Do you regret pre-ordering SoTO?

[Dovienya.6597]

On 7/23/2023 at 9:50 AM, voltaicbore.8012 said:

Initially I wasn't going to preorder, but I've wanted to interact with the Wizard's Tower for so long, Anet hooked me and I bought the most basic version of SotO.

I regret doing this, though. Their handling of relics (which represents a brazen betrayal of one of GW2's core attractions) and the new "fractal" seem to affirm that something is (again) going wrong at the studio, on a similar level of dysfunction that we saw leading up to the layoffs.

I hear that. I've wanted to know what's in the tower since the Verata quest in Prophecies, and almost bought it on impulse for that reason alone. Unfortunately, upon a deeper look at what's being offered, it's obvious that Arenanet is exclusively catering to dedicated players who will buy no matter what. I'm not trying to shame anyone that bought it, whether they regret it or not. I understand loving a game so much that you're blind to its flaws, I've been there with this game and others before. If people are okay with the current state of their game and consider a pre-order money well-spent regardless of what's delivered, I'm not judging them. We all have different tastes, standards, and opinions.

In my opinion, it's not worth a pre-order and I don't have high hopes that even the meager content and features promised upon release, won't launch half-baked and then get scrapped or gutted after the fact. Most of the features and content advertised for this "expansion" are coming later, not at launch. EoD was supposed to be delivered piece meal and now it looks like Gyala Delve, plus some voice overs and a fluff episode with no combat, are all we're getting for the to-be-delivered content drops. I have low hopes that bugs and balance problems will ever be addressed. There are still bugs blocking my "Return To" collection progress, bugs that have been around for many years, and are still frequently reported to no avail. They're taking existing features away, re-packaging them, and selling them back to us. The last balance pass is a disaster even by Arenanet standards. Still no WvW alliances. PvP and Raids abandoned. Story quality has plummeted.

FWIW, I've spent more hours and money on the Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 games than any other game franchise via cash shop purchases, and consider it money well spent. I just don't see myself enjoying this game again, such as it is, so I won't be spending any more money on it unless things change.

Over the last couple years I keep logging in to GW2, and coming back to the forums in the hopes that something will change my mind and pull me back in. Unless that happens, I guess I'll find out what's in the Wizard's Tower by watching a video.

 

[Izzy.2951]

1 hour ago, Dovienya.6597 said:

Overr the last couple years I keep logging in to GW2, and coming back to the forums in the hopes that something will change my mind and pull me back in. Unless that happens, I guess I'll find out what's in the Wizard's Tower by watching a video.

The same i will do probably, just watch a video of the story and thats it. Maybe even see a video of ppl doing wizards vault quests of old content for the laughs.

And maybe wait to see something of the new mmorpg they are doing if im not tired enough by that time.

[Serephen.3420]

This whole thread has become somewhat depressing cause posts like the above few actually make some sense 🥲

[Linken.6345]

On 7/24/2023 at 8:30 PM, Lincolnbeard.1735 said:

Agree with everything but this part. IBS was "sold" as expansion like content.

But yeah, this seems like maintenance mode all over again, but unlike GW1 live team, there's no Linsey Murdock and John Stumme.

Well to be fair if you compare IBS and SotO then the former clearly is expansion like content.

[Efar.8153]

On 7/22/2023 at 12:27 PM, Dayra.7405 said:

No I got my 29 shared inv slot

and a hat  😄

[Cameo.4073]

Even though I gritted my teeth through the hyped up siege turtle personally only used in EOD, I'm hoping the 'expansion' will distract me over winter. 

I pre ordered out of hope, but suspect there is more implied than will be seen in product (so I guess the expansion is aptly named). 

[Derktarlms.6213]

I didn't ask for it and I have the money, why? It is because I did not meet my expectations and what was recycled lowered me a lot.

Edited August 20, 2023 by Derktarlms.6213

[vandrefalk.6823]

No= upwards of 75%

Nothing, I'm happy= close to 60%

Maybe just lock this pointless thread and move on...

[Ashen.2907]

38 minutes ago, Dondarrion.2748 said:

No= upwards of 75%

Nothing, I'm happy= close to 60%

Maybe just lock this pointless thread and move on...

Yeah, polls of this sort are of limited value and I would take any results with a grain of salt. 

That said, people who preorder are generally not just customers but more engaged fans. A result indicating that approximately 25% of your engaged fans regret giving you their money, even if that percentage is significantly skewed, would be worth noting.

[vandrefalk.6823]

53 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

Yeah, polls of this sort are of limited value and I would take any results with a grain of salt. 

