Guild Wars 2

thrag.9740:

Well, if that is the case I will probably still buy in the first week. 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.

yeah, big marketing mistake that, it’s clear that they should have included that as a free bonus and have the packages up by 10 euros each. sarcasm, irony, bitter disappointment

it’s the same thing, they didn’t get them for free. these updates were payed for with the additional income that funky gem store is getting them. they are a company not a red cross charity to give stuff for free. people bought gems, gems made money for them. they needed to keep people buying gems and making money that’s why we got theese updates. the only difference between this system and a flat out fee system is that this system enables a very small amount of “gaming socialism” to happen where the people with money in real life can support others with smaller budgets. but the effort is collective. the guy who never buys gems (via money or gold) is right next to me, we’re doing tequatl together. i pay his sub in a way and he populates the world for me. the other guy who only buys gems with gold is also helping me, he grinds and farms so i don’t have to, i can just exchange my g ems for his efforts. he’s happy he gets that costume, i’m happy i don’t have to spend a minute in silverwastes. it’s a collective effort, WE ALL PAY. nothing is for free ever, there’s no free in this life. sigh…

Devildoc.6721:

ReiCH.6273:

they don’t much care about the goodwill of the people as long as they keep buying stuff. which is what you did. so we have this situation here were folks are complaining but they still get the product. thus there is no need for change. in 2 weeks time everything will be forgotten.

it’s a shame really. instead of achieving a positive change for all of us, we’re rewarding them with a purchase and then come into the forums to complain. a shame really.

Perhaps, but eventually once their customer base no longer trusts them, those purchases will stop. For some people, they already have stopped. I’m not completely out of goodwill yet myself. I’m just saying I can understand why some players are burned out and no longer trust the company. I still think consistency and commitment to prior statements is important, and I think transparency is also important for maintaining trust. Eventually, if the current practices of attempting to dupe and swindle the playerbase continue, I’ll be burnt out too.

am I, or any other customer wrong for wanting transparency and commitment?

in your specific case yes, because your “want” is on a theoretical level that is not affecting their reality at all. no matter what it is that you want from them, the fact is that you’re not prepared to do something about it (words on the internet don’t really count). and that is an issue atm. or at least it is an issue as i see things. obviously you are absolutely free to use your money any way you want, we’re not discussing that. all i’m saying is, that your behaviour isn’t helping. a post that says “oh guys, i feel for ya, here let me explain how i prepurchased” isn’t helping. in a way, you’re irrelevant. you gave them what they wanted. your money. in 3 years when the next expansion will come, and if they do the same thing again, maybe, if you’re still playing, you’ll run out of goodwill. see what i mean? even as you state that you feel there’s a problem here, by your action, you moved that problem out of the equation for them.

even if you wanted to prepurchase, unless participation in the betah events was super important to you, you could have waited at the very last minute to prepurchase as a means of applying pressure on the only thing that matters, their bottom line. that alone would have a much much greater impact than starting a thread that will -no doubt- get thrown in the garbage bin that’s the megathread for generalized complaints for hot and then properly ignored.

we’re players but we’re also consumers. we do need at some point to start acting a bit like consumers.

and forgive me if i managed to sour the (what’s supposed to be) joy of prepurchasing a game that you love. trust me i know. maybe you should stay out of the forums if you want to salvage whatever enjoyment is left of your pre purchase.

in before the inevitable merge with the mega thread of generalized complaints or the flat out deletion of the thread

they don’t much care about the goodwill of the people as long as they keep buying stuff. which is what you did. so we have this situation here were folks are complaining but they still get the product. thus there is no need for change. in 2 weeks time everything will be forgotten.

it’s a shame really. instead of achieving a positive change for all of us, we’re rewarding them with a purchase and then come into the forums to complain. a shame really.

GeekDavid.2786:

Dawdler.8521:

Wolfeng.3784:

101 pages of people discussing the multiple issues surrounding the pre-order deal.
Multiple other threads, and yet Anet silence remains.

If a company can’t come up with an official statement after a week, I guess it’s time to pack and move to another game. Sad, I really loved this one.

You do realize that the Anet official statement is already in the thread, posted 5 days ago? Expansion is $50, period. Its the answer to the thread. Just because people dont like it or choose to ignore it doesnt make it any less of an official statement. What came after is as you said, 101 pages of people discussing stuff.

So, you’re saying the official statement is, “we’re not changing anything, kitten off everyone who doesn’t like it”?

pretty much yes… and let’s be honest here, that’s what’s hapenning right now. that’s the reason there’s no other response to this thread. they might reconsinder their position in time if they don’t reach their financial goals or the game starts to suffer due to bad press. otherwise it’s safe to say that they’re pretty much done. that’s why they lump here every semi negative thread and they flat out delete others. they don’t want our “negative” vibes or something affecting the forums and such…

Straylight.7529:

But when you got something you got it for free. Stop complaining about free stuff.

