Guild Wars 2

Aaaaand i was just gonna start working toward a legendary. But i no longer trust ANet and will be destroyed WHEN legendaries are sold for gems. I am soooo glad i decided not to waste 160g on the human t3 armour. Only thing i wasted gold on were the boots.

ANet is doing more and more that i disagree with and it’s sapping my fun completely. I cannot fathom why they continue to make choices that anger the people that provide their profits.

Golgathoth.3967:

I’m on both sides of this. It’s conflicting.

On the one hand, I very much understand the anger. I have human heavy t3 on my guardian. It was bought over a year ago, back when loot was arguably much worse. I farmed materials to sell for months, and by the time I got the money to buy my set, I muted it onto him and promptly quit the game for seven months. I was just that burnt out. If heavy t3 gets the same treatment as the light t3, I’m not sure how I’d feel.

That being said, I bought this armor. I didn’t think I would, and I agonized over it for a while. However, I just couldn’t resist how good it looked on my male Sylvari necro. It was just… perfect. It totally fit my image of him, and it came out of the blue. I’ve been admiring it on him since I bought it hours ago.

So, in all, I’m not sure I agree with this possible new trend. Still on the fence as to whether I think it’s a good thing or not. I do certainly think it’s lazy to a degree, and I feel for those who slaved to get the normal t3 – especially those who just bought it. I can’t stop admiring my character, though…

screenshot? I’m trying to imagine it but I just can’t see how it would look good on a necro with the flamey effects.

well, tons of people bought that t3 light armor and love it and paid less and get them on other races… soooo idk man…

Substance E.4852:

Just because the armor has been in game since launch doesn’t mean most people have had it since launch.

Indeed. Not particularly relevant to the point I made though as prices going down on things that have been around for a while is pretty common in not only games but life as well. People buy something today that will be reduced in price tomorrow all of the time.

I agree that there is a reasonable concern with one race’s supposedly unique cultural armor going into the gemstore for other races to buy, but price reduction over time less so. I mean, if transmutation stones had their price permanently reduced starting tomorrow would people be complaining about having paid the original price six months ago ? I doubt it (hmm, this is the internet so perhaps there would be some). The issue is not price reductions but unfair access to supposedly race specific skins.

Deth.4109:

Substance E.4852:

Deth.4109:

Substance E.4852:

Deth.4109:

fellyn.5083:

ShinjoNaomi.1896:

This entire thread is proof positive that people want to be raging mad about anything and everything…
Must be the cool thing to be on the internet these days…

It’s an armor skin. One that if you don’t like you don’t have to buy. It doesn’t magically devalue the original at all.
Sure, anyone on any race can wear it (as long as they are light armor) so long as you don’t mind looking like a walking torch.
If a fire motif isn’t your thing though, and you want that armor, then guess what? You still have to be a female human light armor wearer and have the gold to spend.

The differences are obvious and nobody is going to mistake someone who bought their t3 human cultural light armor with someone who bought the skin off of the gem store.

Actually that’s exactly what it does. Devalue the time and effort people put into getting their t3 armor.

And breaks the lore behind cultural armor into tiny little pieces, stomps it into fine dust, and then finally sweeps it up and throws away in the trash, as well.

what lore is there really behind the armor? quite frankly no armors in the game have any real lore they are sort of just there………….

Have you even seen the sylvari armor? Most of it is either morphed plantlife or grows directly out of their bodies. Charr armor is designed perfectly to fit a charr and is covered in cultural motifs. Same for asura. They got away with this because every non cultural armor is just human armor stretched to fit the other races.

ive seen it but lets get real for a second, what story or LORE is there behind any of those pieces? by your logic a glowing grass skirt is passable as slyvari cultural armor. to me lore based armor is a set or pieces directly tied to a certain character or story item like brhams armor or roxxes quiver.

Lore isn’t just specific stories. It’s things that define in game cultures as well. It’s why the sylvari all use plants as clothing, tools and architecture and why you hardly ever see any charr spellcasters.

i see plenty of random charr npcs doing all manner of odd things, hell the flame legion has plenty of spell casters.

If you don’t know why that is then you don’t understand the lore enough to be arguing about it.

Protoavis.9107:

screenshot? I’m trying to imagine it but I just can’t see how it would look good on a necro with the flamey effects.

As ye ask, so shall ye receive! Best lighting I could find in a pinch.

Edit: the editing doesn’t like me.

Ashen.2907:

Substance E.4852:

Just because the armor has been in game since launch doesn’t mean most people have had it since launch.

