Originally posted by KingGator
Nothing to see here, just fanboi being fanboi...................... If upon release, and 3 months after, there is no p2w in that cash shop I'll consider buying it.

BUT WHAT IF IT BECOMES P2W IN 3 MONTHS AND 2 DAYS?!?!??!11?1?11!!  YOU WOULD HAVE WASTED UR MONEYZ!!!1!

Really, does it even matter?  If $60 is that big of an issue, I would like to suggest eliminating your video game habit and either picking up a second job or spending your time increasing your education level or figuring out another way to make more money for the hours you work.

Originally posted by KingGator
Nothing to see here, just fanboi being fanboi...................... If upon release, and 3 months after, there is no p2w in that cash shop I'll consider buying it.

This is whats wrong around here.  People thinking others should give a damn if they do or dont buy a game.  I wipe my ass with your "three month test period."  That goes for the other side of the fence as well, all those people who make it their personal mission to convert people.

Im not singling out this person either, you see this shit everywhere.  Its like there is this holy crusade to make sure everyone buys GW2.  Its getting a little rediculous around here lately.

I bought the game already, so no need to try and convert me.

My biggest concern is the NDA is still up..

Originally posted by Semibrucelee

My biggest concern is the NDA is still up..

Honestly, I don't blame them for that at this point.

Just look at how many people there are trying to make mountains out of molehills over just about anything they can find out about the game that can be spun in a negative light.

Even with the amount of info publicly available for this game, people are still distorting facts left & right (primarily for the negative). Hell, just look at the cash shop. Here we have a feature that's been announced for over a year now. They finally start working on it with the disclaimer 'it's very much a work in progress' and people are taking what limited info they can publicly dig up on it as a sign that the sky is falling and the game will fail.

NDAs server multiple purposes, and while I generally dispise NDAs (i have to deal w/ them ALL the time), for certain things they are sadly necessary. This is primarily due to human nature. Many people just can't handle the creation process of a game. They see a feature that isn't complete or doesn't look good enough and they freak out, instead of realizing that it's just part of the process.

Originally posted by Semibrucelee

My biggest concern is the NDA is still up..

The NDA will be gone for the next beta weekend that includes access for everyone who has prepurchased.

You can expect tons of new reviews as well as video broadcasting of live gameplay.

Originally posted by Maephisto

Originally posted by KingGator
Nothing to see here, just fanboi being fanboi...................... If upon release, and 3 months after, there is no p2w in that cash shop I'll consider buying it.

This is whats wrong around here.  People thinking others should give a damn if they do or dont buy a game.  I wipe my ass with your "three month test period."  That goes for the other side of the fence as well, all those people who make it their personal mission to convert people.

Im not singling out this person either, you see this shit everywhere.  Its like there is this holy crusade to make sure everyone buys GW2.  Its getting a little rediculous around here lately.

I bought the game already, so no need to try and convert me.

With so many on both sides emotionally charged about this game it's made for some fun (if not completely idiotic) forum PvP.

I have no concerns about my 60 bucks.

i do hope the game converts though

I'm pretty sure every MMO I've ever purchased wasn't finished when I bought it! :) Having to wait to play it is the only thing that's really different. I have pre-purchased expansions for LotRO, months ahead of time for the perks, so it wasn't much of a stretch.

Any other MMO to date, would have pre-purchased any of them? Probably not, but I have a lot of added faith in Arenanet and GW2 game design. A purchase was certain, I have the money now, so why not pre-purchase?

Originally posted by OldManFunk

 

I don't think that prepurchasing an unfinished game usually makes sense but it did for me this time. I'd probably prepurchase diablo 3 (in fact, didn't people already do this by signing up for blizzard's annual pass thing?) since blizzard is fairly reputable, but I can't think of any other games that I'd do this for off the top of my head.

Atleast 95% of MMO games that have come out in the last 8 years have came out unfinished solely because they wanted your money from subscription fees as soon as they can get it. WoW was no exception here for those who think WoW is the greatest thing and have done nothing wrong ever.

