Guild Wars 2

Sushihammer.4813:

Well, I expressed severe dissatisfaction with GW2 when it came out, disappointment with the direction I saw the game heading. I was attacked by all brands of defensive fanboy-ism (humorously, mostly from people whose GW introduction was GW2. Myself, I’ve been around since the first few days of GW1).

Seeing all the various disrespect the company seems to have for its fanbase, the cashing in…nickle and dime-ing (and quartering and dollaring), etc etc.
Well, sucks to see an IP I loved go down the tubes as a mediocre, microtransaction piggy bank for the company.

I feel vindicated at least.

(….guild halls finally. Hmm, wonder how many hundreds of gems they will cost.)

I’m pretty sure it’s been all but confirmed that you will earn Guild Halls through events or something of the sort. I highly, highly doubt they will involve gems.

Honestly, boo hoo. Even if ANet slips up here and there and messes up prices, they’re still doing better than some other companies and compared to how some devs are acting, they’re saintly. Be thankful that they chose to support the game with microtransactions for purely cosmetic or utility-based things that don’t effect actual gameplay at all rather than making it P2W or giving it a sub fee. Microtransactions are not the root of all evil in the world.

Before you whine about gold buying: People would do that through black market gold traders anyway, having a conversion method wards that off. Besides, gems to gold isn’t that super effective anyway.

Leo.6817:

yanipheonu.5798:

Worst case, you have something free, but useless

Uhm, no, you will NOT have anything for free, unless you plan to play on a new account starting from level 1, you wont be able to make use of the free account, the ‘core’ game and the expansion come bundled together, as one account, so you either add it to your existing account which upgrades it to Heart of Thorns and you lose that free ‘core’ game, or you start a brand new account all together.

At least get it right if you are just going to blindly lash out everyone in such an immature way.

Ok. Then don’t apply the upgrade to your account and enjoy your new base game plus HoT in addition to the acct you have played for years.

If you buy the product and then choose to apply it to your account, that is on you. You are the one throwing away your new (free) copy of the game. That is your choice.

Tobias.8632:

Screwing over loyal customers in the hopes of acquiring new customers, GG

They did it with the NPE also. It’s becoming common.

Dear Arena Net,

With what seems to be a recurrence of having to patch the patch of the patch you just released, every time you implement a patch, the huge amount of bugs, and the huge amount of time it takes you to fix those bugs, along with the mind boggling changes made to the game, and traits (I’m looking at you Necro & Thief). Well, put simply, you’re work is shoddy. Now you expect me to pay full game price for your expansion 3 years on down the line, character slot not included?

…How do I put this in terms you will understand?

It’s definitely not on the table.
Not anytime soon™.
Kitten no.
Meta data points to not likely.
This won’t end well.
No to these MASSIVE changes.
You’re not building the game mode as it’s intended.

Sincerely,
Your once biggest fan, to your most bitter detractor.

Harrier.9380:

Apolo.5942:

Lets see i could either get a cople new areas and a class i might not even play for GW2 OOOORRRRR….
Get the entire Fall out 4 game.
Get the entire Star Wars battlefront game.
Get the entire Dishonored game.
New doom.
New assasins creed.

5-15 decent games on Steam sale?

Either of the new battlefield games.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

nehezbegar.1065:

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.

I remember a similar argument on the City of Heroes and Warhammer Online boards. I hope I don’t have to point out the irony in their past and your current opinion. Sincerely.

I don’t remember that argument. In every game, the ppl who complain on the forums about EVERYTHING are like 1-2% of the total player base, while the rest of the gamers enjoy the game or uninstall it. Those games were just bad, thats it

This drama will probably last months before release, about how the price of this expansion is the ripoff to “veteran” players.

I hope ArenaNet for peace sake will just throw this character expansion slot to standard edition so moaners will just shut up, so we can get over that drama and proceed further in complaints about how this game sucks and have no endgame

Erskine.5206:

Tamasan.6457:

Zappix.7928:

Seems like a slap in the face to veteran players like myself who have played since beta…

Hi! Veteran player here with over 6,000 hours played. I didn’t feel any slap.

Price for expansion is more than fair.

Ultimate edition already purchased.

Hyped and eagerly awaiting another 6k.

A completely non sarcastic Thank You to all the fine folks working at ArenaNet. Keep on rocking.

