Guild Wars 2

Tigaseye.2047:

I, honestly, don’t know why anyone would even consider playing a game like that.

No game is worth over, about, $30 per month total, anyway.

Even that would have to be for a more-or-less perfect game.

…and if you have to pay for everything, so it just becomes a case of who paid the most wins, why even bother?

Just to prove you have more spare cash, or something?

Games like that don’t deserve anyone’s custom, at all.

I personally came from those games. You can imagine how mind-blowing it was to come from those games into Gw2.In Asia, most if not all MMORPGs are pay-to-win.

We started playing them from a young age, as it is free to play. (One reason why Dota 2 and LoL is so popular, they are free to play).
So when the players get older, and have their own salaries, they are willing to spend money on these games, because they are the games that they have been playing for years.

Games in Asia (at least, in my country) are expensive (exchange rates). Most Asian parents are strict (stereotypical, but it’s true), so very rarely will you see Asian parents actually willing to pay for their kids to play games.
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To be fair, they are really fun games, but the Pay-to-win aspect ruins the game for me.
Maple story is still a joy to play, although I personally play private servers, which is still MS, without the P2W aspect, and takes out the grind, and toxicity. (It became a really fun single player game)

and Dragon Nest still have one of the best combat systems in any MMO I’ve ever played, which includes WoW (up to lvl 20 =P), ESO, TERA, etc… While it is not as complex as Gw2, it just… feels a lot better.

PvP in Dragon Nest is extremely fun, especially in a specialized PvP mode they have with does not take gear into account. The skill-cap is very high, as it’s one of the most fast paced combat systems I’ve ever played, almost as fast as playing 3rd person shooters.
(Check out DN PvP videos to know what i mean =D)
…
…
Well, at least until they introduced extremely Overpowered classes into the game, introduced Overpowered skills after every level cap, which screwed up the balance of the game and made PvP unplayable, as the OP classes will dominate any of the older classes. =_="

^ That’s very interesting.

It’s a shame that, potentially, good games are being ruined by their P2W model.

It would appear, from what you say, that if most parents won’t pay for their kids to play games, at all, that often ends up in a situation where their kids end up paying more than they otherwise would have, once they become adults?

Just to end up dominating other people’s kids, in games, via paying to do so!

An unhealthy situation all around, really…

It would, almost certainly, be better if parents were prepared to pay a little towards a game, via a sub.

If all games were pay-to-play, rather than pay-to-win and the parents were the ones paying, they would know exactly what their kids were playing, as well.

So, better from that POV, too.

Redfeather.6401:

Azure Prower.8701:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Maybe you should look at that before you say too much about the Guild Wars 2 cosmetic selling store.

The Guild Wars 2 gem store is far from just a “cosmetic” selling store.

Bank tabs. Bag slots. Time saving items. Upgrades. Quests items. Extractors. Unique and valuable items hidden behind gambling mechanics.

Yeah, stuff like the repair canisters, revive orbs and teleport to friend items are pretty questionable things to sell in a cashshop if you don’t want the game to give the impression of being pay-to-win. Even though we can get those items from login rewards every week, it still iffy.

Revive Orb: Revives you if you’re bad, once revived, a sneeze will kill you if the timer hasn’t run out… So useless if you die in a mob.

Repair Canister: Repairs armor if you were bad and died. Puts you back on optimized gear like everyone else, again, no advantage.

Teleport to Friend: Teleport to a friend in your party, this is pay to win, you win a waypoint you were too lazy to do yourself.

I wouldn’t call it Pay2Win, I would say Pay4Convenience because I’m too lazy to waypoint to a repair agent after dying and too lazy to run back.

sephiroth.4217:

I wouldn’t call it Pay2Win, I would say Pay4Convenience because I’m too lazy to waypoint to a repair agent after dying and too lazy to run back.

I agree.

Pay2Win model requires you to part with cash in order to play the game to the full extent and to reach a BiS end-goal. It results in paying players being more favourable than non-paying players, in a party system. (For example, imagine if you were doing a raid or dungeon, in a P2W system you’ll be choosing players with paid pets/better pets, paid skills and other advantages over somebody who doesn’t have these things).

Pay4Convenience doesn’t force you to part with cash in order to have the best skills, gear etc in-game. The convenience doesn’t offer you any significant end-goal advantage over non-paying players, just things that improve quality of life… mainly just reducing the amount of clicks and waiting you have to do, when you think about it.

GW2 is actually pretty low on the P4C scale in my opinion. Firstly, a lot of the convenience items can be obtained in-game without even setting foot in the gem-store. I’m loaded with repair cannisters, revive orbs, merchant/bank/TP expresses up to my armpits, and have never actively purchased one. Moreover, there is a very hazy boundary between paying players and non-paying players because of the gold-to-gem exchange. Gems are also given to players in some of the AP chests.