Guild Wars 2

This moves GW2 from a Buy to Play to a Yearly Subscription to get updated content. Granted the cost here is minimal compared to other MMOs, but I think this fact is being seriously overlooked. And yes, you do not have to upgrade your game to continue to play it. Nor do you have to update on their release schedule either. But this is about getting new content as soon as its available.

This game still doesn’t become a subscription-based game if they add expansions. Subscription-based games only allow you to play so long as you are continually paying the monthly fee. Buy2Play model games allow you to play regardless of whether you put more money into the game or not.

Now, you could argue that it is like a subscription-based game in that the entire game cost per hour of play time scales upward with respect to time, but it still lacks a subscription. Somebody could buy them game, not touch it, and never be charged for it, while at the same time being able to pick it up 2 years from then and play it without paying anything.

In this regard, this is nothing different than what happened in GW1, which only shows the specific type of B2P model that Anet uses for its games rather than an industry definition. Updating the content is the player’s choice in both subscription and B2P game models; the only difference is that in a subscription style you still need to keep paying the subscription despite no new content coming out for your current version if you choose not to upgrade, where B2P does not make the player pay this.

Also, a year is very, very liberal in this regard. I would assume no less than 2 years between expansions (maybe even 3 if you consider the length of time between launch of GW2 and now), which would shift your numbers down by no less than a factor of 2.

Why does it seem unreasonable for small guilds needing to band together to accomplish tasks that are challenging for 300-person guilds? Honestly, that sounds like it’s really quite fun. Instead of just getting handed a guild hall, you need to form alliances and take out the threat. If that doesn’t much appeal to you, then, well, I dunno. PvE doesn’t appeal to a number of PvP or WvW players, but Guild Halls are a PvE thing or a GvG thing (located in PvE maps, intended for use by guilds that do a lot together).

It really seems like a whole lot of a stir over not a whole lot of an issue…

Zangtu, if you only wanted the character slot, why didn’t you just buy the standard version and then just drop $10/145G on 800 gems? The Deluxe edition costs $15 more than just buying the character slot, and it’s $25 more if you bought the 800 gems with gold…

Also, the key farming plan is actually a good one.

If you really don’t want it though, contact support and request a refund, then buy the standard edition afterward.

It does give you a code. There is nothing stopping you from giving that code to somebody else. My wife and I both bought our HoT upgrades using my PayPal (and my email); we just applied the codes afterward to both accounts.

Buy the game upgrade through the website, and send the code as the gift. Make sure only that person gets the code though! The safest way is to get them a gift card for the amount, but that extra tax makes it a pain.

You can’t possibly still be on about vets getting “shafted”. The core game on sale = $10, character slot = $10, Hot for vets costs $40 + mandatory character slot = $50. HoT for new players costs $40 + mandatory core game =$50.

Whether you think that the price is WORTH it or not is a different matter, but your posts have little substance. They fixed the issue of fairness, so this is not a valid complaint.

Kumion.7580:

ZeftheWicked.3076:

… You see running a successful mmorpg is like picking up a woman. …

That is an offensively sleazy way to make a point.

And bloody this ^

Bellizare.5816:

MiniEquine.6014:

Bellizare.5816:

Dinks.2478:

Bloodstealer.5978:

Yeah what a farce.. All my lvl 80’s had everything unlocked and all had spare SP’s on them… in fact one of them alone had in excess of 1000 SP’s and a stack in the bank.. now all my toons have to spend some of those converted spare SP’s to re spend unlocking stuff I already spent on previous…. unbelievable.

Also.. those shards……. All my lvl 80’s (11 of them) had 100-1000+ SP’s spare on them (plus a stack extra in the bank) so why do I now only have 960 shards to use.. the cost of the forge items haven’t been altered but the exchange rate of SP’s to shards is a complete rip off.. 1SP SHOULD = 1 shard if the item costs are the same.

No you don’t, you’re not spending a single one of your old skill points on anything. Traits and skills are essentially free now.

So why not just unlock them all for existing 80’s? Save us all a few clicks, especially with multiple 80’s.

Because, should you choose to hold off on unlocking everything, then you will need less hero points to unlock all of the elite specialization traits and utilities. You could forgo buying the things you don’t care about right now and use those points for that instead, if you don’t have any/enough skill challenges complete. They added that for the WvW crowd.

