Cost-Prohibitive to Returning Players

[WelkinDust.8764]

I bought Guild Wars 2 when it was first released way back in 2012. It was like $50-60 back then. I played through most of the original release, until shortly before the first expansion pack. I haven't touched the game since.

Recently I've been thinking of returning to the game. After a fiasco with ArenaNet locking my account for "security" reasons, I got back in on my old level 80 warrior and started playing around. I saw that I could get all three expansions, including the upcoming End of Dragons, for $50 which is reasonable.

Then I started digging a little more and learned that the purchase of said "expansion packs" don't include like half the story. I'm a story player; I don't care about multiplayer or PVP or any of that. I play games for the story. But in order to experience the story of this game, I'd have to pay not only the $50 for all three expansions, but another 4,160 gems for Seasons 2-5. That would cost me another $60, because I can't stand farming. And apparently Season 1 isn't available at all.

I'm fine with the core game being free-to-play now; it makes sense given its age. Sucks for people like me who paid full price but still understandable. What I can't conscience is this tactic of selling half the storyline separately from the expansions themselves. I mean seriously? Maybe $110 is reasonable to some people, like brand new players who haven't already invested in the game. But to returning players who have already spent a pretty penny, it's just insulting. Needless to say I won't be playing this game.

[Naxos.2503]

The more I see these topics pop up, the more I tire to repeat it : These living story episodes have been made free more than 3 times since their initial release, not counting their initial release which was also free. You've missed one such free period by 2 months. If you were an old player, you might even have received emails to that effect saying that episodes were free when you logged in.

Their business is Particularly generous considering the amount of content thus made free on a regular basis, if one remotely interested in the game bothers to look into. The fact you wont be playing this game is irrelevant. You haven't been playing this game for over 9 years, and have thus had no impact for the company. I dont understand your reasoning for that message, and again do not understand how you missed more than 3 promotions where said content was made free to you. The only reason I could think of, was that you blocked the newsletter, and on that account I have to say, you got exactly what you asked for. Nothing more or less.

I will add that if you wait until after the expansion releases at the start of next year, you will likely have again Another shot at free living season episodes. Again. For like the 5th time. If you miss that one, I have to say that you're doing it on purpose.

[Strider Pj.2193]

Hey there.  I am a player that bought the full game about 3 weeks after release and have dedicated my time and effort since.

 

Ive purchased each expansion when they came out and paid full price at the time.  This brings my total to over $140.  
 

I also helped fill maps for other players..

 

I couldn’t spend gold on the expansions…  At least you can for the story…  

 

log in each day for thirty days and sell what you get, play some of the maps, sell what you get..  You’ll have the gems for some of the chapters.

 

Or if you MUST have it immediately, pay the $60 for the Downloadable Content of the stories.

 

You do have options.  

 

 

Edited October 24, 2021 by Strider Pj.2193

[Strider Pj.2193]

Or maybe..  Anet stops packaging the expansions together, charges $40 per expansion and $50 for the core game and includes the story in them.  🤷

[shrew.3059]

21 minutes ago, Naxos.2503 said:

The more I see these topics pop up, the more I tire to repeat it : These living story episodes have been made free more than 3 times since their initial release, not counting their initial release which was also free. You've missed one such free period by 2 months. If you were an old player, you might even have received emails to that effect saying that episodes were free when you logged in.

Their business is Particularly generous considering the amount of content thus made free on a regular basis, if one remotely interested in the game bothers to look into. The fact you wont be playing this game is irrelevant. You haven't been playing this game for over 9 years, and have thus had no impact for the company. I dont understand your reasoning for that message, and again do not understand how you missed more than 3 promotions where said content was made free to you. The only reason I could think of, was that you blocked the newsletter, and on that account I have to say, you got exactly what you asked for. Nothing more or less.

I will add that if you wait until after the expansion releases at the start of next year, you will likely have again Another shot at free living season episodes. Again. For like the 5th time. If you miss that one, I have to say that you're doing it on purpose.

The reason you have to repeat this is because people want to pay less for more, but often phrase their disappointment as a fundamental flaw rather than an unrealised preference.

This post sounds like: this game is too expensive for me, so I won’t be playing it. Which is okay, I guess; maybe this feedback will be useful for ANet’s business team when developing their business model.

