Guild Wars 2

Vol.7601:

I really don’t understand the people who are annoyed that this will cost money.

Do you honestly think Anet would be willing to sacrifice a huge chunk of sales? Transmutation crystals are more than likely their #1 selling item, and probably their highest grossing one. It’s an item that is constantly in demand.

Because some people around here seem to think that Anet/NCsoft is a non-profit organization. They don’t understand that the purpose of a business is to make money.

Why so much bad press? You can still go out into the world and earn the skins you want, but alternatively you can craft a piece of armour and use the Wardrobe to reskin that item if any alt on your account has already unlocked that skin. You’re still only going to be using transmutation charges when you want to.

I think a lot of people assumed because it was a wardrobe you’d be able to change your look every few seconds with no downside. Isn’t it the case that most people will choose a skin set and leave their gear on what they like for quite some time? I sure wont be changing many of my armour skins straight away after the patch, but for future use it’s a fantastic feature to have in-game.

I really hope they stay in the game, so there’s still an incentive to do map completion going forward.

Also I don’t think the new system is overpowered. It’s really cool that we can also use trans stones on lvl 80 now, but on the other hand, keep in mind that for leveling characters it’s more pricey to transmute now. Which balances it out.

If the trans stones were removed from map completion, then I’d hope they’d be replaced by another good incentive. An unidentified dye, for example or more gold, which would be a nice way to let casual players who don’t do champion farms or flip the AH, earn some gold.

Map completion is required to craft a Legendary, plus the 40 crafting materials you get for each one is a nice bonus as well.

I have some 30 crystals just hope they don’t get useless by then because they were bought with gems.

Sarie.1630:

Why so much bad press? You can still go out into the world and earn the skins you want, but alternatively you can craft a piece of armour and use the Wardrobe to reskin that item if any alt on your account has already unlocked that skin. You’re still only going to be using transmutation charges when you want to.

I think a lot of people assumed because it was a wardrobe you’d be able to change your look every few seconds with no downside. Isn’t it the case that most people will choose a skin set and leave their gear on what they like for quite some time? I sure wont be changing many of my armour skins straight away after the patch, but for future use it’s a fantastic feature to have in-game.

It would be a better and more compelling feature if you could actually unlock a look, instead of renting the look though. Its better than what we have now, but what we have now was extremely bad for a cosmetic heavy game, and antiquated on the market.

like many have said even most f2p games now have at worst a one unlock feature, and many offer it without involving monetisation at all. As for the whole you can buy it with gold idea, its a bad idea, because the gem to gold rate is based on many factors, and the better they get at monteization, the more valuable the gems will be, which means they will be further out of reach.

Dean Calaway.9718:

I have some 30 crystals just hope they don’t get useless by then because they were bought with gems.

Your Crystals will become Charges at a 1:1 ratio.

Your Stones (sub 80 transmuters) will become Charges at a 3:1 ratio.

Seriously, I hope they don’t remove the “3 transmutation (stones or charges) for map completion”, because I don’t feel like rushing through Tyria with my characters for two weeks…

LOTRO is a free-to-play game and their wardrobe system lets you switch your armor and outfits endlessly. Unless you were hoping for this, the new system is an improvement to what we have now.

It’s basically the same system we have now (use an item to transmute, etc.), except that you don’t have to buy multiple skins anymore.

I don’t understand people who complain about this. It’s the same price as it’s always been, except it’s much more useful now because you don’t destroy your previous set of armor in the process.

I noticed in the blog they very deftly danced around the subject of what happens with dyes you’ve currently unlocked, other than to say that if you have one dye unlocked on two characters that you’ll get an unidentified dye as compensation (what an insult to those who bought more than one Abyss).

Considering how Anet likes to dance around the facts to avoid the players getting mad about what is really going to happen, I am guessing that not all current dye colors are going to be converted instantly to account bound, but only newly discovered dyes will. Thus increasing their income as people are forced to buy charges to unlock dyes they already have.

