I remain confused, as the current FAQ states "starting on June 23, 2015, you’ll be able to pre-purchase boxed and digital editions of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns from our official retail partners. "
Going ahead and giving new players the whole package is actually reasonable.
This, however is incredibly slimy, dishonest, and anyone who has purchased the game between the publication date of this FAQ and today may actually have legal grounds to persue legal action for false advertising.
Giving a loyalty bonus to long time players would be nice, but that one line is potentially a legitimate business and legal issue.
Anets PR team had better get right on this debacle, or the press is really going to slam them on this one if they don’t fix it before they run out of shiny new E3 coverage. If nothing else, they’ll probably cover this instead of the [really awesome looking] guild hall features they’d LIKE the gaming press to be covering.
How is it fair when they haven’t even released all the info for HoT? If anything, it’s unethical to charge people for something that hasn’t been revealed, or have a release date.
No one is forcing you to buy it right now. If you wanna hold off till we get more info, then do so…
A note to those bothered by the complaints: We are voicing our opinions because we care about the game, in one capacity or another, for the most part. The opposite of love is not hate; it’s apathy. We love this game, and our anger shows we still care. We are here to say something BECAUSE we care. Sure some articulate themselves better than others, but that’s reality folks; not everyone is eloquent or can formulate their arguments with perfect clarity.
To ArenaNet proper: you really should tell NCSoft that their ‘bundling’ market schemes are just ticking people off. The Gem fiasco last year of being unable to enter just how many gems you want I am 99% certain was someone in marketing applying a similar bundling tactic back then. PLEASE, this tactic hasn’t worked so far, and it won’t work going forward. This isn’t food from the supermarket where they give you 8 hotdogs and 6 buns per package of each and you just shrug it off cause it’s food. This is our passion, and many of us aren’t swimming in cash. We care about it. So please, one last time, do not mandate bundles of any kind!
So Anet is putting up an expansion that requires the game we have already purchased, but they make us buying it again.
In addition, the usual extra char slot for the new class (like Factions and Nightfall had) is coming at extra cost.
In addition the core features that Anet had its player based used with (like real class balance, bug free environment, fun instances and captivating stories) are still AWOL.
But heeeey! Such tempting and lore connected [Mini Rock] is up for grabs.
And the attitude, condescending at best… The way to go, Anet!
I just hope there’s an expansion price for people who already OWN the game, why they had a popup in-game for players who already have the game is beyond me, that one should have shown the expansion price (without the price for the full game since I already own it). This is just an expansion, like Eye of the North, EoTN didn’t include the base game, Factions did but it also had 2 character slots and 2 new professions. HoT is not that type of expansion, it’s a simple content expansion that simply adds the areas and a lot of features we had in gw1 maguuma area… I would have prepurchased at $30 but at $50 I’d rather get a full game and wait on HoT until it was on sale.
At this price I’ll be getting Fallout4 instead of an expansion.
$49.99 is the Price of just the Expansion. The Core Game is an extra bonus for new players and they get it for free. This was already verified by Anets Twitter.
It’s $50 for the game+expansion, or just the expansion of you paid for the game, no matter how you try to spin it. Basically, you get less for more if you’re a loyal customer. It’s a ripoff based on that alone.
So comparing veterans to newcomers, veterans paid $50 3 years earlier than new comers and thus had access to 3 years of gameplay that the newcomers missed out on. You paid $50 at launch for the base game and had access ever since. You will even have a leg up on them forever for anniversary stuff. What else do you want?
Is this even legal ? Isn’t this fraud? I mean they clearly stated that you had to have a copy in order to buy the expansion, forced many people into buying the core game and then they made the core game free… wow…
So if you buy a t-shirt today at Target for $20, then 2 years later, random person A buys the same T-shirt that is on sale for $10, then Target is being unfair? They are not getting more value than you, you’ve been playing this game sans subscription fee for x number of years. In that time you have managed to accumulate more in-game resource than they have. Experienced content that have now been permanently removed that they can’t experience as a new player. Given the chance to obtain skins that are now no longer obtainable. Received the LS2 updates for free, while they would have to pay around $20 to unlock all of that.
Your arguments don’t even make any sense anymore, that T-Shirt at Target would never be ‘free’ 2 years later, it would still cost something, the core game now evidently does not cost anything for new players if they buy the expansion, and yes they do get more value then me, they will ALSO get to play the game subscription free for years to come, seriously your entire argument is “You got to play for longer, that is your reward” which makes NO sense whatsoever, if -you- are happy with that as your reward for being a loyal customer and supporter of the game then fine? Good for you?
