There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what pay to win is. Pay to win is when you MUST pay to access endgame power. It is not pay to win when you have a reasonable path to such power within the free to play ( or b2p) rules of the game. I may be distasteful to many for the option to exist, and it is certainly not the same thing as only selling cosmetic items. Being able to buy power that is otherwise available in the game is not pay to win, it is something in between. perhaps we should call it "pay to keep up". Both camps should realize though that p2kup does cross the line for some folks. Where you draw the line is a choice however.
I think this is a really helpful definition.
Some people are, again, twisting the notion that you can get a random PvE boost item from mystic chests to somehow, magically mean that the game is P2W.
If certain dungeons or encounters REQUIRED you to have the use of one of these boosts in order to complete the content, then you could say that the game is pay to win.
But there is no data, at all, to indicate that you are somehow blocked from full participation in the game's content without item bosts. There is no data to indicate that encounters can not be completed without these boosts. Might a 10% buff make things slightly easier for the duration of the buff? Sure. But is it necessary for participation or completion of PvE content? Nope. And since the PvE content is cooperative and not competitive, then what exactly are you winning anyway?
This is purely manufactured drama, again.
The same people show up every P2W thread, with the same arguments.
We will probably have 5 more of these threads before launch day.
It gets tiresome.
"Loading screens" are not "instances". Your personal efforts to troll any game will not, in fact, impact the success or failure of said game.
Originally posted by Psychow P2W isn't limited to PvP. If the scenario happend like in bcbully's example, I'd consider that P2W.
How?
What item from that Dragon Boss in Bcbully's description can a gem buyer gain that I cannot through conventional means? What item from that Dragon Boss has higher damage values or higher armor rating or gives his higher stats then what I can gain just doing a normal dynamic event or a random drop. The difference is stat distribution and looks.
both items deal 100-200 damage, have the same value of stats (i.e. 30 power, 30 condition damage, 30 vitality on the first and 60 condition damage and 30 vitality on the boss drop)
Both items are statistical twins, in other words they are both the same item level in WoW terminology. One is generalized and the other is more specificily tuned to a condition spec.
One looks plain, the other looks badass, neither will give anyone a statistical advantage over someone else but will allow someone to be more specialized and the other more generalized.
Nothing is P2W here.
I'll stop typing in annoying single sentence paragraphs now.
My post was not about the reward. It was about winning and losing. Defeating and wiping
Ok I see what BCbully is saying he mean that there have been some guilds stating they will have money in hand at launch to by keys to get boosts from chests in order to win at certain things. But what I know is you can't use boosts in PvP and even using boost with food boosts its really not much of a difference in dmg or anythign speed yes you move way fast. I fell alot in LA looking for POI that I died from it. But he has a valid point in some ways it is pay to win cause they are using RL money to buy keys to get boosts to beat bosses but in the end there just doing it faster.
Yeah it adds a bonus but to me its not enough to warrent P2W screams in my opinion. But everyone has there own.
Theres real life guilds out there now that do this, theres an EU guild who always competes for world first kills and they are funded by a Saudi Prince. Does this mean WoW is a Pay to Win game? Of course not, its silly to make this argument. P2W is about statistical advantages through gear aquired. Thats always been the definition and wont change.
Playing: GW2 Waiting on: TESO Next Flop: Planetside 2 Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
The same people show up every P2W thread, with the same arguments.
We will probably have 5 more of these threads before launch day.
It gets tiresome.
This ^.
Not to mention that this thread was totally hijacked. The OP was never interested in talking about P2W. He even states a few pages in that he didn't mean to start a long debate, and was just looking for info on the items available in the cashshop.
What if your guild is trying and trying to beat a world boss, Then the gm says I have 50 mystic chest. "I'm going to buy 50 keys." The gm then gives the guildies 35 boosts. The guild then beats the boss. Did they just pay to win?
Please don't say no one will do that. I've seen guilds advertising 1000$ budgets.
hmm, i would say, if NO ONE else was able to defeat said world boss, until this group that used all these boosters, it may be a questionable situation.
personally i dislike the round about gold buying (i buy gem, sell them for in game gold) more, but neither will stop me from playing.
What if your guild is trying and trying to beat a world boss, Then the gm says I have 50 mystic chest. "I'm going to buy 50 keys." The gm then gives the guildies 35 boosts. The guild then beats the boss. Did they just pay to win?
