Guild Wars 2

I was having a conversation with some friends the other night and came to find that my situation is actually pretty similar to theirs, so I figured I’d share.

To give you some background, I’m a veteran MMO player and have been playing games in this genre for probably close to 7 years now. Since I started playing, my situation has changed from a college bachelor to a now full time employee who is getting married within the month. Because of this, I have a lot less time to play than I used to. This is why I was so thrilled to find that GW2 has taken the approach that it has.

So, with my limited time, I’m still working on getting gear for my first character (Not focusing on any ascended items, just exotics with Berserker stats). Because of this, I have hardly touched any alts and have not yet purchased the extra character slot or bank slots (my extra characters are my bank slots right now).

You may ask why I haven’t just purchased gems, converted them to gold, and bought my gear? To that I would answer that just because I have more money than spare time now doesn’t mean I’m ready to spend it on something like gear that will get replaced as soon as the next tier comes out. Also, it just doesn’t feel right to use real world cash to get items for my character that give better stats. (I’ve had this mentality ingrained for the last 7 years, so it’s not easily changed now).

So, really, to sum up, I just wanted to give ArenaNet the heads up that while it does sound counter intuitive, the extra grind that we have to put in does actually discourage some players from opening their wallets.

I was always disapointed with Arenanet when I found out about the gem store, and it got worse the more I went into it. They originally said no player would gain any advantage from the shop, it would be purely cosmetic. Well what can you buy in the shop?

- Extra bank/inventory slots (useful when farming/crafting/collecting, the default space is not much, if I have to carry several stacks of tokens on my character with limited slots, I can hold less loot and will therefore be at a disadvantage to those with more slots)
- Boosters, making the game easier for the cost of money, it doesn’t matter that these items aren’t that popular – the fact is gems give a direct advantage of some sort to people spending money
- Gold/Cash, speaks for itself, buying gold with money straight from Arenanet, gives a direct advantage to those spending money.
- Black lion keys, which gives black lion chests, which give black lion salvage kits, which give a higher rate of ecto drops, which gives that player an advantage for buying stuff from the gem store, yet again.

And the total laugh of it is, all these things that give players an advantage, are not what people want to spend money on the gem store!! They want skins, costumes, quirky hats, funny mini pets. Which seem to be less of a priority in the gem store, compared to things that give players an advantage over the none gem buying customer.

The gem store is completely wrong in what I thought it was going to be, and only hear people talk about how there is nothing worth while on the gem store.

GW2 needs to look at the LoL store, I have spent more money on skins and have never touched IP boosts, and I am sure people only buy champions if they are desperate – they dont do it every new champion thats for sure!

Quaz.4931:

I was always disapointed with Arenanet when I found out about the gem store, and it got worse the more I went into it. They originally said no player would gain any advantage from the shop, it would be purely cosmetic. Well what can you buy in the shop?

- Extra bank/inventory slots (useful when farming/crafting/collecting, the default space is not much, if I have to carry several stacks of tokens on my character with limited slots, I can hold less loot and will therefore be at a disadvantage to those with more slots)
- Boosters, making the game easier for the cost of money, it doesn’t matter that these items aren’t that popular – the fact is gems give a direct advantage of some sort to people spending money
- Gold/Cash, speaks for itself, buying gold with money straight from Arenanet, gives a direct advantage to those spending money.
- Black lion keys, which gives black lion chests, which give black lion salvage kits, which give a higher rate of ecto drops, which gives that player an advantage for buying stuff from the gem store, yet again.

And the total laugh of it is, all these things that give players an advantage, are not what people want to spend money on the gem store!! They want skins, costumes, quirky hats, funny mini pets. Which seem to be less of a priority in the gem store, compared to things that give players an advantage over the none gem buying customer.

The gem store is completely wrong in what I thought it was going to be, and only hear people talk about how there is nothing worth while on the gem store.

GW2 needs to look at the LoL store, I have spent more money on skins and have never touched IP boosts, and I am sure people only buy champions if they are desperate – they dont do it every new champion thats for sure!

None of those things give you a direct advantage in PvP, nor are they that much of an advantage in PvE.

They need to keep the game profitable, and I’m glad they do it this way as opposed to a subscription. Most of the things you can buy are purely cosmetic, and the other things kinda make the gameplay easier, but not better.

I’ve always been a player that is like “all things in due time”… but when the dev starts to alter rates around to encourage the use of the cash shop, this doesn’t make me happy. If I wish to spend money, then I do so by my own choice not because the game keeps giving me suggestive nudges.