Neural.1824:

I noticed in the blog they very deftly danced around the subject of what happens with dyes you’ve currently unlocked, other than to say that if you have one dye unlocked on two characters that you’ll get an unidentified dye as compensation (what an insult to those who bought more than one Abyss).

Considering how Anet likes to dance around the facts to avoid the players getting mad about what is really going to happen, I am guessing that not all current dye colors are going to be converted instantly to account bound, but only newly discovered dyes will. Thus increasing their income as people are forced to buy charges to unlock dyes they already have.

If you already have the same dyes unlocked on multiple characters, when you log in on additional characters, you will receive one unidentified dye for each duplicate dye already unlocked on your account.

How would you have any dyes unlocked on your account if they didn’t convert the existing unlocks to be unlocked on your account?

The answer you seek is there: they will be unlocking all of your known dyes for your account, and then giving you an unidentified dye for any duplicates.

At current exchange rates, it takes about 14 gold for enough gems to buy 5 transmutation stones. One transmutation stone = 3 charges.

So, basically 15 transmutations (2 full outfits and several weapons) would cost you 14 gold today (if you didnt want to buy gems with real money). That seems pretty reasonable to me.

Charges make the wardrobe pointless.

Yeah, the skins get unlocked, which is nice. And they are account bound, which is absolutely great.

But as it is, it’s all pointless. Because you are not really unlocking the skins. You are not keeping the skins in a wardrobe of yours. What you are doing is something more like collecting catalogs of skins that you then rent, not the skin themselves.

When I say “unlocks are always better”, I mean GW1 style unlocks:

- Pay once. Want us to buy more stuff? Make more stuff.
- Account wide. After buying it, all characters can use it without buying it gain.

Right now it seems “unlocked” for ANet means “You can still pay for it when we remove it from the gem store”, which would not be that bad for particular things like legendary skins, but not for freaking everything, every single time.

As the cost is on applying the skin, not unlocking the skin, having more skins doesn’t mean you can have more variety in appearance and change more often, it just means you’ll have more skins you can’t use unless you have charges, the skins themselves are therefore not really unlocked, only the access to them, as you still have to pay for them every time you want to use them.

I’d rather have an additional upfront cost for each skin before being able to use them, but pay just once, than this.

The average player will just pick the appearance they like the most, and never change until they get some free charges, is ever. Nothing will force them to buy gems if they don’t want to.

I don’t mind paying for new skins, I would buy any and all new skins if they were unlocked, but this is NOT “unlocked” for me. And I will not pay for the same thing over and over.

Same happens with hairstyles and other character customizations. You have to pay gems each time you change to a hairstyle, instead paying to unlock it, then being able to change to it for some coins by talking to a stylist NPC.

I don’t care much about a system whose only purpose is teasing me with all the things I could have but can’t unless I continuously pay to use something I supposedly already earned.

There’s not even a system in place in which you stop spending charges in a a skin after applying it 10 times or something like that. And it doesn’t seem that gemstore skins will be free to apply once bought. It would not surprise me if they moved AP and HoM skins to this systems so we also have to continuously pay to use them too.

Pointless.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Charges make the wardrobe pointless.

Yeah, the skins get unlocked, which is nice. And they are account bound, which is absolutely great.

But as it is, it’s all pointless. Because you are not really unlocking the skins. You are not keeping the skins in a wardrobe of yours. What you are doing is something more like collecting catalogs of skins that you then rent, not the skin themselves.

When I say “unlocks are always better”, I mean GW1 style unlocks:

- Pay once. Want us to buy more stuff? Make more stuff.
- Account wide. After buying it, all characters can use it without buying it gain.

Right now it seems “unlocked” for ANet means “You can still pay for it when we remove it from the gem store”, which would not be that bad for particular things like legendary skins, but not for freaking everything, every single time.

As the cost is on applying the skin, not unlocking the skin, having more skins doesn’t mean you can have more variety in appearance and change more often, it just means you’ll have more skins you can’t use unless you have charges, the skins themselves are therefore not really unlocked, only the access to them, as you still have to pay for them every time you want to use them.

