Guild Wars 2

So far, I think the Reaper is fun, and a good concept, but it just doesn’t work out in-game.

I’m especially having trouble finding a place for it in WvW. The greatsword is not a ranged weapon, and the Reaper is promoted so far as being a frontline fighter, but even with 1/2 PVT gear and Melandru Runes or Trooper Runes, it’s just far too squishy to stand next to Warriors and Guardians. The Reaper brings some very interesting things to WvW group play, but it just doesn’t have any way to escape danger, and it doesn’t have anywhere near the toughness it needs to even try out more than a 2-skill combo.

Also keep in mind that Intel will be doing the big reveal for their new chipset and CPU next week (the Skylake chips), and depending on how quickly they decide to release them, there may be a significant price drop on computers using the current Intel chips (Haswell, which work just fine for GW2) by next weekend.

Yeah, I’d recommend just staying away from CyberPower & iBuyPower altogether (they’re the same company). Cyberpower lost a class action lawsuit several years ago for fraud, when they got caught putting used and old OEM parts in people’s PC’s, but charging them for new parts without ever telling them. They are also notorious for having some of the worst customer service in the industry, and it’s considered an incredible feat if you can actually get them to honor any part of their warranty. Check their Consumer Affairs ratings sometime, they’re the lowest you can find in custom PC’s: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/cyberpower_pc.html

There are several, MUCH better PC builders out there, if you’re not interested in building one for yourself (you’d be shocked how easy it is). I’d recommend checking out Digital Storm Online, they have a great reputation, and have a $799 option that would be much better for GW2 than the $740 computer you linked above: https://www.digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=1165716

Dhemize.8649:

Wow YB was the only server that never went into red at any time. I was hoping to see number of players though because that would very interesting. We just need Anet to hand over that info so we can all place blame on each other with an accurate chart.

?

The chart above shows Yak’s Bend going Red in 6 Timezones. Looks like Crystal Desert and Borlis Pass are the only servers with 24/7 coverage, in comparison to the rest of their current Tiers.

Good show, Anet. Purchasing now (^_^)

Apolo.5942:

It will be compatible, but you will not get any extra performance out of directx12.

Uhhh… this game is still on DirectX 9! Literally any change should boost performance, since it’s built on an API that was designed for Windows XP.

So, will we be getting DirectX 12 support, by any chance? Blizzard said that several of their games might be updated to DX12 in the near future, depending on the adoption rate of Windows 10 (they didn’t say which games.) GW2 could definitely use an update to its engine. It honestly needed to be updated years before GW2 was even released; even now, this game can bring a $10,000 PC to its knees, giving 15 FPS or less even in starter zone events like the Svanir Shaman event.

Wait… is it MORE broken that usual? I mean, these traits have NEVER worked together the way people think they should. Ever since the game was released, Hidden Thief would stealth you at the spot you were standing on when you hit the F1 button, NOT when you actually land your steal on an enemy. Mug, of course, does damage, and so if you land Mug while you’re in stealth, stealth will be broken. It’s always been like this. Was it actually fixed for a short time?

mrstealth.6701:

MMOGamer.6175:

Here’s what I’m thinking. Somewhere in this thread there is a link from the Korean(IIRC?) securities/stock exchange which basically stated that 2 million copies of HoT have to be sold. Bundling the core game with HoT allows sales of the core game to be counted as HoT sales and vise versa which COULD NOT be done if the core game was a stand alone purchase.

That data stated what Anet would need to sell in order to meet their projected earnings. Which was 2 million sales at $50 each. Basically it’s the number of copies the firm thought Anet could push, and the price that would need to be in order to meet expectations.

Including the core game doesn’t impact the projection, it only gives the possibility to artificially inflate the number of products sold if they want to count it that way. That number isn’t all that important, as it has no impact on profits. If they were to actually count each HoT sale as 2 sales, 2 million copies would only meet 50% of their projected earnings.

Here ya go: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3adxq0/the_real_reason_for_hots_50_price_tag/

The link to Daewoo Securities Jan projections for HoT sales are in that thread.