Please don't say no one will do that. I've seen guilds advertising 1000$ budgets.
hmm, i would say, if NO ONE else was able to defeat said world boss, until this group that used all these boosters, it may be a questionable situation.
personally i dislike the round about gold buying (i buy gem, sell them for in game gold) more, but neither will stop me from playing.
But even so they gain nothing but different looking gear, if this is pay to win than so is using gold to get crafting mats and craft different looking gear.
What if your guild is trying and trying to beat a world boss, Then the gm says I have 50 mystic chest. "I'm going to buy 50 keys." The gm then gives the guildies 35 boosts. The guild then beats the boss. Did they just pay to win?
Please don't say no one will do that. I've seen guilds advertising 1000$ budgets.
hmm, i would say, if NO ONE else was able to defeat said world boss, until this group that used all these boosters, it may be a questionable situation.
personally i dislike the round about gold buying (i buy gem, sell them for in game gold) more, but neither will stop me from playing.
Just to be crystal clear, the whole "WHAT IF" thing is based in fantasy. There is NO DATA to indicate that the use of boosters is REQUIRED to either reach or defeat any of the game's content.
"Loading screens" are not "instances". Your personal efforts to troll any game will not, in fact, impact the success or failure of said game.
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
What if your guild is trying and trying to beat a world boss, Then the gm says I have 50 mystic chest. "I'm going to buy 50 keys." The gm then gives the guildies 35 boosts. The guild then beats the boss. Did they just pay to win?
Please don't say no one will do that. I've seen guilds advertising 1000$ budgets.
hmm, i would say, if NO ONE else was able to defeat said world boss, until this group that used all these boosters, it may be a questionable situation.
personally i dislike the round about gold buying (i buy gem, sell them for in game gold) more, but neither will stop me from playing.
An interesting point.
I was looking over some opinions on the explorable modes in dungeons and the level of difficulty, which is pretty rough. Are these encounters geared towards the group having lockbox buffs? If so, then a certain amount of people who bought the game won't be able to access them, without spending more.
What if your guild is trying and trying to beat a world boss, Then the gm says I have 50 mystic chest. "I'm going to buy 50 keys." The gm then gives the guildies 35 boosts. The guild then beats the boss. Did they just pay to win?
Please don't say no one will do that. I've seen guilds advertising 1000$ budgets.
hmm, i would say, if NO ONE else was able to defeat said world boss, until this group that used all these boosters, it may be a questionable situation.
personally i dislike the round about gold buying (i buy gem, sell them for in game gold) more, but neither will stop me from playing.
An interesting point.
I was looking over some opinions on the explorable modes in dungeons and the level of difficulty, which is pretty rough. Are these encounters geared towards the group having lockbox buffs? If so, then a certain amount of people who bought the game won't be able to access them, without spending more.
Time will tell I suppose.
They are geared around people having a degree of skill, just like everything else in the game.
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
but it doesn't you don't NEED to pay real money to get these same "advantages" so how is that pay to win?
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
but it doesn't you don't NEED to pay real money to get these same "advantages" so how is that pay to win?
You practically need real money or absurd amounts of gold to buy gems. Getting the boosts as rewards from playing is very slow and unpredictable. Spend enough $ to open enough chests and ignore the randomness.
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
but it doesn't you don't NEED to pay real money to get these same "advantages" so how is that pay to win?
You practically need real money or absurd amounts of gold to buy gems. Getting the boosts as rewards from playing is very slow and unpredictable. Spend enough $ to open enough chests and ignore the randomness.
It's still pretty slow and unpredictable to get boosts, and of the right kind. Hell out of the dozen or so chests I opened during the beta, I got about 4 boosts?
If you spend a hundred bucks on keys and chests you're gonna have a bad day either way. And why the hell would you for the pve side of this game?
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
but it doesn't you don't NEED to pay real money to get these same "advantages" so how is that pay to win?
You practically need real money or absurd amounts of gold to buy gems. Getting the boosts as rewards from playing is very slow and unpredictable. Spend enough $ to open enough chests and ignore the randomness.
Umm no, just go buy a food item from NPC or just craft it yourself. There's foods that give damage boost, regeneration boost, defensive boost...
I was looking over some opinions on the explorable modes in dungeons and the level of difficulty, which is pretty rough. Are these encounters geared towards the group having lockbox buffs? If so, then a certain amount of people who bought the game won't be able to access them, without spending more.
