Guild Wars 2

Yes I agree, to a degree.

Despite missing items on GW1 because of certain events, I was never too upset about it. First off, it’s exclusive for a reason! It shows others you were there when the event occurred, you didn’t just purchase it afterwards.

This is what bothers me about GW2 – many of the items that were “one-time drops” can be bought/traded on the trading post. This doesn’t make them exclusive, since anyone can afford them with enough effort. Everyone has access to these weapons. Now you don’t have to be there when an event happens, you can just buy it and brag about it to others like you were.

Those really cool weapons you got that dropped only during this one event years ago? Yeah, some new guy just spent money to get that same weapon. Special, unique, one-time weapons? Nah, we’re all about being equal here. Since, you know, life is fair and every child is a winner and should get a trophy at the end of the soccer game despite its outcome.

This also doesn’t justify the reasoning behind why we shouldn’t have exclusive items either. Just because some “one-time drop” items are behind a big paywall in the TP doesn’t mean exclusive items shouldn’t exist in the game.

It’d be nice if exclusive event items were account-bound on acquire. Maybe these weapons would have different particle effects or colors, so that when re-skinned versions come out later there’d be a difference between the originals and the remakes.

Conski Deshan.2057:

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)

That doesn’t even make sense in this game. Who are you competing against? You can’t take loot from someone else, you can’t stop them from getting an achievement by getting there first. Getting an item by happening to be around during the time it was available certainly isn’t competitive. Do you just farm a lot and buy things off the TP so you can feel like you beat someone to it?

I am fine with items coming back, so long as the players have to complete the same or similar events to acquire them. Holographic Shattered Dragon Wings, for example, should be available once per year from Dragon Bash. Seeing things at the laurel vendor is disappointing, as I would rather see repetitive yearly events. These special skins are a way of saying, “I was there,” and making them available outside of the events is lazy. It’s more exciting to find out that I have to wait for Halloween, Wintersday, Dragon Bash, Queen’s Jubilee, Super Adventure Box, etc- it gives players something to look forward to.

LameFox.6349:

Conski Deshan.2057:

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)

That doesn’t even make sense in this game. Who are you competing against? You can’t take loot from someone else, you can’t stop them from getting an achievement by getting there first. Getting an item by happening to be around during the time it was available certainly isn’t competitive. Do you just farm a lot and buy things off the TP so you can feel like you beat someone to it?

What no? why do you assume it’s preventing the other person completing the task
It’s doing difficult achievements that others couldn’t I.E their skills or abilities were no good enough, not physically preventing them except in the case of direct races , getting rare/prestige items like liandri, luminescent etc.
I was just saying that exclusives are a part of that in getting an item another person couldn’t , in Guildwars currently since there’s so few high end pieces of content it’s usually about volume rather than actual quality though. Like getting more AP for some people, more skins, more titles etc.

While I do have to farm occasionally I despise farming, I’d much rather players were expected to complete new content constantly if they wanted to keep unlocking new things /getting nice items with an ever increasing difficulty.

Doggie.3184:

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.

Anet did experiment with this idea already with the halloween skins. Introduce a small amount via random chance with that raffle. I’m not sure of the success of it (too many given out, or too few, anet has the numbers not us.) But I wouldn’t mind a similar event for other stuff. Thus, still exclusive in most sense, and can help with tp prices.

Conski Deshan.2057:

What no? why do you assume it’s preventing the other person completing the task
It’s doing difficult achievements that others couldn’t I.E their skills or abilities were no good enough, not physically preventing them except in the case of direct races , getting rare/prestige items like liandri, luminescent etc.
I was just saying that exclusives are a part of that in getting an item another person couldn’t , in Guildwars currently since there’s so few high end pieces of content it’s usually about volume rather than actual quality though. Like getting more AP for some people, more skins, more titles etc.

I don’t think it’s preventing other people from completing the task. You said that you treat it as a competition, which ‘[you] feel is in line with MMO/gaming in general’, and I was pointing out that GW2 features a lot of design choices that intentionally minimize competition. In addition to that, those few things that are genuinely rare in this game are almost entirely kept that way not by being difficult to acquire, but by being unlikely to drop or downright impossible to acquire. So even when you get one, it doesn’t really say a lot about you. With a few exceptions (speed runs, gauntlet before it was murdered, etc.) it strikes me as a very strange game to attempt to compete in, because what one player achieves is largely a personal accomplishment that is irrelevant to everyone else.

Also on an unrelated note I’m pretty sure Luminescent skins are rare because they take a perfectly good set of armour and make it ugly. >__>

Exclusive items should be left as exclusive items. One and done. I’m not saying keep a finite stock but certainly crashing the market isn’t a good solution. The Halloween weapon lottery was a good solution.

