Guild Wars 2

We need a microtransaction store with items that can only be purchased with real money. By hearing this, you might be saying “Penguin, we already have a Gem Store.” Yes, we have a microtransaction store, and yes it allows players to convert in-game Gold into Gems so they can make purchases. But here are two reasons why there’s a better shop opportunity:

Reason #1 – Encourage more real money transactions.

Here’s the current problem as I see it. Anet has increased the loot and rewards from the game so much, that it makes more sense to do Gold -> Gem conversions than to purchase Gems. Personally, I haven’t made any Gem purchases in over a year. With the idea of “cash only” items, it can encourage more spending from players who don’t mind making creditcard purchases.

Reason #2 – Brings more exclusivity to the game

With “cash only” items, Anet can sell items that cannot be obtain anywhere else. There’s already places were exclusives exist. PvE Raiders have Legendary armor. PvP has mini llamas. WvW has, um, server pride when you defeat two other servers. Giving a chance to purchase exclusive items, it rewards those players who spend real money and support the continued development this game.

We don’t need exclusivity built around cash only. Everything you listed are exclusive to those that run that particular game mode/content. Exclusive items for those with disposable income would not be looked upon by the cash poor portion of the player base fondly.

I still see many complain about the current exchange rate being too high.

Now I’m sure there are other reasons, but I’m pretty sure that one of the reasons we have the conversion system is to make things a bit more even for players who can’t afford to buy gems. Adding a second cash shop/tab that sells items only for “real money gems” would defeat that purpose.

If you want “Exclusive” rewards, you can try playing one of the game modes that reward such things.

What type of rewards would Anet offer? It couldn’t be anything that would give an in game advantage or players would scream about pay to win so minis, skins what else would be visible with no gameplay value?

hahahhahahahahaha WvW has, um, sever pride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahah hahahahahahahahhahahaha I cant stop laughing

and yes, I totally agree with your idea. They should make/ have some cash only items.
or change the current system like directly cash to gold. no gems….. tho it will impact the game in a bad way? im not sure im stupid.

for example, say an eternity costs 5k on tp, but I only have 5 gold. However you can see the $$$ price next to the in game gold price. just like diablo 3 tp/auction house system.

gold—>gem conversion serves as gold sink and its one major reason why gw2 has such low infation rate

Thanks but no thanks.

It’s already in game. All gems are already only bought with real money.

They made be resold to players for gold but they were originally bought with real money.

This isn’t to create P2W items. At this point in time, most players are at end game, and the only thing they want is cosmetics.

Now as for the Gold -> Gem exchange that exists in game, I support it, as it is an effective Gold Sink, plus it allows players to get access to Gem Store items without spending real money. But as I mentioned, Anet increased loot and rewards exponentially in this game, which is affecting real money purchases. In the last quarter investor report, GW2 is 2nd to last in revenue in the NCSoft family, only beating WildStar. And this is with GW2 China in the mix.

The idea of a “cash only” shop would give more reasons for players to make continued monetary transactions, and thus supports the live blood of this game.

Edit – and all purchases would be Account Bound.

I thought Chinese GW2 revenue was counted as royalties, or some such. Not as GW2 revenue.

I think, if ArenaNet wants more cash-only items available, they will pursue some of the licensed-items suggestions from that former thread.

Let me give you a reason why Anet won’t do that:

1600 gems = $20

One pair of wings costs 700 gems.

700 gems = $8.75

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t pay $8.75 for one pair of silly wings. Having gems in the place of actual money eliminates the feeling that, “Oh I’m spending a crapton of money just for this one little thing”. Spending 700 gems instead of $8.75 suddenly feels like I’m being less ripped-off. It’s a psychological phenomenon that quite a few businesses have figured out, by the looks of things. A lot of people won’t take the time out of their day to do some simple math and find out that they’re actually spending a ton of money on single items. All things considered, the items in the gemstore still aren’t nearly as expensive as the items in the WoW-shop.

