What you didn't know about ArenaNet

There is one in every crowd. I find particularily funny ones dealing with politics. Some so absurd you want to kick the author

Ah, here is one I found quite awhile ago I thought was quite amusing
http://www.geocities.com/stephen1sie...ontroversy.htm

This is a troll created by Lawnmower. Good try but your expose interview wasn't controversial enough to create a truly effective uproar. Maybe your goal was just to create a troll or maybe you wanted to complain about the level cap, I dunno. But a recent interview explained the lvl cap perfectly. Guild Wars is a lot like a collectable card game. It's strategy is not based on the lvl of your character or improving just a few skills repeatedly, it's about building your "deck" (your skillbar), and gaining more "cards" (skills of course) to increase the ammount of builds you can run. Even if this truly wasn't a troll created by Lawnmower, it's still a troll.

"She really is not the nice of a person she pretends to be."
No woman is.

double true

I respect your opinion mate, and I don't know if it matters, or if you have looked through my posts, but I love Guild Wars.
The level cap is one of the greatest things about it. Im one of does gamers who can't stand grinding. The last MMO I enjoyed was SWG and I was strictly an entertainer old chap. I love GW.
Still though I can't help but feel a bit offended/sad/provoked that you just dismiss me.
I made this topic because I wanted to bring it to peoples attention and hear what people have to say. I feel they have done that. I posted my source, and that's that. I think it's wrong to judge people you don't know.
And degrading to call people trolls.

I suspect myself it's a troll. Okae brought up a good point about the maker of the article contridicting himself.
Also note that the guy in the article writes like he is clueless about some stuff. It would just be kick ass if Gailie could come in here and dismiss it.

I love reading the Enquirer and other mags you find on the impulse isle at the checkout. Their so chop full of good, honest journalism. I especially like the one that was explaining how a woman in Arkansas just gave birth to a two headed devil/alien baby that only (and is already!) eating BBQ potato chips.

/sarcasm

Perma-banned? Probably. Pink slipped after one too many of his ideas didn’t fly? Another option, but highly doubtful.

If you notice as you read this clap trap, he never gives any actual proof for his accusations. Its all baseless innuendo and bald accusations.

Example:
Alright. Let’s take a look at those details:
So, his proof is in a poll set out by a mod in another forum and the fact that basic EULA is open ended?

Now, if he was a REAL whistleblower with access to Anet we might have seen these “plans” to change their EULA. In house documents stating an intention that they will be instituting a monthly fee at such and such time. He’s already covered his butt by remaining annonomous; why not go ahead and give us some actual proof instead of vague accusations about things we already knew (ie, that the EULA can be changed. If you actually read a EULA, all of them—no matter what the company—reserves the right to make changes to it in the future.).

Will there ever be a subscription fee for Guild Wars? Taken from GWs Official website. Now this, obviously, cannot include internet cafes charging for time spent on using their computers, in a sense, renting game time from a third party. "You do not pay for additional content" is a solid fact statement, refutted as outright lying to their customers or proven by the fact that Anet has never asked for your credit card after your first download. You pay 1 time, you do not pay for updates and any attempt to charge for content--by Anet to you--after first purchase of thsi game or its sequels is false advertisment by Anet and suable under international law. In other words, if they say it in english, your lawyer can speak korean and still sue their brains out.

Hidden fees include anything beyond the original purchase price to allow you to remain competitive or gain full enjoyment of Guild Wars. I hate to make it sound like a double edged sword, but that also means:

They cannot LEGALLY charge you extra to increase your storage capacity on a single account after the fact

They cannot LEGALLY charge you for extra character slots beyond those that they give to all players

They cannot LEGALLY charge you for anything beyond the time you enter the store, buy the game, and leave (or go online, buy your key and start downloading.

Ever.

But i'm not done; when someone insults my intellegence, I tend to take a perverse satisfation in tearing him a new one. Let’s take another look: his stance that Anet subverted MMOs by claiming to be a free version of one.
Hands up all the PvE players in the house: how many of you bought this game because of its Roleplayability and the story based content. How many of you have signed the Roleplay district pole in Sanctum and how many of you are in RP guilds?

Now I'll be the first to say that the PvE content is lacking in many respects. But its worth 50 bucks to me. If they were to charge for this game, I wouldn't buy it...and neither would any other hardcore MMORPGer. The content is too weak, even with the insertion of a story mode. In order to make Guild Wars "ecconomically feasible" for me to waste mroe than the original purchase price for it, they would have to increase its content to a calliber of EverQuest.

