Guild Wars 2

I have a few questions about SAB once the new worlds are released.

1. Will previous skins be available when the next batch of them come out for bauble bubbles?

2. Will the new skins have the same bauble cost as the previous ones?

3. Will the old rare drop skins be available in the new worlds?

Josh has said he’s pretty sure the current skins won’t be available the next time SAB comes around, instead being replaced by new skins (for weapons that don’t currently have one).

Haven’t heard anything in regards to the other two questions, though.

Wish I understood the reasoning behind number 1…

Josh Foreman.8250:

It would be like arguing someone into liking heavy metal or kimchi.

Korean mothers start them early. Less arguments.

On heavy metal or kimchi? ;-)

So, people who were unable to attend get screwed?

I REALLY wanted to try out the SAB and get some of the skins but I’m stuck on a PC incapable of running GW2 since just before April, and my new PC got delayed so it taken a few weeks to arrive after ordering; it’ll arrive (ironiclly) on the 30th.

It’s frustrating to have to miss out awesome looking content due to arbitrary time limits just because someone will get upset if they have to share their weapon skin with more than 3 other people on the planet. GW2 needs to feel like it’s growing and that means adding new content that is here to stay

It’s not like you need remove the content to keep the rewards unique. Star Trek Online does a similar thing, and when the “event” phase is over, the content stays in, but the unique rewards are replaced with generic rewards

Keep SAB in game. There is no reason to get rid of it. In fact a friend of mine after seeing it, decided that you guys were so awesome he bought GW2 just because of the creativity of the team.

There is literally no reason to get rid of such an awesome aspect of the game.

There will be always someone complaining… even if is a “limited time event” as stated a lot of times. Even if it will be there for a year someone will surely complain….

I think the devs will be very sorry that the event lasted only 1 month an they surely will hand you a free special exotic skin

just joking

you can alway spend 100gp for a rare skin after .p

i feel sorry for you

we have to remember that Sab is not finished, in my opinion a pair of month without it will help to mantain freshness and interest up

Mighty Bless.8471:

There will be always someone complaining… even if the “limited time event” as stated a lot of times, will be there for a year….

Edit: You sure? – the FAQ page says:

How long will the Super Adventure Box be in Rata Sum?
Moto will be demoing his Super Adventure Box throughout the month of April, to gather important data and metrics, as well as to identify any potentially lethal bugs that may or may not be present in his holoware.

It’s not good when something is gone forever. It’s resources spent in something that will eventually disappear as less and less people show them because they got other stuff, until it’s a file people download never to use it, or a slot in the PvP locker that will never be filled.

Even if it’s after 5 or 10, or 50 years, everything must eventually come back after people had time to show it off and there’s other stuff to get, so newer players get to enjoy it too.

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s a design aesthetic. A lot people want prestige items which means limiting them. You can limit items by making the amount of time/resources required to get them very large, or you can limit them having them in for a limited time only. We could make every item easy to attain and permanently available, but then we lose the prestige factor. If you don’t value the prestige factor, then no arguments are going to make you understand. It would be like arguing someone into liking heavy metal or kimchi. Personally, I don’t particularly value the prestige factor, but I understand that it is a HUGE motivating force that drives the engine of the economy.

All thats going to do is feed the elitest mentalities, which is not good for any game. Any previous one time only skin has been from GAMBLING on real money chests (except the two back items), or from holiday events (which are most likely to return, with probably the same items in addition to new ones). The gambling skins to me are not prestige, that is just really luck people who get good RNG results, which is bullkitten.
And as others have stated, these items are wasted resources (if they are one time only stuff) and they will lose their ‘prestige’ once new skins come out (not just SAB ones), which means if a new player later on sees one and wants it the are SOL, which is just stupid.
(this isn’t meant towards you specifically Josh, just in general to the prestige stuff (or to the reward/economy dept if anything). Please don’t take this as negativity towards you. I personally love the SAB and the skins, and I don’t really want them to be one time only things.)

I do know that it annoys some of us to the maximum. If you get out of balance on that, then you will alienate the group of us that aren’t into the “this is cool because you don’t have it” group. I view it as a waste of precious time to make things for the short term. But then, like you said, the two groups can’t understand each other. They view it as something that makes the item special. I think that being special is an inherent quality to the item and has nothing to do with it being limited. Guess I’ll have to agree to disagree with them.

