Guild Wars 2

This applies to most hardcore content, and isn’t just exclusive to GW2 – it is very common for the majority of MMO’s out there.

Actually, this applies to almost all content. Somebody, sometime, is going to find the most effective build or build set for that patch.

Ah, found a solution. (Although, it’s still a bug and should be brought to the dev’s attention).

If you go out to the character select screen and go back in the game with your character, it updates the story step.

Hello there,

Brothers and I are trying to replay “Establishing a Foothold”, and the first 2 steps are:
1. Return to the jungle to earn Masteries
2. Earn your glider basics mastery to continue.

We all have our glider mastery’s already unlocked, and spent a mastery point in it – so we should have that second step unlocked.

You’re right – let’s make the Mordremoth infested jungle a bubble-wrapped-restricted play area like the rest of the game and have it be a breeze.

Um. No? It’s Modremoth?

On top of it, the expansion is challenging – but it’s not impossible or overly frustrating to progress through. Unless you’re wearing Berserker gear and/or playing as a glass build, you’ll do just fine.

EDIT:
Would also like to mention: I consider myself a fairly casual player. In no way do I think the content is hardcore or for elitist players – it’s just simply more challenging than the core game. To be honest, GW2 has held too many hands in the core game, and a lot of players have taken that for granted. The second they provide us with something a bit more challenging, the “casuals” (I would be hesitant to even call them casual but more like button-mash-1-er’s) complain about how difficult it is, how ANet is excluding the “casual” community. That statement is false, and since I’m a casual player I can vouch for that. People wanted endgame challenging content, and with the expansion ANet has finally provided that.

I would have to agree.

The content in the expansion is a lot more challenging then any of the content I’ve played in the core-game since launch – and this is coming from a casual PvE player. HoTs is supposed to fulfill what many players have wanted for a long time: actual endgame, actual challenging content. I think they’re on a good path.

As far as grind goes, I had hoped progression within the Mastery system would be quicker. Like, as fast as gaining experience while using the 100% XP celebration booster now. I sort of understand the concept of giving players meaningful progression past Level 80, but it feels like after you hit 80 and enter the zone you’re not the Level 80 Hero you think you are, but a baby learning how to walk again.

But with boosters it’s not a terrible experience. Still really like Mastery’s – it gives players something to look forward to after 80. But it needs to progress a little faster for it to be more enjoyable.

Contact support. Threads like this will just stir up feuds.

GW2 is making people work within the expansion to get their Specializations? Oh, the horror!

The expansion is supposed to help out with the lacking-end-game-content that many people feel GW2 has currently. If specializations need to be unlocked, it is just one more thing end-gamers have to work towards in end-game content. I would hate to be given the Specialization right off the bat, to be honest.

Weren’t we supposed to get a spotlight post today? One for every day leading up to the launch of the expansion? Maybe I’m missing something here.

Difficulty was just fine in the previous betas. Now? It seems as if Mordremoth is taking a vacation, and took his power with him.

I was hoping Heart of Thorns would be the “challenging endgame PvE content”, and the first 2 betas fit that expectation really well. This beta weekend is just “eh”. Hopefully it’s just for the beta, and it’ll get back to challenging at launch.

DresdenAllblack.1249:

I think we can grow closer to the trinity circle without being immersed in it.

This is what I’ve supported for a long time.

For the Original Topic Poster:
I think you’re misinterpreting the direction GW2 is going in. They’ve stated a long time ago that Specializations are supposed to help, fix, or improve upon mechanics of its respective class. The philosophy “Any Class, Any Role” is something ArenaNet has been talking about for ages, and they’re now going in that direction. With each new Specialization release, ArenaNet takes a small step in adding a new role for each class.

With that being said, just because a class is getting a Healing-focused Specialization or Tank-focused Specialization doesn’t mean GW2 is changing its format to solely rely on the Trinity. Having aspects of the Trinity being represented in each class is required if we truly want the “Any Class, Any Role” philosophy to come into play.

Since this is a place to post suggestions, here’s mine about Invasions in general that I recently made. But, it really does apply to this invasion, as well.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Why-Aren-t-Invasions-well-Invasions/first#post5485546

Was Scarlet’s Invasion a risky event? If the player base had “failed” in their attempt, do you think the narrative would have changed, that the game world would have truly changed? Is it possible that the option for the player base to fail the whole event was non-existent, and even if a very small population had participated in the event, the event would nonetheless be a success?

“The Modrem Are Coming! Sike!” -Mordremoth

“Mordremoth is rallying its forces, sending armies of Mordrem out of the Maguuma Jungle to test Central Tyria’s defenses. Drive back the invasion, and stop the jungle dragon from sinking its teeth into vulnerable territory!”

The Modrem staging these incursions are not invading. Modremoth isn’t assaulting anything. To the citizens of Metrica Province, Divinity’s Reach, and The Black Citadel, don’t you worry, you’re not in any danger. The Modrem Guard, who pop out of the ground and wait patiently at their posts, are standing still and enjoying the view while waiting to be slaughtered.

