Guild Wars 2

Seriously, everything in the game is going to put in the gemstore: pets, armors, weapons…well again some months and we will only have to log in, spend our money and click on gemstore for everything, and nothing will remain to do in the game. I don’t understand this decision of anet to focus so much on the gemstore..ye i know it gives many money, but they are the same Anet thats made GW1. And i don’t to want to speak how much gw2 is different from gw1 (ye, im a gw1 veteran and i miss many things of it) because its too long. But the gw1 business that anet took in the past i think was perfect…da** they sold 7 milions copies, i know from players with i played in gw1 that many buy things in the store, but these things were extra bank slot, char slots, some new missions…but very poor things in confront of the entire game.; there were no armors(only town clothes), no weapons…why? why armors and weapons skins are the core of the game. If you permit to obtain “the core” of the game with real money…the game begins to have no sense. Put boost, crafting station, or others things like that, bu please anet..stop putting armor and weapons skins!. Becuase puttint weapons and armors skins in the GW2 gemstore, its like putting the end game raid gear in wow,rift,tera,aion store. What’s kind of pleasure is to obtain an AWESOMECOOLXXX3943SKIN with ten euros/dollars and a bottom push?…Fow,Uw,Urgoz,HoH,DoA, killing an epic boss or something like thakittens the RIGHT way (in my opinion) to obtain the “faboulous skins”.
I would know your opinion about this aspect of the game.

Ps: sorry for my english.

It’s extremely likely that NCSoft has had a lot more influence in how the game was created/the shape and development of the game.

Now that the obvious has been done and over with, I think it’s clear to see that ANet hasn’t really been taking in anything, they’ve just been cleaning out all the derogatory threads. The original GW1 was about weapon and armor skins too iirc at the endgame, and towards the development of GW2 I remember them putting some armor/weapon appearance skins in their pay shop (presumably to see how they’d sell), and they probably sold pretty well for them to have put it in this game too, but with “a chance of obtaining” instead of a straight buy.

Albert Of Tyria.2149:

[…]but they are the same Anet thats made GW1. […]

They are not. (Maybe they were in the beginning, but it changed a lot. E.g. two of the three founders of GW have left, etc.)

Navi.7142:

Albert Of Tyria.2149:

[…]but they are the same Anet thats made GW1. […]

They are not. (Maybe they were in the beginning, but it changed a lot. E.g. two of the three founders of GW have left, etc.)

Oh sorry, miss this…now i begins to understand some things; hope will not go like WAR…

The two co-founders of ArenaNet, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain, that left moved to NCSoft West in 2008 (which they subsequently left, as well). Mike O’Brien is still with us. =) That was long before Guild Wars 2 was released, and has had little impact on the game now, I believe. NCSoft has owned ArenaNet since 2002, and Guild Wars did quite well, considering.

Gemstore skins are not endgame. They are just for looking cool while you do endgame

Personally I think there are much better looking skins in the game than on the gemstore. Certainly looks that showcase your accomplishments and carry much more prestige.

My look:
Crafted, drop, cultural, dungeon, legendary, order. No gem store items.

For most people interested in “end game” gem store skins will never qualify for exactly the reasons you gave. They want something rare and unusual that other people are supposed to be impressed they have. If other people know they just had to pay for it then it’s not special or impressive and there is no reason to get it.

For people who are just interested in making a nice/cool look, well it depends on what those skins are. Personally I haven’t seen any gem store skins I like, certainly not more than ones I can get in-game. If I do and I can get them without wasting money on a ridiculous RNG system then I’ll get them, but most likely I’ll stick to in-game skins.

GW1 wasn’t updated even close to the consistent amount of updates we are getting (someone’s probably going to argue about the quality of the updates, however, in terms of amount of content these patches are significantly larger) in GW2. Anet is a business, in order to fund this content they need to put things in the gemstore. GW1’s business model focused on pumping out large Campaigns/Expansions which were worth money, GW2’s business model is pumping out free, smaller content with money made through gemstore purchases.

Nothing in the gemstore is required, there are plenty of awesome skins that are available other ways (though I hate how a chunk of these gemstore skins use RNG boxes). If you really, really want something in the gemstore without spending real money you can always just trade gold for gems and buy it.

A RL friend of mine started today in GW2. HE asked how vital buying gems is.

