Yeah, I found it. The first thing it says is that plans aren't nailed down yet. So by all means, let's make a mountain out of a molehill.
It also says this:
Here’s our philosophy on microtransactions: We think players should have the opportunity to spend money on items that provide visual distinction and offer more ways to express themselves. They should also be able to spend money on account services and on time-saving convenience items. But it’s never OK for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they paid for without additional purchases, and it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.
It's true that they said that it's not OK for money spending players to get an advantage over players that spend time. But then they go right on to say that you can trade money for gold and thus buy anything in the AH with real money.
I really just think these two statements are direct contradictions to one another and it concerns me. It's like I said, either the AH is useless or you can get a real advantage over players by spending money. And considering that the game has a full crafting system and a pretty elaborate AH...I would guess that it's the latter.
Anyway, it's also true that said their plans aren't nailed down yet. So if there is anytime to "freak out" about this and express your dissatisfaction, this is the time. I am still really excited about GW2, but I do NOT want it to become P2W. And if you can buy gold with $, then that's exactly what it will likely be.
If your looking at the Trading Post in terms of gaining power then yes its useless. say there is gear with new stats every 10 levels, when you hit the level to aquire new gear yes you can buy it in the ah if you want or you can go out and get it, but in the end your gear and my gear will be equal if you spent money in the cash shop or not
Yeah, I found it. The first thing it says is that plans aren't nailed down yet. So by all means, let's make a mountain out of a molehill.
It also says this:
Here’s our philosophy on microtransactions: We think players should have the opportunity to spend money on items that provide visual distinction and offer more ways to express themselves. They should also be able to spend money on account services and on time-saving convenience items. But it’s never OK for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they paid for without additional purchases, and it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.
It's true that they said that it's not OK for money spending players to get an advantage over players that spend time. But then they go right on to say that you can trade money for gold and thus buy anything in the AH with real money.
I really just think these two statements are direct contradictions to one another and it concerns me. It's like I said, either the AH is useless or you can get a real advantage over players by spending money. And considering that the game has a full crafting system and a pretty elaborate AH...I would guess that it's the latter.
Anyway, it's also true that said their plans aren't nailed down yet. So if there is anytime to "freak out" about this and express your dissatisfaction, this is the time. I am still really excited about GW2, but I do NOT want it to become P2W. And if you can buy gold with $, then that's exactly what it will likely be.
They are not in contradiction. They are talking about the player base as a whole whereas you are looking at it from every individual real life money player against every individual time player. Why is this unfair when a 100 hour player vs 10 hour player fighting it out is fair and balanced?
You can buy things with gold so seriously what is the problem?
Yeah, I found it. The first thing it says is that plans aren't nailed down yet. So by all means, let's make a mountain out of a molehill.
It also says this:
Here’s our philosophy on microtransactions: We think players should have the opportunity to spend money on items that provide visual distinction and offer more ways to express themselves. They should also be able to spend money on account services and on time-saving convenience items. But it’s never OK for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they paid for without additional purchases, and it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.
It's true that they said that it's not OK for money spending players to get an advantage over players that spend time. But then they go right on to say that you can trade money for gold and thus buy anything in the AH with real money.
I really just think these two statements are direct contradictions to one another and it concerns me. It's like I said, either the AH is useless or you can get a real advantage over players by spending money. And considering that the game has a full crafting system and a pretty elaborate AH...I would guess that it's the latter.
Anyway, it's also true that said their plans aren't nailed down yet. So if there is anytime to "freak out" about this and express your dissatisfaction, this is the time. I am still really excited about GW2, but I do NOT want it to become P2W. And if you can buy gold with $, then that's exactly what it will likely be.
If your looking at the Trading Post in terms of gaining power then yes its useless. say there is gear with new stats every 10 levels, when you hit the level to aquire new gear yes you can buy it in the ah if you want or you can go out and get it, but in the end your gear and my gear will be equal if you spent money in the cash shop or not
You're basically saying that you have the choice of either spending time to get your gear, or spending money and getting it instantly...but doesn't this directly contradict ANet's assertion that a player who spends money should never gain an advantage over one who spends time?
