Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Fall 2015: What’s New and Upcoming with Apple

About the author:
Beth Kelly is a freelance writer and blogger in Chicago, IL. An alum of DePaul University, she taught English in South Korea before returning to the US to write full-time. Find her on Twitter @bkelly_88

The Apple Media Event on September 9 previewed various new and updated consumer products that would carry the Apple banner into the coming year including iPhones, iPads, the Apple Watch, and Apple TV. 

The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, as expected, were updated from last year's models with a new, faster A-9 processor, custom display chip, and faster fingerprint sensors. The iPad Pro, a much faster 12.9" desktop-class iPad for the enterprise was previewed, along with an Apple Pencil stylus and a keyboard built into the smart cover. The Apple TV was updated, with Siri controls and a tvOS operating system, based on iOS, and built to take advantage of the App Store. Apple Watch is also getting a reboot with updated apps and new looks. And finally, a new iPad Mini 4 was quietly announced without much detail. 

The new iPhones are the most advanced phones Apple has created and most advanced in the world featuring 3-D touchscreens and are now made of 7000 series aircraft grade aluminum, unlikely to bend. The 3-D touch screen adds new gestures like pressing and holding, and peek and pop. The rear iSight camera has increased to 12 megapixels, 50% more pixels than the iPhone 6, to shoot and edit 4K video right on the iPhone. Apple also announced an iPhone Upgrade lease program that lets users upgrade their iPhone every year for a monthly charge of only $32. 

The faster, larger, and much thinner iPad Pro is targeted mainly towards business users. The advanced iPad is compatible with a newly introduced smart keyboard that doubles as a cover 

and a pixel-precise stylus dubbed the Apple Pencil ready to work with the likes of MS Office, Adobe Photoshop and even human anatomy apps like 3D4Medical. The new Apple Pencil "feels like a true writing or drawing instrument," in the words of Jony Ive, as it deciphers stroke thickness from the angle and pressure presented by the user. 

The Apple Watch was originally released last April, and there are already over 10,000 compatible apps. Many of these are now getting upgrades - the Facebook Messenger app will let you send audio, location and text messages, the GroPo app serves as a camera viewfinder, and iTranslate allows you to dictate a word and get a translation. The devices look is also being upgraded. The watch itself comes in gold and rose gold, and an increased selection of bands are now available, including a brown leather band made by Hermés coming out in October. 

As for the Apple TV, a new operating system and Siri controls weren’t the only updates announced - apps are now the new big thing in the 4th generation device. The new tvOS operating system is designed to let third-party developers create apps specifically for the large screen and bluetooth remote. Siri will respond to a variety of commands and can be used to search for movies universally by title, genre, and actors across iTunes, Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and Showtime. 

Apple TV is Apple's first serious attempt to take over the living room with streaming content and multiplayer interactive gaming. The new Apple TV ecosystem expands the living room beyond streaming content or gaming and arriving in advance of Apple's own Internet TV subscription service, expected sometime next year, should drive holiday sales. And while Apple Homekit was not mentioned at the event, many see it as a natural fit for the upgraded TV. The more powerful TV box could hypothetically work with home equipment controls, enabling connections to home security systems, automated appliances, and a variety of other compatible tech in your house. 

The number of new and updated devices announced by Apple pushed boundaries to new levels, exceeding all expectations. While there is nothing particularly earth-shattering about the new technology, the devices - Apple TV in particular - are serious contenders to replace multiple technologies including traditional TVs. Only time will tell if the mainstream market will respond to the updates the way Apple has hoped.

Mail me for Guest Posts in dilipstechnoblog.com (dilipgeoffrey@gmail.com)

Friday, September 11, 2015

Is The Future of Television Internet Centric?

About the author:
Neal Bricker has a passion writing about technology with a lot of contributions on a large number of blogs.


