Official - 10 Day Grace Period - from gw's site

It was because they bought the CE key from an online retailer.



Also I'm just curious after reading all this and caling my local EB Games. The guy said it would be a couple of days 'til I got my CE in. I can live with that. But then I see people ehre saying it will not be in 'til the Summer.

Are they sending an early wave to those who pre ordered the CE and holding out on the rest? I'm so confused

Here is the situation from the look of it:

They sell more pre-order's of CE then they actually made.
They shipped what they had out to vender's.

Gamestop/Ebgames appears to be sitting on what they have and made a deal with Anet to get the correct amount to = there current pre-orders number before they send any of them which is expected on 5/4/06. (aka anet's produced more ASAP for this vender)

They are making more and if the vender is out out (and not in the ebgames/gamestop situation) they will hit they June 30 batch.

My feelings exactly, Im not angry, just disappointed

I dont want the standard Ed. I want the collectors edition and I want to play it today. So maybe thats too much to ask for, but I just feel that while Anet makes great decisions and makes tremendous effort to please its players that they could have extended this "free" factions thing (for pre-order people) until this Fri.

YES they would lose some money, but thats how most businesses do things, sometimes they have to admit a mistake and pay for it out of their bottom line, they arent going to go broke by losing a few sales, plus most of the people who preordered the CE are such die hards that they have multiple accounts, and intend to buy multiple factions expansions, I just think the situation was not analyzed correctly, anyone that plays this game will buy Factions just for the new skills alone. I just dont think its that big of a deal to extend the headstart till this Fri.

So what your saying is, I will get my copy of CE byt he end of th month. But the poor souls who didn't pre order it a month or two early have to wait until the summer?

Hehe - I'm glad you didn't take offense. Was just teasing.

That's a guess on my part, but from what they said publicly and stuff in the forums and ebgame/gamestop eta for release on my orderinformation seems to be true.

The end of the month is from there web site.

My ebgames is showing 5/4 and I ordered in the middle of last month but know no one that has the eb/gamestop ce out there.

To all the disgruntled gamers:

I understand all your frustration and anger, but please let's stop flaming A.Net and threatening them of not planning on buying CE ever again. IMO, if they bring out the 3rd CE efficiently and with amazing material that goes above and beyond the regular edition... YOU GUYS WILL BUY IT UP DESPITE YOUR ANGER. They have apologized over and over again, but realize this is the first addition (xpack or whatever u wanna call it) to Guild Wars they have released. They sound like they have definitely learned from their fumbles and mistakes. For those angry that they paid more for something that isn't worth their money, its a valid opinion, and honestly just cancel the pre-order and that will reflect your anger to A.Net. Otherwise, these verbal tamtrums are really getting old and childish.

To A.NET:

I hope you understand your market/fanbase. Many don't really care about the real-life problems of production and logistics, nor do they know about development delays. So if you want to do better the next time learn as much as you can from these people as they are providing your company with greatly deserved revenue.

Some things I have noticed that gaming companies do when they release games:

1) NEVER release a regular edition BEFORE a collectors edition. IF you have to delay the release of the regular edition until collectors becomes available.

2) Following the first point, NEVER extend head start event. Head start events are good for those pre-order the game - in essence you are rewarding those who are willing to shell out money before they even get the product. Once you close off the head start event (you can even market it like a beta) - make sure its CLOSED, no if ands or buts. And as long as your strategy sticks to the first point, nobody can complain because nobody gets ahead in the game

3) ONLY provide special head start keys to those ordering off your website. It provides incentive to those who want to pre-order the game to do so directly from you. MEANWHILE do not allow cancellation of pre-orders after the head-start event.
This should prevent those childish teenage scammers who really dont have enough money to buy the game (or those who will blast through your game before it even comes out and then not buy it). Since you cannot convince external retailers to abide by your rules, this is the best way to secure your revenue.
Meanwhile you have access to the most amazing marketing information: a estimate of demand for the CE edition (hopefully allowing you guys to strategically decide on a good number to produce). ALSO its ok to produce less than demand - hence that would make a REAL LIMITED collector's edition (eg. WoW Collector's Edition). Blizzard sold out their collector's edition before the presale was even over creating a black market (but then thats good for you since there's more marketing hype right?)
ALSO by providing incentives to people to order directly from you and accepting no responsibility for those who order from outside retailers, you now have a method to contact them if things go wrong. You can provide bulletin updates and if necessary the all coveted retail CD KEY that everybody who bought a CE wants.

