Guild Wars 2

Sheen.2846:

I’m not an idiot and I won’t pay 50$ for a PVE Addon

Missed the bit about the new WvW map and new guild functions within WvW then?

Because Europeans are rich! You might want to ask why GW2 of China is cheaper too…

dragosf.3291:

yanipheonu.5798:

Why would I expect to pay less than any other MMo expansion?

Self-entitlement. This has been the theme in the last 7 pages of threads.

I didn’t pay for WoW’s expansion I just uninstalled the game after 9+ years.

As a consumer and customer of ArenaNet , not a fanboi, who works for a living I’m entitled to choose how I spend my money and voice my opinion on the pricing of their product. Also, my opinion helps other consumers to make up their mind.

What exactly are you doing?

hibari.9836:

yanipheonu.5798:

Largest flaw in this whole theory: it’s not an equivalent value. It doesn’t cost Anet ten dollars to give a new player an account. It just costs whatever it does to activate the account and keep them on them on the servers.

The $50 will go to the same places it usually does: development time, advertisement, the usual business. GW2 vanilla does not cost 20 percent of HoT’s budget. That’s absurd.

This in all likelyhood costs very little for Anet at this point, and as such, even if GW2 vanilla was not included with the expansion, we would not see much if any impact on the final price.

This expansion would cost the same, with or without new players getting a GW2 account.

And seriously, if the worst thing they do is favour new players a bit, you really gotta see how bad it gets in the really scummy MMOs out there. This ain’t a mobile cash grab, this is just people getting worked up over nothing.

Hell, I wish more companies let new players the vanilla game for buying the expansion.

It’s not a matter of what it costs them though, because in this case we’re talking about the responses and reactions of the consumer and our sense of comparative value. The topic here is about people’s anger and why, as customers, we are feeling so shafted.

Not having access to ANet’s account books, none of us can do more than speculate about how much it costs them to activate a new account OR how much it costs them to activate a new character slot on an existing account. We cannot compare those numbers. We can only compare the numbers of how much we spend, which is the received and perceived value of the two things. (Personally, though, I cannot imagine that it costs ANet more to activate/keep open an extra character slot on an existing account than it costs them to activate/maintain a whole new account on their servers!)

Likewise, we can do no more than speculate about HoT’s budget or the flows of company money, and frankly I think it’s a red herring to do so.

As consumers, what we can compare is the end price of an item. As consumers, we can see that X and Y both = a payment of 10$ to the company. We therefore trust that there is something roughly comparable in the value of those two items. We can also see that one group of consumers (i.e. new players) are being offered a bonus while others, despite their loyalty to the franchise, are being left out in the cold. It’s alienating and rude. And frankly, it’s stupid for any company to alienate the customers who spend money consistently over time, especially when it’s so hard to imagine that it would be more costly to them to offer, at the same base price, a character slot with the expansion as an alternative bundling option to selling it with the core game.

When has an MMO company ever offered veteran players a discount for an expansion? It’s never been a major practice in MMOs. New players will get stuff on sale, or newer, better deals. It’s like being an early adopter, there was never anything to stop a company from moving on from you. Game bought, occasional dlc bought, end of transaction.

Anything else is entitlement or unrealistic expectations.

Mono.7320:

they basically telling veteran players ‘’kitten you, we value new costumers more than you guys cuz we are greedy and need more money’’ and shoving our mouths with core game that we bought 1-2 year ago. no extra slot, no benefits, nothing you pay 50 dollars and get core game and heart of thorns and not release the HoT expansion separately which would be 20-30 dollars cheaper and no money is not the issue here people can afford 50 dollars but not what they did…great anet what a kitten move.

Huh? And how about players who bought an original game just a couple of days ago? They’re screwed even more than veterans.

It’s great if you are a new player. But a new players $50 gets more value than a current players $50 – and that doesn’t include the issue relating to needing to buy the base game to play HoT, and selling lots of copies based on that claim over the last few months. Only at the last minute to change this, secretly edit their faq and get caught out. It just seems unnecessarily shady. They should have made that clear from day one.

The other issue is asking for all this money based on very little information – as they haven’t revealed much at all of the new content. I just want to know exactly what I’m getting.

But each to their own I suppose.

