Guild Wars 2

Entenkommando.5208:

The core game has been in sale for 10$.
As a veteran you get a character slot worth 10$ while new players get the core game, that cost 10$ before (as ANet states it’s even 100% free now)

Problem solved.

I don’t have any free slot, I have not pre-purchased this joke at this ridiculous price. I’m surprised that at least in that post they said “thank you dear loyal old players”, lol… well thank you too sir

Vayne.8563:

OP, just because someone is getting the game for free, doesn’t mean you’re buying it again.

Lol? I pay the same amount as a new player but the difference is that the new player pays for a GW2+HoS, I pay the same and I just purchase HoS! I already payed the game, I don’t think I’m wrong if I think that is more correct to just pay for HoS.

And you know, if you don’t like that they’re giving away games for free, you’ll eventually not have any MMOs to play at all, because it’s already started. WoW is doing it. EQ is doing it. It removes a barrier for entry to new players. That’s business and it’s logical.

If you don’t like it, don’t buy the game, but it will never change.

If we have situations like this is thanks the behavior of ppl like you: “Hey please steal our money! We are brainless monkeys! We don’t care… How much you want? 50$ for a new class and 2 maps? Just take our money and let us play.”.
And this is it, here we are…

Kill.3458:

Congrats thread for getting this far, was nice to read and argue with you people

This is what makes us one of the best communities in the MMOverse. The fact that we rant and rave is OK from time to time because 1. We do it because we’re passionate about and love the game. 2. In the end we can all be happy and get along!

????

I can’t agree more with you ScorpioSting.5917 !!!This happens alot in real life too!!!People are dumb an easy to trick if you know how to blind them properly and that was not the main objective of Marketing!Here we have to deal with vicious Marketing and misscomunication between players and Anet! I think their words or info’s are expensive even more than this messed expansion (they call it).

Its simply about value for the money. New players will get more value (five toon slots, bank tab etc.) than existing players who upgrade for the same $50. Anet has staked out a position that this is somehow a good thing.

The real question for you and the rest of us, is the expansions content worth their asking price? If you like the class you currently play, mainly WvW or PvP – it sure doesn’t look like it. It might be better to wait until they discount the expansion and jump in then.

Entenkommando.5208:

The core game has been in sale for 10$.
As a veteran you get a character slot worth 10$ while new players get the core game, that cost 10$ before (as ANet states it’s even 100% free now)

Problem solved.

Probably would be problem solved if the char slot was unconditional, ie: was available after release.

I’m reluctant to spend $$ when I have little idea what i’m getting. At the moment I don’t see $50 worth of expansion.

Not to mention, shortchanging existing players in order to subsidise new players doesn’t exactly leave me feeling valued or rewarded as a long-time customer.

Blockhead Magee.3092:

Its simply about value for the money. New players will get more value (five toon slots, bank tab etc.) than existing players who upgrade for the same $50. Anet has staked out a position that this is somehow a good thing.

The real question for you and the rest of us, is the expansions content worth their asking price? If you like the class you currently play, mainly WvW or PvP – it sure doesn’t look like it. It might be better to wait until they discount the expansion and jump in then.

Tell me this: what if ANET instead of this insane marketing politic offered the possibility to us old players to just purchase HoT at, let’s say mmmmh, 19,99? (and I personally think HoT value is even lower than this, but this is another story..)

You look like this solution is such a gift from the gods… something waaaay too generous from ANET… How can you accept the joke that they are offering you like that?? You look like: “I don’t care how much money you want from me, just take my money and let me play”.

Vote with your money do they really think the expansion would be a success if most veteran players will not buy it? Hell now they will not even gather 1/3 of the current veteran player base by selling it to new player the game.

ScorpioSting.5917:

Blockhead Magee.3092:

Its simply about value for the money. New players will get more value (five toon slots, bank tab etc.) than existing players who upgrade for the same $50. Anet has staked out a position that this is somehow a good thing.

The real question for you and the rest of us, is the expansions content worth their asking price? If you like the class you currently play, mainly WvW or PvP – it sure doesn’t look like it. It might be better to wait until they discount the expansion and jump in then.

Tell me this: what if ANET instead of this insane marketing politic offered the possibility to us old players to just purchase HoT at, let’s say mmmmh, 19,99? (and I personally think HoT value is even lower than this, but this is another story..)

You look like this solution is such a gift from the gods… something waaaay too generous from ANET… How can you accept the joke that they are offering you like that?? You look like: “I don’t care how much money you want from me, just take my money and let me play”.

The expansion itself is valued at $50 so no.

scerevisiae.1972:

Entenkommando.5208:

The core game has been in sale for 10$.
As a veteran you get a character slot worth 10$ while new players get the core game, that cost 10$ before (as ANet states it’s even 100% free now)

Problem solved.