7k hours here and still also no slap
We all know that the price of things and games goes down with time.
I don’t feel cheated.
I got 7k hours of fun (and being afk a bit^^) and the ones that come after me won’t ever get the feeling of headstart or the old lions arch getting destroyed etc.
They can have the base game for free if they buy the expansion. That’s good!

Steam has the summer sale on right now. Still I don’t feel cheated if a game I own is cheaper now. That’s just the way the world works.

You and your partner in crime that I responded to previously are missing the point.

You really applaud paying twice for the core game? Sure $50 or £50 for the xpac with a character slot is fine. No character slot and the core game for $50? I already own the core game, all of us already own the core game, what use is that to us?

Remove the core freebie for vets and add 2 character slots or 1 character slot for the Revenant profession.

Blindly defending such a foolish move by Anet is bad and you should feel bad because you encourage this sort of marketing ploy which if you read through this thread and the many threads created, many people are angry with. You are by proxy hurting this game, a game I love.

CrimsonDX.4821:

Taglor Anwamane.9468:

This is nothing short of an insult to every single one of those who have been loyally playing for so long. They’re giving new players the expansion practically for free in comparison!
And it’s not as if they’re offering a full game’s worth of content, either.

Get off your high horse.

Given the amount of free content they have given us since launch, this is nothing. Certainly far less than what we would have paid in total subscription costs since launch

Load of bullcrap and you know it.

I support most of ANets decisions but this regularly parroted claim about how we ‘deserve’ to take every dishonest monetization decision ANet makes up the kitten without complaint because of the living story, is a great big steaming pile of crap.

I have never played an MMO where the developer don’t continue putting out content between expansions, they have to if they want to keep their players, regardless of whether it is free, purchase, or pay to play. And there are games that push out far more, and better, content between expansion than GW2 has. The LS has been nothing special when it comes to filler content between box sales, and it is no justification for ANets many and varied poor monetization decisions such as the one the forums are lighting up about today.

I have to admit, this really put my wife and me on the fence about buying the expansion. If any game was on the horizon, I think it be a done deal. I can’t believe they can’t see the issue given the amount of content offered.

leman.7682:

This economist dev has been reading some principal micro it seems.
Good job on the bundling, sure you’re gonna capture some additional surplus with the strategy.

But not on me.

Maybe on the short term, but it´s definetly not a long term strategy, which will render this game a bit boring with unpopulated new maps.

Markhov.4603:

The price is not fine as you are paying TWICE for the core game, think again if the money that you pay is your own hard earned money.

The Expansion is $49.99 (Standard) if you buy it on a new Account that doesn’t own the Core game you get the Core game for free. So if you own the Core Game you aren’t paying for another. Now I am not defending the price just wanted to clear that up. I for one think this is far to expensive for the amount of content that they have shown us up to this point compared to other MMOs hell even Guild Wars 1. I mean come on we don’t even get a single free Character Slot for buying the Standard Edition?

Throw in a way to gift the base game to another person and maybe a character slot, and I’d be fine with the $50 base price for what’s been revealed so far.

So those of us that are on a fixed income have to shell out extra cash to get the upgraded version of the game over the base version. It is like buying a car without a motor, it looks good. I just have a hard time shelling extra cash for a character slot.

Shifu.4321:

Isn’t $40-$50 the standard price for an MMO xpac? I’m kinda confused since I paid $60 for WoW expacs and the upcoming FFXIV xpac is $40 (not counting the monthly fees).

Can anybody point me to a $20 expac? I can’t seem to find one.

They shouldn’t have included the base game for free. They should have sold it at the cost of an extra $10, so $49.99 for the expansion, $59.99 for the bundle. It would have changed a few people’s views who are currently stuck on the idea of HoT being the core game + HoT rather than HoT + the core game for $0. Giving away the base game for free is also a huge slap in the face after just putting the base game on sale.

The other problem however is that HoT has so far been shown off to be rather small and not worth the price tag of a full expansion. With that full price tag however, I can only assume that HoT is much larger than what they’ve shown.

I don’t get how some players are trying to justify the price here. It doesn’t matter if the game isn’t subscription-based, or have given us in-game content over the years…

…because we don’t owe Arenanet for that.

All of a sudden…without any warning or announcement, they just decide to put up the price for a game included with an expansion that isn’t even complete with no release date?! New players will not care, but this is just downright unfair to players who’ve been here for the last 3 years. You’re forcing us to buy an entire game again for 50$ just to gain access to a few extra features and maps?! Why?!

