Six character slots confirmed

Bah, other thread discussing slots got closed, but I wanted to reply to this post there:

When I bought it I did not know there were only 4 character slots, I don't think that they advertised that you will only be able to play 4 main characters out of 6 possible. Although maybe I was not paying attention, just excited to try out a MMORPG that had no monthly charge.

I bought it because it looked like it would be a great game, and it is, just wish I could experience the whole game without having to kill off other characters to do it.

I'll wait to pre-order until I find out more about the CE, there is still plenty of time to decide.

That's not a point of view, that's a delusion. Whatever you're buying, you're paying for it.

Some people want to buy more slots than ANet wants to sell us. I'm one of them. Since I don't want to deal with the hassle of multiple accounts, I chose to have zero accounts, the only tolerable alternative. A mere game isn't worth putting up with any kind of inconvenience.

I'm off, looking for a publisher who'll take my money without hiding their greed behind a battalion of straw men excuses.

ANet's Fuzzy Math:

Slots * Content = Fun

So in "Prophecies" we had:
--------------------------
4 slots * 100% content = 400% fun (though that 3rd time thru pve was not too fun to me)


In "Factions" expansion:
--------------------------
4 slots * 50% content + 4 slots * 50% content = 400% fun
OR
6 slots * 100% content = 600% fun


In the next expansion:
--------------------------
4 slots * 33.3% content + 4 slots * 33.3% content + 4 slots * 33.3% content = 400% fun
OR (now it gets harder)
merging for first expansion but not second
6 slots * 66.66% content + 4 slots * 33.3% content = 533.3% fun
OR merging them all
8 slots * 100% fun = 800% fun

Hmm... I guess that's all cool and stuff IF we get two slots with every expansion and two new professions. It's also implied that to really have fun you need to merge.

ANet, are you wondering why a lot of people don't really like this? It's like we're having to pay twice to access old content with our new Factions characters.

Nobody expected to buy the expansion and not the original and be able to access original content. However, the impression a lot of people had was that if you'd bought the original and then bought the expansion, that your original characters could go into the expansion and any new characters you made with expansion professions could go back to the old content too. No linking no slot loss.

i suggest OBLIVION which i will get when it is out

i will also very happily get chapter 2 even if they supplied no new slots at all simply to enjoy a whole new games worth of content.

content to me is the exploring, sightseeing,missions, quests or whatever.

content to me is not the number of slots.

I honestly cannot believe people are complaining to this extent.

If the number of character slots--of all things!--is going to decide yes or no whether you are going to purchase Factions, you should not be playing this game.

Is there any way I can request this thread closed? It's honestly run its course, and nothing is going to be gained by complaining/flaming back and forth.

You could just choose to not visit this thread. Then you wouldn't have to be so upset by it. Also, your equation of complaining and flaming is untrue. People may be complaining but I haven't seen anyone "flame" anyone else.

Why have a forum at all if we can't have honest and open debate about things. Just because people disagree doesn't mean they need to be silenced.

And what does your post contribute to the discussion? Nothing. It is a topic people want to discuss, no flaming is necessary. There are a million accounts, lots of people have opinions. I only just commented on the slots issue, even though it has been discussed forever.

For people questioning why there is a limitation on slots when accounts are merged, I think I have the answer (although as I'm not emplyed by Anet, I obviously don't know for sure):

I, too, wondered what's the difference between merging accounts and buying new accounts in regard to Anet's expenses?

Well, I would hypothesize that Anet has data on this, and knows that MOST people are going to merge accounts. It just makes sense, you unlock all skills, can run your Lev 20 chars from Prophecy into new areas, etc.

Therefore, Anet will save money by having to store less information from 2 characters on MOST people's accounts.

I can understand the desire of some people to make one character of each type. What I can't understand is people who apparently have been so into Guild Wars that they've managed to level up 4 characters, and equip them with such uber-items to make the idea of deleting any of them impossible, suddenly willing to essentially stop evolving in the game by refusing to buy any expansions.