I dunno, maybe they are considering this in terms of extremes. Like a player who spend infinite time will be at the same power level as one who spends infinite money...but this is stupid.
When you play the game you ARE spending time. So even if you will EVENTUALLY catch up to the dude that spend $50 for his awesome equipment...it's going to take you a lot of time to do so. Therefore, the dude that spent money has an advantage over you while you are grinding.
If Anet is serious about real money not giving unfair advantages, then they should have no problem with putting a limit on how much each account spends per month on 'gems'. Since box sales were supposed to pay for the game in the first place, then even getting 5 dollars a month per account should be a huge windfall for them.
Call for it, get behind it, ensure game integrity and prevent greed from spiraling out of control. Otherwise I assure you it will be like other systems where they put out 50 bucks+ per month of new crap on the cash shop when they could be adding stuff for all players.
No one should be spending more than this, otherwise there may as well just be a sub and no cash shop.
Your argument has no merit. The amount of money has no bearing on the purchase being an unfair advantage, which seems to be your primary reason for posting this ridiculous bandwagon thread. The microtransactions are not implemented to pay for the game development prior to launch, which was already stated in the blog. Stop spinning information to suit your doom & gloom, fear-mongering on the readers of this site.
I expected microtransactions in this game, and respect Arena Net for addressing this feature in advance. Their position on microtransactions makes perfect sense to me, and their integrity remains intact as far as I am concerned. Players should not be restricted to make purchases, which contribute directly to the quality of the game and future content, because a minority of players are quick to judge something they don't even know all the details about.
Here is the way I see it based on what we know of the game so far:
- Gear is horizontal progression wise, all end game gear has the same (what I would presume moddable) stats but different appearances.
- SOME end game gear is gained from dungeons and karma tokens (other sets might be able to be crafted/bought).
- It's likely the cash shop will have things like character slots/bagspace/home server transfers.
Other thing's we haven't taken into account in game that you might be able to buy:
1. Crafting mats
2. WvW supplies
3. Mods for weapons and armor
So based on the stuff above what can we say about gems -> gold.
1. At the most (when it comes to gear) you will be able to buy crafted sets of armor and gear from the AH, but you will not be able to get the gear that people can get through karma and dungeon tokens. Does this make it a p2w scenario? In some aspects yes, because you can essentially buy max level gear.
However, in GW2 (as in GW) max level gear is not hard to come by (based on what they've said so far), you could literally craft a set in GW AS SOON AS YOU HIT MAX LEVEL, and I don't see a reason they would change it in GW2. It's more likely that you will be able craft epic sets with particular appearances to sell on the AH, and the dungeon/karma sets will also have their own unique appearances. All in all meaning what you will be buying is a particular appearance, nothing more.
2. What about the rest of the options? Crafting mats essentially fall into a similar category as above, you could potentially BUY the mats that would allow you to craft a particular set of armor, but it's unlikely that set of armor will convey any advantages over the stuff you should be able to buy in fairly short order (with in game gold) anyway. WvW supplies I suspect will be directly tied to WvW and thus not on the AH (but I could be wrong here obviously) so that just leaves...
3. Mods - this is really the only feasible part of the game I could see becoming a P2W scenario, those of us that played GW know the sometimes high prices for things like runes / insignias and weapon mods. If ANET run a similar modification system for mods and runes in GW2 we could potentially see a lucrative gem market here - imagine if you could buy sup vigor runes in gw1 with real money for example... again however, this is pure speculation.
An interesting point:
Those of you saying an AH based purely on appearances would be boring and would kill the economy, I think you're underestimating what "cool looking gear" will do to people, you only have to pop onto gw1 for two minutes to see the amount of people sitting around in costumes/tonics/random combined gear (all of which convey NO INGAME ADVANTAGE) to realise that. People will quite happily put forward their own money (and a helllll of alot of ingame currency) to look how they want to look, even if they get no extra stats for it.
So, are there problems with the system? Yes, the upgrades/sidegrades issue mentioned above, the potential for an economy based around gems rather than gold and people buying gems with real money could mean a vast inflation in AH prices in the game but they should all be easy to handle on Anets part. It's unlikely to be the buy-max-gear scenario people keep banging on about.
