Guild Wars 2

Before we get started, this thread has nothing to do with the whole riot that’s going on.

Anyone else remember what you use to get with GW1 campaigns and Eye of the north? You got a fair bit, GW2 seems to offer very little in comparison.

From the wiki: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Pre-order

So far there have been 4 pre-order packages:

Guild Wars Prophecies
Access to all Guild Wars events including the October World Preview Event and all Beta Weekend Events.
One guest pass that allows a friend to join a Beta Weekend Event.
One exclusive in-game item from among a variety of weapons, shields or magical items.
A Prima Tournament Survival Guide offering character and team strategies.
A Guild Wars poster.
Pre-registration for character names and player accounts.
Exclusive music tracks from award-winning composer Jeremy Soule.
Concept artwork, screen shots, wallpapers and links to the Guild Wars fan community.

Guild Wars Factions
A key that provides access to the Factions Preview Event on March 24th.
Access to Guild Wars: Factions twenty-four hours before the official release date.
Exclusive in-game items—one unique item for each of the two new professions.
A “friend” key that gives one of your friends access to the Factions Preview Event on March 24th.
A 14-day, 10-hour trial of Guild Wars (original Prophecies Campaign).
A tactical guide.
A quick-reference card.
A CD that includes concept art, wallpapers, in-game trailers and audio tracks.

Guild Wars Nightfall

Note: That by pre-ordering Guild Wars Nightfall you do not receive the pre-release bonus pack for free. Stores are issued to sell the product for between $5 to $10. This differs from the previous two pre-order bonuses.
Guild Wars “Play Now” key for a 10-hour/14-day trial* of Guild Wars PropheciesTM and Guild Wars FactionsTM.
Guild Wars Nightfall Bonus Key, providing one additional character slot for a Guild Wars Nightfall account.
Two exclusive items for the new professions—a Fiery Sunspear of Shelter for the Paragon and an Icy Soulbreaker of Enchanting for the Dervish.
Mini strategy guide, concept art, screenshots, in-game renders of characters and items, preview trailer, wallpapers, lore, quick reference card, music, and more!

Guild Wars Eye of the North

Note: This is the first pre-release pack to be available on PlayNC’s website and through the in-game online store.
A chance to play the game early during the Guild Wars Eye of the North Sneak Peek Weekend, August 24-26th. Everything gained and attained in this weekend will be permanent to your characters, unlike in the sneak peek weekends of Factions and Nightfall.
DVD with 10 day/14 hour trial key for all three Guild Wars games. Note, it currently appears that if you buy the pre-release pack through the official in-game store it applies this key to YOUR account, even if you already have all three campaigns.
Bonus items: Glacial Blade, Darksteel Longbow and Hourglass Staff.
Note: The Bonus Pack does not include an extra character slot and neither does GW:EN.

Now GW2, You got a Ring for the core game and access to the Beta(s), and for HoT you get access to the Beta(s) a Title.

Anyone else a little disappointed? I mean it’s not deal breaking or anything. Just seems now we pay more, for less, in terms of pre-purchase/pre-ordering. Paying to be a tester is the only “hook” I can see here.

Now I’m not saying ANet should give me or anyone else free stuff. everything that’s offered in the packs you can get anytime. I’m willing to bet people would have got the xpac if there was something more that a title they could not get any other way. Maybe I’m wrong and it’s just me.

The $75 package is pretty impressive, IMO. ANet will permit you to buy a bunch of functionless digital extras for $15 if you also agree to buy a full-price character slot when you preorder HoT. Looks like a lot of thought went into that one.

/s

Since there are only two options IMO, only one of them is really weak since the $50 option is just the game plus beta access. You’re still getting what you pay for; there’s no extra required expense beyond the expansion, so even if you don’t get a bonus it’s not a bad deal. The only real preorder bonus items are the digital extras, and you only get those if you also agree to buy $50 of full-price gems along with the expansion. To be fair, pretty much all preordering for digitally-available goods is an attempt to raise/recoup money before launch, regardless of what you get with it, but if it’s done right it doesn’t seem that way.

TL;DR: One amazingly horrible package, two unimpressive ones that seem like blatant attempts (rather than veiled ones) to raise money.

editb4 someone gets salty: Go ahead and preorder if you want, it’s your cash. I’m just not impressed.

The pre-order bonuses are an illusion! Most of the active players have beta keys already and a tittle given just because you buy something has no true value since it was’t inquired in game through a challenge, so it is boring an lame!

Real bonuses could be a unique armor / weapon / headgear skin, free boosters to help you progress faster, black lion ticket or black lion keys, a unique Node for the house instance and many other things that they could offer… The extra beta key for a friend could also have a value, for them mostly since it can bring new players to the game.

yeah it’s not good, when your pre-order bonus, is essentially nothing.

Jaetara.4075:

Real bonuses could be a unique armor / weapon / headgear skin, free boosters to help you progress faster, black lion ticket or black lion keys, a unique Node for the house instance and many other things that they could offer… The extra beta key for a friend could also have a value, for them mostly since it can bring new players to the game.

No, the only “real” bonus is the character slot which actually allow you to play half of what the expansion is (ie the revenant), menaning that the €75 pack is a complete ripoff, lol. For basic you can buy a €10 slot yourself (maximum cost of €55, you could use gold too) whereas you are paying €35 for a €10 slot with the deluxe pack. In the ultimate pack, at least you’re only paying €5 for the €10 slot (since the €50 gems can actually have real meaning to your gameplay… if you so choose).

The remaining things in the packages is pure pointless fluff, as is everything else you suggested.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Anyone else remember what you use to get with GW1 campaigns and Eye of the north? You got a fair bit, GW2 seems to offer very little in comparison.

