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

if you have a link to an official announcement that PVP characters cant unlock any skill for a PVP only character i would like to know so i can give out accurate info.

not only will i change the stickie here i will thank you for the updated info that i missed

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...6&postcount=15

This post was made by Alex Weekes in another topic recently. It's still up in the air, guys, so hold your breath and hope for the best

Right. So then, by that logic, if you couldn't play through the game with all the chars, you'd be getting less game. I'm honstly confused, since you seem to flipflop sides on a whim, do you really have a side in this or not?

The fact that a.net is silent so far dosn't bother me overly much. Of course they know the detalis ahead of time, so what? Any gamming company knows the details ahead of time... they don't make up the details at the moment of the press release. A.Net has at least told us when the info will be released, and thats more than other companies have done.

As for that post by Alex, if anything, that could confirm that we will indeed get more than one slot upon merging. He straight out says it isn't a fact, and denies the claim that we will get one slot upon merging. As skeptical some of you are, I certainly trust A.Net not to openly lie to or misslead players.

no flipping at all.

my position has always been that i want as many slots as i can get but like the game enough that i will accept the number i get.

if i get 1 slot for each new profession (2 slots) i will not have to choose between deleting an older character to try a new one.

that is and has been my position the whole time.

i simply think (in my opinion) that anything above 2 has already been taken off the table and the choice is between 1 and 2 and not 2 and 3 or 4.

if we were going to get at least 2 but maybe more they would have said at least 1 for each new profession and MAYBE a pvp/x slot but we are not sure on that yet.

from the faq:

A group of "core skills" will be available in each campaign to ensure balance

this means that you will only have access to these core skills, and won't be able to unlock any other skills that aren't considered coreskills or skills from the new chapter. Since if you would be able to unlock these through faction while not having bought the coresponding chapter they could have just called it skills...

This is common analytical deduction...

Oh and an example of another expansion that is considered to be standalone:
Half-Life 2: Episode 1 (episode 2 is also in production and will offer the same)

letting ANet get away with giving us 1 new slot, and making us buy 2 accounts, is basically like having to buy NHL 2006 twice, because they only give us half the teams with each box...how many people would do that?

It's funny. I'm kinda bored right now. Haven't played GW in a week. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if anet had given us 6 char slots instead of just 4 Would take me at least 2 months to get the last 2 professions up to lvl20 snuffness and play them to death.....

So I've stated I want 4 slots. Well if there's a compromise to be made, I'm willing to accept 3 slots...... anything less and I think I'll just stick with Oblivion......

Well since you get 4 slots if you install it as a stand-alone I think you should get 4 extra slots if you expand another account. Anet its kind of simple.

Amount of slots you get in Stand-alone = Amount of slots you get added if you get it expanded.

Don't know we have to debate about it......

The problem is that if we don't get at least 2 slots (pref 3) buying factions simply will not be worth it. Or rather, buying factions "as an add on" will not be worth it. I honestly doubt that anyone will be worse off have two seperate accounts even though we will lack the skills of one package or the other. The simple fact is that if we only get one new character slot - thinking we don't want to delete any of our current 4 characters - we will only in effect be getting one slot with which to play the whole game because the characters we bring across from Tyria will not - I believe - have access to the "entire" pve campaign the way a created factions character will. Assuming things are roughly in the same proportions and Prophecies, we will have 7/3 (2.33333) gaming time (pve), as opposed to 12/3 (4) gaming time (pve) from a stand-alone account. By giving us two character slots our gaming time is bumped up to 11/3 (3.6666666) nearly but not quite that of a stand-alone. I can live with this because it is not like we will not have any advantages over those who have only factions. Ideally I would like 3, call the extra gaming time a loyalty reward.

if we paid full price for the expansion and we add it to our existing account, they would be saving money as long as they gave us 3 or less character slots.

making people pay full price for a game and when people merge it, it gives less of what standalone guys get is excellent business thinking. say they give 3 extra slots, what the missing slot is for is saving bandwidth so they can let people "travel by boat" to each world map. take away one more of those slots and they can keep their free of subscription game on faster servers and keep the updates streaming. so boo-freaking-hoo if they only give us 1 more slot if we merge it with our existing account. its their way to cut corners and save money for updates etc so the game dont turn into <insert crappy game here>.


i would be happy if it was just 1 more slot.

