Guild Wars 2

eisberg.2379:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Creeper.9360:

eisberg.2379:

Gehenna.3625:

Sleel.8365:

Yes, but your post was about people putting theirs up for sale and people buying them. Takes a lot of work either way.

Except if you buy gems and trade them to gold to buy the legendary. The ratio between hours spent in game to get a legendary or hours spent making the real life money to buy gems doesn’t compare at all.

So, there will be people running around showing off their legendaries that put in the work and then those who simply bought them via real cash.

I can imagine that people who worked for it in game might feel a bit cheated. All in all the karma system should provide unique rewards that are only attainable via karma. That side of the game is not used nearly enough. A missed opportunity.

It cost like $700+ and upwards to $1400 to buy enough gold from a gold selling sight to buy a legendary from the TP. I highly doubt we will see that many people who are willing to spend that kind of money

I find it quite mind boggling that anyone would spend that kind of real currency for a virtual item. Really, I don’t even believe anyone would.

I’m in college for game design. You learn about people like this. They are very very real. The term is whale. It’s how facebook and app games make their money. Most of the money comes from a small portion of the player base. Literally thousands of dollars…on Farmville.

It really is all irrelevant, if anybody wants to spend real life money to get the “best” items in the game, they will find a way to do it. One can easily spend real life money to get all the best gear in WoW as well. In other words, it wouldn’t matter if Legendaries were account bound only, someone with money could still get the legendary with real money, whether that is through paying for a service to do the grind for them, or just buying a max level character with the legendary already.

So talking about gold selling services really is irrelevant to the issue at hand.

It’s the biggest part of this. The only reason Legendaries are on the TP are so that ANet will make more money. Maybe they’ll get a whale. Maybe it’ll just be a few small purchases to save time. But in the end, they’re up there so ANet makes money.

Azjenco.9425:

It just makes no sense. These are supposed to be progression items, weapons you work towards. They should be prestige gear that you obtain through hours upon hours of play.

That is a fundamental misunderstanding. Of course you can do all the things by yourself and that will be legendary. A legendary grind.
But if you have friends and/or good kin mates, then you put together all the ingredients for an LW. And that was by far the easiest way yet.
They are only four things what you can not get on this way: PvP Marks, Instance Marks, Karma and Skillpoints.

There was never a presige to get an LW. It was only the question how do you mange to get one.

Now you can by LW on the TP. Who cares? Players who buy one either grind for gold or grind for real money to get gems to chage to ingame gold. Grind is grind regardless where you do it.

The concept behinde the LWs was never to give you some prestige (it is a nice side effect if one feel that way), but rather to bind you to the game or spend real money to get one. In the first case you are the one, who build the “gaming community”, the croud who populate the servers. In the second case, you are the one, who make the finacial long term gameplay possible. The concept is WAI.
May be this is not what you would like to hear, but this is the very unheroic and unspectacular reality about Legendary Weapons.

This thread got so off topic. The whole point is getting a legendary should not be a GRIND in the traditional bot grinding mobs for crappy drops sense. It should be a multi part accomplishment of quests/achievements. The legendary system was not thought out well at all. Or it was thought out and working perfectly as intended milking people through the gem store to buy gold. It’s anybodies guess which is true.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

eisberg.2379:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Creeper.9360:

eisberg.2379:

Gehenna.3625:

Sleel.8365:

Yes, but your post was about people putting theirs up for sale and people buying them. Takes a lot of work either way.

Except if you buy gems and trade them to gold to buy the legendary. The ratio between hours spent in game to get a legendary or hours spent making the real life money to buy gems doesn’t compare at all.

So, there will be people running around showing off their legendaries that put in the work and then those who simply bought them via real cash.

I can imagine that people who worked for it in game might feel a bit cheated. All in all the karma system should provide unique rewards that are only attainable via karma. That side of the game is not used nearly enough. A missed opportunity.