Edited October 24, 2021 by shrew.3059

[Rasimir.6239]

So you come back to a game you haven't played for more than 7 years, and throw a fit because the developer dares to charge $110 for ALL of the content released in those 7+ years? Remind me again, which other games of similar scope offer access to that much content without monthly subscription or paid dlc in addition to expansions?

 

Sorry, but I'm getting tired of these ever-repeating complaint threads. There is so much content in this game, it's dirt cheap compared to any MMO I've ever played (and I've played a lot of them), and you can even purchase the dlc parts with resources you gather in-game.

 

Let me guess, the next argument is going to be "but I can't save that much gold from playing story". A word of advice here: trying to exclusively play story is setting yourself up for the next disaster (and likely the next complaint thread). The later parts of the story (starting right with the first expansion story actually) expects that players have experience in this game's combat and class mechanics that you likely only gain by playing the game beyond the story.

This isn't the "play a few hours of interactive movie" kind of story games. It's a complex, 9-year old open world multiplayer roleplaying game with a skill-focussed combat system. There is a lot of content beyond the actual story instances, content that expands the world and the world's story. If you want to play this game, expect it to deliver weeks and months of entertainment exploring the world and the stories within. If you think that's not worth the investment (and invenstment you don't even have to make up-front), then that's a you problem, not a game problem.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

I do not want to play sales agent here, but ...

The Collection Ultimate Edition costs 99,99 €. It contains all three Expansions. In addition, you get:

- Flame Serpent Weapon Skin, which equals a BL Claim Ticket (worth ~ 30 gold) => ~ 100 GEMS
- Shing Jea Mosaic Cape, which equals to any Gemstore Cape (worth ~ 500 GEMS).
- Shared Inventory Slot = 700 GEMS
- Max Level Boost = 2,000 GEMS
- Character Slot = 800 GEMS
- Skiff Skin = ~ 400 GEMS
- Raptor Skin = ~ 400 GEMS
- Identity Repair Kit = 1,000 GEMS

SUM= 5,900 GEMS worth of goods. If I want to buy 5,900 GEMS, it would cost me ~ 70- 80 €. Let's go worst case, 70 €. 99,99 - 70 = 29,99 € for the three expansions. 

Now the good thing about the Collection Ultimate Edition is that you get another 4,000 GEMS for free. If you look at your calculations, that is almost the entire amount for the LW unlock. 

Having 100 € or not is another question. 

[kharmin.7683]

OP should change thread title to " Cost Prohibitive to Me"

[Sarm.5923]

I dunno, I still can't help but sympathize, because I'm relatively new myself and the whole Living World stuff came as a shock to me too. Informing people that these episodes used to be free at certain points, while true, doesn't really do anything to smooth over how it stings to end up playing a story that's disjointed and out of order based on your character's gold intake. If you're jumping (back) into the game now and get the LW stuff later, you're effectively doing chapter 1, 3, 5, grind for gold, 4, 6, 7. It's pretty weird. This isn't $110 spread out over a decade of a game's life, but what appears to be an almost all-at-once upfront cost for Welkin.

Although if you end up changing your mind and decide to stick with it, but you'd prefer to play the story sequentially, what I'd recommend is to pause after the free campaign, and at least do your daily quests along with the Ley-Line Anomaly (spawns every 2 hours, 20 minutes after an even-numbered hour) and participate in that to get a free Mystic Coin every day that you can auction off for money. It's something I wish someone had told me, because that's a good 60ish days worth of coins that I had no idea existed, because I mistook it for a Brand Rift event and was doing those daily instead. Then as you save enough to buy a LW season in bulk, you can play through them bits at a time to spread out the content a bit. Also log in and at least claim chapter 1 of Icebrood Saga from your mail right now, and then at least hop on once a week thereafter until you get the other chapters, so you won't have to spend gems on it at all.

It still royally sucks to have missed out on this, but at least getting a little over 4 gold a day before farming can help bump you along so that you're not doing something more mind-numbing like farming candy corn or trees all day.

Edited October 24, 2021 by Sarm.5923

[AliamRationem.5172]

1 hour ago, shrew.3059 said:

The reason you have to repeat this is because people want to pay less for more, but often phrase their disappointment as a fundamental flaw rather than an unrealised preference.

This post sounds like: this game is too expensive for me, so I won’t be playing it. Which is okay, I guess; maybe this feedback will be useful for ANet’s business team when developing their business model.

