BMP for sale

And the spin doctoring and legalease/armchair lawyering and business 101 lecturing continues....

I don't care that you guys can get it now. I don't want to take it away from you now. I don't expect or want to stop them now!

But ANET misled us, period. And we have a right to be angry.

And yet I have to watch day after day as one person after another goes on, and on, and on about how it's good buisness and no promises were made, etc. WE KNOW THAT. WE WERE STILL MISLED BIGTIME AND WE HAVE A RIGHT TO BE MAD.

Have the BMP, I don't care. My beef is with ANET, not with any of you getting it. And I made sure they know about it by sending them a letter. I don't expect them to stop the sale. I expect them to know that they can't just do this sort of thing without negative responses from angry customers.

Why do some of you feel the need to keep trying to explain to us how great it is? We know why you think it's great, because you are going to be able to get it now. And that is coloring your whole opinion, and completely leaving you unable to empahtize with our points of view.

Please stop people. It's over, it's going to be sold. We don't care that you think it's a great idea or no problem at all. You aren't going to change the minds of everyone out there who feels they were screwed. You are completely wasting your time. And you are laboring under the mis-aprehension that we care what you think on the subject. WE DON'T.

If you wanna be productive, YOU write to ANET to and tell them how great you think they are, to counter our complaints. But for the love of God stop spin doctoring and massaging the whole thing into something it was not.

The exclusivity was extremely strongly implied, then they saw dollar signs floating in the air and said "screw you" to those of us they had just said "a big thank you" to for buying stuff in the online store.

Period!

I got it via the free method, and I'm not angry, because I have $10 more than people who didn't get it via the free method.

well im sorry for you, but you and your ranting buddies seem to be missing a rather important point (deliberately or not is the question).

Quite a few people understood that this was not an exclusive offer but rather a LIMITED TIME offer.

If you FELL for the TYPICAL marketing spin that Anet put on this then you really need to get you checkbook out and start hiring a truckload...nay make that one hundred thousand frikin' SUPERTANKER loads of lawyers and start complaining to the advertising industry as a whole about their misleading methods.

suck it up and welcome to the real world. Or complain some more while acting like jerks.

congrats as i am out about the same amount.

the local discount GWEN ON RELEASE was 11 dollars and pocket change including tax CHEAPER than online store retail price paid.

NCsoft has lost me on any further promotions as it either will be a dud or available as NCsoft decides (not blameimg Anet at all)

I think people just need to suck it up and deal with it... yes anet should have been alittle more clear on what they were willing to do. And if they would break their word or hold still to an announcement crude details. But either way its still a good thing. Alot of people wanted it (and you can see by people buying char slots alone) and did what they felt they needed to do.

Now I wanted it, I did, but I refused to not have a box so I went the route of buying the retail boxed gwen and sucked it up, not getting BMP. I wanted it, I liked to believe I was a real gw fanny boy. Or at the very least a collector of the sort. But those who bought the char slots or online for the BMP was THEIR CHOICE. Everyone KNOWS it could have been possible for this to happen, YOU KNOW ANET wants to please its loyal fanbase.... Seriously you gotta be a dumbass not to know that and play gw.

So I am happy its coming out for me to buy without wasting money on slots (cause I was thinking about it all the way until halloween). I really wanna say HAHAHA to the people who are really whining about it, why are people so angry...they must be angry at themselves more than anything in truth, but it would be alittle too mean. So you gotta admit this: YOU MADE THE CHOICE, the result is by your decision!! Just deal with it, not go thinking of ways to punish people who made the now apparent "right decision". I mean come on, go fk yourself....why would all a sudden there need to be changes to the same extra content?

Hm, if I knew this I wouldn't have bought those char slots. Well, some people may be happy with the opportunity to get it now.

However, I hope that this will be the last 'bonus' that was done in this way:

• Only via credit card (Players demanded other payment options)
• Not available in retail or as GW:EN collectors edition. (Players demanded collectors edition; giving players a hard choice between boxed version without bonus or download version with bonus)
• Not being clear about availability (First only saying about a bonus for buying in GW online shop, now also available as separate purchase)

For those telling us to stop whining.... NO This is a forum where we come to air our views. Just the same as you did when you QQ'd about not being able to get the BMP.