Hope that helps A.Net! Don't take this as a lecture, just somebody who graduated from strategic business management cares a lot about the product you produce Keep up the good work in terms of content

AC

Mordakai is right (and not just because she's in my guild/alliance :-).. ArenaNet is the developer and in their agreement with the publisher (NCSoft), they apparently are dealing with public relations. Complaining about ANet handling distribution (unless someone knows otherwise) would be like bitching at Bungie for postponing the pc and mac versions of Halo, or not giving out the Halo 2 expansion packs for free in the beginning. The publisher usually has the power, not the developer.

ArenaNet has probably done all they can in this manner. In fact, they probably had to push to get NCSoft to extend the original deadlines in the first place. I am not even sure if it's an NCSoft problem, though I doubt we'd get any confirmation regardless (ANet won't bite the hand that feeds it). Bugs are ANet's fault, not distribution. I really believe they've done all they can in this regard. I'd suggest bitching at NCSoft on their own site (either Lord British's US branch or Shord Dong's Korean headuarters).

EDIT: Again, thanks for the extra time over the weekend, it was much appreciated, even though some people don't seem to show it...

My beef with Anet/NC Soft that hasn't been resolved yet is this - I contacted NC Soft thru gw's support website to inquire about the CE delay (on 4/27/06), and was told that unfortunately, if a retail key isn't added by the end of headstart (at that time, it had not been extended) I would lose the characters I created and any content earned... the only way to avoid this was to rush to the local gamestop and I managed to snag their last copy of the standard release. Over the next few days, I find out that everything I was told was wrong, and that I COULD have just waited for my CE edition, but now I'm stuck with a product I don't want. I can't exchange it. Any plans, Gaile, or any othe Anet rep, to remedy those of us that would have gladly waited, without complaint, a few extra days, had we not been lied to by account support?

Here's hoping ArenaNet will be extra-nice and allow those who purchase both the SE + CE to have additional slots worth the money spent on the SE (ie: 4 extra character slots).

Or, hell, maybe two.

Something.

PLZ TO BE THROWING TEH BONE.

Simple - you e-mail them in the original CD access key to prove you had it, and they can cancel it


]

Not quite, I already had an SE Factions and was going to use the key on my 2nd GW account with the CE on my primary account, but seeing as I've now had to add the SE key to my primary account and it'll be lost if the CE key is then added so wasting £30, I've cancelled my CE pre-order this afternoon and shan't bother adding Factions to my 2nd account which I'll use all 4 character slots for storage only. Not too botherd about lack of dances/emotes as I never use them - just wanted the CE for the art book and the fact those I know with the original CE seem to get consistently better drops than those without.

Really? One of my friends has the original CE, and the only good drops he's ever got were the ones I gave him. heh... He does have glowing hands, tho... and that is important for finding the toilet in the middle of the night...

I figured this was the best thread to post my reactions, so here it goes.

At the launch of Chapter 1, I regretted not reserving a Collector's Edition, but only because I hadn't realized how incredibly gorgeous the concept art collection was. The custom emote didn't interest me at all. Certainly, none of the in-game perks made the CE appealing.

Out of that regret, and upon seeing the Factions CE had a new concept art collection, I pre-ordered almost immediately, as soon as Gamestop had the CE listed for pre-order. Again, I didn't care at all about the back-up dancers, or any of the cosmetic in-game perks. I was digging the art work, the map, the poster, etc. I'm more an art enthusiast than hyperactive, obsessive gamer.

My reasons for purchasing the CE for Factions were exclusively due to those extra, physically tangible materials. Had I just wanted Factions by itself, I would have grabbed a Standard edition and had no problem with it.

Some would tell me that I could have just grabbed either the CE key from the NCSoft website, or gone with the Standard edition and then acquired the art materials later, but I saw what was happening on eBay with the first art collection, and I wasn't about to drop 100 bucks on the first one. And I suspected that the second art collection would follow a similar trend.

