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

No. It goes like this:

1. Bob does not own Prophecies. Bob buys Factions -> Bob gets 4 char slots.

2. Fred owns Prophecies. Fred has 4 slots. -> Fred buys Factions.-> Fred merges his Factions and Prophecies accounts. -> Fred now has less than 8 slots.

3. Mark owns Prophecies. Mark has 4 slots. -> Mark buys Factions. -> Mark does NOT merge his Factions and Prophecies accounts. -> Mark has 8 slots on two seperate accounts. Note that each account lacks acess to the full amount of content.

4. Sarah owns Prophecies. Sarah has 4 slots. -> Sarah buys Factions.-> Sarah merges her Factions and Prophecies accounts. -> Sarah now 8 slots on one account.

There is no way to avoid #1 and #3, this thread is arguing that secnerio #4, and not secnerio #2 is what should happen.

The thread started under the misinformation that secnerio #2 would yeild a total of 5 slots. I doubt anyone here who isn't ok with one more slot, would be ok with two slots. The argument then is, why do we feel we need more slots, and why should we not get more slots.

I have yet to see an argument against more slots that can hold any water. There are however, plenty of decent arguments as to why we should get eight slots if we merge Prophecies and Factions.

-Katari

For the life of me I can't understand why they'd want to drive people to register separate accounts. Not only will this require them to store more data, but it will also potentially take up more bandwidth, because these separate accounts can be logged on and played at the same time.

They're looking at more storage, more bandwidth use, and a loss of existing customers who won't buy into the scheme. Maybe I'm missing some vital insight here, but I can't see any way for this to pay off apart from the extra sales derived from the people who'll be buying multiple keys. Some people will buy despite not being satisfied with the game as it comes, and if that's what they're betting on, I wish them good luck in their future endeavours, but our ways will part here.

just for the record i want as many slots as possible.

i am only being realistic in accepting that there will be a price for merging accounts for convenience.

note that i have never stated i support this slot penalty only that i have been told it will occure.

when NCsoft makes up its mind on this we will have an answer to work with.

since i have 2 accounts i probably will merge one and see if i like it.

if so i will get the CE (if there is a goodie i really want) as a 4 slot separate account

in any case i will purchase if only to support chapter 3 for the fun chapter 1 has given

We are arguing WHY there should be a price for that and so far no answer has been found. It would either be a shady business model (hope that people buy even more copies to make up for their loss) or something so obscure that nobody has yet understood it. Either way, a customer returning to his game and merging his accounts would get shafted.

I think it's far more realistic to not accept that. Returning customers should be rewarded, not penalized. Diminishing returns don't work in a consumer market. To be competitive, businesses are forced to offer consumers the opposite. "Buy 2 and get 1 for free", that's how you make sales, not "Pay for 2 and get 1.5".

Then why have you been bending over backwards all over this thread to make excuses for it?

This just occured to me, and maybe I am just crazy. From what I have read and heard people are saying that we are going to get roughly 1 or 2 character slots with factions. *Highly Unlikely* Is it possible that ANet is going to be giving us all 8 slots PLUS 1 or 2 that is the controversy? I for one don't think that this is what they will do, but it would be kinda nice to be able to have all 8 primaries and still have a couple (or even just one) slot for a PvP only character.

~jtjuska

I'm saying farewell to this thread, at least. (There would have been more here but as I just checked the revised Forum Guidlines I saw the ruling against posting of PM's/parts of PM's between Users or a user and a moderator are not allowed. So to avoid a complete ban, I'll check myself) It's ok though, there are many other threads in many other forums. So I'll be ok.

To you intelligent discerning consumers: "Keep up the good fight." , I know I will(just elsewhere)
To you people that lay down and accept whatever life throws at you without trying to make a change, you'll surely get what you deserve.

Yes, Loviatar. Why have you been bending over backwards all over this thread to make excuses for it?

So you received some advanced information from Anet that hasn't been released to anyone else in any manner?


