DIVINE AURA, what is the catch?!

I got the collectors edition and of coarse it comes with Divine Aura. Now I know it can only be seen by /emotes, but is there anything else to this DA?? I mean, if you are in favor of the Gods (Divine Aura), is there something else to benifit from this??

CROM

As far as i know, you don't get any other benefits.

it can only be seen by /emotes????? wth is that, is that true!? if it is thats weak, i wanted my guy glowing at all times!!!! i mean, they made it sound like an item that you could equipe and unequipe. this saddens me...

Only when using emotes...
I have never seen it manifest any other time.

Great, I spent 30 bucks for sparklies that I don't even like.

No wonder they didn't say what it did anywere.

I really think we should be able to get a refund for the collectors edition and exchange for the normal one. I don't care about the artbook. I see the art in the game itself.

On top of that not being able to pick ones pre-order item is also BS. Why should some people get better items just because they live in a different area? The box says NOTHING about ones item being determined by where one buys the game. It implies that the item you get will be a generic item useful for every class, or that it will be a random item.

Everybody else who is angry should start writing their protests right here.


Poppinjay

You paid $30 for virtual sparklies but don't care about a hardcover artbook, soundtrack, headphones with a microphone, and 3 months of free treamspeak hosting?

Ok, but I don't think you'll find many people willing to join your protest. Will you also be not playing Guild Wars until your demands are met?

-Virt

I'm getting a bit tired of all of this. If you don't like all the goodies that came with the CE, you shouldn't have bought it! Never buy a CE just for one thing. Plus, it was announced BEFORE the game was released that it would only affect emotes. Personally, I bought the CE, and I'm greatly enjoying it.

eh, ive been enjoying everything that came with the CE, didnt type in the code for the game untill this morning, but, i guess i missed the area where it said the divine aura would only be seen while using emotes, on EBgames website, it didnt mention that at all, now, im not saying i only got the CE JUST for the item, but the item was a big catch for me, i was kinda hoping my guy would be glowing everywhere he went, thats the whole point to CE items, to show other people that you bought the CE, kinda like a reward for being a big fan of the company or game, or whatever ya know?

but either way, IMO, i would rather be able to glow at all times if i wanted to or not, the idea of it being a item you can put on and take off at any given time sounded alot better IMO, but eh, nothing i can do about it, guess ill just become a emoteRED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO.

I dont suppose anyone can tell me HOW to actually use the Divine Aura?

Something funny I noticed last night - can you change the color of your sparklies? Cuz I saw someone with purple sparklies, swear to god.

CE is a great deal plain and simple, the sparklies arent the only additional components.

It should be understood that they will not give game balance effecting items.

Divine Aura is more of a novelty feature really. The Collector's Edition does have a good headset and a great soundtrack to boot. The art book is great too, worth it, even though the Divine Aura is limited to emotes to show it off.

I got the CE for the book, and CD. I thought the aura would be a nice bouns, but it was a letdown... Glowing hands when I emote dosnt seem like an aura... I thought it would be some cool graphic like when you cast a spell or something... but anyhow, I didnt buy the CE for the aura, and now people have seen it, I dont think the aura will motivate people to buy it... lol

Mabe they will make it better... *wishful thinking*

*sigh*
I am so tired of morons saying in the game things like "those CE people are stupid because they wasted 30$ on sparkles". Ever instance, every hour there will be an idiot saying that. It makes me momentarily wish you can't PK in Guild Wars.

Well, I like the DA, it is not what I expected but it is cool. Every class (Necro, ranger, etc.) has a different type of glow. That is cool, and for those idiots that type that whom bought the CE is and idiot(which BTW ihave yet to see 1), they dont realize that we can chat to each other too.

CROM

You also have to remeber they tried to maake this game good for casual gamer which just might include dial up people. And i can tell you this right now that haveing a bunch of people running around with arua everywhere doing dnaces etc, it would raise the lagg level and therefore they would lose customers. They need those customers too cause they dont have a monthly fee like other games do.

