Guild Wars 2

I’m glad I got enough people’s attention with my statement. The point isn’t that I can’t do it. I’m fine with the fact that I couldn’t play living story content I missed. I’m not fine with paying for it. That means that it’s not available to everyone who starts the game unless you pay extra for some of the content we all got for free. Also this is simply a symptom of a much larger issue within the game. Every two weeks I see the same handful of people on here trying so hard to justify this games increasingly poor decisions. Jumping all over anyone who disagrees. Of course those posts are never subject to removal either. Whatever you have to do to justify yourselves to keep playing this mockery of what it used to be. Your blind faith is no more good for this game than the people who hate everything and are never happy. It does nothing to improve the game. It does nothing to help it grow. All you’re doing is ensuring is the decline of what was a good game. The people who actually care about the game get angry, get passionate, and try to keep it from going down the humorously proverbial mystic toilet. So keep digging the hole for the devs to bury the game in.

ANet should charge for the content period — not just for players that missed it. There’s no business argument to charge only players that failed to log in.

So in short I feel that each episode should cost 200 gems. If you want it, you buy it.

This puts the revenue stream inline with content (and not cash shop junk). If an episode didn’t sell it was because the content was sub-par — which then encourages better content.

It would be the B2P model everyone signed up for at launch — not the F2P cash-shop model we have now.

by the way – i didnt read most of the 5 pages of comments so this may have already been answered/said

with the whole paying 200 gems for a story step you missed, what happens to those who buy guild wars 2 after we killed an elder dragon (eg mordremoth) i thought that the best model to follow would have been the elder dragon arcs as permanent arcs that are unlocked post- zhaitan firework show
because all this talk of elder dragons, someone buys guild wars 2 late, and they only kill one and have to pay loads just to fight something that is the whole point of the guild wars 2 story….

imagine it if it happened to you “we just killed zhaitan! which one next? mordremo-” “sorry bub you need to pay to fight him”
“but i’m the commander, surely i need to be fighti-”
“nope pay up”
“but i dont have any money”
“then you cant fight him”
“but it will kill us all!!…[/sigh] – right you can kill him without me then”
“wait… we need you to-”
“I DONT HAVE ANY MONEY”

Getefix.9150:

by the way – i didnt read most of the 5 pages of comments so this may have already been answered/said

with the whole paying 200 gems for a story step you missed, what happens to those who buy guild wars 2 after we killed an elder dragon (eg mordremoth) i thought that the best model to follow would have been the elder dragon arcs as permanent arcs that are unlocked post- zhaitan firework show
because all this talk of elder dragons, someone buys guild wars 2 late, and they only kill one and have to pay loads just to fight something that is the whole point of the guild wars 2 story….

imagine it if it happened to you “we just killed zhaitan! which one next? mordremo-” “sorry bub you need to pay to fight him”
“but i’m the commander, surely i need to be fighti-”
“nope pay up”
“but i dont have any money”
“then you cant fight him”
“but it will kill us all!!…[/sigh] – right you can kill him without me then”
“wait… we need you to-”
“I DONT HAVE ANY MONEY”

So, how come that is okay and works with other MMOs that goes the expansion route?

In Lord of the Rings Online for example you need to pay in order to do the Moria parts, the Rohan parts, the Mirkwood parts and in the future, the Gondor parts and Mordor parts.

I’m not a huge fan of the current 200 gems system. This shouldn’t affect me much (or at all) since I am usually online on a daily basis but I am someone that always sympathizes for new players and yet again, I feel for them about this. If a new player starts a year after the launch of the LS, they would need to spend about $60 for all of the content they missed should they want to replay the story. It’s not an insane amount, no, but it can add up for new players that are starting even later than that. GW1 expansions were about $30-40 on launch and only went down in price later. The expansions for GW1 also came out on a yearly basis roughly (which I assume the LS will essentially do as well). Sims expansions have been $20-30 with a new expansion coming in every 9 months or so. World of Warcraft’s expansions are $20 (for Pandaria) which come out… what… every 6-9 months as well? The average cost of a year’s worth of expansion in a game is around $30. In my honest opinion, I strongly feel like GW is taking a few steps backward having a cost on the missed content (or at least a cost this steep for long periods of absence). Cutting the cost in half would be a lot more reasonable. After the megaserver and its thousands of concerns spilling out from that huge disaster, I feel like GW would want to reel in its lost players. Have the S2 free of charge (perhaps S1 as well when they release it). This will get some players back and lead to happier customers which ultimately seem hard to come by these days.

Getefix.9150:

by the way – i didnt read most of the 5 pages of comments so this may have already been answered/said

with the whole paying 200 gems for a story step you missed, what happens to those who buy guild wars 2 after we killed an elder dragon (eg mordremoth) i thought that the best model to follow would have been the elder dragon arcs as permanent arcs that are unlocked post- zhaitan firework show
because all this talk of elder dragons, someone buys guild wars 2 late, and they only kill one and have to pay loads just to fight something that is the whole point of the guild wars 2 story….

imagine it if it happened to you “we just killed zhaitan! which one next? mordremo-” “sorry bub you need to pay to fight him”
“but i’m the commander, surely i need to be fighti-”
“nope pay up”
“but i dont have any money”
“then you cant fight him”
“but it will kill us all!!…[/sigh] – right you can kill him without me then”
“wait… we need you to-”
“I DONT HAVE ANY MONEY”

While that is a concern/possible immersion breaking experience this is still a step in the right direction. Because now players can go back and relive older content.

As lordkrall said, it’s no different than having to buy an expansion. And as others have pointed out at most it would be $65/year (presumably a good deal less because of repeated festivals, any breaks from a 2 week release date, or 1 “combined” story taking place over multiple releases if they were grouped). And people are already wondering if either individual stories will go on sale or if the whole season will sometime after it finishes. And remember the cost only applies to future players/current players that need to miss a story release.

On the “plus” side for a future player, assuming this model lasts for a couple of seasons, in the middle of season 5 a new player can decide if they want to fight Mord from season 2, or the dragon of season 3, or partake in Elona of season 4, or just buy the things they missed in season 5 and continue with Cantha.