Entenkommando.5208:

lol…Guild Halls were one of the very most requested features off all time.
The entire 3 years long.

And I’ve never seen another MMO in which Guild Halls were a separate real-money purchase from the rest of the game. Not even GW1…

Straylight.7529:

In the end it all boils down to the simple fact that a minority of players are unhappy with the price.

Is it a minority, though? Obviously we don’t have sales figures available yet, but “Don’t Pre-purchase HoT” is far and away the MOST upvoted GW2 Reddit thread of all time, and that took less than 24 hours to happen. Do you have any sort of figures to back up that statement? I would be genuinely interested to see what % of active and/or new players are buying the expansion so far. NCSoft’s estimate was that they should have at least 50% the number of sales that they had of the core game, or roughly 2 million expansion pack sales. I wonder how close they are…

Dawdler.8521:

In case people miss the Amazon thread:

Anet certified retailers appear to be selling HoT expansion only €10 cheaper than the HoT+GW2 pre-purchase version

Note that I say appear. I have no idea what’s going on, lol.

In the US, Amazon ONLY sells the core at the moment lol. No expansion. Can still get the Collectors Edition, new in box, tho!

It’s funny that there’s a Sticky thread above this one called “Questions about Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns”, but it never touches on the question that’s been asked for 92 here.

It’s also the only Sticky thread in this subforum that’s locked. Kinda weird how it clearly says “Do not contact customer support or Anet Devs in-game with questions about Heart of Thorns”, although, to be fair, that was written a few months ago.

Furious.2867:

Unless you are Blizzard, the MMO business isn’t as profitable as you believe.

Do you some new information to support this idea that ArenaNet is struggling financially in some way? NCSoft’s Quarterly earnings report, which you can pick up for free from NCSoft’s IR website, shows Guild Wars 2 bring in nearly $80 million US last year!

Changeling Dash.4782:

Aren’t we important enough just to be answered?

Check back on Wednesday.

Sad to say, but that’s my guess for the earliest “real” response; late Tuesday or, more likely, sometime Wednesday. Does the physical box version hit retail on Tuesday? I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere, though I might be wrong.

Entenkommando.5208:

Wait until you see the beta and then you can decide if the quantity but especially the quality of content is enaugh for you.

Which one? Haven’t they already had several betas? Is there a mountain of “quality content” that you think they’re keeping secret from us? What would be the advantage to that?

One of the “Core Problems” here, in my opinion, is that they’re now saying that after only a few years, our original purchase of Guild Wars 2 has a value of $0. The game is essentially free, since it can no longer be purchased, and is now part of a package (not “bundle”) that we are required to purchase in order to enjoy the same basic “ever changing world” that we promised (in a “manifesto”, nonetheless) when we bought the game initially.
I see this as being very similar to when a Buy-To-Play game goes Free-To-Play after a few months or years. In each and every case I can find, however, when a paid game in has gone Free-To-Play, people who purchased the game beforehand have been given some sort of compensation to make up for their initial purchase, which was now unnecessary. Sometimes they get a few free months in a new, optional subscription service; sometimes it’s a few free exclusive skins, or a couple of free dungeon packs, or whatever. But in this case, those of us who bought the game are being offered NOTHING to compensate for our initial purchase, which has been rendered worthless by a new policy of giving it away by the company we purchased it from.
Now I know this isn’t exactly the same, because GW2 is not actually Free-To-Play (thank god), this case is somewhat unprecedented. Paid games going Free-To-Play is the closest analogy I could think of for what’s really bothering me about this. I mean, Heart of Thorns cost $50. For everyone. The core game is “Free” to anyone who buys it… unless they already bought it, in which case they get nothing extra. So the game is Free, but not Free-To-Play as there is still a paywall. It’s weird. But I feel that by making the core game “Free” with NO NOTICE, people who bought the game do deserve some compensation, along the lines of people who bought, say, The Secret World, which is Buy-To-Play, but when they dropped their sub (and the price of the game) they gave people free subs to their optional sub service (TSW had a “Lifetime Subscription” option when it came out, after all). Or ESO, which literally paid players 500 crowns each the first time they logged in after they dropped their subscription. Again, these examples aren’t identical, because GW2 has always had a unique Buy-To-Play model, but they are similar in a way. If the core game is now “Free”, and only free, even if it’s behind a paywall, it is not unreasonable for people who bought the game to feel that they should be compensated for the perceived loss of value in the game that they purchased, since that loss of value is a direct result of the a new policy instituted by the company that sold it to them.
I don’t exactly know how to fix this, what the compensation should be; heck, I might be completely wrong here, even. But it feels like my $60 purchase has seen its value drop to $0 now that the only option Anet has is to receive the same core game for Free, even if you do have to buy something else to get it. Especially since I’m now obligated to buy that same expansion for full price, if I want to continue to enjoy the same, regular updates that were promised during the game’s initial release.