For those of us saying we shouldn't be so angry or that we are really angry at ourselves or that we were foolish/naive. NO. We were lied to by Anet.

The BONUS mission pack was conceived as a bonus for buying at the online store. Had anybody heard of it before the promotion?

The BONUS mission pack was promoted by Anet and their community liaison officer as a bonus and a thank you for using the online store. You remember the T-shirts or key rings or exclusive in game items you got from buying GW at a certain store? Same thing, we were told.

If they had added more payment methods and rerun the promotion I would not be upset at all. But doing it this way they have made it clear to me that they will lie to me to swindle more money out of me and that they do not value my loyalty as a customer.

Lastly:- they ran this promotion to encourage us to use the online store. Why? Because they make more money per unit that way. Now they have turned around and rewarded you for not using the online store. And you say that is good business sense. LMAO are you serious?

many of us actually BOUGHT the BMP previously (including me) so your first point is invalid.

When the BMP promotion was over and there was that monster of a thread asking for it to be sold separately, there was a group of people who just HAMMERED their particular take on the promotion onto the rest, they were told they were wrong, that it was unfair, that selling it again would do them no harm and that it was NORMAL that it should be available.

So here we are again, same people, same arguments explained over and over but you people just refuse to listen.

YES it makes GREAT business sense. NOT selling the BMP separately would have been absurd.

So you knew that, and yet you still went ahead and bought it willingly from the online store, despite knowing it was just a marketting scheme.

Isnt that basically an admittion of stupidity?

That is the exact reason i didnt buy it from them, because they were asking for more then I needed to pay, for an item which wasnt worth that amount.

And yes it is good business sense, because a large number of people cant buy items from the online store for one reason or another. Should they suffer and not have the chance to buy the BMP from a retail store and miss out of lore and new content?

Do you want Anet to charge £18 for the BMP retail and stand alone version? Would that satisfy you and your anger if we were charged the same amount, despite it not being worth that much!

You said yourself, you bought the BMP by buying character slots which you knew, you didnt need because you already owned GWEN. You were willing to spend £18 on stuff you didnt needs to qualify for a product which wasnt even worth £18 (it had been well documented before then what the BMP would contain and it wasnt worth that much)....

....can you honestly sit there and say you thought that was a good deal at the time you decided to buy it?

GWEN was worth £18 and that contains a lot more content then the BMP, and you were willing to pay that? Honestly say to me you thought it was a good deal at the time or admit you didnt but you went ahead and bought it anyway!

yes, because:

a, I got access to the GW:EN content as soon as it went live

b, I got the BMP free

c, I paid the same through the ingame store as i would have done through a high street store... Now normally i would have gotten it at Play.com (who were selling it for £17.99, but only ship on the release day), but they never deliver on the release day anymore and I wanted to play with my guild on release day and we were all there at the start playing

How is the mission pack a reward now when people have to pay for it, its a merchandise now and not a bonus anymore.

FYI, A long story, I hated boxes, not environmentally friendly, and they do nothing but taking up valuable space on my shelf, that aside, I did not buy GWEN, someone bought it for me, I made them cancel the order from another place and ask to buy from the online store the day i found out about BMP. because, after the monastary (money thingy) conversion i am still on the plus side, I get BMP free, I get to play GWEN the minute it goes online. and it was 10 dollar cheaper compare to if i were to get it from my local store through my guild, which sadly, they only got it 3 weeks after GWEN was launch.

Last day of BMP promotion, got a promotional email from Anet telling me the BMP promotion will be ending soon, I went ahead and bought another copy of GWEN save 10 dollar for my second account, and it was all worth it. because I save 10 dollar and get Free contents.

If it was a lie like you want this situation to be, how come there are so many of us that do not felt lie to at all?