By that reasoning, I should be kittened that they unlocked anything at all.

Yeah, That’s why I’m surprised that they did that…

I really don’t think it would have been too difficult for them to just let us pick everything again. I may unlock all the base specs and skills on my two main characters, but I don’t have many skill challenges done on my other level 80 alts, and some of them are 80 because of the specializations.

There certainly isn’t any financial benefit to them automatically unlocking the traits for us either, lol…I have no idea why they did it.

Bellizare.5816:

Dinks.2478:

Bloodstealer.5978:

Yeah what a farce.. All my lvl 80’s had everything unlocked and all had spare SP’s on them… in fact one of them alone had in excess of 1000 SP’s and a stack in the bank.. now all my toons have to spend some of those converted spare SP’s to re spend unlocking stuff I already spent on previous…. unbelievable.

Also.. those shards……. All my lvl 80’s (11 of them) had 100-1000+ SP’s spare on them (plus a stack extra in the bank) so why do I now only have 960 shards to use.. the cost of the forge items haven’t been altered but the exchange rate of SP’s to shards is a complete rip off.. 1SP SHOULD = 1 shard if the item costs are the same.

No you don’t, you’re not spending a single one of your old skill points on anything. Traits and skills are essentially free now.

So why not just unlock them all for existing 80’s? Save us all a few clicks, especially with multiple 80’s.

Because, should you choose to hold off on unlocking everything, then you will need less hero points to unlock all of the elite specialization traits and utilities. You could forgo buying the things you don’t care about right now and use those points for that instead, if you don’t have any/enough skill challenges complete. They added that for the WvW crowd.

mmiminoo.4319:

MiniEquine.6014:

Once you spend them, they are used. they act just like skill points did before. You couldn’t refund your skill points before this patch either.

Thats right

Skill scrolls don’t exist anymore but to convert into Spirit Shards, which no longer have an effect on skills.

I DONT want Stupid SHARDs -> i want convert my SKILL scrolls to Hero poitns !!!

You get enough Hero Points to unlock all base specializations, heal skills, utility skills, and elite skills by simply reaching level 80. You can unlock even more ( for elite specializations) by doing Hero Challenges (formerly skill challenges) in the maps.

Maximal what i need is 500 stupid shards, no 2000+
How to I Get MORE hero points when i have all challenages complet ?
I save skill scrolls for other character for future, now i do must make all stupid hero challenges AGAIN
Stupid politic forcing players to play again…

Why do you need more Hero Points than the maximum? Hero Points don’t do anything after you’ve unlocked everything…

I just might get these. I think the white wings are pretty cool, in some cases cooler than the black wings (even though you could make some pretty ill armor combos with the black wings).

mmiminoo.4319:

ON this patch is NOTHING god.

?

Why cannot reset hero points ???

Once you spend them, they are used. they act just like skill points did before. You couldn’t refund your skill points before this patch either.

Why cannot sped my SKILL SCROLL for what i want ???

Skill scrolls don’t exist anymore but to convert into Spirit Shards, which no longer have an effect on skills.

HOW to i get MORE Hero Points ????

You get enough Hero Points to unlock all base specializations, heal skills, utility skills, and elite skills by simply reaching level 80. You can unlock even more ( for elite specializations) by doing Hero Challenges (formerly skill challenges) in the maps.

How to I reset hero points ??

You already asked this. See above.

I DONT need STUPID shards !!!!

You do if you need to do anything with the Mystic Forge. There came a point where skill points were completely useless after you unlocked everything too. Now you have two separate currencies: One for skills and one for mystic forge recipes.

I WANT back skill points !!!!

You have them in the form of Hero points.

I Dont buy your datadisk, i play bis end of base game and NOTHING more

Ob du nur bis das Ende des Corespiels spielen wurede, dann du immer noch viel mehr zu spielen hast. Dieses Spiel hat viel zu tun, ehrlich kein Problem…

Bye Bye GW2

Bye. See above though. It’s really not that bad…

Mightylink.3816:

Runewolf.8456:

sounds like someone is having a knee-jerk reaction cause they don’t wanna take 5 minutes to re-make a build.

but you know if your leaving, can i have your stuff?