Conncept.7638:

Oberon Vex.1389:

CrimsonDX.4821:

Taglor Anwamane.9468:

This is nothing short of an insult to every single one of those who have been loyally playing for so long. They’re giving new players the expansion practically for free in comparison!
And it’s not as if they’re offering a full game’s worth of content, either.

Get off your high horse.

Given the amount of free content they have given us since launch, this is nothing. Certainly far less than what we would have paid in total subscription costs since launch

+1.

While the execution is perhaps clunky, the value of the price is something we the customer cannot know until we play. It is entirely possible the new campaign against Morde will be as expansive and lengthy as the one against zhaitan — whether in entirely new maps or revisiting older ones with new instanced story areas.

It is possible that the content of the expansion is fully worth the 50$ price tag — which lets be honest, is pretty kitten common for an expansion of a AAA MMO — so please can we shelf the outrage for a bit? Until we KNOW it’s not worth it?

Finally: no one is forcing you to pre-order. If the price is outrageous to you, or you cannot stomach that they tacked on the core game so that new players dont’ have to shell out $110 to get into the game, then do not pre-order the xpac. Wait for launch. Wait to see if they lower the price, or offer a discounted “Account Upgrade” version in the gemstore. Or — and just hear me out on this one: wait until more information about the expansion is available and make an informed decision. Boom.

Load of bullcrap and you know it.

I support most of ANets decisions but this regularly parroted claim about how we ‘deserve’ to take every dishonest monetization decision ANet makes up the kitten without complaining, because of the living story, is a great big steaming pile of crap.

I have never played an MMO where the developer don’t continue putting out content between expansions, regardless of whether it is free, purchase, or pay to play. And there are games that push out far more content between expansion than GW2, the LS has been nothing special when it comes to between expansion content, and it is no justification for ANets many and varied poor monetization decisions.

Pretty sure I didn’t mention anything about LS. Perhaps you meant to quote the user I quoted? Or at least include my points in your dismissal… :/

MokahTGS.7850:

Well I’ll just respectfully disagree

Regina and Gaile have already piped in and said we are buying the expansion for $50. If you don’t have the game already, you get the basic version for free (so they can still sell you the deluxe upgrade for that). Therefore if you already have the game … well … you are paying for the expansion.

I’m wondering what the sell through rate will be before launch. Sure you get into the betas if you buy it now but honestly how long will players think it’s worth parting with their money for an undisclosed period of time. Even Kickstarters have a vague delivery schedule most of the time.

Vavume.8065:

DarkWasp.7291:

They also sold the revenant finisher to people the SAME DAY they announced it was going to be part of the deluxe editions of HoT.

Isnt it a revenant mail carrier they were selling, not the finisher?

Yea it isn’t the same thing.

But thats off the topic. Whether or not you think $50 is a good price, the advertising was borderline malicious and I really think some more attention needs to be paid on that point.

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.

Having been a player since headstart weekend, this is a slap in the face. If this expansion is as big as the original game, maybe it would be worth it, but the information so far has indicated in no way that the expansion is that big. If it is, you guys needed to say that a lot earlier and reveal a lot more to build it up as something that will double your current experience.

What this says to veteran players is that “we have your money already, we’re pretty sure you want the game, we’re just going to include a lot less because we know you’re loyal.” You guys could have easily made the expansion $50 and made a bundle deal $60 and it would have been much better received than this. Or at least given 3-4 character slots to existing accounts. I’m not even upset about the $50 price tag. After nearly 3600 hours on this game, it’s given we’ll worth the original price in terms of fun. The middle finger you guys have given a veteran customer is pretty harsh though.

Edit:
Put another way, I feel stupid for passing up 5 character slots and empty bank tabs, but accepting those would punish me by not connecting it to my account.

Including 2 char slots and 2 bank slots for people who already own the game would have been a nice “thank you for already owning this, here’s some stuff to help you explore the new content”

Thing is here.. If I buy Witcher 3 and get 1st and 2nd witcher games for free, I would not mind too. If I was new to guild wars 2 and are going to buy it now and get the core game and the expansion for 45 euros I would not mind too since that’s is a very fair deal!

But for that same 45 euros as a veteran player I only get the expansion. No extra serial code for the core game to give to a friend, just paying the same for less.

I think that’s one of the issues, we got to pay for something that we partly do not get, that’s why people want an expansion upgrade only, for the cheaper price then the core game and expansion together.

