Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, just wanted to express something thats been bugging me a bit.

It seems lots of people believe that items they missed out on should come back so they have another chance at it again. I completely disagree with this.

I mean sure, there has been some stuff I wish I had gotten but missed out on but for the people that did get it, it adds a certain sentiment and value. What’s the purpose of releasing something everyone will get. It’s like the old saying goes " if everyone has it, no one has it."

Exclusive items should remain exclusive. People can already get cool flashy skins via the legendary weapon system, trading post, rare drops and even a few cool crafting options. Bringing ALL the cool stuff back here and there really devalues a players time and effort.

TL:DR exclusive items that were available in the past shouldn’t be brought back just because people are unhappy they didn’t get it.

What do you guys think?

I disagree. There is no reason to keep rare weapon skins locked away behind huge paywalls on the trading post besides playing into the cards of some rich TP barons.

Should everything be available all the time? No.

But a system where old skins get reintroduced on a regular basis would keep TP manipulation in check and give players the ability to aquire skins they might have missed. Having prices in excess of 2k gold per skin on the trading post does no one good except for the 2-3 players who monopolized that market.

EDIT: just to clarify, I’m not against people making thousands of gold via the TP. On the contrary. I’m just not a fan of the rarity factor playing in that much because it requires exactly 0 thought or skill.

Cyninja.2954:

I disagree. There is no reason to keep rare weapon skins locked away behind huge paywalls on the trading post besides playing into the cards of some rich TP barons.

Should everything be available all the time? No.

But a system where old skins get reintroduced on a regular basis would keep TP manipulation in check and give players the ability to aquire skins they might have missed. Having prices in excess of 2k gold per skin on the trading post does no one good except for the 2-3 players who monopolized that market.

This.

Sounds like you want the game to be like Warframe.

Sucks when you don’t have one of the items but pretty awesome when you do; so it’s kind of a hard and bias situation to figure out. Warframe does it pretty much every major event and you either get or miss out on a special weapon you’ll never see again. ;o You can’t sell/trade them though in that game so can’t monopolize it.

I’m with you OP. That’s the whole deal w/ exclusive items. +1.

If your value of an item is based on whether or not someone else has it then you dont actually value the item. If you dont value the item why do you care if someone else gets it too?

Exclusive is the opposite of inclusive and the devs have made it clear they they want this game to be all about being inclusive. Also, on a personal level, I don’t not believe in punishing anyone whom has to be away from the game for an extended amount of time. Items can be harder to earn after the original event is over but every item should always be possible to obtain.

Yep they should, there will always be new collectables.

Ashen.2907:

If your value of an item is based on whether or not someone else has it then you dont actually value the item. If you dont value the item why do you care if someone else gets it too?

Because exclusivity as a reward is as old as MMOs themselves? This isn’t some new concept, the idea that “you have a chance to get a super rare item no one will every be able to get ever again” is the idea behind pre-order bonus’s , rarity, event rewards, competition rewards the whole lot.

Plus it is not black and white they can value the item too, in another MMO game I possessed a pair of knee high purple boots that was the only copy in the game, I made a fairly nice outfit specifically to show them off, I certainly valued both the item and the exclusivity of it. It made me feel valued and reward, maybe other players had more gold/items whatever…but I had these boots and no one else would ever have them they were my reward.

You are utterly wrong.

Absolute exclusivity is unfair and should simply not exist.

No one should have fun with something and greedily keeping it to themselves forever.

There can be, though, exclusivity in time. The item is exclusive for some time, and after that there’s new exclusive stuff to be had, and the oldest stuff becomes available in some way to a wider range of players. Like how Festival hats in GW1 no longer were exclusive after some years.

It can be a lot of time. 1, 2, 3, 5,10 years… but no matter how long, it should never be permanent, so everyone has a chance to it, no matter if they arrived late at the party or did not have cash when it was available.

There’s lots of factors that may contribute towards someone missing out of something, and they can be often outside that person’s control.

No need to add insult to the injury. “Oh, slipped down the stairs on a banana peel, you say? In coma for 5 months, uh? Well… you know what? That cool armor skin you were looking forward so much? You will NEVER be able to get it! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haw”

Don’t be that guy… just don’t.