I’d rather have an additional upfront cost for each skin before being able to use them, but pay just once, than this.

The average player will just pick the appearance they like the most, and never change until they get some free charges, is ever. Nothing will force them to buy gems if they don’t want to.

I don’t mind paying for new skins, I would buy any and all new skins if they were unlocked, but this is NOT “unlocked” for me. And I will not pay for the same thing over and over.

Same happens with hairstyles and other character customizations. You have to pay gems each time you change to a hairstyle, instead paying to unlock it, then being able to change to it for some coins by talking to a stylist NPC.

I don’t care much about a system whose only purpose is teasing me with all the things I could have but can’t unless I continuously pay to use something I supposedly already earned.

There’s not even a system in place in which you stop spending charges in a a skin after applying it 10 times or something like that.

Pointless.

Gold to Gems.
Gems to Charges.

As long as you can earn charges in-game via map completion, I’m ok with the idea…

Blaeys.3102:

At current exchange rates, it takes about 14 gold for enough gems to buy 5 transmutation stones. One transmutation stone = 3 charges.

So, basically 15 transmutations (2 full outfits and several weapons) would cost you 14 gold today (if you didnt want to buy gems with real money). That seems pretty reasonable to me.

Your calculations are a bit off because:

• 1 transmutation crystal = 1 charge (Currently 5 for 200 gems)
• 3 transmutation stones = 1 charge (Currently 5 for 125 gems)

You have it the other way around.

We definitely need more info on this. Will it cost us in gems, coins or another currency to use this?

You can still use the skin for the first time you got it (for example buying the Viper armor from the gemstore). It’s when you transmute it to other stuff that you need charges – EXACTLY like what we have now with crystals and stones.

It’s not really changing the system, but rather streamlining and making it more convenient.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Charges make the wardrobe pointless.

Yeah, the skins get unlocked, which is nice. And they are account bound, which is absolutely great.

But as it is, it’s all pointless. Because you are not really unlocking the skins. You are not keeping the skins in a wardrobe of yours. What you are doing is something more like collecting catalogs of skins that you then rent, not the skin themselves.

When I say “unlocks are always better”, I mean GW1 style unlocks:

- Pay once. Want us to buy more stuff? Make more stuff.
- Account wide. After buying it, all characters can use it without buying it gain.

Right now it seems “unlocked” for ANet means “You can still pay for it when we remove it from the gem store”, which would not be that bad for particular things like legendary skins, but not for freaking everything, every single time.

As the cost is on applying the skin, not unlocking the skin, having more skins doesn’t mean you can have more variety in appearance and change more often, it just means you’ll have more skins you can’t use unless you have charges, the skins themselves are therefore not really unlocked, only the access to them, as you still have to pay for them every time you want to use them.

I’d rather have an additional upfront cost for each skin before being able to use them, but pay just once, than this.

The average player will just pick the appearance they like the most, and never change until they get some free charges, is ever. Nothing will force them to buy gems if they don’t want to.

I don’t mind paying for new skins, I would buy any and all new skins if they were unlocked, but this is NOT “unlocked” for me. And I will not pay for the same thing over and over.

Same happens with hairstyles and other character customizations. You have to pay gems each time you change to a hairstyle, instead paying to unlock it, then being able to change to it for some coins by talking to a stylist NPC.

I don’t care much about a system whose only purpose is teasing me with all the things I could have but can’t unless I continuously pay to use something I supposedly already earned.

There’s not even a system in place in which you stop spending charges in a a skin after applying it 10 times or something like that.

Pointless.

yes, essentially charges defeat most of the good facets of a wardrobe, like saving inventory space, etc.
They really should change it to an unlock system rather than a rental system. I dont mind it on makeovers, but its kind of killing the point of a wardrobe. I wont be using anymore crystals/changing looks more often with this change.

This definitely needs a developer answer.

It’s not really a wardrobe, it’s more of a costume rental shop. I buy clothes, put them in my RL wardrobe (walk-in closet, dressers, etc.), and I can wear them any time I want without paying an additional price. This is not really that same idea, so don’t get confused. lol

Xar.6185:

Blaeys.3102:

At current exchange rates, it takes about 14 gold for enough gems to buy 5 transmutation stones. One transmutation stone = 3 charges.