One look over the forums suggests that the majority of said customers are not, so we being the majority and you being the minority, please explain how ‘everyone’ is wrong and only you and a few select individuals are ‘correct’.
If you don’t actually enjoy playing the game, then why are you even here?
Wow…really, I mean it really is not that often I find someone either this horrendous at logic or just lacking the ability to read before posting.
Not once did I say I do not enjoy playing the game, not once did I mention anything in relation to my enjoyment of the actual game, only about this whole expansion, free core game and price situation…seriously, I’m starting to think you are just trying troll now.
ok let me give you a better example. If you buy a car for $20k today, then two years later a new version of the same car (the base game) is being sold for $15k, but this new model comes with better seats, improved headlights/braking whatever (the expansion). Were you ripped off? No you were not, you have used that car for two years as a mode of transport. You got to use that car to go to some one-off festival last year that will never happen ever again. You got to use your car to go on a road trip with some friends, if you didn’t have that car you would’ve had to rent a car or go hitchhiking instead etc. In the same way the game has given you x years of enjoyment. It allowed you to enjoy content that is one-off and will never come back. You have got your money’s worth in the form of experience.
I’d be okay with 40 honestly, at least if the expansion is big enough.
Fifty bucks on the other hand is the price of a full game, and if they want to charge that, it should be because HoT adds as much content to the game as it launched with, something we all know isn’t going to happen.
LOL they absolutely just edited the FAQ. This is what it said before:
“Q: Do I have to own Guild Wars 2 to play the expansion?
A: Yes. Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns is an expansion to Guild Wars 2 and not a stand-alone campaign, and therefore it requires the base game to play.”
How long until we start talking about a bait-and-switch?
Ok ANet, if you want to clear up misconceptions with a page edit thats fine. To do it as an obvious response to this thread but still hold silence here like nothing ever happened is absolutely a scum move, and only eroding our trust in you even further.
Going ahead and giving new players the whole package is actually reasonable.
This, however is incredibly slimy, dishonest, and anyone who has purchased the game between the publication date of this FAQ and today may actually have legal grounds to persue legal action for false advertising.
Giving a loyalty bonus to long time players would be nice, but that one line is potentially a legitimate business and legal issue.
Anets PR team had better get right on this debacle, or the press is really going to slam them on this one if they don’t fix it before they run out of shiny new E3 coverage. If nothing else, they’ll probably cover this instead of the [really awesome looking] guild hall features they’d LIKE the gaming press to be covering.
That’s what I thought, this totally sounds like a bait-and-switch especially considering all of the sales and promotions on the base game in the last few months.
I just hope there’s an expansion price for people who already OWN the game, why they had a popup in-game for players who already have the game is beyond me, that one should have shown the expansion price (without the price for the full game since I already own it). This is just an expansion, like Eye of the North, EoTN didn’t include the base game, Factions did but it also had 2 character slots and 2 new professions. HoT is not that type of expansion, it’s a simple content expansion that simply adds the areas and a lot of features we had in gw1 maguuma area… I would have prepurchased at $30 but at $50 I’d rather get a full game and wait on HoT until it was on sale.
At this price I’ll be getting Fallout4 instead of an expansion.
$49.99 is the Price of just the Expansion. The Core Game is an extra bonus for new players and they get it for free. This was already verified by Anets Twitter.
It’s $50 for the game+expansion, or just the expansion of you paid for the game, no matter how you try to spin it. Basically, you get less for more if you’re a loyal customer. It’s a ripoff based on that alone.
So comparing veterans to newcomers, veterans paid $50 3 years earlier than new comers and thus had access to 3 years of gameplay that the newcomers missed out on. You paid $50 at launch for the base game and had access ever since. You will even have a leg up on them forever for anniversary stuff. What else do you want?
Minimum? A character slot to try the new profession.
I thought WoW was more expensive with expansion and on top of that a monthly sub to?
Not anymore. You purchase it once, then grind for gold to buy a token in game to continue your subscription. It’s really no different than grinding for gold in GW2, then converting it to gems. It’s actually starting to sound a lot cheaper now, where you will get the core game plus 5 expansions worth of content.
