The Divine Aura.

The numbers are already roughly the same, Factions only had a 2nd run of CE's because of a glitch in the 1st that caused a lower number than expected to be produced.

As Loviatar said, that won't do it at all. I tried every possible arguement - no go. I think you *should* be able to do it *if* you could *prove* you own the accounts. Or at least move keys around via cancel/reissue, provided it isnt excessive. I was able to prove it, and they still wouldn't do it.

Did that - still won't do it. But what are those circumstances where they will permalock an account and issue new keys for merging? Surely they could do that as my other account is only valuable enough to me for 2 keys - Proph pre-order and Proph CE. The other keys are also on my main account anyway. Id be willing to eat the financial loss too (not that I'd have a choice in that matter if they did do it). I haven't, however, heard of them doing it at all.

But why would you remove the Prophecies Campaign in case you got the CE edition? What if you didn't? I'd at least wait until you had the CE in your hands first.

That'd be yet another viable option. But there are other people who have been supporters since day one who don't have a CE of Prophecies (for any number of possible reasons) who might want to get one (Id love to get one for my main account since mine is on my secondary, which had been my primary).

If the numbers were roughly the same, then why is it that the Factions and Nightfall CEs are easily available even now, whereas the Prophecies CE ran out by the time this amount of time had passed? Answer: More copies were made from the get-go.

@nbajammer: I guess I assumed that people would know that i would get that FIRST before actually removing my account.

I didn't want to get the CE edition only to find out that I can't switch the keys.

In other words, I did research.

Make sense now? xD Rather common logic...

Or maybe, just maybe they sold them all? As per the guildwars website,

That's a timeline of just over 4.5 months. The next million didn't get reached for another 9 months.

Quite a few people bought multiple copies of the original CE when it was released as they wanted more than 4 character slots to play with. Factions came out and the online store followed a little while later, no more need for multiple accounts, you can now buy character slots.

I was going to go on a vast hunt for the CE, until I saw a near-naked necromantress using the /headbow emote... I laughed...

I seriously do not want to pee every time I bow my head.

Hee hee. In my book that's a reason to have it.

And if you did it, then found out you couldn't get the CE edition, you'd be out. Quite a gamble had it been possible. Plus, I got the Nightfall CE first. I'm sure others did too, so it still does not make sense and is not really common logic.

That only says 1 million copies sold. That did not say 1 million CEs sold. Plus, You are assuming everyone who bought an additional account bought a CE for it. Both of mine were created with Standard Editions. Rather presumptuous, but wrong.

LOL Yes, some of the emotes do look rather odd with the DA.

Ever so true, so true indeed.

Seems kind of odd to me. There is money to be made here. I would buy all three upgrades immediately and so would a lot of people on this board. With no monthly fee, I don't see why not.

If I were an investor in their company I would be screaming bloody murder at them because this is simply free money that they are passing on. Some really unhappy investor could sue them over it.

They probably argue that the integrity of the Collector's Edition and their user base would undermine their credibility, but I don't want all the books and cloth maps, etc. I just want the emotes, and I will pay.

God forbids Anet from caring about their loyal customers (who've bought the CEs) more than their profits, or something?

www.ebay.com

Go there, type in "Guild Wars", and pick up a CE edition. Good luck finding a decent price, though.

They sell other CEs because they are still available in stores.
Lets face it for Factions not too many people were pleased with it so thats why you still find some CEs in Stores.
Once they are gone then thats it, so if someone needs backup dancers for their rits and sins they have to hit ebay like people are trying now with the prophecies ce.
For nightfall, its only been out for 5-6 months and I believe that anet made a lot of CEs thats why they are still in stores.

Thats why its called collector edition. Once its done then its done.

Its not like Anet is still making faction and NF CEs

So they should be forbidden from caring about their other customers? Failed logic there. Truth is, they (like any other company) are in business to make money. By shunning the larger portion of their user base to reman faithful to just the "loyal customers" (as you call them) they would be doing bad business.

1)Good luck finding any copy.

2)Managing to find one/some, good luck finding it not to be opened.

3)Managing to find an unopened one, good luck finding a decent price (which isn't happening at all).

