ANET pay attention! Cash Shops

gw1228

note: I have already sent Anet the links also....

 

Lately there has been an outcry against cash shops in F2P MMo's like Guild Wars. You can see them all over MMORPG...mainly it has been because of recent developments over at Allods online a Russian based F2P MMO.

 

In case you don't know the whole story behind Allods online here's a quick recap. Allods Online is a F2P MMO that is right now in the beta phase. 2 weeks ago (sorry about the grammar) they released unto beta their Cash shop to the horror of gamers the price of items in the US cash shop were inflated as much as 10 times that of the Russian cash shops. After an onslaught by the internet gaming community (including popular gaming sites) Allods or Astrum Nival and it's owners decided to lower prices in the CS but it wasn't enough as gamers over at Allods are furious over new items being implemented that are pretty much required to PVP and to erase a death penalty called Feign of Death. http://allods-forum.gpotato.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12476

 

Now we do not know what kind of CS will be available in GW2 I'm sure there will be some kind but if they just stick to the way GW1 Cash shop is set up we won't have any problems. I think Anet knows their fanbase pretty well and I'm hoping they don't get too greedy and start implementing stupid costly items in game. Allods online is only failing because they are not copying American F2P games like Guild Wars but instead are copying Asian F2P MMo's where asians tend to spend around 300 per month on their MMO's.

 

Guild Wars popularized F2P MMO's by keeping them 100% sub free and you didn't need anything from the CS to fully enjoy the game unlike Allods....let's keep it that way. Guild Wars already has a huge following and I'm sure that when it comes out it will totally destroy companies like Gala Net and Astrum Nival that want to take advantage of Gamers in the F2P market or I should say Pay2WIN market. Good Luck Guild Wars.

joker007mo

thos cash shops didnt get introduced until way after the game started going downhill if anything they will do the same with gw2  i hope anyway

drbaltazar

lol!did you even play guild wars?

guild wars cs that affacted gameplay was the skill stuff mostly

instead of grinding all over the map to find elite and regular skill drop from random drop boss

gw had made avail diff package for diff part of gw

no biggy here in my book since its a one time deal (unlike allod)

anet will probably be using a similar strategy

but i will say this not one item arenanet made avail in their store wasnt avail in game

but its true the one in game involved lot of searching or lot of hard grinding since the most epic and most wanted

spel often dropped from the hardest boss to kill

only thing that might happen here is the the skill or elite skill that dropped might drop only for one player in your group instead of everybody like before!why?so that player go back to those boss to grind those elite since right now its the main issue

you kill a boss everybody get the elite so that group never comes back there anymore!wich is a shame!

but aside from those small tweak i dont think arenanet will go far from what made guild wars successfull

maybe they ll add skin for various item and all but game breaking stuff naw they had a pretty decent model in the past

like i say they might tweak the drop rate lower so player go back to those boss but aside from that it will be same as usual!

gw1228

I played Guild Wars since day 1 and just stopped playing last year.  I never said people were outcrying over GW's CS just simply said "F2P MMo's like Guild Wars" sorry if you misunderstood.

Anyways I agree with what you said except your rant about the elite skills????? ok..

I just hope Anet steers clear if these recent F2P models that are coming out and just trying to rape the hell out of gamers like were some kind of cash cows or something.

Naturalist99

This game wont have a cash shop cuz its not f2p, its Buy to play, and the skill packages werent unfair, people could only really have an advantage over people with the skill packages in PvP in which you can just buy them with balthazar points anyways in game, and skill hunting is fun to do to 

joker007mo

Originally posted by Naturalist99


This game wont have a cash shop cuz its not f2p, its Buy to play, and the skill packages werent unfair, people could only really have an advantage over people with the skill packages in PvP in which you can just buy them with balthazar points anyways in game, and skill hunting is fun to do to 

honestly just be cuz its p2p doesnt mean a company wont try to get more cash out of an already milked economy

not saying they will but pointing out its not going to stop them if they so desire

joker007mo

Originally posted by drbaltazar


lol!did you even play guild wars?
guild wars cs that affacted gameplay was the skill stuff mostly
instead of grinding all over the map to find elite and regular skill drop from random drop boss
gw had made avail diff package for diff part of gw
no biggy here in my book since its a one time deal (unlike allod)
anet will probably be using a similar strategy
but i will say this not one item arenanet made avail in their store wasnt avail in game
but its true the one in game involved lot of searching or lot of hard grinding since the most epic and most wanted
spel often dropped from the hardest boss to kill
only thing that might happen here is the the skill or elite skill that dropped might drop only for one player in your group instead of everybody like before!why?so that player go back to those boss to grind those elite since right now its the main issue
you kill a boss everybody get the elite so that group never comes back there anymore!wich is a shame!
but aside from those small tweak i dont think arenanet will go far from what made guild wars successfull
maybe they ll add skin for various item and all but game breaking stuff naw they had a pretty decent model in the past
like i say they might tweak the drop rate lower so player go back to those boss but aside from that it will be same as usual!

you mean the skills packs in the ncsoft store?  as far as i was aware those were only available for a lvl 20 pvp only toon

if you wanted them in pve you still had to buy them they was just unlocked which quite frankly wasnt a gamebreaker nor did i even care whether its a breaker for pvp idk never liked gw pvp

Plasmicredx

The Guild Wars cash shop was for players who had just bought the game and wanted to just jump into competitive guild matches.

