I'm hoping the 'multiplayer' community aspects of the game live up to the expectations and enjoyment we got from them in beta I was always dissapointed with the implementation of player communities in mmo's till I played Rift (Trion has done a pretty cool job), BUT what I have experienced so far in GW2 will leave all other pretenders in it's wake! <<< just sayin'
I'm personally just going to go trew all the classes i can, while doing some wvw since woe has always been my fav pvp experience. Also on swtor i rushed trew most of the agent storyline so it ruined the story experience on that perticular game for me. So i'm staying away from the story line and just testing some race/class/pvp out.
You will get your GEMs back when the game is released so it's no big deal. They also have to test that system too
Didn't say it was a big deal, just said that it was cheeky.
Get the gems back later or not, it's still taking real money in beta.
Sure, but how do you test taking real money without taking real money?
I get what you are saying, but I have been in plenty of betas and not been asked to pay anything ahead of playing...
In fact, I am struggling to remember a beta where I have been actually asked to beta the cash processing process with my real money... I have always assumed that end was handled by a major banking house and that their systems were already well proven.
I get what you are saying, but I have been in plenty of betas and not been asked to pay anything ahead of playing...
In fact, I am struggling to remember a beta where I have been actually asked to beta the cash processing process with my real money... I have always assumed that end was handled by a major banking house and that their systems were already well proven.
I look at it this way. In the previous two beta events, they gave away free gems.
In this one, they are seeing if people are willing to spend real money to buy things, and if so, what.
It honestly doesn't bug me, but partially because I'm going to see how much it takes to get the extra character slots, and maybe buy that many gems now. It'll give me a little goofing around money, I happen to have some spare, and then I don't have to worry about it when the game actually comes around. It's like I'm paying in little dribs and drabs, without actually having to cram my money under my mattress in an envelope labeled 'For GW2 purchase'.
I'm actually fairly used to prepaying for things, like rare orders for games and comics. I guess it's just built into my mindset.
I get what you are saying, but I have been in plenty of betas and not been asked to pay anything ahead of playing...
In fact, I am struggling to remember a beta where I have been actually asked to beta the cash processing process with my real money... I have always assumed that end was handled by a major banking house and that their systems were already well proven.
I look at it this way. In the previous two beta events, they gave away free gems.
In this one, they are seeing if people are willing to spend real money to buy things, and if so, what.
It honestly doesn't bug me, but partially because I'm going to see how much it takes to get the extra character slots, and maybe buy that many gems now. It'll give me a little goofing around money, I happen to have some spare, and then I don't have to worry about it when the game actually comes around. It's like I'm paying in little dribs and drabs, without actually having to cram my money under my mattress in an envelope labeled 'For GW2 purchase'.
I'm actually fairly used to prepaying for things, like rare orders for games and comics. I guess it's just built into my mindset.
Sure, I get your view Meow, it just struck me as... a little off is all. Especially with the line of 'we need to test our payment system'...
I mean, if they want me to pre order gems I am more used to a company coming out with it openly and offering an incentive for just that (say, a 10% bonus or something). I am fine with that. No big deal. At least that's an honest statement of intent.
If a company comes out and says they 'need to to test' and they want me to risk my real money to do that (the need to test suggesting that they are not sure it works 100%), then that's a bit off imo. Who are they to ask me to risk my money in an uncertain test? Other devs have launched without asking this of me, why can't they?
If someone is gonna come here and tell me that the system is 100% safe and perfected and my cash isn't at risk *at all*, then they obviously think that ANet do not need to test it... and it must be just a move to start to cash rolling in asap, right? If so, then just say that.
Maybe I am just getting jittery with the slope we are starting to see form with this game in general though with regards to the monetisation of it. It's just starting to look a little callous... Nothing worth panicking about yet ofc, it's not overly greedy or anything at this point, but I am starting to have little alarm bells going off and my eyes are on them.
I trust ANet with the game design, but a little of me says... it's NCSoft in charge, ultimately, of the money.
If someone is gonna come here and tell me that the system is 100% safe and perfected and my cash isn't at risk *at all*, then they obviously think that ANet do not need to test it... and it must be just a move to start to cash rolling in asap, right? If so, then just say that.
Well, it's possible to want to test something and still have it be pretty much 100% safe. Actually, now before the game starts is a better way for them to find out there's a bug that triple-charges certain credit cards if you press the rwong button, because they'd be much more likely to cancel it.
... as long as there are records on your credit card, any charging that doesn't give gems, for example, should be fairly well documented on both sides, so they can either give you the gems or cancel the bill.