Matane-

Just out of common sense 1 additional slot would not add up.

ok so guild wars costed about 50 bucks, yes?

they say expansions will cost a little less due to less content, etc. So lets say 40 bucks.

4 slots for 50 bucks.... ok... ummm.... seems fine to me, I dont play necros anyways, so therse one less slot needed for me.

1 slot for 40 bucks?.... BLEH, now I paid 40 dollars for this game, and your telling me I can only make ONE other character? come on!

I know odds are I probably wont use the 6th slot, but in all honesty if I paid for 2 new professions, I should get 2 character slots. Especially since I paid 40 dollars.

Its the thought that counts anet, im sure there will be some who will use all their slots.

I'm just wanting to know why this discerning consumerism people keep advocating is any different than a young child holding its breath in the hopes that a parent will cave in before it expires. Either the 'intelligent discerning consumers' will be insufficient in number to accomplsih their goal, and their only reward will be missing new content, or they will be sufficient in their goal, and Anet will fold and their reward will be the cessation of all new content, as well as the ability to play old content.

I truly do not understand why they keep advocating a boycott when it will do no good and possibly great harm. Is a pair of extra character slots truly a big enough issue to threaten the game? I would think that, if anything, a fundamental, undefeatable skill imbalance or some deeply offensive content would have to be at stake in order to try and hold Anet hostage.

Please. Let out the breath. Take in some air. Work with Anet on the issue instead of against them. Lobby, petition, make your voices as clearly heard as possible, but do it while showing that you do, indeed, appreciate what they do put out instead of stating that all their effort into a full-sized expansion game with hundreds of hours of new is insignificant next to the simple issue of a slight deficiency in character slots.

Because, personally? If I'm paying for an expansion, standalone or standalong or parasitic or whatever, I want there to be considerably more to it than extra character slots. I would be deeply offended where I told that Anet wanted me to pay good money for nothing but character slots.

So why is it that such seems to be the sole criteria for whether or not people here will buy a copy of the game or not?

just a quick note

If everyone was to fold and just accept that they are getting a ripe old shafting then whats gonna stop anet from from giving continueing players no slots next chapter? i mean the logical step after only 1 or 2 slots is less not more

:EDIT:

oh and by the way, laserlight, personally i agree, im not saying that the new content is worhtless to me and tha all i need is character slots, its more that how am i supposed to enjoy the new content when ill be deleting much loved characters to exerience most of the new stuff? alot of the new content will be aquiring and using skills of the new professions as well as starting fresh characters that i can put another 300 hours into

Give us as many as there was on diablo 2 and i will be happy.
But then again, how will this affect the economy of the game it self, by adding few more slots?

The point is not that we want to hurt the content just for characterslots, the point is that there is a discrimination going on.

Person A buys Factions and can now enjoy the fun of the corecharacters together with the new professions with 4 charslots.

Person B already owning GW buys factions and chooses not to merge, now he has the advantage of having 2 accounts and 8 characterslots.

Person C already owning GW buys factions and chooses to merge them together. But guess what seeing as some of the content within GW-F is the same as the content in GW he is getting less for his buck. Now in stead of having 8 slots as in the previous point he has now only got 5 or 6 slots. While in essence it would have been only fair to have given him 8 slots for the reduction in content, access to a second account seperately and this only so that people can use their previous chars in the expansion. That would be a pure ripoff. Least they could do is give these people 8 slots in total.

And lovia, it wouldn't matter if factions was bought first or GW was bought first and hten someone else would buy the other chapter and combine htem both. They should still get 8 slots, since that would be fair. Nor do i see any costoriented reason for not doing so, unless it being a financial tactic. But then they cut their own wrist by announcing 4 slots if factions was used standalone.

I really can't get my head around your reasoning. Do you really believe that not paying for something I don't want is unreasonable, infantile?

Well, yes, if we don't buy it, we won't have new content, obviously. I thought it through that far.