The digital age has been rapidly transforming industries, including radio and television as drastic changes have occurred in each. The trends all point toward the Internet being the future of radio, as the big corporations that own most big-name radio stations have seen their stocks plummet, in some cases to penny-stock status. While some of the these companies such as iHeart are scrambling to avoid disaster, it remains to be seen if they can ever recover. Does the same fate await network television? 

There was a time as noted in a Wall Street Journal blog, that television meant having a TV set, and all of the programs we watched were on those sets, and were broadcast by the television networks. Things changed as cable and satellite television made hundreds of channels available with a wide variety of programming available. Now there are even options for satellite TV + Internet packages

Now you don't even need a TV to watch some of your favorite shows. With internet services such as Netflix and Hulu, you can watch many of your favorite shows, even going back a few years if you need to catch up on some episodes, and you can watch this content when you wish, on demand. You can even watch many movies, videos, and more on Youtube for free of charge. 

With fees as low as $8 a month for almost unlimited program viewing, these services are growing, and are not going away anytime soon. Does this mean the end for the television networks? Not necessarily, and not anytime soon. No one could have predicted the way the Internet would evolve 20 years ago, but those who follow the industry closely have some good opinions on the matter. 

To avoid the fate of the big radio companies, television networks and other entities must have a strong focus on the customer experience. With more and more choices for the customer, brand loyalties are going out the window as the consumer looks for the best possible deal from an increasingly crowded field of those offering them. 

The illustration above shows one way in which those offering television services can organize their fare to better satisfy the viewers. Many companies are already on-board with these changes, offering powerful search engines, but there is still much room for improvement. 

Those in the know actually see a new Golden Age of Television with the help of the Internet. With the growing number of choices and the growing intellectual currency of the medium, as many sitcoms and traditional favorites have become almost obsolete, and many shows are now more like books, complete with clues, subtexts, and a text narrative. 

The TV networks still have plenty of clout, and so do many of the cable stations, so it is hard to foresee any kind of cash crunch such as the radio is going through. It still takes millions and millions of dollars to produce those shows that everyone seems to love like The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones. 

It's hard to see Hulu, Netflix, or anyone else stepping up to the plate and doing what the TV networks and powerful cable channels do anytime soon. But it is impossible to look at the future of television without acknowledging that the Internet will play a large part in it.

Mail me for Guest Posts in dilipstechnoblog.com (dilipgeoffrey@gmail.com)

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns Announces PvP Leagues


ArenaNet™, publisher and developer of the acclaimed Guild Wars franchise, has announced that regular seasons for PvP where all players can compete and be rewarded are coming with Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, the first expansion to Guild Wars 2 set to launch later this year. The new system, called PvP Leagues, gives players regular seasons during which they can enroll in starter divisions and earn their way up as they advance their skills, earning unique rewards along the way. PvP Leagues will provide a system for better ranked play, improved matchmaking, and regular goals that give players a roadmap to become higher level competitors.

Fittingly, ArenaNet’s John Corpening, associate director for Guild Wars 2 competitive, announced the new PvP League system live on stage at the ESL booth at gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Cologne was the site of the first ever EuropeanGuild Wars 2 World Tournament Series (WTS). Soon after announcing players will have the means to become top competitors in PvP, ArenaNet crowned The Abjured as the WTS-Cologne PvP champions. WTS is the pinnacle of competitive play in Guild Wars 2, with teams competing for $50,000 in cash prizes and the chance to have their teams immortalized on the Tyrian Lion “Pride” trophy. Fans in the audience in Cologne and those tuning in on the official Guild Wars 2 Twitch channel got a treat, with The Abjured from North America coming out on top after a furious day of matches with Orange Logo, The Civilized Gentlemen, and GLHF, all top contenders with a history of wins and shows in previous WTS tournaments.

The launch of PvP Leagues in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns sets the stage for the future of top competition in the game. PvP Leagues will introduce six divisions, from division one, Amber, where every player will start out, all the way to the top Legendary division. Divisions will be broken up into tiers, and each tier has several pips. To earn a bump in tier players must earn pips that they can acquire by winning matches outright or putting in impressive performances, depending on the skill level of their opponents. In divisions two and three, players can lose pips they’ve earned but they will not lose tiers. Once players reach division four and five, where competition is expected to really heat up, both pips and tiers will be at stake based on performance.

