Originally posted by johaocarl

IMHO...

If Anet makes an open beta, GW2 score at this site will go above 9.0.

Just my HO....

IMHO, Anet will not offer an open beta, or if they do it won't be till right before they are ready to launch... The reason? Sheer server capacity. They had to STOP SELLING the prepurchases because it overran their capacity for the first BWE. They are currently ramping up their hardware and deploying more servers to handle all the prepurchases since they started selling them again. First BWE was 48 servers, and I would not be surprised if there were 8k-10k per server... Let's go conservative and say 4k per server... That is 200k people, and they had to stop the pre-purchases relatively quickly. If they went OB and all the people who would pre-purchase, as well as all the fence-sitters, all the haters, and all the people just looking to kill time who don't fall into any of the above categories all started playing, what kind of numbers are we talking about? How many servers would they need to handle 1 million players? 1.5? 2? The problem with Open Beta is that you can't plan for capacity until it happens... So they won't be doing one until they have all the capacity in place that they plan to have for release... And then they might do an OB as a stress test to see if they need to expand their capacity further.

That is my 2 cents.

Originally posted by Mors-Subita

Originally posted by johaocarl

IMHO...

If Anet makes an open beta, GW2 score at this site will go above 9.0.

Just my HO....

IMHO, Anet will not offer an open beta, or if they do it won't be till right before they are ready to launch... The reason? Sheer server capacity. They had to STOP SELLING the prepurchases because it overran their capacity for the first BWE. They are currently ramping up their hardware and deploying more servers to handle all the prepurchases since they started selling them again. First BWE was 48 servers, and I would not be surprised if there were 8k-10k per server... Let's go conservative and say 4k per server... That is 200k people, and they had to stop the pre-purchases relatively quickly. If they went OB and all the people who would pre-purchase, as well as all the fence-sitters, all the haters, and all the people just looking to kill time who don't fall into any of the above categories all started playing, what kind of numbers are we talking about? How many servers would they need to handle 1 million players? 1.5? 2? The problem with Open Beta is that you can't plan for capacity until it happens... So they won't be doing one until they have all the capacity in place that they plan to have for release... And then they might do an OB as a stress test to see if they need to expand their capacity further.

That is my 2 cents.

No matter how good the pre-purchase/pre-order benefits are, a fairly large portion of launch day people didn't participate in beta or headstart programs before the game launched. Previous MMORPG experiences seems to point towards this number being around 35% to 40%.

What ever number Arenanet settles on in their projections, I'd assume that all the servers they intend to open for the headstart will also be available for that last Beta event and they will likely distribute as many promotional keys and beta invites as possible to fill that capacity with a mix of pre-purchase customers and those new to the game.

They've already said that there will not be a beta event that allows everyone that wants to try the game that opportunity, capacity will be finite, but the capacity they will have available for game launch should still allow for them to expand capacity for that final event by at least 30% beyond the raw pre-purchase sales numbers.

So, let's say that they pre-sell 700,000 copies before launch. They might plan launch day capacity for somewhere around 1 million players, which would maybe allow them to offer a couple hundred thousand promotional codes for a final pre-launch beta event.

It's still going to be better for people who are pretty sure they will be playing GW2 at launch to pre-purchase, even if they don't plan on touching the game until the headstart or even on launch day. I really think this is a title that will snowball in popularity and I wouldn't be surprised if they sell out initial capacity at launch.

Originally posted by thedarkess

We had tons of footage since 2010, people played it first hand at Gamescom, PAX and other conventions.

As for marketing, yes it's great marketing, and healthy one too. At least we see real ingame footage, not some classy CGI cinematics. Arenanet allowed it's community to build hype.

i stay on this, cause i hate too CGIs they give such a false perspective of a game...

i remember WoW CGI, and when i saw the game ... even worst with SWtoR, so many CGI for almost nothing ..!

I just hope the developers don't wait too long before release as there is always the possiblity of losing your fan base because you have delayed the game.