Oh, and thank you, Mordremoth, for the heads up beforehand.

I know this Modrem Invasion event is a way to get a lot of the new F2P players accustomed to the Living World system and try to attract them to buy the expansion. But nonetheless, the meaning of my post through this example doesn’t really change much. Just making a point.

Brace yourselves! A lengthy post is coming! Just think of it as a news article.
- – - – - – - – - -
One of the most exciting things I was looking forward to before the release of Guild Wars 2 was when the developers talked about centaurs invading, and potentially controlling a city. No, no – not the small events we call “dynamic”, the small, meaningless towns that get captured, then expunged, then recaptured, then re-expunged like clockwork. What’s the worth? What’s the risk? What’s the point?

Before release, I had imagined large scale invasions and battles – like Divinity’s Reach unexpectedly getting attacked by a centaur army, its citizens evacuating and running for the hills. I had imagined that Tyria was an actual living world, that if centaurs invaded a city that city would be taken over on a large scale. Its merchants would be gone, Divinity’s Reach now filled with the centaur race, and the centaur’s war banners hung victoriously over its towers. Very Lord of the Rings-esque. It was exciting to hear that a virtual game could create a world that really appeared to function on its own, as if the world was real. Events like this that would happen once in a while, that would pull players in for another large scale PvE battle that could last for weeks, that game channels would talk about and pull even more players into the game, that players would talk about months later, set in stone in history books of The Durmand Priory and in the minds of the players who fought these battles.

- – - – -
Flame & Frost – January 28, 2013:
“The sky falls and the ground shakes in the lands of the north. Charr and norn refugees crawl from the wreckage of their homes in the Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau, struggling to find shelter in the south. The call goes out for volunteers to assist the victims in this time of need, when earth and sky seem to have become the enemy…”
- – - – -

Events that would offer constant and meaningful rewards for successfully fighting against these threats, and along with it, a legitimate risk of a very meaningful and historical loss that would impact Tyria. It would be up to the players to defend the city and prevent its capture. Events like this wouldn’t be announced until the day after the invasion begins, as if news of the invasion had spread across Tyria and eventually made its way to front-page news of the Tyria Times newspaper. So that the world seemed to really have a mind of its own, that these events would seem unplanned, and Tyria would seem to be living and breathing.

Why can’t invasions be like this?

Maybe OP is asking for a combat system such as Tera?

Aeolus.3615:

We would see players flipping to the class that Anet elects “as most effective” most of the time.

This isn’t the case with people who have at least one character of every class, like myself. I don’t switch to classes because they’re good. I switch to different classes because I’m in the mood to play a certain way at a certain time. The thing about GW2 is that there isn’t a “superior” or “most effective” class.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

What’s the point of having alts then…………….

Right, because race doesn’t play a factor in having alts either. Oh wait, it sometimes does!

This system wouldn’t disallow people from making alts, it would just allow characters to swap its class.

Electro.4173:

Bringing it back just for a basic purchasable item would probably devalue it in the eyes of some people who bought the proper amount of gems to get it as an extra reward back during its initial release.

I suppose they could do another “Buy X amount of gems, receive this as a reward” promotion to keep that value in place, but even then those people might be annoyed at losing their “exclusive” reward.

Was just about to post something like this as well.

Re-releasing items that are historic, exclusive, or discontinued lose their historic, exclusive, or discontinued statuses, and in some cases, value.

Eh, I’m hoping raids don’t bring this “casual vs hardcore” and “elitism” mentality to the community. But to be quite honest, we need some challenging content in the game.

When I completed the current dungeons in the game, I felt no satisfaction completing them. They were easy, and not very exciting to complete. Rewards from them are just meh.

What I do hope for, though, is that raids are challenging enough to incentivize people to practice until success and run in coordinated groups. Doesn’t necessarily mean the raids can only be completed by “hardcore” “elitists”, but practice and coordination should be required.

I’ve been looking forward to challenging, small-group content in GW2; hopefully Raids will be this challenging content.

Looking forward to it! Let’s hope this content is actually challenging, though.

EDIT:

Wait, why are you guys upset at IGN? There is nothing in the post revealing a whole lot. We already knew GW2 is releasing “challenging group content”, and a raid is just that. Just curious, what else would you expect new challenging group content to be?

If you’re playing casually, then every class will perform just fine. I love Necromancer, probably my most favorite class next to Warrior. I enjoy running him in casual dungeon/fractal runs. There isn’t really a useless class when running with casual groups, since they all bring something to the table.

If you’re aiming for a hardcore playstyle or with hardcore peeps, then depending on who is in your group you might be kicked from dungeons and fractals. Compared to other classes they just don’t perform as well as other classes do in both support and damage output. This only becomes an issue if your group is trying to complete dungeons and fractals in the fastest possible time.

Is it a huge problem? Not at all. I have no issues finding casual groups to run dungeons with on my Necromancer, and even casually we get through paths pretty quickly. I pop “LFG [path(s) here] casual” in the respective LFG channel and get a full group in no time. It may take you a minute or two longer to complete a path, if you’re speeding through it, but it’s not a huge deal.

