If power and stat gear are on the AH for gold, and you buy gold with gems, then buy that stat gear, you are buying power and stat gear with real money, same as though it were in the shop.
"Power and stat gear" is not an option in GW2. I know grasping that concept is extremely hard for some people, but please try to get it - It will make your time in GW2 so much easier.
It was my understanding that stats on gear does matter except in one small form of pvp. It certainly matters in Guild Wars 1. The only difference is, once level 80, it is relatively fast and easy to get the best gear. But what about at all the levels before it? Are you saying an affordable piece of armor will be available at every level from a vendor? If so, gear won't drop from mobs, right? And there's no point in crafting any gear, right? Because it's all given to you for almost nothing from vendors.
If that's how it will really work, I stand corrected.
Yes, that is correct. And appart from that you also get drops from mobs and the skins of crafted items are different.
Its all about options and versatility.
You have been talking as if you know anything about the game, clearly you dont.
Okay, so no one is going to buy gold with gems, so the comment that they can put anything they want in the cash shop because you can always trade gold for gems is utter nonsense. No one will need more gold than they can readily get farming it up, so who cares? And sorry, crafters, no point in crafting, either I guess. Well, not true, come to think of it, crafters might be able to make better looking gear than vendors have, but other than that, there's no point.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
Yes, that is correct. And appart from that you also get drops from mobs and the skins of crafted items are different.
Its all about options and versatility.
You have been talking as if you know anything about the game, clearly you dont.
Okay, so no one is going to buy gold with gems, so the comment that they can put anything they want in the cash shop because you can always trade gold for gems is utter nonsense. No one will need more gold than they can readily get farming it up, so who cares? And sorry, crafters, no point in crafting, either I guess. Well, not true, come to think of it, crafters might be able to make better looking gear than vendors have, but other than that, there's no point.
I still can't understand how you can bring misinformed arguments into this. To buy gems allows you to purchase what subs are doing with real cash only, enabling third party to flood the game with ingame currency from outside.
This limits to a degree because you can still get that vanity item ingame without paying anything.
The crafting is fun but without the stats it becomes esthetic and if people are gonna pay real money just to look different from the gem/gold conversion then more power to them. lol Kinda strange but w/e.
Yes, that is correct. And appart from that you also get drops from mobs and the skins of crafted items are different.
Its all about options and versatility.
You have been talking as if you know anything about the game, clearly you dont.
Okay, so no one is going to buy gold with gems, so the comment that they can put anything they want in the cash shop because you can always trade gold for gems is utter nonsense. No one will need more gold than they can readily get farming it up, so who cares? And sorry, crafters, no point in crafting, either I guess. Well, not true, come to think of it, crafters might be able to make better looking gear than vendors have, but other than that, there's no point.
I still can't understand how you can bring misinformed arguments into this. To buy gems allows you to purchase what subs are doing with real cash only, enabling third party to flood the game with ingame currency from outside.
This limits to a degree because you can still get that vanity item ingame without paying anything.
The crafting is fun but without the stats it becomes esthetic and if people are gonna pay real money just to look different from the gem/gold conversion then more power to them. lol Kinda strange but w/e.
Point is you won't be able to buy gems with your gold because no one will part with their gems for gold if they don't need the gold to buy things for their characters.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
If power and stat gear are on the AH for gold, and you buy gold with gems, then buy that stat gear, you are buying power and stat gear with real money, same as though it were in the shop.
"Power and stat gear" is not an option in GW2. I know grasping that concept is extremely hard for some people, but please try to get it - It will make your time in GW2 so much easier.
It was my understanding that stats on gear does matter except in one small form of pvp. It certainly matters in Guild Wars 1. The only difference is, once level 80, it is relatively fast and easy to get the best gear. But what about at all the levels before it? Are you saying an affordable piece of armor will be available at every level from a vendor? If so, gear won't drop from mobs, right? And there's no point in crafting any gear, right? Because it's all given to you for almost nothing from vendors.
If that's how it will really work, I stand corrected.