I can see various scenarios where the cash shop unexpectedly messes up BUT your money is still safe. I'm sure they'd much rather refund things a month before the game comes out, than end up having to do a bunch of refunds once the game is live.
There's always room, in any system, for error, and the more testers under random situations they can throw at it, the better they can fix out any last minut bugs. At least with credit card bills they're pretty solidly documented about your money moving, so there's your safety net (More than 'Arenanet is full of perfect programmers and no cash shop billing problem is physically possible')
"“Quite frankly, we made too many worlds for BWE2 just because we could and not because we should, and thus we had a lot of low population worlds. This time around we’re focusing our new CPU horsepower into fewer, more populated worlds.”
THIS is why I love and respect ANet. They are honest. And they react immediately, even within beta and don't wait months after launch waiting for magically appearing players to fill the servers.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I can't wait for Friday to arrive! Kudos for the team reducing servers. It's a smart move that'll improve the MMO experience for PvE and WvW especially.
Sadly, it appears as though it's full steam ahead with the cash shop money grab: 1) prepurchase gems. If someone for whatever reason cannot redeem their account code within the grace period = lost of gems. Or perhaps if one pre-ordered and there's a complication with transferring the account to "paid in full" status = lost of gems. 2) One can no longer buy 400 gems for $5, no instead they must commit at least $10 (800 gems) to the cash shop. Even though some items only costs 175 gems.
The Sylvari has been a race I've had very little interest because they fit into the british elf trope. Nonetheless, the character redesign and implementation of this race is just inspired. I'd say they've soared above and out of the uncanny valley thanks to the "all-in" approach of redesigning them as humanoid vegatation. Add on the fact that they have an overarching personality like the other races (my guess is that they're the romantics with awesome accents). Ha ha!
The character creator also has improved considerably as well; the faces look so lively. Not to forget many of the quality of life extras they've added since the last BWE.
I get what you are saying, but I have been in plenty of betas and not been asked to pay anything ahead of playing...
In fact, I am struggling to remember a beta where I have been actually asked to beta the cash processing process with my real money... I have always assumed that end was handled by a major banking house and that their systems were already well proven.
I look at it this way. In the previous two beta events, they gave away free gems.
In this one, they are seeing if people are willing to spend real money to buy things, and if so, what.
It honestly doesn't bug me, but partially because I'm going to see how much it takes to get the extra character slots, and maybe buy that many gems now. It'll give me a little goofing around money, I happen to have some spare, and then I don't have to worry about it when the game actually comes around. It's like I'm paying in little dribs and drabs, without actually having to cram my money under my mattress in an envelope labeled 'For GW2 purchase'.
It doseb't massively bug me either, so I get what your saying. I just always keep an eye out for signs and indicators, of not just where we are but where we are going.
No panics yet, but, like I say, it is something I am watching based on a few things I have seen (the change in the wording of the FAQ, the recruitment of certain names, the dye situation... this... all just signs along a road to MIGHT point to somewhere I don't necessarily want to be in the long term).
Comments
Fort Aspenwood again, assuming that it will be one of the servers
I'm hoping the 'multiplayer' community aspects of the game live up to the expectations and enjoyment we got from them in beta I was always dissapointed with the implementation of player communities in mmo's till I played Rift (Trion has done a pretty cool job), BUT what I have experienced so far in GW2 will leave all other pretenders in it's wake! <<< just sayin'
Final beta weekend should be fun, provided there are no technical issues on the game servers I am thinking.
Didn't say it was a big deal, just said that it was cheeky.
Get the gems back later or not, it's still taking real money in beta.
Sure, but how do you test taking real money without taking real money?Sylvari necro - dead fleshies are to Sylvaris what wood is to a human...
I was just thinking that if I RP as a sylvari I would call every other race "meat bags".
I'm personally just going to go trew all the classes i can, while doing some wvw since woe has always been my fav pvp experience. Also on swtor i rushed trew most of the agent storyline so it ruined the story experience on that perticular game for me. So i'm staying away from the story line and just testing some race/class/pvp out.
It is taking money, even by your own defintion.
I am not all that down on it, I have said already it dosen't really offend me THAT much, but it IS taking money.
It is ok to admit slight negatives even as a fan sometimes, y'know?
I get what you are saying, but I have been in plenty of betas and not been asked to pay anything ahead of playing...
In fact, I am struggling to remember a beta where I have been actually asked to beta the cash processing process with my real money... I have always assumed that end was handled by a major banking house and that their systems were already well proven.