Thread after thread after thread.. It hurts to watch this go down but on the upside, GT7 is coming. Not buying the exp will give me more time to drive. \m/

Thanks, guys.
I think we should stay calm and come up with solutions that would please both sides (Devs and players) instead of arguing, whining and spewing hate all over the forum.
Hope this thread will reach any of the Devs’ eyes.

Machiavell.7396:

Pretty much yes… Amount of content compared to base game is so low that 45 euro feels like buying yet another CoD.

CoD, which ironically costs more than that…

and i know I’m being very general in my post , that’s on purpose.

i think HOT was announced end of last year beginning of this, so in truth i think anyone who bought the game after the announcement would be eligible for a refund, don’t quot me on that, I’m not a lawyer lol

I’m just asking questions

I am behind the bandwagon and just saw the details of the presell.

I agree with everyone here. The cost is too costly for what you get.

And with the gap between Exotic and Ascended widened I am still not 100% sure my crew of exotic clad characters will be able to survive in the Jungle despite a few very nice posters who said I would do well….

If there were a package with the expansion and a slot priced at a decent price, I would have bought it already despite my misgivings on Jungle survival….but….as is…too expensive

Lisa :Sad:

Crise.9401:

SirDrygan.1823:

I do not feel that opening 1 map.

Not that I necessarily disagree with you, but this whole HoT = 1 map is just factually incorrect. HoT = 1 region would be correct though (regions in the base game are from 4-7 maps).

We already know there are at least two PvE maps (Verdant Brink and the other one from specialization live streams) + 2 maps for guild halls and a WvW borderlands map. And that is likely not all of them.

The 2 maps for Guild Halls and the WvW is useless to me. As I play alone usually. I group up with other people during events. I only WvW if I have something I need to get from the WvW merchant. if not I stay clear of it. I am in a Tier 1 server, and it is not fair when your own server got sandwich by 200 players + 200 players vs 200 players. It’s my own opinion on the unfairness. In War, nothing is fair. I get that. But I still can voice out my opinion right? (And I digress).

Anyways, even with 2 maps, it just like the Living story maps Drytop and Silverwaste. And we get that for free! (at least that’s what we think).

Maybe ANET is just claiming back the money from giving us Drytop and Silverwaste….hmmm…

Ike None.5039:

Are you kidding me???

No. They aren’t. Maybe we’ll see you in the jungle launch day, maybe we won’t.

You will have to pay $112. I have to pay £125.

ChoChoBo.6503:

$50 is fair for an expansion, what I have an issue with is not having a character slot with it.

They are adding 9 elite specializations and 1 new profession. 20% of the profession based features are the REVENANT.

Not having a character slot with the purchase means, in order for me to have a Revenant when HoT launches:

1. I need an already empty character slot, or
2. Buy a new character slot for $10, or
3. Delete an old character slot (but they’re adding this horizontal progression system to the game, so players don’t have to delete pre-existing characters)

Anet, “Buy our game, disclaimer: you won’t actually have access to all of the features we’re hyping you for unless you shell out more money”

I understand your point i have currently a few characters :
2Thieves
1Mesmer
1Guardian
1Elementarist
1Warrior
1Free Slot

But i always made some gold or bought gems so that i could always have a free character slot. But not everyone has so many charachters and you do need an extra slot i think you sould think about buying the Deluxe Edition. Or just buy the standard and the charachter slot.

Crise.9401:

Machiavell.7396:

Pretty much yes… Amount of content compared to base game is so low that 45 euro feels like buying yet another CoD.

CoD, which ironically costs more than that…

And CoD’s DLC prices and content? The similarity and difference?

Shifu.4321:

it’s up for prepurchase, so there’s already money involved.

So many people willing to give up money for literally nothing.

i made it.
and this is the only reasonoble thing they can do

To clarify: I find 45 euro for an expansion totally absurd and I will not buy it at that price, simple as that.

Ultimately this is how I see it:

1. I bought the game on release almost 3 years and paid like 55e, no regrets there.

2. Buying the expansion costs 45e which I will have spent a total of 100e for both the Core Game + Expansion.

3. Then THIS happens: A completely new player comes to GW2 pays 45e and gets BOTH.

If ANet can’t see the logic and complete unfairness in this, then they won’t see my money either.

If the free core game came as an option for a secondary account to existing players, then it might be worth it. Otherwise I find it a complete waste of money for that price.

In bottom line, I won’t buy it at this price and will wait for a discount when the expansion is 15 euro or around that price.