Sirrush

I think you guys need to learn the definition of a cash shop.. Because last time I checked, F2P MMO's with cash shops sell items that are otherwise unobtainable and in this way give an advantage over someone. This is NOT the case in Guild Wars, as all items in the GWShop are obtainable purely by ingame means.

 

But hey, what do I know, right?

Aladyleyna

Well, from what I know, stuff like costumes and ingame name and appearance changes as well as increased storage space can only be found in the cash shop, as well as bonus missions, but it's not as if you actually need those to really enjoy the game, do you? Even the bonus missions as well, yes, they give max level weapons as rewards, and the weapons are actually no better than any of the in game max-level weapons as well. You can buy the skill unlock packs if you like, but those can also be obtained ingame by buying skills with Balthazar points or by aquiring and capturing skills as you go along in PVE.

So yes, I would say that the cash shop in Guild Wars is extremely fair, and that I hope Guild Wars 2 continues with such a cash shop. 

jdram14

Originally posted by Sirrush

I think you guys need to learn the definition of a cash shop.. Because last time I checked, F2P MMO's with cash shops sell items that are otherwise unobtainable and in this way give an advantage over someone. This is NOT the case in Guild Wars, as all items in the GWShop are obtainable purely by ingame means.

 

But hey, what do I know, right?

This.

EricDanie

Originally posted by jdram14

Originally posted by Sirrush

I think you guys need to learn the definition of a cash shop.. Because last time I checked, F2P MMO's with cash shops sell items that are otherwise unobtainable and in this way give an advantage over someone. This is NOT the case in Guild Wars, as all items in the GWShop are obtainable purely by ingame means.

 

But hey, what do I know, right?

This.

That. GW can't even be considered a F2P and a MMO, it's B2P. The basic deduction when they said GW2 would follow the revenue model of GW1 is this B2P stance instead of a "F2P" item mall MMO.

Lydon

Originally posted by Aladyleyna

Well, from what I know, stuff like costumes and ingame name and appearance changes as well as increased storage space can only be found in the cash shop, as well as bonus missions, but it's not as if you actually need those to really enjoy the game, do you? Even the bonus missions as well, yes, they give max level weapons as rewards, and the weapons are actually no better than any of the in game max-level weapons as well. You can buy the skill unlock packs if you like, but those can also be obtained ingame by buying skills with Balthazar points or by aquiring and capturing skills as you go along in PVE.

So yes, I would say that the cash shop in Guild Wars is extremely fair, and that I hope Guild Wars 2 continues with such a cash shop. 

Yeah, but none of the above are items that are unobtainable in-game minus the missions...and those aren't exactly "items" either.

 

Imho, the Guild Wars cash shop is awesome. It's an asset to the game, and helps to keep ANet's doors open. I'm down with that.

Alberel

What GW had was microtransactions, as far as I'm aware that's different from a cash shop. The GW store never sold physical items of the sort players would expect to buy on a regular basis... EVERYTHING in the store was either an account service of some kind (rename, etc) or it permanently unlocked content on your account (bonus missions, special item packs or PvP only skill unlocks).

Account services are something that most MMOs offer (and I seriously don't understand the recent trend of considering it a cash shop feature). Content unlocks are no different than buying small expansion packs or other perks for your account.

I really don't understand why people consider this sort of activity a 'cash shop'. Does that mean that most recent console games have cash shops because you have to pay for DLC? lol.

I'm pretty sure GW2 won't have anything like the OP is concerned about since it goes against their business model and negates one of the main selling points of the game: you buy the box and that's it.

ThomasN7

Originally posted by Lydon

Originally posted by Aladyleyna

Well, from what I know, stuff like costumes and ingame name and appearance changes as well as increased storage space can only be found in the cash shop, as well as bonus missions, but it's not as if you actually need those to really enjoy the game, do you? Even the bonus missions as well, yes, they give max level weapons as rewards, and the weapons are actually no better than any of the in game max-level weapons as well. You can buy the skill unlock packs if you like, but those can also be obtained ingame by buying skills with Balthazar points or by aquiring and capturing skills as you go along in PVE.

So yes, I would say that the cash shop in Guild Wars is extremely fair, and that I hope Guild Wars 2 continues with such a cash shop. 

Yeah, but none of the above are items that are unobtainable in-game minus the missions...and those aren't exactly "items" either.

 

Imho, the Guild Wars cash shop is awesome. It's an asset to the game, and helps to keep ANet's doors open. I'm down with that.

 Exactly and ArenaNet does not sell in-game items whatsoever.

Hochmeister

Lets all agree that GW2 should be like GW1 in payment system because that was very succesfull.

Cash shops in P2P is completley wrong. Cash shop that sell things that affect gamplay in Completley  Free F2P is ok

Cash shop that sells things  that affect gameplay in a way that gives people advantage in PVP and combat in  Game that u buy with no subs like GW1 is wrong and would make people unhappy.

rockin_ufo

Originally posted by SaintViktor

-snip-

 Exactly and ArenaNet does not sell in-game items whatsoever.

Except Costumes, but ya, those are just cosmetic

 

If GW2 sticks with GW1's type of cash shop, everything will work out fine.