Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
GW2 and its in-game shop
This discussion has been closed.
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
See i dont even look for one , my life continues to be OK outside the online gameworld ...so i dont need to devour offerings i dont like .
Here, have a cookie.
TRUST THE COMPUTER! THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND!
Stay Alert! Trust No One! Keep Your Laser Handy!
Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues!
I am a sheep, I decided to play WoW solely for the reason that EVERYONE ELSE WAS. I played the content and found it to be extremely lacking. WoW is so far a game that NO ONE has EVER insisted I play. No one has told me it has an AWESOME story, or the items are so unique, or the community is so fantastic. Since its inception the constant input I get is "I am looking at this new game, but for the meantime I am just going to keep playing WoW, if this new game works out I will jump ship"
So to say that 5 million users believe that WOW is worth the sub... I doubt that. 5 million people won't tell you that Mc Donalds has the healthiest food and you should eat there. It tastes good for a bit and you love to hate it, and hate to love it. WOW is the dirty little secret we keep and share with others who also have it.
A game that handles the item shop pretty well is Runes of Magic.
Until we see it, we can only keep our fingers crossed that they don't screw GW2 up like most of the F2P games.
I seek to find the Perfect MMO, do you have what I seek?
Skinner box. All you need to know about WoW gameplay and all the other derivatives of its design.
And this from a former "hardcore" and "fanboi".
And if you still love it and enjoy it then GOOD. And if you move on to TOR and have fun, even BETTER. And for those waiting for GW2 and TSW, I hope you find fun as well because those games show promise of AWESOME.
That being said: I am right and you are wrong. Now,
TRUST THE COMPUTER! THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND!
Stay Alert! Trust No One! Keep Your Laser Handy!
Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues!
1) Stories, dungeons, or even expansion within the shop, imo, would be perfectly fine. You are paying money to get more content. The only difference between buying the stories and dungeons a la carte and buying them within an expansion is well one comes in a box and the other you can download as they are made available.
2) XP potions...it's one of those fine line things. It's not exactly game breaking to offer XP potions in shape, especially if they are available in the game.
I don't think ArenaNet would risk their reputation by offering something game-changing in the cashshop. I remember seeing the community explode when they mentioned transmutation stones being in the shop. Last I heard, now, transmutation stones can now be purchased in-game or in the cash shop.
There's a very fine line that if Anet crosses the community will explode. Yes technically, by following their philosophy, they could even offer armor sets in there, as long as they weren't more powerful than anything obtained within the game. However, if they did such a thing the community would literally explode. The reputation ArenaNet has gained, and it's the reason why us GW1 fans have faith in Anet, will be lost.
I know it's hard to believe, but you can have a company that does care about about their customers. While yes, their first and foremost goal is to make a profit (they are a business after all), they can do it by listening to their playerbase and delivering on what they want. And, theoretically, those who like Anet will tell their friends and then Anet will gain even more business. That's how GW1 grew as big as it did.
I hope they stay true to the GW cash shop. XP potions are already too much. The most efficient way to kill this wonderful game is an NCSoft pay2win cash shop. I've seen too many F2P cash shops that destroy their player base. I do hope they stay far away from that. I'm not paying for this game if the cash shop is p2w. Paying for an in-game advantage over another player = pay to win. It's simple. So far I have no reason to distrust Anet or NCSoft, let's hope it stays that way.
Very true. I just don't understand that mentality. Anet wants to show that you can turn a good profit and make a good game without charging a subscription. As in my signature, they want gamers to lose this ridiculous belief that a game needs to charge you money each month for the privilege of playing something you already paid for.
Sounds like an Apple customer.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
WTF? No subscription fee?
So instead of a monthly fee (which some feel is uneeded to support a game) they add a Cash Shop. Why? Is it needed? Or is it just a different way of getting what they miss out on with a sub fee? Players are going to pay one way or the other. Some just prefer an upfront sub fee as opposed to a stealthy cash shop.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
I think one needs to look no further than GW1's shop to see what we can expect in GW2. A fact that alot of people don't want to admit is that there is alot more than fluff in the GW1 shop. This is the kind of stuff people complain about in other games but overlook here because GW1 is "B2P" not "F2P".
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
SSSHhhhhhhhh........
You weren't supposed to mention that.
What I don't get is why people keep saying that $50 upfront + $150 fees per year is a better buy then $50 upfront. They gotta be kidding, or maybe it's a form of sarcasm.
There's no cash shop yet so any claims that it will contain more then fluff are somewhat premature.
You've obviously never played Guildwars or you would have been more familiar with the skill unlocking mechanism. These packs are aimed at PvP, they unlock the skills for the account, meaning PvE characters still have to buy or capture them in game, through normal game play. They are only available directly to PvP characters and heroes and they're not so useful for heroes, since most players would have had the more useful skills unlocked by the time heroes became available. They could be useful for players who only want to PvP, as it gave them access to all skills, without having to play PvE, or build up Balthazar faction through playing PvP to buy them. For them they are a convenience, without giving an advantage as everything they offer is available through playing the game. And even the convenience is small, as 15 minutes of casual PvP will get you 8-10 skills.
