Make purchased skins permanent.
It makes no sense that the skins you pay real money for are one time use yet the ones you get for free are unlimited.
it does make sense since it’s a consumable. Anet wouldn’t make any money if they would make that skin permanent. The moment they would do that, people would scream for account bound as well, since most permanent items in gw2 are marked as that. Do I think it’s a good idea? no but I can see why a company wouldn’t do that and I agree it shouldn’t be that way.
It makes no sense that the skins you pay real money for are one time use yet the ones you get for free are unlimited.
it does make sense since it’s a consumable. Anet wouldn’t make any money if they would make that skin permanent. The moment they would do that, people would scream for account bound as well, since most permanent items in gw2 are marked as that. Do I think it’s a good idea? no but I can see why a company wouldn’t do that and I agree it shouldn’t be that way.
I do think it’s a good idea because then people might actually buy them. I’ve not once seen anyone using store bought cosmetics, might just be my experience.
Frankly, I know that personally I’d be far more willing to buy skins in the gem store if they were permanent and put into a skin archive somewhere in the bank. I’d like to think that other players share this sentiment as well. The thing is, doing this properly would also likely bring in more money for ANet.
Most smart players don’t bother to get skins until they’re level 80 and are hunting around for cool looks. If they look in the gem store, they’re not likely to buy something more than once, and using transmutation crystals/stones as you level isn’t really sensible either. In addition, this skin archive would be a prime place to put all the various skin rewards that we receive from meta achievements.
One thing you could do as an alternative to transmutation stones/crystals could also be charging a reasonable amount of gems to add any skin to the skin bank, basically like how the PvP locker works, except for PvE and requiring gems to add something that’s not normally a skin.
Finally, this would make ANet more money. The two groups (IMO) most likely to spend gems are those that are just starting out and wanting to try cool stuff, or those that are very high level and want to grab cool skins for cosmetics. Making these things one-use means that the low level group, if they have any sense, aren’t going to bother buying the skins. At that point, you run the risk of them getting bored with the game, or racking up enough gold that they don’t have to pay real money for their gems, so you’re potentially losing a decent chunk of money there.
All in all, I think that making a skin archive in the bank would be a great move for ANet, any gem items that are skins are made permanent, potentially making any purchases that people did prior added to the bank as well.
In summary:
- Skin archive works like a hybrid of the PvP locker and the Zenith/Hellfire/Radiant skins from the Achievement panel.
- Can select an item in the archive and put a copy of it into your inventory as many times as you like, infinite use.
- Gem items and rewards from meta achievements are added to the archive.
- Items purchased prior from the gem store (can check purchase history for this) are added to the archive retroactively.
- Charge a reasonable amount of gems to add any item to the archive, letting it be withdrawn and used as a skin infinitely. This is more expensive than a single transmutation crystal, but unsure how much more.
bump-idy-doo-da
I second. I wish they would make a wardrobe window or something and you could unlock weapon and armor and clothing skins and mix and match. Perhaps more like the dye system.
I bought the Braham armor skin set for the leg piece and have been tempted by others (Aetherblade heavy, and the FlameKissed light armor that was recently removed) but I don’t feel the current non-permanent system provides value for the money. Also, the five Braham pieces I haven’t used are sitting in my bank, taking up slots.
Long story short, I refuse to buy any more armor skins for one silly piece that I can only use on one character, and have to destroy the other parts because they’re taking up too much space. When ArenaNet implements something closer to what Kamui describes above is when I’ll start buying again.