Yes, that is correct. And appart from that you also get drops from mobs and the skins of crafted items are different.
Its all about options and versatility.
You have been talking as if you know anything about the game, clearly you dont.
Okay, so no one is going to buy gold with gems, so the comment that they can put anything they want in the cash shop because you can always trade gold for gems is utter nonsense. No one will need more gold than they can readily get farming it up, so who cares? And sorry, crafters, no point in crafting, either I guess. Well, not true, come to think of it, crafters might be able to make better looking gear than vendors have, but other than that, there's no point.
Who's going to be crafting gear when everyone is gonna fill up atleast one of their crafting slots for cooking, its the new biochem, because atleast it provides buffs while the other professions just provide unique skins.
Now selling cooking mats, thats gonna be where the real money is made.
If power and stat gear are on the AH for gold, and you buy gold with gems, then buy that stat gear, you are buying power and stat gear with real money, same as though it were in the shop.
"Power and stat gear" is not an option in GW2. I know grasping that concept is extremely hard for some people, but please try to get it - It will make your time in GW2 so much easier.
It was my understanding that stats on gear does matter except in one small form of pvp. It certainly matters in Guild Wars 1. The only difference is, once level 80, it is relatively fast and easy to get the best gear. But what about at all the levels before it? Are you saying an affordable piece of armor will be available at every level from a vendor? If so, gear won't drop from mobs, right? And there's no point in crafting any gear, right? Because it's all given to you for almost nothing from vendors.
If that's how it will really work, I stand corrected.
Yes, that is correct. And appart from that you also get drops from mobs and the skins of crafted items are different.
Its all about options and versatility.
You have been talking as if you know anything about the game, clearly you dont.
Okay, so no one is going to buy gold with gems, so the comment that they can put anything they want in the cash shop because you can always trade gold for gems is utter nonsense. No one will need more gold than they can readily get farming it up, so who cares? And sorry, crafters, no point in crafting, either I guess. Well, not true, come to think of it, crafters might be able to make better looking gear than vendors have, but other than that, there's no point.
Ppl payed lot of money for obsidian armor in GW, they will do the same for dungeon armor because they are not BOP. So when you finish that dungeon and finally have all those tokens gathered up, you can sell that REALLY rare armor for a lot of gold which in turn you can change into gems.
Its ok that you dont understand that people are prepared to spend a lot of cash into vanity items many ignorant to other games do.
I urge you to check out the CS of LoL and see how much people are prepared to spend for only vanity items.
Ppl payed lot of money for obsidian armor in GW, they will do the same for dungeon armor because they are not BOP. So when you finish that dungeon and finally have all those tokens gathered up, you can sell that REALLY rare armor for a lot of gold which in turn you can change into gems.
Its ok that you dont understand that people are prepared to spend a lot of cash into vanity items many ignorant to other games do.
I urge you to check out the CS of LoL and see how much people are prepared to spend for only vanity items.
Oh I understand it, and fully approve if this is really all people will sink their gem bought gold into. It just sounds too good to be true. I've played a lot of different games (including GW, briefly) with a lot of gamers, and the first thing any gamer willing to buy gems to trade for gold will likely ask herself isn't, how do I get that awesome looking armor set? It's how do I get anything that gives any advantage at all in pvp or pve?
If there is truly NOTHING that you can buy with gold that gives that advantage, I'm perfeclty happy. But I'm not believing it. ANet is welcome to make a believer of me, though.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
Monthly subs hands down. It's a lot more player friendly as it offers balanced enviroment and gives the company a solid stream of revenue which allows them to plan their updates/expansion better ahead.
F2P/B2P games with cash shop is just greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets. I've spent around 200€'s on League of Legends (F2P) and nothing even remotely compares to that. Lifetime account for Lotro was around 130$ and that's a lot bang for your buck :j
Ok, maybe it's the new math, or something, but, let me get this straight.
