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Pre-Purchase Community Address
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Member RarePosts: 3,685
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/pre-purchase-community-address/
As many of you are aware, we began the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™ pre-purchase program on June 16. This is an exciting time, but we also recognize that there is some frustration and confusion. We would like to clarify our intentions and address these concerns.
Veteran Player Appreciation
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 anyGuild 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.
Pre-Purchase Clarification
In our January 23 FAQ, we wanted to clarify that Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns would not be a stand-alone campaign like those offered in Guild Wars 2® in the past (Factions® and Nightfall®), but instead would be a true expansion to Guild Wars 2 similar to whatGuild Wars: Eye of the North® was to our original game. We wanted you to know that access to much of the content in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns requires access to Guild Wars 2. Some read the FAQ as us urging players to buy the core game now, in preparation for the expansion release. This was not our intention and amendments made to the FAQ following the announcement were a good-faith attempt to clarify this misinterpretation. As such, we’re offering a comprehensive refund policy.
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-purchaseGuild 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.
If you purchased the core Guild Wars 2 game from our website and registered it between January 23, 2015 and June 16, 2015, and you no longer want to play Guild Wars 2, we will refund your core game purchase price and close your account provided you make the request by July 31, 2015. Please contact our Customer Support team to make this request.
If you purchased the core game from a third party, we are unable to provide a refund. However, if you registered the core game between January 23, 2015 and June 16, 2015 and upgrade it by prepurchasing 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 be the same as described above. If you would like a refund, you will need to contact that third party, as refunds are dependent on their policies and rules.
Business Model Clarification
We want to be clear about our business model for future expansions now that we are approaching our first paid expansion for Guild Wars 2. We believe that to keep the game dynamic and vibrant with a constantly growing community, it should be as easy as possible for new players to get into Guild Wars 2. For Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, we didn’t want the core game’s price to be a factor in a new player’s decision to begin playing Guild Wars 2. In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price.
We are committed to our players and believe we remain the single best value in the MMO space. We set out on this journey to challenge the conventions of MMOs, to knockdown the barriers to accessibility, and to fulfill the promise of what online worlds should be. In the process, the best community in gaming came together in Guild Wars 2. It is to our community—past, present, and future—that we are committed. Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to seeing you in game.
Comments
Well I am glad they finally said & did something. Adding in the character slot is nice and does make it a little more appealing. Still I am going to wait for: 1. Date for the expansion to go live and 2. More as what is in the expansion (not the goodies you get from the upgrades).
Anyway I know this will settle some people down, but others are still going to scream. As for me, I feel a little better.
Is this a joke?
First off wasn't the additional character slot already a thing if you bought the new expansion?
Second they did nothing except offer to refund or bundle prices for new players... soooooo wtf?
Jeez, the pre-order numbers must have been catastrophically bad to concede this much.
Also, the 'refund' makes sense as a way to stop all those credit card charge backs. A CC charge back is really really really bad for a company which is why if you do a charge back, you are essentially cutting off all purchase from that company in the future.
It shows what PvP games are really all about, and no, it's not about more realism and immersion. It's about cowards hiding behind a screen to they can bully other defenseless players without any risk of direct retaliation like there would be if they acted like asshats in "real life". -Jean-Luc_Picard
Life itself is a game. So why shouldn't your game be ruined? - justmemyselfandi
Reading a bit further,
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.
This basically says that ANet did not plan for this additional char slot to be given to players.
It shows what PvP games are really all about, and no, it's not about more realism and immersion. It's about cowards hiding behind a screen to they can bully other defenseless players without any risk of direct retaliation like there would be if they acted like asshats in "real life". -Jean-Luc_Picard
Life itself is a game. So why shouldn't your game be ruined? - justmemyselfandi
Also, people are waiting for Anet to actually give us a release date, I posit that more than anything is why sales haven't been what they expect (if in fact the is the case). The presser says on or before July 31st so I think we can infer that the expac won't drop till after July 31st 2015... but still, 2099 is after July 31st 2015.
It's kind of weird they just offered an extra character slot to the Deluxe and Ultimate versions, which makes it 2 slots now. They should have just offered 800 gems to them, which is the price of a character slot, instead of just giving them a slot that they probably didn't want.
I believe a slot is "cheaper" to provide for them.
Well cheaper is a strange term for a virtual item which they can just keep on creating for free.
But I think you know what I mean.
Exactly. The entire game should be free since it is virtual.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
I applaud Anet for at least doing something, but the way they are handling this is just /facepalm all around.
A) A character slot should've been standard, for everyone. Nearly every game that's featured multiple characters and new 'classes' with an expansion has provided one, including the expansions from GW1. The fact that they not only didn't do this, but seem to have not even prepared for that as a possibility is worrisome.