Not the most viable option, certainly not more viable than anything suggested in this thread. Most searches don't get past step 1. Of the few that do, virtually all of them stop at step 2 (people selling their accounts).

Thats why more Prophecies CEs should be made, to equal (at least) the other two. See page 2 (I believe) for discussion on how the name implying Limited Edition is not so. It might be considered such, but even then it falls considerably short. The name does not say or mean more cannot be made. More will not be made because Anet says so, which is what we're making suggestions to have changed and with very good reasons no less. As for your last statement, no one here said they are still making Factions and NF CEs. We have said that they made MORE of them to begin with.

It's not that they don't care about people that didn't get it, it's that they have a certain obligation to the people that did buy it to keep it unique. CE's aren't intended for everyone to have, Anet knows if they re-released it they'd be making total asses of themselves.



It's not that they don't care for their customers that didn't get it. They had the same chance as everyone to grab one, if they didn't see any reason to buy it at the time or they hadn't heard of it yet; that's not Anet's fault. It was a limited printing and anyone that didn't seize the opportunity will just have to accept that. It's not really bad business, alienating the customers that repeatedly buy the more expensive version of the game would be.

QFT. That's basically what I tried to say (but my english skill is quite limited, you see.)

just for the fun of it had you noticed that stores that used to have Factions CE in stock no longer offer it?

some still have copies for sale and some have run out as they cant reorder them

just as with the chapter one CE the chapter two CE is getting harder to get.

as for the number of accounts compared to copies sold i refer you here to show that the larger print number of additional chapters CE was distributed to a much larger ACCOUNT base.

note account activations not copies added to existing accounts.

You are right, it says copies, not copies of the CE and not everyone with multiple accounts did buy a 2nd CE, however, quite a few did. I wasn't making and presumptions, just pointing out some numbers that showed just how fast the original game sold, period.

In what way? Because more people will have hands that glow? The idea is to please the customer base - and if enough people want it, they will have to seriously consider it. But their "obligation" ends at the PoP (Point Of Purchase). People bought a CE key, added it, and they received what they paid for. They are under NO obligation to limit it.


Of course it is. Customer base that didnt have the chance to get it > Customer base that did. Pissing off more people isn't in their best interest. That's not Anet's fault, no, but nonetheless you don't want to alienate the bigger chunk of your userbase.

Guess what? Stores here still sell the Factions CE, and furthermore all 3 games use the same userbase, therefore your final point is moot. These same users will want the Prophecies CE as well and it will be up to Anet to listen to them.

And that was also due to a smaller userbase compared to now. Back then the correllation (sp?) was tighter than it is now.

I see sealed copies from sellers with 100% positive feedback almost every to every other week.

And as I posted before, Amazon.com's marketplace will provide you with even more peace of mind (although w/o the chance of a lower price).

And the price is now set by the market. Let's say, for argument's sake, that there aren't as many Proph. CEs as there are Factions CEs. Even if Anet makes enough P. CEs to match the number of F. CEs, there will still be a very limited supply, and the market will still be driven by demand and willingness to pay. In fact, I would bet that most copies will probably be bought up by ebayers and sold for $250 a pop until we're back where we are now and they are closer to $300/$350.

ANet has decided that there will only be so many Proph. CEs. At this point, it's either worth $300 to you or not. If not, you'll just have to move on.

I bought my Prophecies CE at Christmas. I found a store who had a few copies left. It was a bit easy to find, only took me a few minutes by searching Google .
Note that I live in EU, not North America. It seems pretty hard to find a copy over there, but I'm glad they remain limited editions. Otherwise there's no point in making CE's.

You know what? Just because you don't have the glowing hands now doesn't mean you NEED to have it. Let's face it, the whole thing is there just to show that you bought Prophecies CE, that you bought a CE of a game that just got released and nobody knew how good it would be. If everybody can have it now, do you seriously believe you would care about it? Instead of "Wow, you must have been with the game from the very beginning (or paid a lot in an ebay auction)", it would be "yeah yeah, you paid more than me for this game, so what? I know how to spend my money kthnx".

And please don't come out and say something that sounds like every single non-Prophecies CE account owners "want" to buy the CE now, because not ALL of them do. And since you can't really count how many people want to do that, you can't really compare here.

