Is there a petition for 2 new slots instead of 1?

As a person who has 4 dedicated PvE characters, and who plays a lot of PvP (over 60K faction), I feel as well that one slot for each primary profession would be great. I'd love a PvP exclusive slot, but that's icing to me, as I use my PvE characters in PvP and do just fine.

I have been considering a second account, because all 4 of my characters have finished the game, and I've moved on to farming, because of a lack of new content (other than the recent Wintersday stuff, which I finished).

However, I am reluctant to buy a new account because of the unlocking problem (and I'm a person who likes 100% completion, so I'd want everything unlocked on both accounts!), and with Factions coming out, I am continuing to hold off. In addition, there is new content coming out for all of the professions, to my knowledge, so why would I want to give up a completed lvl 20 ele when she's going to get new skills when Factions comes out?

Coming from a technical background, I can certainly understand why A.Net doesn't want to merge accounts: there is no way to automate it; each request would be a separate trouble-ticket into their technical support, and even if code was written to automatically 'merge' data, it's still a lot of work.

However, I believe (and A.Net, correct me if I'm wrong), the mechanism for adding character slots to existing accounts is already in place for Factions.

While I see potential concern from A.Net regarding the economy or 'fairness' for those who could buy more slots; I see the purchasing of 2nd-hand accounts as a bigger problem. I don't want to pay $50 for another key, but I would pay $12-20 on Ebay. This means that A.Net doesn't see any of that money. I'm stuck buying a redundant product, paying for software and packaging, when all I really want is the slots. People are getting these slots if they really want them, for whatever their reasons (mules, farming, more primary profs). Why wouldn't A.Net buy into the idea of more slots for sale? It would be money in their pocket (as opposed to resellers on eBay), the mechanism is in place, and it's happening already. Personally, I'd pay $10-20 for an extra slot.

To people who say that 4 or 5 or however many is enough; it's clearly not for many PvE players. Due to the length of time between significant content releases (no complaints, it's just the development cycle), I'd consider it a pleasure to be able to start a character with a new profession from scratch and play through the game again. Doing the Fort Ranik mission with a level 20 just isn't the same. Having more slots means that I'll stay with the game longer.

The incentive for A.Net to do this is that I'm going to get bored with doing the same missions or farming, and put GW to the side in favor of another game. Maybe I won't bother to pick it back up again, which means that I will pass on the expansion (again, no threat, just an observation of a possible outcome).

I support the idea of the maximum number of slots on one account (plus 1 for pure PvP, but icing for me, as I said) to be equal to the number of professions in the game.

I understand that far, far into the future, there may come a time when I cannot play all 16 of my characters through the next expansion, but the amount of time it takes to play depends on the player. I say we tackle that when we get there.

How we get them?

-Buy them: $10-20 per slot, allowed for owners of either C1 or C2
-Release enough slots with Factions to give 8 slots to all owners of both chapters.

My preference is to purchase them. Why? Because that's how A.Net can customize to the needs of the players. To those of you who say 4 is plenty; A.Net doesn't have to set space aside for your potential slots. For folks who want 8 slots, well, we'll pay up to have them (gladly, in my case).

OK, I'm gonna change my stance because something just occured to me...

what's the difference in server space if someone owns two separate accounts with 8 characters total, or someone who has one account with 8 characters?

In that respect, it makes no sense for Anet not to offer 4 more slots to everyone, regardless if it's installed separately or merged with an existing account.

Comments?

From my experience in computers (AA in Networking, going for my bachelors now) there really isn't any difference. If there is a difference to me it would make sense that it would take more server space for a new account because that would be another entry in the database which would eat up a little bit more than just adding slots to a current account (very small bit but still something). I just don't see the reason why they want so badly for you to buy a second account (other than money for them, i get that). Thats what I know anyways

~jtjuska

i want at least 2+ new slots...

when search is back up check my recent posts as i gave 2 methods (other peoples) that work.

Well I have two accounts and I'll buy factions for both of them...

/agree

Unless you can merge two accounts (to unlock all skills), I see no point in buying a second account.

If you could merge two accounts, Anet could make even more money.

Not to mention that we had only 36 possible character profession choices, and now we have double that with a whopping 64 character profession choices. I say we have 6 slots, why? For: W/R, Mo/E, Me/N, A/Rt, and two PvP slots.