C) They end everything by 'ensuring' people they are going to be making the exact same mistake for every future expansion they may (or may not do). Like, why?!
- The saddest thing about all of this, is if they handled this correctly, they could actually be making MORE money (not even talking about charge backs), and people would've actually been happy. What do I mean by this?
1) Bundle a character slot with every purchase, that should be a no brainer, and there really shouldn't nearly as much trouble as they're making it sound to be.
2) Add in some prepurchase skins (or black lion tickets) for extra incentive, but most importantly are as follows:
3) Give a release date. If you aren't sure, than give a ballpark (i.e. Q4 2015, or Q1 2016) etc. It's not as good as a solid date, but it's good enough to appease most people.
4) If you're plan is to bundle the base game(s) with every expansion, then do the following:
- Raise the price of the expansion. Make the base package like ~60-70$. Say you go with a base cost of 65$ for Heart of Thornes. For everyone who already has a GW2 account, allow them to link their CD-Key (game-key) to their purchase, for a discount of ~25 or so dollars, to offset the price back DOWN to a reasonable pricetag. This would hit the 40$ price point most people seem to want, not punish those who just bought your game on sale, present a fantastic incentive for new players (65$ and I get all the games? That's a steal!), and we wouldn't have any of these questions about whether or not Anet has a clue about how to manage their own game.
I know I'm not a market psychologist, but this should be a no-brainer. This just seems basic, as far as marketing goes. Anet already has it rough by going with a feature-rich expansion vs. a content-rich one. The amount of features they're adding / changing is really good, but most players aren't going to appreciate that. They're going to either see 'why aren't there a ton of new dungeons' or 'why weren't these features in the original game'.
Looks like you want to play the entitled game some more.
Go ahead - I didn't care before and I won't start caring now that things happened just the way I expected.
Actually, no, the character slot is the way to go. It is definitely cheaper for Anet. They aren't free, but they should be fractions of a cent to maintain (it's still data that has to be stored).
While on paper 800 gems is a better deal (I would personally take the 800 gems), the average person would prefer something more tangible. It's easier to understand 'oh nice! I get a free character' vs. 'oh great, they're trying to get me to use their cash shop'.
It doesn't make much sense logically, but psychologically that's how that dynamic would likely breakdown. Hell, it's still tough trying to explain to people just how much value they are getting w/ GW2, and how much you can get in that game for free.
Entitled game? Never have I claimed that. I do think someone caught you at that game the other day though. Since things went the way you thought they would you should be extra cheerful! You have a wonderful day.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
From a marketing viewpoint, 800 gems is the better option. You entice more players to visit the gem store, and possibly get them to buy even more gems, and offering gems gives the players a choice, and that outweighs any kind of negative feelings of compulsion to purchase more stuff. It shows that Anet trusts them with their own decisions. Each individual is different though, so this is just a generalization. I understand what you're trying to say though.
edit: As for the "data storage slot", it would probably cost them more money, since another character stores more data, and uses more resources like animations, client/server info, etc.
On paper, sure.
Problem is most people have an adverse reaction to things like cash shop currency. Just look at the premium version they are offering, it comes w/ like 4000 gems, and noone gives a crap.
Simply put, from a rational (logical) standpoint, 800 gems IS the better deal. However from a behavioral one, 800 gems doesn't 'feel' as good as getting a free character slot, or a skin / etc. And marketing is all about manipulating behavior to try and achieve the best price point for yourself (or your company).
It's unfortunate that what's best for the consumer is often not what works from a marketing perspective, but there are numerous examples that demonstrate this phenomena. So, from a marketing standpoint it would be better to go w/ the option that feels better to the average player, than the one that's less tangible but more cost effective. The way Anet treats it's cash shop behaves kind of like a bait & switch. They hook you in w/ the base game first, and then try and offer all these incentives to spend more via the cash shop (which works to varying degrees).
- It is a generalization, but when talking about things like marketing you have to generalize. Sales aren't interested in the unique individual doing their own thing, but rather what the largest obtainable market is and how to capitalize on it.
As for the character slot, you'd be surprised by how little data actually needs to be stored per character. Things like animations are not necessary to store per character. The game has a general 'while revenant, if using axe skill #1; play "skill_name animation file"'. That is an oversimplification, and the actual code looks completely different and takes up more lines, but that's the basics of how that works. Much of the bulk data is account based, leaving primarily item codes (what your character is wearing, how it's dyed, which special features are currently activated, storyline progress, feature codes from character creation, what items / bags are in your inventory). Depending on how efficiently that's all setup we're generally talking KBs of data. That does add up when you have 100s of 1000s of players with an additional slot, but it's still not bad.
He never pulled that card once!
