Guild Wars 2

Depends on how you count it. I’ve got 1500 ish hours from core game (which definitely has the content if it kept me playing that long) and I’ve bought gems for myself and a friend, so the price/hour would definitely be much higher than yours , but this expansion looks like a small one content-wise: 20 hours tops and probably 12 on the average to do a full completion (at least based on currently available info).
I just want to play the new character and the old ones with new specs.

I’m not concerned with the price as much (although it still is a concern) as the fact it comes with “free” core game, because, long story short, that simply means I’m paying for new players’ core game.

As for the dragons and lore I’m not into it, so I can’t comment. I like dragons, but I’ve seen a few that, I think, are presented in a stale way (sort of like mindless puppets) so I’m not expecting good dragons from HoT.

Scoundrel.2139:

Anchoku.8142:

After thinking about the pre-purchase price a few days, I really have only one objection:

Those of us who have regularly purchased gems since release are treated the same as those who only convert gold to gems and never actually purchased gems.

I understand the promotional discount to new players as a temporary thing and I understand the steep price (assuming that price buys two more years of continuous investment by Arenanet).

I purchase gems with real money to support maintenance and development and am disappointed at receiving the same offer as players who do not support the game financially.

I can’t really buy into this argument, pardon the pun. I wouldn’t go to my local {insert shop with membership} and say “I bought stuff last week. I got what I bought and I like it. But I want to now retro-actively use that money spent as credit toward a future discount”.

I may have missed your point, and if I have I apologise, but I think I got it.

It’s more of a: Ok, so you bought a nice living room table andyou come back to the store you bought it at and say “Hi I would like to buy some chairs” and you are responded with “Here you go, they all come with tables. You, however, get a set at full price without a table because you already have one”

Since no details are released I am going to place an assumption here:
I highly doubt it will be possible.
Unless there’s a way to get rid of your guild halls, it would be unreasonable to put you in an event to claim one when you have it.

Rhanoa.3960:

But I like how you only quoted one part of my statement and ignoring everything else. Ignoring the justification of $50 Xpac.

There is no justification of the 50$ in your post, just some comparison to a DIFFERENT AND COMPLETELY UNRELATED GAME. What’s your point? A high-tech gym membership costs 20$/month let’s compare it to that. All-you-can-eat restaurant near me costs 250-400$/month (based on membership). Compared to this restaurant GW2 is very cheap! Let’s not eat there and instantly justify GW2 price!

Stop comparing different games, fact is ANET has a completely different business model than WoW and charging 30$/euro for xpac alone and 40$/eruo for the core game would’ve been more reasonable. But they decided to distribute the cost new players pay onto existing players.

The only problem with that is that it would ad an unpredictable strain on the server that they cannot control. Like if every player used their bank guild to create world events in their guild basement…. basically there are more players in the game than the instances their server can handle.

Barzah.8019:

For those who can’t afford $50
…………

Hi! Would you like a [Banana]? It’s 20$! The price is totally legit in some regions around the world. I know you can afford it, so what’s the issue?

If you ask me many things are wrong with HoT pre-order – not just 1. Although, fixing just 1 of those things will probably make people look past the other things. For instance, drop the price, value is suddenly fine. Increase the value, price will seem fine. Give an exclusive item to players who are upgrading from gw2 (instead of the core game) the value of the package increases for veterans, making the price ok.
Hell, maybe if they just give us more details about HoT it will look better, because right now it’s 1 region, 1 char, elite specs and guild halls, which sounds tiny under 50$ price tag.

With that in mind, I think it’s a good idea to wait to pre-order until final dates."

AP is one of few things that keeps people logging in and doing dailies, if you reset those with each episode you would kill the game (literally). Your idea is just as good as “Let’s delete all Legendaries people have with each season and see who had the most (top 5 probably hang themselves or end up in mental hospital)”

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Jitsuryoku.9038:

Sure we’re taking it too far. By the way, care to buy this [Banana] for 20$?