Probably would be problem solved if the char slot was unconditional, ie: was available after release.

I’m reluctant to spend $$ when I have little idea what i’m getting. At the moment I don’t see $50 worth of expansion.

Not to mention, shortchanging existing players in order to subsidise new players doesn’t exactly leave me feeling valued or rewarded as a long-time customer.

Maybe you should wait untill anet say this is the last expasion…. buy that and pray you get to finish the whole thing before they switch of the servers.

The “gift” of the character slot to veteran players is ONLY if they pre-purchase the expansion at full price.

If they do not or cannot pre-purchase the expansion, they are treated just as a new player except for the whole having the core game already and -only- receiving the content-light expansion.

And before any of the fanboys land on my head, I say content-light because the devs said that many of the changes being implemented with HoT are to the original game, i.e. not the actual expansion content itself. The rest of it constitutes a game update. Yes, guild halls are an update, folks.

I was a beta-tester of this game and a pre-purchaser of the original game. Currently I am not able to pre-purchase HoT. It doesn’t matter to the company how many other people I have brought to the game, the decade I supported and played GW1, or any other tidbit of circumstance. To Anet, I (and all the other veteran players) am just another dollar sign in a sea of statistics.

All this has been all along is a marketing ploy by Anet to cause as much media uproar – and thus attention – as possible. There is no other explanation (except maybe little green men kidnapping all the actually customer-caring people at Anet).

There are plenty other people out there who do not understand nuances of customer service, economics or even marketing. What’s the old saying? “A fool and his money are soon parted.”

Anet and this game barely gets any attention most went to witcher 3 to E3 and the games that appeared there and the new steam refund policy. Well this is what most watched gaming related shows on you tube talk about.
They kinda failed with the hype.

After over a year of hardly playing this game anymore, just some playing during events and after a bigger patch, I’m sick of this. I already had some downtime before this year, but nothing was getting added, or it was very little / really slow. It was just vanilla game for months after months… the living story brought some extra life, but seeing as a lot of that content wasn’t permanent (especially in the first one, the second one was ‘repeatable’), it wasn’t that appealing to me.

So I was waiting patiently for this expansion, I knew it was coming (but kitten it took ages), but this price is just insane. As Anet compared it (and I did in another topic)… This is an expansion, can be compared with something like Eye of the North. EotN was priced 20 dollars at launch, because you needed one of the 3 previous campaigns. HoT is priced at 50 dollars, which was the price of a newly launched FULL game/campaign.
And to top it off, HoT seems to bring little extra so far, or very little is known. EotN had about 75% of a full campaign to it (I might be exaggerating a bit, but 18 dungeons, storylines, heroes, exclusive content weaponry,…).

So yes, the price is still bullkitten, and Anet and especially the ‘veterans’ justifying have the same common sense as a banana has. None. Justifying 50 dollars for an expansion (and woohoo, a character slot…) is insane. By cheering Anet on for this action and buying into their stupid schemes, you’re encouraging them to do worse. Keep on encouraging it, I’m outta here, might pick the game up for sale at 10 dollars if ever, but they’re not worth this kitten.

It’s sad to see a great company for their community turn to this greedy idiotic company over the course of a few years.

@ Amaris.9135

I agree completely. I will be paying more than i payed for the original GW2, for an expansion (and ONLY IF I pre-purchase it i get an extra character slot worth $10?). So with pre-purchase i’d be paying $40, around the same i payed for the WHOLE guild wars 2 core game for an expansion. And to all those who say “I got more than my $50 worth of gameplay”, then buy the `additional value’s` worth of diamonds, buy something off the online shop and delete it again to prove it as you are saying you’d be cool with that.

I feel shafted for being a first day purchaser of GW2 and being treated like this. I really do not know how any of the core purchasers see this as a good deal (free character slot).

A-Net seems to be going for the EA pricing schemes aimed at milking all it can out of its players.

Still a sham..

- 50 for new players
- 50 for people who already have GW2, it should not even matter if you are a vet.

And defending this pure bs with oh you veterans had all the joy of playing and expierincing it and new people did not. Slap yourself, this expansion with a new proffesion should come with a char slot for EVERYONE. It’s not a full game it should not be priced as such.

So I am pretty sure there are lots of us who bought the core game before HoT was announced. Sure we got already the base game and if we buy the 49.99 USD package which includes another base game + the expansion. What we gonna do with it? Since you need the expansion to play with other people, so even we give our spare codes for our base game, the other party still needs to get 49.99 USD package.

Rather then give us an extra character slot, why not give us an option to let us players who bought the game before HoTs was announced another package that only offers HoTs?

