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.

I'm pretty sure that even if they would add only new continent, monsters, bunch of items & quests, most of us would be enjoying and playing.

But since they are trying to make innovative gameplay mechanics to every chapter and they are stand-alones, the fun-factor for every chapter might be higher than for standard MMORPG expansion.

Why dont you go one step further and say that factions is exactly the same because there are characters that do "stuff".

I agree...

The play styles of ritualist and Assassins are completely different, never seen any of the assassin combos in other professions. Those spirits rit can make, you've seen them? I haven't.

I will buy factions, I will buy ch3 - 4- .... and I am sure alot of ppl will do to.

Offcourse alot of ppl won't be buying it because they find prophecies enough for them, but don't forget it's a standalone game so alot of new ppl will buy the game. (a couple of my friends will )

lol, this kind of thread always amuses me..lol, first of all, FPE is just a preview of the Factions, so it only consists of about 10%, 5% or even 1% of the game that is going to be released..

besides, again, i read from this posts and i think most are making their judgement even before the game was released..lol..well, only my part, i am definitely going to buy this game even though it is at full price..coz i believe that there is going to be equal amount or even more content than the original GW..the pve in GW:F is also taking a new course instead of the old hack and slash type of gameplay in original GW..for me, GW:F got more dynamic pve than the original and i still cross finger for chapter 3..keke..

but nevertheless, i still would like to see things like new races or other elements included in the future chapter..=D..

Wow, thats got to be one of the worst reasons to buy a game I've ever heard of...

To a lot of people, Factions is a brand new game. This isn't being marketted as an expansion pack, so there is a hefty number of gamers who plan on jumping into Guild Wars with this release who haven't been playing the game to death.

Besides, even if half of the current Guild Wars owners purchased Factions (more than half a million people), that would still add up to more players that purchased Prophecies on its highly successful launch (30,000 in the US). We also have to take into consideration that the scope of the userbase has broadened since the Prophecies launch to Chinese and Japanese players.

And we don't even know how many people (from the looks of several English-speaking message boards, it's gonna be quite the handful) who are new to GW are going to purchase it. In any case, the userbase regardless of how it's divvied up between new and old players is going to spell profits for ANet.

I failed to understand why would you care about spending the same amount for this game as you did for guildwars..

Unless of course you are too retarded to have saved up the money, since you knew from the beginning that there was going to be additional chapters released.

But you know..not many people use logic.

Where can I get this skill?

I would bet that anyone who is involved with GW enough to be posting in this forum will buy Factions

I bought GW ten months ago - and I still love it. Yeah sometimes I get bored and I create a new char, mess around, keep it or delete it.... But it never gets old. I don't farm but sometimes its just FUN to kill things and make a bit of gold - especially considering that with GW:F coming out, I can't wait to take my ascended chars (almost 4 of them) over to play around! Thats the best part - knowing I can take my chars I've put SO much work into... to a new world and they get to experience new things - as well as I do. New armor, new skills, new monsters... new people Its a great thing And anyone who isnt excited... don't get it because guess what?? There WILL be new people to GW, who will play Factions... and if you dont want to, no problem. Thats just less content you have access to and more for everyone else to explore. I just think of it as expanding the chars horizon and allowing for growth. What a wonderous thing!

Reports of the death of Guild Wars have been slightly exaggerated.



(apologies to Mark Twain)

That's a good reason. Guild Wars = Win. It would never completely justify something for me, but if the game looked decent, and was called Civilization, or Age of Empires, or Guild Wars... consider it bought.

I'm getting collectors. It doesn;'t have much incentive for me to buy it but I'm getting it anyway. Why?

Ive played more than my share of chapter one. They aren't forcing a gun to my head to buy chapter 2, but as a customer I feel obligated to keep the servers up and the only way that is happening is if people buy subsequent chapters.

Guild Wars takes the piss out of the players in the sense that the monsters are higher levels than us and have skills we cannot use and from the factions preview, I guess its gonna be the same old story. Do we HAVE to do pvp to access some special areas? Some poeple don't like the pressure of PvP and hate being told how they got ZOMG PWNDED. That would mean everyone (to get somewhere) would have to set themselves up with TS/Vent and find players they can co-operate with... and that's not so straight forward.

If that IS the case, then i'm not buying Factions. Besides, arenanet will, no doubt ruin it with useless and frustrating updates like they did before. My current state-of-mind is to not buy it. Convince me otherwise.

Okay I'll give it a try I'll fail but oh well lol

First off, GW wasnt meant to be played by yourself. It's boring and can be extremely difficult - with those HIGH level monsters. Finding groups cant be frustrating especially if you arent in a guild - and if you are, then a guild that doesnt work/play together.

But like A.Net said... this game is about SKILL. If you don't work at finding a build that works for you (and that works for the group)... then you ARE going to die, especially with no cooperation from anyone. I've heard plenty of players moan and groan about PUG's, or having to use henchies... I've had 50% luck with PUGS - they are good, they're horrible, they're okay, they're stupid... it depends on the time, day, place... what way the stars are aligned.. whatever you think causes people to act like they do sometimes. As for henchies, calling targets is the key. And sometimes, it just DOESNT work. The groups are too big or the aggro is messed up... or you're in Perdition Rock and you're fighting a group of 4 flesh golems.. and suddenly you're surrounded by 10 hydros and 4 more golems... because they patrol. Then you die.

