After reading this paragraph I got a bit concerned:
" All kinds of tricks and treats are coming to the Gem Store this Halloween. Costumes that grant spooky skills, tonics that transform you into ghouls and ghosts, creepy crawly minis to follow you around. And don’t forget to pick up your free devil horns before they disappear!
The Black Lion Chest is getting a spooky upgrade for Halloween. Between October 23 and November 5 each Black Lion Chest you open has a chance to give you one of six exclusive Halloween-themed weapon skins!"
So what I got from now the only event items you mentioned so far can be bought only. So my quick question is, will there be free items as well? Because I don’t want to spend my in-game money or real life money on fun stuff because I’m saving it for the important things:)
I was really hoping they would go with free to aquire festival type gifts like in GW1, now we have to pay to get haloween skins with random luck or pay a crap ton of gold for gems….
Also, there were no Halloween skins for weapons in the first game either, so you can’t even try to compare that, you got hats, and in GW2, you ALSO get hats! o noes!
They are adding new things on top of what they had in GW1, while keeping the same principle.
Zietlogik [Warrior] Chronologix [Ranger] Ziet The Dreaded [Necromancer] Zietlogic [Revenant]
I was really hoping they would go with free to aquire festival type gifts like in GW1, now we have to pay to get haloween skins with random luck or pay a crap ton of gold for gems….
Its stupid.
I just checked in game, a gem is going for around a silver or less. That is not a crap ton of gold by any stretch.
I am quite interested to see what kind of things they have- the mimi’s intrigue me.
I would pay any amount of money for a black cat
Yeah I know the horns will be free tho it would probably look weird on my charr :P
No i was asking about other items like gifts, event items that drop from mobs or hell even new stuff. I’m ok with costumes being in the cash shop but I’m not ok with everything else being there too, because that means you won’t get free awesome stuff unless you pay for them, and that imho ruins the fun of events.
The real question is, do we get candy? Mobs should drop candy. It would bring joy to this Norn’s heart to see the wee Asura running amok on sugar high.
Trolls are like stray cats.
Feed them and they multiply.
Please do not feed them.
I honestly think..when having events and such its a absolute SHAME to have to make use of your cashshop to be able to get an event item like a weaponskin.And for one,i will not use this,i really refuse to pay real money for an event you guys put up in the first place and should be all obtainable ingame,with doing quests and dungeons and missions and such.Not by simply paying cash to get a chest and get your event item…Its just wrong.
The way i put it up sounds like i hate cashshop alltogether,no thats not the case.I understand they can use the extra money,i already made u se of the cashop btw.Its just that paying money for an event item is not something i will ever do,since imo they should just be obtainable ingame,without having to make use of real money.
And btw ,whats more fun..buying your event item straight away from the shop..or having to earn it while doing specific event quests and such ? Doesnt it just remove the whole principle of the evrnt if you can simply buy this stuff ?
stuff drops from black lion chests as well
but since the key droprate is so low i’ll have no choice but to pump in another 50 bucks for gems
quite sad really
I honestly think..when having events and such its a absolute SHAME to have to make use of your cashshop to be able to get an event item like a weaponskin.And for one,i will not use this,i really refuse to pay real money for an event you guys put up in the first place and should be all obtainable ingame,with doing quests and dungeons and missions and such.Not by simply paying cash to get a chest and get your event item…Its just wrong.
The way i put it up sounds like i hate cashshop alltogether,no thats not the case.I understand they can use the extra money,i already made u se of the cashop btw.Its just that paying money for an event item is not something i will ever do,since imo they should just be obtainable ingame,without having to make use of real money.
People were excited and more than happy to get what they got in GW1… Now they are giving you everything you got in GW1 plus more (which you can buy in cash shop).
Honestly, I don’t see the point in getting mad at extra content. Everything in the cash shop will be a bonus on top of what already existed in the first game (something everyone already loved).
Ehmry Bay – Grindhouse Gaming [GH]
Menorah | Charr Cat | Some Cat Thing
Still running my old RRR build because why not
I don’t like how the cash shop is turning out either. I’m fine with the costumes, as it was like that in GW1. But now it’s turning more into one of those F2P type of games where they try to integrate the cashshop into core event activities.
Sure some people will use the “lolololo i can make 10g in an hour i not know wut problem is wit u guyz” not everyone is at the super efficient level. Not to mention that gem prices have been rising for the event and if people want the weapon skins which are somewhat similiar to GW1 christmas candy cane skins, it becomes problematic for them as they can’t amass such large amounts of money to afford such things. Unless they simple go with paying hard cash for gems, then again they’d still end up at the gambling phase.
