Guild Wars 2

First of all I would like to express that I understand that Anet needs the Gemstore for income to a certain extend. I would also note that I’m very frustrated at this point and that this will be quite an unnuanced post.

So… We all know and agree. There have been too little armor sets, gliders and weapons to go for in the recent patches. Though this is the case, it’s not exactly what frustrates me. Because if all of these armors looked really good then I wouldn’t mind.
But my problem here is that most of them don’t and instead they make good looking outfits for the gem store.
And something worse is going about with gliders. The only glider that isn’t in the gemstore is the one you get by default. Why not make gliders to get for completing content? Like raids? Or quests?

So basically the problem is that they are purposefully holding back good content so we will buy more of the gemstore. And that attitude REALLY needs to change. Definitely since 3 outfits are worth a freaking precursor with the current exchange price.

I have a few suggestions on how to fix this. First of all, listen to the feedback people give on certain armors, as to know in which direction to go. Personally I love the mistward armor, most t3 cultural armors, exalted weapons, heavy ornate guild armor etc. They just seem to be of higher quality than e.g. The bladed armor sets, which look awfully low in detail and extremely bland and stiff.

Secondly, give us gliders as rewards for doing raids, fractals and collections. Simply take those gliders from the gemstore to do that. You can keep them in the gemstore as well for the people who are too lazy to get them if you really insist on keeping the gemstore.

Third of all, make outfits into armor sets and make them available through cool short quests which will tell a story about the armors.
To continue on this. Lots of fashion items don’t really have a story behind them or a rather vague story. By making collections or preferably short quests you can explain where these armor sets originate and why they are there in the first place.

Would you prefer a subscription instead?

Dibbelocher.2318:

Because if all of these armors looked really good then I wouldn’t mind.
But my problem here is that most of them don’t and instead they make good looking outfits for the gem store.

Entirely subjective. I’m a huge fan of most of the outfits/armours in the store. If people didn’t like them, they wouldn’t sell and the whole outfits in the store wouldn’t be an issue.

Dibbelocher.2318:

And something worse is going about with gliders. The only glider that isn’t in the gemstore is the one you get by default. Why not make gliders to get for completing content? Like raids? Or quests?

Completely agree. I am OK with most being in the gem store, but I would like the chance to earn or even craft say a Guild Emblemed glider for example. Or maybe a couple of bosses drop them as rare loot, which reflects the boss themselves.

Dibbelocher.2318:

So basically the problem is that they are purposefully holding back good content so we will buy more of the gemstore. And that attitude REALLY needs to change.

No that isn’t something that is happening or is there any proof that it is. You can be unhappy with the prioritising of the content or how long it is taking to come out, but the gem store content is not designed by the same team, so will barely impact main content.

Dibbelocher.2318:

To continue on this. Lots of fashion items don’t really have a story behind them or a rather vague story. By making collections or preferably short quests you can explain where these armor sets originate and why they are there in the first place.

It’s clear legendary armour is getting this treatment, however I otherwise approve of the idea for more armours.

You acknowledge that ANet needs the gem store to generate revenue, but then suggest they basically gut their store of those very items that (presumably, given they’re the items that get the most additions) generate the most revenue.

I’m not sure how this would benefit us, as players, in the long run.

Well a better game means more people who will buy the game or stay with the game to buy expansions. Also the content we got for the price of the expansion was quite scarce. Comparing it to the core game that is. So the demands I’m asking aren’t too out of place if you take that into consideration.

Randulf.7614:

Dibbelocher.2318:

Because if all of these armors looked really good then I wouldn’t mind.
But my problem here is that most of them don’t and instead they make good looking outfits for the gem store.

Entirely subjective. I’m a huge fan of most of the outfits/armours in the store. If people didn’t like them, they wouldn’t sell and the whole outfits in the store wouldn’t be an issue.

Dibbelocher.2318:

And something worse is going about with gliders. The only glider that isn’t in the gemstore is the one you get by default. Why not make gliders to get for completing content? Like raids? Or quests?

Completely agree. I am OK with most being in the gem store, but I would like the chance to earn or even craft say a Guild Emblemed glider for example. Or maybe a couple of bosses drop them as rare loot, which reflects the boss themselves.

Dibbelocher.2318:

So basically the problem is that they are purposefully holding back good content so we will buy more of the gemstore. And that attitude REALLY needs to change.

No that isn’t something that is happening or is there any proof that it is. You can be unhappy with the prioritising of the content or how long it is taking to come out, but the gem store content is not designed by the same team, so will barely impact main content.