Again you are not listening. The point was not whether I thought the BMP would be worth £18. The point was whether I was willing to pay £18 to support Anet and be rewarded with something I could not get any other way.

I actually don't give a shit what they charge for it so long as I get some sort of recompense for the extra amount I paid as a direct result of their lies.

No it was not stupidity. Yes I believed them when they told me that the BMP was in itself a reward for using the store, because it made perfect sense. Why should I use the store, to buy something when I can buy it a LOT cheaper by walking into HMV? Aha thats why! something I can't get by buying anywhere else.

So yes I did believe their lies and as unfortunately I had already preordered GW:EN, I waited until deadline day hoping something more useful would appear in the store. I finally bit the bullet and paid £18 for something I didn't really need, just to get hold of the BMP which they had told me I could not get any other way.

It is the lies I am angry about. Instead of an apology or some sort of sort of recompense, I am being treated with disdain for believing what they told me. I still have not had an answer from support 3 days later.

And you really think it is good business sense to undermine their own online store and make the public not believe their marketing anymore? Oh dear.

Oh plus lets not forget that only certain stores in US and europe will sell it. If you are unable to use the online store and don't live near one of those stores you are still screwed.

That's always going to happen within reason. If you can't use the online store and don't live near a shop that sells GW, you can't get it either.

...isn't the answer too obvious already?

I can imagine Anet do something even more blatant and some of you would still worship them all the same.

Such a non-news.

I dont understand how their current change on selling the BMP as seperate item and in retail stores, has devalued the BMP as being a bonus item?

That just makes no sense to me!

There is a bonus weapon pack, and a bonus core skills packs and a bonus pvp weapons pack and a bonus pvp location pack, etc etc etc etc! They are all bonus packages which add a "bonus" to your account.

Your also suggesting that somehow the BMP's status (when you bought it) as a "reward" has been lost! But it hasnt. You were rewarded for buying the BMP when it first came out, because you got it free when buying other items in the store.

Whether those items were something you needed or something you didnt, was your choice. If you didnt need those items (such as character slots), you could have just had the sense not to waste your money.

But come the 28th we're not getting anything special, we dont get anything free when we but it and we dont get any special offers. We just get one single item for £8-£9.

You did get a reward and we're not!

The only thing Anet did wrong concerning this entire affair, was asking people to spend £17 to qualify for the promotion. The fact is the BMP isnt worth that much and people got ripped off.

Had they asked us to spend the same amount their charging on the 28th, then it would have been fine!

Anet should make some kind of statement apologising for the mixup and the confusion, but please.... will you just admit you walked right into a blatenly obvious marketting scheme and accept some responsibility for your actions.

This whole thing works on both sides. Anet should not have handled the promotion how they did, but you also shouldnt have been so stupid to fall for it.

The BMP was not worth £17 and the sheer fact people bought £17+ worth of items more just to get it, is laughable IMO. Can you not admit that? I agree Anet is also responsible, but please admit you made a mistake yourself in going along with such a stupid promotion!

Because right now you just barking and shouting at Anet and throwing all the blame at them and I personally find that childish. You played your part in this and to walk right into such an obviously bad deal was your fault too.

It wasnt even a suttle promotion, it was a blatent a rip off for an item not worth its price! Regardless of whether you believed it was the only place you could buy it makes no difference. You could have simply refused to buy the BMP on principle because it was obviously too expensive.

Whether it was called a "bonus item" or a "reward" makes no difference. It is still a bonus item and it was a reward at the time you bought it. There is no reason a company cant take a bonus reward item and later re-release it onto retail.

You talk about having experience in marketting and sales. You know fine well how this all works and yet your acting like your surprised...

They release it as a limited edition reward, and use all the amazing slang to pull you in. Then it causes a fuss because some people cant get it. Then suddenly everyone wants it, because they cant have it. There are protests and outcry and then surprise, surprise when demand is HUGE... they sell it again for a lower price.

That is marketting, that is promotion and that is commerce and business!