It’s like a concert t-shirt. It’s proof you were there. This can be seen negatively (ie, it’s cool because you don’t have it) or positively (it’s cool because it shows I was there). I think the later is what Anet is shooting for. The former is just an unavoidable fact of human nature that you shouldn’t stop you from doing stuff that sane people will like.

These are, after all, just skins. It’s not like any of the rewards give you an in game advantage. (Though the skin drop can make you money, but that’s not different from many of the other rare drops in the game already.)

I’m sick of people complaining about “limited time only” things existing. That’s what life is. You miss opportunities, people will have things you do not. If everybody had exactly the same thing, there would be no value in having anything. I want to be who I am and have my real life and my life in the game shaped by what I experience in life. I lost a chance to invest in Apple before it became huge. You missed the opening round of SAB. Things happen, life moves on, and then other things happen.

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s a design aesthetic. A lot people want prestige items which means limiting them. You can limit items by making the amount of time/resources required to get them very large, or you can limit them having them in for a limited time only. We could make every item easy to attain and permanently available, but then we lose the prestige factor. If you don’t value the prestige factor, then no arguments are going to make you understand. It would be like arguing someone into liking heavy metal or kimchi. Personally, I don’t particularly value the prestige factor, but I understand that it is a HUGE motivating force that drives the engine of the economy.

Thing is, they are not prestige. A few days after the first few folks had enough bubbles to buy SAB skins, they were everywhere for sure but 2 days ago I did several meta events and I saw one person using an SAB GS, apart from myself who themed a character around them and 2 people wearing the pack. Its like the Mad King Thorn and Wintersday backpacks – both awesome but you rarely see them.

They’re a novelty, but don’t fit most character’s styles. I can fully agree with stopping them from being rare chest drops, but I beg you to reconsider removing them from Moto’s sales. There is nothing to lose if future players who are not yet even aware of SAB because they don’t have the game, have access to the full range of non-sellable Moto bought SAB skins.

Something so easy to get is not prestige, its just novelty, and novelty wears off.

Thanks for the explanation Josh, now I got it. Not that I like “prestige” items since it seems that every new weapon set since launch (fractal weapons, halloween weapons, fused weapons) is “prestige” but oh well, at least I got my trustworthy candy cane hammer by my side.

On an unrelated note, I once talked someone into death metal.

Tyrantis.8640:

Keep SAB in game. There is no reason to get rid of it. In fact a friend of mine after seeing it, decided that you guys were so awesome he bought GW2 just because of the creativity of the team.

There is literally no reason to get rid of such an awesome aspect of the game.

Absolutely and totally agree.

Anet, stop pandering to the “I want to be a special snowflake and look down upon you because I have some kewl phat lewt you don’t” brigade and keep this FUN activity for those of us who don’t need pretty pixels to feel good about ourselves.

Curo.2483:

If everybody had exactly the same thing, there would be no value in having anything.

Your value system seems to be based on a need to feel superior to someone else becuase you have something they don’t .. some of us don’t put any value on being unique snowflakes, we’re comfortable with who we are and are content that things have a value of themselves and get pleasure from having them.

We don’t care a kitten who else has them, it doesn’t mean anything to me you have one as well; in fact what you have is entirely irrelevant to me, why does what I have matter to you?

Josh Foreman.8250:

skullmount.1758:

All thats going to do is feed the elitest mentalities, which is not good for any game.

Perhaps you are conflating two things into one. Do you think that elitist attitudes are the same thing as whatever it is that drives the desire to have prestige gear? Do you think one causes the other? Or are they only sometimes correlative? I don’t have any final answers to these questions. Like I said, personally I don’t find a lot of satisfaction in prestige gear. But I understand why it exists. And I’m not convinced that it’s unhealthy for a community like you are.

Having things that are some symbol of prestige is fine. The problem is that in GW2 PvE no such thing exists. It is currently all down to lucky drops and gold farming. Not much prestige in being a lottery winner or gold farmer. Same problem exists with legendaries and commander title. The OTHER problem is people in possession of those things failing to realize that and expect some kind of respect/admiration.