What you all need to remember is something the Dev's have said time and time again. GW2 is NOT a gear treadmill game, there is no "gear tier" system here, you don't run one dungeon to get enough stats to run the next. Instead gear is all about appearance, and am I bothered about people dictating their appearance with irl money? No, why should I be? It's their character, let them play how they want.
Yeah, I found it. The first thing it says is that plans aren't nailed down yet. So by all means, let's make a mountain out of a molehill.
It also says this:
Here’s our philosophy on microtransactions: We think players should have the opportunity to spend money on items that provide visual distinction and offer more ways to express themselves. They should also be able to spend money on account services and on time-saving convenience items. But it’s never OK for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they paid for without additional purchases, and it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.
It's true that they said that it's not OK for money spending players to get an advantage over players that spend time. But then they go right on to say that you can trade money for gold and thus buy anything in the AH with real money.
I really just think these two statements are direct contradictions to one another and it concerns me. It's like I said, either the AH is useless or you can get a real advantage over players by spending money. And considering that the game has a full crafting system and a pretty elaborate AH...I would guess that it's the latter.
Anyway, it's also true that said their plans aren't nailed down yet. So if there is anytime to "freak out" about this and express your dissatisfaction, this is the time. I am still really excited about GW2, but I do NOT want it to become P2W. And if you can buy gold with $, then that's exactly what it will likely be.
If your looking at the Trading Post in terms of gaining power then yes its useless. say there is gear with new stats every 10 levels, when you hit the level to aquire new gear yes you can buy it in the ah if you want or you can go out and get it, but in the end your gear and my gear will be equal if you spent money in the cash shop or not
You're basically saying that you have the choice of either spending time to get your gear, or spending money and getting it instantly...but doesn't this directly contradict ANet's assertion that a player who spends money should never gain an advantage over one who spends time?
I dunno, maybe they are considering this in terms of extremes. Like a player who spend infinite time will be at the same power level as one who spends infinite money...but this is stupid.
When you play the game you ARE spending time. So even if you will EVENTUALLY catch up to the dude that spend $50 for his awesome equipment...it's going to take you a lot of time to do so. Therefore, the dude that spent money has an advantage over you while you are grinding.
Eventually you will have to play the game... even if you spend 50 bucks in the shop if we both have leveled up to say 30 who's to say i dont have enough gold to go buy the armor and things out of the Trading post also. we dont kno the value of gold or how fast you obtain it.
Yeah, I found it. The first thing it says is that plans aren't nailed down yet. So by all means, let's make a mountain out of a molehill.
It also says this:
Here’s our philosophy on microtransactions: We think players should have the opportunity to spend money on items that provide visual distinction and offer more ways to express themselves. They should also be able to spend money on account services and on time-saving convenience items. But it’s never OK for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they paid for without additional purchases, and it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.
It's true that they said that it's not OK for money spending players to get an advantage over players that spend time. But then they go right on to say that you can trade money for gold and thus buy anything in the AH with real money.
I really just think these two statements are direct contradictions to one another and it concerns me. It's like I said, either the AH is useless or you can get a real advantage over players by spending money. And considering that the game has a full crafting system and a pretty elaborate AH...I would guess that it's the latter.
Anyway, it's also true that said their plans aren't nailed down yet. So if there is anytime to "freak out" about this and express your dissatisfaction, this is the time. I am still really excited about GW2, but I do NOT want it to become P2W. And if you can buy gold with $, then that's exactly what it will likely be.
They are not in contradiction. They are talking about the player base as a whole whereas you are looking at it from every individual real life money player against every individual time player. Why is this unfair when a 100 hour player vs 10 hour player fighting it out is fair and balanced?
You can buy things with gold so seriously what is the problem?
"Gold" is typically obtained by spending time in the game...you normally can't get gold by any external means, so in order to be rich you have to invest time in the game. It basically sounds like you support the idea of pay to win, and if you do, then that's your opinion, and I'm not going to change your mind. My only argument is that GW2's RMT system is pay to win.
