Guild Wars 2

Vayne.8563:

Zoul.1087:

Posting these posts accomplishes nothing honestly.
Do you think someone will read this and find perceived value that wasn’t there before?

Your willingness to pay, does nothing for other people. Your value in the game does not effect anyone else. These posts are very pointless.

Lots of MMOs are f2p and Wow charges a fee. So the value is completely based on people’s perceived value. Which for the money a lot of people don’t think its worth it.

I have to disagree with this, because posting this sort of thing accomplishes something, even if it doesn’t change anyone’s mind. However, you’re making an assumption that all people are free thinkers, and everyone is a critical mind. Not everyone does. Which explains disco and bell bottoms. Sometimes, the peer pressure is real.

Maybe there are people out there who actually don’t think it’s so bad, but they see all this bad press and they second guess themselves. You think that doesn’t happen? I see it all the time. I have people in my guild who said, I didn’t think it was a big deal but I see all these comments. They gain doubt. They’re not so sure.

Then they see a good post, someone that has a reaction, who thought it through and reinforces the fact that they’re not alone. Some people really do need to hear that.

The OP’s post is a fair summary of what a lot of people think, and put rather mildly, so I’m with Vayne on this one, even when I’m on the other side of the fence.

I still think it’s a bad idea to shell out without knowing what you’re getting in full, and that as it is now, you’re not getting value for money.

Jongi.7612:

Why exactly do some of the veteran players think ANet owes you anything? I see a lot of vet players understand that nothing is owed to them, but the vocal majority of vets here on the forums think something is owed to them.

The expansion is $50 bucks, end of story. If you dont already have GW2 and you buy HoT you get it for free. Its so that it brings in more players.

Veteran players have already gotten their fair share of free stuff, living story which if these new players want to experience they have to pay for, free level 20 boosts for being active during the anniversaries, free skins, free level 80’s if you didnt waste your tomes, and who knows what else was given out.

So what exactly are you guys complaining about? Its just like these spoiled kids that didnt get the car they wanted, or the 64gb iphone and rage at their parents. Its stupid and I hope ANet sticks to their guns.

The ONLY people that should be kittened off are the people who bought the core game recently and now have to dish out another 50 for the expansion in turn making the expansion more expensive. Give them a free skin, gems or something. Everyone else has gotten their monies worth from the game.

If you think you are owed something because you have been playing for 3 years and new players get the core game for free to increase the size of the community that is the exact definition of entitlement.

If you are still asking what people are complaining about you haven’t been paying attention.

And please stay away from calling people that have supported this game for years entitled. It’s wrong and polarising. We paid for previous content, often far beyond that.

Calling people out for feeling that they’re not getting value for money is not on.

papry.8096:

BladeNinja.4671:

Kumion.7580:

Massively OP http://massivelyop.com/2015/06/18/why-guild-wars-2s-prepurchase-deal-has-the-internet-raging/

This sums it up perfectly out of all of them.

Each is opinion; to me it’s the worst one. It miss the mark so much it’s not funny.

It might be the one you disagree with most, but it doesn’t miss the mark. It sums up what a lot of the people that feel they’re not getting value for money perfectly.

Perhaps use it to understand the opposing viewpoint a bit better instead of rejecting it outright?

Lets keep in mind that there are a number of grievances, not all equal. Sometimes a person subscribes to more than one of these.

1) Perception of value. Giving new players the core game creates the perception that a veteran player gets less. This is made exacerbated by..

2) No character slot included in the cheapest tier, meaning players will have to pay/ farm for another slot, or delete a toon. Deleting a toon means missing out on that elite spec unless you have doubles. Because of the price of a slot is $10 people feel they’re paying effectively $60 for less product.

3) Limited reveals so far. It’s looking more and more like this expac will be more about features than playable content, in part because Anet’s been stingy with their reveals. It’s possible there is loads of playable content, but we don’t know that yet. This makes financially prudent customers weary and less willing to take the plunge.

I personally think preorders are a blight on the industry, but that’s a different argument.

Please don’t lump everone in the same group when debating them.

Contact support. You should be able to upgrade your account to a HoT prepurchase deal.

