Guild Wars 2

Well, people keep speculating about why HoT was $50 at all, saying that the free game for new players is factored in, or because Warlords of Draenor was $50 (the most expensive expansion in WoW’s history, and tied w/ HoT for the most expensive MMO expansion ever, atm), or that maybe there is just a mountain of new content that Anet hasn’t shown us yet that makes this kitten expansion.

But, if you go back to January 8 (a few weeks BEFORE HoT was even announced), you can find a a 2015 Yearly Projections statement made by Daewoo Securities, currently the LARGEST stock brokerage and investment bank in South Korea, in which they said that NCSoft would release an expansion called Heart of Thorns (weeks before the announcement) and then projected that Anet would sell at least 2 million copies of the expansion at $50 each. This is not a “guess” by analysts about the positive outcome, this was the largest brokerage in Korea saying “You need to sell 2 million copies of this expansion for $50 each or you will NOT make your quarterly projections for the end of 2015”.

You can read a summary of this on Daewoo Securities website here: http://goo.gl/ziO33b

This is essentially like Goldman Sachs telling a company “You must raise the price of your products by 15% this year, or your stock price will drop”. Goldman Sachs, of course, has no authority to actually raise those prices, but as the largest investment bank in the US, they can do more than just predict how stock prices will move.

So that’s it. $50 is the price. It kind of has to be. Maybe Anet will throw in some extras, I don’t know. But if you’re wondering “Why are they giving away the core game w/ the expac”, it’s it NOT entirely because they want to increase the game’s population in order to give everyone playing a better experience. It’s not even about adding more customers to the Gem Store, or anything like that. NCSoft was given a mandate from the most powerful investment bank in the country that essentially said “You must sell 2 million copies of this product at $50 each just to meet yearly projections… or else!”

So yeah, don’t expect a price drop.

I pre-purchased HoT right way. I’ll live with that decision and get however much fun I get out of it.

But I am NOT thrilled with how they priced it and I do have concerns about how “much” I’m getting here for the price of a whole game. I was expecting something more in the usual range for an expansion. And that character slot business is especially insulting. So you’re paying more for it and they can’t even throw in one extra slot? Not a problem for me personally this time as I already have a slot reserved for my new toon. But just as a matter of principle, ..WHAT THE KITTEN, that is amazing not cool. So if you’re full already, if you want to actually play the new class (that you just paid for), you need to now also hit the gem store for another slot. It’s the sort of thinking that doesn’t make me want to invest further into the franchise.

I paid for the xpac because I had a prior personal commitment to do so. There was no question about if I’d get it, and I suppose I’ll do the same for the next one as long as GW2 is still “where I’m at”.

But I’m finding it harder to see myself ever buying a single gem again, especially after all the money I’ve already thrown away on them. If this is an indication of how they’re going to do xpacs, and with ever increasing mmo competition out there, I wouldn’t want to guess how much I might care when the next one comes out.

For now I’m not stressing it. I paid for it. It’s done. I’ll get to play it whenever I do, and I’m sure I’ll have a blast for a while. But this shady business practice, once again spitting on things we used to like about the old Anet, it leaves a sour taste for me that I’ll be inclined to remember down the road.

Yea, just dont buy the expansion if you dont need all the new stuff. Don’t know where your problem is that you need to post that into the forum and open just another thread on this topic.

Celtic Lady.3729:

The vanilla game is only free if you don’t already have it and you purchase HoT.

Nothing is free if you can only obtain it by purchasing it.

Alexxander.8306:

Jski.6180:

Its free with the purchase of HoT. Did you buy HoT yes or no? If yes then you get ONE free copy (mostly to help get new ppl to play it) if no then you do not get it. Look at free shipping / handling with the purchase of a good dose this mean that its free to have you send any thing you want even if you did not buy the good that you must to get this “deal?”

Why do i get the feeling ppl are spending way too much time in the video game world and seemed to have caused them to lose all perception with real world economics.

