Guild Wars 2

This is a question that I would like to have some answers to, obviously it’s for players who bought Guild Wars 2 (free players can’t post here) but didn’t buy Heart of Thorns. I’m not looking for players who bought Heart of Thorns but regret it for whatever reason, nor a discussion on how good the expansion is or not, but for owners of the original game that didn’t move on to the expansion to give some reason on why.

So, to repeat the question, what’s keeping you from buying Heart of Thorns?

This game isn’t worth spending money on anymore.

Fiddlestyx.9714:

This game isn’t worth spending money on anymore.

Funny, I find myself spending money on the game through gem cards at least once a month. ~shrug~

Fiddlestyx.9714:

This game isn’t worth spending money on anymore.

I’m curious, is that because what you read Heart of Thorns contain, you tried the beta and didn’t like it, or how the game developed even long before the expansion?
In other words, do you find the game not worth spending money on because of the expansion or it was already like this before it?

I mostly play alone and in varying spurts. I also need the ability to afk or log out frequently and without notice. I also tend to stop playing the game for months on end when RL gets busy. I have no interest in raids or involved guild stuff (did that plenty in WoW). I am at a place in my life where extremely casual is all I have to devote to games. I don’t tend to like heavy armor classes, so revenant didn’t hold much interest for me. In short, I just never saw enough content in HoT to justify the price for me.

I might eventually buy it when it’s 50% off again or maybe I’ll wait until the next expansion. I’m at the point where $25 is probably worth it to explore elite specs and to run around in HoT zones with my family on those few times when we have the ability to play together. Since HoT, I’ve put money into Anet’s pockets with buying gems here or there, so it’s not an issue of money. It’s just that $50 has never seemed worth it for the content that’s of interest to me.

maddoctor.2738:

This is a question that I would like to have some answers to, obviously it’s for players who bought Guild Wars 2 (free players can’t post here) but didn’t buy Heart of Thorns. I’m not looking for players who bought Heart of Thorns but regret it for whatever reason, nor a discussion on how good the expansion is or not, but for owners of the original game that didn’t move on to the expansion to give some reason on why.

So, to repeat the question, what’s keeping you from buying Heart of Thorns?

What’s the real point of this?

The topic has been talked about, ad nauseam, for going on 2 years, and there is more than enough feedback in the hot section for you to look through.

Edit- You’ve been here posting for 4 years, so I highly doubt you don’t already know the various reasons why certain people didn’t like or buy hot.

Swagger.1459:

The topic has been talked about, ad nauseam, for going on 2 years, and there is more than enough feedback in the hot section for you to look through.

Yes it’s a topic that has been discussed in the past.

Those threads were common around the time Heart of Thorns was released, and at that point, despite the forum threads, the expansion was selling.
Now, however, all the quarterly reports show that the game isn’t selling anymore and I’m asking why that is. They’ve started LS3, which means a good stream of new content, yet HoT still isn’t selling.
Why is Heart of Thorns selling so badly now, compared to how Guild Wars 2: Heroic Edition was selling a quarter before the announcement of the expansion? To compare the two, Heart of Thorns is now getting regular updates, while at that point in time the core game was inside the content drought period (meaning no new content), yet it was selling more.

maddoctor.2738:

Swagger.1459:

The topic has been talked about, ad nauseam, for going on 2 years, and there is more than enough feedback in the hot section for you to look through.

Yes it’s a topic that has been discussed in the past.

Those threads were common around the time Heart of Thorns was released, and at that point, despite the forum threads, the expansion was selling.
Now, however, all the quarterly reports show that the game isn’t selling anymore and I’m asking why that is. They’ve started LS3, which means a good stream of new content, yet HoT still isn’t selling.
Why is Heart of Thorns selling so badly now, compared to how Guild Wars 2: Heroic Edition was selling a quarter before the announcement of the expansion? To compare the two, Heart of Thorns is now getting regular updates, while at that point in time the core game was inside the content drought period (meaning no new content), yet it was selling more.

