Colin Johanson, ArenaNet Inc. Game Designer, appeared during the E3 PC Gaming Show and announced that pre-orders for the company’s upcoming expansion to it’s free-to-play massively multiplayer online (MMO) game Guild Wars 2 had just started. The expansion, dubbed Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, sports a cool $49.99 price tag for the Standard Edition, $74.99 for the Deluxe Edition, and $99.99 for the Ultimate Edition.

In an unexpected move ArenaNet included the core game, Guild Wars 2, with the expansion. As a result, new players will not need to purchase GW2 in order to play Heart of Thorns. This differs from the model used by many of the original pay-to-play MMO games such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest, which sold expansions separate from the core game.

The addition of the core game to the expansion avoids a problem commonly seen with WoW and EQ where the player population would split for a time between those who had the expansion content and those who did not. This was especially pronounced for new players who just bought the core game (usually for $60) who would be faced with another $40-60 purchase to get into the expansion content.

ArenaNet’s move avoids this by making certain new players are already in the expansion; but it leaves veteran players with the full price tag of the game to get the same expanded content.

There is still no official release date for the Heart of Thorns expansion.

Heart of Thorns expansion pricing leaves loyal veterans questioning developer

Although it’s apparent numerous already-playing fans rushed to pre-order the game, numerous others immediately raised warning and caution on ArenaNet’s forums and Reddit. Amid the concerns voiced includes a bad value for players who have already purchased the core game and that the Heart of Thorns FAQ changed shortly before the pre-release to remove the requirement of owning the core GW2 to buy the expansion.

In relation to the bad value, the argument leads that veteran players will essentially be paying double for the game with little additional benefit. Especially for anyone who pays the full price for the privilege of pre-purchasing the expansion—and the rise of preorders for video games is not without its own controversy.

ArenaNet has also been extremely tight-lipped as to what sort of content to expect in the expansion. So far only three of the eight classes have had their elite specializations announced, only one map from the expansion is known, and little other details have been revealed. This somewhat dampens consumer

As for the change of the FAQ, it’s apparent that ArenaNet likely came to the decision of how to avoid penalizing new players while the pre-purchase was being planned. Of course, to people who already own the game this looks a lot more like veterans are being penalized instead, rather than ArenaNet seeking to draw new players into the game.

Guild Wars 2 YouTuber WoodenPotatoes argues that it makes good business sense for ArenaNet to reach out to new players by incentivizing new players—as veteran players have already through in their lot.

“What it comes down to me is that we aren’t owe anything as veteran players right now,” WoodenPotatoes says, stressing that perhaps the discussion should center on the price tag of $50. “Ultimately, especially concerning community reaction [$50] could be a big mistake… I do think that it’s pretty reasonable to say that $50 is too high.”

As a buy-to-play game, Guild Wars 2 is free-to-play after purchase, and this is the first expansion in almost three years. WoodenPotatoes argues that many other MMOs such as World of Warcraft, and even Guild Wars, set expansions at $40.

Of course, he also concludes with the original concern by repeating the mantra, “It is not smart to pre-purchase in the first place.” Citing the fact that the player base does not know what to expect out of the expansion.

ArenaNet could buffer a great deal of this backlash by making sure that players know that there is plenty of content, that it is worth the $50 price tag, and that players can expect three years of good, compelling content.

Image credit: “Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns”, ArenaNet Inc.