Guild Wars 2

From what they have shown so far 50$ is just greedy and too much. 10$ is real price right now until we see actual playable content.

Those of you who gladly payed for it you don’t know what you have bought. Saying I am a guild wars 2 fan and I know it will be fun, but what if it’s not fun, you don’t know if it’s fun or not. You’ve seen only 1 beta map 1 new class that isnt even finished and nothing more.

Those of us who are veterans and have small budget for games overall need some more infos more stuff and this pricing and treating loyal customers that way is just unacceptable.

Greed will make your HoT expansion to flop. Games can flop easily these days if you are not careful. Slapping your loyal casual customers that supports you for 3 years is not fair. But hey life is not fair right?…

Edit:
They nerfed the Guardians (not yet 23.06.15) and I guess someone made a mistake and nerfed old guards(veterans and players) too

FirebrandFrog.7603:

Except WoW is a subscription-based game, meaning that it’s reasonable for you to expect a lot of content from them, both during and inbetween xpacs, as that is what you are paying each month for: to have more content in a steadier stream than a F2P or Pay2Enter-based game.

explain gw1, its pricing, and timing.

Just incase you didnt know.

GW1 – April 26, 2005
GW1 Factions – April 28, 2006
GW1 Nightfall – October 26, 2006
GWEOTN – August 28, 2007
All that with less of a gem store. and cheaper prices + physical editions.

GW2- August 28, 2012
GW2 HOT – 2015?

Oh come on the gem market pays just like a subscription

this is perfectly in line with arenanet’s lack of two-way communication with its player base for the last 3 years… no matter how many thousands of people express their discontent, they stay in their ivory tower and believe they know better… i love the game, but the company does not have my respect…

They would have to drop the price significantly or add more than just a character slot or two to make me part with MY money.

Dropping the price would result in them having to deal with numerous people wanting refunds and the resulting “where’s my money” messages. This leaves them with adding more to the packages and as I said a character slot or two doesn’t make me interested.

Crylos.2169:

Now! Because we don’t know enough about HoT and its value, saying 50 dollars is too much or just right (or maybe too little, for some people?) is meaningless. For some people, all it matters is how many hours they get from a game. If that’s how they want to do it, that’s fine for them. But I’d rather have replayable and fun maps (as ANet said the new maps would be designed to achieve) then 40 hours of dredging through solo leveling and fetch quests.

I disagree. EAnet is offering the expac for sale. We therefore have no alternative but to judge that offering by the information they have made available. This is not all there is to know about the expansion, but it’s all the buyer has to go on. It is therefore more than fair to judge it on what has been made available to the customer.

Crylos.2169:

This all leads to my final point: Players should not even complain about (pre) purchasing HoT until every major feature is sufficiently fleshed out. Most of this backlash is coming from ignorance rather than anything else but they also need to look at the overall value and not just the numbers. Even if all the new areas HoT will introduce make up a total of 33% of the base game world, that does not mean the content will not be valuable. GW1’s Fissure of Woe and Underworld were the same two elite areas of the game for 9 or 10 years and they were always interesting. Sure, interest waned and spiked as time went by, and that interest also came from the different builds that could be used, but those two areas are proof that map quantity isn’t that important. If ANet release enough info over the next few weeks (and maybe months), I’d bet most of the people complaning now would change their minds (assuming what ANet shows is indeed valuable). If all HoT has to show is bland while asking for 50 dollars, THEN people should complain.

It is not up to you to decide what people should value in an expac. Different customers have different needs/wants from it. A WvWer/PvPer might think twice if all they’re getting is a few elite specialisations. They might not be interested in the PvE side, and they’re therefore paying for a map they’ll have access to anyway (New BL/Stronghold respectively)

A lot of people are also upset about the offerings right now. You are manipulated to go for the most expensive option because it’s the only one that arguably offers value for money. The base option does not include the character slot required to make a Revenant, a key part of the expac for many, and the top tier offering gives a $25 bonus over the middle tier, making the $100 preorder the only valid option for a discerning customer.

If the outrage is rooted in ignorance as you say, it’s ignorance of EAnet’s making for asking us to shell out on limited information.

I cant believe that ppl can actually believe that there is company that gives something for free!!! In kittening AMERICA mother of capitalism!

papry.8096:

Hey, remember the reddit post with the help for recent buyer of GW2.
Guess what ?
Here; their answer to people asking for help.

http://i.imgur.com/T0lpOQO.jpg

since i feel this is an even bigger breach of trust from the ninja edit in the faq, i’m putting it here again in the hopes that we get an honest reply for that.