Originally posted by lasttime

This post isn't about the quality of the game or whether its good or bad its just about something I found rather ingenious. ArenaNet shows some footage of the the game here and there not giving away too much but enough to make some assumptions about the game. Does a closed beta followed by a press beta. Then sets up an "open" beta which you get into by prepurchasing the game. Now what they've done with this is have only people who like the game enough, just from the info given out so far, to pay for the game entirely before release. Now those people are the ones populating the beta and surprise they like it which is statistically likely as those people were willing to prepurchase it. (Here what im sressing is not the preordering it which I've done a several times and then been unhappy with the game, but the prepurchasing which requires the the paying of the game entirely.) Now because of this the beta receives nothing but amazing reviews from most everyone in the beta. Just a little thought I had.

It didn´t work so good for STO who did something similar with its lifetimesubs, the game still need to be good to get good reviews even if people who is optmistic probably are easier to get a good review from.

ANET is indeed good at marketting though.

Originally posted by lasttime

This post isn't about the quality of the game or whether its good or bad its just about something I found rather ingenious. ArenaNet shows some footage of the the game here and there not giving away too much but enough to make some assumptions about the game. Does a closed beta followed by a press beta. Then sets up an "open" beta which you get into by prepurchasing the game. Now what they've done with this is have only people who like the game enough, just from the info given out so far, to pay for the game entirely before release. Now those people are the ones populating the beta and surprise they like it which is statistically likely as those people were willing to prepurchase it. (Here what im sressing is not the preordering it which I've done a several times and then been unhappy with the game, but the prepurchasing which requires the the paying of the game entirely.) Now because of this the beta receives nothing but amazing reviews from most everyone in the beta. Just a little thought I had.

Definately a well thought out strategy by Anet, and your correct. 

Consider  that any other game dev could have used this same strategy and didn't proves Anet has done a stellar job for itself on at least 2 fronts -  marketing strategy and their game  - excellent.

Originally posted by TwoThreeFour

Originally posted by IPolygon

1) There are in fact lots of people who got into the BWEs without paying anything.

2) If the game was bad, it would have crashed and burned on the spot on the first BWE.

There may be blind fans, but there are a lot of fans who post tons of feedback to make a good game even better. The forums were flooded with threads and posts each time something went wrong (stuck at 95% anyone), but also when something was good or needed improvement.

Bottom line is: Possibly GW2 is actually a pretty decent game, believe it or not.

So you are saying that SWTOR wasn't bad? I thought "SWTOR and alike are bad" is the major reason for why GW2 was made so different from the norm.

 

During the SWTOR non-NDA beta and the days before the servers opened, the grand majority of posts were positive. Concerns such as 2-faction PvP, population imbalances and lack of open world PvP were met with comments such as "SWTOR is not a PvP game". Concerns about the lifeless world were met with comments like "they have all time in the world to implement such fluff; let them focus on core systems first". 

 

If pre-purchasing fans were allowed to garantuee their spot into limited beta like GW2 is doing, the overall average impression would have been skewed more towards the positive side. 

I don't think it is bad. It got some pretty fair reviews for what it is, but apparently people who want it to be another game due to expectations or hope.

GW2 got positive reviews because GW2 is the best MMO since WoW.

The only conspiracy here is haters looking for anything to hate on and being left with crumbs such as "you bought an unfinished game," "only people who bought it could play it so all you get are good reviews," and "there aren't any 40 man raids". Unfortunately for the haters GW2 is hate proof and their futile attempts only reinforce how good GW2 actually is. If there were actually something wrong with the game, something worth hating then the haters would've locked onto it by now.

just in case no one said it... there was and probably will not be an open beta. 

Originally posted by OldManFunk

GW2 got positive reviews because GW2 is the best MMO since WoW.

The only conspiracy here is haters looking for anything to hate on and being left with crumbs such as "you bought an unfinished game," "only people who bought it could play it so all you get are good reviews," and "there aren't any 40 man raids". Unfortunately for the haters GW2 is hate proof and their futile attempts only reinforce how good GW2 actually is. If there were actually something wrong with the game, something worth hating then the haters would've locked onto it by now.