How do you remake your build? I’ve been asking this everywhere and everyone says you can’t.

Nothing is going to be exact, but if you are level 80, there is a good chance that a lot of the build you were using before can be re-established to some degree. Look for the traits that matched what you used to have and select them. The key here is that you can only take 3 trait lines now, but you get 9 traits instead of 7.

It’s not our faults you don’t understand what the new update is doing. If you want to give up that easy, fine, bye, but that’s your choice.

As for HoT, nobody is making you buy it. If you think the price is not fair for the content presented, then don’t buy it.

Bloodstealer.5978:

GussJr.1643:

Did no one ready the update notes and multiple threads on how this would work?

Yes we probably did but it never said anything about having to spend a portion of those converted SP’s again to unlock things.. again!

My bad for missing the bit about having to log toons in to add the shards up though, I grant you that.

That’s because none of the converted skill points are used for traits or skills. The only thing that unlocks trait and skills are the Hero Points, which you only get by leveling and by doing Hero Challenges (formerly skill challenges). Skill points (now Spirit Shards) have absolutely nothing to do with skills.

Bloodstealer.5978:

MiniEquine.6014:

Bloodstealer.5978:

Yeah what a farce.. All my lvl 80’s had everything unlocked and all had spare SP’s on them… in fact one of them alone had in excess of 1000 SP’s and a stack in the bank.. now all my toons have to spend some of those converted spare SP’s to re spend unlocking stuff I already spent on previous…. unbelievable.

Also.. those shards……. All my lvl 80’s (11 of them) had 100-1000+ SP’s spare on them (plus a stack extra in the bank) so why do I now only have 960 shards to use.. the cost of the forge items haven’t been altered but the exchange rate of SP’s to shards is a complete rip off.. 1SP SHOULD = 1 shard if the item costs are the same.

Blood, did you log on to each of your characters yet? They said that you have to log on to each character to get the skill points on that character converted into spirit shards. Hope this helps.

Logged into 4 of them so far and still the same totals…

You need to log on to all 11. They stated in the notes that they won’t convert if you don’t log onto the characters. If you log on to every single character and your totals still don’t change, give it an hour or so and check back. I wouldn’t be surprised if their servers might be heavily loaded, but they should definitely convert.

SilverThorn.5047:

It would be great to know actual skill points to hero points conversion… I had 750 ish skill points… And recieved bout 385 hero points. With my fully unlocked skills locked back…. Answers plix

It’s 1:1. Log on to every one of your characters and the skill points they have in their character menus will be converted to Spirit Shards, but only after you log on to each of them.

Edit: Skill points do NOT equal Hero Points. No skill points were converted to Hero Points. Skill Points turned into Spirit Shards and Hero Points are received by leveling up and by doing Hero Challenges (formerly Skill Challenges)

BruinsFan.7231:

Ok, I had every skill unlocked for all 5 of my level 80 characters and now Anet wants me to unlock them again?!
Nice one Anet.
It’s crap like this that is making me seriously consider not purchasing HoT.

You do still have all your skills unlocked, you merely need to select them again. This is what happens when a system overhaul occurs. Every major update in WoW, for example, reset everybody’s trait trees and everybody had to put their points back in. This is nothing new. You lost nothing with this update.

Bloodstealer.5978:

Yeah what a farce.. All my lvl 80’s had everything unlocked and all had spare SP’s on them… in fact one of them alone had in excess of 1000 SP’s and a stack in the bank.. now all my toons have to spend some of those converted spare SP’s to re spend unlocking stuff I already spent on previous…. unbelievable.

Also.. those shards……. All my lvl 80’s (11 of them) had 100-1000+ SP’s spare on them (plus a stack extra in the bank) so why do I now only have 960 shards to use.. the cost of the forge items haven’t been altered but the exchange rate of SP’s to shards is a complete rip off.. 1SP SHOULD = 1 shard if the item costs are the same.

Blood, did you log on to each of your characters yet? They said that you have to log on to each character to get the skill points on that character converted into spirit shards. Hope this helps.

rapthorne.7345:

Please never blow it up again ?

Oh, you know they will

Ralanost.8913:

MiniEquine.6014:

Ralanost.8913:

I’m super bitter about this. Just got on my little elementalist looking forward to spending the new hero points. Find out they are spent already, I can’t reset them and it put them into earth core specialization. REALLY?! I am so angry right now.