Dibbelocher.2318:

To continue on this. Lots of fashion items don’t really have a story behind them or a rather vague story. By making collections or preferably short quests you can explain where these armor sets originate and why they are there in the first place.

It’s clear legendary armour is getting this treatment, however I otherwise approve of the idea for more armours.

The first one was actually aimed at the armors we got in the actual game. Thus not taking in the gemstore into account. Since that’s another pay wall.
I was actually trying to say the armors we can get in game without paying gems are to few in numbers and most of the time look a lot less good than the things in the gemstore.

msalakka.4653:

Would you prefer a subscription instead?

I would prefer for Anet to be more efficient with their resources.

Yep, have to disagree with OP to a degree- I actually more or less like how things are. Also as you mentioned you can already convert gold to gems, and hence all of the items in gemstore are already obtainable in game.
I say, more items in gemtore! Keep makin them glider skins, also I pray to the 6 Gods that one day they will make the Dragon’s surge visiual from sanctum scramble/HoT story as a glider skin… I would kill for that no matter the means of aquisition. As for in game gliders beside the basic one, I’m pretty sure th legendary pvp back will com with an equivelent glider skin – and I hope the same goes for Ad Infinitum. Also the exalted glider via gem exchange i like only 80-100 gold, a fair price.
I wouldn’t mind more items from in game too though, for example with the stunning artwork of exalted it seems like a shame not to have an armor inspired by them.
In the end, more cash for Anet, more stuff for us though.

The problem is that they are adding very little other than gemstore stuff. They need better balance.

Dibbelocher.2318:

The first one was actually aimed at the armors we got in the actual game. Thus not taking in the gemstore into account. Since that’s another pay wall.
I was actually trying to say the armors we can get in game without paying gems are to few in numbers and most of the time look a lot less good than the things in the gemstore.

Yes, apologies I see that now. My bad

Dibbelocher.2318:

Well a better game means more people who will buy the game or stay with the game to buy expansions. Also the content we got for the price of the expansion was quite scarce. Comparing it to the core game that is. So the demands I’m asking aren’t too out of place if you take that into consideration.

This is a logical fallacy.

I got an amazing deal for the first product, that as in development for five years. I got less of a good deal for an expansion which might have been in development for a year and a half.

I’ve never ever played an MMORPG where the expansion gave me more or even close to what the original gave me even if they charge a monthly fee and charge for the expansion.

This expansion, Anet said from day one was lighter on content, but it was building the building blocks of the future of the game. New expansions won’t take as long to come out and they’ll likely have more content.

I was happy to pay for the rebuilding of some of the game’s basic systems. I didn’t expect more content, because I was told up front I’d be getting less.

But saying this was a great deal so the new one isn’t worth it, even if it’s a better deal than most games I’d buy is a logical fallacy.

Dibbelocher.2318:

Well a better game means more people who will buy the game or stay with the game to buy expansions. Also the content we got for the price of the expansion was quite scarce. Comparing it to the core game that is. So the demands I’m asking aren’t too out of place if you take that into consideration.

Well, problem with that idea is that it simply won’t do anything to increase new purchases of the game. I’m sure you can agree that when we look at games, we never pick through the wiki of the games we’re interested in to see exactly how grindy the quests are or what kind of rewards we get from it – we just look at the art, maybe watch some videos on what the character generation and combat is like, and maybe drink the Kool Aid when reading what he developers want us to think they’re trying to deliver.

So for someone looking to pick up GW2, announcing that gem store items are now in-game rewards would be completely meaningless to them, because they haven’t even gotten to the stage where it’s even a concern to them.

As for the effect on existing players, I don’t think it would be a positive one. On one hand you’ll have a bunch of players who did buy the outfits/wings/skins with money demanding refunds (which they probably won’t get), while on the other hand it’ll make a bunch of people who weren’t planning on giving ANet money for the goods happy. To put it crudely, cheesing off the customers who are more liberal with their credit cards to make the more frugal of us happy seems like a really bad way to make money.

While I agree that the expansion was overpriced, that’s a boat that already sailed last year when ANet threw in a character slot for pre-purchasers. It’s an issue we can still gripe about, but not really something we can demand compensation for anymore.

It would have been cool to get the Exalted glider for finishing one if the Mastery tracks (either Gliding or Exalted lore) and a glider for Wintersday.

I’m sick of it too. How dare they offer us stuff to continue our FashionWars. You don’t even need to spend real money, greedy kittens.

msalakka.4653:

Would you prefer a subscription instead?