.02

Faulty reasoning.

If anything, enticing people to not join their accounts will increase their bandwith use. Having two separate accounts, you can log on both accounts at the same time and take up double your usual bandwidth.

hardly faulty reasoning. not sure if you realize it there but you just gave another reason why they should cut some corners and save money by giving less player slots.

i highly doubt GW/ANET is in business to fail. just like wallmart, do you think they paid 40$ for the matching towel and face rag that they are selling to you? no, not only are they making money they are making up for their overhead by marking up what they buy lol

I have a nagging suspicion that you don't know the meaning of the word 'bandwidth'.

96TSi, whats the faulty logic? Where is loging on with 2 seperate accounts less bandwithintensive then combining both and only being able to play on one account therefore reducing their costs?

Seeing as there is no difference in price between the standalone feature or the combinational feature you can consider that in both the markup has already been factored in. And as has been evidenced before it will be even more expesnive for them to not offer 4 slots.

In any case, no business is in the market for failing, but bad marketing decissions will have an influence. One of these bad decissions might be not listening to what many of their customer base wants or considers a breaking issue. Check out many of the polls and you will see that characterslots is one of the main beefs for most players. So if they want to keep selling their product to customers then they will need to keep it fair for all as well one time buters as return buyers. I would feel taken advantag eof if anet would give first time bueyers 4 slots while I would have been happy with anything less but 4. Not to mention that in any product you have to add an inbcentive to buy future products. Many products do so by adding features that make this product less balanced or more fun. This si something that Anet can't do since it would ruin their balanceobjective. So one of the ways they could do so is by adding the feature of combining their accounts/keys giving them the same advantages as standalone buyers but with 1 added benefit. That would be the way to make your entire fanbase happy, not by shortdoing some of them. Not to mention that it will in turn once more make people interested in buying previous chapters or future chapters and keep the money flowing in. By capturing new people that will then but previous chapters to have the full feel of this GW- sensation

This is basically what I am waiting to find out. I would expect that the price of an "upgrade" giving my old characters access to the new areas plus only one extra character slot should be at a much lower price than purchasing a "full" new factions, giving me access only to factions but with 4 character slots.

I think Anet got themselves into a bit of a sticky situation here, and should carefully consider their business plan. Buying two "full" games, chapters 1 and chapters 2 and having 8 slots but no interaction is basically for most of us who intend to have both chapters not thing we would be interested in using our gaming money for. Its not an option for me, I wouldn't be interested in it.

Paying the same money to add the Chapter 2 areas, missions and quests to my existing chapter 1 does not sound particularly attractive either, if I in that manner only have the ability to play 1 of the 2 new character classes, now that I have owned chapter 1 for over a half year and put intensive effort into building up the 4 characters that I already have.

So I will wait and see. Perhaps I will be forced to be satisfied with Chatper 1 only until enough time goes by that the "upgrade" price drops to the level that I feel is worth it for giving me only one character slot.

i think both of you cant read.. so i figured i would quote myself to clear things up


im not saying that keeping your accounts seperate will save them BW.


people will be merging their accounts so they can have more features on their characters they already have giving them 4 more slots would give them an advantage over the guys who only have 1

Who will only have 1? Last time I checked it was universal knowledge that if you buy faction and install it standalone you will get 4 characterslots. But if you install it in combination with the previous chapter you will only get a minimum of 1 extra or 5 in total. We are statign that since faction hands out 4 characterslots to first time buyers, we return buyers deem it only fair to get 4 as well if we combine it with our previous chapter.

And if chapter 2 buyers ever buy chapter 1 they will get added 4 ad well if they combine it. It would only seem to be fair and rewarding of our repettetive business.

Assuming that the PvE part of the game our Prophecies characters can play is roughly equal to that of the game from Droks - Hell, about 1/3 of the whole game, giving us only one character space is a rip-off, for us.