Could you elaborate on this please? Did you spend the points and now they are spent, or did you log in and the points were automatically in certain trait lines?

Logged in, points already spent.

What did they try to do, arrange the points as closely to what you had before the patch? I honestly hadn’t heard that they were going to try and auto-build the traitlines…that actually is pretty weird…

None of you read the planned update notes except for Hyrule. You are not losing anything. In fact, if you are 80, anything you were missing is now something you could get, without doing any skill challenges.

Ralanost.8913:

I’m super bitter about this. Just got on my little elementalist looking forward to spending the new hero points. Find out they are spent already, I can’t reset them and it put them into earth core specialization. REALLY?! I am so angry right now.

Could you elaborate on this please? Did you spend the points and now they are spent, or did you log in and the points were automatically in certain trait lines?

Mea, if you are level 80, then you literally have enough Hero Points to get every single trait and skill for the base specializations without having done any Skill/Hero challenges. That person has 300 extra because they did a lot of extra skill challenges in the world.

They got converted into a new currency (in your wallet) called “Spirit Shards” (A.K.A “Djinngots”). The way you unlock skills is now with Hero Points. You get Hero Points by leveling to 80 and by completing Hero Challenges (formerly Skill Challenges) scattered across the maps.

ScorpioSting.5917:

Wow…

You guys should consider to tatoo on your hearth: “I love ANET”.

(-_-)

It became obvious why gaming industry makes jokes of us (50$ for a little expansion even for players that already have the game) with ppl like you throwing money like that… GG

The cost is now in line with other companies, so I’m not seeing the issue. I do enjoy the game, and I do enjoy what I’ve heard so far about the expansion. I would like more info to come out about it, but I’ve only been playing for 6 months as of today, so there is a LOT of stuff I haven’t gotten around to yet.

As I said, we buy gems occasionally anyway; now we don’t have to do that and we get to play the expansion when it arrives.

Why do so many people on these forums not understand basic economic principles? If you bought the game 3 years ago, you have 3 years of play time more than a person who bought the game 1 day ago. Value for a product depreciates over time, and you playing the game is investing time (time = money) into the product. A new player has not done this yet, so why should they not get it for less?

They recently were putting the core game up for sale for $10, so that means they ultimately value the core game at $10. Why should anybody pay more than that 3 years later? Seriously, if you don’t want to pay for the expansions, don’t. Wait the 10+ years for all the previous expansions’ values to decrease so that you can buy all of them at once for 50 bucks. At that time, 10 years later, you could continue to play the game. If you don’t feel like waiting 10 years to play, then that’s your choice too.

Simulator.4687:

“For Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, we didn’t want the core game’s price to be a factor in a new player’s decision to begin playing Guild Wars 2. In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price.”

So if your a veteran of the game, bought GW2, pre-purchased the Heart of thorns expansion, you get to pay twice as much as someone just buying heart of thorns. and the same goes for any other expansion? so a veteran not only pays twice as much but all they get is one character slot extra? that is one hell of an expensive character slot. should get at least 5. which is the amount you get in GW2. WHICH WE PAID FOR.

Let me reword this for you, because you’re missing a massive point here:

So if your a veteran of the game, bought GW2 2-3 years ago, pre-purchased the Heart of thorns expansion, you get to pay twice as much and play twice as much as someone just buying heart of thorns. and the same goes for any other expansion where you get to pay 3 times as much and play 3 times as much? so a veteran not only pays twice as much and plays twice as much but all they get is one character slot extra and multiple years of playing the game? You should get at least as many as the now “new” players will get during the next expansion when that is released.

With the change in their policy, my wife and I bought out 2 ultimate copies last night. We buy gems occasionally anyway, so now we both have the expansion, I’ll get my $10 back from the January 23rd sale, and we’ll both get to run around the jungle together and soar through the skies on our pretty green gliders

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Veterans players are not getting character slot for for simply buying base HoT package.
They will get it if they pre-purchase. If you’re a vet who buys it at release day or later – sorry you get zip save x-pac itself.

This makes sense as it is a pre-purchase bonus, not a HoT-buying bonus. Why offer the base package for the same as pre-purchase? Why would anybody, then, pre-purchase the game?