No way, get those gems into the game so that people like me, who will really play the game, can get the cash shop stuff without spending real money. I'd farm gold for stuff anyway.. thanks for letting me into the cash shop.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Yeah, I found it. The first thing it says is that plans aren't nailed down yet. So by all means, let's make a mountain out of a molehill.
It also says this:
Here’s our philosophy on microtransactions: We think players should have the opportunity to spend money on items that provide visual distinction and offer more ways to express themselves. They should also be able to spend money on account services and on time-saving convenience items. But it’s never OK for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they paid for without additional purchases, and it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.
It's true that they said that it's not OK for money spending players to get an advantage over players that spend time. But then they go right on to say that you can trade money for gold and thus buy anything in the AH with real money.
I really just think these two statements are direct contradictions to one another and it concerns me. It's like I said, either the AH is useless or you can get a real advantage over players by spending money. And considering that the game has a full crafting system and a pretty elaborate AH...I would guess that it's the latter.
Anyway, it's also true that said their plans aren't nailed down yet. So if there is anytime to "freak out" about this and express your dissatisfaction, this is the time. I am still really excited about GW2, but I do NOT want it to become P2W. And if you can buy gold with $, then that's exactly what it will likely be.
If your looking at the Trading Post in terms of gaining power then yes its useless. say there is gear with new stats every 10 levels, when you hit the level to aquire new gear yes you can buy it in the ah if you want or you can go out and get it, but in the end your gear and my gear will be equal if you spent money in the cash shop or not
You're basically saying that you have the choice of either spending time to get your gear, or spending money and getting it instantly...but doesn't this directly contradict ANet's assertion that a player who spends money should never gain an advantage over one who spends time?
I dunno, maybe they are considering this in terms of extremes. Like a player who spend infinite time will be at the same power level as one who spends infinite money...but this is stupid.
When you play the game you ARE spending time. So even if you will EVENTUALLY catch up to the dude that spend $50 for his awesome equipment...it's going to take you a lot of time to do so. Therefore, the dude that spent money has an advantage over you while you are grinding.
Eventually you will have to play the game... even if you spend 50 bucks in the shop if we both have leveled up to say 30 who's to say i dont have enough gold to go buy the armor and things out of the Trading post also. we dont kno the value of gold or how fast you obtain it.
I can guarantee you right now that, given equal playtime, a guy who trades gems for gold will almost certainly gain gold faster than a guy who does not .
If Anet is serious about real money not giving unfair advantages, then they should have no problem with putting a limit on how much each account spends per month on 'gems'. Since box sales were supposed to pay for the game in the first place, then even getting 5 dollars a month per account should be a huge windfall for them.
Call for it, get behind it, ensure game integrity and prevent greed from spiraling out of control. Otherwise I assure you it will be like other systems where they put out 50 bucks+ per month of new crap on the cash shop when they could be adding stuff for all players.
No one should be spending more than this, otherwise there may as well just be a sub and no cash shop.
Posting to totally support this awesome idea, possibly make it linked with D3's RMAH so we have a common monthly allowance system to limit how much we can carebear our way into both these very different games.
Also, in the future I totally see a global gaming wallet tied to a financial fair play system to ensure proper world gaming equality.
Kids dont have credit cards and as adults, we can make decisions for ourselves, well at least I can.
Exactly.
I f want to spend £10 or £50 it up to me as an adult.
Yup. If I want to spend a few bucks to level alot faster than everyone else, and remove rez sickness in order to run more dungeons than everyone else, let me.
MORE "time-saving convenvience items" please! win win situation.
And if you honestly in your heart think "time-saving convenience items" aren't pay2win you must be new to the MMO genre. It's too early to tell, but from the dev's recent blog post I am loving it. Pay2Win here I come.
Yeah, I found it. The first thing it says is that plans aren't nailed down yet. So by all means, let's make a mountain out of a molehill.
It also says this:
Here’s our philosophy on microtransactions: We think players should have the opportunity to spend money on items that provide visual distinction and offer more ways to express themselves. They should also be able to spend money on account services and on time-saving convenience items. But it’s never OK for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they paid for without additional purchases, and it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.