If I recall correctly, the issue of character slots was brought up even before the release of Chapter 1, with the response being that the number would be set at four with the possibility of being expanded later on. Regardless, in my not so humble opinion, the minimum number of character slots should equal the number of primary professions in any RPG game. A big part of the fun and replayability of any game is the chance to play through an entire campaign or scenario with differing characters. Limiting one's ability to do that seriously hampers the fun factor of any game. I bought a second account for GW just so I can run through the entire game with a primary from each profession, then experiment with each in PvP action. Does anyone care to try to explain to me why I should have no problem deleting a character I spent nearly the past year of my spare time cultivating only to casually toss it out the window to spend an equal amount of time on a new character which may turn out not to preferable to my original build? I don't have the luxury of being a power-gamer so running a character through the entire game takes a minimum of months, not the weeks or even days that more hard-core gamers may have, so I have a lot invested in each of these characters and have no desire to casually toss them by the wayside. It aggravates me enough when I have to re-level a pet for a Ranger when the Endangered Species quest forces you to dump the one you have if it's not a Melandru's Stalker in order to complete the quest. I certainly have no desire to dump a level 20 ascended warrior just to see if I'll like playing a mesmer better.

Let's just remember that there are more than just the six current primary professions in GW - there are hundreds of different possible character builds if you factor in the sub-professions for each of the primaries. Now if I wanted to play a Geomancer either as a prime or secondary, I don't even have that chance in Pre-Searing - I have to go to Post to even get the first couple of Earth skills. Even doing that is a lot of time invested for us casual gamers. I don't think its too much to ask to give us at least enough slots to play each of the primary professions to see which one we like the best. In regards to whether a slot should be dedicated to a PvP only character, that seems a bit pointless. Whether there are 5 slots or 10 slots available, we all have the choice of using them either for RPG or PvP characters. If you're a PvPer, then use them for PvPing. If you're a PvEer, then we should be able to use them for PvE. Surprisingly enough, not all on-line gamers have an interest in PvP action, so in absolutely no way should they be told they can't use a character slot unless they play the game in a way they don't like to play.

I enjoy playing GW. I couldn't wait until it was released and even built a completely new system on which to be able to play it. I enjoy replaying Pre-Searing with each of the new primary professions from the second account. However, my decision to buy Chapter 2 will be based primarily on the following things: The differences between the stand-alone sequel version and the expansion pack upgrade version including the number of available slots in each, and whether either/or can be linked to my current account(s); and the amount of additional storage that will come along with the next chapter - after all, saving that one space in each character's storage for the Tapestry Shred is really starting to get on my nerves. It would be my desire to be able to play through the entirety of Chapter 1 (including Pre-Searing) with the two new professions, however unlikely that will turn out to be. But again, as I said before, that's part of the attraction for replaying this game for me. Even though Pre-Searing never changes, there are different strategies and different ways of completing the quests based on the build of each character you play with, so it has yet to reach a point of boredom for me. However, my frustration level with some of the limitations imposed by the developers is rising, and I would hate to have to forgo future chapters because I feel my time is too important to delete out of hand.

Hanok Odbrook
Real Millennium Group Guild
http://www.realmillenniumgroup.com/guild.html
Truth * Knowledge * Peace

@Hanok Odbrook,
Very well said, and I agree completly.

@People who think 4 slots is currently enough.
Can anyone see any real harm in adding more slots? Within reasonable limits of course. All I see is arguments where people say "Well I feel we have enough, so that means we have enough." Just because you don't want to play the full game, dosn't mean others don't want to.

Cons:
-Cost? No, It's fractions of a penny per slot, if that.
-Ballance? You'd have considerably more room on an account. Of course, you can currently buy another account if you reall feel the need. Besides, In general, the extra storage is a non-issue. (what percentage of players have over 10k again?) Pfft. Reduce the size of my backpack and give me two more slots.

Pros:
-No more unessacary deletion of hard work if you'd like to try a new class.
-More varaity. No more jig-saw puzzle partyforming (Ok, who has a monk?). There would be room for the less common classes, Mesmer, Ranger, (Ele? Necro?) Since they wouldn't be crowding out a Monk, War, (Nec?).
-If enough were added, there would be many more players with a PvP-Only slot. This may or may not help introduce PvE people to PvP.

Guild Wars is Fantastic in many ways. PvP-only chars, Attribute and skill changes for free, easily acessable gear and max level. With all this freedom, I simply have no idea why they didn't apply this mode of thinking to char slots. Why can I effortlessly switch from Aeromancer/Necro to Geomancer/Monk but get limited to four slots? The game offers an unparalelled degree of flexability on many levels, yet it offers almost none here.

About the issue of buying slots. Would I? Yes, I would, without hesitating. I want to see this resloved asap, and it it takes buying the slots from A.Net, then I will. Buying slots is no more problematic than buying another account. On the contrary, it's a better option that insiting that people buy another account if they want more slots. ($13 or less is what I would consider fair.)