Fay.2735:

snip

That’s true really. But I don’t get why people who never played the game get it for free. They won’t experience some points of the game, but they’ll get LS3 too, so this is not really a good excuse.

Also, it’s “easier for new players to get into it”, so if I’m already into it AND that I paid the full price, can I get the expansion for free? That’s how silly the statement is.

If they simply added, let’s say, a free character slot, that would be enough (we get a tiny bonus, and newcomers already have plenty of slots). But no, we are just there, getting nothing for no reason other than “you have supported the game long enough, here’s our way to thank you: nothing.”

Fay.2735:

Sheen.2846:

I’m not an idiot and I won’t pay 50$ for a PVE Addon

Missed the bit about the new WvW map and new guild functions within WvW then?

The new WvW map will be free, everyone will get it.

Edit: also the new guild functions in WvW will certainly only apply to guilds who have claimed a place, so either your guild is fast enough to claim, or your guild makes will call air support for you.

The rage make little sense to me, unless the player bought it in the last few months at full price(the discounts deep cut the cost).
Combining the two makes it easier for new players. For the people that bought the game previously, you have gotten time in the game to enjoy it before this.
And if you bought more than the original base version you got items that will not be included with the new expansion/base.

If people wanted to rage I could understand it at the reason ANet would want to bundle the core game in, there is no starting zone for the expansion. The expansion is mostly end game content, unlike the first guild wars.
That being said, I personally love the direction the game is headed.

“You-know-what” EU. And i say that as an unhappy EU member:/

nocipher.5342:

I’m still disappointed with all of the lingering issues with the core game. Some events still don’t work right (and haven’t for 2+ years); even when they are tied to unlocks or achievements! Anet still hasn’t fixed the healing arrow bug in the newbie zones. That’s been going on for at least a month. They can’t even fix these basic items yet want the cost of a AAA title (and then some) for a handful of new zones and some new mechanics. This is very disappointing.

Hopefully, it will be a lot more than just a handful of new zones. Some bugs are hard to track down and fix. I haven’t heard of the healing arrow bug, Anet does solve most bugs. But people also want more content, they’re not an easy place to be in. Bugs vs more content.

upsdn.5426:

Machiavell.7396:

Give option to buy only expansion with a godkitten free character slot for the hours and bugtesting we did in your game or I swear personally I’m gonna make so much trouble that game will be empty and nobody will play it.

I’m with you on the only expansion + character slot, but my main reactions to this comment were nervous amusement (if there is such a thing) and extreme curiosity. I wonder if any one person actually has the power to do such a thing. Does such a person play this game? The rational part of my mind says “probably not” but then again… I mean, Machiavell, come on, you’re not connected to one of the Borgias, right?

Due to my job in “backstage” of MMOs and security, I can assure you that on both sides there are people capable of bringing down or wiping entire servers and databases, along with backups. Details are classified.

Shifu.4321:

upsdn.5426:

Shifu.4321:

Here’s what most likely happened:
Anet DID plan to make the expansion as a separate purchase from the core game. So they did all these sales so that people would get the game and naturally upgrade to the expansion.
But one day, some marketing or business development guy thought to himself: “If we made the core game FREE with the expansion, that would lure in even more players.” So he makes the core game come free with the expansion, because hell, why not? Of course, they probably failed to consider that a lot of people would be kitten over this, but eh, sometimes that happens.
So kittenty situation, but I don’t think Anet meant any malice.

Stay out of adjudicating or lawmaking anywhere ever. “I don’t think x meant any malice, despite how malicious what they did seems. Probably some stupid person decided it might work and they went along with it.”

That’s really poor judgment on your part.

Yes, I’m speculating since I’m not in a law court. Jail me for it!

My point is that you’d be awful at it. Not that you should be great at it. Nonetheless, if you’d be awful at it (and judging from the relative likelihood of the situation you describe, you would), then you should stay out of it.

That’s all. Nothing more and nothing less than what I said. No jail necessary.

stof.9341:

Sold Out.7625:

Because THIS IS THE EXPANSION PRICE. Live with it. You don’t pay more for the Core game. But reading is hard, I know.

This isn’t a matter of “this is the price” or not. It’s a matter of doing it in a way that doesn’t result in kittenstorms on the internet. ANet is notoriously bad at that.

It’s a matter of perception. I know that perception is very subjective but as I said, manipulating and predicting percetion is part of the job ANet should be doing.