Company A, forces you to buy the box $50, and then forces you to pay a sub $15 per month, ($210 for the first year of play)
Company B, forces you to buy the box $60, ($60 for the first year of play) and then offers you the OPTION to buy things YOU MAY OR MAY NOT WANT, from it's shop. Therefore, company B has a "greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets". I just can't grasp this logic. Is it the freedom to choose whether to spend the extra money in Company B's shop? Is there some kind of evil reverse psychology at play here that's not immediately apparent to lesser minds like mine?
Monthly subs hands down. It's a lot more player friendly as it offers balanced enviroment and gives the company a solid stream of revenue which allows them to plan their updates/expansion better ahead.
F2P/B2P games with cash shop is just greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets. I've spent around 200€'s on League of Legends (F2P) and nothing even remotely compares to that. Lifetime account for Lotro was around 130$ and that's a lot bang for your buck :j
Ok, maybe it's the new math, or something, but, let me get this straight.
Company A, forces you to buy the box $50, and then forces you to pay a sub $15 per month, ($210 for the first year of play)
Company B, forces you to buy the box $60, ($60 for the first year of play) and then offers you the OPTION to buy things YOU MAY OR MAY NOT WANT, from it's shop. Therefore, company B has a "greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets". I just can't grasp this logic. Is it the freedom to choose whether to spend the extra money in Company B's shop? Is there some kind of evil reverse psychology at play here that's not immediately apparent to lesser minds like mine?
Because they follow it up with "the items Company B offers in their shop are so powerful that any player that doens't have them is at an extreme disadvantage and cannot keep up with anyone else". And there are many games that do this. And a growing number of games that do not.
Monthly subs hands down. It's a lot more player friendly as it offers balanced enviroment and gives the company a solid stream of revenue which allows them to plan their updates/expansion better ahead.
F2P/B2P games with cash shop is just greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets. I've spent around 200€'s on League of Legends (F2P) and nothing even remotely compares to that. Lifetime account for Lotro was around 130$ and that's a lot bang for your buck :j
Ok, maybe it's the new math, or something, but, let me get this straight.
Company A, forces you to buy the box $50, and then forces you to pay a sub $15 per month, ($210 for the first year of play)
Company B, forces you to buy the box $60, ($60 for the first year of play) and then offers you the OPTION to buy things YOU MAY OR MAY NOT WANT, from it's shop. Therefore, company B has a "greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets". I just can't grasp this logic. Is it the freedom to choose whether to spend the extra money in Company B's shop? Is there some kind of evil reverse psychology at play here that's not immediately apparent to lesser minds like mine?
I here ya.
I feel sorry for those of you whos sole focus of your working life is to make money. That is a sad, boring existence with no satisfaction. Painting everything as total greed is just wrong. A company consists of people. In a successful company people take pride in what they do. I believe at the core of ANY successful company is a group of people that have passion. In a company that makes an MMO these folks want their game to be played. They NEED their customers to have fun. And yes they damn well want to make money. But they can't just focus on revenue in isolation, they know this, no one would play there game if they did that.
That said could Anet do something stupid.? Yes, they certainly could.
Will they pay for it if they do? Again, yes you don't have to play their game.
It will cost me 60 to find out. I will do that. If it's no fun I'm out 60 but they are out a customer.
Monthly subs hands down. It's a lot more player friendly as it offers balanced enviroment and gives the company a solid stream of revenue which allows them to plan their updates/expansion better ahead.
F2P/B2P games with cash shop is just greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets. I've spent around 200€'s on League of Legends (F2P) and nothing even remotely compares to that. Lifetime account for Lotro was around 130$ and that's a lot bang for your buck :j
Ok, maybe it's the new math, or something, but, let me get this straight.
Company A, forces you to buy the box $50, and then forces you to pay a sub $15 per month, ($210 for the first year of play)
Company B, forces you to buy the box $60, ($60 for the first year of play) and then offers you the OPTION to buy things YOU MAY OR MAY NOT WANT, from it's shop. Therefore, company B has a "greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets". I just can't grasp this logic. Is it the freedom to choose whether to spend the extra money in Company B's shop? Is there some kind of evil reverse psychology at play here that's not immediately apparent to lesser minds like mine?