It is a preference.  Obviously, ANet can do whatever they want with their game.  But in my opinion, it's a poor choice to have the story content which is central to the experience locked behind a paywall when you're also charging for expansions.  This results in a disjointed experience that likely leaves a lot of players disinterested in the story.  And if the story is all you're selling between expansions, what are the chances those players stick around for it?  I think it's just a bad idea.  They should make it free with expansion purchase.

 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

If OP was here playing until the release of Heart of Thorns, I'm not sure why the lament about Living World Season One.  I mean, if he/she was so Story-focused, surely he/she played through Living World Season One, no? 

 

Also, as a Story-focused player, surely had the OP stuck around, the OP would have purchased each expansion when it was released, and would have paid the $60 for Core, the $50 for Heart of Thorns and the $30 for Path of Fire, which would have been $140 total + the $30 for End of Dragons (at least).  What is the complaint of spending ~$45 for 3200 Gems (bundle prices for Living World Seasons 2, 3, 4 and The Icebrood Saga which is free currently [not to mention all the maps that are included])?  It seems, to me, there is, at the very least, 20 hours of play for the investment.  Is lamenting $2/hour for entertainment really valid?  It's just kind of sad. 

[Veprovina.4876]

Well, if you keep logging in now, you'll get the rest of the Icebrood Saga for free, and i think the first one is still free, if not, the second one. 

 

So that'll bring the cost down quite a bit, as you won't have to buy the Icebrood Saga, Just seasons 2-4.

 

Also... I recommend you buy Season 2 with gold and only IF it's that important to you because it's SO boring, there's not much story in it, most of it is filler for the expansion and nothing happens more or less... You're not missing anything by playing Season 2 later (much later).

 

So, if you take Icebrood Saga as free by just logging in, Season 2 as not worth it, that leaves you just Seasons 3 and 4 that are definitely worth it, and that brings your total cost down quite considerably.

 

Additionally, you don't have to buy them all at once, buy Season 3 first when you're done with Heart of Thorns, then play that, then you'll have to go through Path of Fire, save some money in the meantime, then buy Season 4. The cost doesn't look all that intimidating when you don't have to pay all at once.

[firedragon.8953]

Yeah, I remember feeling shocked about the $60 DLC content. I also like playing games for the story.

I ended up buying them all at 20% one year ago or so when I came back.

Turns out they were now just offered free to anyone who logs in during the past few months due to a campaign.

Am I mad? Nah. Why? Because I like playing games for stories and enjoyed all the content I paid for during the past year. 

Gaming has never really been a "cheap" hobby. Gaming PCs and games all cost quite quite a bit. Thankfully, since playing GW2 I spend less on other games because I enjoy playing the thousands of hours of content available in this game.

I think it is confusing, and I wish there was a more straightforward way to buy all expacs and DLCs in a bundle. $140 for everything released over the past 9 years isn't so bad. This is a buy to play game with a very generous free-to-play trial. It also has a "loyalty program" that basically gives away free DLC content by merely logging in during it's initial release window. Very generous if you ask me. Oh, and it also has campaigns that let's new players sometimes claim these for free at a later date. Ever more generous! Unfortunately for you, if you came back a few months ago you could have unlocked all the episodes for free.  You can at least get a couple of the latest ones for free by joining in now. So that's something I guess...
 

[costepj.5120]

And worth pointing out, if you do buy the LS episodes you aren't just buying story, but something like 15 additional maps with associated metas, MPS, achievements etc.

[Xephir.7635]

I bought everything from s3 & s4 little by little, read s2 summaries and watched s1 youtube video. Didn't feel lost or whatever and I really enjoyed all maps, didnt blast through em since I had to farm before buying maps. Felt good.

[Maikimaik.1974]

There's always one thing that I find confusing about these threads.

The posters always make it seem like you have to pay the full price of all expansions and LS episodes at once in order to even begin playing this game. 

But you don't have to buy everything at once? You can unlock the episodes one by one. Even if you were to spend only 1 week on each map (which would be an incredibly short amount of time), doing the story, events and a collections, you'd only have to pay $10 a month (less than most MMO subscriptions). With IBS currently being given away for free, after just 5 months you'd have unlocked everyhing and, unless you stop playing, don't have to spend a single cent on LS episodes ever again. You can also save 20% by buying the bundles, but you'd have to spend more money each month (for a shorter period of time).

 

I'm not rich whatsoever, quite the opposite actually, but this seems very reasonable to me.