Indeed. Not particularly relevant to the point I made though as prices going down on things that have been around for a while is pretty common in not only games but life as well. People buy something today that will be reduced in price tomorrow all of the time.

I agree that there is a reasonable concern with one race’s supposedly unique cultural armor going into the gemstore for other races to buy, but price reduction over time less so. I mean, if transmutation stones had their price permanently reduced starting tomorrow would people be complaining about having paid the original price six months ago ? I doubt it (hmm, this is the internet so perhaps there would be some). The issue is not price reductions but unfair access to supposedly race specific skins.

The problem is not a price reduction. The problem is a price reduction on ONE race’s t3 armor while leaving the rest the same. Everything wrong with this update is about singling out human light armor wearers. The price reduction and loss of race exclusivity would not be so much of a problem if they were both applied fairly across ALL races and armor classes (which I doubt will ever happen).

Golgathoth.3967:

Protoavis.9107:

screenshot? I’m trying to imagine it but I just can’t see how it would look good on a necro with the flamey effects.

As ye ask, so shall ye receive! Best lighting I could find in a pinch.

Edit: Gotta get the Tybalt backpack in there!

Minus marks for the backpack!

Moka.9641:

ShinjoNaomi.1896:

This entire thread is proof positive that people want to be raging mad about anything and everything…
Must be the cool thing to be on the internet these days…

It’s an armor skin. One that if you don’t like you don’t have to buy. It doesn’t magically devalue the original at all.
Sure, anyone on any race can wear it (as long as they are light armor) so long as you don’t mind looking like a walking torch.
If a fire motif isn’t your thing though, and you want that armor, then guess what? You still have to be a female human light armor wearer and have the gold to spend.

The differences are obvious and nobody is going to mistake someone who bought their t3 human cultural light armor with someone who bought the skin off of the gem store.

Let’s take this to the extreme. Would it be totally okay if Anet decided to put a version of Twilight with a fiery hilt and put it in the gemstone for 1000gems? Because if I thought that the fiery hilt is silly, by your reasoning, even though they look similar, if I don’t like it and prefer the original twilight, I should shell out 3000g on the TP.

The point is that it undermines the hardwork of people have put into getting these armor (And I think it was even harder back at launch). Some people will just shrug it off, but a lot of here cares about that.

Using your example (which doesn’t really fit, and I’ll explain why in a moment) no of course that wouldn’t be okay. Because as someone else pointed out, that would be P2W. They would be selling an actual weapon with stats and everything.

This does not do that (and is why your example does not work.) This is not true armor with stats, it’s just a skin. One that you can put on anything. If they sold this in the gem store with Exotic level stats and attributes, then I would be as much up in arms as anyone else here, because then the game just became P2W.

Again, this devalues nothing. The /only/ thing the Flamekissed armor skins have over the t3 cultural armor is that anyone can wear it. And only then, after they put it on a real set of armor.
No one can pretend they got a real set of t3 cultural armor because of the differences are plainly obvious.

ShinjoNaomi.1896:

Moka.9641:

ShinjoNaomi.1896:

This entire thread is proof positive that people want to be raging mad about anything and everything…
Must be the cool thing to be on the internet these days…

It’s an armor skin. One that if you don’t like you don’t have to buy. It doesn’t magically devalue the original at all.
Sure, anyone on any race can wear it (as long as they are light armor) so long as you don’t mind looking like a walking torch.
If a fire motif isn’t your thing though, and you want that armor, then guess what? You still have to be a female human light armor wearer and have the gold to spend.

The differences are obvious and nobody is going to mistake someone who bought their t3 human cultural light armor with someone who bought the skin off of the gem store.

Let’s take this to the extreme. Would it be totally okay if Anet decided to put a version of Twilight with a fiery hilt and put it in the gemstone for 1000gems? Because if I thought that the fiery hilt is silly, by your reasoning, even though they look similar, if I don’t like it and prefer the original twilight, I should shell out 3000g on the TP.

The point is that it undermines the hardwork of people have put into getting these armor (And I think it was even harder back at launch). Some people will just shrug it off, but a lot of here cares about that.

Using your example (which doesn’t really fit, and I’ll explain why in a moment) no of course that wouldn’t be okay. Because as someone else pointed out, that would be P2W. They would be selling an actual weapon with stats and everything.

This does not do that (and is why your example does not work.) This is not true armor with stats, it’s just a skin. One that you can put on anything. If they sold this in the gem store with Exotic level stats and attributes, then I would be as much up in arms as anyone else here, because then the game just became P2W.

