Guild Wars 2

Firstly, I am pleased that “features” have been added to the game. To what extent I will leave for another post. What bothers me is how everything has been implemented.

Wardrobe locker: Great idea which should have been in the game day 1. With a game prideful in horizontal progression, the original skin system was done very poorly. After a year and a half, we get a wardrobe feature complete with a “BUY NOW” button next to transmutes. Is ANYONE fooled into believing this feature was implemented for any reason other than promoting gem store sales?

Account bound dyes: Great idea. Only implemented because they made the decision to eliminate world drops, making dyes primarily available on…you guessed it…the gem store.

Megaserver: Great idea to reduce dead zones. Implemented to reduce number of servers online, reducing cost of leasing servers.

I am bothered with the idea that Anet cannot give players any new features without the gem store attached. It makes sense as a greedy business model, but everything is veiled as a “You voiced, we listened!” addition, where really it was only implemented because it got a stamp of “Yeah this will make more money.”

I’ll go on a limb and say that guild v guild will be added, at the cost of gem store “challenge” tokens or some clever way to add a cost to making the most of it.

I’m half-expecting a gem store purchase for bug fixes in the future. Anyone else feel this way?

There are plenty of gem store ‘promotions’ that are borderline scams (taking out the convenience of Lion’s Arch and trying to sell it back to us as a microtransaction, taking out the convenience of choosing your traits and imposing a gems-to-gold price on bypassing the grind), but I really don’t think the wardrobe is one of them.

They’ve made it easier for people to transmute, and made people more likely to want to transmute (account-bound rather than soul-bound skins), in order to sell more transmutation crystals? Sure. But the game is better than it was before, so even if it is just to sell more gemstore stuff I don’t mind it.

Yes, OP I do feel this way as well.
You will get many white knights telling us how gem sales are the only way Anet makes money.
What I think people forget though is that GW1 did have an online store for costumes and skill packs yet that store never made me feel like I was being nickel and dimed. I gladly spent way way more money on ALL those items but not GW2.
I was thinking the other day about the monetization of the wardrobe and dye set but didn’t think about the megaserver being a cost saving measure. Good one OP.
Lack of new permanent meaningful content as well as the Herb Tarlek in your face gemstore has made myself, and I am certain others, look for another game.
If Anet wants to get my money again they will need to start off with a less in-your-face gemstore coupled with an expansion.
GW1 did so many things right but it seems that GW2 never learned from it’s better older brother

Hm? Well, as a counter;

Wardrobe: You are still awarded a transmutation charge for completing city maps (as it was 3 Stones before, which were useless to you at level 80) Additionally, there is zero benefit to skinning vs. not skinning an item. It is purely for aesthetics. If you’re absolutely sure of the look you want, then you should (ideally) know how many charges you would need to reskin your gear.

Dyes: Udyes can still be acquired by taking 4 of any crafted dye and shoving them into the mystic toilet. All those carrots and onions sitting in your collection box, guess what you can do with those? Loads of Orange dyes. I believe blue and/or gray are also pretty easy to make if you just do the (Fine) tier. You can also cough up laurels for ‘em but I personally feel like the new rate of 5 laurels for 1 Udye is pretty lame. Of course, that is assuming you need Udyes for something like the Gift of Color. If you’re just looking for aesthetics, again, the option is there to POSSIBLY craft the dye you’re looking for in the particular hue you want.

As for the gem store dyes, I’ve seen maybe 1-2 out of each series that looked unique enough to warrant wanting, which is why the TP is a beautiful thing because there’s no way I’m wasting gems on a random draw lol.

I dunno why the megaserver is brought up as it doesn’t have anything to do with the gem store.

I’ve all but given up on this game because the developers put far too much effort into “wallet fishing” and not enough into making the high quality content I signed up for.

CrockyClockwork.4095:

Firstly, I am pleased that “features” have been added to the game. To what extent I will leave for another post. What bothers me is how everything has been implemented.

Wardrobe locker: Great idea which should have been in the game day 1. With a game prideful in horizontal progression, the original skin system was done very poorly. After a year and a half, we get a wardrobe feature complete with a “BUY NOW” button next to transmutes. Is ANYONE fooled into believing this feature was implemented for any reason other than promoting gem store sales?

Account bound dyes: Great idea. Only implemented because they made the decision to eliminate world drops, making dyes primarily available on…you guessed it…the gem store.