So, basically 15 transmutations (2 full outfits and several weapons) would cost you 14 gold today (if you didnt want to buy gems with real money). That seems pretty reasonable to me.

Your calculations are a bit off because:

• 1 transmutation crystal = 1 charge (Currently 5 for 200 gems)
• 3 transmutation stones = 1 charge (Currently 5 for 125 gems)

You have it the other way around.

Ah. you are right.

Still pretty reasonable, though. I think people are too quick to jump on the “OMG, they are money grubbing cheats” bandwagon without thinking it fully through.

Shifu.4321:

You can still use the skin for the first time you got it (for example buying the Viper armor from the gemstore). It’s when you transmute it to other stuff that you need charges – EXACTLY like what we have now with crystals and stones.

It’s not really changing the system, but rather streamlining and making it more convenient.

yeah, but the problem with the system, was it was working directly at odds with the heavy cosmetic focus of the game, deincentizing you from trying to get new looks, which is still the case with the new system. Its more convenient, but it doesnt really make you want to hunt more items, or get new looks if you already have a prefered one. Most people will still be sitting on one look per charachter for months at a time.

mtpelion.4562:

Malediktus.9250:

I wont spent a dime on transmutation charges. Stupid system is stupid.

Did you ever spend a dime on transmutation crystals?

I cant remember that I did, I think I only used the few ones I got for free during gameplay. But in my 5500hours I only had like 10 free lvl 80 transmutation stones, so I always kept my outfits permanently after finishing a look.

Malediktus.9250:

mtpelion.4562:

Malediktus.9250:

I wont spent a dime on transmutation charges. Stupid system is stupid.

Did you ever spend a dime on transmutation crystals?

I cant remember that I did, I think I only used the few ones I got for free during gameplay. But in my 5500hours I only had like 10 free lvl 80 transmutation stones, so I always kept my outfits permanently after finishing a look.

So you, like me, are not the target of this change (I also have never purchased any crystals and keep my outfits permanently). They didn’t really change the system (it still costs you crystals/charges to update your look), they just made it so that you don’t have to fill your inventory up with alternate skins for fear of losing it should you decide to switch it up later.

I’ve got an entire bank tab full of skins I’ve been saving because I didn’t want to use them now, but thought I might want to use them later since they were unique/cool. I’m glad to have the ability to clear out that tab.

mtpelion.4562:

[…]

Gold to Gems.
Gems to Charges.

That is no excuse.

Not everyone has budget or time to continuously spend like that.

With real one-time upfront paid unlocks, you can save for a skin you want for some time, but once you get it, it’s yours. You can use it anytime you want. You may now go for another skin. For some it may take less than others, but everyone has the possibility of eventually getting all the skins they wanted.

With continuous payments, it won’t matter if you managed to get the skin you wanted, now you’ll have to continuously pay for gems or grind gold to change to it. Change to another skin, the old is lost. It’s there in the list, but for you it’s lost, because all time and effort spent in applying the skin is gone. Poof.

For me this change doesn’t mean I’ve got more skins to use. It just means I can put away all the skin appliers I’ve been saving. But can’t actually buy the skins, because you can never actually buy them. You only keep access to them.

I don’t mind paying. But I want to pay once. I paid once for the game, I paid once for finishers, I paid once for bank slots, I paid once for character slots, and I want to pay once for other unlocks.

What’s the opposite of that?

Paying each time you want to make a new character, instead for additional slots.
Paying each time you put something in the bank.
Not being able to buy the finishers as unlocks, and instead having them only as consumables.

Don’t you dare tell me that countless people would either stop using them, or leave the game altogether, if they turned pay once features from “pay once” to “pay per use”.

Conversely, much more people would use “per pay use” features if they were turned “pay once”.

Even the game is pay once. Would you keep playing if they changed it to pay per use? Login! Poof, 50 gems gone" Wildstar style! Blergh.