No one is calling for a boycott. If somehow this great harm you speak of comes to pass, it'll only happen because of a failure to put a product in the market that enough people want to buy. The blame would fall squarely on the producer for failing to anticipate the market. There's no obligation, legal or moral, on our part to pay for GW:F if it doesn't meet our expectations.

No one is threatening the game and no one is holding ANet hostage.

No one is working against ANet. How do you propose we 'work with ANet'? I'll support them in the same way I support any other business: by buying their product if it ends up being something I want.

And here's the thing, I actually do think all their effort is insignificant and wasted if it comes with too few character slots.

Of course people want more than just character slots. It's not the sole criterium, but it's still a dealbreaker. I will simply not buy, no matter what, if I can only enjoy it to the fullest by deleting characters from the slots I already paid for nine months ago.

2 new slots would do it.

But, technically, it should only be 1, as you can play every class as either a primary or secondary + a pvp slot. That's their reasoning behind how it is now.

Soul,

tell me why it would do, if a first time buyer gets 4 slots and second time buyers get only 1?

I said 2, and they get 4 slots, but there's 8 classes totally new to them. So, while we are probably only interested in the new classes, the new buyer will play any of them, so really, they are at a disadvantage, because they only get a choice of 6 classes + a pvp slot, while we would get 8 + a pvp slot.

1 is anet's logic so far. 2 is my logic, and would still keep it alright. 4, could cost just a little too much, but would be nice.

STill we already paid for the access to those number of charslots.

they pay like 50bucks for 4 from 8 slots. While we would have payed 100 bucks for 5 or 6 of 8 slots. Maxslots being dependable on number of professions.

So in the end we pay 50 bucks extra for a reduction in content (coreprofessions and their skills) and 2 more charslots compared to first time buyers. I still think that this reduction in content should warrant this difference in charslots making it 4 more.

note that you do NOT have a reduction in content from a stand alone Factions buyer.

unless you count a few slots more important than the entire chapter we have enjoyed that they will not have access to.

they will have the same number of slots which will most likely be 5/6 depending on the addition of 1/2 additional slots.

they will have the original six (gimped) professions and no access to the original pve content to fill them out which is hardly extra content for them plus full access to the new 2 professions and chapter 2 content

to those asking where i got this information it is from international district number 1 as frog/Gaile talk which is usually accurate and interviews

on to this one expressed by one and reexpressed by another

i can only state that there is a very big difference between bending over making excuses and giving reasons that you simply may not like.

on to the plot of not being able to merge same chapter accounts as a plot to sell more copies (and follow up copies)

note that the vast majority of people having multiple accounts use them as a family set up to play together and while they probably could arange it so any person in a family could play with the same accont at the same time that would be cutting their finincial throat as 4 friends could share one game with 1 character appiece.

combine accounts and get only a single chapter 2 to get the advantages for 2 x chapter 1

the number of people who have 2 chapter 1 copies for themselves is so small as to be off the bottom of the sales chart.

if you have 3/4 copies now for yourself and quit because you dont get what you want it is just the same for sales as if you bought chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3.

they already have your money and more buyers are pouring in

as it is now.

3 slots for 6 professions plus one extra to do with as you want (total 4)

what may happen

4 slots for 8 professions plus one extra to do with as you want (total 5)

or

5 slots for 8 professions plus one extra to do with as you want (total 6)

notice that with 6 slots we are actually improving our slot to character ratio?

that is content for which we had to pay 50 bucks. Not to mention that there hasn't been even 1 word on the size of the gimpiness... If they hadn't received access to the 6 other professions then you were right. But playing through with a warrior or any of th eother professions through any chapter is content, no matter how you wanna see it.

A standalone buyer would have 4, 2 standalones would be 8. Combination only 5 - 6. This is already another reduction in content.

Ok I think I've come to the conclusion Loviatar is a plant for GW and wants us to take it however GW wants to give it to us

And we have some people posting 'hissy fit, infantile, blah blah' if you want more than one or two slots. Why?