Megaserver: Great idea to reduce dead zones. Implemented to reduce number of servers online, reducing cost of leasing servers.

I am bothered with the idea that Anet cannot give players any new features without the gem store attached. It makes sense as a greedy business model, but everything is veiled as a “You voiced, we listened!” addition, where really it was only implemented because it got a stamp of “Yeah this will make more money.”

I’ll go on a limb and say that guild v guild will be added, at the cost of gem store “challenge” tokens or some clever way to add a cost to making the most of it.

I’m half-expecting a gem store purchase for bug fixes in the future. Anyone else feel this way?

For the wardrobe there are ways to get transmutation charges through map completion and PvP without going anywhere near the gem store. The buy more button is there to make things more convenient for you if you do run out, similar to how you can buy extra bag slots for your inventory.

Also, this is the exact same gem cost as it always has been for transmutation … and not only that but you no longer need to purchase another set of gem store armor if you want to use it. I bet some people even bought gems to convert to gold to buy another set of T3 cultural. If anything the wardrobe is going to result in less gem sales, not more.

Unidentified dyes, again ways to get them without going to the gem store. You can buy them with laurels, you can craft hue specific dyes and you can then take 4 of the hue specific dyes and throw them in the forge for a regular unidentified. Also, lots of dyes available on the trading post.

There really isn’t any “blatant money-grubbin” going on here. If there were, the items I listed above would not exist.

I was going to argue against some of the points the OP made, but as I typed I found myself thinking through new aspects of the arguments, and defeating myself.

I may not agree on the details, but I do agree with the conclusion.

Yeah, to an extent. I have noticed more of a push toward the gem store. However, as a F2P game, it makes sense. I don’t see it as a “greedy business model”, but as a business, they NEED to make money to pay their employees, maintain the game, roll out new content, and ultimately increase their bottom line. Is that greedy? No. It’s how businesses work. You can only make so much money with straight game sales without having any additional income to support the product. MANY companies do this in one form or another.

If Anet didn’t do this, the game would ultimatley fail because they wouldn’t be able to defray the costs of upkeep. At least it’s not like many other “F2P” games where you can only progress so far then you have to pay to continue.

I feel like my perspective on how ANet handled a Cash Shop in both games is pretty skewed due to games like Perfect World where you could buy just about anything; like crafting mats, for irl dollas.

There’s a line that ANet knows it’ll catch Hell for if they cross it, but they haven’t come too close to it yet. (The QoL infinite Picks/Axes/Sickles draw a few steps closer, but now that they’re account bound I can’t really complain)

Because GW1 had an in your face gemstore right? Wait, didn’t they follow the same business model?
This whole you have to buy gems or Anet will fail is just malarky. Kitten malarky!

I’ll let you in on a little secret, A-net is a company and companies want to make money and they will aslong as we love to buy what they have to offer.

The Wardrope System, you honestly expected them to give up on one of their better markets (Transmutation Crystals) by introducing it? They’d be fools to do so. 25 Transmutation Charges is currently sitting around 60g, or less than 10 euros, which I find far from a rip-off, Crystals were more expensive aswell. Now there’s the added luxery you don’t have to 1. Lose an old skin you might want to use again. 2. Buy a new stat-item to store the old skin in case you change your mind.

3. No longer wasting storage space for those old skins which means you are less likely to need to buy more bank tabs.

Lastly; there is no need to transmute anything to play the game in every aspect.

Accountbound Dyes, another improved design. If they hadn’t reduced the dye drops in one way or another the dye market would completely implode. Things haven’t changed much, if you really want a dye you’re still best of buying them colour of the TP and now you only have to do it once, rather than multiple times around characters. Surely it’s sad to see they’re only available in the Gemstore now, but the alternatives were reducing the droprate, I doubt people would have preferred that.

Megaservers, should they not have introduced it because it can save them money? How does that make sense? Megaservers will allow people who enjoy open-world PvE to play together instead of the oh-so-complained-about empty maps everywhere and is a good step forward for any MMO, for both the company and the player. I’m not the biggest fan of a Megaserver, but the fact A-net can make money out of it doesn’t bother me at all.