Each of 4 characters will get to play only 1/3 of the PvE game, meaning a total of 4/3.
One factions character wil get to play 3/3 of the PvE game, bringing the whole total to 7/3.

A player with factions seperate from their main account will get 12/3 total.

Therefore to make it viable for us they have to include at least 2 character spots.

Of course they could say that our factions characters get to venture in Tyria and therefore that should be enough, but honestly, who wants to play Prophecies all over again when most of us have already played it through AT LEAST 4 times?

who is getting the the 1 extra slot?last i checked the standalone or "new people" get 4 slots while people who combine there accounts get 1 so anyway assuming you believe that people will be getting less slots for saving bandwidth(even though you probably dont understand exactly how there servers work, you sound like your just guessing) im guessing you think alot of people are gonna merge?
even though alot of people wont do this if it means 3 extra character slots,so in turn it will make there servers even more cramped. I know this has been said before so you are obviously the one that cant read
:EDIT: just refreshed and saw the new replies and realised Renegade ++RIP++ said almost the same thing :P

Ok let's get things straighten out:

1) People who have no account will be getting 4 character slots.
2) Current players who enter the key into the key section will get AT LEAST 1 slot.
3) Current players will be able to keep prophecies and factions separate by creating a new account for factions with a different email address.
4) There are no plans to allow already registered acccounts merge.

Bandwidth is a physical property. Depending on the medium and provider this bandwidth is already set. GW is optimised for LIMITED bandwidth, telephone lines, 28k and 56k modems - this is why you can play GW on dialup, but you cannot play many other online games.
The costs associated with running a server are those of: 1) storage, and 2) data transfer.
Whether current users decided to keep factions and prophecies separate will NOT be an issue, because it simply will not be feasible for them to have BOTH accounts logged on at the same time. The only place these accounts will have in common is Battle Isles.
Storage is the ONLY cost associate issue at hand. Depending on the setup of their DBs, giving current players who "combine" factions and prophecies 4 extra slots may actually SAVE storage space.

The fact of the matter is that it is simply not economically advantageous for current players to have only ONE extra character slot (for a total of five) and we WILL be paying the same price as NEW PLAYERS.

In order to make it worth our while we need at least 2 slots. If Anet chooses not to give us those slots then I imagine that many players will think very carefully about "combining" their accounts.

If you could read, you'd have noticed I challenged your 'bandwidth' explanation. It's pretty obvious that they'll save money if they can trick us into accepting less slots for the same money, but that has nothing to do with 'bandwidth'. If however this trick fails because too many people decide not to buy Factions, they don't save money at all. They even stand to make a loss. There's two sides to every coin.

And lastly, I'm not interested in ANet's internal workings at all. There's not a single excuse for adding less than 4 slots that'll favorably impress me or mollify my expectations.

Why not? I have 3 computers at home. If I had 2 separate accounts I'd probably have characters meet each other in the guild hall to trade items between accounts. I might even keep a character on the account I'm not playing logged on all the time, for convenience. I'd hate to miss a whisper from a friend who doesn't have both my accounts on his friends list. I'd be using a lot more bandwidth.

lol I have two accounts now and these trading sessions when they happen take 5 minutes maximum. Running (or sliding as it happens for me) between two computers is simply a pain in the rear. What we are talking about here is simply nothing in comparison to those who log on and actually PLAY the game.

I personally doubt that they will give us four character slots on top of those which we already have. If you see my some of my previous posts, you will figure out why.

Of course, but the 2nd accounts will be logged on in addition to the ones playing for real. However little it may be, it will eat more resources, never any less.

I'd prefer the word 'sell' instead of 'give'. If they're not going to sell what I want to buy, I'll shop somewhere else. I've read every post on this thread, and although I can't remember which were yours, I've read nothing here to change my mind, and I never will, because I know what I want, and that's 4 extra slots on a joined account.

the main complaint i have read here (and other sites) is a worry that there will be only 1 slot and a long time character will have to be deleted or a new profession not tried.

if they give 2 slots which is one for each new profession without having to delete any existing characters virtually everybody will not only give a sigh of relief but a big *thank you* to Anet/NCsoft for doing it.

what you do is completely up to you and if 2 EXTRA slots beyond the new professions is a deal breaker if you dont get them that is up to you.

personally i will purchase if they give me one, two, or more.

i enjoy the game and will not lose out on a lot more fun over an extra slot or so.

