Arena.net just let loose Guild Wars 2 for free for everyone. This is totally awesome, but why? PCGamer recently asked and I thought the response was interesting.
""We believe that if people love Guild wars 2, they’re gonna buy the expansion pack," O'Brien says when I ask why ArenaNet is doing this. "The expansion pack is such a great value. There’s so much content, not only in the expansion pack but in all the free updates that will come past that." While Guild Wars 2 is now free, it won't receive future content updates—including the newly announced raids. Those are earmarked for Heart of Thorns, which will essentially become the live version of the game"
If you haven't picked up Guild Wars 2, you officially have no excuse. With that, is anyone picking up the Thorns expansion?
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/play-for-free-today/
http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-core-game-is-now-free/
""We believe that if people love Guild wars 2, they’re gonna buy the expansion pack," O'Brien says when I ask why ArenaNet is doing this. "The expansion pack is such a great value. There’s so much content, not only in the expansion pack but in all the free updates that will come past that." While Guild Wars 2 is now free, it won't receive future content updates—including the newly announced raids. Those are earmarked for Heart of Thorns, which will essentially become the live version of the game"
If you haven't picked up Guild Wars 2, you officially have no excuse. With that, is anyone picking up the Thorns expansion?
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/play-for-free-today/
http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-core-game-is-now-free/
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Well darn. I say that because I paid for it, but I got it at a really great deal, so I don't really have much room to complain. I wonder how much the expansion is going to cost.
They have a range of pre-purchase options for Heart of Thorns starting at $50 and finally ending up at $100.
http://buy.guildwars2.com/store/gw2/en_US/html/pbPage.heartofthorns?cid=91:5::::Global:166:::
Wow! $50-100 for an expansion? No wonder they went "free-to-play." It's been a while since I've played and I didn't get as hooked as Travis. I might play again some day, I'm not sure when. Right now I don't really see the point in buying an expansion, because I haven't fully explored what I paid for. So, maybe a time will come when I decide I want to buy an expansion, but that probably won't be for a while.
Now if only we could get Square-Enix to go free-to-play with Final Fantasy XI.
I think I just found something to do this Labor Day weekend when the wife and kid are out school shopping :)
Free-to-play accounts are hampered in a few ways to prevent spammers/botters/sellers, so your already purchased version is better than what free accounts have.
(and also to make them money by people upgrading, of course)
Do you have a link to the freemium restrictions? I'd love to see if they get lifted at some point or are FOREVER locked.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/play-for-free-today/
Awesome, i'll update the post with that link thanks. That said, I don't think this is to prevent botting/spamming but I also don't find it unreasonable either:
"First, free accounts start with fewer character slots and bag slots than the paid version of the game. But they still get the full complement of slots as soon as they buy Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns."
The rest of the restrictions are totally reasonable and if someone wants them lifted, buy full. I think I bought in when the game was $10 and even though it's free now I still think I got a good deal.
Some of them are. The lack of map chat, the inability to send gold, and the inability to go outside of certain areas until you get to a certain level are definitely to prevent spam and abuse/trolling. The item restrictions are just to give people a bigger incentive to upgrade or buy the expansion.
Well freemium limitations makes me feel good that I paid for the game and therefore have none of those restrictions. Being able to remove them by paying for the expansion seems like a good way to get people to buy. I can only imagine and assume that the price of the expansion means a lot of quality content. But, I'm afraid that since I've only just begun (as of a few months ago) and haven't really progressed very deep into the game, that I still wouldn't really see anything from the expansion for a while. I hope that makes sense. I guess I'm kind of envisioning the expansion like the FFXI ones, which I have, but never even really accessed, especially because I was only just beginning. I didn't play very long either.
Yeah there's not much point in buying it til you're max level.
I'm not sure what level my one character is, but I believe it's over 10. I still feel like a newb in the game. I still don't think I've decided whether or not I'm into it. So yeah, right now I'm not interested in the expansion, but maybe I will be in the future.