Guild Wars 2

Just a flesh wound.3589:

SelenaDread.2814:

Danikat.8537:

Behellagh.1468:

SelenaDread.2814:

Behellagh.1468:

They prefer to use the term “Play for Free”. But to unlock the restrictions it’s still “Buy to Play”.

Agreed they only use the term Free to play to entice the general public. From a marketing perceptive Free to play is a more tempting offer than Free Trial. Once a consumer hears the word Trial you assume restrictions are put in place but you are given the opportunity to use the product to solely encourage you to buy said product.

Free to Play sends out a better message, but in the end GW2 falls better in the Free Trail category.

Except Free to Play calls forth visions of walled off content and constant “please deposit $x to bypass time gate”. That’s why ANet uses Play for Free and not Free to Play.

Yeah this is where it gets tricky. For most people I imagine ‘free to play’ sounds more appealing than ‘free trial’ because on the face of it that implies fewer restrictions.

But for me, and I imagine many other MMO players who have heard (or experienced) horror stories about other games ‘free to play’ implies a game which, instead of trying to get your money by selling you a quality product, draws you in with just enough content to get you interested and then charges a small fortune for every little thing you need to actually play.

And since Anet are trying to attract both existing MMO players and those new to the genre they have to try and strike a kind of middle ground.

I’m still not sure on the name but other than that I think they did a good job. The blog post and FAQ make it clear that whilst it’s not quite a trial version it’s not your typical F2P MMO either. Mainly because they’re not pretending free players can do everything paid players can by grinding for (huge amounts of) gold to lift the restrictions, or presenting them with a seemingly endless series of pay-walls to unlock every little thing. Instead it’s all or nothing – you play a limited free account or you buy the game and have a full account. And buying the game probably costs less than unlocking the same amount of content in your average F2P game.

Unfortunately, the F2P label itself comes with repercussions as there will be several misinformed gamers automatically assuming a game is Pay to win in regards to the pay wall.

No joke in a previous thread a person was stating that boosts from the cash shop was pay to win.

That’s an old argument. I remember forum posts on gw2guru before launch debating whether the boosters were p2w.

It could be argued that it is, technically speaking. However it’s so slight an advantage and since its not useable in spvp it’s pretty much ignored.

To my knowledge all the boosters buff will be removed if you enter competitive pvp, so how does one “win” an MMO in the pve aspect with these boosters?

Danikat.8537:

Behellagh.1468:

SelenaDread.2814:

Behellagh.1468:

They prefer to use the term “Play for Free”. But to unlock the restrictions it’s still “Buy to Play”.

Agreed they only use the term Free to play to entice the general public. From a marketing perceptive Free to play is a more tempting offer than Free Trial. Once a consumer hears the word Trial you assume restrictions are put in place but you are given the opportunity to use the product to solely encourage you to buy said product.

Free to Play sends out a better message, but in the end GW2 falls better in the Free Trail category.

Except Free to Play calls forth visions of walled off content and constant “please deposit $x to bypass time gate”. That’s why ANet uses Play for Free and not Free to Play.

Yeah this is where it gets tricky. For most people I imagine ‘free to play’ sounds more appealing than ‘free trial’ because on the face of it that implies fewer restrictions.

But for me, and I imagine many other MMO players who have heard (or experienced) horror stories about other games ‘free to play’ implies a game which, instead of trying to get your money by selling you a quality product, draws you in with just enough content to get you interested and then charges a small fortune for every little thing you need to actually play.

And since Anet are trying to attract both existing MMO players and those new to the genre they have to try and strike a kind of middle ground.

I’m still not sure on the name but other than that I think they did a good job. The blog post and FAQ make it clear that whilst it’s not quite a trial version it’s not your typical F2P MMO either. Mainly because they’re not pretending free players can do everything paid players can by grinding for (huge amounts of) gold to lift the restrictions, or presenting them with a seemingly endless series of pay-walls to unlock every little thing. Instead it’s all or nothing – you play a limited free account or you buy the game and have a full account. And buying the game probably costs less than unlocking the same amount of content in your average F2P game.

