Just bought game, help please?

Ok I just bought the game from EB off the shelf. I did not pre-order. I am correct in reading the FAQ that I cannot play this game until midnight 4/28/05, because I didnt pre-order?

As well, I thought this would be like any other mmorpg where you buy an account and pay a monthly fee. At registration it said I could purchase extras? Can someone explain this to me? Thanks in advance!

Correct - you have to wait until west coast midnight.

There is no monthly fee. There are expansions to be released that further move along the story and potentially add more features. The base-game will remain free.

Retail keys will be activated at 12:01 PST (-8GMT if think)on the 28th which will be just after midnight tonight!

Retail keys will be activated at 12:01 PST (-8GMT I think)on the 28th which will be just after midnight tonight!

Bad start for a game...
I mean, I buy this game in the store because I really want to play it...and I get home, all excited. And what happens? "I'm sorry you can't play till tomorrow"...

great, thanks for info. See ya in game tomorrow!

LOL Did you ask for a pre-order disk? Chances are where ever you bought it from might actually had had one or two sitting around. Also if you really want to play a game, why not pre-order it? Usually you score some free swag and know that you will have a copy waiting for you the day the game comes out. You want the game, you know you are going to buy it, why not just pre-order it at your favorite gaming store and live with the peace of mind that it will be at the store - barring a natural dissaster *cough* NFL Street V2 *cough.

The store that you bought the game from wasn't supposed to have them out on the shelves yet. This is not the games, the developers or the publisher’s fault. I would take issue with the store for having a policy that goes against a gamer’s best interest in regards to the official release date.

Seriously, this has got to be one of the worst marketing decisions in gaming history ever. I can see a lot of hyped up buyers getting really pissed off today. It doesn't help that retailers apparently don't even know the retail key won't get you in until tommorrow.

LOL Did you ask for a pre-order disk? Chances are where ever you bought it from might actually had had one or two sitting around. Also if you really want to play a game, why not pre-order it? Usually you score some free swag and know that you will have a copy waiting for you the day the game comes out. You want the game, you know you are going to buy it, why not just pre-order it at your favorite gaming store and live with the peace of mind that it will be at the store - barring a natural dissaster *cough* NFL Street V2 *cough.

I've seen it in several stores. Actually, I've seen them in all stores that sell computer games in town (three of them). I'd be amazed they'd all sell the game too soon

Because last two times I pre-ordered a game, the retail versions were cheaper...

This is not a marketing decision. In fact, the game wasn't even supposed to be sold untill tomorrow.

big deal...so you bought the game today and have to wait 'till midnight to play.

take the game back and demand your money back if you're so peeved about it.

If you wanna get mad at someone call the store manager...the release date for non-preorders was supposed to be the 28th.

Every time a game comes out this happens...stores get the dates screwed up.

they see: "ships on the 26th" on the website which theoretically means they can hand out the games on the 26th, because some people might have same day shipping

then they see: "distribute pre-orders on the 27th"

then they see: "official release date as the 28th"

multiply that by a new game being released every other day of the week, and you can easily see how it gets messed up every time.

so you have to wait to play for 12 hours after you purchased the game...big deal...take a pill...calm down.

I have a question: where are all these stores that are selling it early? America?

Its just I know here in UK stores that sell early will get huge fines. The company I work for sure as hell wont be selling guild wars until tomorrow; they're too big to risk it. Sometimes the odd copy will slip out early (doing a big delivery you dont always think to check release dates on a game you don't recognise) so I'm just curious.

It's not a marketing decision to give pre-orders an extra day early playing the game? Riiiiiggggghhhhhhtttt....
I realize that the game was not suppose to be "released" by stores until tommorrow, but publishers are really naive if they think retailers are going to follow those release dates. The stores that release the games first get the sales. That's the way it will always be.

You should pre-order where you find the cheapest price (normally). You are not "locked in" a price or required to buy the game from the given location but at least you can score the swag like the GW pre-order disk...

If you are that intelligent, why the hell do you complain?

some people that preordered in the USA from certain compusa stores picked up their games 2 days ago, but i think most stores get the dates right, and just a tiny few end up getting the games early...normally it doesn't matter anyway because you can't play until the servers open up.

it's because of cry-baby-whiners that buy the game and get mad when they can't log in that we can't buy these games, and have the box safely at home, a month before the game goes live.

just got my copy today at EB GAMES in NYC -south street seaport

When i asked - the one dude behind the counter told the other guy "NO WAIT- those are PRE-ORDERS" - the other guy said - we had 5 cancelled out - so they sold me a copy.

