It just depends if you trust the developer or not. Having followed ArenaNet since GW beta in 2004, I have a pretty good idea on what they are about. So yeah, I pre purchased.
Its not about trust, it's about likeness of final product and availability, I also trust in ArenaNet, playing GW from start with love but will never give money for something in development under NDA without release date. Especially when all information on game coming from carefully selected journalists and blogs who have revenue benefit for doing this.
But let's be honest, peeps will pay in advance just for beta access. Nice marketing trap from NCsoft.
Am I the only one raising an eyebrow on the idea that to preorder you have to prepurchase the game without even having a clue when it'll be released? Maybe it's the normal in America but you never have to pay for products before it gets sent out here in the UK. Really wanted to preorder the collectors edition too but I'm not paying £130 in advance for something I don't even know when it will be released.
Well the problem with setting a release date is that your force to release the game then and then even if it isnt complete yet. Since arena net will not release GW2 until the game is complete or atleast they fell it is done they cant nessisarly give a release date just yet since with the (almost open bata, prepurchased players) which people will find bugs which need to be fixed where they dunno how long they will take to fix.
Lack of release date is one thing, no NDA drop or long term tester impressions another.
No need in an NDA drop now since we've had 2 Beta events already with full press release goodness. All signs point to a superb game.
- It wasn't "full". (sub level 30, no CS coverage, not all races available)
- It was press. The players haven't been able to speak out yet.
- Also it were short events, giving us just a glimpse of a lot of aspects. In mmorpg terms that isn't even scratching the surface.
There's plenty of unknowns at this time. Whether you "saw enough" to warrant a purchase is anyone's own decision to make but those who prefer to wait and see have plenty of arguments for their more careful stance as well.
Now now, DarkPony, don't forget when "Press-Only" reviews are made for any other MMO, they are there because the big, evil company has limited their exposure to the game and paid off that site for a positive review. However, when ArenaNet, the spunky little company with a heart of gold, does this, it's done with only the best intentions in mind, and the info released is nothing more than 100% truth, and a true indicator of the game's greatness.
Oh, I forgot about that. Thanks Cthulhu23 :P
Personally I don't think that press are bought and sold directly by any developer or publisher, at least not on mmorpg.com. But the press does have a vested interest in keeping up appearances with developers of big releases in our genre for two reasons:
1. Advertising revenue: being black listed by a big developer is something you really want to avoid as a genre site.
2. Access to novel content: Being able to feature exclusive previews, interviews and being invited for press events = premium content for a site = MANI MANI HITS = directly related to a site's appeal to all other advertisers.
That's just the way it is. Next to these very understandable factors, of course it would look very silly to trash a game or offer a lot of negative and perhaps premature conclusions based on just a first glimpse. That's simply unreasonable.
But that's the exact point: the events are simply too short to offer anything but first impressions. Saying that we've seen it all at this time is like saying that we pretty much know what goes on in the galaxy since we peered through the Hubble telescope with a rose colored eyepiece.
I don't wan't to bash the press because they have to go with limited hands-on time at this moment. But I think everyone would agree that long term player reports are of a completely different league and we've yet to see the first of those.
Normally I would agree with your points, but in this situation there's the factor of something like "independent press" as I'd like to call them - specifically TotalHalibut/Biscuit and BlueXephos on YouTube. While BlueXephos is more for comedy (though their coverage has been pretty good so far), I have a lot of trust in TB's journalistic integrity. I'm not sure how he'd feel about GW2's strategy right now, but I'm talking more about his opinion on GW2 based on his experience and videos. He has a lot of good things to say about the game and a number of negatives, but nothing to discourage me from buying the game as soon as it's conceivably available (which is now, apparently).
I understand you point with regards to the journalistic integrity (eg. praising a game from the top of a mountain for ad revenue) and the limited amount of time people have had with the game, but the information put forth by people like TB and BX (People I really do trust, TB especially - he's really vocal when it comes to things like bad gaming journalism/business practices), and the sheer amount of video footage/written information I've dug up over the past few years of following GW2, I plan to buy this as soon as tomorrow (yes, I realise it's already out).
The public press is never an entity I trust, but one can generally gauge the truth of the matter if they've scanned through every scrap of information that has ever been released about the game and found a general consensus among all of it. As an added note, I'm pretty sure ANet did this with their first game as well... I remember pre-ordering/prepurchasing (? don't really remember) the game and getting access to the last beta weekend event and getting at least 1 or 2 days headstart.