There are 401 pages of hot feedback where players have expressed their feelings and the devs have made changes as a result. The hot feedback will also be reflected in the next xpac.

The quarterly reports are a sum of all things surrounding the game, and iirc, there are no clearly laid out stats on specific core or hot sales in those reports.

There is nothing coming out of this thread that hasn’t already been discussed and reviewed, your post is just another platform for players to needlessly complain about hot again and again and again and again. You should already know all this as a regular poster.

OP’s question was valid. First, it was originally in the general discussion forum. Quite a few people who have no interest in HoT aren’t hanging out in the HoT forum reading “401 pages of HoT feedback.” Second, with HoT being out for a very long time, people who haven’t purchased likely have reasons beyond just “needlessly complaining” about whatever thing they didn’t like or didn’t get. With a new expansion on the horizon, knowing why players have held out on not purchasing the content after 1.5 years is helpful. Lastly, as a long time regular poster, you should know that these forums are nothing BUT rehashing the same topics endlessly.

I didn’t buy HoT (it was purchased for me as a gift because I wouldn’t buy it).

My reason for not buying was that I felt that what they were offering was not anywhere close to being worth the amount they were asking.

Upon playing HoT, I believe I was correct.

Now, however, they have added enough Living Story items (and reduced the HoT price) so that it probably would be worth it now.

I did not buy HoT at release, only deciding to do so when LS seemed to be approaching.

Is it possible that revenue is down more due to a lack of desirable items in the gemstore than to a problem with HoT sales this long after release?

maddoctor.2738:

They’ve started LS3, which means a good stream of new content, yet HoT still isn’t selling.

Content updates only keep people active. A new expansion is what actually brings people in. Expansions are huge for advertising, since people actually talk about them outside of the game and they get treated like a new release (reviewed, found in stores).

maddoctor.2738:

Why is Heart of Thorns selling so badly now, compared to how Guild Wars 2: Heroic Edition was selling a quarter before the announcement of the expansion?

You can’t tell whether the drop is due to GW2 selling poorly, or simply due gem sales. Considering that pre-purchases would be factored into the launch quarter and they went F2P in quarter prior to HoT, GW2 really wasn’t making any major box sales.

maddoctor.2738:

Now, however, all the quarterly reports show that the game isn’t selling anymore and I’m asking why that is.

Um, no, that’s not what the reports show. The game isn’t selling as well as stockholders wanted. (Interestingly, not explicitly shown in those tables is the fact that gem shop sales are consistently strong.)

Bought it for my other account. Was really disappointed with Anet’s new “direction” and HoT in general. Started playing a different game that suits my casual desires for story and exploration better so felt my money were better spent there.

Whenever I log in to GW2 I usually prefer this account over my HoT one. Have no interest in glider skins or endless amounts of different map currencies so am not going to buy HoT on this account, not at €50, not at €5!

I hated their work even before expansion announcements, I would’ve not gotten it even if it had ritualists, three new playable races, player housing, and fishing.
What I know of the expansion… I hate it all too.

There’s something I still want to do so I have converted gold for some gems after the first feature pack happened but I don’t mean to do that a lot in the future. I may want a makeover kit or two. No other shinies for me.

I can’t even make myself to buy Guild Wars stuff since it is Anet game.

maddoctor.2738:

Now, however, all the quarterly reports show that the game isn’t selling anymore and I’m asking why that is. They’ve started LS3, which means a good stream of new content, yet HoT still isn’t selling.

It is simple. Everyone who wanted HoT already bought it. People who don’t want it still don’t want it. Its not like people have to buy HoT every month to play or need to own more than 1 copy. And the new player income is low due to low amount of advertising (which mostly happens before new expansions).

Healix.5819:

A new expansion is what actually brings people in. Expansions are huge for advertising, since people actually talk about them outside of the game and they get treated like a new release (reviewed, found in stores).