There has to be something rare and expensive in the form of skins on the TP. Otherwise people would buy all the skins they want instantly. Trust me – if there was no item over let’s say 1K on the TP I could probably have all the skins I want in a very short amount of time.

LameFox.6349:

Conski Deshan.2057:

What no? why do you assume it’s preventing the other person completing the task
It’s doing difficult achievements that others couldn’t I.E their skills or abilities were no good enough, not physically preventing them except in the case of direct races , getting rare/prestige items like liandri, luminescent etc.
I was just saying that exclusives are a part of that in getting an item another person couldn’t , in Guildwars currently since there’s so few high end pieces of content it’s usually about volume rather than actual quality though. Like getting more AP for some people, more skins, more titles etc.

I don’t think it’s preventing other people from completing the task. You said that you treat it as a competition, which ‘[you] feel is in line with MMO/gaming in general’, and I was pointing out that GW2 features a lot of design choices that intentionally minimize competition. In addition to that, those few things that are genuinely rare in this game are almost entirely kept that way not by being difficult to acquire, but by being unlikely to drop or downright impossible to acquire. So even when you get one, it doesn’t really say a lot about you. With a few exceptions (speed runs, gauntlet before it was murdered, etc.) it strikes me as a very strange game to attempt to compete in, because what one player achieves is largely a personal accomplishment that is irrelevant to everyone else.

Also on an unrelated note I’m pretty sure Luminescent skins are rare because they take a perfectly good set of armour and make it ugly. >__>

Minimise competition in relation to loot drops and resource node, not competition completely. Every item I get that another player cannot at a later point is another “point” so to speak for my account regardless of its acquisition method. It’s another addition of value to my account.

Hey I’m wearing the lumi set at the moment, you do however have to wear the entire set because nothing else matches the glow really.

Conncept.7638:

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.

This.

Sorin.4310:

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.

Because it is not your skill that created those items. Merely your willingness to waste your time to accrue someone else’s art. There is no skill on your part to get these items, merely time sitting and waiting. Where as, in your example, a trumpet player takes his time and improves his skill to levels beyond that of a normal person. Some become so skilled that no one else will ever catch them. Where as, again for your example, all it would take me is mere time, no skill, to craft Sunrise, The Minstrel, Bolt, and 3 full ascended armor sets. Equating skill to merely time wasted isn’t a good policy nor intelligent.

If you want to argue for skill in a video game then you would be best to head to the pvp forum as that is the only place skill comes into play. This comment takes twenty fold for Guild Wars 2 pve. Dungeons and PvE are merely memory, very little 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.

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.

This ^

There is nothing fun about having skins become super exclusive. All it does is pad a few wallets and help couple of people’s egos grow because they have a pretty hat that nobody else can have. I say let everybody have their chance at their very own pretty hat!

Conski Deshan.2057:

Minimise competition in relation to loot drops and resource node, not competition completely. Every item I get that another player cannot at a later point is another “point” so to speak for my account regardless of its acquisition method. It’s another addition of value to my account.

I guess I’m just not sure how you can consider that competition. The scarcity of the rewards could, assuming they’re not random drops, speak to the skill required to obtain them while the activity is available, but only then. Unless someone has the chance to try to get something I have, I can’t compare our abilities by whether or not they have it. They could be a much better player than I am in every way imaginable, but it wouldn’t matter, because skill no longer dictates whether it’s possible. I was lucky enough to be there, and they weren’t.

I mean I get being happy about it, but it’s in the same way I’d be happy about winning the lottery.

There’s limits and degrees.

The exclusivity I’m against is the absolute kind. Something that can’t ever be obtained by anyone in any way.

There’s many other forms of exclusivity. And something can be exclusive in more than one. For example:

• There’s exclusivity over time. Something can’t be obtained again for a long time, but may return eventually. Maybe in a long time, maybe for a brief moment.,
  • There’s seasonal. It’s a kind of exclusivity over time that players can expect, as it returns on a schedule.
• There’s economic exclusivity. Something costs a lot and becomes a symbol of wealth.
  • It may also cost real money or paid currencies, like GW2’s gemstore.
• There’s skill exclusivity. This is the one most people would agree with. Like liadri’s miniature, or some of the Season 2 achievements. Something anyone has access to, but it’s not simply handed out.
  • Competitive rewards like mini lamas count as this type too. Even if you don’t get it, you could have gotten it, and you may get a shot at it in the future. But you still need to get good enough to get it.
• There’s dedication exclusivity.They take time to get, but anyone can get there, eventually, if they keep playing, never give up, never surrender. The biggest example of this are achievement point rewards.