Obviously, that's your choice. But I don't understand it. If you are that crazy about your characters, why wouldn't you spend the fifty bucks to give them new content, items, and possible secondaries?

On a related note, for those who don't understand why I would spend $50 to get "2 slots", the answer is, I'm not buying Factions for the slots! I'm buying Factions for new content, classes and items. The fact that I get 2 slots is a bonus to me (I only have two Characters right now I wouldn't consider deleting).

As for Anet being "greedy", um, no. Free expansions and events throughout the past year, all with no monthly fee.

The limitation on slots is a small price to pay for no monthly fee. There's plenty of MMORPGs out there with practically unlimited slots... for a price.

Wait a second.

200% of 6 > 100% of 8.
1200 is 50% better than 800.

You get 50% more stuff for combining your accts.

Im missing the 6/8ths part as having 6 complete characters is better than 8 half characters no matter how you look at it.

Man marketing people really have some of ya all thinking batty don't they.
You don't get a thing more for combining your accounts, except for being able to use what you already bought and unlocked.

Gotta give them props - a lot of you are eating it up, and they've now managed to sell you an expansion for standalone price and deliver less.

ANet marketing team ftw! Well except for the fact a bunch of us will go elsewhere.

It's called quitting while you're ahead. It's been fun, and I've always realized I'd stop playing GW one day. (Surely everyone does?)

Refusing to delete characters has nothing to do with the equipment they carry. Most of mine use collector's stuff. It doesn't even have anything to do with time invested. The time I invested in any of them has already been rewarded with a 1:1 "time invested" vs. "time spent having fun" quotum. I don't want to delete them because it's so damn convenient to have fully skilled PvE characters handy to team up at any time, in any place, in any role, with any of my friends that wants to play with me. I'm not one of the legion of the jaded PvE haters that keep posting on threads like this one how they couldn't bear to go through PvE a second time. I enjoyed playing this game. Each and every character that I played through every ounce of content has been fun.

Ironic isn't it, how people who can't seem to care less about the content will be buying this game for the new content, yet people who can't get enough of the content won't be buying despite the new content. If there's any sign that ANet is making a big mistake here, that must be it.

If I were to buy Factions, I wouldn't be buying it for the slots either, though I'd easily spend $50 bucks to add nothing more than a few character slots to my account, to escape from the deficiency I've been laboring over from the start. And before anyone asks, no, I wasn't aware I'd only get 4 slots for 6 primaries when I bought GW. I bought it on a whim because it got good word of mouth.

You know... I couldn't care less about a few lousy bucks. My purchase of the original game had nothing to do with monetary concerns. I'd gladly pay a monthly fee for GW if that's what it would take to buy me what I want, or shell out some spare cash for some extra slots. The problem is, I can't. ANet isn't selling what I want: a single account with enough slots to suit my playing preferences. It just doesn't exist, I could run into a gamestore, grab an attendant and shove hundreds of euros in his face, and I still couldn't have a single account with 8 slots. This fallacy is sure to bite ANet in the ass one day, when a competitor makes a game that does all the things that ANet did right, but with a less restrictive business model. When this happens, I'll be all over them to fill their pockets with a monthly fee, and I'm sure I won't be the only one.

Yeah, if a glaring lack of insight into and consideration for the different things other people are looking for in a game is what it takes to win the thread, he's making a good run for it.

If you compare the rate of character profession expansion to character slot expansion, we're actually not only keeping up; we're gaining. I'm satisfied with two new slots.

I just cant wait to see the new weapon skins O_O!!!

holy crap im gonna horde like a mofo and make millions!

Im definitely gonna link? wanna know why

Because I'll IMMEDIATELY put my running warrior in cantha and look for missions or paths that can be ran.

RUN YOU TO THE END OF THE GAME 100k + RUBIES AND SAPPHIRES >.>.. AND THOSE MONSTEROUS ITEMS TOO!.....AND BEER!