And (if I understand this correctly) even if they don’t want to buy, those newer zones will be open to them along with any content in those zones. They just wouldn’t have access the season story and any rewards that come with it.

weskay.9217:

I’m not a huge fan of the current 200 gems system. This shouldn’t affect me much (or at all) since I am usually online on a daily basis but I am someone that always sympathizes for new players and yet again, I feel for them about this. If a new player starts a year after the launch of the LS, they would need to spend about $60 for all of the content they missed should they want to replay the story. It’s not an insane amount, no, but it can add up for new players that are starting even later than that. GW1 expansions were about $30-40 on launch and only went down in price later. The expansions for GW1 also came out on a yearly basis roughly (which I assume the LS will essentially do as well). Sims expansions have been $20-30 with a new expansion coming in every 9 months or so. World of Warcraft’s expansions are $20 (for Pandaria) which come out… what… every 6-9 months as well? The average cost of a year’s worth of expansion in a game is around $30. In my honest opinion, I strongly feel like GW is taking a few steps backward having a cost on the missed content (or at least a cost this steep for long periods of absence). Cutting the cost in half would be a lot more reasonable. After the megaserver and its thousands of concerns spilling out from that huge disaster, I feel like GW would want to reel in its lost players. Have the S2 free of charge (perhaps S1 as well when they release it). This will get some players back and lead to happier customers which ultimately seem hard to come by these days.

Why are you assuming that they won’t release the seasons as packs for a lower price?
It is very unlikely that they will just give the ability to buy every piece one by one without a package-price.

As for prices, the next WoW expansion (we can’t really count Pandaria, seeing as it has been out for quite sometime and thus have lower price than before/at release) currently costs €44,99 which would translate to about $61, rather than $20-30 as you claim.

lordkrall.7241:

Eirian Direstorm.9748:

From the notes:

“Characters under level 80 will be able to see the available episodes, but will not be able to play them until they reach level 80. Think of the Living World story as the constantly expanding continuation of your character’s storyline once they reach level 80.”

Do you mean that characters under level 80 can’t do any of LW season two?

Aye, seems like it.

Which is most likely a good thing, seeing as even with the scaling the things is either too hard for upscaled or too easy for natural level 80s.

LS is basically becoming the new end-game system for Guild Wars 2.

Yes, it looks that way and it’s a good thing I think, there were a lot of complaints that some of the story instances from LS1 (the ones back in Flame and Frost, for example) were too hard and I can see how they could be for up-levelled characters. Having them require you to be level 80 makes it very clear and unambiguous, it means this can be properly balanced and the challenging achievements they talk about can be properly tuned for level 80s.

I’m really looking forward to Season 2, the changes in the Story Journal seem to be just what I wanted.

weskay.9217:

If a new player starts a year after the launch of the LS, they would need to spend about $60 for all of the content they missed should they want to replay the story. It’s not an insane amount, no, but it can add up for new players that are starting even later than that. GW1 expansions were about $30-40 on launch and only went down in price later. The expansions for GW1 also came out on a yearly basis roughly (which I assume the LS will essentially do as well).

While that is true, I honestly don’t think it will be $60, or a season will last more than 1 year. Remember all the holiday festivals we have:

Dragon Bash
Halloween
Wintersday
Queen’s Pavilion/Gauntlet
Zepherite Scantum
SAB
Any more that I missed/later to be introduced

All of these will return at times and will last for at least 2 weeks (or maybe 4-6 as we’ve seen so far). So either that means we only have 7-9 months of content to pay for (if we missed it) or a season will be longer than 1 year. Though don’t get me wrong, $30-40 is more reasonable for an “expansion price”.

Cutting the cost in half would be a lot more reasonable. After the megaserver and its thousands of concerns spilling out from that huge disaster, I feel like GW would want to reel in its lost players. Have the S2 free of charge (perhaps S1 as well when they release it). This will get some players back and lead to happier customers which ultimately seem hard to come by these days.

The megaserver had problems? The only problems I’ve ever experienced was some lag from so many players on screen or having to wp again after entering a zone because they could be contested. Though I will agree, if they can fit S1 into this new system it should be free. (Or at the very least, if you had any achievements make those releases free, or maybe 800 gems at most for all of it)

This new way to make money is a shame!!
I never would pay this scam

Melwann.1587:

This new way to make money is a shame!!

You mean except the fact that they won’t really make much money on this from the majority of the active players?

They could of course have forced everyone to pay, but since they don’t I don’t really see the issue.

Honestly what did you guys really expect?

I am sorry to tell you, but the end of your free ride in the land of Tyria is finally here.

Zylonite.5913:

Honestly what did you guys really expect?

I am sorry to tell you, but the end of your free ride in the land of Tyria is finally here.

How so?

nexxe.7081:

Galen Grey.4709:

somsom.5201:

Sicarius.4639:

somsom.5201:

lordkrall.7241:

somsom.5201:

How does a new player get $60 worth of gold? That’s what I thought. Don’t be facetious.

Where do you even get the numbers from?

You are assuming that:
1: People would buy every single episode.
2: People would buy every single episode on their own.
3: ArenaNet won’t release a package at the end of a season at a reduced price.

The numbers are freely available(calculate them based upon S1 # of chapters and 200 gem cost per chapter).

If you’re a new player, then yes, you’re going to purchase the full season. The only people purchasing individual episodes will be people who missed a couple or people who want the reward from them. ANet will likely release a packaged season, but don’t expect it to be much cheaper(see: their “sales” on gem store items).

So as a new player you’ll have a full expansion pack you could buy just starting the game, or you could play the original game first and use the gold saved to get it free. Either way, there will be an entire season of content available to you at a price.

Also this content will likely be tailored to you or a small group experience. Who pays for that? Who pays for the devs that sit down and rescale all this content so it works for you? Paying for it is perfectly acceptable and cold hard cash is only one of 3 options here.

People that play actively don’t “pay” for it, so I don’t see what you’re getting at. The only people losing here are new players and people who don’t log in every 2 weeks.

shrug

What are they loosing exactly? as is right now they’d simply loose the chance of experiancing the content and there would be nothing they can do about it.

With this they have an option to buy it at least.

They’re not really loosing, they’re actually gaining an option to do something about it!

I hate to correct people’s spelling, but you’ve spelled “losing” wrong multiple times. It’s bothersome. lol.

hehe thats fine I dont mind. Thanks

Blaeys.3102:

Zylonite.5913:

Honestly what did you guys really expect?

I am sorry to tell you, but the end of your free ride in the land of Tyria is finally here.

How so?

You could argue that paying for expired content is a baby-step towards paying for all new content. I think it’s a logical conclusion and I would actually welcome it.

This game needs content driven revenue, not cosmetic/consumable driven revenue (i.e. game content over cash-shop cosmetic fluff). That directs the developer’s back towards the crux of the game.

Devata.6589:

Moss.5371:

I agree with OP here. With all the “you can take a break we’ll be here” and Living Story being sold as “free updates”, having to pay if you missed a chapter seems a bit shady to me.

I mean, one of the points of this feature, besides replyability, seems to be not punishing returning player for missing the “free content updates”, so why punish them anyway?