Again, this devalues nothing. The /only/ thing the Flamekissed armor skins have over the t3 cultural armor is that anyone can wear it. And only then, after they put it on a real set of armor.
No one can pretend they got a real set of t3 cultural armor because of the differences are plainly obvious.

I highly doubt most people in T3 anything are running around with the default rare stats still on the skin.

If anything it’s a plus since you don’t have to shell out 40g to buy the 10 transmute stones.

ANet since you’re screwing your player base please make it so that cultural armor are available for all races now. Doesnt make sense if you only screw human light.

Jabberwock.9014:

Ashen.2907:

Substance E.4852:

Just because the armor has been in game since launch doesn’t mean most people have had it since launch.

Indeed. Not particularly relevant to the point I made though as prices going down on things that have been around for a while is pretty common in not only games but life as well. People buy something today that will be reduced in price tomorrow all of the time.

I agree that there is a reasonable concern with one race’s supposedly unique cultural armor going into the gemstore for other races to buy, but price reduction over time less so. I mean, if transmutation stones had their price permanently reduced starting tomorrow would people be complaining about having paid the original price six months ago ? I doubt it (hmm, this is the internet so perhaps there would be some). The issue is not price reductions but unfair access to supposedly race specific skins.

The problem is not a price reduction. The problem is a price reduction on ONE race’s t3 armor while leaving the rest the same. Everything wrong with this update is about singling out human light armor wearers. The price reduction and loss of race exclusivity would not be so much of a problem if they were both applied fairly across ALL races and armor classes (which I doubt will ever happen).

Quoting the relevant portion of the post you quoted as I said almost exactly the same thing you are saying seemingly as counter my post (perhaps you were intending it to be taken as a sign of agreement ?)

Ashen.2907:

one race’s supposedly unique cultural armor going into the gemstore for other races to buy…

…The issue is not price reductions but unfair access to supposedly race specific skins.

Ashen.2907:

one race’s supposedly unique cultural armor going into the gemstore for other races to buy…

…The issue is not price reductions but unfair access to supposedly race specific skins.

Seconding this, just sayin’.

Ashen.2907:

Quoting the relevant portion of the post you quoted as I said almost exactly the same thing you are saying seemingly as counter my post (perhaps you were intending it to be taken as a sign of agreement ?)

I’m disagreeing with your assertion that price reduction is not a large factor as well as race exclusivity. In the vacuum that you assume it is certainly not a big deal (things go on sale all the time). However, I claim that it IS a big deal that there is a whopping 50%+ price reduction on a single race’s t3 armor, reducing the prestige of only that race’s armor. There are going to be a LOT more people running around in “human t3 armor” after this update, both because it is available to all races AND cheaper.

Of course in my opinion lack of race exclusivity is still by far the largest problem, and a slap in the face to all humans.

Jabberwock.9014:

Ashen.2907:

Quoting the relevant portion of the post you quoted as I said almost exactly the same thing you are saying seemingly as counter my post (perhaps you were intending it to be taken as a sign of agreement ?)

I’m disagreeing with your assertion that price reduction is not a large factor as well as race exclusivity. In the vacuum that you assume it is certainly not a big deal (things go on sale all the time). However, I claim that it IS a big deal that there is a whopping 50%+ price reduction on a single race’s t3 armor, reducing the prestige of only that race’s armor. There are going to be a LOT more people running around in “human t3 armor” after this update, both because it is available to all races AND cheaper.

Of course in my opinion lack of race exclusivity is still by far the largest problem, and an insult to all humans.

I specifically make reference (on more than one occasion) to the unfairness of price reduction on one race’s cultural armor. The fair thing to do would be to extend the practice to all cultural armor or to remove the option for the one. What you consider, “a big deal,” (presumably a negative big deal) is exactly what I pointed out as being wrong with the situation. So again, you are agreeing with my point while claiming to disagree.

Ashen.2907:

I specifically make reference (on more than one occasion) to the unfairness of price reduction on one race’s cultural armor. The fair thing to do would be to extend the practice to all cultural armor or to remove the option for the one. What you consider, “a big deal,” (presumably a negative big deal) is exactly what I pointed out as being wrong with the situation. So again, you are agreeing with my point while claiming to disagree.

Can you point me to where you say it in that post? Because all I see is:

Ashen.2907:

I agree that there is a reasonable concern with one race’s supposedly unique cultural armor going into the gemstore for other races to buy, but price reduction over time less so… The issue is not price reductions but unfair access to supposedly race specific skins.

