Guild Wars 2

No, it is a single key that unlocks both core and expansion on the same account. If you already have core unlocked (because you bought the game before), that part of unlock does nothing.

Something dawned on me so I am making a correction to my previous post. Guild Wars expansions were stand alone games for full game price I think of 40 dollars. Eye of the North was the only true expansion.

Now I still think 50$ is a bit too high for what we’ve seen and I’ve been scouting opinions on both side of the fence which made me come to a certain realization. HoT is essentially the offering to the veterans. I think they might have worded the topic incorrectly in an attempt to get new players on board. Considering my former point of nothing being free this seems to make more sense to me. HoT is supposedly a higher tier area with changed skills meant to appeal to the veteran players. By that logic you’re still paying 50 for the entirety game and expansion however it’s not a shun to the veteran player base due to “Look the entire expansion is high level for you old guys,”

I think it’s a wording marketing issue. I still think 50 is a bit high for the expansion but having been with ANET for so long it does seem a bit odd that they’d shaft the veteran player base. At the end of the day the vets are still paying 50 for the expansion, the core game being free summed up in the price. I still won’t be pre purchasing but I think this might make the supporting side of this particular argument a bit more thoughtful, maybe some more good arguments as to why the price is too high in spite of the content.

Biggyboy.7105:

I would have no issue with buying it on its own for $50. I just would expect new players to do what I did: buy BOTH the core game and the expansion.

But what you did was buy the game and played it for perhaps hundreds of hours. You’ve gotten your money’s worth since that initial purchase. Do new players get a better deal? Kind of. Keep in mind the game has been on sale many times, occasionally for only $10. No one seemed angry about that. People would pay $10 when you’ve paid at least $60 if you got it at launch, and you haven’t cared. This is also incentive for a larger player base, anyone that doesn’t have the game can get it bundled with the expansion now, which would ultimately liven up the game and make it a better experience.

+1
It looks like people dont see, that they paid for being able login faster, than others.
——
No offence, but the conclusion of this situation is simple: most people are dumb :|

I took this off a related thread. I thought to post this to that thread but I felt that it would not be reviewed by the people that need to hear it. So I made a new thread. And the question is:

Anet, developers, marketing team, do you realize or understand WHY people are upset? Do you think they are not entitled to be upset? And how will you take care of this?

Here is the question on the other thread and the answer they received.

“AXEL.8362
Q:
I already have the game. Do I get a second one? Can I purchase the expansion without having to buy the game that I already own again?
about 12 hours ago
Quote Report Permalink
Previous
Regina Buenaobra
Content Marketing Team Lead
A:
To clarify: $50 is the price of the expansion. We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.”

Ok so what is upsetting people the most is the breach of good faith and this statement just furthers that breach. As well as the mocking that was done on another thread. Taking offense or not it was not a professional response on that thread. But lets get into what is upsetting people. First you announce that the Xpack is coming out. You hold sells and tell everyone that the game is not playable with out owning the core game. So everybody that is interested in playing rushes out to buy the core game. You continue to offer sells and sell a large number of games. Friends coming in from the long and loyal players. You sell. More. Now release date comes. People paying during the sells or paying full price have a right to be upset now that the game is coming out with the Xpack. That was a breach of good faith in my opinion. You posted one thing with out mentioning you planed to release with it included with the xpack. As I said don’t know if that is illegal or not but it is a breach of trust.

Next with the answer to this question comes another bombshell. You included it to help new players start the xpack. So the existing players do not need any help in starting the xpack or you don’t care to help them. That is what this Answer sends the message of. Right or wrong the wording and message you sent out is “We want to help newplayers to get them into the game old players buy your slots and be happy you getting the expansion and we gave you all the free content before” Well the content is the same that we have now that the new players will have access to. Yes I agree the price for the Xpack may be close to a decent price depending on what you still have instore. I do not agree with the breach of trust and I do not agree with the way this answer came out.