@Hanok Odbrook,
Very well said, and I agree completly.
@Katari,
Very well said.

Currently in my household we own 4 copies of GW Prophecies(so fair enough to say we have done our part to support Anet/GW)

I for one would think it would be great to be able to link Prophecies accounts together(we might buy another copy if this was possible).

I will not comment again on Factions, my thoughts on Factions have been posted thouroughly enough already.

Hmm, I thought of a fairly decent theory, not sure if anyones posted it.

Quite simple, for every consecutive Guild Wars expansion you own, your account gets one more character slot (That is if you keep the same account through out each expansion) And if I haven't yet, just for good measure. /signed

Ok, I'm all for the two slots, but think about this:
When GW came out, we were given 4 slots with 6 professions. They did not give us, in total, 6 slots. Why should they give us 2 for 2 new professions..? 4/6 does not equal 2/2.. They gave us 4 at the beginning and many of us accepted it. ..

But I understand that everyone, including myself, want to try both professions.
Um.. whoever had the 8 slots comment.. 8 is too much. Anet wants $$ too..

Katari

2 choices

1. it is as cheap and easy as you say it is.

then they are deliberately angering customers for no reason when they could just hand them out and make more money on sold slots, merged accounts, etc.

2. you have no idea of what the cost or difficulty involved is as you dont work there.

in which case i will take Anets word that it is a much more involved and difficult thing to do than people think

choices, choices

go for someone who casually throws out random figures or someone who has worked at Anet for 5 years.

i choose Anet rep

I say 6 is a fair amount. Not too much, not too little. Allows us to have a good flexibility with our characters. I really don't like the PVE portion of the game anymore, mainly because I've been through it so many times.

If you PvP, you only need 1 free slot... How lazy can you be? Just create/recreate.

Hmm, lets assume a 1GB/$1 ratio. Thats like a 100GB HD for $100 (Except we're talking slightly larger drives), and the servers to run it. Maybe the servers shoot the price to a hefty 1GB/$3 (I notice a Dell server with ~40000GB storage selling for $13k). A char slot that takes 1Mb of space, far more than I suspect they would need.
$0.003 per slot? Meh, even if my math is off, it would take a considerable amount of error to push that past a few cents per slot.

I understand restricting the amount of slots, otherwise it would get out of hand. But every game, ever, that I have purchased, has kept it reasonable. Unless the A.Net servers are run in some shockingly special way, I simply cannot see how a char slot would take more than a cent's worth of space.

Nothing, short of a response from an A.Net rep would convince me that the limited slots are not: A) A twisted Sense of balance, B) Some sort of way to increase profit. (Besides cutting costs, well, see next paragraph)

Actualy, no, thats not fair. I'm quite convinced that A.Net will fix the problem with Factions. 4+4≠6. How can you make sure that diehard PvE players will buy a sequal/expansion game that has a greater (So it seems currently) emphisis on PvP? You solve some major problems for them, lack of slots is a huge problem. If buying both C1 and Factions would bring it to one slot per primary, then you'd get more people buying both. If Faction's failed to do this, many PvE players will be seriously ticked off (More so than the complaints about nerfs).

Eh, take it as you will. I just don't buy the idea that it's shockingly expensive and difficult to add char slots. They appear to have alternate motives for the limits.

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but the original Guild Wars is not needed to play Factions. Therefore there will be many new players who will purchase Factions first (before getting Guild Wars if they like Factions alot).

Isn't it unfair to them if they have only like 1 character slot? Thus I think that at the very least there should be 3 additional character slots.

You are forgetting several aspects.

You'll have to maintain somekind of RAID system for the database. You probably have to keep multiple copies of the database online at the same time. You need to run constant backups. You might even need to enlarge the datacenter to fit the new hardware.

There's hundreds of thousands of players who would most probably make that char with their new spiffy slot, and that starts to eat DB space, especially when you need to duplicate and backup that data, also extra work for server maintenance team.

Adding more space to a server/database farm isn't as easy as going to nearest store and buying a 100GB hard drive.

One slot aint gonna cut it. Give me two and I'll buy Factions...

If ANet were smart they'd sell add-on slots... $5 each. That more than covers storage costs, and maintenance is no additional increase since they are already maintaining existing accounts (lets face it, its just a batch file that periodically runs).