So I pre-ordered the CE from Gamestop.com. I received the Bonus CD in the mail a week or two before Factions launch, and entered the pre-order key. I was set to go, if only for the launch weekend. But wait, what happens? The show I'm doing at Rutgers opened. Suddenly a few hours in-game per day dropped down to maybe 15 minutes per day, if I was lucky.

And then today on my reading days before Finals, when I've finally got some free time again, after the show closes, I log-in and what do I find? I've been locked-out of my level 15 Assassin, which, mind you, was incredibly difficult to level, considering I had so little time over this past weekend.

I'm not going to get angry, snooty, bitchy, and so on, because that's completely unproductive and inefficient, and I loathe inefficiency, but I would like to say it's a major disappointment. I respected the art and graphic design team at ANet so much that I spent an extra 30 dollars just for their artwork. I didn't have to do that. I wanted to do that.

Then I find out the pre-order key basically meant nothing at all. No matter what anyone can do, no matter what proof of reserve from Gamestop customer records that anyone can show...anyone without a retail key will not play Factions. I can understand the logic behind such an assessment, but I think it's entirely flawed, because it's based on a completely arbitrary adherence to a definition.

There's no question in my mind that the automated account systems we use right now can pinpoint who has what types of pre-orders/reserves by cross-referencing them with the major retailers. Even something as simple as "Please select your vendor, your name, and your order #" then running a search for that information would be monumental in helping the players that have found themselves on the short-end of the stick, as it were.

If there are 10$ pre-order keys from Amazon.com, why would they ever be confused with the 80$ pre-order keys from Gamestop.com? Isn't each key unique in the first place?

Maybe I'm just thinking too much in the future, maybe it's just the science-fiction nerd in me talking, but honestly...instead of extending the Head Start period by what amounts to 48 hours, when clearly the earliest ship date for Factions CE is later this week...the intelligent thing to do is offer players options that do not include "Just buy the Standard." That is entirely sloppy business management.

And I think one of those options certainly should have been some sort of cross-referencing.

I'm waiting for my Factions CE so I can ogle over the pretty pictures, and with Finals and more weekend busy time coming up, I won't have time to play much anyway, but still. I'm not pleased at all.

Ok so I can play my main account if I put in a Factions standard game key (which I have ) but if I want the special emotes I would then have to pay for the limited editon and use the key Thus paying twice for the same account (BTW color me stupid I did the with the fist installment and ask anet if I could seperate them to which they said so sorry GERRRR )


Look The way I see it the answer is simple offer an upgrade kit for the price difference between the two that way I can play till it comes out.


WELL GAIL WHAT SAY YOU ????

I laugh so hard when people threaten to "leave gw forever!!!!" its just so bloody funny. You think with a world wide following and player numbers in the millions they will even notice. ahahhahahahahaa...

I'd love to work for ANet (as a programmer) and dont think there could be a better job to have. You people have no idea how much time and effort goes into this game and mostly to make us all happy and have a better game play experience. For every one out there that says "Oh this could have simply been prevented by doing <insert idea here>..." you obviously have no idea how the real world works. Things go wrong all the time, and many of them uncontrollable. How many games out there have people who browse the fan sites looking for ideas from the game community and then actually implement the ones that the majority of the community ask for? You could probably count them on one hand, maybe 2 hands but my bet is on 1.

I have been locked out of my canthan characters as well, but from what I hear from my friends you can get to lvl 20 in about 2 or 3 days (if you play casually) so you'll be able to catch up in no time at all. Plus you can always take your old chars and try to get the Great Cartographer title or try to capture 90 elites...You are not completely shut down, its not like they banned your account.

I pay $80 for CE and don't have access to the game now basically and everyone that payed $50 for a regular version is jolly, ty ANet.

I think in the future there should be a little more clarity when posting news articles instead of doing retroactive damage control by picking on the semantics of how posted news didn't actually say anything with certainty.

Remember, if it doesn't say "we promise," then it means nothing and is always open to amendment.

If I get the retail package within this 10-day grace period, w/o the pre-order, I can still make the 2 extra characters, right?

I have an interesting dilemma. I bought my CE in America but I use euro servers; how will I be able to use the key? If I remember correctly, didn't didn't work last time I tried so I had to put in the pre-order key instead.