Not to mention the weapon skins are thrown in as part of the generic F2P gamble model, as they know it will make them the most money. Wouldn’t be as bad if it were simply a weapon skin just being sold as a skin on the gem store.
The gem prices will plummet as soon as the new items in the cash shop come out. Their prices are based on how many of them exist in the game at any given time. Since there are few items worth buying in the gem shop at the moment, few players are carrying them compared to when the game first came out and everyone wanted all the items.
As soon as the new items come out, you can bet there will be masses of people buying gems both with gold and real money. This translates to more gems in circulation and lower overall prices.
So don’t worry, my friend! No large amounts of money will be needed whenever new content is released. This goes for everyone else interested in buying gems as well: The best time to buy gems is after new content is released.
Ehmry Bay – Grindhouse Gaming [GH]
Menorah | Charr Cat | Some Cat Thing
Still running my old RRR build because why not
Yea, learned that lesson. Also I barely bought a few with gold like maybe 12 hours ago around 61gold for 100 gems, now they’ve spiked further to 79g per 100 gems.
Really shoulda bought them a month ago when they were 60% less than what they were now. Hopefully the 1400gems I am sitting on will be enough to get some costumes maybe. :[
Remember also in GW1 you could buy x-mas themed weapon skins with candy cane shards which you earned by playing various mini games. So putting a gamble factor is not worth it, unless they make the drop rate really really high (which I doubt as low drop rates increase profit).
Don’t want it to seem like I’m overreacting – just posting here my concerns. Because participating in the event does involve all new items you provide, and if 90% of them are obtainable only if you buy them, that could discourage people. For instance, I’m gathering gold now for a cultural armor, the most expensive one. It will gladly buy the costume but that’s bout it. Items should be free and for fun. This really starts to remind of Aion and that’s not really a compliment.
It is a testament to how much entitlement there is in the Western World now that people expect everything for free otherwise there is something wrong with the game and its managers, which pretty much gave you the ultimate leg up in dropping Subscriptions for a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAME.
Do you people have ANY idea how much it costs to maintain an MMO? You 60 dollars is only going to go so far before ArenaNet, once again, need your help in maintaining the entertainment experience that you are enjoying for what is, quite frankly, a measely asking price. Guess what, sometimes having fun costs money, and ANet don’t need your armchair criticism when the bills start rolling in, and they can’t find the dough to pay them because you couldn’t be bothered spending 30 bucks every 4-5 months. Even then, they’ve given you a chance to not spend a dime simply by learning to play the game better, and yet you’re still so indignant and lazy to even do that.
Stop being so bloody selfish and learn to look outside the box. ANet don’t need your ignorance, they need your support, and I would love to know which of you are giving your support year after year to companies like Activision, who fart out a piece of kitten like COD which is essentially the same thing over and over, and yet you have a massive problem helping ANet who actually give a kitten about not only their product, but YOUR enjoyment of it.
Whoah slow it down there, some of us paid 250 dollars for this game. Yes that much, because we EU folk get it more expensive, depending if you buy CE or not but the point is we always get charged more. And please don’t defend an obvious flaw in design philosophy.
Ok you guys are just not getting it so im going to spell it out for you….
The items are not the point, the method in which they are doing this is the problem.
There using casino type grab bags with an RNG based chance of getting the items, in otherwords gambling, meaning players if they want this item will either have to use a large amount of gold to get them or a large amount of real life money to get them with a complete chance based factor meaning someone could spend hundreds of dollars and still not get what there after….while someone else could spend a few dollars and get them right away.
This is gauging and exploiting the player base….sure some people will still do it and sure its just a cosmetic thing but what else will they put in the black lion chest in the future using similar methods?
Do you get it now? Its the method people have a problem with. They chose this type of method, they could of chosen a different method and still made money, but they didnt, they chose this method……if they will use black lions chests like this now, is this how they will be used in all holiday and festival events? What else will they throw into BLC’s as random gambling casino chance items? Legendary’s?
You may laugh and think dont be silly they wouldnt do it with legendarys…..why not? Its just cosmetic…..you see what were getting at……where will arena net draw the line and say ok thats too far…..
Learn to read peoples posts for what they are and be objective not make up what you want, quote what you feel like and only see what you want…..