Anything that could be prestigious right now can simply be bought. I don’t think that will ever impress anyone. It might inspire jealousy but not respect. Would there be any prestige if someone won a contest by bribing the judges?

Sab can go and come back like other events done in gw1. Anet always does a good job of doing holiday and monthly events. The reason I’d like sab to go so that people start doing cathedrals in order again.

Kraggy.4169:

Tyrantis.8640:

Keep SAB in game. There is no reason to get rid of it. In fact a friend of mine after seeing it, decided that you guys were so awesome he bought GW2 just because of the creativity of the team.

There is literally no reason to get rid of such an awesome aspect of the game.

Absolutely and totally agree.

Anet, stop pandering to the “I want to be a special snowflake and look down upon you because I have some kewl phat lewt you don’t” brigade and keep this FUN activity for those of us who don’t need pretty pixels to feel good about ourselves.

This, failing that I don’t care if they remove the “unique skins”, but keep the content in the game so those who couldn’t play during April can see the content too!

Questions:
1. You said that the other super skins will be added at a later date. But you also said that next time there will be probably a whole new set of SAB skins. So will we have the missing Super skins and the new set next time? Will the new set also have the weapons that were missing this time? Or will we only have a completely new set next time, without any of the missing Super skins?

2. Are you planning on limiting the farming? With the team points? If so, will you increase the drop chance or make the drop chance increase with the team score? Cause completing the whole dungeon as good as possible, with a drop chest of 1 skin in 50 chests will make the new skins extremly rare.
Especially if they can also drop the missing super skins, since that would increase the Itempool way higher than the current SAB chest pool is.

Ryuujin.8236:

So, people who were unable to attend get screwed?

I REALLY wanted to try out the SAB and get some of the skins but I’m stuck on a PC incapable of running GW2 since just before April, and my new PC got delayed so it taken a few weeks to arrive after ordering; it’ll arrive (ironiclly) on the 30th.

It was there for a month. That’s just bad luck, but a month really is enough. You also missed a monthly and many dailies, does that make you feel “screwed” too because you missed 40+ laurels? Be glad there are no more one-time events.

Noobs need to stop whinging and moaning about this. It makes perfect sense why Anet have decided this. They have even been kind enough to even make unbound skins available so you will be able to get them outside of the event. It adds to the exclusivity! So. Stop crying. Earn money.. and buy them off people like me who put in the work to farm them at greatly inflated prices ;D

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s a design aesthetic. A lot people want prestige items which means limiting them. You can limit items by making the amount of time/resources required to get them very large, or you can limit them having them in for a limited time only. We could make every item easy to attain and permanently available, but then we lose the prestige factor. If you don’t value the prestige factor, then no arguments are going to make you understand. It would be like arguing someone into liking heavy metal or kimchi. Personally, I don’t particularly value the prestige factor, but I understand that it is a HUGE motivating force that drives the engine of the economy.

What if the older items are included, but at 5 or 10x the price? Or would that upset too many people, or perhaps still defeat the purpose?

Josh Foreman.8250:

skullmount.1758:

All thats going to do is feed the elitest mentalities, which is not good for any game.

Perhaps you are conflating two things into one. Do you think that elitist attitudes are the same thing as whatever it is that drives the desire to have prestige gear? Do you think one causes the other? Or are they only sometimes correlative? I don’t have any final answers to these questions. Like I said, personally I don’t find a lot of satisfaction in prestige gear. But I understand why it exists. And I’m not convinced that it’s unhealthy for a community like you are.

Isn’t there enough prestige in obtaining something available in a limited time window even if it’s available again later on in a similar window? Personally I think 50 baubles is a lot any way. Even if the Wintersday skins are available one month every 12 months, for the 11 months they are not available they have added prestige.

There is a trade off when you do things like this. You might make the people who got the current skins feel like they have something cool and rare but it’s a kittenty feeling for all the people who come along even one day after these items are gone forever (I realise to a lesser extent the tradable ones will be around for a long time but they already have high costs and will only go higher). One of the things I really hate in MMOs is looking at items that no matter what I do, I will never be able to get them again. It baffles me that this idea of prestige has more value to developers than allowing players more robust character customisation options.