I haven’t read your entire post history to verify that you don’t contradict yourself in a prior post, but at least in this post you seem to make the case that price reduction is not an important factor. Of course the wording “less so” is ambiguous but that is the impression I got, especially with the concluding sentence backing it up.

But anyways, since we seem to agree on everything but degree to an extent, there isn’t really much else to discuss. Whether it be price or exclusivity, this update is unfair to human mages.

Anyone who says price reduction over time is a natural economic phenomenon inside of a game is downright silly. Commodity devaluation is a phenomenon that occurs because of several very specific market developments that force the price to drop lower.

1) Competition comes up with products that are objectively newer/better and therefore price reduction is the only way the company selling the product can stay competitive while working on their new big hit. This doesn’t happen in MMOs, there is no new cultural armor set, no competition that would be forcing the price down. There is just plain and obvious price fall, because ANet wants an easy and fast buck.

2) diminishing demand: as the item becomes “less cool” people stop wanting to buy it, so the price goes down in order to make some extra profit on those, who wanted it but could not afford before. This also does not happen in MMOs, because items don’t loose their “cool” appearance as there are no fashion fads, not to mention they are a display of status (items related to that tend to keep their prices high for very long times IRL).

There are more things that can be listed but I’ve just thrown this together to prove my point that arguing that prices falling on an item inside of a game being natural is downright dumb (at least under current conditions)

Jabberwock.9014:

Can you point me to where you say it in that post? Because all I see is:

Ashen.2907:

I agree that there is a reasonable concern with one race’s supposedly unique cultural armor going into the gemstore for other races to buy, but price reduction over time less so… The issue is not price reductions but unfair access to supposedly race specific skins.

That very part. I specifically state that there is a reasonable concern with the modification to, “one race’s,” armor. I then go on to describe the change’s to one race’s armor access as, “unfair.” Treating one race differently than all others is a concenr and is unfair.

Jabberwock.9014:

I haven’t read your entire post history to verify that you don’t contradict yourself in a prior post, but at least in this post you seem to make the case that price reduction is not an important factor. Of course the wording “less so” is ambiguous but that is the impression I got, especially with the concluding sentence backing it up.

But anyways, since we seem to agree on everything but degree to an extent, there isn’t really much else to discuss. Whether it be price or exclusivity, this update is unfair to human mages.

Jabberwock.9014:

In the vacuum that you assume it is certainly not a big deal (things go on sale all the time). However, I claim that it IS a big deal that there is a whopping 50%+ price reduction on a single race’s t3 armor, reducing the prestige of only that race’s armor.

And I agree that, as you say, “things go on sale all the time,” but that it is unfair for one race’s armor to get the price reduction (and be made available to other races) while all other cultural armors remain at full price and limited in access.

I don’t see that any argument that things can never go on sale or be permanently reduced in price can be considered reasonable, particularly as I have no doubt that anyone making such an argument would very likely be delighted to take advantage of a sale on something they wanted to purchase. How many people finding that something they want to buy in the store is on sale, or has been permanently marked down, insist on paying full price ?

Ultimately the changes are unfair to human mages, not because it is now cheaper to buy human t3 light armor, even human mages can take advantage of that price reduction, but because their selection of armor did not increase to the same degree as is the case for other races. Had all t3 cultural armor received the same treatment I don’t think there would be a valid complaint other than, possibly, that separate armor skins for each race had merit (to some).

Fk anet, someone report them for scamming.

Thanks

@people abgry with T3…

Where you have been when we were debating the ethic of deleting progression and making fotm skins easy to acquire and better than the originals?

I told you it could happen to you…….

Silferas.3841:

Anyone who says price reduction over time is a natural economic phenomenon inside of a game is downright silly. Commodity devaluation is a phenomenon that occurs because of several very specific market developments that force the price to drop lower.

1) Competition comes up with products that are objectively newer/better and therefore price reduction is the only way the company selling the product can stay competitive while working on their new big hit. This doesn’t happen in MMOs, there is no new cultural armor set, no competition that would be forcing the price down. There is just plain and obvious price fall, because ANet wants an easy and fast buck.

New armor options do not have to be cultural in order to be competition for existing cultural armor. New skins, in no small part because they are less common, are very much directly in competition with older/more common skins for the gold/gems of the purchasing public.

Silferas.3841:

2) diminishing demand: as the item becomes “less cool” people stop wanting to buy it, so the price goes down in order to make some extra profit on those, who wanted it but could not afford before. This also does not happen in MMOs, because items don’t loose their “cool” appearance as there are no fashion fads, not to mention they are a display of status (items related to that tend to keep their prices high for very long times IRL).