Yet “our” expansion didn’t sell and that’s why I’m asking why. Now that some months have passed and the initial anger has faded somewhat.

You can’t tell whether the drop is due to GW2 selling poorly, or simply due gem sales. Considering that pre-purchases would be factored into the launch quarter and they went F2P in quarter prior to HoT, GW2 really wasn’t making any major box sales.

Actually it was in NCSoft reports that gem sales are stable. You can also check out online retailers that offer data to see that gem sales are indeed stable, while Heart of Thorns is selling really badly.

maddoctor.2738:

Healix.5819:

A new expansion is what actually brings people in. Expansions are huge for advertising, since people actually talk about them outside of the game and they get treated like a new release (reviewed, found in stores).

Yet “our” expansion didn’t sell and that’s why I’m asking why. Now that some months have passed and the initial anger has faded somewhat.

You can’t tell whether the drop is due to GW2 selling poorly, or simply due gem sales. Considering that pre-purchases would be factored into the launch quarter and they went F2P in quarter prior to HoT, GW2 really wasn’t making any major box sales.

Actually it was in NCSoft reports that gem sales are stable. You can also check out online retailers that offer data to see that gem sales are indeed stable, while Heart of Thorns is selling really badly.

Bolded… “some months” dates back to October 2015, 17 months ago. There is already enough feedback on hot located here…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot

And the devs already made changes and are more aware of “things” for the next xpac, which was started right after hot was released.

I personally feel this thread is more of an expedition to keep poking the “hot sucks” beast unnecessarily, because these types of threads and posts have gone on since October 2015…

Swagger.1459:

I personally feel this thread is more of an expedition to keep poking the “hot sucks” beast unnecessarily, because these types of threads and posts have gone on since October 2015…

I never intended this to be a discussion, just information gathering.

As to all of you posting why you haven’t bought HoT, thank you, that’s all I want.

Actually I see the purpose of this thread. This is a guy who likes raids who’s being consistently told that the reason the game isn’t doing/selling as well as it did is because of raids, or at least harder core content.

He’s trying to ascertain on the forums if this really had a major affect on the game.

The probably is the most casual players tend to solo and not even look at websites, and so those people will never answer.

I think the problem isn’t just people not buying HoT, but buying hot and basically avoiding hot content after they got what they needed from it.

Vayne.8563:

The probably is the most casual players tend to solo and not even look at websites, and so those people will never answer.

Those who didn’t buy Heart of Thorns and don’t look at websites, were already lost causes. After all, if they don’t even look at websites how in the world will they learn if heart of thorns is the game for them or not? They’d base buying or not on their current core game experience not on some expansion info that according to you they wouldn’t look at.

I think the problem isn’t just people not buying HoT, but buying hot and basically avoiding hot content after they got what they needed from it.

That’s for a completely thread then and kind of irrelevant here.

maddoctor.2738:

Vayne.8563:

The probably is the most casual players tend to solo and not even look at websites, and so those people will never answer.

Those who didn’t buy Heart of Thorns and don’t look at websites, were already lost causes. After all, if they don’t even look at websites how in the world will they learn if heart of thorns is the game for them or not? They’d base buying or not on their current core game experience not on some expansion info that according to you they wouldn’t look at.

I think the problem isn’t just people not buying HoT, but buying hot and basically avoiding hot content after they got what they needed from it.

That’s for a completely thread then and kind of irrelevant here.

I don’t get this comment at all. You think most people research before they buy stuff? I worked in computer retail and I can tell you most people don’t. In fact, a good percentage of games are sold by someone else getting a game and just telling someone else that they liked it. Oh man you got to get this game. Or going to someone’s house.

But the biggest number of people that own Guild Wars 2 and play it would almost automatically buy an expansion if they like the game. I never played a game I liked and didn’t buy the expansion. That’s juts not how people play games….for the most part.

If they didn’t follow social media sites and forums, then they didn’t know about the bad publicity and they bought HoT.

