Guild Wars 2

For all players who purchased the Guild Wars 2 core game from our website and registered it between January 23, 2015 and June 16, 2015 in anticipation of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, we will automatically refund what you paid for the core game should you decide to pre-purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns from our website or in-game store any time through July 31, 2015.

If you purchased the core Guild Wars 2 game from our website and registered it between January 23, 2015 and June 16, 2015, and you no longer want to play Guild Wars 2, we will refund your core game purchase price and close your account provided you make the request by July 31, 2015.

Source: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pre-purchase-community-address/

So yes, in both cases it’s ‘what you paid’ and ‘your core game purchase price’. That is, you get back what you paid.

I’m thinking the elite spec weapons would all be either two-handers or off-handers. Off-hand scepter could actually be interesting. Unlikely however, since they are supposed to be -new- weapons for the class.

Out of two hand weapons only rifle and short bow are left unused, and I can’t see either of those on elementalist. That would leave axe, mace, pistol, sword, torch and warhorn.

Axe, mace and sword would be out as off-hand weapons I think. Pistol, torch and warhorn are all already used by either mesmer or necromancer, so there’s no great difference there – but pistol is a bit strange for magic class so I don’t expect to see it outside mesmer.

Warhorn and torch, either one could be made to work, but warhorn would be more ‘element-neutral’ where torch might be too strongly tied to fire alone. Also I think torch is likely to go for warrior – unless they get the short bow. Dagger off-hand just doesn’t feel impressive enough for melee elite weapon.. and warriors don’t have that many weapons they don’t already have access to (if you count out the mage weapons). Pistol would be another possibility, but I don’t see warrior basing an elite spec around it. Also again the warrior option should put some kind of twist to adrenaline mechanic – and I can see torch utilizing that in some rather interesting ways.

— edit —
On second thought, short bow might actually be very interesting. Elemental archer. It could work well with different elements. Something like, arrows composed of, or imbued with whichever element was attuned at any given time.

Assuming all the elite specs put a twist to the class mechanics (F1 etc abilities), that would imply that elementalist’s element attunements would get some new or expanded functionality. That would be one way to fit the bill.

However, if elementalist elite spec is tempest, I can’t see short bow fitting the image. Warhorn seems a lot more likely.

Based on what’s already known:
Ranger – staff
Necromancer – greatsword
Mesmer – shield
Engineer – hammer
Guardian – longbow

I’d assume the rest of the classes to be:
Warrior – torch
Thief – rifle
Elementalist – warhorn
Revenant – short bow

It’s slightly more complicated than that.

This is true:

If you purchased the core game from a third party, we are unable to provide a refund. However, if you registered the core game between January 23, 2015 and June 16, 2015 and upgrade it by prepurchasing any Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns edition before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns‘ launch, we will add one additional character slot to your Guild Wars 2 account.

But also:

For all players who registered the core Guild Wars 2® game prior to January 23, 2015 and who upgrade their account by prepurchasing and registering any Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns edition before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns‘ launch, we will add one additional character slot to your Guild Wars 2 account.

Source: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pre-purchase-community-address/

So if you bought GW2 couple months ago FROM THIRD PARTY retailer, then you get the character slot if you pre-purchase and apply the key to your account before HoT launch. In this case whether you buy the HoT from GW2 site or some third party retailer doesn’t matter.

However if you bought the original game from GW2 website two months ago, then you will not get the free character slot. In that case your best option would be to buy HoT from GW2 web site or in-game store, in which case you get automatic refund for your GW2 core game.

For all players who purchased the Guild Wars 2 core game from our website and registered it between January 23, 2015 and June 16, 2015 in anticipation of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, we will automatically refund what you paid for the core game should you decide to pre-purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns from our website or in-game store any time through July 31, 2015. If you take advantage of this refund and pre-purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, all of your current account progress will be kept intact. We’ll provide further details on when refunds will be processed in the next couple weeks as we set up this process.

So in short, your options depend on where you bought the original GW2 game. I hope this helps.

Derigar.7810:

DarksunG.9537:

Derigar.7810:

Belzebu.3912:

The Ultimate one is WAY too much, the 4k gems + “extra bank tab” would be enough.

Disagree. The items only have a short term effect on your character and don’t harm the economy in any way. The items that DO have a long term effect can be bought with gems… The 4000 gems can, that way, be spent on more cosmetic and useful items like eternal harvesting sickles or picks or axes.

I’d definitely pay €100 for a package like that.

You’ve got to be kidding… there is no way in hell they would offer that much. Yeah, sure it would be great, but Anet is the last place you’d get that much value for your money.

Which is what I simply don’t understand about them…

They could’ve had a LOT more people buying the €100 version if they added a lot of stuff in it.

Someone will always buy more if they get more. €100 is pushing it for an “ultimate” edition, even with the 4K gems added…

Bank tab? Inventory tab? I think most people who would buy the ‘ultimate’ edition will probably already have all bank tabs open. They might want ‘total makeover kit’ instead. Or maybe something else.

By adding 4k gems, they already included ‘everything from gem shop’ into the bundle, just in limited quantity. If you want to add ‘more stuff’ that’s available in gem store, you basically want ‘more gems’ on top of the 4k.

That’s the thing about gems – they are the best possible value for gem shop, because they are the wild card. They are exactly what you wanted to get from gem store. Heck, even I can’t deny their value, because I know there is something I could use in there. And in the unlikely case that there wasn’t, there’s good chance that sometime in the future there will be. As a last resort, they can convert into gold and get you something that way.

To me it would be pretty simple: For basic edition, add 1500 gems. For deluxe add 4000 gems. For ultimate add 7000 gems (instead of 4000). That would give them enough extra value. Or adjust that a bit and make 1000 gems a ‘vet reward’ if you link the key to existing account.

I know many people want all sorts of fluff. Titles, minis, glider skins, whatever else. That’s fine, and if it’s exclusive to the package it’ll make them more wanted. But to me none of that stuff really increases the value of the package when I consider whether it’s worth getting or not. The exceptions are rare, although they exist.

Standard €44,99

• Heart of Thorns expansion
• 500 Gems (€6,25 value)

Deluxe €74,99

• Heart of Thorns expansion
• Miniature Revenant Rytlock
• Heart of Thorns Glider skin
• 3000 Gems (€37,50 value)

Ultimate €99,99

• Heart of Thorns expansion
• Miniature Revenant Rytlock
• Revenant Finisher
• Mordremoth’s Bane Guild Hall Decoration
• Heart of Thorns Glider skin
  EXTRA
• 6000 Gems (€75 value)

Tyrian veteran bonus

• 1000 Gems (€12,50 value)
• Awarded upon adding HoT key on pre-existing GW2 account

Tyrian recruit bonus

• Any HoT purchases can be used to create a new GW2 account

Sir Meta.3402:

Hmm so not having played S2 WILL make the story less, i guess. So i wonder if I should pay extra 16 euro for S2 and if its worth that price. ?