Bruno Sardine.2907:

I’ve always been a player that is like “all things in due time”… but when the dev starts to alter rates around to encourage the use of the cash shop, this doesn’t make me happy. If I wish to spend money, then I do so by my own choice not because the game keeps giving me suggestive nudges.

I think that has been my issue with the gem store as well. It seems they are more fond of sacrificing game design to push the gem store on people, instead of releasing stuff in the gem store that people actually want without altering the game.

They keep nerfing farming and ways for people to make money, to the point it has almost become a necessity to buy gold with real money just to keep up with the economy. Which doesn’t entice people to spend money, but instead, make them want to quit and never spend another dime.

In my opinion, they just need to put everything back how it was. Remove the farming nerfs and gold sinks that they keep enforcing to make a quick buck, and then just add items to the gem store that people actually want to purchase. They will buy stuff, you just have to give them stuff they want. It seems the huge popular choice from players is that they want more skins. So make more skins for the gem store so people will spend money. Don’t nerf farming and ways to make gold to force players to spend money. That just ends up frustrating the community and leaving a bad taste. It is actually making players not want to spend money.

The beauty of it is you don’t need the gem shop to be competitive or valid. One very useful item might be the black lion salvage kit to get ectos. But considering how expensive it is now you’re better off selling a rare and buying an ecto with it (assuming you sell the rare for the same price as a single ecto or more.)

Another argument against the gem shop are having to buy bank slots. But by the time you buy (or earn with tokens) your exotics, you’ll want nothing else to buy with your gold. If you want a to spend gold to get your legendary, well consider what’s more important, a bank slot (to fill what exactly, more armor sets that you don’t need at this point?) or an item that gives no performance advantage what so ever.

Everyone’s entitled to feel like they deserve all that a game has to offer, optional or not, but be thankful this isn’t a pay to win game.

I’ve spent over $4,000.00 on the gem store and gladly I’m no better off than my guildies who’ve spent 0 dollars in the gem store.

I look at the optimal farm spots and do a conversion of the gold-per-hour to dollars-per-hour. I hate farming and see it like work, I don’t wanna work for 6 dollars an hour, so I buy gems and play the way I want. (running fractals with friends, trolling enemies in WVW, Etc.)

The only real difference between me and most players is that I have a ton of cultural t3 armor skins, multiple toons with expensive dyes, a ton of character slots, a bunch of the cosmetic town clothes, Etc. I’m no better off than anyone else, and for that I think the Gem store works perfectly.

Extra bank/inventory slots (useful when farming/crafting/collecting, the default space is not much, if I have to carry several stacks of tokens on my character with limited slots, I can hold less loot and will therefore be at a disadvantage to those with more slots)

You don’t ned this at all. Plus you have same amount of tradeskill slots to dump your collectables into. Sure another bank slot is nice, but not needed. Heck my daughter and I made a two person guild and with no effort we got a 50 slot guild bank to use. You can make your own guild of 1 and do the same if you want.

- Boosters, making the game easier for the cost of money, it doesn’t matter that these items aren’t that popular – the fact is gems give a direct advantage of some sort to people spending money

Karma boosters are nice. That is about it. There was a reason for the Mad King event you could dump 4 of them along with tonics to get chests. They are junk and nothing more.

- Gold/Cash, speaks for itself, buying gold with money straight from Arenanet, gives a direct advantage to those spending money.
Not really. The amount of real cash you have to spend to get enough gold (ie buy full exotics) is a ton of money. Plus you can do just fine in a both pve and pvp with rares stuff while you work you way into exotics or better.

- Black lion keys, which gives black lion chests, which give black lion salvage kits, which give a higher rate of ecto drops, which gives that player an advantage for buying stuff from the gem store, yet again.

Again, you get crap from the chests. More boosters, mystery tonics and stuff. Sure there is a really really small chance to get something better, but nobody is playing that lottery.

Sorry but the game is 100% playable without buying gems. It is not like they close off portions of the game or stuff if you don’t buy gems.

Yea I have yet to see how buying gems and converting them to gold give anyone an advantage.

I outfitted both of my 80s in full exotics through TP without having to buy gems. Since then I’ve re-outfitted them in dungeon/cultural skins. Again, no gems.

Now, if I were to buy a whole bunch of gems and convert them to gold, what benefit would I have?

I could get the Commander title and symbol? Big deal. That creates more headaches than anything. You can buy the T3 cultural set? Big deal, they aren’t even exotic stats.

What else could you do, oh you could buy precursors and mats for making Legendary gear, which has NO stat increase over exotics currently. So no advantage there.

