Guild Wars 2

[Trippy]

No but they usually don't have such large relatively expensive physical items either. SWTOR's CE was the same price and it had the Darth Malgus statue.

[Numtini]

Physical ones are getting more and more expensive and the digital one is all one use items. I'm a total idiot for in game pets and stuff, but the digital CE was a bit too much for me to swallow.

Is this entire "pre-purchase" rather than "pre-order" thing new? I noticed Blizzard did the same thing for Diablo III and put the full charge against my card. They have a shipping date though, my understanding is if you don't have a shipping date, you have 30 days to ship and have to provide official notice if you can't and allow refunds.

[Kageru]

... I actually pre-ordered a game. I must be insane.

Though the fact that EB wants 88 AUD$ for pre-order and have in the past pressured game companies not to under-sell them gives an incentive to lock a 59 USD$ (57 AUD$) price in.

Though frankly I don't think ArenaNet are going to care / play ball.

[schild]

Are collector's editions always this expensive?

With that big of a figure. Yes.

All the in-game benefits they're offering across the board are real shit though. I don't know why they're so bad or what sort of product manager had a hand in making them shit, but someone did. It looks like the product was completely untouched by a designer.

[Tmon]

I got the standard game, I felt bad enough about preordering an MMO that I didn't want to deal with the shame of paying for extra stuff of dubious worth.  I do kinda miss the days when you got stuff with the standard edition that now only comes with a special or collectors edition.  I remember my off the shelf UO box came with a cloth map and a UO pin.  The map is long gone but I still use the pin on my office cork board.

[Falconeer]

I remember my off the shelf UO box came with a cloth map and a UO pin.  The map is long gone but I still use the pin on my office cork board.

Still have that shit 

But anyway yeah, there was something magical about the old boxes of yore. I've been collecting games and game boxes since the early 80s until i realized I was doing it out of habit, having the quality of packaging and "presentation" dropped dramatically at some point in the early 2000s.

Now I only get digital stuff, which was unthinkable for me only a few years ago. I still feel robbed, for there's no reason to pay the same price for less. But I don't actually miss the stuff I am not getting.

[kildorn]

The Digital Deluxe edition does indeed seem Meh, since most of the bonuses are really short use/one shot for a decent increase in price. I secretly suspect they're going to add more stuff to it, since they've also said if you order standard edition there will be an upgrade path to bump your preorder to deluxe.

The CE looks neat for the making of book, but Ye Gods at the price for a bunch of other stuff I've never even put anywhere. I think I lack that collectible desire, my blizzcon figure thingy is still in a box somewhere.

edit: oh, if you're registering a key and linking it to an existing account. The wording fucked with my head on the registration page. It doesn't want an email/password, it wants whatever the shit you use to log into guildwars with (in my case an @plaync account from ages ago). I spent a while trying to figure out why my guildwars email address/password wasn't being accepted.

[Murgos]

I've been collecting games and game boxes since the early 80s until i realized I was doing it out of habit, having the quality of packaging and "presentation" dropped dramatically at some point in the early 2000s.

I remember getting one of the first Ultima's (I think it was an Ultima, an RPG on 8" floppy at any rate)  in a plastic ziplock baggie with a folded paper instruction sheet.  Frankly, I'd rather pay for the game than for packaging.

Anyway, purchased the standard edition.  The digital deluxe version was underwhelming.

[Lantyssa]

Ended up with the digital deluxe.  I didn't want to go through a retailer to get the CE, so they saved me $70.

[Mosesandstick]

I'm mainly interested in the art book and the music cd. Can you ever get those seperately?

[Tyrnan]

Sadly, not that I know of. They're the only things in the CE that really interested me as well. I ended up going for the DDE since I'd rather have the elite and mini-pet and think they're a bit meh, that not have them and think they're awesome. I very much doubt that they will be, but you never know.

