Guild Wars 2

This is their thought process to maximize profit:

By nerfing dungeon rewards, obviously fewer ppl will play and it will be harder to get a run going.

People who buy HoT will probably not dungeon and play the new content.

People who did not buy HoT will either
1.) eventually buy HoT to join the others in the new content. (boost in revenue)
2.) quit the game since they already spent money on the game and are no longer needed (lower resources needed for servers = lower cost = boost in profit)

They probably figured it is financially worth it since those who did not buy HoT are less likely to purchase gems anyway.

TL;DR: Nerfing dungeons is a way to discouraged the players who did not purchase HoT to continue on playing and putting strain on the servers.

I only spent $10 on this game so far and I will continue to milk it out. I’ll be waiting for when HoT comes down to $10. FeelsGoodMan

Just pick Ranger

What can they offer to a party that no other class can do better at?

I was thinking going a “tanky revive” build.

Don’t do it. Anet hates rangers.

My guardian friend and I decided to duo one of the ascalonian dungeon. I think path 3. After spending several hours trying to beat the last boss, my guardian friend got the chest but I didn’t. I went marksmanship, skirmishing, and nature magic. Had a full set of berserker exotics with the trinkets too. Survived till the end constantly attacking and spamming spells. Still didn’t do enough damage to receive chest. GG Anet.

Basandra Skye.4031:

The FAQ has also not substantially changed. The answer still is “yes, you need to own the core game.”

Yes it did. I obviously would not have bought the base game back then if I had seen the new faq instead of the old. Many potential new customers might feel the same way.

Basandra Skye.4031:

That it’s not going to cost up to $100 for them to play what has, for me, a kitten fun game?

Is that what you really think when looking at the difference between the old faq and new faq? Interesting.

Vayne.8563:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

You know that ‘simple sentence’ is part of their contract agreement, right? You bet people ranted. Ghost editing after someone signs and agrees to buy something tends to kitten people off.

People use words like ghost editing so glibly.

Things in games change. FAQs are changed when they change. That’s how the world works.

Clearly the original plan was to make it two sales. There were probably people in the management for and against the plan and they discussed it. They made a decision. As time went on, one side gathers more backers and they decide to make the change.

When the change is made, the FAQ has to be changed.

You can call that a Ghost Change, but in reality it’s just changing the FAQ to fit the facts.

Anet needs to refund people for the entire period of time since that first fact went up, but editing a fact to make it accurate?

Call it what you want, but it’s done all the time and the only time anyone has a problem with is is when it changes to something they don’t want to hear.

This is a good point. The only problem is that there should be consistency. In my company, we ran a competition for the employees, the prize being money. Near the end of the competition, the 2nd place team wanted the rules to be re-evaluated so they would have a better chance if the scoring system changed. They provided very good reasoning but management stuck with the initial interpretation of the rules in order to be consistent and to not kitten off the other 7 teams of people.

Yes in some cases, the faq does need to be edited to keep up-to-date.

Don’t you think that the section in the faq that would influence a potential new customer’s decision of whether or not to buy the base game should be somewhat consistent?

Jazzabelle.6531:

Yesterday I bought a dress in Crossroads for $35 today I walked past and they had the same dresses on the discount rack for $20. Its all about timing and though you may not think timing is fair its the way of the world. Did I go into Crossroads and demand a $15 refund because in 24 hours they changed the price of the dress ? No I didn’t because as already stated its all about timing. This world is going to deal you a lot of crap if you are always looking backward and complaining about a price you paid being reduced or extra bonuses thrown in.

Nice anecdote but once again, I am not complaining about the pricing. It is about how Anet’s old faq seems to imply that you would not be seeing the base game bundled for free along with the expansion. Go compare the two faqs in my first post and tell me what potential new customers are suppose to think?

And what is your last sentence suppose to mean? That the world will deal me more crap if I look back? It has already been dealt. What? You’re suppose to ignore it and take it?

If someone do me wrong, I will call them out on it.

Zefiris.8297:

Nah. Been with GW2 since the beta, and I don’t feel betrayed, but then I’m not a child that starts crying when other people get gifts.

Instead, I’m happy for them. You should try that, it’s kinda the mature thing to do.

Venture out in the real world a bit. You’ll soon notice all the “first buyer/signup gets X!” stuff. it’s actually entirely normal and not scummy at all.
The complainers really don’t seem to get out much.

If you don’t feel betrayed, that’s fine. Some people like to stand up for themselves and not be in denial when their trust in a company for years is shaken.

