Guild Wars 2

Healix.5819:

They should have offered HoT for $49.99 and HoT+GW2 for $59.99. Instead, they cut the heroic edition and simply included it for free. The heroic edition’s rewards alone had a $20 value, so if you subtract that from the $10 price tag, the core game by itself has no value.

Or sold HoT+GW2 for $49.99 ( current pricing)
and HOT upgrade + character slot for $49.99 ( to add a perk to veteran players)
Done deal everyone is happy.

At this point I, nor my guild is buying HOT

Anet’s official post says they will give a refund for Core to buy HOT if it was bought in the past month, but all progress will be lost.

In other words you get your money back for Core and re-buy HOT and start over.

Rainbowsand.2438:

As amount of people kittening about Arena’s kittened up pricing policy is definitely greater than of those who preach to “Stay calm and just pay up”.

I am not sure about that.
I am see a lot of post for the “Stay calm and just pay up” camp. I am also not sure why they are so interested in this topic because it really does not effect them. The group that feels cheated has a stake in this, and the other side does not lose anything either way.
But, I want to thanks them for keeping this issue alive.

Xar.1387:

Ey, guys. I feel like most of you dont understand how B2P MMO works.

Ey, I am not sure you understand how business works.
If customers feel they are cheated then they do not buy or move to a products that they feel like the company cares.

Pokalipto.7186:

I have noticed that they ignore every post, but as a known company that been here always for the customers and not to be rude or something, I am expecting an answer for that as we all deserve to know

+1

Errant.1509:

/15char

SHAME

If it was not such a bad deal for veterans we would not be complaining, the board would not be exploding, and other forms of media would not be picking up on this: Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Massively, and even PC gamer:

“Guild Wars 2 players rightly upset by Heart of Thorns’ pre-purchase scheme”

“People who don’t yet own Guild Wars 2 are getting an amazing deal. People who do—who have potentially supported the game for three years—are not.”

Yes it is a big deal, and it would be nice if you looked at outside for a moment. Not asking for you to agree, but just look. Just the fact that PC Gamer agrees with us should carry some weight.

RE: why new players get the better price deal?

It appears Anet cares more about money generated by attracting new players than taking care of the ones that supported them though out the years.
But since they will not comment on the subject we do not know for sure.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Again, it’s a lot about perception. I don’t see it this way. I view it as paying or not paying $50 for HoT. Giving the base game away free to new players doesn’t factor into it for me.

Outside independent sources see it the other way.

Quotes from PC Gamer:

“Guild Wars 2 players rightly upset by Heart of Thorns’ pre-purchase scheme”

“People who don’t yet own Guild Wars 2 are getting an amazing deal. People who do—who have potentially supported the game for three years—are not.”

Oooo or use duel monitors….

The UI does not bother me except for that horrid “Compact” inventory
I can not tell you how many times I have unintentionally Compacted my sorted inventory! LOL

IndigoSundown.5419:

However, there are two excellent reasons to tie the “free core game” to a purchase price rather than making it F2P.

1. Going F2P for core GW2 would provide illicit RMT traffickers with an unending supply of free accounts to peddle gold via chat spam and in-game mail. This would also reduce the effectiveness of account closure as a deterrent to their behavior.
2. Some players would obtain large numbers of accounts and use the login rewards to farm T6 mats via laurel purchase. Anyone who makes gold by selling T6 mats has a vested interest in preventing the proliferation of T6 mat supply.
   .

Two very good points IndigoSundown! Very forward thinking.

Though my point was the core edition has value and already owning it, I should not have to pay for both it and the update a new player will.
Just give me the extra memory slot an I will buy it.

Lethality.1732:

I just don’t follow this… the expansion is $50 and that’s the beginning and end of the story. It also includes GW2 if you don’t have it.

You can complain that the price is too high, but, I mean that’s consumerism… many things are priced “too high” but that all depends on where you stand.

Check out the PC Gamer article Lethality. It explains things really well.

Ashen.2907:

No it isn’t, denial of plainly obvious fact is not an opinion, it is willful ignorance. They told people that this expansion required previous purchase, and it does not, and therefore, based on the expectation they set, the only fair option is that there be a purchase option where the base game is not included.

Fair is always a matter of opinion.

I do believe that the bit about announcing the need the base game and selling it right up until the announcement that the core was included was a misstep. I beljeve that it was a mistake. Fortuately Anet seems to be attempting to correct the mistake for those who purchased after the announcement that the base game would be needed.[/quote]

But is the fix the best solution? Sure we give you a refund and then delete a month of your play time away. I think they dropped the ball again.
Maybe just let them update for $50 and give them $10 in gems for losing the month.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Again, you can’t buy this level of bad press. Anyone who can’t see ANet dropped the ball, in a big way, at this point is just kidding themselves.