And for Carzors point of the LA-convenience, that’s exactly what it is, convenience. I can still go to any of the Major Cities (I’m a big fan of Rata Sum) for any of the things that used to be in LA, for the Mystic Forge I quickly hope into PvP or the Vigil Keep, so I once again don’t see the issue with them offering those Airship passes. I still get the exact same services, I just have to walk a tiny bit further. Now if they locked the Mystic Forge, Laurel Vendors and Crafting stations behind a gem-store purchase with no other way of accessing them, we’d have a point.

In short:
Do you like the Wardrope System?
Do you like the Account-wide Dyes?
Do you like Megaservers?

If any of these questions answer yes, then A-net did their job, as a company they provided you with a product you enjoy and in return they make money from it. I’m in no way assuming A-nets Gemstore is perfect, but so far I’ve found it very convenient because it’s not 1. Pay to win, it’s all convenience and skins. 2. Gold > Gem, allowing me to have access to everything ingame without having to pay a penny more than I’d want to.

@ stormcrow
I’m not saying it will fail if you don’t buy gems. I’m saying that if there was no suplimental source of income (i.e. The gem store) it wouldn’t be able to to maintain it’s upkeep indefinetly. Does that mean you HAVE to buy gems? No. Does it mean that Anet is a greedy company for highlighting a suplimental source of income for the game? No. It means that Anet, like any other business, is in industry for one thing only. To make money. With this line of thought, that Anet is greedy because they are trying to make money, would mean by extension, that ANY business is greedy. Everyone from your local Mom and Pop convience store to multi million dollar corporations are greedy because they want to make money. But thats a whole other disccussion.

If you don’t like the gem store and the way it’s evolving. Don’t use it. There are plenty of others who will. And unless we can know for 100% certain the amount of money generated from gem store purchases and game purchases (input) vs. the costs and wages to keep the game running (output), there is no way to know for sure whether or not this is a “money grubbing” tactic.

Heres also something to think on. Maybe it’s not Anet that is greedy, but that those who think it’s greed motivated are just cheap?

The Buy Now button is grossly tacky and I won’t ever be pressing it. And I buy all sorts of junk from the shop. I don’t think the alleged cash grab is there but the gem shop is more in our faces.

And the day anything is put in the shop that is absolutely required to play the game is the day I say sayonara to GW2.

CrockyClockwork.4095:

Megaserver: Great idea to reduce dead zones. Implemented to reduce number of servers online, reducing cost of leasing servers.

Only old MMOs work like that. Nowadays, “cloud” servers are used, where each server, or in the case of GW2, each map instance was a virtual server running on a series of physical servers. All NA map instances were dynamically allocated on the NA server farm and EU had another one.

Megaservers reduced the need for multiple empty maps to exist, which was a waste of memory and processing. However, putting more people in one map instances doesn’t exactly make it cheaper either. Have more people near each other is more expensive because the processing and bandwidth requirements goes up for every person near another person, because each player has to be told about every other player.

The primary reason for megaservers is not from a hardware cost perspective, but from a social perspective. Having a new player join the game only to find that it is empty is devastating, because that player will now tell other people that the game is dead, which can easily kill a game.

zenleto.6179:

And the day anything is put in the shop that is absolutely required to play the game is the day I say sayonara to GW2.

Quoted for Massive Truth

Esmee.1067:

1. Lose an old skin you might want to use again. 2. Buy a new stat-item to store the old skin in case you change your mind. Lastly; there is no need to transmute anything to play the game in every aspect.

3. No longer wasting storage space for those old skins which means you are less likely to need to buy more bank tabs.

I don’t agree that the wardrobe locker will lead to increased sales for transmutation charges for Anet. For one, those of us who saved our crystals, and stones, received many free charges for any level armor. Two being that charges can be gained through a new way, pvp, where previously they were only available through world exploration chests, black lion chests, and the trading company. Ultimately charges are much easier to get for free than crystals/stones ever were.

I kind of agree with what you said about the account bound dyes. I understand, and agree, that to compensate for the massive amounts of dyes that just entered the game that their accessibility needed to drop, but I don’t think they should have been removed from drops completely. They may be obtainable through black lion chests, however, but I haven’t check yet.

As for the mega server idea, we don’t have information that Anet has actually shut down servers, and are saving money from it. While in the past maintaining servers used to be one of the main reasons MMOs had subscription payments, now server costs are very inexpensive. Some other companies, including a very big one most people have heard of, release their financial information to the public, and on their finances they had a footnote instead of a price amount for cost of maintaining servers. The footnote basically stated the cost was so miniscule that they didn’t bother to add it to their sheet. So basically for that reason I see the megaserver as a decision to make world exploration more fun, not a choice for “money grubbin”.