For what it’s worth, I’m perfectly happy with my Deluxe edition purchase. I have no issues with the price I paid.
Just for clarification, I’ve been playing since pre-launch and have 2000+ hours played.

This discussion is getting “bugged” for me…

warbignime.4610:

scerevisiae.1972:

WOW provides a lot more content for $50 for starters.

I don’t think there is $50 worth of content, and not providing a character slot for that is effectively a huge “kitten you” to the whole playerbase.

But the main reason I won’t be buying HOT is that I don’t think the content that’s come out in the 2.5 years since release has been any good, so I don’t really see much value in investing any more money into the game when it’s not providing content I’m interested in playing.

It’s that simple.

Since you are no longer intersted in the game. Can I have your stuff?

Reading comprehension is hard I know, but nowhere did I suggest I’d stop playing. I’m just not going to buy HOT.

ReiCH.6273:

papry.8096:

Hey, remember the reddit post with the help for recent buyer of GW2.
Guess what ?
Here; their answer to people asking for help.

http://i.imgur.com/T0lpOQO.jpg

since i feel this is an even bigger breach of trust from the ninja edit in the faq, i’m putting it here again in the hopes that we get an honest reply for that.

And so I’ll point out again it’s the copy-paste response I’ve already seen in different context – basically the first response given to likely thousands of inquiries the customer support is bombarded by right now. If your issue is about HoT pricing, availability, or the bundled base game, that’s the first response you will get.

If you’ve dealt with CS before, you’ll probably know that in case like this you need to continue with second letter.

“Thanks for your quick response, however this does not answer to my problem. There was a reddit post that informed us that customer support is able to help with…”

and so on. Post again, explain the situation, and what you are after. There is little question that CS right now is overtaxed with all manner of issues, so it might take a bit to get through to them.

ReiCH.6273:

papry.8096:

Hey, remember the reddit post with the help for recent buyer of GW2.
Guess what ?
Here; their answer to people asking for help.

http://i.imgur.com/T0lpOQO.jpg

since i feel this is an even bigger breach of trust from the ninja edit in the faq, i’m putting it here again in the hopes that we get an honest reply for that.

JUST WOW! kitten you customer we screwed you big time !!!!!

A hell of a way to alienate your existing customers A-Net…

I appreciate the fact that you are company and have to make money but charging what amounts to a full-game price for an expansion with content that does not appear to live up to the price seems like a greedy cash grab.

There should be at least some form of discount for existing players, after all it is supposed to be an expansion.

I spend 90% of my time in this game in wvw and hell no I’m not paying 50 bucks for a pve expansion with no character slot.

Kitsune.1902:

ReiCH.6273:

papry.8096:

Hey, remember the reddit post with the help for recent buyer of GW2.
Guess what ?
Here; their answer to people asking for help.

http://i.imgur.com/T0lpOQO.jpg

since i feel this is an even bigger breach of trust from the ninja edit in the faq, i’m putting it here again in the hopes that we get an honest reply for that.

And so I’ll point out again it’s the copy-paste response I’ve already seen in different context – basically the first response given to likely thousands of inquiries the customer support is bombarded by right now. If you’ve dealt with CS before, you’ll probably know that in case like this you need to continue with second letter.

“Thanks for your quick response, however this does not answer to my problem. There was a reddit post that informed us that customer support is able to help with…”

and so on. Post again, explain the situation, and what you are after. There is little question that CS right now is overtaxed with all manner of issues, so it might take a bit to get through to them.

I’m sorry but even if things are as you say they are, that’s pretty bad and the practice unethical. What you’re saying is that there’s a customer who wants to get the promised upgrade, and they blow him off real quick cause there’s too much work to do. And, who knows, maybe he ‘ll just give up and go buy another account. That doesn’t sound reasonable at all. They shouldn’t be doing that to people. That’s not how they should be treating their customers. I still feel we need a reply from the company for this.

I got tired of Dry Top and the Silverwastes very quickly. I’ve seen nothing to indicate that the new area(s) in HoT won’t be more of the same sort of frantic ermahgerd re-earn the rep/re-take the keep/here we go again style of gameplay that I don’t want any more of and never wanted in the first kitten place. Plus, mushroom jumping. Pfft.

$20, with a free character slot, sure. At least I could try out a revenant.
$50? Ha ha ha. No.

warbignime.4610:

You guys should compare WoW expansion reveal to HoT, or even ff14 heavensward. Most of MMORPG are vague about their expansion too, there are no weekly live stream about the content neither weekly detailed blog post. Just check wow MoP reveal page, all they did are listed features and a very short portion of the reveal video and that’s pretty much it. How much more do you guys want? Anet won’t tell you every detail neither but that’s the same with every game expansion ever. People are having ridiculous expectations and it bothers me.

