Guild Wars 2

I think I’ll very likely get it too.
In a similar manner as I got the base game (for 15 quid), but for different reason.
When I was buying base game, I didn’t really know what I was getting, so I went for a cheap option not to regret it later and avoid falling down an investment spiral in a Warcraft-like manner.
HoT as an xpac is actually worth about 15 quid from what I saw so far.
Also, to express my appreciation for ANet’s pre-purchase policies, I stopped all gem purchases until further notice.
I believe this is the only appropriate reaction. Trying to bargain will only give white-knights excuses to keep on yapping. Nothing more.

Razor.9872:

Don’t forget “I don’t want to pay for the base game AND the expansion.”

I chuckle a little (then sigh) every time someone posts that.

Looks like you also chuckle and sigh when some silly rabbit says there is no such thing as free lunch or that politicians are dishonest.
It’s good to see you’re so loved. By salesmen.

Sthenith.5196:

NC Soft knows all they have to do is pay off a few journalist

1. paying off a “journalist” means that person isn’t even considered one.

2. they can only influence “sponsored” websites, not news reporting websites.

3. who the hell would risk exposure like “company x tried to bribe…” " company x has tried to stem the tide by…." , seriously ?

I think you’re overestimating the power or influence of a gaming company.

Remember the long Dragon Hunter name drama?

Not even comparable. Honestly.

I take it Gamer Gate has somehow passed you by with a discreet WHOOOSH. Or maybe, to make things considerably simpler, it didn’t and instead you white-knighted for your corrupted idols

Never.
In terms of policing, ANet is ways too close to Blizzard and ways too far from Valve for something like this ever to happen.
Sorry.

serenke.4806:

So every item in the GW1 store (costumes, etc) was also an expansion because they expanded the title.

Exactly, I’m all hyped out about Guild Wars 2: Pet Rock and Guild Wars 2: Plumber Outfit.

Automaton.4926:

Jermoe Morrow.9501:

Automaton.4926:

I don’t care what people say or think factions and the others were, they are stand alone games which didn’t require you to have the original. There for are not expansions. Simple. You are trying to murky the waters to prove your point.

I mean, even Anet refered to then as expansions at the time, but whatever. Let’s just call them stand alone games then.

Do you know what else is stand alone? GW2, and it turns out we are forced into buying an additional copy of that too. Following your logic: When I essentially bought an extra account in factions and nightfall, and merged it with my existing prophecies account, I received 2 character slots for each “stand alone game” account merged. For HoT we are currently looking at buying another stand alone account (core GW2) that can be merged with an existing account and getting nothing in return for this extra expense.

I could see how you could argue that it is anets right to price gouge on such a small thing, which is certainly a valid point, but it is crystal clear that this is a serious change in direction for the company. A change that only a fool, or someone on the payroll, could support. As I have said from the beginning: this is a matter of principal, not price.

They specifically stated you are not paying for the core game. the price is for HoT expansion.

I am holding off on buying the expansion cause i’m on the fence, but to make up and skew facts is stupid.

Free lunch! Yay!
Thank you ANet, for totally free 5 slots and base account added for free to my Heart of Thorns. They were always telling me there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but you clearly prove them all wrong! Yay, yay, yay!!!

Tell them to wait for a sale. The pricing right now is not exactly efficient for the buyer.

Sylent.3165:

People have got to stop with this complaining already!

People have got to stop with these pointless attempts at defending an indefensible sales decision already!

Just stop. Go away and never return.

Wow, what a sharpwitted, well-thought-out response I just wrote.
Oh well.

Not sure how many people can relate, but I just so happen to be a WoW “paratrooper” (dropped off the one game, landed here). Literally, I cancelled my subscription this week. I bought GW2 several months ago, but being a raider and a guild officer in WoW meant I didn’t have much time to really play my GW2 toons.

So I finally moved on and started spending a lot more time in GW2 than in WoW. I loved it. I loved the dual-pistol-wielding thied who ended up being my first 80 (also this week). I loved the sheer beauty of Tyria. The rainbow mills in Queensdale and blinding white Shiverpeaks (lowbie warrior girl with a rifle). I couldn’t get over the shock of seeing instanced resource nodes and non-tagged mobs. Realizing that when you see players around, things are well and when you see a dead one between two nearby ores, the best thing to do is run up and ress them. So much of toxicity that plagues Azeroth seemed absent.

And then I started reading the forums.
Sociopathic elitism is here alright.
Pathetic “the cool BFF friends, ANet and me, spit at your whining, lol” is here alright.
And unfortunately it seems that design and marketing policies so well known to me from Blizzard are finding its way here too.

Beware folks. You don’t want the results of supporting snowflakes and ripping your old-timers off. You really don’t want that.
Selling an unfinished DLC as an xpac resulted in an absolutely stunning flop: 3M subs gained by Draenor hype were lost within a quarter Literally, every month a million people left the game in terms of net subs. ANet, how desperate are you to rival such stunning achievement? Why are you even harbouring the sociopathic snowflakes in one of the few places offering you fleshed-out feedback?

