Guild Wars 2

They could have been sold, the buyer could have pull them from sale, or a combination of the two.

Just to correct a couple of your mistakes.

1) Bigger numbers do not guarantee a win in top tier WvW. /skill

2) Without the AOE cap, the game would be laggier than it already is with large groups. Anet’s server CPU needs to calculate damage numbers for each target. Imagine 10 Eles casting Meteor Shower on a 50 man blob. That’s 500 individual calculations alone (for only the first hit). Now multiple that by how many AOE skills can be used by the Eles, and how many skills are being used by the blob. Imagine a queued 3-way fight in SM. Take that feeling, and multiply it by 10. What do you get? A burned out motherboard, and WvW down for 24 hours.

Psychol.5783:

I must say that this inflation is one of the worst thing in this game, you can’t keep gold because you’re losing money, soon these mats will be worth 1/1g.

That’s why we have John Smith to prevent that.

Malediktus.9250:

insaneseagull.7063:

Pie Flavor.1647:

kokiman.2364:

Win what?               

win guild missions by being able to port to a friend when you found the objective of a guild bounty for example

HA-HA-HA-HA
Seriously?….Is this what you call pay to win? Who excactly do you win over?
I’m curious. Humour me.

pay to win is different for everyone. if its the goal to look pretty (horizontal progression) cosmetics like in GW2 are pay to win too.

That’s what I touched on. People have their own interpretations of the term “P2W”, but it keeps getting skewed from the original idea of “Paying to Win a game”. So if people can generalize anything they want as P2W, you lose focus on what that term really means.

Watered down “P2W” term:

-A racing game is P2W if you buy the special steering wheel controller.
-Final Fantasy is a P2W game if you buy the one handed controller (which I did have), so you can relax and control the game without using 2 hands.
-A fighting game is P2W if you buy the arcade controller (which I had as well).
-GW2 is P2W because you can buy shiny armors.

True “P2W” term:

-Buy a legendary greatsword with +9999 damage that can be held with one hand, and gated from players who don’t pay real money for it.
-Buy wings so you can fly in PvP, but locked behind a real money store.
-Buy exclusive and powerful Mega-Elite skills that’s only available for real money.
-Buy a racing car with 6 gears and a top speed of 150 mph, while non-paying players have cars with 4 gears and a top speed of 100 mph.

See the difference?

If that’s the case, then why is it that when I went in recently, the entire EotM map was Green, home bases included?

We need MORE Faren swimtrunks. Speedos if you will. I shall then make the best charr ever!

phys.7689:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Katastrofi.5816:

Ummm… What?

It’s not entirely about time. It’s about effort. It’s about work. There is absolutely no deniability in the fact that, for a game centralized around gear in the end-game, if someone bought every piece of gear with real currency while skipping all the necessary steps (which, yes, includes some time factor) to obtain them through the designed means, they paid to win.

Yes, it’s a QoL thing. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t P2W as well.

Wrong again. If two different types of players have the same gear, one paid and one didn’t, it’s not P2W. I’ll explain it one more time to you:

P2W means Paying to Win. That means you pay real money to have exclusive access to statistically better gear than a non-paying player.

Paying $500 to get the same gear that someone got for free is not P2W, but rather Pay for Convenience.

i dont think pay to win has to be exclusive.

It just means you can pay to win. If getting the best gear is winning, and people can buy the gear, they have payed to win. the fact that others can work hard to win doesnt change that.

the fact that others can work hard to achieve the same thing doesnt take away the fact you can win with money, in fact it probably makes it more valuable.

lets take boxing, once one guy can buy the championship through bribery, that essentially becomes pay to win, no matter if others can do it through hard work.

What I’ve been trying to explain is that the original intent of the term Pay to Win is that just, paying to win. In Asia, a gamer who can buy a +9999 damage sword with real money does not want the non-paying gamer to have access to the same thing. Thus the reason why they’re willing to spend real money to get the best gear – to have that advantage over other players.

Expanding on my example, if two players bought the +9999 damage sword, it then becomes a competition to see who can have the better gear beyond the sword. The players will then spend more money on vanity skins, maybe +9999 defense armor, exclusive mounts for someone who spent over $5,000, etc. This mindset is why you see players putting up $16,000 for a single virtual sword. Status symbols are items that let you “pwn” others and stand out.

When people start using the term “P2W” more freely, the negative connotations associated with it then expand beyond what it was originally. Case in point, the “N” word evolved from a word, to a slang, to a racial slur. So what was once a normal word of Latin origin that was an adjective for the color “black”, is now frowned upon. So forgive me when I bring up debates over the use of this term, because when the interpretation of “P2W” gets so broad, every single game with a microtransaction store can then be called one.

