Just saying at the outset that I generally really like WP’s stuff and think he’s sharp and insightful, so this is in no way meant as a flame, but:
I’m really miffed at his glibly dismissive “just delete one of your old characters” reply to concerns about character slots. That attitude, which seems prominent with many (I assume hardcore and/or veteran) players and with other youtubers (e.g. BogOtter), completely takes for granted the difference between their own gaming experiences and the experience of those newer players they claim to care about.
Personal experience: I bought the game in January and I’ve been playing it A LOT since then. It is the only MMO I’ve ever played or ever want to play. I’ve got three lvl 80 characters, one of whom I only just got to lvl 80 a about two weeks ago, one lvl 75, and one lvl 30 (that leaves no free slots).
I’m still working on outfitting my lvl 80s (just made my first ascended weapon \o/), exploring builds, trying new things out, and leveling my remaining characters. I’ve put time and work into them and I have plans and goals for what I want to do with each one. These characters are not old stale things that are sitting around collecting dust—they’re what I’m in the midst of working on right now! So the offhanded suggestion that I should just delete one to free up a slot? Is a bit like suggesting I should trash 1/5 of the effort and time I’ve put into the game since I got it!
Think about how tremendously de-incentivizing that is!
I was in the midst of becoming quite a loyal and invested player of this game. Now I’m honestly enjoying the game less, feeling like there’s this weird expectation built into ANet’s HoT pricing strategy that I should delete some character—potentially the character I’m currently working on at any given moment—to gain access to a character slot for the rev in HoT. It really sticks in my mind, despite how I try to ignore it.
WP suggested, fairly enough, that we should focus on the $50 price tag of HoT and whether it’s too much.
He doesn’t want to acknowledge, however, that for many of us (who don’t have an old “trash” character to delete for whatever reason) the total price of HoT will turn out to be $60 in practice, not $50, if we want access to the full content of the expansion—i.e. access to playing the new profession which ANet has been hyping so much. (The perception might be flawed, but given the relatively sparse info that’s been released about other elements, and the large production of hype around rev, the profession does seem to be a really substantial portion of what the expansion is offering.)
If so many people feel like $50 it potentially too expensive for this expansion, then I would say that $60 certainly is!
Regardless, though, (and even if you think it’s somehow “whiny” or “entitled" of me to feel like I ought not to have to scrap like 1/5 of the effort I’ve put into the game thus far in order to access the full content of HoT for its $50 price tag) the suggestion that I delete a character I enjoy and have worked on hard flies in the face of what ANet said when they first announced HoT: that they did not want to make an expansion which, to quote Mike O’Brien, “invalidates all the work that you put in to your existing characters”!
The bottom line: when they say $50 with no character slot, for me and many others, it’s really a total price of $60 for full access to HoT’s content. But we’re seeing them (and, sadly, WP along with them) trying to sweep that number into the shadows “Pay no attention to the price tag behind the curtain!”-style, and I do feel that, as a customer, I am being dealt with in very bad faith because of it.
