Guild Wars 2 Pre-Purchase Grants Beta, Early Access
NCsoft has revealed the special editions for Guild Wars 2 along with incentives to pre-purchase the upcoming MMOG.
The wait for Guild Wars 2 is nearly over, as NCsoft has revealed the upcoming MMOG's Pre-Purchase program which spans the Collector's Edition, Digital Deluxe Edition, and Standard Edition. NCsoft will gladly accept your money starting April 10, and in return will provide guaranteed entry into all beta weekend events and a three-day head start prior to launch.
The Guild Wars 2 Collector's Edition will retail at $149.99 and include a detailed, hand-painted 10-inch statue of the bestial warrior Rytlock Brimstone wielding his signature sword. Along with the Rytlock statue, players will receive a custom frame along with five Guild Wars 2 art prints, a 112-page Making of Guild Wars 2 hardback book, and a Best of Guild Wars 2 Soundtrack CD by Jeremy Soule.
Also included in the Collector's Edition will be five in-game items including a Mistfire Wolf that will fight alongside players and a miniature Rytlock who will accompany them on their travels through Tyria. There's also a Golem Banker, a Chalice of Glory and a Tomb of Influence. The entire Collector's Edition package will arrive in an awesome collectible metal box engraved with a map of Tyria.
As for the $79.99 Digital Deluxe Edition, it will only add the five in-game items seen in the Collector's Edition -- so far it won't contain digital versions of the soundtrack, Making Of book or the five prints. This is surprising given that the Digital Deluxe Edition is $20 more than the Standard Edition which merely offers the Guild Wars 2 game.
NCsoft said that those who pre-purchase Guild Wars 2 will also receive an exclusive Hero’s Band, which will provide their characters with a broad range of power boosts. Players may also pre-order Guild Wars 2 at select retailers, allowing them to reserve their copy of the game at launch. Players who pre-order Guild Wars 2 through these retailers will receive a one-day headstart prior to launch.
Guild Wars 2 is slated to launch on the PC sometime within 2012.
Why would you want that?
You obviously have access to the internet, MMO's are played online.
Besides, opening a cd-rom, waiting for it to start, hearing it start, OS takes a sh!t is a tedious chore.
But hey, who am I to judge? I still glance at a newspaper from time to time
Not to mention most games' files are completely replaced by online updates after the first couple of weeks.
So Arenanet, listen to your fans from the most southern tip of Africa. There are about 10 of us from my ex-WoW guild alone with another few friends from steam that is dying to buy the game and as for me I am dying for such content packed Collectors Editions. So please please PLEASE send us a few our way!
Proof ---> :
Announcing Pre-Purchase for Guild Wars 2
March 13, 2012 6:00 AM
Starting April 10, players can secure their Guild Wars 2 Limited Collector's Edition, Digital Edition, or Digital Deluxe copy by pre-purchasing the entire game at buy.guildwars2.com or at select retailers. Players who pre-purchase any edition will have guaranteed entry into all beta weekend events, three-day headstart access to the final game, and Hero's Band in-game item. Learn more about our pre-purchase program and our incredible Collector's Edition right here!
Fixed.
Pre-Purchase grants 3 days head start
Pre-Order grants 1 day head start
"Will I be able to reserve character and guild names during the Headstart Access?
Yes, players who have Headstart Access will be able to claim character and guild names during that period that will carry over when Guild Wars 2 goes live. Players who pre-purchase and receive 3-day Headstart Access will have an advantage over players who pre-order and receive 1-day Headstart Access."
Source:http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/game-faq/#fifty-one
to play an mmo, you need an okish connection... hell dial up could support most mmos today (you would get lag spikes though)
for a fps, you almost require a dsl or cable modem...
now, to download a 25gb game... what do you need for that?
if it downloads as an exe than you need to install, at worst you need 75gb of free space
if it downloads as a game, you need time...
you need a 6 hour chunk of time, and its possible that if the system isn't perfect it will force a re download (right out of the gate i don't expect this to be perfect)
1 million people signed up for the beta, and that was a 2 day period of time... so lets assume a 1million week 1 people... how many places are capable of delivering 25gb of game to 1million people at the same time, all while saturating your connections.
than there is the whole store getting cut out, expenses on deliveries cut out, and all that crap, but the digital costs as much if not more than retail versions.
there are plenty of real reasons to prefer a physical coppy over a digital... format your computer, you have to re download the whole damn thing... while a dvd would have it on in under 1 hour, a download will most likely take at lest 2, and at worst 6 if they can only feed 1mb a second.
you also have to take into account down the line when this game gets pulled off line... it will be harder for a 3rd party to crack it and distribute it (im looking at the old phatacy star online when i say this)
most of those files are minor... im going by everquest when i say this, the biggest files in the game that take space are the zone files, music and such, where they take up to 10gb of space alone, and most other content of the like is 1gb download... while most core game files will change over time... the bulk of the game files wont, and would be a pain in the butt to redownload again if format.
take a look at the game videos, it looks to be a full on mmo, and the party system seams at least to me to be its most appealing aspect.
Nope its an open world like most MMO's this time. none of the party instanced zones or anything.
They take the RIFT and war hammer dynamic events to the next level as well. Also no more running from quest giver to quest giver finding and completing quests, you run into quests as you explore the world. although there are objectives that kind of act like area quests that lead you around the zone. Not like WoWs or SWTOR quest system at all tho. GW2 is a legit next gen MMO...swtor was not.
Yogscast and TB have a lot of great videos they took during the press beta event arena net held. Good place to check out what the game really is like.
Not only that but there is no subscription fees. You can easily pay 180 a year for a subscription on top of the cost of an MMO box price.