Yes, the rewards in the game are very good at this point in time. However, it takes a lot of time to accrue enough gold to buy something simple on the gemstore. It generally takes me 4-10 AB meta-events before I am able to buy something simple from the gemstore. True, others have a lot more time than I do, but a lot of people don’t and so they decide to simply buy gems.

Sorry you don’t feel like a special snowflake OP, your suggestion is the very opposite reason why gw2 is exclusively amazing compared to other mmos (also why is it still favored even by 4chan standards). my suggestion to OP is to head on over to BDO and see if that can work out for them, oh wait..

The OP is factually incorrect: the amount of money that ANet gets from the gem shop is one area in which the game exceeds the expectations of its shareholders.

Accordingly, I don’t see how this suggestion would benefit the game or its community.

I remember a few years ago they would give exclusive items to people that bought gems, but they stopped doing it.

I’m not sure if converting gold to gems was also counted as purchasing.

example

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Green_Quaggan_Backpack_Set

I think making a “Cash only” section could potentially be the final nail in the GW 2 coffin. The game is still recovering from the release of HoT and the 9 month content drought after, Ls 3 is currently on the right path with doing that but once people see “Cash only” things on sale it puts them off and some will say that it could be the beginning of P2W which may not be true but it will still turn people off to the game.

OP forgot one thing: the conversion gold > gems is made by ArenaNet. They establish the price of gold and price of gems as they wish, with a formula they created based on amount of gems and gold obtained in game. For example, they increase and decrease the price of gems (with gold) based on how well gems are sold for real money.

If, for one day, nobody would buy gems with money, price of gems with gold would go sky high.

If, on a simple Tuesday patch, new shiny items come in Gem Store, many people will buy gems with gold (to obtain these items) while price of gems (with gold) will go very high. To confirm this, please have a look on Gem Store this Tuesday (2016.10.25) when outfits Lunatic Guard and Raiment of the Lich will most likely return to Gem Store.

Acrisor.8097:

OP forgot one thing: the conversion gold > gems is made by ArenaNet. They establish the price of gold and price of gems as they wish, with a formula they created based on amount of gems and gold obtained in game. For example, they increase and decrease the price of gems (with gold) based on how well gems are sold for real money.

If, for one day, nobody would buy gems with money, price of gems with gold would go sky high.

If, on a simple Tuesday patch, new shiny items come in Gem Store, many people will buy gems with gold (to obtain these items) while price of gems (with gold) will go very high. To confirm this, please have a look on Gem Store this Tuesday (2016.10.25) when outfits Lunatic Guard and Raiment of the Lich will most likely return to Gem Store.

ArenaNet doesn’t do that, the playerbase does through exchange. If, for example, ArenaNet sold 100,00 Gems and no player exchanged any of those Gems for Gold, the exchange rate for Gold to Gems would not change one iota.

Acrisor.8097:

OP forgot one thing: the conversion gold > gems is made by ArenaNet. They establish the price of gold and price of gems as they wish, with a formula they created based on amount of gems and gold obtained in game. For example, they increase and decrease the price of gems (with gold) based on how well gems are sold for real money.

If, for one day, nobody would buy gems with money, price of gems with gold would go sky high.

If, on a simple Tuesday patch, new shiny items come in Gem Store, many people will buy gems with gold (to obtain these items) while price of gems (with gold) will go very high. To confirm this, please have a look on Gem Store this Tuesday (2016.10.25) when outfits Lunatic Guard and Raiment of the Lich will most likely return to Gem Store.

ANet only created an automated way to set the exchange rate based on gold→gem and gem→gold usage. If more players buy gems with gold than sell gems for gold, the rate will increase, more selling gems for gold than buying with gold, the rate will decrease. This is why the exchange rate spikes quickly when something very popular is added/returns/put on sale. Players rush to convert their gold to gems creating an imbalance which suddenly increases the exchange rate.

Today every gem bought with gold was first bought with cash and converted to gold, don’t forget that.