Any form of exclusivity other than absolute is fine by me. It’s not about everyone getting everything, but about everyone having a reasonable chance at everything.

the politics in this thread is so evident. Basically a conservative vs progressive theme going on here. Conservative: If you were here for the event/worked your kitten off for it, then congratulations! You have something to show for it and make you unique!
Progressive/Liberal: No one should have any exclusive items! Must share and let everyone have a go at it!

I agree with the conservative view on time gated events and things you have to be skilled at being exclusive. You were here when a special anniversary event took place? Good, you should be the ones to have this item. You pvp your heart out and get exclusive pvp skins for top pvp players? Hell yes you should be the only one that gets it.

However, Holiday events which happen annually? Yes, everyone should get a shot, but they may have to wait a while. I also think the RNG part of this should be dropped too. If two people do the same number of dungeon runs or seasonal or special events, they should receive the same reward, unless they do different difficulty settings. The higher difficulty achievers should get something different. Gem stroe stuff should just stay there. Money is money and doesn’t require skill. Leave it for everyone and make mor emoney ANET.

I also have no issue with skins no longer available being sold for thousands on the TP. That is basic supply and demand. Those who think skins obtained during the first months of GW2 thata re rare now should be cheap and for everyone are getting close to ridiculous. You weren’t there whent his item was available. Now, it costs more, but such is life is moscow. Don’t edge into the area of entitlement.

Vanthian.9267:

Sorin.4310:

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.

Because it is not your skill that created those items. Merely your willingness to waste your time to accrue someone else’s art. There is no skill on your part to get these items, merely time sitting and waiting. Where as, in your example, a trumpet player takes his time and improves his skill to levels beyond that of a normal person. Some become so skilled that no one else will ever catch them. Where as, again for your example, all it would take me is mere time, no skill, to craft Sunrise, The Minstrel, Bolt, and 3 full ascended armor sets. Equating skill to merely time wasted isn’t a good policy nor intelligent.

If you want to argue for skill in a video game then you would be best to head to the pvp forum as that is the only place skill comes into play. This comment takes twenty fold for Guild Wars 2 pve. Dungeons and PvE are merely memory, very little skill.

So time is not anything of value? Those who spend the time to make ascended deserve the rewards. Those who choose not to spend the time and grind do not deserve it. It is not impossible or exclusive if it takes no skilla nd only time. You cans till get ascended items and legendaries. How does this even remotely appear relevant to the topic of EXCLUSIVE items. This is just plain entitlement.

“Why do those who spent the time and effort to get something have it and I don’t when I am unwilling to do so!?!?!?” Jesus Christ.

Skins? I don’t mind those being exclusive. They are cosmetics.

Stat combinations? No. If you look at things like zealot’s, sentinel’s, and the like, those are things that affect actual gameplay. To have them be “exclusive” is, in my opinion, contradictory to the notion of a fair and even playing field between players. If you restrict access to certain options that directly affect game play, it causes an imbalance between players.

Now to be fair, ANet does their best to make things as “side-grades” rather than direct upgrades. But the fact remains that if I want to run zealot’s gear, I may have a very difficult time doing that if I was not around when it was introduced since I can no longer access it as readily.

It’s also why some people have issue with elite specializations in HoT, and why ANet will never make them flat “upgrades”.

But if we’re referring exclusively to cosmetics here (or things like minis), then I have no objection. They do not directly affect gameplay mechanics, and can be nice rewards for people that have been around for a long time and put in a lot of effort to do things.

In this game, I think that exclusivity should be: (a) cosmetic; and (b) tied to specific content. Examples would be Aetherpath drops, Fractal weapon skins or Teq Hoards. Exclusivity is a prestige issue. Pushing sales using scarcity techniques should not be a source of prestige.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Pushing sales using scarcity techniques should not be a source of prestige.

I don’t fully agree with this. Prestige is actually a perfect way to push sales of certain things. Maybe it’s less “genuine” in some respect, but if the item actually has that prestige, there’s no reason not to try and exploit that. Although I will concede that it would be quite annoying if all exclusives were handled in such a manner, though that isn’t the case currently.

That is, of course, as long as we are talking about cosmetics. Once it’s things that start affecting gameplay statistics (i.e. certain gear stat combinations), that is encroaching on pay-to-win territory and needs to be avoided at all costs.

TrcyMcgrdy.2317:

the politics in this thread is so evident. Basically a conservative vs progressive theme going on here. Conservative: If you were here for the event/worked your kitten off for it, then congratulations! You have something to show for it and make you unique!
Progressive/Liberal: No one should have any exclusive items! Must share and let everyone have a go at it!

I agree with the conservative view on -
[Snip]

Uh… what?
First of all, there’s no reason to bring up political viewpoints on this. At all.