While I appreciate there is enough blame to go around, all this could have been resolved by OFFERING CE KEYS ONLINE!!! Then I could happily continue playing a game I PAID FOR, and get the box goodies whenever.

Is there something so wrong with that option, Gaille??

PS. I also hardly believe that anyone at A.net doesn't have CE keys if they want them.......

QUESTION QUESTION I HAVE A QUESTION!!! --------------so is CE getting shipped on May 5th? or going to be on shelves May 5th? and is it possible that if they ship it on May 5th will the stores get it on May 5th? thanks.

Some shipments went out on April 28th.
Gamestop/EBGames should get shipment May 5th
If first two don't get to you soon, then next shipment to retailer is June 30th

Europe has different dates that are posted on there web site.

does anyone know if gamestop holds preordered games? i hope they save a copy for me... and not just sell the game to a customer who didnt wait for it.... man....

My characters have been locked TODAY. It has not even been 7 days yet. Thought this was suppose to be a 10 day grace period. Can Anet do anything right this past week?

The 27th was on Thursday. It is now Tuesday and my characters are locked.

Anet needs to get a grip. This is an online game that gives a free download of its game client from its website. Sell the damn game yourself and Email the codes. From what I've seen they cannot even give the online order keys yet.

I will be pre ordering the next chapter just to get the items. If the game has any DELAYS I will not buy the game on release or any other chapter of GW. I have never seen a game release so messed up. You give us a 10 day grace period but only allow us 5 days of playing. While my CE will not be delivered until JUNE 30th.

Sell the keys online and save yourself the manufacturing cost. No need to make Manuels, disc, packaging, shipping, and ect.....

You have the internet as your selling tool. Since this is an online game you are not losing any potential market.

my 2cents.
Both my husband and I pre-ordered factions; he ordered the regular and I ordered CE. I got a pre-order key, he didnt.
I got to play on thursday thru monday, he got his copy on monday and can play from now on, but never got a preorder key so he didnt get the preorder items even though he did preorder. I am on vacation this week (no I didnt ask for this week off, just happened that way), next week I go back to double-time. I am unhappy that I wont be seeing my game this week when I have the time to play it, and might not be seeing it anytime in the future since I ordered ONLINE and there is shipping involved after the time (if any) that they, ther retailer, receive my copy. So am I upset, you betcha. Will I buy another chapter of this game, doubtful.

Looks like Factions CE is reserved and in limited quantity for those that reserved it. Then there are those that bought the Pre-order disc without realizing that it's not mutually exclusive to the collector's edition (aka, me and a few others that may have been mislead). For those of you who have a pre-order from an actual store that takes pre-orders, you guys are pretty much set to get a copy of Factions CE. For those of you in my boat, looks like we're going to have to tough it out and try to get one in store when it ships there.

Well, I decided to buy the RE (Regular Edition) and will be returning my CE whenever it finally gets here. I simply can't wait going a week without Factions because it's that good. Add in the fact that I've done all the quests in Prophecies (Titans, SF, etc.), have been to the FoW/UW/Tombs numerous times, have 15K armor for my 3 characters (soon to be 4 once I get my Rt's armor), and 225K in my storage, and you can see that there's not much left for me to do there. I think what ultimately convinced me was the fact that I had some free time today and had absolutely nothing to do on GW. We didn't have the favor so I couldn't go to the FoW/UW and no one was really doing any SF or Tombs runs. And I came to the conclusion that pretty much everyone is on Factions right now.

I'm sure some of you think I should go for the titles to hold me over but I'm sorry most of them are a waste of time and energy. To cover 100% of the map or cap 90 elite skills (when there are only 1-4 per profession that I actually care about) is pointless to me. I think I might care more if the skills title were account based instead of character based bc I think it's a pita to have to switch professions and go hunting for those particular elites. At least with the 'Protector of Tyria' title (which I have) I was getting something (that being XP and skill points). It's only now that capping elites gives you a bonus, but if I had set my heart on capping elites I wouldn't have waited until now and so we end up back at my original point. No, for me, there's nothing left to do in Prophecies other than the occassional FoW run. Factions is the new GW and I love it. And that's why I decided to cancel my CE and by the RE today. In the grand scheme of things, it's all good because now I get to play Factions and I can d/l the soundtrack (the main thing I wanted from the CE) from DirectSong. To those of you who are waiting, I wish you luck and I'll see you in Cantha.