 

Edited October 24, 2021 by Maikimaik.1974

[IndigoSundown.5419]

Comparison shop.

 

* ESO: pay for story DLC's or pay the "optional" monthly fee to rent DLC access.  Monthly fee or not, pay for XPac's.

* FFXIV: pay for base game and XPac's; there are bundles with base game and some XPac's, monthly fee to play; afaik, no story independent of base game and XPac.

* WoW: about the same as FFXIV.

* GW2: base game free, bundle fee for XPac's, story given free to those who login during the release period, or, recently during the story revisit event that ANet is using as filler content; otherwise buy with gems with either cash or gold to unlock Living Story chapters.

 

The OP is correct that returning players, i. e, those who were not logged in during story release periods, end up needing to pay more than those who've been around all along.  However, that doesn't change the fact that even those players are facing similar costs to the other top MMO's on the market, whereas those who stuck around pay less.  He is also likely correct that the price for story is prohibitive to him.

 

I sympathize with the all-too-human desire to pay less.  I also support the right of the consumer to let a company know they're unhappy with a product or its price.  However, it is unreasonable to expect a company to just give product to people, or to price a product well below the price of other, similar products on the market.

[Cuks.8241]

At least log in the following weeks to get the LS5 for free. This will take you a minute per week and might be beneficial in the future if you do decide to play.

People on this forums are touchy about the topic because it's been over discussed. And objectively GW2 is good value for money.

But I completely understand you because in the end I would not pay 100 EUR for a 9 year old game if I was mainly interested in just story and not in the all the other mmorpg stuff in the game. There are many many better options out there.

[ArchonWing.9480]

If OP wasn't so blinded by rage, they'd notice that they're basically getting 1 expansion for free of which so called non-returning players had to pay $50 for. Why do you think you are special just because you bought a game 7 years ago?

If a player played all these years, they would have to pay 50+50+30+30 =160. You are paying 50+110= 160. Uhuh. I guess you could argue the game has depreciated since but if you're asking over these pennies, then you shouldn't be gaming in the first place, because there are bigger issues than that.

But yea, nobody cares if you get the game or not, and don't let the door hit you on your way out.

Edited October 24, 2021 by ArchonWing.9480

[Linken.6345]

9 minutes ago, ArchonWing.9480 said:

If OP wasn't so blinded by rage, they'd notice that they're basically getting 1 expansion for free of which so called non-returning players had to pay $50 for. Why do you think you are special just because you bought a game 7 years ago?

But yea, nobody cares if you get the game or not, and don't let the door hit you on your way out.

Well Anet cares they want money

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Well, probably not enough to change their marketing/business model. 

[Klowdy.3126]

15 hours ago, WelkinDust.8764 said:

I bought Guild Wars 2 when it was first released way back in 2012. It was like $50-60 back then. I played through most of the original release, until shortly before the first expansion pack. I haven't touched the game since.

Recently I've been thinking of returning to the game. After a fiasco with ArenaNet locking my account for "security" reasons, I got back in on my old level 80 warrior and started playing around. I saw that I could get all three expansions, including the upcoming End of Dragons, for $50 which is reasonable.

Then I started digging a little more and learned that the purchase of said "expansion packs" don't include like half the story. I'm a story player; I don't care about multiplayer or PVP or any of that. I play games for the story. But in order to experience the story of this game, I'd have to pay not only the $50 for all three expansions, but another 4,160 gems for Seasons 2-5. That would cost me another $60, because I can't stand farming. And apparently Season 1 isn't available at all.

I'm fine with the core game being free-to-play now; it makes sense given its age. Sucks for people like me who paid full price but still understandable. What I can't conscience is this tactic of selling half the storyline separately from the expansions themselves. I mean seriously? Maybe $110 is reasonable to some people, like brand new players who haven't already invested in the game. But to returning players who have already spent a pretty penny, it's just insulting. Needless to say I won't be playing this game.

Living world was meant to be a once and done thing, like season 1 is. Everyone is lucky to be able to play the seasons after they end. Having the seasons to play is a reward for being a loyal player, and logging on for 1.5 seconds every 3 months. Those stories were handed out for free (and still are if you actually play the game), and the F2P model has solidified that stance. They need money to pay people, there is no sub fee, and I have spent money on gems in years, and still get just about everything I want. Money has to come from somewhere. 