You were the one UP & ARMS about Vets not getting anything in return. Now that you got it will never stop there.
You move on to "$50 Expac not Waranted!"
Gosh i hope you are not like this when you go to Starbucks. Then again Starbucks will give anything away to anyone who cries the loudest.
I never cared about the character slot. Am I the only one bothered by the fact that I am supposed to pay for an x-pack where I don`t know when it will come out and I don`t know much about it`s content other than what the announced at the reveal stream plus a bit of detail they dropped about those things.
So what do we get:
-Mastery System
-Heart of maguma (3 Zones, arguably maybe a bit bigger because of verticallity)
-Specializations
-1 new Class (Revenant)
-Guild Halls
-Some PvP and WvW stuff (didn`t want to say improvements without knowing too much about it)
For me personally that is not very much stuff considdering a 50$ (50€ for me) price tag.
Especially since I don`t care very much about PvP and WvW.
My main class so far was guardian, and I didn`t like what they did with it`s first specialization (dragon hunter). If I want to play a ranger like class I would play a ranger. (just my opinion).
Ok this might sound strange to a lot of people, but here it comes. I am a dungeon crawler. I know the quality of GW2 dungeons are arguably not the strong suit of the game. I still enjoy mindlessly going through dungeons with my friends and socializing with them.
I think with the Aetherpath they showed that they can do a lot better. Problem still is that they need to work on the rewards of dungeons. Dropping specific skins in the aetherpath wasn`t a bad idea, the drop rate is just way too low.
Why don`t they have specific bosses in dungeons drop specific skinns? And that at a decent droprate. All would be fine, at least for me.
Especially increase the reward according to how long a dungeon path takes to finish.
------------------
TLDR:
Not buying HOT till they reveal at least a Release window (e.g. q4 2015)
Not buying HOT with the info I have about the content of the expansion. I am not buying a black box without knowing what is inside.
Don`t care about PvP and WvW. What about dungeons?
Starbucks? Really?
Adding completely unrelated comments like this.. it's just like your "This is hilarious!" posts.
Whenever you don't have anything to back up your arguments you come up with posts like this.
Yeah, Amjoco never called him entitled at all. It's funny to watch him accuse others of not having arguments and then watch the way he tries to toss people aside by attacking them.
I'm glad people are getting a character slot as it seems like a perfectly fair thing to include since they are introducing a new class, but watching some of these randoms say, "I told you so," is pretty obnoxious. The really funny thing is that this particular person was asking for 2 game keys, got a character slot and then pretended like he got the value he wanted.
Where have you been?
Anet has said that there won't be any new dungeons in HoT.
I believe they don't even have a specialised dungeon team anymore.
Maybe they will add more fractals,but anyway I don't expect these to be available at launch,
or maybe they won't even add that.
As for the mandatory inclusion of all the previous versions in the price.
It is what it is.
At least now they give you 1 character slot to play the Revenant without having to spend
more money or in game gold for that.
As for the release date my guess is sometime within the next 4-6 months.
Now it's you making the random accusations.
Have a look at the making amends thread and see my last post where I quoted something I said days ago already.
What exactly was he getting at with that post? "Exactly. The entire game should be free since it is virtual." Amjoco
He might not say the word, it does seem to be a continuous theme with him though. He always seems to have a problem with people speaking up about what they're paying for. I don't think entitled is a far cry from what he's presenting in his opinions, saying the word outright or not.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
You've been flipping and flopping all over the place. Here is something you also said on page one of that thread:
"No I expect to pay 50$ and get one code for the basic game which I will give to a friend and one code for HoT which I will use for myself."
I know you're proud of yourself because you think of yourself as some kind of catalyst for change. You even quoted yourself to try and "show" everyone how awesome you were at predicting the future. ArenaNet was very kind to offer an additional character slot and like I said, I think it was appropriate since they were offering a new class to play. I'm just glad they found something extremely trivial to appease the whiners in general. Now we mostly have legitimate questions about whether or not the expansion is offering enough to justify the price.
I said that to get my point clear that I want the same value for my money as anyone else.
And I quoted my prediction about the outcome to frankly.. just rub it in.
Because Eye and Stone said the idea of us changing anything in this matter was hilarious.
So no matter how often we were called a vocal minority and that our attempt to change someting was hilarious - we did change something in the end.
Amjoco
Exactly. The entire game should be free since it is virtual.
It was a comment on what he had said. It was snarky about the idea that because ArenaNet can create it for free that it is something that should be free. And to be honest, while it's probably fairly cheap to add a character slot, we all know it isn't free - just like every single other virtual item/texture/animation/bank slot/etc in the game. Just to develop adding character slots to accounts cost some amount to develop. Nothing they've done is actually "free" for them to develop.