Im with you Cosyfiep. I bought 4 pre order Faction and 1 Factions CE. 5 Totall games. ( $250 total) I bought the CE for one reason, I dont think it worth the extra money, I just thought it would better support Anet.
Today 5-2-06 my key for factions expired. It has not been 10 days. Right on guys thanks for the support. Yeah im pissed. Hope Anet reads this and learns something from it.

The problem that arises may be out of one's control, certainly, but the solutions one presents in response to such a problem are entirely within one's control. This is one such example.

I don't mean to open up wounds here, but I just want to make something perfectly clear. The reasoning given for not allowing 10 extra days to actually play the Canthan characters was primarily a financial reasoning, apparently. In 10 days, many more players could beat the game, and then never return. For a game that actually charges a monthly fee, that's catastrophic, because pay-to-play online games depend on that steady flow of incoming cash. The 15$ a month is critically important.

For a game like GW, however, you do not have 15$ a month coming in from players. Philosophically, it works out to cost the same, but realistically, GW makes its money up-front with each new chapter. As much as it's a cynical thing to say, one of the popular taglines is entirely true: "You can pay and then you don't have to play." We've seen players in Prophecies do that. Slowly but surely, they fizzle out of the game.

But that's after extended months of playing, and after the player pays that 50$ up-front, they don't matter anymore, basically, because the money has already been made, which is why pointing to financial concerns about players burning through the content, no matter if it's 3 or 10 days, is shortsighted. The money has already been made. There's already a profit, usually.

The players who drop 1 dollar or 10 dollars to gain access to the Head Start-type weekend events are usually never the returning customers in the first place. They're usually not returning customers, who will be buying the next chapter, and the next chapter, and so on. That's why they only do that quick hit and move on. They're not going to be the ones making money for the company.

The persistent players make the money for the company. And the persistent players are the ones who pre-order with the intent of staying around for a while. And those are the players who are getting the rug ripped out from under them here.

So some of them may burn through the PvE portion of the game in under a weekend. So what? They'll still be back for more, because they very likely are PvPers. lol.

So...does it really make sense to attribute the slamming this access break-point to a financial reasoning that may very well not exist if different actions are taken?

All that this is access break-point is doing, from what I can see, is alienating a lot of players. Yes, most of them are giving the Devs the benefit of the doubt (and I am, too), but the damaging implication has already been made: that instead of taking a possible hit to the finances now, and providing the persistent, long-term players with viable options instead of waiting around for what may amount to weeks in some areas just to play the game they pre-ordered...the servers will just get locked and thus ultimately risk losing future income.

That's basically what happened.

Those powergamer burn-outs won't be back, if the cut-off point was 3 days or 10 days. That's the entire point of being a powergamer burn-out.

The persistent players, however...are the lifeblood of GW, and enabling a longer playtime period would go a long way in mitigating those persistent players' frustrations, and in the longer-term, would help keep this game alive, because in addition to fixing the problem for future releases, they would also be able to guarantee that persistent players will have reason to stay.

If that didn't make sense, let me know. I'm really exhausted.

That did make since Siren and absolutely correct. Monthly fee games this kind of issue would have no affect. You pay or play the players understand that concept.

For this type of game that you pay for and cannot play that is where the problem lies for the long term players. My solution of selling future editions online only is perfectly within their control. You pay for the game they email the key and then ship you the game IF you choose to have a physical copy.