I am a vet player and I’ll leave it at that part. I don’t feel like a single new character slot is is a fair compensation for the base price of the new expansion. I just simply want to purchase the HOT content separately from the core game. If the Living Story chapters can be sold separately why can we not purchase the HOT content separately at a lower price point than 49.99?

This is the part where I am going out on a limb and saying that I am not alone, many Vet players would appreciate an option such as this. As it stands right now I do not see a pricing option that fits what I am looking for. I don’t feel like i should have to pay for the game again and possibly again if another expansion comes out. Until I get a good idea of the actual volume of the content I do not see the value in paying 49.99 for an expansion. If it was a full campaign maybe but it is not that so it doesn’t matter.

I would urge the powers that be to consider as many options as possible when selling their product. If you reach out and offer many options you will make more sales.

MastaNeenja.1537:

I am a vet player and I’ll leave it at that part. I don’t feel like a single new character slot is is a fair compensation for the base price of the new expansion. I just simply want to purchase the HOT content separately from the core game. If the Living Story chapters can be sold separately why can we not purchase the HOT content separately at a lower price point than 49.99?

This is the part where I am going out on a limb and saying that I am not alone, many Vet players would appreciate an option such as this. As it stands right now I do not see a pricing option that fits what I am looking for. I don’t feel like i should have to pay for the game again and possibly again if another expansion comes out. Until I get a good idea of the actual volume of the content I do not see the value in paying 49.99 for an expansion. If it was a full campaign maybe but it is not that so it doesn’t matter.

I would urge the powers that be to consider as many options as possible when selling their product. If you reach out and offer many options you will make more sales.

I couldn’t agree more, I bought the game during the beta stages and from what they announced is very little for the new expansion. I would like to see an option for the expansion only.

So I get really excited with an email saying we can pre purchase HOT, only to see that it includes the core game? I paid for that already, I do not want to pay for it again!?

49$ is like R600 in my country and that is a price of a FULL GAME… not an expansion…

This is horribly disappointing… why do this? I don’t get it.

Don’t care about free character slots… I want to get the expansion ONLY.

I really think they should give an option to only purchase the expansion… at a reduced price, I mean, it can’t possibly have near as much content as the core game…

I agree completely… They should have never packaged the core game with the expansion for one price like this. The expansion should cost $20-30. They could have created a package for $50 that includes both for newcomers instead of forcing those of us who have had the core game for whatever amount of time to pay an exorbitant price for an ‘expansion’.

At the current price points, I will not be pre-purchasing or purchasing period for that matter. Business/marketing practices like these are just ludicrous.

Tobias.2693:

I agree completely… They should have never packaged the core game with the expansion for one price like this. The expansion should cost $20-30. They could have created a package for $50 that includes both for newcomers instead of forcing those of us who have had the core game for whatever amount of time to pay an exorbitant price for an ‘expansion’.

At the current price points, I will not be pre-purchasing or purchasing period for that matter. Business/marketing practices like these are just ludicrous.

but then the core game wouldn’t be free for newcomers. bigger population is better for everyone

1 price to rule them all. we just got LOTR’d. anet = Sauron

You can buy the expansion. It’s $50. The core game is a free bonus for new accounts to help new players to the game.

Yea, but it makes me SAD. GW is the one game I have actually stuck with through the years and now they go and shaft us with these prices and packages?

So much for valuing your long time supporters… blah.

Ayrilana.1396:

You can buy the expansion. It’s $50. The core game is a free bonus for new accounts to help new players to the game.

There is no such things as “free” unless Ur a kid that thinks, a fat guy dressed in red brings U presents on x-mas

Strach.1572:

Ayrilana.1396:

You can buy the expansion. It’s $50. The core game is a free bonus for new accounts to help new players to the game.

There is no such things as “free” unless Ur a kid that thinks, a fat guy dressed in red brings U presents on x-mas

Sorry that you don’t know how sales/promotions work.

I still ask… SIX HUNDRED RAND for an EXPANSION?

Rip me a new one why don’t you… I’m sad. SAD I TELL YOU!

Shame on you A-net.

Just read through some of this HUGE post… I don’t see a reply from A-net giving any form of recognition… Just the stickied part at the top that doesn’t address anything really.

HOW SAD. A-NET please, for your old faithfulls, make an EXPANSION ONLY price… you know something us people who don’t own a money tree can afford? K thanks

If you will, follow me on a mythical adventure using the business model set forth here-

My name is Johnny B. Isness and I am the owner of Best Buy. Today, I am going to offer anyone who purchases ‘Laptop A’ the low price of $500 for said laptop, and nothing else. A year from now, I’m going to offer NEW customers the same ‘Laptop A’ WITH a docking station for the low price of $500. One of my customers from the first promotion wants the docking station? “That’ll be $500 please and thanks!”