Time will tell I suppose.
There are ways to get lockbox buffs without paying any money.
Heck, you can get gems without spending any real money.
At worst this is "pay for convenience in certain tiny ways".
Remember these buffs are rather small in overall impact, especially considering there are other buffs in the game (more buffs, the less significant any individual one). Even with keys, getting a particular one is a matter of luck and you can't trade them. Beyond that, you can get boosts through normal play as storyline/completion rewards, drops, etc.
The idea these are some sort of unique benefiting for paying money is simply ridiculous. Spending money on keys just means you get more of them through normal play, which means you can use them more casually. Since the only potential problem is for non-casual use, it doesn't seem like a big deal to me.
Summing up. The effect is small. You still get a smaller, but unlimited, number through normal play. Gems can be bought with in-game gold.
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
but it doesn't you don't NEED to pay real money to get these same "advantages" so how is that pay to win?
You practically need real money or absurd amounts of gold to buy gems. Getting the boosts as rewards from playing is very slow and unpredictable. Spend enough $ to open enough chests and ignore the randomness.
What you get from the storyline and completion rewards is far from unpredictable. Boosts and keys as drops might be slow and unpredictable, but there's not a lot of reason to use them in most play. A 10% difference in one way is not that huge of a deal. It isn't like a P2W game where you are talking about AT LEASt a 50% difference and more likely a 100-200%.
And the fact is, the difference is smaller than just 10%, since other buffs and benefits in the game provide the same sort of thing and it is very unlikely the stack multiplicatively.
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
but it doesn't you don't NEED to pay real money to get these same "advantages" so how is that pay to win?
You practically need real money or absurd amounts of gold to buy gems. Getting the boosts as rewards from playing is very slow and unpredictable. Spend enough $ to open enough chests and ignore the randomness.
Umm no, just go buy a food item from NPC or just craft it yourself. There's foods that give damage boost, regeneration boost, defensive boost...
you also don't need much gold to get gems.. well it actually will depend on how much people buy so you really have no clue how much gold you will need to get gems.. either way that plus cooking buffs and you are set.. don't see what the fuss is about
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
The food thing isn't exactly trivial. As the 10% boosts likely stack with them. That said, the more buffs there are, the less important any single buff is.
Though, I suppose I'd be happier if boosts didn't stack with similar effects, but were slightly higher. Say 8% vs. 10% on damage. Enough to make some people want to buy them, but not enough to make any notable impact on game balance.
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
but it doesn't you don't NEED to pay real money to get these same "advantages" so how is that pay to win?
You practically need real money or absurd amounts of gold to buy gems. Getting the boosts as rewards from playing is very slow and unpredictable. Spend enough $ to open enough chests and ignore the randomness.
Umm no, just go buy a food item from NPC or just craft it yourself. There's foods that give damage boost, regeneration boost, defensive boost...
you also don't need much gold to get gems.. well it actually will depend on how much people buy so you really have no clue how much gold you will need to get gems.. either way that plus cooking buffs and you are set.. don't see what the fuss is about
You know the cooking buffs stack with chest buffs...
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
but it doesn't you don't NEED to pay real money to get these same "advantages" so how is that pay to win?
You practically need real money or absurd amounts of gold to buy gems. Getting the boosts as rewards from playing is very slow and unpredictable. Spend enough $ to open enough chests and ignore the randomness.
Umm no, just go buy a food item from NPC or just craft it yourself. There's foods that give damage boost, regeneration boost, defensive boost...
you also don't need much gold to get gems.. well it actually will depend on how much people buy so you really have no clue how much gold you will need to get gems.. either way that plus cooking buffs and you are set.. don't see what the fuss is about
You know they cooking buffs stack with chest buffs...
And?
Again, there is NO DATA to suggest that the boosts from mystic chests are REQUIRED to complete any content.
Your argument is invalid.
And btw, I miss your old signature.
"Loading screens" are not "instances". Your personal efforts to troll any game will not, in fact, impact the success or failure of said game.
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
but it doesn't you don't NEED to pay real money to get these same "advantages" so how is that pay to win?
You practically need real money or absurd amounts of gold to buy gems. Getting the boosts as rewards from playing is very slow and unpredictable. Spend enough $ to open enough chests and ignore the randomness.
