Update - Thursday, April 23

Well let's do the math shall we?

70 copper coins for a hard mode mission.

7500 copper coins for enough gold coins to get a heavy equip bag.

That's 101 days PER CHARACTER for 20 extra slots of "free" storage.

Oh, you can do the bounty too, that's what, 150 coins? So 1/3 that time...33 days. A whole month to get storage we've been waiting for. ThatA whole month of that extra space already paid for by Anet and partitioned per account. that we can't even use. Just taking up server disk space without any data in it. Congratulations, you've officially turned this game into Grind Wars. Dedicated players are punished for having a lot of stuff that YOU introduced into the game. Either they don't do this grind and suffer, or they do the grind and suffer, or pay stupid amounts of money for junk and suffer.

GG Anet. Tenagg Flametroller is not amused. I think I'll just go ahead and uninstall my 4 year account on the 4th anniversary and move on to something else. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUILD WARS! WHERE'S ALL YOUR LONG-TERM PLAYERS? OH, THEY'RE JUST OFF PLAYING SOMETHING ELSE. GG.

Hey, 4 years of requests we finally get a stylist. Oh whoops, it costs $10 per change. Maybe for the 8th year aniversary they can add an auction house that costs $20 per use; note: GW2 will not be out by then!

Update is kinda neat but the Zaishen stuff better not be so ridiculously grindy....

IT seems there's a bug with the zaishen coins. It says it should be tradeable through storage, but it's not possible at the moment.

Had to check this myself to make sure it was true. Too bad it is.

big update comes, log on
game is still old and boring, log off

i appreciate how significant this must be for people who still get some excitement out of guild wars and how much work anet must have put into this but for me it only proved that no amount of updates will restore the appeal guild wars once had to me

omg trolling guru though that never gets old

so i went out and bought like 9 extreme makeover packs one for each of my characters omg it was so worth it it was only like 10 dorrars each i think this is a great new business approach for anet and they should add plenty more of these (not-so-)micro transactions that let us add even more to this new and exciting game. (^_^)d

(>//.-)> <(//.-<) b(//.-)
emo kirby approves

Oh gawd, I wish I could find that link to the somethingawful.com comedy piece about what gamers say when a big update happens and they throw their toys out of the cot.

Well, if World of Warcraft does payment for Character Recustomization, GW might as well should do it.

PS ArenaNet: Daily Missions work in WoW because they're doable by the average PuG. Killing Kanaxai isn't. And if these are the Copper Coin missions, I dread to see the Silver and Gold...

It's not a big update. It's a way for Anet to gouge every last penny out of compulsive gamers for stuff that really isn't worth it. And if you don't buy it, you still have to sit there and LOOK AT IT teasing you. You have to GRIND LIKE HELL to get the "free storage" bags. It's ridiculous. Anet lost my respect...there are games out there that offer updates and content additions and options like these that DON'T charge an arm and a leg or require ten tons of grind. I think I'll go check them out.

The difference is, it costs $10 to change your hair style in GW, and a few silver in WoW. Blizzard got it right, ANet, not so much.

Awesome. A stylist at last. Feels like a dream come true. Very nicely done Anet

Makeover Credits are US $9.99 for 5, or ~ $2 each. Unless I'm mistaken, you can do a complete alteration of all parameters for one credit. $2 seems reasonable to me for that. Haven't opted for a purchase since I'm happy with my choices, but perhaps someone who has can confirm. Wiki has no information on the subject yet.

Don't ignore the $15/month to enjoy your "free" customizations.

And how much more shit does WoW get because of the money Blizzard makes from the subscriptions? Of course that's a whole different (off topic) discussion.

The point is, you shouldn't have to pay real money to change your hair in an online game.

I really, really wish the first thing they said in the hair stylist section was that it came with a fee. One of my personally most anticipated features comes with an additional pricetag. Disappointment ensues.

Completely changing your sex is something I could understand requiring a few more additional out-of-game funs, but to just change my doo???