Suggestions

It is possible to show an upgrade versus a new account. So it is possible that you could give all upgrades two character slots. To help them get started in the xpack. And would restore some of the faith that the players put into the game. I say some because there have been a few breaches lately. And because players had to announce their displeasure it will only serve as a small fix. But that is the suggestion I have to fix this. It wouldn’t hurt to find better or more compelling items to put in the deluxe and ultimate versions to make them more worth wild to get.

I think I speak for everyone when I say we await your answers to the questions And recognition of how the player base feels about this. I know there are some that feel that there was no wrong committed. To those please allow those that feel that they was wrong express that in a civil way. I don’t feel that biting back and forth will help the issue at all. So I’d like to ask players of both sides of this to wait and be patient and hopefully we will get a response and then you can decide to continue the game or go over to another game as those will be the final options you have after we hear from Anet.

Edit- Just to clarify the price is not the issue I have as the price actually includes future updates into it as well. And that is future content that is usually not requested any payment for. So the price is not fully the issue it is the breach of trust and the slap in the face with making it easier for new players to enjoy the game then the returning players.

To be more specific, you’re getting a new stand-alone product which consists 95% of what you have already bought long ago.

Yay for ANet!

The base game, aka GW2, is no longer sold. HoT is both the expansion and GW2 itself.

If you buy HoT, you can either use the key to upgrade an existing account to HoT or use it to create an entirely new HoT account.

Personally I’m ok with 50$ but can understand why some would be upset with the whole core game included free thing. I say give upgraded accounts 1 free character slots and be done with it :/ id be happy with that even though IDC too much because GW2 in comparison to any other MMORPG is CHEAP AS KITTEN!!!!!!!!!

evoRobot.4019:

the X pac is 50$ whether you like it or not.

If you are a new player, great! We will give you the core game for free, you have alot of catch up to do.

Simple as that!

If you are a veteran that have been playing the game for three years, buying thing on the gemstore constantly & be part of the community. Well you get nothing.
That’s a very good way to retain already existing customers……but seems more & more than Anet doesn’t care about that.

Just bumping to try to keep on front page.

Dead.5829:

If you want a better deal, buy the Ultimate edition for 50$ more that comes with some free stuff, a character slot, and… 50$ worth of gems.

Just wanted to point out a thing: if you have to pay more just to have some more “free” stuff, then they aren’t really “free” as you are paying an additional in order to have them. Does it make sense? Unless the “additional” is for something else, like gems, but even so… :P

Hi all, I do not post here often, actually this should be one of my first posts here, so I’ll introduct myself first before going on about the issue with this expansion which for me is the price discrimination between veterans and new players.

I am what you can call a Guild Wars veteran, been playing both this game as GW1 for YEARS. I enjoyed all the betas at the start and have rarely taken a break to explore other games. I am currently a proud commander of the Gandaran server and active in the PvP aspect of the game aswell. I enjoyed this game A LOT and still do after all these years. However… My love for the game has taken a serious beating.

Here’s why:

I was super excited about the expansion, and I do believe you get a lot in exchange for your money. But I’m sure I share a feeling with tons of other veteran Guildwars players… And that’s a feeling of being neglected and backstabbed. Without us active players there wouldn’t have been a game no more. We’re a part of the backbone of Guildwars as I see it. When I see a person complaining about the game online I jump straight in and back it up. So I a bit shocked when I found out that we have to pay for both the game and the expansion. Or as you could see it: new players getting the game as an extra. I liked the method in GW1 of each game being a brick to build your account. You could buy another “brick” for your account by buying the expansion, simply for the price of the brick. Now we have to pay for the first brick again… Or the people buying the second brick get the first one for free. Leading to a lot of us feeling neglected. I’m not here to discute the price, it’s a fair price for what you get. But I can’t stop the feeling of having to pay the same ammount of money to get less. I spend the money buying solely the expansion, others buy the entire thing. Where does this leave me personally now?
Well… With an unsure feeling about buying the game.

