Guild Wars 2

I’ve said it before, and I think it bears repeating. It’s true of any MMO that allows for player-driven guilds, and just as true of Guild Wars 2: If you want a social experience, chitter-chat, dungeons, WvW, or just open-world PvE questing, join a guild. Find a good one, and you will love it. Or at least that was my experience; as always YMMV.

Never. Nor would I. My main guild was NSP from the beginning, and is still primarily so, although somewhat less since the megaserver implementation. Sometimes things get rough, and sometimes things in WvW are awesome, but I believe in loyalty through thick-and-thin.

Amaimon.7823:

gryph.8734:

I might view magic a little differently than most GW2 players, but bear with me.

“Magic,” in Tyria, is simply manipulation of reality’s fabric through force-of-will. This manipulation is fueled by the energy present in the world (concentrated in ley lines), but not all magic is “arcane” as-such.

By that definition, “warriors” are no less magicians than elementalists. Their “spells” are the martial techniques they use in order to defeat enemies. Indeed, the very concept of life itself may be a form of magic. If life is magic and dragons consume magic, then life itself would be scoured from the face of Tyria were the dragons allowed to continue unabated. I think of it as “the magic of the ordinary.” It might be a stretch per official lore channels, but it makes sense to me.

Warriors do use magic though. As explained in gw1, their magic is relatively primal. More physically enhancing. They use magic they increase the effect of strength, toughen their skin and spur adrenaline. So they turn magic into biological function.
Through primal power they can wield heavy weapons with ease, and skin and armor can endure heavy blows.

I think I might have been misunderstood just a bit there; I said warriors are magicians, the same as elementalists. I wasn’t sure if this was a part of official lore, but it makes sense to me and I’m glad to see that it is.

I might view magic a little differently than most GW2 players, but bear with me.

“Magic,” in Tyria, is simply manipulation of reality’s fabric through force-of-will. This manipulation is fueled by the energy present in the world (concentrated in ley lines), but not all magic is “arcane” as-such.

By that definition, “warriors” are no less magicians than elementalists. Their “spells” are the martial techniques they use in order to defeat enemies. Indeed, the very concept of life itself may be a form of magic. If life is magic and dragons consume magic, then life itself would be scoured from the face of Tyria were the dragons allowed to continue unabated. I think of it as “the magic of the ordinary.” It might be a stretch per official lore channels, but it makes sense to me.

I can echo a sentiment that several in this thread have already expressed: Find yourself a good guild. Strictly speaking, guilds aren’t practically necessary for any game content, but I belong to an excellent guild myself, and they have been indispensable to my continuing enjoyment. A few members of the WvW contingent ganged up to pitch in for a TeamSpeak server, and my fellow guild members have been unfailingly generous when I need help with the last few materials for crafting whatever.

Get thee to a guild, and if your experience is anything like mine was, it will enhance your enjoyment of the game easily by an order of magnitude.

Vayne.8563:

If you don’t buy the expansion now, at least make sure you log in regularly (assuming you own the original game) so you unlock the new Living Story zones. Some people have already missed unlocking the first chapter for free.

And you just know those are going to be the chumps complaining the loudest about “pay walls.” I’ve seen it already as regards Season 2.

Don’t get too wrapped up in “builds” or “raids” at the moment. You can have a perfectly enjoyable GW2 experience without worrying about either of those things right now. Just play around with your traits and stats until you find something that feels comfortable, and if you’ve not already done so, find a guild to join.

I’ve never really had just one main. I mostly tend to go back-and-forth between my thief and my necro. I get bored easily and I switch it up a lot.

draxynnic.3719:

gryph.8734:

Another argument quite possibly in favor of the predator/prey theory as regards the elder dragon is what happens when predators are culled artificially, just as the elder dragons are being killed. There are always unforeseen and usually detrimental effects on an ecosystem when it is overrun with prey species, viz-a-vis the strange effect Mordremoth’s and Zhaitan’s deaths have had on Primordus’ destroyer army.

Well, the effects on the Destroyers are more a case of removal of one predator leading to another predator moving in to the vacated ecological niche. The ‘overrunning of prey species’ would be more like the ley line events.