Currently I feel like my Living Short Bow has far more prestige than any SAB item and will continue to do so 12 months from now when you can still get the Living Short Bow but won’t be able to get the original SAB skins. I don’t personally value prestige, but even when I recognise it I don’t think exclusive one time only access to items is a good way to award it.

There was drama over this round of rewards not having certain items like pistols or rifles. Why would you significantly devalue the resources of the first round of SAB items by limiting their distribution to this one time only? Next time SAB rolls around it will be less rewarding than it could be if you deliberately withhold the items available this time. It also doesn’t make sense to me that the exact same content would offer different rewards (so because you farmed world one this time you get the current weapons, but doing the exact same thing next time will net you new weapons).

Finally, and this is one of the worst parts in my view, it creates pressure to farm and play the content while it’s here otherwise you miss out forever. If you played SAB and didn’t really want to farm it over and over again but you still like some of the skins, you have to get them this time, otherwise you might never get them (there is a limited supply of skins on the TP and they are already fairly expensive). I personally am running it every day on all my toons to the point where I watch TV while doing it out of boredom (I don’t even do this for CoF path 1 which I find more engaging) to ensure I can get all the skins I might one day want to use.

You might not be convinced it’s unhealthy for a community (whether or not it’s healthy for a community is a big statement) but I don’t think you can deny that giving them limited time availability comes at several costs. You trade a lot of great things simply so that you can gain one – subjective “prestige” (I hate the use of that word in this context, making something available for a limited time does not increase it’s quality nor does it have anything to do with achievement, that’s just an illusion). It’s true I don’t value the prestige of these items (or w/e it is you are trying to create by making them limited availability) but I still don’t think there good outweighs the bad in the decision ArenaNet seems to be making with these rewards. I understood it with the town clothing hats available during the game’s launch (and even with the festival hats from Halloween and Wintersday) but I don’t think weapon skins are appropriate for this kind of thing.

Curo.2483:

If everybody had exactly the same thing, there would be no value in having anything.

This is a baffling statement and the fact that you emboldened it leads me to believe you are extremely misguided.

Shiren.9532:

Josh Foreman.8250:

skullmount.1758:

All thats going to do is feed the elitest mentalities, which is not good for any game.

Perhaps you are conflating two things into one. Do you think that elitist attitudes are the same thing as whatever it is that drives the desire to have prestige gear? Do you think one causes the other? Or are they only sometimes correlative? I don’t have any final answers to these questions. Like I said, personally I don’t find a lot of satisfaction in prestige gear. But I understand why it exists. And I’m not convinced that it’s unhealthy for a community like you are.

Isn’t there enough prestige in obtaining something available in a limited time window even if it’s available again later on in a similar window? Personally I think 50 baubles is a lot any way. Even if the Wintersday skins are available one month every 12 months, for the 11 months they are not available they have added prestige.

There is a trade off when you do things like this. You might make the people who got the current skins feel like they have something cool and rare but it’s a kittenty feeling for all the people who come along even one day after these items are gone forever (I realise to a lesser extent the tradable ones will be around for a long time but they already have high costs and will only go higher). One of the things I really hate in MMOs is looking at items that no matter what I do, I will never be able to get them again. It baffles me that this idea of prestige has more value to developers than allowing players more robust character customisation options.

Currently I feel like my Living Short Bow has far more prestige than any SAB item and will continue to do so 12 months from now when you can still get the Living Short Bow but won’t be able to get the original SAB skins. I don’t personally value prestige, but even when I do I don’t think exclusive one time only access to items is a good way to award it.

There was drama over this round of rewards not having certain items like pistols or rifles. Why would you significantly devalue the resources of the first round of SAB items by limiting their distribution to this one time only? Next time SAB rolls around it will be less rewarding than it could be if you deliberately withhold the items available this time. It also doesn’t make sense to me that the exact same content would offer different rewards (so because you farmed world one this time you get the current weapons, but doing the exact same thing next time will net you new weapons).

Finally, and this is one of the worst parts in my view, it creates pressure to farm and play the content while it’s here otherwise you miss out forever. If you played SAB and didn’t really want to farm it over and over again but you still like some of the skins, you have to get them this time, otherwise you might never get them (there is a limited supply of skins on the TP and they are already fairly expensive). I personally am running it every day on all my toons to the point where I watch TV while doing it out of boredom (I don’t even do this for CoF path 1 which I find more engaging) to ensure I can get all the skins I might one day want to use.

