Guild Wars 2

ProdCloud.5704:

I’m not even mad at the expansion anymore. I am more amazed at the marketing/communications team at Arena Net. It doesn’t matter how big a company is (and ANET is probably on the smaller side comparatively) they are tied heavily to their consumers and weather or not they can keep them from going somewhere else. I mean there are programs that monitor community engagement in a variety of social media platforms, blogs forums etc and they pay people to monitor the community sentiment and develop plans to react to all situations. I’d love to see their communications strategy because they are doing a terrible job. Honestly….really bad.
Whoever in ANET that has said silence is an effective strategy for dealing with incredibly negative community feedback is an idiot. The longer they leave it, the longer it spreads until in every review there are comments putting new players off purchasing any version of the game. Why would they when they can go and buy elder scrolls online which is $60 on steam and is free to play, the same cost as the expansion and a character slot – and which is getting great reviews since it became ftp. Not to mention FFXIV.
How a company handles their consumers is also a great indication of how in touch they are with the market and how safe the brand will be in their hands. Not good at all. Any gaffs now are just going to result in more work down the track to make up any losses in profit which means longer wait before a release and on and on it goes.

Oh, I didn’t know that ESO became ftp, I could play it until HoT price inevitably drops to $10.

Achivements and stuff, I don’t care about those. At least not as much as I care for free character slots and a brand new everything. I could pick a brand new account for $10, even with the expansion. Until the day I buy it for $10 (probably won’t take more than 6 months by the way in this new era of crazy sales) I could use my main, now useless account to reap daily chests of laurels and other goodies (which takes like 10-20 seconds to acquire now, lol) and transfer all useful stuff to my new, bought for $10 account with expansion when the time comes. And continue farming chests at double rate now that I have 2 accounts.

Galen Grey.4709:

mistnmc.6243:

I’m totally ok with anet putting gw2 on a 1week discount %75 or %100
I’m totally ok with price being $50 for the expansion
I’m totally ok with expansion $50, expansion + gw2 bundled for $100, or even $75; but price of HoT = price of HoT + gw2 as an introductory offer (like your %50 discount offer) is plain stupid, and usually offers (sane and reasonable ones) doesn’t work like that.

What is the difference between buying the game seperately at 100% discount and the expansion seperately at $50

or buying both for $100 with a 50% discount?

its exactly the same thing why is one okey but not the other?

If someone punches you in the face you get a broken nose. Also; if an automated door hits you in the face, you get a broken nose again. So how come one is “okey” and the other one is not “okey”? End result is same after all.

Galen Grey.4709:

mrstealth.6701:

Galen Grey.4709:

its not an entirely different situation, its exactly the same thing. well with 100% discount instead of 75% of course. Lets say this week they do a promotion where everyone can get the game for free and next week they open pre-orders for HoT for $50. Isnt that exactly the same thing both in terms of previous promotion and what they actually did?

What you’re describing here is yet another entirely different situation. If they started giving away the core game free next week, I could get another core game account. I could get 20 core game accounts if I wanted them. With the current bundled package, I get nothing but HoT for $50.

The issue here is the disparity between two different versions of what is marketed and sold as the same package.

It is just to illustrate the point, if they gave the game for free even for a week the game would probably die as I am sure you’re not the only one who would open a gazillion accounts. but back on subject it just goes to show the issue here isnt one of being cheat its one of misguided envy.

Let me put it another way.. what if they sold 2 versions one for $50 that has just the expansion and one that includes the base game that sells for $100 … everyone would be fine with that right?

now consider as an introductory offer they put a 50% discount on the bundle that includes the core game. Is this okey? is this something to feel cheated about? and if yes why? why is it okey to put a 75% discount on something but not a 50% on something else?

Thing is we want HoT thats what we’re paying $50 for, and Veteran or new thats what we’re getting. The core game is there for conviniance. We never cared about what Anet did with the core game before, they could discount it as much as they wanted, why does it have to make a difference when they bundle it with something we want?

I’m totally ok with anet putting gw2 on a 1week discount %75 or %100
I’m totally ok with price being $50 for the expansion
I’m totally ok with expansion $50, expansion + gw2 bundled for $100, or even $75; but price of HoT = price of HoT + gw2 as an introductory offer (like your %50 discount offer) is plain stupid, and usually offers (sane and reasonable ones) doesn’t work like that.

I’m totally ok with price being $50 for HoT and a free SEPERATED gw2 account.

But an attitude like “if you want to upgrade your old account, too bad we won’t give you the bonus gw2 account for free because you’re not a new player but our old loyal player.” is not something I’m OK with.

For people trying to rationalise this by thinking it as a sale: A sale is a TIME PERIOD which you can get something for cheap, or some extra freebies. This is not a sale, there is no time limit, you can buy HoT whenever you want, and still get gw2 as a bonus. Oh, sorry, you only get a bonus if you’re new player.

But I can totally understand anet. Well you veterans have already bought the game. Most of you are pretty much done with your gear and customisations. Anet already took much of your money. They are done with you. Why would they think of you? But new players on the other hand, they are juicy. They will need gems too! All those extra character / inventory / bank slots you have, new players don’t. You’re angry and feel frustrated? You’re going to uninstall your game? Oh please do so, they needed that server space for new players with money to spend anyway…