It's a topic about character slots in a game and some objections to only getting one or two. And yes that will impact how many of us can play and enjoy the game. And lo and behold it thus can impact if we chose to buy it. Reasons not to allow more than a slot or two seem pretty weak.

Meanwhile resistance to the idea of getting a full complement of character slots (as everyone likes to thump their chest and say we're getting a standalone product, not an expansion) to continue on with meets strong resistance. Where continuing on means you've likely got most if not all your current spots spoken for, yet it's supposed to be 'a whole new game' and even more hooks to explore different ways to play the game.

A lot of you like to say 'you'll get the game anyways, the user base won't be hit, etc'. To the former that's why WE keep posting, it's not a fun game to play hamstrung or play roulette with your long-standing characters you spent hundreds of hours with and enjoy, to enjoy the new classes, content, and methods of play. A lot of us already jammed in 3 characters just for unlocks, do we really need to once again work within such fashion with even less choices - do we have to be happy with play a Ri/A or A/Ri?

It's just so odd a game with such rich and so many choices would box you up in such a fashion, look to sell you a new box, and box you in even more. Already feeling a bit boxed-in, is it any surprise slots are a hot topic and might have some of us consider looking elsewhere if we can pay another entrance fee to be short slots right out of the gate?

I felt the sting when chosing between continuing in with a PvP guild and playing with my wife pre-sear and beyond with her character. I chose the latter - I have 4 classes fully unlocked and 25 skills left total on my account.
I can't use any of it, and even double/triple possibly quadruple gather skills at times, as your acquistions don't effect your other PvE characters.

I felt the sting PvP weekend, where I couldn't play a Ritualist or Assassin on my main account as I'd have to nuke one of my very long standing characters or my mid-way monk working with my wife. Why am I unable to play these new characters on my main account with such a choice, gathering faction and their unlocks for it now? Because of poor design and decisions on Anets part, IMO. And now I have the option to pay more into that design.

So I could just let the chips fall where they may.
Or say something about it and hope it changes so I'm more likely to continue to enjoy it.

Once again I'll have that experience PvE weekend, I'll use my wife's account or set up a temporary one if she wants to give it a go (she's not a PvP fan but this weekend might interest her). Once again faction/unlocks would be available but I won't be doing so on my main account or be as identifiable to friends/guild/etc. Yay.

One thing these weekends did is bring the issue home in a big way. Several of us are already making hard gaming choices. Why? It's a game.

As such its a very poor experience to suggest you allow for PvE, PvP, all these terrific ways to play, build, explore, etc - and make you delete say your 150hr character play through with a new class, or enjoy that kind of content (PvP). So here's this long thread, most people don't read it, who knows if GW will care or if there was much point.

But it's better to give it a shot here and make some noise than go afterwards 'hey you didn't give me enough slots, I'm leaving '.

These aren't threats - they're 'hey this is a problem, can you help us out??'
If they can't, some of us will have to 'help ourselves out' of GW, true.
If you read this as hissy fit, infantile, bad mojo, sun stroke, be my guest.

GW is a fun game. GW:F will likely be a fun game.
Deleting long-standing characters and/or being stuck unable to play content as a primary class you'd like to try or gameplay you'd like to dip into or get back to (pvp) isn't fun.

End Of Line.

I would still like to see where ArenaNet states they are only giving us one slot. It's not anywhere on their website that I can find.

Edit: Further research shows that they have not decided on a number of slots yet. Only getting 1 slot with a merge is unconfirmed. Don't knock it until it happens, okay?

1 slot came up in CGW
It's already been suggested that could/will change (Alex)
However it's also been suggested the merged games would not reach 8
I believe that part came up in a Gaile chat/interview

The subject has more turned into arguing against this latter consideration.
At this point the original title is a little off, it's more regarding why only 1-2.

Their refusal to come out with the # even yet while it remains such a hot button suggests they're either not ready with that number or the way to present it yet. That fact allows us to continue to chatter about it in the hopes they'll understand how some of us are boxed in and won't be able to really enjoy the chapter2 experience if that continues, while others to the contrary like to point out we're simply being ninnys.