TL:DR I disagree.

Conski Deshan.2057:

Ashen.2907:

If your value of an item is based on whether or not someone else has it then you dont actually value the item. If you dont value the item why do you care if someone else gets it too?

Because exclusivity as a reward is as old as MMOs themselves? This isn’t some new concept, the idea that “you have a chance to get a super rare item no one will every be able to get ever again” is the idea behind pre-order bonus’s , rarity, event rewards, competition rewards the whole lot.

Plus it is not black and white they can value the item too, in another MMO game I possessed a pair of knee high purple boots that was the only copy in the game, I made a fairly nice outfit specifically to show them off, I certainly valued both the item and the exclusivity of it. It made me feel valued and reward, maybe other players had more gold/items whatever…but I had these boots and no one else would ever have them they were my reward.

And the idea that you got an item that other people will continue to be able to pursue as well is as old as MMOs as well.

While I value my exclusive skins, there should be no completely unobtainable skins.
Since guildwars2 is so focused on skin collections and such as endgame, there is no reason to lock people out of it. Besides some of the ridiculous high priced one, like Aetherized, there are also skins that are not obtainable at all. Bunny ears and tribal armor come to mind.

Just make it harder to obtain or seasonal. Everyone wants to be a special snowflake.

I like the idea of the items coming back infrequently. It rewards people at different times for different items if they happen to be active at that time. I have a fairly rare set of armor from when you could craft pvp items and I’d like it to stay exclusive, but whatever.

Involving real life pride in some fake weapon or set of armor in a game is borderline cuckoo.

I tend to agree with this, but I think you may be playing the wrong MMO if you want the majority of the playerbase (or at least the forum frequenters) to agree with you. I’d offer my opinion on the matter, but the way previous topics like this have gone, it won’t really matter. Everyone’s already made up their mind.

Edit:

Iason Evan.3806:

Involving real life pride in some fake weapon or set of armor in a game is borderline cuckoo.

Why? I’ve seen this comment all the time. People are proud of the time they spend practicing an instrument. People are proud of art pieces they practice to get good at. Why can’t someone have pride in the work they’ve put in to a game they really enjoy? Having pride in accomplishments in a virtual world doesn’t mean they don’t have pride in real world accomplishments also. I’m proud of the fact that I worked hard to get Sunrise, The Minstrel, Bolt, and 3 full ascended armor sets. I’m also proud of the fact that I have a masters in Mechanical Engineering. Neither one takes away from the other. Do I judge them on the same scale? No, but there is still pride in both. They aren’t mutually exclusive. Stop judging people’s psyches on what they get out of a video game solely. It’s moronic.

I will never understand the anti exclusivity crowd at all.

There is a big difference between having an Excalibur and the Excalibur.
To me MMO’s are meant to be an entire virtual world , one where you are not automatically the main character. There’s every chance you’ll just be generic foot-soldier number 5 instead. You earn your way up the food chain and exclusives reward and allow people to feel special where they might otherwise feel like another brick in the wall.

Lets say you can get every skin then, whats my reward? I’ve played longer than x% , I’ve played better than y% and I attended 1,2,3 events that were once off occurrences, what are the rewards for my investment and ability over those other players?

@Ashen I’m not saying all items should be exclusive I’m saying that there should be a steady stream of exclusive items, it rewards people for when they played and how well they played rather than just oh you played 5000 hours here’s your 1000 skins , just like every other faceless person in the game.

I wish they’d release the PVP only skins that you cannot get at all in the game now.

Other skins like weapons or armor or backpacks from events, I don’t mind if they bring them back randomly. IE, Halloween comes around, you can get those skins again now.

I think this is a perception issue.

Some players want something ‘unique’, but they can’t have it. Not in GW2. Because this is a digital game, and items are not procedurally generated.
So anything unique they have will actually be a generic generic and easily reproducible. Something everyone who paid for the game should have access to eventually.

Now, if this game had generated content like having weapons generated like in Borderlands, Diablo or Starbound, it could make sense to have actual ‘unique’ ones. Because no matter if no one else can have the weapon you have, they can have something equivalent or similar. Two persons doing the same content would get equivalent but different rewards. I don’t think there’s two characters with the exact same dropped gear and stats in those games.