Behellagh.1468:

Acrisor.8097:

OP forgot one thing: the conversion gold > gems is made by ArenaNet. They establish the price of gold and price of gems as they wish, with a formula they created based on amount of gems and gold obtained in game. For example, they increase and decrease the price of gems (with gold) based on how well gems are sold for real money.

If, for one day, nobody would buy gems with money, price of gems with gold would go sky high.

If, on a simple Tuesday patch, new shiny items come in Gem Store, many people will buy gems with gold (to obtain these items) while price of gems (with gold) will go very high. To confirm this, please have a look on Gem Store this Tuesday (2016.10.25) when outfits Lunatic Guard and Raiment of the Lich will most likely return to Gem Store.

ANet only created an automated way to set the exchange rate based on gold->gem and gem->gold usage. If more players buy gems with gold than sell gems for gold, the rate will increase, more selling gems for gold than buying with gold, the rate will decrease. This is why the exchange rate spikes quickly when something very popular is added/returns/put on sale. Players rush to convert their gold to gems creating an imbalance which suddenly increases the exchange rate.

Today every gem bought with gold was first bought with cash and converted to gold, don’t forget that.

Exactly my point. Thank you.

It has nothing to do with ‘how well Gems are sold for real money’, but only on how many of those Gems are exchanged for Gold. The exchange rate is determined by the players, not ArenaNet.

Again, if no one exchanged the purchased Gems, there will be no effect on the exchange rate.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

We need a microtransaction store with items that can only be purchased with real money. By hearing this, you might be saying “Penguin, we already have a Gem Store.” Yes, we have a microtransaction store, and yes it allows players to convert in-game Gold into Gems so they can make purchases. But here are two reasons why there’s a better shop opportunity:

Reason #1 – Encourage more real money transactions.

Here’s the current problem as I see it. Anet has increased the loot and rewards from the game so much, that it makes more sense to do Gold -> Gem conversions than to purchase Gems. Personally, I haven’t made any Gem purchases in over a year. With the idea of “cash only” items, it can encourage more spending from players who don’t mind making creditcard purchases.

Reason #2 – Brings more exclusivity to the game

With “cash only” items, Anet can sell items that cannot be obtain anywhere else. There’s already places were exclusives exist. PvE Raiders have Legendary armor. PvP has mini llamas. WvW has, um, server pride when you defeat two other servers. Giving a chance to purchase exclusive items, it rewards those players who spend real money and support the continued development this game.

This has already been explained to you in another thread, but the conversion doesn’t just create gems out of thin air, its dependent upon another player buying the gems with real money and putting them up on the TP to sell for Gold. Whether you pay money or gold for the gems, someone has given money to Anet for them. Why can you not understand that basic concept?

we need more exclusive items/skins that come from gameplay/group gameplay rather than another “im rich irl y’know” title..

The OP appears to think his idea would encourage more people to spend real money on gems. What he appears to discount is the loss of sales from people angered by a price wall for gemstore items that wasn’t in the game before that. A business needs more than money. Unless they are a monopoly they also need the good opinion of their customers and ANet isn’t a monopoly, there are many other games out there. A business that appears too greedy and angers its customers by setting up new barriers to purchases can lose more in sales than they gain.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Reason #1 – Encourage more real money transactions.

You have this one backwards. You make less money by making a transaction cash-only than from putting it on the gem store. You make more money off anyone who buys the item with gold→gems than you do off of someone who buys it directly with cash.

Thus such an item has an immediate effect of discouraging real money transactions.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Now as for the Gold -> Gem exchange that exists in game, I support it, as it is an effective Gold Sink, plus it allows players to get access to Gem Store items without spending real money. But as I mentioned, Anet increased loot and rewards exponentially in this game, which is affecting real money purchases. In the last quarter investor report, GW2 is 2nd to last in revenue in the NCSoft family, only beating WildStar. And this is with GW2 China in the mix.

And yet the exchange rate for gold-to-gems has fallen off the high which occurred during the anniversary sales. It’s been fairly stable recently, which suggests that players continue to buy gems to convert to gold at about the same rate.