14 has revealed all extra charachters, it has revealed new job actions for new classes, a full new plotline. The Developer has said there will be as much content added as was with the original game. They have reavealed new raids, and they told us how many new zones they are adding. AND A RELEASE DATE all before adding a prepurchase option
It also costs 40 dollars versus 50, or a 25% difference in price, and you need nothing extra/delete no charachters to play all of the new jobs.

gw2 hasnt told us 5/9th of the new specializations
how many new zones we are getting
what is challenging content
no release date.

Duka.5864:

I cant believe that ppl can actually believe that there is company that gives something for free!!! In kittening AMERICA mother of capitalism!

Capitalism means you can buy it, or not. It also means market regulates price, and it means I can complain about price and not buy it until Anet caves or I find a suitable alternative to gw2.

So far I have several Im willing to spend my future monthly funds for online gaming on.

All in all, this just drives home how de-valued anet views their loyal customers, even when they spend hundreds in gemstore or on server transfers. Just looking at my money transfers back one year, I invested more than 25 Euros per month on this game, even though I had a 3 month break in it, so it probably is more like about 35 Euros per month I played. For 35 Euros a month I get two subscriptions with most mmos without a cash shop.

And what do I get for the support I showed to Anet? A slap in the face. Im treated EXACTLY OR EVEN WORSE than someone new to the game that hasnt spend hundreds of euros on this game already.

Do I feel entitled because of that? Sorry, but someone really has to look up the meaning of entitlement again. No, this is no entitlement. This is a matter of being a valued customer – or not. And Anet made it more than clear, that us are just a pimple on their kitten not worth any consideration. Well, this pimple has had it

ReiCH.6273:

Kitsune.1902:

ReiCH.6273:

papry.8096:

Hey, remember the reddit post with the help for recent buyer of GW2.
Guess what ?
Here; their answer to people asking for help.

http://i.imgur.com/T0lpOQO.jpg

since i feel this is an even bigger breach of trust from the ninja edit in the faq, i’m putting it here again in the hopes that we get an honest reply for that.

And so I’ll point out again it’s the copy-paste response I’ve already seen in different context – basically the first response given to likely thousands of inquiries the customer support is bombarded by right now. If you’ve dealt with CS before, you’ll probably know that in case like this you need to continue with second letter.

“Thanks for your quick response, however this does not answer to my problem. There was a reddit post that informed us that customer support is able to help with…”

and so on. Post again, explain the situation, and what you are after. There is little question that CS right now is overtaxed with all manner of issues, so it might take a bit to get through to them.

I’m sorry but even if things are as you say they are, that’s pretty bad and the practice unethical. What you’re saying is that there’s a customer who wants to get the promised upgrade, and they blow him off real quick cause there’s too much work to do. And, who knows, maybe he ‘ll just give up and go buy another account. That doesn’t sound reasonable at all. They shouldn’t be doing that to people. That’s not how they should be treating their customers. I still feel we need a reply from the company for this.

It’s how it works in reality. In all likelihood, the answer will be sufficient for most of the cases, probably more than 90%. Those to whom it’s not enough of an answer, will get back to you, and hopefully their issue gets cleared with subsequent exchange.

It’s extremely rare that I actually have to contact CS, but a few times I have, I recall something similar. First answer is usually generic, often with links to a few resources that might be helpful in most cases. When they’re not, you contact them again, and the matter gets pushed forward.

Well, if you feel outraged by it, then I guess it’s your right as a customer to feel so. I look at it a bit differently. I think in reality most of the letters/tickets to CS are something people could have cleared with a quick googling or a look at FAQ. If CS spent 5 minutes researching and answering each one of them, they’d probably have to hire 10 times more people for the job. That would increase expense, and as a result, prices.

In view of this, I really don’t mind sending another polite letter if that’s what my issue requires. Now if I got brushed off after third letter, that’s when I’d start getting upset. I don’t remember that happening though.

Well going by the reddit post of that unfortunate GW2 buyer and his CS response, and Gaile’s reply there won’t be any other editions, I guess they’re really not budging. I’m not either. Purchased GW2 in aug. 2013 for 40€ and after running my bank statements last night, 895€ more in gem purchases since. But I’m taking a stand, I will not be taken advantage of just for being loyal and supportive all these years. No HoT, no more gems. I’ll stay in Tyria with the other 90% playerbase, enjoying the 8 classes that served us well so far.

