DIVINE AURA, what is the catch?!

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...