Looks like I’d have to clarify the text in my signature…

Blaeys.3102:

At current exchange rates, it takes about 14 gold for enough gems to buy 5 transmutation stones. One transmutation stone = 3 charges.

So, basically 15 transmutations (2 full outfits and several weapons) would cost you 14 gold today (if you didnt want to buy gems with real money). That seems pretty reasonable to me.

Acceptable to you now maybe, but here’s a fun experiment for you:
Hop along to the GW2Spidy Gem Exchange Rate History Graph and set the “zoom” to “All”.

Notice something?
Yup, that’s right.
While 100 gems has always cost $1.25 to buy, they have consistently gone up in gold value.
100 gems on release will have cost you ~27 silver.
A year after release, 100 gems could be bought for ~3 gold and 20 silver.
Fast forward to today and 100 gems will cost you ~9 gold and 16 silver.

What this highlights to me is that the economy has been very sneakily designed so that over time it will become more efficient for ANY player of the game to drop real world money on gems rather than earn the gold to buy them in game.
Not too long from now, maybe within the year at the rate the conversion is rising, $1.25 will buy you one piece of tier 3 cultural armour. Eventually that $1.25 will buy the whole set.
And it’s so gradual, they’re obviously hoping that this will be the case and that the future Guild Wars 2 player will be more willing to spend real-world cash than earn the gold in game.

mtpelion.4562:

Malediktus.9250:

mtpelion.4562:

Malediktus.9250:

I wont spent a dime on transmutation charges. Stupid system is stupid.

Did you ever spend a dime on transmutation crystals?

I cant remember that I did, I think I only used the few ones I got for free during gameplay. But in my 5500hours I only had like 10 free lvl 80 transmutation stones, so I always kept my outfits permanently after finishing a look.

So you, like me, are not the target of this change (I also have never purchased any crystals and keep my outfits permanently). They didn’t really change the system (it still costs you crystals/charges to update your look), they just made it so that you don’t have to fill your inventory up with alternate skins for fear of losing it should you decide to switch it up later.

I’ve got an entire bank tab full of skins I’ve been saving because I didn’t want to use them now, but thought I might want to use them later since they were unique/cool. I’m glad to have the ability to clear out that tab.

except its still better to keep the skins, because those can be used without paying a transmutation fee, soo all those LS skins taking up inventory, still gonna take up inventory.
The system came close, but alas, its messing up in the end, and not really helping much.

phys.7689:

<snip>Its more convenient, but it doesnt really make you want to hunt more items, or get new looks if you already have a prefered one. Most people will still be sitting on one look per charachter for months at a time.

This seems to be the way I am coming to grips with the changes.

Love the addition of the wardrobe. It is so much more streamlined and straightforward than what we have now. An improvement for sure.

However, with that said. It is still exactly the same systme we have now.
Yes, it will free up some bank space.
Yes, it will be more user friendly.

But in the end since the cost is still per use, most players will use exactly the same number of charges that they used to use in crystals each month prior to the change.

For many players that I know they would wait to hit 80, use 6 crystals they got from drops and sit stale in their look for ages only changing when something ‘big’ happened, like finisihing a legendary or something.

It is a good change, but if the cost was per unlock not per use, it would have been omgwtfbbqkitty over the top awesome. (although it probably should just be free like it is in so many other games but that is a totally different ball of waxed up arguments)

Mungrul.9358:

Blaeys.3102:

At current exchange rates, it takes about 14 gold for enough gems to buy 5 transmutation stones. One transmutation stone = 3 charges.

So, basically 15 transmutations (2 full outfits and several weapons) would cost you 14 gold today (if you didnt want to buy gems with real money). That seems pretty reasonable to me.

Acceptable to you now maybe, but here’s a fun experiment for you:
Hop along to the GW2Spidy Gem Exchange Rate History Graph and set the “zoom” to “All”.

Notice something?
Yup, that’s right.
While 100 gems has always cost $1.25 to buy, they have consistently gone up in gold value.
100 gems on release will have cost you ~27 silver.
A year after release, 100 gems could be bought for ~3 gold and 20 silver.
Fast forward to today and 100 gems will cost you ~9 gold and 16 silver.