Sthenith.5196:

Hi all,

well, i’ve been reading and commenting (when i felt like it) on the latest topics about the expansion, and so far, all one can agree upon is the community in an uproar.

As a reasonnable ‘newbie’ , playing for only a couple of months, i’m quite baffled and confused by this whole expansion thing.

Personally i won’t preorder HoT, not because of the pricing, but because i don’t know what is going to be in it. And as far as the packaging goes, well, that’s another story.

Anet marketing division has imo made a HUGE mistake in promoting the expansion as a packaged deal with the original core game, which a lot of “veterans” percieve as unfair. Wether that’s true or not is not my concern.

But did anyone consider another perspective ? That of the actual developers and programmers of the expansion ? Those guys & gals have worked their kitten off and still are in order to bring something new and refreshing to the game.

Something a lot of people been asking for. And now, because of a terrible miscommunication and/or marketing concept/idea, their whole work is basically ignored.

The main question should be : is the expansion’s content worth getting for the price they advertise it for ? It is something you want to add to the game ?

If i were one of the devs working on the expansion, i’d be gutted seeing my work ignored in favor of the uproar about some badly conceived marketing idea.
But maybe that’s just me.

I’ve been given this game as a present, and i’ve spend some money on the gemstore, so i don’t really care how much they ask for the expansion, i just enjoyed these months ingame wondering if and what they were going to add. Which i still don’t know much about, only what Anet tells us.

As far as i’m concerned, i’m curious what it’s going to be, and seeing what already is in the core game, i’m hopeful that it’s going to be awesome, at least more then what we are being shown thus far.

Hopefully some of the gamers here are wondering the same thing. Is it going to be something for everyone (WvW/Guilds/quests/PvP/…etc) ? Or is it going to be a “bleh, not interested” kind of thing ?

I think, while the community might be right about the whole marketing thing, people should also not forget that those same dev’s brought us the core game (which imo is awesome)…wishing they do it again (baffle us).

Just wanted to get this idea out.
Thx for reading.

Almost nobody has issues with the devs. But Anet is more then just the devs. As much as I sympatise with them, it doesn’t mean I’ll pay for what I consider to be a poor deal.

DevilLordLaser.8619:

Just as a point of fact – I’d intended this thread as a faint, feeble attempt at saying to the community in general: “Do you guys have any idea how ridiculous you all look?”

Yeah, I was frank and didn’t really pull my punches much, but trust me, man – this was not me being insulting. You’d have known if I was really trying to razz people. The last time I did, I got infracted halfway off the board. Heh…this place doesn’t forgive nearly as much trash talk as MWO does. Mostly, I figure that being polite, formal, and attempting to gently alert people to the fact that this place is starting to kinda resemble a rabid monkey pit was going to end up with two replies asking me “what’s your point?” before it falls off the page, and if I really went nuts it’d get me infracted again and possibly banned.

This was me trying to strike enough of a balance to not get modslapped while still managing to crack through the armor of indignation so rampant around here. Seems to have almost worked – thread’s still here, no nasty PMs from the mod staff. Though it is mostly two folks so not quite the perfect balance. Oh well! Lessons for next time.

Seems to me that you’re perfectly able to decide and judge what you wrote then.

Ambika.6257:

Pretty Pixie.8603:

Ambika.6257:

No, he can say whatever whether I agree with him or not. I didn’t see it as a personal attack or even generalized mudslinging, rather everyone has gone bat-kitten-crazy and it’s driving me crazy, calm the hell down. Two different people can read the same thing, one viewing it as an attack and take offense, the other just takes it as verbal diarrhea with a valid point in there. That’s the problem with reading something on the internet, you can’t see the intent behind the words often times, you have to read between the lines if they aren’t talented at putting a point up quickly and directly.

First you argue that you can’t see intent, then you suggest that you need to read between the lines.

Your argument falls apart when you use one measuring stick for people you agree with, and another for people you disagree with.

My reply was not nearly as strongly worded as his, but you label it incendiary, yet defend his post with your interpretation of what he might have meant, disregarding the actual inflammatory language he used.

If you are unable to concede that, we better stop here. No point in debating an issue if you’re going to insist on double standards.