Basically in a nutshell -
Original game should have had 6 for a little room, 4 was too tight.
PvE crazy happy, they could play each primary
PvP obviously enough for unlocks (3) and a few PvP variations on tap (gvg, teams, random) to boot
Those doing both happy too, 3 for unlocks, 1-2 for playing with IRL family and/or friends and still at least one swing one for PvP

Keeping that trend Chp2 could have added just 2
All PvE core could still enjoy the 2 new primaries
PvP core can unlock with one and gain another slot or unlock with 2/more coverage/unlock others with 2ndary with new skills
Those doing both still OK, likely want 2 for the 2 new primaries/play with other(s) at least with one of them, still having PvP from chp1

Problem is 4 initial slots and then suggesting just adding 1 or 2 for a couple reasons.

PvErs are cramped and aren't the type to blow away long standing characters. ANet provides new skills and mixes to work with them and new things to do in Chp2, why would you to boot?
PvPers one slot is immediately devoted to unlocks at a minimum. This category can most likely accept this the best, however I'd also bet there are easily as many doing both PvE and PvP, if not more.
And those doing both hurt the most, forced into a Ri/A or A/Ri most likely to get a slot back for PvP for the opportunity to taste it again, if given only 2. But they'd more likely rather (like I) try a little different combination than HAVE to go that combination route, and one of the chars being at a slower pace to play with more casual players/others.

Those just buying chapter 2 are either rudely gimped or have at least 4. However I still haven't heard of a discount for chapter 1 owners, so why on earth would we effectively pay full dollar for an expansion AND get less slots to boot? As far as keeping accounts separate, that remains a very bad choice for anyone remotely interested in PvP/unlocks.

As far as cost blah blah blah -

Again we havent heard of any discount for chapter 1 players (would be nice but I'm not holding my breath). They want to release a chapter every 6 months. They seem to like the idea of 'standalone' and 'full price' and even 'collector edition' for every step in between. OMG do the math, guess what ladies and gents, we're paying into it like any other MMOPRG. Indeed arguably more (possibly much more) as we get others involved (hey free monthly!) extra account(s) do to the shortage of slots (hey its free monthly...) and then keep paying for these (planned to be) very regular add-on chapters (ummm well it is free monthly :b). They're getting their $.

If this still is somehow (??) too much to bear, give us 2 new slots and 2 new PvP slots in chapter 2. Aids the biggest bottleneck (trying to play BOTH parts of the game) while PvP characters shouldn't require the same kind of tracking or storage (ie quests, level, etc).

Anything less than 8 slots (or 6 pve/2pvp in a pinch) chp1+chp2 on ONE account is quite frankly, nuts.

Yeah for me its 4, but I could see paying for add-on to get there IF
I get a break coming from chapter 1. Again I'm not going to pay $50 (or more for CE) and get 2 slots to add to the small initial #. And watch new players buy chp2 for $50 and get 4 slots.

Waaaay too many games offer a waaaay better experience.
And regarding costs there are a lot of games that do server side character storage without fleecing individuals and have been very successful. And didn't charge a monthly fee. And even many more that do and have, and my argument again is that GW is in fact doing that with 6 month releases - hey guess what, $50 every 6mo. As I have 2 accounts in the household, I'm not going to accept a gimped expansion path where I'm shoved into a corner.

full game full price .........simple.

as for the rest of that garbage.

the collectors is OPTIONAL for those that want the extras.

you dont HAVE to buy chapter x you can simply not purchase it.

guess what about not paying this months bill on any other MMORPG.........it is not an option.

you will either buy it or you will leave and be replaced by many other people that will like what they get.

enjoy your new game if you go

The same people who insist that they will purchase chapter even if it came with no additional slots are the kind of people who keep places like Walgreens and Shell open. They're clearly not discerning consumers. Discerning consumers, however, make up a large percentage of the GW base as many of us came in due to the no monthly fee. Several of us have also bought 2 accounts because we wanted to create characters with all 6 primary professions.

Anet gave us 4 slots the first time around, and we have expectations about that now. It's just basic consumer expectancy, well documented in the research. Now they want to give us 1 or 2? But 4 for new consumers? Hmm, wonder what the consumer literature on fairness perception has to say about this?

Rather than the clueless people that tell others they should leave GW if they don't want to pay $100 for no additional slots, I'd like to hear it from one of the more sensible people at Anet. Gaile Gray for example could just come on and tell us that we are expecting too much and therefore shouldn't bother purchasing chapter 2.

If Anet wants to limit server load and character slots, losing half their customers will reduce their server load and the number of character slots. That way they can save a ton of money and still keep the people who have a poor sense of value as well as no idea about the impact that consumers can have.