Unfortunately, the F2P label itself comes with repercussions as there will be several misinformed gamers automatically assuming a game is Pay to win in regards to the pay wall.

No joke in a previous thread a person was stating that boosts from the cash shop was pay to win.

Raven.1524:

Do no one is mentioning it? China gw2 is a p2w version of the original. Tou are locked pretty much from anything if you don’t subscribe.
I say p2w instead of subscription because the original idea of the game is for it to be a buy to play.
Plus we don’t get our negative reviews of the game shut down and deleted from Anet like their crappy publisher on CN. It’s totally not Anet fault, but I hate to think that we wasted 1 year of localization for the cn publishers to destroy the experience of cn players, when we could have used that year to add more content on the global, eu, servers.

No one is mentioning it since it is Subscription based meaning you either pay the subscription and play the game or not pay and have restrictions. Since CN is the publishers, they get to choose the business model that fits the law and demand of the country. Switching the payment method of the game does not immediately characterize it as a pay to win model.

Doam.8305:

yawn

Leechers get new masteries and character and skill changes associated with HoT

Updated LA and the latest QoL class patches would have nevered happened if it wasn’t for HoT. MMO 101 but I keep forgetting this is the first MMO for most people so there a little slow on how the genre works and have that internet everything my way or ima sit and QQ for days on end till people bottle feed me attention mentality. Not saying in this post but I tend to see that mentality a lot more in this game than others. Don’t like what there serving then go to a different restaurant it’s called the basics of a capitalistic society.

From what I read on account types masteries are only for HoT.

Behellagh.1468:

They prefer to use the term “Play for Free”. But to unlock the restrictions it’s still “Buy to Play”.

Agreed they only use the term Free to play to entice the general public. From a marketing perceptive Free to play is a more tempting offer than Free Trial. Once a consumer hears the word Trial you assume restrictions are put in place but you are given the opportunity to use the product to solely encourage you to buy said product.

Free to Play sends out a better message, but in the end GW2 falls better in the Free Trail category.

gaborkaldy.3210:

Derenek.8931:

Expect to see Anet deincentivize older content as newer content is released. Since GW2 is now free to play, there will be a built in corporate driven desire to make the free players spend money. So monsters in the standard areas will drop less treasure, areas won’t be updated or worked on, etc etc… The economy and drop rates will shift making the only decent areas to make gold or get materials will be in the paid expansion or living story areas.

It will also incentivize players to buy gems and convert them into gold to purchase decent materials from the TP.

It changes the focus on gameplay and development from exciting story and mechanics towards grinding.

As a free player, grinding or paying is required to even get the most basic of decent items.

For paid players, grinding is incentivized, since free to play players will pay higher gold amounts for materials paid players can get more easily.

All material and item prices go up dramatically. This leads to more required grinding, or paying for gems by all parties, paid players and free to play together.

This happens in every MMO. It’s the sad truth, that game design ideals often go out the window when money is on the line.

So the cmpany has silently changed their game ideals of

“Buy the game, play a quality release forever”

to

“Buy the game, experience quality gaming until the next expansion is announced. Then find your experience to be greatly nerfed unless you purchase the expansion.”

50 dollars every 2 years is equivalent to 2 dollars a month subscription from every player who likes the game.

Hidden subscription fees. Brilliant, yet very korean move Anet. (I’m allowed to make that observation, I am korean)

So basically you expect ANET working for decades with all the expansion, content, lure, update patch for the original 60 USD, wait you paid nothing… and expect everything.

Yes if you haven’t paid a single cent for the original game, pay for the extension. Not to talk about if you buy the extension you will have the same rights like the players who not just paid for the extension but for the original game as well.

I have to agree with Gaborkaldy, to think that Anet can continue to develop a game for the original $60 and future sales of the game at reduced pricing is ridiculous. They do have a staff to pay continuously along with server fees and other cost associated with the game.

Lets be realistic the game was released in late August of 2012 making it 3 years old, if we turn that to a monthly payment that is practically $1.32 US a month. Being a Canadian would mean a conversion of $1.71 a month ( 1 large Timmy’s coffee ). 1 large coffee a month doesn’t seem like a bad deal to me for the continuous development of an MMO title.