But in GW2, everything is preset. And it can’t be anything but preset. Weapons do not have interchangeable parts (they can’t even be dyed, for Lyssas,s sake) and stats are very, very fixed to make sure things are balanced in competitive areas.

So the only way to have something ‘unique’ is taking it away from others, thus not fitting GW2’s very philosophy.

MithranArkanere.8957:

I think this is a perception issue.

Some players want something ‘unique’, but they can’t have it. Not in GW2. Because this is a digital game, and items are not procedurally generated.
So anything unique they have will actually be a generic generic and easily reproducible. Something everyone who paid for the game should have access to eventually.

Now, if this game had generated content like having weapons generated like in Borderlands, Diablo or Starbound, it could make sense to have actual ‘unique’ ones. Because no matter if no one else can have the weapon you have, they can have something equivalent or similar. Two persons doing the same content would get equivalent but different rewards. I don’t think there’s two characters with the exact same dropped gear and stats in those games.

But in GW2, everything is present. And it can’t be anything but present. Weapons do not have interchangeable parts (they can’t even be dyed, for Lyssas,s sake) and stats are very, very fixed to make sure things are balanced in competitive areas.

So the only way to have something ‘unique’ is taking it away from others, thus not fitting GW2’s very philosophy.

I disagree, I believe exclusivity is a key concept in the longevity of MMO’s. Which are vastly different than a single player game, in single player every item is designed for you to find, you’re the chosen one, you found the sword lost for 1000 years etc. In an MMO rewards can be for different player groups, “this sword is for that championship pvp team”, “This reward is for the elite fractal team”. “This is for attending 2012 event 1”, and you obtaining their rewards takes that value away from them.

The example I always use in this argument is any sporting competition (remember MMO’s are a competitive environment) You will never have the 2012 world cup, you did not play in 2012 (past exclusives) You do have a chance now to get the 2016 world cup….if you are good enough, if not you will no longer be able to get that, but you’ll have a chance at the 2020 world cup etc etc.
Each world cup is a different skin, you can’t get the past skin, but you have a shot at getting the future ones. I like that system, It rewards players for what they accomplished and newer players know they have a shot at a new and upcoming item.

Your opinion is noted, OP. I disagree with it, but…‘Murca. You’re entitled to it.

I disagree completely.

I’d much rather play a game where everyone has the opportunity to earn/buy the items they want than one where items are deliberately denied to some players who may want them so that some of those who have them can imagine that someone else might, at some point, care that they’ve got it.

Especially because this might actually encourage more people to think about what they want and to design they character to look good to them instead of designing their character to hopefully impress a complete stranger with the artificial scarcity of their items.

(Also because I actually get embarrassed sometimes if I’m using an item that’s no longer available. I got the mini karka back when it was first released and it’s one of my favourite minis, me and my friends have had a lot of fun making jokes about it butting our ankles trying to crush us. But now I avoid using it because I absolutely hate it when someone asks me how to get it and I have to tell them if they’re lucky it will be on the TP for about 2,000 gold and if they’re unlucky they’ll never even see one for sale. I feel like a horrible person saying that.)

I’m completely in favour of some things being hard to get. The mini clockheart (which requires doing all the TA Aetherpath achievements) or exotic skins with expensive mystic forge recipes are fine by me. Items which are only ‘impressive’ because they were only on offer for a short time (and usually very easy to get during that time) are not.

Conski Deshan.2057:

I disagree, I believe exclusivity is a key concept in the longevity of MMO’s.

Not sure I understand this point.

Lets say I am all but burned out on the game until I come up with an idea for a character which would require access to something that is no longer available in game to build. How does not being able to build concepts of interest to continue playing the game increase longevity ?

I think I want the blue SAB backpack again. I had it once but I overwrote it when I got the green backpack because at the time the wardrobe wasn’t a thing, nor ever expected to be a thing. Also the blue backpack was just an exclusive purchase, not any kind of achievement.

I don’t even have a character that I actually want to use it on, I just want it back because I used to have it.

I’m pretty sure that if you got a skin from an achievement, but it’s not in your wardrobe you can put in a ticket to get it.