[Sky]

Anyone have an idea about launch date? Money is tight right now, thanks to some really good concerts coming up, and we're hitting the season of having lots of stuff to do that doesn't include playing games.

I agree on the questionable digital deluxe "extras". Limited use stuff seems like a really expensive and blatant money grab. At least for the big bucks you get the art, book and cool doll.

[Xuri]

All the in-game benefits they're offering across the board are real shit though. I don't know why they're so bad or what sort of product manager had a hand in making them shit, but someone did. It looks like the product was completely untouched by a designer.

This is becoming more and more common. Tends to work like this: Marketing comes up with their own stuff for pre-orders/special marketing campaigns, which the designers/artists then need to produce/implement on top of their regularly scheduled work.

[Ard]

They're not even hinting at a release date yet.  It's very much a "done when it's done" situation.  Could be three months or less, could be winter, they've said it all depends on how the open betas go.

I ordered the DDE edition because I'm really excited about the game, it looks like it's the first MMO in quite a while that won't suck in some catastrophic way, and I already ground out all the worthwhile hall of monument points, so with that much time down the tube, why get stingy with money.

[kildorn]

I imagine a lot of the issues with the preorder bonuses being kind of shitty are that the Hall of Monuments pretty much has all the shit you'd usually expect from preorder bonuses. A miniature and an elite skill seem a tad silly. The consumable PVP point thing would have to be a shitload of points to justify an extra $20.

I fully expect them to change around the preorder bonuses a bit due to this.

edit: make the DDE give me +5 points to my HOM score and I'd jump all over it though! ;)

[Zetor]

Making one of those 'one-use things' bind-to-account and infinite use with a cooldown (1 day/week or whatever) would be way better, yeah.

I did end up getting the digital deluxe for the reasons Ard posted earlier... but mostly due to my gw2 fanboi-ness. The miniature won't see much play since I have all those minis from 30 HOM points... and the elite skill is going to be weaker than the cheapest class/race elite skill, anyway.

[Segoris]

I think the issues are more so about the cash shop than the HOM rewards, especially since the portable bank conflicts with the portable bank from the cash shop and would conflict even more so if it was permanant without limitations.

IMO, if they're stuck on the portable bank being a bonus, they should take a hit from the cash shop and make the portable bank not have that 5-day duration, but have a cooldown of 24hours or something similar. Currently, the portable bank is simply a "the first hit's free" approach with an item that isn't all that great to begin with. If they want to give people a taste of items on the cash shop as limited and consumable bonuses, they should have tossed in a mystical key, a transmutation stone, and some sort of booster

That, and increase the base backpack of every character made by an extra row (I liked that idea with Rift's) would make the non-standard editions a much better value with very easy upgrades. Nothing even overpowering, but definitely much more tempting then 5-day duration shitpiles, a pet, and an elite skill that no one knows what it does and isn't usable until level 30 when you start getting your other elites anyways.

[kildorn]

My issue with looking at it from a cash shop standpoint is that it gives the impression that these boosters are $20 in the cash shop for .. what amount to really tiny things that should be $2 total at the top end.

I mean, throw in an art book, or something. Do what ME3 did and just scan in the artwork from the CE and act like a digital scan is somehow worth $10!

[luckton]

The cash shop, IMO, is sort of a deal-breaker for me as it stands right now.  I may look into this post-release once they iron-out stuff and what not, but this isn't a day-1 purchase for me.

[kildorn]

They key is the only thing about it that strikes me as questionable, pending further information. The Guild Wars 1 cash shop isn't really offensive or noticeable to me at all, and I'm hoping they keep it that way. The pricing in the GW1 shop is absurd ($7 for a cosmetic costume? $10 for a hero convert thingy?), but nothing in it is anything you ever actually need to give a shit about.

[Segoris]

My issue with looking at it from a cash shop standpoint is that it gives the impression that these boosters are $20 in the cash shop for .. what amount to really tiny things that should be $2 total at the top end.