Because they follow it up with "the items Company B offers in their shop are so powerful that any player that doens't have them is at an extreme disadvantage and cannot keep up with anyone else". And there are many games that do this. And a growing number of games that do not.
Oh sweet, then please provide the links showing proof of said "powerful items". Because I know in GW there are none, so, please also provide the link that shows Anet's change in philosophy for there cash shop.
Ok, maybe it's the new math, or something, but, let me get this straight.
Company A, forces you to buy the box $50, and then forces you to pay a sub $15 per month, ($210 for the first year of play)
Company B, forces you to buy the box $60, ($60 for the first year of play) and then offers you the OPTION to buy things YOU MAY OR MAY NOT WANT, from it's shop. Therefore, company B has a "greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets". I just can't grasp this logic. Is it the freedom to choose whether to spend the extra money in Company B's shop? Is there some kind of evil reverse psychology at play here that's not immediately apparent to lesser minds like mine?
It all depends on how they run their cash shop. While it may be cheaper to play, it may also be a cheaper experience, as in all the cool stuff is in the cash shop. There are many ways these companies can try and force a players hand into spending RL cash. No I'm not saying that's how GW2 will be, but you never know.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I'd much rather pay a monthly sub than have a company use a cash shop to supplement their income.
Cash shop's are a slipperly slope. Maybe they don't have a lot of "pay to win" items in it at launch but rest assured, if ArenaNet finds that it's not as profitable as they anticipated they will most certainly add more enticing items down the road.
They have none at launch and based on the article i dont think they'll ever do it , imo they even condone the action of selling 'i-win' items .Also The term convenience items and pay to win items are different...
And even if they sell gears using gems , i still dont find it a s threat , plus :
-) Areanet is strong on the no-gear-treadmill philosophy . Even if high end gears were sold using gems , they wont be have any stat advantage on other gears tat are sold using gold .
-) They also mentioned about the the vanitiy items are still somehow accessible using game's money (gold) .
I know western market tends to demonized cash -shop , but if you look carefully , more mmos in western are changing and become quite differed to asian-market.
Cash shop always leads to pay 2 win in my experien, you guys say it wasn'
t like that in gw1, but from what i've seen available now already its leaning slightly toward pay to win. And that's why most of us favor sub games. It isn't that i am worried about ME spending too much in cash shop and not making the rent, but someone with more money than sense "buying" their way to superiority.
This is just my opinion, i was excited abnout this game, i MIGHT still try it, but pay 2 win will run me off quickly.
I see a lot of complaining about people buying an exp booster and leveling faster. How is this any different from playing more to level just like in every MMO ever?
Player A is a jobless kid who plays GW2 for 12 hours a day to powerlevel Player B takes 2 weeks of vacation time and plays 12 hours a day to powerlevel Player C buys an exp scroll to level faster for the 2 hours he can play after work.
Why is A and B okay but people piss their pants over option C?
Another issue that is slightly off topic but relates to the gems for gold thing is joining guilds. I can join a bunch of guilds as well as make my own, right? I wanted to do that. But from what I understand, gold buys influence, so every guild is justified in having a tax on its players. Ew! That will get expensive and annoying fast.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
Another issue that is slightly off topic but relates to the gems for gold thing is joining guilds. I can join a bunch of guilds as well as make my own, right? I wanted to do that. But from what I understand, gold buys influence, so every guild is justified in having a tax on its players. Ew! That will get expensive and annoying fast.
This doesn't tie in with the gem/gold thing. The guild system is what it is. Buying gold from outside would give the same result so your logic is flawed.
Besides, again you speculate on how things will work.
Another issue that is slightly off topic but relates to the gems for gold thing is joining guilds. I can join a bunch of guilds as well as make my own, right? I wanted to do that. But from what I understand, gold buys influence, so every guild is justified in having a tax on its players. Ew! That will get expensive and annoying fast.