Point taken, but the general argument regarding unforeseen consequences still stands.

Zaklex.6308:

Name a current, real predator that appears to be toying with it’s kill(and that is exactly what it is doing, not just applying human/sapient standards). Same goes for one that appears to take pleasure at the suffering of their prey, they do get pleasure from watching their prey suffer…so there’s absolutely nothing wrong with applying human standards to a species that you think might not recognize rights or morality as we see them, but they do on their own terms.

Cats, particularly felis domesticus. Wolves, as well as domestic canines. Those are the two that come to mind, though I’m sure there are more. The assertion was made upthread as well, that predators don’t hunt themselves into starvation, which is also demonstrably untrue.

Is this the only way of looking at the elder dragons’ relationship to Tyria? No. Am I correct? I don’t know; you would have to ask Ree Soesbee about that, and even her word has not been the final one at times.

Another argument quite possibly in favor of the predator/prey theory as regards the elder dragon is what happens when predators are culled artificially, just as the elder dragons are being killed. There are always unforeseen and usually detrimental effects on an ecosystem when it is overrun with prey species, viz-a-vis the strange effect Mordremoth’s and Zhaitan’s deaths have had on Primordus’ destroyer army.

In the end, I hope y’all take this for just what it’s intended as: food for thought. This thread has been very entertaining and thought-stimulating for me. I like to think that somewhere in the alternate universe of Tyria, Durmand Priory scholars are having just such a philosophical debate.

Xillllix.3485:

…maybe the next expansion will be amazing. If it is and Anet redeem themselves I will buy it. I won’t naively pre-order it this time however, and I’ll wait until I receive the feedback and reviews of everyone I know.

I can honestly say that of the several MMO’s I have played over the years, I have never actually preordered, nor do I get the “deluxe” versions with all the extra goodies. I’m a pretty big believer in functional pragmatism, you might say. Just give me a game that I can play. I did find HoT disappointing in the extreme, but I’m ready to move on and I’m pretty confident that I will buy a new expansion when it comes out. After all, though the HoT maps were severely lacking, there was still plenty of new content that I did (and continue to) embrace that came along with them.

Xillllix.3485:

Griever.7480:

Of course no mention of elementalists, go to hell.

I feel your pain, I moved on however so I can’t be disappointed. I’m just curious to see if Anet can win me back as a player.

I haven’t bought gems in over a year and I used to do so at least twice a month. You can do the math. And also because I felt HoT was just half an expansion for the unreasonably high price tag I won’t ever buy another expansion. I think the best course of action is to make companies understand your dissatisfaction with your wallet.

You know, if HoT was absolutely terrible, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the next expansion will be. You’re only punishing yourself if you miss out on better content that follows (and in my opinion, LW S3 looks awfully promising so far).

You don’t wanna buy gems? I’m not even going to try to convince you. But I have yet to see an MMO that didn’t have high points and low points, and I do hope that if you continue to post in these forums you’ll come around.

Danikat.8537:

Nope. Cultural weapons can be used by any race, but cultural armour can only be worn by that race.

Well I’d be all for new cultural armors for each race. This is just one idea, and I can’t even take all the credit for it. I’m not keeping my fingers crossed, though. With all the attention being paid to Living World tropes, I don’t think new armor sets rate a blip on Anet’s radar.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Should be available for every race then, not just norn.
Unless Anet decides to add more cultural armor, in which case every race should get their own new armor.

Any race can skin any cultural armor, can’t they? I thought you just had to be of a certain race to actually purchase it.

A norn necro has been my main for almost the entire four years I’ve been playing GW2. I’m just gonna let this statement stand here and percolate a bit before I come back and find out why I’m wrong.

Behellagh.1468:

Improvised Armor set?

Whatever the case, I think it would make an excellent norn cultural armor. Kegs for the shoulder pauldrons, some kind of “ale hat” head armor, and you could go from there. Maybe ale barrel-themed boots? Yeah.

In fairness to the Anet crew, I know that armor takes a lot of work and a long time as it has to be fitted to different races and such. That’s okay. I’d wait.