If you play the game for the story, then yes – I think it’s worth getting it. If not, then like noted before, you should read through it or watch youtube videos of the episodes to catch up on the story.

Derigar.7810:

Kitsune.1902:

Derigar.7810:

Standard €44,99

• Heart of Thorns expansion (+ core game)
• An additional character slot to try out the new Revenant profession
• A personal Merchant express, Bank access express and Trading post express for a week to start off your adventures in the Jungle!

Deluxe €74,99

• Heart of Thorns expansion (+ core game)
• An additional character slot to try out the new Revenant profession
• A personal Merchant express, Bank access express and Trading post express for a week to start off your adventures in the Jungle!
  EXTRA
• Access to Season 2 of the Living Story if not unlocked
• Miniature Revenant Rytlock
• Revenant Finisher
• Mordremoth’s Bane Guild Hall Decoration
• Heart of Thorns Glider skin

Ultimate €99,99

• Heart of Thorns expansion (+ core game)
• An additional character slot to try out the new Revenant profession
• A personal Merchant express, Bank access express and Trading post express for a week to start off your adventures in the Jungle!
• Access to Season 2 of the Living Story if not unlocked
• Miniature Revenant Rytlock
• Revenant Finisher
• Mordremoth’s Bane Guild Hall Decoration
• Heart of Thorns Glider skin
  EXTRA
• 4000 Gems (€50,00 value)
• One “instant level 80” item
• One “unlock all waypoints” item for all waypoints up to level 79 area’s (excludes Heart of Thorns maps)
• One “extra bank tab” unlock
• One “extra inventory tab” unlock

Well.. after I leave out everything I already have, or don’t need / have interest in…

You’re a giant minority if that’s the case.

That’s certainly possible. I don’t use the ‘express’ things any more than I use various ‘boosters’ – the free ones I got along the way are just cluttering my bank. I think they added that option for compressing them into generic ones for 10 silver to the minority like me. It’s really useful for me.

The exception is a couple of ‘crafting boosters’ I used on some characters when leveling crafts from 400 to 500 – and I still have over a dozen freebies of those cluttering the bank.

I don’t need any ‘insta 80’ or ‘unlock waypoints’ items.. I prefer to play the game instead. I don’t need any more character slots – I got 8 originally to have one for each class, but I find I have no interest in warrior or engineer, so now I have 2 of them free. Character slot isn’t entirely useless though, I can always leave a character to some mining spot or the like, and get something that way just by logging in. It just isn’t something I feel like I’d actually need for something.

I have all LWS2 episodes open from having logged into game, I have no interest in miniatures or finishers – I don’t play PvP anyway. Glider skin I would take if it was free, but it doesn’t really add any ‘value’ for me. Glider is so central to HoT that I’m certain there will be other ways to get various glider skins, and I’d rather have one that I got from some achievement through playing the game. As for guild hall decorations, I don’t see the point – guilds are generally not for single person, so why would there be account-specific item for guild decoration? Beyond that, I’d rather see the guild decorations reflect the achievements of the guild – not the amount of money the members tossed into expansion.

Bank tabs I could use – I originally got all of them opened, but didn’t go for the extra ones when they increased the cap. Same with the material storage extras. And I didn’t expand any of the character inventories, so I could use those too. I guess I’m just not much into the fluff.

Did I miss anything?

Derigar.7810:

Standard €44,99

• Heart of Thorns expansion (+ core game)
• An additional character slot to try out the new Revenant profession
• A personal Merchant express, Bank access express and Trading post express for a week to start off your adventures in the Jungle!

Deluxe €74,99

• Heart of Thorns expansion (+ core game)
• An additional character slot to try out the new Revenant profession
• A personal Merchant express, Bank access express and Trading post express for a week to start off your adventures in the Jungle!
  EXTRA
• Access to Season 2 of the Living Story if not unlocked
• Miniature Revenant Rytlock
• Revenant Finisher
• Mordremoth’s Bane Guild Hall Decoration
• Heart of Thorns Glider skin

Ultimate €99,99

• Heart of Thorns expansion (+ core game)
• An additional character slot to try out the new Revenant profession
• A personal Merchant express, Bank access express and Trading post express for a week to start off your adventures in the Jungle!
• Access to Season 2 of the Living Story if not unlocked
• Miniature Revenant Rytlock
• Revenant Finisher
• Mordremoth’s Bane Guild Hall Decoration
• Heart of Thorns Glider skin
  EXTRA
• 4000 Gems (€50,00 value)
• One “instant level 80” item
• One “unlock all waypoints” item for all waypoints up to level 79 area’s (excludes Heart of Thorns maps)
• One “extra bank tab” unlock
• One “extra inventory tab” unlock

Well.. after I leave out everything I already have, or don’t need / have interest in…

Eleri Tezhme.3048:

And why in the world did it translate the numerical represntation of “Fifty dollars” into “kitten”

Last time I checked, numbers weren’t swear words

It reads both $ and 5 as letter ‘s’ and ignores spaces.. so you get the article ‘a’ followed by two ‘s’ letters.

Eleri Tezhme.3048:

Finn Dove of Myst.7819:

Since a lot of us (it sounds like, and I know I fit into the category) enjoy being part of a Very-Small-Guild – I wonder if Anet would consider offering sort of a tiny guild hall that has some of the features of the larger ones but perhaps not everything.

My guild is a small group of very close knit people, scattered across the globe- so we’ve been feeling left out of most Guild events & perks since they started- there’s really only ever a party’s worth of us on at the same time- so no Rushes, Bounties, etc for us. Bummer, but we’ve lived without them.

However, it’ll be a major dissapointment if we won’t be able to avail ourselves of a Guild Hall because of our size & structure. At least with GW1 Guild Halls were accessable to guilds of any size, even if it did take longer to build up Stuff.

Back in GW1 I made a guild with one friend, and over the years bought every upgrade available to the hall there. It took time, yes – but that’s alright. It doesn’t have to be easy, it doesn’t have to be fast. It just needs to be possible.

On the other hand having stat selections tied to trait selections was silly. 1 & 2 could be solved by allowing more versatile gear selections in spvp for mixing and matching.

3 & 4 are a different issue. Personally I too like more options – which is why I liked GW1 skill system and hero system. However compared to old system, the current trait system has it’s upsides too – it should be a lot easier to balance out, and hopefully that will pay off in the future.

MauricioCezar.2673:

As far i understand, HOT itself have it own complete storyline to experience (Probably finishing up on we killing the lord of weed).

We don’t even know if they will introduce a season 3 living story within next year, but if they do so, its almost guaranteed that we will need to have HoT to experience it as a whole.

I’m assuming HoT is necessary to go through the S3, yes. The main question is whether the delivery will be similar (need to log in during active chapter, or buy it later with gems), and whether HoT is necessary to unlock them by login, or only necessary later to actually play them.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Just a bit confused. If you don’t care at this point whether it is boxed or digital, why not just purchase HoT through the in-game Gem Store or the official website?

From the original post:

( … )
Please tell me what happened. Im not able to get the expansion online due to an issue that could not be resolved on your end, Anet (don’t make me jump through those hoops again, its not going to work)
( … )

Even if the details weren’t explained.