People wanting to have a shot at earning skins is the same as Liberal Entitlement?
Again: Uh… what?

People wanting FREE skins, sure, but wanting to be able to earn them is pretty reasonable.

For that matter, a conservative veiwpoint (From an American Republican standpoint at least) is supposed to be about being able to enjoy the fruits of your labor and that hard work should be rewarded, rather than punished. No, conservatives don’t belive in hand-outs but neither do they believe the have-nots should be permanently kept from earning things that other people are able to earn.

A conservative could just as easily instead say: “If I work as hard as as the next guy, I should be able to work my way up the economic ladder and get the items I’ve rightfully earned! These ‘liberal’ players got a free entitlement just for loging in a certain day and have the nerve to think only they can enjoy those benefits!”

… In other words, I don’t see how someone’s place on the political spectrum has any bearing on their feelings of in-game reward exclusivity.

MithranArkanere.8957:

The exclusivity I’m against is the absolute kind. Something that can’t ever be obtained by anyone in any way.
[Snip]
It’s not about everyone getting everything, but about everyone having a reasonable chance at everything.

Also, I think that’s pretty much my own overall opinion summed up in a better way than I actually put it. Fully agree.

I felt special with my fervid censer <3 after it return so many have it

Conski Deshan.2057:

I treat the game as a competition

Then you are doing it wrong, full stop. ANet has been more than clear about the PvE in this game being cooperative, not competitive.

Conski Deshan.2057:

I don’t want to equal to everyone I want to beat them, have more , do more, be more.

Sounds like a personal problem to me.

Conski Deshan.2057:

I’ll also be the one to say it, if everyone looks awesome , no one looks awesome.

But with enough options, everyone looks unique. Which is still awesome. So yes, if everyone looks awesome, everyone still looks awesome.

Crossplay.2067:

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.

Actually they havent said if it includes cosmetic items.
Judging from certain items like mini llama, mini gwynefyrdd and the glorious hero armor sets I can say that inclusion does not include cosmetic items.

I dont mind (and even like) super exclusive cosmetics as long as they arent retroactively required for collection achievements (looking at you aether and fused skins)

If you aren’t a tournament winner then nothing you’ve done is even a millionth of what deserves an exclusive reward.

Arioso.8519:

Uh… what?
First of all, there’s no reason to bring up political viewpoints on this. At all.

I think the point he was trying to make is that the arguments here mirror real world political stances.
I.E I’m all for equality, marriage for all etc etc which is democrats I believe for you Americans? , which in game is the equivalent of of the equalists (incidentally in the online world the view point I’m against.)

Where as the elites and suporters of exclusivity, prestiege and traditional MMO core concepts could be seen as equivilent to the 1%/republican (I believe?) points of view.

Gene Archer.8560:

Conski Deshan.2057:

I treat the game as a competition

Then you are doing it wrong, full stop. ANet has been more than clear about the PvE in this game being cooperative, not competitive.

Conski Deshan.2057:

I don’t want to equal to everyone I want to beat them, have more , do more, be more.

Sounds like a personal problem to me.

Conski Deshan.2057:

I’ll also be the one to say it, if everyone looks awesome , no one looks awesome.

But with enough options, everyone looks unique. Which is still awesome. So yes, if everyone looks awesome, everyone still looks awesome.

Anet wants the players to cooperate together in situations, That does not mean the game is not competitive, this is hopefully being expanded on in the mysterious challenge content being added in HOT. Regardless I like exclusivity it’s fun for me and my guildies and that’s all that matters to me.
Timed exclusivity rewards you for when you played,
Skill based exclusivity rewards you for how well you played.
Generic gem store exclusivity even makes some people feel better.

It’s a motivator for game play.

Why do you value something you have because you happen upon it at the right time? I value things I earn. Let newbies earn rewards the same as we did. They may even have to work harder than you because you could Zerg farm for a couple weeks. If we reintroduce reworked content with old rewards we can enjoy new hard content we all have been starving for as well.

It’s pretty devastating to get stuff re-introduced, though. I’ve been waiting on selling tormented weapon skins since they were released on the premise that over a long period of time they would increase in value, like the fused ones. I took my hard-earned gold and dumped it into some rather cool looking weapon skins that I guessed would rise in price in time.

And they just about started to, but their re-introduction as being available for 1 scrap decimated the value I was about to redeem after spending god knows how long waiting.

Exclusive skins are tough markets because making them recur removes their value/exclusivity and general uniqueness. I think some of the whacky expensive skins like the greatsaw are hilarious and justify their prices and exclusivity, and let’s be honest, when was the last time you saw a Twilight and got all dreary-eyed like you did the first time you saw it near release of the game? That whole “awesome” factor kind of diminishes when they become more or less commodities, and it being very difficult to obtain is what’s going to keep it in that position.

