Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[DrakeWurrum]

You're kinda missing the point though. They're only out $60 if they don't like the game. Everybody I've seen act hesitant in buying aren't worried about commitment or "social inertia" they're worried if they'll have fun with the game mechanics or not. The caveat here is that, since there's no subscription fee, if the game itself is not enjoyable to them, just like with any single-player console or PC game, they can just return it for a refund. That's the importance of the box price. I could probably return a boxed copy of Wow for a full refund as well, depending on the retailer, I'd just never get back the money I paid for the right to access the server.

I simply cannot imagine any other product or industry in the world where the customers fully expect to be able to try out the product before they pay anything for it... with the singular exception of clothes, but that's because clothes need to fit.

[Squirrelbanes]

What Drake said.
There's no sub. Most MMOs have open betas purely to see if you want to commit to the sub. That's in addition to the box price.
What do people want, Anet to give them the game f2p too? Frankly absurd to expect too much in this case.
There's more info out there on GW2 than any game I can remember. If people can't make an informed choice.....there's no hope for them.

[DrakeWurrum]

If people can't make an informed choice.....there's no hope for them.

Fully agreed. What ANet has provided to us, info-wise, is essentially that they told us all the major plot points of a novel. And the response that some customers are still giving, while fully knowing every major plot point, is "But I want to read it before I buy it!"

[Fencers]

You're kinda missing the point though. They're only out $60 if they don't like the game. Everybody I've seen act hesitant in buying aren't worried about commitment or "social inertia" they're worried if they'll have fun with the game mechanics or not.

Nah. That's not actually it. With MMOs people do worry about longevity and what sort of play environment it offers. We have tons of threads here, in the TOR forums and Rift forums asking those questions in varying ways. Those are issues of commitment & inertia.

Box price/sub fee isn't that big a factor ultimately. Only for those that really can't afford it- so whatever, truly. The immaterial aspects beyond $ is a big reason why people want to try MMOs these days.

I simply cannot imagine any other product or industry in the world where the customers fully expect to be able to try out the product before they pay anything for it... with the singular exception of clothes, but that's because clothes need to fit.

Yes, but this industry allows it. Consumers and customers have, rightly so, come to that expectation.

[Squirrelbanes]

Fully agreed. What ANet has provided to us, info-wise, is essentially that they told us all the major plot points of a novel. And the response that some customers are still giving, while fully knowing every major plot point, is "But I want to read it before I buy it!"

Yup...that's how I feel.
Coupled with the fact that there's no tiered raiding, levelling is a flat line after a point, gear and stats are less important etc - so there is less emphasis on that the game must continuously be played like with most MMOs...I just don't get the concern. I think ppl are judging this issue based on industry standards...and thank god GW2 can't easily be applied.
Like I said before, in the big picture, mountain out of a molehill.

[DrakeWurrum]

Box price/sub fee isn't that big a factor ultimately. Only for those that really can't afford it- so whatever, truly. The immaterial aspects beyond $ is a big reason why people want to try MMOs these days.

If that box price isn't that big a factor, then they wouldn't be asking for a free way to test the waters. They'd simply ask other people how the water is and then jump in if they get a satisfactory answer.

I see joining an MMO kinda like paying to go into a community water park, such as Sea World. These people are asking to go down the rides to see if they're fun enough to pay to go down them.

I fully understand the hesitation here, but people need to stop acting so entitled. These businesses are here to make money. Regardless of how awesome ANet is, they're still a business, and they need to make money to be able to do what they love to do. If you're not willing to part with $60 for a game, with all the information we have available, then I'd consider you overly stingy.

I could understand wanting to wait for an official release so that there can be even more information, and so the community that dived in first can share their perspective as well, but you'd still inevitably have to pay the cash and try it out yourself.

[Fencers]

If that box price isn't that big a factor, then they wouldn't be asking for a free way to test the waters. They'd simply ask other people how the water is and then jump in if they get a satisfactory answer.

First hand experience. Nature of the medium.

They want to see if an upcoming MMO is a "good fit" to reach back to your clothing analogy.

[DrakeWurrum]

First hand experience. Nature of the medium.

They want to see if an upcoming MMO is a "good fit" to reach back to your clothing analogy.

It's not like clothing though, it's like a theme park. What theme park lets you in without paying?

There certainly are ways to get a refund from such theme parks, I might add.

[Squirrelbanes]

I can understand people wanting to try it out.
More than that I can understand that people expect to try MMOs....as that's the industry standard.
However, GW2 uses a very different model.
You therefore can't say that GW2 has to use the same model as other MMOs.

It's like saying most MMOs use the holy trinity so GW2 should. Same principle. And it's just as wrong.

[Fencers]

It's not like clothing though, it's like a theme park. What theme park lets you in without paying?

There certainly are ways to get a refund from such theme parks, I might add.

LOL now you are just stretching- theme park, socks, bass guitars-- whatever you feel like trotting out to suit ya.