It cost like $700+ and upwards to $1400 to buy enough gold from a gold selling sight to buy a legendary from the TP. I highly doubt we will see that many people who are willing to spend that kind of money

I find it quite mind boggling that anyone would spend that kind of real currency for a virtual item. Really, I don’t even believe anyone would.

I’m in college for game design. You learn about people like this. They are very very real. The term is whale. It’s how facebook and app games make their money. Most of the money comes from a small portion of the player base. Literally thousands of dollars…on Farmville.

It really is all irrelevant, if anybody wants to spend real life money to get the “best” items in the game, they will find a way to do it. One can easily spend real life money to get all the best gear in WoW as well. In other words, it wouldn’t matter if Legendaries were account bound only, someone with money could still get the legendary with real money, whether that is through paying for a service to do the grind for them, or just buying a max level character with the legendary already.

So talking about gold selling services really is irrelevant to the issue at hand.

It’s the biggest part of this. The only reason Legendaries are on the TP are so that ANet will make more money. Maybe they’ll get a whale. Maybe it’ll just be a few small purchases to save time. But in the end, they’re up there so ANet makes money.

If Arenanet can actually get people to buy $2000-$4000 in Gems to convert to gold to buy a Legendary, then good for them.

eisberg.2379:

If Arenanet can actually get people to buy $2000-$4000 in Gems to convert to gold to buy a Legendary, then good for them.

Do not think in a term of one big amount of money. Take it like it would be a monthly fee for the game (e.g. $20 / month) and as the game would be a hobby. There are lots of hobbies where people pay more than $20/month for it.

Sitael.4680:

Azjenco.9425:

It just makes no sense. These are supposed to be progression items, weapons you work towards. They should be prestige gear that you obtain through hours upon hours of play.

That is a fundamental misunderstanding. Of course you can do all the things by yourself and that will be legendary. A legendary grind.
But if you have friends and/or good kin mates, then you put together all the ingredients for an LW. And that was by far the easiest way yet.
They are only four things what you can not get on this way: PvP Marks, Instance Marks, Karma and Skillpoints.

There was never a presige to get an LW. It was only the question how do you mange to get one.

Now you can by LW on the TP. Who cares? Players who buy one either grind for gold or grind for real money to get gems to chage to ingame gold. Grind is grind regardless where you do it.

The concept behinde the LWs was never to give you some prestige (it is a nice side effect if one feel that way), but rather to bind you to the game or spend real money to get one. In the first case you are the one, who build the “gaming community”, the croud who populate the servers. In the second case, you are the one, who make the finacial long term gameplay possible. The concept is WAI.
May be this is not what you would like to hear, but this is the very unheroic and unspectacular reality about Legendary Weapons.

If we take that as the best possible conclusion about them, I’d be less inclined to complain about their existence and more inclined to demand they alter their names from legendary to something else. It’s an insult to what we perceive to be legendary weapons.

How about “hollow weapons” named for the lack of feeling they instill in players who look upon them?

Sleel.8365:

So what? Grind your face off for comps, or grind your face off for gold to buy it. Still grinding the same time, just for a diff reward using a diff path. Point?

I think you miss the point.. by a long way.

You need not grind at all now they have Legendry weopons on the TP.. you simply pass your CC details to your local Black Lion Trading Post rep and tada you have “x” amount of gems to then exchange for gold and buy that Legendary… that sir is the point.. it makes the game P2W when the whole point of such items is they were supposed to be the pinnacvle of your game play until the next expansion of the game opens the gates to the next summit to reach.

It is nothing more than a commercial tactic to entice you to spend real money to purchase pixel money to buy that end game collection of pixels.

Dont get me wrong I am all for less grind to get something to make me feel I have achieved something, but P2W is not the way to keep players hooked into an MMO that is already beginning to loose it replay value for many players, that said neither is continual gear grind… and AN have said gear grinding is not their goal (errmm FoTM anyone), but their P2W alternatives will soon drive me away for sure.

Bloodstealer.5978:

Sleel.8365:

So what? Grind your face off for comps, or grind your face off for gold to buy it. Still grinding the same time, just for a diff reward using a diff path. Point?

