Guild Wars 2

As a long time player and owner of HoT, I’ve suggested this before, but I think the timing is more appropriate now;
Anet, you should have a HoT trial weekend for f2p and core players.

• The QoL patches and LS3 episodes addressed many of the original criticisms of HoT. A lot of undecided players don’t seem to realize this… there is no better way to change that perception.
• Between the HoT beta and level 80-boost, the code to have a temporary character separate from the rest of an account already exists.
• We’re approaching the holiday season. Timing is perfect if paired with another sale.

I don’t see a need for a trial weekend. The expansion has been out for almost a year and the changes for about half that. If they have been waiting this long, and didn’t buy the expansion when it was recently discounted, I don’t see a trial weekend having much effect getting those that still have chosen not to purchase the expansion to purchase it.

It’ll work by the same principle as why F2P works… you get to try before you buy.

The way I see it, even at the sale price, you’re still taking a calculated risk whether or not it’s going to be worth your money. At whatever price, not everyone has the luxury of being able to afford buying a game that he/she might enjoy. The skeptic would argue all the glowing reviews about Anet’s new direction and LS3 episodes is just biased opinions from fan boys, especially given the criticisms of HoT at launch.

And as I point out, Anet already have to code to implement this. The cost would be small relative to the potential return.

And all the negative reviews are just by people that are always negative and use their criticisms to attack Anet and the game. Labeling people who have an opinion towards one side, such as the use of “fan boys”, accomplishes nothing but diminishing any credibility you may have.

I’m sure Anet has thought about it already. I just don’t see it having much of an impact.

To paraphrase myself: any positive current opinion MAY be interpreted as a biased opinion of a “fan boy”, whether or not that opinion is valid. I didn’t label anyone a fan boy, I was using the phrase to illustrate a point.

It is precisely because of the early negative reviews of HoT that Anet will have a hard time convincing the undecided in any way other than allowing them to experience HoT first hand. I am personally very happy with my pre-purchase of HoT and enjoyed the experience at launch. But I also recognize that HoT was a significant departure from the original and not everyone shared my positive opinion. Since then, the game has been changed to make it more accessible but many of those early perceptions of HoT still linger and will be difficult to dispel.

I don’t think Guild Wars needs free weekends now that the core game is free to play. If people enjoy the game, they’ll decide if they want to play the expansion and all the bonuses that grants or not.

As to whether it has much impact or not, I see enough “Is HoT worth it now?” threads in this forum, that I’m convinced there is enough curiosity about HoT’s current state to warrant at least considering a trial period.

F2P did help draw in new players by removing a significant barrier to entry. Of course, not every F2P player bought the game, but having a taste of the game was what convinced some players to commit real money towards it. I don’t see why a trial of HoT can’t do the same.

Rognik.2579:

I don’t think Guild Wars needs free weekends now that the core game is free to play. If people enjoy the game, they’ll decide if they want to play the expansion and all the bonuses that grants or not.

I don’t think that’s a reason not to have a trial weekend, because core GW2 and HoT a still significantly different experiences. There are plenty of people on this forum who say they enjoy the core game but hate the expansion, as there are plenty of people who feel the opposite.

At the end of the day, try-before-you-buy models (whether is comes in the form of F2P, trial periods, shareware, etc) allow players to make informed purchasing decisions, which is pro-consumer and is a philosophy that all companies (not just Anet) should incorporate.

Core GW2 and HoT are built around the same ideas. Active combat based around dodging and horizontal progression to reduce the amount of grind. If you don’t like those (which you can easily realise by playing the core game), you won’t like HoT either. It’s still the same game. HoT just adds some new content to keep players busy until another expansion arrives.
I’m not strictly against the idea of HoT trial, it might bring back some life to the maps (I’m talking other forms of activity than just multiloot), but I don’t see it affecting sales in any way. Whoever likes GW2 already bought the game and people who didn’t find the experience enjoyable won’t suddenly buy it just because of a trial weekend.

onevstheworld.2419:

To paraphrase myself: any positive current opinion MAY be interpreted as a biased opinion of a “fan boy”, whether or not that opinion is valid. I didn’t label anyone a fan boy, I was using the phrase to illustrate a point.