Is this true? If so then I am satisfied. I will have 2 farming accounts and one HoT account. That makes up for the char slot. Parking 13 alts will be kinda fun actually.

No, it’s not. You only get core copy if you assign HoT to a separate account (it is a single key). If you unlock HoT on your current account, you won’t get a second core.

@Otokomae.9356 You are absolutely correct in pointing out the financials behind the pricing and the earnings targets but I would add that you failed to include panic in your assesment. If the game is not on track sales wise and the company has clearly defined targets then heaven and earth will be moved to reach them. Anet are fully capable of adding digital incentives to each package retroactive to all purchasers to entice future sales.

Altapir.2571:

Razor.9872:

I may be wrong, but If A-net’s marketing/business plan cannot allow them to decrease their price of $50 or add a compensation for vets, then I think the best course of action would be to simply and honestly release some response:

Saying that they can’t.

Sure… they can’t give us 800 gems /free slot instead of the core game we already have, because that will wreck a billionare bussiness plan. But upgrading hundreds of accounts to deluxe after the beta-events did not…

Dude, that is just not true.

They can, they should… they must give us that extra.

You don’t know that. Don’t make baseless assumptions. For all we know it actually could make a dent. Again – not saying it would as that would be assuming too — I am just saying we know nothing. A-net is most definitely not a billionaire business

What it should say on pre-purchase page is that the “core” game is an added bonus when registering HoT as a new account. That would be more accurate. I still don’t agree with such a marketing gimmick however. Someone is absorbing the costs of that “core” game, and I suspect it’s the people who register HoT on top of an existing account.

They just spit on our faces with the price and character slot.
This compnay isnt the same as GW1. what a dissapointment

T raw.4658:

JustTrogdor.7892:

T raw.4658:

Another employee thread.

I’m happy you all are satisfied with your purchase

I’m not an Anet employee and never will be. I’m happily self-employed. However, thanks for understanding that I’m pleased with my purchase.

Uh huh sure. You know only certain types of people defend HoT. Since you say you aren’t an employee I’m sorry for your situation and only wish you success in life.

Not real sure what you mean by “a certain type of people” but despite my misgivings about surviving in “The Jungle” in Exotics : Darn that widened gap between Exotics and Ascended: and the only Guild I am a member of is my personal guild, I took a leap of faith that it will all end up ok and bought “The Ultimate” edition twice. One for my better half, and one for me.

I really do believe Anet did not mean to scam us, and I really feel that once the powers that be have had time to gather the thoughts from this forum, the Reddit forums, and have their meetings about this dust up, things will be made equal ala a slot added to the first bundle for the upset vets, and a way for the people who bought the Vanilla game on sale to keep their progression and have HoT.

If “A certain type of person” is one who tries to see the best in things and after some thought is willing to take a chance on things…then I am “A certain type of person” and proud of it.

Lisa-Played GW2 almost from the start, and will keep on playing…Jungle here I come..I might die instantly because of my Exotics…but here I come anyway

Otokomae.9356:

Well, people keep speculating about why HoT was $50 at all, saying that the free game for new players is factored in, or because Warlords of Draenor was $50 (the most expensive expansion in WoW’s history, and tied w/ HoT for the most expensive MMO expansion ever, atm), or that maybe there is just a mountain of new content that Anet hasn’t shown us yet that makes this kitten expansion.

But, if you go back to January 8 (a few weeks BEFORE HoT was even announced), you can find a a 2015 Yearly Projections statement made by Daewoo Securities, currently the LARGEST stock brokerage and investment bank in South Korea, in which they said that NCSoft would release an expansion called Heart of Thorns (weeks before the announcement) and then projected that Anet would sell at least 2 million copies of the expansion at $50 each. This is not a “guess” by analysts about the positive outcome, this was the largest brokerage in Korea saying “You need to sell 2 million copies of this expansion for $50 each or you will NOT make your quarterly projections for the end of 2015”.