They likely do it mainly to prevent people from leaving. Then can say people can leave but they don’t want people to leave. So this way they try to keep people logging in. Meanwhile they also seem to use it to try and earn some extra money.

So that makes sense and I am not against it. The problem just is that asking 200 gems per episode is likely going to have a negative effect (like I explained before). I stay with the idea that if they would simply ask 200 gems to unlock all previous episodes and x upcoming (not having to log it then to unlock them) they would have the same positive effect’s likely even sell more and would not have the negatives. And I am really not saying they because I am afraid I would have to pay to much. I log in once every two weeks anyway.

I really say this because I think doing it that way is much better for the game then selling it per episode.

You know the problem I see with your idea is if they’d go for it, it would most certainly not work the way you’re imagining. If they decided 1 episode is worth 200 gems and they give you a bundle of 5 episodes they’re not going to charge you 200 for it they’re going to charge you 1000 or maybe 800 if you’re lucky. The problem there is it doent work for people who are just missing 1 or 2 episodes.

Worst yet is you’re pushing for the idea of pre-purchase and if they went with that they’d probably end up doing the same thing every other MMO that sells content as part of the micro-transaction model do. IE forget about all of this and pay X amount (where X ranges between $10 to $60 depending on the game and the amount of content involved) to get access to that content and you dont get any of it free.

Your idea is noble I Get that have people still pay but in addition to the content you also get the piece of mind you’re also getting the next few issues for sure regardless if you’re busy or not. The problem with it is it doesnt balance player convenience with business needs. In most markets a bundle costs less then having to buy every single item individually but I’ve never seen a bundle sold for the same price of a single item.

I am OK with this; they’re offering a service they weren’t offering before. Instead of missing out entirely, forever, you can play an episode you missed for the price of around a couple of those lousy BL chest keys.
It also helps me in an additional way; if I’m too busy to play much for a couple weeks, I can just log in once (which takes maybe 5 minutes to update, which I can do while eating breakfast or something) and “lock in” that chapter for free. I can’t really complain about this.

I don’t have an issue paying for content (if the content is good). What is out of wack is the business reasoning behind it. Either the content is free or it is not free. Instead we have a weird scenario where it’s free only if you show up when they release it.

There is little justification why showing up 2 weeks late would incur some type of non-recoverable expense on ANet’s side that would require revenue.

That being said, I believe it’s a baby-step towards the future utopia of paying for all content.

I’m not sure what the problem is with people that have one.

How it is currently:
If you show up during the two weeks, you can play it. If you don’t show up during the two weeks, you will never see the content again and will never get to experience it. There is nothing you can do.

What it is going to:
If you show up during the two weeks, you can play it. If you don’t show up during the two weeks, you can still play it by choosing whether not to spend 200 gems. Now you have the option of doing something. (And keep in mind gems can be bought with in game gold and you never have to pay a dime of real life money.)

Someone explain to me the problem?

lordkrall.7241:

Why are you assuming that they won’t release the seasons as packs for a lower price?
It is very unlikely that they will just give the ability to buy every piece one by one without a package-price.

As for prices, the next WoW expansion (we can’t really count Pandaria, seeing as it has been out for quite sometime and thus have lower price than before/at release) currently costs €44,99 which would translate to about $61, rather than $20-30 as you claim.

I did not assume they would not release it as a whole package. I’m not going on assumptions though. We can assume things and sing Kumbaya all day if we wanted. I’m basing this on what the post gives us.

Also, Euro prices seem to always be scaled up due to the different currency (I’ve lived in both North America and in Europe). An expansion for WoW has never been $61.00 US. $40.00 at most before certain taxes depending on the state or province. Regardless, WoW’s expansions have dropped significantly within a few months of its release.

Anyways, although 200 gems isn’t all that much, it’ll add up quickly for new players. I’d recommend setting the price at 100 or so gems to reflect the average price of other games’ expansions a little better.

Stark.1350:

I’m not sure what the problem is with people that have one.

How it is currently:
If you show up during the two weeks, you can play it. If you don’t show up during the two weeks, you will never see the content again and will never get to experience it. There is nothing you can do.

What it is going to:
If you show up during the two weeks, you can play it. If you don’t show up during the two weeks, you can still play it by choosing whether not to spend 200 gems. Now you have the option of doing something. (And keep in mind gems can be bought with in game gold and you never have to pay a dime of real life money.)

Someone explain to me the problem?

The problem is that juno is obsessed about making all the content paid.

I can’t figure why.

Galen Grey.4709:

Devata.6589:

Moss.5371:

I agree with OP here. With all the “you can take a break we’ll be here” and Living Story being sold as “free updates”, having to pay if you missed a chapter seems a bit shady to me.

I mean, one of the points of this feature, besides replyability, seems to be not punishing returning player for missing the “free content updates”, so why punish them anyway?

They likely do it mainly to prevent people from leaving. Then can say people can leave but they don’t want people to leave. So this way they try to keep people logging in. Meanwhile they also seem to use it to try and earn some extra money.

So that makes sense and I am not against it. The problem just is that asking 200 gems per episode is likely going to have a negative effect (like I explained before). I stay with the idea that if they would simply ask 200 gems to unlock all previous episodes and x upcoming (not having to log it then to unlock them) they would have the same positive effect’s likely even sell more and would not have the negatives. And I am really not saying they because I am afraid I would have to pay to much. I log in once every two weeks anyway.

I really say this because I think doing it that way is much better for the game then selling it per episode.

You know the problem I see with your idea is if they’d go for it, it would most certainly not work the way you’re imagining. If they decided 1 episode is worth 200 gems and they give you a bundle of 5 episodes they’re not going to charge you 200 for it they’re going to charge you 1000 or maybe 800 if you’re lucky. The problem there is it doent work for people who are just missing 1 or 2 episodes.

Worst yet is you’re pushing for the idea of pre-purchase and if they went with that they’d probably end up doing the same thing every other MMO that sells content as part of the micro-transaction model do. IE forget about all of this and pay X amount (where X ranges between $10 to $60 depending on the game and the amount of content involved) to get access to that content and you dont get any of it free.

Your idea is noble I Get that have people still pay but in addition to the content you also get the piece of mind you’re also getting the next few issues for sure regardless if you’re busy or not. The problem with it is it doesnt balance player convenience with business needs. In most markets a bundle costs less then having to buy every single item individually but I’ve never seen a bundle sold for the same price of a single item.

I think you did not completely got what I was saying or what my point was.
My first comment here explains it better: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Paying-for-past-content/page/3#post4094962 but I will try to explain it again.