One of the “Core Problems” here, in my opinion, is that they’re now saying that after only a few years, our original purchase of Guild Wars 2 has a value of $0. The game is essentially free, since it can no longer be purchased, and is now part of a package (not “bundle”) that we are required to purchase in order to enjoy the same basic “ever changing world” that we promised (in a “manifesto”, nonetheless) when we bought the game initially.

I see this as being very similar to when a Buy-To-Play game goes Free-To-Play after a few months or years. In each and every case I can find, however, when a paid game in has gone Free-To-Play, people who purchased the game beforehand have been given some sort of compensation to make up for their initial purchase, which was now unnecessary. Sometimes they get a few free months in a new, optional subscription service; sometimes it’s a few free exclusive skins, or a couple of free dungeon packs, or whatever. But in this case, those of us who bought the game are being offered NOTHING to compensate for our initial purchase, which has been rendered worthless by a new policy of giving it away by the company we purchased it from.

Now I know this isn’t exactly the same, because GW2 is not actually Free-To-Play (thank god), this case is somewhat unprecedented. Paid games going Free-To-Play is the closest analogy I could think of for what’s really bothering me about this. I mean, Heart of Thorns cost $50. For everyone. The core game is “Free” to anyone who buys it… unless they already bought it, in which case they get nothing extra. So the game is Free, but not Free-To-Play as there is still a paywall. It’s weird. But I feel that by making the core game “Free” with NO NOTICE, people who bought the game do deserve some compensation, along the lines of people who bought, say, The Secret World, which is Buy-To-Play, but when they dropped their sub (and the price of the game) they gave people free subs to their optional sub service (TSW had a “Lifetime Subscription” option when it came out, after all). Or ESO, which literally paid players 500 crowns each the first time they logged in after they dropped their subscription. Again, these examples aren’t identical, because GW2 has always had a unique Buy-To-Play model, but they are similar in a way. If the core game is now “Free”, and only free, even if it’s behind a paywall, it is not unreasonable for people who bought the game to feel that they should be compensated for the perceived loss of value in the game that they purchased, since that loss of value is a direct result of the a new policy instituted by the company that sold it to them.

I don’t exactly know how to fix this, what the compensation should be; heck, I might be completely wrong here, even. But it feels like my $60 purchase has seen its value drop to $0 now that the only option Anet has is to receive the same core game for Free, even if you do have to buy something else to get it. Especially since I’m now obligated to buy that same expansion for full price, if I want to continue to enjoy the same, regular updates that were promised during the game’s initial release.

Steam Summer Sale is still going, I think it ends tomorrow. Probably 1/2 the games there are under $5.

papry.8096:

chemiclord.3978:

Can we just all be perfectly honest with ourselves here?

Simple I don’t like to be treated as an under consumer. So anet give me a fair deal.
That fair deal being in the form a character slot/gems/ i do not care.
But not that crap when I don’t get what is described in the product description.
Because: *you already have an account.

What coming next ?
You can’t buy this armor on the cashshop you don’t have enough medium armor character.
You can’t have this mini on the cashshop you already own too much.
kittenmit.