The last quarterly report did indeed show less spending. It was for a time period in which player interest dwindled due to the relatively poor performance of HoT followed by a lengthy content drought. We have no idea yet how Q3 went, but in addition to said sales, LS updates have released. I’d be shocked if revenue isn’t back to the just-before HoT levels, or higher.

Citation needed on GW2 China in the mix. That income was always reported under royalties, which were not broken down by game.

Your proposal would require ANet to make more stuff for sale. If they did so, it could be more profitable to have such items be regular gem purchases. After all, if people convert gold to gems, someone is buying the gems.

Actually there’s just one question left:

Why do you think that this is even needed? The Gem Store works as it’s supposed to do. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here, 4 years after release, having an expansion and Anet even working on the next one.

As Indigo said, the revenue of the last quarter had its reasons, but it always worked. Why should they change anything?

Cash-Only Shop would kill the Gem Store. Why develop for the Gem Store when you can just put stuff in a cash-only shop and force people to use actual money all the time?

Once a game goes the Cash-Only Shop route they don’t go back.

Acrisor.8097:

Behellagh.1468:

Acrisor.8097:

OP forgot one thing: the conversion gold > gems is made by ArenaNet. They establish the price of gold and price of gems as they wish, with a formula they created based on amount of gems and gold obtained in game. For example, they increase and decrease the price of gems (with gold) based on how well gems are sold for real money.

If, for one day, nobody would buy gems with money, price of gems with gold would go sky high.

If, on a simple Tuesday patch, new shiny items come in Gem Store, many people will buy gems with gold (to obtain these items) while price of gems (with gold) will go very high. To confirm this, please have a look on Gem Store this Tuesday (2016.10.25) when outfits Lunatic Guard and Raiment of the Lich will most likely return to Gem Store.

ANet only created an automated way to set the exchange rate based on gold->gem and gem->gold usage. If more players buy gems with gold than sell gems for gold, the rate will increase, more selling gems for gold than buying with gold, the rate will decrease. This is why the exchange rate spikes quickly when something very popular is added/returns/put on sale. Players rush to convert their gold to gems creating an imbalance which suddenly increases the exchange rate.

Today every gem bought with gold was first bought with cash and converted to gold, don’t forget that.

Exactly my point. Thank you.

No, ANet does NOT set the price. You keep saying ANet sets the price and that’s not true.

Galtrix.7369:

Let me give you a reason why Anet won’t do that:

1600 gems = $20

One pair of wings costs 700 gems.

700 gems = $8.75

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t pay $8.75 for one pair of silly wings. Having gems in the place of actual money eliminates the feeling that, “Oh I’m spending a crapton of money just for this one little thing”. Spending 700 gems instead of $8.75 suddenly feels like I’m being less ripped-off. It’s a psychological phenomenon that quite a few businesses have figured out, by the looks of things. A lot of people won’t take the time out of their day to do some simple math and find out that they’re actually spending a ton of money on single items. All things considered, the items in the gemstore still aren’t nearly as expensive as the items in the WoW-shop.

Yes, the rewards in the game are very good at this point in time. However, it takes a lot of time to accrue enough gold to buy something simple on the gemstore. It generally takes me 4-10 AB meta-events before I am able to buy something simple from the gemstore. True, others have a lot more time than I do, but a lot of people don’t and so they decide to simply buy gems.

I think it would be something like a tier system.

You would have green Emeralds, then you would have regular Blue gems.

Emeralds can buy anything in the gem store, but can only be obtained by buying them with cash.

Gems will be the same as usual.

Some items in the gem store will only take Emeralds. Stuff like foot step effects, and auras.

Just saying, will never happen because plenty of people would raise pitch forks.

Increasing loot drops in the game wont increase the amount of gold in the game by much at all, as the TP relies on supply / demand economics to set the prices.
If more players are selling items on the TP to get gold, then the item prices will fall.
The only exceptions are rewards where you get gold directly such as the dailies, or when you sell your items to vendors who always give you the same price which isnt very much.
Id actually prefer that Anet fixed this so that vendors also apply supply demand economics to what they will buy, so if you try and sell them a lot of junk items, then you get zippo for them.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

We need a microtransaction store with items that can only be purchased with real money.