Spirited Was Eceni.3869:

While reading the recent pre-purchase community address I noticed the cut off date for HoT pre-purchase for refund of your initial GW2 fee (for new accounts) is 31st July. Why this date? The news that you don’t need to buy separately was made public last week so why not that date?

Could this be because HoT is due to go live on 1st August? Do I need to book the following week off work?

Edit: My kittening mobile altered the title and I didn’t notice!

I still think the end of August makes the most sense with it coinciding with the anniversary and that they need all the weeks in between to reveal the remaining 7 elite specs, the last base legend for the Revenant, and the “challenging content”. 9 weeks from now is August 28th-August 30th. Coinky-dink? I think not!

That cut-off date might be because they need it settled out well before the expansion hits.

Pseudoshrub.8017:

MiniEquine.6014:

Pseudoshrub.8017:

I agree, but is a character slot really required? I’ve got 5, I really only use 3, I could live with one. Sure you can say that not everyone is me, and I am not everyone, so why am I forced to purchase a character lot I have no need for?

I would be very happy paying 40 for the Expansion alone.

The primary complaint about not getting character slots is that the expansion is releasing a new class and every instance where in GW1 they had an expansion/expandalone they packaged an additional character slot per new class. This was not carrying over into GW2 and there was a lack of consistency in their sales model (even though the conditions for both games are different). No character slot and too high a price for the content were the two primary concerns that people had.

There are a small handful of people that have all 64 character slots filled up (can you believe it? They linked pictures too, it’s pretty crazy!) and they do not benefit at all by getting even 1 character slot as it can’t be applied to the account. Maybe it would have been better to give the 800 gems instead, I’m not against that, especially since it could have been applied to a character slot, but they chose not to do that. Worst case, you get an extra slot to build a 6th character if/when you eventually get around to it. Have you tried all of the classes? I mainly only play my Engineer and Guardian, but I also have my Thief, Mesmer, Necromancer, Ranger, and Elementalist that all play very differently and are nice to use too. Maybe that’s not your thing though; that’s not what I’m criticizing.

hey man, we’re both in the same boat in the end regardless of either of us recognize the value and/or costs of the deal. I myself really only Engineer, I believe I may have run into you sometime in Wvw, are you on the Sos server as an Asuran engi? I do realize that I am haggling over 10 dollars here, and it really rests on the fact that I cannot believe the current game is “free” and that the character slot is MUST have, gems would have been nice, 10 dollars might have been better : 3.

The character slot is more value to Anet than it is to the Player, it encourages you to level a new character and do all the purchasing and playing required to get the character just right. For some its not a big deal and they may want/need it. But to me its like a coupon I’m must buy. One which will require more additional time and money to reap any benefits from, that is if I even get around to using my other two character slots properly.

Anyway, this has kind of gotten beyond me.

I’m not on SoS, though I play against them all the time since I’m in Fort Aspenwood (sorry!). My engi is an Asura, but he’s male.

I can appreciate that concern. Like I said, the question of fairness with regards to veterans and new players has been addressed. If the packages they offer are, in your opinion, too costly or don’t offer the right benefits, then that is a perfectly reasonable complaint. There are many people who will still not pre-purchase the game because they don’t feel like they would be getting their money’s worth.

Maybe there is a way to send support a question and find out if they can transfer the character slot into a different package for you, like a bank slot or a storage upgrade? I don’t know if they can do that, but it’d be worth a shot. I recommend trying that. Anyway, I don’t mean anything bad by what I said. Your concerns about cost and the benefits you would get are valid, and your perspective is necessary for the conversation, especially since it’s a different one, albeit relatively rare.

Pseudoshrub.8017:

I think what would be more appropriate is a meal deal. Where you get a discount for buying a bundle, but pay a premium if one chooses to buy each item individually.

I just reread this: So the bundle (Core + HoT) should have a discount for it but choosing to buy the Core and Hot individually should come at a premium? How is this any different from what it is now?

Pseudoshrub.8017:

MiniEquine.6014:

It all sounds like you want people to pay full price for every single expansion and core game when a new expansion releases, despite no MMOs doing this.

Hang on, I did not say that. I am advocating that the expansion can be bought on its own, and that what is given “free” to new player isn’t in fact free. Can I buy the package as a new player then refund the expansion and keep the “free” core game? no. if not then its not “free”.