It just depends if you trust the developer or not. Having followed ArenaNet since GW beta in 2004, I have a pretty good idea on what they are about. So yeah, I pre purchased.
Its not about trust, it's about likeness of final product and availability, I also trust in ArenaNet, playing GW from start with love but will never give money for something in development under NDA without release date. Especially when all information on game coming from carefully selected journalists and blogs who have revenue benefit for doing this.
But let's be honest, peeps will pay in advance just for beta access. Nice marketing trap from NCsoft.
Yep. And since A-net will be getting the biggest income from initial box sales, and the cash shop is avoidable (going by GW1) why should A-net care if they are selling a pig in a poke, they will already have everyone's money.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
It just depends if you trust the developer or not. Having followed ArenaNet since GW beta in 2004, I have a pretty good idea on what they are about. So yeah, I pre purchased.
Its not about trust, it's about likeness of final product and availability, I also trust in ArenaNet, playing GW from start with love but will never give money for something in development under NDA without release date. Especially when all information on game coming from carefully selected journalists and blogs who have revenue benefit for doing this.
But let's be honest, peeps will pay in advance just for beta access. Nice marketing trap from NCsoft.
Yep. And since A-net will be getting the biggest income from initial box sales, and the cash shop is avoidable (going by GW1) why should A-net care if they are selling a pig in a poke, they will already have everyone's money.
Because that's a two-way street. Yeah, ANet doesn't necessarily care if you play the game because you already gave them their initial money, but they want you to actually LIKE the game and stick around so you'll buy the expansions and/or DLC. If they betray their audience and they turn against them they're pretty much screwed due to not having any safe subscription money to fall back on. This is the driving force behind quality in GW2.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
Am I the only one raising an eyebrow on the idea that to preorder you have to prepurchase the game without even having a clue when it'll be released? Maybe it's the normal in America but you never have to pay for products before it gets sent out here in the UK. Really wanted to preorder the collectors edition too but I'm not paying £130 in advance for something I don't even know when it will be released.
Fact: you dont HAVE to do anything,no one is forcing you to buy the game.
@Darkpony about the NDA thing, the next weekend beta events will be NDA free, so all you guys have to do is wait till next event and see what the people has to say, please make a litle research before spreading nosense.
Yes, it quite simple really. If you trust A-net and give them your money now despite not knowing what the game is like or when it'll be released you get a bonus. If you don't trust them and wait until release to pay, then you don't get a bonus.
So either invest in the game or don't. It's not like you lose a great deal if you don't.
The nosense about suggesting that Anet will be as bad if not worse as others, i know they (other developers) have break our hearts with false expectations and non delivered promises, but lets give Anet a chance to fail and wait to see what are they going to do.
It just depends if you trust the developer or not. Having followed ArenaNet since GW beta in 2004, I have a pretty good idea on what they are about. So yeah, I pre purchased.
Its not about trust, it's about likeness of final product and availability, I also trust in ArenaNet, playing GW from start with love but will never give money for something in development under NDA without release date. Especially when all information on game coming from carefully selected journalists and blogs who have revenue benefit for doing this.
But let's be honest, peeps will pay in advance just for beta access. Nice marketing trap from NCsoft.
Yep. And since A-net will be getting the biggest income from initial box sales, and the cash shop is avoidable (going by GW1) why should A-net care if they are selling a pig in a poke, they will already have everyone's money.
Because that's a two-way street. Yeah, ANet doesn't necessarily care if you play the game because you already gave them their initial money, but they want you to actually LIKE the game and stick around so you'll buy the expansions and/or DLC. If they betray their audience and they turn against them they're pretty much screwed due to not having any safe subscription money to fall back on. This is the driving force behind quality in GW2.
Implying something that obvious and grandiose would actually occur. Simply under-delivering what most expect would not cause that kind of backlash.
Even if many quit Anet could just move on to the next thing. People still buy games made by NCSoft, Funcom, SOE, Bioware, EA and others despite poor games being put out. Many gamers these days will buy a game due to hype or word of mouth without doing any research whatsoever. Thinking Anet would "be screwed" over one game is just ignorant.
No one is being forced to pre-purchase the game in order to play it when it launches. You can even do a traditional pre-order for non- Collector's Edition versions of the game if you want, or just wait until release to buy it.