Again, I enjoyed playing this game for ages, but I’m not sure if I’m going to follow you guys on this next step…

(If I’m wrong on this, feel free to correct me Anet staff)

Sincerely,
Butsu

Biggyboy.7105:

I would have no issue with buying it on its own for $50. I just would expect new players to do what I did: buy BOTH the core game and the expansion.

But what you did was buy the game and played it for perhaps hundreds of hours. You’ve gotten your money’s worth since that initial purchase. Do new players get a better deal? Kind of. Keep in mind the game has been on sale many times, occasionally for only $10. No one seemed angry about that. People would pay $10 when you’ve paid at least $60 if you got it at launch, and you haven’t cared. This is also incentive for a larger player base, anyone that doesn’t have the game can get it bundled with the expansion now, which would ultimately liven up the game and make it a better experience.

It is not a subscription so yes, I could have bought it at launch and never invested a dime more.

In reality:
I have bought plenty of gems (most for gold conversion, like when I got a commander tag).
- I paid to upgrade my main account to the more expensive version.
- I bought a mule/test account … and at the same cost of my main to have the same features.
- I have stayed a loyal customer and evangelized the game to others.
- Until this, I was willing to spend ANYTHING (well, within reason, not 1 bazillion dollars) to get hot.

Basically, I am the type of customer every merchant wants.

short answer – no

long answer – if you make a new account, that account will get the HoT upgrade. if you apply it to an existing account, you lose the base game copy.

it’s kinda skritt.

There is something that needs to be said here. While reading below keep in mind that according to FAQ physical retail pre-purchases from authorized retailers are coming June 23rd.

Their decision to include the core game is obviously incentive for new players, but as can be seen here and there (Ramon Domke) part of it is also logistics. In order for HoT to sell at retail they want to have a single box, which makes sense considering that lot of retailers might not stock the core game anymore and there never was a physical SKU for the Heroic Edition afaik, so the physical retail release of the original game has effectively been retired for quite some time.

So they would have had to reintroduce the core game into circulation in order to sell the two separately or introduce third version of HoT that is just the upgrade, which is a version that likely would not have sold well at retail, perhaps they estimate that it would cost them more in distribution and manufacturing than it would be likely to sell.

There is one thing people forget all too often and that is, brick and mortar retailers don’t like the developer/publisher undercutting them. So ANet and NCSoft need parity between the physical and digital release at least at the low end or they run the risk of retailers refusing to stock HoT altogether.

Also, perhaps the most important part about all of this…. ArenaNet and NCSoft probably can’t change the MSRP at this point, changing the content might also be complicated if not impossible depending on what kind of distribution agreements and/or promotional material has been made.

I will wait and see if there is an xpac only option.
Not only is the price high for veterans but we don’t even know the scope of the xpac.
I am mainly a PVE player and if there is only one or two “3d” pve maps then I will not even bother.
For $50 the xpac should have the size of the original as far as map size etc.

thanks for the clarification. too bad though. I was getting a bit excited at the prospect of an alt account.

Zoso.8279:

Personally I’m ok with 50$ but can understand why some would be upset with the whole core game included free thing. I say give upgraded accounts 1 free character slots and be done with it :/ id be happy with that even though IDC too much because GW2 in comparison to any other MMORPG is CHEAP AS KITTEN!!!!!!!!!

+1 character slot is everything we are asking for but Anet obviously wants to make a huge profit by urging us to buy it for 10 more dollars/euros

he’s right you know.

There needs to be an option to just buy the expansion separately. It isn’t a bonus gift to include the core game, because that itself cost everyone prior to the expansion the full game price, during a sale or not. You guys recently had a sale on the core game, knowing that people interested in getting the expansion would maybe go ahead and buy vanilla prior to release to get through the original content first. Now you include them both in the same bundle and call the core game a gift? That is unfair to your veteran players, the new ayers as of January and even 24 hours prior to the pre-order announcement. That is some ethical business practice you had there. So how many bought the game yesterday for $10? You need to add a separate option to buy the expansion in all 3 editions, minus the estimated cost of the core game, whatever that average is between the months from today to back when the expansion was announced, or close to it. I hope you all do realize just how shady that is.