I really can't wait for the final decision - then all of this goes away.
And those of us waiting on this number can let ourselves get excited, pre-order and continue on in our GW ways, or mutter expletives and make OUR decision.

to all wondering i am not an Anet plant (or even vegetable...sigh)

AS FOR CONTENT HERE IS MY PERSONAL DEFINITION

content is the world you play in meaning world,quests,missions,whatever you call them.

the character i play (while important to me) is but the tiniest part of the whole game.

non chapter 1 buyers will miss out on all that we have enjoyed so far getting only the (limited) use of the 6 original professions and only in the new areas at that

i consider that to be a very big cut in *CONTENT* by MY definition of content.

your definition of content may be the character you play and the world it plays in is relatively unimportant.

that is what makes a horserace

Reason why that is my definition of content is because each character is supposed to be unique and playing a role therefore each role I'm playing is content.

So cut out 6 roles and your cutting me out of 6/8th of the content. Seeing as I already paid for 6/8th of the new content (in that regard), why should i then be happy with paying full price for something that delivers 2/8th of the content to me.

I'm half expecting ANet to suddenly announce that people joining GW and GW:F on one account will have a total of 8 slots after all, thereby causing such a huge surge of ANet love that everyone currently playing will rush out to preorder GW:F no matter what, and everyone even remotely interested GW will be swept up and buy both games in a delerious fit of semi-religious fervor.

A guy can dream, right?

/agree Renegade
chops at content through less primary characters PvE and may not have room PvP

/agree Gli
I love that dream!
be mucho love and getting back to focusing on all of the rest factions brings for many

to me content is anything included in the box and whether they have gimped the original 6 chars or not factions only owners will still have access to 6 chars with some of the ch1 skills which we payed extra for the privelage to play with.also the fact they do not have the option to play in tyria has no bearing either because again we payed extra to play there.

we bought a game and have gotten many months of fun from it.

we now have the chance to buy another full game and play it separately or continue on new adventures with an old character or start a fresh character with the new professions.

if they give 2 new slots you can have one of each new profession without deleting a single favorite friend.

the people who buy only chapter 2 will be missing out on the full complete game which we have been playing all this time

they are paying 50 for a single full game

we are paying 50 for the full game we have been playing and a second 50 for a second full complete game.

we will have 2 games for 100

they will have 1 game for 50

to me it adds up

Loviatar, we are saying that this new full game as you call it is in fact not a full complete game since part of te content within it is content for which we already payed for in our previous chapter. And the fun we might have had has no bearing on this factor. That is so to say in the past.

The fact remains that we are paying as much as a new player for something that expands our game but with less content then what a new player would get.

Cantha will have exactly the same number of pixels no matter who buys it

there will be an identical number of
missions
quests
explorable areas
things to do

for us as well as for a new buyer so to me that equals (as Anet has stated) new content equivalent to the original game.

i rate content to be what my character does and the world that those actions take place in.

curious question

if they gave you 4 more slots (same as now) and 6 new professions (same as now) and made you go through tyria (no changes at all)again with all of them and never bothered making cantha would you consider those 6 characters to be a full new game?

What he is saying is this:

Chapter 1 consists of: Four char slots, Core classes, CH1 only core class skills, and tyria.

Chapter 2 consists of: Four char slots, New classes+ core classes, new skills for the core classes, and catha.

If you do not merge them you have two sets of four char slots without acess to the full game. If you do merge them, you get x slots with acess to everything. Why would get a char slot penalty for merging? I still have yet to see an argument in favor of a penalty. No matter what, you can keep them seperate and get 8 slots, so why would it be logical to get less when you merge? 4+4 !=6

I think Renagade has a very good point. The primary classes are content. Monks and Warriors are very different to play, and finishing the game with them were two totally different experences. Sure, the new missions, new areas, etc are content, but if I can't play through them with every class, that's less content than I could have had.

