Chapter 2 Information from Computer Gaming World

I've received my subscription copy of CGW, and there was one little picture blurb that caught my eye, and hasn't been mentioned yet...

There will only be ONE additional character slot in Factions.

One.

Uno.

Eins.

Hanna.

I'm incredibly pissed off if this is the case when the game goes retail.

if you dont get 4 new char slots with Factions, why should i buy it then?
I have 4 lvl 20 chars and i play with all of them.
I'm not gonna delete 1 to make a ritualist or assasin
So they say we can make our second prof rit or ass but thats not the same at all.
And the ppl who only buy factions they get 4 slots and we dont get 4 slots?
hmm...

Don't complain just yet. There is no official word on how many slots we will have with GW: Factions.

Ok, here's the deal, those the do know can't answer any questions due to NDA's etc, those that don't know can't answer due to a lack of knowledge. Because of this it's quite POINTLESS to be asking questions at this point. read the magazine, read the interviews, and then you'll be at the same point knowledgewise as everyone else except the afformentioned people under NDA's.

I read about only having one additional character slot also and I really hope Anet revisits this decision before release. It does not make sense (in the current version) to have 6 character classes and only 4 slots for creation and the same goes for factions, with two new classes, and only one slot. Let me rephrase that statement, it does make very good business sense/strategy as some people will buy two copies of the game and be locked in to buying two copies of each expansion in order to play each class without having to delete a character they have spent countless hours developing. This business strategy is good for profits but it just isn't player friendly, especially for those that do shell out the extra money for two accounts and have to unlock each one individually. I know this is an old argument/complaint but I do have a suggestion; why not offer a collectors or special edition of the expansion, for a higher price point of course, that has extra character slots available ? I for one would be willing to spend an extra 20 to 25 dollars for a few extra character slots whereas I would never spend 50 for an extra account that I had to unlock all over again.

I been reading the forums about suggestions for proffessions and other stuff for the coming parts. -"Why why why" =(( did they make a Ninja? (Assassin) To satisfy all Teen players? My worst fears came through. Unless they make Role playing districts i wont be playing this game anymore that's for sure. Imagine all the dancing ninjas, CAPS TYPING, WORD SPAMMING, and it will all be from the "Assasins". Trust me. They should make an option same like they made for cape and helmet. "Don't display ninjas or anything they say or do- EVER!!! ..

Ninjas died with "Teenage mutant Ninja Turtles" in 80's and early 90's something. Looking at the screenshots i just lost all interest in playing. The asian theme looked pretty ok but "Oh my buddha"- that male Ninja on the ingame screenshot just made me ..> *sigh*

One of the few reason i should continue to play would be if i got a major bonus for taking out as many ninjas as possible. Kind of like a "Ninja Killer ladder"...

Anyways --> with my latest character i did most PVE missions, exploring and questing solo or with henches. I had just about enough of all the bad players, mission quitters, kamakaze rush to death and yell for rez. It simply isnt fun joining a player group in most cases, cuz 6 out of 8 are really lousy group company.

Well, if i am to play more after next part i certanly wont invite any "Ninjas" to the group cuz 98% of them will probably belong to above mentioned categories. Not even Ninja Henches, cuz they probably wont follow strategies and commands from group leaders. They will probably wander off on their own or rushing enemies, not attacking called target and then spamming text window asking to be healed and ressurected. Worst case scenario will probably be that the Ninja Hench quit From mission when he have 15% Death penalty.

Buy another copy of the first part too then and make another account =) That will solve ur problem probably?

When the assassin was first announced, I had pretty high hopes that ANET would come up with something unique with the assassin and not some ninja.... and I'm as disappointed with it as you are now.

To me, not only is it a ninja but a bad looking one too. Hopefully that's just one set of armor that looks like that. Maybe the other sets look cool and non ninja-like.

I said they would make a ninja character sooner or later. People were telling things like, "Na they won't do that, does't fit the time frame" and all that. Well, we have a ninja/Le Femme Nikita.

But I'm excited about the new proffesions. Finally Ranger can have a suitable secondary. Yes you can use Warrior as a secondary ro use those weapons but Rangers are not warriors. Warriors are like infantry, Rangers are like Navy Seals. They can travel lightly, on foot over great distances, and they use stealth and over whelming firepower to engage targets. In fact, we have Army Rangers here in the U.S. Army.

I'm also like the ritualist thing for my Mesmer. Me/Rit sounds like a good support character for PvE.

It is funny though: Feankin' Ninjas.

I can't tell you how pissed I am right now.
Preview gives you NO slots, and Expansion might give you 1?

I have 3 maxxed chars for unlocks and 1 to play with my wife (past LA). I got boxed out of PvP because of it and can't use my current account nor its unlocks here, nor get more faction/unlocks as part of the weekend, unless I trash a character.

If expansion gets 1 I have to make a A/Ri or Ri/A (neither particularly interesting, I had others in mind), still no room for PvP and now no extra for working for the wife in the new world.

If it's any less than 4 new slots they don't get their two purchases. Period.
800+ hrs in this friggin game and they make a game out of character slots.