Really, other than being able to purchase extra fluff that won’t actually give an advantage, what do you see as the main pro to purchasing gems to convert to gold, other than speeding up the process to get something that can be obtained by other means?

Think people are just complaining at this point.

Dont worry bro, I’ve already spent about $700 in the gem shop. I got you covered....

Now if only I could buy dungeon tokens.

Real sick of people blaming gem shop for their inadequacies as players.

I have bought Gems, but I have not spent them yet, nothing on the store is needed, and even then it will only be bank/bag space and character slots that I will buy when needed, but none of that gives an advantage.

I hope I’m not the only one but, I really think the gem shop is a good thing. It doesn’t give any advantage for PvPers and that’s the main point for QQers.

Other than that, I’m for paying for little advantages such as bigger bags, boosters, etc. The game is really exciting even without them, and such tiny advantages can be bought when you really need to rush your character. So that’s a plus, if you want to pay, pay if not then simply play.

I really think GW2 business model is perfect the way it is right now.

I’ve spent about $200 in that thing so far. Maybe more.

kylemesa.7604:

I’ve spent over $4,000.00 on the gem store and gladly I’m no better off than my guildies who’ve spent 0 dollars in the gem store.

I look at the optimal farm spots and do a conversion of the gold-per-hour to dollars-per-hour. I hate farming and see it like work, I don’t wanna work for 6 dollars an hour, so I buy gems and play the way I want. (running fractals with friends, trolling enemies in WVW, Etc.)

The only real difference between me and most players is that I have a ton of cultural t3 armor skins, multiple toons with expensive dyes, a ton of character slots, a bunch of the cosmetic town clothes, Etc. I’m no better off than anyone else, and for that I think the Gem store works perfectly.

I think your analogy of it being work in game is off a bit. You take the money you earn at work and spend it in game. Your time at work=work in game as you spend a bit of what you make at work on the game. I see your point though. I don’t see any of what is in the cash shop as giving players an advantage. Leveling faster is a moot point as you can craft level in this game. Someone can buy XP boosters and level with them and they still won’t level as fast as I will with crafting. If I look at any item as being advantageous it is the mystic forge stone.

Quaz.4931:

And the total laugh of it is, all these things that give players an advantage, are not what people want to spend money on the gem store!! They want skins, costumes, quirky hats, funny mini pets. Which seem to be less of a priority in the gem store, compared to things that give players an advantage over the none gem buying customer.

The gem store is completely wrong in what I thought it was going to be, and only hear people talk about how there is nothing worth while on the gem store.

GW2 needs to look at the LoL store, I have spent more money on skins and have never touched IP boosts, and I am sure people only buy champions if they are desperate – they dont do it every new champion thats for sure!

This is why I buy things in a cash store. The store needs more cosmetic stuff, like skins, and random trinkets.

Not chests, I don’t like gambling, and won’t buy any keys just to have a chance at some RNG loot. Heck I don’t even gamble IRL. We need skins in the store, not in chests.

TL;DR: I want my character to look like a giant marshmallow fighting Tequatl.

I do find it unfortunate that they have nerferd rewards/loot to the point that there is very little return for farming. (except fracs)
It seems they chose to attack a players sense of gratification of loot and sense of accomplishment in order to promote gem buying. (to keep up)
Had they focused on giving people what they want in the store the measures may have not been necessary and could have saved some serious grief. But as it stands now that is what they want grief and I dont understand why.
There have been many well thought out threads developing a productive gem store but that isnt the route they chose.

I really don’t find myself wanting for gold. I just play the game and get my material needs met.

I see gem shop for the fun stuff. That Greatsaw Greatsword was really cool. Not my style, but very impressive. I decided instead to use cultural weapon skins, not as flashy but it works and is “free.”

There is the gem store stuff that’s more quality of life – bags bank and character slots. I grabbed those early on.

I know from other games that I actually enjoy gearing up my characters, and would rather wear something that dropped or I earned in-game than to pick up something from a gem-shop or trading post. Fortunately, GW2 makes it easy to get gear, altho hard to get the fancy stuff.

Shifty.5187:

Quaz.4931:

I was always disapointed with Arenanet when I found out about the gem store, and it got worse the more I went into it. They originally said no player would gain any advantage from the shop, it would be purely cosmetic. Well what can you buy in the shop?