I really feel that Anet is going more the the new people that the ones that funded them to make the new expansion.
Whether you agree or disagree with me. The bad press is spreading. their usual silent tactic is not working this time. (So far).

CureForLiving.5360:

People still banging on about this? Eh… go post in one of the merged threads you’re in no way adding anything new

Anet still ignoring us?

meeflak.9714:

We’ve supported a net from the start, and most of us would he happy paying for hot at 50 dollars, our frustrations simply come from arena net catering to new players and pushing veterans to the side,

+1 meeflak
Well spoken

Vix.6730:

If you bought GW2 within the past 30 days Anet support is refunding/compensating customers. Beyond 30 days and you may be screwed.

You also lost all your work since they disable your account. What they should have done was let them buy HOT and refund the $10 or what they spent in GEMS.

Thanks for the heads up JustTrogdor.
I was not in the HOT thread. I am not interested in HOT this moment.

Until it is moved maybe some others will see the PCGamer article.

Tyloric.7520:

I still disagree with you. I believe $50 to be a fair price, and with all the threads out there you really didn’t need to make another one.

PC Gamer give a fair impartial review of the situation.
I do not mind paying the $50, but Anet dropped the ball on taking care of it core users.

The news seems to be spreading to other game systems now. For the minor cost to make a balanced roll out, Anet really is looking bad at how they take care of their core users.

We had the forum explode, Face book soon followed. Twitter was ablaze, and Reddit was on fire! PCGamer weighs in:
http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-players-rightly-upset-by-heart-of-thorns-pre-purchase-scheme/

“Guild Wars 2 players rightly upset…”

“People who don’t yet own Guild Wars 2 are getting an amazing deal. People who do—who have potentially supported the game for three years—are not.”

PC Gamer gets it. Why doesn’t Anet?

A nice compromise would be if he agrees to purchase the new $50 pack give the guy $10 in gems (or what ever he paid) to re-cope the difference.
that way he gets hot at the same price as everyone with out having to delete his account. to get Hot.

Ohoni.6057:

OK the core game has a value. Otherwise it would be worthless. In which case Anet should be giving it away at no cost to anyone that wants it. No matter if they buy anything at all. Just free. I perceive that cost to be $10 the price of the recent sale.

As I noted earlier, I think by this point the devs really wouldn’t mind giving the game away for free. The reason why they don’t likely has more to do with limiting fraud. See, since they charge something for the game, it means that the person buying it A. has to spend at least a little money, and B. has some sort of payment method on record with them. This is by no means foolproof, but they have expressed in the past that it helps limit scammers/botters/goldsellers/etc.

So offering GW2 “for free” would hurt them in ways beyond just the lost unit sale. Offering it as a freebie to another purchase does not have this same downside, since to get the “free” game, they have to already have spent $50.

This is not a matter of entitlement. It’s a matter of rewarding loyalty and being fair to people.

It can be both. The customer does not have the right to demand a loyalty reward, that is something that the company decides to offer. Demanding such things IS entitlement.

That is not true Ohoni. There are many licenses that let programs be given away while the coders still retain all the rights. I am in a programming group and see people do it every day.

Ohoni.6057:

The customer does not have the right to demand a loyalty reward, that is something that the company decides to offer. Demanding such things IS entitlement.

I don’t think anyone is demanding anything. But we feel that Anet is giving more value to the new player than people that got them to where they are today.
I am just expressing my disappointment in their judgment.

Not all the items are of use. Put the ones you want on your low level characters now for future use. Maybe that will free up some space.

lordkrall.7241:

And would anyone here actually accept a reply that said: “No we can’t add it right now due to lack of resource?”
I find that rather unlikely.

A more detailed answer would be appreciated.
Though Anet’s trend to just clam up when they just don’t agree seems to agree with your thought process. If not then Anet need better communication.

In game arguing, and players insulting each other is not called for. This is all about a marketing decision. And no matter what side you are on most agree marketing failed this roll out.

xeerus.1645:

Hmm, I got 16 character slots, so, wheres the argument? Birthdays in GW2 are completely and utterly useless. I just would say when expansion came out, and didn’t have a spare character slot. Hmm, what guardian or warrior do I not use. Ok, I don’t play this one, strip bare naked, delete, and make new character with new class. So, honestly, stop complaining. I leveled over 30 characters with 100% map completion just for unlimited gifts of exploration and zone completions. Honestly, till you done this, you ain’t got much ground to stand on. Not to mention, I got 2 of every craft at 400/500 respectively. So, this whole entitlement stuff as I said in another post is butternuts under the bridge.