…

Let’s say you’re in the first group of people… are you not mad at me for giving away the laptop that you paid $500 for to new people just because, ‘oh they need it to enjoy the docking station’?

Tobias.2693:

If you will, follow me on a mythical adventure using the business model set forth here-

My name is Johnny B. Isness and I am the owner of Best Buy. Today, I am going to offer anyone who purchases ‘Laptop A’ the low price of $500 for said laptop, and nothing else. A year from now, I’m going to offer NEW customers the same ‘Laptop A’ WITH a docking station for the low price of $500. One of my customers from the first promotion wants the docking station? “That’ll be $500 please and thanks!”

…

Let’s say you’re in the first group of people… are you not mad at me for giving away the laptop that you paid $500 for to new people just because, ‘oh they need it to enjoy the docking station’?

No.

Okay, a lot of you have are complaining that the price of the game is unfair, let me try to breakdown the price of the “pack” so you understand.

As well all know prices of games decrease over time, That’s why Arena Net is bundling the core guild wars 2 into the pack.

To justify the cost obviously because nothing is free in the world.

When I bought the game on June 29, 2014 it was sitting at $24.99

Currently the HOT expansion + core guild wars 2 game = $49.99

if we were to take $24.99 out of $49.99 we’d have $25.00 flat (minus tax/vat.etc)

25$ for an expansion which is currently the average rate for expansions, if we’re comparing to SWTOR.

Now lets compare the “Deluxe” edition.

Package price: $74.99
_________________
Core GW2: $24.99
Char slot: $10.00
Expansion: $25.00
*Extras: $15.00
*Glider, Miniature, Decor and Finisher
_________________
Total : $74.99 USD

Voilà, as you can see the price is as you’d expect.

Now for the “Ultimate” pack

As we all know we never get our money’s worth with in game items, As they aren’t worth as much as they seem. Which is why cash currency is always discounted when buying large amounts, I assume the gems will be heavily discounted.

Package Price : $99.99
_________________
Core GW2 $24.99
Expansion: $25.00
Char Slot: $10.00
*Extras: $15.00
Gems: $20.00 (100 gems = 50¢ roughly 40% off)
_________________
Total: $99.99 USD

• 40% is within the margin of discounts

Now you may be thinking “Well this is good for new players what about veterans?”

Well assuming that the “NEW” core Guild Wars 2 is $24.99 and games prices diminishes over time.

Arena Net has deemed:

1. All previous purchase of Guild Wars 2 Prior to January 23, 2015 are worth kitten because our game is now “USED”

2. The 1-3 years of ownership was enough to get your monies worth and game’s worth down to 0.

As “Veterans” You’ll be lucky to even request a $24.99 refund for your core guild wars 2 to buy the “Standard” Package because sooner or later both with be worth kitten when the “3rd” expansion is announced and released.

Tobias.2693:

If you will, follow me on a mythical adventure using the business model set forth here-

My name is Johnny B. Isness and I am the owner of Best Buy. Today, I am going to offer anyone who purchases ‘Laptop A’ the low price of $500 for said laptop, and nothing else. A year from now, I’m going to offer NEW customers the same ‘Laptop A’ WITH a docking station for the low price of $500. One of my customers from the first promotion wants the docking station? “That’ll be $500 please and thanks!”

…

Let’s say you’re in the first group of people… are you not mad at me for giving away the laptop that you paid $500 for to new people just because, ‘oh they need it to enjoy the docking station’?

Isn’t that price a little, shall we say, outrageous for a docking station?

Tachenon.5270:

Tobias.2693:

If you will, follow me on a mythical adventure using the business model set forth here-

My name is Johnny B. Isness and I am the owner of Best Buy. Today, I am going to offer anyone who purchases ‘Laptop A’ the low price of $500 for said laptop, and nothing else. A year from now, I’m going to offer NEW customers the same ‘Laptop A’ WITH a docking station for the low price of $500. One of my customers from the first promotion wants the docking station? “That’ll be $500 please and thanks!”

…

Let’s say you’re in the first group of people… are you not mad at me for giving away the laptop that you paid $500 for to new people just because, ‘oh they need it to enjoy the docking station’?

Isn’t that price a little, shall we say, outrageous for a docking station?

Plug in whatever product you want… let’s say fridge and oven then… same scenario

Tobias.2693:

Tachenon.5270:

Tobias.2693:

If you will, follow me on a mythical adventure using the business model set forth here-

My name is Johnny B. Isness and I am the owner of Best Buy. Today, I am going to offer anyone who purchases ‘Laptop A’ the low price of $500 for said laptop, and nothing else. A year from now, I’m going to offer NEW customers the same ‘Laptop A’ WITH a docking station for the low price of $500. One of my customers from the first promotion wants the docking station? “That’ll be $500 please and thanks!”