I am not purchasing the expansion until it is announced that current game owners will be receiving a character expansion slot with the purchase of the expansion.
That’s not just $50.00 that Anet is not getting. That is $200.00 since I am head of the house of a home with 4 accounts for GW2.
love the game and have spent a decent sum on the Gem Store but will also hold off on that until this issue is resolved in a satisfactory manner

My initial reaction was similar to others, but my opinion has changed quite a bit since then. I now no longer see this as a big issue, and have bought the ultimate edition. Some might call me a fool, but I am convinced I will get my money’s worth.

Is the expansion worth $50 (£34.99 for me)? From what I have seen, read and tried, yes very much so. The way I see it, if it keeps me entertained for more than a few hours then I will be satified with the price. I never had an issue with the price to be honest. For an expansion that will potentially keep me happy for days, weeks or more likely months, I think £34.99 is a very small price to pay.

Is it a fair price to pay compared to how much we paid for the original game? I think people are looking at this the wrong way round. I personally think the core game was very cheap, considering how much content it gave us and how much entertainment I got out of it. If anything I think the expansion is moving to a more appropriate price range, while the original game was way under priced.

Should we get a free character slot if we already own the game? No, I do not think so. What we should get is exactly what new players are getting (i.e.- a free copy of the core game). However, the main problem with that is, we existing players will then have access to two sets of login rewards and will be at an unfair advantage vs new players. I know a lot of you will say, well I have paid money for the original game, they have not, so I deserve more. But the fact is, you paid for content, and you (should) have got your money’s worth. The money you have spent has given you something. Yes, new players are getting that same thing for free, but that doesn’t devalue the money you have spent at all. Also, we exisiting players have experienced some things new players may never get to experience. We got to experience LS1, the original skill and trait unlock system, we got to see the game grow and change in many ways. We have gained things that new players will not.

To players who bought the core game due to the changed FAQ, I am sure that if you submit a ticket to support they will arrange a refund. So long as they provide refunds to any player purchasing within the period the old FAQ info was visible, I do not see this as an issue. That said, I do think Anet should be more vocal about this, and communicate that people can get their refund if they bought the game based on the old FAQ. Changing it and staying mostly silent is only going to make people suspicious.

Should we get a new slot so we can make a revenant? No, I don’t think so. This again will put us at an advantage over new players, seeing as we have already benefited from spending money on the core game. If any change is to be made, it needs to be fair for both sides, new and old.

So what does need to be done? To be honest, I think Anet have done the right thing by giving the core game for free, and do not need to change anything. It feels like we get less value for our money, but the truth is we get the same.

Like I said, my initial reaction was the same as others here, and I think that is the only problem with this offer. It is perceived by many to negatively impact existing players, but, with the exception of those who are genuinely entitled to a refund, it doesn’t impact us at all.

When I ordered my first laptop, I got a free PDA with it. The PDA was only basic and was no where near as good as the one I already had, and there was no one I knew who would benefit from having it. So while it was nice of them to give me a freebie, it was ultimately useless. I now look at the HoT offer in the same way. There is no point to having the core game, because I already have it, and as stated above, I shouldn’t get the extra login rewards from a second account because new players do not get this.

Lots of people have reacted and commented on this, and if Anet changes things based on that feedback, then fair enough. That is up to them. But personally, I think they should stick to their guns on this. The loss to existing players (not veterans, that is an entirely different thing), is non-existant, and not an issue like I first thought. But it can be very easy to overreact sometimes, especially when money is involved .

I will just wait until the price drops to 20-30 euros, it might take an year or two, but I am in no rush to play it anyways; I might check what’s going on in the non-expansion world when it launches

Just an extra character slot? Not enough. I want at least an extra bank slot on top of that, or just bring the price down to that of DLC, because that is what it is. 20 bucks, and no more.

I really didn’t think anything would stop me from preordering the expasion, since I was a day one prepurchaser of the original game – but this mess has certainly changed my mind. Honestly, I had always expected it would be a little more than others were forcasting – probably $40 with a free character slot included – but this? This is rather insulting.

I convinced a friend of mind to buy a copy of the game just about a month ago, now don’t I feel like a jerk – twice over.

I won’t be buying this expansion until this is fixed. There enough other great games on the market right now fighting for my money.

I say remove the core game from the offer, cut the price in half and call it an “account upgrade” or an expansion pack as I initially expected it to be – as opposed to buying both the core game and the expansion for the full retail price I paid years ago. That would’ve been decent and fair.