I will agree, I do not like the buy now button. Freak’s me out every time I do anything. Because I know they’ll be a lot of accidental purchases to come.

They need to add a Gem cost for posting on this forum. The forum moderators do a heck of a great job here responding to the community and locking inappropriate threads. They deserve to be paid more!

They could maybe afford a Dev to take a look at that darn Search box at the top of the forum that’s been mocking me all this time too.

Maybe implement a 1 Gem = 5 forum posts? Good idea?

Well, what else did you expect in a B2P game with a cash shop? I paid $120 for my WoW sub this year which is less than what a lot of you spend in a few months here. And guess what? I get access to everything in game apart from a couple of shop items that are complete fluff. Just have to go out and get it.

The transmutation charge systems means that, for the first time since launch, it’s actually practical to obtain transmutes for your level 80 gear without touching the gemstore and transmutes bought on the gemstore are now cheaper than before.

pdavis.8031:

Yeah, to an extent. I have noticed more of a push toward the gem store. However, as a F2P game, it makes sense. I don’t see it as a “greedy business model”, but as a business, they NEED to make money to pay their employees, maintain the game, roll out new content, and ultimately increase their bottom line. Is that greedy? No. It’s how businesses work. You can only make so much money with straight game sales without having any additional income to support the product. MANY companies do this in one form or another.

If Anet didn’t do this, the game would ultimatley fail because they wouldn’t be able to defray the costs of upkeep. At least it’s not like many other “F2P” games where you can only progress so far then you have to pay to continue.

that’s just untrue though. They could have initial game sells and have the gem store and make money with out EVERY ASPECT OF THE GAME REVOLVING AROUND THE GEM STORE. I’m tired of hearing this lame excuse, no one is saying they shouldn’t make money. They already showed how well they were doing before these changes and they were so proud of it they really shouldn’t need anymore cash grabs. How about some real content or a feature that is not tied to the gemstore.