They say that age 13 and below are prohibited from playing the game (its on their box) but that is really the market they are trying to get to with retail. Not offering the players an ONLINE solution to an ONLINE game is just silly to me.

edited out of anger

i do not recall seeing anything other than the notice that we would have till the 8th, and planned the purchase around that.. i do not recall seeing anything in reference to a "variable" period

i was just about to go into 12v12 with some of my guildies....
it was a good guesture to put in the grace period, but ofc, there are a small minority who decide to abuse it and ruin it for the rest of us. if anyone is/knows one of these people, make them feel ashamed for ruining things for the rest of us who are still waiting for our orders to come through

of course there are those that would abuse ... but the point is simple, dont put 10 days and have people plan for it, then take it away cause you find some people that dont sleep and ruin it for the rest.

im glad some of you got to play, thanks for screwing the rest of us

im extremely upset at this

what they should have done is only allow pre-orders to get so far on the map... not screw those of us that have lives and budgets over for those that played 24/7 since last Wed

Yeah, I am thinking that she was referring tot he server load and bandwidth as far as costing them money. I hope it wasn't in terms of possible future sales. If that was the case, "ring...ring... the mpaa/riaa called and want you to stop using their patented reasoning system...". I doubt people who abused the pre-order system would've or will buy the game anyways, but it probably still takes up alot of bandwidth. I don't know how much of the load is on the client or server, but I imagine its enough to cost money. That might also mean that they may provided more pre-order kits/keys than they expected people to buy the game.

Oh well, Friday can't come soon enough (or tomorrow if I can't get Best Buy to tell me they'll have them - since their pre-orders are first come, first serve)... Anyhow, I think an online ordering system would be nice (not just the key, but the box as well) so that you could get the key while waiting for the box. Of course that's NCSoft's decision and not ANet's so we should peter Austin and whoever runs the Korean home offices.

I feel for you all. But basically if you want action find someone with a screenshot of the info, get a petition going and file a class action suite.
I bought it not pre ordered. So i am unaffected. But I saw this to and will be witness to anyone having issues that it was indeed in writing that it was 10 days. Its not everones fault they can't get an item they baught because of shipping or it wasn't avalible for instore pickup. That is just wrong and the worst PR move anet has ever done. they compete with a superior MMO
( WOW ) and are free and then decide to piss off its patrons?
Sorry anet you have alot of appealing aspects but your morals do need a check. truely worse then corperate american cutthroat mentality here and i'm not even effected by this. I guess the pay to play goes to customer support.
here there is none.

I'm affected (wish I had the CE right now, but I could get the regular), but I have to point out that NCSoft is the parent (probably represented by NCSoft America) and probably makes most of the decisions not related to detailed design. I think ANet did all they could. I feel confident that Gaile and the others at ANet went up to bat for us. NCSoft is a Korean-owned company, and having lived over there believe me when I tell you the culture is quite different. They just got sued, but it was for an entire different region. I think anyone going after ANet is just a bad idea. Besides, I doubt even near enough people were affected, and even then many of those probably don't see it to that extreme. lol, if I had an evil streak in me I'd say bombard NCSoft with e-mails or take it to Lord British (Garriot) if he's still heading up NCSoft America with his brother. He's always been known as a man of the people..

It's only a couple of days though until the shipment is out, so it's not so bad. If you want to play now, buy the regular one. I keep thinking about it, but it'd probably sting seeing the extras in-game from someone else afterwards (I just really want the physical stuff - art book and stuff). For mne, I'm increasing my Tyrian Exploration Track on my Tyrian (since my Canthan won't be maxing it, it doesn't matter lol). 95.5% and closing fast lol..

Enjoy :-) It's better to fume here I guess for those that need to.. Hopefully the other people won't antogonize you for it as they usually do..

Well I think this whole mess up is being handled in a very ineffective and in an insensitive manner by Arenanet to those of us who preordered the game, and the more expensive CE. A mistake I won't be making again. First of all they totally messed the preorder key in the first place, my bf and I didn't even get them, I had to hunt around till I finally got some help. So we ended missing the preview event. But we did end up getting them FINALLY.

In any event, we play this game to do something together, which we can no longer do b/c he ordered CE. So basically we both get punished now because we decided to splurge for CE. Plus I get to be called a potential abuser, without being given a chance to prove we preorder the game, which I can fax in my receipt. Plus as was pointed out before, this game doesn't even charge a monthly fee!!!! Does this not seem completely retarded? Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that they are losing money from people who want to play NOW so their ditching their preorder of CE for the SE.

I'm so glad Arenanet has so much faith in their product that they think people can blow right through it and never want to buy it, even though their relying on it's replay value for the sale of further expansions.