This is how it is now

New comers – 45 euros = core game and expansion
Veterans – 45 euros = expansion

If we got two serial codes then I would not really bother, or a 10 euros cheaper. Or a character slot instead
instead.

They have said this and that there won’t be another upgrade option then what it is right now.

But I would not game minded to get two serials, one to give to a friend and one for the expansion.

T raw.4658:

It’s a rip off at the current price point for what you get. You look at other MMO expansions and they are much beefier than what HoT is.

You may very well be right, but the jury is still out on that one… we don’t know the total number of maps in HoT (although now we can do some math Verdant Brink + “Map Shown during specialization reveals” + 2x Guild Hall maps, that based on their statements seem like more or less small to medium sized zones, but I doubt that is all) nor do we know anything about their “challenging group content” or how much story content there will be (it is going to be hard to gauge it anyways with the lack of levels even if they had said something about it).

Zappix.7928:

Tamasan.6457:

Zappix.7928:

Seems like a slap in the face to veteran players like myself who have played since beta…

Hi! Veteran player here with over 6,000 hours played. I didn’t feel any slap.

Price for expansion is more than fair.

Ultimate edition already purchased.

Hyped and eagerly awaiting another 6k.

A completely non sarcastic Thank You to all the fine folks working at ArenaNet. Keep on rocking.

Congratulations on buying the core game twice and congratulations on supporting idiocy and very bad marketing because Anet has just lost a lot of its loyal customers. You might be a snowflake but the rest of us have the sense not to purchase the core game twice and will wait for a better deal. And there will be a better deal eventually because when the Gemstore items stop being bought, when the sales from HoT aren’t as high as they expect. Watch the price drop like a falling brick.

Fanboy.

There will be a better deal eventually, thats like saying the sky is blue. Unless its made by Blizzard all games eventually go on sale. Good to see you taking it like an adult when you disagree with pricing on things, would hate to see you in real life buying something large like a car or house. Do you throw fits at sales people a lot?

shox.3971:

This arguing over $50 is pathetic, its a one time $50 you spend, and never have to again on this game. Half of the people complaining have spent easily over $100 on just gems, so why is $50 so unfair? They are charging people the same price as any other gaming company in this world today charges. Get over it, its $50. If that is too much money then either you don’t truly like this game enough to invest in it, or you should be making money instead of playing it.

It is unfair because some people (new players in this case) are getting more value for their money than you are.

It is unfair because to all the people who supported the original game since release date they are receiving a poorer deal than people who have never touched the game before.

It is unfair because we as human beings have this unwritten understanding of “You scratch my back I scratch yours” with each-other, and this thing called ‘loyalty’ which is being utterly disregarded in the current situation.

Practically every other MMORPG out on the market right now rewards its veteran players in some way, it treats them as important core blood and doesn’t make devalue their money by asking them to spend the same amount of money a new player will, but giving the new player -more- than the veteran.

You might like to use $50 bills as toilet paper and it might make you mad us peasants dare to be disgruntled over how much value we make, but you are the minority here, perhaps a bit of respectful silence is wise.

“The amount of content that is being supplied in the expansion is well worth $50 especially on a game that DOESN’T require a monthly sub.’’

50$ is price for stand alone console game, HoT is no where near to be stand alone game, its not even half of original gw2 game content.

shox.3971:

This arguing over $50 is pathetic, its a one time $50 you spend, and never have to again on this game. Half of the people complaining have spent easily over $100 on just gems, so why is $50 so unfair? They are charging people the same price as any other gaming company in this world today charges. Get over it, its $50. If that is too much money then either you don’t truly like this game enough to invest in it, or you should be making money instead of playing it.

Stop complaining about people complaining. It’s astounding, the indignation you feel, just because other people are expressing their discomfort with the bundling and pricing.

Those of us complaining aren’t complaining to you. You don’t need to respond to us at all. You’re essentially just trying to suppress opinions by ridiculing them.

It’s also unfair to my friends whom I convinced only last week to buy the game and level for when the expansion comes. They could have just waited till today and got the game for free…

Gray.9041:

Laraley.7695:

DoAyari.2719:

I believe it’s fair as well. I just really don’t want another account…

Lol, you’re not getting one.

kittening this.

if we got the extra account, I’d almost be happy. upgrade my main to HoT, keep the alt for extras. this would be good.

but we don’t get the core game. only new players do. what makes their money worth more than mine?