Vercinorix.3021:

…

In short, considering the above points, I don’t know how it is possible to continue taking the position that NCSoft cheated their customers with those sales unless you’re not very bright, or cynically assuming a false stance in a shameless attempt to extort an unjustified reduction in price of the expansion.

Cheers.

I’m sorry but you wasted your time writing all of that, which is mostly filled with assumptions anyway. You sort of missed my point because I would have been completely happy with the expansion being 50$ but not including the free base game. That would mean they stuck by what was originally written in the old faq.

Vercinorix.3021:

Alright, I’ll bite.

You’re claiming that NCSoft did customers wrong by offering the base game months in advance of the HoT release for 83% off while not mentioning that said base game would be included in HoT in a “stand alone expansion” model. Then you are using this as justification for demanding a reduction of the price for the expansion for players who already own copies of the base game. Is that right?

Yes I am making that claim since the old faq seems to imply that the base game would not be included for free with the expansion. No I am not using this to justify a reduction of the expansion. As stated earlier, I believe Anet has the right to price the expansion at whatever.

Once again, I am not arguing about the price.

Sizer.5632:

So no one has ever bought multiple games on steam and have them cost less combined a year later? Like honestly, this isnt new. Right now you can buy civ 5 complete for like $20 and it comes with expansions, so do all the people who bought the original game for $50 have a right to be kittened off because its cheaper now than what they paid?

I dont care if people are mad at anet or not (and like someone said its most likely some marketing manager at ncsoft, not the anet devs, that did this), but this is not a new marketing strategy, and every single developer out there does it (well again, their marketing team does), so get used to it or find some new hobbies imo.

You completely missed my point. I am not arguing about the price. They have the right to price it at whatever.

Healix.5819:

So if they split the expansion from the core game and offered them separately, and you noticed:

HoT: $49.99
HoT+GW2: $59.99

… what then? They were advertising GW2 for HoT at a $10 price tag. They could have avoided half of these complaints by simply keeping that difference. Whether HoT actually offers $50 worth of content is another question.

This reaction was predicted here months ago when people were asking for content to be bundled for free. I can only assume ArenaNet’s marketing team also expected this, and considering they could have easily avoided it, it must be intentional. But what for? It’s all a distraction.

Yes it is intentional. What for? For money.

Distaste.4801:

This is how ArenaNet operate. This is not the first time they have said one thing and done another. Ascended gear was another huge debacle. They sold the game prior to release as easy to obtain max stats and hard to obtain skins. 3 months after release they suddenly change their song and dance, they add ascended and say it was always meant to be in the game even though the entire endgame is balanced around exotics. Then there is the hotly debated No-grind philosophy from their manifesto, of course as the game goes on they add more and more grind. Want ascended armor? Grind to 500 crafting and events for material! Want ascended accessories? Grind dailies! Have alts or want a different spec? You better believe you’re going to be grinding!

I’m sure there are more instances of them saying one thing and then doing the exact opposite, but I don’t remember them off hand. All that matters is ArenaNet is not a company you should take at face value. Always take whatever they say with a grain of salt and in the end you’ll still be surprised at how monumentally they screw something up

Yes and now they’re making ascended stronger >>

Nah man. I’m not trying to get a refund. 10$ is a great deal and I will make the most of it. The base game is awesome.The goal of this post was to let people, especially the ones bent on defending the company, know what type of company they are really defending. I feel many people did not know about this and are too focused on the price of the expansion.

The funny thing is I really liked the game and might have been willing to shell out 50$ for the expansion if they didn’t include the free base game with it. I get that a company has to make money so the pricing doesn’t bother me. Their way of doing business does. Like what is a new customer suppose to think after experiencing this?

It seems they are completely focused on gaining new customers with little thoughts towards older loyal customers. I was only a two month old customer and this happened already. Beware.

This is my argument for why an expansion should have been offered separately. Before buying this game two months ago, I did some research and read the faq on the upcoming expansion HoT. In the faq, it is implied that the expansion would be offered separately.

After HoT is available for pre-ordering, they changed the faq.

Before they changed the faq:

Q: Do I have to own Guild Wars 2 to play the expansion?
A: Yes. Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns is an expansion to Guild Wars 2 and not a stand-alone campaign, and therefore it requires the base game to play.

After they edited it:

Q: Do I have to own Guild Wars 2 to play the expansion?
A: Yes, but Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns includes the Guild Wars 2 core game.

It’s obvious what they pulled.

I was honestly considering buying gems to attain some outfits but now I will no longer be spending a single penny on this game. I do admit that I got the game for 10$, which is a great deal and I will be playing the heck out of the base game to get the most out of my 10$.

I’d like to see people try to defend this.

TL;DR: 2 months old customer already lost trust in the company.