I said: Well, let’s open it and look at it.
The only thing I would suggest to him to buy currently, is the Harvesting sickle.

EVERYTHING ELSE is “nice to have” over “must have”. Skins, boosts and so on really do not make or break the game. (Heck, the Dragon helmet is not in the gem store,. it is at the fireworks party as a gift, so even that is not a rule of thumb).

Even the boosts are not something urgently needed. We were grouped and played for three hours, in which time he hit level 5. I am sure we could have gotten further, but he was having so much fun simply watching NPCs interact and checking out the artwork around the Iron Citadel that we did not play the whole time.

Things that he may want to get in time are things like bag slots on a main or bank slots… but that these things cost actually make sense to me. They are a service. In other MMOs you needed to have alt accounts and bank mules to do the same job.

Maybe I don’t see the gem store as serious because I have few expensive hobbies, so I can allow myself to buy gems once a month. But looking at everything I got on my account, really, nothing made or broke the game for me in the end.

I agree with you in the part you state that te core of the game revolts around skins, that are or could be sold in the gem-store. This is very smart because it won’t create a “pay-to-win-upheaval”… very smart of anet.

There is no armor you can buy in the gemstore, only skins and that’s not different from GW1. The only difference is that those skins in GW1 were ONLY available through the gemstore, no way of getting them ingame.

The gw costumes has to be purchased once and then you could wear them on each character. You could destroy them and get them back.
You could wear them during fights.

Yeah, you could only buy them with your money, but most of them were worth their money, especially if you really liked how they looked.

Ohh, I miss how they handled it in gw… :-(

The costumes you can buy for GW2 are worth their money too, if you really like how they look. But that’s beside the point. It’s only costumes, they don’t help you play the game in any way, nothing you get in the gemstore has stats. Even the harvesting sickle is just for convenience since you can get sickles for karma, thus, for free.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

The two co-founders of ArenaNet, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain, that left moved to NCSoft West in 2008 (which they subsequently left, as well). Mike O’Brien is still with us. =) That was long before Guild Wars 2 was released, and has had little impact on the game now, I believe. NCSoft has owned ArenaNet since 2002, and Guild Wars did quite well, considering.

Are you sure about that? Because I’ve been following the statements since the beginning when I turned my attention towards this game about what they were originally talking about doing and things like cosmetic armors only and all open world only (0 dungeons) comes to mind instantly.

Then as time progressed as launch crept closer they made massive changes to their design talk, like adding armor that had stats and then there’s what happened in November with both FotM and Ascended gear (where there was no gap before they made one and then claimed it had been there all along). I’m sorry man but that seems like someone stopped or left the scene sometime after the whole thing began.

Seems to me something happened and I do think that NCsoft is very much in control of the economy of this game, I mean seriously look at what they’ve done with the profits. I’ve seen companies take money from a highly profitable venture before but never like this, they at least usually pour money into the moneymaker to improve it for the customers before doing that, that’s not what NCsoft has done, they’ve tried to squeeze blood from a turnip with constant nerfs to loot, algorithms that don’t function like other games when it comes to drops (which I am suspicious of, it’s weird that in 2013 we’re seeing a 2004 style algorithm in a game this modern), with DR that actually cuts off loot eventually and rather quickly.

I know it sounds tinfoil hat here but cmon after months and months of no one checking there’s gotta be something going on, heck it took 5 months to look into the killcredit bug and I’m still convinced it was due to dungeoneers actually not seeing a chest appear and complaining about it.

We’ll see if they do good by revamping the rewards system so that it’s not only relatively easy to acquire what we need and quick just by doing the things we normally do (events metas etc) then It will change my mind but until then I can’t help but wonder sometimes if it’s not a bug, if it’s really a sound business plan in some execs drawer somewhere. I’m hoping it will be a nice change I really am but everytime I get my hopes up with this title I get let down lately, yeah know?

Not to mention there’s also something else to consider, the enormous amount of Magic Find % that one with the weird perma DR problem needs to get anything to drop at all in the game. It’s like they want at least 300% or more to get anything.

Yes, I’m sure about that. Look it up yourself, if you care to.

Truth being told Anet needs the cash, no cash no game. The skins you can get from the store are fairly useless and in all honesty quite ugly as well. Leaving aside the back quiver they sold in the last patch was it? Or was it the one before? I dunno. Were quite good, injected some cash into their pockets and everyone happy.