I do not want another account, I already have 4 of them. But paying 50 for xpack is just ridiculous, when others will get the core game, too. Not even a freaking character slot.

Linnael.1069:

So my friends that bought the base game because I suggested they get into it before HoT are now giving me kitten about this. I wasn’t really on their side, but then one of them linked me this.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/105801626-Guild-Wars-2-Heart-of-Thorns-FAQ

“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.”

I’ll admit that there is nothing in the hard, 100% strict interpretation of these words that explicitly refutes the idea that HoT and the base game could be bought together, but when stuff like this is posted and all your HoT announcements are timed with a sale of the base game?

I’m not even going to get into whether $50 is “worth it” or whatever, but any way you look at it this is pretty dirty marketing ANet.

+1

I was going to make more or less the same post. Regardless of how you feel about the pricing, ANET having sales of the base game during major HoT announcements and then pulling this……..not cool.

InfinitytheSoulWarden.5963:

In general this was just a poor time to release this rediculously overpriced content. for $50 i could go buy like 10 games on the steam sale and get 10x the content.

1. Skyrim $9.99 (300 hours of content)
2. Boarderlands 2 $9.99 (31 hours of content)
3. Oblivion $9.99 (+200 hours of content)

so there is $30 and over 500 hours of content, i just saved you $20 and gave you 3 of the best games ever released!

see my point

Tell me their price at release, all of them 60$, so this argument is stupid.

dervix.9126:

Erskine.5206:

Tamasan.6457:

Zappix.7928:

Seems like a slap in the face to veteran players like myself who have played since beta…

Hi! Veteran player here with over 6,000 hours played. I didn’t feel any slap.

Price for expansion is more than fair.

Ultimate edition already purchased.

Hyped and eagerly awaiting another 6k.

A completely non sarcastic Thank You to all the fine folks working at ArenaNet. Keep on rocking.

7k hours here and still also no slap
We all know that the price of things and games goes down with time.
I don’t feel cheated.
I got 7k hours of fun (and being afk a bit^^) and the ones that come after me won’t ever get the feeling of headstart or the old lions arch getting destroyed etc.
They can have the base game for free if they buy the expansion. That’s good!

Steam has the summer sale on right now. Still I don’t feel cheated if a game I own is cheaper now. That’s just the way the world works.

Agreed. Sure, veteran players are getting snubbed a bit by having pay more for an expansion, but it balances out as they got more content that new users will never, ever, ever have access to. Ever. Still, I think they could stand to lower the price of the expansion for accounts that already own the game. IDK.

There’s no question they should lower it or instead of adding in the core game, add in 2 character slots or 1 character slot and a few gems or something.

Something that is of use to Veteran players.

upsdn.5426:

shox.3971:

This arguing over $50 is pathetic, its a one time $50 you spend, and never have to again on this game. Half of the people complaining have spent easily over $100 on just gems, so why is $50 so unfair? They are charging people the same price as any other gaming company in this world today charges. Get over it, its $50. If that is too much money then either you don’t truly like this game enough to invest in it, or you should be making money instead of playing it.

Stop complaining about people complaining. It’s astounding, the indignation you feel, just because other people are expressing their discomfort with the bundling and pricing.

I hope we all appreciate the irony.

If a smart phone company followed this strategy, and stated “No more new apps for your Smart Phone 5, and you have to buy another of the same Smart Phone 5 to buy and download new apps.” And on top of that another seller sells the same phone for a fraction of the price already, because the company that made those phones decided to sell it for a cheaper price for a limited time. During that time, they were bought in bulk and then sold for cheaper elsewhere. So now you get that new phone, it’s the same and you have a new app.

MoonStoneX.9245:

Markhov.4603:

The price is not fine as you are paying TWICE for the core game, think again if the money that you pay is your own hard earned money.

The Expansion is $49.99 (Standard) if you buy it on a new Account that doesn’t own the Core game you get the Core game for free. So if you own the Core Game you aren’t paying for another. Now I am not defending the price just wanted to clear that up. I for one think this is far to expensive for the amount of content that they have shown us up to this point compared to other MMOs hell even Guild Wars 1. I mean come on we don’t even get a single free Character Slot for buying the Standard Edition?

“the amount of content that they have shown us up to this point”

Yeah it is too much for content up to this point, but they have a lot more to show. Think you’re jumping ahead a little early? If all they have shown was the content they’re launching with the game would be out already.