I'm usually a pretty happy camper in GW, despite some bad skill balance updates and random let-downs...but wow, Anet has blown my mind with this update. I'm pissed. The Grindshen NPCs just want me to do things I've already done...I have no use for a petting zoo...HoM update, who cares...traveling collector, pretty cool...

...but a good portion of the update requires me to get out my credit card. Screw you Anet, you're getting greedy and you're not getting another penny from me. I'm not buying these "extras", and I'm not buying GW2 either if this is what you're going to do with it.

Im SO glad about the stylist. I finally got to redo my ele<3 And fix up my other chars. I think $10 is a reasonable price, although wow lets you pay w/ gold. Either way, i'm glad anet added it.

To be fair, to change your sex in WoW requires a out-of-game fee. On the other hand, changing your hair, hair color, facial hair/accessory is totally in-game and affordable.

Yes, but you're STILL paying for it with your monthly fee.

WAAA stylist!

Edit
Nvm, its pay-to-use. Forget it.

Assuming 12 million active subscribers (it was 11.5 in december if the numbers are to be believed), and considering some people buy several months at a time, let's assume $14 per month, which would come out to 144 million a month or ~2 billion a year.

Agreed. Stuff that is already in the game should be free at the very least. Now if they came out with 50 new hairstyles and asked $5 for you to buy the pack, that would be different.

In addition to a shit-ton of other things, yes.

Regardless, this is another thing ANet should've given a big heads up about.

Yeah, it would've been nice to have even more hairstyles & faces to choose from at that price but it would also probably have taken too much time and resources for Anet to add them in time for this update. I'm not holding a grudge because of this but it's still kind of a bummer.

I'm pretty sure we are stuck with the stylist options we have now for the rest of the game's existence. Because if they do end up adding more hairstyles/faces down the road (oh hell no) there will be plenty of pissed-off customers.

Edit:

Oh well, one way or another we wanted more character customization and we got it. It's better than not having any stylist at all, ...I guess.

The extra $10 per pop (more like $11 for me after CA tax!) will probably help pay for the work they put into this update and then some.

Re-edit:

Ok, I had my credit card out and entered my info, but didn't make the purchase at the last second. I'm only interested in changing one of my characters (change of face) and the price tag for doing just that doesn't seem justifiable to me. Bah

yeah i was quite disappointed they didn't add any new faces/hair styles for assassins/ritualists/derv/paragons. So far the only thing i like about this update is the traveler guy.

Hrm, have totally mixed feelings about this. Piece by piece:

Good:
- Nicholas! Sounds pretty awesome; I'm glad he's not just in Pre since I despise Pre. Will help me trash a bunch of useless junk I've been hauling around, and help my Necro finally achieve Sweet Tooth without paying through the nose, if what I've heard is true. Also, I was already moving to make an Official Professor Yakkington Fanclub on Wiki before the update
- Account-wide HoM: yay!
- Zaishen Menagerie: Ooh, fun. Now I'll have a place to put my casters' pets, which are never used. And it'll help my monk achieve her goal of getting a different pet for each hero! Plus, more Canthan-looking areas: always good.
- Free extra Xunlai slot offer: That'll help a lot.
- Bug fixes: What can I say? A fixed bug is better than an unfixed one. Except in Oblivion with the cool "shoot-it-with-an-arrow-and-be-rich" bug, but that's wholly different.

Good/Bad:
- Zaishen Quests/Coins: On the one hand, fun stuff to do. On the other hand, more grind to do. But overall, probably positive. The boss bounty thing looks like fun, and I can combine it with my ele's skill capping process.
- Equipment Packs. Yay for a place to stash my armor sets, boo for making it so grindy to get one. Might get one for my armor wh0re ele. IF they fix the Coins-can't-go-in-storage mess.
- Stylist. Gogo ANet for finally listening to us! I was so thrilled when I saw that they surprised us with it ("oh yay, I can finally trash Elly's awful hair, and Jenna can keep going with her return to her roots and finally stop relaxing her hair")... until I saw that it was a store item. WHAT? Here we've been arguing that oh, it'd be a great gold sink, etc... and they make it $10 for 5 basic ones. TEN BLOOMING BUCKS. No way Jose. I'm glad that they added it, and I know some people are willing to get it, but I still think it's silly. I was totally expecting to pay 5k per change or something, which I so would have done, but no. I'd rather spend $10 buying a slot for that ranger I've been planning than to get the 2 credits I'd need to fix my eles' hair.

