Guild Wars 2

There seem to be two big veins to this argument, one being that those players who have bought the game earlier got two to three years worth of updates and increased content for “free”. The other is that gem purchasers made by players have nothing to do with any entitlement to future discount, content, or features in an expansion.

The “free” content people speak of are the updates, balancing, living story, and so on.

I would have to say you’re highly naive if you think any of this was done as a “reward” or for the love of the players.
GW2 contains a gem store, a mechanism for converting cash into usable in-game currency. In order to sustain a steady income stream from the gem store this meant that the game had to remain fun, balanced, interesting, and replayable / have playable additions. Otherwise the game would quickly have lost very substantial amounts of its population to other games (which, it likely already has).
But, all of this is economically motivated, the content is not “free” it is developed and rolled out in a calculated attempt to maintain a steady income stream through the gem store. If ArenaNet was operating at a loss staff would have been cut and this content would not be developed. No game / company is immune to economics.

And yes ArenaNet did not force anyone to buy gems. No one was required to. But, it would be disengenuous to say the game was not designed to encourage gem purchases. For example, the game comes with eight professions and five character slots, for any player that wants to try / create one of each profession that is an additional $30 USD purchase during their time playing a game. New accounts come with a single bank slot, each expanded tab is an additional $7.50 USD. New character come with 5 bag slots, any expansion to this is an additional $5 USD. Unlimited harvestin / logging / mining tools cost $12.50 USD currently. Now, yes, if you farm or dungeon like mad you might make enough gold to satisfy all your gem needs, but my guess is most people do buy gems.

For example, my wife and I probably each spend $20-$30 USD on gems every three months or so. This meens that the revenue stream from us is equivalent to a $6.66 – $10 per month subscription fee.

Simply put you cannot discount the value of this revenue stream when discussing any additions to content so far. There may be players who have never spent any money on gems, which was their choice (and I’m not criticizing that) but any content additions and updates since the release of this game have all been bought, paid for, and subsidized by the player base’s use of the gem store and the revenue stream that it established.

Arguing otherwise is sticking your head in the sand.

You know that the whiteknight don’t care right because they know they can’t oppose these arguments.
So they try to run around them again & again.

OP you are spot on, well said. Entitlement has become a crutch to use against any critical argument and it doesn’t hold here.

morrolan.9608:

OP you are spot on, well said. Entitlement has become a crutch to use against any critical argument and it doesn’t hold here.

Just like how “morals” and “justice” have become the crutch of people trying to make mountains out of molehills.

Anet is a business. They are going to make up for lost revenue from potential base game sales somewhere. HoT has an unusually high price tag for an expansion its size. There’s your $50 price tag.

Nokaru.7831:

morrolan.9608:

OP you are spot on, well said. Entitlement has become a crutch to use against any critical argument and it doesn’t hold here.

Just like how “morals” and “justice” have become the crutch of people trying to make mountains out of molehills.

Morals and justice are BS arguments here.

There are objective issues at play.

1)
$50 USD buys new player / new account 5 character slots, GW2, GW2:HoT, one bank slot
$50 USD buys existing player / existing account GW2:HoT
(I’m not discussing the merits of this approach, simply stating what the pruchase includes based upon whether the individual is making the purchase for a new account or an existing one.)

2)
GW2’s own FAQ, announcements, and hype said that GW2:HoT would require the purchase of the GW2 core game. They also used promotions and sales to increase sales of the core game (we’ll assume some sales went to people who were interested in buying the expansion and wanting to be ready, and we know from forum posts that some accounts were purchased by current players for friends, also we know there was a lot of outreach from players to friends to join in the game).
The language was changed on the FAQ with the announcement of pre-purchase availability that the core GW2 game would be included in the GW2:HoT purchase.
Some recent purchasers feel like this was false advertising / unfair considering the information previously put out in the FAQ.
The solution provided thus far has been to offer a full refund of GW2 purchase price if and only if you bought the game through http://buy.guildwars2.com, it was in the last 30 days, and on the condition that the account created is terminated. No refund is offered for any gem purchases made.
(I’m not discussing the merits of this approach, simply stating that this has occurred, and that these are the solutions provided in screenshots of message exchanges in service tickets.)

3)
The sales page for GW2:HoT states the following when ordering the Standard edition of the game: “Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns expansion(includes Guild Wars 2 core game)”
When one scroll over the Standard option on the sales page it says this: “A game serial code for account creation or upgrade for the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns expansion and the award winning Guild Wars 2 core game.”
This language is ambiguous as to what purchase of GW2:HoT includes and could run afoul of local false advertising statues because…
On the forums and in answer to service tickets by users asking where their "and the award winning Guild Wars 2 core game.” is at people have been told that GW2:HoT only includes a copy of the core game for new accounts. This position is not published on the sales page, in the FAQ, in the Terms of Sale or in the Privacy Policy.
(Again, not commenting on the merits or legality of such an approach, simply pointing out and summarizing that the issue exists.)

In my opinion any discussions / complaints regarding content and the value thereof are and will always be subjective. This is an individual call, and how steep or reasonable the price is will be a matter of personal opinion.

That being said I’d love for you to give a clear and concise response on how taking issue with points 1), 2), and 3) have anything to do with “entitlement”, “being spoiled”, “morals”, or “justice”.

“Entitlement” is just a buzz word that most Anet defenders don’t even use properly.

Threads with “entitlement” in the title invariably argue in the OP that GW2 had great value for the cost. (Then, funnily enough, they argue that because of this, Anet deserves your money for HoT!)

OP, well said. Anyone who is playing this game legally had to purchase the core game and then probably spent some more on gems at some point. How can anyone say that everything they got after that was “free”? It wasn’t. Anet wouldn’t be in business if everything they’d “given” us over 3 years was free.