Biggyboy.7105:

Oh, and for those of you who have “supported” the game for 3 years. You haven’t been supporting them if you haven’t been buying gems regularly…

False.

The entire point of a multiplayer game is that you play with or against other people. Every second you spend playing one is a second you are spending doing unpaid voluntary work to support it.

Especially if you’re organising players, helping to mentor newbies, and otherwise helping to enrich the game experience for all players. Few whales can come even close to doing more to support the game through gem purchases than the best regular players do simply by playing.

I was getting excited about HoT.
No such feelings any more, the world is at peace again.
Guess who’s not getting a single penny from me until another tenner sale starts.

yeah, it would’ve made the bundle go over a lot better with people.

Jitsuryoku.9038:

bye bye, have a safe trip.

Thank you, I certainly will. There are plenty of games to play by developers who wouldn’t dare slap their entire player base across the face and then go completely silent.

You got something.. You got to keep the game for 3 years without a sub and free living stories throughout the 3 years without being forced to pay.

If you are weak for cosmetics from the gem store, at the time you paid for something you valued.

Don’t use your past contributions to justify the new Xpac. You made those decisions based on what you valued at that time.

Like I said, the Xpac is $50. and new players get the core game for free as bonus.

Someone who never experienced the game is saving $10… whats the big deal.

Kinematocraft.4182:

I think this has been handled badly—not the pricing or the content; Anet is free to do as they wish there—but psychologically. Originally you bought the game and got content for free. Now you buy content and get the game for free. It’s a confusing reversal of the business model.

This is what they should have done (without changing anything, really), but it’s too late now:

1. Called it Guild Wars 2.5. No-one would have been irritated with the price or the fact that the old game came included.
2. Put the expansion into 1 out of every 1000 black lion chests and said so publicly. Players would have bought chests like mad, and every time someone reported winning one in the chat, more chests would have been bought.

But disregarding bad marketing strategy, at least it isn’t Sims.

Reason they include the core game is that the expansion won’t work without the core game. And going my this marketing plan of bundling core game “free” with the expansion. Old player will be paying twice for gw2(price they pay when buying core game and now expansion) and new player will only pay for expansion.

So from this logic we can also say that gw2 won’t be getting an expansion cos new player will only pay for 1 core game while anet is punishing old player by asking them to pay for another game called gw2.5.

naphack.9346:

briggah.7910:

Old players got years of free updates and open world content that new players will never get to play.

You see it as old players got nothing. I see it as old players got way more content out of this game then anyone new coming into this game.

That’s nice and all, but there’s a lot of people, who bought into the game recently in anticipation of the upcoming expansion.
What do those people get?

So you bought gw2 recently in anticipation to HoT meaning that you were already going to purchase HoT correct? Now that veterans seem to be upset since they got nothing new as some are saying, you are now upset as well and think you should also get something new for being a new player?

Are you not playing the game and experiencing what the game has to offer? Did you get every profession to lvl 80? Have you done WvW? Do you do PvP? Did you kill zhaitan? Have you slayed every world boss? Are you working on a legendary? Have you started to craft? Ever done guild missions? Have you got 100% map completion? The list goes on and on and there is still tons of stuff you can do before HoT even gets released. This is just a pre-order so no date is set yet on when it will actually drop.

Way I see it is most new players have bought the game recently in anticipation for HoT and if you didn’t well the game still has so much to offer you as a new player. Yes us older players have received more open world content and well that’s just because we are old players. That was my point in disagreeing with old players saying we got nothing. When in reality we got way more than new players will get yet new players still have tons of things to do already.

I’ll pay $50 if it includes a character slot. If they add a 2nd slot to the Ultimate Edition, I’ll buy that instead.

If not, I’ll just keep playing the base game until they put HoT on sale (probably with a free slot). A-Net can easily earn my business. I need to feel like they are not trying to manipulate me into spending extra on something (a slot) that obviously should be included. I mean, who would buy HoT and not try out the Revenant?