It is precisely because of the early negative reviews of HoT that Anet will have a hard time convincing the undecided in any way other than allowing them to experience HoT first hand. I am personally very happy with my pre-purchase of HoT and enjoyed the experience at launch. But I also recognize that HoT was a significant departure from the original and not everyone shared my positive opinion. Since then, the game has been changed to make it more accessible but many of those early perceptions of HoT still linger and will be difficult to dispel.

You brought in the use of “fan boy” when it wasn’t necessary. What you did was devalue the positive reviews by stating that they were biased and created by “fan boys”. You can change up what you said by adding “may” but it still doesn’t change what you originally stated. People also tend to not bring that term into the conversation unless they personally use it themselves.

Games tend to evolve over time making earlier reviews less reliable. The April update resolved a lot of issues that were presented in the earlier reviews. Since then, existing players have had access to videos, feedback from friends that have access, and so on. If they still did not purchase the expansion when it went on sale over the summer, doing a trial would likely not provide much of an impact.

onevstheworld was just paraphrasing what an hypotethical skeptic could say, not stating it himself. How could someone take a phrase so out of the context?

Ardid.7203:

onevstheworld was just paraphrasing what an hypotethical skeptic could say, not stating it himself. How could someone take a phrase so out of the context?

And let’s say that I had made a post stating that the skeptic would believe all the negative posts to have been made by those who have an agenda against the game or are just complaining to complain. Would you defend that post by saying I was not stating it myself and that those against it where taking it so out of context?

Ayrilana.1396:

What you did was devalue the positive reviews by stating that they were biased and created by “fan boys”.

Errr… I don’t see how you can say that.

Read my post properly. It was not a statement on positive reviews in general. It was statement on the arguments used by others as reasons not to believe the positive opinions. At launch, during the content drought and even currently, it’s not hard to find this sentiment.

And look at my own posting history… you’ll see I’ve been a defender of the game and Anet, not a detractor.

Tarasicodissa.7084:

Core GW2 and HoT are built around the same ideas. Active combat based around dodging and horizontal progression to reduce the amount of grind. If you don’t like those (which you can easily realise by playing the core game), you won’t like HoT either. It’s still the same game. HoT just adds some new content to keep players busy until another expansion arrives.

I agree that there are a lot of similarities between the two, but there are also large departures too. The increased difficulty, timed map-wide metas and segregation of progression into XP/MP/HP (instead of just XP) are often brought up as negative aspects of HoT. Also, Anet’s reputation took a major beating when they suspended (many then read it as cancelled) legendary weapons. Now that Anet have addressed many of these aspects, I feel the time is right to up the marketing.

Tarasicodissa.7084:

I’m not strictly against the idea of HoT trial, it might bring back some life to the maps (I’m talking other forms of activity than just multiloot), but I don’t see it affecting sales in any way. Whoever likes GW2 already bought the game and people who didn’t find the experience enjoyable won’t suddenly buy it just because of a trial weekend.

I took the trial weekend idea from Steam. From personal experience, I’ve bought games based on reviews, let’s plays, and genres that I know I enjoy, but ended up putting them soon after because I couldn’t get into them for whatever reason. At this point in time, I’ve got a Steam wish list a mile long with no intention of buying at any price unless there is a way for me to try and see if it suits my frustratingly undefinable criteria.

I do concede that I do not know how well Steam trial weekends do in terms of sales. But they are effective in generating new interest in older games.

Maybe if they made a mirror account like they did for the betas.

The problem is that once something is in the hero panel it seems to be a major problem for them to change or remove. It took them almost a year to reverse the bug that gave people Hall of Monument titles and achievement points and they had someone actively working on that problem. If people get free HoT weekends then they’re going to unlock mastery lines and get mastery points, which cant be reversed from what I’ve seen.

If people do get mirror accounts to try the game then there are going to be complaints after the trial is over when they lose all progress and buying the expansion doesn’t give it back to them (and you know there will be).