In this case, they are actually letting you buy the core game, the problem is you’re buying the game you already have. In your example, it would be more like if they decided to release a new medium armor in the cash shop, but it came with all the previous armor skins for free, which you already have and which are account bound. Then after you bought the new skin, you found out that you don’t actually get the codes for all the skins you already have, so you can gift them or whatever, you only get the skins you don’t already have. This basically tells you that the value of all the skins you previously purchased with gems is 0 gems, no matter how much you might have paid for it.

And that kind of gets to the heart of what bugs a lot of people about this. It’s that sort of itch in the back of people’s brain when they see that ANet completely removed the core game from their sale page and replaced it with HoT (+the core game for new players only). Anet is essentially saying to all Veteran players “We believe that Heart of Thorns is worth $50, all by itself. The game you purchased from us 2-3 years ago, however, called Guild Wars 2, has fallen in value. It is now worth $0. That’s right, we now view that purchase you made from us years ago as completely worthless.”

I’m sure this was not what they intended, but subconsciously, this is what a lot of people heard or read when they started explaining how the packages work. Heart of Thorns = $50. Previous Guild Wars 2 purchases = Worthless.

dragonfighter.4098:

I understand the fact NC Soft told Anet they had to sell a million copies but the way they are going about it is a slap in the face to their loyal players. I feel they should just drop the $50 package cause Heart of Thorns is the new core. Drop the other 2 packages to $50 and $75. most likely they would get their million copies sold quick then. We are all upset with Anet but the true bad guy is NC Soft. Anet just simply chose a bad package offer that really upset their loyal fans that’s all. They may just need to re think it. They may have forgotten the economy and job situation isn’t all that great for a lot of us. I have been looking at all the facts so i can decide if i want to spend what little extra income i have on the game. I feel if Anet would drop the words core game more people would actually buy the expansion. Hell they screwed the core game anyway when the shortened the story line anyway.The true guild wars community whom play regular are just used to getting a couple of toon slots with expansion. Its hard for us not to get what has always been a given. They always create stand alone expansions. So maybe if they take a little time and re think and we all nicely give ideas they may come around and see it our way. And if they need to sell a million copies then they need to change their marketing plan.

The TRUE bad guy here, as always, is still NEXON, although NCSoft’s CEO Kim Taek-Jin is complicit. For a little insight as to what’s to what’s going with what amounts to the corporate takeover of NCSoft by the makers of Maplestory, you can read this Forbes article from a month ago: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gracechung/2015/04/29/ncsoft-south-koreas-no-2-online-gaming-company-under-siege/

Dawdler.8521:

Jordo.5913:

Baconplease.1657:

I never said trion was the developer of archeage. They were however, the Publisher. The face of the company. It was their own fault.

So then NCsoft will take the blame for this. Arenanet is only the developer. NCsoft is the publisher.

Chances are high that NCSoft had something to do with the pricing, yes… But we dont really know that, Anet could have decided it for themselves.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3adxq0/the_real_reason_for_hots_50_price_tag/
There ya go.

You mean, just the expansion by itself, with no bonuses, character slots, base game code, etc? $30. But I would have paid $40 if that had been the price on day 1 of release.

tboneking.2531:

I would also like to point out how this pales in comparison with the expansions for gw1, which also cost 50 bucks.

That’s funny, I had 2 of the expansions, both pre-orders, and both were $39.99.

Gaile Gray.6029:

DarkWasp.7291:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I should be a bit more clear: Please don’t take a comment like “we’re reading your thoughts” lightly. That’s truly not a dismissive comment, but one that is intended to let you know that feedback from our forum members and players will be shared with the team as a whole.

In fact, I’ll edit my previous post to make that a bit more visible.

Yay! I think just knowing that we’ve been considered, whether it results in anything or not, helps put our minds at ease about the whole ordeal.

Also when you say that you’re “reading our thoughts” are you SURE you weren’t suggesting telepathy?

Oh gad! You’re right. That really should simply be “reading and sharing your input.” I hesitate to go back and edit that post, especially since it was quoted a time or two. But I hope you’ll forgive the poor wording by looking at the good intentions it symbolizes.