Like Blizzard, ANet can not afford to give players the opportunity to gain an advantage that is only available through the cash shop, because players would leave en masse - and Guidwars' B2P needs loyal customers to buy expansions.
This should go without saying, but apparently it needs to be. Unlike a subscription, you won't be prevented or hindered from playing with an inclusion of a cash shop. You have the choice to ignore it, use it or abuse it. You have full discretion over your money. If you're incapable of limiting your spending, that's your failing.
People lacking the math skills to calculate the annual cost of sube fees are just the people the F2P devs are making their games for. I know, millions play the F2P games without paying a penny. I know people who claim to always win at the casino as well. Be it casinos or F2P games, someone is paying the bills.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
So... no p2w items then, ever.
It was very clear from the beggining ppl, nothing new really.
'Made by gamers for gamers' - this is why this team so good.
SexuaLobster's Grease Portal
I'm fairly confident we are going to see 3 major ways of paying for the game for the forseeable future.
F2P - You download and play for free and they either make it straight up P2W which will be more common or they make it a bit of a grind to get to where you would be by just buying stuff.
B2P - Quite similar to the latter method of F2P with two exceptions, nothing you buy in the store gives you an advantage over others. Even that statement in it's own is fairly vague and each company will of course take it as far as they like. The second exception is that you need to buy the box, or digital download.
Sub - Games that ask for a monthly fee should should not be charging for the initial box or expansions (Like EVE does with it's expansions). Sub based games could also, again like EVE, offer the ability to pay for your account time with in game currency. I understand that there may be a possibility to convert Game Time into In-Game money but if carefully thought through and your game supports it and is built around it you can prevent abuse of people trying to make the system P2W (And again EVE does a good job of that).
I bet he doesn't even understand what those skill packs are and how you obtain these skills in game.... Let alone the fact that the REAL grind in the game is getting elite skills which are not sold in the store at all.
Next they will be linking the stuff for pvp only characters and going 'OMG YOU CAN BUY THIS STUFFFFF!!!!11;' again not understanding at all how this stuff is actually implemented.
We're in the GW2 forum so I don't see why you start discussing F2P games and their means to generat income?
Actually, the link he posted says the unlock packs include basic and elite skills.
Could you perhaps explain the way it works in Guild Wars 1 for those of us who don't play? I for one am bothered a little bit by them allowing you to buy all your skills...but I'll admit I don't know how GW1 works so I'd like to learn.
What are you saying, man? RoM had a horrible P2W item shop!
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Buying the skill packs...does it give an advantage to the person that does not buy them? It's pretty obvious that it does. One might argue that you are not buying anything that you cannot unlock yourself, so it is not an advantage... so let's look at Tom and Jerry.
Tom is working on unlocking those skills.
Jerry...Jerry's done.
How could you say that Jerry does not have an advantage?
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
Jerry definitely does have an advantage, the question is how much? Jerry hasn't played PvP and unlocked the skills with his points, Jerry has no clue how those hundreds of skills works or any idea of how to create an effective build with them, he can go look up some builds on the web and follow cookie cutters, that gives him an advantage at the start until....he comes across players who have picked up their skills by playing and have developed an understanding of the skills and created their own builds, Jerry's build is now useless and the wiki doesn't have a counter. Jerry's advantage is short term and puts him at a disadvantage unless he's a really skilled player, otherwise he's got a very steep learning curve to climb. There is an advantage in playing for them, I'd say it's balanced.
First, you start the game with a PvE(/story) character starting from level 1 or a PvP only character starting from max level (20). Second, you start the game with 0 skills and equipment, but acquiring skills is fairly easy.
When you start the game with your PvE character, you are basically given dozens of skills and the further you advance you get more skills. When you acquire them with you PvE character, they will be unlocked for your account for all of your existing and future PvP characters to use.
Alternatively, you can make a PvP character from the get-go, but if you have zero skills, what do you use? -No problem, you have a handful of premade builds (free skill sets) which you can use for PvP. By playing PvP you get Balthazar points, a form of currency, which you can use further use to unlock skills and equipment for PvP. Again, it is fairly easy to get Balthazar points and you can be free of the pre-mades make a viable build of your own.
See, both PvE and PvP unlock skills and equipment for PvP. It may take a number of different PvE characters and/or a lot of PvP to get all the skills and maxed out equipment for PvP, but a lot of the skills are redundant or very rarely used anyway. Buying these packs is a shortcut for PvP, but you gain no advantage against those who don't have the packs. Furthemore, you gain nothing for your PvE characters apart from skills for your heroes (=NPC henchmen).
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
It is subjective depending on how much effort you think there is to acquire skills and equipment without the packs. I think acquiring skills is fairly easy, but getting the maxed gear unlocked may be a lot harder.
It is not like World of Tanks where you simply get more damage by spending money (a clear advantage). What GW has is a shortcut - not an advantage.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
I think the point about the skill unlock packs for GW1 is a somewhat moot point as far as GW2 goes. As I recall, the skill unlock packs were originally intended more for PvP players, so they could bypass all the PvE.
Now in GW2 its already been stated that just the act of entering a PvP area (competitive or WvWvW) will automatically give you access to all the skills. In that case, they bypass the whole issue; PvP players won't need to buy skill packs to unlock everything.