Gli if you had read my above posts then you might know what I was talking about. Since I've posted it several times already I think it is a good assumption that you either: 1) didn't read it too well, or 2) didn't understand it.

Data transfer - which costs - is NOT going to increase SIGNIFICANTLY because some gamers have their second account in idle. Hefty amounts of data tranfer occurs while actually PLAYING. Since we cannot actually play on two accounts at the same time (without a bot, which - need I remind you - is against the EULA) some players being logged on to two accounts at the same time will not increase the data transfer significantly.

What does increase signifcantly is the storage space required. In fact if everyone kept their factions accounts separate the space required would double.
Now depending on how they have designed thair databases it will may take up slightly less storage space for us to have four new characters on our current account. But it will not take up more. Never once have I suggested that spliting accounts will take LESS resources.

The real clincher here is PLAY TIME. Not for PvP because that isn't really effected by factions at all, but for PvE. And it will be a case of them GIVING it to us because we buy the key without agreeing as to how we are going to use it. If we choose to have factions and prophecies on a single account, then we have to abide by the limitations which Anet sets. If they say max. 5 characters there is NOTHING we can do about it.

So, once more for those who haven't read, or didn't get what I was talking about regarding value for money, real, hard, new, exciting play.

An account with four slots has 4x play time, that is 4 characters right through to the end of the game. Of course not everyone will play 4 characters right through to the end of the game, but on the other hand some people may delete and start again repeating 6 of 7 times before they: 1) quit, 2) move to farming, 3) move to PvP.

Now we KNOW that we will have at least one extra slot, should we choose to have a single account for both games. Assuming the only real challange that our current lvl20 characters will have in Cantha is about that of the gaming time from Droks through to Hell (about 1/3 of the total game) that gives current characters 4/3x play time. Add to that the new character - presumably a factions character - and that gives and extra 1x play time, for a total of 7/3x (2.333333x) play time. The is MUCH LESS than that of a single account and therefore not very good value for money.

Two extra slots will give 11/3x (3.66666x) play time, nearly that of a single account (12/3x), and three will give 14/3x (4.666666x).
It is for this reason that I doubt they will allow 8 character slots for those who own both campaigns.

If you want your four slots then go ahead and keep the accounts separate. Anet has a lot of technology in place that prevents the lag due of overloaded servers taking place with the frequency it does in other MMOs. However Anet is hardly going to sell a product which will greatly advantage the current players of the game.

The number of slots I want has nothing to do with the number of new professions they'll add. What I know is that there'll be a lot of new PvE content, a significant part of which will be geared for pre-level 20 play. Whichever professions I will end up playing, I'll want to play several through the low level part. Two new slots will be far too little to properly enjoy all of it. And if for some reason that assumption is a false one, that 2 slots is actually all I need to fully experience the new low level content, I don't want the game anyway because it must be very poor content-wise.

So what's it going to be? A great game with too few slots, a shallow game with just enough slots, or a great game with plenty of slots to enjoy it? I'll have you know, I'm only interested in the latter.

I read it and I understand every word of it. I'm afraid though that I'm going to have to turn the tables on you and ask if you understood my post. I'll spell it out again: I'm not interested in any explanation why it makes sense to have less than 4 slots, even if it does make sense. If the game isn't what I want it to be, I won't buy it.

and here is where you are completely wrong (thank goodness)

ypu will step straight into a level 20 world with the presear equivalent only for fresh start or low level people run to lions arch for the boat trip over.

fron the NCsoft rep.

Loviatar, I did state many times over that it was an assumption, I had no reason to believe that it would be correct, I've hear hints, like everyone else that this would not be the case.

I'm hoping that quote was about Factions, rather than simply Guild Wars, because the "advanced" content of Prophecies is a little on the light side.
The hints I've heard about the "advanced" content, but it isn't something that I'll believe until I see it. FGS we have enough idiots running around in the "advanced" section at the moment, I would hate to see what would happen if they made pre -> ascension any easier (or quicker).