PvP Leagues will incentivise competition with unique rewards including a new legendary back item, the legendary backpack. Along the way, participants can also earn badges for their character nameplates that change as they move into higher divisions. There is also the opportunity to work towards the Wings of Glory by earning league tokens that can be exchanged for different levels of wings to display. ArenaNet plans on adding new items in the future, and new items will always be offered for league tokens at a discount to encourage continuous practice and play. Guilds are also getting a boost with the introduction of Guild Teams in PvP Leagues. Guilds who form PvP teams will be able to track their progress on Guild Team Leaderboards, which will be based on the Elo system as skill-based comparisons between teams. Ratings will decay over time, meaning Guild Teams will need to stay active in PvP League play to maintain their ranks.

In a blog post published today detailing PvP Leagues, Corpening writes, “We are thrilled to be bringing you PvP Leagues with Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. It has been one of the last key pieces to the structure of PvP that gives players of all skill levels a chance to improve, advance, earn their place among the heroes of the Mists, and have something to show for it. We are looking forward to crushing our opponents (in friendly competition), standing atop their bloody helms (in the air of good sportsmanship), climbing to the next division, then casting their corpses away (all in good fun).”

More details on the structure for PvP Leagues and rewards coming to Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns can be found in this blog post from John Corpening.

GW2 Two new armor sets in Heart of Thorns


Based on the info from the new Heart of Thorns official page, Heart of Thorns will be getting two new armor sets, five new weapon sets, and a host of other items.

Two New Armor Sets
Within the open world of the Heart of Maguuma, you’ll earn and build two new armor sets with unique looks for light, medium, and heavy armor, five new weapon sets, and over 60 unique additional item skins, miniatures, and more!
  • Recall that you also get an armor set for Guild Hall and a legendary armor set for Raids so two listed here are from the open world of Maguuma only.
The launch of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns will introduce the beginning of a new line of legendary weapons. Start building any of the three initial legendary weapons and collect three additional new skins – including their precursors!
  • TWO NEW ARMOR SETS
  • FIVE NEW WEAPON SETS
  • NEW LINE OF LEGENDARY WEAPONS
  • 60 UNIQUE ADDITIONAL ITEM SKINS, MINIATURES, AND MORE
175 Unique Guild Hall Decorations
You can decorate your guild hall with over 175 unique decorations at launch, which can be earned as a reward for playing content and overcoming challenges together with your fellow guildmates.
Ten new PvP reward tracks and new Dragon Finisher
Unlock reward tracks based on your rank that will update your rank finishers with a new look for Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, including an all-new dragon finisher! While you’re working on ranking up, be sure to explore more than 10 new reward tracks that will grant you exciting loot, rewards, and unlocks as you hone your PvP skills.
  • ALL NEW DRAGON FINISHER
  • LEGENDARY BACKPACKS
  • EXCLUSIVE REWARDS
  • NEW UNLOCKS
Four New Maps
You’ll journey through four of the largest, most diverse and replayable maps ever built in the world of Guild Wars®; maps in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns are designed as three-dimensional volumes rather than traditional flat planes. You’ll have more to explore as you travel through the jungle biomes, from the canopy heights to the jungle floor and deep below into the jungle roots.

Guild Wars 2 - Goes Free-To-Play As Heart Of Thorns Approaches

marionette
When Guild Wars 2 launched, it was unlike many other massively-multiplayer online games (MMOs) in that it didn’t come with a subscription fee attached. This meant you could buy the game, pay only once, and play forever.

To maintain a revenue stream, ArenaNet included an in-game shop that included items like buffs, costumes, etc. that you could buy with real money. Over time, the developer tinkered with the revenue model, released new content, and will soon launch the major, paid expansion Heart of Thorns. The expansion brings, among other things, raids to the game, which should give players a lot more end-game content.