This doesn't tie in with the gem/gold thing. The guild system is what it is. Buying gold from outside would give the same result so your logic is flawed.
Besides, again you speculate on how things will work.
We're all speculating, but it does relate to it. I'm not willing to maintain a bunch of guilds with a high tax by farming gold, and I'm even less eager to maintain it with my wallet, nor do I think influence and gold should have anything to do with each other since it affects WvW.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
We're all speculating, but it does relate to it. I'm not willing to maintain a bunch of guilds with a high tax by farming gold, and I'm even less eager to maintain it with my wallet, nor do I think influence and gold should have anything to do with each other since it affects WvW.
Sorry to burst your bubble but every game has the gold creates advantage scenario. Everyone of them. Even TSW will.
The guild mechanics are in place to have players sculpt their guilds and therefor server pride in WvW. No game can effectively cut off outside influence on the fairness.
Speculating is fine but harping on a topic is no longer speculating, it's rumormongering. Debating opinion is fine but becomes invalid when supposition is used to attempt at bolstering said point of view.
I see a lot of complaining about people buying an exp booster and leveling faster. How is this any different from playing more to level just like in every MMO ever?
Player A is a jobless kid who plays GW2 for 12 hours a day to powerlevel
Player B takes 2 weeks of vacation time and plays 12 hours a day to powerlevel
Player C buys an exp scroll to level faster for the 2 hours he can play after work.
Why is A and B okay but people piss their pants over option C?
I actually think most of us agree that if you buy the EXP booster and level faster you are doing it wrong (those of us with knowledge of how GW2 will work anyway). The EXP boosters aren't the questionable items on the cash shop right now. There are a lot worse items on there for a lot better reasons they are worse than the EXP boosters.
But I'll bite anyway, because in reality, Player A and B can also buy the boosters. Articles have shown the most hardcore players are the biggest cash shop spenders (whales or even super whales). Casual Player C is statistically less likely to spend money on the cash shop than hardcore A and semi-hardcore B. If you are a competitive person in any other MMO having an early game lead is a pretty significant advantage.
There is a reason a lot of F2P games have a large player base of "jobless kids". Having a job doesn't make someone more or less inclined to spend money on a game, most people who have jobs already have a good concept of what money is and are less likely to spend money on virtual items that are worthless in the real world.
Cash shop over monthly fee every time.. hands down.. and here is why.
In MMOGs with a monthly fee at $15 a month, you are paying $180 a year. That's three full $60 games. Are you getting that much content each year in your MMOG? Of course not, and when you do.. it's another expansion you have to pay for. You have no control over anything, you have to way every month you pay for. It's only $15 but you still think every month 'do I want to pay this month? Will I play enough to justify that fee? Then of course you have people who hate the game they are playing but refuse to leave because how much money they have 'invested' into that game. Countless WoW players won't leave that game simply because of the $1440 they've put into the game over the last 7 years.
Now let’s look at cash shops/microtransactions. Using the example of GW2 which is not Pay 2 Win (no matter those of you who think it is, it is irrelevant in this argument). You buy the box + 3 expansions in that's $240 you've spent. Any money you spend beyond that is your choice completely. Any cash shop purchases you make are your way of further funding the game, to help develop new content. It's a gift to the company, a way of rewarding them for their work. If the game isn't good, it won't have enough players, the money they make from the cash shop will dwindle. It's an organic system that works in most other genre's of gaming.
On top of that, studies have shown that MMOGs without a monthly fee but with a cash shop are potentially even more profitable. The best example are women gamers. Many of them on average pay more than $15 a month for cash shop items, especially if they include fluff like costumes, new gear skins, etc. All you have to do is look at games like Sims 3, which makes money hand over fist from it's cash shop. Women have a great deal of purchasing power and this translates to games as well.
So yes, cash shops that are not pay 2 win are the clear choice. It gives purchasing power to the player while removing any restrictions such as paying in order to log in, or forcing people into the mind set that they cant stop because they've spent so much money that they feel be a colossal waste of money otherwise. If GW2 is a major success the system is win - win for them and for the players, as it puts the power of future development directly into their hands.
