Sit-Outs and Why Anet might not break any records with Factions...

It seems that most of the dust from all of the Factions talk has settled now that the release is about a week away.

But I've been talking to quite a few current and seasoned players that say that they will sit out on Factions if it ships at Full Retail price. Most said that they will settle on a sale that will reduce the price, like about $10 like Best Buy normally does after about a week. Others say that they will sit out even longer.
Now, if a lot of people feel this way then it seems that Factions will not break any sales records. It might even show worse sales numbers than the original game did. There is no way to know for sure since Anet neglects to release those numbers at all. But other sales tracking groups will release numbers regardless.

Now that many know that Factions will ship at Full Price because they consider it a new game, is it a factor? Do you feel that Factions is more than an Upgrade than a new game? Are you willing to pay full price?

I'm going to buy it as soon as it is released simply because I'd rather have it earlier than wait for it the price to go down and save 10$. Maybe you'd call me impatient, but that's just me.

IT IS an addon. Whether you like it or not, no matter what they say about it functioning alone, it is. It use the same engine, same physics, I bet ALOT of the same textures (just look closely) some may change color but same none the less. The economy is going to be pretty much the same. All they really needed was a new story, the professions (with their items and skills etc) the new armors. yes this may all seem like a lot but in comparison to the engine and interface etc it is NOTHING. That being said... I still pre-ordered it : )

About 50% of my guild have decided not to buy Factions at all. It's a combination of many factors, but mainly the ridiculous 6 character slot restriction, the general blahness of the 12v12 matches, and the deeply disturbing possibility that Elite Missions will be unavailable to all but the top 1% of the player community. Price is a distant fourth or fifth in the calculation.

I have also had zero luck in recruiting any of my other friends to GW from other games. The preview event just left them alternately overwhelmed and bored.

So, I am pessimistic about GWF's chances. However, nothing would delight me more than to be proven wrong here.

I think a major factor is that people are getting sick of it. When you play the same game for a while the novelty begins to fade. I've experienced this with every game I have played, and expansions/updates/new chapters are just not the same as a brand new game.

Despite this I still preordered Factions but I doubt I'll put as much time into it as I did Prophecies.

Despite all that i posted recently in regard to Factions, I will still be getting it but Chapter 3 will be a different story.

I'll definitely pay full price if there is as much content as the original full game.

I paid $50 for my first copy at release...and I will again. Waiting will put you at a major disadvantage.

I payed 28.88 for my friend's copy 1 month after release while it was on sale at target. Which I may or maynot do again.

didnt a lot of people preorder it? like a lot a lot. a lot a lot a lot a lot of people.

Dangit, I wrote a post but I guess I didn't press the submit button. Well here's a basic summation of what I said.

The game is going to have a lot of new features, all of which intrigue me greatly. The playstyle of the assassin and ritualist open up a lot of new possibilities and dilemmas to overcome in PvP.

The 12v12 was a beautiful concept. The only problem with it was the people I was forced to play it with. I believe though, that the Random Arena style of match ups was purely to allow everyone to get a taste of the 12v12, and that matching up for 12v12 will be a little more organized and restricted to prevent noobs and sabotours from infiltrating your team. Don't know where the quote was, but Gaile said something about how the way 12v12 worked during the FPE wasn't how it was going to work once Factions is released. So yeah...I'm hoping so

Chapter 3 I can't say at all right now. It really all depends on the new themes and features. In that audio interview with Jeff Strain he was talking about people buying say, Chapters 1 and 3, or 2, 4 and 5 or whatever they want to, and still being able to have a full experience. Though of course it's ideal for everyone to buy every chapter, they sort of expect not everyone to like every new thing, so I'm not stressing to much whether or not every chapter will be something I like. Also ever since I was introduced to the purepwnage.com videos, something about those episodes rekindled my passion for RTS, so I've been looking at some new RTSs that will be coming out around 6 months from now, and may just go purely to those games after chapter 2.
Chapter 2 though I'm definitely getting. After all I did preorder it, I have no choice Truthfully though, I don't really regret preordering. The game will last for at least 6 months, and will be something I can come back to every so often for years to come even if I don't continue with all the series.

i pre ordered factions as soon as my girl friend payed for it......... ......... well i was going to pre order it any ways but my g/f decided to be really nice and get it for me so i was all happy. i absolutely love gw. i mean sure there are the immature ppl that you run into every now and then.......(quite frequently).... .... but i mean i just cant stop playing. like every now and then i do take off for about 2 or 3 weeks and i am like wow am i really enjoying gw anymore. and i think about giving it up entirely. but there is always this voice in the back of my head that tells me to go log onto gw. so i do. and there i am hooked right back into the game. it is like my mind wont let me give up gw. and any game that can do that deserves my respect and attention. so i will pre order and play ever gw chapter that ever comes out. Thanks Anet for making such an awesome game.