At the time HoT launched, I had a guild of 200 players, and I don’t think any of htem bought HoT, but I’m sure well over 150 of them never set foot in the forums or reddit. They bought hot because they were playing a game and that’s just what you do.

The amount of “informed consumers” in any arena is surprising low.

Even if you soloed and didn’t join a guild, the hot ad came up in game. How would they know? They wouldn’t. They’d just go buy the expansion.

Vayne.8563:

But the biggest number of people that own Guild Wars 2 and play it would almost automatically buy an expansion if they like the game.

I don’t think we disagree here. I thought I said the same thing:

They’d base buying or not on their current core game experience not on some expansion info that according to you they wouldn’t look at.

They’d buy the expansion if they liked the game or not, regardless of what features the expansion announced. In other words, the problem with the lack of sales of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns (other than the problems that informed players post on this thread) is with the base/core game and not with the expansion. Which also makes sense for the lack of free 2 play conversions too, that’s also a problem with the core game and not Heart of Thorns.

I strongly believe that the core game needs some “fixing” and no amount of expansions will help with that.

But this thread was supposed to be about informed players and why THEY didn’t buy Heart of Thorns. The un-informed ones need a current good experience, the informed ones are looking for a future good experience.

Well given what you just said, it’s likely most people did buy it, so the few that didn’t, I’m not sure how much difference that makes.

More important is the people that bought it that don’t play it, at least in my opinion.

I thought the new zones were better than the old ones, but clearly some people really dislike them.

maddoctor.2738:

Now, however, all the quarterly reports show that the game isn’t selling anymore and I’m asking why that is.

Most likely, because everyone that was interested in it has bought it already, and there’s not enough new players to make a visible impact on sales.
Yes, that probably mean that the active population is rather low.

But to use anecdote as an indirect answer, the most stated reason why people in my guild didn’t buy HoT is because the expac didn’t live up to their expectations. Their expectations were, in all those cases, “more of the same”. It was the difficulty jump, and meta-driven on fixed schedule nature of the maps that discouraged them. In some cases, addition of raids was brough up as well (ironically, the only person that actually waited for raids to come got discouraged by open PvE changes in the expac). All of those players stopped playing completely within half a year from launch, so i don’t see much hope of them changing their mind later on.
(for most cases the info they based their decisions on was coming from comments the players that did buy expac were making when they started playing it)

Astralporing.1957:

Most likely, because everyone that was interested in it has bought it already, and there’s not enough new players to make a visible impact on sales.

I see this a lot as an argument but I don’t get it. Why was Guild Wars 2: Heroic Edition selling at Q4 2014 (before the announcement of Heart of Thorns in January) so well, for a game that was already old by mmorpg standards AND it was during a period of a terrible content drought (last content update was in August 2014)

Why was the Heroic Edition of GW2 outselling Heart of Thorns so long after the release of the game?

To offer some actual data :
Guild Wars 2 gem cards are ranked #3071 on Amazon
In late 2014 (September) it was ranked around #3,465

Heart of Thorns is ranked #4415 on Amazon
Guild Wars 2 Heroic Edition was ranked #1,697 in late 2014 (pre Heart of Thorns announcement)

You can see the vast difference right there. I know it’s only Amazon rankings, they change a lot, new games are added, older games are removed and so on, and it’s only one retailer. However it’s more than clear that the Heroic Edition was doing FAR better than the gem cards, while in the current situation Heart of Thorns is doing much worse than the gem cards. And also, the ranking of gem cards can be called stable, while the box sales are terrible.

So shouldn’t the argument of “everyone who wanted to buy Heart of Thorns, already did” be applied to the Heroic Edition as well? Why was the Heroic Edition still selling 2+ years after release, and Heart of Thorns is struggling less than 2 years after release?

Because the core game was much cheaper. Cheaper often sells better.

Vayne.8563:

Because the core game was much cheaper. Cheaper often sells better.