On the other hand, sad reality this game got no end game, sure there is the legendary massive grind and T3 cultural bla bla bla. But what does any of that proves? That you ran CoF P.1 like a mofo? Or that you spend way too much time in the game? Neither show any level of skill or progression sadly enough. Now as you might have notice, the game is getting far too much negative feed back, WvW matches are getting worse every week, the lag is unbearable thus making you fight the game rather than your opponents. Spvp? I been there the past few days, lucky if I end in a match that doesn’t have a random rank 1 person, spvp is pretty much death.

Now pve which is what most people seem to be doing, is also a deep hole, no end game progression, no real achievements, no new content. Sure “Living story” is suppose to be new content, but in reality is the same thing over and over with 2 lines of story that I could best while sitting on the toilet “trust me I DM tons of story and used to make a living by doing so” So game is dying slowly, but surely, face it if this game was a sub based game it would have sink faster than SWTOR did, however is free, so you can log once a day do your daily and hope something good will happen someday.

Now how do they improve this mess? They need to hire competent people, listen to their community and probably start evaluating what turned WoW into such a success that no one can kill. For that they need cash, cash comes from the cash shop, so if they balance the items they sell with the updates they make I bet the cash will come flowing like a river. However for as long as they keep selling “Chances at some random skin” and giving only recycled content that isn’t good at all to begin with, people who share my feeling will keep our wallets closed. That is if we even continue to log into the game.

I know that things in the gemstore don’t give you more power to your charcater or other like that. But the problem is that the game is based on skins. Many of you said that there many other awesome skins around the game, and those one in the gemstore are irrelevant…well for me not. If you pay attenction at living story updates, all new skins were obtainable through the gemstore, some directly and some with RNG boxes, and the dragon bash skins that you can obtain also in the game..has a ridicolous drop rate, that suggest you to buy rich coffer ( that in my opinion has a similar drop rate). Well i think in a skin based game is inconceivable that NO PERMANENT new armor and weapon skins have added since the start of the game…this is the problem. Since 28 august the only new skins have been temporary skins that you can obtained thought real money or through a ridicolous drop rate in the game. The problem would not exist if, while putting 1-2 particular skins in the gemstore, in the meanwhile you put a triple number of permanet skins in the game. In gw1 there were some skins in the store, but they were irrelvant cause in game there were hundred of skins, and many were better than ones in the store. But in gw2 its not the same. I think that after 1 year, a player could bore about the same skins that game offers, and seeing that the only new skins that he could acquire are in the gemstore. In my opinion the game is loosing its sense.

Almost there, OP

Everything you can get in game, you can get through the gemstore.

Want to buy that nice T3 set? Shame you can’t afford it with in game gold, but you can if you buy gems and convert it!

To be honest I don’t mind the skins that they put in the gem store because
1. We get skins for free with every event (weapons from SAB, F and F gloves, backpieces from Southsun, helmets and backpieces from dragon bash) and I find those skins quite pretty. Also unlike the gem store skins they prove that you were at the time of this and that event, which a year from now will actually mean something. It just feels like getting something unique.
2. Skins are cosmetics. We’re not paying a subscription fee so cosmetics is indeed what has to keep the game alive. I’m happy that it’s not buy to win items.
3. You can convert gold to gems
What I do mind is skins in RNG boxes.

Vol.5241:

Want to buy that nice T3 set? Shame you can’t afford it with in game gold, but you can if you buy gems and convert it!

Didn’t need to do that for my Tier 3 and not doing it for my second set of Tier 3 for my alt.

Need? No. Want? Possibly.

There is nothing you need that is from the gem store.

Creeper.9360:

Need? No. Want? Possibly.

There is nothing you need that is from the gem store.

This. You don’t need the gemstore but you CAN. And i understand that many people don’t mind about skins in the gemstore and that is not a pay to win because they don’t give you more power…but i repeat, this i a SKIN GAME BASED. End game raid gear of wow,rift,tera etc= new skins in GW2. And you can’t find raid gear in rift,wow,etc store. Ye, i can don’t mind about the skins in the gemstore, but i think its not the right way for a game of this type, especially when no permanent new skins obtainable throught the game, like dungeon or wvw, were added since the 28 august.

Do you think have sold out? Or do you think they will sell out?

Don’t hate the band until they release rubbish and end up on a pepsi commercial. And if they do there are plenty of other bands.