Monthly subs hands down. It's a lot more player friendly as it offers balanced enviroment and gives the company a solid stream of revenue which allows them to plan their updates/expansion better ahead.
F2P/B2P games with cash shop is just greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets. I've spent around 200€'s on League of Legends (F2P) and nothing even remotely compares to that. Lifetime account for Lotro was around 130$ and that's a lot bang for your buck :j
Ok, maybe it's the new math, or something, but, let me get this straight.
Company A, forces you to buy the box $50, and then forces you to pay a sub $15 per month, ($210 for the first year of play)
Company B, forces you to buy the box $60, ($60 for the first year of play) and then offers you the OPTION to buy things YOU MAY OR MAY NOT WANT, from it's shop. Therefore, company B has a "greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets". I just can't grasp this logic. Is it the freedom to choose whether to spend the extra money in Company B's shop? Is there some kind of evil reverse psychology at play here that's not immediately apparent to lesser minds like mine?
That would fine, if Company B had not bragged about how every other company are doing things wrong and claimed that Company A is greedy for forcing you to pay the sub, while in fact Company B's is not significantely money-wise different in the end. The lower boundary was decreased, but at the same time the upper boundary was increased.
We're all speculating, but it does relate to it. I'm not willing to maintain a bunch of guilds with a high tax by farming gold, and I'm even less eager to maintain it with my wallet, nor do I think influence and gold should have anything to do with each other since it affects WvW.
Sorry to burst your bubble but every game has the gold creates advantage scenario. Everyone of them. Even TSW will.
The guild mechanics are in place to have players sculpt their guilds and therefor server pride in WvW. No game can effectively cut off outside influence on the fairness.
Speculating is fine but harping on a topic is no longer speculating, it's rumormongering. Debating opinion is fine but becomes invalid when supposition is used to attempt at bolstering said point of view.
Which was my point all along. If gold creates an advantage that can be used against other players (and in pvp it certainly can), then being able to buy gold with gems bought with cash means your wallet can give an advantage.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
Comments
Okay, so no one is going to buy gold with gems, so the comment that they can put anything they want in the cash shop because you can always trade gold for gems is utter nonsense. No one will need more gold than they can readily get farming it up, so who cares? And sorry, crafters, no point in crafting, either I guess. Well, not true, come to think of it, crafters might be able to make better looking gear than vendors have, but other than that, there's no point.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
I see this microtransaction as a good thing, and i think it will work out great.
You can buy these gems for gold and vise versa, so that means you don't need to put any money in to it anyway.
But anyhow i would not have any problems paying a monthly fee for it. Because it's a great game!
/ S_T
You are the master of Bag End now. And also, I fancy, you'll find a golden ring.
I still can't understand how you can bring misinformed arguments into this. To buy gems allows you to purchase what subs are doing with real cash only, enabling third party to flood the game with ingame currency from outside.
This limits to a degree because you can still get that vanity item ingame without paying anything.
The crafting is fun but without the stats it becomes esthetic and if people are gonna pay real money just to look different from the gem/gold conversion then more power to them. lol Kinda strange but w/e.
Point is you won't be able to buy gems with your gold because no one will part with their gems for gold if they don't need the gold to buy things for their characters.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
Who's going to be crafting gear when everyone is gonna fill up atleast one of their crafting slots for cooking, its the new biochem, because atleast it provides buffs while the other professions just provide unique skins.
Now selling cooking mats, thats gonna be where the real money is made.
Ppl payed lot of money for obsidian armor in GW, they will do the same for dungeon armor because they are not BOP. So when you finish that dungeon and finally have all those tokens gathered up, you can sell that REALLY rare armor for a lot of gold which in turn you can change into gems.
Its ok that you dont understand that people are prepared to spend a lot of cash into vanity items many ignorant to other games do.
I urge you to check out the CS of LoL and see how much people are prepared to spend for only vanity items.