Why do you think we need it? Do you have access to ArenaNet’s or NCSoft’s accounts or something? We as players certainly don’t need it at all. Only the company would need something like this, and I don’t think you actually know if they need it or not.

I’m sure your suggestion is out of the question anyway, as far as ANet are concerned. Lets leave the financial decisions to, well you know, the actual staff?

Scenario 1) OP = anet staff in disguise feeling the waters on figuring out more ways to squeeze money from us…
Scenario 2) how much they payin you to post things like this?

I fully support this.

I want to spend a couple hundred bucks just for in game gold…. Which isn’t going to happen until Gems to Gold conversion rate isn’t a rip off, 1500 gems for 250 gold is disgusting.

1000 gems for 250 gold is doable. With the price of ingame items constantly going up, doesn’t make sense to pay the same price for less gold. AFAIK, in the real world when this happens, people get a pay rise to help with the cost of living.

sephiroth.4217:

I fully support this.

I want to spend a couple hundred bucks just for in game gold…. Which isn’t going to happen until Gems to Gold conversion rate isn’t a rip off, 1500 gems for 250 gold is disgusting.

1000 gems for 250 gold is doable. With the price of ingame items constantly going up, doesn’t make sense to pay the same price for less gold. AFAIK, in the real world when this happens, people get a pay rise to help with the cost of living.

How does the OP’s suggestion of only real money for some gemstore items make the Gems -> gold ratio better?

sephiroth.4217:

I fully support this.

I want to spend a couple hundred bucks just for in game gold…. Which isn’t going to happen until Gems to Gold conversion rate isn’t a rip off, 1500 gems for 250 gold is disgusting.

1000 gems for 250 gold is doable. With the price of ingame items constantly going up, doesn’t make sense to pay the same price for less gold. AFAIK, in the real world when this happens, people get a pay rise to help with the cost of living.

You support the OP’s proposal?

You do realize that ANet would have to devote some of its store item staff to cash-only production? Why, that would mean fewer items for gems. Which would in turn mean less gold going into the exchange. That would lower the amount of gold you get for gems, not increase it.

Why do you care about how they make money. If you don’t want to gold> gems, then don’t. Go rl money > gems and stop spouting out nonsense topics like these.

I don’t agree with exclusivity based on how much money you can spend on the game. Exclusivity in a game should be based on playing the game.

If Anet needs more money, I’m sure they will figure out ways to get it.

Exclusivity breeds contempt.

The gem shop is working as intended, as-is.

IndigoSundown.5419:

sephiroth.4217:

I fully support this.

I want to spend a couple hundred bucks just for in game gold…. Which isn’t going to happen until Gems to Gold conversion rate isn’t a rip off, 1500 gems for 250 gold is disgusting.

1000 gems for 250 gold is doable. With the price of ingame items constantly going up, doesn’t make sense to pay the same price for less gold. AFAIK, in the real world when this happens, people get a pay rise to help with the cost of living.

You support the OP’s proposal?

You do realize that ANet would have to devote some of its store item staff to cash-only production? Why, that would mean fewer items for gems. Which would in turn mean less gold going into the exchange. That would lower the amount of gold you get for gems, not increase it.

No it wouldn’t.

He proposes a cash shop, something for people like me who have jobs and family who don’t want to grind or be at the mercy of others via gem/gold exchange.

I want a fixed price on gold, not one controlled by the richest game players. I want to spend hundreds of dollars on this game. I want to buy a legendary for $150 and not $450.

People can still have their gold to gem conversion and gem to gold conversion, people can outright buy gems for money and I would love to outright buy gold for money. I see why RMT’s attract such a large crowd in this game.

Nothing has to be demoted either. Nothing needs to be overthinked. It’s pretty simple. Allow players with money to spend money on the game.

