Guild Wars 2

Eight Samurai.6840:

So if an existing player buys the ‘core game’ again then shouldn’t we get 5 character slots for buying it again?

That was my suggestion. I hope anet listens. The core game has effectively been spent in value but the character slots haven’t, especially because it’s a couple values in a table.

Acharyn.4738:

http://web.archive.org/web/20150401200009/https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/105801626-Guild-Wars-2-Heart-of-Thorns-FAQ

This is the main point.

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.

That was the reason why I bought the base game. Now I felt I’ve been lied to.

ArrogantHero.4965:

People on these forums are complaining about the value of the GW2 expansion. I believe that everyone is titled to there opinion, fair enough. BUT if you have ever went to go see a movie when it first came out YOU ARE A HYPOCRITE!!! You say GW2 expansion cost too much but you will spend $10-$20 to see a 2 hour movie.

A cheeseburger is $1 and a movie ticket is $5 here in Russia due to the exchange rate, anything above that is “expensive”, and even $5 is “expensive” for students.

GW2 is not only USA. $50 is not throw-away money in many other countries, and gaming is not the only hobby people want to pay for.

ArrogantHero.4965:

MOST of you PROBABLY spend hundreds, some of you thousands on video games every year. What’s $30 compared to that?!

Around $10 in the last couple of years for a bunch of some indie stuff from Humble Bundle that I don’t actually play just to support it. I don’t have time for other games; to be fair, I could’ve spent the GW2 time way better, but people need to relax anyway.

It’s about selling discounted GW2 and now giving another copy for everyone for ‘free’ and no character slot in regular edition. It’s a total scam, face it

upsdn.5426:

Carbon Footprint.3421:

This isn’t for current players, only new players. They only care about new money not old money.

Then why is it in the gem store?

Excellent question.

I wouldn’t mind to pay that much if I didn’t get the feeling something’s not feeling completely right.
I am not quite sure what would make this feeling disappear, but at least the following came into my mind after reading their advertising/ pricing:

Standard Edition:
a) For all new players: core game + HOT
b) For all existing players: HOT + (at least) 1 additional character slot

This little thing would already make me feel somehow better… seems fairer to me.. hmm..

Duka.5864:

No Dude you have torrents now it is free!

Reported to FBI

It is WAY too late for April fools day now Anet, besides you gave us something back then anyways so what gives……..

Sorry slowly being turned into one of the “whiners” I guess. :P

Rebound.3409:

If i go to a movie, pay full price and enjoy it, i expect the second movie to be at the same level. I won’t pay for a movie which is 30minutes long compared to 2h long like the inital movie, just because it has the same name. Also if the quality is not improved compared to a movie that appeared 3 years ago, i also won’t pay. Why am i so sure “30 minutes” ? I am not…but i base my opinion on what “trailers” they showed off so far and the fact that they base the full price on what they shown.

At least that’s what ppl who rationalize value for money do.

Prove me wrong:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Question-about-value-price/first#post5158535

Okay THIS! https://wizzley.com/how-to-prove-someone-wrong/

Sold Out.7625:

Core game is a free bonus to a set Heart of Thorns price to incentivize new players to get the game and not have them pay double.

Your post is pointless.

Nobody misses you. Go away.

This reminds me of why I moved to reddit. There, one can easily see the community reaction to each post, and repeating stuff only makes it worse if no one agrees.

Imo for veterans should be delux for 50$

darkdomino.9578:

The level of arrogance coming from Anet right now has reminded me why I don’t play GW2 anymore. You guys have been milking the gem store for 2 years now with no meaningful updates and now you want to gouge people with this ridiculous pricing format? Making people rebuy the core game?

It takes serious balls to come out here and pull this stuff, Anet. It’s almost like you don’t realize you’re game community has been in a dire state for a long time now and this was your chance to win people over. What a joke.

Why would it matter to you? As you stated you haven’t touched GW2 for a while . Plus the amount of content they have released the past 2 years is far more than what other games have released with expansions. Whether you like em or not. I for one love em.