I was looking forward to get back into the game after a hiatus with the upcoming expansion, but from how it seems as of now.. I think I’ll spend my money and time elsewhere unless some things change (or until it goes on %50-75 off sale after a year or two…)

A great deal for the new players indeed, but I personally don’t think the price is justified by the product the existing players are getting, although that is quite subjective, let’s just say I (and several friends of mine) personally don’t think it’s worth that much.

Just my opinion.

PS: This is coming from someone who bought Diablo 3 twice and got the RoS expansion right on release for the full price and never regretted it once. For the price of HoT, I’d want it to be similar to buying GW1 Nightfall or GW1 Factions (which pretty much felt like whole new games in regards to the amount of content we got unlike GW1 EotN – like Witte.3160 pointed out.)

I will not pay a single cent if the whole list of content to be expected isn’t made public.

How many maps/zones/dungeons/profession-specialisations/armors/weapons will be included in this expancion.

How can anybody conclude that this price is right for the amount of content if its not even clear yet what is gonna be in the expancion.

Btw EoTN was kitten and made me quit gw1. Factions and Nightfall where awesome. Hope you don’t make the mistake wiht Hot from the get go.

Yeah i agree with you the price is too much for old players. I paid about £25 for gw 2 i think . It is abit kitten i would have pay £55 and some other people have paid more where new people pay just £35+. There should be an expansion only option at a discounted price for old players or something

While I have played the game since launch, I can count the times I have commented in these forums on one hand. However, I do agree with most of the comments here and feel that ArenaNet deserves to hear my opinion.

As mostly a WvW player, I generally only do PVE content in the off hours, when nothing big is happening in the borderlands. Now that’s not to say I don’t do PVE content. I do have map completion on multiple characters, dragon rank (long before it was easy) in sPvP, etc… so I have played my fair share of all of the game types.

For me, there is nowhere near enough content in this “expansion” to justify the price tag. This is especially true when the majority of content that I am interested in is being implemented into the base game that I already own.

That being said, $50 is a ridiculous price for what has been announced and a class I can’t play because I do not have any additional character slots. Unless ArenaNet is able to prove that the value of the content is worth the price, I have absolutely no intentions of ordering HoT and will just continue with the base game.

Those of us that have played this game for years, are looking for quality content and more things to do. At this time, I truly think that ArenaNet has dropped the ball on content here and (as they often do) are focusing way too much on things that players do not actually want. Yes, a new class is kind of cool, but will that be enough to get me to purchase an extremely over-priced expansion? Probably not.

If they aren’t already, I really think that the development team needs to get to work on new dungeons, expanding the new zone even further and bringing the type of content that will make the majority of the player base happy to drop $50 on an expansion. It’s not that $50 is too much to pay for content, it’s that $50 is too much to pay for this particular type of content. There are many free to play games that offer of this type of content without a price tag and seem to be doing just fine. I would be more than happy to give AreaNet my money, if I knew it was worth it. At this point, I am just struggling to see the value.

As a loyal customer and one that truly loves this game, I either need a lot more convincing, or a price tag that is much for in line with the amount of content we are actually getting. From what I have seen so far, even $40 is a bit of a stretch.

This is not really one of those threads complaining about the price of the expansion, I just want to check if I understand something correctly:

<a href=“https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/HoT-Price-Feedback-Base-game-included-merged/”> in this thread </a> someone from anet says that with the purchase of the expansion people get the core game as a free bonus.
I already own a copy of the core game, thus if I purchase the expansions, I should have 1 account which is upgraded to HoT, and one account which is just the core game,
which is given to me as a free bonus (I could give it to a friend or something like that)

have I understood the situation correctly (I hope I have because otherwise it would seem that some people are getting more than others, while paying the same price)

edit: the hyperlink thing doesn’t seem to work, oh well..

I support most of the posts here, and I really hope NC-soft is behind this bad business direction and that the situation will remedy before some permanent damage is done to the community and the game itself, would be a shame. :/

Just include 800 gems for existing players and be done with it.
Those that want a char slot will be able to buy it in the gem store and those that buy the Deluxe/Ultimate edition which already includes a slot will be able to get something else if they so desire.

Also, I feel insulted that I have to pay 50 bucks to have my class fixed. The necro specialization looks so good, that it pretty much invalidates ever playing the old necro ever again. So it feels like I’m paying 50 bucks to have something fixed that shouldn’t have been broken in the first place.