This very much does occur in MMOs. Old, easily obtainable skins lose their status as they become commonplace. A cosmetic something that becomes commonplace often does lose its “cool” factor because such is often related to rarity and ease of acquisition. The amount of currency in circulation within the game has increased dramatically since launch and so something with a set price becomes more easily acquired and less rare. High priced clothing items rarely keep their full value over a period of more than a year in real life BTW.

I have yet to see an MMO where old, becoming commonplace as more and more people acquired them, skins did not lose some degree of their coolness factor. Some of the coolest most desirable weapon skins earlier on in GW1 became vendor trash later.

Also diminishing demand is inherent to such situations because there is a finite number of players, a finite demand for any given skin, and people are making that finite number smaller by purchasing it, resulting in fewer people who still want it. Unless the argument is being made that, unlike most MMOs a year post launch, the population is growing compared to launch, the demand is diminishing.

Why is everyone so angry? I’m perfectly happy and okay with this change. Now I can buy T3 armour for pvp without grinding to rank 80! No one loses anything with this change, there are only good sides.

Amazing job anet.

haviz.1340:

Why is everyone so angry? I’m perfectly happy and okay with this change. Now I can buy T3 armour for pvp without grinding to rank 80! No one loses anything with this change, there are only good sides.

Amazing job anet.

Humans lose uniqueness and get nothing to compensate while every other race gains a new skin.

Ashen.2907:

Ultimately the changes are unfair to human mages, not because it is now cheaper to buy human t3 light armor, even human mages can take advantage of that price reduction, but because their selection of armor did not increase to the same degree as is the case for other races. Had all t3 cultural armor received the same treatment I don’t think there would be a valid complaint other than, possibly, that separate armor skins for each race had merit (to some).

This is where we disagree and it is the same point I keep calling you out on, yet you claim to agree on. Decreasing the price of the knockoff t3 human mage armor IS unfair to human mages because it reduces the prestige and rarity of t3 human mage armor, regardless of the fact that they themselves can buy the new armor.

Jabberwock.9014:

Ashen.2907:

Ultimately the changes are unfair to human mages, not because it is now cheaper to buy human t3 light armor, even human mages can take advantage of that price reduction, but because their selection of armor did not increase to the same degree as is the case for other races. Had all t3 cultural armor received the same treatment I don’t think there would be a valid complaint other than, possibly, that separate armor skins for each race had merit (to some).

This is where we disagree and it is the same point I keep calling you out on, yet you claim to agree on. Decreasing the price of t3 human mage armor IS unfair to human mages because it reduces the prestige and rarity of t3 human mage armor, regardless of the fact that they themselves can buy the new armor.

Would that be your position if all races’ t3 cultural armor was changed ?

haviz.1340:

Why is everyone so angry? I’m perfectly happy and okay with this change. Now I can buy T3 armour for pvp without grinding to rank 80! No one loses anything with this change, there are only good sides.

Amazing job anet.

Flamekissed armor IS human T3 light armor; a name change and some pretty fire doesn’t fool anyone. So now human T3 light armor is no longer cultural i.e. exclusive to human scholars. AND it’s available for FAR cheaper (gold→gem) than vendor-bought T3 armor. AND it’s a skin therefore does not require one to purchase transmutation crystals as the vendor-bought cultural armor does.

It’s also a lazy way to create new skins and (IMO) completely unoriginal, what with all the flame-type armor skins already available.

Are you still wondering why people are angry?

It would be my position that they all would be less prestigious, yes. But it would also be my position that it would be fair since they would be equally so.

Ganathar.4956:

Humans lose uniqueness and get nothing to compensate while every other race gains a new skin.

I have only human characters and I am perfectly find with losing that “uniqueness”. Other races get new amazing armour while humans can upgrade their T3 with flaming effect.

Glenstorm.4059:

Flamekissed armor IS human T3 light armor; a name change and some pretty fire doesn’t fool anyone. So now human T3 light armor is no longer cultural i.e. exclusive to human scholars. AND it’s available for FAR cheaper (gold->gem) than vendor-bought T3 armor. AND it’s a skin therefore does not require one to purchase transmutation crystals as the vendor-bought cultural armor does.

It’s also a lazy way to create new skins and (IMO) completely unoriginal, what with all the flame-type armor skins already available.

Are you still wondering why people are angry?