Arenanet have incentivized people to invest in the purchase price of the game, months prior to launch, in exchange for monthly access to Weekend Beta Events, a bonus in game item and a three day head start. How certain you are that you will want to play the game at release and how much you want the guaranteed beta access and other benefits will determine how appealing the pre-purchase option is to you.
If you are on the fence, you can even wait a while, see how one or two weekend beta events, which will not be under NDA, go; or even just wait until the release date is announced before making your pre-purchase, if you pre-purchase at all. The value of the monthly beta events may go down as each event passes, but waiting may also give you more certainty about wanting to play the game when it comes out.
If I pre-purchase and get burned with a dud of a game, well, shame on me for putting more faith in Arenanet and the game than the MMO genre has taught me is wise. Even with the pre-purchase leap of faith, I think I have a pretty good shot at not regretting this purchase. If I'm wrong, well, there is no subscription fee, so I can dip my toe back in when ever I want, waiting for it to be just right.
Lack of release date is one thing, no NDA drop or long term tester impressions another.
No need in an NDA drop now since we've had 2 Beta events already with full press release goodness. All signs point to a superb game.
- It wasn't "full". (sub level 30, no CS coverage, not all races available)
- It was press. The players haven't been able to speak out yet.
- Also it were short events, giving us just a glimpse of a lot of aspects. In mmorpg terms that isn't even scratching the surface.
There's plenty of unknowns at this time. Whether you "saw enough" to warrant a purchase is anyone's own decision to make but those who prefer to wait and see have plenty of arguments for their more careful stance as well.
Now now, DarkPony, don't forget when "Press-Only" reviews are made for any other MMO, they are there because the big, evil company has limited their exposure to the game and paid off that site for a positive review. However, when ArenaNet, the spunky little company with a heart of gold, does this, it's done with only the best intentions in mind, and the info released is nothing more than 100% truth, and a true indicator of the game's greatness.
Oh, I forgot about that. Thanks Cthulhu23 :P
Personally I don't think that press are bought and sold directly by any developer or publisher, at least not on mmorpg.com. But the press does have a vested interest in keeping up appearances with developers of big releases in our genre for two reasons:
1. Advertising revenue: being black listed by a big developer is something you really want to avoid as a genre site.
2. Access to novel content: Being able to feature exclusive previews, interviews and being invited for press events = premium content for a site = MANI MANI HITS = directly related to a site's appeal to all other advertisers.
That's just the way it is. Next to these very understandable factors, of course it would look very silly to trash a game or offer a lot of negative and perhaps premature conclusions based on just a first glimpse. That's simply unreasonable.
But that's the exact point: the events are simply too short to offer anything but first impressions. Saying that we've seen it all at this time is like saying that we pretty much know what goes on in the galaxy since we peered through the Hubble telescope with a rose colored eyepiece.
I don't wan't to bash the press because they have to go with limited hands-on time at this moment. But I think everyone would agree that long term player reports are of a completely different league and we've yet to see the first of those.
Normally I would agree with your points, but in this situation there's the factor of something like "independent press" as I'd like to call them - specifically TotalHalibut/Biscuit and BlueXephos on YouTube. While BlueXephos is more for comedy (though their coverage has been pretty good so far), I have a lot of trust in TB's journalistic integrity. I'm not sure how he'd feel about GW2's strategy right now, but I'm talking more about his opinion on GW2 based on his experience and videos. He has a lot of good things to say about the game and a number of negatives, but nothing to discourage me from buying the game as soon as it's conceivably available (which is now, apparently).
I understand you point with regards to the journalistic integrity (eg. praising a game from the top of a mountain for ad revenue) and the limited amount of time people have had with the game, but the information put forth by people like TB and BX (People I really do trust, TB especially - he's really vocal when it comes to things like bad gaming journalism/business practices), and the sheer amount of video footage/written information I've dug up over the past few years of following GW2, I plan to buy this as soon as tomorrow (yes, I realise it's already out).
The public press is never an entity I trust, but one can generally gauge the truth of the matter if they've scanned through every scrap of information that has ever been released about the game and found a general consensus among all of it. As an added note, I'm pretty sure ANet did this with their first game as well... I remember pre-ordering/prepurchasing (? don't really remember) the game and getting access to the last beta weekend event and getting at least 1 or 2 days headstart.