Wow… since this post was made a couple of days ago, there have been 22 more Dev posts on the forums. None of them were in this thread. I don’t think any of them were even in this subforum lol.

Wait… is this the thread where we ask for future DirectX 12 implementation, or whatever other optimizations are required to allow kitten ,000 PC to get above 15 FPS at Claw of Jormag?

…it’s a little bit about the money. But it’s also about this. Very much so.

Annnndddd……. now Kotaku’s getting in on it: http://kotaku.com/players-are-kittened-over-guild-wars-2-expansion-pricing-1712551999#

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3a4ktf/dont_prepurchase_heart_of_thorns/

Breezed right past 3,000 upvotes almost 12 hours ago… is this seriously going to finish as the most upvoted GW2 subreddit of all time?

Ricky.4706:

but if they are under the gun from ncsoft, that wouldn’t be good for them….so we have to respect their price line in consideration for their well being and operating expenses. I highly doubt they would come flat out and say it that way. I’m simply giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Despite their need to meet yearly projections, as laid out here: http://goo.gl/42CoEN , Guild Wars 2 is actually the 3rd most profitable f2p/b2p game per player out there right now, making more money per player than even huge MOBAs like LoL or DotA2: https://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/mmo-arpu/

So I don’t know if I would start the ArenaNet bake sale just yet… that said, they need to do something, and lowering the price currently doesn’t seem like an option, so I’ll be very interested to see how this turns out.

Aidenwolf.5964:

Behellagh.1468:

Calling an expansion a paywall is a little unfair in my opinion. By definition then all expansions are therefore paywalls if you need to buy it to access it’s content.

Paywall is usually reserved for core game functionality being restricted from F2P players that VIP tier (read subscription in everything but name only) players get.

Content like maps and living story which will undoubtedly be on those maps that can can only be accessed by purchasing the expansion thereby locking out those who don’t buy it is absolutely a Paywall.

How about having a game called “Guild Wars” in which “Guild Halls” are only accessible through the new paid map? Sounds like a paywall to me…

Honestly, the people at EAnet are probably just very busy. I mean, check out their website here and look at all the games this studio has to work on right now: https://www.arena.net/

See? There’s Guild Wars 1, there’s Guild Wars 2, there’s…… Guild Wars 1; yeah, they might wanna fix this, now that I think about it…

Seera.5916:

Loyheta.3754:

Ambika.6257:

Actually this game is all about the cosmetic items, otherwise why get a legendary, new armor, or bother to mix and match armor, have a mini, buy anything from the gem store, or have weapon/armor skins at all???? Some people don’t care, very few I’d argue. The bulk of people like their character to look good!

Legendary has higher stats so there goes that one. And a title that everyone will have is not the same as armor skins. Many people buy minis just to auction them off later. I care about cosmetic to a point. All these items will be very easy to obtain and not tradeable. I’m sure there will be an option to upgrade to deluxe later on. My point still remains. IF you don’t care about cosmetic, or at least the cosmetic items included, and we ignore the slot, for reasons stated in original post; we are paying $50 for $50 in gems.

Legendary weapons have the same stats as Ascended weapons.

Legendary allows you to swap stats on-the-fly, which are equal to Ascended gear of the same stat type. That’s the only reason I crafted one.

Of course, now we find out that regular Ascended Weapons will be able to change stats using Skill Points, so…

Palador.2170:

It’s about the sale on town clothes shortly before the Wardrobe system was announced. It’s about the changes to the gems/gold transfer, which they were never fully candid about, and never fully reverted. It’s about selling RNG in the gemstore, and a dozen other little things that have worn on people. There is a growing feeling that ANet is simply dishonest with the players. Now people feel like they’re being dishonest again, and they don’t want to let it slide.

Actually, this stuff shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone who has followed the involvement of Nexon in GW2. For instance, the person who is largely seen as responsible for most of your complaints is a former Maplestory Dev who was installed as GW2’s “monetization manager” when Nexon became involved: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/hidden-arcana-developer-spotlight-on-crystin-cox/

“Monetization manager” is the person who runs the Gem Store, basically, and decides on things like “Put all the outfits on sale quick, before we announce that wardrobes will be account bound!”

lukejoe.1592:

Otokomae.9356:

Well this is the generation of people that feel entitled to having things for free or paying less too get more. Making a good game costs money as people that want this game too continue we should be happy to do what we can to keep it going.