^ this is a very good explanation. I feel its going to go downhill from here, with the chests, if they keep doing stuff like this. I don’t necessarily mind having to buy them from the gem store (in fact I would rather have that then them be in the chests). I have horrible luck, so I will/would be one of those that would spend $100 or more, and not get the kitten thing(s). They should just make them a separate item in the cash shop, like the costumes are going to be. RNG/gambling should never be the only way to get something.
The real question is, did you collect keys which only come from personal story, map completion, and the cash shop? Unlikely that you did. And seeing as the first two methods of obtaining the keys are both a pain in the kitten and a lottery, you’re likely going to have to pay a lot of money for the items.
Or, you could simply not participate in the cash grab part of this event.
Swift Mending – Guardian
Thorny Scrub – Thief
Desolation
Re posting this here because I’m also concerned about how they are handling the holiday loot.
To quote the risen “it begins”
I’m very conflicted about Anet putting holiday skins in the chest. If the skins were BLTC themed skins it would be fine but these are holiday theme skins… it feels shady that they make them available only by gambling.
Again if Anet decides to add BLTC theme skins to the chest I’m fine with that, BUT holiday theme skins make me very uncomfortable. Wished they just added the skins to the gem shop directly and make the chest rewards complete separate from the game world.
It’s a slippery slope the one Anet is on right now.
is it 100 percent the only loot available is cash shop may be a slight over reaction by people
have gems stocked since since i know it was coming but I would be a little disheartened to have to buy everything
Mondy of War.8964:
Awww you couldn’t win could you.
It is a testament to how much entitlement there is in the Western World now that people expect everything for free otherwise there is something wrong with the game and its managers, which pretty much gave you the ultimate leg up in dropping Subscriptions for a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAME.
Do you people have ANY idea how much it costs to maintain an MMO? You 60 dollars is only going to go so far before ArenaNet, once again, need your help in maintaining the entertainment experience that you are enjoying for what is, quite frankly, a measely asking price. Guess what, sometimes having fun costs money, and ANet don’t need your armchair criticism when the bills start rolling in, and they can’t find the dough to pay them because you couldn’t be bothered spending 30 bucks every 4-5 months. Even then, they’ve given you a chance to not spend a dime simply by learning to play the game better, and yet you’re still so indignant and lazy to even do that.
Stop being so bloody selfish and learn to look outside the box. ANet don’t need your ignorance, they need your support, and I would love to know which of you are giving your support year after year to companies like Activision, who fart out a piece of kitten like COD which is essentially the same thing over and over, and yet you have a massive problem helping ANet who actually give a kitten about not only their product, but YOUR enjoyment of it.
You have no idea what your talking about
ArenaNet has already came out and stated they made Profit BEFORE the cash shop in GW1., and it was free to play also and not including the paid expansions.
And they have already stated they they don’t have alot of physical servers, just alot of VM’s running on a minimal amount of servers.
I love the game. I consider the box price money well spent.
I will not, however, buy A) character bound, B) consumable, or C) random chance items from your Cash Shop. I don’t want to put down real money that I A) will lose if I delete a character to make another, B) will enjoy for only thirty minutes, or C) only have a chance of getting something worthwhile.
The more A) account bound, B) permanent or renewable at NPC, and C) get what you pay for items you add to the Cash Shop, the more likely you are to receive additional revenue from me.
I really dont understand what any of you are talking about, you dont have to pay a dime(cash) for anything in the Gem store.. 5 keys are roughly 2.5g at the moment.. pfff you can make that in a few hours in game. pop on your magic find armor and buffs do 5 event chains and ty 5 keys.
Some say give us quests and other types of grinds to do to acquire these skins and what not.. Go do some events you lazies and play the game! Or even make a new toon and and complete the lower level areas and Story missions for Keys.. I do understand where yall are coming from saying why put it as a “cashshop” but there are people that have the money and dont have time to grind out gold. Anet try’s to please everyone, The rich and the poor..
For the love of god we dont pay a monthly fee and get 10x the amout of content then any other MMO ive played in the past “IMO of course”
I for one will definitely purchase gems to get some items. Anet are giving us so much for free and they’ll have to earn money somehow. Everything can’t just be free unless you want the game to shut down within a year.
@Oraculum – INDEED, finally someone with some reason in this thread.. im gonna grind all night and buy so many Gems.. So excited for the event, Been twitching all day at work!
