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Guild War 2 Might Cost you more than you think
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Almost every MMO I've ever played has offered a back pack and four bag slots. It must be over 90% of MMORPGs that follow that formula, so yes, it's pretty much an "industry standard". If GW2 offered a backpack and only one or two bar slots, I'd be complaining too, but that's not the case. What they include for free is "standard".
I also go into a lot of detail about additional tools available in GW2 that lessen bag space issues. How many games let anyone break down gear in the field, instantly mail crafting components to their own slots in your vault, make vendors this accessible and allow you to put items on the Marketplace (AH) while you are out in the world adventuring?
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Pardon my English as it is not my 1st language
As much as I hate some of the items on the GW2 cash shop (and the overall cash shop itself) I actually think GW2 will still wind up costing less than a subscription based MMO in the long run. Let's assume the price of 400 gems = $5 stays in it's current iteration (this was the amount from the leak a while back). I'll ignore most of the items in the cash shop that I feel are silly wastes of money to buy here for minor advantages especially considering their cost and only focus on items players will possibly want to buy over time.
For a somewhat conservative cosmetic oriented player:
Fine Transmutation Stones X10 = 300 Gems - I'm assuming players are going to want to go for a specific look. 10 will let you setup a set of armor as well two-four sets of weapons you might want for a specific look. If you are conservative you will not have to buy these often so we'll say you do this about once every 3 months.
Dye Packs X3 = 150 Gems - Let's assume once again you want to gamble on a few extra dyes once every 3 months or so.
Extra Bag Slots X2 = 800 Gems - One time purchase. Aren't these account wide unlocks? Even so with 20 slot bags I don't see these as necessary except on one character. You do not have to buy them with multiple characters.
Extra Bank Slots X2 = 1200 Gems - One time purchase. Account wide.
Extra Character Slots X3 = 2400 Gems - Again one time purchase. This number isn't known, but I assumed the worst here so I went with 800 Gems or $10 per character slot. I can't imagine them charging more than for one. It's even likely character slots will be LESS money.
In a year's worth of play you spent a total of $80 on gems, with 200 gems left over. Compare that to a subscription at $15 a month, or even $10 a month. If you wanted to you could spend extra on cosmetics like more dye packs, transmutation stones, town outfits, and minis and bring it to a normal subscription fee price.
Now here is the beauty of it. You already have the permenants unlocked! Next year, you'll find yourself spending a mere $25 on gems (with 200 left over).
TL;DR: There are lots of problems with the cash shop right now, but costs are not something worthy of complaint in my opinion. It's clear you'll still wind up saving a lot of money on the cash shop assuming you don't splurge on things that offer short term advantages like mystic keys.
Don't need to say more.
I might as well say GW2 covers all five races, so no one will ever need another character slot? People usually don't have alts just for the sake of having a character of every class. They have alts to enjoy the game again from the beginning with a character different than the ones they have played before.
Five is better than three, no matter how you slice it. Also, in GW2, you never outlevel content, so many people may find they spend a lot more time playing a character after they've reached the level cap than they did getting to the level cap and that's with out resorting to end game raid treadmills to provide almost all the available content for your max level character.
I'm not aware of any other MMOs with this design.
GW2 is not about a race to end game, after which you either raid, PVP or retire your character. The entire game is end game and all that happens when you hit the level cap is you stop leveling. You don't transition into a new game mode and you can even still progress your character by continuing to hunt down skill point challenges and unlocking your skills, if progression is more important than content.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Seems fair to me. its not like they are public servants. Even they dont work for free.
At least they give you the choice. You dont need any of those things to play.
Well, a backpack and four bag slots mean little if you don't know how many slots you get per bag. Taken from what is now considered an industry standard *sigh* (WoW), the game started with a set amount of bag space that was increased with each expansion. And even that was not enough and people needed at least one mule (or some very dedicated crafters 2 or 3). So the real question is whether the bag space is constant or you can find bigger bags as you progress.
Also the teleport and mail system may help with the bag issue, but I wonder how easy it is to teleport back and forth from the field to the nearest banker.