Yes, oh yes

Pandaman.4758:

Dibbelocher.2318:

Well a better game means more people who will buy the game or stay with the game to buy expansions.

Well, problem with that idea is that it simply won’t do anything to increase new purchases of the game…So for someone looking to pick up GW2, announcing that gem store items are now in-game rewards would be completely meaningless to them, because they haven’t even gotten to the stage where it’s even a concern to them.

As for the effect on existing players, I don’t think it would be a positive one. On one hand you’ll have a bunch of players who did buy the outfits/wings/skins with money demanding refunds (which they probably won’t get), while on the other hand it’ll make a bunch of people who weren’t planning on giving ANet money for the goods happy. To put it crudely, cheesing off the customers who are more liberal with their credit cards to make the more frugal of us happy seems like a really bad way to make money.

This is EXACTLY why they shouldn’t and won’t do it.

If they suddenly change it, customers would be significantly less likely to spend money in the gem store.

That’s the opposite of what they want.

msalakka.4653:

Would you prefer a subscription instead?

I would prefer an optional subscription like ESO has. One where you can pay money every month that nets you gems worth the amount of money you pay and a minor boost (that is invisible to other players) like a small Heroic buff for as long as you pay.

Of course this would be somewhat practical and the community would immediately label ‘5% less waypoint cost’ and ‘10% increased magic find’ as P2Win.

msalakka.4653:

Would you prefer a subscription instead?

If it gives access to all content. Yes.

Dibbelocher.2318:

There have been too little armor sets, gliders and weapons to go for in the recent patches.

What do you mean with too little and how much where you expecting?

There are 4 Armour Sets

• Bladed Armor
• Leystone Armor
• Guild Armor
• Mistward Armor

and a few misc. armor pieces.

There are 8 Weapon Sets

• Auric Weapons
• Chak Weapons
• Reclaimed Weapons
• Plated Weapons
• Machined Weapons
• Shimmering Weapons
• Tenebras Weapons
• Gold Fractal Weapons

plus “Elite Specialization weapons” and some misc. weapons.

Vayne.8563:

Dibbelocher.2318:

Well a better game means more people who will buy the game or stay with the game to buy expansions. Also the content we got for the price of the expansion was quite scarce. Comparing it to the core game that is. So the demands I’m asking aren’t too out of place if you take that into consideration.

This is a logical fallacy.

I got an amazing deal for the first product, that as in development for five years. I got less of a good deal for an expansion which might have been in development for a year and a half.

I’ve never ever played an MMORPG where the expansion gave me more or even close to what the original gave me even if they charge a monthly fee and charge for the expansion.

This expansion, Anet said from day one was lighter on content, but it was building the building blocks of the future of the game. New expansions won’t take as long to come out and they’ll likely have more content.

I was happy to pay for the rebuilding of some of the game’s basic systems. I didn’t expect more content, because I was told up front I’d be getting less.

But saying this was a great deal so the new one isn’t worth it, even if it’s a better deal than most games I’d buy is a logical fallacy.

And yet, you present us with another logical fallacy.

A lot of those 5 years for the first product went into creating an engine for a game, combat mechanics and other thing you don’t really have to worry about when creating an expansion. A few tweaks, maybe, but not something from a scratch. So, it’s not really 5 years vs 1 year.

What is more, I would have been happy to receive at least 20% amount of content which was presented at original release. Since the discussion is about the skins, do the math yourself.

But ok, they are building blocks for future, it’s lighter on content, they told us that, we shouldn’t expect more, ok. But what about the things they told us to expect, like legendary armor, backpack? More than 3 months since the expansion came out and we still have only 3 new legendary weapons. Cmon, your expectations can’t be that low!

More on topic: yes, I believe agree with OP, more content should be added as in game rewards. And the argument about separate teams working on separate content doesn’t really hold much, since Anet is kind of responsible for all of those teams. Developers have all the power to manage their resources and at the moment, it seems that most of them go to cash shop.

One thing i especially dislike is how they introduced a whole new mechanic with the expansion – gliding – and yet they haven’t put a single glider skin available via the game itself.
I mean, you already have to pay for the expansion, it isn’t like it comes for free. They could have put some skins ingame at least.