Even though i dont have the CE i think the sparkle is just fine. But i will say if you get a headset with mic it is worth $30 cause im sure i can go to Best Buy or whatever and go look for a headset with a mic and it will be more then $30 or at least close to it, not to mention the CD and Book. All that would cost more than $30.

So dont complain you get what you pay for. Maybe you payed for a warrenty then you can proly go get your money back. Good luck with your protest...

-Thumpy

/dance is the only emote I've seen this with...

what are the other emotes that trigger it??

A lot of them do it - jump, guitar, drums, etc..

i must add my complaint and protest

in my view, everyone who paid $50 extra for the Divine Aura got totally ripped-off

saying "you shouldn't have bought it then" is not acceptable. because the Divine Aura is stated on the box to be something entirely different than what it actually is . most people don't go scouring the 'net for dev posts on forums prior to buying a game. so saying "a dev posted on some forums about how much the Divine Aura would suck" does not let NCSoft off the hook

seriously...false advertising like this is illegal

anyone who bought the CE and wishes to get a refund due to false advertising, should be allowed to get one

or better yet...NCSoft can fix the Divine Aura so that it is on at all times, and actually makes you glow (like the monsters do)

about the "other things" in the CE:

- 3 months of free TeamSpeak - guess what, TeamSpeak is already free. just make your own server or use your buddy's server. utterly worthless CE bonus here.

- soundtrack - yes that's cool, but not cool enough to be worth $50

- headset - most serious online gamers already have a good mic and good headphones & speakers, so for many CE buyers, the headset is pointless

- artwork - same as the soundtrack comments.

i and my buddy bought the CE because we expected the Divine Aura to make us glow like bosses at all times. that is exactly what the wording on the box itself implies, and what the official dev blurb about the Divine Aura implies

what does NCSoft intend to do about all these disgruntled customers? just ignore them? i haven't seen any dev responses to these complaints yet.

If it doesn't announce it on the BOX then that is as good as not announcing it at all. Not every consumer can scan a manufacturers webpage for every single thing, and sometimes even if the information is there it is difficult to find unless you know exactly what you are looking for.

As far as the teamspeak goes, that is a subscription service right? If you sign up for it after the first three "free" months if you forget to cancel they will start charging you don't they? It's like "free" issues of magazine---we all know what a great deal those are.

And so it is known, I am not unappy with the game. I quite like the design and many of its unique characteristics. I merely pointed out one problem with their marketing ploy of offering special items which came off very much like a bait and switch. Would I have bought the game still? Definately! Would I have bought the collectors edition? Probably not.

A nice thing to include with the collectors edition would have been more complete rules---such as the information you can only find in these forums. I do not know why the manufacturers do not share this info except for printing costs. A CE would have justified the larger manual.

I don't mind the sparkles, but I am bummed about the cd being copy protected if that is really the case (I haven't tried ripping it yet) I don't trust my car cd player so I only put copies in it and I listen to mp3's all day at work.

Kudos for allowing the game to be played w/o a cd, but a huge WTF on protecting the soundtrack (again I still have hope it isn't true)

Maybe if I can break away from actually playing the game I'll try it...

Sorry to say it, but anyone who would pay 50$ thinking that they could run around glowing like a fairy deserved to be ripped off. Besides the glowing people would become annoying. Personally I would become irritated if I saw people running around glowing, and honestly I would probably be less likely to group with you because of it. To all of you who are complaining about "bait and switch" try to make that fly in a court of law. What would you say...

You:"I bought the Collectors Edition thinking that I would get an in-game item which would somehow set me apart from other people who did not buy the collectors edition"
Judge: "and what did you recieve?"
You: "A glowing effect triggered by certain emotes, which people who did not buy the collectors edition lack"

Anyway, I thought buying the Collectors Edition was for those die-hard fans....and what die-hard fan would complain about a stupid item anyway...

EDIT:
Oh, and the color of the sparkles depends on the profession.