I got the Mad Memories skin because I had the Mad Memories (Complete Edition) and the quest that gave you the complete edition first gave you the green one. It’s impossible to get one without the other, so they gave me the original green one back.

On the subject of Mad Memories, I think I would be upset if they just started handing those out. But if they put the quest back in during Halloween, so that people could get it each year I would not have an issue with it.

By “exclusive” I think you really just mean “time-limited”. As in you had to be around when the item was available. You know what that means accomplishment wise, other than something that had a level of skill attached to it like Liadri? Jack squat. it means you happened to be playing the game on a set date. There’s no reason that sort of thing shouldn’t come back, especially considering that this game is based heavily on making your character look awesome. If you need that one last piece to complete your look, and you can’t get it because you weren’t on for the couple weeks you could acquire it, that’s just not cool.

Stuff that’s exclusive because it’s really rare, and/or very hard to obtain: Awesome!

Stuff that’s exclusive because it’s simply unobtainable or temporarily available: Lame!

I like exclusive rewards that are given for major achievements like winning tournaments and things like that, it shows that the player earned something and the item is like a trophy and it’s worth respecting.

However, wanted players locked out permanently from a certain item just because you happened to log in on a specific day and they didn’t strikes me as petty.

You’re free to disagree, naturally. I mean, there is a certain appeal to having things other people flat-out can’t have, but I personally prefer my character’s uniqueness to stem from a carefully chosen mix-and-match aesthetic rather than items that only I have access to; so I’m fine with a larger player-base having access to a larger variety of skins. It makes my own selection all the more unique that way.

Edit:
To add on, I’m fine with things like the Halloween lottery to re-introduce rare skins in a very limited number. I just think it’s a waste for something to be finite and become permanently locked off, like the old PvP skins that can’t be obtained currently.

I’m not into the whole exclusive thing, but it seems to me there are 2 sides to this :

- An item becomes “exclusive” because it doesn’t get reintroduced again.

- An item is exclusive because it came with a purchase or a pre-order.

If an item doesn’t get reintroduced, its price will inflate whenever some players have it but don’t really want it, making the item appear “exclusive” and expensive. Mostly these items are plain cosmetic changes.
If it comes with a package, then it will only belong to those that bought that package and will usually not be for sale (account/char bound).

Now if someone want to pride themselves of having an exclusive item, it means only they have it and only a few others do. But think about this : if the item is for sale on the TP, is it still exclusive ?
Because you may clain to have gotten it from an event or someting, but you might as well be someone who dished out cash and simply bought it, like a skin. So where is the pride in that ? Pride inspending money to claim you got something “exclusive” ?

It’s all about perception. If someone is happy they got an “exclusive” or hard to get item (limited availability, again, like skins), then good for them. But there is really no effort needed to obtain the item, you can simply buy it off the TP.

If however, you walk around with a legendary, then you show ppl that you have made an effort in making/obtaining the item.

Personally i have more ‘respect’ or admiration for someone who invests time to make something they can show off like a legendary, then someone with some skin they got through some event. Sure , the skin might look cool, and it doesn’t take anything away from the beauty (or uglyness – perception again), but it’s not really exclusive is it ?

And i must agree to the fact that some players might want to go for a certain look but can’t because it’s no longer available.

Exclusive in my book means only 1 person on the server has it. And not someone who can just buy it off the TP.

I like exclusive rewards that are given for major achievements like winning tournaments and things like that, it shows that the player earned something and the item is like a trophy and it’s worth respecting.

+1 to that.

I would agree, if all those exclusive items weren’t RNG gated when they were not exclusive.

Ashen.2907:

Conski Deshan.2057:

I disagree, I believe exclusivity is a key concept in the longevity of MMO’s.

Not sure I understand this point.

Lets say I am all but burned out on the game until I come up with an idea for a character which would require access to something that is no longer available in game to build. How does not being able to build concepts of interest to continue playing the game increase longevity ?

The angle I was speaking from was:
Let’s say I’m a top player in an MMO , I want to take a break for a few months, when I come back a large chunk of the player-base may have surpassed me overall, but I still have the items exclusive to when I played. I don’t feel all the value from me playing has gone now that I took my break. Like wise players that played while I didn’t have their own rewards to show.