That said, I’m all for equal opportunity at event/old items. Sucks when the skin that would look awesome for a character concept is locked behind a huge paywall or inaccessible challenge from an event that happened years ago.

Tough debate.

DeceiverX.8361:

It’s pretty devastating to get stuff re-introduced, though. I’ve been waiting on selling tormented weapon skins since they were released on the premise that over a long period of time they would increase in value, like the fused ones. I took my hard-earned gold and dumped it into some rather cool looking weapon skins that I guessed would rise in price in time.

And they just about started to, but their re-introduction as being available for 1 scrap decimated the value I was about to redeem after spending god knows how long waiting.

Exclusive skins are tough markets because making them recur removes their value/exclusivity and general uniqueness. I think some of the whacky expensive skins like the greatsaw are hilarious and justify their prices and exclusivity, and let’s be honest, when was the last time you saw a Twilight and got all dreary-eyed like you did the first time you saw it near release of the game? That whole “awesome” factor kind of diminishes when they become more or less commodities, and it being very difficult to obtain is what’s going to keep it in that position.

That said, I’m all for equal opportunity at event/old items. Sucks when the skin that would look awesome for a character concept is locked behind a huge paywall or inaccessible challenge from an event that happened years ago.

Tough debate.

Why do you want so much gold? Is it to buy skins that are no longer available and resell them for more gold? Buying things with in game currency seems counterintuitive to playing a fantasy roleplaying game. How about being able to play and earn the items that were a part of the game as an alternative to the false economy game people play.

I’m not saying this for black lion weapon skins. Those are not something earned in game. Those are just a way for anet to keep the lights on. Let them put them back on sale every now and then and let them make some money. I don’t feel bad for people loosing out on fake money so anet can earn real money.

Conski Deshan.2057:

That does not mean the game is not competitive,

The game isn’t competitive because I’m not competing with you.

Any competition you think is there between us is in your head.

Conski Deshan.2057:

this is hopefully being expanded on in the mysterious challenge content being added in HOT

I wouldn’t count on it.

Conski Deshan.2057:

. Regardless I like exclusivity it’s fun for me and my guildies and that’s all that matters to me.

And it’s horrible for me, and that’s all that matters to me.

Conski Deshan.2057:

It’s a motivator for game play.

It completely demotivates me to even bother.

I don’t play video games to experience real life things like “haves and have nots”. I play them to get away from that depressing crap.

A OK.8276:

Why do you value something you have because you happen upon it at the right time? I value things I earn. Let newbies earn rewards the same as we did. They may even have to work harder than you because you could Zerg farm for a couple weeks. If we reintroduce reworked content with old rewards we can enjoy new hard content we all have been starving for as well.

I value things I earn too, which is everything I’ve unlocked for my account. It’s an extra reward “you get this bonus item for being here”, think of it like a participation trophy or a memento. Plus in some cases a time based element is involved, you had only 2 weeks to learn how to beat liandri, but if she was there all the time players would eventually master and diminish the difficulty further, devaluing it.

I’m all for S1 returning, it was good content, but not with the same rewards. There’s what maybe two dozen skins? you can’t let veteran players have a few momentos of the experimental first season of the living world. To celebrate our involvement and participation.

Realistically exclusivity is here to stay, it sells and is a core concept. So this discussion is fairly moot.

I dont remeber anet saying anything is intended to be exclusive regarding 99.99999% of items in game(besides the game edition exclusive gifts). Those TP skins are never meant to be exclusive. What ya talking ’bout? Lol

It’s a tad bit pathetic to build self esteem on digital item exclusivity, don’t ya think?

A OK.8276:

DeceiverX.8361:

It’s pretty devastating to get stuff re-introduced, though. I’ve been waiting on selling tormented weapon skins since they were released on the premise that over a long period of time they would increase in value, like the fused ones. I took my hard-earned gold and dumped it into some rather cool looking weapon skins that I guessed would rise in price in time.

And they just about started to, but their re-introduction as being available for 1 scrap decimated the value I was about to redeem after spending god knows how long waiting.

Exclusive skins are tough markets because making them recur removes their value/exclusivity and general uniqueness. I think some of the whacky expensive skins like the greatsaw are hilarious and justify their prices and exclusivity, and let’s be honest, when was the last time you saw a Twilight and got all dreary-eyed like you did the first time you saw it near release of the game? That whole “awesome” factor kind of diminishes when they become more or less commodities, and it being very difficult to obtain is what’s going to keep it in that position.