Yours was incendiary when you labeled him personally as a troll. And I think this is a huge misunderstanding indeed and you are misconstruing my words. So yes. I think we are at a stopping point.

Righto, nice talking to you.

Ambika.6257:

No, he can say whatever whether I agree with him or not. I didn’t see it as a personal attack or even generalized mudslinging, rather everyone has gone bat-kitten-crazy and it’s driving me crazy, calm the hell down. Two different people can read the same thing, one viewing it as an attack and take offense, the other just takes it as verbal diarrhea with a valid point in there. That’s the problem with reading something on the internet, you can’t see the intent behind the words often times, you have to read between the lines if they aren’t talented at putting a point up quickly and directly.

First you argue that you can’t see intent, then you suggest that you need to read between the lines.

Your argument falls apart when you use one measuring stick for people you agree with, and another for people you disagree with.

My reply was not nearly as strongly worded as his, but you label it incendiary, yet defend his post with your interpretation of what he might have meant, disregarding the actual inflammatory language he used.

If you are unable to concede that, we better stop here. No point in debating an issue if you’re going to insist on double standards.

As banks like to add in small print:

*Previous results are no guarantee for future profits.

Sure I love the game. I’m heavily invested. But that doesn’t mean I won’t cast a critical eye on prices slapped on new content.

And yes, the absence of a character slot is totally part of why value is lacking. Why do I need to farm or otherwise use my gold for something that’s required to enjoy the content I’m purchasing?

Show us what you got. Give me value for money.

I’m going to wait until I know what I’m exactly paying for, but I’m certainly not paying a second fee just to try a core element of the expac, the Revenant.

So at least a character slot included in the base tier.

It’s not really a negotiating table until there’s at least two parties present, and one is conspiciously absent.

Ambika.6257:

I reconcile it with the fact that he’s not attacking a specific individual. He’s calling out the community on bad behavior. And even if I’m included I agree with the assessment.

So as long as you agree with his point he can say whatever? I strongly disagree. Generalised mudslinging is not something to laud.

Ambika.6257:

Pretty Pixie.8603:

Ambika.6257:

I gave you the short version of it, but yes, OP did ask for decency without stating it directly but the intent was implied.

DevilLordLaser.8619:

Seriously. I don’t think we’ve reached Dead Sea levels of eye-searing, fish-killing, meat-preserving crusty brine yet.

snip

I just counted – there are currently four threads on the front page of this board talking about something other than how immensely pants-bruised people are over the expansion pricing, and this despite a huge E3 showing by ArenaNet and something like eleven hundred blog articles on guild halls, a feature people have been demanding info
What I’m saying is that you folks have made the MechWarrior Online forums – a collection of bittervets, salt miners, crusty codgers, and dev-hating megatrolls which cannot be equaled this side of League of Legends – look like a reasonable and respectful community.

I honestly did not think that was possible.

You’re embarrassing the Torment out of yourselves, folks. The ludicrous angstsplosion in this house is a complete and utter turn-off, and if I were an ArenaNet developer I wouldn’t want to talk to a bunch of ragecanoes either.

Oh, I see. Comparing the community to the worst trolls he could think of was all in the name of decency.

My bad.

Sometimes you just need to tell it like it is!

Opinions aren’t ‘like it is’. They’re opinions. You might feel strongly about it, but if you use it to insult other people, expect to be called on it.

Didn’t you ask for people to be nicer to each other in another thread? How do you reconcile that with this behaviour (OP’s)? Because they look like polar opposites to me.

Edit: This one.

I’d like to emphasize the not throwing poop at each other’s decisions in regards to whether or not they purchase the game. Some are grateful, some are not. It makes it ten times worse when we are pulling each other down for not making the same choice. Have a nice friendly debate with facts, but don’t expect to sway any opinions by putting someone on the chopping block because they don’t feel the same way. The posts put up to thank Anet have been torn up and down and it wasn’t even addressed to the haters. So sad and embarrassing when something like that gets hijacked. I feel like we need to do the Care-bear Stare or something because nothing else is working!

What’s a Trion? is it up for prepurchase?

j/k

Impossible to say at this point. Not $50 in my book on what they’ve revealed so far. I’ll hols judgement until I know more.