That’s a brilliant idea! And I think there should be tubes leading from the tap bungholes pointing at the character’s face. I’ve seen the level of detail in legendary weaponry firsthand, so I’m guessing this can be done. Yusssss!

If they did change it, the people who like things the way they are would complain about the changes that you like. Believe me, there is not a single player on this game that is a special enough snowflake to warrant special consideration for their particular balance/gameplay complaints. Not me, nor anyone else. I’ll play GW2 while it’s fun and I’ll stop when it’s not. And I think that’s pretty good advice for anyone.

Summing up this thread: Some folks like HoT, some don’t, and some are indifferent. If you need a reason to come back, you can play the Living Story going forward and skip over most of the HoT content.

Lethalvriend.1723:

I think there are a few things that could put you off, some mobs in HoT zones can and will destroy you if you aren’t careful with evasive skills. I think their mistake with HoT was making ONLY zones that have a higher base difficulty rather than having a mix. I really hope that the ‘high damage’ mobs will still exist in Exp2 but that they will have more casual maps mixed with maps such as VB/AB/TD metas.

If Ember Bay is any indication, I think the devs have registered and listened to these concerns. HoT did seem a little…off to me, I guess. And I wasn’t able to really put my finger on why. Some of the speculation on these matters makes sense to me, sounds pretty reasonable. I figured the devs would make it right in time. Ember Bay and Dragon Vigil have not disappointed me so far.

Djinn.9245:

Redxon.6832:

its like every few months i hear the “fear not this night” song on youtube and i give gw2 another try – and then the beauty of the song disappears quickly as im getting 2-3 shotted by trash mobs. i just heard the song again and want to give the game another try, but im 28 years old now and have learned a lot about life, like how a lot of things never change and ya just end up going in circles until you die.

It depends who you ask. Some people enjoy the increased difficulty while others do not.

Just to throw my [overpriced] two cents-worth here, HoT kind of fell out of favor with me, and I’m having a much better time with the new Ember Bay content. I was able to make it through LS3E2 with a minimum of outside help.

Ayrilana.1396:

Nimrud.5642:

Ayrilana.1396:

Nimrud.5642:

Ayrilana.1396:

Nimrud.5642:

All salty here…

So. For a while they have been gone, but now they’re back – the pet/minion farmers. Up until a few weeks ago the gap between buy orders and sell offers shrunk under 10% of the usual. Then a patch came and these sellers disappeared. But for a few days now I’ve been seeing multiple sellers putting up 25-60 stacks of one crafting mat, undercutting competition massively (1-3 silvers when the usual is only few coppers) pushing down the sell price almost to the buy order lvl. So either being able to auto-loot from pet kills was not removed from the game and the farmers only took a break or they have found out a new way to acquire infinite amounts of loot.

I know that this is a mastery, intended to work like this implemented by the allmighty Anet. But is it fair? Shouldnt it be otherwise? All games discourage this kind of mechanics where some1 with a hack, bug, error, etc. gains massive advantages without having to put in effort proportionate to the gain. I still do know that its not a hack, but has the same effect. Basically you can make thousands of gold while being afk all the time. Then flood the market with massively underpriced mats as it does not hurt you in any way, because you didnt have to invest money or effort at all. If you sell everything for 1 copper its still a gain, because you had to invest none.

There may be some tricky reasoning behind this but I really dont like it. Anet was concerned about too many agony infusions flooding the market if they allow free deconstruction of all high agony infusions, yet when crafting mats in much larger numbers and worth much more money flood the market it somehow slips through their fingers.

/discuss

p.s.: Thin leather squares went from 7s10c to 5s95c, bolts of linen from 11s90c to 9s85c, bolts of wools from 7s10c to 5s90c, etc.

Over what time period are you comparing those costs?

In less than 24 hours. Except coarse leather. Thats 48 hours.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/19740
http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/19744
http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/19733
http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/19734

Paralel with the price drop sell listings volume went up. I guess I’m not that far off with my assessments…

Compare the base materials and not the refined ones.

