Guild Wars 2

Because it’s still a subscription based game in South Korea where development is done.

You can’t compare Korean MMOs that charge subscriptions in Korea but are F2P in NA/EU to GW2. Those games are F2P/Hybrid here because a straight up subscription model failed the the west. Wildstar is simply a reminder that few players will invest in a monthly subscription. GW2 never had a monthly subscription to start with. There are few if any paywalls for features and content (LS2 unlock being the only one I can think of). The F2P versions of all the previously subscription based games erect payways and content restrictions that go away if you sign up for VIP, a subscription in all but name. Otherwise you have one or two character slots, an inventory the size of a thimble, limited choice in character races/classes and if you want more there are pricey unlocks or the “it’s not a subscription, it’s VIP” option.

So, comparison is entirely invalid.

Balsa.3951:

nah thats to far away from reality here.

Price of Hot is ok

But anet missed a chance to hype there game also missed a amazing chance to get more players with new players plus the old ones back.

they could have made the xpact for free
than charge people 30 Dollar for the Core game plus expansion for free.

Anets playerbased could have doubled (i dont know) more costumer more gemshop more hype more costumer more gemshop……

u need plan ur money in the long run is always my moto.

Nope. The bulk of the sales will come from existing players and therefore it would be monumentally dumb to make it free to existing owners of the game.

Stock analysts look at WoW, see a fifty dollar (kitten filter) expansion, mandates that’s the price every expansion should be. Corporate not wanting to disappoint the analysts and the stockholders who listen to them convey the price point strongly to their wholly own subsidiary.

The customers at E3, retailers, insist on a fully working game and not just an expansion (since ANet isn’t EA or Blizzard) and the expansion suddenly becomes a standalone that acts an a expansion if you already owned the game. The only thing that changed from the $50 price for an expansion is it acting like a standalone game if you don’t currently have an account. This bone thrown to new players has brought out a rather dark side of the playerbase.

It’s sad really.

The only people who should be POed are those that bought the game because they told people back in January in the FAQ that a copy of the game was required.

Complain about the price but not this jealous rage that new players are getting something you likely had for months if not years. You’re the little sibling that inherits big sibling’s bike while they get a new one but you both get new helmets and you’re upset you aren’t getting a new bike as well.

ANet would have saved a ton of this blow back if they decided and announced publicly , in no uncertain terms, that HoT is a new stand alone game. But if you applyed it to your existing account you get to use your existing characters and bank. Also make it clear that there wouldn’t be a delta cost version. But no. They said expansion and know they are reaping what the sowed.

Why did you bother to create a link? WHY? Actions like this just reinforces the belief that some of these “Is this a scam” threads are not from innocent, naive players double checking but from the scammers themselves hoping some foolish soul will click on it.

I know, the OP is probably simply overly trusting but what more can be done to convince players than have the alert that this mail isn’t from “the Guild Wars 2 Team”?

This isn’t StarCraft II where Blizzard made a sequel to StarCraft but decided to sell each faction at full price and spaced out over years.

ANet seemed internally unsure what to call this. From one PoV it looks that HoT is being sold as a standalone game that also includes the original GW2 but can be attached to an existing GW2 account to allow you to keep your characters/bank.

But they came out of the gate back in January calling it an expansion that needed a copy of GW2 to be usable. That obviously changed and someone really needs to be accountable because it’s a disgraceful sales tactic if they knew this was how it would eventually end up. And I can’t believe this was a last minute change right before E3.

But then again E3 is really about sales to retailers who may not have been interested in stocking an expansion without the original still available. ANet isn’t Blizzard or EA with WoW and Sims X respectively. And the decreasing shelf space for PC games at retailers is also likely why there isn’t a collector’s edition with some figure, no place to put them.

Someone stuck there foot in their mouth and gnawed it right off.

What ANet should have done was never to describe this as an expansion. What they are selling is a “new” game that includes the original as well. If you add it to your existing account you will still have access to your characters and bank. It’s a major marketing faux pa that they couldn’t come up with a better description based on what they are delivering.

As an aside, honestly people, every time ANet puts out content that some small fanatical group of players hate they disrupt access to the forums, wiki or the game itself. What? You don’t get your way so everyone gets to suffer?

Good thing those patch notes leaked early. It’ll help flush the threads raging about Trait 3.0 a week or more ahead of time.

Since I don’t care about spoiling my experience by participating in the Beta, which is the only benefit we are getting for our money at the moment, that’s what I’m doing. Not because I think HoT is overpriced or any kind of indignation but I’m only willing to spend my money when the actual ship date is near and even then, I may wait for the first sale of the box edition.