Heck yeah man. I'll be livin large and in charge, and I'll take over one of those territories and be king!

OMG THINK OF ALL THE UNTAPPED FARMING TO BE DONE ._. the second I see a melee monster heavy area, im red flagging it for farming!

I concur with Mordakai but I am confused with this linking as I want my chapter 1 and maybe 2 to be able to go to Tyria.

You never derived where in the world you got 75% from. If Guild Wars is [1] game and Factions is another [1] game. Then [1+1 =2] and I don't think it's hard to see that [1] game is half (50%) of the total games. Now. Maybe for some strange reason you thought that Factions is sort of like 75% because you can play all 8 professions. If you thought of it like that then it'd be [4 x 75%(Factions)] + [4 x 50%(GW Core)] = 500 as opposed to [6 x 100%] = 600. And what's all this talk about them making more money from not doing monthly fees? They'll saying they're going to start releasing 2 new GW games a year, and from the looks of it they're gonna cost 40$ each. $80 a year. as opposed to $10/mo (if any game ever offered a fee that low) = $120. They are making less money per gamer, but they have more ppl playing than those games with monthly fees. Lastly. How the hell can you divide a generic concept like a"gameplay experience 100%" by dollar bills. First you'd have to convert the gameplay % into dollar bills, which makes no sense at all. Now if you ppl are going to keep making up these numbers plz try and attempt to justify where they come from. I'm reading further on and someone mentioned something about 33.3% and a bunch of other random stuff? What is going on in your minds?

I payed for the content of chapter one and the access it would grant me into subsequent chapters with those chars if i ever bought the subsequent chapters.

I would be paying full price for access to chapter 2 but only with 2 new chars.

So in essence I'm paying the same amount to reduce the new content I would get. And don't bother statign that letting the 4 chars from chapter one get access to chapter 2 is new content... since i already payed for that privilidge by buying the first chapter and buying the second chapter...

It just shows how easilly influenced some people are by marketing and productmanagement fables...

It wouldn't surprise me that all these people clapping at the prospect of having 2 extra slots while linking the 2 accounts would be the same people beleiving during the middle ages the fairy tale of the earth being flat and you dropping of its edges if you went to far or the earth being the center of the universe...

In any case I drew my conclusions, and they won't get my 50 bucks for their next chapter, unless I see a possibility of buying extra slots for a reasonable amount (like 5 bucks). Or having the promiss that the CE will contain an extra charslot and that from now on all the subsequent chapters will contain as many charslots as there are new characters. Although my hope would be to see them announce to change the basenumber of charslots to the number of characters it offers in correlation with the previous chapter. (Meaning 2 charslots in chapter 2, 6 from chapter one - with the intermediate 4 for standalone use). Since if they do that, they could count on my repeptetive bussiness in stead of me being dissapointed now and not be interested anymore in any future releases.

Like somebody else stated, I prefer to quit while I'm ahead then feel like I have been gotten the shaft.

Why Anet limits accounts. A lesson in business models for the narrow minded.

Arena net is a business trying to make money. This does not make the evil or mean, but it does explain why they do the things they do.

Costs are not the issue. Memory is incredibly cheap, processing is cheap, bandwidth is expensive. They could give you unlimited storage without major cost increases, so they much be limiting storage space of another reason (see later). The only costs saved are by individuals playing two accounts, since the two accounts are rarely played simultaniously.

Target audience is casual gamers. This means that if your space is sufficient for your 10 hour a week kid, odds are Anet is pleasing your core audience. More spaces hurt in the following way: account sharing (covered this earlier) and balance/fun factor. 3 PvE characters is more than enough PvE for a casual gamer. Part of what makes decisions interesting is budget constraints. There is a certain amount of diversity in the player base because of the decisions they made in starting a character. While everyone has the option of deleting a character, it slows FoM rushes if only a portion of the population have a certain primary class. Having infinite character slots would be a burden on some casual players, since some elite person will inevidably tell them to go spend 15 hours power levelling so they have the "right" class. This also keeps playing PvP players an option at higher levels (although top people play PvE characters).