Gli - I understand you well, your statements are simple enough. You want four fresh character slots for Factions, and you don't want to have to delete your current characters. Fair enough, if you think that is the only way you are going to get value for your money then by all means keep your two accounts separate. Anet isn't going to add four slots to everyone's account simply because they asked for it. Anet wants to get value-for-money too, while not ripping off its current player base. Since they can get this by offering us less than four new slots, I've no doubt that they will do so.
Finally if you are not interested in the reasoning behind how many character slots we currently have, and will have, then why bother reading this thread and discussing it. You want 4 slots. Period. That is your right and you will have the choice of (when and if you buy) having for slots and two separate accounts or sacrificing character number for a combine account. Anet has stated many times over that there will be advantages to having a combine account. They have also stated many times over that we will be able to CHOOSE whether to keep them separate or not.

If the advanced content is a "much" as Anet has been hinting, chances are current players MAY get value-for-money play time with only one new character, however I very much doubt it.

From things that people have said recently it may be that we will get two slots but one will be for a dedicated pvp character and we will not be able to run a pve character in it. I certainly hope that this is not the case, but it will be enough for me to do what I want.

Ldy lozza, the point is irrelevant if we get 11/3th of the content, 7/3th or 14/3th.

The point is however that new people get access to the coreprofessions of GW standard for no extra cost. Get access to the coreskills fo these professions for no extra cost and get more slots for no extra cost. And what do we get in return? the ability to combine them... that is not worth the price of a full game if I only get half for an upgrade/expansion. Since that is exactly what it is, an upgrade not a complete new game...

We already payed for GW to have the feature to enjoy it in future content. And I'm not going to pay gain for stuff i already payed for.

I would have accepted 2 slots only if the new buyers would have gotten 2 slots as well. Even though I would then have asked for a pvp slot although that wouldn't be that bad.

I have a feeling though that anet will introduce 3 slots and 1 pvp slot. That would be the least i would accept. Any less and they can wave goodbye to my money now and in the future. In the end every customer wants to be treated fairly... not getten taken advantage of because he got already into contact with the gw sensation.

And loviathar, if you are saying that people will start their adventures in tyria at presair if they have gw-F then that would be a bigger ripof, since we already payed for that content. So I doubt that will happen. Not to mention that i remember gaile stating that there will be a new startingarea like presear and the point up till ascension in cantha. If they hadn't done that they could never make gw-F standalone...

Firstly Faction only accounts will only have access to the continent of Cantha and the Battle Isles. Prophecies only accounts will only have access to Tyria and Battle Isles.

Secondly and more importantly, Anet is not going to force you to combine your accounts. You will have the CHOICE of keeping them separate. If you decide that you want four extra character slots then you can have them, on a separate account. But don't hold your breath for Anet to say, well now here you go, you can have four extra slots on your account, because - for the reasoning I've listed - it is unlikely to happen.

Let's, for a moment, treat GW like a stand-alone single player RPG. You have four character slots, you can create and delete them at any time you choose. You play the game through and then when you are finished and sick to death of it you just leave it sitting un touched on your desktop.
The sequel to the game comes out and it also allows four character slots. But it also allows you to "transfer" your characters from the first game into the next. Now I would imagine that there would be rules tied to this, but let's not get technical. Wanting to keep your awesom inventory you transfer your characters across and start playing till you finish the new game. In both cases you are getting what you paid for. Access to the full game. We are not paying for game slots, we are paying for game access.
Think of your typical MMO, you pay for the client, you pay monthly for access, you pay for expansions - which need to be bought for all new uber items. In GW we don't pay for the cllient, we pay upfront for complete access, and there is absolutely no need to buy the expansions to keep grinding away. GW and GWF are (or will be) balanced against eachother. In theory the characters from both sides of the game will be equally matched, and I think we can count on Anet to keep it that way.

The fact that we already have access to the core classes, and those who buy factions will too, is completely irrelevant, a function of game mechanics not of value. Once again I say we are paying for CONTENT, not character spaces. If you are so concerned about character spaces then keep your accounts separate, Anet will not stop you.

