Heart of Thorns is not an expansion, it is a stand alone by its very nature as will be all upcoming “expansions” to Guild Wars 2.
Whatever version you buy, you will never be required the base game, not for now or in the future.
With this cleared up, expectations should be compared to the price we pay. We are asked to pay the price of a full game for HoT (and probably every boxed addition to GW2), so the game can be compared to what we got in GW2.
Even though I think that we actually got too much with the initial release of GW2, getting significantly less than that will be very unsatisfying.
Only time will tell.
Heart of Throrns is an expansion that happens to come with the base game free. That is to say the content in Heart of Thorns is level 80 content. You can’t load Heart of Thorns and create a Heart of Thorns character. Those characters will start in one of the five already existing starting areas, at level 1.
The bulk of the content of Heart of Thorns is level 80 content. That couldn’t be said for Nightfall or Factions, but it could absolutely be side for Eye of the North.
HoT requires Guild Wars 2 base game to play, even if it’s included. Buying Factions and Nightfall in no way required Propehecies.
Eye of the North was labeled an “expansion” as it was no stand alone, you needed at least one of the three versions of Guild Wars to play it.
On the other hand, Heart of Thorns does not require you to already have Guild Wars 2, so there is the difference, it is a stand alone.
Buy Prophecies, you are ready to go!
Buy Factions, you are ready to go!
Buy Nightfall, you are ready to go!
Buy Eye of the North, you are going nowhere unless you own a stand alone!
Buy Guild Wars 2, you are ready to go!
Buy Heart of Thorns, you are ready to go!
If I get the base game for free when purchasing HoT, I really want to get it for free, because I already own a paid copy of GW2, and there is always use for a second account.
But there is no free GW2 account coming with HoT, it only comes as a bundle, so people should stop refering to it as a “free” base game, if most people buying the expansion don’t even get it.
Semantics. Nothing more.
HoT is an expansion, you get the base game when you buy HoT.
If you create a new account, you’ll get the base game and HoT.
If you apply it to an already existing account, and if it’s a pre-purchase, you’ll get another character slot, or a refund (correct me if I’m wrong), depending on when you registered your account.
You get the character slot/refund to make it up for the core game you bought with the expansion.
You will only get one code, which is the expansion plus the core game.
You need the core game to play HoT, which makes it an expansion, not a stand alone.