I guess if I buy Factions, I'd rather not combine it with my Prophecies account. That way I'd get 8 character slots. That would amount to exactly one per primary profession. The only incentive in combining accounts is to have access to all the skills from both chapters. Now where's Anet's logic here? They just want us to buy multiple accounts? Sounds pretty parasitic to me. I'm sure Anet is concerned with having us put more thought into what we want to play, lmao. They're concerned with making more money and that's about it. If players refuse to give in, they will be forced to change their practices. If we give in, they will keep their crappy practices.

Playing each primary profession gives you a much better idea of what the role of the members in your party are and what each profession is capable of. This contributes much more to putting more thought into the game. Defending what Anet is planning on doing without inane reasons such as: Well that's too many characters slots OR Well you should only experience a limited part of the game OR I'm going to be buying it anyway OR whatever else... is pretty short on logic.

I'd like to know what Anet would have to do to keep you from buying the game? Or are you just going to buy it regardless?

A quick note about the PvP players complaining about not having skills unlocked after the UAS "debacle": GW gave in by coming up with Faction points and then increasing the rate at which you earned it as well. So Anet does make errors, and players complaining does change things.

Or, you can stop being so stingy and figure that, if someone buying Chapter 2 and getting 4 slots goes and buys Chapter 1...guess what? They get however many extra slots us CI-ers going to C2 got!

Really, why is it that you feel you're entitled to a character slot for every primary profession? Hell, why stop there? Why not have a slot for every single possible profession combination permuation, and four or so for PvP-only chars? Perhaps it's a simple matter of Anet wanting people to put a little thought into what they want to play? Or possibly not have to resort to a drop-down list with a dozen names on it for character selection? Oh yes, I'm going to miss this huge expansion with more new mechanics and game twists and playability than any three normal parasite expansions simply because I didn't get more character slots.

Seriously folks, 'discerning customer' or no, where's the logic?

Who's talking about being entitled to anything? It's a matter of whether or not we'll spend our money on something that might not meet our expectations. There's your logic for you.

Furthermore, taking the issue into the absurd serves no purpose.

I think if there was one character slot for every profession in the game, not only would it make all the PVEr's happy but it could help work towards closing that serperation between PVE and PVP.

Quite simply, it would allow more players to use pve characters in pvp. They'd have to add all the pvp items to collectors though because several of them are still missing

For those that haven't bothered apparently to read the whole thread, I'll post these here as a public service:

From many places on the same topic of character slots & content for Factions:

Originally Posted by Ensabah Nur
I'll be happy if they just "catch up" by giving us 4 with Factions(linked &/or unlinked to Prophecies) and from then on give us the 2 chracter slots for the 2 new classes of
each new chapter. This way we will always be able to have 1 slot of each primary profession/class if we so choose.

Originally Posted by Ensabah Nur
It's simple addition people 4 + 4 = 8 ask any math teacher or first grader
Prophecies = 4 character slots
Factions =4 charcater slots(Anet has officially stated)
Prophecies + Factions = 8 character slots

Originally Posted by Ensabah Nur
Wether we keep Factions seperate or not from Prophecies should have no bearing on how many character slots are given. If Anet is going to give us 4 character slots with Factions(which they already officially stated), then it makes no difference in server/memory space if we combine them with Prophecies or not. So therefore we should have a minimum of 8 character slots regardless. Matter of fact combining the 2 will take up just a tiny bit less server/memory space because it will be only 1 account to track instead of 2.

Originally Posted by Ensabah Nur
I'm not sure that you understand how consumerism works, if consumer(s) are not satisfied with a product(or it's qualities) the consumer(s) may choose not to purchase that product thereby being less money for the manufacturer of that product. However if the manufacturer where to seek what the consumer(s) would like in their product and provide that for the consumer(s) the consumer(s) would be more inclined to purchase that product thereby being more money for the manufacturer. This is why there are so many Research/survey companies seeking consumers input on almost every product on the planet.

Originally Posted by Ensabah Nur
FYI in my house we own 4 accounts/copies of Prophecies(we've bought 7, 3 were for xmas gifts to friends/family), I've already been through all the scenarios/arguments the only one I cannot dispute would be: Anet saying: "Because we said so." (which frankly wouldn't make me more inclined to keep supporting Anet the way I have)

Still have questions/arguments for us not getting 8 total slots with Prophecies+Factions(other than "That's the way it should be because I said so"?) read/re-read my posts on the topic that should clear things up for you.

LaserLight, if you so require your logic, here it is: in 1981 a small startup dev/pub came out with a game called Wizardry. In 2002, the final official scenario of that series was released (20+ years, not a bad run). Now, if Sir-Tech had said "We have this groundbreaking new Computer game that has eight professions and six different races, but feel that to keep things balanced, you can only create enough characters to play six of the professions across only four of the races unless you buy another copy of the game (and if you do, cannot link up either copy, but must play each copy separately)" do you think they would have lasted those 20 years?