It just seems silly to part with your money months in advance for something you can’t even use yet. Only wanting the half price gems seems a good enough reason to pony up the bucks at the moment.

You already have the advantage of playing the game for some time already.

For free with purchase of HoT. Big difference. The core game is not going to disappear. You still have to level there to get to 80 before wandering into HoT so the core game still has value.

The purpose is to make it clear that gems, the only bonus over deluxe version, will never be offered at half price unless it’s part of the whole bundle. The deluxe version could be a future gem store item like how it is with the deluxe version of the core game but half price gems, never ever, ever will be offered separately.

Mightylink.3816:

I don’t know why everyone is freaking out about the price, look at all the money we saved by not having to buy a subscription for the last 3 years, how dare they sell an expansion to a b2p game >:D

Well you aren’t part of the “everything should be free/ANet are money grubbing ladies of questionable repute” crowd. They have a strong voice here along with hardcore GW players, Nexon haters and anyone who became disappointed because GW2 wasn’t the idealized version they thought they were getting.

Those people are back in force this week. Anyone with an ax to grind is back to protest things about a game that they have long since stopped playing and will actively try to get more players on their side or discourage potential new players from every trying out the game. The hate is strong with them.

Character slot is only 800 gems. Trying to weasel two slots out of them or a slot and some armor skin?

Well how many of us PC gamers are now conditioned to only buy games during Steam Sales? I bought this game when it was on sale for the Christmas Holidays in Target for $50, $10 off.

I know MMO expansions are normally a different case, it’s nearly everybody upgrading at the same time so they don’t feel left behind. That’s the psychology behind MMO upgrades.

So the question I have for everyone is do you want to upgrade now and get spoiled before the expansion launches or buy at launch and soak it all it at once. Because other than the Ultimate allure of half price gems, all we are getting is beta access and an exclusive title and the satisfaction of advancing ANet income we routinely deny them (but everything should be free).

Getting the core game for free is the immediate value for the new player. For everyone it’s beta access and a title. If you don’t care about beta access or an exclusive title, too bad. The Deluxe and Ultimate packages have their own allure.

No I don’t. I don’t play WoW did you get a free slot with each of those expansions? I think players keep forgetting that each of the first three GW games were standalone and the free slot came with having them on the same account. City of Heroes and City of Villains did the same thing. They were standalone games and you only got extra slots if they were on the same account (later everyone was grandfathered in with the other game if you didn’t already have it).

The half price gem deal is a one time thing if you buy Ultimate now. Gems, if history is any guide, is NEVER on sale. Items in the shop sure but never the proxy currency. They can do this because it’s a bundle.

So using Kal’s numbers (I think he’s pricing the guild hall item and finisher high but) the Deluxe is a $41.25 value for $25 and the Ultimate is a $91.25 for $50. Even if you knock $10/800 gems off the cost of the finisher and guild hall swag you are still getting value for the packages.

But Astro is also right, not every one can swing $100 or $75 for these packages. I would love to spend the $100 but personally I’ll have a problem swinging the $50. Sure I do the Steam Sale twice a year but only $5 or less items. I may have to wait until the expansion is on sale in Target like I did with the original game before I get to play it.

From ANet’s presentation at a game developer con back in 2012 they have active metrics on just about everything in real time, from seeing what players are doing to how much memory the game is using in player’s systems. They have more than enough metrics.

What they don’t have is “assets on the ground” to borrow an intelligence term. They frequently misstep thinking that players actions mean one thing and not realize it actually means another.

Existing players get beta access and depending on the tier, goodies mostly up front. What would attract a new player? HoT is level 80 territory right? You’ll need to core game to level up your character before entering right?

Who in their right mind would buy an expansion to a game they don’t have? So if you are a truly new player, you buy the expansion and get the core game to play now for free.

How is this any different than the game going on sale for $10 or any of the other times in the past? Others are paying less than I did, that’s unfair!

What you and I have paid for with our copy of the game is the months and years of playing. Time that a new player didn’t get to play.

Yes, I understand that many would have preferred a expansion price for existing Vs new players but the core game’s value after 3 years as a viable product is at it’s end. Giving it away for free with the expansion is the smart business decision. As others pointed out what they really needed was someone better verse at phrasing this than how they did.

The core game came with 5 slots, one for each race, not each profession. So the argument that adding a profession should give us a character slot is invalid.

Similar to GW campaigns, City of Villains (a standalone/expansion) came with 8 slots per server BUT if you also had City of Heroes and applied CoV to your CoH account you now had 12 slots. However later when they added a pure expansion, Going Rogue, it came with no extra slots.