I do think they want to use the episodes to earn some money however I do think the biggest reason for them to ask gems for missed episodes is not to earn money on it but to keep people logging in.. They log in to prevent having to pay for a missed episode.

You basically say “one episode has the value of 200 gems” but forget about that for a moment. You can get them for free so you could also say they have a value of 0 gems (yes it cost money to develop, but they try to earn that in other ways else they would charge everybody 200 gems for every episode).

So with those things in mind (it’s mainly to keep people logging in) I say they should not ask money for 1 episode.. There is no option to unlock 1 specific episode. The only option there is, is to unlock all previous episodes and that cost you 200 gems.
Purely to prevent people waiting to do that because they might not be on-line 3 weeks from now you also say.. When you unlock all previous episodes you also don’t have to worry about logging in the next +-5 episodes. Likely they will log in and play (else your not going to unlock the episodes) but you just prevent that they wait (with playing your game).

Now you don’t have a big-pay-wall for returning players. A pay-wall that is likely not going to give you an expansion as most of that content will be available anyway (some people are comparing it with an expansion and sure there are some comparison but I don’t think one season can be seen as 1 expansion). You will also not stimulate people waiting with unlock the episodes but you do keep it so that people will log in regular to prevent having to buy them. And would people have stopped logging in anyway it’s only 200 gems to be back at the same level with the rest, not 800 because you did not log in the 4 months.

Let me also be clear that I am not negative about this change.. while having some reservations (like being afraid it might become to much like the PS) but we will see that in game. This seems to be a huge improvement I just think they should do the ‘pay to unlock’ a little bid different for best result.

Moss.5371:

I agree with OP here. With all the “you can take a break we’ll be here” and Living Story being sold as “free updates”, having to pay if you missed a chapter seems a bit shady to me.

I mean, one of the points of this feature, besides replyability, seems to be not punishing returning player for missing the “free content updates”, so why punish them anyway?

sablephoenix.1593:

{cut to simplify}

Charging after the fact for anyone who was unwilling or, worse, unable to be there (if someone gets hit with Hurricane Sandy I doubt they’ll be playing GW2 for some time) when the content was new feels, frankly, extortionist.

I’ll ask it a different way.
How is it not ok to give people the option to acquire stories they missed, even if for a fee, and yet it is ok to tell them they are out of luck and can’t get it at all, as it has been?

rincewind.9528:

Stark.1350:

I’m not sure what the problem is with people that have one.

How it is currently:
If you show up during the two weeks, you can play it. If you don’t show up during the two weeks, you will never see the content again and will never get to experience it. There is nothing you can do.

What it is going to:
If you show up during the two weeks, you can play it. If you don’t show up during the two weeks, you can still play it by choosing whether not to spend 200 gems. Now you have the option of doing something. (And keep in mind gems can be bought with in game gold and you never have to pay a dime of real life money.)

Someone explain to me the problem?

The problem is that juno is obsessed about making all the content paid.

I can’t figure why.

lol, because I’m secretly plying for an expansion pack. Charging for content is the first step on that road.

Once ANet charges for content then they have to deliver something worthy of buying it in the first place. I think many players would agree that little in LS Season 1 was worthy of purchase.

So in a round about way, I’m lobbying to make the game better by channeling revenue towards content instead of cosmetic fluff.

Anyway, that is my motivation — pure and simple.

juno.1840:

lol, because I’m secretly plying for an expansion pack. Charging for content is the first step on that road.

Once ANet charges for content then they have to deliver something worthy of buying it in the first place. I think many players would agree that little in LS Season 1 was worthy of purchase.

So in a round about way, I’m lobbying to make the game better by channeling revenue towards content instead of cosmetic fluff.

Anyway, that is my motivation — pure and simple.

To be fair it is not uncommon for companies to released paid expansions that still sucks.

LordEnki.9283:

I’m glad I got enough people’s attention with my statement. The point isn’t that I can’t do it. I’m fine with the fact that I couldn’t play living story content I missed. I’m not fine with paying for it. That means that it’s not available to everyone who starts the game unless you pay extra for some of the content we all got for free. Also this is simply a symptom of a much larger issue within the game. Every two weeks I see the same handful of people on here trying so hard to justify this games increasingly poor decisions. Jumping all over anyone who disagrees. Of course those posts are never subject to removal either. Whatever you have to do to justify yourselves to keep playing this mockery of what it used to be. Your blind faith is no more good for this game than the people who hate everything and are never happy. It does nothing to improve the game. It does nothing to help it grow. All you’re doing is ensuring is the decline of what was a good game. The people who actually care about the game get angry, get passionate, and try to keep it from going down the humorously proverbial mystic toilet. So keep digging the hole for the devs to bury the game in.

There are 2 sides to every coin.

You see this as unfair, a money grab, a way for the game to dig a hole to bury itself in and understandbly you voice your disagreement and your unhappiness. Like wise some people see this as a great compromise.

Thing is any game is also a business and like all businesses it was created to make money. Now I dont want to belittle the effort that went into the game. Obviously no game is just exclusively about the money. Most of them are also about the art and the pride one gets from creating something special. But still at the end of the day it also has to be about the money.

From a player’s point of view this is obviously not perfect. All of us including those who are defending this would rather get it all for free. I mean who enjoys paying if it can be avoided right? But we also understand this is a business that will get closed down quickly by ncsoft if it doesnt generate a good return for the money invested in it! (dont forget ncsoft have been financing the game for 5 years without any income for that investment until the point the game released). Anyhow, why do we defend this? We understand it has to be a compromise. They want to make money, we want stuff for free. If their choice is fair we’re for it, if its not we will not support it. its as easy as that!

So the question is, what they did was it fair?
One way to find out and that is to weigh what they could have done to get more money out of this vs what they could have done to make it better for us the players.

So what could they have done to get more money out of this?

- Well they could have done what most other MMOs do out there and that is charge for the whole thing if you want access to it.

- They could have made it so you play it free when its on and then regardless if you play it or not you have to buy it if you want to replay it again in the future.

- They could have made it so in order to unlock an episode for free it didnt just take 30 seconds to log in but you had to finish all the achievements for example thus making sure a smaller number of players got it for free.

On the other hand what could have they done to make it better

- only one thing I could think about which is each episodes unlocks for free.

so is there a good balance between the business need to make money and what they players want? I think so, if anything seems its a bit unbalanced towards player needs then business needs really.

Like others have pointed out the norm is to charge for the whole thing beforehand, irrespective if you log on during the time its running or not. If they did that, they wouldnt have done something greedy that no one else would think of, they’d have simply done what everyone else does. Yet they chose something thats much fairer to the players.