Partly yes. But not worth a complete new game as i pointed out above. It would have been a form of expansion.

It would have been a full new game if:

a) it contained x all new characters
b) it contained a new island - zone - missions

But factions will containt 2 new ones AND 6 that got gimped from the previous chapter and you'd get 4 charslots.

Now by combining them all you get is 2 new characters and the new island content but less slots, less 'new' characters since you already had access to them.

EDIT: Petition thread was shut down. Ignore.

I have started a petition in the game suggestions forum requesting 8 total character slots when you merge Factions with Prophecies.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...d.php?t=123020

Go over there and /SIGN it if you support it.

It should be free of discussion and other petty annoyances. That's what this thread is for. Hopefully, Anet will hear our voices more clearly there.

We are not starting another thread with this. We have 11 pages of posts here with near 250+ posts. Gaile Gray and Alex Weekes have both said that as soon as they have more information on the number of slots it will be announced. They know that the community desires more slots. Similar threads are found on nearly all the other GW fansites and they've heard an earful through email and in game.

At first, I was happy with the prospect of 2 new slots. Two new classes, 2 new slots, makes sense, sounds like a good deal right? I thought it was, until I started to think things through. Here's why 2 new slots on a joined account is not sufficient for me.

Factions will be a huge new game. I think everyone will agree that we're looking forward to a pre-Searing equivalent stage, plenty of areas/monsters/missions/quests/goodies geared toward pre-ascension/pre-level 20 play, and some new and awesome endgame content. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Now here's the catch: it may at first sight seem obvious to use the 2 (I'm assuming 2, less than 2 will make this even more of a nightmare scenario.) new slots to make an Assassin and a Ritualist character. But what if I want to play the low level content with some of the currently existing character classes? Forget about the assassin, forget about the ritualist, and look at it this way:

I'll have a whole game's worth of new low level content that won't be suitable for my existing characters, I'll have 8 character classes who'll all offer a different playing experience when played through all this new content, yet I'll only have 2 character slots!

Even if I'd get 4 new ones, I'd have to chose carefully. I'd probably pick the 4 classes not represented among my current characters and learn to live with the limitation. But with only 2 slots, I won't be able to experience more than one quarter of what the new low-level game has to offer. Oh, I could have more, but then I'd have to delete characters in slots I already paid for. For me, this is not an 'insignificant detail', or a 'minor numerical limitation' or whatever the LaserLights among us want to call it. It'll be a major irritation, and irritations are not what I look for in my games. No sale.

And to completely cover all bases: Yes, I know I can get more slots by creating a fresh account, but that's something I won't even consider for one minute. Both accounts will be hobbled because neither will have access to all content. Still no sale.

This is my final stance on the subject, and I leave you no room to disagree with me, because no one but me can decide what I'm looking for in a game and how I want to play it.

If we were allowed to merge 2 prophecies accounts, but we only got 5 or 6 total character slots instead of 8, I'm guessing most of us wouldn't merge accounts. We might get the benefit of not having to unlock skills, runes, and weapon mods but we'd be getting less than another who decided not to merge. Just doesn't seem fair.

I haven't read anything to help me understand why we get less slots if we decide to merge accounts.

Like Ensabah Nur, I'm done with this topic. Everything that needs to be said has been said. My decision is mine alone to make. So is yours.

I strongly believe that Anet is paying attention to our outrage. And as Inde pointed out, there are other sites with similar threads.