The devs tried creating GW2 so that most of the endgame content is available to all at every level. They’ve locked out new players from some of it, such as adding level requirements for PvP, WvW, Dungeons, Fractals, and Season Storylines, but aside from those (and up until you hit those level requirements), pretty much everything else that you do is what you do at endgame.

EDIT: Would like to add that the Heart of Thorns expansion is expanding on end-game content: adding a new storyline, mastery system, specializations, new boss battles, and “challenging group content” that has yet to be revealed.

Trying out WildStar a bit before the Heart Of Thorns release and I’m liking it so far. One thing that I really, really like about the game is their wardrobe system, and I’d love to see this system (or a similar version of it) in Guild Wars 2.

In WildStar (or at least in the Closed Beta for their F2P transition) you pay a one-time gold fee to add the skin of a piece of equipment to your wardrobe. You can then go into your Costume tab and wear those skins over your equipped armor pieces. You can swap costume pieces with the skins you’ve unlocked in your wardrobe at any time, without any additional fees. On top of that, your wardrobe is account-wide, so all of your other characters have access to these skins and can freely use them over their armor pieces with no additional fees.

This isn’t another thread crying about not having enough transmutation stones (because I have plenty, and they are fairly easy to get). I just believe this would make the system more streamlined. efficient, and enjoyable to those who transmute armor skins frequently.

Also I think the problem is that I’m running Shiro with a Burst DPS setup instead of just DPS. Shiro gets stronger over time and he isn’t meant to be bursty. Should I lean more towards surviving longer instead, doing more damage over time instead of burst?

I’m finding sustain being a big issue with the Revenant with the Shiro Legend.

The issue I’m having is this: once you shadowstep in with Phase Traversal, use Impossible Odds + weapon skills to pull off your burst, you really don’t have the energy required for Riposting Shadows. You can rush in a deal a decent burst but you’ve got no way of retreating. They essentially gave Revenant a Thief Legend with no Stealth and no way of retreating. I can’t really find a benefit to that.

Am I playing Rev incorrectly? Should I not play Shiro with a DPS focus then?

More functional and useful builds > More diversity and useless builds.

This is exactly what the new Specialization system gives us. I see no issue with it at all, and I’ve seen all of my characters improve dramatically, even when I had them set with odd-ball builds. I haven’t touched my Engineer in a long time and had a not-so great build with the old system because of it. When they updated to Specializations, I ran with him and did decently well. I still haven’t touched his build.

I think people are upset that we got more freedom with the Traits system. That may be true in a sense, but the “more freedom” we got with the old system didn’t equal overall better experience, better builds, and better synchronization within those builds. I mentioned in another thread (same exact topic) that Specializations will cause more diversity in the builds people run simply because build crafting now focuses on a person’s playstyle rather than what is the meta for that profession.

TLDR
All in all, Specializations is more of a benefit then a detriment, and I feel that the people that don’t think this are focusing on the “freedom” aspect of it and not realizing that the freedom we got to be Master of All Trades, if you will, was almost never effective to use, never useful to take advantage of, and only a very very small minority ran the builds that took advantage of that freedom.

Even in those cases, the old trait system focused players to spread their stat points extremely thin in some areas just to get a boon or ability that may only help in very specific and sometimes very rare occasions.

Anyways back on topic, I’m hoping parts of it will be JP-styled to suit those who like a challenge, and parts of it will easier to traverse. Personally, I suck at jumping puzzles, but would like to see both to cater to both audiences and yet still be accessible to all.

Stripping freedom of choice isn’t necessarily a bad thing in this case.

Yes, we had the freedom to invest 14 points across 5 trait lines, but usually it was an awful idea to do so and wouldn’t grant you as many wortwhile benefits as traiting just into 3. Not only that, but there were many traits across all professions that provided little to no meaningful investment.

Despite the old trait system giving you more freedom to invest a little bit in every line, to try and be jack of all trades, I didn’t ever find it to be good to do so. Find me a “meta” build in the previous version that invested in all lines and still performed on par with those who invested in only three or even four lines.

The Specialization system allows more build diversity, in my opinion. You can make a lot more worthwhile builds with this new system, builds that suit your playstyle more than what the meta is (or was) and still be successful.

I’m sure whatever the new meta turns in will contain more builds than ever before. I know I’ve been running 3-4 different types of builds on my Guardian, Warrior, Elementalist, and Engineer and they’ve all been doing pretty well. Maybe it’s because everyone else is doing the same thing (creating more “unique” builds and testing), but I’ve been having a ton of fun and on top of that, can see myself running a larger variety of builds in Ranked after the first week of the patch is done and over with.

(Note: I’m not saying there won’t be a meta, but as far as builds go, there should be more “meta builds” with this system than before.)

What’s shady about it?

They planned for Heart of Thorns to be an extension of the core game, similar Eye of the North was. Eye of the North required a core game (Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall) for the player to play this expansion. This is exactly how Heart of Thorns ended up as (and how it is currently).