Aha, that explains why my characters hands glow doing emotes

I bought the collectors edition because it was the same price as a normal game from the retailer I used (UK), well that and I wanted a copy of the soundtrack.

annoying "normal" players with a supercool glow is the whole point of having Divine Aura. at least, it would be if Divine Aura was as it was stated on the box.

glad that you admit that the Divine Aura feature sucks. you see, the problem is: the box does not make it clear that the Divine Aura sucks, so by the time people realize how much it sucks, it is already too late for them as their money is wasted

as for what would be said in a court of law: it's simple. the Divine Aura feature does not perform the function which it is advertised as performing. in other words, NCSoft is guilty of false advertising.

I must agree - I was REALLy dissappointed to find out that its strictly an /emote effect... I was really expecting and hoping for some relevance while playing - like special glowing effect while casting a spell or something that just made your character stand out a bit extra during gameplay & battles.

I really hope that they can expand the effect to more than just emotes...

RE the rest of the CE stuff - I enjoyed all the other aspects, so no complaints there. But since so much marketing hype was created about this Divine Aura.... wow... REALLY - what a dissappointment.

i got the CE because i was gonna buy a headset anyway, my old one isnt working right...and the same logitech headset separately + the normal game wouldve been a whole $5.25 cheaper for me...lol.

Not to be a troll, but I guess I missed the part on the CE box where it says "You will glow all the time if you spend an extra $30, setting you apart from the poor masses". I don't know how somewhere in this thread the price difference between the normal and CE became $50, but I would say those are the people who are really being scammed. Of course I could be wrong, I don't really take various regions and such into account. I payed $80 for my CE and was glad to do so. Personally I paid the extra for the artbook, which I see some people refer to as "worthless". How can you say something is a ripoff based on your own opinion that not everyone shares with you? I already had a headset as well, and yet I seem to like the Logitech one that came in the CE box better, a pleasent suprise. Personally I find the Speakeasy software the most useless inclusion, but that again is my personal opinion. I figure if I wanted to talk to people while playing I'd just use something like Skype. The soundtrack I think is worth a little bit of the cost, but I am also the kind of person who buys collectors editions for that kind of thing. Now onto the most hotly debated item on the Collectors Edition: The "Divine Aura". The exact quote on the DA from the back of the box is "Each character you create manifests the gods' favor with a glowing aura, visible to all." Where in here does it say it's always on, always visible? As far as I'm concerned, it does exactly what it says it does, if not in the manner most people seem to think it will work. It's visible to all, it's exclusive to people who bought the CE, it glows and it manifests itself on every character you create. Where is the false advertising everyone is complaining about? What you choose to infer from the quote on the box is your own problem, not misleading advertising.

heheehe teamspeak...heheehehee. Ever hear of ventrilo...way better..and its free!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aye, the CE is $110 more the the standard here.

http://www.gamesmarket.com.au/details.cfm?ProdID=7471&

The only place I've seen it available in the AU.

no offense, but your quoted statement here is nothing but a bunch of semantical propaganda. "lawyer-speak", if you will. although it does not hold up to legal scrutiny even so. you are playing with words as trying to say it's "OK" for NCSoft to commit false advertising so long as there is some abstract bizarre-o-world way to "justify" their lying wording.

well sorry, but that's morally wrong. the distinct impression that the box statement makes is that the aura is on at all times. trying to jump through semantical loopholes to justify defrauding honest customers for an extra $50 (the price of the game itself!) is simply unacceptable

PS: to deconstruct your semantics; what if one never uses dumb emote commands? then the aura never manifests itself, and is never visible to all. nowhere does the box say that the Aura only works if you use emotes, and only during those emotes. therefore even your elaborate semantics crumble under the boldfaced lie of the box statement.

First off, where the hell are you shopping that it's $50 bucks more? Find a new store cause list price is $30 more then the regular.

Second, the 3 months Free TeamSpeak hosting is to have your server run on a machine OTHER then your own, which does cost a monthly fee. It also gaurentee's you 24/7 service and helps avoid router connection problems.