Technically this is true, and it might be strange to go through the story to the point where

If that one part was changed for revenant characters, it should work out fine. It might still be a bit confusing though if there’s other history references somewhere in the game (in HoT in particular) to the birth of the class – since those references might not align with what revenant characters experience in their story.

Given the origin of that class it might not be impossible to have a new background story for them – same story for all revenants regardless of race, which could take place within the mists. However this would be problematic in that the personal story is actually tied to leveling up the character.. and taking part in the events of the world story – and you don’t want to do the whole leveling from 1 to 80 in some mist instance.

It would still be possible – perhaps starting the story ( tutorial area ) within the mists, and coming out to the ‘regular Tyria’ after that. Then instead of normal personal story instances, having the personal story instances as breaches into the mists – and perhaps taking part in the events from there. It might be too much work, but on the other hand it would give a new perspective to the early events of the world.

Perhaps it could even be spun somehow so that the theme of the story would be something that takes place after the events that led to birth of the class, and the events within the mists would be (at least in part) glimpses to the past events that already happened (during the fight against Zhaitan). That could be pretty cool.

Gaile Gray.6029:

The standard edition will be available in a “boxed copy” version from some authorized retailers. Some of those retailers are engaged in the pre-purchase program. Others are offering a pre-order, which is not the same thing and will not gain the benefits of the actual pre-purchase.

Hope this helps!

I just hope you are aware that this WILL bring further confusion and frustration. Even now people are occasionally writing of ‘pre-purchase’ and ‘pre-order’ on forums as if they were the same thing. It’s guaranteed that there will be people who do the ‘pre-order’ and then wonder where their character slot or beta access is.

Beta access comes and goes, and probably is the lesser of the issues. What comes to character slots, if the past few days are any indicator, I believe many of the people who would miss it due to mix-up between pre-order and pre-purchase, will be unhappy. My personal opinions about usefulness of character slots versus gems aside.. I think it might not be a bad idea to reconsider adding any ‘veteran appreciation’ gift to all ‘veterans’ who buy the expansion, regardless of if they pre-purchase, pre-order, or buy the expansion in normal way after launch.

nathanjameson.3542:

Lue.6538:

You’re behaving as if its a religion, get over yourself and accept that the deal was something that alot of people were unhappy with, wether or not it is a majority is de facto besides the point. Enough of a portion of the players felt that the deal was bad enough that Arenanet had to do something about it.

The issue that most players had with the deal (myself included) has been addressed and amended. Before the announcement, I did not and was not planning to buy either the pre-order or the expansion. After the additional character slot, I was satisfied enough to.

Continued to insist that there remains an issue falls under the same mindset that you’re accusing me of…namely, mindless blind devotion to a cause that the majority of players don’t agree with.

This is not the case. It depends entirely on what your problem with the deal was in the first place. If the issue was that you didn’t feel you got enough value for the cost, and you feel that a single character slot brings the value sufficiently high – then everything is fine for you.

If your problem was something else however, or if you feel that the addition doesn’t bring enough value to warrant the price for you, then nothing – or not enough – has changed for you.

If a frying pan was $50 in local store, but came bundled with complimentary bonsai tree, you might not be happy with the deal. More so if that was the only way you could buy a frying pan. If the store added a complimentary screwdriver if you buy within the next month, you still might not feel it’s a good deal. You might simply want the frying pan for $25.. and might settle for frying pan plus $25 gift card for $50.

I believe you can be confident that (if all else fails) your friend can buy multiple copies and send you a code. HoT code can be used standalone to create an account, and it certainly won’t be limited to one per person. There’s households that will buy multiples. The purchase page even has a pulldown selection to buy 1, 2 or 3 of them on one go. (The in-game store would not work though since that adds the code directly to the account that bought it).

Meanwhile they haven’t even announced the actual release day yet, and one feature of pre-purchase is ‘access to beta weekends’. Not to mention they still have elite specialisations left to unveil. I think it’s safe to say we’re still a good while away from actual release.

I’m not saying this isn’t important issue – just that there’s no cause just yet for panic – or ‘WIDWIDRICSAS’.

The key issue in the core + HoT, as I see it, is that core doesn’t exist anymore. The fact that neither GW2 core game nor HoT can be purchased alone, leads to conclusion that HoT is NOT an expansion – because there is nothing to expand upon. HoT IS the new core game.. GW2 v2, or however you want to call it. It’s principally no different than say, Star Trek Online: Iconian War. It’s the new chapter in GW2 base game.

The problem is that you have to buy that new ‘base game’ again, regardless of whether or not you had the game prior to it. The business model – as it’s explained in the blog – is to do the same over again with every future expansion.

While it has not been stated in this manner, it is still in my opinion same as:

‘The price of GW2 is the price of access to game and it’s features and updates from the time of purchase, up to release of the next major update at the unspecified day in future. Upon release of next major update you will need to purchase the game again to retain full access to it’s updated features. Failure to do so will limit your access to new content’.

Essentially the price of whatever version is current, is your ‘subscription’ to the game until next ‘chapter’. If you don’t pay that ‘subscription’, you will go into ‘F2P’ mode, where you can keep playing, but have limited access to the newer content.

Whether that’s right, or reasonable is a matter of opinion, or perception. Another way to look at it would be around $15 a year for ‘subscription’, with ‘free expansions’. Towards the end of life of particular version the prices go down – so you can access the current version cheaper.. but also get less game time (before next version) from buying it.

The problem is though, that you don’t really know how long your ‘subscription’ will last. The next ‘expansion’ might roll out in another 3 years.. or it might come in 6 months. If there’s no particular reason why you’d have to buy it the day it launches, then there isn’t a huge problem with that. Right now the character slot (since it’s tied to pre-purchase only) is one thing that compels you to get the expansion right away. Another one might be the living world story access, but that depends on how it will be delivered post-launch.

In other words, “When it’s ready”. Pre-purchase ends when the HoT launches, and you can be sure they’ll announce the launch day when they have decided it. When that happens, you’ll have your answer. Until they decide the launch date though, no one will know.

How, and to whom, will the living world chapters be delivered after launch of HoT expansion?

My assumption has been thus far that the living world story continues in HoT regions. In this case I assume that only those with expansion will be able to follow on it. So far season 2 has been released periodically, for anyone who logged in at least once during the chapter being active.

How will this work after launch? Are the chapters still released free for those who have logged in, but needing to be bought by those who were absent? If so, and if you haven’t purchased the expansion yet while the story chapter is active, does it still get added to your account, but you’ll be able to reach it only after you do acquire the expansion? Or does it not even get added to your account even if you logged in (without expansion), thus requiring you to later on buy not only the expansion but also the chapters separately?

This is something I’ve been wondering for a while. Perhaps this has been explained somewhere already, and I just haven’t noticed it. If someone has seen this fully explained, a link would be great. If not, then ‘official’ answer would be appreciate.

Thanks.

zorokai.1486:

nathanjameson.3542:

Hyble.4271:

The funny part?