You can read a summary of this on Daewoo Securities website here: http://goo.gl/ziO33b

This is essentially like Goldman Sachs telling a company “You must raise the price of your products by 15% this year, or your stock price will drop”. Goldman Sachs, of course, has no authority to actually raise those prices, but as the largest investment bank in the US, they can do more than just predict how stock prices will move.

So that’s it. $50 is the price. It kind of has to be. Maybe Anet will throw in some extras, I don’t know. But if you’re wondering “Why are they giving away the core game w/ the expac”, it’s it NOT entirely because they want to increase the game’s population in order to give everyone playing a better experience. It’s not even about adding more customers to the Gem Store, or anything like that. NCSoft was given a mandate from the most powerful investment bank in the country that essentially said “You must sell 2 million copies of this product at $50 each just to meet yearly projections… or else!”

So yeah, don’t expect a price drop.

Thank you. This was enlightening. Many don’t realize just what goes on behind the scenes. Really not envious of A-net right now. I hope everything resolves itself somehow

Meanwhile I can do almost nothing while I see people jumping off the hypetrain and on to the hate bandwagon…

Razor.9872:

Altapir.2571:

Razor.9872:

I may be wrong, but If A-net’s marketing/business plan cannot allow them to decrease their price of $50 or add a compensation for vets, then I think the best course of action would be to simply and honestly release some response:

Saying that they can’t.

Sure… they can’t give us 800 gems /free slot instead of the core game we already have, because that will wreck a billionare bussiness plan. But upgrading hundreds of accounts to deluxe after the beta-events did not…

Dude, that is just not true.

They can, they should… they must give us that extra.

You don’t know that. Don’t make baseless assumptions. For all we know it actually could make a dent. Again – not saying it would as that would be assuming too — I am just saying we no nothing. A-net is most definitely not a billionaire business

Guess again. Check NCsoft annuals and cash flows

-I own Guild Wars 2
-All my friends already owned Guild Wars 2
-There is no “upgrade” option on HOT store
-Everyone is forced to buy “$50” which include original Guild Wars 2 Client

So that mean if i buy HOT, do i get another Guild Wars 2 copy or not? if i get extra copy, i might able to trick some unfortunate people to buy my extra copy for $20 or $30.

Altapir.2571:

Razor.9872:

Altapir.2571:

Razor.9872:

I may be wrong, but If A-net’s marketing/business plan cannot allow them to decrease their price of $50 or add a compensation for vets, then I think the best course of action would be to simply and honestly release some response:

Saying that they can’t.

Sure… they can’t give us 800 gems /free slot instead of the core game we already have, because that will wreck a billionare bussiness plan. But upgrading hundreds of accounts to deluxe after the beta-events did not…

Dude, that is just not true.

They can, they should… they must give us that extra.

You don’t know that. Don’t make baseless assumptions. For all we know it actually could make a dent. Again – not saying it would as that would be assuming too — I am just saying we no nothing. A-net is most definitely not a billionaire business

Guess again. Check NCsoft annuals and cash flows

Do you honestly believe NCsoft places their whole value on A-net? I’d guess A-net gets a sliver of a crumb of what NCsoft owns.

Why do I have to pay for Core version twice?

Why do I have to spend additional ~€10 to create & play Revenant class?

I feel like I’m buying a DLC where I have to purchase additional DLC to play original DLC without issues.

The hell?
:/

If they want to meet their projections then I suspect they will have to give some additional freebies to existing account holders otherwise they may not hit their financial targets… GW2 may die as a consequence of existing players holding out for additional in-game compensation to existing account holders for buying HoT but if that is the case then so be it… they are not the only game on the block.

Tao.1234:

Why do I have to pay for Core version twice?

Why do I have to spend additional ~€10 to create & play Revenant class?

