Curse

MuthSera · Dec 24, 2006, 01:09 AM // 01:09

. I wanted to buy my friends guild wars really badly for christmas, but I couldn't afford it, at 150 dollars a present. I have 2 friends I've wanted to come play with me for a while now, but they've never been willing to spend 150 dollars on a game they don't know if they will like, and at the same time the contrary is true; 150 dollars is alot to me, and I don't know if they will like it or not.
. I realize that game development has costs, both in paying people's salaries, maintainance on servers and other monthly costs of hosting, but at the same time if the game becomes too expensive to new players, they will stop coming. Parents will stop looking at guild wars as an interesting buy when they see there are 3 expansion packs their kids need in order to play with everyone else, they will buy something else instead. I know it may, or may not seem like a problem now, but it may very well be in the future.
. I do of course realize there are good reasons for having each one priced at 50 dollars. Every game is an account plus a campaign; An account rather. If a scammer has to pay 50 dollars every time his account is deleted to do it again, it is significant reason to stop scamming, right?
. I have another idea for a solution, or maybe something close to what might be proper. The cost of a guild wars account from a retailer such as Game-Stop or Wal-Mart or some such would go on costing 50 dollars; That would be an account plus a campaign there, But through the online store, (Which they have to have an account in order to be able to access anyways.) The expansions could be purchused at a price that is lower then the retailers, selling both an account and a campaign. The scammers pay the same price, the new players pay a new, low price.
. That is to say that I know there is no monthly fee in guild wars, and last night somebody was sure to tell me to 'Go back to WoW, idiot!'. If I liked WoW.. I would play it, but I don't. I play guild wars because I like it, it's balance and the fact that the Anet team has always seemed to not only be close to it's community, but a part of it as well.
. With the lack of a monthly fee in guild wars, the cost of maintaining the servers has to come from somewhere, right? The cost of guild wars is apropriate to old players, but not to new players, which is very detrimental. An old player has paid a monthly fee in a different way. When he purchuses the new game, it is like paying that fee, and it is apropriate. The prices of the older campaigns need to come down in the online store. I would suggest this: Prophecies 20 dollars, Factions 20 dollars, Nightfall 30 dollars, (Untill the next expansion comes out, then nightfall might drop to 20 as well.) That way the latest is always the most expensive, But the older ones can be affordable.
. I've been playing guild wars for about a year and a half now. I am in love with the game. It never gets old for me. I love player vs. player competition, and the balance and attention to detail is wonderful, and I don't want to stop playing. I would like my friends to play with me but the prices are too high for them. This is my request that Anet puts 'Guild wars package' deals up on the whiteboard for discussion.

golem bigstick · Dec 24, 2006, 01:25 AM // 01:25

i hope you realize that you don't need all the campaigns to play, so the pricing is fair. the only exception i see is Prophecies, which should be priced at $30, as it is a year old. many of your points don't really make sense, its almost like your ranting w/o a purpose, or you don't fully understand what your talking about.

BahamutKaiser · Dec 24, 2006, 01:31 AM // 01:31

Any one version of the game works by itself, and the most recent one works on its own well enough to skip the first two, Factions is totally forgetable, and Prophecies is entirely to easy.

If you want to play together just get the most recent one, they can buy the others as money and interest become available. The lack of a few skills is hardly an upset, and with new classes, it hardly even matters.

Beside that, there are several deals with GW which offer them for 40 dollars a piece, not always, but often. I bought the original GW for 40 dollars at Walmart when it released, and I bought a GF Prophecies and Factions for 80 dollars, if you keep an eye out for deals you can save a bit.

I agree that previous chapters should reduce in price, 30-40 dollars standard, as they become obsolete and forgotten. These chapters could produce more sales in the way of future upgrades which offer some new content and features, and could draw current and new players to previous chapters if introduced.

Overall, I would suggest only the most recent version, that is all you need to play together. Chances are, you don't want to repeat an old, pushover chapter, and you would have plenty of content to entertain you in current chapters til the next one comes out, making retroactive play rather meaningless.

MuthSera · Dec 24, 2006, 01:40 AM // 01:40

Do you PVP at all, or just PVE?

In order to stand a chance in PVP, you need all skills, just like everybody else.

-- Please don't blow me off, I feel strongly about this, and I've been seeking a change for quite some time.