In this case, the perception is that :
- I’m a veteran player, I paid I don’t know how much for the game and currently you can get it for as low as $20 if you do it smartly. I can let that slide since everything lowers in price over time
- The expansion comes out and costs me $50
- The expansion has one of the major features be a new class and it’ll cost me $10 more to play it cause … my char slots are maxed for some strange reason

So, as a veteran, I feel like I’ll have after the HoT purchase spent $80 to get the game, while new players will have spent $50 for more or less the same value. Yes I know it’s not the same thing, those $80 gave me one extra char slot etc… But it’s perception. And the perception currently is that I’ll have to spend $30 more than new players to enjoy HoT.

This is too much plain and simple. Hence the complaints. What ANet should have done is throw us virtual bones that are more or less worthless but shift the value perception to a point where nobody complains. The easiest would be to give a free chat slot to players that already own the core game. It’s shift the value perception by a whole $20 back.

So you have the full 64 character slot max limit on your account?

With the way the account mechanics work, you can delete characters and mostly just be resetting map completion. Everything is account bound/wide for the most part, from currencies, to PvP reward tracks and accomplishments. Just delete a character to make room for another.

If you’re just mad that the expansion doesn’t come with a character slot, remember that amount of entitlement when the option to buy all 64 of those characters slots is possible with 0 cents out of your pocket.

That practically everything in the game can be obtained without any additional cost is the thing you’re buying!

Trust me, you’ll get over it. Better sooner than later, you’re just wasting energy you could be using toward saving money to budget, doing work to earn more money or farming in-game gold to buy yourself more character slots.

Until we do away with such extraneous options like gold>gem conversions, you honestly have no ground to cry from.

Everquest and Everquest 2 have always done the same, buy an expansion and get previous expansions and core game included. It has helped keep those games going for 16 years. Anet is not doing anything wrong here, this move will just bring in more players and keep this game going strong, as the practice as done for the eq franchise. What you paid for the core game years ago was well worth it with all the free updates we have had anyway. Be happy and enjoy the upcoming content (which would be better with bunny ears-release them please)

MashMash.1645:

It’s great if you are a new player. But a new players $50 gets more value than a current players $50 – and that doesn’t include the issue relating to needing to buy the base game to play HoT, and selling lots of copies based on that claim over the last few months. Only at the last minute to change this, secretly edit their faq and get caught out. It just seems unnecessarily shady. They should have made that clear from day one.

The other issue is asking for all this money based on very little information – as they haven’t revealed much at all of the new content. I just want to know exactly what I’m getting.

But each to their own I suppose.

I agree with you that they should made that clear from day one it is their error.
But You also have exclusive content like living story S1 and S2 which they wil not have with the exception of the wintersday,mad king and so on events

Some players need to buy Living story S2 now and i don’t think it will be free after HoT comes out.

Animism.9803:

Crise.9401:

Machiavell.7396:

Pretty much yes… Amount of content compared to base game is so low that 45 euro feels like buying yet another CoD.

CoD, which ironically costs more than that…

And CoD’s DLC prices and content? The similarity and difference?

How is HoT similar to CoD DLC please elaborate… CoD DLC is nothing compared to HoT. Please pay attention to the post quoted before replying. I was asking that person how can one draw a parallel between HoT and CoD, they are not comparable at all.

Or are you implying HoT is nothing more than a rehashed cashcow like CoD is.

I haven’t finished the first story line after all these years…imagine how thrilled I am to pay 45 eu for another one haha

I guess 45 for a new class is quite fair…

Fay.2735:

Sheen.2846:

I’m not an idiot and I won’t pay 50$ for a PVE Addon

Missed the bit about the new WvW map and new guild functions within WvW then?

I know about that, but the new WvW map will be free for all.
For the guild part it does not worth it imho.

warbignime.4610:

They won’t and that’s about it. Many already bought it, no way they will adjust price. End of thread.

And that’s how I immediately know you have not read the thread. Might as well have written “First”.

At any rate, if I wasn’t clear enough: I am not suggest to change the price (although that is one of the options). I am suggesting to add some value to their packages, make them at least remotely as good as new players get.

Shifu.4321:

Acharyn.4738:

It doesn’t matter what ANet meant. The players are speaking, and they have time to change it.

