Guild Wars 2

Ever heard of pre-order bonuses? Same concept.

I was not initially pleased with Anet’s handling of the bundling structure. This addition of the character slot made the difference for me and I appreciate their willingness to be open to player input. That said, I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that there are some players who are harder to please than I am.

Ayrilana.1396:

Ever heard of pre-order bonuses? Same concept.

It’s really not. If you introduce a new class, you should provide a character slot so your existing playerbase that has no available slots isn’t inconvenienced by buying your new product.

Pre-order bonuses are great. Making the bonus something the average player expects regardless is silly.

you must be new

of course. but where is the detailed info on what you get for $50? currently it’s a PVE zone , 1 class, and the elite specs, most of which haven’t even been announced. That’s it. That doesn’t seem like $50 of content to me at this point.

Atherakhia.4086:

Ayrilana.1396:

Ever heard of pre-order bonuses? Same concept.

It’s really not. If you introduce a new class, you should provide a character slot so your existing playerbase that has no available slots isn’t inconvenienced by buying your new product.

Pre-order bonuses are great. Making the bonus something the average player expects regardless is silly.

That’s your opinion and not a fact.

scerevisiae.1972:

of course. but where is the detailed info on what you get for $50? currently it’s a PVE zone , 1 class, and the elite specs, most of which haven’t even been announced. That’s it. That doesn’t seem like $50 of content to me at this point.

If you’re not happy with the value you get, don’t purchase. It’s that simple. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

Over on reddit someone mentioned that you’ll need the expansion to enjoy any future story based content. If that’s true, that alone kind of forces you into the expansion which is unfortunate.

Before launch, we don’t even have a release date, so you have time (and more content announcements) before you really have to make that decision.

That said, most estimates from beta players I read put it at a descent size, and I distinctly remember someone at anet saying future living story would be HoT only (so more content/zones).

The important thing is that they listened to what we had to say, and did something to alleviate our concerns.

I suggest Arenanet to ignore the people complaining and go on and about things. Anet already adressed any misunderstandings and giving more would be..bleh. Just concentrate on making the most awesome game ever! I’m excited for things to come and probably spent quite a few (over a hundred…) dollars in the gems store since GW2 released :P

You have several weeks to decide if you want to pre purchase, all still playing veteran players are going to consider taking advantage of this, $50 is not too expensive for an expansion when you consider that this game does not charge fees to play, and it is not sensible to call the amount of content being added “thin.” You don’t have to pay extra to get the included character slot anymore, so I’d say the $50 asking price is reasonable. Honestly, it’ll probably entertain the average player for more hours than most games that currently sell for $50 new.
I don’t think there is any justice in continuing to rage over this when anet has made a reasonable compromise that more or less eliminates the need to spend an additional $50 to not feel ripped off. You technically have until the day before launch to prepurchase, so if you decide not to prepurchase, then you’re spiting yourself.

….the bundled character slots in the non standard editions are staying.

They’re adding an additional character slot on top of that for veteran players who prepurchase. If you’re complaining about the fact that you, as a veteran player, don’t get an extra character slot if you buy the standard edition after the release, well, I don’t know what to tell you. You must not care too much about the game if you’ve played it for so long and don’t care to prepurchase or buy an upgraded edition. In that case, why get so upset over not getting the character slot?

So with the added character slot the expansion is roughly 40$ if you factor in character slot being roughly 10$ makes it somewhat more reasonable but still unfair if after launch the expansion would still be 50$ and no character slot. Also regardless having no official release date and beta week ends yet you can pre-purchase makes it seem sketchy. But with the recent asumption of an August release hopefully it will push Anet to give a release date soon and actually post more blog post with the list of what will all be included in the expansion

Jermoe Morrow.9501:

The important thing is that they listened to what we had to say, and did something to alleviate our concerns.

Not really, after release, existing players get waaay less value for their $50 compared to new players.