HL2 is a full game sold at a full price of 29.99 (actually 19.99 EB just reduced it's price). Counterstrike Source uses the exact same engines (both graphic and physics) is made by the same company and is also sold for 29.99. You can spend $50 and get them both in a single package. Counterstrike is considered both an ADDON and a standalone game and thus is priced accordingly. Just because you can link one game to another (there are 8 incarnations of wizardry, each of which allowed the transfer of characters from a previous game) doesn't mean a sequel / addon can't also be a standalone game with appropriate pricing.

I pre-ordered, most of the drop-outs will be probably mainly be people who didn't like the game anyway, FPS style players, maybe prior DII fans and some WoW fans...so on and so forth. If A.Net did its marketing homework, the new blood will fill the gaps with easy.

Fans of the game will buy Factions even if they have concerns, usually concerns are resolved quickly post-release.

It all depends on if you still are dedicated to the game. People dedicated to pvp will definitely get Factions simply to have as full of an advantage as their opponents do.

I preordered awhile ago and will preorder chapter 3/4/5/6 etc as soon as they come out, until the game is dead... or I am.

I don't mind the price- I got my copy on pre-order. What I do mind is certain things that don't look like they are going to improve anyhow with Factions (for example the PvP skill grind). I do begin to doubt that I will be buying Chapter 3. But I am sure ANet have done their marketing research and have decided that whatever course of action they are taking is most profitable. And I don't blame them for that, not at all- if no cash is flowing, no games will be released. As for Factions doing bad saleswise... I doubt it. I think they already got quite some sales just from pre-s.

Sorry but you and 9 friends does not constitue "a lot of people", definitely not so much that ANet is losing sleep over it.

I consider it a Full Game, because it'll have as much content as... a full game!

I will pay full price for a full game, so I will pay full price for Factions. Hell, I might even buy a second copy just to spite you.

And yet the CE is selling out everywhere to the point where Anet needs to do nothing to promote it.

I learned a long time ago not to take message boards as an indication of how a product is doing.

Jedi Outcast -> Jedi Academy

UT2003 -> UT2004

SW: Battlefront -> SW: Battlefront II

Virtually the same games, same engines, slightly more/different content. All shipped for the price of a new release game.

In the case of the above mentioned games I felt ripped off paying for basically....mod packs. Factions doesnt look to do the same to me, it looks to really giving me stuff I want.

It is not an addon, it is Chapter II. It can act as an addon and it cannot. Factions is as much an addon as Guild Wars Prophecies.

Imagine someone who starts with factions, then buys chapter 3, and 4. You mean to say they are only playing meagre addons and not the actual game Guild Wars.

I was a bit peeved at first because I learnt the price tag of Factions at EB. However I examined the cost of my GW experience with the cost of a WoW or PAY PER PLAY experience over the same timeline. I'd pay more (considerably more) for a pay per play game. Considering that, I dont mind, and anyways you dont have to grab factions.



As for sit outs, only one person I know is sitting out on Factions and he thinks it's crap anyway, mind you, ALL MMORPG's are crap in his opinion WoW is all he plays, so bias there.

I cant wait for factions myself. All the pvp, pve events and what ive seen so far has me wanting it now.

Come on, it's GUILD WARS! You can't put a price tag on something that legendary! I paid full price for Doom3, just because it's a DOOM game. And Quake 4, just because it's a QUAKE. Not because of the content, not because of the improved graphics, not because of the new storyline. Get it?

I agree with this one. If GW continue like this for couple chapters, I really doubt it can keep people.

Play style is everything. So far, the play style have virtually not changed at all. Assassin's combo system is only half new, as the combo system is new, but melee isn't. Ritualist, unforunately, is just a merger of ranger ritual and casters, nothing new there.

I suppose they can pull something really new out in the later chapter. A class that completely don't rely on anything we have now. If human get too boring, then it would be a good time to add in new race that is completely different in terms of play style.

Also, if the to-do-list only continue to increase instead of decrease. Well... you know.

All in all... Considering this is ONLY chapter 2, we have yet to see anything.

Personally thou, I just think ArenaNet made a big booboo to release chapter 2 so late. It kind of killed the some bit of freshness chapter 2 would have been able to give, if it were to be release earlier.