I’ve been excited for this expansion since it was announced, but I’ll be joining what seems to be a rapidly expanding majority in saying I will NOT be buying HoT for a long while. There is NO WAY I’ll spend $50 for a game I already own just for some tweeks and a couple new maps, regardless of the “guaranteed beta access” . (BTW, isn’t that just open beta by that point?) Nor will I pay $75 for all of the above, a character slot and a bunch of vanity crap.

The point is, I think this release should be seriously rethought, otherwise this game is going to lose a lot of the player base that has made it so great.

I’m adding my voice to the symphony of unhappy players about the no standalone purchase for the expansion and regardless of whatever excuses and defences for the pricing of the expansion + core game, the fact remains that:

1. Anet has confirmed that the core game was needed to be purchased in order to play the expansion so by giving the core game free to new buyers is a slap in the face for those who bought the core game prior to pre-order release. This is blatant deception on their part.

2. Also, if you already have the base game versus someone buying it new entirely, you are essentially paying the same price but getting less. I’m not looking at the price tag, just the value added.

So to cut things short, will I buy the expansion? As it stands, not likely, but I am hoping Anet would give some regards to their current players come up with a solution and not leave things as they are. Fingers crossed.

I finally convinced my wife to play GW2 with me and I bought the game for her in August 2015 (not quite 3 months ago). Now we have to buy it all over again to get the expansion!

Since Hot is a whole new game will it give me an additional 5 character slots? I am paying for it after all!

I remember how much love people showed the first days when Guild Wars 2 was first announced, and i compare those days with these days when ANet announced HoT’s price.
Now, everyone is angry with the game and they should be, because in these few days we’ve seen another company who’s looking only for money.

ANet, trust us. Most of the players knows that the game needs money for a lot of things, and most of us already helped you with extra purchases from the shop ( Gems ).
But, on this point, you’re just trying to foul all of your customers to pay for something that they already bought from you, once, on the full price and maybe ( i’m one of them ) more copies of the game.

We’ve respected the company and aided you with extra purchases when we could. Now, would be nice from you ( the company ) to show the same respect to it’s customers.

Even so, it’s the only game that i play at this time, so i will buy the game whatever the price is. Already saved some money for Ultimate edition. But this, it’s only from my point of view.

That is absolutely not how it works in any MMO that I’ve ever played. The core game is free if you don’t have an account. It is not a bonus. Everyone going forward will get the core game free as long as they purchase HOT and of course, the core game is no longer being sold so they have to purchase HOT. I have no idea why people don’t get it.

I got through the first few pages before I got all TL;DR.
No doubt my reply will be lost amongst the pages but I still want to get on my soapbox.

Charging your loyal old players full price for them to continue playing the game they have supported and funded over the past few years is wrong.

‘We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.’ So you are giving new people a bonus, but not the people who funded the expansion? Bit of a slap in the face. Why should new players receive a bonus and your current players receive nothing but a forced decision to pay to continue playing the game they love?

I’ve been a bit bored of GW2 lately but I couldn’t wait for the expansion.
However after seeing the price, I am quite disappointed. Do you realise that a great portion of your player base is children and university students?
Yes, it isn’t a monumental amount to pay, but it is too high for those who have already forked out for the game. And to those who will say ‘at least it isn’t a sub game’, that is irrelevant to GW, no point in comparing unrelated games and their own payment systems. If it was a completely new game, then yes. But this is essentially just a DLC pack, with no benefits whatsoever.
To those saying people are being crybabies or ‘If you don’t want to pay, don’t buy it’, we aren’t asking for it to be free. Just not the ridiculous price it is. There are times when the full game didn’t even cost that much (yes, I get they were sales) but we aren’t wanting to buy a whole new game and I don’t believe we should be forced to. We are either paying for 80% of a game we already have, or paying $50 for 20% extra content and no other benefits (rough figures ofc, just an example).

I honestly believe that the expansion should be purchasable as an upgrade for people with the existing GW2 game. I’m no economist or anything, but perhaps something around $20 to $30 dollars would be acceptable. With the size of your current player base, and the influx of new players that usually occurs during an expansion or upgrade, as well as the likely increase in gem purchases and such, I am sure you will still make a decent amount of money.

I also found it amusing that you have released a price, but not a release date or even a release window. Priorities, am I right?

After more than 60 pages in 24hrs, I think it is pretty evident that this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. I think it is time that an official comment on the matter is made by a member of ArenaNet. Not a comment in the middle of this thread, but an official response or even an acknowledgement. Unless I have already missed one, in which case, link plox.

If the price remains as such, along with the poor communication, I think you will see quite a few loyal players leave. It’s not a threat, just a statement.
I know I am now hesitant to stay, which means nothing, I am just a nobody, but it’s just an example.

