by Byron Mudry on Nov 24, 2004
We at TenTonHammer.com have seen a lot of comments and critiques over the Collectors edition and the additional cost over the last few days. I thought that we should provide a brief review of the box contents and our opinion of the value of the Collectors edition. Both Ratboy and Myself (Messiah) purchased the Collectors edition and are providing this as feedback to all those that have yet to purchase the game.
The Collectors addition comes with the following main items in addition to the regular version. The game on CD and DVD, a hardcover art book, a behind the scenes DVD, a sound track of the in-game music, a cloth map, access to a special in-game pet, and a 10 day guest pass. We will go through the items and give our opinion on them, then provide an overview of the entire package.
- Having the game in both formats is very handy and stops having to disk swap on install, but still allows those without a DVD drive to access the Collectors version. The DVD is a nice addition to the package but not essential. Not worth significantly more in our opinion.
- A one month subscription to the game saves immediate billing at $13-$15US (depending on the payment schedule you choose), this obviously translates quite easily. The cost of the Collectors edition is really about $15 less than the retail cost, as you are paying the first month subscription.
- The hard cover art book is amazing! If you are at all into fantasy art the book is worth the cost difference on its own (at least in our opinion). In fact my non-gamer wife looked at the package and was blown away by the book and spent half an hour browsing back and forth through it. Well worth the effort and money on Blizzards end to make the book available!
- The behind the scenes DVD is a nice touch and its nice to see high res versions of the cinematic as well. A cool touch for all the Blizzard fan boys out there. Worth a couple of dollars for sure, even if you only watch through it once.
- The soundtrack of the games music is a very nice addition in our opinion. The music in game is very well done. With the soundtrack you can really geek out and sit at work listening to the game music and thinking about adventuring when you get home (yeah we are really that geeky).
- We were really looking forward to the cloth map in the box to post on the wall behind our respective computers. The map to us was a huge letdown. I was expecting something along the lines of the old Ultima cloth maps, and this one just does not stack up in our opinion. It could have been larger and made from better materials. A big thumbs down on this one.
- Access to a special in game pet. You can have a mini-diablo, zergling or panda as a pet on any character you create. This one is kind of cool, but not a necessity. Not even sure its worth anything as so many people have them because of so many collectors version sales.
- A 10 day guest pass is also included in the box. This one is definitely worth a few dollars, and I will explain why. Do you have a friend that you really like gaming with online, but cant seem to justify the expense of a MMORPG? This is how you sucker them in, err, I mean lure them to the dark side, err, enlighten their lives with a new entertainment experience. Yeah, thats right, enlighten their lives! Go with it. Anyway, we all know that once they get a chance to play the game, your friend will rush out and buy it and you will now have another party or guild member to explore with. It is worth it for you as you gain an in game friend and definitely worth it for Blizzard as they gain another customer. I am almost sure that this is why CD and DVD are included in the box, so you can borrow out a set of media. A brilliant marketing plan!
Overall Impression
One thing that I have not mentioned that also improves the Collectors edition in our view is the box itself. It is large and made to look like an old leather bound slip cover, and is much more impressive than the small normal cardboard box.
Overall we both really like the Collectors version and found it to be worth the extra money. In Canada it was $99 instead of $64 for the normal copy. To both of us the art book alone is worth more than that price difference. Throw in all the other extras in the box and we think Blizzard has a real winning combination on their hands. Anyone that has not picked up the game yet, should seriously consider buying the Collectors version instead of the normal version.