In any case, the bags and bank slots are sold because the developers feel they are needed. I know I purchased the pouch slots in my VIP LOTRO account and haven't regretted it. They may even become absolutely necessary depending on how many sets of gear we'll need to carry around, how many potions or other utility items etc.
Personally my purchase order would be utility (such as the bag and bank slots) and vanity items (when I'm bored with how my character looks. I'm not interested in exp boosts or gold purchases, so these hold no value.
It's one thing to be reasonable about the cash shop btw, and another to blindly defend it. Right now they are gouging how much they can milk the community with the shop and from the reactions it seems that they can get away with a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if this zealotry resulted in unreasonable cash shop prices.
It seems you know little about TSW, thus your comment. Every character in TSW can learn all 500 or so skills, so there is no need for alts. The only difference is the three factions.
The hook in TSW to lure you to buy new character slots is that the three limit is account wise, so if you need to check new servers, you'll need to delete old characters (or buy slots) or pay to move the existing ones.
Dude don't be so drama mama and stop assuming again.
You can craft your own bag.
I did craft a few bag of 8 slots at level 12.
Pardon my English as it is not my 1st language
You can find bigger bags as you progress. The max crafted bag at the moment appears to be 20 slots, though you obviously won't have this at first till you get enough money (or crafting skill + mats) to buy one which likely won't happen till higher levels. 4 slot bags can be purchased from the vendor early on. Crafting skill (Tailor, Leatherworker, and Armorsmith) can make 8 slot bags fairly early in crafting also. I've also had two 5 slot bags drop in beta off a specific dynamic event.
"A years subscription to WoW is $156 if purchased in six-month blocks, making it ironically cheaper to play a year of WoW than a year of GW2."
You forget server changes, name changes etc. You spend a lot more then you think on wow. Free to play doesnt exist. But Ill take the buy to play over a monthly fee. I doubt I will make more than 3 role-playing characters and 2 pvp characters which I will continuously delete and recreate like I did in guild wars 1.
All war is deception - Sun Tzu
FACT is, you won't need all bag slots and all character slot on day one. During the beta week end, I never felt short of bag space, and you also can store all your crafting materials in the bank without using a single bank slot. Also, I had 5 8 slot bags from armorcrafting the first day of the week end. Bag space doesn't seem to be a problem in GW2, with the fast traveling and easy access to towns.
As long as you need less than $15 worth of gems per month, GW2 remains cheaper than any "pay to play" MMORPG, and for $15 you can buy a lot of that utility stuff.
Oh, and the OP's posting history is very interesting... it's sad when people are on a crusade to convince people not to play a game they won't play themself. Seriously, man, get a grip, take a deep breath and move along.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
That is an interesting assumption and selective view of my posting history.
You are on a crusade against the cash shop and you pull "facts" out of thin air to support your disliking for that feature, it's obvious from your post history. Read the other part of my post, the one you didn't quote, and you'll see that it's definitely not that bad. But of course, spreading doomsday predictions about the shop is more fun that using real facts which prove the shop isn't that bad, don't you think? ;-)
PS: and I was one of the most skeptical about the cash shop before experiencing it myself, it's not like I'm a cash shop fanboi or something like that. But unless ANet drastically changes it before release, the shop as is it now is really no big deal.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
All I know is that I for one do not want to play every class.. In fact I'll probably only play about 2. I also know that all the way to level 32 I never once filled my bags or felt like I needed more slots (I bought larger bags on the auction house of course). Bank slots were the same, I never needed more (but I wasn't crafting that weekend). Now they have added the materials panel the crafting issue is out the window.
Everything in that post is not a requirement to play the game.
Gems can be bought with gold anyway.. and so far bag slots are all I would buy with them. Keep an eye on the current gold to gems prices and pick some up as and when it lowers a little, simples.
Anyone who ends up spending money on GW2 without realising it must be pretty dumb or have some serious convenience issues. Assuming the cash shop stays like it is of course.