Originally posted by Zekiah

Originally posted by Rohn

Originally posted by slicknslim88

Anybody who has bought a Capcom game, EA game, or a Blizzard game in the last several years has bought an unfinished game.  It's nothing new in today's gaming world anymore unfortunately.

 

So, the question is: Why is it evil when other game companies do it, but awesome when ANet does it?

I've been asking myself that a lot recently, over a range of things (i.e. "P2W" cash shop, instanced PvP, EZ mode instant gratification 80s for PvP, easy fast travel, meaningless game world, etc).

Exactly, why? The answer is simple, fans of games tend to ignore quite a bit of truth and reality in order to justify their purchase.

We've all done it, just most refuse to admit it.

Please, please, Please

Tell me how this is the truth I.E Facts and not subjective, please enlighten me.

I really want to know what toilet you been getting your statements from.

OK, couple things on my take on the whole "unfinished games" business.

1) To me, an unfinished game at launch is one where significant bugs render it unplayable or near enough to render play extremely uncomfortable. I expect tehre will always be a couple bugs in a game at launch. Why? I'm not stupid, I've done QA. No matter how crazy you test, you probably didn't thinkt aht wearing a green dress as a male dwarf on a thursday standing in that particular spot doing a /dance would cause the servers to crash. You never realized that if you stand at JUST the right spot, and spam a certain skill enough times, RNG will help someone walk through a wall and exploit a boss or something. Players ALWAYS find things you won't. And you won't  ever find it all.

2) Please re-read the entire above paragraph. While I excuse SOME bugs, launches with serious lag issues, crashes, people falling through the world (WoW, Mortal Online, Everything Funcom has ever made, I'm looking at you...) is never acceptable at launch.

3) In addition, I consider it an unfinished game if a developer does not include features that were promised at launch, and either does not explain why, makes a BS excuse, or doesn't tell anyone until after the pre-orders all got paid for.

I don't consider GW2 so far to have fallen under any of those. I haven't seen any feature they told us would be there is missing, and I haven't heard of bugs that make the game unplayable, other than the occasional bad terrain or gimped quest. And it's early enough those CAN be fixed if they get on them.

Somehow people got it into their heads that since pre-purchase lets you into a couple beta phases, we're paying them to test the game, or paying them to play something unfinished. This is idiotic. I paid them for a game before seeing it; as a thank you, they give me a guaranteed beta spot instead of hoping I get picked like the rest of the dregs. Nothing more. I'll be the first to admit that's a gamble on my part, but I'll call it an investment. I'll put in some money in the hopes I get a product I personally am happy with. And if I am, awesome. If not...can't win em all. And if that product is something that for any reason doesn't appeal to others...that's their call. They can play it, or not, as they wish.

I pre-purchase whenever i buy a game on steam because that's how steam works. It's nothing new to me.

Hope you aren't letdown by your hasty purchase when you have barely seen any of the game yet (Almost no content past lvl 30 mind you) TC...though I have a really bad feelinbg you will be,

Here's why I am buying Guild Wars 2 in spite of wanting to throw my head through a wall by the majority of the GW2 community and the over-hype of this game.

It's $60 with now subscription fees. So, why not?

Terrant, the game is obviously unfinished because it's not even out yet.

OP, I think most people are forced into pre-purchasing it because of the 3 day head start. How many people have played a game in beta, realized it was bad and then dumped it before release day? Now we're locked in and I guess we'll find out how good the game really is. It looks good to me, but the only point I can't agree with is it costs $60 with a cash shop and legal RMT. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't even be posting.

Originally posted by OldManFunk

I bought the Guild Wars 2 prepurchase yesterday knowing that the game was not completely finished and the cash shop items had not been finalized... and I thought I'd share why I've done this despite never having ever preordered a game before.

 

How many MMOs change after you purchase them? All of them do, and most change in very drastic ways over the years. Buying a finished MMO doesn't guarantee that the game won't change for the worse at any given time.

How many cash shops change over time? I'm not aware of any game with a cash shop that doesn't add, remove or modify the items that they sell through the cash shop over time.