I think you miss the point.. by a long way.

You need not grind at all now they have Legendry weopons on the TP.. you simply pass your CC details to your local Black Lion Trading Post rep and tada you have “x” amount of gems to then exchange for gold and buy that Legendary… that sir is the point.. it makes the game P2W when the whole point of such items is they were supposed to be the pinnacvle of your game play until the next expansion of the game opens the gates to the next summit to reach.

.

Sure, if they want to pay $2000-$4000 for their legendary -.-, and even if one goes through a gold seller, it cost $700 to $1400 to get.

Don’t worry, the vast vast majority of the Legendary holders didn’t spend $2000-$4000 for their legendary, they either played the TP or they grinded the RNG game.

Sitael.4680:

eisberg.2379:

If Arenanet can actually get people to buy $2000-$4000 in Gems to convert to gold to buy a Legendary, then good for them.

Do not think in a term of one big amount of money. Take it like it would be a monthly fee for the game (e.g. $20 / month) and as the game would be a hobby. There are lots of hobbies where people pay more than $20/month for it.

Fair way to think about it, but think of it like this too:

In other games, you play and it’s either fun or not. If it’s fun, you just pay once and maybe more for some more content that comes out later on. In the end, once you pay, it’s fun. The difference with P2W is that they purposely put obstacles in that can be remedied either by them fixing something they purposely put in or you paying money. It’s purposely bad game design to get more money. If the things you buy are simply more content or purely cosmetic, no one has an issue, but as soon as you can buy power, it becomes kind of wrong. It becomes schemey.

Creeper.9360:

eisberg.2379:

Gehenna.3625:

Sleel.8365:

Yes, but your post was about people putting theirs up for sale and people buying them. Takes a lot of work either way.

Except if you buy gems and trade them to gold to buy the legendary. The ratio between hours spent in game to get a legendary or hours spent making the real life money to buy gems doesn’t compare at all.

So, there will be people running around showing off their legendaries that put in the work and then those who simply bought them via real cash.

I can imagine that people who worked for it in game might feel a bit cheated. All in all the karma system should provide unique rewards that are only attainable via karma. That side of the game is not used nearly enough. A missed opportunity.

It cost like $700+ and upwards to $1400 to buy enough gold from a gold selling sight to buy a legendary from the TP. I highly doubt we will see that many people who are willing to spend that kind of money

I find it quite mind boggling that anyone would spend that kind of real currency for a virtual item. Really, I don’t even believe anyone would.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html

Look at the portion on ZT Online. That is the most evil and genius design I’ve seen in an MMO.

Imagine if Black Lion Chests not only offered a unique award…but that there was a daily reward exclusive to the person who opened the most black lion chests each day.

Even if that reward was a mini-pet or completely aesthetic, there would be individuals who pay THOUSANDS in order to get it.

Well, I c crafting as fun and the tp as useful.
Just choose your own way to get your legendaries by crafting piece for piece or earning the right amount of gold.

Cause the Devs idea of a Legendary item is something totally opposite in acquisition and excitement in achieving then what you would expect of an item carrying the “legendary” title.

Look at me!! I have a legendary item!! Bought it off the TP!! That was most certianly a “legendary” adventure!

people complain saying they dont want a quest for the item..yet they prefer to buy it…so why not let the people who want it buy it or allow us to do a meaningful quest for it something thats fun and can take time..I dont care if the quest is split into many months..kinda like the wrathion legendary quest in WoW (dont flame cause I mentioned wow) Ill admi they are a grind to but at least disguised with other questing and raiding thus allowing us to grind the legendary quest while doing other stuff at the same time and once we reach a point we are treated to a fun and sinister story line at certain points in the quest.

just the best example I could think of here at work.

For the people who dont believe someone would spend rl currency on a video game….

http://www.ranker.com/list/8-people-who-spent-an-exorbitant-amount-on-video-games/benjamin-dunn?page=1

Legendaries should only be able to be crafted by the user and should be automatically soulbound upon completion. Not available for trade or sale.