Why? Thats the market they are flooding not the base materials market. They dont even buy their stuff there cause if you do the maths, you’ll see that its a negative return if you buy base mats, refine them and sell them.

It’d be easier to have a talk with you if you finally came up with some statement or opinion.

{snip}

Normally the refined materials sell for the cost of the base materials used to refine them although there tends to be a lag.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with the real-life concept of arbitrage, but it is a thing and it is possible to do in the GW2 TP.

Behellagh.1468:

gryph.8734:

Behellagh.1468:

So as long as ANet is OK with AFK pet/minion farming, if that’s the primary source for those raw materials, then I’m happy that my costs for mats have returned to a more favorable, to me, price range.

I think Anet has sufficiently demonstrated that they are not okay with AFK pet/minion farming, as there have been instances of people getting booted and/or infracted by GMs for failure to respond while doing such things.

Yes and no, they were very specific as to what is and isn’t allowed. There is a lot of grey.

{snip}

It’s still GM’s call whether you are AFK farming or not and that they provide enough of a leeway in the player’s favor that it can continue. Of course this all requires players reporting suspected AFKers so a GM can check them out. But they don’t want to action a parent dealing with an infant, player swapping the laundry from washer to dryer, making something to eat down in the kitchen or taking a bit longer than expected in the loo. But if you walk away for hours, then there may be sanctions involved but they are more likely to simply move your character to a safer location first.

That doesn’t sound like a lot of “grey” to me. That sounds like the GM’s actively discouraging performing in-game actions while a player is AFK. A couple minutes, you could probably get away with. Hours-on-end? No.

Behellagh.1468:

So as long as ANet is OK with AFK pet/minion farming, if that’s the primary source for those raw materials, then I’m happy that my costs for mats have returned to a more favorable, to me, price range.

I think Anet has sufficiently demonstrated that they are not okay with AFK pet/minion farming, as there have been instances of people getting booted and/or infracted by GMs for failure to respond while doing such things.

Conncept.7638:

Not all hoarding is from profiteers. I have a ridiculous amount of mats stocked up, for crafting, which I constantly put off, because GW2’s crafting system is watching hours worth of meters fill up and empty over and over again; and basically always involves two items, one which you get too much of from bloody everything, and one which you have to mind-numbingly repeat specific content days or even months worth of your playtime to get enough of to do anything with.

Some of us have a hard time fulfilling that second part, as we play the game for fun, not profit or prestige.

Of course I can only speak for myself, but I am in the final leg of crafting a legendary (Incinerator, for those of you who might remotely care) that requires me to have a full stack of all T6 reagent materials. This is no small thing, and I find myself engaging in behavior that could be considered “hoarding” from a strict economic standpoint.

For my money (metaphorically, of course), GW2 is as vital as ever. If you want to experience the most vital parts of the game, find a good guild, fill your friends list up with trusted companions inside and outside of your guild, and don’t be afraid to try new things you never thought you would or could.

Never done a dungeon? Try one.

Never played WvW? Get in there and go for it. You don’t have to zerg.

Haven’t seen any of the Living Story Yet? There’s no time like the present.

Predators overhunt their hunting grounds all the time. It’s a constant cycle — they eat while they’re able until the number of prey go down and the predators starve to death, then as the number of predators go down the number of prey species go up.

And as for the “mouth of mordremoth” issuing threats, those threats didn’t end with the mouth’s death. Mordremoth transcended its very physical existence, and was not put to death until its Sylvari proxy was killed. I don’t see what that has to do with the possibility that the dragons are amoral predators, but whatevs.

Nor is the question of Charr morality germane to this discussion. At one point, the Charr viewed themselves as predators and humans as prey. Now the Charr are prey to something much bigger than themselves, and so they’re allying with humans out of necessity for survival. These facts are not in dispute. The Charr certainly are sapient, and they do have a moral code. What I am positing is that the elder dragons might simply not be bound at all by such notions as good and evil. Scarlett’s discovery in Omadd’s chamber again suggests that the dragons themselves are an amoral part of nature. Not immoral, but amoral.