I certainly am not begrudging Anet their well deserved money, and even by keeping two accounts updated with each chapter am saving money over any other subscription MMO, but I certainly think I should at least be able to play 100% of the game for the money I do spend. As Gli said, taking things into the absurd level by saying "why not just have a slot for every possible build then?" is not what we are asking for. We just want the opportunity to play each prime without having to throw out any of our previous play time in the game.

If anyone thinks that Anet will be the sole developer of a subscription free MMORPG, then they better take their head out of the sand. We will certainly see more games like GW in the future, and there will be those that offer the opportunity we are asking for, and if Anet wants to stay competitive, then they need to make sure they keep breaking ground with GW by offering it first.

Hanok Odbrook
Real Millennium Group Guild
http://www.realmillenniumgroup.com/guild.html
Truth * Knowledge * Peace

Very well said and thought out Hanok, thanks for contributing

Well, they technicly should give us 4 more slots to be fair. Everyone is saying that if people could play every primary class then they'd want every secondary too - thats ridiculous. I have 2 accounts right now, one i have 3 characters and a pvp slot, the other i have 4 characters. I actually have 2 warriors, and not because I especially enjoy warriors.. Well, I do like warriors but the reason I have 2 is cause we can't change our pve character appearances and my original warrior with all skills, multiple sets of each 15k armor (yes, I have different sets for different colors) it would be very stupid to delete that character just to change how it looks, and so thats why I have two. I also don't really care that my other account doesn't have a pvp slot since there's no situation where I would be able to play competitivly on two computers at the same time. With that said, I'm going to pre-order chapter 2 for my main account, but depending on the character slots I may not buy another copy to upgrade my secondary account. I don't mean if there isn't enough either, I mean if there's only 0-2 added I most likily won't buy another copy. However, if 3-4 are added then I would. My logic behind that has nothing to do with being able to play all classes, I already have all classes and even if they add only 1 slot per account I'd be able to make a ritualist on my main and still have my pvp slot. Truthfully the assasin from what I've seen so far is garbage and I wouldn't waste 5 mins on it in pve. (have you seen how it walks/runs/attacks/looks..? its like a retarded stick person on crack) So yeah, since 1 new slot or 4, either way I'll be satisfied the reason I'll buy another copy of ch2 if we get 4 is because it would be cost effective. If we get that many more slots, I could create more of the primary classes for different look-sets. Which, by the way they need to add an option to change our pve character's appearance. With that said, I probably would end up not using all of my slots, but this is because I have two copies of Guildwars and not one copy - theres not really a point for me to have 6 warriors. (lol, I wouldn't make 6 warriors in the first place - I only have two cause the first one's face/hair is horrid) So, yeah. If they're going for money, which by all marketing means they should. I hope they do give us 2 new slots for ch2 which are transferable to a prophecies account. prophecy = 4, faction = 2, 4p+2f=6t, and it could be standalone 0p+2f=2t, where it would make sense if factions was standalone and there was only 2 characters that there would be no point in having 4 slots. But, I do hope they add an option to change our hair(&color)/face. If they did that, I still probably wouldn't delete my 2nd warrior just cause I've spent way too much time on her but anyways, thats kind of getting off the subject.

So, to sum that up. If they want money they should give 2 additional slots. If they want to be fair, saintly people then give 4 additional slots.

P.S. Here's a solution for you ANet that would help you get money and also make people happy:

Only give 2 additional slots, which people will be unhappy about sure. But, with those additional slots also expand the Xunlai [Storage Agent] capacity and add like, runes of superior holding (which would double our bag size) and only give this option for the people that buy chapter 2. This way, people still have to buy 2 copies to play all the classes but it would be cost effective for them because they get added storage space for the short commings in character slots. Also, it would be nice if you added the option to change PvE character's appearances only in chapter 2 - now now people don't get pissed, its logical. So, theres going to be new faces and such in ch2 right? People want more content right? Well, perhaps people wouldn't choose new faces but maybe they would. In chapter 1 they had a chance to see all the faces and decide but if people buy chapter 2 let them change, and not delete their characters to do so since there are new options available. A lot of people would probably buy chapter 2 just for that option anyways. You don't have to make it free to change either, you could make an NPC that charges like 15k to add a lookset to that character and you can revisit that NPC (which would be in a specific outpost - not every town) to change to your purchased looksets free of charge, like changing secondaries.