Ambika.6257:

I gave you the short version of it, but yes, OP did ask for decency without stating it directly but the intent was implied.

DevilLordLaser.8619:

Seriously. I don’t think we’ve reached Dead Sea levels of eye-searing, fish-killing, meat-preserving crusty brine yet.

snip

I just counted – there are currently four threads on the front page of this board talking about something other than how immensely pants-bruised people are over the expansion pricing, and this despite a huge E3 showing by ArenaNet and something like eleven hundred blog articles on guild halls, a feature people have been demanding info
What I’m saying is that you folks have made the MechWarrior Online forums – a collection of bittervets, salt miners, crusty codgers, and dev-hating megatrolls which cannot be equaled this side of League of Legends – look like a reasonable and respectful community.

I honestly did not think that was possible.

You’re embarrassing the Torment out of yourselves, folks. The ludicrous angstsplosion in this house is a complete and utter turn-off, and if I were an ArenaNet developer I wouldn’t want to talk to a bunch of ragecanoes either.

Oh, I see. Comparing the community to the worst trolls he could think of was all in the name of decency.

My bad.

No. You either create a new account with Heart of Thorns, or you add the expac to an existing account. The core game isn’t tradable.

Ambika.6257:

I’d like to emphasize the not throwing poop at each other’s decisions in regards to whether or not they purchase the game. Some are grateful, some are not. It makes it ten times worse when we are pulling each other down for not making the same choice. Have a nice friendly debate with facts, but don’t expect to sway any opinions by putting someone on the chopping block because they don’t feel the same way. The posts put up to thank Anet have been torn up and down and it wasn’t even addressed to the haters. So sad and embarrassing when something like that gets hijacked. I feel like we need to do the Care-bear Stare or something because nothing else is working!

I can agree with that. Other players aren’t the enemy here. It can be frustrating when someone doesn’t even want to consider your grievances though, but dismisses them out of hand as ‘entitled’ or ‘whining’.

I wonder why you’d start another thread stirring the pot if you want to talk about guildhalls instead.

Your attitude is detrimental to the conversation by polarising it. But I guess that’s what trolls do.

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.

Ambika.6257:

Pretty Pixie.8603:

briggah.7910:

xbutcherx.3861:

The funny part is that the main thread about this has 4100 posts which 4000 are players complaining about this vs 100 that think is a fair price.
Numbers don’t lie.

Seeing as everyone doesn’t post here and pretty much only those that want to share their opinions do. I’d say numbers do not matter.

You really think people want to make happy threads when they are constantly de-railed/high-jacked by someone else and then it just turns into a flame war?

When or if anet releases that amount of copies they have sold of HoT. Numbers will not really mean anything.

Numbers do matter. Polls are part and parcel of gauging election results, for instance. All you need is a representative sample size, and 4k+ posts, not counting all the others is representative.

4k plus posts is NOT representative when they are not from 4k plus individuals. Once you’ve figured out how many actual individuals are making them, come back with that number.

More than representative when you include All other threads, Reddit, MassivelyOP, other forums, twitter, etc.

Maybe I should tally all of those up too?

Reddit’s most upvoted post ’don’t prepurchase HoT’ has 3k upvotes.

Most popular thread here is 4k+

MassivelyOP thread was 450+ posts.

A conservative estimate would put the disgruntled customers at 70% guestimate.

That’s 5200+ sample size, far more than your average exit poll.

Entenkommando

You are greedy.
If you want to use the monkey analogy: it is like the left monkey got additional bananas the entire last month while the right didn’t get anything. And now he is mad about the few grapes.
But you can’t compare this since it’s too complex for them to understand.

Oh yeah, how dare he want value for money.

You should definately insinuate that someone’s stupid when they’re careful with their money.

I bet they thought we’d all jump on the $100 hype train. for an expac, twice the cost of a full game for maybe 25% of the content.

The $50 offer was never meant for vets.

briggah.7910:

xbutcherx.3861:

The funny part is that the main thread about this has 4100 posts which 4000 are players complaining about this vs 100 that think is a fair price.
Numbers don’t lie.