Was Guild Wars Eye of the North not an expansion for the original guild wars? I am not a GW1 Vet so I had to wiki the information. By the negative reaction of some people in this thread it made me assume that expansions is a brand new idea to the guild wars franchise.

…..google my friend…just 3 simple keywords: GW2 Trading Post

Firebaall.5127:

lol…

No. The current legendary weapons are already common as heck. If you want to Pay to Win….buy gold from Anet. That shortcut to effort is already available. No need for another one.

So Pay to Win means the ability to buy gold in an MMO? Interesting, kinda sad to think the whole MMO genre is pay to win because of gold farmers now

Mightybird.6034:

lol no, just no

talk about pay to win

I do not agree with OP since he is clearly asking to add an item worth around 150-180 US dollars to an expansion pack of $50…which is seriously ridiculous.

Funny enough your comment is par with his.

Qugi.2653:

I guess maybe arena net afraid of too many people play HoT on release and many bug and complaint. So they do Halloween at same time to distract from this and have many player do Halloween instead of HoT. It seem like a distraction from HoT to me.

If that is the case that is a brilliant plan versus being stuck in a loading screen with a wait time or not being able to play the game at all, like other game expansions lol.

Zet.9130:

I expect to see mounts only when Anet needs a boost in Gem Store sales. When mounts do arrive they will all be so cute and will automatically adorn the rider in a long coat to standardize the riding animation. Plus the mounts will be really really cute.

Although I’d favor enormous glittery war hippos.

I find it extremely funny when people come up with this argument as they will only introduce mounts when they need a boost in sales.

Shareholder: hmmm. There is a bump up in profit gain in Q4 (The fourth quarter of a financial calendar year)

NCsoft Rep: Well, we introduced a cosmetic item the enchanted broomstick mount and the profit margin was good considering the development costs.

Shareholder: Good, so when are you going to introduce the next mount?

NCsoft Rep: Not yet, we should only make a new mount when we really need the money

Shareholder: Great plan!!!! (said no investor ever )

Qugi.2653:

Ragnarox.9601:

I want cosmetic mount$$$$$$$$$$. Don’t care for movement speed or not, My Guardian character is tired of walking.

Did you buy riding broom and carpet then? Those cosmetic mount. If arena net will sell more cosmetic mount people need to buy one already there to show they want. I almost do not see ever people use the cosmetic mount arena net already sell. Maybe demand is not as much as people think.

Smart guy, have a cookie

I am assuming that the majority of people in this thread asking for mounts to be placed are completely oblivious/ intentionally ignorant to the fact that you already have mounts in the game as cosmetic items such as Magic carpet, Witch’s Broom and Drill.

These mounts are purely cosmetic as to not break the Waypoint system.

With further simple logical reasoning you can safely assume that Anet is a company like any other to make a profit. What this tells us is the fact that when they introduce more cosmetic items (weapon skins, armour, mini pets, different resource gathering items), it demonstrates to us as the consumer that those items are profitable to them.

If the current mount skins that are placed in the game are not showing the same growth as the other cosmetic items, it provide us evidence that there is less demand for these items.

Simple observation shows that in the 3 year 2 month lifespan in guild wars 2, they have added 4 mounts (including gliders). If demand were to stay at the same pace you shall get a new mount skin in another year. Congrats.

So in conclusion if majority of people here asking for mounts were to say, stop posting on the a thread that started 2 years ago and use your wallet to purchase those mounts that are in-game already. You would create a demand, along with a need that Anet would have to supply.

keth.1836:

Well, except that a lot of the boosts etc. are simply not available as they are account bound when they leave the gem store and when they drop.

I know that blows your argument out of the water, but hey, keep digging that hole.

SelenaDread.2814:

Again your argument is flawed as I do not have to spend a dime to purchase items from the gem store since I can convert in-game gold to gem

Actually, it does not blow my argument out of the water, rather it shows your lack of attention to details when reading and analyzing someone else’s posts.