Wrong forum to post, plus this is already being discussed in the Battle for Lion’s Arch forums.

Katastrofi.5816:

Ummm… What?

It’s not entirely about time. It’s about effort. It’s about work. There is absolutely no deniability in the fact that, for a game centralized around gear in the end-game, if someone bought every piece of gear with real currency while skipping all the necessary steps (which, yes, includes some time factor) to obtain them through the designed means, they paid to win.

Yes, it’s a QoL thing. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t P2W as well.

Wrong again. If two different types of players have the same gear, one paid and one didn’t, it’s not P2W. I’ll explain it one more time to you:

P2W means Paying to Win. That means you pay real money to have exclusive access to statistically better gear than a non-paying player.

Paying $500 to get the same gear that someone got for free is not P2W, but rather Pay for Convenience.

phys.7689:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

No, the true and proper meaning of the term “P2W” is what I posted. Your “interpretation” of P2W is your own, thus is wrong. Sorta like saying salvaging an Exotic Jewel to get more mats back than what you put in isn’t an exploit, yet Anet sees it differently.

I get that over time, a word or term’s true meaning can evolve. But the original and intended meaning of the “P2W” term is “Paying to have an advantage over non-paying customers, thus winning”.

and vip is paying to have an advantage over non paying customers.
first lets look at the concept of VIP, its basically saying you are more important than some one else and get special benefits.

The advantages VIP offers are:
teleport to player
ressurection in battle
more skill points, IE more skills. In china they will have less skill point quests, you will have to be VIP to get access to some.
dont know what the rest means, like
convienent trading?

but yeah, its straight up paying to have an advantage over other players, it cant really be debated, you will have easier times farming, more skill points, special titles.

http://i.imgur.com/qZCwB0m.png

now you could debate whether pay to win is cool or not, thats a different debate though.

The thing i find interesting is how people who play in NA, basically are hoping that GW2 can juice asia for as much money as possible so they can reap the benefits. I mean this is capitalism, so i guess it doesnt matter, but people who would go crazy if this type of stuff was over here, are basically like, go get em anet, and make me some new shoes with that china money.

That’s true of the VIP system. A couple of things to clarify.

1) Will the Chinese version allow Gold to Gem exchanges? If so, non-paying customers can still become VIPs.

2) In general, GW2 is not a P2W game. That doesn’t mean they can’t alter their microtransactions to be more like one. Remember, in Asian gaming cultures, P2W is acceptable and desired. Having a Buy to Play game with a microtransaction store is unique. Not many games use this type of strategy in Asia, let along China. Most times it’s a Free to Play game with a heavy money store, or a subscription game with money store. GW2-China is probably trying to appeal to both crowds.

On the topic of personal guilds for bank space, keep in mind that if a hacker steals your money, Account Restorations do not include what you had in your Guild Bank. That’s something to consider.

No, the true and proper meaning of the term “P2W” is what I posted. Your “interpretation” of P2W is your own, thus is wrong. Sorta like saying salvaging an Exotic Jewel to get more mats back than what you put in isn’t an exploit, yet Anet sees it differently.

I get that over time, a word or term’s true meaning can evolve. But the original and intended meaning of the “P2W” term is “Paying to have an advantage over non-paying customers, thus winning”.

Katastrofi.5816:

I cannot give you any example in this game because there aren’t any since gems can be bought with in-game currency.

Exactly. The true meaning of P2W was “Paying to Win”. Players pay real life money to have advantages over non-paying customers. Some refer to this mindset as being “elitists”, which isn’t far off. There’s an artificial barrier a game company makes that separates players who spend money, from those who don’t. That doesn’t mean the non-paying customer can’t play the game at all, but rather they play at a lower level.

Example: I can play an airplane or flying game for free with a hang-glider just fine, but if I spend $500 to buy an F-16, I can play it even better. I can fly higher, thus accessing more content. I can battle other hang-gliders with my F-16 and win every time. Etc.

Katastrofi.5816:

Okay, so based on your definition, some games rank their gear based on stats. There is an ultimate end-game item that is the best of the best, and yes, if this item was on a store for money, it would be pay to win.

How about GW2? Gear is not ULTIMATELY based on the stats (yes there are different tiers, ascended being the highest, but that’s realllyyy not the point for end-game). The entire game is built on novelty/vanity items. You show off your status based on the bling you have. The value of this ‘bling’ depends on its rarity, attainability, accessibility, popularity, etc, etc. That’s why anything you buy through the gem shop can be considered a ‘win’ because the value of the item from the shop can very well fall into one (or all) of those categories.