Ohh like WS did to as well thanks for the information.
Would probably require much more grind though. Getting a month of playtime in WS took like 3-4 hours.
“Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit,
because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure.”
The core game is included as a “free bonus?” Well, that’s amazing. No really, that’s great. I’m glad to know that I won’t have to buy the core game in order to purchase HoT. Especially since I already have it. Especially since there are three core games in my home (mine, my fiancee’s, and my stepdaughter’s). So glad to know I’m getting such amazing bonus content for $150. Plus another 20 bucks, since my fiancee and I already have 8 character slots and will need another one for the Revenant. I was at least expecting $30 for each, you know, like pretty much every other expansion for every other game out there. But $50 each for the standard expansion? Times three? I know what we’re not getting for Christmas this year.
Congrats, ArenaNet. You put the competition to shame for so long, only to do the same kind of raw deal we expect from EA when it comes to expansions. And now that I know what to expect in future expansions (we still have 4 more elder dragons to take on, after all), maybe it’s time to start shopping around for a different MMOm since ANet seems to have stopped caring about the things that set them apart from other developers.
Let’s look at WoW for a moment shall we? Keeping things as cheap as possible the core game costs $19.99, and the lowest price for a subscription is $11.50, so if you play for a year that’s $157.99. This is ignoring expansions, the higher priced subscription plans, and so on.
GW2 is a one time purchase of $40, $20, or $10 depending on when you got it. $157.99 for a year versus a flat $40. The $50 price tag is fine.
You seem to forget that the gem store is also a huge source of income which is funded by players playing the game so that flat 40$ isn’t really accurate. I know a lot of people (including myself) who have spent way over 157.99 a year in gems to support the game they love. 50$ for a small expac that doesn’t have 1/3 of the content the original had at launch (which was 60$) is pretty steep.
Be careful what you wish for, Anet might just give it to you “HoT”
“…let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die;.”
I don’t agree on the price controversy as whole, I think 50$ is a fair price for an expansion if they deliver enough content.
But I can agree on the fact that their messaging and the actual purchase offer live now are contradictory, if not strictly technically, but definitely in practice.
It’s not a good deal for veteran players. It’s awesome for new players, but it’s simply a lack of thought for veterans. Those of us who supported the game since launch deserve at least a character slot or a measly token mini or something.
As a relatively new player, it’s pretty obvious you have already been “considered” what with the years upon years of log-in “prizes”, and access to things newer players cannot gain access to.
I am a Juicebox Hero. I poke straws in Risen Eyes.
The Expansion is applied to your account you already have, you needn’t a second account.
The Pricing on the game is irrelevant in terms of the Vanilla game being included FOR FREE. with or without the game included the Expansion pack is $50.
Please stop complaining over a cup of milk half empty. Or at the very least explain with real factual reason why it upsets you, I’m more then willing to put a word in to the developers. but not your constant banter.
Guild Leader of Lunar Tree[LT].
Officer of Power Overwhelming[ZERK].
First term Forum PvE Specialist.
I just hope there’s an expansion price for people who already OWN the game, why they had a popup in-game for players who already have the game is beyond me, that one should have shown the expansion price (without the price for the full game since I already own it). This is just an expansion, like Eye of the North, EoTN didn’t include the base game, Factions did but it also had 2 character slots and 2 new professions. HoT is not that type of expansion, it’s a simple content expansion that simply adds the areas and a lot of features we had in gw1 maguuma area… I would have prepurchased at $30 but at $50 I’d rather get a full game and wait on HoT until it was on sale.
At this price I’ll be getting Fallout4 instead of an expansion.
$49.99 is the Price of just the Expansion. The Core Game is an extra bonus for new players and they get it for free. This was already verified by Anets Twitter.
It’s $50 for the game+expansion, or just the expansion of you paid for the game, no matter how you try to spin it. Basically, you get less for more if you’re a loyal customer. It’s a ripoff based on that alone.
So comparing veterans to newcomers, veterans paid $50 3 years earlier than new comers and thus had access to 3 years of gameplay that the newcomers missed out on. You paid $50 at launch for the base game and had access ever since. You will even have a leg up on them forever for anniversary stuff. What else do you want?
Minimum? A character slot to try the new profession.
