The pre-purchase for Guild Wars 2’s expansion Heart of Thorns is available now. There’s three editions to buy: Standard Edition for 50$/45€, coming with the base game and the base expansion, the Deluxe Edition for 75$/75€, coming with a few extras, including one character slot and the Ultimate Edition, coming with everything the Deluxe Edition has and 4000 Gems.
I’ll buy in when they have a 50% discount on that prizing. See, Aywren has all the arguments (great post by the way, you should read it), so i will simply state that i feel like i’m not getting my money’s worth when the base game is included. Because i don’t need the base game anymore- interestingly, if they’d put the same price out, excluding the base game, i might have bought it, so i don’t really think it’s too expensive. But done this way, i feel like i’m paying for something i don’t need. I mean, as far as i know, and please correct me if i’m wrong, i can’t even give the base game to someone who hasn’t bought the game yet. I’d have a friend to whom i might give it if it were possible.
Other than that, i’m of the opinion that the code or whatever we get when buying the expansion should add a few character slots for those who already own the game, and i think three would be a good number. Or maybe gems…or something. As it stands right now, that part of the investment will simply go the way of the dodo and i’m not fine with that.
I am not unhappy about that, though- with SWTOR’s expansion coming, my commitment to that game by subscribing for 6 months, Final Fantasy’s expansion coming this week, which i also bought and Trove seemingly sucking me in some more as well as the Repopulations pending release and at least some peeks at Skyforge, Blade & Soul and Wildstar f2p, i already have more on my plate than i could possibly digest this year.
So with Heart of Thorns, i’m waiting for the christmas sale and/or some course correction by ArenaNet.
Party Business 
Thank you for linking to my post – glad you liked it! I’m really not sure what Anet is thinking with this. There’s always time for them to change the story, though. I hope they’ll listen and fix the mess this has made.
They should. I mean, right now, and disregarding all the arguments you made in your post, the best way to go would be to buy a whole new account- you’ll get 5 character slots and the expansion. But then your old account and characters are just hanging there without the expansion…it’s messed up. I really don’t know why they wouldn’t offer the expansion without the base game.
Lots of disgruntled GW2 players over this one. Personally I’m fine with the price- I paid as much for Warlords plus a sub which was a waste; at least with HoT I wouldn’t need a sub. But I do agree that the inclusion of the base game, which was intended to encourage new players to join has turned into a repellant for existing players.
Even charging $10 more for the core+expansion and $50 for expac only would have gone over better. Now the only way to correct is to drop the price to $40 because they’ve already valued the whole set at $50. I’m not buying it either way, but I’m following the community reactions all the same.
All in all, this is a lot of rage about one tiny mistake they made. I mean, from a business point of view the offer they make is very reasonable and understandable, they want to offer a “complete package” instead of something which can be bought and then is unuseable without the base game. With the complete package no new customer might run into the “i bought this but can not play” issue and won’t feel cheated. They won’t have unnecessary customer support costs or anything.
The only mistake they made is on customer psychology, somebody who already owns the game now “feels” like he is being charged double. The perfect solution here would be to still sell the package the way it is, but when the code is being used on an already existing account, it would get a free additional character slot or gems equivalent to 10 bucks price. That way the package would still work for any new customer, without needed support for having bought the wrong package, and the person already owning the game doesn’t feel “cheated”.
And it really is a “feel” problem. I mean, we all have owned the game since years and spent time there. We got our moneys worth of fun and action out of it already. So from any objective (non-psychologically-biased) point of view, the offer we get is still perfectly fine, the whole problem really is more on an “instinct” level of “they want my money twice for the same thing”, while the more honest point would be “they give the base game along for free to avoid a lot of problems”.
Addendum: I am not making up the problem with people buying the expansion without owning the base game. I experienced that within my scope of friends with the original guild wars. The complete backstory of the problem is a bit more complex, but to cut it short, one of our friends who really isn’t a gamer overheard us talking about Guild Wars (the original one) at a rock festival and somehow decided he’d also like to try that. Unfortunately he bought Eye of the North, the very only expansion of that game which can not be played without owning at least one of the other packages, which all were playable by themselves. (He didn’t know about expansions and stuff, and EotN was the cheapest offer, so he went for that. )
Only after buying it and “the crap doesn’t work” issues, he contacted us that he had “the game” but it wouldn’t work. We soon understood what he did and told him he needed to buy one of the other packs, as what he bought was an expansion. Instead, he tried to get a refound and never touch the game again.
Probably he would not have played for long even if everything has worked, i don’t really see him as gamer type, but with this he was “lost” as gamer for sure. Also from an experienced gamers point of view, the mistake absoultely was his, he didn’t read or understand the description of the package he bought.
But from a business perspective, the mistake was on the publishers side. It’s for a good reason that MMOs are designed for a very smooth entry and tutorial. Eliminating a possible point of failure even before entering the game thus makes a lot of sense. While most of your customers are gamers, have all the knowledge and see no problem in a “base game not included” offer, aka WoW-standard, being even more friendly to the new player by eliminating one hurdle is a good idea.
This all being said, i guess we players should rather wrap our heads around that. The idea of “no preconditions which somebody new to gaming might not understand” is good and i actually expect it to get more common. All we can hope for is that somebody already owning the game before an expansion can get some compensation, like mentioned above.
Yes, i can see that. I’ve got some friend like that, as well- he plays videogames, but no MMORPGs. I’d really like to play one with him, though and GW2 might be fun for him- if he were to buy an expansion and it “wouldn’t work”, he’d be done with that thing pretty fast. And if the included game copy would be a code i could give away, i’d probably give it to him.
I really think the easiest way to do this would be to apply a code- if it is used for a new account, then it would include the game and the expansion, if it’s used on an account who already owns the game it would unlock character slots/gems or something.
I’m not enraged. It’s not that i don’t want new players to get a good deal, that’s fine. I still think there should be either an offer for those who already own the game or, as you said, some other stuff for that code.
As it stands, though, the best use of your money would be to buy the expansion with a new account- you’ll get 5 character slots and the expansion- as far as i know, the slots alone make up for the price. Of course, your old account would be…well, not useless, but old and without access to the expansion. One could still use the characters for WvW or sPvP, though. Otherwise you’d let a good, valid copy of the game just go poof since you can’t even really give it away as far as i know. If i were to buy it, i’d use it on a new account, though…there’s more value in that.
In the end, it is a simple decision – is the expansion worth 45€ for me? It might be, but there’s the feeling that whatever way i’d choose, i’d lose something if i buy in.
Additionally, for me this is a great excuse to postpone buying the expansion. I’ve got enough on my plate and really want to see some progress somewhere before the end of the year, so i’m actually quite glad that i don’t feel the expansion is worth the asked price to me.