Guild Wars 2

RDarken.2495:

This is just silly – you got to enjoy the game for almost four full years – you got what you paid for. Don’t be jelly that new players only have to buy the expansion.

Four years? oh my I got a years extra joy from the almost 3 years the game is out.

And new players could have made the choice to join in and get their extra year of fun too. They didn’t. We did. And that’s how we’re rewarded for it. By treating us like the valued customers that we are.

But I guess we shouldn’t complain, they did offer us one extra year of joy and happynes in those 3 years. We got four years of enjoyment just by playing almost for three. It’s a steal!

;)

KPOBb.8476:

John.8507:

KPOBb.8476:

I don’t get the Veteran entitlement position.

For many there is no entitlement. Its the fact you have to re-buy the base game with the expansion, when the base game still sells for $39.99

http://www.amazon.com/Guild-Wars-Heroic-Online-Game/dp/B00EPOTBUC/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1434664478&sr=1-1&keywords=guild+wars+2&pebp=1434664491874&perid=0KR6MZT0859ZYWF3CDTM

That doesn’t make sense though. The game originally sold at $59.99 for the Digital Edition and $79.99 for the Deluxe Edition.

This 2013 article, shows the price has been dropping from release:

http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/arenanet-permanently-lowers-guild-wars-2s-price-point/

So technically, the HoT is $10 dollars cheaper than the original price, and the Digital Deluxe edition is even around $5 dollars cheaper.

Sure, but then again, does HoT have even half the content of the original game which is now free?
Its simple math. New players who by choice decided not to touch GW2 so far will get GW2+ HoT for 50USD.
Old players who have been supporting the game, and are the ONLY reason there’s even an expansion will have to pay more than double for the same content.
Fair? I think not.
And yeah we got to play it for longer? So what? Again it was their choice, and pretty much to me Arena Net is rewarding those who chose NOT to support their game early on.

RDarken.2495:

That is why I say it is ANet doing something nice for players, as they are literally taking money out of their pockets, as opposed to saying “To play HoT you must pay $40 for the base game + $50 for the expansion.”

If you think Arena Net (or any other company) “is taking money out of their pockets”, then you don’t understand how the world works.

First, it’s objectively wrong – they are literally not taking any money out of their pockets. In fact, they’re asking every player to take (at least) $50 out of his or her pocket (which is probably more than they paid for the base game) in exchange for a future expansion that is highly unlikely to double the amount of content.

Second, every company prices its products based on (their prediction of) how to maximise their profits. Virtually no one would pay $90 (your suggestion) for GW2 + an unknown expansion. If Arena Net tried to charge that much, they would make significantly less money, and end up with less players, which would also reduce their long-term profits from the gem store.

Third, saying “the base game is included for free” is just a lame attempt by the marketing department to rephrase “you must buy the base game again even if you’ve already bought it and played through all of it”. It’s frankly insulting to existing players, and shows the same kind of attitude that cost Blizzard several thousand customers (when they started adding “free extras” for new players, and making existing players pay more for them). But even Blizzard had the basic decency of selling stand-alone expansions at a price lower than the “battle chest” (game + expansion package).

If Arena Net really wanted to “be nice to players” (where “players” is defined as people who already play the game, and who have been paying Arena Net’s salaries for the past three years), they’d say something like “for every 100 gems you’ve bought with real money in the past, we take $1 off the cost of the expansion”.

I’ve spent over $300 on GW2, across two accounts (the second of which I was forced to buy because Arena Net disabled the option to group with EU friends from a US account), and, given the respect they show for their current players, I have no intention of spending any more.

KPOBb.8476:

I don’t get the Veteran entitlement position.

Arenanet has done alot more to get more players in, including 75% off the main game for several times, they changed the whole level progression to “ease in players better” (while to me the original unique feel is replaced with generic MMO feeling and GW2 lost parts of it’s original pull) and now they add in the game in for free so new players don’t even have to buy the main game.

It kind of feels like, “You’re an existing player? Then we don’t need to do anything for you, cause we already have parts of your money and if you want to keep playing, give us more money!”

It seems to me it’s like the big turn off for the buy to play model this way. In order to make money, you need new buyers. (although with an expansion coming I don’t really understand why they only market especially more to new players by throwing in the whole game (minus living story I assume) while basically no special deals for existing players. (other than throw alot of money at them)

It’s like they expect you to buy it anyway and you don’t need any more incentive. Instead of it being veteran entitlement I would rather say it’s the new player preferential treatment which makes people feel left out.