I feel like I’m buying a DLC where I have to purchase additional DLC to play original DLC without issues.

The hell?
:/

The core game is a “free” bonus , but you only get the bonus if you are a new player so…

Greymelken.1892:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Exactly. It’s not a question of cost so much as a question of what exactly are we buying. Again, it’s such a simple fix: just show us the updated map.

We’ll pretty much know what we’re getting then, I think.

Is that all its gonna take? A map?

What do you suppose the reaction will be if the map is indeed unveiled to use the entire grid of uncharted land on the map, the rest of Maguma, Cantha, and Elona?

Do you think the debate would rest, and the community unanimously agree that it was surely worth a 50 sheet?

What if they threw 2 new character slots?

This is a community that decided it was appropriate to get up in arms about an april fools day joke that had our characters making airplane noises, and this was somehow bad because a single plane somewhere on the planet just happened to crash ‘recently’.

There is no pleasing people, and no matter what you give them, they will find something to complain about. Me? I complain about people complaining.

If it was revealed that they will open the map until Elona, I will gladly pay the USD100, and buy another game for my brother to play.

People will complain to matter what, but you are not seeing that picture many of us are seeing. That is why you are saying “I complain about people complaining”.

This is by far the biggest failure imaginable for me.

Too bad that long time players are forced to pay for something they won’t even receive. those upgrading their account should at the very least receive something to compensate for the ridiculous price of 50$.

ANET, you are as terrible as Spotify. Start listening to your communities and stop humiliating yourselves…

Razor.9872:

Altapir.2571:

Razor.9872:

Altapir.2571:

Razor.9872:

I may be wrong, but If A-net’s marketing/business plan cannot allow them to decrease their price of $50 or add a compensation for vets, then I think the best course of action would be to simply and honestly release some response:

Saying that they can’t.

Sure… they can’t give us 800 gems /free slot instead of the core game we already have, because that will wreck a billionare bussiness plan. But upgrading hundreds of accounts to deluxe after the beta-events did not…

Dude, that is just not true.

They can, they should… they must give us that extra.

You don’t know that. Don’t make baseless assumptions. For all we know it actually could make a dent. Again – not saying it would as that would be assuming too — I am just saying we no nothing. A-net is most definitely not a billionaire business

Guess again. Check NCsoft annuals and cash flows

Do you honestly believe NCsoft places their whole value on A-net? I’d guess A-net gets a sliver of a crumb of what NCsoft owns.

250 million dollars bnf 2014
77 of those, GW2 alone

HoT marketing budget = 25 million dollars

Kurogami.9210:

The core game cost 50$ at release and since then countless things like wardrobe, fractals HotM, Living Story, Guild missions, etc. have been added.

They added enough content to fill a whole expansion without anyone needing to pay extra…unless they missed episodes of the LS.

So…why exactly are people complaining about the price for an expansion they barely know anything about while completely ignoring the probable addition of new content after HoT’s release?

If you look at it. In the course of 3 years we haven’t really had much. So many repetitive things have been released since the game came out and most of the stuff that came out was very very short. I mean they repeated the xmas and Halloween stuff from the first year.

They spread everything out so much that there really wasn’t much to do. Now people that are saying HoT wont be worth the $50 is because everyone that has played since day one knows how anet does things. If the expansion adds enough stuff to keep veteran players busy for at least 3 months then it will be worth the $50. Otherwise it will just be another disappointment that you might pay for this time.

The core game was worth every penny and provided so much amount of play time. This expansion will most likely not come close to comparison so the $50 price is pretty ridiculous. $30 seems way more reasonable.

Okay so according to a video from Blog Otter, if I understand him correctly, he thinks the expantion would have been 50 dollars without the base game and they are selling the base game with the expantion because they don’t want a lot of people just having the base game or people who want to start playing now to have to perchase both the core and expantion. Interestingly you can not buy just the core game on their site any site anymore, or I just can’t find it, forcing you to buy the expantion if you want to buy the game. I’m guessing this is an attempt to fix the problem they made with copies still being sold but this does not remove the physical copies from stores.