A bitz.3825:

Shifu.4321:

A bitz.3825:

I won’t be buying the expansion for 50$ as well and will just have to be patient and hope it gets a release of it’s own or a large sale a year after it’s been around. It really is a terrible deal to existing players, you are buying a second copy of a game you already own with no bonuses attached(standard one). Better to start a new account with such a deal.

I’m placing my bets on another mmo instead, which is starting its last closed beta next week for 20 bucks. If it’s good I think that’s where Ill stay and maybe pop back to check gw2 if the xpac gets released as a add on.

20 bucks for a closed beta? Now THAT my friend, is a sham.

It very well could be. If it doesn’t meet up to my interests, I could wait for launch since it’ll be free to play but this game looks so cool to me and has a lot of features I think I’ll enjoy. It’s a risk I’m willing to take based on its style.

GW2 on the other hand is something I know inside and out and it’s style has become stale. The xpac in my eyes is not worth the deal they are offering. When (if) it is I will return for sure because gw2 is still a good game just abit old now graphically as far as the character models and clothing dynamics.

I don’t want to support that deal as it is.

I think that’s an issue with the game itself, not something that a cheaper expansion would fix.

$50 is not fair especially when there is no char slot. I think they just shot themselves in the foot and are giving the middle finger to long time fans.

DaShi.1368:

Good to know. I’ll just wait until it’s on sale. There’s plenty of other games on my list to play.

See, now this is completely reasonable.

They track EVERYONE’s account usage every second of every day. If people just wander off starting now and increasing heavily around launch day, they’ll have a stand-alone HoT sale.

Vote with your actions, because the caterwauling here in the forums is not nearly as compelling as a dip in the game metrics.

Khristophoros.7194:

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

The price isn’t really the problem IMHO. After all, the length of the game is worth it. But it’s jsut a personal point of view.

What bothers me is that, as a veteran, have to buy the base game again. Really, I don’t care about having a new account for free. I’d prefer nothing over that.

Uh you actually don’t get a second account. The free core game only applies if you didn’t already have the game.

They said that the intended price point of the expansion is 50 bucks and the bonus core game is to make it more appealing for new players.

So in other words, they want to sell the expansion for 50 bucks.

And there, I feel robbed. Why? Because investing time and money in the game would get me less than people who just discovered it. It’s a shame, really.

Otherwise, the price isn’t that expensive, seriously. Games cost way more than that, AND you have to pay for some DLC (most of the time disc-locked), here we have free updates.

Aelyn.7954:

I have a suggestion. Give veteran players some unique (unavailable in shop) stuff instead of “free original game” which we already have. I don’t know, maybe some armor skin or outfit. You’ll end up making even more profit, because someone will definitely buy original game now (!) and then pay an additional $50 for aforementioned stuff.

P.S.
Excuse me, English is not my native language.

Since this seems to be the active thread on the subject (more or less, more so than the rest), I’ll just toss the thought in here, that I mentioned elsewhere: at the moment I think a good option would be to throw in 1600 gems for anyone who links the expansion to already existing account.

My original post with reasoning behind this, was here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/HoT-preexisting-accounts/first#post5158553

In short: easy to implement retroactively, adding this after purchase doesn’t screw over anyone, gives something to everyone that they can use – with freedom to pick whether they want character slots, bank tabs or whatever else. Equal in value to two character slots, which is what you got for linking campaigns in GW1 (which in itself is poor comparison, I know – since buying Factions campaign didn’t give you Prophecies for free). And, it gives something to improve the value of the deal for veteran players, as an alternative for the bundled base game that improves the value for new players.

Dead.5829:

The core game is included to get new people in. It’s not a kick in the face if you already have the core game. It’s a BONUS to friends, family, acquaintances you want to bring into the game.

There’s no sub, 50$ is fair for a AAA expansion with as much as HoT is giving us. If you want a better deal, buy the Ultimate edition for 50$ more that comes with some free stuff, a character slot, and… 50$ worth of gems.

-1 “DISLIKE”

I’ve paid $10 too much already for my existing core. Why should I as a existing loyal customer pay another $50 for something I already paid a few months ago?

You’re running under the assumption that the core game included isn’t using the same code as the expansion pack. As far as I can see, they haven’t clarified.

Nihilus.3015:

Duka.5864:

No Dude you have torrents now it is free!