…

Let’s say you’re in the first group of people… are you not mad at me for giving away the laptop that you paid $500 for to new people just because, ‘oh they need it to enjoy the docking station’?

Isn’t that price a little, shall we say, outrageous for a docking station?

Plug in whatever product you want… let’s say fridge and oven then… same scenario

Oh, heh, I thought it was a good parallel. Way too much for an expansion, way too much for a docking station. :-D

Tachenon.5270:

Oh, heh, I thought it was a good parallel. Way too much for an expansion, way too much for a docking station. :-D

Ah- I misunderstood your subtle sarcasm

And as for…

Ayrilana.1396:

No.

After reviewing your post history, I believe you are either an employee for ArenaNet or a sheep.

Hi,
Personally I will definitely wait till ANet gets their sanity back, before I even consider getting the expansion.
First of all since the expansion includes a new profession, everyone getting the expansion should be granted an additional character slot.
Comparing “Standard” (£34.99) and “Deluxe” (£59.99) editions, I find it hard to believe that a character slot, miniature, finisher animation and a glider skin, are worth an additional £25; that’s four things that take very little to no effort to make, cost just £10 less than an entire game + expansion… this already says something about the sales side of things. Where are those prices pulled out of?

Then once again we see the trend of treating new customers better than existing, long time customers. If ANet is happy to give base game (for which I paid almost £50) to new players for free, as an add-on to the expansion, why not give expansion free to existing customers, as an add-on to the base game lol /jk

And to those blinded by the hype and love to the game and the so called car “analogy” – cars break over time and older models usually aren’t as economic as the new ones, while software matures over time (bugs removed, new features etc.). So really it’s like buying a car full of inconveniences and broken parts, reporting them to the manufacturer so that he may fix them (making the car higher value), while telling the world just how great this car is, so that more people buy it, and then after 3 years being able to buy an upgrade for it for the same price that a new customer will pay for the upgrade + brand new almost perfected version of your car, with 0 mileage.

Somebody is forgetting that success of any game (and releasing company) is entirely dependent on the community – the loyal player base who despite many problems didn’t claim their money back and looked elsewhere, but supported the game by playing it and in many cases making extra payments. It’s thanks to those players that GW2 is where it is. You can make the best game ever, but if there aren’t enough people playing it, more will leave until there is no one.

By getting a worse deal than new customers, I feel unappreciated as a player… I feel like a thief who got mugged and had gunk thrown at him (no kidding – hard feelings :p )

Meanwhile I’m gonna enjoy playing a gunner in this other game that just released the class in it’s free update, probably funded by players buying inappropriate costumes…
And how is it that GW2 can’t pull that off with it’s gems store? I mean I was promised free updates for life and evolving world at launch, but other than some bug fixes the only things that I remember are Lion’s Arch getting wrecked, OP spiky-tentacle monsters, some nerfs and maybe a story or two that wasn’t really worth playing the second time…

Now let’s assume Arena Net is telling the truth, and the “Expansion” was worth $49.99 that means Guild wars 2 should be free to play…

If guild wars 2 “WAS” free then why isn’t there a public registrar and download link to Guild Wars 2 oh that’s right because NOTHING is ever free.

You’re still paying 24.99 for the core game it’s just they’ve included it in the price for the expansion too.

GW2 does not exist anymore. So yeah it really does not cost anything. HoT on the other hand is 50$ and it comes with the core game as a gift.

Chicho Gosho.6507:

GW2 does not exist anymore. So yeah it really does not cost anything. HoT on the other hand is 50$ and it comes with the core game as a gift.

So what you’re saying is…

1. Arena Net has deemed all Guild War 2 Purchases Prior to January 23, 2015 is worth kittens because guild wars 2 is now “free” and we can all claim refunds for $24.99 because the expansion pack is only worth $25; but due to the powers of “Marketing schemes” the core price of the game is included with the price of the expansion hence the “Standard Package”

2. Since Guild Wars 2 no longer exists we have all been scammed for the past 3 years therefore can file a claim with the FCC for misdemeanor fraud.

because this is all i’m understanding right now.

The fact that they are pushing us to pre-order for that extra character slot really bothers me. So if we wait until it comes out and take a while to check the reviews, we are back in the same position we were. Pretty darn upsetting.

Hyori.3624:

Chicho Gosho.6507:

GW2 does not exist anymore. So yeah it really does not cost anything. HoT on the other hand is 50$ and it comes with the core game as a gift.