Limited storage tends to lubricate trade, since it forces people to make tough decisions. Casual players quickly understand that they can't really afford to keep a mule character so you pretty much sell 95% of the stuff you find. These decisions make the game more interesting and streamlined to play. I am more willing to give stuff away knowing that holding is just costing me space for something better. You may see this as unfair or socialist, but I see this as realistic.

Hardcore Players are not screwed here. You can overcome all of those shortcomings and more by purchasing another account. You can play the game 6 times and unlock all the skills from all classes on both accounts, have a PvP slot and a mule slot. You pay 100 dollars which isn't that bad considering the number of hours you spend on the game. While transfering is annoying, it is doable. You can belong to multiple guilds...

Why Anet doesn't link accounts: If the accounts are actually seperate and can be played simultaneously, then you are asking for abuse. The more privaleges you give to linkage the more abuse you'll get. For example I could sell a new player the ability to link to my account and he could possibly get my rank, so weapons I don't use but are "elite" and my unlocked skills. It will be very difficult to find a balance that makes linking both worthwhile and "abuse secure" and it is possible the second account will either be gimped or not sigificantly assisted.

Why Anet won't sell individual slots. Three reasons I see: 1) Cost of maintaining another customer service/sales department, the business model leaves most of this to the retail side. 2)The benefits of scarce resources stated above... giving everyone $10 slots means all semi serious players have to fork out at least 30 more dollars. This creates more disparity between wealthy and hardcore gamers and weekend warriors. 3) Anet could lose money due to the fact it will sell fewer copies and more individual accounts. While the financial gain may be positive, the current market has created a high cost option (2 accounts) and a low cost option which allows more money to pulled form serious gamers. Account sharing is also an issue here... why by little timmy an account when he can play an extra slot on his dad's account and save 30 bucks.

Unfortunately, I have to disagree.

The reality is, 2 extra character slots is nothing in terms of storage space in a database system of this magnitude. Massive storage is so ridiculously cheap nowadays that setting up a few terabytes of hard drive space is like pennies to a company like ArenaNet. The real costs are in bandwidth, not storage - which is why gameplay is instanced and why they have intentionally designed a streaming system to maximize bandwidth efficiency. You should read one of the interviews the co-founder of ArenaNet - he goes into detail about all of this.

The bottom line is, this decision has nothing to do with them try to save money. And that's what makes the reasoning behind this slot limitation even more difficult to understand.

EDIT: Blah @ Thom for touching on some of this while I was too busy typing it all up

YOU win the thread. This makes more sense than my hypothesis.

You may not be the only one, but I would guess you'd be in the minority.

The main reason Guild Wars is so successful is the lack of monthly fees. It's the main selling point in a market saturated with MMORPGs.

Dude buy a second account
MMORPG monthly fees $15 x 12= 180 + cost of game 50 bucks = 230 for one years content.
GW= 39.99 or 49.99 depending on where you purchase. So far I have paid 80 for 2 accounts (only using 6 slots) the ones that are complaining saying they would gladly pay a monthly fee and money is no object are complaining they don't want to purchase extra account. They do have extra slots available, run down to Wal mart EB and get another account.

Exactly. If you're so willing to pay money, buy another account. The only downside to a new account is no pvp unlocks/no fame.

Which doesn't even matter, if you're like most people and have one pvp slot on your first account anyway. The people who are saying they want one fully leveled PvE character of each class--just buy another account.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM.

Just another two slots ? Damn..


Any particular reason why I should buy another account ? I'll be buying Factions, I'm certainly not going to buy either chapter again. And why should I ? Buying another account along with Factions puts the price up there with the monthly fee games. And they have the content and depth to justify such an expenditure - GW certainly does not.