Actually, you are just paying for the peel. The [Banana] is simply included for free, and the peel just so happens to have the same price. Honest!

:0 well since you are saying it is free, I must blindly believe it is and enforce my newly made opinion that the peal costs 20$ on to everyone!

Genoshock.2104:

Didn’t read the thread,

But IMO the pricing will lead to more people playing the game and will give us more competition in WvW and PvP and more people to connect with and slay dragons in PvE

I agree with this, and this is a positive change. That as well as the fact that new players will make the game live longer, however…..
In the end it’s the players who already have the game that are paying for a portion of new players’ core game.

stof.9341:

False advertising doesn’t need a lie. It just needs to be misleading.

Since some people were mislead into buying the core GW2 instead of getting the HoT deal, it is false advertising.

Again it’s not false advertisement, because they don’t sell GW2 core game is not a part of HoT, but a bonus in HoT package, it’s the same result to players, but legally it does make a difference. You can sue them if you think I’m wrong, but you’ll hear the same thing from a lawyer.

Alexxander.8306:

Tironas.7053:

Look i’m unhappy with the price but I don’t think we need to take up pitchforks on the internet. Quite frankly if I saw another game do this and there was some news about it I would not care in the slightest.

Is there a part about false advertisment u guys are not getting?
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/False+Advertising

Actually, that was not false advertising. You DO need GW2 to play HoT as HoT is not a standalone game. And by making the GW2 a “free bonus” they are in fact twisting the facts for the sales to be legally correct.

Let me explain.

If they said you need GW2 core game to play HoT and then released HoT as a standalone – that would be false advertisement, because that would be a lie/disinformation driving sales of GW2.

What they did is sell the expansion and add the core game as a “free bonus”. The fact you need GW2 core game for HoT remains true, so they did not lie. Them putting the core game into HoT can be viewed as “generosity”, which in legal terms makes it fine.
To put it bluntly it’s a malicious but legal marketing strategy: they didn’t lie, but by not announcing the “free” core game addition(it is their right) they screwed a lot of people over.

Gray.9041:

I’d love to get my facts right.

and when Anet provide some, I’ll make sure to keep them in mind.

^ This.

Also, based on “facts” you do know, try to put a price on the expansion. I mean seriously, compare it to those “normal 50$ expansions”.

I for one have about 1.5k hour and I rarely come back to map’s I’ve finished! I get the map done I GTFO, because It’s not rewarding, it’s not challenging and it sure as hell isn’t competitive content – just plain boring.
Masteries cannot be considered a feature, because they are essentially part of the map, and I gather they cannot be used outside so it fails as a gameplay expansion. It’s a good map mechanic at very best.
Anyway, unless you come back to that map to grind once you’re finished with it I’m guessing the map is 6-12 hours of gameplay. I am estimating 6-8 for completion and probably 4 more hours of grinding (which is hardly gameplay) for achievements.
Put a value on a region (or 6-12 hours of gameplay). If you’ve done any comparison to other game expansions I’m guessing that price is around 10-15$.

The highlight of the expansion are character expansions. Granted, there’s a new character and some characters get a FEW new animations. Sadly, for some rev won’t even be playable without few days of grind (shout-out tor “no grind philosophy”), deletion of existing characters, or additional 10$.

Finally, guild halls – another thing a lot of people are waiting for. I can’t say much about it, because there’s little info on it, but I don’t see them developing halls enough for them to cost much.

I don’t know how you value these things, but it definitely doesn’t go over 35$ to me.

For their own sake, I hope they forgot to advertise some big feature of HoT.

I’ll chill out when fanboys stop defending the price. It’s not normal for a 4-6 hour expansion (+ character mechanics) to cost 50$. For all of those people saying the price for an expansion is normal please name 1 expansion with such limited content and 50$+ price. (50$+ because a lot of people will have to spend another 10$ to play the highlight char of the expansion)

Basically the core game is free if you already own it. Meaning your copy of the game costs 0$ and you’re gonna pay for the core game just like any other new player.

