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

Hell, I feel like a noob, and I own Factions. Some people just have more time to play than others. I've learned back from the original Prophecy not to let other people's rushing ruin my enjoyment of the game. (easier said then done I know).

BTW, slight correction, it was a 5-day head start. But, yeah, your point is made: you are missing out on Factions right now.

The last few posts go with what I was trying to say earlier. I would most certainly blame NCSoft (if you were to blame anyone) and not ANet. I believe ANet is doing everything they can. I think ANet was the reason they extended the head start, probably CONTRARY to what NCSoft had originally wanted. NCSoft is a Korean company with eyes mainly on the Korean gaming community, but looking to spread out elsewhere. Quite possibly they ensured the Korean community was taken care of if there was a shortage, maybe even at the expense of other regions (except the new region of Japan as they are trying to build a reputation there).

As far as the store ideas, that should not be aimed at ArenaNet either. If you want to know why, go here: https://store.plaync.com/
That is where you were always able to buy keys for Guild Wars and NCSoft's other games. When I check they, however, were not selling Factions keys at all (possibly in order to not upset their distributors). NCSoft has the infrastructure set up to sell keys. They may not have everything setup to sell the boxes along with those keys though.

Again, distribution and policy should be blamed on NCSoft (the publisher) whereas you can complain to your heart's content about bugs and gameplay issues to ANet. The Koreans dropped the ball (or their distributors). Of course it could've been the Garriot's up in Austin (I don't know if NCSoft America is doing the distribution here or not). If it wasn't for ANet's persistence, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have had all weekend to play instead of just Thursday/Friday. Think in terms of record labels. NCSoft relates more to the MPAA/RIAA/Record Label whereas ArenaNet is more like the Artist that creates the (good or crappy) product which the publisher owns and controls.

I have no issue with Cyber's post at all.

Tail doesn't wag the dog, after all.

I demand compensation for preordering CE and not getting to play when the game first comes out. A title such as "Loyal Fan (1)" or "Inexpierenced Buyer (1)" will do. Or some special item that people will buy for 100k+100 ecto. Anything!

so... the collector edition is not in yet from reading all these posts? That mean after Friday (5/5/06) those without factions won't be able to access their account without purchasing the standard edition than later on when CE is out, buy it again?

Ouch.. talk about paying twice for the same item!

A Title! Awesome idea!

"I had to Wait for the CE, and all I got was this lousy Title!"

Sorry, but this and the rest of your post is like fortune telling. ANet the good, NCSoft the bad, bla, bla, bla. I don't know the exact relationship between anet and ncsoft and I could not care less. If you think there is difference in corporate thinking you need a reality check.

I don't blame, I demand a solution - let us play with preorder keys until retail comes. So far their answer is "no, and we'll delete chars when grace is over" - fine, I'll live with that and now I know more about your company.

For those not in the known, Best Buy has a confirmed "allocated for transfer."

Stay tuned for details.

My original email to NC SOFT is such (sent 4/28/06)....

>I preordered the Collectors Edition of GW
> Factions, and it's been delayed by NC Soft til
> May 4th, according to Gamestop. My question is:
> in the Headstart event release, I created two
> new characters, and got them up and running.
> Will I lose them after the headstart launch?
> I'll be rather upset if all my work is for
> nothing due to events I cant control. Also, any
> kind of extra bonus in game to help compensate
> for the delay?

[response to NC Soft saying I'd lose all I made after May 1st without retail key]
Well, that response was a few hours before Gaile came in with her magic wand to 'fix' everything... I left to the store to pick up GW Factions standard and entered the key when I got home. while playing I had a mission question, so I switched to gw guru & guildwiki (you guys are great for those of us who get lost in missions!) and saw Gaile's response using the Sundering PR Pen of Enchanting (11-22 cold dmg req 9 illusion Enchantments last 1 week longer)

also... I emailed NC Soft again, and they forwarded my letter to "senior management" so I'll see what happens.
They tried to close my complaint as "resolved" so I emailed them again to keep it open, and basically told them the same things I said in this forum. If I get any results (good or bad) I will let you know. I will be happy if they give me a way to send in an extra $20 and they upgrade my account to CE edition and mail me my artbook in 2 or 3 weeks.,, anything more will be welcomed to offset the frustration, but not necissary. I don't expect a free character slot, or a title "Tyria's most disgruntled gamer" ...

actually... an in-game Visa Card would be great... buy my 15K Kurzick armor upfront and pay in installments over the course of the game... hehehe

I think I finally figured out what they COULD have done....