It's true that they said that it's not OK for money spending players to get an advantage over players that spend time. But then they go right on to say that you can trade money for gold and thus buy anything in the AH with real money.
I really just think these two statements are direct contradictions to one another and it concerns me. It's like I said, either the AH is useless or you can get a real advantage over players by spending money. And considering that the game has a full crafting system and a pretty elaborate AH...I would guess that it's the latter.
Anyway, it's also true that said their plans aren't nailed down yet. So if there is anytime to "freak out" about this and express your dissatisfaction, this is the time. I am still really excited about GW2, but I do NOT want it to become P2W. And if you can buy gold with $, then that's exactly what it will likely be.
They are not in contradiction. They are talking about the player base as a whole whereas you are looking at it from every individual real life money player against every individual time player. Why is this unfair when a 100 hour player vs 10 hour player fighting it out is fair and balanced?
You can buy things with gold so seriously what is the problem?
"Gold" is typically obtained by spending time in the game...you normally can't get gold by any external means, so in order to be rich you have to invest time in the game. It basically sounds like you support the idea of pay to win, and if you do, then that's your opinion, and I'm not going to change your mind. My only argument is that GW2's RMT system is pay to win.
Make of that what you will.
again i dont support pay 2 win.... pay 2 win is when you buy something that makes you stronger then me. not something that makes you level faster. you have to spend time in the game to be able to use "Gold" also. so even if you bought gems and sold them for gold what are you gonna buy if you dont spend time in the game. and who's to say that the time u spent in the game didnt net you enough gold to buy all the things you wanted
Yeah, I found it. The first thing it says is that plans aren't nailed down yet. So by all means, let's make a mountain out of a molehill.
It also says this:
Here’s our philosophy on microtransactions: We think players should have the opportunity to spend money on items that provide visual distinction and offer more ways to express themselves. They should also be able to spend money on account services and on time-saving convenience items. But it’s never OK for players to buy a game and not be able to enjoy what they paid for without additional purchases, and it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time.
It's true that they said that it's not OK for money spending players to get an advantage over players that spend time. But then they go right on to say that you can trade money for gold and thus buy anything in the AH with real money.
I really just think these two statements are direct contradictions to one another and it concerns me. It's like I said, either the AH is useless or you can get a real advantage over players by spending money. And considering that the game has a full crafting system and a pretty elaborate AH...I would guess that it's the latter.
Anyway, it's also true that said their plans aren't nailed down yet. So if there is anytime to "freak out" about this and express your dissatisfaction, this is the time. I am still really excited about GW2, but I do NOT want it to become P2W. And if you can buy gold with $, then that's exactly what it will likely be.
They are not in contradiction. They are talking about the player base as a whole whereas you are looking at it from every individual real life money player against every individual time player. Why is this unfair when a 100 hour player vs 10 hour player fighting it out is fair and balanced?
You can buy things with gold so seriously what is the problem?
"Gold" is typically obtained by spending time in the game...you normally can't get gold by any external means, so in order to be rich you have to invest time in the game. It basically sounds like you support the idea of pay to win, and if you do, then that's your opinion, and I'm not going to change your mind. My only argument is that GW2's RMT system is pay to win.
Make of that what you will.
I am glad we are in agreement that it is EQUALLY play 2 win.
If Anet is serious about real money not giving unfair advantages, then they should have no problem with putting a limit on how much each account spends per month on 'gems'. Since box sales were supposed to pay for the game in the first place, then even getting 5 dollars a month per account should be a huge windfall for them.
Call for it, get behind it, ensure game integrity and prevent greed from spiraling out of control. Otherwise I assure you it will be like other systems where they put out 50 bucks+ per month of new crap on the cash shop when they could be adding stuff for all players.
No one should be spending more than this, otherwise there may as well just be a sub and no cash shop.
I'm sorry that you can't afford more then $5 a month, but I for one will be able to. I plan on throwing down $200 on gems the first day. After that? I don't know, but I'll use those gems and save them to buy cosmetics as they get released and sell some here and there on the trading house for when I need gold to build things in WvW.
Get over it. They aren't going to break their own game, A-net is a smart company. They know exactly what they're doing.