So “it’s universal to MMO expansions” is also moot.

If you bought it with currency that isn’t gold, it’s likely not salvageable.

Because they are charging $25 dollars more for those perks which include one slot, a $10 value if bought separately. Also a mini, a glider skin, guild hall decorative item and a finisher.

An individual mini is 350-500 gems. Glider skin, I’m guessing 500-600 gems. Finishers are 500-800 gems. No idea how much they will price decorative items. So with the 800 gems for the slot I’m seeing over $25 worth of gems for those items, if they weren’t exclusive. So I’m guessing another 2000 gem future upgrade.

To get new players to pony up the $50 for the expansion today, they will get the core game for free to play as they wait with the rest of us for the expansion to drop.

Substance E.4852:

Behellagh.1468:

I think I see the tracks waaaaay over there —-—->

Nope, the train has left Earth and is headed for the stars.

See You Space Conductor…

Pfff. The triple 7? The triple 9 is the only way to travel.

CMM.6712:

Can you 2 please explain what the 5th race is for us all lol

Human, Norn, Asura, Charr, Sylvari.

Maybe you are a programmer and start counting from 0.

They do that for the beta so the beta character can’t be played in live and vice versa.

Now tomorrow when they wake up and check the pulse of the forums Vs the income of the pre-orders, well probably at least a weeks worth of pre-orders to see if it’s sustained, they may look into tweaking the base expansion but in the original game we only got enough slots for each race, not each profession. So why should adding another profession mean they should give another slot? How many people already bought 3 more slots so they could have one of each in the core game? In that case what’s one more?

The game came with one slot per race, not per profession.

I think I see the tracks waaaaay over there —-—→

I think they said in the future you will be able to upgrade to deluxe, just not to Ultimate. The 1/2 price gems is a now kind of thing.

azurrei.5691:

Behellagh.1468:

Cause we aren’t buying the core game again. The core game is just free for those who don’t already have it. The $50 is 100% the price of the expansion.

To anyone who already paid $10-60 for the base game, it feels like you are getting screwed (aka paying more for less than a new person or paying for something twice.)

But we’ve played months to years already on that $10-60. Those getting the game for free when they buy the expansion will only have, hopefully, a few months of core game play for free.

Now I would be POed if I bought the game since HoT was announced only to get it for free but again, depending on how much you paid, you got what, 5 months of game play for $10? For those of use who bought the game back in 2012 and paid close to it’s original price, I think we got our money’s worth.

The problem I have with the price is more to do with the amount of content I think this expansion has. And if it’s not much more than 3xLS2 plus one profession and specialization, $50 seems a tad steep.

moiraine.2753:

Actually to be more precise it is 45/75/100

In Euros. In dollars it’s $50/75/100.

TexZero.7910:

uhohhotdog.3598:

TexZero.7910:

Uproller.1849:

No. Please god no. This will throw the gold -> gem exchange into chaos

You do realize that the Gold -> Gem ratio is artificial right ?

No it’s based on how many people are changing gold to gems and vice versa.

You keep on believing that if you want too.

And you keep believing it’s not.

Cause we aren’t buying the core game again. The core game is just free for those who don’t already have it. The $50 is 100% the price of the expansion.

Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!

Now that we have a price. A price that many posters seem to think is high for an expansion, $10 less than the retail price of the original game at launch. For 83% of the original launch price many suspect we aren’t getting 83% of new content compared to the original game.

So it’s time to ante up ANet. One class, specializations and a 3 level map doesn’t seem like enough for for $50. What are we missing here?

No. Everyone is buying just the expansion. But for new players, they will get the basic game to play now while we all wait for the expansion. This is a clever way to get players to pony up the money this quarter than waiting for just before the release.

They’ve already said that there will be no other packages. We are all paying $50 for the expansion, it’s just new players can play the game now while we are all waiting for it to drop.

Is actually their thrust today is selling the expansion to everyone, including new players. New players simply get the current game for “free” now (including all LS 2 episodes unless I’m misinterpreting the video) while they and everyone else who paid up wait for the expansion to drop. And Ultimate players get $50€ in gems for half price on top of the deluxe goodies.

This is 2nd quarter income, unless they defer it until the game is released, which I doubt. This is likely a ploy to up their quarterly income which in turn ups NCSOFT’s quarterly income. They actual expansion can now slip to whenever.

Regina and Gaile have already piped in and said we are buying the expansion for $50. If you don’t have the game already, you get the basic version for free (so they can still sell you the deluxe upgrade for that). Therefore if you already have the game … well … you are paying for the expansion.