I'm locking on that cash shop. I hate cash shop games and this one will probably be one of the worst out there, once the box sales drop and they make a big cash shop change.

---

Originally posted by travamars
I'm locking on that cash shop. I hate cash shop games and this one will probably be one of the worst out there, once the box sales drop and they make a big cash shop change.

---

See? GW2 is hate proof.

If everyone in the world played GW2 then there would be no more war or famine and the brotherhood of man would learn to live in peace and harmony.

Originally posted by OldManFunk

If everyone in the world played GW2 then there would be no more war or famine and the brotherhood of man would learn to live in peace and harmony.

Umm...

Originally posted by OldManFunk

 

---

Originally posted by travamars
I'm locking on that cash shop. I hate cash shop games and this one will probably be one of the worst out there, once the box sales drop and they make a big cash shop change.

---

ANet gave us free gems for the BWE and I didn't spend any. The cash shop had no impact on my game experience. GW1 has a cash shop and it's not bad so there's no reason to believe that GW2's will be bad. And finally claiming that a future change might eventually make a game bad is a poor argument both because it's speculative rather than based in fact and all MMOs can change for the worse, including Pay2Play games. An example: WoW has a cash shop, WoW could add buy2win items, therefor I hate WoW.

 

See? GW2 is hate proof.

If everyone in the world played GW2 then there would be no more war or famine and the brotherhood of man would learn to live in peace and harmony.

Didn't have to use gems for the BWE...wow.what are you...12. Do you really think it would be cash shop dependant in beta?  Are you that new to mmo's?

Why does your opinion of GW2 being a Great game count, but any one that thinks otherwise is wrong? Pretty full of yourself.

To say GW1 had a cash shop and it was no problem shows how little you actually know. Did you know GW1 was not an MMO???? Oh yes..of coarse you knew that, because that what everybody screams when someone says GW1 sucked.

If someone says GW1 sucks..the answer is "It's not an MMO" so its nothing like GW2.

If someone says GW2 cash shop sucks.. the answer is "GW1 had a cash shop an it didn't suck"

You guys turn this shit anyway that makes it sound better but in the end You guys are paying for a box to play a F2P game. That offers nothing new.

Hopefully they'll release the game sometime this year, or next year maybe an you can see what you really paid for an enjoy it for the first 6 months. Then the sales will drop and the cash shop will be in your face.

Originally posted by travamars

Originally posted by OldManFunk

 

---

Originally posted by travamars
I'm locking on that cash shop. I hate cash shop games and this one will probably be one of the worst out there, once the box sales drop and they make a big cash shop change.

---

ANet gave us free gems for the BWE and I didn't spend any. The cash shop had no impact on my game experience. GW1 has a cash shop and it's not bad so there's no reason to believe that GW2's will be bad. And finally claiming that a future change might eventually make a game bad is a poor argument both because it's speculative rather than based in fact and all MMOs can change for the worse, including Pay2Play games. An example: WoW has a cash shop, WoW could add buy2win items, therefor I hate WoW.

 

See? GW2 is hate proof.

If everyone in the world played GW2 then there would be no more war or famine and the brotherhood of man would learn to live in peace and harmony.

Didn't have to use gems for the BWE...wow.what are you...12. Do you really think it would be cash shop dependant in beta?  Are you that new to mmo's?

Why does your opinion of GW2 being a Great game count, but any one that thinks otherwise is wrong? Pretty full of yourself.

To say GW1 had a cash shop and it was no problem shows how little you actually know. Did you know GW1 was not an MMO???? Oh yes..of coarse you knew that, because that what everybody screams when someone says GW1 sucked.

If someone says GW1 sucks..the answer is "It's not an MMO" so its nothing like GW2.

If someone says GW2 cash shop sucks.. the answer is "GW1 had a cash shop an it didn't suck"

You guys turn this shit anyway that makes it sound better but in the end You guys are paying for a box to play a F2P game. That offers nothing new.