Other than that, it doesn’t seem the expansion currently is selling itself very well. The guild hall feature a few new maps and a profession + specialisations sounds more like a 30 euro expansion. 50 euro is what you pay for a full game these days. It’s what some of us paid for the full Guild Wars 2 game. And if you compare it to that, if you compare the value of the full game (which now seems carelessly tossed in as if it’s something that has no value anymore, gives a great sign like that to existing players as well. Gee guys.) to the expansion you would at least expect the same amount of value from the expansion, which up until now it doesn’t even have.

Arguments that it’s in line with other expansions on other games, feels off by a mile, We’re not interested in expansion in another game, nor are we familiar with what that expansion is offering, or whether that is even worth or not.

Also its pointless saying that you get stuff after or before the expansion is also included. When buying the expansion, you buy the expansion, not stuff that “might” hypothetically come after, nor stuff that has come before for free. As a customer you don’t go to a shop in order to pay for all previous and future bananas in one go because the shopkeeper doesn’t have it’s economic plan in order. And if so, at least it should be advertised as such. It should be advertised that something like raids or other rumours floating on this forum belong to the expansion package but will come after. But it’s likely not, because ArenaNet has reputation that “it comes after” might as well mean 6 to 2 years after if not with the next expansion (*cough*guildhalls*cough*) And “it’s not ready so we don’t talk about it”- policy kind of limits them about saying anything about it.

All in all, it’s way too early to say it’s worth the price of course, but it just feels completely off at this point.

So I was checking internet with " HoT pre-purchase reaction" and found this… xD I must say that it is perfect since HoT gives almost nothing…

I purchased the game at full price $39.99 directly from ANet because it was “required” for the expansion. The gap between their initial “It requires the base game to play”, the start of the discounts and the subsequent bait-and-switch is in the order of MONTHS.

I was just thinking on buying the HOT Ultimate for myself and for my fianceé. But since the first two bundle are so badly priced and most of my guildies won’t play the game if it stays like this…

I am boycotting the purchase now!

For the sake of the veteran players (and the lads who bought the game two months ago…) change the content/price-tag! Otherwise you going to loose MY money as well…

I buy some gems every 2-3 month for the two accounts we play on. You are going to loose this too.

I like your game so far and I’m willing to buy the HoT IF you change a few things!

And yes: Please get this as a threat!

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.

Only a group of Suits in a boardroom could come up with this dishonest corporate jive talk as you still display GW2 for sale in banners.

A smart move would of been to make the base game free, as of now, for everyone.

It’s one thing to make something free after a while, and another thing to charge those people again for something they already bought but state it’s free, especially when the expansion seems overpriced.

I’m having a hard time believing you thought this plan would go well with existing players, unless you think we’re idiots.

1. FAQ: You need the base game to play the expansion.
2. Proceed to include base game into paid expansion package that is more expensive than the game has been for the last year(not counting limited discounts).
3. Act like it wasn’t a bait and switch.

kny.3789:

you guys do know that you dont have to buy the expansion right now.
no one is twisting your arm.

prepurchase is for people who are too hyped to wait for release.
are you too hyped to wait for release?
no?
then dont prepurchase.

Ah, you missed the section of the Pre-order page where it says “Access to All Beta Weekend Events”. It’s at the top of the page. I can feel my arm being twisted just typing those words out…

This isn’t so much an ‘entitlement’ thing as much as… nearly spending what we did on the game originally and not even getting half of what we originally paid for. So far it seems the new things, minus the new class – are equal to the free updates we’ve already gotten in terms of content. So why charge so much?

As a PvE casual I can’t afford to spend $50 PLUS however much it would cost to open up another slot. It would be like buying the game over again. Almost worth having two accounts just so I dont have to delete anyone on my current account – and that’s absurd.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I should be a bit more clear: Please don’t take a comment like “we’re reading your thoughts” lightly.

I was wondering why my scalp felt all tingly every time I clicked on this thread…

Heh .

crunchyraisin.6054:

$50 is a more than reasonable price for an expansion for a free game with no subscription fee. Most of us with brain stems were expecting something in the ball park of $40 anyway.

$50 being reasonable is very much dependent on the content it adds, which is something they are not sharing for some reason. As for the game having no subscription, there is the gemstore in place of that. Gemstore income is what funds non-expansion pack content updates, so whatever is in this paid release of HoT needs to hold up to the price they are asking. Of course, what amount of content is worth $50 varies from person to person, but the info we’ve been given so far has left a lot of doubt for many of us.

I’d say most would agree that asking $50 for something that seems likely to be much smaller than the size of the core game (which was only $10 higher at release) is not reasonable. If it turns out to be much more equal in terms of content, fine. But the lack of info/hype about it does not leave me with much faith in that happening.