Reported to FBI

Compared to content base game has – expansion is just mere map, part of story to play, new class and specializations for old classes, really small content for 50$. Not even new slot for veteran players, and FAQ said it WILL NEED base game to play HoT, now they changed it stealthly, effectively scamming people who bought game especially for expansion.

This is dirty marketing move and totally unrespective to community base, should be brought to light as much as possible because it’s close to a fraud.

OP is very aptly named.

dookleeto.3647:

Jordo.5913:

LOLOL

so you want him to start fresh with HoT? you mean, not take all the characters with hundreds and hundreds of hours upon into the Magumma Jungle?

he said he should get a free account, I was just pointing out that he can. Sure its an empty account but guess what? so are the free accounts for new players. They have to start fresh too. Or maybe they should get free level 80s and free legendaries, since some players seem to think everything should be free.

If its too much, don’t buy it. Nobody is forcing you to. I’m pretty sure you can stay viable in existing pve, pvp and wvw with the basic traitlines.

Is it too hard of a concept to understand that people might want the HoT upgrade plus the base to be separated, and that it is not an option?
Right now they are advertising the base game to be included with the HoT purchase, but guess what, if you’re already a customer that doesnt apply to you, but you still have to pay the same amount ofc…
It’s like anet went out of their way to find how they could screw up the pre-purchase deals so that a large portion of playerbase would decide not to buy it.
Some people like to be mindful about where their money is being spent instead of just throwing it away on the first opportunity they get.

Dott.5672:

OP is very aptly named.

Well, except for the hero part…

Also, UK players have to pay £2 more than US players!

yanipheonu.5798:

Largest flaw in this whole theory: it’s not an equivalent value. It doesn’t cost Anet ten dollars to give a new player an account. It just costs whatever it does to activate the account and keep them on them on the servers.

The $50 will go to the same places it usually does: development time, advertisement, the usual business. GW2 vanilla does not cost 20 percent of HoT’s budget. That’s absurd.

This in all likelyhood costs very little for Anet at this point, and as such, even if GW2 vanilla was not included with the expansion, we would not see much if any impact on the final price.

This expansion would cost the same, with or without new players getting a GW2 account.

And seriously, if the worst thing they do is favour new players a bit, you really gotta see how bad it gets in the really scummy MMOs out there. This ain’t a mobile cash grab, this is just people getting worked up over nothing.

Hell, I wish more companies let new players the vanilla game for buying the expansion.

I want new players to get a good deal, but not at the expense (be it financial or emotional, because each have value in both senses of the word) to long-term players.

It’s not about favouring “a bit,” it’s the impression that longterm investment is less important. And that feels nasty, which does impact my desire to shell out cash as a longterm player.

Honestly, for a couple of days now I figured I was going to treat myself today by throwing some money into the gem store. This news about HoT has actually altered my desire to do that today, so while it’s good to encourage new players it’s prudent to consider the impacts on established players too.

And saying “well it’s better here places than places with give bad experiences” is like… Well, yes, obviously. Which is why I play GW2 and not those games. If I wanted that kind of experience as a customer I would be putting my money there, not here. To be happy it’s not as bad here as other places is just counter-intuitive; a better experience should be what’s strived for, not a happiness that it could be worse :/

My Attack Will Kill.7816:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

To clarify: $50 is the price of the expansion. We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.

what about veteran players ? what do we get ‘free’ as a bonus ?

Nothing.

BadMed.3846:

Behellagh.1468:

CMM.6712:

Can you 2 please explain what the 5th race is for us all lol

Human, Norn, Asura, Charr, Sylvari.

Maybe you are a programmer and start counting from 0.

One could also get confused between humans and norn xD. Mayhe one is yet to figure out what norn is.

Oh that’s easy, Norn are giant dwarves….and Sylvari are a combo of trees and elves….asura, don’t get me started lol…

Blackhearted.1264:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

To clarify: $50 is the price of the expansion. We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.

So basically, if you’re not a new player then kitten you?

Yes.

Behellagh.1468:

The game came with one slot per race, not per profession.

That still doesn’t excuse them.

It still wouldn’t explain why they added an additional slot to the Deluxe and Ultimate versions, unless it was for greed.