We would not be seeing this thread if he had won. I’m sure gambling wouldn’t be such a problem then :P

Gambling results in profit? Working as intended.

Gambling results in loss? TO THE FORUMS!!!!!

Yes, its so true its painful.
No complaints ever when this go in their favor
Nothing wrong with a little bit of gambling in-game with fake money Imo.
Problem only occurs when real money gets thrown in and people get genuinely addicted, as of now i don’t see a problem with the system.

This pretty much. I’d have more of a problem if there was a skritt gambling with gems. But even then the worst incentive would be missing since you can’t trade gems back to real money. The way it is now – who knows, maybe there will be a few people who will take the lesson to heart. That would be great, really.

— edit —
I feel compelled to add this much:
Don’t take me wrong – I can very well understand the feeling of loss and remorse that prompted OP to write the post in the first place. I’ve played since launch, and have never had even 500 ectos to blow, let only 1000. If I imagine the remorse I’d feel if I’d blown away a few years of stashing in an instant, I just can’t feel the amusement I otherwise might.

The net loss from 1000 ectos would be about 430 gold. Add the 100 gold on top of that and we’re at around equal to 4000 gems. What I’d probably do in that situation is to buy the 4000 gems (either straight up, or in form of HoT ultimate), convert them to gold, and buy back the ectos.

The reason is simple – I could forget the loss of that amount of real cash soon enough, while the loss of that many ectos I’d feel for months. I’d just count the loss as a price for lessons learned.

Gambling is based on average net loss to players. Always. Otherwise it wouldn’t be gambling. It would be a job where you earn by doing stuff.

I came across that skritt too, figured it was funny. I tossed in the minimum bid to try it out.. came back with 2 ectos and 50 silver ahead. Thought for a moment about trying again, then reminded myself of the facts and walked away. Friend tossed in minimum bid, lost.. I think 3 or 4 ectos and 40 silver. Walked away too. End of story.

There’s also people who are addicted to gambling, who won’t be able to stop ‘while they are ahead’, but also won’t be able to stop ‘until they get back their own’, because ‘they can feel the luck is just now changing’. Or because ‘after having lost so many times it’s bound to be jackpot right around the corner’.

Is it fair towards them? Maybe not. But honestly if anyone tosses in their fortune to gambling, while knowing the odds are random, the only person to blame can be found in the mirror.

adormtil.1605:

Ricky.4706:

if anet wanted to increase their value, they should only sell 50 copies of this expansion lol

would be a riot if nothing else heh!!

At 1 million $ each.

Nah. Auction them for highest bidder in in-game gold, and see what it does to gem prices

Truska.2064:

Lusteregris.2697:

Anet, please. Give it a priority for a week or two, get this bug fixed. I dont want yet another set of black lion weapon skins, i want MY skins.

^ This! +1

It’s not the art team that’s working on fix for this, you know. There’s also the issue of arranging refund system for people who got the GW2 during that time starting January, who buy the HoT expansion. For tech side, there’s also the issues that came with the condition change being unbalanced and needing some work. I’m betting there’s a lot of work that came up with the latest game update (specializations et all).

If I had to think priorities, then I think it’s more pressing to make sure the world bosses won’t die in 10 seconds flat. I know HoM has been broken for a long time, and I’d like to see it working too. But I agree too that it’s past the point where crying about it makes a whole lot of difference. It’s a known issue, it’s been worked on, and everyone (players and anet alike) knows it’s important – because it’s the connection point between GW1 and GW2, and means a lot as a ‘continuum’ between the games.

Meanwhile, in my opinion playing GW1 solely for 30 points does a disservice for anyone who’s doing it. GW1 was an amazing game in it’s own right, and honestly deserves to be played for it’s own sake.

IP: 206.127.159.147

25-JUN-2015; 13:30 UTC
25-JUN-2015; 23:30 UTC – stuck 10 hours
26-JUN-2015; 21:00 UTC – bugged for 32 hours
26-JUN-2015; 04:00 UTC – New build, and new map, 206.127.159.155

New instance after game update, but already locked up. Maybe it’s just me, but recently it seems like ogre wars locks up even faster – and it’s always seemed like it’s during assault phase which is different from before.

It used to start from when charr are walking out of the camp and get stuck.. but now it’s been during the assault when they are supposed to attack the kraal after the weapon master and pet trainer are taken out.

IP: 206.127.159.245

24-JUN-2015; 14:00 UTC

Might as well get this over with – no, the recent patch did not fix Ogre Wars.

SkiTz.4590:

ArmoredVehicle.2849:

SkiTz.4590:

Wesley.4590:

Best possible fix for the situation, good job

No, the best possible fix was giving the equivalent of a character slot in terms of GEMS
that way, customers can decide what is best for their account (altoholics will obviously just purchase an extra slot with the additional gems from pre purchase, others will spend it on whatever)

That is a 100% everybody wins scenario.
Slots are meaningless to a lot of people, but hey, can’t complain, free is free

Still wrong, a cheaper price would be the best solution. That way your choice to spend them on gems, char slot or you know….something more important in your life.

I would surely pick the last option since money don’t exactly grow on trees.

Oh obviously price cut is the best solution, but thats also the most unrealistic solution lol. Not even a remote chance anet LOWERS the price.
Character slot can be worked into each account EASILY from anet’s side, with minimal monetary loss, but a direct LOSS Of $$ by dropping the price is a gigantic NO.
Guaranteed, that was not even an option on the table when anets higher ups discussed how to deal with this mistake.
$50 is pretty standard and most of the community was not crying about the price anyways.

Not just the monetary loss, it would be a gigantic mistake because of all the bad blood it would bring from people who bought it already. Of course the price will eventually go down, but not yet. I’d expect no significant price cuts until christmas sales.

Well, this goes back to what I was writing about back 6 days ago in a different thread (that got then merged into the whole ‘feedback bundle’)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/HoT-preexisting-accounts/first#post5158553

I suggested adding gems as veteran bonus, for the reasons that I think have been pretty clearly brought up in this current thread. I won’t repeat the whole thing here, anyone interested can easily follow the link. I’d like to point out too, that temporary crazy discount to bolster sales ($10) doesn’t necessarily reflect the more longtime value of the product (as of writing this, the base game goes for standard price of $20.85 on amazon, with ‘you save $19.14’ with list price of $39.99. Cheapest third party links on amazon go for about $20 with shipping included.. and on official site of course the base game no longer exists). To me this suggests the base game at present is valued at roughly $20.

I think the practical worries about paying for the product beforehand, can be mostly addressed by waiting for the beta impressions of people who feel more confident about the offer. I expect we have fairly good footage well before the launch day. That’s not to say that I’m happy about the ‘bonus’ being there for pre-release buyers only – I’m not.

What comes to the clarification of future pricing plans, I think it was explained clearly enough in the blog. The way I read it is basically, the cost of the original game (when it was released) as well as the expansion (right now), are both for the access to the game up till such time that the next new expansion is released. For the base game, that time is now. For HoT it’s in some unspecified future day.