Ya know, I get why the prices are set in this way, I truly do, but, and I’m guessing this was brought up already so sorry I am repeating, but… if the Core game in included with the expansion purchase, hence the price of it entirely… what… happens to those of us who… already obviously have the Core, and all we bought was the expansion? My husband and I both paid for our own expansions and we’re… just look at each other in… shock. We OWN the Core, okay? We just bought a Core game we can’t actually do anything with because… we’re already running the core game? I-I’m just… Oy….
Therefore, I hope that HoT’s contents is well worth the money spent to have it. Heck, even Eye of the North wasn’t that pricy at it’s release. I-I…I… (sighs) I’m confused.
I use to be a Ritualist and a Paragon in my former life…
DId i say he is wrong? I just don’t agree and vocal my opinion. -.-’
You do realize you’ve nullified your own opinion with your very own argument, right? Since, you know, you’re now also part of that minor, vocal, and complaining on the forum crowd now . . . right?
The ppl who complain on the forums are 1% of the playerbase, so who cares. I won’t miss them.
If they stop playing it will be healthier for the community and maybe new, fresh blood will complain less with this expansion. My 2 friends will buy this game just because the core game is free, so it is a great deal for them, for me it is also. I get, probably, great content in this expansion and my 2 friends ingame
Because it is a good deal for you and your friends, we should not complain. Such logic, much wow.
This is only eroding our trust in you even further ANet. It might have been cool to clear up current discrepancies with an edit on the page, but doing it as such an obvious response to the forum threads while staying dead silent about it to the players concerned? Scum move all around.
People who buy the expansion, but don’t have the core game, get the latter for free?
Then we who bought the core game should receive the expansion for free.
The price is the price, it is expensive, specially for not having a character slot.
I already bought the standard version (would never pay more than 50$ for an expansion, but the gvg possibilities in the guild halls are something I wanted).
However having to delete a character to roll a revenant is really not generous on their part, specially for that price. It feels like they didn’t have enough features for the ultimate and deluxe versions, so they left the character slot out of the standard version.
Please post links to the amount of amount of content in HoT there is no official word on size of maps or amount of content. At this point is all speculation and hype started by people that think just because they say it it’s true you people need to get a grip and relax till we see the full expansion did you all watch the live stream from E3 the guild hall stuff alone would make me pay $50 that was amazing I think you are all over reacting just step back and wait Anet needed a big E3 show opener they announced the pre sale of HoT, there is more to come and Anet needs a show stopper for E3 the release date would be the grand finally for E3.
Opinions are like ______ everyone has one I could
put the correct term in but not everyone has kittens
I just hope there’s an expansion price for people who already OWN the game, why they had a popup in-game for players who already have the game is beyond me, that one should have shown the expansion price (without the price for the full game since I already own it). This is just an expansion, like Eye of the North, EoTN didn’t include the base game, Factions did but it also had 2 character slots and 2 new professions. HoT is not that type of expansion, it’s a simple content expansion that simply adds the areas and a lot of features we had in gw1 maguuma area… I would have prepurchased at $30 but at $50 I’d rather get a full game and wait on HoT until it was on sale.
At this price I’ll be getting Fallout4 instead of an expansion.
$49.99 is the Price of just the Expansion. The Core Game is an extra bonus for new players and they get it for free. This was already verified by Anets Twitter.
It’s $50 for the game+expansion, or just the expansion of you paid for the game, no matter how you try to spin it. Basically, you get less for more if you’re a loyal customer. It’s a ripoff based on that alone.
So comparing veterans to newcomers, veterans paid $50 3 years earlier than new comers and thus had access to 3 years of gameplay that the newcomers missed out on. You paid $50 at launch for the base game and had access ever since. You will even have a leg up on them forever for anniversary stuff. What else do you want?
Minimum? A character slot to try the new profession.
and you’re some how entitled to those things?
Compared to how GW1 Expansions worked asking for just a ONE Free Character Slot isn’t asking much at all and one would think would be standard.
LOL they absolutely just edited the FAQ. This is what it said before:
“Q: Do I have to own Guild Wars 2 to play the expansion?
A: Yes. Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns is an expansion to Guild Wars 2 and not a stand-alone campaign, and therefore it requires the base game to play.”
How long until we start talking about a bait-and-switch?
Yikes! I remembered reading this, but I didn’t put two and two together for some reason. When I first saw the HoT today, my thoughts were more like “What the… seriously? When there is open world content of the original game that has been broken since launch? Yeah right, fool me once.” It didn’t occur to me to compare this to the information they previously gave.