That said, I’m all for equal opportunity at event/old items. Sucks when the skin that would look awesome for a character concept is locked behind a huge paywall or inaccessible challenge from an event that happened years ago.

Tough debate.

Why do you want so much gold? Is it to buy skins that are no longer available and resell them for more gold? Buying things with in game currency seems counterintuitive to playing a fantasy roleplaying game. How about being able to play and earn the items that were a part of the game as an alternative to the false economy game people play.

I’m not saying this for black lion weapon skins. Those are not something earned in game. Those are just a way for anet to keep the lights on. Let them put them back on sale every now and then and let them make some money. I don’t feel bad for people loosing out on fake money so anet can earn real money.

I play a lot of WvW. Good food in there costs around 3g/hour. Siege is almost 1g per keep/40s per tower attempt, and around 2-5g for a ninja flip with havoc.

I’ve also needed to transfer servers nine times, and have funded three friends to transfer servers, due to my guild moving around a few times, RL friends joining the game on others from me servers earlier on, and finding a good, stable WVW community. Spending $240 to enjoy a game mode is pretty absurd, so I simply don’t do so. I continue to buy things from the gem store with RL money, but I don’t think I should be paying so much out of pocket, no?

As you can see, it’s very easy to spend an upward of 100g-200g per day on just being in WvW. Without maintaining an aggressive stance on working the TP, the game becomes difficult to afford/enjoy playing. Skins are where I started, and I’d like to continue selling them. I have no rush for the profits, as long as I keep my coffers full enough to maintain myself. And you’d be surprised at what people pay gems for. I know of a few people personally who have dumped hundreds of dollars into gem → gold conversion to buy legendaries. A few hundred gold for a really cool gem store skin isn’t unreasonable. Yes, once it starts hitting the 1k mark it’s pretty unreasonable, but to claim that people don’t spend money on gold for these skins is entirely untrue.

You also neglect to consider the number of people who just farm keys on low level characters and buy the 1 scrap items. A lot of people do this. It’s why on release the new skins are so cheap; people aren’t buying them with gems and selling them on the TP for 60-80g. Those are free players trying to cash in by powerleveling alts through the human commoner personal story and getting free black lion keys several times per hour. If you buy the keys with gems and try to get those skins, you’re spending a lot of money. I’ve tried the game a few times before, and I can say confidently $100 netted me one weapon at 1 scrap. That’s pretty bad.

So unless you’d like to make suggestions to reduce the astronomical cost of WvW be covered by the mode itself (such as a 99% reduction in food and siege costs) and somehow not influence the economy at all, I can’t agree we should be aiming to reduce the price on such items as much as possible. Every attempt to reduce the price of WvW has made regular players/crafters and TP flippers retaliate, too, due to the impact on the economy.

Hope that clarifies my need for gold and my stance on why this problem is not an easy one to fix.

I think most stuff should be accessible to the vast majority of players; I just don’t think all things should be. Every game ought to have a large variety of acquisition methods. That’s what makes things interesting.

• Items that say “I was there when that happened” are wonderful rewards for veterans. I prefer these to be account-bound on acquisition and obtainable via skill or stories, e.g. Mini Liadri and Mawdrey.
• Items that say, “I worked hard (in some way) to make this happen,” such as Achievement point skins, Lumi armor.
• Items that say, “I was clever enough to grab this up when it was cheap or I was just darn lucky”. Such as the molten jetpack.

I think things should always be available to the game once they are introduced. Change the methods of acquisition if you must, but I despise when things are “no longer available in game”. It’s stupid and infuriating. You making this post is nothing short of elitism.

Conski Deshan.2057:

LameFox.6349:

Conski Deshan.2057:

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)

That doesn’t even make sense in this game. Who are you competing against? You can’t take loot from someone else, you can’t stop them from getting an achievement by getting there first. Getting an item by happening to be around during the time it was available certainly isn’t competitive. Do you just farm a lot and buy things off the TP so you can feel like you beat someone to it?

What no? why do you assume it’s preventing the other person completing the task
It’s doing difficult achievements that others couldn’t I.E their skills or abilities were no good enough, not physically preventing them except in the case of direct races , getting rare/prestige items like liandri, luminescent etc.
I was just saying that exclusives are a part of that in getting an item another person couldn’t , in Guildwars currently since there’s so few high end pieces of content it’s usually about volume rather than actual quality though. Like getting more AP for some people, more skins, more titles etc.

While I do have to farm occasionally I despise farming, I’d much rather players were expected to complete new content constantly if they wanted to keep unlocking new things /getting nice items with an ever increasing difficulty.

Lol wot.

How can you be competitive when you don’t play the one competitive part of the game? PvP.