The misc weapons are worth mentioning because some of them are sublime

Berseker’s Ebb
BErserker’s Flow
Berserker’s Mordrem Saber
Berserker’s Mordrem Cleaver
Berserker’s Mordrem Warblade
Berserker’s Mordrem Warbow
Berserker’s Lightward’s Battlehammer
Berserker’s Lightward’s Battlestaff

And some I read from Dulfy
Augury of Death
Great Capra
Might of Brauer
Seers Warstaff
Ley Guard’s Protector
Opulent Defender
Ley Guard’s Revolver
Dandy Buster
Velocitas Eradico
Kingmaker
Arkhalos

Randulf.7614:

The misc weapons are worth mentioning because some of them are sublime

Berseker’s Ebb
BErserker’s Flow
Berserker’s Mordrem Saber
Berserker’s Mordrem Cleaver
Berserker’s Mordrem Warblade
Berserker’s Mordrem Warbow
Berserker’s Lightward’s Battlehammer
Berserker’s Lightward’s Battlestaff

And some I read from Dulfy
Augury of Death
Great Capra
Might of Brauer
Seers Warstaff
Ley Guard’s Protector
Opulent Defender
Ley Guard’s Revolver
Dandy Buster
Velocitas Eradico
Kingmaker
Arkhalos

Some of those listed are super rare drops that you basically have to pay hundreds of gold on the TP to obtain.

Azure Prower.8701:

Randulf.7614:

The misc weapons are worth mentioning because some of them are sublime

Berseker’s Ebb
BErserker’s Flow
Berserker’s Mordrem Saber
Berserker’s Mordrem Cleaver
Berserker’s Mordrem Warblade
Berserker’s Mordrem Warbow
Berserker’s Lightward’s Battlehammer
Berserker’s Lightward’s Battlestaff

And some I read from Dulfy
Augury of Death
Great Capra
Might of Brauer
Seers Warstaff
Ley Guard’s Protector
Opulent Defender
Ley Guard’s Revolver
Dandy Buster
Velocitas Eradico
Kingmaker
Arkhalos

Some of those listed are super rare drops that you basically have to pay hundreds of gold on the TP to obtain.

That’s a separate issue though. They are obtainable without gold and without use of the gemstore, which is the topic of discussion here. I don’t disagree that they are perhaps too rare, but the point stands they exist in game through content.

I totally disagree with you. They should sale that stuff the way they do. I just wish you could trade those items with other players for gold.

Dibbelocher.2318:

So… We all know and agree. There have been too little armor sets, gliders and weapons to go for in the recent patches. Though this is the case, it’s not exactly what frustrates me. Because if all of these armors looked really good then I wouldn’t mind.
But my problem here is that most of them don’t and instead they make good looking outfits for the gem store.

It kittenes me off so much when people talk as if they had the ultimate truth. “We all know and agree” my *ss.
We got a few outfits in the Gemstore, Timekeeper weapons that are really cool (and are not Gem items) and I think one glider skin. I believe that’s an OK amount of Gem items for the last three months.
What you said “if armors looked good” is totally subjective. You don’t like the available armors (that there are TONS) but that’s not the case for everyone, and I believe is not the case for the majority. I got three outfits and I ONLY use them on non-80 toons. For my four Lv80s I use Wardrobe and to my taste, I’ve done some pretty epic combinations.

Dibbelocher.2318:

And something worse is going about with gliders. The only glider that isn’t in the gemstore is the one you get by default. Why not make gliders to get for completing content? Like raids? Or quests?

Ok I do agree with you here. Its quite new content, so I’m pretty sure… Well I hope that they make non-Gemstore gliders. Not because I mind buying them, but because I feel is unfair for people that don’t wanna buy them off the Gemstore.

Dibbelocher.2318:

So basically the problem is that they are purposefully holding back good content so we will buy more of the gemstore. And that attitude REALLY needs to change. Definitely since 3 outfits are worth a freaking precursor with the current exchange price.

And there we go again, baseless accusation. What do you mean by “holding back good content”? Good content meaning patch updates like the one we got a few days ago? Because I don’t see them holding back too much. And how does that anything to do with buying cosmetics off the Gemstore?

Dibbelocher.2318:

The bladed armor sets, which look awfully low in detail and extremely bland and stiff.

I only quoted this because here I got an example of “that’s your opinion”. With the exception of the Medium Bladed armor, I believe Heavy and Light versions are amazing and very detailed.

Dibbelocher.2318:

Secondly, give us gliders as rewards for doing raids, fractals and collections.

Hey! That’s a really cool idea. Gorseval Glider… kitten that’d look sick!

Dibbelocher.2318:

Third of all, make outfits into armor sets and make them available through cool short quests which will tell a story about the armors.

That’s another good idea. Would make story (specially the personal story) not… so… slow… and unrewarding. I always felt the final reward was pretty lame.