- Extra bank/inventory slots (useful when farming/crafting/collecting, the default space is not much, if I have to carry several stacks of tokens on my character with limited slots, I can hold less loot and will therefore be at a disadvantage to those with more slots)
- Boosters, making the game easier for the cost of money, it doesn’t matter that these items aren’t that popular – the fact is gems give a direct advantage of some sort to people spending money
- Gold/Cash, speaks for itself, buying gold with money straight from Arenanet, gives a direct advantage to those spending money.
- Black lion keys, which gives black lion chests, which give black lion salvage kits, which give a higher rate of ecto drops, which gives that player an advantage for buying stuff from the gem store, yet again.

And the total laugh of it is, all these things that give players an advantage, are not what people want to spend money on the gem store!! They want skins, costumes, quirky hats, funny mini pets. Which seem to be less of a priority in the gem store, compared to things that give players an advantage over the none gem buying customer.

The gem store is completely wrong in what I thought it was going to be, and only hear people talk about how there is nothing worth while on the gem store.

GW2 needs to look at the LoL store, I have spent more money on skins and have never touched IP boosts, and I am sure people only buy champions if they are desperate – they dont do it every new champion thats for sure!

None of those things give you a direct advantage in PvP, nor are they that much of an advantage in PvE.

They need to keep the game profitable, and I’m glad they do it this way as opposed to a subscription. Most of the things you can buy are purely cosmetic, and the other things kinda make the gameplay easier, but not better.

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

Yeah, once it became clear that vertical progression was here to stay I stopped purchasing gems. It really makes no sense to chase the next step on a treadmill with RL currency. At least the WoW treadmill is a free ride. I was wondering whether there were others like me out there.

Lionaeron.5724:

Shifty.5187:

None of those things give you a direct advantage in PvP, nor are they that much of an advantage in PvE.

They need to keep the game profitable, and I’m glad they do it this way as opposed to a subscription. Most of the things you can buy are purely cosmetic, and the other things kinda make the gameplay easier, but not better.

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

THANK YOU, somebody bloody gets it. My post was explaining that you do get SOME advantage with real life money – which is not what the trading post was meant to give.

If anyone thinks getting free gold (in terms of time spent in game) isn’t an advantage, they need to rethink their thought train (or give me their gold, cus hey – it gives no advantage!)
And if you think having 20% less ectos isn’t an disadvantage then.. well I just don’t even.. The black lion kit is one of the best items in game, even if it is the only thing the chests drop that is worthwhile.

My point was that the gem store DOES give SOME advantage for money, and you cannot argue that. You can argue HOW MUCH of an advantage it gives, but it does give SOME advantage to players with money to spend and those without.

And my summary point, that the first few replyers seem to have ignored, explained that people don’t want to buy an advantage from the store, they want to buy cosmetic things that they can show off and collect.

I don’t and will never ever going to spend Real Money on Virtual In-game items. Not worth it. Items doesn’t really belongs to you. I rather spent the money on food, dine with friends, etc. Not Worth buying virtual items.

Quaz.4931:

I was always disapointed with Arenanet when I found out about the gem store, <snip>

You don’t have to spend real money on gems to get the gem store items. I have bought 2 extra character slots and expanded my bank 3 times and have not spent a single cent of real money on gems.

Also, an ingame advantage is something that makes a player more competitive than another, not that they can have an extra character or more bank space. Those things do not make a player better or more able to defeat an enemy NPC or player, therefore they are not an advantage in the context of micro-transaction cash shops effect on gameplay.

Lionaeron.5724:

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

You don’t need to use the gem store to get boosters. You get them from chests. Keys can drop anywhere and you often get keys from fully exploring maps and from other chests. I have stacks of boosters in my vault and have never purchased gems with real money.

I’ve yet to find anything in the gem shop that gives any advantage. Other than being able to buy ingame gold with real life money this has always been available in every MMO I’ve played just not in a legitimate way which game doesn’t have gold sellers? And why are they there because people buy gold from them. I’d much rather this was in Anets hands than the bots, farmers and account hackers.

The gem store is a 2 way street you can buy gems with real money and convert to ingame gold or you can use ingame gold to convet to gems so depending on your style you never have to use your credit card ever if you chose not to.

And actually just to be a bit controversial here I’m leaning towards the play to win model anyway something I’ve always been set against.

If person A says the game should reward me for playing 24/7 with better gear because I invest all my time in it….

Why shouldn’t person B say well I have to work for a large portion of my day so I can’t invest so much time but I do have plenty of money….

Not such a big gap between the two after all.

Bluestone.7106:

Lionaeron.5724:

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

You don’t need to use the gem store to get boosters. You get them from chests. Keys can drop anywhere and you often get keys from fully exploring maps and from other chests. I have stacks of boosters in my vault and have never purchased gems with real money.