Could it be better… sure, is if fair? for me undoubtly!

lordkrall.7241:

juno.1840:

lol, because I’m secretly plying for an expansion pack. Charging for content is the first step on that road.

Once ANet charges for content then they have to deliver something worthy of buying it in the first place. I think many players would agree that little in LS Season 1 was worthy of purchase.

So in a round about way, I’m lobbying to make the game better by channeling revenue towards content instead of cosmetic fluff.

Anyway, that is my motivation — pure and simple.

To be fair it is not uncommon for companies to released paid expansions that still sucks.

As you know, quality good expansions on a yearly base and then getting rid of the cash-shop putting all that stuff in the game is the best option imho. However the episodes are likely not comparable to an expansion so we are really discussing a completely different subject here.

Getefix.9150:

by the way – i didnt read most of the 5 pages of comments so this may have already been answered/said

with the whole paying 200 gems for a story step you missed, what happens to those who buy guild wars 2 after we killed an elder dragon (eg mordremoth) i thought that the best model to follow would have been the elder dragon arcs as permanent arcs that are unlocked post- zhaitan firework show
because all this talk of elder dragons, someone buys guild wars 2 late, and they only kill one and have to pay loads just to fight something that is the whole point of the guild wars 2 story….

imagine it if it happened to you “we just killed zhaitan! which one next? mordremo-” “sorry bub you need to pay to fight him”
“but i’m the commander, surely i need to be fighti-”
“nope pay up”
“but i dont have any money”
“then you cant fight him”
“but it will kill us all!!…[/sigh] – right you can kill him without me then”
“wait… we need you to-”
“I DONT HAVE ANY MONEY”

Actually it would fit the Gw2 model perfectly. In Gw2 starting the with the living story there is an actual passage of time. Someone buying the game today for example will find a broken down LA. You join the advanture at the point in time you join in the game. If you buy the game right after will defeat mordremoth (provided we actually defeat him, who knows!) then you’re a warrior who joined in the world affairs at the point in time after mordremoth got defeated. Its as simple as that.

Think of it in real life terms, where we also have passage of time. A soldier that joins the army today doesnt get to relive WW1 and WW2 (lucky for them) yet they still happened in the history of the world.

juno.1840:

I don’t have an issue paying for content (if the content is good). What is out of wack is the business reasoning behind it. Either the content is free or it is not free. Instead we have a weird scenario where it’s free only if you show up when they release it.

There is little justification why showing up 2 weeks late would incur some type of non-recoverable expense on ANet’s side that would require revenue.

That being said, I believe it’s a baby-step towards the future utopia of paying for all content.

My theory of why they chose this is because it incentiveses players to take part in the living story while its running. Most of the LS events we had in S1 required a good number of players to give them their sense of grandeur. For some it was also a requirement for the actual event to work. I mean could you imagine handing a clockwork invasion with 10 people?

Then you have player retention. With this system you ensure players keep playing and are less likely to migrate to another game. If they didnt have to log in order to get to unlock a new episode they’re more likely to go check out this new MMO here and that new MMO there and well you risk loosing that player for a while while they get their fix of the new game. And while it may sound a bit evil to this I am sure releasing content every 2 weeks is pretty stressful and one of the reason why they do this is i would imagine highly likely to keep players engaged in their own game to maximize retention. Now players made it obvious they wanted to replay old content and this was just a way how to retain the advantage their 2 week release schedule gives them while also giving players what they want. It looks weird but its a good compromise imho.

Again, I am not psychic so I am not saying this is why they did it, only the reasons I can think of why they might have done it.

Devata.6589:

I do think they want to use the episodes to earn some money however I do think the biggest reason for them to ask gems for missed episodes is not to earn money on it but to keep people logging in.. They log in to prevent having to pay for a missed episode.

You basically say “one episode has the value of 200 gems” but forget about that for a moment. You can get them for free so you could also say they have a value of 0 gems (yes it cost money to develop, but they try to earn that in other ways else they would charge everybody 200 gems for every episode).

So with those things in mind (it’s mainly to keep people logging in) I say they should not ask money for 1 episode.. There is no option to unlock 1 specific episode. The only option there is, is to unlock all previous episodes and that cost you 200 gems.
Purely to prevent people waiting to do that because they might not be on-line 3 weeks from now you also say.. When you unlock all previous episodes you also don’t have to worry about logging in the next +-5 episodes. Likely they will log in and play (else your not going to unlock the episodes) but you just prevent that they wait (with playing your game).

Yes I too think a big reason for doing this is to keep people logging in, just said it in another post in fact. However what you propose would be counter to that. You’d be basically taxing people $2.5 every 3 months for not logging in rather then incentivising them to log in. I mean I imagine that a main reason for doing this is to try to avoid people jumping game. Say this next interesting MMO gets released you dont want players to go play it and get overly invested in it while forgetting about your game completely. Every game is engaging some wway or another and a new game has the novelty factor on its side. Like this people are still free to go checkout any game they want but you’re also keeping them coming back to yours every 2 weeks. with what you propose they can just pay $2.5 and completely forget about your game for the next 3 months. Not exactly ideal.

Devata.6589:

Now you don’t have a big-pay-wall for returning players. A pay-wall that is likely not going to give you an expansion as most of that content will be available anyway (some people are comparing it with an expansion and sure there are some comparison but I don’t think one season can be seen as 1 expansion). You will also not stimulate people waiting with unlock the episodes but you do keep it so that people will log in regular to prevent having to buy them. And would people have stopped logging in anyway it’s only 200 gems to be back at the same level with the rest, not 800 because you did not log in the 4 months.

Let me also be clear that I am not negative about this change.. while having some reservations (like being afraid it might become to much like the PS) but we will see that in game. This seems to be a huge improvement I just think they should do the ‘pay to unlock’ a little bid different for best result.

I do agree this is a bit tough on new players who may join a few seasons down the line, not very tough or unfair after all plenty of other MMOs have you paying for every expansion they release but certainly a lot more expansive then what people who joined on day one had it. However they can tackle that issue in a different way.

For example a lot of MMOs loose their client price as the years go by. What Anet could do is keep the full price but include every season as they’re finish. IE next year it would still cost $60 to buy gw2 but you’d get S2 for free. the year after still $60 but you get S2 and S3 for free.

Thats one option. the other option could a bundle. Buy Gw2 and S2 for $80 instead of $120

Or even simply $2.5 per epsiode or say $40 per season.

plenty of ways how they can keep the player logging in incentive on while being nice to new players.

juno.1840:

lol, because I’m secretly plying for an expansion pack. Charging for content is the first step on that road.