In other words, free world exploration (go anywhere), hundreds of spaces in storage per character (I was a crafter and I made BOXES!), item content reaching almost to infinity, character creation screens capable of making EXACTLY the face, body, race, sex that I wanted to and a User Interface that was so customizable only a post-grad in computer sciences could use it to its full potential.

In other words, they would have to make an entirely new game, something they likely will (in the future) instead of trying to re-engineer GW into a Pay to play title.

Did the “Free to Play” advertisement draw Roleplayers from other MMOs?
OF COURSE IT DID!
Was the “Free to play” advertisement pushed with the intention to draw competitors customers away from them and to Anet?
OF COURSE IT WAS! WHAT COMPANY DOESN’T TRY TO STEAL ITS COMPETITIONS CUSTOMER BASE???

What about the "meaningless" level 20 grind? lets debink that one too:
Another show of hands: who wants to Faction farm in RA for all their skills? We're not talking one or two, hear and there but start to finish, the whole way through? How many of you have ever tried to get into an Elona Reach PUG at level 16?

From the stand point of an outsider (ie, someone who has never played the game, only WoW and EQ series style Fantasy MMOs and is used to grinding into the 60s to have a solid character) this is a "real' concern. "What was my Ranger like at level 20 in EQ Wasn't nearly that good; pretty stock and barrel. Maybe GW does suck..."

People who play this game know better. From in game politics to armor and HP, level is everywhere in a solid build. Level means attribute points, and atty points make the build.

Simple point to all of this: We bought a game from a company that wants to make the most money it can. Alienating its entire customer base and courting class action lawsuits in the process are not the way to do that. This guy may be that stupid but Anet isn't.

I'm sorry to offend ya man, I was throwing out a guess eh. Just like you're bringing this little article to ppls attention I was just throwing out the possibility myself. But ya, I don't think Gaile would waste her time with this thread, we've already debauched the article enough ourselves. Once again though, sorry to pin it on ya, I was just making a statement and seeing what response would come of it.

Total rubbish from start to finish, and just by typing that I'm giving it more attention than it's worth.

Oooh, that was funny. Yeah dont include an E.U.L.A. in your game because you love your community. Oh yeah also dont forget Guild wars is a CRPG not a MMORPG.


Sounds like someone took some facts and twisted them to me.

funniest bit of bull i have ever read in my entire life.

I can boil this down pretty fast.

1) It's a load.
2) If it weren't a load, then most A.Net guys are great actors.
3) If they *did* add a monthly, I'd sell my account. End of story.

Eh, it's an interesting read at any rate. I'll bet the guy that wrote it loves Guild Wars and just wanted to have some fun. ~_^

I was going to let this one go, but hey, you asked, so...

It's real easy to sit behind a monitor and type whatever rubbish you care to invent. "As a former member of the team involved in the development of Guild Wars, I have some information you may find surprising." You know what would be surprising? If this person were to provide a name and a hire date and some, you know, proof he/she was what he/she claims.

I'm Employee No. 5 at ArenaNet. I know everybody who's been an employee since God invented dirt. I don't recognize the style (or lack thereof) in this piece and I can't put a name to this alleged "former member of the team" because, quite simply, he or she isn't a "former member of the team."

Beyond the utter lies, the outright absurdities, and the pathetic postulations, well, I call BS. I suggest you ignore these baseless ramblings as the waste of pixels that they are.

Man, that was the dumbest article I've ever read.

I'm guessing it's an ex-alpha tester who became a WoW fanboi, and who is now annoyed that GW is doing well, even taking players from WoW.

Verdict: crap.

Gaile, i know you guys said that Guild Wars will NEVER have a monthly fee, but could i hear you promise that Guild Wars as it is now, or future Guild Wars expansions/stand alones will NEVER have a monthly fee?

IMHO, I think Taiwanese people (or asians in majority, but I speak only for Taiwan.. since I'm here to witness), they probably never realised Guild Wars was made to be FREE in the first place, pay ONCE and play FOREVER...

We Taiwanese (Asians) live in our own bubble. I think pay to play monthly is DRILLED into most online gamers and it's the ONLY way things will ever work with online games (this is probably the way most Americans, Europeans etc felt before Guild Wars came out, always need to pay for good online games).

Instead of removing this ideology away from Taiwanese gamers. Guild Wars came out in Taiwan with both options of "out right pay" and "pay monthly".. which did not alter much of the perception of Taiwanese players since "out right pay" boxes were gone several weeks into the release of Guild Wars (this is what I think anyway, as I didn't see them in shops anymore after the time I mentioned), once the "out right pay" boxes were sold, I read in another thread that GW Taiwan wasn't going to stock the boxes again.