CONTENT therefore IS relevant to the discussion because for those of us who decide to have a single account will not benefit from being able to do the "pre -> ascension" section of Factions with the characters we already have. This is what leads to the question of how many extra characters we have to have to make full use of Factions, and the answer in terms of game time is that we don't need an extra four.

With ONLY four characters we WILL be able to unlock all skills in Factions without changing secondaries, if we only get an extra one slot we can dedicate that to a PvP character or even another PvE character should we so desire. We will still have access to the SAME content which we paid for but with the advantages of already have skills (some of which will not be available to Factions players) and EASY access to the money and items already in our possession. Combining our accounts will NOT close the Prophecies campaign for us. We have paid for CONTENT, so our new Faction characters will also have access to the content we have already paid for.

If you feel that you NEED character spaces and content to make the game worthwhile, keep your accounts separate.

To all the people saying that we shouldn't/won't get 8 total character slots if we combine Factions with Prophecies.

Is like a car dealer saying "You can only have 2 tires with this car because you already bought a car from us that had 4 tires, but if you kept the 2 cars in seperate garages we'll let you have all 4 tires." Sound ridiculous to you too?

The point still stands:
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/maintenance costs 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/maintanence costs because it will be only 1 account to track instead of 2. *EDIT* and use less bandwith because of not being able to have 2 accounts logged in at the same time *END EDIT*

Also for those of you touting "But all the new content makes up for it." What good is the new content if we can't enjoy it with our beloved older characters or have to delete beloved characters to enjoy it or be unable to enjoy the new content if we didn't want to delete.
(*SEE BELOW FOR MORE ON DILEMMAS*)

TBH I'm more concerned with this now:

Originally Posted by Ensabah Nur
Here's another interesting problem I can't believe I just realized about Prophecies, Factions and merging or not the accounts.

Dilemma (A): If we don't merge our Factions accounts(if we buy) with our current Prophecies accounts then we all have to somehow(still not sure how Anet is handling this aspect) re-join our own guild and have a problem with that because at 70+ members currently and the limit of 100 members per guild not everyone will be able to re-join. This would also mean that I'd be an officer in my guild in which I'm already the leader and cause many other problems.

Dilemma (B): Merge the accounts anyway and accept the (potential) loss of character slots which is not favorable for convincing me or many in my guild to purchase Factions.

Dilemma (C): Start a new Guild with a New Hall , Cape , Name etc. which again isn't favorable for convincing us to purchase Factions, we don't mind at all starting new characters(we love the idea) but starting a whole new guild , is assinine. Dividing a single guild into 2 guilds doesn't seem like a great way to help unity and co-op play.

If part of the idea behind Guild Wars is to promote Co-op play(it is a COORPG after all) between Guildmates and/or Allies(Factions) then all of the above dilemma's show issues with the Co-op part by causing problems with current guilds.

So in summation the only true fix not to ruin current guilds and the co-operativness of the current format of Guild Wars is to allow us to link our (potential) Factions accounts with our (current) Prophecies accounts with no loss of character slots for doing so. Thereby letting us keep our 1 guild intact and unchanged.

Points have been raised on both sides of the argument. The problem is that for returning customers of Anet/GWP we are faced with how this will affect our continueing to enjoy Guild Wars the way we have been with the guildmates we have been with. All of which has minimal affect on first time Anet/GWF consumers.

Setting it up standalone is not a valid option for me seeing as i already bought GW. That is what I'm trying to postulate, for me GW-F is not a full new game but an expansion to GW offering some new content, new chars, skills, world just as any other expansionpack would do. But the point of content has nothing to do with stuff you already paid for. I paid for being able to use my GW chars in future expansionpacks by buying GW, not by buying GW-F. They just made it possible for newcommers to enjoy some of the content for which we already payed for for free. And if they expect me to set it up standalone and not let me enjoy the game they created with all my previous chars and as many new charslots as the expansion offers to standalone installers I won't be spending my money on it, since it won't be worth my buck. Once more my definition of new content doesn't contain the content for which I already paid access for by buying its precedent chapter. Otherwise we could just state that when they offer chapter 10 and have 9 times more content then if we ever bought chapter one seeing as we can use all these new chars in each previous chapter... so therefore should pay 9 times its original price because hey its new content which we can play... I would consider that bad reaosning. I would consider it acquired privilidge by buying previous chapters.