Umm no, just go buy a food item from NPC or just craft it yourself. There's foods that give damage boost, regeneration boost, defensive boost...
you also don't need much gold to get gems.. well it actually will depend on how much people buy so you really have no clue how much gold you will need to get gems.. either way that plus cooking buffs and you are set.. don't see what the fuss is about
You know the cooking buffs stack with chest buffs...
yup im aware.. I also said you can get all those other bufffs without spending a dime. Also bcbully you yourself said you are here for the PVP which you can't use these buffs anyway so why would it bother you in the slightest?
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
but it doesn't you don't NEED to pay real money to get these same "advantages" so how is that pay to win?
You practically need real money or absurd amounts of gold to buy gems. Getting the boosts as rewards from playing is very slow and unpredictable. Spend enough $ to open enough chests and ignore the randomness.
Umm no, just go buy a food item from NPC or just craft it yourself. There's foods that give damage boost, regeneration boost, defensive boost...
you also don't need much gold to get gems.. well it actually will depend on how much people buy so you really have no clue how much gold you will need to get gems.. either way that plus cooking buffs and you are set.. don't see what the fuss is about
You know they cooking buffs stack with chest buffs...
And?
Again, there is NO DATA to suggest that the boosts from mystic chests are REQUIRED to complete any content.
Your argument is invalid.
And btw, I miss your old signature.
To be fair, it isn't an issue of requirement so much as whether it makes content significantly easier. Well, that in additionally whether it is something you can only get for money. 10% damage done/10% less damage taken/25% speed/some sort of health regen would certainly give a noticeable bump, but overall these are fairly small buffs. Additionally they can be acquired with some more difficulty to anyone. So overall I don't think there's that much to be worried about, depending on the acquirement rate without spending real world money.
I do think this would be slightly problematic if it existed as something you could ONLY get by spending money.
Again, there is NO DATA to suggest that the boosts from mystic chests are REQUIRED to complete any content.
Your argument is invalid.
And btw, I miss your old signature.
To be fair, it isn't an issue of requirement so much as whether it makes content significantly easier. Well, that in additionally whether it is something you can only get for money. 10% damage done/10% less damage taken/25% speed/some sort of health regen would certainly give a noticeable bump, but overall these are fairly small buffs. Additionally they can be acquired with some more difficulty to anyone. So overall I don't think there's that much to be worried about, depending on the acquirement rate without spending real world money.
I do think this would be slightly problematic if it existed as something you could ONLY get by spending money.
I agree with you that buffs can make content easier. That's why, before every raid in WoW, we made sure we had our feast and flasks and pots ready for bloodlust along with group castable buffs.
The question is whether or not boosts from chest fall under the category of P2W, as some posters have suggested. If this were the case, then boosts from chests would be required to do content. In other words, you would have to pay money to get the buffs necessary to do the fights to get the gear. Some games have this.
In GW2, this does not appear to be the case. Food buffs can replicate many of the boosts that are randomly provided by the chests, and yes that 10% can be helpful. The point that I am making is that they are not a requirement for completing content.
"Loading screens" are not "instances". Your personal efforts to troll any game will not, in fact, impact the success or failure of said game.
Originally posted by Creslin321 Stuff about elevators and mountains.
Lets carry on with this useless analogy. The elevator in this case is powered by yourself and goes slightly faster than actually walking and will cost you money or in-game gold. It doesnt take away anything from your journey.
You're missing the point...let me state it outside of an analogy so we can avoid these shenanigans.
When you can pay a small fee to achieve a goal that can be achieved otherwise through skill or endurance, then said goal loses much of its appeal because it achievement becomes commonplace.
If you could buy genuine Olympic Gold Medals that are exactly the same as those given in the Olympics...I don't think that Olympic athletes would be happy with this...dig?
Nice return to using analogy there.
The fact is you can't buy legendary gear, dungeon armor, or WvW vendor armor. Some of the karma vendor gear is pretty nice, and you can buy a booster for that, but how that equates to buying olympic medals isn't really obvious to me.
Be the first to have a full set of Orrian armor, people will think you're cool. Is that what you want? Cool, you can have it.
Some atheletes may have better training facilities, equipment, etc, but they still need to actually play their sport to have any chance at that gold medal. Same in GW2. Unless I missed the section of the cash shop that sells the required 200 skillpoints for a legendary weapon, or the dungeon tokens required for those sets.
