I am utterly dumbfounded at what the hype has done to what would otherwise be a smart community. I will try to put things into a little perspective, and you can flame all you want afterwards, but please hear me out:

1) Pay to Beta test

In all honesty, how many times have most of us complained that once a game is released, it feels like you are paying to beta test it for them because of some irks or outright bugs we find in it... But in GW2 you are ACTUALLY paying in order to beta test it. It's not a PRIVILAGE, it's a service. And I don't know about you, but when I provide a service, I want to be paid, or otherwise compensated for it. But in this case, you are paying THEM in order to test their game out. Just pure ridiculousness...

2) Pay Full price BEFORE an NDA has been lifted

My word, who would do such a thing? Please... just think for a moment. Peer review is one of the best judges of an item, specially when there is no conflict of interest. News sites and some demo tests are NOT a good judgement of the final product. The websites that got access to the BETA want traffic, and are also going to attempt to showcase their own talents, either in writing or other aspects. This means they will very much romanticize what they experienced and even without realizing it will sugar coat the experience, which is clear conflict of interests. As for demos, these are the polished versions of a limited scope of the game. I can't tell you how many times I have enjoyed a demo much more than the actual full game. Lets review something: why would you hold something behind your back, and ask people to pay you in full before you give it to them? I will let you draw your own conclusion on that one (even if it does hurt some prides).

I was going to continue adding some more points, but instead of this becoming a warning, it would look like a rant. My sincere advice to my fellow players is to NOT purchase the game outright until the NDA is lifted and the beta crowds give you the real low-down on how things are. You will not loose out on anything since the beta chars get whiped, and you will enjoy your journey much better on launch day. Best case scenerio you will realize the game is not for you and would have saved some cash. Worst case scenario you loose out on some early gameplay, which would get deleted anyways.

This has been a public service announcement :-P

Originally posted by Sephastus

2) Pay Full price BEFORE an NDA has been lifted

My word, who would do such a thing? Please... just think for a moment.\

Blizzard fans did that -- for Starcraft2 and past games

http://www.gamespot.com/news/starcraft-ii-beta-access-included-with-preorder-6259222

paying for beta is nothing new

I paid for beta for World of Warcraft back in 2004

You're right, I should hold off... hello, what's this? A receipt for the Collector's Edition already paid in full?

SWEET!

It's not a trap if you go in willingly and prefer not to leave.

Even UO had a pay to beta test. I think it cost $2 and you had to mail it in since the internet was still basically in its infancy.

97 posts, joined 2009... welcome to the world of mmos :P

Played the game at PAX, played at Gamescom, been waiting for about 5 years... Yep I purchased it because the game was great 2 years ago when I played it... And they have only been making it better ever since. GW 1 was a great game, great lore, great world. Was it a WoW clone? Hell No. But that doesnt make it bad. GW2 is even better. Aesthetically one of the ebst games of all time, smooth, complicated combat. No stand and spam garbage. 

Is it a trap? Not at all. This game is a blessing to those of us who actually know what Arenanet is about, and have been waiting on this game since we finished the storylines in GW1.

No one is forcing you to anything.

You can buy the game when you feel you have all the information you need.

I will pre-purchase because I have faith in Arenanet and I have enough info atm.

Originally posted by Volkon

...

It's not a trap if you go in willingly and prefer not to leave.

Says the crab when he willingly goes into the crab-trap to eat his fish. lol

If you are fine with what you are getting, more power to you. Some of us are a bit more cautious after being burned one too many times. Those are the ones I give the friendly advice.

They're also handing out beta keys to various sites(I'm guessing to mmorpg.com as well) for the beta weekends, just like they did for the original game(which I didn't pre-order either and still got in every beta event) so I wouldn't worry too much.

Correction:

Quote from Martin Kerstein of Arena Net " Our BWEs will not be under NDA,"

Source: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/gwj-mike-obrien-with-some-t34199.html?p=1311579#post1311579

I heartily recommend anyone with doubts to wait on prepurchase until they can get their hands on the game or watch someone they know play it live. But it is a decision each person makes on their own.