That release sets the stage for the company’s latest announcement at PAX Prime this weekend: Guild Wars 2 is going free-to-play for everyone, though free accounts won’t share all the same benefits of a paid account. Likewise, “core” accounts without the expansion won’t have access to the Heart of Thorns content. There’s still an incentive to upgrade, but players who can’t afford that or aren’t sure won’t be compelled to do so.

Striking a Balance
A game like Guild Wars 2 lives and dies by its community,” writes ArenaNet president Mike O’Brien on the game’s blog. “Our goal is to protect our current community but also to make it as easy as possible for you to introduce the game to your friends, to recruit new players into your guilds, to challenge new players to Player vs. Player matches, and so on.

It’s trickier than you’d think to accomplish both objectives. We have to ensure that free accounts can’t be used to abuse the game or its current players (through botting, cheating, spamming, or RMT) while still making sure that free accounts get the authentic Guild Wars 2 experience.”

Free accounts will also have limited chat options and economy restrictions to help curb bots and other problematic account use. There are also limitations on where free accounts can play at first—for instance, free accounts must level up characters to level 10 before leaving starting zones. You can see a comparison chart for features in the new three-tier system here.

The influx of new players to the game will certainly be good for the Guild Wars 2community and ArenaNet alike. Hopefully the countermeasures against spammers and bots will be effective. We shall see.
heart-of-thorns

The Price is Right
The move to free-to-play is one we’ve seen over and over again with subscription-based MMOs. It makes sense from a business perspective to lower the cost of your product over time. The term is “intertemporal price discrimination”—a concept used in all types of products, from gadgets to games to movies.

The idea is simple: You charge the most at launch, whether that’s purchasing a game at full retail or selling expensive tickets to a movie theater. Over time you reduce the cost to scoop up consumers who have resisted previously. So the movie theater gives way to the Blu-ray, which gives way to the Netflix stream and so forth.
With an MMO this is even more crucial, since maintaining a large enough player base is essential to keeping the whales—consumers who keep spending money on additional content—happy and playing.

So over time, a subscription-based model goes to a pay-once model and finally to a free-with-upgrades model. In the case of Guild Wars 2 they simply skipped the subscription, possibly netting a larger player base from the outset but also possibly missing out on all that juicy subscription money in the first six months or year. Now they can lure in new purchasers of Heart of Thorns who like the core game enough to want access to the expansion content.

It works for consumers because we can hold out and wait to play the game until it reaches a reasonable price point. Early adopters always pay the most. Even non-subscription games that remain pay-to-play get cheaper over time. Destiny is a great example of this, but it applies to solo games, too, which often release a year or two later with all additional content and other bonuses for a third the price.
Heart of Thorns releases October 23, 2015. The base game is free-to-play effective now.