The problem is the downside you just mentioned. The new Rit/Assassin skills won't be on my original ranked/UAX PvP account. That's why, no matter what decision I make, I'm getting screwed to some degree. I'm forced to choose between taking a hit on character slots so I can say competitive with my guild, or forget about playing any builds that involve the Rit/Assassin and play PvE instead, while simultaneously hoping that I don't get kicked out of my guild for being useless in the process.

Actually, I had a second account for a week or so. I bought it dirt cheap out of a bargain bin. It didn't work for me, gave it to a friend. The thing is, I don't want 2 accounts. I don't want to have to switch accounts to switch characters, having to be on my guild's roster twice, having to appear on every friends list twice, having to go through the hassle of moving items between accounts. I don't want to turn my gaming time into a logistics exercise. Also, I don't have any use for 8 GW:P slots. I've been holding out for GW:F to put me on the footing I want to be. Now that I know that it won't do that, it's time to move on.

And most important of all, I don't want to submit myself to a situation I don't agree with. I'm stubborn that way. I have zero empathy for ANet's reasons to charge 2 slots for combining the games and leaving me unable to have a single non-gimped account even if I wanted to pay extra for it. I've enjoyed playing GW, but brand loyalty only goes so far; if it isn't a two-way street, I'll have no part in it. There's plenty of other games out there.

Gli, the world does not revolve around you. Guild Wars does not revolve around you. I don't always agree with Anet, but your logic here is bordering on retarded. "I don't like A-net because I feel like I can't get enough access to the game, so I'll completely cut myself off from the game." If you really don't think access to factions is worth $50, then that's cool, but to say that access to factions is only worth my time if I have 4 more slots is just silly. That is like saying, that the first 200 hours of the game aren't worth 50 dollars, but if you let me play 300 hours I'll pay up. I am sure you can find something else to spend your time on if you NEED 4 more characters to make it worth your money.

I gave you my thoughts on why Anet have these limitation. There are other places with other business models and less restrictions. The restrictions that do exist here are largely there to continue developing a healthy GW community (which includes a financially healthy Anet). At some point we all want Guild Wars to be something a little different and my ideas may step on the toes of your ideas. "Boycotting" or "rage quitting" or whatever you are doing reflects more on the immaturity of the customer than the intentions of Anet.

"Bad evil A-net, they want to make money and provide a stable environment that I really don't like!"-Gli

To those who say they have already paid for their first four character slots and should get another four, I will say this:

Yes you have paid for your first four characters. But you have ONLY paid for them to journey around Tyria. Period. You therefore must ALSO pay for them to journey around Cantha.

Players who buy Factions as a stand-alone will be paying for four characters to journey around Cantha only.

Those who combine will be paying for there first four to journey around Cantha, and for two EXTRA characters to journey around Cantha AND Tyria. In this regard Anet has been generous by giving those of you who choose to combine accounts another two character slots so you can, if you choose, play the two new professions they have introduced.

Ok in the real world 4+4=8, ok that being said.

If Anet truly wanted to ensure brand loyalty and repeat customers they are failing. Companies that want repeat customers don't penalize previous customers. They give repeat customers extras,bonuses, incentives to come back and buy. The business model for Factions release that would have pretty much guaranteed that all Prophecies owners purchase Factions should have been to give them 9 character slots (1 for each primary profession and a PvP slot). Not only would this have pretty much cemented GWP owners to buy GWF it would give a major incentive for first timer GW Factions buyers to go back and buy Prophecies thereby increasing profit to Anet greatly, Instead they come out and gimp us yet again.

As we all know they have already setup the servers and personel to Run both GWP and GWF seperatly for those that don't wish to link. Therefore all the potential costs of maintaining a total of 8 characters has been calculated, but done for 2 seperate accounts. I know enough about programming to know very well that it would be cheaper to maintain 1 account instead of 2 so therefore linking will be less expensive to Anet. So why exactly can't we have 8 total character slots in 1 linked account? I'll tell you why, it's in hopes that people will buy more than 1 copy of Factions as many did with Prophecies. Wether you realize it or not yet, by purchasing multiple copies of each chapter you are very nearly paying the same price as a Monthly pay to play game.