Plus, expansion adds a class, it ought to add a slot, simple as that. GW1 generally gave yu 2 free slots with every expansion.

Say what you like but this still doesn’t seem right to me.

ArchieD.6972:

….the bundled character slots in the non standard editions are staying.

They’re adding an additional character slot on top of that for veteran players who prepurchase.

Please understand what you read before you make a fool of yourself.

The irony… re-read what I wrote, I’m only talking about std edition.

i’m thinking the problem again here is the perception, the expansion costs more than the core game. the game should not be devalued, on sale yes, old and devalued no, if for no other reason other than it will always have more content than this and any future expansion and is the heart of guildwars. Heck, i’d even add a guildwars version 2.1 – throw some endorphin ai/physics in there and dx 11 …what ?! then we’d be cooking with fire! They need to go there soon anyways, dx12 is just around the corner.

Ricky.4706:

i’m thinking the problem again here is the perception, the expansion costs more than the core game. the game should not be devalued, on sale yes, old and devalued no, if for no other reason other than it will always have more content than this and any future expansion and is the heart of guildwars. Heck, i’d even add a guildwars version 2.1 – throw some endorphin ai/physics in there and dx 11 …what ?! then we’d be cooking with fire!

The price is the price. Like any expansion for an MMO, it’s pretty much required to purchase if you plan to continue playing the MMO. The available content being worth the price of admission is up for debate, but if rumors of all future content requiring the expansion are true, then it’s really irrelevant what they charge. You’ll buy if it if you plan to keep playing.

The argument still withstanding is how the expansion is bringing us a new character and for some reason isn’t providing players a character slot to play that character to with. Unless you pre-order.

Considering there’s still a lot of debate whether this expansion is worth the price of admission it’s safe to say many aren’t willing to pre-order or are waiting until everything is set in stone to make a choice.

The expansion should come with a free character slot regardless if you get the standard edition or if you pre-order or not. That’s a reasonable opinion to have considering it’s kind of the trend in MMO circles to do that.

The op is actually completely correct. After release, new players will be screwed. If anyone thought we should get 1 slot before, it stands to reason people who buy after release should as well.

Not sure why its only a prepurchase offer. Perhaps they plan on also having it in the non prepurchase editions.

It is odd though

just pre-purchase it and stop whining. If you can buy the expansion after it releases you sure can pre-purchase it right now and get the additional character slot. No need to complain.

desertleaf.5403:

sadly.

I all heard was. You bought core game $60.00 USD on release.

Now you spent $100USD

which is can be the equivalent break down of Core game ($60 USD) + 4000 gems ( $50 USD) in Black lion TP, = $110 USD.

hence,
110 – 10 = 100 thus the 10 dollars you saved is all the extra stuff they tacked on to it and the expansion.

However, You already own the Core game — therefore you gave $ 50 USD away for the expansion, bought yourself 4000 gems from the black lion for another $50 and got a bunch of tacked on junk with it for free.

new players are still better off – they will get everything you just got and save the initial $60.00 you gave for free.
___________________ INSTEAD_______________________________
You should have just bought the expansion itself, and bought 4000 gems following that.
[You could have saved $20.00 or more assuming Heart of Thorns can be sold separate]

Well first off, they don’t have the plethora of legendary weapons, ascended gear, and other rare items (dyes, food, etc) that I do. Sure new players get the base game free but they’ve already missed out on 3 years of experiences which is easily worth the $60.00 I paid for this game back when I bought it in 2012, not to mention they have to start from scratch! (level 1 GG).

Also, I was planning on buying gems when HoT came out anyways lol and i’ll equate

Additional Character Slot TIMES 2!
Miniature Revenant Rytlock
Revenant Finisher
Mordremoth’s Bane Guild Hall Decoration
Heart of Thorns Glider Skin

to $20.00 so I’m quite happy about the purchase

yorick.1305:

Razor.9872:

Keep in mind that purchasing HoT will not only give you the content coming with the expansion, but also all the “free” content coming post-expansion. A-net announced that those who do not purchase HoT will be unable to continue receiving content updates after HoT hits (or at the very least story updates, I can’t remember exactly what).