Yes, you can keep on playing the older version without extra expenses, but obviously it’s not a very viable long term solution – because you’ll fall behind the state of the game in many ways. In case of HoT I’d assume it would mean you stop getting the living world chapters for example – although I could not be 100% certain of this.

I believe it all boils down to, whether you expect to ‘get your money’s worth’ before the next expansion hits the shelves. The only somewhat reasonable alternative to ‘pay up or move on’, would be to wait up for discount – but that would likely mean less value in form of missed character slot (although I personally don’ t have use for it), and possibly being required to purchase missed living world chapters separately (if they continue in HoT only, with a system similar to season 2).

The automatic refund policy I believe is very fair solution. It was important that it is too, in my opinion, because of the sudden change in the pricing and bundling plan – but I think the solution covers it in the best possible reasonable way. I’m glad to see that one, even though it doesn’t affect me personally in any way.

Overall I believe some sort of response to the huge negative feedback was absolutely necessary, and in some parts I believe the blog post (clarifying the business plan) and changes (refund policy) covered the issues quite adequately. On the other fronts (‘veteran discount’), I feel it fell short of what I expected, in both value ($10) and application (pre-buy only).

RDarken.2495:

Kitsune.1902:

Well certainly you are ‘entitled’ to your opinion, but I question the accuracy of your statements. Altar of Malice is the newest expansion for EQ2, and at least on steam it doesn’t include anything more than that particular expansion.

I imagine they stopped doing it upon the switch to F2P (I never really played the game, so haven’t followed it), but they did do it. Looks like Destiny of Velious was the last one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest_II_expansions#Destiny_of_Velious
“Destiny of Velious is the seventh EverQuest II expansion pack. The expansion also gives access to all previous released expansions and adventure packs.”

Kitsune.1902:

Like I’ve said on earlier post, it is indeed common practice to make bundles of previous expansions. BUT. That generally includes only the old expansions, not the newest one.

But don’t we always praise ANet for doing things outside the norm? We’re always so happy when they break the rules and make things cheaper (“no subscription fees”), so it really shouldn’t even be that surprising for us that they’re doing this.

Kitsune.1902:

As for subscription MMOs, the comparison doesn’t seem relevant because their whole business model is completely different. They are also exceedingly rare these days. WoW and FFXIV come to mind, and that’s about it. ESO just went to buy-to-play model, and Wildstar is moving to fully F2P model this fall.

I don’t understand why the comparison is irrelevant: They are MMOs and we are talking about the cost of the game. To play WoW or FFXIV, you have to buy the game, plus pay a monthly fee. Also, similar to the move by ANet, WoW made all expansions except the latest one built into the core game, so all you’d need to buy to jump in would be the latest expansion:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/15355237075

Looks like a few of the expansions on the list do have a note that they give access to previous ones, most of them don’t. Hard to say if wiki just fails to mention it. Either way they didn’t include the access to base game. I couldn’t say if those expansions gave the access to previous ones right at the time they were released, or only later on, possibly when the new expansion came out. I do recall either EQ or EQ2 offered bundles of earlier expansions, but generally excluded the latest one from the bundles. That may have been EQ1, it’s been so many years I can’t really remember for sure.

What WoW is doing there is pretty much what I was talking about. Bundling the earlier expansions but not the latest. All you need is to buy the game AND the latest expansion – unless you already own the game.

But then again, being a subscription based model the basics are different. Their revenue comes mainly from subscription, which leaves the cash shop to much smaller role if it exists at all.

The comparison is not relevant in my opinion because the distribution of costs is very different. Without subscription, the game has to nickel and dime the revenue through cash shop for the most part. You can’t really compare the sub fee plus expansions, to the expansions of F2P or B2P games, without taking account the role of the cash shop.

Bag slots, bank tabs, gathering tools, gear skins, transmutation stones, living story episodes – everything really. Sure, none of it is necessary. Neither do you have to pay the monthly subscription every month. You can play for one month, 18 hours a day.. then take a break for 5 months.. and then play for 1 month again. You monthly sub was just cut to 2 months a year.

For me personally the games with monthly sub are not an option, because I’d feel like I HAVE to play them as much as possible, or I lose money. I play several games on and off as the mood hits, I don’t focus on one game exclusively.. and that just isn’t feasible with subscription based games.

papry.8096:

This is what Anet propose to people that ask for an HoT upgrade when they bought GW2 before the FAQ ninja update.

I’d have to say it’s unacceptable in my opinion. I could accept most of it, but the loss of possible gems purchased seems wrong, and to be unable to link GW1 to new account would be a deal breaker for me. The loss of game progress would be unfortunate but understandable, being forced to use a different email wouldn’t matter much since you could just make a new gmail account for it.

RDarken.2495:

I guess the real lesson for ANet here is to not try to do anything nice for their players.

ANet is including the base game as a courtesy to new players. This is not a new practice: EQ 2 used to include not only the base game, but ALL previous expansion packs with each expansion. I can understand someone who purchased the full game recently being frustrated, but most of the complaints are from “veteran players” and are just plain ridiculous.
The morning of the E3 stream, feedback was “hype”: “I can’t wait to preorder,” “Please take my money,” etc.. Preorders are released and now the hard work of all the developers is being spat upon over a small amount of money. Nothing about the game has changed.

Just because we got char slots with each new CHAPTER of GW1, does not mean we are entitled to one for free here – in fact, the only true “expansion” of GW1 did not come with a free character slot. ANet never once told us to expect a character slot – if you did, your disappointment is not ANet’s fault.

I do not think ANet is perfect, not by a longshot, and I question/“boycott” some of their business practices (like paid RNG). I can totally understand not wanting to preorder yet because we do not know enough about the game, but this level of negativity is disgusting and, frankly, stinks of the entitled gamer attitude. Let’s not forget that ANet is a business and, therefore, needs to make money so we can play. Keep in mind that some MMOs have a monthly subscription in addition to requiring the purchase of their expansion for $40+.

I hope ANet sticks to their guns on this. I’m getting the Ultimate Edition. I cheaped out on Prophecies and still regret not getting those gloves.

Well certainly you are ‘entitled’ to your opinion, but I question the accuracy of your statements. Altar of Malice is the newest expansion for EQ2, and at least on steam it doesn’t include anything more than that particular expansion. Of course it’s questionable to do comparisons to begin with since EQ2 is more or less a F2P game these days.

Like I’ve said on earlier post, it is indeed common practice to make bundles of previous expansions. BUT. That generally includes only the old expansions, not the newest one. When a game has a dozen expansions out through it’s many years of life, it would become prohibitive for new player to catch up – the cost could be up over $1000 to buy the whole lineup of expansions. So the older ones are bundled – or sometimes simply given free with the purchase of the base game. What GW2 is doing here though, is opposite.

As for GW1, Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall were technically separate games which you could purchase and play standalone. It’s difficult to compare them to expansion. You’re correct that EoTN was the only true expansion to GW1, and did not come with character slot. Neither did it come with new professions (or classes), though.