Of course, its not that way…..

I have to agree with the OP. I remember the devs talking in an interview about Legendary weapons pre-launch. The way they described them was awesome! These legendaries are the cream of the crop! The best of the best and will take A LOT of effort to obtain. I remember them saying that not every player would be able to get one. Players would have to prove their mastery of lots of different areas of the game and prizes from all different aspects of the game would be required for a Legendary. A player would need to explore Pve, master PvP, beat dungeons, etc for one of these weapons.

It sounded really cool and I was excited to try and earn one. Now it turns out this isn’t the case. Some guy that spends 90% of his game time in Lion’s Arch flipping items on the Black Lion Post can buy a legendary. Even if he’s never set foot in a dungeon, couldn’t care less about the storyline, has explored 5% of the world and never even attempted PvP.

Although on the other hand I was really expecting different requirements for the Legendary. Like instead of so many t6 mats, instead require most play diversity. For example, award a special token for completing your personal story that is required for the weapons. Instead of 500 dungeon tokens from this dungeon, require 75 tokens from each of them. Require WvW kills (which it does) and also require sPvP kills or rank. Require a certain % of weapon mastery achievements and slayer achievements and award a special “Gift of Agility” for completing at least 75% of the jump puzzles.

Now that would truly be a legendary weapon! However I also realize that most players would absolutely HATE those requirements which is probably why A-net didn’t go down that path.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Fair way to think about it, but think of it like this too:

[…]The difference with P2W is that they purposely put obstacles in that can be remedied either by them fixing something they purposely put in or you paying money. It’s purposely bad game design to get more money. If the things you buy are simply more content or purely cosmetic, no one has an issue, but as soon as you can buy power, it becomes kind of wrong. It becomes schemey.

You right in one side, but on the other side, LWs are only cosmetic Weapons and somtime not even really that. They don’t have (yet) better stats then exotics. So why we are talking about P2W? There is no reason for. They gives no one more power or whatever kind of stats to be better than others. If someone buy a legendary, it is nothing more than buying a weaponskin.

The question is, why people are willing to grind or pay for a skin and why there is so much dispute about nothing else than cosmetics?

The Scarlet Raven.5416:

I remember them saying that not every player would be able to get one.

I think what they meant to say is that most players wouldn’t want to get them. Everyone can get one, cause they are super easy to get even if don’t even buy it (RL money or in game gold), but most people just wouldn’t want to subject themselves to an epic boring tedious brainless RNG grind -.-

Legendaries are hardly legendary when many of the requirements can simply be traded.
Why couldn’t they simply be bound to an account/character?

Like a previous poster said, the journey to acquiring a legendary does not even come close to say EQ’s epic weapons; the sense of achievement, or the admiration (uhm I mean jealousy) upon seeing one. Much like crafting, but I digress.

But hey we’re in a “I want it now” phase of MMOs, or rather “How much?”
Oh, I think many are fugly too :P

supply side jesus loves the wealthy and in his eyes they are legendary and deserving of weapons to mark them as legendary people.

just think of all the hard earned gold that the job creators have earned through purchasing all the poor gamers hard work hours of playtime? Is it not amazing the power of free markets to make the best and brightest always have legendaries?

besides real life rich people are way more legendary than poor real life people.

so says supply side jesus

So most desirable item in game can be bought with real money with no in game effort involved.Bit disappointing.

Legendaries as they are now are not a sing of skill or dedication, but a sign of wealth and/or time for grind.

You could have explored the entire world, done every achievement, and killed every champion, and conquered entire maps in WvW, and someone who just skipped enemies until the chests and used every possible gimmick and exploit in dungeons and went straight to the jumping puzzle chests in WvW would get a legendary faster than you.

Legendaries don’t inspire awe to anyone who sees them. So if you want to mindless grind/buy gold go for it. But only do it for yourself cause the rest of us don’t care

Let me preface this by saying I don’t have a legendary weapon and don’t know yet if I’m going to try for one (esp as a thief – ANET really love their greatswords, but daggers are dinky in this game).