So what you’re saying is…

1. Arena Net has deemed all Guild War 2 Purchases Prior to January 23, 2015 is worth kittens because guild wars 2 is now “free” and we can all claim refunds for $24.99 because the expansion pack is only worth $25; but due to the powers of “Marketing schemes” the core price of the game is included with the price of the expansion hence the “Standard Package”

2. Since Guild Wars 2 no longer exists we have all been scammed for the past 3 years therefore can file a claim with the FCC for misdemeanor fraud.

because this is all i’m understanding right now.

ANet deemed that no new player should face the barrier of buying previous expansions(as is the case with every MMO ever, but i know that for many people GW2 is their first MMO and they are not familiar with this concept) so they decided to give the core game for as a gift for the good of the game.

Tobias.2693:

Tachenon.5270:

Oh, heh, I thought it was a good parallel. Way too much for an expansion, way too much for a docking station. :-D

Ah- I misunderstood your subtle sarcasm

And as for…

Ayrilana.1396:

No.

After reviewing your post history, I believe you are either an employee for ArenaNet or a sheep.

Baaaaaaaaaa?

You still don’t understand sales/promotions and are under some misguided assumption that sales/promotions all have a cost which are passed down to the customer. You also do not realize the types of promotions that are commonly done which closely resemble what Anet did. There’s also the matter that prices are not static and they tend to fall over time. All of which I have mentioned numerous times in the posts of mine you supposedly reviewed.

Chicho Gosho.6507:

ANet deemed that no new player should face the barrier of buying previous expansions(as is the case with every MMO ever, but i know that for many people GW2 is their first MMO and they are not familiar with this concept) so they decided to give the core game for as a gift for the good of the game.

Except the core game isn’t a gift because nothing is ever free..

You can’t play the expansion without core game..

Looking at a veteran’s point of view we see it as $24.99 = core Guild Wars 2, 25$ expansion pack. because this is exactly what it is, a Marketing scheme.

It’s the same if I were to sell you a Car, MSRP at $20,000 but to make it a better deal, I’d tell you, Oh if you purchase the car i’ll give you the keys to the car for free.

You can’t drive a car without the keys to the car.

If it was , oh when you purchase HoT you get 2 keys.

1 key for the Core game and 1 key for the expansion, that I could understand because even if veterans owns the game already they could always give the core key to somebody else.

Same thing with the car.. I own the key to the car yet I don’t have the car.. dealer sells me the car with an extra key.. I can use my own key and give the 2nd key to my husband.

But then again common sense might as well be thrown out the window..

Hyori.3624:

Chicho Gosho.6507:

ANet deemed that no new player should face the barrier of buying previous expansions(as is the case with every MMO ever, but i know that for many people GW2 is their first MMO and they are not familiar with this concept) so they decided to give the core game for as a gift for the good of the game.

Except the core game isn’t a gift because nothing is ever free..

You can’t play the expansion without core game..

Looking at a veteran’s point of view we see it as $24.99 = core Guild Wars 2, 25$ expansion pack. because this is exactly what it is, a Marketing scheme.

It’s the same if I were to sell you a Car, MSRP at $20,000 but to make it a better deal, I’d tell you, Oh if you purchase the car i’ll give you the keys to the car for free.

You can’t drive a car without the keys to the car.

If it was , oh when you purchase HoT you get 2 keys.

1 key for the Core game and 1 key for the expansion, that I could understand because even if veterans owns the game already they could always give the core key to somebody else.

Same thing with the car.. I own the key to the car yet I don’t have the car.. dealer sells me the car with an extra key.. I can use my own key and give the 2nd key to my husband.

But then again common sense might as well be thrown out the window..

Bad analogy. Cars, just like the core game, come with a “key” automatically which is required for the product to function. GW2 core games doesn’t need HoT to function.

Hyori.3624:

2. The 1-3 years of ownership was enough to get your monies worth and game’s worth down to 0.

As “Veterans” You’ll be lucky to even request a $24.99 refund for your core guild wars 2 to buy the “Standard” Package because sooner or later both with be worth kitten when the “3rd” expansion is announced and released.

My game is used 150 days so not even a year and i bought it for 39.99Eur from a retailer and im now asked to pay again and more for a expack, sure let me just find that money tree.

Expect to pay more for 3rd expack as it will come with core+hot+expack2 becuse they will throw them “free”

Looks like they addressed this issue (for those of you who haven’t read it) here:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pre-purchase-community-address/

It will make a group of people happy, and another group still unhappy. Mostly cause they don’t want an extra character slot, they want 800 gems. I’d call this a minor victory. Good news is they are refunding new purchasers from a certain timeline. Read it to learn more. Congrats guys!! xD

Ayrilana.1396:

You can buy the expansion. It’s $50. The core game is a free bonus for new accounts to help new players to the game.