I look at it this way. In the previous two beta events, they gave away free gems.
In this one, they are seeing if people are willing to spend real money to buy things, and if so, what.
It honestly doesn't bug me, but partially because I'm going to see how much it takes to get the extra character slots, and maybe buy that many gems now. It'll give me a little goofing around money, I happen to have some spare, and then I don't have to worry about it when the game actually comes around. It's like I'm paying in little dribs and drabs, without actually having to cram my money under my mattress in an envelope labeled 'For GW2 purchase'.
I'm actually fairly used to prepaying for things, like rare orders for games and comics.
I guess it's just built into my mindset.
Sure, I get your view Meow, it just struck me as... a little off is all. Especially with the line of 'we need to test our payment system'...
I mean, if they want me to pre order gems I am more used to a company coming out with it openly and offering an incentive for just that (say, a 10% bonus or something). I am fine with that. No big deal. At least that's an honest statement of intent.
If a company comes out and says they 'need to to test' and they want me to risk my real money to do that (the need to test suggesting that they are not sure it works 100%), then that's a bit off imo. Who are they to ask me to risk my money in an uncertain test? Other devs have launched without asking this of me, why can't they?
If someone is gonna come here and tell me that the system is 100% safe and perfected and my cash isn't at risk *at all*, then they obviously think that ANet do not need to test it... and it must be just a move to start to cash rolling in asap, right? If so, then just say that.
Maybe I am just getting jittery with the slope we are starting to see form with this game in general though with regards to the monetisation of it. It's just starting to look a little callous... Nothing worth panicking about yet ofc, it's not overly greedy or anything at this point, but I am starting to have little alarm bells going off and my eyes are on them.
I trust ANet with the game design, but a little of me says... it's NCSoft in charge, ultimately, of the money.
Well, it's possible to want to test something and still have it be pretty much 100% safe. Actually, now before the game starts is a better way for them to find out there's a bug that triple-charges certain credit cards if you press the rwong button, because they'd be much more likely to cancel it.
... as long as there are records on your credit card, any charging that doesn't give gems, for example, should be fairly well documented on both sides, so they can either give you the gems or cancel the bill.
I can see various scenarios where the cash shop unexpectedly messes up BUT your money is still safe. I'm sure they'd much rather refund things a month before the game comes out, than end up having to do a bunch of refunds once the game is live.
There's always room, in any system, for error, and the more testers under random situations they can throw at it, the better they can fix out any last minut bugs. At least with credit card bills they're pretty solidly documented about your money moving, so there's your safety net (More than 'Arenanet is full of perfect programmers and no cash shop billing problem is physically possible')
http://www.arena.net/blog/the-worlds-of-the-final-beta-weekend-event
Quote:
"“Quite frankly, we made too many worlds for BWE2 just because we could and not because we should, and thus we had a lot of low population worlds. This time around we’re focusing our new CPU horsepower into fewer, more populated worlds.”
THIS is why I love and respect ANet. They are honest. And they react immediately, even within beta and don't wait months after launch waiting for magically appearing players to fill the servers.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I can't wait for Friday to arrive! Kudos for the team reducing servers. It's a smart move that'll improve the MMO experience for PvE and WvW especially.
Sadly, it appears as though it's full steam ahead with the cash shop money grab: 1) prepurchase gems. If someone for whatever reason cannot redeem their account code within the grace period = lost of gems. Or perhaps if one pre-ordered and there's a complication with transferring the account to "paid in full" status = lost of gems. 2) One can no longer buy 400 gems for $5, no instead they must commit at least $10 (800 gems) to the cash shop. Even though some items only costs 175 gems.
The Sylvari has been a race I've had very little interest because they fit into the british elf trope. Nonetheless, the character redesign and implementation of this race is just inspired. I'd say they've soared above and out of the uncanny valley thanks to the "all-in" approach of redesigning them as humanoid vegatation. Add on the fact that they have an overarching personality like the other races (my guess is that they're the romantics with awesome accents). Ha ha!
The character creator also has improved considerably as well; the faces look so lively. Not to forget many of the quality of life extras they've added since the last BWE.
It doseb't massively bug me either, so I get what your saying. I just always keep an eye out for signs and indicators, of not just where we are but where we are going.
No panics yet, but, like I say, it is something I am watching based on a few things I have seen (the change in the wording of the FAQ, the recruitment of certain names, the dye situation... this... all just signs along a road to MIGHT point to somewhere I don't necessarily want to be in the long term).
For now though I am just happy to enjoy the game