Thank you God for delivering this point. I could care less if anyone had w/e set of armor, I'll transmute the armor set I want using Transmutation stones I can earn through the game's achievement system (which isn't hard). The weapons on the other hand will tell you "This guy put in a bit of effort to get what he wanted and he looks cool" (cool being subjective of course). Also the boxing gloves are a fun novelty item, I hope you can use them in the Bar Fight in Divinity's Reach. That would be amazing to see those "POW" animations flying everywhere. lmao.
Wait. Theres an item in the cash shop that gives you a 10% damage bonus in pve? I can see that as something hardcore pve guilds will require their members to have before they engage in the end game content. Same sort of thing happens in World of Tanks clan wars. Gold ammo (ammo bought with real money) is a must have for those guys, though, you can earn it in some way doing clan wars.
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
Originally posted by Ginaz Wait. Theres an item in the cash shop that gives you a 10% damage bonus in pve? I can see that as something hardcore pve guilds will require their members to have before they engage in the end game content. Same sort of thing happens in World of Tanks clan wars. Gold ammo (ammo bought with real money) is a must have for those guys, though, you can earn it in some way doing clan wars.
Comments
I think this is a really helpful definition.
Some people are, again, twisting the notion that you can get a random PvE boost item from mystic chests to somehow, magically mean that the game is P2W.
If certain dungeons or encounters REQUIRED you to have the use of one of these boosts in order to complete the content, then you could say that the game is pay to win.
But there is no data, at all, to indicate that you are somehow blocked from full participation in the game's content without item bosts. There is no data to indicate that encounters can not be completed without these boosts. Might a 10% buff make things slightly easier for the duration of the buff? Sure. But is it necessary for participation or completion of PvE content? Nope. And since the PvE content is cooperative and not competitive, then what exactly are you winning anyway?
This is purely manufactured drama, again.
The same people show up every P2W thread, with the same arguments.
We will probably have 5 more of these threads before launch day.
It gets tiresome.
"Loading screens" are not "instances".
Your personal efforts to troll any game will not, in fact, impact the success or failure of said game.
Theres real life guilds out there now that do this, theres an EU guild who always competes for world first kills and they are funded by a Saudi Prince. Does this mean WoW is a Pay to Win game? Of course not, its silly to make this argument. P2W is about statistical advantages through gear aquired. Thats always been the definition and wont change.
Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online
Playing: GW2
Waiting on: TESO
Next Flop: Planetside 2
Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
This ^.
Not to mention that this thread was totally hijacked. The OP was never interested in talking about P2W. He even states a few pages in that he didn't mean to start a long debate, and was just looking for info on the items available in the cashshop.
hmm, i would say, if NO ONE else was able to defeat said world boss, until this group that used all these boosters, it may be a questionable situation.
personally i dislike the round about gold buying (i buy gem, sell them for in game gold) more, but neither will stop me from playing.
But even so they gain nothing but different looking gear, if this is pay to win than so is using gold to get crafting mats and craft different looking gear.
Just to be crystal clear, the whole "WHAT IF" thing is based in fantasy. There is NO DATA to indicate that the use of boosters is REQUIRED to either reach or defeat any of the game's content.
"Loading screens" are not "instances".
Your personal efforts to troll any game will not, in fact, impact the success or failure of said game.
Fact: real money gives actual power advantages in this game.
It's a matter of opinion if that's "paying to win" or not. Debate on this can be endless but I see a bigger problem in that most players still think that "gem shop is only cosmetics".
An interesting point.
I was looking over some opinions on the explorable modes in dungeons and the level of difficulty, which is pretty rough. Are these encounters geared towards the group having lockbox buffs? If so, then a certain amount of people who bought the game won't be able to access them, without spending more.
Time will tell I suppose.
This looks like a job for....The Riviera Kid!
They are geared around people having a degree of skill, just like everything else in the game.
but it doesn't you don't NEED to pay real money to get these same "advantages" so how is that pay to win?
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
You practically need real money or absurd amounts of gold to buy gems. Getting the boosts as rewards from playing is very slow and unpredictable. Spend enough $ to open enough chests and ignore the randomness.
It's still pretty slow and unpredictable to get boosts, and of the right kind. Hell out of the dozen or so chests I opened during the beta, I got about 4 boosts?