There was no sale during the majority of the time period I compared with. In fact the Heroic Edition was at 39$ at the time, while Heart of Thorns now is at 33$ (at least on Amazon), so core game being cheaper isn’t a factor.

Any other ideas?

Most of the advertising I saw around GW was: Fun, adventure & journey.
With HoT it changed to: Challenging, raids and E-sport. All of that is available (often) for free, in a better form, in other games.

A mistake judging what a large part of the existing playerbase actually wanted/expected didn’t help either.

scrumsome.7198:

Most of the advertising I saw around GW was: Fun, adventure & journey.
With HoT it changed to: Challenging, raids and E-sport. All of that is available (often) for free, in a better form, in other games.

A mistake judging what a large part of the existing playerbase actually wanted/expected didn’t help either.

I second this. Guild Wars 2 wasn’t a very challenging game to begin with. It was beginner friendly, it was casual, fun, it was a game where you could really “do whatever you wanted” without feeling left out. Now we have metagame, raids and so on. Sure you can go exploring with any build, but you won’t be able to do raids with it. HoT just doesn’t offer enough of that content aimed at “casual” players to justify the price. So these players didn’t buy it.

I myself haven’t bought it for exactly that reason. Knowing that I will only get to enjoy a small fraction of what the expansion has, I am not ready to pay that much money. But I am still waiting for a sale and I am considering buying it eventually.

maddoctor.2738:

Heart of Thorns is ranked #4415 on Amazon
Guild Wars 2 Heroic Edition was ranked #1,697 in late 2014 (pre Heart of Thorns announcement)

Are you sure you weren’t looking at late 2015? I found camelcamelcamel.com and keepa.com as free ranking sites, which only go back so far, but the rankings in 2014 were fluctuating between 6000 and 30000. It spikes down to 1000-3000 in April 2015, which was back during the sales and when people thought the core game was going to be required to play HoT.

Iridium.6385:

scrumsome.7198:

Most of the advertising I saw around GW was: Fun, adventure & journey.
With HoT it changed to: Challenging, raids and E-sport. All of that is available (often) for free, in a better form, in other games.

A mistake judging what a large part of the existing playerbase actually wanted/expected didn’t help either.

I second this. Guild Wars 2 wasn’t a very challenging game to begin with. It was beginner friendly, it was casual, fun, it was a game where you could really “do whatever you wanted” without feeling left out. Now we have metagame, raids and so on. Sure you can go exploring with any build, but you won’t be able to do raids with it. HoT just doesn’t offer enough of that content aimed at “casual” players to justify the price. So these players didn’t buy it.

I myself haven’t bought it for exactly that reason. Knowing that I will only get to enjoy a small fraction of what the expansion has, I am not ready to pay that much money. But I am still waiting for a sale and I am considering buying it eventually.

casual players can play 100% of the content excluding perhaps raids which represents a tiny proportion of the game (i do think Anet should create a agony style system for raids so all can enjoy it personally)

example vanilla orr was just as difficult to roam as current HOT zones.

vesica tempestas.1563:

casual players can play 100% of the content excluding perhaps raids which represents a tiny proportion of the game (i do think Anet should create a agony style system for raids so all can enjoy it personally)

Doesn’t matter. It’s the image that’s important for new players, because they have nothing else to base their purchase decision on.
And the image of the game did change.

vesica tempestas.1563:

example vanilla orr was just as difficult to roam as current HOT zones.

And then it got changed because players didn’t like it that way.

maddoctor.2738:

Astralporing.1957:

Most likely, because everyone that was interested in it has bought it already, and there’s not enough new players to make a visible impact on sales.

I see this a lot as an argument but I don’t get it. Why was Guild Wars 2: Heroic Edition selling at Q4 2014 (before the announcement of Heart of Thorns in January) so well, for a game that was already old by mmorpg standards AND it was during a period of a terrible content drought (last content update was in August 2014)

Why was the Heroic Edition of GW2 outselling Heart of Thorns so long after the release of the game?