I.E I haven’t played Runescape in like 6 years? I think, I’ve dropped off the leaderboard I’d guess, but I have a bunch of holiday exclusive skins that players during that time can’t get. If I go back now I still have something to show for it.
Same for Warframe, the exclusives I earned mean my time still has value despite what others have done by now.

I guess part of it depends on your value system, to me seeing a person with an item I can’t get it’s just “oh cool that’s a nice reward for them, they earned it by x”. I place more value on how someone got something/ how many people have something rather than what the actual item itself is.

When I look at someones character I don’t go “oh nice outfit.” (well I do but not only that). I kitten x helm, y top , z leg, b weapon , f title, that means the player has accomplished [] this much, I am beating this person/I am even with this person/ this person is beating me. So by extension I value an item that shows Ive done something others can’t/couldn’t /won’t for its reason rather than its skin and by extension an exclusive has more value.

Well.i hope they never bring.back the Mad Memories back item. I have both books. And I love that they where a one time deal. It shows you where there when. I like that not everyone could copy my look.its the same when I’m running around with my firery dragon sword. Sometimes I get a whisper, “cool sword! Where did you get it?” My response “playing Guild Wars 1” that’s right. I like things not everyone can get.

Last I checked you can still play GW1. HoM rewards are still broken, but that will be fixed eventually.

I think the people that dont like exclusive items are same ones that don’t like putting in effort to obtain legendaries (for example WvW map completion or SPVP matches, or something truly heroic).

In general, that whole crowd would be more at home in a PVE exclusive MOBA rather then MMORPG with all sorts of different elements within it.

I just recently returned to the game and missed the coclusion of season 1 and whole season 2, so I missed a lot. Am I kittened about it ? no, why should I be ? I wasnt here so its it and thats that.What does kinda irk me though, is that in turn I have items from way back when, and some of them feel extremely devalued, especially because via these return events they are just too easy to get. I don’t think its fair to undervalue anyones accomplishments and effort in this way. If a person A puts in a ton of effort and a person B puts in 1/4 effort, then person B should get 1/4 of the reward, not the whole thing.

Items only being available if you were around at a certain time is a terrible way to introduce exclusivity and it should absolutely die.

Items being hard to get and impossible to get are entirely different things. I don’t really have a problem with hard to get; I have a major problem with impossible.

I have an Immobulus that I made in the forge. Is it an exclusive item? No. Is it time limited? No. Was it hard to get? It wasn’t as bad when I made it, but now it takes a pretty decent gold outlay to forge the thing. You don’t see it very often, but there is nothing stopping anyone from making their own if they want to go for it but somehow I still think it’s neat to have. Maybe it’s because I don’t have this attitude of “I have this thing that you can never get and that makes me better than you”.

Yes of course they should stay exclusive. Am I regretting getting my black wings? Heck yes but those who have it now it’s more rare and should be that way

Sylent.3165:

Yes of course they should stay exclusive. Am I regretting getting my black wings? Heck yes but those who have it now it’s more rare and should be that way

No such thing as exclusive Gem Store skins. If you can just buy it with cash it will be back around some time.

Tongku.5326:

What does kinda irk me though, is that in turn I have items from way back when, and some of them feel extremely devalued, especially because via these return events they are just too easy to get. I don’t think its fair to undervalue anyones accomplishments and effort in this way. If a person A puts in a ton of effort and a person B puts in 1/4 effort, then person B should get 1/4 of the reward, not the whole thing.

While I’m not a fan of time locked exclusivity, THIS I agree with. Items should become harder to get, not easier, though not impossible.

Example, this is how I think Holiday skins should work:

Each year, a few new skins are introduced. Last years skins are made available again, but at a significant cost increase. So if the new haloween outfit is 3 candy corn cobs, last years should ballpark at 15. It’s possible to catch up on what you missed, but with a great deal of effort and expense, so only those who really want to go through the effort will get it.

Basically, how the BL weapon skins are. The new ones are just 1 ticket (which is still a pain to get) but most of the old ones are still obtainable, just very, very, very, expensive. They’re still exclusively out the reach of many players, but someone who wants the skin badly enough can still obtain it.