Similarly, future expansion from Heart of Thorns forward will include the core game (because it requires it), the latest expansion, and the newest expansion all in one price, just like Heart of Thorns was included as a free bonus in the core game price.

Now whether or not the expansion will be added for free we have yet to find out, but if they plan on keeping it consistent I’m assuming all future expansion will act like Heart of Thorns, where you pay for the expansion and the latest expansion + core game comes as an added bonus.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

piano man.1672:

Swanky McDanky.5214:

GuzziHero.2467:

Um no.

I dont want or need an extra character slot. I deleted toons because Anet screwed us over with Ascended, so I have loads spare. But I don’t agree with any ‘gem equivalent’.

People got what they asked for, leave it at that.

^ this. I bought the ultimate, I now have 3 unused slots + a beta. That’s fine. you’re all getting what you asked for.

How are you getting 3 extra slots? Each edition gets one additional slot, and the Deluxe and Ultimate editions already have a slot, so anyone who purchased the Deluxe or the Ultimate editions have 2 additional alots. (Unless you used the gems to buy yourself another slot or two.)

He deleted a toon previously (1 slot unused), then bought Ultimate (1 slot), and now we’re all getting an extra slot (1 slot). So now he’ll have 3 unused slots.

I couldn’t find the post in this thread where he said he deleted a toon, unless he was saying what Guzzi did is what he did as well. Just curious to see where he pulled 3 slots from.

Talon Silverhawk.3574:

Entenkommando.5208:

Talon Silverhawk.3574:

Umm yes, I made a decision to buy a package based on a slot that I could have got for free ,

You decided to pay 25$ more because of something you can buy for 10$ ?

You have no right to complain here.

I have every right to complain how and when I wish.

Did you buy the extra package, if yes then you can do what you wish, complain or not.

If you didn’t then really kitten all to do with you, move along nothing to see here.

K thx bye

No one is arguing about whether or not you have the right to complain about something. Everyone has the right to complain. In fact, the whole community did in a very toxic way. People are questioning the content that you are complaining about.

1. You stated that you purchased a package based solely on the character slot.
2. For example, the Deluxe is $75 and comes with a character slot.
3. Character slots are $10 each. If you wanted to purchase the Deluxe just because of the character slot, why not pay $50 for the Standard edition and pay $10 for the character slot?

We’re basically saying you shouldn’t complain about something because:
1. If you purchased any package just because of the added character slot, you made a poor purchase decision and lost money.
2. If you purchased any package for the character slot and the goodies, then there’s no need to complain if you wanted the character slot and the goodies.

You might be able to get a refund and downgrade to the Standard edition if you contact support. No guarantee, but it’s a possibility.

Swanky McDanky.5214:

GuzziHero.2467:

Um no.

I dont want or need an extra character slot. I deleted toons because Anet screwed us over with Ascended, so I have loads spare. But I don’t agree with any ‘gem equivalent’.

People got what they asked for, leave it at that.

^ this. I bought the ultimate, I now have 3 unused slots + a beta. That’s fine. you’re all getting what you asked for.

How are you getting 3 extra slots? Each edition gets one additional slot, and the Deluxe and Ultimate editions already have a slot, so anyone who purchased the Deluxe or the Ultimate editions have 2 additional alots. (Unless you used the gems to buy yourself another slot or two.)

I accept the apology. I understand tons of people were upset, but I’d say it was overall pretty harsh (not you specifically, but the response from the community as a whole). To be quite honest, I was really upset with how the community responded to the pre-purchase packages.

At least from my point of view, Guild Wars 1 always had an amazing community, and Guild Wars 2 had built a pretty good community as well. Seeing something like this happen to this community was really upsetting. On top of that, think about all of the people who don’t play Guild Wars 2 and are interested. If I saw something as big of a level as this was for a game, I’d have no interest whatsoever in touching Guild Wars 2 or being involved in its community. People complain about how Arena Net packaged the prepurchase bundles and how they were handling the situation before their resolution, but I think the community needs to take a look at how they packaged their anger and how they handled the situation.

In the public’s eyes, it played out bad for Guild Wars 2, a game [most of us] love, support, and enjoy, and it played out bad for the community as a whole.

I don’t think scooping things under the rug is the right way to handle a situation. Although forgiving and forgetting may be beneficial for the present, forgetting is a crucial element in how future events are reanimated and observed, and is a factor leading to history repeating itself.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Jordo.5913:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Let me use a real world example of this. Say you purchased the Collector’s Edition because you really liked that Rytlock statue. Then a week later, Anet says that all players will get a Rytlock statue, and Collector’s Edition players will get 2. What do I do with the extra statue, since I only really needed one.

Ebay? Sell it to a friend?

Unfortunately, I can’t sell or even gift my extra character slot to someone else.

Then, Smooth Penguin, you used an awful example to try and prove your point

In fact, that just proved my point. You can’t do much with a physical statue other than admire it. Or play with it. Whatever floats your boat. But you can give it to someone, or sell it.

The extra character slot cannot be given away, cannot be sold, no one but you has access to it. It’s 100% completely free, it didn’t cost you anything. And, if you ever decide to make an additional character for whatever reason, you don’t have to spend another $10 in the future. Stop complaining, be happy.