I was expecting a $40 price myself. But I was expecting at least 1 char slot with that. And certainly was not expecting a so called “free” core game copy (that I can’t use) to be “included”.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I should be a bit more clear: Please don’t take a comment like “we’re reading your thoughts” lightly. That’s truly not a dismissive comment, but one that is intended to let you know that feedback from our forum members and players will be shared with the team as a whole.

In fact, I’ll edit my previous post to make that a bit more visible.

See, that’s what we want to hear.
Being clear with us is all we really needed, and honestly, I respect that you take the effort to clarify things. The players saying we are just raising our pitchfork of entitlement have no clue what we really want, we want clarity and understanding. We do not just want free stuff. ( But I’ll take it. ) We want to be heard, and we want to know it too.

I am ok with the prices for the most part. I’d just like to know why I am supposed to pay a higher price as an European for the Ultimate Edition, than an American (100€-100$, compared to 45€-50$).

I’d just like to make sure that I get atleast some characterslots as compensation for new players getting the base game for free.

Bitoku Kishi.8346:

Gw2 core game is not going to be free forever. Devs have already posted that its only being included free currently as part of the pre-purchase deal. Eventually the core game will cost XX$ and the HoT expansion will cost 50$

Can we get a source on this please? I’ve seen this claim made in only one other place (WP’s most recent vid on youtube) and as far as I can find there is nothing to support it.

In fact, if you try to buy just the core game now, you cannot! The only way people can buy the core game is bundled together with HoT. There is no word anywhere on this being temporary, but I think it makes it even more obvious why existing players feel like they are being strong-armed into buying a bundled version of the expansion that is irrelevant to them.

We are, in fact, being asked to re-purchase the game, as evidenced by the fact that to buy HoT we have to buy the product bundle that the GW2 website itself is marketing as the (only) way to buy the game—the core game—at all.

There is something that consumers (vet players included) are entitled to: fair business dealings. We are entitled to not being duped, and we are entitled to a basic level of transparency about what we are buying! This is not it. This is swindling. It’s duplicitous and dishonest to try and convince us that we’re buying X (an expansion for a game) when we can see we’re buying Y (a bundled package of expansion with base game).

Blackworm.2167:

Raven.3957:

Bitoku Kishi.8346:

This “extra slot or base game” a good idea. They should definitely give a character slot no matter what for players that already have the GW2 base game. Because let’s face it, how many are going to be sitting on an unused character slot if you’ve already been playing the game? (my guess is almost none)
Players that are coming in fresh can get both games together, and won’t necessarily need an extra slot. But if we already have the base game, it should just automatically give us a free extra slot instead when we purchase any version of HoT.

Some people really are sitting on an extra character slot. The 800 gems is perfect because if they are, the free slot means nothing to them. But 800 gems is.. 800 gems.. lol

You cant go wrong with the 800 gems. If your a new player you choose the core game, if your a veteran player with an open character slot, you get a free 800 gems, and if your a vet player without a character slot, you buy a characterslot with the 800 gems. Everyone wins, no one gets angry with getting ripped off. And best of all, it costs Anet NOTHING to do this fix. They dont have to change any pre-existing orders, refund anyone anything, or go back on their word. They just have to hand out the option to get one thing or the other.

Even though this idea is better than the current state of things, I have to wonder how the value of the base game ($50) equates to the value of 800 gems ($10).
Newcomers still get a vastly better deal, no matter which way you spin it.
To make it equal, the 4000 gems ($50) included in the $100 bundle is what we should really be getting. We already paid the other (mandatory) $50.

That way it’s $50 for HoT (Like everyone), $50 for something (gems) rather than nothing (taking the place of our now-invalidated GW2 purchase), and $0 for GW2 since it’s now free.

Gw2 core game is not going to be free forever. Devs have already posted that its only being included free currently as part of the pre-purchase deal. Eventually the core game will cost XX$ and the HoT expansion will cost 50$

The issue here and now isnt that 50$ for just the expansion is too much, its that new comers are getting amazing deals on buying the expansion, and the veteran players are paying 50$, then having to pay an additional 10$, paying 60$ total for the same content that newbies are paying 50$ for. It should be the other way around, and it would have been that way if they didnt include the core game for free. Because then people would have bought (like many did) the Gw2 Core while it was on sale for 10$, then 50 for the expansion. Meaning everyone paid 60$ to play HoT in the end. Not favoring anyone one way or the other. This blaintent favoring of new players and punishing the old ones is whats gotten everyone’s panties in a bunch.