How does that surprise someone who has such experience in the field? Marketting is not a nice, lovely industry where they care about peoples feelings. They do what they have to, to sell stuff. Companies even pay kids to walk around their schools and talk about how amazing their new toys are, to try and create a trend. That is how deceptive companies get in order to sell things!

Anet may have done it badly, but it still had the desired effect. None of this will hurt sales and I expect it will fly off the shelf on the 28ths by the load!

Did you never do anything extreme or over-the-top to sell an item when you were working in sales and promotions?

As I keep saying and you did agree with me partly earlier in the thread. If it was such a blatently bad thing they were doing... why did you all buy into the promotion!

Thats more a statement then a question because ive asked it 100 times now. I dont hate Anet personaly because I didnt fall for the trick and im now feeling the rewards because of it, and ive never known Anet to do anything else bad which effected me personally.

If they did, then Im sure I would call blue murder and scream and shout.

Seriously, how many threads do we need for this BMP.
Grats to those that called this a potential flame fest, like no one really saw that coming (just like no one saw any flaming whatsoever on GWG from the initial stages of its infancy)

Yes I did make a mistake in trusting the company to provide correct information about their own product. It was not an obvious marketing ploy. They have done bonuses linked to buying from a certain store in the past. These were never repeated. That is what they told us was happening this time too.

If you get given something you could buy seperately, free for buying something you would buy anyway, yes it is a bonus. If you are lied to and told the only way to get that item is spend a certain amount at a certain store, then they turn around and sell it seperately it is not a bonus it is a con.

Remember we are not talking about carrots here (stupid comparison btw), but about something produced and marketed by only one company in the world. They were the only ones who could provide any information on this issue. They did. And it was lies.

My mistake was in believing their lies. It is not gullible or foolish to believe a company who has never lied to you in this way before.

Now that they have however I will never buy another of their products. And I am certain I am not alone in this view.

EDIT:- LOL nice post Tickle both here and in the devs forum (which I agree should be closed)

Edit again :- LOL again @ Chris. Exactly mate

I am angry too, the best way to get back at anet is to show them at the release of GW2, just don't buy it, maybe if they lose a couple million sales they will think twice about how they conduct business. That is the only real way you are going to get back at them, other wise bend over and prepair to recieve it once again.

Lonesamurair and Pumpkin pie, you have nothing to complain about then. You bought GWEN and got the BMP free right?

Thats the same cost of my buying GWEN from play.com at £17.99 and then later buying the BMP for £8-£9. You may be out around one or two quid, but thats tiny.

So whats the issue there?

We both pay the same amount and we both get the same result! What does it matter then if the BMP is concidered a reward or not!

Its the people who bought stuff they didnt need like character slots, to qualify for the promotion who I dont understand. People who were willing to cough up £18 on instore items they didnt need just to get the BMP.

Now you all wanted GWEN, so it was fine.

but mcsumo it was extremely obvious that the BMP wasnt free, and that it wasnt a reward and the term bonus means nothing.

If you bought GWEN from online, instead of a cheaper store you were basically paying £10 for the BMP.

If you bought items you didnt need to qualify for the BMP, you were paying Anet £18 for the BMP and getting stuff you didnt need.

I just dont get your obsession with "reward" and "bonus". Did you only buy into the promotion because Anet used those terms?

It's become obvious that this thread has just turned into a he said / she said tennis match. The ball keeps bouncing but no new points are being 'scored' by either side.

I, for one, am in favor of closing the thread.

It's not about scoring points, it's just about opinion. We have a right to talk about this, since it's something that has made a quite big difference in how we are viewing this game, whether for better or worse. This discussion isn't about resolution but about discussion, and as so shouldn't be closed.

I think Gli put it best some pages ago:

This post is /thread.

Personally, up to late I have been an unwavering supporter of this game and ArenaNet. They had proven to us time and time again that they were'nt just another big corporation looking to get the money out of us any way they could. I own all 3 campaigns, and have never once hesitated to buy an ANet product. I have lead to atleast 25 people buying one or more campaigns over the last 3 years. This whole ordeal certainly changes my view on this company and on the game, and I highly doubt I will continue to be the infallible supporter I was in the past, or preach so much to other people to get into it.

