Guild Wars 2

The idea is to make skins and gathering tools from the gemstore like the skins from the achievement chests so you would simply unlock them in the gemstore and then you could get as many of them as you want.
1. For me it’s quite hard to define a mainchar. Therefor i play with quite a few chars and it would be ways too expensive to buy for example all the gathering tools for them (5*1000 Gems*3=1200g=ca. 200Euro)
2. Most of the skins etc. are only available for a set amount of time. If you want the skin after that period of time and you already bought it there’s no way to get it.
3. This could also be applied to the reward items from the Living story/fotm weapons etc. because sooner or later that is simply gonna waist a lot of space.
4. Why not use this already existing System which in my opinion is not really helpful for the achievement system, and would better match up with the gemstore and Living Story? I bet there are buyhistories for the store which could simply be used for this.
5. The influence on the money gain from the gemstore won’t be that big, because not so many people buy things multiple times.

I can’t completely disagree with this idea, however it is less likely ANET will do it. I however like the idea of the achievement weapons, where that great sword i got i can replicate to all my characters.

I doubt they will ever make gemstore items “dupable” be cause they want you to buy multiples so that they make more money. They already gave in to the masses to make the unlimited gathering tools account bound for more gems, which is awesome. But they are likely not going to make it as easy access for you to swap them out for each character. The tedious behavior of throwing your copper-fed and tools into the bank when swapping characters is good balance imo. Between benefits and time consumption it is enough so that you don’t have to buy more if you don’t want to, but it would save you effort in the long run if you did buy more.

Achievement skins from the living story however I completely agree that they should be “dupable.” Just to be clear: LS achievement Skins not items or gemstore skins, just achv Skins. While personally I don’t want the “Gas mask” for any of my characters, some people really like it/would like to have multiples for multiple characters. Or they want it for their PvP and PvE look. As it stands now that is not possible, and unfair since we did earn the skin through our ls achievements, so we should be able to use as much “Gas masks” or any future LS skins as many times as we want just like the radient and hellfire.

Edit: the only exception to imo would be back items, such as the wings for example. Imo back item appearances are an added bonus to your costume/look and should remain limited.

Gem Store skins should be stored like achievement skins. I have only bought 2 skins (a weapon and a mask) from the Gem Store because I felt there would only be one character who would ever use them.

I still feel miffed that I can’t use the skins in PvP. I refuse to buy a second skin just to be able to use them in PvP.

I haven’t once bought an armor set or town clothes because they are way too expensive to just use on one character. I simply refuse to with their current policy. No matter how attractive the set is.

I would have bought probably at least 3 other skins if they were able to be stored and used multiple times. Rox’s Quiver maybe, maybe Braham’s gear, maybe Pheonix armor, maybe Viper armor, maybe other Mesmer masques, maybe the riding gear, maybe the pirate outfit…. but I just cannot justify it. Admittedly part of it is that I am not that attracted to the outfits. But I definitely would have considered them (and perhaps I am not that attracted to them because they’re one-time-use and I further justify things in my head by saying well, they don’t look that good). As it stands, I will not buy a set that looks awesome just for this reason.

I would probably buy a town clothes set (that is better looking than pirate/etc to me) IF it could be used on all my 9 characters with adjustments for race. I really don’t like my current town clothes.

I know two other people who simply cannot justify buying skins because they are not able to be used multiple times – and probably would have bought skins already if they had been able to access them multiple times. I think the Gem Store would make loads more money if they would just let these Gem Store skins be used multiple times. They’d at least make more money off of me. I am hoping that the increasing amount of account bound items and things like account fractal rating are a good sign that they will do this.

I want to say first off this is just my opinion on the matter. I agree with the suckyness of PvE vs PvP and if you do get/buy a skin you should get a PvE AND a PvP version. If my memory serves me right we got a PvP version of the Winterday sack as well as a PvE, so I’m not sure why they ever decided to stop doing that. It is ridiculous having to choose between them. So I guess gemstore skins I’m fine/do agree with getting a PvE set and PvP set with one purchase.

At the same time however I don’t want the gemstore skins to be “dupable” for PvE. For me it seems end game is going to be mostly cosmetic. While it sucks having to buy multiple sets for cross characters I prefer it, or buying a whole set for just the pants/shirt I can live with it/don’t mind it. Why do I prefer it well then not everyone and their mother is going to be wearing the same thing. Not saying only the elites/ones with the gold in their pockets should get it, but let’s face it if the only thing stopping you from buying it is not being able to “dupe” it for other characters, then you don’t really like/want the skin, as you said.