Sure we’re taking it too far. By the way, care to buy this [Banana] for 20$?
Surely being a good boys you all pretend to be, you saved x $ a day and made enough money for it!

This price is totally normal in some places around the world!

JohnnyS.1460:

Finally some official word from the devs…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZspKoupWAY

This has to live on!

People still treat it as if price opposing side cannot afford it….
Most of people outraged by the price can go for ultimate at any point in time they want. Problem lies within basic package – if basic package is bad value for money or a totally unfair deal to a group of people then the higher 2 are kitten value by default, because they include the basic one:

So basic 45 euro: Just expansion which is probably worth like 30E.
Deluxe 75 euro: Subtract the basic cost of 45 and char cost of 10. you get 4 cosmetic items + char slot for 20 euro. Now since NONE of those are complex items I can safely assume if they were on BL shop they would cost around 20-25 euro. So this package extras cover the extra price, while cost of basic remains bad value
Ultimate 100 euro: 45 Euro basic, 1 char slot 10 euro, 4k gems 50 euro and the cosmetics which I estimate to be 20-25 euro or so. Now, this is the only package that seems ok, but still not “good”.

For this people saying 45 euro / 50$ is a normal price to expansion go and compare what those 50$ expansions bring to the game with this one. The “normal” price for an expansion is 10-90$ although they are usually proportional to amount of content they bring.

And again, I hate to repeat myself, but seriously, just because they don’t admit core game makes the pack more expensive doesn’t mean it doesn’t. They just made the bundle so EVERYONE pays 50$, rather than old players paying 30$ and new ones 40+30. In the end it is in their interest to attract new players(and increase potential “steady” profit) because old ones are already likely to stay.

And finally, for all those people who say " You like it – you buy it. Don’t like it? Don’t buy it. Just STFU!": if you bought it follow your own suggestion. Obviously some people don’t think the content justifies the price and they are stating their opinion.

Randulf.7614:

They’ve sold multiple million copies, 1 person wont mean anything to them. They lose/gain customers daily for all sorts of reasons. I doubt they will even notice this thread tbh

Generally speaking, when big companies screw up hard people are quitting in quite high percentages, most just don’t announce themselves like that.

When Evolution of combat came to Runescape, veterans were quitting in thousands, which is why they created an “old style” server later on. Although, this is not as drastic of a change, I can see a few hundred (or thousands) quitting, because without the expansion the game will feel incomplete and as you see there are a lot of people unwilling to buy the current expansion packages as it is.

Hopefully, it doesn’t get to quitting part.

stof.9341:

Here I have 4 choices :
- fork an extra $10
- create a new account and leave all my 6 chars in the “dust”
- delete a char I spent time building, leveling and equipping
- just not use that new HoT feature, the Revenant, which in a way cheapens the value of the addon itself I’m buying

You forgot about other choices like:
-Not buying the expansion (possibly buy it around Christmas)
-Grinding for gold to buy gems.
-Quit the game

You do not have to buy the expansion, the game will still work and all. On the other hand, I think the less people buy it now the faster packages will get better.

Zypher.7609:

You are not buying something twice, you are buying an expansion. It comes with the base game, if you did not already have the base game. You just imagined the expansion being less than 50$. Sorry it is not, this is what happens when people want expansions. We could have had free updates albeit at a slower pace but they would have been free. Pay the money or wait like the other poster said, because around the holidays it will be at a reduced cost.

I’m not defending the price by any means. If you buy an expansion you ARE paying twice. A new player will pay once (50$) and will have the same content you paid twice (2 times 50$) to get. Basic math suggests that old player pays twice as much. Also, if you think the 50$ of HoT is only that stop kidding yourself. It’s new player-cost distributed to all of us. A new player would have to pay 40-50$ for main game +30$ for expansion (70-80 total) and it wouldn’t seem as good of a deal. So Instead of putting expansion separately and making new players pay 70-80$ and old ones pay 30$ they make it so everyone pays 50$.