They WON’T remove the core game free with expansion. As bad as you think this backlash may be, that would even be worse. It would be removal of a feature, which is probably the one of the worst things you can do in a game. And it’s up for prepurchase, so there’s already money involved.

They’ve made their decision with this. The best they can do is to compensate existing players, no moving backwards.

There is this thing called a refund. They can lower the price and refund the extra that people paid. Easily done since it is digital only with very little price variation.

Without the people who fight for what’s right, you’ll be living in a society where everything is dictated by the government. Sort of like the movie “The Interview”?

Cecil.9205:

You’re at a store, and I notice that you want to purchase a shirt and pants. I sell you said shirt and pants for 50 dollars (just representative price). Then, a while later, while you’re still there, Joe comes up (new customer) and I offer to sell him a pair of shoes for $50, but now I’m going to throw in a shirt and pair of pants, at no additional charge (free), for him. You of course, as a previous customer come up and say, “Hey, I want some shoes as well.” in which I reply, “That’ll be $50. And sorry, but since you already have a shirt, and a pair of pants from us, you get nothing else. Thank you and come again.”

Except that analogy isn’t even remotely close to what is actually happening. We aren’t all sitting at the store with our freshly bought shirt and pants. Most of us bought our shirt and pants years ago. We already took our shirt and pants home and have worn them on many occasions. We’ve gotten a ton of use out of that shirt and pants. They’re a little worn now, but comfy and familiar. We have good memories of these clothes. We see them and smile as we fondly remember the good times we had while wearing them.

Three years later we hear that the same store we bought the shirt and pants from is now selling some sweet new matching shoes, but unless you’re wearing the shirt and pants you own, those shoes just wardrobe malfunction right off your feet.

You see Joe walk up to the counter and purchase the shoes for $50. The clerk says, “Since you need this shirt and pair of pants in order to wear the shoes, we’re including the shirt and pants for free.” You smile at Joe. Lucky kitten. He doesn’t even know what he’s getting into with that shirt and pants.

So you walk up to the counter with the shoes and your $50. The clerk says, “Here’s your complimentary shirt and pants.” And you say, “No thanks. I already have a shirt and pants that has three years of memories attached to it. Also they’re slightly worn so it’s super comfortable and familiar. I’ll just take the shoes. Thanks.”

If you really think new customers are getting such a better deal, then start a new account with your brand new shirt and pants.

ETA: Also, if you are still “at the store” (ie you bought the core game recently) Anet has said that if you contact them, they will work with you to upgrade to a HoT purchase.

I think it is fair as well, now if only I could pay with pc banking in my country I would already have pre-ordered it.

Nike.2631:

Ike None.5039:

Are you kidding me???

No. They aren’t. Maybe we’ll see you in the jungle launch day, maybe we won’t.

The answer must be a joke.
I bought the core game the pre-purchase first day, in 2012…

So let’s see, newcomers get for 50$ the game + expansion, ppl who already got the core game need to pay again for core game to get the expansion, 50$ again….Now isnt that cool? A map that isnt even at least 1/4 compared to entire Tyria map, and you pay 50$ for that.
Look at GTA 5, you paid once, you get all DLCs for FREE, just an example.
This thing is not fair at all, at least they could have made that ppl who already got the core game to pay like 20$-25$ for the expansion

Carbon Footprint.3421:

upsdn.5426:

Carbon Footprint.3421:

This isn’t for current players, only new players. They only care about new money not old money.

Then why is it in the gem store?

For the rich/desperate suckers who want to waste the money just to be in the beta.

Curious about the beta…what happens to your chars if you play in the beta? Isn’t beta progress normally wiped/reset? That may be acceptable for testing Revenants, but what about your existing level 80s with all the new specializations & whatnot – how will they undo/reverse progress without munging all your chars? :-/

rapthorne.7345:

Did people go insane and claw the walls when they merged the original GW trilogy in to one pack for a lower cost?

Did they go mad and scream scream when WoW merged it’s first three expansions in to the base game cost?

I really fail to see what the big deal is.

When the Guild Wars Eye of the North expantion was released you did not have to pay for Guild Wars Prophecies again you also did not get Prophecies for free you had to buy both it and Eye of the North if you wanted to play the expantion. Eye of the North was also cheaper then any of the core games. WoW never realesed an expantion forcing you to buy only that expantion at an core game and expantion price.

You can’t even regester the core game you get added as a new account and just add the expantion to you old one.