Those that want the armor skins will get them in time, since the sets seem to stay up on the bltp. Sure there are some limited skins but they announce which ones are and really they just a marketing tool used to get spikes of income at those times. While for limited edition items I see having multiples being a plus, but it also would lessen the feeling of limited since you can have as many as you want. Overall it seems to me that end end game is going to be mostly cosmetic so only having to buy 1 set for multiple characters would be going against the grind, in a matter of thinking.

With transmute stones and crystals you can keep the skin for your character indefinitely. Plus there is the work around people talk about with transmuting it to a white to rid the soulbound so you can switch between characters, if you only care about keeping the skin.

Now from the money making standpoint I get that they might make more if they did that, but who knows. They do make money off of people also buying the transmute crystals and if the skins were able to be used multiple time there would be no point in the transmute crystal, which could hurt them. As I said end game seems to be cosmetic, so in the long run I believe they would rather keep it as is that they don’t hurt the future transmute crystal sales. What I would rather see is the option of buying pieces of the set for 400gems each, so you still get a deal with the set but, you don’t have to pay as much if you only want one piece (has been suggested many times before). Regardless this is all speculation about their sales and humans are unpredictable, so its Anets judgement call on which would be best for them in the short and long term.

TL;DR imo endgame is cosmetic so I disagree with “dupping.” Transmute crystals can keep your armor indefinitely. However buy 1 get 1 pvp free sounds good to me.

In GW1 when you bought a costume it was unlocked for all your characters by speaking to an NPC in game. I really would like the ability to have my gem store purchases used by multiple characters.

I don’t really understand why people are so against the Gem store items not being duplicatable. I haven’t bought any gem store skins because they are one time use. If they are unlimited use then I would have bought some of the past skins and might buy the present and future ones.

1. Not knowing the numbers. Let’s say that out of all the players 20% have bought a skin. Of those 20% only 5% have bought that same skin twice, so 1% of the entire gaming population. That would equate to 21% of players buying that skin. But, there is another group that would buy that item if it wasn’t single use. Lets just say 20% of the community. That means that Anet is missing out on 19% of the players’ additional revenue from not wanting to have unlimited use skin.

2. Does transmutation crystal sales justify a single use skin? I don’t think so. If I was to buy a skin I would put it on a set of armor that I knew was very versatile and I would use very often (atm a lvl 80 exotic set with stats I find useful to that class). And I’m sure there are a lot more players like me that wouldn’t bother transmuting it to another armor set.

People want to talk about Anet needing to make a profit, that they are a business, blah blah blah, but that business also needs happy customers. Nickel and diming their customers leads to disgruntled customers, and disgruntled customers don’t bother supporting and buying from you.

At least make the skins retrievable. I’ve already lost an entire skin and a partial skin to this awful system. The irony is that Anet used to be the paragon of awesomeness with the unlimited use skins in GW1, and here in GW2 they have decided to adopt a system that only serves to infuriate. Bring back the old skin system from GW1. Im not spending the same amount on a skin so I can get even less.

I don’t see a reason to lower their income so that it might force them to go to subscription. That is all.

I don’t think it would lower their income at all. How many people buy the same skin multiple times? Do those people offset the people that would buy the skin if it were unlimited use? If that answer is yes, then fine leave it the way it is and I won’t be buying any skins, but if that answer is no, then open it up to unlimited use and I will start buying skins I like.

Ehhhh you know the gathering tools have been made accountbound right. Thats why they cost 1000gems now and not the original 800gems
So with newly bought tools for gathering this wont be an issue. (Older tools bought at the 800gems are still soulbound)

Townsclothes are accountbound too, so they can be used by all your toons, via bank, so other than not being able to use it on multiple toons at the same time not much change.

That leaves armor and weapon skins from the gemstore. I can’t imagine a lot of people buying multiple of those.

I don’t see further change happen to the tools, afterall you can just move the tools around.
Costumes maybe, maybe not. Not like it changes much.
Armor Weapons, now here I too would love to see them be duplicateable, or somesuch. Do I see it happen? Not really, but I am not against it.

Zeefa.3915:

(Older tools bought at the 800gems are still soulbound)

No they aren’t. You have to unequip them and talk to a Black Lion Specialist to make them account bound.

Brave Mallyki.1563:

Zeefa.3915:

(Older tools bought at the 800gems are still soulbound)

No they aren’t. You have to unequip them and talk to a Black Lion Specialist to make them account bound.

Did not know about that, thanks for the correction.