Just Plain Bad:
- Storage update. I've already said it's silly to pay that much for a storage slot, and I stand by that. Once again, I'd rather just get a new character.
- Overall trend towards microtransactions. This is the big thing that's worrying me. I know times are tough, and really since ANet's not releasing a new campaign every 6 months like they were originally planning, they've got to get money somehow. That's the price to pay for letting us have the game without a subscription fee. I didn't mind the BMP (actually thought it was a good idea, though I wasn't willing to buy it), and I figured the Fire Imp upgrade was okay. But now there are more and more - storage, character customization, etc. Is Guild Wars going to turn into one of those freebie Asian games like Perfect World and MapleStory? I hope not. I've heard complaints that in some of those you need to buy things with RM to even do anything at the end of the game. I saw for myself, briefly, how completely unenjoyable MS was if you weren't willing to pay for a stupid ingame item. Guild Wars is a high-quality game, and I really enjoy it. I just hope this isn't the "way of the future"... and if this is how it's gonna be for GW2, well... by the time it comes out I'll be out of the house and away from the "no subscription-based games" rule, and The Old Republic is already looking pretty good...

Overall, though, despite a few things that I think ought to be changed, this was a pretty good update. I thought I'd be mostly negative on it but I think my outrage over the stylist was hiding the good parts at first... and even on that, I have to congratulate ANet for finally listening to us. Here's to hoping they listen to those of us who don't want to waste real money on ingame hair.

I haven't even logged on yet, but just reading about this update gives me the impression that it was well done and very thought out. I was hoping as much, after being told/reminded again and again about the amount of time and effort being spent on it. I will not say for certain until about a few months in whether or not the rotating zaishen menagerie quests or w/e were implemented in a way that staves off stale gaming, but the rewards seem more than tempting.

However, even if I find the update to be a 10/10 well into the summer... I still want that skill update BADLY.

You're also paying for the weekly updates and maintenances and the other sh*tload of content.

But that's another story.

$10 for a lighter hair, YOU GOT ME A-NET!

Up to this point - if I wanted to modify my character (which happened a LOT!) I was forced to delete and remake him.
Nothing has changed.
If I'll want a different haircut - I'll delete the guy.


Where is the AFK-fest?


Everything else - I don't really care for.



But thanks anyway.

Its an OK update.

I don't know if its funny or sad that people expect everything given to them for free.

To be quite honest, the in-game store really isn't built for micro-transactions. Most systems that operate like that (i.e. many F2P games) have you charge a minimum amount first which is then converted to some random currency (such as MS Points). You can then use this exclusive currency to buy items/games/whatever from that distribution system.

One of the reasons why you won't see stuff selling for like $2 in the online store is because of this: processing credit cards and other forms of payment cost the merchant money. The flat fees charged by Mastercard/Visa/et al. disproportionally hurt those transactions that transfer small amounts of cash. This is probably why many stores reject credit/debit cards for sales under $5 or so.

Perhaps ANet could have gone the micro-transaction route. It certainly seems like it could be done -- note the similarities between exchanging cash for virtual currency and buying makeover credits. They instead opted for another route, for example, giving more makeover credits for a set price (in this case, $10). Perhaps it's me, but I believe the former would generate more sales, due to it giving people more options (instead of 5 makeovers, maybe 3 of one thing and 2 of another -- theoretically of course). I'll admit that the gender change and name change seem a little off base in comparison to the makeover package.