Really? That’s like saying, that if you don’t buy HoT, no more updates for your acc’, ie your stuffed. Content wise anyway.

This implies they want you ‘commitment’ to the game…..interesting.

I’m pretty sure this means HoT specific content updates. It’s like every other MMO, where they focus on their expansion while the core game and previous expansions die out. It’s a shame really, because GW2 was unique when they actually updated older zones, but they abandoned that concept after season 1.

Atherakhia.4086:

The expansion should come with a free character slot regardless if you get the standard edition or if you pre-order or not. That’s a reasonable opinion to have considering it’s kind of the trend in MMO circles to do that.

respectfully snipped for brevity….

The reason I’m here is because anet is simply great at what they do, they are game masters, you will not find better game developers and artists. period.

so no matter what the deal, the quality is superior ….this is not saying they don’t have bugs …this is saying they know how to entertain. the rest are details on how to package that in a way everyone can support.

scerevisiae.1972:

ArchieD.6972:

….the bundled character slots in the non standard editions are staying.

They’re adding an additional character slot on top of that for veteran players who prepurchase.

Please understand what you read before you make a fool of yourself.

The irony… re-read what I wrote, I’m only talking about std edition.

You might want to re-read your original question. Standard was mentioned 0 times. “Bundled,” as in the “bundled” character slots in the Deluxe and Ultimate editions, however, was mentioned. A freebie because people moaned and groaned is not considered part of a bundle.

I did go on to read your next comments complaining about $50 and edited my post. Glad you caught it before I changed it so you could see how I thought you sounded (and still do).

Anet handing out freebies left and right, and still you complain.

Ricky.4706:

Atherakhia.4086:

The expansion should come with a free character slot regardless if you get the standard edition or if you pre-order or not. That’s a reasonable opinion to have considering it’s kind of the trend in MMO circles to do that.

respectfully snipped for brevity….

The reason I’m here is because anet is simply great at what they do, they are game masters, you will not find better game developers and artists. period.

so no matter what the deal, the quality is superior ….this is not saying they don’t have bugs …this is saying they know how to entertain. the rest is details on how to package that in a way everyone can support.

lol… yea.

See Ayrilana.1396’s comment above

Morfedel.4165:

BolkovonHarnfeldt.1372:

You really want to get people to pre-purchase instead of waiting for the release to make an informed decision whether to buy or not, don’t you?

-1. Seriously.

:( Seriously.

no one can sustain a business on freebies, they are promotional items. Promotions are in fact an expense and should be factored as part of marketing costs :p There are no such thing as freebies, no one makes a salary giving out freebies unless they are promoting something else.

I have a shop, i give out free stuff because i want peoples trust and appreciation. it’s not free, it has worth. when you give out freebies, at the very least you want people to “Pay” attention.

ArchieD.6972:

Anet handing out freebies left and right, and still you complain.

---

All Professions at 80 | http://tinyurl.com/oj4e9hr
1500+ Hrs Played | http://tinyurl.com/ppq4ksz
No Precursor | http://tinyurl.com/6lwv48m

The irony continues…

scerevisiae.1972:

ArchieD.6972:

Anet handing out freebies left and right, and still you complain.

All Professions at 80 | http://tinyurl.com/oj4e9hr
1500+ Hrs Played | http://tinyurl.com/ppq4ksz
No Precursor | http://tinyurl.com/6lwv48m

The irony continues…

Thanks god , he is well in mind n body ….
He doesnt change sides and words , like a rainbow pony …

Edit: going for sleep , cya tommorow :P

Whatever makes you think that the expansion post launch will not have an extra character slot? Just because it’s not mentioned now doesn’t mean that when it comes out it won’t have it. It’s not for sale yet so they aren’t talking about what’s in it or not. They are only talking about what is currently for sale.

