The Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns pre-purchase announcement sent the community into a state of agitation, to put it mildly. This was exacerbated by a silence on the part of ArenaNet, a silence which has been broken today as the studio addressed the various related issues head-on in a new post.

For starters, ArenaNet announced that it will be adding a free character slot to all veteran players who had registered their accounts before January 23, 2015. This means that players looking to roll up a new Revenant come the expansion will not have to worry about space issues.

The studio clarified its stance on how it’s been marketing the game as of late, saying that it did not intend to deceive players. For those who bought the core game over the past few months thinking that it was required for the expansion, ArenaNet said that it will be offering refunds or a new character slot, depending on where the game was purchased.

Finally, ArenaNet said that all future Guild Wars 2 expansion purchases will include the core game and previous expansions bundled together.