It’s aimed at different gaming population?
Also, remember, that there’s the f2p version. People that liked the core approach, but didn’t like what the expac did to the game can just stay f2p now.

Astralporing.1957:

vesica tempestas.1563:

casual players can play 100% of the content excluding perhaps raids which represents a tiny proportion of the game (i do think Anet should create a agony style system for raids so all can enjoy it personally)

Doesn’t matter. It’s the image that’s important for new players, because they have nothing else to base their purchase decision on.
And the image of the game did change.

what image? outside of complain threads in this forum GW2 is regarded as casual friendly.

vesica tempestas.1563:

casual players can play 100% of the content excluding perhaps raids which represents a tiny proportion of the game

This statement is just you preaching to the choir. I CAN crawl to Paris on all four – That doesn’t mean I would wan’t to.
Being able to play HoT does not solve the problem that I find the content tedious, annoying and grindy as kitten.

Post HoT I’ve not recommended GW2 to any friends/family members. Before HoT I had no problem recommending GW2. I guess word of mouth from the players who stopped playing may contribute to HoT being hard to sell.

it wasnt supposed to persuade you to play the game, i was simply stating that the game is casual friendly. You dislike HOT for reason X, no-one is going to change that. Im sure you would expect your friends to make judgement’s based on their own tastes, i,.e some people like GW2 some don’t – not everthing has to be complained to death about.

Astralporing.1957:

Also, remember, that there’s the f2p version. People that liked the core approach, but didn’t like what the expac did to the game can just stay f2p now.

Funny that you mention the f2p version, f2p players cannot try HoT to know if they will like it or not and don’t forget the majority of GW2 players aren’t educated enough in gaming matters, they don’t read forums or websites. See, to even try the game before f2p was here, they had to pay, which meant higher revenue. Even if some players disliked the game and stopped playing after a while, Anet got their box sale money (which is what happened with the millions of the release sales for example). Now that players can try it without paying anything, revenue is dropping. I’m not convinced that’s because of anything they expansion did, but more about the core game.

The average age of a gamer is over 30 so they are perfectly capable of reading/watching you tube/critical thinking etc. most can take responsibility for their own tastes and actions and will buy a game because they have worked out whether they will enjoy it or not.

maddoctor.2738:

Now that players can try it without paying anything, revenue is dropping.

Sales aren’t the only thing that suddenly dropped after the launch of HoT. The number of people posting on the forums is down 50%, which had been fairly stable at around 20k since the end of 2013. 1Q2017 is currently down 18% compared to 4Q2016.

Healix.5819:

maddoctor.2738:

Now that players can try it without paying anything, revenue is dropping.

Sales aren’t the only thing that suddenly dropped after the launch of HoT. The number of people posting on the forums is down 50%, which had been fairly stable at around 20k since the end of 2013. 1Q2017 is currently down 18% compared to 4Q2016.

Free to play people can’t post on the forums and I’m sure there are a bunch of them. All games suffer natural attrition. Some of those are replaced by new players. But in this case, a lot of the replacement players can’t post here.

Reddit would probably be a better way to check, since free to play players can post on reddit.

vesica tempestas.1563:

The average age of a gamer is over 30 so they are perfectly capable of reading/watching you tube/critical thinking etc. most can take responsibility for their own tastes and actions and will buy a game because they have worked out whether they will enjoy it or not.

That’s not how reality works. In reality people tend to impulse buy particularly when it comes to (relatively) cheap entertainment things like videogames.

This is why companies like EA dump tens of millions of dollars into developing CGI trailers and fancy graphics engines, because they have proven that hype sells better than features.

Healix.5819:

maddoctor.2738:

Now that players can try it without paying anything, revenue is dropping.