Trust me, even though Anet is here to make money, I believe they also CARE about their customers. Care enough to know that this whole glowing hands thing isn't something they should consider making money on.

read what i posted.

i give you some examples

Gamestop
EB games
Newegg
Best Buy

all used to have the Factions CE for sale and now none of them list it.

i just got another Factions CE from another online store i deal with and they said mine was one of the last in stock.

as for all 3 being the same user base you are wrong as everybody who has one chapter might not have the other 2 chapters

I agree with Gaile those who bought CE bought it, theyh are unique, there is little to nothing we can do to change that.

The Divine Aura is like a special thanks to the people that bought the first CE and showed that extra support when the game was first starting out. Now people that didn't show that faith that GW would be a great game and buy the more expensive version are saying that they now want that special reward for doing nothing. They're not going to give mini Greased Lightnings to people that didn't even try roller beetle, they're not giving permanent gold cape trim to guilds that have never even participated in PvP tournaments, and they're not going to give Divine Aura to people that didn't take that chance when it was still available.


I'm not saying Anet is a bunch of idealistic hippies that aren't concerned with profit, but they do want to maintain the integrity of the game. If they did start selling stuff like DA; they may as well open an item mall were you can pay real money for weapon skins, mini pets, special cape trims, access to end game areas, and buy gold directly. If GW started heading down that road, people would start quitting the game in droves; even people that don't have any CE's and are unconcerned with DA and such bonuses. People that missed the DA have no right to be pissed at anyone but themselves for not getting it.
People that started the game late (a while after it went live) are inherently already alienated to an extent. They don't have the first halloween mask, nor the first Wintersday one, and so on in that fashion. Giving them DA wouldn't do much to lessen that. As for the people that were with the game from the start but chose not to buy the CE, they shouldn't feel alienated at all since it was their choice. But if they do feel alienated, they should realize they alienated themselves. And once again, Anet does not ascribe to your logic of "making as much profit right now as possible is far more important than maintaining the game as a continued viable source of revenue into the future".


The reason stores still sell the Factions CE is because they haven't yet all been bought out. Same is true of Prophecies CE, I've seen posts from people, usually that live in more loosely populated areas, saying that their local game stores still have the Prophecies CE in stock at it's original price from release. But what you have to understand is that they haven't printed any more CE (Prophecies/Factions/and Nightfall). They do one pressing (except with Factions when the factory accidentally produced fewer then they were supposed to) then they ship them out to the stores. That's it, they don't make anymore; just the one minting and then send them out. How fast the stores sell out of them cannot be controlled, but when they're gone there's no way for them to restock. His final point wasn't moot. What he was saying was that the player base had grown considerably between the time of the release of Prophecies and of Factions. The number of CE's produced is relative to the projected player demand at the time of it's release. The player base having grown in the nearly two years since prophecies' release, they now make more of the newer CE's when they are released to match the expanded player demand. Should they go back and produce more Prophecies CE's to match the current player base? -No. Are they going to have a month where they redo absolutely every ingame event ever done so everyone will have a chance to get everything and we can all be equal and the same? -No.


They did produce more of the newer CE's to match the greater demand.

The divine aura was a special gift in the first CE, a "thank you" from ANet to their first supporters, who accompanied them during the betas etc. A thank you for the people supporting ANet, when gw was still "just another online game" on the release lists and the major success was still just a hope and not reality.
You weren't one of those? Well, then you don't deserve the divine aura.
You were one of those but did not want to spent the extra buck back in those days? That's your problem. And don't tell me you were unable to purchase it back then. You were not limitted to the local store on the other side of the street. I know people who even ordered copies of gw from other continents.
You were afraid of paying 69.99€ + shipping for a game you don't know? Again, you're fault, not ANets.

The day ANets starts reproducing the DA or any other CE special is the day the greedy people have taken over gw and that's the day I'm gone.

And no, I don't own all the CEs.

I am in full agreement with Knightsaber Sith. Divine Aura is a mark of distinction for people that were there from the beginning and took the chance on buying the CE. Giving the divine aura to those that didnt buy it originally defeats the purpose of the aura all together. I remember back in the day of beta when they released the list of contents for CE and the forums were a buzz with wtf is divine aura and lots of people said that what ever it was it wasnt going to be worth 20 extra bucks...some people took the chance...others didnt..and still more didnt even know about guild wars yet...DA is Anet's reward for people goin out on a limb and paying 20 extra bucks for a new company's (at the time) game...only later would it be found out that guild wars would be a smash hit..