So you probably haven’t been around very long. But paying less to get more has been a favorite thing of EVERY GENERATION EVER! No generation to come before “us” (most likely before “you”) has made paying more than something is a worth a thing of theirs.

Again, this was a quote from Frightlight.3796:, I don’t know why my name was attached to here. It seems that quotes are broken.

E Tan.7385:

Otokomae.9356:

Well this is the generation of people that feel entitled to having things for free or paying less too get more. Making a good game costs money as people that want this game too continue we should be happy to do what we can to keep it going.

I first apologize for my english.

But, you are a generation of people totaly blind and naive.
You pay a new AAA game ( meaning a REAL game, with 3-4years ( or more ) developpement ) just 10more $
( without saying that you can easyly find new game for around 40$ depending of the site where you buy the key. )

Actualy, the HOT expansion dont even provide 1/4 of what a GW1 expansion / stand alone was offering , and they were sold, like 20$ cheaper…
( even if they was sold as stand alone, they were still acting as expansion tho )
HOT is
- 3 pve maps
- Guild hall housing ( because thoses greedy cant even provide that “for free”, btw “for free” mean : paid with the cash shop, of nothing is done for free and dont worry the CS is a very good money income )
- 1 new class
- 1 specialisation per class ( compare to what they were able to with GW1, its just… nothing )
- 1 pvp mode with 1 map ( dat hard work ! )
- 1 mcm map… /yawn.

And now, you try to tell me that for that very (very) little content after THREE YEARS, its normal to pay a AAA game price, for ONLY that ?
I even bought GW2 itself for less than the “expansion” price like a week or two after his release…
Oh and btw, Anet scam... I mean… get enough money with the cash shop, dont worry for that.
So its not really like they need to scam.. i mean.. sell that “expansion” that expensive.

And, just look at what other mmo do for their “expansion”…

Please, stop be a blind Anet fanboy, stop alcool / drug, and wake up a bit.[/quote]

This was not my quote, I was replying to that quote in a manner similar to yourself. You’re actually quoting Frightlight.3796: there

EDIT: Is html broken all of a sudden? Quotes don’t work anymore…

DevilLordLaser.8619:

Could people around here get any saltier?

Short answer: Yes.

In fact, it is already happening; the salt levels of this forum increase with every day that goes by without a significant response from EAnet.

Pretty Pixie.8603:

Hammersmash Ureface.2650:

Took 7 years to get GW2.
Everyone seems to forget that while they’re espousing just how much wonder they’ve obviously come up with in merely 3…

I doubt they’ve been working on an expac for a full 3 years. It’s probably closer to a year, msybe a year and a half.

As of July 2013, there was no one working on any expansions for Guild Wars 2.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-03-its-unlikely-guild-wars-2-will-ever-get-an-expansion-pack

This is funny, because according to these forums, “Heart of Thorns” purchased directly from Anet is some form of fraud as well…

riverrhyne.9751:

From what I’m reading, it truly sounds like we aren’t going to be able to have a hall either unless we recruit, which we don’t want to do because we are a tight group of friends. Can someone please address whether this will be accessible by groups of 8-10?

Also consider, how many of those 8-10 will be purchasing the expansion. Wiki says you have to push into the Heart of Maguuma to claim your Guild Hall; can people who haven’t purchased the expansion even step inside of a Guild Hall? They might have answered this today on the stream or in a blog post that I missed, so please forgive me if this has already been answered.

yorick.1305:

GW1 had no such problems with it’s exp’s. If i remember right, as smooth as silk.

It didn’t have revenue from Gems or a Gem Store either. They didn’t exist.

GW1 also didn’t have any involvement from these people: http://www.nexon.net/
It’s funny, but the first thing Nexon did after buying a 15% stake in NCSoft was install a former Maplestory director to run GW2’s Gem Store… ew.