I know a few people with marketing degrees if A-net needs any help with the basics, like customer perception. Seriously, what the feline?

Couldn’t have said it better

Breaking Bad.6241:

I know, I want to believe the core game is free but at the back of my mind it’s "What if they included the core game for “free” just to increase the price? What if the xpac actually costs 40 and I have to pay 10 more to subsidize the new players’ bundle?"

If the expac got priced realistically against ~50 base, it would be 20 tops. The amount of content you get is barely comparable with a third of the vanilla game.
Just compare the number of maps and classes and quite likely you’ll get as unwilling to pay more than a tenner for it as I am now.

I don’t know why people find this so hard to get. Sure, I bought the core game for $60 or whatever I spent. But I’ve had a couple of years to play it. Cheapest rental ever.

Someone else comes along and buys it, and sure, it’s cheaper. It’s old software. But they’re starting from scratch. They don’t have the money or mats I’ve built up. They certainly don’t have the rewards from Season 1 that I have.

Would I want a $60 refund to start over? Hell no.

Making new players buy two games is a barrier to entry Anet doesn’t need, but the number of days I’ve been playing that I’ve been getting free log in rewards alone makes up the difference in price to me.

Harrier.9380:

You know what 3 years with this game taught me?
1. Don’t trust any hype Anet is trying to spin.
2. Until proven otherwise, expect new content to be mindless grind for some cosmetics.

Honestly, as a PvP player first I couldn’t care less for how big new zones are, gliding, masteries etc etc. Basically what I’m getting for 45€ is new class + elite specializations (since Stronghold is supposed to be included in vanilla). And I don’t find those anywhere near worth that price tag.

If I could get revenant + elite specs + general pvp stuff for 15-20€ I’ld totally pay that the second it became avaliable. 45€? Hell no.

This I can understand. You’re not interested in the PvE, and since expansions are largely based on PvE, it’s of no interest to you. However, part of the expansion is a new profession and specializations, which would affect PvP. Yeah, that can be frustrating. I can only hope on your behalf that they maybe add something to the gem store that maybe lets you buy the Revenant, though I doubt that they’d ever make the specializations a separate purchase.

I bought the game a few days ago in another online store (not bye.gw2.com), because the lower the price. “Right now I play, so play!” – I thought. But break off! Get announce additions still pay a large sum for it without the possibility of conventional upgrade. It’s really a shame!

In the absence of money are now, of course I will be busy, but if I can play comfortably in it without the addon? I think not. And what do I do, kitten? : C

Mortifer.2946:

Zoso.8279:

Personally I’m ok with 50$ but can understand why some would be upset with the whole core game included free thing. I say give upgraded accounts 1 free character slots and be done with it :/ id be happy with that even though IDC too much because GW2 in comparison to any other MMORPG is CHEAP AS KITTEN!!!!!!!!!

+1 character slot is everything we are asking for but Anet obviously wants to make a huge profit by urging us to buy it for 10 more dollars/euros

Dude to insinuate that ANET is money hungry is dumb… IDC either way because by the time HoT releases ill prob have enough gold to buy 3 slots just by playing pvp. I’m just saying I can understand y people are upset. Also do I think from what i’ve seen and read HoT is worth $50? Easily. As a GW1-2 player I haven’t been disappointed for what i’ve payed.

First off Falcons, they haven’t gone silent, they’ve commented on a couple posts already. Secondly, sorry that your subscription-less game requires a 50$ cost for an expansion. Despite the fact that most mmos cost 60$ to buy the expansion, you certainly feel like you’re owed more free stuff. I mean, yeah, other mmos cost more and that subscription fee ends up being about 200 dollars a year (or two ultimate editions, but who’s counting). I’d bet that you’ll spend more money on the replacement you find for guild wars 2. Then I’ll see you back here in a couple months

I was literally about to storm to the nearest bank to get a fifty euro prepaid card ( since they weren’t willing to add a paypal option, so far ) and buy the kitten expansion. Now that I’ve read a few threads regarding the utter SCAM that ANET is trying to pull on us, I’ve even considered the possibility of never buying the kitten thing.