Hi As Arena did the right thing by players, I’ll take the risk, just purchased HOT.
You only live once…

Duke Blackrose.4981:

This community can never be pleased.

To be fair, GW2 is touted as a casual game, but when it comes to selling their games, they aren’t so “casual” about it, especially when they enforce a deadline for the free perks. Why can’t company businessmen be pleased too? It goes both ways, right?

This is nice and all but I still bought the game from amazon a couple weeks ago, your policy still makes me pay for content twice.

I don’t have a good solution for you but I know I won’t be buying the expansion any time soon. If the base game becomes unplayable I will quit and spend my time/money elsewhere.

It was a smart move by ANet. Had they offered this in the first place maybe people would have shared your concern. Now, after they thought they wouldn’t get a character slot at all, it seems like the best deal ever.
I’m on your side, but I think this battle is over, most are thinking they get a terrific deal and ANet is awesomely generous.

I’m sure this was quite a scary weekend for everyone working at GW2 , thanks for doing what you can to make players happy.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Whatever makes you think that the expansion post launch will not have an extra character slot? Just because it’s not mentioned now doesn’t mean that when it comes out it won’t have it. It’s not for sale yet so they aren’t talking about what’s in it or not. They are only talking about what is currently for sale.

They specifically mention that the conditions for a free character slot is a pre-purchase before July 30th.
Do you really think they’d do that if they are planning to include it afterwards as well?

Ricky.4706:

The reason I’m here is because anet is simply great at what they do, they are game masters, you will not find better game developers and artists. period.

so no matter what the deal, the quality is superior ….this is not saying they don’t have bugs …this is saying they know how to entertain. the rest are details on how to package that in a way everyone can support.

Having played computer games for 30+ years and been in the game industry as a developer for 2 years, I respectfully disagree. Not saying they’re bad, but the best? Not by a longshot. Their artists are pretty great though, i’ll give you that.

Anet is also not giving a free copy of GW2 until HoT comes out. Then the game+HoT will be $60 and HoT+Character slot also $60 this sounds good no? why do you need more? There’s already a built in function in the game for you to start saving gold to save $10 not a lot of games allow you to spend in game money to save real money be thankful.

scerevisiae.1972:

Ricky.4706:

The reason I’m here is because anet is simply great at what they do, they are game masters, you will not find better game developers and artists. period.

so no matter what the deal, the quality is superior ….this is not saying they don’t have bugs …this is saying they know how to entertain. the rest are details on how to package that in a way everyone can support.

Having played computer games for 30+ years and been in the game industry as a developer for 2 years, I respectfully disagree. Not saying they’re bad, but the best? Not by a longshot. Their artists are pretty great though, i’ll give you that.

ok, i’d be interested to know what other rpg / pvp mmo comes close, not wow,
they are big budget and can have an orchestra on staff – you’d have to give anet the same resources to compare.

and i’ll also say, art is a huge deal to me, made me a huge fan of diablo 2 – ( not 3! never played it !)

i’ve also played for a long time, was in ultima online using the bug that took stuff through walls and riding horses when it first came out! had my own wizards tower! ^.^

ad&d based rpg / pvp is my fav genre! anet is that genre’s current heir! i say with complete confidence!

Im sure someone has pointed it out, but the BASE game densest have enough character slots to play one of every class. This seems the norm for most mmo’s. So I don’t see why adding another class you should expect them to give a free slot. I mean, you did choose to fill up on bread before the main course, so the onus is on you to find a way to get room for another character.

Thank you Anet.

I’m still waiting for a few more reveals to make up my mind, but the prepurchase now doesn’t penalise vets that want to play the Rev, and removed the disparity (or perception of thus) in value between new players and old.

