Guild Wars 2

laokoko.7403:

….
what’s the big deal with that. If you just play the game, you’ll naturally get your gear. It’s not like you need to grind anything, because you usually won’t repeat a dungeon more than 10 times and you should get your drop. And you can’t even grind raid, since it is usually on a timer for say 1 week.

I can’t say the same about GW2, I’ve done many of the dungeon path way more than 10 times, or killing shatter more than 10 times.

Again, the difference (and big deal) is that none of the Dungeon Paths you have done in GW2 were REQUIRED to obtain gear you NEEDED to play other content in the game. Wanting a specific look is a “choice” each player makes and determines how they spend their time in the game.

It’s basically a different philosophy in how the game works and this “who is better” argument is pointless as neither WoW should be more like GW2 nor visa-versa…..if you want the other type of game-play, go play the other game. Simple.

Realist.5812:

Obtena.7952:

thaooo.5320:

mtpelion.4562:

thaooo.5320:

“We’ve added some new skins/items to the game. We know you’d enjoy actually earning them through various in game feats of skill/intelligence/perseverance, but we’re going to save you the trouble of actually playing the game. Use your credit card to buy gems, and you can obtain the new items instantly! Isn’t that fun? Aren’t you glad we did this?”

TY ANet for making a shop instead of a game.

Disgusting.

So, do you find the concept of choice disgusting, or do you find your own weak-willed-ness that leads to you buying things when you could have played for them instead disgusting?

I like how you deliberately stayed away from the “earn it through in game feats” part.

But you can earn them from game feats because you can purchase gems with gold. Thank you, come again.

Grinding money through repetitive daily checkbox tasks to use at the shops is not the same as earning an item for completing content aka chests or drops or achievement etc.

I didn’t say it was but if you are after a specific item, you aren’t earning it directly as a drops or achievement reward anyways so I don’t see how what you said is relevant to the discussion. Whether you get gold directly from an event or your get an item you sell, it all comes down to earning gold through some means. Let’s not convince ourselves we get usable loot from drops. Hardly ever happens and has no meaning to the fact that you can buy gems to get access to gear in the store.

At least it’s not as kittenW:tOR, where the game pops up a notice periodically reminding you how much more fun you’d be having if you upgraded to a subscription account.

Lothirieth.3408:

…Giving people more choice and balancing store and game armor…

Not sure what you mean by this, since you are comparing skins without stats to items with stats. Are you saying that the gemstore armor skins should actually be items with stats, or that in-game armor should be skins, and we pick the stats ourselves?

This isn’t the only issue I have with your argument, but it is the one that made me come to a complete stop while reading your post and stare at my screen for 5 minutes, trying to decide if I had lost the ability to comprehend written English.

Apparently this is a thing.

They nerf the loot and advertise to buy gems to get gold.

Dark Saviour.9410:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Welcome to the cash shop model. If this becomes the standard in MMOs, then I will no longer be playing MMOs.

This is pretty much how I feel.
I’ve always loathed the idea of cash shops and microtransactions, so its frustrating to see everyone becoming so much more accepting of these models as time goes on. It’s especially revolting to see it crop up in games that do have subscription fees, but that’s the direction things are heading…

It’s difficult to find MMOs that I can get into at all even with that factor removed, but with that being the new standard, there’s pretty much no place for me going forward… ;-\

How many subscription based games do not have a cash shop? Even WoW does.

How many subscription based games went F2P? How many still have a sub after 1-2 years?

This is already the standard. If you choose wisely, you can play the game for much less than it would cost to play a subbed game. If you choose foolishly, well, you know the saying about a fool and his money…

Well most subscription based games that went F2P still have subscriptions available as VIP/Gold Club membership level that still gives you all the benefits you had when subscribing without all the paywalls they added for F2P. They still have cash shops, it’s just as a “VIP” you get a minor stipend of proxy currency for the cash shop. Just enough to be almost useful.

Behellagh.1468:

Well most subscription based games that went F2P still have subscriptions available as VIP/Gold Club membership level that still gives you all the benefits you had when subscribing without all the paywalls they added for F2P. They still have cash shops, it’s just as a “VIP” you get a minor stipend of proxy currency for the cash shop. Just enough to be almost useful.

True, but some do it better than others. I went back to playing SWTOR for a while, it’s a good game if you consider it single player with benefits, and ignore the general chat box. Besides, I was just old enough to for my imagination to be ignited by the first Star Wars trilogy when it came out, and even almost 40 years later the bzzz bzzzzzzzzz of swinging a lightsaber makes me feel like a kid again.

I subbed for a few months because I have the extra money, and because I like the convenience perks that come with it (more character slots, appearance controls, quick travel) but I appreciate that most of them can be unlocked individually, making it a personal choice whether to pay into the game, and how much.

OTOH, traditional sub-based games have been about how to delay the inevitable and keep a person subbed longer. Gear resets and such seem to be calculated to happen just far enough apart that when the game gets boring, you have to start over again and grind out more levels, work through a new tier of raids, or collect new gear. It’s more of a stalling tactic than an attempt to improve the game.

No system is perfect, but I gave money to SWTOR of my own free will, knowing that I didn’t have to keep paying to keep playing.