Bitoku Kishi.8346:

This “extra slot or base game” a good idea. They should definitely give a character slot no matter what for players that already have the GW2 base game. Because let’s face it, how many are going to be sitting on an unused character slot if you’ve already been playing the game? (my guess is almost none)
Players that are coming in fresh can get both games together, and won’t necessarily need an extra slot. But if we already have the base game, it should just automatically give us a free extra slot instead when we purchase any version of HoT.

Some people really are sitting on an extra character slot. The 800 gems is perfect because if they are, the free slot means nothing to them. But 800 gems is.. 800 gems.. lol

You cant go wrong with the 800 gems. If your a new player you choose the core game, if your a veteran player with an open character slot, you get a free 800 gems, and if your a vet player without a character slot, you buy a characterslot with the 800 gems. Everyone wins, no one gets angry with getting ripped off. And best of all, it costs Anet NOTHING to do this fix. They dont have to change any pre-existing orders, refund anyone anything, or go back on their word. They just have to hand out the option to get one thing or the other.

This “extra slot or base game” a good idea. They should definitely give a character slot no matter what for players that already have the GW2 base game. Because let’s face it, how many are going to be sitting on an unused character slot if you’ve already been playing the game? (my guess is almost none)
Players that are coming in fresh can get both games together, and won’t necessarily need an extra slot. But if we already have the base game, it should just automatically give us a free extra slot instead when we purchase any version of HoT.

the standard edition of the expansion should at least give +1 character slot. for $49.99, come on. in GW1 Nightfall and Factions you got extra character slots, because those add-ons gave access to two new profession each. they had to accommodate you because the main point of the add-on is to try out the new professions.

in this new HoT add-on, you get one new profession, so they should at least throw you a bone and give you one new character slot for a Revenant. the fact that $49.99 doesn’t let you play a Revenant, unless you kick down for 800 gems for a new character slot, is just weak.

let the new players get the base game + HoT for $49.99, but let the existing players get +1 character slot instead. having to throw down $74.99 for HoT plus a character slot and some worthless digital swag is just absurd.

RabbitUp.8294:

And then you’ll get justified complaints from the Deluxe buyers, who will claim the main reason they paid more was the slot, and they don’t think their mini Rytlock is worth that much now. You could offer them 2 slots, but they could still say they only need one for the new class.

It’s pretty much too late now.

Why would you pay 15$ more for a 10$ characterslot? If you paid that much more for the slot and the junk, anet could just give those people 800 gems. Or just make the option “Base game, Character slot, or 800 gems”

Who says we only need two options?
________________

If the original good ol’ fashioned ArenaNet has taught us anything up until now, its how to take a community of utterly random people and get them to work together to accomplish something in mass that no other pug community could ever accomplish. From world bosses, to Silverwastes, I’ve seen 100+ man groups doing things coordinated naturaly in ways I’ve never thought possible.

Heres the new boss guys, its Arenanet. And if you complete this Dynamic Event, the reward could be everything you wanted from this expansion and so much more.. All we have to do is work together to show arenanet that were not complaining or griping about prices, but fairness and equal oppurtinuity.

So whos with me? Lets see how many pugs can work together on this one..

I vote this is a good idea: 800 Gems, A Character slot, or the base game choice with all packages.

All in favor? Show me the I’s..

crunchyraisin.6054:

$50 is a more than reasonable price for an expansion for a free game with no subscription fee. Most of us with brain stems were expecting something in the ball park of $40 anyway.

Nobody would complain if they weren’t giving an incentive to new players. As a vet, frankly I’ happy about this incentive. It should improve the game.

You’re getting guild halls, a new pvp mode, elite specializations, a new class, a new borderlands, new maps and god knows what else.

Anet’s only mistake with this was underestimating how many fairness queens are in its playerbase.

I love that what’s fair for you should be fair to all. This thread is to let players have a voice. If they feel cheated/left out, you really have no right to say they’re wrong. Just that you feel different.

I mean really? “Fairness queens”? :/

I will weigh in here just for the sake of letting ArenaNet know my point.

- Adding the base game to the HoT expansion, fine it will be good for the player base in general. I have no issue wit this.
- Cost of $50 US – fine, even though we still don’t have the full details of the expansion and it’s playable size. There are a group of companies in the business to make money.
- Not including a character slot in the $50.00 expansion pack – Not acceptable.
- Advising people that the base game is needed for the expansion (remembering the recent sales of the base game) and then changing that on the website in an underhanded way to suit their current HoT release strategy is also not acceptable.

The player base are more intelligent these days and this is just plain rude, especially to the current and regular players. Anyone who plays this game consistently will have used all of their character slots and most likely purchased more. The expansion should include at least one character slot for the new class.
I don’t want the digital extras that come with the other higher priced expansion packs, they hold no value to me, if they do to you that’s cool more power to you but they do nothing for me.