Yes, I am still wondering why you all are angry. I don’t see any reason.

im into the cultural/in game lore related uniqueness. what next? start introducing particled-variants of other culturals? or god forbid, cross class skins, like a light armor skin using the designs of existing heaavy armors? make everyone can wear everything in game? when tht happens itll feel like some measure of..depth is gone frm the game…

Jabberwock.9014:

It would be my position that they all would be less prestigious, yes. But it would also be my position that it would be fair since they would be equally so.

And that was my position. That it was unfair because it was only done to human armor. If Anet is going to make changes of thsi sort they should be applied evenly across the full scope of player options.

I don’t really consider anything in game that you can buy with real money to have much in the way of prestige, nor anything that can be acquired by participating in a champion farm zerg for a relatively few hours. I certainly would not comment to that effect while interacting with someone in game who was proud of their new look. To each their own.

This is a failed mistake, this is where ANET really crosses the line and kittens up, it’s bad enough when we get constant gem store items on the trading post that makes the gem to gold conversation worse every single week, but to keep giving us RESKINS of kitten AND reusing cultural, this needs to be REVERSED immediately this is a terrible choice.

STOP TRYING TO SELL US THE SAME kitten OVER AND OVER and STOP, PLEASE STOP putting your wallets before your game and players, NCsoft uses the money mostly on other games, not gw2.

haviz.1340:

Yes, I am still wondering why you all are angry. I don’t see any reason.

The fact that you’re okay with human scholars being the only race/profession combination losing its cultural T3 exclusivity doesn’t make it fair.

This unfairness is why people are angry.

Anet plz respond? when are you going to be doing this for the rest of the cultural sets and legendaries?

Ashen.2907:

Silferas.3841:

Anyone who says price reduction over time is a natural economic phenomenon inside of a game is downright silly. Commodity devaluation is a phenomenon that occurs because of several very specific market developments that force the price to drop lower.

1) Competition comes up with products that are objectively newer/better and therefore price reduction is the only way the company selling the product can stay competitive while working on their new big hit. This doesn’t happen in MMOs, there is no new cultural armor set, no competition that would be forcing the price down. There is just plain and obvious price fall, because ANet wants an easy and fast buck.

New armor options do not have to be cultural in order to be competition for existing cultural armor. New skins, in no small part because they are less common, are very much directly in competition with older/more common skins for the gold/gems of the purchasing public.

That is your point of view, which I personally do not agree with. In order for a product to be competitive with a product that is already on the market, it has to carry certain qualities which include but are not limited to quality of execution, pricing, prestige ect. Do you believe Ferrari is concerned over Fiat putting out a new car model? Indeed there are people who would buy Fiat because they like the look, but those are not the majority of customers and that is simply not how economy works when put into practice. Different products for different customers: customer profiling. Cultural armors are limited in acquisition by not being available easily (gem store/low cost) and therefore are not in the same product category as other skins.

Silferas.3841:

2) diminishing demand: as the item becomes “less cool” people stop wanting to buy it, so the price goes down in order to make some extra profit on those, who wanted it but could not afford before. This also does not happen in MMOs, because items don’t loose their “cool” appearance as there are no fashion fads, not to mention they are a display of status (items related to that tend to keep their prices high for very long times IRL).

This very much does occur in MMOs. Old, easily obtainable skins lose their status as they become commonplace. A cosmetic something that becomes commonplace often does lose its “cool” factor because such is often related to rarity and ease of acquisition. The amount of currency in circulation within the game has increased dramatically since launch and so something with a set price becomes more easily acquired and less rare. High priced clothing items rarely keep their full value over a period of more than a year in real life BTW.

I have yet to see an MMO where old, becoming commonplace as more and more people acquired them, skins did not lose some degree of their coolness factor. Some of the coolest most desirable weapon skins earlier on in GW1 became vendor trash later.

Also diminishing demand is inherent to such situations because there is a finite number of players, a finite demand for any given skin, and people are making that finite number smaller by purchasing it, resulting in fewer people who still want it. Unless the argument is being made that, unlike most MMOs a year post launch, the population is growing compared to launch, the demand is diminishing.

You are forgetting the key concepts here:
1) acquisition of cultural armor is very limited and therefore there is no chance of it ever becoming “vendor trash”.

2) Cultural being the most expensive set in game, still, will for a long time into the future guarantee it’s prestigious nature as an item limited to dedicated/long time players. There still is an influx of new players (majority of the ones my guild recruits are new players in this game), therefore these skins have all the conditions to retain their value (other than ANet selling them on TP).