No i didn’t get it for free. What ever gave you that idea? It’s bought and payed for by the cost of gem purchases me and others have done over the course of our play through of the game. They’re not a charity. They never give out stuff for free. Their business model is one where they need to keep me and others interested so we stay in the game, populate the world and eventually buy gems for stuff. Even the people who are not like me and don’t buy gems directly but with gold only, they too pay for the game because they make the gem to gold market happen so others buy the gems for them and they exchange it for gold.

In other words, we’ve all payed for everything that was given, and that includes the players who bought everything with gold. They just exchanged their time and effort in grinding with someone else’s money. But! money was still spent to make said transaction happen.

So, to recap, it wasn’t for free at all, money were spent and I just like how you moved the argument from “oh they give us content every 2 weeks” -a lie btw- into something else entirely. Intellectual honesty at an all time low.

DeadReaper.6527:

ANET deliver new content every 2 week or so, with HOT you will simply get the core update + the hot update, that make it 2 free content update.

lol, they haven’t delivered any “content” for months now… and even when they were “delivering” content in the form of living story episodes, you seem to be forgetting the weeks long “breaks” they were taking

and more unrelated threads merged together, apparently this should be renamed the “general negativity regarding HoT megathread with a sprinkle of white knighting and name calling”

it is indeed a wonder how anyone keeps track of the conversations that have been taking place when 2 or 3 threads get merged into this one. but apparently they’re “reading” (just not this thread)

SenorMoody.5908:

But I will say this; GW2 is a Sub-free game and with this expansion we are likely to get 1-2 years worth of updates and patches and… stuff. Paying $50 now for what doesnt seem that much at this time, will, in the long run, be a better purchase than we all originally thought. Hell after 5 months worth of the game it will pay itself off compared to the subscription games out there.

Now I know Im in the minority here, and I know ive been very negative and angry towards Anet since that whole Traits fiasco. But on this subject of price for the expansion, I think 50 dollars is just fine.

I see people using that argument again and again, it’s sub free it’s sub free. And? did we force them to be sub free? Did they operated at a loss all this time out of the goodness of their hearts or something? Is Anet a charity? If no, then why should we become one. At the end of the day, if they think they can cut the mustard with a subscription they should do it. But we all know how that experiment would end, don’t we? So please, don’t present the absence of a sub fee as a gift to us. It’s probably the only mode of operation that they can make profit off. Let them compete with wow and ff14 and see how the cookie crumbles. We already know how ESO fared, how wildstar did (which had challenging group content and all that), and wow lost 3 mil of subers once the content was consumed. Sub fees are a harsh land right now. Fact of the matter is, we’re not in 2000 anymore, being sub free isn’t something extra ordinary, it’s becoming common industry practice. So not a really good argument. Unless of course you think that gw2 would enjoy the success it does now with a sub fee, but that’s debatable.

As far as 45 euros for the expansion (plus another 10 for that character slot) is concerned, truth is, we don’t know if it has value or not. We don’t have a list of the content, we don’t even know more than half the specializations. We don’t know how many zones we’ll get, we don’t know the average time required to complete the story, we don’t even know how many and which legendary weapons we’ll be getting. So I can’t tell you if 55 euros is fine or not. But, based on what we do know, it doesn’t seem to be. Anyway i look at it, feels like a cash grab.

shadow.6174:

says in Skritt voice: “Where? Where? Wheeere?”

lol ok right. Could you post a link or something to that comment? I got curious here.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Ascended-Gear-Anet-please-fix-this/first#post5173842

there, and there was a follow up too.. but not in here unfortunately

Ooh, Colin commented on another thread a few minutes ago, so here’s to hoping he’ll drop over here and make an official statement on things…

fingers crossed

khani.4786:

KGS.9842:

Anchoku.8142:

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

that is false, i have a mail from support that states explicitly that the the expansion will never be sold separately from the core game

Then this new version of GW2 is now the core game. GW2: HoT is not an expansion in the traditional sense, it is GW2.5 and they’re essentially making it so that veteran players have to re-buy the game to get the new content. It’s a paid update to the game (which if it could be bought separate would be an expansion pack). Core + HoT as they’re selling is not a bundle because you don’t get two separate items. There is no core, only HoT.

That doesn’t make it any better. What you’re saying is this basically: we’re changing the rules and you either have to rebuy the game or lose all your progress. Feels like an extortion to me. Pay up or else. And they’ll keep on doing that for every expansion. We’re changing the core game, buy it again. Nope, nope and nope.