Miku.6297:

Jordo.5913:

If you paid for the deluxe version just for the character slot.

You’re a kitten fool, and should’ve bought the 50.00 base game and bought 10.00 in game chr slot, and saved yourself some money, and you deserve to be burnt by this.

Otherwise, you bought the deluxe because you wanted the slot plus the other goodies, so you’re not losing any value.

What if you bought it because you valued the other goodies and the SLOT because you needed one? Now the extra slot removes the need for that…

People really need to stop thinking others bought the upgraded versions JUST for the slot, the slot was simply a FACTOR in their decision to buy,

Jordu was responding to the guy in an earlier post who was saying he was upset that ANet gave out a free character slot for each edition, and the reason he paid for the Deluxe was for the character slot alone. That guy is an idiot, since character slots are $10 a piece.

He finished with, if you [any reader] bought the deluxe for the slot and the other goodies, you didn’t lose any value.

Entenkommando.5208:

Talon Silverhawk.3574:

Umm yes, I made a decision to buy a package based on a slot that I could have got for free ,

You decided to pay 25$ more because of something you can buy for 10$ ?

You have no right to complain here.

@Entenkommando.5208, keep in mind that the extra $25 you spent if you went with the Deluxe got you a mini, a finisher, guild hall decoration, and a glider skin. If you bought the second package based on the character slot alone, then you lost out here and don’t have much to reason with, since character slots are $10.

If you went with the Ultimate because of the character slot alone, then you’re really on your own.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

piano man.1672:

I guess so, but the character slots don’t actually lose any value to players who already have the Deluxe or Ultimate editions. It’s icing on the cake!

The Ultimate edition already had icing. The extra character slot in addition to the one that comes with Ultimate is too much icing. And when you have too much icing, the cake is too sweet, and is inedible until you scoop off the extra layer. Then that extra icing becomes a waste.

Well if you think having 2 additional character slots is too much icing, that’s up for you to decide. For someone like me who bought the Deluxe edition, getting 2 character slots when I first thought I’d get 1 is an awesome deal for me. And If I had purchased the Ultimate edition, it would be the same thing.

I’m assuming you purchased the Ultimate edition? Why not be happy with the extra character slot? I’m not sure if I’ll even use my second one, since I already have 8 slots, but I could care less. It’s a free slot!

EDIT: Also I thought that was a horrible analogy. You’re saying a free character slot on top of everything you’re getting with the Ultimate is way too much, makes the free bonus on top of what you thought you were getting too sweet, and the game is unplayable/unenjoyable until… what? You scoop the character slot off of your account? Why are you complaining about something you get for free?

You got to be kidding me. facepalm

Despite its outcome, people will always complain about something. =D

Smooth Penguin.5294:

By giving a free slot to all existing players who pre-order, the additional slot in the Deluxe and Ultimate lose value. It’s safe to say that the extra slot in the original offers was the main draw for a majority of the players who already purchased the pre-order in the past week. Now, it’s not about getting 2 extra slots, it’s the fact that some players might have just stuck with getting the base HoT pre-order.

I guess so, but the character slots don’t actually lose any value to players who already have the Deluxe or Ultimate editions. It’s icing on the cake!

Yes I agree, to a degree.

Despite missing items on GW1 because of certain events, I was never too upset about it. First off, it’s exclusive for a reason! It shows others you were there when the event occurred, you didn’t just purchase it afterwards.

This is what bothers me about GW2 – many of the items that were “one-time drops” can be bought/traded on the trading post. This doesn’t make them exclusive, since anyone can afford them with enough effort. Everyone has access to these weapons. Now you don’t have to be there when an event happens, you can just buy it and brag about it to others like you were.

Those really cool weapons you got that dropped only during this one event years ago? Yeah, some new guy just spent money to get that same weapon. Special, unique, one-time weapons? Nah, we’re all about being equal here. Since, you know, life is fair and every child is a winner and should get a trophy at the end of the soccer game despite its outcome.

This also doesn’t justify the reasoning behind why we shouldn’t have exclusive items either. Just because some “one-time drop” items are behind a big paywall in the TP doesn’t mean exclusive items shouldn’t exist in the game.

It’d be nice if exclusive event items were account-bound on acquire. Maybe these weapons would have different particle effects or colors, so that when re-skinned versions come out later there’d be a difference between the originals and the remakes.

I can’t keep stressing this enough.

People who bought Guild Wars 2 on the $10 weekends are in the same boat. They paid $10 while I paid $60 at launch. For the base game, I paid more. And they got more bang for their buck, a bargain deal/discount. More content per dollar spent, if you will.

People who bash Arena Net for including the core base game for free (without Seasons 1, 2, or any previous holiday events or locked content) to new players so that they can play the game and be on par with current players, then those same people need to bash Arena Net for having any sort of sale whatsoever, including the $10 sale weekends. Why? Because they got more bang for their buck, they got a bargain deal/discount.

People that complain about Arena Net for being unfair in this respect, are in this same boat.