Come on, please tell me I haven’t moved to GW2 just as it is about to start the downward slide and trying to rival Blizzard’s losses.

Obviously, while I was completely hyped out for HoT and just couldn’t wait to try out Tyria’s take on death knights (my WoW main is one) etc., now I’ve decided to wait until the first sale at least. With only one lvl80, 3 more just started and one backup slot left, I can postpone quite a lot of purchases I was tempted to make. Partially to improve the quality of my tyrian life, partially to simply express my appreciation for the game – well, that can wait. Blizzard taught me that any delay or limitation in cash response to company policies is a huge mistake.

I so hoped to see those lessons useless here.

OK, I’ll just wait until a nice crazy sale. I have only one levelcapped toon, three more started and 80% of vanilla world to explore.

I have plenty of time and things to do, ANet. For cheapses. You just lost an actual eager novice who was waiting impatiently for pre-purchase announcement to express his appreciation for what he has seen so far.

Guess what happened to that guy.

Breaking Bad.6241:

I know, I want to believe the core game is free but at the back of my mind it’s "What if they included the core game for “free” just to increase the price? What if the xpac actually costs 40 and I have to pay 10 more to subsidize the new players’ bundle?"

If the expac got priced realistically against ~50 base, it would be 20 tops. The amount of content you get is barely comparable with a third of the vanilla game.
Just compare the number of maps and classes and quite likely you’ll get as unwilling to pay more than a tenner for it as I am now.

Excuse me, am I getting it right? Looks from the posts that the price is the same in USD and GBP? Obviously I’ve just mixed the two up, right?

I was getting excited about HoT.
No such feelings any more, the world is at peace again.
Guess who’s not getting a single penny from me until another tenner sale starts.

Wow!
You have spent a good bit of money and are now very happy!
Congratulations.

To be more specific, you’re getting a new stand-alone product which consists 95% of what you have already bought long ago.

Yay for ANet!

1 class and some 4 maps = $35 if we assume base is worth $10
8 classes and 25 maps = $10

I don’t think HoT is a good use of my money.

I’d still not buy until some price drop.
The intent displayed in the initial offering is clear and insulting.

Arioso.8519:

It’s just the ONLY thing keeping us from doing so is the fact that our current mains are being held hostage.

And this is actually the core of the problem.
It’s not even scam, it’s blackmail/robbery.

HeliaXDemoN.1208:

From reddit:

If you think the complaints are nonsense, please consider that:
- Arena Net does not need you defending them.
- You are the consumer, not the developer or publisher.
- This is a matter of economics, not entitlement. Look past the hype and rage.
Exercise your consumer discretion.

For this particularl kind of creature, the fact they are one of the customers is irrelevant.
Two things are important:
- it’s about cool guys, ArenaNet and me, not you plebs
- it gives them an excuse to taunt others
Reasoning with sociopaths is not exactly a good use of your time.

Beorn Raukar.4328:

How are they scamming you? You might consider the price too high, and that is OK you are entitled to your opinion. But this is how markets work, supply and demand. As suppliers they are free to set any price that they feel like and you as consumer are free to decide if it is too low or too high. But it is certainly not a scam, that involves deceit and here there is none.

Ah, another “cool guys, game maker and me, do not approve of your plebeian demands” ????????????????????????????.

We have already bought the game and helped them sustain it before HoT was made. Some people endured the game’s teething problems. Now anyone who’s starting a new account will get a considerably fuller experience and obvious advantage over long-term customers and supporters of the company.
Actually, if you’re a long term customer, the only realistic alternate option is to stop playing.

Erasmus.1624:

Zenith.7301:

Newsflash, this game has PvE as well, not PvP. PvE people don’t want to be balanced around your PvP standards.

So PvE absolutely requires instant and passive abilities? How terribly droll. Imagine, if you will, a game in which PvE and PvP were both relatively in tune with each other. Imagine—now say with me here—that instead of relying on braindead health sponges, PvE encounters derived threat levels from multiple mobs which attacked together and individually used variations of actual player abilities? What if PvE was just PvE-lite with the potential for new regular mob types to be made simply by just shuffling in new combinations of already existing player skills and then pasting the new move sets to desired new or already existing models? If only such a thing ever existed.

As in bots? I’m trying to imagine something more droll, devoid of fun and playability-against than human-simulating bots, but I guess I’m not yet that “imaginative”.
Is Aspergers really so strong will all PvP-ers or only some small percentage would love to force PVE-rs to play like PvP in hopes of finally corralling them into PvP completely?
Guess what. Ain’t gonna happen.

Yay, thinly veiled insults as a discussion mode FTW!

If Ricochet becomes gated by the xpac, I’m not buying.
I’m withholding any planned cash transactions with ANet until this is clearly resolved.

Lol, just to think: after getting mighty disillusioned with World of Warcraft and Blizzard, I started playing GW2 (bought long ago, did have time to really start), loved the idea of dual-wielding gunslinger and ended up with just such a thief being my very first level-capped toon. I thought that perhaps I should buy some stuff to express my appreciation for the game and its developers, like an outfit or something. Good job I haven’t yet.
And now this. I smell a potent stench of Blizzard-type policies here