We received word on the 26th that the CE would be delayed which means they knew it would be before that time, right?
Ok.
MANY games (and other things) are delayed for what ever reason, what they SHOULD have done was just push back the start of the whole thing so that there would be NO head start for people--and that until the release the server would NOT be online thus no one would be able to play before the actual NEW release date....They have a new idea for a release date 1 week later than the actual, they could have pushed it back that far and avoided the whole issue. Yeah some people woule be upset that the game was pushed back but not as many as are screaming now that they have been screwed over by pre-ordering. A week delay would have given them time to get the copies out so that most of their patrons would get their copies and have them ready for the head start....this is what a responsible company would have done. However; I believe that one of two things is a work here, either the company doesnt care or they are really n00bs....this is a mistake that a newly formed company would make---drop the ball and then have no ideas of how to pick it up....as was said before, yes, we all make mistakes; but its the responsible people who try to FIX them and come up with solutions of 'what if this happens' before the ball is even made.

and yes, I am still waiting for my CE copy, I have no delusions it will get to me tomorrow or even friday since I ordered on-line and as such will have to wait for the usps to deliver it to me.....which means many days of waiting since my post office is very inefficent (ncsoft would be proud of them).
AND I never even thought of expedited shipping when I pre-ordered........silly me.

As for a current solution to the situation they have gotten themselves into, no ideas yet; but seeing as I have LOTS of time on my hands this week I may come up with something yet

So, now I sit here watching my husband play and knowing he will be out of the pre-area before my copy ever gets to me (and its doubtful he will want to redo some of those quests with me)........And I continue to see how many of my tyrian characters can get over 90%mapping.....................(2 so far, and 1 is very close), or other titles since I also finished all the missions and SF and titan stuff in advance of factions......

Maybe I will go and read a book.

the simplest answer would have been to put a limit on how far pre-oders can go in the game... that way they can run it however long without anyone not having a retain key from beating it

either way, better communication would have solved alot of issues.

ive calmed down now, but i was furious as all get out lawst night over this, whether it be misread, misunderstanding, or what ... clearly m any of us were in the same position

Hmmm! With all this excitment, I wish I was a lawer. I am sure that there is a case for a class action suit, and I could make a ton of money!!! LOL

Even better than a Title:

http://www.guildwars.com/

grrrrrrr.... ok.... NOW they better let me upgrade my SE to CE because of their BS... A widdle dwagon to call myown is too much!

Anet said that anyone with a pre-order key could play untill May 8th. Well I just got on today and I can't play my faction characters or take my prophecies characters to cantha. I'm wondering why they put false information up?? I guess I have to wait for my CE to come in :/ Only good thing out of the whole delay thing is the mini dragon!! So Anet your lucky I like Dragons a lot. LoL

So all I want is for them not to put false information up.

thx, bye

[EDIT]
I decided to edit this post because it was WAAAY harsher than I meant it to be. I'm sorry, I was a little grumpy when I posted it due to a bad work day.
[/EDIT]

I think a story will best describe how I feel about the little dudes that us CE ppl will be getting.
I just came home from a really bad day at work, was basically working solid the full time with enough downtime to actually read about this change and post a ... comment ... about it. My gf is in bed (as always due to our different schedules) and so I go snuggle up to say hi and she says she has great news. She tells me about the little dragon for CE and I sort of shrugged it off with a "whatever", she responded with "Some people are never happy". Here is my response in a nutshell:

While I understand that A.Net are trying to compensate and make up for the fact that us CE ppl aren't going to be getting to play the game for a couple days and I very much do appreciate the gesture, perhaps some of us would just be happy to be able to play the game we paid for. Maybe we'd just be happy with the ability to log in with their girlfriend and play Factions and have some fun in Cantha along with everyone else who has bought Factions.

So yeah, while the dragon is nice and all, I still personally do not consider it a replacement for not being able to play the game while non-pre order people are doing that even as I post this. I really do appreciate the gesture and I will definately admit that A.Net is trying to make things right.

I will still not be preordering again, and I most likely will never even look at a CE order again simply because of the hassle this has been.

The funny thing is, I can no longer access my Factions account. So now I have to wait for a copy ofCE or I'll end up paying twice for it. That sucks.

No, they didn't say you could play until May 8th.

They said that your characters wouldnt be reset or deleted until May 8th.

Then when the Collector's problems became extended, they just decided not to delete/reset any characters.

Ok I have a problem, I have four pve Prophecies chars Ive been playing for a while. I got the pre order key when I ordered my CE. Anyway I was only playing pvp chars and I eventually deleted em (the pvp ones).

However now when I log in to my character selection screen, it shows 6 slots, the first and last ones are free and my 4 chars are in the middle of them. Now I'm afraid when the 10 days are up are the last two slots gonna be wiped or will the 2 blank slots be removed >.<

Yes I am quoting my self..and...woohoo my wish came true! Not that I will be selling my minipet dragon, but at least I know it will be worth more than 100k+100 ecto.

yup as Zaxan says, they only extended the actual play period until 2nd may instead of finishing it on 28th april.