At a fixed drop rate, a very LOW fixed drop rate… then the chests have another drop rate… and you have to continually make alts to grind those completion chests which sounds EXCITING… <_< terrible terrible terrible response that counters nothing.

Bluestone.7106:

Quaz.4931:

I was always disapointed with Arenanet when I found out about the gem store, <snip>

You don’t have to spend real money on gems to get the gem store items. I have bought 2 extra character slots and expanded my bank 3 times and have not spent a single cent of real money on gems.

Also, an ingame advantage is something that makes a player more competitive than another, not that they can have an extra character or more bank space. Those things do not make a player better or more able to defeat an enemy NPC or player, therefore they are not an advantage in the context of micro-transaction cash shops effect on gameplay.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rejuvenation_Booster
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Speed_Booster
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Strength_Booster

Orly?

Raine.1394:

Yeah, once it became clear that vertical progression was here to stay I stopped purchasing gems. It really makes no sense to chase the next step on a treadmill with RL currency. At least the WoW treadmill is a free ride. I was wondering whether there were others like me out there.

I’m way out of the loop. I thought WoW was monthly fee.

I don’t see in principle why/how RL vs in-game currency is a distinction that matters for gear upgrades.

Lionaeron.5724:

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

Dude, don’t be mad. I ‘conveniently’ left it out because I hardly play WvW and thus did not consider it. But on reflection, even the boosters there hardly matter, it’s one big zergfest anyway. Nonetheless, I think they should make the boosters work only in PvE (not WvW). And conveniently then, your whole point about the Gem Store is moot, which it already largely is.

Lionaeron.5724:

Shifty.5187:

Quaz.4931:

I was always disapointed with Arenanet when I found out about the gem store, and it got worse the more I went into it. They originally said no player would gain any advantage from the shop, it would be purely cosmetic. Well what can you buy in the shop?

- Extra bank/inventory slots (useful when farming/crafting/collecting, the default space is not much, if I have to carry several stacks of tokens on my character with limited slots, I can hold less loot and will therefore be at a disadvantage to those with more slots)
- Boosters, making the game easier for the cost of money, it doesn’t matter that these items aren’t that popular – the fact is gems give a direct advantage of some sort to people spending money
- Gold/Cash, speaks for itself, buying gold with money straight from Arenanet, gives a direct advantage to those spending money.
- Black lion keys, which gives black lion chests, which give black lion salvage kits, which give a higher rate of ecto drops, which gives that player an advantage for buying stuff from the gem store, yet again.

And the total laugh of it is, all these things that give players an advantage, are not what people want to spend money on the gem store!! They want skins, costumes, quirky hats, funny mini pets. Which seem to be less of a priority in the gem store, compared to things that give players an advantage over the none gem buying customer.

The gem store is completely wrong in what I thought it was going to be, and only hear people talk about how there is nothing worth while on the gem store.

GW2 needs to look at the LoL store, I have spent more money on skins and have never touched IP boosts, and I am sure people only buy champions if they are desperate – they dont do it every new champion thats for sure!

None of those things give you a direct advantage in PvP, nor are they that much of an advantage in PvE.

They need to keep the game profitable, and I’m glad they do it this way as opposed to a subscription. Most of the things you can buy are purely cosmetic, and the other things kinda make the gameplay easier, but not better.

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

They said from the start that if you want a fair playing field, they have that in spvp.

WvW is supposed to have buy to win aspects to it, and is not intended to be balanced. If someone comes with lots of Paypal gold, they can bolster their team. If you have a server ventrilo. On the other hand, boosters’ effects are pretty small.

Note that absolutely anything in the gem store can be purchased with Paypal or with gold. So if you want those boosters, you can have them without spending real $$.

Shifty.5187:

Lionaeron.5724:

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

Dude, don’t be mad. I ‘conveniently’ left it out because I hardly play WvW and thus did not consider it. But on reflection, even the boosters there hardly matter, it’s one big zergfest anyway. Nonetheless, I think they should make the boosters work only in PvE (not WvW). And conveniently then, your whole point about the Gem Store is moot, which it already largely is.

People that buy boosters with RL money can run dungeons quicker

Doesnt matter that a lot of people don’t, the fact is that it is possible.

Honestly how are people even arguing the gem store doesnt give any advantage to those spend real money? Like I said before, you can argue how much of an advantage it gives, but it does give an advantage.

My reasons for not buying anything in the gem shop (anymore) is ANet nerfing every single farm to try and force me into it to buy gems to trade for gold. That is such bull and oh so low… blatantly obvious they’ve been doing this since the beginning.