I can think of a few other games I may head to instead of this if that happens. Was so stoked about the preview and expansion too

Stand-alone, possibly full price for chapter 1 owners too, and less than 4 slots while new players would get the 4? No way.

Bah this really turned my jazzed 'find CGW get key party next weekend!' attitude right around.

Yeah, the VERY limiting character slots is a very legitimate complaint. As someone who plays both PvE and PvP, I'm going to be screwed if I have to create a separate account just to get the extra character slots. I have to choose between extra space or getting to share skills among my PvP characters.

Calm down. I do think the release of Chapter 2 will give us 4 more slots, otherwise, it's really unfair for us Chapter 1 account holders. I am confident Anet will listen to player's voices as they have done so far.

chapter 1 players will get 2 slots at most.

no chance on 4 more totaling 8 slots .

THE FRIGGING ARTICLE IS A MONTH OUT OF DATE AND THEY HAVENT MADE A DECISION YET SO WAIT TIL THEY ANNOUNCE SOMETHING.

TO QUOTE GAILE THEY HAVENT MADE A DECISION YET

[QUOTE]We will post when we have reached a final decision on this. The article in question was written a month ago (for print) and the ultimate decision actually has not been made.[/QUOTE]

I agree. Look at all the stuff we got from yelling at Anet:
-Cape Toggle
-Helmet Toggle
-Guild Guests
-Faction
-Higher Faction Gain

In fact, the ONLY serious problem that we've been complaining about is the limited number of character slots. I know Gaile and others read the forums and some of us have made very reasonable arguments towards more character slots. Past events would suggest that they'll eventually expand the number of slots.

Hey, don't complain, in fact think of it this way.. you are getting WAY more than C2 standalone customers with the addition of that 1 character slot.

In fact I believe it really is going to be one slot.

Think of it this way.

Your $50 for C1 pays for the following:

-4 character slots
-1 stash
-the ability to play all your slots in Tyria

With C1+C2 what you get is:
- 1 additional character slot for a total of 5
-1 stash
- the ability to play all your 5 slots in Cantha and Tyria

So for the C1 customer his $50 nets him the benefits of being able to play 4 characters * 1 game world = 4 "unique experiences"

For the C1+C2 customer his $100 afforded him the ability to play 5 characters * 2 game worlds = 10 "unique experiences"

Tell me, where are you losing out? You get more than you paid for.

In fact I am absolutely confident this is gonna be the way Anet is going to spin it.

Those examples are not relevant here, those features are things that would allow them to keep more players = net them more sales.

However when it comes to character slots, it is poor business sense whatsoever to increase any more than the sheer minimum required. If they give too much less people will be pushed to buy multiple accounts and it can only hurt their pocket book.

There's only going to be 1, don't have too high expectations on that.

Only the most hardcore players buy two accounts. Many people get turned off when by the low character limit. If the expansion only gives one extra slot, then they could actually get fewer sales than if it gives four extra slots. It isn't necessarily poor business sense.

Stop complaining that Factions players get 4 slots.

GW and Factions are meant to be differant games; stand-alone. You get 4 slots if you play only GW. You get 4 slots if you play only Factions. Factions isn't meant to be an expansion pack, per se. Why would the purposedly make their sequel worst than the first? If you get both, you have 5 character slots... FOREVER. You think it doesn't cost money to store character data?

While I, too, would like more character slots, you have to remember that GW is saving us money by not having a subscription fee to maintain the servers. I don't think 5 slots is too little. Hell, if you play all your characters to the fullest (get every skill on one character, optimize the characters variety of weapon and armor sets, do all missions), then 5 won't seem like too little.

When it comes down to it, 4/5 character slots is a pretty big bang for our buck, and it'd be ridiculous (imo) not to buy the new chapter based soley on the character slots.

People are complaining because it makes more sense to buy Factions without linking the account to your original GW account. That way you'd get 3 more character slots.

I don;'t think we know exactly how many new slots there will be. Wait till the game is released then we'll see

Sorry, but using your reasoning that because GW and Factions are different games then 5 slots for TWO different games makes no sense. If indeed they are two different games (which they are) then why is having 8 slots such a stretch? You yourself said that you get 4 slots for GW and 4 for Factions....do the math when you add those slots together.

People pay for two different games so why wouldnt they get double the amount of slots? Tell me that.

But I dont hold out hope for 8 slots total nor will I throw a fit if that's not the case, but 5 slots total only is pretty ridiculous.

check my math if you would please. im tired

chapter 1 gives 3 slots for 3 characters/6 professions plus one free for PVP

if chapter 2 follows exactly the same pattern we will get the following.

4 slots for 4 characters/8 professions plus one free slot for PVP.

i am hoping to get 2 additional slots but if my math is correct it looks like 1 new slot.

please no flames as this is an observation not my opinion

Use the free access code to create another account, the access code is unlimited, why do you think there is an access code for a single weekend event.

I see the reasoning there... but it doesnt make it a good choice for ANET to take. It would be a decision that would divide choices for PVE and PVP even further...

Having only 5 slots is fine for a PvP only player. Creating two separate accounts might be fine for a PvE only player to get the extra slots.... but what about the poor sap like me who plays both? Neither option looks good to me.