CrockyClockwork.4095:

~~~ snip ~~~

To easily counter your arguments:

I have over 130 Transmutation charges, and I got them all for free from events.

I have over 400 UnID’d dyes stored in my bank, and I got them all for free as loot drops.

Moral of the story – play your cards right, and you reap the rewards.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Well, what else did you expect in a B2P game with a cash shop? I paid $120 for my WoW sub this year which is less than what a lot of you spend in a few months here. And guess what? I get access to everything in game apart from a couple of shop items that are complete fluff. Just have to go out and get it.

Not that I’m trying to brag but… okay no I’m totally bragging.

Since November 2012 I’ve spent $60 (not counting the box price) in the gem store.
If you count stuff that I got for friends as birthday presents or w/e I’ve spent closer to $90.
The important part is knowing what’s worth buying gems for and what isn’t, which I think is something a lot of players haven’t quite figured out yet unfortunately :o

I would say that given the price for unidentified dyes has jumped to 5 laurels that there is a link to the gemstore with that part of the change. I still don’t think that it’s the major reason for the change. If it was they wouldn’t have added an extra way to get uid dyes via crafting. It is currently possible to manufacture a uid dye for less than a gold this way so that the gemstore option doesn’t look all that appealing even if prices jump to this level.

As for the wardrobe, you can in no way say that the cash shop is anything other than peripheral. Those regular transmutation stones that were up until now useless for transmuting level 80 equipment can now be used meaning that you are no longer forced on to the gemstore. For all that they have now made a tacky button it is now LESS necessary to go to the gem store to change your look.

Really, given that two parts of a large number of changes have links to the gem store I don’t see how anyone can say in all apparent seriousness that every aspect of the game revolves around the gemstore.

That said, there is a line that ANet can cross here, and I’m glad that people will raise concerns when they get close, but inside from bumping up the laurel cost of dyes about the only thing to complain about is that the buy charges button is tacky, which it is, but it also is on the inventory slots and they have been around since launch.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Well, what else did you expect in a B2P game with a cash shop? I paid $120 for my WoW sub this year which is less than what a lot of you spend in a few months here. And guess what? I get access to everything in game apart from a couple of shop items that are complete fluff. Just have to go out and get it.

All I’ve ever purchased is fluff, fluff, fluff. The convience items like Permanent Gathering Tools, Boosters and Airship-passes aren’t even worth it in my opinion, they don’t offer you anything the game can’t offer you on it’s own.

DeWolfe.2174:

I will agree, I do not like the buy now button. Freak’s me out every time I do anything. Because I know they’ll be a lot of accidental purchases to come.

How are you going to accidentally purchase anything? The Buy Now button just brings up the TP window opened to the appropriate tab. Accidentally clicking isn’t going to purchase anything.

You would need to accidentally click on Buy Now.
Fail to notice the TP window popping up.
Wait a second or two for the TP to load.
Then accidentally click on one of the buttons to buy something
Then accidentally click on the button again to confirm.

That is a lot of accidental clicking on all the right places.

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

EVERY ASPECT OF THE GAME REVOLVING AROUND THE GEM STORE

I didn’t realize this! I’ve only spent money on a salvage-o-matic! if I knew this, I would have gave them the proper amount of money for this game. I knew something was messed up when i only spent $80 on an mmo!

goes off to buy some gems

But seriously, nah, i didn’t really notice the gemstore becoming more prominent. Maybe i’m blind…

pdavis.8031:

@ stormcrow
I’m not saying it will fail if you don’t buy gems. I’m saying that if there was no suplimental source of income (i.e. The gem store) it wouldn’t be able to to maintain it’s upkeep indefinetly. Does that mean you HAVE to buy gems? No. Does it mean that Anet is a greedy company for highlighting a suplimental source of income for the game? No. It means that Anet, like any other business, is in industry for one thing only. To make money. With this line of thought, that Anet is greedy because they are trying to make money, would mean by extension, that ANY business is greedy. Everyone from your local Mom and Pop convience store to multi million dollar corporations are greedy because they want to make money. But thats a whole other disccussion.

If you don’t like the gem store and the way it’s evolving. Don’t use it. There are plenty of others who will. And unless we can know for 100% certain the amount of money generated from gem store purchases and game purchases (input) vs. the costs and wages to keep the game running (output), there is no way to know for sure whether or not this is a “money grubbing” tactic.

Heres also something to think on. Maybe it’s not Anet that is greedy, but that those who think it’s greed motivated are just cheap?

Well stated.

pdavis.8031:

@ stormcrow
I’m not saying it will fail if you don’t buy gems. I’m saying that if there was no suplimental source of income (i.e. The gem store) it wouldn’t be able to to maintain it’s upkeep indefinetly. Does that mean you HAVE to buy gems? No. Does it mean that Anet is a greedy company for highlighting a suplimental source of income for the game? No. It means that Anet, like any other business, is in industry for one thing only. To make money. With this line of thought, that Anet is greedy because they are trying to make money, would mean by extension, that ANY business is greedy. Everyone from your local Mom and Pop convience store to multi million dollar corporations are greedy because they want to make money. But thats a whole other disccussion.