I could directly quote john peters “While we need a safety net to stop unanticipated economy-breaking exploits and botting, we have no desire to stop farming. Farmers are a part every online economy and when they are doing normal game activity they do not cause any harm. If a player finds a normal game activity fun and would like to keep doing it, that’s fine with us.”

This just goes to show how ANet throws lies around all the time it’s in every one of their PR bullcrap posts.

There is no alternative to making money other than dungeon grinding or playing the TP which imo isn’t even playing the game. They have increased the cooldown on so many events to prevent farms it’s ridiculous not to mention DR.

Further making their world dead and forcing us all into dungeon grinding and sitting in LA.

Gold used to be so easy to make now it’s insanely slow. I feel like a new set of T3 is like over a year off now. Drops seem reduced as well. This is exactly their plan to get you into the store to make this a much easier and faster process.

Quaz.4931:

Shifty.5187:

Lionaeron.5724:

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

Dude, don’t be mad. I ‘conveniently’ left it out because I hardly play WvW and thus did not consider it. But on reflection, even the boosters there hardly matter, it’s one big zergfest anyway. Nonetheless, I think they should make the boosters work only in PvE (not WvW). And conveniently then, your whole point about the Gem Store is moot, which it already largely is.

People that buy boosters with RL money can run dungeons quicker

Doesnt matter that a lot of people don’t, the fact is that it is possible.

Honestly how are people even arguing the gem store doesnt give any advantage to those spend real money? Like I said before, you can argue how much of an advantage it gives, but it does give an advantage.

It doesn’t give an advantage because you could buy that same item with gems you got from pvp or bought with gold instead of real money.

Raine.1394:

Yeah, once it became clear that vertical progression was here to stay I stopped purchasing gems. It really makes no sense to chase the next step on a treadmill with RL currency. At least the WoW treadmill is a free ride. I was wondering whether there were others like me out there.

Buy the pet from Blizzard’s cash shop, sell it in game for gold and buy raid gear.

For those that don’t raid and want raid gear, buying it for RL currency has also been an option, dating back to vanilla, where you could buy gold from a farmer, then pay to get carried. The only thing that has changed is Blizzard providing an option to buy gold.

I don’t think some people are getting it, yes the cash shop/rl money to gold is optional but it seems that Anet is kind of trying to push people to use the cash shop with DR and farming nerfs. They seem more concerned with nerfing ways to make money than fixing bugs so far.

For people who started playing the game from day one, getting exotic gear was easy, but for someone who buys the game today and starts playing, it’s not going to be as easy because of the nerfs and higher costs for mats.

Just because ou can get gem shop items with gold, does not mean getting with money doesn’t give you an advantage!

Say it takes you 1 hour to get 1g, and that 1g is spend on gems to buy some boosters.
A RL money spend would spend 0 hours to buy that booster, and thus have gained a hour advantage over a non-payng player.

Being able to buy gems with gold diminishes the advantage slightly, but the advantage is still there! You can buy gameplay items with money, it’s that simple!

It’s not pay to win, that is not what I am arguing, but you can get buffs and other things by spending money rather than playing. When it should have been purely cosmetic and vanity items (imo)

Hellkaiser.6025:

Bluestone.7106:

Lionaeron.5724:

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

You don’t need to use the gem store to get boosters. You get them from chests. Keys can drop anywhere and you often get keys from fully exploring maps and from other chests. I have stacks of boosters in my vault and have never purchased gems with real money.

At a fixed drop rate, a very LOW fixed drop rate… then the chests have another drop rate… and you have to continually make alts to grind those completion chests which sounds EXCITING… <_< terrible terrible terrible response that counters nothing.

Bluestone.7106:

Quaz.4931:

I was always disapointed with Arenanet when I found out about the gem store, <snip>

You don’t have to spend real money on gems to get the gem store items. I have bought 2 extra character slots and expanded my bank 3 times and have not spent a single cent of real money on gems.

Also, an ingame advantage is something that makes a player more competitive than another, not that they can have an extra character or more bank space. Those things do not make a player better or more able to defeat an enemy NPC or player, therefore they are not an advantage in the context of micro-transaction cash shops effect on gameplay.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rejuvenation_Booster
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Speed_Booster
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Strength_Booster

Orly?

Those are in Black Lion Chests, not the Gem Store. So sorry, but point invalid. You still can’t buy anything in the Gem Store that gives you an advantage.

You can make ten-ish gold in a couple hours of Orr farming without touching any cash shop anything, so I’m not sure why folks are complaining about low rates. Ten gold is enough to buy several pieces of exotic gear off the AH, or a full set of rares.