None of this thread makes any sense. You guys say you want exclusive items, Okay. You say you want it because you want to ‘beat’ others… in a game mode where you don’t actually compete?

Luminiscient Armor isn’t competitive, it is a grind. Liadri isn’t even competitive, though fair enough to be note worthy spamming it till you got lucky in a fight or finding a gimmick build like the rifle war/hundo build with guides on youtube is enough.

Skins don’t mean anything but Luck, wealth and grind in this game. The only Skins that would of denoted skill would of been the Glorious Hero armour if not for the test-ladder method of aquisition. No skin makes anyone better at anything BUT perhaps styling and eyes for fashion.

Though we are not so different you and I. I am also very competitive I have found. So I literally try to beat others and compete in PvP, the only game mode that allows it.

Heck lets say PvP isn’t your cup of tea because you don’t like fighting others (Okay Mr ‘Competitive’…) you can also measure your skill vs others by doing PvE content with them such as high level fractals. You can actually see them in action and decide. It is people like you that make me want to run Level 2 Starter gear just to roflstomp them in game.

TDLR: Time limited exclusives which come back are fine, exclusivity through difficulty (or time effort investment) is fine, absolute exclusivity without return for being nothing but in the right place at the right time no ty. Competition and comparison should be in how you play and your knowledge/skill as a player, not your fashion. Unless it is a fashion contest.

The only exclusive items should be behind content you can choose or choose not to do. Specifically such as fractals, pvp, wvw and holiday events. Aside from that, everything should be obtainable some how and never permanently unavailable to people who probably had more important agendas (irl priorities, lack of funds, bills, family time/emergencies, etc..).

I’m sure you wouldn’t want things suddenly coming up or happening that caused you to miss out either. No one would. So why bar anyone else from the same ingame content?

No one persons time or money is worth more than anyone else’s. If they invest either or, they should have as equal chance to obtain the same.

Drakonath.7096:

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’m almost completely supportive of your opinion, but seriously I need the Stalwart Shoulder Skin to come back because almost all of the medium armor shoulder skins are complete garbage and I need something good on my shoulders to match the rest of my awesome armor combos.

:P

When I was in university, I had this housemate called Frans. He imagined himself to belong to the avant-garde cultural elite. Always wore black, went to ‘cultural’ fims and theatre productions. Bit of a snob, really.

It really came to the fore what exactly that meant to him when there was this Italian pop song he professed to like a lot. We, his housemates (15-ish of us) listened to the song, and agreed we liked it too. All of a sudden this guy didn’t like it anymore. Because when it was available to and liked by the masses, it wasn’t good enough for him anymore.

And that, dear boys and girls, is exactly what this whole ‘exclusivity’ thing sounds like to me. Childish, greedy, immature. Who cares if someone else has the same pixels you have, as long as they have to put the same effort into it…

Agreed, exclusive items should stay exclusive and not come back in some merchant NPC’s store.

The only excusive item I do not have is the Mad memories Full edition, as I was in the hospital for surgery. I missed the Karka queen event as well tbh mostly due to the huge lag and the instance crashes. So I lost out on the 1st Karka Queen kill.but that’s it.

I really wanted mad memories, I tried to catch up with a huge bandaid over my freshly sown wound, bnuit I was to tired and failed to get the complete version, I still have the basic one… I tried to get it oince more using the repawning NPC’s in tghe last halloween and got the 3 basic books again, but to no avail..

The way I see it, the effort to get every skin should stay about constant. While some can be hard to get, they shouldn’t become easier or harder to get over time.

Buford.2954:

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

Yes you can, but it’s not as easy as looking for it on the TP is it. Anyone can get them, but few people will go and get them, as lets face it. It will.take a good amount of time and some money.

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

The only excusive item I do not have is the Mad memories Full edition, as I was in the hospital for surgery. I missed the Karka queen event as well tbh mostly due to the huge lag and the instance crashes. So I lost out on the 1st Karka Queen kill.but that’s it.

I really wanted mad memories, I tried to catch up with a huge bandaid over my freshly sown wound, bnuit I was to tired and failed to get the complete version, I still have the basic one… I tried to get it oince more using the repawning NPC’s in tghe last halloween and got the 3 basic books again, but to no avail..

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

The only excusive item I do not have is the Mad memories Full edition, as I was in the hospital for surgery. I missed the Karka queen event as well tbh mostly due to the huge lag and the instance crashes. So I lost out on the 1st Karka Queen kill.but that’s it.

I really wanted mad memories, I tried to catch up with a huge bandaid over my freshly sown wound, bnuit I was to tired and failed to get the complete version, I still have the basic one… I tried to get it oince more using the repawning NPC’s in tghe last halloween and got the 3 basic books again, but to no avail..