Even if all this is true, it bears repeating that prey species have defenses as well as the right to defend themselves. That the sapient races of Tyria are doing the right thing in protecting themselves and their children is not in dispute here.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

gryph.8734:

Even that depends on what you mean by “evil.” The dragons sleep and ooze magic, they wake up hungry, then they consume magic, and finally they are sated and can go back to sleep once more. That sounds like any number of naturally-occurring species to me, granted on a much larger scale than any extant ecosystem on our Earth.

Eh…

They can do all that without intentionally wiping out entire civilizations, turning living beings into monstrocities, setting loved ones against each other, enslaving said living beings by overwriting their free will, and threatening genocide.

If all they did was wake up, eat magic, then go back to sleep to leak it out… they’d not be villains. Because they wouldn’t be assaulting all known civilizations and creating vast hordes of minions to do so.

The Elder Dragons are very clearly intelligent and very clearly function with their own personal goal in mind which is not merely (and possibly doesn’t even include) the balancing of magic.

Zhaitan’s champions all talked about eternal life through undeath and the reunion (and lack of loss) of loved ones and friends, while Zhaitan sat in a rather literal kingdom of undead (stations and ranks retained besides kings/queens, risen resumed their work from when non-corrupted, but all were enslaved to Zhaitan’s will). (Which makes one wonder what led Zhaitan to focus on offering reuninion with loved ones…).

Mordremoth personally talks about being the world and being home, while those it corrupted talk about destroying the world, and Mordremoth being truth, indicating a desire and goal to replace the known world and become the sustainer of life.

Jormag offers power (and not just via the Sons of Svanir doctrine), takes primarily willing converts, and even lets go unwilling yet powerful individuals (Frozen Portal hero challenge in Frostgorge), indicating an intent to turn the world into where “survival of the fittest” is law, without intent of corrupting all life unlike the other Elder Dragons (in a way, this makes Jormag the least evil Elder Dragon).

Etc. etc.

Honestly, the Elder Dragons have not gotten the screentime the small, staggeringly spread out hints of their personas deserve. If it were a comic with a humanoid villain, I feel the plot against Zhaitan would have featured a mini-series or set of chapters featuring a flashback to what led Zhaitan down a dark path that included ensuring his “subjects” never lose loved ones, like a personal loss himself while trying to become a good ruler and was betrayed by his own subjects or something.

And now I have images of a dragon kingdom where Zhaitan ruled in ancient Tyria… and I want said comic to be a thing, even if for nothing but laughs at the silliness of the prospect.

I stand by my assertion, though it is pure speculation on my part. If we apply human/sapient standards of behavior to real predators on earth, some of their behavior might look downright evil at times, as well: toying with kills, appearing to take pleasure at the suffering of their prey. But that’s exactly what it is; application of human standards to a species that doesn’t recognize rights or morality simply because it’s incapable of doing so.

Does any of this apply to the elder dragons? I’m honestly not sure. A predator/prey relationship is one way to look at this, and I’m not sure if that’s even what the developers intended, but I find the idea interesting. I could imagine scholars at the Durmand Priory debating just such a thing, almost certainly over the objections of the militant Vigil.

Whatever the case, even if Tyria could be ruled over by elder dragon minions, two salient facts remain:

• Elder dragons do not cooperate. The demonstrated tendancy of their minions to fight each other (established in lore) does in fact suggest a predator/prey relationship.

• No matter how powerful elder dragons get, no matter how long they stay awake, magic is finite and eventually the dragons must sleep, even if it takes centuries or millenia, even if it takes until the face of Tyria is scoured clean of life.

I can not stress enough, any or all of my speculation may turn out to be true or false. I do have a fair amount of difficulty in reconciling the predatory aspects of elder dragon behavior with the aspects that do indeed look evil. Both Zhaitan and Mordremoth have issued pretty explicit threats, though they have always done so through proxies. Earth predators don’t have the privilege of assembling armies of minions to do their hunting for them as the elder dragons do. And so the debate rages on…

cyberzombie.7348:

The asura are not natural geniuses. They were exposed to the technology and science since they were progeny. Any race that experience the same level of exposure and interest would be with par.