Coulter.2315:

Pretty Pixie.8603:

Coulter.2315:

Guys this stink you’ve made over essentially nothing (its £5 you’re screaming about and new players getting something free) could really damage the company now… Stop it.

Guild Wars has been an excellent franchise for 10 years, don’t drag it through the mud because you ‘feel’ you’re owed something more (again this something more is TINY). Its not worth the damage.

How about you point your little finger at Anet? They’re the ones not giving existing customers value for money.They had 3 days to adress it, and have remained silent.

This is a situation of their making. Loyalty is earned, not given.

If you could give an example of a Guild Wars product in the last 10 years that hasn’t been worth the box price I’ll stop. Since you won’t be able to THAT earned loyalty – good products consistantly (not some extra fluff for launch).

If you could give me an example of a Guild Wars product that has been worth the box price since NEXON, the makers of Maplestory, became involved in the game (Nov. 2012), then we’ll all stop. Since you won’t be able to, THAT loyalty must be earned all over again. This is not a good start.

Was there any mention of this on the Twitch Livestream today at all? I missed the first few minutes.

I actually heard that today’s stream was going to be pre-recorded, so it wouldn’t actually be live, but I have no idea if that’s true or not.

Pretty Pixie.8603:

Otokomae.9356:

mrstealth.6701:

You get a totally worthless title. Which they apparently feel is worth paying for a product you have no idea when you will actually recieve.

According to this site, the Heart of Thorns release date is set for 12/31: http://www.gamesdeal.com/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-addon-pc.html

That’s just a placeholder date. Anet has made no announcements about a release date.

Yeah, I emailed that website about it, and they actually got back to me a few minutes later, saying that they can’t process a pre-order without a release date, but that 12/31 wasn’t an actual set date for the release. Sorry if that caused any confusion.

mrstealth.6701:

You get a totally worthless title. Which they apparently feel is worth paying for a product you have no idea when you will actually recieve.

According to this site, the Heart of Thorns release date is set for 12/31: http://www.gamesdeal.com/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-addon-pc.html

Gulesave.5073:

Otokomae.9356:

EAnet didn’t really have much say in the price of this expansion, it was decided for them several weeks before the expansion was even announced at a stock analysts meeting in Korea: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3adxq0/the_real_reason_for_hots_50_price_tag/

That was a prediction, and a bit of an indirect recommendation. Influential, maybe, but not “decided for them.”

Absolutely true. Nexon, who just acquired a 15% stake in NCSoft 2 years ago for $685 million from founder Kim Taek-Jin, could have easily said “You know what, let’s jsut ignore the yearly projections that were made available to every financial analyst in the world by the most powerful investment bank in the country where we’re based. Just sell the game for $25 if that what you think it’s worth, who cares if we lose $300 million when the stock tanks because it couldn’t meet yearly projections?”

Of course, that’s NOT what they did… it could be a coincidence that the expansion came out at $50. It’s not, of course. But it’s still fun to sit around and theorize about how someone at ArenaNet independantly came up with that exact same number as the value of the expansion all by itself, with no extras tacked on.

phys.7689:

not really, people are looking at that info incorrectly, that firm is responsible for consulting with the developers and making projections on the stock value based on what they have been told.

Point being they made those projections because anet told ncsoft that those were their expectations months ago.

This was not a consultation meeting with NCSoft, Daewoo Securities came up with those numbers on their own, as stated in the document, based on GW1 sales figures. And whether Anet or NCSoft believed they could sell 2 million copies of this expac @ $50 each or not isn’t even relevant; once that projection was made, it was practically set-in-stone that $50 would be the base price, no matter how much Anet or anyone else thought the content was actually worth.

phys.7689:

AnClar.1304:

Pyriel.4370:

If there is anyone at ArenaNet that needs a customer feedback to improve process or kickstart a change in policy and processes please use this. If this was my work, we would have had the investors biting off our heads to make a statement.

