@PhillipDaigle - Do we still get that Rasaad picture of you? A video of the moonwalking golem (with a Michael Jackson soundset, perhaps) would also be pretty awesome.
@Kristie83 - The bonus merchants were originally a little bonus the devs had included in the collector's edition of BG2, and they were exclusive to that edition. However, the collector's edition wasn't being charged extra specifically because of the bonus merchants; hence, however tricky to assess this, I would personally say they were a free addition.
Shortly after the release of the game, those merchants became available to everyone from non-official (and possibly non-legit) sources. When support for the game was being abandoned, the devs included them in one of the last ToB patches for everyone to have ligitimately; after all, the collector's edition of BG2 had ceased being available for a while, then.
I am pretty sure now. you can get a 10% discount on the manufactoring of ankheg plate mail. but when you take the discount you will have to wait 2 months untill they are done. :P
@AndreaColombo Alrighty, I get ya now. Well, I guess I wouldn't mind then if everyone got the merchants if I didn't technically pay extra for them, that is. I don't know. Kind of a grey area perhaps.
@decado We are being patient. We're just speculating on what it might be. We've already been told it will be post-release.
@PhillipDaigle Well, if it's a confusion, it is not originating from us (=pre-orderers). This was the statement:
To all who have pre-ordered, we ask for your patience as we move toward our final release date.We will be working on something a little extra for you.
As you can see, Trent was talking to pre-orderers (at the begining of the statement) and promised 'something a little extra' for them (at the end of the statement). I think it's perfectly clear.
So basically for everyone who gave them money early and entered into a business agreement that they were unable to uphold, they're offering a big ol' "we're sorry".
Phillip is stating the extras they're adding in the extra development time will be "post release" updates, with absolutely no timeframe, meaning they could have done that anyway and their delays are just due to poor planning.
I'm still going to be happy when I can finally download this game, but I will certainly never preorder anything from these guys again.
@Curghann i don't want/need extra content which will be accessible only for pre-orderers. That 'something a little extra' could be, for example, unlocking the game 1 day earlier for us.
@Curghann i don't want/need extra content which will be accessible only for pre-orderers. That 'something a little extra' could be, for example, unlocking the game 1 day earlier for us.
I agree, I *don't* want something that would give me an edge over players who haven't pre-ordered (e.g. most Mac users), but something that gives me, for example, free or discounted DLC/Expansion Packs, or perhaps some sort of cosmetic enhancement (e.g. extra portraits and/or sound packs) would be nice.
Trent's comment seemed pretty clear to me that the early believers who had pre-ordered before the ship delay announcement would be getting something. Maybe I should just get over it, but for Phillip to say Trent "misspoke" feels like we've been lied to twice. (Once for the delay, once for reneging on the special compensation.)
It doesn't need to be huge - art? music? But some token thing would be nice for the customers who backed you early, and who you said you'd give something a little extra. (Of course, free DLC or a iOS or android version would be great too :-)
More specifically, they're working on something to compensate for the fact that the release was delayed, as a gesture of good will to the people who pre-ordered.
But because it would be awful to just give it to the preorders, they're giving it to everybody.
So it's a gesture of good will to everyone who's waited for the game, not just the people who took advantage of the early discount.
The ones who make the pre-orders are taking a chance by paying for something that they might, or might not, like. And that chance tremendously helps, especially smaller studios, as that's extra money in their bank before the release of the game, giving them room to breathe and allowing them to do extra work.
I don't see why these people don't deserve something extra while others wait to see if it's good enough to spend their money.
On another note, i continue to demand that it be a pony companion for the rangers. Doesn't need to be mountable. Just an ass-kicking, head-trampling war pony will do.
On another note, i continue to demand that it be a pony companion for the rangers. Doesn't need to be mountable. Just an ass-kicking, head-trampling war pony will do.
If so, I'm calling mine "Butt Stallion", as I doubt the bossfight in Borderlands DLC I crave shall ever come to pass...