So recently they introduced "out right pay" account keys for the SAME PRICE as the box version, except you get nothing but the key.. whereas the box version had all the good stuff, manual, CDs, Music CD, Map etc!

Gaile mentioned before about pay to play is the way Asian play online games (something along that line).. please Gaile that is true as how things went before GW, and Guild Wars was suppose to be here to CHANGE that, just like what they have done when GW was first released to the Americans/Europeans/Aussies/NZ. I don't know why Anet gave up on Asians.. is it because you can get more money from gamers monthly? Anyone with elementary school math can work out pay outright is WAY CHEAPER than pay monthly if you play the game for 3~4 months.

Guild Wars should stick to pay once and play forever. Instead of milking money from Asians who are used to paying monthly. Right now most Taiwanese will think GW is pay monthly to play as that is the only box available in shops, since "out right play" boxes are not in shops anymore so they wouldn't know the "out right play" keys are still being sold (This news is only available on Taiwanese GW web site if a "new" player is bothered to look so deep into the pricing of GW.. which will probably never help).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but currently that's what I have seen.

Well, it's on the internet! Therefore it must be true.

quoted for truth.

thanks gaile for the response! you really didnt have to respond but you did anyway and thats the difference I have seen from other companies in this industry. Arenanet IMO sets the standard for support and service in this industry and others should take notes.

Although I am no lawyer, I'm pretty certain that if Arenanet were to charge a monthy fee for use of a product that they have advertised adamantly will NOT have any monthly fees, it would violate both state and federal consumer protection laws. (regardless of EULA) The only possible scenario i can imagine is if they were to attempt to charge monthly fees for additional content and/or expansions. However, i find the prospect of this unlikely as long as they are able to continually provide quality expansions every 6-9 months to keep gamers interested then gamers will continue to buy them (at what i consider a very fair price).

thanks Arenanet for providing an excellent and inovative, industry-leading product

Nowhere in there did it include the phrases "Hitler", "Baby eating", or "Serial rapists". Pretty tame by my standards.

I also notice as of the time of this posting that Gaile Gray herself is reading this thread. Don't worry Gaile, we still love you.

-Jessyi

I used to enjoy the internet cafes when I lived in various parts of the asia/pacific region. Perhaps they are waiting for new shipments. Since games are really popular in certain areas over there, maybe there's a real shortage kind of like the 360 shortage (separate runs for materials in different languages). I dunno. I hope you get in a new shipment soon.

On another subject, it would be kind of a twist if ArenaNet/Guild Wars was farming asians :-)

Well looking at the game. I do feel it is more a pvp game than pvp. However if anet is market target rpg players and they make pvp game it will not last. I mean Rpg player would just stop buying the game.

I really hope this not true, But if it is then time will tell. I want to take a look at the next game coming. I will know if there is any rpg or not. I alos think There is alot of people who will know if the game is rpg based or not too as well.

I agree the game needs to belance for any pvp. However there are things needed in the game to make a good rpg. I know if they game doesnot have there alot of people who will walk away from this game.


I guess time will only tell the truth, I hope anet doesnot dispoint me. I am really looking forward to buying the new fractions game. if it is pvp base I am going to walk.

I have never, ever, ever heard a suggestion that we would start having a monthly fee. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Period.

As to Taiwan, I was told that recently, the full product was made available again in Taiwan. I don't know this personally, but I saw an email pass by that mentioned more product was on shelves there now. I think it was the "1280 box" and that's the full version, yes?

We want to give players choices. There isn't even a monthly fee option here in the US because the request for such a thing is very small, so players simply purchase the game. But in Asia, we wanted to allow people to buy or to pay as they played because both are popular there. It was mentioned that for many spots in Asia, the cyber cafe is popular, and that is why an hourly fee is a good choice to offer. But yes, it's a choice, and unless the full-purchase package was a limited release -- like the Collector's Edition -- then that package may become more widely available again. And yes, SAQ, I understand that purchasing the game is less expensive. What I came to understand is that cyber cafes are a business that needs to be supported, too, and therefore the player could choose to buy or pay-to-play. I never had the impression that there was a plan to limit one or the other but to continue to have options for both. I will ask and see if I can learn more about this.

Alrighty, now that we've established that:
1) That was a hilarious article.
2) Also totally untrue.
3) Gaile Gray is awesome.
I'm closing this. We really don't need more, "Oh wow that is such BS," true though it may be.