That's why capitalism and the free market rule. See yas.

actually i have a different view than you so i suppose i disagree with you but agree totally that whatever you decide to do is no bodys business but yours.

my last post on this thread is simply that for good or bad i will purchase at least 1 copy of chapter 2 to show (and fund) chapter 3 which may be more promising than chapter 2 sounds so far (i am pve only)

cheers all and i agree to disagree (maybe even be disagreeable)

Loviatar, your "content" argument is completely incomprehensible to me. First of all though, let me agree with you on the issue that people who did not buy Prophecies have no access to Prophecy content. It's true! However, how do you come to the conclusion that because I bought Prophecies and therefore have played what other people haven't I should get less content in Factions?
OK, I hear you say "character slots are not part of the conten!". OK, I have more character slots than a Factions only guy, I agree.
Then again, I also have more skill already unlocked on my characters. Therefore I should only be able to unlock about half of the new ones - after all, I already have a lot of skills, why need even more? In fact, I already have six classes. I don't feel I should have access to the assassin and ritualist on a merged game because, let's face it, I already HAVE several characters that I could play in Factions. And they have items too, so new ones are not needed.
Makes sense to me. That's how it should be handled - take note, ANet! In a role playing game, it is not important which role you play. Yes. Loviatar, do you have a 55HP W/R too?

OK, enough with the sarcasm. The fact is that there is no single argument for limiting the number of character slots. I had a nice long post typed up before it needed to be deleted for quoting flames posted by other people and I am basically to lazy to type it all up again.However: Give me a "pro" argument and I will utterly destroy it. If I can't do it spontaneously, I will admit defeat and drink a bottle of vinegar in celebration. The shady business tactic of trying to get people to buy more copies of the same game is not allowed as an argument because it has no direct link to the game itself, or the "content"
There is simply no logic that would work for it. None. At. All.

My two cents..... I hope whether you own chapter 1 or not, you get 4 new slots. Why? I bought chapter 1, I got all chapter 1 content and 4 slots. If I buy chapter 2, I'm expecting 4 slots and chapter 2 content. Now some might argue that there's extra cost in being able to move characters across chapters therefore they're entitled to limit the number of slots, but where's the logic in that. The data used to store your character is limited simply by stats and your inventory, which is finite. So whether you have chapter 1 items or chapter 2 items, the amount of storage on their servers is still the same. There is absolutely no reason for them not to give me 4 slots for being a loyal guild wars player since chapter 1. If anything, giving 4 extra slots will probably get new gamers to go out and buy chapter 1 as well just to complete the set. They've even stated GW:F is a standalone game. Calling it a standalone game, but treating it like an expansion for long time players would just be bad faith. So I'm going to buy my factions collectors edition, but I'm not opening it until I see on these forums and confirm that I'm going to get 4 more character slots when I link my account. Otherwise, I'm going to refund it, even if I lose a deposit. Am I losing out? Hell no. Elder Scrolls Oblivion will be out and I'll just settle with that because I know for a fact the fan base for that game will be huge and I will get my money's worth x100, unlike GW:F where I'd be paying collectors price for half, or even 1/4 the value.

I'll add this, the fact that ANET is not releasing information on this is really starting to annoy me. It should be a simple decision. The fact that they're stalling until the very last minute to tell people how many character slots will be added means they are either seriously considering only giving 1-2 extra slots, or they're actually deciding whether or not to add an extra slot on top of the 4 for people who buy the collectors edition. I hope it's the latter because I'm seriously starting to lose faith.

Well, the fact is LaserLight, skill imbalances and game content can (and has) been modified post release. This is an Online RPG, so you cannot assume what you buy will stay unchanged. In fact, you can assume the opposite.

However, something that NEVER has been changed so far is the number of character slots. It started at four, it currently stands at four. So, the idea that I buy a game in hoping that they will add more free slots later, is a pipe dream.

I can see why people who've already maxed out their account want more slots. I myself am fortunate that I only have 2 perm chars on my account (the others are a mule and a PvP slot), so I'll be buying Factions even if it only has (shudder) one extra slot. I still think that sucks, though.

I just wish I understood why it appears to be a problem. What are the extra costs in merging two accounts, and how much would it cost to people who want more slots to buy them? Is this even an option?

But I agree with everyone that I think everything has already been said, and we're just repeating ourselves. So, I look forward to hearing from Anet their final decision, along with some kind of explanation. At least we seem to have their ear on the matter...