Bottom line to your point; video games are a medium which often allow play before purchase, MMOs in particular. Many prefer to have hands on with an MMO, gauging its play environment.

[Merendel]

So like, you see nothing tasteless in having a money grab pre-purchase versus pre-order? Then, ya'know, giving away thousands of BWE keys by the second go.

I dont see a problem. PP gives you garenteed access to all BWE's on top of the other perks. You buy it and your in, if the buyer was halfway smart they know what they are geting. The key giveaways are for single BWE's and are prety much luck of the draw. Some people maybe could hold out and get lucky for 1 or more BWE's but they could also never get lucky. We all knew from the start that there was a chance to get in with random chance to individual betas but PP was the only sure fire way to get in, as I said I dont see a problem.
IF anything haveing some free keys given away are likely to increase their sales, once they've had a taste they are likely to be hooked and PP so they can keep geting their fix. Thats on top of the additional word of mouth generated by every player that gets hooked.

edit erm wow I must not have refreshed the page for a while quite a few posts after that one it seems.

[DrakeWurrum]

LOL now you are just stretching- theme park, socks, bass guitars-- whatever you feel like trotting out to suit ya.

You realize, actually, that I never likened MMOs to clothing at all. I stated clothing as an exception to a rule. The only analogy I've used, at all, is theme park. Which is rather accurate, considering the nature of the service an MMORPG provides.

I cannot play, as an example, Diablo 3 before buying it. Whether I've never used a Blizzard product before, or I'm a major fan of all their work, I cannot trial-run Diablo 3. I have to pay the $50 and try it, win or lose.

GW2 is much more akin, in regards to business model, these single-player B2P games than any other MMORPG. The MMO industry only has free trials as a standard because of the subscription price.

[Deleted]

video games are a medium which often allow play before purchase, MMOs in particular.

I dare you to find a non-F2P MMO which had a trial function at launch. Trial accounts are brought into the mix after launch; how soon depends on how much sales go down. The quicker the drop, the sooner trial accounts are brought in. But never has there been trial accounts at launch, for any non-F2P MMO. You want to play the game from the get-go, you cough up the money.

I cannot play, as an example, Diablo 3 before buying it. Whether I've never used a Blizzard product before, or I'm a major fan of all their work, I cannot trial-run Diablo 3. I have to pay the $50 and try it, win or lose.

You can. With the boxed copy of D3, I got two guest pass keys. I've already let a friend use one of them. It's essentially the beta without most of the bugs.

[Meledelion]

I truely don't see the problem here: there are people who say this about betas "I NEVER GET IN WAAAH WAAH WAAAH!" those people could get guaranteed acces to beta if they payed now.
For the people who want the game but aren't so excited (or sure they'll buy the game eventually) they can hope for a BWE invite.

If you bought the game solely due to having acces to the BWE there's something wrong in your head (imo). I prepurchased for a couple of reasons: I'm going to buy it anyway, goodies, easy, i'll have it straight away.
Getting Beta acces was a nice bonus.

If you're so hellbent on testing it out before you pay for it there's a couple of things you can do.
1. be patient untill a lot of people have given revieuws
2. be patient and watch ur friends play
3. split the cost for 1 account with family members, if you like it buy another account
4. grow up and learn how to research, at this time I know more about GW2 than I knew about Skyirm when I bought it. (and no I wouldn't buy skyrim anyways, since Oblivion was dogpoo bad)
5. be patient and wait untill trial versions are released
6. go to any good games store, usually the guys working there have accounts for those games (or the store does) and they can let you have a feel.

All this whining makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry, any sort of old-school gamer knows the good old "demo-days": you got to play one lvl usually extremely well layed out and then the game was utter shit, if you wanted to avoid this you waited for revieuws/peers...
Before those you just bought from what was said on the box.

[Deleted]

Hm, seems slightly in poor taste [and confirmation of my earlier thoughts on the pre-purchase] Anet are giving away beta keys for only the 2nd BWE so far.

Not so awesome.

they're giving keys away?!?!??!?!?!?

where wat idk what do I have to do amg wat no wait wat.

[Deleted]

they're giving keys away?!?!??!?!?!?

where wat idk what do I have to do amg wat no wait wat.

Follow GW2 FB page (no need for FB account to see) https://www.facebook.com/GuildWars2

Some contests:
http://www.killtenrats.com/2012/05/3...a-key-contest/
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/5...a-key-contest/
http://www.guildwars2journal.com/_/n...-giveaway-r177

[Mif]

Follow GW2 FB page (no need for FB account to see) https://www.facebook.com/GuildWars2

Some contests:
http://www.killtenrats.com/2012/05/3...a-key-contest/
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/5...a-key-contest/
http://www.guildwars2journal.com/_/n...-giveaway-r177

Gamebreaker has 500 keys

[Deleted]

Gamebreaker has 500 keys

Pff... why must Mif always have more info about everything.

[grandpab]

And these German dudes have 1500

[Exroyal]

i love this thread