However, I personally don’t see an issue with them being available on the TP, if someone wants to spend $1000-$2000 to buy a skin, meh. Doesn’t affect my appreciation of how it would look if I had the weapon. I think the people upset about that are the ones who feel that it attaches a stigma to the item making it unknown if that person crafted it or bought it.

Now, as far as legendaries go, I always hate the idea that you craft them. You spend all this time in game striving to kill bad things, but you’re actually a legendary crafter? I don’t want to be a legendary crafter, I want to be a legendary insert class here. I would much rather earn upgrade tokens as I complete advanced parts of the game making the weapon I’m wielding known through deeds. It’s appearance changes as you upgrade it and when it’s done you have a legendary! I wouldn’t mind something like this taking 2-3 months to accomplish (possibly gated by dailies) but it makes a ton more sense than “go gather materials and through them into the forge! Yay legendary item has been created!”

Nothing is legendary until it’s accomplished something. This is nicely showcased in The Hobbit

“That day he [Elrond] looked at the swords they had brought from the trolls’ lair, and he said: “These are not troll-make. They are old swords, very old swords of the High Elves of the West, my kin. They were made in Gondolin for the Goblin-wars. They must have come from a dragon’s hoard or goblin plunder, for dragons and goblins destroyed that city many ages ago. This, Thorin, the runes name Orcrist, the Goblin-cleaver in the ancient tongue of Gondolin; it was a famous blade. This Gandalf, was Glamdring, Foehammer that the king of Gondolin once wore. Keep them well!”

Orcrist, The Goblin Cleaver was not forged as anything other than a sword, it got it’s name from cleaving a ton of goblins.

So a sword like Twilight could be earned by doing special quests that only occur during the Twilight hours in-game – your sword would slowly morph into Twilight the more you completed said quests (or questlines).

Anyway, that’s just me dreaming of how legendaries should be handled by some game at some point.

So can’t you probably tell if a player bought or made their own by the world completion icon or lack of world completion icon next to their name? Yes I am sure you could buy and still complete world completion also but I feel if you lazy in one part of the game you are probably lazy in other areas and probably would not have the star.

Azjenco.9425:

It just makes no sense. These are supposed to be progression items, weapons you work towards. They should be prestige gear that you obtain through hours upon hours of play. They’re the product of toiling away as you assemble them piece by piece. By definition a legendary weapon should be the stuff of legends and become part of your legend.

Seeing a legendary weapon on TP cheapens their purpose in my eyes. They’re supposed to be part of your legacy, not some form of hooker item that you throw money at. I personally feel they should all be account bound.

Maybe it’s so ANet can continue to claim that you can play the game, the way you want to play the game. If that way doesn’t include PvP, you can still get your legendary by buying it outright. Too bad there’s no way to actually build it yourself though — without screwing around with PvP, of course. I think most of us would be happier to be able to craft our own legendaries, if we were given an avenue to do so.

Or has this changed since October? I’m guessing not.

Sitael.4680:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Fair way to think about it, but think of it like this too:

[…]The difference with P2W is that they purposely put obstacles in that can be remedied either by them fixing something they purposely put in or you paying money. It’s purposely bad game design to get more money. If the things you buy are simply more content or purely cosmetic, no one has an issue, but as soon as you can buy power, it becomes kind of wrong. It becomes schemey.

You right in one side, but on the other side, LWs are only cosmetic Weapons and somtime not even really that. They don’t have (yet) better stats then exotics. So why we are talking about P2W? There is no reason for. They gives no one more power or whatever kind of stats to be better than others. If someone buy a legendary, it is nothing more than buying a weaponskin.

The question is, why people are willing to grind or pay for a skin and why there is so much dispute about nothing else than cosmetics?