I mean, throw in an art book, or something. Do what ME3 did and just scan in the artwork from the CE and act like a digital scan is somehow worth $10!

It gives the impression that a package of shitty short-duration items similar to what's available in the cash shop, a pet, and an elite skill are $20. There's a difference there since there are two items that (afaik) aren't available elsewhere besides purchasing non-standard editions which is somehow supposed to give value to make up the difference of the overpriced boosters up to the $20 higher price point.

I do agree that even an artbook that is scanned in would be better. Or hell, even a digital soundtrack since if people want that bad enough they can get a ripped version from somewhere else - ANet should tempt people with these things so they get the money. I agree with Kildorn's assesment that the only thing questionable is the keys (imo, pending on if they are available in game or not)

The cash shop, IMO, is sort of a deal-breaker for me as it stands right now.  I may look into this post-release once they iron-out stuff and what not, but this isn't a day-1 purchase for me.

I'm curious - what is a deal-breaker from the cash shop for you? I see absolutely nothing there that is overpowering or gamebreaking, especially for a game that has no subscription fee.

[Tmon]

...The pricing in the GW1 shop is absurd ($7 for a cosmetic costume? $10 for a hero convert thingy?), but nothing in it is anything you ever actually need to give a shit about.

Funny how many people do though.

[Nebu]

Funny how many people do though.

We call this the "Special Snowflake Principle".

[kildorn]

Oh, I love me some cosmetic cash shop items. I just like that at no point in Guildwars do I think "fuck, I should buy that"

Contrast that to things like World of Tanks premium time, which is pretty much mandatory at a certain point in the game.

The keys bug me in the GW2 leaked cash shop just on the possibility that they're not available as world drops, and I could stumble upon Phat Lewts, please insert $5.

[Nebu]

I agree about WoT.  I always play with premium up when I choose to play.  If GW2 has a system where a monthly fee aids in advancement or access, I'm certain that I'll contribute.  I'm not one for constumes and mounts unless they are something I can get through normal gameplay mechanics.  I enjoyed getting mounts in LotRO.

[Tmon]

The keys bug me in the GW2 leaked cash shop just on the possibility that they're not available as world drops, and I could stumble upon Phat Lewts, please insert $5.

I'm fine with them so long as I can sell the mystic boxes for $X and thus finance a future purchase of an extra bank tab or something.  I'm (despite my penchant for preordering) pretty good at the delayed gratification thing so I'm fairly discliplined about cash shops.

[Kitsune]

It's my understanding that in-game moneys can be used in the store, so technically it should always be possible to get anything in there without spending cash.  Whether the conversion rate makes that prohibitive or not is a different question.

[Evildrider]

I usually pre-order most MMO's I plan on playing, but for some reason I just can't get into this enough to do it.  There are some things I like about it but I have a lot of doubts.

[Falconeer]

This was aeons ago, but I remember that Arenanet (or maybe it was NCSoft?) started accepting preorders for Guild Wars 1 about 12 months before launch.

[Lantyssa]

The cash shop, IMO, is sort of a deal-breaker for me as it stands right now.  I may look into this post-release once they iron-out stuff and what not, but this isn't a day-1 purchase for me.

The cash shop you don't have to purchase anything from?

[Ingmar]

Jury is still kind of out on that I think. If they don't creep beyond what the first game offered, sure.

[luckton]

Jury is still kind of out on that I think. If they don't creep beyond what the first game offered, sure.

This.

[Segoris]

So what does this jury need to see to make a decision...considering every single item on the cash shop will be purchasable through buying gems from players with in-game gold?

I still don't want to see keys as cash-shop  only, and while I'll voice my disliking of it, it certainly isn't as awful as it would be if there wasn't the ability to buy gems.

[Threash]

So when is the first beta i can play on?

[Segoris]

Either the weekend of 4/20 or 4/27, supposedly. It is still TBA but it is scheduled for the end of April