Worth noting: The engineer profession is a product of Iron Legion charr creativity, not Asuran.

Amaimon.7823:

TL;DR: the concept of dragon is not the villain. The elder dragons are 6 dragons so big and ‘elder’ their magic overshadows that of anything else in the world. Most lesser dragons were forced into servitude by the elder dragons, but thats a variable thing. Glint wan’t born a champion of Kralkatorrik, but branded (crystallified) into servitude until the seers cleansed her again.

So in short, dragons aren’t necisarily evil, but the six greatest one are, and many lessers are willingly and unwillingly dragged into the war.

Even that depends on what you mean by “evil.” The dragons sleep and ooze magic, they wake up hungry, then they consume magic, and finally they are sated and can go back to sleep once more. That sounds like any number of naturally-occurring species to me, granted on a much larger scale than any extant ecosystem on our Earth.

Of course, as intelligent, even sentient/sapient creatures, the five grand races of Tyria (represented by the five races of player characters in-game) have every right to defend themselves from an untimely demise whether natural or otherwise. In every natural predator-prey relationship, the prey has defenses which the predator must necessarily overcome in order for the predator itself to survive.

To sum it up, the more of the story is revealed, the less I think of GW2 as just another good v evil fantasy world. It seems like it may be far more complex and nuanced than that… ...especially now that Lazarus is back in the mix as an ally.

I’ve never been too hardcore when it comes to PvE gameplay (I think every LS chapter I’ve gotten through so far, I’ve had help with), but the lore, tho…the lore! What blew me away is seeing the way that LS3 Ep 2 ended, which left me feeling oddly satisfied and wanting more all at the same time. Kudos to the story/lore team. Moar LS plz! Kthx!

Yay for returning players! I agree with the whole “make a new character” thing, yadda yadda yadda Etc., but by the same token, WvW has changed quite a bit too — and for the better, in my opinion. Be sure to check it out, as I think it’s definitely worth getting into at least casually.

As I’ve said so many times in the past, I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to this question. Based on OP, I would have narrowed it down to thief or rev based on your stated desires, but in the end it’s all about what you feel most comfortable with. And I’m glad you found something you like. I have a lot of fun with the dragon auras, myself.

tomlin.8204:

OK so in order to see anything new in the game I have to spend another £35.

The way I’m looking at it is: do I think GW2 is a good enough game to pay this amount to continue playing it? The answer is no. There are plenty of other top titles I could buy for this price, a whole new experience.

Thanks for the replies, hf.

There are also games out there that require insane amounts of skinner-box grinding. There are also games out there that fuel their continuing development with monthly subscription fees (I’m looking at you, WoW). Given that I was a player who did complain about economic parity (and I was satisfied when they threw in the additional character slot), it just gobsmacks me that so many players on here complain about the price of an expansion when they don’t bat an eye at the way Blizz has been doing things for the last 12 years.

Look at it another way: If you pay $15/month for an MMO, $60 will get you four months worth of play. You paid $49.99 one time for GW2, got the personal/Zhaitan story, two seasons of living world, and all the attendant WvW/PvP content for two years worth of play. Come on, people. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. And I understand that some have differing opinions on this matter, but still!

J envy.5270:

been playing mmos since 2002…i like the social experience, but i’m one of those people who hate 100% socializing and get nothing done(might as well do skype/FB chat) in the game, 3 out of 4 times i prefer to solo and play the lone wolf card aka Solo beast mode…..but when i need people to talk to their there. Almost everything in this game is soloable, hence why i keep coming back to it every patch(though i leave soon after finishing the content and achievements, better things to do/play for the moment).

That’s where the guilds come in. They’re not strictly necessary for everyone’s enjoyment of the game, but they do come in handy for me quite often when things get stale and/or too difficult. As always, YMMV.

emkelly.2371:

Anet must have forgotten that we bought three expansions for GW1, not because they made the core game nonviable anymore, but because we wanted the new content. you delivered new content without destroying the old. and you expect any sane human being not to notice that you just threw together some ideas, specifically designed to force players to pay money. Anet, we’d have bought the content anyway, seriously, we would have payed $50 for less content, if it had been well implemented.