Dibbelocher.2318:

To continue on this. Lots of fashion items don’t really have a story behind them or a rather vague story. By making collections or preferably short quests you can explain where these armor sets originate and why they are there in the first place.

Well, with the huge amount of armors and armor pieces in the game I don’t think we’ll ever be getting that. In my opinion its a tiny detail and ANet is focusing on major things.

Gemstore is what you get when your game is FREE TO PLAY instead of having a subscription fee of $20 a month. deal with it

Kastiel.1947:

Yep, have to disagree with OP to a degree- I actually more or less like how things are. Also as you mentioned you can already convert gold to gems, and hence all of the items in gemstore are already obtainable in game.
I say, more items in gemtore! Keep makin them glider skins, also I pray to the 6 Gods that one day they will make the Dragon’s surge visiual from sanctum scramble/HoT story as a glider skin… I would kill for that no matter the means of aquisition. As for in game gliders beside the basic one, I’m pretty sure th legendary pvp back will com with an equivelent glider skin – and I hope the same goes for Ad Infinitum. Also the exalted glider via gem exchange i like only 80-100 gold, a fair price.
I wouldn’t mind more items from in game too though, for example with the stunning artwork of exalted it seems like a shame not to have an armor inspired by them.
In the end, more cash for Anet, more stuff for us though.

Thing is, “just” 80-100 gold for a glider skin doesn’t deserve the word “just” in it. 80-100 gold is equivalent to 1/4th of an ascended armor set or even more.

Felahr.9830:

Gemstore is what you get when your game is FREE TO PLAY instead of having a subscription fee of $20 a month. deal with it

It’s not free to play. Free to play would be no initial costs. My “initial” costs are 100 euros at the moment. Does that sound like “free” to you?

Dibbelocher.2318:

Kastiel.1947:

Yep, have to disagree with OP to a degree- I actually more or less like how things are. Also as you mentioned you can already convert gold to gems, and hence all of the items in gemstore are already obtainable in game.
I say, more items in gemtore! Keep makin them glider skins, also I pray to the 6 Gods that one day they will make the Dragon’s surge visiual from sanctum scramble/HoT story as a glider skin… I would kill for that no matter the means of aquisition. As for in game gliders beside the basic one, I’m pretty sure th legendary pvp back will com with an equivelent glider skin – and I hope the same goes for Ad Infinitum. Also the exalted glider via gem exchange i like only 80-100 gold, a fair price.
I wouldn’t mind more items from in game too though, for example with the stunning artwork of exalted it seems like a shame not to have an armor inspired by them.
In the end, more cash for Anet, more stuff for us though.

Thing is, “just” 80-100 gold for a glider skin doesn’t deserve the word “just” in it. 80-100 gold is equivalent to 1/4th of an ascended armor set or even more.

you can make “just” 100 gold in a week

Dibbelocher.2318:

Felahr.9830:

Gemstore is what you get when your game is FREE TO PLAY instead of having a subscription fee of $20 a month. deal with it

It’s not free to play. Free to play would be no initial costs. My “initial” costs are 100 euros at the moment. Does that sound like “free” to you?

methinks your english grasp is not so good. its a godkitten free to play game. its free to play. playing it requires no ongoing money, unlike, say, world of warcraft. gw2 is free to play. would you like the game to be free to buy as well, and then have mandatory ads ingame and lock exotic and higher armor and weapons behind the gemstore? because anet could do that, you know. they have to make money somehow and since the kittening game is free to kittening play, and they are NOT getting billions of dollars a month in subscription fees, gemstore is how they do that. the only thing locked behind real money purchases is cosmetic items, there is nothing, literally nothing, that is required for actual gameplay or to become a harder hitting character that you cannot get for free ingame. everything gemstore is pretty kitten to make your character look a certain way, and its completely unneeded to be a good player, so i dont know what the hell your issue is, or anyone else who complains about cosmetic and arbitrary things costing money.

Felahr.9830:

Dibbelocher.2318:

Felahr.9830:

Gemstore is what you get when your game is FREE TO PLAY instead of having a subscription fee of $20 a month. deal with it

It’s not free to play. Free to play would be no initial costs. My “initial” costs are 100 euros at the moment. Does that sound like “free” to you?

methinks your english grasp is not so good. its a godkitten free to play game. its free to play. playing it requires no ongoing money, unlike, say, world of warcraft. gw2 is free to play. would you like the game to be free to buy as well, and then have mandatory ads ingame and lock exotic and higher armor and weapons behind the gemstore? because anet could do that, you know. they have to make money somehow and since the kittening game is free to kittening play, and they are NOT getting billions of dollars a month in subscription fees, gemstore is how they do that. the only thing locked behind real money purchases is cosmetic items, there is nothing, literally nothing, that is required for actual gameplay or to become a harder hitting character that you cannot get for free ingame. everything gemstore is pretty kitten to make your character look a certain way, and its completely unneeded to be a good player, so i dont know what the hell your issue is, or anyone else who complains about cosmetic and arbitrary things costing money.