When combined with existing Prophecies game, the Factions and Nightfall each added two more classes, and two more character slots. Of course you could also say that it was a net loss, because if used standalone, they would both come with four character slots.

As for subscription MMOs, the comparison doesn’t seem relevant because their whole business model is completely different. They are also exceedingly rare these days. WoW and FFXIV come to mind, and that’s about it. ESO just went to buy-to-play model, and Wildstar is moving to fully F2P model this fall.

Zephyr.9320:

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.

This is actually part of a price development I keep scratching my head to understand.

Not long ago, Guild Wars 2 was worth $40. Then it was sold on discount for $20, and even $10. Well I can understand discounts, they happen from time to time and are generally very nice for the customer.

But today Guild Wars 2 is now worth $0. Zero. Zip. It’s so cheap it can be thrown as a free sider for an expansion – which is itself is now worth $50.

An expansion that adds some features and content to.. a game that’s now worth zero?

And the result is supposed to make it easier for new players to get into the game. Only the game is apparently no longer available – not for $40, not for $20 or $10. It’s my understanding that the game is in fact not available at all anymore, except as a free sider for.. an expansion prepurchase. Which actually costs $50. So the only way to actually get the game, is to buy kitten prepurchase, and get the game for free?

But then, if someone is not comfortable with committing to pre purchase of an expansion of which there isn’t very much actual information available.. but would rather just buy the well documented game for.. I don’t really know what value..? How would they be able to work that out?

Well I suppose some retailers somewhere likely still have copies available.

IP: 206.127.159.170

18-JUN-2015; 19:00 UTC

Yet another locked up ogre wars. The situation looks almost identical to the *.159.147 instance.

IP: 206.127.159.147

18-JUN-2015; 13:00 UTC

Another locked up instance of ogre wars. The event was proceeding as normal from Charr side. However once weapon master and pet trainer were killed, it never advanced to attacking the kraal. The charr group is just standing there outside where they are supposed to put up mortars.

ReiCH.6273:

Kitsune.1902:

ReiCH.6273:

papry.8096:

Hey, remember the reddit post with the help for recent buyer of GW2.
Guess what ?
Here; their answer to people asking for help.

http://i.imgur.com/T0lpOQO.jpg

since i feel this is an even bigger breach of trust from the ninja edit in the faq, i’m putting it here again in the hopes that we get an honest reply for that.

And so I’ll point out again it’s the copy-paste response I’ve already seen in different context – basically the first response given to likely thousands of inquiries the customer support is bombarded by right now. If you’ve dealt with CS before, you’ll probably know that in case like this you need to continue with second letter.

“Thanks for your quick response, however this does not answer to my problem. There was a reddit post that informed us that customer support is able to help with…”

and so on. Post again, explain the situation, and what you are after. There is little question that CS right now is overtaxed with all manner of issues, so it might take a bit to get through to them.

I’m sorry but even if things are as you say they are, that’s pretty bad and the practice unethical. What you’re saying is that there’s a customer who wants to get the promised upgrade, and they blow him off real quick cause there’s too much work to do. And, who knows, maybe he ‘ll just give up and go buy another account. That doesn’t sound reasonable at all. They shouldn’t be doing that to people. That’s not how they should be treating their customers. I still feel we need a reply from the company for this.

It’s how it works in reality. In all likelihood, the answer will be sufficient for most of the cases, probably more than 90%. Those to whom it’s not enough of an answer, will get back to you, and hopefully their issue gets cleared with subsequent exchange.

It’s extremely rare that I actually have to contact CS, but a few times I have, I recall something similar. First answer is usually generic, often with links to a few resources that might be helpful in most cases. When they’re not, you contact them again, and the matter gets pushed forward.

Well, if you feel outraged by it, then I guess it’s your right as a customer to feel so. I look at it a bit differently. I think in reality most of the letters/tickets to CS are something people could have cleared with a quick googling or a look at FAQ. If CS spent 5 minutes researching and answering each one of them, they’d probably have to hire 10 times more people for the job. That would increase expense, and as a result, prices.

In view of this, I really don’t mind sending another polite letter if that’s what my issue requires. Now if I got brushed off after third letter, that’s when I’d start getting upset. I don’t remember that happening though.

ReiCH.6273:

papry.8096:

Hey, remember the reddit post with the help for recent buyer of GW2.
Guess what ?
Here; their answer to people asking for help.

http://i.imgur.com/T0lpOQO.jpg

since i feel this is an even bigger breach of trust from the ninja edit in the faq, i’m putting it here again in the hopes that we get an honest reply for that.

And so I’ll point out again it’s the copy-paste response I’ve already seen in different context – basically the first response given to likely thousands of inquiries the customer support is bombarded by right now. If your issue is about HoT pricing, availability, or the bundled base game, that’s the first response you will get.

If you’ve dealt with CS before, you’ll probably know that in case like this you need to continue with second letter.

“Thanks for your quick response, however this does not answer to my problem. There was a reddit post that informed us that customer support is able to help with…”

and so on. Post again, explain the situation, and what you are after. There is little question that CS right now is overtaxed with all manner of issues, so it might take a bit to get through to them.

skowcia.8257:

papry.8096:

Hey, remember the reddit post with the help for recent buyer of GW2.
Guess what ?
Here; their answer to people asking for help.

http://i.imgur.com/T0lpOQO.jpg

Cash grab at it best. Idk about you guys but i for one wont be buying xpac anytime soon. Not for the arrogant comment from John Smith, not for the shady practices and not for the lies on reddit.

They are probably getting hundreds, or thousands of inquiries like that. That’s the same copy-paste response I’ve seen posted elsewhere. If you want to get somewhere, I think you need to poke them again and explain the situation – the second letter probably goes to a slightly closer scrutiny. You may have to be prepared to give up your game progress though – although I couldn’t be sure.

Vulcanite.3012:

Kitsune.1902:

Vulcanite.3012:

Poeple are missing the point here. The problem is not with the Veterans or the people who buys HoT and then gets core game at the same time. The problem is everyone who bought the core game since the expantion was announced because in the FAQ it stated you need the core game to be able to play HoT and they changed it yesterday when they added the core game to HoT.

Interesting note: This expantion now costs more then I paid for the core game when it was first released in South Africa also about 1/4 of my month’s salary. Also feel so bad i convinced one of my friends to buy the game last week. He is so happy with me now.

If he bought the game just last week, he should contact the support immediately. It’s been mentioned elsewhere that they can help you migrate the purchase into HoT prepurchase (although I assume you have to pay the cost difference, and your account may be reset so that any progress you had made in-game will be lost). Essentially it’s refund of the game you bought, and purchase of the new HoT option.

That is going to be a bit hard seing as he bought it from a store with Rands, South African currency, and does not have a credit card to make online payments.

Ouch. Yes, difficult to do any transactions online then, and so CS might not be able to do much. Wouldn’t hurt to still contact them, but not sure it would help much.