If Anet is serious about real money not giving unfair advantages, then they should have no problem with putting a limit on how much each account spends per month on 'gems'. Since box sales were supposed to pay for the game in the first place, then even getting 5 dollars a month per account should be a huge windfall for them.
Call for it, get behind it, ensure game integrity and prevent greed from spiraling out of control. Otherwise I assure you it will be like other systems where they put out 50 bucks+ per month of new crap on the cash shop when they could be adding stuff for all players.
No one should be spending more than this, otherwise there may as well just be a sub and no cash shop.
I'm sorry that you can't afford more then $5 a month, but I for one will be able to. I plan on throwing down $200 on gems the first day. After that? I don't know, but I'll use those gems and save them to buy cosmetics as they get released and sell some here and there on the trading house for when I need gold to build things in WvW.
Get over it. They aren't going to break their own game, A-net is a smart company. They know exactly what they're doing.
As the game stands from what we saw from the press beta you can't build WvW things with gold. You need supplies which are earned by controlling supply points.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Something I don't get with everyone banging on about P2W.
This is a PVE based game, those who have bought gear will either run dungeons with you (if you let them) or they won't (because they have the gear already) why does this impact on YOUR gameplay at all? Is the fact that someone else already has some gear really going to stop you playing the game?
In WvW the chances are people will all be on an equal footing gear wise at max level anyway since, as everyone has said time and time again, gear is generally side-grades - you change appearance but stats won't go up so again, are you really going to say it's p2w when all that's happened is one guy has a particular piece of gear with a look that you want, but that gives no in game advantage to him?
As I said in my last massive post, if it's like GW1 you will be able to buy max-stat gear as soon as you hit level cap anyway, with just the gold you got from levelling, so why would the fact that some people will spend real money to get particular appearances effect you that much?
Kids dont have credit cards and as adults, we can make decisions for ourselves, well at least I can.
Exactly.
I f want to spend £10 or £50 it up to me as an adult.
Yup. If I want to spend a few bucks to level alot faster than everyone else, and remove rez sickness in order to run more dungeons than everyone else, let me.
MORE "time-saving convenvience items" please! win win situation.
And if you honestly in your heart think "time-saving convenience items" aren't pay2win you must be new to the MMO genre. It's too early to tell, but from the dev's recent blog post I am loving it. Pay2Win here I come.
I am not saying whether it is pay to win or not, I am saying I am a grown up and can make my own financial decisions without having my hand held. The Devs have made their system (similar to Eve's Plex) where you buy gemstone for $ and sell them for gold, I personally prefer P2P where everything is equal.
Actually you still have the blueprints to build the things, which costs gold. That's what I'm refering to.
Yeh, but everyone will have those in a few weeks anyway. I only made the comment because to all these P2W haters, you made it definately sound P2W. It was misleading The point being, having those blueprints will not save a bad group in WvW, if they can't control the supply points those BPs do nothing.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Comments
If your looking at the Trading Post in terms of gaining power then yes its useless. say there is gear with new stats every 10 levels, when you hit the level to aquire new gear yes you can buy it in the ah if you want or you can go out and get it, but in the end your gear and my gear will be equal if you spent money in the cash shop or not
They are not in contradiction. They are talking about the player base as a whole whereas you are looking at it from every individual real life money player against every individual time player. Why is this unfair when a 100 hour player vs 10 hour player fighting it out is fair and balanced?
You can buy things with gold so seriously what is the problem?
Exactly.
I f want to spend £10 or £50 it up to me as an adult.
You're basically saying that you have the choice of either spending time to get your gear, or spending money and getting it instantly...but doesn't this directly contradict ANet's assertion that a player who spends money should never gain an advantage over one who spends time?
I dunno, maybe they are considering this in terms of extremes. Like a player who spend infinite time will be at the same power level as one who spends infinite money...but this is stupid.