Alirya.2365:

So I think a lot of people are misunderstanding the reason why a lot of people are frustrated with HoT pricing. Many of us were ready and willing to pay $50 for the expansion, as it’s pretty standard for MMOs nowadays. However, the slap in the face was that the loyal players that have been the only reason that GW2 has been able to even make it far enough to release an expansion are being offered a package that gives them nothing over new players. In fact, it gives the new players more (as existing players won’t be able to redeem their base games included in the $50 standard version). Not even a character slot for existing players only to show gratitude for their loyalty. I understand the arguments against “whining,” like GW2 having no monthly fee, but being slapped in the face so bluntly by these expansion options feels so directly insulting. Keep in mind that we had absolutely no warning that this expansion pack would be offered including the base game, which I don’t think any MMO has done before. We were all expecting the traditional “buy the game buy the xpac” approach. And what about the players who bought the base game in preparation for buying HoT? I don’t know. I love this game, but can’t bring myself to pre-order due to this nagging feeling of disappointment. Just my two cents.

I think it especially feels like so much a slap in the face since the new players have already been prioritised in updates before at the expense of the veterans: the trait/beginner zone’s update comes to mind. We were told then that this was for the new players and that veterans would get something later. So as a veteran I have to wonder, how much later?

I would have been willing to pay $50 for the expansion. Not the expansion bundled with the base game.

Oberon Vex.1389:

Conncept.7638:

Oberon Vex.1389:

CrimsonDX.4821:

Taglor Anwamane.9468:

This is nothing short of an insult to every single one of those who have been loyally playing for so long. They’re giving new players the expansion practically for free in comparison!
And it’s not as if they’re offering a full game’s worth of content, either.

Get off your high horse.

Given the amount of free content they have given us since launch, this is nothing. Certainly far less than what we would have paid in total subscription costs since launch

+1.

While the execution is perhaps clunky, the value of the price is something we the customer cannot know until we play. It is entirely possible the new campaign against Morde will be as expansive and lengthy as the one against zhaitan — whether in entirely new maps or revisiting older ones with new instanced story areas.

It is possible that the content of the expansion is fully worth the 50$ price tag — which lets be honest, is pretty kitten common for an expansion of a AAA MMO — so please can we shelf the outrage for a bit? Until we KNOW it’s not worth it?

Finally: no one is forcing you to pre-order. If the price is outrageous to you, or you cannot stomach that they tacked on the core game so that new players dont’ have to shell out $110 to get into the game, then do not pre-order the xpac. Wait for launch. Wait to see if they lower the price, or offer a discounted “Account Upgrade” version in the gemstore. Or — and just hear me out on this one: wait until more information about the expansion is available and make an informed decision. Boom.

Load of bullcrap and you know it.

I support most of ANets decisions but this regularly parroted claim about how we ‘deserve’ to take every dishonest monetization decision ANet makes up the kitten without complaining, because of the living story, is a great big steaming pile of crap.

I have never played an MMO where the developer don’t continue putting out content between expansions, regardless of whether it is free, purchase, or pay to play. And there are games that push out far more content between expansion than GW2, the LS has been nothing special when it comes to between expansion content, and it is no justification for ANets many and varied poor monetization decisions.

Pretty sure I didn’t mention anything about LS. Perhaps you meant to quote the user I quoted? Or at least include my points in your dismissal… :/

Lol, you’re right, no idea how but I completely yoinked the wrong quote. Tis fixed.

Zappix.7928:

…

You and your partner in crime that I responded to previously are missing the point.

You really applaud paying twice for the core game? Sure $50 or £50 for the xpac with a character slot is fine. No character slot and the core game for $50? I already own the core game, all of us already own the core game, what use is that to us?

Remove the core freebie for vets and add 2 character slots or 1 character slot for the Revenant profession.

Blindly defending such a foolish move by Anet is bad and you should feel bad because you encourage this sort of marketing ploy which if you read through this thread and the many threads created, many people are angry with. You are by proxy hurting this game, a game I love.

No. I don’t feel bad. I like the decision. And I will stand by it.

Yes, it would be nice to have a character slot. I will give you that.
But I will pay the 50€ for the expansion (but more likely 75, because I like the additional stuff, maaaaybe 99 because the gems are a good deal…).
And if someone new gets the base game too – good for them. Why do you people have to be so jealous of something someone else gets. Be happy for someone once in a while…

I am not defending blindly. I can see what I’m doing here.