Shoot. Where’s MY Veteran Refund? Doggonit, I deserve it! Actually, you don’t.

Here’s the thing: Veterans got Seasons 1 and Seasons 2 of living world included in the $60 purchase (if you logged in within the 2 week periods), we got to play content that new players are [possibly] permanently locked out of (Season 1) and must pay for to play through (Season 2). Whether or not veterans feel the $60 purchase was worth it for every 2-week-content release is up to them to decide. But that’s a different topic.

As far as including a free, core base game for all players, that becomes an issue. Why? Let me use points by Bog Otter to explain this:*
+ Allowing all players to have a free code for the base game means that for every player who redeems these free codes, they only have the base game and not the expansion (Which, I’m pretty sure, isn’t Arena Net’s intention. They want every purchase from here on out to include the expansion, since all future living story and content updates will, most likely, require the expansion.)

Let’s say 1,000,000 veteran players buy the expansion. This means:

+ 1,000,000 free base game codes are out there that veterans can give to people.
+ 1,000,000 players wouldn’t have the expansion.
+ After being given a free code, the people that buy the expansion now also get a free code? That would essentially mean a perpetual supply of free codes and the cycle would continue.

Giving a free code to every person who purchases the game doesn’t make much sense, and Arena Net probably isn’t going to do that. You might as well make the base game free for everyone in this case.

I think this idea came about because veterans didn’t think twice about the $10 sale weekends GW2 had, and they didn’t realize that the base core game was added after the fact as a free bonus to new players and has no effect on the price of the expansion.

Send in a support ticket maybe. I’ve heard that some people who purchased the game within the last 30 days gets a refund/upgrade to the Standard. I don’t think it hurts to send in a ticket.

So if everyone boycotts and the price goes down, what happens to the players that purchase a prepurchase edition now?

Should they have a right to complain like the community is now, for paying $60 for the game at launch, and then have the game for sale at $10 at some points, or $20 for the boxed, or $50 for the game (with expansion added) now?

If the price goes down because of a boycott, then I’d like to see refunds by ArenaNet.

But this $50 for the expansion and the box price is a discount deal for new players. It makes sense. And I don’t see Arena Net reimbursing those who paid $60 at launch because Arena Net put the game on sale for $10 some weekends.

Rashy.4165:

piano man.1672:

Wait, for those saying that the base game used to be $20 as of yesterday, I don’t think that’s true (unless it was momentarily on sale or there was an error).

I checked on Monday the price for the game while speaking to a friend about GW2 (specifically June 15th, 2015 at 6:30pm, according to my Steam chat), and for the standard edition it showed $40. I doubt they were selling the game for $20 for 2 days, but I could be wrong.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2#Guild_Wars_2_editions

The boxed edition, with no benefits, was $20. At some point, a digital version of it was available, but I guess it wasn’t available on buy.GW2 – but you could still get the basic version from retailers (http://www.amazon.com/Guild-Wars-2-Pc/dp/B001TOQ8X4/ – yes it does say $40 discounted to $20, which Amazon tends to do, but that’s not the Heroic edition). The Heroic edition was the one that was always $40 on buy.GW2.com, the default option people went for, and the one that people went for during sales. The Deluxe edition was also on buy.GW2 for $60 (IIRC).

That was my mistake – there was no $20 digital edition, but there is a $20 boxed edition with no extra benefits.

The wiki lists two previous editions: The DDE (was $80 on launch), which is the current Deluxe edition, and the standard edition ($60 on launch and gave two pre-purchase benefits which were gone after launch).

The Collector’s Edition was limited to something like 10000 copies.

Got it. I didn’t even realize they had a boxed edition for $20 because it wasn’t listed on the site. Thanks

Nuzt.7894:

The number itself is not my point, $50 is fine if its $60 for the xpac and core game.

The number itself isn’t my point either.

You’re saying they should either increase the price of the bundle and/or decrease the price of the expansion, even despite the fact that Arena Net wants to add the core game to new players for free.

I’m saying, Arena Net has no obligation to do it, and it’s completely legal and it’s completely fair. Products are bundled together sometimes, people get stuff for free even though they don’t have to pay full price. Steam does it all the time, Humble Bundle does it with an even bigger discount most of the time.

Your opinion may be that they should increase/decrease the price, and that new players shouldn’t get the core game for free. That’s fine, I respect your opinion, and I’m not saying it’s right or wrong.

Nuzt.7894:

In my opinion the xpac should be available as standalone for less, even if its $40 for those of us that have the game. Charge $50 for the core & xpac, if I pay $50 for both, I should get a fresh new account because that is what I am buying. I only want the upgrade, so it makes sense that it should be cheaper for the upgrade only.

Of course that’s just one consumers opinion, but I’m certainly not going to lose sleep over it. I will say I do not agree with Anets logic on this one, veterans do have a right to be unhappy about this.

The expansion was $50 to start out with. Arena Net decided, most likely after-the-fact, that they would include the core game for free to new players. In my opinion, the price shouldn’t be discounted just because they’re giving the core game to new players for free.