It’s kind of funny you manage to insult someone’s English and then fail to use “it’s” properly or write with capital letters when starting a sentence, so let’s stay out of that zone okay? And no I don’t want it to actually go fully free to play. Because yes the game has a free to play option now but those accounts are quite restricted.

I think if you would add up the amount of money they have gotten merely by game purchases they would have about 75 million budget for everything we have/have had/will have. That should be more than enough to not have a gem-store around. But because Anet is always trying out stuff and then throwing it in the garbage can, they need a gemstore.

But here is the thing. They had the gemstore for so long… That their budget is way higher than that. You would expect that they won’t need it anymore for further income.

And even if they DO keep the gemstore, that doesn’t take away the fact that there isn’t enough being created for what the game is without the gemstore.

Zomaarwat.3912:

It would have been cool to get the Exalted glider for finishing one if the Mastery tracks (either Gliding or Exalted lore) and a glider for Wintersday.

as for the rest of the weapon and armor skins, i think thats personsonal preference. yes, there are some skins in the gem store/black lion trader that i like and wouldnt mind getting but there are others available in game that are equally good.

if someone is hell-bent for saturday to get a black lion trader skin, then they can farm the 800 gold to exchange for gems or straight out purchase the outfit

Felahr.9830:

Dibbelocher.2318:

Felahr.9830:

Gemstore is what you get when your game is FREE TO PLAY instead of having a subscription fee of $20 a month. deal with it

It’s not free to play. Free to play would be no initial costs. My “initial” costs are 100 euros at the moment. Does that sound like “free” to you?

methinks your english grasp is not so good. its a godkitten free to play game. its free to play. playing it requires no ongoing money, unlike, say, world of warcraft. gw2 is free to play. would you like the game to be free to buy as well, and then have mandatory ads ingame and lock exotic and higher armor and weapons behind the gemstore? because anet could do that, you know. they have to make money somehow and since the kittening game is free to kittening play, and they are NOT getting billions of dollars a month in subscription fees, gemstore is how they do that. the only thing locked behind real money purchases is cosmetic items, there is nothing, literally nothing, that is required for actual gameplay or to become a harder hitting character that you cannot get for free ingame. everything gemstore is pretty kitten to make your character look a certain way, and its completely unneeded to be a good player, so i dont know what the hell your issue is, or anyone else who complains about cosmetic and arbitrary things costing money.

GW2 is NOT free to play (although Anet has added free to purchase accounts with certain game features disabled) it just doesnt have a subscription. by this standard, a ton of other games like Mass Effect, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Far Cry, Left 4 Dead, etc, etc, etc all fall under your F2P definition.

Felahr.9830:

Dibbelocher.2318:

Felahr.9830:

Gemstore is what you get when your game is FREE TO PLAY instead of having a subscription fee of $20 a month. deal with it

It’s not free to play. Free to play would be no initial costs. My “initial” costs are 100 euros at the moment. Does that sound like “free” to you?

methinks your english grasp is not so good. its a godkitten free to play game. its free to play. playing it requires no ongoing money, unlike, say, world of warcraft. gw2 is free to play. would you like the game to be free to buy as well, and then have mandatory ads ingame and lock exotic and higher armor and weapons behind the gemstore? because anet could do that, you know. they have to make money somehow and since the kittening game is free to kittening play, and they are NOT getting billions of dollars a month in subscription fees, gemstore is how they do that. the only thing locked behind real money purchases is cosmetic items, there is nothing, literally nothing, that is required for actual gameplay or to become a harder hitting character that you cannot get for free ingame. everything gemstore is pretty kitten to make your character look a certain way, and its completely unneeded to be a good player, so i dont know what the hell your issue is, or anyone else who complains about cosmetic and arbitrary things costing money.

You might want to reconsider calling others out for their use of the English language until yours improves.

If one cannot play a game without first paying, as is the case with GW2HoT, then the game cannot accurately be described as, “free,” to play.