What this highlights to me is that the economy has been very sneakily designed so that over time it will become more efficient for ANY player of the game to drop real world money on gems rather than earn the gold to buy them in game.
Not too long from now, maybe within the year at the rate the conversion is rising, $1.25 will buy you one piece of tier 3 cultural armour. Eventually that $1.25 will buy the whole set.
And it’s so gradual, they’re obviously hoping that this will be the case and that the future Guild Wars 2 player will be more willing to spend real-world cash than earn the gold in game.

Its called inflation and it is a natural evolution of any trade based economy. Ten gold the day the game came out is no where near the same as 10 gold today (its like saying I could buy a new car for $1000 30 years ago. Why cant I buy one for that today?). Comparing the two the way you do is fallacious at best – misleading at worst.

The knee jerk reactions are unwarranted on this particular topic. They arent trying to do anything malicious or underhanded as alot of the conspiracy theorists on these forums claim. It isnt in their best interest to do so and I am sure they know that.

Basically it does not alter the cost of changing skins out (stones) but it frees up inventory space used on aesthetic items; and ensures you only have to obtain a skin once to be able to use it multiple times via charges.

So it is freeing up inventory space and cheaper overall unless you have absolutely no impulse control when compared to the current system.

Granted it’s not the mythical land of milk and honey where you can swap everything freely like in games that started out with a sub fee but for feks sake, you can’t have everything for free. They got to make some money to keep the servers running somehow. Be glad it is off of cosmetics and not something worse.

For you people complaining…can’t you see the benefit of this? Seriously? It is exactly the same system they have right now with one giant exception:

Skins are unlocked for all of your characters. How many characters do you have are currently wearing the Tequatl wings? Or how about shattered ones? The Jetpack backpack skin? How about the dark gloves from halloween? The starting shoulders for the guardian? How about the Trooper gear that only drops through the personal story? What about the dragon helms from dragonbash? How about that rare Hammer you found on your one character worth 45gold? Did you make the crossing on all of your characters? How many Characters do you have wearing the dark gear? How many bought entire sets of dungeon gear? etc etc etc…..ALL of these items were soulbound. Which meant if you wanted them on multiple characters, you had to re-buy them with the old system…and then use a transmutation stone if you liked your current stats.

The new system makes it so that every character you have can be wearing the shattered wings on their cultural armor transmuted with Abyss dye….for the same cost as it used to be to just have one of them do it.

What they should have done, is make it cost 1 Transmutation charge to unlock a skin into the wardrobe, after which you can access it at any time.

Heck, if it was going to risk their income so much, I wouldn’t even have minded if you then had to use one more charge to make it account wide; if the wardrobe had a soulbound and account-bound tier, and it took two in total to make it accessible to any character. Because after that, I would be able to use it freely.

As it is, this isn’t going to make me want to experiment with looks any more. The items I put in the Wardrobe will be the event-based skins I never get around to using, so I can free up space in my bank and not worry about them. Honestly, the number of times ANet have just completely missed the mark, in my opinion, is beginning to get rather staggering.

What I can’t understand is how a system which worked so darn well in GW1 could be mangled so badly for GW2. I am almost the last of my friends playing this game, and with every patch I get nearer and nearer to dropping it and walking away. And it’s moves like this which are doing it, sadly. I love the lore, love the world. But I hate how dominated it has become by the cash shop – as everyone feared, and as the developers promised it would not be. Very sad.

Overkillengine.6084:

Basically it does not alter the cost of changing skins out (stones) but it frees up inventory space used on aesthetic items; and ensures you only have to obtain a skin once to be able to use it multiple times via charges.

So it is freeing up inventory space and cheaper overall unless you have absolutely no impulse control when compared to the current system.