If they don’t change the standard pack in any way, I will consider using what one of the first posters said and activate an entirely new account, transfer all the funds rejoin my guild and max out a new character. Basically I’m only going to miss the boosters/exotics/ascended and 2.5K AP. Not a big deal.

Sales are normal. New customer deals are normal. Giving the base game away with the expansion to new players is just good sense.

What about bundles on steam? Or steam sales? Or any other kind of sale? How about when older games get cheaper? Is that unfair to people who bought it earlier?

This really is perfectly normal and reasonable and commonplace.

Also, I do not believe that they planned to give away the base game all along. I believe they did not yet know what the final deal would be when they had the original sale of the base game for $10.

I bought the core game for $40, just two weeks before it went on sale for $10. I do not feel that I was cheated.

Arahzor.1832:

John Smith.4610:

InfinitytheSoulWarden.5963:

if you look at the world through the cold cynical eyes of economics

You rang?

I see what you did there.

Even though I am outraged at the $50 price tag for people who already own the game. “take in to account Eye Of The North” was cheap as chips around $20/$30 as an expansion.

Been a person with 4000 hours in EVE Online over 10 years doing market warfare and nullsec game play that quote response is just perfect, I got to give it to John, you did make me laugh through my tears of rage. Hats off to you for that John.

Anet… cmon…

I pay £60 for your game with extras, that’s my small amount of money in your pocket. Then you announce the expansion, something I was very happy for. £35 for the expansion and the game? the money I can pay but is it really fair?

I pay you £60 for the game and a further £35 at least for the expansion and “the core game”. A new player comes along and spends £35, getting what I paid £60 for and extra.

Is this REALLY fair to the players who have poured hours of their time and money into the game you want people to play so bad?

Now, before a mod comments saying “this isn’t paying for the game, the game is free” well then… I’ll have my £60 back to be fair shall I? since I get the game for free. Do I get a second account? no. Compensation? no. A lower price? no.

We have played your game since launch and now we have to buy it again because the new players don’t like the idea of buying the base game?

It’s really not fair. following your logic I should have ignored your game for years and just waited for it to be free rather than buying something you put your heart into. Just sort it out. Do something so its fair. I try so hard to love this game and it seems every time I start to, you throw something at us which is just… disappointing.

Also, giving away character slots would be a slap in the face to anyone for whom the extra character slot was a factor in buying the $75 edition over the $50 edition.

1 character slot or 35€
or no buy

Well, first of all, ofc we feel cheated, the game lacked in content for so long and still we tried to ignore it and focus on our love for the game and for what would come next. We invited our friends to the game and insisted that they played. We spent our money on gems, even if we had the gold to convert to it.
We dont even know all that’s coming in this expansion. We might pay $50 dollars for some hours of content(we dont even know if the 3 maps and the dungeon are enjoyable/worth it). I paid $60 for the whole game. I really cant see the bright side.
However, what really hurts, is the disregard with ppl like me, that lives abroad. I am brazilian, and our currency is “real”. 1 Brazil real(BRL)=0.320343 U.S. dollars. What means I would have to pay 150BRL to an expansion that might not add much to the game. Also, dont forget that we receive much less from our jobs and we pay more taxes.
In short, I can afford the expansion, but I wont. I seriously prefer spending my money on the SummerSale. Steam does convert their prices to BRL before selling(if the game costs 20dollars at the US, it will cost 20BRL here) and I would love to see ANet doing something like that, but I guess they sometimes forget there is ppl playing their game all around the world.
Btw, sorry if my english is a lil bit rusty.

If anyone purchased the game prior to HoT announcement, they are forced to spend more based on how loyal they have been to the base game. This is what bothers me the most.

New player gets GW2 and HoT for $50. Awesome for them. I do not begrudge them this deal.