Sure, some outlets might have less vested interest than others, (I think TB was the only being critical in one aspect too: about the predetermined and numbered sub objectives of events), but it still was just a glimpse of the game. They serve well to give an impression but not the insight that long term player testers could give us.
Am I the only one raising an eyebrow on the idea that to preorder you have to prepurchase the game without even having a clue when it'll be released? Maybe it's the normal in America but you never have to pay for products before it gets sent out here in the UK. Really wanted to preorder the collectors edition too but I'm not paying £130 in advance for something I don't even know when it will be released.
It is not standard procedure, that is true.
Didn´t stop me though , as long as the game is out this year it really doesn't matter to me.
The nosense about suggesting that Anet will be as bad if not worse as others, i know they (other developers) have break our hearts with false expectations and non delivered promises, but lest give them a chance to fail and wait to see what are they going to do.
Where did I suggest that?
I simply stated facts. I never said the game would disppoint or be bad, nor that we are being scammed or whatever.
But prepurchase without NDA drop or a release date + a limited press exposure does not equal "all we need to know" and I don't like that kind of practice in rolling out games. That's all. I will make up my mind at a later time when the final word is out.
It's not about me giving them a chance, its about them not being completely open at the moment that they ask us to pull our wallet.
The nosense about suggesting that Anet will be as bad if not worse as others, i know they (other developers) have break our hearts with false expectations and non delivered promises, but lest give them a chance to fail and wait to see what are they going to do.
Where did I suggest that?
I simply stated facts. I never said the game would disppoint or be bad, nor that we are being scammed or whatever.
But prepurchase without NDA drop or a release date + a limited press exposure does not equal "all we need to know" and I don't like that kind of practice in rolling out games. That's all. I will make up my mind at a later time when the final word is out.
It's not about me giving them a chance, its about them not being completely open at the moment that they ask us to pull our wallet.
Well you are rigth on that but they are not the first in doing this, in Steam you can buy games wich are not even close to release like darksiders 2, or Skyrim at its time, all they do is show some cool trailers, and a release date and ask us to buy.
All companies do this, the difference is that Anet does it after showing us much more that some cinematics, or interviews talking about things that arent shown in ingame videos.
no release date, coupled with no cash shop info and no region lock info have made me decide not to pre-purchase.
im sure i wont be missed. but if we are to hold A-net to higher standards as they suggest we do. Except they dont listen to cries from fans of potential foul play. It seems seems more like marketing speech, (everything they say that is.) I, we are just dollar signs in their eyes. They can talk about difference, and taking the community's interest into account, but i just dont see it. I won't purchase until i do.
Lack of release date is one thing, no NDA drop or long term tester impressions another.
No need in an NDA drop now since we've had 2 Beta events already with full press release goodness. All signs point to a superb game.
- It wasn't "full". (sub level 30, no CS coverage, not all races available)
- It was press. The players haven't been able to speak out yet.
- Also it were short events, giving us just a glimpse of a lot of aspects. In mmorpg terms that isn't even scratching the surface.
There's plenty of unknowns at this time. Whether you "saw enough" to warrant a purchase is anyone's own decision to make but those who prefer to wait and see have plenty of arguments for their more careful stance as well.
Now now, DarkPony, don't forget when "Press-Only" reviews are made for any other MMO, they are there because the big, evil company has limited their exposure to the game and paid off that site for a positive review. However, when ArenaNet, the spunky little company with a heart of gold, does this, it's done with only the best intentions in mind, and the info released is nothing more than 100% truth, and a true indicator of the game's greatness.
Oh, I forgot about that. Thanks Cthulhu23 :P
Personally I don't think that press are bought and sold directly by any developer or publisher, at least not on mmorpg.com. But the press does have a vested interest in keeping up appearances with developers of big releases in our genre for two reasons:
1. Advertising revenue: being black listed by a big developer is something you really want to avoid as a genre site.
2. Access to novel content: Being able to feature exclusive previews, interviews and being invited for press events = premium content for a site = MANI MANI HITS = directly related to a site's appeal to all other advertisers.
That's just the way it is. Next to these very understandable factors, of course it would look very silly to trash a game or offer a lot of negative and perhaps premature conclusions based on just a first glimpse. That's simply unreasonable.
But that's the exact point: the events are simply too short to offer anything but first impressions. Saying that we've seen it all at this time is like saying that we pretty much know what goes on in the galaxy since we peered through the Hubble telescope with a rose colored eyepiece.