ANet’s major financial partner is NCSoft, a Korean based corporation. I would imagine that most of NCSoft’s investors are not all that close to GW2 and it’s community. I think it’s a safe bet to say that all NCSoft’s investors give a rap about is NCSoft’s bottom line. It looks as though ANet is doing whatever it takes to make the sales and revenue targets that NCSoft sets.

people have a bad habit of blaming ncsoft for every bad decison we hear. Look at their other games, you will find that those games prices are generally fair, and they havent charged 50 dollars or the equivalent for an expansion.

this business model is developed and maintained by arenanet, almost everything else ncsoft does is subscription based or free to play.

EAnet didn’t really have much say in the price of this expansion, it was decided for them several weeks before the expansion was even announced at a stock analysts meeting in Korea: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3adxq0/the_real_reason_for_hots_50_price_tag/

Frightlight.3796:

sanelson.4028:

Jesus Christ… I can’t even write a constructive comment right now due to all the rage I’m feeling…I’ll just come back later.

Well this is the generation of people that feel entitled to having things for free or paying less too get more. Making a good game costs money as people that want this game too continue we should be happy to do what we can to keep it going. Imagine if anet said we have decided not to release HOT and are shutting down the gw2 servers because of financial trouble would people flock to help?

That would be funny, since GW2 made more money in the 1st quarter of this year than they’ve made at any time since 2012. And if you download and read the the reports linked in the article below, you’ll see that it’s a LOT of money… Without a subscription, GW2 still managed to be the 3rd most profitable MMO per account through May 2015, and that’s on a list that includes MOBAs like LoL & DotA2 (GW2 placed above both of them, btw.)

http://massivelyop.com/2015/05/13/ncsofts-first-quarter-earnings-growth-for-guild-wars-2-further-deflation-for-wildstar/

Quiznos.4296:

Even still. What like 8 million core copies already purchased?
if they truly planned for 2 million HoT copies… That’s only a 25 customer retention rate. Even less since they’re targeting new customers as well…
A company doesn’t even need good customer service to hit 25 retention… Oh, wait…

Once again, Daewoo Securities has the answer for you: http://www.kdbdw.com/bbs/download/193934.pdf?attachmentId=193934

GW2 has so far sold 4.6 million copies worldwide. The number they gave NCSoft earlier this year (2 million in sales for HoT) was based on previous sales of GW1 expansions in comparison to GW1 core game sales; basically, in GW1, about 50% of core game accounts bought each of the expansions at the time of release. So Daewoo Securities just said, " Well, based on GW1 sales figures, we expect that your 4 million GW2 core accounts should translate to 2 million in sales for the expansion by the end of the year."

So yeah, 50%.

Valento.9852:

I wish I could’ve bought Deluxe version, but luckily I’ll be able to upgrade as it’s stated in the FAQ.

I wouldn’t count on it; that FAQ has been known to change overnight…

Ensio.8172:

PuddingNL.7603:

I see a lot of reactions of: “If HoT was $50,- for only the expansion, people wouldn’t complain”.

That’s true!

But here is the big difference: Rather you are a new player or a veteran, you pay $50,- but as a new player you get the core game. As a veteran you already have the core game so u only get the expansion. No substitutes for veteran players. So this is really unfair to the veterans..

Some of the big problems I see here are:

- Not nearly enough information about expansion only features; while I think in general, 50$ for a B2P style MMO expansion seems fair, I’m not at all certain what exactly said 50$ would get me compared to what is being added for free

Well, there really doesn’t seem to be much Anet could about the price; the $50 price tag was set for them weeks before they even announced the Expansion back in January: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3adxq0/the_real_reason_for_hots_50_price_tag/

Razor.9872:

You don’t know that. Don’t make baseless assumptions. For all we know it actually could make a dent. Again – not saying it would as that would be assuming too — I am just saying we no nothing. A-net is most definitely not a billionaire business

It looks like you’re the one making a baseless speculation. I mean, Kim Taek-Jin, the guy who sold most of ArenaNet to Nexon back in 2012, is worth over 1 billion dollars all by himself! That’s factual information that you could have looked up in minutes, without needing to be a stock holder or seeing the company’s financials.