World versus World Guild Objective Claiming Deep Dive - GW2

Greetings, Mist warriors. As John Corpening said in his previous blog post, “Guilds are the lifeblood of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™, and it’s our desire that they become a greater part of World vs. World. We want to give guild members more strategic choices and encourage them to work together both within their guilds and also with other guilds and players. To this end, we’ve overhauled the guild claiming system so that guilds have more tools at their disposal in WvW.” In that previous blog, we went over many of the high-level concepts of the guild claiming update. However, in today’s post, you’ll find a detailed breakdown of each of the upgrades your guilds will be able to unlock, craft, and apply to any objectives you claim.
ObjectiveUpgradesT2
First, I’ll quickly go over how upgrading a claimed objective works. We’ve added a new piece of UI to WvW called the Objective Upgrades panel. This UI can be accessed either by clicking on an objective’s map marker (on the compass or the world map) or by speaking with a quartermaster at the objective. This panel has two tabs. The first tab displays information relating to the general upgrade level of the objective—a list of which upgrades are currently active—and timers indicating when the next upgrade tier is unlocked.
The second tab manages the guild upgrade system. On the left side of the Guild tab is the guild’s war chest. This is a list of all the objective upgrades that your guild owns. These are unlocked over time and crafted in your guild hall. To the right of the war chest is where we display the guild upgrade tiers. There are two to three tiers per objective (supply camps have two), and each tier offers two upgrade slots.
The left column of upgrades is for tactics. These upgrades offer powerful temporary effects and are triggered by pulling a special lever inside the objective. After activation, a tactic will then go into cooldown period. These cooldowns currently range from 15 to 20 minutes. A tactic can only be activated by guild members who have been granted permission unless the “Public Tactic Activation” flag has been checked by an authorized guild member. The right column of upgrades is for improvements; these upgrades offer powerful passive effects. Once built, they will apply their benefit to the objective until an enemy team captures the objective or the improvement is replaced by a different slotted upgrade.
The longer your guild controls an objective, the more tiers will unlock.
  • Tier I unlocks after a guild has held the objective for 10 minutes.
  • Tier II unlocks after a guild has held the objective for 30 minutes.
  • Tier III unlocks after a guild has held the objective for 60 minutes.
Once a tier is unlocked, you can add one upgrade from your war chest to each slot. Each upgrade has a specific tier and slot type it fits into. Each slot has at least two potential options for upgrades. After slotting the upgrade, the upgrade will begin building for three minutes. Once the upgrade finishes building, it will either immediately activate (in the case of improvements) or become available for player activation (in the case of tactics).
ObjectiveUpgradesT1
That should cover most of how upgrading and the new UI works. To finish this off, you’ll find a list and description of all WvW guild upgrades below:

Tactics

    Tier 1
  • Supply Drop
    • Availability: All Objectives
    • Instantly deposits 100 supply at the objective
  • Chilling Fog
    • Availability: All Objectives
    • Temporarily summon chill inducers that will chill all invaders at the objective.
  • Invulnerable Dolyaks
    • Availability: Camps
    • Makes the next set of dolyaks invincible, guaranteeing that they will reach their destination.
    • Tier 2
    • Centaur Banner
      • Availability: All Objectives
      • Summons a Centaur Banner. The banner provides the wielder access to powerful offensive skills, as well as a defiance bar.
      • Skill 1—Summon a centaur at your position that charges forward, crippling enemies and giving you stability.
      • Skill 2—Calls down a cascade of arrows in a wide line in front of you, inflicting bleeding on enemies.
      • Skill 3—Charge forward, kicking up dirt that blinds your enemies and makes them vulnerable.
      • Skill 4—Create a circular, spiked barricade that bleeds enemies inside of it. If players try to leave the barricade, they are immobilized.
      • Skill 5—You transform into a centaur spirit and continually knock enemies out of your way, applying bleeding, blinding, or cripple.
    • Turtle Banner
      • Availability: All Objectives
      • Summons a Turtle Banner. The banner provides the wielder access to powerful defensive skills, as well as a defiance bar.
      • Skill 1—Lob a magical turtle shell at a location. On impact, grants nearby allies protection and applies weakness to enemies.
      • Skill 2—Create a bubble that destroys projectiles and heals allies.
      • Skill 3—Up to 10 nearby allies become immune to physical damage for 5 seconds.
      • Skill 4—Place a wall that grants resistance to allies and slows enemies that pass through it.
      • Skill 5—A giant spirit turtle splashes into the ground with such force that it launches nearby enemies and grants stability and protection to allies.
    • Dune Roller
      • Availability: Camps
      • Summons a Dune Roller. This will transform one player into a charr car for 15 minutes, granting them increased mobility and siege damage.
      • Skill 1—Fires a rocket projectile that deals siege damage.
      • Skill 2—Rush forward, leaving behind a trail of fire and evading attacks.
      • Skill 3—Lay down a smoke screen behind you, blocking enemy projectiles.
      • Skill 4—Leap at your foes, stunning them.
      • Skill 5—Fire three incendiary rockets. On impact, these rockets will leave behind patches of fire.
      • Tier 3
      • Dragon Banner
        • Availability: Walled Objectives
        • Summons a Dragon Banner. The banner provides the wielder access to powerful offensive skills, as well as a defiance bar.
        • Skill 1—Send forth a cascade of fire that damages enemies and applies might to nearby allies.
        • Skill 2—Drop an explosive dragon talon, damaging and stunning foes and giving surrounding allies fury.
        • Skill 3—Launch a fiery dragon-spirit projectile that does siege damage and knocks back enemies.
        • Skill 4—The powerful flap of a dragon’s wings launches enemies backward and gives nearby allies super speed.
        • Skill 5—Call forth dragon’s breath in a massive line that damages and burns enemies. Allies standing in the fire gain quickness.
      • Invulnerable Fortifications
        • Availability: Walled Objectives
        • Temporarily makes all walls and gates at the objective invulnerable.
      • Emergency Waypoint
        • Availability: Walled Objectives
        • Temporarily creates an incontestable waypoint at the objective.