Vulcanite.3012:

Poeple are missing the point here. The problem is not with the Veterans or the people who buys HoT and then gets core game at the same time. The problem is everyone who bought the core game since the expantion was announced because in the FAQ it stated you need the core game to be able to play HoT and they changed it yesterday when they added the core game to HoT.

Interesting note: This expantion now costs more then I paid for the core game when it was first released in South Africa also about 1/4 of my month’s salary. Also feel so bad i convinced one of my friends to buy the game last week. He is so happy with me now.

If he bought the game just last week, he should contact the support immediately. It’s been mentioned elsewhere that they can help you migrate the purchase into HoT prepurchase (although I assume you have to pay the cost difference, and your account may be reset so that any progress you had made in-game will be lost). Essentially it’s refund of the game you bought, and purchase of the new HoT option.

karenlynn.4012:

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.

This is a very generous bonus, and I bet new players will really appreciate it. As an existing player, I have no problem with the cost of the expansion. But as a consumer I expect to receive the same value for my money as any other customer buying the same product. So what bonus will I receive, as I won’t get the free included game?

What’s offered in HoT is a large update to the base game, with new class, new areas, new features and balance changes. Some of those changes affect wide areas (f.ex. skill rebalance) and are announced as part of base game. Some of them can be split apart (f.ex. new areas) and are bundled as an expansion. One major issue however, is the living world story.

I don’t see it feasible to keep the base game as something that will support itself as a full featured whole, because of the dynamic nature of GW2 world because much of the content comes through, or is tied to, the living world story – and the game wouldn’t make as much sense if you aren’t following it. And that has to my understanding moved to HoT.

As such, the way I see it, the combination of GW2 + HoT is the new ‘base game’ so to speak. As such it does make perfect sense to remove the option to buy the ‘old base game’ alone. And if you don’t want to sell it by itself, you have to make HoT into the new baseline.

The question is then, how do you handle that in relation to existing accounts. And it’s my belief that this has been the root of the issue. For all intents and purposes, I feel like HoT is essentially “Guild Wars 2, v2”. Pretty much like – for example – Star Trek Online has gone through various ‘seasons’, and is currently at “Star Trek Online: The Iconian War”.

The feeling of ‘wrongness’ in all this, for me at least, is probably rooted in this very thing. The feeling that I have to buy the new version of the same game, at full price.

Looking at it from the other perspective, There will probably be further ‘expansions’, (or ‘seasons’, ‘feature packs’ or however one wishes to name them). If you had to buy all of them separately, the cost would very quickly become prohibitive for new players. This is the issue that many older games have to face. The common solution is to bundle the older expansions into cheaper collection, and only ask full price of one or two latest expansions. Or in some cases, just roll the older expansions into the base game and offer them for free when one buys the game.

The problem is that GW2 is doing this prematurely. The expansion hasn’t even been released yet, or even the full range of it’s content published.. and it’s already part of a bundled deal. Worse, the only way to obtain the new expansion, is to buy the bundle. In my opinion this shouldn’t happen until the expansion is ‘old’, in general at earliest when the next expansion is out. While it’s not necessarily wrong to offer an option to buy a bundle, when you make such offer for new product, you should still have the option to buy the product alone.

It doesn’t really matter if you call it ‘the price of new product, the rest is just free bonus’, because that’s not how the buyer will perceive it. At least I don’t, and it’s my impression there’s substantial number of others who feel that way too.

Like I’ve said before, I understand it’s probably too late at this point to change most of the things – regardless of if one wanted or not in the first place (and I fail to believe that this much negative response is desirable in any way). Lots of purchases have been made already, and to do significant changes to their content post-purchase would be difficult. Taking anything away from bundles would be impossible. Even giving a reduced price option for ‘only expansion’ now would be practically impossible.

I still feel the nicest solution would be to offer something that would be seen as ‘of equal value’ to what new players receive (the base game), to those who instead link this bundle to an existing account. The most common suggestion has been ‘character slot’. Others have noted ‘bank tabs’, and less commonly various other gem store options, like ‘total make over kit’, ‘boosters’, ‘skins’, and I think some other assorted goods.

Myself I’ve pointed out it would be better to simply offer a package of gems, because this would let each individual buyer decide for themselves what gives the best value – whether it be character slot, bank tab or something else. My original suggestion was to give 1600 gems (equal to two character slots) for anyone who forfeits the base game from the bundle by linking it into existing account.

Psnacky.7936:

An extra 2 character slots for those who already own the base game would be a completely fair and reasonable thing for ArenaNet to offer. If I’m not mistaken, this is what you got for adding additional campaigns to your account in GW1.

Just to clarify this a little – it’s kind of yes and no. Yes, adding campaigns to existing account would add two more character slots to the account. The difference is all the campaigns were stand-alone, so when third campaign Nightfall was release for example – if you were new player, you could just buy Nightfall if you wanted, and start playing it. You’d get four character slots, and anything that was in Nightfall, but had no access to Prophecies (first campaign) and Factions (second).

You could buy those separately if you liked, and keep them separate if you prefer – each with their own four character slots.. but each character you created was locked to only play in the campaign it was created in. Basically, the accounts would be entirely separate. Alternately, you could add any of the campaigns you buy into existing account. It would then give you just two extra character slots, but any and all characters from all campaigns you own, could travel into other campaigns and play through them.

The situation now is more like if, when Factions was released, you could only buy it bundled with Prophecies campaign, and you could either add it to your already existing Prophecies campaign as if the bundled Prophecies never existed (and with no added character slots).. or create an entirely new account that now has both campaigns and the standard four character slots, but of course starts from the scratch.

Dean Calaway.9718:

I just had an idea, if the included copy is a stand alone disk that can be made into a new account, why not give it to a friend?

Because it’s not. It was stated earlier that the ‘bonus’ base game only applies if you are a new player.

Riku.4821:

The Expansion is applied to your account you already have, you needn’t a second account.
The Pricing on the game is irrelevant in terms of the Vanilla game being included FOR FREE. with or without the game included the Expansion pack is $50.

Please stop complaining over a cup of milk half empty. Or at the very least explain with real factual reason why it upsets you, I’m more then willing to put a word in to the developers. but not your constant banter.

The thing is, vanilla game is only included for free in the sense that there is no other option than to buy both the game and the expansion. You could just as well say that the expansion is free for everyone, but it’s only offered with the purchase of the deluxe vanilla pack that costs $50. Since there is no other option, the relative distribution of the price within the components of the pack is utterly irrelevant.

If we talk about the VALUE of the pack, for a new player they save the cost of the new game (apparently around $20 at the moment). This means compared to buying just the base game, the expansion adds $30 to the cost.

For someone who already has the game, the whole $50 has to be weighed towards decision to buy the expansion or not. Because there is no other option.

Like I’ve said elsewhere, if the options are set in stone, then it would be fair to give the owners of existing account a bonus they could claim instead of the bundled base game. What I’ve suggested was a pack of 1600 gems for anyone who links the expansion to existing account (and thus forfeits the bundled base game).

This would not only give the existing players something of equal value, but also give them an opportunity to use those gems to get a new character slot for revenant – and/or some other bonus of their choice from the gem store.