I’m wondering what the sell through rate will be before launch. Sure you get into the betas if you buy it now but honestly how long will players think it’s worth parting with their money for an undisclosed period of time. Even Kickstarters have a vague delivery schedule most of the time.

John Smith.4610:

InfinitytheSoulWarden.5963:

if you look at the world through the cold cynical eyes of economics

You rang?

He’s alive! Alive!!

Donari.5237:

I’m happy. Also note that if you get a lesser version than Ultimate you cannot upgrade to Ultimate later. My only regret might come if there is a physical box with physical items I want.

I needed this boost tonight, badly, and I’m pleased to have something fun to distract me from a terrible thing happening RL.

Well since Ultimate is Deluxe with $50 worth of gems at half price. Or you could say the goodies that come with Deluxe are actually free and some poor suckers are paying $25 for them.

Orangensaft.7139:

2nd page bug fixed for you

edit: gonna post what i posted at the end of page 1 here again

why does everyone say it is 50euros? (or is it 50 dollars?)

it says 45 euros for me

please read guys

For us Americans it says $49.99/$74.99/$99.99

Hmm. Basic $50, Basic with stuff $75, Basic with stuff and $50 of gems $100. Seems like they are trying to make the $100 package the logical choice if you where getting the stuff anyways. I wonder if this will drive gem prices down.

But if they think the bulk of existing players will pay $50 for the expansion, they are probably right but they will be very unhappy players if the expansion isn’t … expansive.

I think the argument being made was the difference was small enough to ignore before and now it isn’t anymore. Of course we won’t know for sure until we see how exotics got buffed.

From ANet’s PoV they saw that the argument about not bothering with ascended due to the small stat difference and decided they need to do something to get more players adopting ascended.

So have cloth prices surged yet, anticipating the rush to craft ascended armor?

Yea, the forum mods are a bit trigger happy now that those “patch notes” are out and generating all that sturm und drang about how their builds are now “ruined”. Everyone has a post on it.

I see consolidation in the near future.

I would hold off overclocking the CPU. That’s all.

But you have it because of what? It came in another rig? Came bundled with a case? I know, it’s nice to save as much as you can from your previous system when upgrading.

My folks have an HP. I know that HP will but the weakest, cheapest PSU in their prebuilt boxes that won’t crap out in 3 years as long as nothing is added to the rig, like a vaguely alright graphics card. And so IF they ever allow me to upgrade their system to have graphics performance better than two decades old, I will also need to upgrade their PSU.

You can try it with that PSU. It may work fine. I simply like a cushion.

Because it’s not just the power the CPU and video card can use. The hard drive, optical drive, case fans, not to mention conversion loss by the motherboard stepping 12 volts down to the voltages the CPU and RAM use. There’s a reason why the voltage regulation module (the circuitry found neat and around the CPU socket and RAM slots) often have heat sinks on them as conversion isn’t 100% and the loss is tossed off as heat. Then there’s the motherboard chipset, etc.

So sure, the power use of just the R7 240 and the G3258 is below the 216 watts MAXIMUM 12 volt wattage of that PSU and it should work but …

See what I use for a guide for fitting PSUs to systems is the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator.

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

I take that, select the components including drives and fans, select 30% capacitor loss, take the minimum PSU wattage, assume that’s all 12 volts and bump it up another 50% and look for a PSU that can give me that.

And with that pair of components, two DDR3 modules, a HDD, DVD burner and one 120mm case fan I get with my method 335 watts at 12 volts or around 28 amps. The actual number the calculator gave me was 223 watts.

And that’s not OCing the G3258 and video card manufactures can, depending on amount and type of RAM as well as factory OC, can significantly raise the power need from AMD or nVidia’s default design.

Cheaping out on a PSU is like putting crappy but really cheap fuel into your nice new car. The PSU is NOT the component you should cheap out on.

And someday in the future you get your hands on a better video card or Socket 1150 CPU, having a buffer means you shouldn’t have to worry if your PSU could handle a modest upgrade.

Then no, that PSU can only put out a maximum of 216 watts at 12 volts. It really needs to be much higher than that to be on the safe side. The CPU and video card feed on the 12 volt wattage while wattage used at 5 volts and 3.3 volts is minimal, roughly 50 watts combined.

This is a problem with older designed PSUs. They provide the wrong voltages with an abundance of watts. Fine if you were building a system from the late 1990s. They also tend to be incredibly cheap. As CPUs and video cards needed more and more power, the power demand shifted from the 5 volt rails to the 12 volt ones. Starting around the era of the Pentium IV.