When you play the game you ARE spending time. So even if you will EVENTUALLY catch up to the dude that spend $50 for his awesome equipment...it's going to take you a lot of time to do so. Therefore, the dude that spent money has an advantage over you while you are grinding.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Well just have to see how all this plays out, wont we? I admit i am intrigued
Your argument has no merit. The amount of money has no bearing on the purchase being an unfair advantage, which seems to be your primary reason for posting this ridiculous bandwagon thread. The microtransactions are not implemented to pay for the game development prior to launch, which was already stated in the blog. Stop spinning information to suit your doom & gloom, fear-mongering on the readers of this site.
I expected microtransactions in this game, and respect Arena Net for addressing this feature in advance. Their position on microtransactions makes perfect sense to me, and their integrity remains intact as far as I am concerned. Players should not be restricted to make purchases, which contribute directly to the quality of the game and future content, because a minority of players are quick to judge something they don't even know all the details about.
Here is the way I see it based on what we know of the game so far:
- Gear is horizontal progression wise, all end game gear has the same (what I would presume moddable) stats but different appearances.
- SOME end game gear is gained from dungeons and karma tokens (other sets might be able to be crafted/bought).
- It's likely the cash shop will have things like character slots/bagspace/home server transfers.
Other thing's we haven't taken into account in game that you might be able to buy:
1. Crafting mats
2. WvW supplies
3. Mods for weapons and armor
So based on the stuff above what can we say about gems -> gold.
1. At the most (when it comes to gear) you will be able to buy crafted sets of armor and gear from the AH, but you will not be able to get the gear that people can get through karma and dungeon tokens. Does this make it a p2w scenario? In some aspects yes, because you can essentially buy max level gear.
However, in GW2 (as in GW) max level gear is not hard to come by (based on what they've said so far), you could literally craft a set in GW AS SOON AS YOU HIT MAX LEVEL, and I don't see a reason they would change it in GW2. It's more likely that you will be able craft epic sets with particular appearances to sell on the AH, and the dungeon/karma sets will also have their own unique appearances. All in all meaning what you will be buying is a particular appearance, nothing more.
2. What about the rest of the options? Crafting mats essentially fall into a similar category as above, you could potentially BUY the mats that would allow you to craft a particular set of armor, but it's unlikely that set of armor will convey any advantages over the stuff you should be able to buy in fairly short order (with in game gold) anyway. WvW supplies I suspect will be directly tied to WvW and thus not on the AH (but I could be wrong here obviously) so that just leaves...
3. Mods - this is really the only feasible part of the game I could see becoming a P2W scenario, those of us that played GW know the sometimes high prices for things like runes / insignias and weapon mods. If ANET run a similar modification system for mods and runes in GW2 we could potentially see a lucrative gem market here - imagine if you could buy sup vigor runes in gw1 with real money for example... again however, this is pure speculation.
An interesting point:
Those of you saying an AH based purely on appearances would be boring and would kill the economy, I think you're underestimating what "cool looking gear" will do to people, you only have to pop onto gw1 for two minutes to see the amount of people sitting around in costumes/tonics/random combined gear (all of which convey NO INGAME ADVANTAGE) to realise that. People will quite happily put forward their own money (and a helllll of alot of ingame currency) to look how they want to look, even if they get no extra stats for it.
So, are there problems with the system? Yes, the upgrades/sidegrades issue mentioned above, the potential for an economy based around gems rather than gold and people buying gems with real money could mean a vast inflation in AH prices in the game but they should all be easy to handle on Anets part. It's unlikely to be the buy-max-gear scenario people keep banging on about.
What you all need to remember is something the Dev's have said time and time again. GW2 is NOT a gear treadmill game, there is no "gear tier" system here, you don't run one dungeon to get enough stats to run the next. Instead gear is all about appearance, and am I bothered about people dictating their appearance with irl money? No, why should I be? It's their character, let them play how they want.
Eventually you will have to play the game... even if you spend 50 bucks in the shop if we both have leveled up to say 30 who's to say i dont have enough gold to go buy the armor and things out of the Trading post also. we dont kno the value of gold or how fast you obtain it.
"Gold" is typically obtained by spending time in the game...you normally can't get gold by any external means, so in order to be rich you have to invest time in the game. It basically sounds like you support the idea of pay to win, and if you do, then that's your opinion, and I'm not going to change your mind. My only argument is that GW2's RMT system is pay to win.