I think people believe that the core game is included in the expansion price of $50. That’s not the case. The expansion price is $50 without the core game. The core game is a free bonus to new players.

I do think they should have made the $50 expansion separate from the core game, and just sell the core game at a discounted price than normal. But I think Arena Net’s decision was to make it very easy for new players to hop into the game before the release of the expansion, learn the game, and still be able to participate with the friends/guilds they’ve come to know since then. Whether it was a good idea or not amounts to an individual’s opinion.

Think of this prepurchase, standard edition price of $50 as a bargain sale.

I’m not saying veterans don’t have a right to be upset. They have the right to feel however they want about it. But if veterans get upset about this, then they, too, should have been as upset as they are now when Guild Wars 2 was on sale for $10.

In addition, veterans should also be this upset when Guild Wars 2 has sales within the gem store.

ReaverKane.7598:

piano man.1672:

Yes, even I purchased an extra alt account for myself! It’s awesome

Let me try to clarify (for myself) what you’re trying to say, since I don’t know what you’re referring to as “everyone”.

You’re not getting what he’s saying.
What he’s saying is that people who don’t have a GW2 account GET GW2 + HoT.
If you buy HoT WITH your current account (so you can access Maguuma and whatnot with your current characters) You get ONLY HoT, because you already have GW2.
If you use a new account to buy HoT and get both, you can’t access Maguuma with your current stuff.

I totally get what he’s saying, and I think you skipped out on the rest of the post. I could be wrong on that point, though, but then you wouldn’t have made this post .

In fact, he clarified his own post after I made mine. Thanks for clearing up what he cleared up for me, though

ReaverKane.7598:

If you got a SECOND GW2 account when you pre-order HoT. Or equivalent stuff (like a new character slot, and/or bank/bag expansions), then it would be equal for all.
So basically people who never gave a crap about GW2 are getting more money than those of us that pre-ordered the Core game, and been supporting the game since.

Individuals who purchased Guild Wars 2 while it was on sale, regardless of the sale, have gotten more money out of it than I have by default, since I paid full price for Guild Wars 2, right? So if Arena Net is required to make it equal/fair for everyone, they should refund the difference to everyone who paid $60 and $40 for the game because individuals who paid $10 during that sale got a better deal.

No, they aren’t required to do this, regardless of how long people have supported the game. Yes, they appropriately have the right to discount the game whenever they choose to, and are not obligated in any way shape or form make it “fair” or “equal” for those who paid full price for the game at launch.

ReaverKane.7598:

Atm, the price is wahy too high for current content. I’m waiting for more info to decide what to do. Most likely i’ll keep just core game, and wait till the expac falls in price (so probably 3-6 months after launch) if the expac disapoints and keeps the current price.

My personal “budget” for HoT after the announcement would be more like 50-55€ for deluxe, not 45 for the standard. For me they simply didn’t announce enough stuff to justify paying the same price tag as the core game at launch.

That’s a good idea! If you feel you don’t want to take the risk and pay for something you don’t fully know about, go for it! More power to you. I highly suggest people go this route.

I’m paying for the expansion whether it’s good or bad, personally, because I feel they’ve given me an awesome deal for almost 3 years in comparison to competitor MMO’s.

Gray.9041:

basically, if the sale is to get GW2 and HoT, they should be separate, so that even existing players can use both if they want. they keep saying it’s HoT with an additional extra – not a bundle. if so, the two should be separate – but they’re sold as a single code.

I agree 100%, and think Arena Net should have approached it this way instead of adding the base game to every expansion edition. That would have caused a lot less complaints by most individuals who believe that the core game price is included in the expansion pre-purchase editions, since we now know that the core games were included after-the-fact as a free bonus to new players.

Spittinglama.5287:

I posted last night saying pretty much what you said, OP, but my post got deleted because I said the community was being immature and childish.

Good post, +1

Thanks! Sorry that yours got deleted.

DiogoSilva.7089:

What about the people that will need to churn an extra $10 to gain access to a key expansion feature (the revenant)?

Then those people will need to churn an extra $10 to gain access to the Revenant.

No one is required to pay an extra $10 to have access to the Revenant. If you have purchased the expansion, you get access to the Revenant. It’s included in the expansion.

Now for character slots, that depends on the person. If you’ve used up your 5 character slots and don’t want to delete any of them, then you’ll have to pay $10 for another character slot. In this case, if you wanted to play any of the other base professions included in your initial purchase of the base game (because there’s 8 base professions), then you’d also have to pay an additional $10 (or more). Same goes with playing any of the Elite Specializations for any profession, if you don’t already have them in your 5 character slots and don’t want to delete characters.

I personally think Arena Net should have included at least one character slot on all editions, but that’s just me.

Wait, for those saying that the base game used to be $20 as of yesterday, I don’t think that’s true (unless it was momentarily on sale or there was an error).

I checked on Monday the price for the game while speaking to a friend about GW2 (specifically June 15th, 2015 at 6:30pm, according to my Steam chat), and for the standard edition it showed $40. I doubt they were selling the game for $20 for 2 days, but I could be wrong.