I just think that basic idea should apply to things just obtainable through in-game effort rather than just sheer money.

“It will take a very large investment of time and effort to get this item” exclusivity is fine but I just can’t support the idea of “It is impossible for you to ever obtain this item under any circumstances” type exclusivity.

Though I suppose somewhat strangely, the time when I don’t mind is when something is insanely exclusive, like when a specific player has something that’s literally one-of-a-kind because it was gifted by devs to a player for some special reason. I know there’s a few Team Fortress items like that. That’s a little different from “Anyone COULD have gotten this” type items from holidays and such, in my opinion.

Tongku.5326:

I think the people that dont like exclusive items are same ones that don’t like putting in effort to obtain legendaries (for example WvW map completion or SPVP matches, or something truly heroic).

In general, that whole crowd would be more at home in a PVE exclusive MOBA rather then MMORPG with all sorts of different elements within it.

I just recently returned to the game and missed the coclusion of season 1 and whole season 2, so I missed a lot. Am I kittened about it ? no, why should I be ? I wasnt here so its it and thats that.What does kinda irk me though, is that in turn I have items from way back when, and some of them feel extremely devalued, especially because via these return events they are just too easy to get. I don’t think its fair to undervalue anyones accomplishments and effort in this way. If a person A puts in a ton of effort and a person B puts in 1/4 effort, then person B should get 1/4 of the reward, not the whole thing.

Thats the problem though. Some of us did put in the work and still didn’t get items due to the kitten RNG. Take the jetpack as an example. A lot of us ran Molten Facility every day as much as we could (for me it was at least 4-5 attempts a day, during weekdays, more on weekend), and we still couldn’t get either of the ‘exclusive’ drops. And we’re still SOL because of people like the OP that think items should not be rereleased. They brought Molten Facility back in the form of two fractals, why can’t the jetpack or mini be a drop (part of the chest) on the boss fractal (when you happen to get it -_-)? There is no reason its not.

I never understood why some people can enjoy something only when others can’t have it.

How exclusive?

The items which were rewarded for completing season 1 events should make a comeback – heck, the ones tied to achievements should be auto-unlocked.

Things like the molten jetpack should probably stay locked. I’d love for it to make a return, but something that exclusive has a right to stay private. Anything tied to game play styles (say sigils) needs to come around pretty regularly, once off cosmetics are totally fine though.

That said… ^^

Many skins were introduced and canned before the wardrobe system existed. Many of them weren’t even that hard to farm. I’d appreciate every item which could be collected showing up at least one more time for wardrobe unlocking before being banished to the void for good.

I’m with the OP on this 1. I have items I got when GW2 launched and also couple things from first Halloween I think should stay exclusive. You weren’t there???? Oh well, sorry.
I was angry when GW1 started letting post 05-06 players start getting the hats etc. Or couple other games letting new comers get skins (microtrans) that others had to grind on for couple months to get (because it was the only way to get it). There’s pride in most exclusive items you get because you yourself actually accomplished what was needed to achieve it. Yes I am an elitist no shame there.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

I never understood why some people can enjoy something only when others can’t have it.

It’s because certain people want to feel like a special snowflake.

Im not again the idea to get a way to take the old skins back. But hope they dont repeat what they do with mini Charlotte. People spend gold into gems to get it from the gem store and the next year it was a easy ingame reward.

Tasida.4085:

I’m with the OP on this 1. I have items I got when GW2 launched and also couple things from first Halloween I think should stay exclusive. You weren’t there???? Oh well, sorry.
I was angry when GW1 started letting post 05-06 players start getting the hats etc. Or couple other games letting new comers get skins that others had to grind on for couple months to get (because it was the only way to get it). There’s pride in most exclusive items you get because you yourself actually accomplished what was needed to achieve it. Yes I am an elitist no shame there.

During the first halloween my brother and I were doing MK runs almost non-stop until they removed it. I got arachnophobia, he got two of them, plenty of other people I saw doing it consistently had nothing to show for it in the end. During MF he also got a jetpack, I didn’t. We were running it together in the same groups.