Ah, GW1. When Anet cared about the current players. I LOVED GW1 and our guild still goes back for some of the festivals.

Then you don’t buy it, why make another thread like this when you know there are hundred others. Mods merge this please.

Dawdler.8521:

Jaetara.4075:

Real bonuses could be a unique armor / weapon / headgear skin, free boosters to help you progress faster, black lion ticket or black lion keys, a unique Node for the house instance and many other things that they could offer… The extra beta key for a friend could also have a value, for them mostly since it can bring new players to the game.

No, the only “real” bonus is the character slot which actually allow you to play half of what the expansion is (ie the revenant), menaning that the €75 pack is a complete ripoff, lol. For basic you can buy a €10 slot yourself (maximum cost of €55, you could use gold too) whereas you are paying €35 for a €10 slot with the deluxe pack. In the ultimate pack, at least you’re only paying €5 for the €10 slot (since the €50 gems can actually have real meaning to your gameplay… if you so choose).

The remaining things in the packages is pure pointless fluff, as is everything else you suggested.

The gems are just as fluff as the other extras so I don’t see why that version would be better, the only extra you get are the gems, I would not even consider it a different version. Also the UE is not available as hard copy, only the standard and the Deluxe edition is. So if you like the extras and a hard copy Deluxe in your on;y option. What really misses is a CE.

If you don’t like the grind or don’t have a game to play it, but to decorate it, the UE is nice, as the gems will allow you to buy your way out of the grind or let you get items to decorate your game. I personally would prefer to play to win those decorations (not grind them, and not buy them) as that is what I have a game for.. playing.

warbignime.4610:

Then you don’t buy it, why make another thread like this when you know there are hundred others. Mods merge this please.

Why? This has nothing to do with the price, or the inclusion of the core game. It’s a then Vs now conversation. And feed back to ANet that if/when they do another xpac, they think about adding more of a pre-order bonus. At no point did I or anyone else talk about getting it or not. That is all you.

BrotherBelial.3094:

warbignime.4610:

Then you don’t buy it, why make another thread like this when you know there are hundred others. Mods merge this please.

Why? This has nothing to do with the price, or the inclusion of the core game. It’s a then Vs now conversation. And feed back to ANet that if/when they do another xpac, they think about adding more of a pre-order bonus. At no point did I or anyone else talk about getting it or not. That is all you.

I agree, a prepurchase is meant to feel special. There is nothing special unless you buy the ultimate package and that is just a gem discount. Keep in mind deluxe doesnt mean much as you can upgrade via gem store later. I’d prefer the items you get to be limited at leas then it would give more value to deluxe and make prepurchasing more special

BrotherBelial.3094:

warbignime.4610:

Then you don’t buy it, why make another thread like this when you know there are hundred others. Mods merge this please.

Why? This has nothing to do with the price, or the inclusion of the core game. It’s a then Vs now conversation. And feed back to ANet that if/when they do another xpac, they think about adding more of a pre-order bonus. At no point did I or anyone else talk about getting it or not. That is all you.

I agree. I’ve posted similarly in other topics before seeing this one. This topic addresses exactly the problem I have with this.

“Hey, give us an advanced payment for who knows how much collective interest for us, and in exchange, your bonus is…. pretty much absolutely nothing! Oh if you want to spend 150-200% more we’ll bundle a few digital items with gem shop purchases… but hey you can eagerly assist us test our product and pay us to do so!”

That’s the pre-purchase “bonus” in a nutshell. Nevermind that pre-purchase on its own is morally questionable, but now they get worse bonuses than even non-fully paid preorders have historically gotten. It’s a complete and utter insult.

I mean seriously, how can you honestly look at that pre-purchase page and not see anything wrong with basically NO bonus at the $50 tier, even for active players? What’s the company that started this disgusting pre-purchase thing anyway?

I bet they thought we’d all jump on the $100 hype train. for an expac, twice the cost of a full game for maybe 25% of the content.

The $50 offer was never meant for vets.

Keep in mind what happened with the beta portal drops. Some of the people who GOT them couldnt take part in beta because of technical issues so even if they SAY access is guaranteed it never really is guaranteed.

I think the problem here is that the only actual pre order bonus you get is a title which is complete crap in my opinion. The other items you get are all being treated as another item that you could buy from the gem store (overpriced like 90% of the items in there).

It was the same thing when Gw2 first came out. When I bought the digital deluxe edition I thought I was buying items that only people who pre purchased the game would get since you are supporting anet since day 1. Not only did they add it to the gemstore, but they added items onto it for only players who upgraded “after” they put those items on it. So even though you spent $80 on it, people who waited to upgrade to it got more items and most likely for a discount and new players got the “added items” and the entire game for $10 during those sales.

Idk about you but a Mini, finisher, decoration, and glider do not cost $15 (took away $10 from character slot – should still be baseline though) and should be considered a pre order bonus.

Anet you are not giving us anything physical that should increase the price. Stop treating items that should be considered a pre order bonus as a gem store purchase.

Considering that 800gems are 10$ you are looking at 1200 gems here. A mini may be around 300-400, the finishers are coming in at 600-700 gems on average.
So you are at 1000 gems already. And you still have the decoration and the glider (the glider may be ~700-800 as well)

I had also wished for something more… Creative, but if you bought everything you can consider it to save you money.

The only tier I have issue with is Ultimate.

To me, the top tier of a multi-tiered game purchase option should have the most exclusive, awesome goodies available, here they’ve just sort of plopped on 4k gems as an afterthought.

I appreciate it’s the first ever gem discount they’ve done, but ultimate to me does not feel “ultimate”. I myself would have preferred more exclusive goodies over some gems.