Seeing as everyone doesn’t post here and pretty much only those that want to share their opinions do. I’d say numbers do not matter.

You really think people want to make happy threads when they are constantly de-railed/high-jacked by someone else and then it just turns into a flame war?

When or if anet releases that amount of copies they have sold of HoT. Numbers will not really mean anything.

Numbers do matter. Polls are part and parcel of gauging election results, for instance. All you need is a representative sample size, and 4k+ posts, not counting all the others is representative.

Coulter.2315:

My mum used to give my sister and I a small gift on each others’ birthdays when we were young.

The game will be good, try to get past the tiny disappointment that you didn’t get a present. We should be excited as a community this mess is very depressing. Hope you all feel better – just try to keep it in perspective.

That’s not how this works. Acquiring HoT is a financial transaction. I will therefore treat it as one.

Allowing yourself to be ripped off by a company because you like them and they’re not ripping you off ‘too much’ is just being irresponsible with your money, and set a precedent for the future.

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.

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).

Other Anet products have no bearing on their handling on this. Because previous products were good value you’ll put up with being rorted now?

It’s not drugs they’re selling. You’re not hooked. It’s fine to judge each product on it’s own merits. And this one doesn’t measure up in the way they priced it.

kitten argument, since a B2P depends on the goodwill of it’s playerbase to keep the microtransactions rolling.

Give the playerbase that have been subsidising your product a bum deal, and you can expect an uproar.

I love the cynical "you should have known they’d rort you’.

Captain Unusual.9163:

I’m sure this is entirely accurate and they are done announcing new zones, features, and abilities.

That’s inconsequential. They’re asking money NOW, So we have to base our financial decision on what we know NOW.

You can hope for 47 new zones, but that’s not been confirmed.

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.

I think you can remove the PvP modes, since they’ll be available to everyone.

AnClar.1304:

Pretty Pixie.8603:

papry.8096:

Pretty Pixie.8603:

papry.8096:

Wolfheart.1879:

4) Communication. AKA The Famous Arenanet Ostrich Defense.

We got an answer of gayle at page 68.
We know that Ruby got called ingame.
last but the best: we have an amazing reminder of the situation on the main post.

They are communicating plenty on the issue.

Regina’s answer was posted before this blew up. Gaile’s ’We’re listening’ has not been followed up by any further comment from someone in a position to make a definite statement.

It’s the forum equivalent of saying you’ll go talk to your supervisor, and never returning to the customer.

I’m sure that Anet will never do that. They are an amazing company that always listen to their customer.

As proven by a 4k thread on a major issue to many players with no follow up for 3 days.

I’d like some of what you’re smoking, sweety.

OK…at the risk of getting flamed, I’m gonna say it….this whole thing is, what, 3 days old and people are screaming that there has been no official answer…I expect that ANet is being careful about the “official” reply in hopes of not making a bad situation worse. While I’m unhappy about the marketing surrounding HoT, I think peeps saying a lack of response from ANet for 3 days equates to ANet doesn’t care is, I think, a bit unrealistic. I’m reserving judgment for a bit…if no official response is forthcoming by, say the middle of next week, I’ll rethink my position. It could also be that ANet may be legally constrained by whatever agreements they have with NCSoft. And don’t get me started on what I think about NCSoft.

On the contrary, Companies are ussually rather quick with their damage control because it eh…. ‘controls the damage’. Breetoplay, a writer at MassivelyOP was astounded by their lack of response, and she sees this all the time.

papry.8096:

Pretty Pixie.8603:

papry.8096:

Wolfheart.1879:

4) Communication. AKA The Famous Arenanet Ostrich Defense.

We got an answer of gayle at page 68.
We know that Ruby got called ingame.
last but the best: we have an amazing reminder of the situation on the main post.

They are communicating plenty on the issue.

Regina’s answer was posted before this blew up. Gaile’s ’We’re listening’ has not been followed up by any further comment from someone in a position to make a definite statement.

It’s the forum equivalent of saying you’ll go talk to your supervisor, and never returning to the customer.

I’m sure that Anet will never do that. They are an amazing company that always listen to their customer.