Truthfully, unlike stated above if they added 2 slots AND more storage space + bag expansions then I would buy 2 copies regardless of other issues. So, if they're looking for a good way to please both parties then maybe this is the best thing to do.

Well, thats just my opinion - love it or hate it.

hi mr shopping elitest (pvp elitests, farming elitests, and now consumer elitests)

i will buy chapter 2 sight unseen simply because i have had enough fun with chapter 1 that i wish to show support

want more slots for each profession? willing to pay for them?

do what i did and buy a second account

and that is EXACTLY why they are being very careful about how many they give out

you said it yourself that people will not accept anything less further on. 4 this time will be graven in stone to them (UAS DEBACLE)


that, in case you missed it is for the 6 core professions (same as the chapter 1 consumers got) plus the same (to be determined ) number of slot (s) for the 2 new chapter 2 professions.

that is exactly correct as that is the choice they are giving you.

more slots with less convenience to less slots with more convenience

since you seem more interested in skills than being able to go to both areas of content i will assume (probably incorrectly) that you place a fairly high value on pvp rather than primarily pve

i will buy it regardless because this game so far (starting with the betas) has given me at least 2-3 games worth of fun already and i wish to show my support and fund chapter 3/4/x)which may be just what this undiscriminating consumer might love

not really as Anet did not give in an inch on UAS.
PVP did not get anything close to the magic UAS that was the demand.
they demanded instant access to all skills and got faction grind instead
Anet said you will not have instant access but we will let you grind doing something you profess to love instead of pvE

While yes HD space does cost money... how much space do you think a charecter slot takes up? I would guess around 5 to 50KB ... its just text ... even with this (bloated) guess that is not much space -- have you checked out the price of drives recently? This is a small money issue - a single Hard Drive would be more than enough for the entire community.

i will not go way back but someone who actually knows what they are talking about said that the disc space hardware does not even figure into it.

it is all the backup equipment and the people to take care of it.

soft backups of EVERYTHING accountwise at a MINIMUM of 4-5 times an HOUR with frequent hard offsite backups at least once per 24 hours.

he mentioned several other items which i dont remember and also cost money which are overlooked.

I chose to register myself, after the time I have been lurking in here, mostly because of some of the posts like the one above.

I have at the moment about 1500 - 2000 hours logged in-game, mostly from pve.

I love the game and the groundbreaking novelty of no monthly charge. However to be honest, guild wars isn't the first one, nor will be the last one that has no monthly charge.

But the main reason why i bought it was for the decent online action, the fun of pve and for the fact to be able to play it with friends and the lack of any real RPG contenders on the single player market.

However as many people will know, this is going to change with the coming of both Oblivion and Gothic3 from which i expect as much fun as from their respective previous chapters which entertained me for nearly 2 years and which i on occasion still play. And that means at least some more competition on the pve market for GW.

And seeing that I'll have to divide my attention between these releases, the point of character slots will be a breaking issue in the decission of me buying any future installments of GW, even if I have had fun during the 2000 hours logged on GW.

I will not expect anything less then 4 charslots to add to my first chapter if standalone usage delivers 4 charslots, anything below that and I won't even bother buying GW-F and just have fun with both Oblivion and Gothic3.

In the end it is the consumer who decides, and this consumer isn't one that can be fooled in paying 2 times simply for something which he should have received in the first release anyway.

note that i have had a preorder for OBLIVION for a long time and have been hooked since ARENA

i will also buy chapter 2

if someone buys chapter 2 now and then decides to buy chapter 1 later they will not get an additional 4 slots with the purchase unless they install it separately.

if they merge accounts they will wind up with exactly the same toral number of slots.

how you spend your time and money is strictly up to you.

How I spend my time and money is my choice yes, but if ANET is interested in it then that is what they need to do, otherwise though luck for them. They had already slightly upset me with only the availability of 4 slots in stead of 1 for every prime profession.

And that number of slots should in both cases be 4 + 4 and not 4+1, 4+2 or 4+3. And the way you combine it doesn't matter to me in the slightest in the end you should still receive the same benefit of installing them seperately.

If they had however stated that GW-F would only allow a standalone of 2, then I wouldn't have stated anything, but chances would be small that i would buy chapter 2 because of the stiff PVE competition. And for the pvp content i'm not even going to bother buying it.

If they however make it 4 then i will buy it and leave oblivion or gothic to a later date, prolly the buyoutbin.

Okay. I'm going to remain in control of myself this time and point out that all the people saying they're going to be skipping Chapter 2 if ArenaNet doesn't give them a slot for everything they want are basically refusing to buy the brand new car because it doesn't automatically come with a radio.

