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Bundling GW1 for free, when you buy Guild Wars 2
pingo
Member UncommonPosts: 608
Hello mates, I made a thread over on GWguru, about this subject;
I don't know how much Guild Wars still sells at retail, but I could imagine that the retail sales will almost get killed completely once Guild Wars 2 is released.
It seems to many of us now, that GW2 will be a very different game from GW1, maybe for better or worse, we will have to see when that time comes, but I personally applaud it, because there is already a Guild Wars, and doing the same thing one more time, just with better graphics seems lazy and boring to me. Like a false sense of security, because change can be scary.
But because GW2, will be so different, there is suddenly this wonderful possibility that GW1 does not need to die, even if it won't get updated. A great way of doing this would be to include the original game, when GW2 gets released.
Valve did a great thing when they bundled, Half-Life 2, and Episode 1, when they released the Orange Box. They saw the benefits of the long term effects, and how the increased value of giving customers a great way to experience the previous game, for free, would further their customers loyalty. And it was not like Half-Life 2 was a small game that nobody bought. It's without a doubt one of the biggest and most important gaming releases of the last ten years.
If GW1, was included as a digital download, on a small USB stick, or something, people would most likely go back and complete, or at least play GW1 for a while, making sure that GW1 would remain healthy.
Why would people go play GW1, when they have GW2? Well, obviously because GW1 will offer something different, and while the graphics are not something to brag about anymore, the tech and philsophy is still great.
Gamers who come during the GW2 days, will be able to explore what happened 200 years ago, and see how it began, and unlock things. It will be perfect, and another way for Anet to win lots of brownie points.
Long term, I am absolutely 100% certain that gamers will commit to GW2, because they see what the developers did to keep the previous game alive. Nobody wants to spend hundreds of time in an online RPG, if they are scared that it will die out soon.
That is why you have tons of people going to online forums asking for the most popular online games. It's like a guarantee that the game will remain healthy and have a population for a long time.
Resting on it's laurels and saying that it's "not needed" is a false sense of security, that will be tarnished by the coming of Diablo 3, SWTOR(and the legions of fans who will follow that game, regardless of how good/crappy it is) and Cataclysm(which is shaping up to be a bloddy fantastistic game!).
So all in all; Give this one for free, think of the long term benefits, and for your fans who wish to keep playing GW1, for time to time. While we can still play in an empty world if you choose to keep the servers up, it will not be very much fun. It's very little you have to do to keep it alive. You don't have to update it.
Just push a tiny bit for the health of GW1. You don't have to bundle Factions/Nightfall/EOTN, if you don't want to, but I think that would be even more amazing.
If GW does not sell anymore I don't see a need of why not. You're not going to make money on a dead online game, that's for sure, but if it's alive and well it will strengthen the reputation of the company, and Guild Wars as a very long lasting brand.
So many people blindly bought Starcraft 2, because it went without saying that it would stay alive for a very long time, simply because of the original.
I searched for this subject and could not find any threads like it. Sorry if it has been discussed before!
Link to thread, if anyone is interested: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/plea-anet-bundle-gw1-with-t10448013.html
Comments
Everyone who plans on playing GW2 already have the game. Its where about 80% of Anets population will draw upon.
I don't care about innovation I care about fun.
I was under the impression that the games many radical changes was due to attract many of the players who disliked GW1... Thats what I at least have heard from people who are interested in it. And in fact, it seems to be hardcore GW1 fans who are most opposed to GW2 due to all these changes!
When GW2 launches GW1 price will go down so it will be cheaper for people to buy if they want it.
Why should they make it free? it's a buy once free forever it's not like your going to pay a monthly fee on it... they need to get the money from somewere.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cloudsol/
I agree
BUT at the same time we need not forget that there are new faces coming to MMO's all the time and if a new face is willing to try out GW2 because it looks cool (seems to be the trend these days, forget the gameplay, just have epic graphics yada yada yada..i think you know what i mean) then they may never even give GW a thought and you never know GW may be the very thing they are looking for thus potentially gaining more ppl playing it and keeping it alive which in turn may drag these ppl back to GW2 in the future...you get what i am saying?