Help new players eh? Exactly how does lvl 80 targeted content help new players?

You’re right there’s so much lack of content in the base game for a new player that he MUST have both.

This is only Anet helping themselves, hell even a blind could see that.

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

Ayrilana.1396:

You can buy the expansion. It’s $50. The core game is a free bonus for new accounts to help new players to the game.

Help new players eh? Exactly how does lvl 80 targeted content help new players?

You’re right there’s so much lack of content in the base game for a new player that he MUST have both.

This is only Anet helping themselves, hell even a blind could see that.

It’s helping new players get into the game without there being a huge paywall for them. Read the blog post that clarifies this.

Keira Wildflower.7304:

Looks like they addressed this issue (for those of you who haven’t read it) here:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pre-purchase-community-address/

It will make a group of people happy, and another group still unhappy. Mostly cause they don’t want an extra character slot, they want 800 gems. I’d call this a minor victory. Good news is they are refunding new purchasers from a certain timeline. Read it to learn more. Congrats guys!! xD

Actually, you only get the extra character slot IF you pre-order the game. That being said, it’s not a veteran reward, it’s pre-order reward.

Also, while we’re talking about extra character slots, pre-ordering kind of makes the more expensive versions of the game mundane, doesn’kitten Looking at them, for what you get, it’s hardly worth the money and definitely isn’t if you already get an extra slot anyway (unless you want two, in which case, cheers!)

But seriously, Anet. With the experience you guys have, how are you doing this badly? Most disappointing, truly.

Ayrilana.1396:

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

Ayrilana.1396:

You can buy the expansion. It’s $50. The core game is a free bonus for new accounts to help new players to the game.

Help new players eh? Exactly how does lvl 80 targeted content help new players?

You’re right there’s so much lack of content in the base game for a new player that he MUST have both.

This is only Anet helping themselves, hell even a blind could see that.

It’s helping new players get into the game without there being a huge paywall for them. Read the blog post that clarifies this.

Oh really? A paywall and concern about new players. Well in case you’ve been living in a cave you’d notice that even the oldest players get to pay the same amount. This is a paywall for everyone not just new players.

Put it this way:

The expansion + “free game” costs 45e as a bundle.

If they offer the base game at 25e and the expansion for 20e separately that’s still 45e to new customers and without screwing your loyal fans. But this is all negated since they want to force 45e price upon everyone for more filthy profit.

Also in case you forgot. There may still be a few retail copies of the core only game on sale, I only feel sorry for the innocent souls falling into this trap. They would be forced to pay an additional 45e for the expansion since they bought it from a retailer. Now THAT is a massive paywall.

The truth lies here, they want to sell the expansion for 45e and no amount of word play will hide that. This is the best for their profits not the new players or old ones for the matter.

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

Ayrilana.1396:

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

Ayrilana.1396:

You can buy the expansion. It’s $50. The core game is a free bonus for new accounts to help new players to the game.

Help new players eh? Exactly how does lvl 80 targeted content help new players?

You’re right there’s so much lack of content in the base game for a new player that he MUST have both.

This is only Anet helping themselves, hell even a blind could see that.

It’s helping new players get into the game without there being a huge paywall for them. Read the blog post that clarifies this.

Oh really? A paywall and concern about new players. Well in case you’ve been living in a cave you’d notice that even the oldest players get to pay the same amount. This is a paywall for everyone not just new players.

Put it this way:

The expansion + “free game” costs 45e as a bundle.

If they offer the base game at 25e and the expansion for 20e separately that’s still 45e to new customers and without screwing your loyal fans. But this is all negated since they want to force 45e price upon everyone for more filthy profit.

Also in case you forgot. There may still be a few retail copies of the core only game on sale, I only feel sorry for the innocent souls falling into this trap. They would be forced to pay an additional 45e for the expansion since they bought it from a retailer. Now THAT is a massive paywall.

The truth lies here, they want to sell the expansion for 45e and no amount of word play will hide that. This is the best for their profits not the new players or old ones for the matter.

And what you don’t realized is that they priced the expansion at $50. Selling it for less causes them to lose money. The paywall was new players having to pay $50 for the expansion and the ~$25 for the core game. They had incentives to provide the core game for free to new players as this would increase the likelihood of new players purchasing GW2 and possibly buying items from the gem store in the future.

Ponkie Poe.5043:

Personally it feels like a giant middle finger to all vet players who have to pay as much for half the content as new players get for the same price, its a bonus for new players but AENet looks like they want to shaft existing players for as much as possible.