Rin.1046:

Have you considered the possibility that the original game was extremely under-priced? For the amount of content we got, and the amount of enjoyment I have got out of it, I would say the original GW2 was the bargain of the century myself, and HoT is priced more realistically.

Of course we would not have known how good it was to start with, so they had to put a price on it people would be willing to pay. But now I have played it, I am very happy I only had to pay the small amount they charged for it.

Fallacious argument right there. Doesn’t matter if it was under priced. They choose the price. They certainly didn’t ask me, and nobody else. If they made a mistake it’s their problem not ours. Players are customers, not a charity. So that’s, that.

And then, you “know” how good gw2 has been, but you’re clueless about HoT. Why? Cause they’re changing so much you really can’t be sure. You’re -assuming- in good faith that it’ll be good, but without knowing what exactly is contained in said expansion, and how much you’ll actually like the changes, you can’t really tell.

And finally if they had to put gw2 to a price range folks were willing to pay, consider this thread the notice they need that those prices aren’t what some folks don’t want to pay. You were ok, others aren’t. This is them telling the company to adjust it’s pricing.

BTW still waiting on the official reply from the company, but I have this idea that they’ll wait till after the patch in the hopes that folks get distracted, OR the expansion is selling really well for them, and we’re a minority so no need to address us.

Donari.5237:

So on what basis? On the basis of if they don’t earn enough they’ll have to shut the game down or at least not create anything new and better for it.

That’s not a real argument. I’m a consumer not a charity. They themselves chose this model, it’s their problem not mine. And they knew the cost and the competition before going in. If they need to overprice their product maybe they should start laying off people (pro tip: start with marketing), do restructuring, re negotiate contracts, move to a cheaper base of operations just like other companies do. I’m not here to sponsor their lifestyle. Sorry.

Morning everyone, so still no dev response to this?

Penguin.7906:

Got a few friends interested in Guild Wars 2 back when the 75% sales were going and we were first hearing about HoT. Feels like I tricked them into paying more than they should’ve.

trust me on this one, you’re not alone. what’s worse is I know those people and have to look ’em in the eye. bestest – feeling – evah! thanks anet for the unforgetable experience.

SirDrygan.1823:

I watched WP for his GW2 videos. However, this time I would say he is slightly biased towards ANET’s defense on the pricing. Not too much, just a little biased.

that’s true, he could have told us we got a perception problem and should see an eye doctor immediately, or a neurologist at the very least…

RDarken.2495:

This is just silly – you got to enjoy the game for almost four full years – you got what you paid for. Don’t be jelly that new players only have to buy the expansion.

Four years? oh my I got a years extra joy from the almost 3 years the game is out.

And new players could have made the choice to join in and get their extra year of fun too. They didn’t. We did. And that’s how we’re rewarded for it. By treating us like the valued customers that we are.

But I guess we shouldn’t complain, they did offer us one extra year of joy and happynes in those 3 years. We got four years of enjoyment just by playing almost for three. It’s a steal!

;)

PrincessHope.2081:

My big question…

Does the preorder come with a separate code for the base game? Can I give that code to someone else, so they have the base game and can play the content in it?

as far as we know no. if you apply the hot code onto your existing gw2 account no other code is provided. the free game is only for new players. not existing

papry.8096:

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

wow… just wow… what happened to the reddit statements that they would upgrade the people who bought it right before the ninja faq change?

so the only choice offered is, either re buy the thing or lose everything, including progress and gem purchases…

can we please get an official response to this? this is important, these things make or break a company’s reputation…

RDarken.2495:

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

They’re not doing anything for their players. They’re doing something nice for prospective players. Current players are feeling a bit miffed about it. They feel like their loyalty isn’t being appreciated by the company.

RDarken.2495:

Preorders are released and now the hard work of all the developers is being spat upon over a small amount of money. Nothing about the game has changed.

If it’s just a small amount of money, can you please gift me one HoT code? Your generosity can keep me in the game. Thanks a bunch.

RDarken.2495:

Keep in mind that some MMOs have a monthly subscription in addition to requiring the purchase of their expansion for $40+.

Yes indeed, that’s why we’re here, and not there. Also keep in mind that other MMOs don’t have a monthly sub. Those are the ones we should be comparing GW2 with.

RDarken.2495:

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

I really hope the players don’t bulge on this one and the company finally decides to address the issues in this thread and others. Especially the more serious questions about the actual amount of content we’ll be getting (number of zones for example, number of events, adventures, challenging group content etc), the average time required to complete the story, how many and which we’ll be getting from the new legendary list, all the specializations, and -ultimately- a release date and a complete feature list, so the company can be held accountable towards its customers. People should know what it is they’re buying and when it is expected to be available.

Kitsune.1902:

ReiCH.6273:

papry.8096:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

papry.8096:

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

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

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