@xeerus your “Hmm” is very condescending.
I have 17 character with map and story completed. That said I have a uses for them all. Some I park at certain locations for bosses and events, others I have have a special WvW build. Some I just grown attached to, others have very expensive armor that I spent a lot of time and gold to make. So for you to tell me I have to delete one is nonsense.

As I posted above. The base game has a value. Otherwise it should be given away at no cost at all. In fact why doesn’t Ant just gave that game away for free to new players by itself at no charge. Then when the new players want to upgrade they can spend the $50 to buy HOT?

Leo G.4501:

So you’d rather pass off more cost onto the new player? I think that’s the tactic Anet is specifically avoiding. I mean, they could have easily not included the base game and charged that seperately, but they already said they are not doing that so new players can easily jump right in.

As for the rest of the argument, do you not feel that offering sales is a way of saying “Thanks Guys”? They don’t have to but they do that, not only to make more profits, but to also give players what they want. Wouldn’t offering character slots on sale be the equivalent?

As for the character slot costing them nothing, Anet obviously put it in the $75 package to entice you to spend more money. If they are giving the extra slot to the $50 package, it will drive down their sales of the bigger packages, which does cost them something.

Leo G, stop putting words in my mouth. there is no passing costs off. I have no idea where you get that. Now I will try one more time to explain this.

OK the core game has a value. Otherwise it would be worthless. In which case Anet should be giving it away at no cost to anyone that wants it. No matter if they buy anything at all. Just free. I perceive that cost to be $10 the price of the recent sale.

So if Anet is selling the Core version (which has 4 character slots) for $50. Then they should be selling me the expansion for $50-$10 = $40. Or I would pay the $50 with a free expansion slot.

I do not see why you don’t see my point. As a valuable customer I feel cheated.

I can not talk intelligently about the intricacies of this topic since I do not understand the coding dilemma.

I certainly would like to see your vision come true, but unless we know the internal workings it is hard to press the issue here.

If I remember correctly….
Town clothes had to change due to a hard coding limitation in when the wardrobe was added.

I actually laughed.
Thanks for the distraction.

Leo G.4501:

Angelica Dream.7103:

Leo G.4501:

Would the sentiment that you’re not getting everything new players are getting be a factor for you or others? Or maybe the thought that vets need something exclusive is the culprit here?

Either/Or will work for me.
I will buy if I get an extra character slot that the full version does not get, or the upgrade is $10 cheaper than the full package.

So your solution is, you want new players to pay $10 more than you? Because if the expansion is expressed as costing $50, then that might end up making new players pay $60.

Hot is over priced as it is. I think very few people will disagree with that. Though I will pay the price with no complaints.
What I want is an expansion for an existing account to be cheaper than a full account with both games. Or the expansion to have an additional character slot that the full games does not.
If Anet does not feel that the people that supported them up to now is worth “Thanks Guys” then maybe it is time to find a company that appreciates the players that does.
I have bought hundreds of dollars a year in Gems. You would think Anet could give us a slot that would cost them nothing.

Leo G.4501:

Would the sentiment that you’re not getting everything new players are getting be a factor for you or others? Or maybe the thought that vets need something exclusive is the culprit here?

Either/Or will work for me.
I will buy HOT if I get an extra character slot that the full version does not get, or the upgrade is $10 cheaper than the full package.

Tolmos.8395:

Professional Android developer just tossing in my $0.02.
snip
All together… I think it is totally doable.

I bow to your superior knowledge

Jornophelanthas.1475:

Try contacting support with your concern. If your purchase was recent enough, they may be able to do something for you.

What they will do as of now is give you a refund and delete your account.
Or
Refund your money to buy HOT but they still delete all your progress and you need to start with a new character. (your time has no value)

Leo G.4501:

Curious, what if Anet offered some limited time sales on character slots and inventory expansions? Do you feel that isn’t enough?

No! I want an upgrade that should be different than a full version.

At this point my entire guild (except for one person) is not buying HOT and we are merely logging in for daily reward and playing other games.