I’ve seen a lot of complaints around, but there seem to be a few main issues that pop up. people complaining about them all in one place seems to muddy things, so I’d like to ask what the main issues are, and maybe try and address them individually.

from what I can see, the main grievances are:

(A)$50/€40/£35 is too much for an expansion (1)
I know there’s a lot of arguments about whether this is true or not, but I just want to know if this is your biggest issue. (also, includes if you think an expansion can cost this much, but that HoT doesn’t have enough to justify it.)

(B)I want to buy Heart of Thorns on it’s own (3)
again, no arguing, just mention if this is what you want to see. may, however, be related to:

©The free addition of GW2 is only free for new players (5)
specifically, that the GW2 is described as a free extra, but is not separate form the expansion, meaning that the “free” extra is only available to new players

(D)I just bought the game for —- and now they’re giving it away free, after (1)
Anet have said that the expansion is $50, and that the base game is therefore free for new players. that said, Anet have shown an interest in helping swap recent orders for HoT bundle pre-orders. (link )

(E)Arenanet stated that the expansion would not be standalone, but the inclusion of the base game contradicts this (2)
Anet has said for a while that GW2 would be required to play HoT, and a number of people doubtlessly bought the game in the lead up to HoT’s release. the bundling of the base game with the expansion means that these people didn’t need to buy when they did, and the fact that you cannot buy the expansion by itself means that all options are – in fact – standalone

(F)The Expansion adds a new class, but does not add a new character slot (2)
arenanet has always added free character slots equal to the number of new classes before, and the break from this tradition is troubling, especially since it may cause people to go for the delux edition over the standard – meaning many people may being paying $25 more just for a character slot

please reply only with which of these is bugging you, and I’ll try and do a tally at sme point.
(feel free to put multiple, or to suggest other things, but don’t argue amongst yourselves. if we can simply get some numbers, we can make threads about each individual problem and argue them there)
(also, sorry if tallys seem to change in unsual ways. it’s not always easy to tell which of these a post is talking about.)
(EDIT: thanks for all the feedback so far, the numbers are starting to add up, which is nice, and it’s nice to be getting a clearer picture of the issues)

shox.3971:

This arguing over $50 is pathetic, its a one time $50 you spend, and never have to again on this game. Half of the people complaining have spent easily over $100 on just gems, so why is $50 so unfair? They are charging people the same price as any other gaming company in this world today charges. Get over it, its $50. If that is too much money then either you don’t truly like this game enough to invest in it, or you should be making money instead of playing it.

Yup, you spent $100 on gems. There lies more of our anger. We spent tons of money on gems, and now they want more MONEY? And they don’t care for the current players, current player reward? NOPE.

Ephemiel.5694:

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.

Can i ask why you decided on $50 when expansions like Heavensward are actually cheaper?

Seriously? This is like asking why Brand A is 10$ cheaper than Brand B when they sell similar products.

They are different games by different companies. They are allowed to have different prices, and they aren’t even that far off. On top of that, FF14 is subbed, so the you are actually paying MORE for FF14….

Ardenwolfe.8590:

nehezbegar.1065:

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.

I remember a similar argument on the City of Heroes and Warhammer Online boards. I hope I don’t have to point out the irony in their past and your current opinion. Sincerely.

Agreed that was just a stupid thing to say. Reeks of blind fanboy crap. If this is really the price for the little crap they are adding i won’t be giving them my money. I’LL use it to buy Fallout 4.

Now now, lets calm down, we keep comparing this to Night falls and so on.

Now lets be honest, when has GW2 ever lived up to GW1 standards? why would this be any different?

nehezbegar.1065:

Well, the character slot for standard edition would be nice, since we get new profession, but who cares.

Vote with Your wallet, if You think 50$ is a ripoff just don’t buy it, get over it and stop moaning.

If You think it is a fair price, buy and enjoy the HoT when released.

End of story for me.

We’re doing them a favor by telling them in advance how we’ll vote.