As proven by a 4k thread on a major issue to many players with no follow up for 3 days.

I’d like some of what you’re smoking, sweety.

papry.8096:

Wolfheart.1879:

4) Communication. AKA The Famous Arenanet Ostrich Defense.

We got an answer of gayle at page 68.
We know that Ruby got called ingame.
last but the best: we have an amazing reminder of the situation on the main post.

They are communicating plenty on the issue.

Regina’s answer was posted before this blew up. Gaile’s ’We’re listening’ has not been followed up by any further comment from someone in a position to make a definite statement.

It’s the forum equivalent of saying you’ll go talk to your supervisor, and never returning to the customer.

Considering that Colin posted in another thread hours ago but chose to ignore this issue, I’m becoming more and more convinced that Regina’s answer is final.

They might count on next week’s update to distract us. Maybe they think they can only reach their sales targets by charging vets $60 to access all HoT content, and were expecting us all to shrll out $100 like good fanboys and -girls.

In reality many of us will end up buying the expac anyway. I think a lot of goodwill has been lost though. The continued silence gives the impression they don’ t value that.

Losing goodwill will likely have consequences though. Vets that habitually supported the game through gemstore purchases will think twice in the future.

They’ll hit Anet where it hurts.

Right in the gems.

Ok Guys, I’m taking bets. how many pages will this thread run before we see an official response?

Place your bets NOW!

WoW has no bearing on this. I’m judging the preorder with the information they’ve made available like you’d do with any product.

As Broom says above, what’s been presented looks very light on content, with the added insult of excluding a character slot so you can’t even enjoy the new class without either deleting a pre-existing character or buying a new slot.

Please note that deleting a character will also mean you lose out on content, since you won’t be able to use the elite spec on that character.

Then there’s the potential rift between new players and old. It’s not unlikely that some bitter vets will continue to air their grievances in mapchat, and bag new players as if they’re to blame. They’re effectively shutting nonpurchasers out of all new content, since it will all require HoT. Forget about buying S3 on the gemstore, that won’t happen, since it’ll require HoT. Many will feel resentful.

For a game that’s marketed as casual friendly and inclusive, that can be disastrous.

SirDrygan.1823:

Pretty Pixie.8603:

Hi. Congratulations on launching your pre order. Unfortunately, the way you went about it upset a large group of your veteran players, some who feel they are not getting enough value, others feeling scammed because your marketing team pushes customers toward expensive upgrades without much subtlety, among other complaints.

You’ve said you’re listening.

You said you’re listening, yet you are not talking to your player base.

Some have said you don’t owe veterans anything. I disagree. You build your game around a living world. Veterans shaped that living world.

Veterans trained, guided, advised new players when your own systems where inadequate.

They led epic armies in zerg v zerg fights.

They provide a vibrant economy with their gold they earned running content with old players and new.

They’ve organised community events, provided the world with many notable characters.

They consume the content of your sponsored youtube personalities.

They organise maps to take out dragons and giant worms on a daily basis.

They provided detailed guides on the internet, blogs and youtube, even stickied posts on this very forum.

Veteran players helped made your game the great place it is.

So I suggest you do owe us something.

The common courtesy to talk to us.

Pix

Return to sender. No letter box with that address.

https://youtu.be/PU5xxh5UX4U

CureForLiving.5360:

Gray.9041:

rapthorne.7345:

They will likely release a statement either today or next week

it had better be soon. the longer they leave this, the harder it’ll be to fix. this whole debacle is a good example of where Anet’s preference to keep quiet is backfiring like a cooked mortar shell.

Firstly we need to establish if this is a problem.
Players are complaining on the forums, but has this been reflected in the prepurchase numbers? if the prepurchase is looking good (and who is or isn’t prepurchasing) then there’s no problem except some unhappy players, and there’s always unhappy players.

It appears to me that a B2P is far more dependent on a happy playerbase than a sub one, since many have said that they ‘supported’ he game through gem purchases.

If these people are annoyed enough to stop purchasing gems in the future (regardless of whether they feel obligated to buy HoT or not) it may affect the company’s bottom line.

Grumbling players in sufficient large amount can also influence public perception of the game and make people hesitant to take the plunge.