I think there's some confusion here, or Trent may have misspoke - it's not that only people who pre-ordered will get an extra bonus, but rather than with the additional time we've added some things that we weren't going to add. Unfortunately they're both not yet finished, but one will be going out as an announced feature in a post-release updates, and the other will be going out as a super secret (but really cool) easter egg in one of the post-release updates.
He did say it was for those who pre-ordered. This is a little disappointing.
How about letting those of us who pre-downloaded play a couple of hours early? That'd make me more than happy. Giddy probably, if I'm being completely honest.
Are you really just upset that it's not exclusive? That seems rather selfish to me. It's still an extra thing that wasn't originally planned, and it's still free. I don't understand where this "disappointment" is coming from.
People decided not to give money early to show faith in the company, that seems pretty selfish to me. I don't see how it's a reward for pre-ordering if those who didn't pre-order get it.
Some of those people didn't give money early because they couldn't afford it at the time. Or because they wanted to wait until they could give the full $20. Or because they don't make a habit of preordering games in general. Or because they didn't want to be spending all their time looking forward to the game months in advance (as is often the case when you preorder something). Or because they were waiting to get it for Christmas as a gift from their parents/loved ones/friends.
I agree that it's great for people to preorder, if nothing else than as a sign of good faith.
But when we're talking about significant content (rather than just a forum badge), it doesn't make sense to only give it to a select group of people just because they happened to get in while the discount was active. How many of the preorders were because of the 10% discount?
And of the people who preordered, how many people expressed outrage and disgust after the announcement of the delay? That's not exactly selfless, altruistic, supportive behavior either. But maybe they should just give the extras to the people who preordered who didn't act hurt and disappointed when the delay was announced.
Or maybe they should just give the extras to the people who preordered and have said nothing but supportive things over the last five months. How many people does that leave?
Whether you preordered or not isn't a good metric for whether or not you support the game or its development team. So instead, be glad that they're creating some extra content, and be additionally glad that they're giving it to everybody, so that when it's released we can all have a big long talk as a community about it. (Probably pointing out fallacies and things we'd do better, but as a community nonetheless.)
Rather than the alternative, which is content that only a select few people would get to enjoy, and which nobody else would be able to comment on because they wouldn't be able to use it.
You still didn't answer how, if everyone gets it, it's rewarding those who preordered. I'm excited to see the mental gymnastics.
As for "what would be better": I hardly ever get on the forums, and once the game is out, I probably won't be back until next year for BGII, so I really don't care about this amazing conversation you think we're all going to have. What I really think is 'best' is for companies to do what they say they're going to do, which in this case, is giving something to those who preordered.
You still didn't answer how, if everyone gets it, it's rewarding those who preordered. I'm excited to see the mental gymnastics.
It rewards you because you get to have it. It's a bonus because it's something the developers decided to do as an extra thing because of the strong support of the preorders. It's something to reward that good faith.
If I have a box of gold coins, and I decide to give a gold coin to everybody in the room, that means everybody gets rewarded with a gold coin. If my decision to give that gold away is the result of one person in the room saying something nice to me, then everyone's gold coin is a reward for that one person's good deed. And guess what? That one super-cool person gets the reward too.
As for "what would be better": I hardly ever get on the forums, and once the game is out, I probably won't be back until next year for BGII, so I really don't care about this amazing conversation you think we're all going to have.
What you're suggesting is that, to reward you for your "selfless good deed", the company should create a reward that only you get, specifically because you don't care about the people who didn't do that same "selfless good deed". As a company, if you did that, you'd be alienating every customer that came to purchase your product after that point, because at that point they would be receiving only part of a product that they could have gotten whole if they'd just known about it beforehand.
Returning to the gold coins, that's like saying that because the one person said something nice about me, I should give that person all of the gold coins. Which sort of negates the whole selfless good deed aspect, really.
What I really think is 'best' is for companies to do what they say they're going to do, which in this case, is giving something to those who preordered.
And they're doing that. They're also giving the same thing to those who didn't preorder. At no point did anyone say "We're working on something exclusive for." They said, "We're working on something extra for you." In fact, that statement holds no promise of anything whatsoever. But more importantly, it also doesn't say that you'll get something nobody else will get.
And guess what? If you don't come to the forums to jabber about it, the result for you will be exactly the same.