Originally posted by Sephastus

If you are fine with what you are getting, more power to you. Some of us are a bit more cautious after being burned one too many times. Those are the ones I give the friendly advice.

ive been burned  (looks at funcom mmos and hellgate)

you are correct that buying before NDA lifts, etc puts the buyer at jeapardy

but if you like the company enough - you will take the risk

Originally posted by Sephastus

Some of us are a bit more cautious after being burned one too many times.

Some of us have not been burned, because we have done the propper research.

I'll just talk about number 1, "Pay to Test". This is actually a great idea for ArenaNet and the community. The people who bought in to test will be more likely to test the game. You wont have the issues, like in Tera's last two closed betas, where you have all the kiddies talking about there body parts in chat. It also will give a sense of what the community will be like because the people who are in the weekend tests, will be the people in at launch. Not to say we are not going to see some of the people we saw in Tera, but it will be allot less. Anyway, I think its brilliant and hope more will do this. People who bought early, will be the serious testers.

I agree as all the red flags are there such as pre-purchase instead of pre-order and no release date etc but what disturbs me the most is that due to how GW2 is doing this it will ensure that the next companies do the same.

From now on instead of paying  5 dollars for access to beta they will just make you buy the whole game before you do. Then if you don't like it they got your money and who cares. This "innovative" way to do preorders or prepurchase as it will now be called removes the ability to vote with your wallet. I would expect this from a company like Funcom but I suppose GW2 is trying to be more "innovative".

$5 was not a huge investment for beta access and allowed the developer to get some money while the consumer was given beta access. Now it will just be buy the game for full price then we will give you access. This new trend is going to be very disturbing for some.

Originally posted by Sephastus

Please... just think for a moment. Peer review is one of the best judges of an item, specially when there is no conflict of interest. News sites and some demo tests are NOT a good judgement of the final product.

'Peer reviews' on today's internet are as worthless as any game site review, what with all the professional shilling and reputation management that exists.

For someone who is so preachy to others on being clever, I am suprised you didn't know that.

Originally posted by jblah

I agree as all the red flags are there such as pre-purchase instead of pre-order and no release date etc but what disturbs me the most is that due to how GW2 is doing this it will ensure that the next companies do the same.

for Diabo3 Blizzard has no nda

but I bet Blizzard does the same thing for their Titan mmo (just like they did for Starcraft2)

- pay for full game prior to release, get access to Closed beta

GW2 isnt starting any trend, Blizzard and others have done this for years

only thing that ANET is guilty of, is continuing the old trend

Originally posted by speedymcman
ANet is offering a service which allows us to buy the full game (which I was going to do anyways), give us access to the CBT Weekends, & 3 day headstart access. People have preorded all types of games in the past two decades, the only thing that makes this one different is that we get bonuses. Trolololol?

Very wrong, what is different or "innovative" is that they are the first company that has asked for full price before NDA drop or release date announced. They all give bonuses and beta access now but usually for a $5 pre order price, not a pre-purchase price.

Generally speaking i would agree with the OP as a general rule i do not/would not pre-purchase from companies im weary of (which is most of them) but i do make exceptions and GW2 is one of them as i have had hands on play and love the games concepts and design plus i trust arenanet to deliver in style so i did not hesitate to make a pre-purchase here..

If ever someone was going to jump off the deep end and risk a pre-purchase GW2 would likely be your best bet..

@Thane Well, let's be fair, you've only made 21 more posts / year than him.

Whilst I am honestly not in a position to argue here considering my low posting rate I would still like to add that you aren't either. However this is kind of irrelevant to the matter so I'll just throw in my opinion about the beta testing.

If you want to play GW2 so bad that you'd put up with some bugs and poor graphics (The latest beta did have high settings but the previous ones didn't) I'd say it's quite alright. And it would in any case be better of them to just have press playing their game right now so why would they allow random people who'd most likely just complain about the games flaws because they didn't realise that the game isn't complete. But if these regular people suddenly started paying for it?

Not that everyone would complain, but point is, money is money and if everyone is desperate enough to play a semi-finished game why not make some money out of it. You're not REQUIRED to send in bug reports anyhow.