Is it really such a big loss Anet to just add something to the price of 50 dollars to the people who allready had the game? It will only cost you some work whereass just leaving it as is will cost you some loyal fans to the franchise.

Just and interesting side note: I have seen and heard of a few people with multiple accounts I doubt those people with 2-8 accounts will all buy a 50 dollar expantion where they might have done it for 30 dollars.

Been playing, off and on for years. Was actually excited for the expansion until recently.

Charging the same price for the entire existing game and the expansion for new and existing players is a HUGE middle finger in the face of all existing players. We’ve already paid you, supported you and are the SOLE REASON YOU STILL EXIST. YOU being Arena Net.

No game in history has ever asked its existing player base to pay more to continue their game than new players. EVER.

In essence, existing players pay double, while new players pay what we paid 3 years ago, get all we got and more. Forget sales between now and then, it’s blatant taking advantage of your ORIGINAL SUPPORTERS.

As such, IF…I ever buy the expansion at all, it will be on the inevitable sale. GW2 sells for as little at $10. If I buy the xpac, it will be at that price or lower. Thanks for showing early supporters what you think of them, I’ll answer in kind with my wallet.

Razor.9872:

You don’t know that. Don’t make baseless assumptions. For all we know it actually could make a dent. Again – not saying it would as that would be assuming too — I am just saying we no nothing. A-net is most definitely not a billionaire business

It looks like you’re the one making a baseless speculation. I mean, Kim Taek-Jin, the guy who sold most of ArenaNet to Nexon back in 2012, is worth over 1 billion dollars all by himself! That’s factual information that you could have looked up in minutes, without needing to be a stock holder or seeing the company’s financials.

(i am not sure if this is true but if it is, i am not surprise at all because the evidence is everywhere. All of sudden so many pro-Arena net supporter posts and threads? Where did these come from? ) How about this news: there is evidence of credible popular websites with evidence of this company paying people to write fake posts and threads to make sales and to avoid problems.

What these evidence websites suggest to do to distinguish who is fake and who is not fake? research their post history. " If the shoe doesn’t match, why put it on? "
" Sometimes its not the person who change, it’s the mask that falls off "

http://www.practicedock.com/index.cfm/PageID/7290/?p=333

Otokomae.9356:

Razor.9872:

You don’t know that. Don’t make baseless assumptions. For all we know it actually could make a dent. Again – not saying it would as that would be assuming too — I am just saying we no nothing. A-net is most definitely not a billionaire business

It looks like you’re the one making a baseless speculation. I mean, Kim Taek-Jin, the guy who sold most of ArenaNet to Nexon back in 2012, is worth over 1 billion dollars all by himself! That’s factual information that you could have looked up in minutes, without needing to be a stock holder or seeing the company’s financials.

Forgive me, its late and I’m being a forum junkie. But is he using all his money to fund A-net right now?

you know what really is the problem, they sell you the expansion with the core game but anyone who already has the core game is paying 2X for the same thing.
what they need to do is make a different price for ppl who already have the game, looking at the game price and then how much it costs with the expansion it’s about €10,- tops.
now let’s give Anet some money to play with, make the expansion price €30,- but with the condition that you need to own the core game for it to work.

i don’t see how it’s fair to pay a price that high when the conditions behind it are completely useless to GW2 owners, at least have 2 packages that are fair to GW2 owners so we don’t have to pay as much as non-GW2 owners.
in a way we already payed way more then non-GW2 owners, show the appreciation by lowering the price for GW2 owners.

I’ll pass. I was nick n dimed last time with main game at £50 ($80) a digital copy it isn’t happening again.

Good luck Arenanet this is one “expansion” I won’t be buying till the price is cheaper than £35 ($55).