Sales aren’t the only thing that suddenly dropped after the launch of HoT. The number of people posting on the forums is down 50%, which had been fairly stable at around 20k since the end of 2013. 1Q2017 is currently down 18% compared to 4Q2016.

Isn’t normal for number of posters to decrease if the sales decrease? From personal experience I know a LOT of regular posters in previous years that stopped posting, posters who’ve been active on loads of threads that lost interest, and since we got low sales they aren’t being replenished by new people. As Vayne said attrition is normal, so the lower amount of people posting can also be a result of the lack of sales. Plus a lot of the new people joining cannot post on forums.

Vayne.8563:

Free to play people can’t post on the forums and I’m sure there are a bunch of them.

You just gave me an interesting idea.

I made a reddit thread for free2play players:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/635bnz/free2play_players_why_havent_you_bought_hot_yet/

But to return to the topic, this is about players who already bought the original game and haven’t converted to the expansion yet.

vesica tempestas.1563:

it wasnt supposed to persuade you to play the game, i was simply stating that the game is casual friendly. You dislike HOT for reason X, no-one is going to change that. Im sure you would expect your friends to make judgement’s based on their own tastes, i,.e some people like GW2 some don’t – not everthing has to be complained to death about.

I think we have a different understanding of casual friendly. Grinding goes against my understanding of casual. Maybe not against yours though.

And please, who is complaining? Anet needs to make money. I can’t speak for everyone in this thread, but I think many people here enjoy Guild Wars 2. I want the game to be improved, I want the game to sell. These 2 things are connected, you can’t have one without the other. If we see that Heart of Thorns isn’t selling very well, we want to know why. Perhaps then Anet will know what needs to get fixed.

I shouldn’t* have bought HoT. The game, right down to the trailer, is like a B movie to the big-budget blockbuster of WoW. It can’t even claim to be an indie. Also, I don’t much care for the jungle theme. I wanted more castles and queens, this is a fantasy game.

There wasn’t supposed to be an expansion. Thanks to the playerbase for asking for one.

Iridium.6385:

scrumsome.7198:

Most of the advertising I saw around GW was: Fun, adventure & journey.
With HoT it changed to: Challenging, raids and E-sport. All of that is available (often) for free, in a better form, in other games.

A mistake judging what a large part of the existing playerbase actually wanted/expected didn’t help either.

I second this. Guild Wars 2 wasn’t a very challenging game to begin with. It was beginner friendly, it was casual, fun, it was a game where you could really “do whatever you wanted” without feeling left out. Now we have metagame, raids and so on. Sure you can go exploring with any build, but you won’t be able to do raids with it. HoT just doesn’t offer enough of that content aimed at “casual” players to justify the price. So these players didn’t buy it.

I myself haven’t bought it for exactly that reason. Knowing that I will only get to enjoy a small fraction of what the expansion has, I am not ready to pay that much money. But I am still waiting for a sale and I am considering buying it eventually.

This

I haven’t logged in since shortly after HoT released. The only reason I’m here now, is that I saw something in passing (not even sure where) about Super Adventure Box being open… never got to see that back when I was playing, but every one sure talked about it… so here I am. It’s interesting… but also seems to require a party to play the content, and I’m a solo casual player, so… meh

The other factor… and it truly was a major factor in my decision to not buy HoT, and to stop playing GW2 altogether… I’m not just posting this to make the fanboys froth at the mouth, I’m merely answering the question: it was pretty clear to me, with the way Anet handled pretty much everything about releasing HoT, that all they cared about was getting my money.

The way they discounted the core game and encouraged people to buy it, right before HoT came out… and then.. oh, right… well, you didn’t actually need to, because it’s included in the price of HoT. Oh well… thanks for the extra cash though.

Oh, you have been a long time player, and used up all your character slots? well, we’re not including a new character slot with HoT, even though we added a new class… and even though pretty much every other MMO known to man who has released an expansion with a new class has done so.. we don’t really care. You want a new slot? Give us another $10 on top of the already overpriced HoT.