Loyal players pay the same $50 to upgrade their current progress to continue into HoT. But if that same loyal player has already filled their base game 5 character slots then they must either pay another $10 for a new character slot or delete progress made with a current character, or start a brand new account and begin the progress anew.

Bare in mind, a new account comes with 5 new character slots and new account bank tab, which is upwards of $60 worth of options if purchased from the gem store. But, again, can not continue progress made.

The more account bound items you have acquired (be it item drops in game, point unlocks, or via gem store purchases), the more one are apt to not want to start over with a new account. And continuing progress one have already attained will most likely cost more than the $50 price tag of HoT alone.

Anet should soften the blow in some way to existing customers. A very simple solution is to give gems to existing account holders if when HoT is purchased. At least 800 (for 1 character slot) to 2400 ($30 worth). Anet would still receive the same $50 from us, but the gems could be spent for the additional character slot, or for those who don’t want more than 5 characters, to spent on as they see fit.

Anet bottom line would be unchanged and player loyalty is rewarded, and the new players still get the same great deal they have.

deathfragger.6791:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV69DyOuzbE

that sums ANET For us all

Lol, so true. You made my day

evoRobot.4019:

You got something.. You got to keep the game for 3 years without a sub and free living stories throughout the 3 years without being forced to pay.

If you are weak for cosmetics from the gem store, at the time you paid for something you valued.

Don’t use your past contributions to justify the new Xpac. You made those decisions based on what you valued at that time.

Like I said, the Xpac is $50. and new players get the core game for free as bonus.

Someone who never experienced the game is saving $10… whats the big deal.

Here’s where you’re mistaken:
a) The game rarely costs 10 bucks, it’s usually 20. Although I do realize the American/British notion that 10 bucks are basically less than you’d give as a tip to a waiter, countries such as Greece, Italy and others were the base salary is 600 euro, are getting poked in the kitten by ANET.
b) I don’t see why a new player is better than a veteran ( especially the super veterans who’ve basically spent 3 years + playing both games ).
c) Would it be THAT difficult to give 1-2 character slots for the standard one and increase the Ultimate ones?
Besides, they’re always like " We haven’t released everything there is to know about HoT, yet " to make us think that they’ve only released about 10% of what’s coming when in reality, the best changes are : Guild Halls + Revenant.

Are fifty bucks worth those two changes? If you’re not in a high wage country, no.

I’ve been playing since day 1 of early released. I paid for the game, collector’s edition, in full the moment I knew it was available. I have bought gems regularly (have spent hundreds of dollars on them). I’ve bought myself new accounts. I’ve bought gems for those new accounts. I have been an evangelist for this game since day 1 – I know of at least 5 people certainly, maybe more, who bought this game as a result of my recommendation. I run a guild. I log in every day. I help new players learn the ropes and feel welcome.

I like to think that I am a model player, in that sense. I love and support arenanet as a company. I respect the hell out of their staff for having to put up with a fickle and ungrateful playerbase. But in this case, I think the outrage is at least somewhat justified.

I think that the bundling of the base game with the expansion is a great idea, frankly. I DO think a $40 expansion-only version should be offered, partly to accommodate folks with less income, but mostly to encourage players who have since left GW2 to return without feeling like they have to buy the game all over again.

However, I think it’s ridiculous that the $50 version doesn’t include an extra character slot. That essentially sets the price tag to $60 for anyone who wants to play a revenant without deleting an existing character.

On a personal note, it makes me look like a fool. For months now my friends and guildies have been saying that character slots won’t go on sale because anet wants to make as much money as possible off of people buying the expansion, wanting to make revenants. I objected, pointing out that the GW1 expansions came with character slots so you could try the new classes. Heart of Thorns is definitely coming with at least 1, if not 2, character slots. Now I look like a deluded fangirl.

There will always be people who complain. But I believe adding a character slot to the $50 version (and thus, 2 for the $99 version – which is the one that I got), will eliminate the bulk of the outrage over this. It costs you as a company nothing – and gains you the continued goodwill of much of your playerbase.