Once ANet charges for content then they have to deliver something worthy of buying it in the first place. I think many players would agree that little in LS Season 1 was worthy of purchase.

So in a round about way, I’m lobbying to make the game better by channeling revenue towards content instead of cosmetic fluff.

Anyway, that is my motivation — pure and simple.

I bet this is going to happen regardless. I mean major stuff you see in an expansion like new professions, fully fledged out zones, etc.. take a ton of time to develop. There is a reason why most MMOs release an expansion every 1 – 2 years even and thats without doing content releases every 2 weeks!

S1 was a bit lacking in some departments because they just didnt have the time to build the infrastructure so to speak. Like every Ls even had to occur on an existing map cause they were still building new zones and that automatically makes it feel a bit lacking cause even though you’re getting tons of work to make that event / story at the back of your mind you might feel its just recycled content cause we were already here.

I am pretty confident S2 will change all that because now they had the time to get stuff ready. But it might be me being optimistic we’ll see.

In anycase I think you’re right. Even charging as little kitten.5 means they have to deliver content thats worth while. I personally enjoyed S1 a lot and would buy most of it but even I would definitely not buy say the first episode in flame and frost for example

Galen Grey.4709:

Devata.6589:

~

Yes I too think a big reason for doing this is to keep people logging in, just said it in another post in fact. However what you propose would be counter to that. You’d be basically taxing people $2.5 every 3 months for not logging in rather then incentivising them to log in. I mean I imagine that a main reason for doing this is to try to avoid people jumping game. Say this next interesting MMO gets released you dont want players to go play it and get overly invested in it while forgetting about your game completely. Every game is engaging some wway or another and a new game has the novelty factor on its side. Like this people are still free to go checkout any game they want but you’re also keeping them coming back to yours every 2 weeks. with what you propose they can just pay $2.5 and completely forget about your game for the next 3 months. Not exactly ideal.

Devata.6589:

Now you don’t have a big-pay-wall for returning players. A pay-wall that is likely not going to give you an expansion as most of that content will be available anyway (some people are comparing it with an expansion and sure there are some comparison but I don’t think one season can be seen as 1 expansion). You will also not stimulate people waiting with unlock the episodes but you do keep it so that people will log in regular to prevent having to buy them. And would people have stopped logging in anyway it’s only 200 gems to be back at the same level with the rest, not 800 because you did not log in the 4 months.

Let me also be clear that I am not negative about this change.. while having some reservations (like being afraid it might become to much like the PS) but we will see that in game. This seems to be a huge improvement I just think they should do the ‘pay to unlock’ a little bid different for best result.

I do agree this is a bit tough on new players who may join a few seasons down the line, not very tough or unfair after all plenty of other MMOs have you paying for every expansion they release but certainly a lot more expansive then what people who joined on day one had it. However they can tackle that issue in a different way.

For example a lot of MMOs loose their client price as the years go by. What Anet could do is keep the full price but include every season as they’re finish. IE next year it would still cost $60 to buy gw2 but you’d get S2 for free. the year after still $60 but you get S2 and S3 for free.

Thats one option. the other option could a bundle. Buy Gw2 and S2 for $80 instead of $120

Or even simply $2.5 per epsiode or say $40 per season.

plenty of ways how they can keep the player logging in incentive on while being nice to new players.

Yeah it’s true that it might be easier to switch as you maximum have to pay 200 gems to get back. However that also means it’s easier to come back (only 200 gems). I however think the system as I present it would be less imposing.
Sure they could (and I would expect them to) release cheaper packs or whatever but it’s still a pay-wall for something thats likely not expansion-like content (I don’t see them locking maps and races behind episodes) but is something you would want to get have unlocked (so are then people willing to pay +-15$/€ or is that +-15$/€ keeping them away?).

Also with what you say (cheaper packs) again you increase the reason for people to wait.. Lets go play GW2 again.. oow wait I missed 10 episodes, better wait till the end of the season before returning because then it’s cheaper to get all episodes. Meanwhile you have people who did pay to unlock the episodes and the next week suddenly see a drop in price so they are mad.

All in all I believe my way is less imposing and so more friendly towards the player-base what also means the player-base is more happy about ArenaNet.

I think we are on a similar page however you focus more on “people should not leave”. I look at that as well but focus more on “people should also be more willing to come back”.

I don’t see the problem, any game out there you have to pay for any additional content. Basically they are saying as long as you play regularly we will give you that content for free. S1 was not on pair with an expansion? What game in last few years actually released a good full length expansion. Skyrim expansion was one island and one quest line, it wasn’t as long as it should have been. Only game that comes to mind is WoW that releases full expansions, but you still have to pay for them and each one of them costs 60$ at release, ArenaNet is giving their content for free! Only requirement is that you log in for a single second. And to top it all you don’t actually have to pay real money for the LS you can just buy it for 20g (it may go up or even down depending on the economy thou latter is less likely). Is 20g really that much, considering that you don’t have to buy all the stories at once and that most likely stories will be sold in packs for less money. Some people are really hard to please.

This argument has become really moot now – devs have confirmed in their interview on reddit that you can “guest” friends into the content for free, if you have it unlocked. They just can’t earn the achievements or specific rewards.

Devata.6589:

Yeah it’s true that it might be easier to switch as you maximum have to pay 200 gems to get back. However that also means it’s easier to come back (only 200 gems). I however think the system as I present it would be less imposing.
Sure they could (and I would expect them to) release cheaper packs or whatever but it’s still a pay-wall for something thats likely not expansion-like content (I don’t see them locking maps and races behind episodes) but is something you would want to get have unlocked (so are then people willing to pay +-15$/€ or is that +-15$/€ keeping them away?).

Also with what you say (cheaper packs) again you increase the reason for people to wait.. Lets go play GW2 again.. oow wait I missed 10 episodes, better wait till the end of the season before returning because then it’s cheaper to get all episodes. Meanwhile you have people who did pay to unlock the episodes and the next week suddenly see a drop in price so they are mad.

All in all I believe my way is less imposing and so more friendly towards the player-base what also means the player-base is more happy about ArenaNet.

I think we are on a similar page however you focus more on “people should not leave”. I look at that as well but focus more on “people should also be more willing to come back”.

Well you cannot fight two battles at once. Either they’re going to focus on retaining players or they’re going to focus on making it easier for them to come back.

They’re two opposing things if you make easier coming back then its harder to keep players playing. I dont think you can have it both ways.

I do think focusing on keeping players playing is probably a better choice though.