Dott.5672:

OP is very aptly named.

I am not buying either, unless Anet thinks it over.
So, us, veteran players get a big NOPE in the face, to put it lightly, while the new players get the core AND the expansion, for pretty much the same price the core used to be. And the old players don’t get a “bonus” like the new ones.
GG Anet.

do u have to start over in expansion? lol

Castaliea.3156:

WHY DO I HAVE TO PAY FOR A CORE GAME I ALREADY OWN. YOU DIDN’T EVEN BOTHER MAKING A PURCHASABLE COPY IN THE GEM STORE FOR THOSE ALREADY PLAYING YOUR GAME?!

And yet I don’t see any veteran players lining up to link their expansion to a fresh account with 5 empty slots and absolutely none of the account-bound advantages they’ve amassed over the last three years.

You could do that, you know, if you think that free account is just SOOOO important. Such an utterly massive component of the value proposition.

Because I largely consider it a bit of lint stuck to the bottom of the package I’m actually buying.

Rastark.2946:

I’m just leaving my two cents here…

While I’m probably buying the expansion since I can afford it, I still think that the choice of not giving to veteran players some sort of discount is bad, expecially when you’re giving a free base copy of the game to new players.
You can say “But…but senpai, that’s just a bonus!”, I don’t care.
Basically that just screams “**** you long time fan, we need more players to the game and we don’t care about you, you’ll be paying us anyway”.
For the past months I tried to bring my friends back to the game and since I know they’re not going to spend 45€ on a game that they’ve already paid 55€ at the time, I feel that all my work has been flushed down into a toilet.

So, as lover of the beautiful world of Tyria, thank you for continuing to support the game.
But as a customer, thank you for ruining my future experience in it(playing a MMO without friends is not so fun as you may think).

Exactly. Its screwing with the GW2 owners that’s the worst part.

On its own, the package is great. Its excellent that GW2+HoT is a thing. I even wished for it before release, because it would bring easy accessability to new players, allow Anet to refresh retail store visibility (basicly put up a “new” 2015 game for full normal price) and keep the community together. That part is good!

But not offering any cheaper upgrade only option for existing GW2 owners? Whyyyyyyyyyy…

Nihlus.9724:

smitske.4912:

You know as well as me that is marketing BS, you are already ripping off many people, dont treat them like fools too. Have a bit of respect for your players before you say things like that.

Behaviour like this is wy nobody likes marketeers, you not even made yourself look like a condescending prick but many people in your company too.

Guys, disagree with the pricing all you want, but please don’t attack the Arena Net employees. That’s a human-kitten-being on the other end of that keyboard. It’s also a bad way to argue your point, because you don’t come across very well.

In all fairness they started it by questioning our intelligence with those BS marketing responses.

cocowoushi.7150:

Not to mention the core game went on sale not that long ago. Those new players who bought it then are getting shafted the most. “Thanks for buying, now here’s the expansion when you could have gotten the core for free. Laff.”

Even ANET recognizes it was a kitten move to do this if reddit posts are to be believed.

Do you have to add insults to injury? Now I need to go to my little corner and cry…

And now, an altered version of a Simpsons quote:

Comic Book Guy: Last night’s Heart of Thorns price was, without a doubt, the worst thing ever. Rest assured that I was on internet within minutes registering my disgust throughout the world.
Bart Simpson: Hey, I know it wasn’t great, but what right do you have to complain?
Comic Book Guy: As a loyal player, I feel they owe me.
Bart Simpson: What? They’ve given you thousands of hours of entertainment for free. What could they possibly owe you? I mean, if anything, you owe them.
Comic Book Guy: Worst thing ever.

Seriously guys, it’s not even a big deal.

Nike.2631:

DaShi.1368:

Good to know. I’ll just wait until it’s on sale. There’s plenty of other games on my list to play.

See, now this is completely reasonable.

They track EVERYONE’s account usage every second of every day. If people just wander off starting now and increasing heavily around launch day, they’ll have a stand-alone HoT sale.

Vote with your actions, because the caterwauling here in the forums is not nearly as compelling as a dip in the game metrics.