I think what would be more appropriate is a meal deal. Where you get a discount for buying a bundle, but pay a premium if one chooses to buy each item individually.

I didn’t mind paying 150 for all the WoW Exp over a course of many years, but I was never forced to buy something twice.

You’re right, it’s not free. You can still purchase the game from Amazon for $20-$40. Right now, and likely forever given their statement, the expansion purchase fully replaces the core game. They will likely never list the core game on their website again. You are not buying something twice either. See above where I wrote it out:

Veterans: HoT = $40, Character slot = $10 (required)
New Players: HoT = $40, Core game = $10 (This was the sale price the few times these past few months)

As long as they offer veteran players an extra incentive equal to the depreciated value of the core game plus expansions, then what is the issue? New players do not get the extra slot, an extra slot costs the same as the core game on sale.

Pseudoshrub.8017:

I agree, but is a character slot really required? I’ve got 5, I really only use 3, I could live with one. Sure you can say that not everyone is me, and I am not everyone, so why am I forced to purchase a character lot I have no need for?

I would be very happy paying 40 for the Expansion alone.

The primary complaint about not getting character slots is that the expansion is releasing a new class and every instance where in GW1 they had an expansion/expandalone they packaged an additional character slot per new class. This was not carrying over into GW2 and there was a lack of consistency in their sales model (even though the conditions for both games are different). No character slot and too high a price for the content were the two primary concerns that people had.

There are a small handful of people that have all 64 character slots filled up (can you believe it? They linked pictures too, it’s pretty crazy!) and they do not benefit at all by getting even 1 character slot as it can’t be applied to the account. Maybe it would have been better to give the 800 gems instead, I’m not against that, especially since it could have been applied to a character slot, but they chose not to do that. Worst case, you get an extra slot to build a 6th character if/when you eventually get around to it. Have you tried all of the classes? I mainly only play my Engineer and Guardian, but I also have my Thief, Mesmer, Necromancer, Ranger, and Elementalist that all play very differently and are nice to use too. Maybe that’s not your thing though; that’s not what I’m criticizing.

You’re still falling short of seeing that anybody who buys this or later expansions as a new player does not get to play the game prior to that. Like I said, you can wait for 10+ years for all the expansions to come out and get the entire game for $50, but you won’t be playing the game for 10+ years. Value depreciates over time, and especially if they give veteran players something extra (like they changed over to this time and will continue the practice if they don’t want this to happen again), then where is the issue? It all sounds like you want people to pay full price for every single expansion and core game when a new expansion releases, despite no MMOs doing this. WoW, for example, might not bundle them for “$0”, but I remember when Cata came out they sold a pack of the core game, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King for, like, $25 so that people who were new could easily pick up the old stuff and play the game. Why didn’t they have to pay $150 for all of those plus the $50 for Cataclysm? Because it’s ridiculous and not many people would pay that up front.

Feel free to wait 10+ years before you buy the game with all of its expansions packaged into one unit. Yes, you will get it for a lot cheaper, but then you won’t be playing the game very much will you? Seriously, the core game isn’t even free. Now that they are including the character slot for people who bought the game before June 16th, that means:

Veterans: HoT = $40, Character slot = $10 (required)
New Players: HoT = $40, Core game = $10 (This was the sale price the few times these past few months)

How is there any complaint aside from the actual cost of the game anymore? Look at the math and please tell me how the pricing structure isn’t fair now.

Michas.3716:

This is stupid as hell. Every veteran should get slot, no matter if pre-purchase or normal.

Pre-purchase goes into effect even if you buy the game the day before it launches. It’s not like it’s a new title; we’re buying an expansion to a game that we already know how it plays. If you don’t like how GW2 plays, then you won’t like how GW2:HoT plays. By the time the game launches you will have all the information you need about the content, especially after all the betas are completed.

Changeling Dash.4782:

MomentofWeakness.1246:

The answer is no it shouldn’t cost the same…

But it should cost something. It just can’t cost 0$. If it is – please give me 10 copies. For FREE.

And as it costs something – we are again at the beggining. And please, stop telling like we are owe Anet for all the updates before.
1. They promised those updates on launch
2. Community paid for them via buying base game (without promised updates less people would buy it) AND via gemstore.
It was a buisness model of this game – money through game purchase and development through gemstore.
All that we got for these years is earned and paid.