Shifu.4321:

Acharyn.4738:

It doesn’t matter what ANet meant. The players are speaking, and they have time to change it.

They WON’T remove the core game free with expansion. As bad as you think this backlash may be, that would even be worse. It would be removal of a feature, which is probably the one of the worst things you can do in a game. And it’s up for prepurchase, so there’s already money involved.

They’ve made their decision with this. The best they can do is to compensate existing players, no moving backwards.

They already “moved backwards” by making the core game free and basically saying “kitten you” to those who bought the core game recently because they thought it was required.
Also, if they correct their pricing/content balance, they can still offer gems to those who already bought their own copy

upsdn.5426:

Shifu.4321:

Here’s what most likely happened:

Anet DID plan to make the expansion as a separate purchase from the core game. So they did all these sales so that people would get the game and naturally upgrade to the expansion.

But one day, some marketing or business development guy thought to himself: “If we made the core game FREE with the expansion, that would lure in even more players.” So he makes the core game come free with the expansion, because hell, why not? Of course, they probably failed to consider that a lot of people would be kitten over this, but eh, sometimes that happens.

So kittenty situation, but I don’t think Anet meant any malice.

Stay out of adjudicating or lawmaking anywhere ever. “I don’t think x meant any malice, despite how malicious what they did seems. Probably some stupid person decided it might work and they went along with it.”

That’s really poor judgment on your part.

And where’s the proof that the decision was made out of malice? Yeah, let’s just throw presumption of innocence out the window.

Se we can expect 8 new dungeons, 4 new races, 8 new classes and a whole bunch of other stuff in the expansion? I mean it’s around the same price as the base game when it came out so it should have around the same content in it for that price.

So which of your characters will you delete to play the Revenant? Or will you purchase the deluxe so you can get the extra slot or pay for the gems to get it. Existing player are not getting same value in fact in most cases are being forced to spent more.

psizone.8437:

By the same logic, it costs Anet nothing to add an extra character slot in the basic expansion purchase.

The majority of the upset seems to be the lack of a character slot for veteran players to try the new class with the basic expansion.
For example, all of my toons are level 80 (17 of them) and I’d be unwilling to delete any of them so I’d need to pay extra to play something included in the expansion.
It’s a small issue for sure, but an important one to a lot of players.

And why should you have to delete any of your old/pre-existing characters? Isn’t the specialization and elite specialization horizontal progression? Doesn’t that mean that you shouldn’t ever feel the need to delete a character? The Revenant is the last stand alone profession they’ll ever add to the game, after that they shouldn’t have to advert or sell toon slots in future expansions. Because all your existing characters will have horizontal progression in the form of elite specialization. A character slot for all the expansion sets should be standard just for the new profession.

It really doesn’t.

I think ultimately, they will give players something additional. They won’t change the price, I’m pretty sure about that. That won’t satisfy everyone, but it will be good PR and many people will be content with it.

Crise.9401:

We don’t owe ArenaNet, but they don’t owe us either they are free to decide on the price of their goods (or in this case them and NCSoft most likely) just as much as we are free to either buy them or not.

I get that they are free to settle the prices as they see fit in order to keep up with the competition, but they are offering players who’ve invested thousands of hours into this game in the past 3 years absolutely nothing with those packages. No amount of extra goodies and early accesses can justify the prices they’re demanding for something with no set date.

Look, the problem I have is that the base game is priced lower, yet the extras are more expensive because for some reason an extra 5€ is suddenly charged, which seems to have no reason other than to grab more money. If it were taxes, then why aren’t they applied to the core game?

I’d like to know why it isn’t 44,99€ – 69,99€ and 94,99€ for Eurozone countries.

yanipheonu.5798:

Seriously, there’s some real crazy entitlement on some of these threads. Some “doesn’t understand the basics of the adult world” level entitlement.

Complaining is not the same thing as entitlement (and you’re misusing this word, btw—look it up and figure out the difference). The fact that you think a difference in valuation is “entitlement” just tells us that you’re arrogant and you think your opinion matters more than everyone else’s.

Why are you so bothered that other consumers are complaining about the pricing of a product? You can continue using the product at the current offer prices. You aren’t ANet or NCSoft, and you should feel no obligation to reply to anyone complaining. If you can do nothing to influence the thing being complained about, then you don’t have to say anything.

Don’t try to invalidate other people’s complaints by ridiculing them.