Because paying money will HEAVILY lighten the load of grinding you have to do if you want to get one. Imagine this was a dungeon and you could pay to skip one of the more tedious sections. It’s not physical power, it’s progress. Money, in a way, is power. If you just start this game and buy yourself 20g, I think you have a bit of an advantage over others, especially since one of the best ways to overcome the level requirements of Story is to do crafting, which requires a crap ton of materials.

Vorch.2985:

Creeper.9360:

eisberg.2379:

Gehenna.3625:

Sleel.8365:

Yes, but your post was about people putting theirs up for sale and people buying them. Takes a lot of work either way.

Except if you buy gems and trade them to gold to buy the legendary. The ratio between hours spent in game to get a legendary or hours spent making the real life money to buy gems doesn’t compare at all.

So, there will be people running around showing off their legendaries that put in the work and then those who simply bought them via real cash.

I can imagine that people who worked for it in game might feel a bit cheated. All in all the karma system should provide unique rewards that are only attainable via karma. That side of the game is not used nearly enough. A missed opportunity.

It cost like $700+ and upwards to $1400 to buy enough gold from a gold selling sight to buy a legendary from the TP. I highly doubt we will see that many people who are willing to spend that kind of money

I find it quite mind boggling that anyone would spend that kind of real currency for a virtual item. Really, I don’t even believe anyone would.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html

Look at the portion on ZT Online. That is the most evil and genius design I’ve seen in an MMO.

Imagine if Black Lion Chests not only offered a unique award…but that there was a daily reward exclusive to the person who opened the most black lion chests each day.

Even if that reward was a mini-pet or completely aesthetic, there would be individuals who pay THOUSANDS in order to get it.

What it’s said in that article is so true .____.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Because paying money will HEAVILY lighten the load of grinding you have to do if you want to get one. Imagine this was a dungeon and you could pay to skip one of the more tedious sections. It’s not physical power, it’s progress. Money, in a way, is power. If you just start this game and buy yourself 20g, I think you have a bit of an advantage over others, especially since one of the best ways to overcome the level requirements of Story is to do crafting, which requires a crap ton of materials.

But we are talking about LWs, a cosmetic item and not dungons. (but even dungons you can skip, use one of that mercenary guilds and you can join only the boss fight or even only the very last part of a boss fight and this is offered by the players, not by ANet)
You absolutely right, if someone able to buy 20g just at the start of the game, well i’t is a big advantage. But can you tell me why people do care so much about how others play this game? for me at the end it looks very very jealous, like: “if i can not do this or that, others shouldn’t be able to do this or that too”. That’s just jealous and shabby.
And all the other complains about buying LW on the TP looks for me a bit as a tempest in a teapot.

PS: no, i do not own any LW (just before you ask ;-) )

I personally disagree with them allowing legendaries to be sold on the TP. People getting them are just buying the gold anyway (some are even just buying the weapons).

Mkalafut.1273:

I personally disagree with them allowing legendaries to be sold on the TP. People getting them are just buying the gold anyway (some are even just buying the weapons).

Considering it would cost $700-$4000 to get one, I would say the vast majority of the people who have them just grinded it out.

Angelus.1042:

Cause the Devs idea of a Legendary item is something totally opposite in acquisition and excitement in achieving then what you would expect of an item carrying the “legendary” title.

Look at me!! I have a legendary item!! Bought it off the TP!! That was most certianly a “legendary” adventure!

people complain saying they dont want a quest for the item..yet they prefer to buy it…so why not let the people who want it buy it or allow us to do a meaningful quest for it something thats fun and can take time..I dont care if the quest is split into many months..kinda like the wrathion legendary quest in WoW (dont flame cause I mentioned wow) Ill admi they are a grind to but at least disguised with other questing and raiding thus allowing us to grind the legendary quest while doing other stuff at the same time and once we reach a point we are treated to a fun and sinister story line at certain points in the quest.

just the best example I could think of here at work.

You talked about those who want a quest for the item. Great, hope they implement it sometime.