As someone said earlier.. consumer confidence: years to build up, moments to destroy. I hope selling ~10000 units @ < $10 USD outweighs the damage they have done to their dedicated consumer base. (actually I don't)

lol just these people who spent a bit more got pwnd by anet in one way or the other. seriously tho, i cant believe you guys didnt see this coming. its a great move in anet's part. i agree on waht freeked said, think of it this way, you bought 3 char slots, whether you needed it or not, with the mission pack. so overall you got 3 char slots and a mission pack for 18 euro, just think if the "non BMP qualifiers" did the same thing, it would cost 10 euro more. the logic is simple. but please, cry more how Anet lied to you and say your gona boycott their future products. [Chris Blackstar[ which is really stupid and unrealistic imo, cuz even wen shit hits the floor that anet lied to you whiners, your still gona buy gw2, lmao

And who do you aim this "statement" at?

If it is for me, you're out of the loop.

As for other people, I'd guess that they fell for the promotion because back then, there's no reason (for them) to doubt Anet. They never once did any of these splitting hair attempts or questionable business practices (again, in their opinion). Thus, nobody, and let me say NOBODY, not even Gaile herself, tried to over-analyze the announcement message and clarify that "oh! It's the promotion that is time limited. Not anything else!" (notice how I don't even have to mention the BMP to imply the meaning. When you say it this way, there's no promise that the BMP will be available later either. Only that they can do it if they want). Nope. And I did ASK. So for them, the bad thing happened JUST NOW, with the selling of BMP, not just the promotion alone.

You you you and you. So this is all about YOU and how you're smarter than other people so they all should just shut up because YOU "didnt fall for the trick and now feeling the rewards because of it"? Seriously?

Let me tell you, for the people who did fall for the whole BMP thing back then, and for those who don't like how the whole thing turned out to be what it turned out to be, they have EVERY SINGLE RIGHT to "call blue murder and scream and shout" as you would've done because FOR THEM, this whole thing "effected THEM personally".

You of all people shouldn't even try to make it sound like you're on such a high horse, fishy. You're the one who stated clearly back then how much you hated this whole thing. So basically you didn't qualify for it. But now that you know how good it is you go all "OMG Anet is so kind. What's wrong with you people? You made a mistake falling for Anet's scheme, suck it up! I'm gonna buy the BMP now muwahaha".

Please. If you're any more transparent you'd be invisible. Let me tell you, there's no way Anet is going to stop selling the BMP now, no matter how long this thread is. You don't have to worry.

It's not the fact that they're offering it again, but it's the fact that they told us retail would be impractical. I figured if they were going to offer it again, it would be along the lines of another promotion if they offered it at all again, so I figured I might as well do it now. Gaile basically dismissed it ever going retail, so how the hell was I supposed to know it would be offered the way it is now?

/marryme for this post?

Oh god, not this 'great move by ANet' shit again...
How was it a great move...?
They lied to us and exploited our trust in them.

"Whether you needed it or not", people wasted their money on the character slots for the BMP if they didn't need it...don't you value money?

Paying 18 euro for the BMP when the BMP is worth 1 char spot is a good move?
Paying more money for GW:EN and losing it's casing in trade for it?

"You whiners"...I remember a time when people like you were doing the exact same thing.
Being lied to by a buisness company you trust is incredibly....BAD.