I guess taking two or three days to be completely kitted out in full exotics is too hard.

Quaz.4931:

Lionaeron.5724:

Shifty.5187:

None of those things give you a direct advantage in PvP, nor are they that much of an advantage in PvE.

They need to keep the game profitable, and I’m glad they do it this way as opposed to a subscription. Most of the things you can buy are purely cosmetic, and the other things kinda make the gameplay easier, but not better.

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

THANK YOU, somebody bloody gets it. My post was explaining that you do get SOME advantage with real life money – which is not what the trading post was meant to give.

If anyone thinks getting free gold (in terms of time spent in game) isn’t an advantage, they need to rethink their thought train (or give me their gold, cus hey – it gives no advantage!)
And if you think having 20% less ectos isn’t an disadvantage then.. well I just don’t even.. The black lion kit is one of the best items in game, even if it is the only thing the chests drop that is worthwhile.

My point was that the gem store DOES give SOME advantage for money, and you cannot argue that. You can argue HOW MUCH of an advantage it gives, but it does give SOME advantage to players with money to spend and those without.

And my summary point, that the first few replyers seem to have ignored, explained that people don’t want to buy an advantage from the store, they want to buy cosmetic things that they can show off and collect.

I can get the same boosters from Daily Chests, and Black Lion Chests (keys may be dropped from mobs, happened to me quite a few times).

I never bought anything from the Gem Store, and i have 10+ boosters per type sitting in my bank (and inventory) doing nothing.

So, your point is moot. The Gem store doesnt’ give unfair advantage, it only speeds up the process, but i can get all i want from the Gem Store or other activities in the game without spending a buck.

However, your point stands in that me and the majority of people would like new and better looking cosmetic items in the shop. Hopefully the Winter Event will give something nice …

I noticed you conveniently left out WvW, those boosters give clear advantage over others – speed/regen boost anyone? An advantage is an advantage, doesn’t matter how you try and spin your words, you just make yourself look like a goober.

Umm they don’t work in WvW there “goober”.. Might want to know that before you get all snarky with someone else..

7 years is considered veteran? Man now I feel ancient with more then twice that amount of time of experience of mmo! :P

Anyway, personally I never been a fan on ingame stores since they often end up as pure pay to win, giving waaay to much advantage to those that choose to buy things from the store.
However, GW2 I gotta say have managed to implement it very well!
Its not pay to win, sure, buying gems makes the game more convinient and speed up the process somewhat but a player that havent used the store at all can still get gems and in the end all the same advantages, only takes more time.

Coming from a game where you could buy endgame armor in the cash shop, I don’t see how this cash shop gives an advantage…
72 euro for the “normal” endgame armor, 2000 euros for the “face roll the game” armor.

The boosters are hardly an advantage. I have a ton of them in my bank, none of them gotten through the gem shop, and I doubt I’ll ever use them…
Gem/coin conversion..? It’s not like you get much money for your gems anyways…
Black lion salvage kits? There are various personal story steps that give you a key for a chest…
Extra bank slots? I got 1 extra slot, more because I was leveling cooking than anything else, bought by converting gold…

I honestly don’t see any unfair advantage in the gemstore… It’s not like people who used cash can now one shot you in pvp, or deal more damage than you, or have better armor…

So far I have spend 20 euros on the game for character slots, and I’m happy with it. I don’t feel the need to spend money, which makes me less reluctant to do so when I want to have something I like…

Serina.8652:

7 years is considered veteran? Man now I feel ancient with more then twice that amount of time of experience of mmo! :P

Anyway, personally I never been a fan on ingame stores since they often end up as pure pay to win, giving waaay to much advantage to those that choose to buy things from the store.
However, GW2 I gotta say have managed to implement it very well!
Its not pay to win, sure, buying gems makes the game more convinient and speed up the process somewhat but a player that havent used the store at all can still get gems and in the end all the same advantages, only takes more time.

haha yeah feeling old now.

I do however agree with the OP, gem shop has nothing appealing to it and arenaNet basically botched it entirely.

Before the FotM patch – it was so easy to get gold no reason to use gem store.

Post FoTM patch – no reason to spend $ on gem store because there is nothing worth buying there.

Boosters are ok but hardly worth $ IMO, if ANet wants people to open their wallet they either need to make some really appealing cosmetic stuff available there, or to make ascended items (or parts of) available for purchase.

LOL somebody spend my 3 month salary for GAME items…

Quaz.4931:

People that buy boosters with RL money can run dungeons quicker

Doesnt matter that a lot of people don’t, the fact is that it is possible.

