Guild Wars 2

I was actually really excited about HoT up until this price announcement. Like, a lot of people were extremely suspicious about this but I had good faith that ArenaNet would come through for us because they care about the playerbase and they’re constantly making changes in the game based on experience as professional developers and user feedback to improve it over time. I was happy to purchase GW2 shortly after launch at its full price because what I was buying was a hugely expansive product made up of the long time efforts of many people on the dev team, and I felt my investment was totally worth it. In fact, I still feel that the money I invested in this game was totally worth it; it’s by far my favorite MMORPG of all the dozens I’ve played.

I just don’t know if there’s enough content we’ve seen thus far in this expansion pack to have it available for almost as much as the original game was. I don’t feel as secure about investing money in it. And it kind of feels like a bit of a kick in the gut for the base game I’ve played and loved so long to be included as a “free bonus.” I’m not violently angry or anything; I completely understand that ArenaNet needs money to continue to host this game’s servers and develop new content for it. However, that was also how I justified the gem store, and while I’m happy to pay a few dollars to get cute outfits and bonus character slots and support the developers, I’m not so happy about paying the price of a full game for something that’s…not really enough content to be a full game. I actually feel a lot worse for the people who bought the game full price not long ago and then found out that if they’d just waited awhile they could have received the whole thing as a free bonus when they bought the expansion.

I think I would be a lot more willing to pay the full 50 dollars if we saw that this expansion was truly EXPANSIVE and added hundreds of hours worth of gameplay to the hundreds of hours we already had (which the current media released has not convinced me of), or at the very least, if there was SOME kind of loyalty incentive to previous players. Maybe receiving the stuff included in the upgraded edition of the base game and the ex. pack for free to those who already owned the base game, or repackaging the living story quests so they could be replayed like personal quests in instanced locations. Just some ideas.

If any employees are reading this, I’m sure you’re all completely overwhelmed by the huge amount of backlash this has gotten you from the playerbase. I realize my post here is pretty wordy, so I thank you for taking the time to look through it and consider what I have to say, and I also apologize for any over the top angry forum posts containing death threats and stuff you may have had to sift through. I hope you have a nice day.