You talk about those who want to buy it off TP. Great. If tehy have the cash, why does that even remotely concern YOU, what YOU do in the game, and how YOU play YOUR game?

But you forgot to mention the rest of us, going for our legendary the legit way…no rmt, good old fashioned PLAYING THE GAME. Grind, tp playing, I give less than one care about how any one wants to label it. It’s an option, and I opted for it.

There is all this talk about how valiant the folks are who want the path to be more epic, to be skilled and quest based, and that is great, but the other side of that is when everyone lumps the rest of those with legendaries or on the way to one as gold buyers or folks who can spend $4k on gems. Because you are forgetting the plenty of folks grinding out their legendary weapons the legit way, and those folks don’t want to be lumped with the rest of them. I’ve got 3 in my guild (including me) striving for a legendary, I have 525k karma left and I will be done, the others are more than half way to theirs, and not a single gem was bought. Plenty of gold dumped down Big Z, but if you can’t amass gold via farming and playing the TP, that’s your own problem, not ours. The tools are all there in plain sight, you just need to see them.

Blastroid.3967:

So can’t you probably tell if a player bought or made their own by the world completion icon or lack of world completion icon next to their name? Yes I am sure you could buy and still complete world completion also but I feel if you lazy in one part of the game you are probably lazy in other areas and probably would not have the star.

I believe this is not the first time someone has mentioned this. But a LW is account bound, so someone can simply do map completion on one toon, and decide to get a LW for another toon. It’s actually quite common to see LW holders without the star.

Frankly, I’m less concerned about people buying Legendaries off of the TP and more about how they’re getting the money they need to do so. I don’t think the high costs of Legendaries promotes folks buying money from ANet in the slightest – they’re far more likely to be relying on Gold traders or tipping the market, as these are far more efficient ways to match the pretty exorbitant prices.

This scenario is actually a criticism I have with the concept of goals in a game being largely based on subjectivity (as opposed to clear, more objective milestones – note that you don’t need a Legendary to play any of the game, but people may choose it as a personal goal). It comes down to a design standpoint, but when you define your own achievements by anything that can be earned through shortcuts, you tend to undermine your efforts if you care at all about other people reaching the same goals through alternate methods. I understand those who are saying that ANet insinuated that Legendaries wouldn’t be this way, but I’ve less sympathy for those who just want a rare shiny to impress people and, similarly, less sympathy for those who actively judge others for having one.

People are driven by a lot of different reasons. But caring too much about what others have and what you have in comparison tends to put way too much power in the hands of others rather than yourself.

eisberg.2379:

Mkalafut.1273:

I personally disagree with them allowing legendaries to be sold on the TP. People getting them are just buying the gold anyway (some are even just buying the weapons).

Considering it would cost $700-$4000 to get one, I would say the vast majority of the people who have them just grinded it out.

Nop. Some gold sellers are selling 400G for 40€. with 140€ u can buy a dusk (black market) with less than 200€ u can get a legendarie. Is this really an accomplish ? Because i work 8h a day and i can say that spending that money on a skin is so sooooooooooo stupid.

Just to shed some light on things here..
Botters =/= RMT, lazy players are.
TP farmers = RMT.
Anet ecnourages players dominating the TP = endless supply of RMT.

Once someone lost all care for the game itself and simply left with making more and more gold in a very simple manner, what else is left for him besides selling the gold to others for cold cash?

Simple concept, encouraged by the same company that created the game.

Gold should not be gained so easily, in any shape or form, creating a massive gap between types of players.

marnick.4305:

How is this different from GW1 where obsidian was bought with ectos and obsidian, both of which were readily available from the traders?