It IS a giant middle finger to all of us who have supported Guild Wars 2 and Arenanet over the years. It is becoming abundantly clear that they no longer care about creating the the highest quality or highest value game anymore, they have now turned their focus towards wrenching every last red cent they can out of anybody willing to pay it.

I would be willing to bet the whole pet rock thing was an inside joke, with someone at Arenanet saying something like, " These people will buy ANYTHING, at ANY price, don’t believe me? I’ll prove it to you, I’ll put a rock on the gem store and you watch how many people buy it…"

All the evidence leads me to believe that this expansion was born from an idea to start charging for the living story content, and that Heart of Thorns will be little more then, if not simply, Living Story Season 3. It looks like an area the size of Silverwastes, with some “challenging group content” dynamic events, and 3 levels to the map…

At launch, Guild wars 2 had like 8 classes and 5 races.. it had around 15 regions full of various points of interest, skill challenges, heart quests, etc. It had around 8 dungeons, a plethora of dynamic events and world bosses, dozens of armor and weapon sets, like 7 crafting disciplines… enough content and replayabilty to keep people busy and enjoying the rich and colorful world, in all it’s diversity, for years. It cost $59.95 at launch, had a gem (cash) shop and was shown strong support by many, many loyal fans.

If Heart of Thorns is comparable to the amount of content we received when we bought the original game, then sure it’s well worth the $49.95 price tag, if it isn’t, if it is merely a glorified Living Story Season 3, then will be obvious that Arenanet has lost all respect it may have had for it’s loyal fan base, and maybe the gaming community as a whole, and feels they can sell anything they want, like pet rocks and once free living world content, for any price, because they have cultivated a userbase full of suckers that will pay whatever they ask for it.

It would be obvious to me at least.

I know there are people that will argue that they have enjoyed Guild Wars 2 so much that they are happy to spend 50 more dollars regardless of how small or underwhelming the expansion might be. That’s fine, but unfortunately it is that sort of sentiment that insures the rest of the us will continue to get raw deals.

I have seen people attacked for wanting to stand up for their rights as a consumer, or for being concerned about the price to value ratio of a product they are being asked to purchase, almost extorted into purchasing since it has been said that any future updates will require Heart of Thorns.

That’s just bad form, and really a sad way of showing appreciation to the people that have supported this game and it’s developers since Guild Wars 2 was launched.

I really hope the climate changes as the release date for Heart of Thorns draws closer, the whole debacle has really put a damper on my desire to play at all, sadly, and I was just getting back into the game after taking several months away from it to check out The Secret World again.

Maybe Arenanet is really just selling the beta access for $20.00 or so and will drop the price for the base package to 29.95 at launch or something, who knows.

Ayrilana.1396:

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

Ayrilana.1396:

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

Ayrilana.1396:

You can buy the expansion. It’s $50. The core game is a free bonus for new accounts to help new players to the game.

Help new players eh? Exactly how does lvl 80 targeted content help new players?

You’re right there’s so much lack of content in the base game for a new player that he MUST have both.

This is only Anet helping themselves, hell even a blind could see that.

It’s helping new players get into the game without there being a huge paywall for them. Read the blog post that clarifies this.

Oh really? A paywall and concern about new players. Well in case you’ve been living in a cave you’d notice that even the oldest players get to pay the same amount. This is a paywall for everyone not just new players.

Put it this way:

The expansion + “free game” costs 45e as a bundle.

If they offer the base game at 25e and the expansion for 20e separately that’s still 45e to new customers and without screwing your loyal fans. But this is all negated since they want to force 45e price upon everyone for more filthy profit.

Also in case you forgot. There may still be a few retail copies of the core only game on sale, I only feel sorry for the innocent souls falling into this trap. They would be forced to pay an additional 45e for the expansion since they bought it from a retailer. Now THAT is a massive paywall.

The truth lies here, they want to sell the expansion for 45e and no amount of word play will hide that. This is the best for their profits not the new players or old ones for the matter.

And what you don’t realized is that they priced the expansion at $50. Selling it for less causes them to lose money. The paywall was new players having to pay $50 for the expansion and the ~$25 for the core game. They had incentives to provide the core game for free to new players as this would increase the likelihood of new players purchasing GW2 and possibly buying items from the gem store in the future.

If that’s how you want to make it out to be then it’s not a bad deal considering I’d end paying 100e in total compared to the new players’ 75e.

Always better 75 than 100 right? Loyal players aren’t exactly all rich and you don’t havr to go back as far as 3 years ago. I’d still feel screwed over even if I bought the game a year and a half ago.

My point is here – this tactic gives them the excuse for selling an expansion at a high price and not becauae they care about player X or Y.

It’s my choice I know, and I choose not to support such a dishonest company. They’re a busness after all, lying for profit isn’t something out of the question.