Technically old players ARE paying twice even if you don’t realize it.

bye bye, have a safe trip.

T raw.4658:

1 char slot
1 bank extension
1k gems as an apology for insulting us.
$50 for a below average expansion

And a Lamborghini for good luck.

There are at least 10 other suggestion threads below…. That’s good though…. the more criticism they see the higher the odds to they do something

Only real reason are elite specializations you’ve probably already seen and revenant. The WvW maps were announced to be “free” for core game so…

As for guild halls, I assume it will be for HoT only because they were accounced HoT exclusive (if i remember correctly) and anyone could use existing ones 1 HoT player would be able to create and upgrade halls for entire guild of core gamers to use

Absolutely no veteran bonuses are present. In fact you are being punished because you already paid for GW2 and you would pay for it again With HoT while new players will only pay once.

So Yeahn characters or (if you are hard for guild halls) guild halls, are the 2 reasons to consider HoT for wvw player.

Probably until release. There are speculations that release is planned for august (on game’s anniversary).

I wonder how long before people start disconnecting from game, It’s getting increasingly laggy there, not sure if forums are related. xD

Zypher.7609:

If you do it is because you are thinking of yourself rather what is best for the game.

First of all, don’t worry what “best for the game”. You are not saving the world and companies will NEVER do things to harm themselves. By stating our opinion we can only hope they consider it and find a compromise. On the other hand, that statement makes me think you are young, because if you lived a while with that “Do it for the greater good” logic you’d realize random companies (even your employers and employees if you have any) would screw you over on every turn.

On a different note, switch to a different game, or take a break all-together,come back on Xmas and buy it at 50% price (if you decide to come back). You will probably save a few $ on buying gems, definitely a few $ on Xmas discounts AND the game will feel fresher as you won’t have played it for a while. The price WILL drop sooner or later, only question is if you can wait until then.
Let me just point out that pre-order bonuses are rubbish and based on how they’ve done betas so far you can assume you will miss them all. So unless you wanna pay 25$ for a pre-order title waiting it out is a solid option.

Focus on 1 threat and keep bumping it!

Fanboys, keep raving about how the price is fine. Sure I’d agree with that if it was released as a pure Expansion, without core game . Then I wouldn’t have the reason to think it’s their method of cost distribution: Just making EVERYONE pay 50$ rather than making new players pay 40 for the game and 30 for expansion.

Good point, Since it includes core game (for free), make sure they give collectors editions of both core game and expansion.

That means you get standard game + whatever your HoT package gives you. On new account that’s 5 slots + whatever your package gives you. On old account that’s + whatever your pack gives you. Core game slots do not transfer.

If anything we’re paying twice, if you say we’re greedy, buy 2 copies and give 1 away. If you don’t do that, then you are just as greedy as us.

Bumping the thread…

Fine we are not paying for GW2 again, instead new players get it for free, same difference.

For now you can assume that only HoT buys will be able to use it. I believe there hasn’t been an official statement regarding that question, but think about it this way, if anyone could enter already built guild halls, then 1 HoT account could be building halls for different guilds to use.
End result guilds could have fully functional halls by just paying like 10g 1 HoT player.

Maybe the 50$ would be fine if new players didn’t get the game we paid for for free, or if we actually got something extra for having the game.

If they don’t change the packages I highly doubt they will go out of their way to give anyone anything.

warbignime.4610:

They won’t and that’s about it. Many already bought it, no way they will adjust price. End of thread.

And that’s how I immediately know you have not read the thread. Might as well have written “First”.

At any rate, if I wasn’t clear enough: I am not suggest to change the price (although that is one of the options). I am suggesting to add some value to their packages, make them at least remotely as good as new players get.