You might not be convinced it’s unhealthy for a community (whether or not it’s healthy for a community is a big statement) but I don’t think you can deny that giving them limited time availability comes at several costs. You trade a lot of great things simply so that you can gain one – subjective “prestige” (I hate the use of that word in this context, making something available for a limited time does not increase it’s quality nor does it have anything to do with achievement, that’s just an illusion). It’s true I don’t value the prestige of these items (or w/e it is you are trying to create by making them limited availability) but I still don’t think there good outweighs the bad in the decision ArenaNet seems to be making with these rewards. I understood it with the town clothing hats available during the game’s launch (and even with the festival hats from Halloween and Wintersday) but I don’t think weapon skins are appropriate for this kind of thing.

I’m of a like mind, and I think he explains it better.

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s a design aesthetic. A lot people want prestige items which means limiting them. You can limit items by making the amount of time/resources required to get them very large, or you can limit them having them in for a limited time only. We could make every item easy to attain and permanently available, but then we lose the prestige factor. If you don’t value the prestige factor, then no arguments are going to make you understand. It would be like arguing someone into liking heavy metal or kimchi. Personally, I don’t particularly value the prestige factor, but I understand that it is a HUGE motivating force that drives the engine of the economy.

You’re completely ignoring the type of prestige that people at large like and the type of prestige that they don’t.

• First Group: Skill/Time-Investment Prestige Rewards Players like to be able to work their butt off to receive a reward. That makes the reward much more prestigious. The proper way to do this is to make the skins take a lot of time investment and/or skill investment, but make them always attainable; thus the skin showcases the time and skill commitment. This is a very meaningful style of prestige because no matter what, players always know the commitment you had to invest in order to receive the rewards, and they look and feel cooler as a result.

• Second Group: Item is No Longer Available Rewards Players like to be able to get easy-to-obtain rewards that say “I was there”. That players can no longer receive them gives them some measure of prestige. The real problem here is that these things take an obscene amount of storage space without some kind of locker dedicated to them because as time goes on, so too do the number of things you can no longer acquire. Furthermore, this type of prestige leads players to seek items they don’t even want just so they don’t “miss out” if they do ever want them down the road. This leads to packrat syndrome, and generally isn’t as valuable or meaningful as the first type (you just had to be there, it really doesn’t indicate that it is very meaningful)

• Making an item able to be sold and bought is a fast way to ruin any type of prestige because then it becomes a matter of farming some gold and just buying it, and has no real prestige associated with it at all. This completely ruins the value of an item as a measure of skill, time, or “being there” when it was released.

SAB dropped the ball on multiple fronts here if they actually wanted prestigious items with a properly laid out system to support a limited-time release of items.

Kraggy.4169:

Curo.2483:

If everybody had exactly the same thing, there would be no value in having anything.

Your value system seems to be based on a need to feel superior to someone else becuase you have something they don’t .. some of us don’t put any value on being unique snowflakes, we’re comfortable with who we are and are content that things have a value of themselves and get pleasure from having them.

We don’t care a kitten who else has them, it doesn’t mean anything to me you have one as well; in fact what you have is entirely irrelevant to me, why does what I have matter to you?

Because it does matter to him. Why are you underselling his values in comparison to yours? Much of what drives the world economy and the GW2 economy is that exact statement. Having different or more than someone else is the reason many people work hard and make money/items in game and out. If its not your driving force for doing things then thats fine, just understand that there is a rather large segment of humanity where it is the driving force.

Since this game wants to cater to as large a segment of humanity as it can, it is a business after all, sometimes they will do things that you dont like to appease another set of the audience.

For a ton of background reading on different audience types and why they all need to be catered to to be successful, I suggest reading Mark Rosewaters articles on Psychographics on MTG.com. Really insightful, IMO.

If somebody has an elitist mindset, they WILL find a way to talk down on other players or ruin the gaming experience for others; they do not need prestige weapon skins for that.