Have to agree with a lot of the above. You either accept the gemstore which is optional and since you can also turn virtual currency into gems versus real money. Or the game becomes subscription which a majority of the player base is against. Right now a portion of the player base pays for maintenance fees and some new development via the gemstore and I bet a larger portion just enjoy the pay once and play for free after aspect of the game. I am good with either model but since there is no subscription, all I expect from ANet is bug fixes/balance and keeping the lights on unless I opt into the gemstore.

IMO, its just fine as it is. The biggest reason why I have stuck around with Gw2 is because of ZERO subscription/monthly fee. Regarding HoT contents, they said they’ll keep on adding contents (LS3 in future) with time until maybe the next expansion rolls around. So they definitely needs the gemstore to generate revenue. Its not like without the gemstore items your gameplay is hindered…

They need to have a 3:1 Policy on gem store weapons/armors. for every 3 Armor sets ( outfits) and weapons (BL Tickets) released that relate to gem purchases, they need to have 1 obtainable with in the games content that does not require a gold sink or mommy’s CC.

As for the gliders and all of them being on the gem store is just a huge slap to the face for EVERYONE who paid for HoT. Since the glider is a HoT only item, 40% of the skins should have been hidden with in HoTs content (MF combines, Rare Drops, Quest rewards, Crafting rewards…ect)

But no, that is not what is happening.

Felahr.9830:

Dibbelocher.2318:

Felahr.9830:

Gemstore is what you get when your game is FREE TO PLAY instead of having a subscription fee of $20 a month. deal with it

It’s not free to play. Free to play would be no initial costs. My “initial” costs are 100 euros at the moment. Does that sound like “free” to you?

methinks your english grasp is not so good. its a godkitten free to play game. its free to play. playing it requires no ongoing money, unlike, say, world of warcraft. gw2 is free to play. would you like the game to be free to buy as well, and then have mandatory ads ingame and lock exotic and higher armor and weapons behind the gemstore? because anet could do that, you know. they have to make money somehow and since the kittening game is free to kittening play, and they are NOT getting billions of dollars a month in subscription fees, gemstore is how they do that. the only thing locked behind real money purchases is cosmetic items, there is nothing, literally nothing, that is required for actual gameplay or to become a harder hitting character that you cannot get for free ingame. everything gemstore is pretty kitten to make your character look a certain way, and its completely unneeded to be a good player, so i dont know what the hell your issue is, or anyone else who complains about cosmetic and arbitrary things costing money.

The game does have a free2play mode, but to gain most of the benefits to the game you need to buy a copy. And while there is no monthly subscription, this game IS buy2play.

And if you want to do some math and say Anet is going to release a new Expansion every 3 years and you only pay for the baseline price of said expansion, there is now a monthly upkeep of 1.30 cents a month, that you will need to invest on top of any Gem store purchases for new packaged content, you would be paying every 3 or so years.

So make no mistake, Anet is making Money on this game and it is not Free2play for full enlisted accounts.

Randulf.7614:

Azure Prower.8701:

Randulf.7614:

The misc weapons are worth mentioning because some of them are sublime
-snip-

Some of those listed are super rare drops that you basically have to pay hundreds of gold on the TP to obtain.

That’s a separate issue though. They are obtainable without gold and without use of the gemstore, which is the topic of discussion here. I don’t disagree that they are perhaps too rare, but the point stands they exist in game through content.

It’s not entirely a separate issue. Super rare drops are not something that can be worked towards. Those luxury items/skins likely present a tasty piece of whale bait, and Anet isn’t going to complain if a whale or two wants to go $$ to gems to gold to purchase them. The OP was referring to a system of how armor was delivered previously in the game: dungeon armor, wvw armor, skins from story achieves, etc. These in game means of obtaining skins once existed side-by-side with gemstore skins. As the game has matured, in the gemstore route has been far more favoured over in-game means.

It’s highly subjective. I have 10 characters and for 8 of them, I preferred using a non-gem gear. For two of them I use some pieces of 1 gear that I bought on the gem store.

For me almost all of the gem store armor are ugly.

Naix.8156:

Randulf.7614:

Azure Prower.8701:

Randulf.7614:

The misc weapons are worth mentioning because some of them are sublime
-snip-

Some of those listed are super rare drops that you basically have to pay hundreds of gold on the TP to obtain.

That’s a separate issue though. They are obtainable without gold and without use of the gemstore, which is the topic of discussion here. I don’t disagree that they are perhaps too rare, but the point stands they exist in game through content.