I don't wan't to bash the press because they have to go with limited hands-on time at this moment. But I think everyone would agree that long term player reports are of a completely different league and we've yet to see the first of those.
Normally I would agree with your points, but in this situation there's the factor of something like "independent press" as I'd like to call them - specifically TotalHalibut/Biscuit and BlueXephos on YouTube. While BlueXephos is more for comedy (though their coverage has been pretty good so far), I have a lot of trust in TB's journalistic integrity. I'm not sure how he'd feel about GW2's strategy right now, but I'm talking more about his opinion on GW2 based on his experience and videos. He has a lot of good things to say about the game and a number of negatives, but nothing to discourage me from buying the game as soon as it's conceivably available (which is now, apparently).
I understand you point with regards to the journalistic integrity (eg. praising a game from the top of a mountain for ad revenue) and the limited amount of time people have had with the game, but the information put forth by people like TB and BX (People I really do trust, TB especially - he's really vocal when it comes to things like bad gaming journalism/business practices), and the sheer amount of video footage/written information I've dug up over the past few years of following GW2, I plan to buy this as soon as tomorrow (yes, I realise it's already out).
The public press is never an entity I trust, but one can generally gauge the truth of the matter if they've scanned through every scrap of information that has ever been released about the game and found a general consensus among all of it. As an added note, I'm pretty sure ANet did this with their first game as well... I remember pre-ordering/prepurchasing (? don't really remember) the game and getting access to the last beta weekend event and getting at least 1 or 2 days headstart.
Sure, some outlets might have less vested interest than others, (I think TB was the only being critical in one aspect too: about the predetermined and numbered sub objectives of events), but it still was just a glimpse of the game. They serve well to give an impression but not the insight that long term player testers could give us.
I'll admit that point. If to no greater purpose than my own entertainment while I wait for the damn game to come out, some sort of article/journal from a long-term play tester would be welcome. I'll also admit to being horrendously bad at waiting and not the prospect of a beta within the next few weeks (I'm not sure where they said it but I vaguely remember someone official-like saying the first beta weekend will be around April 20th, conveniently right after my last final), makes the likelyhood of waiting for some sort of long-term player input zero to none.
Regardless of whether, by some sick twist, the game isn't as good as we're all hoping, I would have bought it anyway. I've got a couple of RL friends with whom I play a number of games and I'm sure we'd get our 60 dollars worth in CO-RPG experience if the MMO in GW2 fails (eg. the extreme situation where the game becomes a vertiable ghost town due to lack of interest).
On an unrelated note: It's really nice to have people like TB around - he doesn't tend to fanboi, gives a generally fair/accurate estimation/first impression of most of the games he encounters, and generally provides staunch advice/critique with regards to how he thinks the game could be improved/what features he enjoyed. I really think we need more people like him with more influence and less of the whole IGN crowd...
no release date, coupled with no cash shop info and no region lock info have made me decide not to pre-purchase.
im sure i wont be missed. but if we are to hold A-net to higher standards as they suggest we do. Except they dont listen to cries from fans of potential foul play. It seems seems more like marketing speech, (everything they say that is.) I, we are just dollar signs in their eyes. They can talk about difference, and taking the community's interest into account, but i just dont see it. I won't purchase until i do.
Yeah. The whole "Hold us to higher standards, yet feel free to purchase our game before you really have enough accurate info to decide if we are indeed upholding said standards", is a bit puzzling. And I feel that there is a very possible whiff of NCsoft bullsh*t about it.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
@Darkpony about the NDA thing, the next weekend beta events will be NDA free, so all you guys have to do is wait till next event and see what the people has to say, please make a litle research before spreading nosense.
Darkpony is not interested in doing research about GW2.
Really, so because DP wants to hear from actual gamers about the game, get an actual release date, before he considers purchasing it, HE isn't interested in doing research about GW2.
So there will be no NDA NEXT WEEK. Wow. Makes about as much sense as telling someone the potential dangerous side effects of their medication a WEEK after they've started taking it.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
@Darkpony about the NDA thing, the next weekend beta events will be NDA free, so all you guys have to do is wait till next event and see what the people has to say, please make a litle research before spreading nosense.
Darkpony is not interested in doing research about GW2.
Really, so because DP wants to hear from actual gamers about the game, get an actual release date, before he considers purchasing it, HE isn't interested in doing research about GW2.
