Guild Wars 2

My bf is out of town and cannot unlock the Dragon’s Reach Part 1, can he do that later?…considering how Part 2 is in 2 days…. (i suppose for gems?)

Apparently he can pay to do so. First game I’m aware of that makes you pay them money if you take time away from the otherwise free game play. Seems more likely to drive players from the game than provide any meaningful revenue, but they must think most people still playing are just the kind of cool-aid drinking people who will pay for “free” content they missed.

Yes he can get it later.

If you log in and click the green star pop-up on just one character at any point in the 2 weeks it’s available you get it for free, forever, on all your characters (including ones you create in future).

If you miss it then you can pay 200 gems to unlock it. After that it works the same way, it’s available to all your characters forever.

If you already have the episode unlocked, you can replay the episode with your bf even if he doesn’t have it unlocked. He just won’t get any rewards or achievements without spending 200 gems to unlock it.

Fiontar.4695:

Apparently he can pay to do so. First game I’m aware of that makes you pay them money if you take time away from the otherwise free game play. Seems more likely to drive players from the game than provide any meaningful revenue, but they must think most people still playing are just the kind of cool-aid drinking people who will pay for “free” content they missed.

It’s content that’s designed to play at release.

It’s free content.

Most games with a similar model either let you play the base game for free and pay for the content expansions no matter what. DCUO, LOTRO, and pretty much every single “free with premium content avaliable” MMO do the exact same thing, only they don’t ever give you the ability to get it for free, ever, or play it without buying it by joining a party with someone.

Also, the only part of the content behind the unlock wall is instances, compared to similar games where literally all of the conent from the release is included in the ‘pay us or don’t play it’ model.

It’s not about “drinking the kool-aid” It’s about the fact that pushing content every 2 weeks and giving it away as a free update costs money, and expecting everyone to want to purchase the same microtransactions to pay for that can’t pay the bills as well as asking people the consider microtransactions for the stuff they enjoy.

Some people would never buy minis or skins, but they’d buy story content they missed, or vice versa, and asking them to farm some gold or fork over $2.50USD if they really want the rewards from content they missed when it was free is pretty reasonable.

Do you complain that coffee isn’t free every day because one day a year a shop runs a free coffee promotion? No, you show up at the shop for the free coffee, or you pay for it if you really want it that badly when it isn’t free. This is substantially less costly and easier to get for free, and substantially more expensive to make.