I’m sure this will fall on deaf ears, but please, no more Nostradamus’.

Mirta.5029:

To be honest I don’t mind the skins that they put in the gem store because
1. We get skins for free with every event (weapons from SAB, F and F gloves, backpieces from Southsun, helmets and backpieces from dragon bash) and I find those skins quite pretty. Also unlike the gem store skins they prove that you were at the time of this and that event, which a year from now will actually mean something. It just feels like getting something unique.
2. Skins are cosmetics. We’re not paying a subscription fee so cosmetics is indeed what has to keep the game alive. I’m happy that it’s not buy to win items.
3. You can convert gold to gems
What I do mind is skins in RNG boxes.

Vol.5241:

Want to buy that nice T3 set? Shame you can’t afford it with in game gold, but you can if you buy gems and convert it!

Didn’t need to do that for my Tier 3 and not doing it for my second set of Tier 3 for my alt.

Gameplay today is completely different than gameplay a month ago.

You can no longer make gold in this game.

This past week I bet I’ve made no more than 15g. If we still had farming, I would have made 140g.

New players are gonna have a tough time

Albert Of Tyria.2149:

Creeper.9360:

Need? No. Want? Possibly.

There is nothing you need that is from the gem store.

This. You don’t need the gemstore but you CAN. And i understand that many people don’t mind about skins in the gemstore and that is not a pay to win because they don’t give you more power…but i repeat, this i a SKIN GAME BASED. End game raid gear of wow,rift,tera etc= new skins in GW2. And you can’t find raid gear in rift,wow,etc store. Ye, i can don’t mind about the skins in the gemstore, but i think its not the right way for a game of this type, especially when no permanent new skins obtainable throught the game, like dungeon or wvw, were added since the 28 august.

I do agree that I’d like more permanent content (including skins) to be added to the game, but there are some new skins added after release. There’s the guild weapons set, for example (1 of each weapon, my guardian is using the greatsword, staff and shield from those, plus backpack and back banner), there’s also the fractal weapons (again, 1 of each), some others that were added to the existing bosses (final rest to the shadow behemoth chest), plus several temporary skins are bound to keep coming back from time to time (the seasonal event skins, for example, and maybe the SAB ones as well).

Vol.5241:

Gameplay today is completely different than gameplay a month ago.

You can no longer make gold in this game.

This past week I bet I’ve made no more than 15g. If we still had farming, I would have made 140g.

New players are gonna have a tough time

You missed the great dragon bash farm of coffers then.
1st night of activity release – a single zhaitaffy was selling for over a silver (I remember 60 of them netting me over a gold)
2, 3, 4th day – coffer price steadily falls from 6 to 3 silver. Before it reached 2 silver it was profitable to run and farm them. Netted me about 50 gold that and I didn’t have that much time to do it.
Other than that meta event farming income has not changed that much. The only changes that I noticed – crystalline dust price is down, some yellows became oddly expensive (I sold a rabid yellow ring for 60 silver mostly thinking “the hell? Why is the price so high?”). Also core drop rate seems to have been increased (have gotten about 4 cores in the last few days. 3 of them from low level fractals. Each one sells for over a G).
I don’t find it more troublesome to make money today.

Vol.5241:

Gameplay today is completely different than gameplay a month ago.

You can no longer make gold in this game.

Maybe not at the rate you require, I beg to differ. My evidence? Only my testimony.

Made a little over 4g in an hour and a half today.

Nothing you NEED is in the gemstore.
Gemstore armours are skins, they don’t have stats.
Gemstore weapons are either skins or have to be obtained through RNG boxes. Boxes which you can get in game.
The gemstore offers no real advantage and you don’t ever have to buy anything… Stop whining >.>

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Nothing you NEED is in the gemstore.
Gemstore armours are skins, they don’t have stats.
Gemstore weapons are either skins or have to be obtained through RNG boxes. Boxes which you can get in game.
The gemstore offers no real advantage and you don’t ever have to buy anything… Stop whining >.>

The topic title can be wrong interpreted. As i said in messages before, i know that nothing in the gemstore gives you advantages and im not whining….so please read all the discussion before post something, not only the title. What i mean is that the purpose in this game is to collect skins cause there is no gear progression with raid or other like that (except ascended). And when the purpose is collecting skins, they can’t put the majority of new skins throught the gemstore, without putting new permanent skins in the game.