Okay that’s enough ranting for me.

And players forget that Anet had at one time planned on continuing in that vein with GW1 until the chapters got so bloated with new skills and classes that the business model became untenable. GW2, right or wrong now, represents a concrete and visible effort to fix what was wrong with GW1 from a game development perspective.

At first I wasn’t really happy with the pricing model for veteran players, but Anet fixed it to my satisfaction. Going forward, as I know exactly what I’ll be getting for my money, I’m happy with things just the way they currently are.

Before reading through this post in its entirety, please understand that I’m not out to telll you why you’re wrong, or even why I think you should be “motivated.” I’m only telling you why I do feel motivated.

I happen to belong to an excellent guild whose leadership has trusted me with some veteran/leadership privileges (such as freely accessing the guild bank, WvW management, et. al). I know most of the PvE content is soloable in theory, but for my money, the social experience is what keeps me coming back.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Many guess the ‘Primordus is active’ is a red herring. Chances seem more likely that Lazarus the Dire is the big bad for Living World Season 3.

Primordus is the big bad for the next expansion.

If we’re guessing.

That would certainly hold true if the releases follow the same pattern they have so far. Living Story = ramp up the excitement for the next release; Expansion = another dragon falls. I don’t have it on authority, but that certainly seems like a plausible scenario, particularly given how far in advance Anet must plan this stuff.

I find it very amusing how people are concerned about their PvP rank. Honestly, is a couple of hours worth of rollback going to make that much difference to you people?! SMH

GFRikku.2983:

just to clarify, the $49.99 / €44.99 / £34.99 is the price of the expansion only, thats right you pay big money for an expansion, almost as much as the core game itself, the price wont drop once the deal is over, they will exclude the free core game deal and the price will stay at $49.99 / €44.99 / £34.99. it is way too high in my opinion for a expansion, the price would have made more sense if it was a game standing on its own like factions did with the nightfall and prophecies. They were all 3 core games and didnt need the other to be present, now the HoT expansion needs GW2 core in order to play. This is just looking like a poor attempt to milk all the cash out of the loyal players. A person who doesnt care about his money will buy it, but a person who wants to make sure his money will be well spend will have second thoughts and he’s more than right. We are no brainless people, sadly we are being ignored from all sides trying to ask for explanation and to request if they could drop the prices for loyal players or for the whole expansion. They will gain less per purchase if they drop prices, yes. But the amount of purchases will increase and i’m sure you will make more money at the end that way.

I would be inclined to agree with you but for the pesky fact that GW2 has no subscription fees. When you consider how much money people pay monthly to this very day to play WoW, I don’t find Anet’s business model to be unreasonable at all. I recognize that this is a difference of opinion between us, and I’m okay with that. But as surely as GW2 is in it to make money, players are going to want as much as they can get for as little as they have to pay. Economics cuts both ways.

It’s really simple, people. If you think the expansion is overpriced, don’t buy it. Eventually the price will come down. It won’t be because of your carping, but eventually it will. And when the next expansion comes out, you’ll have something else to complain about.

For my part, I am happy with how Anet has addressed this. I had concerns, they were heard and addressed to my satisfaction. Thinks aren’t necessarily going to change just because you believe they should; that’s not how this works.

If wishes were horses then beggars would ride.

scerevisiae.1972:

of course. but where is the detailed info on what you get for $50? currently it’s a PVE zone , 1 class, and the elite specs, most of which haven’t even been announced. That’s it. That doesn’t seem like $50 of content to me at this point.

If you’re not happy with the value you get, don’t purchase. It’s that simple. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

I was not initially pleased with Anet’s handling of the bundling structure. This addition of the character slot made the difference for me and I appreciate their willingness to be open to player input. That said, I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that there are some players who are harder to please than I am.

Zhaneel.9208:

Reposted:

“We want to be clear about our business model for future expansions now that we are approaching our first paid expansion for Guild Wars 2. We believe that to keep the game dynamic and vibrant with a constantly growing community, it should be as easy as possible for new players to get into Guild Wars 2. For Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, we didn’t want the core game’s price to be a factor in a new player’s decision to begin playing Guild Wars 2. In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price.”

