There will, I suspect, be many other threads on this. This may well get merged into one of them; but I’m starting it because I want someone at ANet to read it at least once, and at least spend 30 seconds considering it before consigning it to the trash basket. That being the case, I have no wish for this post to start life buried 30 pages into a thread that ANet probably gave up reading on page 2.
ANet.
I realise that business plans change. But you’ve blundered. Some of your customer base, including me, are going to be out of pocket as a result of your changed plans, and to feel justifiably aggrieved. You seriously need to consider what sort of company you are – because you have at least a moral duty to address those grievances.
The problem is simple. Anyone who recently bought an extra copy of the game is out of pocket, to your advantage, through your entirely preventable fault and none of their own. If you have a moral bone in your corporate body, you will look to address that fault.
Over the last few months you made explicit announcements to the effect that HoT would NOT be stand-alone, and that a copy of the base game would be required. You also on multiple occasions promoted extra copies of that base game at a discount.
Acting in good faith on your announcements, I, and others, bought extra account copies in preparation for the expansion.
Now that HoT is available for pre-order, that is shown to have been misleading (whether intentionally or not, is simply not germane). Whatever the original intent, calling HoT an “expansion” was and is incorrect. HoT is simply the short-hand label for the additional content to be bundled into a new, stand-alone version of the full game. You may choose to continue to represent it as an “upgrade”, but in truth what you’re doing is simply supporting the migration of existing accounts to that new game version.
The result is that any extra copy of the game purchased in recent weeks in preparation for HoT (and I stress, purchased in good faith relying upon your public representations that it would be required) was effectively a wasted purchase, to your benefit and the customer’s detriment. No customer, having bought such an account and then “upgraded” it with HoT, will be functionally any better off than they would have been, had they not bought the extra copy in the first place. Indeed, it could be argued that they would do better to install HoT as a further, entirely new copy of the game, because they would then at least have the benefit of a further account.
How you address this will, in a small way, be a test of what sort of a company you are. You can’t deny that you have, deliberately or otherwise, misrepresented your plans, and by that misrepresentation induced loyal customers to give you money. You therefore can’t deny, either, a moral duty to acknowledge that fact and to compensate them in some way. The question is, will you?
It seems to me that the ball is firmly in your court.
(edited by Doghouse.1562)