Math above pretty much proves the above statement to be false anyway. My estimates for a player who likes a little bit of cosmetic spending too was $80 for the first year and $25 for consecutive years. That includes unlocking the 2 bag slots (which hopefully are account wide, but I see no reason I player with 8 character slots and extra bank space can't make do with muling), 2 bank slots, and 3 character slots which are completely optional plus another $25 a year spent on cosmetics of dying and transmuting stats to items. The poster you linked to doesn't even consider the fact you don't have to pay these amounts the next year you play GW2 as you already have these permenantly unlocked on your account. If you plan on playing GW2 for more than a year this is extremely important to take note of. You could even spend an extra $75 a year on cosmetics and you still wouldn't match WoW's sub cost even in that first year.
Server changes cost money in GW2 cost money too and I'm sure if offered so will name changes so that really isn't fair to bring up in a comparison. We should however mention that WoW also sells minipets, mounts, and cosmetic changes such as gender swaps and new hairstyles too since it's only fair to bring that up. WoW has a cash shop too!
Not to mention as others have said these are all optional. You can get by without the extra bag and bank space and most players probably won't feel compelled to make more than 4 alts anyway.
What facts have I pulled out of thin air in this thread?
The simple truth is that the GW2 model is the cheapest and most accessible form of fully supported AAA mmo entertainment today.
the option to buy a few addons that you can live without, in my option, is well justified by the company. They have to eat too.
i doubt i need to buy anything, but im sure ill buy a few things to keep them going i would imagine.
i am without a doubt a world class altaholic and i can guarantee that, although i may have 8 characters at level 80. there is no way i will be buying full bag and bank unlocks for all of them.
not because i feel the price is outrageous, but because it just isn't going to be necessary to do so for each and every character.
5 Character slots is plenty to start with. By the time you have maxed them all out and played them to death, you would have had enough gold and/or gems to buy the other three chartacter slots in game.
Bags slots should not be too much of a worry since you get your 'personal bank' and 'PvP bank' as well as your 'guild bank'. If your a seller, its so easy to instantly sell items using the option from your 'H' screen you won't keep much stock of items/mats.
As for xp/crafting boosts etc, yes it will mean someone with their parents (or their own) credit card can perma boost them selves, but you will be able to buy these things with gold earned from your lenthy play times.
The cash shop is more of a time friendly feature for those who can't play 18 hours a day. All these items you will be able to buy in game with gold.
One other huge advantage of this, GOLD SELLERS, how many did you see in beta last week (answer none). It is not worth their effort since the players will provide the the gems/gold between themselves.
I want to clarify how vault space works for crafting materials. (Sorry, I thought I had taken a screen shot, but I don't).
Your vault space has a tab for collectables.
This tab inludes individualized slots for every basic and rare crafting material in the game, with an item icon identifying them and a counter to show how many of each you have. You just go to this slot, drag the crafting mats, (or just mail them to your bank by right clicking them in your inventory from any where in the game) and they go into the proper slot. (There are also special slots for the collectable miniature vanity pets, so those will not eat up inventory/vault space either).
I'm not sure what the limit is per mat, but I had some stacks of over 100, so it's >100.
These are also shared by your entire account, so you can gather and salvage mats in the field with any of your characters, easilty send them to your vault for storage and have them accessible to any of your characters that need them for crafting.
There is no gathering skill you need to learn, but there are consumable tools you buy and stick in slots on your character sheet to be able to gather. All gear can also be salvaged with a salvage kit, which you can buy in stacks of 25 pretty cheaply, and there are also salvageable items, which can be stacked and also can be broken down into crafting mats viab the use of a salvage kit.
When trying to figure out your potential inventory needs in GW2, this is a very big consideration. Crafting mats need not take up any general vault space and only require a few seconds of inventory maintenance to send from your bags to your vault, or even to be sold right from the field via the Marketplace.
Edit:
Here is a WBE youtube video showing the Account bank and illustrating how each crafting mat and mini-pet has their own slots...
GW2 Account Vault Video
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
You need a hug. Thank you, that was put together very well!
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.