$30 for expansion sounds pretty reasonable. Also GW2 got like more than 100k active user + buttloads of innactive user that some of them are waiting for expansion DLC.

To put it into Guild wars 1 speak…

/resign

I was a keen pre-purchaser right up until pre-purchase was announced and then I wasn’t.

What happen? I hesitated…..

Reading some people’s posts I’ve seen the veteran ‘entitlement’ post thrown around. I did wonder, was that me, was I being to entitled? Being a 3 day head start Gw2 player.
I look at others posts: it’s to expensive, there’s no character slot etc, edited FAQ was that it?

Sure, some of those posts perhaps helped me to rationalize my initial feelings. But the fact was I hesitated, I went to purchase and then didn’t. In retrospect its because none of the pre-purchases ‘fit’.

The problem was synergy, or lack thereof. I got held up over the core game getting bundled. Wait, what? Let me explain.

Some investigation showed that I couldn’t separate the core game and the HoT release. I mean if I could bundle HoT with my main and have a 2nd account as a mule I could work with that. But no. Even with the subsequent posts explaining the core was getting bundled free it didn’t matter. The momentum was lost, I hesitated. Now I’m reading about how much it costs, with no extra character slot and veteran entitled players.

The process went like this:
I saw the standard edition and thought ok maybe that, but I already have the core game. So it wasn’t that one. Next!
Deluxe, maybe this one? Extra slot awesome but again the core game which i didn’t need.
The gems were ok for the ultimate edition but same thing.

It’s kind of amusing to realize I got held up over something that perhaps if it had been reworded or presented to me in a different way I would have pre-purchased.

But I didn’t and the best explanation I can give was because it didn’t ‘fit’. Then of course I started reading the forums (big mistake). Was it to expensive? Why no character slot? Hesitation grew into doubt.

I mean I’ll still get HoT at some point most likely, I’m an avid GW2 player but my attitude has changed. I went from 100% pre-purchse to ‘when I get round to it’. I’m not trying to argue that my perspective is ‘logical’ other than this why I didn’t pre-purchase despite saying I would….

Perhaps some people will still say it’s my problem, which I guess it is, but I don’t know what to say other than I REALLY wanted to pre-purchase, but then stopped because it didn’t ‘fit’.

The only thing I can say is that marketing REALLY needs to consider the definition of ‘barriers’ because that’s what I hit (real or imagined) and would have pre-purchased otherwise.

Vulcanite.3012:

Okay so according to a video from Blog Otter, if I understand him correctly, he thinks the expantion would have been 50 dollars without the base game and they are selling the base game with the expantion because they don’t want a lot of people just having the base game or people who want to start playing now to have to perchase both the core and expantion. Interestingly you can not buy just the core game on their site any site anymore, or I just can’t find it, forcing you to buy the expantion if you want to buy the game. I’m guessing this is an attempt to fix the problem they made with copies still being sold but this does not remove the physical copies from stores.

Is it really such a big loss Anet to just add something to the price of 50 dollars to the people who allready had the game? It will only cost you some work whereass just leaving it as is will cost you some loyal fans to the franchise.

Just and interesting side note: I have seen and heard of a few people with multiple accounts I doubt those people with 2-8 accounts will all buy a 50 dollar expantion where they might have done it for 30 dollars.

His opinion is bought and paid for so take what he says with a grain of salt. They priced the game at $50 because they were told to. They are expected to sell 2 million copies which I doubt they will.

In the end what others think is irrelevant it’s what each consumer is comfortable with. I for one (two accounts) am passing on HoT at this price with these options.

Good news though I’m GW2 player since I’ve already bought the game and so I’ll continue to play forever just not in HoT.

SoPP.7034:

…….stopped because it didn’t ‘fit’…….

Pretty much just this; considering what happening currently you are not alone.

3 days have passed, not an official response. Just a confirm "the whole team will read your opinions" from a supporter and the kittening "You Rang?".