I feel sorry I ever recommended this game to my friends, I'm sorry they ever got into it, and I will be telling them about all this in my reasons why I will never do this again. If I hadn't already paid for my SE I don't think would have consider picking up my BF's CE.

I think the worst part of all is that as been pointed out, if I didn't buy any more expansion as my way of not supporting Arenanet anymore, no one would care since everyone is just going to put up with it. This won't change anything, but I really think Arenanet has sent me a message that they don't care about me as a customer, that I was a total loser for preordering.

I'm sorry I don't feel like understanding your business woes, maybe it's because your more worried about people you aren't even loyal to this game scamming you then offending the people who are.

This business decision that ArenaNet has decided to go with makes absolutely no sense. Gaile, do you not have any belief in the replayability of Factions? Is GW not a PvP game for the most part? It seems like you don't understand your own game and it's position.

Siren is absolutely correct that while you may "lose" the money of the psycho burn out players, they are by far in the minority. I think it is evidence enough that the players that are purchasing CE far outweight that minority, simply due to all the problems you are incurring with the release of CE. So instead of actually being a responsible company that displays that it wants to work with their players to resolve issues, it instead opts to protect it's own pocketbook from those that are abusive.

This is of course entirely the fault of poor planning on the part of ArenaNet, and I'm not even referring to the CE being delayed, I can live with that simply because I want the art book and I understand that global releases can cause issues of this nature. Selling off "pre-release keys" to those that are NOT purchasing the game itself is simply stupid, while you may make a quick buck, if you run into issues (such as you are) then anything you do to appease your fanbase will impact and benefit those that are undeserving.

No offense to those that think that players quitting will not hurt thier profit margin, I purchased CE, my GF and buddy both got RE. That's 160$, add to that the original purchase of GW (200$+) and we have provided A.Net with almost 400$. Chump change on a small scale but based on the massive number of people that are re-evaluating whether to purchase Factions and other expansions due to this fiasco and poor relations and that can add up. I know if we 3 quit and A.Net releases 3 more expansions, that's 500 bucks that A.Net would be guaranteed to lose. This isn't to mention the fact that I will not defend the game, company nor encourage people to purchase the game, in fact I will be doing the opposite whenever I get the chance. While that might seem petty, all companies ever seem to understand is their bottom line, as such I will impact it as much as possible, and word of mouth can hurt alot (or help alot). All this simply because they wanted to protect themselves from people that had no intention of purchasing the game in the first place. That is simply awesome logic A.Net, simply awesome.

I will never preorder an expansion nor a game from A.Net again and will not buy a Collector's Edition again simply because of how badly this has been handled. I won't state that I won't purchase the game although at this stage I am tempted of completely deleting GW and tossing the CD's in a dark closet. I was never of the belief that they would be extending the game due to the wording (I was told so by someone else, how foolish of me to believe a company might actually take responsiblity for their actions) so those that were deceived simply read into what was posted as it really was quite clear.

Kudos A.Net, you guys need to fire whoever made this blunder (to shut down those with prerelease keys) since it is an exceptionally poor business decision. You were using the most elegant system for dealing with the CE postponements with integrity and respect for those that are fans of GW.

All that being said, we bitch because we care but you guys have really disappointmented me and I am definately looking at re-evaluating if I want CE anymore simply because I don't believe your company deserves the 20$ that I would be putting into it.

I say this because both of them sell the pre-order kit separately (offering a discount on the final product, at least in Best Buy's case). I got mine from Best Buy for 10 dollars, and they don't require a payment for the full game. I would suggest not doing business with them in the future. Do business with companies that require you pay the full price for a pre-order, thereby knoiwing that those people have paid up-front for their game (and will not feel bad about providing access to them until it is available).

Best Buy and Amazon both provide indirect support to abusers (and are partially to blame)..

How's that :-)

i dont condone going after but in light of the truth i will witness.
and this is a piss poor PR move. These are patrons who came back for more only to be slapped in the face.
Remember i am on the outside looking in. I pride myself on neutral and fully evaluated opinions.
What was done to these people was just wrong. Horribly wrong.
It should be reversed or refunded right away.

On a lighter not I dont know if the person in charge of skills should be examined for bi-polar or be shot.lol
in some cases great job 2 minutes later in a different class and your going WTF. some truely stupid skills.