Oh I understand it, and fully approve if this is really all people will sink their gem bought gold into. It just sounds too good to be true. I've played a lot of different games (including GW, briefly) with a lot of gamers, and the first thing any gamer willing to buy gems to trade for gold will likely ask herself isn't, how do I get that awesome looking armor set? It's how do I get anything that gives any advantage at all in pvp or pve?
If there is truly NOTHING that you can buy with gold that gives that advantage, I'm perfeclty happy. But I'm not believing it. ANet is welcome to make a believer of me, though.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
Ok, maybe it's the new math, or something, but, let me get this straight.
Company A, forces you to buy the box $50, and then forces you to pay a sub $15 per month, ($210 for the first year of play)
Company B, forces you to buy the box $60, ($60 for the first year of play) and then offers you the OPTION to buy things YOU MAY OR MAY NOT WANT, from it's shop. Therefore, company B has a "greedy scheme to drain the money out of the gamers pockets". I just can't grasp this logic. Is it the freedom to choose whether to spend the extra money in Company B's shop? Is there some kind of evil reverse psychology at play here that's not immediately apparent to lesser minds like mine?
edit out
Because they follow it up with "the items Company B offers in their shop are so powerful that any player that doens't have them is at an extreme disadvantage and cannot keep up with anyone else". And there are many games that do this. And a growing number of games that do not.
I here ya.
I feel sorry for those of you whos sole focus of your working life is to make money. That is a sad, boring existence with no satisfaction. Painting everything as total greed is just wrong. A company consists of people. In a successful company people take pride in what they do. I believe at the core of ANY successful company is a group of people that have passion. In a company that makes an MMO these folks want their game to be played. They NEED their customers to have fun. And yes they damn well want to make money. But they can't just focus on revenue in isolation, they know this, no one would play there game if they did that.
That said could Anet do something stupid.? Yes, they certainly could.
Will they pay for it if they do? Again, yes you don't have to play their game.
It will cost me 60 to find out. I will do that. If it's no fun I'm out 60 but they are out a customer.
Oh sweet, then please provide the links showing proof of said "powerful items". Because I know in GW there are none, so, please also provide the link that shows Anet's change in philosophy for there cash shop.
It all depends on how they run their cash shop. While it may be cheaper to play, it may also be a cheaper experience, as in all the cool stuff is in the cash shop. There are many ways these companies can try and force a players hand into spending RL cash. No I'm not saying that's how GW2 will be, but you never know.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
They have none at launch and based on the article i dont think they'll ever do it , imo they even condone the action of selling 'i-win' items .Also The term convenience items and pay to win items are different...
And even if they sell gears using gems , i still dont find it a s threat , plus :
-) Areanet is strong on the no-gear-treadmill philosophy . Even if high end gears were sold using gems , they wont be have any stat advantage on other gears tat are sold using gold .
-) They also mentioned about the the vanitiy items are still somehow accessible using game's money (gold) .
I know western market tends to demonized cash -shop , but if you look carefully , more mmos in western are changing and become quite differed to asian-market.
Cash shop always leads to pay 2 win in my experien, you guys say it wasn'
t like that in gw1, but from what i've seen available now already its leaning slightly toward pay to win. And that's why most of us favor sub games. It isn't that i am worried about ME spending too much in cash shop and not making the rent, but someone with more money than sense "buying" their way to superiority.
This is just my opinion, i was excited abnout this game, i MIGHT still try it, but pay 2 win will run me off quickly.
Player A is a jobless kid who plays GW2 for 12 hours a day to powerlevel
Player B takes 2 weeks of vacation time and plays 12 hours a day to powerlevel
Player C buys an exp scroll to level faster for the 2 hours he can play after work.
Why is A and B okay but people piss their pants over option C?
Another issue that is slightly off topic but relates to the gems for gold thing is joining guilds. I can join a bunch of guilds as well as make my own, right? I wanted to do that. But from what I understand, gold buys influence, so every guild is justified in having a tax on its players. Ew! That will get expensive and annoying fast.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
This doesn't tie in with the gem/gold thing. The guild system is what it is. Buying gold from outside would give the same result so your logic is flawed.