No biggie - Waiting until the 28th - remember - there has been VERY VERY few MMO games where the actual Launch Live Date - has gone smoothly. Us vetereans know the deal. There will be LOTS of congestion the first few days and possible glitches. So always expect the unexpected. And NEVER NEVER NEVER take off from work on release day of a MMO game. LOL!! yes i speak from experience. Only to find that Server is Down - or Unable to Log in. Blah BLah...


-=_-MyStic

EB games has benn a big contributer to the start problems many are facing with GW. THe game isnt supposed to be sold till the 28th. If it were ok to sell it earlier, the employees are not telling people correctly or at all that the game doesnt start until the 28th.
Sales aside, this is hurting more than it helps anyone.

Actually I have to wait till 3 AM to play, since not everyone lives in california.
I have work tommorow night, and the morning after, so i won't have any time to play until friday night. Today is my birthday. I took the day off to have fun. I walked into Compusa and there were stacks of em for sale. I bought this game and I want to play it....NOW!

if you asksomeone nicely or if you go out and try to find a store that offers the pre-order box; those are the only ways right now that will give you the opportunity to play today.

The only people who can play today are the Beta testers or the people who pre-ordered it. I have and extra beta key if you need one.

It's the store's fault. They shouldn't have had the game out this early. Don't blame AreaNet.

Cool thing about GW is that the live streaming stuff makes patches a thing of the past. You'll be streaming updates as you play!

I agree. I'm getting VERY tired of all this. If you're going to get a game, at least READ something about it first. If you don't, fine by me, but don't come whining to us when you get peeved over something that is stated QUITE clearly in SEVERAL places. This is not Areanet's fault. It's you and the retailer that are at blame.

Chance

I don't know why people are surprised by this, most MMPORPGs sell the retail version before the servers go live. With WoW, I think I had my retail box and the game installed like 3 days before the servers came up. For most games that depend on an online server, you are going to get the installation package before servers are up.

Add that to the fact that the game really wasn't supposed to be sold today anyway, and I can't see why you are making a big deal out of it.

I don't want to start a flame war. I just want to state that I disagree with you blaming the average consumer or retailer. When I worked at GameCrazy, I would most likely have sold the non-preorders today if I had them on hand. Why not? I also would not know about this issue. Nor would I expect my customers to know, and in the end, I would blame only bad luck.

I researched the game, thought it looked good, read there are no monthly fees, noticed that other people were already playing based on their forum posts all over the internet, and looked at several game sights (IGN, gamespot, etc). They listed the release date as the 26th or, at the latest, 27th. None listed it as the 28th. I browsed through the guildwars website FAQ, and there was nothing that said "If you buy a standard retail copy of the game, it won't work until the 28th".

You can't blame the average consumer because he goes to the store, a game is available, and he expects to play it under reasonable circumstances. It is not an unreasonable expectation that if I purchase a game today that I will not be allowed to play until tomorrow. Nor can you blame the retailer for being johnny-on-the-spot with their product. Most of these guys aren't aware that the game won't work until tomorrow, and they see no harm in selling something that is avaiable to pre-orderers already to non-pre-orderers. The guy that sold me mine was in his late 50s and didn't know crap about this - or any other - game.

In the end, I don't think anybody is to "blame". I do, however, think it's silly that if I manage to have a legitimate CD key, it won't work for another 9+ hours. I also think it's stupid of people to whine that it doesn't work until tomorrow since the game isn't officially out until that day. They should just be happy they have a copy of the flippin' game and have the option to play in 9 hours.

At any rate.... I'm only typing this because I'm absolutely bored.

As Vorquin says, it's wrong to put the blame on anyone's shoulders. I am waiting for my copy to arrive and although I have been informed it could take a few more days, c'est la vie.
Bitching about it ain't gonna change it, I sympathise with you Vorquin but unfortunately you just have to chalk it up to experience, don't let it affect your view of the game, in fact try to find out who is giving you a hard time then track them down in game and beat them 'round the head with a sh*tty stick !

Please let me know if you still have the extra beta key id love to get it from ya..i wanna play right now