Not to mention that the comparison with a single player rpg doesn't hold breath seeing that in those games I can have as many saveslots or characterslots as I want even if there had been a characterslotlimit. Just by copying out those files into another folder. Not to mention that there are numerous other possibilities to have more fun with the singleplayer episode to reinvigorate the playability of it by installing mods and plugins etc... and mostly all for free. Just look at games like morrowind, baldurs gate 2, nwn etc... I'm still playing them with any character i want as much as I want and every time i play i can make it into a different experience by changing my mods.

It has oocurred to me that there are basically two types of players in this thread those that count value-for-money in: 1) content and play time, or 2) in character slots, and I think I can honestly say I don't think we are ever going to agree.

But here are the facts as they stand:
1) New accounts will have 4 character slots.
2) Those who "add" factions to their current account will get AT LEAST one extra slot - for a total of 5+ character slots.
3) The price will be the same regardless of what we choose to do.

Point A (from Ensabah) however is a valid one, and a very good argument for Anet to be generous with the maximum number of character slots per "combine" account.

Keeping everything that has been said in this discussion in mind, let's turn it to something else. I know many of you have stated emphatically that you would take no less than four, but thinking about the benefits and the downsides to either action, many of which have already been listed to some extent, how many EXTRA character slots would convince you to have Prophecies and Factions on the one account as opposed to two separate ones?

Myself, 2.

4

seeing as I won't buy it if its less just out of conviction no matter how good GW-F might be.

I'm not interested in having separate accounts and nothing less than 4 new slots on a combined account would convince me to stick with GW.

Lady Lozza

fortunately that quote came just after GW came out and was in response to a question about chapter 2 during the early *great level cap rampage*

it was also stated that

*there will be new content equal to the full original game*

which is hopeful to me.

NEXT

Renegade ++RIP++

a combined account will have EXACTLY the same number of slots as determined by the number of chapters you own not the order you buy them in.

the formula as of chapter 1 was 1 slot for 2 professions plus 1 for pvp (or extra pve)

they are reviewing it to see if they will keep that formula (giving 1 additional slot per chapter per 2 professions)

OR

changing it to be 4 slots base plus 2 slots (1 slot per new profession)

a stand alone chapter 2 buyer will get AT LEAST 5 slots (4/8 +1) for the simple reason they will be buying 8 professions instead of 6 as we did

they will not expect buyers to try to make 8 professions out of 3 slots plus 1 pvp

if we get 2 slots for buying chapter 2 (6 SLOTS)

non chapter 1 buyers may be getting 4 slots for 8 professions +1 for 5 slots

they may get less than a merged account of 6 slots not more

Loviatar i don't care for the scheme they plan to use.

In my view the standalone faction gw offers 2 new chars. And people get 4 character slots.

Standalone gw gave 6 new characters and 4 character slots.

So if I combine them I expect 4 + 4 no matte in which combination they bring it out. If it is less then I won't buy it.

If they had wanted me to be ok with only 2 charslots for gw-faction then they should have given first time buyers 2 as well.

Althoguh then I would have been hammering for buyable extra charslots.

and there is exactly where you are wrong.

PROOF not opinion you are wrong but PROOF follows........

a person who has not played GW but has expressed an interest in it gets it for a birthday present.

he/she opens it and sets up an account.

they go to the character creation screen and look at their profession choices.

WHAT DO THEY SEE???

1. 2 new characters (A/R) which is what you will see

OR

2. 8 new characters (W/E/Me/Mo/N/R/A/Rit) which is what they will see

and you want to give them only 2 slots to play all those if a merged account only gets 2 more.

...and the pre-order box is tomorrow and they still haven't told us so I'd have to figure the worst still (1-2), otherwise why keep us in the dark, STILL?

if I wasn't in such bad humor about it I'd actually find humor in the fact we're hearing a little talk about Chapter 3 before we here about linked character slots, what comes as the result of the pre-order, and what's in the CE, for Chapter 2.