Also having some items that are only obtained through real money is a great idea because this is a great game and it won’t survive as long living off the players who grind for everything in the gem store. If they could sell legendaries for fixed prices, that would be fantastic too! I would also pay $50 for invisible shoes, do you get the meaning of that sentence fully? I would spend $50 for an ingame digital item that no one can see. Currently gems to gold is controlled by players which means price inflation via greed.

The general idea of opening the floor up to people like myself who work and what ever to be able to spend more money more easily should be an idea worth looking into.

EDIT :

gem→gold, gold→gem conversion is one of the reason i play GW2. plus, the existing gems in the exchange are already bought by players with real money. gems buyer and gold converter benefit mutually….

Just a flesh wound.3589:

sephiroth.4217:

I fully support this.

I want to spend a couple hundred bucks just for in game gold…. Which isn’t going to happen until Gems to Gold conversion rate isn’t a rip off, 1500 gems for 250 gold is disgusting.

1000 gems for 250 gold is doable. With the price of ingame items constantly going up, doesn’t make sense to pay the same price for less gold. AFAIK, in the real world when this happens, people get a pay rise to help with the cost of living.

How does the OP’s suggestion of only real money for some gemstore items make the Gems -> gold ratio better?

I don’t want that ratio, I support the idea because we can skip the ratio and outright buy items. I like the concept proposed, not the exclusive part but the general idea itself is great to me. put some $$$ next to items, allow items to be bought with $$$ or just outright buy gold for $$$.

I know it’s not going to happen as the purchasing of Gems allows Anet to refuse refunds when items are changed, because we bought a currency and not an item. It protects them from consumer laws afaik.

Example would be: I bought heaps of gems to convert to gold to fully build a guild before HoT release, HoT changed the whole concept of guilds, stripped my guild to nothing and have to rework for everything I paid for. The catch here is I can’t get a refund on what I paid for because I paid for Gems. Gems being a currency controlled by players and nothing more.

To the OP if you would like to just use cash to get what you want in the GEM store its all good. But most love the fact that they can get what they want by just playing the game and making gold to buy things from the Gem Store.

Anet said they wanted to make it so if you do not play a lot and would like to use real money to get things or in game gold then that is good. But if you want to play the game and earn gold to buy gems then that is good too.

My question is why would anyone want what you are talking about? Stop trying to make this your old game.

I don’t really care about exclusivity of the items, but I would support cash only shop for items/gold. I need gold and I’m sitting on bunch of gems but I’m not dumb to exchange at current rate. As a result I’m grinding for gold, I have no use of gems and I’m not going to buy gems again anytime soon as a result. If Anet cannot solve this they should allow 3rd parties instead of banning them.
Plus gold to gems transactions should be final to avoid flipping.

Btw I always interested if Anet has a license for gambling? Buying gems for $ and selling Black Lion keys is pretty much gambling regardless if it’s straight $ or slot machine tickets (gems). I think all RNG items should be eliminated from $ shop if there is no such license.

WRay.2391:

I don’t really care about exclusivity of the items, but I would support cash only shop for items/gold. I need gold and I’m sitting on bunch of gems but I’m not dumb to exchange at current rate. As a result I’m grinding for gold, I have no use of gems and I’m not going to buy gems again anytime soon as a result. If Anet cannot solve this they should allow 3rd parties instead of banning them.
Plus gold to gems transactions should be final to avoid flipping.

Btw I always interested if Anet has a license for gambling? Buying gems for $ and selling Black Lion keys is pretty much gambling regardless if it’s straight $ or slot machine tickets (gems). I think all RNG items should be eliminated from $ shop if there is no such license.

You have to have a license to gamble?

WRay.2391:

Btw I always interested if Anet has a license for gambling?

We had a similar debate years ago. Let me cut and paste for your answer:

For Federal Lottery Laws, a lottery is a promotion that has three elements:
1) Prizes
2) Winners Chosen by Chance
3) Consideration

To avoid being classified as an illegal lottery, sweepstakes must ensure that at least one of these elements is missing. Because prizes and luck are central to sweepstakes where the winners are drawn at random, legitimate promotions can never have “consideration”.