I’m fine with the current system. A month is more than enough time to get the resources together for that one weapon skin that you really, really want for your own character. (I personally didn’t see any that I wanted this time around, so my bauble bubbles are just sitting in my inventory. But I would have had no problem obtaining one or even several.)

I have no problems with items saying “I was here”. And also no problem with these items (the store-bought ones anyway) NOT be resellable. This way the affect on the economy is minimal.

I am also happy that the items you randomly find in chests, should you be so lucky, CAN be sold. I found a greatsword skin that I simply have no use for, but someone else might want it – fine, take it. I’m happy I made a little gold in the process (I was seriously broke, too).

All in all: everybody should just be glad that these weapon skins didn’t drop from purchasable RNG 8-bit chests :P

My minor complaint is that I would’ve liked to purchase the minis with baubles, but, meh, whatever. I’ll live.

displacedTitan.6897:

Kraggy.4169:

Curo.2483:

If everybody had exactly the same thing, there would be no value in having anything.

Your value system seems to be based on a need to feel superior to someone else becuase you have something they don’t .. some of us don’t put any value on being unique snowflakes, we’re comfortable with who we are and are content that things have a value of themselves and get pleasure from having them.

Because it does matter to him. Why are you underselling his values in comparison to yours?

Curo said “anything.” Not luxury goods. Not skins. Not a greener lawn than his neighbors.

If everyone in the world had adequate food, shelter, health care and protection from harm (and nothing more)…would that make those things worthless? I sure hope Curo would not think so.

However, I did like your reference to MaRo. The man does know to analyze a market and write a great article.

I have a friend who came back to the game just because of SAB. If its removed he will be very sad and probably quit. Why on earth would you work so hard on creating a cool minigame that a lot of people like and keeps them logging in and then remove it? It should not be temporary.

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s a design aesthetic. A lot people want prestige items which means limiting them. You can limit items by making the amount of time/resources required to get them very large, or you can limit them having them in for a limited time only. We could make every item easy to attain and permanently available, but then we lose the prestige factor. If you don’t value the prestige factor, then no arguments are going to make you understand. It would be like arguing someone into liking heavy metal or kimchi. Personally, I don’t particularly value the prestige factor, but I understand that it is a HUGE motivating force that drives the engine of the economy.

Man after reading this I am so glad I no longer play this game.

Josh Foreman.8250:

skullmount.1758:

All thats going to do is feed the elitest mentalities, which is not good for any game.

Perhaps you are conflating two things into one. Do you think that elitist attitudes are the same thing as whatever it is that drives the desire to have prestige gear? Do you think one causes the other? Or are they only sometimes correlative? I don’t have any final answers to these questions. Like I said, personally I don’t find a lot of satisfaction in prestige gear. But I understand why it exists. And I’m not convinced that it’s unhealthy for a community like you are.

I like you Josh. Your content/design is great and I’ve enjoyed all of your answers. I hope they keep you around for a long time.

I completely understand why they would limit this. You can still get the skins, go buy them. Anet shouldn’t be responsible because you’re too lazy or because things didn’t work out for you.

Look at Runescape, they did that with Christmas hats and that was one of the biggest things in that game (I haven’t played for a very… very long time, so not sure if it still is).

daicon.2476:

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s a design aesthetic. A lot people want prestige items which means limiting them. You can limit items by making the amount of time/resources required to get them very large, or you can limit them having them in for a limited time only. We could make every item easy to attain and permanently available, but then we lose the prestige factor. If you don’t value the prestige factor, then no arguments are going to make you understand. It would be like arguing someone into liking heavy metal or kimchi. Personally, I don’t particularly value the prestige factor, but I understand that it is a HUGE motivating force that drives the engine of the economy.

Man after reading this I am so glad I no longer play this game.

I’m glad too.

Josh,

This is my first time posting on these forums. There are many like myself that play this game on a daily basis and understand the choices Anet is making for the SAB.

Whether you keep this addition in the game for a month or for a year, there will always be people on these forums spewing their distaste and personal reasons why they do not want you to take it or the items it generates out.

The idea of prestige items is very real indeed. If these weapons were kept in the game on a permanent basis then it would lose value and feel no different than any other easy to obtain weapon in the game.

The simple fact is that the majority of players do not visit or care to even comment on these issues on the official forums because frankly they are not unhappy or either content with these decisions.