A number of differences.
1) Obsidian was a cosmetic option. Courtesy of Horizontal Progression [Thank You!] those of us that worked towards Obsidian Armor did it simply to prove our mastery of the mists or work on our 50/50 path, or some other personal goal, not because they would always be ‘Best In Slot’ or have a significant appearance difference to most other armors of the age [as in Twilight vs most other Greatswords].
2) The Underworld and Fissure of Woe were in areas that were not difficult to get to, in a game where getting a character up to speed was pleasantly quick. Thus, guilds like mine could rotate entire teams of characters through the aforementioned maps – experimenting with different Player/Build/Hero teams. The variety of tactics and gameplay helped break-up the repetitiveness of some of the trips down there.
2b) With free map travel and repeatable missions/vanquishes et al., variety was rarely an issue anyway.
3) Reasonable Drop Rates. Actually earning our own drops wasn’t difficult. We needed not the traders you referenced.
4) Accessibility. What were the requirements to obtain Obsidian Armor? For My Monk: 60 Platinum, 350 Cloth, 35 Tanned Hide, 105 Ecto, 105 Obsidian, and a successful Fissure of Woe Run [up to unlocking the Forgemaster]. No extra caveats, or requirements. Just play your style and save up, making traders convenient for some, but ultimately less tantalizing for others.

eisberg.2379:

If legendaries were actually something other then an RNG grind, then the OP has a point. But Legendaries are nothing more then an RNG grind, and there is nothing really special about getting one. So being sold on the TP or grinding through the RNG, either way neither really is anything special.

So the real issue isn’t about it being sold on the TP, the real issue is that there is no meaningful way to obtain one, there is nothing special about getting a legendary.

I would be all for advocating taking out the RNG to obtaining one, and make it some kind of epic story line and or achievements to obtain one. IF they did that, then I would be all for being account bound. But as long as it is nothing special to get one, and nothing more then an RNG grind, I say having them for sale on the TP makes no difference, either way it is a grind.

I think he started this discussion premature to when the ascended weapons and legendaries will have higher stats than exotics. When that happens, like you said, his argument will have a valid point. As for right now there are certain legendaries that inherently cheapened the “wow factor” of getting them because so many people have it (Twilight, anyone?). The fact that you can buy them now does virtually nothing to the “value” of legendaries. I’ve yet to see a good deal on any of them that doesn’t involve spending nearly twice as much gold as you would having to grind for it.

Maoism.9302:

Blastroid.3967:

So can’t you probably tell if a player bought or made their own by the world completion icon or lack of world completion icon next to their name? Yes I am sure you could buy and still complete world completion also but I feel if you lazy in one part of the game you are probably lazy in other areas and probably would not have the star.

I believe this is not the first time someone has mentioned this. But a LW is account bound, so someone can simply do map completion on one toon, and decide to get a LW for another toon. It’s actually quite common to see LW holders without the star.

Yep this is true as are all the differnet reasons and methods for obtaining that shiny.

Personally if someone want to use any amount of RL money to purchase pixels to feel special then all power to them, it doesnt affect my game in the slightest.
And for the poster who replied to my original post.. you may wanna look at just what goldsellers are actually selling pixel money for … cos I think $2000+ would be on the tad silly side, where as $200-$400 would still be very tempting for the more addicted, competitive and darn right idiotic players
But each to there own I guess.

My chirp on this and the OP’s point is quite simply ANET have unfortuantely put more power in the hands of Botters / Goldsellers cos carrots dangling in front of players who feel they must have (and lets be honest that is an age old attitude in any MMO), are still carrots dangling and for many the temptation will be too great to take an easy route rather then doing their own farming or TP flipping – cos tbh I have nothing against players farming like crazy or TP flipping, in actual fact it can in itself be another form of fun sometmes for even me

Apparently you guys aren’t aware of gaming “Whales” who are spending many thousands of dollars in their F2P game of choice with cash shops. It’s where a huge amount of Anets non box sales income will come from. These being for sale are a perfect sales item for them especially since the Whales need them on their alts too.

Part of the beauty of having things easily accessible via tons of cash OR putting a ridiculous amount of work/playtime into it is you will never know who the Whales are. There is always the chance they grinded in game. This is why you won’t see really big ticket items that are gem shop only (even if there were in GW2, you could still buy gems with in game gold). There is still a very negative stigma associated with using cash so it gives them something to hide behind.