If you don’t like the gem store and the way it’s evolving. Don’t use it. There are plenty of others who will. And unless we can know for 100% certain the amount of money generated from gem store purchases and game purchases (input) vs. the costs and wages to keep the game running (output), there is no way to know for sure whether or not this is a “money grubbing” tactic.

Heres also something to think on. Maybe it’s not Anet that is greedy, but that those who think it’s greed motivated are just cheap?

Maybe read what I typed as well.
That GW1, you know, the game that didnt have an all encompassing focus on the gem store, did much better than GW2 does with banner buy now ads.
I would take expansion style take my sixty bucks ANYDAY over this gemstore pap.
When gemstore items out focus the content that is delivered then there is a problem.

Stormcrow.7513:

pdavis.8031:

@ stormcrow
I’m not saying it will fail if you don’t buy gems. I’m saying that if there was no suplimental source of income (i.e. The gem store) it wouldn’t be able to to maintain it’s upkeep indefinetly. Does that mean you HAVE to buy gems? No. Does it mean that Anet is a greedy company for highlighting a suplimental source of income for the game? No. It means that Anet, like any other business, is in industry for one thing only. To make money. With this line of thought, that Anet is greedy because they are trying to make money, would mean by extension, that ANY business is greedy. Everyone from your local Mom and Pop convience store to multi million dollar corporations are greedy because they want to make money. But thats a whole other disccussion.

If you don’t like the gem store and the way it’s evolving. Don’t use it. There are plenty of others who will. And unless we can know for 100% certain the amount of money generated from gem store purchases and game purchases (input) vs. the costs and wages to keep the game running (output), there is no way to know for sure whether or not this is a “money grubbing” tactic.

Heres also something to think on. Maybe it’s not Anet that is greedy, but that those who think it’s greed motivated are just cheap?

Maybe read what I typed as well.
That GW1, you know, the game that didnt have an all encompassing focus on the gem store, did much better than GW2 does with banner buy now ads.
I would take expansion style take my sixty bucks ANYDAY over this gemstore pap.
When gemstore items out focus the content that is delivered then there is a problem.

Except that guild wars 1 had a significantly smaller budget and I hope you do realize that by the time guild wars 1 was made the budgets have balloon. For example guild wars 1 only cost 20-30 million dollars to make in 2005. While in 2011 rift cost about 60-70 million.

Not only that but Anet at the time of guild wars 1 had less than a 100 people vs 300+ employees + the amount of money that Ncsoft invested in the game.

The point being guild wars 1 was a significantly smaller game in terms of scope and employees and budget. Guild wars 1 was nothing more than a glorified Diablo 1 clone with minor MMO aspects.

The point being you are making an illogical comparison. With that said, eve

Several people in this thread are making an erroneous reference to how things were in GW1. Though it is true that GW1 has skins and the like available for sale, and that they were never thrust upon potential customers like they are now, when was the last time you bought an expansion pack for GW2?

Because I remember buying GW1 4 different times, for a total sum that is triple what I have spent on GW2’s gem store. Is it ok to have an in-you-face ad campaign for the gemstore? I am indifferent. But it is very silly to say that ‘GW1 had it this way, this should be the same!’ because GW1 had a way to acquire lump sales to the same customer.

EDIT: Looks like I got beat to that punch.

Stormcrow.7513:

pdavis.8031:

@ stormcrow
I’m not saying it will fail if you don’t buy gems. I’m saying that if there was no suplimental source of income (i.e. The gem store) it wouldn’t be able to to maintain it’s upkeep indefinetly. Does that mean you HAVE to buy gems? No. Does it mean that Anet is a greedy company for highlighting a suplimental source of income for the game? No. It means that Anet, like any other business, is in industry for one thing only. To make money. With this line of thought, that Anet is greedy because they are trying to make money, would mean by extension, that ANY business is greedy. Everyone from your local Mom and Pop convience store to multi million dollar corporations are greedy because they want to make money. But thats a whole other disccussion.

If you don’t like the gem store and the way it’s evolving. Don’t use it. There are plenty of others who will. And unless we can know for 100% certain the amount of money generated from gem store purchases and game purchases (input) vs. the costs and wages to keep the game running (output), there is no way to know for sure whether or not this is a “money grubbing” tactic.

Heres also something to think on. Maybe it’s not Anet that is greedy, but that those who think it’s greed motivated are just cheap?

Maybe read what I typed as well.
That GW1, you know, the game that didnt have an all encompassing focus on the gem store, did much better than GW2 does with banner buy now ads.
I would take expansion style take my sixty bucks ANYDAY over this gemstore pap.
When gemstore items out focus the content that is delivered then there is a problem.