Honestly how are people even arguing the gem store doesnt give any advantage to those spend real money? Like I said before, you can argue how much of an advantage it gives, but it does give an advantage.

Yeah, just like those with more time can spend more time on getting better gear to do dungeons quicker.

And technically people can actually buy gear, too (by buying gold). It just doesn’t matter that they spend money to do so, or a kittenload of time. The only place where this matters is in PvP, and there it hardly is an issue.

I have 0 problems with people spending money, and therefore supporting the creators, on things that are actually also useful to them. The question is why you care. Fairness? I’d say being able to buy these things instead of having to spend a lot of time (a limited commodity, the older you get) is more fair, as it allows you to get the same stuff using different strategies.

Lysico.4906:

Umm they don’t work in WvW there “goober”.. Might want to know that before you get all snarky with someone else..

Ah cool, I didn’t even know. Thanks for the info. =p

Running dungeons quicker accomplishes what? Armor skins? I mean….really? You think running dungeons quicker is an advantage? I think the word you’re thinking of is convenience. It is more convenient to be able to run dungeons “faster”, but certainly not advantageous.

Hell, if you are the only one in your group with a speed buff, what good does that do you anyway. You’re only as fast as your slowest teammate.

Grasping for straws people….grasping for straws..

Ok guys I am sorry, having increased regen and strength, extra gold and higher rates of ecto salvage quickly and easily is not an advantage I am sorry.

Geeze, I think you guys saw the word “advantage” and just saw red. and I do mean “time advantage”. Convenience is one other way to put it yes. It makes certain gameplay elements of the game a bit easier, that’s what I meant. And personally I don’t think the store should make the game easier to play at all – only playing the game and getting rewards through it should make certain aspects of the game easier.

Clearly you guys don’t mind as either the boosters aren’t that powerful or you are fine grinding up the gold to buy the stuff you want. <- that is fine, that is your opinion.

To argue the game does not become easier, therefore gaining some sort of advantage, from buying certain items from the store is just factually wrong. The advantage may be small in your eyes, but it still exists. Personally my biggest gripe is the black lion keys and salvage kits, how they are difficult to get legitimately without real cash.

Now the topic of this thread really is, what would you want to see in the gem store? and are you going to buy anything now the gear treadmill has been put in place.?

This is my last post in this thread, cus if you don’t get it by now – I can only say it so many different ways – you will never get it.

I’ve seen a sentiment a couple times that is reaaaaaalllly scary, so I wanted to provide a PSA:

It is really, really, really, REALLY not worth it to spend real world money to convert into gold to buy an in-game item.

This is what I mean:

They keep nerfing farming and ways for people to make money, to the point it has almost become a necessity to buy gold with real money just to keep up with the economy.

I don’t think some people are getting it, yes the cash shop/rl money to gold is optional but it seems that Anet is kind of trying to push people to use the cash shop with DR and farming nerfs.

My reasons for not buying anything in the gem shop (anymore) is ANet nerfing every single farm to try and force me into it to buy gems to trade for gold. That is such bull and oh so low… blatantly obvious they’ve been doing this since the beginning.

While I truly believe that this is deeply misinterpreting what ArenaNet is attempting to accomplish, that really isn’t the point.

The point is ArenaNet isn’t coming close to “forcing you” or making it a “necessity” or even “pushing you” to do anything at all. It is a matter of perspective shift. If you’re considering buying in-game gold with real money to get an item, you need to acknowledge that it’s because YOU want it now rather than however long it’d take to learn. Even if how long it took to earn was doubled this would still be true.

I can’t stress this enough: nothing in this game is worth real money. And specifically with regard to Ascended back pieces, they are not even at all worth the in-game effort to obtain, with the exception of agony resistance for high-level fractals- but since Coagulated Mists Essence is required, you can’t just buy your way into agony resistance anyway. And even fully “maxing” that slot gets you only +10 agony resistance; for more than that you’ll need rings that you also can’t buy.

Unless you’re attempting high-level fractals, there is no reason, literally none, that you need the three pieces of Ascended gear available (and especially not the one you can mostly buy with gold).

So please, before spending a dollar on gems to get some item, consider what it is you want that item for.

Cash shop would give an advantage if you could get something there that you have zero chance of getting just playing the game.

as someone who has played several “buy to win” mmo’s over the years (and yes I am way over 7 years too…. sigh) … I find the cash shop here very tame… in fact I wish is had more… like Town clothes!!!

Quite frankly, I think the sentences “unnecessary” and “you don’t HAVE to” are being abused by ANet.
Because you don’t HAVE to do this to play, but if you want to keep on par with others perhaps you should.