Originally Posted by www.guildwars.com
For a limited time, when you spend $29 USD (€26/£17) or more in the Guild Wars In-Game Store or through the PlayNC Store, you will get a Guild Wars Bonus Mission Pack for free!
The Guild Wars Bonus Mission Pack will allow you to play through four pivotal moments in Guild Wars history. Earn unique rewards as you go face-to-face with Palawa Joko and his undead army as one of the key figures in the Battle of Jahai. Experience part of Cantha’s turbulent past as you witness the violent Tengu Wars. Learn firsthand how the White Mantle rose to power in Kryta. And, finally, discover what became of Gwen after the Charr invaded her home and the Searing destroyed everything she’d ever known.
Spend a total of 26€ ($29/£17) or more in the Guild Wars In-Game Store or purchase and activate any product worth 26€ ($29/£17) through the PlayNC online store, between 20:00 BST July 5, 2007 and 19:00 BST October 31, 2007.
You can spend the required amount all at once, or over time; your purchases will be tracked and once you meet the requirement, you will qualify to receive the Bonus Mission Pack!
The Bonus Mission Pack will release in November. This promotion is non-transferable and is limited to one per account. The Bonus Pack will only be available to the exact account that fulfills this promotion in the in-game store or the exact account on which a qualifying Guild Wars product is activated that has been purchased in the PlayNC store.

This information wasn't very clear to MANY players. So some of us looked around for confirmation as to future availability. Some asked questions directly.

I can't even find the stuff I read on wiki talks back then, but......

The Bonus Mission Pack is a four mission collection we're giving away as a thank you to players who've spent at least $29 (€26/£17) or purchased Guild Wars: Eye of the North during our in-game store and PlayNC promotion (note: this promotion ends October 31, 2007).

This quote came from an 'interview' here http://www.guildwars.com/events/pres...017-colinj.php

Interesting words from Gaile here.

http://guildwars.incgamers.com/forum...78#post4972978

Another very interesting line taken from here

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...light=petition

and each subverts the very promotional intention of BMP's creation

Although admittedly that was after the promotion period, it still does clearly confirm that the impression we got before making our purchases was the correct one.

A few random threads to show that so few people believed it was a one off!!! /endsarcasm
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...mission+ pack
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...mission+ pack
And freeked obviously believed all along it was going to be released seperately
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...m ission+pack

No whining at all there

At the end of the day, Anet made the BMP purely as a reward for using the online store. Many MANY people believed Anet about the fact that they would HAVE to spend money in the store or not get the BMP at all. Anet knew this and encouraged that view, even when people were openly stating that the only thing they could buy was 3 character slots, purely so they could get the BMP. Anet told us we would get a special reward unavailable through any other method by spending £18 at their store. We didn't we got screwed.

Lies, lies lies, lies, lies.

[QUOTE]it was NCsoft that made the decision little chum

learn this much if nothing else.......ANET played no part in this marketing decision

Not complaining, I've very happy how its been

I was explaining to the masses who for some strange reason that i can;t fathom aren;t happy

mcsumo just won the thread...

It's not just the BMP...

it's taking off the Skill Packs and not adding the new ones until after the promotion is over.

it's the $40 price tag on GWEN, which the more I think about it, is overpriced.

Basically, it's a string of marketing decisions by Anet that has made me lose a little zealousness in Guild Wars. To be sure, I still think Guild Wars is a great game, and I enjoyed playing it, and might play it again, but for now all this has just put me off for a bit.

Loviatar: I understand that NCSoft owns Anet. But do you really believe Anet has absolutely no say in how their games are marketed? The lines from Gaile suggest that Anet has it's own marketing department, and they are at least somewhat responsible for planning promotions.

Or do you think that every single mini-pet that gets released as a "bonus" comes under orders of NcSoft directors?

You got to love this from unofficial GW

Originally Posted by Giantsquid:
Simply, what I do not understand is this, and it is a simple question really. Why are they not allowing people who have already said they would wilingly pay money for bonus missions to do so?

Gaile's Answer
It's possible, I suppose, that we will do that sometime in the distant future...

You got to love this from unofficial GW

Originally Posted by Giantsquid:
Simply, what I do not understand is this, and it is a simple question really. Why are they not allowing people who have already said they would wilingly pay money for bonus missions to do so?

Gaile's Answer
It's possible, I suppose, that we will do that sometime in the distant future...

Well, it was the next year... just happened that next year was 2 months away!

GuildWars players have a problem with everything...

and you have a problem with that?

Do you have a problem with my problem?