Pickles.9436:

Angelica Dream.7103:

+1 Great Post.
As a member since early GW1, I just feel that if Anet don’t not want to send me even a small perk as a thank you for spending (more than I am willing to admit to) for continuing, then I must really evaluate how much they really want me.
$10 discount from full package (upgrade price), and a character slot is not asking too much

Again, most people would’ve been happy with a character slot ($10). If the base game is determined to be worth $10 now, then why not give existing owners a free character? 10 = 10. Sounds fair to me. Why didn’t anyone in marketing think of this?

YES!
If the upgrade gets an extra slot that the new players does not get I am in, and will buy. I just don’t think Anet care about returning plays and lumps us in with new players.

+1 Great Post.
As a member since early GW1, I just feel that if Anet don’t not want to send me even a small perk as a thank you for spending (more than I am willing to admit to) for continuing, then I must really evaluate how much they really want me.
$10 discount from full package (upgrade price), and a character slot is not asking too much

I wold love to see GW1 on Android. Our guild still goers back there for festivals.
But as a an ex-3d modeler and programming dabbler I do not think that Android can handle GW1. Even if it cold the load times would kill most data plans and take way too long*. Also Ia m note sure you would have enough memory.

*Remember that in instances in GW1 that monsters cold attack you while loading. Also data transfer would kill group play. so you would have to do it solo.

Maybe my kids will find it as a retro game in ten years

Lord Kuru.3685:

New feature announcements from Colin (Dragonite ore eater, ascended stat changes) look like they’re being used to quell the riot. So I don’t think pricing will change.

Unfortunately I agree with Lord Kuru. Anet has a history of just being quite, instead of using communication to explain their side. Though I do not personally believe there is another side except for a major PR fiasco. It appears that it is Anet’s way or the highway. they just don;t care about their base any more.

In the past players begged for years to play Super adventure Box to only received silence.

Where did the deleted human female animation go? Silence.

The pattern is clear.

No. and at this time I do not plan to even buy the expansion.

No one is my guild is buying anything right now

GW1 had saving, Changing, and Sharing builds as part of the game.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Anyone else remember what you use to get with GW1 campaigns and Eye of the north? You got a fair bit, GW2 seems to offer very little in comparison.

Ah, GW1. When Anet cared about the current players. I LOVED GW1 and our guild still goes back for some of the festivals.

@Weylin, Yeah Anet really dropped the ball on that. They suggested to buy last month so that you can upgrade later. REALLY bad move on their part.

Also Anet said they will refund you purchase to buy the now HOT but you lose you progress. Even worst move.

Just bad planning

Lets say that Anet does care about the core users that got them this far. Lets say that Anet just got so involved that they just messed up and over looked the loyal base.

Maybe we can help them fix it (If they really want to fix it)

Suggestion:
Keep the tiers just like they are but have a $10 less pricing for people updating, and add a character slot.

For those that already bought. Send them a character slot and $10 in Gems with a THANKS for your support.

In my opinion that would turn around the board, and get instant sales.

(add your helpful plan below)

Then who ever had the final say should fix it. Period.
This is not just about money. I have spent maybe $1000 in gems though the years.
This pricing makes it look like Anet just wants our money and cares little about its base.
Ten dollar price break and a character slot would have made everyone happy. #GREED

I bought a car a long ago. When I needed an new car I went back to my dealer and he have me a deal that was better than others would have. You know what? When I get my next car he did it again. Guess were I am going to go for my kids car?

A price break would have been a slam dunk. I would have bought opening day. Treating me like a new player is no different than how other game companies look at me. That opens the door to change.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I’m not saying ANet did a great job of pricing or marketing (I don’t think they did). I am saying that reasonable people can disagree about what is fair.

That is so true.
But there is an old saying that “The customer is always right.”

This board has gone viral. Which should at least give them pause for thought. Since so many people disagree, the right marking move might be to toss the players a bone.
All the bad press can not he;p new players want to play.

Though my real point is Anet’s silence on this topic. For some reason they will not explain their side. Hence many players view it as a move to just ride it out. It looks like they do not care about us loyal players.

You know we are not asking for much, just that Anet does not teat us like new players that did not support them these last few years, buy gems, spread the word. A $10 price break and a character slot wold have set them up as Heroes.

I find it odd that Anet is very quiet about this. My guess is that they are riding it out with no intention to do anything. They just want our money. They do not care.
Old Guild Wars cared, and showed it.

The day after the uproar all that had to do was say, “You know guys are right. We were so busy with the new expansion things just slipped under the carpet but we appreciate you guys and are going to fix it.” That would have been a Hero Moment.

Bugs Life Quote:
Ants don’t serve grasshoppers! It’s you who need us!