I didn’t really get into GW1, so any such comparisons don’t mean much to me. Furthermore, GW1 IS NOT GW2. From what I understand, the only real connections those 2 games share, aside from the name, is the lore.

It’s been mentioned that every aspect of the game revolves around the gem store. I have yet to see that ANYWHERE. What aspects are being referred to? Even so, although the gem store may be “in your face” there is no other reason to use it other than cosmetic items.There will always be those suckers who must have “The new ultra awesome weapon/armor skin of doom” and will be willing to pay real cash for it. And in staying on topic with the OP, this does not make Anet greedy money grubbers. It means that people are suckers.

I would also have an OPTIONAL gem store than pop up banner ads any day of the week.

pdavis.8031:

There will always be those suckers who must have “The new ultra awesome weapon/armor skin of doom” and will be willing to pay real cash for it.

Nothing wrong with paying money for something you like! At least not any more wrong than paying $50 for a game that you might like.

Cormac.3871:

I would say that given the price for unidentified dyes has jumped to 5 laurels that there is a link to the gemstore with that part of the change.

It’s mostly in combination with the fact that the Bifrost now only requires 100 unid dyes in it’s components. Plus unid dyes from laurels was also a good way to make some money off them. ~3g on average a week from laurels. Plus for some of the unid hue dyes, you could craft them for as little kitten and 500ish karma (been a while since I made money that way).

Not everyone is upset about the gem store focus, as shown by this thread. Many want even more stuff.

Coldtart.4785:

The transmutation charge systems means that, for the first time since launch, it’s actually practical to obtain transmutes for your level 80 gear without touching the gemstore and transmutes bought on the gemstore are now cheaper than before.

This. It’s actually practical for me to play around with my look, too, since I’m not just burning skins that I might want later on a different character. As quick as I am to be critical of ANET (and I am), the wardrobe change is almost 100% positive for how I play.

Khisanth.2948:

pdavis.8031:

There will always be those suckers who must have “The new ultra awesome weapon/armor skin of doom” and will be willing to pay real cash for it.

Nothing wrong with paying money for something you like! At least not any more wrong than paying $50 for a game that you might like.

Oh of course not. If you like it, buy it. Nothing wrong with that. In that regard the gem store served its purpose and helped FUND the game more and not just line the pockets of “the big bad evil Anet”.

The only thing that bothers me is is the discrepancy between influx of gemstore armor compared to ingame armor. It leaves me little hope that we’ll get more than the occasional pvp ‘exclusive’ backpack.

Yea, IMO the huuuugee nerf to farming was made so that it would be harder to earn gold making the gem to gold conversion way seem like the only way to actually afford nice skins without farming for idk months? which is sad :L

LimitBreaker.4165:

Yea, IMO the huuuugee nerf to farming was made so that it would be harder to earn gold making the gem to gold conversion way seem like the only way to actually afford nice skins without farming for idk months? which is sad :L

Actually, the huge nerf to farming was done to minimize the rate of inflation given how guild wars 2 has very little gold sinks. Generally, most of the significant gold sinks only affected the farmers when they sold items on the cash shop.

The other good thing about the champ farm especially Queendale is that it rremoved the hostility.

silvermember.8941:

LimitBreaker.4165:

Yea, IMO the huuuugee nerf to farming was made so that it would be harder to earn gold making the gem to gold conversion way seem like the only way to actually afford nice skins without farming for idk months? which is sad :L

Actually, the huge nerf to farming was done to minimize the rate of inflation given how guild wars 2 has very little gold sinks. Generally, most of the significant gold sinks only affected the farmers when they sold items on the cash shop.

The other good thing about the champ farm especially Queendale is that it rremoved the hostility.

Doesn’t seem to have made that big of an impact on farming. I still see the one in Queensdale going and the for FGS they just switched from FGS to FGS + Cursed Shore.

Esmee.1067:

And for Carzors point of the LA-convenience, that’s exactly what it is, convenience. I can still go to any of the Major Cities (I’m a big fan of Rata Sum) for any of the things that used to be in LA, for the Mystic Forge I quickly hope into PvP or the Vigil Keep, so I once again don’t see the issue with them offering those Airship passes. I still get the exact same services, I just have to walk a tiny bit further. Now if they locked the Mystic Forge, Laurel Vendors and Crafting stations behind a gem-store purchase with no other way of accessing them, we’d have a point.

It’s the principle which is the problem though: they took a feature out of the game we paid for and want us to buy it as a microtransaction, despite the fact that we already paid for it when we bought the game.

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

Esmee.1067:

And for Carzors point of the LA-convenience, that’s exactly what it is, convenience. I can still go to any of the Major Cities (I’m a big fan of Rata Sum) for any of the things that used to be in LA, for the Mystic Forge I quickly hope into PvP or the Vigil Keep, so I once again don’t see the issue with them offering those Airship passes. I still get the exact same services, I just have to walk a tiny bit further. Now if they locked the Mystic Forge, Laurel Vendors and Crafting stations behind a gem-store purchase with no other way of accessing them, we’d have a point.