To me (and a lot of people) “winning” is achieving a goal. Now, maybe someone wants to do it the quickest and do it better than everyone else, but really means “you’ve beat something or someone.” The goal in this game is to have the rarest gear with the ‘best’ skins, some of which are found in the gem shop.

Point is, yes, the gem shop is P2W in the context of THIS game. An exotic is and exotic. The value of the exotic is not the stats, but the skin.

Not sure if you actually read my quick explanation of what P2W really is. You should read it again, and see that every single example you posted is completely off base.

I’ll try to simplify it more by asking a single question. In Guild Wars 2, can you tell me what content, which gives large statistical advantages, is exclusive to “paying” customers over non-paying customers? The moment that you can answer this question, is the moment I’ll tell you GW2 is P2W.

Pie Flavor.1647:

~~~ snip ~~~

I can tell that you’re not familiar with the differences between our two markets. Western gamers are far different then Asian gamers. I could do a 10 page forum post on explaining why. I’ll do the short TL;DR version below.

Asian gamers and Western gamers both want to look good and win, yes. However, in the Asian market, the game culture far surpasses anything you’ll find in the US or Europe. Video games is a sport, to put it as simple as possible. Some kids can make 6 figure salaries from sponsorship alone. That aside, the Asian market of P2W is more accepted, as the better your character looks/plays, the more status you have. Status in the Asian gaming culture is very important. So people are willing to dish out larger sums of money than most Western gamers would. That’s not to say a few on our side don’t spend as much.

Last nite, we were running 6-minute LA runs to get people their achievements. On one particular run, one of the Knights (blue I think) went down in ~30 seconds. Has anyone experienced this post-patch? Or is this just epic skill and coordination of the team leader on that Knight?

CC Danicia.1394:

Hey folks, let’s please keep this thread on-topic and clean so the Devs can find your feedback easily. Thank you!

I’m sorry you had to come in to clean house. We do appreciate that a major bug was fixed. I’m no programmer, so I can’t imagine how much hair pulling your Devs had to do to find the cause of the bug.

I have thousands of T6 mats stockpiled, and I didn’t farm any of them.

Edit – well, maybe less than 5% farmed

Autumn Frazee.3158:

Update of the ‘Six Minutes to Knightfall’ achievement: we’ve identified the issue and are currently working on a fix. Thank you for the information on only two people from the successful maps getting the achievement, that was the final clue we needed! I’ll keep this thread updated as we work on the fix.

It feels good to know that our one tiny tidbit of information on the bug helped to solve the problem.

But Anet is owned by NCSoft, which is a Korean company. If the parent company tells their subsidiary not to do something, who are they to not follow?

All we know is that Anet had plans to release Cantha, or have Cantha lore be a part of GW2 from the beginning, but something caused the change. In fact, the Cantha district of Divinity’s Reach was there until the last second. Screencaps of what the area was supposed to look like still exist. The “Great Collapse” was the result of having to destroy that part of the map, since they didn’t have time to redo that section before official launch.

It’s the players’ responsibility to manage their accounts. The fact that you deleted a toon with unique items equipped means you weren’t paying attention.

Anet does not undo player mistakes. Sorry for your loss. Please be more careful in the future.

By submitting multiple tickets, you delay your chances of getting your account back.

If he wants to give his money for an item, he should log in to buy it. We don’t know what Anet’s offering this month, so you should be logging in daily to see what’s available. Here’s the wording from the official webpage:

“Each day in March we’re running special promotions in the Gem Store! You’ll get 31 chances to save big on different Gem Store items or pick up a popular item from the past! Each sale begins at 12:01 a.m. and ends at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.”

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/march-daily-sales-in-the-gem-store/

Katastrofi.5816:

Taras.4578:

It’s sad that this generation of gaming has lost its bearing of the true meaning of “pay2win”.

So what is the meaning of “pay2win” for you?

The definition is completely subjective, and it depends vastly on the application, so go for it.

It’s actually not that subjective. P2W means paying money to win. In a PvP situation, paying for a sword that has vastly better stats over what’s available for a non-paying customer is what P2W is all about. Think of it like “paying for a guaranteed win”. Same thing if you had a game with airplanes. Paying real money to buy an F-16 to combat someone in a hang-glider.

Roguefire.8174:

I found that if I left my ranger pet in combat I wouldn’t log out. I admit I did this quite frequently when tabbing out of the game, then grabbing the loot when I came back.

I honestly didn’t think it was that big a deal. Now that I know this is a bannable offense it clearly wont happen again. It says the account closure is permanent, but is there a way my account can just be rolled back a couple days? I think this is extreme measures for something that should be a warning.

You were, in effect, botting. Warnings against that is in the User Agreement.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Thanks for the reply and I just wanted to make the suggestion. Thanks for listening.

@ smooth Penguin – I have no idea why you felt the need to verbally attack my suggestion like this. Have a nice day.

Because it’s not Anet’s fault, so they shouldn’t have to create additional barriers for a player’s lack of security. Plain and simple. By doing so, the actions of a single individual create inconveniences for thousands of others.

My take is this – If the OP willingly offered himself to be scammed, we should let the scammer off without any punishment. Why? Because there’s no victim.

TTS and Deso should get a unique title: Beta Testing Gurus.

Microtransactions and vanity items are important to Chinese and Korean players. These groups tend to have more disposable income, or the willingness to spend a large portion of their income, on games. That’s why P2W games are popular in Asia. I remember reading an article of a player would bid $16,000 to have a unique, one of a kind in-game sword.

As for these items being P2W, these are close, but still not at the same levels of other Asian games. So far, none of the items I’m seeing provide any clear advantages for paying customers than non-paying. But once we see Gem store items that increase weapon damage or armor rating (not counting +5% boosters) by large amounts, then the game can effectively be called P2W.

People need to learn to dodge to avoid getting 1-shot by the AOE. That will solve most of the problems with being fully dead in this event. It’s fine if you’re just downed, I’ll gladly help you up because that’s quick. But if you’re dead, it’s proper etiquette to WP and run back. Asking for someone to rez you when DPS is critical is not right.

Confirmed – Only 2 people can get the achievement per successful run. That’s some wacky bug. It’s like I won the lottery, and my prize is the shame of not being able to share it with my TTS guildies. I’d gladly give up this achievement if no one else in my group can get credit where credit is due.

On the topic of Orbs, they’ve been a good buy for months. Most Orbs hovered around their merchant sell prices, making them a win/win in terms of investment with minimal losses. I haven’t seen the current prices, but they’re guaranteed to jump if they’re used in Ascended Jewel making.

Maple Taurus.1637:

~~~snip~~~

GW2 is a true MMO with an Open World. There’s no need for a mercenary system. What would be better is if you went out and made some friends or join a guild. Then you could play with them.

Vystirch.3418:

Wanze.8410:

Vystirch.3418:

Where is the information source for these new legendaries to come out? Can someone link it plz.

Its speculation.

They must be speculating on something, from someone in Anet said…

Or we’re just speculating based on the speculation of other players’ speculations. Sorta like “I think I know what they’re thinking I think I know.”

I was part of that TTS run. Me and one other person got the achievement. That means 2 out of ~100 players who were there were successful. That’s not good.

Mystic.5934:

from http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Chest:
“A Black Lion Chest is a container that, once unlocked with a Black Lion Key, yields 3 items.”
You should of got 3 items + alliance bags
it’s likely your 3rd item was a duplicate for something you already had? such as revive orb adding to the stack in your inventory?

Ah, I shall correct my post.

Edit: Added “Players will now get two rewards plus a booster from each chest. This means they can potentially get two of anything from a single chest”

OP might have gotten two (2) EoL, which might count toward the 2 drops + booster.

Mystic.5934:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Xia.3485:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

They communicate through the official website located at: www.guildwars2.com

Sorry to say but the only time I browse this website is when I’m bored at work. That doesn’t happen every month.

I suspect the majority of the player base never touches this website.

That would be their fault then. On the login splash screen, links are provided to update players about the latest happenings. Be it patch notes or planned changes, Anet does a great job communicating via their official website and forums.

and the links open your web browser. it would literally be easier for them to copy/paste whatever they have to say directly to the login page than copy/paste links there. They just want visits to their website so badly they are willing to sacrifice our knowledge to get them.

Let’s see. Put in a vast amount of information in a small section of the login page, or provide links for players to click, taking them to a page dedicated to the topic at hand.

I think links are the best solutions. If a player doesn’t want to click on them, that’s their call. If someone feels they don’t need to know what’s going on, who are we to force them?

This works out well. People like me get to see changes, and then adjust my buying habits on the Trading Post. People who don’t read updates are the ones who end up paying more for things they need later on. It’s the circle of life.

Never.8571:

Behellagh.1468:

Pretty sure the 5 bags was in addition to the normal 3 items per chest.

Uh, no. They were one of the three drops.

I said [5 Bags] [x booster] [EoL]

That’s what came in the box. Can’t remember which booster, not like it matters anyway.

Please see the following quote:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Players will now get two rewards plus a booster from each chest. This means they can potentially get two of anything from a single chest on the following list:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Chest

The 5 bags are only a temporary bonus.