Of course, none of this *really* affects me. I've been designing characters from the get-go thinking that such an option is unlikely -- so I'm fine with everything as is. :P Besides, if I felt like it, I'd just get another character slot to play with; it seems like this option was really made for people attached to older characters or something. The only cool option is mixing faces/hairstyles from different campaigns, although I'm not too sure how that'd work out. We'll see.


Edit: On other parts of the update... :P

The Menagerie is a pretty cool addition. Perhaps many (most?) people will find it useless, but at least it's a sign that more stuff like this could come in the future (hopefully?). I'm a pretty big fan of pets despite their general uselessness, although I've used them for vanquishing (micro to bunch stuff around a corner) and dungeon runs (my phoenix tanked Ilsundur's firebombs during the time when he had crazy high HP, heh). I'll be wishing for some changes to the beastmastery line (lol). :P

As for the Zaishen quests, it seems like a good way to get people playing together again (well, as much as possible in this environment). I don't care much for the rewards; I much prefer the prospect of having something random to do with my friends.

I've been expecting the account-wide HoM for awhile now, so nothing to say on that. Interesting, I guess, but still pretty useless until we know what they actually do in GW2.

Finally, Nicholas is made of pure awesome. The end.

Pretty good update. Although the idea that rehashing will be okay as long as it comes with a new reward isn't too appealing. I'd like the new equipment packs, but grinding zaishen coins seems so dreadful. I think I might just strive for one heavy equipment pack since my warrior has plenty of weapons/armor.

It's really too bad the stylist wasn't implemented sooner (before I deleted my characters), but it's a nice addition I suppose. However, I never thought it would be something ANet would charge for.

Finally! I can change my ele's hair

And where is such confession from them?

Were you playingthe game back when they made this whole ground-breaking, earth-shattering revolutionary new business model for online game kind of A BIG DEAL and they made sure all the development teams SIGN on a paper saying the game will always be free with no microtransaction, EVER?

If they decided to change their mind now (bait & switch as usual Anet practice), I'd like to see an explanation.

Where is it?

And you get TONS MORE stuff in WoW as free updates. TONS more.

Hehe. Ironic, isn't it? We have to pay more $ for character's haircut than I would have to pay in real life.

I remember Gaile saying something about that effect when the BMP was announced. I forget what she said though. (I think it was along the lines of "We can do whatever we want." Plus the fact that it's Gaile)

People don't want it free (Although that would be cool), people want stuff for a reasonable price.

You all complain about real money to do these changes.... The thing is, it requires overhead on their servers, and took a lot of man hours to create the changes on the server architecture to even make these changes possible.

Quit bitching and fork up the dough, or shut up and keep your pixel pansy characters the way they are. WoW doesn't give any of these services for free (as a matter of fact, they are more expensive, and you pay per month for WoW on top of it) So... if anything, ANET did you all a favor.

Now, for all you debbie downers out there... go take a cool shower and drink a nice, hot cup of tea.

And shame on you Arky... you should know, the hair stylist in WoW can only change hair, not actual facial features (and forget about gender, lol)

In order to do said things, you must purchase character recustomization. Oh... wait... how much is that again? Let me quote it from my WoW account management page...

Each Character Re-Customization costs $15.00 USD (not including applicable taxes). This covers a single customization for a single character.


Oh.. about THAT. FOR SHAME MR ADMIN! FORRRR SHAMMMEEEE

Well said. Nothing else to add really...

When people bring WoW into it and say it's not free because you pay monthly you really have to keep in mind that they get so much much more care with there game. It's not like they pay there monthly fee just to change a hairstyle.

Very nice surprise to wake up to. ^^

Lol @ the person whining about needing Balth faction to buy Deep scrolls. Thay're 200 ea and all you have to do is have more Lux faction than Kurz (easily achievable by killing 2-3 enemies, as you say you're not a pvper.)

Haven't really explored these in-game yet, but OMG At the stuff that's dropping from the Traveler's gifts. Lots of re-skins, true, but O.O Really looking forward to completing this, even it'll take me a looong time.

Alright, I take it back. You guys did a great job, totally didnt see the stylist coming... :P