1. it makes the game richer by having more players around.
2. its easier to achieve then making players come back if they leave.
3. I dont think its much of a barrier I mean if you’re into the story you’re probably be looking forward ot the next release and if all you care is new content to play you dont need to buy the episodes you lost cause you have new stuff to play anyway. You’ll maybe buy 1 or 2 if there is a reward attached to them that you’re interested but I doubt you’ll want them all.

Well that happens all the time, People playing MMOs should be used to it by now. I mean discounts is the least of the issues here what about p2p games that offered lifetime subscription that subsequently went free to play or people who payed subs for years whose game then went free to play etc..You cant really expect these things to remain constant they never do.

Stark.1350:

This argument has become really moot now – devs have confirmed in their interview on reddit that you can “guest” friends into the content for free, if you have it unlocked. They just can’t earn the achievements or specific rewards.

Same mechanics as in the Personal Story it seems, what a funny coincidence . . .

Stark.1350:

This argument has become really moot now – devs have confirmed in their interview on reddit that you can “guest” friends into the content for free, if you have it unlocked. They just can’t earn the achievements or specific rewards.

Looked for this and well turnsout they did a whole twitch stream that I completely missed out on luckly it was recorded

for those interested:
http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/4412034

i didnt think of possible buy the whole pack post-release thing – so long as they do that i’t’ll be fine – i suppose we should wait and see how these missions pan out and how this new system works before complaining….. if we do the maths… around 52 weeks in a year, 4 weeks per holiday event? so there’s wintersday, halloween, dragonbash and possibly the zephyrites 4×4 = 16 which leaves us with 46? 46/2 (two week releases) means 23 releases (assuming living story takes place at once a year) 23×200 = 4600 gems which would be about the price of an expansion… wow

Galen Grey.4709:

Devata.6589:

Yeah it’s true that it might be easier to switch as you maximum have to pay 200 gems to get back. However that also means it’s easier to come back (only 200 gems). I however think the system as I present it would be less imposing.
Sure they could (and I would expect them to) release cheaper packs or whatever but it’s still a pay-wall for something thats likely not expansion-like content (I don’t see them locking maps and races behind episodes) but is something you would want to get have unlocked (so are then people willing to pay +-15$/€ or is that +-15$/€ keeping them away?).

Also with what you say (cheaper packs) again you increase the reason for people to wait.. Lets go play GW2 again.. oow wait I missed 10 episodes, better wait till the end of the season before returning because then it’s cheaper to get all episodes. Meanwhile you have people who did pay to unlock the episodes and the next week suddenly see a drop in price so they are mad.

All in all I believe my way is less imposing and so more friendly towards the player-base what also means the player-base is more happy about ArenaNet.

I think we are on a similar page however you focus more on “people should not leave”. I look at that as well but focus more on “people should also be more willing to come back”.

Well you cannot fight two battles at once. Either they’re going to focus on retaining players or they’re going to focus on making it easier for them to come back.

They’re two opposing things if you make easier coming back then its harder to keep players playing. I dont think you can have it both ways.

I do think focusing on keeping players playing is probably a better choice though.

1. it makes the game richer by having more players around.
2. its easier to achieve then making players come back if they leave.
3. I dont think its much of a barrier I mean if you’re into the story you’re probably be looking forward ot the next release and if all you care is new content to play you dont need to buy the episodes you lost cause you have new stuff to play anyway. You’ll maybe buy 1 or 2 if there is a reward attached to them that you’re interested but I doubt you’ll want them all.

Well that happens all the time, People playing MMOs should be used to it by now. I mean discounts is the least of the issues here what about p2p games that offered lifetime subscription that subsequently went free to play or people who payed subs for years whose game then went free to play etc..You cant really expect these things to remain constant they never do.

Isn’t point 3 in favor of what I say. People into a story will be more likely to stay (especially if it’s good content) anyway, so the 200 gem might be enough to change there mind if they think of going away. Getting people back is harder. And if you slowly lose people but it’s hard to get them back you end up with less. If you attract people you end up with more.

If you would pay 200 gems per episode people would indeed not buy them all I think so money-wise it would not be a big difference, still people need to come back to get other players tell them, get this or that episode and they might not come back if they see a pay-wall for the story (not a real expansion but still something important for the game)

Anyway I guess we have to agree to disagree here then.

And I do hope thinks change. I am still in favor of them earning there money with yearly expansion in stead of the cash-shop. So yes I know thinks can change and I even hope it does.

BobbyStein.2315:

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

Looking over the LS season 2 blurb I spotted this “Past episodes will be available for purchase for 200 gems”

Does this mean if we want to reply any LS content we need to pay for it in gems? Is it an unlock a chapter forever fee for every account or is it character bound? If we pay for a chapter can we team with people who haven’t?

Personally, not sure how I feel about this move. To me it seems to step over the ‘morality line’ and move GW2 to a payment model I don’t really like..

Hmm

If you log in during the release window of an episode (e.g. two weeks) you unlock the episode for your account. You can replay it as many times as you want for free. If you miss the release window and you want to play an episode that you didn’t unlock, you can purchase it.

It’s a lot like watching television in that you can watch (and record) an episode for free when it airs. If you miss it, you can buy the episode off iTunes later. Does that make sense?

hm hm torrents hm hm

According to the Dev stream, not all releases will be only 2 weeks, some may be 4 weeks or more, so the cost wouldn’t be 4600 Gems (which wouldn’t be correct anyway, the math is incorrect).

If there were 4 Festivals at 4 weeks each, that would be 16 weeks out of 52 weeks. Then, there would be ~32 weeks left, and if 80% are 2-week releases, we are down to 24 to 26 weeks/2 equaling 12 to 14 releases at 200 Gems each. Giving us a total cost for the Season of approximately 2400 to 2800 Gems. That’s a cost of 35 dollars or euros for 2800 Gems, fully paying for a Season with some left over (perhaps) for …well, whatever.

That seems quite reasonable, to me.

Devata.6589:

Isn’t point 3 in favor of what I say. People into a story will be more likely to stay (especially if it’s good content) anyway, so the 200 gem might be enough to change there mind if they think of going away. Getting people back is harder. And if you slowly lose people but it’s hard to get them back you end up with less. If you attract people you end up with more.

If you would pay 200 gems per episode people would indeed not buy them all I think so money-wise it would not be a big difference, still people need to come back to get other players tell them, get this or that episode and they might not come back if they see a pay-wall for the story (not a real expansion but still something important for the game)

Anyway I guess we have to agree to disagree here then.

And I do hope thinks change. I am still in favor of them earning there money with yearly expansion in stead of the cash-shop. So yes I know thinks can change and I even hope it does.