 

Also, brand new players will have tons of content before they reach S2. You actually just missed every single LW episode being handed out for free, one at a time (though S5 is still going through the process). Who knows, maybe it'll just be something they do yearly.

[WelkinDust.8764]

Wow. I can't believe so many people are defending this. The fact that this topic has apparently popped up often on these forums tells me that I'm not the only one in this situation; I wonder how many hundreds or thousands of players who might be interested in starting or returning to this game are deterred by the high cost. Shouldn't that concern... anyone? Maybe ArenaNet has enough loyal fanboys dropping hundreds on the game regularly, I dunno.

I understand that companies have to make money; most game companies nowadays are shamelessly greedy but that's capitalism for you. My problem is with how much MORE expensive this game is compared to other major MMO titles, especially when this one is so falsely advertised as "free to play." And I'm very disturbed by this tactic of not including half the story with the purchase of the expansion packs -- and especially how they don't specifically tell you about it upfront.

Compare to WoW for example: sure, they have a monthly subscription and lots of people hate that. I spent way too much on WoW over more than a decade. But no matter how long you haven't played for, you can buy the current expansion for $40 and have access to the entire game, including all of the story. And just purchasing the expansion gives you 30 days of play time. So even if you need an extra month or two of subscription payments to actually see all the story, it's still way less than the $110 required for purchasing all of the story content in GW2. Not to mention the other 'hidden costs' to this game like needing gems for extra character slots when you start with a pathetic FIVE.

FFXIV and SWTOR are even better; I've played both extensively this year for less than $60 total. I suppose some people are rich enough not to care about dropping an extra $100 or whatever on a "free" game; to each their own. I'll just continue playing the aforementioned games and skip this one entirely.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

30 minutes ago, WelkinDust.8764 said:

Wow. I can't believe so many people are defending this. The fact that this topic has apparently popped up often on these forums tells me that I'm not the only one in this situation; I wonder how many hundreds or thousands of players who might be interested in starting or returning to this game are deterred by the high cost. Shouldn't that concern... anyone? Maybe ArenaNet has enough loyal fanboys dropping hundreds on the game regularly, I dunno.

I understand that companies have to make money; most game companies nowadays are shamelessly greedy but that's capitalism for you. My problem is with how much MORE expensive this game is compared to other major MMO titles, especially when this one is so falsely advertised as "free to play." And I'm very disturbed by this tactic of not including half the story with the purchase of the expansion packs -- and especially how they don't specifically tell you about it upfront.

Compare to WoW for example: sure, they have a monthly subscription and lots of people hate that. I spent way too much on WoW over more than a decade. But no matter how long you haven't played for, you can buy the current expansion for $40 and have access to the entire game, including all of the story. And just purchasing the expansion gives you 30 days of play time. So even if you need an extra month or two of subscription payments to actually see all the story, it's still way less than the $110 required for purchasing all of the story content in GW2. Not to mention the other 'hidden costs' to this game like needing gems for extra character slots when you start with a pathetic FIVE.

FFXIV and SWTOR are even better; I've played both extensively this year for less than $60 total. I suppose some people are rich enough not to care about dropping an extra $100 or whatever on a "free" game; to each their own. I'll just continue playing the aforementioned games and skip this one entirely.

If the model of playing the Story/game for only 30 days seems cost-effective and fair to you, you can always play the Play4Free part of the game and watch YouTube videos of the Story for no cost whatsoever! 

But, I think it's disingenuous to compare 30 days of WoW to playing Guild Wars 2 as long as the game is up and running.  How about comparing the two time-wise? 

Also, Guild Wars 2 is not a 'free' game; it is Buy to Play (with a very generous trial, content- and time-wise). 

Regardless, one should only play games that one feels is suited to one's needs.  Good luck. 

[Rasimir.6239]

 

1 hour ago, WelkinDust.8764 said:

Wow. I can't believe so many people are defending this.

If you're looking for a game that you can no-life for a month or two, then drop again, you're better off looking for a subscription game. Buy-to-play games are usually set up to give good value for money for people that play less intensively over a longer period of time.

 

The game is aimed at people that play less per day, but many more months, and for them it's probably among the best value for money you can find in today's MMO market. There are plenty of MMO players for whom subscription MMOs are much more of a rip-off than what this game charges one-time. Those the main target audience of this game's purchase model, not the ones who rush through the content for a few weeks, then drop the game like a hot potatoe.