You are ignoring a staggeringly large release with two entirely new character classes, an entire new storyline, and several new modes of play, because of a decidedly minor secondary point. It is through no fault of Anet's that people used every slot they got in Prophecies inside of a month. I remain convinced that ArenaNet intended for people to focus on one or two character classes and master those as opposed to simply skimming the basics of everything, then proclaiming to the world at large that 'i cn play evry toon'. Yes Bob, you can play every type of character decently, but you are by no means a master of any of them. And those that are, well hey, get another account.

I, personally, made the decision early in Prophecies to wait on using my other slots as opposed to playing everything I could because I didn't figure we'd get any extra character slots with expansion games. Yes, I'm in the vast minority, but my point is that I'm willing to focus on the larger picture instead of being boged down by what are truly insignificant details. As for skipping the game entirely just because of this, that's your choice, but I highly recommend against such action.

See, in card games, when a new expansion set releases, there are always a few people who, unsatisfied with some policy or other of the releasing company, decide not to invest in these new tools. In virtually every case, these people are at a severe disadvantage against those who use the new cards, because they simply do not have the options everyone else does. Guild Wars is the same.

The game will be balanced, come Factions release, in regard to the existence of the Ritualist and Assassin classes. Despite what ArenaNet says, you will be playing an incomplete game should you choose to skip Factions, as not only will you not have the new classes, you will not have the new storylines, maps, benefits, or even the full skill lists of the core professions anymore.

Despite all this, I respect ArenaNet very much for not making the expansions compulsory. You can, indeed, choose to skip one, but I for one would need a much better reason to do so, and thus subect myself to incomplete gameplay which is a shadow of what other players are experiencing, simply because I can't have an individual character for every single profession. To me, such is very high on the Ludicrous Meter.

You don't reect a great game because it doesn't have quite the number of save slots you'd like it to, guys.

Provided as a public service announcement for those that can't be bothered to read the whole thread....

If enough consumers tell a company what they want in that companies product, then that company would be wise and perhaps inclined to provide what the consumers are asking for. Now on the other hand if consumers are so readily willing to take whatever a company gives them, then the company will give them the bare minimum(and the shaft) and gladly take the fools money("A fool and their money are soon parted"-Unknown)

As I said it's not a matter of what we need, it's a matter of what we as the consumers want.This topic has been a hot one with me(friends say I should be a consumer advocate) Do you know what a Consumer Advocate's job really is? It's to look out for and help the people that don't know how to be good consumers, because they don't know how to make good buying decisions.

I'll post these here, they're from elsewhere & everywhere on the same topic of character slots & content for Factions:

Originally Posted by Ensabah Nur
I'll be happy if they just "catch up" by giving us 4 with Factions(linked &/or unlinked to Prophecies) and from then on give us the 2 chracter slots for the 2 new classes of
each new chapter. This way we will always be able to have 1 slot of each primary profession/class if we so choose.

Originally Posted by Ensabah Nur
It's simple addition people 4 + 4 = 8 ask any math teacher or first grader
Prophecies = 4 character slots
Factions =4 charcater slots(Anet has officially stated)
Prophecies + Factions = 8 character slots

Originally Posted by Ensabah Nur
Wether we keep Factions seperate or not from Prophecies should have no bearing on how many character slots are given. If Anet is going to give us 4 character slots with Factions(which they already officially stated), then it makes no difference in server/memory space if we combine them with Prophecies or not. So therefore we should have a minimum of 8 character slots regardless. Matter of fact combining the 2 will take up just a tiny bit less server/memory space because it will be only 1 account to track instead of 2.

Originally Posted by Ensabah Nur
I'm not sure that you understand how consumerism works, if consumer(s) are not satisfied with a product(or it's qualities) the consumer(s) may choose not to purchase that product thereby being less money for the manufacturer of that product. However if the manufacturer where to seek what the consumer(s) would like in their product and provide that for the consumer(s) the consumer(s) would be more inclined to purchase that product thereby being more money for the manufacturer. This is why there are so many Research/survey companies seeking consumers input on almost every product on the planet.

Originally Posted by Ensabah Nur
FYI in my house we own 4 accounts/copies of Prophecies(we've bought 7, 3 were for xmas gifts to friends/family). So we have done our part in supporting Anet. I've already been through all the scenarios/arguments the only one I cannot dispute would be: Anet saying: "Because we said so." (which frankly wouldn't make me more inclined to keep supporting Anet the way I have)

Still have questions/arguments for us not getting 8 total slots with Prophecies+Factions(other than "That's the way it should be because I said so"?) re-read this post because you obviously didn't understand it.