      Improvements

        Tier 1
      • Sabotage Depot
        • Availability: All Objectives
        • Deploy bombs at the supply depot that will explode if the objective is captured by an enemy team. The explosion will destroy all remaining supply at the objective.
      • Hardened Gates
        • Availability: All Objectives
        • Gates can only be damaged by siege weapons.
      • Armored Dolyaks
        • Availability: Camps
        • Dolyaks gain increased health and toughness.
        • Tier 2
        • Iron Guards
          • Availability: All Objectives
          • Guards gain the Iron Hide effect, reducing incoming damage by 50%.
        • Hardened Siege
          • Availability: Walled Objectives
          • Cannons, mortars, and oil pots can only be damaged by siege weapons.
        • Packed Dolyaks
          • Availability: Camps
          • Dolyaks now carry twice as much supply.
        • Speedy Dolyaks
          • Availability: Camps
          • Dolyaks gain super speed.
          • Tier 3
          • Auto Turrets
            • Availability: Walled Objectives
            • Automatic turrets are deployed above the objective’s gates.
          • Watchtower
            • Availability: Towers
            • A spy balloon is deployed above the tower, which will mark nearby enemies on the map.
          • Emergency Waypoint
            • Availability: Walled Objectives
            • Temporarily creates an incontestable waypoint at the objective.
          • Presence of the Keep
            • Availability: Keeps
            • Allied players gain double effectiveness of the keep’s objective aura while within the perimeter of the keep.
          • Cloaking Waters
            • Availability: Castle
            • The fountains in the castle’s courtyard grant stealth to allies.