And given the further emphasis on merging PvE and PvP this choice seems strange.

Wow, just, wow. I'm amazed at the number of posts saying "Factions isn't an expansion, it's a sequel and isn't supposed to add on to Guild Wars" or "Factions is just an expansion, you need the original game to play it".

It is neither of those things.

It is a game that exsisting players can merge with the first Guild Wars and a game that new players whom don't wish to pay for both the first Guild Wars and Factions can also play by itsself.

It does both, it can be used as an expansion OR as a standalone game.

like each book in your favorite series.

each book has a beginning, a storyline, and a closing leaving open the next book in the series but will give a good read just by itself.

but each additional book you have makes the experience richer and fills in little gaps.

It sure does... However the amount of data for a full account with 4.. heck even 6 PvE characters loaded fully with random items and a full storage wouldn't be more than say 10MB, which is A LOT for some raw database data. And even it's 10MB, price per MB would be less than a dollar at most, resulting in say 5 bucks for a whole acount. Surely, there're the maintenance fees and whatnot.. but that aside.. getting 1 extra slot for your existing account, even if it's still in the air or as some say uncertain and false, is just ridiculous and unfair nevertheless.

2 things.

1 you are simply throwing out figures as you have no access to their books.

also multiply whatever that cost is by 1.x million accounts hopefully to soon be 2.x million accounts when china/japan come into release

2. the Anet rep herself said that the figure of one slot was a month old when they put it to press and it STILL has not been decided.

conclusion for me is that the cost is higher than you guess as if it was actually that cheap they would do it to make more customers happy rather than giving as few as they can

Well, said. GW specializes in not fitting the mold.

100 bucks for 2 chapters. Multiply that.

I'm obviously aware of that, hence why I said, and I quote myself "even if it's still in the air or as some say uncertain and false"

If it was about costs and Anet would wanted to make customers happy (not that they are not happy already.. I'm quite happy with the way things are), they would have already made it possible for customers to buy more slots (say 2 max) for say 10 bucks a slot; there're enough people that would pay that money just for that. I'm not convinced it's about costs. 100 bucks a year, around 8 bucks a month is very much the right price for that type of game, compared to games like WoW or Lineage.

Storage is infinitely cheap nowadays. I dare say the cost of the hard drive/storage/backup mojo that is used to store our character data is essentially negligible.

What really costs money is.. bandwidth, but one user can only login once at a time!

What you did forget to factor in is the impact on lost sales.

Tsk tsk.. as an American I am surprised you can make statements like this.

Think of it using the new Intellectual Property(tm) model.

You did not buy 2 games, what you bought when you purchased chapter 1 is the content for Tyria, and the ability to move 4 characters in Tyria.

When you buy Factions and register it as a standalone, you gain the ability to move 4 characters through Cantha.

When you buy Factions and apply it to your existing account, what you gain is an additional character slot, plus the ability to move FIVE characters through BOTH Cantha and Tyria.

Look at that again. Well, if you want to think of it as two separate games, fine. But you cannot discount the fact that you get "entertainment" and "happiness" from the moving of your existing characters from Tyria to Cantha, this "happiness" needs to be paid for no doubt.

All speculation and armchair economics aside, it's a simple matter. Like it, buy it. Don't like it, leave it alone. Speaking for myself: less than 2 extra slots and I'm not buying.

It's your loss, the new ele armor does look pretty swello

I dont think it as two completely separate games....I was using that other guy's words to dispute the faulty reasoning.

I understand your explaination and I can see the "logic" but that doesnt mean it's the best way to do things. There are also "logical" reasons for arguing for more character slots such as getting to use primary attributes of every class instead of just using it as a secondary....but it's way too late for that now...

I just didnt think it was asking to much to ask for at least 2 new character slots....and I sure cant understand why people think that request is unreasonable.

EDIT: Also I'm not american.

i think 2 new slots are very reasonable.

EDIT FOR SLOT NUMBER

otherwise we gain 2 professions and get one slot behind with 5/8 as opposed to 4/6 (we were down 2 now 3)

i dont want to delete a character for wanting to choose both new professions.

I think asking for 2 extra slots is very reasonable. One extra slot would be cheap to say the least. Heck, for most of us a couple of extra slots wont be enough either. And of course more characters means more storage space needed, obviously.


I'm also hoping for a new selection of less cliched (and crap) faces. Along with a choice of body build (why are all the male warriors fat and all the male necros pug ugly ? ). I know we won't get those and we will have to put up with bad faces (be honest they are not much cop) and cliched body-types. Thats ok as long as we get extra storage and character slots though.

Gaile said to look at the character creation screens to see the improvements so far in the additional choices for hair, faces, etc

remember it is still months from release so possibly more will be added (my hope not her statement)

now the question is, if you already have 2 accounts, will you have to purchase 2 copies of Chapter 2 to have access to the new areas on both accounts? or can you use 1 Chapter 2 cd-key to upgrade multiple accounts?

we should stikie this all over.

each account is separate and each account to be upgraded will require a copy of chapter 2.

2 accounts 2 chapter 2.

my suggestion is to buy one copy and see how it is than buy the second (or not)