But yeah they do need to get money from somewhere, maybe they should give the original game for free to pre-order purchases or something so they are not handing out millions of free copies but then again if it could mean the end for GW (which it wont) why would it matter of they give a few for free.
But it's already 5 bucks or something. I don't think it will give any worthwhile retail sales... if they give the original for free, and people try it because they got it for free, and like it, they might buy EOTN, to unlock stuff in GW1 to transfer to GW2.. and also because GW1 is so different and hopefully a great supplement to GW2.
It does not have to be like Modern Warfare, where MW2 kills the MW and CoD:WoW fanbases... thats really sad and annoying to chop up your fanbase like that.
I don't tihnk it's necessary and is nto a good financial move for ArenaNet.I tihnk peopel should look at how the sales of the Warcraft Battlechest soared after WoW became a huge hit.If GW2 is truly so different from GW then the original GW releases could reap a huge financial benefit for ArenaNet, if GW2 delivers on all those things they have talked up and sound good in theory, in a similar way as the original Warcraft trilogy did for Blizz after WoW.
I'm sorry if this post offends anyone who's religion is the belief that ArenaNet are benevolent Gods who do what they do out of love for their worshippers and only accept token sacrifices of cash as tokens of affection returned.
The difference is just that Warcraft battlechest, was a RTS and it has done really really well post-WoW.
GW1 and GW2 are in the same genre, so... Warcraft 3 got enjoyed by many people for the single player!
Im thinking if too many people move on from GW1 to GW2 then there will be no incentive to make any more expansions for GW1. Then if there are no more expansions what is the incentive for keeping the servers up?
Does anyone really think that people moving from gw1 to gw2 will continue to play 1? Continue to buy expansions for 1?
I absolutely agree that ANet needs to keep making money; I would consider a slightly more expensive pre-order or release copy if one or more GW1 campaigns were bundled with it.
Why? because i have freinds that are money poor like me that cant justify the $40 expense for the three bundled campaigns on the shelves at wal mart and best buy, or who can't upgrade their computers right now.
I would give the GW1 software to friends of mine, and play both games.
I hope ANet at least considers the idea.
I have been following you and I cant understand so much hate in your posts bro xD if you dont like something you dont need to keep repeting that you dislike it xP
Anyway, yes a exodus will much likely occur to GW2 from the GW1 population, why do you think everyone is bumping their halls of the monuments in 1?
Even tho GW1 players are a minority in the amount of ppl that wants to play GW2 less than 20%, actually because GW1 population is not exactly huge.
Anyway, GW1 will be a desert, there will be the ones that will stay, but a huge chunk will migrate, so there isnt much reason to sell the game in addition to the second one.
A bonus pack maybe, but normally no.
"It has potential"
-Second most used phrase on existence
"It sucks"
-Most used phrase on existence
Well GW1 is part of the guild wars lore... if GW1 is not up, then nobody can find out what happened prior.
if GW1 is "killed" 5 years into development, despite selling 6 million copies, should I assume the same thing about GW2? that that game has to 2015 and then my characters and efforts are gone?
EQ at most had 300-400.000 subscribers, and has sold much less than Guild Wars... its over 12 years old, and survived its succesor, EQ2.
Thirdly and most importantly, GW2 wont have dual professions, so many skills, some of the classes, the lvl 20 level cap, the use of instancing, cantha/nightfall, and just the entire uniqeness of the game... what about GW fans who want to keep playing both?
Or GW2 fans who would like to feel safe, that the developers dont kill the game immaturely!
I still play KOTOR 1, even after I got KOTOR 2. I swing through both games multiple times. I am gonna play a hell of a lot GW2(hopefully) but I also wanna go back from time to time and play GW1...
Do you still play old games like Diablo 2, Warcraft 3? despite being 8 and 10 years old, these games are still great. You still play WC3 even after WoW had been out for half a decade. good games are not less good games just because they have sequels released.
And in the case of GW1, its such a uniqe game.. there is nothing like it. not even GW2.
Huh?