I think this says it all.

Do we really want people excluded from things, on the basis that they were in hospital at the time?

Is that anything to be proud of?

Of course it isn’t.

I made a TL;DR comment before, as I have talked about this subject so much, previously (elsewhere), I have bored myself.

But, just to clarify:

If you really like the way something looks, you don’t care how many other people have it, or not.

Whereas, if the only reason you think you like something, is because other people don’t have it and can’t get it, you should really reassess your priorities in life and work on developing your own, individual, sense of style.

…because it is far better to dress your char in the skin of a 2s pair of Leather Shoes, with style, than it is to dress them in an “exclusive” item, without any.

It’s not even like the quality of materials used is an issue, in a virtual world.

This game will probably always have to charge for vanity items, as that is how it makes its money.

But there is no need to add to that less than ideal situation, by creating artificial, time-gated exclusivity, as well.

Answer to the opening post : No.

Every time I hear this exclusivity/prestige nonsense brought up, it’s basically this :

“Forget you, got mine, I have it, now I don’t want any of you to get a chance at it.”

Kal Spiro.9745:

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.

This is pretty much my stance on this, I have ZERO problem with people getting skins from past events (like the Fervid Censor white flower back piece, freaking amazing my fav back piece ever), but they should be tied to achievements/events.
Even if those can only be done/worked on periodically as events come back up or possibly replaying Living Story stuff.

I have to say, I completely agree with the OP about exclusivity. I made my legendary weapons not because I liked the skins so much (well, to a degree I did but that was not the major factor) but because only players who have played a lot/are extremely lucky will have them. I got them to stand out to others, not for myself. I will eventually get round to buying the spirit smith backpiece not because it is nicer than my fractal capacitor, but because I have never seen anyone else with one. Those are thoughts of -I am sure- many players as well as me and I know some of you will not understand this logic, but it really is what gives me the motivation to grind for something- I do it because after I am done, I will have something hardly anyone else has. That is the rewarding feeling I want. There are few examples of true exclusivity in this game at the moment and I would like to see more one time only skins that never return, if I manage to get them or not.

Nilkemia.8507:

Answer to the opening post : No.

Every time I hear this exclusivity/prestige nonsense brought up, it’s basically this :

“Forget you, got mine, I have it, now I don’t want any of you to get a chance at it.”

Exactly.

Exclusive items are just an ego boost for some people.

Regenas.6845:

Exclusive items are just an ego boost for some people.

Nothing wrong with it in a game about cosmetic progression instead of statistical progression.
People complain if people get stronger by playing much, people complain if others look special/better for playing longer/more. Looks like people never are happy.

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.

Actually I really enjoyed making my legendary and the only reason I haven’t moved on to making more is I want to wait for HoT for the new ones and the precursor scavenger hunt. (And I want to put my gold into my mini pet collection.)

I’m also really proud of my mini llama from the Tournament of Legends but I still think they haven’t done enough to make it available to everyone who wants one. Especially now you need loads to make the upgraded versions. Ideally there would be a repeatable PvP reward track which gives one.

But as other people have said there’s a huge difference between an item that’s exclusive because you had to put effort in to earn it (which anyone could get if they were willing to put the same effort in) and one that’s exclusive because it was only available for a short period of time.

The Celebration Hat is arguably one of the most exclusive items in the game because it was only available during the headstart weekend. But it’s nothing special. No one is impressed by it because it didn’t take any effort to get. I got 2 just because I accidentally clicked the button twice.

(Although maybe that’s a bad example since I suspect the main reason it’s not very popular is it’s pretty ugly and the bald head effect is even more glaring than with most hats.)

Repost to fix the forum.

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.

Actually I really enjoyed making my legendary and the only reason I haven’t moved on to making more is I want to wait for HoT for the new ones and the precursor scavenger hunt. (And I want to put my gold into my mini pet collection.)

I’m also really proud of my mini llama from the Tournament of Legends but I still think they haven’t done enough to make it available to everyone who wants one. Especially now you need loads to make the upgraded versions. Ideally there would be a repeatable PvP reward track which gives one.

But as other people have said there’s a huge difference between an item that’s exclusive because you had to put effort in to earn it (which anyone could get if they were willing to put the same effort in) and one that’s exclusive because it was only available for a short period of time.

The Celebration Hat is arguably one of the most exclusive items in the game because it was only available during the headstart weekend. But it’s nothing special. No one is impressed by it because it didn’t take any effort to get. I got 2 just because I accidentally clicked the button twice.

(Although maybe that’s a bad example since I suspect the main reason it’s not very popular is it’s pretty ugly and the bald head effect is even more glaring than with most hats.)