I think we need a constructive thread to propose some realistic change to current HoT bundles.

50$ / 45Euros for an expansion with fairly small amount of content (comparing the prices and amount of content in core game and expansion) seems steep.
The same price for a game + expansion makes a great deal.

To put it bluntly, anyone who owns the game will pay twice the price a new player will.
You can say the core game is a free bonus, and the price only covers expansion, but the fact remains: any veterans buying the expansion are essentially punished for buying the game earlier.

I understand ANET wants to attract new players, but you have to agree it seems like they are doing it at expense of current players.

My suggestion is to add value to/alter current offers so they don’t feel like we are paying for the core game for the 2nd time. I feel like any of the following options would be fair:
-Reduce the price of all packages by 10-15$ to anyone who is upgrading (already has the core game), or add set of cheaper packages that do not include the core game.
-Give upgrading players an exclusive token of appreciation: A skin, an outfit, an accessory with exclusive visual effect – essentially anything, non-acquirable from other sources, that a player could show off.
-Gem compensation would also be reasonable.
-Add, a character slot to basic package, reduce the price of the other 2 accordingly.

Any constructive criticism and/or support is appreciated.

Yuri Kwon.1069:

HatSimulator.9362:

eyestrain.3056:

Out of 20 guild members only 1 is willing to pay that price. It’s not a scientific sample but it’s probably not too unusual either.
For a couple pve maps and elite specializations the price is absurd. If I had that money to spend I could buy another game, not just DLC.

If a 10-20$ HoT ONLY package doesnt come out soon I have a feeling you wont be selling as many copies as you’d like. Hiking the price up in anticipation of that is just shooting yourself in the foot. Better to go high quality, small portion, reasonable price than medium quality, medium portion high price. The latter is how you lose loyalty, but the former is how you gain it.

Same here. Someone logged on to complain as well and is now taking a break from the game because of it. Only 1 guy was willing to buy it out of 100 members

out of 43 online members, only 3-4 ppl decided to think. others already bought expansion pack.

In my guild 14/173 members bought it and the rest of imaginary members decided not to. They all agreed to call BS on anyone having done a survey on moderate to large sized guild, in the morning of a work day, to check if they are buying expansion.

Sounds to me like base cost reduction by ~10 dollars or adding a char slot to it would make it a better deal. (And obviously adjust the more expensive packages accordingly.)

dervix.9126:

Jitsuryoku.9038:

so core game included? Does that mean we get a separate code for core game?

So…. 45 Euros for guild halls, 1 map, 1 class and 8 specializations and masteries (that evidently only work on the 1 map)?

If i remember correctly core game was cheaper without discounts.

It’s not one map. It’s never been one map, it’s still not one map. Stop spreading misinformation.

It’s at least 3 maps, all of which contain 3 levels. They’re more like zones stacked ontop of eachother because of the way gliding will work and stuff.

Percentage of added content is still tiny for the price. It’s what 10%? Probably less than that, and still the expansion costs more than the core game.

so core game included? Does that mean we get a separate code for core game?

So…. 45 Euros for guild halls, 1 map, 1 class and 8 specializations and masteries (that evidently only work on the 1 map)?

If i remember correctly core game was cheaper without discounts.

I think it’s great the game is updated so often, i just wish i knew when to expect the big patched.

The reason i say it keeps me away for a day is my download speed is quite low and in addition to that it is shared. Since i play 2-3 times a week for 3-6 hours at a time…. well, the download kinda takes a session away.

Is there a way to check the size of an update (during the download or on the website)? The % shown on the launcher don’t seem to represent the size and, saddly, i was unable to locate anything relate to download size in the update notes.

I’ve been here for a month or so, that i believe this is the second patch that will keep me away from the game for about a day.
I was wondering if I just got unlucky, or do the large updates usually do come once/twice a month?