Guild Wars 2 community reacts angrily to Heart of Thorns expansion pricing

I followed the following statement up with ArenaNet: "In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price."
I wasn't sure what it meant. Did it mean there will only be one purchase-option if/when another expansion comes out? No. "We could offer different SKU 'packages' just as we are currently with Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns," ArenaNet said.
What it means is that for one price you will get the new expansion plus the original game and any previous expansions thrown in, an NCSoft spokesperson clarified. That's the same as with the £34.99/€44.99 Heart of Thorns bundle, in other words.
So will that be at the same £35 price tag? "We can't confirm pricing for possible future expansions," ArenaNet said. I said I was concerned that as that bundle gets bigger, the price tag gets higher, but I got the same response.
In other words, the buying options next expansion could be more or less the same.
 ArenaNet has formally responded, announcing a new veteran reward and refund policy.
There's also a word on expansion pricing in the future: "In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price," ArenaNet said.
The veteran reward will be an additional character slot.
ArenaNet explained: "For all players who registered the core Guild Wars 2 game prior to January 23, 2015, and who upgrade their account by pre-purchasing and registering any Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns edition before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns' launch, we will add one additional character slot to your Guild Wars 2 account."
This could "take us some time", but ASAP is the plan and specific timing will be shared when it is known.
The "comprehensive refund policy" is for people who felt misled by an official FAQ saying they would need the core Guild Wars 2 game in order to play the expansion. This was before they realised the core game would be bundled with the Heart of Thorns expansion.
"Some read the FAQ as us urging players to buy the core game now, in preparation for the expansion release," ArenaNet explained. "This was not our intention and amendments made to the FAQ following the announcement were a good-faith attempt to clarify this misinterpretation."
Refunds are applicable only to copies of Guild Wars 2 bought from the game's website. If you bought the game between 23rd January and 16th June and don't want to continue playing, you can contact the customer support team and get full refund. Make your request by 31st July. You account you registered with the game will be closed.
But if you haven't made much in-game progress on that account, and you also want to play Heart of Thorns, that route could presumably also save you some money. Get the refund, then buy the expansion and play on a new account. You may face wait for the refund.
However, if you want to continue playing on your account, you'll be treated as a veteran. And when you buy Heart of Thorns you'll be granted an additional character slot.
On the Guild Wars 2 forum, forum communications team lead Gaile Gray assured players ArenaNet was listening.
"We understand that there are many opinions and suggestions about the game versions and the pre-purchase program. We will continue to read your thoughts and thank you for sharing them. We will share your input with the team," she wrote.
There are tiers you can buy the expansion at: £34.99, £59.99, £79.99. But the issue isn't so much the price - although that is an issue for some people - so much as what each tier buys you.
The lowest tier buys you the Heart of Thorns expansion, and it also buys you the original Guild Wars 2 game. Up until the announcement, however, a Guild Wars 2 FAQ had said you would need to purchase the base game in order to play the expansion, according to Massively Overpowered. The FAQ was silently changed.
The inclusion of the base game in the £34.99 tier caused perception problems. Existing Guild Wars 2 players have to spend £34.99 to play Heart of Thorns - there is no other, cheaper upgrade option. Yet they already own Guild Wars 2, and they paid about the same - possibly more - for it. On the other hand a newcomer pays £34.99 for both. The question asked by the community was why does a newcomer get a better deal - why aren't you rewarding us veterans?
ArenaNet's silence on the whole topic, which has ballooned on Reddit and spread like wildfire on the game's forum, isn't helping. On Twitter game community manager Ramon Domke wrote: "The price would be exactly the same. The core game is included for free in those packages, to have 'one box' on shelves." And then, "The core game is added for free to HoT Editions. It doesn't change the price for expansion. See it as a bargain for new players." I can't see any comments after that.
By way of comparison, recent World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor was £35 and, although it didn't include the original World of Warcraft game, it did include a level-90 character boost - something useful to existing players as well. Note, WOW requires a monthly subscription in order to play but Guild Wars 2 does not.
The other Heart of Thorns tiers don't do much to woo away concerns. For a not insignificant £60, you get an additional character slot, little statue, Revenant profession finisher, Guild Hall decoration and Glider skin. For £80 you get an additional 4000 Gems - the currency you can buy with real money - worth £42.50 bought normally, so you get them half-price.
A popular post on the GW2 sub-Reddit urged people not to by Heart of Thorns yet. "While $50 is not a huge deal," it closed, "I think that we should let ANet know that we, the GW2 players that have supported the game for the last three years should be treated at the very least as equal as new players. I think it would be a nice gesture to offer current players a 'thank you' in terms of equal value, or more."
We've asked ArenaNet for comment.
Heart of Thorns is Guild Wars 2's first proper expansion. It adds the MMO-requisite massive new area to explore (Maguuma Jungle), introduces a new profession/class (Revenant), and expands the PVP and World vs. World areas of the game. We got a look at the new WVW Borderlands map at Rezzed earlier this year and it's massive.
Heart of Thorns sidesteps MMO tradition, however, by not raising the game's level cap. Instead it diversifies progression through a new Mastery system and specialisations, one for each profession. Heart of Thorns also brings the much-requested Guild Hall feature to the MMO, which was announced in detail during E3.