Ok you may ask why does this subject interest me so much that I let it bother me. I'll tell you why. I have already bought 4 copies of Prophecies for my household(my account, my wifes account, and our 2 sons accounts) Have any of you given Anet $200? Now they want me to give them another $200 to upgrade(Face it, to GWP owners Factions is nothing but an expansion) our accounts and all they had to do was not gimp us on character slots and I would have pre ordered 4 copies.

I would pay 100 Euro or Dollar for that matter if I had the OPTION to get 8 slots on ONE linked account. But that option simply isn't there.

Very dissapointed in ANet, sure their logic is fine, but there's also something like keeping your customers happy. And I do NOT believe that they will make less of a profit by having a few more character slots. They don't take that much data.

Ok, I have a question for all those complaining about not getting 4 slots.

If Anet allowed you 8 slots, but made it so that four characters could travel Tyria only and four could travel Cantha only? Would you be happy with that?

^^

You get that if you don't link accounts. Two seperate worlds with 4 slots in each. The complaint is that if they're willing to offer that then why is it that when you link the accounts you lose 2 slots?

No acutally you get 2 advantages from this "linking" accounts:
1) combine storage,
2) unlocks

I ask this question because I think it is important to understand where they are coming from.

They say they have already paid for GW. I agree. They have already paid for four characters to have access to Tyria, all the skills, and items available there. They have NOT however paid for THOSE SAME four characters to have access to Cantha, and the skills and items available there.

When they buy Factions they will have a choice:
1) Combine - To give their CURRENT four characters access to Cantha, or
2) Stand-alone - To give four new characters access to Cantha.

Now if they say they are happy to have an 8 character account split in the manner I described, I will know that what they are after is simply convenience. If they say they want 8 characters with full access to Tyria and Cantha, I will say they are greedy.

Comprehensive reading again proves to be a challenge. I haven't expressed any anger anywhere, nor have I stated any demands anywhere, nor have I implied any kind of boycott anywhere. I have posted my expectations, my intentions and my disappointment. (And perhaps some snide remarks here and there addressed to people whose posts rubbed me the wrong way.) You've posted a reply based on perceptions of me ungrounded in reality. "Boycotting" or "rage quitting"? Not at all. My reasons for quitting are simple: if I can't get what I want I'll go shop somewhere else. There's nothing more to it and nothing less. Why the attittude? Are you so obsessed with the game that you can't possibly accept the notion that someone can walk away from it without some kind of nervous breakdown?

Frankly I'm a bit disappointed.

I was hoping to try out Ritualist and Assassin as well as Mesmer and Warrior since I have Monk, Ranger, Elementalist, and Necromancer on my current account.

From what I understand, in order to be able to play all 8 classes in GW: P and GW: F I'd need to buy one more GW:P and two GW:F?

If so, that's a lot of money.

Just to be clear. Whining, complaining or just requesting more options, we will all buy chapter 2, including those who stupidly threaten to leave the game if they don't get what they want. That's pretty obvious. And for the records, the additional 2 slots from Chapter 2 are not the core of the problem. The initial 4 slots of Chapter 1 are the origin of the general grumpiness.

It can be an elusive problem, because players who don't need character slots can't understand how important they are in terms of flexibility and playstyle diversity.

That alone would be a good reason. Not all players have fully unlocked all professions so unlocks are probably the most important issue. Casual players who didn't take the time to grind XP or faction point are stuck.

If they delete their PvE characters to make new ones, they have to start over with crappy ascalon skills, no XP, no access to endgame elites... If they use their last slot for a new primary (to try out something else, to round up a guild group with an unpopular profession, to try out the latest build of the month), they can't use PvP characters anymore. If they buy a brand new account, everything they'll unlock on this account will be lost for their main, and they won't be able to use precious skills they've spent a lot of time unlocking on their main account. Conclusion, their only solution is to grind mindnumbingly (skill points and gold, or faction points) on their main account, or to buy an ebay account, but certainly not to create any new character.