Make of that what you will.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
No way, get those gems into the game so that people like me, who will really play the game, can get the cash shop stuff without spending real money. I'd farm gold for stuff anyway.. thanks for letting me into the cash shop.
I can guarantee you right now that, given equal playtime, a guy who trades gems for gold will almost certainly gain gold faster than a guy who does not
.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Posting to totally support this awesome idea, possibly make it linked with D3's RMAH so we have a common monthly allowance system to limit how much we can carebear our way into both these very different games.
Also, in the future I totally see a global gaming wallet tied to a financial fair play system to ensure proper world gaming equality.
As long as we are at it lets put a limit on how much gas, energy, fresh water or even food each person is allowed per day.
Oh and considering we are over-populating ourselves to extinction let's make china's one child law a world law while we are at it.
Yup. If I want to spend a few bucks to level alot faster than everyone else, and remove rez sickness in order to run more dungeons than everyone else, let me.
MORE "time-saving convenvience items" please! win win situation.
And if you honestly in your heart think "time-saving convenience items" aren't pay2win you must be new to the MMO genre. It's too early to tell, but from the dev's recent blog post I am loving it. Pay2Win here I come.
again i dont support pay 2 win.... pay 2 win is when you buy something that makes you stronger then me. not something that makes you level faster. you have to spend time in the game to be able to use "Gold" also. so even if you bought gems and sold them for gold what are you gonna buy if you dont spend time in the game. and who's to say that the time u spent in the game didnt net you enough gold to buy all the things you wanted
I am glad we are in agreement that it is EQUALLY play 2 win.
gladly to pay for the win, need money? go get a job.
I'm sorry that you can't afford more then $5 a month, but I for one will be able to. I plan on throwing down $200 on gems the first day. After that? I don't know, but I'll use those gems and save them to buy cosmetics as they get released and sell some here and there on the trading house for when I need gold to build things in WvW.
Get over it. They aren't going to break their own game, A-net is a smart company. They know exactly what they're doing.
As the game stands from what we saw from the press beta you can't build WvW things with gold. You need supplies which are earned by controlling supply points.
Something I don't get with everyone banging on about P2W.
This is a PVE based game, those who have bought gear will either run dungeons with you (if you let them) or they won't (because they have the gear already) why does this impact on YOUR gameplay at all? Is the fact that someone else already has some gear really going to stop you playing the game?
In WvW the chances are people will all be on an equal footing gear wise at max level anyway since, as everyone has said time and time again, gear is generally side-grades - you change appearance but stats won't go up so again, are you really going to say it's p2w when all that's happened is one guy has a particular piece of gear with a look that you want, but that gives no in game advantage to him?
As I said in my last massive post, if it's like GW1 you will be able to buy max-stat gear as soon as you hit level cap anyway, with just the gold you got from levelling, so why would the fact that some people will spend real money to get particular appearances effect you that much?
Funny that you say that when America is in one of it's highest unemployment rates of all time.
Actually you still have the blueprints to build the things, which costs gold. That's what I'm refering to.
Exactly.
I f want to spend £10 or £50 it up to me as an adult.
Yup. If I want to spend a few bucks to level alot faster than everyone else, and remove rez sickness in order to run more dungeons than everyone else, let me.
MORE "time-saving convenvience items" please! win win situation.
And if you honestly in your heart think "time-saving convenience items" aren't pay2win you must be new to the MMO genre. It's too early to tell, but from the dev's recent blog post I am loving it. Pay2Win here I come.
I am not saying whether it is pay to win or not, I am saying I am a grown up and can make my own financial decisions without having my hand held. The Devs have made their system (similar to Eve's Plex) where you buy gemstone for $ and sell them for gold, I personally prefer P2P where everything is equal.Yeh, but everyone will have those in a few weeks anyway. I only made the comment because to all these P2W haters, you made it definately sound P2W. It was misleading
The point being, having those blueprints will not save a bad group in WvW, if they can't control the supply points those BPs do nothing.
even if you can buy 10,000 blue prints with your gold, you cant buy the supplies you need to build the stuff