And there were other examples… but honestly, it’s been two years ago now? I stopped caring and moved on.

Feel free to flame anything I wrote, but I’m not coming back to read it, so…

ShadowKatt.6804:

It’s interesting… but also seems to require a party to play the content, and I’m a solo casual player, so… meh

SAB is really solo content the notice that it requires a group is false.

Thank you for the rest of your input, that’s why I started the thread to find out the reasons players didn’t buy HoT, not to debate those reasons.

maddoctor.2738:

ShadowKatt.6804:

It’s interesting… but also seems to require a party to play the content, and I’m a solo casual player, so… meh

SAB is really solo content the notice that it requires a group is false.

Thank you for the rest of your input, that’s why I started the thread to find out the reasons players didn’t buy HoT, not to debate those reasons.

What new info have you found out so far that hasn’t been discussed?

What are your suggestions to get more players to buy hot as a result of this info gathering?

I think even though I’ve bought HoT, the post-xpac launch has definitely made me more wary of buying the second expansion regardless.

I hope Anet don’t screw it up again.

maddoctor.2738:

Fiddlestyx.9714:

This game isn’t worth spending money on anymore.

I’m curious, is that because what you read Heart of Thorns contain, you tried the beta and didn’t like it, or how the game developed even long before the expansion?
In other words, do you find the game not worth spending money on because of the expansion or it was already like this before it?

So, I found this thread again and thought I would answer this.
I will start with the fact that I used to play WoW so I was looking forward to GW2. I started GW2 at launch.

The main reason I have not and will not buy HoT is because of the way the game has gone/is going.

1: Anet originally set out to make an extraordinary MMO unlike any other, but has since gone in a different direction. I feel like with the Manifesto, they promised a lot and delivered little.
2: Stagnant content. I really don’t think this needs to be explained. Look at dungeons and world events, once you’ve done them there is no reason to do them again (unless you play Fashion Wars). Anet had an answer for stagnant content, dynamic events, it didn’t work.
3: I recently made a pvp character, because I thought maybe I was just bored with pve. WvW seems dead, also it’s still the same it was years ago. Eotm, hop in the train and run around mindlessly. Yeah, that’s fun. As far as structured pvp, it’s not for me and from what I hear is ruined anyways.
4: Raids. I would never be able to do a raid because I play my way. I have 6 fully geared lvl 80s, but none of them have meta builds and never will. I have no doubt that if I tried a raid, I would be kicked out. I have no desire to play the min/max game (I know GW2 players hate that word, but let’s call it what it is). I was at one time a top rated raider on WoW and came to GW2 to get away from that. Yay, meta builds.
5: DPS meters, here we go. Anet originally said no to them, now we have them. How long will it be before Anet caves again and we get an inspect panel so that players can kitten at me for not playing their way?
6: Problems. There are a lot of problems with this game that Anet needs to address. I am only going to focus on one because it shows how Anet deals with problems. Underwater combat. This was something that was new and exciting, unfortunately players didn’t like the way it works. It needs to be reworked, because it is a great idea. Anet’s answer, let’s just abandon it. Get used to this answer, you will be hearing it more.
7: Forced content. I’m not going into detail about this, because I already heard all the lame excuses about how nothing is forced. I will say this, if you look at SAB there is a normal mode achievement that requires you to do tribulation mode. How does that make sense. You force me to play a mode I don’t want to play in order to get an achievement for a mode that I do play.
8: The community. It didn’t used to be like this.

This is not a complete list, just some of the most important reasons I don’t have HoT.

Ultimately, I see this game going the same way WoW did and that’s unfortunate. I don’t play WoW anymore because it isn’t worth spending money on, neither is GW2.

Edit: Also, from what I have seen HoT in not an expansion, it seems more like DLC. I might be wrong though.

@ fiddlestyx Honestly, as a strong supporter of the game who plays casually, I have to agree with those points and the specific examples you gave. GW2 can be better about all of those things.