Definition of “consideration”: In sweepstakes terms, consideration is simply payment for a prize. Generally, sweepstakes that award prizes by chance are not allowed to have an element of consideration. Consideration doesn’t have to be money; it can be anything that can profit the sponsor. For example, a company cannot require that entrants purchase a product to participate in sweepstakes (or, if they do, they must provide an alternate method of entry). You’ll hear the following a lot in the US: “No purchase necessary”

So purchasing Black Lion Chest Keys from the Gem Store requires the use of “Gems”. Gems can be either purchased via real money, or traded for with in game currency (i.e. Copper, Silver, and/or Gold).

Also, a few more things. Gems and all items either purchase or won from chests have no value, and are still property of NCSoft. You’re basically paying for the use of Gems and all items. Please refer to the User Agreement, section 4. “ACCOUNT AND PAYMENTS TO NCSOFT”

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-user-agreement/

If there was a real money shop that sold gold , how would the exchange rate be determined?

mauried.5608:

If there was a real money shop that sold gold , how would the exchange rate be determined?

That’s not my idea, but seph’s. My idea is for Account Bound items only. They have no value in game. Can’t be sold on the TP and can’t be gifted. Gem Store and Gem Exchange would remain the same. The “cash only” shop would be a completely separate storefront.

Back in the days of GW1, I paid $9.99 for a single outfit. I don’t recall people complaining about it then. Though I do admit that there could be a slippery slope if Anet started selling unique gear for $20, then $50, then $100. But as long as they’re only skins, I don’t think it’ll be as horrible as some people might think. Players with disposable incomes would get exclusive items, and Anet would get increased revenue. It’s a win/win.

I can’t speak for the rest of the playerbase, but back when I was fully devoted to this game I would buy gems every time they made a patch I liked, to show my appreciation.
And I would imagine that there are still quite a bit of people that do that.
And then you of course have people who have a big income IRL and just buy gold every time they want something, I knew a guy like that once. He just bought his way to a legendary because he had more money than he could spend.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Back in the days of GW1, I paid $9.99 for a single outfit.

Typically, outfits in GW2 cost 700 gems, which is less than the $9.99 you paid in GW1.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I don’t recall people complaining about it then.

People did — a lot said they would pay $5, but not $10. Of course, plenty of folks said they would have paid $20.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Players with disposable incomes would get exclusive items, and Anet would get increased revenue. It’s a win/win.

I doubt that’s true for several reasons:

Reputation
The game has billed itself as never offering anything in the gemshop that can’t be obtained in-game. For example, the Watchwork Pick has been controversial because it offered a mining pick feature we couldn’t get in game, even though the tool itself could be bought with gems. The fallout for offering exclusive items of any sort, even if skins only, would be huge.

Damage to the gold:gem exchange.
This is bigger than you many realize. The gold:gem exchange competes with gold sellers; it’s a way of allowing people to buy in-game coin with RL money.

It has to be a two way street, with those who sell gems for coin and those who buy gems with coin. This would compete directly with that mechanic.

It’s redundant.
There already is a way to spend disposable income on the game. The problem — as stated in the OP — is more about wanting different items and a sense that people who spend extra cash ought to get something different.

The first (wanting different items) is a matter of taste and there’s no way to satisfy everyone.

The second (getting something different) is a form of exclusivity that would lead to more discontent, not less. I’m okay with the idea of ‘exclusive’, but the community is largely against it. This creates a two-tier system, with no benefit for those who aren’t able to come up with extra RL money.

I see limited benefit to a minority of players, who will become more discontent over time (if they don’t get skins to their liking) and no benefit to the vast majority of players. So it’s little benefit and high risk, not to mention undermines existing mechanics and customs.

I suggest that when a player makes a purchase from this cash-only shop they are awarded a “Please validate me!” title which can’t be changed or turned off.