Gray.9041:

piano man.1672:

In regards to new players getting a “free” or discounted base game…
Arena Net has had sales for Guild Wars 2 at $10 before (I believe twice), and this really isn’t any different. Arena Net has had sales for GW2 at lower than launch prices before as well. If someone’s argument is that new players get the base game for $10 (the current price for the base game alone is $40) and that it is unfair for current players, then those same players also have to bash Arena Net for the $10 sale weekends, or for any sale they’ve done in the past, and for reducing the base game price from $60 to $40 a long time ago.

this is a fair point, but back during those sale existing players could and did buy extra accounts, to use as alts or give to friends. the problem is not the core game being free with HoT, it’s the core game NOT being free for everyone with HoT.

Yes, even I purchased an extra alt account for myself! It’s awesome

Let me try to clarify (for myself) what you’re trying to say, since I don’t know what you’re referring to as “everyone”.

You’re saying that the problem is that the core game is not free for everyone with Heart of Thorns. The core game comes free with every (edit: prepurchase) edition of Heart of Thorns, so that statement is false.

If you’re saying the problem is that the core game is not free for players who have purchased the game previously, then that statement is true. But people need to understand that it’s essentially a special, bargain deal. I’ve seen many games sell an expansion and have the base game included. Many of the sales on Steam are like that.

Not saying that you have this statement or that it’s your opinion, but I personally don’t think it’s a valid argument that current account holders deserve a free game. I see where people are going with this, but if people are upset that new players get the game for free with the purchase of the expansion, then those same people need to bash Arena Net about every sale they have for Guild Wars 2, whether it be the base game, the expansion in the future, or even gem store sales.

Here is the quote I found that states the expansion is $50, and the core game was added, for free, as a bonus to new players:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

To clarify: $50 is the price of the expansion. We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.

iOwl.1875:

includes Guild Wars 2 core game, i will get one more Guild Wars 2 game?
i mean if i want to get it expansion for myself and give Guild wars 2 core game for my girlfriend in another account, is it possible?

If you purchase any of the editions, you should be able to redeem that code on your current account.

If redeemed on your current account, then you get all of its benefits without the core game (since you already have it). If you purchase it and redeem it as an account on its own, then you get the core game included as well as all of its benefits.

EDIT: I see. I’m not exactly sure, I’d message support on that and see what they say. I think it’s a single code, that includes the core game (if you don’t have it) and its benefits according to the edition you purchase.

It would be nice to have the expansion and core game separate, but I’m not sure if it works that way.

IchbinVol.5407:

piano man.1672:

According to a post from the development team (I’ll see if I can find it), the initial cost for the base expansion was $50, which is what it is now. They added in the core game to each edition as a free bonus for new players, so that they can play and level a character (or characters) up to 80 to play the new content and learn the current game mechanics.

They have shown us nothing to warrant a 50 dollar price tag. I’ve seen more from GW1 expansions, and they were much less.

I agree, but it doesn’t change the fact that the price for the expansion was $50 without the game, and the core game was added as a bonus to new players. It is essentially the same scenario for individuals who purchased Guild Wars 2 during the $10 weekends. They got the discount, and the community didn’t make as many complaints as the community is producing now.

I never said $50 was or wasn’t an appropriate price for the expansion (based on the information we have currently). I’m hoping after we know all the information about everything in Heart of Thorns that it does warrant kitten price tag. I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out.

Zok.4956:

piano man.1672:

To be honest, I was fully expecting a $40-$50 price tag for the expansion. I personally don’t have a problem with that price. If the issue is with the price, then that’s fine – it’s your opinion, and you should let Arena Net know you’re not interested in paying that much for Heart of Thorns based on what we currently know the expansion contains. If you don’t feel $50 is an appropriate price for what we currently know the expansion contains, then wait for more information to be released and decide for yourself if $50 is worth it. The only benefit you get from pre-purchasing now is a title and full beta access to all HoT betas (as far as the standard package goes).

And I think this is really some of the underlying reasons for some the rage.

$50 seems too expensive for what we now about the content that is included in the expansion. A-Net wants a “big pricetag” but it does not yet look like a “big expansion”.

If most people would think that we get an excellent value for the $50 there would be less complaints.

Thats why I wait with my pre-purchase decision until they revealed all that is included in HoT.

I totally agree with you.

I think I’m going to pay for the expansion regardless of how it turns out, just because I have enjoyed the base game since launch so much and for such a great price, in comparison to its competitors. And because of this , I don’t have a problem investing in Guild Wars 2 and its expansion. I look forward to seeing how the expansion evolves and how Guild Wars 2 grows.

IchbinVol.5407:

Judging from past experiences, and what they’ve shown us, I was thinking $29.99.

But then again, we do get a “free” copy of the core game, that many of us already have. So that apparently boosts the price….

According to a post from the development team (I’ll see if I can find it), the initial cost for the base expansion was $50, which is what it is now. They added in the core game to each edition as a free bonus for new players, so that they can play and level a character (or characters) up to 80 to play the new content and learn the current game mechanics.