If you got this far through my post, thank you and purple monkey dishwasher.

#walloftext #tl;dr

I wouldn’t mind 50$ if they made proper pvp content, like 2v2 3v3 arenas with leaderboards or even just more good conquest maps. Stronghold encourages cheesy builds and killing autoattacking NPCs is boring. Treb is useless. running supply is boring, people don’t have to fight for buffs they just pop stability and channel…. The only thing that’s exciting is the lord room.

I am a casual player that has played on and off since launch and I would like to write my general thoughts on the matter:

I have no problem with the pricetag on the Standard offer (I will not talk about the deluxe and ultimate edition in my post). Sure, it errs towards being a bit more expensive than expected and I don’t yet feel the need to pre-purchase HoT, mainly because there are still many unknowns and no release date. I will probably buy it still because I’m confident I will get my moneys worth, but that is just my personal opinion.

That said, I believe the main causes for the current debate is the perception from the community and somewhat flawed communication/marketing from Anet.

The base game is included for free as a bonus for new player. This is a fact that has been confirmed here on the forums and on other social networks. However, on the buy page it is stated that the standard offer includes Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns and Guild Wars 2 core game.
It is a great deal for new player which i would recommend for anyone looking to get started. And an influx of new players is always good for the franchise and the game.
For current player like me however it reads that I am about to buy two products, not one. Nowhere is it stated that the included coregame isn’t aimed at me, and if I weren’t reading the forums/ following the facebook page I would never know that. It says Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns expansion(includes Guild Wars 2 core game) which might be interpreted in severeal ways, especially for a non-english player like me.

With the Revenant being on of the main features to come with the expansion, I found it suprising that it doesn’t seem like HoT includes an extra character slot like i assumed. Sure, Arenanet doesn’t owe us that extra slot and has never made that promise, but it felt natural that i would be included. Imagine that I am excited to try out the new proffesion only to find that I either has to delete one of my existing characters or go through an additional purchase to get an extra slot, whether it is with actual money och with time grinding ingame gold. It gives me an odd and negative experience.

In short, the Standard offer feels like a product more aimed to a newer audience which will get significant more value with two products for one price.
I won’t make the case that Veteran players is being scammed because I feel it has been clarified that the pricetag is for the expansion only, which I accept.
Mostly im confused about the value disparity between the two groups of customers and the signals that are sent with the Heart of Thorns-product.

I have cofidence that Arenanet always do their best to make Guild Wars 2 the best game as possible, and it is important that we as a community continue to give feedback and constructive criticism in order to help along the way.

Sorry for my english and have a lovely day!

A smart move would of been to make the base game free, as of now, for everyone.

It’s one thing to make something free after a while, and another thing to charge those people again for something they already bought but state it’s free, especially when the expansion seems overpriced.

I’m having a hard time believing you thought this plan would go well with existing players, unless you think we’re idiots.

1. FAQ: You need the base game to play the expansion.
2. Proceed to include base game into paid expansion package that is more expensive than the game has been for the last year(not counting limited discounts).
3. Act like it wasn’t a bait and switch.

There’s just very little justification for buying the “pre-purchase.”

I don’t know what I’m getting. You’ve released specializations for a few classes, not the vast majority. We’ve seen part of one map. We’ve seen bits and pieces of the revenant, and we’ve caught glimpses of the mastery system. The only real confirmation we’ve got is that we get a guaranteed third season of the Living Story, which is not particularly gripping and has a lot of issues on the false difficulty front, especially considering that the rewards are… meh at best. At this point, the “expansion” looks more like anemic DLC than a true xpac, and it’s selfish to expect players to happily go on faith.

I can’t claim to know what the thought process looked like at Anet. But what I can tell you is what it looks like to a lot of people I play the game with: This looks like a badly thought out, horribly implemented capital grab that tried to piggyback on the flagging hype train. It’s a ‘strike while the iron is hot’ tactic that failed so miserably that the hammer slipped out of your hand and landed two counties over.

You’re asking us to pony up the effective cost of a new AAA game on a load of ‘maybes’ without the security of a preorder. We don’t even have a confirmed date. What we do have is Gail’s Reddit confirmation on Reddit that these are our only options and that nothing will change. It’s alienating, even to longtime fans, especially when we started realizing that new players get the best end of the deal and veterans – with countless hours invested into their accounts – don’t get so much as a character slot.