I’m really torn with this. I totally get the rage on the onset, but after calming down and looking over so many post’s of personal view’s and start putting things together, I’ve come up with a few things to ease myself, but am still torn.
I’m thinking that the wording for ‘the free’ game was/is wrong, as well as it was handled. If, lets say, it was worded like, "For the sum of $50 you get, the expansion, the gems, the new slot, pet rock, finisher, title, weekend games, etc. etc., and for those of you who are new to GW, we are including the base game as well. Now saying that, $50 is high and should be broken down in tier’s, Example; Tier 1, Expansion, weekend beta only, $15, Tier 2; Expansion, title, pet, finisher, $20, Tier 3; Expansion, title, pet, finisher, slot, gems $35 and All inclusive, with base game for new players $50. THIS is how it should have gone and if it was done this way, NONE of this fall out would be going on and you (Anet) would be making way more money then you would have figured on doing.
I’m not saying that the whole thing still don’t make me a bit unsettled, due to the fact that beta was free before, and you could ‘upgrade’ your game (which I did) for 2000 gems in the gem store and such things as that, but mostly for the fact that GW’s base’s was on getting away from World of Warcraft mentality and to combine the best aspects of ALL mmo and alike game into a game that was NOT based on how rich it would/could make the developer’s and the associated people there in, that would not charge you monthly fee’s or hood wink you into pay absorbent amounts of money just to actually enjoy the game. It was gamers for gamers. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand your in it for the money as well, duh, but you seem to have lost what it was founded on and are now on the level of the other’s, including WoW…….

evoRobot.4019:

You got something.. You got to keep the game for 3 years without a sub and free living stories throughout the 3 years without being forced to pay.

If you are weak for cosmetics from the gem store, at the time you paid for something you valued.

Don’t use your past contributions to justify the new Xpac. You made those decisions based on what you valued at that time.

Like I said, the Xpac is $50. and new players get the core game for free as bonus.

Someone who never experienced the game is saving $10… whats the big deal.

Okay let’s change the angle:
What happens before doesn’t matter right ?
So why new player should have the core game for free ?

Zoso.8279:

Mortifer.2946:

Zoso.8279:

Personally I’m ok with 50$ but can understand why some would be upset with the whole core game included free thing. I say give upgraded accounts 1 free character slots and be done with it :/ id be happy with that even though IDC too much because GW2 in comparison to any other MMORPG is CHEAP AS KITTEN!!!!!!!!!

+1 character slot is everything we are asking for but Anet obviously wants to make a huge profit by urging us to buy it for 10 more dollars/euros

Dude to insinuate that ANET is money hungry is dumb… IDC either way because by the time HoT releases ill prob have enough gold to buy 3 slots just by playing pvp. I’m just saying I can understand y people are upset.

I can buy that slot with gold right now… that is not the point gold equals time. I want to spend my gold that took me a long time to earn differently. I would like to rather buy the slot with money, but when expansion costs 45€, I think they should give us the slot with it

Looking at the editions my contention about the price is backed up more. It is more about the principal of the thing, not the numbers.

standard for $50 … I can live with that

deluxe for $75 … the extras probably total $30+ so it is not that bad a deal

ultimate for $100 … since it is $25 more to get $50 of gems this is a no-brainer if you are getting the deluxe and spend $$ in the gem store

So basically the deluxe is $50 over the standard to get $80 more of content. Any of them come with things like the betas and the title too.

All in all, it sounds good on paper. I just incurred some major expenses but even the $100 version is not a deal-breaker since it is a one-time expense. So why am I still not sold on it? Trust.

BTW anet, remember how I said I have 2 accounts? I was planning on upgrading both to hot before this. Now IF I upgrade my main no way in puma am I upgrading both accounts so you have lost at least one sale.

ekarat.1085:

Sales are normal. New customer deals are normal. Giving the base game away with the expansion to new players is just good sense.

What about bundles on steam? Or steam sales? Or any other kind of sale? How about when older games get cheaper? Is that unfair to people who bought it earlier?

This really is perfectly normal and reasonable and commonplace.

+1