It’s the principle which is the problem though: they took a feature out of the game we paid for and want us to buy it as a microtransaction, despite the fact that we already paid for it when we bought the game.

LA was never convenient. Anyone who says otherwise clearly only stood around and used the chat. Oh look, you’re in the middle of the crafting benches and need to use the trade post? Gotta run a mile that way. Forgot you had materials in the guild bank? Run a mile the other way. Please, as if that was convenient. The Grove was far more convenient than LA and even ebonhawke or DR. STILL is more convenient. The airship? Yes, you’re paying for convenience because everything is practically on top of each other.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

Esmee.1067:

And for Carzors point of the LA-convenience, that’s exactly what it is, convenience. I can still go to any of the Major Cities (I’m a big fan of Rata Sum) for any of the things that used to be in LA, for the Mystic Forge I quickly hope into PvP or the Vigil Keep, so I once again don’t see the issue with them offering those Airship passes. I still get the exact same services, I just have to walk a tiny bit further. Now if they locked the Mystic Forge, Laurel Vendors and Crafting stations behind a gem-store purchase with no other way of accessing them, we’d have a point.

It’s the principle which is the problem though: they took a feature out of the game we paid for and want us to buy it as a microtransaction, despite the fact that we already paid for it when we bought the game.

LA was never convenient. Anyone who says otherwise clearly only stood around and used the chat. Oh look, you’re in the middle of the crafting benches and need to use the trade post? Gotta run a mile that way. Forgot you had materials in the guild bank? Run a mile the other way. Please, as if that was convenient. The Grove was far more convenient than LA and even ebonhawke or DR. STILL is more convenient. The airship? Yes, you’re paying for convenience because everything is practically on top of each other.

Rata Sum is better than The Grove. Ebonhawke used to have the broken crafting NPCs. After they fixed those it’s probably the best with Rata Sum 2nd.

Go take a look at the Grove then. I’ve never found any of the other cities better for crafting. And it seems people still dont know the shortcut behind the TP npc if you’re crafting at any of the benches on the left side of the circle.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

Esmee.1067:

And for Carzors point of the LA-convenience, that’s exactly what it is, convenience. I can still go to any of the Major Cities (I’m a big fan of Rata Sum) for any of the things that used to be in LA, for the Mystic Forge I quickly hope into PvP or the Vigil Keep, so I once again don’t see the issue with them offering those Airship passes. I still get the exact same services, I just have to walk a tiny bit further. Now if they locked the Mystic Forge, Laurel Vendors and Crafting stations behind a gem-store purchase with no other way of accessing them, we’d have a point.

It’s the principle which is the problem though: they took a feature out of the game we paid for and want us to buy it as a microtransaction, despite the fact that we already paid for it when we bought the game.

LA was never convenient. Anyone who says otherwise clearly only stood around and used the chat. Oh look, you’re in the middle of the crafting benches and need to use the trade post? Gotta run a mile that way. Forgot you had materials in the guild bank? Run a mile the other way. Please, as if that was convenient. The Grove was far more convenient than LA and even ebonhawke or DR. STILL is more convenient. The airship? Yes, you’re paying for convenience because everything is practically on top of each other.

Seriously? You know that you can use ANY crafting station as a bank, right? Weaponsmithing station was right outside of the trading post. You had to run “miles” to get to anything? Not hardly. It was slightly more spread out than the Grove, I’ll give you that, but not by a lot.

Plus, the convenience that was taken out was having the mystic forge and crafting stations together.

Well Anet has to get money from somewhere. If there is a choice between gem store or monthly fee, I rather pick gem store.

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

Esmee.1067:

And for Carzors point of the LA-convenience, that’s exactly what it is, convenience. I can still go to any of the Major Cities (I’m a big fan of Rata Sum) for any of the things that used to be in LA, for the Mystic Forge I quickly hope into PvP or the Vigil Keep, so I once again don’t see the issue with them offering those Airship passes. I still get the exact same services, I just have to walk a tiny bit further. Now if they locked the Mystic Forge, Laurel Vendors and Crafting stations behind a gem-store purchase with no other way of accessing them, we’d have a point.

It’s the principle which is the problem though: they took a feature out of the game we paid for and want us to buy it as a microtransaction, despite the fact that we already paid for it when we bought the game.

We’ve experienced the destruction of LA differently then. If I want to craft I simply go to Rata Sum (I’m not fussed which is the best place) if I need the Mystic Forge I run through a portal and land almost on top of the Mystic Forge or I enter Heart of the Mist depending on my location and press leave when I’m done to land back where I was. If I just want to stand around somewhere, once again Vigil Keep since it’s relatively central and I can grab a banner once in a while. So yes, I don’t feel they took away anything except maybe I have to walk slightly further to the Fractal of the Mist portal.

Not yet bothered – getting closer, though.