And it leaves a lot of us coming to the conclusion that it’s not worth it. Maybe we’ll buy it on release or a little after release when we actually know what we’re getting. The most insulting thing, though, is that so many people seem condescending or dismissive to the people who are raising concerns about this mess, even though if it was any other good or service, we’d be considered totally justified in raising holy hell to find out what we are in fact buying and not content to take it on “faith.”

A smart move would of been to make the base game free, as of now, for everyone.

It’s one thing to make something free after a while, and another thing to charge those people again for something they already bought but state it’s free, especially when the expansion seems overpriced.

I’m having a hard time believing you thought this plan would go well with existing players, unless you think we’re idiots.

1. FAQ: You need the base game to play the expansion.
2. Proceed to include base game into paid expansion package that is more expensive than the game has been for the last year(not counting limited discounts).
3. Act like it wasn’t a bait and switch.

It amazes me how most of you feel entitled to judge the value of the expansion in general. The comparison with WoW expansion is so flawed it actually does not even make sense to start.

Yet everyone who compains he/she was a veteran and stuck by the game seem to forget all about the content anet released since launch… zero cash involved, everthing achieveable with ingame currency.

Now we look at an expansion that will feature as far as we no:

- a new class with 60+ skills
- Specialisation mechanic (to be increased in the future)
- 9 new specialisation with 11 new skills each (99)
- 9 new traitlines with 12 traits each (108)
- New weapon and armor skins for each specialisation
- a map that is designed to hold the content of 3
- 7 new Masteries with several new abilities (flying being one of them)
- Precursor crafting
- guild halls concept
- 2 guild hall maps (probably to be increased in the future)
- 2 new crafting professions
- new guild armor and weapons
- GvG Arena including a leaderboard
- Dueling
- Housing + Customisation
- Guild Action perks for WvWvW
- Complete overhaul of the influence system catering to smaller and bigger guilds alike
- (challenging group content)
- new PVP mode stronghold
- new WvWvW area complete overhaul of the mechanics
- new siege equipment

On the way to this expansion they are overhauling the complete core specialisations system including
yes this should be considered as part of HoT since it sets up the future direction and woul have been obsolete if there was no HoT

_ I am sure If forget something you might wanna check here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2:_Heart_of_Thorns they actually could enhance this list quite a bit_

And what people are crying for is basically :

- I want 6 more maps
- I want 6 dungeons
- I want a free character slot
- I find it unfair that new people do not have to pay 50 bucks for a three year old core game

>> otherwise 50 bucks is not worth it at maximum 20!!!!

And all of that on a game without a subscription fee.

mind blowing

It seems so strange that Anet did it this way, because they could easily have made a package without the base game and with a free character slot (or in-game currency sufficient to allow players to buy one). It’s like they mean to annoy the playerbase.

Because of this, I won’t buy the expansion, at least for a good long while. Probably when it’s discounted heavily. And hadn’t they done this, I’d happily have paid the same amount of money to get more content and support Anet.

I’m a fairly new player to the game, I purchased the game when it was discounted and recently started playing. I have played World of Warcraft for a long time, and that’s much more expensive. The subscription costs alone are more expensive. Of course I’d say WoW is not a game to emulate in that respect as it feels rather extortionate now.

On the other hand, I would be prepared to pay quite a bit for an expansion, just to support Anet.

I don’t quite understand, however, why they insist on including the base game in -every- package. I’d also say that an extra character slot (or enough currency to buy one) would be, you know, really handy for long-time players. It’s like Anet are annoying people with their deals on purpose. because surely someone from Anet must’ve seen this coming.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

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.

Only a group of Suits in a boardroom could come up with this dishonest corporate jive talk as you still display GW2 for sale in banners.

For a casual player without a guild, not interested in pvp and with a legendary,
the features below do not appeal to me all:
- Precursor crafting
- guild halls concept
- 2 guild hall maps (probably to be increased in the future)
- new guild armor and weapons
- GvG Arena including a leaderboard
- Dueling
- Housing + Customisation
- Guild Action perks for WvWvW
- Complete overhaul of the influence system catering to smaller and bigger guilds alike
- (challenging group content)
- new PVP mode stronghold
- new WvWvW area complete overhaul of the mechanics
- new siege equipment

I’m only interested in:
- a new class with 60+ skills
- Specialisation mechanic (to be increased in the future) — will be in base game btw
- 9 new specialisation with 11 new skills each (99)
- 9 new traitlines with 12 traits each (108)
- New weapon and armor skins for each specialisation
- a map that is designed to hold the content of 3
- 7 new Masteries with several new abilities (flying being one of them)
- 2 new crafting professions

Now convince me to pay 50$ just for what it suits my gameplay.