Imo there have been too many of these "Waaah!! I want DA!! GIMME!!" Threads and this should be locked...

Making money on it makes sense. You don't get the box, the goodies, etc, the sanctity of the CE is maintained except for the emotes.

Example: A company was spending too much on their health benefits for their employees because they wanted to be "nice", their shareholders sued them over it because it exceeded the industry standards and they felt their investment was being wasted.

This is the same thing here -> Look Anet, big pile of money, do this basically cost free thing and you get it handed to you. Anet says, sorry, we can't do that because people who's money we got two years ago might have their feelings hurt. Two years exclusivity on this is more than enough. If you look at it that way, you could say that anyone that is buying a copy of Factions for $19.99 on sale now is violating your purchase at $49.99 and you should have the right to stop them from playing because they didn't pay as much as you did.

If they do it, they make money, a bunch of happy customers are dancing around with new emotes, and most of the people who have the original CE won't care. Most of the people who have the original CE probably aren't even playing anymore.

Believe me MOST of the original CE people WILL care.

Divine Aura = Been there from beginning.

Divine Aura does NOT = I came late into Guild Wars give me the stuff I didn't qualify for.

Bottom line for the company: is pleasing you as a customer worth losing me as a customer? Because that's exactly what will happen if DA becomes available through the online store or they re-issue the Prophecies CE.

I never had the chance to get the CE here in Adelaide, Australia and no way on earth am I going to pay $300 am for it that’s $366 Australian. The glow hands might seem a silly thing to want but if it adds to my playing experience than why not?

As a previous poster said when you purchase CE you are only guaranteed to receive what you paid for, I don’t want all the extra items (mic mouse pad etc) all I want is the aura effect for my Dolls character when I dance in pre.

As I said before please don’t say No outright I won’t pay $366 but I am willing to pay the original purchase price just for the aura.

for the record my ac is 17 months old i think I count as a original supporter with 7 accounts.

[QUOTE]and the ONLY reason i bought the CE for was the specified *DIVINE AURA* that would distinguish the buyers in game who bought the CE

art book look at put in bookcase
headphones i already had
the rest was stuff i dont even remember.

DIVINE AURA was the one and only selling point.

it was stated at the time it was announced as an exclusive bonus item for those people who showed the extra faith by paying extra at the start.

as for the people yelling look how much more you could take in now are forgetting the long term.

if they make the one ingame CE item available i will not buy any more CE but wait for the store to offer it cheaply as people would say you cant charge full price for a tiny portion of the full CE box.

we were guaranteed the DIVINE AURA as an exclusive bonus same as the mini kunivang is an exclusive Factions bonus and that Factions CE is getting harder to get now as well.

You are, however, one customer. One customer does not matter much. More customers would be made happy by DA appearing in the store than would be made unhappy.

However, I still think it would be disappointing to see it in the store. I think what people are missing is not having DA doesn't mean you're a bad fan or that you don't love the game. Having it just means that you were intrigued enough to get on early and spend some extra cash to do so. It a neat way to say "thanks for jumping on at the start and supporting the game when it was brand new". If everyone got that, it stops meaning anything at all.

ANet has to make money, sure, but they also DO have a lot of respect for the fans that have supported this game. They've done many things that didn't expressly make them more money, but that were just things for the fans. None of these holiday events are making much money for ANet, but they do them anyway, because *it makes for a good game*. We get lots of neat stuff in game like birthday presents or holiday hats. I don't see ANet offering this in the store because they do care about the fans, too. So yes, they need to make money, but a sound way to make money is to build a reputation of being a great company that cares about more than money.

Bottom line: People without DA, stop complaining that you don't have it and that's so "unfair" because... it's not unfair. People with DA that are pitching a fit, stop pitching a fit. DA isn't what makes you special - it's your support that makes you special, and DA is just one way of showing that. By saying "well if everyone had DA, I'd stop playing", that doesn't suggest that you're a very dedicated player that really loves GW, does it?