Laugh. If you can't laugh at yourself and the game... you should find something better to do. This game is FUNNY... when you die, when you get poisoned.. when you get surrounded.. Its funny!!! if you don't take at LEAST a small humor with you when you play... it will aggravate and will become pointless to you. Yes, trying to do a mission or cap a skill... you want to do it right the first time... but most people don't do it right the first time. Or even the fifth.

As for the whole PvP issue with Factions... its not the end all, be all. The preview was just that... a PREVIEW. A.Net did it to give consumers a GLIMPSE -- to get feedback as well. They pay attention, which is a LOT more than most games do. And sometimes, they give you what you want.

Will it suck if you have to PvP to get somewhere? Yes. Will you adjust or give up? Thats your choice. Find a group you can stand (guild or PUG or just a good group of friends from different guilds) and HAVE FUN!!!! And you may not have to PVP to get access to areas -- it may have to do with Alliance battles (GVG).. or maybe there is another way we dont know about. But I'm sure SOMEONE will tell everyone whats up when it comes out!

People who say "ZOMG PWNED" are immature, plain and simple. They think they are the best and if you beat them, would be just as likely to call you names. You can't win so ignore them. And find someone else to play with/against.

I had pre-ordered it, canceled it though... $5 is less than $50.

It's really nothing all that new. Some new art work, a few alterations to some skills.

More PvP centric and I hate PvP gaming, it's just not for me. Yea, we've been told you don't have to PvP, but we've also been shown what content is there in place of PvP... Farming for points via Fed-Ex like quests... yea, that sounds like loads of content and fun to me... heh.
End game content is all blocked off to all but the most powerful alliances, this encourages further farming for either the points to gain the area to "win" the area, or farm for more cash to purchase entrance via leeching or for item purchaes. No balance what-so-ever. -Key word even there is "win". Winning and losing is competitive play the way it's set here, and there again, we see more PvP in whatever the form... Like I said... not for me. I'll not miss anything I wont enjoy, hopefully in Chapter 3 we will see the return of what I call fun. If not, well, it was fun while it lasted.

One last thing, if I saw Factions listed for $10, I'd buy it then. Some of the new armor looks pretty sweet, but that alone is not worth $50.

Edit: Lady Kesha brought up something too (a good something) about the FPE. We had a Factions PvP event and we were told we would have a PvE FPE. Those of us that were looking forward to the new content and seeing what we could do, found Jade Quarry, 12v12 and lots of Fed-ex style quests. Only 2 actual Missions which required massive point farming or PvP play.
What I went in hoping to see was new AI and each mobs acting like a different mob. I saw new models and skins on "dwarves" and "Grawl". Each foe still acted just as they do in Chapter 1... new skills here and there, but still the same game play. Nothing new.
The new Dynamic game play that was boasted about is nothing but random arenas or UT style PvP called "Challenge Missions" and "Competitive Missions".

Needless to say, I was very disapointed in Factions. And after putting in 1000+ hours in chapter 1, I would say I was a huge fan (addict really) of GW. Now, I have a hard time even loading it up.

Well, can't say I am surprised you're not buying Factions... and I understand why you're not, even though I don't agree.

I suspect you'll get a lot of flames, but I just wanted to let you know that even though we've had our disagreements, I've always admired your tenacity, honesty and arguments.

You know, i was a big Diablo 2 fan, hell i payed beta, i've still got my accounts active and everything, but when i got Guildwars, i got blown away, i total fell in love with a new game all over again. Then i here about factions, and i'm even blown away more, its going to be a nice addon. I have pre-ordered it and i can't wait till it comes out. I think that chap 2 will do good, but it seams that alot of people arn't going to play it, which i think is a bad idea becuase its something new and freash and it will also bring in new people. I suppose well just have to wait and see. But hereing that CE has basicly sold out means that alot of people are buying it.

Hell yeah I'm buying... and probably the CE. The price is a bargain, there's massive new and exciting content, I can create two more characters plus bring my Prophecies characters over to play... this is going to be good. Real good.

I have a personal thought that the biggest whiners about Factions are the farmers that see their market drying up as people migrate to Cantha for new things and the 55s won't be as adept at farming there. Plenty of critters there will be swallowing 55s like an aspirin. So, try to badmouth Factions and hold onto their imaginary fortunes in Prophecies. Not everyone who badmouths the game, mind you, but a lot. Some folks would bitch if ANet gave them everything they wanted but didn't send them a thank you card.

Regardless whether you call it an 'add on' or a whole new game that links to your existing one (if you have it), it's essentially a whole new world with a worlds worth of play awaiting us. Those who "sit aside"... you're missing the world.

Well I pre-ordered from Amazon before they hiked the price up. Paid $39.99 + $4.00 for shipping so I am not feeling too screwed over. I am hoping that the new missions will be able to keep me going for a time but only time will tell.