I believe this would ease most of the concerns.

My impression would be it’s not toxic so much as copy/paste response – kept neutral and impartial so it can be applied ‘as is’ to as many of the similar queries as possible.

Valmir.4590:

Kitsune.1902:

Keira Wildflower.7304:

Reread what I said. It states that it is indeed the same value since Anet is giving away the Core game for $10, where that is the price of a new character slot. Tow bundles aimed at two different types of people. I fully believe in supporting additional content. I do not believe in screwing over Veteran Players over something as trivial as not having a couple additional bundles.

I have no use for an extra character slot however. Already have one reserved for trying out revenant, and I could easily clear out a second one any time.

You don’t have uses for one, but many a player has. The content of the expansion isn’t worth 50 dollars/euros for me, at best 35. Adding a character slot would at least make the punch in the guts sufferable, like an Ice Bucket Challenge done for the game’s future.

Indeed. By the same logic, ‘You don’t have uses for bundled base game, but many a player has’. They are both options someone may or may not have use for. As such, I don’t think it really offers much of a solution. If you get a bonus that’s useful for you, you may feel more happy about it. If it doesn’t happen to give anything useful for you.. then you’re not.

That’s why a cheaper option without the bonuses is a good idea. Since we don’t have that kind of option (currently the cheapest option is expansion + base game as bonus), at least the bonus should be arranged so that it’s of value for everyone. That’s why I feel it would be better to bundle in gems instead of character slot.

quacthulhu.2546:

Val.8265:

quacthulhu.2546:

<snip>
..

For previous players…The $50 price tag would be fine, if HoT was the size of a Nightfall-esque Xpac, in other words: almost an entire game’s worth of content. From what we’ve been told, it’s nowhere near that much.

..
<snip>

Also Nightfall, you were given 2 character slots if you already owned any other campaign. It shows how Arenanet handled these things in the past vs. now.

I never even realized that. I got all the GW1 Xpacs at once when they were super cheap/old.

Honestly, I think Anet is playing the “squeeze the money from the impatient!” game right now. Putting up the strictest, most newbie-friendly plans at the full asking price, because there will always be people who leap onto that stuff. Anet has to make it’s profit, that’s fair, but I hope we get a “expansion only” cheaper version of these deals, or something else tossed in to make it worth the cost, likely further down the line. I don’t want to think Anet just turned ice-cold on us. I can expect a little money-grubbing from a company, any company, it’s capitalism, ta-da! I’ll only feel hurt if it stays this way without any concession.
and “hurt” veterans tend to stop spending money.

I’m reluctant to make comparisons to Prophecies/Factions/Nightfall, because the deal was completely different. If you bought Factions, you got full Factions game, but nothing from Prophecies or Nightfall. They were all different campaigns, and you didn’t get freebies across them. Basically if you merged them, you lost some character slots, but had the ability to have your characters ‘travel’ between the campaigns.

It’s like if you could buy HoT separate, and could then only play in the HoT areas, but not in base game areas… you’d have to buy both separately, and could either play them as separate accounts, or merge them. It’s different deal. I think that’s why the FAQ had that question about whether you need base game to play HoT, and why there was all the confusion about it. Honestly I don’t blame a.net much about that fumble.. it’s true that you need base game to play HoT, as opposed to GW1 where all three campaigns could be played individually.

Of course I’m not saying it all fine – it’s true it gives wrong impression seeing as the game was bundled with the expansion by default, but given the background of GW1, I think it was understandable mistake.

quacthulhu.2546:

Kitsune.1902:

So basically what you are saying is, “What you paid for the game was your subscription until this point. It was ‘consumable’. You bought it, you used it, now it’s over and spent. If you want to keep getting new stuff, it’s time for your next subscription.”

Then Anet would be violating their own promise when they released the game years ago.
“No subscriptions ever”

Not really.. it’s technically true of course – you can keep playing the base GW2 until the doomsday without paying extra.

briggah.7910:

Us veteran players have gotten to experience all the open world events since release with new patches every few weeks.

So basically what you are saying is, “What you paid for the game was your subscription until this point. It was ‘consumable’. You bought it, you used it, now it’s over and spent. If you want to keep getting new stuff, it’s time for your next subscription.”

-1
Not interested in character slot. I have eight of them, and two are useless already. I’ve suggested it before, I’ll point it out here too – I’d rather take that in gems so I can pick myself where to use the bonus.

I think you’re missing something important here: you’re complaining about having a useless base game bundled as the only option – but an extra character slot can be equally useless for many players, like myself.

Keira Wildflower.7304:

Reread what I said. It states that it is indeed the same value since Anet is giving away the Core game for $10, where that is the price of a new character slot. Tow bundles aimed at two different types of people. I fully believe in supporting additional content. I do not believe in screwing over Veteran Players over something as trivial as not having a couple additional bundles.

I have no use for an extra character slot however. Already have one reserved for trying out revenant, and I could easily clear out a second one any time.

Fay.2735:

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

Fay.2735:

snip

What annoys people is that HoT is sold as a bundle with, as a bonus for new players, the core game. Veteran players, on the other hand, won’t get any bonus at all. Therefore we are questioning ourselves: why keep being so supportive when, in the end, they barely pay attention to us and make everything just to get new players that come and go instead of keeping and taking care of their most solid playerbase.

As for taking care of their solid playerbase we got an entire first season 1 for free that nobody new will ever get to experience again in the same way, not to mention all the exclusive items no longer available for newer players. Oh and what about the guild hall, arena, new wvw map, new areas and so forth, is that not for the original player base then? Is that not stuff people been asking for for AGES?

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.

We were new players then, you know.

Aelyn.7954:

I have a suggestion. Give veteran players some unique (unavailable in shop) stuff instead of “free original game” which we already have. I don’t know, maybe some armor skin or outfit. You’ll end up making even more profit, because someone will definitely buy original game now (!) and then pay an additional $50 for aforementioned stuff.

P.S.
Excuse me, English is not my native language.

Since this seems to be the active thread on the subject (more or less, more so than the rest), I’ll just toss the thought in here, that I mentioned elsewhere: at the moment I think a good option would be to throw in 1600 gems for anyone who links the expansion to already existing account.

My original post with reasoning behind this, was here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/HoT-preexisting-accounts/first#post5158553

In short: easy to implement retroactively, adding this after purchase doesn’t screw over anyone, gives something to everyone that they can use – with freedom to pick whether they want character slots, bank tabs or whatever else. Equal in value to two character slots, which is what you got for linking campaigns in GW1 (which in itself is poor comparison, I know – since buying Factions campaign didn’t give you Prophecies for free). And, it gives something to improve the value of the deal for veteran players, as an alternative for the bundled base game that improves the value for new players.

Mot Bone.4632:

If its the 9th crafting professions, It gonna be a big thing.

It may be a new 0-400 crafting.

It is possible to have new materials like kitten paper and ink. And maybe wood or leather need to be used in the process.

Kitten paper? Don’t hurt the kittens! :o