Standard price for a soundtrack CD for a game or movie is between $12 and $16

The list price on the included headset is $25

Standard pricing on hardback art books for movies and games is $25- $35.

Even taking the lowest of the soundtrack and book prices you come to a combined cost of $62. And the list price of the CE is $80, which is only $30 more then the regular edition price of $50. So there's $32 worth of merchandise in that box you didn't pay for. It was more then worth the price.

Oh, and, the very idea that you would walk around looking like a boss was absurd.

I've been told that by a few people, but you know what? I can't get the damn thing to work. But TS works just fine.

What you seem to be forgetting is that this game is sold in countries other than America. I'm Australian and paid $90 Au from EB to buy the game. It's a sad fact that we get "ripped off" over here with game prices - you pay ~$50 for a new game and we pay ~$90-110 for new games, you pay ~$30 for expansions (or extra for CE) while we tent to pay ~$50 for the exat same thing.

I mean no disrepect or insult, but before trashing someone because they paid "$50" while you only paid "$30", you should remember this game is international and not everyone is as lucky as you as to have cheap prices.

So with the statement above - generally multiply all your listed costs by about 1.8 and you'll get a better idea of prices for us Aussies :P

Well, that's unfortunate... especially when you consider that $50 US is only $64.22 or so Au. So yeah, you guys do get ripped off. But still, taking that into account the list price of the headset is probably more over there and the same for the other stuff, even if those are only based on direct conversion of US $ to Au... so it's still worth the extra price IMO.

As for the DA itself, I really wouldn't want a pulsing glow around my whole body all the time it would get annoying and would suck. I do kind of wish it was something that could be turned on and off rather then emotes only, or at least added to a couple other things like sit or afk. But really it's fine the way it is, it shouldn't really affect gameplay much at all. Then again I bought the CE for the headset, art book and CD and not the DA so... *shrug*

As far as the Aura, it is not what I expected (sparkles != aura IMO) but I also don't see how people expected it to be "always on" - nowhere does it say anything about it being always on anywhere on the box or any of the advertising that I saw.

Personally I am quite happy with the CE, the artbook is incredible, the soundtrack is great background music for listening to whenever (though since I spend most of my time in the game anyway, I've got the music there...) and the headset does work much better than my old one, surprisingly.

Also, just a note on prices: 50.00 AUD = 38.7978 USD currently, so it's really only a little under $9 USD difference between the US and Australia prices. Considering what you would have to pay if you imported it yourself from the US, not even counting the cost of currency conversion, that is actually a BETTER deal on the CE than we get here in the US. The last time I shipped a game to a friend in Sydney, it cost over $25 USD for shipping, import fees, etc.

Characters who equip the item are surrounded by a unique aura. it is a bit misleading.

I didn't buy the CE. I hate classical music, already have a mic and would rather not sparkle. The only thing that pissed me off (and only slightly), is that when I was doing the beta, it became apparent that I absolutely, positively hated the Ranger class. I'd rather play a Collector and stand around collecting Grawl Necklaces than play a Ranger. So what special pre-order weapon do I get? Ithas Bow, req. 10 Marksmanship

Yeh, I did not recieve any "item", nor am I "surrounded" by any kind of "aura".

The box *should* say: "When you are emoting you'll get pixels falling off of you."

Very, very misleading.

Cripes, what is the point? I don't even dye my armor. If I wanted to do that, I'd play my daughter's Barbie Makeover game.

hmm - I paid £32 (on-line)for the CE, against £29.99 for the standard (in-shop, £18 on-line)...considering the fact that the Logitech headphone/mic is £25 I don't really care what the Divine Aura does...but I have noticed the "sparklies" tie in with the class colour (so Mesmer is purple, Warrior is gold, etc.)

Although on the CE box it does say "...manifests the gods' favour with a glowing aura, visible to all" - which isn't true...it isn't visible to all, but only when doing an emote...