My friends just pull me back to FF14 after i tried it for 2 months. They give good deal for coming back and catch up everyone. But i said to my friends that i would wait for the response in 1 more week. And after that .......

I don’t know… I pre-bought the original game and it has been well worth the time I have been getting out of it, so I didn’t really think twice about getting the expansion as well. Didn’t feel like there were huge middle fingers in my face or anything… Maybe I missed something.

so...i found this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am9gVQB8gss

Can you really blame Arenanet / Ncsoft for doing this? B2p systems are based on consistantly drawing in new players. The biggest chunk of the revenue comes from the game sales after all. It is a smart marketing decision to me.

I don’t really care about new players getting the game for free while I had to pay the full prize either. It was a rather cheap prize to pay for almost three years of gameplay, including updates and such.

Whether us veteran players deserve special rewards is a different issue entirely. We don’t pay monthly subscriptions in the end, I guess. Yet, some rewards would have been nice. Don’t think it should be a cheaper access to the expansion, though.

$50 for content that will clearly keep many of us entertained for at least a few months, sounds like a bargain to me.

New players getting the core game for free is great, as that means more players to team up with or fight against, and it means more money for Anet to continue developing the game.

Not being able to use the freebie is not a problem in my mind. Its a freebie, so I have not lost any money on it. It’s not like I have had to pay for it and not be able to use it. Its free.

I think this issue has been blown way out of proportion, and I feel bad for having joined in with the other rants initially. I hope Anet sticks to their guns on this, and keeps the offers as they are. The influx of new players from this should be very beneficial, and I would be very interested to see how the expansions are selling right now. I would not be surprised if they are selling a lot better than many here would like to think.

For good measure, uninstalled the game as well.

IndigoSundown.5419:

What are people actually saying when they say, “HoT is not worth $50?” They’re saying that they have not yet seen enough to justify that price. They’re comparing HoT to other products that are priced similarly and making a judgment. This is called comparison shopping.

What are people actually saying when they say, “HoT is worth $50?” It’s either, “I’ve seen enough to justify the price.” or “I trust ANet.”

The discrepancy between those who haven’t and those who have seen enough? That comes down to different individuals valuing different things and/or having different standards. It’s subjective and cannot be resolved by rational (or in some cases irrational) discourse.

If it’s, “I trust ANet” … then that’s also a personal decision. I no longer trust them, not because of this issue, but because they no longer seem to want to provide the things about their game that I value. That’s why I’m waiting. If I will not buy based on trust, then HoT is going to have to undergo the comparison shopping test.

Exactly.

Rin.1046:

$50 for content that will clearly keep many of us entertained for at least a few months, sounds like a bargain to me.

Thats your assumption only. There might be not that much of content. We don’t know the exact list of content.

“No game in history has ever asked its existing player base to pay more to continue their game than new players. EVER.”

You must be new to games. Companies have always done so. People that come later ALWAYS pay less.

[PS: You don’t actually pay more than new players. HOT costs the same for them as it does for you – the difference is just that the base game is free for them. Why are you people lying here? I’d get this if an old player had to pay 60$, but that’s simply not the case.

And before the usual WAAAAAH from your crowd: I didn’t preorder and never will. Preordering/Prepurchasing is dumb.]

all my friends and i uninstalled this game too. this expansion looked like the thing that was going to get everyone i know back into this game but instead it ended up being the nail in the coffin and this time for me as well.

For all those who say that Anet isn’t showing whole content as an argument against all those complains against this whole pre-order thing, imagine this:

I’ll sell you A CAR for 300,000 $ – won’t tell you its condition or brand , will you buy it?

Of course not, sensible people will want to see it, touch it and take a test drive in it before spending cash. So i guess all saying that “they didn’t show whole content yet” lack common sense.

“Here is preorder – purchase it and then see what’s inside” isn’t the right way at all.