3) although I do have to agree on your point about gold becoming more commonplace in this game as of late, I still see a huge amount of players struggling to reach a level of wealth where they could even afford to gear themselves properly. With so much gold sink in terms of new ascended crafting and the pressure to keep up with the gear treadmill this has had very little effect on the actual rarity of cultural armors. The only players I have ever seen wearing it were the ones that were dedicated to the game and earned it. My personal experience may differ from yours and that’s why we cannot find a common ground.

Glenstorm.4059:

This unfairness is why people are angry.

What unfairness? You have not lost anything.

This is the kind of moves I didn’t expect from Arenanet! They started the TP out so slow during the first half year but lately it has just been crazy. And the drop is remaking an exclusive cultural set available for everyone, kitten ing on the hard work people put in to get their look.

This game is all about looks and if they start devaluing that there is nothing left to strive for. They need to carefully think about what they have done and the impacts it will have and hopefully never do it again or they will be screwed!

haviz.1340:

What unfairness? You have not lost anything.

So let’s do it for the legendaries! The people having legendaries wouldn’t lose anything right?

Yunielesca.2850:

haviz.1340:

What unfairness? You have not lost anything.

So let’s do it for the legendaries! The people having legendaries wouldn’t lose anything right?

I would like a purple twilight (instead of red) with little silvery stars and frosty aura thanks…make it so!

Maybe release reworked versions of all cultural armour to the gem store, then make the actual cultural armour ascended and let us choose stats on first equip? Not a perfect solution by far, but might take some of the sting out.

Yunielesca.2850:

haviz.1340:

What unfairness? You have not lost anything.

So let’s do it for the legendaries! The people having legendaries wouldn’t lose anything right?

Hyperbole. Like most of the arguments in use here…

There are alot of people here defending Anet’s actions, and the general consensus is that people are angry that Anet went and stuck a superior version of the t3 human cultural available on the gem store for less than what it costs for human cultural. This is an extremely valid concern, and I side vehemently with the people who have spent the time and effort to acquire said armor for their character. But there is a more important point to be made.

Anet just went and reskinned a current armor and put it on the gem store. Let’s look at what that means on several levels. First it means the armor was popular enough to merit the action, and profitable enough to merit charging actual money for it, thus creating the divide we see here. Secondly it means that Anet is not beyond adding a few frills to any popular armor (any cultural, or even potentially ascended when its released) set, sticking it on the gem store, and profiting from it. And lastly, and most importantly, that Anet has deliberately taken the lazy route. Purchasing this armor set is only condoning this extremely lazy, haphazard, and community dividing practice. Anet is essentially saying its not beneath them to just add a few frills to an existing armor and sticking it on the gem store to profit from it, but that if this practice turns out to be profitable it will essentially do it again. Just look at what they did with gem store gathering items. We had the soulbound variety go through two rotations on the gem store, and now we are finally getting the account bound versions. You either put your foot down now, or see this bullkitten happen again.

Yunielesca.2850:

So let’s do it for the legendaries! The people having legendaries wouldn’t lose anything right?

Fine with me, I don’t have any legendaries.

korelg.7862:

Avster.1935:

korelg.7862:

so much whining… if you don’t like it, don’t buy it

also, the funniest thing is that Norn look better on the Human tier 3 than the humans themselves xD

Kid. It’s not whining, it’s proper understanding if what is being done incorrectly.

Sir, it is whining… what is so bad about having slightly reworked cultural armor available for all races? I mainly play Norn and let me tell you, I’d love to have those mid and heavy armor available for my human char… most cultural armor have really beautiful designs, it would be a shame to not use them more

Of course you want it as Norn. If you would be human and one of those players who worked hard to get this armor, BEACAUSE it was unique and race exclusive, then you would later see all races having it for less then half the price, would you be happy then?
You have to understand that character progression and making it unique by aquiring rare skins is a lot of players’s one of the end goals and that’s why they are still playing, especially in this game where there is pretty much nothing else worth to do, since everything is rng, low reward or boring grind.

Silferas.3841:

That is your point of view, which I personally do not agree with. In order for a product to be competitive with a product that is already on the market, it has to carry certain qualities which include but are not limited to quality of execution, pricing, prestige ect. Do you believe Ferrari is concerned over Fiat putting out a new car model? Indeed there are people who would buy Fiat because they like the look, but those are not the majority of customers and that is simply not how economy works when put into practice. Different products for different customers: customer profiling. Cultural armors are limited in acquisition by not being available easily (gem store/low cost) and therefore are not in the same product category as other skins.