Granted it’s not the mythical land of milk and honey where you can swap everything freely like in games that started out with a sub fee but for feks sake, you can’t have everything for free. They got to make some money to keep the servers running somehow. Be glad it is off of cosmetics and not something worse.

a cost per unlock is not free, and generally more palletable to more people, and would lead to many users actually getting more charges.
Many people dont like to rent, they want to own.

i believe they will actually make less money with this system than with an unlock system, and make persuing cosmetic items less incentivized. I still got no reason to do dungeons and unlock more gear, because if i change looks i will still have to pay transmutation fees any time i change a look.

Blaeys.3102:

Its called inflation and it is a natural evolution of any trade based economy. Ten gold the day the game came out is no where near the same as 10 gold today (its like saying I could buy a new car for $1000 30 years ago. Why cant I buy one for that today?). Comparing the two the way you do is fallacious at best – misleading at worst.

The knee jerk reactions are unwarranted on this particular topic. They arent trying to do anything malicious or underhanded as alot of the conspiracy theorists on these forums claim. It isnt in their best interest to do so and I am sure they know that.

Arenanet has absolute control over the in-game economy. Inflation happens at their discretion, and in the case that Mungrul pointed out, just so happens to be hugely in their favor.

Moshari.8570:

The new system makes it so that every character you have can be wearing the shattered wings on their cultural armor transmuted with Abyss dye….for the same cost as it used to be to just have one of them do it.

This is nice, but if you only have one character anyway, it’s not as exciting.

I want ANET to make money…I WANT them to pay their developers. The more money they make, the better content they can give us. This is why when I am happy with them, I buy gems. If I am angry at something they do, I don’t. I want them to see when something is good vs something bad and to do more of the good and less of the bad.

If they don’t make money, you wont have new content because they cannot pay their developers…which means cutting staff.

If you like the game….don’t complain about stuff that costs a minimum of money. Especially, as someone points out…you can indeed buy gems with gold.

Moshari.8570:

For you people complaining…can’t you see the benefit of this? Seriously? It is exactly the same system they have right now with one giant exception:

Skins are unlocked for all of your characters. How many characters do you have are currently wearing the Tequatl wings? Or how about shattered ones? The Jetpack backpack skin? How about the dark gloves from halloween? The starting shoulders for the guardian? How about the Trooper gear that only drops through the personal story? What about the dragon helms from dragonbash? How about that rare Hammer you found on your one character worth 45gold? Did you make the crossing on all of your characters? How many Characters do you have wearing the dark gear? How many bought entire sets of dungeon gear? etc etc etc…..ALL of these items were soulbound. Which meant if you wanted them on multiple characters, you had to re-buy them with the old system…and then use a transmutation stone if you liked your current stats.

The new system makes it so that every character you have can be wearing the shattered wings on their cultural armor transmuted with Abyss dye….for the same cost as it used to be to just have one of them do it.

the new system still misses the mark of making you have more looks, and wanting to work towards more looks, which is the overall major problem of the system in a cosmetic focused game. There is no point in me getting a peice of gear that i rate 8/10 if i have piece that is 9/10.

Do you think more people would rent clothes or buy them? part of the fun part of collecting clothes, is having more variety at your fingertips, the current system doesnt encourage that, and neither does the new system.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Moshari.8570:

The new system makes it so that every character you have can be wearing the shattered wings on their cultural armor transmuted with Abyss dye….for the same cost as it used to be to just have one of them do it.

This is nice, but if you only have one character anyway, it’s not as exciting.

If you only have one character, you should already have a lot of tranmutation crystals / stones since you didn’t already spend them “dressing” all of your “Alts” and you only have one look to work on…so you dont need a lot of “charges” to work on it.

Seems even more win / win if you only have 1 character….I know I have gone through most of my transmutation stones on my alts….my main doesnt change his look much since I have it exactly where I want it.

While many players earned free stones from map completion, etc. Many players purchased those charges and the rate for purchase is NOT 3:1. The current cost of Transmutation stones, (when buying 25) is 500. The charge for crystals is 800. The ratio of price difference is approximately 1.7 to 1. Lest you think, Oh everyone has most of theirs free, on my alt account I bought 25 just a couple of weeks ago, of which, I’ve used 12. I just received 3 free ones from a map completion, meaning that I will only receive 5 crystals back (which would cost (plus the stones are good for skins on low level armor). Cost of the 13 remaining PURCHASED crystals, 250 gems. Value of the new 5 transmute charges 200. (current cost of 5 TCs on BLTC.