If you spend a hundred bucks on keys and chests you're gonna have a bad day either way. And why the hell would you for the pve side of this game?
Umm no, just go buy a food item from NPC or just craft it yourself. There's foods that give damage boost, regeneration boost, defensive boost...
There are ways to get lockbox buffs without paying any money.
Heck, you can get gems without spending any real money.
At worst this is "pay for convenience in certain tiny ways".
Remember these buffs are rather small in overall impact, especially considering there are other buffs in the game (more buffs, the less significant any individual one). Even with keys, getting a particular one is a matter of luck and you can't trade them. Beyond that, you can get boosts through normal play as storyline/completion rewards, drops, etc.
The idea these are some sort of unique benefiting for paying money is simply ridiculous. Spending money on keys just means you get more of them through normal play, which means you can use them more casually. Since the only potential problem is for non-casual use, it doesn't seem like a big deal to me.
Summing up. The effect is small. You still get a smaller, but unlimited, number through normal play. Gems can be bought with in-game gold.
What you get from the storyline and completion rewards is far from unpredictable. Boosts and keys as drops might be slow and unpredictable, but there's not a lot of reason to use them in most play. A 10% difference in one way is not that huge of a deal. It isn't like a P2W game where you are talking about AT LEASt a 50% difference and more likely a 100-200%.
And the fact is, the difference is smaller than just 10%, since other buffs and benefits in the game provide the same sort of thing and it is very unlikely the stack multiplicatively.
you also don't need much gold to get gems.. well it actually will depend on how much people buy so you really have no clue how much gold you will need to get gems.. either way that plus cooking buffs and you are set.. don't see what the fuss is about
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
The food thing isn't exactly trivial. As the 10% boosts likely stack with them. That said, the more buffs there are, the less important any single buff is.
Though, I suppose I'd be happier if boosts didn't stack with similar effects, but were slightly higher. Say 8% vs. 10% on damage. Enough to make some people want to buy them, but not enough to make any notable impact on game balance.
You know the cooking buffs stack with chest buffs...
And?
Again, there is NO DATA to suggest that the boosts from mystic chests are REQUIRED to complete any content.
Your argument is invalid.
And btw, I miss your old signature.
"Loading screens" are not "instances".
Your personal efforts to troll any game will not, in fact, impact the success or failure of said game.
yup im aware.. I also said you can get all those other bufffs without spending a dime. Also bcbully you yourself said you are here for the PVP which you can't use these buffs anyway so why would it bother you in the slightest?
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
To be fair, it isn't an issue of requirement so much as whether it makes content significantly easier. Well, that in additionally whether it is something you can only get for money. 10% damage done/10% less damage taken/25% speed/some sort of health regen would certainly give a noticeable bump, but overall these are fairly small buffs. Additionally they can be acquired with some more difficulty to anyone. So overall I don't think there's that much to be worried about, depending on the acquirement rate without spending real world money.
I do think this would be slightly problematic if it existed as something you could ONLY get by spending money.
I agree with you that buffs can make content easier. That's why, before every raid in WoW, we made sure we had our feast and flasks and pots ready for bloodlust along with group castable buffs.
The question is whether or not boosts from chest fall under the category of P2W, as some posters have suggested. If this were the case, then boosts from chests would be required to do content. In other words, you would have to pay money to get the buffs necessary to do the fights to get the gear. Some games have this.
In GW2, this does not appear to be the case. Food buffs can replicate many of the boosts that are randomly provided by the chests, and yes that 10% can be helpful. The point that I am making is that they are not a requirement for completing content.
"Loading screens" are not "instances".
Your personal efforts to troll any game will not, in fact, impact the success or failure of said game.
Thank you God for delivering this point. I could care less if anyone had w/e set of armor, I'll transmute the armor set I want using Transmutation stones I can earn through the game's achievement system (which isn't hard). The weapons on the other hand will tell you "This guy put in a bit of effort to get what he wanted and he looks cool" (cool being subjective of course). Also the boxing gloves are a fun novelty item, I hope you can use them in the Bar Fight in Divinity's Reach. That would be amazing to see those "POW" animations flying everywhere. lmao.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/359874/Aerowyns-Video-Compilation-of-ALL-things-Guild-Wars-2.html
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
Sigh
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food
"Loading screens" are not "instances".
Your personal efforts to troll any game will not, in fact, impact the success or failure of said game.