That said, people who preorder are generally not just customers but more engaged fans. A result indicating that approximately 25% of your engaged fans regret giving you their money, even if that percentage is significantly skewed, would be worth noting.

Then again, 5 people said the reveal of PvE legendary armor made them regret preordering SotO... to my knowledge, we've not had a preview other than what we saw on reveal of the xpac... so what does that vote even mean??

[Whirlygig.9685]

I do not like the way they are changing dailies and log ins from a system that worked for casuals with not so much time, to one that requires constant 'thought' on managing yet another currency, no more pop in do dailies 2 gold, having to 'choose' which game mode for dailies in advance of seeing them. And those log in rewards will require more to 'buy' in the new system, no doubt. Its not an improvement, it more busy work and its starting to feel like a kitten job and i already have one of those.

Yes, i cancelled my pre order. Everything i said is fact, so take your confused emotes elswhere, you may be ok with these changes, i am not.

Edited August 20, 2023 by Whirlygig.9685

[Kalavier.1097]

On 7/22/2023 at 5:45 AM, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

The way they are restructuring the combat system gives me a massive headache. With every further patch, they simplify our complex system more and more. The relics introduction and rune rework go into the same direction. They promise they will add plenty of options, but I fear that some of the interesting combinations will vanish. We have a couple of stat-combos which are quite handy when you try to min-max your stats, which you cannot run with full sets. They may be removed in favor of the meta.
 

Besides the fact Anet has explicitly came out and said they aren't removing any runes, and are actually tweaking the ones with identical stats barring the sixth bonus to have a different sixth slot bonus to stat so they are different?

On 7/22/2023 at 9:33 PM, leila.7962 said:

I regret buying it more because most of the features will come in other patches.. which doesn't really seem anything different than a Living Season.. It angers me a bit that they advertised it as an expansion, when it isn't. If it was a real expansion, all the features would come at launch.. like any other game does with their expansions. I've never seen a game that has an expansion that is like a promise of content for the future AFTER it's release.

You mean like how WoW releases an expansion with not every raid or story chapter out on release? 

On 7/22/2023 at 5:51 AM, Geralt.7519 said:

It doesn't matter how few we are, Anet is a business and the important thing from that perspective is how much money legendary crafters spend compared to the rest of the playerbase.

Only Anet knows ofc but if it was an irrelevant amount,

 

So where do you get this information that people with legendaries automatically pour more money into the game, when crafting a legendary is irrelevant to real money purchases?

[Ashantara.8731]

My advice: Just lay back and go with the flow. 😉 Premature complaints and speculations are indeed only going to impair any joy you might otherwise have had with SotO. There is plenty of time for criticism after release that will be based on facts rather than speculations. And yes, I agree that communications leave a lot to be desired regarding many of the questions the community has -- still, don't prematurely ruin the expansion for yourselves

[Tuna Bandit.3786]

Questions and concerns? yes, but no regrets on pre purchase. 

[Gorem.8104]

I think this topic has come at a rather confusing time. 

Because most changes people are against, would happen regardless if you bought the expac or not. This is just a paid for living world, usually that wouldn't have much effect on your account. But stuff like Relics is something that could have come into the game at any point. 

Edit: I love how I have a group of people following me to put confuse reactions to my posts, makes me feel quite popular 🙂

Edited August 21, 2023 by Gorem.8104

[Sobx.1758]

On 7/22/2023 at 11:27 AM, Dayra.7405 said:

No I got my 29 shared inv slot

Pretty sure that comes with any expansion purchase even without prepurchasing it though.

[Buran.3796]

   I didn't preorder since lately (in the last 7-8 years) I've been "voting with my wallet" and that has been extremely successful avoiding turds; in pervious expansion always pre-odered since they have something of interest, but so far I found that SotO has nothing to me:

* Now new PvP map, game mode or content.

* No WvW alliances or any new relevant feature.

* No new specs, with the new weapons not available on release.

* No homing, no relevant new masteries (I consider masteries outside Core Tyria, gliding and mounts largely irrelevant; also making EoD masteries soul bound killed my interest in playing alts in that expansion).

   Meanwhile, SotO brings up plenty of "loses":

* Daily rewards disabled, replaced by a not fully revealed new system that probably would be either less rewarding, more demanding in time or a mixture of both.

* Runes nuked from orbit, replaced by spongie "relics" with worse features and which had to be farmed again. And probably monetized, in some still undisclosed way...

 

   The expansion also arrives between Bardur's Gaste 3 (which already had) Starfield (which will look carefully and won't buy untill some weeks of full test from streamers after the release) and Lords of The Fallen (which will probebly pre-order given what they showcased pleases me a lot). So I can wait half year until they add some missing content...   If the changes in the dailies are bad enough, I maybe won't came back for a while. 