That has nothing to do with being ‘elite’. It’s just the sheer dumb luck to have been present and breathing at the right time, and the further dumb luck to get something out of RNG. If items are going to be exclusive for any reason, it should be the effort put into getting them, not because chance allowed a few people who got lucky to think they did anything special.

Gerrand.3085:

Many skins were introduced and canned before the wardrobe system existed. Many of them weren’t even that hard to farm. I’d appreciate every item which could be collected showing up at least one more time for wardrobe unlocking before being banished to the void for good.

Eh, if you botched it the first time they came around. Oh well~

That’s the appropriate response, isn’kitten “Had it, messed it up, lost it” is on the same level of “farmed content, didn’t get RNGsus chest.”

Y’know that beta ball cap that got introduced? Couldn’t find mine after the Wardrobe hit. Support said “oh well, can’t help ya.” I shrugged and moved on. Would I buy it back from the gem store? For 25 gems, maybe, if only to have it back. Would I get upset if a bunch of three-month old players got it? No. There’s no reason to be.

I’m with Arioso and a few others on this one. Purely time-locked RNG is pretty lame. But I could see some situations where “exclusive” is actually acceptable:

Annual events.
If they’re actually annual or regularly occurring. Looking at you SAB, Dragon Bash, etc.
No RNG on time-limited items.
Exception: the regularly-occurring clause above, as long as they are tradeable.
Time-limited but skill-based attainment.
Cool. I will never have Mini Liadri. I don’t particularly care, but I still smile a bit when I see someone showing her off, because that person’s proud of their achievement.
Collection.
This sort of always-on, winding-road method is most appropriate for exclusive rewards. One item with a 0.1% drop chance is crap for rewarding players. 100 items with a 10% drop chance is at least progress all players can see.

There’s plenty of ways to limit collection of an item without being a kittenhead about it.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

I never understood why some people can enjoy something only when others can’t have it.

Some people gain pleasure in making other people jealous (I’m sure there’s a word for this), I believe it also may have something to do with low self-esteem/emotional issues.

I also think selfishness plays a part in it too.

I farmed the whole MK festival (2012) never got any of the weap skins and I was fine with that, but items like the “witchs hat” or the ballcap from launch of GW2 etc should stay exclusive.
p.s. never did complete the Mad King’s Clock Tower that first year LOL

I have several of the items that were only available during the first holidays and other exculsive events.

And I’d be perfectly okay with ANet making them available again to whoever, in whatever amount, for whatever time.

Because I am not so pathetic a person as to see himself as some special snowball because he happened to win a lottery prize. There is no pride to be taken in gaining something by random chance. You earned nothing, and are owed nothing.

Rarity yes, exclusivity no. Seasonal items should always come back at least once a year.

I don’t want to be the coolest looking kid on the block, I want us all to look awesome. There are more than enough cosmetic items in game that even if everything was readily available, we’d still have dozens of ways to create unique and interesting looking characters. And that’s what really matters, imo.

Jahroots.6791:

Rarity yes, exclusivity no. Seasonal items should always come back at least once a year.

I don’t want to be the coolest looking kid on the block, I want us all to look awesome. There are more than enough cosmetic items in game that even if everything was readily available, we’d still have dozens of ways to create unique and interesting looking characters. And that’s what really matters, imo.

I think this is where the difference between pro-exclusivity and anti-exclusivity comes in.
I treat the game as a competition (which I feel is in line with MMO/gaming in general), I don’t want to equal to everyone I want to beat them, have more , do more, be more.

I’ll also be the one to say it, if everyone looks awesome , no one looks awesome.
I also worry about your definition of rarity, while you don’t say it I believe you’re defining it as “they have to put some work in and then they get it” not "only a very small % of the player base gets the item (I,E actual rarity/scarcity)

1 good example of “Exclusivity” is the mystic conduit.

This item was craftable via crafting materials obtained from mystic chest in the first (wintersday), and only a very limited quantity of those things were produced.

Later was said that MC wouldn’t come back, and the price rised (back when I bought it, MC was at 60 gold or little more), until it hit the (1’600?) gold today.

Said that, I agree to leave that unobtainable, cuse some ppl even have paid more after they heard it wasn’t comming back, and would be a big kick in their kitten bringing that back.