Yes, there will be an element, precluding the free (read: free) hat giveaway (coincidentally exactly what they had in Guild Wars 1) that involves extra weapon skins and buyable costumes. Where is the problem? If you’re feeling like you’re being gouged for these items, that you absolutely positively MUST get these items one way or another, then the problem isn’t the game’s design, it’s YOU.
The items aren’t absolutely integral to gameplay. They’re skins. They exist solely for vanity purposes. You don’t NEED to get them. Thus, if you DO want to get them, expect to put in a little work for it. They’re not just going to hand you everything on a silver platter, like some people seem to think. If you want these EXTRA items, WORK FOR THEM. They’re not “gouging” you for anything. Your obsessive personality is causing you to think they are, since in yourm ind you absolutely ust have them.
Grand Master of The Knights Hospitaller [STJ]
Isle of Janthir – Sylvari Mesmer – Alexandre Le Grande
I’m so gonna buy gems with RL cash. I haven’t decided how many yet (either 800 or 1600). It’s fun to gamble, why do you think so many casinos exist??? And supporting ANet while having fun? What’s better than that!
I understand some people can’t afford the gems, so I suggest figuring out how to make gold in GW2 to get gems that way. ANet has given everyone a way to get gems… not only the people with the extra cash on hand. You can easily make 2 gold in an hour just gathering materials (ori and ancient logs) each night and selling them on the TP… do that this weekend and you should have enough gold to get gems for 5 keys or a costume. If you have extra time, farm Orr events in Magic Find Gear… you get a lot of gold items that way. and don’t forget the peach tarts ;-)
While you were complaining on these forums you could have made 20 silver more in GW2…
I’d LOVE to see the actual ANet posts behind yout quotes Blighton.
You won’t need to use the cash shop to enjoy the event. It’s not that big of a deal to me.
The server info was from the AMA on reddit
Your first three questions are all related so I’m just going to give you a brief overview and hope that answers them. Our custom server solution really is a cloud-computing system. We have many physical servers running simultaneous, sharing the load as it’s needed. The special maps (sPvP, WvW, instances, etc.) all fit neatly into this model and are just spun up as needed on hardware that has the capacity as determined by our load-balancing algorithms.
Thats part of it, there were other answeres regarding servers.
The thing is Servers are not 1 machine 1 task, a physical Server runs multiple VM,s ( virtual machines ) making 1 server act like 5 or 20 depending on hardware. The majority if the time if not all the time anymore you will see 1 server no VM is for a POS box somebody decided to make out of spare parts.
Im still looking for the profitable quote, it was from an interview where a higher up Anet was asked how they can be profitable being no subscription. They responded by server architecture, not needing alot of physical servers, servers not costing as much as people think they do, and the paid expansions making up more the the cost of keeping it live / profitable.
Also the GW1 store was not live the full length of Gw1 and was still profitable
I’m so gonna buy gems with RL cash. I haven’t decided how many yet (either 800 or 1600). It’s fun to gamble, why do you think so many casinos exist??? And supporting ANet while having fun? What’s better than that!
I understand some people can’t afford the gems, so I suggest figuring out how to make gold in GW2 to get gems that way. ANet has given everyone a way to get gems… not only the people with the extra cash on hand. You can easily make 2 gold in an hour just gathering materials (ori and ancient logs) each night and selling them on the TP… do that this weekend and you should have enough gold to get gems for 5 keys or a costume. If you have extra time, farm Orr events in Magic Find Gear… you get a lot of gold items that way. and don’t forget the peach tarts ;-)
While you were complaining on these forums you could have made 20 silver more in GW2…
*edited for clarity
It’s exactly this kind of mentality that is ruining the whole point of what people are trying to say. Yes some people are just richer then the others and they will buy the hell out of the cash shop. That’s fine. But don’t make it sound like it’s the only right way. Many of us can’t afford it and others don’t have an income. And saying “I will grind my kitten off all night” is also putting a question Anet’s initial design philosophy that basically says – we DON’T want people to grind in our game. So believe it or not many of us bought this game following that promise after countless other MMO-s that basically work on exploiting people and their stupidity by thinking if they buy X amount of items you will get what you want. And turns out you dont. I fail to see how that can be fun.
As I stated before it MIGHT be a bit early to call on them, but many of us feel the direction set up by other games – the path this game is also taking. And please don’t talk about those keys, I got 2 from drops in my almost 60 levels of game play and other 3 from personal storyline. RNG game system is something that players are getting to be sick of.