Hopefully they'll release the game sometime this year, or next year maybe an you can see what you really paid for an enjoy it for the first 6 months. Then the sales will drop and the cash shop will be in your face.

Gw1 has a cash shop.  My expectations for GW2's cash shop are based on the behavior seen in GW1's cash shop.

I think this is a very reasonable position and much reasonable than some conspiracy type thinking about getting people hooked and then grabbing them by the balls.  Which certainly itsn't impossible.

Secondly if there were a pay to play or free to play game out right now that was as good as GW2 you could bet your ass I would be playing it.  But there isn't.  Therefore its worth the purchase.

Originally posted by gestalt11

Originally posted by travamars

Originally posted by OldManFunk

 

---

Originally posted by travamars
I'm locking on that cash shop. I hate cash shop games and this one will probably be one of the worst out there, once the box sales drop and they make a big cash shop change.

---

ANet gave us free gems for the BWE and I didn't spend any. The cash shop had no impact on my game experience. GW1 has a cash shop and it's not bad so there's no reason to believe that GW2's will be bad. And finally claiming that a future change might eventually make a game bad is a poor argument both because it's speculative rather than based in fact and all MMOs can change for the worse, including Pay2Play games. An example: WoW has a cash shop, WoW could add buy2win items, therefor I hate WoW.

 

See? GW2 is hate proof.

If everyone in the world played GW2 then there would be no more war or famine and the brotherhood of man would learn to live in peace and harmony.

Didn't have to use gems for the BWE...wow.what are you...12. Do you really think it would be cash shop dependant in beta?  Are you that new to mmo's?

Why does your opinion of GW2 being a Great game count, but any one that thinks otherwise is wrong? Pretty full of yourself.

To say GW1 had a cash shop and it was no problem shows how little you actually know. Did you know GW1 was not an MMO???? Oh yes..of coarse you knew that, because that what everybody screams when someone says GW1 sucked.

If someone says GW1 sucks..the answer is "It's not an MMO" so its nothing like GW2.

If someone says GW2 cash shop sucks.. the answer is "GW1 had a cash shop an it didn't suck"

You guys turn this shit anyway that makes it sound better but in the end You guys are paying for a box to play a F2P game. That offers nothing new.

Hopefully they'll release the game sometime this year, or next year maybe an you can see what you really paid for an enjoy it for the first 6 months. Then the sales will drop and the cash shop will be in your face.

Gw1 has a cash shop.  My expectations for GW2's cash shop are based on the behavior seen in GW1's cash shop.

 

/\ SEE...i told you.

Originally posted by travamars

Originally posted by gestalt11

Originally posted by travamars

Originally posted by OldManFunk

 

---

Originally posted by travamars
I'm locking on that cash shop. I hate cash shop games and this one will probably be one of the worst out there, once the box sales drop and they make a big cash shop change.

---

ANet gave us free gems for the BWE and I didn't spend any. The cash shop had no impact on my game experience. GW1 has a cash shop and it's not bad so there's no reason to believe that GW2's will be bad. And finally claiming that a future change might eventually make a game bad is a poor argument both because it's speculative rather than based in fact and all MMOs can change for the worse, including Pay2Play games. An example: WoW has a cash shop, WoW could add buy2win items, therefor I hate WoW.

 

See? GW2 is hate proof.

If everyone in the world played GW2 then there would be no more war or famine and the brotherhood of man would learn to live in peace and harmony.

Didn't have to use gems for the BWE...wow.what are you...12. Do you really think it would be cash shop dependant in beta?  Are you that new to mmo's?

Why does your opinion of GW2 being a Great game count, but any one that thinks otherwise is wrong? Pretty full of yourself.

To say GW1 had a cash shop and it was no problem shows how little you actually know. Did you know GW1 was not an MMO???? Oh yes..of coarse you knew that, because that what everybody screams when someone says GW1 sucked.

If someone says GW1 sucks..the answer is "It's not an MMO" so its nothing like GW2.

