Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet,

Jump in my time machine! We are setting the controls for January 2015, we are all at PAX South, and Mike and Colin are announcing HoT all over again. The hype is as real as the smell emanating from the mouth breathers and the neck beards. It’s the realest.

The HoT montages play. The crowd noisily bangs their noisemakers. People are in a frenzy. At the end of the presentation, Mike says, “New players, you will get the core game included with Heart of Thorns!” Everyone goes nuts!

Then he says, “Existing players, you will pay the same price as new players but you will only get the expansion!” The room goes dead silent. My bad. I switched the cue cards to be honest during the announcement so you guys could see what a mistake all of this is.

Think back to that day.

• You announced the new WvW Borderlands Map as if it was a part of the expansion pack. It isn’t a part of the expansion pack.

• You announced the new Stronghold PvP format as if it was a part of the expansion. It’s not.

• You announced the Revenant as part of the expansion without an asterisk that said, Character slot not included

I am done being diplomatic in my feedback anymore. It’s to the point with you guys where it’s downright dishonest in how you are selling us stuff. It’s not marketing anymore. It’s snake oil. Someone at that company has an idea that it’s OK to get up on a stage in front of people and sell the game as one thing and then offer something totally different 6 months later. It’s not OK. It’s deplorable.

Unless something changes dramatically: for the first time in GW history, Heart of Thorns will be the first standalone game or expansion pack that I will own zero copies of. I own multiple accounts of all the games.

• I am super stoked you are treating potential customers amazingly. You should. It’s called being a cool company.

• I am not stoked that you are treating those of us who have been with you for over 10 years like Ascalonian sewer feces.

EDIT: I went to edit this a few hours ago but the servers went down.

I am ticked because I purchased a copy of GW2 during a sale you guys had a few months ago because I wanted multiple copies and because the base game was required to get the x-pac. What better time to purchase a second copy than when you guys did a great sale for $10? Awesome! I got my second copy.

Fast forward to E3. I didn’t actually have to buy a second copy back then? Wait, what? Not only am I ticked about that, but it actually will be more worth it financially to buy the expansion and get a 3rd copy of the base game instead of linking the x-pac to that $10 second account I got a few months back. That way I will get extra laurels etc. from daily logins. Instead of doing that though, I think I will pass altogether. We don’t seem to be on the same page anymore when it comes to a customer/game maker relationship.