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What is sold in the cash shop?
Pale_Fire
Member UncommonPosts: 360
in Guild Wars 2
TSW fanboy but I've pre-purchased GW2 and will be playing both games. TSW's cash shop (which I find mildly offensive since I'm also paying a sub) sells cosmetic items only.
I understand that GW2's cash shop sells gems, which are useful for something, I assume. I also understand that the gems can be sold for gold, which sets off a red flag for me, but I'm open minded.
What else is sold in the cash shop for GW2?
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http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gem_Store + some armor skins.
You can buy gems with real life money or by in-game money.
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Largely cosmetic items. Appearances, goofy things, miniatures (little pets).
You can also buy large bags (which AFAIK are also available in-game).
Extra character slots beyond 5.
There is an item that can rez you once if you die. That can't be used in PvP.
Perhaps the most questionable items to some are the ones that boost Karma, Experience, or gold acquisition for an hour. But I don't think these are a big deal really. Imho, they are rather expensive for what they do and arguably aren't worth it.
Personally, I'll probably mostly just buy the character slots. I figure I'll at least have one character of each class, so that's 3 slots. I might get some cosmetic items, depending. Though, like Total Biscuit, I'm a bit disappointed some cosmetic items can't be used as an armor skin (so you are stuck using them outside of combat, really). There are perhaps some silly items I might get in the long run, though I'd only get reusable ones. I'm definitely not paying money for something that gets used up.
Oh, also Transmutation Stones. I'm going to avoid spending money on them if I can. I really hate the T-stone system. I wish they had gone with some sort of cosmetic tab instead -- I'd be more than happy to pay money to permanently unlock an item for a particular appearance. I'm less thrilled to destroy two items to get one, since that's problematic if I like how both of them look. Also, carrying multiple appearances around in the T-stone system hogs inventory. A cosmetic tab with drop-down selections for each slot would have been awesome. Probably the only thing I really hate about GW2.
you dont have to be afraid, using google doesnt hurt.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=guild+wars+2+gem+store
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I agree, the exp boost isn't really worth it at all... most of your exp in PvE is going to come from exploring, finding new way points, points of interest, vistas, DEs and renown hearts. Very little is going to actually come from killing monsters and the exp boost only affects monsters killed. As an example, around level 30 you need 15k exp to gain a level.. killing normal monsters give you like 40 exp.. so exp boost is not worth it at all.
Karma boost isn't worth it either because its pretty easy to gain karma simply from doing events. Heck you can start an event, do it halfway and leave, let someone else finish it and start another event in another zone and when first one finishes you still get "gold" status karma.
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Well, gems can only be created with real money. You can sell gems on the AH, which means people can buy them on the AH. Someone has to first pay real money for them and then put them up, however.
This has been answered 45789649827 times already, but I'm bored waiting for the 25th, so here goes:
Cosmetics mostly.
A few items that give +50% exp (from monster kills only, which are a rather insignificant contributor to leveling anyway, events, hearts and map completions giving far more).
Some random potions that give like +10% damage (again, only to monsters in PvE) which can also be acquired through simply playing.
Character slots, bank slots and inventory extensions, none of which are necessary (there is a lot of storage standard, and many mechanics to make it easy to manage).
Insta-repair and insta-revive items that only work in the PvE world.
There isn't anything that could be considered pay to win by any sane person. The ability to sell gems for gold and vice versa won't change anything except to eliminate gold farming spambots, which are quite rampant in TSW for example.
I was skeptical seeing cash shop and NCsoft in the same paragraph, but after playing betas and seeing for myself, I think they've done a good job of implementing a cash shop that will encourage people to spend money without making it mandatory to compete or play the full game.
just keep in mind that the buffs people talk about, these boosts are only good in PvE and do not work in PvP, so they do not provide any form of P2W.
And the buffs that caused issues weren't directly purchased in the cash shop, you have to buy keys to get a random chance to possibly get these boosts from chests within the game... again PvE boosts not PvP.
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Are you saying TSW has gold farmers or spam bots? There is not a single one and never has been. Stop commenting about a game you've never played.
Exp and especially drop rate boosts and +damage ARE pay to win by many people. When is +damage NOT pay to win? You guys are just trying to convince yourselves otherwise.
Furthermore, the fact that you can buy gems for gold is INSTANTLY pay to win since you can buy gems, sell them, and then buy whatever you want in the game.
I don't see anything in the store that gives +damage. There are non-store potions that give +damage, but they can be crafted and bought normally.
And what are you going to buy with this gold? Potions you can make already? Non-progression equipment ( remember, the game has zero progression equipment, so getting the best gear stat-wise is not hard). I'm not seeing the pay-to-win. We might be talking about a slight boost before max level, but that's it. Beyond that it will mostly be cosmetic stuff or things you could easily make yourself.
lol
Then you could argue that any game that has a shop that sells items you can then re-sell for in-game gold is buy to win. I could buy the pets/mounts in WoW, sell them at the AH and then buy a boost in DS heroic and get the loot. Pay to win!
The more apropriate way to look at it is World of Tanks for example, where you buy better ammo etc for money. That's real P2W.
Never seen one gold seller in TSW. Not one.
No there are mystic keys sold to unlock boxes that contain stat boost. Yes they are in game as well., but it SEEMS that chest drop at a much greater rate than keys.
Eh, well, the Wiki seems to say otherwise: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gem
Though maybe the Currency Exchange works differently in some manner. If so, how is the "current rate" calculated?
Tell you the truth, I think that selling GOLD in the cash shop is a much more dangerous thing than the exp/drop/karma boosters. At least those are isolated and can only do one thing. Gold can be used to buy ANYTHING ont he auction house.
This essentially means that every single item on the auction house is sold on the CS.
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Never had a key, had chests!
OP, this will give you all the informaiton you could need:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/359874/Aerowyns-Video-Compilation-of-ALL-things-Guild-Wars-2.html (In "Hot Topics")
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5194343/thread/359948#5194343
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gem_Store
You are right I can buy whatever I want in the game. But how does that make me "win" over you? Just because I look cooler does that mean I win over you? Just because I buy that awesome crafted gear with slightly higher stats does that mean I "win" over you in PvE? PvP it doesn't matter since everyone is maxed level and gear doesn't matter.
As for the damage boosts, they work ONLY in PvE. I kill 1 monster 4 seconds faster than you, does that make me "win"? Not to mention you can buy damage boost items from NPC or even craft them yourself and some of these are better than the cashshop ones.
So a slightly faster rate of obtaining 10% boosts to damage that don't stack and last for an hour?
Not ideal, but hardly "paying to win." That's a term that usually applies to games where you pay money and improve by a factor of 2 to 4 times over people that don't pay. A 10% boost that lasts an hour and you still need to find it in a chest that other people will still get just at a lower rate is pretty small potatoes.
I agree 100%. This is my biggest turn off. I will be holding my nose and buying, because Spvp seems like the only place that is untoched by this stinking cash shop.