If someone says GW2 cash shop sucks.. the answer is "GW1 had a cash shop an it didn't suck"

You guys turn this shit anyway that makes it sound better but in the end You guys are paying for a box to play a F2P game. That offers nothing new.

Hopefully they'll release the game sometime this year, or next year maybe an you can see what you really paid for an enjoy it for the first 6 months. Then the sales will drop and the cash shop will be in your face.

Gw1 has a cash shop.  My expectations for GW2's cash shop are based on the behavior seen in GW1's cash shop.

 

/\ SEE...i told you.

I am not sure what you are arguing.  Do you have a coherent point?

Are you saying its not reasonable to base expectation on past performance?

Are you saying that since GW1 is not an MMO and GW2 is an MMO that it makes the past performance uselss as a basis for predicting behavior and consequences?

I am not sure what your point is.  But if its either of those they are really weak and don't persuade me at all.

Originally posted by travamars

I'm locking on that cash shop. I hate cash shop games and this one will probably be one of the worst out there, once the box sales drop and they make a big cash shop change.

Let me take a wild guess here: You never played Guild Wars for a period longer than 10 hours?

Fair enough, but to me their prior record is important. Hint: Their cash shop was no not as "bad" as the one in WoW. 

I guess cash shops is always a risk and I just hope that the one in GW2 will be like the one in Guild Wars. (Cosmetic/convenience, never p2w).

How you came to the conclusion that this one will be "one of the worst out there" is puzzling to me.

For a PC game in which most sales are digital, those numbers are very good.

edit: the vgchartz numbers

Originally posted by lasttime

This post isn't about the quality of the game or whether its good or bad its just about something I found rather ingenious. ArenaNet shows some footage of the the game here and there not giving away too much but enough to make some assumptions about the game. Does a closed beta followed by a press beta. Then sets up an "open" beta which you get into by prepurchasing the game. Now what they've done with this is have only people who like the game enough, just from the info given out so far, to pay for the game entirely before release. Now those people are the ones populating the beta and surprise they like it which is statistically likely as those people were willing to prepurchase it. (Here what im sressing is not the preordering it which I've done a several times and then been unhappy with the game, but the prepurchasing which requires the the paying of the game entirely.) Now because of this the beta receives nothing but amazing reviews from most everyone in the beta. Just a little thought I had.

You must have missed the whole thing where they had beta signups, without prepurchasing, which reached 1 million in what was it 24 or 48 hours?

Btw, if you take a look around the forums (i know its tough with as many threads as there are going on GW2)  there have also been quite a few people who were pretty anti-GW2 (nothing new to offer, boring, skill system sucks, no trinity sucks, etc, etc) but either got a beta key or gave in and pre-purchased it to give the beta a shot and completely changed their tune about the game after actually playing it.

For those still ranting and raving about the cash shop and GW2 being P2W... you amuse me greatly. Thanks.

Originally posted by Halandir

Originally posted by travamars

I'm locking on that cash shop. I hate cash shop games and this one will probably be one of the worst out there, once the box sales drop and they make a big cash shop change.

 

Let me take a wild guess here: You never played Guild Wars for a period longer than 10 hours?

Fair enough, but to me their prior record is important. Hint: Their cash shop was no not as "bad" as the one in WoW. 

I guess cash shops is always a risk and I just hope that the one in GW2 will be like the one in Guild Wars. (Cosmetic/convenience, never p2w).

How you came to the conclusion that this one will be "one of the worst out there" is puzzling to me.

Well you guessed wrong. I bought GW1 the first month it came out and played for three years off an on. Though your guess had nothing to do with my post..but whatever.

I know it's hard to understand, so read this part slowly. I'm not talking about GW1 cash shop. I'm talking about GW2.

As far as GW2 cash shop not being as bad as WOW's....Give me a break. I didn't have to buy bags space to play WOW. I didn't have to buy bank space. Didn't have to buy charactor slots...are you getting it yet? I know..I know...you dont HAVE to buy anything in GW2 cash shop. wawawa....the same thing can said for any F2P game out there. If you dont mind being inconvienced have at it.