Besides, again you speculate on how things will work.
We're all speculating, but it does relate to it. I'm not willing to maintain a bunch of guilds with a high tax by farming gold, and I'm even less eager to maintain it with my wallet, nor do I think influence and gold should have anything to do with each other since it affects WvW.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
Sorry to burst your bubble but every game has the gold creates advantage scenario. Everyone of them. Even TSW will.
The guild mechanics are in place to have players sculpt their guilds and therefor server pride in WvW. No game can effectively cut off outside influence on the fairness.
Speculating is fine but harping on a topic is no longer speculating, it's rumormongering. Debating opinion is fine but becomes invalid when supposition is used to attempt at bolstering said point of view.
I actually think most of us agree that if you buy the EXP booster and level faster you are doing it wrong (those of us with knowledge of how GW2 will work anyway). The EXP boosters aren't the questionable items on the cash shop right now. There are a lot worse items on there for a lot better reasons they are worse than the EXP boosters.
But I'll bite anyway, because in reality, Player A and B can also buy the boosters. Articles have shown the most hardcore players are the biggest cash shop spenders (whales or even super whales). Casual Player C is statistically less likely to spend money on the cash shop than hardcore A and semi-hardcore B. If you are a competitive person in any other MMO having an early game lead is a pretty significant advantage.
There is a reason a lot of F2P games have a large player base of "jobless kids". Having a job doesn't make someone more or less inclined to spend money on a game, most people who have jobs already have a good concept of what money is and are less likely to spend money on virtual items that are worthless in the real world.
Cash shop over monthly fee every time.. hands down.. and here is why.
In MMOGs with a monthly fee at $15 a month, you are paying $180 a year. That's three full $60 games. Are you getting that much content each year in your MMOG? Of course not, and when you do.. it's another expansion you have to pay for. You have no control over anything, you have to way every month you pay for. It's only $15 but you still think every month 'do I want to pay this month? Will I play enough to justify that fee? Then of course you have people who hate the game they are playing but refuse to leave because how much money they have 'invested' into that game. Countless WoW players won't leave that game simply because of the $1440 they've put into the game over the last 7 years.
Now let’s look at cash shops/microtransactions. Using the example of GW2 which is not Pay 2 Win (no matter those of you who think it is, it is irrelevant in this argument). You buy the box + 3 expansions in that's $240 you've spent. Any money you spend beyond that is your choice completely. Any cash shop purchases you make are your way of further funding the game, to help develop new content. It's a gift to the company, a way of rewarding them for their work. If the game isn't good, it won't have enough players, the money they make from the cash shop will dwindle. It's an organic system that works in most other genre's of gaming.
On top of that, studies have shown that MMOGs without a monthly fee but with a cash shop are potentially even more profitable. The best example are women gamers. Many of them on average pay more than $15 a month for cash shop items, especially if they include fluff like costumes, new gear skins, etc. All you have to do is look at games like Sims 3, which makes money hand over fist from it's cash shop. Women have a great deal of purchasing power and this translates to games as well.
So yes, cash shops that are not pay 2 win are the clear choice. It gives purchasing power to the player while removing any restrictions such as paying in order to log in, or forcing people into the mind set that they cant stop because they've spent so much money that they feel be a colossal waste of money otherwise. If GW2 is a major success the system is win - win for them and for the players, as it puts the power of future development directly into their hands.
well i would prefer this, not all of us have money to pay monthly, if so these would lower their max population in half.
That would fine, if Company B had not bragged about how every other company are doing things wrong and claimed that Company A is greedy for forcing you to pay the sub, while in fact Company B's is not significantely money-wise different in the end. The lower boundary was decreased, but at the same time the upper boundary was increased.
Which was my point all along. If gold creates an advantage that can be used against other players (and in pvp it certainly can), then being able to buy gold with gems bought with cash means your wallet can give an advantage.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein