News from: Guild Wars 2
A message to our players, both veteran and new, from the Guild Wars 2 team.
Read More at: Guild Wars 2
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News from: Guild Wars 2
A message to our players, both veteran and new, from the Guild Wars 2 team.
Read More at: Guild Wars 2
For anyone who felt angst about the prepurchase "packaging" this is an important read.
+1 Character Slot for "Veterans"
"For our long-standing fans and loyal players, we would like to say thank you and show our appreciation. For all players who registered the core Guild Wars 2® game prior to January 23, 2015 and who upgrade their account by prepurchasing and registering any Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns edition before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns‘ launch, we will add one additional character slot to your Guild Wars 2 account. The process of delivering your additional character slot will take us some time, but rest assured we will get it to you as soon as possible. We’ll provide more details about the specific timing soon."
Newer Players who bought the core game after 22 Jan 2015
"For all players who purchased the Guild Wars 2 core game from our website and registered it between January 23, 2015 and June 16, 2015 in anticipation of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, we will automatically refund what you paid for the core game should you decide to pre-purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns from our website or in-game store any time through July 31, 2015. If you take advantage of this refund and pre-purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, all of your current account progress will be kept intact. We’ll provide further details on when refunds will be processed in the next couple weeks as we set up this process."
I am glad they got this sorted out.
I personally will be pre-purchasing the expansion, and would have done so even without anet giving us the extra slot, but I am glad they did so and hope it will put the frustration and aggrevation it coused in people to rest.
I pre-purchased simply because of the title "Heart of Thorns" which was my nickname after my divorce :)
On the GW2 website, only the "Deluxe" and the "Ultimate" show an extra character slot ($74.99 and $99.99 respectively).
So what you are saying is that if we purchase the "Standard" upgrade for $49.99, we will get a +1 character slot (Assuming we fall into the "Veteran" player status) ?
Gary, yes. Here's the actual announcement: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pre-purchase-community-address/
If you are a "veteran" and pre-purchase/register before launch you'll get a another character slot for any of the options. So 1 new character slot total for Basic/Standard; for Deluxe and Ultimate it's 2 new character slots total.
PS: if you haven't pre-purchased yet, check out the pre-purchase deal on the Gem Shop in-game. It may be better depending on a few factors (gems you already have, gold > gems conversion, cost of gems in your country, etc.) YMMV
Hmm, I haven't played in awhile, but debating on getting this but the crown store idea sounds interesting. I need to log in to see what I actually have going on there. I've been hooked on ESO and got to the point PvE in GW2 had lost its luster. I'll definitely have to think on this one. =)
I'm not sure why people even made... whatever this is about... into an issue. Honestly, I didn't give the purchase a second thought and ... well, there are just more important things to waste energy on than whatever folks were upset about here. Seriously, even after reading Anet's response in that link, I still have no idea why people were carrying on about this pre-purchase thing.
I think the big issue Anet has comes from the inclusion of the core game in the packages...
From Anet's perspective, they are including the core game as a free bonus to entice new players.
However, to many existing players, their impression is that they are paying extra for a core game they don't need, and reasoning that they should therefore get the option to buy just the expansion independent of the core game for a cheaper price.
Personally, I've been pretty happy with all the free content Anet have managed to provide over the last almost 3 years and am happy to finally send some money their way. $50 ($65 Aus) for the basic package seems a lot for an expansion, but it's just the equivalent of a 4 month subscription. Seems like a bargain after 3 years of free play... though it probably won't after I upgrade mine to Ultimate ($130 Aus), and then add 2 more for my wife and daughter (my 5-year old daughter being obsessed with making new characters, so minimum deluxe for her for the 2 extra character slots... probably Ultimate for the gems to buy her even more character slots... hmm, good thing I had plenty of time to save up.
I was fine with bundling of the core game. It's an MMO, and MMOs need a constant stream of new players (or they shrivel and die for everyone -- including the self-declared "veterans"). Lowering the barrier to entry for new players just seemed like a Very Good Idea. I was perplexed by the community's reaction to this, of all things.
I was, however, surprised by the lack of a character slot for all packages (although it didn't stop me from pre-purchasing within seconds of the announcement). It was a break with MMO tradition, since (at least in my experience) most MMOs do add a character to the xpac when a new class or race is introduced. NOT adding the character slot really hurt the value of the xpac.
Anyway, all solved. BUT.... so much uncivil badmouthing of Anet... it left me wondering how much experience the complainers had with the company. The Guild Wars franchise is 10 years old, and Anet have an impressive track record of transparency, listening to customers and fixing their mistakes. Not to mention providing AMAZING value during the first 3 years of GW2. Why were so many people ready to assume the worst possible motives and outcomes from them?
I can think of several game developers that offer new expansion packages that include all previously released content (except for special promotional content), so that's nothing new.
Character slots are also something that some developers include w/addition of a new class/race, but some don't. It really depends on their business model.
Honestly though, you should see Archeage forums when Trion or XLGames messes something up. There are pages upon pages of posts, from people wanting "compensation" product, which ranges from extra subscription time to demanding special promotional items for free.
Maybe one time in five is something that Trion/XLGames honestly does "owe" their players, but that's because they took away content or cheated players of a chance to obtain the content, which isn't cool, of course. (yea, the Trion team does make a lot of mistakes, the communication line to XL Games in Korea seems to be unreliable)
But yea, gamers are just too entitled and demanding these days. I really wish that developers would stop caving in and take a stand against being bullied into giving out free stuff, like that. Its just going to get worse if it's allowed to continue.
Glad they decided to offer an extra character slot for the veterens. :)