Well it isnt impossible ofcourse but if you’re invested in the story its unlikely you’re going to leave just cause you can come back and get it back for $2.5. Even if that happens to be the case there is nothing you can do about that subset of players. I mean how can you get them to stay? as for a barrier to come back if you watched the stream it really isnt. Because if all they want is experience the story they can do that off a friend / guild mate who’s unlocked it already. All thats locked behind the paywall is the rewards and the achievements.

Well technically you already got most of the stuff you were asking for with regards to the living story. You get the story permanently and you get to work on the rewards for as long as you need so you should be mostly happy

As for the expansion well we’ll need to see how S2 plays out. I am hopeful it will shine enough that people will see LS can deliver the same stuff an expansion would.

Galen Grey.4709:

Devata.6589:

Isn’t point 3 in favor of what I say. People into a story will be more likely to stay (especially if it’s good content) anyway, so the 200 gem might be enough to change there mind if they think of going away. Getting people back is harder. And if you slowly lose people but it’s hard to get them back you end up with less. If you attract people you end up with more.

If you would pay 200 gems per episode people would indeed not buy them all I think so money-wise it would not be a big difference, still people need to come back to get other players tell them, get this or that episode and they might not come back if they see a pay-wall for the story (not a real expansion but still something important for the game)

Anyway I guess we have to agree to disagree here then.

And I do hope thinks change. I am still in favor of them earning there money with yearly expansion in stead of the cash-shop. So yes I know thinks can change and I even hope it does.

Well it isnt impossible ofcourse but if you’re invested in the story its unlikely you’re going to leave just cause you can come back and get it back for $2.5. Even if that happens to be the case there is nothing you can do about that subset of players. I mean how can you get them to stay? as for a barrier to come back if you watched the stream it really isnt. Because if all they want is experience the story they can do that off a friend / guild mate who’s unlocked it already. All thats locked behind the paywall is the rewards and the achievements.

Well technically you already got most of the stuff you were asking for with regards to the living story. You get the story permanently and you get to work on the rewards for as long as you need so you should be mostly happy

As for the expansion well we’ll need to see how S2 plays out. I am hopeful it will shine enough that people will see LS can deliver the same stuff an expansion would.

I did see the video and yes they can play it but still they see the pay-wall.

Yeah if it comes to permanent content I am very happy with this, it seems to be close to what I have been asking for (of course need to see in in action, I just hope it will not be to much like the PS), also how he gave the example in the video that some signs might be temporary but the big stuff that matters would be permanent is very similar to some examples I gave as how I would like it to be.

If it comes to expansions it’s another thing. I do think they can deliver that in the LS but I don’t want them to because then they would still need to use the cash-shop to make money. For my preferred game-play the cash-shop influences the game in a very negative way so I would want them to sell expansion and make money that way so they can drop the cash-shop focus. That is however another discussion I am not going into here (and I think you know my viewpoints on that anyway) but at least one of my two biggest issues with how the game works at this moment, the temporary content, seems to be history. So I am very happy about that.

Turin.6921:

Bloodstealer.5978:

lordkrall.7241:

Or you can you know, login one time during the two weeks that event is available and have it unlocked for free.

It is unlock forever, for the account.

I just told my kids.. we cant go on holiday this year or maybe even next cos otherwise I gotta pay out another 200gems to catch up with LS season 2 …

EDIT – Problem solved, I just dug a big hole in the garden, filled it with sand then made another hole next to it.. just waiting for it to rain some more to fill the second hole up and create the perfect beach in my own back garden – they will never notice!

Well I guess this is their way around developing expansions and hiding the criticism of temporary content…

Really…?The 5 extra bucks you will have to spend or the 3 extra days of gaming to raise the in-game money is enough to make you feel you should not go on holiday…

Whoooosh……… Is it a bird? – - is it a plane?…. no, nope.. I missed it, dang!

I really dont see what the problem is here, we are being offered an amazing service that IMO shouldnt even be offered much less needed. I thought the temporary story content fit perfectly into what the game is, a living world. What happens in real life when you miss out on some big event or anything for that matter?…..Nothing! Absolutely nothing! You are kitten out of luck and have to learn the same life lesson that we all have to learn, and that is to build the best bridge you can so you can hurry up and get over it.

hopefully when season one is updated to work with the journal

i hope everyone with the meta achieves unlock each chapter

I am generally very critical of Anet and GW2 (something I never thought I would say after GW1) but the described LS Journal system sounds very good to me. Great actually.

I also am critical of a lot of what Anet has done with this game since launch, but I can really get behind this – it’s a great change. Anybody whining about it is being very unreasonable.

Will the same drops, rewards, achievements, etc be available in the past content? What about fighting large battles, and you’re the only one there, like Scarlet, or the clockwork champions?

For all these people calling this a “simply bad business decision” – do your homework, this is called a freemium pricing model and it works very good.

For all the americans Id like to give you a very interesting example, why this works very good for the rest of the world: We dont have hulu, we dont have neetflix (most countries that is); So for example, if the new GoT episode gets aired in, for example, the german tv, then you can rewatch it, if the tv station offers that kind of service. (I dont think they do)
Many Stations practice this “7 day rewatch”-thing, where you can watch shows 7 days after they have aired. If you wanna watch older episodes, you have to specifically buy them or have some sort of premium account. So if you missed this specific episode and you even missed the opportunity to rewatch it, then you have to pay, if you really want that content.

That is a working business model that doesn’t hurt anyone, plus, people are already very aware of that move. If you have watched the livestream or the recorded video, then youll know, that “bundles” are a matter of discussion.

Besides, if you think what an expansion would cost you, then its much cheaper to unlock these episodes. Lets say we have 24 episodes per season (even though it might be 20 or 18, because we had this long break – maybe only 15, because there might be some feature pack or festival releases), 2000 Gems = 25€ if you order it online, means 2,50€ for one past episode. That means, if you want to buy a whole year of episodes, that would cost you 60€. That is not much at all, especially if you consider, that there might be only 15 episodes per season, then we are at 37,50€.

The Third Season of Game of Thrones costs 29,90€ if you buy it digitally on iTunes. Thats 3€ per episode. Even more, if you buy it on DVD or blueray.

I dont know about you, but I have all available season of GoT & True Blood as DVD. It was worth my money, even though I had already watched them.

200 gems are about 20 exchanged gold atm. If you are doing a little bit of that and a little bit of this, then you get 5 – 10 gold per day easily. A player that is into the story will see this calculation and in most cases he/she will make the decision, that its worth the money.

I am so very happy about this decision. It show that anet knows what they do, and that they listen. I have expected this move for months now, seeing them doing now exactly what I predicted feels great

€: another thing: please dont use the word “pay wall” in this context. That is just incorrect.