[Gorem.8104]

3 hours ago, Buran.3796 said:

   I didn't preorder since lately (in the last 7-8 years) I've been "voting with my wallet" and that has been extremely successful avoiding turds; in pervious expansion always pre-odered since they have something of interest, but so far I found that SotO has nothing to me:

* Now new PvP map, game mode or content.

* No WvW alliances or any new relevant feature.

* No new specs, with the new weapons not available on release.

* No homing, no relevant new masteries (I consider masteries outside Core Tyria, gliding and mounts largely irrelevant; also making EoD masteries soul bound killed my interest in playing alts in that expansion).

   Meanwhile, SotO brings up plenty of "loses":

* Daily rewards disabled, replaced by a not fully revealed new system that probably would be either less rewarding, more demanding in time or a mixture of both.

* Runes nuked from orbit, replaced by spongie "relics" with worse features and which had to be farmed again. And probably monetized, in some still undisclosed way...

 

   The expansion also arrives between Bardur's Gaste 3 (which already had) Starfield (which will look carefully and won't buy untill some weeks of full test from streamers after the release) and Lords of The Fallen (which will probebly pre-order given what they showcased pleases me a lot). So I can wait half year until they add some missing content...   If the changes in the dailies are bad enough, I maybe won't came back for a while. 

True on BG3, almost every single person I know from all over the world is playing that game right now. Its hard to find anyone not. 

[AliamRationem.5172]

Even if I don't like certain decisions (i.e. relics/legendary stuff), I'm still playing this game so I was going to get the expansion either way.  I hope it'll be great, but I'm expecting low-effort/resources at this point.  Maybe they'll surprise me?  But ultimately, as long as I'm still interested in GW2 paying the price of an expansion or "mini-expansion" isn't much of a factor to me.  Of course, if they keep putting out poor quality, my interest in GW2 won't survive and at that point I won't be buying anything.

[AliamRationem.5172]

17 minutes ago, Gorem.8104 said:

True on BG3, almost every single person I know from all over the world is playing that game right now. Its hard to find anyone not. 

It's just so kitten good!  I've only been playing for a few days with some friends and we all can't wait to log on and play it some more!

[Nash.2681]

On 7/22/2023 at 12:02 PM, wolfyrik.2017 said:

I haven't pre-ordered, for the first time in this games 10 year history. From, Champions to EoD to Gyala, every piece of content produced has been a massive let down to me. They've all felt rushed and incomplete. Don't even get me started on EoD elite specs.

Added to that, they're making some incredibly questionable choices for the game even now. They're already terrible at balancing the game and now they want to complicate things more by addding in weapon options and relics at the same time? Honestly, I don't think they can hack it. Everything about SOTO says that it is just as rushed and ill-conceived as all of the other content we've seen since and including Champions 2 1/2 years ago.

Anet have lost all my good will and they haven't done anything to earn it back. I simply don't trust them anymore.

So much this. I supported this company over the last dozen years, monetary and vocaly, tried to find something positive in any questionable decision. But now  with the latest shift of their business, they've lost even the very last bit of faith in them still I had left. I just can't support this "we don't commuicate with our customers nor care about feedback" attitude they enforced over the last months anymore.

[Gibson.4036]

8 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Even if I don't like certain decisions (i.e. relics/legendary stuff), I'm still playing this game so I was going to get the expansion either way.  I hope it'll be great, but I'm expecting low-effort/resources at this point.  Maybe they'll surprise me?  But ultimately, as long as I'm still interested in GW2 paying the price of an expansion or "mini-expansion" isn't much of a factor to me.  Of course, if they keep putting out poor quality, my interest in GW2 won't survive and at that point I won't be buying anything.

This perfectly sums up where I’m at. I can’t regret buying, because I already have low expectations, and have determined the relatively low price is worth what I’m getting.

8 hours ago, Gorem.8104 said:

True on BG3, almost every single person I know from all over the world is playing that game right now. Its hard to find anyone not. 

I really like Larian’s games, and was excited to see BG3 in development. A co op rpg I might play with my son! But then I read about the content rating… might pick it up and play solo when it goes on sale in a few years.

[Dayra.7405]

13 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Pretty sure that comes with any expansion purchase even without prepurchasing it though.

With prepurchase I have it earlier. 😀
(edit: the Shared inv slot)

Edited August 21, 2023 by Dayra.7405

[Gibson.4036]

Nevermind. I misunderstood.

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[Mara.6782]

I don't regret pre-ordering. I got items i wanted, but what i don't like is that you can't have new weapons at launch. Imagine if they did same with elite specs back then.