Good thing a lot of very good games have come out/are coming out, my HoT purchase went from insta buy to maybe after TW3/Fallout4/… from yesterday to today

Problem for me is that there is no character slot included in the standard edition when one of the biggest draws of the expansion is a new class ( = new character)

Its a bit like buying a stereo only to find that it doesn’t come with speakers and you have to buy them seperatley.

Should have been something like this

Standard = includes one character slot
Deluxe = includes three character slots + 2000 gems
Ultimate = 5 character slots (basically what we got in the original game) + 4000 gems

I don’t think that’s going overboard for forking out $100

MashMash.1645:

Combination NC.9813:

CureForLiving.5360:

Creativity.3816:

This is unbelievably scummy. Pretty unethical and unfair if you ask me.

Assuming they had always planned to do a bait and switch. Most likely they only recently decided to make this change.

But if they already knew, why keep the FAQ as it was? They only changed that today, and the contents of the FAQ as it looked before could very well have influenced people’s decision to by the base game, either for themselves or someone else.

Yeah. The have been lying basically. It’s not like the people who make these pricing / policy decisions woke up this morning and made this change today. They’ve effectively been profiting off of this situation since the announcement, and when the FAQ first went up.

Why didn’t they announce it then? Why do it and try to hide it?

The most telling part in my opinion is the fact that they sold copies of GW2 using the base game. They did this knowing that HoT would include the base game.

i own the core gw2 for over 2 years now, why must i buy it again to get into HOT

Shadelang.3012:

Lets take a look at what existing players are getting coming with the expansion for free…..Pretty much everything that isn’t directly related to PvE….. (wvw changes. TPvP changes. both are completely 100% free and available to everyone…they didn’t have to be.)

If wvw changes weren’t “free to everyone”, they’d have to split wvw into 2 separate communities/set of servers. That isn’t really a viable option. So that did have to be free.

Of course in the UK we have to pay VAT on the purchase so our prices are 20% higher PLUS Anet have rounded UP making it even more expensive.

Interesting to note that 4000 gems in USA version is only $50 but in UK is £42.50, which is $65.88, or about 10% more expensive taking into account VAT.

The fact that they don’t even consider putting in an additional character slot in the expensive £35 version makes this a doubtful purchase for me.

Paying £60 for a basic expansion pack (ie one with a character slot to roll the new race on) doesn’t seem worth it.

I expect Anet are going to get a lot of negative comments on all media about this.

littlemunster.1059:

Acharyn.4738:

http://web.archive.org/web/20150401200009/https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/105801626-Guild-Wars-2-Heart-of-Thorns-FAQ

This is the main point.

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.

That was the reason why I bought the base game. Now I felt I’ve been lied to.

and you have been.

simply it is a slap to all veteran players’ face

briggah.7910:

komokoro.7542:

$50 is a lot considering how many games you can buy on steam with that amount of money. The expansion pack should have cost $10—20 for the existing players and $30 for new players. I feel really sad about this.

How long do those steam games last you? Are you still playing Goat Simulator for hours on end?

I got terraria for like $3. Spent well over 1000 hours in it, and the developer is still adding FREE CONTENT UPDATES for a game that often goes on sale for around $5. It is over 4 years old. There are numerous other games like this.

… and you enjoy getting ripped off??? …

Well, non of the 3 editions is attractive.
The first one is too expensive…. I expected 35-40€. The extra 5 euros is not much difference but I it’s not cool of the NCsoft, especially when I need to pay 10€ more just to be able to play one of the main features of the Xpac – Revenant.
…. So the game is actually 55€, the same as the Vanilla pre-purchase release. And considering the Xpac is much smaller than the Vanilla, then meh. You are charging too much.

The second edition for 75€. Well, I suppose this one is nicer, especially for people who want those skins. But for me, 75€ is too much for game and a bunch of textures as a bonus.

The final edition is the only one which is actually a good value… Those 4000 are on a very generous discount here.

But the question is, who has 100€ to pay for a game these days? … actually just a an expansion pack.

Well, I hope you will offer 50% discount during Christmas
Until then, look for me in E:D. I am Cmdr Mortiferus =)

What is the matter i tought HoT would be just free for downloading if it releases :/