You guys do realize that they will use this^ as an excuse the continuously raise the price on us, right? $49.99 = HoT $59.99 = Future expansion: aka because it includes HoT already.

That extra character slot still isn’t a sure fire thing. I’m going to wait until they’ve expanded their servers, dropped the price, or whatever before buying HoT sorry.

I’d just like to take this opportunity to point out that there are some players who are much harder to please than I am.

Thank you ArenaNet. You have addressed my misgivings to my satisfaction. I will now most likely be pre-purachasing HoT. Salud Gaile, Regina, Colin, and the rest of the GW2 krewe.

Ohoni.6057:

The very same meeting, based on the very same chain of thought, should have resulted in changes to the “free core for new players, nothing for vets” expansion bundle plan, simply because the FAQ change was a direct consequence of that decision. They couldn’t arrive at a decision that keeping the FAQ unchanged would be bad idea without also thinking that the bundle idea as it is isn’t exactly wise either.

Bull. Updating an incorrect FAQ entry is a minor correction, it has no real drawbacks and is easy to do. Changing the entire pricing model at this point would be a lot of work with a lot of downsides. They can’t just remove the “free core game” aspect from the HoT promotions, not now that they’ve already offered it. They can’t just drop the price of the Xpac either, because $50 is the price of the content inside. They could just bundle in more freebies, but again, that would have a significant cost to them, they can’t just shoot form the hip on that, so to say that “they should have just pulled a u-turn during the meeting where they updated the FAQ” is complete nonsense.

In doing new players a favor, veterans like myself get left behind. I do not approve of this.

You didn’t get left behind. You got everything you paid for, and more.

I am most certainly getting left behind in this bundle structuring for HoT. And I am well-aware that I have gotten everything I paid for — so far. This is why until such time as I feel I am getting sufficient value for my money, I will not be purchasing HoT. The other ways I could look at this and other people’s opinions are immaterial to me. I don’t give a rip what Anet/NcSoft have done in the past, nor any other game designers or publishers. It is what it is NOW and I will proceed accordingly.

Random.4691:

gryph.8734:

Random.4691:

Why do we need to sacrifice ? Why instead does Anet not have to make a compromise ?

I don’t want $50 worth of stuff. I don’t need financial parity to make up for the money I originally spent 2.5 years ago. I just want something —- anything, really — to recognize my role as a veteran player in helping make GW2 what it is today. A skin? A special mini? Hell, a $10 character slot? I don’t know. Just make a token effort to convince me that the last two-and-a-half years of my GW2 play hasn’t been a massive waste of time and money. Until Anet makes that token effort, I will not be purchasing HoT.

So you’re ok with everything they have done with sales prior to the pre purchase announcement ? You’re ok with the hidden extra fee for a character slot ? If you honestly believe for a second that Anet is not aware that the majority of vets don’t have a character slot available then you’re pretty gullible. They are counting on that extra $10 for the character slot from their vets, they know the majority of us do not have a slot available and will be forced to buy the more expensive bundle or an extra character slot. Any way you paint it, they are after your wallet not your best interests.

Believe it or not, I’m okay with that. It’s a freaking game. GW2 is the product of creative effort and untold man-hours of raw coding. I fully expect Anet to be reimbursed and reimbursed well for the work they have put in. What I don’t like is the idea that getting new players appears to be more important to Anet than the effort and money I have put into this game. If Anet can prove to my satisfaction that they want me to stick around (and honestly, it wouldn’t take much), I’d be more than happy to purchase HoT and keep right on plugging away in the war against the dragons. As things stand right now, I don’t think Anet could have handled things worse than they are.

I can only speak for myself, but it’s not really the price itself that bothers me. It’s the feeling that I’ve dedicated a lot of time and a significant amount of money to this game only to be made to feel like I’m not as important as the new players are. Apparently there are veterans who are okay with that. Certainly plenty of veterans are around to tell me how unfair I’m being to Anet. What it boils down to is that unless and until something changes, I’m not purchasing HoT. Now or in the future.