Also treating old players which kept this game going for 3 years now, with this pre-order like they do is not even wrong – its like kicking a pup that was loyal to you and done nothing wrong…

No wonder that people feel like they dropped a soap in the prison shower…

can we stop saying we’re only getting a single map? Even worst everyone it taking that as a fact. We know for a fact that is no true.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2:_Heart_of_Thorns
Multiple open world jungle maps² made up of three distinct “biomes”

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=35650&storypage=2
“We were able to confirm that the Heart of Maguuma is a region that will consist of multiple maps”

Thats also ignoring the fact multiple interviews have mentioned adjecent maps to the guild halls not to mention that the guild halls themselves are maps that need to be concured to unlocked an instance version the guild can use.

We dont know how many maps there are we know they’re at least 5 and most certainly more then 1.

Its 3 biomes for crying out loud. No one said each map has all 3 biomes either. It makes more sense to have multiple maps per biome rather then multiple biomes per map after all.

lolitsage.2185:

I didn’t realise the Discussion forum became a blogspot

Apparently everyone is… entitled ( :P ) to share their opinions.

Henry.5713:

Can you really blame Arenanet / Ncsoft for doing this? B2p systems are based on consistantly drawing in new players. The biggest chunk of the revenue comes from the game sales after all. It is a smart marketing decision to me.
…

It is true that most revenue comes from game sales, only I think that most of these sales come from the “veteran” players. The people hyped out for HoT are almost all “veteran” players (including myself). If ArenaNet really wanted to make a profit they’re better of selling the game to people already playing.
I’m not saying new players should get nothing, i’m saying with the pre-purchase as it is now they’ll lose a lot of profit from “veteran” players not buying the game.

SoPP.7034:

I was a keen pre-purchaser right up until pre-purchase was announced and then I wasn’t.

What happen? I hesitated…..
…

I can very much relate to this. At first I was doubting what pakkage (Deluxe or Ultimate) I would get. At least until someone told me about the core game being included inside HoT. I would encourage Anet to sell a package including the both games at a discount price. But not if it’s the only option.

I’ve played GW2 since release and am still very happy with my purchase. But i’m not willing to buy HoT with a core game that I can’t use. If I can get a bonus character slot instead of the (extra) core game I would have bought the game yesterday.

Right now, i’m not sure what to do. I’ll just keep waiting for Anet to respond

CureForLiving.5360:

lolitsage.2185:

I didn’t realise the Discussion forum became a blogspot

Apparently everyone is… entitled ( :P ) to share their opinions.

Which is fine, but they could at least consolidate.

So after listening to what others have to say, here is the new opinion. Most people say that 45 euro (50$ or w/e) is the price for HoT only and that the core game is a bonus. That either makes them angry that the game has no value anymore or happy that it is cheap for new players to join. So from that I can conclude that the core game is just a bonus FOR NOW and when HoT is available new players might have to buy both. Even if this is true they fail to see the other problem. If HoT on its own is 45 euro – that price is way too high for an expansion if the content is not as much as the core game. When most older players bought GW2 it was about 50 euro and now the expansion is 45. For something that is just a bit short from the same price I would expect something just a bit short from the same amount of content. I know they worked hard for this but if the expansion and core game do not have the same amount of content, they cannot be worth the same price. We don’t know yet, so I suggest we don’t buy yet. Hold off your purchase until ANet releases more information and/or change a few things. The way I see it this pre-purchase is for people who don’t have the core game, NOT for people who do. So if you have GW2 DON’T buy HoT now on pre-purchase. Wait! You have to wait anyway. It’s not out yet, so we don’t know anything.

ask your self this, how much did EotN cost?
now don’t argue about content because EotN would still win over that, look more on what the cost is.
as far as i can remember it was in no way as expensive as HoT is right now, if HoT would be priced fair then the arguments of pricing would go away slowly.

mistakes can happen, Anet can make mistakes too, but they should keep it fair just like 7.5 years ago.