You can either buy it for $20-$40 from a retailer, or you can buy it pre-packaged with HoT for 50 dollars. They don’t have an option to buy the core game at the moment “for free”.

Also, with the inclusion of the character slot, the core game is technically $10 now. When they release another expansion in the future, if it also costs 50 dollars, and veteran players (which will include all the new players joining now too) get an additional character slot then too, the both the core game and HoT will cost $10, but only bundled with the new expansion. You cannot purchase the core game for $0 because it is not on sale for $0, it is only bundled with HoT. You are not missing out on anything.

If you don’t think it’s fair, you can always buy another copy of the game and start anew. If you don’t care that your primary account wouldn’t be able to do HoT content, then this wouldn’t be an issue.

If you want, the gameplay isn’t going to be much different, so all you need to know is about the content. It’s not like HoT is the next game in a series like Mass Effect 3, Fallout 4, CoD:MWIII, etc; we already have the game; what we don’t know is exactly what comes with it. They will reveal all the content that will be released at launch before the game is officially launched, so by that point you should be very well-informed as to what you will be purchasing. This deal will last up until the day before launch, so you have some time yet.

The thing with pre-purchases is that you take an inherent risk by supporting the company without all the information. They appreciate it and do extra for you up front, but waiting to buy it later doesn’t have the same effect.

Elite specs limit your ability to use a third base specialization trait line and change your class mechanics in some way when traited into it. You couldn’t be a Chronomancer without taking the time magic traitline, for example.

It’s not terribly restrictive, but if you want to use the elite spec skills, you need to trait into the elite spec. This is what causes the restriction.

Dark.4956:

Veteran here.

I bought the core expansion.
Wasn’t going to buy the extras because of the prices.

If Anet are going to offer new players incentives to buy the game, thats cool..
it brings more people into the game and makes it worth playing more as there will be a larger player base.

if they want me as a veteran player to spend more to get the same bonuses a new player will get, then they better offer me more incentives..otherwise, I’ll get the core game..and just not care for the other crap they’re peddling.

Personally, I like the game, so want to support it so I can kill random bosses when I’m not studying or at work..
I like the community as it’s better than other games that I won’t mention.
you get on, play the game…kill stuff, and get loot…
People on maps are friendly and helpful, and to me it makes it enjoyable.

They can do better, but that’s what the forums are for, to give feedback to what they propose.

Well, new players don’t get an extra character slot like we do (Or they do, but only if they get the Deluxe or Ultimate packs, where we would get 2 slots instead of their 1). If you consider that they put the core game up for sale for $10, and character slots cost $10, that means you are forgoing the core game in lieu of a character slot and you don’t lose any progress.

Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Why not do it through Anet? I think the pre-purchase is only offered as digital, so you don’t get the deal if you buy a physical box. I haven’t seen much about this though. Send that support ticket!

FrizzFreston.5290:

Don’t you guys see the irony though? Sales and sale offers happen as well. “That’s life it happens.” can be said for that case all the same.

While I do feel that Arenanet does not seem to particularly market towards existing players, it’s in their right to try and offer an fairly older game at a much cheaper price in order to get more customers. You don’t get loads of complaints when there’s games on steam for sale for a nickle and a dime while you may have paid the full $60.

The problem right now I would say it seems to be more of an investment for future content and a basis for future content. But even an investor would demand more information on future releases. I would say that a character slot shouldn’t even be added to compensate veteran players, but it would benefit the overall offer for everyone.

And really. A bought title is pretty much no incentive to preorder.

It’s been added:

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

thrag.9740:

Bee.7081:

thrag.9740:

The thing a lot of vets forget is, vets got ls1 and ls2 for free, but new players have to purchase ls2, and Anet did say they were considering re-releasing ls1 somehow in the future.

The veteran player bought the game 2-3 years ago, thus he/she has LS2 for ‘free’ (still, we have payed for it see other responses above). The new player has to buy LS2 to play it. So? Why hasn’t the new player bought the game 2-3 years ago? Then he/she would also have LS2 for ‘free’.

It’s not an extra. Nobody told the new player to not buy the game earlier. Probably everyone has his/her reason why they haven’t bought it back then.