I can understand the strategy the marketing team are pulling here, but players aren’t that stupid to be pushed into the next bracket of expansion pack anymore. Quite frankly they should have known from previous game releases, expansion packs and DLC releases how the community would react.
I will say that there is a lot of over-reaction in the community but there is still a valid reason for the size of this issue.
I played a lot of time in recent months preparing for the expansion including spending money on gems etc, however this incident has soured my enthusiasm to even log in now, it even scares me that the expansion will be a flop due to lack of relevant information presented to date.
I hope things change very soon for both me and ArenaNet, for now I will support the “Do not pre purchase HoT” movement until ArenaNet show some sort of reasonable information.

Otokomae.9356:

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Are the codes separate when you pre-purchase?

Do you get a code for GW2 and another one for HoT?

Or is it only one code that combines both?

Because a third account would be useful.

You do not get 2 codes, the free account vanishes forever the moment you apply your expac purchase to an existing account.

Thank you for the info. Now that I know that, I won’t be pre-ordering then, and will wait until there is a sale so I do not feel like they are ripping me off in exchange for me supporting them by buying their game.

Sykper.6583:

…
That being said, I am going to stand firm against people who are complaining about the price, attempting to compare it to other games (including GW1) or demanding freebies when clearly all the content between Core and now has been cheap at the very most in cost, given the average player in GW2 might have spent something like $5 (I read this from an article somewhere, it was a comparison between MMOs). I still feel a bit down about the individuals without a case demanding some sort of entitlement for playing the game, and there have been quite a few of those that I have read.
…

You can’t support your points with evidence that you can’t cite. As far as I can tell you made that number up and used it to justify your perception. Anyway, technically your overarching point is correct. Time will fix all of those problems. Entropy is a hell of a drug. Regardless, if you’re going to denigrate people and try to use supporting evidence, at least make sure it exists before you post it.

Unfortunately, everyone is getting screwed on this, bar none. Every single person is now stuck behind some kind of paywall. New players will have to pay for old living story. Old players will have to pay for character slots. The hidden fees system of income generation that has been established is a bummer and will only make people trust Anet less. That, more than anything, is a terrible business move.

The timing of this pre-purchase is pretty questionable. No release date and no final accounting of the expansion’s contents, that’s not what I consider a solid base from where to ask me to cough up money, regardless of the exact amount.

The announced packages don’t strike me as particularly attractive. No character slot on the standard edition, a deluxe edition that doesn’t seem to add much in the way of value and an ultimate edition that adds some cheap gems. The latter seems a good deal if you want gems (I don’t).

Presently, my interest in the game is at an all-time low. I’m 10-15 minutes a day (and not even every day) away from not playing at all anymore. This pre-purchase announcement does nothing to pique my interest. The only thing that can do that at the moment is an announcement stating exactly what’s in the expansion.

I don’t really mind the pre-buy bonus as I’m no longer willing to pre-buy or pre-order anything by now, but what I do mind is the price tag of 50$. If this price would include a full fledged out campaign with a lot of well designed maps I would not mind paying that much, but so far I haven’t seen anything to convince me that we get more than season 3 of the living story taking place on very few maps and an exclusive part of a feature pack from the category ‘nice to have’.
I’m sorry, but that’s not enough for such a high price tag, especially without a free character slot.

Since I no longer plan to get HoT at this point in time, I see no reason for me to continue to play GW2 at the moment. I stuck by you guys for a ton of years, while all of my friends bounced and went to other games. None understood why I kept playing GW1 at that time. I kept the faith even after my original account was hacked and I had to buy the trilogy again while everyone was telling me to join them in the various games they were playing at that time. I stuck by you guys through a ton of gripes that I won’t list here (I’m trying to keep this short).

I’m not saying I’m gone for good, but it’ll be a cold day down under before I pay 50 bucks for that expansion as is. And until I buy HoT, I see no reason to continue playing this game. I’ll holla when HoT no longer looks like a horrible purchase to me. I’m not paying 100 bucks just to feel like I’m actually getting my money’s worth and the base pre-order package ain’t worth 50 bucks in its current iteration. So… peace out for now.

I’ve followed Arenanet since GW1, and this is the most disappointing thing I’ve seen since the lack of promised content since release. You know, there are a lot of other gaming companies making MMO’s anymore and honestly with the way Arenanet is treating their veteran players I plan to move to other games and to urge everyone I know to do so as well, . The decisions that are being made from a business perspective are just plain stupid, I really wished this game could have become something cool as we were promised, but I just see an extremely negative downward spiral of false promises and under-delivering. You guys really blew it, good job.