There are objective qualitative differences between a Ferrari and a Fiat. There are only subjective difference between armor skins. The majority of potential car buyers would buy the Fiat by the way as the Ferrari costs more than the majority of car buyers can/will spend. But the analogy is not particularly relevant because of the objective vs subjective element. The reality of the matter is that old skins that become more and more commonplace often become less and less prestigious in the process (if there can be said to be prestige in having something that can be purchased with real world money or by champ zerging for a relatively few hours).

You may not agree, but a customer who has enough gold/gems to buy either the T3 OR a new armor skin on the market but not both must choose between them. They are competing against each other for that expenditure. When speaking of something essentially defined by whether or not a particular customer likes the way it looks there is no objective way to assign greater likelihood of purchase to one over the other.

Cultural armors are easily available, depending on one’s definition of “easily.” Playing no risk, low difficulty content a couple of hours a day for a week (potentially less) or even two does not qualify as difficult in my opinion.

Silferas.3841:

You are forgetting the key concepts here:
1) acquisition of cultural armor is very limited and therefore there is no chance of it ever becoming “vendor trash”.

Although technically I never vendored my cultural armor, I have not used it in many months due to finding other skins I liked better and due to the evolution of builds. Its not particularly difficult to replace but I don’t need the bank space at this time. Right now it exists solely to take up space until such a time as I decide to either salvage for those mods, or the devs make some pretty serious changes to the game.

Silferas.3841:

2) Cultural being the most expensive set in game, still, will for a long time into the future guarantee it’s prestigious nature as an item limited to dedicated/long time players. There still is an influx of new players (majority of the ones my guild recruits are new players in this game), therefore these skins have all the conditions to retain their value (other than ANet selling them on TP).

Complaints of the open world being a ghost town other than in those areas where the current meta is focused are not too uncommon. I assume that anecdotal evidence such as your comment about new guild members and others saying the game seems empty should be taken with a grain of salt. I don’t deny that some people, perhaps even many, like the cultural armor skins though. Perception of value of a cosmetic item is often tied to that item’s rarity. The longer something exists the more commonplace it can become. The more commonplace a “prestige” cosmetic item is the less prestige it is likely to have in my experience.

Silferas.3841:

3) although I do have to agree on your point about gold becoming more commonplace in this game as of late, I still see a huge amount of players struggling to reach a level of wealth where they could even afford to gear themselves properly. With so much gold sink in terms of new ascended crafting and the pressure to keep up with the gear treadmill this has had very little effect on the actual rarity of cultural armors. The only players I have ever seen wearing it were the ones that were dedicated to the game and earned it. My personal experience may differ from yours and that’s why we cannot find a common ground.

I remember when having twenty gold meant I felt rich in game. Now that is attainable with little effort in a single play session involving some of the least difficult content in the game.

As to rarity, there seem to be a lot of people claiming to be affected by the changes. Anecdotal I know so take both our comments on rarity with a grain of salt.

So – last time I posted this thread was on page 3. We are now on page 8. Could they really not have noticed it all this time?

Harper.4173:

So – last time I posted this thread was on page 3. We are now on page 8. Could they really not have noticed it all this time?

Its almost two in the morning during a period that is often paid time off in some industries. Not excusing a lack of response I just wonder if the people who can make a call on this are on their way to grandma’s house for turkey and pie.

Harper.4173:

So – last time I posted this thread was on page 3. We are now on page 8. Could they really not have noticed it all this time?

They would have noticed, but you’re assuming they’re going to ever respond. They won’t.

The only thing that surprises me is that people seem surprised that Anet would do this.

Of course they would. Why wouldn’t they? They’ve been making decisions like this since Nov. of last year. They made the same decision when they added Bloodlust to WvW, and despite almost universal protest from the community, left it in. Who cares about alts and pre-release marketing? Let’s put in some vertical progression gear that requires endless grinding. They don’t care. The community has shown that they don’t have to.

Every time they do something that upsets the community they’ve seen that it all dies down eventually and people keep buying stuff and playing the game despite their impotent whines. In fact, apologists and other such poor sheep emerge to defend their anti-consumer decisions. Why would they care?

As long as they keep making money and we keep playing they don’t have to care.

Watching all of this unfold is amusing. I don’t even really play anymore and it’s decisions like these that remind me of why I stopped. I keep thinking “maybe they’ll learn, maybe the game will get better” and then they go and do stuff like this and all of my doubts are gone.

Well played, Anet, well played.

TainoFuerte.8136:

I don’t even really play anymore and it’s decisions like these that remind me of why I stopped.

Logged in just to quote this.

This game is just not worth my attention anymore.

Wow. This is monetization at its worse.

How did something like this came out from the ‘bad ideas’ bucket into reality?