Personally, I can unlock skills somewhat fast with my 55 unlock machine, or with the latest PvP build of the month. But it would be a lot more exciting to try out new PvE playstyles with new primaries.

As for fame and ranks, it's obviously a critical matter for average PvPers whose friend/guild list is a bit empty. They are stuck on their main account where they can flash their rank emote to be invited in a R3/6 group, and they are stuck with one or two PvP slots (which means frequent rerolls). With more slots, they would at least have more PvP templates ready, and even a couple of PvE slots when they feel like bashing monsters.

Why 3? Why not 2 or 4 or 6? That is just an arbitrary opinion. Why would it be impossible for casual gamers to try out multiple professions and to keep their experimental characters? Experimenting with new professions doesn't mean they'll play each and every character throughout the entire game.

By limiting the number slots you can use, you do do not create diversity, you create an army of clones. Less slots mean less options because you have to make sacrifices. Less options mean that most players decide to play only popular templates instead of trying out new builds like in PvP. Just have a look at ebay accounts for sale, and you'll see a large majority of Warriors, Monks, Elementalists (the old trinity), and Necromancers (modern farming builds). Have a look at popular PuG and farming builds, the correlation is obvious. Give players more slots, and at least they might be tempted to create low level mesmers and have fun with this profession.

It's exactly the same problem that created runners. When you have beaten the game a few times, you don't want to waste your time being forced to play in shackles, you want to have options. You want to play your favourite part of the game but differently, and like you want. If I have unlocked every elite of my secondary mesmer, why can't I have the liberty to make a new primary mesmer and to play the missions I want with the skills I have earned once already? Am I supposed to believe that playing in Surmia with junk skills is a challenge? Am I supposed to believe that saving one slot for PvP and rerolling each time I want to change my equipment or profession is fun and justified? Why am I forced to delete PvE characters I used to enjoy to make room for PvP? Am I supposed to believe that sacrificing a character I have played for hundreds of hours is fun?

That argument is totally irrelevant. 99% of the stuff you find is merchant fodder anyway. Storage does not force people to make decisions. The storage of casual players is full of junk so it has no impact on trade. The storage of farmers/traders is full of stackable items such as black dyes ectos and jewels. If they need more room, they can use a brand new account as mule, so ANet might as well offer more buyable slots. Lastly, the storage of the average experienced player is full of event items (pumpkin helmets, candy canes...), duplicate armors/weapons for rune/upgrade options. Limiting their storages results in trashing most items including unpopular greens. I wouldn't call that lubricating trade. On the contrary, reducing storage room means that only the best endgame equipment is worth trading. Farmers and hardcore players get the best end of the bargain, and casual players are left behind because their best weapon cannot match the worst tradable equipment. Everything goes to the merchant and newcomers are forced to sell mountains of junk to NPCs if they want to buy anything.

Duplicate friend list, duplicate guild or two member slots taken (100 member cap), ask all your friends to add your second account on their friend list, double grind if you want to use your unlocks PvP on both accounts, no rank on second account, complex item transfers. How thrilling. But worse of all, what would be the difference between two separate accounts, and additional slots? Not being forced to unlock/farm everything again? Simply put, the lack of buyable slots is either a poor marketting trick to force people into more grinding, or a hypocritical moral speech (no hidden cost, yadda yadda), or just a designer's unwillingness to admit this limit is unfounded. Don't take me wrong, I love the game, and I'm convinced most of what ANet did is great. But that doesn't mean I'll swallow the unsound "8x50% fun < 6x100%".

Of course, but the option that should be considered is not an exploitable account linking. It's an account merging (buy two accounts, merge them, you get one account, final, no going back) by adding all characters from a secondary account to your main (then your secondary account would be deleted). If account merging is still potentially exploitable, I just want the ability to get more account slots on the same account.

Why? To have more options on an account I like.