So there will be no NDA NEXT WEEK. Wow. Makes about as much sense as telling someone the potential dangerous side effects of their medication a WEEK after they've started taking it.
You know people are able to preorder after the beta events rigth?
Comments
Its not about trust, it's about likeness of final product and availability, I also trust in ArenaNet, playing GW from start with love but will never give money for something in development under NDA without release date. Especially when all information on game coming from carefully selected journalists and blogs who have revenue benefit for doing this.
But let's be honest, peeps will pay in advance just for beta access.
Nice marketing trap from NCsoft.
---
"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."
Surely GW2 is awesome for short time limited beta weekend event, what about the long run?
I've got my hands on the game and wasn't impressed enough to pre-order :J
Well the problem with setting a release date is that your force to release the game then and then even if it isnt complete yet. Since arena net will not release GW2 until the game is complete or atleast they fell it is done they cant nessisarly give a release date just yet since with the (almost open bata, prepurchased players) which people will find bugs which need to be fixed where they dunno how long they will take to fix.
Normally I would agree with your points, but in this situation there's the factor of something like "independent press" as I'd like to call them - specifically TotalHalibut/Biscuit and BlueXephos on YouTube. While BlueXephos is more for comedy (though their coverage has been pretty good so far), I have a lot of trust in TB's journalistic integrity. I'm not sure how he'd feel about GW2's strategy right now, but I'm talking more about his opinion on GW2 based on his experience and videos. He has a lot of good things to say about the game and a number of negatives, but nothing to discourage me from buying the game as soon as it's conceivably available (which is now, apparently).
I understand you point with regards to the journalistic integrity (eg. praising a game from the top of a mountain for ad revenue) and the limited amount of time people have had with the game, but the information put forth by people like TB and BX (People I really do trust, TB especially - he's really vocal when it comes to things like bad gaming journalism/business practices), and the sheer amount of video footage/written information I've dug up over the past few years of following GW2, I plan to buy this as soon as tomorrow (yes, I realise it's already out).
The public press is never an entity I trust, but one can generally gauge the truth of the matter if they've scanned through every scrap of information that has ever been released about the game and found a general consensus among all of it. As an added note, I'm pretty sure ANet did this with their first game as well... I remember pre-ordering/prepurchasing (? don't really remember) the game and getting access to the last beta weekend event and getting at least 1 or 2 days headstart.
Yep. And since A-net will be getting the biggest income from initial box sales, and the cash shop is avoidable (going by GW1) why should A-net care if they are selling a pig in a poke, they will already have everyone's money.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
I wont say I dont trust Anet, havent played any of their games yet.
but I dont trust NcSoft. So I wont pre-order.
Very annoyed
indeed.
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
Because that's a two-way street. Yeah, ANet doesn't necessarily care if you play the game because you already gave them their initial money, but they want you to actually LIKE the game and stick around so you'll buy the expansions and/or DLC. If they betray their audience and they turn against them they're pretty much screwed due to not having any safe subscription money to fall back on. This is the driving force behind quality in GW2.
Fact: you dont HAVE to do anything,no one is forcing you to buy the game.
@Darkpony about the NDA thing, the next weekend beta events will be NDA free, so all you guys have to do is wait till next event and see what the people has to say, please make a litle research before spreading nosense.
Source
I´ve been waiting for over 5 years.... but i can wait a little longer....
Not pre-purchasing the game untill release date & beta schedule are announced.
My brand new bloggity blog.
Yes, it quite simple really. If you trust A-net and give them your money now despite not knowing what the game is like or when it'll be released you get a bonus. If you don't trust them and wait until release to pay, then you don't get a bonus.
So either invest in the game or don't. It's not like you lose a great deal if you don't.
The nosense about suggesting that Anet will be as bad if not worse as others, i know they (other developers) have break our hearts with false expectations and non delivered promises, but lets give Anet a chance to fail and wait to see what are they going to do.
Implying something that obvious and grandiose would actually occur. Simply under-delivering what most expect would not cause that kind of backlash.
Even if many quit Anet could just move on to the next thing. People still buy games made by NCSoft, Funcom, SOE, Bioware, EA and others despite poor games being put out. Many gamers these days will buy a game due to hype or word of mouth without doing any research whatsoever. Thinking Anet would "be screwed" over one game is just ignorant.