It’s not entirely a separate issue. Super rare drops are not something that can be worked towards. Those luxury items/skins likely present a tasty piece of whale bait, and Anet isn’t going to complain if a whale or two wants to go $$ to gems to gold to purchase them. The OP was referring to a system of how armor was delivered previously in the game: dungeon armor, wvw armor, skins from story achieves, etc. These in game means of obtaining skins once existed side-by-side with gemstore skins. As the game has matured, in the gemstore route has been far more favoured over in-game means.

and most justify it with the Gold to Gem conversion.

But has anyone really looked at the Gold to gem conversion rates as of late? If Anet keeps with the current trend, its going to get worse.

gotta remember, there is no gear treadmill in this game its all purely cosmetics. in the past you had varying cosmetics between the gem store and the in game content. But now? Its primarily just the gem store.

Even after we all just invested 50+ into the game via HoT, it just feels they want to gouge us for more.

If you want pretty things you gotta play for gold or pay for gems. We still live in a society that uses currency. If you don’t have currency be mad at the system, not ANet. :P

The gemstore has too many returns of old junk and offers little original content, and what little new content we get is really awful, the outfit idea as a replacement for skins was pretty dumb too. I think people would throw their wallets at the screen if they would just put individual armour pieces on there, and not just helmets and gloves, we never got chests or pants for some reason, tho how many people would buy individual skin pieces?

And what about more hair, face, charr horns, asura ears, variations of human and norn bodies, big small, fat, skinny? For a fashion game there’s awfully little customisation going on o.o

The current gemstore is like a physical store trying to compete with the Internet. It’s just not gonna work.

I can’t care less about outfits and minipets (if its not a normal play to earn item i dont want it). What i do find dissapointing is there never seems to be any sales on conveniance items and upgrades. They used to have sales for this sort of items, its so long ago that time forgot.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Game designers used to spend all of their time making a great game. They also made enough money by charging around fifty bucks for said game. You could buy this game, take it home and play it as much as you wanted. This is when gaming was great, because the designers were just making a great game. Not designing a game to milk the customers out of every dime they can.

Monk Tank.5897:

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Game designers used to spend all of their time making a great game. They also made enough money by charging around fifty bucks for said game. You could buy this game, take it home and play it as much as you wanted. This is when gaming was great, because the designers were just making a great game. Not designing a game to milk the customers out of every dime they can.

And that works, just not for MMOs. For an MMO to have any lasting following new story, maps, creatures, “quests”, and items need to be added over time. This development isn’t free and needs to be paid for with as it’s being done, like with a cash shop or subscription, or post completion, like an expansion. But at the end of the day it’s a business and it’s all about cash flow and reserves.

Sure it would be nice to earn a skin reward in game. Except ANet’s fallback position has always been the gold to gem exchange, letting players trade in their in game earnings to buy items at the cash shop.

IIRC there’s only been 7 armor sets for each weight in the gem shop Vs 59 acquirable in game from drops, crafting, dungeon tokens, order, race, region, etc.

No matter how ugly you think the stuff in the gem shop is, I can guarantee at least 20% of the community loves it enough to buy it. No matter how awesome you think skin X is, I can guarantee 20% (maybe even the same 20%) will hate it.

There’s just no way to please everyone with skins. Heck, it’s pretty difficult to please more than 20% of the diverse community. As a weird example, I know people are “sick of trenchcoats” for medium armor, but I like trench coats generally and yet I haven’t seen one in this game that I really like — so despite the over supply of trench coats in the game, I’d still like to see a few more.

The problem with the OP’s post is that it assumes that there’s just one view point that covers everyone’s feelings about acquisition of and quality of skins. No question we’d all like to see more and better skins; it’s a huge question as to what that might look like.

Plus, it’s not all that easy to churn out quality skins, especially not in complete, thematic sets. If it was, then we’d see a lot more variety than we already do.

im less concerned with whats good/bad looking then I am with the content being released. I look at it as numbers, as thats all Anet really cares about anyway.

Each season release since HoT has had a deluxe holiday Gem kit that included a skin for the glider, an outfit and some other garbage I couldnt care less about. And what did the players get in the game off the gem store? Recycled content with a hidden Gold sink to unlock a skinless shoulder effect.

sorry, but that doesn’t float well with me.

and here we are again, same kitten different day.

Dibbelocher.2318:

msalakka.4653:

Would you prefer a subscription instead?

I would prefer for Anet to be more efficient with their resources.

I was unaware that you were completely privy to all the inner workings and asset allocation of arena nets development team. Oh wait, you’re not and are making a completely arbitrary statement full of assumptions that fit whatever opinions you have