Thank you Arenanet for listening to feedback and making the product a better value, at least for me. I can’t speak for everyone but this puts to bed the reservations I had over the price of the expansion and I feel it’s equitable and in line with what I was expecting.

BolkovonHarnfeldt.1372:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Whatever makes you think that the expansion post launch will not have an extra character slot? Just because it’s not mentioned now doesn’t mean that when it comes out it won’t have it. It’s not for sale yet so they aren’t talking about what’s in it or not. They are only talking about what is currently for sale.

They specifically mention that the conditions for a free character slot is a pre-purchase before July 30th.
Do you really think they’d do that if they are planning to include it afterwards as well?

Yes. Possibly that’s an indication that the expansion will be out on August 1st. The terms of sale are for this set. They are preorders so they will end by the time the expansion starts. After that a new sale for a non preorder will start with its own term and a different set of items it will sell. I would expect it to have an extra character slot.

Just because it refers to these set of preorders doesn’t exclude it from post orders.

Thank you Anet, while I have no use for the extra slot at the moment, it’s nice to see that veteran players are given at least something as a token of appreciation.

thank you for this address. my personal issue was that $50 was too steep for a non-stand-alone game with no other perks. an extra character slot, normally a $10 value, was basically the extra incentive i was looking for.

i will be making my pre-purchase later today.

This is why they shouldn’t have budged. People always want more.

i dont qualify for the refund since im an older player, but after what they did and the post they made, i think im going to buy it. they did the right thing. what do you guys think?

I’d rather pay for HoT xpac if it didn’t have the “Base Game” included when I already have it and almost everything is account bound. It would probably be $30 without the base game and I could buy a character slot with gold.

Khristophoros.7194:

If you want to support them because they did X, Y, and Z, that is a great reason to preorder and they don’t need to push you to do it. You were going to preorder anyway.

What I’m upset about is they’re only including the character slot for preorders so I feel bullied into it even though I much prefer not to preorder. I don’t like the concept of preordering. I want to decide after the product comes out if it’s worth the price.

In this case just start saving up for gems in game. If you don’t buy the expansion you can spend them on something else and if you do you’ll have your character slot. It’s not abnormal for companies to promote prepurchasing and brand loyalty.

Your final option is once the expansion goes live it will drop in price about a year or so later, at that point you can just spend the money to buy it when you think its at a fair price. Supply and demand is great and so is brand loyalty. The economics of this fiasco is fun to analyze.

So with the core game essentially being included or given away as a bundle with future expansions, I do hope that isn’t increasing the cost they are passing onto us.

Additionally, why not just provide the previous clients as a free download with the release of each expansion to not only keep the game heavily populated with new players for the community to interact with, but also to eliminate the need for including previous clients in the cost of any future expansions.

I have not pre-ordered yet primarily because so far the HoT only content im finding sufficient enough to justify the price and I am being generous (i’m not alone) and the current promotions are simply unappealing, price aside.

I hope to see the HoT only content greatly improve over what the core game is already going to be offering, unless they are trying to consider the interface improvements and balance changes to the core game part of HoT—that would be pretty kitten lame and dishonest.

I’ve been playing for 3 years. I have spent more than a few USD on the BLTC and additional accounts for my family members. I am not ungrateful for the now included additional character slot with all versions, but to be honest, that was the least we “expected”. It really isn’t something you are giving to us as much as it is demanded. Considering this, where is the real preorder bonus for players who had already purchased the core and been playing—some of us from launch? Seriously, the marketing team couldn’t have been this incompetent to not already considered different responses from the community even if you are all drinking from the same pitcher of kool aid. There should have already been plans in place, redundancies, preparation, etc. I can’t imagine the marketing team thought the community was that stupid. It is insulting to those of us uninterested in the kool aid compared to the volume and quality of content comparably to what the core game already includes or included when it was sold at full retail.

Soooo basicly I’ll be getting a free character slot for every expansion after Heart of Thorns as well? :p