Sure, keep digging, but I think you are getting too close to the molten core at this point XD

keth.1836:

I can pay money and buy things in the gem store you cannot buy from merchants.

Some of those things make me ‘win’ over you.
I can win crafting (boosts), dungeons (boosts, revive et all), levelling (boosts) and lets not even get on to legendaries.

Virtually all F2P can claim “free players can get it eventually”. If we took that route, no game would be pay to win. That’s why although I admire your invention, ‘pay to skip’ makes no sense.

But, I do agree on one thing, it’s a boring argument. You wanna think it’s not pay to win, fine by me shrug.

There are games that do fall into the Pay to Win category where people do not have access to an item since it is cash only and better than any in-game item.

I seriously doubt I coined the phase Play to Skip.

Again your argument is flawed as I do not have to spend a dime to purchase items from the gem store since I can convert in-game gold to gem

I do agree that this is a pointless argument as you refuse/unable to understand the differences between free to play models. You seem to be strangely entrenched in the idea that you can pay to win by purchasing an item(that everyone has access to) from another player. I was hoping the point bullets were easier to understand. shrug

keth.1836:

Cyninja.2954:

keth.1836:

Not every Mud has to be the same.

But I do think it’s hilarious in a game which is undisputed pay to win due to being able to buy pretty much anything you need instantly up to and including legendaries with cash are negative about mounts.
Just funny, that boat sailed years ago.

Maybe learn what pay-to-win means first before complaining about it?

I can pay, and beat you. I know what it means, dear.

Clearly you do not.

Pay to Win Model:

The purchase of an item that can only be obtained with real world cash, that has an advantage no matter how insignificant to all other in-game items.

Pay to Skip Model:

Everyone has access to all the items in-game. You can use real world cash to get the items faster.

This is not a hard concept to understand

keth.1836:

Not every Mud has to be the same.

But I do think it’s hilarious in a game which is undisputed pay to win due to being able to buy pretty much anything you need instantly up to and including legendaries with cash are negative about mounts.
Just funny, that boat sailed years ago.

I’m seriously confused by this comment and hoping that it is just plain ignorance on your part.

To my understanding the Pay to Win model is basically to purchase an item/buff/weapon/armour piece that essentially gives an advantage to the user over the player base that does not have access to this item.

What you basically described is a Pay to Skip model, as the player base as a whole have access to this item. The purchase is solely to skip ahead the time and grind required.

Regardless your statement as a whole is severely flawed, as if there is an item that gives you power that can only be purchased by gems. The GW2 player base can still access this item by converting in-game gold to gems.

Raistlin.3210:

Raistlin.3210:
news flash GW2 is 110% pay to win
u can buy gems convert to coins and buy the legendary, how is that not pay to win?

What? Seriously?

You are admitting that gems (real money) need to be converted to in-game gold so that this all powerful “winning” item can be bought. I am hoping you realize that you just stated everyone has equal access to this item, the only difference is the time it is obtained (again Pay to Skip).

News flash 100% Pay to Skip.

I hope you take this into account in future threads posts.

Haurt.6420:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

If they are still paying $50 then maybe they could first save up $10 and then $40 and buy the expansion.

I’m not saying that they have to buy the expansion you are totally missing the point of what I’m saying. The $10 is to upgrade to core. If they enjoy the game enough to want the expansion they then can pay $40 MORE to upgrade. Or forget the discount altogether. Just offer the Core game for $10 so that people who want to lift the restrictions of F2P can.

I seriously do not understand your logic in this response.

The whole point of the free to play model that Anet has implemented is so that players get to try the game before purchasing the full amount. There is no sense in paying a small amount of money to lift the limitations placed on a Free account.

After learning that GW2 went F2P, I went to the website downloaded the game and played for about a week. I was very annoyed by the limitations I had personally revolving around the trading market, but the game as a whole I found to be fun. I then purchased the expansion to release the limitations and enjoy the game fully.

At a certain point in time your friend either likes the game or does not. The F2P model in GW2 gives the possible customer enough experience to determine if deems worthy of purchase.