 

Given the numerous Guild Wars 2 beta videos that are out there I am confident that Guild Wars 2 is not just playable but has more polish than some recent final releases have had despite being incomplete. I'm not afraid of a Vanguard repeat. Even more, since Guild Wars 2 has no monthly fee the only way for them to keep making money off the game is to make the game so fun that I want to keep coming back to buy expansions and cash shop items. This isn't a problem for me.

 

Given Arenanet's reputation with Guild Wars and knowing that players can trade in-game gold for cash shop gems, I am not concerned with future cash shop items. If the cash shop items ruin the game then I'll stop playing... until the problem is addressed. The game has no monthly fee. I'm not out anything if I decide to play some other game. It's not like I'll have a subscription burning while I stew over unpopular changes to the game. This isn't a problem for me.

 

If you're not sure about the game or the cash shop then don't prepurchase it. It's not like they're going to run out of digital copies after the game is released. Wait and see. I'm sure that other people who have prepurchased, like me, will be posting game reviews after each beta weekend all the way up to and after the game's release.

 

I don't think that prepurchasing an unfinished game usually makes sense but it did for me this

Good post.  Would read again.

...anything deemed wrong or biased about it by others; would be better directed at our current system of Capitalism itself and the domination of it by Investor classes with rampant flash traded commodities speculation.

Originally posted by Zekiah

You guys are completely missing the point.

When you buy food, cars, houses etc., you're paying for something that's going to be COMPLETE when delievered. You don't buy houses that come with missing windows or cars with missing seats on a PROMISE that they'll show up later.

This really isn't difficult to grasp here. 

And you make the assumption that GW2 isnt going to be complete when every signle video and dev blog only shows things that are.  Both scenarios are trying to prove the same thing, albeit in a rather comical fashion.

Originally posted by joocheese
That was a really good point. I have friends who have "pre purchased" Diablo 3 via WOW's annual pass. Not only did they just spend $150 on an unfinished game but a game which will require them to pay monthly subs. The fact that Blizzard can sell a game in development through the monthly subs of another of their games and still make a profit speaks volumes. The myth that monthly subs are a requirement for companies to create quality games is busted! Blizzard and Bioware are (have been) in effect gauging their player base.

Giving away a free game for committment in cash is a common tactic.  Currently on Steam if you pre-purchase Max Payne 3 you get 1 and 2 for free.  If you pre-purchase the new Men of War game, you get the old one for free.  if you purchase Naval//Air Arctic Circle you get Commander: Conquest of Americas.

The reason why you would pre-purchase these games is because it is a value-added service.  In exchange for your purchase you get something in return.

Guild Wars 2 pre-purchase doesn't have that.  At first you say "well I get a 3-day head start" but that's not three free days of play, that is your subscription starting three days earlier.  If anything it actually will end up costing you more.

We knew that subscriptiosn were not necessary when we found out Perfect World International was out-grossing Blizzard Entertainment.  Indeed you can go further and say that selling MMOs is equally a scam as you can make as much or more off of microtransactions.

It shouldn't be a shock that Blizzard is trying to make money.  Nor should it be a secret that Bioware is trying to make money.  They're businesses.  ArenaNet (which is owned by NCSoft) initially stated that they would make all of their money off of just box sales and provide support for the game from that pool of money.  They also stated their business model would call on expansions as their big money maker.  After about two years they decided they were going to have microtransactions.

Call it what you want but ArenaNet is as dirty as Activision and Electronic Arts.

This is especially true considering the pre-order for the game isn't cheaper (like most games you pre-order) it's the exact same price.  The benefits of pre-ordering a video game have to be apparent in the purchase.

Another major reason for pre-orders was liimited supply.  A lot of really popular games only could support so many box copies and really digitial distribution is a pretty new thing.  But with pre-orders being all digital they should in fact be cheaper than the box price, not the same.

Although I may buy Guild Wars 2 after launch I'm not going to feed them my credit card information so quickly.

Well others mmorpg (WoW) sell unfinished expansions all the time and 10 million players buy them, I dont really see a problem on my pre-purchase of gw2....