Earlier, seeing John Smith’s sarcastic response in a thread about the bundling, I felt like an idiot for playing this game. This little bit of history revisionism with the FAQ makes me feel so much worse. The flashing lights and in-game gambling, etc., should all have been red flags. This game is glorified video poker. Yes, yes, it has more moving parts. But the design principles are the same.
DId i say he is wrong? I just don’t agree and vocal my opinion. -.-’
You do realize you’ve nullified your own opinion with your very own argument, right? Since, you know, you’re now also part of that minor, vocal, and complaining on the forum crowd now . . . right?
I hope you see the irony in what you’re saying.
But the difference is, i go to work now and won’t visit this forum till the next expansion like some ppl here. So if You have any stuff to say to me, do it ingame
So you want us to pay the same money for HoT expansion than for a complete GW1 game at its release date??
So you pretend us to rebuy the core game? Why the hell should we pay twice for a single product?
Why should we, veterans players who have helped you on mantaining the game and have supported the game since months or even years ago, pay for a product we already have? Why the good price and the good news goes to players who have given you nothing at all?
I am really discontented with this decision.
I really like GW2, I play since game release and I played GW1 too. I enjoy playing this game but this sales policy makes me feel cheated
I just hope there’s an expansion price for people who already OWN the game, why they had a popup in-game for players who already have the game is beyond me, that one should have shown the expansion price (without the price for the full game since I already own it). This is just an expansion, like Eye of the North, EoTN didn’t include the base game, Factions did but it also had 2 character slots and 2 new professions. HoT is not that type of expansion, it’s a simple content expansion that simply adds the areas and a lot of features we had in gw1 maguuma area… I would have prepurchased at $30 but at $50 I’d rather get a full game and wait on HoT until it was on sale.
At this price I’ll be getting Fallout4 instead of an expansion.
$49.99 is the Price of just the Expansion. The Core Game is an extra bonus for new players and they get it for free. This was already verified by Anets Twitter.
It’s $50 for the game+expansion, or just the expansion of you paid for the game, no matter how you try to spin it. Basically, you get less for more if you’re a loyal customer. It’s a ripoff based on that alone.
So comparing veterans to newcomers, veterans paid $50 3 years earlier than new comers and thus had access to 3 years of gameplay that the newcomers missed out on. You paid $50 at launch for the base game and had access ever since. You will even have a leg up on them forever for anniversary stuff. What else do you want?
Minimum? A character slot to try the new profession.
Simple problem with a simpler solution:
Delete an underused alt. I did. Killed my mesmer today because I wanted that slot for the new profession.
If this were a sub-based game, I could understand the frustration. But it’s not. You buy the game and play. You have the option of using the gem store for things, but it IS an option.
I am a Juicebox Hero. I poke straws in Risen Eyes.
Agree with Conncept. I’d be fine with $40 and am perfectly content to wait til the price drops to that. Hopefully I won’t even need to wait that long and they’ll announce an online sale or something of just the expansion. If not, I’m patient. Life is more than Guild Wars.
2. Also want extra goodies and a character slot? Pay $75.
3. Also want 4000 gems discounted to 50% of the price? Pay $100.
Don’t even worry about the core game nonsense. Basically, you’re buying the expansion. If you don’t have the core game, then they are just giving you that for free so you can still play with everyone else as the expansion by itself is not a usable product. If you already have the base game, then you’re just buying the expansion.
I too share some concerns that the content may be a little light, but it’s more than just extra PvE story missions they’re putting in there. We haven’t quite seen everything that’s going in yet.
I’d just like to point out that the $50 option gives you the base game and the expansion, WITHOUT the extra stuff you would get from buying the deluxe edition of the base game. The last price of the deluxe edition was $20, so I would assume the expansion is $40 while just the base game is $10, which isn’t too terribly much to buy again. I also see $40 being a very fair price for the expansion, so at most I would see anet dropping $10 off the expansion if you already have it, but I highly doubt it. At any rate, I already bought the $75 package and if HoT is as good as anet is letting on, then I’ll stand by my choice.
Also as a side note, there is no way anet is only releasing 3 new areas. I’d say about 7, each of those with the 3 jungle level system they said, and also each being a fairly good size, definitely bigger than any of the maps in the game at launch (maybe not as amount of space the map takes up, but verticality makes up for that).
. I won’t miss them.