All vets are asking that they get at least a similar value for their 50 USD. At the moment, since they already have the core game, it is no value for them in this bundle. Personally I don’t mind if the new player will get the core game with HoT, but to be correct at least the company could put up an offer for veterans too (as many already have suggested before, a char slot maybe).

If you could stop choking on your anger for two seconds and read my posts you will see I agree a character slot should be included in the 50$ version for vets. What I am saying is, I feel I have gotten something extra, and keeping that in mind softens the blow.

Doesn’t matter any more anyway.

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

They can’t use gems to buy the expansion. There are plenty of people who could just convert gold to gems for enough gems to buy the expansion outright. 3000 gems is, what, 500G? That sounds like a lot, but they would lose a lot of money.

Orimidu.9604:

Newcomers to Guild Wars 2
Purchase the Heart of Thorns complete package for $50, which includes the base game. Enjoy everything that veterans have

Owners of Guild Wars 2
Prepurchase a Heart of Thorns expansion upgrade for 3000 gems. Character slot included when you prepurchase digitally. Once the game is released the character slot will not be included.

Easy fix for a huge mess.

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

no more mess

MrRuin.9740:

Ohoni.6057:

GOOD NEWS! They aren’t going to charge you anything for any game that you already own. Unless you already own HoT, because they are going to charge you $50 for HoT, but anything else, the GW2 core game, for example, you get absolutely free, no charge!

Thats not good news……thats a play on words to get people to buy it. Some new player now buys the game and gets the core game plus the expansion. Its a bundle. For there to be a deal, there needs to also be the option at some point for them to have been offered separately. You are buying both for the price of $50. Neither one is "free’.
Unless you’re saying that the expansion is worth a full $50, the same price as the original core game…. but only a fraction of the content.
Can’t wait for expansion #2 – Only $125 for it…but wait! You get vanilla and HOTS for free!

You now get an additional character slot if you purchased the game before June 16th 2015 with any package, and the Deluxe and Ultimate packages get 2 slots. Veterans essentially pay $40 (+$10 for the character slot) for the expansion. We just got a technical $10 discount.

Larynx.2453:

You’re giving Veteran players a free character slot? Nice!

Except for the people who bought the deluxe edition for the character slot. Now they’ll pointlessly complain. And thus the cycle begins anew, with people trying to milk undeserved concessions out of the company.

Deluxe and Ultimate editions get 2 character slots, not just one. This has win-win written all over it.

Add this to the fact that you can buy the pre-purchase the day before HoT’s official release to get this promotion (at which point we’ll know everything about the expansion), and that means we are really getting a lot out of this.

shadow.6174:

ok wait…

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.

So those who would wait to buy it after the launch won’t get a character slot??

This is more than reasonable now though. Essentially, you get the expansion for $40 now, because you also get a character slot. Consider this a bonus to pre-purchasing. It also says “before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns’ launch”, meaning right up until the day before it launches, when we know all the information about the expansion, if you pre-purchase it, you get the extra slot.

Ricky.4706:

maybe instead of trying to get old account password back, ask gw2 team if they can link your old account, which would probably be much easier

Well, I did try that, but it’s like this. My wife and I both have GW1 accounts, and we both have GW2 accounts, but when we started playing GW2 more, she ended up getting the GW2 account in my name and I ended up getting the GW2 account in hers. So, this account is registered under her, but all of the characters on it are exclusively mine. Anet doesn’t do ownership transfers, so instead of deleting our progress we just decided to keep the opposite accounts.

The problem is that she linked her GW1 account with the her GW2 account before we knew about this (the one registered under my name) and they won’t link my GW1 account with my GW2 account (the one registered under her name) because it’s not registered under my name. I would have to log in to my GW1 account correctly and link it manually, which I tried to no avail.

I may try again later though, but I have all but given up on getting it back.

Random.4691:

Hey look I used the word entitled !

Albeit, used incorrectly.

OT: I tried to get back into GW1, but I forgot my password and lost my serial code AND made it with an @ncsoft temporary email address. They don’t support those emails anymore, so they can’t reset it for me. I wish I could have gotten into GW1 earlier than I did. The movement was clunky, but I felt like I didn’t get to fully appreciate it at the time.