unless they buy it the LS Season 2 xpac. Sure you can convert gold but many working adults simply don’t have the time to grind for that amount of gold for a back piece and so they will go the easy route and use a credit card for gems (which is what Anet is counting on).
In the past few months we have been shown new Elite specializations or different looks for already existing professions. People got hyped about this until yesterday when Arena Net released the pre patch notes on how conditions will work and the new profession balancing system. It seems the developers after asking for player feedback, simply ignored that feedback. In any business, you cater to your customers wants. Anet doesn’t seem to do this. They give us what they think we should have and we should be happy with it. By ignoring customer feedback they essentially destroyed all the hype people had about the new specializations as races will actually be less powerful than before and people will be forced to start from scratch with builds, making HoT very difficult for most people to play. Lots of character death in the future. It took many months and even years for the Metas to develop, now all that will be gone.
Finally. If HoT has the same amount of maps, dungeons, JP’s as the base GW2 game then I would have no issue paying $50. But from what we’ve seen so far it’s not.
Right now I have no plans to buy Heart of Thorns and am actively looking into other MMO’s.
There has been numerous posts about this and Arena Net has yet to respond in a detailed way to any of it. This makes me think that either they don’t care what the customers have to say (which past history reinforces) or they simply haven’t come up with a response yet.
Elite specializations, trait changes, condition changes (all which have been nerfed heavily before going live) and the lack of comparable content to GW2 or even the old GW1 games gives me serious pause when it comes to buying HoT (pre-purchase or not) and even continuing to spend any more money on this game.
The price Arena Net is asking for the expansion simply doesn’t compare to what they have offered in the past, what the core game offered upon release and seems more of a money grab than anything else because we have no real idea of what we are getting since they’ve been most secretive concerning how big the xpac really is. Yeah they’ve shown us the new features being rolled out, but how many maps and dungeons are we getting? I suspect HoT is basically Silver Wastes and Dry Top rolled into one. Pretty small in comparison to what they have done in the past and to me, not really worth my hard earned money.
So until Arena Net gives a detailed response, I’ll keep my money in my pocket.