I would need 3 slots to continue, but there's no reason why we shouldn't get 4 if linking accounts, plain and simple. Prophecies started with too few. So many other games offer you so much more. It's only an issue here because we started with such a crazy low # to begin with.

easy math for me -
3 characters for unlocks
1 to play with my wife through pre-sear (bonus ANet, extra $50 purchase)
AH now I can't use unlocks, also was never able to make 2 primary classes
[I'll keep mesmer to 2ndary but do miss never having a Ranger]

So ANet wants another $50 for me for expansion... ok...
1 slot would be stupid (A/Ri or Ri/A only, no PvP slot still)
2 slots still bites (pick 2 of A, Ri, or R primaries, no PvP slot still)
3 slots I manage to be 'OK' (pick 2 of A, Ri, R primaries, PvP slot)
4 slots is where ANet plays fair (can do the 3 primaries and PvP slot)

all this content chatter, bandwidth comparison (rotfl), standalone vs expansion has been a bit meaningless. it comes down to how you want to play, and if ANet wants to work with those players, or quite frankly, screw them.

In a really ideal scenario (which of course would never happen) GW would simply always allow you to have # of slots = # of primary classes available + 1 or 2 pvp only slots. Then they COULD get away with these linked expansions adding such small numbers of character slots on to the game going forward, and more effectively get people engaged in the game and chapter money trail.

Problem is ANet makes current players chose between unlocking, types of play (PvE and PvP), and meaningful play with friends and family (yeah I could use my level 20 necro with my wife if I don't allow her warrior a hit, and let her do presear on her own, etc). And forcing us to nuke characters where unlocking in PvE only unlocks for PvP (so those characters and what combinations they can do in PvE CANNOT be readily or easily reproduced) increases the attachment even if you get by the 100s of hours played attachment and didnt mind remaking/re-buying/re-grinding on up.

It's really a horrible model. So they could either re-make their model (and pigs could fly outta my you-know-where) or they could keep the status quo and give us some slots so we don't have to play character roulette. Again I've said it before, it borders on nuttiness to allow us to link accounts so we can bring our characters forward, and then restrict us so much where ANet becomes a curse word instead of the company bringing us more GW enjoyment.

If you bother to look deeper a lot of multi-account people are on the precipe, and would continue on with any kind of reasonable decision there. But it does become a $ issue if you're going to ask full price at the door, we already have multiple accounts, AND we're not going to be able to play how we want to play with others we've brought into the game.

Not being able to play how you want, enjoy the game how you want, experiencing the different primaries/pvp/etc, results in reduced content. I don't think anyone doesn't get playing as a Ri, A, or an original class will play differently in Cantha, right? Different quests, different playstyles against different challenges, everyone get that? So those of us paying full fare and returning should get 1, maybe 2 slots to start new there? Tops? Unless we delete those characters and effort and reason we were linking the accounts in the first place. Just as the Chewbacca defense, this does not make sense.

Oh well I was going to keep it short and failed again. It's a sore spot. I'd much rather be talking about the other expansion details, pre-order, ce, and what it brings (if we'd get any kind of real info on it ) and which one I'm looking to get. Tomorrow it's out in stores. Yeah I'll probably look into it and try a local store (and see if it really shows up!) But I'll also nail down the back-out/return policy or won't be picking it up - a day to go and I still don't know if I'll get the minimum I need to enjoy it.

I suppose at worst I get a lot of time back a month and save $100.

Yes

enough to play the 2 new classes as primary and take any of the others as secondary. If the devs had added enough quests that could be repeated to get the added coreskills of the coreclasses to be used as a secondary and thus mix and match as they wanted.

And naturally offer the ability to all their customers to buy extra charslots for a certain amount.

That would have been the bussiness plan I would have used. It would still allow newcommers to have fun and test out some builds. It would not discriminate between repeat buyers and first time buyers. It would offer extendability to the game due to the ability to buy more slots as people want. It would also make people interested in buying previous chapters and actually increase sales even more helping in funding next chapters, by crosscommercialisation.