No one is being forced to pre-purchase the game in order to play it when it launches. You can even do a traditional pre-order for non- Collector's Edition versions of the game if you want, or just wait until release to buy it.
Arenanet have incentivized people to invest in the purchase price of the game, months prior to launch, in exchange for monthly access to Weekend Beta Events, a bonus in game item and a three day head start. How certain you are that you will want to play the game at release and how much you want the guaranteed beta access and other benefits will determine how appealing the pre-purchase option is to you.
If you are on the fence, you can even wait a while, see how one or two weekend beta events, which will not be under NDA, go; or even just wait until the release date is announced before making your pre-purchase, if you pre-purchase at all. The value of the monthly beta events may go down as each event passes, but waiting may also give you more certainty about wanting to play the game when it comes out.
If I pre-purchase and get burned with a dud of a game, well, shame on me for putting more faith in Arenanet and the game than the MMO genre has taught me is wise. Even with the pre-purchase leap of faith, I think I have a pretty good shot at not regretting this purchase. If I'm wrong, well, there is no subscription fee, so I can dip my toe back in when ever I want, waiting for it to be just right.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Sure, some outlets might have less vested interest than others, (I think TB was the only being critical in one aspect too: about the predetermined and numbered sub objectives of events), but it still was just a glimpse of the game. They serve well to give an impression but not the insight that long term player testers could give us.
My brand new bloggity blog.
It is not standard procedure, that is true.
Didn´t stop me though , as long as the game is out this year it really doesn't matter to me.
Where did I suggest that?
I simply stated facts. I never said the game would disppoint or be bad, nor that we are being scammed or whatever.
But prepurchase without NDA drop or a release date + a limited press exposure does not equal "all we need to know" and I don't like that kind of practice in rolling out games. That's all. I will make up my mind at a later time when the final word is out.
It's not about me giving them a chance, its about them not being completely open at the moment that they ask us to pull our wallet.
My brand new bloggity blog.
Well you are rigth on that but they are not the first in doing this, in Steam you can buy games wich are not even close to release like darksiders 2, or Skyrim at its time, all they do is show some cool trailers, and a release date and ask us to buy.
All companies do this, the difference is that Anet does it after showing us much more that some cinematics, or interviews talking about things that arent shown in ingame videos.
no release date, coupled with no cash shop info and no region lock info have made me decide not to pre-purchase.
im sure i wont be missed. but if we are to hold A-net to higher standards as they suggest we do. Except they dont listen to cries from fans of potential foul play. It seems seems more like marketing speech, (everything they say that is.) I, we are just dollar signs in their eyes. They can talk about difference, and taking the community's interest into account, but i just dont see it. I won't purchase until i do.
I've got the straight edge.
I'll admit that point. If to no greater purpose than my own entertainment while I wait for the damn game to come out, some sort of article/journal from a long-term play tester would be welcome. I'll also admit to being horrendously bad at waiting and not the prospect of a beta within the next few weeks (I'm not sure where they said it but I vaguely remember someone official-like saying the first beta weekend will be around April 20th, conveniently right after my last final), makes the likelyhood of waiting for some sort of long-term player input zero to none.
Regardless of whether, by some sick twist, the game isn't as good as we're all hoping, I would have bought it anyway. I've got a couple of RL friends with whom I play a number of games and I'm sure we'd get our 60 dollars worth in CO-RPG experience if the MMO in GW2 fails (eg. the extreme situation where the game becomes a vertiable ghost town due to lack of interest).
On an unrelated note: It's really nice to have people like TB around - he doesn't tend to fanboi, gives a generally fair/accurate estimation/first impression of most of the games he encounters, and generally provides staunch advice/critique with regards to how he thinks the game could be improved/what features he enjoyed. I really think we need more people like him with more influence and less of the whole IGN crowd...
Yeah. The whole "Hold us to higher standards, yet feel free to purchase our game before you really have enough accurate info to decide if we are indeed upholding said standards", is a bit puzzling. And I feel that there is a very possible whiff of NCsoft bullsh*t about it.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
Really, so because DP wants to hear from actual gamers about the game, get an actual release date, before he considers purchasing it, HE isn't interested in doing research about GW2.
So there will be no NDA NEXT WEEK. Wow. Makes about as much sense as telling someone the potential dangerous side effects of their medication a WEEK after they've started taking it.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
You know people are able to preorder after the beta events rigth?