The thing is…you’re still getting what you got free in GW 1..the extra costs more. May I ask why you are entitled to the extra without paying the extra price?
That’s the thing – they don’t want you to grind. You don’t have to grind. You get all your level 80 gear for a reasonable price, and levelling is a pretty smooth progression for the most part.
Cosmetic, extra, bonus, UNNECESSARY items? Hell yes you’re going to have to grind. To think that there are some people out there who are complaining to no end about the lack of an “endgame”, who conversely start complaining that they have towork for these items.
At times, it’s like beating your head against a brick wall, trying to educate people on this subject. You don’t NEED these items. If you want them that bad, then expect to put in some work to gain them. Perhaps you’ll learn something as to how things are acquired in life while you do it. All I know is I’m certainly not going to go out of my way to get these cosmetic items like some people evidently feel the obsessive-compulsive need to do so.
Grand Master of The Knights Hospitaller [STJ]
Isle of Janthir – Sylvari Mesmer – Alexandre Le Grande
At this point I feel that I got such a value for my upfront $60 that I’m more than happy to give anet some money by spending a tiny fraction of cash compared to what I drop on comics every month. I’m looking forward to the weapon skins.
@Charrgirl: Well, if my methods for gaining gold aren’t fun to you, then find a way that is fun for you. I didn’t once say to grind anything.
I love gathering, and make a decent amount of money from gathering each night for an hour after work. It’ll probly take me 2 months to get tier 3 cultural, but that is my goal… I’m just not going to use my hard earned gold for Halloween when I can get gems with my extra hard earned cash.
It’s purely optional. Just like in GW1, you get a free hat for Halloween. The whole Halloween event and content updates are free. Yet you’re here angry because they decided to also try and make some money with some new, purely optional skins/tonics for Halloween… There is nothing wrong with what they are doing.
They promised they wouldn’t force you to buy gems to get max stats or to be fully and equally competetive. They can’t control anything related to grind because people misuse that word and most don’t even know what grind is anymore.
@Charrgirl: Well, if my methods for gaining gold aren’t fun to you, then find a way that is fun for you. I didn’t once say to grind anything.
I love gathering, and make a decent amount of money from gathering each night for an hour after work. It’ll probly take me 2 months to get tier 3 cultural, but that is my goal… I’m just not going to use my hard earned gold for Halloween when I can get gems with my extra hard earned cash.
It’s purely optional. Just like in GW1, you get a free hat for Halloween. The whole Halloween event and content updates are free. Yet you’re here angry because they decided to also try and make some money with some new, purely optional skins/tonics for Halloween… There is nothing wrong with what they are doing.
They promised they wouldn’t force you to buy gems to get max stats or to be fully and equally competetive. They can’t control anything related to grind because people misuse that word and most don’t even know what grind is anymore.
*edited for clarity
I understand. But that isn’t free content then – it might be for fun and cosmetic but people who refuse to buy those items – how will they get to enjoy the event?
I am perfectly fine with purchasing items in the gem shop. I am perfectly fine with random chance loot items for the event. However, these need to be separate. If you have to use gems to purchase an item that has a CHANCE to give you the event item you want… that’s a problem. Again, it’s cool to have costumes and stuff that I can purchase in the gem shop, but I want what I’m paying for. If there are going to be random loot boxes they should be obtainable through gameplay. I’m really hoping that the mini-pets are individual purchases and not a random chance from the regular mini-pet box.
That being said… for those people complaining about real money needed, remember that you can convert gold to gems. Real money is never needed to purchase anything, it is simply a shortcut.
Guys, seriously its not about whether the cash shop is good or bad or whether we should support Anet (though its kinda laughable to read about supporting Anet next to “just buy gems with gold”… how will that support Anet???). I’ve run out of bank tabs to buy and I’ve never converted gold to gems or viceversa.
The reason some are worried is that the holiday skins are added as a gamble instead of a direct purchase which is a worrying trend.
I have suggested in the past that the chest SHOULD drop unique skins like BLTC branded armor/weapons even town clothes (I want to wear a monocle when I’m playing the TP!) to entice more people to buy keys, but holiday items are different they are part of the festival… part of the experience…. part of the game.
Anyway its not game breaking so nobody is looking for a screaming match here… its simply a couple of voices of concern hoping that this “gambling” tendency doesn’t keep permeating every part of the game… some of us are very risk averse or have had terrible experiences with gambling that make stuff like this off putting.
It would bring joy to this Norn’s heart to see the wee Asura running amok on sugar high.