Originally posted by Fendel84M

Why does it seem like theres a lot of people so incredibly butt hurt over the founder's packs? You don't have to buy it, I really don't get it.

Edit: Fixed a mispelling thanks to a concerned user.

Several reasons: -

1)  The entire premise of founder packs and the pricing scheme in this case in particular feels entirely mercenary.    

 2) They indicate that the founder pack represents a 'cash-shop' value of double or triple the cover price.  The company sets all of these prices and can massage them to create any impression they choose to.  If I was being kind I would call these advertised 'savings' rather tenuous.  The real value of the founder pack is whatever you feel it is worth, and that for me is $0.         

3) It is the thin end of the wedge.  If the trend towards founder packs (and founders packs at hugely inflated prices) is successful a company out there will soon decide to add real in-game advantages rather than simple fluff.  

4) Finally you are buying blind.  Admittedly we all often do that with games; but we know within limits what we are getting.  We know roughly what a game will be like, and we know roughly what the market-set price will be.  Founder's packs operate within a monopoly.  The developer can set whatever price they choose because there is nowhere else for the players to shop (of course thay can leave the game).  And what they get for that money has never really been established in the market place, there is no measure of value for money.  

But if people want to spend their hard earned cash on them then good luck to them.  

A lot of people are forgetting the 750,000 Astral Diamonds that you get with the $200.

Normally you'll have to do invocations in-game (at a rest shrine every hour and get lucky to get 250-1500 astral diamonds), or you'll have to buy ZEN (PW currency) and trade them for Astral Diamonds via the interface in the game (it's a store, like in GW2, so the price will fluctuate based on demand).

Almost everything cosmetic or time saving costs Astral Diamonds.  This weekend, I changed the look of a chainmail tunic to look like another one and it cost almost 14,000 astral diamonds.

When you get level 20, your first mount is 1 gold in-game currency or a special one for 168,000 Astral Diamonds.  The training for the level 40 mount cost over 400,000 Astral Diamonds.  Level 60 mount training cost over 4 MILLION Astral Diamonds.  Level 60 special skin mounts cost 2 million+ Astral Diamonds.

The companions that were available (essentially pets that level up, you can equip and fight for you) cost 98,000 Astral Diamonds for a click item to get either a random Ghost or Hawk.

When you send a companion to train, it takes RL minutes depending on what level they are. You can spend Astral Diamonds to make their training instant.

And the biggest use of Astral Diamonds...

The in-game Auction House runs on Astral Diamonds and NOT the in-game gold/silver/copper currency.

This means if you find an item you want to sell on the auction hall, you post it for Astral Diamonds and not gold/silver/platinum.

As far as a game economy goes, those who spend money to get Astral Diamonds or the Founders are going to have a pretty good head start.  You can also trade Astral Diamonds for ZEN to buy stuff from the C-Store.

I have a feeling once inflation kicks in, equipment on the AH is going to be pretty expensive Astral Diamond wise and the best tradable equipment will be many thousands of Astral Diamonds.

So I guess after the free mount, the free companion, the other fluff and the Astral Diamonds it could well be worth over $500 of ZEN.

I already paid for my basic cable! Why should HBO cost extra?!

Even better, I have an antenna, why should I pay for cable when my broadcast TV is free?! Greedy cash grab.