To me its not really about the fact that its exclusive to pre-orderers or available to everyone. Yes I did pre-order, and while its fun to get a shiny "I'm special badge" I can see the other side as well.
I'm much more miffed (just miffed mind you, not outraged or any such silliness) that the "reward" I've been waiting for has been left completely vague and ambiguous. An unannounced feature and an Easter Egg? Not exactly mind blowing, unless the feature to come, turns out to be something spectacular. I was expecting something fairly tangible, like a magic item, a costume, or perhaps something even greater like a new class kit. A "feature" could be anything. And then on top of that these rewards are not even finished yet. So the compensation for their tardiness, is now tardy.
Like I said I'm not angry, just underwhelmed. Maybe once the mysterious feature is revealed I'll be more generous with my thanks. I think they'd have probably been better off not promising any rewards at all, but then just to slip these extras in as bonus content, and then we'd all be super excited when we came across them. Instead I feel like they were trying to buy our patience off with gifts, and now the gifts are not that great.
@Aosaw I've in no way done a selfless act. I pre-ordered because it's something I want, and I assumed that there would be a reward involved (at the time of my purchase, $2 off, but still, not selfless).
You're gold coin analogy is the same as the "Everyone Wins" phenomenon, it's supposed to be kind, but it really just takes away from those who won. If you were really smart, you'd only give a gold coin to those who did the nice thing, then everyone else would do nice things too.
And, Trent did say he was working on something special for those who preordered (obviously as a reward for doing so and then finding out the date was pushed). While I'm getting it, it wasn't for me, it was for everyone who bought the game, before or after release. Again, everyone wins, which really just takes away from the people who preordered, leaving them wondering why they did.
Like Rogue, I'm not mad, just underwhelmed/disappointed. I'll still download the game, I'll still enjoy it, I'm just not as happy as I could have been.
Comments
@Kristie83 - The bonus merchants were originally a little bonus the devs had included in the collector's edition of BG2, and they were exclusive to that edition. However, the collector's edition wasn't being charged extra specifically because of the bonus merchants; hence, however tricky to assess this, I would personally say they were a free addition.
Shortly after the release of the game, those merchants became available to everyone from non-official (and possibly non-legit) sources.
When support for the game was being abandoned, the devs included them in one of the last ToB patches for everyone to have ligitimately; after all, the collector's edition of BG2 had ceased being available for a while, then.
you can get a 10% discount on the manufactoring of ankheg plate mail. but when you take the discount you will have to wait 2 months untill they are done. :P
@decado We are being patient. We're just speculating on what it might be. We've already been told it will be post-release.
To all who have pre-ordered, we ask for your patience as we move toward our final release date.We will be working on something a little extra for you.
As you can see, Trent was talking to pre-orderers (at the begining of the statement) and promised 'something a little extra' for them (at the end of the statement). I think it's perfectly clear.
Phillip is stating the extras they're adding in the extra development time will be "post release" updates, with absolutely no timeframe, meaning they could have done that anyway and their delays are just due to poor planning.
I'm still going to be happy when I can finally download this game, but I will certainly never preorder anything from these guys again.
Or embody perfectly all the cool people I've met in Denmark.
(I believe I read somewhere that you were Danish?)
Anyhoo.. Carry on!
It doesn't need to be huge - art? music? But some token thing would be nice for the customers who backed you early, and who you said you'd give something a little extra. (Of course, free DLC or a iOS or android version would be great too :-)
But because it would be awful to just give it to the preorders, they're giving it to everybody.
So it's a gesture of good will to everyone who's waited for the game, not just the people who took advantage of the early discount.
Trent's statement seemed like indeed, he was talking about the pre-orderers, but i kind of disagree with giving something extra only to them.
Everyone is being given something extra, although the extra time would be to fix bugs and polish the game so it is being ready for ship.
I don't get today's mentality sometimes. Are these ridiculous pre-orders that give in-game items or other crap spoiling people too much?
Anyway, peace.
I don't see why these people don't deserve something extra while others wait to see if it's good enough to spend their money.