For instance I came to this thread through a Reddit link talking about this conversation and honestly everyone that is commenting seems to think this is a positive solution.

Long story short; This thread doesn’t speak for the majority because the majority are happy with this decision as well as the game as a whole.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1d00vm/farmbuy_your_super_items_now_before_they_are_gone/

Rick.1928:

Josh,

This is my first time posting on these forums. There are many like myself that play this game on a daily basis and understand the choices Anet is making for the SAB.

Whether you keep this addition in the game for a month or for a year, there will always be people on these forums spewing their distaste and personal reasons why they do not want you to take it or the items it generates out.

The idea of prestige items is very real indeed. If these weapons were kept in the game on a permanent basis then it would lose value and feel no different than any other easy to obtain weapon in the game.

The simple fact is that the majority of players do not visit or care to even comment on these issues on the official forums because frankly they are not unhappy or either content with these decisions.

For instance I came to this thread through a Reddit link talking about this conversation and honestly everyone that is commenting seems to think this is a positive solution.

Long story short; This thread doesn’t speak for the majority because the majority are happy with this decision as well as the game as a whole.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1d00vm/farmbuy_your_super_items_now_before_they_are_gone/

Sounds like you’re lobbying to protect your investment tbh.

BladeDVD.6234:

It’s like a concert t-shirt. It’s proof you were there. This can be seen negatively (ie, it’s cool because you don’t have it) or positively (it’s cool because it shows I was there). I think the later is what Anet is shooting for. The former is just an unavoidable fact of human nature that you shouldn’t stop you from doing stuff that sane people will like.

These are, after all, just skins. It’s not like any of the rewards give you an in game advantage. (Though the skin drop can make you money, but that’s not different from many of the other rare drops in the game already.)

This is pretty much exactly how it is. I think a lot of people confuse prestige with elitism. No one is going to lord their SAB GS or Shield or whatever over anyone else. It’s just a skin that will sit in the bank that I’ll take out every once in a while, like my wintersday backpack (not the skins because I didn’t really care for them, well staff was ok), that I’ll use to remember the event. I certainly won’t feel better than anyone else because they were very easy to obtain for the people who were able to play the game during April. And if you weren’t able to play or just hadn’t started yet, then no one is using their SAB skin to make themselves feel better than you. That’s dumb. Some people have some pretty cool gear from Halloween. It’s neat and I’ll be honest, I’m a little jealous that I wasn’t here for it. But I never feel like people lord it over me. It’s just fun novelty (from a PR perspective that’s probably a better word than prestige) stuff few will use a month from now and I feel like the vast majority of people get that.

rpbozeman.3781:

BladeDVD.6234:

It’s like a concert t-shirt. It’s proof you were there. This can be seen negatively (ie, it’s cool because you don’t have it) or positively (it’s cool because it shows I was there). I think the later is what Anet is shooting for. The former is just an unavoidable fact of human nature that you shouldn’t stop you from doing stuff that sane people will like.

These are, after all, just skins. It’s not like any of the rewards give you an in game advantage. (Though the skin drop can make you money, but that’s not different from many of the other rare drops in the game already.)

This is pretty much exactly how it is. I think a lot of people confuse prestige with elitism. No one is going to lord their SAB GS or Shield or whatever over anyone else. It’s just a skin that will sit in the bank that I’ll take out every once in a while, like my wintersday backpack (not the skins because I didn’t really care for them, well staff was ok), that I’ll use to remember the event. I certainly won’t feel better than anyone else because they were very easy to obtain for the people who were able to play the game during April. And if you weren’t able to play or just hadn’t started yet, then no one is using their SAB skin to make themselves feel better than you. That’s dumb. Some people have some pretty cool gear from Halloween. It’s neat and I’ll be honest, I’m a little jealous that I wasn’t here for it. But I never feel like people lord it over me. It’s just fun novelty (from a PR perspective that’s probably a better word than prestige) stuff few will use a month from now and I feel like the vast majority of people get that.

This is pretty much my thought as well.