Xia.3485:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

They communicate through the official website located at: www.guildwars2.com

Sorry to say but the only time I browse this website is when I’m bored at work. That doesn’t happen every month.

I suspect the majority of the player base never touches this website.

That would be their fault then. On the login splash screen, links are provided to update players about the latest happenings. Be it patch notes or planned changes, Anet does a great job communicating via their official website and forums.

Then you should have just “guested” to the other server instead of “transferring”. That would have been the best solution to your problem.

Mystic.5934:

months? sheesh. well, that just goes to show how well their communication is. where was the original source, anyways? I’ve only heard it from other players.

They communicate through the official website located at: www.guildwars2.com

Zeqasa Saitou.4256:

well… at least we now know who isn’t contributing as players.
good day to you sirs….

I hope someday you change you mind and acknowledge how the game mechanics work. Who knows, maybe I’ll even revive you in an overflow.

If you understood the game mechanics, you wouldn’t go down in the first place.

Zeqasa Saitou.4256:

Anypony who doesn’t rez a fallen combatant is just selfish.

This game is based around helping each other out. If a player has fallen, and is dead, of course it scales the enemy. The game is expecting players to revive him/her. 5 players reviving 1 fallen players is much faster than expecting them to walk back, and the amount of dps contributed by those who are revived already greatly increase the amount of damage your group is putting out (rather then their corpses just rotting). This is just basic math. lets say 5 people deal 100 damage. 1 falls. now your deal 80. over 10 mins, riving the 1 to deal 100 again results in a much higher number than the 4 dealing 80 and yelling at the 1 that fell.

think about the group, and the others playing this game. And of course, remember that this IS just a game. That is what makes a great community.

Think about others, like we did at launch.

Or the dead person could use a Way Point, and run back, thus saving his comrades the time it takes to rez him. They should think about the group’s success as a whole.

When you transfer to another server, your goods in the Guild Bank remains on that server. Guesting does not allow you to access them, so you need to transfer back, or have a trust friend mail you your stuff.

Never.8571:

So I managed to get a hold of some keys doing map completion. I opened one chest, and got a green Essence of Luck, 5 Bags of Alliance Supplies, and some booster.

EoL’s are in the drop table for the chests? Come on.

Players will now get two rewards plus a booster from each chest. This means they can potentially get two of anything from a single chest on the following list:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Chest

The 5 bags are only a temporary bonus.

I think we should have auto kicks from the map if you’re dead for X-minutes during an event like this. We must find a way to exclude players who aren’t contributing.

Vol.7601:

Malediktus.9250:

Good luck making 2 of the new legendaries on patchday. We dont even know the recipes for them. I wouldnt be suprised if they would be completly different recipes with ascended mats and the precursors will cost more than the old legendaries in the first days.

It’s unlikely to expect new recipes for the new legendary weapons. There is no rationale for it, anyways. Legendary trinkets,however, are more likely to be different but I have prepared for that.

The precursor would be the most immediate problem, considering the likelihood of timegates involved. But that can be easily solved with forge gambling, or throwing thousands of gold at it on the TP.

Forge gambling will also be a reason why T5 and T6 mats will spike.

Serenity.6149:

So if we used gems on Black Lion keys and received Glory Boosters as a result, we’re SOL huh? Typical Anet, but at least this is even more reason to never buy another key again. I never thought the boosters from the chests were that useful/valuable to begin with, but now we know they have even less value!

Saying that we had advance notice to use them up is not good enough; anyone who has them realizes that’s an near impossible feat. They could have offered an X:1 swap for a different kind of booster, or at least provided them with some merchant value.

If you received Glory Boosters from a BL Chest before it was patched, then you didn’t exactly buy the boosters. Because you won them from an RNG offering, you technically got them for free, and thus aren’t being ripped off.

Blaeys.3102:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Blaeys.3102:

They need to scale all of these fights down (including Tequatl and the worms) to be doable by groups as small as 30 (yet still be challenging)

Don’t compare the Knights to the Wurm plz. The LA events are bugged. The Wurm is Elite content. Fixing the first is the solution, but no easy mode for the Wurm.

No one is asking for easy mode.

Were just asking to be able to do the content with a reasonably sized group.

Requiring more people does not equal more difficult. People need to quit thinking that way. It’s what got us into this in the first place.

But that is only a tiny part of the bigger issue. Scaling is broken and needs to be fixed.

Those of us on lower populated servers just want a little love too.

Nope. The Wurm was meant for large scale coordinated efforts. That should and will remain the same. The Knights however, they’re just buggy and need to be fixed.

It’s safe to assume that others will assume the same mats will be required for Legendary Gifts, so prices will spike.