WILL ANET REFUND THE DIFFERENCE? If not, they just stole a value of 50 gems from my account. While I realize that this is one small scenario representing only about 75 cents, spread this out over the 100s of thousands of players that have purchased transmutation stones?

Just my two coppers worth,

Moshari.8570:

I want ANET to make money…I WANT them to pay their developers. The more money they make, the better content they can give us. This is why when I am happy with them, I buy gems. If I am angry at something they do, I don’t. I want them to see when something is good vs something bad and to do more of the good and less of the bad.

If they don’t make money, you wont have new content because they cannot pay their developers…which means cutting staff.

If you like the game….don’t complain about stuff that costs a minimum of money. Especially, as someone points out…you can indeed buy gems with gold.

this is not a good monetary system, it is dissatisfactory to most buyers. Really think about it in real life, how much clothes do you have, have much clothes do you rent. Maybe a tux for a wedding, thats it. Clothes renting is a bad model. You are not increasing selection, or the desire for the goods, if you have to pay everytime you change clothes.

Yes, you’re right, it will help them in that regard, but it still doesn’t help them if they wanted to collect outfits and switch them each day for a different look chosen from the skins they’ve bought, found, and otherwise acquired.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Yes, you’re right, it will help them in that regard, but it still doesn’t help them if they wanted to collect outfits and switch them each day for a different look chosen from the skins they’ve bought, found, and otherwise acquired.

Maybe it doesn’t help them, but it certainly doesn’t hurt them. Not every feature is going to be of the same level of value to every player.

Why would you buy these?

I have over 500 of these from just playing the game… What did you even use them for? they can only be used on <80 armor, for the cost of buying 1 stone you could have bought pretty much any <80 entire armor set off the TP you wanted.

I highly doubt 100,000 players have purchased lvl 79 stones…

I completed map completion on 9 characters and have thrown away 500+ Stones. It would be cool if i could get them compensated but lets be honest that is way to much work for Anet to look into everyones account to refund.

Vol.7601:

I highly doubt 100,000 players have purchased lvl 79 stones…

Agree. There is no reason (even for a casual player like myself) to buy these when they are so readily available.

Why did you buy these??

phys.7689:

Moshari.8570:

I want ANET to make money…I WANT them to pay their developers. The more money they make, the better content they can give us. This is why when I am happy with them, I buy gems. If I am angry at something they do, I don’t. I want them to see when something is good vs something bad and to do more of the good and less of the bad.

If they don’t make money, you wont have new content because they cannot pay their developers…which means cutting staff.

If you like the game….don’t complain about stuff that costs a minimum of money. Especially, as someone points out…you can indeed buy gems with gold.

this is not a good monetary system, it is dissatisfactory to most buyers. Really think about it in real life, how much clothes do you have, have much clothes do you rent. Maybe a tux for a wedding, thats it. Clothes renting is a bad model. You are not increasing selection, or the desire for the goods, if you have to pay everytime you change clothes.

I disagree. It is very satisfactory to me. IF you want to use a real-life example. This is more akin to me, an average person being able to buy an expensive suit…and then sharing that with my whole family…my wife, my kids, everyone can use it and they only have to pay a few dollars to have it “altered” to them….as a matter of fact, I can buy that single $1000 suit and ALL of us can wear it for a few dollars a piece rather than having to pay $1000 for each one.

In real life, I would gladly do that….I would love it if we only had to buy a single concert T-shirt once, but have it available for the whole family….or my wifes dresses would automatically turn into fancy Pant / shirt combo’s when I pay my couple dollars to “alter” them.

Oh the money I would save on clothing having a single “warddrobe” for my whole family!…even with the “alteration” charge….which is a fixed amount, which means I can save up for it if I want to!