Raids in Guild Wars 2

Spirit-Wall
You asked for the ultimate challenging content in Guild Wars 2—challenges that would put your skills to the test and push you and your friends to the edge to achieve victory. Now the answer is here. Today at PAX Prime, we announced that the “challenging group content” that we said would arrive with Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™ is Raids! Built on top of our ground-breaking combat and dynamic event systems, the ultimate challenge is coming.
Players who purchase Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns will get access to our first raid, with the first of the three associated raid wings to be activated shortly after launch. During this window, we’ll be looking at balance with our new profession and elite specializations as well as giving players some time to train the Heart of Maguuma Masteries that will be used in the first raid wing. The remaining two raid wings will follow in sequence soon after.
ArenaNet has always challenged conventions and looked to innovate, and Raids in Guild Wars 2will be no different. But for those of you that weren’t able to see our presentation at PAX, you might be asking yourselves…

What Are Raids in Guild Wars 2?

Raids are 10-player, instanced content that will introduce very challenging bosses, epic encounters, and more! And we’re building them on top of our amazing combat and dynamic event systems to create a variety of difficult challenges that will require your raiding team to bring a high level of skill, strategy, and coordination in order to succeed.
Expecting to be able to just watch the UI to beat a boss? Guess again! Raiding in Guild Wars 2 is an action-oriented, engaging experience. You’ll have to actively manage your position, dodge, coordinate on objectives, and much more. You’ll have moments of anticipation where your next action could spell victory or death. And with a diverse range of difficult challenges, being able to customize your build will really pay off. You’ll be dependent on keeping yourself alive and helping support your team while playing your profession. Everyone will be expected to pitch in and execute at a high level to ensure success.
Raids will also tie into our new, advanced Mastery system of progression. We’ll be introducing new Mastery tracks and abilities that will be closely tied to progressing though raids, which our designers will be talking about in an upcoming blog. We’ll also be introducing new rewards. Which rewards, you ask? We’ll talk about that in more detail a little later, but let’s just say they’re legendary…
Pylon-Minions

A Fresh Take On Raiding

Raids in Guild Wars 2 are not about waiting to have fun. You don’t need to wait for your healer to get online. Our build-customization and weapon-swapping systems allow anyone to change their build to meet a particular challenge. And while a warrior might support a group differently than an elementalist would in terms of playstyle, our systems allow you to adjust your team’s composition and strategy to overcome any challenge.
Raids are not about an endless gear grind to get tiers of gear to go tackle the next raid. Raids won’t become easier because a new tier of gear or a level-cap raise made them irrelevant. We think beating a raid encounter should be a big deal—not just when you beat it, but for the life of the game. It takes away the meaning of your victory when suddenly new tiers of gear or more powerful experience levels are introduced that leave a wasteland of raids in their wake. If you beat a raid in Guild Wars 2, it means something and always will.
Bandit-Boss-Flame

The First Raid

In the first Raid wing, players will face three awesome, diverse, and very challenging bosses as well as an epic event that will leave players literally running for their lives. Each encounter will introduce different mechanics that require unique strategies to overcome and will be a big accomplishment if defeated. For each encounter, our goal is that you’ll need to face it many times to learn how to defeat it, continuing to develop your strategies, refining your communication and honing your tactics through practice, in order to execute to a high degree with the hope of eventually conquering it and moving on to the next encounter in the wing.
Altogether, players can expect to face big challenges in all three wings that will stretch the abilities of even our most battle-hardened adventurers. Raids will also become a key part of our live strategy for Guild Wars 2 in the future, but we’ll discuss that more down the road.
As players embark on this new adventure, they’ll start their journey in search of a Pact recon squad that vanished while on assignment. Following their trail, you’ll fight your way deeper into forgotten territory, encounter dangerous new enemies, and witness mystifying events. So join up with your friends, family, guild, or just a group of heroes from our friendly MMO community.
Stay tuned for more details as we get closer to launch.
I’ll see you in game!

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