Combination NC.9813:

Alirya.2365:

So I think a lot of people are misunderstanding the reason why a lot of people are frustrated with HoT pricing. Many of us were ready and willing to pay $50 for the expansion, as it’s pretty standard for MMOs nowadays. However, the slap in the face was that the loyal players that have been the only reason that GW2 has been able to even make it far enough to release an expansion are being offered a package that gives them nothing over new players. In fact, it gives the new players more (as existing players won’t be able to redeem their base games included in the $50 standard version). Not even a character slot for existing players only to show gratitude for their loyalty. I understand the arguments against “whining,” like GW2 having no monthly fee, but being slapped in the face so bluntly by these expansion options feels so directly insulting. Keep in mind that we had absolutely no warning that this expansion pack would be offered including the base game, which I don’t think any MMO has done before. We were all expecting the traditional “buy the game buy the xpac” approach. And what about the players who bought the base game in preparation for buying HoT? I don’t know. I love this game, but can’t bring myself to pre-order due to this nagging feeling of disappointment. Just my two cents.

I think it especially feels like so much a slap in the face since the new players have already been prioritised in updates before at the expense of the veterans: the trait/beginner zone’s update comes to mind. We were told then that this was for the new players and that veterans would get something later. So as a veteran I have to wonder, how much later?

I would have been willing to pay $50 for the expansion. Not the expansion bundled with the base game.

So basically, you’re salty that the price of a game goes down? Are you mad as well that other games’ prices go down after release or in sales? What’s your point here, because I’m not seeing it.

I honestly might not mind paying the $50 if it included a character expansion slot. That’s what most of us want, isnt it?

Erskine.5206:

Zappix.7928:

…

You and your partner in crime that I responded to previously are missing the point.

You really applaud paying twice for the core game? Sure $50 or £50 for the xpac with a character slot is fine. No character slot and the core game for $50? I already own the core game, all of us already own the core game, what use is that to us?

Remove the core freebie for vets and add 2 character slots or 1 character slot for the Revenant profession.

Blindly defending such a foolish move by Anet is bad and you should feel bad because you encourage this sort of marketing ploy which if you read through this thread and the many threads created, many people are angry with. You are by proxy hurting this game, a game I love.

No. I don’t feel bad. I like the decision. And I will stand by it.

Yes, it would be nice to have a character slot. I will give you that.
But I will pay the 50€ for the expansion (but more likely 75, because I like the additional stuff, maaaaybe 99 because the gems are a good deal…).
And if someone new gets the base game too – good for them. Why do you people have to be so jealous of something someone else gets. Be happy for someone once in a while…

I am not defending blindly. I can see what I’m doing here.

I’m sorry but it doesn’t feel like the best stragety to add bonus for new players and completely leave out players that have been supporting your company for years now. Unless you of course want to end up having no playerbase.

The fundamental problem here is the feeling of getting no recognition for those who purchased the game originally. There’s not so much as a tip of the hat to veterans of the game; no discount, no perk, nothing. Just a ‘oh well, had you waited, you’d be getting the whole deal for less than you originally paid’ (remember the original price tag was 60$). Ultimately even if economically this is logical, users experience things emotionally. And the emotional impact of non-recognition is a very negative one. If this new expansion came with twice the content it has (2 new classes, 50% the original game area increase, additional living story, and a new race, among other things, for example) players might be more willing to pay the same price of the original over again. But 50$ is simply too much.

Also, fun fact: if a software company actually cared that much about profit or delivering a good product for the money they get, they wouldn’t be based in a major city like Seattle, LA, OC, SF, or NY, all of which have a crazy high cost of living, which drives up wages and costs. So I chuckle a little whenever someone says ‘they just want to make as much money as they possibly can!’ or ‘we are dedicated to making the best game we can!’

Neither is the case really unless they put their main office someplace low cost like Boise or North Austin. You cannot say you are doing all you can if there is yet more you can do. No one’s motives are as simple as a single sentence, good or bad.

because they are jacking up the price by bundling something that would not have been sold otherwise….

There will be a better deal eventually, thats like saying the sky is blue. Unless its made by Blizzard all games eventually go on sale. Good to see you taking it like an adult when you disagree with pricing on things, would hate to see you in real life buying something large like a car or house. Do you throw fits at sales people a lot?[/quote]

No, I’m just throwing a fit at someone that is harming the game by endorsing something that many people are very unhappy with. Many people who may or may not spend Germs, many who may or may not purchase HoT. Thus this harms Anets income.

You don’t have the best interests of Anet at heart, not really because if you did you’d realise this is a very bad move to loyal players. It’s not to do with the price, it’s to do with the fact that instead of giving Vet players the core game (which we have and have no use for) give us an alternative, give us the expansion alone with a slot for the Revenant.

In time maybe they will do this, unfortunately most have to learn the hard way.