Of course I have no figures to back this up, since I do not work for Anet.

I guess it’ll be a few months. Seems to short for it to be the end of August now, with still a few betas to come, judging by the preorder.

Going by the launch of the original game, the preorder started about 5 months before launch, iirc.

CureForLiving.5360:

JUN YANG.4328:

i perfer have NCsoft respond for this.
looks at Anet’s staff attitude.

16.6.2015. never forget.

Everyone is being so dramatic.

Yeah, that happens when people are passionate about something.

InfinitytheSoulWarden.5963:

This is nice but i really doubt that it will get a response…. its a shame because it really sums up our mission!

I’m aware of that. I felt it needed to be said though.

Hi. Congratulations on launching your pre order. Unfortunately, the way you went about it upset a large group of your veteran players, some who feel they are not getting enough value, others feeling scammed because your marketing team pushes customers toward expensive upgrades without much subtlety, among other complaints.

You’ve said you’re listening.

You said you’re listening, yet you are not talking to your player base.

Some have said you don’t owe veterans anything. I disagree. You build your game around a living world. Veterans shaped that living world.

Veterans trained, guided, advised new players when your own systems where inadequate.

They led epic armies in zerg v zerg fights.

They provide a vibrant economy with their gold they earned running content with old players and new.

They’ve organised community events, provided the world with many notable characters.

They consume the content of your sponsored youtube personalities.

They organise maps to take out dragons and giant worms on a daily basis.

They provided detailed guides on the internet, blogs and youtube, even stickied posts on this very forum.

Veteran players helped made your game the great place it is.

So I suggest you do owe us something.

The common courtesy to talk to us.

Pix

mrstealth.6701:

They are likely hoping it will blow over, and they can get away with it by appeasing everyone with some forced, half-hearted apology. That might work when it’s a unpopular changes in free updates. Some will quit playing, but most will eventually (even if begrudgingly) accept the changes and go about their way.

But this is something they are asking money for, and have already been lying about for 6 months in a shady scheme to get more money. People aren’t going to just forget about it and hand over money anyway. You don’t forget about a lie the way an unpopular change fades away.

Frankly they have holdouts over the barrel, because by offering the base game for free to new customers they can just develop future playable content for HoT only.

Expect HoT to be required for LS S3. You won’t be able to buy it separately on the gem store either.

That’s one massive crowbar to ‘motivate’ disgruntled players. HoT is a paywall for veteran players.

A new player gets HoT and the base game for $50. If you are not a new player and you wish to apply HoT to your existing account, you will not get an additional copy of the game. It only applies to starters.

If you apply it to an existing account its up to you to get a character slot if you wish to play the Revenant that’s part of the expansion. A character slot is not included.

sharkswithlazers.7632:

Everyone is so mad about a 10$ difference that we have losers leaving the game altogether

That’s not an accurate representation of the complete argument. Those ‘losers’ are customers. Good riddance, right?

Biobasher.2619:

Pretty Pixie.8603:

If you’re unable to see that the playerbase is crudely being manipulated to shell out for a $100, I can’t help you.

Offering kitten entry with no option to play the new class included was always going to cause an uproar. It doesn’t matter whether you can farm up the gold. You’re being charged twice to play the content you paid for.

I have a response to this, and it’s gonna be great, they could’ve gone with a monthly fee and you’d have paid £360 over 3 years, now, I don’t know about you, but those 3 prices look much more promising then a paid subsciption fee that they could’ve done. Along with the free content you’ve had those 3 years.

The only people who should legitimately be mad, are the ones from last week’s Point’s of Interest.

They didn’t go with an alternative payment method. Your hypotheticals are moot. I will therefore judge the preorder as is. Please don’t assume you get to decide who’s allowed to be mad. It’s arrogant and condescending.

If you can’t hold a discussion without resorting to an ad hominem you’re doing it wrong.

If you’re unable to see that the playerbase is crudely being manipulated to shell out for a $100, I can’t help you.

Offering kitten entry with no option to play the new class included was always going to cause an uproar. It doesn’t matter whether you can farm up the gold. You’re being charged twice to play the content you paid for.