Because there is. Twice the number of new slots as new professions.

Thank God, someone who understands.

If we get four now, Anet will have little to no choice but to give four in the future for every single chapter. If it’s not fair now, when it’s not The Norm, then it will be doubly unfair when/if it is The Norm. People are funny that way; there’s no earthly reason we’d need, come Chapter 3, twelve slots for ten professions, or sixteen for twelve, or twenty for fourteen, but if they gave us those four slots now, that’s exactly what we would have to end up with. And account sharing would be rampant, Anet would lose shitloads of money because people end up with twice as many slots as primary professions and the whole thing dies. Slippery slope or dire prediction of narrowly-averted disaster? You decide.

As for people desiring to pay money for additional slots…HELL NO!! Lets call it fifteen bucks for a two-slot key. Simple enough, right? WRONG. Given the nature of some people’s GW mentality, we’d end up with guys who’ve spent, two, three hundred dollars on two-slot keys, who have forty or fifty slots, have hoarded gold/items into the billions. They can afford to say “I’ll give you ten million gold” for absolutely everything they could possibly want, they can buy Fissure armor for them and everyone in their Guild, GW’s economy tanks out, and most of us are reduced to what we find on the ground and what we can get from collectors. Pack rats may be paying customers as well, but they shouldn’t be the ones who dictate what I can and can’t afford in this game even to the extent they already do, let alone into the Realms of Nucking Futs. No WAY. Only way the extra slot thing would work – at all – is if the keys didn’t stack.

And if they didn’t, the people in this thread Red Engine Go-ing about slots would continue to Red Engine Go about slots and nothing would be solved because people just want unlimited slots and that’s that.

Me? Six slots is fine. Who needs forty or fifty slots, ninety percent of which are just item/gold mules. Hell, who needs eight slots, half of which would be glorified item/gold mules. As has been stated, anyone with enough time to fully play all eight primary professions the way one’s supposed to play them and PvP as well, thus requiring the extra slot, and grind all that mess all the way to UAX deserves to pay for the disproportionate amount of bandwidth they’re eating. If you’re playing more Guild Wars than three average players combined, feel lucky you can do it for the cost of two average Guild Wars players combined.

*EDIT* Missed a page (somehow), so I have to do more talking. Only on one subject though. And that is this:

This is the exact same reasoning as the people wanting to buy slot keys. If you can merge two accounts, why not ten or two hundred? Again, the pack rats will have virtually unlimited storage and Guild Wars’ economy will shrivel up and die. No way in hell would I endorse that. Hell, they do it and I’ll start seeking out the collector’s maps, because nobody that doesn’t have eight hundred slots and the gold and items to fill them will be able to afford jack. Those items going for 150K or so total now? Give players that kind of storage and they’ll go for 1.5M As in one-point-five mega-gold. Or one-point-five million gold pieces. And who the hell wants to pay that for anything?

Well sorry to see you be that way, but thats less server space your taking up.
See ya...

I would have played (and payed full price) with the guarantee of just one extra skill slot. So I'm twice as excited. I've already picked out which characters I'm gonna play.

The hope was that A.Net would fix one of the most signifigant problems with Guild Wars.

There is a difference between wanting moremoremoremoremore and wanting enough. People can be rational, no need to invent a slipery slope that dosn't nessacarly exist. Heck, most people don't even care if they have to *pay* for the slots. They just think two accounts is a bad idea.


So, did you read the post preceding yours at all? FrogDevourer said it very clearly. Myself, I've played twelve chars through asscension, never having been run to DF, and about half of those beat the game. That is is with one account.

Well didn't this thread fall to the depths of gold hoarders and slot whining.

Six slots, i'm content. I could use a material stash or something though.

Omg, lmfao.

Laserlights over-the-top rant just destroys itself.


We don't want 50 slots. Besides, what will prevent your hypothetical economy destroyer from just buying more accounts and doing the same thing?

FrogDevourer's post was excellent.