I can understand there are certainly going to be some people that, for what ever reason, were not able to log in enough during this month to collect the items they want. Overall, I tihnk we can all agree there wasn’t a huge skill limit to the collecting as opposed to a time limit. That’s a guaranteed source of disappointment, but there’s little ANet can do about that beyond leaving SAB in game, which they feel will cheapen it’s experience (and I can’t say I totally disagree with them).

What I don’t quite get is the constant belilef that people who do have the skins will somehow lord them over everyone who doesn’t. This just isn’t going to happen in any meaningful sense. Most people who have the skins will stop using them after a short time, and I doubt anyone at all will even mention them unless specifically asked “Hey, where did you get that sword/shield/staff/etc.?” The onus isn’t on the holder of the items, really, it’s on the person who does not have the item. If seeing an item that someone else has but you don’t causes you to feel somehow inferior, that’s not really the fault of the person who has the item.

Rick.1928:

The simple fact is that the majority of players do not visit or care to even comment on these issues on the official forums because frankly they are not unhappy or either content with these decisions.

For instance I came to this thread through a Reddit link talking about this conversation and honestly everyone that is commenting seems to think this is a positive solution.

Long story short; This thread doesn’t speak for the majority because the majority are happy

I wouldn’t go that far as saying the majority is happy. I’m sure that there are more people that are ignorant of what is going to happen (that the box/skins will be gone, though the box itself less so since that was in the box’s info page). They’re ignorant possibly because they don’t know/use the forums (at all), or they don’t follow certain sections/forums, or they do and just don’t want to take the time/reveal their name on the forum.
Just like the new ‘dungeon’ only being temporary as well (you would have to see red posts to know that, or read specific third party articles).

The majority simply couldn’t care less, because it’s just a game. It’s just a vocal minority in here that complains, as usual.

Josh Foreman.8250:

I would hope that in 3 years, some guy with his SAB scepter is feeling that way about it.

Likely not, since that same guy could have, that day, shelled out whatever the gold cost is for the item and gotten it all the same. If you want limited edition stuff that “you had to be there to get”, you can’t make it purchasable on the TP. If you want prestigious things that showcase “you did this and have great skill / dedication”, you can’t make it purchasable on the TP. If you’re going to have them purchasable on the TP, you may as well have them come back down the road because the prestige simply won’t be there regardless.

I don’t care for any of the SAB skins because having one says nothing about my ability to complete the content or be exceedingly good at it or whatever. Meanwhile, I have hunted so many Fractal skins that you’d probably be shocked. Those Fractal skins carry prestige, while the SAB skins never will thanks to them being purchasable on the TP.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Likely not, since that same guy could have, that day, shelled out whatever the gold cost is for the item and gotten it all the same. If you want limited edition stuff that “you had to be there to get”, you can’t make it purchasable on the TP.

And people still pay premium for old baseball cards and ’67 Mustangs. People still place a lot of value on these things.

EDIT: Also, it being purchasable on the TP does nothing to affect its rarity. Since it’s limited, the supply of these skins in the world will decrease over time. In 3 years, you can purchase this skin off the TP, but it’ll probably cost you more gold than a Legendary. Just like a lot of vintage items in the real world which hold no real intrinsic value but are still valued very highly.

Of course people still do that, but not because they’re prestigious, only because they’re rare. Josh is mixing up prestige with rarity. Prestigious items are of a certain quality, and say a certain thing about the person who wields them. WoW had a lot of prestige items (for better or worse) because there were tons of items that were gated behind tons of content. You knew when you looked at a person the feats he had accomplished to get what he was wearing. That is prestige. SAB skins do not have that because, so long as you’re willing to pay whatever the premium is, you too can look like you participated in the SAB, even if you don’t actually know what it is. That’s paying for rarity, and it has nothing to do with prestige.

Countless players exist for prestige in MMOs; it’s what they seek. I like to wear my successes on my sleeve for all to see, personally, and I always value things that showcase a ton of skill. Being able to buy them devalues it and ruins any prestige that thing ever might have had, regardless of its monetary value due to its scarcity.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Of course people still do that, but not because they’re prestigious, only because they’re rare. Josh is mixing up prestige with rarity.

You have your own definition of “prestige” and “rarity.” That’s fine.

But in the end, prestige is in the eyes of the beholder. Different people hold different views of what prestige is. To some, rarity is prestige.