[QUOTE=Loviatar]This is completely fair. Exclusive bonus item is pretty straightforward.

i just looked at my box (yes i kept it)

the very first item listed in the box contents is and i quote the box

we paid for the DIVINE AURA and we paid for an EXCLUSIVE item

i think that closes the case as to what we paid for

This is another one of the "get as much cash as you can from this gimmick now and at the same time kill the franchise" comments.
The Divine Aura is the only aspect of the CE that anyone actually cares about being limited. If anyone wants to ask Anet to re-release the artbook, soundtrack, or headset I highly doubt anyone would object. But the DA is the only aspect of the Prophecies CE that can be shown ingame and that's what really matters. I'm glad Anet realizes the DA is the key feature that must remain unique.

evident->
(don't dwell on typos, she's only human )

Again, you seem to have totally misread what I wrote.

What gamble is there in just asking if it was even remotely possible to unlink my GotY version of Prophecies AFTER installing the CE version. There would have been no loss of data, as I would still have Prophecies linked into my account. And if there was, I would only lose one character: My ranger that I stopped playing after a few weeks since I got Factions and she's only as far as Droks.

No big loss to me, I would just recreate her or maybe not bothered since I haven't played her since last August or so. She's just a mule right now. I would have transferred anything she had on her to one of my other characters that are safely not Tyrian made.

I got Factions CE first, and I got Nightfall CE first. I started Guild Wars during last summer, and it was tough to find Factions CE in stores. There was one store who had had it when I bought Prophecies GotY, but when I went to purchase Factions CE a week or so later, it was gone. I found my CE through Amazon.com's online store (not the used/buy section, straight from the store).

It seems I can no longer assume that you would try to think through of the standard logic process of what I was doing and why I was doing it.

I was trying to say that basically, before I tried to suffer through in trying to find the cheapest Prophecies CE I could find (which i did actually on eBay, but I didn't buy it. There was one and it ended during the night I had to take my boyfriend to the hospital. I obviously wasn't thinking about an auction then. Plus it was used so...yeah.) I wanted to ask support if I could unlink my GotY account AFTER getting the CE version AND installing/merging it on my existing account.

So in even pure simpler form, this was what I was doing and if it had worked how it would be done:

1) Ask support if it was possible

If yes

1) Find Prophecies CE and buy it
2) Install and merge it to account
3) Contact support to let them know I had completed the task
4) GotY key is free
5) Give GotY to my friend for free and as a gift.
6) Live on with my life

That was only IF it worked. I would not ask them to unlink my account BEFORE actually getting the CE version and merging it with my account. That would just be moronically stupid. I had hoped that you would have at least given me that much faith that I wouldn't do that.

If I could not get the CE edition, then oh well, at least I know for future reference that it would have been possible. I would not tell them that I was 100% sure I would do this, I only asked if it was even possible.

No loss, no gamble. Since I know I can't, I'm not going to spend hours/days/weeks and unnecessary energy in trying to find a copy.

NOW can you see the simple logic? _._ I still don't know how you could have missed that.

[And the DA still has to be with the CE. It's a sort of symbol to say it is Collector's Edition and that you went out of your way to spend the extra $10 or whatever, depending on when you bought it, to get it.]

Edit:

O____o..I think I did a major typo and the little censor thing went off xDDD *think she misspelled "account" xD*

Yep, that's why I agreed with you.

Although now it begs the comment - the people paying $250+, they're *really* paying for the exclusive item.

hi

no confusion

i was agreeing with your agreement and adding that the box itself specified exclusive.

i might add that of the 6 special items listed only the Divine Aura was listed as an *exclusive* item

i wonder if a year from now people wll be demand that the kunivang be sold

dif is with kinivang that you can purchase from in the game.

If they don’t sell Prophecies collectors’ edition online well, I will live and the game will continue to attract my love. Just a shame that we are forced to line other players pockets instead of the $$ going to the game makers that have supplied so much to us.

[QUOTE]you are right and that is my boo boo for forgettng

They can't unlink an already applied key, I think that's been made pretty apparent, and support even states that. The best you could do at this point would be to add a Prophecies CE key and accept the monetary loss of the GOTY key.

How does Anet not selling a Prophecies CE edition in their online store help to line other players pockets?