Are you really just upset that it's not exclusive? That seems rather selfish to me. It's still an extra thing that wasn't originally planned, and it's still free. I don't understand where this "disappointment" is coming from.
I agree that it's great for people to preorder, if nothing else than as a sign of good faith.
But when we're talking about significant content (rather than just a forum badge), it doesn't make sense to only give it to a select group of people just because they happened to get in while the discount was active. How many of the preorders were because of the 10% discount?
And of the people who preordered, how many people expressed outrage and disgust after the announcement of the delay? That's not exactly selfless, altruistic, supportive behavior either. But maybe they should just give the extras to the people who preordered who didn't act hurt and disappointed when the delay was announced.
Or maybe they should just give the extras to the people who preordered and have said nothing but supportive things over the last five months. How many people does that leave?
Whether you preordered or not isn't a good metric for whether or not you support the game or its development team. So instead, be glad that they're creating some extra content, and be additionally glad that they're giving it to everybody, so that when it's released we can all have a big long talk as a community about it. (Probably pointing out fallacies and things we'd do better, but as a community nonetheless.)
Rather than the alternative, which is content that only a select few people would get to enjoy, and which nobody else would be able to comment on because they wouldn't be able to use it.
I know which outcome I'd prefer.
As for "what would be better": I hardly ever get on the forums, and once the game is out, I probably won't be back until next year for BGII, so I really don't care about this amazing conversation you think we're all going to have. What I really think is 'best' is for companies to do what they say they're going to do, which in this case, is giving something to those who preordered.
If I have a box of gold coins, and I decide to give a gold coin to everybody in the room, that means everybody gets rewarded with a gold coin. If my decision to give that gold away is the result of one person in the room saying something nice to me, then everyone's gold coin is a reward for that one person's good deed. And guess what? That one super-cool person gets the reward too. What you're suggesting is that, to reward you for your "selfless good deed", the company should create a reward that only you get, specifically because you don't care about the people who didn't do that same "selfless good deed". As a company, if you did that, you'd be alienating every customer that came to purchase your product after that point, because at that point they would be receiving only part of a product that they could have gotten whole if they'd just known about it beforehand.
Returning to the gold coins, that's like saying that because the one person said something nice about me, I should give that person all of the gold coins. Which sort of negates the whole selfless good deed aspect, really. And they're doing that. They're also giving the same thing to those who didn't preorder. At no point did anyone say "We're working on something exclusive for." They said, "We're working on something extra for you." In fact, that statement holds no promise of anything whatsoever. But more importantly, it also doesn't say that you'll get something nobody else will get.
And guess what? If you don't come to the forums to jabber about it, the result for you will be exactly the same.
I'm much more miffed (just miffed mind you, not outraged or any such silliness) that the "reward" I've been waiting for has been left completely vague and ambiguous. An unannounced feature and an Easter Egg? Not exactly mind blowing, unless the feature to come, turns out to be something spectacular. I was expecting something fairly tangible, like a magic item, a costume, or perhaps something even greater like a new class kit. A "feature" could be anything. And then on top of that these rewards are not even finished yet. So the compensation for their tardiness, is now tardy.
Like I said I'm not angry, just underwhelmed. Maybe once the mysterious feature is revealed I'll be more generous with my thanks. I think they'd have probably been better off not promising any rewards at all, but then just to slip these extras in as bonus content, and then we'd all be super excited when we came across them. Instead I feel like they were trying to buy our patience off with gifts, and now the gifts are not that great.
You're gold coin analogy is the same as the "Everyone Wins" phenomenon, it's supposed to be kind, but it really just takes away from those who won. If you were really smart, you'd only give a gold coin to those who did the nice thing, then everyone else would do nice things too.
And, Trent did say he was working on something special for those who preordered (obviously as a reward for doing so and then finding out the date was pushed). While I'm getting it, it wasn't for me, it was for everyone who bought the game, before or after release. Again, everyone wins, which really just takes away from the people who preordered, leaving them wondering why they did.
Like Rogue, I'm not mad, just underwhelmed/disappointed. I'll still download the game, I'll still enjoy it, I'm just not as happy as I could have been.